Reborn with a Space: Hoarding Food and Raising My Kid

By the time Flora Bloom woke up naturally, it was already dark. The small study’s window had no curtains. She looked out at the sky—forget the Moon, there wasn’t even a single Star to be seen tonight. The sky seemed to be covered in thick, dark clouds, obscuring what would have been a clear, moonlit, starry night.

"AH! Pervert!" Suddenly, Lisa’s scream came from the other room. Flora Bloom shot out of bed and rushed into the adjacent room.

"Lisa, what’s wrong?"

"Flora, someone was peeping through the window!"

"Did you get a good look at them?" Flora Bloom asked calmly, seeing Lisa’s nervous face.

"No, just a dark shadow. It disappeared in an instant. It was right there by the bed, watching us."

At that moment, Caleb was also frowning as he looked out the window, a strange expression on his little face. He looked at Flora Bloom and said, "Sister, that person was here for you!"

"Huh?"

"I heard him say your name. But then he suddenly disappeared."

’He said my name? So, this pervert’s target was me?’ Flora Bloom analyzed this internally, frowning as she pulled the two little ones out of the room. Caleb Bloom and Jade, hearing the commotion, rushed over. After hearing the full story, they too grew uneasy.

Although they were free from the threat of zombie attacks inside the base, the thought of a pervert on the prowl late at night was hardly reassuring. Especially since they had just arrived—who on earth would climb the walls in the middle of the night to find her?

She knew what Caleb was capable of. He had once sensed Sherman Lynch’s call for help from a great distance; his spiritual power was likely extremely strong in life-sensing and mental control.

Flora Bloom had originally planned to take her team out to hunt for Crystal Cores in a few days before moving to the villa district. But after this incident, it seemed the move was now urgent.

This person could scale walls to the fourth floor with agile movements. Caleb was already a Level 3 Spiritual Ability User. Strictly speaking, his spiritual power was on par with hers, yet even he hadn’t detected this person, only catching a faint glimpse of a silhouette at the end.

As long as this hidden danger lurked in the shadows, she could never truly feel at ease.

"Mom, Dad, wait here. I’m going to find Morgan Sterling. I’ll be right back."

Flora Bloom walked toward the villa district alone. After dark, the base’s paths were nearly empty of pedestrians. She arrived at the entrance to the villa district and asked the guard to report to Morgan Sterling, and it wasn’t long before she received a response.

"Miss Bloom, the leader invites you to come in."

Flora Bloom wandered through the villa district for a while and noticed that apart from a few lit-up houses, the rest of the villas were unoccupied. She figured that at a cost of ten thousand Crystal Cores a month, not many people could afford it.

Entering Morgan Sterling’s villa, she found the bright, spacious hall to be a comfortable sight. ’Villas really are better,’ she thought. ’Good lighting, plenty of space, and much quieter and safer.’

As she walked in, a man in a sharp suit with slicked-back hair was standing before Morgan Sterling, seemingly giving a report. If Caleb Bloom and Cynthia Grant had been there, they would have recognized him at a glance—it was Chester Sawyer, the man who had tried to sell them a house the other day.

Flora Bloom recognized him too. He was the man who had been with the Level 3 Earth Ability User during the confrontation between their two groups in the early morning. He was also a Second Level Earth Ability User.

"Flora, what took you so long?"

Flora Bloom rolled her eyes at him and unceremoniously plopped down on the sofa beside him. She certainly wasn’t going to tell him she was late because she’d taken a stroll through the villa district and already picked out a house she liked.

"Your base isn’t safe. I want to move."

Morgan Sterling said, "Oh?" Then, "What happened?"

"Someone climbed the wall to my place to peep on us! The houses in this base don’t even have curtains, and the window locks are broken! My group has a lot of women—and beautiful women, at that. It’s completely unsafe for us!"

Morgan Sterling chuckled and explained, "It’s true. Only the villa district has superpower-user guards on patrol. The other three residential areas are a mixed bag. But you have to understand, you get the security you pay for. That’s why not just anyone can live in my villa district."

Flora Bloom gave a noncommittal shrug. "That’s why I came to you!"

"Oh? You want to move into a house in the villa district?"

"That’s right. And it has to be tonight."

"Perfect timing. The person in charge of housing allocation is right here. Chester Sawyer, take Miss Bloom to get registered. Once she pays the Crystal Cores, she can move in."

As soon as Morgan Sterling finished speaking, Flora Bloom stared at Chester Sawyer. "Aren’t you one of the Level 3 Earth Ability User’s men? What are you doing here with him?"

Chester Sawyer glanced at Morgan Sterling, looking slightly embarrassed. Only after Morgan Sterling nodded did he turn to Flora Bloom with a smile.

"Miss Bloom, I’ve heard so much about you."

Flora Bloom pursed her lips. "For how long? I haven’t even been at the base for two days."

Chester Sawyer was at a loss for words and decided to change the subject. "Well, Miss Bloom, since you want to move, I assume you’re aware of the prices in the villa district. It’s too late to register tonight. If you trust me, how about you give me the ten thousand Crystal Cores now, and come back to register tomorrow?"

Flora Bloom glanced at Chester Sawyer. For some reason, the man radiated the aura of a shady businessman the moment he spoke; his expression was utterly repulsive.

"I don’t trust you."

"Er..."

"But if *you* trust *me*, how about we move in tonight, and I give you the Crystal Cores before dark tomorrow?" She glanced at Morgan Sterling beside her. "Or I could just deliver the Crystal Cores directly to Leader Sterling."

"What? That’s against the rules!" Chester Sawyer looked anxiously at Morgan Sterling for guidance. Morgan Sterling simply raised a hand, signaling for him to be quiet.

"Flora, cooperation is one thing, but when it comes to the villa district, even the other two base leaders have to pay monthly. I can give you a friends-and-family discount, though. Twenty percent off. Eight thousand Crystal Cores, and you can move your people in tonight."

Flora Bloom frowned and had to admit, "It’s not that I don’t have them, but I need those Crystal Cores for upgrading at the moment. Just give me one day. Before dark tomorrow, I will deliver all eight thousand Crystal Cores."

Morgan Sterling fell silent. ’If I let them move in, and they don’t pay up, can I really bring myself to fall out with them and kick them out? And honestly, forget eight thousand Crystal Cores—I doubt they could even scrape together one thousand in a week.’

The Crystal Cores in his warehouse were the result of ten squads clearing out zombie hordes every day for over a month. That, plus the monthly Crystal Core income from the four residential areas, was how he’d amassed such a stockpile.

How could he possibly believe the nonsense this young woman was spouting about gathering eight thousand Crystal Cores in a single day?

He had originally thought that Flora Bloom—beautiful, decisive, and partnered with a little Thunder Element white tiger—would be an excellent partner. But now, he suddenly felt he might have miscalculated.

This Flora Bloom seemed to boast without thinking. Disregarding the little white tiger’s strength, she was just an ordinary Water Ability User. He had gone so far as to offend the two other major powers in the base to win her over, and now it seemed it might not have been worth it.

Chester Sawyer, who had been silent for a long moment to the side, suddenly seemed to remember something. He looked up and met Flora Bloom’s gaze.

"Miss Bloom, if you’re really short on Crystal Cores but still want to live in the villa district, there is actually another way."

At Chester Sawyer’s words, Flora Bloom’s eyes lit up, but the expression on Morgan Sterling’s face changed.