With those words, Spades closed the door. By the time Bai Liu opened it again, he had already disappeared into the snow.
…Was that meant to be a fair fight?
Bai Liu raised an eyebrow and shut the door firmly. Flexing his frozen fingers, he turned to look at Tang Erda and the others.
Tang Erda, dressed in a thick thermal jacket, exhaled a cloud of white vapor. "The power's out," he said. "We need to restart the heating system, or we'll freeze to death."
"Do you know how to fix it?" Bai Liu asked.
Tang Erda nodded. "I've trained in extreme environments before. I can handle basic equipment. But I'll need to check it outside. The wind's too strong — I'll need someone to hold my safety rope, or I'll be blown away."
"I'll go with you," Mu Sicheng said dryly as he pulled on his protective gear.
The two quickly secured safety ropes around their waists. They opened the door and, fighting against the violent wind and snow, forced their way outside, barely managing to shut it behind them.
Shortly afterward, they returned, still tethered to their ropes. Bai Liu, who had been guarding the entrance, immediately sealed the door.
Mu Sicheng's teeth chattered violently as he struggled to unhook the rope from the wall. His fingers were too stiff to move properly, and Mu Ke had to help him.
"It's… disgustingly cold!" Mu Sicheng hopped in place, blowing warm air into his cupped hands.
Bai Liu observed that Mu Sicheng had been outside for less than ten minutes, yet his hands were already swollen red and purple. His knuckles wouldn't bend. They looked almost necrotic.
Only when the lights flickered back on did Bai Liu clearly see their surroundings.
They stood inside a narrow, low ventilation corridor. The walls were made of prefabricated metal panels commonly used for temporary construction housing. Bare incandescent bulbs hung overhead. The windows along both sides were sealed, and through the frost-clouded glass, the relentless blizzard howled outside.
At the end of the corridor, a crooked sign hung on the wall:
Edmund South Pole Station
Bai Liu studied it briefly before lowering his gaze to open his system panel. A string of unread notifications awaited him.
[System Alert: Welcome, players, to the game Ice Age.]
[System Alert: Player has obtained the main quest — Global Warming.]
[Game Background Tip: One year ago, an endless snowstorm began in Antarctica and swept across the globe. Temperatures plummeted, ocean currents shifted, and cloud cover thickened. The world gradually froze over…]
[…The Antarctic ice cap appears to have become a spreading disease. Meteorologists claim that humanity has been forced into a new major ice age. Food shortages and extreme cold have led to massive casualties…]
[All scientific research in Antarctica was suspended. You, an explorer with insider information, learned that everything is connected to a secret research project conducted in Antarctica. Driven by curiosity, you gathered your team and, funded by the United Antarctic Glacier Company, traveled south to uncover the frozen secrets buried beneath the ice.]
[Your plane reached the South Pole but was caught in a blizzard. Lost and desperate, you discovered this abandoned observatory and forced your way inside to escape the storm.]
[Reminder: You are great explorers! Be brave. Investigate. Discover the truth and restore warmth to the world.]
[Main quest progress: 0%]
[Current location: Edmond Antarctic Polar Observatory Research Station]
By this point, Mu Sicheng had finished reading the game introduction and couldn't help complaining, "What is this? Isn't the real world dealing with global warming? Why are we suddenly in an ice age?"
Liu Jiayi, far more sensitive to the cold than Bai Liu, immediately wrapped herself in every piece of clothing she could find, bundling herself up like a ball the moment she entered the game.
After reading the description, she frowned and warned, "Bai Liu, the game pool simulates a league. In this mode, our shop trading system is closed — we can't buy items. If this is the background setting, food and warm clothing are our top priorities."
"Otherwise, we won't last more than a few days before we're forced to withdraw."
Bai Liu nodded in agreement and began issuing orders. "Mu Ke, check the warehouse for food supplies. Tang Erda and Mu Sicheng, secure and repair the building — we'll use it as our expedition base. Jiayi and I will search the control room for a black box or diary recording what happened here a year ago."
"Good."
"Okay."
"Got it!"
After the assignments were given, the group split up.
The base wasn't large, so Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi quickly located the control room.
Unfortunately, the door stood open, and snow had blown inside. It was now slowly melting under the restored heating system.
Liu Jiayi rubbed her hands together and looked at the frost-covered console. "Looks like we'll have to wait for Tang Erda to repair this before we can check the black box."
