As crystal blades tear the sky apart, Lu Jin takes out his first loan as a "god"—signing away his future to buy one unbreakable home.
The wind in the alley died.
It was replaced by a sound from Lu Jin's phone speaker that made his teeth ache—a shrill, scraping screech like ten thousand glass knives sawing through sheet metal.
He leaned against the mold-eaten wall, head bowed over his screen, fingers locked white around the edges.
On the display, the camping pod he'd bought for ¥588 a few hours ago looked like a soap bubble in a hurricane.
The wasteland sky had gone a sick, leaden gray. Countless ice-blue crystals, each the size of a fingernail, fell with terrifying speed, hammering the pod's faint orange shield like a hail of bullets.
Crack.
A fracture bloomed in the upper-right corner of the shield.
Inside, Li Xing was curled in the corner, hands over her head, her small body jolting with every impact. A few needle-sharp shards punched through failing energy, screaming past her face and shredding her filthy lab coat.
Scarlet welled up, only to freeze instantly into glittering red slivers on her skin.
[Warning! Shield integrity: 12%… 8%…][Estimated time to full physical collapse: 15 seconds.]
Sweat slicked Lu Jin's palm as he swiped frantically through menus. The cash he'd just earned—over thirty thousand yuan stuffed inside his jacket—was a hot brick against his ribs instead of comfort.
The system knew.
Of course it knew exactly how fat his wallet was.
The moment the integrity dropped under 5%, the familiar festive chime hit, and a pop-up plastered itself over the feed like a death notice wrapped in confetti.
[Your Property Has Become Condemned Housing! Upgrade Urgently Required!]
Dear savior, worried about your daughter's long-term living conditions?One investment. Lifetime protection!
["Blackstone" Single-Occupant Bunker (Permanent Title)]
Features: Blast-proof alloy walls · Independent air circulation · All-weather radarOwnership: Permanent (no refunds, no take-backs)Disaster Flash Sale Price: ¥29,998.00
[One-Click Full Payment (Recommended!)]
Beneath the big, friendly red button, a thin gray line of text nearly blended into the background.
Short on cash? Tap here for God-Tier Exclusive Flexible Payment Options ♥
Lu Jin stared at the price, a vein throbbing in his temple.
Twenty-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-eight.
He would bet what remained of his 95-day lifespan that this scam app had priced it to match his cash down to the last note.
He tapped the tiny line.
[God-Tier Exclusive Installment Plan]
Down Payment: ¥10,000.00Remaining Balance: ¥19,998.00Interest: Daily 1% compound interest (watch your debt grow in real time!)
Late Payment Consequence: Your daughter may lose property rights to her home ♥
"Intergalactic loan shark…" Lu Jin whispered, jaw tight.
Two buttons slid into place at the bottom of the screen:
[Activate Now] / [Cruelly Decline]
His Adam's apple bobbed. He stared at the words daily 1% compound interest, then jabbed his thumb hard.
[Cruelly Decline]
The ad snapped shut with a cheery chime, returning him to the screaming storm.
[Your rational decision has been recorded.][This system wishes you and your cloud-raised girl the best of luck.]
Shield integrity numbers plunged like a broken elevator.
[Shield integrity: 4%… 3%…]
Another crystal shard sliced through the thinning barrier, grazing Li Xing's shoulder. The impact flung her sideways, her back slamming into the pod wall. All color drained from her face. She could only curl smaller, as if that would make her harder to hit.
"Dammit—"
Lu Jin bit down hard, fingers creaking.
[Shield integrity: 2%…]
The screen flashed again. A new window slammed on top, brighter and more aggressive than the last, dimming the storm behind it.
[Detected: Host refused upgrade in extreme danger scenario.]
In accordance with Cloud Ward Life Maintenance Regulations, Article 13, this system will now offer you one last chance to regret your life choices.
[God-Tier Exclusive Installment Plan – Final Confirmation]
Down Payment: ¥10,000.00Remaining Balance: ¥19,998.00Interest: Daily 1% compound interest (compounding is fun!)
Special Clause:If you refuse again, it will be considered voluntary abandonment of your cloud ward's rescue rights.Should she die in this disaster, the system will provide no further compensation.
A countdown pulsed at the bottom.
[Final Decision Timer: 3… 2…]
"You threatening me now?" Lu Jin laughed, but it was a raw, broken sound.
Wind howl, crystal impacts, and the system's shrill beeps tangled in his ears. On-screen, Li Xing huddled against the wall, a tiny, shaking shadow being swallowed by the storm.
[1…]
"I'll pay!"
The words were ripped out of him.
He slammed his thumb onto the Down Payment button.
He couldn't empty his accounts. In the real world, he still needed money for medicine, for emergencies. Keeping a reserve was keeping a last escape route.
Even if that route was now paved with compound interest and debt.
Ding.
