To Ryuji's utter despair, neither of the two women in his party cared much about beds or the comfort of their rooms—one of them was dead inside, and the other had just come back from the battlefield.
Expecting either of them to care about things like bedding was pure wishful thinking. So Ryuji could only pitifully wrap himself in his tattered quilt, covering his ears, trying his best to get some sleep.
Unfortunately, that didn't work.
Moonlight streamed in through a specially left-open window, casting its silver glow over the female ninja named Tsunade. Her skin was paler than the moonlight itself, her flawless curves and silky complexion irresistible to Ryuji's helpless gaze.
But...
"There aren't any merchants around to help me relieve this stress either..."
Ryuji buried his face in his soft blanket, feeling like crying but having no tears. He feared that if he kept looking any longer, he might just lose his mind, pounce on Tsunade, and then promptly get sent to the afterlife by one of her punches.
And so, unsurprisingly, he was once again condemned to a sleepless night.
The reason for his insomnia was obvious. When Kiri woke up the next morning and saw Ryuji's miserable, flustered face, she couldn't help but burst out laughing. Embarrassed beyond belief, Ryuji fled into the female merchant's shop without even having breakfast, eager to inspect the steel frame components.
But what he saw there brought him a genuine surprise.
If summoned directly from the system, the steel blocks only had 10,000 HP like any other system-constructed object. However, if he chose to "materialize" them into reality, they turned into one cubic meter blocks of solid steel.
Better yet, before materializing them, Ryuji could adjust their shape in the system interface. After testing this feature, he found himself staring at a perfectly shaped, pre-formed steel component right in front of him.
This discovery instantly flooded his mind with countless construction possibilities.
"I can use the steel frame as the core, and then shape these steel pieces into a real outer wall..."
Watching the steel blocks change shape at his will, Ryuji's face lit up with excitement. The only pity was that there weren't any pieces pre-designed with screw holes or bolts. If there were, he would've added two or three extra layers of steel plates on top of the system's basic steel frame.
After all, the durability of system-generated items was entirely different from that of real-world materials. While data-driven creations had their convenience, their durability simply couldn't compare.
Thus, the most logical approach was clear — use system-made components as the internal skeleton, and cover the exterior with real-world steel.
"Let's see what shapes I can use for reinforcement..."
Ryuji quickly flipped through the available steel components, looking for ones that could fit perfectly over the steel frame and act as protective armor.
One particular piece caught his attention — a component shaped like a cylinder on the bottom, but flat steel plating on the top. It could fit snugly over another modified steel block. Unfortunately, it lacked any way to fix ropes or cables, so it wasn't suitable for his final design.
So Ryuji kept searching until he settled on a plan.
He found some cylindrical shapes and placed them atop his fortress wall, then transformed the steel frame into a hollow cylinder, intending to materialize it and fit it over the frame.
If everything worked as he hoped, any zombie attack would hit the solid steel exterior cylinder, sparing the fragile system-generated frame inside.
"This should work..."
Ryuji licked his lips nervously and separated a hollow steel cylinder from the system, manifesting it into the real world.
In an instant, a steel column one meter tall and one meter in diameter appeared in front of him. Though its appearance was simple — two thick steel plates forming a hollow cylinder — each plate was a staggering ten centimeters thick.
That kind of thickness exuded pure, absolute security. Ryuji slapped the steel cylinder with growing excitement, his grin twisting into something almost maniacal.
"Let's see those zombies try to claw through this..."
Memories of that terrifying night, trapped in the RV as zombies dug through the walls, were still fresh in his mind. He never wanted to experience that again.
But then... he realized something awkward.
"This thing... is so damn heavy..."
Ryuji strained with all his might but couldn't even budge the steel column.
Staring blankly at the massive hunk of metal, he quickly calculated its weight.
With a one-meter circumference, one-meter height, and ten-centimeter thickness, Ryuji arrived at a rough estimate.
"Shit... two and a half tons. If I remember correctly, even the world's strongest humans can only lift around two or three hundred kilograms..."
Looking at the steel wall in front of him, Ryuji felt utterly defeated.
He had found the perfect method to protect himself, but ironically, that same method now prevented him from actually completing his project.
Just as he was wallowing in frustration, Tsunade and Kiri approached, each carrying a pickaxe. Seeing the hopeless look on Ryuji's face, Tsunade walked over, curious.
"What's wrong?"
She glanced at the steel column built into the wall. After all, this wasn't the "little steel box" Ryuji had talked about before.
"Uh, Tsunade, you're just in time. I need your help. We need to figure out a way to fit this thing over the frame here, then test if my plan will actually work..."
Before Ryuji could even finish explaining, Tsunade rolled her eyes, casually grabbed the steel column that Ryuji could barely lift a fraction of — and effortlessly raised it like it weighed nothing, sliding it perfectly onto the system's steel cylinder.
