“No!”

The three of them shouted in unison, shooting Chen Ye looks of collective disdain.

Chen Ye swallowed a mouthful of curses. He looked at his teammates, exasperated. It’s the fucking apocalypse. Since when did we start caring about Boy Scout morality?

In Chen Ye’s mind, robbing a slaver gang wasn’t a crime; it was just efficient resource redistribution. The only question should be whether they had the firepower to pull it off, not the moral high ground.

“Alright, hold on,” Captain Chu Che intervened, playing the mediator. “Yezi isn’t entirely wrong. There’s an old saying: ‘Have no heart to harm, but keep your guard up against those who do.'”

Chu Che adjusted his glasses, his tone shifting to business. “I’ve already settled things with Old Man Mo. The trade happens tomorrow morning. Everyone, keep your wits about you. Watch your gear, and watch who you’re talking to.”

“Mo’s team isn’t simple,” Chu added, his voice lowering. “They likely have a stockpile of high-grade supplies. Maybe even Artifacts.”

Sun Qianqian crossed her long, snow-white legs, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “So, we aren’t going to double-cross them. Fine. But we absolutely need to make sure they don’t double-cross us.”

“That old man is a fox,” she continued. “Slippery and treacherous. We can’t let our guard down for a second.”

Chen Ye nodded vigorously. Finally, someone speaking his language. As expected of the woman I had a fling with.

“I’m worried about the kid,” Iron Lion suddenly rumbled, his face darkening. “The one in their team. He gives me the creeps.”

“You mean the one wrapped in the cloak?” Chen Ye asked.

“Yeah. Did you notice? During the entire banquet, he didn’t take a single bite of food.”

Chen Ye frowned. “He didn’t eat?”

In the wasteland, skipping a meal wasn’t a quirk; it was insanity. Food was life. Refusing a feast was… unnatural.

“It gets worse,” Iron Lion said, rubbing the back of his neck as if fighting off a chill. “Halfway through the meal, the kid slipped away. I got curious, so I followed him.”

The three of them stared at the big man, waiting.

“I saw him find one of their slaves… a man tied up in the back.” Iron Lion grimaced. “The kid didn’t say a word. he just started breaking the man’s fingers. One by one. Crack. Crack. He just stood there, listening to the muffled screams.”

“If the guy’s mouth hadn’t been gagged, you would have heard it from here.”

Iron Lion shuddered. “And the look on the kid’s face… it was twisted. Ecstatic. Like he was enjoying a fine meal. I can’t even describe it.”

Captain Chu fell silent, his brows furrowing in deep concentration. He tapped his fingers against his knee, processing the intel.

Suddenly, his eyes widened.

“I think I know what Sequence that is,” Chu whispered, his face paling slightly. “That has to be the Demon Sequence.”

“Demon Sequence?” Sun Qianqian asked, tilting her head.

“Yes. Legend has it that it’s the Sequence most perfectly adapted to the apocalypse.”

Chu Che looked at them grimly. “Beyonders of that path cannot consume human food. To them, our delicacies are poison. Their bodies reject it violently.”

“Instead,” Chu said, “they feed on negative emotions.”

“Fear. Pain. Despair. That’s their bread and water. What Iron Lion saw… was the kid having dinner.”

A heavy silence descended on the tent.

Feeding on pain? It was monstrous.

“It gets worse,” Chu continued. “Negative emotions aren’t just food; they are fuel. The more intense the suffering around them, the faster they level up. In a world like this…”

He didn’t need to finish the sentence.

The apocalypse was a buffet of misery. A Demon Sequence Beyonder wouldn’t just survive here; they would thrive. They were the “Chosen Ones” of this broken world—the absolute meta build for the end times.

Even Chen Ye felt a headache coming on. If he didn’t have his System, encountering a monster like that would be a death sentence. His best move would be to turn tail and run.

He needed time. He needed Slaughter Points. His vehicle, his Artifacts, his own stats—everything needed upgrading, and he was always short on points. He had only awakened recently; he was still playing catch-up.

Give me a month, Chen Ye thought, and I’d crush this ‘Chosen One’ into dust. But right now?

