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 281 - Conquest! Link the Foreign Race Cores! - Read My Post-Apocalyptic Shelter Levels Up Infinitely! Chapter 281 - Conquest! Link the Foreign Race Cores! Online - All Page - Novel Next

Chapter 281: Conquest! Link the Foreign Race Cores!

"Compared to Ma Fei and Magoo's generation, an increasing number of people from Earth have survived because of me.

"But at the same time, the butterfly effect brought about by so many people is also frightening enough.

"Because of how the rules of killing work, every time mankind falls, a foreign race will arise. If we don't resolve this, I'm afraid I'll become a "man without followers" in the new world!"

Driven into the wasteland to commit crimes, Zeus Shelter lived only to survive and journey to the new world.

An insignificant "little thing" such as this was like a microcosm of all mankind in the grand scheme of things.

The ocean disaster this time required not only the building of ships and stocking up of supplies, but they also had to guard against any possible covert attacks by foreign races at any time.

For the weaker people in the wasteland, this was absolutely beyond their capabilities.

Su Mo had anticipated none of this previously.

"This is not good. I don't know what the situation is like over at Tundra Shelter. What happens if they encounter an invasion from foreign races or their firepower!"

As he ran and rapidly considered the situation in the wasteland, Su Mo felt a touch of panic when he thought of his younger sister.

Fortunately, after calling up the game panel to search for her name, the green dot behind Su Chan's name was still lit. She also had not taken the initiative to ask for help, indicating that there were probably no major issues for now.

"I need to quickly find an excuse to fortify Tundra Shelter. Otherwise, the extensive supplies that they have…

"Will definitely be a target for the foreign races!

"As for now, it's necessary to get hold of reports from the foreign races' side to see what their plans and purposes are."

Knowing oneself and one's enemy would bring about victory on the battlefield.

The foreign races near the Underground Shelter had been disposed of in a clean sweep. However, since Zeus Shelter had been here first, it was entirely possible that the lioness might have revealed some information while she slept—something that could summon other foreign races and catch everyone off guard.

This time bomb had to be defused immediately.

"Whatever. If she doesn't talk, just use the same methods our forefathers used, and we'll see. Even… drugs are acceptable!"

After finalizing the plan, Su Mo clenched his fists and quickly arranged the next few little stratagems.

Everyone in Hope Village took a hand.

Su Mo walked up the mountain path and soon came to where the prisoners were held. Chen Shen had still chosen to leave two militiamen here.

"Alright, you can go outside and wait. I'll stand guard here for now; I need to ask several questions!"

He sent away the two militiamen, whose faces were full of excitement, and glanced at the lioness, who was still stubborn and unwilling to surrender.

After closing the door, Su Mo mentally steeled himself and took two steps forward without hesitation.

Smack!

Smack!

Smack!

The three sharp slaps were like the sound of firecrackers during the Chinese New Year, reverberating explosively in the cave where the prisoners were in custody.

Through the dim light shining into the cave, one could clearly see that the lioness' face had immediately swelled up after the three slaps, even though she had initially been able to preserve her demeanor.

Furthermore, from her human-like expression, it was easy to tell that she was obviously startled.

Chen Shen's two days of mild interrogation had lured the lioness into the illusion that Su Mo would come and converse with her in a civilized manner.

Right now, however, after her face had swelled from being slapped, she was…dumbstruck!

"You won't talk, huh? Alright, I'll make sure you can't talk!"

Seeing how the lioness was still being stubborn, Su Mo did not stop. He pulled her face over and slapped her again three times.

At present, having entered and exited the ruins three times, Su Mo's strength was terrifying.

He would barely need any effort at all not to be outdone by professionally trained strength-sport athletes on Earth.

Such great force, combined with Su Mo's anger and anxiety, immediately made the lioness aware that she was merely a captive.

"There's an excellent old saying that we Huaxians have—diplomacy before violence, leniency for those who confess, severe punishment for those who resist.

"Since you're not willing to talk, I don't think there's any reason to keep you alive!"

He took out a handgun and released the safety with one hand. Before the horrified eyes of the two lion people nearby, Su Mo immediately pulled the trigger.

Bang!

Dong, dong, dong…

The violent sound of gunfire reverberated in the cave, sounding even louder because the area was sealed. It was as if the God of Thunder were angry.

A hole the size of a chrysanthemum tore open on the lioness' thigh, and a trickle of dark blood spurted from it.

"I…"

The lioness faltered in her words, the violent pain prompting her to crawl back up, but now that he had already decided on interrogation by torture, Su Mo did not hold back.

He fired another shot again into the lioness' right thigh.

"Think about it carefully. Are you trying to meet your Lion God, bringing the allegiance of other foreign races with you?

"It's better for you to be frank and rely on mankind!

"I'll count to three. If you still can't make a choice after that, I'll make it for you!"

Su Mo articulated everything very clearly this time, practically telling the lioness that she should just die if she refused to become a traitor.

Once he finished speaking, Su Mo raised the handgun and placed it against the lioness' head. At the same time, his finger curled around the trigger.

Many times, the results from threats that had no lures afterward were surprisingly good.

The moment Su Mo said the word "three", the lioness came to her senses!

Even though both her thighs gave her severe pain, she still supported her weight on the ground with her hands and sat up, frantically nodding her head.

"Good. I'm very satisfied with your choice. I hope you don't do something stupid."

Su Mo pulled aside his mask and leaned right into the lioness' face, showing his gleaming, perfect teeth as the corners of his mouth drew up in a smile.

This smile held more than a trace of nostalgia.

It was reminiscent of the first time when both of them were negotiating on the highlands about how to attack the Kobold base camp. Back then they harbored no schemes toward each other.

This time, however, there was only fear in the lioness' eyes as she trembled despite herself.

"Demon—you're a demon!"

"Hey, whether I'm a demon or not will depend on how you conduct yourself.

"Since you've already decided, I'll give you another chance!"

He put away the handgun that had been against the lioness' head and looked down at her thighs, which were still bleeding profusely. Su Mo used his mind, then took out the Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll and placed it on the lioness' legs.

Poof…

An intense burst of starlight flared up. In the time it took for three to five breaths, when Su Mo looked down again, not only had the lioness' legs healed…

Even her swollen, slapped face had returned to normal.

"Come on, spill it. What are the other foreign races up to now? What sort of epic plans are you scheming?"

After rapping on the door and beckoning the two militiamen to come and take away the other two lion people, Su Mo sat cross-legged on the ground, facing the lioness.

"Old Devil Su, I can tell you everything…"

"But you can't tell anyone that you heard it from me. Otherwise, it'd be better for you to just kill me now!"

Gritting her teeth and realizing that she had already embarked on a path of no return, the lioness' burden seemed to have eased, and she let out a long sigh.

Her reaction and her words registered in Su Mo's heart, causing him to immediately be ecstatic.

Fine!

This was the tactic to use with every surrendering villain, was it not!

"I promise that as long as you do well, with my help, not only will the lion clan will survive, but they will continue to flourish under your rule and become one of the greatest clans in the wasteland.

"When the time comes, you'll also be able to obtain the highest evaluation from the Lion God!

"My friends are friends to all mankind. With my protection, no one in this world can kill you!"

It was like the inducement of a carrot after a stick. Due to the outrageous amount of information that modern society had access to, everyone knew of this stratagem and how to use it.

For Su Mo, who had spent two or three years in the workplace listening every day to capitalists promising promotions and raises as long as one worked hard, using this stratagem was doubly not a problem!

Mankind was talented that way!

Once she had obtained this guarantee, the lioness behaved just like a newcomer to the workplace, having full faith in the promise of the "capitalist".

Thanks to Su Mo's provocation, her whole outlook seemed to undergo a new lease of life!

"Very well!"

Very shrewdly, the lioness did not continue negotiating terms but instead did something that dumbfounded Su Mo.

"Damn…"

In front of Su Mo's gaze, spots of yellow lights appeared in the dark cave, fully materializing in the time it took for two or three breaths.

Su Mo was no stranger to this item.

It was a game panel with a different color!

Human game panels were mostly blue and green. So far, Su Mo had not discovered a third color.

However, the foreign races' game panel was a flashing, eye-catching yellow and orange. Other than that, it was no different from the human game panel.

