Story Cove-4

"My biological father forced me to sell the shares my mother left behind. After being reborn, I signed the papers without hesitation, took the billion dollars, and walked away. Everyone laughed and called me stupid. What they didn't know was that one month later, the apocalypse would arrive—and money would become worthless paper. I used that billion dollars to rent out the warehouses of three massive supermarkets and stuffed my dimensional storage with rice, flour, meat, and bottled water..." ................................................................................ Chapter 1 Return From the Apocalypse "Hiss!" It hurt so much! A searing sting spread across the back of Cheryl Schneider's hand, slowly pulling her hazy consciousness back into focus. She lowered her head and saw a vivid red scratch. Warm sunlight streamed through the massive floor-to-ceiling window to her left, dancing across her palm. Sunlight?! She remembered that after the world plunged into extreme cold, she hadn't seen sunlight that bright in a very long time. Instinctively, Cheryl looked outside the window. Blue sky, lush green grass, and rare blossoms carefully tended by gardeners... Cheryl was completely dumbfounded. Wasn't she dead in that world-shattering apocalypse? So why was she in the former Schneider Villa again? Her heart began pounding wildly. She stared wide-eyed, greedily taking in everything before her—until her gaze landed on the young woman beside her. At that moment, the woman was lifting a vibrant emerald pendant toward her neck. Cheryl's pupils shrank sharply. It's mine! The moment the thought formed, she shot forward and reached out. Smack! She yanked her pendant back from that woman's neck, leaving a glaring red mark across that woman's fair neck. At the same time, a piercing scream rang out. "Ah!" The young woman clutched her neck, her face twisting in pain. "Oh my God, Angela! What's wrong? Let me see!" "William, go get Dr. Zinn now!" A middle-aged couple, sitting nearby and drinking coffee while reading the newspaper, rushed over at the commotion and fussed anxiously over the young woman. Seeing the loving family of three before her, Cheryl let out a cold smile. Angela! Fiona! Gregory! It was her "sweet and adorable" younger sister, her "gentle and kind" stepmother, and her "fair and impartial" father. She never expected they would meet again like that. "Cheryl, what did you do to Angela?!" Gregory Schneider snapped without asking, immediately scolding her. Cheryl replied calmly, "I just took back what belongs to me. What's the problem with that?" Her voice was flat, and her expression was cold. Gregory froze for a moment at her tone of defiance, then grew even angrier. "It's just a damn necklace, not some priceless treasure. If Angela wants it, just give it to her! You're petty like your dead mother. Absolutely embarrassing!" Seeing the bloody mark on Angela Schneider's neck, Fiona Schneider looked distressed, but she still put on a fake peacemaker act. "Hubby, don't be mad. I'm sure Cheryl didn't mean to do it." Then she turned to Cheryl, wearing a look of false tolerance. "Cheryl, did you forget? You promised your father you'd give this to Angela as a birthday gift. If you changed your mind and don't want to give it anymore, you could've told me. Do you really think I'd force you? Snatching it back like that? That's something a robber would do. Look what you did—Angela's neck is bleeding." "Give it back to Angela right now and apologize!" Gregory said with open disgust. "If she doesn't forgive you, then get out of here!" Nestled in Fiona's arms, Angela watched Cheryl with barely concealed glee. She knew that as long as Gregory spoke, Cheryl would obey—no matter how reluctant she was. That emerald pendant she had inexplicably longed for day and night would soon be hers. But the next moment, Cheryl gave a soft laugh. Under their stunned gazes, she turned and walked away. "Stop right there!" Gregory roared. "If you dare walk out that door today, don't ever come back!" Cheryl paused briefly, letting out a mocking chuckle. "As you wish!" With that, she walked straight out without looking back. ... Once outside, standing beneath the blinding sunlight, Cheryl checked the time on her phone. It was August 25, 2040—08:58 a.m. Then she pinched her thigh hard. It hurts! So it's real. Not a dream! I've truly been reborn! She was reborn one month before the apocalypse. On September 25, 2040, fate played a cruel joke on humanity. Relentless torrential rains fell without pause, nearly submerging the entire planet. It marked the beginning of the apocalypse. In that apocalypse, she had struggled desperately and lived in misery. Like a feral dog, she fought countless others just to snatch scraps of food to survive. In sharp contrast, Angela and Fiona had remained polished and well-fed, while Angela always seemed able to produce endless supplies out of thin air. Cheryl had envied them before, but she believed it was simply because Gregory provided everything for them as a high-ranking official in the base. Only before her death, when she saw a chocolate cake appear in Angela's hand out of nowhere, did she learn the truth. Angela's fake, sugary voice echoed endlessly in her mind. "Thank you for giving me such a magical pendant, Cheryl!" The one in Angela's hand had been the