"Ah!"
Zhou Lin exclaimed as he sat up in bed, his eyes twitching and his hands trembling. The terror and pain of falling off a cliff and being smashed to pieces were still haunting his mind, his consciousness still immersed in those last moments of desperate struggle.
A few seconds later, he finally regained his composure and gave himself a hard slap.
It hurt!
But more than that, he was ecstatic!
"Rebirth! I actually got reborn!"
Feeling his young and intact body, Zhou Lin quickly grabbed his phone from the bedside and checked the time: June 27, 2023, 09:18.
"Damn!"
Zhou Lin cursed, realizing that if he remembered correctly, there were less than three days until the apocalypse!
Three days! What could he do, what could he change?
Gather supplies and weapons?
How much could he gather with his current assets?
Or maybe go wild for three days and then end it all?
That might spare him some suffering, but... several faces suddenly flashed in Zhou Lin's mind.
Ai Bing, Tang Yili, Cao Bowen, Zhang Keqin... the one he hated most, though, was his girlfriend Ai Bing. Oh, right, Ai Bing hadn't even acknowledged she was his girlfriend yet!
Thinking of how he had been so devoted to Ai Bing only to be a backup option, Zhou Lin wanted to slap himself again!
Just then, his phone rang. Zhou Lin glanced at it—Ai Bing.
"Sleeping in? Didn't you say you were taking me shopping today?"
That voice, Zhou Lin could never forget it in two lifetimes! He stayed silent, but the phrase "Push him down, he's just skin and bones, not worth the firewood..." echoed in his mind, though much more raspy than now, it came from the same mouth.
Heh... Zhou Lin coldly laughed inwardly, while Ai Bing continued on the phone, oblivious:
"I'm hungry, Zhou Lin."
"Why aren't you talking?"
"Honey, are you feeling unwell? I'll come see you as soon as I finish up, wait for me."
Ai Bing's words sounded perfectly fine, even filled with concern for Zhou Lin.
Nonsense!
All lies and deceit!
Last night, Zhou Lin had asked Ai Bing to go out today for dinner, shopping, and a movie, but she declined, saying she had to be with her best friend—nonsense! With her best friend? More like with some rich second-generation guy, even to the point of getting into bed with him!
She admitted it later, she even told Zhou Lin she was sitting in that rich guy's lap while talking on the phone, still... Thinking of this, Zhou Lin's face twitched with anger, wanting to throw Ai Bing out the window!
But in the end, Zhou Lin held back, trying to sound as normal as possible: "Sure, come over."
As long as Ai Bing dared to come, Zhou Lin would break her legs!
He wouldn't kill her, that'd be too easy! He wanted her to live, to see the apocalypse with her own eyes, and then live on in misery—that would be true satisfaction!
After hanging up, Zhou Lin suddenly felt a sharp pain deep in his mind, and when the pain subsided... Zhou Lin smiled.
He saw a glowing orb floating in his sea of consciousness. If he wasn't mistaken, this was the power orb that only appeared five years into the apocalypse!
After the apocalypse, many thought humans would evolve or gain superpowers like in novels, but until the fifth year, no such thing happened. Just as people gave up hope, the first superhuman appeared!
Then the first wave of evolvers followed.
Though most powers were auxiliary, superhumans could evolve 100%, far surpassing ordinary evolvers, becoming the elite of the apocalypse.
The most pitiful were those without powers or evolution, later known as—mortals! In the ten years of the apocalypse, 99.99% of mortals ended up enslaved, cannon fodder, or even... living food!
Zhou Lin died as a mortal, while his "girlfriend" Ai Bing, leveraging her looks and social skills, not only gained powers but evolved successfully.
Without the appearance of superpowers, Zhou Lin wouldn't be sure the apocalypse was coming, but now there was no doubt.
"If only it were spatial power." Feeling the slowly spinning orb in his consciousness, Zhou Lin took a deep breath with hope, then touched the orb with his mind.
At the moment of contact, Zhou Lin's mind filled with... various vehicles!
"What is this..."
Soon, Zhou Lin understood the power he had gained: Symbiosis.
"Symbiosis [Beginner] (limited to non-living vehicles, initial symbiosis without any conditions)"
...
After ten minutes, Zhou Lin opened his eyes and exhaled heavily.
Symbiosis had four key points.
First, symbiotic control over the vehicle with thoughts; second, a storage space for symbiotic vehicles; third, the ability to modify vehicles in storage; and fourth, the need for corresponding energy and materials for use and modification.
The most exciting part for Zhou Lin was the exclusive storage space. Though it couldn't store anything other than symbiotic vehicles, it didn't affect items stored inside the vehicle itself—wasn't this like a storage space?
Thinking this, Zhou Lin felt happy. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise? He initially wanted a light, fuel-efficient vehicle, but now it seemed he should find one with more internal space.
How about... a container truck?
The largest standard container is 12.2x2.4x2.9 meters, about 80 cubic meters!
Don't think 80 cubic meters is small. The density of bulk rice is about 0.8, so 80 cubic meters can hold 100 tons of rice. Zhou Lin, eating 1 kg a day, could live for 273 years!
Without considering rice spoilage, 24-year-old Zhou Lin would only need about 28 tons of rice to live to 100, leaving 45 cubic meters for other stuff.
Moreover, the truck cab had some storage space, and if needed, he could add a trailer... wait, a trailer?
Zhou Lin's eyes lit up, then he slapped his forehead, blaming himself for narrow thinking!
Why not? How many trailers can a truck pull? But if he symbiotically bonded a train... a quick search showed container freight trains could carry about 50 cars, even if each car held two containers, that's at least 100 containers, 8000 cubic meters!
Thinking this, Zhou Lin couldn't help but swallow, wanting to get a train right away!
But a few minutes later, Zhou Lin calmed down.
No, he couldn't symbiotically bond a train.
Modern trains are electric, where would he get electricity for the train after the apocalypse? No power, no tracks, the freight train would just be a big storage space, though large, it couldn't serve other functions.
Moreover, he didn't have enough funds to fill a freight train with supplies! As for using the storage space for free shopping—three days weren't enough to get a freight train, let alone fill it. It seemed impossible.
So Zhou Lin concluded that unless there were no better options, he wouldn't consider a freight train.
"The first use of the symbiosis skill has no restrictions, I need the best vehicle... What's this notification... hey?"
The phone screen suddenly lit up. Zhou Lin thought it was a message from Ai Bing, but it was a news alert. Once he glanced at it, he couldn't look away.