In the summer of 2143, the apocalypse suddenly descended.

Multiple coastal economic regions, including Xiangcheng and Lanshi, were successively destroyed by super tsunamis. Frequent earthquakes and flood breaches submerged most of Yue Province into a vast water world.

For half a month, torrential rains relentlessly poured down, raising the water levels on land to the height of a ten-story building. Official rescue efforts couldn’t keep up, and everyone struggled to survive.

Pei Hao, who was studying at a university in Huacheng, Yue Province, was on a boat with his classmates Luo Yihui, Fang Hao, Ding Jiacheng, and Luo Yihui’s girlfriend, He Jingjing. They had found an old exhibition motorboat in a water sports shop near the university town. Together, they set out in search of land and aid, but after more than ten days, they had found nothing.

The continuous natural disasters had drastically altered the landscape, and geomagnetic storms had rendered their wristband signals useless. They couldn’t contact family or rescue teams, nor could they use navigation to find a suitable resting place.

In the first few days, they managed to find food and bottled water, but after several earthquakes, buildings collapsed on a large scale, and sinking structures contaminated the water sources with nuclear plant leaks. Even the rainwater became undrinkable.

The group of five was on the brink of running out of food and water, and Pei Hao was injured while rescuing someone during their transfer.

Without treatment, his wound festered and became infected, causing a high fever that wouldn’t subside. Pei Hao, who had always thought of his classmates as friends, never expected them to turn on him. Despite their camaraderie and the risks he took to save them and scavenge supplies, they treated him with disdain and irritation once he was injured.

Three days ago, they had even tricked him into taking a sleeping pill!

Since then, they had left him to fend for himself, never giving him any food or clean water. They knocked him out whenever he showed signs of waking, always on guard, fearing he might retaliate.

As time passed, Pei Hao learned to feign unconsciousness, waiting for the right moment to escape these ungrateful, treacherous people.

But Luo Yihui, the sly one who pretended to be righteous, was already eager to get rid of him!

When they forcibly dragged him to the edge of the boat, Pei Hao struggled with all his might, but the long period of high fever and hunger had drained his strength, making it impossible for him to break free.

After a moment of weightlessness, Pei Hao plunged into the icy floodwaters.

The stench and pollution engulfed him instantly, and the underwater currents pulled him down like a descent into hell.

As he looked up at the motorboat, he saw the four of them trying to open his suitcase. Luo Yihui noticed Pei Hao’s gaze and, instead of showing guilt, flashed him a triumphant, mocking smile.

Despair filled Pei Hao’s heart, and regret gnawed at him like a venomous serpent.

He should never have saved these people. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t be facing death at the hands of traitorous snakes!

His parents and siblings were still waiting for him at home. He hadn’t even held his newborn nephew yet, and he hadn’t completed the task of transferring the family records. How could he die in such a humiliating, helpless way?

Pei Hao clawed at the debris in the water, desperately trying to find something to hold onto. As the dirty floodwater covered his face, he seemed to see a strange phenomenon in the sky.

The dark clouds that had blocked out the sun for half a month suddenly parted as if pierced by some force. A beam of sunlight poured down from above the clouds, brightening the sky in an instant. As the wind and clouds swirled, something invisible hurtled down from the heavens with unstoppable momentum!

Pei Hao couldn’t see what happened next because the flood had completely swallowed him. Holding his breath only provided brief relief, and as the icy, muddy water surged into his mouth, he coughed painfully, struggling to keep the dirty water out of his lungs.

Just as he was about to give up, a warm force suddenly lifted him, gently but swiftly bringing him to the surface.

The moment he felt fresh air again, Pei Hao reflexively coughed up the floodwater he had swallowed. Exhausted, he slipped into unconsciousness, too weary to discern whether he was alive or dead.

Even as he passed out, the last flicker of his consciousness clung to one thought, muttering faintly, “Suitcase…”

On the motorboat, the four people stared in disbelief at Pei Hao, who was now floating in midair. They screamed in terror, retreating to a corner of the boat.

“What’s happening?!”

“He actually pulled himself out of the water?!”

Ding Jiacheng, the bespectacled boy with the weakest nerve, trembled all over, his teeth chattering as he guessed, “Is he some kind of vengeful ghost, or did he suddenly develop superpowers?”

The burly Fang Hao, not one to believe in the supernatural, jumped up and angrily refuted, “He’s only been in the water for a short time! There’s no way he’s dead yet! He must have some high-tech protective device on him! We can’t let him survive. We have to finish him off today!”

As he spoke, he picked up a fist-sized rock and used a slingshot to shoot it at Pei Hao, trying to damage what he believed was an invisible “protective device.”

The speeding rock hit Yun Zhen’s fingers, feeling like a small grain of sand brushing lightly against her.

There was no significant pain, but it was enough to snap her out of her long daze.

Coming to her senses, Yun Zhen frowned, feeling a strong aversion to this impulsive and greedy young man. She reached into the bookshelf with her other hand, grabbed Fang Hao, and tossed him into the water. Then, without hesitation, she did the same to the other three, flinging them overboard with a flick of her wrist.

“Ah—!”

“Help! There’s a monster! Pei Hao is definitely not normal!”

The four who had fallen into the flood screamed in panic, thrashing desperately as they swam towards the nearby buildings.

The murky water hid sharp debris that soon left them covered in cuts.

Streaks of red began to bloom on the water’s surface, and Yun Zhen watched coldly, showing no intention of mercy or further intervention.

She gently placed Pei Hao on the motorboat, which now only held his suitcase, and pushed the boat in the direction outside the bookshelf.

As for the four struggling to survive in the flood?

Traitors who repay kindness with cruelty deserved to stay in the ruins. If good deeds weren’t rewarded, then she would take it upon herself to uphold justice.

As the motorboat moved along the river, the scene within the bookshelf shifted accordingly.

The boat remained at the center of the scene, not moving out of the bookshelf as Yun Zhen had expected.

It was like a character controlled by the player in an online game, always centered on the screen. Even when reaching the edge of the map, the character couldn’t leave the screen and enter the real world.

Yun Zhen was puzzled, once again troubled by the question of what was real and what was not.

She pushed the motorboat as far as she could, then withdrew her hand and quietly observed the boundary between the bookshelf and the scene.

Amazingly, although the floodwaters within the scene were turbulent, not a single drop splashed out of the bookshelf, as if an invisible barrier completely sealed it off.

Yet, the yellowish-brown water stains were clearly visible on her hands and the floor, undeniable proof of their presence.

What exactly was this so-called Time-Space Interaction System?

The miniature scene in the bookshelf, and those tiny people no bigger than her finger—were they real or just an illusion?

Yun Zhen thought of the classic novel “Gulliver’s Travels”, and the many stories of tiny civilizations that had emerged in novels, animations, and other media since the advent of animation technology.

They say that art imitates life but elevates it—could it be that the tiny people truly existed?

As a novelist with two years of experience, Yun Zhen was usually quick to accept anything novel and strange… or so she wished!

Oh my god! Real tiny people were appearing in her bookshelf!

Living, tiny, real beings!

Yun Zhen’s heart pounded like a drum, and she felt both excited and lost.

With something so incredible appearing in her ordinary life, how was she supposed to handle it?