Laid-back as he looked on the surface, Jake still kept an eye on Ivy's driving for a good stretch before finally trusting it enough to turn his attention elsewhere.Eight cards still sat unexamined in his pocket. Perfect time to dig in.Three enhancement cards among them two Constitution, one Agility.That finally pushed every one of Jake's five stats into double digits.One healing card too, bringing his stash up to three a solid safety net now.The remaining four split between two weapon cards and two prop cards.Weapon Card: RPG Launcher x1, Ammo x3Weapon Card: M2 Heavy Machine Gun x1, Ammo x500Prop Card: Small Fixed-Wing Drone x1Prop Card: Base Sky-Eye Vehicle System x1Jake actually gasped out loud looking through them.No wonder people called it a boss-tier kill. Nine cards total, and not a single piece of junk in the mix quality across the board, genuinely intimidating.Now he finally understood why some people in the Caravan kept chasing down these massive threats despite t

The guy kept rambling on, and nobody could quite figure out what he was actually after. But his reputation preceded him, plenty of people in the Caravan had already seen through him firsthand.So no matter how polished the pitch sounded, barely anyone bothered listening."Everyone, we need to trust the science here, not just panic blindly"He kept going, but patience had already run out for most of the crowd, and people started calling him out directly."Lenny, you angling to swindle some old lady's savings again?"Whoever said it clearly knew Lenny's history.Word was Lenny had been in the Caravan since near the beginning, same as Jake before the glasses, he'd spent most of that time playing it cautious, prioritizing survival, which was why he'd never amounted to much either.The difference was, Jake never went the con-artist route. Early into the collapse, Lenny had accidentally swindled a hard-earned card off an elderly woman in the group, realized he had a natural talent for it, a

Blake didn't renege on the deal, letting Jake claim the full vehicle and supplies the two moles had left behind.Plenty of eyes turned green with envy, some even among Blake's own inner circle, but Jake couldn't care less anymore. He wasn't the pushover he used to be; he had the strength now to hold onto what was his.The Caravan pushed an emergency retreat over six miles out.Blake wasn't the type to just eat a loss quietly, though. The retreat was purely tactical with the enemy still in the dark and their own position exposed, staying put invited a surprise attack.With the retreat handled and the internal mole problem cleared out, the dynamic between Blake and Duke had effectively flipped.Duke had no idea his planted mole had been exposed. He'd keep following the trail markers exactly as expected straight to the camp Blake's group had just abandoned.All Blake needed to do was keep a drone locked on that empty camp, and Duke would walk right into view eventually.Turned out his re

Jake would swear up and down he wasn't the one who lobbed the first grenade even though, honestly, he'd been itching to, for a while.The infected in Ashwood had been mid-transformation, disturbed right in the middle of their process. After the initial chimera-fusion stage, they were supposed to keep devouring each other like raising venomous insects in a jar, letting only the strongest survivor evolve into the town's eventual boss.That evolution got cut short, and the whole horde scattered into chaos.Unlucky break a handful spotted the Caravan and charged straight for it. The rest of the horde, like floodwater finally finding an outlet, surged in behind them.Watching that unfold, Jake immediately dumped every grenade off his drone in one go.He'd circled a long time to find a target this good no way he was letting it go to waste.He had another fusion card burning a hole in his pocket, but there wasn't time left to use it now.The whole Caravan was scrambling to pack up and run. T

By the time Jake saw Hogg again, the Caravan had already settled into the new camp.He'd assumed Hogg would roll back empty-handed, cursing a blue streak especially after all that big talk earlier.Turned out that wasn't remotely the case.Hogg looked downright giddy, practically glowing like he'd just hit the lottery.Did this guy actually pull a rare card?Jake wasn't the only one wondering. Half the Caravan was buzzing with the same question.Whenever anyone asked outright, Hogg just grinned and stayed silent, wearing an expression that screamed guess.Some figured he must've scored something genuinely huge. No way he'd be smiling like that after that kind of risk without a real payoff behind it.Others assumed he was just putting on a brave face to avoid getting mocked, though whoever floated that theory clearly hadn't thought it through that kind of dig wouldn't land on someone like Hogg.Once Jake heard the full story of what Hogg had actually pulled off, he gave the man a since