10 PM, in an apartment on the 18th floor of a certain building.

Yu Qi, freshly showered and dressed in clean, soft loungewear, walked out of her room while ending a phone call.

The call was from Yu Qi’s boyfriend—ex-boyfriend—who called to make amends, stating that he wouldn’t press charges against Yu Xi for her behavior, but also hoping that this incident wouldn’t affect his job at the company.

He was Yu Qi’s colleague, two years younger than her, less capable, and her subordinate. Being fellow countrymen from Jingguo and his usual warm and caring demeanor, he had finally won her over six months ago.

But today, his mistress had come to pester him, and the two were caught red-handed by Yu Qi. The mistress even provoked her, leading Yu Qi to raise her hand to hit, but the scumbag, in an attempt to protect his mistress, pushed Yu Qi into the sea.

Though he kept insisting it wasn’t intentional, such behavior, intentional or not, was equally disgusting.

Yu Qi had nothing more to say to him. She directly told him to pack up and leave with his mistress by tomorrow. As for pressing charges against her sister? He could go ahead and try, and see who would end up suing whom!

“You were too impulsive today! Did you even think about the consequences?” Yu Qi, though scolding, was actually worried about her.

Yu Xi wanted to snort and turn away with that rebellious look she used to have, but seeing Yu Qi’s face, which resembled Fan Qi so much, she instinctively held back.

“Oh.”

Yu Qi glanced at Ya Tong, who was taking vegetables out of the fridge to prepare a simple dinner, and said, “I heard from Ya Tong that you told her it was me who asked you to come back? And you told the filming crew it was Ya Tong’s decision to cancel the shoot and send everyone home?”

Though Yu Qi doted on her, she wouldn’t just let something like this slide, “I’ve told you many times, if you don’t want to shoot or work, you can tell me. Why lie?”

Yu Xi looked at her, “Sis, I don’t want to stay in this country anymore. I want to go back home. I’m leaving tomorrow morning.”

“…What’s going on, Xi? I know you were upset when I left you to study here, but I’ve been trying to make it up to you…”

Yu Qi felt troubled and frustrated, and so did Yu Xi.

The mission target this time was knowledgeable and strong-willed, while the character she was playing was uneducated and had a rebellious past. How could she convince her to drop everything, pack up, and buy a flight ticket for tomorrow morning?

“Sis, xx is coming! xxx is coming! xxx is coming! ooxx is coming!” Yu Xi blurted out a series of censored words, which stood for: meteor, explosion, tsunami, volcano eruption.

She thought she could hint at the main disaster without directly mentioning it, but everything got censored.

Yu Qi stared at her silently, her expression growing darker.

Yu Xi had no choice but to use her last resort.

She spoke, despite her embarrassment, “Sis, actually, I’m reborn. Do you understand rebirth? I had already died, but then I woke up back when I was still alive. Only after dying once did I realize how reckless I used to be. There are less than two days left—no, not even two days. You, me, and Ya Tong will all die. We must leave this country immediately and take the earliest flight tomorrow morning to survive!”

Yu Qi: …

Ya Tong: …

Yu Xi: …?

“Yu Xi! Are you on drugs?!” Yu Qi was furious. She grabbed the car keys, ready to drag her to the hospital for a drug test.

Yu Xi, however, caught Yu Qi’s hand and pulled her straight into the room.

Yu Qi wanted to break free from her sister’s grip but was shocked by her strength. She was dragged into the room: “What are you doing?”

Yu Xi locked the door behind them and lowered her voice, “Sis, I have something to show you that will prove I’m telling the truth.” She picked up an ornament from a shelf, “Sis, watch carefully.” Then, she placed the ornament into her Star House storage.

Yu Qi: …!!

“Sis, watch again.” The ornament reappeared in her hand, “And there’s more—”

She pointed to the floor, and suddenly, dozens of water barrels appeared on the previously empty floor. “This is called space storage. I don’t know if you’ve seen anything like it, but I discovered it after my rebirth. I can put things in and take them out anytime.”

Yu Qi walked over and touched the barrels with trembling hands. They were real, not an illusion.

“So, I’m not lying to you, and I’m not on drugs. Everything I said is true. You need to do as I say, or we will all die.”

A few seconds later, Yu Xi exclaimed, “Sis! Don’t faint—”

Yu Qi regained consciousness under the strong scent of medicinal oil. She grabbed Yu Xi, “How many people know about this? About… your space storage.”

“I’ve only told you.”

