"They really are all good stuff." Captain Hui nodded quietly too, adjusting his blue-light glasses.
Zhu Qing looked at the cigarettes and alcohol before them with equal delight. "Xi, you're still young. You'd only just started college before the apocalypse, so it's normal not to understand. In the apocalypse, you can find ways to fill your stomach when food is scarce, but mental release is important too."
"Cigarettes and alcohol help people unwind and relieve stress. They're practically hard currency."
An Xi nodded noncommittally. She still didn't understand. If you couldn't even afford food, why bother drinking and smoking?
Chu Sheng glanced at her without saying anything.
It was a difference in understanding, something he couldn't explain clearly.
Even if he told her some people would rather skip meals than go without a pack of cigarettes, she still wouldn't understand.
She only needed to know their value.
In the end, Old Man Li took all the liquor and beer.
He voluntarily gave up his share of the cigarettes and even offered a third of his dried goods.
Chu Sheng and the other three were happy with that arrangement.
As for the cigarettes, there were two cartons of Hua Zi, one carton of Soft Classic Red Double Happiness, one carton of Soft-Pack White Sand, and one carton of Li Ji.
Chu Sheng took a carton of Hua Zi, and Captain Hui took the other. An Xi took a carton of Li Ji and half a carton of Soft-Pack White Sand, while Zhu Qing took the carton of Red Double Happiness and the remaining half carton of Soft-Pack White Sand.
That completed the division of supplies.
Most of the space in Chu Sheng's pickup had been cleared out.
After everyone left, Chu Sheng turned his attention to the Survival Points display floating before him.
He had originally had only 2,540 Survival Points left, but dissecting the zombie had brought that up to 7,140.
If An Xi hadn't inflicted so many nasty wounds on the zombie, his Survival Points probably would have broken ten thousand again.
Even so, Chu Sheng was very satisfied.
The Survival Points had practically fallen into his lap. What was there to complain about?
Turning his gaze to his Butcher Knife, Chu Sheng took out the four zombie fangs he had received.
As the Butcher Knife touched the zombie fangs, a dazzling white light bloomed in his hand.
Fusion!
Sacrificial items weren't fixed and unchanging.
After an ordinary object became a sacrificial item by fusing with supernatural materials, it could still fuse with more supernatural materials to improve its ranking.
Though even now, he didn't know what the sacrificial item rankings were actually for.
Surely they couldn't just be a simple ranking of strength, could they?
As Chu Sheng pondered this, the white light slowly faded, revealing the Butcher Knife.
Only now, the Butcher Knife had changed color.
After fusing with the Cat-Claw Blade, the Butcher Knife had been entirely red, with a sharp blade protruding from the end of its handle.
Now, however, the Butcher Knife had returned to a normal shape. It was still red, but white stripes had appeared across it.
Its cutting edge was pure snowy white.
It looked just like a toy knife.
[Corpse-Poison Cat-Slaying Knife] [Sacrificial item ranking: 7,623] [Ability 1: After the Cat-Claw Butcher Knife fused with zombie fangs, its sharpness and toughness increased significantly. Damage against zombies and pigs increased significantly, while damage against cats increased enormously! Intimidates Anomalies] [Ability 2: Attacks that penetrate defenses inflict corpse poison, transforming the target into a controllable zombie! Current number controlled: 0/1] [Sacrificial item: A supernatural object. Every use comes at a price!] [Cost of using the Corpse-Poison Cat-Slaying Knife: Sharpening can no longer please Him. Having fused with corpse poison and zombie fangs, He thirsts for blood. Must be fed blood daily. Insufficient blood will cause it to kill its wielder!] [But if you are Chu Sheng, there is no cost to use it!]
What a huge change!
His Butcher Knife had become a Cat-Slaughtering Knife.
And it had successfully incorporated the properties of both the zombie fangs and corpse poison.
When Chu Sheng had obtained the zombie fangs during the dissection, he had wondered whether he could fuse them with the Butcher Knife. The results proved him right.
The knife's abilities had improved drastically, and its ranking had jumped from the 9,600s to the 7,600s.
A difference of two thousand places!