"Come, I've taken down the barrier set up against you. You can link it to your panel and check it out!"

In a manner indicating that she was risking everything, the lioness gestured with her hand and lay back down on the ground without saying any more.

Su Mo had linked his panel to Ying Xiong's previously. After discovering that the middle operating procedure was no different, Su Mo did not hesitate any further and linked to the lioness' panel with the ease of one who had done it before.

He sucked in his teeth…

It was awesome!

Compared to the connection with Ying Xiong, the connection with the lioness this time was more intimate and more comfortable. It was like soaking in a hot bath where even the soul was massaged.

[Record: It has been detected that a foreign race core has requested to enter your sanctuary area. Do you agree?

[Record: After agreeing, you will get 100% operation authorization for the normal core and 70% operation authorization for the foreign core

[Record: Please note that once the setting is successful, unless the foreign race core host dies, it cannot be undone

The three notification tones came late, but they arrived at the moment when the game panel changed color after being linked.

After seeing that he still had a quota of five sanctuaries, Su Mo used his mind and agreed to it without any further need for consideration.

Apart from the three slots that were reserved for his family, the remaining quota could be used to connect with different races and listen out for information—which was just nice!

Voila!

Once the sanctuary had been selected, the game started to automatically link the contract.

With a muffled sound, a shelter core half the size of a human appeared out of thin air. At the same time, a small core resembling a lion's head floated out from the lioness' body.

Naturally, the sizes of both were not comparable, but when she saw how the turtle armor looked like and sensed a familiar aura…

"The wind! You have the wind of our lion clan!"

"Not only that…you even have my wind of blessings!"

When she saw the dark cyan energy that floated around the turtle armor, the lioness, who was still lying on the ground, looked as if she had seen a ghost. She nearly stood up involuntarily.

"There are other councils taking refuge in you?

"Impossible. I'm the only one from our lion clan who transmitted it!"

Appearances could be deceiving, and lights could hoodwink, but the lioness was confident that this aura that came from the same source had originated from her.

'Did I give Old Devil Su a blessing before?

Huh?'

She extended her hand. When it approached the illusory turtle armor, she saw that all the energies seemed to dance as if they had found their mother.

Su Mo could now see that the rebellious look in the lioness' eyes had disappeared, and had been replaced by…

Panic!

"Amazing, right? In the future, follow me and work hard. There are still many things that you haven't seen yet!"

He patted the lioness on her shoulder. After he saw the mixed feelings in her gaze, Su Mo waved his hand, and the sanctuary ritual officially began.

Automatically, Su Mo's turtle armor opened up the mouth on its illusory head and swallowed up the lion core in one mouthful.

After three to five seconds of tremors, when the lion core appeared again, an icon of Su Mo's head the size of a grain of rice appeared in the middle of the lion's head, indicating that this core was protected by Su Mo.

At the same time, a very close relationship was established between the two.

For Su Mo, this feeling was more like mastering the power of life and death and possessing control over the lion core.

For the lioness, however, it was a feeling of oppression as if she had lost something belonging to her.

At this point, though, what was done could not be undone.

When he saw the lioness sitting down on the ground dejectedly and evaluating her life, Su Mo smiled but did not comfort her.

"Switch to the auxiliary core."

The sanctuary's perimeter extended for 100 meters and below. As long as it was within this range, Su Mo could enter and check on it anytime he wanted to.

As soon as he uttered these words, after the game panel received the command, the green human panel disappeared and was replaced by a yellow foreign race panel.

There were many functions on this panel similar to the foreign race panel.

At present, however, after looking at the familiar World Channel, Su Mo accessed it right away without even needing to think.

Like the human chat channel, it was also divided into the World Channel and the Regional Channel.

With a mere thought, the World Channel panel automatically opened, revealing what it actually held.

"Good. Very good. I've finally caught all of you whelps in one fell swoop!"

The World Channel now was moving quickly with messages scrolling down.

With just one look, Su Mo, who was sitting on the ground, found it hard to contain his excitement. He clenched his fists tightly.

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Chapter 282: Cursed Tiger, Marine Hunting Operation

In the World Channel for the foreign races, there was a clutter of nonsense and incomprehensible messages asking for help, just like the one for humans.

However, three to five seconds later, when the game panel picked up the signal that it was not the Lioness who was viewing the channel, but Su Mo, all the messages started getting screened.

The idiots who were complaining to and seeking help from other foreign clans… vanished!

The dumbos who cursed, 'Old Devil Su, you heartless thing!' also vanished!

As the number of foreign clans that could manipulate the game panel was different from that of humans, the screening process slowed the rate of posted comments instantly.

Su Mo looked closely and was able to read each message in clear detail as well as the information being conveyed.

"Let's see. In the World Channel, there are a total of 340,000 foreign clans who have obtained posting permissions."

"In other words, before the marine creatures appeared, there were currently a total of 340,000 foreign clans on the doomsday wasteland."

"Of course, this also includes foreign clans like the lion people, who are already on the verge of extinction. If he had to estimate the number of the truly powerful ones…"

"Then there should be between 20,000 to 50,000 foreign clans!"

The number seemed a little daunting; nevertheless, Su Mo could not help but chuckle when he saw the comments posted on World Channel.

[Bone-Etching Great Sun Eclipse: Any experienced dudes near Black Mountain at the moment? I caught sight of a group of about 500 humans. After observing, I found that there are a lot of fat ones in the group, so fat that they're literally oozing grease. I'm sure it'll be a feast. I currently have only 80 Combat Strength and urgently need someone to come over and offer assistance.]

[The Isolated Phantom Crocodile: I think that group of bulky men aren't to be messed with. A few days ago, I saw Old Wolf messing with them, but they began shouting 'Hail, Spiny Ape!' and rushed up to him without an ounce of fear. The team was wiped out before we could even send backup. I suspect that either a powerful force is behind them, and that they were intentionally showing us their weaknesses in order to set us up, or they simply have superb combat strength. If you want to seek your own doom, please leave us out of it.]

[The Primordial Red Jackal: You're scared, huh? You're scared, aren't you? I think that you've all been intimidated by Old Devil Su. Only the bravest and boldest survive nowadays. Wimps like you are always preaching and advocating to everyone about going to the New World to develop, but that's just a load of codswallop. How much of a share do you think we can get when the marine creatures arrive?]

[Nine Heavens Electric Bone Sparrow: Hehe, what do the marine creatures have anything to do with us? We've gotten everything figured out anyway. When the humans are done building their ship, we will take their ship to the New World. But before that, none of you offend Old Devil Su or he'll exterminate all of you—even the gods that are backing you up!]

[Affinity Extinguished Phoe-noceros: Not sure if you're going to actually attack those humans, but we've done it three times now on our end. Humankind is a treasure. Not only do you get to eat their meat after slaughtering them, but you can also summon the portal, enhance your ability, and pick up new skills! That's killing many birds with one stone! If you miss this opportunity, then there's not going to be another one except in your dreams~]

…

Unlike humans, foreign races liked typing several sentences each, which made it quite painful to read.

However, after looking at the names, Su Mo scratched his head, feeling as though he was in a fantasy world.

"Whoa, these clans sure have some incredible names!"

"Could Lioness be at the bottom of the rankings amongst them?"

Filled with curiosity, Su Mo tilted his head. Upon analyzing Lioness' nickname, Su Mo snorted with a laugh.

Lioness went by the nickname Purple-Jade Steel-Eyed Lioness in World Channel, which sounded equally domineering and unusual.

Looking beyond the nickname, he saw her real name, Connie, which sounded a little western, which was connotative of a warm and gentle woman.

"So that's how it is. I knew it…"

Trying to outdo each other, each clan had put in a lot of effort into naming themselves.

The clans were all trying their best to make their names sound mighty and domineering so as to ensure that their words carried weight.

Of course, this would never work in human society. Never. However, this practice seemed quite popular among these peculiar-thinking creatures.

Furthermore, the foreign clans were unlike anything one imagined them to be. In the World Channel, Su Mo not only saw human-like traits in them, as they searched for groups, studied and researched their way around things, and joked around with each other. Interestingly, he also saw his nickname appearing quite frequently.

"Old Devil Su?"

"Am I this popular among the foreign races?"