“Good, remember, don’t tell anyone else!”

“What about Ya Tong?”

“We’ll tell her later.” Yu Qi tried to organize her chaotic thoughts and finally got to the main point, “So, everything you said is true. If we don’t leave this country within two days, we will die.”

“That’s about right.”

“Alright, I’ll call to book flights for tomorrow morning.”

Yu Xi: …?

That was it?

Yu Qi searched her pockets, then remembered her phone was on the sofa outside. She pulled Yu Xi out of the room.

In the living room, the aroma of fried rice filled the air. Ya Tong, efficient as always, had already finished cooking while they were busy with drug tests and fainting. She was now sitting on the sofa, watching TV and eating from a small plate.

Seeing the two come out, she gestured to the dining table, “Fried rice and lettuce salad, help yourselves.”

“Thank you.” Yu Qi picked up her phone and sat down next to her friend, “Um… I’m booking flights for tomorrow morning. Why don’t you come back home with us?”

Ya Tong: …??

Yu Xi wasn’t in the mood to eat. She remembered that “she” liked to store cash in her room. Besides stacks of cash, the safe also contained valuable jewelry. Since they were going back home, they needed to take everything with them.

She walked through the living room toward her room but was distracted by a news broadcast on the TV.

It was an official announcement from the local government, stating that the most spectacular meteor shower in recent years—the 20332HKF constellation meteor shower—would appear tomorrow night, with the central and southern parts of the country being the best observation points.

The meteor shower was expected to start around 9 PM tomorrow, less than twenty-three hours away. The announcement encouraged astronomy enthusiasts not to miss it.

The TV screen then showed a space photograph, not very clear, nothing compared to the sharp satellite images from twenty years later.

She could barely make out the meteors in the image.

Yu Xi watched the announcement, feeling her hairs stand on end.

She double-checked the time. The meteor shower was scheduled for around 9 PM tomorrow night, and it was currently 10:30 PM, less than twenty-three hours away.

Her intuition told her that this wasn’t just a meteor shower; it was a meteorite shower!

Meteors and meteorites are essentially the same, but meteors are smaller than gravel, while meteorites are the size of stones. Meteors burn up in the atmosphere due to high temperatures and never reach the planet’s surface.

Meteorites, on the other hand, burn through the atmosphere, gain speed due to gravity, and when they hit the surface, they act like high-temperature bombs.

Even a small meteorite can easily destroy a car, while larger ones can flatten cities.

If this so-called “meteor shower” marked the beginning of the apocalypse, they had less than twenty-three hours left. Even considering the time to return at noon, they had only thirty-five hours. Why was this happening?

Wasn’t she supposed to enter the apocalypse world forty-eight hours before the disaster?

Yu Xi frowned. Had she missed some information?

Could it be that tomorrow night’s meteor shower was not the apocalyptic meteorite shower? Or was it because the planet was so large and the regions different—

Suddenly, she thought of something and immediately asked Yu Qi, “Sis! What’s the time difference between this country and our own?”

“Why are you asking this all of a sudden…” Yu Qi, still processing the fact that her sister had come back to life with a spatial ability, hesitated for a moment before answering, “Thirteen hours. Why?”

Thirteen hours!?

Thirty-five plus thirteen hours—exactly forty-eight hours!

So, the time given by the world mission referred to their home country’s time, not the local time!

In other words, she never had forty-eight hours. From the start, she only had thirty-five hours because she was in this country!

Yu Xi couldn’t help but ask: System, was my analysis correct?

【Yes, host, the forty-eight hours refer to Jingguo time, and you are currently in this country.】

Yu Xi: …

No wonder, even though this was not as dangerous and unpredictable as the zombie apocalypse, the world difficulty rating was still medium-low.

All the pitfalls were hidden here!

Yu Xi closed her eyes. With less than twenty-three hours left, there was no way they could return home before the first meteorite shower hit.

It would take over ten hours to fly back home—assuming they got a direct flight. With layovers, it would take even longer.

Even if they could buy the earliest flight and return home safely without delays, arriving just in time would only increase the difficulty of survival.

Moreover, she wasn’t sure about the exact calculation of the time difference. Would she have forty-eight hours once back home, or would the meteorites hit both countries simultaneously?

With so many uncertainties, the plan to catch a flight home in the morning had to be temporarily canceled.

This meant they had to stay in this country to face the first wave of the meteorite shower.

