Fine. He still had to clean up the dirty work himself.
Wang Tai, that old fox,
had executed a traitor to warn everyone while also binding himself and Qin Mao firmly together in a little circle.
He had even considered that the [Apocalypse Shipwright] Sequence required killing personally, doing Qin Mao a favor that cost him nothing.
The second time was easier than the first.
He raised his hammer and brought it down, decisively putting the man out of his misery.
Wang Tai's gun gained one bullet.
[Ding-you killed an ordinary human and gained 500 Kill Points.]
Qin Mao looked at the blood splashed on his clothes and listened to the system announce his Kill Points.
His heart, which should have been churning, was unexpectedly calm.
In fact, during those three months fleeing Bashu for the coast,
he and Su Miaomiao had already killed people.
To fight over supplies, to secure seats on a coach, to protect his mother, to drive away other male survivors with ill intentions toward Su Miaomiao...
Along the way, they had hurt many people, intentionally or otherwise.
If he boarded the coach, someone else would be left behind and caught by the horrors...
If he took an extra bottle of water while gathering supplies, someone else would have one less bottle and die of thirst...
If he severed the hand of a survivor who wanted to molest Su Miaomiao, that person would be more likely to die in the apocalypse...
In essence,
it was no different from swinging a hammer at someone now.
In the apocalypse, apart from certain utterly evil people who killed for pleasure,
everyone was merely trying to live a little better.
They were no different from dogs fighting over food in the wild or vines parasitizing trees.
"This is nature, Qin Mao. You don't need to blame yourself."
He said it softly to himself.
Nearby,
the crew members silently grumbled.
"This bastard didn't even blink when blood splashed onto his eyelids. Blood-Hand Qin Tu... that nickname doesn't go far enough!"
The feast ended amid the bliss of full bellies and the terror of bloodshed.
After the meal,
Wang Tai had Qin Mao take the coconut and brought him to the Captain's Quarters, where he slept.
Things were very fair aboard the Hope.
The rudimentary Captain's Quarters were nothing special.
Qin Mao had been here once on the day he boarded.
This time, however, Wang Tai shut and locked the door.
He opened a hidden compartment in a wooden cabinet in the corner.
Qin Mao's curiosity flared like willow fluff catching fire beneath a willow tree.
He stared fixedly at the compartment.
Wang Tai looked at him for several seconds, then spoke earnestly.
"Brother Qin, I really do consider you one of my own!"
"Brother Wang, I really do think of you as my brother, too..."
Since Wang Tai had gone that far, Qin Mao wasn't stingy with emotional support. He immediately followed his heart and delivered a deeply moving speech.
"Good. A good brother! I knew I hadn't misjudged you!"
After clapping him hard on the shoulder several times, Wang Tai slowly took the contents out of the hidden compartment.
A parchment scroll, an unidentified transparent oval bone fragment, a booklet, and a cork-stoppered test tube filled with pale green liquid.
"These...?"
Qin Mao looked at this junk, somewhat baffled.
He recognized the booklet. It was the ship's log, recording everything the Hope Fleet had seen and heard on this sea, and it was worth a fortune.
Everything else looked pretty useless.
Especially that green test tube.
There was actually a crack in its surface, with clumps of mold growing along it and a rotten stench, like a damaged carton of moldy yogurt.
Wang Tai explained, "Apart from this ship's log, everything here is Curio Material. Along with food, these are the most precious things aboard this ship."
After speaking, he carefully placed the coconut beside them.
Finally, he picked up the green test tube alone, his expression shifting.
Qin Mao asked, "Brother Wang, what's in that test tube?"
Wang Tai looked at him and softly uttered two words. "Sequence Potion."
"What?!"
Qin Mao sprang to his feet.
His knee slammed into the corner of the bed with a thud, but he couldn't spare a thought for the pain.
"This is the Sequence Potion everyone's been talking about, the one you can't buy even if you have the money?!"
"The Sequence Potion that can awaken an ordinary person into a Sequence Transcendent?!"
Wang Tai wasn't surprised by his reaction.
Everyone who saw a Sequence Potion with their own eyes looked this crazed.
"Brother Qin, wipe your drool! I'm only showing you because you've already awakened as a Sequence Transcendent. Otherwise, I'd never let you know about this!"
Each person could take a Sequence Potion only once in their life.
The probability of successfully awakening varied with the potion's quality.
Since Transcendents had already awakened, taking one would have no effect and might even cause adverse reactions.
That was why he dared to bring it out in front of Qin Mao.
