Su Chen

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Su Chen grew up in an orphanage, where he took fellow orphan Su Xi as his younger sister. After graduating and finding work, he brought her to live with him. Su Xi had disabilities in both legs and used a wheelchair; the two depended on each other and had no household savings 1.

Despite having some education, Su Chen used his class C driver’s license to work for a cold-chain logistics company. His wages were being withheld when the Intelligence System appeared and warned him that Changcheng would fall during the coming apocalypse 1.

Appearance

• Wears a white suit selected to resemble the father’s clothing in Mengqi’s drawings. He keeps wearing it after leaving Xintang Town 21 49.
• Carries the Pig-Killing Knife, initially wrapping it in a lard-greased cloth and tucking it at his waist 9.

Personality

Before the apocalypse, Su Chen was introverted and withdrawn, with few social connections. His leisure interests included novels and watching female streamers 1.

His strongest attachment is to Su Xi. He conceals frightening information from her, reacts violently when Fan Hui overturns her wheelchair, and worries more about the bodily cost of her Sequence than its usefulness. When Su Xi sacrifices her lower legs to help defeat Butcher, he breaks down over his failure to protect her 2 8 9 13 14 49 50.

Su Chen prioritizes survival over indiscriminate rescue. He leaves the special education school without warning everyone, refuses to investigate the dangerous village hillside to save strangers, and orders the convoy onward when Gao Yue’s car stalls during pursuit 2 12 40.

He relies on observation, deception, and calculated risks rather than straightforward fights. He exploits opponents’ assumptions, uses false surrender to approach Butcher, and admits afterward that his confident confrontation with an armed Ye Tong was largely an act 19 48 49.

His compassion is selective but can become a lasting commitment. Although he initially approaches Mengqi to escape the Mirror Space and awaken a Sequence, being called “Daddy” gives him a genuine sense of responsibility toward her 21 22 23.

Abilities & Skills

Intelligence System

Provides information that refreshes with time and location, along with direct inspection of people, creatures, and objects. By the aftermath of the Walking Corpse encounter, Su Chen identifies these as three distinct functions 5 8.

• Advance warnings: Reveals disaster threats, temporary safe zones, supplies, warding materials, and nearby Anomalous Objects 1 5 11.
• Target inspection: Identifies Sequence levels, abilities, and costs, as well as creature weaknesses and Anomalous Object properties 8 13 14 35 48.
• Escape Map: Supplies routes and information about surrounding threats; later allows him to monitor the pursuing Predator Convoy 11 38 41 42.
• Detection limits: Does not initially expose the disguised Tree People among the villagers and fails to inspect Xiao Zixia inside the Mirror Space 11 19.
• Risk assessment limits: Su Chen concludes that the system evaluates danger according to his circumstances, which may differ sharply from those of other survivors 12.

Actor Sequence

Copies another Sequence user’s abilities through physical contact. Each copied ability can be used only once 24 49.

• Cost: His shadow may replace him. After his awakening, the shadow is shown moving independently inside the truck 23 24.
• Contact requirement: Reaching a dangerous opponent can be a major obstacle; he must deceive Butcher to get close enough to copy his ability 49.
• Physical enhancement: His eyesight improves after becoming a Sequence user 42.

Deception and Tactical Planning

Uses intelligence, terrain, and misinformation to compensate for the convoy’s limited combat strength 42 46 49.

• Presents himself as a Prophet Sequence user when explaining his knowledge and gaining Xiao Zixia’s trust 15 19.
• Sets an oil-soaked roadblock that causes crashes and fires among the pursuing vehicles 42.
• Coordinates explosive attempts to trigger landslides, though unsuitable terrain and the enemy’s response limit their effectiveness 42 43.
• Plants misleading signs in Fog Valley and prepares covered pits and falling rocks beyond it 46 48.
• Bluffs Xu Zihao about implanted seeds and metal before killing him 48.
• Pretends Huang Wei is Su Chen and offers the Pig-Killing Knife in surrender, lowering Butcher’s guard 49.

