Chu Sheng truly hadn't expected to be able to choose both the direction of an upgrade and which parts to upgrade.
What was this?
Custom mode?
Looking at the phantom image floating before him, Chu Sheng rubbed his chin in thought for a moment, then greatly increased the blade's sharpness and toughness.
Who said sharpness and toughness couldn't coexist?
As far as he was concerned, the most important part of a knife was its edge.
Upgrading a weapon for anything other than killing was a load of crap!
[Upgrading the butcher knife requires 200 survival points. Proceed with upgrade?]
"Upgrade!"
[Upgrade complete. Butcher knife upgraded to butcher knife!]
A white light flashed. The butcher knife didn't look any different, except that its edge seemed even sharper.
In the apocalypse, weapons were the most important thing, followed by vehicles.
Upgrading the butcher knife had cost 200 survival points, leaving him with 4,700. That should be enough to give his ride a decent overhaul.
It was just a shame he didn't have a ranged weapon, or he could have upgraded that too.
With that thought, Chu Sheng turned his gaze toward his bicycle.
But soon, his attention shifted to the vehicles the other survivors had driven here.
He wanted to get a car and upgrade it.
It wasn't that the bicycle was bad, but another vehicle would offer more room.
Unfortunately, every vehicle around him already had an owner.
No unlucky bastard had died in Small Town.
Or if any unlucky bastards had died in Small Town, they still had companions.
Although Chu Sheng didn't consider himself a good person, he still had his limits.
Even in the apocalypse, he only killed people who provoked him.
As for other people's belongings, he generally wouldn't rob them unless he was completely out of supplies.
After all, his standards were already so low. Any lower, and he might forget he was human.
Sure, he killed people, set fires, left others to die, and diverted danger onto them, but he was a good boy.
"What a shame!"
With a regretful expression, Chu Sheng turned his gaze back to the bicycle.
[Upgrading the bicycle requires 500 survival points. Proceed with upgrade?]
As the prompt appeared, a phantom image of a bicycle soon materialized before him.
"Now you're getting it, my dear system!"
The image didn't just show the bicycle as it was; it also showed what it would look like after the upgrade.
The upgraded bicycle seemed to have some sort of effort-saving device installed, with a small label beside it identifying it as such.
In addition, the bicycle's tires would be widened and the seat material replaced.
Chu Sheng approved of those upgrades.
After all, they only cost five hundred survival points-half a cat's paw.
But he wasn't satisfied.
Since the system had given him a custom mode and let him design it himself, he was definitely going to do just that!
"Add a battery!"
"Solar charging is essential too! Add it!"
"It definitely needs a fuel tank! A gas-electric hybrid!"
"Lights? Add them!"
"Bodywork? Add it!"
"Suspension and shock absorbers? Add them!"
"A rain canopy? Add it!"
After a flurry of modifications to Chu Sheng's design, the bicycle finally turned into a bizarre-looking motorcycle.
It looked just like the motorcycles with sidecars the Japanese rode in wartime TV dramas.
Several sizable boxes had also been added behind the seat to store supplies.
Looking at his masterpiece, Chu Sheng was very satisfied. One look at this bicycle told him it had enormous room for improvement!
"Upgrade it!"
Chu Sheng issued the command in his mind.
[Upgrading the bicycle requires 9,300 survival points. Proceed with upgrade?]
Chu Sheng: "..."
Both upgrades to the butcher knife combined hadn't cost more than five hundred survival points. What kind of bicycle was this?
It actually wanted over nine thousand from him?
He only had 4,700 in total right now, barely half of what he needed.
Chu Sheng fell silent for a moment. He looked reluctantly at the phantom image before him, but finally started stripping things away.
"No rain canopy. I'll just wear a raincoat! No lights either. I'll follow the convoy at night! Get rid of the boxes in back too. The sidecar can hold things! No battery either. That can wait!"
Chu Sheng pared it down, keeping the motorcycle and sidecar themselves and deleting everything else.
[Upgrading the bicycle requires 4,400 survival points. Proceed with upgrade?]
"Upgrade it!"
[Upgrade complete! Bicycle upgraded to motorcycle with sidecar!]
With a flash of white light, the bicycle received a massive upgrade, turning straight into a motorcycle with a sidecar. The backpack that had been sitting on it was now in the sidecar.
Chu Sheng immediately climbed on.
The key was already in the ignition. With a slight twist, the motorcycle let out a roar, then fell silent.
"Huh?"
He instinctively glanced at the dashboard, only to find that the fuel gauge read zero.
Chu Sheng retrieved the three liters of gasoline he'd taken from the thug with the tattooed arms from the sidecar and poured it into the tank. Peering inside, he saw that it was about a third full.
That meant the fuel tank held ten liters.
"Not bad. That'll last a while," Chu Sheng murmured.
As for what he would do afterward, he'd cross that bridge when he came to it.
He could just borrow some gasoline from someone.
He hadn't considered whether anyone would be willing to lend it. If he ran out of gasoline, that meant he was out of options.
Chu Sheng hadn't hidden his upgrades from the others.
Everyone was either in their vehicles or poised to flee. Naturally, they noticed Chu Sheng pointing here and there at his bicycle.
As for his earlier butcher knife upgrade, the knife had been too small for them to notice.
At first, when they saw Chu Sheng gesturing at his bicycle, they thought he'd gone crazy. Some even watched as though they were enjoying a show.
But when a white light flashed over the bicycle, everyone fell silent.
Some wanted to approach Chu Sheng and ask what was going on, but the butcher knife he kept in his hand made them hesitate.
Brother Hui and Old Man Li, who were a short distance from the convoy, naturally witnessed it too.
The two exchanged a glance, delight in both their eyes.
The convoy had gained another Sequence Adept!
With that thought, Brother Hui walked straight over to Chu Sheng. Looking at the motorcycle and sidecar, which lacked quite a few features, he asked, "You've awakened?"
"Yeah."
Chu Sheng didn't hide it and nodded.
He couldn't avoid using this ability forever. Once or twice might be fine, but once he used it often enough, he would still attract attention, even if he made his upgrades in secret.
Passing himself off as a Sequence Adept was the best approach.
After all, his upgrading ability was indeed just as miraculous as a Sequence Adept's powers.
"That's fantastic!"
"What Sequence did you awaken?!"
"Mechanic? Modification? Or Craftsman?"
Brother Hui now looked at Chu Sheng as though he were a priceless treasure.
When Chu Sheng remained silent, Brother Hui frowned. After a moment's thought, realization seemed to dawn on him.
"You probably haven't received the information about your Sequence yet, have you?"
Before you continue