Although they were eating leftovers, the heat surging through Leo's body wasn't much weaker than before—it was still an intense, full-body restlessness.
Because of this, Leo moved extremely fast while scavenging, almost three times faster than the previous day.
Of course, this also had to do with the fact that most of the zombies in the nearby houses had already been cleared out. A large number had been drawn away by the wolf pack earlier, another batch had been killed during yesterday's scavenging, and the screamer zombie from yesterday had attracted most of the remaining zombies in the area.
Leo and Erina searched for supplies nonstop, while Leo also kept testing objects with his stone axe to see what materials he could obtain.
However, aside from real leather sofas that yielded leather and scrap iron, they didn't even find a single wrench—let alone pipes.
In the end, Leo had to hack apart the house's heating pipes with his stone axe just to get a dozen or so short iron pipes.
Even after turning the whole house upside down, all they got was a pile of cloth scraps, wooden planks, and brass doorknobs.
As for duct tape—there was none at all.
And the item that "every American supposedly owns"?
Not a single one.
"Don't Americans all have guns, according to TV and movies?"
Leo complained again. They had searched house after house behind them and still found nothing—not even a bottle of water. Just empty cans and glass bottles.
Food was scarce too: only some cat food and dog food cans, plus a few corn cobs that were already half dried out.
"At least we found these, and people can eat dog food and cat food too—it just doesn't taste great."
Erina was also helpless. She knew the same things—her family had people who lived in America, so she was well aware of how high gun ownership supposedly was here.
They had searched at least ten houses by now, yet found almost nothing. Even with the magical stone axe, all they uncovered was food that was close to expiration—or already expired.
If they had other options, they definitely wouldn't eat these things.
"There's just too little loot here."
Leo glanced at his scavenging skill in the character panel. His gut told him this was the reason—if this were a game, it wouldn't matter. You could just keep looting; characters had endless stamina, or at least recovered quickly.
But humans weren't like that.
He had searched only two or three houses and was already exhausted.
"If worst comes to worst, we'll mine. The trader sells stones too—we can just mine and sell those."
Leo sighed.
This place felt like a Minecraft world with a "reduced drops" mod installed. The rewards were nowhere near worth the effort.
At the trader, five pieces of raw meat sold for only 60 casino tokens, while fifty small stones sold for ten Duke casino tokens—something Leo could earn just by smashing rocks a few times.
After an entire morning of work, they had earned less than he could by mining stone.
"But duct tape is so expensive at the trader—75 tokens each, and a lot of things aren't even in stock."
Erina shook her head, carrying a backpack full of kitchen supplies. After all that searching, they really had found almost nothing useful.
Even the bicycles they found had completely ruined tires and couldn't be used without replacements.
"This is just… unavoidable."
Leo turned his gaze to the auto repair shop.
"Let's check the garage—maybe there'll be a wrench."
The shop was zombie-free, and inside they finally found lots of car-repair tools.
Then—
They found pliers.
Screwdrivers.
And no wrench.
No claw hammer either.
Yes. None. A huge auto shop, and not a single wrench—like wrenches were some kind of consumable item. They searched the entire place and didn't find one.
They didn't even find tires.
Instead, they found several engines.
"..."
Leo stared at the completely trashed repair shop, nearly furious. He sat down on a large crate with a worker's silhouette painted on it and let out a long sigh.
"This world is really ridiculous. Truly a game world."
Erina was equally speechless. Looking at the engines in her backpack, she couldn't understand how an auto shop could have engines but no wrenches or matching tires.
Seeing Leo's helpless expression, she didn't know what to say either.
"Forget it. Let's go mining."
Leo sighed again. Their main goal right now was to get guns, and for that they needed money—fast. The lack of duct tape was driving him crazy, so the only option left was the fastest way to earn cash.
Mining.
After all, "want to get rich, chop trees first" was never wrong.
They packed up and checked the gas station Leo had noticed earlier.
The good news: they found plenty of canned food and some dried packaged bread. Behind the station was a small lake, and from there they could even see a large river in the distance.
The bad news: the gas station was completely dry.
Every pump showed empty. Leo's Molotov plan died on the spot.
Since they gave up early, it wasn't yet noon when Leo found a large rock and started mining. He and Erina agreed to take turns—switching whenever one got tired—so they could retreat quickly if danger appeared.
But after Leo struck the rock fewer than ten times, shattered a millstone-sized boulder, and got only ten stones, he realized something.
Mining stone wouldn't make money.
"What the hell…"
Leo stared at the cracked rock, whose durability had dropped by half, utterly speechless. At this rate, he'd have to dig a massive pit just to get a thousand stones.
