Chapter 2: Upgrade! Mechanical Collection Device

And it was a unique skill, which meant no one else had it! Lin Mu rubbed his overly excited face, trying to calm his emotions.

There were still two glowing spheres left unopened before him.

He reached into one of them, and suddenly an axe appeared in his hand.

[Ordinary Axe]
[Quality: D]
[Durability: 20/20]

Lin Mu tossed it aside without a second thought. What use did he have for an axe?

He turned his gaze to the last glowing sphere.

“Give me something good, please! Ideally, give me an SSS-level, universe-defying, super-awesome, unrivaled skill!”

With his eyes closed, Lin Mu reached into the golden sphere.

He felt a heavy object in his hand. Opening his eyes, he stared speechlessly at what he now held.

What was he supposed to do with a big chunk of iron?

[Iron Ingot]
[Note: One of the key materials for vehicle upgrades, and a basic component for many items.]

Disappointing, truly disappointing.

But it was enough—the skill alone was more than sufficient.

He activated the skill, and two slots appeared below. He casually placed the axe inside, but nothing happened.

Thinking it over, he added the iron ingot.

A glowing circle appeared below, slowly spinning.

It worked!

After four or five seconds, three options appeared.

[Option One]: Offensive weapon—extend the iron axe, attack range within one meter of the car’s front.
[Option Two]: Crude mechanical arm harvesting device, range within five meters of the car’s front.
[Option Three]: Axe ornament.

The first two were reasonable, but the third was just absurd. Who would seriously choose an ornament?

Lin Mu ignored the third option and focused on the first two.

After a quick mental calculation, he selected the second option.

It was a no-brainer; the mysterious entity had already hinted at the best choice.

Resources!

Survival depended on resources, and the second option was clearly the best.

Once Lin Mu made his selection, the vehicle began to hum.

Ten seconds later, it was quiet once more.

Was it done already?

Suddenly, it seemed as if his mind was linked to something.

With a single thought, a slender mechanical arm wielding an axe appeared in front of the windshield.

“So this is the modified device? It’s actually kind of interesting.”

With his thoughts, the axe performed various actions, though admittedly a bit slow and lacking in dexterity.

Lin Mu glanced around. Aside from the snow and a road, there was nothing else.

“Perhaps the resource box is ahead. Time to move.”

But before setting out, he decided to check the status of the others.

He opened the regional channel and saw the number had changed to 99,753.

Seeing this, Lin Mu was stunned.

What had happened? In just a few minutes, 250 people had died.

“Holy crap, scared me to death! I opened a resource box with an axe and a one-meter-long rat jumped out. Its huge teeth nearly gnawed me to bits.”

“Don’t even mention it! I opened a resource box and three snakes slithered out. If I hadn’t run fast, I’d be joining my ancestors now.”

“Heh, I got lucky and found three bottles of mineral water. This water is truly sweet.”

“Honey, can I trade my black stockings for a bottle of water?”

“How are you guys even getting out in this cold? I’m wearing a short-sleeved shirt and freezing to death. My car doesn’t even have windows.”

“…”

Reading the messages as they popped up, Lin Mu got the gist.

Everyone had managed to obtain some supplies to varying degrees. The people who died must have been killed by creatures they couldn’t fend off from the resource boxes.

He glanced at his own vehicle. It was shabby, but at least the glass was intact.

As for himself, luckily he hadn’t changed into pajamas while gaming, or things would have been dire.

He turned the key.

Rumble—

A cloud of black smoke spewed from the back of the car. Lin Mu glanced at the rearview mirror with resignation; this car really was a wreck.

“Let’s go.”

The car started slowly, following the road.

After driving a bit, Lin Mu tried out the vehicle’s functions.

The radio was broken, there was no air conditioning, the hazard lights worked but were useless, and nothing else was functional.

He had wanted to test the handbrake, but considering how battered the car was, he decided against it.

He opened the user manual and silently asked,

“How do I upgrade the vehicle?”

[Please open the vehicle information details for the answer.]

Following the instructions, Lin Mu opened the details.

At the bottom was a line of text.

[Upgrade materials: Iron ingot x10, Wood x20, Glass x4]

That was quite a lot to gather.

Lin Mu was about to close the interface when he noticed another line in very small print at the bottom, barely visible unless you paid close attention.

[Swallowing a vehicle core of the same level also allows an upgrade.]

Hiss!

Wasn’t this basically encouraging them to fight each other?

No wonder. Truly, no wonder.

Human nature was a subject worthy of deep study. He hadn’t understood this phrase at first, but now it made sense.

Without this clause, the chances of everyone working together would be much higher. Never underestimate the cohesion of people from his nation.

But with this clause, cooperation was no longer a given.

Collecting materials was troublesome; snatching a vehicle was simple.

But where was the vehicle’s core?

He searched the car, examining every part, but everything was standard—nothing seemed out of place.

Ding—

Something caught Lin Mu’s eye.

Hanging from the rearview mirror was a round, white, crystal-like object. Could this be it?

Yet his identification ability gave no hint—until he placed his hand on the crystal and the screen displayed its information.

[Vehicle Core]
[Level: Lv1]
[Capacity: 1 person]

Hmm?

Capacity? One person?

Did this mean that as the level increased, the car could carry more people?

With cores able to be swallowed and potential for more passengers, what did it all mean?

Unable to figure it out, Lin Mu shook his head—such matters were irrelevant to him.

If he hadn’t obtained the SSS-level ability, he might have considered collaborating with others.

But now, possessing this power, why bother working with anyone else?

Lin Mu closed the information and opened the trading hall.

Products had already appeared, but the prices were utterly absurd.

[500ml mineral water x1]: Trade for 10 iron ingots.
[Iron ingot x1]: Trade for one bottle of 500ml mineral water.
[Charred rat meat]: Trade for one bottle of 500ml mineral water.

Chaos, absolute chaos!