emerald pendant left to Cheryl by her maternal grandmother before she passed away. Yet before the apocalypse arrived, Angela had snatched it away under the excuse of a birthday gift. A thought flashed through Cheryl's mind. Without hesitation, she bit her finger and squeezed a drop of blood onto the pendant. The instant the blood touched it, a flash of white light burst before her eyes. When the light faded, the pendant had disappeared, replaced by a small red birthmark in the center of her palm. With a shift of thought, a storage space appeared in her mind. Inside was a foggy, square-shaped, and empty area. But Cheryl was thrilled. It was real. Everything was real. Her rebirth was real. Her storage space was also real! She broke into a wide grin. Slowly, the grin turned into laughter. Then laughter mixed with tears. In her previous life, because she endured every grievance and backed down, she ended up dying without even a proper burial. With this second chance at life, she was determined to make them repay every injustice she had suffered! Ignoring the strange looks from passersby, Cheryl hailed a taxi and returned to the small apartment she once lived in. The moment she closed the door, she eagerly used her mind to open the storage space and began testing it. The space was enormous, about the size of two soccer fields. Thick fog stretched across all sides, sealed off by an invisible barrier. Cheryl silently thought about going in, but she remained standing exactly where she was. Only the phone in her hand had vanished, appearing soundlessly inside the storage space. Suppressing the excitement rising in her chest, she continued testing the space by using items from her room. She kept loading things in and pulling them back out, not calming down until she was completely worn out. Chapter 2 The Spatial Portal It was a static space measuring 300 feet in length, width, and height. It couldn't store living creatures, but it preserved freshness. Hot water placed inside stayed boiling, no matter how long it remained stored. When taken out, it was exactly as hot as when it had been put in. "Ding! Smart Q here with a reminder. It's 10:00 a.m. Drakoria time." The sudden voice notification snapped Cheryl out of her excitement of exploring the storage space. Today was August 25, 2040. There was only one month left before the apocalypse would arrive. Time was tight. She couldn't afford to waste a single moment. Cheryl sat at the main desk. As memories of the disasters from her previous life surfaced, she began organizing a list of supplies she would need. First came relentless rain, followed by endless flooding, then extreme heat, extreme cold... Each disaster was something humanity today could barely imagine. In her previous life, with nothing to her name, she had gritted her teeth and survived until the third year of the apocalypse, enduring almost every hardship imaginable. But this time, she would never allow herself to fall into such desperate circumstances again. Food and water were essential. Medicine, too. In the chaotic world of the apocalypse, sometimes a single, insignificant anti-inflammatory pill could save a life. Beyond that, she needed clothing, shoes, cold-weather gear, tents, and sleeping bags for outdoor survival, vehicles and speedboats for emergency escape, and essential materials like candles, matches, emergency lights, batteries, and power supplies. Cheryl wrote down anything that came to mind in her notebook without missing a single item. As she continued writing, she suddenly remembered a bandit gang from her previous life. They had lived in extreme luxury during the apocalypse, surviving through robbery, murder, and looting. Meanwhile, ordinary people with no weapons had struggled just to stay alive. So self-defense weapons were absolutely critical. Too bad firearm regulations here in Drakoria were extremely strict. Ordinary people had no realistic way to obtain guns. The same problem applied to gasoline for cars and speedboats. Without proper permits, it wasn't sold in bulk domestically. The only option was repeatedly driving to gas stations, filling the tank, then siphoning the fuel out afterward. It was a huge hassle, and she wouldn't collect much. If only I could go to Lumoria... She had too little time. The true catastrophic flooding wouldn't arrive until a month later. However, the continuous rain, the early signs of the apocalypse, would begin much sooner. Cheryl remembered that in another ten days, all international flights would be suspended due to worsening weather. Ten days probably wasn't even enough time for a visa to be approved. Just then, a glowing panel suddenly appeared in her mind. "Apocalypse Preparation Portal Activated. Destination: Any location on Earthspire. "Usage Method: Select coordinates from the spatial map to initiate teleportation. "Usage Rules: "1. Portal Availability Period: August 25, 2040, 8:58 a.m. to September 24, 2040, 11:59 p.m. "2. Number of Uses: 10 times. "3. Maximum Stay Duration at Destination: 72 hours. After time expires, automatic return to starting coordinates." Staring at the glowing panel in her mind, Cheryl froze, unable to react for a long time. An apocalypse preparation portal! It could send her anywhere on Earthspire! Didn't that mean she could go to Lumoria and collect gasoline and firearms? The