"So... cold..."

A bone-deep chill gnawed at Chen Yun's consciousness. The agonizing pain from his broken limbs was slowly numbing, swallowed by the relentless cold.

"I can't accept this..."

Vivid images flashed in his mind: the village bullies smashing through his door, the sound of his own bones snapping, their rough hands seizing what little food he had. Rage and bitter resentment flooded his heart, even as it slowed in his cooling chest. The edges of his vision began to darken.

"I won't let you get away with this... not even as a ghost..."

A final, icy gust of wind stole the last trace of warmth from his body. Chen Yun's consciousness plunged into endless darkness.

The blizzard, howling and unforgiving, soon buried his frozen corpse under a thick blanket of snow.

...

...

...

Luoyue City, Qingze District.zhonghua.

Inside a conference room in a sleek office building, the hum of the 20-degree AC unit was losing its battle against the sweltering summer heat.

"Chen Yun! Chen Yun!"

A sharp voice exploded by his ear. Chen Yun’s eyes snapped open.

"Wh-where is this? Didn't I... die?"

A warmth, foreign yet familiar, surrounded him. He looked up, dazed, toward the source of the voice.

A middle-aged man, short, portly, with a hairline that had long retreated to the crown of his head, was glaring at him, face flushed with anger.

"Sleeping during my meeting, Chen Yun? Do you even want to keep this job?" the man’s voice was a low, furious growl.

Chen Yun looked bewilderedly at the man, then down at his own hands—whole and unbroken. He murmured, almost to himself, "I'm... not dead? Was it a dream... or...?"

"You must still be asleep!" the man spat through clenched teeth. Someone napping in his meeting was a direct insult.

As the man’s face visibly reddened, a tall, lean young man beside Chen Yun quickly stood up to smooth things over.

"Brother Wang, Chen's been pulling all-nighters for the project all week. He's just exhausted. You're a big man, don't hold it against him, yeah?"

Brother Wang took a deep, steadying breath. "The project delivery is in a few days. I expect everyone here to push through. There will be bonuses and vacation time after we cross the finish line. Meeting adjourned."

He snatched his notebook off the table and pushed through the conference room door without a backward glance.

Only after he left did Chen Yun seem to truly jolt awake.

He pulled his phone from his pocket. The screen read: July 1st, 10:20 AM.

"It seems... I've been reborn."

The phantom pain of broken bones and the soul-deep memory of that penetrating cold confirmed it—this was no dream. It was real.

He had been reborn. Reborn two weeks before the apocalypse began.

A flood of chaotic memories surged from the depths of his mind. He remembered. He remembered everything.

In his previous life, Chen Yun had used a rare paid vacation to return to his old family village home, which he hadn't visited since his parents passed away. He’d been staying there for a while.

Then, the ultra-cold apocalypse descended without warning. In a single night, the temperature plummeted from over 30 degrees Celsius to a horrifying -80 degrees.

A blazing summer day transformed into an ice-bound hellscape in a matter of hours.

Unending blizzards followed, burying the world under snow.

Fortunately, Chen Yun's old house had a yard with a decent stock of firewood and coal. He’d also brought a fair amount of food and drinks with him for his vacation.

So, when the disaster first struck, life was harsh, but he was surviving.

It didn't last. Maybe someone had leaked that he had supplies. Maybe the gangs going house-to-house had simply finally reached his door.

On a pitch-black, howling night sometime after the world ended, the village chief's son and a few local thugs scaled Chen Yun's courtyard wall.

By the time the sound of his door being smashed in woke Chen Yun from his sleep, it was too late.

Several vicious men swarmed in. They broke his arms and legs and threw him out into the snow.

Lying in the snow like a dead dog, limbs shattered, Chen Yun could only watch as they made trip after trip, hauling away all of his supplies.

After the last load was gone, the village chief's son walked over to him. He planted his boot heavily on Chen Yun's face.

"Thanks for the supplies. I'll live well for you. You should be honored. Your life... for ours. Ha... haha..."

...

The agony of his shattered limbs, the cold that seeped into his very marrow, the humiliation of being ground underfoot—it was all seared into his soul.

Even now, reborn, the memory made him tremble with fury.

Chen Yun took a deep, sharp breath. A glint of ruthless determination flashed in his eyes.

"Since fate has given me a second chance, this time... I'm going to live. And I'm going to tear those beasts apart." He stared at his (perfectly intact) hands, the words a low whisper.

The tall, lean colleague next to him watched Chen Yun muttering to himself and couldn't help but speak up. "Xiao Chen, you really are out of it. Maybe you should knock off early today? Go home and get some proper rest."

Chen Yun snapped back to the present. He turned to his colleague. "Thanks, Brother Zhang. I'm fine."

With that, he stood up and pushed open the conference room door.

The familiar sight of the office hallway made him feel disoriented for a moment.

Steadying himself, he walked toward the office of his supervisor, the short, portly Brother Wang.

...

"You want to quit?" Brother Wang stared at Chen Yun, shock evident on his face. "The project is about to(go live)! What I said in the meeting was just heat-of-the-moment stuff, Xiao Chen, don't take it to heart—"

"Brother Wang, something's come up with my family. Quitting is... unavoidable," Chen Yun interrupted him.

The portly man fell silent for a moment, then nodded slowly, looking at Chen Yun. "Alright then. I'll process it as a termination. It might look better for you. Go hand off your work to the others first. How does that sound?"

"Thank you, Brother Wang." Chen Yun nodded. "Brother Wang... in a little while, the weather might take a turn for the worse. Make sure you stock up on food and warm clothes."

Without waiting to see the confusion on Brother Wang's face, Chen Yun turned and left the office.

By the time he'd finished handing off his duties and completed the offboarding paperwork, it was already past 4 PM.

Chen Yun stepped out of the company's main doors, carrying a cardboard box filled with his few personal belongings.

Settling into the driver's seat of his beat-up second-hand Volkswagen, he took stock of his assets.

An old family property in the village—a self-built two-story house with a fairly large yard.

His savings, including the final paycheck just processed: just over 800,000 RMB.

And this old car he was sitting in.

That was everything he had in the world.

Two weeks until the apocalypse. The most urgent task now was stockpiling supplies and reinforcing the old house. He needed to ensure he could not just survive, but live, in the coming end times.

Eight hundred thousand RMB sounded like a lot, but it would vanish quickly buying supplies in bulk and renovating a house. It wouldn't be nearly enough.

And Chen Yun didn't just want to survive the apocalypse. He wanted to live. To live well.

He pulled out his phone, opened a memo, and started compiling a list.

Food. Water. Fuel. A generator. Medicine. Tools. Weapons...

Once he had a rough list sketched out, he saw it was still early. He decided to drive to the wholesale market to scout prices and availability.

Just then—

[Ding—!]

A cold, mechanical synth tone echoed directly in his mind.

[A suitable host has been detected... System binding commenced... Binding in progress... 5%... 46%... 99%... 100%! Binding successful!]

[Congratulations, Host Chen Yun. You have successfully bound the "Apocalypse Survival System."]

*[Countdown to Ultra-Cold Apocalypse: 14 days, 11 hours, 45 minutes, 14 seconds.]*

[The end approaches. Host, please do everything in your power to survive.]

Hearing the mechanical voice in his head, Chen Yun froze for a second.

Confirming it wasn't a hallucination, a wave of exhilaration surged through him.

His system... had arrived.