Surviving Against All Odds

That night.

Several uninvited guests came to Zhou Ming's home and found that he had already awakened.

"Hey, kid, you finally woke up. I thought you wouldn't make it!" Great Thief Jero, who had put on some weight over the past two years, said warmly as he entered.

Behind Great Thief Jero came Great Axe Johnson, One-Eyed Hero Leandro, Dwarf Dom, and the still-sultry Snake Woman. Seeing that Zhou Ming had awakened, they all happily stepped forward to greet him.

"Jero, when did you get back to Glan Territory? And why have all of you come to my house?" Zhou Ming asked weakly. Some time ago, he had left them a signal at the Secret Camp, telling them to wait for him there. He had not expected them to come straight to Rose Town.

"Kid, do you think we wanted to show our faces in this town looking for you? We waited for you at the Secret Camp for days, but you never came, so we had Snake Woman investigate in town. Who would've thought something like this had happened to you... Kid, I was the one who pulled those swords out of you."

Great Thief Jero and the others had originally been delighted. The kid had finally been willing to leave this little backwater and venture out into the world with them. But after waiting three or four days at the agreed location without seeing him, they had thought the brat had tricked them. Still, to find out what had happened, they sent someone into town to investigate, only to discover...

"Great Thief Jero, were you trying to kill me? The swords in my body couldn't just be pulled out. If they were, I could've bled to death immediately! Who told you to pull them out?" Zhou Ming rolled his eyes at Great Thief Jero. This fellow had nearly killed him while he was unconscious.

"Kid, have some conscience when you speak. If that sword in your body hadn't been pulled out, it would've rotted inside you! Besides, would I just pull it out blindly? Back when I was a mercenary, I specialized in pulling swords from wounded soldiers. They called me the Number One Sword-Puller... Boy, it was lucky you ran into me. If it had been anyone else, once they pulled it out, you'd have been dead in no time," Great Thief Jero bragged.

"Give it a rest. It was all thanks to the hemostatic powder I had on me. That bottle of hemostatic powder I bought in Saint Ronis cost a full ten gold coins, and I used every bit of it on you, kid." Snake Woman rolled her eyes at Great Thief Jero as she explained.

Only then did Zhou Ming understand that he owed his life entirely to these outlaws. He immediately thanked them again and again, secretly feeling fortunate that he had made contact with this group two years ago. Otherwise, he would already have been buried beneath a mound of dirt.

Great Thief Jero folded his arms and said, "Don't thank me, kid. You saved my life back then too, so now we're even. Also, after you recover from this injury, you won't stay in this little place any longer, right? Come with us. Oh, bring your sister too. We happen to need someone smart and someone who can cook."

Great Axe Johnson also said in his honest voice, "Yeah, yeah, kid, come with us! Our Alibaba Thieves Gang has been waiting for you to join us for ages! Once you join us, with all that stuff in your head, we'll definitely rob the treasure of an entire kingdom!"

Everyone invited him enthusiastically, all eagerly hoping that Zhou Ming would join their thieves gang.

They could hardly help looking forward to it. Two years ago, their thieves gang had been in terrible straits. Only five members remained, and all the group's possessions put together were enough for just two rounds of cheap barley ale at a tavern. They had been utterly destitute.

But after meeting this kid, their fortunes changed. With just a few little tricks he had taught them, they had made a name for themselves in the world of thieves. They first made a huge haul in Rose Town, then, after expanding their manpower, repeated the same methods in more than a dozen nearby territories, succeeding time and again without causing much of a stir, quietly getting rich.

The Alibaba Thieves Gang had now become a benchmark in the thieves' world, with more than twenty capable core members and countless treasures of gold and silver under its name.

And these achievements had only come from small-time operations. If they could bring Zhou Ming into the Alibaba Thieves Gang, then the future would be bright indeed...

