The pressure this male White Thorn exuded was on an entirely different level from the female they had just faced.
Standing there, he looked like an enormous mobile fortress.
The shell on the right side of his waist, in particular, was so thick it inspired despair.
"Boss... this one looks even tougher."
In the passenger seat, Su Qingqian watched the tier 3 male White Thorn, her voice trembling slightly. "Boss... I'm not even sure our autocannon can penetrate his armor."
Lin Hui tightened his grip on the steering wheel, but his gaze only grew sharper.
"We'll have to make it. He's probably trying to avenge the female White Thorn inside."
Just as Lin Hui was about to shift into gear and take him head-on-
Bzzzt-
The radio on the dashboard suddenly crackled to life.
"Hey, you in the RV."
A cool female voice came through.
"That male White Thorn's weak point isn't his waist. His bone armor has evolved perfectly, so his old weak point is no longer vulnerable. His second weak point is in the gap beneath the third bone plate on the back of his neck. It's only the size of a coin."
Lin Hui raised an eyebrow and looked out the window.
Beyond a pile of discarded steel in the distance, Liu Xi, the woman in black combat gear, had set up a heavy sniper rifle on the roof of a blue sports car and was aiming ahead.
She hadn't run away?
"Why are you telling me this?" Lin Hui picked up the radio, his tone even.
The woman's voice remained cool and aloof. "I hadn't gone far. When I saw you kill that tier 3 female White Thorn, I decided to come back for a share."
"This male White Thorn is at the peak of tier 3. Your autocannon has plenty of firepower, but it isn't accurate enough to hit that gap reliably. And once he gets close, he'll flip your vehicle, no matter how strong its defenses are."
"Let's work together."
Liu Xi took a deep breath. "You draw his attention from the front and keep him suppressed. Give me an opening. I have one specially made depleted uranium armor-piercing round. I only get one shot."
"Once it's done, I only want 200 units of high-strength alloy. Everything else is yours."
She paused, then added, "Judging by the size of this parts factory, there should be over 1,000 units of high-strength alloy inside."
Lin Hui glanced at the woman through his rearview mirror.
She had guts and brains, and... her marksmanship really was good.
"I can handle him on my own," Lin Hui said flatly. "It'll just take a few more shells."
He still had over 300 armor-piercing rounds. He refused to believe he couldn't deal with this tier 3 male White Thorn.
Besides, Lin Hui had great confidence in his RV's defenses!
Although his RV was only Lv3, its modifiers gave it 100% traction. It would never flip over!
At worst, the RV's exterior would end up covered in dents!
But with Su Qingqian, his employee with Machinery Specialization, all it would take was a few extra materials to repair it.
There was a brief silence on the other end of the radio before Liu Xi offered another bargaining chip:
"I know a lot of things. Information about extraordinary items, for instance, and all the main categories of specialization... I think you'd be very interested in that."
At the word "specialization," Lin Hui's gaze shifted.
Tang Chuan's bizarre Swamp Spell had indeed caught his attention. Understanding this system would greatly benefit his future development.
And the effects of the [Eye of Scapegoating] were far too strange. If he didn't figure out how it worked, he might end up dead someday without even knowing why.
"Deal."
A faint smile curved Lin Hui's lips. "Qingqian, get ready to work. I'll drive. You operate the autocannon."
"Yes!" Su Qingqian nodded firmly.
"ROAR!!"
The tier 3 male White Thorn roared and thrust off with his hind legs, instantly cracking the ground into a deep crater.
Boom!
Like an out-of-control truck, he hurtled straight toward Lin Hui's RV, trailing a suffocating blast of air!
"Here he comes!!"
Lin Hui shifted into reverse and shot backward.
Seizing the moment, Su Qingqian activated the weapon system's overload mode. The rooftop autocannon instantly spat a long tongue of flame!
"Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!!"
A dense barrage of 25 mm shells hammered White Thorn's head and chest like rain. Though most failed to penetrate the male White Thorn's armor, their tremendous impact checked his momentum, forcing him to lift his head and roar.
