From Bicycle to Tricycle

By the faint light appearing on the horizon, Chen Ye saw that his old twenty-eight-inch roadster had changed dramatically.

Its original two wheels had become three.

The tires also looked much wider than before, their rugged tread giving them a distinctly off-road look.

Even the spokes had grown considerably thicker.

And there was now a cargo bed at the back.

With that cargo bed, its carrying capacity was far greater than the old roadster's.

His roadster had become a tricycle.

Chen Ye tried it out and discovered that this system-upgraded tricycle actually took less effort to pedal than his old roadster. Riding it was a breeze.

Only after examining it carefully did he discover that the system had fitted the tricycle with a pedal-assist mechanism.

"Hey, Ye, where did you get that ride?"

"Chen Ye, you didn't go out gathering supplies last night, did you? You've got some nerve!"

"Tsk, tsk... this thing's every bit as good as a car!"

After daybreak, Chen Ye's tricycle still drew plenty of attention.

Many of the survivors' eyes were full of envy and jealousy.

In this apocalypse, any supplies were precious.

Especially a tricycle that clearly wasn't ordinary.

Most importantly, it didn't need gasoline.

Some people had joined the convoy in cars before, but once they ran out of fuel, they had simply abandoned them by the roadside.

Gasoline was something only the people in the two modified off-road vehicles up front could get their hands on.

Supposedly, several people in those two vehicles were very powerful.

Especially a young girl carrying a sword.

A woman wearing yoga pants walked over.

"Chen Ye, could you let me sit in your cargo bed? My legs hurt so much from walking these past two days."

With that, the woman rubbed her calf in a blatantly flirtatious manner, making the lechers around her swallow hard.

She had been rescued during a supply run a few days earlier, and plenty of men had been falling over themselves to please her.

It wasn't that she hadn't wanted to hitch a ride in an off-road vehicle.

The people in those vehicles had turned her down, so she had settled for the next best thing: Chen Ye's tricycle.

Although Chen Ye's tricycle didn't have four wheels, adding a cushion to its cargo bed would definitely make it far more comfortable than walking or sitting on the back of a bicycle.

"No!"

Chen Ye refused without a second thought.

The woman apparently hadn't expected such a blunt rejection, and her expression immediately soured.

Before the apocalypse, she would have been considered reasonably pretty.

No one had ever rejected her like this before.

Even after the apocalypse, her modest good looks were what had kept her alive until now.

Yet this man had turned her down so bluntly?

"Chen Ye, you..."

"Jiajia, why don't you ride with me? My bike has a cushion on the back seat too. I guarantee it'll be comfortable!"

A burly man hurriedly spoke up to ingratiate himself with her.

Only then did her expression improve. She shot Chen Ye a vicious glare, then turned and walked toward the man's bicycle like a haughty princess.

The man's name was Qiangzi. Before the apocalypse, he had been a trainer at a gym, and he had a burly physique.

He had originally owned a motorcycle, but after running out of gas, he had found a bicycle and followed the convoy.

The woman in yoga pants sat on the back of his bicycle and complained:

"This seat digs into me so much. Can't you get something with four wheels?"

Qiangzi smiled ingratiatingly. "Something with four wheels would be easy enough to find. They're all over the streets. But refueling is a hassle, and so is charging. This bicycle's better."

"They might be enjoying themselves driving now, but soon enough, none of them will be able to."

In truth, Qiangzi was talking out of his ass.

They had passed abandoned cars parked by the roadside before. He had fiddled with one for ages but hadn't managed to drive it away.

Jiajia rolled her eyes. "If you can't get a four-wheeler, can't you find a tricycle? Look at Chen Ye..."

"Qiangzi, why don't we take Chen Ye's tricycle?"

Jiajia lowered her voice and whispered into Qiangzi's ear.

Qiangzi glanced at the hand crossbow on Chen Ye's waist, looking wary. "Jiajia, let's forget it. Chen Ye isn't someone we should mess with!"

"Besides, he's got a hand crossbow!"

"Hmph! What a coward!"

The woman in yoga pants snorted and fell silent.

Chen Ye hooked the hand crossbow onto his waist and tossed his bundle into the cargo bed.

Before, the bundle had barely fit on the roadster's rear seat.

Now, with it in the tricycle's cargo bed, there was still plenty of room to spare.

For some reason, they were moving much faster today than they had yesterday.

Fortunately, with its pedal-assist mechanism, the tricycle was even easier to ride than his old roadster.

The cyclists beside him were drenched in sweat.

Chen Ye, meanwhile, looked completely at ease.

Qiangzi pedaled furiously, his back already soaked through.

Sitting behind Qiangzi, Jiajia, the woman in yoga pants, looked at Chen Ye with even greater hostility.

"Buildings! There are buildings up ahead!"

Someone in the convoy suddenly shouted.

The cry was like a pebble dropped into a still lake, sending ripples spreading outward.

The people who had been trudging along with their heads down suddenly looked up into the distance.

Their sallow faces filled with greed and delight, and even a trace of fear.

Chen Ye looked up. Rows of buildings stood beside the road, looking like a small town.

He wasn't the only one. Everyone in the convoy was staring at the cluster of buildings.

A town meant supplies.

Many people in the convoy had already exhausted theirs.

Even Chen Ye had little left in his backpack.

After the apocalypse, most towns and cities had become no-go zones for humans.

The more densely populated a town or city had been, the more dangerous it was.

An international metropolis like Shanghu, for example-just thinking about it was enough to imagine how terrifying that place must be.

None of those who had barely escaped Jiang City wanted to face those horrifying anomalies again.

At night, if the convoy encountered a town like this, they would keep as far away as possible.

But now...

Under normal circumstances, anomalies didn't appear during the day, giving survivors a chance to enter towns and villages to gather supplies.

The off-road vehicles in the convoy visibly picked up speed.

Chen Ye hooked his hand crossbow onto his waist, stood up on the pedals, and accelerated toward the town on his tricycle.

He left the other survivors on bicycles behind.

Many cast envious looks his way.

"That bastard! How's he so fast?"

Someone behind Chen Ye cursed resentfully.

"Goddamn it, why doesn't heaven make him crash and die?!"

"There... there might be anomalies in that town!"

"Fuck it, anomalies or not, if I don't find something to eat, I'll starve to death first!"

"Fortune favors the bold. Cowards starve!"

"Go! First come, first served!"

The whole convoy seemed pumped full of adrenaline. Even the survivors on foot who had long since exhausted themselves grew fired up.

As they approached the small town and felt the eerie aura emanating from it, their overheated minds began to clear.

Even before reaching the town, they felt waves of hair-raising danger.

The town sat beside the road like a savage, monstrous beast.

Despite it being broad daylight, the entire town felt as sinister as a winter night.

One modified off-road vehicle was moving fastest. Just as it was about to enter the town, it suddenly braked hard, its tires leaving two deep black streaks on the road with a piercing squeal.

The other vehicles following behind also braked with shrill screeches.

The clamor suddenly died away.

It was as though someone had pressed the mute button.

An uncanny silence!

Chen Ye slowed down and followed the four-wheeled vehicles to the edge of town.

When he finally saw the town clearly, he felt as though an invisible hand had seized his guts in a crushing grip. An icy terror shot from the soles of his feet all the way to the roots of his hair.