Then Derek spoke up, his voice not loud but carrying clearly around them.
“You in the bushes, come out. Hiding any longer is pointless.”
Clara stared at him, dumbstruck. Her eyes seemed to say: Are you out of your mind? Why call them out like that?
The grass on the left rustled, and a tall, skinny man holding a machete stood up, cursing.
“Damn, what rotten luck. How the hell did they spot me?”
Right after, two men holding fire axes jumped out of the back of the SUV. The three formed a half-circle, trapping Clara and Derek in the middle. The pitiful look on the camisole woman’s face vanished, replaced by mockery and cruelty.
“We tried to be nice, and you threw it back in our faces.”
The lanky man pointed his knife at them, his eyes lighting up when he saw Clara.
“Now, leave the car and all your supplies. The men can scram. The girl stays.”
Clara’s gaze turned icy. Derek’s expression stayed blank.
“Three men. I’ll handle two. You take the woman and the last one. Any problem?”
“No problem.” Clara tightened her grip on the Bloodthirst Longsword.
“Kill them.”
The lanky man roared, and all three attacked at once. Derek went straight for the lanky man and the other axe-wielding brute. The lanky man saw him charge and snorted. He activated Body Hardening, his skin gleaming with a metallic sheen in the sun. The other brute had a speed-type talent and was extremely fast. He closed the distance in seconds and grappled with Derek. But fighting two-on-one, Derek wasn’t losing ground at all.
Clara faced the camisole woman and the last axe-wielding brute. The woman screamed and backed away. She had no fight in her at all. Clara’s only target was the brute. He looked at Clara and licked his lips.
“Aww, what a cute little thing. Come here, right into my arms.” The brute sneered, didn’t even activate his talent, and charged with his axe.
Clara scoffed and activated Enchanting Gaze. The brute froze, his axe stopping in midair, the world in front of him suddenly turning beautiful. Clara didn’t hesitate. She closed the distance in two quick strides and drove the Bloodthirst Longsword straight into his heart. After finishing him, she walked straight toward the terrified woman.
“Don’t... don’t kill me! Let me go...”
Clara didn’t bother wasting words.
She raised the longsword and sliced open her throat. The woman struggled twice and died.
Clara flicked blood off the blade and looked up to enjoy the show. Instead, she found Derek had already finished and was watching her with amusement. The two men on the ground, one with his skull split open by an entrenching tool, the other with his neck broken, lay in pools of blood. Derek only had a shallow gash across his chest.
“Every man who gets ideas about you falls right into your trap.”
Clara’s lips twitched.
“If you ever try anything with me, I’ll cut your balls off.”
“Relax, I’m not interested in you. But I am very interested in your talent.” Derek said in a flat tone. “Combat took a lot out of me. Hand me a glass of milk to restore Stamina. That’s reasonable, right?”
Clara snorted.
“Reasonable my ass. No.”
Derek said nothing. He just pointed at the back of his head, and then a rope appeared in his hand. The threat was obvious. The rules only said you could not harm a teammate. They never said you could not put a teammate to sleep.
Clara fumed, but she still took out a cup of milk she had prepared from Storage Space and handed it over.
“Here. Choke on it.”
She cursed inwardly: Let him gloat for a few more days. Once my little sisters get here, we’ll see how we kill him.
Derek caught the cup, smiled faintly, and turned to gather the spoils. Clara couldn’t be bothered with him either. She started gathering the items that dropped from the big man and the woman she had killed. They had agreed earlier that after killing survivors, everything obtained would be split fifty-fifty. Besides, there were exactly four corpses and two vehicles. What she found would depend on her luck.
The two people Clara had killed didn’t have much. Just two cans of meat, six bottles of water, six brown supply crates, and two white supply crates. The most striking item was a pale blue diamond-shaped core that looked a little like a CPU.
“What is this?”
She clicked the item, and information popped up.
AppraisalVehicle CoreUsed to upgrade a vehicle's level.Source: ¦ dismantle an unownedvehicle of LV2 or higher.
Clara frowned.
Isn’t this forcing survivors to kill each other?
At that moment, she scoffed at herself. How ridiculous her earlier bold words had been. And how stupid. If she could escape his clutches, next time she would show no mercy to anyone. She would seize every chance and kill with one strike.
She got up and went to one of the cars to check if there was anything else.
DismantleDismantle the unowned vehicle and extract the core?YesNo
The moment she confirmed, the SUV turned into white light and vanished.
LootItemDetails🔩 Iron Ingot x50Common smelted metal. Used in crafting and vehicle upgrades.🛠️ Steel Ingot x20Refined metal. Used in crafting and vehicle upgrades.⚙️ Vehicle Core x1Vehicle upgrade material. Extracted by dismantling unowned vehicles; raises a vehicle's level.
After handling that, Clara put all the materials away. To upgrade to a LV4 vehicle, she now only needed some basic materials. She glanced at the SUV driving away in the distance. She did not speed up to chase it. Instead, she slowed down, from 50 mph to 25.
After driving for a little over half an hour, Clara saw a green supply crate in the middle of the road. Following her usual method, she carefully opened it. Inside were 3 bottles of salsa and a green blueprint.
Appraisal📐Ram Bumper BlueprintMaterials: ¦ Steel Ingot x50, IronIngot x20Withstands vehicle impacts fromLV3 and below once installed.
The materials were enough. As they disappeared, a menacing, heavy metal bumper appeared in the Storage Space. She immediately installed it. The front of the Cadillac Escalade gained a suit of spiked armor.
“Good. With this thing, if anyone tries to block the road again, I’ll just ram them.”
She dismantled the supply crate and got 3 Iron Ingots. Clara started the car and continued forward. After another half hour or so, she saw Derek’s car parked on the roadside in the distance. He was holding two pheasants, and he reached out and stopped her.