Apocalypse: I Can Upgrade Everything

Chapter 168: Body Transformed into Green Smoke

The heavy steel shutter rolled up with a deafening rattle.

Standing in the doorway was a young woman, roughly twenty years old. She was covered in a thick layer of grime, her clothes hanging loosely off her frame. The lower half of her face was obscured by a crude, filthy surgical mask.

But it was her eyes that caught Chen Ye’s attention.

The very first time her gaze landed on Chen Ye and Chu Che, she didn’t look wary. She didn’t look relieved. For a fraction of a second—perhaps only 0.1 seconds—her eyes flashed with the raw, starving greed of a predator spotting fresh meat.

The emotion was instantly suppressed, replaced by wide-eyed innocence, but Chen Ye had caught it.

He narrowed his eyes, a cold suspicion settling in his gut.

Something is deeply wrong here.

Everything about this “survivor base” radiated a bizarre, unsettling energy. Chen Ye didn’t say a word. He simply shot a sideways glance at Chu Che. The captain’s expression remained perfectly neutral, but Chen Ye knew the old fox had undoubtedly caught the girl’s micro-expression as well.

Because Chen Ye had parked the Doomsday Pickup sideways to block the street, the passenger side window was facing directly into the storefront, allowing the girl to clearly see the man inside.

“Uncle Zheng! You’re back! Who are these two…” she trailed off, her voice artificially sweet.

“Xiao Hua, this is Mr. Chen and Mr. Chu,” the crippled man gasped from the passenger seat. “They are Cultivators!”

The moment the word ‘Cultivator’ left his lips, the girl’s pupils contracted sharply. The lingering greed in her eyes was violently shoved down, replaced by a flash of genuine, instinctual wariness.

She took a closer look at Chen Ye, finally noticing his eyes. One pupil was an unnatural, milky white, while the other was a glowing, abyssal crimson.

Even an idiot would know a man with eyes like that was dangerous. Factoring in his status as a Cultivator, he was practically a walking hazard sign.

“My legs are broken,” Uncle Zheng grunted, his breath rattling behind his mask. “Call Xiao Long and Ah Hao out here to help me inside!”

The girl snapped out of her daze. She turned and yelled into the dark interior of the supermarket. “Xiao Long! Ah Hao! Get out here! Uncle Zheng is hurt!”

“Yeah, yeah, keep your pants on! So the old man broke a leg, big deal. What, does he expect us to carry him like a princess?”

Two young men swaggered out of the darkness. They looked like stereotypical street punks from the old world—dyed hair, one red and one blue, both wearing impossibly tight jeans and cheap loafers. They looked to be in their early twenties, and their walking posture was obnoxiously arrogant, their shoulders swaying aggressively with every step.

Like the girl, the lower halves of their faces were covered by dirty surgical masks.

When they spotted Chen Ye and Chu Che standing by the vehicles, the two punks stopped, their eyes lighting up.

“Yo! Look what the cat dragged in! Fresh meat?” the red-haired punk sneered.

“Check out those eyes, bro. Spooky,” the blue-haired one mocked.

Xiao Hua stepped forward, her voice dropping to a harsh, warning hiss. “Shut your mouths, both of you! These men are Cultivators. Do you have a death wish?!”

The two punks clearly held some level of fear toward Xiao Hua. Their arrogant swagger faltered slightly as they approached the truck. But when the word ‘Cultivator’ fully registered, they visibly stiffened, their obnoxious attitudes evaporating instantly.

They didn’t dare look Chen Ye in the eyes again.

Moving with exaggerated obedience, the two young men gently pulled Uncle Zheng from the passenger seat and began carrying him toward the rolling shutter.

But as they walked, they couldn’t help themselves. They kept throwing furtive, lingering glances back over their shoulders. The looks were a toxic mix of deep fear and starving greed, their eyes constantly darting between Chen Ye, the Abyssal Blood Eye, and the massive piles of supplies strapped to the roof of Chu Che’s SUV.

Xiao Hua turned back to Chen Ye, plastering a warm, hospitable smile across her masked face. “Gentlemen, why don’t you come inside and rest for a bit? You saved Uncle Zheng’s life, and we haven’t even properly thanked you!”

“We’re on a tight schedule,” Chen Ye replied flatly, cutting straight to the point. “When we pulled your man out of the ruins, he promised your group would provide us with a local guide to navigate Dawu City. Can you authorize that?”

He knew there were a dozen glaring red flags surrounding this group, but he wasn’t here to play detective. He just needed a map.

The girl smiled apologetically. “I’m afraid I don’t have the authority to make that call. Please, just come inside for a few minutes. I need to discuss it with the elders.”

Seeing Chen Ye and Chu Che hesitate, she quickly added, “I promise it won’t take long! Twenty minutes, tops!”

