Wasteland Specialty Supplier #1-30
Author: 长腿大叔
Date: 2026-03-01T22:45:33+00:00

Chapter 1: What Should I Do if People Are Targeting Me?

A gust of night wind blew past, making the nearly naked Hu Biao shiver violently.

The twenty-six-year-old young man stared at everything before him, his hungover mind utterly bewildered.

Why was this happening?

How did he end up here?

In his memory, he had just returned to his rental house before midnight. He had intended to hit the bathroom for a quick “evacuation” and then wash himself up while he was at it.

He lived alone in a rented room, so he wasn’t worried about catching anyone’s eye. Thus, after quickly stripping off his T-shirt and jeans, he had walked into the bathroom carrying a newly opened roll of toilet paper.

But why, after a sudden dizzy spell, had the situation transformed into this?

In the pitch-black night, there was a dense cluster of low-rise buildings.

It seemed there was a power outage, as not a single light was on in any of the structures. Feeling the faint, hidden gazes peering out from the surrounding buildings, the young man—wearing nothing but a pair of briefs—felt a primitive surge of fear.

Fortunately, it wasn’t total darkness for Hu Biao.

Outside a three-story building about two hundred meters away, a bonfire was roaring.

Even from that distance, waves of noise drifted over from the building; it was a cacophony of brash laughter from men mixed with the music and the deliberate screams of women.

This scene immediately demanded all of Hu Biao’s attention.

He could guess that the place was likely a bar, and it looked quite lively and fun.

However, a problem arose. Hu Biao, who had clearly intended to just squat on the toilet and then wash up for bed, couldn’t figure out for the life of him how he ended up here.

After a long while, he managed to dredge up what he felt was a reasonable explanation from his exceptionally sluggish brain.

Damn it! I must have had way too much to drink tonight. I’m having a blackout.

Hu Biao had drunk far too much tonight because he needed to entertain a major client.

First, they had a massive feast at a seafood restaurant, followed by a long stint at a KTV.

During the ordeal, the order-hungry Hu Biao would drink, run to the bathroom to throw up, wash his face, and come back to drink more. After five or six rounds of this, the client was finally satisfied, but Hu Biao felt like he was on the verge of death.

After coming home, he hadn’t actually walked into the bathroom with his roll of toilet paper. Instead, he must have opened his front door and wandered all the way here in a daze.

It was a place near his rental house that he had never visited before.

After all, to save money, Hu Biao lived in this sort of messy, maze-like urban-rural fringe area. It wasn’t strange at all for there to be corners he hadn’t explored.

Having convinced himself, Hu Biao scanned his surroundings again. It was pitch black everywhere; he couldn’t even find the path back to his rental room.

The best course of action seemed to be heading to that three-story bar to ask for directions.

Just as he was about to move, he finally noticed the awkwardness of his attire—or lack thereof—standing there in nothing but his underwear.

If he walked over like this, he might get beaten up as a pervert.

Luckily, this minor predicament couldn’t stump the resourceful Hu Biao.

He quickly devised a clever solution: he took the roll of toilet paper he had been holding and began to wrap it around his body, layer after layer.

First the vital areas below the waist, then his chest. Once the brand-new roll of toilet paper was exhausted, Hu Biao felt much better about his situation.

With that task finished, the woozy Hu Biao began walking toward the building…

Two minutes later, once he reached the front of the bar and saw it clearly, his hazy mind snapped into focus.

Holy crap! Outside the bar stood a large metal drum with a tire burning inside. The fire from the tire was quite bright, but the smell was absolutely foul.

In the glow of the fire from the drum, he saw two shirtless security guards standing at the entrance. They were intimidatingly powerful.

At 1.81 meters tall, Hu Biao was considered a big guy in a southern city like Yang City.

But standing in front of these two guards, Hu Biao was shorter by at least a head and a half.

At the same time, the bulging muscles on these two guards looked as hard as rock. One could see the explosive power within them; these weren’t just decorative muscles built by protein powder in a gym.

Hu Biao didn’t find it particularly strange for a bar, a place of relative chaos, to have two strong guards watching the door.

What truly surprised him was that these two guards were actually two blonde-haired, blue-eyed foreigners.

Hiring two foreign meatheads as security really upscaled the class of this bar, didn’t it?

What left Hu Biao even more speechless was the bar owner’s questionable taste; he had dressed these two men up in a very strange way.

They had things like bull horns on their heads, big noses with rings, and tails that flicked from time to time.

Hu Biao stood dazed for a full minute before he figured it out—these guys must be cosplaying as half-orcs.

Specifically, half-orcs of the minotaur lineage.

Normally, with his modest income, Hu Biao wouldn’t dare spend money in a bar that looked this expensive.

But right now, wasn’t he already “wasted”?

“What’s there to be afraid of? I’m just asking for directions. It’s not like they’re going to eat me,” he muttered a few meaningless curses under his breath before walking toward the entrance.

And then, a dreamlike, wonderful night for Hu Biao began…

As Hu Biao approached, the two hulking guards didn’t shout:

“Get lost! No entry for the improperly dressed!”

Or rather, they might have originally been staring with their fierce, wide eyes, prepared to say exactly that. But after seeing Hu Biao’s “outfit,” everything changed instantly.

They lowered their heads and bowed.

In an instant, the expressions on their faces shifted to the kind of fawning, sycophantic flattery seen when a movie henchman meets his master.

They spoke in standard English: “Welcome, boss~”

(Note: For the rest of the text, English will be represented in Chinese to hide the fact that the author is terrible at English.)

Although Hu Biao’s English wasn’t excellent, he had managed to pass his Level 4 and Level 6 English exams in university. He could understand such a simple welcome.

Just as Hu Biao was reeling from the guards’ unexpected behavior, he suddenly felt both of his arms being gripped tightly by the guards on either side. He was “welcomed” into the bar with overwhelming enthusiasm.

It felt as if they were desperately worried that this “fat sheep” would run away.

The question then arose: in Hu Biao’s current state, without even a wallet or a phone, what could these people possibly want from him?

Could it be that someone here was “lusting after his body”? Was this the legendary “that kind” of bar?

Thinking of this possibility, Hu Biao felt a sudden, protective clench in his rear. He wanted to flee this dangerous place immediately.

Unfortunately, the strength gripping his arms was too great. A grown man like Hu Biao couldn’t even manage a struggle. He was dragged into the bar with a face full of terror…

He wondered if the owner of this bar was intentionally trying to act sophisticated.

For a bar that could afford to hire foreigners as security, it surprisingly didn’t even have a backup generator. Instead, there were only a few oil lamps hanging on the four walls.

The bean-sized lights were very dim, allowing Hu Biao to only vaguely make out the interior of the bar.

He saw a room about the size of a classroom with over a dozen tables of varying sizes.

Whether it was the guests sitting at the tables or the bar’s several waitresses, the vast majority had foreign faces.

Moreover, most of them were cosplaying as various half-orc races.

For instance, one guy sitting by the window had a large horse face, which gave off a strangely hilarious vibe.

At one side of the bar counter, an old-fashioned large speaker was hooked up to a lead-acid battery for power.

The music Hu Biao had heard outside was being blasted from this speaker.

It was worth mentioning that even in the dim light, Hu Biao could be sure of one thing: the scantily clad waitresses roaming about all had smoking hot bodies. Their faces were very pretty too, at least a seven out of ten.

Unfortunately, Hu Biao felt no interest whatsoever at the moment.

Because of the male guests in the bar, every one of them had thick, matted hair on their bare chests. In his immense state of terror, poor Hu Biao was trembling like a cornered quail.

Damn it! This isn’t just about getting beaten up anymore. This might actually cost me my life!

Chapter 2: Toilet Paper is a Good Thing

With a muffled ‘thud,’ Hu Biao was pressed down into the most conspicuous and luxurious seat at the bar.

At the same time, a minotaur security guard raised his voice, shouting over the noisy bar.

“Old Cripple, hurry up and get this distinguished boss some of the best drinks and food! And Big Bunny Mary, where the hell are you? Get over here! You’ve got to make sure this boss has a good time tonight.”

In response to the guard’s shouting, a voice so cloying it could melt bones drifted out from a corner of the bar.

“Dave, you bastard, what’s the rush? Mama’s coming right now~”

Then, Hu Biao saw a blonde little sweetie dressed as a bunny girl. She swayed her slender, A4-paper-thin waist as she walked gracefully toward the bar.

With just a quick glance, Hu Biao basically understood the profound meaning behind the name ‘Big Bunny Mary.’

Good heavens! As the bunny girl walked over, her outrageously impressive “assets” made Hu Biao—who might have already had a bit too much to drink—suddenly feel incredibly parched.

His head began to feel even more lightheaded, his pulse seemingly syncing with the rhythm of her swaying.

“Welcome to the Honey and Beauty Bar, Boss.”

Upon reaching him, while greeting Hu Biao, Big Bunny Mary proceeded to do something quite forward.

She abruptly reached out her fair, smooth hands, first wrapping them around Hu Biao’s neck. Then, she pressed her palms against the back of his head and gave a slight pull.

This young foreign lady named Mary was truly a bit too passionate and uninhibited, but he liked it!

By the time Hu Biao lifted his head again, the counter was already covered in items: a large glass of strange liquor topped with brownish-gray foam, and several plates filled with various unknown foods.

The reason the food was “unknown” was that the light in the bar was simply too dim. Hu Biao couldn’t even tell what kind of ingredients those dark, blurry things in the dishes were made of.

The problem was, with a bunny girl pressed tightly against him, did it really matter what he ate or drank?

While Hu Biao was sizing up the food on the bar, the bartender, Old Cripple, was secretly sizing him up as well.

Old Cripple was a scrawny old white man who hadn’t dressed up in any strange costume, but his expression—the very definition of lewd—was strange enough on its own.

As Hu Biao examined the food, Old Cripple spoke with a smile that looked like he was about to slaughter a pig.

“According to the rules of this bar, may I ask the boss to settle the bill first? All of this comes to thirty bottle caps, or three silver coins. However, if you’re paying with toilet paper, you only need to pay ten segments.”

As he spoke, Old Cripple pointed toward the toilet paper wrapped around Hu Biao’s body.

Hearing this, Hu Biao felt like his world was collapsing. Paying with bottle caps or silver coins was ridiculous enough, but paying with toilet paper? Why don’t you just ascend to heaven, you old geezer?

However, after some thought, this made Hu Biao realize why this place was so bizarre.

It was confirmed! This weird bar must be the home base where all the foreigners in Yang City gathered to play and relax.

Foreigners really knew how to have fun. It wasn’t strange for them to come up with all sorts of weird gimmicks. A large-scale role-playing scene like this was probably just their normal way of doing things.

Once he figured it out, only one thought echoed in Hu Biao’s mind:

“Damn! These foreigners really know how to party. Since you guys want to play, I’ll play big with you.”

With that in mind, he heroically tore off a section of toilet paper—at least fifteen or sixteen segments long—from the roll around him and handed it to the bartender.

Using a nonchalant tone and attitude, he said, “Here, take it. Keep the change as a tip.”

Upon receiving the toilet paper, Old Cripple immediately gave Hu Biao a bow of over ninety degrees, nearly snapping his old waist in the process.

The fawning smile on his old face made him look like a court eunuch.

As Old Cripple solemnly opened a hidden cabinet beneath the bar to store that section of toilet paper, Hu Biao tore off another two sections and handed them to the two minotaur security guards.

He had to admit, these two guys were excellent actors!

After receiving a tip of five or six segments of toilet paper, they looked so moved to tears that one would think toilet paper was worth a fortune.

Along the way, Hu Biao unceremoniously stuffed the longest section of toilet paper into Mary’s deep cleavage.

This immediately caused the Big Bunny sweetie to pull Hu Biao’s head toward her for a bout of aggressive kissing.

But Hu Biao’s flashy maneuvers weren’t over yet. After breaking free from Big Bunny Mary’s enthusiasm, he tore off another large section of toilet paper.

He slammed it onto the bar counter and shouted like a nouveau riche coal tycoon:

“Come on! This round is on me! Everyone in the bar gets a drink. Bring out the best booze!”

Before he even finished speaking, a massive cheer and roar of excitement erupted in the bar. “Thank you, generous Human Boss!”

“Blessings to you! May your home be filled with rooms of bottle caps!”

A moment later, Hu Biao raised his glass and took a large gulp.

To be honest, after that dark liquor entered his mouth, it had an indescribably weird and foul taste. Specifically, it felt like drinking slop mixed with a bit of alcohol and motor oil.

Actually, it was more like a large glass of slop with a tiny bit of alcohol and motor oil mixed in.

On the other hand, although those dark foods looked unappealing, they tasted quite savory when chewed. Hu Biao ended up eating quite a bit…

A bunny girl with a hot body and a proactive attitude, a bartender and guards as diligent as eunuchs and lackeys, and an unprecedented experience of showing off like a coal tycoon.

As the toilet paper wrapped around him was spent section by section, the small-time salesman Hu Biao truly felt that tonight was a wonderful night.

As the surge of intoxication rose again, he couldn’t help but think to himself: ‘If toilet paper is really this valuable, I’m set. I just bought ten packs of it from Pingdai.’

At that moment, a wave of moist, hot air hit his right ear.

Accompanied by this soul-stirring breath was a whispered invitation: “Boss, why don’t we go to the second floor? The bed there is big and comfortable~”

Holy crap! What are we waiting for?

Supported by Big Bunny Mary, the two of them stumbled through the back door of the bar and up a flight of dark stairs.

However, after a room door on the second floor was opened, Hu Biao didn’t even have time to see where that “big and comfortable bed” was.

After taking a heavy blow to the back of his head, he collapsed and lost consciousness like a dead dog.

Chapter 3: Biao~

“I hear you say, the morning sun rises and sets~”

To the sound of this high-pitched ringtone, Hu Biao jerked violently and woke up completely.

It was only then that he realized something was very wrong with his current situation.

He was sprawled out on the cold bathroom tiles, wearing nothing but his favorite pair of cartoon boxers featuring Snoopy’s face.

As for the “Honey and Beauty Tavern” and “Big Bunny Mary,” those strange things were nowhere to be seen.

It seemed that all those wonderful things were nothing more than a bizarre dream he’d had after getting plastered.

Because he had been lying on the cold tiles for so long, Hu Biao was covered in goosebumps from the chill.

When he tilted his neck slightly, he realized his entire body—especially the back of his head—was throbbing with intense pain.

In comparison, the usual discomfort of a hangover was a trivial matter.

Yet, even in such a terrible state, the lowly salesman Hu Biao instinctively scrambled up from the tiles. He sprinted into the bedroom and grabbed his phone, which was still ringing on the nightstand.

Once he had the phone, however, he didn’t answer it immediately.

Instead, he skillfully threw open the bedroom window. While trying to hold the phone steady, he leaned his head and upper body as far out as possible.

Based on his experience, doing this allowed the noise from the busy street below to be picked up by the microphone as much as possible during the call.

With these preparations made, Hu Biao finally answered the phone, his voice suddenly full of energy.

“Manager Zhang, hello! Sorry about that, I was surrounded by people just now and it was a bit noisy, so I didn’t hear the ringtone.”

“Mhm.” Facing Hu Biao’s lie-filled explanation, his direct superior, Zhang Zhong—the manager of the West Guangdong Regional Sales Department of Ruinuo Agricultural Supplies Company—gave a non-committal grunt.

Then, he asked in an extremely stern tone, “Biao, how is that deal of yours coming along? I’m telling you, according to the statistics as of yesterday, your Yang City district is ranked third from the bottom in sales for the West Guangdong region.”

“You’re considered a veteran employee of our department. If your sales numbers haven’t improved by the end of the month, I don’t need to remind you what the company regulations say regarding specific rewards and punishments, do I?”

Hearing this, Hu Biao hurriedly began to offer assurances.

“Zhong-ge, look at what you’re saying! I already reached an agreement with Boss Chen last night. I’m heading to his company today to finalize the delivery details. As for that initial 300,000 payment, it will definitely be transferred to the company before I clock out.”

Only after hearing this news did Zhang Zhong’s tone on the other end of the line soften.

He began to encourage his veteran employee, telling him to avoid arrogance and impetuousness, to uphold the standards of a senior staff member, and to strive to close another big deal as soon as possible.

Still standing there in his boxers, maintaining that awkward pose with his head poked out the window, Hu Biao played along perfectly.

He expressed his gratitude for the leader’s concern and encouragement, promising that he would redouble his efforts and sign a new contract as quickly as possible.

A few minutes later, the bullshit-filled phone call finally ended.

Hu Biao tossed his phone back onto the bed and muttered a curse under his breath.

“Damn it! A hypocrite who can change one’s tune faster than flipping a page. Back when he was interning under me, he used to call me ‘Biao’ with such enthusiasm. As soon as he became a boss, it turned into ‘Ah-Biao.’ If that kid gets promoted again, is he going to call me ‘Little Biao’?”

Even as he cursed, Hu Biao didn’t dare delay once he thought about the important work ahead today.

He didn’t even care about the various aches and pains racking his body. He scrambled to find a clean pair of boxers and walked back into the bathroom.

As the cold tap water poured over his head, Hu Biao felt himself wake up completely.

It was only now that he felt a large bump on the back of his head; it hurt tremendously the moment he touched it. He must have taken a nasty fall after getting drunk yesterday.

While lathering up with body wash, Hu Biao couldn’t help but think back to everything in yesterday’s dream.

The miserable salesman couldn’t help but whisper, “Man! How great would it be if all that was real? I could finally turn over a new leaf.”

For a moment, he became lost in thought…

As indicated earlier, Hu Biao was a young man nearing twenty-six and a salesman for a listed agricultural supplies company in Guangdong province.

Note: He was the lowest level, with the lowest income.

In fact, Hu Biao’s sales ability was actually quite good, and he was very hardworking. Unfortunately, even after nearly four years with the company since graduating from university, a promotion remained out of reach.

The main reason could be summarized in one sentence: his luck was just too damn bad.

When the sales territories were assigned upon his hiring, he was sent to the Yang City area in West Guangdong.

Normally, for an agricultural city like Yang City, as long as Hu Biao wasn’t stupid and worked hard enough to meet his annual sales targets, promotions and raises shouldn’t have been a problem.

The issue was that in this crappy society, hard work doesn’t always lead to the corresponding results and rewards.

During Hu Biao’s first year, Yang City’s primary agricultural pillar—the lychee industry—suffered a devastating natural disaster, with production dropping by over eighty percent.

In the years following, this local pillar industry had never quite managed to recover.

By now, the frustrated farmers had cut down over half of their lychee trees. As a result, the entire market share had shrunk drastically.

This meant that no matter how hard poor Hu Biao tried, he simply couldn’t sell much of his agricultural chemicals and fertilizers.

Year after year, Hu Biao had never once completed his sales targets. Naturally, things like promotions and raises were essentially off the table for him.

Gradually, Hu Biao became a salted fish just coasting through life.

The high-spirited youth who had just stepped out of the school gates had been beaten down repeatedly by society until he became a cynical, seasoned veteran.

At 8:01 AM, Hu Biao, with a large work bag slung across his back, pushed out his “private vehicle.”

It was a woman’s motorized scooter that had likely changed hands several times and cost him seven hundred yuan.

Swinging his leg over the scooter, Hu Biao first lit a refreshing cigarette before attempting to start the engine.

With a series of “vroom, vroom, vroom” roars from the engine, plumes of black smoke billowed from the exhaust pipe. It smoked because the engine burned a bit of oil—a minor issue.

Continuous attempts to start it proved useless. Not until the old battery was drained of power did the scooter fail to start.

Hu Biao remained unperturbed by this scene.

It was a piece of junk to begin with, and after he’d worked it like an ox for two years, it was naturally in even worse shape. Starting smoothly was a stroke of luck; not starting was normal.

He hopped off, set the old wreck onto its center stand, and began to use the kickstarter.

After kicking it about a hundred times, the junk heap finally sputtered to life.

Mounting the bike again, Hu Biao twisted the throttle. The scooter emitted a thick cloud of black smoke and, carrying the roughly 75 kg man, headed toward the client’s company.

To secure Boss Chen’s business today, he might have to deal with a lot of trouble.

Thus, the idea of eating breakfast never even crossed his mind.

Of course, he knew the harms of skipping breakfast. The problem was that those harms might only manifest in ten or twenty years; right now, he simply had too much else to worry about.

Chapter 4: Take a Gamble, Turn a Bicycle into a Motorcycle

At nine in the morning, in the boss’s office of Liang Tian Agricultural Supplies Company in Yang City.

Hu Biao first handed Chen Liangtian, who was sitting behind the executive desk, a high-quality cigarette that he usually couldn’t bear to smoke himself: a blue soft-pack Furongwang.

Under normal circumstances, Hu Biao carried at least two packs of cigarettes on him.

In his conspicuous shirt pocket, he kept the sixty-yuan-a-pack Furongwang to keep up appearances. In his trouser pocket, a ten-yuan pack of White Baisha served as his actual daily rations.

The reason was simple: he was poor.

Sixty yuan was enough to cover Hu Biao’s daily meals. Note: these “daily meals” consisted of lunch, dinner, and a late-night snack; he hadn’t eaten breakfast for years.

After diligently lighting the cigarette for the other man, Hu Biao put on an expression of deep admiration and began to flatter him:

“President Chen, your singing is truly professional. If I hadn’t seen you singing with my own eyes, I would have thought it was the original studio recording playing. We have to find another chance soon so I can treat you to more karaoke and learn a thing or two from you.”

As he spoke, Hu Biao’s face was the picture of sincerity.

In reality, the old man’s singing was shrill and loud, sounding like a slaughtered pig. In the moment, Hu Biao’s “cringe-o-meter” had nearly hit its limit.

Faced with Hu Biao’s shameless flattery, Chen Liangtian’s mood grew increasingly cheerful.

Finally, he made the move Hu Biao had been waiting for: he picked up a sheet of white paper covered in writing from his desk and pushed it straight toward Hu Biao.

After exhaling a cloud of smoke, he said, “This is the manifest for our company’s current shipment. Ah-Biao, take a look and see if there are any issues. I’ve already cleared that three hundred thousand yuan advance with finance this morning; they’ll transfer it to you guys in a bit.”

Heavens be praised! Looking at the manifest in front of him, a grown man like Hu Biao almost burst into tears.

To secure this order, he had been busy for nearly two months. Just coming to this office to suck up to the boss, he had sat here no less than twenty times.

With this order, his sales performance ranking could finally escape the bottom spot of the department, at least for a while.

Unfortunately, he had spent a lot to close this deal. Once his commission was offset by the expenses of hosting dinners and drinks, there really wasn’t much left.

In other words, it was basically all for nothing…

More than two hours later, Hu Biao walked out of Chen Liangtian’s office. By now, it had been over four hours since he had woken up on the bathroom floor that morning.

But even after all this time, the discomfort in his body hadn’t improved at all.

Especially at the back of his head, the large lump showed no signs of swelling down. Even a light touch brought a piercing, heart-wrenching pain.

This made Hu Biao wonder if he should go to a pharmacy to buy some anti-inflammatories and painkillers before heading back to his rental to sleep it off.

As for going to a hospital, once that thought flashed through his mind, he immediately abandoned it.

Was he joking? These days, even just getting an IV at a hospital cost a fortune.

Going to the hospital with a lump this big on the back of his head, who knew if half a month’s salary would even cover the bill? It was just a fall; he’d be fine after a day of sleep.

Just as Hu Biao was giving himself a mental pat on the back for his cleverness, a voice suddenly sounded in his ear.

“Ah-Biao, have you eaten yet? We’re just about to go grab some food, why don’t you join us?”

Turning around, Hu Biao saw a scrawny man in his thirties greeting him warmly.

However, faced with such a warm invitation, Hu Biao declined with a look of regret.

“Ah, Brother Zhou, what bad timing! I got drunk yesterday and took a fall, ended up with a huge lump on the back of my head. It hurts like crazy right now, so I’m rushing to the hospital to get it checked out.”

Truth be told, even if his head didn’t hurt, Hu Biao wouldn’t go to lunch with this guy.

Because he knew perfectly well that the only reason this bastard Brother Zhou was so enthusiastic was that he wanted Hu Biao to foot the bill for lunch.

Right now, Hu Biao’s total assets added up to only a little over a thousand yuan.

There was still more than half a month until payday and expense reimbursements. If he let this guy fleece him for another meal, how was he supposed to survive the next two weeks?

After being rejected by Hu Biao, Brother Zhou’s face clearly soured.

Technically, even though Brother Zhou was just a delivery driver at Chen Liangtian’s company, Hu Biao didn’t really dare to offend him too much.

Selling agricultural supplies wasn’t over once the goods were shipped and the money collected.

If the customers didn’t manage to sell the products during the peak season and demanded returns at the end of the year, it would be a massive headache.

A delivery driver like Brother Zhou could actually play a role in that area.

So, to avoid things getting awkward, Hu Biao turned his head and pointed his finger at the large lump. “Brother Zhou, look at this bump! I really don’t have time at noon.”

A sharp intake of breath hissed from Brother Zhou’s mouth, clearly amazed that Hu Biao could give himself such a massive lump from a fall.

But before Hu Biao could feel smug about his perfect excuse, a sentence came out of Brother Zhou’s mouth that instantly sent him into deep thought.

“Ah-Biao, you little bastard, cut the crap. How is that from a fall? That was clearly someone hitting you from behind with a club.”

Hearing this, Hu Biao began to feel confused.

Could everything from last night’s dream actually have happened? Thinking about it, normal dreams were never as vivid as last night.

But then the question arose: if he was knocked unconscious then, how did he miraculously return to his rental and end up on the bathroom floor?

He simply couldn’t find a logical explanation for that.

Spending fifteen yuan at a small roadside eatery, Hu Biao ate a fast-food meal with two meat and two vegetable dishes, which served as both his breakfast and lunch.

Afterward, he found a pharmacy and bought a box of anti-inflammatories and painkillers.

After doing all this, Hu Biao didn’t follow his original plan to go back, take the meds, and sleep.

Instead, he rode his beat-up scooter around the area near his rental.

This clumsy method was the best way he could think of to verify if everything from last night was real.

If he found that bar, it would prove it was all true. If he couldn’t, it meant it was just a beautiful dream.

Deep down, Hu Biao desperately hoped to find that bar.

Even if there seemed to be some danger there, as long as he was more careful and didn’t get knocked out again, it would be worth it.

Because right now, Hu Biao really wanted to have a good look at how wonderful that big, comfortable bed was with the foreign young lady, Big Bunny Mary.

Of course, please believe that he was purely motivated by scientific curiosity, intending to study the genuine European furniture style of foreigners.

At most, he’d roll around on it to personally experience the specific comfort level.

For this reason, when he bought cigarettes halfway through his trip, he even bought a whole pack of rolls of toilet paper at the corner store.

According to the logic of those foreigners, a single roll of toilet paper might be worth its weight in gold…

The urban-rural fringe area in the south of the city was filled with aging, low-rise buildings. The narrow alleys were as complex as a spiderweb.

But no matter how complex it was, after Hu Biao rode his scooter from twelve-thirty until five in the evening, he had traversed every single alley.

Unfortunately, he didn’t find any bar operating there, nor did he even see a similar three-story building.

The cruel reality proved that he should stop fantasizing about things as wonderful as Big Bunny Mary.

Having confirmed this, the young man Hu Biao looked despondent and desolate. He felt as lifeless as a major livestock breeder whose farm had just been hit by a chicken plague.

Carrying this intense sense of loss, he returned to his rental.

Perhaps it was the strong feeling of being unwilling to give up that made him do something upon entering that he usually wouldn’t do right away.

Instead of dropping his work bag and immediately playing dead on the bed, he reflexively opened the bathroom door beside the entrance.

