My Post-Apocalyptic Shelter Levels Up Infinitely!

by Stayrr

As disaster was about to strike, a group of survivors transmigrated into a desolated world and were challenged to a game of survival. From terrifying acid rains, to endless natural disasters, the heavens burn while the earth scorches, radiation is rampant, and nobody is spared from the dangers of this hellscape. The only way one survives is by building a shelter and slowly upgradin

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My Post-Apocalyptic Shelter Levels Up Infinitely! #Chapter 241 - Psychic Energy Water! Upgrade! - Read My Post-Apocalyptic Shelter Levels Up Infinitely! Chapter 241 - Psychic Energy Water! Upgrade! Online - All Page - Novel Next

Chapter 241: Psychic Energy Water! Upgrade!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"What was predicted by the talisman actually came true!"

"Does it mean that I will let these trees remain after I see their properties?"

After seeing the attributes of the Source Energy Fruit trees clearly, Su Mo did not feel ecstatic just yet, but instead he felt a sense of uneasiness at the fact that he was being read.

Future, past and present.

The passage of time was always a paradox that was difficult to explain!

The main world sat in the center of two other timelines. A pair of eyes seemed to hover in the sky above the entire wasteland, watching every struggling human and foreign race below.

As if following each person's every move, a corresponding thread of fate seemed to dance, constantly creating future outcomes.

"If other people also received such a talisman that could predict the future, wouldn't they be able to predict my actions ahead of time?"

Staring at the fruit tree Moore was holding, Su Mo drew out the half-charged Divulgence of Heaven's Secret talisman. His mind was haunted by thoughts, quickly thinking of ways to resolve this conundrum.

"Previously in the world simulated by the talisman, all the fruit trees were lush and green, but there was no fruit growing on them."

"There are two possibilities:"

"The first is that, in that time and space, I cultivated the trees and had taken all the fruits away."

"The second is that the future simply cannot predict what I will do with the fruit tree, whether I'll water and irrigate it, or whether I will do what I did just now… Which was to uproot it!"

When considering logical explanations, even Zhong Qingshu was not as clear-headed as Su Mo.

This was not only innate, but also the inevitable result of consuming psychic energy water over a long period of time, as well as the improvement of his physical and mental capabilities.

A wise person reflecting a thousand times could still make a mistake.

If one wanted to improve the correctness of their reasoning, their brain's computation ability and efficiency had to be high. More reliable results could be speculated and more accurate data models could be constructed if one's ability in this aspect was higher.

"The talisman couldn't simulate my system, indicating that the system must be more advanced than the talisman, or..."

"More advanced than this side of the game world as well."

"So as long as I possess the system, which acts as a variable, it will be difficult for others to predict my movements with items similar to this talisman."

Having figured this out, Su Mo stopped worrying about the fact that his future might be seen by other people and relaxed his mind.

"Since the talisman has predicted, based on my personality, that I'll keep the fruit trees..."

"However, after discovering the extent of the flood disaster, how would I still have the same perspective? It is obvious that the future is already changing!"

After surmising that the future was already changing, Su Mo looked up at the bright moon high in the sky. For some reason, Su Mo suddenly thought of the coming punishment disaster.

If the future predicted by the talisman was uncertain, it meant that it was merely an item that simulated the future.

If the prediction was true, and the talisman could really see the future, but for some reason the future was beginning to change, then the cause of the punishment disaster was now evident.

"The game world here has veered out of control."

Su Mo took Magoo's notebook out and flipped through it from beginning to end. There was no mention of the punishment disaster.

There was also no mention of the future and past.

In the wasteland where Su Mo currently resided, both the future and past timelines had sprung up constantly since the death of the Heavenly Dog Pseudo God. They all happened to be in his vicinity, too.

All the game settings that were supposed to appear in the distant future now appeared one after the other without any semblance of order.

"I hope everything isn't as bad as I'm speculating, otherwise I'm afraid that the future of humankind will be even darker than that of Magoo's time!"

Su Mo shook his head, throwing all his speculative thoughts about the future to the back of his mind. Su Mo solemnly elevated the importance of the lost satellite base that might hold the truth to the highest level.

"Moore, carry this fruit tree back. We don't need to deal with the rest for now. Allow me to think about it first."

Many large and small trees blocked the way to the Underground Shelter. Earth Tiger could not drive in, so Su Mo could only walk through the trees while heading back to the shelter.

Luckily, the shell structure of the rotary tiller had already been completed. He only needed to use survival points to upgrade it before it could be put into use.

Su Mo summoned the system panel. He still had 26,000 survival points remaining. He noticed that, after the input of various materials, he only needed 2800 points to complete the upgrade, so he did not hesitate to click on the upgrade.

The emerald green light displayed the powerful engine that was the heart of the rotary tiller, as well as the thick black roller attached to the blade shaft.

Several black tracks that looked very solid were wrapped around the key components of the machine, and the machine looked way more grand sporting a gray and black paint job!

Moore, who was standing in the corner with a small tree in his arms, was instantly attracted by the rotary tiller.

Looking at Moore, who was already starry-eyed, and then at the saplings outside that were growing taller and taller, Su Mo returned to the second floor, collected today's portion of diesel and loaded it into the rotary tiller's fuel tank.

He twisted the key, and the machine started up!

A gust of black smoke came out of the exhaust behind the engine and rose straight up. Su Mo released the handbrake, stepped on the gas, and the rotary tiller began to slowly move forward.

During the initial stages of the design, the person who drew this prototype blueprint was very ingenious. He designed a push button that could drop the rotary blades when pressed.

As soon as the red button was pressed, the blade shaft would be slowly lowered and begin to work. The blades rotated in tandem with the vehicle.

This propelled the cut soil blocks backward. After impacting with the baffle, the soil would break apart further and fall to the surface, and then would be leveled flat by the drag board.

The principle behind it was very simple, and the machine was easy to use. After orienting it toward where Earth Tiger was located, Su Mo looked at the saplings on the ground and picked a spot. Next, he stepped on the gas pedal and the vehicle started to move forward slowly.

No matter how stubborn the roots were, the sharp tip of the blades would cut through them.

In just three to five seconds, the roots of the tree, which had required the concerted efforts of one man and one bear warrior, were uprooted by the rotary blades. A feeling of pleasure rose from the bottom of Su Mo's heart.

"So what if there are at least hundreds of trees in this forest? I just have to retain a few of them to ensure that they bloom and bear fruit, and that would be more than enough!"

The rotary teller did not only uproot the saplings, but also uprooted the image of a fixed future along with it.

The process was repeated until the road to the outside world was no longer blocked by the saplings. Only after that did Su Mo stop.

"Moore, you've learned how to operate it after watching me just now, right?"

As soon as the uprooting process began, Moore spontaneously ran alongside the rotary tiller, a sense of eagerness and anticipation welling up in his eyes.

Hearing Su Mo's words, Moore nodded his bear head impatiently; his eyes overflowing with the eagerness to try out this new machine.

Su Mo got out of the vehicle, and Moore got in. After determining the area that would be reserved, Su Mo decided to eradicate all the other trees, leaving not even a single plant.

"Source Energy Fruit trees must be watered with psychic energy water."

"I originally wanted to save survival points and wait until next time to upgrade the psychic energy water well, but now it seems that it's necessary to upgrade it!"

After the construction of the psychic energy water well, its prohibitively high cost as well as its characteristics made Su Mo decide that he would not put a lot of survival points into it.

Every 500 Survival Points could increase the daily collection by 100 millimeters.

3000 points could increase the purity of psychic energy water once, and 5000 points could improve the quality of psychic energy water once.

Su Mo previously could not afford those exorbitant expenses, but with the current survival points on hand, he could now invest in upgrading it!

Moore was now happily engaged in the task of uprooting trees. Calculating the cost mentally, Su Mo returned to the psychic energy water well on the second floor of the Underground Shelter.

Each additional liter of production would cost 5000 survival points. Su Mo did not hesitate to exclude this option as he had not yet become a rich magnate.

The only two remaining items that could be upgraded were the purity and efficacy.

"Purity is easy to understand in the sense that it improves the concentration of the psychic energy water. Upgrading its purity will need less points, but the upgrade direction after that is unclear..."

Su Mo looked at the blue light dots floating around the psychic energy water well. Among the two choices, Su Mo chose one. With a thought, 3000 survival points were deducted for the upgrade.

At the same time, two blue lights naturally emerged slowly from his hands. After locating the psychic energy water well, the lights entered the well with a whooshing sound.

Wow!

The next moment, under the stimulation of the blue light, a pillar of light rose directly from the well and struck the wall above, illuminating the entire crop culture room in a ghostly blue glow.

The number of faintly detectable light dots in the psychic energy water increased gradually until they had doubled in number.

"The blue lights should be representative of the energy in the psychic energy water, so enhancing its purity is basically enhancing its energy concentration."

"Then the remaining option, which is the efficacy, should correspond to the healing and physique enhancing effects of the psychic energy water."

Su Mo tried to focus his attention on the well and, sure enough, the properties of the psychic energy water well were now different compared to before.

[Psychic Energy Water Well Extractor (Rare)]

[Description: For inexplicable reasons, the well has absorbed psychic energy crystals and now possesses the ability to capture dark matter.]

[Current efficiency:7200ml/day (300ml/hour)]

[Energy concentration: 0.05%]

[Upgrade directions: Purity (15000), Efficiency (500), Resistance to low temperatures (200), Efficacy (5000)...]

"The first upgrade only required three thousand points, but the second upgrade requires fifteen thousand points! Really, items with psychic energy are all crazy expensive to upgrade!"

Su Mo looked once again at the cost needed to upgrade the efficacy, gritted his teeth, and spent 5000 more survival points.

This time, the light seeping out from his body was no longer blue, but instead the familiar green. The light enveloped the well for about a minute or two before the water regained its calm state.

"Survival points come and go quickly. I had 26000 points but, in the blink of an eye, I only have 15000 left. There are no big events happening recently, so I must spend them sparingly!"

The upgraded properties of the psychic energy water naturally emerged after Su Mo extracted a palmful of crisp psychic energy water.

After spending 8000 points in a row, the psychic energy water received a qualitative upgrade for the first time, and now had a new effect!

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Chapter 242: Sweat, Harvest, Melody Begins!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

[Psychic Energy Water]

[External injury treatment (biological): Weak]

[Internal injury treatment (biological): Mild]

[First Special Ability: Long-term usage has a certain chance of stimulating changes in the organism's genetic chain.]

[Second Special Ability: The absorption of psychic energy has different effects on different creatures. Slightly increases the evolution speed of wasteland creatures.]

[Caution: Stimulating changes to the organism's genetic chain might not necessarily produce positive effects. Please employ a small-scale patch test on the organism's skin and increase the dosage only after confirming the effect. Do not be reckless or the consequences might be disastrous.]

[Comment: A mysterious 'Pandora's Box'. Continuous upgrades might attract the attention of certain existences.]

"Sure enough, psychic energy is inseparable from dark energy. According to the research on Earth, dark energy is a key. Before actually opening the door, no one knows what kinds of surprises lie behind the door it opens."

"However, according to the system's comment, upgrading it may attract the prying eyes of certain interested parties."

After looking at the properties of the psychic energy water displayed by the system panel, and staring at the term 'certain existences' for several seconds, Su Mo's mind churned before he put the thought behind him.

At present, the upgrade of the psychic energy water had reached another bottleneck. The next upgrade would require 100,000 points. In addition to the quality upgrade, the survival points required for the two upgrades were simply an astronomical number.

Perhaps by the time he managed to save up enough survival points and needed to upgrade the psychic energy water again, these unknown existences would no longer pose a problem.

Fiddling around, he took out a liter of ordinary psychic energy water and poured out another liter of enhanced psychic energy water. When Su Mo returned to the first floor, the nimble Moore had already cleared out a large area.

Numerous miserable-looking source energy fruit tree saplings were strewn on the ground, placed aside by Oreo who had carried them over with her mouth.

"Hey, good girl!"

Su Mo stroked Oreo on the head and praised Moore. Looking at the pleased expressions on the faces of the two little ones, Su Mo smiled lightly and came to the previously planned reserved land.

There were only ten source energy fruit trees left and they were located directly opposite the main entrance of the Underground Shelter.

The fruit trees were sparsely scattered; each tree about a distance of seven or eight meters apart.

If the flood passed through, the fruit trees could still be saved. After careful nurturing, perhaps a nice park could be developed in the future.

Su Mo found the sturdiest and tallest fruit tree sapling, took out the psychic energy water, and poured it over the sapling.

When the first drop of psychic energy water touched the roots of the tree, a magical scene occurred.

After contact, the psychic energy water that should have flowed along the tree trunk and into the ground was directly absorbed instead.

Moreover, a shallow and almost invisible blue streak also appeared on the trunk.

Su Mo summoned the system to evaluate the tree. This time, although the source energy fruit tree was not uprooted, a small progress bar had appeared in the system panel.

"100ml equates to 1% on the progress bar, which means it takes ten liters of psychic energy water a day to irrigate a tree. This must be done continuously for three days in order for it to reach the third stage where the fruit can replace the upgrade functions of a damaged shelter core."

"I have ten trees remaining so, if I want to fulfill the requirements over the course of these three days, I need 300 liters of water."

After the greedy tree trunk absorbed the nutrients from one liter of psychic energy water, the blue streak had almost turned solid, flickering as if it had come alive.

He tried taking out the enhanced psychic energy water and poured 100ml over it, resulting in a greater increase in the progress bar; 100ml was enough to increase the progress bar by 5%.

"It seems impossible for all ten trees to reach stage 3. Given the current supply of psychic energy water in the shelter, the maximum is eight!"

That was the accumulated amount after one month, excluding the amount used in the Underground Shelter for daily drinking and activities of the one adult and four little ones. For other activities and purposes, snow water was used.

The current inventory of psychic energy water in the shelter was only 182 liters!

Over the course of the first two days, eight trees would require 160 liters, with a balance of 22 liters. On the final day, 21 liters of psychic energy water could be collected, which was just enough for the consumption of eight trees.

As for any excess, it could either be accumulated or poured over the remaining two trees to advance them to the first or second stages of the fruit.

He carried out his plan in line with the concept of out with the old and in with the new, pouring the 80 liters of psychic energy water over the tree saplings to fulfil the first day's demand for water and irrigation.

Now that they had been given sufficient nutrition, coupled with the 1000 times growth rate of a rare-quality plant, when everything was completed, the thinnest of the eight source energy fruit tree trunks was already as thick as an arm, and the shortest was already more than two meters tall.

After one night of hard work, Su Mo looked at the time and found that it was already 3 in the morning. Feeling that he could still persist physically and mentally, Su Mo simply continued to sit in front of the workbench to build the second rotary tiller.

With the experience of the first, the production of the second one went off without a hitch. After a little more than an hour, the shell structure and blade shaft were completed.

Another 2800 survival points were spent just like that in exchange for the completion of the second rotary tiller.

At this point, the last machine required to maximize the harvest from the welfare disaster was the flour grinder!

After gritting his teeth and drinking two mouthfuls of psychic energy water to relieve his mental fatigue, Su Mo continued sitting in front of the workbench and focused on the production process.

Hundreds of people in the Candlelight Shelter were still waiting for the machines. Countless crops that had not been planted were in urgent need of the machinery to assist in the planting process.

His persistence now would earn him one or two years worth of food supplies on the wasteland!

Under the light, as the screeching sound of the cutting wheel on the workbench became wilder and wilder, time also passed one second at a time.

The clock hanging in the living room ticked on and the hour hand on the clock moved forward at a steady pace.

On this extraordinary day, no one was destined to sleep tonight!

With a shift of perspective, looking down from the sky on the wasteland that should have been dark at night, scattered fires could be seen all over the place at this time.

Next to these fires, plants thrived. Accompanied with cheers from time to time, bundles of crops were being transported from the fields.

Even the lone wolf shelters were in ecstasy at this time.

As long as anyone had hands and a piece of cleared land...

Harvest was the main theme of this night!

Sweat was also the best audience to witness the efforts of all humankind during this welfare disaster.

Excellent-quality seeds germinated extremely quickly. From sowing to harvesting, the entire process would take just over four hours!

In the dark night, the lingering fragrance of wheat completely filled the nostrils of every refugee in the Candlelight Shelter...

And this was just the beginning!

At this point, people who possessed workbenches in the wasteland had already reached a certain number. Although these people could not produce high-quality products like Su Mo due to quality limitations of the workbench, by relying on the craftsmanship enhancement function, a good-quality tool could occasionally be produced.

After harvesting the first cycle of crops, Chen Shen immediately decided that each person should set aside one liang of seeds, and then he purchased 130 good-quality sickles from the market.

The properties of the sickle were very simple, possessing only 3 sharpness bonus when harvesting crops, but this special attribute was completely sufficient for the purposes of harvesting spring wheat!

The big picture could be discerned from the small details. When the first batch of mature excellent-quality seeds from the Candlelight Shelter entered the market, the seeds that were sold from Su Mo's large-scale transactions in the market back then also began to circulate at this time.

As long as everyone could buy 20 or 30 excellent-quality seeds, a good harvest of excellent-quality plants could be obtained four hours later.

Then, after four hours, enough seeds could be harvested to sow one mu of land.

The initial 1000 people sold 10000 seeds. After four hours, this 10000 would become 100000.

After another four hours, it would become a million!

In just one day, as long as the market was still there, more and more people would come into possession of excellent-quality spring wheat seeds.

Traditional seeds were completely abandoned by the market after most of the accounts were settled on the World Channel.

Not to mention five or ten times the price, even at half the previous price, no one would care for it.

Subsequently, the entire market would be quickly revitalized by the excellent-quality spring wheat seeds. More good things would circulate, and the combat strength of the humans on the wasteland would gradually become stronger, suppressing the foreign races!

Of course, this scene was already part of Su Mo's plan.

With a tool like the trading market, with its inherent advantages, the speed of such transactions and their proliferation would far exceed the models constructed by those so-called economists.

The instant delivery process meant that as long as a small butterfly flapped its wings, a terrible storm could be set off.

As the initiator, when the clock struck six o'clock on the game panel, Su Mo finally completed the production of the last flour grinder on the workbench.

"Phew, I've built the main body of the machine and the parts that can be made according to the blueprint design."

"As for the subsequent circuit boards and programs, I can only rely on the system to implement them before finding a computer!"

After wiping the sweat from his forehead and drinking a big sip of water to invigorate himself, Su Mo slowly stood up.

The barrier holding back the progress of his technology advancement would have to be broken sooner or later. The opportunity to find a computer lay in the next appearance of the Liangfang Town ruins!

As long as he could get in, with his current combat capabilities, clearing Liangfang Town was not a problem at all. Perhaps then he could find a computer!

Fortunately, some scrap parts of the circuit board, as well as some small odds and ends and materials were provided. The flour grinder did not cost much and the upgrade was completed at the cost of only 800 survival points.

As long as the generator was connected, the process of turning spring wheat into flour could be carried out immediately.

After checking and cleaning up, by the time Su Mo dismantled the main body of the flour grinder that had been connected into three parts and placed it into the storage space of Earth Tiger, the sun had also risen, bringing long-lost warmth to the refugees who had worked hard in the wasteland all night.

In the Underground Shelter, apart from Moore, who could not bear with it after working all the way into the second half of the night and had fallen asleep on the floor, Oreo, Big Spark, and Little Spark were sprawled in front of the gate dutifully, guarding the source energy fruit trees that were growing sturdily in front of the gate.

Glancing at the tallest fruit tree that was now already five meters high, and the sky of the wasteland, Su Mo flexed his arms, walked back to the third floor, and laid on the small bed.

Whether on Earth or in the wasteland, good sleep was the best way to ensure one's combat readiness.

The more excited one became, the more one had to be alert to the dangers that might occur on the wasteland!

He took out the Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll card to restore his lost energy and drank some enhanced psychic energy water to recover from his state of mental fatigue.

In three to five minutes, Su Mo had entered a deep sleep, lightly snoring.

With no one to disturb him, the recovery of energy and from mental fatigue occurred extremely rapidly.

With his enhanced physique, after only two hours of rest, as the ear-piercing alarm of the old phone rang out, Su Mo, who was lying on the bed, sat up directly with a glint in his eyes.

"After preparing for this disaster for so long, it's finally time to reap the rewards!"

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Chapter 243: Choice Between Big Ship or Small Boat

He fetched a bowl of chilly snow and rubbed it over his face a couple of times before adding in some precipitated snow water.

After washing his face and hair, Su Mo felt a lot more relaxed.

The lethargic fatigue from staying up all night also disappeared instantly.

The hot oil noodles that he had rushed to produce yesterday had been kept in the storage space. It was a little cold when he took it out but, fortunately, the noodles had not clumped together.

Waking Moore up, the one adult and four little ones hastily took care of breakfast.

There was no concept of time in the wasteland. All individuals were driven forward only by their 'dreams' and 'sense of initiative'.

After eating, seeing that Moore had begun to habitually wash the dishes, Su Mo patted Moore on the back before he slowly walked up to the first floor.

The diesel reserves in the shelter were running low, and they had just enough for their current usage.

If there was excess expenditure, he was bound to have to spend points to purchase it on the market, which was an extremely uneconomical way of going about it.

Thus, adhering to the principle of saving costs wherever he could, it was necessary to drive both rotary tillers at once to save the most fuel.

There were no traffic police in the wasteland. After studying the structure of the rotary tiller, Su Mo boldly started to modify it 'illegally'.

The first step was to remove the front iron plate on the back of the rotary tiller and weld on a hook.

Then, Su Mo returned to the workbench. According to the image in his mind, Su Mo took about 20 minutes to produce an iron chain about the size of his arm.

He tried to hang one end of the iron chain on the hook and tied the other end to the rear of the rotary tiller in front, and the two rotary tillers were thus simply connected together.

Releasing the handbrake on the machine in the rear and stepping on the accelerator of the machine in front, Su Mo drove back and forth three or four laps. After confirming that the chain between the two machines was joined stably, Su Mo finally relaxed.

"Knowledge from Earth is a form of wealth on the wasteland. By relying on the path of our predecessors, I can also restore civilization to its technological heights more rapidly!"

He thought of the basin surrounding the Underground Shelter that had been barren just one month ago.

Then he looked at the 'new' shelter that was now lush and green, with a shelter made of heavy boulders and where three big steel beasts were parked.

If there was an achievement for construction, the list of honors engraved on Su Mo's record would have been dazzling!

"After today and tomorrow, the shelter will be completely free from worries regarding food supplies. When I pick my sister up, I'll be able to research how to break the cage set by this world!"

Historically, be it Ming Taizu who became an emperor from his humble beginnings as a beggar, or Han Gaozu who started as a street punk before becoming an emperor, like these great figures recorded in Chinese history, Su Mo had also evolved from a small-time employee, only wanting to live in peace, to his current mentality of wanting to delve deeper into the secrets of this world.

Moreover, this change occurred over the short period of one month!

"I can only grow under pressure. In the wasteland, the fiercer and more aggressive I become, the better I can protect my family and search for the truth!"

Looking at Oreo, who scampered into the backseat, and Moore who closed the gate behind him and sat on the rotary tiller, Su Mo's fighting spirit flashed in his eyes. He no longer longed for a peaceful life.

"Moore, the two machines are connected. Be careful to drive slowly and don't crash either one!"

After giving out instructions, Su Mo watched as Moore nodded cleverly and tugged at the chain behind him with a curious face. Su Mo turned around, released Earth Tiger's handbrake, and gradually drove forward.

From Big Spark and Little Spark, it could be seen that the intelligence of wasteland creatures would increase after the long-term consumption of psychic energy water.

This phenomenon was also fully verified in Moore's situation.

Under Su Mo's deliberate or unintentional guidance, the lightning bear warrior's mind not only learned how to farm, but also learned how to drive various vehicles.

In this regard, Moore could even drive a vehicle a little better than Su Mo, a veteran driver on Earth.

They traveled along that same familiar road.

Along the way, he stared aimlessly at the road that had been marked from being well-traveled. When Su Mo finally awoke from his daze, the field cleared up by the Candlelight Shelter had already appeared at the end of his field of vision.

Compared to the previous black and gray, the field was now orange and yellow, and looked gratifying.

Rolling down the car window, the scent of wheat drifted into the car with the wind, bringing with it the smell of a 'good harvest'.

It was already 10 in the morning. All the refugees in the Candlelight Shelter had completed the harvest of the first cycle of crops and had quickly scrambled back to the shelter to catch up on some sleep.

Human stamina was limited. Relying on human strength alone for farming, even with the terrifying growth rate of the excellent-quality seeds, they could barely sow three rounds of seeds in three days.

Now, looking at the two rotary tillers in his rearview mirror, and looking at the few alert refugees shouting below, the corners of Su Mo's mouth curved up slightly into a smile.

The appearance of the rotary tillers was undoubtedly a great addition to the group's farming efforts.

In line with Su Mo's request, several veteran drivers started to exchange shifts.

After a hasty handover, the two rotary tillers started to turn the soil according to the established routes. Not only were the people of the Candlelight Shelter relieved, but the sense of urgency that Su Mo had felt on the way here was finally lifted.

The bodies of the refugees in Candlelight Shelter were not enhanced yet, and getting enough rest put them out of commission for at least four to six hours.

After strolling around the quiet Candlelight Shelter and seeing Zhong Qingshu curled up and sleeping in the corner of a room, a trace of warmth welled up in Su Mo's heart.

"The people in the Candlelight Shelter are all pitiful people, or rather… most of the people who came to doomsday wasteland are all good people!"

"Villains like Huang Biao and Kento Maeda are still the minority after all!"

Coming to the doomsday wasteland, everyone was akin to a lonely individual, eager to be embraced.

That included Zhong Qingshu. Whether in the main world, or in the ruins of time, this person was as stubborn as hell.

No matter how Su Mo asked, Zhong Qingshu chose to keep her mouth shut about her family.

In desperation, Su Mo had no choice but to give up his thoughts of further pursuit.

After strolling and looking around, Su Mo walked to the kitchen of the Candlelight Shelter at the end of the village. Su Mo thought for a moment and once again took out the enhanced psychic energy water and added a full liter in proportion to everyone's portions.

These refugees from the Candlelight Shelter who had experienced hardship and suffering, yet still maintained kind hearts, were hard to come by.

If these people could survive the flood in the future and persevere until Su Mo picked up his sister and returned to the place where the 'dream began', these people would inevitably become the first indigenous people of the basin surrounding the Underground Shelter.

In the future, be it to manage the farms, troubleshoot the environment of the basin, or gradually build the first city on the wasteland from scratch, and slowly restore civilization, these people would be the best source of productive power.

"The greater the number of people, the better my shelter would be able to resist risks and challenges that come my way."

"If I can restore technology to Earth's heyday, I wouldn't need to be afraid of something like this flood at all."

Sitting on the ridge overlooking the field, and observing the two rotary tillers busily working below, Su Mo felt quite touched.

