Since entering Longevity Village, Chen Ye had been wading through a swamp of constant trouble.

The battle inside the village had been a blur. Chen Ye remembered nothing but the mechanical rhythm of survival: cock the crossbow, load a bolt, fire. Cock, load, fire.

At the start, he had spared a glance for the system notifications popping up in his peripheral vision. By the end, the carnage was so thick he couldn’t spare a millisecond to check his balance.

He only knew one thing: his stockpile of [Black Dog Blood] bolts was nearly depleted.

Those bolts represented hours of labor. Every time he found a suitable branch in the wild, he had stopped to hack it down with his [Heavy Machete]. Whittling them, soaking them—it was an investment.

And in Longevity Village, he had liquidated that investment. He had fired deliberately, aiming not just to survive, but to kill.

He hadn’t expected the return on investment to be this high.

[Total Slaughter Points: 7,450]

The number made his pulse jump. It was a massive windfall.

Chen Ye took a deep drag of his cigarette, letting the smoke fill his lungs as he focused on the system interface.

He had asked the system before about the method to [Awaken] as a [Sequence Beyonder]. The price tag had been a steep 3,000 [Slaughter Points].

Before tonight, that sum had been a pipe dream. Now, he could pay it twice over.

Even after the purchase, he’d have over 4,000 points left—enough to give his battered motorcycle tricycle a serious overhaul.

[System, I want to exchange for the method to Awaken as a Sequence Beyonder.]

[Confirm exchange? Cost: 3,000 Slaughter Points.]

[Confirm!]

Chen Ye made the decision without hesitation.

A loading icon spun on his retina, like a buffering video. Chen Ye waited, his heart hammering against his ribs.

Thirty seconds later, text scrolled across his vision:

[Methods to Awaken as a Sequence Beyonder:]

[1. Natural Awakening: Also known as Innate Sequence Beyonders. Individuals who awaken through this method possess superior potential compared to others.]

[2. Sequence Serum: A type of Sequence Potion. Injecting the serum provides a probability of forcing an Awakening.]

Chen Ye stared at the text, stunned.

That’s it?

I paid 3,000 Slaughter Points for a wiki entry?

He already knew this information. Iron Lion had explained the basics to him days ago.

Natural Awakening was a lottery he hadn’t won. If he was going to awaken naturally, it would have happened when the world fell.

And [Sequence Serum]? According to Nana, these vials were priceless commodities even before the apocalypse. They were items that money couldn’t buy—reserved for the elite, the powerful, the connected.

Knowing they existed didn’t help him get one.

Just as a curse formed on his lips, he felt a sudden weight in his right hand.

Cold. smooth glass.

Chen Ye froze. His fingers instinctively curled around the object, hiding it. He scanned the campsite with paranoid intensity.

Under the brutal desert sun, the other survivors were occupied—cooking, nursing wounds, or staring blankly at the sand. No one was looking at him.

He turned his body, shielding his hand, and glanced down.

It was a glass syringe. Inside, a viscous blue liquid swirled, glowing with a faint, mesmerizing luminescence.

The word popped into his head instantly.

Sequence Serum.

He hadn’t just bought information. He had bought the item itself.

Chen Ye forced his breathing to remain steady. He queried the system again to be sure.

[Item: Sequence Serum]

It was real.

He suppressed the urge to laugh maniacally. He looked around one last time. The camp was still quiet. The survivors were lethargic from the heat.

Chen Ye stood up, feigning a need to relieve himself. He walked away from the cluster of vehicles, finding a spot behind a small dune that broke the line of sight.

He pulled out the syringe. The deep blue liquid seemed to drink the sunlight, sparkling like a captured galaxy.

He didn’t hesitate.

He rolled up his sleeve, found a vein, and drove the needle in.

A sharp prick, followed by pressure.

He depressed the plunger slowly. He felt the cold fluid enter his bloodstream, a line of ice traveling up his arm and dispersing into his chest.

When the syringe was empty, he withdrew the needle and stowed the glass container deep in his pocket.

He shook out his arm, composed himself, and walked back to his tricycle.

He sat down, lit another cigarette, and waited.

He took a long, hard drag, monitoring his body for any sensation. Pain? Heat? A sudden surge of godlike power?

Nothing.

