Curios could only be used by the awakened, so Su Nian had no way to get anyone else to do the work. He could only diligently stitch the truck back together himself.
This saved more Survival Points. One-click repairs were not really suited to a broke guy like him.
There was nothing he could do about some of the parts that had fallen off completely.
The materials had to be intact before he could stitch them back on. Even so, the Raptor looked much better than before.
Su Nian was even starting to regret knocking out the shattered window glass.
[Survival Points: 12,540]
Su Nian took out the Ghost Bus License Plate.
First, he spent two hundred Survival Points to fully recharge it.
Consumable Curios were like power banks. Running out of power did not mean they were useless; they could still be used after being fully charged. It was just that no one could recharge them.
But Su Nian could. He was a massive charging station himself.
[Ding! Spend 300 Survival Points to upgrade the Ghost Bus License Plate?]
"Upgrade!"
[Ding! Upgrade complete!]
The five sixes on the license plate shone with bloody light, like flowing liquid rubies... 66666.
[Ghost Bus License Plate] [Type: Curio] [Vehicles bearing this license plate will be regarded by wraiths as ghost buses, and everyone aboard will be regarded as one of their own (active for 3 hours per day)]
It had changed from a consumable Curio into a permanent one.
[Ding! Spend 1,000 Survival Points to upgrade the Ghost Bus License Plate?]
"Upgrade!"
[Ding! Upgrade complete!]
The Ghost Bus License Plate transformed completely into a palm-sized token of dark red, rusted iron with irregular edges. Ever-changing stop names, reliefs of distorted faces, and chaotic numbers protruded from its surface.
[Wraith Travel Token] [Type: Apocalyptic Wraith Artifact] [Rank: 155] [Abilities] [Form: Can actively attach itself to the surface of any movable means of transportation (cars, bicycles, even handcarts), automatically adjusting its size to match its carrier] [Travel exemption: Wraiths will regard the vehicle as a ghost bus and everyone aboard as one of their own. While moving, the vehicle will trail gray mist behind it, further reinforcing the signal that its occupants are fellow wraiths... [Can fool the vast majority of "road-related wraiths" into not attacking, but there remains a chance that the disguise will be exposed (active for 6 hours per day)] [Deep binding: Attendants are 100% loyal] [Containment conditions: Remain kneeling and lick the surface of the token with the tip of your tongue. Make the Wraith Travel Token acknowledge you by speaking in the most abject and sincere tone possible. Strength is irrelevant; only "sincerity of submission" is tested (rank has no bearing on containment conditions)] [Note: If you are Su Nian, you may use it without containment]
What the hell were these containment conditions? The Sin-Cleaving Butcher's Knife required you to take a full-force charge from a Mutated Bull with a fearless mindset. If you survived, you could contain it.
This Wraith Travel Token actually required you to kneel and lick it, all while speaking in the most abject and sincere tone possible.
In short, neither was easy to contain.
He had never seen a Mutated Bull, but he could guess what one looked like. It certainly would not be small. After all, nothing was normal in this eerie world. Getting rammed by one would probably be like getting hit by a fully loaded dump truck.
As for the Wraith Travel Token, that humility and sincerity had to come from the heart, and he would have to kneel and lick it, too. He doubted he could contain it.
Life sure was sweet when you had cheats.
[Survival Points: 11,040]
He still had plenty of Survival Points left... Su Nian calmed down and took stock. His Wraith Artifacts were already sufficient to handle most situations. Piling on more upgrades would not be very cost-effective.
That left three options: save the points as an emergency fund, pour them into his base attributes (physique/spirit), or take a gamble on advancing to Sequence 7.
He definitely needed to keep an emergency fund, but he did not need that much.
Sequence 7 was tempting. It could unlock new forms of his abilities, bringing more tactical changes and possibilities.
But the power of his Sequence abilities needed an amplifier: his physique and spirit.
If his physique and spirit were too weak, his Sequence abilities would be pitifully ineffective. It was like a child holding a top-tier sniper rifle. He could not bring out its power at all; instead, the recoil alone would be enough to put him through hell.
Physique and spirit were his "roots," the roots that let a great tree grow strong. Physique let him withstand damage and gave him more options to react on the spot, including running away. Spirit let him stay calm and resist mental corruption.
Physique and spirit offered an immediate boost to his chances of survival.
His Sequence was a long-term investment.
Having thought everything through, Su Nian began upgrading his physique and spirit.
[Ding! Spend 200 Survival Points to enhance physique (16 → 17)?]
"Enhance!"
He spent eight hundred Survival Points in succession to raise his physique to twenty.
[Ding! Spend 200 Survival Points to enhance spirit (13 → 14)?]
"Enhance!"
Raising his spirit to twenty cost fourteen hundred Survival Points.
After that, each additional point of spirit or physique required four hundred Survival Points.
Su Nian raised both his spirit and physique by another nine points, spending seventy-two hundred Survival Points.
His current Survival Points balance was sixteen hundred and forty.
Those were reserved for keeping him alive at a critical moment.
[Physique: 29] [Spirit: 29]
Su Nian clenched his fists. With his current strength, it was no longer just a feeling that he could beat a bull to death. He absolutely could.
He should now be the strongest human in the apocalypse... That was not vanity talking, but the result of his analysis. Hao Ren and Gong Qing had been among the earliest to awaken, yet their physique was only fourteen. His was now twenty-nine, more than twice theirs.
Even if others were stronger than those two, they could not be much stronger.
Calling himself number one was not an exaggeration at all.
That night, the convoy set out again. Hao Ren's vehicle still led the way, while Su Nian's Raptor followed behind Wen Keyi.
He had always felt this was the safest position, with three awakened people ahead of him and a long tail of vehicles behind.
Now, with the Wraith Travel Token added to the mix, his safety was well assured.
"Perfect. Now this is living. No worrying about gas, no worrying about food." Tang Zhou lay in the cargo bed of the three-wheeler with her legs crossed as Tang Chen drove slowly along.
The Guard Team rode in the supply vehicles, but those were currently full, so the two of them had returned to the three-wheeler.
"Ah... man, if I could awaken too, life would be sweet."
"You've got some pretty big dreams." Tang Chen smiled.
"Of course I do. Didn't they say you need a strong enough conviction to awaken?" Tang Zhou took out a lollipop, unwrapped it, and offered it to him.
"Have it! We can spare a piece of candy."
Tang Chen took it and put it in his mouth. Sweetness burst across his tongue, soothing his taut nerves.
"Brother!" Tang Zhou called urgently.
"If you've got something to say, spit it out. Quit startling me."
"The meaning of life is taking a dump. If taking a dump counts as a conviction, wouldn't that make awakening easier?"
Su Chen's expression darkened. "If you weren't my little sister, I'd throw you into the gray mist to feed the wraiths right now."
"No, listen, let me explain." Su Zhou seemed to grow excited and sprang up from the cargo bed:
"Taking a dump is the freest moment in life. That's when your conviction is strongest. Haven't you noticed?"
Su Chen said, "You're a girl!"
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