Apocalypse Escape: Day One of Survival

With small hands as red as carrots, she gently pushed aside the messy hair covering her face.

Xie Ning sat in the snow. She suddenly flashed a smile toward the space diagonally across from her, her voice as cold as ice. ”Is it a pretty sight?”

”Was it just what you expected? Did it give you... that little bit of visual shock you were looking for?” Xie Ning formed a finger heart.

The young woman spoke in a soft, quiet voice and let out a long sigh. ”I almost went crazy. I was nearly scared to death.”

”If my heart weren’t strong enough, I would have killed myself just now.” She once again brushed aside her messy long hair, dusted the light snow from her clothes, and slowly, bit by bit, got to her feet.

Sighing softly, Xie Ning bent down to pat the snow from her pants and stomped her feet.

”So you found out... what am I to do?”

”To think I was once so poor, destitute, miserable, and pathetic.” Xie Ning’s lips curled into a smirk.

A warning suddenly rang out: ”Careful!”

At that exact moment, a Metal Spike shot from Xie Ning’s fingertip and struck its target.

Faint, watery ripples spread out, and where there had been nothing but empty space, the figure of a man appeared.

The man stood there shouldering a blinking machine, his mouth agape in shock. He slowly lowered his head to look at the hole pierced through his chest.

A large patch of his clothing was already stained crimson with blood.

”What is this?” Xie Ning chuckled. ”It’s a Dimensional Space, right?”

Even as she spoke, she was unleashing a continuous barrage of Metal Spikes in all directions. Each one pierced a person’s chest with deadly precision.

Simultaneously, watery ripples continued to spread out in circles all around her.

Until a faint, crisp sound reached her ears.

CRACK. It was an incredibly faint sound, one you would miss if you weren’t listening carefully.

Xie Ning saw the villa’s floor-to-ceiling windows.

Outside, the moonlight was bright and clear, faintly illuminating two high-backed, European-style chairs on the balcony.

She looked down again.

Her hands had returned to their original state—pale and slender.

No frostbite, no swelling. The clothes she was wearing were the pajamas she had put on before bed.

The only difference was that there were now several corpses in the villa’s room, their crimson blood already pooling at her feet.

Xie Ning, wearing a pair of fluffy white rabbit slippers, took a step back in utter disgust.

”Was the live stream fun?” Xie Ning tilted her head, her gaze traveling past the glass doors to the balcony outside.

The air was perfectly still, yet Xie Ning smiled faintly into the quiet space.

Her smile was utterly bone-chilling.

”You didn’t even ask my permission before you started a live stream to record me.” Xie Ning sighed softly, raising a hand to slowly gather her loose hair and tie it up with a hair band.

”Hasn’t anyone ever told you to have some manners?” The moment the words left her mouth, she shot through the glass doors and threw a vicious punch.

The terrifying force of her metal-clad fist swept across the seemingly empty balcony.

The dimensional wall shattered abruptly. Two figures tumbled out of it, rolling on the ground and crying out in agony.

A third figure, caught by the force of the punch, was sent staggering backward, about to tumble off the balcony.

Xie Ning wasn’t about to let him escape.

’No one escapes from me!’

A Metal Spike shot out, piercing the man’s shoulder blade. Moving at lightning speed, it dragged him back onto the balcony and flung him to the ground.

The man’s body slammed heavily onto his two companions, and he let out a pained howl.

Xie Ning tilted her head. Facing the blinking red light of the camera, she gave a sweet, cute smile. ”You’re all going to die!”

She stomped on the recording device in the man’s hand, shattering it. The corner of her mouth lifted in a cold smirk.

”I thought people from the X Realm would be tough, like aliens,” Xie Ning said, a flicker of coldness in her eyes as she stomped on one man’s arm, shattering the bone. ”I didn’t expect you to be as fragile as ordinary mortals.”

”Weak, pitiful, and helpless!”

”Are you scared?” she asked as a Metal Spike shot forward, embedding itself in the man’s throat.

This act scared the other two out of their wits. With trembling lips, they began to beg for their lives. ”No, don’t kill us! You can’t kill us! We didn’t mean any harm.”

”’Didn’t mean any harm?’” Xie Ning repeated the words, savoring them as the Metal Spikes at her fingertips grew longer and sharper.

”So, you all saw it, didn’t you?”

”What kind of technology was that? How could it make me look like that?”

”Y-You have to promise not to hurt us! Th-Then we’ll tell you.”

Xie Ning smiled, then sent a Metal Spike flying straight into the man’s throat.

”AAAAAAHHH!!” The last man standing screamed, so terrified by her actions he nearly wet himself.

”You’re in no position to negotiate with me.” Xie Ning wagged a finger, her smile still gentle and pleasant. ”Nobody is. Understand?”

”Now, talk. What was that just now?”

”Y-You already guessed, didn’t you? It... it was a... D-Dimen... Dimension World.”

”Oh.” Xie Ning touched her wrist. ”Future.”

Little Spider went TAP TAP TAP TAP as it obediently crawled out and emitted a human-like electronic voice. ”Fu-Future has detected that S-Subject Ningning’s emotional fluctuations are v-very high. Re-Recommending playback of a, a... Gr-Grea-Great Compassion Mantra!”

Xie Ning burst out laughing. ”Playing the Rebirth Mantra would be more fitting for the occasion.”

”Sh-Should I play it?”

Xie Ning poked the spider on her arm. ”What exactly is this Dimension World? Can it really materialize whatever images I think of in my head?”

”That is correct, Subject Ningning. The Dimension World can materialize any scene you can imagine, and it specializes in selecting the scenes you fear most to play on a loop.”

Little Spider immediately began to praise her. ”Subject Ningning, you are the smartest, most beautiful person in the world! You guess correctly every single time!”

The X Realm person on the ground stared, dumbfounded, at the smart device on Xie Ning’s arm. ”That thing?”

’Is that AI broken?’

’How can it spout such shameless flattery??’

’Besides, an AI this human-like seems to be rare even in their X Realm.’

”Hm? You don’t recognize it?” Xie Ning stroked Little Spider and smiled at the man from the X Realm. ”Isn’t this an electronic product from your world? Speaking of which, you people from the X Realm might not be much, but I have to admit, the electronics you make are excellent.”

”Do you have any other fun toys on you?”

Xie Ning walked toward him, step by step. Terrified, the man from the X Realm trembled all over. ”N-No, stay back! Y-You, stay away from me!”

”I’ve confessed everything! I’ve told you everything! C-Can you let me go now?”

Xie Ning’s gaze fell upon him, cold as ice. ”Last question. When did you start live-streaming me?”

”Don’t even think about lying to me.” Xie Ning leaned in close, a raging fury churning in her pitch-black eyes.