As time ticked by, passing 11 in the morning, the refugees in the Candlelight Shelter began to wake up in batches, one after the other.

After a simple lunch, no one urged or shouted.

All the refugees spontaneously picked up their farming tools and rushed to the farmland with great enthusiasm.

Of course, every refugee passing by would cast a reverent glance at Su Mo when they saw him.

When they received Su Mo's friendly smile in return, these people became even more motivated. After finding their own areas, the sounds of hoes clattered about.

Reality proved that Su Mo had a good eye for choosing people.

Under Chen Shen's arrangement, all the refugees in the Candlelight Shelter were rostered methodically and rigorously.

Those plowing at the forefront could go to bed early after last night's harvest. Subsequently, after getting five to six hours of sleep, they had to get up early to get back to work.

It just so happened that, when these people were at work, the rotary tiller had just turned over the land in front of them for these people to continue planting after some minor adjustments.

By the time the people who slept late last night woke up, the rotary tiller would also finish turning over the rest of the land according to its current progress, ensuring that no time was lost in between.

Scientific and efficient management was combined with the enthusiasm of refugees and the assistance of farming machinery.

Sitting on the ridge overlooking the field, Su Mo just stared blankly ahead, not going anywhere, like a statue standing over the field.

However…

Not only did the efficiency in the fields below not slow down because of the longer working hours, but the refugees also became more and more energetic.

With Su Mo around, they were absolutely safe.

While farming, no danger would touch them, and all potential threats would be reduced to 'zero'!

It was like being back on Earth where everyone just needed to do their job well and be rewarded as needed.

Even some 'young women' who felt tired from work would feel strength emerging from within just by looking at the handsome and heroic face of Su Mo standing there.

Under such circumstances, even the scorching sun above felt a tad better.

Of course, what these people did not know was that the energy brimming in their bodies was not purely psychological in nature. The drinking water they received with the added psychic energy water was also one of the main reasons for their perseverance.

In the afternoon, Moore, who stood aside as a security guard, also could not resist the urge to 'farm'. With a roar, he rushed down to the field to help the refugees with the farm work.

Initially, the ferocious lightning bear warrior naturally scared everyone, but after accepting his setting as Su Mo's pet, everyone suddenly became enthusiastic.

Su Mo was the god of protection for everyone, so how could his pet go crazy and hurt them?

Seeing the lighting bear warrior rely on his 'intelligence' to quickly lower down the IQ level of the others, and also rely on his workmanship to conquer all the refugees, Su Mo could not help but laugh.

"Not bad, Almighty Su. After such a long time, this is the first time I've seen you laughing!"

"No way, I'm just an ordinary person who's been deified by them."

Su Mo waved his hand and looked at Zhong Qingshu, who walked over with sweat on her forehead after patrolling with a spear in hand, and felt a little emotional.

In the entire Candlelight Shelter, only Zhong Qingshu dared to approach him and crack jokes.

Others would either be extremely awed like Chen Shen, or stare at him as if he was a god like the other ordinary refugees.

Only next to Zhong Qingshu would Su Mo shed his disguise and behave like a normal person.

While standing up and looking at the busy scene below, Su Mo simply followed Zhong Qingshu and shouldered the patrol work around the fields.

The two talked about astronomy and geography for a while before talking about sailing at sea.

From how to develop a large shelter, whether to use above-ground buildings or underground structures, to after building a shelter, what would be the first thing to construct.

Like the perspectives between arts and science students colliding, many sparks flew.

At the same time, during the conversation, Su Mo also found many points that he had overlooked before.

"You're right, if I were to build a small boat, perhaps I can go out to sea alone. With Moore's help, it will be more than enough."

"However, in that case, the boat's resilience and ability to overcome risks associated with the flood will suffer, and will likely be capsized by a large wave."

"However, if we built a large ship without the assistance of a computer, it's almost impossible to control and operate with just the two of us. This is certainly a difficult problem!"

A previously overlooked point was accidentally spotted by Zhong Qingshu. Even Su Mo felt he was faced with a dilemma.

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Chapter 244: We Have Got To… Go Back To Earth!

Despite possessing the Mini Destroyer blueprint design, Su Mo was unable to examine its specific properties until he fulfilled the necessary requirements and activated the blueprint design.

However, he was able to roughly infer the amount of materials necessary for a complete reproduction of this destroyer and its performance capability based on the graphic reference on the blueprint design and by comparing it with an actual destroyer.

The vessel was about 100m to 120m long with a draft of at least 5m. Its cruise speed was about 18 knots, with a maximum speed of 28 knots or higher.

As for the weapons that the destroyer would be equipped with? That went without saying.

To perfectly recreate this seabound steel beast, the first thing to consider was not the required materials or its production quality, but rather the number of crew members required to operate it, which numbered at least 200 trained personnel.

Of course, when Su Mo had gotten his hands on the blueprint design, he did not even think for one second that he could perfectly recreate such a monstrosity.

His initial thought process regarding the best way to construct the destroyer was simply to reduce the ship's size by one-third, according to the scale shown on the blueprint design, which would keep the length of the ship between 30 to 40 meters with a draft of at least 1.5 meters.

This was one way to ensure the stability of the ship's structure. It would also greatly reduce the amount of materials required and the ship's fuel consumption while sailing.

"That's true. Building a ship is not something that can be accomplished with the efforts of just you and that bear. When the time comes, if you really want to build and pilot a large ship, you'll only have two options to choose from."

"First, you can try your best to get your hands on a computer, and from there code a program to assist you with the navigation and controls, which will save yourself both time and energy."

"Second, you can choose to bring some people along; Chen Shen and his group at the very least. You've also got to bring a few sailors along to assist you, though even with their aid, you'll still be the one responsible for piloting the ship."

"So in order for the second option to be viable, your piloting skills have to be up to the mark, as controlling and operating such a large ship is no simple task!"

Zhong Qingshu's remarks stemmed from her rational perspective of things, and her thoughts and words always helped Su Mo discover the crux of the problem at hand.

On Earth, many ships were equipped with an autopilot system that greatly reduced the captain's burden of controlling and operating such vessels.

In addition to this, the majority of the crew could only be placed in charge of smaller and less important segments of the ship's operations, while only a few were qualified and capable enough to actually assist with the ship's critical operations and functions.

This was even more so for people like Su Mo, who would have to recruit his crew from among the limited population of the Candlelight Shelter's refugees, many of whom were unlikely to have any experience or expertise in sailing.

"Computer…"

"Autopilot…"

Computers were essential for him to progress and advance his level of technology as well as for the construction and operation of a ship that could travel for thousands of miles over the seas.

In modern technology, a computer was something that was undeniably crucial!

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We can figure these things out after I've actually successfully recreated the ship. Besides…"

"We don't even know when the next disaster will occur!"

While there could be a computer lying somewhere around the Liangfang Town ruins, given that he could do nothing about it at present, Su Mo decided not to pursue things further and ended the topic with a shrug.

In the wasteland, it seemed that only the basin's black mist ruins, and none of the others, could transport a player to a timeline that was similar to Earth's.

It was better if fewer people were aware of this information, which would reduce the possibility of this secret being exposed to the public.

In that regard, Su Mo was pretty good at safeguarding his secrets until he was fully capable of dealing with the ramifications; suppressing his urge to tell everyone, even though he was itching to do so.

Everyone had their secrets in the doomsday wasteland.

Su Mo had some, Zhong Qingshu had some, and even the refugees who were hard at work in the fields would probably have had some kind of 'adventure'.

However, at that moment, as the afternoon drew near, the time to harvest the second cycle of crops had finally arrived!

The spring wheat harvested in the first crop cycle, other than those that had been traded and those that were used as seeds for the second crop cycle, had yet to be threshed, and had been placed at the edge of the field and piled up into a small mountain.

In the fields, the wheat was growing taller and taller every four to five minutes, especially those that were planted earlier.

At this moment, the combine harvester was already rumbling its way through the fields, with a bunch of people following behind it, seemingly astonished as they watched the wheat that was being ejected from the grain bin.

Even the usually pungent diesel fumes did not seem to hinder the excitement of these refugees.

"Brother Su, we've harvested the wheat from the second crop cycle. This time, our yield per acre averaged about 1890 catties per mu! What an excellent harvest!"

Chen Shen, who was at least four to five shades darker, rushed over ecstatically with a sweat-soaked notepad in his hands.

As he flipped through his notepad, he started reporting the total yield from each mu of land.

This was a complicated and boring segment, but Su Mo enjoyed listening to it.

When they heard that there were a few mu of land that had yielded a whopping 2,100 catties of wheat, even Zhong Qingshu let out a yelp.

Some people acquired knowledge faster than others, while certain people specialized in certain professions while others specialized in other professions.

There were a few farmers amongst the refugees with a level of expertise far greater than Su Mo, who was merely dabbling in the field.

From seed selection to sowing, to watering and fertilization, refining every step of the process had resulted in a high yield rate of up to 2,100 catties of wheat per mu.

Without hesitation, Su Mo immediately showed his appreciation for their efforts in a tangible manner.

"I have decided to reward all farmers in the fields who produced more than 2,000 catties per mu with 100 catties from my portion."

Chen Shen nodded solemnly and reverently after hearing what Su Mo had said.

The carrot and stick approach.

Even if Chen Shen was thinking out of his *ss, he would still be able to foresee how these people would react after receiving news of Su Mo's 100-catty token of appreciation.

"By the way, remember to control everyone's rice intake tonight. If people who have been starving for long periods of time eat too much and eat too quickly, they can easily fall sick!"

As Su Mo watched the bunch of starving, frail refugees, he reminded them once again as his eyes then fell upon the flour grinder that had been carried out and plugged in.

Up to this point, the welfare disaster could already be considered a successful venture.

Over the next two days, all that remained was to slowly figure out how to maximize the yield of this harvest to accumulate enough food supplies for several years to come.

After reminding Chen Shen of a few more things that came to mind, Su Mo waved his hands and signaled that the reporting segment was over.

However…

Chen Shen, who stood beside Su Mo, did not simply leave like he usually did, but stood there timidly and seemed to mutter something quietly, as if he had something on his mind that he did not dare to say.

This odd sight caught Su Mo by surprise but, before he could speak, Zhong Qingshu spoke up on his behalf.

"Eh, Chen Shen? Why are you being so shy in front of our Almighty Su?"

"We've all seen the effort and hard work that you've put in over the past few days. Whatever it is, just spit it out!"

A kind and timely aid.

At the same time, it gave Chen Shen the courage to speak.

He twisted his shirt, seeming to have come to a decision on something. Chen Shen, his face laced with grime and sweat, looked up and stuttered, "B-brother Su, this is something that everyone wants me to ask you… Could you please go back a little later tonight?"

"There's a little something that all of us wish to convey to you for the help Brother Su has extended to us over the past few days. We're all very grateful!"

"More than a hundred people have come up to me since yesterday, asking me to put in a word with you."

Chen Shen scratched his head and mustered up all his courage. Under Su Mo's scrutinizing eyes, Chen Shen gave it his all and spat everything out in one breath.

Right after that, Chen Shen closed his eyes as if he was ready to die and waited for Su Mo's final verdict.

Awkwardness!

Awkwardness in capital letters!

After rolling his eyes at Zhong Qingshu and glancing at Chen Shen, who had his eyes tightly shut and teeth gritted, Su Mo waved his hands exasperatedly.

"Fine. Go do what you have to do. Just tell it to me straight next time!"

"Don't make it a matter of life and death!"

It was not a very good thing for a leader to be overly idolized.

Sure, there were some exceptions to this situation. For example, in western sects that follow the tenets of faith, this would be something rather familiar.

Leaders of such a sect could quickly gather power and influence under the authority of made-up godly spirits and package themselves as physical manifestations of said 'deities' to rule and reign over their congregation.

However, based on the structure of the Candlelight Shelter's leadership, if Su Mo was overly idolized, he would easily lose control over his lower-level subordinates and, if there was disharmony and strife in the middle levels, it was likely that Su Mo would lose the hearts of the people, and end up being shunned and betrayed.

This was something that Su Mo temporarily had no good way of dealing with. He could only think of an alternative method of resolution after he had gotten his sister back, and after he had built a large-scale shelter.

After dismissing Chen Shen, Zhong Qingshu also left to fulfil her border-patrolling duties.

Moore was working hard in the fields and Oreo was nowhere to be found, presumably either playing around or patrolling.

Su Mo was left 'alone'.

"I wonder how Sis is doing over there. Would she be involved in farming at the Tundra Shelter as well?"

"What a difficult journey it is to find my loved one stranded thousands of miles away!"

Pricked by his conscience, Su Mo brought up his friends list. Su Chan's avatar was still glowing green, which meant that she was still alive.

"At times I find myself wishing that the upcoming disaster would not be a flood, but at other times I end up wishing that it is!"

"Alas, humans are both selfish and selfless creatures."

Su Mo looked at the commotion at the entrance of the village, where people were trying to set up the flour grinder, and decided to forgo his emotional anguish. He walked up to them and helped them out.

The working principle behind the flour grinder was not complicated. Firstly, under each of the traditional two internal and external grinding heads, circular choke rings that were the same thickness as the height of the grinding teeth were added.

These would prevent grain that had not been sufficiently broken up between the grinding teeth from passing through, which would allow the grain to be grinded further until it turned into fine powder.

As the flour grinder was powered by electricity, a bag of wheat would only take tens of seconds to grind.

Despite being a first-time user, it was easy for Su Mo, as the manufacturer, to finish setting up what the refugees had been working on for the past twenty to thirty minutes.

The diesel generator in the Candlelight Shelter had been purchased from the trading market while they were gathering resources after the harvest that morning.

The diesel was poured in and, after it was switched on, the flour grinder was plugged in and started to spin quickly.

Thump, thump, thump, thump…

A drum-like sound rang out through the land.

Not only did it shock the women who were operating it, but it also attracted the attention of the refugees who were still working in the fields.

"The flour grinder is working. F*ck!"

"Wuhu, Qifei, we're having noodles for dinner later!"

"I wanna eat three bowls, no, five bowls! I will eat till I'm full today!"

Adults would still be able to suppress their excitement, but the teenagers were the ones that started with all the yelling that brought the level excitement in the atmosphere up a notch.

People who had a clear line of sight of the flour grinder were still working hard with a hoe in the fields, but their thoughts had already strayed elsewhere.

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

A bag of wheat with bran was poured into the feed bucket, and as the grinder worked, it began to peel and grind the wheat kernels quickly.

A few seconds later, when the first wisp of white flour appeared in the collection bucket, all the refugees who could see the flour, including the four women who were operating the machine, nearly cried tears of joy.

A young woman, under Su Mo's encouraging gaze, grabbed a fistful of flour and ran toward the fields, shouting as she cried.

"We have flour! We have white, snowy flour!"

The shrieks of the woman were not that loud, and only a few people could hear her but, at that very moment, when people saw the white, snowy flour in her hands, the sound of her feeble voice was instantly and magically 'amplified'.

"We have flour!"

One person, five people, ten people, fifty people…

When all of the refugees in the field started to shout, the wind on the plains seemed to blow a little faster as a sign of encouragement for this bunch of hardworking people!

After a whopping five minutes of shrieking, everyone stopped and continued on with their work. No one was certain who started it, but a wave of new shrieks rang out.

"Al hail Su Mo! All hail the Candlelight Shelter!"

"The wasteland belongs to us humans! The wasteland belongs to Almighty Su!"

"If you follow after Almighty Su, life on the wasteland isn't that hard! If you work with Almighty Su, the wasteland is practically a treasure trove waiting for you to harvest!"

"All hail humankind! We will conquer this land, we will conquer this continent!"

"We want to go back to Earth!"

Were they really thinking about conquering the wasteland right as their food supplies were secured?

Despite living hand-to-mouth each day, they still harbored the hope of returning to Earth?

If keyboard warriors were present in the wasteland, these adorable refugees would have been insulted to the point of questioning their own intelligence and doubting their own existence.

However, on the Hope Plains, where Su Mo could cover the entire area under his wings, there was no one around to sneer at the refugees' dreams, and no one to mock the 'arrogance' of the people.

From the fields to the village, one could hear uniform chants about returning to Earth echoing.

When it was almost harvest time, the slogan of 'we want to go back to Earth' had become the eternal pursuit of these refugees.

The heavy desire hanging in the atmosphere even moved Su Mo, who was looking out into the distance.

In his heart, where only Su Mo could hear himself, one hope-filled statement and oath after another rang out.

"They're right!"

"This doomsday wasteland isn't a home for us humans, and this blue sky is definitely not the skies above our Earth."

"This generation, and ten generations after that, as long as we humans do not go extinct…"

"Our ultimate goal is to…"

"Return to Earth!"

Chapter 245: New Year's Eve, The Refugees' Token Of Appreciation

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

It is common knowledge that the aftermath of releasing pent up impulses, desires and urges was prolonged fatigue!

This was especially true in the case of the refugees of the Candlelight Shelter, who were physically weak due to the extended period of starvation, so after all the passionate slogans had been shouted and screamed, most of them slumped to the floor panting and exhausted.

Their bodies were tired and extremely exhausted, but their hearts…

Exhilarated!

From the top to the bottom, even the refugees who had just joined the shelter, all of them were all filled with a strong sense of belonging that resonated deeply within their hearts, and that was their driving force behind the entire shouting episode.

As social creatures, humans were a unique bunch!

An individual that had a combat strength of 1 could miraculously multiply their strength when placed in a group.

After being fired up and motivated, their combat strength would increase exponentially, much to other creatures' confusion.

A twofold or threefold increase would raise their individual combat strength to 15 or even 20.

This time, under Moore's leadership, the refugees focused on their 'opponent', which was the ground beneath them, increasing their work efficiency to yet another level.

Feeling tired? It was okay since after working in the fields one could rest. One could get a good rest immediately.

Feeling hungry? Not a problem. Everyone that was present tonight would be able to eat so much that their tummies would puff up and they would never have to sleep hungry again.

With no worries and no hindrances, everyone wanted to offer up their energy up to the very last sliver to the fields before them to obtain a great harvest!

"Okay, okay, the flour's gonna spill over now. Don't be too hasty. Finish what you have to finish doing tonight, then use this flour to feed everyone a good meal!"

"Yes…"

"Understood!"

Su Mo felt moved when he looked at the four women who had responded to his orders by working really hard, and was secretly wiping away a few tears.

The freshly harvested wheat not only contained a lot of moisture, but the yield was low with plenty of wastage.

At the same time, its grinded powder was not good in terms of quality or taste.

Only wheat that had been thoroughly dried could be grinded and made into flour.

The good thing was that the sun in the wasteland was scorching hot. The harvests?from the first crop cycle, and part of the second crop cycle, were already quite dry even after just a day of sitting under the sun.

Even though there would be a certain percentage of wastage when the wheat was put through the flour grinder now, such wastage was insignificant when compared to the final haul.

If it could be sunned another half a day, the first and second crop cycles harvests would have been completely dry, and its flour yield rate would have increased. It would taste a lot better, and it would also buy them some time until the planting of the following cycle of crops could be completed.

It was scientists like Old Yuan who had spent days in the field and invented many breeds of crops that could withstand natural disasters and had a high yield rate. It was also his life's work that had solved the world's famine issue in the olden days on Earth!

Famine was no longer existent on Earth.

Su Mo had a clearer picture of this poetic achievement when he saw the expressions on the refugees' faces. What an important thing it was to have been able to solve the world's food-related problems!

"Fortunately I somehow triggered this welfare disaster. If not, I don't think there would even be a million survivors left after the flood disaster!"

After patting the dust of his combat suit uniform making sure that the flour grinder was working fine, Su Mo sauntered towards the fields to start his last routine patrol round before the sun set.

Time flew by quickly on a busy day. After working hard from morning till now, the setting sun heralded the completion of the day's assignment, and after that it was time to 'go home'.

There were famished mutated creatures at the borders of the 200 mu of land that were planning to launch an attack once the sun had set.

Su Mo showed no mercy toward these creatures. He took out his rifle from his storage space and switched it into single-shot mode. After a few bullets were discharged, there were extra 'delicacies' to be added to everyone's dinner that night.

The sound of gunfire echoed around them, but no one in the fields was distracted.

On the contrary, the gunfire invoked an additional sense of security in the hearts of people under the wasteland's darkening skies.

"The drop rate of these mutated creatures is getting lower nowadays. Three mutated creatures did not even drop a single treasure chest!"

There were two ugly, but common hyenas and another mid-sized snow leopard. No treasure chests appeared.

This also indirectly proved that it was unrealistic for humans to survive solely on treasure chests, especially in the later stages.

The only way to survive and thrive in the wasteland was to explore and reclaim more land to develop one's shelter, as well as to regain and develop technology.

As Su Mo made quick work of those mutant creatures, the ones still scouting and lurking in the darkness understood that this area was a forbidden zone and fled with their tails tucked between their legs.

According to the plan, the fields at the bottom were also harvesting their second crop cycle with the combine harvester, and whatever wheat was harvested was kept in storage to be taken out to sun the following day.

At that moment, many were weary and exhausted. Other than the two rotary tillers, and the flour grinder at the village entrance, that were still hard at work, the other people were already back at the village waiting to get a good's night rest after having dinner, so that they would be refreshed and energized for another day's work the following day.

Even though this was what was stated in the plan, a few people from the older generation that could persevere went back out to the fields while everyone else was resting to spread the fertilizer that had been prepared prior to this onto the ground to increase the fertility of the soil.

On normal fields, such aggressive farming methods would result in the soil becoming desolate after a single crop cycle.

However, this was where the benefits of the welfare disaster truly shone brightly. It did not matter if your land was a desert that could not even grow grass, as long as you could ensure that the crops received enough water to grow, when the allocated time of harvest arrived, you would still reap a harvest.

As for the yield rate, there was also a benchmark and a limit. Currently, the lowest benchmark for excellent-quality seeds was at least 1400 catties per mu.

This was more than enough to allow even more barren fields than the ones at?Hope Plains to strive for a large-scale crop harvest.

Besides, under the influence of this welfare disaster, the rate at which the ground absorbed fertilizers was extremely shocking.

As long as it was fertilized enough, the soil would be able to recover in a short amount of time, and one could still achieve a great harvest in the subsequent cycles of planting.

"Eh? Where did Moore disappear to?"

After encouraging a few refugees that were hard at work in the fields, and patrolling one round, Su Mo saw Oreo running towards him for petting and feeding. He looked around curiously for Moore.

Normally, after a day's work, Moore would eat at least seven to eight bowls of hot oil noodles before he was satisfied.

Moore had been missing since breakfast this morning. Su Mo had no idea where he went.

"My goodness, could Moore have followed the refugees back to the shelter for food, drinks and rest?"

Su Mo thought about how friendly Moore was with the refugees and felt a headache coming.

At his side, Oreo immediately understood what he was saying, barked twice, and nodded, indicating that Moore's scent was within the village.

"He has absolutely no wariness toward others! He's too relaxed! No, I must teach him properly when we get back today."

After patrolling one round, the remaining refugees who had been fertilizing the ground also left, so Su Mo proceeded to make his way toward the village as well.

People from the Candlelight Shelter were mostly familiar people, so things were still okay. If it was at another shelter, for Moore to barge in like that would basically be akin to offering himself as an additional food source and ingredient to the other party!

Su Mo intended to educate Moore, so as soon as he reached the village entrance, he retracted his smile and put on the solemn, stoic expression that the others had been familiar with previously.

However, things seemed out of place, as the warriors that were usually on guard at the village entrance were gone as well, and Su Mo had no idea where they went.

"Losing discipline at the first sight of a harvest. I've got to find a qualified officer to train them in the future!"

Su Mo shook his head and walked into the village with a tinge of disappointment.

As he walked along the path, Su Mo started to hear the sounds of many people gathered using his acute sense of hearing.

Even though these noises seemed a lot weaker than usual, as if someone was deliberately trying to cover them up, a rowdy commotion was still heard loud and clear in Su Mo's ears.

No matter how long the path was, it would still come to an end eventually.

After leaving the path and turning the corner, Su Mo's eyes opened wide.

Even if Su Mo had been mentally prepared, the scene that appeared before his eyes would have still stunned him completely.

At the pavilion that was usually a gathering space for the village, everyone—including those who could usually be found lying about taking a break—were all standing there in a fanned-out circular formation.

Their grime-stained faces could not dim the sparkle of expectation in their eyes.

Moore, who had gone out gallivanting, stood at the front; his expression a mix of 40% shyness and 60% eagerness.

Even Oreo who was by Su Mo's side was laughing so hard as she ran over to lie beside Zhong Qingshu's feet, completely leaving the crowd's focal point and limelight on…

Su Mo!

The leadership team of the Candlelight Shelter stood before the refugees with Chen Shen as their leader. There were about eight of them in a line.

These people had cleaned the mud off their hands and faces, and they had also put on new clothes.

They took in Su Mo's dumbfounded expression and, with Chen Shen as their leader, all of them lowered their bodies in unison and bowed at a 90-degree angle.

Whoosh!

It was as if they had practiced this numerous times. Other than Moore, all the others were perfectly synchronized in their movement and cadence!

Right after they bowed, Chen Shen extended the tray he was holding in his hands to Su Mo.

There was a jade white bowl on the red tray.

Inside the bowl was a greenish-red broth that looked mouthwateringly appetizing, and a sour and spicy aroma wafted from the bowl.

The tray looked handmade, since its surface was not very uniform. The broth sloshed around in the bowl when Chen Shen bowed, revealing the treasure within.

"Brother Su, today is New Year's Eve for us Huaxians. We've all combined our resources, but we could not find anything good to get for you from the trading market."

"This bowl of dumplings is a token of appreciation from all of us, and we hope that you will like it."

Staring at the hundreds of fervent refugees, Su Mo then looked up at the moon.

What Chen Shen said had invoked a sudden sense of realization within Su Mo.

Today?

It's New Years' Eve already?

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Chapter 246: It's Chinese New Year! Benefits By The Bagful!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

A familiar moon in the heavens and familiar loess under one's feet—in this world, this would be the Huaxians' first grand celebration of the eve of Chinese New Year.

Su Mo had been so busy that the season had completely slipped his mind, but it had crept up slowly on him.

Dumplings, Chinese New Year's Eve, and now it was already Chinese New Year?

Su Mo absent-mindedly took stock of the circle of hunched-over refugees, looking at the perpetual fatigue on their faces as well as their intent expressions. He then slowly came forward.

Yes, it was definitely Chinese New Year's Eve.

It just so happened that this fell right on the first day of the welfare disaster—the day when everyone gathered in the harvest.

They could eat their fill and have a restful sleep, then wash off all the difficulties experienced over the last year. When the new year arrived, it would be the first year of an era of hope!

After using the system appraisal to make sure there was nothing wrong with the contents of the bowl, Su Mo swept a glance around the refugees, who were so excited they could barely hold it in. He then carefully accepted the big bowl that Chen Shen was holding.

