Apocalypse: I Can Upgrade Everything

Chapter 155: Am I Not Your Best Brother?

The descent of the Death God signaled a catastrophic escalation of the battlefield.

To Chen Ye, it meant only one thing: his window to escape was about to open. The second an opportunity presented itself, he was going to floor the gas pedal of the Doomsday Pickup and vanish. As for everyone else… they could leave their survival up to fate.

From the safety of his Absolute Aura Shielding, Chen Ye stared fixedly at the towering, mesmerizing entity. It had to be said—no matter how many times he saw the Death God, he was still struck by her chilling, unearthly beauty.

Her bodily proportions were impossibly perfect, her lips the color of freshly spilled arterial blood, her eyes perpetually closed in a serene, haunting slumber. Every single aspect of her design was terrifyingly flawless.

Her bare, porcelain feet hovered just a fraction of an inch above the bloodstained snow, refusing to be sullied by the filth of the mortal world. Clad in a flowing crimson dress, she looked like a tragic bride who had just fled a slaughtered wedding banquet. If she hadn’t been standing at a towering ten feet tall, one might mistake her for a human instead of an apocalyptic Anomaly.

The moment the Death God materialized, the collective aura of the invading horde shifted from bloodlust to profound dread.

Even the Snow Woman—who had casually swatted away Sun Qianqian and Ding Dong like annoying gnats—stiffened, her glacial eyes locking onto the crimson figure.

“You… you finally show yourself,” a dry, rasping voice echoed through the courtyard, thick with underlying tension.

It was the old man’s face embedded within the grotesque mass of the Eight-Limbed Human Face.

The Death God didn’t utter a single word. She simply stood in the center of the courtyard, her massive blood-red scythe resting easily in her grip. It was a posture of absolute, crushing arrogance; to her, these terrifying apex Anomalies were nothing but noisy insects, entirely unworthy of a response.

Sensing her suffocating pressure, the vanguard of the Crawler horde began to whine and frantically scramble backward.

Taking advantage of the sudden lull, Sun Qianqian, Ding Dong, and Mad Lion dragged their battered bodies back to the Death God’s side. Mad Lion looked like he had been dragged through a slaughterhouse drain, coated from head to toe in black blood and gore. Yet, the unhinged grin on his face proved he was still riding a psychotic high.

Glancing sideways, Chen Ye noticed a familiar silhouette creeping through the shadows near the perimeter wall. It was Captain Chu Che, quietly ushering the convoy survivors toward the exit. Clearly, Chu Che had the exact same exit strategy as Chen Ye.

“Uncle, be careful!”

“Second Uncle, fall back!”

“Uncle Wu…”

The cultists, previously cowering in the snow, began to shout out warnings as Wu Jianshan slowly descended the stairs.

“Silence. I will handle the rest,” Wu Jianshan commanded coldly. He didn’t even spare a glance at the horrific injuries sustained by Sun Qianqian and the others. He simply took a single, confident step forward.

“Wu Jianshan…” the old woman’s face on the tentacled monstrosity hissed nervously. “What… what do you think you are doing?”

The instant the words left its mouth, the Snow Woman pointed a pale finger directly at Wu Jianshan.

The retreating wave of Crawlers instantly reversed course, shrieking as they flooded forward. Simultaneously, a hyper-compressed, localized blizzard erupted around the Snow Woman, rocketing straight toward the Death God.

The exact same blizzard that had beaten Sun Qianqian and Ding Dong to the brink of death crashed into the Death God.

She merely raised her free hand. The raging vortex of ice and wind instantly collapsed, snuffed out like a candle in a vacuum. As for the tidal wave of Crawlers? The Death God didn’t even break her stride. She casually swept her massive scythe in a lazy arc, and hundreds of Crawlers were instantly bifurcated, their top halves sliding off their bottom halves in a fountain of black blood.

With a literal wave of her hand, the Snow Woman’s deadliest attacks were rendered utterly impotent.

“Kill her!” roared the young man’s face on the tentacled Anomaly.

The Eight-Limbed Human Face launched all of its massive tentacles like fleshy harpoons.