What he didn't know was that, at this moment, Qin Mao's heart was like a male student who had scratched an itch through his trousers in the library, only to be reported by a junior female student for tapping out Morse code.
It trembled uncontrollably with excitement.
Get it! I have to get it!
Suppressing his excitement, he asked,
"Brother, since you've got something this good, why haven't you drunk it already?!"
Wang Tai gave a bitter smile.
"Because this one's only standard grade..."
"And it's a standard-grade potion with a damaged bottle, in a contaminated state..."
"No one knows what'll happen if I drink it. I might awaken as a Sequence Transcendent, or turn into a monster that's neither human nor ghost and knows nothing but killing, or simply die..."
As he spoke, he handed the test tube to Qin Mao to examine.
[Sequence Potion · Damaged] [Information]: A standard-grade Sequence Potion, but its bottle seems to have participated in a devastating battle and been cracked. Having been left for too long, its potency has greatly diminished and undergone unknown changes. It has a high probability of causing poisoning, mutation, instant death, and more. [Description]: Only a brave soul prepared to succeed or die trying would drink this stuff.
Sequence Potions weren't guaranteed to turn people into Transcendents, either.
Depending on the grade, standard-grade potions gave a 40% chance of awakening, superior-grade ones 80%, and perfect-grade ones 99%.
The final outcome was closely tied to each person's constitution.
Qin Mao understood once he finished reading.
He wouldn't drink this thing either if he were in Wang Tai's shoes.
Wang Tai took a deep drag on his cigarette.
"The risk was so great that I never had the courage to take it. But the world keeps getting more dangerous. If it hadn't been for you, I might have come close to dying today."
"Perhaps everyone has to choose between death and rebirth!"
Qin Mao's heart lurched, and he grew somewhat worried.
"Brother Wang, are you drinking it now?"
"...Tomorrow morning."
He turned his world-weary gaze toward the potion, seeming to sink into some memory, briefly lost in thought.
"Fourteen days ago, the Hope encountered a fleet. There was a [Diviner] aboard one of its ships."
"I privately traded a hundred jin of supplies for a divination, asking him to calculate when drinking this potion would give me... the best chance of awakening."
"The Diviner said that fourteen days later, at the very moment the sun rose, drinking it would guarantee awakening!"
"That's tomorrow morning!"
As he spoke, he returned the Sequence Potion to the hidden compartment.
"I don't know whether I should believe him, but I don't want to keep drifting along in a daze, worrying about what I might gain or lose."
"Tomorrow, then. Tomorrow, even if I die, at least I'll get one more look at the rising sun!"
His gaze gradually grew resolute, carrying the courage to face death in pursuit of life.
"All right, let's head out!"
"Sure, brother. I'll lock it for you! These are treasures. They have to be locked up properly!"
"All right... Ah, if I really do die tomorrow, I'll have to leave the Hope in your hands, brother!"
"Pah, pah, pah! Brother, what are you talking about? Heaven protects good men like you. You'll definitely be fine!"
Heh. This was just like Liu Bei telling Zhuge Liang to take his place before he died.
Had Zhuge Liang so much as nodded, armed executioners might have come rushing out.
Qin Mao naturally took the key ring from Wang Tai, turned his back, and hooked the iron lock back onto the hidden compartment.
Then he turned the key twice, locking it completely.
Out of sight,
he quietly slipped a hand into his jacket pocket and grasped a small piece of wood sawed off while repairing the ship.
His eyes stayed on the key's shape, size, and teeth as he silently recited,
System, upgrade!
[Ding-wood block detected. Repair/upgrade?]
Upgrade!
[Ding-host's Kill Point balance: 2,200. Spend 50 points to upgrade the wood block?]
Of those, 500 had come from executing the gaunt man today, 800 were left over from before, and the remaining 900 had been accumulated bit by bit from killing fish lately.
Yes!
[Upgrading...]
A tiny whirlwind stirred inside Qin Mao's pocket.
"Lock the door too! Brother Qin, tonight... let's throw a grand banquet!"
"Of course, brother!"
Qin Mao obediently locked the door to the Captain's Quarters.
He secured it with the key, then stared at the door key and quietly grasped another piece of wood in his pocket.
System... upgrade again!
After seeing that Sequence Potion, all the clues finally connected!
He finally had a rough understanding of the 14-Day Curse that had hung over him since his very first day aboard!
The escape plan in his mind quickly integrated the current circumstances, becoming more complete.
Good thing I already prepared plenty of backup measures.
He smiled.
After all, leaving his fate in the hands of whether someone else could awaken...
was such a foolish thing to do!
Before you continue