He stroked his nose and looked at the still-dazed Lioness. This sparked Su Mo's interest, and he was about to stand up and go outside to examine the other functions when the chat channel suddenly went quiet.

Unlike the human's World Channel, where there was a limit on the number of chats allowed per day, foreign clans could send a message every 30 seconds, with an cumulative cap of up to a maximum of five messages at a time, due to the small numbers within each clan.

This mechanism not only ensured that no one would flood the channel, but also ensured that it would not stay too quiet when there were too few people online.

After seeing the channel quiet down, Su Mo stared at the last few messages and froze, a hint of solemnity on his face.

[Cursed Tiger: Quit your nonsense. There's only 18 days left before the humans migrate. During these 18 days, clans that do not have more than 500 members are forbidden to participate in any marine hunting operations.]

[Cursed Tiger: All clans that are unable to swim are required to pay the requisite price to learn swimming and become proficient at it within 18 days.]

[Cursed Tiger: I will repeat Old Devil Su's coordinates again: Six Pans Marsh Land (11021, 32331).]

[Cursed Tiger: Clans that are looking to pass through this location are required to report in advance. The Five Major clans will unanimously agree on the time of attack. Do not act without permission.]

[Cursed Tiger: I hope all clans will inform each other about the contents of the above messages. Anybody who disobeys the orders will be summarily executed in the New World.]

The five intimidating messages looked just like a holy decree, silencing the World Channel completely as soon as it was posted.

Even the clans that were joking around earlier fell silent as though they had been banned from posting.

Moreover, unlike the other clans that added all sorts of odd prefixes to their names as a way of enhancing their prestige…

Cursed Tiger's name was very simple and, given that fact, Su Mo could not help but focus his attention on it.

"Five Major clans? What's that about?"

"Do classifications exist within the foreign clans too?"

Seeing that his coordinates had been exposed, Su Mo was slightly surprised, but he did not make a fuss out over it after thinking things through.

The Underground Shelter could be located easily enough given his interactions with the foreign clans thus far. Coupled with the partial destruction of the lion clan, it came as no surprise that the foreign clans were informed of his whereabouts.

Upon hearing that the foreign clans were unanimously planning to launch an attack, Su Mo did not feel the slightest afraid.

On the contrary, Su Mo felt more apprehension when he heard about the "marine hunting operation".

In the human race's World Channel, one could see the other party's height and weight displayed as additional information.

In the foreign clan's World Channel, however, information was scant. Aside from the basics like their names, one could only see the commenters' racial strength rating.

"Cursed Tiger has a racial strength rating of 9.2. That doesn't seem very high."

"Let's see what the lion clan's rating is!"

Su Mo clicked on the Lioness' avatar as he spoke.

The value shown was very real. Purple-Jade Steel-Eyed Lioness' clan had only a 0.003 strength rating. Upon calculation, Cursed Tiger's clan was 3000 times stronger than Lioness' clan!

After going back to the World Channel panel, Su Mo scrolled all the way to the top.

He started clicking on each commenting clan name one by one to check their strength ratings.

As soon as he finished looking through them, Su Mo immediately felt that things were not as simple as he had imagined.

"After doing some comparisons, Cursed Tiger does seem quite strong."

The more Su Mo studied, the more he understood why Cursed Tiger's clan had gotten a 9.2 rating.

Clans like the 80-member Bone-Etching Great Sun Eclipse clan only had a strength rating of 0.8.

The Affinity Extinguished Phoe-noceros, the one who boasted about killing humans thrice now, only had a strength rating of 1.9.

In contrast, there was a distinct gap between the 9.2-strength rating Cursed Tiger clan and every other clan, clearly demonstrating its superiority.

There wasn't much information available at this point, so after scanning through World Channel and Regional Channel, Su Mo was not stupid enough to question Cursed Tiger clan regarding their origins, but instead turned around and looked at Lioness as she sat in the corner.

"Cursed Tiger…"

"Connie, do you know the background of the Cursed Tiger clan? He seems to be… quite powerful?" Now that Lioness had been taken in, she would no doubt be a little sensitive.

Therefore, Su Mo was very careful with how he worded the question. He tried to avoid using words that could evoke a lot of emotions to express his query.

After hearing what Su Mo said, Lioness Connie first showed a hint of trepidation, but later looked dazed and bewildered.

Her change of demeanor resembled the traitors seen in Hong Kong movies; the confused and dazed expression they had when being questioned after betraying their own boss.

Connie had personally witnessed the fall of Heavenly Dog Pseudo God, but for the Cursed Tiger clan to still be able to instil fear at this point meant that they would have left a lasting impact and impression on her or had an extraordinary background.

"Don't be afraid. I know Cursed Tiger may be powerful, but don't worry, he's still a little weaker compared to me."

"I have a strength rating of 29!"

He made up a random number, taking advantage of the fact that foreign clans had little knowledge of the human's game panel rules. After Su Mo said 29, Connie's eyes immediately lit up.

She seemed to be fueled by courage to the point that even her spine straightened up considerably.

"The Cursed Tiger clan is one of the Five Royal Clans among the other clans on the wasteland."

"When they first arrived, they brought one thousand clansmen with them. To date, there are now…"

"8600 clansmen!"

Connie seemed to have a lot of dealings with the Cursed Tiger clan and talked about their origins as if they were family.

"8600? That many?"

The number had far exceeded the scope of Su Mo's imagination.

On Earth, the final count of wild tigers around the world before transmigration was only about 4000. Even the Siberian tiger, the largest of all tigers, only had a population of 600 or so!

However, hearing that the Cursed Tiger clan contained more than 8000 clansmen now, Su Mo found this problem rather thorny to handle.

If these tigers were as fierce as the ones on Earth, even if Su Mo was the strongest person on the wasteland, just the thought of having more than 8,000 tigers charging forward at the same time would discourage anyone from fighting them.

If they encountered each other, then apart from hiding, the only option left would be to escape!

A head-on battle would be difficult to win if one did not have at least a hundred machine guns, hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition and proper defensive systems and structures.

"Yes, as far as I know, the number of human beings who have died at their hands is only about 5000, which isn't enough for them to grow to such a large population."

"They rely on internecine warfare… by killing us!"

"They obtained their prestige, status, and nickname by killing us—foreign races just like them!"

Connie spoke in a grave tone and with a complicated expression.

Su Mo understood her feelings. As a member of a foreign race herself, she did not seem proud, excited or filled with hope when she spoke of Cursed Tiger, unlike how humans behaved when they spoke of Su Mo.

At the mention of Cursed Tiger, Connie was filled with hatred; a hatred that could not be erased from her eyes.

Had it not been for Cursed Tiger's powerful abilities, Su Mo did not have the slightest doubt that Connie would pounce over and bite Cursed Tiger to death if it was here at the moment.

However, after her hatred for Cursed Tiger subsided, Connie shook her head in an attempt to shake off those unrealistic thoughts.

Prestige was achieved through killing.

This was even more so in the animal world.

"All foreign races should be afraid of them, this includes the soon-to-arrive marine creatures. The Marine Hunting Plan—It's all part of the Five Royal Clan's plan."

"Marine Hunting Plan?"

"What exactly is that?"

Chapter 283: The Target… Was Not Humankind!

In just half a day's time, Su Mo had seen the words "Marine Hunting Plan" multiple times.

From the literal meaning of these three words, he speculated that this was probably a large-scale operation by the foreign races against humans.

However, the wasteland was so vast. How were the foreign races supposed to coordinate themselves and quickly gather together to launch an onslaught on the humans when the ocean emerged?

Moreover, even if they could predict the gathering points and coordinates of most of the humans on land, how confident were the foreign races at keeping track of the coordinates of humans on the sea and then intercepting them?

Su Mo didn't even have to crack his head to figure out the numerous loopholes and problems this plan would have.

None of this was achievable, and even if it was, there was no chance of it being carried out perfectly. Even if there were spies among humans who were able to an uninterrupted flow of information around the clock, the entire endeavor was still nothing but a pipe dream.

Unless…

The target of the marine hunting operation was not humans in the first place!

"Marine hunting operation…"

Upon hearing Su Mo's question, Connie put on a complicated look and she seemed to be at a loss for words for a while, seemingly unsure where to start.