Right now, he had to play it safe. Like the protagonists in those old cultivation novels—lie low, act harmless, and only strike when the kill is guaranteed.

“There’s more,” Chu Che added, dropping another bomb. “That kid… he might be Sequence 2.”

“How can you tell?” Chen Ye asked, startled.

“The cloak,” Chu explained. “Demon Sequence, Stage 2: Wings of Depravity. They grow a pair of wings. When not in combat, the wings wrap around the body like a cloak to conceal their form. That’s not fabric he’s wearing. It’s part of him.”

Sequence 2.

The atmosphere in the tent grew heavy.

Sun Qianqian, however, uncrossed her legs and leaned forward, a dangerous glint in her eyes. She licked her lips.

“Interesting,” she purred. “I wonder… which of us is stronger?”

Having consumed a mystic fruit to awaken, the pink-haired girl was the Fairness Team’s heavy hitter. Her talent was terrifying, and she had been training hard lately. She was itching to test her limits against a peer.

“Let’s not find out if we don’t have to,” Chu Che said quickly, dousing her fire. “We avoid conflict unless absolutely necessary.”

Iron Lion was out of commission. That left only Chen Ye and Sun Qianqian as combat-ready Beyonders. The team was at its weakest point. A direct confrontation with a Sequence 2 maniac was a bad gamble.

“But…” Chen Ye stroked his chin, his eyes flickering with scheming light. “If a fight does break out, we aren’t without leverage.”

“What do you mean?” Chu asked.

Chen Ye grinned, a sinister expression taking over his face. “Did you notice? That Camel Team isn’t exactly one big happy family. That plain-looking woman—the one who stormed off? She hates them.”

The others recalled the scene from dinner. The woman with the sharp, resolute features who had left in disgust when the crossdresser started dancing.

“She’s a crack in their armor,” Chen Ye said. “If I go talk to her now, maybe I can wedge it open. Turn her against—”

“Stop!” Chu Che cut him off, rubbing his temples. “Yezi, drop the backstabbing plans. We trade. We leave. No trouble.”

Chen Ye pouted, leaning back in his chair.

Captain Chu, oh Captain Chu. You don’t want to start a fight, but what makes you think they feel the same way?

You’re too soft for this world.

“Sigh… fine,” Chu Che muttered. “Let’s at least hear what they are thinking.”

He reached into his bag and pulled out the old radio.

[Artifact 01257 – The Eavesdropper]

Seeing the device again, Chen Ye felt a pang of envy. Before, it was just junk. Now that he knew it was an Artifact, he coveted it.

Sun Qianqian’s cheeks flushed a barely noticeable shade of red when she saw the radio, likely recalling some private moment she feared might have been overheard. Fortunately, everyone was focused on the device.

Chu Che adjusted the dial. Static hissed, then cleared.

“Zzzzz…”

A voice cut through the noise.

“Captain, take it from me. In that convoy, the pretty boy is the most sinister one. We need to watch him closely.”

The transmission came through loud and clear.

Silence filled the tent.

Simultaneously, three heads turned to stare at Chen Ye.

Pretty boy?

Iron Lion was a mountain of muscle. Sun Qianqian was a girl.

That left two men.

“Whoa, why are you looking at me?” Chen Ye protested, pointing an accusatory finger at Chu Che. “The Captain is the same age as me! And look at his skin—he’s way paler than I am. ‘Pretty Boy’ definitely refers to him!”

“Besides,” Chen Ye argued, “I was quiet all night! I was a model guest! Why would they suspect me?”

Chen Ye defended himself loudly, but internally, he was sweating. Those bastards. Are they really talking about me?

The logic seemed to sway the others. They shifted their gaze to Chu Che.

Chu Che’s face turned the color of a burnt pot. He opened his mouth to argue, but the radio crackled again.

“Hmm… Yeah,” came Old Man Mo’s voice. “That kid didn’t say much all night. Acted all well-behaved.”

“But those thief eyes of his… he was casing the joint the whole time. I saw him clocking our supplies at least five times.”

“We need to be careful. That little bastard is definitely planning a double-cross!”

Chen Ye froze.

Damn you!