With the Anomalies unable to catch up for now, the convoy stopped on the highway to rest and regroup.
Captain Hui was organizing the survivors to count everyone in the convoy and work out travel arrangements. Zhu Qing had recruited two underlings and was studying how to patch the roof with them.
Once the danger had passed, Old Man Li took out a bottle of liquor and started drinking, as though none of this had anything to do with him. It almost seemed as if he was trying to numb himself with alcohol.
An Xi sat silently off to one side, hugging her knees. A Xin seemed to know she was feeling down and left her alone, taking a hammer and trying to repair the roof pierced by the Black Jade Bone Spear.
As for Chu Sheng, he began piecing together the Pickup Truck's body, which lay scattered across the ground. Fortunately, the cargo bed hadn't been connected to the body. Otherwise, with his collected supplies mixed into the wreckage, putting it back together would have been a real headache.
Just then, Zhou Dun approached with his two younger sisters. Chu Sheng paused in the middle of assembling the Pickup Truck's body and turned to look at them, but said nothing.
Seeing this, Zhou Dun immediately took two pieces of supernatural material from his pocket and said respectfully, "Chu Sheng, the captain told me you can craft Sacrificial Items. I'd like to ask you to help me make one."
Chu Sheng glanced at the Bone Club and palm-sized tortoise shell in his hands, considered it, and said, "Sure."
"Which piece of supernatural material do you want to use, and what will you use as the base for fusion?"
Chu Sheng's somewhat inflated ego had been brought back down to earth. After reflecting on his recent behavior, he had finally decided that he should care a little about his reputation, so his tone was rather pleasant.
Hearing this, Zhou Dun looked as though he'd seen a ghost. Since when did Chu Sheng take the initiative to consider other people's needs?!
Chu Sheng wasn't surprised by his reaction. He had only just started changing, so it was normal for others to be shocked.
But no matter how surprised or confused everyone was, he still had to change his image.
He would still abandon everyone else when danger struck, but cultivating a good image in ordinary circumstances wouldn't hurt.
"Since the captain told you about it, you should already know my rules. Two pieces of supernatural material: one as payment, the other for fusing your Sacrificial Item."
He paused, looking at the two materials, then continued, "I don't know where these two pieces of supernatural material came from, so I don't know their properties either. But logically speaking, this tortoise shell should be suitable for making a shield or some other Sacrificial Item like that."
"As for this Bone Club, it should work fine for making a club or improving a weapon's hardness."
"Well..." Zhou Dun fell silent at Chu Sheng's explanation.
All he had was a partially sharpened Craft Tang Dao. Neither of these supernatural materials sounded particularly suitable.
As for Chu Sheng's suggestion of using the tortoise shell to make a defensive Sacrificial Item, he hadn't considered that.
What he needed was to hunt Anomalies and obtain more supernatural materials. A defensive Sacrificial Item couldn't kill Anomalies, so it was no use to him.
Seeing Zhou Dun fall silent, Chu Sheng glanced at the Tang Dao Li Ling was holding behind him.
He also glanced at the dismantled vehicle body on the ground, along with the dried goods and food scattered everywhere after falling out when it came apart.
"You could trade supernatural material to Zhu Qing for zombie fingernails. They aren't a perfect fit either, but they should improve the blade's sharpness and add a corpse poison attribute."
Without waiting to hear Zhou Dun's thoughts, Chu Sheng continued, "In exchange for that advice, you three can pick up the food and dried goods on the ground, then help me piece the Pickup Truck back together."
Zhou Dun nodded without hesitation.
"Okay!"
Soon, Zhou Dun, Li Ling, and Li Qian had gathered the scattered food and dried goods and set them aside. Then they began piecing together the Pickup Truck's body.
Chu Sheng watched from the side and nodded.
He might be planning to improve his reputation, but he wasn't some dumbass who gave things away for free. Explaining the pros and cons of fusion materials to Zhou Dun was already the biggest change he was willing to make.
Anyone who wanted something from him had to give something in return, even if all they received was advice or information.
Simply refraining from actively screwing people over was already conscientious enough.
While Zhou Dun and the girls pieced together the pickup's body, Chu Sheng rubbed his chin in thought and sketched on the ground with a small stick.
He intended to take this opportunity to upgrade the Pickup Truck again.
