Encountering Another Convoy

Chen Ye's awakening of a second sequence soon drew exclamations of amazement from Chu Che and Nana.

Neither of them looked envious, though.

The Long-Legged Girl even gave Chen Ye a somewhat complicated look.

"Having two sequences is nice, but you also pay twice the price. Can you... handle it?"

The girl's long pink hair glowed beautifully in the morning sunlight.

Click!

Chen Ye lit a Hua Cigarette, exhaled a mouthful of smoke, and said slowly, "Can't worry about all that. I'll deal with the future when it comes."

The Long-Legged Girl gave Chen Ye a thumbs-up.

"Whatever else, awakening two sequences is still a good thing!"

"In an apocalypse like this, every extra day alive is a bonus!"

Captain Chu smiled gently as he spoke.

Iron Lion asked in his deep, muffled voice, "Ye, what's your second sequence?"

Chen Ye blew a smoke ring. Under everyone's astonished gazes, the smoke churned, and a kitten broke free from it.

The kitten circled their feet.

The smoky kitten looked incredibly lifelike.

Everyone stared, dumbfounded.

A kitten was one of the forms Chen Ye was most practiced at creating with Mimicry.

"The Smoke Apostle sequence!"

Chen Ye had no intention of hiding it and simply told them the sequence's name.

"Smoke Apostle? That's one of the supernatural pathways!"

With his Eavesdropping Radio, Captain Chu was well informed and quickly offered his assessment.

"Supernatural pathways?"

Chen Ye was a little puzzled. None of the information he had received mentioned supernatural pathways.

"There are over a hundred types of sequence transcendent. You can think of pathways as broad categories!"

"For instance, Iron Lion's Titan Sequence and Nana's Sword Immortal Sequence can both be classified under the melee pathway."

"Human civilization has already collapsed, so this is about the best classification we have for now."

"You can control smoke, so yours should fall under the supernatural pathway! You could also call it the superpower pathway!"

Captain Chu casually gave them a quick lesson.

That only made Chen Ye more curious about Captain Chu's wealth of knowledge.

Among the convoy members, Iron Lion had once been a bus driver.

Nana had been a top student in her final year of high school. She had just received an acceptance letter from one of the country's best universities when the apocalypse struck.

Only Captain Chu never spoke about his past. He was quite mysterious.

After chatting a little more about Chen Ye's second sequence, they prepared to return to their vehicles and set off.

"Captain, can we find some water today? I'm absolutely filthy!"

The Long-Legged Girl grumbled unhappily.

"Water? I'd like to find some too, but that depends on our luck!"

"Damn it, aren't you in the Guide Sequence? You can't even manage something this simple?"

"..."

The Long-Legged Girl showed no mercy in expressing her disdain for the captain.

Chen Ye blew a smoke ring and turned to head back to his motorized tricycle.

Every sequence had side effects, and those side effects grew worse as its level increased.

A transcendent with two sequences had to pay twice the price.

Chen Ye's whitened left eye was one example.

"Aah!"

A scream pierced the relatively quiet desert morning.

The pink-haired girl, who had been walking away, vanished from sight.

With a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth, Chen Ye turned toward the scream.

A terrified woman was pointing at a tent in front of her.

Chen Ye spat out his cigarette butt and hurried over.

"What happened?"

The Long-Legged Girl pressed a hand to the sword at her waist and asked with a grave expression.

"D-dead... Someone's dead!"

The terrified woman pointed a trembling finger at the tent before her.

The girl's expression changed, and she used her sword to lift the tent flap.

A man's corpse lay inside.

A very thin blanket covered him, and his whole body was curled into a ball.

At the sight, Chen Ye had a fairly good idea of how the man had died.

The temperature had plunged last night. Without enough warm clothing, the man had frozen to death in the desert night.

Chen Ye vaguely remembered him. He had been one of the few people in the convoy who owned a motorcycle, and one of the few who had escaped from Longevity Village.

Last night, the man had chosen not to move into the bus and had pitched a tent in the camp instead.

Moving into the bus might seem comfortable, but it meant handing over all one's supplies to be managed collectively by the bus.

That was why many people were unwilling to do it.

Having no supplies in the apocalypse meant losing one's freedom.

Having supplies in the apocalypse meant having everything. In some ways, it even meant more freedom than before the apocalypse.

