Titanium Magnesium Chicken

Charging complete. Nano Base energy replenished by 1%, reaching 1.49%.

One chunk of Radiation Energy had boosted the base's energy by 1%—an absolute powerhouse supplement!

After all, creating a level 1 player Clone only cost 0.06% electricity, decomposing a Raider cost 0.01% energy, and appraising ten items only consumed 0.01% energy.

The previous energy source Thin Dog had found had lasted until now, with half its energy still remaining. Now that another chunk of Radiation Energy had arrived, the Calamity Base could temporarily bid farewell to its energy crisis. Cheng Shaofeng could freely create Clones and let the players break down loot to their hearts' content.

In truth, breaking down loot consumed quite a bit of energy. Once there were more players, it would become a considerable burden on the base. But after giving it some thought, Cheng Shaofeng still decided not to make the players bear the energy costs.

Only by breaking down loot could they rapidly grow stronger. If he restricted their ability to improve, they would find energy sources more slowly, and the base's development would also slow down. The losses would outweigh the gains.

He only needed to find a way to reclaim the energy consumed through the players' daily missions.

The chunk they had just handed in directly completed all three of their missions.

Seeing the slight curl of Cheng Shaofeng's lips, Demon Fox nodded faintly, seemingly understanding something.

The Lord seems to like energy. If I want to gain some extra favorability, perhaps giving him energy separately would be a good choice.

Lin Tang, meanwhile, continued showing off.

"Lord, how many electronic components can this bag of materials count as? Is it enough for the three of us to complete our daily missions?"

Cheng Shaofeng had just been about to leave when he turned back at those words.

"You found electronic components too?"

After having Zero scan them, he got a number: 3.2 sets of electronic components.

"Very good! That is just enough to combine into three sets of electronic components! Soldiers, the three of you have completed the 'Collect electronic components' daily mission."

Completed daily mission: "Collect electronic components"

Received: 100 Merit, 10 Iron Coins

The data on the three Smartwatches all changed at once.

The three looked at the Iron Coins now in their possession, their faces lighting up with delight.

"We've earned our first pot of gold!"

"If we clear out today's daily missions, we can get another twenty Iron Coins."

Looking at the long-haired chicken tied to the cart, Cheng Shaofeng asked, "Are you handing this prey over to the base as today's mission?"

Lin Tang said, "We'll pass on this one. We still need its feathers for fletching, and we're planning to find a place in the base to raise it."

Cheng Shaofeng had memories of this kind of Mutated Creature. His predecessor had heard about it from Old Master Yu, Wang Qian's father, back when he was in Salt Well Town.

"This kind of chicken does produce a great deal of feathers. It has extremely low aggression toward humans and is a rare Mutated Creature in the wasteland. They say people who encounter this chicken are exceptionally lucky, because its appearance is often tied to good fortune. Besides luck, the materials on its body are also highly useful. If you pluck its feathers, they gradually dry within a day. Once completely dry, they can be as hard as titanium-magnesium alloy, so we call it the Titanium Magnesium Chicken."

"And you can see that the feathers on its head are pink. If you hold them beneath your nose and smell them, they cause mild hallucinations, much like the feeling wealthy people in Myriad City get from smoking ganja. So it's also called the Ganja Chicken."

"You were very lucky to catch a Titanium Magnesium Chicken. Feed it some beans, and it can provide you with hard feathers every day."

The three: "..."

"That was such a logical, well-supported explanation that I have no way to refute it, but I still vaguely feel like the designer is a hater."

"Alright! The Sentinel has shown its chicken feet, huh?"

"Shi Bu Shi You Bing! My idol laid an egg, and none of you Apocalypse OL designers get to eat!"

"Forget it, forget it. At least we know these chicken feathers are valuable now. Let's go see how Xiao Xiao's bow is coming along."

By the time the three walked over,

Xiao Xiao had already hung the finished Rabbit Sinew Bowstring and Bamboo Bow Body from a crooked-necked tree to dry.

She was shaving one wooden shaft after another, seemingly making the bodies of arrows.

Lin Tang said, "Xiao Xiao, come take a look at my rooster!"

Thin Dog's gaze swept over. "Did your mouth slip? Isn't that a chicken? What rooster?"

Lin Tang said gloomily, "But if I replace 'rooster' with 'chicken,' I'd sound like a pervert."

Thin Dog: (awkward)

Lin Tang said, "Ahem! Don't mind the details. It's this rooster—it's called a Titanium Magnesium Chicken."

Xiao Xiao laughed.

