An Unexpected Face

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Settle in, take your time, and let's see what waits in the dark 🖤

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[Hunter's Bow]

[Who still lines up at a hunting store in the apocalypse? Craft your own bows and save your money for the next issue of Hunter's Bow.]

[Effect: Unlocks recipes to craft bows and crossbows.]

[Details: Max level 75. Different levels craft different weapon qualities, as before. Each weapon tier covers qualities 1-6.]

[Scrapping 4 Fun]

[One man's junk is another man's treasure.]

[Effect: Unlocks recipes to craft salvage tools.]

[Details:]

[Wrench: Magazine Lv. 4 -> Lv. 25]

[Ratchet: Magazine Lv. 26 -> Lv. 50]

[Impact Driver: Magazine Lv. 51 -> Lv. 75]

[Get Hammered]

[Who says reading a magazine cannot satisfy the urge to smash things?]

[Effect: Unlocks recipes and improves craftable quality for sledgehammers.]

[Stone Sledgehammer: Lv. 1 -> Lv. 10]

[Iron Sledgehammer: Lv. 11 -> Lv. 35]

[Steel Sledgehammer: Lv. 36 -> Lv. 75]

Then came the next one.

Another Get Hammered.

Only then did Evan remember the note from when he had invested points in Skull Crusher.

That perk had said it increased the odds of finding Get Hammered magazines and sledgehammer parts.

Strictly speaking, Skull Crusher was the dedicated sledgehammer combat perk.

It improved combat power and increased his chances of getting sledgehammer-related resources.

These two Get Hammered magazines should be the result.

With that in mind, Evan tapped use four times.

The four magazines in his inventory dissolved into motes of light and disappeared from their slots.

His current magazine levels became:

[Hunter's Bow Lv. 10 - Can craft up to Quality 6 Primitive Bows.]

[Scrapping 4 Fun Lv. 5 - Can craft Quality 1 Wrenches.]

[Get Hammered Lv. 10 - Can craft up to Quality 6 Stone Sledgehammers.]

"Good. Good, good."

Evan rubbed at the beard he did not have and wanted to laugh out loud.

The Stone Sledgehammer he was using now was only a low Quality 2 hammer.

"Find somewhere to make a new one. Wood, plant fibers, stones..."

His right arm had not completely healed yet, but Evan could not wait.

He grabbed the hammer in his left hand and headed downstairs.

There were plenty of corpses on the second floor.

The first floor had a small mountain of them.

Those were the walkers Evan had hammered down the stairs.

When he came down, two or three were still stuck on the points of the Wood Spike Traps, stubbornly baring blood-flecked teeth at him.

Evan did not let a single one go.

They all became experience.

He was Lv. 22 now.

Compared with Lv. 1, the number of walkers he needed to kill had multiplied several times over.

He needed to kill more, not less.

Sunlight spilled in from outside.

In an excellent mood, Evan carried the hammer on his shoulder and walked toward the church doors.

But the instant his right foot crossed the threshold, a chill cut in from the side.

Every hair on Evan's body stood up.

He did not even have time to wipe the smile from his face before a blade flashed toward his neck.

His body moved almost by instinct.

Evan flicked his left hand, and the giant hammer turned in his grip as lightly as a knife.

He drove it up beside his face.

Clang!

The sound rang out like metal striking metal.

The smile vanished from Evan's face.

He snapped his head toward the attacker, cold light gathering in his eyes.

"What, did I step through the door with the wrong foot? Is that a beheading offense now?"

Before the attacker could react, Evan poured strength through his left arm.

With one cross-body motion, he forced the long blade down toward his feet.

The blade buried itself in the ground, its tail humming like a wing.

The ambush had lasted only one exchange.

Even though she had struck first, the difference was already clear.

'Too little strength. A woman?'

Only then did Evan register it.

He had just fought through a horde, so whoever came at him had received his full response by reflex.

The attacker's strength had not been enough, and that was why the exchange ended so quickly.

She probably had not expected him to explode with that much force either.

Man or woman, it did not matter.

Evan tightened his left hand around the hammer and swung back.

The giant head tore through the air with speed and weight.

The woman twisted aside.

Bone cracked behind her.

Rotten blood sprayed.

Only then did Evan have time to look.

The first thing he met was the woman's eyes.

Against her dark clothes, they stood out even more.

She watched him as carefully as he watched her.

What kind of eyes were they?

Her stare had an edge sharp enough to cut.

Aggression lived there.

So did self-defense.

Buried beneath both was a thread of loneliness.

'That woman looks like she walked through hell and kept going.'

Evan did not know why that thought came to him.

The woman wore dark, close-fitting clothes, boots made for movement, and a bloodstained cloak. A long white scabbard rested across her back.

She stood sideways, cold and silent, as if her whole body were saying one thing.

Come closer, and die.

Michonne.

Behind her had been two gaunt walkers, both chained, both missing their arms and lower jaws.

Because she had dodged Evan's hammer, one of those chained walkers had taken the blow instead.

Under Evan's stare, the woman slowly raised both hands.

Her eyes flicked to the pieces of walker flesh caught on the barbed wire wrapped around his hammer.

"I thought you were a walker. That's why I struck."

Only then did Evan come fully back to himself and lower the hammer.

He had never met this woman in the apocalypse before, but she was indispensable to the story he remembered.

She was also one of the most dangerous fighters in the world he remembered.

Michonne.

"You swung at me and missed. I swung at you and didn't kill you."

Evan hooked the katana up with the hammer and held it horizontally in front of her.

"Call that your own luck."

"Thanks."

Michonne did not make a show of it.

She gave one cool word and slid the katana back into its scabbard.

Still, when she saw Evan lift a Stone Sledgehammer one-handed and explode with that kind of power, something strange flashed across her face.

To Michonne, the man in front of her was almost unbelievably strong.

She looked at him in silence.

"Why are you here?" Evan asked.

He had not expected his luck to be this good.

He had chosen a random village and somehow run into Michonne.

"I heard the bell from a distance."

Michonne looked past him into the church.

Only when she saw the piled bodies inside did open shock cross her face.

She turned back to Evan.

"I just didn't expect anyone to still be alive."

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