"Now!"
Lin Hui shouted.
Behind the distant ruins.
Liu Xi held her breath. The world seemed to stand still.
Bang!
A single gunshot rang out, low and imperious.
The expensive depleted uranium armor-piercing round spun through the air and bored precisely into the coin-sized gap.
Squelch!
White Thorn froze mid-motion.
The bullet burrowed into his spine, then exploded inside.
His enormous body swayed before crashing to the ground, throwing up clouds of dust.
Four or five supplies dropped, glowing green as they bobbed up and down in place.
The battle was over.
Lin Hui didn't get out immediately. Instead, he drove straight to the edge of the swamp where Tang Chuan's body had sunk.
Although the man had gone under, the box containing the [Eye of Scapegoating] was still floating on the mud.
As soon as the RV approached, Space Folding's Auto-Pickup feature activated, and the [Eye of Scapegoating] instantly appeared in Lin Hui's Spatial Dimension.
"Miss Liu Xi, I'll clean up the battlefield first. Any objections?" Lin Hui looked toward Liu Xi in the distance.
"Go ahead. Like I said, I only want 200 units of high-strength alloy." Liu Xi gave a slight nod.
Lin Hui didn't stand on ceremony. He drove a circuit around the auto parts factory, collecting every item dropped by the slain White Thorns into his Spatial Dimension.
Among the items were two potions, food, drinking water, universal fuel, assorted daily necessities, universal ammunition, game consoles, and even clothes...
Most importantly, in a warehouse deep inside the Abandoned Aviation Auto Parts Factory, he found 1,500 units of high-strength alloy.
Finally, Lin Hui turned to Su Qingqian:
"Qingqian, all the New Light Mutual Aid Association's vehicles and the outer walls of that auto parts factory are made of good steel. Go dismantle them."
When Lin Hui cleaned up a battlefield, he never left a scrap behind.
An hour later.
The entire auto parts factory looked as though a swarm of locusts had swept through it.
Lin Hui had swept every valuable piece of metal and every electronic component into his Spatial Dimension, including the wreckage of the New Light Mutual Aid Association's ruined vehicles.
[Obtained: high-strength titanium alloy × 1,500 units] [Obtained: steel × 8,000 units] [Obtained: electronic components × 220 units] [Obtained: rubber × 160 units] [Obtained: extraordinary item "Eye of Scapegoating"] [Obtained: basic gene potion × 1] [Obtained: Basic Mental Strength Potion × 1] [Obtained: drone × 1] [Obtained: universal fuel × 12 portions] [Obtained: assorted supplies]
Looking at his abundant haul, Lin Hui nodded in satisfaction, then finally drove over to Liu Xi.
Liu Xi climbed down from the blue sports car. When she saw how tidy the inside of Lin Hui's RV was, undisguised shock flashed in her eyes.
"Your... where are all those supplies?"
"You've awakened a specialization too? A spatial type under spirit arts?"
"That's not important." Lin Hui stayed inside and lowered the window a crack. "Can we talk about specializations and extraordinary items now?"
Liu Xi drew a light breath and began slowly:
"As far as we know, specializations fall into eight categories: general, combat, shooting, machinery, reconnaissance, medicine, spirit arts, and summoning."
"General and spirit arts are the most common. The other six are relatively rare."
Lin Hui considered this. "Those six rare categories are pretty self-explanatory. Hmm, yours should be a shooting specialization, right? What about general and spirit arts?"
"I do have a shooting specialization," Liu Xi answered casually before continuing:
"General specializations are like everyday skills, such as cooking, driving, singing, and makeup... Spirit arts are a much broader mix. You can think of them as skills in a game. That Tang Chuan's spirit art, for example, was 'Swamp.' It could turn any terrain into a swamp..."
"Specializations can be advanced, but that requires specialization upgrade blueprints and extraordinary materials, much like upgrading a vehicle..."
"As for extraordinary items, you can think of them as objects imbued with the 'mysterious.' They often possess bizarre powers, but those powers come with side effects their users find hard to accept..."
Before you continue