1

The blizzard has lasted for ten days .

The thermometer reads -60 degrees Celsius.

Through the tempered glass window, the outside world was nothing but a gray and white chaos.

With wind speeds exceeding 160 kilometers per hour, the gale-force winds, mixed with ice crystals, sliced across the ground like countless knives.

The town's power grid collapsed on the third day.

On the sixth day , people began to be killed and their supplies stolen.

Social order has collapsed.

I learned about all of this eighteen months ago through anomalous data from climate models and disaster prediction reports within the organization .

So I emptied all my savings and secretly built an ark in my own basement.

A 120-ton armor plate , a nuclear-powered levitation engine , and a multi-modal design combine to form this Titan-class flying fortress.

Yesterday, the last energy module was also assembled .

The current charging progress has reached 97%.

Twelve minutes to go.

Bang!

A loud crashing sound came from outside the door .

I looked up and saw a dozen figures standing outside the steel gate on the home security screen.

They were dressed in thick, tattered cotton-padded clothes, their faces wrapped in icy scarves, and they held ice axes, crowbars, and chainsaws stolen from hardware stores.

"Reno Carter!" the leader roared through the crack in the door, his voice hoarse like a wild beast. "I know you're in there! Open the door!"

Others started smashing the door with ice axes.

The clanging of metal was particularly jarring inside the room .

Fortunately, I had replaced the wooden doors in my house with special explosion-proof iron doors and the window glass with special glass in advance, which prevented someone from breaking in before the ark was built.

"Hand over the food!"

"And your generator! Fuel! Hand it all over!"

"Don't force me to use explosives! If we're going to die, we'll die together! "

In the surveillance footage, a tall, thin man is seen holding up a homemade Molotov cocktail.

The firelight danced in his eyes, reflecting madness and despair.

I turned off the surveillance and decided to ignore these people .

" Wait here, I'll be right there to open the door for you! "

My brother Tommy suddenly rushed out of the room and lunged at the door.

My mind went blank, and I rushed forward even faster to hug him.

What are you trying to do?!

" Didn't you hear me ? There are people outside! We have to open the door!" Tommy roared angrily.

"No," I said firmly.

"What?!" Tommy's eyes widened. "They'll freeze to death!"

His voice rose, "We have food! We have energy! We can—"

"What do you mean?" I interrupted him, "Give it to seventeen people? And then let them all starve to death when the supplies run out?"

"How can you be so heartless!" Tommy grabbed my collar. "They're our neighbors! They're our fellow countrymen! Don't you have any humanity?!"

I was speechless for a moment, staring at him without saying a word.

Bang!

An even more violent impact.

The steel door began to deform.

My parents came out, their eyes filled with heartache as they looked at Tommy, whom I had grabbed. " Renault , Tommy's reasoning is sound . You've hoarded so many supplies; sharing some with the neighbors wo n't kill you . It'll make your brother feel better, won't it? "

In the surveillance footage, the tall, thin man lit a Molotov cocktail and pretended to smash it onto the barrel of explosives .

He immediately captured my attention.

Just then!

Tommy suddenly broke free from my grasp and lunged at the door handle of the iron gate .

Bang!

I fired a shot right at his feet, the loud noise freezing Tommy in place.

The next instant, the muzzle of a Remington M870 was pressed against his forehead.

Tommy froze.

His hand hung in mid-air, his eyes wide open, and his lips began to tremble.

"Renault?"

"Go back ."

"You're crazy! You can't—"

I hit him on the shoulder with the butt of my gun.

Tommy screamed and fell to the ground.

"Renault!" my mom screamed.

My dad rushed over and tried to grab the gun.

I turned and kicked him in the stomach . My dad groaned and collapsed to the ground.

"You three, now shut up and get into the corner."

With tears in her eyes, Mom dragged Dad and Renault aside, glaring fiercely at me .

I opened the control terminal on my phone.