Take that old geezer driving the Senior Scooter, for instance.

The other survivors spent every day dejected and afraid.

Only that old man wore a smile all day long.

Captain Chu had not interfered with their decisions and had let them live however they chose.

He had never expected someone to freeze to death last night.

"I told him ages ago to go to the bus! To go to the bus!"

"Boo-hoo..."

"He just wouldn't listen to me! Boo-hoo..."

"Bastard! Asshole..."

The woman wept and cursed, though it was unclear whom she was cursing.

A wave of grief swept through the survivors who had gathered around.

It was as though they could see their own future.

Chen Ye's mood was affected somewhat as well.

If he had not awakened as a sequence transcendent, if he had not had enough supplies, if he had not already upgraded his Vehicle Canopy...

He might have frozen to death last night too.

In an apocalypse like this, death was the most ordinary thing in the world.

Survivors who had known the man dug a large pit in the desert and hastily buried his body in the sand.

The woman stood before the man's sandy grave, tears falling without end.

Chen Ye's gaze, however, drifted toward the motorcycle.

The man was dead, but his motorcycle was still there.

Perhaps he could use it to upgrade his tricycle.

Right now, the tricycle relied on a single engine. It really did feel like a small horse pulling an oversized cart.

The rainy night before last had been the clearest proof.

His tricycle could not keep up with those four-wheeled vehicles at all.

It could not even keep up with two-wheeled motorcycles.

The tricycle was simply too large and carried too many supplies.

Still, considering the woman's current state, it would be rather inappropriate to discuss the motorcycle with her.

He should at least wait until evening.

At nine in the morning.

The convoy departed on time, destination unknown!

Compared with the bustle of the past few days, today's convoy was unusually quiet.

Two large words had appeared on the body of Captain Chu Che's modified vehicle, painted in red: "Fair Play."

The lettering was crooked, but at least it was legible.

Captain Chu had originally intended to paint them on the Long-Legged Girl's off-road vehicle too, but she had vehemently refused.

Captain Chu had no choice but to paint them on the big lug Iron Lion's bus instead.

Even the small car carrying the Zhou Sisters and the people who had escaped from Deer City had not escaped being painted.

By the time they set off, the desert air was already growing hot.

Fortunately, the Vehicle Canopy he had upgraded yesterday proved invaluable.

Chen Ye held the handlebars as the canopy overhead cast a broad patch of shade, making him much more comfortable.

Iron Lion had once invited Chen Ye to move into the bus.

But Chen Ye had politely declined.

Moving into the bus would certainly be comfortable, but he probably would not be able to keep his Upgrade System a secret.

He would also have to hand over all his supplies. That was out of the question.

After the Vehicle Canopy upgrade, the tricycle had gained at least several dozen pounds, on top of the supplies distributed yesterday.

The tricycle was carrying considerably more weight.

Then there was the added wind resistance from the Vehicle Canopy.

Even with the throttle twisted all the way open, Chen Ye still could not keep up with the convoy ahead.

The convoy no longer had anyone riding a bicycle or traveling on foot.

Chen Ye had become the convoy's straggler.

Even that sleazy old man's Senior Scooter was faster than Chen Ye's tricycle.

Fortunately, the desert highway was in decent condition. Although many stretches were covered in sand, there was still a road to follow; it was just a little more troublesome.

If he had actually been driving across the desert, Chen Ye's tricycle would probably have been helpless.

Meanwhile, whenever he drove over an uneven stretch, the loose, rattling vehicle swayed from side to side, as though it might fall apart on the spot at any moment.

That made Chen Ye worry that his vehicle could break down on the road at any time.

To save Slaughter Points, Chen Ye had barely reinforced the vehicle's frame at all back then. As long as it worked, that was enough.

As the vehicle underwent upgrades and modifications, the problems with its chassis frame became increasingly serious.

Another vehicle upgrade was urgently needed.

Just as Chen Ye was planning how to get his hands on that motorcycle...

He heard a loudspeaker blare from Captain Chu Che's off-road vehicle.

"Attention! Attention! Something's happening up ahead!"

"Something's happening up ahead!"

"Everyone, stay alert!"

Chen Ye narrowed his eyes and looked ahead. A dozen or so vehicles were parked on the road directly in front of their convoy.

Had they run into another convoy?

He had long known there were other convoys in the world. He simply had not expected to encounter one so soon.