McCoy had no choice. For nomads, the family came before everything.
He was about to speak when he noticed the nomad cradling his freshly repaired handgun with a grin so wide it practically split his face.
"What are you smiling at? Did your wife just have a baby?"
"No, it's actually like this…" The nomad briefly explained what had happened.
McCoy listened in stunned silence.
He completely forgot that Charey had sent him to kick Leo Zane out of the camp. Taking a step forward, he grabbed Leo's arm, face brimming with excitement.
"Leo, is this for real?"
"Absolutely," Leo replied, holding nothing back. He saw no reason to hide any of it.
McCoy hesitated for a moment, then told Leo exactly why Charey wanted him gone.
If he could help it, McCoy didn't want to see Leo thrown out. A person like Leo, in some people's eyes, was a walking goldmine—a perfect target for the Raffen Shiv.
Leo was the one McCoy had brought in. McCoy couldn't bear to send him back into the fire.
"Wait right here. I'm going to get Charey and some of the others."
From there, everything fell neatly into place.
McCoy rounded up the Bakker family's leader, Charey, along with several other influential members, bringing them all to the logistics area. He had Leo demonstrate his repair skills before everyone's eyes.
An hour and a half later, Leo finished fixing the DS1 Pulsar SMG and handed it over to Charey and the other nomads for inspection. They checked it repeatedly and could find no fault.
Just like that, Leo was allowed to remain with the Bakker family. Nobody else voiced any objections to his staying.
---
Afterward, Leo Zane's job around camp was to help others repair their broken firearms.
His repair skills far outclassed the other mechanic's, so everyone would rather queue up for Leo's help than visit the competition. Meanwhile, the other mechanic had almost no business left.
That said, neither Leo nor the other mechanic received any direct payment. It wasn't personal; that was simply how nomad society worked.
Everyone was considered part of one big family, and everyone had to contribute. In return, the family was responsible for sheltering its members.
Not only did nomads earn nothing for doing work within the tribe, but even jobs taken outside meant half the pay went straight to the camp's communal supply bin.
No matter how big or small the haul, half went back to the family.
---
One day, McCoy returned from a job outside and came looking for Leo.
"Come with me."
"What's up?" Leo asked.
"You may be half a Bakker now, but in these Wastelands, if you don't have some survival skills, you're done for."
"hmm alright."
Up to this point, Leo only had **Gun Repair**, the skill provided when his "system" first activated.
He had long wanted to pick up more skills—after all, you could never have too many—but everyone else in the camp had been warned by Charey. Nobody was supposed to teach Leo anything.
Charey wanted Leo stuck in a permanent state of noncombat readiness, bound to the Bakker family's wagon for as long as possible.
So now, with McCoy volunteering to teach him, it felt like a pillow landing under Leo's head just as he started nodding off. He certainly had no reason to refuse.
They walked out of the tent and climbed into McCoy's vehicle.
"Know how to drive?" McCoy asked as he started the engine.
Leo shook his head. "Nope."
"As a nomad, you gotta know how to drive. You've got a lot to learn."
McCoy revved the engine and left the camp.
---
"This looks good," McCoy said, bringing the vehicle to a stop some distance away.
Leo climbed out and surveyed the open desert. The sun was blinding, the air choked with dust. Far in the distance, towering wind turbines spun tirelessly.
"Here, catch."
McCoy tossed Leo a set of crude protective gear. At the same time, he shrugged off the powered armor he almost never seemed to take off.
"Now come at me with that wooden sword in your hand. Don't worry about hurting me—attack with all you've got."
Leo strapped on the gear. He had never studied swordsmanship before, but he tried copying what he'd seen in movies and games, striking a stance before charging in at McCoy.
Thirty minutes later…
> McCoy has taught you [Sword Mastery], Learning Progress: 10%
> McCoy has taught you [Fitness], Learning Progress: 7%
> McCoy has taught you [Dodge], Learning Progress: 4%
> McCoy has taught you [Block], Learning Progress: 1%
Panting hard, Leo slumped to the ground and stared at the notifications flashing across his vision. Before McCoy could say anything, Leo blurted out:
"Let me rest for five minutes, then we'll continue."
McCoy paused, taken aback. Normally, *he* would be the one telling the trainee to rest, not the other way around.
What McCoy didn't know was that seeing tangible progress bars was incredibly motivating.
If Leo had been able to see his study progress in his previous life, he might have gotten into the best universities with ease.
---
From that day on, McCoy often took Leo out for training.
By their second session, Leo had formally unlocked the skills Sword Mastery, Fitness, Dodge, and Block.
Time flowed like water.
In the blink of an eye, Leo had been with the Bakker family for almost half a year.
He discovered that by actively using his skills, he could slowly level them up.
During this half-year, Gun Repair rose to LV5, while Sword Mastery, Fitness, Dodge, and Block each reached LV3.
He also learned Shooting Mastery, Vehicle Driving, and Throwing along the way.
However, he still had no idea how to use the Eureka skill.
The skill level read as "???," and he had no clue if that meant he simply couldn't see it or if it was already at max. He had no idea how to trigger it and decided to set it aside for now.
Another area where he made no progress was his Potential Points.
Gaining Potential Points required killing people.
In this half-year, Leo had never once engaged in a real battle, so he hadn't been able to earn any.
Lately, Leo had started planning a way to leave the Bakker family at the right time. He had only been with these nomads a few months, but that was more than enough for him to get a sense of things.
It was clear that the Bakker family's leader, Charey, was an average sort at best.
Under his leadership, the family hadn't flourished—in fact, they were barely scraping by, living on whatever was left of their former glory.
McCoy had told him once about a wise leader, Serita Bakker, who guided the family through its prime. But after her death, the Bakker family began a downward slide. They went through three leaders in five years:
- The first died in a clash with the Raffen Shiv,
- The second resigned,
- And the third was Charey.
In Leo's eyes, this ship was bound to sink sooner or later.