Chapter 1
The cold wind of Montana was like a rusted saw, tirelessly gnawing at the frames of the construction shed. The horizon wore a suffocating grayish-purple hue—the harbinger of the extreme freeze. I crouched in the muddy blast pit, my hands stiffened by the low temperature, but a cold, incinerating fire of vengeance burned within.
I knew what lay in this pit. In my past life, on this wretched construction site, I had personally unearthed two symbiotic alien meteorites and generously handed the blue one—the shard of "Frost Mastery"—to Mike, who had just arrived, leaving only the gray "spatial storage" shard for myself.
We had been childhood friends, brothers-in-arms, comrades-in-the-apocalypse. Yet, I never imagined that the very meteorite I gifted him would be the blade that slit my throat. As I was sealed behind that thick wall of ice, listening to him hiss in the wind that I should "die like a piece of trash," I swore that if I could start over, I would reclaim everything that belonged to me—with interest.
I carved through the mud. Beneath the frozen yellow earth, two dark, ethereal glimmers pulsed. The gray and blue brilliance intertwined in the silt, breathtakingly beautiful. I didn't give them a second to react; the moment my fingertips brushed their slightly warm surfaces, two distinct, violent energies flooded my skull, forcing a mandatory integration with my neural pathways.
"Jack! What did you find?"
The familiar, greedy call rang out. Mike's voice drifted down from the ridge. He was sprinting toward the pit, stepping over shattered stones. That look of craving in his eyes, which had earned my boundless trust in my past life, now only filled me with revulsion.
I didn't turn back. In the second before Mike vaulted into the pit, I swiftly shoved both meteorites into my tactical waist-pouch, locking the spatial-anchor buckles tight.
"Jack? Are you deaf?" Mike arrived at the edge, mud from his boots splattering into the pit. He peered down, confused, staring at the empty, dirt-filled hole.
I looked up, meeting his eyes. I rose, dusted the mud off my combat pants, and looked at him with the cold detachment one might reserve for a groveling stray dog. "Nothing there. Light refraction, that’s all. The foreman is calling for you; he's complaining you're ten minutes late."
"You're lying! I saw the light!" Mike’s brow furrowed, his eyes glued to my pocket. "Hand it over. We split it fifty-fifty."
I didn't speak. I simply turned and walked toward the Ford pickup parked nearby. As I opened the door, the engine’s roar drowned out the wind. I turned back, staring at Mike’s distorted face of disbelief, speaking with a terrifying calm: "Mike, if you still want to live a few more days before the world ends, stay away from me. That’s my final warning."
The truck roared like a beast. I floored the accelerator, tires spinning on the ice, leaving a furious Mike choking in a cloud of exhaust and dust.
Back home, my parents were reading the newspaper. I didn't waste a word; I walked straight into the study and slammed a pre-written list onto my father’s desk.
"Dad, the company had mass layoffs. I have a gut feeling something’s going to go wrong here," I said, breath steady. "We need to activate that missile silo. It belongs to us, and it’s time to put it to use."
My father looked at me, stunned. "Jack, what in the world are you rambling about? It’s just full of junk..."
"Empty it. Now." I turned to my mother, speaking rapidly. "Mom, forget the old furniture. Go buy canned goods, dehydrated vegetables—buy out every antibiotic, painkiller, bottle of alcohol, and air purifier in the supermarket. If they ask, tell them you're hosting a 'prepper party.' Pay them whatever they ask."
For the next three days, I acted like a madman. I was more than a logistics runner; I was the architect of this survival game. Thanks to my spatial ability, I moved tons of supplies into the underground base without leaving a footprint.
I bought industrial-grade generators, cleared out local hardware stores, and shoved rolls of high-strength industrial adhesive, heavy-duty sealant, and dismantled anti-blast steel doors into the silo. For defense, I even scored tactical gas masks and night-vision goggles on the black market.
My father went from resistance to shock. He watched as I unloaded supplies from thin air—food reserves sufficient for three people to live for a decade, and heating units capable of handling the extreme cold. Mother stood in the kitchen, trembling as she looked at cans stacked to the ceiling. "Jack, how much did all this cost?"
"It’s worth every penny, even if it bankrupts us." I stood before the entrance where I’d installed triple-layered steel plating, clutching the key tight.
As the final bag of seeds was stored, a shrill howl erupted outside—the harbinger of the blizzard. The temperature plummeted instantaneously; crystals began to bloom in the air.
I stood in the silo’s control room, watching my hometown blur into a white void on the monitor. Everything was ready.
