From Robinson Crusoe

Perhaps it's because his "new body" after the island challenge was exceptional.

Perhaps the gene-editing injection from the first resupply in the prehistoric world played a paving role.

In short, the side effects described in the instruction manual did not last long. By the third day, Chen Zhou had recovered to 80-90% of his peak condition.

In addition to its original abilities, the two newly injected injections also showed their effects.

The "defensive" and "reactive" drugs further enhanced his physical abilities.

Among them, the defensive injections were the most effective. Chen Zhou's skin had already undergone a modification, making it much tougher than that of ordinary people. After this modification, it exhibited an even more terrifying level of flexibility.

After getting up, he tested himself with a military knife—

With his strength, it would take him at least half his strength to pierce the skin with the tip of the knife.

With skin this tough, even a normal person swinging a knife at full power might not be able to cause even a minor injury.

As for the muscles, fascia, tendons, ligaments, and other tissues under the skin, they probably possess a resilience far exceeding that of ordinary people.

Besides his most obvious strength in skin defense, Chen Zhou's damage repair speed also reached a level close to that of superhero movies.

While it can't compare to Deadpool or Wolverine's ability to regenerate limbs and achieve near-immortality, it can stop bleeding from minor injuries instantly and heal at a visible speed.

During the healing process, the muscles may even squeeze out foreign objects from the body, which gives Chen Zhou some confidence in dealing with firearms.

Last night, while he was at the store buying food and gathering information, he also bought a dozen expired newspapers from the shopkeeper. These newspapers proved to be of great help in understanding the world.

According to the newspaper, most of the firearms used in the United States in 1947 were surplus military supplies from World War II.

Police pistols are mainly revolvers, and the commonly used Smith & Wesson military and police models use .38 special ammunition.

As far as Chen Zhou knew, this type of bullet was notorious for its insufficient stopping power and poor lethality. Even if it hit an ordinary person several times, it would not be able to kill them. If it hit him, unless it hit a vital organ, it would be difficult to kill him.

However, the Smith & Wesson pistol was not standard issue for police in underdeveloped states like Arkansas.

According to Chen Zhou’s article, the standard firearms used in remote towns are mostly Harrington revolvers that cost eight dollars each. These guns are old and not only have the same problem of insufficient lethality, but also poor accuracy. They are also prone to malfunctions and jamming.

Of course, handguns only make up a small portion of the firearms circulating in the United States. In this "free" country, rifles are bound to play a significant role as well.

Winchester, Stevens, and other shotguns, including various models with long and short barrels.

Within a 50-meter effective kill range, this gun can instantly take down a brown bear, which would undoubtedly be fatal for Chen Zhou.

As for the Springfield M1903 and Winchester M94 lever-action rifles, although they are rare, they can kill instantly if they hit vital organs.

Springfield rifles, in particular, are old relics preserved from World War I with extremely long ranges and a large number in circulation. They have a significant ownership rate among civilians, and this is the rifle that Chen Zhou fears the most.

Because of the gun's long range, which is beyond his observation range and makes it difficult to notice the gunman aiming, it poses the greatest threat to him. Even if he is wearing light armor, if he is hit in the lungs or heart, given the terrifying power of modern firearms, Chen Zhou cannot guarantee that he will survive.

After shotguns and rifles, there are the well-known Thompson submachine gun and M1 carbine. Both of these guns are widely available, and some gangs can even obtain them from police or military archives. They pose a significant threat.

In addition, the .45 automatic pistols, Browning automatic rifles, and Panama Liberators pistols commonly used by gangsters are also worth noting.

As Chen Zhou transitioned from the era of cold weapons to the era of firearms, he had to be wary of changes in the enemy's attack methods while also arming himself.

Everyone else is using guns, he can't just keep using a knife.

While trying to get a few guns, he also had to find some thick steel plates to stuff into his clothes.

For ordinary people, the heavy steel plates would put a considerable burden on the body and severely affect flexibility, so even if they had some practicality, they would not be accepted.

But for Chen Zhou, thick steel plates were the best form of defense.

