Chapter 1

Drip, drip, drip… Irene gasped and bolted upright in bed. The strange yet familiar bedroom caught her by surprise. Was she not already dead? After running away from all kinds of extreme weather, she was tied up in a cave by her own father and sister who then dismembered her and ate her flesh. The memories right before her death were so horrifying that they were enough to make her break out in a cold sweat. Her phone just happened to ring then, and she wiped off her sweat before fishing out her phone from under the pillow. Irene’s eyes flashed with anger when she saw Lina Fulmer’s name on the caller ID, and she ruthlessly declined the call as she still had a bone to pick with Lina! One second later, her eyes widened in shock. Much to her bewilderment, the time displayed on the phone screen was 2:29 pm, May 15 2030. Was… she dreaming? Irene pinched her arm as hard as she could, and the pain made her realize that she had been reincarnated!!! She was reincarnated five years prior to the end of the world—the calm before the storm. Irene remembered clearly that at 2:49 am on July 3 of this year, a volcano on Danver Islands—that had been dormant for 300 years—suddenly erupted without any warning and lava poured out of it for an entire week. The whole country perished, just like that. Nobody knew that it would be the beginning of the end. Immediately after, the temperature broke through the limit and went up to 75 degrees Celcius! The extreme heat lasted until October, and countless people lost their lives in the catastrophe. It was then followed by heavy rainstorms! It was as if someone had ripped the sky open, and the amount of rainfall surpassed records day after day. In less than a month, the constant rainstorms submerged major cities around the world, and the floods brought bustling cities to a complete standstill. When the rainstorms finally came to an end, those who survived did not even have the time to rejoice as extreme cold swept across the globe. It was closely followed by earthquakes, typhoons, sandstorms, tsunamis, melting glaciers… All kinds of extreme weather conditions took turns presenting themselves to the world, and countless people died in the continuous disasters. Those who were lucky enough to survive, however, could no longer be considered humans. After doing the calculations, Irene realized that she had less than two months left before the apocalypse. She pulled herself together and washed her face with cold water in the bathroom. In the mirror, her beautiful features and plump oval face were full of vitality. There were no signs of exhaustion from her struggles to survive in the apocalypse. She looked down, and her eyes landed on the jade pendant around her neck. It was passed down to her by her grandmother. During the fifth year of the apocalypse, she accidentally stained the jade pendant with blood when she was running away from her half-sister who was trying to kill her. Only then did she find out that in the jade pendant hid a storage space that could be used to grow crops. In that space, time stood still, so everything in it would last forever. When Lina held her captive to turn her into food, Irene thought to herself countless times that if she could be reincarnated, she would make good use of this space. At the thought of that, Irene calmly cut her finger with an eyebrow razor and dripped blood into the center of the jade pendant. After a bright light flashed, a low and gentle hill amidst a gurgling stream appeared right before her eyes. There was a large two-story wooden house, which looked to be about 5,000 square meters, on nearly a hundred acres of fertile land. Irene walked into the wooden house, and when she saw the empty space, she had an idea. Whoosh! A multi-doored refrigerator then stood in the corner of the living room. Just as she expected, it was the same as her previous life. Irene exited the space once she felt a wave of dizziness. Her nose felt wet, so she wiped it with a tissue, only to discover that she was having a nosebleed. Live animals were able to inhabit the space, but if some of the more intelligent species stayed in there for too long, they would experience side effects like nosebleeds and lightheadedness. In her previous life, she died a gruesome death before she could find a way to alleviate these side effects, so in this life, she had to find a solution to make these side effects disappear. There was no time for her to sigh as she was pressed for time with the long list of things she had to do. Without further ado, she immediately sat in front of the computer before opening up a Word document and getting to work. After struggling in an apocalyptic world for five years, she knew too well what supplies were needed the most. She densely filled seven pages of paper with a list, and after double-checking it, she searched various websites for supplies