And then, he saw a light—a swirling, twisting ball of green light, as deep and mysterious as a starry sky.

The moment he saw this thing, Hu Biao, drawing on his years of experience reading web novels, felt a sudden realization in his heart:

Holy crap! This must be the so-called portal to another world.

Countless “salted fish” youths and losers had relied on portals like this to turn their lives around and reach the pinnacle of existence.

If it were a wealthy mogul, they might hesitate before stepping into such an unknown portal.

But driven by instinct, Hu Biao simply walked into the ball of light. For a penniless proletarian like Hu Biao, he had nothing left to fear losing anyway.

Or to put it in a more common way: Take a gamble, turn a bicycle into a motorcycle!

It was only after stepping inside that he reacted: Oh no! I didn’t even bring a kitchen knife. What am I supposed to use for self-defense?

Chapter 5: Bitter Water Town

“Ugh…”

Kneeling on the ground, Hu Biao felt his stomach churn and began to vomit violently. The small amount of sliced pork he had managed to eat for lunch was all spewed out in one go.

What a waste; this was a massive loss.

He couldn’t help it. He hadn’t expected the process of moving through the portal to be quite so stimulating.

Because he hadn’t closed his eyes in time, the intense light suddenly flashing from the orb almost blinded him. Simultaneously, the sensation of spatial distortion made his cerebellum spin in an indescribable dizziness.

Fortunately, the process only lasted for a few brief seconds.

When Hu Biao felt his feet hit solid ground again, he knew that this transit had been a basic success.

However, under the influence of extreme vertigo and nausea, vomiting was unavoidable.

As for why he hadn’t thrown up last night in his memory, he figured he had probably already vomited everything—even his bile—until there was nothing left to bring up.

After a long while, Hu Biao finally recovered his strength.

He only then noticed that the place he had traveled to was not the same spot as last time, which had been near the bar. Instead, he was in a small, low-ceilinged cave. The sunlight outside was intense; it was broad daylight.

The green light that had transported him here had long since vanished.

While he was vomiting, Hu Biao had caught a few glimpses of the portal.

He discovered that after he was transported, the portal didn’t disappear immediately. It persisted for about two minutes before slowly dissipating.

Hu Biao wasn’t too worried about this.

Since he had been sent back last time, it naturally meant that the green light had only disappeared temporarily in a way he didn’t understand. He believed that if he spent some time studying it, he would eventually find a way back.

Of course, the specific time he would return would only be after he visited that big bed in the bar.

And he would only consider it after he managed to get some valuable items from this unknown world.

To that end, Hu Biao began using the light filtering into the cave to take stock of the belongings he had brought with him. This was his primary capital for striking it rich.

First, he had a pack of ten rolls of toilet paper, the large rolls with one hundred and fifty segments each.

Just this one pack of toilet paper gave Hu Biao a massive boost in confidence; it was like a poor schmuck suddenly winning five million, making him feel incredibly wealthy.

Second was the work bag he was wearing, which he hadn’t had time to put down.

Opening the work bag, Hu Biao picked through the items one by one:

A new edition of the Compendium of Pest and Disease Control? Trash, useless. This thing was probably too stiff to even use as toilet paper in this unknown world.

A recently signed contract and a delivery manifest? He had to keep these safe; they couldn’t be lost.

A few small bottles of pesticide and a few bags of foliar fertilizer? He wasn’t sure if this post-transport world needed agricultural supplies, so he’d wait until he understood the situation.

Finally, there was one unopened box each of anti-inflammatory and painkilling medication.

When he saw these, Hu Biao’s eyes lit up. He believed these things would definitely be worth a fortune here.

Because just like the toilet paper, they might seem insignificant, but manufactured medicine could only be produced under a complete industrial system.

As long as people got sick, these drugs would definitely be extremely valuable.

Oh right! There was also a black trash bag in the work bag, likely something he’d tucked in there while making deliveries in the countryside last time.

The young salesman ignored this trivial little item for now…

After finishing the inventory of his belongings, Hu Biao finally stepped out of the cave. The scorching sunlight from above immediately made him squint his eyes.

When he had come over yesterday, it was nighttime, so Hu Biao hadn’t realized how harsh the climate was. Now that he had come during the day, he realized it was much hotter than Yang City, which was already a southern city.

The waves of stinging heat hitting his exposed skin made him suspect it was at least forty degrees Celsius or higher.

Shading his eyes with his hand, Hu Biao looked around at his surroundings.

He was currently positioned at the peak of a low hill. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but a yellowish, desolate landscape.

There were no trees, lakes, or rivers in his line of sight, nor any signs of large wild animals.

The only things dotting the vast yellow wasteland were occasional clumps of low shrubs and some cacti that grew surprisingly lush, reaching the height of a single-story building.

As Hu Biao continued to scan the area, he finally saw a cluster of man-made structures.

It was about 1.5 to 2.5 kilometers to the east—a small town enclosed by a perimeter wall, with over a hundred low buildings cluttered together in extreme disarray.

Among the various buildings, the tallest and most prominent was a three-story house that looked quite familiar to Hu Biao.

Then, Hu Biao fell into hesitation. Should he go over there?

The large bump on his forehead was still a reminder that this place didn’t seem particularly “neutral-good.” What if he got robbed and killed?

If that happened, he’d be the first person to die over a pack of toilet paper. It would be a complete disgrace to the Hu family name.

Thinking of this, the rationality bred by modern life made him lose his nerve. He decided to go back, prepare more, and come again next time.

However, after waiting for two hours, the portal still hadn’t appeared.

Instead, because of the vomiting, the hunger in his stomach started to make his whole body feel miserable. Simultaneously, that same hunger gave him a surge of desperate strength.

Risking it was better than starving to death.

Tightening the straps on his work bag, the young man placed the toilet paper on top of his head and set off toward the town with large strides.

Once he had committed to the risk, the thought of those “popular sightseeing events” made him feel a bit impatient.

Oh right! Maybe he should hire some of those minotaurs to act as his bodyguards this time, just to prevent being knocked unconscious again.

At most, he’d offer a roll of toilet paper as payment. That should be enough to move them, right?

Although placing his hopes on the professional ethics of a minotaur sounded a bit absurd, the problem was that he didn’t have many other choices.

After spending an hour struggling through the trek and working up a foul-smelling sweat, Hu Biao finally arrived about 250 meters outside the town.

By the time he reached this point, Hu Biao had the illusion that the soles of his leather shoes were about to melt from the high temperature of the ground’s gravel.

Even so, he didn’t dare take off his shoes.

The scorching ground was only one reason; the main reason was that he frequently saw large scorpions and lizards appearing in the gravel.

If he got bitten by one of those “little cuties,” it could be lethal.

Upon reaching the outskirts of the town, Hu Biao realized that the surrounding wall was incredibly pathetic. Or rather, it was just a barricade constructed from a large number of scrapped cars, stones, wooden pillars, and concrete debris.

Then again, while the wall looked shabby, its actual defensive effect was likely decent.

It was at least five meters high, which was enough for Hu Biao to give up on the idea of sneaking in.

The only way in was through an opening directly in front, where seven or eight shirtless men were standing guard. It looked like a checkpoint.

When Hu Biao was still fifty or sixty meters away from the checkpoint, someone shouted in a loud voice:

“Halt! Slowly raise your hands where we can see them. Then tell us, what are you doing and what business do you have in Bitter Water Town?”

At this distance, Hu Biao could clearly see the appearance of the guards.

Aside from one white man and two Black men, the others were characters with distinct physical traits like horns and tiger stripes.

They were armed with crudely made bows, blades, and clubs.

Firearms still existed, but only the leader had an old, heavily modified shotgun tucked into his waistband.

Hu Biao wasn’t surprised by this.

Since scrapped cars appeared in large numbers in this world, there was no reason why gunpowder weapons like firearms wouldn’t have been invented.

At this point, Hu Biao was no longer naive enough to think this was some massive LARP event for foreigners.

In this new world, humans and half-orcs truly lived together.

As for why that was, he didn’t have the energy to calculate it for now. His mind held only one burning thought:

Damn, let me secure my safety first! Then I definitely have to conduct some “scientific research” on that woman, Big Bunny Mary. She might actually be a real rabbit-girl, not some imitation wearing fake ears.

This… this is just too damn exciting…

“Open your bastard eyes and look closely! I’m a rich man come to spend money at your place. Move aside and don’t disturb my mood for having fun at the bar!”

Hu Biao bolstered his courage and shouted loudly at the checkpoint guards, provocatively waving the pack of toilet paper in his hand.

There was no other way! The more dangerous the situation, the less you could afford to act weak. This was one of his life experiences.

Otherwise, acting “soft” would only make him look like a rookie or a sucker, practically inviting people to rob him.

Sure enough, the people at the checkpoint quickly lowered their weapons. A man with a visible tiger-print on his forehead had a flash of greed in his eyes, which was immediately replaced by a familiar and hospitable, servile smile as he walked up eagerly.

He chuckled and said, “So you’re the legendary big boss who appeared in the bar last night! Please, come inside.”

With such a warm welcome, Hu Biao finally set aside some of his worries. At least this guy was intimidated for the moment.

He even considered opening the pack of toilet paper to give a “tip” to these locals who knew how to recognize importance.

Using such methods would show that he must be a big shot with a powerful background, and that they couldn’t just touch a hair on his head.

However, as the tiger-man approached, a foul stench—a mix of sweat, body odor, and festering sores—nearly made Hu Biao vomit. He vaguely felt that things were taking a turn for the worse.

It seemed that everything in this world was far from being as beautiful as he had imagined.

God knows how long it had been since this guy last bathed! A year? Or two?

Was it that this guy didn’t like bathing, or was it just that this godforsaken place simply didn’t have the habit of washing up?

Chapter 6: What a Sin~

“Get lost! All of you, get far away! Don’t block the path for this distinguished boss!”

As the checkpoint guards shouted these rebukes, the weapons in their hands swung incessantly at the crowd.

Their actions weren’t just for show. If anyone were actually hit by those thick blades, spears, or clubs, they would end up crippled if not dead.

The reason for this display was that the moment Hu Biao entered the town, he immediately drew everyone’s attention. He stood out as clearly and prominently as a piece of rat droppings in a bowl of white rice.

Upon entering the town, he saw a scene of bustling activity quite different from the previous night.

A large group of children, possessing various racial characteristics, were playing and brawling on a dilapidated asphalt road in the center of town. Every single one of them was stark naked, covered in mud and grime like little mud monkeys.

As soon as they spotted Hu Biao, they swarmed him like a hive of bees.

They raised their filthy little black hands, shouting loudly at him, “Boss! Spare some change, please!”

Of course, in the mouths of the children of this brand-new world, they naturally wouldn’t shout the unique local dialect exclusive to the Hunan Province of the modern world. However, the specific meaning of their words was exactly that, so there was no need to dwell on it.

To be honest, every single one of these other-world children was thin and malnourished, their bodies covered in sores and pustules of various sizes. They looked truly pitiable.

However, based on Hu Biao’s years of social experience in sales, he knew that he must not be soft-hearted at a time like this. If he grew soft and gave a single child anything, he would be in for even greater trouble. More people would swarm him until he had given away everything he had.

Fortunately, the “lapdogs” were quite effective. Under their nearly barbaric dispersal, the children were forced to keep their distance.

As Hu Biao walked toward the bar, he noticed many eyes peeping at him from the low buildings lining both sides of the road. Their owners were either women in rags or men with various disabilities.

Regardless of gender, these people shared common traits: they had large skeletal frames but were gaunt to the point of being skin and bones, and they suffered from severe skin diseases. In the eyes they leveled at Hu Biao, there was a hidden trace of untamed defiance and ferocity, like that of a wounded wolf.

Unaccountably, even though Hu Biao—a man from the modern world—knew he had to keep up appearances, his heart began to feel a bit apprehensive…

After escorting Hu Biao to the bar’s entrance, the guards took their tips—a small segment of toilet paper each—shook their heads and bowed in gratitude before returning to the checkpoint at the town’s entrance.

Hu Biao gave a slight nod to the somewhat familiar minotaur security guard at the door and walked straight into the bar.

Well! It was still early; the matter of hiring the guy as a bodyguard could wait.

Judging by the position of the sun, it was likely approaching evening, still quite a while before the bar’s peak hours. Consequently, there were only a few sparsely occupied tables where patrons were sipping oddly colored liquids.

At the same time, because of the strong daylight, Hu Biao saw the “Honey and Beauty Bar” clearly for the first time—this den of pleasure that had occupied his thoughts all day.

One look, and Hu Biao’s heart sank with disappointment.

Mainly, once the cover of night was gone and the alcohol-induced haze had cleared, everything in the bar appeared incredibly shabby. The tables, chairs, and other furniture were dilapidated, the decor was ruined, and even the floor was pitted and uneven.

The only thing that gave Hu Biao some solace was that his purpose here wasn’t actually to have a drink.

To emphasize: Biao’s priority was to find a way back and keep his life; next was to find something valuable to take back with him. If possible, then he could appreciate and study the “arts”—specifically the art of a true European-style large bed.

Likely due to the slow business, the bartender Old Cripple and several waitresses were slumped over tables napping, unaware of the arrival of the big boss, Biao.

When Hu Biao noticed that Big Bunny Mary, the bunny girl, wasn’t in the bar, he felt a strong sense of loss.

Having vomited once on the way over, Hu Biao was already starving. Initially, he had been wary of this food of unknown origin, but then he remembered how much of it he had eaten during his drunken stupor last time. That meant the taste might be strange, but it should be safe to eat.

Therefore, after stepping through the door, Hu Biao shouted loudly:

“Old Cripple, stop playing dead! This lord is here to patronize your crappy bar again. Hurry up and bring out your best food and drink; I’m starving. And where is Big Bunny Mary? My darling, your Biao is here to see you again. Come out and let’s have some fun! Also, who hit me with a club yesterday? Do you know who I am? My identity alone would scare you to death!”

As he spoke, Hu Biao sharpened his focus. Even though the girls were great, he had to keep his safety in mind.

At Hu Biao’s loud shouting, Old Cripple jolted awake instantly.

However, upon hearing Hu Biao’s words, his expression became somewhat strange, lacking the gravity Hu Biao had hoped to see.

After a pause, he spoke with a hint of difficulty:

“Distinguished Boss, the Honey and Beauty Bar welcomes your return. The best food and drink will be prepared for you immediately. However, regarding that woman Mary, I must apologize. According to our investigation, she was a thief who sneaked into town, a mole with ill intentions. To get something from you, she shamelessly attacked you last night and secretly fled Bitter Water Town with you. Fortunately, you are alright, Boss, but that woman won’t have the chance to accompany you again.”

Old Cripple spoke English very rapidly, and Hu Biao could only understand about sixty or seventy percent of it. Yet, from those few sentences, he managed to glean a lot of useful information.

For a long time, the puzzles Hu Biao couldn’t solve finally found their answers in these few words.

It turned out he had been knocked unconscious by Mary and secretly taken out of town, likely to that small cave. By a stroke of luck, he had somehow traveled back to his own world. That’s why he appeared in that cave when he traveled back here.

And the half-roll of toilet paper that had been tucked into his clothes before he passed out had likely been swiped by that woman. It felt like a classic “knockout thief” job—hitting the victim and then taking their wallet.

Looking at it that way, this world seemed to have at least some semblance of basic order. At the very least, in a town like this, people wouldn’t just kill someone in the street to rob them of toilet paper. In the wilderness, however, that was a different story.

The problem was, even after learning the truth, a look of obvious disappointment remained on Hu Biao’s face. What a pity! Such a special Big Bunny. He had intended to have a good “chat” with her; he hadn’t expected her to be that kind of person.

As for the matter of knocking him out, if possible, he intended to take his revenge. If she ever falls into my hands, just as she gave me a rod, I’ll give her one back.

But now that she had fled, there was no point in dreaming.

The disappointment on Hu Biao’s face was clearly seen by Old Cripple, who had been watching him closely.

Seeing this, Old Cripple quickly said: “Distinguished Sir, actually, besides Big Bunny, our other waitresses are quite excellent as well! That tall one is Werewolf Linda. Do you see those long legs? They’ve got quite a bit of power in them. And the one next to her is Fox Person Susan. Not only is she obedient and gentle, but she can move like a little motor when she twists…”

As he spoke, Old Cripple pointed his grime-covered fingers at the two waitresses nearby.

These waitresses had woken up when Hu Biao started shouting. Since he looked like a wealthy “coal tycoon,” they had long been eager to get close to him and squeeze some profit out of this sucker.

Now, with Old Cripple’s introduction, they put every ounce of effort into their presentation. They struck alluring S-shaped poses, showing off their assets and charms, while their eyes cast one seductive glance after another his way.

To be fair, any of these waitresses would be considered a bombshell in the modern world. Beautiful faces and curvy bodies were only part of it. The main thing was the exotic charm brought by their fox tails and wolf ears; for a young man like Hu Biao seeing this for the first time, it was incredibly tempting.

Though it wasn’t the long-awaited Big Bunny Mary, Linda and Susan didn’t seem bad either.

He couldn’t help it! He was just a kind-hearted, easygoing young man who didn’t like to fuss over details.

Thus, after Hu Biao gave a reserved little nod, the two waitresses, moving their hips as if they were about to fly, enthusiastically pressed themselves against him. Then, less than a minute later, the poor young man Hu Biao vomited again.

The situation went roughly like this:

When the two waitresses first leaned in, the young man’s nostrils were immediately assaulted by two intensely disgusting odors.

This time when he traveled over, Hu Biao hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol; his mind was crystal clear. It was because of this that he could clearly and certain determine that the last time these two beautiful waitresses had bathed was probably as far back as six months ago.

Those slender thighs, which looked fair from a distance, would likely produce several grams of grime if he were to rub them hard with a finger.

Furthermore, there were small, finger-sized ulcers on them, which had reached a stage of suppuration and rot, oozing a bit of disgusting yellow pus.

Consequently, no matter how beautiful the girls were or how good the contact felt, Hu Biao couldn’t get past the psychological hurdle. To refuse felt like a huge loss, but to accept was physically unbearable due to the stench.

Damn it! This was a sin…

If the body odor was something Hu Biao—who was used to the smell of pesticides—could eventually tolerate, then when Old Cripple once again placed the bar’s “best food” before his eyes, the young man finally snapped.

With the help of the clear daylight, he could see that among the dishes he had eaten the night before—food he had thought tasted okay—not a single one was normal.

For example: a fist-sized, black giant spider with its body hair charred off by fire.

Lizards that had curled up after being dried, possessing a strange color like cured meat; they were about the size of a palm, and three of them filled a plate.

At the thought that last night, under Big Bunny’s coyness and acting cute, he had actually eaten several plates of these dark, horrific things, Hu Biao shoved Linda and Susan aside and vomited uncontrollably.

Chapter 7: Is It Really Necessary?

Human adaptability is always unexpectedly resilient.

Take nausea and vomiting, for example. As long as it isn’t caused by an actual illness, psychological vomiting—like what Hu Biao was experiencing—is something you eventually just get used to. You vomit, and you vomit, and then it becomes a habit.

By the time the sky had gradually darkened and the oil lamps were lit once more in the bar, Hu Biao had returned to normal.

Besides, what else could he do? Go back, order takeout, eat, and go to bed early?

He remembered clearly why he had traveled here in the first place: aside from researching the “artistic style” of that large bed, his main goal was to bring back something valuable.

The vomit on the floor had long since been cleaned away by the other waitresses.

Now, with a beautiful waitress tucked under each arm, Hu Biao sat there like a pampered lord, occasionally opening his mouth to let two pairs of slender hands feed various strange foods into it.

To be honest, if you didn’t dwell on the specific source of the food, the taste was actually quite good.

More importantly, Hu Biao had already reinforced his mental defenses:

First, no matter how strange the food was, it was still just food. It was certainly more civilized and harmless than being a cannibal.

Second, the scent lingering on the two girls was indeed unpleasant, but what did that matter? A quick wash would fix that. At worst, he could just pull out a roll of toilet paper to pay for their bathwater.

Most importantly, the clever Hu Biao hadn’t forgotten that he had a key item in his work bag that could serve a vital purpose:

A solemn, pitch-black, extra-large trash bag.

According to the rumors shared among “real men” back home, in certain critical moments, things like plastic wrap or trash bags could actually serve as a temporary substitute.

Along the way, Hu Biao also drank quite a bit of that liquor that tasted like engine oil.

Initially, Hu Biao felt a strong sense of rejection toward this “Atomic Vodka,” which was claimed to be the best drink in the bar.

Because of this, he had asked Old Cripple for a cup of plain water.

However, after taking a single sip of what was supposedly the purest water in Bitter Water Town, Hu Biao decided he would rather keep drinking engine oil than take another sip of that incredibly bitter water…

As night fell, the number of patrons in the bar gradually increased.

This was exactly what Hu Biao had been waiting for. On one hand, he hoped to pick up more information about this world from the customers’ idle chatter without drawing attention.

He hoped to subtly find out if there was a way back to the modern world.

This was much more discreet and safer than foolishly asking the waitresses.

On the other hand, Hu Biao planned to wait until there were more people before publicly auctioning off the goods he had brought, so he could take something valuable back with him.

Whether it was gold, jewelry, or other precious metals, Biao wasn’t picky.

Finally, when about ninety percent of the tables were occupied, Hu Biao knew it was almost time to start the auction for his supplies.

The only slight regret he had was that Linda and Susan were a bit too enthusiastic.

They kept distracting him, making it impossible to hear the chatter of the other patrons clearly. His understanding of this world remained a complete fog.

But if he waited any longer, he would be drunk by the two waitresses. If that happened, he’d be at a huge disadvantage when the critical moment arrived.

Before officially seeking information or starting the auction, Hu Biao decided to find a place to relieve himself.

With a loud thwack, Hu Biao slapped Linda’s firm backside. Amidst the waitress’s exaggerated squeal, Hu Biao stuffed a handful of toilet paper into her hand.

“Where’s the restroom? I need to use it.”

Linda, having just earned a massive tip out of thin air, said flatteringly, “Master, let me take you. I’ll lead you to the small restroom on the third floor; it’s a bit cleaner there.”

Hu Biao shook his head, declining Linda’s kindness.

“No need! I’m not a kid; I don’t need someone to keep me company for something this small. Don’t worry about me running off; I’m leaving this toilet paper right here.”

Linda wanted to say more, but after seeing a subtle look from Old Cripple, she caught on.

Indeed! This boss wasn’t the kind of pauper who would skip out on a bill. The remaining nine and a half rolls of toilet paper were enough to pay for a month of eating and drinking at their bar.

It was better not to cross him and make him unhappy.

Besides, once this guy left, the few of them could secretly take a few segments of his toilet paper. This half-drunk guy probably wouldn’t even notice, right?

With that, Hu Biao walked through the small door beside the bar alone.

With a slight buzz in his head, he walked slowly and with light steps. Along the pitch-black staircase, Hu Biao fumbled his way up to the third floor.

The third floor seemed to be the residence of some important figures; it was significantly more luxurious and cleaner.

He quickly found the clean restroom Linda had mentioned.

However, just as Hu Biao was about to go inside, a sound coming from the adjacent room made him instantly change his mind.

He pricked up his ears and quietly pressed himself against the door where the sound was coming from.

Because in the conversation he just overhead, the somewhat awkwardly pronounced name “Biao” was clearly referring to him…

“Master, your guards have searched the area around the town very carefully, and they didn’t find any other teams hiding outside. Seriously, entering with so much stuff without any preparation… is this guy Biao an idiot?”

The voice asking if he was an idiot sounded familiar; it sounded like the minotaur security guard, Dave.

Then, a voice full of authority cursed in response:

“He’s not an idiot. He’s likely just a rookie who just came out of some advanced shelter. He has some status but knows absolutely nothing. But that’s fine! Even after all these years, those advanced shelters must still have plenty of valuable things left.

“Tell Linda and Susan to get this sucker drunk, then we’ll capture him secretly. Make sure he doesn’t escape this time. Once we give the kid a good beating and find out the location of the shelter, we’ll be rich.”

Hu Biao stopped listening after that.

Even though the word “shelter” in their conversation felt somewhat familiar, he couldn’t quite place it at the moment.

The fact that they wanted to capture and beat him was the most pressing issue.

Compared to that, thoughts of a comfortable bed or getting rich by bringing back valuables were abandoned by the terrified young man.

The only thing on his mind now was to sneak out of the town, return to the cave where he had first arrived, and find a way back to the safety of the modern world.

Damn it! This world was too dangerous. Killing and fighting over a little toilet paper? Is it really necessary?

A life like mine has to be worth at least a case of instant noodles, right?

Thank God, Hu Biao’s escape was relatively smooth.

He managed to sneak back down to the first floor and found the bar’s back door. There was a security guard there whose arms were thicker than Hu Biao’s thighs, but luckily, the guy was dozing off.

He tiptoed past the guard and escaped the bar through the back door.

The moonlight tonight wasn’t particularly bright, which was perfect for Hu Biao’s flight.

He looked toward the town’s only exit from a distance. Seeing that the checkpoint was still guarded, he immediately gave up the idea of escaping through there.

However, as for the wall surrounding the town—it might be hard to climb in from the outside, but it should be much easier to climb out. With his abilities, he could manage that much.

The only problem was that he was running out of time. He had to move fast.

With that thought, Hu Biao crept along the shadows of various dilapidated buildings toward the wall.

He encountered a small patrol team along the way, but thankfully, he hid in the shadows of a building beforehand and successfully evaded them.

Finally, Hu Biao scrambled up to the top of a section of the wall made from several stacked scrap cars.

Once he jumped down from here, he would be out of this hostile Bitter Water Town. But at that moment, a faint glint of light flashed before his eyes.

He looked closer and realized that the car beneath his feet was actually a luxury Rolls-Royce.

Unfortunately, after so much time, the car that was once worth millions was now a battered wreck, nothing more than a valueless piece of scrap iron.

However, at the front of the car, the “little gold man” hood ornament was still well-preserved. The glint from before had been its reflection.

Supposedly these things could retract, but since the car was broken, that function was likely long gone.

Without any hesitation, Hu Biao grabbed the hood ornament, grit his teeth, and wrenched it with all his might. He heard that this thing could be sold for quite a bit of money in the modern world.

Under Hu Biao’s brute force, the “little gold man” was snapped off intact. He solemnly tucked it into his work bag.

Before he could enjoy the moment for even two seconds, shouts and curses erupted from the direction of the bar. He knew his disappearance had finally been discovered.

Seeing that things were turning south, Hu Biao quickly jumped down from the wall.

After landing, he noticed a weathered metal sign on the ground nearby. It had a line of English faintly written on it: WAYNE STATE U…

Chapter 8: A Cinematic Scene

Hu Biao ran with everything he had as the chilly night wind whipped against him.

It had been years since he’d graduated from university, and this was the first time he had exerted himself like this. It didn’t take long for the slacker youth, whose body had been ruined by years of staying up late, to begin gasping for air.

A few years ago, back when he still exercised regularly, Hu Biao could have easily run three kilometers in one go. But after a few years in sales, accustomed to late nights and heavy smoking, the distance of roughly two kilometers between the town and the cave felt like an eternity.

“I should have kept exercising… and smoked a lot less,” the young man thought, filled with regret as he fled for his life.

Between the violent, ragged gasps of “huff… puff…”, Hu Biao felt as though his poor lungs were turning into a pair of tattered bellows.

The reason for his desperate sprint was simple: if he slowed down even a little, today might very well become the anniversary of his death next year.

When he first escaped the town, he still harbored many beautiful fantasies. On such a pitch-black night, finding a single person in the vast area outside the town shouldn’t be easy. He figured those bastards from Bitter Water Town could forget about catching him; they’d just be eating his dust.

