Chapter 64

After leaving Doomsday Town, Lin Tu couldn't shake a nagging unease.

Actually, it had started when Dong Huadan warned her not to worry about Evolution Points—that mysterious Hunters could sniff them out across the world barrier and would soon deal with the player who earned the [First Evolution] achievement. How could she not worry? She was that very unfortunate player.

So she probed further, confirmed that no one could escape those Hunters' assassinations, and that no player in the entire [Infinite Calamity] game openly held Evolution Points anymore. Then she decisively logged off and left Doomsday Town.

A bustling place like that was far too dangerous.

Back in her own world, warm spring sunlight filtered through the curtains and fell on her, washing away the grime of other-world hardships. Lin Tu felt a rare sense of peace and delight.

She decided to take a short break—partly to dodge those Hyenas, and partly because she genuinely needed rest. The last disaster had left her drifting at sea for two whole months; heaven knows she still felt the sway when she went to sleep last night.

Lin Tu sat quietly by the window draped with white lace-and-linen curtains, scribbling in her usual notebook. Soft sunlight slanted across the pristine paper.

Before long, though, she found the sunlight irritating.

She shifted positions, still uncomfortable, then grabbed some snacks and a drink. After fussing around for a while, she tossed the notebook aside in frustration. She realized it wasn't the sunlight bothering her—it was the endless jumble of thoughts in her head.

She took off her glasses, rubbed her temples in agitation, trying to drive away all the thoughts of disasters, Evolution Points, points... everything. But it was futile.

"Butler, send me whatever information you can find on Evolution Points," she finally conceded, putting her glasses back on and picking up her phone.

Evolution Points might be the root cause of her current tightrope walk, but there was no way she'd give them up. Since being hunted was inevitable, she might as well commit to the gamble.

She couldn't go to the Evolution Club anymore. For now, she could only treat the Points as energy stones to upgrade her little house.

The upgraded Anju features were dazzling. One in particular had caught her eye earlier—[Anomaly Space].

[Anomaly Space] was an upgraded version of [Expanded Space]. Players could purchase additional house space with points, but unlike ordinary space, these could be any location in a disaster world, with land priced according to the original world's level. Once purchased, the space would attach to the house as a subsidiary space.

What Lin Tu wanted, of course, wasn't disaster-world land—she wanted land from her own world. After all, her world had its fair share of disasters now and then, so why couldn't it count as one?

Having been through so many disasters, Lin Tu knew full well how important food and supplies were. If she could carry a patch of unpolluted land with her into and out of disasters, her survival odds would improve significantly.

No time like the present. Lin Tu used one Evolution Point to upgrade [Expanded Space]. Just as she was about to select a plot, she suddenly realized... this mountain beneath her feet could be converted to [Anomaly Space] for free?

"What's going on?" Lin Tu asked the Butler.

"Didn't you read the inheritance contract carefully? It's not just this house—this mountain is a reserved mountain, also part of the inheritance." According to the Butler's data, given Lin Tu's personality, she would've read any document she signed twice over.

Lin Tu felt a rare pang of guilt as she tried to recall the contract's contents, only to draw a blank. Not that she could blame herself—at the time, she'd been on the brink of a mental breakdown, just wanting a place to retire and wait for death. When she heard there was a house in a remote mountain hollow she could inherit, she'd signed without hesitation, never reading the details, not even bringing basic luggage when she moved in.

And in the months since, constantly dancing on the edge of life and death, she'd long forgotten how impulsively she'd signed that contract, or that some of its terms were a bit unusual.

Regardless, this was a good thing. Purchasing [Anomaly Space] required Evolution Points, and with her single remaining point, she couldn't even afford a fraction of this mountain.

As for how to use that last saved Evolution Point, Lin Tu decided she'd figure it out once she knew the next disaster. For now, she had no time to think about that, because she'd realized she had an awful lot to do—

This mountain was enormous, from what she remembered. As a kid, she'd loved running wild in these hills, and her grandfather had beaten her rear more times than she could count for it. But that was ages ago—she'd been three or four then.

Now, in Lin Tu's eyes, the mountain was still staggering in size—over thirty acres. Managing it alone would be no small feat. She didn't need to do it all at once, but she'd at least have to set up a small vegetable garden first, transplant the special plants she'd just bought and the vegetables and fruits she'd grown herself.

On top of that, she needed to upgrade the house to Level 2 and reconfigure its layout to maximize space.

Her stockpile had been mostly used up in [Sunken Land], so she needed to go out and restock at the market. And with the extra mountain, she'd better hit the local farmer's market for common seeds and some easy-to-keep chickens—toss them on the mountain, and they'd come in handy sooner or later. If she had time, she could also grab some steaming wontons, pea-and-bean noodles, and hotpot vermicelli. She'd just gotten a new S-rank Time-Freeze coupon, so she might as well put it to use.

