The wind howled violently.

  Do-Hyun pulled the collar of his silver expedition parka higher, the thick, high-tech material absorbing the worst of the sub-zero gale. Even with the Ring of the Shadowed Sun projecting its passive warmth and the parka trapping his body heat, his breath crystallized instantly against his black tactical mask.

  Two miles to the Winter School. Under normal circumstances, it was a thirty-minute walk down Gangnam-daero.

  Tonight, it was a death march.

  The snow was falling so fast it created a complete whiteout: Visibility was reduced to less than ten feet. The towering skyscrapers of Seoul's wealthiest district were entirely swallowed by the dark, leaving Do-Hyun completely blind to the sky above. He trudged through waist-deep snow, using the frozen hoods of abandoned cars to navigate by touch.

  [Atmospheric Update: Surface Temperature has dropped to -45°C.]

  [Status: The 'Whiteout' weather event restricts sensory perception. Monsters in this zone gain +50% Stealth.]

  [Countdown: 17 Days, 19 Hours until the Absolute Zero Event.]

  [System: It's practically a freezer out here, Host. If you stop moving, your blood will turn to slush in exactly four minutes. I highly suggest finding a roof. Or a coffin. Whichever is closer.]

  "I can't stop," Do-Hyun rasped, his voice barely audible over the howling wind. "If I take shelter, I burn calories to stay warm without gaining any. I need to keep hunting."

  CRUNCH.

  Do-Hyun froze.

  The sound was muffled by the snow, but it came from his immediate right. The heavy crunch of something massive stepping onto the roof of an abandoned city bus.

  He slid his gloved hand to his belt, his fingers wrapping around the hilt of the Headsman's Edge.

  Through the swirling wall of white snow, two glowing, spectral blue eyes ignited. Then two more. Then another pair.

  A pack.

  [Monster Encounter: Frost Hounds (Rank E+)]

  [Quantity: 6]

  [System: Oh look, the welcoming committee. They smell the three ghoul cores you ate earlier. Time to burn some of those calories you're hoarding.]

  A massive Frost Hound leaped from the top of the bus, its jaws snapping open to reveal icicle-like teeth.

  Do-Hyun couldn't step back. The snow was too deep; dodging was impossible. Meeting it head-on was the only option.

  He drew the Headsman's Edge in a blinding upward arc. The dark, serrated steel sheared straight through the hound's open jaw, burying itself deep into its brain cavity.

  Black blood erupted over the snow, sizzling as the blade's Serrated Wound effect tore the monster's life force apart.

  [Critical Hit.]

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  Before the first hound's corpse even hit the ground, the rest of the pack lunged from the whiteout.

  Do-Hyun kicked the dead hound off his blade and dropped to one knee, the deep snow acting as a crude shield.

  A second hound flew right over his head. Do-Hyun twisted his wrist and slashed upward, gutting the beast mid-air.

  "Two," he counted, his breath puffing rapidly.

  Three hounds hit the snow around him, circling, their blue flames flickering through the blizzard. They were learning. They realized the frail-looking human was lethal in close quarters.

  The largest hound, a massive alpha with a scarred snout, inhaled deeply. Its chest expanded, glowing with a bright, terrifying blue light.

  [Warning: Frost Breath incoming. Evasion impossible due to terrain depth.]

  Do-Hyun's violet eyes narrowed. He couldn't dodge, and his stolen parka would shatter if hit directly by magical ice.

  He raised his left hand, pointing his index and middle fingers at the alpha hound.

  Dimensional Sever (Prototype).

  The calorie drain hit him like a punch to the gut. The familiar, agonizing shudder ripped through his core as 4,500 kcal vanished in an instant, converted into raw spatial authority.

  A jagged, invisible line ripped through the blizzard. The spatial tear cleaved the falling snow in half, leaving a perfect vacuum in the air, and struck the alpha hound right down the center of its glowing chest.

  The beast fell neatly into two identical halves, its Frost Breath detonating harmlessly into the snowbank behind it.

  [System Warning: Calorie Deficit!]

  [Host Internal Temperature: 35.2°C.]

  Do-Hyun gasped, his knees buckling slightly as the cold immediately rushed in to fill the heat void in his body.

  Seeing him stumble, the remaining three hounds lunged simultaneously.

  "Too slow," Do-Hyun hissed through chattering teeth.

  Shadow Bind.

  His shadow exploded outward over the snow, branching into three thick tendrils that whipped up and wrapped around the throats of the charging beasts. Their momentum yanked them down, slamming their heavy bodies into the frozen asphalt hidden beneath the drifts.

  Do-Hyun pushed himself up and walked over to the pinned hounds, boots dragging heavily through the snow, then systematically drove the Headsman's Edge into their skulls one by one.

  [Pack Defeated.]

  [XP Gained.]

  Do-Hyun dropped to his knees, his chest heaving. Without waiting for the bodies to dissolve, he plunged his hands into their freezing, sludgy chests, tearing out all six of their pale-blue monster cores.

  His hands were numb, trembling violently as he forced the cores past his lips, crushing them between his teeth.

  [System Notification: 6x E+ Rank Cores Consumed. (+2,400 kcal)]

  [Internal Temperature Stabilizing: 36.8°C.]

  [System: Excellent recovery, Host. But look at your math. You burned 4,500 calories to cast that spell and only gained 2,400 back from the meal. You are operating at a net loss. Keep this up, and you'll be an ice sculpture before you reach the halfway mark.]

  Do-Hyun swallowed the last core, wiping the toxic black blood from his chin. The System was right. If he kept using his Void or Space authorities on low-level trash just to survive the terrain, he would freeze to death long before he reached his sister's school. He needed to fight purely with physical attacks or find a massive concentration of monsters to gorge on.

  Standing up, he peered through the howling whiteout:

  Just a few yards away, the snow drifts stopped abruptly, giving way to a wide, sloping staircase leading down into the earth. The sign above the stairs was completely frosted over, but Do-Hyun recognized the shape of the architecture.

  The Gangnam Underground Shopping Center.

  A sprawling, subterranean network of hundreds of boutiques, food courts, and subway transfer tunnels. It spanned nearly two miles beneath the main avenue, running parallel to the exact route he needed to take to reach the Winter School.

  The entrance was pitch dark, emitting a foul, metallic odor that cut through the sterile smell of the snow.

  [Location Discovered: Gangnam Underground Labyrinth.]

  [Danger Level: High.]

  [Status: High-Density Spawn Zone.]

  [System: It's out of the wind, Host. But it's crawling with things that want to wear your skin. Care to go shopping? Or are you too scared of the dark?]

  Do-Hyun looked back at the deadly, freezing whiteout of the surface, where navigating the drifts was slowly bleeding him dry. Then he looked down into the black abyss of the underground mall.

  He gripped the Headsman's Edge tighter, the dark steel pulsing in anticipation of a slaughter.

  "I need the calories," Do-Hyun murmured, a cold, arrogant smirk touching his lips beneath the mask.

  He descended the snow-caked stairs, leaving the blizzard behind and stepping into the dark.