surprise made Cheryl tremble with excitement. Lumoria didn't just have gasoline and weapons. There were also mountains of rice, flour, cooking oil, and milk that were unused and wasted by the ton. As long as she had money, she could buy anything in that country. Thinking about money, Cheryl's overheated mind finally cooled down a little. She glanced at her account balance. There was only 1,746,753 dollars. That was the Schneider Group's dividend. The greedy Schneiders hadn't yet spent every last cent because it had been delayed by a month. If a few more days went by, there might not be a single cent left. Over a million sounded like a lot, but it was nowhere near enough for her to stock up on supplies in Lumoria. After a moment's thought, she picked up her phone and typed quickly into the Schneider Group shareholders' chat, "I'm selling 20% of my shares. The starting price is one billion. Full payment only. First come first served!" Those 20% shares had been left to her by her late mother. In her previous life, Gregory had always tried to buy them at a dirt-cheap price, but her mother's will had prevented her from agreeing. This time, Cheryl knew the apocalypse was coming. All the money and shares would eventually be nothing but scraps of paper. So next, she would sell those shares to stock up on survival supplies for the apocalypse. But she definitely wasn't going to sell them for peanuts! The moment she sent out the message, her phone kept pinging nonstop. The whole group chat practically exploded. Some were asking if it was real; some were placing bids right away. Cheryl ignored them all and went back to reorganizing her inventory list. Since she was heading to Lumoria, some things didn't need to be bought in Drakoria, such as rice, flour, and cooking oil. Even though large-scale food sales weren't illegal in Drakoria, a few hundred to a thousand tons would still attract attention. And unlike Lumoria, Drakoria was crowded with less land, so she wasn't going to fight locals for it. But those Drakoria-exclusive delicacies? Absolutely essential. God knew how much she had missed fondue, barbecue, and spicy noodle soup during the apocalypse. Thinking about it, she just bought it. Opening an online shopping app, she saw all kinds of foods and clicked without hesitation, then started placing orders like crazy. She stocked up on instant noodles—beef, chicken, sour, spicy—every flavor up to the sellers' stock limit. She also grabbed spicy ramen, beef ramen, spicy noodle soup, beef vermicelli, microwavable meal kits, and frozen rice meals. With staple foods covered, she couldn't skip side dishes and snacks. She ordered ten boxes each of ham sausages—pork, chicken, and fish varieties. When she saw spicy chicken wings, lemon chicken wings, and crispy fried wings, she instantly cleared the entire stock. Seeing the recommended canned foods below, Cheryl's eyes lit up, and she added them to her cart. That was good stuff. Even without the space's preservation effect, it would still stay good for a long time. Along with compressed biscuits, those were hard currency for trading in a supply-short apocalypse. And the taste was way better than compressed biscuits. There were canned ham, canned pork stew, canned sardines, canned mackerel, canned tuna, canned green beans, canned peaches, canned oranges, canned strawberries, and canned mixed vegetables. She added anything the store had. Of course, easy-to-store, filling compressed biscuits couldn't be skipped. It was 48 packs per box, and she picked 100 boxes right away. Then there was energy-storing chocolate—dark and white—999 of each type. The stock limit was 999. Soon, her cart was full. She quickly checked out and paid. The total was 476,484 dollars. Money really burned fast; just a fraction of what she bought ate up a quarter of her savings. Chapter 3 Keep Buying As one order after another went through, confirmations kept popping up from sellers. They were all checking if Cheryl had accidentally clicked the wrong quantity. To avoid any delay in shipping due to their doubts, she quickly replied, "No mistake. Please ship as soon as possible!" After sending that, she was about to move on to the next round when a call interface popped up. Seeing the name on the screen, Cheryl let out a cold snort and answered. The moment she picked up, Gregory's roar came through the phone. "Cheryl! What the hell are you doing? Who allowed you to sell your shares? Get into the group and retract that message right now!" Cheryl held the phone a few inches away. Only after the harsh shouting stopped did she speak calmly, "The shares are mine. So what if I'm selling them? What does it have to do with you?" Gregory fumed, "What do you mean? Those are Schneider Group shares! They belong to the Schneiders—they're mine! How can you sell them to outsiders?" Cheryl sneered. "I can't sell them to outsiders? Want me to sell them to you? Give me one billion then! Since you're my father by blood, I'll set that as the starting price. You have three days. If you transfer one billion to my account, I'll transfer all my shares to you." Gregory took a deep breath, trying to soothe her. "Cheryl, I know you're mad at me, but I'm doing this for your own good. You're my daughter. That means my stuff is yours too." Even though 20% of Schneider Group was worth far more than one