"Flora, is that Captain Cross interested in you?"

Jade was in the very back row of the SUV, feeding Caleb some rice paste mixed with milk. Flora Bloom had taken these items from her space. There were also bread, bananas, and water, which would serve as everyone’s breakfast.

Flora didn’t answer her mother, simply keeping her eyes closed in the front passenger seat. But then Caleb Bloom spoke up too.

"Yeah, I agree. I think that Lex Cross is interested in you too. He even gave you a military vehicle like this. If we weren’t going to look for your brother, going to Argent with them would have been a good option."

"I think we have it good right now. We have a car, our own group, and no worries about eating or drinking. It’s great, isn’t it?"

Ethan Monroe mumbled, chewing on a piece of bread.

"A place like Argent is a den of wolves. The world isn’t what it used to be. If we went, there’s no guarantee we could live in peace. In fact, we’d probably be under strict control. We’re freer by not going to Argent."

Flora completely agreed with Neal Wallace.

Shelters were the prototype for the later base cities. The one in Argent was the first shelter the country established. At first, everyone who arrived there thought they were finally safe, that they could go back to their normal lives.

In the beginning, the leadership of the City of Argent would distribute supplies to the commoners to meet their basic needs. But as the apocalypse wore on, supply lines from the major food production bases and factories were severed. Food grew scarcer and scarcer, and there was nowhere near enough to provide for everyone.

The only people who could eat their fill were the top-level leaders controlling the base city, or the superpowered individuals who had awakened their abilities and could fight zombies by themselves.

When the superpowered discovered the base’s provisions were insufficient for them to live on and enhance their powers, most chose to leave.

Most of the superpowered would form alliances with a few people they knew and go out to hunt zombies or powerful undead creatures, like zombie cows. It wasn’t just a faster way to get Zombie Crystal Cores; they could also trade the Crystal Cores with the base for more food. It was far better than living in the base city, surviving on handouts.

"Mr. Wallace is right," Flora said. "We aren’t short on food, and we have a vehicle and the strength to defend ourselves. We don’t need to go to Argent to live under someone else’s thumb."

Flora knew that feeling all too well—waiting for handouts while constantly worrying about being attacked or having your food stolen. It was a bitterness she never wanted to taste again.

"Mom, Dad, I’m going to rest for a while. Wake me up if anything happens."

Caleb Bloom had once been a drill instructor for new recruits at the Sinia City military base before retiring due to an injury and staying home. He was still an expert driver, though, and kept the car steady the entire way.

Flora, feeling at ease, let her consciousness enter her space.

She had been in a coma for three days and nights after saving her mother, and she’d been busy running around ever since she woke up. She was stunned to find that she hadn’t noticed it before: in the two plots of dark soil by the river, all sorts of crops were ready for a bountiful harvest.

Flora thought about it. ’It’s only been about seven days since I planted the seeds.’

On one side of the river, she saw green peppers, string beans, eggplants, tomatoes, celtuce—all her favorite vegetables. Every plant was laden with plump, ripe produce.

The other side was covered in golden wheat. From Flora’s perspective, it was a vast, glittering expanse. The heads of wheat were so heavy they drooped down to the soil, filling Flora with a profound sense of security.

To keep the produce from spoiling, Flora used her spiritual power to harvest everything. She placed some of it in the farmhouse courtyard, but there was so much that she had to put the rest on the empty ground outside.

Her space was piled high with the harvest from a few plots of land, making Flora’s heart bloom with joy.

Flora had wanted to sow more seeds, but one look at her space told her there was almost no room left to store anything. If she harvested another batch, she definitely wouldn’t be able to fit it all.

So, she gave up the idea of planting again. She just watered a few fruit saplings with some spiritual water and tidied up the farmhouse courtyard, inside and out, before withdrawing her consciousness.

After all, this was the apocalypse; they could run into danger at any moment.

Flora’s current mood was a mix of happiness and melancholy. Her space was just too full; she couldn’t bring in any more supplies or evolved creatures. In terms of both its size and its unique Spiritual Energy, Flora had the faint feeling that she’d hit a bottleneck.

’I wonder if the space can be expanded?’

She recalled her previous attempts to probe the boundaries of her space. But she’d had no luck, whether on the far side of the farmhouse courtyard or at either end of the small river.

’Logically, a river has to have an upstream and a downstream, right? But while the water in this small river of inexhaustible spiritual water flowed from one direction, its source was shrouded in a thick fog. When she tried to approach it, she found she couldn’t enter, as if she were just walking in place.’

It was the same with the boundary on the far side of the farmhouse courtyard.

’Maybe I need to make this fog disappear to expand the space. I wonder what could possibly disperse it?’ But as for how to actually do that, Flora didn’t have the slightest clue.

Her gaze fell on the satellite communicator lying inside the farmhouse’s thatched hut, and she grew pensive.

’Lex Cross seems to know a lot about my space. Maybe I should find a chance to ask him about it?’

Flora quickly suppressed the thought. The moment she thought of Lex Cross, she couldn’t help but remember this morning’s kiss. And at that thought, her heart couldn’t help but race. This wasn’t how she should be feeling right now.

By now, the six of them had been driving along suburban back roads for nearly three or four hours. Aside from a brief stop for water, they had all been silent.

Since it was a back road that few people normally used, they hadn’t encountered any zombies or other creatures.

Flora looked over at her father, who was still full of energy. ’It must be because he drank my Space Spirit Water,’ she thought. ’Even after driving for so long, he doesn’t seem tired at all.’

Half an hour later, the back road finally merged onto National Highway 320, which connected to the provincial highway.

Wrecked vehicles that had come to an abrupt stop began to appear in their view. At first, there was still enough room for their SUV to pass, but gradually, the number of stalled cars ahead increased until it was impossible to drive any further.

"Dad, stop the car. That section up ahead looks like it was a traffic jam before the apocalypse hit. We can’t get through."

Caleb Bloom pulled the car over and switched off the engine.

"Flora, what do we do now?"

Jade stared nervously out the window. The road was empty aside from the broken-down cars, but the eerie silence only made her more anxious. She was terrified a zombie, or another monster like the one from last night, would suddenly pop out of nowhere.

Seeing her mother’s anxious expression, Flora smiled. "Don’t worry, Mom. We’ll find a way through."

Flora pulled out her phone. The signal was spotty, but the navigation app still managed to load. She quickly took a screenshot of the map and began planning the best route to Morhaven.

"Flora, we have to cross a whole province to get to Morhaven from here," Neal Wallace said as he leaned over to look at the navigation app in her hand. "The highway is the fastest and safest route."

Flora had thought so too, but if every highway was this clogged, they could be in trouble. If they were unlucky enough to run into a massive traffic jam, there might even be a small horde of zombies.

In their group, only Flora and Neal Wallace had superpowers. Their only weapons were a few fire axes and paring knives. If they ran into Second Level zombies, ordinary blades like these wouldn’t even be able to scratch them.

Flora zoomed in and out on the map, studying it intently. Suddenly, an idea struck her.

’Morhaven is surrounded by the sea on three sides. We don’t have to travel by land!’

She slapped her forehead in a moment of sudden realization and turned to her father, Caleb Bloom.

"Dad, can you pilot a boat?"

Caleb Bloom wasn’t sure why his daughter was suddenly asking him this, but he knew they were discussing how to get to Morhaven, so he figured she must have an idea. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"When I was an officer, your old man was a jack of all trades. From flying things in the sky to submarines in the sea, I could handle it all. It’s just... I haven’t touched any of that stuff since I was injured and retired."