Driving and Convoy Management

Applies his professional driving experience to evacuation, route selection, and group organization 1 4 18.

• Chooses the national highway partly because expressway barriers would restrict opportunities to leave the road 4.
• Establishes communal and independent households within the Hope Convoy, along with privileges for Sequence users 18.
• Assigns Huang Wei to communal supplies and Yang Defa to logistics 18.
• Uses pagers to coordinate movement and recruit specialist help, including Chen Siwen’s chemistry knowledge 42.

Butchery

Learns butchering knife techniques from the Yang family and uses them to skin and divide the Giant Bear. He also inspects the hide, identifying its protective properties and weaknesses 25.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

Pig-Killing Knife

• Origin: A generational knife from the Yang family that has become an Anomalous Object. Old Yang entrusts it to Su Chen after the Walking Corpse fight 5 8.
• Evolution: Absorbs flesh and anomalous material to improve itself 8.
• Blood coating: Black dog blood temporarily gives it increased armor penetration and true damage 8.
• Cost: If insufficiently fed, it consumes its host’s flesh. Its appetite increases as it grows stronger 8 50.

Other Equipment

• Refrigerated truck — A company hybrid truck retained during his wage dispute. Serves as transport, shelter, and storage; Yang Defa fits it with solar panels and batteries before the apocalypse 1 2 7.
• Bronze Bell — Recovered from inside the destroyed Human-Skin Lantern. Conceals traces within a hundred-meter radius, helping prevent pursuit 38.
• Master Pager — Anomalous Object 131900 — Awakened by Su Xi. Hears even quiet speech and exposes conversations through secondary pagers, including enemy discussions after the Predator Convoy captures some units. Must speak and be used daily to function properly 28 45.
• Survival supplies — Stocks water, filtration and dew-collection equipment, preserved food, rice, flour, cooking appliances, common medicines, and fuel containers before leaving Changcheng 1 2.
• Protective clothing and written reminders — Uses rainwear and gloves in the Snow Demon Hunting Ground and writes information on his hand. These precautions do not stop the area’s rule-based memory loss 25 29 30.

Relationships

• Su Xi — Younger sister by choice, not birth. They grew up in the same orphanage and depend on one another. His efforts to shield her conflict with her determination to help him through her Machine Soul Master ability 1 13 28 49 50.
• Huang Wei — Police officer who initially pursues him over the truck, then becomes a principal fighter and communal-supply manager in the Hope Convoy. Su Chen relies on him in combat while sometimes maneuvering around his moral objections 3 7 18 37 49.
• Yang Defa — Mechanic, host, and trusted logistics organizer. Helps modify the truck, brings Su Chen into Banyan Tree Village, and repeatedly supports his decisions 2 5 7 18.
• Old Yang — Entrusts Su Chen with the family’s Pig-Killing Knife and provides the greased cloth used to wrap it 8 9.
• Xiao Zixia — Florist Sequence user first encountered in the Mirror Space. Becomes a combat partner whose plant abilities he copies; he protects her privacy when she collapses after using them 19 24 25 49.
• Mengqi — Mirror Spirit who accepts him as “Daddy.” He fulfills her wish for parental companionship and promises to return after she releases him 21 22 23.
• Zhang Xiaomeng — Police officer who questions the accusations against him and later follows his convoy 3 11.
• Gao Yue — Former supervisor involved in his withheld wages and the truck dispute. Pursues him out of Changcheng, later travels with the convoy, and is left behind when her car stalls during an enemy pursuit 1 3 40.
• Fan Hui / Sister Fan — Former landlady who withholds his deposit. Their hostility escalates after she overturns Su Xi’s wheelchair; she later reveals information about his convoy to Butcher 2 8 9 40.
• Zhou Shufen — Captive streamer he frees from the hotel basement. He rejects her request to join his personal group rather than granting her special treatment for her former celebrity status 33 35.
• Xu Zihao — Ghoul Sequence user whose grandmother Su Chen kills. Returns as a Sequence Two Corpse Collector seeking revenge; Su Chen kills him during the convoy battle 45 48.
• Tian Yang / Butcher — Leader of the pursuing Predator Convoy. Su Chen cripples him through a copied ability and deception before Su Xi’s Metal Insect delivers the killing attack 48 49.
• Ye Tong — Predator Convoy Hawkeye user whom Su Chen persuades to lower his pistol. After Butcher’s defeat, Ye Tong shares information about the convoy 48 49 50.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Escape from Changcheng

