Apocalypse: I Can Upgrade Everything

Chapter 109: Shadow Drag

When Fourth Brother heard the plan, he thought Second Brother had completely lost his mind.

He was timid by nature. Hearing Second Brother’s suicidal proposal, his only instinct was to turn and run.

“Second Brother, we… maybe we should just…”

“At least for now, water is just a little scarce,” Fourth Brother stammered. “Uncle Abao and the others won’t let us die of thirst. I’ll go help Uncle Abao clean the cars tomorrow morning. I’ll go help Auntie Qu. I can exchange labor for a little water.”

“And… and we can help make camel jerky…”

In the convoy, as long as one wasn’t terminally lazy, Uncle Abao could usually find work for them.

Although the leadership had tacitly decided to abandon the weakest members, the total extinction of the survivors wouldn’t benefit the convoy either. They needed labor.

Therefore, whether it was Chu Che, the pink-haired girl, or even Iron Lion and Ding Dong, they would offer small remunerations to keep the workforce alive.

Even Chen Ye abided by this rule.

If a survivor had a specialized skill, they could actually live quite comfortably. For example, the woman surnamed Qu who managed the cooking, or the few young men who knew how to repair cars, lived far better than the average refugee.

“Bullshit! I’ve been running around like a dog for so long, and for what? Scraps?” Second Brother spat, his eyes red with desperation. “They’re dismissing us like beggars!”

“Boss, Fourth Brother, don’t be afraid. I’ve already scouted everything out.”

Second Brother lowered his voice, his tone conspiratorial. “That Chen Ye sleeps in his tent every night. His water stash is in the back seat of his truck. As long as we’re careful, we can definitely steal some.”

“We won’t confront him head-on.”

“If we get caught, we’ll just say we were taking a walk.”

He began counting off the other targets on his fingers. “Forget about Chu Che’s group. There are three of them. That old bastard Abao is as cunning as a monkey, and he has that assistant, Little Wang. We’d never find an opening.”

“That pink-haired girl isn’t to be trifled with either. She has a partner.”

“And don’t even think about Iron Lion and Ding Dong. That bus is full of people. They’d spot us before we got within 10 meters.”

“Compared to them, Chen Ye is the easiest target.”

“No matter how powerful he is, he’s just one person. Can he stay awake 24/7 watching his truck?”

“Besides, I don’t plan to fight him. My brain isn’t broken.”

Second Brother stared intensely at his companions. “Boss, Fourth Brother… do you dare?”

The Boss, swayed by Second Brother’s logic, began to waver.

Fourth Brother, however, looked terrified. He shook his head violently.

Second Brother was furious. “Fourth Brother, you coward! If you don’t have the guts, then stay here. But when I get that water, don’t you dare ask for a single drop.”

“Second Brother, Big Brother… that Chen Ye isn’t someone we can mess with. Please don’t! Don’t go!”

Fourth Brother tried to grab them, but Second Brother kicked him aside.

Under the cover of night, the Boss and Second Brother began to inch toward the Doomsday Pickup.

Fourth Brother could only stand rooted to the spot, wringing his hands in anxiety.

The two men crept up to the front of the vehicle. They observed for a moment and confirmed that Chen Ye was indeed not in the cab.

From the tent beside the truck, the rhythmic sound of breathing could be heard.

They relaxed instantly.

Their division of labor was clear: The Boss would stand guard, and Second Brother would do the deed.

Standing guard simply meant staring at Chen Ye’s tent to ensure he didn’t wake up.

Second Brother slowly approached the driver’s side of the Doomsday Pickup.

However, in their blind spot, a dark shadow silently extended from the undercarriage of the vehicle. It writhed along the ground like the tentacle of an octopus.

Second Brother peered into the window. The door was locked. He reached into his pocket and fished out a piece of wire.

In the old world, Second Brother had been a small-time crook. Petty theft was his specialty. Opening a car door was child’s play.

Suddenly, he felt something wrap around his waist.

He reached down to touch it. It felt icy cold.

Before Second Brother could react, his center of gravity vanished. He was yanked violently backward and down.

“Ah— Boss, sa—”

The last word never left his throat. He was dragged instantaneously underneath the chassis.

CRUNCH.

A sickening sound of muscles tearing and bones pulverizing erupted from beneath the vehicle, drowning out Second Brother’s final, truncated cry.

This was the Doomsday Pickup’s third ability: Shadow Drag.

Simultaneously, the needle on the dashboard fuel gauge began to move.

Previously, Chu Che had given them thirty liters of fuel. After days of consumption, it had long since bottomed out. If not for the electric system, the car would have been dead weight.

Now, the needle steadily climbed until it hit the “F” mark.

The tank was full.

The current fuel tank had a capacity of 60 liters. It was still the makeshift setup created from the two tanks scavenged from the highway accident site. At the time, Chen Ye had been stingy with his Slaughter Points.