"Master, I've sent the Evolution Points information to your phone," the Butler's voice came just in time, interrupting her train of thought.

"Got it. I'm heading out to stock up," Lin Tu said, getting dressed and heading out, phone in hand. "I'll read it while I eat outside. I won't be back tonight—remember to walk Xiao Huang."

"You bet!" the Butler replied eagerly.

.

Nightfall.

Ever since she discovered she could buy a [Single-Use Backpack (Replica): usable for only 12 hours] for one point at Doomsday Town, Lin Tu had stopped driving out to stock up. After all, her hoarding had grown considerably, and carrying too many supplies would inevitably draw suspicion.

By the courtyard gate, there were still some express deliveries stacked up that she'd ordered during spare moments. She'd set up a shelf outside, but half of it was empty, with many packages carelessly piled at its base.

Lin Tu wearily rode her motorcycle forward, about to tidy up, when a chilly spring night breeze swept by, and she suddenly shivered.

Her instincts, honed through several disasters, sounded an alarm in her mind. Goosebumps rose across her skin.

At some point, a gaunt figure had appeared beside the shelf. Under the darkening sky, Lin Tu had to strain her eyes to make out that it was a person.

Although he held a delivery box, his stance was so casual and relaxed, as if he owned the place, that Lin Tu realized he definitely wasn't there to deliver packages.

She instinctively reached into the pocket where she kept her special item coupons—

"You're Lin Tu, right?" The voice didn't come from the man by the shelf, but from her right.

Lin Tu turned to look. A burly man with a tiger tattoo across his shoulder stood there, menacingly gripping an iron rod, slapping it against his palm. At the same time, from her right rear, left, and left rear, several more muscular men in black tank tops and tattoos emerged from the darkness.

"Who are you?"

"Never mind who we are, but you better mind who your adoptive parents are. They owe my boss three hundred thousand and can't pay it back. Don't you think it's time the daughter settled the debt? Of course, we're not asking for the interest. Your dad already paid that with his pinky finger. You just need to pay back the three hundred thousand principal to my boss," the thug said shamelessly.

Gambling again. Lost again. Debt collectors at the door again.

A scene that once would've felt like the end of the world instead made Lin Tu breathe a sigh of relief. Because when her fingers touched the contents of her pocket, she realized it was just a wad of small bills from change at the farmer's market—not special item coupons.

She was just out to stock up in her own world and hadn't brought any special items.

Good thing it was just debt collectors. Those so-called assassins couldn't possibly chase her into her own world, right?

Even as she thought this, her unease only grew. "How did you find me?" Lin Tu asked. No one should've been able to find her—at least, not some loan shark collectors.

The strangest part was, Lin Tu glanced down at her phone—11:42 PM, not a single message. From what she knew of her adoptive parents, if they'd found her, they'd be blowing up her phone with all sorts of messages, threats, and bribes. They never missed a chance to control her.

She opened [Anju]. The app's glow lit up her face, and her expression turned unreadable.

"Found out that quickly? And here I went to the trouble of finding your friends. No fun." A voice as cold as a viper slithered through the air. "But it's fun enough. Look—what a beautiful world."

The figure by the shelf finally turned from the shadowed side, removing the hat from his head, and Lin Tu finally saw his face.

Gaunt. Skin stretched taut over bone, with the permanent marks of an unknown virus etched into his body. Rotted, inelastic skin cracked and dry, especially the huge fissure running across the top of his head, making his nearly bald scalp look especially sharp.

His appearance reminded Lin Tu of the zombie world. But compared to zombies, he looked more like a monster.

Clearly, he wasn't from this world.

"None of your damn business. Just lead the way. Talk less, or I'll beat you too—" The thug turned in annoyance, but his words died in his throat, replaced by a scream. "Holy shit! Ghost!"

"Tsk. Carefree locals. Just looking at them makes my teeth itch." The man licked his teeth and lunged forward, his shape like a demon.

Without hesitation, Lin Tu spun around, fired up the engine, and gunned the motorcycle's throttle, ready to flee.

As she turned, she caught a glimpse of the man's mocking smile, as if he wasn't worried about her escape at all. Her instincts screamed wrong. She didn't speed up too much, heading up the winding path, when—bang!—the motorcycle's front slammed into an invisible wall.

"Hahahaha! Fun! Fun!" Wild laughter came from behind. "You're mine!"

Damn it... Lin Tu clenched her fist and turned around. So he wouldn't even let her run, huh.