The golden light didn't fade. Instead, it collapsed inward, solidifying into a heavy object hovering in the freezing air of the elevator shaft.
A book.
The binding was made of warm, living leather that pulsed faintly under Alex's fingers. Runes etched into the cover shifted like oil on water, refusing to stay in one shape.
[System Alert: Rare Drop Identified]
Blue windows exploded across his retina. The dopamine hit was harder than pure oxygen.
[Item: Skill Book - Chitin Plating (Passive)]
Grade:Rare (Gold)Effect:Mutates epidermal layer. Grants +200% Physical Defense and Minor Acid/Heat Resistance.Description:To kill a bug, you must become the bug. Biological steel skin.
"Passive defense," Alex whispered, his breath steaming up his visor. "Permanent."
Armor broke. Batteries died. But passive skills were forever.
He didn't hesitate. He crushed the book in his hand.
SHATTER.
Data exploded into golden moths that dove straight into his skin.
"Nngh!"
Alex dropped to one knee. It wasn't pain; it was a heavy, invasive sensation of transmutation. It felt like liquid iron was being poured into his pores.
He looked at his hand. Under the torn tactical glove, his skin rippled. The pale flesh darkened for a split second, flashing with a metallic, grey sheen—identical to the Mantis's carapace—before fading back to normal.
He tapped his knuckles on the concrete floor.
CLACK.
It sounded like stone hitting stone.
[System Notification: Skill Learned - Chitin Plating (Level 1)] [Current Defense Rating: Heavy Infantry Equivalent]
Alex stood up. His muscles felt denser. Gravity seemed to pull harder on him, but his body moved with a new, hydraulic grace.
"Good. Now for the rest."
He turned to the massive carcass. The gold skill book was just the appetizer.
"System. Loot All."
The massive, translucent scythes dissolved into pixels, sucked into his inventory.
[System Log: Loot Acquired]
[Material: Queen's Serrated Scythes (Perfect)] x2Info:Harder than diamond. Molecular edge. Ideal for conductive weaponry.[Blueprint: Death-Scythe Sentry Turret]Type:Trap / DefenseDescription:Zero ammo consumption. Infinite chop.[Core: Mutant Insect Core (Level 3)]Attribute:Wind / Kinetic.
Alex stared at the blueprint. He had the blades. He had a genius mechanic upstairs. He had the perfect choke point.
"Meat grinder," Alex grinned, his mind already placing the turrets. "Stairwell defense solved."
He opened his main interface. He looked at the top right corner. The numbers glowed a beautiful, neon blue.
[Current EP: 3,600]
Three thousand. Six hundred.
Yesterday, a can of beans cost 10 EP. A used pistol was 150. Survivors on the lower floors were killing each other for single digits.
He wasn't just rich. He was a god.
"King of the wasteland," Alex said. The words echoed comfortably in the empty elevator shaft.
He scrolled through the Level 3 Shop. Items that mocked him yesterday now looked cheap.
M203 Under-Barrel Grenade Launcher:800 EP. Pocket change.Fresh Wagyu Beef (10kg):50 EP. Add to cart.Advanced Water Filtration System:300 EP. Whiskey (Aged 12 Years):20 EP. Why not a crate?
He closed the menu. Not here. He would buy it from his Italian leather sofa, with a glass of that whiskey in hand.
"Luna," Alex tapped his comms. "Prep the workbench. I'm bringing up the holy grail of scrap materials."
Static.
"Luna?"
Only the hiss of white noise answered him.
"Signal interference?" Alex frowned. "Or maybe she's deep in the code."
He grabbed the AA-12, slung it over his shoulder, and started the climb.
Floor 14. Floor 15. Floor 18.
He moved fast. The new Chitin Plating insulated him from the -68°C draft. The weight of his gear felt negligible.
Floor 23.
The Labor Squad was gone. They were sleeping in their designated units. The "Corpse Wall" stood tall—a barricade of frozen limbs and cement sealing the lower stairs.
"Good work," Alex nodded as he passed. "I'll give the foreman extra beans tomorrow."
Floor 24. Penthouse Level.
The poly-alloy fortress door loomed ahead. The line between godhood and insect life.
He keyed the lock code.
HISS.
Steel slid back.
Heat rushed out to meet him. But it smelled wrong.
It didn't smell like warm coffee and ozone. It smelled stale. Stagnant. Like the air inside a tomb.
The hallway lights weren't bright white. They were flickering with a low-voltage "brown-out" orange glow.
Luna wasn't at the workbench.
She was waiting at the airlock. Her wheelchair was positioned to face him the moment he entered. Her face was pale, smeared with grease, but her eyes were dry. Focused.
"Don't take off your armor," Luna said. Her voice was tight, clipped. Professional.
Alex stepped in, the joy of his 3,600 EP freezing in his chest. "Did the bugs breach the perimeter?"
"No. Physics breached us."
Luna spun her wheelchair around, pointing a tablet screen at him.
