HUN Chapter 4: The Cheat Space

After returning to the apartment, Aliya's breathing gradually steadied as she fell into a deep sleep.

Since his rebirth, Lin Yu'an had been restless, with a strange perception that lingered around him, sometimes distinct, sometimes vague.

He came to the living room and sat on the sofa, closed his eyes, and tried to "touch" that space.

After continuous attempts, with a slight movement of his thoughts, the water cup on the coffee table suddenly disappeared! It vanished into thin air!

Lin Yu'an's eyes snapped open, yet he could clearly sense that the water cup was quietly floating in the center of that "space" he perceived.

With another thought, the water cup appeared out of nowhere back on the coffee table where his gaze rested.

"Can I store things with my mind?"

Lin Yu'an couldn't hide his excitement. He looked at an apple on the table, concentrated on "sensing" the apple's round shape, and with a mental command, the apple also disappeared, lying quietly in the space.

Next, he noticed a lost ladybug on the windowsill. With a thought, he focused his attention on the ladybug's tiny body, and it instantly disappeared into the space.

But when he retrieved the ladybug after a few seconds, it was motionless, its tiny legs rigidly curled up, already lifeless.

Lin Yu'an frowned slightly, put on his clothes and went downstairs to test several more times. Whether it was moths, small ants, or caterpillars, once they entered the space and came back out, without exception, they all became corpses.

"Living things going in... die?"

Back in the apartment, he tried focusing his attention on a bookshelf farther away, attempting to store a book in the space, but found no response.

He walked forward a few steps and tried again, still nothing. Only when he walked to the bookshelf, less than two meters from the book, sensing the book's rectangular outline and willing it with his mind, did the book successfully enter the space.

"The range is about two meters."

Lin Yu'an pondered thoughtfully, trying to collect some miscellaneous items from a cardboard box in the corner whose specific shapes he couldn't see clearly, but the space showed no response.

"And I must clearly know what the thing looks like."

Lin Yu'an slowly sorted through these key points: he could store inanimate objects, but living things would die. He could control storage with his mind, the range was about two meters, and he needed clear perception of shapes.

At this moment, he felt both excitement from gaining this ability and fear of this golden finger. He couldn't understand what this thing actually was.

He speculated it might be related to the shipping container that crushed him in his previous life, because through exploration, he sensed that this space was exactly the size of a shipping container.

He was also thinking about what this sudden "golden finger" could bring him.

Although he had now become a "hero" in the news, he felt no joy at this moment.

Only deep troubles and anxiety about the future. Right now he needed money, a lot of money!

Aliya's pregnancy nutrition, prenatal checkups, future delivery costs, formula and diapers for the children... and they needed a stable, safe home, not this cramped apartment.

So he still had many things to do: protect Aliya and the children, complete his graduation thesis, work hard to earn money to support the family.

After brief consideration, he determined that making money was now the top priority.

As for asking his family for money?

Lin Yu'an smiled bitterly, recalling how from his teens he had to handle household chores, grocery shopping, cooking, and various odd jobs.

Everything prioritized his younger brother. He once suspected he wasn't their biological child, and after secretly doing a DNA paternity test, the results were clear.

He began planning to escape this family. After the college entrance exam, he secretly applied to Texas Tech University. Although this school ranked outside the top 800 in QS rankings, with his grades he could apply for a full scholarship, so he resolutely applied to this school.

Eventually he successfully gained admission to Texas Tech University, escaped that family, and obtained a full scholarship.

Lin Yu'an pulled back his thoughts. He had to get money in a short time to ensure his and Aliya's life together.

Although Aliya had expressed more than once that she didn't want him to work so hard at those poorly paid part-time jobs, they could figure out ways together to get through future difficulties.

But when Lin Yu'an thought of everything from his previous life, he couldn't bear to let Aliya suffer any hardship with him. He only hoped that in this life, Aliya could live peacefully and happily.

Although in his previous life Lin Yu'an couldn't psychologically move past the shadow of losing Aliya, physically he wasn't a pure love warrior who remained chaste.

But at this moment in this life, he told himself he must take on a man's responsibilities. For Aliya and his children, he must work hard to find ways to make money!

Now with this space, should he really learn from movies and smuggle some contraband? The thought was immediately extinguished.

Setting aside the risks, the nine years of compulsory education he received didn't allow him to make dirty money through conscience-violating drug dealing, much less allow him to tarnish that red faith!

But if not contraband, what could allow him to legally make money quickly as an individual?

The more he thought, the more confused he became. Lin Yu'an turned on the TV and casually flipped through channels.

Suddenly, a promotional clip full of primitive atmosphere and tense rhythm caught his attention.

The screen showed vast wilderness, steep peaks, rushing rivers, and lonely figures struggling to survive within them.

The narrator introduced with highly provocative tone:

"Ten top survival experts, dropped into Earth's harshest environments! No film crew, no companions, only themselves and ten pieces of survival equipment! You will face hunger, cold, predators, and endless solitude alone! Whoever can persist to the end wins... a million-dollar grand prize! 'Alone' Season 8, global recruitment closing soon! Do you dare to challenge?"

One million dollars!

These four words hammered heavily on Lin Yu'an's heart!

His breathing instantly became rapid!

"Alone"! How had he not thought of this! He was a loyal viewer of this show! This was a reality show that extremely tested survival skills and willpower, and the prize money was indeed frighteningly high.

In his previous life, due to self-blame and grief, he had always been fleeing from crowds, preferring to wander in uninhabited wilderness. He had even lived alone for a period in the unpopulated Alaska-Yukon border region of Canada, mastering considerable wilderness survival skills.

With his space ability as backup, his previous life's wilderness living experience, and various wilderness survival techniques learned from seven seasons of the show, he had absolute confidence to challenge for the championship!

He immediately picked up his phone and searched for detailed information about this show.

Recruitment conditions, competition rules, past champions' experiences... the more carefully he read, the more fiercely that fire burned in his heart!

One million dollars! If he could get this money, their short-term life would have no more worries!

He could give Aliya the best postpartum recovery, give the children the best formula and education, even consider buying their own house in Austin!

Lin Yu'an's heart beat violently from excitement.

But he quickly calmed down.

This show wasn't about having dinner with guests or vacationing in the wilderness. Those thrilling scenes in the promotional clips were no fiction!

Every season had contestants forced to quit due to injury, illness, or psychological breakdown. What he would face was real wilderness, real danger! There were even requirements for forced withdrawal due to scripts!

And Aliya... was already pregnant, precisely when she needed his companionship. If he went to compete, whether weeks or months, he would be completely cut off from the outside world.

He tossed and turned all night, appearing before Aliya the next day with dark circles under his eyes.

"Darling, didn't you sleep well last night? You look so pale." Aliya concernedly caressed his cheek.

Lin Yu'an took a deep breath, grasped Aliya's hand, and looked at her with extremely serious eyes, "Aliya, I... I have something very important I want to discuss with you."

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