Chapter 3

After ten busy days, I stood in the reinforced three-layer monitoring room, watching the meat plant's final cold barrier successfully close. The stone in my heart finally settled slightly.

The fortress transformation was complete, the underground freezer's energy circulation system was running perfectly, and hundreds of thousands of tons of meat were enough to sustain me through the entire apocalypse.

Everything was ready—only the last small batch of military-grade antibiotics hadn't arrived yet.

Nina stayed in the fortress monitoring data while I drove alone to the black market five kilometers away to collect this final insurance card.

However, I underestimated the variables of fate.

Just as I threw the metal briefcase filled with antibiotics into the back seat of my SUV, the sky suddenly darkened.

One second it was the dry cold of late autumn, the next, violent hurricanes carried fingernail-sized hail that smashed against the bulletproof windows.

The temperature plummeted in just minutes!

The car's thermometer jumped wildly: zero degrees, minus ten, minus thirty...

My pupils constricted sharply.

The blizzard had come early!

In my previous life, the extreme cold apocalypse was supposed to descend three days from now, but it had torn through the entire city without warning.

Outside, the streets instantly became hell. Pedestrians didn't even have time to scream before being frozen in place by the extreme low temperatures.

But what was more deadly wasn't the temperature outside the car—it was my own body.

I gripped the steering wheel tightly, a suppressed growl escaping my throat.

The opportunity for evolution had been forcibly accelerated by the rapidly dropping temperature!

In the past week, to lay the most perfect foundation for high-tier beast transformation, I had been consuming large amounts of high-density concentrated protein and raw meat daily.

This enormous amount of energy had been lurking deep in my cells, and now, stimulated by the extreme cold, it erupted like a volcano.

The more advanced the beast-human, the longer and more dangerous the bone and genetic restructuring process.

In my previous life, I barely survived awakening my Ice Plains Wolf form, but in this life, having stored so much more, my evolution backlash was ten times stronger than before!

My vision began to blur. Beneath my originally fair skin, hard gray wolf fur faintly emerged. My finger bones made tooth-achingly crunching sounds as they were forcibly elongated and thickened, growing razor-sharp claws.

No! I can't evolve in the car!

Once I fell into deep unconsciousness, even the strongest glass couldn't withstand the erosion of minus one hundred degree freezing air.

I kicked open the frozen car door, enduring the excruciating pain of my entire body being torn apart, grabbed the medicine case, and stumbled toward an abandoned semi-basement supermarket on the street corner.

Just as I smashed through the rusty iron door and rolled into the basement, my legs gave out completely, and I heavily dropped to one knee.

The intense pain drained all my oxygen. I could only clench my jaw tightly, letting the energy rampage through my body, waiting for the long restructuring to complete.

Just then, chaotic footsteps and weak flashlight beams suddenly came from the stairwell above.

"So... cold! That bastard Viktor's car is right outside! He must be hiding nearby!"

Hearing this voice, I sharply raised my face covered in gray beast fur, an extremely cold gleam flashing in my eyes.

It was Iris.

Following her was Bradley.

"I already found out—he sold it on the market for only sixty million, but he dared sell it to me for eighty million!" Bradley's voice was frantic. "That bastard deliberately set a trap to scam us! His junkyard must be hiding something. We have to find him!"

The bone-chilling blizzard hadn't immediately killed them, and instead they had followed the tire tracks all the way here.

The flashlight beam swept across the shelves and finally fixed sharply on me.

The moment she saw me clearly, Iris let out a piercing scream: "Ahhh!! Mon... monster!"

Bradley was also frightened into retreating repeatedly, falling on his rear.

At this moment, my muscles had swelled all over, my hands had completely transformed into ferocious wolf claws, and my ice-blue beast pupils emitted a predator's fierce light in the dim environment. Where was any trace of the former wealthy young master?

I stared at them coldly.

After Iris's initial terror passed, her gaze suddenly fell on the metal case beside me and my facial features.

"Viktor?" She stared in disbelief, eyes wide. "It's you! You've actually become this disgusting freak!"

"Bradley! What are you waiting for!" Iris turned her head and shrieked shrilly. "He can't move! Kill this monster, and his cold-weather supplies, the bulletproof SUV outside—it'll all be ours!"

Bradley scrambled up, found a fire axe, and approached me with a sinister smile. "High and mighty Young Master Viktor, never thought you'd have today! Go to hell!"

The fire axe came whistling down toward my skull with fierce wind.

I raised my not-yet-fully-evolved wolf claw and caught the sharp axe firmly in mid-air.

Bradley's face turned red as he exerted all his strength trying to force the axe down.

"Just this much strength?"

My eyes were ice-cold as my five fingers suddenly applied force.

With a crisp "crack," the fire axe blade made of refined steel was actually crushed with five deep finger imprints by my claws!

But before I could press my advantage, a twisting pain like strangulation suddenly came from my heart.

The second stage of high-tier evolution—genetic reconstruction—had forcibly activated!

"Pff—" I suddenly spat out a mouthful of fresh blood. My tall body swayed twice before my knee slammed onto the cold tiles.

The edges of my vision began to darken, the strength in my muscles receded like the tide, and even lifting a single finger became incredibly difficult.

"He's done for!"

Bradley keenly sensed my weakness, madness and vengeful pleasure flashing in his eyes.

He picked up the fire axe again.

Iris also shrieked excitedly beside him, "Smash his skull! Quick!"

The axe came crashing down toward my skull with the sound of tearing air.

My vision was blurred by blood. I could only rely on my last bit of clarity to stare fixedly at the falling weapon.

Should I end the evolution early and overdraw my life force for a counterattack?

At this critical moment, I suddenly heard rapid footsteps!