102: Who is the real spoils of war?

Like dragging a dead dog, Su Chen gripped Situ Xue's only remaining intact ankle with one hand and dragged the limp body all the way onto the vehicle.

Blood mixed with the dust of the road, leaving a glaring dark red trail on the newly upgraded titanium alloy floor.

The cabin's air circulation system hadn't had time to completely replace the smell of blood, which, mixed with the nervous sweat of the girls, formed a strange scent that made one's stomach cramp.

There was a muffled thud.

With a casual toss from Su Chen, Situ Xue's hundred-plus-pound body slammed into the center of the aisle like a trash bag.

The few girls who had originally wanted to scream were swept by Su Chen's emotionless eyes and forced their voices back down their throats.

The old man wasn't dead yet; his throat emitted a wheezing sound like a broken bellows, and that bone armor that once symbolized the dignity of the strong was now shattered like freshly opened cracker crumbs.

"Look clearly, all of you."

Su Chen pulled out a tissue and methodically wiped the slime from his fingers, his voice not loud but clearly drilling into everyone's eardrums.

"This is a so-called powerhouse of the apocalypse. Strip away that hard shell, and what's inside is nothing more than filth and fragile organs."

He raised his foot and casually flicked the severed leg that had been blown off earlier with the tip of his shoe. With a slight push, the limb traced a parabola in the air and landed precisely beside Zhao Zihao's gradually stiffening corpse in the corner.

"A family should be kept together and tidy."

Su Chen looked around at the group of former 'favored daughters of heaven' who had been put on pedestals back at school.

Most of them were now shrinking their necks and avoiding eye contact, looking very much like quails shivering in a rainstorm.

"Remember, on this vehicle, and in this damn world, beauty is the cheapest consumable."

"Before, you could max out a simp's credit card just with your face, but now, that thing won't even get you half a piece of moldy bread."

"If you want to live, you either have a blade in your hand or something useful in your head."

Having said that, he ignored the pale-faced girls and turned to look at Qin Ya, who was counting supplies by the driver's seat.

As the Class Teacher, Qin Ya's adaptability was indeed much stronger than those students from the ivory tower.

Although her fingers holding the tablet were still trembling slightly, the organization of her recorded data remained clear.

"A good harvest this time."

With the evolution of the 'Heavy Armored Hunter', the originally cramped storage compartment space had folded and expanded by three times.

Looking at the bags of coarse grains scavenged from the raiders' vehicle, Su Chen curled his lip.

"This bunch of bandits has no ambition; they eat worse than pigs."

With a slight thought, that familiar warm golden light glowed in his palm again.

The Extreme Yang Sacred Body could do more than just kill; it was also a top-tier material reconstruction furnace.

The Yang Energy overflowing in his body from just devouring the 'Holy Light Core' happened to need an outlet.

"Consume thirty percent of reserve energy. Material Manifestation."

The bags of moldy cornmeal piled in the corner began to undergo a miraculous qualitative change under the shroud of golden light.

Molecular structures were broken down and reorganized; coarse fibers were transformed into high-protein textures.

A few seconds later, a rich and domineering aroma of braised beef exploded in the enclosed cabin like a tear gas canister.

Gurgle—

Someone's stomach growled betrayingly first, followed immediately by a chain reaction like falling dominoes, as the sound of swallowing saliva rose and fell.

That smell was just unfair; for this group of girls who had been hungry for days, it was more lethal than the most potent aphrodisiac.

In front of that neatly stacked pile of canned beef, their so-called reserve and aloofness shattered instantly.

"This is another form of power."

Su Chen was very satisfied with this effect. To control the stomach was to control half of their loyalty.

"I want to become stronger too."

A cool voice broke the silence.

Lin Mengyao stepped out from the crowd. Her once spotless school uniform was now stained with dust, but her beautiful phoenix eyes burned with an unprecedented ambition.

The scene of Su Chen tearing apart a mecha and trampling a powerhouse just now had completely shattered her last bit of pride as a chaebol heiress.

In this world, the family background she was so proud of wasn't worth a damn; only living like Su Chen was true survival.

She walked up to Su Chen, and instead of raising her chin as usual, she slowly knelt on one knee, her posture humble but her gaze burning.

"I beg you, give me a mission, or... give me power."

Su Chen raised an eyebrow; this campus belle was quicker to catch on than he'd imagined.

"Since you want to be the first to take the plunge, I'll use you to test the new vehicle's 'Boost Function'."

"Follow me."

Su Chen turned and walked into the private rest area behind the driver's seat, separated by bulletproof glass.

Lin Mengyao bit her lip and followed him in without hesitation.

The moment the partition door closed, it blocked out the envious and complex gazes of the girls outside.

"Hold out your hand."

