This was undoubtedly a blow to Ryuji. If things stayed this way, they could only earn a total of 6,000 Duke's Casino Tokens per day.
While that amount was barely acceptable, it was far from enough to achieve true bullet independence.
Ammunition was expensive—so expensive that it was almost as costly as the guns with colorful numerical ratings!
A single bullet cost 48 tokens, and just a bullet tip was priced at 30. It was beyond robbery—it was outright extortion! Not to mention, a tactical assault rifle with a three-digit rating cost a whopping 10,000 tokens!
Frankly, Ryuji had no intention of buying bullets here. He preferred to craft them himself. Unfortunately, without the necessary blueprints, they still couldn't build a furnace, let alone a workbench!
"This is really troublesome."
Now that his relationship with Erina had deepened, Ryuji felt an even greater urgency to obtain better firearms—something capable of dealing with large hordes of zombies.
But despite his stockpile of resources, he had no viable way to convert them into weapons.
"What the hell is wrong with this game? Why does it always block progress at the most crucial moments?!"
Ryuji was frustrated. Scavenging clearly wasn't a sustainable option—apart from food, they found nothing of real value. The merchant had strict limits on what he would buy. And their ability to craft was completely restricted.
"Is it a matter of world resolution? I'm nearly level 20 already!"
Unwilling to accept this deadlock, Ryuji slammed his fist on the merchant's counter in frustration. With no better option, he begrudgingly purchased four bottles of glue, deciding to focus on crafting his own gun first.
As he turned to leave the shop, something caught his eye—the merchant's furnace and a table stacked with boxes.
He had seen them before. Previously, even when he mentally pressed "E" in his mind, nothing happened—no interaction menu appeared. He had dismissed them as mere background props.
But now, looking at his level, he decided to try again.
After everything, he refused to believe that leveling up had been completely useless.
Taking a deep breath, he stepped in front of the furnace and pressed "E."
A menu popped up.
His eyes widened. As someone who had played countless survival crafting games, he immediately recognized the interface.
The greyed-out items at the top were clearly furnace attachments, the flame icon at the bottom indicated fuel, and the left panel listed resources like brass and lead, showing their current quantities.
A triumphant grin spread across his face. But when he glanced at the nearby table, his expression shifted from joy to outright elation.
"It works! I knew it! This world unlocks features based on level progression! Gaining levels unlocks more gameplay elements!"
Overjoyed, Ryuji hurriedly placed several brass components into the furnace's smelting slot. His hands trembled with excitement as he ignited the forge, watching as a 20-second countdown appeared over his brass door handles.
The moment one handle finished smelting, he saw the brass counter increase by 50.
Wasting no time, he tossed in a full stack of clay—he clearly remembered that both brass casings and lead tips required clay to craft.
One brass, one clay—that was the recipe for bullet casings.
Two lead, one clay—that was the recipe for bullet tips.
Not stopping there, he quickly added two stacks of lead to the forge, ensuring that all three critical materials were in production.
However, as he watched the painfully slow smelting process, he couldn't help but take a deep breath.
"So slow… but still better than nothing!"
Curious, he examined the Duke's Casino Tokens in his inventory and made an attempt—sure enough, they could also be smelted into brass!
That changed everything.
If they refrained from purchasing unnecessary items, they could produce 1,000 bullets per day!
Relief flooded through Ryuji's body. His stress and tension from the past few days finally began to ease.
"What is it, Ryuji? What did you discover this time? Why do you look so happy?"
Erina, who had been browsing the merchant's food supplies, stepped out of the store, curiosity evident in her golden eyes.
She was surprised to see the furnace actively burning. When they had searched the merchant's shop earlier, they had found nothing useful—these objects had seemed purely decorative.
Without answering, Ryuji quickly navigated his inventory and crafted a Pipe Machine Gun. Once the process finished, he immediately equipped it.
In an instant, the rusty, makeshift gun appeared in his hands.
At first glance, it was a crude piece of junk—so poorly assembled that even the bolt had been replaced with a screwdriver.
There was no logical way wood, glue, and scrap metal could have been turned into such a functioning firearm without a machine shop.
But logic didn't apply to this world.
And what was even more absurd—when he equipped the gun, a crosshair appeared in his vision!
