Yuan Shenzi stood just inside the shattered supermarket entrance, the single thermal blanket wrapped tightly around his shoulders and torso. The gentle, steady warmth radiating from the fabric felt almost unreal. It seeped through his frozen office shirt, slowly chasing the deep numbness from his chest and arms. His fingers, once white and lifeless, tingled as circulation returned in painful prickles.
He took a slow, deep breath. The air inside was still bitterly cold, but it no longer felt like knives in his lungs. The blanket was surprisingly lightweight, yet it trapped heat with unnatural efficiency, adjusting slightly to his body temperature like a living thing.
Unlimited thermal blankets… If this is real, then today I won't freeze to death.
The thought brought no wild joy, only quiet calculation. Shenzi's mind was already moving forward, assessing threats and opportunities with the same detached precision he once used for quarterly reports.
He scanned the immediate area. The glass doors were frozen half-open, blocked by heavy snowdrifts. Dim gray light filtered through the snow-covered windows, casting long shadows across rows of shelves that stretched into darkness. Outside, the blizzard continued its relentless assault.
Shenzi moved with purpose. Using the blanket as a temporary shield against the biting drafts, he began dragging heavy store fixtures toward the entrance. Metal shopping carts clattered loudly as he piled them against the broken doors. He added fallen display racks, stacking them methodically to create a crude but effective barricade. Every few minutes he paused, slipping his hands back under the blanket to warm them. The work was exhausting in his weakened state, but he conserved energy, never rushing.
Through a narrow gap in the barricade, he caught a glimpse of movement outside. A lone survivor, a young woman in a torn sweater, ran past screaming, pursued by two slow-moving zombies. Their limbs were encrusted with thick ice, making their gait even more labored. The woman slipped on a patch of ice. Before she could scramble up, the creatures were on her. Her screams rose sharply, then choked off as frost rapidly spread across her exposed skin. Shenzi watched without expression, his face illuminated faintly by the gray light.
One blanket won't save them. I need to secure this place first.
He turned away and continued reinforcing the entrance until he was satisfied no easy gap remained. Only then did he allow himself to move deeper into the store, the blanket still draped around him like a cloak.
The supermarket was enormous. Ground floor stretched out in wide aisles filled with general goods. Shenzi explored methodically, footsteps echoing in the eerie silence. The food section offered rows of canned goods, instant noodles, and snacks, many already frozen solid into useless bricks. The clothing aisle had limited winter stock since the disaster had struck before the proper season: a handful of thick jackets, gloves, scarves, and thermal underwear. He immediately took a dark winter coat, pulling it over his shirt, then added gloves and a wool scarf. In the household goods section he found tools, tape, and rope. The small pharmacy corner yielded painkillers, bandages, and basic first-aid supplies. He also grabbed a flashlight with dead batteries and several bottles of water that hadn't completely frozen.
Above, upper floors presumably held electronics, appliances, and furniture. A service staircase and elevator led down to a large underground storage area, though without power both were currently inaccessible. The layout was promising—multiple levels, plenty of space, and hidden storage below.
The silence inside felt almost sacred compared to the howling wind outside. The faint smell of frozen food and settled dust hung in the air. Every footstep sounded unnaturally loud.
Shenzi carried his collected items to a relatively sheltered corner near the back of the ground floor, close to the staff break room and far from the windows. He chose this spot deliberately: protected from drafts, easy to defend, and with decent lines of sight toward the entrance.
He pulled more thermal blankets from the infinite supply. The system allowed him to take as many as he wanted. He spread one thick blanket as a ground sheet to insulate against the cold floor, then stacked several others upright like makeshift walls to block drafts. Finally, he layered two more over himself as covers. The small nest formed quickly, creating a pocket of surprising warmth in the middle of the frozen store.
For the first time since waking in the snow, Shenzi sat down and allowed himself to rest. He tore open a pack of biscuits with gloved hands and drank from a bottle of water. The simple meal was nothing special, dry and plain, but eating without violent shivering felt luxurious. The warmth from the blankets enveloped him completely, soothing his aching muscles and restoring clarity to his thoughts.
In his old life, he had often eaten instant meals alone in his small apartment after long office hours. Solitary. Efficient. Emotionally empty. Now, even in this frozen hell, the system had already given him something better than mere survival.
If I get one unlimited item every dawn… what will tomorrow bring? Food? Fuel? Weapons?
As the gray "day" slowly darkened into deeper gloom, Shenzi remained seated in his blanket fort. He tested the limits of his new resource, pulling out additional blankets and experimenting. He stacked them in layers, used one to block a persistent draft near the floor, and even wrapped another around a water bottle to see if the gentle heat would thaw it slightly. It worked! Tiny droplets of condensation formed on the plastic.
Outside, the sounds grew more ominous. Distant screams had mostly faded, replaced by the increasing frequency of low, guttural zombie moans. The blizzard howled without pause. Through the snow-covered windows, Shenzi noticed something strange: blue-tinted ice forming unnaturally fast along the glass edges, creeping inward like living veins. The cold was not merely weather. Something supernatural was at work.
Night began to fall completely, turning the world beyond the barricade into pure darkness broken only by the faint moans drifting closer. The supermarket creaked occasionally under the weight of snow and wind.
Shenzi lay back in his blanket nest, warm for the first time since the apocalypse began. The contrast was stark, the deadly freezing world raging just outside his walls, while he rested in soft, reliable heat.
He allowed himself a small, cold smile in the darkness.
"Others are burning furniture to stay alive…" he murmured quietly, voice barely above a whisper, "and I have infinite blankets."
Yet as the zombie moans grew louder right outside the barricaded doors, a single question lingered in his calculating mind:
Would this sanctuary remain safe when true darkness fully settled over the frozen world?
And what single gift would the next dawn deliver?