Chapter 2
The moment I saw the snow falling,
Riiiiing…
A sharp ringing filled my ears.
I covered both ears with my hands.
Then, all of a sudden, I remembered a novel I had read in my previous life.
It was a disaster novel called How to Survive the Great Winter.
The final villain of that story was Logan, who had gone through nine regressions.
There was only one reason he kept turning back time.
The death of his first love.
Every time she died, Logan turned back time.
She died in many different ways.
Sometimes she was killed by survivors after getting caught in a fight.
Sometimes she was killed by cannibals.
Sometimes she was kidnapped by insane scientists who were experimenting on humans.
The reasons were different.
But the one responsible was always the same.
Humans.
Logan grew to hate humanity.
At first, he did everything he could to stop the disaster.
But it never worked.
People always betrayed him.
And his first love always died.
The novel began after Logan returned to the past for the tenth and final time.
It was his last chance.
The mysterious power that let him go back in time was completely used up after the tenth regression.
The Logan of the tenth timeline had completely changed.
His hatred for humanity had become overwhelming.
And when his first love died once again at the beginning of the novel, that hatred reached its limit.
He created a plan to wipe out humanity.
Then he carried it out.
His first love…
His Academy classmate…
Eve Rania Everheart.
That was me.
“Hurry, Eve.”
Logan’s voice brought me back to reality.
I calmed myself and followed him into the passenger seat of the steam-powered car.
It was the middle of the city.
Early spring.
Yet heavy snow was pouring from the sky.
Within moments, the roads were completely covered.
Logan drove the car himself.
“In three hours, the entire city will freeze.”
“Cars like this won’t be able to move anymore.”
“So we need to hurry.”
As I listened to him, I tightened my grip on the seat belt.
I wondered…
How much driving experience did Logan even have?
While thinking about that, I looked outside.
The people in the city believed this was just strange weather.
They laughed happily, enjoying the beautiful snow.
Quietly, I thought back to How to Survive the Great Winter.
I couldn’t remember anything about my previous life.
The only thing I remembered was that novel.
It was about the main character, Aiden, who built a survival base after an Ice Age struck the world.
He expanded the base, gathered survivors, and searched for a way to end the endless winter.
But…
The story could only happen if the villain’s first love died.
That first love was me.
The biggest surprise wasn’t that.
It was realizing that the world I had lived in all this time…
Was actually the world inside that novel.
And I was someone who was supposed to die.
Now I finally understood why Logan had joined the army.
He had prepared for the future in every way he could.
But every attempt had failed.
Even so, he never gave up.
This time, he had decided to become stronger as a soldier.
As I sorted everything out in my head, I quickly calmed down.
The years I had spent struggling with debt had taught me how to stay calm in desperate situations.
Logan has memories from his regressions.
I have memories of the novel.
That meant I had one advantage.
Logan only knew what had happened during his nine previous lives.
I knew the original story.
“Logan.”
“Where are we going?”
“Rosebrook.”
“Why there?”
“It’s the best place to survive.”
Actually, I already knew he was heading to Rosebrook.
I only asked to make sure the novel was real.
I can’t die like I did in the story.
I quickly began thinking.
Trying to remember every detail of the novel.
As I watched the snowy streets and the storm growing stronger…
Rumble…
A deep roar shook the ground.
Logan glanced into the side mirror.
“Landslide.”
He sounded perfectly calm.
As if he had expected this all along.
I turned around.
A huge mass of snow was crashing down from the mountains southeast of the capital.
BOOOOM!
It looked like an entire mountain was collapsing.
Snow, ice, and rocks rushed toward the road like a giant wave.
It was too close.
The avalanche swallowed people in seconds.
Those who had been smiling while watching the snow disappeared beneath the white wave.
“AAAAAH!”
Screams filled the air.
It was like hell.
Without thinking, I grabbed the half-open window.
It was unbelievably cold.
I pulled my hand back in shock.
A small layer of skin came off one of my fingers.
I wrapped it with my handkerchief and shouted,
“Logan! We need to go faster!”
“Don’t worry.”
He pressed harder on the accelerator.
My hands were shaking.
Still, I forced myself to stay calm.
“Logan.”
“There’s a tunnel under the southeastern cliff.”
“It’s still under construction.”
“If we go through it, we’ll reach Rosebrook much faster.”
“What?”
Logan looked at me in surprise.
Almost no one knew about that tunnel.
Construction wasn’t even finished yet.
But I remembered it because another important supporting character had used it many times in How to Survive the Great Winter.
“Left!”
“Turn left!”
Logan looked at me with a confused expression.
“Just a little farther!”
There was no time to argue.
He trusted me and turned the wheel.
The very next second…
CRAAASH!
The avalanche swallowed the road we had been driving on only moments before.
I let out a shaky breath.
“Can you tell me exactly where the tunnel is?”
“Turn left at the church up ahead!”
Logan looked at me suspiciously.
You’re looking at me like I’m suspicious.
At least make your eyes a little friendlier.
I’m still not used to the fact that we’re married.
Rumble…
The snow and dirt kept chasing after us.
“Damn.”
Logan increased the speed again.
As soon as we turned left at the church, I saw it.
The entrance to the tunnel.
It was blocked off with fences because construction wasn’t finished.
Luckily, the mountain above it was made of solid rock.
It hadn’t collapsed yet.
“This won’t work.”
Suddenly, Logan let go of the steering wheel.
Was he crazy?
“Logan!”
“Grab the wheel!”
“It won’t make it.”
“Huh?”
He reached into the back seat and pulled out a large backpack.
There was a bag back there?
He slung it over his shoulder.
Then he grabbed my hand.
Before I could react…
He lifted me into his arms.
He turned the steering wheel sharply.
Then he jumped out of the car.
The car disappeared into the avalanche almost instantly.
Just before the snow reached us…
We rolled into the tunnel.
RUMBLE!
The entrance collapsed behind us.
Luckily…
Because it collapsed, the snow couldn’t reach the deeper parts of the tunnel.
Drip.
At that moment, blood ran from my nose.
I took the handkerchief away from my finger and pressed it against my nose.
Logan, who was still holding me, quickly sat up and looked at me in alarm.
“Eve.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“I’m fine.”
“I always get nosebleeds.”
It happened all the time.
Ever since I was little, my body had been weak.
My nose would suddenly start bleeding for no reason.
But every doctor always said nothing was wrong.
“I see.”
Logan answered as if he already knew.
Then he gently took my handkerchief and helped stop the bleeding.
I looked back toward the blocked entrance.
Frost was already spreading across it.
“We should go deeper inside.”
I quickly took the handkerchief back.
Logan looked a little disappointed before nodding.
“Wait.”
He started searching through his backpack.
He even prepared a bag.
He really planned everything.
“You knew this would happen from the beginning, didn’t you?”
One of Logan’s eyebrows twitched.
But he stayed calm.
“Yes.”
“I knew.”
“But registering our marriage was important.”
“I couldn’t skip it.”
Seriously?
Getting married was more important than surviving?
Something is definitely wrong with him.
Then I remembered something.
At one point in the novel, Aiden had given Logan a nickname.
He called him…
“The guy who’s crazy about Eve.”
…
This idiot.
He’s completely obsessed with me.
THIS IS THE END OF CHAPTER 2
