“What?”

Staring at the flashing information on the panel, Cheng Ye was momentarily stunned.

He had merely thought about mending his backpack, and the action function, like a considerate assistant, fleshed out his idea into a complete action plan.

Of course, this derived mode also inherited the AI’s tendency to spout nonsense, going haywire out of nowhere!

The first two options were still within the reasonable scope of mending a backpack, but the third—“replace material with Happiness Alloy”—what was that about?

What was Happiness Alloy?

The floor beneath Cheng Ye’s feet was made of Isolation Alloy, the lowest grade among Happiness City’s superalloys.

Even so, it could withstand corrosion and attacks from most infected entities.

The Corrupt Vine, for instance, had struggled desperately before its demise but left no mark on the Isolation Alloy bars.

Above Isolation Alloy were Protective Alloy, Safety Alloy, and Immunity Alloy, with Happiness Alloy at the top tier.

Among all of Happiness City’s commercially available industrial products, Happiness Alloy easily ranked in the top three for sales.

Why?

The answer was simple. In the survival phase, the focus was on offense—clearing nearby infected entities was the priority. But in the development phase, the focus shifted to defense.

A safe house made of Happiness Alloy could withstand even a Disaster-level infected tide with ease.

Unfortunately, Happiness Alloy’s production was extremely low, keeping it in constant short supply.

Procurement teams from distant sanctuary cities often had to pay several times the price just to secure a shipment.

“One gram of transcendent mineral costs 50 contribution points. Happiness Alloy is far more valuable than regular transcendent minerals. To gather enough for a backpack would take at least tens of thousands of contribution points.”

In reality, it wasn’t that simple, as purchasing strategic materials like Happiness Alloy required bartering.

But even by the roughest estimate, it was still an astronomical price.

“Could it be because my action target was too vague?”

Cheng Ye pondered, suddenly struck by a realization.

Since the action function didn’t fail to provide directions despite a vague target, didn’t that mean he could perform similar operations even without understanding the structure of a charging station?

“If I had a sewing skill, I could unlock the second direction.”

“So even if I can’t modify a charging station now, as long as I search for an electrical skill, I could unlock an action direction?”

Once this idea surfaced, it took root in Cheng Ye’s mind.

It instantly opened countless new possibilities.

Since acquiring the Civilization Collector, survival pressure had driven him to focus solely on combat skills, never considering knowledge-based ones.

Now, the “Action” function’s emergence provided a use for those skills.

A fitting analogy:

Knowledge-based skills were like drivers, action was the vehicle, and Cheng Ye was the navigator.

With a driver and a navigator, reaching the destination was only a matter of time.

Without a driver, even with a vehicle and navigation, he’d be stuck in place.

“That’s it. The essence of the action function is to skip the time it takes to reach the destination.”

“With enough action points, I alone could achieve what hundreds or thousands could!”

With this realization, Cheng Ye didn’t hesitate, deciding to test the idea at the charging station.

Since no one was queuing in Quarantine Zone A, it was the perfect opportunity.

Of course, he still needed to be cautious.

He first found Raven and Owl. “There should be a sewing kit in the quarantine zone, right? My backpack has a few holes. Can you grab some supplies so I can mend it while it’s quiet?”

“We have them, sir!” Raven nodded, adding, “We’ve got sewing materials too, canvas, synthetic leather, and some decorative patches to cover seams. Which do you need?”

“Bring a bit of everything if it’s convenient. I’ll see what works best.”

“Understood!”

While Raven went for the sewing kit and Owl fetched materials, Cheng Ye hurried to the garage, his gaze locking onto the charging station.

Mimicking the backpack command, to encourage the Collector’s independent thinking, he didn’t set a specific action target. Instead, he silently recited the vague idea of “bypassing charging monitoring.”

The panel flickered, displaying exciting information that fully confirmed his hypothesis.

[Standard DC Fast Charging Station (Lv.1)]

[Description]: A modular standard charging station equipped with a 100kW charging module, supporting common charging protocols. The casing has special protective treatment to resist dust and rain, with built-in overvoltage, overcurrent, and monitoring protections.

