As he was thinking about it, the desk was suddenly in front of him. He was so sleepy that he had fallen face first onto it without realizing. It did not hurt much, though it made him even sleepier, and as soon as he threw himself onto the bed, his mind went black. It had been a very tiring day.
These days, he seemed to start every morning with a groan.
After all the hard work of the day before, he thought he should have lost some weight, so he went to the mirror to check, and what he saw was pleasing. His body had become a little slimmer, though he could not tell exactly where, and he felt fitter than before. But that was just an illusion. It had only been a few days since he started running around the hills.
With the outbreak drawing near, he needed to make his body far more agile.
When a message arrived saying that his package had come, it was already afternoon. Jude went down the stairs with an expectant feeling, but then he felt a sharp pain in his ankle. Crouching to check his foot, he remembered that he had used it to kick a gnoll, and he had not felt it the day before because of the adrenaline of the fight.
It was the shoes. The ones he had worn could not protect his ankles properly, so it would be better to buy hiking boots or tactical boots that came up over the ankle.
Thinking about it now, the fight had been quite dangerous, and in the future, he would be caught up in far fiercer ones. With better gear, his chances of survival would be far higher. Besides a stab-proof jacket, he would need gloves, a tactical vest and trousers and tactical boots, and for his head, a full-face motorcycle helmet would do. He would order them after going through the sellers and choosing only the ones with good reviews.
The package that had arrived was the manual generators. He put them aside and sat down at his computer.
Jude used a ready-made bow, but he was also quite interested in the crossbow. It reloaded slowly, but it had advantages that could not be ignored. It was far more powerful, needed less strength, and was smaller. Buying one in Yorbia, however, had become strictly controlled since a crossbow was used to shoot a person, and those with pulleys could not be imported at all. Even a composite crossbow was treated like a firearm. This country had far too many rules.
The compound bow was good, but it would not be enough. So he searched for how to make a wooden bow and a crossbow, and a long list of videos made by a foreign man appeared on his screen. He chose the ones with the most likes and wrote the steps down in his notepad one by one.
The same men even showed how to cut trees in the wild and build a simple hut, using only woodworking tools that were relatively easy to find. Time passed quickly as he wrote, and when he finally looked at the clock, it was already three.
He called a building supply store and ordered mortar and several other tools. When he asked for sandwich panels as well, they told him to come and choose the specifications in person, so he went out and started the old van parked in front of his shop.
The sandwich panels were more expensive than he had expected, but he still ordered a great many. Money would soon become useless paper, and it was better to exchange it for something useful. He also bought dozens of sacks of mortar and a twenty liter barrel that would not fit in the van, so the manager of the store kindly offered to deliver it to his house.
When he parked in front of his shop and got out, a pale face popped out of the café next door. It was Elise.
"Mister, you haven't come for coffee in a while."
It had not been that long, but he thought a cup would be fine. Soon, there would be no café to sit in.
"There's no one else here, so I'll make you a good one."
He went into the café, walked over and sat down at the table she pointed to. The chair groaned under his weight. Elise came over with a cup and looked at him.
"Mister, I think you've lost a lot of weight."
"Oh, you noticed?"
"Yes, especially around your face. When I saw you earlier, I didn't recognize you for a moment."
Then she rested a hand on his shoulder and asked softly what he would like.
"Something strong. Just black."
"You always take it with milk. What a change."
"It's all right. I just want a fresh start."
She smiled knowingly as she went behind her counter. As he watched her work the machine, a short man with a tattoo on his forearm came into the café. He was a tow truck driver who worked nearby, and someone Jude had once argued with.
They had argued because the headlights on his modified truck were too bright and his sound system was extremely loud. After that, every time Jude saw him, he reported him for illegal modifications, but he was never caught and kept causing trouble in the neighborhood.
When the man saw Jude as he was about to sit on the sofa, he flinched. He started talking to Elise.
"Miss Elise, I've looked into it, and I think we're in big trouble."
"Why?"
"The one who stayed in the beta until the end has disappeared. No one knows who he is in real life. Our group is trying to find out where he lives."
"Isn't that illegal?"
The tattooed man grinned. "Illegal? No, no. We'll cover it up. You need to be a little bolder, Miss Elise."
From their conversation, Jude could roughly tell what they were talking about. The tattooed man knew about the beta and the end that was coming, and the one who had stayed until the end was probably Jude himself.
The reason he said it in front of Jude was probably to stir his curiosity, and it was obvious he would feign ignorance the moment Jude asked. So he was trying to find out who Jude was. So Jude let it slide for now. The law was still alive, after all.