Li Ke sped through his quests at a breakneck pace. Thanks to his newly boosted stamina stats, he managed to clear all four missions in under two hours.
To top off his good fortune, he even stumbled upon a cement mixer buried deep inside a pile of ruins. Sadly, the machine was broken, but he planned to inspect it later to see if there was any way to patch it up.
The rewards for completing those four quests were exceptionally generous, granting Li Ke one item that was absolutely crucial for his long-term survival:
A crucible.
Without a crucible, it was impossible to forge steel bars, and without steel bars, crafting reinforced concrete was entirely out of the question. Naturally, Li Ke was ecstatic.
The other three reward choices didn't disappoint either, netting him two handy wrenches and a stash of twenty herbal antibiotics. Antibiotics were incredibly valuable since they could drastically reduce infection levels—a lifesaver now that the trader had completely run out of honey.
However, despite his own productive run, the sheer mining efficiency of Kiri and Tsunade still managed to leave Li Ke utterly dumbfounded.
"You guys are ridiculously fast..."
Staring at the massive mining pit before him—which stretched at least ten meters deep and nearly thirty meters wide—Li Ke stood frozen in sheer shock. Meanwhile, Kiri, who was leaning casually against her iron pickaxe with dirt smudged all over her face and clothes, didn't think it was a big deal at all.
"A single swing or two easily shatters a whole cubic meter of dirt and rock. Honestly, I feel like I'm moving kind of slow. We didn't know exactly where you planned to build your fortress, so I was actually a little worried we might accidentally hollow out your base's foundation."
Kiri spoke in her usual boisterous manner, taking a hearty swig from a mug of beer. Li Ke tactfully didn't ask where she had managed to score an ice-cold beverage. However, Kiri chose that exact moment to give the collar of her shirt a heavy tug to vent some heat, sending the pungent odor of raw sweat straight into Li Ke's face.
She was completely different from someone like Erina. While Erina might have a bit of a scent after a rigorous workout, it was always faint and tolerable.
Kiri was an entirely different beast. She didn't smell when she was resting, but the moment she broke a sweat, a heavy, salty musk filled the air, mingled with the sharp tang of gunpowder and heavy engine oil.
Li Ke couldn't help but fan the air in front of his nose. He cast a look of pure, unvarnished disgust at Kiri's chest, which was thoroughly caked in grime and glistening with beads of sweat.
A few hours ago, the view would have been incredibly alluring. Right now? Not so much.
"Hehehe!"
Catching the look of utter revulsion on Li Ke's face, Kiri burst into a mischievous laugh. With a sudden leap, she lunged straight at Li Ke and ruthlessly locked his head tightly under her armpit, forcing him to get a full, unfiltered whiff of her hard-earned sweat.
Li Ke felt his face slam into a surprisingly soft patch of skin, followed instantly by a suffocating wave of sweat, pungent tobacco smoke, and stale beer. He could tolerate the first two, but the heavy reek of alcohol was simply too much to bear.
He thrashed wildly to break free from her chokehold. By the time he finally pulled away, his own face was completely smeared with the dirt and soot covering Kiri's body—though, to be fair, he wasn't exactly sparkling clean himself.
Just as Li Ke opened his mouth, ready to unleash a barrage of complaints, he spotted Tsunade dragging her feet out of the pit. She was equally covered in layer after layer of dust and looked like she was in a thoroughly foul mood.
Seeing her expression, Li Ke wisely decided to change his tune instantly.
"I remember seeing a sewing station for sale over at the trader's shop, and it wasn't even that expensive. I'll buy it in a bit so we can craft you guys some fresh clothes."
"No need to waste your money on that. It's not like I haven't survived much worse conditions than this," Kiri replied, shaking her head.
During the darkest days of the Resistance, those bastards from Ghent had relentlessly bombarded them for half a month straight. Back then, they couldn't even dream of changing clothes—heck, even urine practically became a vital military resource! Compared to that nightmare, a little dirt and sweat was absolutely nothing.
"Besides, shouldn't there be some old clothes scattered inside those abandoned houses? We can just wear those. You need to save your money for more useful things anyway. And when it comes to clothes, I can totally make them myself."
Kiri pulled out a single Duke's Casino Token, flipping it idly in the air with a confident grin stretching across her face.
"Don't look down on a kid who grew up in Ghent! From repairing complex heavy machinery down to fine embroidery and babysitting—I can do it all! Not to mention hand-crafting grenades, molotovs, or even a full-blown Gatling gun out of scrap, yours truly can whip it up for you! There is literally nothing I can't build!"
To emphasize her point, Kiri gave her own chest a boisterous, uninhibited slap, causing her impressive assets to jiggle violently.
"Uh..."
Li Ke's gaze shifted away awkwardly, and the mention of machinery instantly reminded him of the broken cement mixer he had just dragged back.
But a split second later, a far more mind-blowing detail caught his attention. Wait a minute...
"Did you just say you know how to hand-craft grenades?"
Li Ke stared at Kiri, his eyes practically burning with intense excitement.
"Uh, yeah... I mean, supply lines cut off all the time out on the field, so we frequently had to improvise and forge our own explosives."
Uncomfortable under Li Ke's intensely burning gaze, Kiri took a hasty step back to put some distance between them.
"What raw materials do you need for them?"
"Tin cans or metal containers, gunpowder, and fuses—those are absolute musts... Wait, you're not planning to lock me in a room and make me mass-produce grenades forever, are you? Give up on that dream, it's impossible. The resources you have here are nowhere near enough. At best, I could slap together some crude pipe bombs or landmines. Crafting proper military-grade grenades is out of the question with this junk. Plus, we don't have any gasoline or motor oil lying around, so making Molotov cocktails is a no-go either."
