Apocalypse: I Can Upgrade Everything

Chapter 106: Triggering Characteristics

From a heavy-duty “28-inch” utility bicycle to a tricycle, and now to a four-wheeled beast, this vehicle had been Chen Ye’s companion since his escape from Jiang City.

Throughout the journey, Chen Ye had wanted to swap it out countless times. He had dreamed of a real car.

But this was the apocalypse. The routes Captain Chu Che chose were desolate wastelands where you couldn’t find a ghost, let alone a functioning vehicle.

Later, at the site of the massive car pileup, Chen Ye had briefly set his sights on a rugged SUV bearing a “Bull Head” logo. But time had been short, and moving the wreckage was impossible. In the end, he had only managed to strip a few simple parts before fleeing.

It wasn’t until now, with the Doomsday Pickup evolving into a true Artifact, that Chen Ye finally abandoned the idea of replacing it.

Every Artifact exacted a price.

Take Captain Chu Che’s Eavesdropping Radio. That cursed object had infected him with a compulsion to eavesdrop. It forced Chen Ye to remain silent whenever he upgraded his gear or cultivated, lest his secrets be broadcast. This paranoia wasn’t unique to him; the pink-haired girl, Iron Lion, and Ding Dong had all developed the habit of keeping their mouths shut around the Captain.

Furthermore, the Captain seemed to have lost all interest in women.

There were plenty of beautiful women in the convoy who wanted to win Chu Che’s favor, but the Captain looked at them as if they were nothing more than “pink skeletons”—bags of meat and bone, devoid of appeal.

Just yesterday, a woman who had recently joined from the camel team, unaware of the Captain’s quirks, had sneaked into his tent while he was alone.

The result? She was viciously reprimanded. She fled the tent clutching her clothes, eyes red with tears.

Chen Ye had witnessed the scene. At the time, he thought the Captain was simply unromantic and didn’t know how to cherish a beauty. Rumors even began to circulate that the Captain preferred men.

Of course, Chen Ye wasn’t the one spreading them.

He was fairly certain Chu Che’s abstinence was just another “price” demanded by the Radio.

Then there was the Blood Resentment Machete. Though only ranked within the top 5,000, it demanded a daily sacrifice of fresh blood. Every night, Chen Ye had to slice his own finger to feed it.

Before the Doomsday Pickup finished its upgrade, Chen Ye had braced himself for a terrible cost.

He never expected the vehicle to require nothing—simply because he was Chen Ye.

In an instant, all the frustration and hard work he had poured into this junk heap vanished.

This exemption represented more than just convenience.

Chen Ye’s Upgrade System wasn’t finished. Rank 2899 was just the starting line.

As long as he had enough Slaughter Points, it wasn’t impossible to push the Doomsday Pickup into the top ten, perhaps even rivaling the Sky Whale.

A top-ten Artifact with zero cost? The value was immeasurable.

Chen Ye’s eyes drifted to the final line of the system commentary.

[Commentary: This Artifact, having evolved from two wheels to its current state, is infused with Chen Ye’s blood and sweat. The vehicle regards Chen Ye as a father figure.]

[Triggered Characteristic: Driving Mastery. When Chen Ye drives the Doomsday Pickup, he gains expert-level control. Stunts seen in action movies will be effortless to execute. This characteristic is exclusive to the designated owner.]

A triggered characteristic? Chu Che had never mentioned Artifacts having triggered characteristics like this.

Chen Ye felt a surge of ecstasy.

Simply put, in his hands, this truck was a divine chariot. In anyone else’s, it was just a standard Artifact.

He couldn’t wait. He climbed into the driver’s seat.

Physically, the truck hadn’t changed much. It still had no doors and no windshield; the interior was spartan and crude.

But the moment his hands gripped the steering wheel, the sensation was entirely different.

The vehicle felt alive.

The steering wheel felt like an extension of his own arm. The loose, rickety, “barely hanging on” vibration of the old chassis was gone, replaced by the solid, rhythmic thrum of precision machinery.

In that instant, Chen Ye felt that the impossible drifts and jumps he’d seen in movies were child’s play.

He caressed the rim of the wheel, every cell in his body resonating with familiarity. This connection was far more intense than what he shared with the Blood Resentment Machete.

Is this the side effect of a high-ranking Artifact?