[Upgrading the Corpse-Poison Cat-Slaying Knife requires 5,000 Survival Points. Upgrade?] [Remaining Survival Points: 7,140]
Chu Sheng: "..."
I shouldn't have looked!
Back when he first fused the Butcher Knife into a sacrificial item, he had tried upgrading it. But it had required 3,000 Survival Points, and he hadn't had enough, so he had left it alone.
Now the cost had jumped straight from 3,000 Survival Points to 5,000.
That's terrifying!
I can't afford that!
From now on, I'll just use supernatural materials to upgrade sacrificial items!
Spending his seven thousand Survival Points on upgrading his vehicle seemed much more worthwhile than using them on the Butcher Knife.
While he played with the Corpse-Poison Cat-Slaying Knife and considered how to upgrade his pickup, An Xi came over with a pig's trotter in one hand and a zombie spine in the other.
"Chu Sheng, sweetie, help me fuse this. This pig's trotter is for you!" An Xi's face was full of anticipation, and her voice had turned syrupy.
A chill ran through Chu Sheng. An Xi was pretty, but he had always thought of her as brash and easygoing. Hearing her act so coy felt inexplicably strange.
"Stop! Don't act all flirty!" Chu Sheng immediately cut her off.
"If you bring me the stuff, I'll help you fuse it. Just don't talk to me like that!"
At that, An Xi dropped the cutesy act. She set the pig's trotter in his truck, then flicked her wrist, and the White Jade Spear flew from her vehicle into her hand.
"Here. I'll leave it to you, then."
Chu Sheng took the spine, which was emitting black smoke, and laid it against the White Jade Spear. A white light enveloped them.
"What do you think the White Jade Spear will look like?"
"How would I know?"
"Sweetie~"
"Get lost! I told you not to act all flirty!"
"You have no sense of romance!" An Xi complained. "A gorgeous girl like me is acting cute for you. You should count yourself lucky!"
"I don't see a gorgeous girl. All I see is a runway." Chu Sheng's gaze lingered on her chest before he shook his head, seemingly mourning her plight.
Hearing that and noticing where he was looking, An Xi's pretty face flushed bright red. "You've gone too far, you white-haired, red-eyed brat!"
Chu Sheng: "???"
"You little shit!"
Chu Sheng touched his hair, which had turned white because of his Sequence's cost. He was about to argue when he noticed the light around the White Jade Spear beginning to dim.
A few seconds later, the White Jade Spear reappeared before them.
Its appearance, however, had changed dramatically.
Once snowy white all over, as though cast from white jade, it was now pitch-black. Its lustrous, polished shaft had turned to bone.
The shaft looked as though it had been assembled from numerous bones, with joints between them, though it felt quite smooth.
The spearhead had also turned to bone, but retained its original shape, as though the bone had been ground into a spearhead.
Wisps of black smoke drifted from the junction between the spearhead and shaft, seemingly taking the place of a red tassel.
[Black Jade Bone Spear] [Sacrificial item ranking: 5,460] [Ability 1: Toughness, hardness, and sharpness increased significantly. This spear, fused with a skeleton rib and a zombie spine, deals significantly increased damage against skeletons and zombies. Gains the supernatural energy conduction attribute!] [Ability 2: Automatic return. After acknowledging its owner, the White Jade Spear can automatically return to its owner's hand within a range of one hundred meters.] [Ability 3: Attacks inflict trace amounts of corpse poison. After one hundred attacks, the poison erupts, turning the target into a walking corpse!] [Sacrificial item: A supernatural object. Every use comes at a price!] [Usage cost: This spear craves living beings and must be nourished with blood daily. Preferably kill a person. Failure to meet its demands will cause it to kill its wielder!] [Hidden attribute: If you are Chu Sheng, there is no cost to use it!]
The cost of using it hadn't changed, but the consequence had escalated from backlash to killing its wielder.
Its various basic attributes now received significant increases, and its recall range had doubled.
Chu Sheng handed the Black Jade Bone Spear back to An Xi, who had fallen speechless at its appearance, then looked toward Captain Hui, who was approaching him with a pig's trotter.
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