Following the memories of her past life, she returned to the apartment she rented outside of school.
It was a 90-square-meter duplex with three bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a balcony. For her former self, it had been quite spacious. Shelton Underwood had rented it for her.
In her previous life, she had adored this place. Hoping Shelton Underwood would visit often, she had made sure it was fully furnished, and the kitchen was completely stocked with pots, pans, bowls, and cutlery.
Flora Bloom entered the strange yet familiar apartment, went to the kitchen, and pulled out a sharp knife. Without even blinking, she slit her slender wrist.
"Sweetheart, don't be scared. Mommy's just losing a little blood, it'll be okay. You don't be scared either, okay?"
Bright red blood trickled down her pale arm, staining the bracelet on her wrist. It flowed all over her wrist and palm.
She waited for a minute. A lot of blood had flowed out, but the bracelet showed no change at all.
Flora Bloom stared at the bracelet for a long time, feeling a little frustrated.
'In my past life, this bracelet activated the moment it touched my blood. Why isn't it working now? Is it because the apocalypse hasn't arrived yet? Is that why it can't be activated?'
Three minutes passed, and the bracelet still showed no change.
Annoyed, Flora Bloom raised her wrist before her eyes, staring at it intently. She only breathed a sigh of relief when she noticed the blood was finally starting to gather toward the bracelet.
The originally silver bracelet began to emit a faint halo of light. It was subtle at first. Another minute passed, then two, until after five minutes, a pale Flora Bloom finally managed a faint smile.
She caressed her belly with her uninjured hand and whispered gently, "Polly, you're a strong baby. You have to believe in Mommy. Look, Mommy's almost succeeded."
Remembering the spatial storage she possessed in her past life, Flora Bloom became even more determined to activate this bracelet right at the dawn of the apocalypse. This was the foundation of her survival in the coming cataclysm.
Finally, after emitting a soft blue glow, the dull, colorless bracelet suddenly acted like a ravenous beast, frantically absorbing Flora Bloom's blood. The blood that had dripped onto her palm and the floor was drawn in by a strange suction force, pulled into the bracelet.
This bracelet had been given to her by her grandmother on her deathbed. She had only worn it as a keepsake. Who would have known that after the apocalypse, when she was injured during a fight with zombies, her blood had spilled onto the bracelet and unexpectedly unlocked a pocket dimension.
Although the dimension wasn't large, it could store items at her will, which was incredibly convenient. It couldn't hold living things, but in an apocalyptic environment, it was already a treasure.
This was also the reason Shelton Underwood, just before she died, told her he hadn't killed her sooner in her past life.
As she lost more blood, the bracelet began to emit a soft glow. The light grew stronger and more dazzling. Blood was still streaming from Flora Bloom's wrist; anyone would grow weak and faint after bleeding for so long without stopping it. Just as Flora Bloom's vision blurred and her head grew heavy, a second before she passed out...
Her vision was enveloped by a deep blue light, and the next moment, she found herself in a strange place.
She breathed in air fresher than any she had ever experienced. With each breath, she could feel a hint of sweetness in her nose and lungs.
She felt an unprecedented sense of ease. Not only was breathing comfortable, but her body also felt much lighter.
'Where is this?'
'It's so warm and peaceful.'
Although she was still weak from blood loss, her spirits were higher than ever before.
Flora Bloom took a deep breath and looked around, surveying her surroundings.
It was a classic, ancient-style farmstead: a quaint thatched cottage, several adjacent animal pens, a grape trellis, and so on. Inside the fenced yard were two empty plots of land. It had everything a farmstead should have.
Outside the yard flowed a swift-running stream, flanked on both sides by large, empty plots of black soil.
'Where am I? I didn't just get reborn only to transmigrate again, did I? How do I get back?'
The moment the thought crossed her mind, the scene before her spun, and Flora Bloom found herself back in her apartment.
She lifted her hand. The wound on her wrist was slowly healing, and the blood had already coagulated and scabbed over. In just that short time, only a scar remained.
And the silver bracelet on her wrist, the one that held the pocket dimension, had changed. A brilliant, deep blue crystal, like a gemstone, now adorned the thin silver chain.
Seeing the crystal, Flora Bloom's mouth fell open in surprise. Her mind flashed back to the moment she had committed suicide by biting her tongue.
'Isn't this the crystal I swallowed before I died in my last life? How did it end up on my spatial bracelet?'
As if it knew Flora Bloom's question, the surface of the blue crystal flashed. The next second, it transported her back in front of the thatched cottage.
'How did I get in here?'