The return wasn't much better than scavenging—just less mentally taxing.
"It cracked already?!"
Erina was shocked too. She stepped up and hit it a couple of times, quickly reaching the same conclusion, her expression darkening.
"Yeah. We must be missing something. In games like this, mining basic resources should be viable—we just haven't found the most efficient ore."
Leo put down his stone axe and stretched his arms. Even system tools still consumed physical stamina.
Then he noticed a reddish patch in the ground that looked suspiciously like iron.
He walked over and delivered a heavy strike.
Scrap Iron +3.
Leo's eyes lit up. He crouched and struck the ground again—this time, a clear metallic clang rang out.
"Just as I thought! There are ore veins!"
Leo remembered clearly: scrap iron sold for the same price as stone—ten for two tokens—but items like robotic turret ammo made from three scrap iron sold for one token each.
This was the real path to wealth.
"This one! Erina, mine this!"
Leo excitedly swung his stone axe again and again, scrap iron flooding into his inventory. Each swing yielded three pieces, making him more and more excited.
Thankfully, he still remembered not to overexert himself. When his arms began to ache, he stepped aside and let Erina mine while he kept watch.
Yesterday's screamer zombie still haunted him—he wasn't about to let that happen again.
Erina was stronger and more skilled, so preserving her combat ability was important.
When sweat started forming on her forehead, Leo swapped back in.
By now, they'd dug a massive pit. Each time they finished mining an iron node, they had to dig out surrounding earth so they could climb out quickly and keep an eye on their surroundings.
That greatly increased the workload.
Bit by bit, Leo mined iron, using a shovel to clear paths for escape. Under the blazing sun, the heat grew unbearable, and he unconsciously wanted to take off his clothes.
But thinking of his slight belly, he decided against it.
If Erina weren't there, he wouldn't care—but in front of her, he didn't want to show his less flattering side.
Meanwhile, Erina—also under the sun—took off her jacket without hesitation, revealing a white shirt already partially soaked with sweat.
"Perverted old man! Aren't you hot?!"
She felt dizzy from the heat. The exertion plus the sun was draining her fast.
"I'm… fine…"
Leo glanced at her and immediately noticed that the fabric over her chest had turned slightly translucent, revealing her dark undergarments.
"Black…"
The moment he realized that, the heat inside him surged even more violently.
After another half hour, Leo finally stopped.
Both of them had sore arms and were completely exhausted.
"Let's head back, eat something, then go to the trader. I've got 2,200 scrap iron. What about you?"
Climbing out of the five-meter-deep pit—a hole that would've taken an excavator an hour on Earth—Leo took a deep breath.
The system was completely unreasonable.
Erina brushed dirt off Leo's clothes as she replied:
"I don't know. I already turned all of mine into robotic turret ammo. I've got 450."
"You already finished crafting?"
Leo was surprised.
"Yeah. We need to buy things anyway. And I wanted to show you my cooking… I want to know what meat in this world tastes like."
Her face, already flushed from the sun, turned away shyly.
"No need to be embarrassed. We can't use it now anyway… Hey, Erina, want to wash up at the lake?"
Leo pointed toward the small lake near the gas station. There were clean oil drums nearby that could be used—no need to go all the way to the river.
"Just washing our hands is fine. We still need to mine this afternoon."
Erina hesitated. Bathing would clearly require someone to stand guard—and there was only Leo.
They returned to the trader together. Erina sold all the turret ammo, then bought all the raw meat the trader had.
"Please be a big piece. Please be a big piece."
She muttered nervously, even clasping her hands to pray before materializing the meat into the real world like Leo had shown her.
After everything was ready, a palm-sized chunk of meat wrapped in burlap appeared before them, and Erina finally relaxed.
But when she pressed on it, she frowned.
"That's strange… what kind of meat is this? The texture's weird, and why does it smell like every kind of meat at once?"
Leo didn't really get her concern. Looking at the thick piece of meat, he smiled.
"As long as we can eat it, that's enough."
He truly was happy—this much meat meant they wouldn't have to worry about food anymore.
"That's true. I'll experiment with it later and see how to make it taste good."
Erina nodded and headed for the exit.
But Leo, looking at the trader's disheveled clothes, still felt his throat tighten.
Her body swayed slightly, her clothes still messily torn from before, exposing large areas of skin.
As Erina stepped outside, Leo instinctively felt the urge to reach out and feel that softness again—but in the end, he resisted.
"Endure. Endure…"
Muttering to himself, Leo followed Erina out.
But the thought of eating Erina's cooking again soon made his heart skip.
"I won't… turn into a beast, right?"
Leo was suddenly afraid.
Author's Note:
Good. Ten chapters now.