“Pick up anything interesting last night?”

Captain Chu stood by the window of his tent, a cup of clear tea in hand, watching Chen Ye work in the distance.

When Chen Ye glanced over, Chu raised his cup in a silent toast.

The Captain had to admit, he was genuinely surprised by Chen Ye’s vehicle.

Last night, it had been a dilapidated three-wheeled cart. Overnight, it had morphed into a massive Doomsday Pickup.

If he weren’t suspicious, Captain Chu wouldn’t be sitting securely in the leader’s chair.

Besides, as a Captain possessing the ‘Eavesdropping Radio’, no secret within the convoy could escape his ears.

“No strange sounds detected!”

“Something’s odd. Something’s odd!”

The radio squawked in an eerie, distorted tone.

The System’s upgrade process didn’t produce noise. It only caused a momentary ethereal distortion when the transformation finalized.

Therefore, the Eavesdropping Radio picked up nothing about the System itself.

This wasn’t the first time the device had failed to penetrate Chen Ye’s privacy.

A secret that even the Artifact couldn’t uncover? Just thinking about it made every cell in Captain Chu’s body tingle with excitement.

Could it be a new type of Sequence Beyonder?

The Mechanic Sequence?

I’d be a fool to believe that!

“Hehe… It seems our friend here is hiding a massive secret.”

Captain Chu took a sip of tea, his eyes narrowing with amusement.

“But so what if he has a secret?”

“Who in this convoy doesn’t have secrets?”

“The difference is… I know everyone else’s.”

“Interesting…”

Captain Chu didn’t actually care about what the secret was.

He was driven by a perverse, voyeuristic compulsion. What he craved was the thrill of knowing, the illicit pleasure of eavesdropping on private lives. He didn’t necessarily want to seize the power for himself.

Even though he knew Chen Ye’s secret must be significant, he had no intention of forcing it out of him.

In this apocalypse, everyone wore a mask.

There was the pink-haired, long-legged alcoholic high school girl. There was the simple-minded Iron Lion. There was himself.

Everyone had secrets.

Even the ordinary survivors had things they wanted to hide.

But… no one held as many cards as Captain Chu.

Relying on his superhuman physique, Chen Ye worked quickly. He finished mounting one tire and immediately moved to the next.

Before long, all four all-terrain tires were secured.

With the wheels on, the Doomsday Pickup didn’t look inferior to Nana or Captain Chu’s modified off-road vehicles.

In fact, strictly in terms of size, it was even larger.

Length: 6.5 meters. Width: 2.5 meters.

It sat on the desert highway like a dormant steel beast.

Throughout the entire process, Xu Lina worked quietly by his side. She didn’t speak a word, making herself as unobtrusive as air.

By the time he started on the second wheel, she didn’t need reminders. As soon as Chen Ye raised a hand, she placed the correct tool in his palm.

Looking at the completed form of the Doomsday Pickup, Chen Ye was in an excellent mood.

He fished a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and pulled out a ‘Huazi’.

He flicked his lighter twice. Click. Click. No flame.

A sudden gust of wind carrying yellow sand blew past, extinguishing the spark.

Suddenly, he sensed a fragrant breeze approaching. He looked up to see Xu Lina standing close, holding her coat open to shield him from the wind.

The morning air was still crisp, so she wore a trench coat over a tight-fitting black high-neck shirt and skinny jeans.

Clearly, she had dressed with intention.

Her curvaceous figure was displayed right before Chen Ye’s eyes.

Catching his gaze, the woman’s cheeks flushed slightly. She turned her face away, feigning shyness.

The tableau looked like a cheesy romantic slow-motion shot from a pre-apocalypse drama.

It was genuinely puzzling how this woman, who hadn’t bathed properly in days, still managed to smell good.

Once the cigarette was lit, Xu Lina lowered her coat, her face still red as she stared at the crimson clouds on the horizon.

This little bit of mild titillation didn’t lead Chen Ye to do anything inappropriate.

Cigarette dangling from his lips, he began installing the engine.

This Doomsday Pickup utilized a dual-drive hybrid system.

The electric drive used the original 27-horsepower motor from the ‘Chili Fish Head’ Mini EV, paired with a battery capacity of about ten kilowatt-hours.

Trying to fully charge such a battery with standard solar panels was basically a pipe dream. Even with ideal sunlight, it would take weeks.

Therefore, his plan to use outdoor solar panels would require a serious upgrade to the panels themselves.

But that was a problem for later.

Right now, he needed to install the 2.0-liter turbo gasoline engine.

