Apocalypse: I Can Upgrade Everything

Chapter 111: World of White Snow

When the first survivor plunged headfirst into the lake, Chen Ye finally tore his envious gaze away from Chu Che.

At this moment, Chen Ye was far more concerned about the safety of the water than the temperature.

His eyes locked onto the survivor thrashing in the lake.

Even with a Pathfinder like Chu Che present, Chen Ye refused to lower his guard. What if the lake harbored an Anomaly skilled in concealment? If he jumped in blindly, he might become the next victim.

Right now, these ordinary survivors were serving their purpose perfectly. To Chen Ye, they were essentially canaries in a coal mine.

The survivor surfaced, splashing water everywhere, his hearty laughter ringing across the dunes.

Then came the second, the third, and the fourth.

Soon, almost every survivor had thrown themselves into the water. Even the more reserved women took off their shoes and waded in barefoot.

Everyone’s first instinct was to drink.

The fastidious ones filled bottles and drank eagerly. The desperate ones didn’t care about hygiene—they buried their faces in the lake and gulped like animals.

Before the apocalypse, seeing open water like this would trigger worries about bacteria, parasites, or viruses.

But now?

No one gave a damn.

Even the pink-haired girl was wading barefoot, a rare, genuine smile lighting up her face. Iron Lion was even more exaggerated; the burly man had dived in fully clothed and was backstroking like a happy otter.

Ding Dong stood by the shore, watching with a quiet smile.

“Are you always this paranoid about everything?”

Chu Che’s voice came from beside him, dripping with sarcasm.

Chen Ye retorted without missing a beat. “Aren’t you doing the exact same thing?”

The two men exchanged a glance. In each other’s eyes, they saw a spark of mutual appreciation. Game recognizes game.

The two old foxes were thinking exactly the same thing.

“Uncle Abao,” Chu Che called out. “Get them out. This is drinking water, not a public bathhouse.”

The survivors, who had barely enjoyed a few minutes of swimming, were herded out of the water. Although some were disgruntled, no one dared to oppose Uncle Abao.

In this convoy, aside from the Beyonders, Uncle Abao was God.

Tonight’s campsite was naturally set by the lakeside.

After drinking their fill and venting their excitement, the survivors began pitching tents.

Most of the tents had been scavenged from the previous camel caravan, so there were enough to go around.

Suddenly, Chu Che walked to the center of the camp holding a strange wooden staff.

“Captain Chu, what are you…”

Chu Che didn’t speak. He raised the staff high and drove it hard into the sand.

Hum.

A transparent, hemispherical barrier descended from the sky. With a diameter of over a hundred meters, it enveloped the entire campsite like a giant inverted bowl.

The moment the barrier set, Chu Che collapsed. His chest heaved violently, gasping for air as if he had just sprinted a marathon. In seconds, his forehead was beaded with cold sweat, and his clothes were soaked through, dripping moisture onto the dry sand.

“Huff… huff… New ability… Pathfinder Sequence 2, Divine Concealer…”

Chu Che wheezed, looking up at Chen Ye. “It’s called… Concealment Barrier.”

“It eliminates the aura of the living to a certain extent. It makes it harder for Anomalies to find us.”

Chu Che didn’t hide anything. The Pathfinder Sequence was built entirely for survival, lacking direct combat power. Sharing the details of his abilities with his teammates could be the difference between life and death.

Chen Ye’s eyes lit up. “You mean we can stay here longer?”

“Three days. At most three days. After that, we must leave! Huff…”

Chu Che sat heavily on the ground, utterly drained. Uncle Abao quickly brought over a Kermit folding chair and helped him into it.

“Three days is enough!”

After the brutal trek, even a Sequence Beyonder like Chen Ye felt physically and mentally exhausted. Three days of rest by an oasis was an unimaginable luxury.

The transparent barrier naturally attracted the survivors’ attention.

“Chu Che, Yezi, what are you guys doing? What is this thing?”

The pink-haired girl, who was just about to find a secluded spot to bathe, stared at the shimmering dome. For a girl, going nearly half a year without a proper bath was a fate worse than death.

“Uncle Abao,” Chu Che managed to say. “Tell them… not to leave the barrier. If they want to go out, they must report to you.”

When the news spread that they could rest here for three days, the camp erupted in earth-shaking cheers. Even the stoic Ding Dong couldn’t help but grin.

Chen Ye found a secluded spot and scrubbed himself raw.

Layers of grime and dead skin peeled off him.

Across the camp, everyone was doing the same. Half a year without a bath would break even the sloppiest person. While the temperature was still bearable, the lake became a communal sanctuary.

When a clean, fresh Zhou Xiaoxiao appeared in front of Chen Ye later, he was stunned.

When he first met her, she had been a complete tomboy, dressing like a boy to avoid trouble.

Now, looking at her, Chen Ye finally understood why the entire entertainment industry had been waiting for her debut. Her facial features were so exquisite they looked AI-generated.

