Just then, the weakness in her body reminded Clara of her other skill, “Essence Condensation.”
The moment she thought about what that skill did, her face burned uncontrollably.
“I'm a total man... and I actually have to milk myself!?”
But what had just happened and the dizziness she felt now kept reminding her. In this hellhole, without Spirit and Stamina, it was death. To stay alive, what was face worth? The off-shoulder puff dress this body was wearing was pretty convenient too.
She gritted her teeth... She closed her eyes. Trying not to look at her own movements, she took the Glass cup out of Storage Space and focused. Soon, a warm current gathered inside her, and she felt some kind of energy being wondrously transformed.
A moment later, a cup of something with a strange milky scent appeared in the Glass. Clara took a sip, and her eyes lit up instantly.
“This taste... it's sweet and sour.”
Right after, a warm current rushed through her whole body. The spent Spirit recovered quickly. Even the dizziness vanished, and her Stamina filled up quite a bit. The effect was immediate.
“So good... pfft! It really works!”
Clara wiped her mouth and forced the weird feeling out of her head. After recovering, she readjusted her clothes, then opened the Chat Channel to see if there was any useful information.
Chat Channel💬Anonymous Player-Holy crap! Guys, be careful. There's a fucking living thing in the supply crate.-💬Anonymous Player-Something alive? What is it? A pet?-💬Anonymous Player-Pet my ass. It's a mutant rat. Red eyes, lunged at me like a mad dog and tried to bite me. Good thing I reacted fast and stomped it to death.-💬Anonymous Player-I opened one just now too. There was a snake inside. It almost bit me.-💬Anonymous Player-Looks like supply crates aren‘t all safe. There’s a chance you get a monster... I got a rabbit. It looked pretty tame, so I killed it. Extra food tonight.-💬Anonymous Player-Boss, you're badass! So opening crates is like opening mystery boxes, huh? Could be supplies, could be monsters?-
Looking at the messages in the Chat Channel, Clara frowned slightly. This meant the dangers on the highway weren't just humans like that bald man. There were also unknown mutant creatures. And even the most basic supply crates could be traps. The bald guy from before was human and could be controlled, but what if it was a fast mutant creature instead?
Could she still control it that easily? More importantly, with this small body, she might not even be able to hit anything with a steel pipe.
“Looks like I need to get stronger fast. A steel pipe and this sissy talent aren't nearly enough.”
Thinking that, Clara started the car and drove forward.
At the same time, to relax, she hummed a song: “Horns on my head, a tail behind me...”
After driving a few more miles, the monotonous highway scenery finally changed. On the horizon ahead, the outlines of buildings of varying heights appeared. Clara's eyes lit up. She instinctively glanced at the fuel gauge. Estimated driving range: 44 miles.
That number meant no safety at all on the empty highway. Nobody knew where the next resource point was. Forget gasoline. Food would only last a few days at best. She had to stop in this town and get some resources.
She slowed the car and eased closer. Behind her car, another car followed quietly, keeping a steady distance. At the town entrance, a bloodstained metal sign faintly read: Welcome to Echo Falls. Past the sign was a long road stretching into the distance.
On both sides of the road were rows of stores and apartment buildings. The street was overgrown with weeds. Some walls were covered in dried blood, and broken windows gaped like black holes. Dead silent. No sound around except the engine and the rustle of wind through leaves.
At night, this would look just like a horror movie, Clara thought with a grimace.
But her eyes swept around, taking everything in. She knew the movies used props, but the threats here were real. People died here. After driving for a while, Clara stopped the car. Ahead, near the entrance of a pharmacy, she spotted a brown supply crate.
She didn't get out right away. Instead, she grabbed the bloodstained steel pipe from the passenger seat. She pushed open the door, and her heels clicked softly against the broken concrete. In the dead silent town, the sound was jarring. She didn't open the crate with her bare hands.
Instead, she tightened her grip on the pipe, stepped back two paces, aimed one end at the crate's latch, and pried hard.
“Click!”
The lid popped open. No monster lunged out. Clara let out a breath and stepped closer to check. Inside the crate were a can of canned peaches, two bottles of water, and a blueprint.
Clara picked up the blueprint and scanned the text.
Appraisal📐A-rank Water Collector BlueprintMaterials: ¦ Copper Pipe x5, IronIngot x10, Glass x10.
“A-rank Water Collector!”
In this apocalypse, clean water meant life. This thing was worth far more than a pile of food. Once she built it, she would never have to worry about drinking water again. Thinking that, Clara used dismantle on the empty crate, got back in the car, started the engine, and drove deeper into town.
Next target: the gas station. The car crept along the dead silent streets. As she crossed an intersection, she caught sight of a damaged billboard from the corner of her eye. The billboard was corroded beyond recognition, but the word
“SUPERMARKET”
was still clearly visible. Clara's foot instinctively hit the brake. She glanced at the gas gauge. She could still go a while. But the supermarket had food and water. More importantly...
Things a woman needed every month. Not long ago, a dull ache in her lower abdomen had told her, instinctively, that her period was coming.
Ugh, being a woman is rough, she thought.
She parked and killed the engine, grabbed the steel pipe from the passenger seat, and got out. The automatic glass doors were shattered across the floor, and the entrance was a mess. A strange smell of rot and dust hit her in the face. Clara tightened her grip on the bloodstained steel pipe and didn't go in right away.
Instead, she poked her head in first, checked for any obvious ambush, then stepped over the shattered glass on the floor and went inside. Inside the supermarket, most of the shelves had fallen over, and goods were scattered across the floor. It was clear that more than one group had already looted the place. Canned food, crackers, bottled water, the hard currency of the apocalypse, were nowhere in sight. Clara wasn't disappointed.
She headed straight for the supermarket's household goods section. Sure enough, almost nothing here had been touched. On the shelf were several packs of pads, day use and night use, in different sizes. Clara didn't bother choosing. She packed them all up and took them. Just then, soft footsteps came from outside, along with the low voices of a man and a woman talking.
Clara's heart jumped into her throat. She immediately crouched down, hid behind a row of toppled shelves, and gripped the bloodstained steel pipe tightly in her hand.