The shocking story behind these three words would flash across her mind from time to time.

Occasionally there was also a hint of disbelief. It was as though the plan was just a fantasy that was not worth mentioning.

Eventually though…

After staring at Su Mo for some time, she licked the blood on her paws that had not yet fully dried. She looked outside at the bright sunshine and a hint of longing was evident in her eyes.

Connie did not answer, but made a request.

"Can I go outside… Oh right, can I have my staff back?"

"If I have my staff, I can provide you with the answers you're seeking!"

Following the demise of the kobold clan, the lion clan had been having a tough time surviving in the wasteland, with their population gradually dwindling.

Fortunately, the welfare disaster brought with it an increase in the number of plants, allowing the lion clan to forage for fruits, barely keeping them alive.

Connie would contemplate the future of the lion clan every night.

After all, there was no way for her to receive the Lion God's instructions unless the summoning portal was opened. She only had herself to rely on.

Connie did get any rest until her clan lost the battle against Hope Village's militia and was captured.

During the day, she pretended to be compliant to Chen Shen, acting as if she was about to surrender but, in truth, she had been frantically thinking of a way to escape.

At night, she slept with great unease, fearing that Su Mo would open the door and end her life with two bullets.

The continuous torture proved to be a challenge for the Lioness who was already not very smart to begin with.

Therefore, after deciding to join Su Mo and the human race wholeheartedly, Connie shed all false pretenses and ideas of escape and became honest.

It was to the point she seemed innocent, just like an animal, and even started making minor requests of her master.

"Sure. We're friends now. As long as you're willing to turn over a new leaf, no one under my watch will lay a finger on you!"

"I can guarantee your safety over here."

After seeing the yearning in Connie's eyes, Su Mo gladly agreed to her minor request.

Now that she had been given the right of asylum, Su Mo could easily take away Connie's powers and leave her completely unable to resist.

Therefore, there was no longer a need to keep her locked up.

He released her in hopes that the Hope villagers would see it, which in turn would boost their morale.

Clap, clap!

He clapped his hands and saw two militia members opening the door. The light from outside poured in. Connie's face carried with it a trace of detachment from the world.

A few days ago, the lion clan was on the verge of being annihilated. Under her leadership, they put up their final struggle.

Now, she led the last of the lion clan and surrendered to their previous prey—the human race.

Connie did not know if she had made the right choice, but when she looked at the man standing in front of the wide-open door, bathing in sunlight…

She nodded hard and slowly clambered to her feet, huffing and puffing hard.

"Open the door and don't keep her locked up from now on. She's now our…"

"Friend!"

Su Mo stressed the word "friend".

The two militia members had witnessed the interrogation carried out by Chen Shen over the past few days, so after being reminded by Su Mo, they quickly understood and unlocked the gate immediately with a look of admiration on their faces.

"Also, go to Chen Shen and bring her staff back."

After instructing one of the militia members, Su Mo gave orders while looking at the bustling scene over at the shipyard in the distance. He watched the militia member leave before turning around and returning inside.

"Let's go. Your staff will be returned to you very soon. It's time you go out to this peaceful world and take a look!"

Life is precious, but love is even dearer.

However, could both be discarded for the sake of freedom?

Whether it was for humans or foreign races, neither of these feelings were compelling enough for them to give up their freedom.

However, when the Lioness walked out, under the envious gazes of the two clansmen, she was enlightened!

"So this is what freedom feels like."

"Turns out that this is the salvation we've been looking for!"

She let Su Mo lead the way. After taking a look at the two clansmen who were still bound, Connie followed Su Mo without stopping in her tracks.

There were not many twists and turns on Iron Rock Mountain, so they quickly reached the top of the mountain.

As there were no large mountains or other structures obstructing their view from the top, they could see everything around them.

They continued walking until they reached the cliff at the top. Su Mo sat down, his feet hanging off from the cliff.

"Take a seat. This will be your home from now on. Don't be shy."

He waved his hands and made a few casual arrangements. Before Chen Shen arrived, Su Mo pulled up the chat panel and saw the constant flow of new messages from the foreign races.

The sun was warm.

The wind was gentle.

Connie went over to the spot Su Mo pointed out and imitated his sitting posture, hanging her feet off the cliff and swaying them gently.

The wind brushed past her fur, creating waves and ripples.

That did not distract her in the slightest, because within her line of sight…

Lay the magnificent shipyard in the distance!

The shipyard was hundreds of square meters from end to end, and the scaffolding was dozens of meters high. Its reflection caused a blue-green light to be emitted under the sun.

The light shone on the ground, as if the shipyard was floating in invisible waters, breathing like a sentient being.

Looking down from the scaffolding to the right were two or three hundred humans densely packed together. From that height, they looked like ants on the ground.

The view from the top was stunning.

Sitting on top of the cliff, Su Mo quietly observed the chat channel. The Lioness Connie looked down in fascination; he did not know what was on her mind.

After a while, he heard rushed footsteps and turned around. Chen Shen could be seen clutching a staff in his hand, running so hard that his forehead was drenched in sweat as he appeared around the corner.

When Chen Shen saw Connie from a distance, there was a touch of consternation on his face, which quickly dissolved into a knowing expression.

"I have the staff, Big Brother Su…"

"She's…"

"She's our friend from now on. Send out my orders that no one is to view her any differently from now on!"

Connie turned around after hearing what Su Mo said and happened to meet Chen Shen's eyes.

Over the past two days, the human and the Lioness had spoken about many things. Connie learned a lot about Su Mo from Chen Shen as well.

Connie was not the slightest bit ashamed of surrendering and, after a slight nod, Chen Shen took two steps forward and crouched down beside them to report.

"Big Brother Su, based on the information we got, the leadership from the Zeus Shelter… have been mercilessly killing others!"

"A simple interrogation revealed the countless number of people who have died by their hands…"

After spitting out those words, Chen Shen's tightly clenched left fist slowly loosened, revealing a single finger.

"One hundred?"

"One thousand!"

'F*ck! That many?"

When Chen Shen saw Su Mo clenching his fists, he quickly lowered down his body and continued to speak in a hushed tone.

"They began to wander the land ever since the second disaster ended. They simply gave up planting after the third disaster. They migrated and robbed everyone along the way. Also, the Huaxians in their group weren't coerced at all."

"They took the initiative to surrender… and willingly became traitors when those brutes from the Zeus Shelter attacked the Huaxian shelter."

Chen Shen tried his best to speak as softly as possible when he said those words to avoid arousing Su Mo's anger.

However, Su Mo's expression remained sullen after hearing what he said.

Compared to the foreign races, these guys knew humans extremely well and would not hesitate to kill their own kind.

A thousand humans fell into their hands, which meant that each person here was responsible for at least ten human lives.

On Earth, even the most wanted criminals were not this ruthless.

"Big Brother Su, please give me the permission to deal with these people once and for all!"

"We can't let these beasts off so easily!"

"They will have it easy if we simply slaughter them!"

Su Mo listened to Chen Shen's furious roars and mulled it over. His taut muscles relaxed and nodded.

Hope Village had fought a war. Now it was time for bloodshed.

There was no need for mercy when it came to dealing with these people.

As a leader, Su Mo needed only to see the results. Good results were all that mattered!

After obtaining Su Mo's permission, Chen Shen stepped back reverently and straightened his back, running back toward where he came from.

However, a murderous aura could be sensed emanating from every fiber of his being.

"Here, this is your staff. Can you tell me what the marine hunting operation is all about now?"

After quickly snapping out of the negative emotions brought about by the actions of the brutes from the Zeus Shelter, Su Mo handed the staff over and returned to his normal, but slightly cold, expression.

Seemingly sensing Su Mo's bad mood, Connie skipped the unnecessary details and, after receiving the staff, she gently pressed the top of its head.

Sss…

A curtain of light extended along the head of the staff, about 30 inches in size, flashing yellow.

This light curtain was clearly visible even under the bright sun. Su Mo was unsure what kind of technology was being used here.

"Old Su… Su Mo, you will be pulled into a different space—do not resist!"

"Don't you worry, their target… isn't humankind!"

Before Su Mo could ask any questions, images began to slowly appear on the glowing screen following Connie's rhythmic tapping of her staff. A voice rang out.