Kiri shook her head flatly. Li Ke didn't have any proper tools at his disposal. Forget about precision spare parts, he didn't even own a basic lathe. How was she supposed to work miracles?
By using the power of friendship?
"Ah, I see..."
Li Ke's excitement instantly plummeted. But right as disappointment set in, a sudden flash of genius struck his mind.
"Hey, Kiri."
He raised his hand and pointed directly at a large, empty oil barrel sitting near the camp.
"If we modify that gas barrel, pack a massive bundle of TNT inside, and light it up... wouldn't that basically turn it into a makeshift mortar?"
He vaguely recalled reading about a legendary improvised weapon just like that from history books back on Earth.
"What are you even talking—"
Kiri's words cut off halfway. She froze dead in her tracks as the concept registered. It... actually wasn't entirely impossible. But she quickly shook her head to stay grounded.
"Wait, you might actually be onto something there. But it's incredibly dangerous. Without proper reinforcement, the barrel could easily rupture and blow us all to pieces. You don't have a welding torch or anything useful here, so it's a real headache for me to build. Still... it wouldn't hurt to run a few tests and try it out."
She threw her hands up, flashing a thoroughly helpless but intrigued expression.
"I see... In that case, I'll have you focus on crafting some landmines that can be detonated with gunfire instead, Kiri. Otherwise, even if we manage to finish building a proper fortress, I'm still going to feel incredibly anxious."
Li Ke sighed. Kiri hadn't witnessed the terrifying zombie horde with her own eyes, so she couldn't possibly comprehend the deep-seated dread eating away at him. He could understand where she was coming from.
The game system's items were undeniably powerful, but they came with a glaring weakness: everything was bound by rigid digital stats.
A physical wooden frame could withstand a normal assault in reality, but a digital one with set health points could not. The system-crafted wooden blocks he had laid down earlier had been utterly shredded under the relentless onslaught of the zombies.
He was genuinely terrified that their reinforced concrete fortress would suffer the exact same fate. Because of this anxiety, his gaze kept drifting toward the ultimate, indestructible Trader walls.
If worst comes to worst, I might actually have to build a floating base, he thought. Not completely suspended in midair, of course, but using a single bedrock pillar or an isolated cliff island as a pivot point, while leaving myself a clear escape route for emergencies.
"Don't worry, I can definitely handle that much," Kiri nodded, snapping him out of his thoughts. Making safe, standard grenades was a hassle, but putting together simple proximity mines was an absolute piece of cake.
"Good to hear. Let's get right back to mining then."
Checking the time, Li Ke saw it was only around ten in the morning. With a faint smile, he pulled out his pickaxe and shovel, joining the two women to dig into the earth.
Watching the mountain of raw ore pile up brought a deep sense of security to Li Ke's heart. The forge blazed continuously, smelting down materials into pristine components. At one point, he took a quick break to go outside and chop down a few trees to keep the forge fueled. He then channeled their entire stockpile of iron toward mass-producing the ultimate high-tier material: forged steel.
The three of them slaved away until late in the afternoon before finally stopping to eat. Li Ke was teeming with energy thanks to his newly allocated stat points, while Kiri and Tsunade were far from ordinary humans. Consequently, they had only grabbed a quick, casual bite at noon before plunging right back into the grueling manual labor.
By five in the evening, all three of them had thoroughly drained their stamina bars. To ensure they were fully rested for whatever threats lay ahead, they decided to call it a day.
It was only after they had eaten their dinner and washed up that Li Ke suddenly realized he had completely overlooked a massive detail.
He had forgotten to craft beds.
Fortunately, none of them were the type to throw a tantrum over sleeping arrangements. Thus, the three of them piled into Li Ke's tiny, makeshift wooden "coffin box" house and drifted off to sleep.
However...
Deep in the heavy throes of slumber, Li Ke suddenly felt as if a massive python had tightly coiled itself around him. The air was being violently squeezed out of his lungs, and a suffocating sensation of impending death washed over him.
Gasping for breath, he thrashed wildly until he managed to wrench himself awake from the nightmare. It was only then that he realized he wasn't being constricted by a giant snake at all. Kiri had wrapped herself around his arm like a child hugging a giant teddy bear, completely burying his face into her chest.
Li Ke shoved Kiri away with every ounce of strength he could muster. He took several deep, desperate gulps of air until his breathing finally stabilized. Just as Kiri rubbed her eyes and groggily woke up, he opened his mouth to scold her—only for Kiri to beat him to the punch, her voice dripping with pure annoyance.
"Are you seriously not tired?!"
Kiri glared at Li Ke, unable to hold back a massive yawn.
"Are you kidding me?! You were practically suffocating me just now! I almost choked to death!"
Kiri merely curled her lip. In her book, a trivial matter like that didn't hold a candle to getting a good night's sleep.
"Uh, that's it? You woke me up just for that? Give me a break! Next time, don't bother waking me up unless you've managed to rub yourself raw against me!"
Muttering under her breath, a thoroughly irritated Kiri wiped away a streak of drool from the corner of her mouth. She used that exact same spit-slicked hand to flip Li Ke a blatant middle finger, and before he could even process the gesture, she collapsed back down and instantly fell fast asleep.
Li Ke swallowed his retort. He silently lay back down, trying his best to close his eyes and return to sleep. But barely twenty minutes later...
The sound of Kiri aggressively grinding her teeth and snoring loudly filled the tiny room.
He took a deep breath, firmly clamping his hands over his ears.
But in the very next instant...
Tsunade's snoring rumbled to life as well.
And her snores were significantly louder than Kiri's.
Li Ke: "..."
At that exact moment, he found himself desperately missing Erina again.