As if accustomed to it, Lin Xian calmly prepared his dinner, quietly eating in the candlelight.
"The sunrise time has been extended to 12 o'clock, there should be less than 5 days left until the next extreme night."
At the table, Lin Xian was eating while jotting something down in his diary.
The main functions of the storage batteries and generator in the storeroom were to keep the refrigerator running and the alarm system operational.
Lighting was a nuisance, after all, the illumination from a pitch-black city would undoubtedly turn his shelter into a guiding lighthouse.
After dinner, Lin Xian began sorting through the day's gains.
"Two cans, two bottles of water, oh, and a pack of expired potato chips..."
Strangely, the food and water didn't take up much space in the large backpack; what remained was an assortment of bizarre items.
Several broken cell phones, a speaker, a rotten electric shaver, and a hairdryer.
In Lin Xian's eyes, these objects were treasures.
The corner of his mouth curled up, and he placed his hand over the speaker. In an instant, a faint glow appeared on his hand and in his pupils, his hair moved as if there were no wind, as though some strange power had come into being. Soon, the glow vanished, and the speaker he had touched suddenly decayed into a small pile of brown ash that fell to the ground.
[Devouring successful, Mechanical Source Point +1, Mechanical Devouring Skill proficiency +1, extra reward: your strength increased by 1]
[Current Mechanical Heart level LV.1 176/500]
[Tip: Upgrading the Mechanical Heart can earn special skill rewards. A Mysterious Awakening is unlocked at levels LV3, LV6, and LV9 of the Mechanical Heart]
[Basic Attributes]
[Strength: LV1 22/50]
[Speed: LV0 28/30]
[Defense: LV0 15/30]
[Current Basic Skills]
[Mechanical Devouring LV.1 265/300]
[Mechanical Manufacturing LV.1 112/300]
[Mechanical Scan (Passive)]
[Mechanical Repair (Passive)]
[Mechanical Operation (Passive)]
A familiar screen lit up before his eyes, and Lin Xian was delighted. He hadn't expected that a broken speaker would provide a 1-point increase in strength.
Do not underestimate this single point of strength attribute.
Since his strength upgraded from LV.0 to LV.1, his whole person had undergone earth-shaking changes.
The old him was just a scrawny college otaku who struggled even to carry a bucket of water, but now, he could almost do a hundred one-handed push-ups in one go. The transformation was astounding.
Initially, Lin Xian thought his Superpower was quite useless, but now he increasingly saw great potential in his ability. If strength and speed could continue to upgrade, then relying solely on his fighting abilities he might not lose out to those Superpower Users with physical mutations.
[Devouring successful, Mechanical Source Point +1]
[Devouring successful, Mechanical Source Point +1]
The following few broken cell phones didn't bring any additional attribute boosts.
"It seems I need a more powerful device to get better effects..."
He sighed. He had tried devouring a car engine before but only succeeded once, and that time, he directly got a 20-point increase in Mechanical Source Points, along with a 5-point attribute boost.
But now, the reason he chose to start with these small things and even insisted on bringing them back to the apartment was simple.
The larger the mechanical structure, the longer it would take him to devour, and the more energy-consuming it was.
The time he devoured the car engine was like encountering a horrific loop, which not only took him over an hour but almost left him completely drained. Lin Xian was indeed grateful that he wasn't bitten to death by Zombies or Ghouls under that circumstance; he considered himself very lucky.
Since then, Lin Xian had deeply understood the principle that haste doesn't bring success and adopted the belief of safety first and to live cautiously.
However, to his surprise, after he devoured the hairdryer, the screen in front of him suddenly flashed golden.
[Devouring successful, Mechanical Source Point +1, Mechanical Devouring Skill proficiency +1, extra reward: you've obtained the Wind Cannon Skill!]
[Wind Cannon LV.1, condensing air at your fingertips, releasing it in an instant, causing a certain degree of destruction.]
"A skill?!!"
Lin Xian's pupils contracted, this was the first time he had acquired a skill from Mechanical Devouring.
"Who would've thought I'd get skills from devouring ordinary things?"
A hairdryer... Wind Cannon??
What kind of logic was that.
Lin Xian suppressed his excitement, focused his thoughts, lifted his fingertip, and aimed at the couch in the distance, giving it a gentle flick!
Poof!
A tiny sound of something piercing the air echoed, and the throw pillow on the couch seemed to be hit by something invisible, suddenly bursting open with the stuffing scattering like snowflakes!
"Shit!"
Lin Xian's heartbeat accelerated. He had deliberately not used too much force or air for fear of making too much noise. Now, even after a simple test, he thought that if he used his full power, the skill would undoubtedly have considerable lethality.
...
The year 2069, Apocalypse Day arrived, and thirteen 'Devouring Zones' with diameters of several hundred kilometers appeared in various places around the world, officially named Star Abyss.
Since that day, the Star Abyss began spreading a radiation-like dark curtain named Dark Tide, expanding hundreds of kilometers every day. Daylight began to dwindle, and after reaching a certain cycle, the covered areas would enter into an extreme night!
Under the extreme night, climatic disasters mutated, creatures became infected, a tide of undead erupted, and unknown horrors fell from the depths of the abyss!
Humanity was forced to start a great migration to escape the Dark Tide!
After the end of the world came, a small proportion of people were affected by the radiation of the Star Abyss Destruction Zone and mutated various Superpowers, which provided them with a significant advantage in the survival test. Lin Xian was among them.