Sequence Highway Survival: I Upgrade Supplies in the Apocalypse-Chapter 142: The Calm Before the Storm

"Child, it's your mother. Come here, let mom see you, mom misses you!"
In the shadow of the snack stall by the school gate, a hunched old woman waved to a young man, her face kind and gentle.
When the young man saw that figure, he froze on the spot as if struck by lightning.
"Mom, you... you're still alive?"
His voice trembled involuntarily.
"You silly child, of course I'm alive. It's been so long since I last saw you. I miss you. Come here, let me see you..."
"Mom~~~"
Tears burst from the young man's face like a broken dam, flowing freely and soaking his collar as they dripped down his cheeks.
"Mom... I... I miss you too!"
Slap!~~~
A heavy palm struck the young man's face.
He flew backward over two meters and crashed to the ground, a visibly swollen bruise blossoming across his cheek.
Chen Ye looked at the young man coldly and tossed out two words: "Idiot!"
Then he turned and walked away.
The kindly figure beneath the tree outside the gate was already gone, leaving only a pair of eyes full of hatred, staring fixedly in this direction.
The young man clutched his swollen face, terrified, staring at the woman who had just appeared so motherly but had now become something indescribable; it was as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over his head.
Chen Ye wasn't feeling charitable or trying to rescue the young man out of kindness.
It was just a small effort—one more life was one more potential body to block a blade in the future.
Even a fool would understand that right now, another living person might mean another person who could cover your back later.
After the battle between the Death God and the Abyssal Blood Pupil, there really had been some deterrent effect.
But that effect lasted only two days.
Two days later, the school's situation grew bleaker.
Perhaps the Death God had shown an unintentional flaw while fighting the Abyssal Blood Pupil.
Previously, anomalies only gathered around the school at night.
Now, even during the day those pairs of hateful eyes could be seen surrounding the campus.
The situation grew tenser by the hour.
It felt like at any second these anomalies would rush into the school and tear the hundred-plus people there apart for blood.
Wu Jianshan had already ordered that all Death God followers were strictly forbidden from leaving.
Old Bao had issued the same order, commanding all survivors not to go out.
Even during the day, everyone should stay in their classrooms whenever possible.
Survivors inside the school were far from calm.
Some Death God followers blamed the convoy for bringing the anomalies, sparking several clashes.
Fortunately, the suppression by Chen Ye and the other superhumans prevented things from getting out of hand.
Wu Jianshan handled it fairly ruthlessly—he severely taught those troublemaker followers a lesson, and they quieted down considerably.
That earned Wu Jianshan a lot of goodwill among the convoy survivors.
On the last trip outside the school, the convoy had gotten a fair amount of gasoline.
Gao Boss, Xue Nan, and Zhou Xiaoxiao, who had gone with the convoy, each received a good share.
For a time they became the envy of all survivors.
Even if they didn't use the gasoline themselves, it was still a precious resource.
Poor Zhou Xiaoxiao had worse luck.
The small car that had trailed the sisters for a long time was affected by the Abyssal Blood Pupil's power and burned to a pile of scrap metal.
No one knew what tricks she used, but she somehow convinced Fourth Brother He to teach her skills.
Chen Ye had even seen Fourth Brother He several times in the snow, practicing lessons around a car with Zhou Xiaoxiao.
She was deadly serious.
Naturally, many wanted Fourth Brother He as their teacher.
But aside from the late Xiao Chao, only Zhou Xiaoxiao succeeded in learning.
The irony was sharp.
This woman who had been a rising star before the end of the world was now learning to steal.
A pre-apocalypse thief had, in the post-apocalypse, become a notable figure among survivors.
Even many former bigwigs and leaders wanted to learn the craft, only to be turned away by a thief.
It was profoundly ironic.
...
From the last battle, Chen Ye had received a total of thirty-seven thousand slaughter points at once.
Some of that came from simulated kills of wild wolves and the human-faced scorpions, slaying crawlers.
The final ram into the school gate also earned him quite a few points.
In the end the system balance read thirty-seven thousand slaughter points.
Chen Ye wasn't particularly thrilled about the points.
No matter how many slaughter points he had, they never felt like enough.
He spent ten thousand slaughter points to refine two bottles of Death God Blood Tears to Divine grade.
Lately, whenever he trained on the roof of the academic building at night, he'd take a bottle beforehand.
Whenever he was on the school roof, he'd always run into Ding Dong.