His fingers brushed against something uneven on the back of the steering wheel.

If he hadn’t been intimately connected to the car, he never would have noticed the texture.

Chen Ye squinted, twisting his head to read the tiny line of text embossed on the hidden surface.

“Thank you for bringing me into this world, Father!”

A wave of intense cringe washed over him.

Holy crap.

Is this… the Doomsday Pickup’s inner voice?

Hiss… that’s a little too melodramatic.

It took ten minutes for Chen Ye to calm down from the shock—and the embarrassment.

His next task was to finish the physical repairs.

The front windshield was currently a mismatched pane of glass tied down with rope. The doors and mirrors he had stripped from the abandoned sedan earlier were sitting in the truck bed, waiting to be installed.

Since he had the raw materials, the System only needed to reshape and integrate them to fit the pickup’s dimensions.

This was much cheaper than generating parts from scratch.

[Consumed 500 Slaughter Points. Integration time: 5 hours.]

He had over four thousand points left.

Watching the hourglass countdown appear on the dashboard, Chen Ye stroked his chin, falling into thought.

For personal strength, the Blood Moon Breathing Technique was sufficient for now. At his current cultivation speed, reaching Sequence 2 wouldn’t take long.

Until he secured a massive windfall of Slaughter Points, he would stick to minor upgrades.

Hopefully, Captain Chu would find water soon.

Just then, a sneaky silhouette flashed past Captain Chu’s tent.

Judging by the build, it was Captain Chu.

It was the middle of the night. What was the Captain doing sneaking around like a thief?

Of everyone in the convoy, that guy had the most secrets.

Might as well follow him and take a look.

The New Year’s Eve party had injected a breath of fresh air into the convoy, making the camp feel a little less like a graveyard.

Although the performances were amateur, the enthusiasm was real.

Long after the party ended, Chu Che lay in bed, tossing and turning.

He waited until the camp fell silent, the rhythmic breathing of sleeping survivors the only sound in the night.

Only then did Chu Che sit up.

First, he checked the Eavesdropping Radio beside his pillow. After confirming it was switched off, he let out a breath of relief and tiptoed out of his tent.

Bathed in the crimson glow of the Blood Moon, Captain Chu crept toward the secluded dunes behind the camp.

The desert temperature had plummeted, but Chu Che didn’t feel the cold. Instead, he felt waves of burning shame rising in his chest.

He scanned his surroundings. Once he was certain no one was nearby, he reached into his jacket and pulled out a sleek metal lighter.

It was the “Lovesick” Lighter.

“Ahem…”

Captain Chu cleared his throat, adjusted his emotional state, and then spoke to the lighter in a voice so gentle, so sickly sweet, it would give a diabetic a seizure.

“My little darling… I love you!”

As the words left his mouth, a shudder of revulsion ran through his own body.

When he first obtained the lighter two days ago, he hadn’t taken the “price” seriously. He treated the required confessions of love like a checklist item.

He soon suffered the backlash. He could feel the lighter’s dissatisfaction—it questioned whether his love was genuine.

Today, when he tried to use it, the lighter had only sputtered a pathetic, tiny flame.

That was when Chu Che realized the gravity of the situation. This Artifact was a high-maintenance tyrant.

He couldn’t perform this ritual inside his tent because of the damn Radio. The Radio didn’t just steal other people’s secrets; it listened to its owner, too. And it loved to broadcast them to the public.

Chu Che refused to die a second social death.

“Baby, I really love you,” Chu Che continued, forcing maximum emotion into his voice. He could feel the lighter vibrate in his palm, emitting a pleased hum. “I can’t live without you. Every day without you feels like a year.”

The lighter’s cold metal body began to warm up, glowing with a faint, excited red light.

“Baby, we will be together forever. In this lifetime, you belong only to me, and I belong only to you. Forever and ever!~”

The lighter pulsed with delight. Chu Che could feel its power surging; if an Anomaly attacked now, this little flame could incinerate it instantly.

A detestable voice drifted out from the shadows behind him.

“Ahem… Captain Chu. I never expected you to have this kind of… fetish.”

Chu Che’s entire body went rigid. He froze like a statue.

It wasn’t over.

Another voice—crisp, female, and equally mocking—chimed in from the darkness.

“Wow… Captain Chu. I never knew you were such a pervert!”