The hands of the reinforced steel clock on the wall were crawling towards midnight, July 13th. The outside world was still blissfully unaware, baking in the sticky summer air. Inside the insulated silence of his fortress, Lin Fan moved with the finality of a predator preparing for hibernation.
He was in the main section of his shelter, the room now unrecognizable from the simple apartment it once was. The windows were completely sealed behind thick, seamless sheets of alloy, bolted deep into the concrete.
"System status check." Lin Fan murmured, his voice echoing slightly in the sealed space.
A blue panel flickered into existence before his eyes, displaying a list of gratifying metrics:
[Doomsday Shelter System Status]
External Temperature: 32°C (90°F)
Internal Temperature: 22°C (71.6°F) – Stable.
Air Filtration System: Operational. (Positive pressure engaged)
Primary Power: Solar Grid (Charging).
Secondary Power: Diesel Generators (Fuel Reserves: 98% – 500 gallons remaining).
Security Doors: Class Five Vault Door – Sealed and Hydraulic Locked.
Dimensional Storage:4% Capacity Used.
Time until Global Freeze Onset (GFO):03 Hours, 45 Minutes.
Lin Fan nodded, running his hand over the smooth, cold steel of the vault door. He had done everything humanly possible, and then some. The remaining hours were not for preparation, but for enjoying the last vestiges of the before.
He decided to conduct a final inventory review, purely for the psychological satisfaction. He scrolled through the list of supplies categorized within his Dimensional Storage:
Food (Luxury Reserve): 200 kg Wagyu, 150 bottles fine wine, 100 boxes premium chocolate. Status: Time-Stopped, infinite freshness.
Food (Bulk Reserve): 500 bags Rice, 3,000 Canned Goods, 10,000 Gallons Water. Status: Secured for 10+ years.
Defense: 2 Assault Rifles, 1 Shotgun, 2 Handguns, 15,000 rounds assorted ammo, C4 Charges, Body Armor. Status: Ready for deployment.
Comfort & Utility: High-End Gaming Console, Medical Kits, Specialized Tools, 500 Premium Cigars.
The sheer volume of wealth he had amassed, all acquired through debt that would soon be nullified, gave him a deep, visceral pleasure. He wasn't just safe; he was triumphant.
He walked into the small, dedicated bunker kitchen he had installed—a marvel of compact efficiency—and pulled out a chilled bottle of imported French water. He sat down on the newly purchased, thick leather armchair, facing the sealed wall, and waited.
The silence was profound. The sound-dampening insulation muffled the last vestiges of the outside world: the distant siren, the rumble of a truck, the faint laughter from the apartment above. Lin Fan found the silence luxurious, a promise of the peace he had paid for with his past life's blood.
3:00 AM, July 14th: The Collapse
Lin Fan didn't sleep. He sat and watched the digital clock.
03:00:00.
Nothing.
03:00:01.
Nothing dramatic happened inside his fortress. No shaking, no power surges. The temperature remained a comfortable 22°C.
But then, the change began.
The external sensors mounted on the chimney vent flashed violently.
[WARNING: Rapid Environmental Change Detected.][External Temperature Change: -5°C/minute.][Wind Speed Alert: Extreme Velocity Increase.]
The air outside was literally collapsing. The external temperature gauge dropped like a stone: 30°C... 15°C... 0°C... -10°C.
Then, Lin Fan heard it. A sound that was simultaneously muted and overwhelming.
It was the sound of the city screaming.
The wind began to howl, but this was not a normal wind. It was a demonic, pressurized shriek, like a thousand jet engines igniting at once. It battered the exterior of the building, and despite the soundproofing, Lin Fan could feel the low-frequency vibration through the floor.
CRACK!
The sound of shattering glass, hundreds of thousands of windows in the city instantly failing due to the rapid pressure and temperature differential, was horrifying. It was a singular, massive crystalline explosion, echoing the final death throes of civilization.
The lights in his apartment flickered violently—the general building grid had failed. The main power line was likely sheared off by the wind or shorted out by the rapid freeze.
[Power Source Switching: Automatic transfer to Solar/Battery Backup engaged.][Primary Power Failure: Grid Offline.]
The lights inside Lin Fan's shelter remained stable. The air filtration system hummed steadily. His independent grid had seamlessly taken over. He was an island of light in a city plunging into black, icy chaos.