That woman was even more disciplined than he was—she showed up on schedule every night.
Most of the time they kept to a tacit "you don't bother me, I won't bother you" arrangement.
They had an unspoken understanding.
His body was also growing increasingly tolerant to the refined Death God Blood Tears.
The power boost from each dose was decreasing rapidly.
Yet Chen Ye could still feel his strength rising fast.
The speed of this growth surprised him.
He could vaguely sense himself drawing closer and closer to Sequence 2.
If nothing unexpected happened—and factoring in the body's growing resistance—he should be able to reach Sequence 2 before the Death God Blood Tears ran out.
Whenever he had time after training, Chen Ye would flip through the new smartphone he had obtained.
Chen Ye had already handed the phone's supplies over to Old Li.
The convoy's principle of fairness had always been observed.
Chen Ye had watched the footage of the Death God and the Abyssal Blood Pupil's battle more than fifty times over the last two days.
He could even picture the fight with his eyes closed.
By now he could roughly simulate the Death God's form.
Even so, among all the things he simulated, mimicking the Death God remained the most powerful.
The Abyssal Blood Pupil was also impressive.
But the Abyssal Blood Pupil no longer existed—the only thing left was that eye Chen Ye kept thinking about, now in Wu Jianshan's possession.
Just by mastering Smoke Breath simulation alone, Chen Ye's power had already increased by one rank.
His earlier Smoke Breath simulations had been scattered and messy, this-or-that without focus.
When he'd simulated the wild wolves the feeder had raised, the result had been a mismatch, a creature of no clear form.
After all, Chen Ye had only ever seen those wolves from afar—he'd never been close.
That had been his first real encounter with wolves in his life.
Against the human-faced scorpion the fight had been short, so he had only simulated parts of it.
Later, stunned by the Sky Whale, Chen Ye tried to simulate it too.
The Sky Whale, Wonder 009, had never fought before; Chen Ye didn't know its combat ability, so he could only replicate a rough shape.
He never had long contact with any single target, and his understanding remained limited for each.
It's better to specialize than to know a little about everything.
Chen Ye decided to focus his Smoke Breath simulations mainly on the Death God.
After all, it was the strongest anomaly he'd encountered and the most feasible target to simulate.
So these days Chen Ye kept watching phone videos whenever he had nothing to do.
He even asked Wu Jianshan if he could attend when they worshipped the Death God, just to watch.
He was mercilessly refused.
These days, whenever Wu Jianshan saw Chen Ye, his only thought was: this kid is trouble.
But Wu Jianshan had to act like a buddy for now, given his current role—otherwise it wouldn't fit his position in Chen Ye's eyes.
Chen Ye was frantically improving his power.
He had a feeling the peaceful days here wouldn't last much longer.
Soon enough, perhaps one night when he had just gone to bed, the anomalies outside the school would rush in.
Chen Ye had a premonition that the next big chaotic event would happen at night.
So he modified the Apocalyptic Pickup Truck again.
To make nighttime escape easier, he added headlights and auxiliary lights to the front and front roof of the truck.
Previously, to save slaughter points, Chen Ye had skimped on lights whenever possible.
Of course, he couldn't let the system make a quick buck unnecessarily.
He salvaged several headlights from the remaining cars of the Death God Church and installed them on the pickup.
With the parts in place, the system only had to integrate and adapt them, costing very few slaughter points.
It wasn't only Chen Ye who felt tense.
The Pink-haired Girl felt it too.
She hadn't bothered Chen Ye or Chu Che these past two days; Chen Ye often saw her standing in the snowy playground with her sword.
No one knew exactly what she was doing, but Chen Ye could clearly sense a subtle change in her aura.
At this moment Chen Ye stood at the doorway of Class 4-1.
The teachers' office on the fourth floor had been smashed; Wu Jianshan's room had been moved to Class 4-1.
Chen Ye had come to negotiate with Wu Jianshan.
Wu Jianshan wanted everyone to join the Death God Church.
Chen Ye wanted the blood eye.
That meant there was something to discuss.
Although Chen Ye had already traded ten bottles of Death God Blood Tears for the condition, so what?
He had no shame left—if he could profit and survive, what did shame matter?
As his power increased, Chen Ye noticed his left eye's vision worsening; reaching Sequence 2 might mean his left eye would go blind.
After that, his right eye might be affected too.
If his eyesight deteriorated, his strength would definitely suffer.
With a major crisis approaching, that would not be good.