Work on refining the spiritual energy materials had begun, and the first material gave Li Xingkong a flying start. He got what he needed in just one attempt, which gave him a good deal of confidence.
Luck, however, was truly impossible to fathom. When luck was on his side, he might get several materials in a single day, but when it was against him, it was perfectly normal to go weeks without a trace of one.
Moreover, although Li Xingkong's physique was a little stronger than an ordinary person's, the difference was limited. It couldn't support the system using his body for material scans without restriction, so he could only carry out one blasting attempt a day.
Two straight weeks of failure made Li Xingkong begin to doubt his luck. Or rather, he had begun to doubt whether he could gather all the materials at all. If he was a complete non-African, then he had little hope of refining spiritual energy in this lifetime.
There was nothing he could do. At this point, science could no longer help him.
It was time to try metaphysics. Li Xingkong cleared out a room specifically to worship the God of Wealth.
Although the God of Wealth didn't deal with luck, it was something to pin his hopes on, wasn't it?
Even a staunch nonbeliever would be polite upon meeting the God of Wealth. Nobody would pick a fight with the God of Wealth, would they?
Since he had plenty to do during the day, Li Xingkong did most of his studying at night after going to sleep. That was the only time when nothing could disturb him and he could devote himself entirely to his studies.
Early in the morning, Li Xingkong got up and washed first. Then he burned incense, worshipped the God of Wealth, and prayed to the gods for a little good luck before starting today's experiment.
If a Prisoner Continent local saw him, they would surely think he was performing some mysterious Eastern ritual.
"Today is our sixteenth blasting test on the iron powder. Hopefully this one works."
Li Xingkong took another portion of explosives from the warehouse and put it in the sealed room. The room had long since been blasted black and blue, to the point that its original appearance was completely unrecognizable.
"Metal materials are difficult to break down to begin with. We might need a few more attempts at this," the system replied, sounding a little weary too. "I'm so tired. I want to hurry up too. Your body is too low-level. Possessing it is like playing computer games for ages and then switching to a Subor console. I don't want to stay in it at all!"
"Tch, I don't even want to let you use it. When you use my body, I feel like I'm being NTR'd."
Li Xingkong grumbled as he set the materials in place, then walked over to the detonator.
"Hopefully it'll go smoothly this time."
Just as Li Xingkong was about to press the detonator, he heard the distant sound of motorcycles.
It was loud and noisy, sounding like the roar of several bikes.
Li Xingkong looked in the direction of the sound. A dozen or so black dots were speeding toward him, trailing a great cloud of dust.
"Strange. Hardly anyone ever comes down this road," Li Xingkong muttered to himself. Then his pupils contracted, and his gaze sharpened.
He adjusted his eyesight so he could see farther and more clearly. He wanted to see just who would pass through a place where even birds didn't shit.
The motorcycles in the distance were painted in red and green, giving off a kind of chaotic beauty that reminded Li Xingkong of the motorcycle he had taken a few days ago.
"Shit, don't tell me they're together!" Li Xingkong's heart gave a sudden jolt, and a strange sense of danger surged into his head. He had a strong feeling these people were connected to the conflict a few days earlier.
"Whatever. Better safe than sorry!" Li Xingkong set the experiment aside for the moment and hurried to the room where the explosives were stored.
Though he couldn't be a hundred percent certain, simply standing around was clearly not the best approach.
Whether they were coming for him or not, under the circumstances, having a weapon in hand would put him a little more at ease.
The riders were still a few minutes away, so Li Xingkong prepared to use that time to make some arrangements.
All he had was one gun and a pile of explosives.
The gun was quite a deterrent against a single person, but clearly there were more than one or two people coming. For that, explosives would be more effective.
No matter how many there were, one package of explosives would put them all on the ground.
If they were polite, so much the better. That would save him some effort. After all, he wasn't some bomber, and if he damaged the road, it would be bad if patrol officers came to investigate.
But if it came to a fight, he wasn't afraid either.
Although he only had one gun, his marksmanship wasn't much good-or rather, he had no marksmanship to speak of.
When he fired a gun now, he relied entirely on his own control, using brute force to hold the muzzle in the direction he wanted to shoot. As for the recoil, he adjusted his body's condition to disperse the force throughout it.
When it came to shooting techniques, aiming, hitting moving targets, and the like, he was still a complete beginner. Aside from knowing how to fire a gun and being reasonably accurate against stationary targets, he had a long way to go in every other respect.
Still, there was nothing else he could do. Li Xingkong took several deep breaths, found a fence that would make reasonably good cover, and stood beside it to wait for them.
Before long, a great crowd of people rode up to Li Xingkong's house. They slowed down and began circling it.
As they rode in circles, some whistled and others shouted, seemingly calling for someone to come out.
After spotting Li Xingkong, several of the riders nodded to one another and slowed down.
Two motorcycles broke away from the circling group and stopped in front of Li Xingkong.
On the leading bike was a middle-aged man dressed as a cowboy. His outfit was extremely retro: a cowboy hat, a blue jacket, jeans, and cowboy boots with long spurs at the heels. Together with his specially styled inverted-U-shaped beard, he looked every bit the cowboy.
The bikes that had broken away from the group stopped at Li Xingkong's gate, and the man dressed as a cowboy spoke.
"Kid, you offended our Motorcycle Gang, and you still dare to stay in Nature City instead of leaving. Think you're not dying fast enough?"
As he spoke, he stopped his bike and pulled a shotgun from the back of it that looked like it could cure anyone's fear of insufficient firepower.
"If others don't offend me, I don't offend them. You were the ones who thought I was easy to bully first."
Li Xingkong had never put his gun down, keeping it clutched in his hand from the start.
"Ha, a lady's gun? So you're a lady, huh? Hahaha!"
The cowboy laughed when he saw the gun in Li Xingkong's hand, and when he said that, his underlings laughed merrily too.
"It's just a gun. As long as it works."
Li Xingkong didn't mind. He had taken the gun from someone else in the first place, and he hadn't gone out to buy another. One gun was already enough for him.
"So, how about this? Come apologize to my brother today, then crawl between his legs and call him daddy a few times, and we'll let you go."
The cowboy's demands were extremely harsh.
"I think you need to give that some more thought."
As Li Xingkong replied, he pulled out a detonator with his other hand and held it up.
"Trying to scare me with that thing, huh?"
The cowboy laughed. He had been around Prisoner Continent for so long, but this was the first time he had met someone like this.
The guy had a gun, but it was a crappy lady's gun. One look was enough to tell he was an outsider who had just arrived. And now he dared to pull out a detonator too? Who would believe it was real?
Li Xingkong didn't waste words on him. He simply tossed the detonator in his hand toward the spot where the riders were circling back and forth.
Though they said they didn't believe the thing was real, staying alive was what mattered most in their line of work. The gang of thugs on their bikes immediately scattered.
The detonator was meant to establish his authority, so of course Li Xingkong set it off.
As for whether to wipe out the whole group, he would first see if he could scare them.
After all, as an exemplary young man, he still couldn't just kill people on a whim.
Besides, if he wiped them out, who knew whether more people would come looking for trouble afterward?
If he wanted people to stop looking for trouble with him, the best way was to become someone they were even less willing to cross.