Apocalypse: I Can Upgrade Everything

Chapter 137: Crawler Tide

The appearance of the fire dragon only bought them a moment of respite.

The white Crawlers formed a relentless, living tide, surging forward in wave after wave. Endless. Just looking at the horde was enough to induce despair.

Every vehicle was besieged.

The Doomsday Pickup roared, its speed tearing a momentary breach in the encirclement. But countless Crawlers threw themselves into the gap, bodies piling up to block Chen Ye’s path.

The horde pressed in from both sides. His maneuvering space was shrinking to zero.

The road ahead was blocked. A wall of white flesh.

Chen Ye exhaled a lungful of smoke.

The gray haze drifted out the window and solidified. Seven smoke-wolves clawed their way into existence, snarling as they pounced on the nearest Crawlers.

One wolf pinned a Crawler to the ground, tearing at its throat. To an ordinary human, the sight would be terrifying. But the Crawlers lacked fear. They simply grappled with the smoke-beasts, tearing them apart with manic strength.

The smoke-wolves weren’t as strong as the real thing, but they served their purpose: distraction.

More Crawlers surged forward, swarming the wolves. Before the smoke-creatures could even howl, they were ripped to shreds, dissipating back into gray mist.

The Crawlers paused, confused by the vanishing prey, then turned their blank eyes back to the pickup.

Chen Ye didn’t blink. He summoned another pack.

And another.

The terror of Smoke Simulation wasn’t in the strength of individual constructs, but in their persistency. As long as Chen Ye breathed, as long as he had stamina and smoke, his army was immortal.

Between the pickup’s power and the sacrificial wolves, he carved open an escape tunnel.

But the tunnel was closing fast. He had ten seconds, maybe less.

Chen Ye focused. The smoke above the truck began to churn, twisting into a massive, nightmarish shape. A heavy, suffocating Pressure descended.

Human-Faced Scorpion!!!

It was the most powerful Anomaly Chen Ye had encountered up close. He hadn’t studied it for long, and his simulation was imperfect—the terrifying human face kept collapsing into a blur of smoke—but for this purpose, it was enough.

The giant scorpion materialized, its pincers snapping a leaping Crawler in half. Its tail stinger flicked like a whip, skewering two more monsters like candied haws.

The battlefield cleared instantly. The immediate pressure vanished.

“So sinister!” Nana yelled from atop her SUV, her eyes wide with shock and disdain. “That old bastard hid so deep!”

Behind them, a roar shook the earth.

“ROAR!”

Iron Lion kicked open the door of the box truck and leaped out.

The Crawlers hadn’t ignored the massive target of Ding Dong’s truck. They swarmed it like ants on a sugar cube.

Iron Lion expanded. Muscles tore through his shirt as he grew into a four-meter-tall Two-Headed Giant.

Seven Crawlers lunged at him.

The second head—Mad Lion—snapped its eyes open, burning with pure Killing Intent.

“Eat shit!”

Iron Lion’s fist, the size of a sandbag, obliterated a Crawler mid-air, turning it into a fine red mist that painted the snow like plum blossoms.

Another Crawler tried to flank him, aiming for his spine.

Without turning, Iron Lion lashed out with a back-kick, launching the creature into the distance like a cannonball.

The Two-Headed Giant had 360-degree vision. Sneak attacks were impossible.

Every punch was a kill shot. The frenzied Crawlers were insects before the might of a Titan Sequence 2.

But the horror of the Crawlers wasn’t their strength. It was their numbers.

“Hahaha… YES! YES! MORE!” Mad Lion laughed maniacally, abandoning defense to charge straight into the thickest part of the horde.

The Titan Sequence was simple. No fancy tricks. Just raw, overwhelming stats. Iron Lion’s defense and power were astronomical compared to ordinary Sequence Beyonders.

“Iron Lion! Don’t fall behind!” Ding Dong screamed, wrestling the truck through the chaos.

And Chu Che?

To quote Nana: Another old bastard.

The Captain had positioned his car perfectly in the pocket formed by Chen Ye, Nana, and Iron Lion. He was taking almost zero fire.

Because the Beyonders were drawing the aggro, the civilian cars—Zhou Xiaoxiao and the bus—were relatively safe.

Relatively.

Two Crawlers landed on Zhou Xiaoxiao’s roof, denting the metal as they tried to claw their way in.

The bus fared worse.

A Crawler smashed through a window, grabbing the elder of the two brothers. In a blink, he was dragged out into the snow.

A dozen monsters swarmed him.

“Brother!” the younger one screamed, lunging to help.

Two Crawlers latched onto his neck. Blood sprayed across the white interior of the bus, feathers from his torn jacket floating in the air like mocking snow.

The convoy drifted around a corner.

The school gate was less than 300 meters away.

The noise had alerted the camp. Figures lined the corridors, watching the desperate run. In the fourth-floor window, a silent silhouette looked down.

Chen Ye saw the gate. Relief flooded him.

Then, his blood froze.

Hovering directly in front of the gate, blocking their path, was a single, massive eye.

It was… the Abyssal Blood Eye.

Chen Ye thought of Xiao Chao’s empty sockets.

For a split second, an insane, intrusive thought flashed through his mind: If I put that eye in my own socket… would it fix my blindness?

Fuck. What am I thinking?

The eye was three meters wide, floating a few feet off the ground. The sclera was veined with writhing black nerves. In the center of the pupil, black runes rotated endlessly.

It didn’t move. It just watched.

Chen Ye felt a twitch in his left eye socket. A pressure building behind his good eye. It felt like his own eyes were trying to pop out of his skull to join the entity.

Panic surged.

He slammed his hand forward. Smoke rushed to the windshield, forming a thick, opaque barrier.

He cut the line of sight.

The pressure in his eyes subsided.

Chen Ye gritted his teeth. He was now driving blind at top speed toward a giant, eldritch monster.

Fine.

Doomsday Pickup, Ability 2: [Impact]!

The truck responded to his mental command. The chassis groaned, and the entire vehicle began to glow with a dull, red heat.

It was no longer a truck. It was an enraged bull made of steel.

Ahead, the dark red eye stared unblinkingly at the approaching metal box, seemingly confused by its audacity.