Chu Che frowned, clearly weighing the risks.

Chen Ye, however, was already scanning the storefront, his gaze dropping to the pavement.

The sidewalk outside the supermarket was a mess of debris, but right next door, in front of an abandoned clothing boutique, the concrete was heavily stained with thick, black grime. It looked exactly like old, dried blood that had been repeatedly scrubbed into the pavement over months of use.

Are you kidding me? Chen Ye thought, his lip curling in disgust. This is literally the plot of a B-list horror movie.

In those movies, the protagonists always stumbled upon a creepy, isolated cabin that screamed ‘murder dungeon,’ and instead of running away, they always walked right inside and got butchered.

Before the apocalypse, Chen Ye used to yell at the TV screen whenever those scenes played. Are they mentally deficient?! Obviously it’s a trap! Just turn around!

He wasn’t about to become a horror movie cliché.

Chen Ye threw an arm out, physically blocking Chu Che from taking a step toward the door.

He locked eyes with Xiao Hua. “We don’t have twenty minutes. You have a local accent, which means you know the city. You’re coming with us right now.”

Xiao Hua blinked, clearly taken aback by his aggressive refusal. The hospitable smile slipped slightly. “Sir… it’s not that I don’t want to help, but my parents are inside. It wouldn’t be right for me to just abandon them!”

Chen Ye’s patience evaporated. The Abyssal Blood Eye flared with a faint, menacing crimson light. “I don’t give a damn about your parents. You are getting in the truck.”

The girl’s face went completely pale. The last remnants of her calm facade shattered. She was young, and she clearly hadn’t expected to encounter someone who completely ignored social norms and basic empathy.

Before she could stammer out a reply, the dark interior of the supermarket erupted.

“Get them!”

Over a dozen people violently charged out of the rolling shutter.

Every single one of them was sallow, emaciated, and filthy. They all wore crude surgical masks, but their eyes above the fabric were wild, feral, and utterly bloodthirsty.

They were heavily armed. They carried rusted steel pipes, heavy fire axes, and bloodstained meat cleavers.

But what made Chen Ye’s blood run cold were the guns.

Four of the attackers were leveling pump-action shotguns and hunting rifles directly at them.

Guns!

Due to strict pre-apocalyptic gun control laws, most citizens had only ever seen firearms in movies. Even during mandatory military training, live weapons were a rarity. This was the absolute first time Chen Ye had seen a functional firearm since the world ended.

Guns were utterly useless against anomalies, but against human flesh? They were devastating.

Chen Ye didn’t possess Iron Lion’s bulletproof Titan physique. If he took a shotgun blast to the chest at this range, he was dead.

His reaction was instantaneous.

Body Transformed into Green Smoke!

In the blink of an eye, Chen Ye’s physical body violently destabilized, transforming into a swirling cloud of incorporeal green smoke. The smoke rapidly drifted backward, completely weightless, putting twenty feet of distance between himself and the muzzle flashes.

The sudden, physics-defying transformation completely stunned the ambushers. They froze in their tracks, their weapons lowered, their brains struggling to process what they had just witnessed.

Meanwhile, Chu Che had already reacted to the trap. The second the shouting started, the captain had dove sideways, using the reinforced engine block of his SUV as hard cover.

Peeking around the tire, Chu Che stared at the drifting cloud of green smoke, his jaw hanging open in sheer disbelief.

You son of a bitch, Chen Ye! You had ANOTHER trick hidden away?! Chu Che thought indignantly. If it weren’t for this ambush, how long were you planning on keeping this from me?!

But this wasn’t the time for an interrogation.

The green smoke rapidly coalesced, reforming into Chen Ye’s physical body.

His eyes were burning with pure, unadulterated killing intent.

You bastards, Chen Ye seethed internally. His incorporeal smoke form was his ultimate defensive trump card, an ability he had desperately hidden even from Chu Che. And these filthy scavengers had just forced him to burn it in broad daylight.

The Abyssal Blood Eye began to glow with a terrifying, blinding crimson light. He was going to slaughter every single one of them.

Before Chen Ye could unleash the eye’s power, the red-haired punk who had taunted them earlier broke the stunned silence.

“Don’t be scared, brothers!” he screamed, racking the pump of his shotgun. “They’re just Cultivators! It’s not like we haven’t hunted their kind before!”

“Look at all those supplies!” another yelled, pointing his rifle at the SUV.

“Yeah! And look at these two fat, greasy pigs! If we butcher them right, the meat will last us all winter!”

Fat and greasy?

Butcher them for meat?!

Crouching behind the SUV tire, the normally stoic, even-tempered Captain Chu Che felt a vein throb violently in his forehead.

Fat and greasy?! Me?!

I am perfectly proportioned, you inbred cannibalistic degenerates!

Oh, it is ON.