Chapter 24: Further Upgrading the Pickaxe of All Things

"Number Seven is dead..."

"Damn it!"

A roar came from behind.

Liu Hen immediately scooped up the frail body of Little Black Stone and broke into a sprint.

Just as they were about to move beyond the range of visibility, three heads popped up from their previous position. Liu Hen immediately wound up his arm and hurled a piece of iron ore. The three men were so startled that they ducked back down instantly. The distance was a bit too far, so the shot missed, but it successfully slowed them down.

Finally, they slipped out of the scavengers' line of sight. Liu Hen suddenly slowed his pace, changed direction for about twenty meters, and ducked behind a massive boulder with Little Black Stone.

A few seconds later, eleven men charged past from behind, heading aggressively in the direction they had been traveling.

'Are those the guys who live in the caves and farm toxic creatures?' Liu Hen squinted slightly, recognizing the group. In the original owner's memories, the man leading them was named Pang Xuan. His scavenging squad was one of the best-known and most successful teams among the wastelanders in the Red Snail Camp area.

Within a two-kilometer radius of Red Snail Camp, there were many caves, all of which had been claimed. Most of the teams living there survived by farming toxic organisms to trade for food with the camp. The majority of these teams possessed firearms—though usually only one per team, perhaps even just a pistol with very little ammunition. Yet, even the most basic pistol was a firearm, possessing enough deterrent power that no one in this area dared to provoke them.

Beyond firearms, these people also crafted bows and arrows. While bows were less effective in low visibility, if there were enough people, a volley of arrows could still achieve a high hit rate. Just like earlier, when seven or eight arrows were fired at once; even though most went wide, they had still been struck. If it weren't for the fact that wooden arrows caused moderate damage and they were wearing protective tree-bark clothing, they would surely have been injured.

'So, the so-called bandits are just those guys who live in the caves!' Liu Hen’s gaze turned cold.

"Number Eight, Number Nine, you two take the materials for casting bullet casings back. The rest of you, follow me!" Pang Xuan’s voice rang out in the distance. "Anyone who dares to kill my men will regret ever being born!"

As he prepared to retreat with Little Black Stone, Liu Hen’s heart stirred: 'Casting bullet casings?'

As far as he knew, the material used to make bullet casings on Earth was copper. Did the wastelanders of this world use copper to cast their own casings, too? If so, pure copper was unlikely; it was more probable that they were using copper ore.

'My All-Purpose Pickaxe needs copper ore for its upgrade—talk about a pillow arriving just when I'm sleepy!' Liu Hen was tempted. Seeing that the group had split, with two staying behind and nine rushing into the night mist, he immediately began following the two stragglers from a safe distance with Little Black Stone.

Little Black Stone was confused. Shouldn't they be running for their lives? Who in their right mind would turn around and stalk a group of bandits in such a dangerous situation? After all, this was likely the bandits' lair, and who knew how many more enemies were inside? However, she would never disobey her master, especially since he was an ability user. Thinking this, she kept a watchful eye on their rear, following him like a shadow.

Ahead, the two men walked along, grumbling and keeping a wary eye on their surroundings. One of them had a bulge under his thick clothing; if his guess was right, that was the material for casting bullet casings. It didn't look like much. Recalling that the group likely only had one handgun, they probably didn't need much material to cast their own rounds.

'Did I guess wrong? Were they specifically out looking for materials? Was running into us just a coincidence, and the robbery just an opportunistic act?' Regardless, the grudge was already set, and there was no point in dwelling on it now.

Liu Hen held a piece of iron ore in each hand, using the jagged rocks of the stone mountain area as cover to close in on the two men. Worried that Pang Xuan and the others hadn't gone far enough, he didn't rush his attack. Finally, half a minute later, when they were only ten meters away, he stood up and hurled a piece of iron ore with all his might.

*Thud!*

One man collapsed immediately.

"What the—" The other man’s face changed in horror, and he dove to the side.

*Whoosh!*

A second piece of ore flew toward him. The man swung his knife to deflect it. With a metallic *clang*, the knife was knocked from his hand, but he used the momentum to roll and dodge the third projectile. Seeing him about to disappear behind a rock, Liu Hen narrowed his eyes, wound up his arm, and aimed for the man's temple, throwing the fourth piece of ore. 'Last chance, it has to hit!'

The fist-sized, square chunk of iron ore spun through the air for over ten meters, striking the man precisely in the temple.

"Argh..." The man fell to the ground with a scream.

"That’s Number Eight’s voice..."

