Apocalypse Trade Monopoly
Chapter 140: Bike Mods

Chapter 140: Bike Mods

The manor came into view just as the last ridge curved down and the gravel gave way to seamless stone. Soft sensor lights flicked on as the vehicle crossed into the estate perimeter, recognizing its passengers before the system even finished the scan.

Inside the car, silence had stretched too long.

Lucas hadn’t said much since the last coded confession. Just a few monosyllables. Mostly grunts.

Ava broke it, because someone had to.

"You should talk to him."

Lucas didn’t look up.

Ava sighed and tapped her bracer. "I mean now. While he’s still in strategy-mode and before he turns into a smug crypt keeper who thinks coordinating a five-nation economic war from the bath is a good use of his retirement."

Lucas’s mouth twitched. "That’s... oddly specific."

"I’ve been taking notes."

He exhaled, leaning his head back. "What are you doing while I go get emotionally interrogated by a ghost?"

"Fixing the bikes," Ava said. "Upgrading, actually."

Lucas raised a brow. "You’re rebuilding my cycles."

"Excuse you," Ava sniffed. "It’s my cycle now. You inherited a weapons-grade monster and let it run on last-gen dampers. I’m upgrading the damping field, adding plasma mesh shielding, and maybe—just maybe—installing a backup fuel tank that doesn’t explode if I blink too hard."

Lucas smirked. "You’re cute when you threaten my tech."

"I’m efficient," she corrected.

The car rolled into the under-vault garage. It hissed gently to a stop, doors unlocking with a familiar click. Lucas stepped out first, stretching just enough to pop his shoulder.

William opened the side service door, glancing at the trio before stepping aside.

"Sir," he said to Lucas. "Senior Bai has requested your presence in the west hall for coffee and contingency planning."

"Those don’t go together," Lucas muttered.

"He insists."

Lucas turned to Ava.

She was already pulling her gloves tighter.

"Go," she said, nudging him toward the lift. "Make peace with your past while I do something useful."

He leaned down and kissed the top of her head without thinking.

She blinked.

"You’re welcome," he said with a smirk, and walked off.

Ava turned to William slowly.

"Come on, Old Man Alfred. I’ve got a job for your spine."

The lower garage was one part parking bay, two parts open tech lab, and one entire wall of unholy armory. Ava claimed it in two minutes flat.

The bikes—three of them—sat in a neat row. Hers was matte black, low-slung, and bristling with exhaust ports and old bullet scars. It looked like something that had been pulled from a battlefield and asked politely to run errands.

William folded his arms. "Which one first?"

"Mine," Ava said, walking over. "The one that nearly fried my femur last run."

"Ah," William said. "The wild one."

Ava pulled up her system interface. Blueprints bloomed across her vision, scrolling through layers of alloy, mesh, insulation and energy cells.

[UPGRADE OPTIONS UNLOCKED – BLUEPRINT SYNC COMPLETE]

[AVAILABLE MODULES: 6]

[AVAILABLE SUPPORT: ONE (1) EX-SPECIAL FORCES MUSCLE BUTLER]

"Alright," Ava muttered. "We’re starting with a frame lift and vent overhaul. Then we pull the old limiter and install a twin-core battery box. That’ll give us fifty percent more kick without burning the stabilizers."

William raised a brow. "And who’s lifting the bike?"

"You."

"Of course."

He moved without complaint, sliding thick gloves on and walking to the rear. With one controlled grunt, he hoisted the back of the cycle like it weighed less than Ava’s pride.

She ducked under and started unscrewing the panel plates.

"While you’re at it," she said, "prep the vent shield casing from the left workbench."

William raised an eyebrow again.

"You mean the one labeled ’Caution: melts faces’?"

"Yes."

He retrieved it.

Ava popped the panel and exposed the old energy coils. "These are burnt. Swap ’em."

William held out a replacement unit.

She took it. Fit it in. Sparks jumped. She didn’t flinch.

Next, she slid a bracer wire from her wrist, clipped it into the port, and let her system run diagnostics.

[CORE UPGRADE: ACCEPTED]

[ENERGY SURGE CAPACITY: 84%]

"Better," she muttered.

William held the bike steady.

"Next mod?" he asked.

"Lateral anchors," Ava said. "She skids in sand like a toddler on ice. We’re fixing that."

"Spiked or magnetic?"

"Both. Give her options."

He chuckled under his breath. "Remind me not to get on your bad side."

Ava paused just long enough to look up at him. "William."

"Yes?"

"You’re already on the list."

He smirked and passed her the next part.

It took two more hours before Ava wiped her hands on her pants, sweat streaking her temple. She stepped back and admired the monster.

"Alright, girl," she said. "You’re mine."

William folded a towel with military precision. "What do we call her now?"

Ava considered.

Then: "Chaos Engine."

William nodded approvingly. "Accurate."

She stretched once, already thinking of test runs, battle scenarios, and how long she could keep the upgrades hidden before Lucas tried to ’test’ them for himself.

"Alright," she said. "Now help me build a second one."

William blinked. "Another Chaos Engine?"

"No," she said, a slow smile creeping across her lips. "A decoy."

He stared.

She grinned wider. "I’m not always the bullet sponge. Let him ride the one that explodes next time."

William sighed and reached for the welding gloves.

But Ava didn’t stop.

She was already back in motion, crouched over the workbench, her bracer pulsing with light so sharp it cast her shadow twice against the floor.

