"The monsters' strength is divided into three ranks: C, B, and A."
"The Maggot Willow we encountered by the road last night was C-rank. The ones today were all B-rank." Hao Ren's expression darkened as he spoke, with a hint of confusion mixed in.
"We had some seriously rotten luck today. So many B-rank monsters woke up at once. A lot of survivors died."
"What matters is that you're all right." Wen Keyi smiled faintly.
"Sister Wen, the tea is ready." Chen Le approached with a glass teapot, the amber tea giving off a fragrant aroma.
"Thank you."
Chen Le smiled in acknowledgment, then turned and left.
Wen Keyi took out three fresh paper cups and poured one for each of them.
Su Nian sniffed his tea and took a sip. It was fragrant, with a sweet aftertaste.
He couldn't help marveling to himself. The awakened were the ones truly living. His old days had barely counted as surviving.
"A monster's strength is mainly reflected in its killing rules..."
Hao Ren resumed their earlier discussion.
Su Nian looked toward the Raptor. The buzz-cut man he had saved yesterday was wiping it down with a tattered piece of clothing.
Su Nian glanced at him, then looked away.
After explaining the differences in the monsters' strength, Hao Ren went on to discuss Sequence Transcendents.
Everyone started at Sequence Nine when they first awakened, followed by Sequence Eight, Sequence Seven... the lower the number, the stronger their abilities.
Abilities weren't the same as combat strength.
Sequence Transcendents had all kinds of bizarre abilities. Some leaned toward combat, some toward perception, while others were relatively versatile.
They didn't have clearly defined ranks like the monsters did.
There was some disagreement among Sequence Transcendents themselves, however. Their sequences were also divided into three categories based on rarity.
One was the Wayfinder Sequence, another was the Miracle Sequence, and the rest were collectively called Other Sequences.
Essentially, it was an internal class divide. Ordinary people were sorted into a hierarchy, and the awakened community was no different.
Some abilities were undeniably powerful and were called Miracle Sequences because of their rarity.
The Wayfinder Sequence was undeniably a dime a dozen.
Aside from those two categories, everything else fell under Other Sequences.
Hao Ren even gave an example of a Miracle Sequence: someone with the Blade God Sequence had hacked a Class C Wraith to death at Sequence Nine.
"I think your Blood Eye is pretty badass too. You can see through a B-rank monster's weaknesses and killing rules at Sequence Nine. Personally, I'd say that qualifies as a Miracle Sequence. You've got limitless potential," Gong Qing chimed in. "Our convoy has a Miracle Sequence now too."
"I agree, but I value your luck more. Strength certainly matters if you want to survive the apocalypse, but luck matters even more. Finding a Wraith Artifact already makes you luckier than 99.9 percent of people," Hao Ren agreed.
A fluorescent notebook appeared in his hand.
"This contains an Oddity Compendium I put together, along with a compendium of monsters. You can also use it like the green chat app from before the apocalypse to talk to other people."
Su Nian took it, and Hao Ren spoke again.
"I'm sure you understand how dangerous this world is by now. Even after awakening a sequence and becoming transcendent, we're still the weaker side. Facing a monster is still a brush with death."
"So, when your own safety is assured, protect the survivors in the convoy whenever you can. The more people we have, the safer we are, and the easier it is to escape when we encounter a monster."
Su Nian nodded to show he understood. He actually quite liked "them" too.
"The supplies they contribute also support our daily lives. When we reach a city, that lets us focus on our own business: gathering the materials needed to advance our sequences, as well as Curios that can deal with monsters."
"And the most important thing... do you believe in luck?"
"I do!" Su Nian looked utterly serious.
If he hadn't been lucky enough to awaken his system, his life would never have been this comfortable.
"Your awakening is inseparable from their deaths. The more people die, the more likely the convoy is to produce someone awakened."
*???* Su Nian froze. He had clearly bought his awakening with Survival Points.
He hadn't expected such an explanation. Judging by Hao Ren's serious expression, there was probably something to it.
"But one thing is strange. The people who awaken have usually been on the road to survival for quite a while. You've only been here a week. By rights, it shouldn't have been your turn yet..."
"There's a queue for awakening?" Su Nian looked puzzled.
"There really is. As long as you live long enough, your awakening will come eventually. At worst, you'll awaken a Wayfinder Sequence," Gong Qing chimed in.
"You keep talking about the Wayfinder Sequence, so why doesn't our convoy have a single one?"
They had practically ground Guides beneath their heels, yet excluding him, the convoy had three Sequence Transcendents, and not one was a Guide.
"We used to. They were sent to the Beacon Towers."
"Beacon Towers?"
Su Nian was confused. Another new term.
"When we first crossed over into this world a year ago, the Wayfinder Sequence was the mainstay. Every convoy had to have a Wayfinder leading it to survive. Back then, the highway wasn't safe at night."
"Every night, gray fog would engulf the entire world. The Wayfinder Sequence could sense the monsters' locations and steer clear from a long way off. Even so, people still died every night. We survived by cutting off the tail to preserve a spark."
"The materials needed to advance the Wayfinder Sequence were easy to find. In just eight months, one Wayfinder advanced to Sequence Seven, Crossroads Walker. His name was Zhang Jie. In the fog, he discovered an Apocalyptic Wraith Artifact: the Ten-Thousand-Mile Beacon Tower."
"Then he used the Beacon Tower's power to draw on a sliver of the highway's rules and keep the night fog at bay. After that, the highway gained some protective mechanisms at night, though we still couldn't linger for too long."
"Afterward, all the convoys reached a consensus: as we traveled, we would help Zhang Jie set up Beacon Towers. Helping him meant helping ourselves. There was nothing to argue about."
Hao Ren tapped a fingertip lightly against the tabletop.
With a dull thunk, a map appeared on the table.
"This shows the current progress of the Beacon Tower network. The red areas haven't been covered yet. Each Beacon Tower also needs two or three Guides stationed there, which is why our convoy doesn't have any."
Su Nian studied the map. Lines connected the markers in the blue areas, forming a map shaped like an eagle soaring with its wings spread.
Locations were marked across the eagle's body in blue and yellow, while several regions were a menacing blood-red.
"Would those Wayfinder Sequences agree to that?" Su Nian asked.
There aren't any coercive measures involved, are there? If I awakened as a Guide and they forced me to do something I didn't want to do, then sorry, but they could all go to hell.
He could choose to sacrifice himself, but he wouldn't be forced into it.
Only if I exist does the world exist!
"The vast majority are willing. Compared to the restrictions of the Beacon Towers, hovering between life and death on the road to survival is far harder to accept."
"One second you're perfectly fine, and the next you're dead."
"Only by continually setting up Beacon Towers can Transcendent Sequences gain more safe space. That makes it easier to gather materials and advance our sequences. Only high-sequence Transcendents can enter the heart of the Endlands."
Hao Ren pointed to a blood-red region on the map.
"We're all striving to stay alive... through love and hate, success and failure, we've won and we've lost." Gong Qing hummed a little tune.
Before you continue