Chapter 15
Chapter 15: Search
Long Ming took a deep breath, fought down his nausea, and walked to the headless Man-eater’s corpse.
This game was strange. Monsters didn’t drop neat loot. They only left their bodies behind.
It was nothing like the games he used to play.
He crouched and touched the Ghoul’s corpse. The feel was disturbingly real. [Maybe the corpse itself is the loot. Is this the real world or just virtual?]
Something caught his eye: on the Man-eater’s deformed hand, a gray metal ring on the index finger.
He slipped the ring off and examined it. The metal was icy cold and patterned with fine lines. It looked valuable.
He scanned it with the Wristband.
Unknown Ring
Grade: Blue
Value: ???
After reading the Wristband’s display, he thought for a moment, then used the Wristband to store the ring in his safe. He didn’t know what it did, but it looked promising.
He checked the decapitated Man-eater from head to toe, hoping for more, but found nothing else worth taking.
He turned and searched deeper into the warehouse, soon reaching the back.
In a corner lay a headless human skeleton, dressed in rags and clutching a gun.
Long Ming knelt to pick up the gun.
The weapon broke in half as soon as he lifted it, and the chamber was empty.
He sighed, tossed the broken pieces aside, and looked over the bones again.
The skeleton wore a pair of old training shoes.
He tugged them off. A musty stench mixed with dust puffed into the air.
Bleh! He almost gagged. The Wristband popped up a note:
Worn black training shoes.
Durability: 12/100
Long Ming glanced at the prompt and tossed the shoes away. They stank, and the durability was almost gone. Even a tiny gain is still a gain, but he wasn’t going to carry trash.
He kept searching the skeleton and soon found an old metal pocket watch.
He flipped it open. The hands didn’t move. Maybe it was broken.
He still dropped the watch into his backpack, then kept searching the warehouse.
Ten minutes later, he came out. There were plenty of items inside, but most were low value and very heavy. He couldn’t haul them out, so he had to leave them.
Gu Yi and Chen Wei came out of a nearby building, and the three regrouped.
Chen Wei reported with a shake of his head: “Bro, not much of value here.”
Long Ming said, deciding fast: “Then let’s search the upper level.”
Both of them nodded: “Okay.”
They headed for the stairs.
They soon reached the upper deck, where more steel houses sat.
From the outside, these buildings were smaller than the ones below, but they looked more refined.
Long Ming scanned the area. His gaze stopped on a high structure that looked like a turret.
His heart moved. There might be weapons up there. He pointed and said: “I’ll search the left turret.”
Gu Yi answered: “We’ll check the right one.”
Long Ming nodded and warned: “Okay, be careful.”
He moved toward the turret with caution.
Moments later, he reached the base.
It was an iron cylinder with a rusty ladder winding up to a platform on top.
Holding the axe, Long Ming started up carefully.
Clank, clank. As he climbed higher, the view opened. The whole Mobile Fortress and the wide desert spread out below.
A cool breeze flowed across the platform.
The beautiful night scene made him pause for a second, his steps slowing without him noticing. It was calming, even thrilling. But he shook it off. He didn’t have time to admire the view, so he climbed faster.
He pulled himself onto the platform and looked around.
A small iron hut sat there.
At the door he found an old rusty padlock.
He didn’t hesitate. He raised the axe and struck the lock.
Crack! The rusty lock snapped.
He pushed the door open with his left hand, scanned the room, and, seeing no danger, stepped inside.
The hut was narrow. A wall-mounted old cannon took up one side. Beside it sat an iron ammo box. On the other side stood a dust-caked table and an iron bed.
Long Ming blinked. There really was a cannon up here, but there was no way to carry something that big.
He looked into the ammo box.
Round cannonballs sat inside.
He tried lifting one and found it extremely heavy. If he put it in his backpack, the road ahead would be painful.
He tried scanning a cannonball with the Wristband. A yellow prompt flashed:
“Cannot store. Needs 2*2 to store. Please upgrade the safe!”
He nodded to himself. A 1*1 safe only held very small jewelry. Anything bigger would not fit.
He gave up on the cannonballs and walked to the table.
A smile tugged at his mouth.
On the tabletop lay an old single-shot rifle. Beside it sat a small box with five bullets. There was also a map coated in dust.
He picked up the rifle and the Wristband displayed:
Ducap K1 Single-shot Rifle
Durability: 67/100
Ammo to load: 5 rounds.
He wiped the wood and metal clean and blew away the dust.
He worked the bolt and dry-fired to test it, making sure it would not fail him when it mattered. He had never used this exact model, but he was used to firearms, so he got comfortable fast.
In fact, his college had semi-military management. Every student went through strict training. That was one reason why graduates from that school were so highly valued.