Bai Liu crouched down, pulled on his gloves, took out a chisel, and began knocking at the frozen drawer seams. The ice sealing them had to be cleared before they could be opened.
The ice here wasn't too thick. After a few strikes, it cracked and fell away.
He pulled open the stiff drawer. Instead of dust, a thin layer of frost coated its contents. Brushing it aside revealed several black notebooks.
Common sense told Bai Liu that in horror games, such notebooks usually contained key plot clues — most likely a diary.
But the moment he opened one, he froze.
Liu Jiayi noticed and leaned over curiously. "That looks important. Why aren't you saying anything…?"
When she saw the contents, she too paused.
The pages were filled with neat, flowing English — dense, technical research notes.
Bai Liu had decent reading ability from his work designing horror games, but this kind of dense, professional scientific English was another matter entirely.
He closed the notebook expressionlessly. "We'll give it to Mu Ke later. I can't read this."
Liu Jiayi, who also couldn't read English: "..."
Rationally, she knew intelligence and language ability weren't the same thing.
But it still felt… strange.
The Edmond Observatory had four floors.
The ground floor was the storage area — fuel, food, fresh water, and equipment neatly stacked and wrapped in plastic sheeting. Two helicopter hangars stood outdoors, protected only by simple sheds.
The first floor contained the living quarters: a sauna, dining room, office area, and several aging computers.
The third and fourth floors were dormitories. Cramped rooms under five square meters held two bunk beds each, the narrow space once packed with bodies sharing warmth.
Judging by the layout, the base must have housed eighty to a hundred people. It would have felt crowded under normal circumstances.
Now, it was eerily empty.
Liu Jiayi's eyes swept across frozen noodles left on a table, half-cut moldy potatoes on the counter, and a stove dial turned to high.
"They must have left in a hurry," she concluded.
Bai Liu rounded the corner from the third floor and corrected her calmly, "—Or they were taken in a hurry."
She looked up.
Bai Liu waved a pair of pants and socks in his hand. "Found these by a dorm bed. No one would run outside in this temperature without wearing them."
"Could they have panicked and fled without thinking?" Liu Jiayi asked.
"Unlikely," Mu Ke said as he came up from the ground floor, having finished checking the warehouse. "The observatory staff were professional mountaineers, firefighters, and trained researchers. They've survived extreme conditions before. It's hard to imagine all of them panicking like that."
He glanced at the half-touched food supplies.
"They would know that running out without provisions is the same as suicide."
Mu Sicheng and Tang Erda returned from the rooftop, where they had been repairing the radio equipment.
Mu Sicheng's cheeks were bluish with cold. The moment he came downstairs, he dove into a dormitory bed, wrapped himself in a blanket, and began shivering violently.
Tang Erda looked steadier, but when he removed his gloves, Bai Liu noticed a patch of bloody skin stuck to his palm. The wound was exposed, yet not a drop of blood flowed.
It had frozen solid.
Tang Erda noticed Bai Liu's gaze. "The control panel was too cold. I couldn't adjust it through the gloves, so I took them off—"
"—And the metal tore your skin off," Bai Liu finished.
Liu Jiayi quickly sprayed the antidote on his palm. The wound slowly healed.
But Mu Sicheng, curled under the blanket, showed no improvement.
The antidote could heal injuries.
It could not cure the cold.
"I checked the thermometer outside," Tang Erda said gravely. "Negative fifty degrees Celsius. We can't stay long in this weather. We'll freeze to death if this continues. We may need to withdraw from the game."
At that moment, Mu Ke — who had been reading the black notebook Bai Liu handed him — suddenly went pale.
He looked up sharply, interrupting Tang Erda.
"This Edmond Observatory… was studying the body parts sent here by the Dangerous Heretics Authority."
Tang Erda's heart skipped. "Impossible. The Authority's materials are strictly regulated. They're not allowed to be used for economic, military, cultural, or political research. Their only purpose is containment."
"With Zone 3 personnel waiting here and five Zone 1 escorts accompanying the shipment, there's no way outsiders could interfere."
Mu Ke exhaled slowly, frost forming at the edge of his lashes. His voice dropped.
"What if I told you the plane carrying the corpse heretics crashed upon arrival at the South Pole…"
"…and the five escorts died violently at the scene?"