"What are you offering?" Shen Ye raised his gaze to the man's face, his eyes narrowing.
"Information."
He Yunping straightened slightly, putting away the easy smile he usually wore for everyone.
"When I was with Zhao Biao, I heard quite a bit of useful information about the apocalypse."
Shen Ye's gaze shifted, and his expression grew more serious.
He retrieved the pack of cigarettes from beneath the coffee table, put one between his lips, and motioned for him to continue.
He Yunping held nothing back, first giving a brief account of his experiences.
It turned out that Zhao Biao and his people had fled from Goat City.
As the capital of Yuedong Province, Goat City had fallen on the very first night of the apocalypse, making it one of the first cities to fall.
Apparently, a tier-four Eldritch had emerged in the city that very night and swallowed more than half its urban area before dawn.
Taking advantage of the chaos, Zhao Biao had gathered a group of construction workers and fled, picking up more survivors along the way. At its peak, the convoy had numbered over three hundred.
Aside from Zhao Biao, the convoy had originally included another Sequence Awakened, whose sequence had been geared toward utility.
Later, the convoy had encountered a high-tier Eldritch on the road. To save his own skin, Zhao Biao had shoved that man out as a sacrifice.
Since then, Zhao Biao had led the convoy through remote areas around Yuedong Province.
They robbed weaker convoys and traded information and supplies with those they couldn't overpower.
"As the driver, I got to listen in almost every time."
He Yunping said, "Around the fourth day of the apocalypse, we ran into a convoy called Dragon Soar."
"Every vehicle in that convoy had official connections, and their leader was a tier-eight Sequence Awakened."
"The fourth day? Tier eight! Are you sure you didn't get it wrong?" Shen Ye took the cigarette from his mouth.
"Yes. That's what he told us himself."
"Zhao Biao was shocked too, and asked him how he'd advanced."
"But the man only said that each sequence had a different advancement method. He didn't reveal any specifics."
"Then he told Zhao Biao to gather more survivors and head north to Crane City. He said the authorities hadn't abandoned them and had built a survivor camp there."
"A survivor camp?" Shen Ye frowned.
"On the third day of the apocalypse, the authorities announced that every defensive line had collapsed. How could they have built a camp so quickly? Besides, the more people gather in one place, the more they attract Eldritch. What does that camp have to keep them out?"
"Zhao Biao asked the same thing."
"But the people from the Dragon Soar Convoy said it was classified. They only said the government's top officials had already obtained advancement methods for a large number of Sequence Pathways, and that plenty of Sequence Awakened would be there to protect everyone."
Shen Ye said nothing, quietly committing the information to memory.
"Anything else?"
"Yes! Something about Sequence Awakened. This information cost me a lot to get." He Yunping licked his lips and got straight to the point.
"Besides awakening naturally, ordinary people can awaken through something called a Sequence Potion."
"But I don't know where those things come from. Also, a person can awaken more than one sequence."
"Multiple sequences?"
"Yes."
"But having more sequences comes with serious side effects. A lot of superhumans who already had a sequence took a potion to obtain a second one. They succeeded, but they also lost control and turned into monsters."
He Yunping paused. "So my guess is that the reason they dared to build that northern camp is because they've learned how to make Sequence Potions. Otherwise, there's no way naturally awakened Sequence Awakened alone could hold the line."
That matched Shen Ye's own thoughts. There was definitely something suspicious about this survivor camp.
After that, He Yunping shared some information about Weird Objects, but Shen Ye already knew most of it.
The Ghost Head in his possession was itself a numbered Weird Object weapon, so he was hardly unfamiliar with the subject.
"Finished?" Shen Ye tapped the ash off his cigarette.
"Yes. That's everything I know."
Despite the man's honest appearance, Shen Ye knew he was definitely holding something back.
But he didn't call him out. He understood people like He Yunping all too well.
Once he could offer something tempting enough, whether rewards or strength, the man would come to him on his own, just as he had now.
"This information is genuinely valuable. Tell me what you want."
He Yunping rubbed his hands together. "Just a little food as a token would be fine. Serving the convoy is what I ought to do."
Shen Ye glanced at him and smiled.
That smile left He Yunping feeling a little uneasy.
He took two packs of vacuum-sealed sausages and two cans of luncheon meat from the storage area-food even he had been reluctant to eat-and set them on the coffee table.
Then he added unhurriedly, "That's not all. When the captain wakes up, I'll speak to her about putting you in charge of the convoy's affairs."
He Yunping's eyes lit up.
He had been observing everything since joining the Dawn Convoy.
Shen Ye claimed he wouldn't protect anyone, but when something actually happened, that wasn't necessarily how things would go.
The incident with Zhao Biao was one example, and the Man-Eating Tree Spirit was another.
Neither time had he abandoned Song Shiya and the others.
So He Yunping was gambling that, as long as he proved valuable enough or worked his way into the convoy's leadership, Shen Ye might not stand by when danger came.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have volunteered these cards up his sleeve.
"Thank you, Captain Shen." He Yunping gathered up the food and bowed as he stepped out of the RV.
Shen Ye shut the door and drew the curtains tight again.
He leaned back on the sofa and closed his eyes for a while, then began taking stock of the day's gains.
In terms of supplies, he hadn't taken anything from Qianxing Village.
It wasn't that he hadn't wanted them. The high-tier Eldritch had appeared so suddenly that he hadn't had time to search properly.
He hadn't found any solar panels either, and the RV was nearly out of power.
But that didn't mean he had gained nothing.
[Remaining Killing Points: 5521]
He stared at the number as it lingered in his mind for quite some time.
More than five thousand points.
Every Eldritch and every person he had killed since the first day of the apocalypse had now become this visible tally.
This was his trump card, and his only means of staying alive.
But now, he had to spend it.
He had to turn those points into fighting strength.
Shen Ye's first thought was to use Blood Refinement on the RV.
But the RV was ultimately just a vehicle, so the improvement would be very limited.
And if the results fell short of his expectations, everything he had gone through last night and today might have been for nothing.
What he needed most right now wasn't to improve an external object, but himself.
So he shifted his attention to another skill provided by the Asura Sequence.
Asura Treasury.
The name surfaced in his mind.
He closed his eyes, letting his consciousness sink until it reached the depths of his body.
Darkness.
Boundless darkness.
Then a door appeared in his field of vision.
The entire door was crimson, so tall that he couldn't see its top even when he looked up, and so wide that it stretched to the edges of his vision on either side.
Its surface bore no patterns, handles, or plaques, yet it radiated an aura that made his heart tremble.
Then countless fine red threads of light suddenly lit up in the surrounding darkness.
They surged in from every direction like blood vessels, weaving together across the door and converging until they formed a mass of blazing light.
The door slowly opened.
Beyond it lay a sea of churning gray mist.
Deep within the mist, an ancient stone shelf emerged from nothingness.
Only one tier of the shelf was fully visible, with three items arranged side by side. All the other tiers were shrouded in mist, hiding everything on them.
On the far left sat a blood-red crystal the size of a fist. It was translucent throughout, with what looked like a mass of dark red liquid slowly swirling inside.
In the middle lay a mask.
Its design was bizarre. The left half was a smiling face, while the right half wept. The corners of its mouth pulled upward and downward at the same time, making his scalp prickle.
On the right was a pair of eyes.
Each eyeball floated in clear liquid. Their irises were dark red, but their pupils were vertical, rather like a snake's.
Even submerged in their containers, those eyes seemed to be watching something.
Beneath the three treasures were three corresponding numbers.
They were 5000, 10000, and 50000.
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