billion, Cheryl was his child. So in his opinion, her possessions were his. He didn't want to spend a penny, let alone one billion. "If you need money, just tell me. I won't refuse. You're still young. You can't safely keep a billion in your hands. Maybe I can hold it for you first..." Cheryl didn't bother with his nonsense and cut him off. "You know the value of these shares. If you're not interested, I'm sure others will be. Remember—one billion within three days, or the shares go to someone else. No extensions!" Without waiting for a reply, she hung up. Not long after, the phone rang again. Cheryl ignored it, put it on silent, and went inside to change into a set of workout clothes. Before that billion hit her account, she only had a little over one million left. Every bit needed to be turned into supplies. After all, money would become the least useful thing in the apocalypse. ... Leaving the neighborhood, Cheryl picked a small street-side restaurant to grab a meal. She directly ordered a beef stir-fry with rice and egg drop soup. Tender beef, the heat of chili, the sourness of green beans—all the aromas rising in steam made her mouth water. A big spoonful went in, and her taste buds were overwhelmed by the long-missed flavor, nearly bringing her to tears. How many years had it been since she'd eaten something that good? The simplest comfort foods made Cheryl devour them like a starved wolf. Thinking about how she wouldn't be able to eat food like this anymore after the apocalypse, she grabbed the menu and started rattling off orders. "Spicy sausage stew, fish stew, Cajun-style chicken, beef stir-fry, grilled chicken skewers, rotisserie chicken, seasoned fries, sautéed cabbage..." The more dishes she read, the more the small restaurant owner stared in disbelief. What kind of quirk is this? Reading the menu aloud like she's performing? "Fifty orders of each dish," she said. If not for fear of scaring the owner, she'd have ordered 1,000. After all, time in her storage space was completely frozen. What went in would stay perfectly preserved until she took it out. Hot meals stored now could be eaten later, saving cooking time. In the apocalypse, even lighting a fire for food would be a luxury. Despite her restraint, the owner was still shocked by the almost-cleared-out menu. "F-fifty orders?" Cheryl calmly explained, "Yes, for my staff's meals. I'll pick them up in three batches. Any problem?" "N-no problem. No problem at all!" Doing this deal practically equaled a month's business for his little restaurant. Problem or not, he had to make it work. He would even call his parents or in-laws to help if needed. After scheduling the pickup, Cheryl scanned to pay a deposit of 30,000. Then she dashed to the nearest dealership and spent tens of thousands to buy a small cargo van. The cargo space measured 13.6 ft × 7.5 ft × 7.5 ft. It was perfect for a mobile warehouse. She climbed in and immediately headed to the city's largest outdoor gear mall. The three-story mall was stocked with everything from inflatable boats to alcohol stoves and flint. The first floor was for major outdoor equipment, such as watercraft, mountain bikes, ski gear, and scuba gear. Cheryl didn't think twice and bought the flagship item from every store. In less than half an hour, she had purchased two small speedboats, two jet skis, four inflatable boats, four inflatable rafts, four fat-tire bikes, two snowmobiles, four sets of scuba gear, two paragliders, and two high-powered diesel generators. All of those were indispensable in an apocalypse. Life-saving supplies couldn't be taken lightly, and everything had to be top quality. Although Lumoria might offer more advanced products, Cheryl believed in the principle of better too much than too little, so she decided to buy a full batch domestically first. As for the gasoline and diesel needed for speedboats and jet ski engines, she naturally planned to stockpile those in Lumoria. After finishing the first floor, Cheryl headed straight to the second floor. At a glance, it was filled with mountaineering and rock-climbing gear. Those were also essential equipment for surviving the apocalypse. She bought tents, backpacks, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, air mattresses, fire axes, climbing ropes, rock anchors, climbing harnesses, ascenders, descenders, big and small carabiners, slings, and climbing hammers. Then she bought alcohol lamps, alcohol stoves, solid fuel tablets, portable gas stoves, propane canisters, multi-tool water bottles, reusable straws, water purification bottles, compasses, binoculars, waterproof flashlights, knives, and high-capacity solar chargers. As for entrenching shovels, the must-have outdoor camping tool that could double as both a utility tool and a self-defense weapon, she bought them by the case. Condor BG05 Entrenching Shovel—manganese steel, 3 adjustable positions, 200 units. Gerber D57 Multipurpose Folding Shovel—all-in-one, outdoor essential, 200 units. SOG Emergency Folding Shovel—collapsible for easy storage, 200 units. Fiskars Multifunctional Shovel—convert between shovel and hoe, foldable, 200 units. Estwing 205 Entrenching Shovel—ash wood handle, hardened steel blade, 200 units. Cheryl moved like a gust of wind, sweeping through every corner of the mall. Every store clerk was grinning from ear to ear.