hsntnovel Chapter 5 Dawn, Steel Clamps, and Searching the Ruins
Chapter 5 Dawn, Steel Clamps, and Searching the Ruins
Boom!Boom!
The knocking was very regular, and to Lu Sheng, the intervals sounded so precise, almost like a machine's.
He glanced at the terminal screen next to him; it was already past midnight.
An old woman treks through the wilderness to her gas station during the time when nocturnal creatures are most active.
Lu Sheng felt that the monster outside the door was insulting to his intelligence.
Boom!Boom!
"Kind person, have pity on this old woman, let me in, I'll give you all my gold."
The noise outside the door continued, but Lu Sheng paid it no mind.
He wasn't sure if the other party was some kind of camouflaged beast of the night or some other monster of the night, but as long as he couldn't get through the door, there was nothing to be afraid of.
About ten minutes later, the sounds outside the door disappeared. After a while, another group of ferocious beasts of the night arrived. Lu Sheng killed two of them and they retreated.
For the remainder of the time, the creature of the night did not launch another attack, but Lu Sheng only realized what was happening when he heard the buzzing of the drone's rotors starting up.
The long night is over.
After tense nerves relaxed for more than ten hours, a gentle drowsiness followed.
Snapped!
Lu Sheng slapped himself.
"No, I can't sleep yet."
Forcing himself to stay alert, Lu Sheng climbed the stairs, opened the skylight to let the drone fly out, and peeked outside.
The sky nearby was still pitch black, but in the distance, the gray-white dawn was already emerging.
After being exposed to the cold wind on the roof, Lu Sheng's spirits lifted. He quickly closed the skylight, went downstairs, and began to deal with the beast's corpse.
"Five man-eating rats, exchanged for supplies."
Lu Sheng operated the terminal screen, filling out the Nocturnal Creature Recycling Order.
In the valuation section, he saw an option to directly exchange supplies, which included various kinds of food, tools, and so on.
After comparing prices online, I found that exchanging supplies directly with corpse recyclers is cheaper, and most importantly, it's free shipping.
"The estimated buyback price for the five man-eating rats is 50 credits, the food is enough for three days, and there are some basic tools available at the gas station."
Lu Sheng was scrolling through the page when suddenly his eyes lit up.
Rebar pliers, valued at 50 credits, suitable for rebars with diameters from 6 to 12 millimeters.
The gas station is surrounded by the ruins of a transportation hub, with exposed steel bars everywhere. Steel is an important material for upgrading.
Lu Sheng decisively switched, and after a one-second loading time, a prompt popped up:
"Recycler: Sun Zhiyuan will pick up the item in one hour."
Upon seeing this name, he pictured a kind, middle-aged man.
All the ferocious beasts of the night that the previous incarnation killed were collected by this person.
Later, Lu Sheng rummaged through the shelves under the cashier and found food and water. He ate half a bag of compressed biscuits with bottled water.
This was the first time Lu Sheng had eaten since arriving in this world. After a long period of tension, being able to slow down and eat something, plus the cookies tasted pretty good, made him feel much better.
"Phew, back to work."
After finishing his meal, Lu Sheng opened the door to the refueling warehouse. It was no longer dark outside, and the rising sun could be seen in the distance.
Under the sunlight, he could see the state of the gate; after being repeatedly struck last night, its surface was covered with many dents and bumps.
"Even the reinforced new door was damaged like this. If it were the original door, I would have been dead last night."
Touching the shallow dent on the door, Lu Sheng felt a surge of joy at surviving a disaster.
After a careful inspection, he determined that the door could hold up for another two or three days without any problem, and that it could be upgraded.
About half an hour later, Lu Sheng dragged the last carcass of the man-eating rat outside the door and piled it up with the others. When he looked up, he saw a truck appear in the distance.
As the truck drew closer, he carefully checked the license plate number against his memory; it was Sun Zhiyuan's.
A few minutes later, the truck came to a steady stop in front of the gas station, and a middle-aged man got out of the truck.
"Lu Sheng, I'm so glad to see you alive. You look much better than before."
Sun Zhiyuan greeted Lu Sheng, and Lu Sheng raised his hand in return.
As he approached, Sun Zhiyuan noticed the wooden door next to Lu Sheng.
"This door is well-made, but it must have been expensive."
Lu Sheng's lips curled up, and he gave himself a thumbs-up:
"I made it myself."
"You've awakened?"
Sun Zhiyuan was surprised for a moment, then his surprise turned to joy:
"That's good news, you can go home now."
"Forget it, this place is fine too."
Lu Sheng waved his hand.
After realizing that his upgrade ability was somewhat similar to that of the awakened builders of this world, he made up his mind to tell others that he had awakened.
A gas station in a remote place, where there is no one for miles around, it would be strange if anything suddenly appeared there. Since the ability cannot be hidden, let's just make it reasonable.
"What's wrong? Are you addicted to suffering here?"
Sun Zhiyuan didn't quite understand, but he didn't stop working. While asking the question, he picked up the two carcasses of man-eating rats and put them into the car.
"Brother Sun, you know my background. Now that I've become a construction-type Awakened, I'm surrounded by materials, so I might as well make a name for myself here."
Lu Sheng also helped move one. In his memory, his predecessor had been guarding this place alone, and had long since gone mad with loneliness. Whenever he had the chance to talk to someone, he would speak his mind without reservation.
The fact that he was born out of wedlock became a plausible excuse at this time.
"No wonder you need rebar pliers."
"That's good too. For ordinary people, the surroundings are just ruins, but for a construction-type awakened being, these ruins are a treasure trove. You're guaranteed to succeed."
After Sun Zhiyuan finished unloading the goods, he took out a brand-new pair of steel bar pliers from under the passenger seat and handed them to Lu Sheng.
Lu Sheng tore off the plastic packaging and grabbed the steel bar pliers with both hands. The pliers had a wide jaw and the handle was shorter than his forearm, so he needed to hold them with both hands, but they were also more versatile.
He walked to the roadside, found a steel bar exposed outside the concrete debris, bit it with pliers, and applied a little force.
Click.
The steel bar, about the thickness of a little finger, snapped instantly.
"good."
Lu Sheng exclaimed in admiration, then his eyes suddenly lit up.
"Rebar pliers, which consume one unit of steel, can be upgraded to: electric hydraulic pliers."
The current rebar pliers are sufficient, and there are many higher priority upgrade options, but when Lu Sheng saw the word "electric," he had some ideas about what to upgrade next.
Later, after seeing Sun Zhiyuan off, he returned to the gas station warehouse and found a folding cart.
"Folding cart, consumes one unit of steel, can be upgraded to: Electric cart."
Pulling the cart, locking the door, and making sure the gun was on him, Lu Sheng walked towards the ruins east of the gas station, pondering as he went:
"Upgrading the refueling warehouse requires too many materials, so we have to put it on hold for now."
"Power tools can significantly improve efficiency, but gas stations only have enough power to maintain the status quo, so they need to upgrade their battery storage tanks or solar panels."
Thinking of this, Lu Sheng stopped and looked around, trying to see which direction the buildings were more severely collapsed, so that he could collect steel more quickly.
Suddenly, he saw a figure leaning against the wall, coming from the north.
Lu Sheng remembered that someone wanted to stay overnight last night, but he didn't let her in. Instead, he pointed her to a relatively safe place.
The other person survived, but appeared to be seriously injured.