Rebirth in the Age of Eternal Winter

The first sign that something was wrong came with the silence, not the peaceful silence of midnight, nor the quiet calm of snowfall; this silence felt unnatural, as if the entire city had been wrapped inside a thick layer of suffocating cotton.

The usual hum of air conditioners, the distant rumble of traffic, and even the faint barking of stray dogs had all vanished without warning. Inside a cramped tenth-floor apartment, Ethan Vale slowly opened his eyes, cold.

A biting, unnatural cold seeped through the thin blanket covering his body, pressing against his skin like invisible needles. His breath escaped in faint white mist, and for a moment, he frowned in confusion, wondering if the air conditioner had somehow malfunctioned during the night.

But Ethan didn't own an air conditioner. The realization came slowly, like a blade sliding into his thoughts, and then he saw the frost.

Thin white crystals had formed along the window edges, spreading outward like veins. The glass looked opaque, covered in delicate layers of ice that shouldn't exist indoors. The room temperature had dropped so low that even the wooden table near the window had gathered a faint layer of frost.

Ethan pushed himself upright, his muscles stiff from the cold. His head throbbed faintly, and a strange sense of unease settled in his chest. Something wasn't right. Then, memories flooded back, blood, screaming, begging voices.

And the sound of someone kicking open his reinforced steel door, Ethan's pupils shrank violently, his breathing quickened as fragments of his final moments surfaced one after another. He remembered the starvation, the endless cold, and the desperate faces of the people he had once trusted.

They had gathered outside his shelter, their voices trembling as they pleaded for food, but he had hesitated.

After all, he had protected them before. He had shared his supplies when the power first went out. He had allowed them into his shelter when temperatures dropped below freezing. He had even risked his life defending them from looters.

But when supplies dwindled, everything changed. Their gratitude vanished, their humanity disappeared. The moment he opened the door, they forced their way inside.

They searched his storage, grabbed everything, and when they realized he still had hidden supplies, their expressions twisted into something monstrous.

He could still hear their words. "Sorry, Ethan… we don't have a choice."

"Food is life… and you have too much."

"We'll freeze if we leave you alive."

The blade pierced his chest, warm blood spilled onto the frozen floor, and the last thing he saw before darkness swallowed him was the same people he once protected dragging his body toward the door.

Then, they threw him outside, into the endless snow. Ethan's fingers clenched the memory tightly, felt too vivid, too real to be a dream. He abruptly looked around the apartment, which looked familiar—too familiar.

The worn sofa near the wall. The old refrigerator is humming faintly. The cheap calendar hanging crookedly above the doorway, his gaze locked onto the calendar. December 3rd. Ethan froze.

His heart slammed violently against his chest. December 3rd, he remembered that date clearly. In his previous life, the world froze on December 28th. Overnight, temperatures dropped to unimaginable levels, and the global power grid collapsed within hours.

That meant he still had twenty-five days. Ethan slowly stood up, his breathing uneven as the weight of realization settled over him. He was alive, not only alive… but reborn before the apocalypse.

Before he could fully process the shock, a sudden sharp pain surged through his head. Ethan staggered slightly, gripping the edge of the table for support. A faint buzzing sound echoed in his mind, growing louder with each passing second.

Then, something strange appeared before his eyes: a faint ripple distorted the air in front of him. Ethan's expression tightened as he instinctively reached out.

The moment his fingers touched the ripple, space seemed to twist, and a small box of instant noodles from the table suddenly disappeared. Ethan's eyes widened.

He jerked his hand back, his heartbeat accelerating. A second later, the noodles reappeared—floating briefly in midair before dropping onto the table with a dull thud.

Ethan stared at the box in stunned silence. He tried again. This time, he focused his thoughts. The box vanished instantly. Then, with another thought, it reappeared. A surge of shock and excitement flooded his chest. A storage space.

He had seen people develop strange abilities in the later stages of the apocalypse, but that usually happened months after the world froze. Yet now, before the disaster even began, he already possessed a mysterious power.

Ethan quickly tested further. He picked up a water bottle. It disappeared. He retrieved it. Then he grabbed a chair. It vanished as well. His breathing grew heavier as he realized something important.

There was no weight, no strain. Everything entered the space effortlessly. Ethan's gaze darkened slowly.

In his previous life, food had become the most valuable currency. People killed for a single can of beans. Entire groups fought over bottled water, but now…

He could store unlimited supplies. The corners of Ethan's lips slowly curled upward, though the smile carried no warmth. This time… everything would be different. A sudden knock sounded from the door.

Ethan's expression immediately cooled. The knock came again, slightly impatient. "Ethan? Are you awake?" A woman's voice came from outside.

Ethan recognized it instantly: Lena Carter, his neighbor from across the hall. In his previous life, Lena had been one of the few who didn't participate in the betrayal. She had even tried to warn him, but by then, it was too late.

Ethan walked toward the door slowly. When he opened it, Lena stood outside, wrapped in a thick sweater, her breath forming faint mist in the hallway. "Do you feel it?" she asked, her brows slightly furrowed. "It's unusually cold this morning."

Ethan studied her carefully. She looked the same, calm, observant, and slightly distant. In his previous life, she survived longer than most because of her cautious personality. "Yeah," Ethan replied calmly. "Feels like winter came early."

Lena nodded slightly, though her expression remained uneasy. "The weather forecast didn't mention anything. I tried turning on my heater, but the temperature keeps dropping."

Ethan's eyes flickered. He already knew why. Soon, power outages would begin. Then the world would freeze. "I'll keep an eye on it," Ethan said.

Lena hesitated briefly, then nodded. "Let me know if you notice anything strange."

As she turned to leave, Ethan suddenly spoke. "Lena."

She paused and looked back. "If things get worse… don't trust anyone too easily."

A faint surprise appeared in her eyes, but she didn't ask further. Instead, she gave a small nod and returned to her apartment.

Ethan closed the door slowly. His expression gradually hardened. Twenty-five days. That was all the time he had. Food, Fuel, Shelter, Weapons. He needed everything.

Ethan grabbed his phone and opened his banking app. His savings were modest, barely enough to last a few months in normal circumstances, but he wasn't planning to live normally.

He opened a loan app next, then another, and another. If the world was going to collapse, debt meant nothing. Within minutes, Ethan applied for every loan he could find.

His phone buzzed repeatedly with approval notifications. Ethan stared at the screen as the numbers climbed. Then he whispered. "This time… I won't die again."

Outside the window, snow began to fall. At first, the flakes drifted slowly, almost gently.

But as the minutes passed, the snowfall thickened, the temperature dropped further, and far beyond the city.

A massive storm quietly began forming; the frozen apocalypse had already started.