All Chapters of The Apocalypse Exchange: I Can Trade Anything: Chapter 31
- Chapter 40
45 chapters
Chapter 31: The Wendigo Armor
Once the three Lickers were dealt with, the group made their way carefully to the server room.This was Ryan's moment to shine a software engineer finally getting to flex some actual hardware knowledge.Within minutes, the generator kicked back on, and the entire research base flooded with light.Naomi turned her attention to the spear in her hands.The Thunder Tungsten weapon had a deep gray-black finish, faint etched lines running along its surface, giving it an almost mystical presence.She triggered her lightning ability, and arcs of blue-white current began crawling across the metal.By this point, she was thoroughly smitten with the weapon."Ryan. Thank you for this.""You're welcome. Wait hold on, what exactly does that tone mean? You planning on keeping it without paying up?"Naomi said nothing, just stared back at him with wide, innocent eyes.Meanwhile, Mia's hand had quietly slipped into Ryan's jacket pocket."Mia. What are you doing?""Ryan seriously, where do you keep pul
Last Updated : 2026-09-16
Chapter 32: Survival Points
Jake went quiet the moment he saw Ryan walk back in."Ryan everything went okay out there? No trouble?""Fine..."Ryan's gaze dropped to the sea of empty steak wrappers littering the floor, and a vein visibly pulsed in his temple."You ate through all the beef?""Not just beef. Hit some lamb too.""Ryan, total count fifty steaks, twenty-three lamb chops.""Hunger's mostly gone. Still don't feel full, though."Ryan checked his balance.He'd started at 86. Spent 10 on two combat suits. Another 6 on three sets of night-vision gear. And 20 more on Naomi's new weapon.By his math, that should've left him around 50.Instead, his current balance read 65.Which meant Jake's calorie-fueled binge had quietly generated 15 points on its own."Jake lay off the meat for now. Go heavier on pure calories instead.""From here on, help yourself to anything in the pantry candy, chocolate, whatever. No limits.""Ryan, that's a one-way ticket to diabetes.""You literally Awakened. Why are you still worrie
Last Updated : 2026-09-17
Chapter 33: The North Wind Wolf Squad
Life in lockdown blurred into a single monochrome smear of days.Time crept by, quiet and unremarkable.Before anyone quite noticed, a full week had passed.Ryan's balance finally crossed 310 points.The moment the Exchange tier unlocked, he spent 1 point immediately to pull up the full description of Jake's Glutton ability.Glutton: A specialized ability centered on converting consumption into stored energy.Power scales directly with stored reserves the more banked, the stronger the body becomes, like a dormant volcano building toward eruption.However, as reserves deplete, physical capability degrades in tandem.Once reserves are fully overdrawn, the Glutton enters a five-minute frenzy state, unable to distinguish ally from enemy.Failure to refuel during this window results in death.Once he'd absorbed all of that, Ryan gathered everyone together.He looked around the room and cleared his throat."Alright, everyone. I want to have a real conversation.""Ryan, I already know you've
Last Updated : 2026-09-18
Chapter 34: Mutant Insects
Late that night, while everyone slept, a small beetle glowing faintly green slipped in through the darkness of the ventilation duct.It crawled along the wall's edge, making its way toward where Derek lay sleeping.Its sharp mandibles pierced his skin easily.A thin white channel along its abdomen pulsed, and something green seeped into the fresh wound.Derek groaned softly, brow furrowing, some distant part of him registering discomfort.He didn't wake, though just shifted position and settled back into sleep.Faint as it was, that groan was enough to stir Mia from her own rest.Her telekinetic senses flared instinctively, and something registered as wrong almost immediately.She crept over and nudged Ryan awake."Mia? What's up?""Ryan, something feels off. Like something's gotten in."Ryan pulled up the holo-map instantly.Sure enough a small red marker blinked steadily on the display.Resonance analysis kicked off automatically.While it ran, the beetle repeated the process on Mar
Last Updated : 2026-09-19
Chapter 35: Bailey, the Blood Demon
Ryan barely had time to glance at the holo-map before he registered the scale of what was happening to Derek.His body was shriveling fast, like a dying tree every drop of moisture wringing out of him, leaving behind something closer to a mummy.That wasn't the end of it, though.His muscles kept twisting and reforming under his skin, reorganizing into something unrecognizable.By the time it settled, Derek's frame had gone gaunt as dead bamboo, muscle fibers pulled taut like steel wire.A hardened, shell-like plating spread across both arms thick, chitinous, almost beetle-like.Marcus, standing closest, reached toward Derek's back in horror, fingers hovering just short of the wound.A gunshot cracked through the room.Jake had already opened fire on Derek without hesitation.The rounds hit Derek's forearms and just... stopped. Deflected clean off, ringing out with a dull metallic clang.Naomi didn't waste time talking she drove the spear forward in a single fluid strike.Except by no
