A Major Upgrade

This was Leo's first time seeing Yang Bo's amazing ability. At first, he had thought Yang Bo could only hide the weapons in his hands, but now it was clear that his ability was far more powerful than Leo had guessed.

Yang Bo had deliberately shown off his strength in front of Leo. Taking Leo and the others out to kill vampires like this was bound to draw attention. In fact, the vampires might already have their eyes on them. A little flexing would let Leo and the others know how strong he was. If the vampires really did capture them and wanted the three of them to sell him out, they would have to offer a much higher price.

"Clean up the scene. Let's get out of here!"

Hearing Yang Bo's instructions, Kerry, the young Black man, and Gore dug all the metal objects out of the vampires' ashes, then scattered the last traces of their existence with a kick, leaving not even their ashes intact.

Leo glanced at the man and woman lying on the ground nearby and asked, "Yang Bo, what's the deal with those two? Are they vampires too?"

Yang Bo narrowed his eyes and walked over to check on them. Finding that neither was a character from the original story, he waved a hand and said, "They're 'food' the vampires found. They're just unconscious. Toss them by the roadside so they don't get run over. Someone will find them during the day and get them to a hospital. That part isn't our concern."

As he spoke, he grabbed the woman by her clothes, hauled her up, and dumped her by the roadside. Leo was even rougher, dragging the man across the road by his arm without even slowing down when he reached the curb...

Yang Bo's eyelid twitched at the sight. He brushed nonexistent dust off his hands and opened his mouth, but in the end, all he said was, "Let's go!"

The car sped along until they reached the abandoned construction site Kerry had mentioned. The whole place had been fenced off, blocking any view of the interior. Yang Bo pushed open the car door and told the others, "I'll go in first. Wait here for a bit. If I'm not out in half an hour, just leave without me."

With that, he pried open the wire fence around the perimeter and strode inside. Plenty of building materials lay around the abandoned site, though most of them were lumber and boards.

"Uh, no I-beams here, just some rebar... But that should smelt into iron too. I just don't know how much it'll take to make one iron ingot."

I-beams were needed for factory buildings, while ordinary buildings only required rebar and poured concrete. Still, looking at the scaffolding piled in a corner and the rebar used for the main structure, Yang Bo felt the trip had already been worthwhile.

As he mined the rebar on the ground with his pickaxe, he began judging his own actions.

Isn't this a little unethical? Isn't this stealing?

Smack! He slapped himself.

Quit overthinking and get back to work!

Under cover of the deep night, Yang Bo filled his inventory with all kinds of metal objects. Delighted with his haul, he retraced his steps to the car.

"Come on, drop me off at Central Park first. Then you guys should get out of town and lie low for a while."

A few dozen minutes later, the car came to a smooth stop outside Central Park. Yang Bo opened the door and got out. Watching him walk away, Leo finally couldn't resist asking.

"Yang Bo, do you live in the park?"

Yang Bo looked back at Leo and bluffed with a perfectly serious expression. "That's right. Nature makes me stronger!"

With that, he waved goodbye to the three of them and walked toward the distant woods, leaving them utterly bewildered.

Back home, Yang Bo eagerly took out the night's haul and stuffed it into the furnace. Watching the furnace light up, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He sprawled bonelessly across the soft couch, shifting a couple of times to get more comfortable. Though he could no longer feel tired, that was no reason to deny himself a little comfort.

He took out the stolen phone and inserted the SIM card Leo had bought him.

"Heh heh, I'm in the United States now. I can go straight to Pornhub without having to get around the firewall anymore."

At that moment, he finally felt one of the perks of being transported to another world.

But once the phone powered on, his expression froze.

"Fuck, no signal? Are American telecom companies eating shit? I'm in Manhattan!"

Yang Bo was so angry he nearly hurled the phone away, but his last shred of reason saved it.

"Whew. The phone's mine. Don't punish yourself for someone else's shortcomings."

After thinking it over, Yang Bo decided the lack of reception was probably because his home was too deep underground. He was more than ten meters below the surface, and deep inside the park at that. He couldn't put all the blame on the telecom company.

"I'll harvest the wheat and trees first. Once all the iron's smelted, I'll go buy some string and see if it can turn into Minecraft string. If it can, that'll open up all sorts of possibilities."

Once he had string, Yang Bo planned to stay home and fish. He would be able to get food and reel in all kinds of enchanted books, killing several birds with one stone.

He took out some cobblestone and crafted nine furnaces in one go, placing them beside the original furnace. That dramatically increased the speed at which he could smelt iron.

As time ticked by, Yang Bo didn't sit idle either. He began a thorough overhaul and renovation of his underground home, though the stolen electrical appliances gave him a headache.

"Ah, I was so busy grabbing things that I forgot I don't even have electricity at home. That's a problem too. If only I had a power-generation mod!"

He took the car out of his inventory and carefully inspected the items left inside. From the glove compartment on the passenger side, he retrieved a black handgun.

Yang Bo picked up the handgun and raised an eyebrow. This was his first time getting his hands on "freedom."

Unfortunately, he knew little about weapons and had no idea what model the handgun was. Rubbing his chin, he muttered, "Why do I suddenly feel like shooting something now that I've got this?"

Weapons, whether blades or firearms, held an irresistible appeal for men, and Yang Bo was no exception!

After playing with it for a good while, he put the handgun into his inventory. It might not be useful against vampires, but the vampires had plenty of human traitors working for them. This would be just the thing to send them on their way.

The flames in the furnaces gradually died out. It wasn't that all the iron ingots had finished smelting, but that he had run out of wood.

"Four stacks of iron ingots should be enough for the early game. I'll make a full set of iron armor and tools first. Oh, and an anvil. I'll need one sooner or later anyway."

Yang Bo felt no different after putting on the equipment. The iron armor seemed almost illusory, causing him no discomfort whatsoever.

"Finally, I've got armor. Now that's a major upgrade!"