"Greetings to the other terrestrial races in the wasteland. I am the clan leader of Cursed Tiger… Clark!"

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Chapter 284: Multi-Player Game, The Silent Tolerance Of The Officials

As Su Mo had been informed by Connie in advance, he did not resist being pulled into the space; his consciousness once again experienced the feeling of being torn apart, like it did within the sky defense barrier core in the ruins.

Once he allowed his consciousness to be swept inside, there was a subtle change in the surrounding space.

It was exactly like a hologram, and the moment the voice rang out again, Su Mo opened his eyes.

As expected, he was no longer sitting on the edge of the cliff of the Iron Rock Mountain, and had instead been transported into an enormous dark palace.

Within the palace, many of the details were blurry, though it did not look as elaborate as the interior space within the sky defense barrier core. However, Su Mo was slightly surprised that the foreign races were able to come up with this technology within such a short time..

He turned his head and looked around him. Clark from the Cursed Tiger clan, who previously spoke out, could be seen seated within the palace.

He was sitting on the seat of honor in the palace, which clearly indicated his authority and position, while Su Mo seemed to be seated close to the other end.

"This was the divine vision that was transmitted six days ago, a gift that our God bestowed upon us, which the leader of the Cursed Tiger clan paid a high price for.

"To receive the vision, the Five Royal Clans had to sacrifice two True God Oracles. We'll also need to expend some pseudo divine power to view it when we're playing it."

The light curtain beside him flickered, as ripples were formed, Connie's figure appeared in the palace.

In contrast with Su Mo's surprise, Connie seemed rather used to the spectacle, and continued her explanation.

"Don't be fooled by how magnificent this palace is. It's all a manifestation of the divine vision. The actual location where the Cursed Tiger clan dwells…"

"Based on their characteristics and the number of members in their clan, it's definitely not going to be luxurious!"

While Su Mo felt a sense of repulsion in his mind, he was secure and relieved in the knowledge that he could leave the space at any time, and signalled for Connie to continue.

She tapped the staff gently, and the paused recording continued to play.

In the shadows, the voice of the leader of the Cursed Tiger Clan continued to resonate from his figure on the seat of honor.

"Huh, the size of a Cursed Tiger is actually that small?"

In his imagination, the Cursed Tiger, being one of the Five Royal Clans, was supposed to have a huge body and be extraordinarily arrogant.

However when Su Mo saw that the Cursed Tiger's size was only as large as a puppy, he could not help but gasp in surprise.

"Yes, the clan isn't known for their physical strength. If they fought one-on-one with the lion clan, they would lose."

"What makes them truly horrifying is… their curse power!"

"Every strike of theirs carries a curse. If they touch you, the curse will cling to you like a gangrene, feeding on your vitality."

"In other words, if you get touched by them, your vitality will slowly be drained away until you die.

"The curse power grows stronger in tandem with the number of strikes they land, increasing the rate at which it drains one's lifespan."

The Lioness's face was gloomy. She did not regard the "little thing" in front of her with contempt simply because of their diminutive size.

However, when Su Mo heard this, there was a trace of confusion on his face.

Curse power?

Draining vitality?

Required physical contact to spread?

Goodness gracious, were these not characteristics of a virus? Were they secreting a viral poison on their claws that could rapidly devour the cells of the body once infected?

However, after hearing the Lioness' next words, his facial expression turned serious once more.

"However, these aren't the reasons why their clan is so strong. The scariest thing about them is, if you kill them…"

"No matter where you are, or how far you are from them, you'll be cursed; across distance and across time."

"And that's why, among all the clans, relying on this characteristic, they are able to do whatever they want, and rapidly grow their population."

While listening to Clark chattering away, he was also listening to Connie's explanation at the same time.

Su Mo slowly and gradually gained an understanding of the foreign races that he had previously been clueless about.

"No one dares to kill the Cursed Tiger clan, even if it's an individually strong race, when facing them, they can only kneel down and ask for forgiveness."

"Old Devil… Su Mo, even though your physique score is already 29, or even if you're stronger than the strongest one in the Royal clans, when you're facing the Cursed Tiger clan, you must run away as fast as you can; the faster the better."

"Otherwise, even if you manage to kill them, you're going to end up dying from their curse!"

Now that Connie was in the same boat as him, she would naturally tell him everything she knew.

She was afraid that he would act without thinking and fight against the Cursed Tiger clan; dying in vain.

"It can be transmitted across space, huh…"

Su Mo smiled. He did not answer her. He took the opportunity to add something quietly to the list of things to obtain while Clark and Connie were still speaking.

Full cover protective suit!

No matter how strong the virus was, it still had to adhere to the principles and laws of science.

It was impossible for the virus to be magically transmitted into the human body. That would be too overbearing, and did not make any sense whatsoever.

Moreover, Connie did not know about the Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll card. As long as he was not fatally injured, any other injuries could be healed, so it was impossible for the curse power to threaten Su Mo.

Just like the many management meetings on Earth, it was only after ten or more minutes that Clark was finally done beating around the bush, and started to talk about the marine hunting plan.

Su Mo perked up and sat upright, as he started to listen carefully.

"The ocean will emerge soon, and the God of the Ocean will soon recover. There aren't many opportunities left for our terrestrial races!

"The ocean will cover more than 80% of the Land of Redemption. If we don't intervene, the marine races will get to the Key of Redemption sooner than us, so we have to take action. We can't go with the flow anymore and sit around waiting for death."

"As such, the Five Royal Clans have suggested and agreed upon the marine hunting plan concerning all terrestrial races!"

Boom!

Clark had just finished talking when an illusory roll of honor fell from the top of the palace and hit the table, creating invisible sound waves.

Clark stood up and pointed at the honor roll.

As his body size was way too small, he appeared slightly ridiculous. Still, as the words on the honor roll appeared, Clark began to explain. Without hesitation, Su Mo diverted his attention toward the honor roll.

[Marine Hunting Plan (divided into three stages)]

[First Stage: Luring Humans]

"We've already developed a bunch of moles among the humans and, by relying on these moles, during the early stages before the ocean emerges, we'll encourage the humans to move in groups during the process of migration. We'll also dispatch a bunch of races who can swim well to escort the humans, and urge them to complete the migration process as soon as possible!"

"There are two highlights."

"First, before the ocean emerges, there will be no restrictions set up, and the Five Royal Clans encourages all the terrestrial races to hunt for humans to increase their racial strength ratings, and get fully prepared for the marine hunting phase."

"Secondly, after the ocean emerges, all the terrestrial races will not be allowed to intercept, kill, or harm the humans during the migration process in any form, or for any reason, that might interrupt the migration process. No terrestrial races are allowed to tip off, or impart this information to the humans, otherwise you'll be hunted down by the Five Royal Clans and all the other races forever, and we won't stop until your clan is extinct."

After explaining the plan for the first stage, as the recording paused, Clark shot a glare downward, exuding the might of the king of beasts.

"Humans aren't the focal point of the hunting plan. The next item will be their true target."

Connie continued to raise her hand, and swung the staff to unpause the recording, and Clark began to talk about their plans for the second stage.

[Second Stage: Hunting]

"When every human has been gathered together, their presence will become a large and striking target in the ocean."

"Of course, it'll be harder for us to hunt them, but… are they really our target?"

Clark smiled as he stood in front of the honor roll. He raised his claws, and an illusory map appeared on the honor roll.

In the middle of the map, there was a gigantic red dot, sparkling like the sun that hung in the sky.

There were numerous small, blue-colored dots around the red dot, like stars around the sun.

As Clark moved his claws about, the map began to evolve rapidly, and the blue dots gathered together with the red dot, transforming into a huge collective.

"Everyone, do you see this? These blue dots represent the marine races, who are our biggest enemies in the future."

"To find the Key of Redemption, we'll have to kill them and regain control over the ocean. Otherwise, once we've reached the new world with the humans, we'll completely lose all of our territory as well as the chance to complete the mission."

"As such, humans are our greatest bargaining chip. If we're able to use them to attract all those greedy marine races to their location, when the time comes, the Five Royal Clans will strike at the same time, and call upon the great Ancestor God to grant us His strength."