The System had already prepped the engine bay with all the necessary mounts and connections. Following the mental guide, Chen Ye dropped the engine in with ease.

Excited, he yanked open the door and climbed into the cockpit.

Inside, it was spartan. Aside from the original digital dash from the Mini EV, there was just a steering wheel.

Radio? Communications? Heated seats? AC?

None of it.

The transmission was manual. The seats were manually adjustable. Even the windows were hand-cranked.

Every luxury had been stripped to save Slaughter Points.

It was the “beggar’s version” of a truck.

Even the headlight was singular—recycled from the tricycle.

In that regard, the truck resembled its owner. Both man and machine were cyclopes.

Chen Ye turned the key.

Vroom!

The vehicle shuddered and roared to life.

Chen Ye’s grin stretched from ear to ear. He couldn’t contain it.

The configuration was bare-bones, stripped down to the metal, but sitting in the driver’s seat gave him an indescribable sense of satisfaction.

For so long, he had been the straggler—the diàochēwěi—of the convoy.

Every time they migrated, he was the one stumbling along at the rear, eating everyone else’s dust.

No more.

The roar of the engine finally caught the attention of the others.

“Damn, Yezi! You’re something else! You managed to put together such a big monster overnight!”

“Eh? Is this… is this really the ‘Chili Fish Head’ from before?”

The rarely sober Nana wandered over, her pink hair swaying in the wind. She ran a hand along the imposing fender of the truck, letting out a string of admiring exclamations.

It wasn’t just the long-legged girl who was amazed.

The ordinary survivors gathered around, their eyes practically glowing.

In the apocalypse, who didn’t want a vehicle?

Look at the Zhou sisters. Just because they had a small sedan, their quality of life was leagues above everyone else.

And Chen Ye’s Doomsday Pickup? It was on another level.

At 6.5 meters long, it dwarfed the modified off-roaders of the combat team. That size represented cargo capacity. It represented survival.

The survivors’ eyes filled with envy and jealousy.

“This truck… not bad, Yezi!”

“As expected of the Mechanic Sequence. Impressive!”

Nana circled the vehicle again and again, like a kid in a candy store.

“Yezi, get out. Let me try it…”

She didn’t ask; she demanded.

Chen Ye chuckled and hopped down from the cab.

The girl threw her long legs up and slid into the driver’s seat.

“Whoa, the interior is this shabby?” she complained instantly. “Why is there nothing in here? And it’s a manual!”

She looked around with disdain. Compared to her tricked-out off-roader, this was a tin can.

Chen Ye didn’t mind her roasting his ride. He just stood there, smiling at his creation.

In the background, Xu Lina had squeezed her way out of the crowd. She quietly set up a stove and solid alcohol blocks near the Supplies to prepare breakfast.

Hmph! While everyone envies your achievements, only I care about whether you’re eating enough.

This time, let’s see how you escape my grasp.

A calculated smile curled Xu Lina’s lips before vanishing just as quickly.

VROOM! SCREECH!

Suddenly, the Doomsday Pickup’s engine roared violently. The chassis groaned under the torque.

The truck lurched forward abruptly, tires screaming against the asphalt.

The surrounding survivors scrambled in panic, screaming and diving out of the way.

“Watch out!”

The truck shot forward three or four meters.

A wretched scream cut through the air as an old man frantically crawled on all fours to escape. The massive grille of the Doomsday Pickup loomed less than two meters from him.

Just as the steel bumper was about to crush him—

SCREECH!

The tires locked up, leaving two thick black rubber marks on the highway. The truck halted inches from disaster.

The old man collapsed on the ground, his forehead slick with cold sweat, staring dumbfounded at the monster that had almost eaten him.

It was none other than Old Man Zhang, the driver of the Elderly Mobility Scooter.

Nana jumped down from the cab, her face slightly flushed. “Damn. Haven’t driven stick in years. Didn’t expect my skills to be this rusty.”

Old Man Zhang opened his mouth to unleash a torrent of curses, but when he saw the pink hair and the long legs, he forcefully swallowed the words back down.

She was a Sequence Beyonder. He was just an old man with a scooter.

The other survivors were equally terrified, hearts pounding in their chests, but no one dared to scold the girl. They just held their breath.

Chen Ye, however, remained expressionless.

The desert was vast. Even if Nana drove like a maniac, there was nothing to hit out here but sand.

Besides, the vehicle might be simple, but it was a System product. It was built tough.

With the transport issue solved, it was time for the next step: planning the upgrade of the Artifact.