"Check-in successful. Received 20 yuan. Balance: 34 yuan."
The corresponding notification made Luo Fan open his eyes.
What? 20 yuan?
"At Lv1, check-in gave me 10 yuan. Now that I'm Lv2, it gives me 20 yuan?"
"Wow, with 20 yuan in daily check-in funds, I'll have food and drink even without scavenging for supplies, won't I?"
"And what if I keep leveling up? Will the check-in funds keep increasing?"
He opened his shop and checked. Sure enough, the balance displayed on the shop page had indeed reached 34 yuan.
But although his balance had increased, the items on his shop page had not refreshed, making Luo Fan shake his head.
He had no idea when the next refresh would be.
Before long, Uncle Li's voice rang out, calling everyone to set off again.
Zhao Chunfeng had said earlier that they could only rest for four hours, so by midnight, it was about time.
Everyone got up and started moving. Zhao Chunfeng's off-road vehicle led, followed by Niu Dagang's bus, Luo Fan's small truck, and then Rose's van.
The convoy set off, with sixty or seventy ordinary survivors following behind.
Led by the off-road vehicle, they wound their way along for the rest of the night. As the first rays of sunlight began shining on the land from the east, the convoy stopped on a patch of wasteland.
Because it had rained, the convoy had been well supplied with water lately.
On top of that, several Sequence Users had joined forces yesterday to kill an Entered the Rank Fierce Beast and divided its meat. As a result, anyone with some supplies brought things to the Sequence Users, hoping to trade for some bear bones to make soup.
They all understood that eating the meat would increase the Sequence Users' strength, so they did not dare hope for meat. They only wanted some bones.
For ordinary people, eating Fierce Beast meat was also highly nourishing. It could even help them recover quickly from minor illnesses such as colds and fevers.
As the one who had received the most black bear meat, Luo Fan naturally had plenty of people coming to trade with him.
Food, drinks, clothing, and so on-as long as something was useful, Luo Fan was happy to trade.
They had been traveling since midnight, and many people were hungry, so everyone in the convoy was preparing breakfast.
It was worth mentioning that, because the survivors absorbed from the Luo Family Town Squad had no supplies, Zhao Chunfeng had generously lent them roughly three days' worth of survival supplies.
He also said that, the next time they scavenged for supplies, all of them had to go and then repay what they owed.
With nothing to eat or drink, these survivors naturally nodded and agreed.
Whatever happened, they would get through their immediate predicament first.
Luo Fan took out a good amount of bear meat, built a campfire, and hung the meat over it to roast. As the flames flickered, he sprinkled on some salt, pepper, cumin, and other seasonings.
Soon, the aroma of meat spread through the air.
Not only did the black bear provide plenty of meat, but more importantly, its meat smelled far better than the Fire Rotbird's.
All he could say was that, although they were both Entered the Rank Fierce Beasts, the difference between them was still considerable.
"Oh? Roasting meat? I'll join you." Following the aroma, Zhao Chunfeng brought over two jin of meat, hung it over Luo Fan's campfire, then helped himself to Luo Fan's seasonings and sprinkled them onto his meat.
Over by the bus, Niu Dagang saw Luo Fan, An Xiaoran, and Zhao Chunfeng gathered around roasting meat. Three of the four Sequence Users were already there. Naturally, he had no intention of isolating himself, and he brought over several jin of meat as well.
"Luo Fan, that bow of yours-is it easy to use?" Zhao Chunfeng stirred the burning firewood and asked Luo Fan in a casual, conversational manner.
Clearly, he had personally witnessed Luo Fan use Luo Dahai's bow and arrow to shoot Luo Xiaohai dead.
"Yes. Although it has a pair of eyes that look rather eerie and frightening, perhaps it's precisely because of those eyes that it comes with an opponent lock-on function. It really is easy to use." Luo Fan nodded.
The assassination sequence fought at close range, but it lacked the sturdy physique and high bodily defense of the melee sequence.
So, at his low level, he really was fragile and in danger.
Now that he had a bow that provided a means of attacking at medium and long range, it was naturally very important to Luo Fan.
"You know the characteristics of Uncanny Artifacts, don't you?" Zhao Chunfeng seemed to think of something and suddenly reminded Luo Fan.
"Characteristics? What characteristics?" Luo Fan looked at Zhao Chunfeng in confusion.
Well, it had only been a few days since Luo Fan awakened his sequence, so it was normal for him not to know.
"Uncanny Artifacts are tools made using materials taken from uncanny beings."
"So, as a rule, Uncanny Artifacts possess special supernatural abilities."
"However, Uncanny Artifacts aren't that simple to use. All Uncanny Artifacts actually follow some principle of equivalent exchange."
"In other words, using an Uncanny Artifact requires paying some kind of price, or simply suffering a side effect," Zhao Chunfeng cautioned.
"Huh?"
Hearing this, Luo Fan looked shocked. There were actually restrictions like that on using Uncanny Artifacts?
If Zhao Chunfeng had not told him, he would have had no idea.
"Then how can you find out what an Uncanny Artifact's side effects, or its price, are?" Luo Fan thought it over. He had used it several times, but had not noticed anything unusual at all.
Presumably, Luo Dahai had known, but unfortunately, Luo Fan had already killed him.
"With some Uncanny Artifacts, you learn the side effects as soon as you use them. But with others, they're better hidden. You might only find out when you actually encounter them."
"Especially with the latter, if the side effect is something terrible, like a slow-acting poison, it might already be too late by the time you notice."
"Your bow is probably that kind."
"So, until you know exactly what its side effects are, try to use it as little as possible," Zhao Chunfeng cautioned.
"Yes, understood." Hearing this, Luo Fan nodded seriously.
"Of course, Uncanny Artifacts generally follow another rule: the more powerful the artifact, the greater its side effects. It's not absolute, but it usually applies to most of them." Then Zhao Chunfeng thought of something else and added another reminder.
As they chatted, the meat was soon cooked. Luo Fan took his off the fire and used his short blade to cut it into small pieces, as though cutting a steak.
Then Luo Fan took out four bottles of drinks, one for each of them.
But looking at the drink in front of her, An Xiaoran merely ate her roasted meat in silence, showing no intention of touching it.
Luo Fan asked, "You don't like cola?"
An Xiaoran shook her head slightly.
Then Luo Fan replaced it with a bottle of fruit juice. But An Xiaoran still shook her head.
Next, Luo Fan replaced it with a bottle of Nutri-Express. An Xiaoran shook her head again.
This kid really is a picky eater. Seeing how hard An Xiaoran was to please, the corner of Luo Fan's mouth twitched.
Remembering that she had finished the carton of plain milk he had given her earlier, Luo Fan could only open the shop helplessly and spend three yuan to buy her another carton.
There was nothing he could do. His drinks had all come from the boiled-food shop. It had all kinds of drinks, but no plain milk...
After eating his fill, Luo Fan felt something like a warm current in his abdomen. This was the energy contained in the Fierce Beast meat being rapidly digested and absorbed.
The energy spread throughout his limbs and body, increasing Luo Fan's strength bit by bit...
Just as Luo Fan lay inside his truck, peacefully feeling his strength increase, someone suddenly knocked on the door.
"Luo Fan, come out for a moment. There's something I'd like to discuss with you."
Zhao Chunfeng deliberately kept his voice low, seemingly not wanting anyone else to know.
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