The bowl was fired porcelain, and there were even pale green patterns on its edge. Such utensils could only be obtained from treasure chests and were worth a fortune on the market.

The soup stock in the bowl was of a rich color and crystal clear.

Red oil chili oil was drizzled over the vinegar soup. Even though there was no psychic energy water to improve its flavor, or psychic energy cabbage to enhance its aroma, this was a traditional bowl of home-cooked food that every family would eat during the Chinese New Year back in civilized times. It made tears well up suddenly in Su Mo's eyes.

He took up the chopsticks. As everyone watched intently, he carefully picked up a large, odd-shaped dumpling that did not match the others and put it in his mouth.

"Mmm… it tastes good!"

The wild vegetable dumpling was filled with minced beef.?When paired with a soup like this, the taste was surprisingly aromatic and sweet.

Before the others even began to cheer, Moore, who was standing in front, became extremely excited, especially after Su Mo's compliment about the food. He even launched into a belly dance that he had picked up from goodness knows where.

"The first dumpling Master ate was the dumpling Moore wrapped. It turns out Master likes Moore's cooking!"

Moore swayed to and fro, dancing and gyrating his body around coquettishly.

Moore's funny antics immediately broke the ice in the hitherto rather solemn atmosphere. Most of the refugees joined in the laughter one after the other.

"Alright. It's almost Chinese New Year, why is everyone still so solemn? Since it's Chinese New Year, all supplies consumed tonight…

"Will be on me!"

Su Mo glanced at the happy Moore and felt something stir in his heart slightly. Then he looked at the refugees below and made his declaration.

Wow!

It would not have mattered if he had said nothing at all, but after Su Mo announced this, all the refugees—who had been suppressing their emotions thus far—could hold it in no longer. A loud, boisterous roar of joy abruptly rose from their midst.

There were burly men in their forties and fifties as well as teenagers of seventeen or eighteen years old, all following Moose's dancing moves and gyrating happily together.

Following this, the cooks who had made preparations earlier began to hand out bowls of dumplings from the kitchen. The Chinese New Year's Eve revelries…

Now began in earnest!

Eating alone was no fun. It had to be dozens, even a hundred people eating together to make it an experience.

The more people involved in such a big, grand festival, the more they could feel that festive mood.

Today, on this special day of New Year's Eve…

There was no "conventional" spring festival evening. There was no need to make requests or scan here and there before they could get the five blessings—longevity, wealth, health, kindness, and peace—for one yuan and a few cents.

There were also no good friends to help one get a bargain price or collect a selection of miscellaneous cards to get just that meager reward.

There was no mass messaging or any "fake" celebratory wishes sent between superiors and subordinates. In fact, it was completely dark after coming out of the village.

Still, despite the circumstances in the wasteland on this special day, regardless of how large or small the shelters were, as long as there were people gathered together, everyone could truly feel that "festive vibe" within their hearts.

It was Chinese New Year, which was also time for the harvest.

It was Chinese New Year, which was also a time for revelry.

It was time to set aside all weariness, feast well, and sleep well. The next day, they would resume living their difficult, but full lives.

"Let us live this life together! Live without restraint!

"Wildly racing our horses and enjoying the world's bustle

"Serenading wine with the joy in our hearts

"Here's to the splendor and vigor of seizing our youth."

"..."

The refugees brought out a rechargeable speaker from somewhere. As the background music played, the merrier things became, and the mood turned even more festive.

The celebration became even more carefree. A tape with only eight songs was played continuously on loop.

The sound of songs, cheers, and noisy festivity spread like wildfire through every corner of this apocalyptic wasteland.

Su Mo, the one who had initiated all of this, sat alone on the highest point of the Candlelight Shelter's roof on this busy night. He cleared his mind after not having done so for a while.

He brought out a bottle of sake that had been in the shelter for goodness knows how long. From time to time, he took a small swig and nibbled on a fried snack.

Su Mo knew that these people could only truly celebrate freely if he were not present. They would revel with wild abandon and enjoy their hard-earned harvest.

"Sis, oh sis, I wonder how you're celebrating over on your end!"

He lay down on the roof, gazing up at the night sky, and gently stroked Oreo, who was lying docilely beside him like a large furry ball.

At this moment, no one was more alone than Su Mo, yet no one was more fulfilled than he!

What people feared most was an unclear vision of the way ahead—living in this world, and not knowing what to do tomorrow, what they were pursuing, or what they wished to protect!

Su Mo was very glad because, in this wasteland, he had found a path that he could persevere on. Furthermore, he had a clear-cut vision of how he should proceed and how to successfully achieve his goal!

"All I want is really just some tranquillity and peace of mind!

'Since this world can't fulfill even this small desire, then I, Su Mo, will do everything in my power to safeguard everything that I want!"

The wine caused him to be self-absorbed. The alcohol percentage was not high, but it was enough to cause slight light-headedness. Su Mo was now in an unprecedentedly dauntless mood, ready to conquer all obstacles on the rocky path ahead.

'It doesn't matter even if it's ten thousand miles!

'This is the road that I, Su Mo, will walk!

'If heaven is a round dome covering a square earth, there's nothing to be afraid of in a world wreathed in mist!

'Sooner or later, I'll break through the heavens!'

After further conceptualizing the outline of the future that he had in mind, Su Mo glanced down at the lively crowd and hopped up from the roof.

Without disturbing anyone, Su Mo, bearing Moore—who had fallen asleep after eating his fill—began the return journey in the car with Oreo as well!

Chinese New Year was something one should return home to celebrate!

For these people, the Candlelight Shelter was their home. However, as far as Su Mo was concerned, the Underground Shelter…

Was his real home!

He rolled down the car window, letting the cool breeze flow in. The short period of oxygen increase that the plants provided not only released a trace of moisture into the air, but it even felt somewhat comfortable.

Su Mo took a deep breath, looking at how much the wasteland had changed. The closer he got to the Underground Shelter, the more excited he became.

Finally…

The Deep-sea Shelter hove into view!

Su Mo glanced at the place where he had excavated his first bucket of gold and stopped the car. He poured out the remaining sake that he had not finished in front of the Deep-sea Shelter's entrance.

"Big Brother Magoo, it's Chinese New Year. May you rest in peace here. Earth… we'll be able to return to Earth one day, sooner or later!"

The grass stirred a little as if Magoo were answering him.

After another deep bow of respect, Su Mo put away the bottle of sake and glanced at the Deep-sea Shelter, now overgrown with weeds. He then got into the car and floored the accelerator.

The distance between both places was not far. Given Earth Tiger's power, it took only less than two to three minutes for him to reach the Underground Shelter at lightning speed.

A mere welfare disaster had drastically changed the appearance of the low-lying lands.

The Gobi, where nothing grew before, had now sprouted a considerable number of colorful plants.

The hills around the Underground Shelter were covered in a carpet of fresh, vibrant green.

After going just a day without seeing them, eight of the ten psychic energy fruit tree saplings were now full-grown.

What was more, this momentous growth was far more frightening than the forest in the Talisman World!

Of all the energy fruit tree saplings that had absorbed the psychic energy water, the most slender was half a meter thick, and the shortest was at least eight or nine meters high.

Su Mo sat in front of the Underground Shelter. The branches of the trees swayed gently in the cool night breeze, wafting forth the scent of plants in nature.

After a check of his surroundings to make sure that no dangerous changes had occurred nearby, he opened the door and parked the car.

A long-lost feeling of "coming home" welled up in Su Mo's heart when he saw Big Spark and Little Spark clucking noisily and running out to welcome him back.

"Alright, alright, alright. This is my home. Good chickens, you must have been waiting frantically. I'll make dinner for you now!"

Currently, Big Spark's wingspan already measured one meter, while Little Spark's was around seventy centimeters.

The two "giant creatures" that had the natural ability to understand humans pounced on Su Mo, behaving in a coquettish manner. After he had soothed them, they stopped and settled down, following behind him like puppies.

Moore, who had slept all the way home in the car, was now rubbing his bleary eyes. He opened the door on the passenger's side, rolled out of the car immediately, then sprawled onto the floor and resumed slumbering soundly.

Oreo barked in amusement when she saw the state Moore was in.

Su Mo hauled the three bags of freshly ground flour out of Earth Tiger. Hurrying because of the late hour, he used the remaining supplies in the base and made a lavish supper.

After supper, he shut the door securely. After checking on all the facilities, Su Mo returned to his small bed.

All three of them had been exhausted for the last two days. Now that they were full and had nothing to do the next day, everyone had an extremely comfortable night's sleep, from Su Mo in the top bunk down to Oreo and Moore below.

Other places were partying and celebrating. In his small Underground Shelter, however, Su Mo felt relaxed and comfortable instead—something that had not happened in a long while.

Everyone slept until past eight o'clock in the morning. After their fatigue had completely dissipated, they greeted the early morning light and the fresh air.

On the three-tier bunk bed in the Underground Shelter, Su Mo slowly opened his eyes.

"Even the system wants to join in the fun this Chinese New Year!"

At this hour, given how tired he had been yesterday, Su Mo could still have slept on.

However, the system notifications that were pitter-pattering in his head meant he had to wake up a bit earlier.

A few days ago, the system would only pay in a set amount of points every day at a set time, occasionally adding in something small worth several dozen points. Compared to expenses nowadays that could easily rack up a few thousand points, the rate of accumulation was entirely too slow.

The first day after New Year's Eve, which was also the first day of the Chinese New Year, the system underwent an unusual change, which had not happened in quite a while.

Right after the daily system announcements, the system emitted rapid bursts of firecracker explosions as if it was celebrating Chinese New Year.

Su Mo sat up, stretching his stiff neck slightly, and drank a big gulp of the psychic energy water on the bedside. After that, he used his mind to call up the familiar system interface.

At the same time, the daily survival points tally popped up—it was completely unlike the plain one from before.

"Oh, wow. It used to be some high-end pretentious light blue color. Today the system even knows how to follow local customs and changed everything to such a festive red!

"From the looks of it, this system appears to have been created by Huaxians—it even knows what it is to celebrate Chinese New Year, haha!"

The bright red interface was extremely eye-catching, and Su Mo smiled as he scrolled straight down to the lowest part of the panel. From force of habit, he first checked on how much he had accumulated today for his harvest.

However, just a quick check and he could not help feeling ecstatic, even if he was normally able to preserve his calm.

"There's another chance for a lucky draw!"

"The system is actually sending out benefits for Chinese New Year. That's so ridiculous but it's great!"

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Chapter 247: It's The 8G Era, Will You Be Surfing Online Too?

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

[Doomsday Calendar Month 2, Day 1]

[You have completed making three automated mechanical tools, this will allow your team to survive easily during disasters. (Survival points 100 points)]

[You have gained a tree with a potential value of (Legendary), nurture it well, it will bring you endless surprises (Survival points 200 points)]

[Your cornucopia—your psychic energy water well gained a significant enhancement, the attributes have become more powerful. (Survival points 500)]

[Your team has an abundant harvest, as the person with the highest percentage share in the harvest, your supplies are sufficient! (Survival Points 1000)]

[You have preliminary plans for the future, this will allow you to be more resilient on the Doomsday wasteland. (Survival points 500)]

[You have received an unexpected surprise. (Survival points 100)]

[Milestone—Charisma: Your working style and personal charisma have gained the loyalty of hundreds of people (Survival points 500)]

[Milestone—Chinese New Year's Eve: First Chinese New Year's Eve in the wasteland (creation function lucky draw chance 1)]

[Milestone—Harvest: One-time harvest providing a five-year food supply necessary for the current population of the shelter (Survival points 500)]

[Milestone—Time assassin: The belongings of any shelter gain a thousandfold increase in time. (Survival points 500)]

[Milestone—Team: One-time leadership of more than a hundred people to accomplish a planned goal. (Survival points 500)]

[Milestone—Leadership (primary level): Your temperament has become calmer, more suited to fulfilling the requirements of becoming a leader in the wasteland. (Charisma 5)]

[Scanning host survival environment. Survival points evaluation in progress. 401 survival points gained today.]

…

Total tally: 4801 points; creation function lucky draw chance x1

Survival points remaining: 19086 points

"My current gap in survival points is too big. Previously, I wouldn't have dreamed of earning as much as 5000. But now, it's far from enough if I want to create something!"

Achieving so many milestones had only gained him 4800 points. At the thought of leveling up in the future, which would cost tens of thousands or even several hundred thousand survival points, Su Mo could not help feeling a headache coming on.

"However, the gains from just one lucky draw chance is much higher than ten thousand points, a hundred thousand points, or even a million points!"

Before one accomplished anything earth-shattering, the survival points that the system gave out were already insufficient based on what was currently happening.

However, the lucky draw chance this time really roused Su Mo's enthusiasm!

For the last round, he had drawn Dongfeng 17. Killing the Heavenly Dog Pseudo God had not only made Su Mo incredibly rich, but it had also even directly changed the fate of the entire community and halted mankind's decline on the wasteland.

This had resulted indirectly in the welfare disaster, which had provided the shelters with supplies that could last for years!

Now, these changes had shown up on the creation function. Looking at the lucky draw chance that had appeared on the top right corner, Su Mo found it hard to breathe as his heart began beating faster.

"First of all, I don't do bad things. Secondly, I don't intentionally scheme to harm people or entrap them. I've always done things properly and above-board. My conscience is clear.

"It'll be inexcusable if you don't give me something good!"

After the previous lucky draw, given the frightening minimum and maximum limits of the lucky draw system, Su Mo did not continue with his self-comforting prayers. He immediately tapped on the lucky draw interface.

Clatter!

Millions of cards began to shuffle rapidly in the creation function, the cards sliding across the screen quickly.

For a split second even, the mini destroyer blueprint in his storage space flashed past on one of the cards, showing its perfect iron curves—an extremely alluring sight.

Su Mo watched the familiar Dongfeng 17 go past; as he looked, Dongfeng 41 also went by in a flash.

He watched as nuclear submarines turned to aircraft carriers. When he saw a fighter aircraft that could travel thousands of kilometers per hour, Su Mo's face flushed.

The cards were gliding past very quickly. After watching for a while, Su Mo gave up on the idea of drawing a prize by looking at the cards. He began holding his breath.

Looking at the cards that were swiftly flashing past one by one, Su Mo's chest rose and fell in time with the hammering of his heart until he was almost dizzy.

He found himself faced with a card that looked completely ordinary but somehow held a magnetic attraction for him. He used his mind to hurriedly grab it and pull it out.

Boom!

The cards that were still fluttering in an illusory manner vanished with a boom into the creation function once Su Mo made his choice.

Like a shooting star beyond the heavens, the lucky draw interface swiftly vanished.

The existing column now had a new addition—a vintage card, the back of it covered with intricate patterns.

"This time, I'm not asking for any missiles or any superweapons. Just give me something that can be used in the ocean, and I'll be satisfied!"

Taking two deep breaths, Su Mo began to concentrate.

As his thoughts moved slightly along the edges of the card, he used his mind to carefully turn up one corner of it.

He saw something silvery-white and pointed that resembled a scroll. It exuded a faint electric-blue current.

"Huh? This is a blueprint? It's not a finished product?"

Su Mo scratched his head, staring at the card that looked exactly like the blueprint designs in the game, then simply flipped it over right away.

Based on his previous attempts, the system's creation function could not directly create blueprints—it could only create finished products.

He had not expected to pull something like this in the lucky draw.

Once the card was turned over, it naturally lost its mysterious "aura" and its attributes were also displayed as Su Mo looked at it.

[High Capacity Signal Tower (Rare)]

[Description: The high capacity signal tower came into being in the 8G era, following the development of the materials industry and the need for signals. Due to the addition of a series of high-strength rigid structures, the signal tower is extremely well-equipped to withstand natural disasters. Furthermore, after the inclusion of a high-energy signal emitter, the signal tower's signal range can reach a maximum of 3000 kilometers. Compared to the 7G era, this increase is a significant leap.

[Card contents: High capacity signal tower finished product x1; high capacity signal tower blueprint x1

[Signal range: Peak data range: 3800 kilometers and below; signal limit: 1400 kilometers and below

[Power consumption: 12.5 kWh (Limit: 22.4 kWh, Lowest: 3.85 kWh)

[Signal strength: Within 3000 kilometers (delay: 0.005ms), outside 3000 kilometers (every 100 kilometer increase, delay increases by 1ms)

[Amenities: High energy signal tower user manual x1, high energy signal tower maintenance manual x1

[Limitation: Requires the building of a transformer substation that meets the system's requirements before it can be situated

[Limitation: Requires the user to have an exploration range of more than 3000 kilometers before it can be situated

[Comment: It's the 8G era, will you be surfing online too?

"Good grief, so it's not merely a blueprint, there's a finished product that comes with it as well!"

Even though he had not drawn any weaponry or equipment that could instantly increase his combat abilities and had instead drawn a signal tower that seemed useless at the moment, Su Mo was not annoyed at all. In fact, he felt as if he had stumbled upon some amazing good luck.

The Dongfeng missile was extremely powerful. However, apart from the fact that it could only be used once, it was practically useless in terms of something that could change technology.

Things like weapons required far too many skills in basic science and technology. Before reaching a certain stage, there was no way to absorb its technological contents.

Conversely, if the requirements for the signal tower were fulfilled, the tower itself could be set up. By analyzing the technology used, mankind's communication technology would gain an unprecedented boost.

Some of the technology that he had imagined would be able to come into being as well!

"Before everyone on Earth transmigrated here, 5G era applications were not even fully developed yet. This sudden leap to 8G means that the conceptions everyone holds about technology will go through another shakeup again!"

Su Mo shook his head, staring at the glossy card that glittered irresistibly. He suppressed the excitement in his heart and steadfastly put it away.

'This is way out of my reach, I can't have it!'

Before this object's function could be maximized, it required at least a certain depth in the shelter's strategic scope, or for technological capabilities to advance until they were at the limit of Earth's technology.

Putting aside the energy drain caused by the frightening amount of power consumption, if he simply built a transformer substation now, assembled the refugees of the Candlelight Shelter, and forced the signal tower to be released without building amenities beforehand, it would merely be the equivalent of a useless pillar in terms of actual use.

Seeing that it was still early after the harvesting was finished, Su Mo opened his diary that he had not used for quite some time. Since he was in a good mood, he felt inclined to give a complete summary of what he had been doing recently.

From the ruins of time until the planting after that, Su Mo extracted some key phrases from everything that happened and arranged them into a complete list.

After sorting this out, he glanced at the cluttered plans previously recorded in the diary. Once again, he tapped on his friends list and randomly pulled up a deceased person's account from among his interactions with his good friends.

"Since there'll be more and more plans as time goes on, it looks like I'll have to open another account for summarizing them!"

After making notes about future plans on the deceased person's account, Su Mo began listing down everything he needed to do according to date.

"Arrangements for the Candlelight Shelter have already been sorted out; apart from delivering fuel, there aren't any troublesome matters that need to be taken care of in the next two days. As for the fuel delivery… Moose can drive Earth Tiger over.

"The five mu of black soil land beside the shelter is so fertile it can't be left to sit idle. In my spare time, I can plant the herbs that I've collected and some other tree saplings.

"The furnace has to be built as soon as possible. I'll have to think of a way to smelt some high-strength steel.

"Once the disaster is over, the shelter will be able to advance to level five. The mini destroyer blueprint that required a level four shelter to learn can be used immediately then. When the time comes, I'll be able to start attempting to build the mini destroyer.

"The shelter's development mustn't stop either. Once the energy fruits have ripened, now that there isn't the handicap of damaging the core, not to mention the eight complete cores I have on hand, the shelter can open up several large living spaces. Those can be transformed into cold storage for food and supplies.

"As for the development of the technology tree, I'll have to wait until the low-lying land ruins open up, then try to find a computer there. I'll only be able to embark on the next stage of development if I have a computer!

"..."

After eloquently noting down more than ten lines in succession, Su Mo looked at his clearly-listed plans for the next two months and closed the game interface, feeling satisfied.

The road to farming began with this first step.

Once he had completed this round of moving supplies into the warehouse, he could immerse himself fully in developing the technology tree.

When the time came, once the flood subsided, the technology of the low-lying lands would burgeon rapidly, and mankind's first super assembly point would be birthed from here!

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Chapter 248: Furnace Built! Steel Warship!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Su Mo outlined future prospects while he performed his morning ablutions and prepared breakfast.

At this time, although the Candlelight Shelter was more than a hundred kilometers away, Chen Shen was still very conscientious about first asking Su Mo if he was busy. After that, he made a video call and respectfully gave a report on yesterday and today's harvesting, and the plans for today until tomorrow.

"Today, just continue with the first two rounds of wheat. Once you've finished with that, go ahead and plant the vegetables and the cotton.

"Oh yes, have you arranged for what's necessary to grow the vegetables and decided on how you're going to sow the cotton and harvest it?"

Chen Shen nodded his head when he heard what Su Mo said, indicating that he had already arranged everything.

Collective wisdom exceeded that of any individual.

By gathering ten university students together and setting a clear division of labor, the Candlelight Shelter, with its hundreds of inhabitants, was both well-managed and well-organized.

After briefing Chen Shen on all the things he had to take note of and discussing the matter of connecting the fuel line, Su Mo ended the call. By then, breakfast was also ready, sending forth appetizing, enticing aromas.

After eating greasy oil-sprinkled noodles for quite a few days, Su Mo glanced at the dishes in front of him and took a serving of stir-fried cabbage with vinegar. He then took several large, freshly steamed white buns and had a mouthful of thick, creamy rice congee.

While others were shedding tears of gratitude to be able to eat steamed buns right now, there was no doubt that Su Mo was way ahead of them, living like a member of the petit bourgeois.

The rice congee had a delicate, sweetly aromatic flavor. When paired with the delicious taste of the psychic energy cabbage, it could soothe all unhappiness in an instant.

Even Moore, who preferred much stronger flavors, constantly praised the taste.

After breakfast, they put away the cookware and finished cleaning up, then loaded Earth Tiger with the diesel produced yesterday and today.

Man and bear arrived at the main door of the shelter.

"Moore, once you've finished delivering the oil, you have to come back as soon as possible. We need you here to help us out!"

Su Mo patted Moore's shoulder, then watched as the large bear nodded obediently, climbed into Earth Tiger, and rumbled off into the distance.

Standing at the entrance of the underground shelter, Su Mo was like a loving elderly father, waving at the departing car with a pleased smile on his face.

'Our family's little bear has finally grown up!'

Based on the way things were progressing, it would not take long to train Moore to become the first mate of the mini destroyer.

When the time came, as long as a complete autopilot system could be installed in the mini destroyer, both man and bear could fully control the ship and travel across the ocean, sailing thousands of miles away.

Furthermore, since everyone on board would be their own people, there was no need to worry that mutiny would occur once the journey was underway or that one would be stabbed in the back at night.

"Alright, alright. Stop being jealous!"

Seeing that Moore's role was becoming increasingly important, Oreo—one of the shelter's founding members—had started whining.

Su Mo watched the husky behaving in this ridiculous fashion until Earth Tiger had disappeared into the horizon. He laughed and picked Oreo up, then walked back into the shelter.

The cultivation of the black soil would have to be delayed for a little until Moore came back.

After pumping up the necessary amount of psychic energy water for routinely watering the energy fruit tree sapling at the entrance, Su Mo returned to his workbench and began studying the good thing that he had obtained a while back…

The furnace!

After two rounds of exchanges in the Secret Trading Realm, except for one last rare earth element—lutetium, which had yet to be found—all the other necessary materials he had obtained exceeded what he needed to build the furnace.

"As far as I'm concerned, 2000 points is no longer an unacceptable amount.

"If I keep on waiting, not only will the development of the shelter be delayed, but it will also result in a series of unnecessary variables.

"I may as well just use the creation function to create the lutetium!"

After deciding to use the creation function, Su Mo did not delay any further. He moved all the materials necessary for building the furnace onto the workbench according to what the design blueprint required, then pulled up the creation function panel.

As Su Mo used his mind, expending 2000 survival points went as swiftly as water flowing.

In the air, multiple pure white particles of light began to coalesce into a shape. Three to five seconds later, clear crystals that glowed grey and black finished forming completely and dropped on the table.

At the same time, the creation panel, which had hitherto kept prompting about materials that were still lacking, suddenly displayed a glowing green light. All the necessary materials had now been assembled!

"Confirm… build a furnace!"

After collecting the requisite amounts of everything and viewing the various materials all over the floor, the game panel acknowledged the command and began the creation process immediately upon receiving Su Mo's confirmation.

Building the furnace required the deduction of 240 disaster points. This left Su Mo with 2218 points in his account.

Seeing that the furnace needed only five minutes to be constructed, Su Mo simply went to the first floor of the shelter and waited in silence for the item to be finished.

The grey-black furnace did not take up much space—a mere ten square meters was sufficient.

Furthermore, the furnace used the current most easily-obtained resource in the underground shelter…

It was powered by electricity!

Once it was connected to a power source, the furnace would be able to heat up to two or even three thousand degrees celsius in just a short time and begin operating.

Although the power consumption was frighteningly high, compared with the functions of the furnace, it was not a big deal at all.

Five minutes went by in just the snap of a finger.

When the game panel dinged, Su Mo hurriedly accessed it and found the furnace, which was already indicating that it could be placed.

Su Mo fixed on a side corner in the garage and confirmed the position silently in his heart.

Boom!

The large furnace immediately appeared in the air, bringing tons of ash with it, and settled onto the ground at once.

What was more, within a few seconds, it had completely adhered to the ground's surface as if the furnace had sprung up from the stones there.

"Once it's been situated, it can't be moved anymore. Otherwise, another 500 disaster points will be needed for that, but there's no need to move it under the current circumstances!"

Su Mo closed the game panel after reading through the precautions. He then began taking stock of the massive object in front of him.

The furnace was different from the ones in simulation games. Although the furnace in front of him bore some resemblance to the ones in '7 Days to Die' and 'Minecraft', overall, its design was based on modular technology and the concept of the motor-pumped oil well.

The whole furnace was divided into three parts.

The chute—where materials were inserted—was formed by a huge square box and a pipe about two meters thick. The square box utilized some kind of mysterious space storage technology and was fully twenty cubic meters in size. He only needed to put in the raw materials for the supplies that needed to be prepared, and they would be delivered to the heart of the furnace through the pipe.

The heart of the furnace contained four long pipes resembling steam whistles that extended straight upward. They were for heat dissipation. The interior structure was completely sealed and could not be seen at the moment.

The final output area was constructed on the lines of the motor-pumped oil well; it also had four large extruding pipes that were connected respectively to four square metal boxes on the ground. Each metal box measured 15 cubic meters. On the right-most side of the metal box was another pipe that ran straight through the chute area, ensuring that anything needing secondary smelting could repeat the cycle.

"Not bad—not bad at all. Although there are still some mysterious technological elements involved, so far, the principle of operation is still fairly easy to understand!"

Su Mo stroked the surface of the furnace, which was constructed from some unknown material. As he complimented it, the furnace properties chart popped into view.

