39: A humanoid walking warehouse? Empty it out! It must be emptyed out!

Leaving that sticky gambling table, Chen Du was in a rather excellent mood.

Smooth, so smooth!

It felt so unreal, almost as if he were using cheats!

That tentacle monster had paid a heavy price just now to buy its life.

In addition to intelligence, it had lost several fist-sized pieces of [deep sea mithril] and exactly twenty portions of [life essence] to Chen Du.

Don't be fooled by the fact that the Mithril was only fist-sized; its density was ridiculously high. This small piece weighed a full fifty kilograms!

Pressed inside the bag, it was as heavy as carrying a small mountain on one's back.

Combined with the pile of scrap metal Xia Lai had picked up for free along the way, the team's load had soared to the red line.

"Captain, I can't do this anymore..."

An Nuonuo had a bitter look on her small face, the hiking pack on her back being even larger than she was. "My waist is about to break; I'm going to get crushed shorter!"

"Me too." Ye Qiu wiped the fine sweat from her forehead, her breathing slightly hurried.

This was a very realistic logistical problem.

There were too many supplies to carry away!

"Put the Mithril on the ground, let me try!"

Just as Chen Du was wondering if he should discard a portion, the second sister, Xia Lai, stepped forward.

That metallic mechanical hand curiously poked the backpack containing the Mithril.

For an instant, a blue light seemed to flash in her eyes!

"This special metallic structure... Mmm-hmm, I think I've realized something!"

The corners of Xia Lai's mouth curled up, revealing a mysterious and mischievous smile.

"Second sister, with those thin arms and legs of yours, can you really do it?" The eldest sister, Xia Xin, held her recurve bow, her face full of doubt.

"Big sister, you're just showing your ignorance." Xia Lai raised her chin proudly and suddenly extended her right hand.

In the center of her palm, a light blue hexagonal light array lit up out of thin air!

"Watch closely! This is a new skill this genius just comprehended—"

"Collect!"

Buzz—!

In the next second, the large and small parcels on the ground evaporated into thin air right before everyone's eyes!

Clean as a whistle, not even a scrap was left!

"Holy crap?!" Tang Ran's eyes were about to pop out as she blurted out a curse, "A magic trick with living objects? Where did the stuff go?!"

"This is called the [dimensional toolbox]." Xia Lai clapped her hands, her eyes curving into crescents as she smiled. "A divine skill of the Mechanic talent!"

"Currently, it has 10 cubic meters of sub-space. The key point is... it ignores weight!"

"No matter how much is packed inside, to me, it's only as heavy as a feather!"

A humanoid walking warehouse?!

Chen Du's eyes lit up, their brightness comparable to two five-hundred-watt light bulbs!

In this early exploration stage where scavenging for supplies relied entirely on human backs, this skill was simply the godliest of divine skills!

This meant they could carry ten times, even a hundred times more resources than other teams!

"Xia Lai! That's fantastic!"

Chen Du was overjoyed.

Before his brain could even process it, his body had already moved.

Stepping across, he gave Xia Lai a direct bear hug!

"You're really my Doraemon! I love you to death!"

Because he was too excited, and since Xia Lai was wearing work overalls with only a tube top underneath...

Chen Du's hug was just a tiny bit too forceful.

Puff!

His face was buried solidly into a mass of softness.

There was a faint scent of machine oil mixed with a young girl's body fragrance.

Soft, and springy!

He could feel the impact of her heart in that moment, as if it were about to jump out of her chest.

Xia Lai's whole body stiffened, as if she had been hit by a freezing spell.

Immediately afterward, her small face turned red all the way to the base of her neck!

This man's chest... why was it as hot as an overloaded steam furnace?

And this smell... she didn't hate it; instead, it was like the highest-grade lubricant?

"Chen... Chen Du..." Xia Lai felt like she was about to short-circuit. "If... if you don't let go, I'm going to stop breathing..."

"Cough, cough, cough!!"

At that moment, Ye Qiu's light coughing came from the side.

"Chen Du! Are you trying to smother yourself with a facial cleanser?"

She crossed her arms, her gaze sour. "Watch your influence! There's still a minor here!"

"Branch Secretary! Who are you calling a minor? I turned eighteen long ago! I just look young!"

An Nuonuo immediately took offense, putting down the things in her hands and retorting huffily.

To increase her persuasiveness, she even deliberately puffed out her chest, which was developed even better than Ye Qiu's.

With her movement, the curves trembled slightly, providing an extremely strong visual impact.

