Integrated Water Purifier

"Adrenaline goes without saying—it's for keeping you alive. This last thing is a little gadget I made myself."

Su Huan picked up a cylinder, bit down on it, and mumbled, "Don't count on this thing to save your life. When you're really at the breaking point, just bite down like I am and press the button."

Beep-beep.

A sound rang out.

Yu Jing's expression shifted slightly.

Su Huan took it out of his mouth and tossed it out the window.

A muffled bang echoed.

He spread his hands and smiled at the group, "Guaranteed to make your departure painless."

"But since it's handmade, it might not be that stable. If your luck is bad and you just end up blown half-dead, try to be more careful in your next life."

The group was already accustomed to Su Huan's flippant attitude toward life and death.

Still, it was hard to keep a straight face.

After finishing his instructions and seeing that no one had any objections, Su Huan waved his hand.

"Move out."

The front and rear car doors opened, and Wang He led the group as they quickly followed Su Huan.

As this was their first outing since the apocalypse, Su Huan remained on high alert. He didn't use any lighting equipment, relying entirely on his extensive experience in surviving to navigate the outskirts.

Liang Kuan carried a sniper crossbow, guarding the flanks, while Yu Yue followed closely by Su Huan's side.

Every so often, they would stop to listen.

"Watch where I step and follow my path. Don't step on the weeds."

Su Huan, standing in front, whispered a reminder.

Yu Yue nodded, then tugged on the corner of Su Huan's jacket and pointed to the front left, saying, "There's breathing over there."

Su Huan's pupils sharpened instantly. He chambered a round and gave a signal to Liang Kuan behind him.

The latter stepped forward cautiously, and soon, the click of a trigger being pulled echoed out.

Su Huan followed and saw a Terror Claw Cat with only half its body left; its lower half was missing, and it was already in the final stages of dying from its wounds. He had Liang Kuan finish it off with a bolt.

Like the Blood Hound, this cat was a Tier 1 Evolutionary Beast. Its body was gaunt and hairless, save for its four claws, which had evolved into terrifying, sickle-like appendages.

After crossing that patch of wild land, the group stepped onto concrete, which was much cleaner.

Cars had been pushed to the sides, and a large number of zombies lay slumped on the ground.

Terrifying claw marks on the streetlights, chunks missing from the corners of walls, dark red bloodstains on the ground...

Traces of slaughter were everywhere.

Fortunately, it was too dark for the workers behind him to see clearly, so they were spared that particular terror.

The stretch of road to the Water Plant was smooth and uneventful for the group.

Looking at the perimeter wall ahead, Su Huan turned to Yu Yue and asked, "Listen—what's inside?"

Yu Yue's eyes went slightly out of focus as she immersed herself in her sense of hearing. After Su Huan's earlier reassurance, she wasn't as terrified of these sounds anymore.

A moment later, she replied, "There are about sixty sound sources, mostly concentrated inside the buildings. There's the sound of splashing water in the water tower, and scratching sounds coming from the guard room to the left of the entrance."

Su Huan couldn't help but grin. In his past life, he never had a steady team.

Having an Evolutionary of the perception type could help one avoid so many dangers.

They didn't enter through the main gate. Instead, they circled around and found a massive breach on the side, as if a truck had crashed through it. The concrete floor was covered in damp water stains.

It made a slap-slap sound as they stepped on it.

The group quickly pushed deeper into the Water Plant.

"Something is swimming toward us! Ten meters to the front right!"

Yu Yue's face turned pale, her voice trembling slightly.

"Understood."

Su Huan responded calmly. He paused for two seconds, and a compressed, cold-blue arc of electricity emerged from the soles of his feet. Using the water on the ground as a conductor, he flashed toward the direction Yu Yue had indicated.

In the flash of electricity, the group saw what it was.

It was about a meter in diameter and half a meter tall, brandishing two large pincers as it charged at the group sideways at high speed.

It was clearly a river crab.

But no matter how fast it was, it couldn't outrun Su Huan's high-voltage electricity. In an instant, it was paralyzed by the voltage and flipped onto its back.

At 20% energy output, combined with energy compression, it was essentially a one-hit kill.

Su Huan still wasn't satisfied, so he stepped up and fired a three-round burst of high-temperature shots.

He didn't stop until he could smell a savory aroma.

The combat of an Energy Provider is just that simple and unadorned: overwhelm you with massive energy, and if that doesn't work, just increase the dosage.

Before anyone else could even react, the River Crab had already been taken down, and the group continued moving forward.

Things became much easier after that; with Yu Yue present, they avoided what they could, and for what they couldn't, Su Huan would step up and serve a quick "seafood stir-fry," making for a very swift pace.

Then, they discovered a small red forklift in the yard, complete with its boom and other attachments.

After searching in the dark for twenty minutes, they finally located the small integrated water purifier.

Su Huan took a deep breath, suppressing the joy in his heart, and pointed at the purifier. "Wang He, dismantle it for me within twenty minutes, and I'll give you a permanent ticket. As long as your construction team is on the train, I will provide you with purified water."

The man beside him flashed a look of hesitation. "Boss Su, dismantling it is easy, but transporting it won't be."

Su Huan's tone turned cold and sharp. "There are vehicles in the yard. I don't care what method you use; that thing must be brought back."

Wang He gritted his teeth and agreed, taking twenty workers to start the job.

Liang Kuan strode over and said in a low voice, "We found quite a bit of diesel and gasoline in the building next door."

Su Huan's eyes lit up; currently, the Armed Train's primary power and energy still came from diesel.

His ability only served as an auxiliary drive.

To truly drive the train, one had to at least become a Tier 1 "Energy Storage Core" professional.

"Let's go, we'll haul it all back. Yu Yue, you follow us!"

Su Huan finished speaking and headed to the building next door.

Pushing the door open, he indeed saw over a dozen oil drums lined up in the room.

The two men divided the labor: Liang Kuan moved the drums out, while Su Huan went to handle the vehicle.

An ordinary car didn't have the same restrictions as a train; he could bypass the ignition step, directly powering the vehicle's electrical system to start the engine.

Before long, he drove a pickup truck up.

With Yu Yue keeping watch on the side, the two men loaded the cargo quickly.

Su Huan had undergone one evolution, so his basic physical stats were high, while Liang Kuan was simply naturally strong and sturdy, perhaps even more so than him.

They managed to load eight 55-gallon drums, which measured about 58 by 88 centimeters.

They could have fit a few more, but the truck wouldn't have been able to pull the weight.

For the sake of safety, they left the rest behind.

After working for over twenty minutes, Wang He reported the good news: the water purifier had been dismantled.

They used the forklift along with two vehicles to tow it along.

Seeing that the primary objective had been achieved, Su Huan was no longer greedy; he didn't even search for the remaining supplies and led his group in a grand procession back the way they came.

Along the way, they attracted two more Evolutionary Beasts, but they were aquatic, and he countered them perfectly.

Su Huan even had the workers load that River Crab onto the truck.

The group had arrived with caution, but they left with great speed.

Except for those who had to drive, everyone else, including Su Huan, jogged behind the vehicles.

The forklift had to stop from time to time to clear debris blocking the path.