[Furnace (Excellent)]

[Description: Modular technology product that can be used in a series of amazing ways. It produces marvelous effects when paired with other modules.

[Modules currently owned: Crucible module, strong reaction module, storage module

[Function: Processing

[Power consumption: 10 kWh

At present, the furnace only had three modules. Of those corresponding to its specific functions, it only possessed the smelting attribute.

Su Mo called up the system panel. However, when he saw that adding in other modules easily required thousands of points, he quickly changed his mind about upgrading.

"There's only one processing function, but it's fully sufficient for current use.

"As for the various functions that will be needed later on, I'm not in a hurry. I can collect them slowly and see if I can't get any of them from treasure chests!"

Once the furnace began operating, the power consumption would be ten kilowatts per hour.

Su Mo experimented by plugging the thick connector into the port for the thickest wire—this had been designed in the early stages of the shelter's planning.

Following that, Su Mo returned to the second floor to switch on the diesel generator so it could supply electricity. After the furnace's power supply had been connected, the furnace began operating for the first time with a loud, booming sound.

Pow!

To the side of the chute area, a familiar palm-sized digital screen like that of themotor-pumped oil well popped up, displaying the items that could be created with the currently available processing function.

"At present, what's needed most are definitely the steel plates that will be used to create the mini destroyer. If it's not constructed properly, it may very well fall apart after it's gone no more than two paces!

"However, since building the destroyer is necessary, I'll just have to make sure there won't be any problem for at least three to five years. I'll need to choose good materials!"

There were many bells and whistles on the panel. After a round of screening, Su Mo quickly found the column for steel and accessed it.

The most commonly used steel could be divided into "structural steel" and "tool steel".

Based on the alloy elements, they could be categorized further into "carbon steel" and "alloy steel".

These could be divided still further into "carbon tool steel" and "alloy tool steel".

Based on the S and P impurities content, the steel could also be divided into basic steel, high quality steel, high grade high quality steel, and special grade high quality steel.

Back in the day when the famous virtually unsinkable ship, the Titanic, fell apart and sank after it hit an iceberg, it was because the steel plates used in its construction contained a lot of zinc sulfide chemical impurities. Furthermore, lengthy immersion in the freezing sea had caused the steel plates to weaken.

As a result, a minor collision caused them to break, and the incident became a lasting regret.

Therefore, when choosing materials to build the mini destroyer—sorted from highest to lowest grades—Su Mo skipped the mild steels immediately and turned his attention to the military grade steel used for building naval vessels.

The applied research on military grade steel was very complicated. In total, there were nine categories and over 140 items.

Accurate tests had to be conducted on the steel with regards to strength, toughness, tensile strength, its state of stress in low temperatures, and more.

Normally, for materials used to build aircraft carriers, for example, the yield strength of the steel deck plates had to be 900 Mpa, while the yield strength for the hull had to be 780 Mpa.

As the size went down the scale, even the smallest mini destroyer would need at least a yield strength of 400 Mpa to ensure utmost safety.

"Right now, the best steel plate that the furnace can create only has a yield strength of 620 Mpa. This is probably related to the temperature of the furnace heat that the shelter's amenities can provide at present.

"Or it might be have something to do with other modules as well!"

From highest grade to lowest, the best material was military grade steel. Its yield strength was high, but after Su Mo pulled it up to look at the requirements, he immediately abandoned any ideas of making it.

There was no getting past the frightening consumption of resources!

Making military grade steel required the addition of many odd items. In the furnace, this step had been simplified—all one had to do was provide a sufficient amount of the necessary raw materials, and the steel could be created.

However, in terms of raw materials, when Su Mo discovered that one unit of 620 Mpa steel required 1380 units of iron and 880 units of copper, he could only cluck his tongue and choose to abandon the endeavor.

There was nothing wrong with modern warships using such expensive steel because the steel hull plates of modern warships were not thick. Instead, they were fairly thin. For example, the thickness of 052 steel was only 30 millimeters.

What was the concept behind this? The thickness of a yuan coin was only 25 millimeters, while the steel plates of the warship were only 5 millimeters thicker.

In modern warfare, methods of attacking warships had become increasingly advanced, from the initial torpedoes and bombs to the popular anti-ship missiles, as well as nuclear submarines equipped with heavyweight torpedoes that could hunt silently.

Under these circumstances, thick armor plates would not serve as a defense; instead, they would merely impede combat performance.

However, in the wasteland, it was practically suicide to design such thin armor plating based on the modern way of thought or to wage warfare in the modern style.

Everything else aside, if there were any underwater alien races, all they had to do was carry steel tridents, and they could easily cut a large hole in the destroyer.

"The steel plates have to be thick. If the destroyer's not equipped with weapons, thickness is key. Even if I have to ram something, I want to be able to do it properly!"

Currently, there were only 8000 units of iron in the shelter. Even if mining took place in the interim, the amount would not exceed more than 30,000 units.

Calculating based on the length of the destroyer, which was 40 meters, Su Mo's design would require at least 2000 steel plates.

Given these requirements, if the unit price could be contained at around 10 to 1, that would be the best value for money.

580? Too expensive, quit!

520? Still too expensive, quit!

Su Mo kept selecting, watching the Mpa getting lower and lower until he was almost at his psychological limits and had begun to doubt himself. It was not until the requirements of 440 Mpa steel popped out that Su Mo finally felt relieved.

For 440 Mpa military grade steel, 1 unit only required 13 units of iron and 1.5 units of copper.

2000 units would require 26000 units of iron and 3000 units of copper!

Based on the current reserves in the shelter, 18000 units of iron still needed to be mined to fulfill the manufacturing requirements.

"My plans don't conflict with each other after all. To survive the next disaster, everyone in the Candlelight Shelter will need to move to Iron Rock Mountain!

"With the excellent-quality iron pickaxes and the storage space for transport, hundreds of people mining won't be any slower than a machine—in fact, it might be even faster!

"This will absolutely kill two birds with one stone. While they're mining a sufficient amount of iron, at the same time, they're also excavating a large space in the mountain that can house hundreds of people for weathering the disaster!"

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Chapter 249: Terrifying Thickness, The Unprecedented 490mm

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Once his ideas had connected, the following plan swiftly emerged in Su Mo's mind as smoothly as flowing water.

Through the use of the Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll card in the ruins of time previously, Su Mo had already become completely familiar with the topography of the 300 kilometers surrounding the Underground Shelter.

If there were no issues in the talisman's simulation of the disaster, within ten minutes, the water in the areas nearby the Underground Shelter would accumulate to a depth of ten meters.

The sunken terrain of the low-lying land aside—which was the main reason water would accumulate there—the plains would be flooded with water at least eight meters deep on the first day itself.

Within 300 kilometers, if he followed along the west side and kept going upward, the topography would get higher to a certain extent—but for this monstrous flood disaster, it was entirely insufficient!

If he wanted to survive within these perimeters, he had to find a mountain!

Either that or… build a small boat.

However, if he did that, wherever he drifted would truly be up to fate and the heavens!

Therefore, by moving all the refugees in the Candlelight Shelter to Iron Rock Mountain, he would have sufficient free labor to mine enough iron ore to build the destroyer, and also to build a "fortress" that could withstand the flood for half a year.

The plan was sound! He could kill two birds with one stone!

"Once the furnace is operating, it can produce one unit of steel in five minutes. If I calculate based on 12 hours of work a day, in 13 days—less than 14 days—I can gather the necessary steel."

After calculating the specific time and realizing that he only needed less than half a month to gather enough materials, Su Mo was relieved and no longer worried.

Based on the previous pattern, there would probably be a month—30 days—of preparation time, or a month and a half—45 days—from this disaster until the next.

Given this period, all of mankind could rely on this round of supplies for a buffer and mass migrate from the wasteland to a place where they could hide from the flood.

After half a year, when the flood receded, they could come back to dry land and start a new round of development.

"If the Tundra Shelter can't find a suitable mountain when the time comes, perhaps I can still think of a way to help them.

"After all, as long as I can build a large, sturdy ship, there's no way that I won't be able to last for ten days or more."

He applied the worst-case scenario to everything. Even if the Tundra Shelter did not have any topographical advantages within a few hundred kilometers and could not find a high enough mountain to avoid the flood, that did not actually present a very big problem either.

After all, this disaster was just a flood for now. However high the flood rose, as long as it was not a tsunami, the impact would not be that frightening.

Even if the flood reached three or four hundred meters at its highest downstream, Su Mo was still full of confidence given the implementation skills displayed by the Tundra Shelter.

Glancing at the time and realizing it was still early—and since Moore still had not returned yet—Su Mo turned the switch on and fired up the furnace for the first time.

The storage space in the chute was very large. After putting in 100 units of iron and copper in one go, Su Mo started creating for the first time.

After choosing and confirming the creation of 400 Mpa steel, a new creation window popped up.

The new window contained not only the steel data that consumed Su Mo's attention but also design settings!

"Great! This time, it's finally given me something worth working on, and it's not trying to pull some kind of game monopoly anymore."

In this game that transported everyone to this wasteland, the most basic unit of measurement was forever a mystery.

As long as they were different types, one unit of measurement could be a lot or very little.

For example, one unit of copper and one unit of iron were not on par with each other.

What was even more unreasonable was that the weight for one unit of a shrub and one unit of a Chinese fir were both different.

During the creation of the steel plates, what Su Mo feared most was that the game would overstep its functions and create steel blocks. That would be extremely problematic.

Fortunately, although he could not fine-tune the data for the time being, he could still design the steel as he wished.

"If 2000 units aren't enough, I'll make 3000 of them!

"The length and width of the steel plates aren't important. What's crucial is that I need to get them to maximum thickness to ensure no one can attack and enter from under the hull."

As far as safety was concerned, Su Mo was exceptionally cautious.

He raised his hand and first dragged the sliders on the bars for length and width to the minimum value, then directly adjusted the slider on the thickness bar to the maximum limit.

After reconfirming that there were no issues, Su Mo pressed the red "create" button simultaneously with both hands, and the control panel automatically slid away. The furnace's first creation had begun.

Rattle…

Rattle…

As the sturdy pipeline transported the supplies that had been placed in the chute, the reaction furnace in the middle of the furnace also began its work.

Since it was enveloped in a large, heavy outer shell, during the catalytic process, it was impossible to see how the reaction furnace was operating when viewed from the outside.

Aside from occasional rattling noises that set one's teeth on edge, the iron and copper that went into the reaction furnace seemed to have gone into a different dimensional space—they made no sound at all.

Every minute, the furnace's four thick copper and iron pipes would belch forth bursts of white gases to dissipate heat, and the temperature in the first-floor garage began to rise as well.

However, the miraculous thing was, when he put his hand on the side of the furnace or even directly on the reaction furnace, he still could not feel any hint of rising temperature.

From top to bottom, this miraculous outer shell was like a large slab of marble—apart from being smooth, it was also sleek!

Rattle… rattle…

Now that he was anticipating the result, the five minutes of waiting time felt longer.

He fiddled with his watch and waited until sounds of endless tearing, pushing, and pulling came from the furnace, signaling that the creation process had entered its final stage.

At the rattling sounds that heralded delivery, Su Mo happily used his mind to open the storage box connected to the back of the furnace.

As expected, the module that delivered the steel plate was also extremely unusual.

A gleaming, high strength steel plate now lay there, obviously significantly larger than the conveyer belt.

Sensing that Su Mo wanted to take it, his storage space automatically opened, and the steel plate inside the furnace flew out, landing firmly on the ground.

"F*ck me, this furnace really is that powerful!"

The thick steel plate on the ground looked very hefty even at a glance. Su Mo attempted to pick it up but was shocked to discover that even with his current strength, he could only lift a corner of it.

If he wanted to carry it, unless Moore were here, he would have to rely on machine tools or the storage space for transport.

When compared with 13 units of iron and 1.5 units of copper, this creation…

Was not a loss at all!

Returning to the third floor, he located the good-quality tape measure that he bought in the previous seed trading. In one stroke, Su Mo had the basic data for one steel plate unit on paper.

The total length of this 440 Mpa steel plate was around 1353 mm, and its width was 765mm.

Based on the materials that had been put in, these two numbers were hardly significant, but in terms of thickness—which Su Mo was most concerned about—the furnace had executed his design perfectly.

It was 490 millimeters thick!

It was almost half a meter thick. What was the logic behind this?

In the history of human naval ships, even the largest first-class battleship—the Yamato, a super monster with a full load displacement of 72 thousand tons—only had armor plating that was 410 millimeters thick.

In battle back in the day, this steel beast had taken on 10 torpedoes and 24 bombs before finally being sunk.

Now, however, if the mini destroyer that had yet to be built could have armor plating 490 millimeters thick, never mind the small marine creatures—even if all the foreign marine races gathered, Su Mo would have the confidence to go up against them.

"It looks like my previous estimate was slightly off. If this steel plate is to be used in the rear of the ship, it should start with 2500 units.

"Based on this weight, the ship can remain steady even if its displacement is above 2 meters, much less 1.5 meters."

Using the storage space, he moved the steel plate to the corner of the first-floor garage. When the furnace turned off, the roaring sound stopped.

All the fuel currently in the shelter still had to be supplied to a few automated machines to ensure the biggest benefits from the welfare disaster.

When the disaster ended and all the food was stored away, the extra fuel could then be fully utilized to generate power for full-scale work, creating enough steel plates to build the destroyer.

"All the wasteland refugees have currently just managed to be able to have enough to eat. I'm anticipating there probably won't be much time for development before we face the flood either. Mankind will only be able to welcome the first wave of development when the flood recedes.

"When that time comes, resources will definitely be the first thing everyone fights over. Whoever obtains the most resources will be the one who can get a bigger share of the market and… even develop faster."

Countries on Earth had all been established using resources to define national borders.

Only with resources could one possess territory, and only with territory could assembly points of a certain size be gradually formed, as more people slowly gathered.

"Lucky I found the motor-pumped oil well Magoo left behind so I can stay ahead of everyone else. In the future, as long as I can keep upgrading the oil well, using it won't be a problem for three, five, or even ten years, given the current oil production capacity in the low-lying land.

"In addition, with the miraculous Resource Reserve Recovery Card, this oil is basically inexhaustible!"

Su Mo began putting together some of the things he intended to bring out for planting later. When he heard the sound of Moore honking Earth Tiger upon his return, Su Mo set aside his sentimentality.

Luck was very important to a strong person, but hard work on top of that luck was even more important!

Calling Moore and bringing the seeds he had packed, Su Mo arrived at the edge of the black soil land and started planting for the last time before the end of the disaster.

All the Chinese medicinal herbs accounted for a substantial amount of ground—a full two mu of land.

Now that he had some previous experience in sowing, when he planted medicinal herbs and fruit trees that had a better chance of surviving, there was a small wave of increase in quality as well.

From his initial forays into excellent-quality gardening, he could occasionally produce something rare-quality in these later stages as long as he focused on it completely.

By the time all five mu of land had been fully sowed, the sky had darkened once more, and a busy day had passed yet again.

Was he tired?

The answer went without saying.

Seeing that Moore had collapsed inert onto the ground beside him, Su Mo reached out a hand and gently stroked the bear's normally hard-to-reach head.

If he did not have Moore's help, planting these five mu of land by himself would have taken at least two or three days.

Now the planting had speeded up, although he was exhausted half to death.

However, most of the various plants already sprouting under the earth were the greatest consolation for both man and bear.

The trunk of the rare-quality apple tree currently extended to over a meter high. In fact, it was even growing taller, sprouting branches at a rate the eye could see.

The rare-quality apricot tree with its faster growth rate had already passed the early stages, and pale flowers were starting to gather on its branches, emitting an alluring fragrance.

Some of the Chinese medicinal herbs that matured faster could be harvested early tomorrow morning. Herbs like ginseng, where the value was higher the more mature they became, were frantically absorbing the nutrients in the ground.

"In this new land, it would be so wonderful if there were no disasters!"

Standing up and welcoming the twilight that descended at sunset, Su Mo let out a long-drawn sigh, then led the four little ones onto the path back to the shelter.

Once today was over and tomorrow came, after such a long period of hard work, it was finally time for the energy fruit, spring wheat, vegetables, and cotton, as well as various fruit trees and medicinal herbs…

To be harvested!

Chapter 250: A Rush, A Mind-Numbing Harvest!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Month 2 Day 2 of the Doomsday calendar was the Longtaitou Festival—the "dragon raising its head". This was an important event in Huaxian agriculture because the dragon was regarded as the deity in charge of rain.

In the Huaxian calendar, this was also the second day of the new year.

As this was the last day of the welfare disaster, most of the wasteland survivors had gathered at the campground. It was now time for the harvest.

Even some of the lone wolves were able to buy a small number of seeds the day before with their limited supplies, and after two rounds of propagation, they were able to harvest enough food on the last day to last half a year.

Either way, this should have been a day worth celebrating.

However, despite this being such a festive day, no one seemed very joyful. Instead, their faces were full of worry.

The reason for everyone's concern was simple…

Ever since four o'clock in the morning, as the weather began to change, the various discussions in the World Channel had not stopped at all.

On the last day, starting from about three o'clock, large ominous clouds gathered in the wasteland sky. Judging by how dense they seemed, they would not dissipate unless there was heavy rain!

Endless days of heat and sun, as well as the snow on the peripheries that was already beginning to melt, indirectly caused most of the refugees to forget that rainy weather still existed.

There was no weather forecast and no view of the night sky. The clouds arrived swiftly, and the rain did too!

In less than an hour, strange clouds from goodness knows where gathered in the sky and loomed over every area in the entire wasteland that bore signs of human activity.

The rain had not arrived earlier or later and was instead situated right here right now. It could be considered too much of a coincidence!

It also disrupted the plans that many people had made early on.

In the low-lying land right now…

After finishing up his work and eating dinner last night, Su Mo had slept early. He woke up correspondingly early as well.

The first glimmers of light were just beginning to illuminate the dawn sky, and the morning sun had not yet risen above the horizon. As the ancient alarm clock sounded, Su Mo immediately sprang out of bed and jumped up, his spirits high.

Waking up without feeling the need to do anything that would make one feel good about the day was something that could greatly enhance one's sense of happiness and accomplishment.

Su Mo felt the ample strength in his arms and waist and touched his muscled abdomen. He nodded in satisfaction, put on his clothes, and walked out of the room.

"Working in the field is also a form of training. As long as I make sure to recover from each exertion, my physical fitness will improve very quickly!"

After warming up with a round of the Su Family Spear Technique, he wiped the hot sweat off his entire body.

Su Mo went to the third floor of the underground shelter and started his usual morning ablutions as he checked the news from the World Channel.

"Huh—why are there so many people today?"

It was only just past six in the morning, and the World Channel—usually fairly empty at this time—was actually packed with vociferous people.

After a glance at the topic that everyone was discussing, Su Mo's initially relaxed expression immediately turned serious.

"It's actually going to rain. This timing is just far too much of a coincidence!"

After quickly finishing up his morning ablutions, Su Mo put on his combat uniform and hurried down the passageway. He opened the shelter door and peered out.

The reality was not that different from what everyone was talking about. At this moment, the sky above the low-lying land was covered with dense black clouds.

In the distance, occasional flashes of lightning visible to the eye could be glimpsed amid the dark clouds.

Gusts of north wind, accompanied by a light dusting of snow, joined the brewing storm.

The wind swept over the ground and buffeted Su Mo's combat uniform, making a rustling noise.

If things continued in this fashion, the storm resulting from such dense clouds would last at least half a day, if not more.

"This is finally matching up with the disaster recorded in Magoo's notebook—on the seventh day after a heavy snowfall, there will be heavy rain."

Su Mo had anticipated this storm.

It was also in the contingency plan that he had previously put together.

As a precaution, yesterday, Su Mo had instructed Chen Shen to plant the cotton first and leave the planting of the remaining vegetables for the third day.

What he was taking precautions against was this sudden downpour!

"Based on the rainfall, there should still be two to three hours before the storm fully breaks!

"If I hurry and start harvesting now, it will affect the final harvest somewhat, but that's acceptable."

The fields of the Candlelight Shelter were sown from the very beginning with over two thousand catties of seed as a base.

In addition, since practically the entire process was done using automated machinery, over 80% of the tasks were completed in just two days.

The remaining cabbage, carrots, and soybeans would be affected by the rain, but that was not a big issue. Unlike the wheat harvest, which would be reduced by half, they would still have an acceptable harvest that was within expectations.

By this time, Chen Shen had already started work over on his side as well.

Su Mo hurriedly reviewed the report Chen Shen had sent early in the morning, then made a call and gave a few orders to Chen Shen before hanging up. After that, he hastily began preparing breakfast, as well readying matters related to the impending harvest.

The Candlelight Shelter was racing against time.

The Underground Shelter could not afford to delay either.

Calculating based on the time, the fruit trees that were planted yesterday were certainly ready for harvesting the first round of their fruits.

If he kept waiting until this storm was over, the fruits would be overripe by then!

After eating breakfast, he drove Earth Tiger to the fields, bringing all his harvesting tools along. Before he reached the black soil land, the light fragrance of the fruit trees had already wafted to his nostrils.

Red and green apples hung on branches that drooped low with the weight of the fruit.

Yellow apricots the size of a baby's fist swayed in a special waltz as the wind blew.

Blush-red peaches, vivid orange tangerines, and bright yellow pears—the added benefits of the black soil land… were…

Terrifying to behold!

Of these fruit trees, just the rare-quality ones alone had seen a thousandfold increase and had essentially reached maturity.

These fruit trees did not have a caretaker, and they grew in odd, distorted shapes—even the fruits they bore were both big and small.

However, under these circumstances, Su Mo was not so concerned about this. He called Moore, took his tools, and quickly began harvesting the fruits.

Su Mo lay prone to harvest the trees, from the tops all the way down to the lower sections.

Moore was even more violent. He took advantage of his physical body to knock the fruits down from the trees in two tries, then went on the ground on all fours, frantically picking them up.

After observing for a while on the sidelines, Oreo joined the team that was rushing to get the harvest in. Using her claws to dig and her large mouth to bite, she was so fast she seemed to fly.

In less than an hour, Earth Tiger was piled full.

By the time they harvested their second round, a light drizzle was already falling from the sky.

Luckily, all three of them worked fast. In the end, they were able to harvest more than 90% of the fruits before the storm broke completely.

As for the rest of the fruit, they could be left to return to the soil, decaying into inorganic matter and nourishing the fertility of the black soil land.

Flash!

Boom!

Lightning dazzling enough to pierce heaven and earth flashed across the pitch-black sky.

Just as Su Mo parked Earth Tiger, the rain finally came with a rumble of thunder!

Whoosh!

Previously, the ground had been an endless snowy field that resembled a sealed-off kingdom of snow.

Now, however, in the humid, sultry air, the rain that poured down from the heavens resembled a midsummer deluge in the sixth month.

In just a short three to five seconds, the sheets of rain in front of the Underground Shelter's entrance had become one continuous torrent.

"Wow, it's raining, it's raining!"

This was Moore's first time seeing rain since he was born. The sight energized him. He rushed out, rolling and crawling on the ground and kicking up a ruckus in the rain.

The warm rainwater beat down on Moore's smooth fur like a massage. It felt so comfortable that he rolled around madly on the snowy ground.

Shaking his head as he saw Oreo run out as well and go crazy in the rain, then glancing at the piles of fruits on the ground that had been harvested in such a hurry, Su Mo found his own reasons for being happy.

Bringing out the good-quality comfortable deck chair he had previously traded for, Su Mo picked up an apple, sat in front of the entrance, and began munching leisurely.

He sucked his tongue between his teeth…

So sweet!

Although the apple trees had not gone through any pruning, the fruit on the branches still far outstripped the best quality obtainable from planned modern agriculture.

However, even though rare-quality fruits had only a sole bonus attribute of being tasty, the way they stimulated his tastebuds still exceeded Su Mo's wildest imagination.

With every bite, apple juice oozed forth, letting one experience what it was to taste something sweet but not cloying!

A relaxing deck chair, torrents of rain, and fresh fruits.

A bear that liked to roll around on the rain-soaked ground, a husky that liked to flop around, and two chickens fluttering around.

As Su Mo hurriedly dealt with remaining matters, the welfare disaster came to an end in this quiet, peaceful atmosphere.

Over at the Candlelight Shelter, after Su Mo signaled that the mad rush of harvesting should be abandoned, everyone returned to their homes to avoid the rain.

Just because they had food did not mean they had regained their physical fitness.

Given the refugees' depleted, fatigued bodies at present, if they were not careful and came down with a cold or a fever, even if Su Mo treated them, it would still take them a long time to recover. The gains would not make up for the losses.

Furthermore, the supplies they had harvested for now were more than sufficient!

The small mountain of accumulated spring wheat aside, just the vegetables they had rushed to harvest now filled every person's home.

Given Su Mo's command, the refugees did not dare go out either. They could do nothing except return to their houses and stare at the spaces that were now so full there was barely room to set foot. Their expressions indicated that they were unsure whether they should laugh or cry.

People who were so poor they had learned to fear poverty behaved in such a manner.

The sudden abundance of supplies made everyone feel that it was a little too good to be true. It was this "timely rain" that extinguished these doubts in everyone's minds and forced them to settle down.

Of course, as the storm continued, all the refugees went out with umbrellas to unclog the drains. They were afraid that if this rain went on for a few days, it would submerge the food supplies that they had collected with such difficulty.

"Rainwater that is close to zero degrees or colder than five or six degrees will become a thick layer of ice when it comes in contact with the snowy ground.

"Based on the current temperature, however, with this rain, the solid surface of the snow is also starting to melt.

"The next disaster is 99% going to be…

"A flood!"

Every drop of "high-temperature" rainwater falling onto the solid surface of the snow was like water being poured into an oily pan.

On the surface of the ice, countless tiny bubbles appeared. They mixed with the rainwater as it fell onto the ground and was greedily absorbed by the plants.

Su Mo sat at the shelter entrance from morning till noon, then from noon until early evening.

After the Candlelight Shelter's joint supplies statisticians calculated the ownership percentages of all the supplies, Su Mo rubbed his slightly numb shoulder and stood up.

"When I transport everything back tomorrow, as long as nothing unforeseen happens, I won't have to worry about daily supplies anymore!"

Using the system's weighing function, the Candlelight Shelter had already calculated the harvest of the various crops during this welfare disaster.

As someone who had a 70% share, the amount that Su Mo would get was rather frightening.

Five rounds of spring wheat had been planted, and the total area sown for all five rounds came to 929 mu.

These five rounds produced an average of 1846 catties for every mu of land!

Altogether, the wheat harvest this time had 1.71 million catties remaining, after excluding some odds and ends, as well as what had been used.

Because of the weather, most of the wheat did not have enough drying time, so the flour yield was slightly lower than expected.

72%!

With 1.71 million catties of wheat, a total of 1.23 million catties of flour could be ground. This number, multiplied by the share that Su Mo could get was…

860 thousand catties!

