[Apocalypse] [Survival] [Stockpiling] [Space]
In an era when people still joked about mutating into Godzilla,
comic artist Jiang Tao opened her sketchbook and found a countdown on the page:
The apocalypse arrives in 30 days!
The moment the countdown began, Jiang Tao was pulled into an apocalyptic survival simulation game called "Seed Project."
Her sketchbook connected the real world to the game world. It recorded game data and also contained an upgradeable portable storage space.
Rewards earned in the game could pass between the game and reality through the space, and supplies from the real world could also be put into the sketchbook's space.
The game's stages were terrifying worlds where it seemed the apocalypse had arrived: extreme weather, mutated organisms, viral invasions, planetary decay...
Years of living alone as a homebody had taught Jiang Tao to stock a warehouse full of supplies. While others struggled to survive, eating dirt and drinking the wind, Jiang Tao had hot pot, beer, and barbecue. While others gave everything they had just to get a padded coat, Jiang Tao had a backpack full of top-grade cold-weather gear, enough to change into clean clothes and still outfit an entire squad.
Jiang Tao thought, If only I could put living people in there too.
The next day, an apartment appeared in the sketchbook's space: three bedrooms, a living room, and a twenty-square-meter balcony with sunlight and room for flowers.
Jiang Tao thought: Life couldn't be any more comfortable. Even if the apocalypse isn't some cruel joke, I'll be fine. I'll stock up and make do.
As her ranking steadily climbed, Jiang Tao accidentally discovered that something seemed wrong with the leaderboard recording supply points.
Soon afterward, a wave of natural disasters struck the real world too.
It all felt familiar.
Jiang Tao: I know this one. I'm well prepared, and I can even exploit a few "bugs."
Reader's Guide:
* The heroine is a lone wolf early on and isn't a self-sacrificing saint.
* There is a male lead, but he has little page time and appears in the middle to late stages.
* The entire story is set in a fictional world, with plenty of original worldbuilding.
Stage Guide:
* Abnormal weather: living tornadoes, devouring tsunamis, alternating extreme cold and heat.
* Biological mutations: plants and animals swap traits. Animals gain plants' vigorous growth and reproductive abilities, while plants gain minds and the ability to attack.
* Viral invasion: surviving humans mutate, undergoing either mutation or evolution.
* Planetary decay: gravity goes out of control, the cycle of day and night falls into disarray, and the soil and air become corrupted.
* Waiting for Dawn: awaiting unlock.
Blurb written on January 5, 2023.
Theme: The light of hope will never go out.