"The generator is dying, Alex."
CLUNK-CLUNK... HISS.
From the utility room, the dying wheeze of a starved engine echoed. It sounded like a heavy smoker coughing up a lung.
"Redline," Luna said, tapping the screen rapidly. "Heaters are maxed out. Drone chargers. Server rack. The Fabricator. We are pulling too much load."
Alex stopped. "We had fifty gallons of diesel. That was supposed to last two weeks."
"Standard combustion rates assume an ambient temperature of 10°C," Luna said. She pulled up a graph. The red line was plummeting. "It's minus seventy outside. The diesel is gelling. The engine is working three times as hard just to keep itself from freezing. Burn rate has tripled."
She looked up at him. No panic. Just cold, hard math.
"Reserve tank is empty. Main tank is on fumes."
"Time?" Alex asked.
"Eighteen minutes," Luna said. "After that, the grid collapses. The heaters stop. The air filtration stops."
She shivered, pulling her thin blanket tighter.
"The Penthouse has zero insulation against this kind of cold. One hour after power loss, we freeze solid."
[World State Ledger]
Location:Penthouse (Unit 2401)Status:Crisis (Power Failure Imminent)Host Status:Alex (Rich, but about to be dead)Base Status:Power Critical (18 Mins Remaining)
Alex walked past her. His boots thudded heavily on the marble. He kicked the utility room door open.
Heat blasted him—but it was the stench of burning rubber and cooked metal. The generator block glowed a dull, angry red in the dark. The fuel gauge needle was resting on the dead bottom of the black line.
Sputter. Clank.
Overhead lights flickered. The pauses between the strobes were getting longer.
"Batteries?" Alex asked, staring at the red engine block.
"I can strip the drones," Luna said from the doorway. "Daisy chain the lithium cells to the heater. It might buy us two hours."
"Two hours?" Alex turned. "So we freeze at 3 AM instead of 1 AM?"
"It gives us time to find diesel!"
"Diesel is dead," Alex said, his voice flat. "Gas stations are ice blocks. Tankers are tombs. Scavenging fuel is a short-term fix for a long-term extinction."
He turned his back on the dying machine.
"We need a permanent solution. Infinite energy."
Luna let out a short, jagged laugh. "Unless you have a nuclear reactor in your pocket, the laws of thermodynamics say we're dead."
"The laws changed three days ago."
Alex opened his System Interface.
[Shop Level 3 - Utilities & Infrastructure] Filter: [Power Generation]
Solar Array (High Efficiency):500 EP. Useless in the blizzard.Wind Turbine (Industrial):1,200 EP. Fragile trash. The wind shear would snap it.Portable Fusion Reactor (Class C):15,000 EP. Too expensive.
He scrolled down. Past the batteries. Past the generators.
There. At the bottom of the list. The structure he had ignored yesterday because the price tag looked like a suicide note.
[Blueprint: Geothermal Energy Pylon (Tier 1)]
Type:Base Infrastructure (Permanent)Effect:Deploys a dimensional bore-hole to the planetary mantle. Siphons infinite thermal energy. Converts heat to electricity (500 kWh continuous).Bonus:Provides Central Heating for 1 Territory Unit.Cost:3,500 EP + 1x Level 3 Monster Core (Any Attribute).
Alex stared at the price.
3,500 EP.
He checked his balance.
[Current EP: 3,600]
He checked his inventory.
[Core: Mutant Insect Core (Level 3)]
The math was exact. Cruel.
The System wasn't a shop. It was a casino. It gave you the jackpot, let you hold the chips for an hour, then forced you to shove them all back on the table just to survive the night.
"Son of a..." Alex whispered.
"Alex?" Luna noticed his silence. "The lights. They're dimming."
She was right. Frost was already creeping in from the corners of the reinforced windows. The ambient temp had dropped five degrees in seconds.
"I found the fix," Alex said. His voice was hollow.
He projected the window into the room. Blue holograms lit up the gloom.
The blueprint rotated in the air. A massive, obsidian spike pulsating with magma-red veins.
Luna's eyes went wide. She read the specs. The engineer in her drooled. The survivor in her screamed at the price tag.
"Three... three thousand five hundred?" She choked on the number. "That's everything. The grenade launcher. The food. The ammo. It's all gone."
"It's heat," Alex said. "Infinite heat."
He lifted his hand. His finger hovered over the [Purchase] button.
The AA-12 on his back felt heavy. The burns on his arm throbbed under the armor. He had fought a Level 5 Elite. He had bled. He had nearly died. He had earned a fortune that made him the richest man in the apocalypse.
Now, he had to spend it on a thermostat.
"Easy come," Alex gritted his teeth. A muscle in his jaw jumped.
ZZZT.
The lights died.
Total darkness swallowed the penthouse. Only the blue glow of the System Interface remained, illuminating his face.
Cold rushed in instantly. Heavy. Suffocating.
"Easy go."
He smashed the button.