The weight of several dozen kilograms felt weightless on him, yet it effectively withstood the pressure from bullets. The advantages and disadvantages were disproportionate, and he could easily accept gaining several dozen more kilograms.

Moreover, if you are really driven to the brink of desperation, you can pull out the steel plates on your body and use them as weapons. Even a tiger would not be able to withstand being hit by one of these things.

……

Compared to the specific manifestations of improved defense, the improvement in reaction ability is not as obvious.

In modern times, in order to understand the changes in his body, Chen Zhou conducted various experiments to test his reaction speed.

Data shows that even back then, his reaction speed was nearly 2.5 times that of an average person.

After receiving the injection, Chen Zhou had no idea how much the improvement was due to the lack of suitable testing methods and reference objects for comparison.

He estimated that the defensive injections had a synergistic effect, while the reactive injections may have encountered a marginal effect and been diluted, possibly producing only half or less of the effect.

I don't know if I can dodge bullets with my reflexes now, and I don't know if the lack of improvement in my reaction speed is due to poor modification results or incomplete modification.

With his mind still preoccupied with finding Ambrose, and seeing that his physical condition had largely recovered and he was capable of protecting himself, Chen Zhou changed his strategy and stopped lying low.

……

In the early morning, after getting up from the abandoned house, he first put all his money in separate places on his person.

Two hundred-yuan bills were kept close to his body, and the rest of the change was placed in various pockets of his clothes and pants according to their face value. The only thing placed on the outside was the coins he had exchanged the night before.

Wrapping his coat tightly around his waist and, as usual, tying a tattered cloth around his head, Chen Zhou once again adopted the posture of a down-on-his-luck vagrant, quietly leaving the house and heading towards the town, bypassing the main road.

There were few people around in the morning, and few noticed the tall, unfamiliar face. Chen Zhou quickly returned to the small shop where he had bought bread the night before.

The shop owner was a chubby old man, quite short, about 1.6 meters tall. Even though Chen Zhou was hunched over, the old man had to look up to see Chen Zhou's face.

We chatted briefly last night, and the boss was impressed by this tall, eccentric man.

Upon seeing Chen Zhou appear at the shop entrance, he greeted him politely.

After Chen Zhou bought several loaves of bread and soda according to the shopping list from the previous night, and also picked up a recent newspaper, the shopkeeper, seeing that the big man seemed quite friendly, curiously asked Chen Zhou where he was from and whether he was Native American. Chen Zhou had inquired with the shopkeeper the previous night but hadn't found any clues about Ambrose.

He returned to the same store today partly to buy breakfast, and partly because he was concerned about having too many people and too much chatter.

The more people who have seen him and remember him, the greater the chance of him attracting attention. Choosing to shop in the same place is a good way to prevent this.

Right now, Chen Zhou wants to get a gun, a legal identity, and a car, then leave Prescott to pursue Ambrose.

He was just wondering what to say when the shop owner struck up a conversation.

With the intention of getting information out of him, Chen Zhou ate his bread while casually chatting with the shop owner.

He fabricated an identity as a Chinese laborer, saying that he used to work on the railroad in San Francisco, and was later hired by a wealthy businessman as his bodyguard, eventually making his way to Arkansas.

Unexpectedly, the wealthy merchant left him at the hotel, saying he was going out on business and never returned. He was unfamiliar with the place, couldn't find a job, and had no relatives, so he ended up on the streets.

Chen Zhou didn't know much about the United States in 1947, but that didn't stop him from making up stories.

Anyway, the world is a vast and wondrous place, and some things are bound to happen.

Moreover, given his imposing physique, it's not a small probability that someone would notice him. It's just that the boss's disappearance is a bit strange, but upon closer examination, it's not a big deal.

In the mid-20th century, the United States had not yet reached its peak. Apart from the world-renowned international metropolises, the security situation in remote mountainous areas was still very worrying, with rampant gun violence, gangs, drugs, and various other crimes.

Not to mention small towns in the South, even in Detroit or Missouri, there have been several cases this year of police and robbers exchanging fire in the street. Chen Zhou learned about these incidents from the newspapers.