In tons, that was a full 430 tons!

The volume of flour was 0.52g/cm3, and one cubic meter could hold 500 kilograms of flour. In just three days, merely by relying on a welfare disaster, Su Mo had accumulated enough flour to fill 800 cubic meters of space.

"Amazing. This has now created a big problem for me."

Even if Su Mo had been mentally prepared before planting, now, however…

Seeing the data that had been calculated, as well as computing just how much flour would occupy 800 cubic meters, Su Mo's face revealed a blissful "annoyance".

How should he design a storage space for so much food?

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My Post-Apocalyptic Shelter Levels Up Infinitely! #Chapter 251 - Warehouse Design, Moores Confusion - Read My Post-Apocalyptic Shelter Levels Up Infinitely! Chapter 251 - Warehouse Design, Moores Confusion Online - All Page - Novel Next

Chapter 251: Warehouse Design, Moore's Confusion

The first time he designed a plan on how to maximize production, as well as make full use of the land, Su Mo had not been worried.

Upon going into the ruins of time and experiencing "difficulties", he had not been worried either.

When he encountered various obstacles during the planting process, making it difficult to advance, Su Mo still had not been worried.

However, now that he had brought the harvest back to the warehouse and had begun looking at the shelter base's properties on the game panel, Su Mo was worried!

"I still have eight complete shelter cores on hand at the moment. I don't have to consider the number of floors for the time being, and I can harvest the energy fruit tomorrow. I'll be able to replace the broken cores then, and I can expand the area of the shelter right away.

"It's better not to put the cold storage room on the bottom or top floor of the shelter. Opening one up nearby might be the best option!"

At present, the shelter level was lv2, but the conditions for upgrading to lv3 had already been fulfilled much earlier. All he had to do was pay 1000 points to upgrade.

After this welfare disaster, he would even be able to fulfill the basic requirements for lv4 and directly be upgraded to that level.

The new function for lv3 was sanctuary. As for lv4's new function, Su Mo was rather excited about it and had some new ideas for it as well.

Lv2's binding function guaranteed that the shelter could share blessings within a certain range.

At present, of the two magical blessings that the Underground Shelter already possessed, the wind of the lion tribe had undergone reversion before, and the water of the mermaids had been shelved all this time.

Maybe he could perform a reversion on the water of the mermaids and use it for control?

Thinking about this, he went to his workbench and spread out the design sketches depicting the general structure of the shelter. In the space on the side, Su Mo began doodling.

"For the new food warehouse, the 880 cubic meters on the first floor can be used to store flour. I'll have to make sure it's damp-proof, insulated, and routinely ventilated.

"The vegetable warehouse has to be cold and insulated, but most of these vegetables need to be pickled as well, so I don't have to worry about storage issues.

"As for the remaining fruits and such, I'll make all of them into fruit preserves and keep them chilled. That will extend their shelf life for as long as possible."

Design-wise, what the blueprint depicted was a two-story structure.

To the right of the Underground Shelter, Su Mo put down a core, which grew into a complete underground shelter. He used an excavator to bury all the doors above ground as well as the passageways going downward to ensure that they could not be accessed from above.

Through the binding function, he made the newly-built shelter's materials exactly the same as the main shelter and connected the two, integrating the new structure into the whole unit.

After seeing to this, he opened a passageway on the second floor of the Underground Shelter to connect with the food warehouse.

On ordinary days, unless he had to take something out, this passageway would remain sealed to keep things chilled.

Only when the first round of supplies was about to be depleted would he enter to retrieve more.

After having drafted several designs in the past, plus the system's "personal improvements", Su Mo could be said to have at least picked up some basic drafting skills.

A round of drafting later, the design for the new food warehouse was now on paper.

However, whether this design blueprint was alright or not depended on if the system would recognize it.

Su Mo tried out the system's scanning function. When the green light turned off, the familiar data panel automatically popped out without him having to think about it.

[Food warehouse design blueprint (normal)]

[Description: A food warehouse design blueprint designed by semi entry-level architect "Su Mo". Although there are no errors in the composition, there is nothing innovative about it. In terms of design, a drastic approach has been adopted, missing out on aesthetic appeal. It is worth mentioning that the design blueprint has thoroughly taken into consideration an excessive level of "safety" to the point of mania, giving the blueprint some sparkle.

[Upgrade direction 1: Natural granary: A redrafted food warehouse design that imitates a natural granary's storage conditions. Significantly increases the food warehouse's insulation capacity, minimally increases the food warehouse's ventilation capacity. Slight changes have been made to the spatial structure, incorporating natural shelves and increasing food shelf life. Requires survival points (380).

[Upgrade direction 2: Frozen granary: Improves upon the food warehouse design. Retains the design concept but significantly increases the granary's capacity for low temperatures, minimally increases storage capacities, and significantly increases drying capacity. Incorporates reserved storage slots, a reserved natural fridge, reserved drainage channel, and minimally increases food shelf life. Requires survival points (420).

[Upgrade direction 3: Psychic energy granary: A redrafted food warehouse design that incorporates a psychic energy design concept. When any food enters the granary, the default decay period is halved, default chilled freshness is doubled, and the granary can simulate different ecological environments for each different type of food. Has maximum food shelf life and the best quality. Requires survival points (19800)

[Comment: Young Su, the architectural design industry is too complex. You can't master it, let someone else do it!

"Amazing. Modifying my design blueprint is actually more expensive than redrafting. Who is this system turning up its nose at!"

Even as he complained and saw the choices the system presented, Su Mo was unable to suppress a smile.

The design blueprints he had drafted in the past needed to be considered for a long time before being recognized by the system. Now, its properties showed up immediately.

From this, it could be seen that his current level of formulation and design had made a qualitative leap.

Considering there was no systematic method of learning, if he had the time and energy someday to go down this path in earnest, the shelter could even be the base of what might be a constructed city in the future.

He would not need to let anyone else draft those future design blueprints!

"Hmm, I can eliminate the psychic energy direction right away. Spending 20 thousand on a design is far too expensive when I don't even know how much upgrading the basement will cost later on.

"The first redrafting simulates natural conditions, whereas the second one retains my concept for refrigeration.

"If I had to specifically choose…"

After repeatedly reading through the benefits provided by both the system's upgrade directions and thinking about it a little, Su Mo slowly said, "I choose…

"Upgrade direction two!"

As soon as he uttered these words, 420 survival points were deleted, and a green light landed directly on the design blueprint. The initially shaky straight lines underwent a definite change.

Under the system's upgrading, Su Mo's non-standard marks and measurements were turned into standard measurements used in the design industry. Furthermore, they were even the type that could be imported straight into the game panel for redrafting, which was extremely convenient.

Including some of the modifications that Su Mo described at the side of the draft, the system did its best to change them into design language and mark them on the blueprint.

This did not consume very many points, and the modification did not take long either. After about 20 seconds, once the green light turned off, the new design blueprint was fresh out of the oven.

"The natural concept the system suggested wasn't bad—but considering my current circumstances, using a blessing to simulate refrigeration is more reliable.

"With refrigeration, it doesn't matter if it's flour or vegetables—there won't be any big issues for at least two or three years. As for later on…

"Perhaps by then, I'll have already discovered a new method of replacing it, and I won't have to worry about storage issues at all."

With the high capacity signal tower's mysterious technology, Su Mo was not at all worried about what the shelter's technology level would be in a few years. In fact, he was full of confidence.

After all, over the next two years, there were still two Chinese New Year's Eves to draw prizes. If he managed to draw something good, perhaps the technology tree might suddenly advance in leaps and bounds!

For the time being, however, these things were still too unrealistic.

Shaking his head, Su Mo dispersed the flights of fancy that had started popping up in his mind again. He took the design blueprint and put it away in his storage space before he went to the first floor that was now filled with piles of fruit.

Altogether, roughly estimated, all the fruits he had harvested were around four or five catties in total.

Even Moore, who was lying on the ground and eating away heartily, could not get through that many fruits. Most of what had been harvested still needed to be made into fruit preserves.

Su Mo started by picking out some bruised fruits. Since he could not go out for now, he quickly got started on the fruit preserving process.

Making fruit preserves was not difficult. For something like an apple, one would only have to peel off the skin, then get rid of the seeds inside and steam the fruit on a rack before putting it out to dry under the sun.

At present, judging by the dark clouds that were already starting to disperse—barring anything unforeseen—it would be another sunny day.

Therefore, Su Mo used the storage space to move the stove to the first floor, then simply flung open the doors to start burning wood and steaming the fruit.

Baskets of different fruits were set on the cookware. As the wind of the lion tribe blew on the fire below, the steam quickly drew out most of the moisture in the fruits.

He did not have to be worried about the steamed fruit either and spread them out over the ground. He did not have to sun-dry them yet. Drying them indoors for a while would heighten the taste somewhat.

He ate as he worked.

When the first pot came out, half its contents could be dried within one to four hours, but with the second pot, only a third of the fruit could be dried.

With the third pot, even Oreo—who particularly loved eating dried apples—looked fearful. Afraid that Su Mo would persistently force her to do so, she fled back to the shelter's second floor, temporarily leaving this "place of misery".

The two chickens followed suit, clucking wildly as they fled with Oreo.

Only Moore was left, and he scorned nothing raw or cooked. He helped Su Mo peel the fruits, tossing ones that "looked good" to him into his mouth at the same time. He chewed on them happily; everything looked sweet and fragrant to him.

After having used psychic energy water for a while, Moore seemed to have unlocked even more of his intelligence. As rain pattered outside, he began rambling about the Lightning Bear tribe.

"Master Su Mo, I seem to be able to recall even more things now. In our Lightning Bear tribe, the cooks also made something like these fru… fruit preserves!"

"Oh? Moore, you can even remember that your family was on this wasteland?"

The origins of all the foreign races in the wasteland were a huge mystery, including the already extinct kobolds. There were still countless doubts that had not yet been cleared up.

Upon hearing what Su Mo said, Moore's words slowed down as he started to recall in detail.

A moment later, as if he had identified some detail, Moore hastily shook his head and muttered, "Moore's family isn't here. They're not on this land. We have three moons where we're from. Moore's family is in a huge forest!

"There were pretty sprites in the forest who would give us nice drinks, and goblins would often bring tasty fruits to trade for materials.

"There was a strange person who would send us recipes regularly. The food made from the recipes was delicious too.

"The fruits from the goblins were so good—even sweeter than our apples!"

As he said this, Moore could not help salivating, and he hurriedly swallowed two apples as large as his fists.

"Oh? Can you still recall exactly what kind of fruit it was and how it tasted?"

Seeing that Moore seemed "moved", Su Mo thought about it and asked a question that seemed random but was actually intentionally leading.

Moore's reaction was not unexpected on Su Mo's part either.

When he heard this, Moore immediately ceased all activity.

A familiar confusion appeared on his ursine face as if something were missing from his memories or someone had forcefully taken that part of it away.

"That's right. Why can't Moore remember what that thing tasted like?

"It didn't have juice like an apple or the spiciness of oil-sprinkled noodles—why did Moore think those things were tasty?"

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Chapter 252: Ocean! Game Version 2.0 is Coming!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"But my memory clearly recalls it was delicious, so why..."

"Why can I only recall what I ate but not the taste?"

After consuming psychic energy water for an extended period of time and becoming more intelligent, Moore could sense something wrong.

It was obviously a really precious memory for him, and yet he could not recall how he had felt when eating it, no matter how hard he tried.

The gap in his memories terrified the bear. Su Mo himself would find himself scared witless if he were the one experiencing it.

While Su Mo was curious about the phenomenon, he knew he would not be able to glean any clues from Moore about it for the time being.

"It doesn't matter if you can't recall the memory. I'll take you to eat all these good things later on, and then we'll taste them together!"

Moore thought hard, munching on the apples loudly. When he noticed that Moore could not recall what this so-called good food was, no matter how hard he tried, Su Mo shook his head, reached out his hand, and patted Moore's shoulder, reassuring him.

"Hey, hey, hey, you're definitely going to be the strongest food warrior in the lightning bear clan!"

After being comforted, the happy-go-lucky Moore immediately forgot about his predicament and continued to work diligently.

A lightning bear would be satisfied as long as it was fed and housed. He would just leave the task of solving the mystery to his wise master.

This was the secret to the makings of a happy bear!

It was just as Moore thought; Su Mo did have some guesses regarding this strange world and the reason why the game had transported everyone here as he gathered more and more information tidbits from news and gossip inadvertently.

"If all the food from wherever Moore lives is delicious, but the people there also lose the ability to experience exactly how delicious they are..."

"Then what is the purpose of the game that moved all of humanity here? To collect despair?"

The more speculations he had, the more evidence he would need to corroborate and validate his hypothesis.

Otherwise those speculations would not point him in the direction, but rather cloud his judgment and hinder his progress.

This was verified again and again by the development of technology on Earth.

"I'll jot this down in the diary for now. This will all have to wait until I explore the lost satellite base, or until I can uncover more relics and clues during the trip."

"If I can get enough information and verify the true purpose of the game, I'll be a step ahead of the others."

Su Mo was of the opinion that everything was quite simple.

Should he resist and challenge the game that transported everyone here?

No, no, no, thatmwas something only a stupid protagonist would do.

Before the game was proved to be malicious, these magical technological wonders, as well as the game features, were needed to ensure that most of humanity would survive.

There would only be hope for the future if they survived!

They could survive day-to-day until the human race finally became strong enough to not fear a disaster of any kind. It was only once that day arrived that they could consider fighting back against the game and completely sever their ties with it.

Until then, holding back and then putting all their strength and focus into development and growth was the right thing to do.

"I'm still too reckless. If the game has a monitoring function and ends up classifying me as a rebel, then I'll be busted!"

Su Mo was reminded that he could draw upon the information and experiences left behind by his predecessors. In the end, the happy-go-lucky attitude Moore had started to affect him too, so Su Mo gradually put aside the worries in his heart and smiled.

The source of his sense of security was quite straightforward.

The game was awesome, but his system was more awesome.

As long as he didn't overstep or misjudge the boundaries of the game and the system, he would not need to worry about these problems for a long time.

Now, all he needed to do was to pioneer the way forward for all humans and strive to become the leader of the human race. For now, that would suffice.

It was sweltering hot inside the garage, which was filled with the fragrant aroma of fruit.

Outside the garage, it was drizzling. Melted snow rushed toward blocks of snow that refused to melt, and the residual heat slowly warmed them up.

Time passed from noon till late afternoon. After dinner, Su Mo worked till late into night.

He was very patient when it came to working on the "good stuff" that would prove to be a vital source of vitamins in the future.

The garage floor was already covered with layers of steamed dried fruit, and the shelves used for odds and ends in the garage were filled with the harvest of the day's hard work.

Beside him, Moore was dozing off, tired from all the work. After he woke up, he ate some fruit, then continued to work.

By half past eleven, the work had finally been completed. Except for some fruits that were intact, all the other fruits that were more or less scarred or damaged had now been turned into dried fruit that lay on the ground.

"Phew, I'm finally finished with it. This rain will stop soon too. It looks like we'll have some good weather tomorrow!"

Su Mo walked out of the shelter. He looked at the dark clouds that had begun to disperse in the sky, as well as the crescent moon that was shining brightly.

The rain brought with it incomparably fresh air and turned the ground slightly muddy.

However, Su Mo's attention was on something else.

In his line of sight, the ten source energy fruit trees that had been set aside earlier were all bearing red fruits.

Under the moonlight, all the source energy fruits were akin to the ginseng fruits in Journey to the West. They swallowed the moonlight and emitted a glittering jade-colored light.

Su Mo pushed his face mask up. Joyous, he quickly walked over to the trees and started to examine them closely.

Among the ten fruit trees, the two fruit trees that only received a fraction of the psychic energy water compared to the others had smaller fruits than the others.

The eight fruit trees, which he had exhausted his supply of psychic energy water on every day, had also lived up to Su Mo's expectations.

Each tree had at least 40 fruits, and the tree that bore the most fruits had 65 fruits!

The eight fruit trees alone bore close to 400 fruits!

After conversion, these were equivalent to almost 400 damaged shelter cores. They were sufficient to increase the area of his shelter by 4,000 cubic meters.

"If there was no welfare disaster, these fruits would have taken a full nine years to mature. Plus they needed so much psychic energy water in the process too."

"No one would be able to handle that!"

Only half an hour remained until the fruits would finally ripen. They could be harvested right after the end of the welfare disaster.

Su Mo kept an eye out, in case there were some unwanted mutated creatures around that would be attracted by the source energy fruits. He had Moore and Oreo stand guard around the orchard together with him.

Fortunately, the basin area had been thoroughly cleaned up previously. Under Oreo's watch, those who accidentally entered the area were quickly driven away.

Su Mo stood in front of the orchard, occasionally glancing at his watch. He looked up at the sky, and then at the condition of the fruits.

Once the clock struck twelve, just as Su Mo was about to start harvesting the fruits, an abrupt orange light instantly covered...

The entire sky of the wasteland!

"This... This is!"

Raising his head and looking at the golden light that filled the sky, a bad feeling slowly rose up from the bottom of Su Mo's heart.

At the same time, the memory of the grandness of the game's upgrade after the Novice stage ended resurfaced in Su Mo's mind suddenly.

"Is the game getting a large update?"

The sky was still overcast with golden light. There were no notification sounds from the system yet.

The light seemed to be checking for something. It appeared over the horizon, slowly sweeping across the land.

All the objects that were swept through first took on a hint of gold before gradually returning to their original colors.

In the game panel, the chat interface, creation interface, and even the trading market were all forcibly shut down.

A big lock icon hovered above all the functions and, at the same time, a five-minute update countdown began.

"This is bad. The golden light is looking for something. It's not looking for me, is it?"

Judging from what was written in Magoo's diary, all the refugees who participated in the game this time around were drastically stronger compared to Magoo's time.

Everyone had at least saved enough food to survive half a year!

With so much food stored, they could tide themselves through many disasters.

Obviously, the golden light was angry, and it was looking for the "variable" that caused these changes!

"Damn, the golden light and the game don't seem to be on the same side. This is a problem!"

Feeling the threat from the bottom of his heart, Su Mo almost could not resist the urge to run away in his Earth Tiger to escape the golden light's pursuit.

However, before he could make a move, the system popped out first and started blasting out a warning!

[Warning!]

[Warning!]

[Warning!]

[An unknown superpower is scanning the wasteland. An unknown anomaly has been detected and is being searched for!]

[The risk of the currently-bound host "Su Mo" being detected is high. There is a high possibility that all information will be detected and revealed.]

[Do you want to pay 500 survival points to falsify the information about you?]

[Please confirm as soon as possible... 15... 14...]

The system lurking within Su Mo bombarded his eardrums with a round of urgent warnings.

After hearing the words "falsify information", Su Mo instantly chose to pay 500 points without even thinking.

He must not be found. He could not bet on what would happen if he ended up being detected. He had to be 100% certain of his safety.

Su Mo's choice proved to be the right one.

The system's green light covered Su Mo and his surroundings before retracting. Shortly after, the golden light also arrived above the Underground Shelter.

Unlike its previous speed of traveling about ten meters a second, the golden light slowed down after detecting the Underground Shelter, slowing to a snail's pace.

Many parts of the Underground Shelter took on other colors that were not gold.

Among these colors, there were the green of the walls, the black of Earth Tiger, the purple of the psychic energy water, and even some miscellaneous mixed up colors. They looked out of place alongside the gold light.

The other rays of light that were still hanging high in the sky also seemed to sense the anomaly below. They immediately turned in that direction.

The light was about to solidify, like water, trying to detect what was wrong with the shelter.

After three or five seconds, the golden light found Su Mo standing under the tree!

Obviously, the connection between the Underground Shelter and Su Mo was obvious to the golden light.

The system's power was utilized to develop the shelter. That would be considered to be within the scope of abnormality.

As long as Su Mo was also detected to be an anomaly, he would certainly be arrested on the spot, and his possessions would be confiscated as well!

With trepidation, Su Mo took a big deep breath and forced his heart to calm down before the golden light hit him.

Phew, phew...

The dull sounds of breathing made the air vibrate slightly. Noticing that the golden light was about to shine on his face, Su Mo simply took a few steps forward, calmed himself down, and stepped into the light.

One step inside, and the world seemed to shift.

Within this magical light, anything and everything seemed to lose their meaning.

Mysterious echoes began to vibrate back and forth, as if they were trying to get something out of Su Mo.

At the same time, the green light of the system seeped out of Su Mo's body and wrapped around him, covering even his eardrums.

This green light isolated all the sounds of the outside world. After he was covered by it, Su Mo also calmed down significantly.

Standing in the golden light was not painful, as he had envisioned it to be; it felt soothing, as if he was soaking in warm water.

If he was not so nervous, the comfort and relaxation he felt would have probably caused him to moan in pleasure.

Su Mo was forced to withstand the tingling sensations he was feeling. Before his eyes, his bare skin seemed to take on a hue similar to that of the 18 Bronze Men in Shaolin Temple. His whole body was shining extravagantly.

Under the pure golden light, there were no other colors present; he was completely pure gold.

It seemed that the system was winning against the golden light!

One minute...

Two minutes…

The golden light failed. It could not detect any problems with Su Mo after repeated attempts. Although it seemed to be a bit reluctant, it could only abandon the Underground Shelter that was an anomaly and continue advancing forward.

The countdown in the game panel, incidentally, was also coming to an end.

"Phew... So close! Maybe this was the real reason why the punishment disaster happened!"

In just five minutes, Su Mo had almost got himself caught. His back was completely drenched with sweat.

This phenomenon seemed to answer the question of why the punishment disaster had occurred; something he could not figure out previously.

If the game was the ruling party, all the humans transported, including the foreign mythical races and mutant creatures, were its people.

The game would regularly follow its set procedure and trigger certain disasters which would test all creatures and urge them to survive and progress.

Those who deserved to be rewarded would be rewarded, and those who deserved to be punished would be punished. As the ruling party, they would not investigate the people just because there was an anomaly among them.

As long as it did a good job, those were its results. How those results were achieved was not any of the game's business.

On the other hand, this golden light that filled the sky seemed to be the armed imperial guard in charge of evaluating the people.

Su Mo's batch progressed terrifyingly quickly compared to Magoo's batch.

In the eyes of the golden light, there had to be a big problem somewhere that allowed Su Mo's batch to perform well where others had performed badly.

Therefore, as the evaluator, the golden light started looking for that problematic anomaly.

Once found, not only would this anomaly be captured, but this world would also be found responsible. That was why the punishment disaster had happened.

"But does this mean that the punishment disaster will no longer occur, and the game will move forward with its regular updates?"

The golden light had disappeared and the time used to maintain the update had finally run out. Engrossed in deep thought, Su Mo reopened the game panel.

Sure enough, new notifications began to pop up in a flurry.

Ten messages...

Fifteen messages...

The number of messages only stopped increasing after twenty-three messages had popped up.

At the same time, a pleasant voice spoke into everyone's minds through the game panel.

[Record: The current game completion level is detected to be much higher than its predicted value. The game will be automatically adjusted and a version update will be released soon.

[Record: The second version update will be automatically installed in the current world after 20 natural days.

[Record: A preview of the second version—Ocean—will arrive soon!

[Record: The progress and development of the human race is exceptionally excellent. Compared to the second race in the rankings, the human race has successfully surpassed their level of completion in the game by 685%. All humans will be given a special right after the second version. You will be able to view the upcoming disasters three times. Please view the specific entry for relevant information!

[Record: Congratulations to human player "Su Mo". You have 21 days till the next disaster.. You can view it in the Notifications section. We wish you a happy playing experience!

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Chapter 253: Unprecedented in History, Three Disasters!

"Sure enough, the timeline of the future is ever-changing and not at all predictable! Not even by the talisman's simulation!"

"The flood disaster really disappeared and has now been replaced by a new kind of disaster!"

Su Mo listened to the series of prompts. Looking at the new disaster warning function that appeared in the game panel, Su Mo was shocked.

The talisman's simulation only predicted the emergence of the source energy fruit orchard. This complete change of the disaster, however, was far more outrageous; it basically reshaped the future!

The past was changed after Su Mo traveled to it personally.

The future was also changed after the system shielded him from the probing golden light.

The three timelines had now undergone huge changes thanks to Su Mo, and they were now starting to become independent of one another!

"No. If the game lets this continue by default, it would mean that the timelines may not be what I understood them to be."

"But if it goes on like this, it won't be my problem if the world really does fall apart!"

Various accidents occurred frequently. Su Mo did not know if the changes within these timelines were good or bad. However, regarding the situation at hand…

He had finally survived unharmed.

"After this, I should always have three to five thousand points saved up in case I encounter the golden light's scanning again. I must have a means of defense."

500 points saved him from being annihilated. It was truly money well spent!

Su Mo slowly exhaled all the stuffy air that had accumulated in his chest and calmed his racing heart as he shut down the game panel.

The source energy fruits were now ripe. This was a good time to harvest them.

He called Moore over. This time, they were both careful, as they were afraid that the fruits would be bruised.

They harvested the fruits from the first tree to the last. Su Mo was relieved when all the fruits were collected.

The fruit harvest was good. A total of 386 third-stage fruits, 41 second-stage fruits, and 46 first-stage fruits were harvested.

Su Mo tossed two second-stage fruits to Moore, who had worked hard and was waiting to eat the fruits, and then two more to Oreo.

Su Mo picked up a first-stage fruit and went back to the workbench on the third floor. Su Mo opened the game panel as he ate.

The sweet first-stage fruit could cleanse the body and rid it of "waste". However, after drinking psychic energy water over a long period of time, this fruit could only be considered a snack with some minor supplementary effects.

After finishing the fruit, Su Mo's eyes flashed, and his fear was completely swept away and replaced by a sense of confidence.

He had avoided being caught this time. So what if the golden light was targeting him?

With the system's help, he could grow rapidly and gain enough strength to resist the golden light when it eventually returned.

After reading all the notifications, Su Mo did not rush to check his messages. He first clicked on the newly appeared disaster warning function and examined it carefully.

Its previous place was in the top right corner of the game panel, but the game panel now had a special small function that listed disaster information forecasts.

Su Mo clicked on it, and on it was displayed the so-called forecast of the three upcoming disasters.

…

[Countdown to the fourth disaster: 21 days]

[Disaster: Awakening of the "God of the Ocean"]

[Description: As the sun and moon change, as the earth rises and falls, the gods that died on the wasteland have begun to revive, summoned by the world's power. In the current version of the game, the God of the Ocean, who was once seriously injured and forced to sleep underneath the veins of the earth, is about to "awaken". Under the divine power of the God of the Ocean, the sea, which once covered the entire wasteland, will become a dominant force in this world again.]

[Disaster Information: Within 24 hours, all places in the wasteland will be covered by the ocean. The depth will be 18,888 meters at the eye of the ocean. Sea level will be determined based on the area's distance from the eye of the ocean. After 108 hours, 20% of the uninhabited areas will surface and become new continents.]