Last Updated : 2026-09-19
Chapter 36: Abilities Can Be Bought
Mia's telekinetic grip on Bailey was starting to fray.Right as Naomi moved to reclaim her spear, Bailey suddenly flung Chloe's drained body directly at her.The same hand snapped out mid-motion and seized the tungsten spear before it could clear the air.Since Bailey still had a grip on Ryan with her other hand, Naomi couldn't risk discharging lightning through the weapon she was forced to sidestep the flying corpse instead.At the same moment, Jake's armored fist slammed into Bailey's shoulder with bone-crunching force.The impact caved her shoulder in completely.Her grip on Ryan finally went slack.The dent in her shoulder was already reknitting itself, though visibly reforming in real time.Before she could capitalize on the opening, Naomi's lightning surged through the spear's shaft, still gripped in Bailey's hand.Bailey shrieked and released the weapon on reflex.Ryan used the opening to roll clear, putting distance between himself and her.With the immediate danger passed, th
Last Updated : 2026-09-20
Chapter 37: Dogs Can Awaken Too
A month later, an all-terrain armored vehicle tore out of the Morrison research base at full speed."WOOO YEAH!"Jake was behind the wheel, whooping like a maniac, something wild and unrestrained flashing in his eyes.He plowed through anything infected unlucky enough to be in his path.Once their balance had crossed 600 points, the group had settled in at the base for another two weeks of relative peace.Net daily income had climbed to 8 points, which meant roughly 120 points banked over those two weeks alone.Sitting at 720 total, Ryan paid outright for the armored vehicle a straight 50-point purchase then dropped another 10 on a front-mounted plow blade, which he welded on himself."Jake! Could you drive with even a hint of stability?"Mia was at her limit. Small as she was, even the seatbelt couldn't keep her pinned in her seat every jolt slammed her tailbone into the cushion.Ryan, meanwhile, had his full attention locked on the scenery outside.Abandoned cars and collapsed build
Last Updated : 2026-09-22
Chapter 38: Into the City, the Supermarket
In a world like this, survival trumped everything else. Safety wasn't just a priority it was the entire operating principle behind every decision Ryan made.Even with a dog as devotedly loyal as their new Husky, Ryan wasn't about to let it ride inside the main cabin.If something set it off mid-drive and it suddenly ballooned back to full size, that was a disaster nobody needed.For safety's sake, Ryan spent 5 points adding a tow-behind crate to the armored vehicle the dog's new designated home base.Naming rights went to Ryan, naturally. Buck.The moment he assigned the name, the question mark on the Awakener profile updated to match.The name got immediate pushback from the other three too on-the-nose, apparently but Ryan stood firm. Short, catchy, and it doubled as a nod to exactly what mattered most these days.The group pressed on, and by evening they found an open clearing to make camp.The armored vehicle had enough interior space that sleeping inside wasn't cramped at all.Ope
Last Updated : 2026-09-22
Chapter 39: The Frost Zombie
The second Ryan finished speaking, the group snapped into position.Jake stepped up front, first line of defense.Naomi eased back half a step, Thunder Tungsten Spear already raised.Mia locked her focus into the telekinetic barrier.Ryan swept the flamethrower into position and pulled up the Awakener module in the same motion.Months together had built real cohesion between the four of them fight or flee, they moved as one unit without needing to discuss it.Buck, meanwhile, had his paws over his nose, gagging.Turns out a powerful sense of smell isn't always a blessing."Not an Awakener. Some kind of infected we haven't run into before."The red marker crept forward on the map as heavy footfalls echoed from inside the freezer.All four of them stepped back in unison.Jake cracked his knuckles."Judging by those footsteps, we're dealing with something big."Naomi nodded, clearly recalling the gray-armored fight, and started suiting up on reflex."Ryan what if we let Buck bulk up, sen
Last Updated : 2026-09-24
Chapter 40: The Man in Glasses
The four of them traded knowing looks and smiled.Once outside the supermarket, Ryan brought the armored vehicle back around.The city stirred back to life around them.He drove them out toward the edge of the urban sprawl, scanning as he went.An hour later, the holo-map lit up hundreds of green dots clustered together in one spot.Ryan's face broke into a grin. Found it.The location was an unfinished residential development, judging by the surrounding desolation construction likely halted right as everything fell apart.Honestly, a solid pick for a survivor camp. Low population density to start, and with no finished perimeter walls, visibility ran clear in every direction easy to defend, easy to manage.Ryan parked about half a mile out."Survivor camp should be straight ahead."Jake spoke up again."Ryan seriously, what exactly is your ability? Feels like it does everything.""Manifesting stuff out of nowhere, sure, that's wild enough on its own but a full human GPS system too? Co
Last Updated : 2026-09-24