As he moved the sight, his body instinctively adjusted. When he thinks about pressing the right mouse button, the crosshair shrank, and his view zoomed in. It felt as though he had gained perfect proficiency with firearms without any training.
Staring at the gun in his hands, Ryuji couldn't contain himself.
He rushed forward, pulled Erina into an embrace, and buried his face into her chest. Taking in her sweet scent, he spun her around in excitement.
"Our safety is secured!"
For the first time since entering this world, Ryuji felt a genuine sense of security.
"W-what's gotten into you?!"
Flustered by his sudden enthusiasm, Erina's face flushed red as she lightly smacked him on the head.
"We don't need to keep searching! There's already a workbench and a furnace here! We can craft everything we need! And as long as we keep leveling up, we'll unlock even more of this world's hidden features!"
Though many elements were still locked, Ryuji was certain that if they continued to progress, they could one day live safely and happily in this world.
"Wait… what?!"
Realizing the implications, Erina broke free from his arms and dashed to the furnace.
After confirming the truth for herself, she let out a joyful cheer and threw herself back into his embrace.
Weapons were the greatest source of security for humans. The moment they saw their first gun and realized they could manufacture their own bullets, both Ryuji and Erina felt genuine happiness for the first time in a long while.
"Yes! We can make our own weapons now!"
Their faces glowed with excitement as they obsessively monitored the countdown timers, watching their collected brass and casino tokens melt into usable material.
Without hesitation, they dumped all 6,000 of their hard-earned tokens into the furnace, leaving only 1,000 for emergencies.
At the same time, they combined their gathered coal and nitrate powder in the crafting menu, producing gunpowder.
While they had plenty of gunpowder and lead, brass remained their limiting factor.
In the end, they managed to craft 1,000 bullet casings.
They eagerly watched the workbench convert those casings and lead tips into actual bullets, grinning like fools the entire time.
When Ryuji finally loaded his first magazine and test-fired a round, he confirmed what he had suspected—his body moved precisely as he imagined, as if guided by an invisible aim-assist system.
With their newfound weapons and ammunition, Erina formally declared their success.
After melting down some scrap iron to forge short iron pipes for gun repairs, they returned to their RV.
That night, for the first time, Ryuji truly got to experience Erina's legendary cooking.
But before they could even finish their meal, they tumbled into bed together.
At least they had the foresight to extinguish the furnace before sleeping.
That night, they slept soundly—safe, warm, and full of hope for the future.
However, when Ryuji stretched lazily the next morning, expecting to start another productive day, he was met with an eerie sight.
A pitch-black sky.
"...The sun hasn't risen yet?"
As Ryuji kneaded Erina's soft chest in his half-asleep state, he playfully pinched a small, swollen bud before sighing in satisfaction, preparing to drift back into sleep.
After all, they had been overly enthusiastic the night before, making love multiple times without restraint. His waist was sore, and even his legs felt weak.
However, just as he was about to relax again, his eyes caught sight of something outside—something that nearly made him cry out in alarm.
Zombies.
An endless sea of zombies.
They staggered forward in uncountable numbers, filling the landscape as far as the eye could see, their rotting bodies moving toward the back of their RV.
It was only then that Ryuji noticed the true reason for the darkness in the sky.
It wasn't night. It was a sandstorm.
Thick clouds of swirling yellow sand filled the air, blotting out the sun and casting an eerie twilight over the world. Yet beneath this unnatural gloom, hordes of zombies continued their relentless march, stretching beyond the horizon.
Covering his mouth, Ryuji cautiously turned his gaze toward the front of the vehicle—only to realize that the same terrifying scene awaited him there as well.
There was no end in sight.
This was despair on an unimaginable scale. He could not see the beginning of this swarm, nor could he find its end. He had no idea what had caused this disaster, but one thing was certain.
If they were discovered—
They were as good as dead.
But this wasn't the only thing that sent a chill down his spine. There was something even more disturbing.
Lifting his gaze to the sky, he saw it.
The moon.
Hanging high above, unnaturally large and luminous.
Even though the sun's light was obscured by the storm, the moon's glow remained eerily bright, its pale light cutting through the haze. And more than anything…
It felt unnatural.