McCoy had no solution either.
For Nomads, family came before everything else.
He was just about to speak.
But then he noticed the Nomad clutching the pistol, unable to put it down, grinning from ear to ear.
"What are you smiling about? Did your wife just have a baby?"
"No, it's actually like this."
The Nomad told McCoy what had happened earlier.
McCoy was dumbfounded.
He completely forgot that Charui had sent him to find Su Xiao.
He stepped forward, grabbed Su Xiao by the arm, and asked excitedly,
"Su, is this true?"
"Absolutely."
Su Xiao did not hide anything.
He saw no need to hide it.
McCoy hesitated for a moment.
Then he told Su Xiao that Charui wanted to drive him away.
If possible, McCoy did not want Su Xiao to be driven away either.
Because people like Su Xiao were, in the eyes of certain individuals, treasures from head to toe—the finest of the finest.
He was practically Random Blade Society's favorite kind of person.
Su Xiao was someone McCoy had rescued.
He could not bear to push Su Xiao back into the fire pit.
"Wait here. I'll go get Charui and everyone else right now."
What happened next proceeded much more smoothly.
McCoy summoned Charui, the leader of the Buckle Family, along with several other influential family members, to the logistics area.
There, he had Su Xiao demonstrate his repair abilities once more in front of everyone.
An hour and a half later, Su Xiao handed the repaired "DS1 Pulse" submachine gun to Charui and the other Nomads.
They examined it repeatedly and confirmed that there was nothing wrong with it.
Just like that, he was allowed to remain with the Buckle Family.
No one objected to him staying anymore.
From then on, Su Xiao's work at the camp was to help everyone else repair scrapped firearms.
Since his repair skills far surpassed those of the other repairman,
people would rather wait in line than go to him.
By comparison, the other repairman's station was much quieter.
However, neither Su Xiao nor the other repairman received any pay.
It was not directed at anyone in particular. That was simply how Nomads lived.
Everyone was part of this big family.
Everyone had to contribute to the family.
In return, the family had to protect everyone.
Nomads did not get paid for working for the Tribes. Even when they took jobs outside, they had to put half of what they earned into the camp's communal supply box.
No matter how much they earned, the camp took half.
One day, McCoy returned to camp from a mission and found Su Xiao.
"Come with me."
"What's up?"
"Now that you're practically half a member of the Buckle Family, you can't survive in this wasteland without some way to protect yourself."
"Okay."
Until now, Su Xiao had only possessed the "Firearm Maintenance" skill that had come with the system when it first activated.
There was no such thing as having too many skills, and he had wanted to learn more anyway.
Unfortunately, Charui had already warned everyone else in the camp.
No one was allowed to teach Su Xiao any skills.
That was to prevent Su Xiao from leaving the Buckle Family after learning them.
Charui wanted Su Xiao to remain, from beginning to end, a logistics worker without any combat skills.
Only then could he be firmly tied to the Buckle Family's chariot.
Now that McCoy had taken the initiative to find him, it was like receiving a pillow just as he was about to doze off.
How could Su Xiao possibly refuse?
He walked outside the tent and followed McCoy into the vehicle.
"Can you drive?" McCoy asked.
Su Xiao shook his head. "No."
"If you want to be a Nomad, you have to know how to drive. Looks like you still have a lot to learn."
As he spoke, McCoy started the vehicle and drove away from the camp.
"This should do."
McCoy stopped the vehicle.
Su Xiao got out and looked around, discovering a wide-open wilderness.
Blinding sunlight and choking sand filled the surroundings.
In the distance, towering wind turbines spun without pause.
"Here."
McCoy tossed Su Xiao a set of crude protective gear.
At the same time, he removed the Power Armor he had been wearing all along—armor Su Xiao had almost never seen him without.
"Now, attack me with the Wooden Sword in your hand. Don't worry about hurting me. Come at me with everything you've got."
Su Xiao put on the protective gear.
He had never learned swordsmanship.
Imitating the stances he had seen in movies and games, he assumed a fighting posture.
Then he charged at McCoy.
Half an hour later.
"McCoy has taught you [Blade Mastery]. Learning progress: 10%" "McCoy has taught you [Strong]. Learning progress: 7%" "McCoy has taught you [Dodge]. Learning progress: 4%" "McCoy has taught you [Block]. Learning progress: 1%"
As he watched the messages continuously flash across his retina,
Su Xiao sat on the ground, gasping heavily.
Before McCoy could say anything, he spoke first.
"Let me rest for five minutes, then we'll continue."
McCoy froze.
Wasn't he supposed to be the one saying that?
How was Su Xiao so self-aware?
What McCoy did not know was how encouraging being able to see a progress bar could be.
If he had been able to see his learning progress in his previous life, he would have gotten into Tsinghua or Peking University long ago.
From then on, McCoy often took Su Xiao out.
The second time Su Xiao practiced swordsmanship, he learned the entire series of skills: "Blade Mastery," "Strong," "Dodge," and "Block."
Time flowed like water, and the years passed like a shuttle.
Before long, Su Xiao had spent nearly half a year at the Buckle Family's camp.
He discovered that as long as he kept using a skill, he could raise its level.
Thus, over that nearly six-month period, "Firearm Maintenance" reached LV5.
"Blade Mastery," "Strong," "Dodge," and "Block" rose to LV3.
He also learned "Marksmanship Mastery," "Vehicle Driving," and "Throwing."
However, Su Xiao had never figured out how to use the "I Guess" skill.
Its skill level was ???, and he did not know whether that meant he could not see it or it had already reached its maximum level.
The activation requirements were unknown, so Su Xiao had no choice but to set it aside for the time being.
Another thing that had not improved was his Potential Points.
Obtaining Potential Points required killing people.
During those nearly six months, Su Xiao had never participated in combat, so he had no way to obtain Potential Points.
Because of that, Su Xiao had recently begun planning to leave the Buckle Family when the right opportunity arose.
Although he had spent less than a year with these Nomads,
it had already been enough.
He had seen through them.
The Buckle Family's leader, Charui, was simply mediocre.
Under his leadership, the Buckle Family could not exactly be called prosperous. At the very least, it was operating at a loss.
The Buckle Family was surviving purely on its past reserves.
McCoy had once said that the Buckle Family had previously had a wise leader named Serita Buckle.
During her rule, the Buckle Family had remained on an upward trajectory.
But after her death, the Buckle Family began to decline.
It had changed family leaders three times in five years.
The first had died in a conflict with Random Blade Society;
the second had resigned;
Charui was the third.
Therefore, in Su Xiao's eyes, the Buckle Family's ship was bound to sink sooner or later.
Before you continue