Chapter Forty-Four: Homemade Bullets and Expanding Farmland

But after the concrete pillars were reinforced with steel plates, their hardness had become far greater than before, and the zombies could no longer destroy them so easily. The three military fatties, after spraying several waves of acid, seemed to have depleted their reserves; they abruptly stopped.

The trio charged straight toward Qin Fei. In the game, as long as you don’t kill a military fatty, it can spew acid almost endlessly. But the world Qin Fei had crossed into was no game; matter and energy couldn’t appear out of thin air. These military fatties had been attacking nonstop for so long that it was no surprise their acid had finally run out.

With their ranged attacks halted, Qin Fei stepped out from behind the furnace. He raised his iron crossbow and resumed picking off the zombies below. Without their ability to attack from afar, the military fatties were little different from the ordinary fat zombies. As soon as the three rushed forward, the electric grid trapped them in place.

Qin Fei quickly fired bolts from his crossbow, dispatching each military fatty in turn. After being struck, they collapsed to the ground. With a mournful howl, their bellies began to swell; as the first exploded in place, the other two detonated immediately after. The blade traps and electric grid below were damaged by the self-destruction, and several ordinary zombies nearby were also killed in the blast.

With the death of the military fatties, dawn crept closer. Light began to seep into the sky, signaling the end of the blood moon. The sanctuary was a mess, zombie corpses sprawled everywhere. The stench of death rose from the acid spat by the military fatties, filling the air.

Thanks to the electric grid and blade traps, Qin Fei had weathered this zombie tide with relative ease. The steel-plated concrete pillars forming the platform remained almost entirely undamaged. However, the acid sprayed by the military fatties had thoroughly disgusted Qin Fei. Even though his sanctuary was built by the river, it still took him nearly a full day to wash away the stench.

The appearance of military fatties in this blood moon was a warning. The difficulty of future blood moons would only rise. Qin Fei had barely managed to hold out this time, but if more military fatties joined the next assault, the outcome would be uncertain.

Or should stronger mutant zombies appear amid the next tide, Qin Fei would face even greater difficulties.

He planned to use firearms against these mutated zombies. Qin Fei wasn’t short on guns, but he needed to manufacture his own ammunition. The highest temperature his homemade furnace could reach was enough to smelt lead ore; it could also soften finished copper for reshaping. However, it was nowhere near hot enough for iron.

Lead and copper would suffice. By mixing powdered tin into furnace-melted lead, Qin Fei could produce a relatively hard lead alloy for bullets. Tin powder was easy to source; some of the electronic components he’d scavenged from the water plant were made of tin.

Copper’s excellent thermal conductivity made it ideal for bullet casings. Qin Fei had found bits of copper throughout nearby townhouses—candlesticks, doorknobs, faucets, all made from copper. Bullet casings required precision sizing. His pistol used nine-millimeter rounds, but he lacked a mold. Qin Fei could only rely on a caliper accurate to the millimeter. By heating the copper and carefully hammering it, he managed to shape casings for nine-millimeter rounds.

Of course, hammering them by hand was slow, and if the casing was even a little off in size, it wouldn’t fit the pistol magazine. Thus, Qin Fei had only managed to make just over fifty rounds.

Then there was the powder. He had neither the formula for black powder nor the materials. But by grinding potassium nitrate and coal into powder, and boiling it in a beaker, he could produce gunpowder. Potassium nitrate and beakers could be found in town clinics, but coal was harder to come by—Qin Fei searched for a long while before finding a small stash in a residential house.

While boiling powder, Qin Fei attracted some nearby zombies. But once he’d repaired the electrical equipment, ordinary zombies posed little threat.

The remaining powder was processed into shotgun shells. Shotgun ammunition mainly consisted of lead pellets and powder; after melting lead pellets in the furnace, Qin Fei wrapped them in cloth or paper. Once loaded, the shells were ready for use. To ensure he had enough firepower for the next zombie tide, Qin Fei produced over three hundred shotgun shells.

This town had a farm for livestock. Most of the animals were dead, their bodies long since rotted and blackened. In the farm’s fields, Qin Fei discovered a patch of corn. Yet aside from stalks, not a single ear of corn remained—likely taken by other survivors. Such situations were common in the apocalypse.

In a nearby plot, a few coffee plants grew. Perhaps because they weren’t edible, no one had taken them. Coffee could be brewed, and with the system’s bonus, the beans acted as a quick stamina potion in Qin Fei’s hands. He uprooted the coffee plants and packed them away.

To his surprise, two hens were still alive in the chicken pen, trembling in the corner as he found them. A handful of corn kernels lay on the wooden rack, presumably their feed.

[Corn: Can be eaten directly, used in several cooking recipes, or planted as seeds; requires about fourteen days to harvest.]

He took the coffee plants, two hens, and the handful of corn kernels back to his sanctuary. The coffee plants were transplanted into his field, and the corn kernels were sown. As for the hens, Qin Fei decided to keep them for a few days; there was no rush to slaughter. If they couldn’t lay eggs, he could always eat them later.