Absurd.
That was Chu Sheng's first impression.
Never in his life had he imagined anything this absurd could exist.
What was that milky-white liquid? Such a mystery.
At the same time, he finally understood why Li Feifei was willing to trade this thing away.
With a side effect like that, probably no one would want to use it.
The gloves' boost wasn't much, but the price was social suicide.
Sure, a percentage-based strength boost had its merits, but that was about all it had going for it.
The snug-fit ability, though, seemed a little familiar.
Wasn't this the adjustable sizing Zhu Qing dreamed about day and night?
As Chu Sheng pondered this, the sacrificial item's information changed.
Its name, effects, and usage cost remained the same, but the ability names changed.
Instead of Ability One and Ability Two, the abilities now had actual names.
[Strength boost: increases strength by 5%.] [Perfect fit: always fits the user snugly.]
"It can do that?!"
As though he had discovered something incredible, Chu Sheng pulled the Cat-Slaughtering Knife from his waist, and its information appeared before his eyes.
The information was still unchanged, but with a thought, Ability One and Ability Two disappeared from the Cat-Slaughtering Knife's display, replaced by names.
The first ability, which improved the Cat-Slaughtering Knife's various base attributes, became [Attribute enhancement], while the second, which carried corpse poison and allowed him to control zombies, became [Corpse poison control].
"So this thing can change according to what I want?!"
Chu Sheng was a little surprised, but he soon put it out of his mind. It was a pleasant little discovery, but it wasn't important.
There wasn't much difference between labeling an ability with a number and giving it a name.
After tucking the Cat-Slaughtering Knife back at his waist, Chu Sheng stuffed the pair of Black Gloves into the passenger-side door pocket.
With a usage cost like that, he would never use them as long as he lived!
Forget a measly 5% strength boost-even if it were 50%, he wouldn't use them!
Chu Sheng stayed in the truck for a while, then seemed to remember something and pulled two pig trotters from the box of dried goods in the back seat.
"Almost forgot about this."
He had spent this stretch of the journey traveling and collecting parts from vehicles along the road.
But that didn't mean he hadn't been thinking.
All the materials from the Eerie Pig had ended up in his hands. The four trotters and the pig's spine were all his.
The spine had originally been in Zhu Qing's vehicle, but after upgrading his pickup, he had brought it over. In exchange, he owed Zhu Qing two sacrificial item fusions.
He had already owned two of the trotters, and An Xi and Captain Hui had each brought him theirs, asking him to help fuse the supernatural materials.
Now they were all in his hands.
Over the past few days, he had been considering how to make the best use of them.
Then, yesterday, he had figured it out.
He had fused the pig's spine into the Pickup Truck's frame, strengthening its entire chassis.
Two of the trotters had been fused into the tires.
That left two more trotters, which he had planned to fuse into the remaining tires today. But running into another convoy had nearly made him forget.
Holding the two trotters, Chu Sheng looked around, then went over to a front wheel and pressed a trotter against the tire. He activated his ability, and white light enveloped both the trotter and the tire.
A moment later, the white light faded. The tire was still black, but thick pig bristles now covered its sides.
Repeating the process, Chu Sheng fused the other front tire into a sacrificial item as well.
Once everything was finished, Chu Sheng clapped his hands in satisfaction, and the Pickup Truck's information appeared in his mind.
[Ramming Pickup] [Sacrificial item ranking: 5,761] [Stability: strengthens the vehicle's chassis and tires, greatly improving its stability and granting the property of never overturning.] [Never-Wear: the chassis and tires merge into one; the Pickup Truck's tires and chassis will never suffer any wear.] [Repair: damage to the tires and chassis will repair itself automatically.] [Wild Boar Charge: the tires transform into pig trotters, speed increases by 300%, and the vehicle's frame bears an increased load as it launches a courageous charge straight ahead. Run over and kill whatever you can.] [Sacrificial item: a supernatural object. Every use comes at a price!] [Usage cost: the souls that died beneath Butcher Knives harbor a deep prejudice against them. Do not allow a Butcher Knife within ten meters, or it will be crushed beneath the Pickup Truck. After activating Wild Boar Charge, you must run over and kill something—an Anomalies or a human. The choice is yours.] [Hidden attribute: if you are Chu Sheng, there is no usage cost!]
This was his Pickup Truck. Now it could truly be called a sacrificial pickup.
As for the usage cost, Chu Sheng generally didn't care about it. After all, he didn't have to pay a price to use sacrificial items he had fused himself.
Besides, even if he did have to pay, it wouldn't matter. He didn't have a Butcher Knife; he had always used the Cat-Slaughtering Knife.
Setting the usage cost aside, the Pickup Truck had incorporated five supernatural materials from the Eerie Pig and ranked 5,761st. Nothing exceptional, but Chu Sheng was delighted.
Never overturning, Never-Wear, automatic repair, and Wild Boar Charge.
None of the four abilities was especially powerful, but they were all practical. Never overturning and Never-Wear meant he could roam wherever he pleased.
Automatic repair ensured that all that roaming wouldn't put his pickup out of commission.
Wild Boar Charge even gave the Pickup Truck an escape option. A 300% speed increase was more than enough in most situations.
After all, sometimes he didn't need to be particularly fast. He just needed to be faster than everyone else.
Just then, Zhu Qing and An Xi came over. Neither found it strange to see him crouching beside a tire; they had watched him fuse sacrificial items yesterday.
Naturally, they also knew he still had two trotters left to fuse.
An Xi looked at the Pickup Truck with a hint of envy. "So it's a sacrificial item now?"
"I want one too. Too bad I don't have that many supernatural materials."
"Hm?" Chu Sheng gave her a strange look.
"Are you sure?"
When it came to supernatural materials, An Xi had more than anyone else in their convoy except him.
Yet she was claiming she didn't have enough Supernatural Material.
Feeling his gaze on her, An Xi puffed out her chest. "My supernatural materials don't match. What am I supposed to do? Rather than fusing random things and gambling on an effect that'll probably be useless, I'd rather wait and collect more materials."
Chu Sheng nodded at that. Put that way, it made sense.
Actually, he hadn't initially known what to do with the four trotters and the pig's spine either. But then he had noticed that the Pickup Truck was carrying so much heavy cargo that its middle had begun to warp.
That had given him the idea of fusing the spine into the frame to support the weight. From there, he had thought of pairing the four trotters with the four tires.
Pig trotters were for running, and tires were for running too.
Who could say pig trotters and tires weren't a match?
At the thought, Chu Sheng smiled, then looked at An Xi and Zhu Qing. "What did you come to see me about?"
An Xi shook her head. "Nothing on my end. Qing wanted to see you. I just came along for the fun."
Chu Sheng turned his gaze to Zhu Qing.
Zhu Qing wasted no words and took out the supernatural materials he had acquired through trading.
"I don't really understand this sacrificial item fusion stuff. Help me check whether any of these supernatural materials would be suitable for making clothes or weapons."
Chu Sheng looked at the three supernatural materials he had brought out.
Rotten wood, white paper, and a blade.
"The blade's decent, but forget the white paper and rotten wood. They're not much use." Chu Sheng shook his head, then suddenly remembered his Black Gloves and gave Zhu Qing a peculiar look.
He had finally remembered why the Black Gloves' Perfect Fit ability had seemed so familiar.
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