Su Chen didn't waste words and directly grabbed Lin Mengyao's slender wrist.

This time it wasn't a steady stream of nourishment; the evolved Extreme Yang Sacred Body was like an engine upgraded with nuclear power.

Violent Yang Energy surged through the point of contact, crashing into Lin Mengyao's meridians like arrogant, molten lava.

Lin Mengyao let out a muffled groan, and her entire body looked as if she had just been pulled out of a sauna, her originally fair skin instantly flushing with a sickly red glow.

The sensation was both painful and extremely fulfilling, as if every cell was being forced open, greedily devouring this high-level energy.

In just five minutes.

The energy fluctuations within her body shot up like a rocket from the third stage of awakening, forcibly breaking through the bottleneck and stabilizing directly at the early fifth stage.

This was simply an illogical, forced growth.

But this power came with a price.

Lin Mengyao slumped on the seat, gasping for air, her eyes glazed.

She found that as soon as Su Chen's hand let go, the violent power in her body began to backfire, bringing a piercing burning sensation.

Only by staying close to Su Chen's skin and using his aura to suppress it could she find a moment of peace.

Well, great. She had truly become a human accessory that couldn't leave his side.

Su Chen looked at Lin Mengyao, who was clinging to his arm like an octopus, and shook his head helplessly.

This side effect was quite consistent with the 'feedback' setting; if you want power, you have to pay with your freedom.

"Cool off to the side for a bit, don't delay serious business."

Su Chen pried her off with a bit of force. Although Lin Mengyao looked reluctant, she could only obediently curl up in the passenger seat, greedily breathing in the aura emanating from Su Chen like an addict.

Outside, Shen Qingqiu had already begun distributing supplies according to Su Chen's instructions.

Half a can of beef and a cup of warm water for each person. In the apocalypse, this was already imperial treatment.

However, when she reached the figure in the corner, Shen Qingqiu pushed up her glasses and skipped right over her.

Chen Wei looked up in disbelief, her parched lips trembling: "Class... Class Monitor, where's mine?"

"During the battle just now, you were the only one hiding under the seat playing dead."

Su Chen's voice spread through the cabin via the intercom, cold as ice.

"My vehicle doesn't support idlers, and certainly doesn't support cowards."

"Even if you're just cannon fodder, you have to have the resolve to charge forward."

Chen Wei's face instantly turned whiter than paper.

The double blow of hunger and fear caused her to completely break down. Ignoring all dignity, she crawled on all fours to the partition door of the driver's cabin, banging her head against the glass.

"Student Su Chen!"

"Brother Su!"

"I was wrong!"

"I really won't do it again!"

"Please give me a bite to eat, even just the soup is fine!"

Her cries were shrill, but no one in the cabin dared to plead for her.

Everyone was busy wolfing down their food, fearing that this little bit of grace would be taken back in the next second.

"Since you have the strength to kowtow, then use that strength in the right place."

Su Chen opened a crack in the partition door and threw out an already dried and stiff rag, which landed right on Chen Wei's face.

"Wipe the blood off the floor. And Zhao Zihao's corpse—drag it to the storage room to be used as backup fuel."

"Once you've done that, you can lick that empty can."

Chen Wei grabbed that rag smelling of blood as if she were grabbing a lifeline, and scrambled towards the pool of blood, her movements so agile it was heart-wrenching.

This was the process of establishing rules: cruel, but efficient.

Su Chen sat back in the driver's seat and pressed the start button.

The Heavy Armored Hunter let out a low roar, and its massive wheels crushed through the ruins, heading towards the coordinates in Situ Xue's memory.

However, the vehicle had barely driven two kilometers when the circular bio-radar on the center console suddenly erupted with a sharp beep.

Those weren't red dots representing ordinary monsters, but three massive, flashing black-purple skull icons.

Su Chen narrowed his eyes and looked at the display screen.

On the highway three kilometers behind them, dust was flying.

Three black vehicles, each a size larger than an ordinary bus, were approaching rapidly in a wedge formation.

They could hardly be called cars.

They were entirely black, shaped like giant coffins. There were no windshields at the front, only a massive metal ghost face welded with countless spikes.

Crouched atop each vehicle were several gargoyle-like creatures, letting out silent roars in Su Chen's direction.

The Hearse.

The source of the deepest fear in Situ Xue's memory.

"Do these guys have noses like dogs? They got here so fast."

Looking at the distance readings constantly decreasing on the screen, the playful curve at the corner of Su Chen's mouth didn't disappear, but instead grew deeper.

He didn't choose to flee at full speed like a normal person; instead, he tapped the brakes, controlling the speed within an ambiguous, teasing range.

"Since you've come to my door, wouldn't it be rude of me not to collect some toll fees?"