The best observation points for the meteor shower were in the central and southern parts of the country, and L City was in the central region. For safety, they needed to leave L City as soon as possible.

She looked at Yu Qi and Ya Tong. Yu Qi was trying to convince Ya Tong to fly back home with them tomorrow.

She wondered if Yu Qi would have the urge to beat her up when she suddenly changed her mind and said they weren’t leaving.

An hour later, in a large 24-hour supermarket in L City.

Yu Qi stood in front of the bottled water aisle, turned to Yu Xi, and whispered, “How big is your… space?”

Yu Xi’s space originally had about twenty cubic meters reserved, the rest filled with various perishable food supplies.

But before traveling to this world, she had taken out most of the supplies, leaving only a small portion of takeout food, snacks, vegetables, meat, dairy products, seafood, 15 barrels of 19-liter bottled water, two cases of bottled water, twelve 500-liter barrels filled with tap water, and some instant food.

There were even fewer non-food items: a large box of clothes, a few gold bars, firearms, ammunition, stun batons, Tang sword, collapsible batons, multi-functional shovels, camping equipment, cold-weather clothing, a small number of medications, and some daily necessities—prepared according to the standard consumption for two people for three months.

She had moved most of her belongings to the Star House, which had 40 square meters of space with an 8-meter height, giving a total of 320 cubic meters. However, due to many items not being stackable and time not being static, it wasn’t very convenient for regular storage.

But before this mission, she realized that time in the mission world progressed at a rate where one year there equaled one second in her original world. Even if she stayed for sixty years, only a minute would pass in her original world.

A minute passes in the blink of an eye. Even cooked food wouldn’t get cold in that time. As long as she placed things carefully to avoid them toppling over, the brief amount of time would be negligible, effectively making it another static-time warehouse.

So, she had moved out most of her items, thinking she could stock up extensively during the initial forty-eight peaceful hours in the apocalyptic world, which would neither deplete her resources nor might allow her to bring more back.

When they left earlier, Ya Tong went ahead while Yu Xi and Yu Qi packed all their clothes, blankets, food, water, unbreakable dishes, cash, gold, jewelry, computers, photo albums, and other important items into the space.

Yu Qi was stunned to see their apartment suddenly turn into an empty shell and began to wonder if her sister’s space was full yet.

Yu Xi glanced at Yu Qi: “There are about 130 cubic meters left.” She added, “Time is static, no gravity.”

Yu Qi understood the implications and didn’t say more. She took out a checklist and began stockpiling.

The list was written on their way to the supermarket, mainly based on Yu Xi’s suggestions.

“Sis, you believe me? Even though I haven’t explained anything?”

“You’re my sister. If I didn’t believe you after you revealed such a secret, I wouldn’t be fit to be your sister. I know there are things you can’t say yet, but that’s okay. You don’t need to explain. From now on, I’ll follow your lead. You have my full support, so don’t worry.”

Yu Qi reached out and ruffled her sister’s fluffy hair. Though the idea of rebirth sounded fantastical and unreal, she had asked Ya Tong, and Yu Xi’s behavior today was indeed peculiar, as if she knew something and was desperate to reach her first.

If it weren’t for previous experiences, how could she have known she would fall into the water?

Thinking of her sister facing life and death alone when she couldn’t be there pained Yu Qi. If not for dying tragically before, how could she have become so sensible after rebirth?

Then, they began their shopping spree based on the checklist.

In this sparsely populated country, it was close to midnight in a remote 24-hour supermarket, and the place was practically empty, with only tall shelves of various goods.

Yu Qi had chosen a well-stocked supermarket. Knowing her sister’s space had 130 cubic meters left, she decided to forgo carrying water herself and first bought lighter items, planning to get the supermarket staff to help load bulk water later.

First cart: flour, fragrant rice, glutinous rice, pasta, canned meat, canned fish, canned fruit, instant noodles.

Second cart: chicken legs, chicken breasts, chicken wings, eggs, pork, pork bones, sausages, smoked meat, hamburger meat, beef, oxtail, beef tendons, herring, salmon, cod, eel, octopus, oysters, shrimp, potatoes, onions, eggplants, celery, cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, bell peppers, okra, scallions, ginger, garlic, salt, sugar, pepper, chili powder.

Third cart: apples, grapes, oranges, strawberries, kiwis, cherries, coconuts, milk, powdered milk, other dairy products, coffee.

Fourth cart: various beverages and alcohol.

Fifth cart: various household paper products.