Thanks to the criticisms of the power of existing police weapons published in these newspapers, he learned what kind of guns American police were using at that time.

Chen Zhou fabricated a lie on the spot, intending only to fool the shop owner and not expecting to find any clues from it.

Unexpectedly, when he recounted the story of the "disappearing boss," the shop owner sighed and sympathized with him.

The old man was probably getting on in years and didn't have many friends. It was rare for him to meet someone he could chat with, and even though the old man was a stranger from a foreign land, he was quite interested in talking to him.

Once he started talking, he couldn't stop. From him, Chen Zhou learned that in Nevada County, Arkansas, a little-known place, disappearances were actually a frequent occurrence.

From travelers passing through the area to neighbors and friends, the shop owner alone has personally experienced at least ten such incidents in the past twenty years, not to mention the many more that have been heard about.

Take, for example, the motels and bars on the outskirts of town, where the owners are friends of the shop owners.

According to the hotel owner, at least dozens of people have come to the hotel over the years saying that their husbands, wives, children or friends have gone missing in Prescott.

Those searching for the missing persons had all reported them to the police, but the missing persons all seemed to have vanished into thin air, disappearing without a trace.

The police force in this small southern town was insufficient, and without a lot of clues, they couldn't find anything.

Those who were anxiously searching for the missing person all returned empty-handed, and some even disappeared while searching for them.

The shop owner was deeply saddened by the plight of these missing persons.

Chen Zhou asked around and found out that the shop owner's son was also one of them.

Six years ago, the shop owner's son returned to his hometown after graduating from university. He went to Little Rock with some friends to watch a rugby game, but he never returned.

After his son went missing, the shop owner searched almost the entire state of Arkansas, asking every hotel owner along the route from Prescott to Little Rock, but still couldn't find any clues.

It is precisely because of this experience that the shop owner is so sensitive to the word "disappearance".

This grieving father even personally collected data and compiled statistics on missing persons in Nevada County and other counties in Arkansas, ultimately arriving at a terrifying conclusion—

The number of missing persons in Nevada County is ten times that of other counties!
Such a striking difference failed to cause the slightest ripple. Newspapers spent their days publishing news about reforms and innovations in major cities, celebrity gossip and election trends, or various holiday celebrations, while remaining completely indifferent to the citizens who had vanished without a trace.

In order to find his son and to find out the whereabouts of other missing persons, the shop owner began writing letters six years ago, the month his son disappeared.

He mailed letters to the state, even to New York, to Washington, and to the government and prominent newspapers.

He persisted relentlessly for five years and ten months, without receiving a single reply to his letters, as if the entire United States was oblivious to what was happening there.

Two months ago, the shop owner finally lost all hope of finding his son and stopped writing letters.

……

Chen Zhou originally just wanted to chat casually with the shop owner to see if he could get any clues about gangs or shady forces. He never expected to have such an unexpected gain.

A perfectly healthy person suddenly disappeared in Nevada County and has never been seen again.

Since they are nowhere to be found alive, they must be dead.

The alarming disappearance rate in Nevada County seems to indicate the presence of a hidden family of serial killers who are entrenched here, quietly hunting both local and out-of-town prey.

The fact that the boss's letter went unanswered suggests that the family's influence is deeply entrenched and likely has ties to the upper echelons of politics, which is why the matter was suppressed.

The more Chen Zhou listened, the closer he felt to the clues related to Ambrose.

He was almost certain that Ambrose was somewhere near Nevada County, only that it had a more widely known name and wasn't called Ambrose.

Based on all the information, Chen Zhou felt that he had roughly outlined the target's key characteristics—

With close ties to the upper class, yet living in this inconspicuous little place, the murderous family must not be poor; perhaps a huge farm in the county is their family business.

Furthermore, the fact that the police station has turned a blind eye to so many missing people in the county suggests that there may be many insiders or even family members within the police station who have accepted bribes.

They say that if you don't want others to know, then don't do it in the first place.

Having now caught such an obvious lead, Chen Zhou became unusually excited—

With the contract finalized, things are finally starting to look promising. (End of Chapter)