"As long as we can stall them, we'll have the chance to injure them seriously, or perhaps even kill them all at once. As for the remaining humans, I, Clark, the Cursed Tiger, promise that I will be fair and distribute the spoils according to the contributions of every race. The entire ocean territory will be opened to all the terrestrial races unconditionally…"

Clark smiled proudly. He seemed to be pretty satisfied with his plan.

The recording paused at that point, allowing Su Mo to think about the plan.

"Good, good. The loopholes of the plan have decreased a lot. If the plan goes as he says, it's not impossible to accomplish."

"I didn't expect there to be someone that smart among the foreign races!"

After he saw that humans were not the primary target of the foreign races' plan, Su Mo, who was sitting on the right smiled, but his expression did not give much else away.

Clark and the so-called Five Royal Clans had a good plan indeed, and they had made the correct predictions.

Like the two-stage plan mentioned, it was highly likely that the humans would move in groups as they migrated to the New World..

However what Clark did not know was that…

The source of human fear stemmed primarily from their lack of firepower!

Neither did he know that, when the number of humans in a group reached a certain point, their combined combat strength would increase by leaps and bounds.

"Don't stare at me like that. Just go on. His plan isn't a cause for concern. Rest assured and follow me. When the time comes I'll show you…"

"That truth is determined by the range of one's weapons!"

Su Mo thought of the mountain of cotton stacked in the warehouse, and the vertical launching system that was stored in the garage. He reached out and patted Connie's shoulder boldly.

The recording continued to play as Clark kept everyone in suspense, stating that he would keep the third stage of the plan under wraps until the time came.

"The third stage, if I'm not wrong, they're probably aiming for the God of the Ocean…"

Su Mo nodded his head when he heard Connie's speculation.

After the first two stages were completed, the only target left would only be the God of the Ocean, other than the New World.

Most probably, having summoned the so-called "Ancestor God", the Five Royal Clans would absolutely not be satisfied with having the God of the Ocean around.

It was no surprise that the God of Ocean would be included into their hunting plan.

"The plan isn't complicated, but this is exactly why it will be easier to implement given how simple-minded the foreign races are…"

"Since there are moles among the humans, I guess the humans have their share of moles among the foreign races too. Everyone is just playing spy games with each other. I'm guessing that the Five Royal Clans know full well about this, but don't care since the plan that they came up with benefits the humans as well.

"Seeing that the official shelters aren't standing out and opposing it on the world channel indicates that they are to something as well. Are they planning to launch a counterattack when the opportunity arises?"

"Indeed, none of the races are dumb. Humanity's leaders aren't the self-serving, pleasure-seeking good-for-nothings described in the novels on Earth either. They won't rely on or wait for a protagonist to save the world."

"It won't take long before a big show unveils itself on the wasteland!"

Regarding those moles who would encourage the humans to gather together in groups, after Su Mo rapidly made a clear judgment about the current situation, he sat in front of the table, and a sense of excitement began to rise up within him.

This time, not only was Su Mo not planning to stop them, instead, he was planning to add fuel to the fire.

It would take up to four days for the ocean to fully emerge, and for the marine foreign races to arrive.

From the time the marine foreign races arrived, up to when all the humans gathered together; the entire process would take no less than seven days. Only then could the marine hunting plan commence.

74…

11 days!

Within these 11 days, in the plans of the terrestrial foreign races, humans would definitely be safe, and no harm would come to them.

This was exactly what Su Mo wanted!

"Based on my traveling speed, my journey to the Tundra Shelter to pick up sis will only take between 7 to 10 days, which falls exactly within the period of safety when the foreign races would not harm the humans.

"When the time comes, there's nothing to worry about. With the mini destroyer, I'd like to see who or what can stop me in the ocean!"

As Su Mo was thinking about Clark's plan in his heart, he could not help but smile inwardly, and he even mentally high-fived himself.

When Connie looked at him in such an ecstatic state, it calmed her down too.

"Great Lion God, this time, the decision that I've made couldn't have been any wiser!"

"As expected from the Old Devil Su whose strength rating is 29. Following him this time is definitely the right choice!"

"When the time comes, I'll ride on the Old Devil Su's ship, and wait until the ocean emerges. We'll head to the New World and, no matter how intense the fight is behind us, we'll have nothing to do with it."

"The lion clan will flourish once again in Connie's hands!"

In the palace, poor Clark was still chattering away.

However, further away, when the eyes of a human and a lion met each other, they could see the smile in each other's eyes.

"Let's stay alive!"

"Together!"

They shook hands on it. The next moment, in this empty palace, a human and a lion could no longer hold back their emotions, and finally laughed out loud!

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Chapter 285: What I'm Trying To Do, Stay Alive!

"Alright. If you think of anything else or need something, just contact Chen Shen at any time."

"Take some time to rest. There's no need for you to do anything for now. Your body needs to heal."

After he discovered the plans that the foreign races had over the next month, and had arranged for Connie to recuperate with her clansmen, the anxiety that weighed down on Su Mo's heart finally dissipated.

The current status of humans on the wasteland was indeed precarious. However, as long as they survived until the arrival of the ocean disaster in 18 days' time, they would obtain at least ten days of safety and respite.

Until then, hundreds of millions or even billions of humans would migrate together in groups. With the protection of large-scale official shelters, they would not go down without a fight.

Besides, as he looked at the shipyard below the cliff, Su Mo was already imagining the foreign marine races piloting small wooden boats, while he himself piloted his destroyer around arrogantly and without a care in the world.

"Development is good, but we have to take things step by step."

"We still have to activate the robots quickly. Plus, building the ship and making more ammunition can't be delayed."

He walked back down the Iron Rock Mountain with a spring in his step. The heavy mood when he first climbed the mountain was no longer there. Before long, Su Mo arrived at the shipyard.

Half a day had passed, and it was already one in the afternoon.

After seizing the supplies of the Zeus Shelter invaders, the members of Hope Village ushered in a brief period of harvest.

This could be seen from the lunch meal.

The hundreds of pounds of chilled beef seized from the Zeus Shelter invaders were simmered in a large pot, together with potatoes, and were added to the usual serving of noodles.

A bowl of spicy, yet delicious, beef potato noodles was completed!

The cooks in Hope Village were from the north and hence their food contained heavier seasoning; Su Mo could smell the food even from a great distance.

"Hey, I'm guessing that the people from the Zeus Shelter never thought that they would end up on the receiving end of things!"

Su Mo's appetite was stimulated when he saw Moore, who was not even hungry, finished three huge bowls. He walked up and didn't stop eating until he had finished two bowls of the noodles.

After the meal, and while the other looted supplies were still being calculated, the afternoon interrogation session began under the scorching sun.

Chen Shen was worthy of carrying the word "trial" in his name.

Whether it was the Lioness or these thugs, he gave full play to his talents.

Without the constraints of the law, the interrogation process went smoothly under the guise of "accusation" and "violence". Almost everyone from the Zeus Shelter ended up confessing to their crimes.

The crimes ranged from serious ones, where a leader abused and killed dozens of people at every turn, to minor ones where a cook took two or three lives.

Facing Chen Shen's methods, they begged and cried as they tried to obtain a sliver of hope to survive by accusing everyone else.

Even though Su Mo consciously restrained himself from intervening, Chen Shen handled it well. Su Mo then summoned all the members of the current intelligence department of Hope Village and held a brief meeting with them.

At present, the head of the intelligence department was Pei Shao, and his subordinates were three villagers who were assigned to their duties.

For Hope Village, which had a population of only about a hundred people, having an intelligence department with four people was already sufficient for ordinary operations.

However, as Hope Village had only been established recently, it was necessary to take care of both exploring the nearby terrain and patrolling the perimeter daily within a six-mile radius.

The task was a little daunting for a department with only four people.

Therefore, during the first internal meeting that Su Mo attended in Hope Village, he pushed for another three other villagers to be assigned to the department.

Of the three, two were college students who often stayed up late surfing the net, and had the patience to sit still and stare at the chat panel for hours on end.

The other person was a woman in her thirties. In the personnel list submitted earlier, her score for attention to detail was as high as 82 points, which indicated her suitability for work in the intelligence department.

After making those arrangements, Su Mo gave instructions for the first intelligence collection exercise.

