Kang Min-jae stood still for a few seconds, staring at the convenience store across the street.
It was there. Lit up. The automatic door sliding open and shut as customers came and went. Fully stocked shelves. Working refrigerators. Bored employees.
Normality.
A word that would stop existing very soon.
"…okay," he muttered, pulling his jacket tighter. "Let's think like a person. Not like some idiot novel protagonist."
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment.
If this were a dream, he'd wake up now.
He didn't.
If this were madness, the world would still be frozen.
It wasn't.
So there was only one option left.
"I know the future," he opened his eyes. "And that's terrifying as hell."
Min-jae crossed the street and pushed open the convenience store door. The electronic chime rang—annoyingly cheerful.
"Welcome—" the clerk began.
"Hi," Min-jae replied automatically, already scanning the place.
Instant ramen shelves. Energy bars. Bottled water. Portable heaters. Lighters. Power banks.
Everything that, in the future, would be worth more than money.
A strange tightness gripped his chest.
In the first apocalypse…
he had been in this exact store.
On the very first day.
The difference was—back then, he didn't know.
---
[Past — First Day of the Apocalypse]
That day, Min-jae woke up late.
It was raining. Cold and annoying, but nothing extreme. He complained about the weather, threw on a random hoodie, and left home cursing public transportation.
The world still made sense.
On the way to university, he heard people talking about a "sudden temperature drop in the north." Strange news about power failures. Nothing worth worrying about.
"They always exaggerate," someone said on the subway.
That night, the temperature plummeted.
Snow began to fall over Seoul.
That never happened like that.
The next day, schools closed. The day after, the government asked everyone to stay calm. The day after that, they told everyone to stay home.
And then…
the cold didn't leave.
Weeks passed.
Food began to run out.
Electricity failed.
And the dead—preserved by the ice—began to rise.
Min-jae remembered the first one he ever saw.
Inside a looted pharmacy.
The body was stiff, bluish, its eyes opened far too wide. He thought it was just a frozen corpse… until it moved.
He ran.
In the beginning, he always ran.
---
Min-jae snapped back to the present, his hands trembling slightly.
"…no." He clenched his fist. "Not this time."
He walked through the store, pretending to be just another customer.
He grabbed two packs of ramen.
Then four.
Then eight.
"Hey, sir," the clerk called out. "Are you really buying all that?"
"I have chronic hunger," Min-jae replied seriously.
She blinked, confused.
The system appeared discreetly in the corner of his vision.
Resource Analysis Active
Item: Instant Ramen
Survival Value: High
Durability: Long
"At least someone here understands me," Min-jae muttered.
He started grabbing water. A lot of water.
In the first apocalypse, he thought snow would solve thirst.
He almost died because of it.
"Snow isn't potable water," he whispered, remembering his past self. "Learn that fast—or learn it while dying."
Power banks. Lighters. Candles. Batteries.
Everything went into the cart.
The cashier started giving him a sideways look.
"Are you… stockpiling?"
Min-jae smiled.
"End-of-the-world sale."
Awkward silence.
He paid with his card, ignoring the absurd total. Money would become useless paper in less than a month.
As he stepped outside, the system flickered again.
Resources acquired.
Temporary storage available.
"Huh?" Min-jae frowned.
A small interface opened.
Basic Inventory unlocked (limited).
The bags in his hands… vanished.
"…okay." His eyes widened slightly. "That's… convenient as hell."
Warning: Limited capacity. Expansion requires resources and infrastructure.
"Of course it does," he sighed. "Nothing's free."
He started walking back home.
Along the way, he watched people.
Laughing. Arguing. Living.
Some of them would die in the first month.
Others would become monsters worse than the zombies.
He knew that future.
And he hated it.
---
Back in his apartment, Min-jae locked the door and dropped onto the couch.
"Alright," he said, staring at the ceiling. "Let's talk."
The system appeared.
No voice. No emotion.
"You're not a hero system, are you?"
Silence.
"You're not going to give me superpowers, right?"
Nothing.
"You're not going to tell me how to save the world."
Correction: The primary objective is user survival.
"Uh-huh." He laughed. "Selfish. I like it."
He opened his status again.
Sanity: 61%.
"That explains a lot."
In the first apocalypse, he didn't notice when he started losing his mind.
He thought it was normal.
Talking to himself.
Laughing at the wrong moments.
Feeling nothing when killing someone.
"So you measure that," he said to the system. "Nice. Cruel. But useful."
The system didn't disagree.
Min-jae stood up and went back to the window.
The city was still breathing.
"If I were a normal person," he murmured, "I'd tell someone."
He imagined the scene.
"Hey, there's going to be an ice apocalypse, frozen zombies, and the government will collapse."
Result?
Psychiatric ward.
"So no." He shook his head. "My secret."
He pulled an old notebook from his backpack.
And started writing.
SURVIVAL LIST — BEFORE THE ICE
1. Water (lots of it)
2. Long-lasting food
3. Fuel
4. Thermal clothing
5. Heat source
6. Information
7. A place better than my apartment
He paused.
"And people…" he added slowly.
In the first apocalypse, he tried to survive alone.
He almost died more times because of humans than monsters.
"But this time…" he sighed. "I choose better."
As if summoned by the thought, someone knocked on the door.
Min-jae froze.
Another knock.
"Min-jae?" a female voice called. "Are you home?"
He recognized it instantly.
"…Ji-eun?"
He opened the door cautiously.
Ji-eun was his neighbor. A nursing student. Always complained about his noise. In the future… she died in the second month.
Frozen inside her own apartment.
"Are you okay?" she asked. "I saw you coming back with a ton of stuff…"
Min-jae blinked.
"I'm… on a diet," he replied automatically.
She frowned.
"With ramen?"
"Emotional diet."
Silence.
She sighed.
"Anyway. I just came to say there's going to be a building meeting tomorrow. They mentioned possible energy rationing because of the weird cold."
Min-jae's heart skipped.
"Already?"
She nodded.
"Looks like it."
When she left, Min-jae closed the door slowly.
"…so it's started," he murmured.
The system appeared.
Initial Event detected:
Urban Climate Instability
Min-jae laughed without humor.
"You could've warned me."
Response: Warning does not alter statistics.
"Son of a—"
He took a deep breath.
In the first apocalypse, the world collapsed too fast because no one took the signs seriously.
This time…
"This time I'll be ready."
Even if it meant hard decisions.
Even if it meant making mistakes again.
Even if, in the end…
"…I still freeze."
He looked at the city one more time.
Seoul glowed under artificial lights.
For now.
And while the world still pretended to be alive, Kang Min-jae began preparing to survive what was coming.
Not as a hero.
But as someone who had already died once…
And had no intention of repeating the experience.