The Second Sequence

But before long, he felt it.

The new power lay quietly dormant in the deepest recesses of his body, like a vicious beast licking its fangs inside a cage.

Yet it lacked the fierce, chilling edge he had felt when he first awakened the Asura Sequence.

Instead, it felt like the most primal, absolute craving to strip prey of its life.

At the same time, information about the new sequence surfaced in his mind.

[Sequence Nine: Butcher]

[Skill One · Slaughter Mark: Lock onto a target within your field of vision and mark them. If your attacks damage the marked target, you can briefly siphon a portion of their attributes and convert them into your own.

The marked target will also experience instinctive fear when facing you, slowing their movements and weakening their strength. Those with unsteady or weak wills may also suffer hallucinations.

If the target flees, the mark will burn their mind until it fades. Killing a marked target immediately refreshes that mark, allowing it to be transferred to another target within your field of vision. A maximum of two Slaughter Marks can exist at once.]

[Skill Two · Blood Feast: Upon killing a target marked with "Slaughter Mark," automatically devour their life essence and permanently convert it into a small increase in your own attributes. By default, the target's most prominent attribute is absorbed, and Blood Feast stacks are accumulated.

If you fail to kill the target before "Slaughter Mark" fades, restore yourself based on the injuries you inflicted on them.]

[Side effect: Within one calendar day after each battle, you must satisfy a primal desire once. Otherwise, you will briefly lose your sanity and become a bloodthirsty monster.]

After taking it all in, Shen Ye could not stop the corners of his mouth from lifting. The two skills the Butcher sequence had given him were even more overpowered than he had expected.

Slaughter Mark went without saying. It could go a long way toward compensating for his lack of an active skill in combat.

The most pleasant surprise was undoubtedly Blood Feast.

It and the Asura Sequence's Blood Refinement felt like a "matched pair" of skills.

Blood Refinement worked externally, strengthening his external capabilities-weapons, armor, and vehicles.

Blood Feast worked internally, constantly improving his physical attributes.

The two skills also shared one thing in common: both required killing to improve.

In other words, every person or Eldritch he killed now would earn him both Killing Points and Blood Feast stacks.

How was that any different from stepping on his own foot to climb higher?

And that was not all. Shen Ye clenched his fists and could clearly tell that his strength had increased severalfold, just as it had after he awakened the Asura Sequence.

"No wonder people are willing to risk turning into monsters to awaken a second sequence with a sequence potion."

"Just the boost to basic physical strength from awakening a sequence would be enough. Even someone who awakened a noncombat sequence could overpower someone with only one combat sequence through sheer physical strength."

In gaming terms, it was an overwhelming stat advantage.

After he briefly washed off the grime expelled from his body during the awakening, a wave of exhaustion surged over him, as though his very soul had been drained.

By the time Shen Ye opened his eyes again, the sky outside the window was pitch-black.

Heavy clouds completely blocked the moonlight. Even the Red Moon was barely visible as a faint outline.

Tonight also seemed unusually quiet. Apart from the rumble of the engine and the sound of tires rolling over debris, there was nothing.

Shen Ye shook his head, trying to clear it.

Just as he began to wonder what was going on, he spotted a familiar figure in the driver's seat.

Before he could speak, Song Shiya turned to glance at him. "You're awake?"

Shen Ye did not answer. Instead, he grabbed two bottles of water and several packets of compressed biscuits, then sat down in the passenger seat.

Only after finishing several packets of biscuits and a bottle of water did he feel he had the strength to speak.

He handed the remaining bottle to Song Shiya, then could not help asking, "What's going on?"

Song Shiya glanced sideways at him again and freed a hand to take the water, a look of reproach crossing her face.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?"

Seeing Shen Ye's bewildered expression, Song Shiya sighed helplessly and explained as she drove. "The day before yesterday, when we were about to leave, I knocked on your window several times, but you didn't respond."

"Luckily, you hadn't locked the door. When I got in, I found you asleep in the aisle. No matter what I tried, I couldn't wake you."

"But under the circumstances, I couldn't just leave you there. So I took it upon myself to move you onto the bed and drive for you."

Understanding finally dawned on Shen Ye's face. Then, a little embarrassed, he offered an explanation. "Maybe it was because I hadn't slept much before. The exhaustion just hit me all at once..."

He thought it over. He had not experienced this after awakening the Asura Sequence, so he could only attribute it to one of the costs of awakening a second sequence.

Suddenly, something occurred to him, and he asked her in surprise, "The day before yesterday? How long was I asleep?"

"Almost a full day and night."

Song Shiya sounded exhausted.

"Then, while I was asleep all that time, did anything happen to the convoy?"

"Nothing major." Song Shiya held the steering wheel, keeping her eyes on the road ahead.

"But An Ning hasn't woken up either. She's been asleep this whole time, just like you."

That news made Shen Ye frown.

He remembered how An Ning had overused her ability in Qianxing Village.

It had been the first time she pushed the Pathfinder's detection ability to its limit, exhausting herself mentally until she passed out on the spot.

He knew that Sequence Awakened had to pay a price to use their abilities. The Asura Sequence needed Killing Points to power it, for instance, while his new sequence required him to satisfy his desires after using its abilities.

But "desire" was far too broad a term.

Would an appetite for food count?

As he pondered that, Song Shiya suddenly seemed to remember something and spoke again. "Oh, right. There's something else that's pretty strange."

"Last night and tonight, the entire convoy hasn't encountered a single Eldritch."

"And the gray fog that always appeared after nightfall is gone too."

His thoughts interrupted, Shen Ye leaned back in the passenger seat and fell silent for a few seconds.

He had noticed that himself when he first woke up.

His first thought was of the Eldritch in silk pajamas on the second floor of the villa in Qianxing Village. He remembered those curious eyes.

But he could not think of any connection between the two.

Forget it. Ever since the Eldritch descended, the whole world had been changing constantly. Compared with what had happened over the past few days, this little anomaly was nothing.

He had no energy to investigate it now. His top priority was getting up to speed on their current situation.

The convoy drove through the darkness for another ten-odd minutes, and Song Shiya's brow furrowed deeper and deeper.

"There's something else I need to tell you. The convoy's almost out of fuel."

Shen Ye sat up straight.

This was clearly far more serious.

If vehicles were the bodies that carried them through the apocalypse, then fuel was undoubtedly the heart that kept those bodies moving.