Because of this, while he was still jogging at a steady pace, he had even fantasized about how much the little gold man in his work bag would sell for. Would it be enough to live a little more comfortably for the next few months?

However, when a group carrying torches exited the town and headed straight in his direction, Hu Biao knew he was in deep trouble. And when the sound of barking dogs clearly reached his ears, his face turned deathly pale.

Damn it! Those bastards in Bitter Water Town actually kept hunting dogs. They were so poor they ate bugs—did these dogs live on nothing but crap?

With a hunting dog’s keen sense of smell and tracking ability, finding out which way he ran in the dark was child’s play.

The only thing that gave him peace of mind was that he didn’t hear the roar of any engines. Everyone was traveling on foot. Given that he had a lead of over five hundred meters, it seemed he could successfully reach the cave before being caught.

Unfortunately, Hu Biao didn’t think that way for long.

After covering more than half the distance, he discovered to his horror that his pursuers were less than three hundred meters behind him. Clamouring shouts of “Stop! If you don’t stop, we’re firing arrows!” reached his ears with terrifying clarity.

Faced with such threats, Hu Biao acted as if he hadn’t heard a thing, though he was inwardly fuming. Seriously, how stupid would he have to be to actually listen to them and stop?

Those guys were still counting on him to reveal the location of the non-existent “advanced shelter,” so they wouldn’t dare shoot indiscriminately.

But when Hu Biao looked back again and saw that his pursuers had about a dozen bicycles among them, he truly felt a sense of despair.

Out of options, Hu Biao veered off the flat road and scrambled toward a nearby hill. Climbing the hill depleted his meager stamina even faster, and the detour would increase his return trip by another third.

But he refused to believe his pursuers could ride their bicycles up the mountain…

Heaven have mercy! Before Hu Biao could run himself to death, he finally reached the vicinity of the cave from his memory. If he remembered correctly, once he rounded that large rock ahead and ran another fifty meters, he’d find the cave he had arrived in.

Hopefully, once he got there, he could quickly find a way back.

Hu Biao’s memory was accurate; the cave was indeed right past the large rock. The problem was that after rounding the rock, he was forced to stop. His legs, now soft as cotton, could barely support his weight.

He was paralyzed by fear. Anyone else seeing what was in front of them would likely be no better off.

In front of the cave entrance, a large bonfire was blaring. A legendary ogre sat before the flames, gnawing loudly on a bone.

Yes, Hu Biao was certain he wasn’t seeing things. This creature looked exactly like the ogre NPCs from that Warcraft MMO he used to play.

It had a bloated, onion-like face with a single, hideous eye in the center of its forehead. It was massive and rotund, wearing nothing but a grass skirt around its waist that exposed mounds of mountain-like fat. Just sitting there, the creature stood nearly two meters tall. If it stood up, it would easily be three meters.

A wooden club as thick as a man’s thigh lay by its hand. The tip of the club was covered in dark, dried blood—remnants of some unlucky souls. It was clear this was not something to be trifled with.

At the same time Hu Biao spotted the ogre, the ogre spotted him. It tossed the bone—long since stripped of meat and covered in tooth marks—far to the side.

Hu Biao saw the ogre’s single eye fill with instant delight; it was like a starving wolf discovering a meal that had delivered itself to the door.

After a brief daze, the ogre grabbed its massive club and charged toward Hu Biao. Don’t be fooled by its bloated appearance; the creature moved with startling speed. Every stride it took covered at least two or three meters.

More importantly, when a behemoth over three meters tall and weighing several hundred kilograms charged, Hu Biao felt the ground itself tremble. The poor, helpless man felt like an ant standing in front of an elephant.

With an ogre charging from the front and a mob of pursuers closing in from behind, Hu Biao almost burst into tears.

When the ogre was less than twenty meters away, Hu Biao finally made a decision: he turned and sprinted back toward his pursuers.

If he had to choose, he’d rather be caught and beaten than become this thing’s dinner. He wasn’t willing to be its midnight snack or breakfast either.

In Hu Biao’s stunned confusion, a fierce battle erupted.

Of course, as a piece of scum with a combat power of five, he would normally be knocked out in one hit as soon as the fighting started.

In reality, once the ogre and the pursuers met, they immediately began fighting with bloodshot eyes. As for a harmless creature like Hu Biao, no one had any time to spare for him. Or rather, neither side believed such a weakling could pull any tricks.

They could deal with him later; once the immediate threat was resolved, the rest would be simple.

“Crap! There’s a lone ogre here! Fire your arrows, now!”

Once the two sides spotted each other, the leader of the pursuers—Dave the minotaur, who had already crossed paths with Hu Biao once—roared frantically. He pulled a shotgun from his waist and fired immediately.

With a deafening Bang, a spray of birdshot and several crudely made but lethal arrows flew toward the ogre.

Facing an attack that could have killed Hu Biao several times over, the ogre simply raised its free arm to shield its face. Upon being hit, it let out a roar of pain.

Then, with birdshot embedded in its skin and several arrows hanging from its flesh, the ogre charged violently into the group of pursuers, swinging its gate-post-sized club in a horizontal sweep.

The club tore through the air with a piercing whistle, filled with terrifying power. It first struck a Black man who was as strong as an NBA guard, sending him flying. While the man was still in mid-air, Hu Biao saw that the poor bastard’s waist had been bent at a grotesque ninety-degree angle; he wasn’t going to survive.

After smashing the man away, the club’s momentum continued toward Dave, the leader. As the club swung toward him, Hu Biao was surprised to see a faint white light suddenly glow on the minotaur’s body.

In that light, the minotaur’s physique swelled. Having grown significantly larger, Dave swung his shotgun to intercept the blow.

An instant later, the wooden club and the shotgun collided. The high-quality barrel of the shotgun bent instantly and was knocked far from Dave’s hand. Dave’s arm also hung limp at his side, likely useless for the rest of the fight.

But honestly, the fact that the minotaur could withstand such a monstrous blow at all was beyond Hu Biao’s expectations.

Following that, a battle comparable to a top-tier cinematic blockbuster unfolded before Hu Biao’s eyes: over a dozen pursuers surrounded the ogre, launching a desperate assault.

With every passing second, more wounds appeared on the ogre’s body. However, the ogre’s life force was terrifyingly resilient; such a barrage of wounds seemed unable to deal a fatal blow. Conversely, every time it retaliated, its massive club left the pursuers either dead or crippled.

To be honest, watching both sides fight to the death with no retreat was blood-pumping.

But as soon as Hu Biao snapped out of it, he didn’t wait for a result. He sprinted toward the cave with everything he had left.

Upon entering the cave, he was overjoyed to see the green ball of light once again hovering inside. Without a moment’s hesitation, Hu Biao dove straight in.

Chapter 9: The Bicycle Has Become a Motorcycle

Slumped on the bathroom tiles, Hu Biao’s hands were shaking so violently that it took several attempts before he finally managed to light the cigarette in his mouth.

During the frantic escape earlier, the feeling hadn’t been that obvious.

Now that he had finally escaped to safety, waves of intense lingering fear washed over him.

Dammit! He had nearly died several times. He was just a small-time salesman from a peaceful society; in his twenty-odd years of life, when had he ever encountered something so heart-pounding?

Recalling it now, the immense terror made his entire body tremble uncontrollably.

He didn’t even notice that the cigarette he’d lit—a Soft Furongwang, a luxury that cost three yuan a stick usually reserved for showing off—was being wasted.

It wasn’t until a pile of cigarette butts lay on the floor in front of him that the terrified young man finally managed to pull himself together.

Mainly, as he looked at the portal that had vanished again, he felt certain of one thing:

No matter how powerful those pursuers and the ogre were, they seemingly couldn’t chase him through the portal.

Therefore, as long as he didn’t court death by wandering into that dangerous world again, his life wouldn’t be in any danger.

To convince himself, or perhaps to voice his resolve, Hu Biao cursed under his breath, “From now on, if anyone goes through that portal again, they’re a total coward!”

As his emotions gradually steadied, the young man realized he was in quite a state.

He was covered in foul sweat and dust, looking like he had just come off a construction site. More importantly, he had probably spent too much time in close contact with those two girls, Linda and her friend, and he reeked of a nauseating stench.

Because of this, Hu Biao took a very long bath.

It wasn’t until he had used up half a bottle of body wash and scrubbed his entire body until he was as red as a boiled prawn that he finally felt truly restored.

With his strength back and dressed in clean clothes, Hu Biao sat on his bed and actually found the presence of mind to take stock of the spoils from this adventure:

The Rolls-Royce hood ornament, shaped like a little gold man.

Though the thing was only gold-plated, it was exceptionally beautiful, looking like an exquisite piece of art.

After fiddling with it in his hands for a while, Hu Biao picked up his phone and began searching.

When he saw online that a thing like this could actually be worth over two hundred thousand RMB, a smile finally appeared on his face.

Indeed! This crossing had been a bit dangerous, but it didn’t seem like a loss.

However, after he finished smiling, Hu Biao solemnly said to himself once more, “I’m not going! Even if you kill me, I’m never going back to that hellhole to take risks. Anyone who goes back is a total loser…”

Time is always the best medicine for healing wounds of the heart.

After taking some anti-inflammatory medication and sleeping until noon the next day, Hu Biao felt much better physically.

Specifically, after eating a double-topping cured meat clay pot rice with extra meat and an egg at a famous restaurant in Yang City, he felt completely revitalized.

He spent the shortest time possible counting Chen Liangtian’s shipment and reporting it back to the company.

Then, he rode his scooter toward the urban-rural fringe area on the other side of Yang City.

No matter how nice the little gold man ornament looked, it only became lovely “moolah” once it was sold. Since he had no sales channels of his own, he had to find someone to help.

Fortunately, as a traveling salesman, Hu Biao had decent social connections, knowing far more people from various walks of life than the average person.

One particular friend happened to be someone who could help him, and Hu Biao was willing to pay a small price for that help.

Half an hour later, Hu Biao arrived at a small agricultural supply store.

Behind a glass counter filled with pesticides, a man in his thirties sat behind a computer, playing an old online game with great enthusiasm: World of Warcraft.

He was controlling a rugged-looking Orc Warrior, wildly hacking away at monsters.

The owner of this store was named Ah Long. Because Hu Biao had consistently and deliberately nurtured their friendship, they were on quite good terms.

Upon entering, Hu Biao couldn’t wait to start shouting:

“Long Ge, stop playing for a second. Let me show you something good?”

At Hu Biao’s call, Ah Long looked over somewhat absentmindedly. Hu Biao had said those exact words to him too many times.

Usually, when Hu Biao wanted to pitch a new product, he always had this same “hyped up, I’m giving you a great deal” tone.

However, when Ah Long looked over, he unexpectedly saw a glittering, golden little man ornament.

Hu Biao didn’t waste time and stated his intention directly:

“Long Ge! Didn’t you say you have a close friend in Guangzhou who’s in the auto parts business? Help me contact him. If we can sell this thing, I’ll give you ten thousand yuan as a referral fee.”

Hearing this, Ah Long immediately perked up, not even caring that his game character was being killed by monsters.

He casually took the little gold man and, while fiddling with it, asked in a very skeptical tone, “This thing isn’t a fake, is it?”

What a joke! Hu Biao had pried this thing off the car with his own hands.

Upon hearing that, Hu Biao guaranteed with full confidence, “Your friend is a professional. Just have him come over and check to see if it’s real. If it’s fake, I’ll let you pay ten thousand yuan less on your next order, how about that?”

Ah Long held the ornament and silently sized Hu Biao up for a long moment before slowly nodding and saying:

“Alright! I’ll call my friend right now.”

From beginning to end, Ah Long never asked where Hu Biao had gotten the little gold man. He certainly wanted to earn the ten-thousand-yuan fee, but if any trouble really arose, the worst he’d have to do was hand Hu Biao over…

“Uncle, what are you looking for? Fertilizer for fruit trees? Look at this brand from Renuo Company, it’s very good. Let me introduce it to you.”

Hu Biao questioned a wizened old man with a friendly face.

After spending a good deal of breath, he successfully sold a bag of fertilizer. To close the deal, Hu Biao even lugged the bag, which weighed over 50 kg, and diligently tied it onto the man’s motorcycle.

He spent the entire afternoon helping out in Ah Long’s store.

Earlier, after Ah Long called his friend in the auto parts business, the friend said he would head back immediately and should arrive in about four hours.

So, Hu Biao waited in the shop, hoping to successfully sell the little gold man.

As for the process—calling everyone “Uncle, Auntie, Beauty, or Boss” and jumping around to help—it was just his normal working state.

Nowadays, there were so many agricultural supply manufacturers in the country and products were so similar, why should a store owner sell your company’s products?

To fight for the market, salesmen from various companies used all sorts of methods.

Manning the counter for a client was just a standard tactic. Hu Biao had even tutored store owners’ children several times.

Of course, it was just a job, a legal and legitimate job, and he didn’t think there was anything lowly about it.

Finally, around five o’clock in the afternoon, a BMW with Guangzhou plates stopped at the front of the small shop, and a flashily dressed man stepped out.

Hu Biao knew that the person he was waiting for had finally arrived.

Over the next while, the man who called himself Boss Ma inspected the little gold man for a long time. Once he confirmed its authenticity, he casually offered a price: seventy thousand yuan.

In his words: although it was real, something of unknown origin couldn’t be sold at the factory price.

According to the information Hu Biao had gathered online, buying a brand new one from a 4S dealership would cost at least 220,000 yuan.

After a slight hesitation, Hu Biao was ready to nod and agree.

He even knew that in this transaction, Ah Long, this so-called “close friend,” would not only get ten thousand from him but would also likely get a kickback from Boss Ma.

However, given his social experience, both the situation and the price were acceptable.

Ultimately, Hu Biao haggled with the man for another half hour, bringing the transaction price to 76,000 yuan before both parties reached an agreement.

After deducting Ah Long’s share, he was left with 66,000 yuan—an auspicious number that represented at least half a year’s income for him.

It seemed that by taking a risk in the Otherworld, the bicycle had finally been gambled into a motorcycle.

A few minutes later, when a transfer notification popped up on his phone, Hu Biao decided that starting today, he would only carry the sixty-yuan-a-pack Soft Furongwang.

Having money made him just that willful and playful.

Chapter 10: Sudden Change

Time passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, seven days had passed since Hu Biao returned to the modern world from that dangerous other world.

As time went by, the terrifying memories of that other world had mostly faded away. The young man could even feel that his life recently had been quite happy.

Yes, that’s right! He was now a happy young man.

During these past few days, Hu Biao’s pockets had been more lined than ever before.

First, he spent over two thousand yuan to buy himself a set of decent new clothes and shoes. After changing into them, he immediately felt he looked quite a bit more handsome.

The quality of his daily meals had shifted from ten-yuan quick-service stalls by the roadside to restaurants that offered various stir-fried dishes.

Even the grade of his cigarettes had changed. Instead of the White Baisha he used to hide guiltily in his trouser pockets, he now carried a pack of blue Soft Furongwang ostentatiously in his breast pocket.

Hu Biao had even gone to a bar alone once, harbor certain expectations.

In the end, having failed to pick up any girls, he spent the night drinking by himself, feeling rather bored.

Aside from these changes, Hu Biao’s life hadn’t altered much. When it was time for work, he went to work. When it was time to humble himself, he continued to play the part of the submissive underling, running around trying to drum up business.

But these minor changes alone were enough to make Hu Biao feel happy.

He was just such a simple, pure young man; his happiness was just that easy to achieve.

This state of affairs lasted until around eight o’clock in the evening when Hu Biao returned once again to his rented room. Before he even had a chance to wash up, the phone he had tossed onto the bed began to ring.

Seeing the caller ID was his older sister, Hu Ling, back home in Hunan Province, Hu Biao quickly answered the call.

He teased playfully, “Lady Hu Ling, you finally remembered you have a younger brother? To think you’d actually call this poor little thing.”

Hu Biao’s parents were still alive and well, currently farming back in their hometown in Hunan Province.

His only elder sister, Hu Ling, was three years older than him. She had married into a family in the county seat several years ago. Her son was nearly four now, old enough to start running errands.

Growing up, the two siblings had always been close, though they didn’t call each other very often in their daily lives.

Therefore, receiving a sudden phone call from his sister made Hu Biao’s mood lift even higher.

However, in response to Hu Biao’s teasing, Hu Ling began to sob softly on the other end of the line. She delivered a piece of bad news that struck Hu Biao like a bolt from the blue:

“Biao… it’s bad! Mom suddenly fell seriously ill and collapsed. She was just sent to the City Center Hospital.”

Hearing this, Hu Biao felt the world spinning around him. He suppressed his anxiety and pressed for more information: “What’s the illness? Can it be treated?”

Sobbing, Hu Ling answered his questions:

“The doctor said it’s a ruptured aortic dissection. She needs surgery immediately to have stents put in, otherwise, the mortality rate within forty-eight hours is fifty percent. If it goes past forty-eight hours, the mortality rate increases by one percent for every hour after that.”

“Then what are you waiting for? Tell the doctor to do the surgery right now!” Hu Biao roared desperately.

However, Hu Ling’s next words of lament made Hu Biao want to slap himself:

“Because they need to put in several stents, they need a twenty thousand yuan deposit before the surgery. That’s even if we use the cheaper domestic stents. But the family only has a bit over thirty thousand. Your brother-in-law just went into partnership with someone to buy a truck, and I can only scrape together twenty thousand right now.

Not even mentioning the medical fees for her recovery later, we’re still short a hundred thousand yuan just for the surgery deposit. We can’t find anyone to borrow that much from in such a short time. Dad said he’d find a way, but where on earth is he going to find one?”

Taking a deep breath, Hu Biao told himself he had to stay calm.

One hundred thousand yuan—nowadays, it wasn’t an astronomical sum, but the problem was the time limit they had to gather it.

The Hu family didn’t have many relatives back home, and their relationships with those they did have were mediocre. Even if his father, who had been proud all his life, bowed his head to ask for money, the chances of borrowing enough were very slim.

So, to get his mother into surgery as soon as possible, it seemed he had to find a way himself.

Checking his emotions, he forced his voice to sound a bit more composed.

He said into the phone, “Sis, don’t worry. I’ll transfer the rest of the money home in a bit. It’s best to have the hospital do the surgery tonight. Mom has been a good person all her life; she’ll be fine.”

After saying that, Hu Biao hurriedly hung up the phone.

Hu Biao had made it sound easy on the phone, but once he hung up, he began to worry.

Currently, his bank account only had a mere fifty-eight thousand yuan. This was all that remained of the money he’d made from selling the little gold man hood ornament.

At this moment, he hated his past spendthrift ways intensely.

Slap! Slap!

He reached up and delivered two sharp slaps to his own face: You damn wastrel.

He had been working for several years, and his salary and bonuses weren’t exactly small. But aside from the occasional small amounts he sent home, he had squandered the rest on his extravagant lifestyle, saving nothing.

Now that a critical moment had arrived, regret was far too late…

No matter what, the mother who gave him life and raised him had to be saved.

As a human being, if he couldn’t even manage this, how could Hu Biao show his face in the world? To achieve this, Hu Biao was willing to pay any price.

Borrow from friends? His few close brothers were basically in the same boat as him and couldn’t possibly come up with that much cash.

He didn’t think his other fair-weather friends would be willing to hand over the money so easily either.

Online fundraising or appeals? There wasn’t enough time. A gap of nearly a hundred thousand yuan wasn’t something that could be settled in such a short window.

Without much hesitation, Hu Biao picked up his phone and made a call:

“Brother Dong, I want to borrow one hundred and twenty thousand from you. I know the rules, but I need it tonight. It’s an emergency—I hope the sooner, the better.”

At past eleven o’clock that night, an exhausted Hu Biao returned once more to his rented room.

Immediately, he called his sister, Hu Ling, and spoke in a relaxed tone:

“Sis, I’ve already transferred the money home. It’s a total of one hundred and seventy-eight thousand yuan. Hurry up and pay the surgery fee so they can get it done as soon as possible. Keep the leftover money to buy Mom some good nutrition after the operation.

You and Dad don’t need to worry. Most of this money is what I’ve saved up over the years, and I only borrowed a little bit from friends. I probably won’t make it back in time for the surgery, so I won’t come home just yet. Call me as soon as there’s a result.”

After the call, which lasted over ten minutes, ended, Hu Biao’s face instantly crumpled.

Brother Dong was indeed his friend, but only a casual acquaintance he’d met at some drinking party.

That guy ran a private lending company. To get the money as quickly as possible, Hu Biao had signed a loan contract with a sky-high interest rate of five percent.

He knew very well that once the first repayment deadline arrived in half a month, if he couldn’t pay it back…

Then this so-called friend wouldn’t give him a single shred of courtesy. At the same time, all those usual debt-collection methods would fall squarely on his head.

And with his normal income, could he pay back such a large sum within that timeframe?

Hu Biao knew clearly that it was impossible, unless his luck exploded and he landed a massive contract. But the chances of that were almost non-existent.

The problem was, when Hu Biao pressed his thumbprint onto the contract, he knew he had no other choice.

That night, unable to sleep, Hu Biao smoked for the entire night.

A boy always grows up through one ordeal after another. Just as during this night, Hu Biao thought of many things and understood many truths.

At around six o’clock in the morning, he finally received a call from his father, Hu Jianshe.

On the phone, his father first shared the good news: the doctor said the surgery was very successful, and his mother would recover soon.

Then, the stubborn old man praised Hu Biao for a rare change, telling him to focus on his work away from home and that it would be best if he brought a girlfriend home by the end of the year.

After hanging up, Hu Biao looked at his bloodshot eyes in the mirror and gave a bitter smile.

Damn it! If he couldn’t pay back that money, would he even be able to return home in one piece by the end of the year? But no matter what happened to him, he didn’t regret it one bit.

Chapter 11: Risking It All

Even though he hadn’t slept for a single minute, Hu Biao didn’t do what he usually did after pulling an all-nighter—lying in bed like a corpse for the rest of the day.

Instead, after taking a cold shower and forcing himself to wake up, he hopped onto his scooter and headed out.

Every time he remembered the sky-high interest on the loans hanging over his head, it felt like a massive mountain was crushing him, making it hard to even breathe.

Under such pressure, it would be a miracle if he could actually sleep.

Currently, his only way to save himself was to quickly secure a new order—and it had to be a large enough order to allow him to pay off this debt.

So, he had to push himself to the absolute limit.

Of course, the thought had crossed Hu Biao’s mind to head back to the other world, find something valuable to bring back and sell, and use that money to settle his debts.

But the moment he recalled that on the other side of that portal, there was either an ogre or a group of pursuers waiting for him, he abandoned that dangerous idea.

He didn’t want to lose his life before he even got his hands on any money.

He was twenty-six years old and hadn’t even had a long-term girlfriend yet! Just thinking about it made Hu Biao feel like it was a raw deal; he didn’t want his bland, tasteless life to end just like that.

That day, the odometer on Hu Biao’s scooter logged over a hundred kilometers.

He stayed busy from morning until ten at night before returning to his rental room. His only meal during that entire time was a six-yuan plate of goose fried rice for lunch.

He had no choice. After transferring the money home last night, he only had a little over a hundred yuan left to his name.

If he didn’t save now, he was afraid he wouldn’t even have enough gas money for his scooter in two days.

After a long day of grinding, he had managed to bring back a small order totaling just over ten thousand yuan. Based on the company’s 2% commission, that was an income of about two hundred yuan.

Such a small amount was far from enough to even cover the interest.

After haphazardly eating a bowl of pickled-cabbage-flavored instant noodles, Hu Biao fell fast asleep on his bed without even taking a shower. Heaven only knew how much effort he had poured into securing that small order today.

Just before drifting into a dazy slumber, he thought bitterly to himself:

All that talk about the market being bad and business being hard to find… that’s all just a damn excuse. If I had worked half as hard before as I did today, I would’ve been promoted with a raise long ago.

Over the next few days, Hu Biao maintained this same “man possessed” work ethic.

As the saying goes, hard work pays off. Every day, Hu Biao managed to bring in one or two orders, whether large or small.

Unfortunately, the largest order was only around twenty thousand yuan. Before, such a result would have given Hu Biao a significant sense of accomplishment.

But now, as the days ticked by, the pressure in his heart only grew heavier…

At 7:25 PM, outside a farm supply store in Xinzhou Town, Yang City.

Watching Hu Biao as he struggled to kick-start his scooter’s engine, a withered old man spoke up warmly, “Ah-Biao, you’ve worked hard today. It’s getting late; why don’t you come to my place for dinner before heading back?”

When saying this, the old man was purely sincere.

People aren’t made of stone. Seeing a young man working like a beast of burden at his shop all day—hauling ten tons of fertilizer alone—moved him.

The kid had even brought his own bottled water. Wasn’t it only right to invite him for a meal to show some gratitude?

Hearing this, Hu Biao, who had finally managed to kick the scooter to life, declined, “Uncle Min, thank you for the offer, but I’ll skip the meal. Otherwise, it’ll be too late by the time I get back.”

With that, Hu Biao twisted the throttle and rode off into the dark night outside the town.

If he could, Hu Biao would have loved to crash for a free dinner, but Xinzhou Town was too isolated—the most remote town under Yang City’s jurisdiction.

Even riding his scooter at top speed, it would take him an hour and a half to reach home. He really didn’t have time to stall.

So, it was better to just go back and eat instant noodles. He had bought a whole crate of them at the wholesale market a few days ago, enough to last him quite a while.

By working himself like a mule, Hu Biao had secured his largest order in days: fifty-one thousand yuan.

Because of this, as he traveled by the dim light of his scooter’s headlight, Hu Biao’s mood was quite complicated.

The reason was simple: this order was still too small. Even with this, it was far from enough to solve his problems.

In the countryside of an agricultural city like Yang City, the roads became deserted as soon as night fell. Only the occasional roadside houses, their doors tightly shut, emitted faint, dim light from within.

Buffeted by the night wind, Hu Biao began to think hard about what he should do next.

Over the past few days, he had basically visited every client he thought might be willing to make a deal. Where could he go next to find a “big fish” to place a massive order?

He thought and thought but couldn’t find a suitable target, which made him feel an indescribable sense of anxiety.

Amidst his wandering thoughts, Hu Biao suddenly felt the scooter beneath him tremble violently. Before he could slam on the brakes, the handlebars jerked to the side, and Hu Biao went down, man and machine sprawling onto the ground.

In the pitch blackness, Hu Biao took quite a hard fall.

More frustratingly, as he picked himself up, he discovered that the scooter’s front tire had blown at some point, and most of the air had hissed out.

Instinctively, Hu Biao scanned his surroundings.

As far as he could see, the nearest light was nearly a kilometer away.

In his memory, the closest repair shop was several kilometers back, and at this time of night, they would have closed long ago.

Silently, Hu Biao propped up the scooter and began the grueling task of pushing it forward.

At this moment, his heart felt weighed down by an immense sense of despondency…

It was nearly 2:00 AM by the time Hu Biao finally pushed the scooter into the brightly lit city center of Yang City. Along the way, he had knocked on the doors of two repair shops, but no one had opened up to fix his tire.

By now, he was still more than an hour’s walk from his rental room, but exhausted as he was, Hu Biao no longer had the strength to keep going.

After casually propping the scooter up, he sat down on a roadside step and lit his last cigarette.

In contrast to the disheveled, dust-covered Hu Biao, there was a sign for the “Haocai Bathhouse” right behind him, looking particularly flashy under the neon lights.

To be honest, Hu Biao had spent money here before.

Back then, he thought spending a couple hundred yuan for a bath and a relaxing massage was a pretty good deal.

But looking at things now, he truly felt he had wasted a lot of hard-earned money back then.

He had only taken two puffs when a voice rang out behind him, “Where did this beggar come from? Can’t you see where you’re sitting? Get lost, now!”