The hulking Wolf-Headed Anomaly blurred out of existence, leaving a trail of afterimages as it materialized directly behind the Death God, its jaws unhinging.

Dozens of other bizarre, indescribable horrors—some nothing more than writhing masses of shadow—erupted from the darkness, all converging on the crimson bride simultaneously.

The true battle had begun.

Excluding the thousands of Crawlers, there were now dozens of high-tier Anomalies attacking the Death God at once. Chen Ye didn’t recognize most of them; their forms were too twisted, too conceptually broken to describe with human vocabulary.

Safe in his corner, Chen Ye pulled out his phone and hit record. This was priceless combat data; he wasn’t going to miss a second of it.

Over the next minute, Chen Ye finally witnessed firsthand why the Death God was the undisputed apex predator of Rong City No. 2 Primary School. He understood why no other Anomaly had ever dared to cross the school’s threshold while she was present.

This enchanting, demonic “God” was an absolute nightmare.

Her defense was impenetrable.

When the Snow Woman’s concentrated blizzard blasts struck the Death God’s body, they merely caused her to pause for a fraction of a second. When the Wolf-Headed Anomaly—clearly a close-quarters powerhouse—managed to rake its massive claws across her back, the strike only tore the red silk of her dress. The attack left shallow red scratches on her porcelain skin, dealing virtually zero damage.

When the Eight-Limbed Human Face finally managed to snake a tentacle past her guard and whipped her across the torso with bone-shattering force, the Death God didn’t even flinch.

Her speed was incomprehensible. One second, a grotesque rat-like Anomaly was chittering smugly after landing a glancing blow on the Death God’s ankle. The very next second, its severed head was dangling from the Death God’s slender fingers. She didn’t use her speed to dodge; she used it to instantly execute anything that entered her radius.

Her raw strength was apocalyptic.

The Wolf-Headed Anomaly let out a deafening roar, wrapping its arms around a massive, frozen oak tree at the edge of the courtyard. With the sickening sound of snapping roots, it ripped the tree straight out of the concrete—dislodging the frozen corpses of the “sunny dolls” hanging from its branches—and swung it like a massive club straight at the Death God’s head.

The Death God simply raised one hand. She caught the descending trunk with a single palm, arresting its momentum entirely. With a slight flex of her wrist, she violently wrenched the tree from the beast’s grasp, reversed the momentum, and swatted the massive wolf away like a pesky fly.

But the most terrifying aspect of her arsenal was the blood-red scythe.

Anomalies were notoriously difficult to kill. Conventional human weapons were useless, and even for a Sequence Beyonder, permanently putting down a high-tier Anomaly required immense effort. The stronger the Anomaly, the more unnatural and rapid its regenerative abilities.

Earlier, when the team had fought the Eight-Limbed Human Face, they had inflicted massive, theoretically fatal damage, only to watch the beast stitch itself back together in seconds.

But wounds inflicted by the Death God’s scythe did not heal.

As the battle raged, the Eight-Limbed Human Face lost tentacle after tentacle to the sweeping red blade. The severed, fleshy limbs crashed into the snow, writhing and convulsing violently, but the regenerative tissue refused to activate. Within minutes, the terrifying entity was reduced to a limbless, floating fleshy egg.

The Snow Woman lost her left arm at the shoulder, thick white fluid heavily leaking from the stump. The Wolf-Headed Anomaly had both of its eyes cleanly slashed out by the tip of the scythe; blinded and bleeding heavily, it was now forced to fight blindly, relying entirely on smell and aura perception.

The corpses of the Crawlers were now stacked so high they formed a gruesome, knee-deep carpet across the entire courtyard.

Chen Ye had originally planned to wait until both sides battered each other into a state of mutual destruction. He was waiting for a Pyrrhic victory.

But the Death God was systematically suppressing the entire allied Anomaly army by herself.

The sheer, overwhelming disparity in power was staggering. The Death God was winning, and she was doing it easily.

For Chen Ye, this was the worst-case scenario. If the Anomalies were routed, the only person left standing would be Wu Jianshan—a man who fully intended to strap Chen Ye to an altar and butcher him for Sequence points.