needed when disaster struck. Then, she added almost three more pages before completing the list. Once she was done with the list, Irene checked her funds. In the end, she cried. She was a landlady who owned three buildings in downtown Sherwood, yet her assets only amounted to 200,000 dollars. Her family made a lot of money from her grandmother’s gambling, but nobody in her family seemed to inherit her Midas touch. Her mother was a hopeless romantic. After she married her scumbag of a father, Edric Fulmer, he slowly coaxed her into giving him money to satisfy his gambling addiction. It was Grandma who saw Edric’s true intentions, so before she passed away, she turned all her assets into three buildings in the Fort District of Sherwood. She put them under the name of Irene Fulmer and did not allow anyone to change it. With her grandmother’s efforts, she and her mother could live off the rent earned from the three buildings. When Edric could no longer take advantage of Irene’s mother, he revealed his true colors and greedy intentions. Not only did he bring his mistress home, but he even brought home his illegitimate daughter, Lina, who was only a few months younger than Irene. It took a toll on her mother, and she got so angry that she jumped to her death. Irene, who longed for affection, took over her mother’s role and became Edric’s cash cow. All those years, the rent earned from the three buildings eventually became the capital for Edric’s family to live a comfortable life. If not for the apocalypse, Irene would have had foolishly given all her money to those bastards! She let out a heavy sigh before taking out her phone and searching her blacklist for the number of the real estate agent who had been harassing her. “Mr. Zane, do you still want those three buildings? I’ll give you a knockdown price, two billion! Transfer me the money and we’ll sign the contract today.” The person on the other end was stunned for a moment before he readily agreed, “Sure! I’ll have someone draw up a contract right now.” The location of Irene’s buildings was absolutely ideal, and he heard the news that there would be renovations happening there soon, so getting those three buildings for two billion was a steal. Two hours later, Irene walked out of Mr. Zane’s company. The nine zeros in Irene’s bank account put her mind at ease. The only thing to do next was to shop till she dropped! Irene was a go-getter. She went to East Sherwood and rented several 3,000-square-feet warehouses. After she was done with that, Irene drove to the farmers’ market and bought high-quality rice, noodles, oil, various seasonings, cooking utensils, ham, sausage, bacon, and soy products. She then asked them to put everything into the warehouse at the given time. All these daily necessities cost her two million, but Irene paid without haggling or blinking an eye. She did not have to worry about water as she had drinking water in the space, and the food she just bought was enough to last her until she was 99. Among the basic necessities, she already had enough food to guarantee her survival, so Irene would have to think about clothes next. The weather in the apocalypse was unpredictable, and the extreme weather conditions could kill people in a matter of minutes. She rented a small truck and went to Cayman District. There were many garment factories here, and most of the big factories received orders from overseas, so the quality went without saying. In times like this, instead of selling their products overseas, they should be making them for her instead. It took Irene a great deal of effort to get in contact with the factory manager. Then, she made an order directly to the manager. T-shirts, jeans, sweaters, long puffer jackets, snow boots, sneakers, hiking boots, underwear, hats, scarves, winter clothes, and tents… In order not to seem like a crazy person and potentially get kicked out, she ordered men’s and women’s clothing in several sizes just in case. The factory manager’s jaw dropped as he watched Irene read from her list for 30 minutes straight without a pause. How could someone order this many clothes in one go? She even ordered clothes for all four seasons. Why was she in such a hurry as if it was the end of the world? He had reason to believe that Irene was here to make trouble on purpose, and the list in her hand was proof! Irene noticed the grimace on the manager’s face, so she decisively took out her credit card. “I can pay the deposit first!” “20 million,” the manager said out of surprise when he realized that Irene was serious. Irene firmly swiped away 20 million in the comfort of knowing how rich she was. “I need this order fast. It would be best if you could deliver the finished products to me within a month, but make sure to meet the quality standards!” Then, the factory manager got rid of his stern look and smiled obsequiously. “Of course.”