Smooth. Effortless. As if she was handling plastic instead of steel.
Watching her move so easily, Ryuji couldn't help but swallow nervously, his eyes involuntarily drifting to Tsunade's snow-white hands and her seemingly delicate, slender arms.
"..."
Thank god I have self control!
Ryuji felt genuinely grateful for that. He was also thankful for the female merchant's existence, allowing him to release his... excess energy. Otherwise, if he ever lost control and tried something stupid like relying on hemophobia to threaten Tsunade, she wouldn't even need to take him seriously — one punch, and his body would probably get blown apart on the spot.
"This should do it, right? But... with this setup, the system parts inside won't still take damage from attacks, will they?"
Tsunade knocked on the steel cylinder, having fully understood Ryuji's plan.
"That's what I need to test."
Ryuji nodded. If, after adding this outer shell, the system component inside still lost durability from outside attacks, then the problem remained unsolved.
"Alright, let me handle that."
Before Ryuji could respond, Tsunade raised her fist again — and without hesitation, punched the steel cylinder.
Instantly, a shockwave and a sharp screech exploded from the point of impact. The hollow steel cylinder, perched atop the system frame, shook violently...
Ryuji finally let out a sigh of relief. If that was the case, then there shouldn't be any problem. As long as they built two layers of these defensive walls, it should be enough to hold off the zombie tide.
With that thought in mind, Ryuji was ready to hand over all the steel blocks to Tsunade so she could start building their iron fortress.
But just as he was about to do so, he saw Tsunade casually slot the hollow steel pillar back into place — and then, without warning, raise her fist again.
Ryuji froze for a second, then quickly grabbed Kiri, both of them covering their ears while hurriedly moving out of the potential blast zone.
The next moment, Tsunade threw another punch — and this time, she was clearly being serious.
That same shrill, ear-piercing sound rang out, but this time Ryuji could clearly see what happened.
The steel pillar he had placed all his hopes on didn't just get knocked loose — it was sent flying straight into the large pit nearby. By the time it landed, it no longer resembled a pillar at all. The area where Tsunade's punch had landed was completely shattered — punched clean through.
Ryuji's neck stiffly turned toward Tsunade, who was now casually stretching her arms like nothing had happened.
Lady… was that punch worth like ten thousand durability points or something??
"Mmm, used a bit more strength this time. Punching through it was the best way to deal with it," Tsunade said, stretching her arms and causing her impressive… assets to bounce ever so slightly with her movements.
It was such a casual motion — but in this moment, she looked overwhelmingly powerful.
"My god… are you really human? You're sure you haven't been cybernetically enhanced or something…?" Kiri stared at Tsunade in disbelief.
She'd seen strong people before — at most, they were guys swinging around concrete pipes like clubs. The really monstrous types usually relied on body mods or powered exosuits.
But this? She'd never even heard of an exosuit capable of punching through solid steel like it was paper — though, to be fair, she also hadn't seen that much of the world.
After all, she was just a gunslinger from the lawless zones.
"This is the power of chakra," Tsunade explained with a shrug. "That said, even among ninjas, there aren't many who can pull off what I just did."
As she casually turned to get back to mining, Ryuji quickly stepped in front of her again — his face deadly serious — and took out every last steel frame he had on him, holding them out toward Tsunade like he was presenting an offering to a deity.
"Please! I beg you to take on the role of our construction worker too!"
There was absolutely no doubt in Ryuji's mind — the most qualified person to handle construction here was none other than Tsunade.
"Oi oi… stop throwing all these weird jobs at me…" Tsunade twitched slightly at the corner of her eye. "Well, I guess I'm the only one here who can do it. And let's face it, my biggest contribution right now is just being stupidly strong."
With an exasperated sigh, she accepted the bag from Ryuji, taking away all of his steel materials — though she still threw in a bit of a disclaimer beforehand.
"I'll do it however I like. Don't expect me to make it look fancy or anything."
"Of course! No problem at all!" Ryuji agreed immediately without hesitation.
"In that case, leave it to me. Kiri, come help too. Oh, right — since you're asking for my help, bring me back some booze, playing cards, mahjong tiles, and dice or something later, alright? It's gonna get boring doing nothing but this every day."
Taking advantage of the situation, Tsunade threw out a few small requests of her own.
Ryuji didn't even hesitate for a second — how could he possibly refuse such minor demands?
"Absolutely! Consider it done!"
"Can you phrase it differently?"
"Of course I can!"
"..."
Watching Ryuji suddenly get so excited, Tsunade couldn't help but press her hand to her forehead. She had a feeling that Ryuji was getting a little too worked up.
And that feeling was absolutely correct.
