85: The fisherman's grandfather

Before transmigrating, Li Xiao had only been in one group fight back in high school, and that was just a minor scuffle; he had basically no combat experience.

However, the young man in front of him wasn't much, and his crowbar, with 30 to 50 damage, had shaved off at least 100 points of the youth's health in just a few hits.

Seeing the youth fall, Li Xiao rushed forward and kicked him in the head, then followed up with continuous strikes to his head using the crowbar in his hand.

After a few strikes, the opponent's face was already a bloody mess, yet even so, he didn't give up on escaping; taking advantage of the moment Li Xiao was catching his breath, he limped toward the door, opening a can of beverage as he ran.

Once the drink was consumed, Li Xiao noticed that the opponent's running speed had actually increased; it turned out to be an item that boosted stamina.

Damn it!

Li Xiao quickly turned back to pick up his pistol and chased after him; it would be embarrassing if the cooked duck were to just fly away like that.

The youth ran out the door and headed north, going straight onto the bridge, while Li Xiao chased desperately behind, only to find himself being slowly left further behind.

The sun was becoming increasingly scorching, and after running just over a hundred meters, Li Xiao was out of breath; lacking exercise in his daily life, his stamina was simply trash.

However, just as he was planning to give up and hurry to find a place to scavenge for supplies, the sound of automatic gunfire suddenly erupted from the north end of the bridge.

He widened his eyes and saw that the youth had already collapsed on the ground, blood pooling everywhere, while in front of him sat a black-painted military off-road vehicle with an eagle emblem emblazoned on it, and five fully armed Black Hawk soldiers were inspecting the corpse.

Life is truly unpredictable...

Li Xiao sighed to himself; if he had followed and chased after him earlier, without a single bullet, he probably wouldn't have fared well either.

The Black Hawk Patrol lingered for a few minutes before leaving, so Li Xiao carefully crept over, and after confirming it was safe, he approached the green-haired youth's corpse.

The opponent had originally had a backpack, which seemed to have been taken by the patrol, but Li Xiao had a sudden inspiration; he squatted down and felt the pouch on his leg, immediately touching something sharp.

Li Xiao was delighted and immediately pulled a handful of bullets from the pouch, though there were only ten.

It seemed this guy had probably only found one box of bullets, and he had used up twenty of them fighting him earlier.

Loading the ten 9mm pistol rounds into the pistol he had picked up earlier, he finally felt a bit more secure.

As long as he didn't run into a patrol, he still had the ability to fight back.

After crossing the bridge, there was an uphill road ahead that led straight to the north.

Because walking on the main road was too conspicuous, he had to advance along the edge of the road, and after walking for several dozen minutes like this, Li Xiao arrived at a housing area that looked like a stable.

This stable, along with a few small houses, was located at a three-way intersection.

Further north was a small town, and to the west, it led to a major highway encircling the entire island at the edge of the map.

After scavenging in the stable for a while, he managed to find a simple motorcycle helmet, which had some bulletproof damage-reduction properties.

It was just that the color wasn't very attractive, a grey-green, but fortunately, its camouflage was decent.

Just as Li Xiao was debating whether to enter the small town to try his luck, the system suddenly prompted that the first stage of the death zone had refreshed.

He quickly opened the map to look, and sure enough, he saw a huge white circle appear on the map, with the surrounding red light barrier rapidly closing in on the white circle; it was estimated that it would pass over Li Xiao's current location within a few minutes at most.

This meant that Li Xiao had to leave immediately, and he would likely only be safe once he entered the range of the white circle.

As it happened, the small town was within the circle's range, and since he was currently lacking supplies, he had to enter the small town to restock.

Sneaking and hiding all the way, moving between the undulating mountain hollows, he finally crossed a mile of open area and arrived at the lower district of this place called Lion City.

The rows of houses and several towering, square-shaped buildings gave Li Xiao the illusion of being under siege from all sides.

Just as he entered a four-story blue-walled building, Li Xiao heard the roar of car engines; he looked through the window and saw two Black Hawk off-road vehicles entering the city's main road from the southern highway, patrolling northward.

Good grief, they really are checking tightly.

Li Xiao calmed his mood and began his own treasure-hunting mission.

After searching the first floor, Li Xiao managed to get his hands on a good item: a blue can of Red Moo.

Feeling thirsty, he drank it immediately, and before long, he felt his fatigue vanish, and his limbs felt much lighter.

This stuff is great!

Li Xiao was quite amazed; he had to get more of this stuff, as it would be useful for the next few hours.

Soon he finished searching the whole building, and his backpack now contained two packs of bandages, and he was wearing a police bulletproof vest.

It was a pity that he hadn't found any better weapons or more bullets.

Li Xiao came downstairs and was about to search the second building when suddenly, scattered gunfire erupted not far to the north; it didn't seem like the patrol team firing, but rather someone in a standoff.

On second thought, rather than wasting time and effort searching room by room, it would be better to try his luck and see if he could play the role of a sneaky opportunist.

So, he crept toward the sound of gunfire and soon discovered that the shots were coming from a three-story brick building.

One person was on the first floor, the other on the second, and it seemed they were both crouching at the stairwell, waiting to see who would show their head first.

Li Xiao had originally intended to just rush in and take one of them out, but he noticed a Black man wearing a baseball cap and carrying a large backpack suddenly dart out from a nearby unfinished building.

This person was holding a pistol in one hand, and in the other, he was actually clutching a grenade.

Damn, he even found a grenade? He's so lucky?

Li Xiao watched with envy, jealousy, and hatred, but it was fortunate that he hadn't made a move yet, otherwise he would have become someone else's easy prey.

This Black man was slightly shorter in stature, but his movements were very agile; in a few leaps, he arrived at the foot of the outer wall where they were in a standoff.

Just then, the two people locked in the stairwell standoff erupted into another exchange of fire; bullets flew back and forth at the stairwell, some even hitting the iron door.

After a dozen shots, there was no sound in the building; Li Xiao guessed that both sides must be reloading.

But he saw the Black man pull the pin on the grenade and toss it in through a gap on the side of the window.

Boom!

The Black man had cooked the grenade for three seconds before throwing it, and two or three seconds after it was tossed in, it exploded with a bang, a plume of thick smoke pouring out from the window and the ajar iron door.

As soon as the explosion ended, the Black man rushed in, gripping the six-shot revolver in his hand, and another fierce exchange of fire ensued.

The final shot was the crisp sound of a revolver, and then there was silence.

Seeing this, Li Xiao rushed over without hesitation.

He kicked open the iron door that had swung back, and face-to-face, he saw the Black man bandaging himself, as well as two corpses, one above and one below.

Li Xiao's sudden appearance stunned the Black man, who hurriedly picked up his revolver to fight back, but Li Xiao had already opened fire first.

Several bullets hit the Black man in the head; although the baseball cap looked nice, it provided no damage reduction, and the Black man's health plummeted.