In the middle of the night.

Stella Sterling was startled awake by a strange noise.

Her eyes snapped open, sharp with vigilance. She scrambled out of her sleeping bag, secured the gun on her waist, and gripped her long knife. Cautiously, she pulled back a corner of the tent flap to peek outside.

In the darkness of the night, only the endlessly fluttering snowflakes were clearly visible. Everything else was just a blurry shadow.

Stella Sterling took out her specialized night-vision goggles and put them on. Her vision cleared considerably. Dozens of meters ahead, bathed in the glow of a fire, several people were huddled together under the eaves of a dilapidated old building.

The strange noise she had heard was the sound of their voices. Perhaps they couldn’t hear each other over the wind and snow, because they were practically shouting. With her already decent hearing, Stella Sterling had caught it.

They were a fair distance away—not too far, but not too close either. She wondered if they had spotted her.

However, seeing that they had settled in for a while, she figured they wouldn’t be moving on in this weather. With the storm as a barrier, their two groups were unlikely to cross paths. ’Worst case, I’ll just have to be more vigilant for the rest of the night. If we really do run into each other, it’s not certain who’ll be the unlucky ones.’

With that, Stella Sterling flopped back, ready to go back to sleep.

"There’s a tent up ahead! Who else besides people like us would be spending the night out here in a blizzard like this?"

"And a tent, no less! They’re pretty well-equipped!"

"There are two people in that tent at most, and there are seven of us. How about we take care of them and snatch that tent for ourselves?"

"That’s exactly what I was thinking! Seeing someone else all warm and cozy in a tent while I’m stuck out here freezing my ass off... it just doesn’t sit right with me!"

A burst of loud laughter followed.

Stella Sterling’s eyes opened again, a look of resignation in them. ’And so, business comes knocking...’

’These people... shouting so loudly, as if thinking that just because they couldn’t hear themselves, no one else could either.’

’With them being like this, I can’t even pretend I didn’t hear them.’

Stella Sterling got up with a sigh and began putting her clothes back on, piece by piece. As she pulled on her overcoat, the acrid stench of blood assaulted her nostrils, nauseating enough to make one want to vomit.

But Stella Sterling slipped it on with perfect composure. She’d smelled far worse in her previous life and had long since become immune. A scent like this was nothing now.

Zipping up her coat, she finished gearing up. Stella Sterling stepped out of the tent and stored everything inside it into her space.

At that moment, the men were still laughing and joking about how to kill her, completely oblivious to the changes over here. The tent had vanished into thin air, and Stella Sterling, now concealed by the wind and snow, was already walking toward them.

"Why do I feel like someone’s staring at my back? It’s sending a chill down my spine—"

"Don’t be so paranoid, kid. It’s freezing out. Isn’t it normal to feel cold?!"

"Yeah, really. I feel like there’s a draft on my back right now. It’s damn cold!"

"Is that so? Was I just imagining things?" The man shook his head in confusion and said no more.

Just then, Stella Sterling appeared silently behind them. Walking in the snow naturally muffled any sound, and with the cover of the blizzard, it was easy for her to get close. In her hand, she still gripped the giant axe from the shopping mall.

She came up behind one of the men. At that exact moment, someone sitting across from him happened to look up and see Stella Sterling.

Stella Sterling smiled at him and raised her axe. The man’s face changed drastically, and he screamed in their direction, "Watch out! Someone’s behind you!"

But he was a step too late. Hot blood sprayed everywhere, splashing onto the person next to the victim, who instinctively reached up to touch it—

The others, hearing the warning, scrambled to their feet and whipped their heads around to look.

There, amidst the heavy snow and under the moonlight, a fully-armed young woman revealed half her face. She was smiling at them, splattered with the fresh blood of their companion, her axe still dripping red—

Everyone stumbled back two steps, staring at her warily. "What are you doing? Are you insane?!"

"Miss, what the hell is wrong with you?!"

They were both shocked and furious. Looking at the person bleeding at her feet, they couldn’t tell if he was dead or alive. But right now, no one dared to check.

They watched her with guarded expressions. In the middle of a snowy night, they had no idea where this woman had come from. Could she be some psycho?

"No, wait! You’re the one from the tent!"

Suddenly, one of them shouted at Stella Sterling. They had scouted the area earlier and knew that besides the person in the tent, there was no one else around.

For someone to suddenly appear in the middle of the night, it had to be the person from the tent.

Stella Sterling raised her axe. "Bingo! Correct, but there’s no prize!"

With that, she charged them. From the moment they had shown their intent to kill her, she had no intention of letting any of them live.

"Fuck, she’s a psycho!"

"She’s an axe-wielding maniac! Help me—!"

All sorts of strange cries rang out for a moment, but in the vast, empty snowfield, they drew no attention. Silence soon returned.

A short while later, several more bodies lay on the snow. Stella Sterling dragged her axe, noticing that the wind and snow had died down a bit. She decided against resting and prepared to head home.

After a night outside, she was starting to miss her little nest.

A CRUNCHING sound made Stella Sterling turn her head. She saw a dark figure peeking out from behind a pile of sandbags. It looked like someone who had been hiding there for the night and had been woken by the commotion. The person was now staring at her in panic.

Seeing Stella Sterling look over, he quickly shook his head. "I—I didn’t see anything—!"

Stella Sterling smirked but paid him no mind. After walking a safe distance away and confirming no one was following, she got on her snowmobile and left.

"That woman... she’s truly ruthless. This world really has changed!"

Seeing that the woman had no intention of killing him, the scrawny figure emerged from behind the sandbags. When he saw the gruesome state of the bodies on the snow, he sucked in a sharp breath.

But then a glint appeared in his eyes. He ran over to the bodies, found the warmest-looking coat, and put it on. Then he started rummaging through the others, looking for food—

...

Nearing her residential complex, Stella Sterling began to walk. The way was clear. As she passed a certain spot, however, she glanced in a particular direction. Behind a large tree, a familiar figure was sitting, seemingly asleep, already covered in a layer of snow.

She looked for only a moment before retracting her gaze and continuing forward.

"Huh? How’d I fall asleep?!" Not long after Stella Sterling had left, the man in his thirties under the tree woke up. He stood, shook the snow off his body, and stomped his feet to get his circulation going, muttering to himself the whole time.