This was undoubtedly a blow to Li Ke, as it meant they would only receive 6,000 Duke Casino Tokens.
If this was the limit of what they could earn in a day, it was barely acceptable.
But achieving bullet freedom was unrealistic.
Bullets weren't cheap; in fact, they were expensive, just as expensive as the firearms with colored numbers!
A single bullet cost 48 tokens, and a bullet tip cost 30 tokens—this was beyond robbery. Moreover, a tactical assault rifle displaying a number 3 cost Li Ke 10,000 Duke Casino Tokens!
Frankly, Li Ke didn't want to obtain bullets here; he wanted to craft them himself. Unfortunately, without the blueprints, they lacked the ability to forge, let alone create a workbench!
"This is really troublesome."
Because of his relationship with Erina Nakiri, Li Ke was even more eager to acquire enough firearms, so he wanted weapons capable of dealing with large numbers of zombies.
Unfortunately, although he had a large amount of supplies, he had nothing that could be converted into currency.
"Seriously, what's wrong with this game? Why does it get stuck at such a crucial point?!"
Li Ke was utterly confused. Scavenging was clearly a dead end; he got nothing but food. Merchants also had a limit on the amount of items they sold, and he was stuck trying to build things himself.
"Is the world proportion too low? I'm almost level 20 already!"
Li Ke was somewhat frustrated. He helplessly slammed his fist on the table in front of the merchant, then reluctantly bought four bottles of glue, intending to make a gun first.
But just as he was leaving the merchant's shop, Li Ke noticed the merchant's furnace and a table with some boxes on it.
He'd seen the table and furnace before; even pressing E in his mind didn't work—there was no interactive interface. So he hadn't paid much attention, treating them like background images.
However, checking his level, he decided to try again.
He couldn't believe that all those levels he'd gained were completely useless.
Taking a deep breath, he stood in front of the furnace and tried pressing E.
A screen appeared before him, and having played many building survival games, Li Ke immediately recognized the functions of everything on it.
The grayed-out items were clearly furnace components, the flame icon below represented fuel, and on the left side, a series of text labeled brass, lead, and similar resources—clearly indicating their quantities!
A look of joy instantly spread across Li Ke's face, but the next moment, when he looked at the table beside him, his expression turned into uncontrollable ecstasy!
"It works! Sure enough! The exploration progress of this world changes according to your level! Increasing your level unlocks more things!"
Li Ke excitedly inserted several brass parts he had collected into the system's interface, then quickly ignited them. He watched as a 20-second countdown appeared on the brass doorknob he had placed inside!
After one brass doorknob disappeared, Li Ke saw that the number of brass parts had increased by 50. He hurriedly moved a set of clay he had dug up into another slot, because he remembered clearly that both brass cartridge cases and lead bullets required one set of clay.
One brass, one clay – that's the material for cartridge cases. Two lead bullets, one clay.
Not only that, he quickly added two sets of lead he had dug up, allowing the three materials to start burning.
But watching the burning speed, Li Ke couldn't help but take a deep breath, because it was just too slow!
But slow is better than nothing!
He then looked at the Duke's Casino tokens in his inventory. After a brief experiment, he discovered that these tokens could also be smelted into brass!
This meant that if they didn't buy anything else, they could manufacture 1000 bullets a day!
Li Ke took a deep breath; after being under immense pressure, he could finally relax for a moment.
"What's wrong, Li Ke? Did you find something again? You seem so happy."
Erina Nakiri, who was selecting ingredients from the merchant, came out, looking curiously at Li Ke's smiling face and the burning furnace.
When they searched the merchant's place earlier, they hadn't found anything useful, not even these two items, so they hadn't paid much attention to them.
Meanwhile, Li Ke had already crafted a pipe machine gun from the system's inventory, immediately equipped it, and eagerly put it to use.
In an instant, a battered machine gun appeared in his hand, its bolt even made of a screwdriver.
Judging from its appearance alone, it was just a pile of junk, and Li Ke couldn't connect it with his own body, which was made of wood, glue, and scrap metal.
Because it was simply impossible to transform those materials into the Warhammer Orc-style machine gun in Li Ke's hands without a machine tool!
But this world is just that unreasonable!