[Assessment: The current location of Player "Su Mo" will be submerged by the ocean. (Sea Level: -18m).]

…

[Countdown to the fifth disaster: 24 days]

[Disaster: Foreign Race Attack]

[Description: With the advent of the ocean's emergence, the races on land will undergo a harsh survival test, which arises not only from the ocean covering the entire wasteland, but also from the appearance of foreign races in the ocean, whose domination of the ocean will not only bring despair, but also an endless supply of marine "food". Seize the opportunity and this can be transformed into a different kind of "welfare disaster"!]

[Disaster Information: Within 72 hours, more than 50 million members of foreign marine races will enter the wasteland. Within 108 hours, five hundred and seventy-five trillion tons of additional marine life will follow.]

…

[Countdown to the sixth disaster: 81 days]

[Disaster: Tsunami]

[Description: Rumor has it that the pulse of the "God of the Ocean" is reflected in the high and low tides of the ocean. The closer one gets to the place where the "God of the Ocean" sleeps, the more terrifying the waves will become.]

[Disaster Information: Over the course of seven days, the closer one is to the place where the God of the Ocean resides, the greater the magnitude of the tsunami.]

[Assessment: The height of the tsunami at player "Su Mo's location: 28m, 29m, 35m, 22m, 18m…]

…

"Holy sh*t, these three disasters are getting increasingly horrible!"

"I originally thought that the flood disaster was the limit! I didn't expect a tsunami, which is way more outrageous!"

Su Mo noticed that there were quotation marks around the words "God of the Ocean". He took out the Sea Wave Horn, which was awarded to him during the previous airdrop reward, his eyes narrowing in thought.

The description of the Sea Wave Horn showed that the user would gain a portion of the authority of the God of the Ocean to a certain extent.

Su Mo originally thought that the God of the Ocean was just a fabricated existence, but now the God of the Ocean was actually going to be resurrected.

In addition, even before the resurrection, the God of the Ocean would bring with Him an ocean that would cover the entire wasteland!

The peak water level of the flood disaster was more than thirty meters. The third disaster here, the tsunami, exceeded even that. Here, in the basin, the tsunami's height would reach a terrifying 35 meters!

What did 35 meters mean?

The super tsunami in Chile that left two million people homeless and swept away tens of thousands of people was only…

25 meters high!

The Ryukyu tsunami, which was the tsunami that was most clearly documented in human history, was only 85 meters high.

The Indian Ocean tsunami that had killed hundreds of thousands of people was only 10 meters high!

With this information in mind, it was obvious that this 35-meter tsunami would be devastating for the basin area!

"Even though the basin's elevation can be considered above average, the height of the tsunami waves that will form is already terrifying. This means that the tsunami waves that occur downstream might be…"

"More than a hundred meters high!"

The impact of a tsunami that was more than a hundred meters high would be no less than the impact of a small-yield nuclear bomb.

Although he was reluctant to believe this speculation, reason told Su Mo that even the foreign races, who knew how to swim, would be crushed into mincemeat. Ships that sailed on the ocean's surface would disintegrate in an instant.

Humans living close to the deep sea could only pray.

If they were lucky, they would be able to find a mountain several thousand meters high and hide on it. Those who were unlucky could only try to survive by migrating to this so-called new continent.

There were still eighty-one days until the tsunami struck. If Su Mo started to build a ship now, he would still have less than sixty days till the ocean flooded the continent.

Judging from the rate at which the tsunami would weaken, if Su Mo got on the ship sixty days before the tsunami and fled, he might survive!

"The situation's changing faster than my plans can adapt. This time, the birth of the ocean is more significant. I'm afraid that even if I use the Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll card, I won't be able to build a barrier for humans to resist the disaster."

"I must migrate!"

"All races, including humans, must migrate to this new continent!"

Su Mo pulled out the topographic map that he had drawn after using the Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll card in the ruins of time.

Within a few seconds, Su Mo found the direction that the Tundra Shelter had migrated toward and its location, basing his search on approximate points and distances.

In this area, they would be at least 300-500 meters above sea level if the ocean flooded the continent.

Su Mo followed the direction where the deep sea was located. He only encountered mountain peaks that were above sea level at a distance of about 5,000-6,000 kilometers away.

The sea would be deeper there too, and thus the magnitude of the tsunami there would be even greater. He might not survive.

It seemed that the Tundra Shelter could only migrate to the New World!

This route … also happened to be in the direction of the basin area!

"This is a very simple middle school math problem."

"It is a given that I will go down this path. Under the condition where I am equipped with an engine, under tailwind conditions, I can maintain a speed of about 20 knots throughout the day. The Tundra Shelter will travel up this path, under headwind conditions, and their speed should only be about 2-5 knots."

"If I factor in the possibility of changing course midway to avoid the strong currents, then the distance between the two sides can be calculated to be approximately 15,000 kilometers."

"One nautical mile equals 1853 meters, one knot equals 1.853 kilometers per hour, and the speed of both sides adds up to 40 kilometers per hour."

"Fifteen thousand kilometers divided by 40 kilometers…"

Su Mo's hands moved slightly. When he saw the data really jumping off the paper, Su Mo could not hold back the excitement in his heart. He slapped the table fiercely, suddenly standing up, his eyes full of excitement.

"I only need 15 days. When the ocean emerges, I can finally fetch my sister!"

"After fetching my sister, there is still a full 45 days for me to evacuate, and even return to the basin area. I can also pick up all the refugees in the Candlelight Shelter. I have one month's time to escape."

"I have… A lot of time!"

He had previously predicted that he would need twenty-five days at best and thirty to forty days at worst but, after the update, it would only take him fifteen days to cross this distance of thousands of mountains and rivers to meet up with the people living in the Tundra Shelter.

The two weeks saved could reduce many variables and increase the safety of the operation exponentially.

"I thought that the flood was a great opportunity for me to find my sister."

"I didn't think the game would be so understanding."

"This ocean is full of both risks and opportunities. As long as I can fetch my sister, I can and will go everywhere!"

After repeatedly confirming that the two red lines intersected in the right place, Su Mo put away the map, returned to the sofa and sat down, clicked on all the game panel prompts, and examined all the information.

The disaster was a foregone conclusion. The next step was to check all the contents of the second version of the game and, from tomorrow, he would be able to upgrade the level of the shelter and start building a ship that could sail across the ocean…

The Destroyer!

At that point, everyone else would be on rafts and small rickety boats. Those who fared a little better could probably sail on wooden fishing boats or large sailing ships.

Meanwhile, Su Mo's Destroyer would shock the other creatures at sea greatly.

As he was lost in thought, the information finally loaded and was displayed on screen.

[Record: The third welfare disaster has ended. The total accumulated number of deaths thus far for the "human" race is 412899241.

[Record: The first stage "Wasteland" has now entered its mid-point. The second stage "Ocean" has now made its debut!

[Record: The Disaster Points for the third welfare disaster have been recorded and distributed according to the shelter's crop harvest and performance during the disaster.

[Record: Congratulations to the race "Human" for being the first among all races in the Wasteland stage. Privileges pertaining to the second stage will be released.

[Record: Privileges will be issued from tomorrow at 12:00. According to the three disasters comprehensive disaster resistance ranking, there will be differences between each human player's privileges (All human privileges cannot be exchanged and traded. They are only for personal use).]

[Record: The new version of the game rules as well as airdrop reward rules have been released. Please view them in the pioneer preview section.

[Record: The major regional channels will be reintegrated and redivided by region, with a cap of 10,000 people per region. When players enter the next regional territory, their regional channel number will automatically change and they will join the new region.

[Record: Trading system rules have been updated. Please examine the new version of the trading system to view the specific details.

[Record: Have a nice playing experience!

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Chapter 254: Preview! New Type of Shelter!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"Well, every human has gained some privileges this time because of the welfare disaster."

"With these privileges, I think they will at least be able to defend themselves from the foreign races."

It was only one o'clock in the morning. There were still more than ten hours remaining until the privileges would be issued, so Su Mo could not examine the details just yet.

The new market trading rules flashed on the screen, beckoning people to check them out.

Su Mo tapped on the button. A light flashed, and the new market rules popped up.

[Record: The new market trading rules will be updated following the new version of the game.

[Record: Each transaction requires a certain number of Disaster Points (Old).

[Record: For each transaction, the player can choose to pay a certain amount of tax (a percentage of the amount of resources being traded) or choose to use Disaster Points as a replacement (New).

Documented in the new trading rules were also the tax rates for all sorts of resources.

For example, when one was trading food, if the amount was below one hundred kilograms, the person could either choose to pay 50 Disaster Points or pay tax. The tax rate would be 50%, which meant that the traded food would be reduced by half.

If the amount was above one hundred kilograms, the tax rate would begin to decrease, with each additional hundred kilograms corresponding to a 1% reduction in the tax rate. The minimum tax rate would be 30%.

As for supplies with a grade, the player would have to pay with items of the same grade.

For example, when trading an excellent-quality item, the player must pay tax with another excellent-quality item or 100 Disaster Points.

"Points are really becoming more and more important. Without them, it's hard to move around the wasteland!"

Su Mo sighed softly. He exited the trading market and tapped on the number of Disaster Points issued this time, feeling slightly excited.

Due to the conflict between the two disasters last time, the amount of Disaster Points that he should have earned during the blizzard disaster had been affected by the descent of the giant god disaster.

When Su Mo examined it later, he found that he had only earned 3000 points.

After using them for many purposes, he only had 2012 Disaster Points remaining. This was far from enough if he wanted to upgrade his shelter and use his blueprint designs.

This time, after surviving the welfare disaster and accumulating a stash of flour weighing several hundred thousand catties, the Disaster Points awarded to him were...

10,000 points!

These points were issued without any issue, and were added to the points column immediately after Su Mo checked and clicked to confirm receipt.

"These points are exactly what I need! I need 1000 points to upgrade my shelter to Lvl 3, plus one to two thousand points for Lvl 4. I also need about a thousand points to study the blueprint designs. After all that, I will still have more than enough left!"

As he had expected this small wave of fortune, Su Mo quickly calmed down. Next, he checked the other functions that came with the update.

It was the preview of the Ocean stage, which would be the main event in this series of disasters.

Su Mo clicked on the play button. With music playing in the background, a flurry of images began to flash before Su Mo's eyes.

At the same time, a standard mechanical narration voice, speaking fluent Mandarin, explained the rules.

The preview was long, lasting about half an hour from start to end.

Su Mo sat on the sofa. In order to not miss anything, he drank a large glass of psychic energy water to keep his mind alert. He took out a pen and some paper and wrote things down as he listened. Then he played the video once more.

This time, he skipped some of the irrelevant narrative parts and focused on a few important rules, playing them repeatedly to ensure he got it right.

Once he had condensed the information, a clear and concise explanation of the rules was jotted down.

Displayed on the sheet of paper in front of Su Mo was all the key information from the video.

After a while, Su Mo's face became slightly grave!

"If only humans can watch this new preview, then things aren't too bad."

"But if all creatures on this wasteland can learn about this information through other channels, then we will have a problem on our hands!"

The trailer was long and full of nonsense. Coupled with all sorts of pointless special effects, it was like an American blockbuster.

Overall, the ultimate goal was to portray the revival of the God of the Ocean extravagantly.

Su Mo spread out the paper and looked at the words he had written on it as he had listened to the video. He read silently while thinking about the deeper message conveyed by these rules.

"Rumor has it that the gods were in control of the laws of the land before the land fell into disrepair (doubtful)."

"This persisted until one day, an inexplicable power invaded. The gods fought to exhaustion. Many were killed and wounded. Many others were forced into sleep. In short, all of them were beaten!"

"As time passed, more and more sleeping gods awakened, wanting to regain their authority over the land. (What is the purpose? What is the meaning?)"

"The God of the Ocean is the first deity to awaken. All creatures that persist in surviving in the wasteland will be rewarded (punished?) by the God of the Ocean."

"Achieving the mission conditions will give you a chance to become the God of the Ocean's, who will soon be revived, divine ambassador (What's the significance?)."

Those five sentences were a complete summary of all the information conveyed in the first 20 minutes of the special effects blockbuster.

Su Mo made a more detailed list of the rules that were narrated in the ten minutes after.

"Rule 1: All creatures who kill a creature of another race within the ocean will be awarded 5 Disaster Points, with a daily maximum cap of 100 points."

"Rule 2: Before the revival of the God of the Ocean, the average Disaster Points obtained by all the races will be calculated. The race with the highest average will be favored by the God of the Ocean and receive privileges related to the ocean to a certain extent."

"Rule 3: The races will have to fight for ascension to the new continent. If one exterminates a race completely, or kills more than half a million people belonging to another race, the person will be able to teleport his or her shelter, and the five-kilometer radius surrounding it, once. After selecting the radius, the shelter can be directly teleported to the new continent and the shelter's topological terrain will be recreated in the new continent."

The three rules encouraged people to kill. If one wanted to accumulate more points, then they would have to kill and rob.

If one wanted to arrive at the new continent first, then they would have to kill more.

Su Mo could not figure out the reason behind the game's malicious intentions, but those three rules would certainly set off a bloody storm at sea.

There were rules about killing, and so naturally there were also rules about protection. The game would also provide assistance.

If the flood disaster had taken place, then everyone's "home base" would not have been preserved. However, with the version update, all races would be able to enjoy some degree of preferential treatment.

For humans, the preferential treatment was broken down into three aspects.

"First, all shelter cores that have been placed down can be materialized. Cores that are materialized can be taken away and placed down again somewhere else. However, the previous progress will be reduced to zero, including the shelter's level and the blessings. It was equivalent to a factory reset. However, they would not be classified as the main shelter (The distance between original location and new location of materialized cores is not limited)."

"Second, not only could the materialized core be placed down as a wooden house or an underground shelter, but they could also be turned into a third, completely different form of shelter... A raft! As long as the core is placed in the middle of the ocean, it can be instantly upgraded into a 3*3 raft."

"Third, after this version is completely installed, marine equipment will be added to the creation interface. After creating modules of the corresponding equipment, the raft-style shelter can be upgraded with a certain number of Disaster Points."

The preferential treatment focused on the core issues that all humankind was concerned about. It also gave some of the weaker people some hope that they could survive.

The previous shelter cores would be restored to factory settings after materialization. After the ocean emerged, they could be turned into rafts. The humans could use them to sail to the new continent.

As long as they could create a miraculous module, the raft could also be upgraded with Disaster Points.

As to what exactly it could be upgraded to, and how many points were needed, that would have to wait till after the actual installation of the update.

"If it didn't focus so much on killing others, it would really have become a survival race for all creatures."

"If humans receive such preferential treatment, I'm sure that the other creatures have received something similar as well. As long as you can keep killing, and possess resources and points, you can keep upgrading your shelter core, upgrade your raft, travel to the new continent and survive!"

Su Mo's feelings were mixed when watching the video, but after jotting everything down and reading it all over again, he could discover hints of the game's true motives.

Of course, with the World Channel, everyone would eventually learn about it after a short time, as long as someone figured it out.

However…

So what?

Without enough strength, one could only sink and swim, and be led around by the rules of the game. They could only travel to the new continent or die!

"I definitely can't remove my shelter core. I've put so much thought into it and invested so many resources into its development. It's too irrational for me to give it up like that."

"And there's also my iron ore mountain here, the oil below it, and the geothermal energy resource. I can't abandon these resources, so..."

"I must obtain the teleportation rights written in Rule 3!"

"If I manage to accumulate more chances, I'll also transfer that abandoned satellite base to the new continent!"

A murderous determination flashed in his eyes. The foreign races that others feared with their lives were only experience packs in Su Mo's eyes with his current level of strength.

Aside from the unknown marine foreign races, he did not need to worry about any of the foreign races so far.

After the next disaster at sea was over, he would be able to reach the disaster count required to upgrade the shelter to Lvl 5, and then he would be able to learn the blueprints required to make medium-sized machine tools and equipment.

When he acquired more advanced machines, hundreds of RPGs would emerge on board his ship. They could fire at single points individually, but having many of them combined meant a thorough range of coverage!

"I'm gonna overhaul my plan. First thing tomorrow morning, I'll put my all into making the steel plates. I'll transfer everyone from the Candlelight Shelter over here and have them help me dig for ore."

"I don't need to grind all the wheat into flour for the time being. At most, I'll only need to grind an amount sufficient for six months. As for vegetables, I'll turn them all into convenient dried vegetables or pickle them."

"I'll store the rest of the wheat in the Underground Shelter and the rest can wait until I transfer over to the new continent."

"I must start work immediately! I must move immediately!"

"I must make a Destroyer sturdy enough for me to cross the sea by just relying on these tools!"

Su Mo slammed his palm onto the sofa beside him. Although the hands on the clock already pointed to two o'clock late at night, Su Mo was not sleepy at all. He felt a constant flow of energy and blood run through his body.

The shelter upgrade would not have to wait!

Tonight, he would upgrade the shelter two levels in a row and learn the complete blueprint design of the shelter!

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Chapter 255: Back-to-back Upgrades! Level 4 Shelter!

At present, the shelter had weathered three disasters in total. Su Mo had ranked first during two livestreams, so the count for those two would be multiplied by two. After factoring that in, the number of disasters he had weathered through would be five.

Previously, in the ruins of time, he had used Magoo's core. With that, he had discovered the number of disasters needed to upgrade the shelter.

The current underground shelter required a disaster count of three to upgrade to Lvl 3, and a disaster count of five to upgrade to Lvl 4. It was just the right amount!

If he could also make it into the top ten during the next disaster, he could achieve a disaster count of seven and be able to upgrade his shelter to Lvl 5.

"It's not too late. This is just right. I'll start upgrading the shelter now!"

After waking up the four little ones, who were deeply asleep, Su Mo looked at Moore, who immediately lay down to sleep after arriving at the first floor. He smiled and summoned the game panel.

On the upgrade page, the conditions, including the above-ground and underground building requirements, were all satisfied due to the bug he had learned from the construction of Magoo's shelter.

Below each condition, the upgrade button emitted a golden glow, just like in kryptonite web games. It was practically shouting, "Come and click on me if you dare!"

After repeatedly confirming that there would be no other requirements, Su Mo naturally did not stop there, and quickly tapped on the upgrade button.

1000 Disaster Points were instantly deducted. The next second, the familiar earthshaking and mountain moving vibrations commenced.

Wow!

Wow!

Soil floating in the air began to fall down continuously as the earth shook. The Underground Shelter was like a sleeping god that had woken up again. The "heartbeat" of the Underground Shelter gradually grew stronger.

The ground, where the four little one were lying down, undulated repeatedly like soft cotton candy.

"Mmm… Mmmm, this feels so comfortable!"

As if hugging the constantly vibrating ground beneath him, Moore, who was sound asleep, adjusted himself into a more comfortable sleeping position. He felt that he would experience no danger while Su Mo was around.

Even the watchful Oreo, after being shaken awake, fell into a deep sleep as soon as she saw that Su Mo was around.

Big Spark and Small Spark were both calm. Shaking to this degree was nothing for the chickens. They did not even bother to open their eyes.

"Y'all trust me so much. Are you really not afraid that I will sell you all out?"

Feeling a little dizzy due to the shaking, Su Mo simply sat on the ground, leaning on Moore's side. He calmly waited for the upgrade to finish.

For the Underground Shelter, each upgrade was a new beginning.

Compared to the trailer depicting the God of the Ocean's awakening, the upgrade of the shelter seemed to better reflect the experience of the gods' resurrection more accurately.

He felt as if the shelter, built purely of stone, had somehow come to life at this moment.

Late in the night, Su Mo waited quietly.

After waiting about ten minutes, as the armored core of the Underground Shelter appeared, a ray of light shone on it. All the shaking abruptly stopped and the upgrade interface also lit up, emitting a powerful ray of yellow light.

Lvl 3 Shelter…

It was completed!

Compared to the previous level, where the shelter had changed drastically, the Lvl 3 upgrade seemed mediocre before the rebuilding function activated.

Except for an extra new feature – Sanctuary, there were no major changes in the overall attributes.

Meanwhile, at the bottom of the page, the conditions needed to upgrade to Lvl 4 were displayed.

[Underground Shelter Lvl 4 Upgrade Preview]

[First Condition: The main shelter must have weathered through more than 5 disasters and the shelter's durability must not be lower than 50% at the end of the last disaster. (If the player enters the global top 10 rankings, the disaster count automatically increases by an additional 1 count) (Achieved).]

[Second Condition: The number of one-star resources within the main shelter reaches one and the number of half-star resources reaches one (Achieved).]

[Third Condition: The underground part of the shelter will have to achieve a security assessment score of 15 before the shelter can be upgraded (Current: 328; Achieved).]

[Fourth Condition: The above-ground part of the shelter will have to achieve a security assessment score of 30 before the shelter can be upgraded (Current: 227; Achieved).]

[Fifth Condition: The shelter needs to have a growth potential item in order to upgrade (Current: Workbench, Mini Motor-pumped Oil Well, Psychic Energy Water Well, Small-medium Thermal Weapon Laser Manufacturing Machine, Large Scale Vegetable Culture Medium, Furnace).]

[Sixth Condition: Pay 2000 Disaster Points to upgrade (2000/11012).]

[New Feature Preview: Remote Repair (When the shelter encounters external damage, the game panel will alert the player to the shelter's current durability status. Within a certain range, the player can provide materials and Disaster Points to recover the durability of the shelter. The lower the durability, the larger the amount of resources required for recovery).]

[New Feature Preview: Solid (The player can choose one object in his shelter and bind it to the shelter's door. Before the durability of the item reaches zero, and when the durability is higher than 50%, the door will be invincible by default and cannot be damaged by any external force).]

[New Feature Preview: Rebuilding 1]

"Hehe, I've satisfied all the conditions for an upgrade to Level 4. This is the benefit of being ahead of everyone. As long as you have enough Disaster Points, you can upgrade your shelter without giving it any thought!"

The green completion mark at the end of all the Level 4 Shelter upgrade conditions was a testament to Su Mo's hard work.

Without his hard work in the past, he would have found the conditions tricky at first glance.

Not to mention how hard it was to get two thousand points in today's environment.

The fact that one one-star resource and one half-star resource was needed alone would be difficult for 99.9% of the people in this wasteland world.

Perhaps it was possible if someone was really lucky, and had their starting point close to resource points of previous batches of players.

Most people would have to live on the wasteland for half a year at least, or even a year, before they could fulfil all the conditions.

As for the security assessment score mentioned in the conditions, Su Mo understood how the score was calculated after clicking on the scoring rules provided by the system and reading through them.

"If this score is required again in the future, maybe I can try and see if I can use a loophole!"

When the score was calculated, each rifle in the Underground Shelter's weapon warehouse amounted to a point. The upper limit for that was a full 50 points.

Su Mo owned many explosive packs too. Each explosive pack amounted to a full 5 points, and the upper limit was 100 points.

However, the bulk of the score did not come from that. The old TV that could be used to monitor the outside world actually accounted for a full 100 points.

The alloy gate of the first floor garage accounted for about 50 points.

He found a loophole wherein, if the points for either the above-ground part or the underground part of the shelter were insufficient, he could move things above-ground or underground to satisfy both requirements.

Su Mo had already checked the new features of the Lvl 4 Shelter in advance, as early as when he had fused Magoo's shelter core in the ruins of time.

At this time, the rules were no surprise to him at all. After giving it some thought, the Lvl 4 upgrade started as well.

Like the previous upgrade, this upgrade was not as shocking.

After about twenty minutes of shaking, the upgrade was over and the whole shelter once again returned to its usual calm state.

At the same time, the Lvl 5 shelter upgrade preview—which was a small milestone—finally popped up. After a brief glance at the various conditions, Su Mo was instantly taken aback.

[Underground Shelter Lvl 5 Upgrade Preview]

[First Condition: The main shelter must have weathered through more than 7 disasters, and the shelter durability must not be lower than 50% at the end of the last disaster. (If the player enters the global top 10 rankings, the disaster count automatically increases by an additional 1 count) (5/7).]

[Second Condition: After reaching Lvl 4, the number of enemies killed that belong to other races must exceed 500 (0/500).]

[Third Condition: The player's overall physique score must be over 50 (Current: 42).]

[Fourth Condition: The main shelter must possess at least one transcendental blessing, and the level of the blessing cannot be lower than Lvl 1.]

[Fifth Condition: The player needs to enter the ruins more than five times and the ruins cannot be lower than Grade 1 (3/5).]

[Sixth Condition: Pay 3000 Disaster Points to upgrade the shelter (3000/9012).]

[New Feature Preview: Red Packet Out of Nowhere (Player will randomly obtain a modular item blueprint and several kinds of materials needed to construct the item.)]

[New Feature Preview: Reconstruction]

"Whoa…"

"No wonder Magoo's shelter only managed to be upgraded to Lvl 5 after surviving a dozen disasters. It only gets more difficult from now on!"

This was his first time seeing the various requirements of the Lvl 5 upgrade, as well as the new functions after the upgrade. Even if Su Mo was composed, he could not help but inwardly shake.

Through these conditions as well as functions, Su Mo finally figured out some of the questions he had about the Deep-sea Shelter.

"Magoo should've gotten the oil well from the Lvl 5 red packet function, which also explains why he had something so nice when he was so passive."

"And the player's overall physique score actually has to reach 50 points. I'm still a full eight points away from that!"

Compared to the various soft requirements for Lvl 4, the requirements for Lvl 5 onward were extremely perverted and difficult.

Su Mo could even bench press 100 kg with no problem with his current physique.

He could even deadlift 220 kg.

However, he was still eight points short of meeting the Lvl 5 upgrade requirements.

"If not for the welfare disaster, regular people wouldn't even be able to eat enough for a long time. How would they even be able to develop the physique necessary to upgrade their shelter? No wonder Magoo only upgraded his to Lvl 5 even after over a year!"

"But since the upgrade conditions of the shelter involves the physique of the human body, then further milestones might require 70 points, or even 100 points!"

Upgrading the shelter was a difficult and long process.

At the thought of various difficult conditions he would have to face in the future, Su Mo could only keep all the requirements in mind and close the game panel decisively.

"It won't take long. As long as I wait until the basin ruins open up again, I'll only need to enter the ruins once more after that."

"It's no longer like the past now. The disasters are becoming more frequent again. As long as I can find any ruins at sea, enter it, and exit immediately, the condition can be satisfied immediately."

Su Mo calmed down. He decided to make no changes to his shelter before the teleportation to the new continent.

He only needed to wait till the next morning, choose a good spot, and create a cellar for the food. That was the last of the preparations for him.

"After waiting for so long, the blueprint design of this Destroyer is finally ready to use!"

He thought about it, and looked at the lavender-colored Destroyer blueprint design in his hands. Su Mo focused mentally, and a thousand Disaster Points were spent. At the same time, a memory fragment forcefully entered his mind!

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Chapter 256: This is It! An 80-meter Destroyer!