[Down Payment Successful! ¥10,000.00 deducted. Current Balance: ¥21,247.00][Congratulations, you are now officially underwater! Your first interest tick will arrive in 23:59:59. Please repay on time ♥]
In the corner of the interface, a blood-red character for "Debt" flickered into existence, followed by a number ticking in angry crimson: –¥19,998.00.
Lu Jin didn't bother looking.
His eyes were glued to the wasteland.
The Crystal Storm hit its peak.
The camping pod's fragile shield finally gave out with a crystalline shriek. It shattered into light and vanished.
The ice-blue shards smelled the opening.
They came down in a solid wall.
Li Xing squeezed her eyes shut.
BOOM.
A low, crushing impact drowned out the storm.
The ground jumped under her. She felt herself lifted off the floor for a heartbeat before slamming back down. Fear tore her eyes open again.
A gigantic black shadow loomed over her.
A matte-black metal cube had slammed down where the pod had stood, cracking the frozen ground in every direction. It looked like a solid chunk of night ripped out of the sky and dropped on the wasteland.
Clack—shhh—
Hydraulic actuators snarled to life.
The cube unfolded.
Panels slid, gears locked, plates rotated and swiveled. Thick armor segments layered over each other like a steel flower blooming in reverse, slapping away crystalline shrapnel without a care.
The storm screamed against it.
The bunker only hummed.
In less than three seconds, a forty-square-meter fortress stood where the fragile pod had been—a monolithic black stronghold squatting in the middle of the storm.
Li Xing sat in the center of it all, speechless.
Hell raged outside.
In here… was silence.
She reached out with scarred, dirty fingers and pressed them to the nearest wall.
Cold. Hard. Solid.
Real.
Not a dream.
Inside, warm yellow light snapped on overhead.
A neatly tied "Cozy Home Starter Pack" dropped out of thin air onto the floor. Li Xing flinched back like it might explode, then inched forward, untying the bundle with shaking hands.
A rug.
A narrow bedframe.
A mattress. A pillow. A thick duvet.
She moved like someone handling holy relics, laying the rug out perfectly straight, setting up the little single bed, fluffing the pillow and carefully smoothing the duvet.
She hesitated a long time before slipping off her grimy shoes.
Bare feet, she stepped onto the rug.
Soft.
Her toes curled instinctively, sinking into the fabric.
Then she crawled into the bed.
The mattress cradled her weight. The pillow held her head. The duvet hugged her shoulders.
Too soft.
So soft it felt cruel.
She curled up around the pillow, listening to the muted thumps of the storm outside, feeling the absolute quiet, the absolute safety, inside these walls.
Something unfamiliar welled up in her chest.
Something that hurt worse than cold and hunger.
She sat up, slid off the bed, and padded barefoot to the corner where she knew his gaze came from—the invisible "eye" of the Listener.
She stared up at it for a long moment, lips trembling. Then she forced the words out, barely louder than the storm outside.
"Thank you… for my… home."
A flush crept up her cheeks as soon as she said it, as if she'd confessed something shameful.
On the other side of the screen, Lu Jin felt his heart lurch like someone had poured boiling water over ice.
He looked from the girl on the display—this stubborn, blood-smeared, kneeling idiot—to the numbers on his banking app: just over twenty thousand left.
Then to the glaring red Debt icon, and the negative balance attached.
Somehow, the deal still didn't feel that bad.
Whrrr—
A new glow rose from his phone—golden, gentle, and warm. Not the scorching flood of battle, not the dizzy rush of worship, but a slow, soaking heat.
Like sinking into a hot spring after being frozen for years.
It seeped into his limbs, his bones, deeper—into the very places his genes had been rotting away.
["Home" Grade Holy Resonance Nourishment Received.][Progression of Sequence Collapse Syndrome: Temporarily locked.][Life Countdown: Paused.][Current Status: D (Stable).]
Lu Jin let out a long breath he didn't realize he'd been holding.
For the first time in months, the future wasn't a cliff labeled "tomorrow."
He might actually live past it.
He leaned his head back against the damp alley wall and closed his eyes for a moment, letting the warmth work its way through every brittle corner inside him.
When he opened them again and straightened up to leave, a new alarm blinked across his vision.
Not from Deep Space Echo.
From the bunker.
[Blackstone Bunker – External Radar Online]
A schematic map unfolded, centered on Li Xing's new "home." Two signals pulsed on the edge of the circle, closing in fast from opposite sides.
One green. One red.
[External Radar]
Green Marker (Friendly) Distance: 1.2 kmIdentity: Wandering Engineer "Old Whistle"
Red Marker (Unknown) Distance: 800 mSignal Pattern: Suspected "Crystal Beast Pack"
The breath he'd just relaxed snapped tight again in his chest.
On the feed, Li Xing was back on the bed, hugging her pillow, whispering to the empty air:
"I have a home now… will you come and see it?"
She didn't know that outside her door, salvation and disaster were racing each other—
To see which one would knock first.