Zhou Ming gave a bitter smile. Great Thief Jero and his group truly were simple-minded brutes. All they knew was rob, rob, rob, with no long-term plans whatsoever. Even if he helped them seize the wealth of an entire kingdom, what then? What about their children and descendants? Were they supposed to remain homeless thieves forever, liable to lose their heads at any moment?

There was far too little stability. Like gambling, making a little extra money now and then was fine, but it absolutely could not be treated as a proper profession.

"There's no need to rush this. I have a plan in mind right now. If it succeeds, then perhaps we can live as I said from the very beginning—never worrying about food or clothing for the rest of our lives, without having to live in fear."

"What plan? Hurry up and tell us." Great Thief Jero and the others' eyes lit up as they looked eagerly at Zhou Ming.

Zhou Ming turned his head and glanced at Alice, who was busy nearby. After thinking for a moment, he said, "We'll talk about the plan once I've recovered a little more... I'm tired now. I need to rest."

Having only just awakened from critical injuries, Zhou Ming could no longer endure after talking for so long.

"Fine, fine, fine. We'll head back first. Rest and recover properly. We'll come see you again tomorrow."

After leaving Zhou Ming's home, the five of them vanished into the night.

For the next period of time, Zhou Ming focused on recovering from his injuries.

As for nutrition, he had his sister Alice prepare foods that replenished blood, calcium, and protein while also being easy on the stomach, such as oat flour, apple juice, yogurt, cheese, and mutton soup. He trained himself to breathe with his left lung—his right lung had been damaged, and breathing with it caused agonizing pain—and exercised all the muscles and joints in his body to prevent muscle atrophy.

After replenishing his nutrition for a week, Zhou Ming borrowed several sharp knives from Great Thief Jero and some Castor Grass juice from Snake Woman, which had a certain numbing effect on wounds. On the eighth night after awakening, he performed surgery on himself.

The preparations for the operation were simple. First, he boiled a pot of water. Then he prepared a brazier, inside which lay a red-hot branding iron.

But what followed was rather horrifying.

After Zhou Ming washed the festering flesh around the wound on his chest with hot water, he sprinkled some Castor Grass juice over it. Once a numb, tingling sensation spread through the area, he had Great Thief Jero press the red-hot branding iron directly against the festering flesh.

"Ah!!"

The towel in his mouth was nearly swallowed into his stomach. After spitting it out, he roared, "That feels fucking great!" Then he turned over, had several strong men hold down his legs, and told Great Thief Jero to burn the wound on his back with the branding iron as well. The men holding his legs were nearly kicked flying.

Once all the festering flesh on the wounds had been seared, Zhou Ming used a small knife to cut it all away. Then he had Alice make a needle threaded with fine sheep intestine. After sterilizing it, he used the needle and thread to stitch from one end of the wound to the other. Before long, the wound on his chest had been completely treated.

As for the wound on his back, Zhou Ming truly could not "take care" of it himself, so he could only have Snake Woman, who knew a little medicine, do it for him. Fortunately, the wound on his back was not large and was quickly stitched up.

After all, it was her first time doing something like this. Once Snake Woman had finished stitching the wound with trembling hands, she ran to the backyard and vomited for a long while. Her once-delicate, pretty face had completely lost its usual allure.

"Kid, there aren't many people I respect in this life, but just for that ruthlessness of yours, you've earned my respect!"

Great Axe Johnson gave Zhou Ming, lying in bed, a thumbs-up. He had not even dared to watch the treatment just now, yet this kid had barely cried out. A ruthless man—a truly ruthless man!

Completely exhausted, Zhou Ming felt as though he had walked through mountains of blades and seas of fire. Only after finally making it through did he let out a long breath.

He had survived. Now, he could truly survive.

All the festering flesh had been removed from his wounds, and the split wounds had been stitched closed. Winter was also approaching, and as the weather grew colder, the wounds would not become inflamed so easily. Though he had lost one lung, as long as he was alive, it was good. There was hope...