"My butt's on fire!" Sophie Hale screamed in sheer terror the moment she spotted the fireball hurtling straight toward them, her voice rising into a panicked shriek as she scrambled to brace herself.Caleb Mercer's eyes narrowed and he wrenched the steering wheel hard left. The fireball grazed past the SUV and slammed into the ground behind them with a deafening boom, the impact cracking the asphalt into a spiderweb of fissures.Caleb let out a relieved sigh the instant he realized they'd managed to dodge the attack, then stomped the gas pedal to the floor and sent the vehicle surging forward.The old car had never run so hard in its life.A flicker of surprise crossed the zombie's eyes. It clearly hadn't expected those four pieces of meat to dodge its attack. In a blink it reappeared directly in front of the SUV, and this time it spat out two fireballs at once."Damn it, again?" Caleb's face twisted as he wrestled with the wheel, trying to find an opening,

Thinking it over, Caleb Mercer realized he was actually pretty well off these days.Beyond the resources he'd already accounted for, there were still the zombie cores to consider.He had five tier two cores in total, minus the one he'd already used, which left four. Those were his lifeline. A tier one zombie core could slowly restore a person's ability, but a tier two core was a different beast entirely. It could bring an exhausted ability back to full strength in an instant.That was exactly how he'd pulled off that ten kilometer teleportation earlier, burning through a tier two core in a single burst. Just thinking about it made Caleb's expression twitch with something close to physical pain. Every core he used was one less he'd have when he really needed it.He shifted his attention to the blue cores next, the tier one zombie cores. Between what he'd hunted himself and what he'd pulled from the laboratory, he had a staggering ninety thousand plus of them stock

"What now?" Caleb Mercer's eyes went wide. "Overweight again?"Unfortunately, the train's onboard system had nothing more to say this time. Left with no other option, Caleb turned inward instead, addressing the system that lived in his own head.System, what's going on? Is the train going to keep overloading like this?[Yes it is, Master~][Each of those machines weighs fifty tons. Something that big and that heavy would be too much for anyone to handle, and it's too much for your train's engine too~][Plus, Master pulled everything out of the inventory all at once.][This poor system feels a little empty and hasn't adjusted yet~]Caleb felt a headache coming on. What a shameless system. Every single line dripped with innuendo without ever actually saying anything improper, and it was way too easy to read the wrong way into it. He didn't even have the energy to argue anymore.Resigned, he asked instead: System, so how do I fix this?[Repo

At those words, Caleb Mercer's eyes lit up immediately. He gestured for Evelyn Frost to continue."I've watched how the Trading Hall works," Evelyn said. "It's nothing more than one side naming a price and the other side paying it. That kind of Exchange is far too simple, too crude for what we could actually do.""Here's what I propose. We photograph something like the spicy strips, post it in the Trading Hall, and let everyone in the World Hub know exactly how rare and hard won that kind of luxury really is.""We let that sink in for three days. Let the story spread, let people talk. Then, on the third day, we announce an auction. Highest bidder takes it, and only one pack goes up for sale. Not a single one more.""After that, the people who lose the bidding will be desperate. They won't be able to help themselves, they'll come to us directly, privately, begging for a deal. That's when we hold all the leverage. I could probably push the price even higher than th

Caleb Mercer knocked three times in quick succession, rapping his knuckles against Jenna Cole's door as he waited for her to answer.Inside, Jenna had been staring at that door for what felt like an eternity, ears straining for exactly this sound. When it finally came, a slow, satisfied smile spread across her face, the smile of someone whose scheme had just worked perfectly.Ivy Moore's words drifted back through her mind, the advice of a true scheming adviser: make him remember you by making him come to you. Only then would she hold the upper hand.Tonight's little performance had been bait all along, and judging by that knock, the fish had taken it.A soft, amused laugh escaped Jenna as the thought curved her eyes into twin crescents. She drew a slow breath, composed herself, and carefully eased the door open, only to find Caleb standing outside with an expression as dark and ominous as a storm cloud.His eyes swept over her once, searching for the sexy o