Although the leftovers they had eaten earlier hadn't completely heated, Li Ke still felt a very strong, pervasive heat throughout his body.
Therefore, Li Ke moved incredibly fast while looting, almost three times faster than yesterday.
Of course, this was also because most of the zombies in the nearby houses had been cleared out. The wolf pack had taken away a large number, and they had killed another batch while looting yesterday. Furthermore, the zombies summoned by Sadako just now had brought out most of the nearby zombies as well.
Li Ke and Erina Nakiri continued searching for supplies. Li Ke constantly used his stone axe to probe what they could find.
However, aside from items like leather sofas that yielded leather and scrap metal, they couldn't even find a wrench, let alone anything like water pipes.
Li Ke then directly attacked their heating pipes with his stone axe, finally obtaining a dozen or so short iron pipes.
They searched the entire house, but all they found were piles of scraps of cloth and planks, and brass door latches.
As for duct tape, there wasn't a single piece.
And what's practically a given in the western movie—a gun—there wasn't a single one.
"In the TV shows and movies, don't the westerner all have a gun?"
Li Ke complained again, because after searching the entire house behind them, they found nothing left, not even a bottle of water, just some tin cans and glass jars.
Food was scarce too, just some cat and dog food cans, and some withered corncobs.
"Don't worry, at least we found this. And people can eat dog and cat food, though it won't taste very good."
Erina Nakiri was also somewhat helpless. She thought the same thing; many members of their large family lived in the Americans, so she naturally knew how high the gun ownership rate was there.
They'd searched at least ten houses already, but still found nothing. Even with their magical stone axe, they'd only found food nearing or already expired.
If they had other food, they certainly wouldn't have eaten this.
"There's so little here."
Li Ke glanced at his character's looting level. His intuition told him that their meager loot was definitely related to this. In a game, it wouldn't be a problem; they could just loot more. Game characters have unlimited stamina, and even if they did, it recovers quickly.
But humans are different.
He'd only looted two or three houses and was already feeling exhausted.
"If all else fails, we'll just mine. Merchants sell stone; we can mine and sell it for money."
Li Ke sighed helplessly.
This place felt like a Minecraft game with a "reduced drop rate" mod. The loot they'd found was a far cry from their efforts. At the merchant's, five pieces of raw meat only cost 60 casino tokens, while 50 pebbles would yield 10 Duke Casino tokens—equivalent to what Li Ke could easily obtain with a few taps.
After a whole morning of work, they hadn't gotten as much as he'd from tapping the stones.
"But the tape at the merchant's is so expensive, 75 tokens for a job! And the merchant doesn't have everything."
Erina, who had collected a bag full of kitchen supplies, shook her head. She was also frustrated; after searching for so long, she had practically nothing.
The only usable bicycle had completely flat tires and needed replacing.
"It's hopeless... Let's go to the auto repair shop and see if they have any wrenches or anything like that."
Li Ke turned to the auto repair shop. There were no more zombies there, and the two of them found a large quantity of car repair tools.
Then...
They found pliers and screwdrivers.
Then, there was no wrench.
Neither was a claw hammer.
Yes, nothing. The entire auto repair shop was miraculously devoid of wrenches, as if they were consumable items that could be eaten one at a time. They searched the entire shop but couldn't find a single one!
They couldn't even find tires; instead, they found quite a few engines.
"..."
Li Ke, looking at the mess they had left of the auto repair shop, was nearly driven mad with anger. He couldn't help but sit down on a large box with a half-man portrait of a worker painted on it, and sighed.
"This world is truly absurd. It's definitely a game world."
Erina Nakiri was also speechless. Looking at the engines in her backpack, she didn't understand why they couldn't find a wrench or a matching tire in the repair shop.
But seeing Li Ke's helpless face, she really didn't know what to say.
"Forget it, let's go mining."
Li Ke sighed. Their primary goal was to obtain guns, so they needed money as quickly as possible. However, the lack of duct tape was a major headache for Li Ke, so he had no choice but to choose the fastest way to make money.
Mining.
To get rich, chopping down trees is always a safe bet.
The two packed up and went back to the gas station Li Ke had previously spotted to loot it again.
The good news was that they found a considerable amount of canned food and slightly dried-out bags of bread. There was also a small lake behind the gas station, and looking out from behind, they could see a large river in the distance.
But the bad news was that the gas station was completely empty.
Every pump showed empty, effectively killing Li Ke's plan to use Molotov cocktails. He was completely helpless.
Because he gave up early, Li Ke found a rock and started digging before noon. He and Erina agreed that one of them would take turns digging for a while, switching when they got tired, so they could quickly avoid any danger.
However, after less than ten taps, Li Ke smashed the millstone-sized rock in front of him, obtaining only ten stones. He realized that digging for stones wouldn't make money.
"Damn it..."
Li Ke stared speechlessly at the cracked rock, its durability halved. If this was the case, wouldn't he have to dig a huge pit to get a thousand stones?
In reality, the return wasn't much higher than looting!
It just didn't require as much effort.
"This one just cracked like that?!"
Erina was also very surprised. She came over and tapped it a couple of times, realizing the same thing as Li Ke, and her expression turned grim. "Yes, so I think we must have overlooked something. In this kind of game, mining basic resources is definitely not a problem; we must just not have found the most efficient mineral."
Li Ke put down his stone axe, stretching his arms. Although it was a system item, swinging it still consumed stamina.