System notification : [Nuclear reactor is ready ; main engine can be started]

I pressed the red button with a blank expression .

The high-voltage power grid embedded in the outer layer of the ark was instantly energized.

20,000 volts.

Released in 0.3 seconds.

The monitoring screen turned into a blinding blue-white arc of electricity.

After a brief flash, the scene returned to normal , revealing seventeen twisted, charred corpses outside the door.

They were instantly electrocuted into charcoal by the Ark .

"Oh my God! "

My mom covered her mouth and vomited.

Tommy cowered in the corner, his face deathly pale, uttering incoherent words , "You...you killed them... you're not my brother! You're a monster! "

"They're going to kill us," I said. "Now sit tight."

I clicked the start button on my phone .

A deep rumble came from beneath our feet.

The whole house began to shake.

Inside the basement, the energy released by the nuclear reactor is fed into the levitation engine through a converter, and the magnetic field strength soars at a rate of ten units per second.

The ground gradually cracked.

Hold on tight to the handrail!

Tommy looked up in horror: "What—"

The ark, weighing hundreds of tons , tore through the earth and rose vertically into the air.

The immense overload caused my parents and younger brother to collapse onto the floor.

I remained unmoved , simply admiring the transformation of the entire house .

While transforming the basement into the Ark, I also incorporated my home on the ground into the Ark system. Now it has been incorporated into the steel behemoth and has become part of the living area.

Ten minutes later, the Ark had completely transformed into a flying fortress, flying steadily at an altitude of thousands of meters .

I stood on the control panel and switched the engine to cruise mode, a low-frequency hum echoing in the cabin.

The huge changes took the family quite a while to adjust to.

My mother was still lying on the ground, panting heavily , while my father struggled to get up and staggered to the porthole.

Outside was an endless expanse of ice.

The town had been reduced to a black ruin beneath our feet and was soon swallowed up by the blizzard.

"This...this is..." My dad's voice trembled.

"The Ark," I said, "I built this flying fortress over eighteen months , specifically to cope with the extreme cold. "

Tommy scrambled to his feet, his eyes filled with fear and disbelief: "You knew this would happen...you were preparing all along..."

"Eighteen months ago, climate models showed anomalies , and my former special forces unit also issued warning documents to everyone. "

I brought up the navigation screen. "I remember telling other people, but you all think I'm crazy."

Tommy suddenly flew into a rage , jumped up from the ground, pointed at my nose, and roared:

"So you only prepared supplies for the four of us ?!"

"You knew all along! You had eighteen months!" Tommy's face flushed crimson. " Even if the rest of the town did n't believe you ?! Then why didn't you just help them build shelters too?!"

"You have the skills! You have the resources! You can save more lives!"

"But you only saved yourself!"

Tommy's voice echoed in the cabin, filled with hysterical accusations.

Mom and Dad stared in disbelief at the scene.

I looked at Tommy .

Snap!

I slapped him across the face.

"If you're mentally ill, go get treatment. Don't act crazy in my house!"

Tommy covered his face, his eyes filled with tears and anger .

"You're a cold-blooded murderer ! You 've abandoned your humanity ! "

After saying that, he ran to his room.

Mom and Dad quickly followed and comforted her.

I ignored them and turned to set a course—70 degrees north latitude, where there is an uninhabited ice field, enough for us to avoid any threat.

The ark began to move.

One month later.

the glacier below for energy storage and maintenance.

The ark slowly descended.

The ice cracked upon landing, but the stabilization system quickly adjusted the center of gravity.

"Landing complete . Initiating energy storage procedure."

I unbuckled my seatbelt, picked up the toolbox, and prepared to inspect the external armor.

Just then—

A piercing alarm suddenly went off.

I turned around abruptly.

On the radar screen, a red lock icon is flashing.

[WARNING: Locked on by missile radar]

[Lock-off strength: Military grade]

My blood instantly turned cold.

the central control screen, multiple heat source signals are approaching at high speed .