I can’t let him win, Chen Ye thought, his eyes narrowing in the dark. I need to tip the scales.

“Fools! Hold her off!” a sinister, raspy voice suddenly echoed from a dark corner of the courtyard. “I will flank Wu Jianshan! Kill the master, and the puppet will fall! Without him to anchor her, the Death God’s power will collapse!”

Hearing the voice, Wu Jianshan’s emaciated face contorted in absolute fury. His venomous eyes darted around the shadows, frantically searching for the source of the betrayal.

“Chen Ye! I know that’s you!” Wu Jianshan roared, his voice cracking with rage. “Don’t think a cheap voice trick will fool me! Show yourself, you rat!”

Panic clawed at Wu Jianshan’s chest. The Death God was invincible, but he was not. He was still mortal. That was why he had been quietly hovering at the edge of the battlefield, relying on the Death God’s terrifying presence to draw all the aggro.

Now, thanks to Chen Ye’s malicious announcement, every single twisted, hateful gaze on the battlefield snapped directly to Wu Jianshan.

Wu Jianshan’s mind reeled in disbelief. Why?! I activated my Abyssal Control! I cast the aura of ‘Intimate Relationship’ on him! He should view me as his closest brother!

By all the rules of his Sequence, Chen Ye should be acting exactly like Sun Qianqian and Ding Dong—throwing his life away to protect him. The ability had worked flawlessly during the last two sacrificial rituals. Why was Chen Ye utterly immune? Why was he actively trying to get him killed?!

Am I not your best brother?!

Wu Jianshan frantically scanned the darkness, but under the cover of the Absolute Aura Shielding, Chen Ye was completely invisible.

In the shadows, Chen Ye hastily slapped a hand over his mouth, cursing internally. Damn it! I tried to mimic the old man’s face on the tentacle monster, but the bastard still recognized me!

It didn’t matter. The damage was done.

Taking the cue, the Snow Woman leveled her remaining arm directly at Wu Jianshan. The horde of Crawlers instantly abandoned the Death God and swarmed toward the cult leader.

On the balcony, Sun Qianqian ground her teeth in fury. Chen Ye, you cowardly bastard! If he hadn’t spoken up, the Anomalies would have stayed focused on the Death God.

The shift in tactics was devastatingly effective.

In less than a minute, both the Death God and Wu Jianshan were bleeding. The Death God was forced to abandon her relentless offensive. Several times, she had a guaranteed, fatal strike lined up against an apex Anomaly, only to abort the swing at the last second to block an attack aimed at Wu Jianshan’s throat.

Wu Jianshan was powerful. In a one-on-one fight against another human Beyonder, the abilities he had bought from the Death God—like the Mercy Mask—would guarantee him an easy victory. He could probably even solo a high-tier Anomaly.

But he was fighting an ocean of them.

Even with the Death God desperately playing defense, Wu Jianshan was taking hits. The battle rapidly devolved into a brutal, grinding stalemate.

Even Sun Qianqian, Ding Dong, and Mad Lion were pushed to the absolute brink, desperately fighting off the periphery of the horde. Fortunately for them, the apex Anomalies ignored them completely. To the monsters, the three Beyonders were just appetizers; once Wu Jianshan and the Death God were dead, the rest of the humans were just meat on the chopping block.

Bleeding and exhausted, Wu Jianshan and the Death God were slowly forced backward, giving ground inch by inch.

Now!

Chen Ye bolted.

Dropping his mist, he shot out of the shadows like a coiled spring, sprinting straight for the Doomsday Pickup.

He wrenched the heavy door open, vaulted into the driver’s seat, and slammed the gearshift. It was one smooth, practiced motion. Before anyone on the battlefield could even process his sudden appearance, the heavy, armored tires of the Doomsday Pickup screeched against the concrete, kicking up a massive cloud of burning rubber and white smoke.

The massive engine roared as the truck launched itself directly toward the school gates.

“Qianqian! Ding Dong!” Wu Jianshan shrieked, his voice utterly devoid of sanity, dripping with pure, unadulterated hatred. “Stop him! Do not let him escape!”

Everyone else could live today. But Chen Ye… Chen Ye had to die!