Apocalypse: I Can Upgrade Everything

Chapter 112: The Extremely Cold World

In Chu Che’s sensory perception, the situation was grim.

There were over seven Anomalies closing in—front, back, left, and right. The desert was a kill box. The only path that wasn’t immediately lethal was the expanse of white snow stretching out before them.

If he had a choice, Chu Che wouldn’t step foot in there.

Even a fool knew that a sudden frozen wasteland in the middle of a desert was a death trap.

Since the apocalypse began, the weather had gone mad. The desert was a furnace by day and a freezer by night, but this… this was different.

Unfortunately, they were out of options.

“Captain Chu, didn’t you say you have Weather Perception?” Chen Ye’s voice crackled, sharp with accusation. “Why didn’t you mention this earlier?”

The eyes of the group—the pink-haired girl, Iron Lion, and Ding Dong—all swivelled to Chu Che.

Chu Che sighed, his expression helpless. “Weather Perception is centered on my physical location. I can’t forecast coordinates that are miles away. By the time I sensed the anomaly, we were already on top of it.”

I didn’t realize until it was too late. He wisely left that part unsaid.

Chen Ye chewed on his cigarette, thinking. “What about your Concealment Barrier? Throw one up. We’ll hide for three days until they pass, then move.”

Chu Che shook his head grimly. “At least three Anomalies have already locked onto our bio-signatures. They’re far out, but they’re closing in fast. The Barrier requires absolute stealth to activate. If we’re already marked, it’s useless.”

Chen Ye held his breath for a long moment, the unlit cigarette twitching in his mouth.

Finally, he spat out, “Damn it! What is the use of you?”

Chu Che glared back, indignant, but remained silent.

Reluctant or not, the convoy had to move. Retreat was death. Staying put was death. Flanking was death.

The only way was forward, into the white hell.

Life in the apocalypse often meant choosing the poison that killed you slowest. They could only pray the temperature in the snow zone wouldn’t exceed the freezing lows of a desert night. If it did, the convoy was finished.

“Mount up!”

Chu Che was the first to retreat to the safety of his vehicle.

Chen Ye stared at the blinding white horizon for a second longer, then cursed and climbed back into his Doomsday Pickup.

He did a mental inventory of his wardrobe and grimaced. Back in Apricot Blossom Town, Jiajia and the muscle-head had grabbed some clothes. But over time, those clothes had been traded away for parts, used as rags during the canopy upgrade, or lost to the recent sandstorm.

Currently, Chen Ye’s “armor” against the elements consisted of: One pair of flip-flops. One pair of loose shorts. One tank top. And a thin sun-protection jacket tossed on the passenger seat.

That was it.

Even his underwear was a single pair he’d been wearing for six months; the waistband was practically fraying apart.

He had a thin blanket he’d scavenged from the camel team’s Supplies, but that was flimsy protection. Combined with his enhanced physique, the blanket was enough to survive the desert nights.

But if this snowy world was colder than the desert?

He was in trouble.

Chen Ye was strong, but he walked a Supernatural Pathway. He wasn’t like Iron Lion, a Titan Sequence Beyonder whose body was practically forged from steel. Iron Lion could probably walk into a blizzard naked and treat it like a cool breeze.

Chen Ye would just turn into a popsicle.

Then there was the truck.

To save Slaughter Points, he hadn’t upgraded the air conditioning system.

Driving a car with no heater in winter.

Anyone who had done it knew the misery. The windows fogging up, the biting cold seeping through the metal, the numbness in the fingers.

And it wasn’t just cold; it was snowing. Heavy, thick flakes. The accumulation was already over a foot deep. Driving through that without snow tires or 4WD upgrades was going to be a nightmare for the engine.

He circled back to the main issue: Temperature.

If it was just “cold,” he could tough it out. If it was “absolute zero” cold, he needed a heater.

Wait.

He remembered something. He dug around the backseat, tossing aside empty cans and scrap metal until he found them.

A pair of white-and-red high-top sneakers. “Aizhui”—knock-off Air Jordans.

He didn’t know if they were real or fake, and he didn’t care. He shoved his feet into them. At least his toes wouldn’t freeze off immediately.

If Chen Ye was worried, the other survivors were terrified.

You didn’t need a high IQ to look at that wall of white and understand the danger. The people on the bus began frantically layering whatever rags they had.

When they fled the city, nobody packed for a ski trip. They grabbed food and water. Clothing was a luxury nobody thought about until it was too late. Only vain women like Xu Lina had bothered to stash an extra outfit or two.

In the desert, they survived the nights by huddling together in a massive pile of bodies. Those who couldn’t get into the pile froze to death. Simple as that.

Now, looking through his rearview mirror, Chen Ye could see the chaos erupting inside the school bus.

