The Box was Blind

Dan's way of searching the underground base was methodological, effective, and efficient. The biggest contributor to this was Dan's system's map function. It was really convenient in that he didn't have to take unnecessary risks and it saved so much time. He marked on his map the areas that had been scouted. 

So far, the only danger that he had encountered was bumping his head on an elevated signage. It was not a big deal, but that event reminded Dan that he should still keep his guard up while clearing the base.

Though it was safer in here, it was not a hundred percent guaranteed that their would be no more dangers here.

There was a reason for Dan's success, and it was not all his system's map doing. He too had to put in effort!

First of all, Dan knew that the scale of this underground base was not small. It seemed that this place could also accommodate about a hundred people.

In the future, Dan saw opportunities for expansion. 

The rest of the facilities were well preserved, which contributed to Dan lowering his guard. It was certainly peaceful. As if the place had been uninfluenced by the apocalypse since it began. On second thoughts though, this place must have been affected by the apocalypse too... like for example, the dust that lingered in the room.

Dan inwardly laughed at his own sophistry. Dust? Yeah, dust, the witness of all... blah, blah, black sheep... Dan enjoyed exploring what remained of the base. One discovery after another no matter how seemingly insignificant, would be of certain help in the future for sure!

Another discovery of Dan recently was a hand-cranked radio.

It was a great find.

This was the best discovery because, with this, he could determine whether there was a radio station or whether someone was calling for help.

The radio meant a lot!

Information is King! Maybe there was a civilization already out there? Maybe there were more people? Say, more transmigrators all waking up in this timeline to prop humanity once anew!

But now, the radio was all noise, and no signal was received.

Dan estimated that there were no longer wave stations. "Too much wishful thinking, huh? Sigh..."

Of course, it was all speculation right now, or maybe fantasies, but Dan had basically tinkered with things in the base alone. He would be able to make it somehow work.

Though how a former novelist would manage that, eh... good luck!

These days, Nia's gunshot wounds had also gotten better. The speed of her recovery still made people feel amazed.

[The new blind box is issued; please pay attention to check it.]

After the system reminded Dan, he immediately began to prepare to see what the blind box could get.

[Do you want to open a new blind box?]

"Yes!"

[Blind box opens]

[Get Mahjong tile*1]

"..." Dan's heartbeat rose wildly, and forcefully halted as he realized what Made-in-China he just got; he really didn't know what to say.

After waiting for a week, he waited for this?!

Given a pair of mahjong, even if Anna and Nia could play, this was only one tile! What would the system want Dan to do with one tile? Throw it at a bandit?

"Thank you system, I was really happy that you were with me, and was like my lucky start... but fuck you..."

Dan really wanted to hit someone, but he had no choice but to get the thing. It was at least the Mahjong Tile or nothing. "I would find a use for you... someday..."

With a flash of light, Dan saw a black box in front of him with mahjong tiles in it.

"Oh, it was a set... That was at least something, huh?"

This was a bit too much.

Dan looked at these mahjong tiles and felt that the blind box was really a bit of an a-hole. No way, the mahjong could only be stashed away first. Originally, he was thinking to see if the blind box could get anything useful, but now bandits were still outside, and he was worrying about the use of this set of mahjong tiles.

"Hmmm... Challenge the bandits in mahjong?"

Funny thoughts aside, Dan was seriously thinking of how to solve his bandit problem. There was a saying that if you could not beat them, you could join them... but was that ever a 'safe' choice considering his circumstances?

There was no way in hell that the bandits would leave Anna alone, even the savage woman was unsafe. Bandits were not a picky bunch.

"I would be happy to rehabilitate them, but there were too many of them... Maybe kidnap them one by one, and use talk-no-jutsu on them? Hey, Nia seemed amiable now, didn't she?"

Totally not feasible.

Nia's case was a happenstance. 

It was a chance event, and Dan would rather not rely too much on his luck. To be honest, he was kind of afraid of his luck. His luck was too good, and there was no real struggle to be had... not that he wanted one.

It was just uncanny.

With so many people, Dan was now starting to think about how to trap them. Those bandits obviously didn't plan to leave. These days; they had become more and more active around here.

Dan found several times that they were looking for the entrance to enter. When they found the lookout and wanted to drill in, Dan realized that something had to be done. Thankfully, the bandits couldn't get through at the lookout.

"Hmmm... If I am really so lucky, maybe I can just go to them and shoot them, hoping myself to not get shot..." It was a plan, but not a good one. "Dan, you silly fool! Of course, you would get shot... It was not like I was the Flash and can dodge bullets..."

These bandits wanted to come in like crazy now. Once they were allowed in, they would be finished. Anna would be taken away, Nia possibly raped, and Dan killed.

This was a wasteland, people did not roam only to scavenge stuff but also had to take it in mind and consider how to protect themselves and their stuff.

Because there was no legal protection here, robbery and snatching were commonplace. Heck, murder must be an everyday thing in the wasteland, not that Dan had statistical proof, but he felt like this was the truth.

The bandits were clearly a problem, and they would not be going away pretty soon.

Therefore, if Dan wanted to continue to live, these bandits must be eliminated; otherwise, there was no way to do it.

"Since they would not go away, I just had to help them."

Dan was thinking, that if the wolves were brought in, it might deter the bandits. Though the bandits had guns, if they didn't want to take any more risk, they would most likely become more inclined to retreat.

If the bandits decided that they had invested too much on this, and chose to push through on claiming the base, then they would have to invest more--- fire more guns, lose more bullets, and hopefully and optimistically, it would weaken them enough that Dan could just clean up after them.