Fan Shang took one last look at the black cat in the passenger seat, its chest rising and falling.
Fan Shang closed his eyes again.
The night passed with steady breathing.
[Ding! Congratulations on surviving another day, host. Survival Points +100] [Current Survival Points: 3000]
The next morning, Fan Shang woke up in the car.
He got out and looked up. The eerie moon with a human face had vanished from the sky.
In its place, the sun hung high overhead.
For a moment, the sunlight dispelled much of the gloom in this apocalypse riddled with horrors.
By the time Fan Shang got out, most of the people in the convoy were already awake.
After the heavy losses not long ago, only sixty or seventy people remained scattered throughout the convoy.
They were cooking now.
Looking around, Fan Shang spotted quite a few familiar figures.
The fat man was sitting against a wrecked car with its front end sheared off, cautiously nibbling the half-piece of compressed biscuit in his hand.
When he noticed Fan Shang looking his way, Fatty Cheng initially panicked, then composed himself and offered Fan Shang a fawning smile.
After a night of reflection, he had presumably realized that offending a Sequence Transcendent was hardly a wise choice.
As for the others...
Fan Shang also spotted the family of three belonging to the counselor for Software Engineering Class Two. She had always enjoyed making life difficult for students and putting pressure on them, coming up with every excuse imaginable whenever someone needed her stamp.
Now, her former polished appearance was long gone.
Dirt stained her pretty face, and even her attractive black stockings had a large hole in them, leaving her looking rather bedraggled.
Her husband looked haggard and utterly exhausted. Seeing her sitting there doing nothing, he finally lost his patience and started cursing at her.
The woman cursed right back. Their language was filthy, and Fan Shang couldn't make out all of it. He only vaguely caught things like, "Oh, so you're somebody now? Back when you lost your job..."
While they argued, the little girl beside them paced anxiously in circles, trying to calm them down, but neither listened.
The man would normally listen to the girl, but once he started arguing with the woman, he had no attention left for her.
The people nearby watched the spectacle. Some even leered at the woman's torn black stockings and whistled.
As for the remaining two familiar figures...
They were Fan Shang's former classmates.
Two college girls who looked very much alike.
One of them was cooking breakfast-or perhaps lunch would have been a better word.
After all, three meals a day was far too extravagant a habit in this apocalyptic world.
Almost without exception, most of the survivors now ate only twice a day.
For one simple reason: there weren't enough supplies to eat any more than that.
The other was clearing the sand and dirt that had accumulated around the car's tires. The two looked very alike.
Fan Shang had heard back in class that they were twins.
Still, it was easy to tell them apart. The shorter girl with the high ponytail, who was cleaning the car, was the older sister, Tang Qingyu. Though she looked somewhat easy to push around, she had a forceful presence.
She carried a mechanical crossbow against her body, and whenever her gaze swept over the greedy-looking survivors, most of them looked away.
The younger sister was Tang Qingxue, the girl of around five foot seven who was cooking a packet of instant noodles. Despite her height, she lacked her sister's imposing air.
By comparison, she even seemed a little fragile.
Perhaps she sensed Fan Shang's gaze.
Tang Qingyu, who had just finished clearing the tires, instantly went on alert, her hand instinctively reaching for the crossbow at her waist.
Seeing her older sister's reaction, Tang Qingxue immediately grew wary too.
She reached for the knife at her waist.
She wasn't naturally forceful, nor did she like hurting others, but the experiences of the past few days had made one thing very clear to Tang Qingxue: if she didn't stand her ground, she would be the one getting hurt.
Yet when she followed her sister's gaze, her lovely wide eyes opened a little wider.
The person she saw wasn't one of the men who were always harassing them.
It was a former classmate.
"Sis, he... isn't he...?"
"No need to guess. It is him. He used to be in our class."
Looking at her sister's slightly dazed expression, Tang Qingyu pressed a hand to her forehead.
"I even remember his name. Fan Shang."
"Oh."
Tang Qingyu nodded to Fan Shang in acknowledgment.
Fan Shang did the same.
Seeing how wary the two were, Fan Shang tactfully looked away.
When Fan Shang stopped looking at them, Tang Qingyu couldn't help letting out a breath of relief.
But before she could finish...
"Sis, Fan Shang... has he become a Sequence Transcendent?"
Tang Qingxue knew what had happened last night, including that Fan Shang had become a Sequence Transcendent, so her words were actually more of a statement than a question.
At her sister's words, Tang Qingyu nodded.
"Yes."
"That's great! If Fan Shang is a Sequence Transcendent, then that thing you've been working on, could we..."
"Qingxue!"
Before she could finish, an angry rebuke cut her off.
"Huh...?"
Tang Qingyu pressed a hand to her forehead.
"How many times have I told you to be more careful and stay alert? Why won't you listen? That book is our biggest secret. It's the key to surviving in this Weird World. We absolutely cannot tell anyone about it."
"Besides, have you forgotten? The first people to target us were those so-called classmates. And who knows what Fan Shang was thinking when he looked at us just now? You saw him killing people yesterday, didn't you?"
"But... he doesn't seem like a bad person to me. Yesterday, those people were the ones who started..."
"Qingxue, you can try fooling me with that, but don't fool yourself too."
With that, Tang Qingyu looked at her sister, somewhat speechless.
"I know you want to help me, but I'll say it again: this book is the most important thing we have. We absolutely cannot tell anyone about it.
"I can feel it. As long as we can obtain a Yin Object, we can awaken as Sequence Transcendents too. Then we'll be safe."
"Besides, you can know someone's face without knowing their heart. Don't forget how many people in this convoy want to have both sisters in their bed."
As she spoke, a shadow fell over Tang Qingyu's pretty little face.
Her fingers brushed the bloodstained crossbow bolt in her hand. That bolt had once pierced the neck of a man who had climbed into their car in the middle of the night.
Tang Qingyu still remembered the disbelief in his eyes before he died, along with the lingering trace of greed.
"Anyway, it's a good thing Fan Shang didn't pay us much attention. Stay alert over the next few days, and don't wander too far from me."
Tang Qingyu gave her that warning.
Then she climbed into the car and opened a bag hidden beneath the seat.
There was a book inside, its surface shimmering with a faint light.
Looking at the book with its cover made from some unknown material, Tang Qingyu opened it, revealing the title.
"Corpse Stitcher's Handbook"
A Corpse Stitcher-no, these days they would be called a mortician, or an embalmer and restorative artist.
Tang Qingyu's grandfather and father were both formally employed morticians at a large public funeral home, and Tang Qingyu was interested in the profession too.
Her grandfather had given her this handbook. After entering this world, Tang Qingyu had discovered that it had changed. She had a feeling that once she obtained a Yin Object, she would truly be able to understand its contents.
And awaken into the [Corpse Stitcher] Sequence.
Before you continue