Chapter 23: Upgrades and Survival Points (Requesting Recommendations! Requesting Favorites!)

Words : 1062 Updated : Sep 10th, 2025

Chapter 23: Chapter 23: Upgrades and Survival Points (Requesting Recommendations! Requesting Favorites!)Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation Regarding finding the system, Chen Xin was extremely excited. It felt like a mischievous child suddenly getting a new toy, unwilling to stop playing until thoroughly satisfied. Moreover, now hiding in the shelter, all electronic devices had been wrapped in aluminum foil and placed in a metal box to shield from the upcoming EMP shockwave. Aside from tinkering with his newly acquired system, there was indeed nothing else for him to do. However, this tinkering allowed Chen Xin to understand how the system he found worked and what capabilities it had. The system itself was rather simple. Instead of a complete system, it was more like an auxiliary program. Searᴄh the ηovelFire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The program had no interface; when Chen Xin switched on the system, it only displayed his survival points balance in the corner of his retina and the upgrade information for items Chen Xin could access nearby. For example, when Chen Xin focused his gaze on a ballpoint pen on the table, he could see two different upgrade options appear for it. One was to add a high-brightness flashlight function, upgrading the pen to a pen-shaped flashlight commonly used by doctors in hospitals; the other was to add a window-breaking function, turning it into a survival tool. The first one was something Chen Xin had often seen in medical dramas; pens that could transform into bright flashlights with a click were indeed convenient, allowing doctors to examine patients anytime, anywhere—a very practical tool. As for the second one, as a wilderness survival enthusiast, Chen Xin already owned such a pen. Made entirely of titanium alloy, it was hard enough to be used as a tent peg or even a crowbar, designed with a bolt action structure that offered greater reliability and convenience than a button-release pen, and the pen tip was designed as a window-breaking spike, allowing for breaking car windows in emergencies such as car accidents to escape— a very practical and convenient pen. Chen Xin also liked it and frequently carried it with him to jot down inspiration whenever it struck. But of course, a titanium alloy pen wasn’t cheap; Chen Xin spent over four hundred yuan when he bought it. If not for Chen Xin’s decent earnings as an online novelist, he probably wouldn’t have splurged on such an expensive pen. But now, without spending over four hundred, just a two-yuan ballpoint pen and 5 survival points, Chen Xin could get an identical titanium alloy tactical pen. Of course, although Chen Xin was inclined to try upgrading to see what it entailed, because he had no survival points on hand, he could only look at the various upgrade options the system provided, whetting his appetite. The system calculated survival points at midnight each day, and Chen Xin had to survive a full twenty-four hours in the apocalyptic environment to receive his points for the day. However, as a newcomer benefit and initial funding, even though Chen Xin hadn’t survived a full twenty-four hours today, he could still receive survival points for a day. But this benefit was only available upon system activation. If Chen Xin left the system’s defined apocalyptic crisis environment, the system functions would freeze until he re-entered the defined environment, after which he would have to survive another 24 hours before the system would start calculating survival points. As for how Chen Xin would escape the current globally apocalyptic environment, that wasn’t something this non-verbal artificial intelligence auxiliary system could explain. Without survival points, Chen Xin wasn’t concerned with how many points it would take to upgrade items. Instead, he reviewed everything in his shelter to see what the system could upgrade and what the upgrade options were. Chen Xin needed to use these upgrade options to plan his future survival strategies, at least creating a limited upgrade list to know what to prioritize upgrading. Everything in Chen Xin’s vision could be upgraded with survival points, from regular pens to tactical pens, ordinary scissors to emergency folding shears, and high-brightness flashlights to infrared laser multifunction tactical flashlights... Even the self-heating food Chen Xin had stored could be upgraded, becoming science fiction-like nutrition foods. However, during this process, Chen Xin discovered that the system couldn’t create matter out of nothing but could transform existing materials into different ones. For instance, upgrading a plastic ballpoint pen into a titanium alloy tactical pen simply changed the pen’s material from plastic to titanium alloy. This was all predicated on consumption of survival points—having survival points meant acquiring everything. Besides pure consumption of survival points, the system also offered material-based upgrades, which could reduce some survival point consumption but required more material consumption. For example, if Chen Xin had 50g of titanium alloy, he could upgrade his pen with just 1 survival point; if he had 200g of iron, it would take 3 points. Similar upgrade rules applied to other items; if Chen Xin could provide enough material, the survival points needed for upgrading would significantly decrease, depending on the materials Chen Xin could provide. Chen Xin was extremely satisfied with this system feature as it offered him two survival path options. One option was to be like the Ten-mile Slope Sword God, hunkering down in the shelter while accumulating survival points, upgrading items until the shelter was as solid as a fortress, and invincible. The other option was to actively collect materials once the external environment stabilized, using them to upgrade the shelter, eventually still turning it into an impenetrable fortress. Neither upgrade method was better or worse; they simply represented two different development paths, and no one dictated that Chen Xin had to choose one over the other. He could stay home for a while, upgrading the shelter to a level that ensured adequate survival security before venturing out to gather materials, accelerating the shelter’s upgrade. One reason being that it would take time for the external environment to stabilize, and another being that the arrival of the apocalypse would render the external environment filled with danger and uncertainty. After all, with the meteor strike, most countries in the world would be unable to maintain their original order; the existing social order and peaceful environment would vanish.

Chapter 23: Upgrades and Survival Points (Requesting Recommendations! Requesting Favorites!)

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