"What a fun name. And if the feathers are really as hard as the Lord said, combined with their natural softness, they'd be perfect for fletching! It's just a shame... we haven't found any metal yet, so we can't make arrowheads."

Thin Dog carried a piece of Scrap Iron off their cart and placed it at Xiao Xiao's feet.

"Xiao Xiao, we seized this from the Raider Camp. See if it can be used for arrowheads?"

Xiao Xiao crouched down and inspected it. "Not bad! This iron is fairly dense. We can build a furnace, melt it into liquid iron, then cast a batch of arrowheads. It'll be quite a project, but I like it."

It had been a long time since she had done something so challenging—starting from zero.

She would have to make both a furnace capable of maintaining high temperatures and a bellows system herself, and the novelty of it gave her a strange sense of excitement.

"It's a pity this game can't record videos. Otherwise, my 'Making Modern Weapons from Scratch' video series would be here."

After sighing for a moment, Xiao Xiao went off to work on her own tasks.

Demon Fox placed the jade the hunter had given them onto the Attribute Conversion Tower. A moment later, the appraisal was complete.

Cool Jade

Quest Item

Perhaps related to certain energy forms.

"No attributes? Now this is getting interesting." Demon Fox put the jade into her pocket for safekeeping.

Next, Thin Dog and the other two worked together to carry the six Raider corpses onto the Loot Generator.

They began the decomposition.

Six wisps of red mist rose from the machine.

Before long, the conveyor belt rolled out the loot.

3 Health Potions, 2 tubes of Boiling Blood, 1 ordinary shirt, 2 ordinary pairs of pants, 2 Rune Bones, 1 bone necklace, and 2 rings.

The two Rune Bones were useless for now. They only increased mana recovery speed and provided some damage bonuses, making them inferior to wielding spears in both hands. They only needed one person to hold the previous spear and keep Armor Piercing Aura active, so the two could only be stored away for the time being.

Both rings increased Life Recovery Speed. One added 15% radiation resistance, while the other added 5% Physical Resistance. Thin Dog took the ring with Physical Resistance, and the other went to Lin Tang, who had been eagerly awaiting equipment.

"Based on these several decompositions... gems like Boiling Blood should be common drops from Raiders. We can use them as soon as we get them. They add percentage-based Physical Damage and 18 points of Attack Capability, which is a timely boost to our combat power."

The two rings were paired with the two tubes of Boiling Blood, becoming two socketed pieces of equipment.

Thin Dog's Attack Capability increased by another 18 points. With the bonuses from the other ring and necklace, his Attack Capability had reached a full 154 points!

That was 54 more Attack Capability than his base attributes.

If each person could obtain more than the bonuses from two rings and one necklace, Thin Dog would have wanted to fill both hands with rings and hang a whole circle of necklaces around his neck.

The Life Recovery Speed and Attack Capability bonuses from those three pieces of equipment had made Thin Dog far stronger than when he was wearing nothing.

"I feel like I can always land critical hits now."

And he was much harder to kill.

Demon Fox reminded him, "Higher Life Recovery Speed is good, but... you'll need to carry more food in the future. Otherwise, you'll burn through your energy quickly, and your Health Bar won't recover."

Without energy intake, they could not maintain a high Life Recovery Speed. They had already tested this long ago.

The three plain clothes only added armor, but they were still far better than the tattered clothes they had been wearing. The three each put one on.

They also split the Health Potions, one bottle each.

After dividing up the loot, their combat power increased slightly again.

"We found energy. What do we do now? Go hunting? We only got one Titanium Magnesium Chicken today, and the five of us still haven't completed our daily hunting mission."

Demon Fox raised a hand to her lips.

"There's no rush to hunt. I've been thinking about something."

The two looked at Demon Fox eagerly.

"Today, the Raiders were obviously moving out in large numbers, but they weren't targeting us. We don't need to care where they went, but... there probably aren't many people left in the Raider Camp, right? How about... we sneak into Raider Camp 1 and loot it too?"

Thin Dog and Lin Tang: (furiously waving)

"Good! When it comes to saying silver coins, we still have to look to you, Demon Fox!"

After they set out, Thin Dog suddenly remembered something.

"Oh right, do you remember the strange thing about that Dungeon I told you about before? The Lord even told me to rescue someone who doesn't exist. I suspect... there's a hidden storyline in there."

"Sounds like it. Let's go take a look."

Lin Tang nodded, deeply agreeing.

I went out to take care of something tonight. When I got back, I only managed to write one chapter. I'm out of energy, so I'll update the next chapter this afternoon.