Bro Boar, Drop Some Good Loot!

Su Ye was in high spirits as he looked at the faintly glowing blueprint lying quietly in his backpack.

"Aren't you afraid I won't give you the hand crossbow and bolts?"

"I trust you won't lie to me, Cousin. There's no reason for you to cheat me over so little, either."

"This blueprint is valuable now, but once everyone makes some progress in a few days, it won't be anything special. Getting to know you is worth more than a hand crossbow, Cousin. If you have any good stuff you don't want in the future, I hope you'll let me know."

Su Ye smiled. This kid was shrewd, calling him Cousin at every turn and taking the long view.

"Sure. Once I gather the materials and make them, I'll send them straight over."

After ending the call, an idea struck Su Ye.

He took the workbench straight out of his storage ring, then approached it with the blueprint in hand.

[Recordable blueprint detected. Use this blueprint?]

"Yes."

Su Ye confirmed without hesitation.

In an instant, the blueprint in his hand turned into a streak of light and flowed into the workbench.

Complex mechanical patterns immediately lit up across the surface of the previously dull workbench, which gave off a faint hum.

Then a translucent workbench interface popped up before Su Ye.

At the moment, the interface offered only two lonely crafting options.

[Simple Double-Shot Hand Crossbow] and [Simple Crossbow Bolt].

Su Ye opened the hand crossbow's crafting requirements.

[Simple Double-Shot Hand Crossbow: wood x2, screws x4, elastic cord x1, Simple Trigger Component x1.]

Then he opened the bolts' crafting requirements.

[Simple Crossbow Bolt (10): wood x1, iron block x1.]

Su Ye frowned slightly at the material requirements. He didn't have all those materials.

But just because he didn't have them didn't mean other players didn't.

He immediately opened the trading interface and began browsing.

The trading interface still had all sorts of things on offer.

Someone had listed a pair of socks full of holes in exchange for a piece of bread, while someone else wanted to trade a pile of scrap iron for a weapon.

The asking prices were generally absurdly high. After all, it was only the first day, and market prices had yet to settle.

Su Ye clicked the search bar and entered the materials he needed.

The interface instantly became much cleaner, listing all the relevant trades.

[For sale: wood x5. Wanted: 500 ml purified water.]

[For sale: iron blocks x2. Wanted: any food that can fill my stomach.]

"These prices aren't quite so ridiculous."

Su Ye nodded in satisfaction and began buying the cheaper listings.

"Traded 200 ml of water for wood x3. Trade successful!"

"Traded expired bread for iron blocks x2. Trade successful!"

"Traded 100 ml of water for wood x2. Trade successful!"

In less than ten minutes, Su Ye had acquired over thirty units of wood and over twenty units of iron blocks, spending less than a liter of water and a few pieces of bread and packs of instant noodles.

Next, Su Ye bought elastic cord, screws, and Simple Trigger Components. Trigger components were relatively scarce, with only a little over a hundred available in total, and the asking prices were all fairly high.

After a moment's thought, Su Ye went all in, spending all his food and water to buy every last trigger component.

The prices seemed high now, but once he started trading the hand crossbows he made, the price of trigger components would definitely skyrocket, as long as these players weren't stupid.

He might as well buy them all first. Once he made the hand crossbows and bolts, he would quickly recoup his costs and make a hefty profit.

"I've bought everything. Now I can make the hand crossbows and bolts."

Su Ye opened the workbench interface again.

[Consume materials to craft a Simple Double-Shot Hand Crossbow?]

"Yes!"

Once Su Ye confirmed, a ten-second countdown began on the interface.

[Crafting successful.]

Ten seconds later, a notification sounded. With a flash of light, a Simple Double-Shot Hand Crossbow appeared on the workbench.

[Simple Double-Shot Hand Crossbow]: tier 0, effective range 30 meters, maximum range 80 meters, durability 200/200. Can be loaded with two bolts at once.

Su Ye picked it up and tried aiming, satisfaction showing in his eyes. Though it wasn't as powerful as the Desert Eagle, this hand crossbow had its advantages: low recoil and little noise.

Of course, its greatest advantage was that he could mass-produce it as long as he had the materials.

Next, Su Ye crafted ten bolts, loaded the hand crossbow, and fired into the distance. Two bolts shot out at once.

"Not bad, but I still need a target to test it on."

With that thought, Su Ye restarted the vehicle and drove onward, planning to find a monster to test it on.

Meanwhile, the workbench kept running, crafting more hand crossbows and bolts.

About fifteen minutes later, Su Ye suddenly perked up. He had spotted a figure up ahead.

He didn't need to think to know it had to be a monster.

Su Ye slowed the vehicle and approached carefully. It was a mutant wild boar as large as a calf.

Its body was covered in black bristles like steel needles, and two enormous tusks curled out from the corners of its mouth, gleaming with a chilling light.

Most importantly, there was a supply crate beside the boar.

"A supply crate guarded by a monster? It's probably a tier 1 supply crate."

Su Ye's eyes lit up. He stopped about twenty meters from the boar.

The boar had noticed Su Ye as well and turned toward him with loud snorts, but it didn't leave the supply crate. Clearly, it intended to protect it.

Seeing this, Su Ye got out of the vehicle and strode toward the boar.

Although the hand crossbow had an effective range of thirty meters, Su Ye didn't think his aim was that good.

So he planned to unleash his attack at point-blank range. With the Gray Fog Medal, the boar wouldn't attack him first anyway.

As Su Ye approached, the boar grew increasingly agitated.

Its thick hooves kept scraping the ground, kicking up clouds of dust as though it were about to charge him.

But that was all it could do.

With its favorability at zero, the boar couldn't initiate an attack. It could only watch as Su Ye drew closer.

Su Ye walked up to the boar with a smile.

Barely half a meter separated them. The boar could only glare viciously at Su Ye and let out a series of low, angry growls, as though frantically warning him to back off.

Su Ye pulled out the Simple Double-Shot Hand Crossbow without hesitation. The instant the boar opened its mouth to roar, he shoved the muzzle into its foul-smelling maw.

"Bro Boar, drop some good loot, okay?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, Su Ye decisively pulled the trigger under the boar's clear yet utterly bewildered gaze.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The two bolts shot out, piercing straight through the boar's upper palate before punching out the back of its head in a vivid spray of blood.

"Aaargh!"

The boar let out an agonized squeal. Its massive body convulsed several times, the light gradually faded from its eyes, and it finally crashed to the ground, utterly lifeless.

The instant the boar died, two faintly glowing orbs burst out above its corpse.

Su Ye reached out to touch them.