Repairing the dagger

Damn it!

The sudden turn of events had thrown Jiang He's plans into disarray.

In his previous life, like the other survivors, he had rushed off to search for supplies as soon as the vehicle stopped. He had no idea the old woman would get into a fight with the man!

He looked down at the watch on his wrist.

Ten thirty...

No, that isn't right!

I remember getting back to the campsite for the first time at eleven forty-five, and everyone was still fine then!

Wait a little longer!

He forced himself to be patient. Something he didn't know about must have happened in the meantime!

Jiang He quietly opened the window on his side of the vehicle, in case his guess was wrong and he couldn't escape...

Fortunately, Xiao Wu, who had been sitting beside him, had already gotten off, so jumping out the window wouldn't be difficult!

The two were still struggling over the urn. With both of the man's hands on it, the blood he coughed up had splattered everywhere.

Seeing that the old woman had the man's full attention, Jiang He grew bolder with his knife sharpening.

"Let go~~~"

A hoarse roar came from the man's mouth, like an angry animal's whimper. It made the hairs on Jiang He's body stand on end.

But the old woman wasn't afraid in the slightest. Not only did she show no intention of letting go, she opened her mouth and bit at the man's arm.

Fuck!

Did I guess wrong?

Jiang He's experience from his previous life told him that if she landed that bite, the man's mutation would be a sure thing!

The dagger still hadn't been repaired, so his only choice was to run...

Jiang He put both feet out the window. Just as he was about to climb all the way through,

a deep male voice suddenly rang out inside the vehicle:

"On my vehicle, you follow my rules! If you two want to fight, get out!"

The voice was so piercing that it made everyone's eardrums ache.

Jiang He, who had been moving at top speed, abruptly froze and looked toward the source of the voice in surprise.

The speaker was the vehicle's driver, Old Wang, a frail man in his thirties or forties.

In Jiang He's memory, Old Wang wasn't very old, and his skin was very pale.

It wasn't quite right to say he looked young, though, because his pale skin had many wrinkles.

Whenever someone brought up his skin, Old Wang would get angry.

After a while, no one was willing to talk to him anymore.

When the two who were arguing heard Old Wang's angry shout, they both stopped what they were doing, as if by unspoken agreement.

Cough, cough... cough, cough!

The coughing in his ears grew less intense again. After thinking for a moment, Jiang He decided to stop watching the man.

That way, he could do nothing but watch the man mutate.

He might as well get off the vehicle, find a stone, and finish grinding the dagger as quickly as possible!

With that thought, he got up at once.

The man didn't react at all when Jiang He passed him. The old woman sitting by the window beside him, however, glanced at Jiang He with a look of admiration.

Jiang He guessed she was probably grateful to him...

He stepped out of the vehicle and took a deep breath of fresh air. His tension eased considerably.

He had also considered running away first, then coming back for the urn after the monster left.

But without knowing the exact details, he might lose track of where the crystal ended up!

Who knew whether the monster would still leave the urn behind without him there this time around...

Alas! I'll just have to take it one step at a time. If I get a chance to kill the man before he mutates and snatch the urn, that would be best, of course!

If I don't get a chance... then I'll make one!

This was the closest Jiang He had ever come to gaining a superpower!

He had long since had enough of being oppressed by superpowered people in his previous life. If he missed this opportunity again after being reborn,

he might as well let a monster slap him to death!

In the apocalypse, living as an ordinary person was suffering anyway. Even with a Sequence Wonder, if he wasn't strong enough himself, he still couldn't escape death...

Take a gamble, and a little chicken can become a great Buddha!

Damn it! I'm going for it!

He glanced toward the gas station in the distance, and Jiang He quickly settled on a place to sharpen his knife!

He jogged over at a brisk pace.

At the gas station, several young people were gathered with fuel cans.

In the apocalypse, there weren't many gas stations still usable like this one, so the convoy needed to stock up on fuel in one go.

These college students who hadn't graduated yet were naturally the obvious choice for the hard labor!

The group barely reacted when they saw Jiang He approaching and continued chatting and laughing together.

Jiang He was naturally quite happy about that. He wanted nothing more than for them to stay far away and leave him alone...

He went up to a gas pump and looked down at the base beneath it. This kind of lime mixed with gravel was naturally an ideal choice for sharpening a knife!

Scrape... scrape!

The sound of sharpening reached the ears of the college students. It interrupted their conversation and laughter, while also stirring a trace of fear in them.

Before the apocalypse, with seven or eight of them together, they naturally wouldn't have been afraid of a fight.

But things were different now. Who knew whether that grating sound was coming from a monster...

After all, ordinary people were utterly powerless to fight back against those monsters!

"He couldn't be..."

One of the group, a somewhat shorter, chubby young man, couldn't help swallowing as he broke the silence.

At his words, the others immediately shuddered.

They looked at one another.

"Ah!"

Someone couldn't take it anymore and was the first to scream.

The college students no longer cared about filling the cans. They picked them up and fled toward the camp.

Watching them flee in such a sorry state, Jiang He couldn't help shaking his head and chuckling, though he also felt a trace of unease.

He hadn't scared these college students away in his previous life...

I just hope this little incident won't affect when the man mutates!

After several rounds of grinding, the rust had come off the dagger.

[ Ding ]

[ The conditions for repairing the Bloodsucking Dagger have been met. Spend 450 system points to repair it? ]

As soon as Jiang He opened the panel, the system notification sounded in his head.

Without the slightest hesitation, he confirmed!

[ Repairing damaged strange object: Bloodsucking Dagger. Estimated repair time: 50 minutes. Please wait patiently, host! ]

Fifty minutes?

That's just enough time to check those supply spots!

In his previous life, Jiang He had found plenty of supplies around this little gas station.

Since he had nothing else to do now, he might as well take the opportunity to gather more food and tools!

With that thought, he quickly got up and stamped his somewhat numb legs.

He headed straight for the nearest supply spot!

With his memories of his previous life to help him, Jiang He didn't need to search from room to room.

So he gathered in just forty minutes the supplies that would otherwise have taken him one or two hours to find.

Nine minutes left!

He opened the system panel and saw that it would still be a while before the dagger was fully repaired.

Jiang He chose not to rest. Instead, he sorted all the supplies he had gathered and packed them into another backpack.

Not only was the backpack on his chest bulging now, but so was the one on his back!

When I get back to the convoy, I have to find somewhere to hide the backpacks!

That way, I won't lose the supplies during the fight!

[ Bloodsucking Dagger repair complete! Host may retrieve it at any time! ]

[ Ding ]

[ Achievement unlocked! ]

[ Just Starting Out: rewarded with two storage slots! ]