The View from the Throne
Lin Fan walked over to his heavily armored communications panel and activated the external cameras. The thermal lens cut through the darkness that had enveloped the city.
The view was apocalyptic.
The snow hadn't started yet, but the air was a haze of frozen mist. Buildings were barely visible. He zoomed the camera in on the apartment complex across the street.
The windows were empty black sockets, the glass blown inward or outward by the pressure. On the ground, the street was already covered in a thin, crystalline layer of ice.
He heard the first human sounds, muffled but distinct, coming from the building's internal corridor.
Banging.Screaming.
He focused his listening device on the corridor just outside his vault door.
"The heat is off! My pipes burst! Oh my God, we're freezing!" a woman shrieked, the panic raw and uncontrolled.
"Shut up! We need to get out! We need to go somewhere warm!" a man shouted back, his voice thick with terror.
Lin Fan identified the voices: the poor couple from unit 803. They had scoffed at his "paranoid renovations" just two weeks ago. Now, their comfortable, mortgage-free lives were ending in frozen agony.
He felt nothing. No pity, no remorse. Only a cold, deep satisfaction. He had warned them, implicitly, by spending his money on survival instead of frivolous consumerism. They had mocked him. They had chosen their fate.
He turned the sound off. He didn't want to hear the screams; he wanted silence.
The Queen's Despair
Lin Fan glanced at the clock again: 04:15 AM. The time for Sarah's delivery had long passed.
He accessed the camera feed for the corridor directly outside his door. He wasn't surprised to see a huddled, pathetic figure curled up against his vault door. It was Sarah. She hadn't made it in time, but she had certainly made the attempt.
She was pounding feebly on the six-inch steel, her fists wrapped in thin fabric.
"Lin Fan! Lin Fan, please! It's me, Sarah! It's so cold! I know you're in there! I'll give you back the $1,000! Just let me in!" Her voice was hoarse with the biting cold, already losing power.
She wasn't wearing a coat. She was clutching a single, half-full bottle of water—the collateral she had promised but failed to deliver on time.
Lin Fan had his revenge. It was complete, pure, and served precisely at the moment of her greatest despair. He didn't respond. He didn't even activate the external microphone.
He zoomed in on her face with the thermal camera. Her body temperature was dropping rapidly. She would not last another hour.
He saved the image to his system log under the file name: [Collateral Default - Sarah]. Then, he disabled the corridor camera feed entirely. He had confirmed the fate of one betrayer. That was enough. The freezing sounds of her hypothermia were a distraction he no longer needed.
The System's Evolution
As the external temperature continued its relentless descent—now past the -60°C mark—the System chirped again, signaling a major status update.
[Global Environment Status: Apocalypse Confirmed.][Shelter Stability: Nominal. New Function Unlocked.]
Lin Fan quickly brought up the blue panel.
[New Function: Resource Scan (Active)][Scanning Range: 500 Meters][Description: The System can now detect rare survival resources, potential threats, and unique energy signatures within its radius.]
This was the upgrade he had been waiting for. The System was moving beyond simple storage and into active survival utility.
He immediately engaged the scan. The panel displayed a rudimentary 3D map of his apartment building and the surrounding streets.
Most areas were colored grey—standard debris. But one point, three stories above him, where the penthouse once stood, glowed a faint, intriguing yellow.
[Resource Detected: Stabilized Energy Core. Potential Rarity: A.][Location: Penthouse, Unit 1001 (David's apartment).]
The irony was not lost on him. David, the rich bully who had initiated his murder in the past life, had likely been preparing something himself—something the System now recognized as a valuable resource. David was probably frozen solid by now, and Lin Fan had just found his first piece of apocalyptic loot.
Lin Fan took a long, luxurious sip of his water. The water was perfectly cool, the ambient temperature perfect, and the hunt had begun.
The old world is dead, Lin Fan thought, standing tall in his fortress. The new world has just delivered my first reward.
(Author's Note: The Global Freeze is here! Sarah is dealt with, and Lin Fan has his first piece of loot to hunt! What is the A-Rarity Energy Core, and how will Lin Fan venture out to get it? Don't miss Chapter 5! Please support the MC's ruthless survival by leaving a comment and throwing a Power Stone!)