For a long-distance off-road vehicle, 60 liters was pitifully small.

But Shadow Drag compensated for that. It could pulverize living targets and decompose their organic matter directly into biofuel.

This was the first time the ability had been used in the human world.

The Boss watched with wide, unblinking eyes as Second Brother vanished under the truck. The wet, grinding noises that followed froze the blood in his veins.

He was stunned dumbfounded. Then, terror overtook him. He scrambled backward, rolling and crawling in a desperate attempt to flee.

Why didn’t he scream?

Because he had been scared out of his wits. His vocal cords had spasmed from extreme shock, rendering him mute.

However, Second Brother’s short, sharp cry for help had still attracted some attention.

Inside Chu Che’s tent.

A startled gasp crackled through the Eavesdropping Radio.

Chu Che frowned. “What is Chen Ye up to now?”

As for Chen Ye? He had noticed the two idiots the moment they approached.

As a Sequence Beyonder, his senses were far sharper than an ordinary human’s. It was nearly impossible for a normal person to evade his eyes and ears.

Unless they were an Anomaly.

As for the Boss fleeing into the night? Chen Ye let him go.

He decided to spare the man’s life.

If all the ordinary survivors died out, who would be left to serve as cannon fodder? If they encountered a real Anomaly, who would act as the “gecko’s severed tail” to distract the monster while he escaped?

The next day.

The convoy was missing one person.

Uncle Abao asked about it casually.

The Boss, pale and trembling, said that Second Brother had gone mad and run off into the desert during the night.

Uncle Abao didn’t ask any further questions.

Such things happened.

If one stared at the Blood Moon for too long, mental derangement was a common side effect. The convoy had lost several people to the madness already.

When they set off in the morning, Chen Ye noted the full fuel gauge.

“It seems a 60-liter tank isn’t the limit of Shadow Drag’s output, just the limit of my storage,” Chen Ye mused.

“System. How many Slaughter Points to upgrade the main tank to 90 liters and add a 70-liter auxiliary tank?”

He consulted the system directly in his mind.

If he could have 160 liters of fuel capacity, combined with the Shadow Drag ability and the electric system, he would basically solve his energy crisis forever.

[According to the Host’s requirements: One main and one auxiliary tank, total capacity 160 liters. Cost: 3,000 Slaughter Points!]

Seeing the price tag, Chen Ye nearly cursed out loud.

Three thousand?!

There was no helping it. Since he wasn’t providing any materials or labor, asking the System to fabricate everything from thin air resulted in an outrageous markup.

He only had a little over four thousand Slaughter Points left.

Spending three thousand on a gas tank wasn’t worth it.

If he ran into an emergency later and needed points to survive, being broke would be fatal.

After a moment’s thought, he shelved the plan.

Sixty liters will have to do. It’s enough for now.

The journey continued without change.

The weather remained unbearably hot.

By noon, the convoy had lost another twelve people.

It was the water issue again.

The already pitiful drinking water rations had been further reduced by Uncle Abao and Old Li. Even though the survivors protested, it was futile. There simply wasn’t enough water.

Many people were showing severe symptoms of dehydration, unable to even walk.

The camels began to die in large numbers as well.

The bizarrely high temperatures, combined with the lack of fodder, had drastically reduced the camels’ theoretical survival time.

The death of the camels created a vicious cycle. Survivors lost their mounts and were forced to trek through the sand on foot, which accelerated their dehydration and death.

At this point, even the reserves of the Sequence Beyonders were running low.

Chu Che and the pink-haired girl had stopped distributing charity water to the ordinary survivors.

The only one still doing so was that foolish big guy, Iron Lion.

Of course, no one knew that Chen Ye’s water reserves were far deeper than they imagined.

The resources he had scavenged were for him alone.

Even though he had traded some away for ox bones to upgrade the truck, he had kept a significant stash.

Tied to the frame rails underneath the Doomsday Pickup were bottles of mineral water.

This was Chen Ye’s final lifeline.

Beyonders might be stronger than ordinary humans, but they were still flesh and blood. Without water, they would die just the same.

That water was for when everyone else was dead. Only then would Chen Ye tap into it.

This was his last retreat.

The convoy, which had started with nearly a hundred people, now had only about seventy left.

Inside the pickup, Chen Ye didn’t care about fuel consumption anymore.

He kept the electric fan running twenty-four hours a day.

The windows were rolled down.

The wind blowing in was hot, like a blast furnace.

It wasn’t just the heat that was suffocating; his body felt gross. Covered in grime and sweat, Chen Ye could smell his own stench.

It had been nearly half a year since his last proper bath.

Day after day of this high-temperature hell…

Wait.

Chen Ye frowned.

Amidst the scorching, dry wind… was that a trace of coolness?