And even more unreasonable! When he equipped the machine gun in his inventory, a crosshair appeared in his vision!
When he moved the crosshair, his body would subconsciously make corresponding movements. Subconsciously calling the right mouse button would shrink the crosshair and enlarge the target point. It seemed that without any training, he could become a perfect, unerring marksman!
Looking at the machine gun in his hand, Li Ke couldn't help but rush over and hug Erina Nakiri, who was still surprised that he had conjured up such a broken gun. He first buried his head in Erina's chest, giving her full breasts a good squeeze, inhaling her alluring fragrance, and then spun her around in his arms.
"Our safety is guaranteed!"
A relieved smile graced Li Ke's face. Finally, at this moment, he felt safe.
"W-what's wrong?!"
Feeling Li Ke's warm breath on her chest, Erina Nakiri blushed and couldn't help but playfully hit Li Ke's head, looking quite shy.
"We don't need to search anymore! There's a workbench and a furnace right here! We can make everything we need here! And as long as we keep leveling up, we can unlock more of this world's unique features!"
Although many items were still locked, Li Ke believed that as long as they continued to develop, they would eventually be able to live happily in this world!
"What!"
Erina Nakiri was also surprised. She quickly broke free from Li Ke's embrace and rushed to the burning furnace to check. After confirming it was indeed the case, she cheered and hugged Li Ke back.
Weapons are the best way for humans to gain a sense of security, so seeing firearms and the ability to make their own bullets filled both Li Ke and Erina with joy!
"Yes! We can make weapons now!"
The two were overjoyed by this unexpected discovery. Like fools, they stood around the furnace watching the countdown end, melting down brass doorknobs and Duke's Casino tokens—they even put in all 6,000 Duke's Casino tokens they'd earned that day, keeping only the remaining 1,000 from yesterday for emergencies. While waiting, they mixed the coal and nitrate powder they'd mined together through the system to form gunpowder.
However, while they had plenty of gunpowder and lead, they hadn't obtained much brass. So, they could only make a thousand brass cartridge cases.
Then, like fools, they stared at the workbench as it turned those thousand cartridge cases and tips into bullets.
The two watched as bullets were continuously produced at the workbench, their smiles never ceasing.
So, after trying to fire a shot with the machine gun in her inventory and finding that it was indeed just like in the game, where a thought would make her fingers and body move, and the gun would aim and fire just like in the game, Erina Nakiri announced the news.
Afterwards, the two melted down some scrap metal and crafted short iron pipes to repair the two scrap metal machine guns before returning to the RV.
Li Ke finally got to taste Erina Nakiri's true culinary skills, but neither of them could finish the strange meat before crawling into bed.
Fortunately, they had the foresight to extinguish the flames, preventing them from burning for too long, and they enjoyed a rather sweet and peaceful night.
However, just as Li Ke stretched, full of anticipation for the future, preparing to get up and begin his day's work, he saw only a pitch-black sky.
"It's not dawn yet?"
Rubbing Erina's chest, who was still sleeping, Li Ke even provocatively pinched her slightly swollen hickey before preparing to go back to sleep.
After all, they had both been quite excited the day before, and had actually done it many times! His back was aching, and his legs felt weak.
But just as he was about to lie down, he noticed something that almost made him scream!
Zombies! Endless zombies!
The zombies, with their faltering steps, were advancing relentlessly towards the back of their vehicle, and Li Ke finally saw clearly what was happening in the dim sky.
It was layers of swirling yellow sand, countless wisps of sand obscuring the sun, and beneath this sand, the zombies were advancing, stretching as far as the eye could see.
Covering his mouth, Li Ke cautiously glanced towards the front of the vehicle. He immediately saw countless zombies still advancing towards them, covering the entire mountainside as before, with no end in sight.
It was a truly desperate situation. He couldn't see the front of the group, nor the back, and he had no idea why this was happening.
But there was only one thing he was certain of:
If they were exposed,
they would surely die.
However, it wasn't just this that made Li Ke feel uneasy; something else was even stranger.
Li Ke looked up at the sky. The high moon hung in the sky, unusually bright. Even though the sun's brilliance was obscured by the yellow sand, the moonlight was still dazzling, and…It was eerie.