"First things first, focus on gathering information on the people who often appear in the World Channel recently, and encourage all humans to migrate to the New World in groups. Record their information in a file and report it to Pei Shao every three days. After confirming the accuracy of the data, Pei Shao will personally hand it over to Chen Shen."

"Secondly, summarize the locations and coordinates of human gathering points after the ocean emerges. The more detailed the better. At the same time, try to verify the combat strength rankings of shelters made by those idlers on the World Channel to create an accurate database for Hope Village."

"Thirdly, try to gather information regarding battles fought between humans and the foreign races that appear on the World Channel to the best of your abilities."

There were three instructions. While the other two only needed to be completed to the best of their abilities, Su Mo emphasized and insisted upon the completion of the second instruction.

There were still a lot of tasks to be completed.

However, morale was high now that Hope Village had just won a victory, and all the villagers readily accepted their tasks and responsibilities.

"Good. It's alright if all the intelligence collection takes some time; the accuracy of the information is paramount. Don't just collect information for the sake of collecting."

"Work hard. Where there's effort, there will also be a reward!"

Su Mo patted both the excited college students and smiled. He then opened the door of the shipyard and signaled for the meeting to end.

Everyone left quickly but, before everyone had left, Zhong Qingshu ran over as if she could not wait any longer, and closed the door behind the last person.

"How is it? Have you figured out the plan of the foreign races? I watched it all unfold the entire morning and I feel like they're about to go crazy soon!"

"Are we going to increase the scope of surveillance? Otherwise, if a large troop gathers around us, we'll definitely be in deep trouble!"

The attack on Zeus Shelter gave everyone a wake-up call.

A surveillance range of about 30 miles was enough for ordinary days.

However, when migrating and traveling, this range would only provide a buffer for perhaps an hour or two at most in the event of an attack.

If the follow-up strategy was not good enough, they would come under attack.

Zhong Qingshu was looking far into the future, and she knew exactly how serious the hidden dangers were.

"Don't worry. I've already discovered most of their plans. Come over and I'll tell you all about them!"

He waved his hand and motioned for Zhong Qingshu to sit down, before starting to talk about the information he had obtained.

Though he naturally omitted Connie's connection to his shelter, as well as what the exact details of saw and heard in the palace.

After he provided a detailed description of the chat channels of the foreign races and their three-stage plan, Zhong Qingshu's expressions transitioned rapidly.

She went from feeling anxious at the start to feeling strange in the middle. She then gained some understanding at the ending and finally fell into deep thought.

After Su Mo finished talking, the shipyard's control room fell into silence. Zhong Qingshu was quiet and Su Mo did not urge her to speak.

Around four to five minutes later, Zhong Qingshu awoke from her contemplative state.

"So, the current situation is that those on land are plotting a scheme against those in the ocean, and the higher-ups of mankind are plotting a scheme to kill and eradicate everything, and those who remain unaware of the situation are left waiting to die?"

"How is the Cursed Tiger clan so sure that the foreign marine races have no countermeasures prepared, and that they won't catch a few land creatures as moles and figure out their plan?"

"There are too many flaws in this plan. Even considering it as a rough plan doesn't make logical sense!"

Different from Su Mo's result-oriented thinking, Zhong Qingshu's mind was more detailed and process-driven.

After hearing her words, Su Mo also felt that things were somewhat fishy.

"While it cannot be denied that no one knows what the foreign marine races are scheming and what they'll do, they are a key variable that cannot be ignored when making any plans for the upcoming disaster."

"If we factor them in, then I'm afraid that this plan won't even get off the runway. All the foreign marine races will find out about their plan simply by relying on the chat channels, or even by capturing just one or two land creatures!"

"Unless…"

"Unless they have a method to avoid the detection of the foreign marine creatures and keep them from finding out about the plan!"

Hearing Su Mo's words, Zhong Qingshu shook her head calmly. She pulled out a book and a pen from her storage space.

As she opened the book, Zhong Qingshu quickly found a page that was densely packed with symbols. After a quick look, she spoke calmly.

"First of all, according to my data collection over the past few days, coupled with the information you just provided me, human beings are the ones who are taking the initiative to walk into the trap in order to attempt a counterattack. You can clearly see some shadows manipulating the public from behind. If this is indeed the plan, then the official shelters should have the weapons and firepower to protect themselves."

"Secondly, if the terrestrial races really want to drive humans into the ring of encirclement according to their plan, relying solely on some insignificant spies to instigate it would be useless. The only way for it to work is to have those hundreds of large-scale shelters take the lead so that these people won't be excluded from the scope of being called traitors."

"Thirdly, I don't recommend that you participate in this battle. There's no issue when it comes to bringing your sister back, but there are too many variables at play here when you're in a battle that involves humans, terrestrial races, and the foreign marine races. Even just the problem of the God of the Ocean that's about to awaken is a huge issue in itself. Unless you have…"

Zhong Qingshu did not finish her sentence, but her meaning was obvious.

This was a big pit. A huge muddy pit.

Once someone fell into this pit, whether by chance or by intention, even if one had endless magical powers, there was no escape from getting oneself embroiled in a messy situation.

The best way forward now was to be wise and play safe; to bring his sister back, go into hiding, and flee to the New World as soon as possible.

However, such persuasion was wasted when it came to Su Mo.

"Hey, you don't have to talk me into doing things like that. I'm not the cynical youth you think I am. Besides, I have not once thought about saving all humankind or devoting myself to their survival."

"It's their own business if they want to participate. The only thing I'm trying to do is…"

"To stay alive!"

Su Mo's gaze looked unhurried as he stroked the buttons on the control dashboard of the shipyard, staring at the scaffolding from behind the blast-resistant glass.

Whether it was the old Zhong Qingshu or the present one, even though her considerations were very detailed, she would never be able to grasp the bigger picture like Su Mo could.

The courage to act when faced with life and death situations, and the foundation of the system, were what Su Mo possessed.

Su Mo obtained extraordinary insights by personally weathering through each crisis that happened along the way.

Those insights not only gave him courage, but also increased his "field of vision".

"Qingshu, this wasteland may indeed seem large to you, and that there's room for us to flee everywhere."

"However, sometimes, it's small too; so small that, if there's a catastrophe, we won't be able to escape death even if we hide in the corners of the world."

"Sometimes, it's not that I don't want to escape, but rather that there are forces and consequences that keep me from escaping!"

"The way for us to survive is to neither hide nor run, but to rely on our own two hands to fight our way out."

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Chapter 286: Milestone, 3090... Boot Up!

Blazeland gathered millions of people to establish a country, occupying more than 3 million square kilometers of land, and pulled off an impressive feat in "peacefully coexisting" with the foreign races.

There was also information about the expeditionary army's fight on the wasteland back in 1999, who researched and manufactured rockets and satellites to attempt to decipher the secrets behind the wasteland world.

After learning that humankind wanted to put themselves in grave danger by actively stepping into the encirclement and attempting a counterattack against the foreign races, Su Mo sensed a trace of "opportunity".

His "farming" had gone on for long enough, and he was about to reap the rewards of his efforts.

If he still backed away from this opportunity, which could potentially yield a bountiful harvest similar to when he had vanquished the Heavenly Dog Pseudo God, then he would not have been Su Mo.

Su Mo was not that kind of person.

When it was time to back down, they should retreat to the extreme. Even when the enemy came knocking on their house door, they had to swallow the insult and suffer in silence.

When it was time to charge, they must not be afraid. They must wield a pair of "steel fists" to fight these evil monsters and wipe them out!

This was the law of the wasteland that had to be adhered to in order to survive and live a better life!

"I won't stop you if you've made up your mind."

"I will provide you with enough support on the information collection side but, for other matters, you're on your own once you're out on the ocean."

When she saw Su Mo's unwavering stance, Zhong Qingshu's eyes brightened, and did not have the slightest doubt in Su Mo.

Back then, in the battle against the Heavenly Dog Pseudo God, she had been in a coma as she had fallen from the fourth floor into a pile of snow. She was not able to witness Su Mo's impressive feat with her own eyes.

In the rumors that followed, the things that Su Mo did became even more mythical. Even Chen Shen, who witnessed the whole process himself, had his own unique version of the story.

Of course, no matter how much the versions varied, everyone shared a common view.

They believed in Su Mo!