Then, she found the supermarket staff and asked for 40 cases of 5-gallon water barrels, 10 cases of 24-bottle water packs. She also requested fifty portions each of frozen steak, lamb chops, chicken fillets, fish fillets, and fifty frozen pizzas directly from the warehouse.

These were also instant foods, with each portion of meat containing individually packaged seasoning and butter. All you needed was a frying pan, and it would be ready in 3-5 minutes.

With so many items, neither Yu Xi’s car from the town nor Yu Qi’s car could hold them all.

So on their way to the supermarket, Ya Tong had arranged for a truck. She drove a larger truck over and, upon receiving Yu Qi’s call, parked it at the supermarket entrance, where the staff loaded the purchased and boxed items onto the truck.

The truck was slightly larger than the one Yu Xi had driven earlier. Ya Tong sat in the driver’s seat, shaking her head with a wry smile as she watched them load so many items from the rearview mirror.

Yu Qi spoiled her sister way too much. She had always been indulgent, and this time it was even more extreme. One moment she wanted to take her back home, and the next she talked about stockpiling supplies and temporarily leaving L City. Ya Tong couldn’t understand why she was going along with this…

Ya Tong rolled down the window, irritably lit a cigarette, and smoked it down to the filter before the last of the cargo was finally loaded onto the truck.

Fortunately, the truck was large enough, but it was still more than half full.

Afterward, Yu Xi drove Yu Qi’s car while Yu Qi got into Ya Tong’s truck.

Ya Tong thought she could finally call it a night and get some sleep, but as soon as Yu Qi got in, she gave the address of the next stop.

“Aren’t you guys tired in the middle of the night?”

“No worries, this one is also a 24-hour supermarket, and we still have a lot of essential items to buy. Drive on.” Yu Qi knew that some things couldn’t be explained just yet, so she had to be firm. They would buy the supplies and leave L City first, and explain later.

The next supermarket was targeted for its protective gear. The list included gas masks, protective suits, camping gear, and extreme cold weather clothing. This store also had a large pharmacy section, with various medicines that Yu Xi had highlighted as essential.

In the end, Yu Qi even loaded up a bunch of extreme sports gear and survival backpacks onto the truck.

Ya Tong looked at the completely filled truck and stood to the side, smoking wearily. “Such extravagance…”

When she went to throw away the cigarette butt and get in the truck, she found Yu Qi already in the driver’s seat. “Get in. I’ll drive.”

“Do you have another stop?” Ya Tong was on the brink of collapse.

Half an hour later, the two vehicles stopped at a quiet street corner.

Ya Tong grabbed Yu Qi before she could get out. “Are you crazy? Do you know what kind of place this is?”

“I know, but we need to buy weapons.” Her apartment only had a revolver with six bullets and two boxes of ammunition, which she had already put in the storage space, but it was far from enough.

“Stop buying. I have some at my apartment. I’ll get them for you.”

“That’s still not enough. I need the big stuff.”

“…” Ya Tong looked at her in disbelief. “Can you at least explain what’s going on?”

“Xiao Xi already explained it. You just didn’t believe her.”

“She said something about rebirth. How am I supposed to believe that?”

“If you’re my friend, don’t ask questions. I believe my sister. If you don’t believe her, it’s fine. Just believe me.”

Ya Tong pounded the car door in frustration and turned to Yu Qi. “Fine.” Fine, since she’s already said so much, she would go along with it. After all, she was alone with nothing to lose.

She took out her phone, dialed a number, told the person on the other end that she needed supplies, and listed various “big stuff.”

Then she pulled out paper and pen from the glove compartment, wrote down an address, and handed it to Yu Qi. “Be there in an hour and a half. There are no cameras, and you’ll see a black car with the license plate ending in xxx. The stuff will be in the trunk. Leave the cash, take the items.”

“Got it.” Yu Qi looked at the address, noting that they still had time. She texted Yu Xi to follow them and then turned the car around to head to an ATM to withdraw money.

Yu Qi drove the car to Ya Tong’s apartment building and indicated for her to go upstairs and pack all the cash, valuable items, documents, and clothes. She would wait downstairs for half an hour: “Remember, take everything important. You might not get another chance to come back for them.”

Ya Tong looked at her for a minute: “Crazy? Fine, let’s be crazy together.” She wanted to see how Yu Qi would handle this mess later.

Since they went for a shoot this morning, some of Ya Tong’s documents, clothes, and items were in her suitcase, which they had moved from the rented car to the back seat of Yu Qi’s SUV when they left her apartment. Yu Xi was driving that car now.