Hu Biao turned around and saw a security guard from the club shouting at him.

When he used to come here to spend money, this same guy’s fawning smile had been like that of a loyal dog.

In an instant, a nameless fire surged in Hu Biao’s heart. He wanted to stand up and slap the snobbish bastard a few times.

Unfortunately, as he tried to stand, he realized his entire body was weak.

Likely, the long trek back had already drained him of every ounce of strength.

In the end, Hu Biao gritted his teeth, threw away the cigarette that was still mostly unburnt, and pushed his scooter a few dozen meters away to the shade of a tree.

Then, the twenty-six-year-old young man covered his face with both hands and began to sob silently.

Half an hour later, Hu Biao glanced back at the cigarette-smoking security guard. Then, he gripped the handlebars of his scooter once more and started walking toward his rental room.

In that short time, he had made up his mind—he was going to risk it all and go back to that other world.

Either he would die in obscurity in that dangerous place, or he would return and use his wealth to slap the face of that security guard.

As for the oath he had made—that anyone who went back to the other world was a “grandson”—Hu Biao ignored it completely. Or perhaps, he had finally realized a simple truth of life:

In this world, of all the “salted fish” struggling just to survive, which one of them isn’t already someone’s “grandson”?

Chapter 12: Preparation

After arriving home, Hu Biao didn’t even have time to wash off his stinking sweat before he flipped open his laptop.

By the time he had brewed three packs of instant noodles at once, the familiar interface appeared on the screen. He logged onto Baidu and typed in three words: Shelter.

A moment later, a long list of information appeared on the screen.

Since he had decided to cross over again and pull off a big job, Hu Biao wasn’t stupid enough to charge into the portal without any preparation.

During his last trip, he had gathered quite a bit of useful information. He believed that by synthesizing that data, he would gain a much better understanding of that other world, rather than being as bewildered as he was before.

On the packed search page, he saw that the vast majority of results were prefixed with terms like “Radiation” and “Fallout.”

Suddenly, the vague memories in Hu Biao’s head became crystal clear.

That’s it! No wonder he felt such a sense of familiarity when he heard those people mention “shelters.”

It turned out he had seen this kind of thing in many post-apocalyptic movies and games before.

Specifically, in the imaginations of many foreigners, these deep underground or mountainside shelters were built to cope with things like nuclear war and zombies.

Based on the abandoned cars and other debris he had seen, the background of the other world seemed to sharpen into focus:

Could it be a post-apocalyptic wasteland after a nuclear war? Then the question followed: was this wasteland world a possible future for the very planet he lived on?

Thinking of this, Hu Biao returned to the search bar and typed in the English letters from that sign:

Wayne State University.

With Hu Biao’s level of English, he honestly hadn’t understood the specific meaning of that sign until now.

Soon, a line of detail appeared that left Hu Biao dumbfounded: Wayne State University; a famous public research university in the United States, located in Detroit, Michigan.

This place was said to consist of thirteen colleges with thirty-two thousand undergraduate and graduate students, offering over four hundred major fields of study. It was one of the thirty largest universities in the United States.

In terms of global university rankings, it sat at 283rd. In Hu Biao’s memory, there were only a handful of universities in all of China that outperformed this institution.

Furthermore, the famous Dr. Bethune, well-known to the Chinese public, had graduated from this school.

In short, it was a very impressive place.

After seeing this, Hu Biao could basically confirm his previous guess: that desolate, dilapidated other world was indeed this planet at some point in the future.

Based on the condition of the buildings and abandoned cars, the time gap was likely somewhere between several decades and a hundred years.

At the same time, more doubts sprouted in Hu Biao’s mind:

Why were there strange half-orcs like bunny girls in this apocalypse, along with things like ogres that were usually exclusive to fantasy worlds?

After pondering for a long time, Hu Biao couldn’t come up with a concrete answer.

However, he did realize one thing: he just needed to prepare for the crossing to the best of his ability, using a dangerous, lawless wasteland world as his standard.

Regarding these preparations, some of the theories found online provided him with quite a lot of ideas…

Over the next few hours, Hu Biao gulped down his soggy instant noodles while frantically browsing various online forums. It turned out there were plenty of bored people who had discussed this exact topic.

If you traveled to a wasteland world, what supplies would you need to bring?

Hu Biao ignored some of the suggestions, such as bringing an inflatable doll, but many other points were, in his opinion, quite reasonable.

To do a good job, one must first sharpen their tools!

Even though Hu Biao was incredibly anxious to head back to the other world and make a score, he still spent three days preparing before his official departure.

First, he called several of his best friends, planning to borrow some money to purchase supplies for the trip.

The result of his borrowing left Hu Biao somewhat speechless.

To his relief, every friend had transferred him some money, but the largest amount was only twelve hundred yuan.

When added all together, it totaled three thousand one hundred yuan.

Hu Biao understood that it wasn’t that these friends were unwilling to lend him money; it was just that these guys, who spent money as recklessly as he did, truly didn’t have much to give.

If they had asked the old Hu Biao for a loan, the result would have been the same:

Brother, it’s not that I don’t want to help, but things are tight right now!

Of course, a small amount of money has its uses. Just like when you’re hungry, eating a frugal fast-food meal on the street solves the problem just as well as a luxury meal at a five-star hotel.

Originally, Hu Biao had planned to go to a professional outdoor gear store to buy high-quality equipment. Now that his funds were limited, he could make do with things bought from the Yang City wholesale market and Pinduoduo.

By the morning of the fourth day, when the last courier package arrived at Hu Biao’s rented room, he began to gather the supplies he had purchased over the past few days for a final inventory check.

There was a large woven snakeskin bag for carrying the supplies—the kind of “heavy artillery” migrant workers used during the Spring Festival rush a few years back.

Its advantage was its staggering capacity; if you pushed hard enough, a large one seemed capable of holding an entire world. The downside was that it wasn’t very durable, and its carrying method was not ergonomically designed.

But what choice did he have? Initially, Hu Biao had planned to buy a large sports backpack, but the price—at least several hundred yuan—made him back down immediately.

Inside the massive bag, Hu Biao packed a case of instant noodles and a case of ham sausages.

He also added a variety of miscellaneous items: toothpaste, toothbrushes, a small mirror, toilet paper, cheap cigarettes, plastic raincoats, tape, candy, binoculars, and more.

They all shared a common trait: they were off-brands that few had heard of—low-quality and cheap.

These were all items Hu Biao intended to use for trade. He mostly lacked confidence in his own combat ability; finding a way to trade would be the best possible outcome.

Naturally, he didn’t forget his usual work bag.

The items in the work bag were what he considered most important:

One hundred thirty-two beer bottle caps, a Geiger counter for measuring radiation levels, a bottle of potassium iodide tablets, leftover painkillers and anti-inflammatories from last time, and some gauze and alcohol.

Even the half-bag of Banlangen granules left in his apartment was tossed into the bag by Hu Biao.

The bottle caps were kept on his person, intended to be used as pocket change. The Geiger counter and potassium iodide tablets were for testing the specific radiation levels of the wasteland world.

If they exceeded safety standards, Hu Biao would immediately take the potassium iodide tablets, as they were said to effectively block radiation from entering the body.

The remaining medicines were just small preparations Hu Biao had brought along just in case.

Notably, Hu Biao also brought a bag of laundry detergent and some medication for skin diseases.

He figured that if those poor female comrades like Linda and Susan could wash themselves clean with laundry detergent and then apply some ointment, maybe those disgusting sores would get better?

It wasn’t that he was thinking about getting laid right now.

Rather, he saw this as a market—a demand for consumer goods. And bar waitresses were often the ones with the best information.

The reason he brought laundry detergent instead of body wash was simple: Hu Biao estimated that given the thick layer of grime those women had accumulated over such a long time, nothing less than laundry detergent would get them clean.

As for weapons, Hu Biao brought along a kitchen knife from his rental.

He knew very well that even if he armed himself to the teeth, could he really defeat those ogres and orcs? Don’t be ridiculous; it was useless.

So, Hu Biao changed his strategy and spent a “fortune” to have his scooter serviced.

He had the engine maintained and replaced both tires and the brake pads with brand-new ones. He felt that riding his scooter to escape in a dangerous situation was the best way to stay alive.

With these preparations complete, Hu Biao glanced at his wallet, which only had a little over a hundred yuan left.

After putting on his helmet, he twisted the throttle of the supply-laden scooter and slowly drove into the portal in the bathroom.

At this moment, the expression on Hu Biao’s face was one of grim determination, bordering on ferocious. He knew this was his final gamble; no matter what difficulties lay ahead, nothing would stop his plan to make his fortune.

Chapter 13: Gluttonous Zac

The moment he entered the portal, Hu Biao closed his eyes ahead of time. He squeezed the brakes of his scooter and silently began to count in his head.

Just as he reached ten, Hu Biao opened his eyes.

Sure enough, things were progressing exactly as he had planned. As long as he didn’t stupidly stare at the distorted portal, he wouldn’t feel that nauseating sensation at all.

“Beautiful!”

With a low cheer, Hu Biao didn’t even wait for his vision to fully recover before he twisted the scooter’s throttle all the way to the floor.

Immediately, the recently maintained engine roared. Carrying Hu Biao on its back, the scooter charged out of the cave.

This crossing was originally a gamble for Hu Biao. He was certain that regardless of which side had won the great battle that day, they wouldn’t let him go. Ten to one, they would be standing guard at the cave, waiting for him to reappear.

Whether or not he could ride his scooter far away before they could react was the key to his survival.

If he succeeded, he could bring back something valuable from this world to pay his debts. If he failed to escape, he probably wouldn’t have to worry about paying off those debts ever again.

Finding no one inside the cave after crossing over was undoubtedly a good start.

His spirits bolstered, the speeding scooter burst out of the cave. Instantly, Hu Biao scanned his surroundings, hoping to determine the position of those people as early as possible so he could find a gap to make his escape.

With one look, Hu Biao received such a massive shock that his hands and feet trembled violently, nearly causing him to crash.

Lying just a few meters to the left of the cave entrance was that huge lump of an ogre, currently resting there silently.

In a state of extreme terror, Hu Biao jerked the handlebars and sped away in the opposite direction.

However, thirty seconds later, just as he was about to charge down the slope of the hill toward the flat wilderness below, Hu Biao suddenly slammed on the brakes.

Something’s not right. It doesn’t seem like what I thought!

The ogre’s state didn’t suggest it was there to block him at the cave entrance. Instead, it looked more like it was lying there waiting for death, suffering from extremely severe injuries.

Thinking back to that brief glimpse, the dense wounds covering the ogre’s massive body became clear in Hu Biao’s memory.

After scouting the surroundings and seeing no sign of anyone else, Hu Biao, driven by some strange impulse, turned the scooter around and rode back toward the ogre.

Hu Biao stopped the scooter cautiously about ten meters away.

From this close distance, he could indeed see countless large and small wounds all over the ogre’s body. Most of them had already turned purulent and begun to rot.

Injuries this severe would have killed anyone else eight times over. It was only because an ogre was an unscientifically resilient creature that it still possessed a faint breath of life.

With a thud, Hu Biao picked up a fist-sized stone and accurately pelted it against the ogre’s forehead.

After being hit, the massive mountain of flesh only showed a slightly faster rise and fall of its chest. It had no strength left to get up and strike him.

Seeing this, Hu Biao’s courage finally swelled.

He hopped off the scooter carrying his kitchen knife and walked up to the dying ogre.

There, he saw the ogre staring at him with one large, copper-bell-like eye, looking at him pitifully. The creature’s mouth moved as it uttered a string of gibberish.

To be honest, Hu Biao didn’t understand a single word coming out of its mouth.

Because of this, he guessed that the language the creature used wasn’t any language from Earth.

Thus, Hu Biao tried a line in his broken English: “Uh, do you speak English?”

Then, the young man was dejectedly surprised to find that in this day and age, even an evil creature like an ogre spoke English—and it was in a fluent London accent to boot.

Damn it! Life is just getting impossible!

The ogre with the London accent said:

“Respected human master, can you save poor Zac? If you save me, Zac is willing to swear by the spirits of his ancestors to be your most loyal slave from now on. Of course, you must ensure that Zac is fed full at every meal.”

Hearing this, Hu Biao fell into a difficult dilemma.

True, having such a powerful thug under his command would greatly improve his future safety in this world.

Unfortunately, there was a prerequisite: this fellow named Zac couldn’t be tricking him. Would he simply turn around and treat Hu Biao as dinner after being saved?

In the end, Hu Biao decided to take the gamble. Since Zac had sworn by the spirits of his ancestors, he seemed quite sincere.

As for the requirement to keep him full every day, Hu Biao didn’t take it to heart at all.

Was he joking? He was from the mighty nation of China. Ever since the Grand Druid of Agriculture, Yuan, had worked his wonders, the concept of going hungry had long since vanished there.

The only problem was how to save this giant fellow who was down to his last breath.

Hu Biao never would have thought that the method for saving Zac would be so simple and crude.

In the ogre’s words: as long as he was provided with enough food, he could rely on his own regenerative powers to gradually heal. This recovery process would take about seven days.

If he had the assistance of the legendary magic healing potions, he could completely recover his strength in three days.

Magic healing potions? This was the first time Hu Biao had heard of such a thing, so naturally, he had none.

But providing some food shouldn’t be a problem. Additionally, if he helped clean Zac’s wounds, it should speed up the recovery.

So, Hu Biao rummaged through his snakeskin bag and pulled out a box of ham sausages. After gesturing for Zac to help himself, he began to brandish his kitchen knife and get to work on Zac’s body.

It was truly miraculous. Zac, who had been lying on the ground unable to move, was so enticed by the food that he not only managed to sit up by himself but could also feed himself.

Amidst the bloody labor, Hu Biao felt as though he had transformed into a butcher.

Enduring the waves of nausea, he carved large chunks of rotten flesh from Zac’s wounds, only stopping when the flesh showed a healthy color.

In a short while, the rotten flesh on the ground had piled up into a large heap. Swarms of flies buzzed over it, making for a revolting sight.

Fortunately, despite this crude cleaning process, Zac remained remarkably calm.

Or rather, he had completely fallen into a trance, unable to pull himself away from the deliciousness of the off-brand ham sausages.

Each of those thirty-gram sausages, tied in bundles of ten, was tossed into his mouth, casing and all. With a slight movement of his jaw, he swallowed them whole.

Following that, his expression would settle into a sort of drunken reminiscence, until a minute or two later, when he would grab another bundle of sausages and begin the enjoyment all over again.

In this manner, just as Hu Biao had finished treating less than a third of the wounds, he suddenly heard a voice by his ear:

“Master, do you have any more of this ‘ham sausage’? I forgot to tell you just now, but everyone calls me Gluttonous Zac. For food as delicious as this, I think I need ten boxes at a time just to be full.”

Hu Biao looked up, his face full of astonishment, and was immediately met with an ugly face wearing a cunning expression.

Seeing this, how could Hu Biao not know that he had been scammed by this seemingly dull-witted ogre? This wasn’t a powerful thug at all; it was a massive bottomless pit for food.

So, the question remained: in a world where food seemed quite scarce, should he give up on saving him?

Chapter 14: The Beginning of the Legend of the Big Pig Farmer

The sun was setting over the open ground in front of the cave.

“Master, when can you get me some more food?”

Even while lying on the ground, Zac’s mouth never stopped smacking, as if he were still savoring the wonderful taste of the ham sausages. He asked Hu Biao once again.

Unfortunately, Zac’s hopeful anticipation was met only with a sharp scolding from a cranky Hu Biao.

“What’s the rush? I can only bring food back once I return. I’ll make sure a glutton like you eats his fill.”

After snapping at him, Hu Biao began studying an instruction manual while tinkered with a brand-new Geiger counter, attempting to measure the Fallout levels in the surrounding area.

After giving it some thought, Hu Biao had decided to continue treating this ogre thug.

Otherwise, wouldn’t he have wasted a whole case of ham sausages before his interdimensional trade business had even officially begun?

And so, he continued his work. First, he cleaned all the wounds on Zac’s body once more; then, he took the anti-inflammatory pills—of which Zac had previously only taken two—and poured the entire bottle into the ogre’s mouth.

By his calculations, this was at least ten times the dosage for a normal human.

Even so, Hu Biao felt it might not be enough. There was no helping it; with a mountain of flesh like the one before him, a small dose wouldn’t do a thing.

Whether it was because the anti-inflammatory medication worked surprisingly well on Zac or because that case of ham sausages had done the trick, it wasn’t long before Zac’s spirit significantly improved, even though he still couldn’t get up and move around.

But because of this, the fellow started pestering Hu Biao for food.

However, unless Hu Biao’s head had been caught in a door, there was no way he was going to take out his last case of instant noodles to fill the bottomless pit that was Zac’s stomach.

Fortunately, at that moment, the portal reappeared.

Near the back of the cave, a ball of green light the size of a ping-pong ball appeared without warning. It began to expand at a slow but steady pace.

He estimated that in another few hours, it would recover enough to be passable.

This way, Hu Biao could return to the modern world and use his meager remaining funds to get some cheaper food to fill this big-bellied glutton’s stomach.

As for Hu Biao’s plan to pull off a big job in the wasteland and bring back something valuable, he temporarily put that on hold. Everything would wait until his ogre guard had recovered.

This was because he had just gathered some information from Zac:

In the vast area surrounding them, there was either wilderness or incredibly dangerous urban ruins. Bitter Water Town was the only settlement…

While waiting for the portal to recover, Hu Biao finally remembered to perform some basic tests on this wasteland world.

He rummaged through his snakeskin bag and pulled out the handheld Geiger counter he had bought for 215 yuan with free shipping, beginning his first scientific research expedition into the wasteland.

After a bit of work, a value of 5.23 appeared on the counter’s screen.

According to the Geiger counter’s manual and a popular science article Hu Biao had read online, a value between 2 and 10 indicated that the area was a minor nuclear Fallout contamination zone.

The data suggested that in such an environment, one could move around on foot, but appropriate time limits should be observed.

In other words, Fallout levels like this would certainly cause some harm to the human body, but it wasn’t overly severe. Seeing this, Hu Biao quickly swallowed a few potassium iodide tablets as a preventative measure.

Compared to the miserable life of being unable to pay off his debts, such a small danger was nothing.

Having settled a major concern, Hu Biao began to chat with Zac. He had too much to learn about the miraculous portal and this mysterious wasteland world.

“Zac, can you see that green ball of light?” Hu Biao started with the most critical question.

“I can! How could I miss such a prominent ball of light? I’m not blind.” Zac, who hadn’t received any new food for a long time, answered rather irritably.

Hearing this, Hu Biao couldn’t help but feel a wave of disappointment.

However, Zac’s next cautious question dispelled all of Hu Biao’s worries.

“But I tried it a long time ago; I can’t pass through that ball of light at all. Master, are you a legendary Mage? Is this a portal spell you’ve cast?”

Clearly, the ogre had some misunderstandings about him, but such a misunderstanding was exactly what the young man hoped for.

Thinking about how he had been single for twenty-six years—which, in a certain sense, meant he could be considered a Mage—Hu Biao replied thick-faced:

“You could say that, though I’m a bit different from the Mages you might be thinking of.”

As soon as he spoke, Zac’s respect for Hu Biao soared. To Hu Biao’s subsequent questions, he answered everything he knew.

Through Zac’s answers, Hu Biao gradually formed a clearer picture of this wasteland world in his mind, even though the ogre—whose brain was mostly filled with thoughts of food—had very limited knowledge of history.

This was indeed a wasteland world after a Great War. The specific time was likely thirty to fifty years post-war.

The original ecological environment had been destroyed during the war. Often, a single source of clean water became something countless factions fought over.

After all, except for creatures as physically powerful as beasts like the ogres…

Neither humans, nor half-orcs, nor even the legendary and rare pure-blood orcs could directly consume the heavily polluted surface water.

Drinking it in the short term was equivalent to committing slow suicide by poison; long-term consumption would lead to severe mutations, turning one into one of those monster-like Infected.

Bitter Water Town had become the only settlement and supply point in the surrounding area because it possessed a deep-water well.

The town chief, Andrew, was a powerful leopard-tribe half-orc. He had gathered about thirty subordinates to occupy the town’s only water source.

However, Andrew’s forces had lost a third of their strength during the last fight with Zac, leaving them severely weakened.

Undoubtedly, this was quite good news for Hu Biao.

At approximately 10:13 PM in the wasteland world, the portal finally fully recovered. It had taken exactly twelve hours from the time it disappeared to the time it returned.

Leaving the snakeskin bag behind, Hu Biao rode his electric scooter back to the modern world.

When the phone in his pocket reconnected to the network and updated the current time, Hu Biao instinctively pulled it out to check.

He was stunned to find that while he had stayed in the wasteland for twelve hours, less than two hours had passed in the modern world.

Specifically, the time flow ratio between the two worlds was roughly one to seven.

Having confirmed this, Hu Biao felt fairly good about it. It meant he didn’t have to spend too much time in the wasteland and interfere with his professional work in the modern world.

Before he struck it rich, he wasn’t willing to give that job up just yet…

After taking a shower to wash off any potential Fallout contamination, Hu Biao headed out.

If all went as expected, the portal would recover in his bathroom in another twelve hours. He needed to use his remaining hundred or so yuan to get enough cheap food during this time.

Ideally, the food should be greasy and fatty. Such energy-rich food would allow a glutton like Zac to recover faster.

Under normal circumstances, this would seem impossible. But after many years of doing sales in Yang City, Hu Biao was well-acquainted with the lower depths of the city’s life. He could find a workaround that wasn’t exactly a standard solution.

Before long, Hu Biao arrived at a fast-food restaurant he frequently visited.

It was currently past 3:00 PM, and there were no customers in the restaurant. The proprietress—who was 150 centimeters tall with a 150-centimeter waistline, and whom they affectionately called “Fatty”—was leisurely looking at her phone.

Hu Biao leaned in and lowered his voice. “Boss Lady, how much do you sell your swill for?”

Hearing this, the Boss Lady immediately perked up.

She glanced around surrendered to make sure no one else was there before saying, “Little Hu, aren’t you in agricultural sales? What do you want swill for? Planning to haul it to the countryside to raise pigs? I can sell it to you—ten yuan a bucket. Also, if you get inspected, that’s not my problem.”

Hu Biao naturally knew that feeding pigs with swill had been banned years ago, but he had no reason to worry about that.

He readily whipped out ten yuan and said generously, “Deal. Keep all the swill from the next few days for me.”

Happily taking the bill, the Boss Lady remarked, “You want swill every day? It seems your pig farm is quite large, Little Hu.”

Recalling Zac’s massive mountain of a body, Hu Biao instinctively replied, “You bet it is!”

Chapter 15: Want to Pull a Heist? Get in Line First

After spending twelve hours in the modern world, during which he bought swill from Fatty’s shop one more time, young Hu Biao transmigrated again.

This overly frequent transmigration made him rather unfazed by the legendary portals.

Yes! There wasn’t even a clear sense of ceremony during the process—major drawback.

After those few seconds of magical experience while his body transitioned through space and time, everything became bland again. Just like that, the young man had once again returned to the wasteland.

According to the different time flows between the two planes, this meant he had been away for three and a half days.

Therefore, when Hu Biao saw Zac again, the poor ogre was already on his last breath from hunger.

The reason for this was that ogres, while able to go a long time without eating or drinking after a single full meal, required an increasingly terrifying amount of food to recover from injuries.

Seeing this, Hu Biao quickly drove the scooter in front of Zac, placed two large swill buckets on the ground, and enthusiastically greeted the starved ogre.

“Come on, you poor fellow, feast to your heart’s content! Don’t hold back, all this food is yours.”

As he spoke, he sounded exactly like Fatty, the fast food restaurant owner, when she usually招呼 him to spend money.

However, a thought about the origin of the food in the swill buckets made him feel a little apprehensive.

After all! In the modern world, this was something even pigs wouldn’t eat; it was said that pigs fed swill could not only potentially affect human health through the food chain but also cause African swine fever.

It was an illegal act strictly prohibited and vigorously investigated by the animal husbandry department.

Hu Biao was quite supportive and appreciative of this point.

However, what could he do now? Hu Biao was even prepared to run away on his scooter if Zac got angry because of it.

However, Zac, who had been extremely listless, opened his eyes at Hu Biao’s greeting.

Just one glance at the swill buckets, and seeing the kitchen waste mixed with various ingredients inside, he joyfully exclaimed:

“By the spirits of our ancestors! This is truly abundant, and there’s even soup? Master, you are too kind to Zac.”

With that, the ogre picked up a large bucket of ingredients with both hands and poured it into his cavernous mouth.

Good heavens! Zac devoured nearly half a bucket in one gulp, consuming over twenty kilograms of soup and water before finally stopping.

He wiped his greasy mouth and murmured affectionately, “It’s truly delicious.”

Only then did Zac remember Hu Biao, his new master.

For an ogre who constantly went hungry one day and was full the next, anyone who could keep him from starving was a master he would truly pledge allegiance to.

And if such a lavish feast could fill his belly, such a master would earn his utmost respect.

So, Zac, feeling a bit embarrassed, said to the master he revered from the bottom of his heart, “Zac was impolite, Master. Please join me in enjoying this delicious food?”

Hu Biao endured the churning in his chest and forced out a “No need!”

Afterward, as Hu Biao watched Zac eat and drink with relish, he felt a hint of guilt; he told himself: once he had money, he must give this simple ogre some proper food.

For example: some expired food from the wholesale market; although the taste might be a bit off, it would still be more decent than swill, wouldn’t it?

In the blink of an eye, Hu Biao had already bought swill from Fatty’s shop for the fourth time.

Thanks to this rich, greasy stuff, Zac’s recovery speed became astonishing.

Before his last transmigration, Hu Biao had noticed that Zac’s wounds had mostly scabbed over; he believed that with this new batch of swill, the ogre would fully recover.

That also meant Hu Biao could finally start acting with Zac, his powerful strongman.

For this, Hu Biao told the owner, “You don’t need to save any swill for me tomorrow. The pig I’m feeding will be ready for market tomorrow.”

The owner acknowledged him, her face filled with deep disappointment.

You see! Others who collected swill only paid five yuan per bucket, and that was what Fatty usually gave them; because it was kitchen waste and couldn’t be simply dumped into the trash.

Under the morning sun, Hu Biao lay prone on a small hill about two kilometers from Bitter Water Town, raising his 115-yuan, eight-power military binoculars (shipping included) to carefully observe the situation inside and outside the town.

Behind Hu Biao, Zac lay bored.

After several days, the ogre’s appearance had changed drastically. Not only had all his wounds healed, but he also gained quite a bit of new equipment.

It wasn’t quite “armed to the teeth,” but it was certainly a significant upgrade.

For instance: an old iron manhole cover was tied to his left arm, serving as an arm shield.

A small truck door was tied with ropes to his vital chest and abdomen, forming an ugly chest plate; the thick wooden club he originally used as a weapon had been replaced with a hundred-kilogram废 truck axle.

He was a strongman, and his only strongman at that.

Before starting the operation, Hu Biao naturally tried everything to arm Zac; but currently, Hu Biao was short on cash, so he could only buy these items from a certain scrapyard at a price slightly higher than scrap iron.

Good heavens! When he came over with two buckets of swill and all this equipment, the beam of the scooter almost broke.

And to buy these things, Hu Biao even pawned his laptop.

The laptop he had used for several years was only pawned for 850 yuan in total; it didn’t seem like much money, but that laptop was his only household appliance besides his phone and razor.

If this operation failed, the young man would be completely finished.

When the operation officially began, Hu Biao was filled with a resolute “succeed or die trying” mindset; unfortunately, he had only set out a few minutes before he had to stop again…

Damn it! In this wretched place, even pulling a heist required waiting in line.