Sensing Chen Ye’s gaze, the girl shrank back slightly, looking fearful and unnatural. She was no longer the willful, entitled celebrity-to-be. Facing Chen Ye now, she felt only nervousness and awe.

Then the pink-haired girl emerged, changed into fresh clothes.

This woman simply defied common sense. While months of desert exposure had darkened most female survivors’ skin by several shades, she remained as white as snow.

Was this a side effect of being a Sequence Beyonder?

Her porcelain skin contrasted with her vibrant pink hair, radiating an aura of vitality that could be felt from a mile away. She was the definition of “pure desire”—innocent yet undeniably alluring.

Then there was Xu Lina.

Cleaned up, she wore tight jeans and a crisp white shirt, fully embracing the “mature woman” aesthetic.

Nearly every male gaze in the camp was glued to her. If it were a competition of pure feminine sex appeal, Xu Lina left Zhou Xiaoxiao and the pink-haired girl in the dust—she was leagues ahead.

“Chen Ye, if you keep staring, I’ll gouge your eyes out. Believe it?”

Sensing Chen Ye’s gaze lingering a bit too long, the pink-haired girl arched her eyebrows. She didn’t seem to care a whit about their past “camaraderie.”

Chen Ye rubbed his nose awkwardly and turned back to his truck.

Xu Lina, noticing the interaction, tossed her hair smugly and strutted through the crowd like a peacock.

Hmph! Chen Ye, realized what you’re missing yet?

The three women commanded the attention of the entire camp.

Except for Captain Chu Che. He had zero interest in women.

Chen Ye hauled every empty bottle he owned out of the truck.

He had accumulated over 100 bottles, piling them into a small mountain. He planned to fill every single one.

He wasn’t the only one; every survivor was doing the same. Having barely survived the desert thirst, they now had a terrifyingly clear understanding of water’s value.

Dinner that night was a feast. Some survivors even managed to catch two large, fat fish from the lake and offered them to the leaders.

The mood was high, especially among the core team. Chu Che’s advancement to Sequence 2, Divine Concealer, meant the convoy’s survivability had leveled up significantly.

Chu Che explained his new toolkit. Sequence 2 granted him four abilities in total.

First was the Concealment Barrier.

Second was Weather Perception: The ability to predict weather changes within a twenty-four-hour window. As a Sequence Beyonder ability, it was far more precise than any pre-apocalypse forecast. If another sandstorm approached, Captain Chu would know.

Third was Marking.

“I can leave information on a location or object,” Chu Che explained. “It comes with an anti-peeping function.”

The others looked confused.

Chu Che smiled and wrote three characters in the air with his finger, pointing at the ground. Then he looked at Chen Ye. “What did I write?”

Chen Ye stared at the sand. “Are you messing with me? There’s nothing there.”

The pink-haired girl, however, gasped. “It’s the characters for ‘One, Two, Three’! Chen Ye, you really can’t see them? They’re glowing! Captain Chu, how did you do that?”

Chu Che grinned with a touch of pride. “That’s the anti-peeping function. I can choose exactly who gets to see the message. To everyone else, it’s invisible.”

Before the apocalypse, this ability would have been a useless parlor trick. But now? In a world of betrayal and hidden dangers, it was a god-tier skill for covert communication.

“And the last ability,” Chu Che continued, “Mysterious Communication.”

“Two Pathfinders within a certain range can sense each other and engage in simple telepathic communication.”

Again, useless in the age of smartphones. But now, with teams acting like isolated boats on a dark sea, reliable comms were priceless.

The three days passed in a blink.

When it was time to leave, the atmosphere was heavy with reluctance. They knew they might never return to this paradise. But the memory of these three days would keep them going.

Chen Ye watched the shrinking lake in his rearview mirror, feeling a pang of regret.

But they had no choice. Staying longer meant courting death.

The convoy returned to its routine: migrate, rest, migrate again.

The days remained scorching, and the nights freezing.

However, Chen Ye noticed something disturbing. The nights were getting colder. Even as a Sequence Beyonder, he was struggling to withstand the chill.

Last night, two more people froze to death in their tents. That hadn’t happened in weeks.

At noon on the third day of travel, Chen Ye finally understood why.

The convoy reached the edge of the desert.

But there were no cheers. There was no joy. Instead, every face was twisted in fear.

Behind them lay the endless yellow sands, heat waves shimmering under the high sun.

Ahead of them lay a world of white.

Goose-feather snowflakes filled the sky, blanketing the earth in silver. The distant hills and trees were buried under a foot of snow.

Even from a distance, the biting wind cut through the heat.

The two worlds seemed separated by an invisible barrier, completely utterly distinct. The desert’s heat didn’t melt the snow, and the snow didn’t cool the desert.

Chen Ye looked down at the flip-flops on his feet.

Then he looked at his simple, uninsulated pickup truck.

He swallowed hard.

“Chu Che… are we really going in there?”