Chapter 56: The Real Doomsday Pickup

"Iron Lion's newly acquired school bus seems to have some problems, and that amateur mechanic in his convoy can't fix it.""Iron Lion approached Chen Ye, hoping Chen Ye would help repair his vehicle, but unfortunately Chen Ye refused."

"He wants to prioritize modifying his own tricycle."

"What a selfish young man!"

Inside the tent, the Eavesdropping Radio offered its opinion on Chen Ye's earlier refusal of Iron Lion.

The entire convoy was under the surveillance of the Eavesdropping Radio.

Sometimes it would even share its views on certain matters.

And often during these times, its opinions tended to be quite cutting.

"No, I don't see it that way."

"In the apocalypse, fairness is the most precious thing!"

"Chen Ye prioritizing himself—in my view, he's being perfectly fair."

Captain Chu picked up a cup of tea, took a small sip, then revealed an intoxicated expression.

Now when Captain Chu wanted to drink tea, he would no longer do it openly in front of everyone.

Instead, he would secretly savor it alone in his vehicle, or during rest times inside his tent.

In Captain Chu's opinion, giving his good tea to those few people was like a cow chewing peonies—a complete waste of something precious.

...

[Based on the system's comprehensive assessment, the host's current available Slaughter Points credit limit is 10,000 points.]

Ten thousand Slaughter Points?

Receiving this answer, Chen Ye's face showed an expression of pleasant surprise.

This was ten thousand Slaughter Points—enough to accomplish many significant things.

Adding to the four thousand Slaughter Points remaining from before, he now possessed a total of fourteen thousand Slaughter Points.

Although it wasn't enough to transform the tricycle into an apocalyptic pickup truck, it could still accomplish many things.

Like the Wonder he had been longing for.

Even if he reserved five thousand Slaughter Points, he would still have nine thousand remaining.

This was mainly thanks to his previous frugality.

Whenever human effort could accomplish something, he absolutely wouldn't let the system waste a single Slaughter Point.

Chen Ye once again optimized the system's upgrade plan.

Simply put, he was squeezing Slaughter Points out of the system's design scheme.

Otherwise, nine thousand Slaughter Points would be completely insufficient for upgrading to an apocalyptic pickup truck.

The first thing Chen Ye eliminated was the apocalyptic pickup truck's eight-wheel design.

This design looked cool and even had decent practicality.

But it consumed far too many Slaughter Points.

And fuel consumption would also increase significantly.

Even in electric drive mode, it probably couldn't handle eight wheels.

Chen Ye optimized the eight-wheel design.

Eight wheels became four wheels.

He kept the four all-terrain tires salvaged from the Wrangler.

These tires were absolutely necessary.

Who knew when they might leave the road route—then these tires would prove their worth.

The previous twenty-thousand-plus Slaughter Points requirement suddenly dropped from starting with "2" to starting with "1."

This saved a considerable number of Slaughter Points.

Chen Ye checked the design blueprint again.

He saw there was still suspension modification.

According to the system's design, this suspension system could ensure the driver had a good experience inside the vehicle, which would be quite necessary on rough terrain.

Chen Ye hesitated for a moment, but didn't delete the suspension modification—he just replaced it with a cheaper alternative.

Next came the frame and chassis issues.

Seeing the system's modification quotes for these two items, Chen Ye felt physical pain.

Back at that large car crash site, Chen Ye had wanted to salvage a frame and chassis.

But Captain Chu Che's sudden departure had disrupted that plan.

Checking the system's upgrade plan.

These two items cost several thousand Slaughter Points.

No matter how much it pained Chen Ye.

Modifications to these two components were unavoidable.

Before, it was just a tricycle that could manage with simplicity, but now it was an apocalyptic pickup truck—without these things, it just wouldn't make sense.

But there were still ways to save some Slaughter Points.

Following the system's prompts, Chen Ye streamlined the design as much as possible without affecting normal operation.

Next came the cargo bed.

The previous cargo bed had already been upgraded.

This upgrade would make it more complete.

The entire cargo bed was modified with sheet metal, and even the vehicle canopy was changed to sheet metal.

Not only was this much sturdier than the previous spliced canopy, it could even provide shelter from rain.

Chen Ye unhesitatingly restored the previous splicing solution.

The design now presented before Chen Ye didn't look too bad.

It could only be said to better match the name "apocalyptic pickup truck."

The previous apocalyptic pickup truck looked like a rich kid's toy in the apocalypse.

But now... it truly resembled a real apocalyptic pickup truck.

A weathered, battle-hardened apocalyptic pickup truck.

For the remaining design, he saved wherever possible.

Air conditioning in the cabin?

That actually costs five hundred Slaughter Points?

No way, delete it!

And the intercom?

No, delete that too!

Radio?

Delete!

And automatic seats?

Also delete!

Switch to manual.

Even the automatic oil-electric switching system was changed to manual by Chen Ye.

This system mainly automatically switched the vehicle to electric mode when the fuel tank was empty.

To save Slaughter Points, Chen Ye directly changed it to manual.

In the future, when Chen Ye drove this vehicle and ran out of gas, the vehicle would have to stop completely for him to manually switch to electric mode.

As long as it didn't affect survival, even if it only saved a few Slaughter Points.

Chen Ye would unhesitatingly make the modification.

Even the four wheels were removed by Chen Ye.

If the system handled installation, it would still cost dozens of Slaughter Points.

Chen Ye preferred to install them himself.

Even for that steel heart, Chen Ye only kept the pre-installation position—he preferred to handle the remaining installation work himself.

Under the system's guidance, this apocalyptic pickup truck would have no problems with basic operation.

But comfort was completely out of the question.

Every function that could be saved was eliminated.

Half an hour later, Chen Ye's newly designed apocalyptic pickup truck wasn't much better than a tractor.

Chen Ye checked the system's budget again—it still required six thousand Slaughter Points.

"Sigh... can't optimize it any further, this will have to do."

Chen Ye confirmed the upgrade plan in the interface.

An hourglass countdown appeared above the tricycle.

"09:59:59."

Ten hours!

Still acceptable.

It would be upgraded by around seven tomorrow morning.

Fourteen thousand Slaughter Points, spent six thousand, leaving eight thousand.

Upgrading the Wonder would cost another five thousand.

Leaving three thousand.

He previously had fourteen thousand, but in the blink of an eye, only three thousand remained.

Chen Ye once again felt anxious about having only three thousand Slaughter Points.

Having solved the tricycle modification and upgrade problem.

Chen Ye stood up, brushed the sand off his pants, and walked toward Iron Lion's yellow school bus.

From the constantly flickering flashlight beam, he could tell they still hadn't given up.