The Doomsday Pickup rolled forward.

Crunch. Crunch.

The tires pressed into the fresh tracks left by Chu Che’s off-roader.

The moment the vehicle crossed the threshold, the temperature plummeted.

It wasn’t a gradual cool-down. It was a physical blow.

A wave of frost slammed into the cab. The hair on Chen Ye’s arms stood up instantly. Even with his enhanced vitality, he shuddered violently.

“F*ck, that’s cold!”

It was the classic jinx: worry about something, and it happens immediately.

This was far, far colder than the desert night.

On the passenger seat, a half-empty water bottle underwent a terrifying transformation. In seconds, the liquid clouded over and hardened. The plastic groaned, swelling and distorting as the ice expanded inside.

Creak. Snap.

From the truck bed behind him, a chorus of cracking sounds erupted. His stockpile of bottled water was flash-freezing.

Going from extreme heat to extreme cold in a heartbeat? That was how you shocked a body into shutting down. An ordinary human would be feverish within hours.

“Everyone, stay in the tracks of the vehicle ahead! Do not fall behind!” Uncle A Bao’s voice crackled over the radio.

Chen Ye tapped the gas, closing the gap.

Behind him was the pink-haired girl’s Mini EV.

As soon as they hit the snow, she cranked the dial.

“Freezing!” She shivered, blasting the heater.

“Cousin… I… I…” Little Yu’s teeth were chattering like castanets. “Achoo! Achoo!”

“It’s so cold. Cousin, please, give me something to wear.”

Little Yu sniffled, her nose completely stuffed. A bad feeling settled in her gut. She was definitely getting sick.

Inside the school bus, panic was turning into hysteria.

The cold cut through the metal walls like they weren’t even there.

Thankfully, Iron Lion and Ding Dong were there to suppress the riot.

Just as Chen Ye suspected, Iron Lion was sitting there in a tank top, looking bored. The drop in temperature barely registered to him. Ding Dong frowned slightly, rubbing her arms, but she was fine.

The Titan Sequence focused on raw bodily perfection. Their resistance to elements was monstrous. Ding Dong, a Boxer Sequence Beyonder, wasn’t quite at Titan level, but she was miles ahead of a caster like Chen Ye.

Even the pink-haired girl was a Sequence 2 Sword Immortal; her internal energy offered protection.

Ironically, the two most powerful leaders of the convoy—Chen Ye and Captain Chu Che—were the ones freezing their asses off.

But Chu Che had a heater in his modified jeep. And a quilt.

Chen Ye had a tank top and a pair of knock-off Jordans.

He was miserable.

His teeth chattered as he pulled up the system interface.

“System! Upgrade AC to include heating!”

[Upgrade Cost: 5,000 Slaughter Points]

Chen Ye stared at his balance: 4,000 Slaughter Points.

“You piece of trash!” he screamed, slamming the steering wheel. The system was price-gouging him!

Outside, the chaos continued.

“Too cold! No! I don’t want to freeze to death!”

The bandit leader riding the camel panicked. He yanked the reins, turning the beast around to flee back toward the desert.

“You can leave if you want,” Chen Ye’s voice cut through the wind, colder than the snow. “But the camel stays.”

The camel was food. It was Supplies. It was partly Chen Ye’s property.

The bandit leader, a man with thick arms covered in full-sleeve tattoos—a former warlord who had once ruled his own turf—froze.

He looked at the desert, then at Chen Ye’s pickup. His face turned red, but he didn’t dare take another step.

Night fell, and the world turned into a black void of ice.

When they set up camp, Chen Ye wrapped himself in the thin blanket and trudged through the knee-deep snow to Chu Che’s vehicle.

He wanted to borrow clothes. From Chu Che, from Iron Lion, from anyone.

“Sorry,” Chu Che said, wrapped snugly in his duvet. “Traveled light.”

Iron Lion shrugged his massive shoulders. “I don’t wear winter clothes.”

As for the ordinary survivors? Asking them was pointless. They were already stripping the upholstery off the bus seats to wrap around themselves.

“Captain…” Chen Ye sniffled, stamping his feet to keep the blood flowing. “Is there… a town nearby? We need… Supplies. I can handle this, but…”

He gestured vaguely at the bus. “If this keeps up… the livestock… I mean, the ordinary people… they’re going to freeze solid.”

Chen Ye didn’t actually care about the people. He just needed an excuse to get warm without looking weak.

He had put on the sun-protection jacket, but it was like wearing a sheet of paper.

Snow piled up on his head and shoulders, turning him into a living snowman. Every word he spoke puffed out as a cloud of white mist.

It was getting colder.

Chu Che looked at Chen Ye. His expression turned serious.

“There is a supply point nearby,” Chu Che said. “But be warned… it is extremely dangerous.”