Actually, that wasn’t entirely true. It wasn’t pain—it was relief.

The fatigue from the all-night raid, the bone-deep chill from the rainstorm, the dizziness from the sudden heatstroke—it all evaporated. The serum had scrubbed his system clean. He felt refreshed, light.

But he didn’t feel powerful.

According to Iron Lion, becoming a [Sequence Beyonder] came with distinct physiological changes. Heightened senses, surging energy, something tangible.

This just felt like a really good energy drink.

[System, why don’t I sense anything? Did the awakening fail?]

[Awakening in progress. Please wait patiently, Host.]

[How long will it take?]

[Awakening in progress. Please wait patiently, Host.]

Chen Ye tried rephrasing the question three times. The system stoned-walled him with the same automated response.

Fine.

He knew how the system worked now. Purchases and questions were instant. Upgrades and biological changes took time. It was like downloading a large file; he just had to wait for the progress bar to fill.

He checked his balance. Over 4,000 points remaining.

He briefly entertained the idea of buying a [Doomsday Base Vehicle]. A moving fortress.

He checked the price.

The string of zeros was so long it made him dizzy. Never mind.

The desert sun was becoming a problem. His scalp was burning. The clothes he had hung out to dry were already stiff and baked.

Sitting out here exposed was suicide. There was no cover—just the road sign and endless dunes.

Other survivors had retreated into tents or huddled in the shadow of the bus. Some had dug shallow trenches on the leeward side of the dunes.

Chen Ye rummaged through the cargo bed of his tricycle. He needed protection.

He found a hooded sun-protection jacket—loot from the fitness instructor he’d killed in Apricot Blossom Town. He pulled it on.

For pants, he only had a pair of loose boxer shorts. Everything else was either heavy denim (too hot) or… women’s clothing.

His cargo bed was a mess of supplies. Among the food and tools, there were piles of women’s fashion items.

These belonged to Jiajia, the “naive moralist” he had traveled with earlier. While everyone else had been scavenging for food in Apricot Blossom Town, that idiot woman had raided a clothing store.

She was dead now, or gone, but her frivolity had become his asset.

He had traded some of the clothes away, but a mountain of fabric remained. High-end dresses, designer jeans, silk tops.

Chen Ye looked at the pile of colorful fabric, and an idea clicked.

Why not build a canopy?

He had the raw materials. He had the system.

He pulled up the upgrade interface.

[Blueprint Generated: Sunshade Canopy (Standard)]

A sleek, black tactical canopy appeared in his mind’s eye. It extended from the cabin to the rear, fully enclosing the tricycle. It was rainproof, windproof, and durable.

It was perfect.

[Cost: 720 Slaughter Points]

Chen Ye grimaced. Too expensive.

He had just over 4,000 points. Dropping nearly a grand on a sunshade felt reckless. He needed to be efficient.

He needed a budget option.

Chen Ye cleared the blueprint and started mentally adjusting the parameters.

It doesn’t need to be tactical black nylon. I have all this fabric right here.

He remembered seeing a design online once—a high-end sofa upholstered entirely in patchwork denim from old jeans. It had looked rugged, durable, and stylish in a post-apocalyptic way.

Let’s go with the Wasteland Patchwork style.

He fed the concept to the system. Use the existing women’s clothing—jeans for durability, shirts for coverage—stitched together into a canopy.

A new blueprint materialized.

The new canopy was a mosaic of denim and cotton. Pockets were still visible on the roof and sides, acting as extra storage. It looked scrappy, but solid.

He removed the “Rainproof” requirement. They were in a desert; rain was a low-probability threat.

He designed the cargo bed cover to be semi-enclosed. The side curtains could be rolled down and zipped for privacy, or rolled up for airflow.

For the driver’s cabin, he kept it simple: just a roof for shade. No doors, no windows yet.

He would save the full cabin upgrade for when he could scavenge an actual car chassis. Using raw [Slaughter Points] to fabricate metal was a waste.

The system recalculated the cost.

[Cost: 252 Slaughter Points]

Sold.

Chen Ye checked his surroundings one last time. The coast was clear.

[Confirm upgrade.]

Instantly, the pile of women’s clothing in the cargo bed vanished.

A holographic timer appeared above the tricycle, visible only to him.

[Upgrading… 04:59:59]