Stickier Than Shit, Less Sweet Than Shit

"How do you open this thing?" Faced with the blood-smeared mechanical arm, Bai Ye was stumped. His dagger could not even scratch it, and since he knew nothing about machinery, he had no way of opening it up.

"Li Zuo, do you know how?"

Li You walked over with a complicated expression. "You... you're an Evolver too?"

He perfectly embodied the mindset of fearing your brother would suffer, yet fearing even more that your brother would suddenly start driving a Range Rover.

"If I said no, would you believe me?" Bai Ye asked.

Li You wore an expression that said, Do I look like an idiot to you?

"What's your extraordinary ability? How did you kill so many people in an instant?"

"Not telling." Bai Ye did not explain that he was not an Evolver. He really was not; he was just an utterly ordinary transmigrator.

The ability to stop time was merely because time flowed at different rates in the two eras.

"That's not fair. I thought of you as a friend—I even told you about my extraordinary ability."

"Heh." Bai Ye sneered and began exposing his dirty laundry. "Though I'm greedy for life and afraid of death, I'm even more afraid that for the rest of my life..."

"Bro, bro, bro, I was wrong! Stop reciting it, stop reciting it..." Li You's old face flushed as he hurriedly begged for mercy.

"I'll help you take a look at the mechanical arm."

After exerting tremendous effort, the two finally managed to turn the mechanical arm into a pile of scrap metal.

"Fuck! King Snake, you really deserve to die! Even at death's door, you didn't say a single truthful word!" Bai Ye cursed furiously. After all that effort, there was no money inside the mechanical arm at all—only a few intricate mechanisms that could be used for sneak attacks.

"Damn it, let's go. What a waste of time!" Bai Ye kicked the mechanical arm, then turned and climbed into the off-road vehicle Tan Jie had driven over.

Once Li You got in, he started the vehicle.

"You can actually drive?" Li You stared in shock. Watching Bai Ye handle the vehicle so smoothly, he suddenly felt that Bai Ye did not seem like a wastelander.

"What's so surprising? Anyone with hands can do it." Bai Ye smiled disdainfully, conveniently leaving out the fact that he had failed the second driving test three times before passing it prior to transmigrating.

"But why are you driving back? That's not the direction to Dawn City."

"Obviously, we're going back to Gray Soil Town."

Li You froze. "Are you crazy? Why go back? To wait for death?"

Bai Ye shot him a contemptuous look. "Don't use that brain of yours, which isn't even as oily as a peanut, to question my decision.

"It'll be dark soon. As a wasteland hunter, I'm telling you seriously: traveling the wasteland at night is no different from suicide."

Bai Ye was telling the truth. The wasteland was ten times more dangerous at night than during the day. Even the most experienced wasteland hunters would not choose to hunt after dark. Even if they were unfortunate enough to be stranded in the wild, they would find some hidden, safe place and hunker down.

Beyond that, he wanted to save up some time. There was only one minute left. What if they ran into some danger out in the wilderness?

Gray Soil Town might face the risk of mutated beasts showing up at any moment, but at least it was safe for now, and they had somewhere to stay.

Yellow sand, carried by the wind, swept through the streets of Gray Soil Town. Gray feathers scattered around hundreds of corpses fluttered in the breeze.

The road, where blood mingled with yellow earth, had cracked into a spiderweb pattern. A half-rusted can caught in one of the gaps rolled in the wind and sand, producing a hollow echo.

Clang, clang, clang...

The can rolled past Li You's feet. Looking at the desolate, utterly empty town before him, he could not help asking from the depths of his soul, "Wait... where is everyone!? Where did all the people in Gray Soil Town go?"

Though they had suffered a disaster, three or four hundred people had still survived in Gray Soil Town. Yet in the span of a single hour, they had all vanished!

Bai Ye crouched and examined the tracks on the ground, immediately understanding what had happened. "There are lots of footprints here, as well as marks from dragging heavy objects. If I'm not mistaken, everyone must have fled."

"They fled?"

"That's right. Gray Soil Town was not large to begin with. Plenty of people heard what that young female knight said, and when King Snake and the others drove off to chase us, the residents assumed their leader had fled in a car. Naturally, they panicked even more and all ran."

"Fuck, those people ran fast. I wanted to find a doctor to bandage my right hand!" Li You clutched his right hand with a pained grimace and cursed unhappily.

Other than his own life, his right hand was the most precious thing to him. He was terrified of developing lasting complications that might affect his ability to use his extraordinary power in the future.

"No matter how fast they ran, could they have been faster than you?"

Li You's face reddened awkwardly. "Can we not bring that up?"

"Come on. Let's find somewhere to settle down first."

After several hours of work, the two finished setting up a fairly sturdy brick house and sealed the windows and door.

Li You wrapped bandages around his right hand while Bai Ye stared at the cockroach protein bar in his hand, troubled.

Food was not a concern for the time being, because Li You had stolen supplies from the Tire Tavern in advance. There was not only alcohol but also cockroach protein bars. The only thing missing was meat.

Li You thought meat was hard to preserve and took up too much room, so he had not taken any. By the time they returned to the Tire Tavern, it had already been thoroughly looted by the residents.

The gray sparrows scattered all over outside were mutated beasts. Their meat had long since been contaminated and was inedible.

"What were you thinking? You'd rather take alcohol than meat?" Bai Ye asked irritably.

"Meat can be obtained through hunting, but alcohol can't. To survive in the wasteland, you can go without anything except alcohol!"

Li You happily took a swig of the cheap liquor and felt that his right hand did not hurt quite as much.

"Alcohol is the essence of grain—the more you drink, the younger you get! It fills your stomach, gives you courage, relieves pain, and disinfects wounds. Where else could you find something this good?" As he spoke, he blew out another smoke ring.

Bai Ye asked with a dark expression, "Then what's with the cigarettes?"

"Cigarettes are more valuable than gold! You can use them as money, no problem. And survival in the wasteland is so stressful—you have to ease those tightly wound nerves somehow... Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing?! Beating up a disabled person? Do you even have a conscience?!"

"Go smoke somewhere else!" Bai Ye chased the irritating Li You away, then continued staring blankly at the cockroach protein bar.

I could have endured cockroach protein bars, if only I had never eaten meat!

Awoo!

Bai Ye swallowed the pitch-black cockroach protein bar, complete with cockroach antennae, in one bite. He did not dare chew it at all, afraid that he might throw up if he did.

"Bleurgh..."

"Brother Ye, you look like you just ate shit."

"Bleurgh... This thing is worse than shit. It's stickier than shit and less sweet than shit. Shit is free, but this costs money!"

"Is it really that bad? I eat this every day, and I'm not as dramatic as you. How many days have you even been deputy leader? You forgot where you came from way too fast," Li You muttered quietly.

"That's because you've never eaten anything good!" Bai Ye glared at him.

He missed the days of the civilized era more than ever. At this hour, he would already have been at the barbecue stall downstairs, drinking beer and eating skewers.