A team of dozens of people appeared from another direction, arriving at the town before Hu Biao. Instinctively, Hu Biao stopped advancing with Zac.

When Hu Biao picked up his binoculars, he could clearly see a group of people dressed like beggars.

They held various DIY weapons, such as spears with daggers tied to steel pipes, and continuously waved them fiercely at the town.

It looked like they intended to attack the town.

If it were only this, Hu Biao wouldn’t be too surprised; in the wasteland, fighting tooth and nail over a clean water source seemed perfectly reasonable.

What almost made his jaw drop was that the leader of this group of attackers was none other than the familiar Big Bunny Mary.

The reason he was so sure this bunny girl was the leader was that among the group of foot-marching attackers, she was the only one with a vehicle.

It was a dilapidated pedal tricycle, and the long-lost bunny girl stood majestically in the cargo box, with a long-legged black man as her dedicated driver.

Even on both sides of the cargo box, several steel plates of unknown origin had been installed, instantly transforming the rustic pedal tricycle into a DIY war chariot.

Under the bright sunlight, the girl was dressed in a cool leopard print short skirt and tube top.

Her golden hair flew in the wind, and her delicate face and explosive figure were all full of extreme feminine charm; in addition, the girl carried a double-barreled shotgun on her shoulder and a gleaming fire axe on her back.

These items, carried on her person, did not diminish her image at all; instead, they added a strange allure.

Looking at the clear details through the binoculars, Hu Biao couldn’t help but swallow a large gulp of saliva; putting aside his past grievances with this girl, she was genuinely captivating.

Chapter 16: A Leap of Faith

Just as Hu Biao was wiping the drool from the corner of his mouth, the battle erupted without warning.

On the defensive side, the leader was a powerhouse of a man with a thick, golden beard. This had to be Andrew, the Mayor of Bitter Water Town.

The man had an M16 slung over his shoulder—one that seemed reasonably well-maintained—and he roared at the top of his lungs to encourage his men. He looked as fierce as an enraged lion.

Unfortunately, due to the previous brutal battle with Zac, he only had about twenty men left. They were scattered along the dilapidated perimeter wall, appearing quite sparse.

In contrast, the attackers led by Big Bunny Mary outnumbered the defenders by at least half.

As for the residents of the town, they were all hiding in various ruined buildings, shacks, and tents, watching the town entrance from a distance. Their expressions were wooden, as if this struggle for control over the town had absolutely nothing to do with them.

The only entrance to the town had long been blocked by an old Greyhound bus. It served as a makeshift gate; after being pushed into place by manpower, obstacles were jammed under the tires to seal the entrance tight.

Although the attackers were more numerous, most of them looked malnourished and were noticeably scrawnier than the defenders.

This realization sparked a massive doubt in Hu Biao’s mind: This isn’t scientific. How did a girl like Mary develop so well under such malnourished conditions? If she’d had papaya and milk every day, her growth would be legendary…

While Hu Biao was lost in these stray thoughts, about thirty attackers slowly approached the wall.

Slightly behind them were twenty or so archers led by Mary. These people didn’t have a single firearm among them.

It made sense; it had been decades since the Great War of Destruction. Every remaining bullet used was one less in existence. Hu Biao didn’t believe that in an era where industry was completely wiped out, anyone was still producing new ammunition.

When the front line of attackers reached a point about a hundred meters from the wall, a shrill roar erupted from Big Bunny Mary’s mouth. It was loud enough for Hu Biao to hear clearly even from his distance. “Charge! Once we take Bitter Water Town, that well will be ours!”

Under this rallying cry—which would have sounded like a joke in the modern world—the attackers exploded with beast-like courage.

The thirty or so people in the front row brandished various melee weapons and sprinted toward the wall. They easily cleared a hundred meters in about ten seconds.

During the sprint, archers from both sides released their arrows almost simultaneously.

A moment later, two chargers collapsed to the ground, and one defender fell from the wall.

Overall, casualties were low because these people were not only startlingly agile but were also capable of performing high-difficulty evasive maneuvers in critical moments. Furthermore, they all carried shields of various designs, which they used to block incoming arrows.

Consequently, after both sides traded three volleys of arrows, the total casualties didn’t exceed ten. By then, the attackers had already reached the foot of the wall.

They simply used small cracks in the wall for leverage and vaulted upward. Two or three seconds later, those who successfully scaled the wall began a bloody, hand-to-hand struggle with the defenders.

With the support of the archers behind them, the tide of the battle began to tip in favor of the more numerous attackers.

At that moment, Mayor Andrew finally made his move. He raised his M16 and began firing in controlled bursts.

God knows how many years Andrew had been single, but the strength in his brawny arms was staggering. When he fired the M16, he completely controlled the recoil; the muzzle didn’t even show a hint of jumping.

Under his precise fire, the five most accurate archers among the attackers were gunned down in seconds.

This was despite the fact that the denizens of the Wasteland were unscientifically tough, often requiring multiple hits to vital organs before staying down. Otherwise, the number of people Andrew killed in that instant could have easily reached double digits.

However, after killing five people, Andrew stopped firing with a look of resentment. It seemed he had run out of ammo.

Still, compared to Big Bunny Mary, he seemed quite wealthy. Seeing her five best archers killed, she raised the double-barreled shotgun on her shoulder as if to fire.

Then, she lowered it with an annoyed expression. It was unclear if it was because she had limited shells or if the gun was just a non-functional prop.

In the minutes that followed, a small-scale but exceptionally bloody melee ensued.

The defenders on the wall fought with grim determination. Within minutes, half of them were dead, yet they refused to retreat.

Unfortunately, as more attackers scaled the wall, their defeat seemed inevitable.

At this critical juncture, Andrew, the strongest among them, erupted with Battle Qi to slay an opponent before screaming, “Hold them off!”

After saying that, the man turned tail and fled toward the center of town, running toward that three-story building that held so many memories for Hu Biao.

“What a ball-less coward!” Hu Biao cursed internally, convinced that Andrew was going back to pack his valuables and flee.

Hu Biao had miscalculated. Andrew hadn’t gone back to pack; he had gone back to pull out his ultimate trump card.

Amidst a screeching of grinding steel, a tank flattened a shack and emerged from behind the small building, driving straight toward the chaos at the town gate.

That’s right! Hu Biao was certain he wasn’t seeing things.

Even though the thing looked like a rusted hunk of junk pulled straight from a scrap heap, and even though it vibrated violently as it moved, there was no denying it was a functional tank.

Based on Hu Biao’s experience with the game World of Tanks, he could roughly identify the model: an M4 Sherman medium tank.

A thirty-ton beast capable of deciding the outcome of this battlefield with a single blow.

As for why Andrew hadn’t used this machine from the start, Hu Biao couldn’t figure it out. Perhaps it didn’t have much fuel, or maybe it was on the verge of breakdown and this was its final run before falling apart…

Hu Biao, a young man from the modern world, acknowledged that the Wastelanders were physically powerful and that some could even use magical things like Battle Qi—beating a special forces soldier in a duel would be child’s play for them.

But now that a tank had shown up, Mary’s side didn’t stand a chance.

The seven or eight attackers who had just broken into the town saw the steel monster approaching and immediately scrambled back over the wall, fleeing for their lives. Their retreat triggered a total rout for the attacking force.

Mary swung her double-barreled shotgun and barked orders, but it did nothing to stop the panic.

The dilapidated Sherman couldn’t hit its original top speed, but advancing at about forty kilometers per hour, it reached the town gate quickly. After the few remaining defenders pushed the Greyhound bus aside, the tank roared out of the town.

Upon seeing the machine clearly, Mary instinctively opened fire on the Sherman.

With two muffled bangs, she spent the only two shells in her chamber. The Sherman’s hull suffered no damage other than a cloud of rust dust flying into the air.

At this point, the poor girl was completely despondent.

At her signal, her dedicated driver—a tall black man with long, powerful legs—pedaled a tricycle with all his might, carrying the girl away in retreat.

They were actually moving quite fast! The man’s legs were incredibly strong; he managed to pedal that tricycle up to sixty kilometers per hour. At that speed, Mary might actually have outrun the Sherman.

However, after less than five hundred meters of pedaling, the ancient chain snapped.

Without needing to be told, Mary and the driver immediately jumped off the precious vehicle and ran for their lives toward the hills on the left.

Their choice was sound. Given the condition of that antique Sherman, it would likely break down the moment it tried to climb a steep hill.

But after only a few steps, Hu Biao clearly saw the girl’s left leg give out. She fell heavily to the ground, struggling to even get back up.

The long-legged driver didn’t care about the fallen girl behind him and sprinted away like a bolt of lightning.

Watching the tank close in at full speed, Big Bunny Mary’s delicate face was a mask of pure despair.

In that moment, Hu Biao did something that even Zac the ogre found shocking. He hopped onto his scooter and plunged down the steep slope from his vantage point hundreds of meters high.

As an upright young man, he couldn’t allow such a tragedy to happen before his eyes.

Of course, that was just an excuse. The real reason was that in a very short amount of time, he had done some mental math.

With the speed of his scooter, he could definitely outrun that ancient relic of a tank.

Rescuing her wouldn’t be too dangerous, and if he saved Big Bunny Mary, was there a chance she might join him or agree to a partnership?

In that brief moment of deliberation, he decided the rescue was worth the effort.

He admitted there was a bit of a gamble involved, but wasn’t adventuring in the Wasteland one giant gamble anyway?

Chapter 17: The Heartless Wench

Thank goodness! Those magnificent “rabbits,” which could only be described as a miracle and a work of art, were not tragically crushed into paste.

Less than ten seconds before the Sherman tank’s treads could roll over Mary, Hu Biao arrived in front of the fallen girl on his scooter.

While death-gripping the brakes, he slammed one foot onto the ground. Using the momentum of the scooter’s wild charge, he successfully swung the vehicle around in a sharp U-turn.

“Get on!”

Hu Biao shouted like the male lead of an idol drama, extending his left hand toward Mary.

The sudden appearance of the “coal tycoon” reignited the hope of survival in the girl, who had already resigned herself to death—even if she didn’t understand why this wealthy sucker would risk his life to save her.

She pulled herself up with Hu Biao’s help and nimbly hopped onto the back of the scooter.

As soon as she was settled, Hu Biao twisted the throttle to the max. The scooter’s engine let out a strained roar, and under the heavy burden of its two passengers, it began to bolt across the wasteland once more.

He had no choice. The Sherman tank behind them was less than twenty meters away…

To be honest, in his twenty-six years of life, Hu Biao had been chased by village dogs as a child and by some rather plain-looking girls in school.

He had even been chased by a group of ill-intentioned pursuers from Bitter Water Town recently.

But being chased by a terrifying monstrosity like a tank was a harrowing first. Most importantly, he hadn’t expected such a massive miscalculation.

He realized that his gasoline-powered scooter wasn’t even as fast as the tricycle the tall black man had been pedaling earlier.

The proof was right behind him.

Earlier, the ancient tank was being left further and further behind by the tricycle. Now, it was gaining on them. The initial twenty-meter gap had shrunk to just over ten meters.

And that wasn’t even accounting for the long 76mm cannon barrel. The pitch-black muzzle was now only a few meters away from their backs.

At such a short distance, it would be difficult for the tank to miss even if it tried.

If it fired, what would their end be called? Execution by cannon?

As for why the scooter was so slow, Hu Biao gradually pieced it together.

It was simply because he had been using the scooter like a heavy-duty truck lately, hauling hundreds of kilograms of swill and even heavy iron manhole covers back and forth.

The scooter’s engine, which had only been serviced once, was back on the verge of total collapse.

However, even in the midst of this tense escape, Hu Biao felt something pleasant that diluted the anxiety in his heart.

First of all, given the model of his scooter, it wasn’t even that cramped for two grown men to sit on.

But when Mary sat on the back seat, he felt himself being pushed forward by a soft, firm pressure against his back.

Secondly, there was no such thing as a “road” on the wilderness they were traversing. From a distance, it looked quite flat, but as they actually rode over it, the endless small pits caused the scooter to bounce violently.

Clinging tightly to each other, the constant vibration sparked a peculiar sensation in both of them.

Hu Biao didn’t know what Mary was thinking, but he felt his whole body going a bit weak. He even crazily thought that staying in this state indefinitely wouldn’t be so bad.

Unfortunately, the “rabbits” didn’t agree.

The girl shouted loudly in Hu Biao’s ear, “Faster! Go faster if you don’t want to be turned into meat paste!”

“It’s carrying too much weight! This is as fast as this bike goes!” Hu Biao turned his head and bellowed back.

His voice was filled with a sense of helplessness…

With a heavy thud, Hu Biao hit the ground and rolled repeatedly across the dirt.

It wasn’t because the speeding scooter had hit an obstacle and thrown him off.

To be precise, just as the cannon barrel behind them was pointing directly over their heads, the young man felt a slender hand grab his collar. Before he could react, a massive force flung him toward the side of the path.

Of course, before he was tossed off, he heard her rapid explanation:

“Please believe me, Andrew’s primary target is me. You’ll be safer if you get off first!”

Hu Biao scrambled up from his tumble, staring blankly as the scooter—now lightened by about 75 kg—finally picked up speed under Mary’s expert control.

Relieved of the burden, the scooter only increased its speed by about a dozen kilometers per hour.

But that was just enough to pull ahead of the Sherman. The distance between them began to widen, allowing Mary to gradually escape her fate of being crushed.

After being stunned for a good while, Hu Biao finally snapped out of it:

Dammit! Was that woman telling the truth, or was she just playing me?

Fortunately, the girl seemed to be right. Andrew likely harbored a deep hatred for the opponent who had caused him such heavy losses. He completely ignored Hu Biao, who was an easy target by the roadside, and the roaring Sherman continued its straight pursuit of the girl.

Despite his theory being confirmed, Hu Biao still felt a sense of profound disappointment. He let out a long sigh and began to walk back slowly.

He planned to regroup with the honest Zac. In this incredibly dangerous world, he felt safest by the side of that gluttonous half-orc.

After that, he’d probably find a bicycle, take his snakeskin bags and Zac, and start the trek north.

According to the information he’d gathered from Zac, after about three to five days of walking, there was a completely different town—the nearest settlement to Bitter Water Town.

In short, he was planning to abandon Bitter Water Town entirely.

However, before Hu Biao had walked even two hundred meters, he heard footsteps from behind. He turned around, and his face instantly went pale.

Town Chief Andrew was sprinting toward him, clutching a snow-bright longsword.

Perhaps the Sherman had finally broken down? Having lost the “big fish” that was Mary, he was coming for this “small fry” instead?

Whatever the reason, Hu Biao took off running at full speed.

In that moment, his heart was filled with complex emotions. From start to finish, he had only wanted to complete a peaceful trade. Why the hell did it turn out like this?

A boy who likes to laugh usually doesn’t have bad luck.

Just as Hu Biao was about to be caught, an angel appeared. It was his loyal enforcer, Zac, who had been tracking them and finally arrived at the critical moment.

Then, a brutal and inhumane beating unfolded before Hu Biao’s eyes.

It wasn’t that Andrew the half-orc wasn’t powerful. Once he erupted with Battle Qi, Hu Biao could only see a blur of sword light, unable to even distinguish his specific moves.

The problem was that with the protection of his breastplate and shield, Zac’s defensive power was terrifying.

Protecting his vitals, Zac took about a dozen slashes to his arms and legs without his combat effectiveness being significantly weakened.

In contrast, once Andrew was struck in the shoulder by a hundred-pound axle, he was immediately crippled. A second blow to the head followed shortly after, killing him on the spot.

And just like that, the battle ended in an unexpectedly quiet manner.

It took a long time for Hu Biao to process what had happened. Why bother going to another town?

The attackers on Bitter Water Town had been driven away, but the town’s defenders were down to only a few men, all of whom were injured to varying degrees. Their strength was at its absolute lowest point.

With a powerful fighter like Zac, Hu Biao had effectively become the strongest force in the region.

He didn’t even need to waste his toilet paper or other supplies. If he wanted something, he could just go into town and take it. Everything that belonged to Andrew was now his.

Realizing this, Hu Biao had Zac pick up Andrew’s corpse.

He slung the empty M16 over his back and rushed toward the town with excitement.

Following a romantic endeavor that ended before it even began, the young man felt that his “weak and sensitive” heart had been deeply wounded.

Only Andrew’s private collection could soothe the pain in his soul.

Yes, that’s exactly how it was!

Chapter 18: Nicholas Biao

With a heavy thud, Andrew, the former town head who weighed at least a good hundred kilograms, was tossed in front of the town entrance like a dead pig.

At that moment, the entrance to the town was once again blocked by that Greyhound bus.

The few remaining guards hiding inside the town felt their faces turn deathly pale upon seeing this sight.

Primarily, they couldn’t believe that even after Andrew had deployed a powerhouse like the tank, he had still been defeated and killed.

For a moment, the coal tycoon Hu Biao, standing outside the town with hands on his hips, appeared exceptionally mysterious and powerful in their eyes.

At the same time, they were even more nervous about their own impending fate. Setting aside the mysterious human Hu Biao, the terrifying ogre alone was not something their remaining numbers could hope to stop.

Having grown up in the harsh environment of the wasteland, they were indeed quite indifferent toward death.

However, they were not at all willing to have their corpses end up as rations for an ogre.

Just as they were wavering in uncertainty, an arrogant voice boomed from the mouth of the coal tycoon, Hu Biao.

To make his voice sound more imposing, Hu Biao even pulled an electric megaphone out of his snakeskin bag:

“Listen up, everyone inside! The evil Andrew is finished. Now, I, Nicholas Biao, in my mercy, am giving you a choice. Either I let Zac slaughter you all before I become the new master of this town, or you join me and support me as your new leader. If you choose the latter, I promise you can keep your previous benefits—perhaps they’ll even be a little better.”

As he spoke these words, the young man felt a sense of clarity and satisfaction like never before.

Damn! After being in such a pathetic state for so long, he had finally turned over a new leaf.

As for adding “Nicholas” before “Biao” when announcing his name, it was just a bit of clever vanity on his part.

Mainly, he believed that adding the name “Nicholas” would make him seem more mysterious and powerful.

Back in the modern world, hadn’t there been a middle-aged man named Zhao Si who immediately became the “Asian King of Dance” after adding “Nicholas” to his name?

Besides, in this North American region, if he announced himself as Hu Biao, he was afraid it might lead to unnecessary associations for others…

Only a short while after Hu Biao’s ultimatum was delivered, the few guards hiding behind the bus made a very wise choice: they came out to welcome the new town head.

Once the bus blocking the gate was moved aside, five guards with minor injuries appeared before Hu Biao.

The guy leading them was actually an acquaintance of Hu Biao’s—the minotaur security guard, Dave.

It seemed this fellow’s luck was truly quite good; not only had he escaped with his life during the previous fight with Zac, but in today’s offensive and defensive battle, he had only taken a non-fatal slash.

While Hu Biao was sizing up these future subordinates of his, Dave was the first to drop his weapon and respectfully drop to one knee.

He declared, “Salutations to you, noble Master, King of these fifty kilometers, the new Mayor of Bitter Water Town, Lord Nicholas Biao!”

It was the first time Hu Biao had ever heard such a long, stinking title, one practically reeking of feudal decadence.

But he had to admit! It felt pretty good to hear. However, the moment he thought about Andrew’s private stash of wealth, Hu Biao lost the mood to continue acting cool.

He anxiously asked Dave, “You know where that fellow Andrew hid all his valuable treasures, don’t you?”

Facing Hu Biao’s inquiry, Dave quickly entered the mindset of a loyal lapdog. He nodded his head vigorously and said:

“Of course I know. They’re on the third floor of the bar, in Andrew’s old office. Should I lead you there immediately, my Lord?”

For Hu Biao, was that even a question? Of course they were going immediately.

Before heading toward the small building, Hu Biao gave instructions to the remaining men:

“You few, go gather some townsfolk to help clean up the battlefield. Any wounded who can be saved, regardless of which side they were on, give them proper treatment.”

“Zac, you stay here and guard the entrance. Once the battlefield is cleared, block the town off again. No one is to enter or leave without my command.”

After speaking, Hu Biao followed Dave toward the building.

After taking a few steps, Hu Biao remembered something else and quickly called out a reminder to Zac:

“Zac, remember, you are not allowed to eat people. Of course, if anything happens to me later, you can kill all these people and do whatever you want.”

At this warning, Dave and the others turned ashen-faced.

However, upon hearing this, Zac smacked his lips as if reminiscing, then said with an honest-looking face:

“Please rest easy, Master. Unless we are starving to the point of desperation, our race doesn’t actually like eating people that much. And Zac definitely won’t do it now; I only like eating the delicious food you provide.”

Hu Biao: “…”

In the wake of the great battle, there was naturally no business to be found in the “Honey and Beauty” bar.

This was Hu Biao’s third time coming to this memorable bar. As soon as he entered, he saw Old Cripple behind the counter, frantically packing away various bottles of liquor.

Presumably, the old man hadn’t heard the commotion at the town entrance and was making plans to flee if things took a turn for the worse.

Seeing this, Hu Biao shouted, “Put that down! Who gave you permission to touch Lord Nicholas’s things?”

After shouting, Hu Biao walked straight toward the stairs he remembered, completely ignoring Old Cripple, who, upon realizing what was happening, hurriedly squeezed out a fawning expression.

Soon, Hu Biao and Dave arrived at the cleaner and more luxurious third floor.

Once there, Dave led Hu Biao toward the end of the hallway. The room at the very end was the place where he had overheard the conversation between Andrew and Dave.

Before they could even push the door open, they heard the sounds of furniture being overturned and things being rummaged through coming from inside the room.

Hearing those sounds, Hu Biao’s eyes immediately turned red.

Dammit! He had gone through so much trouble precisely because he wanted to get his hands on some valuables. If someone made off with them beforehand, wouldn’t he be a complete chump?

In a fit of rage, he forgot that with his own weak strength, he probably couldn’t even win a fight against a woman in the wasteland.

Hu Biao raised his empty M16 and kicked the door with all his might, smashing the thin door wide open.

Then, he roared, “Stop! Nobody move! If anyone moves, I’ll shoot!”

He then saw several barmaids gathered in the office. Most of them were busy rummaging through drawers and cabinets.

The two barmaids Hu Biao had interacted with before were currently trying to change into long shirts and trousers more suitable for travel.

It seemed they had the same idea as Old Cripple: grab some valuables for security and run once the situation turned bad.

Unfortunately for them, after Hu Biao burst in, their plans were completely ruined. Facing the dark muzzle of the gun, they all raised their hands.

The only difference was the werewolf Linda, who was currently in a state of undress. Instinctively, she used her hands to cover herself.

Seeing this, Hu Biao gave a relaxed whistle and spoke with mock seriousness to the wolf-girl who supposedly had powerful legs: “Ma’am, you just moved…”

Chapter 19: Disappointment

Half an hour later, in Andrew’s office.

Looking at the pile of junk before him, the new Mayor of Bitter Water Town, Lord Nicholas Biao, was furious—and the consequences would be severe!

In a low, gravelly voice, anyone could hear the fire of rage simmering beneath his calm exterior, ready to explode at any moment.

“I’ll ask you all one more time: is this pile of literal trash really all of Andrew’s private property?”

Before anyone in the room could answer, Hu Biao snapped. He grabbed a bag of bottle caps from the desk and slammed it against the wall.

Bottle caps sprayed everywhere like shrapnel. Dave, Linda, and the others stood frozen in silence, as quiet as cicadas in winter.

In the young man’s beautiful fantasies, Andrew’s private wealth didn’t even need to be that extravagant—just some jewelry, gold bars, or gold bricks would have sufficed. After all, if he could just bring back a pound or two, he’d be set. He would have turned from a “salted fish” into the legendary “Master Biao.”

In reality, he had directed the waitresses, Dave, and the recently arrived Old Cripple to turn the office upside down. After a frantic search, they finally managed to crack open a safe in the corner.

The result? When he saw the pile of bottle caps ceremoniously stored inside the safe, the poor young man nearly choked to death on his own breath.

Calling it all junk wasn’t entirely accurate, as there were a few other items in the safe besides the bottle caps.

The specific inventory was as follows: one revolver with no bullets, three mysterious tins of food with blackened metal casing, a small bag of about fifty or sixty spent shell casings, and a half-bottle of 1982 Lafite that might or might not have turned into vinegar.

There was also a large stack of sheepskin scrolls covered in illegible scrawls that looked like ghostly symbols. Seriously, who would pay half a cent for that stuff?

Hu Biao even saw some familiar items: a stack of carefully placed toilet paper. It was likely the same batch he had handed out as tips and payment during his previous two visits when he was acting like a big shot.

In short, if he brought this junk back to the modern world, it wouldn’t be worth a damn thing!

While Lord Nicholas maintained a sour expression, Old Cripple discreetly gave a look to Susan, the fox person waitress.

Understanding the signal, the swaying waitress moved behind the seated Hu Biao. She pressed herself close and began using her slender fingers to massage the tension in his shoulders.

Once she felt Hu Biao relax slightly, she spoke in a sweet, coquettish voice:

“Honorable Lord Nicholas, this truly is all of Andrew’s property. To a wealthy man like you, it might not seem like much, but no matter where you go, these items represent a fortune that could let someone live in comfort for a long time.”

“Hmm?” Hu Biao grunted, the massage feeling good all the way down to his bones.

Then, through everyone’s overlapping explanations, he realized he had actually misjudged them.

In the wasteland world, edible food and alcohol were the truly valuable things; these survival necessities served as hard currency. Weapons and ammunition were equally precious. Furthermore, pre-war supplies like toilet paper and medicine held immense value.

The Great Wasteland was considered a remote and desolate backwater on this continent. It was said that in distant lands, there were several larger settlements that could even be called rising cities. Many powerful figures lived there, and they were willing to trade food and currency at high prices for such luxuries.

Only those who didn’t have to worry about food and clothing would care about a better cleaning experience after using the bathroom or maintaining their daily living standards. Because of this, one of the largest freelance professions in the wasteland was born: the Scavengers.

Wandering scavengers risked infection to delve deep into the edges of urban ruins, searching for supplies left over from the Great War to trade for the food and water they needed to survive.

As for jewelry and diamonds—things you couldn’t eat or use, and which the big shots didn’t care for—they were rarely even picked up.

Precious metals like gold, however, still circulated widely in the wasteland because gold coins remained the highest tier of currency.

Unfortunately, in Andrew’s unlucky collection, there was none of that lovely stuff.

What he did have was a massive pile of bottle caps. Theoretically, in the common basic currency of the wasteland, one hundred bottle caps could be exchanged for one beautiful gold coin. But at this moment, where was Hu Biao supposed to find a place to make such an exchange?

Thinking about this, even though Hu Biao had essentially gained a huge windfall for nothing, it provided zero help to his current predicament. He couldn’t muster even a shred of joy in his heart.

After lingering in the office for a while, Hu Biao forced himself to adjust his mood. He called Dave and Zac and began a patrol of the town.

Bitter Water Town was officially his territory now, and it was essential to understand it in detail.

First, he arrived at the town’s most precious asset: the deep-water well that produced the bitter water.

To protect this valuable well, Andrew had not only built a wellbore house to shield it from the elements but had also stationed guards there twenty-four hours a day. Even during the height of Mary’s attack, Andrew hadn’t dared to move the two guards stationed here.

With intense curiosity, Hu Biao peered down into the dark opening of the well. To his surprise, even in broad daylight, he couldn’t see how deep it actually went.

“Dave,” Hu Biao asked casually, “exactly how deep is this well, and how much water can it produce in a day?”

