Chapter 39: A Doubled Space and a Sister’s Cry

My spatial area had suddenly doubled in size, leaving me no choice but to empty out this entire mall!

Turning quickly, I entered the mall, my gaze immediately scanning the food aisles.

In the early days of the apocalypse, food and water were the most difficult resources to acquire, primarily due to issues with temperature and time.

During the first year of the apocalypse, a ten-kilogram bag of rice could fetch around fifty Level 1 crystal cores.

This alone highlighted the severe scarcity of food supplies.

My eyes swiftly swept across the counters as I selected filling staples like rice and compressed biscuits. I held little interest in puffed snacks such as potato chips.

These items offered little sustenance and often left one parched. Only if there was still space left in my inventory later would I consider taking any of them.

Once I had gathered enough food, I moved on to other useful supplies.

Even with my doubled spatial capacity, this mall was immense. It was utterly impossible to take everything, so I focused solely on valuable resources.

Only after my space was filled once more did I finally step out of the mall’s main entrance, utterly content.

I glanced up at the scorching sun, then pulled out my phone to check the time.

It was 4:20 PM, roughly ten hours since I had left home.

Standing at the mall’s entrance, amidst the pervasive black dust, I suddenly raised both my arms.

After a powerful, satisfying stretch, I slowly lowered my arms.

Now, it was time to go home!

****

My current location wasn’t far from home, so I didn’t even need transportation. After a burst of rapid sprinting, I was already nearing my house.

As I approached home, I gradually slowed my pace.

Though my abilities were formidable now, it was best not to expose them.

Two fists could not contend with four hands. If those cunning individuals were to set their sights on me, the danger would be immense.

For me, the most crucial tasks now were to level up and ensure my sister’s safety. Everything else was secondary.

Once I escorted my sister back to B City to reunite with our parents, my mission would be complete.

To repay their decades of upbringing, I would protect their safety. However, anything beyond that would have to wait, depending on the circumstances.

Indeed, though I had been reborn, even seeing my adoptive parents again, I could never forget the scene of them abandoning me. It remained vivid in my memory.

It was precisely then that I awakened my spatial ability, allowing me to desperately escape from the fallen base.

After the zombie horde attacked the city, I, abandoned by my parents, was trapped in a room for several days.

Once I had consumed my last scraps of food, and with a considerable amount of strength still remaining, I pulled a zombie directly into the room, all for the sake of survival.

The sheer peril of that encounter still made me sigh with lingering emotion.

However, if I hadn’t risked my life to kill a zombie and fortunately obtained a crystal core, awakening my ability…

I likely wouldn’t have survived for so long.

These experiences from before my rebirth, I intended to keep them buried deep within, unwilling to voice them.

Having been reborn, some things had already changed.

This time, bringing my sister home, Mom and Dad surely wouldn’t abandon me again, would they?

As these thoughts churned, a wave of sorrow suddenly washed over me.

It was as if I lived without a clear purpose, uncertain how much time it would take to reach the distant future awaiting me.

“Help me!!!”

Suddenly, my sister’s loud cry for help echoed from a distance, filling me with a terrible premonition.

Before I left home, I had explicitly instructed my sister.

I told her to be extremely careful about transmitting sounds or scents, as they could attract a large number of zombies.

But now, with her shouting so loudly, something had definitely gone wrong!

Noticing a few zombies nearby drawn by the sound, I drew the long saber from my waist. With a single horizontal slash, I cleaved a zombie’s head cleanly in two.

Without a thought for any crystal cores within the zombies’ heads, I dispatched the creatures and then accelerated, dashing towards home.