[Action Directions]:

1. Unlock Charging Access (Exploit protocol vulnerabilities to forge a legitimate user identity, gaining temporary charging access; Note: This charging process will be logged by the system.) Estimated Action Point Cost: Locked (Prerequisite: Must possess engineering or programming skills)

2. Crack Charging Station Access (Bypass the device’s encryption system to gain administrator-level access, allowing free adjustment of charging parameters, modification of backend data, and unlocking hidden functions like user settings and simulation debugging) Estimated Action Point Cost: Locked (Prerequisite: Must possess electrical or engineering skills)

[All action directions are locked. Collector cannot select at this time!]

“As expected, it really works!”

A glint of shock flashed in Cheng Ye’s eyes as his thoughts expanded.

Though he couldn’t modify the fast charger yet, the information revealed new possibilities, a new future!

Like building a shelter!

If an infected tide hit and the buffer zone became indefensible, fleeing would be the only option.

But before this, he’d been at a loss.

With just one person’s strength, building a temporary shelter in city ruins or the wilderness, or even finding a safe spot, was near impossible.

Now, with enough action points, he wouldn’t need to rely on anyone to achieve this goal.

Even if he couldn’t find a suitable building site, he could brute-force a fitting space!

“Search, Action.”

“The two functions are interconnected. Energy lost from failed searches can be recycled by Action, and the abilities gained can be amplified through Action.”

“Brilliant, absolutely brilliant!”

Cheng Ye’s throat bobbed unconsciously, but a hint of doubt lingered.

The Civilization Collector was a relic from Cheng Long, yet he’d never noticed anything unusual about it?

Or... had he deliberately left it for his predecessor?

“Sir, here’s the sewing kit you asked for. If it’s not enough, we can ask people outside the quarantine zone to find more.”

Raven approached, interrupting Cheng Ye’s thoughts.

Opening the sewing kit, he found a soft blue-and-white cloth lining, neatly arranged with ten copper needles of different sizes.

Below were several spools of thick, triple-strand thread with tightly woven patterns.

Though rough to the touch, durability was the top priority in the wasteland.

“Sir, here are the sewing materials you wanted.”

Owl handed over a bag containing common buffer zone materials: canvas and synthetic leather.

This would do.

Cheng Ye hadn’t planned to turn an ordinary backpack into a mobile fortress; sturdy and durable was enough.

“Good work, I’m pleased!”

After praising them, Cheng Ye carried the materials back to the quarantine zone, sat down, and prepared to test the action point’s modification effect on the backpack.

The panel reopened, and as expected, the action directions had updated.

[1. Basic Optimization (Mend...), Estimated Action Point Cost: 1 (Sufficient materials and tools acquired, point cost reduced)]

“Looks like the minimum action point cost is 1; it won’t go lower.”

With four points left, Cheng Ye didn’t mind.

He first opened the stopwatch function on his defense communicator, then mentally confirmed the action.

He was curious about how the Collector accelerated the process, and what followed didn’t disappoint.

Whoosh.

A faint sound emerged.

Everything around seemed to slow, as if time itself had frozen, halting its flow.

Cheng Ye was shocked to find he’d lost control of his body, only able to watch as his hands moved on their own, grabbing the sewing kit and canvas to mend the backpack’s holes.

Like a machine, his hands were initially slow enough to follow, but after a few seconds, they blurred into afterimages. The thread spool spun like a top, transforming into dense stitches on the backpack in the blink of an eye.

Thud.

It felt like seconds had passed, or perhaps an hour.

This surreal experience of the world slowing, like a stand user activating time-stop, felt both alien and thrilling!

“How much time passed?”

Grabbing the defense communicator, he checked. Including his brief daze, only 4 seconds had elapsed.

This meant the acceleration process had completed in an instant.

And the backpack?

His gaze fixed on it. Despite his mental preparation, Cheng Ye couldn’t help but be stunned.

Running his fingers over the surface, the former holes were seamlessly mended with canvas, the stitches so fine they looked machine-made, adorned with black floral patches to hide the repairs.

Flipping it over, the inner canvas was lined with synthetic leather, and the pockets had extra reinforced layers, making the backpack more practical while indirectly strengthening its core framework.

“Is this really something I could sew?”