Ya Tong went upstairs to gather her personal important items, various guns, a pile of ammunition, and cash.

Finally, she came downstairs with a duffle bag and tossed it into the car.

The three of them, in two cars, headed to the meeting point designated by Ya Tong’s contact to pick up the “big stuff.” Yu Qi knew they would be getting a lot of items when she heard how much cash would be exchanged, but she was still stunned when she opened the trunk.

There were various models and sizes, a whole box of bullets, grenades, and tear gas canisters.

Yu Xi got out of the car, keeping an eye on the surroundings, and quickly moved the three duffle bags and a large box into the SUV’s trunk.

She could hear a suppressed breathing sound not far away but did not hear any mechanical noises, which indicated the person wasn’t holding a weapon.

They worked quickly, and within a few minutes, they were driving away into the night.

The three of them, in two cars, didn’t return home but instead headed north out of L City.

A long time ago, Yu Qi had bought a villa near S Peak, more than 300 kilometers from L City. It was very cheap at the time due to its remote location.

Yu Qi had liked the villa because it was surrounded by mountains and water with beautiful scenery, and it was close to a nearby town, making shopping convenient.

She had always wanted to take Yu Xi there for a holiday, but Yu Xi liked big cities and said she didn’t want to go to the countryside with many bugs. So, although Yu Qi had been in this country for two years and knew about the villa, she had never visited it.

For Yu Xi, although “she” had never been there, “she” had heard Yu Qi talk about it. The villa had a large basement, which was originally a bomb shelter built during the Cold War, with intact ventilation equipment.

In this country, many private villas actually had such basements or bomb shelters.

After buying the villa, Yu Qi had someone slightly renovate the bomb shelter, painting the ceiling and walls, installing floors, and adding water, electricity, and air conditioning. It also had a simple bathroom and kitchen.

The overall renovation was simple, which Yu Xi found satisfactory.

After all, her original plan was to go to a centralized shelter or basement to survive the first wave of the meteorite shower. But now that there was a private bomb shelter, it was even better.

After driving for three and a half hours, the two cars finally arrived at Lu’er Town near S Peak, bathed in the morning light.

Following Yu Xi’s suggestion, Yu Qi stopped at several restaurants along the way to place orders.

At the coffee shop: one hundred cups of various flavored coffee, fifty assorted croissants, sandwiches, and cakes.

At the burger shop: one hundred assorted burgers, fifty pieces of various fried chicken.

At the pizza shop: fifty freshly made pizzas of various flavors, fifty vegetable and fruit salads.

These were convenient cooked foods to prepare for situations where cooking might be inconvenient.

Because of the large order, all the restaurants said they would need until the afternoon to prepare everything.

“No problem, I’ll drive back later this afternoon,” Yu Xi said to Yu Qi after hearing this.

“I’ll go. I don’t want you to get lost.”

“No, I’ll go. I can recognize the roads now. Sis, I have other important things to assign to you.”

“Okay, just be careful.”

After another half-hour drive, they arrived at the villa.

The villa was not far from the lake, surrounded by lush vegetation. In this villa area, each house was spaced far apart, and at night, you could hardly see anyone around; it was very quiet.

Yu Xi drove the SUV into the garage, got out of the car, and walked to the garage entrance. She looked up at the sky, and under the blue sky, she could see several bright points with tails.

Even with her enhanced vision, she could only barely see them. Ordinary people wouldn’t notice at all.

She frowned, opened the trunk, and started unloading the items.

She carried the duffle bags into the villa. Ya Tong was removing dust covers from the furniture, while Yu Qi went to turn on the electrical switches.

Yu Xi put the items on the floor, found the TV remote, and turned on the news channel.

After switching through several channels, she finally found the information she was looking for.

On the news screen, there was still information about the meteor shower expected to appear at 9 PM tonight. However, the news anchor’s expression had changed from relaxed to serious. They reported that, after further examination by experts, the meteor shower would turn into a “meteor storm,” with an expected 500 to 600 meteors per hour.

They also did not rule out the possibility of fragments that might not burn up in the atmosphere hitting the ground. While officials repeatedly assured that there was no need for citizens to panic, they still advised people to stay indoors tonight for safety.

Yu Xi turned to see Yu Qi and Ya Tong standing not far behind her, thoughtfully watching the TV screen.

Yu Xi looked out the window. Today was going to be an extraordinarily long day.