[SYSTEM LOAD: 87%]

[ACTIVE SCHEMATICS: 14]

[OVERLAY MODE: FULL SYNC]

[SYSTEM STATUS: FLOW STATE DETECTED – ENHANCED PERFORMANCE UNLOCKED]

Blueprints kept unfolding across her vision—layered overlays cascading one on top of another. Each schematic adjusted in real time based on her thoughts. She didn’t even have to speak anymore. The system was anticipating her.

Not just helping her build.

It was building with her.

"System," she muttered, not looking up, "bring up the shielded intake prototype. And give me the new suspension alignment from the Hoverstep mod files."

[COMMAND ACCEPTED]

[IMPORTING MOD: ’PROJECT TREMORFRAME’]

[ESTIMATED INSTALL TIME: 12 MINUTES]

"Not good enough. Compress the build time."

[ACKNOWLEDGED – BOOSTING SYSTEM CACHE TO 92%]

[WARNING: MENTAL STRAIN MAY INCREASE OVER TIME]

"Let it."

She slid the next casing open—ripped out the limiter node with her fingers before William even made it to her side. He handed her the plasma wrench without being asked.

"You’re pushing," he said evenly.

"Good," she muttered. "Because I’m not even close to done."

The second bike was already up on its lift. Ava moved between them like a conductor in an orchestra only she could hear—wires, tools, frame plating, upgrade chips spread across the garage floor in what looked like chaos but wasn’t.

It was precision. Purpose.

William kept his hands busy on the heavy parts—rerouting coolant lines, welding a twin-core mag-receiver into the second chassis. But he kept glancing over, because Ava was moving too fast now.

Too quiet.

Too... connected.

[SYSTEM RECOGNITION: GEAR TYPE 04X – STATUS: OBSOLETE]

[SUGGESTED REPLACEMENT: LUMEN RECOIL MATRIX]

[COMPATIBILITY: 89%]

Ava grinned. "Override that. I’ll make it fit."

She reached for the outdated part, cracked open the panel with a scalpel-blade modulator, and started cutting in adjustments by hand—rewriting sync code into the adapter threads as she went.

[ADAPTIVE CIRCUIT RECOGNIZED]

[NEW HYBRID MODULE CREATED: GHOST-RECOIL CORE V1]

William arched an eyebrow. "That’s not even on the schematic list."

"It is now," Ava said. "Put it in inventory. Call it a prototype."

"Under what name?"

She paused.

Then: "Project Overkill."

William didn’t smile.

But his silence was approval.

Ava wiped her brow with her sleeve and turned to the first bike—her bike.

Chaos Engine.

Already complete, already impatient.

"System," she whispered, eyes locked on it. "Let’s go further."

[ADVANCED REQUEST REGISTERED]

[SEARCHING...]

[SUGGESTED ADD-ONS AVAILABLE: 3]

— Deployable rear-firing EMP coil

— Blade shield housing

— Core-fueled burst acceleration (CAUTION: UNTESTED)

She tapped all three.

William didn’t flinch. "You want to test them now?"

"No," Ava said, stepping back, eyes glowing faintly from the system interface’s inner light.

"I want to make sure no one survives them."

Ava didn’t wait for a response.

She pivoted toward the far corner of the garage where piles of scrap metal, fractured plating, rusted toolboxes, and a decommissioned engine core were stacked like someone had tried to organize entropy and failed.

"System," she muttered, already moving, "scan for viable pulse chassis and structural reinforcements. I want a six-point frame sweep on all junked parts within a ten-foot radius."

[SCAN ACTIVE]

[USABLE PARTS LOCATED: 47]

[RECYCLING PATH OPTIMIZED – PROCESSING BUILD CHAIN]

She was already elbow-deep in metal, yanking free a cracked casing and stripped belt loop. The system pulsed a new schematic into her sight.

She liked the way it looked—angular, asymmetric, mean.

Ava grinned.

William watched her climb the junk pile like a wild animal with a mission, dragging out broken stabilizers and fuel cells like they owed her something.

"You’re scavenging the pile for another vehicle?" he asked, voice neutral.

"No," she replied, tugging free a full rear-axle with a grunt. "I’m making the car bite harder."

William raised a brow.

"The car?"

"Lucas’s," she said, tossing a fractured turbo modulator onto the table. "The not only the bikes."

She dropped the axle beside it with a loud clang. "I’m tired of it just being cool. I want it useful."

William exhaled quietly, then glanced at the workshop clock.

"Would you like to eat before you attempt vehicle fusion with a deranged weapons cache?"

Ava paused mid-movement.

Then reached into her coat and pulled out two crushed energy bars. She tossed one at him without looking.

"I’m eating."

William caught it neatly. "This expired three months ago."

"Adds flavor."

He unwrapped it anyway.

Ava bit into hers like it owed her money and went right back to work, her system now drawing blueprints directly from the parts she was touching.

[INTEGRATED UPGRADE INITIATED: "CHAOS FRAME—MOBILE FORM"]

[ESTIMATED COMPLETION TIME: 2 HOURS]

Her hands moved fast—stripping, wiring, overlaying. Cables flared as they snapped into alignment with her bracer’s pulse.

"She’s not stopping," William muttered to no one in particular.

The car in question—Lucas’s armored vehicle—sat dormant behind them, unaware it was about to get surgically overhauled by someone who didn’t believe in limits.

Ava didn’t stop chewing as she wiped oil from her hands and tapped the hull.

"Let’s give you a spine," she said softly.

And her system flared in agreement.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.