Apocalypse Descent: Farming with My Harem

Flames snap to life at Cao Xing’s feet, no bigger than a campfire on a frozen beach. A second ago he was on Blue Star, watching the global launch of the game *Age of Ice*. Now the countdown has ended and the promise has come true: every last human has been dragged inside.

The rules arrive like a system whisper in the back of his skull. This weak little fire marks the edge of his world. Stray beyond its circle of light for too long, and the cold eats you alive. Feed it, strengthen it, or vanish.

Bonfire. Large Bonfire. Furnace. Energy Tower. Super Energy Station. A ladder of glowing icons stretches upward, each one demanding resources, buildings, troops. Behind those dry words lies the only path from shivering prey to someone the blizzard has to go around.

Cao Xing should be dead in minutes. Instead, something buried in the code wakes up—a hidden SSS‑grade talent the devs never announced: Eternal Power. The frost on his fingers melts. The fire bends toward him.

Then he realizes he isn’t alone. A stunning, sharp‑eyed saozi—his sister‑in‑law from the old world—stands in the half‑light, shivering in thin clothes, her own secret talent answering his like a second heartbeat. Awkward glances, shared rations, the rustle of makeshift bedding by the fire: survival pulls them close long before either of them is ready to name what’s happening.

Together they push the bonfire higher, raise walls out of scavenged ice and steel, and call strange new troops to their banner. But every upgrade throws more of the map into view: rival players building their own fortresses, buried technologies humming under the snow, and a truth about *Age of Ice* that makes "game" sound like a bad joke.

If Cao Xing’s fire ever goes out, it won’t just be his little territory that freezes; it will be the last warmth his people remember.