In the dim room, the air was thick with the scent of dust.
Autumn Lynch held a fruit knife, its blade pressed firmly against Sierra Sullivan's neck.
"Sierra Sullivan, I'll give you one more chance! Hand over the space now, and I might spare your life. Otherwise, I'll kill you right now!"
Sierra Sullivan's limbs had already been broken. She lay on the ground like a heap of boneless flesh, utterly incapable of resisting.
At Autumn Lynch's words, Sierra Sullivan let out a cold laugh.
Dehydration had made her voice hoarse and raw.
Every word she spoke scraped her throat.
But Sierra Sullivan still stared intently at Autumn Lynch and said, word by word, "Dream. On!"
"AHH!"
Autumn Lynch shrieked and violently raised her hand.
All the supplies were in Sierra Sullivan's space, and Autumn had been starving for days.
Prolonged hunger and the frustration of being denied had driven her into a frenzy.
She aimed the knife at Sierra Sullivan's heart and plunged it down without hesitation.
Sierra Sullivan closed her eyes, a slow smile gracing her lips.
'So, I'm finally dying.'
'Better to die than to keep living a fate worse than death!'
'If I could do it all over again, I would never trust Autumn Lynch. I would never let myself end up like this!'
Lakeside Villas.
Villa 18, master bedroom on the second floor.
A slender girl was lying on the bed, sleeping peacefully.
Suddenly, the girl shot upright, gasping for air as she scanned her surroundings with alarm.
The silence was so profound that Sierra Sullivan could clearly hear her own gasping breaths and the frantic pounding of her heart.
'This... this is my home in the Lakeside Villas!'
'Could it be... I've been reborn?'
At that thought, Sierra Sullivan immediately turned to her nightstand.
Just as she reached her hand over, the screen of the charging phone lit up.
Sierra Sullivan took the phone in her hand and stared at the time on it.
March 18, 2325, 5:00 AM.
'I really have been reborn!'
'I'm back before the apocalypse!'
Sierra Sullivan's body trembled with excitement.
She buried her head in her knees.
But she quickly raised her head again.
In the faint glow of the phone screen, a vicious smile spread across Sierra Sullivan's cold, beautiful face.
'Since I'm back, those who murdered me should just wait to die!'
'I won't just kill them. I'll make them learn the true meaning of a fate worse than death!'
'But before that, the most important thing is to activate the space!'
In her past life, Sierra Sullivan accidentally activated the space three days before the apocalypse. She had gone swimming with Autumn Lynch and forgot to take off her necklace.
There were only the two of them in the pool at the time. When she suddenly vanished and reappeared, there was no hiding it from Autumn.
Autumn Lynch wasn't just her best friend; she was her cousin, the daughter of her mother's own sister.
They had grown up together, and though not sisters by blood, they were closer than most.
After activating the space, Sierra Sullivan didn't hide a thing from Autumn, telling her everything about it.
At the time, they had laughed about it, neither of them taking the space too seriously.
After all, Sierra Sullivan had everything she could want. An extra space wouldn't have much of an impact on her life.
But what they didn't expect was that a few days later, on April 1st, April Fool's Day, the apocalypse suddenly descended as if playing a joke on humanity.
That day, yellow sand filled the sky, obscuring everything beyond a few feet.
No one knew why a sandstorm had suddenly started, and a massive, global one at that.
The sandstorm swept across the globe in an instant.
No one knew where this sand and dust came from; it was endless.
Soon, people discovered that the continuous sandstorm wasn't the most terrifying thing.
What was even more terrifying was that along with the sandstorm came all sorts of never-before-seen Aberrant Beasts.
Some of these Aberrant Beasts were larger than elephants, with tough hides, sharp teeth, extremely strong life force, and terrifying healing abilities.
Others were small, like ants, but they always appeared in swarms.
If you were swarmed by them, you could be devoured down to a skeleton in an instant.
The environment was harsh, and Aberrant Beasts were rampant.
With yellow sand raging outside, people not only had to move to higher ground but also had to find ways to get more survival supplies.
The night before the apocalypse, Sierra Sullivan didn't return to the Lakeside Villas. Instead, she stayed at another of her properties, a spacious apartment on the thirty-sixth floor.
Staying with her that night was Autumn Lynch's family.
Because that day happened to be the anniversary of her parents' death.
Every year on this day, Autumn Lynch's family would spend it with her.
Although that spacious apartment was equally luxurious, because she didn't live there often, there wasn't much water or food stored there.
With the sudden arrival of the apocalypse, the whole world was in chaos. No matter how much money Sierra Sullivan had, she couldn't buy any food or water.
And at that time, her space became a rare treasure.
In the space, there was a spring with an endless flow of sweet-tasting water.
Although food gradually dwindled, at least they still had water.
Later, Autumn Lynch suggested trading water for food with the other residents in the building, and Sierra Sullivan agreed.
But gradually, Sierra Sullivan noticed that the way Autumn Lynch's family looked at her was becoming more and more strange.
Although Sierra Sullivan became vigilant, she was tied up by Autumn Lynch and her parents while she slept that night.
Autumn Lynch dropped her well-behaved facade and revealed her fangs.
To prevent her from resisting, Autumn personally broke all four of her limbs, demanding she hand over the space.
Sierra Sullivan knew that even if she did hand over the space, Autumn Lynch wouldn't let her live.
'Since death is inevitable either way, there's no way I'm handing over the space.'
She spent several days constantly provoking Autumn Lynch, finally making Autumn kill her in a fit of rage.
'Once I'm dead, Autumn Lynch's family of three won't last long either.'
At this thought, Sierra Sullivan's gaze turned glacial.
'Now, I'm back!'
'In this new life, I'll make sure that heartless family of Autumn Lynch's learns what a fate worse than death truly is!'
Sierra Sullivan took a deep breath, temporarily setting aside the matter of Autumn Lynch's family.
Today was March 18th. There were only thirteen days left until April 1st.
In her past life, the apocalypse came suddenly, and she was completely unprepared.
In this life, she would make good use of these thirteen days to prepare as much as possible.
'Even if life after the apocalypse is hard, even if humanity might go extinct in the end, I will be one of the last ones standing!'
With a determined look in her eyes, Sierra Sullivan took off the necklace from her neck.
It was a teardrop-shaped jade stone, emerald green in color. Her father had given it to her, saying it was a Sullivan family heirloom.
After her parents were gone, she had always worn this jade around her neck, afraid of accidentally damaging it.
Normally, whether she was swimming or bathing, she would always take the necklace off beforehand.
And because of this, she never had the chance to activate the space hidden within it.
Until that time when she went swimming, forgot to remove the necklace, and it got caught on the iron grate of the drain.
While pulling at it, her hand was cut by a wire, and her blood stained the jade, activating the space by a strange twist of fate.
Sierra Sullivan got out of bed, necklace in hand, and went straight to the kitchen.
When she sliced open her finger with a fruit knife, Sierra Sullivan didn't even frown.
She had experienced the pain of having her limbs broken; a small cut like this was nothing.