Chapter 23

Chen Xin was extremely excited about discovering the system.

It was as if a mischievous child had suddenly got himself a novel toy. He could not keep his hands off it.

In the bunker, to protect his electronics from the imminent EMP shockwave, he wrapped all of them in tin foil, then placed them in an iron box. Asides from playing around with his newly acquired system, there was nothing else that he could do.

As Chen Xin tinkered around the system, he finally figured out how it worked, and what capabilities it had.

The system itself was very crude. It was not so much a complete system, but more like an auxiliary program.

There was no user interface for the program. There were only a few pieces of information that were displayed when Chen Xin engaged the system. Those were mainly his remaining survival points, projected in the corner of his retina; and the relevant upgrade information of the items that could be observed in Chen Xin’s visual field.

For example, when Chen Xin kept his gaze on a ballpoint pen he placed on the table, he could see two different upgrade options appearing on it.

The first option was to add a bright flashlight function to the ballpoint pen, upgrading it to a pen-shaped LED flashlight similar to those commonly used by doctors in hospitals; the other was to add a glass-breaking function to make it a tactical survival tool.

Chen Xin had often seen the first option in various medical dramas. It was an unassuming but hugely convenient pen that could turn into a bright flashlight with one click. Doctors would use it to inspect a patient’s body at any time and anywhere. It was a very practical tool.

As for the second option, in fact, as a survival enthusiast, Chen Xin had such a pen in his possession.

It was made of titanium alloy. Its texture was hard and could be used as a tent nail or even a crowbar. It also adopted a bolt-type structure, which was much more reliable and easier to use than a button pen. The pen tip was designed to be a glass-breaker, which could be used to smash car windows in case of a car accident. It was pragmatically-designed and easy to use.

Chen Xin also liked it very much. He used to keep it close to him. Whenever he got inspired, he would take it out and record his ideas.

Of course, a titanium pen was not cheap. It cost Chen Xin more than 400 dollars.

If it were not for the fairly decent compensation that Chen Xin’s job as an online writer offered, he would probably not spend so lavishly on a pen.

However, at that point, Chen Xin did not need to spend more than 400 dollars. He only required a two-dollar ballpoint pen, plus 5 survival points, and he could acquire the same titanium tactical pen.

Although Chen Xin was eager to try out the item upgrade function, he did not do so due to having insufficient survival points. As such, he could only satisfy his curiosity by navigating through the upgrade options of various items provided by the system.

The system’s survival point round-up method was based on a 24-hour cycle. At every midnight, Chen Xin would acquire a day’s worth of survival points, provided he stayed in the doomsday environment for 24 hours.

Despite not having survived the first 24-hour cycle, Chen Xin was still rewarded survival points for the day as a novice benefit and introductory fund.

That kind of benefit was only available when the system was activated. If Chen Xin escaped from the doomsday environment determined by the system, its functions would be temporarily frozen. The system would not be reactivated until he returned to the doomsday environment. At that point, Chen Xin would have to wait for another 24 hours before his survival points were rounded-up and rewarded.

As for how Chen Xin could escape the current world that was fraught with catastrophes, it was a problem that the system’s artificial intelligence was not equipped to solve.

Due to having low survival points, Chen Xin did not bother to consider how many points it would cost to upgrade his items. Instead, he went through all the things in his bunker and wanted to see what the system could upgrade, and what were the options offered.

Chen Xin knew he needed to plan for his future survival. He drew up a limited list of upgrades based on those available upgrade options so he would know which items to upgrade first.

In the system, everything that appeared in Chen Xin’s sight could be upgraded with survival points. Ordinary pens could be upgraded to tactical pens, ordinary scissors could be upgraded to emergency folding scissors, and flashlights could be upgraded to fully-functional tactical flashlights equipped with infrared and lasers…

Even the self-heating food stocked by Chen Xin could be upgraded to visually appealing, high-end life-saving foods like those seen in science fiction.

Chen Xin also discovered that the system could not conjure matter out of thin air. It could only transform existing matter into something else.

Just like that plastic ballpoint pen that could be upgraded to a titanium tactical pen. The system could only change the material of the pen from plastic to titanium.

Even so, that would only be realized on the premise of consuming survival points, so having survival points meant that one could acquire everything.

The system upgrades were also not solely dependant on survival points. It also provided an option for material upgrades, which could reduce the consumption of survival points, but increase material consumption.

In particular, if Chen Xin’s ballpoint pen had 50g of titanium alloy, it would only need 1 survival point to complete the upgrade. If it was made of 200g of iron, 3 survival points would be required.

As for other items, they basically adhered to similar upgrade rules. If Chen Xin could provide enough materials and ingredients, the survival points needed to upgrade his items would cost less. As for how much lesser, it would specifically depend on the materials that Chen Xin could provide.

Chen Xin was very satisfied with the system’s functions, which provided him with two options for survival.

The first option was to be the power-leveling Swordmaster of Ten-Mile Hill. Chen Xin would hunker down in the bunker, accumulating survival points while upgrading his items and stay put until the bunker was solid and indestructible.

The other way was to wait for the external environment to stabilize, and actively go out to collect materials, use them to upgrade the bunker, and ultimately make it impenetrable.

Both upgrade methods were not necessarily better or worse than the other, but they represented two different development routes. Moreover, there was no one to stipulate that Chen Xin must choose one and give up the other.

He could very well stay in the bunker for some time until it was upgraded to a certain level. After he was certain he had enough protection for his survival, he could go outside to collect materials and accelerate the upgrading process.

On the one hand, it would take a certain amount of time for the external environment to stabilize. On the other hand, the external environment would become fraught with danger and uncertainty due to the doomsday natural disasters.

After all, faced with the aftermath of a meteorite impact, most countries in the world would certainly fail to maintain a peaceful social order. The harmonious and pleasant living environment that humans were used to would cease to exist.