Coldsnap: The Billionaire Alpha's Fated Pregnant Princess (GL)
Chapter 140 - Finally A Cold & Clear Hint

Chapter 140: Chapter 140 - Finally A Cold & Clear Hint

| TASK COMPLETION ✓ |

| Survivor’s Wisdom+ |

Again it has provided a reward more hastily than some of the others. But unfortunately I don’t know if it’s because my suspicion is correct or not. About it’s not-magic working off of my sense of desire.

Giving a ’plus’ to an existing ’perk’ could just be... more immediate than granting something from scratch. I’ll have to do another experiment next time.

Glancing at the map shows no particular difference in the information this ability was already providing, but the resource grid was a different matter entirely. Where the interface was blue glows with the lilac square before and that was pretty much it...

"You’ve got to be kidding me."

New information filled it. The grid was now filled with icons and symbols. I see listings for the metals, the electronics, the weapons, food, medical supplies... everything. Including the blanket. Including the rabbit carcass!

> This is counting what is in the shipping container now, isn’t it? <

Of course the ability to focus on each and get its category or name... and the values were still there and as confusingly precise as before, like the time it counted the deer meat. For instance, | Water (S) | was probably the bottles, but it didn’t count them by that.

It gave it in units without a whole number - | 218.4 |. The only thing that could be in my mind is a volume measurement. Which makes more sense... when I look at the precious metals, who all only have a single listing despite there being different weights of gold coins.

"35... units. I’m not sure how much that is, but for now I’ll assume it is the same ’troy ounces’ that this world uses for the topic. I should research how much that will actually get me."

I allowed myself to be distracted by this only because of all the ’golden’ yellowy glows that appeared around certain squares. Highlighting items with a warmer, pulsing light than the blue foxfire that most things in this system were displayed with.

When it came to what the system was adding this detail to... the wolf and werewolf pelts I’d taken from the hunter’s cabin blazed with that radiance. The thick fleece blanket I’d been sleeping on also glowed brightly.

Even my jacket from the charity drive showed a faint golden outline. It didn’t take long to come up with an acceptable answer as I scrolled through this new complete inventory.

> All of it that glows is... warm. Or can be used to help with warmth. <

The alcohol from this last cache even glowed, perhaps because it is flammable. Or maybe because alcohol doesn’t freeze? At least, purer kinds will not - not at temperatures humans can survive...

Food items showed varying degrees of this gold glow. High-calorie dense foods were the brightest, while the goods that were nutritious but low calorie had a moderate yellow shine. Light clothes alone were only barely glowing.

But it was the items that weren’t glowing at all that told the real story. Like the beautiful red chert I’d impulsively taken? No extra yellow shine!

> It doesn’t find it important to survive in the apocalypse at all, clearly. I feel almost as judged about it as when you saw me taking it, Vrika. <

The system wasn’t just rating a general survival value. It was specifically highlighting items useful for surviving... cold conditions. And unlike the map, it didn’t seem to have a mode toggle between things that are currently useful and especially useful during the apocalypse.

When it came to an appropriate answer, Helene’s memories suggested that an ice age had been talked about coming again by scholars for a while now. Which is a good enough answer to begin planning from, I think.

"Not war with catastrophic consequences or zombie plagues. Nor mundane pandemic. Robot alien invasion. Simply an Endless winter. Beginning after... this world’s solstice, or thereabouts."

I stared into space for a while after that. Knowing what I might be dealing with is better. It is. But it’s also worse. A month and a half until the world... froze. Began to freeze? Whatever the case is, it’s not good news.

Electrical grids would fail if it gets cold enough, for long enough. Supply chains would collapse under the weight of perpetual winter, the oceans too cold to traverse very far. Roads too icy to truck.

The warm places I’d been taking for granted, that everyone does, would become distant memories. And preparing for winter for a few months at a time is already a monumental task per person every year. The people of this world will be unprepared, even if they started now.

My wolf sent back impressions of denning in caves warmed by the Earth itself. Of growing thicker winter coats. Deep survival instincts that had carried our kind through ice ages before.

> Vrika, we’re going to need a lot more than what we have. <

I stored everything and simply began walking. Not even bothering to shift or keep my backpack and phone on hand, don clothes or anything. Without a strong purpose yet, but knowing I would need... to return to the city.

Suddenly, Kyrie’s offer of help didn’t seem like a threat to my independence. It seemed like the difference between life and death. One foot in front of the other, bare skin barely registering the cool air - or the occasional water droplet falling from overhead branches.

Part of me registered the changing between rocky surfaces and soft forest floor beneath my feet. As flashes of old memory, mine not Helene’s, surfaced. Royal hunts in my homeland in the wintertime.

Warding off the bone-deep cold that crept through even fox fur. The incidents where servants had died when caught out by early blizzards. How quickly civilization became irrelevant when the temperature dropped low enough.

Winters that killed the unprepared. Dens carved deep into hillsides where families huddled together for months. Beast, shifter, human - all turned to just keeping as still as possible to endure until it was over and spring came.

I kept walking with so many dim thoughts circling and my pace never changed. Slow but forward, toward the city and whatever choices waited there after I gathered money. After I used it to collect what I needed to hopefully survive.

Warmth. Everything came back to warmth. I’ll still be pregnant when it starts... I’ll give birth in the cold months of it later if it really is an endless winter. And I’ll need shelter, food, and water during that.

Kyrie’s white tower rose like a beacon of potential in my mind. Like it was the thing I was moving mechanically toward.

Probably climate controlled, but who knows if it can handle constant icy conditions. Resources, but who knows if they can store enough for their pack - let alone others. Protection, at least until I become inconvenient.

"Aren’t I already?"