The Village Girl Who Jinxes Her Husband Is Filthy Rich Chapter 1 - Experimental Subject of the Apocalypse

Beginning in 2095, disturbances in the Earth’s internal magnetic field triggered a rapid escalation in global temperatures. This inevitably led to a succession of natural disasters, including earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, and droughts. Within a mere few months, the planet plunged into crisis, placing all of humanity in grave peril.

As New Year’s Eve of 2100 arrived, the apocalypse finally descended!

Established order and civilization were obliterated overnight. A harsh new hierarchy emerged, defined by survivors who had awakened hidden abilities and the undead who remained from the fallen. Flora and fauna underwent terrifying mutations; animals grew to monstrous proportions, and vegetation became inherently predatory. The world as people knew it ceased to exist, replaced instantly by the brutal laws of this ruined landscape.

It became a struggle governed solely by the survival of the fittest.

There were the awakened, who rose above the common populace; the ordinary citizens trying to scrape by in this post-apocalyptic nightmare; grotesque, flesh-eating zombies; and mutated life forms that attacked without discrimination.

Regardless of their nature, every being—human, undead, or mutated specimen—was driven by the desperate need for sustenance.

Consequently, a cruel and desperate cycle of plunder was initiated.

Lin Xinlan, at twenty-six, had been a perfectly average white-collar worker, possessing a unremarkable background, look, and physique. Yet, amidst the horrors of the global mutation, she was fortunate enough to manifest a wood-based superpower. In this dark era, the awakened were the only ones with a genuine chance to endure.

Determined to keep her boyfriend of two years and her closest friend—both of whom were non-awakened—alive, Lin Xinlan consistently volunteered for perilous assignments commissioned by the base. She would return daily, battered and drained, clutching energy cores harvested from the skulls of high-level zombies or vicious creatures, trading them for meager rations to sustain her companions.

Five years withered away in this grueling cycle.

...

“I loathe you all so much!” Bound to a freezing metallic operating table, the slivers of silver chain caught the light, mirroring the deep-seated hatred burning within Lin Xinlan’s vision.

They had drugged her with suppressants designed to neutralize the awakened. Her powers were stifled, leaving her unable to overpower even a normal human, let alone escape a laboratory that felt far worse than any hell.

Earlier that day, those madmen had pumped another experimental cocktail into her veins. It felt as if her entire frame were being ripped asunder, her blood scorching hot.

The agony was so intense she prayed for the relief of death. Yet, they denied her even that mercy. She was reduced to nothing more than a laboratory specimen, helpless against the whims of those deranged researchers.

A man encased in a white lab coat approached. His face was obscured by a mask, leaving his identity hidden. He observed Lin Xinlan, who lay bathed in her own blood, and let out a grunt of disapproval. He turned to an elderly man in his sixties, also white-coated but barefaced, and remarked, “Professor, the dosage isn't right. The subject is suffering too much.” His voice was devoid of empathy, dripping with professional indifference.

The professor responded with a manic, feverish intensity, “No, this merely confirms our formula is correct. It is said that unlocking such a spatial dimension requires a specific vessel or catalyst, best activated through the medium of blood.

“This Lin Xinlan’s spatial storage is unique; unlike those of other awakened, which only hold inanimate items, hers can accommodate living things. I even heard from that couple that her dimension contains fertile land capable of cultivating food.

“What is the most precious resource we lack? Food! If I can replicate her superpower in others, then I, Lu Lin, shall be hailed as the savior of this era, a legend worshipped by millions in the years to come!”

Professor Lu Lin’s eyes gleamed with a terrifying fervor. He had clearly lost his grip on reality in his obsession with future glory.

The masked man’s gaze sharpened with a predatory light. He glanced back at the bleeding woman and asked, “Professor, what is our next move?”

“Push the dosage even higher!” Lu Lin barked ferociously.

The masked man produced a vial containing blood-toned liquid and forced it into Lin Xinlan’s veins with cold, mechanical heartlessness.

Lin Xinlan shrieked in agony. Her eyes scorched with hatred and rage as she looked through the lab window toward two figures coiling together in the hall outside!