Dave knew the town’s most precious resource inside and out and answered without hesitation:

“It’s about one hundred and fifty meters deep. A normal daily draw is fifty buckets. If we push it to the limit, it can produce about a hundred buckets, but doing something that reckless would mean the well would need several days to recover.”

Hearing this, Hu Biao glanced at the bucket used for drawing water. It looked to be about twenty liters.

In other words, he now controlled one thousand liters of clean water daily. At first glance, it seemed like a lot, but when distributed among all the people in the town, it really wasn’t much at all.

Furthermore, this thousand liters wasn’t just for the townspeople; a significant portion had to be set aside for external trade. Scavengers often brought various finds to exchange for essential clean drinking water.

Andrew, acting as a middleman, would take those scraps and trade them to merchant caravans for the food and alcohol needed to support his subordinates.

As they stepped out of the wellbore house, Hu Biao gave Dave an order: “Of today’s clean water quota, remember to set aside two buckets for Linda and Susan to bathe.”

“As you wish.” Although the minotaur’s face was full of confusion, he complied.

Over the following hours, Hu Biao walked several large laps around the town. This served as a formal declaration of Lord Nicholas Biao’s absolute sovereignty over Bitter Water Town to its roughly three hundred residents.

From Dave’s explanation, Hu Biao learned that Bitter Water Town, with its meager perimeter wall, was actually the safest place in the surrounding area. Residents who wanted to live inside the town had to pay a monthly fee of three bottle caps.

And those three bottle caps only bought them short-term residency for a month. If they wanted food and water, they had to bring other materials to trade for them.

The mention of bottle caps made Hu Biao’s recently calmed heart grow irritated again.

He hated bottle caps! As long as he had money, getting as many as he wanted was no problem. Was he really supposed to keep squeezing these poor wretches just to wring a few drops of oil out of a stone?

Because of this, when Hu Biao publicly announced that to celebrate his arrival, the kind and generous Lord Nicholas Biao would waive everyone’s residency fees for one month, a cheer erupted from the bottom of people’s hearts and echoed throughout the town.

Only then could Hu Biao be sure that these residents were living beings and not just numb, walking corpses.

Naturally, if the ordinary residents were getting benefits, Dave and the other new subordinates received even more.

That night, a large-scale internal banquet was held in the bar, which was closed to the public.

As everyone drank their fill, Hu Biao gave each person ten bottle caps as a reward, whether they were enforcers or waitresses. Furthermore, he promised they would receive this amount every month as a salary.

Instantly, the eyes of his new subordinates turned red with emotion. If Hu Biao ordered them into battle right then, they would surely fight to the death.

When they were with Andrew, they were lucky to get two meals a day. Wages and rewards? Such concepts barely existed.

What they didn’t know was that Hu Biao had already decided to spend all the bottle caps he had on hand as soon as possible. After all, if he ever needed more, he could spend a tiny bit of money in the modern world to bring back a whole sack of them.

In this way, the young man had finally stabilized the foundation of his power in the wasteland.

The only problem was that none of this did anything to solve his embarrassing financial situation back in the modern world.

Chapter 20: Filthy Money

Feeling out of sorts, Hu Biao ended up having a bit too much to drink at the banquet that night.

It couldn’t be helped. Every time he thought about how the deadline for the first debt payment and its interest was only a few days away in the modern world, he felt a massive headache coming on.

By hiding in the wasteland world, he didn’t have to worry about debt collectors, but could he really stay in this godforsaken place for a whole month?

His only hope now was that the legendary merchant caravan would visit Bitter Water Town in the next few days.

As soon as the caravan arrived, everything would be simple. The pile of goods in his snakeskin bag should be enough to drain the caravan of every gold coin they carried.

Unfortunately, word was that the Hawk Caravan, which frequently visited Bitter Water Town, had only left about twenty days ago.

Under normal circumstances, the caravan’s route brought them back to Bitter Water Town roughly every two months. By the time he waited for them, he feared it would be too late for everything.

Of course, it wasn’t as if there were no other options.

Supposedly, about fifty-some kilometers to the east of the town lay the ruins of a massive city: Detroit. It was once the greatest automobile manufacturing city in Uncle Sam’s country—and indeed, the world.

If he ventured deep into it to scavenge for supposedly worthless “trash” like jewelry, there was a good chance he could find something if he put in the effort.

The problem was that such a critical heavy industrial city had undoubtedly been a primary target during the war. After God knows how many “big firecrackers” had been dropped on it, the amount of residual radiation there would be staggering.

As soon as he realized this, Hu Biao immediately abandoned that dangerous idea.

The world was still a beautiful place, and he didn’t want to kick the bucket just yet…

“A blessing upon you, the great Lord Nicholas! Your generosity and benevolence are wider than the wasteland itself. Let us all drink a toast to the Lord!”

While Hu Biao was brooding, the already tipsy minotaur Dave suddenly raised his drink and shouted a boisterous toast.

At Dave’s suggestion, the men and women under his command cheered and raised their glasses to Hu Biao, draining their drinks in one go.

With so many people drinking their fill, they certainly weren’t drinking the “Atomic Vodka” that was the pride of the Honey and Beauty Bar.

Instead, they were drinking the cheapest, most abundant “Prickly Ale.”

This stuff was brewed using the cacti found everywhere in the wasteland as the primary ingredient. Aside from having a noticeable alcohol content, the actual taste was nothing short of a nightmare.

Even so, his new subordinates were drinking like mad.

Because even for this kind of swill, back when they were under Andrew’s command, they rarely had the chance to enjoy a single cup.

Raising his glass along with them and drinking that bitter, astringent, throat-burning stuff, Hu Biao couldn’t take much more.

He gave Linda a nudge, then stood up and headed toward the bathroom on the third floor.

Everything really was different after becoming the Mayor. Old Cripple, instantly understanding Hu Biao’s intent, hurried over to hand him a hurricane lamp so he could see the way.

If there was anyone present who wasn’t particularly happy, it was Zac, who was stuffing his mouth with dried lizard meat.

As he ate and drank, the grumbling from his mouth never stopped: “This food doesn’t taste good at all. I wonder when I’ll get to eat the Master’s delicious, hearty stew again…”

Come to think of it, this was Hu Biao’s first time entering the third-floor bathroom.

Unfortunately, even this bathroom—legendary for being the cleanest in the entire town, and perhaps for hundreds of kilometers around—still smelled quite rank.

Pinching his nose, Hu Biao finally found the courage to sit on the yellowish-brown toilet.

After a satisfying relief, Hu Biao reached into his pocket only to suddenly freeze: Damn it! I actually forgot to bring toilet paper. This was extremely awkward. Was he going to have to use his hand and wash up like people in certain other parts of the world?

With a glimmer of hope, Hu Biao lifted the hurricane lamp by his feet and began to scan the bathroom, hoping to find something that could pass as a substitute.

Surprisingly, he soon discovered a treasure. Not far away on the floor sat a small white plastic storage bin.

Under the dim light, Hu Biao could vaguely see it was filled with colorful slips of paper.

Seeing these, his first thought was: These must be those advertising flyers you see all over the streets in the modern world.

It made sense. Andrew was the Mayor, after all—a man of status.

A refined man like him couldn’t just use a random clump of dirt after a bowel movement like some scavenger in the wasteland.

These relatively rare, but not overly luxurious, advertising flyers were more suited to his noble status.

Immediately, Hu Biao felt a sense of relief. At this moment, his only concern was hoping that Uncle Sam’s flyers weren’t too stiff.

If they were made of glossy coated paper, it would be quite a challenge for him.

With that thought, Hu Biao reached his hand toward the storage bin…

Three minutes later, young Hu Biao let out a world-shaking scream, sounding like a maiden who had just encountered a lecherous old thug:

“Dave! Old Cripple! Get your asses up here right now!”

Old Cripple and Dave, who were blissfully drinking Prickly Ale to the sound of soft country music, looked at each other and then sprinted upstairs like mad.

It was rare to have a generous master like Nicholas Biao; they couldn’t afford to disobey him.

However, when they rushed to the third floor and burst through the bathroom door, they found Lord Nicholas sitting on the toilet, clutching a piece of “toilet paper” in his hand, asking them excitedly:

“Tell me, how much more of this stuff do you have?”

You couldn’t blame Hu Biao for being so excited. Anyone who was dirt poor and suddenly discovered a stack of colorful US dollars wouldn’t be able to stay calm.

The $100 denomination, the portrait of Benjamin Franklin on the front, the Independence Hall on the back—everything looked so tempting.

There was no doubt about it! These little beauties were real. Counterfeits didn’t even exist in the wasteland world because they were worthless here.

Even better, when Hu Biao picked one up, he clearly saw the date marked as 2017—just three years ago. He immediately let go of his last worry.

Once he brought them back to the modern world, they would be solid, cold hard cash.

Starting with the stack in the bin, there were only about a hundred bills—not enough to pay off his debt at the current exchange rate.

Thus, the intensely excited young man didn’t even pull up his pants before summoning the two natives, Dave and Old Cripple.

Confronted with Hu Biao’s question, Dave racked his brain before providing an answer:

“I remember about two years ago, Andrew used a single bottle cap to buy a book and three stacks of these toilet papers from a scavenger. Andrew used the book first, then these colorful papers. It’s been two years now; there shouldn’t be much left besides these, right? Oh, Lord Nicholas, take a look in that trash can over there. Maybe some were thrown in there?”

Hu Biao looked, and sure enough, the stinking trash can was full of the stuff. It seemed the two missing stacks of US dollars were all in there.

The problem was that they had been used, stained with various suspicious and disgusting things.

After a moment of silence, Hu Biao’s expression became more solemn than ever before. “Dave, I have an important mission for you. I fear you are the only one who can handle it.”

Upon hearing this, the minotaur puffed out his chest with pride, a wave of immense glory making it almost difficult for him to breathe.

The King of the surrounding hundred miles, the supreme Mayor of Bitter Water Town, Lord Nicholas, actually held him in such high regard. At this moment, Dave was willing to die for the young man.

Therefore, the minotaur shouted back:

“Please, give your orders! Your will is the path I follow!”

“First, go downstairs and get me some actual toilet paper. Then, take these colorful slips of paper from the trash can, wash them clean, and dry them. Remember! Not a single one is to be lost or damaged.”

In an instant, poor Dave’s face turned pale. He tried to make one final attempt at self-salvation.

“M-My Lord… today’s water ration only has two buckets left. Didn’t you say those were for Linda and Susan to bathe? Why don’t we… wait until tomorrow or the day after?”

With Dave’s explanation, Hu Biao remembered his previous plan.

After a choice that wasn’t actually difficult at all, Hu Biao waved his hand.

“Forget it. Let Linda and Susan bathe some other day. Tell them not to disturb me tonight; I want to be left alone with my thoughts.”

Chapter 21: How Old Are You Exactly?

As for wanting some time alone to think, Nicholas Biao wasn’t just making excuses.

That night, he lay alone on the bed that had belonged to that dead man, Andrew. While enduring the thick, strange smell of the bedding, Hu Biao thought about many things.

Most of them were plans for how he should act in the days to come.

First and foremost, now that he had enough money to pack back his debts, he didn’t want to stay in the wasteland world for another second.

As a young man accustomed to staying up late with endless forms of entertainment, living in a clean and hygienic environment, and having easy access to cheap food, he truly couldn’t get used to this wasteland world where everything was so wretched.

He had decided that he would return to the modern world tomorrow.

Secondly, before returning to the modern plane, Hu Biao decided to make some arrangements for Bitter Water Town.

Mainly, he had confirmed one thing: this foundation at Bitter Water Town could not be abandoned. In fact, it needed to be managed well to become his ironclad domain.

The reason was simple: as long as he had patience and time, he could always get his hands on plenty of “trash” like jewelry and precious metals like gold. Once he brought them back to the modern plane to sell, he would be set for life.

Of course, in a world as vast as the wasteland, there were certainly things more valuable than just those.

But those points alone were enough for Hu Biao to treat Bitter Water Town as a vital foundation for his future.

As for how to manage this foundation and what specific measures to take, the young man thought of many, many strategies.

He estimated that for the foreseeable future, he would become a regular at the Yang City wholesale markets.

Oh, right! In this magical wasteland world, there actually existed something as unscientific as Battle Qi.

Even if not everyone could use it, that minotaur Dave had managed to cultivate it. This meant he might be able to learn the specific cultivation method from him.

To make himself a bit stronger—at least strong enough so he wouldn’t be beaten by the women of the wasteland—Hu Biao decided to put this on his agenda as well.

He was too pressed for time during this trip, so he would start on it the next time he came over.

During the lonely and silent night, the young man didn’t know how long he spent thinking before he finally drifted off into a hazy sleep.

The problem was that he didn’t sleep comfortably at all. In Hu Biao’s chaotic and muddled dreams, many strange things appeared.

When he woke up the next morning, the young man awkwardly realized he had made a fool of himself…

“Agh, pfft—!” With a loud spray, Hu Biao spat his mouthwash a great distance.

Then, after using a wet towel to wash his face three times in a row, he finally felt the skin on his face stop feeling tight and dry, and an indescribable sense of relief washed over him.

However, because of this, the basin of once-clean water had instantly turned into something resembling a bowl of liquid mud.

Only then did Hu Biao realize that he could actually be this filthy.

Filled with this realization, Hu Biao habitually gripped the edge of the basin, intending to pour out the muddy water. Just then, a cry of alarm reached his ears:

“Sir, don’t—!”

Hu Biao shuddered at the sound of that voice, which was incredibly flirtatious yet filled with terror. What’s wrong with me? I didn’t even do anything. Why “don’t”?

Hu Biao turned his head and saw Susan, the waitress, holding a tray with breakfast. The cry of alarm had just come from her mouth.

While Hu Biao looked on with a face full of confusion, the fox girl pleaded pitifully:

“Sir, could you bestow this basin of water upon me?”

Bestow? Looking at the basin of mud-water, Hu Biao was beyond bewildered. He even strongly suspected he had misheard her.

To be sure, Hu Biao asked hesitantly, “Are you sure you want this stuff? I don’t mind giving it to you, but it’s already this dirty. Are you sure it’s still useful?”

“Of course it’s useful,” the fox girl replied with absolute certainty.

After receiving an affirmative answer from Hu Biao’s mouth, the girl with the large, fluffy golden tail smiled so widely her eyes crinkled into slits.

And honestly, her petite yet fiery figure paired with that sweet smile truly was a beautiful sight to behold.

Of course, the young man—who no longer believed in love—didn’t feel much of a ripple in his heart.

With a beaming smile, Susan explained to Lord Nicholas, “As long as this water sits for a while and is filtered through gauze and sand, we can get at least half a basin of clean water. Then several of us waitresses can give our faces and hair a good wash. If we took it out to sell, it would go for at least two bottle caps.”

Well then! Faced with such a powerful answer, Hu Biao was actually left speechless.

Waking up, washing, and brushing his teeth were nothing more than ordinary daily occurrences for someone from the modern plane like him.

But this extreme method of recycling water was quite a shock to his worldview.

While Hu Biao was reeling from the shock, the fox girl, in her immense joy, lunged forward and planted a passionate, fiery kiss on him.

The soft touch of her lips felt great, but the odor was a bit much—it almost made the young man faint from the smell.

After a less-than-wonderful breakfast, Hu Biao gathered all his subordinates who were still mobile. He intended to make a series of arrangements before leaving.

Once they had gathered, Hu Biao first looked over his core subordinates:

One powerful ogre thug (Zac), seven ordinary thugs with minor injuries—two of whom were strong black men, one was a large white man, and the other four were half-orc men.

One lame old man who was practically useless (Old Cripple), and five beautiful waitresses, all of whom were also half-orcs.

These people, plus Hu Biao, made up all the participants of this meeting. Besides them, there were five seriously injured men recuperating; they were also the young man’s thugs.

Counting Big Bunny Mary’s subordinates, Hu Biao had taken in a total of thirteen wounded people.

Even if the natives of the wasteland had vitality as resilient as cockroaches, Hu Biao had no idea how many of them would actually survive.

The only thing he could do was provide that half-packet of Banlangen granules.

Well! The young man figured that even if it didn’t exactly treat the symptoms, it was better than eating nothing at all…

“I think you all must have guessed where I came from by now, haven’t you?” Hu Biao used this question as the opening for the meeting.

Without waiting for the others to answer, the guy provided the answer himself. “Yes! I came from a hidden shelter—a rather high-end shelter.”

As soon as Hu Biao’s voice fell, Dave and the others almost erupted in excitement.

Even though they had deduced this answer last time, hearing Hu Biao actually admit it still filled them with joy—the kind of joy that comes from having a massive benefactor backing them.

Because every undiscovered shelter meant a wealth of precious items.

For example: fuel, machinery and vehicles that could still be used, various living supplies, firearms, and ammunition. Even if not much of those supplies remained after so many years, they still played a massive role.

With these things, Bitter Water Town would flourish even more, and as Lord Nicholas’s trusted subordinates, wouldn’t their status rise along with his?

Seeing that his blatant lie was so easily believed, Hu Biao seized the moment to make his arrangements:

“I need to return to the shelter today. When I come back next time, I’ll bring some good things for everyone. So, while I’m away, you must guard our home well.”

“Dave! From now on, you are the leader of all armed forces in town. Except for Zac, who is my personal guard and not under your command, all other warriors report to you. Remember, you must watch over Bitter Water Town. Do not let other factions take it over.”

“Given that we have too few people, you can recruit twenty more from the townspeople. It doesn’t matter if they are a bit thin; it’s best if they have family living in the town. Their pay will be one-third lower than yours.”

In his sudden and massive joy, the minotaur completely forgot about the miserable experience of washing banknotes the previous night.

The guy pounded his chest hard, promising with the fervor of a zealot: “Don’t worry, Lord Biao. Your Bitter Water Town will never be lost.”

After nodding approvingly at the minotaur, Hu Biao continued his instructions:

“Old Cripple, you’ll be in charge of the bar and other affairs in town for now. Pay attention to collecting as many gold coins, jewelry, and those colorful slips of paper as possible from now on.”

“Of course, my Lord!” Old Cripple also had a look of joy on his face.

And so, Hu Biao roughly organized who would be in charge after his departure. However, before ending the meeting, he thought of another question:

“By the way, are there any mechanics or similar talents in town? Come out with me later to see what’s wrong with that tank. If possible, it’s best if we can fix it and drive it back.”

At this question, Old Cripple actually stood up with a modest expression.

He said, “Sir, my grandfather was said to be a senior engineer in Detroit. My father learned a lot of mechanical knowledge from him, and he passed it on to me. I was the one who maintained that Sherman tank before.”

Hearing this, Hu Biao felt something was off.

Wait! If Old Cripple’s words and age were anything to go by, the Great War couldn’t have happened just thirty or fifty years ago; it must have been a much older era.

He followed up with another question: “Oh! I didn’t realize you had such a scholarly family history. May I ask how old you are now?”

“Thirty-seven,” Old Cripple answered proudly.

Hu Biao looked at that face, which appeared to be at least sixty years old, and for a moment, he didn’t know what to say.

He could only turn and ask the minotaur, “Dave, how old are you?”

“Seventeen. It’ll be two months before I’m seventeen,” answered the minotaur, who looked like he could be a father of two.

Finally, Hu Biao asked the waitresses weakly, “Linda, how old is the eldest among you girls?”

“Over thirteen… definitely not quite fourteen yet,” the wolf girl answered after a moment of hesitation. Then, she added with a bit of a boast, “Sir, whether it’s the customers from outside or the people from the caravans, they all praise us for being young and beautiful.”

Damn it! You call this young? You’re clearly just middle-schoolers! How am I supposed to make a move in the future? I can’t get over that hurdle! the young man wailed in his heart.

Then, he issued his final order: “Old Cripple, remember this well. From now on, our bar will not provide any… ‘other services’…”

Chapter 22: No Problem

About four kilometers from the town, following the track marks all the way, Hu Biao and his group found the stalled M4 Sherman tank.

As they walked, Hu Biao learned the history of this antique from Old Cripple.

Several years ago, Andrew had been lucky enough to discover a well-hidden shelter in a canyon about twenty kilometers west of the town. This vintage Sherman tank had been found inside.

Unfortunately, by the time they arrived, the shelter had already been picked over.

Other valuable supplies had long since been scavenged clean; this heavy behemoth was the only thing Andrew managed to salvage.

Old Cripple had put in a tremendous amount of effort just to repair it to the point where it could barely drive. Eventually, they secretly drove it back to Bitter Water Town, where it became Andrew’s ultimate ace in the hole for maintaining his dominance.

Even though the tank’s machine guns were rusted solid when they found it, and there wasn’t a single 76mm shell for the main cannon, the mere sight of this thirty-ton colossus in motion provided more than enough deterrence.

This was the main reason Hu Biao was so obsessed with getting the thing back to Bitter Water Town: Even if I can’t blast you to hell, I can still scare the life out of you.

Once the group located the tank, Old Cripple immediately got to work.

It was almost magical; the old man, who usually had a wretched and shiftless look about him, underwent a complete transformation the moment he picked up a wrench. He suddenly carried the dignified air of a senior engineer.

Unfortunately, after waiting for nearly half an hour in the scorching sun with nothing to do, Hu Biao received some bad news from a regretful-looking Old Cripple.

“Sir, this Sherman is completely beyond saving.”

Upon hearing this, Hu Biao felt a wave of profound disappointment.

Mainly because in his heart, he harbored an unrealistic dream—one even he knew was impossible: What if, one day, I could drive this thing back to the modern world to show off? That would be a flex of legendary proportions.

But before Hu Biao could tell everyone to head out and leave the Sherman to rot, Old Cripple added another sentence:

“The trouble with repairing this Sherman is too great. Running out of fuel is a minor issue; with your wealth, Sir, though the caravans sell fuel at high prices, you can always buy some. However, the caravan doesn’t have any stock of the necessary lubricating oils and grease.”

Hearing this, Hu Biao almost wanted to smack the old man for burying the lead.

Wasn’t it just that this antique had been sitting for too long and now needed some grease? I have the entire country of China behind me; you think I’ll be short on a little bit of lubricating grease?

Once he was certain the Sherman could still be saved, Hu Biao happily parted ways with Old Cripple and the others.

In any case, such a massive hunk of steel left out here wasn’t going to be stolen by just anyone—not that anyone even could steal it.

Old Cripple and one of the tall black soldiers would head straight back to Bitter Water Town. Hu Biao, under Zac’s protection, would return to the cave where the portal was hidden.

To protect the secret of the portal, they even took a detour of several kilometers.

Upon arriving at their destination, Zac would stand guard at the mouth of the cave. Given an ogre’s racial trait of being able to both gorge and starve, he could easily hold out until Hu Biao’s next visit.

And so, after over an hour of trekking, Hu Biao finally arrived at the familiar cave.

Deep inside the cave, the ball of light had already recovered to its full state, silently awaiting Hu Biao’s arrival.

At the thought of all the comforts of the modern world, Hu Biao couldn’t wait and rushed toward the light.

Just as Hu Biao was about to plunge into the portal, a low, longing growl came from behind him: “Master, don’t forget to bring back a serving of thick soup stew for your loyal slave, Zac.”

The sudden request nearly made the young man trip and faceplant.

Seriously! He really didn’t want to use swill and kitchen scraps to fool his honest chief enforcer. Hardworking and kind-hearted as he was, doing something like that felt like a burden on his conscience.

Actually, he wanted to be a good person too…

After the familiar sensation of spatial distortion, Hu Biao returned to the modern world—a place defined by words like safety, convenience, and abundance.

When his feet landed firmly on the bathroom floor, Hu Biao did something that even surprised himself.

He turned on the bathroom faucet and downed a bellyful of tap water.

If one hadn’t experienced the harsh environment of the wasteland, they could never have such a profound realization. Even the cheap tap water of the modern world was precious and wonderful.

After taking a bath that lasted nearly an hour and scrubbing off at least 250g of grime, Hu Biao finally felt like a normal human being again.

Of course, it would be even better if he could find a food stall, order a few hearty dishes, and have a few bottles of ice-cold beer.

So, after changing into clean clothes, Hu Biao rummaged through his sand-covered dirty laundry and pulled out a small cloth bundle.

Opening the bundle carefully, even though it wasn’t the first time he’d seen the contents, he still grinned like an idiot.

Inside the bundle was a thick stack of slightly used US dollars.

There were 291 bills in total, all in $100 denominations. Hu Biao pulled out his phone, did a quick search, and found the current exchange rate: 1 to 7.1269.

Using his phone’s calculator, Hu Biao’s breathing grew heavy.

This meant his trip to the wasteland had yielded a staggering profit of 207,392 RMB. After paying off his debts, he would still have tens of thousands left over.

He had to admit, the profit from this inter-world adventure was insane.

This was only his first mission, and he had already made this much. If he managed to build up the Bitter Water Town outpost in the future, these numbers would increase tenfold, a hundredfold, or even more.

At this thought, something called ambition began to grow like weeds after a rainstorm in the heart of this formerly lazy “salted fish.”

Walking out of his rented room with wet hair, the still-excited Hu Biao realized it was already past nine in the evening.

This meant the banks were long closed, and his plan to exchange the US dollars there had fallen through.

But this was a minor issue. The biggest hurdle with exchanging US dollars wasn’t whether the bank was open, but whether you actually had the money.

Hu Biao took out his phone, scrolled to the contact for Brother Dong from the loan company, and dialed.

It took a while for the call to connect. Before Hu Biao could say a word, a stern notice came from the other end:

“You little punk! Your repayment date is almost here. Don’t even think about borrowing another cent until you’ve cleared your debt. And if you can’t pay by then, you know exactly what the consequences are.”

Compared to the warmth he showed when lending the money, Brother Dong’s tone was now as cold as a venomous snake.

The only thing Hu Biao was grateful for was that he had luckily secured enough money.

To that end, Hu Biao said calmly, “I want to pay back the money now. Is it okay to use US dollars? If possible, I’d also like to exchange some for RMB. Of course, the rate can’t be too ridiculous.”

“Aiya, Biao, listen to you! Given our relationship, a small matter like this is naturally no problem.” The tone on the other end of the phone shifted magically.

And so, half an hour later, Hu Biao had traded all the US dollars for his loan contract and a bag containing 52,000 RMB in cash.

The reason the remaining amount was so much lower than expected was because the loan company’s exchange rate was slightly lower, and more importantly, Hu Biao had paid a price of 30,000 RMB in interest and fees for this short-term loan.

This was only because he had paid it back promptly; if he hadn’t, his life would have truly been ruined.

With a lingering sense of fear, Hu Biao carefully tore the loan contract into tiny pieces.

Then, he saw Brother Dong holding that stack of US dollars, sniffing them with an intoxicated look on his face, even giving them an occasional kiss.

Thinking about the specific way those bills had been stored in the wasteland, Hu Biao was dumbfounded and felt a strong wave of nausea.

Seeing this, Brother Dong asked, “What’s wrong, Biao? Any other problems?”

“No problem. No problem at all,” the young man replied with a straight face.

Chapter 23: The Beauty of Four Wheels

“Boss, give me a hundred yuan’s worth of grilled kidneys, a dozen oysters, a grilled pacific saury, three skewers each of chicken legs and wings, and finally, a pitcher of beer.”

At around eleven o’clock at night, Hu Biao sat alone at an open-air food stall, shouting his order to the owner.

To be honest, he might not actually be able to finish ordering so much at once; but right now, the young man was starving, and with money in his pocket, he was feeling a bit reckless.

Before long, the drinks and late-night snacks were served.

Yang City was a coastal city, so the local seafood aquaculture was quite excellent. At the very least, the oysters were absolutely fresh.

Disregarding how hot the grilled oysters were, Hu Biao slurped a whole fresh oyster—topped with minced garlic and chili—into his mouth and followed it with a gulp of ice-cold beer.