"The Mini Destroyer is just a general term for the Destroyer encapsulated in the blueprint design and does not refer to a specific model of Destroyer alone."

However, any rare-quality blueprint design came with a memory transmission; it worked as an introduction to the blueprint design.

As Su Mo began to examine this strange memory fragment, many different pictures filled his mind, accompanied by voiceover narration to explain them.

The blueprint contained a total of three Destroyer blueprint designs: Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3.

The Level 1 blueprint could unlock nine parts of the Destroyer, whereas the Level 2 one could unlock six parts at most. As for Level 3, three parts were the maximum even if he created it as perfectly as he could.

The blueprint design conveyed this special rule to the player: that level determined everything.

Even in the following sections, the same point was also emphasized.

After a quick glance through all the brief introduction sections, Su Mo rushed straight to the specific descriptions of the three different ships.

[Level 1 ship: 182.5 meters long, 24.1 meters wide, 8.1 meters draft, full load: 15,000 tons, crew size: 140, cruising speed: 30 knots, maximum speed: 42 knots]

[The nine parts required are: multifunctional phased array radar *1, LBVDS (lightweight broadband variable depth sonar) *1, MKM-1 vertical launch unit *30, C-3 offshore combat anti-submarine helicopter *2, 556 permanent electromagnetic motor *2, 800MPa full composite material *entire ship (can be replaced by better materials that are recognized by the blueprint design), D-1 electromagnetic rail gun *1, stealth paint *entire ship, integrated underwater water weapons combat system *1]

[Special ability if three parts are unlocked: Unsinkable. When the durability of the ship is 30% or higher, the ship will ignore any rules; it will never sink regardless of the amount of damage done to the hull.]

[Special ability if six parts are unlocked: Double Speed. The cruising speed of the ship is doubled. The maximum speed of the ship can be doubled in exchange for material durability loss (the longer the maximum speed is activated, the faster the materials will be damaged).]

[Special ability if nine parts are unlocked: Auto Repair. Once the durability of the ship falls below 99% during the voyage, the auto-repair function will be turned on. For every natural day/24 hours, 10% of the ship's durability will be restored.]

"Holy sh*t, this is amazing! Is this still within the scope of a Mini Destroyer?"

Smacking his lips and looking at the attributes given by this Level 1 Destroyer, Su Mo's eyes were instantly filled with greed and desire.

Not only were the basic attributes of the entire ship amazing, but its armaments were more terrifying than that of many cruisers on Earth.

If he could build this ship, Su Mo would have the courage to take on all his enemies; not only the marine foreign races, but even the God of the Ocean.

"Unfortunately the level of my technological development is too low. If I could afford to fulfil the requirements of this ship with nine parts, it would have been great."

"But now… I can't even afford to create the composite material required to build even the hull!"

The stuff was good, but his "wallet" was very empty.

After taking two more greedy glances at the Level 1 Destroyer and checking the requirements for the Level 2 Destroyer, Su Mo set his sights directly on the Level 3 Destroyer, which had the lowest requirements and seemed to be the easiest to fulfil.

[Level 3 ship: 76.43 meters long, 10.2 meters wide, 3.3 meters draft, full load: 5,635 tons, crew size: 174, cruising speed: 24 knots, maximum speed: 31 knots.]

[The three parts required are: 400MPa special steel* entire ship (can be replaced by better materials that are recognized by the blueprint design), basic combat system *1, fixed weapon ports *12]

[Special ability if three parts are unlocked: Ramming. Consume 10% of the ship's durability to designate a target direction and initiate a five-minute charge in that direction (Speed: 45 knots). The stored energy will erupt upon the ship's collision with the first object, after which the speed of the ship will return to normal (This ability can only be used once each natural day. Three usage opportunities can be accumulated. Ramming recovery time: 24H)]

"70 meters? A Level 3 ship that's close to 80 meters. It's about two times longer than the 40-meter ship I envisioned."

There were three levels but, at present, it seemed that he could only put together the parts required for a Level 3 ship.

He could use 440MPa military-grade steel to fulfil the requirement for the special steel. He would need to write a computer program for the basic combat system. The fixed weapon ports were the easiest requirement to fulfil.

He just needed to fix 12 Type-80 machine guns in the different positions around the ship. It would be what the blueprint design required.

The derived special ability was also quite practical for a Level 3 ship.

"I can designate a target direction and initiate a five-minute charge at a speed of 45 knots and ram other ships. Although a single use will consume 10% of the ship's durability, this skill is more practical than that of the Level 1 ship if I use it to escape!"

Broke: Barbarian King-like ramming.

Woke: Perfect for escaping.

After looking at the two blueprint designs, Su Mo glanced up at the sky. It was already three o'clock. Su Mo hurriedly closed the door to the shelter and walked downstairs with the four little ones in tow.

He did not need to consider things further regarding the construction of the Destroyer.

The blueprint designs provided only three methods. Although the cost of making the third was slightly more than he had budgeted for, he could not be bothered about that anymore.

If he rashly made changes rashly to the material ratios in the blueprint, not only would he not obtain the special ability, but he might also encounter other structural problems.

"Once things go south, I'll just use Ramming to run away. So what if I have to reduce the thickness of the steel plates?"

The number of steel plates required for an 80-meter ship was tremendous. However, even if Su Mo was stingy, he could not gamble on his safety.

Therefore, in the manufacturing process, 4000 pieces was the absolute minimum. If he needed to reinforce the defense and structural integrity in certain places, that number would be increased to 4500 pieces.

If that was the case, he would need a huge amount of materials. He would need to use up all the iron blocks stored in the base, and even most of the copper blocks.

In this vein, Su Mo could only choose to decrease the terrifying thickness of the steel plates. He would make the plates slightly thinner in order to ensure that he would have enough.

As he began to worry about the lack of materials, the excitement brought about by the shelter's upgrades dissipated.

"The current trading market has been revamped. Anyone can sell materials as long as they pay tax, and the basic tax rate is 50%. I hope to collect some materials by then, so that I can alleviate the pressing problem of lacking materials."

The ocean disaster was about to strike. Basic materials would certainly be like seeds during the welfare disaster; they would become the most popular commodities on sale.

There was nothing Su Mo could do about the market trends; he could only try to tap on the World Channel and to observe other people's views and opinions.

Given that it had rained heavily yesterday, everyone ended up being trapped in the shelter, and thus were less tired physically.

Some people even took the time to sleep during the day. At night, they woke up refreshed again.

Despite the fact that it was already past three o'clock in the morning, the discussions were not any less fervent than usual. If anything, it was even more heated than normal because of the update.

"Looking for girls who are heartbroken because they didn't save enough food during the welfare disaster. If you're 160cm and have good looks and a good body, you're the one I'm looking for! If farming makes your heart break, I'll make you intoxicated. If farming is heartless, the earth has love. Your angst, I will bear. Even if planting fields make you sad, I am your warmest harbor."

"This… This is a strike at the root. This will reshape our entire worldview and understanding of the wasteland! Brothers! We might not know how to farm, but we are familiar with survival on a raft, surviving out on the ocean, island survival, constructing arks, and more. We're familiar with the survival needs of living on the ocean and the developmental pathway of constructing an ark. So what if we only have a raft at the beginning? Give us thirty days, and we'll evolve it into an aircraft carrier and sail happily on the ocean!"

"Is anyone gonna stay? My mountain here is 2280 meters tall, and the sea level will only be 1020 meters high. I don't intend to leave. I'm just gonna stay here on the mountain all my life."

"The new continent exploration squad Seventh Heaven is recruiting! No matter where you are, as long as you are willing to go to the new continent, you can DM us. We'll contact you, communicate about the routes, and determine the goal. Together to the new continent we go! We will be brothers! Our slogan is: Be the strongest exploration squad!"

"Is anyone who's staying on top of a mountain willing to sign a food-selling contract with me? I'll sell you the food first and discount half of the tax. When the time comes, you can deliver a portion of food to me daily. You can take 20% of the tax for yourself, but you must provide the altitude and the sea level of your location. If the difference between the two is below 1500, don't reach out to me."

"Selling basic materials, copper, iron, lead, stone, wood… A variety of basic materials are for sale! I'll only take food in exchange, nothing else. Those who don't understand human language and want to buy them for cheap, go away. If you're quick, we can discuss and agree on a discount. I have a lot of them on hand."

"Looking for craftsmen to make small wooden boats that are good-quality or above and can be binded to the individual. As long as you're good at what you do, we can discuss the price. There are many people at the shelter, so I'll need three boats. Organizing group orders if needed. If you have the crafting skill, please quickly contact me by private message!"

"F*ck you, the sea level here will be 12,000 meters high. How am I supposed to continue? Stupid f*cking game! You might as well move the Bermuda Triangle over here and be done with it!"

"How about the Almighty Su? His shelter is so powerful, so it's not very realistic for him to abandon it like this, right?"

"I think you're blind. Have you watched the preview? Almighty Su can casually kill tens of millions of foreign races! He might be able to kill off this God of the Ocean as well. Then we'll be able to experience another welfare disaster! Great!"

"Almighty Su up there, join our Almighty Su support group! We can contact each other when we're at sea. We have hundreds of brothers here!"

…

Fwoosh fwoosh!

Messages flashed by quickly like a stream of flowing water. After a month of surviving in the wasteland, after the people who could not adapt to the environment or had lost their survival skills had died, the chat environment turned much better.

Few people complained on the world chat. Many of them were dissatisfied with the current situation, but they did not have the desire to commit suicide.

After observing the chat for half an hour, Su Mo gradually got a general idea of the current types of people on the wasteland.

At present, humans were divided into three main types.

The first category, of course, was the same as Su Mo. These were the ones who chose to go to the new continent. This category of people were not willing to wait to die at their locations. They firmly believed that they could only maximize their gains and survive if they followed the newest version. They also believed that staying in the same place meant looking for death.

This type of people built ships and bought materials. A lot of people were discussing meetups at sea. They would follow the example of the people in Three Kingdoms: group together and guard themselves against foreign attacks.

The second category was the opposite of the first category. They were the standard "stay until they die party". This type of people shared a characteristic: their shelters were at strategic locations. They might be on mountains three to five kilometers high, or in areas where the sea level would be less than a thousand meters high.

Compared to the first category, this type of people had accumulated many advantages due to the topological advantage they possessed. In addition to the three consecutive waves of profits they garnered, they had developed their shelters to a certain extent.

In the absence of specific aspects tempting them to migrate to the new continent, they were naturally more reluctant to leave.

As for the third kind of people, they were the wavering faction that always existed no matter what period it was. They were also referred to as the fence-sitters.

They wanted to gain benefits from the new continent, but also did not want to bear the risk of migrating and crossing the ocean like animals.

At this moment, they were wavering. One moment, they were firmly determined to go to the new continent, and that no one could stop them. Another moment, they would be saying that it was too dangerous outside, and that only fools will travel on a raft and try to cross tens of thousands of kilometers.

Su Mo could fully understand the motivations of all three kinds of people. He could also see the future trends of the wasteland from that.

Before specifically analyzing these issues to see if he could gain anything from them, though, Su Mo's eyes lit up.

"If someone wants to leave and can't take their basic materials with them, they'll hold a big sale in exchange for other items."

"The people who are going to stay are also going to take advantage of this opportunity to dump basic materials in exchange for food. So many people will be selling, so it seems that the price of basic materials won't rise, but will drop a lot instead."

"Tomorrow at noon, or afternoon, is the best time to buy!"

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Chapter 257: Relocation! Candlelight's Hope Lifted!

Su Mo focused and opened up the game panel's trading market.

The trading market had been updated to only require tax and no Disaster Points. Su Mo narrowed his eyes and looked over.

Sure enough, the current price of basic materials was dropping in a downward trend.

Many people even wrote words like "Massive Clearance Sale" under their trade descriptions.

Of course, as a "gift" from nature, these basic materials merely took a bit of labor and time to collect.

Labor and time were always the most worthless things for refugees in the wasteland.

Since these were things that they could not bring along, they would not suffer a loss as long as they managed to sell them.

"I should probably wait and check the price again when I wake up tomorrow!"

It was almost three-thirty in the morning. Lying on the slightly lonely bed, Su Mo checked the prices on a few pages of the trading market before he started feeling drowsy.

He resisted the drowsiness and pulled up his friends list. After locating Chen Shen's profile photo and typing out a long list of things, Su Mo finally shut off the game panel in satisfaction.

"Everything is in place—work will begin tomorrow!"

After making sure that everything had been arranged, Su Mo picked up the cup on the bedside table and took a large gulp of psychic energy water to aid his sleep. Hearing the sound of Moore's snoring from the second floor from time to time, Su Mo's breathing gradually turned heavy.

After coming to the wasteland, people like dignitaries, trillionaires, or even those with neurasthenia, would surely get a good night's sleep after undergoing a full day of physical work.

In less than three to five minutes, the Underground Shelter fell silent, like a giant beast creeping on the wasteland, constantly gobbling up the incoming darkness.

Su Mo naturally had no idea that, on this very night, the wasteland was not peaceful at all.

For the foreign races, life would not be easy for them after eliminating the human race in their vicinity.

Without human farming skills, even the lucky ones would struggle to find fruit trees to feed on.

The unlucky ones could only eat grass.

As for some of the carnivorous foreign races, except for a few strong ones like the minotaurs, most of them would have to go to bed hungry and survive this difficult night.

Like what Su Mo expected, humans were not the only one who had found out about the new ocean update. The foreign races had learned about it through other channels as well.

After the initial panic passed, all the foreign races began to prepare the necessary supplies to cross the ocean to the new continent.

However, what were they supposed to do if they did not have food?

They were left with no other choice but to rob others. Foreign clans would rob each other and humans; humans would fight back and eliminate the foreign clans; foreign clans would clash and humans would wait for a chance to strike back…

From today, every location aside from the basin area that had been cleaned up completely, was destined to descend into bloody war before the ocean emerged!

The night was long and the light of dawn seemed so far away; seeming like it might never shine on the wasteland again.

Fortunately, the gray clouds in the sky finally dispersed, allowing the moon a brief moment of glory to shine on the wilderness below.

Time passed and, in the blink of an eye, it was already six o'clock in the morning, and the familiar sun rose again into the sky and began its typical routine for the day.

On the plains, everyone in the Candlelight Shelter woke up early in the morning.

After surviving three disasters, and with Su Mo's help, every refugee had been able to collect 100 disaster points to open up their own storage spaces.

From the moment the ordinary refugees of the Candlelight Shelter woke up, they received a set of brief instructions and excitedly began to pack up the things they had accumulated in the wasteland over the past month.

Of course, there were not many things. Aside from one or two items of clothing as well as some food accumulated during the welfare disaster, there were many more miscellaneous items instead.

The guards at the shelter were sitting on a boulder at the village entrance, each of their eyes filled with fiery passion, enthusiastically sharpening the iron spears in their hands.

Clattering sparks burst from the grinding stones that fell to the ground ever so often. Even though the grinding hurt their hands, they kept at it as if fueled by boundless energy and enthusiasm.

However, whether it was the guards or the ordinary people, they all shared something in common—their eyes would glance over from time to time at…

The kitchen!

People regard food as their primary necessity, and the safety of the food was a top priority.

After the morning announcement of the preparation of a large meal, all the cooks began anxiously preparing enough food supplies for over a hundred people for this day.

After the snow-white dough had risen, it was made into large white steamed buns, combined with the tantalizing aroma of noodles that could make any person drool.

The steamer was placed atop of the burning firewood and, in no time at all, the food was piping hot.

Fresh cabbage and carrots were rinsed with water, and then cut into small strips. A sprinkling of chili pepper, salt, and vinegar were added before being stirred a little. With that, two fresh dishes were ready.

Soybeans were placed in water and cooked until they were soggy. The hot steam wafting out of the pot carried an incredible fragrance that swept through everyone's noses.

The stimulation and promise of good food distracted even Chen Shen, the current steward of the shelter, from his morning duties.

After eight o'clock, it was time for breakfast. Other than the several necessary security guards, everyone else grabbed their own benches in tacit understanding and sat in the "large square" at the center of the village.

Everyone had obtained a brief set of instructions in the morning, coupled with words and speculations passed among the people, most already knew what was going to happen after this day.

However, they were still eagerly awaiting the announcement of the milestone event that was to be announced at the village's first major assembly.

Even the fragrance coming from the kitchen was nothing in comparison.

"Ahem… Silence, everyone!"

Seeing that everyone had taken their seats, after each team leader was done with their respective headcounts, Chen Shen cleared his throat and stood on the raised platform.

Chen Shen was not very tall and was roughly 175cm or so. After working in the fields for quite some time, his face had grown tanned, which also cast off his image as a youthful student.

After earning Su Mo's "trust", even his actions seemed to exude a hint of leadership.

As soon as those words were said, the Candlelight Shelter refugees immediately fell silent.

All of a sudden, all that remained was the sound of everyone's slightly heavy breathing.

"From the looks on your faces, I'm sure you can guess the reason why we've gathered everyone here today!"

"That's right. This is the first, as well as the last, Candlelight Shelter general assembly!"

Swoosh!

Clap, clap, clap!

Before the sentence was finished, a round of applause broke out below. The refugees clapped their hands so hard that their palms turned red, their faces full of excitement.

Some of the cooks in the kitchen could not help but poke their heads out, listening attentively while clutching the rags in their hands.

Candlelight Shelter was doing just fine, so if this was the last general assembly, did that mean…

"Silence!"

Seeing how chaotic the scene was becoming, the chief of security barked out an order and the applause stopped. Once again, the crowd cast their eyes on Chen Shen.

"Last night, the game informed us that the second major update will soon arrive. The ocean will emerge and our homes are at stake!"

"Now, the first item of this general assembly will be to vote and find out how many people are willing to go to the new continent, and how many aren't!"

Unlike meetings in the civilized era, where loads of bullcrap that lasted forever were spewed before finally concluding with the few keywords at the end, the wasteland's general assembly went straight into the decision-making agenda after just two to three sentences.

However, surprisingly, after Chen Shen was done speaking, the crowd did not respond and the place was engulfed in ear-deafening silence.

After observing their reaction, Chen Shen was in no rush and waited patiently.

After about ten seconds, seeing that no one spoke up, a man sitting in the middle of the back row stood up with a smile.

"Mr. Chen, we're not in the position to decide whether we want to go to the new continent or not. You should be the one making such major decisions. Let Almighty Su decide things for us."

"If Almighty Su wants me to go, then I will go even if it means risking my life. If Almighty Su doesn't want me to go, then even if you take us there, we will only end up getting beaten up!"

"That's right. If Almighty Su goes then we will; if he stays, then we stay."

"How should I put this? We will never lose our way if we follow Almighty Su. Had it not been for him, our Candlelight Shelter would have nothing to eat!"

"I vow to follow Almighty Su my whole life. If he wants me to go east, then I will never go west!"

"If Almighty Su wants us to leave today, then I will pack my things and follow him. If Almighty Su tells me to stay, then I will float behind him when the ocean emerges."

"…"

Swoosh!

As soon as someone took the initiative to speak up, the crowd was filled with emotions and everyone started clamoring and waving their arms.

In the eyes of the refugees, the Candlelight Shelter's leadership team was superb, but when compared to Su Mo, they were nothing but lackeys!

Only by keeping up with Su Mo's footsteps would one be able to survive, live a much better life, and rebuild their homes in this doomsday wasteland!

Surprisingly, Shen Chen did not stop them. After the crowd yelled continuously for about a minute and everyone agreed on the same thing, he finally made a slight downward hand gesture.

All of a sudden, the experienced military management eventually calmed down all the villagers.

"Since everyone is willing to leave with Almighty Su, I will now announce the second thing!"

"Last night, Su Mo, Big Brother Su specifically sent me a text message to inform me of a few things."

"The first thing is related to the relocation issue that everyone is concerned about!"

Chen Shen glanced around, deliberately stressing his words when he spoke about Big Brother Su as well as the specifically-sent text message, which left certain uneasy refugees struggling to catch a breath.

"Do not worry about migrating everyone here because Almighty Su will soon build a warship that's sufficient to accommodate everyone. As a conservative estimation, this warship will be…"

"Eighty meters long!"

Buzz…

Expecting a commotion, Chen Shen looked astonished after seeing the reaction of the crowd below.

Silence…

An ear-deafening silence…

In the past, the villagers would have cheered in excitement when they heard shocking news like that.

Now however, when everyone heard that there was an eighty-meter long warship in the making, both the prison guards and the general public were dumbfounded!

This was just like a child fighting with another child only to get beaten up by the other party's father with a stick as punishment. Then, the child's own father told him not to be afraid and watch him take revenge…

The child expected his father to take out a gun, which was already shocking enough.

However, the child's father ran about recklessly and drove a tank over, stopping right before the idiot's face!

Such contrast would leave even the strongest person out there dumbfounded!

"Secondly, the relocation will not begin immediately after the ocean emerges. Almighty Su cares for everyone and plans to go to the ocean first himself to seek justice. Before the tsunami, he will bring everyone to the new continent."

"…"

"Therefore, we will first move to Iron Rock Mountain near the Almighty Su's shelter during the transition."

"We will also mine enough iron ore to build warships!"

"After breakfast today, the first round of relocation will begin. You are only allowed to keep one-fifth of miscellaneous goods in your storage space and use the remaining space to transport food. Any questions?"

Chen Shen announced a few specific rules and regulations for the relocation.

After everyone nodded their heads to indicate that they understood and had no questions, Chen Shen put his notes back into the storage space while staring at the villagers down below.

There was a proud and superior tone in his voice:

"From today onward, the Candlelight Shelter will become a thing of the past, but the candle flame which symbolizes hope will not be extinguished just because of that."

"Hold this tiny flame because we're about to embark on a new journey in the development of the next shelter."

"The new name of the village will be announced at a general meeting to be held by Almighty Su after the relocation is complete!"

"Now, all of you, get up and go to the dining hall—it's time we have a feast!"

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Chapter 258: Spaceship, Sky Maker No. 1

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Thump…

Poof…

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

"What's that smell…"

"F*ck, did someone light a fire in the shelter?"

A cold shiver raced down Su Mo's spine as he smelled the lingering scent of smoke in the bedroom, hearing what sounded like clanging sounds caused by stirring movements.

Su Mo, who had been fast asleep all this while, woke up instantly.

A split second later, Su Mo jumped up without thinking after realizing that the smell was indeed from firewood and quickly bolted toward the source of the smell.

A fire underground was different from one above-ground. If it blazed out of control and reached the explosives on the third floor... then an unimaginable "tragedy" would take place!

As Su Mo ran outside, thoughts flashed through his mind as he recalled the things he did yesterday before he went to bed.

Did he forget to turn off the fire after steaming the fruits?

Did the wood pile tip over into the fire?

Or was there an enemy attack?

He quickly searched his memories and, as he approached the source of the fire, Su Mo slowed his pace, and a touch of surprise emerged on his face.

Yesterday, the stove had been moved to the first floor to steam fruits. However, before going to bed, Su Mo did not bother moving it back to the third floor and had simply left it on the first floor.

At this moment, standing in front of the familiar stove, Moore was currently frying vegetables. He turned around to look at the flustered-looking Su Mo standing in front of the stone door. He revealed a row of white teeth and started laughing.

"You're awake, Master. Moore will soon finish cooking. Get ready to eat!"

The water in the pot on the left was boiling, and within the boiling water was a pot full of noodles.

These were the extra noodles Su Mo had from when he last made noodles. He had kept it aside in the end because he could not finish it.

In the pot on the right, Moore used the "limited" supplies currently available in the shelter to boil a pot of strange-looking broth.

Although the color was off, taking on a strangely colorful appearance, not meeting the food aesthetics of Huaxians…

It was surprisingly delicious!

"Moore, who told you that you were allowed to start a fire and cook? Aren't you afraid that you will set our house on fire?!"

Su Mo put on a stern expression and lectured Moore while waving his hand out of habit to summon the wind of the lion clan to blow away the heavy smoke.

On ordinary days, Su Mo would control the wind to blow away the heavy smoke at regular intervals.

He had not expected Moore to use the stove to cook, which caused this misunderstanding.

On the other hand, in the midst of Su Mo's stern lecturing, Moore knew that his good intentions were not very helpful and could only look over pitifully with a pleading expression in his eyes, begging Su Mo not to be mad.

"Alright, alright. I will only allow it once. Do not cook on your own without my permission next time!"

"You're the best, Master. I will not start the fire by myself ever again!"

When Su Mo heard Moore talking about starting a fire, he then turned to look at Oreo as she laid on the ground, looking like she had nothing to do with any of this. Su Mo held his forehead helplessly.

Fine!

Moore was being taken advantage of without even knowing it.

Despite the lecturing and rules, Moore had inherited the lightning bear clan's culinary skills and had actually cooked up a pretty tasty broth.

A novice that could achieve such standards on his first try could already be considered a culinary talent.

After eating two big bowls of noodles and leaving Moore to do the dishes, Su Mo opened the alloy gate and welcomed the fresh air before walking outside.

The previous rainfall had taken away the dry heat that scorched the wasteland.

Another thing that had been taken away alongside it was the dust in the air.

Under the nourishing rain, most of the ice and snow had melted and had seeped into the ground. Bright green grass stood tall on the ground, seemingly thriving.

The source energy fruit trees did not wither, but instead grew a little taller because there were now no fruits to draw nutrients from it.

Looking further into the distance, the sun had risen, and it was estimated to be about 8:30am now.

"It's a pity that, when the ocean comes, the saltwater will completely destroy the ecological environment of this land; even after the ocean recedes, the land will no longer be suitable for planting anymore."

"Looks like my Black Soil Land will have to be sacrificed as well!"

Upon walking out of the shelter's gate and strolling along his usual patrol route, Su Mo walked back, feeling tremendously relieved.

Compared to being cautious when everything first began, Su Mo had grown to be less sensitive to the dangers out in the world following his prolonged experience in the wasteland as well as his better fitness levels.

Unless there were hordes of foreign races attacking, no single or group of mutant creatures could be a match for Su Mo today.

Moreover, given that there were several detection mechanisms, Su Mo could tell at a glance whether there were any creatures approaching.

"I wonder how Chen Shen is executing my orders today. Everything should be relocated by today and the construction should begin immediately!"

Before Su Mo fell asleep last night, he had used the friends list panel to inform Chen Shen of several things.

Unlike previous relocations, although not all the food was salvaged, they were able to journey with much lighter loads with the help of the game's storage space.

The straight line distance from Candlelight Shelter to the Underground Shelter was precisely 103 kilometers.

Together with the help of the excavator and combine harvester, moving ordinary people here within a day was not an issue at all.

As for the remaining supplies, certain guards would be left behind to stand guard as Earth Tiger would be used to send people back in batches to move all the remaining supplies over.

This would not take a lot of time. There were no traffic police in the wasteland. Under normal circumstances, only six people could travel in Earth Tiger at one time.

However, by towing several self-made vehicles at the back, and with everybody squeezed in together, it would not be a problem to transport twenty people at a time.