After receiving the apocalypse warning, Su Chen stocks the refrigerated truck, removes furniture and appliances from his rental over the withheld deposit, and collects Su Xi from school. He promises to find the field of rye she dreams about rather than immediately telling her the truth about the disaster 1 2.

His refusal to return the company truck draws Gao Yue and the police after him. A highway pileup interrupts the escape, and the system identifies Banyan Tree Village as a refuge safe for only twelve hours 3 4 5.

Banyan Tree Village

Su Chen’s first encounters with Weird Entities establish both the value of the system and the limitations of ordinary weapons. He acquires the Pig-Killing Knife, helps identify the roots animating a corpse, and discovers Su Xi’s Sequence awakening after she faints 7 8 9.

Updated intelligence warns of infiltrating Tree People and provides an escape map. He leads the survivors out, then helps destroy two Tree People at a gas station with the group’s warding materials, Huang Wei’s transformation, and fire 11 13 15.

Hope Convoy and Xintang Town

Su Chen formally organizes twenty-six survivors into the Hope Convoy before entering Xintang Town for supplies. He disappears into a mirrorless enclosed world, where he identifies Mengqi’s unmet need for parental attention as the key to escape 18 19 20 21.

By playing the role of her father, he gains her affection and release. He returns long enough to draw an escape map for Su Xi before losing consciousness and awakening the Actor Sequence 22 23 24.

Snow Demon Hunting Ground

After the convoy veers northwest, Su Chen awakens in deep snow and tests his new ability against a Giant Bear. He subsequently identifies Snow Demon Servants and organizes fires and protective measures against the environment 23 24 25.

The hunting ground steadily erases memories despite physical precautions. As complaints mount, he keeps the convoy moving toward the safe hot springs identified by the system 28 29 30.

Hot Spring Village

At the Golden Spring Hotel, Su Chen uncovers captive Zhou Shufen, stored corpses, and the murders connected to Xu Zihao and his grandmother. He discovers that the village’s protection comes from a Human-Skin Lantern fueled with corpse oil 33 34 35 36.

He destroys the lantern, recovers the Bronze Bell concealed within it, burns the hotel, and leads the convoy away 38.

Predator Convoy Pursuit

Su Chen responds to the Predator Convoy’s pursuit with burning roadblocks, explosive attempts, and a Fog Valley ambush. Intelligence overheard through the anomalous pagers gives him advance knowledge of enemy abilities 42 43 45 46.

During the battle, he kills Xu Zihao, talks Ye Tong into standing down, and uses a false surrender to cripple Butcher. Su Xi finishes Butcher but loses her lower legs to her ability’s cost 48 49.

Afterward, Su Chen comforts Su Xi, checks the wounded, arranges the recovery of vehicles and unconscious prisoners, and lets the Pig-Killing Knife consume Butcher’s corpse. Its resulting upgrade is followed by unexplained footsteps approaching through the fog 50.

Notable Quotes

“We're going to find a field of rye beside a cliff!” 2

“I'll definitely come back!”
— His promise to Mengqi 23

“I surrender. I'm not following Su Chen anymore.”
— Su Chen concealing his identity while approaching Butcher 49