That wonderful flavor nearly made him burst into tears on the spot.

Einstein’s theory of relativity was indeed correct: everything is relative.

Before, when Hu Biao came to eat at these stalls, he just thought the food tasted pretty good. But after a trip to the wasteland and eating several meals of “dark cuisine,” those simple foods couldn’t be described as just “delicious” anymore.

Once he actually started eating, Hu Biao discovered something that surprised even himself:

His appetite seemed to have suddenly grown significantly. Not only did he finish the large pile of food he had originally ordered, but he also had to order another dozen oysters and a large portion of dry-fried beef rice noodles before he finally felt full.

Hu Biao could only attribute this far-beyond-normal appetite to being intensely hungry.

Satisfied and full, Hu Biao paid the bill and prepared to head back for some much-needed rest. Instinctively reaching for his keys, he suddenly remembered he no longer had a vehicle.

Wasn’t his beloved little scooter stolen by that heartless wench, Big Bunny Mary?

Fortunately, he didn’t have the habit of keeping his house keys on the same ring as his vehicle keys; otherwise, he wouldn’t even be able to get through the door right now.

Thinking of this, a surge of irritation rose in Hu Biao’s heart.

I gave her my heart, but she threw it in the gutter.

“Big Bunny Mary, you just wait. You’d better hope you never fall into my hands again, you heartless wench…”

Because his stomach was so full and the walk back was only about half an hour—perfect for digestion—Hu Biao didn’t call a taxi and instead started walking toward his rented room.

As he walked, the gentle night breeze brushed against him. The bright streetlights and the occasional clamor of the city reaching his ears made Hu Biao feel the beauty of the modern dimension once again.

In such an environment, while feeling intoxicated by the moment, Hu Biao couldn’t help but plan for the future again.

Up to this point, he still didn’t intend to quit his sales job. The main reason was the utter uncertainty he felt regarding the very unscientific existence of the portal.

Just as the portal had miraculously appeared, he worried that one day it might just as easily vanish.

Until he earned enough money, he truly didn’t have the courage to resign.

The most important factor was the difference in time flow between the two dimensions. Each trip to the wasteland wouldn’t actually waste too much of his time here.

In the future, as long as he scheduled his time reasonably and tried to cross over to the wasteland at night, neither side should be delayed.

If he wasn’t quitting, it seemed he needed to buy a new means of transportation, and the sooner the better.

Instinctively, Hu Biao began to weigh whether it was better to buy a new motorcycle or another second-hand scooter like the one he had before.

But soon after, the young man gave his forehead a bitter-sweet smack.

Look at how pathetic I’m being. Why can’t I buy something with four wheels?

With a four-wheeled vehicle, he wouldn’t have to worry about the headache of wind and rain every time he went down to the countryside, nor the blistering sun of Guangdong Province.

Besides, with a private car, he could bring even more supplies with him every time he went to the wasteland.

And so, as he approached his twenty-sixth birthday, the young man decided to buy the first four-wheeled car of his life. Just the thought of it filled him with anticipation.

As for driving and a license, Hu Biao had taken care of that back in university.

Unfortunately, just as the young man was feeling smug, he walked into his rented room and instinctively glanced at the bathroom to one side of the entrance.

When he saw the small portal that had reappeared and the narrow bathroom door, he realized a crucial point:

Damn it! A four-wheeled vehicle won’t fit through here!

Does this mean that for the foreseeable future, I can only shuttle back and forth to the wasteland on things like scooters? If that’s the case, how much can I actually carry?

Immediately, Hu Biao’s mood turned uncontrollably sour.

Despite having gone several nights without decent sleep, Hu Biao’s eyes snapped open automatically as the sky began to brighten.

Thinking about the fact that without a proper vehicle, he wouldn’t be able to bring back any large hauls from the wasteland made him feel incredibly distressed.

He felt as though he were losing millions of dollars; it was simply unacceptable.

Lying in bed, Hu Biao couldn’t help but heave a long sigh, thinking gloomily:

“Why are other people’s portals in stories so convenient? They can be stored and summoned at will. Why can’t mine do that? If only I could pull the portal into my body. Should I try a drop of blood to claim ownership?”

Once that thought occurred to him, Hu Biao couldn’t stay in bed any longer.

He rushed excitedly to the bathroom and began to carefully observe the now-restored portal.

The glowing green portal might not have had the most appealing color, but it rotated slowly and continuously, as deep as a brilliant starry sky, possessing an indescribable beauty.

After a moment of hesitation, Hu Biao decided to give it a try.

Steeling his heart, he placed his right index finger between his teeth and bit down hard. A large drop of blood quickly welled up.

With a gentle flick of his finger, the drop of blood detached. As if caught by an invisible force, it flew toward the portal and was quickly absorbed into its very center.

And then… nothing seemed to happen.

The young man, watching closely, found that after using the “blood binding” method, the portal hadn’t changed at all.

Is there not enough blood? Is it not meeting the quota for the ritual?

Hu Biao, coming up with this as his only explanation, picked up his razor from the sink and disassembled the blade, intending to steel himself for a deeper cut.

Fortunately, at that exact moment, the portal suddenly began to spin clockwise at ten times its previous speed.

Simultaneously, a mysterious, profound connection formed in Hu Biao’s mind. His heart stirred, and he silently thought two words: Store it.

No sooner had the thought finished than the portal before him vanished.

But Hu Biao wasn’t worried at all; instead, he was overjoyed. Within his mind, he could clearly feel the portal hidden inside his sea of consciousness.

He even had a wondrous realization: without his permission, others—like Zac had before—would be completely unable to pass through that portal.

Conversely, if he consented, the portal could allow anyone to pass through for a duration of three minutes.

This meant he could finally go out and buy a car with total peace of mind!

Chapter 24: Let’s Head Inside to Talk!

In the western district of Yang City, in front of a street-side shop.

“Ah-Biao, over here! Come have some tea.” A young woman in her twenties, with a face full of enthusiasm, called out to Hu Biao as he stepped off the bus.

Under the golden morning sun, the young woman in her skirt suit was quite easy on the eyes.

Behind her, a conspicuous large sign hung over the shop: Yang City Prosperity Used Car Dealership.

It was obvious! Hu Biao intended to buy a secondhand car.

As for why he came to this specific dealership, it was because this pleasant-looking young woman, A-Juan, was a friend of a casual acquaintance.

With that layer of connection, he hoped he might get the car a bit cheaper.

Of course, there was also the possibility it would be more expensive.

After sitting down and drinking a round of tea, A-Juan finally asked, “Ah-Biao, what kind of car are you looking for? I’m telling you, kid, you’ve got great luck. I just took in a BMW that’s in seventy percent new condition. The vehicle’s state is excellent, and I can definitely give you a real bargain on the price.”

Unfortunately, the young woman, who was planning to make a significant profit, was destined for disappointment.

Hu Biao’s answer was resolute: “I want to buy a Wuling minivan. I plan to use it for hauling goods later. I don’t want anything else but a Wuling.”

Instantly, the young woman’s smile became forced.

Yes, that’s right!

Hu Biao’s target for the first four-wheeled vehicle of his life was the legendary “God Car”—the Wuling minivan. Otherwise, with the small amount of cash he had on hand and the need to purchase supplies for the wasteland, there really wasn’t much left for a vehicle.

More importantly, he didn’t see anything wrong with a Wuling minivan.

The title of “God Car” wasn’t earned for nothing. This type of vehicle had a simple structure, was easy and cheap to maintain, and offered massive loading space once the back seats were removed.

For the current Hu Biao, all these benefits made it a divine tool.

Furthermore, Hu Biao had accidentally seen a news report a while back regarding Wuling’s after-sales service.

Some unlucky fellow had his old-model Wuling break down while on a snowy mountain. After making a single phone call, the Wuling 4S dealership over 300 kilometers away was actually willing to come to the rescue.

After two round trips, they finally fixed the car and only charged a total of 1,300 yuan.

Regardless of whether there was a publicity element to the story, it was a significant reason why Hu Biao chose the Wuling minivan.

His only regret was that if his car broke down in the wasteland, no matter how dedicated the Wuling 4S dealership mechanics were, there was no way they could come to his rescue.

After a simple session of haggling, Hu Biao spent 24,000 yuan to buy a five-year-old 2015 model Wuling minivan.

By the time all the transfer procedures were completed, it was almost twelve o’clock noon.

It seemed A-Juan hadn’t made much money off him, as she didn’t even extend an invitation for lunch when Hu Biao left.

Hu Biao felt quite gratified by this.

Then, with stiff, unfamiliar movements, he drove his own vehicle into the flow of traffic on the street.

At that moment, Hu Biao was inexplicably struck by a wave of emotion.

In truth, men all have a certain obsession with buying cars. When he was a child, whenever he thought about buying a car when he grew up, he would naively think it had to be a top-tier brand like Ferrari or Bugatti.

By the time he was in university, he still unrealistically thought that after starting work, he would drive high-end cars like Mercedes or BMW.

But now, as he gripped the steering wheel of the Wuling minivan, Hu Biao was already thinking with great satisfaction: Hmm! Actually, this Wuling minivan is pretty decent.

It’s hardy, fuel-efficient, and can hold a lot of stuff. The weather is a bit hot today; let me turn on the AC first.

Dammit! This model of Wuling doesn’t even have air conditioning. That woman A-Juan didn’t even remind me… another dishonest merchant, a heartless wench, I’ll O your X…

Even though his newly purchased Wuling was so shabby it didn’t even have AC, over the course of the following afternoon, the young man still felt the beauty of owning a private car.

If nothing else, driving with the windows down was much better than wearing a helmet and riding a scooter while being roasted by the sun.

Just after lunch, Hu Biao received a call from the freight station saying that a batch of fifty cases of pesticides had arrived.

Usually, Hu Biao’s approach would be to rent a small truck to deliver the goods. He would have to advance the shipping cost, and the company would later reimburse him 3 yuan per case.

If the delivery distance was short, it was fine, and Hu Biao could even pocket a small difference. But if it was a bit farther, he might even end up losing money.

But now that he had his own car, why spend that unnecessary money? After picking up the goods, he easily delivered them to the customer.

When the final tally was made, he had earned about eighty yuan after deducting the cost of gas.

After the delivery, it was only four o’clock in the afternoon.

He gave his direct superior, Zhang Zhong, a call and found that the man hadn’t noticed his absence from work.

In fact, because he had recently completed many small orders and performed quite well, he even received a round of worthless verbal praise.

Immediately, Hu Biao’s mind began to wander: Why not go buy some supplies now? I can cross over to the wasteland tonight.

He could stay in Bitter Water Town for a few days and come back. If everything went smoothly, he could even return in time for tomorrow’s breakfast.

Thus, Hu Biao first drove the car back to his rental apartment. After removing the two rows of rear seats, he swung the steering wheel with flair and drove toward the wholesale market.

It was worth mentioning that he passed by Fatty’s snack bar along the way.

Heaven knows how much of an intense mental struggle Hu Biao went through before he managed to not stop the car and spend twenty yuan to buy two buckets of swill.

After conquering the demon in his heart, Hu Biao felt as though his entire spirit had been elevated to a higher plane as he continued driving.

Sigh! I am truly such a pure and kind person.

After arriving at the wholesale market, the first supplies Hu Biao purchased were various manual labor tools: hoes, pickaxes, shovels, and steel pry bars.

Next, he bought a deep-well pump, a diesel generator, and a 200-meter-long water pipe.

Prioritizing these supplies was mainly because Hu Biao really couldn’t stand the harsh water conditions in the wasteland.

Since that deep well could produce water, it meant the area beneath the wasteland still had relatively abundant groundwater; it was just that the locals had no means to excavate or extract it.

In Hu Biao’s plan, he intended to dig three more deep wells in the short term. At the very least, he wanted to allow those subordinates who often hung around him to take a bath every three to five days.

In addition, Hu Biao went to a gas station near the wholesale market and bought three 25-liter fuel drums, filling them all with diesel.

He also bought two large barrels each of engine oil and lubricant.

Fortunately, the young man Hu Biao now had a Wuling minivan. This huge pile of items nearly filled the cargo area to capacity.

However, as he looked at the empty seat in the front passenger side, Hu Biao remembered Zac’s small request before his return.

Ultimately, Hu Biao arrived at the entrance of a snack wholesale department. He waited until the busy boss had a moment of leisure and there were no other customers in the shop before he walked in.

Opening his mouth, he said to the owner, “Boss, do you have any cheap Spicy Strips or snacks like that? The kind that are about to expire or just expired.”

Hearing this, the shop owner gave a knowing smile.

He lowered his voice and said, “Come, let’s head inside to talk in detail…”

Chapter 25: Wei You Spicy Strips

Before nightfall, Hu Biao had finished his preparations for the crossing by completely stuffing the van full of supplies.

He even found a small restaurant and ordered two dishes. Under the restaurant owner’s somewhat terrified gaze, he polished off seven bowls of rice in one go.

By now, Hu Biao had realized that his body was undergoing changes due to some uncertain factors.

Whether it was the radiation from the wasteland or the side effects of passing through the portal, the physical manifestation was clear: he was becoming increasingly ravenous.

He had initially considered stopping at the fifth bowl when he noticed the owner’s nervous expression, but the thought of the wretched, abysmal “dark cuisine” waiting for him in the wasteland made him push through until he was completely stuffed.

As for whether he was scaring the owner of the little restaurant, he couldn’t afford to care right now.

After dinner, Hu Biao counted his remaining funds. The thick stack of cash in his work bag had dwindled significantly, leaving him with a total of 8,300 yuan.

After making a phone call home to check on his mother’s recovery, he deposited 8,000 yuan into an ATM and transferred it to her.

Just like that, he was down to a little over 300 yuan.

With the transfer complete, Hu Biao drove his mini-van, which still had more than half a tank of gas, straight to Stone Pig Mountain on the outskirts of Yang City.

The reason he chose this place was its reputation for supernatural urban legends; not a soul would be seen there at night.

It was the perfect place for Hu Biao to cross over without worrying about the portal being discovered.

Once he reached the spot, with a mere thought, the familiar portal appeared in front of the Wuling van’s hood. He stepped on the gas, and the Wuling mini-van rolled inside…

Following the now-familiar routine, Hu Biao arrived back in the wasteland.

The only difference this time was that the young man driving the Wuling van had significantly upgraded his gear.

With his eyes still closed, waiting for his vision to fully return, Hu Biao thought smugly to himself: Driving this Wuling Sunshine, I must be the coolest guy in the entire wilderness.

The next step, naturally, was to pick up his powerful enforcer and return to Bitter Water Town in style.

He imagined that revealing the van-load of diverse supplies would surely blind Dave and the others with awe, ensuring they would follow him with even greater loyalty.

However, the moment Hu Biao opened his eyes, the scene before him nearly made him wet his pants.

It turned out that after crossing over, it was also a pitch-black night in the wasteland. The roar of the Wuling van had naturally awakened Zac, who had been guarding the area.

If that had been all, it would have been fine, but what followed was a stroke of absolute rotten luck.

Having crossed over at night, Hu Biao hadn’t turned off the van’s headlights. Startled by the sudden change in the cave, the ogre instinctively looked toward the source of the noise.

Under the blinding glare of the high beams, there was no way Zac could see Hu Biao inside the cabin.

Thinking he was under attack, the ogre acted with a speed that nearly scared Hu Biao to death. He charged into the cave and swung a metal bearing weighing over fifty kilograms at the cabin.

In a panic, Hu Biao only had time to scream: “Zac, stop! It’s Nichola—”

He didn’t even get to finish the “—s Biao.” Just as he shouted, the heavy bearing smashed through the van’s windshield.

Of course, Hu Biao’s shout wasn’t entirely useless.

Having finally recognized Hu Biao’s voice, Zac pulled back just in time before he could crush the young man’s head.

The problem was, Hu Biao had owned this private vehicle for less than a day, and the poor windshield was now completely totaled…

“Master, I…”

While Hu Biao used his phone’s flashlight and began picking shards of glass out of the cabin bit by bit, Zac stood to the side, wringing his hands and muttering weakly.

In that pathetic state, he lacked even a shred of an ogre’s terrifying reputation.

By now, a good while had passed since the windshield was smashed, and Hu Biao’s initial rage had gradually subsided.

Thinking carefully, he realized he bore most of the responsibility for this mess.

Because of this, Hu Biao felt a bit of pity and called out, “Fine! I’ve decided to forgive you. I won’t punish you for this in the future.”

Unfortunately, Zac’s next words made the young man’s blood boil again.

Zac asked with a serious face, “Master, actually, it’s fine if you punish me later. What I want to know is, did you bring any of that thick soup medley for me this time?”

Hearing that, Hu Biao felt like throwing his conscience away.

A few minutes later, under the glow of the headlights, Zac was staring curiously at the food in his hand—something that Lord Nicholas Biao claimed was a hundred times tastier than that soup medley.

To be honest, Zac didn’t really believe it.

Even though this food was sealed in a plastic bag and was clearly a relic from before the Great War, it wasn’t like Zac had never eaten pre-war food before.

Zac admitted that those ancient leftovers tasted alright, but to say they were a hundred times better than that delicious soup medley? He wouldn’t believe it even if he were beaten to death.

At most, this package just had some square characters on it that he didn’t recognize.

With the meager capacity of his brain, he truly couldn’t imagine what kind of soul-stirring flavor could be a hundred times more delicious than swill.

Filled with skepticism, Zac savagely tore open the packaging, grabbed half a pack of spicy strips, and stuffed them into his gaping maw…

The square characters that Zac couldn’t read actually said: “Wei You Spicy Strips.”

Please note the detail: these were not the famous “Wei Long” brand.

Hu Biao had bought ten boxes of these. They were a budget imitation of the famous brand he’d found at a wholesale market. According to the production date, they were only about six months past their expiration.

Of course, Hu Biao knew that expired products could have various issues.

But he figured that no matter how bad the issues were, could they really be worse than swill?

Most importantly, they were cheap. All ten boxes had cost him only eighty yuan, which was exactly the profit margin he’d made from his delivery earlier that day.

Annoyed by Zac’s behavior, Hu Biao had irritably tossed him a pack of the Wei You Spicy Strips.

Then, he went back to carefully cleaning the glass shards from the cabin; God knew how long it would take to get them all out.

After working for a while longer, Hu Biao felt something was off.

He thought hard for a moment before realizing what was wrong. Wait! Why was Zac so quiet? This was unscientific.

Despite his fierce appearance, Zac was actually a chatterbox.

Especially once he got comfortable with someone, his constant yapping could drive a person mad. For him to be silent for this long was incredibly suspicious.

Instinctively, Hu Biao turned his head toward Zac.

Under the van’s lights, he saw his powerful enforcer with tears streaming down his face, sobbing silently like a child.

As if sensing Hu Biao’s gaze, the ogre met his eyes and murmured a few words: “It’s… it’s too delicious…”

Chapter 26: The Scavengers

By the time Hu Biao finished clearing all the glass shards from the driver and passenger seats, it was already the next morning.

Under the morning sun, he casually opened a pack of Wei You Spicy Strips for breakfast.

His top enforcer, Zac, had already polished off nearly half a small box of the things. Normally, a mouthful for an ogre’s giant maw would have finished them in seconds, but Zac had been savoring them piece by piece, even licking his fingers from time to time. This was why it had taken him so long to finish.

Even Zac knew that delicious food deserved to be savored slowly.

And to be fair, these knock-off Spicy Strips, even though they were nearly six months past their expiration date, actually tasted quite good.

After eating, Hu Biao drove toward Bitter Water Town at a steady thirty kilometers per hour. He maintained this speed because Zac’s natural running pace was around thirty kilometers per hour.

An ogre could maintain such a pace for half a day; their physical stamina was terrifying.

With a vehicle, the efficiency of travel had become incredible. A journey that would have taken Hu Biao over an hour on foot was now nearly over with just a few presses of the accelerator.

However, about half a kilometer from the town entrance, Hu Biao suddenly slammed on the brakes.

He stopped because he had spotted a specific group of people he had long heard of in the wasteland but was seeing for the first time: Scavengers.

This particular group of Scavengers seemed to be a family of three.

Legend said that wandering Scavengers always carried all their worldly possessions with them. The three before him were pushing a modified supermarket shopping cart.

The modification involved replacing the original four small wheels with larger, sturdier ones to handle the rough terrain of the wilderness.

The cart was piled high with all sorts of clutter, presumably everything this family owned. Among the junk, Hu Biao spotted a tattered small pot, a blanket of an indistinguishable original color, and several mineral water bottles of various sizes.

The three Scavengers—two adults and one child—were all covered from their heads down to their knees in large pieces of filthy, greasy cloth.

Only their eyes, noses, and thin calves below the knees were visible.

This attire was likely meant to protect them from the blistering wasteland sun during the day and the biting winds and dust at night.

Because of this, Hu Biao couldn’t determine their exact ages. He could only guess through the cloth that the child, standing at only about 1.5 meters, was likely a young girl. Given how early children matured in the wasteland, she was probably close to ten years old.

The main thing that struck Hu Biao was her eyes; he was surprised to find them remarkably pure.

In a world as complicated and harsh as the wasteland, such pure eyes were incredibly rare. Even if they belonged to an underage child, they still felt precious to Hu Biao.

Out of curiosity, he stopped the Wuling van, intending to have a brief chat with the family.

Unfortunately, the moment Hu Biao poked his head out of the driver’s window, the three Scavengers dropped into a defensive stance.

The tallest man immediately pulled the young girl behind him. He swiftly grabbed a homemade bow from his back and notched an arrow. Next to him, his partner, who was a head shorter, raised a spear and pointed it at Hu Biao.

The so-called spear was nothing more than two pieces of rebar sharpened at one end.

Judging by the dry, thin arms visible beneath their cloaks, the couple didn’t look like they possessed much strength. However, the desperate, feral look in their eyes made Hu Biao’s skin crawl.

Dammit! I just wanted to have a friendly chat. Is there any need to be this tense?

Fortunately, at that critical moment, Zac—who had been running alongside the van—let out a thunderous roar.

“Insolent, lowly Scavengers! Do you realize what kind of noble being you are facing? He is the sovereign of this land, the new Mayor of Bitter Water Town, the Honorable Lord Nicholas Biao!”

Under the ogre’s booming roar, the family of three collapsed to the ground in terror, trembling like frightened quails.

Originally, Hu Biao had intended to have a warm and friendly conversation with these legendary Scavengers. He wanted to ask them politely how their scavenging had been going, if they had enough to eat and wear, or how old their daughter was—simple, everyday questions.

But seeing how terrified they were, he suddenly felt a sense of weariness.

Perhaps as a modern man from a world where everyone was equal—or at least where equality was the stated norm—Hu Biao still couldn’t stomach such a scene.

“Forget it, Zac. Let’s keep moving.”

Hu Biao called out as he stepped on the gas.

Just before the Wuling van pulled away, he reached out and tossed a pack of Spicy Strips to the little girl, whose face was hidden under the cloth.

“Eat up. Consider it a small gift since I’m in a good mood.”

As he threw the pack, Hu Biao caught a glimpse of the label. It was the “extra spicy” flavor…

Looking at the package of food on the ground, Richard fell into a deep state of doubt and disbelief. He had never even dreamed that such a stroke of good luck would befall him.

Richard was a Scavenger, and he had been one since birth.

He was about a quarter elf. Specifically, his pure-blooded elven grandfather had partner with his human grandmother to produce his half-elf father.

The problem was, this quarter-elf bloodline didn’t seem to offer many benefits.

The elven race was known for being close to nature and having long lifespans. However, in the wasteland, the environment was so cruel that a mere hint of elven blood did little to help. Richard felt that, at most, he might live ten or twenty years longer than a common half-orc—and that was only if he stayed lucky enough to find food and avoid a violent death. As for the legendary elves who lived for centuries or millennia, that was simply impossible.

In his nearly thirty years of scavenging, Richard had become a seasoned expert.

Because of this experience, he knew exactly how valuable the bagged food with the mysterious square characters was.

There was no doubt this was a relic from before the Great Destruction. The miraculous plastic seal wasn’t bloated or leaking, and the food inside wasn’t moldy. Its condition was pristine.

Based on his years of experience, such a pack of food could be traded in any wasteland town for at least ten bottle caps, or perhaps ten liters of pure water—enough for his family to drink luxuriously for a week.

When he was a toddler traveling with his parents to the edges of ruins once known as supermarkets, they could still find things like this. But as time passed and countless Scavengers picked through the remains, such food became increasingly rare.

In Richard’s memory, the last time he had pulled a pack of something called “Hot Dogs” from the ruins was over a year ago.

Therefore, as he watched the vehicle that could actually move disappear into the distance and confirmed they were safe, he felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude.

Thank the Moon Goddess! Today truly is a lucky day.

Ignoring Lord Nicholas Biao’s parting words about the food being a gift for his daughter, Richard carefully tucked it into an inner pocket.

Eating such food directly was far too extravagant for Scavengers. Wouldn’t it be better to trade it for more cheap food, stew it with cactus pulp, and let the whole family eat well for several meals?

But just then, he felt a tug on his cloak—or rather, his rags.

Turning around, he saw his wife, Lorin, pulling at his cloak while quietly pointing at their precious daughter, Annie.

Only then did Richard notice that little Annie was turning her head away, trying her hardest not to look at them, but her tongue was darting out to lick her lips.

Clearly, the little girl was experiencing a rare moment of craving.

Thinking of his precious daughter, who had followed him since birth without knowing a single day of comfort, a wave of fatherly guilt washed over Richard. Finally, he did something that surprised even himself.

He pulled out the expensive bag of food, ripped it open, pulled out a strip, and handed it over.

“Annie, my baby, here, eat.”

However, his sensible daughter pushed his hand back and said excitedly, “No, Papa! We should eat it together. You take the first bite.”

Heaven help him! Richard had never eaten Spicy Strips before.

This stuff, known as “junk food” in the modern dimension, possessed a bright, tempting red color thanks to food dyes and a tantalizing aroma from artificial flavorings that no Scavenger could resist.

“Then I’ll just take a small bite and leave the rest for my little Annie.”

With that thought, Richard took a bite.

A second later, as a fiery, stinging, numbing sensation flooded Richard’s mouth, the poor Scavenger turned pale with horror.

“Oh no!” he cursed frantically. “This food is poisoned! Those powerful lords really are all heartless bastards…”

Chapter 27: The Grand Project

“Achoo!”

Without the slightest idea why, Hu Biao let out a huge sneeze.

He had no clue that in the shadow of a tall cactus outside the town, an unlucky scavenger was already giving his last wishes to his wife and child.

For instance, his wife, Lorin, could find a good man to remarry, but she had to remember to take good care of his precious daughter, Annie.

After tightening his short-sleeved shirt with a hint of confusion, Hu Biao didn’t dwell on such minor matters. He needed to concentrate on driving and constantly honk his horn, signaling the children blocking the road to move aside.

By now, he had driven the Wuling minivan into Bitter Water Town.

Hu Biao had anticipated how impressive it would be to drive a motorized four-wheeled vehicle in an era where most cars were废弃.

But he still hadn’t expected it to be this impressive.

Good heavens! The moment he drove into town, dozens of children swarmed him. Then, after Hu Biao honked a few times, the entire town erupted in excitement.

About three hundred people completely blocked the town’s only main road.

In comparison, driving a top-tier luxury car on a modern road wouldn’t garner anywhere near this level of attention.

Fortunately, at this moment, the minotaur Dave appeared. He brought a dozen bare-chested men who herded everyone blocking the road to the side.

Only then did Hu Biao manage to successfully drive the Wuling minivan to the back of the three-story building.

He strictly forbade all unauthorized personnel from approaching, to prevent them from seeing the unloading process…

“Your Excellency, you’re back!”