"What’s going on..."

Shouts echoed from a hundred meters away; that must have been their lair. Liu Hen’s expression shifted. He rushed to the first man he had downed and quickly tore open his thick clothes, finding a piece of ore the size of half a human head.

*Slice!* Little Black Stone picked up a rusted steel blade from the ground and drove it into Number Eight’s neck. The girl was ruthless when it mattered; she didn't hesitate to kill, though she lacked the strength to finish him off in one stroke.

"Let's go!" Liu Hen appreciated her courage, but there was no time to finish the job; others were already closing in. He tucked the ore into his spatial bag, scooped up Little Black Stone, and sprinted into the darkness at his absolute limit.

"Over there!"

"Damn it, Eight and Nine have been taken down!"

"Chase them!"

Roars erupted from behind, and as someone ignited a torch, they spotted them.

*Swish, swish, swish...*

Four or five arrows whistled past. Though they missed by a wide margin, they sent a jolt of terror through Liu Hen. Fearing they might open fire with a gun, he buried his head and sprinted with everything he had. This level of exertion was incredibly taxing. In his previous life on Earth, the human record for an all-out sprint was around 320 meters. Wastelanders had far greater stamina, but they still had limits.

Perhaps it was the consecutive upgrades that had granted him astonishing physical endurance. He ran for over two thousand meters in one breath, shaking off the pursuit, before his strength finally began to wane. However, perhaps because his body hadn't fully recovered, after that massive burst of speed, his heart began to race violently and a sense of profound weakness washed over him, as if he were on the verge of sudden cardiac arrest.

'Upgrade, upgrade now!' He issued the command in his mind while slowing his pace.

[Insufficient copper ore purity.]

The prompt appeared in his mind.

'Insufficient purity?' Liu Hen frowned and looked back. Seeing that no one was following, he set Little Black Stone down, took out his All-Purpose Pickaxe with one hand and the ore with the other. Ensuring he had enough space in his inventory, he began to mine it rapidly.

[Slag +2]
[Copper Ore +1]

The fist-sized ore shattered into dust. Two pieces of slag and one piece of copper ore appeared in his inventory.

'So much slag mixed in—no wonder the purity wasn't enough,' Liu Hen grumbled. He put the pickaxe away and initiated the upgrade again.

This time, there were no hitches. The pickaxe and the data in his mind blurred. Suddenly, the feeling of imminent collapse vanished, replaced by a sensation akin to soaking in a hot spring. Unlike previous upgrades, this time, beyond the heat coursing through his body, he felt a sense of spiritual elevation—as if he were breaking through a barrier. While his physical stats didn't jump significantly, he could feel deep-seated, hidden injuries within his body being rapidly repaired.

'I'm at the max level of Black Iron. Will the next level be Bronze?' Liu Hen looked forward to it. 'A brand-new quality All-Purpose Pickaxe—I hope it gives me a surprise.'

Worried that Pang Xuan’s scavenger squad might still be on their trail, he didn't dare linger and moved further away with Little Black Stone.

'Huh? Why is there light ahead?' Before long, after cresting a high ridge of jagged rocks, he saw light ahead. The glow was only two hundred meters away, and there stood a high wall.

"Master, that's Red Snail Camp," Little Black Stone whispered. "I tried to warn you, but you were running too fast, you probably didn't hear me."

In his panic to avoid the scavengers' potential gunfire, Liu Hen had inadvertently circled around the very people who were hunting them. "Well... I did think it looked familiar. Either way, it's good—we've managed to run out of the danger zone in one go."

Nearly half a month had passed, and only two or three people remained under the walls of Red Snail Camp. They didn't seem to be the same people as before; the previous ones had likely starved to death or left. Little Black Stone looked at the three people under the wall with complex emotions. The disabled wastelander who had once warned her of the darkness of the human heart was gone. Coming back this time, she had felt a flicker of pride, wanting to show that she had made the right choice—that she hadn't been eaten by her master and was actually doing quite well. Alas, the other party hadn't survived.

Just as Liu Hen was about to take Little Black Stone over to trade for food, a scream rang out from inside the camp.

"Thinking of robbing me? Even the medium-to-large camps don't have the guts for that..." A familiar voice echoed from afar, followed immediately by the sharp cracks of gunfire and more screams.

'This voice...' Liu Hen was stunned. 'Is that the traveling merchant, Hong Ming?'

That guy... was fighting Red Snail Camp? Were traveling merchants really that fierce?

He immediately retreated into the darkness with Little Black Stone.