by john1208·Translated by Novel AI Studio
Mantas Kaminskas saw the White Scald coming. For two years, he warned the terraced city of Vilkavas about the incoming atmospheric ignition, only to be branded a lunatic, fired from his engineering firm, and ostracized by his own family. Retreating beneath the bedrock, he constructed a state-of-the-art cryogenic shelter. When the sky turns white and the streets literally melt, those who spat on him come pounding on his blast doors. Mantas has the ultimate 'I told you so' moment, but there is a horrifying catch. The bunker's experimental cryo-core is powered by the Kardiak Engine, a system that converts human neural-frequencies of genuine guilt and regret into thermal coolant. Innocent people provide no fuel. Only those who have committed deep, selfish wrongs - and truly repent - can keep the temperature from rising. Mantas faces a brutal moral dilemma. Will he condemn innocent children to burn outside because they cannot fuel the bunker, or will he turn his shelter into a purgatory for the very monsters who ruined his life, forcing them to confess their darkest sins to survive?