He had previously had 7,140 Survival Points left. After running over that giant Eyeball Anomalies, he had seen a notification that Survival Points had been credited, but he hadn't had time to check.
By now, he should have enough Survival Points to upgrade the pickup again.
[Remaining Survival Points: 21,140]
His Survival Points had increased by a full 14,000. That giant eyeball had been worth quite a bit.
He had previously upgraded the Pickup Truck into a Sacrificial Item, and upgrading Sacrificial Items cost more Survival Points than upgrading ordinary objects.
Fortunately, he had considered that long ago. The parts of the Pickup Truck he had fused into Sacrificial Items, such as the tires and chassis, could all be separated individually.
As long as his upgrade didn't involve the tires or chassis, upgrading the Pickup Truck would cost the same as upgrading an ordinary object—not all that much.
After all, turning the pickup into a Sacrificial Item hadn't been his choice. What he had wanted all along was the Hundred-Ton King.
A pickup?
What a piece of junk!
As Zhou Dun and the girls assembled it, the new vehicle Chu Sheng had envisioned began to take shape before him.
After directing the three of them to assemble the pickup according to his design, Chu Sheng looked at the vehicle held together with strips of tape. No, it wasn't a pickup anymore. It was now a small truck.
Putting it together like this had used up every last bit of material he had collected along the way, and even that hadn't been enough.
Fortunately, they were on the highway. Although most people traveling along it after the apocalypse had driven away, a few vehicles remained here and there.
Using Captain Hui's vehicle, they towed two cars back. Chu Sheng stripped off their steel panels and other parts, finally gathering enough to put his own vehicle together.
As for switching vehicles, Chu Sheng had never entertained the idea. His vehicle at every stage had suited his needs. There was no point discussing the bicycle he'd started with; he hadn't had the means back then.
The motorcycle with a sidecar he had upgraded to afterward had already met his needs for storing supplies and driving away. It wasn't that he couldn't find another vehicle. There had simply been no need.
The same had been true of the pickup, and it was even more true of his current small truck. If he switched vehicles, he could remove his Sacrificial Item tires and take them along, but what would he do about his Sacrificial Item chassis?
[Upgrading Sacrificial Item: Ramming Pickup requires 130,000 Survival Points. Upgrade?] [Remaining Survival Points: 21,140]
Chu Sheng: "???"
One hundred and thirty thousand?
Staring at the translucent image floating before him, Chu Sheng was dumbfounded.
But he soon noticed what was wrong with it.
He had forgotten to exclude the tires and chassis.
After removing those two components from the selection, Chu Sheng focused on the assembled truck again.
[Upgrading Sacrificial Item: Ramming Pickup requires 19,730 Survival Points. Upgrade?] [Remaining Survival Points: 21,140]
"That's enough! Upgrade it!" Chu Sheng pressed one hand against the small truck, and a white light instantly enveloped the entire vehicle.
The brilliant light drew everyone's attention. Crouched on the roof, where he had been trying to patch the hole with nails and wooden boards, Zhu Qing silently looked down at the tools in his hands, then tossed them straight to the ground.
Then he jumped off the roof and walked toward Chu Sheng.
An Xi and Captain Hui came over as well.
As for Old Man Li, he was already completely wasted.
"Trading your peashooter for a cannon?" An Xi had recovered from her dejection over failing to protect the survivors and returned to her cheerful, lively self. She looked curiously at the enormous vehicle enveloped in white light.
"What peashooter? My vehicle's always been great!" Chu Sheng curled his lip.
Just then, the white light slowly faded.
The vehicle revealed its new appearance.
The body remained unchanged, but its sturdiness had been upgraded as well.
This time, Chu Sheng's modifications had focused on the cargo box at the back and the roof.
The cargo bed had gone from open to enclosed, like a truck's cargo box, with rear doors for loading and retrieving supplies. He no longer had to worry about rain soaking his food and could store it all inside.
The cargo box had also doubled in length and gained two more tires. It was a little taller too, extending over the cab.
An opening directly above the driver's seat allowed him to climb into that space, which would serve as his sleeping area. If danger arose, he could jump straight down through the opening, start the vehicle, and flee.
[Rampage Truck] [Sacrificial Item Ranking: 4,761]
(Rampage Truck pictured above ↑)
Before you continue