Coupled with the original five cubic meters of storage space, each round trip would be able to transport up to twenty-five cubic meters of goods at a time.

About seven round trips could be made in a day, which meant that it would take roughly five to six days before all the supplies were fully transferred.

In the friends list panel, Chen Shen did not have any questions.

When Su Mo was done with the instructions, Chen Shen went through his plans one by one.

These plans were very comprehensive, so even though Su Mo wanted to nitpick, no potential problems could be found.

"Chen Shen is now completely in charge of the Candlelight Shelter, eh? That's good in a way, as it makes it much easier for me to manage them in the future."

Delegating authority and responsibility required absolute strength and confidence.

Given the current state of mind and abilities of the refugees, Su Mo was confident that the general trend of things would stay the same for the time being.

Su Mo instructed Moore to drive a fully-fueled Earth Tiger over to the Candlelight Shelter to grab supplies.

After reminding Moore of a few things to take note of and watching him leave, Su Mo began "bustling" about.

There was a lot to be done after the welfare disaster!

There was now a clear shipbuilding goal.

After turning on the generator, powering up the furnace, and watching the materials begin to make steel plates, Su Mo went outside the shelter and pulled out the tools that he had set aside from the lucky draw…

The Accessory Item Adaptation Coupon!

This was something he obtained from the epic-level treasure chest along with Mind Ring.

Moreover, it was of high grade. A rare-quality item that was of the same grade as the Mini Destroyer blueprint design.

As for its attributes, when using the coupon, he could simply specify a blueprint design and one would be able to derive a blueprint design of the same origin.

"Building an 80-meter long warship isn't anything like stacking blocks and playing with Lego, putting steel plates together, and being done with it just like that!"

"Without the matching technology or other equipment to assist with this process, I'm afraid a novice like me might not be able to build it at all!"

After using the Mini Destroyer blueprint design, the game will automatically transmit the relevant mechanical, warship, and weapons knowledge in one's night-time slumber.

Although Su Mo woke up with a start last night, he did absorb enough relevant knowledge during his night-time slumber.

In terms of general construction, the warship had a simplified design process, in that he only needed to follow the design of individual parts and perform the installation.

On top of that, the knowledge in the memory transmission did mention something even more convenient…

Shipbuilding Assistant!

The title sounded ridiculous and fancy, but its actual role was similar to that of a large 3D printer.

One needed to only build an eighty-meter cube structure, pile all the materials within it, provide it with enough energy or points, and the Shipbuilding Assistant would be able to move promptly on its own without any assistance.

Such a blast!

"I only have one coupon. Whether I can get this blueprint or not is all down to luck!"

"It doesn't matter though, even if I can't get it, I can still build it using a large number of survival points, it's just that the cost will be way higher that way!"

Su Mo held the coupon and gazed at the sun hanging high in the sky, and then at Oreo as she laid lazily beside him.

Su Mo took a deep breath and crushed the card coupon in his hand. After silently specifying the target to be the Mini Destroyer blueprint, a stream of light flashed and the card coupon began to take effect.

In the empty space before his eyes, a white dot of light began to converge…

From top to bottom, a blueprint design of the same origin emerged.

What first took form was the shape of the blueprint. Unlike what he saw in his night-time slumber, this blueprint looked like a big factory at first glance, not at all posh.

Looking down at the image, he saw countless scaffoldings attached to a peculiar-looking "massive" ship that was fixed in place?at the center of all the scaffolding.

"Sigh, looks like I didn't get a Shipbuilding Assistant this time, but this isn't too bad either. Perhaps this blueprint design has something to do with shipbuilding as well."

Su Mo was not discouraged by the fact that he did not manage to obtain the Shipbuilding Assistant that he wanted. He simply considered it as a chance to accumulate more luck to boost his chances for the next lucky draw.

As it continued to manifest, the derivation of the blueprint started slowing down.

It was still early and the furnace was still going, so Su Mo was in no rush and waited patiently for the blueprint to finish manifesting.

After about ten minutes or so, just when Su Mo's mind had drifted elsewhere, the blueprint finally broke free from the restraints of the white light with a snap and floated in the air.

"Let's see… This is a… modular miniature…"

"Shipyard???"

"Holy crap, that's good stuff too!"

After examining the characters at the bottom of the blueprint design and spotting the word "shipyard", Su Mo was delighted and grabbed the blueprint design to examine it.

The Shipbuilding Assistant might be awesome and much more powerful than an ordinary shipyard…

However, with the word "modular" attached to the shipyard, this was bound to be different. It would most likely derive a series of strange features and functions too.

There was a flash of light and, by paying a few Disaster Points, the completed blueprint's attributes popped out.

[Sky Maker No.1—Miniature Modular Shipyard (Rare)]

[Description: During the first year of the rise of modular technology, more and more industries began to favor its adoption, and the shipbuilding industry was no exception. The era progressed from human and animal power, followed by mechanical power, printing machines, and eventually to modular technology. Similarly, this line of development has witnessed the ups and downs of the shipbuilding industry and the continuous development of ship models.]

[Specific function: This type of shipyard focuses on building short and medium-distance navigation spaceships, and has a unique cost-to-performance ratio advantage over other miniature spaceships constructed elsewhere.]

[Module: Power module, import module, material input module, automatic building module, inspection module, detailing module, human access control module, wind tunnel test module, vacuum experiment module…]

[First limitation: Requires the power module, import module and automatic building module before manufacturing (Criteria not met)]

[Second limitation: Requires 500 disaster points to learn (Criteria met)]

[Third limitation: Requires 500 units of iron, 250 units of copper, and 200 units of aluminum (Criteria not met)]

[Fourth limitation: In order to use it to build a ship, a ship blueprint is required (Criteria met)]

"This is outrageous!"

"How can you call a spaceship a ship?"

"Also…"

"I've opened up a shipyard that can build spaceships??"

Staring at the attributes of the blueprint design in his hand, Su Mo was completely dumbfounded this time!

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Chapter 259: The Warehouse Was Up And The Relocation Was Underway!十九章 仓库起，迁徙进行时!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

It was a well-known fact that the primary reason why a spaceship was not called a flying machine was due to Huaxia's culture and tradition of naming objects descriptively and literally.

Large ships traverse the seas; spaceships traverse the galaxy. However, in terms of controls and operations, the two actually shared certain similarities.

There were many people on a naval vessel, and each crew member or team would be placed in charge of only one operational module, and would work collectively as part of a larger system to ensure the operational functionality of the vessel. Spaceships also functioned in a similar manner, at least according to the scenarios written in various science fiction works, and hence were also naturally considered a type of ship.

However, Su Mo still thought it was mind-blowing for an ordinary shipyard to be able to actually build these things!

"Modular technology is amazing. It's simply too hard to analyze such technology without first obtaining the basic knowledge and theories behind the technology!"

After spending 500 disaster points and learning Sky Maker No. 1's blueprint, a memory fragment containing the various requirements of the shipyard as well as the scale of the construction was transmitted over.

The construction process, as per the instruction manual, once again dispelled Su Mo's desire to peek into the secrets behind this technology.

There were three modular technology items in the shelter currently, but just like how people from the past viewed an aircraft, there was no way one could understand the principles behind this technology in the absence of introductory knowledge and theories.

The good news, however, was that in terms of the basic materials used, building a shipyard required no rare and precious earth materials.

The materials required were mostly ordinary resources that were commonly found, and they would be used to construct the framework of the shipyard.

In addition to that, it also displayed the main parts of the shipyard and the various strange technology modules required.

Most importantly, without the power module, import module and automatic building module, the shipyard could not be built even if there were adequate materials on hand.

"Regarding these three modules, I can obtain one using the card which I got from opening Zeta's treasure chest—material substitution card."

"It can substitute modules that are excellent-quality or lower."

"I just need to obtain the remaining two modules somehow and the construction of the shipyard can commence!"

The shipyard's construction needs were clear, and Su Mo's heart sank as he put away the manufacturing manual and went onto the trading market, where he began to browse the modules listed for sale one by one.

Compared to people from Magoo's era, the number of humans who came over from Earth, in the main world, remained at about four billion at this time.

With such a large population of humans, there would be a higher probability of someone coming across superior goods.

Su Mo effortlessly found two kinds of shipyard modules on the trading market.

The import module and material input module.

"One more module to go. As long as I can locate the power module or automatic building module, I can immediately start working on the shipyard."

After searching again and again and realizing that there were no more related modules remaining, Su Mo suppressed the agitation in his heart and closed the game panel for the time being.

The module was not large in size, but its weight was astounding.

Moreover, this item was not applicable for the game's new taxation rule, and hence the seller could only fork out an exorbitant amount of points to pay the courier fee in advance to list it in the trading market.

The import module cost 140 Disaster Points in courier fees on the trading market.

The courier fees for the material input module were even higher, costing a staggering 180 Disaster Points. The fees would be borne in equal parts by both the seller and the buyer.

After counting the items that would have to be traded over in exchange, it would cost him at least 250 points to obtain the modules.

"When the material acquisition is completed, I will go straight to the World Channel to collect them, and then open up a trading market purchase request and offer to pay the full courier fee."

"Perhaps I can find someone who has the item but is unable to afford the courier fee!"

The prices of materials had been dropping dramatically since morning.

Like speculating stocks and shares, if there was a price chart for the prices of materials, then the trend line could be seen as falling like a waterfall, showing no signs of stopping.

In the case of a dramatic price drop like that, the "retail investors" who were holding on to quite a number of goods, but not too much, would become flustered and try to quickly trade their goods to relieve themselves of the "burdens" in their hands in exchange for food to go to the new continent.

It was not wrong to put things that way, but the problem was…

None of the market makers could absorb the supply!

Aside from the hundreds of thousands of pounds of food that Su Mo and the Candlelight Shelter had planted this time, everybody else had just enough rations to last them half a year. How could they possibly have extra food to trade?

Even the other large shelters were thinking of ways to exchange goods for food, which caused the prices to drop even further.

Therefore, Su Mo just needed to wait for the prices to hit rock bottom. As the market's "capital giant"...

Su Mo would be able to enter unscrupulously and perform a one-time acquisition to obtain enough materials to build both the warship and shipyard, and perhaps even hoard some of the materials for future use in the new continent.

"There's no need to rush things. Candlelight Shelter is bringing over enough goods today, and I have to start building the warehouse before they arrive!"

Su Mo now had a complete blueprint, coupled with a surplus in shelter cores.

After placing two cores near the Underground Shelter to generate a two-story underground building, Su Mo took out 24 fruits to upgrade the space to 220 cubic meters.

Through the Lv2 shelter-binding function, the original wooden warehouse instantly turned into a firm and sturdy stony warehouse in just a few breaths of time.

Su Mo would only need to import the blueprint subsequently and, with the help of the free Lv3 Rebuilding function, he would be able to build a super warehouse with an incredibly large storage capacity.

Of course, the door to the warehouse did not need to be sealed just yet. When all the food had been stored in the warehouse, he would then remove the door and bind it to the Underground Shelter.

After figuring out what he was going to do, Su Mo wasted no time and imported the blueprint. When the rumbling sounds of the reconstruction rang out, the time was only 9:30am.

As the reconstruction involved lots of hacking work all over the place, it went on for a full half an hour before the vibrations gradually came to a halt.

Su Mo took into consideration the ocean disaster that was about to strike, which meant that the shelter needed to be sealed off completely to stop any water from seeping in.

Therefore, the ventilation window of the Underground Shelter, as well as the newly-built warehouse, would need to be redesigned and marked out.

He had to ensure that there was sufficient air circulation but, at the same time, keep the water out.

Therefore, when he first stepped into the new warehouse, it was not pitch dark inside.

There was a half-meter sized hole in the ceiling of the warehouse which allowed the wasteland's sun to shine through.

On the walls of the warehouse were rows of recessed shelves, which was also the most ingenious design of the refrigerated granary.

Beneath the shelves were several small holes for ventilation and, incidentally, because of the downward air current, it caused the moisture of the items above to accumulate at the bottom.

On the warehouse floor was a tiny sink, ensuring that the accumulated moisture would quickly flow to the next layer, which contained a water storage tank. This reduced the humidity of the first floor.

Su Mo clutched a flashlight and went down to the second floor.

This space had turned into a natural storage place for vegetables and wheat.

The water in the tank on the upper floor would travel down to the storage tank at the center of the second floor.

As long as the circulation frequency of the lion clan's wind ability was programmed, the wind would quickly reduce the temperature in the tank and achieve a natural refrigeration effect.

This cold temperature would in turn preserve the vegetables and wheat on the second floor, reducing the rate at which the food would spoil significantly.

This so-called "whimsical" design was within the system's scope of upgrade, and cost a lot more survival points than a natural granary.

"That's not too bad. Now I just need to go with the plan and figure out how to upgrade the water ability of the mermaid clan!"

Su Mo was tremendously satisfied with his own design.

A warehouse design like this could preserve the food for half a year to two to three years.

Su Mo nodded. While figuring out the specific details, the ground started vibrating slightly. Clearly, "someone" had arrived.

Filled with delight, Su Mo trotted out of the warehouse entrance and looked into the distance.

Sure enough, at the end of the horizon, the pioneer group from the Candlelight Shelter arrived!

At the forefront of the group was the brilliant excavator, the conqueror of the welfare disaster—King Kong.

With the help of his already outstanding vision, Su Mo could not help but exclaim in surprise when he looked closer.

Within King Kong's bucket sat at least ten people. These guys were lying in the bucket howling in excitement.

Even Qi Qin, who was standing up amidst these people, had found a cloth from god-knows-where and held it up high, revealing a large golden "Su" character that waved gently in the wind.

Judging from their expression, it seemed as though lifting a banner with the word "Su" was a symbol of invincibility in the wasteland!

Looking further, something that looked like a thick rope made of unknown material was attached to King Kong's rear end, pulling along two self-made carts.

Seven people sat in each cart.

Upon calculation, the number of people transported by King Kong in a single trip had reached a staggering 25.

Su Mo could see these people, but they could not see him.

However, they were all too familiar with the terrain surrounding the Underground Shelter. Everybody had carefully studied the place during the last two live broadcasts and had dreamed countless times about coming to this place during their night-time slumber.

Even though they had not actually arrived, their excitement and cheers penetrated the air and reached his ears.

Men, women and teenagers alike seemed to have a perception that they would be absolutely safe as long as they arrived at this "holy" land.

As for the Candlelight Shelter that they had been staying in for a month, that had almost completely been immediately forgotten by everyone.

Candlelight Shelter? What was that?

Plains?

Looking at the grass on the ground, although they were not as thick as the ones at Hope Plains, the grass here seemed to be filled with spirit!

What followed behind the excavator was a combine harvester and, similarly, the combine harvester also carried a dozen people behind it.

Upon calculation, between these two vehicles, all the weaker ones among the refugees had been brought over.

As for the remaining people, just one more round trip was needed to transport them over, and having everyone arrive today did not seem to pose a problem at all.

As the fleet approached, Su Mo, who was standing in front of the shelter, was spotted by everybody.

Seeing his figure, the cheering refugees fell silent immediately, each of their gazes filled with awe and reverence.

When the excavator stopped, all the refugees even spontaneously lined up in a 3 by 3 formation.

"Big Brother Su, there are 41 people this round. The group behind us is still 62 kilometers away. Soon they will all be here!"

The strong and vigorous Chen Shen stepped out of the combine harvester with a friendly smile as he quickly came forward.

During their journey to the Underground Shelter, the refugees from the Candlelight Shelter had eliminated a few mutant creatures. Basically no other creatures could be seen.

Su Mo had also once left Zhong Qingshu a gun before leaving, so safety would not?have been an issue at all.

After making a brief report about the relocation journey, and seeing the look of praise in Su Mo's eyes, Chen Shen smiled in delight and then wisely stepped forward, saying, "Also, the guys at the back have another surprise for you!"

"A surprise?"

"Yes, Big Brother Su. We caught a big haul during the relocation today!"

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Chapter 260: Filling in the Conditions, Reversion Blessings

When Chen Shen mentioned the two words—big haul, he could clearly feel the sense of excitement and thrill in his heart.

Su Mo patted on Chen Shen's shoulder, signaling him to keep up, and along with the others, marched toward the hill above the Underground Shelter.

On the hill, they would be able to get a view of the terrain surrounding the shelter, including Iron Rock Mountain.

"A big haul? Let me think…"

"If it's nearby, wouldn't that be the remaining troop of lion people that went to look for shelter?"

He walked and pondered. Excluding the other creatures on this route, the only creatures remaining that would be deserving of the term "big haul" would be the lion people.

Chen Shen, who was behind Su Mo, heard him mumbling to himself, and there was a hint of admiration on his face. He stepped up alongside Su Mo.

"Yes, brother Su, it's the lion people!"

"Good gracious, this bunch of lion people were really starving. Just over ten of them dared to rob us in broad daylight!"

"We didn't even send for Ms Zhong. The shelter's militia alone that we've been training recently was enough to teach these lion people a good lesson."

The more Chen Shen said, the more excited he got, as he continued to chime in with an animated expression.

He did not know whether it was because they had been starving for days, or whether it was due to their poor living conditions, that caused them to take action so suddenly.

It seemed that the group of ten to twenty lion people could initially withstand the pangs of hunger, by roaming around and foraging the wasteland.

However, they were now faced with the imminent approach of the ocean disaster in 20 days, and their shelter core had been destroyed by the kobolds. This meant that they did not have the ability to build a small raft to sail across the ocean and head to the new continent.

The new version update immediately had the poor lion people against the ropes!

In desperation, the lioness could only take the risk, brace themselves and attack on the day of the relocation of the Candlelight Shelter, hoping to steal some resources and the shelter core to restore their own.

It was only that the lioness did not expect the unprecedented growth the refugees had undergone after receiving Su Mo's assistance.

Firstly, their growth in confidence!

Humans used to fall into chaos whenever they saw more than ten members of a foreign race attacking, and would only think of escaping safely. The thought of fighting back did not even occur to them before this.

However, with Su Mo now guiding and encouraging them…

When the group of lion people showed up, the militia that had just sharpened their iron spears and filled their stomachs, howled and dashed forward without hesitation, as if they had discovered some sort of treasure.

On one side was the well-equipped, well-fed militia who were at their peak condition, raring to go.

On the other side were the wandering lion people who were physically weak from hunger and exhaustion.

Once they came into contact, even if they had been magically buffed by the lioness, the battle line of the lion people's squad immediately collapsed.

The militia suffered 0 deaths and 0 injuries, but killed nine lion warriors on the spot, and seriously injured a further two lion warriors during this battle encounter.

They even successfully captured the head of the lion clan, the lioness, a lion cook, and a new class of lion warrior, a lion archer.

The three surviving lion people had been tied up with hemp rope at this point. These lion people, who were once active on the Hope Plains, had lost their opportunity at life in the battle, and were only one command away from fading into 'extinction'.

Once Su Mo gave the word, after three seconds, the lion people would no longer exist on the wasteland world forever.

However…

After Chen Shen had finished narrating the report, and just when he was about to move on to the other matters excitedly, he was stunned to realize that there was no reaction from Su Mo.

Huh? Was brother Su unhappy?

Could it be that this was not considered to be a big haul?

The moment this thought came into Chen Shen's mind, and just when he began to struggle…

Su Mo turned around, and had a smile plastered all over his face that he could no longer hold back!

The next second, on the hill above the Underground Shelter, and in every villager's eyes, Su Mo stood on the hillside and burst out laughing, as if a joyous event had taken place.

"Good job! Fantastic! What a well-fought battle! Well done, Chen Shen! I did pick the right person!"

His rough palm patted Chen Shen's shoulder heavily.

Although Chen Shen grimaced in pain, his face had a very pleased expression. Even though Su Mo had an excellent sense of self-control, the thrill he felt from this information was enough to make his soul tremble with excitement.

It was truly a case of having a pillow delivered to his doorstep just as he was feeling sleepy.

There were two ways to move every item, including the shelter, that was within five kilometres of the Underground Shelter to the new continent.

The first way to totally eradicate the existence of a foreign race from the wasteland, and the second was to kill a total of 500 thousand members of foreign races.

As luck would have it, he had achieved the first method even before the launch of the second version update of the game.

He only had to wait until the ocean emerged to kill these few remnant survivors, which would then allow him to meet the shelter teleportation conditions immediately, allowing him to obtain the first entry quota to the new continent.

"Fortunately, a few lion people were spared this time. I didn't expect them to take a detour and return to this area."

"Yes, at first they were still wandering around the vicinity of the Candlelight Shelter but, after that, we weren't sure where they ran off to. We weren't expecting them to return at all!"

After restraining his excitement and calming down, Su Mo felt relieved that he had not completely exterminated the lion people back then, recalling memories of…

The lion people and the basin area.

When he first arrived here, the entire basin area was brown, as if all life had been erased by the aftermath of a missile attack.

It had only been a month since then, but now one could see fields of emerald green everywhere, and the desolate scene in his memory had become a thing of the past.

Were it not for the impending ocean disaster, Su Mo had the confidence that it would not take long for him to develop this basin into a land of abundance.

For now, he looked at the basin area, as more and more refugees whose hearts were filled with hope gathered together. Su Mo felt emotions welling up in his heart that needed to be released.

How long had it even been?

The basin area was truly transforming into a cradle of life!

"Look there. That's the place that I've arranged for all of you. When the ocean emerges, it'll be safe to hide away in the mountains."

Su Mo turned around, and as Chen Shen's gaze followed his own, he slowly pointed at the Iron Rock Mountain that was behind the shelter.

With just one look, the hint of confusion that was in Chen Shen's eyes earlier suddenly transformed into utter shock!

The mountains, according to most Huaxian's memories and knowledge, even if they were not shaped like jagged rocks, would have at least varying levels of steep, straight cliffs.

If humans wanted to settle down atop such mountains, they could only adopt the lifestyle of cavemen; living in caves and eking out a primitive existence.

However, now that he saw the mountain in the field of his vision, Chen Shen…

His worldview collapsed!

Goodness gracious, who would believe that a naturally-formed mountain could have a standard twisting mountain path on it.

Who would have thought that there was a large, flat platform on the top of the mountain that was so smooth that it looked as if it had been sliced off with a sharp knife.

In the previous private messages, Su Mo had only told him to move to the mountain.

Even after that, when Chen Shen attended the meeting and told all the villagers, he purposely avoided the topic of relocating to the mountains when they were about to move.

Subconsciously, the natural environment of the mountain made him envisage a plain and hard life.

However, now…

"Brother Su, if they were to see such a mountain, won't they go crazy with happiness?"

Chen Shen turned around, eyes sparkling. Su Mo could see clearly just what the flames in those eyes were trying to express.

The ocean disaster would soon be upon them, and they would be able to survive on a forty-meter tall mountain; mining the mountain's iron ore in passing, and settling down atop its flat surface.

How safe and comfortable such an environment would be, and even if the final wave of the tsunami struck afterward, the mountain would still remain absolutely as steady as the rock it was formed from.

"Go, assemble your team, and try your best to create a space that is sufficient to house everyone today."

"As for storing supplies, the warehouse is right down there. You can arrange for your team members to store the supplies inside based on the previous plan."

Su Mo patted Chen Shen on the shoulder and gave him a look of encouragement. He watched Chen Shen nod his head and descend down the hill. There was also a trace of fighting spirit in Su Mo's eyes.

To these people, the Iron Rock Mountain was their right place to settle down and live peacefully until the ocean disaster arrived.

However, to his sister, he was Su Chan's mountain, and the only one she could trust to rescue her from the ocean disaster!

"Since we've now found a way to relocate the Underground Shelter and its surroundings, things have become simpler. I'll just have to wait until the disaster arrives!"

He watched as Chen Shen left a few men behind to pass the message to the others, and started leading a large team heading toward Iron Rock Mountain happily. Su Mo also started to get down to work.

The furnace that was making the steel plates, which previously operated 12 hours per day, increased its operations to 18 hours per day, with the remaining six hours set aside to let the machine rest and cool down.

Based on the furnace's power consumption, ten kilowatts were required per hour, which meant that a hundred and sixty kilowatts were used each day, in addition to the 40 liters of diesel required to generate the power everyday.

As for the thickness, even though there were ways to purchase more materials, Su Mo still chose to continue making the 490mm steel plates to ensure the absolute structural integrity of the hull.

In terms of weapons, once the cotton had been stored and sorted, then he would be ready for the mass production of guncotton, which would allow him to produce ammunition and explosives.

Everything was proceeding according to plan!

"I'm not waiting anymore, I'll try to upgrade the level of the mermaid clan's transcendental blessing to see if I can protect the shelter from the ocean."

In the trading market, the price drop of the materials continued, declining steadily at a rate of 0.1 percent every minute.

Su Mo checked the trading market for a while, and then closed the game panel. He summoned the shelter core that possessed two types of transcendental blessings, focused mentally, and summoned the system.

The familiar pale green light glowed and dimmed, as two attributes were displayed.

Currently, the color distribution representing both blessings on the armored core was rather uneven, 90 percent of the area belonged to the upgraded wind ability of the lion clan, while flinching piteously on the other side was the water ability of the mermaid clan, which only covered 10 percent of the armored core.

Previously, for some unknown reason, the water attribute of the talisman stimulated the mermaid clan's blessing, allowing it to increase its territory.

Based on the area distribution of the two blessings, one could see just how frightening a blessing upgrade could be.

"System, provide me with the upgrade options of the water ability of the mermaid clan!"

Su Mo closed the shelter's alloy gate, switched on the light in the room and sat on the ground cross-legged. Focusing mentally, the system interface displayed the properties panel.

There were three different upgrade directions displayed.

[Water of the Mermaid Clan]

[Description: Belongs to a branch of blessings under the "Water" family. Obtained after receiving an ordinary blessing from a weak mermaid clan member. Excellent upgrade potential.]

[First upgrade option: Increase the blessing's level from lvl 1 to lvl 2. Enhances the current blessing's ability to a certain extent and expands the scope of blessing. Low probability of evolving the blessing and deriving a second ability. Survival points required (980).]

[Second upgrade option: Increase the blessing's quality. Reversion from a low-ranked mermaid's to a mermaid priestess' blessing. One hundred percent chance of deriving a second ability. Low probability of enhancing the blessing's potential and deriving a third ability. Survival points required (2800).]

[Third upgrade option: Blessing Reversion. Reversion from a low-ranked mermaid's to a mermaid queen's blessing. One hundred percent chance of deriving six new abilities. If the shelter is submerged under the ocean, it naturally gains an 80% affinity rating from aquatic species, and 100% affinity rating from the mermaid clan. When the blessing of the mermaid clan is attached to the shelter, there is a low probability of triggering a special effect—"Carp leaping over the dragon gate", which increases the "visual aspect" of the mermaid clan's blessing. Survival points required (55200, psychic energy crystal *1).]

[Comment: No way, are you kidding me? How could anyone refuse the chance of owning a pretty mermaid?]

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