Flora Bloom thought about the sequence of events and finally realized this was no longer the same spatial bracelet from her past life. She had a feeling her pocket dimension had become very different.
In her previous life, she had swallowed that mysterious blue crystal before dying, and then she was reborn. Could it be that this blue crystal was what brought her back ten years, giving her a new life?
And this place she was in now was very likely a new dimension created by the fusion of the blue crystal and her spatial bracelet.
'If it's really as I think, does this mean I can freely travel between reality and this mysterious dimension?'
As if in response to Flora Bloom's speculation, the next second, she was indeed back in her apartment.
"Hahaha, it really is!"
Like a child with a new favorite toy, Flora Bloom lovingly caressed the blue crystal on her wrist for a moment.
"You're the one who brought me back, aren't you?"
The blue crystal pulsed with light, making Flora Bloom beam with joy.
"Thank you for saving me and Polly. Since you chose to bring me back to be reborn, I won't let you be wasted in this apocalypse."
As soon as Flora Bloom finished speaking, the blue crystal suddenly emitted a soft blue light that began to course through her body.
Bathed in the soft blue light, Flora Bloom suddenly felt a warm current flowing inside her lower abdomen. The current traveled from her abdomen to her limbs, then to her internal organs, before finally flowing up into her heart, entering her mind, and settling in the center of her consciousness, where it began to slowly rotate.
At that moment, Flora Bloom's mind became crystal clear, and she felt an intimate connection with this warm current.
Immediately after, she noticed the bracelet on her wrist gradually fading, transforming into a soft white light that merged with the warm current in her mind. After the fusion, the warm current grew stronger, becoming a small, deep blue cloud that slowly spun on its own.
The original deep blue crystal then gradually dissolved into more soft blue light, which flowed into the small cloud. Before long, the cloud had grown a size larger.
Flora Bloom's eyes widened in amazement.
'A sea of consciousness vortex! This is a sea of consciousness vortex!'
'Only a High-level Superpower User can form a sea of consciousness vortex!'
In her previous life, she had only awakened the weakest Water Element. Through ten years of arduous training, she had barely managed to reach the High-level. And even then, it was the lowest tier of a High-level Water Element user.
'But now, the apocalypse hasn't even arrived yet. Have I already become a High-level Superpower User?'
'A sea of consciousness vortex—she would never mistake it. But in my last life, the sea of consciousness vortex for my Water Ability was light blue, and it was just a vortex, not cloud-shaped.'
Flora Bloom carefully inspected her sea of consciousness. The deep blue cloud was crystal clear, more beautiful and brilliant than even a pristine Zombie Crystal Core.
The cloud slowly rotated within her sea of consciousness, forming a deep blue vortex beneath it. She could sense that this vortex contained abundant water energy. It was slightly different from her previous life, but she couldn't pinpoint how.
'No, that's not right. Although I've opened a sea of consciousness vortex, the amount of my superpower energy hasn't changed. It's just that my sea of consciousness has expanded, and the quality of my superpower has become higher-grade. This might be why my Water Ability has turned deep blue.'
Flora Bloom was very satisfied with her current state. She had only awakened an Initial-stage Superpower, yet she had already opened a sea of consciousness vortex. This meant her starting point for her superpower in this life was going to be much higher than in her last.
There were many kinds of superpowers in the apocalypse. The most common were users of the Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth Elements. Among these, the Fire Element had the strongest attack power. However, when it came to the absolute strongest offensive superpower, that would be the rarer Thunder Ability, but unfortunately, Thunder Ability Users were too few.
The world also had many rare superpowers, such as the Mutant System of the Wood Element—the Plant Ability; the Mutant System of the Water Element—the Ice Element; and the most mysterious ones, like the Spiritual Ability and the Hidden Ability.
The rarer the ability, the more powerful it was.
Superpower Users were divided into Initial-stage, Middle Level, and High-level. Each stage was further divided into three ranks. Leveling up within a stage was easy, but advancing to the next stage was extremely difficult.
Leveling up relied on accumulating energy, which just required absorbing enough Crystal Cores. However, to advance from an Initial-stage Superpower User to a Middle-level one, one needed not only an accumulation of energy but also mastery over their superpower and a feel for the energy itself.
In her past life, because Flora Bloom had the Water Element, which had no offensive power, she could only store water and didn't need to consider any special moves. Believing that quantity would eventually lead to a qualitative change, she had ground her way up to a High-level Superpower through sheer, brute-force effort, like grinding an iron rod into a needle.
But while other Water Ability Users could transform water into defensive shields, Flora Bloom was merely a superpower user who could release more water than the average Water Ability User.