Over the course of a full day, Shen Cong assembled four computers and eight monitors. That was the ceiling — the camp had accumulated mountains of salvaged components, but functional CPUs were scarce, and a computer without a CPU was just an expensive paperweight.

With computers tapped out, he turned to other electronics.

Radar monitoring, camera systems, infrared thermal imaging, drone relay, navigation mapping, high-powered radio transmitters.

Air conditioning, televisions, refrigerators, washing machines, induction cooktops, water heaters, electric kettles, speakers, vacuum cleaners, humidifiers, cameras, camcorders, rice cookers, juicers, pressure cookers, ice makers.

Vehicle lighting, oxygen generators, solar panels, electric razors, hair dryers, water dispensers, in-car audio systems.

Medical equipment, laboratory instruments, field gear.

And most critically: autonomous weapons platforms.

Vajra 2.0's design concept was a large-format mobile hybrid — combat vehicle, living quarters, off-road platform, and engineering rig combined. It would have the interior volume to actually install all of this. The apocalypse, for Shen Cong, wasn't purely a matter of white-knuckle survival at the edge of death. It was also supposed to be lived in — comfortably, on his own terms.

He was twenty-two. He had a great deal of life ahead of him worth enjoying.

"Colonel Hu, the Provincial Garrison is convening a leadership meeting. Your attendance is requested."

Shen Cong was in the middle of cataloguing Vajra 2.0's equipment inventory. "Tell Commander Zhao I'm busy."

"Commander Zhao specifically noted: today's agenda is the camp relocation discussion. It concerns the camp's future direction. All leadership personnel are expected to attend and provide input."

A pause.

"I heard you."

He went.

He didn't want deep involvement with the camp — he wanted to finish the Vajra overhaul in peace. But events kept pulling him in. First the tournament he hadn't wanted to enter. Then the Edge of Evolution title he hadn't asked for. Now a leadership seat he hadn't sought, with all the mandatory meetings that came with it. Every layer of entanglement invited more schemes.

None of this served his interests.

Once Vajra 2.0 is finished and I cross into the Lv1 era, I'll decide whether to leave…