While the girls were enjoying their bath, Ryuji was busy with sothing else entirely.
He had just maxed out his Endurance stat.
And the mont he did... he felt it.
His body was completely different now. Every movent felt light, powerful — almost effortless. No matter how much energy he poured into his actions, it was like his stamina just wouldn't run out.
Even when he unleashed an all-out punch with everything he had, he barely felt drained — and within seconds, he was fully recovered.
This... this was beyond human.
"Incredible..." Ryuji muttered, his hands resting on the rchant woman's waist as he marveled at the sheer power coursing through his body.
It wasn't just about endurance or strength — even his output had changed.
What used to take him three rounds to "fill up" now only took one.
And the recovery ti? Ridiculously fast. Give him a minute or two, and he was good to go again.
But there was one problem...
"Damn, this burns through nutrition like crazy..."
Feeling his stomach growl with a deep, gnawing hunger, Ryuji realized the cost of this new power — protein, calories, hydration. All of it burned away at terrifying speed.
Which, to be fair, made sense.
Nothing ca free. And while he'd been eating tons of calorie-rich canned food and at just to sustain himself lately, even that wouldn't cut it if he kept burning fuel like this.
"If I keep this up... am I gonna starve to death?"
He glanced down at his now fully spent "little brother" and nodded solemnly.
Yeah. This is very scientific.
And he knew — if he was well-fed, well-rested, and in the mood... this thing was going to be dangerously hard to deal with.
"I seriously need to find so clean, soft fabric and make so underwear... Damn, I never realized underwear was such a great invention."
Ryuji wasn't the type to wear them much — he liked sleeping naked, and often rushed out without them when he was in a hurry.
But now?
Now he understood.
No underwear was suffering.
Finally giving that soft yet incredibly firm chest one last squeeze — Ryuji once again ntally pressed the [E] key, pulling up the rchant Lady's shop interface.
In an instant, the rchant Lady's ssy hair, the fine sweat on her forehead, and the flush on her cheeks all vanished without a trace. Ryuji casually began browsing through her stock.
And then — he noticed sothing surprising.
The rchant Lady's inventory had refreshed!
Not only was there another batch of dozens of slabs of at, but now there were even more useful items for sale. Stretching his body a little, Ryuji began carefully checking the new additions.
This ti, the shop had several types of seeds he had never seen before — and even so rotting flesh available for purchase. That last one, honestly, he'd never expected.
But these weren't what he urgently needed right now. Instead, his eyes went straight to the weapons section.
The iron pipe machine gun still only had a 15-round magazine. No matter how fast the reload speed was, there would always be a vulnerable gap between bursts. Yet the weapons sold by the rchant Lady remained absurdly expensive — several thousand casino tokens each.
Sure, Ryuji had earned over ten thousand tokens from recent quests and trades, but even so… he wasn't about to blow all his savings at once.
And then…
"Wait... she's selling a furnace and a chemistry station this ti?"
Ryuji absentmindedly played with the rchant Lady's little strawberry shaped tips between his fingers while considering his options.
Right now, gunpowder wasn't exactly scarce. Even if manually crafting it was slow, he didn't have to worry about running out — not with Tsunade's insane mining abilities backing him up. The raw materials would keep coming, no question.
Still, just to be safe, Ryuji bought both the furnace and the chemistry station. His goal was to keep all three of them mobile and ready to launch quick assaults without worrying about resource processing.
With that done, he kept scrolling through the rest of the rchant Lady's stock.
In the end, Ryuji only bought a few dical supplies, so food, the furnace, the chemistry station, forty molotov cocktails, and all the gasoline available. Everything else he left untouched, ensuring he still had 5,000 Duke's Casino Tokens left in reserve.
"I'll hand these over to Kiri and Tsunade later, see if there's anything they need."
After about half an hour, Ryuji finally stepped out of the rchant's cabin. Feeling his stomach growl, he decided to check the crafting station to see if there was anything new he could make.
That's when he noticed sothing.
"Steel Fras...?"
Ryuji thought for a mont, then went ahead and queued up 300 Steel Fras for production — according to the description, each one had a whopping 10,000 durability.
Way sturdier than wooden defenses, no doubt about it.
The only downside... was the crafting ti. Two and a half minutes per fra. By the ti this batch finished, it would probably be morning.
"Well, let's make a few and see how they perform first. Kiri ntioned she could repair the cent mixer — if reinforced concrete turns out to have better durability, then I won't waste resources on this."
Ryuji opened up his newly-bought furnace and was instantly t with an absurd sight — over ten thousand steel ingots already sitting inside, and the iron supply still maxed out, steadily slting away.
"Tsunade's mining speed is just ridiculous..."
Ryuji couldn't help but complain out loud. It was honestly too crazy. He'd even had to craft dozens of storage boxes just to hold all the ore she'd dug up. At this point, the furnace simply couldn't keep up with the raw materials she was feeding it.
He quickly grabbed so steel ingots, tossed them into the workbench, and set the Steel Fras to craft. He also transferred all his bullets into his inventory.
"Should be enough bullets... right?"
Looking at over 10,000 rounds sitting neatly in his inventory, Ryuji still wasn't entirely sure. With the sheer number of zombies out there, you could never be too careful.
That overwhelming sense of hopelessness — those endless, densely-packed waves of undead — was still burned into his mory.
"Let's hope it's enough."
Taking a deep breath, Ryuji returned to his camp. After swapping supplies with kiri and Tsunade, giving them a share of food and bullets, he went straight to take a shower.
Dinner went smoothly enough. With the area around the rchant's shop completely dug out — leaving only a narrow path for them to travel — there was no need to worry about zombie attacks for now.
But...
It wasn't until Ryuji lay down to sleep that he realized sothing crucial.
He forgot to build a new house and bed again.
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