Brian Cooper immediately sat up straight and became serious. “Alright, bro, if there’s anything you don’t understand, just ask…”

Before he could finish, Brian Cooper was kicked flat by Jason Carter, but Brian Cooper wasn’t angry at all and just kept grinning.

“You’re really getting cocky,” Jason Carter made the bed. “Try not to mess with your Emily sis, and don’t go talking about red strings of fate. We can barely take care of ourselves, let alone worry about others.”

“Oh,” Brian Cooper replied meekly, “But she gave us potatoes and medicine, and she cares about you so much. Are you really just going to ignore her?”

Jason Carter thought for a moment. “The most important thing is to act with a clear conscience. But if you do feel guilty, just convince yourself not to.”

Brian Cooper: “???”

When Brian Cooper heard the first half, he looked like he was taking the lesson to heart, but by the second half, he was completely confused.

Maybe, this is just who Jason Carter is.

In this era, maybe someone like Jason Carter can live a little better. But Brian Cooper didn’t mind at all what kind of person Jason Carter was. Every bit of caution and calculation Jason Carter showed now was a lesson and growth left by every scar from the past.

But Brian Cooper also knew that Jason Carter still had things he kept to himself.

Chapter 10: Side Quest

Just then, a rough voice came from outside the shack, speaking to the new neighbor Emily: “Emily, I went to your place tonight to find you, and only then did I realize you’d moved here. I brought you some cigarettes.”

Jason Carter and Brian Cooper exchanged a glance, both frowning. They heard Emily say, “I’m not doing that kind of thing anymore.”

“Haha,” the owner of the rough voice sounded like he’d heard something funny. “If you don’t do that, how are you going to eat or drink? Who’s going to give you cigarettes in the future?”

“Let go of me,” Emily’s voice was tinged with anger. It sounded like a physical struggle had broken out, and with a ripping sound, it seemed someone’s clothes had been torn.

Brian Cooper looked at Jason Carter, but Jason Carter was still frowning tightly. He said softly, “Bro, let’s help her.”

Jason Carter stood up, unstrapped his bone knife from his calf, held it upside down, and walked out of the shack.

At that moment, in the palace inside Jason Carter’s mind, the keys of the brass typewriter clacked one by one, forming words on kraft paper, and a majestic voice echoed through the palace: “Mission: Help…”

He sneered inwardly and interrupted the palace: “Even without your mission, I’d help.”

From the moment Jason Carter drew his knife and rushed out to when he reached the man, it was only a second or two.

Jason Carter didn’t bother with threats like “let her go” or “try moving again,” because he knew any unnecessary action would lead to failure.

All he needed to do was solve the simplest problem in the simplest way.

As Jason Carter’s lean but sturdy figure charged at the man like a leopard, the man quickly drew his own knife from his waist and swung at him. Everyone in this settlement carried a weapon for self-defense.

The man felt a mocking sense in his mind, since he was almost a head taller than Jason Carter, and his weapon was real iron, not just a bone knife.

But in the next instant, his mocking feeling was cut short.

Iron beats bone—that’s common sense, even if animal tendons and bones are now stronger than steel.

But stronger than steel still isn’t steel.

Cold weapons weren’t banned in the settlement, but getting a good iron weapon was nearly impossible. Even though some industries were slowly catching up to pre-catastrophe levels, resources were still limited.

When Jason Carter reached the man like a shadow, his sprint ended with his left foot landing, and the muscles in his right leg, supporting his whole weight, suddenly tensed, his foot gripping the ground. All his strength started from the ground, surged through his waist and abdomen like a current, and then to his arms!

Jason Carter’s knife, like a ravine in the earth, slashed upward, splitting the night itself.

With a crack, bone and iron collided, and the onlookers were shocked to see both knives shatter in two. They’d thought only the bone knife would break!

In that instant, while the man was stunned, Jason Carter discarded the bone knife without hesitation, the motion so smooth it was as if he’d known it would break all along and had another plan from the start.

He grabbed the man’s wrist, and with his other fist, hammered the man’s exposed armpit nerve like a cannon.

The man tried to break free, but suddenly realized this youth was actually stronger than him!

How was that possible? The kid was so young, and only came up to his neck!

But the man saw the muscles and tendons on Jason Carter’s neck, hard as steel—that was real strength.

The axillary nerve, about three inches from the upper arm to the armpit, didn’t need to be hit precisely, since a fist could cover any margin of error.

This spot is one of the body’s weak points. When the axillary nerve is struck hard, it can become dislocated. If you think of the nerve as a cable, this dislocation causes a surge of current and a loss of control in the nerve’s signals.