See if I don't bounce you to death!

"Hmph! People call this having a baby face!!"

Chen Du reluctantly pulled his face out.

He calmly released her and, in passing, helped Xia Lai straighten her somewhat messy overall straps.

There wasn't a hint of embarrassment on his face; instead, he had an expression of being perfectly justified.

"This is a special reward for a hero. Hugging can promote team cohesion, don't you understand?"

Xia Lai blushed and broke away to the side, pretending to check her mechanical arm.

In reality, her heart was beating as fast as a piston.

It's over... is my sexual orientation going to be bent straight by this bad guy?

"Alright, stop reminiscing."

Chen Du clapped his hands, drawing everyone's attention back.

His gaze switched seamlessly from 'lecherous pervert' mode back to 'cold captain' mode.

Since the logistics problem was solved, the next plan could be a bit more aggressive.

With a broad wave of his hand, he said with heroic spirit, "Let's go! Since we have a spatial warehouse, let's not be polite."

"We're going to take a look around the market!"

"Yay~~" An Nuonuo excitedly raised her small pink fist.

The group wound their way through and arrived at the free trade zone.

This place was simply a post-apocalyptic version of Kowloon Walled City, except the residents had changed from humans to various Sanity-draining monsters.

Overhead was a blood vessel dome that constantly dripped slime, and beneath their feet was a soft, rotten fleshy floor.

"Passing by, don't miss out! Freshly roasted wild boar leg meat! Look at this texture, this color—even the neighbor's kid is crying from hunger!"

"Buying human kidneys at high prices! That little sister with the twin tails, your kidneys look good; want to trade for a knife? It doesn't hurt, it's just one cut!"

Shouts of hawkers rose and fell all around, filled with the scent of blood.

Chen Du walked at the very front, followed by a group of school beauties with heaven-defying looks.

The rate of heads turning was simply three hundred percent!

The eyeballs of many monsters with compound eyes were nearly spinning out of their heads as they watched.

"Captain, what exactly are we going to buy?"

Wang Jia asked while carefully avoiding a puddle of green vomit on the ground. "Their eyes are so scary, like they're looking at... a buffet."

"Let's see if there are any weapons like bows or crossbows so we can arm all the girls."

Chen Du stopped in front of a remote stall, his gaze fixed.

The stall owner was actually a scrawny human uncle, squatting on the ground with a distressed face.

There were no weapons or food on his stall, only a pile of colorful clothes with pitifully little fabric.

Lace maid outfits, ultra-thin black stockings, hollow-out nurse uniforms, qipaos slit to the root of the thigh... In a game where survival was paramount, these things were too slippery to even use as toilet paper; they didn't absorb water.

"Bo... Boss, want to take a look?"

The uncle gave a bitter smile, rubbing his dirt-covered hands on his pant legs.

"I originally thought I could sell them to people with kinks, but..."

But they were stuck in his hands.

"How much?"

Chen Du casually picked up a pair of garters with lace edges.

He tugged them slightly; they were very elastic and hadn't aged yet.

"But uncle, I'm quite curious. Looking at your age, you don't seem like the type of person who plays with this kind of stuff?"

"Where did you get so many hardcore goods? Not only is the variety complete, but many are still unopened."

Hearing this, the uncle let out a heavy sigh.

He pulled a crumpled ID card from his chest, which was printed with [Jiangcheng Anime Convention Security Team].

"I'm a security guard; I worked at the anime con."

"That day, just as the convention ended, I was backstage helping those young girls move boxes."

"Who knew that after my eyes went dark and opened again, I'd be here."

Speaking of this, the uncle's eyes dimmed: "At the time, I was surrounded by those girls, all dressed up beautifully, crying from fright."

"But what use was crying? Some were dragged away by green-skinned monsters right after landing, and the screams didn't stop all night; others were snatched by a group of foreigners who said they were taking them back to be... be some kind of slaves."

"Too... too scary..." An Nuonuo's face turned pale as she listened, hugging Chen Du's arm even tighter.

That pair of soft curves was compressed and deformed accordingly. The girl spoke with a sob: "If it were me, I definitely would have died long ago... Wuwuwu, fortunately Nuonuo met the Captain. If I were caught by those monsters, I'd rather bite my tongue and kill myself!"

Although the Captain was sometimes very mischievous and always liked to bully her, at least... at least he treated her like a person!

Xia Mo, standing nearby, frowned and followed up with a question: "What about the others? There should be more than just this many people, right? Did none of them survive?"