Ryuji was beyond excited. Ever since realizing that Tsunade could actually build a perfect fortress to defend against zombies, it wasn't just excitement anymore — it was pure adrenaline-fueled euphoria.
Because this meant he could finally relax! No longer would he have to live in constant fear of a zombie horde crashing down on him.
Even though he'd accepted Tsunade's request, Ryuji still watched her carefully as she tested the framework with wood, then began constructing it with steel. The whole process earned his genuine admiration — Tsunade really was the real deal.
Same went for Kiri. With these two working together, a solid-looking defensive stronghold was rapidly taking shape before his eyes.
Halfway through the construction, Ryuji left to complete his assigned tasks. It didn't even take him an hour to finish all four.
As usual, the scavenged loot wasn't exactly impressive. The best thing he found was twenty rounds of ammo — so underwhelming that he was honestly at a loss for words.
But the mission rewards made up for it: twenty Molotov cocktails, a revolver (perfect for Kiri), and a batch of valuable medical supplies.
Ryuji used all four of his newly earned attribute points to boost his Strength. In an instant, his Strength level shot up to level 5!
Level 5 Strength made Ryuji feel like his movements — the same ones that used to require his full effort — could now be accomplished with only one-fifth of the power. And when going all out, he could unleash five times his original strength!
Level 5 Strength!
Five times the power.
Five times the force.
Five times the sheer overwhelming might.
In that moment, Ryuji felt like he'd evolved from a frail office worker into a walking powerhouse.
But this wasn't just a simple stat increase. It wasn't about adding fixed numbers per level — his actual strength was being amplified by 500%! That was insane.
Feeling more confident than ever, Ryuji walked over to the workbench where they'd been crafting the steel framework, grabbed a steel frame, and materialized a hollow steel pillar — one that, just a moment ago, he wouldn't have been able to budge no matter what.
Wearing a borderline maniacal grin, he let the steel pillar slam down onto the ground with a heavy thud.
Then, rolling up his sleeves with confidence, he grabbed both ends of the pillar and—
Lifted it.
Well... kind of.
"..."
The pillar rose a little... but that was it. After struggling for a few seconds, Ryuji was already tempted to let go. There was just no way he could lift it like Tsunade had — effortlessly and over her head.
As she passed by to grab another steel frame, Tsunade couldn't help but chuckle at the sight.
"You probably gained that strength boost from some skill points or something, right? But if your base strength wasn't that great to begin with, it doesn't matter how much you multiply it — the result's still going to suck," Tsunade said, perfectly delivering a critical hit straight to his ego.
Ryuji silently let go of the pillar, his face blank, and walked away like a defeated prisoner. Kiri and Tsunade burst into laughter at the sight.
Yeah... if professional strongmen — people who trained day in and day out, with specialized diets and grueling routines — could barely lift over 200 kilograms... what made him, a desk-bound office worker, think he could compare to them just because of some system buffs?
However, the three of them soon ran into an unexpected problem during construction.
When Tsunade reached a height of fifteen meters and was about to build a turn in the structure, disaster struck. The moment she added a system-generated steel pillar to the framework, everything she'd built instantly collapsed!
Caught off guard, Tsunade — along with the steel pillars they'd painstakingly placed on their indestructible wall — came crashing down!
Ryuji instinctively moved to rush over, but there was no need. Tsunade casually threw a kunai with a wire attached, anchoring it to a nearby pillar of untouched earth. With a punch, she blasted aside every steel pillar blocking her path and swung herself cleanly onto a nearby staircase, landing safely without breaking a sweat.
Unfortunately, a massive number of materialized steel pillars tumbled into the pit they'd dug, including the system-generated ones Tsunade had placed for convenience. They were crushed and sent rolling into the abyss below.
As for the system pillars still in midair? They warped and shattered on the spot, turning into useless scrap metal.
Staring at the utter devastation on the ground, all three of them looked grim. The pit was nearly thirty meters deep.
"Damn it... I didn't expect there to be a limit like this," Ryuji cursed, staring at the fallen steel pillars. He had warned Tsunade that system blocks had their limits — but he never imagined that a single turn in the structure would bring the entire thing down.
"It's fine," Tsunade said calmly, climbing back up. "We'll finish eating first, then I'll go down and haul everything back up. It'll probably only take about an hour. The real shame is all those system-generated steel pillars... but don't worry too much about me. I'm not going to die from a fall like that."
Tsunade slowly made her way back up, though she was a little nervous. If she hadn't kept a blackup steel wire and a kunai on her for safety, she really would have fallen.
Not that it would've kill her, of course....
Ryuji was speechless.
Man...
I really don't understand you ninjas.
~~~~~~~
Bonus for 50 PS. Next Bonus chapter target: 100 PS.