The minotaur greeted Hu Biao warmly, but his eyes kept drifting towards the cargo compartment, trying to get a glimpse of what was inside.

It wasn’t surprising he was so excited! The “advanced shelter” Hu Biao had vaguely described, and specifically what supplies were still preserved there, was simply too important for the future of Bitter Water Town.

It also concerned their own future standard of living. After all, if Sir Nicholas ate meat, they could at least have some soup, right?

Seeing this, Hu Biao couldn’t help but laugh and scold, “No need to look, it’s all good stuff.”

Then, changing the subject, he pointed at the group of tall black men, who were carrying sharpened rebar spears and trying their best to stand tall and proud, attempting to look more imposing.

Hu Biao asked with some curiosity, “Are these the guards you’ve picked from town these past few days?”

He asked this because, among them, besides three white men and four half-orcs, the other dozen or so were tall black men.

This situation made Hu Biao quite suspicious. Could it be that the physically stronger tall black men had an easier time surviving in the wasteland?

Most importantly, these people looked a bit too thin. Even though they all had large frames, with their skeletal figures, Hu Biao didn’t think they possessed much combat strength.

Dave clearly noticed Hu Biao’s dissatisfaction and quickly explained:

“Yes, Your Excellency, I’ve newly recruited twenty guards into the town’s defense force. According to your instructions that it’s best if they have families, they are already the strongest and most capable people in town.”

Hearing Dave say that, Hu Biao could only reluctantly accept the reality that most people in the wasteland suffered from malnutrition.

Fortunately, these people had good foundations. As long as they were nourished for a while, they would eventually look like proper humans.

At the same time, seeing all his male subordinates, including Dave, bare-chested, wearing only tattered shorts or even just a piece of cloth wrapped around them, Hu Biao began to wonder if he should bring them some unified uniforms next time. If they wore unified clothing, this guard squad would probably look more imposing.

And the uniforms didn’t need to be too good. He thought that discarded camouflage fatigues would be quite suitable – durable and cheap.

Just as Hu Biao was idly pondering these questions, he suddenly heard a sweet chorus of “Sir Nicholas!”

He looked up and saw the long-legged wolf girl and the slender-waisted fox girl both pouncing towards him.

He wasn’t sure if it was because they had taken a bath with limited water, or if he had simply grown accustomed to the wasteland’s scents over time.

In any case, with a girl on each arm, the young man felt only immense joy.

This guy chuckled like a perverted uncle, “Come, Your Excellency brought you lollipops. These are very sweet, remember to lick them slowly.”

Later, as the two obedient girls stuck out their small tongues and licked the lollipops bit by bit, Hu Biao thought with great anticipation, “Eat, eat, you need to grow up faster.”

However, after inadvertently feeling the touch on his arm, the guy wailed, “No, they’ve already grown up. The problem is, they’re so young. How can I even think of laying a hand on them…”

Under the watchful eyes of his trusted subordinates, a carload of supplies was unloaded.

During the unloading, Hu Biao gave various instructions: “Old Cripple, those four barrels are engine oil and lubricant, respectively. Take two helpers, and another barrel of diesel, and bring that Sherman tank back for me.”

“No problem!” Old Cripple agreed without hesitation.

In fact, the moment he first saw the oil, he couldn’t help but stare.

Primarily, he noticed that there was no stratification or discoloration in the translucent barrel walls of these oils, which was almost impossible in the wasteland.

Even lubricating oil, stored in sealed conditions, couldn’t be preserved so well for such a long time.

That meant the source of these lubricants was definitely not stock from before The Great Destruction, but rather that this mysterious Sir Nicholas Biao had other sources of supplies.

That indicated that this Sir was far from as simple as he appeared on the surface.

Fortunately, Old Cripple knew that many people in the wasteland died because they talked too much, so he decided to keep this secret firmly to himself.

While Old Cripple’s mind was racing, Hu Biao’s instructions continued:

“These piles of shovels and pickaxes don’t need to be put away yet. I’ve decided to dig four more wells in town. The current water supply is too scarce; at the very least, everyone should be able to take a proper bath every few days.”

As soon as these words fell, the atmosphere around them turned dead silent.

After a long pause, the minotaur Dave stammered,

“Your Excellency, your decision is too crazy; everyone certainly hopes for more water, but as far as I know, that requires a lot of manpower and resources. I’m afraid we can’t support it.”

Glancing at his subordinates, whose expressions were complex, Hu Biao firmly stated:

“I don’t care how crazy this decision is, or how difficult it will be. I’m through with days where I can’t even take a decent bath! If there aren’t enough people, recruit more from town. If there isn’t enough food, I’ll figure it out.”

Bathing! What a luxury.

Simply at Hu Biao’s understated description, everyone, imagining the wonderful feeling of pure water pouring over their heads, couldn’t help but fall into a daze.

Even in their wildest dreams, they had never imagined such a luxurious scene.

Finally, the minotaur gritted his teeth and said, “Your Excellency, we’re with you.”

The others didn’t say much, but the fervent determination in their eyes spoke volumes.

Chapter 28: Trouble is Coming!

On the afternoon of Hu Biao’s arrival in the wasteland world, the well-digging project officially commenced.

Tempted by the prospect of frequent baths, his core subordinates threw themselves into their respective tasks with twelve-tenths of their usual enthusiasm.

Dave the minotaur took his guards and began training in the open space outside the town.

Even if the wasteland natives didn’t know the proverb “a man’s wealth is his own undoing,” they understood the reality. Bitter Water Town, which originally had only one well, had already been targeted and attacked; once they had even more wells, wouldn’t it become an even larger, more tempting piece of fat?

Without sufficient defensive capabilities, it would be snatched away in a heartbeat.

Old Cripple, escorted by two guards, set off in Hu Biao’s Wuling van. They needed to repair that broken-down Sherman tank to serve as a trump card in times of crisis.

The two girls, Linda and Susan, took the other waitresses and began recruiting well-diggers from among the town’s residents.

To motivate the residents, Hu Biao offered a daily wage of two meals and one liter of fresh water.

Originally, Hu Biao had intended to offer some bottle caps as well. However, when Old Cripple and the others strongly insisted that the current offer was already beyond generous, the young man happily abandoned the idea of handing out bottle caps.

With everyone assigned elsewhere, the Honey and Beauty Bar had to close for a while due to a lack of staff.

Hu Biao didn’t find this a pity at all. Most of the bar’s customers were poor wretches anyway; he truly didn’t care about the few bottle caps he could squeeze out of them.

As for Lord Nicholas himself, he took Zac to scout for the specific location for the wells.

As to where exactly to dig to hit groundwater as quickly as possible, Hu Biao didn’t have any actual experience.

However, after circling the town once, he quickly locked onto a target:

An open space in the southwest corner of the town, no more than ten meters from the perimeter wall.

The reason he chose this spot was a massive cactus growing there. The fact that a cactus could survive there suggested that the groundwater was more abundant in that area.

But exactly how deep they would have to dig to find clean water was something even Hu Biao didn’t know.

Just as he had finalized the location, Hu Biao saw a waitress with short antlers on her head running toward him like a startled deer.

Upon seeing him, she blurted out, “This is bad, My Lord! The paupers in town are revolting! A bunch of them have blocked the bar entrance! Susan sent me to tell you to get over there quickly!”

Hearing this, Hu Biao’s eyes turned red with anger.

Damn it! These bastards were as docile as sheep when that dead man Andrew was in charge. Why the hell did they feel bold enough to block the door the moment I took over? Who did they think they were looking down on?

Did they think my blade wasn’t sharp enough to cut someone down?

He shouted at the top of his lungs, “Go to the edge of town immediately and tell Dave to bring his men back! Zac, when I tell you to move later, don’t hold back. If things go well, I’ll give you all the Spicy Strips you can eat!”

“My Lord, just leave it to me,” Zac replied with unprecedented enthusiasm upon hearing “all the Spicy Strips you can eat.”

However, when Hu Biao arrived in front of the small building with his murderous star thug, he was stunned.

Before he could lash out, the townspeople saw the Mayor’s arrival and immediately fell to their knees, pleading:

“My Lord, please hire me! I don’t eat much, and I can work myself to the bone for you!”

While he was dazed, Dave the minotaur gathered his strength and squeezed through the crowd. After a quiet explanation in Hu Biao’s ear, Hu Biao finally realized he had made a blunder.

No one was starting a riot. Or rather, if they were causing a scene, it was only because they wanted to find a job.

The main issue was that no one had anticipated how attractive a job providing two meals and a liter of water a day would be to the wasteland natives.

Once he understood the situation, Hu Biao gave a grand wave of his hand.

He announced, “Fine! As long as you aren’t disabled, you can get a job from me!”

In any case, digging a few wells was only a tiny part of Hu Biao’s plan. Later on, this dilapidated town would be almost entirely torn down and rebuilt; there would be plenty of work for everyone.

As soon as he finished speaking, a massive cheer echoed through the town.

The problem was, even Hu Biao didn’t realize he had made it all sound too simple, or just how much he had overpromised.

The next day, just as the sun had finished rising, the construction in Bitter Water Town had already been underway for some time.

“Watch out! The cactus is coming down!”

At a native’s loud shout, the laborers working nearby scattered like startled bees.

A massive, one-story-high cactus was about to be sawn down after its external needles had been carefully cleared away.

It couldn’t be helped. After a war that was like a Great Destruction, everything in the wasteland had become completely unrecognizable. To continue surviving, all living things had mutated.

Everything had acquired the resilience of a cockroach, managing to survive on this earth with even fewer resources.

Take this cactus, for example. Besides having a much larger root system, its skin and flesh had become much tougher. Even the half-meter-long needles on its surface contained a potent toxin.

If a local native was pricked once, they might not die, but with Hu Biao’s constitution, he would probably drop dead in minutes.

Even so, Linda led a crew to collect the felled cacti one by one.

In their past experience of survival, if they added up to thirty percent of cactus flesh to their food, it could significantly stretch their supplies.

If the amount exceeded thirty percent, excessive consumption would cause radiation poisoning and illness.

As for the specific taste after adding cactus flesh… in a world where even filling one’s belly was difficult, not many people were picky about that.

Because he had sufficient manpower, Hu Biao chose to start work on four sites simultaneously. This changed the plan from one well to four, with one located near each of the town’s four corners.

The strongest men among the townspeople swung hoes and pickaxes, digging into the earth with all their might.

The wasteland ground was often too hard, mixed with too much gravel and stone; many times, they even had to use steel chisels.

The excavated gravel was packed into straw sacks by people with less strength—or even by teenagers—and carried one by one to the town’s perimeter wall.

Carrying two hundred bags of gravel was considered a completed day’s work.

Naturally, this excess earth couldn’t be piled up within the limited area of the town.

So, Hu Biao wondered if he could use this sand and soil to build a higher perimeter wall to strengthen the town’s actual defenses.

With the full mobilization of Bitter Water Town, the well-digging project progressed quite well.

By the end of the first day, the deepest of the four wells had reached a depth of eighteen meters.

Such good progress was partly due to the formidable physical strength of the wasteland natives. They might look thin, but they had muscles built into their bones.

One person working was worth at least three to five experienced migrant workers from the modern world.

On the other hand—and this was the most important point—Hu Biao had plenty of labor.

Since the area of each well was only about a dozen square meters, they couldn’t fit too many people digging at once.

Hu Biao divided the labor into three shifts, rotating every twenty minutes, ensuring these people worked at maximum speed.

Unfortunately, even at that depth, they hadn’t seen even slightly damp soil.

Regarding this, Lord Nicholas remained very calm.

By the end of the second day, the deepest well had reached thirty-two meters. It couldn’t be helped; the deeper they dug, the more difficult the work became.

In today’s digging, aside from stones of all sizes, there was still no sign of water.

Lord Nicholas remained calm, but Dave and the others clearly had tension written on their faces after wasting so much manpower and resources with nothing to show for it.

Fortunately, as the third day was coming to an end, the well that had reached forty-one meters finally showed some semi-dry mud.

This proved there was indeed water below. Even though it would require more work before water actually flowed, it still energized everyone.

Even Hu Biao, who had been feigning indifference on the surface, secretly breathed a sigh of relief at the sight.

Thank goodness! My decision wasn’t a mistake. If I made such a huge fuss and no water came out, it would be incredibly embarrassing.

However, that night, just as a dog-tired Hu Biao was about to go to sleep, he heard a gentle knock on his door.

With a hint of rejection, a hint of nervousness, and even more expectation, Hu Biao opened the door, only to find it wasn’t a waitress looking for a nighttime visit.

Instead, it was Old Cripple with a bitter expression. He spoke but one sentence:

“My Lord, our food supplies are running low.”

Chapter 29: The King of Scrap?

The three-story building where the bar was located was undoubtedly the most luxurious structure in Bitter Water Town.

Consequently, this place served not only as the administrative center of Bitter Water Town but also as the residence of the great Lord Nicholas Biao, as well as a warehouse for various important supplies.

After hearing Old Cripple’s report regarding the food crisis, Hu Biao hurried to the most vital storage area: the basement beneath the building.

Foreigners! They always loved building such things in their houses. The basement covered about thirty square meters, providing a decent amount of storage space.

After Hu Biao became the new Town Mayor, he had naturally inspected this critical location once before.

He remembered clearly that, aside from a small amount of alcohol and miscellaneous supplies, the rest of the space had been packed with food.

Specifically, there was probably more than half a ton of dried meat and about a ton of root starches like potatoes.

This seemingly ample supply of food was the source of Hu Biao’s confidence when he had recruited so many laborers all at once over the past few days.

He had figured that these supplies could last for at least half a month. By then, the legendary Hawk Caravan would have arrived, and he could simply use bottle caps to buy more grain.

However, as he looked at the food stocks which had already been reduced by half, Hu Biao realized he had taken the situation far too lightly.

As Hu Biao finished counting the last of the food, Old Cripple began to explain from the side:

“My Lord, in truth, even we didn’t expect the food to be consumed so quickly. The main reason is that the town residents used to go out into the wasteland every day to hunt. Aside from eating most of it themselves, the leftovers were used to trade for drinking water.”

“But now, working for a generous lord like you is far more lucrative than hunting and gathering. Therefore, without any replenishment, this large-scale consumption has led to this situation.”

The “hunting and gathering” Old Cripple mentioned didn’t mean the townspeople were out in the wasteland tracking big game.

Rather, they were on the gravel-strewn plains, catching small creatures like spiders, scorpions, rattlesnakes, and sand rats. If they encountered a lizard, it was considered large prey.

After removing the heads and entrails, these creatures were their primary source of survival.

As for gathering, if they were lucky enough, they would find some edible wild tubers, which served as their source of carbohydrates.

Boiled together with the tough, wood-like pulp of cactus stems, it formed a meal that could fill their bellies…

After a quick inventory, Hu Biao estimated that if the remaining food continued to be consumed at the current rate, it would last three to five days at most.

To this end, he asked impassively, “I want to get a batch of food back. Old Cripple, do you have any suggestions?”

Old Cripple, who was thirty-seven years old—a ripe old age in the wasteland—was intimately familiar with everything on the Great Wasteland.

The man indeed had suggestions, several in fact, and said without hesitation:

“Of course, I have a few suggestions for your consideration, My Lord! First, naturally, is to halt the current well-digging project until we have more food reserves. With the current stock, we could make it last for quite a long time.”

Unfortunately, Hu Biao didn’t even think twice before rejecting the first suggestion.

“No! Currently, everyone’s morale is high. If we stop after only three days of work, how will the others look at me? If I want to do anything else in the future, will anyone listen to what I say?”

Indeed, for a greenhorn Town Mayor like Nicholas Biao, there were countless people secretly watching his every move.

If Hu Biao appeared too incompetent, he was certain that endless troubles would follow.

Aside from those reasons, there were others that Hu Biao didn’t say aloud.

Although his practice of providing open food supplies to the townspeople over the past few days made him look like a total sucker, the atmosphere in Bitter Water Town had completely changed in that short time because there was enough food.

The originally emaciated townspeople were gradually showing a hint of healthy color, and their mental outlook had significantly improved.

Even the smiles on the children’s faces were a bit brighter.

Such changes might be trivial matters to other rulers in the wasteland, but to Hu Biao, a world like this was normal, and it was what he hoped to see.

He did want to become a decadent, feudal landlord, that was true.

But if the people under his control were all soulless walking husks who submitted to him just for a bite to eat, it didn’t align with his values.

For this reason, he didn’t mind consuming food that others considered exceptionally precious.

After having his suggestion rejected, Old Cripple showed no further disagreement.

Instead, he offered another plan: “Since we cannot save on grain, we must find a way to secure more food sources. I have three suggestions for this.”

“First, you could take a team to Quicksand Town. It is the closest town to Bitter Water Town. If everything goes smoothly on the road, it’s a six-day round trip. However, the path isn’t very safe, and you would need to take most of the guard with you, which means the town’s security wouldn’t be guaranteed. Furthermore, I doubt we could buy much food even if we went.”

“Second, we can hope the Hawk Caravan arrives early. They always carry a lot of food, but based on past experience, the chance of them being early isn’t high. Third, it would be best if there were more food left in that shelter you stayed in before.”

Upon hearing this, Hu Biao fell into deep thought. The first and second suggestions were clearly unreliable. Mainly, the amount of food traded from Quicksand Town wouldn’t be much, and the chance of the caravan arriving early was too small.

On the contrary, he felt the third option was the most reliable.

Today was already his fourth day here. He had originally planned to return to the modern dimension tomorrow morning. Worst case scenario, he could bring a truckload of grain back with him.

Given the divine attributes of the Wuling van, if he pushed it a bit, bringing back a ton of rice and flour shouldn’t be much of a problem, right?

The only issue was that he seemed to have only a few hundred yuan left; he didn’t have enough money for a large purchase.

At this thought, Hu Biao asked expectantly, “During this time, have we traded for any gold coins or those colorful slips of paper?”

In response to Hu Biao’s inquiry, Old Cripple tried his best to explain:

“No gold coins yet. However, regarding your need for those colorful slips of paper, we have already relayed the request to the scavengers. I believe we will receive quite a few after some time.”

The man prattled on for a while, essentially saying, ‘things are difficult now, but the future is bright.’

Hu Biao believed that part, but the problem was—what should he do for this trip back?

After some internal agonizing, Hu Biao came up with a solution that would make any fellow transmigrator feel ashamed for him.

He shouted loudly, “Go wake up Dave and the others! What are they doing sleeping? Get up and party—no, wait! I mean, go check those abandoned cars and strip off every bit of scrap copper and aluminum for me!”

As he shouted, the young man felt a strange sense of grief and indignation in his heart:

Why was it that when other people’s kids traveled to another world, they lived lives of leisure and ease, yet when it came to him, he was reduced to picking through trash? He was practically turning into a King of Scrap.

Chapter 30: Come, Let’s Talk Privately

Before the sky had fully brightened, Hu Biao drove his Wuling van, filled with a pile of junk, and quietly left Bitter Water Town with his personal guard, Zac.

The items loaded in the cargo area were all salvaged from that pile of scrapped vehicles the previous night. Since many of the scrapped cars were now little more than empty shells, there wasn’t much of value to be found.

His haul included two catalytic converters, five copper bearings from the engines, a bundle of stripped copper wire, and some aluminum components. Based on Hu Biao’s experience, these scraps of copper and aluminum should fetch a decent price as junk.

However, he wasn’t entirely sure how much the load would actually sell for; regardless of the amount, every cent would be used to purchase lifesaving grain for Bitter Water Town. Given that he needed at least one ton of supplies, the more money he had, the better the quality he’d buy; if money was tight, he’d just have to settle for something worse.

A short while later, Hu Biao arrived once again at the cave outside of town.

In truth, if Hu Biao wanted to, he wouldn’t have to go through the trouble of traveling this far. He could have opened the portal right in Bitter Water Town and crossed back directly. The problem was that, so far, he had no intention of exposing the massive secret of the portal.

Zac, the only person who knew the truth, had proven to be as tight-lipped as a tomb after being promised enough Spicy Strips as a reward.

And so, Hu Biao quietly returned to the modern world. Around ten o’clock in the morning, he arrived back at the secluded Stone Pig Mountain.

Immediately, he took the wheel of the Wuling van and drove toward the nearest scrap yard he could remember.

As for the upcoming transaction, the young man had rather conflicted feelings.

Fortunately, the scrap yard accepted every bit of junk in his van; unfortunately, that large pile only netted him little more than 1,900 RMB. Combined with the 300 RMB he had on him, his total capital was 2,200 RMB. This seemed a bit insufficient.

Instinctively, Hu Biao drove to the food wholesale department where he had previously bought the “Wei You Spicy Strips.” As soon as he stepped out of the car, the owner, who had been looking somewhat bored, gave him a knowing, mysterious smile.

Twenty minutes later, Hu Biao was led to a large warehouse outside the market.

Good grief! This massive warehouse was stocked with no less than several hundred tons of rice.

Pointing to several stacks of rice arranged separately, the owner—who introduced himself as Mr. Liu—began to introduce his domain to a novice like Hu Biao.

“See those? The pile by the door is imported Thai rice. It’s naturally the best quality I have, but it’s also the most expensive. I usually supply this to supermarkets, so I assume you’re not interested?”

Thinking of the price—over ten RMB per catty—and his own pathetic budget, Hu Biao nodded his head vigorously.

Seeing this, Owner Liu stopped wasting breath. He skipped the stacks near the entrance and walked straight to the back of the warehouse, where three different piles of rice were stored.

“Out of these three, the best is the near-expiry rice. It’s about a month from its expiration date. Usually, large cafeterias buy this. The flavor might be a bit lacking, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. The price is 3,800 RMB per ton.”

“The next one down is rice that just expired recently. Though some weevils have started growing in it, to be honest, if you wash it a couple of times, you won’t notice anything. That’s 2,000 RMB per ton.”

“The worst one has been expired for a long time. I have to be clear with you: it’s molded and contains aflatoxin. This stuff is only good for feeding fish. If you give this to people and something happens, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

After hearing the introduction, Hu Biao realized he didn’t have much of a choice.

He could only spend 2,000 RMB to buy a ton of the rice that hadn’t been expired for too long and had already started developing weevils.

Looking at it dialectically, rice weevils… well, they might look a bit disgusting, but if you look past the surface to the essence of things, they were basically pure protein!

What else was he supposed to do?

Meanwhile, as Hu Biao drove away, the image of an “unscrupulous pig farm owner” became even more firmly established in the mind of Liu, the food wholesaler.

Regardless of the intense struggle, helplessness, and the heavy conscience he felt during the procurement process, Hu Biao breathed a sigh of relief once the task was complete.

Seeing that it was still early, he first drove the van to an auto repair shop, intending to replace that shattered windshield. After all, driving a car like that in the modern world was far too eye-catching.

However, once he arrived and was told that replacing the glass would cost 300 RMB, Hu Biao decided to ignore the minor issue for now. In fact, without a windshield, it was actually quite breezy and cool.

The only problem was that when driving, he’d have to stick to backroads as much as possible.

During the hours that followed, Hu Biao hit four different agricultural supply stores to help out behind the counters. While helping out, he discovered more pleasing changes in his own body.

A 50kg bag of urea, which he used to struggle to carry, was now something he could shoulder two at a time without much effort.

Suddenly, the legend of “Little Hu,” the salesman from Ruinuo Agricultural Supplies Company being a perfect laborer, began to spread through the small agricultural circles of Yang City.

Along the way, he managed to close a small deal worth about 5,000 RMB.

After nightfall, with his return crossing scheduled in a few hours, Hu Biao found a clean little diner and ordered two stir-fried dishes to reward himself after eating instant noodles for four straight days.

As he was scarfing down his food, a conversation suddenly drifted into his ears:

“Owner Zhou! It’s not that I, Old Wang, am intentionally dragging out your schedule, but work stopped for half a day because the kid delivering the rebar flipped his truck. It’s not that I’m being stingy about their prices being too high. And who the hell said I’m planning to use scrap rebar? I’ll kill him!”

“Besides, you should know how hard it is to find workers on a construction site lately—especially manual laborers for moving bricks at night. I’ve offered high wages, and I still can’t find anyone.”

Hu Biao looked up and saw a short, stout middle-aged man with a protruding belly talking on the phone.

Between the gold chain as thick as a dog’s leash around his neck and the gold rings on three of his fingers, his profession was easy to guess: a contractor.

A contractor was nothing special, but the mention of “scrap rebar” immediately caught the attention of the currently penniless Hu Biao.

According to regulations, rebar salvaged from demolished old buildings cannot be reused for structures. However, it was cheap. As long as the length was sufficient, after being stretched and reshaped by a rebar straightening machine, many construction sites still used it for non-critical processes.

In fact, some rebar in shops that looked quite new was actually old rebar that had been stretched and processed by a machine.

The wasteland lacked many things, but could it possibly be short on scrap rebar?

Even if selling such things was a bit low-class, doing it a few times should help him get through this most difficult period, right?

To overcome this hurdle, he could afford to lose a little face.

Once the contractor hung up the phone, Hu Biao scurried over, fishing out a pack of premium cigarettes he kept for show.

He laughed and said, “Owner Wang, is it? Come, let’s step aside and talk.”

“What for? If you have something to say, say it here,” the contractor said, waving away the cigarette.

Hu Biao didn’t mind the man’s caution and asked directly:

“I have some number three rebar. It’s a bit rusty and slightly bent, but would you be interested at 1,800 RMB a ton? New threaded rebar is at least 3,000 RMB a ton right now.”

Hearing this, the contractor perked up.

“Of course I want it. I have a huge site under me. I could take a hundred tons if you had it. But it has to be at least six meters long; if it’s too short, it’s useless…”

“Six meters? My car can’t fit that. How about I temporarily trade vehicles with you?” Hu Biao suggested, gesturing toward the van outside.

Thinking that there were cars even cheaper than that van at his construction site and that he wouldn’t lose anything on the deal, the contractor slowly agreed.

Thus, with both parties interested, the atmosphere gradually warmed up.

“What’s your name, young man? Where were you making your fortune before?”

“My last name is Niu. I’ve just been doing odd jobs here and there,” Hu Biao lied with a straight face. He wasn’t stupid; he wasn’t about to reveal his real situation.

In the time that followed, the two of them, meeting for the first time, chatted happily, acting as if they were old friends who had finally reunited.

UNTITLED

1. Chapter 1: What Should I Do if People Are Targeting Me?

2. Chapter 2: Toilet Paper is a Good Thing

3. Chapter 3: Biao~

4. Chapter 4: Take a Gamble, Turn a Bicycle into a Motorcycle

5. Chapter 5: Bitter Water Town
6. Chapter 6: What a Sin~
7. Chapter 7: Is It Really Necessary?
8. Chapter 8: A Cinematic Scene

9. Chapter 9: The Bicycle Has Become a Motorcycle

10. Chapter 10: Sudden Change
11. Chapter 11: Risking It All
12. Chapter 12: Preparation
13. Chapter 13: Gluttonous Zac

14. Chapter 14: The Beginning of the Legend of the Big Pig Farmer

15. Chapter 15: Want to Pull a Heist? Get in Line First

16. Chapter 16: A Leap of Faith
17. Chapter 17: The Heartless Wench
18. Chapter 18: Nicholas Biao
19. Chapter 19: Disappointment
20. Chapter 20: Filthy Money
21. Chapter 21: How Old Are You Exactly?
22. Chapter 22: No Problem
23. Chapter 23: The Beauty of Four Wheels
24. Chapter 24: Let’s Head Inside to Talk!
25. Chapter 25: Wei You Spicy Strips
26. Chapter 26: The Scavengers
27. Chapter 27: The Grand Project
28. Chapter 28: Trouble is Coming!
29. Chapter 29: The King of Scrap?
30. Chapter 30: Come, Let’s Talk Privately