Looking at a reddish object next to the stone that looked exactly like iron, Li Ke walked over and delivered a powerful blow worth forty coins.
Scrap Metal +3
Li Ke's eyes lit up. He immediately crouched down and struck the ground in front of him with his axe, producing a loud metallic clang.
"Just as I thought! This thing is an ore vein!"
Li Ke remembered clearly that although scrap metal sold for the same price as stone—ten pieces only yielded two coins—items like sub-machine gun ammunition made from three scrap metal pieces could sell for one coin each!
This was the path to wealth!
"This is it! Erina, dig this!"
Li Ke immediately raised his stone axe excitedly, swinging it repeatedly against the iron ore, the sound of scrap metal going into his backpack echoing around him.
What pleased him even more was that each swing yielded three pieces of iron ore, which greatly excited him, and he swung the stone axe faster and faster.
However, he remembered not to overexert himself, so when his arm started to ache, he stepped aside, letting Nakiri Erina mine, while he himself became vigilant.
The trauma of the zombie Sadako was still fresh in his mind; he didn't want to experience that again.
Erina's movements were more skilled and stronger than his, so preserving her fighting ability was paramount.
So when Erina's forehead began to sweat, Li Ke took over, replacing Erina and starting to strike the iron ore.
By this time, they had dug a large pit in this area. After excavating one section of iron ore, they had to dig up other parts of the land so they could easily climb out of the pit and see other areas.
This significantly increased their workload.
Li Ke painstakingly chipped away at the iron ore, constantly digging with a wooden shovel to ensure he could emerge from the mine at any time. As the sun shone brightly, Li Ke felt increasingly hot, and he instinctively wanted to take off his clothes.
However, thinking about his little belly, Li Ke gave up the idea.
If it weren't for Erina Nakiri, he wouldn't mind being shirtless, but in front of her, Li Ke didn't want to expose his less-than-handsome side.
However, just as he was thinking this, Erina Nakiri, also under the sun, simply took off her jacket, revealing a white shirt already partially soaked with sweat.
"You perverted uncle! Aren't you hot?!"
Erina Nakiri felt her head spinning from the sun. The exercise she'd just done, combined with the current heat, left her feeling utterly drained.
"I'm alright..."
Li Ke glanced at her and immediately noticed that her front was becoming semi-transparent, revealing her tight-fitting undergarments.
'It's black...'
Noticing this, Li Ke felt not only the heat from the sun, but also the heat surging within his own body.
And so, Li Ke dug for another half hour before stopping.
Because their arms were starting to ache, and their strength had reached its limit.
"Let's go back and eat, then we'll go to the merchant. I have two thousand two hundred pieces of scrap iron ore here, what about you?"
Emerging from the five-meter-deep pit, Li Ke looked at this enormous hole—a pit that would take an excavator an hour to pierce on Earth—and couldn't help but take a deep breath.
The system's abilities are truly unreasonable!
Erina Nakiri answered while brushing the dirt off Li Ke.
"I don't know, I've already turned them all into sub-machine gun ammunition, four hundred and fifty now."
"You've already finished?"
Li Ke was somewhat surprised.
"Yeah, after all, we still need to buy some things. I wanted to show you my cooking skills... I want to see what meat in this world tastes like!"
Erina Nakiri, her face already tanned by the sun, turned away, not daring to look at Li Ke.
"Don't be shy, anyway, these things can't be used now... Speaking of which, Erina, want to go bathe in that little lake?"
Li Ke pointed to the small lake near the gas station. There were clean oil drums behind the gas station that could be used directly for bathing, without having to go to the distant river.
"Just wash your hands first, we're going to mine again this afternoon anyway."
Erina was a little shy, because in this situation, if she wanted to take a bath, someone would obviously need to keep watch, and right now, only Li Ke was there.
The two of them went to the merchant again. Erina sold all the sub-machine gun ammunition she had made and then bought all the raw meat from the merchant.
"I hope this piece of meat is big enough, I hope this piece of meat is big enough."
Erina nervously muttered, even clasping her hands together in prayer before materializing a piece of raw meat into the real world, just like Li Ke had done.
After everything was prepared, a palm-sized piece of meat wrapped in burlap appeared in front of them, making Nakiri Erina breathe a sigh of relief.
However, when she reached out and pressed the piece of meat, she couldn't help but frown.
"Strange, what kind of meat is this? The texture is so weird, and why does it feel like all kinds of meat?"
Li Ke didn't quite understand her confusion, but looking at the thick chunk of meat the size of his palm, he couldn't help but laugh.
"It doesn't matter what kind of meat it is, as long as it's edible."
He was genuinely happy because with so much meat, they wouldn't have to worry about food anymore!
"That's right, I'll try it when I get back and see how I can make it taste better."
Erina Nakiri nodded, no longer dwelling on the matter, and turned to walk towards the door.
But, looking at the disheveled merchant, Li Ke's throat involuntarily tightened.
The merchant's body was still swaying, her clothes, which he had pulled strangely earlier, were still not straightened, still exposing a large expanse of her cleavage.
The moment Erina Nakiri stepped out the door, Li Ke subconsciously wanted to reach out and feel that softness again, but ultimately refrained.
"Patience, patience..."
Muttering this phrase, Li Ke followed Erina's footsteps.
But the thought of eating Erina's cooking again soon made Li Ke's heart skip a beat.
"I won't... become a beast, will I?"
Li Ke was a little scared.