Rise of the Phoenix - Apocalypse Rebirth

Chapter 12 - Space Button Technology

May 16, 3031 - Country C, City F

Aria woke up, her body once again aching in pain and filled with sweat and grit. Her bones and muscles are aching. Heading to the bathroom, she filled up the tub and soaked in it for 15 minutes. She was so busy yesterday with the matter of the Xing plant that she completely forgot about the 3 systems. Now that the binding was completed, Aria is interested in all the historical notes that the bastard has collected.

Aria desperately tried to survive in her last life through a lot of sweat and blood. When the ZA broke out, she was residing in City GH which was 100 miles East of City F. City GH was the first to fall so she, her family, and a large group of survivors made their way to the next city and the city after while collecting supplies.

Each city fell to the zombies. They then heard that a base was set up in City KD so they were on the road again. The group of survivors started out at 200 was cut in half by the time they reached K Base. This was considered high due to the help of the space button that everyone owns.

After the Big War a century ago, life became peaceful for the prosperous people in Country C. Technological and health advancements leapt forward. One of the most important was something called the space button.

Scientists accidentally discovered that with the merging of a certain tech chip and dna, a mysterious space is available for everyone. Depending on the quality of the chip, the bigger the size of this mysterious space.

The biggest size available was 6x6 cubic feet, the smallest at 1x1. Anything can be stored in the space, but live things cannot since the space has no oxygen or time. So things still remain fresh, cold, and warm after being taken out. So within the last 60 years, everyone got these space buttons implanted on themselves.

This new way of storing things allowed people to live and travel more freely. Food, snacks, drinks, clothes, gifts, books, laptops, etc. everything can be stored inside so people did. They got into the habit of carrying important and useful things with them which was very convenient when the ZA broke out.

Each person's DNA can only be connected with one space button. Attempts at adding more buttons resulted in severing the space permanently from that DNA, the person no longer being able to access the space.

The space button was treated like an inheritance. To prevent the things being stolen, only after 2 years after the individual died can the items inside be released to the next of kin according to their will. If there were suspicions of foul play, then the space can be kept in limbo forever.

For each kin mentioned in the will, their space button will be pinned, tracked, and their historical locations as well as the people they were in contact with were downloaded to the deceased's accounts until the investigation is solved.

So for those who planned to kill their family for money, they were quickly found out early on and justice was served briskly. So eventually, only those without the space button can deal with underground matters since they cannot be tracked by association. They can still be questioned if evidence or security footage catches them.

Of course, after 6 months in the ZA, the tracking of a dead member is no longer available once the warehouses were no longer maintained. In this case, the materials of the dead will automatically transfer over to the next of kins whenever there is available space 2 years after their death on the dot.

Aria checked Sara's space button to see what was inside and also who was next of kin.

Inside the space button was packed like what a messy hoarder would do. Clothes, snacks, laptops, books, and jewelry typical of what a teenager would carry around as well as a cumbersome looking musical instrument that took over the majority of the space. Her space button was a 6x6 which was purchased for $300k. This button was upgraded by her parents before they left on their business trip passed away 2 years ago.

1x1=$1k
2x2=$5k
3x3=$15k
4x4=$40k
5x5=$100k
6x6=$300k

Space can be upgraded or downgraded. If upgraded, you just have to pay the difference between the size upgrades. But if you want to downgrade or completely remove the space button to cash out, there will be a 25% depreciation value.

In her last life she only had a 2x2 while her step sister got a 4x4 upgrade from her parents. This small space was very hard for her to collect supplies and she had to also carry a backpack everywhere which made her an easy target in everyone's minds.

So having a 6x6 now is very nice. It can be said that she's wealthy with storage space during the ZA.

But she doesn't need it. She has a huge warehouse so she planned to remove it completely before getting another space button installed under a new identity after she faked Sara's death.

Deciding to offload the things in the space button to the bastard's space- she forgot what she decided to name it so she renamed it to Space 1- she noticed something weird. It was quickly full of stuff again!

Aria quickly offloaded them again only to realize it's full again. Huh. It seems like these were Sara's parents' possessions when they passed away. And it's no wonder they couldn't fit since the items themselves were packed into various boxes and containers that were 6 feet long. Only when Sara's space is empty can they appear in her space.

More and more curious, Aria automatically transferred things out of the space button until it stopped filling up.

Looking at the accumulated things and machines within the warehouse that came out from that event, Aria was shocked to realize that there were more things in front of her than the maximum 6x6 cubic feet per person should have. It looked close to a whole full warehouse of items covering ⅓ of the current space!

Standing in front of the items, she called S3 out to investigate further.