Chapter 002: Time and Space

Looking at the enormous pile of red crystals in her soul-bound space, Yun Xi fell into deep thought. The path she would walk in this life… would have to be entirely re-planned.

Putting aside the mission to kill the destroyers of the Divine Clan—that was not something she could even consider at her current stage.

But one thing was certain: she couldn’t be too flashy.

She understood well the saying, “a treasure makes one guilty.” In her previous life, even some minor treasures she obtained attracted countless greedy eyes—let alone this treasure vault.

If she started flaunting her wealth and attracted the attention of the “destroyers” before she had grown strong enough, even with the ability to resurrect infinitely, she might be done for in this life.

After all, who knew whether the destroyers had ways to counter divine artifacts?

…

After sorting out her thoughts, Yun Xi reviewed her memories again.

As time passed, her expression grew more and more rigid. Something was off—why did a set of unfamiliar memories suddenly appear in her mind?

But undeniably, those memories were also hers—more precisely, they belonged to the Yun Xi of this timeline.

In Yun Xi’s original timeline, her parents had died in a car accident two years ago, leaving her a house in their hometown and a bank account with 100,000 yuan.

Relying on that money, she entered university. Around her sophomore year, Divine Fall Continent launched.

Her life before entering the game had been extremely ordinary.

However, the Yun Xi of this timeline had lived a life of twists and turns.

Two years ago, her “parents” also died in a car crash—but in this timeline, those were her adoptive parents.

Not long after, her biological parents appeared, confirmed by a DNA test. She was recognized as the real daughter of the prestigious Yun family in City A—switched at birth.

From that moment on, her life changed drastically. She was showered with luxury, treated like royalty, and granted a life of wealth and comfort.

But there was a catch: as a wealthy heiress, she had to fulfill an arranged marriage. Within a year, her parents had already betrothed her to the eldest son of another prominent family in City A.

Up until that point, things still seemed relatively normal—until the fiancé’s family suddenly fell into ruin.

Not long ago, both his parents died in an accident. The young heir, apparently traumatized, began frantically selling off all the family assets.

Just like that, the fiancé’s once-powerful family crumbled.

Her profit-driven biological parents panicked and immediately forced Yun Xi to break off the engagement.

This timeline’s Yun Xi had suffered deeply from the death of her adoptive parents, and that made her value familial bonds intensely.

Thus, she obediently followed her biological parents’ wishes and broke off the engagement without much hesitation.

Coincidentally, that breakup happened just yesterday.

And the memories stopped there.

Yun Xi took a deep breath. This whole plot… felt very familiar.

Not only did it involve the switched-at-birth trope, but also… she now seemed to be the “ex-fiancée side character” in a cliché breakup drama.

What was worse, she knew who the male lead was—very well.

Gu Shi’an. In her previous life, he had been one of her dearest friends in Divine Fall Continent. They used to fight monsters and level up together all the time.

Now that she thought about how he’d suddenly sold off all his assets… could it be that he had been reborn too?

Yun Xi shook her head. The more pressing issue right now wasn’t Gu Shi’an, but tomorrow’s server launch of Divine Fall Continent.

Besides, the Rebirth Divine Stone hadn’t brought her back to her original timeline.

So… did that mean the future was no longer fixed?

…

After getting up and freshening up, Yun Xi formally applied for an extended leave of absence from her advisor and counselor.

The Divine Fall Continent beta would last ten days—she had no time to attend class.

More importantly, logging into Divine Fall Continent meant entering it with her real body—taking leave was necessary.

Once everything was arranged, she packed a few things and left campus, catching a taxi home.

From this timeline’s memories, she learned that although her biological parents favored the “fake daughter” Yun Linlin more, they still treated her decently in material terms.

To make her school life easier, they had bought her a luxury apartment near campus where she could stay on weekends.

She received a fixed 50,000 yuan monthly allowance, and they sent gifts for her birthdays and major holidays—gold, silver, jade, you name it.

Unlike the Yun Xi of this timeline, the reborn Yun Xi felt no emotional attachment to her biological parents.

After all, she had lived ten more years than her counterpart and could clearly see the cold indifference behind their superficial kindness.

Sure, Yun Linlin had sowed discord between them, but at the core, her parents simply didn’t love Yun Xi.

They took her back, gave her material comfort, and betrothed her off—all for the sake of Yun family’s reputation and political alliances.

Yun Linlin, the “fake daughter,” received similar treatment. But unlike Yun Xi, her engagement was to her childhood sweetheart, and she welcomed it gladly.

As for Yun Xi herself, there were only two people she truly cared about, both across lifetimes: her childhood friend Yu Jinxiang, and her university roommate Tu Jiao Jiao.

In her previous life, Yu Jinxiang was tragically lost during the first major disaster after Blue Star merged with Divine Fall Continent.

Tu Jiao Jiao, however, had stuck by Yun Xi’s side for a long time, until she encountered danger during a special solo mission.

Yun Xi had made other friends later on, but these two were different. They represented her peaceful, pre-apocalypse life.

Now that she had been reborn, she would give them a few key warnings at the right time. But she couldn’t do more than that.

If she didn’t have the treasure vault, she might’ve taken more risks. But with the destroyers of the Divine Clan potentially watching, Yun Xi had to be extremely cautious.

Survival came first. She had to lie low and couldn’t afford to act “too different.”

As for those two friends, neither too close nor too distant was just right. Checking in occasionally would be enough.

If she got too close, she might bring harm to them.

…

Time flew by, and the taxi arrived at the gates of her apartment complex.

Back home, she did a quick cleanup and went to the supermarket to buy easy-to-stock food supplies.

She still remembered how, after the full fusion of Blue Star and Divine Fall Continent, all food resources on Earth were corrupted by “Miasma.”

This life, she refused to suffer the same hardships again.

At the very least, she had to acquire a Cooking subclass.

Her soul-bound space was completely filled with red crystals, leaving no room for anything else. So she had to store all her food in the guest bedroom, filling it wall-to-wall.

Until the fusion with Divine Fall Continent occurred, she likely wouldn’t have time to cook anyway—instant food would be her main sustenance.