Any difficulties could be resolved when Su Mo came into the picture!

With blind confidence such as this, whether it was going out into the ocean to fight the foreign races, or attacking the God of the Ocean, as long as Su Mo raised the war banner, at least a million people would follow behind him.

Zhong Qingshu was no exception to this.

"Thanks…"

Seeing the confident smile on the beautiful person next to him, Su Mo's gaze swayed as if seeing the "Zhong Qingshu" that said goodbye to him on that final day in the ruins of time.

The trust, support, and understanding never changed…

Su Mo will return!

"I'll make you a promise if I manage to get to the New World alive!"

When it came to the ruins of time, Su Mo could let his guard down without worrying about the consequences due to the secure and secret nature of the parallel timeline there.

In the wasteland, however, where the days were unpredictable and disasters were frequent, making this promise would mean an additional responsibility apart from his family. He would promise to protect her even if the sky was falling!

He stood up and looked at the shy Zhong Qingshu. Su Mo thought for a while before he stepped forward and gave her a tight hug.

This hug made Zhong Qingshu blush, and she could not help but try to struggle free. Her little pink fists hammered Su Mo's chest as she felt extremely shy.

"No, no. You've got such a glib tongue now!"

"That's it, I'm leaving. Speed up the shipbuilding process here. There's not much time remaining."

"Got it!"

Many things were still uncertain and there had yet to be peace. It was not the time to be immersed in love.

Su Mo was clear about that and Zhong Qingshu knew better as well.

Seeing her open the door and leave the room briskly, feeling completely different from when she came in, Su Mo did not hesitate anymore and left after her.

In the afternoon, when the sun was the hottest…

The moment he stepped out of the door, sweat oozed from his body as if protesting against the weather.

In the open space next to them, there was a small number of captives. At that moment, they were already being escorted to Iron Rock Mountain. The ones left behind were the ones who remained reluctant to admit their crimes or were still writing down their written admissions and signing off on them.

After scanning the surroundings for a while to ensure that there were no issues, Su Mo closed the door to the shipyard control room, took Oreo, and returned to the Underground Shelter.

The properties of the items he brought back from Liangfang Town had yet to be examined.

Whether it was the robot or computer, these two things could quickly raise the productivity and technology level in the shelter by a level if they were used well.

Alongside that, activating the robots would help with the handling of cotton, crop farming, making nitrocellulose, and ammunition preparation.

Additionally, if they were precise enough, even part of the destroyer production process could be handed over to them to save time and speed things up.

He called out to Oreo and brought Big Spark and Little Spark along, who had been lonely for quite some time now, to play with them.

After picking up the newer-looking computer and as well as a robot, Su Mo walked over to his workbench and turned the power on.

"Time waits for no one. Time is money!"

"I hope Ma Fei is of some help. The simpler this robot is, the better, so I can put it to use as soon as I get it up and running!"

After using the destroyer's blueprint, the game had transferred large amounts of mechanical knowledge and information into his mind during his night-time slumber over the past few days.

However, even if he fully mastered this knowledge, it could only be said to be at the college-student level. There was still a large gap before he could even consider analyzing a robot such as this, which might even contain its own consciousness.

As for programming, Su Mo had made a lot of progress simply because he spent time reading the books on coding when he was free and also spent his points to enter the system's training ground.

With an anxious heart, Su Mo looked at the objects in front of him. The detailed attributes of the desktop computer popped up after he spent two disaster points.

[Desktop Computer (Good)]

[Description: An integrated circuit computer assembled by the player "Ma Fei", belonging to the fourth generation of computers. Its specifications are poor. When running complex computing programs, it performs poorly. However, considering that it consumes very little power, there are also some remarkable things about it.]

[CPU: Intel i9-11900K]

[Heat dissipation: 360mm integrated water air cooling system]

[Motherboard: Smart motherboard 14 2 Power supply module 3M.2 Interface 10Gbps Network Card Adapter Wi-Fi 6]

[Graphics Card: RTX3090]

[Memory: 16GB*4]

[Solid-state Drive: 1TB*2]

[Mechanical Hard Drive: 4TB]

[Power Supply Unit: 1200W]

[Display: 27 inches; 4K; 144Hz]

"F*ck, such powerful specifications are considered poor in the eyes of the game?"

The first thing that Su Mo saw was the topmost description where the game gave the computer a poor review. His heart felt cold at that moment, afraid that he obtained an ancient single-core Pentium processor from the 21st century, which would not even run the Road Rash game smoothly.

However, after browsing through the specifications in the properties panel, Su Mo was dumbfounded!

"Oh man, if this computer was placed back on Earth, it would have a starting price of at least fifty thousand yuan. Even this is considered outdated?"

"The 3090 is the dream of many youngsters!"

As for its power supply unit, the 1200W rating was already indicative of its powerful performance.

After opening its chassis and summoning the lion clan's wind ability to completely clean up the interior, Su Mo began to complete the final configurations with a reverent expression on his face.

There was a familiarity in taking out and inserting the card, and in connecting the various wires. The moment the power was plugged in, the display lit up!

This computer that had been integrated with the highest-end technology known to mankind on Earth…

Came back to life!

Su Mo tried pressing the power-on button on the main unit. As the fan whirred, the familiar self-diagnosis screen appeared the next second.

Thanks to Microsoft's status on Earth, although local operating systems such as UOS, Kylin OS, and Harmony OS were developed before the transmigration to the wasteland, due to copyright reasons, they never went mainstream.

However, now that Su Mo saw Ma Fei's portrait flash across the screen, he could not help but laugh.

"FOS?"

"I don't know if the operating system that Ma Fei designed is easy to use or not!"

There were no passwords on the main interface. When he entered the operational interface, Su Mo quickly became familiar with it after a little hands-on testing.

The original purpose of the operating system was to manifest the underlying code visually. Standard operating systems were simpler and more practical, and had fewer bugs.

As for the programming software installed on the operating system, it was definitely at a basic level.

The ultimate goal was to let the computer understand what the operator wanted to express in the line of code and then generate the corresponding output.

Therefore, after reviewing the maintenance and operational documents that Ma Fei left behind, Su Mo quickly got started with this clean version of the development software developed by Blazeland's outstanding students, and even wrote a post on it…

Hello, world!

"I was thinking of writing a complete system for a destroyer. With the current level I'm at and the time I have, it was surely an insurmountable task."

"But now…"

"I have a system!"

Getting a computer meant that the technology level of the shelter had taken a giant leap forward. Before Su Mo could happily continue to use the desktop and discover other aspects and functions, the attributes of the robot on the other side also popped up.

[Fei Fei Semi-intelligent Series—Robot Worker (Excellent)]

[Description: This is a semi-intelligent robotic worker created by the player "Ma Fei" by expending large amounts of rare materials. The semi-intelligent robotic worker contains a high-performance processing chip, and a complete set of logic sequences written into the chip. With poor A.I. learning capabilities, this semi-intelligent robotic worker has unique and precise abilities in manufacturing, repairing, device operation, and other fields of work. With sufficient energy, the robotic worker can help humans complete various tasks.]

[Current Modes:

Manufacturing mode: (Logic: 82%, Sensitivity: 70%, A.I. learning capability: 21%)

Combat mode: (Logic: 62%, Sensitivity: 41%, A.I. learning capability: 0%)

Acquisition mode: (Logic: 71%, Sensitivity: 50%, A.I. learning capability: 39%)

Fully-intelligent mode: (…0%)

[Special Ability]

[Indestructible (when sufficient energy is provided and the robot is in resting mode, the robotic worker will automatically restore 1% durability every 24 hours)]

[Self-learning (under the condition that the network is connected, and sufficient information is available, the robotic worker will automatically learn and supplement its abilities, and will modify itself within the set range)]

[Adaptability (Locked)]

[Potential: One and a half stars]

[Resale Value: 120 disaster points]

"It's worthy of Ma Fei's ten years of hard work. If these 36 robots were to be recycled, he would earn more than 4000 disaster points!"

"Even compared to those epic-quality blueprints, this was way higher!"

Looking at the attributes of the robotic workers and the resale value given by the game, Su Mo could not help but clench his fists in excitement.

If one day he were to understand the manufacturing manual left behind by Ma Fei, the shelter could start a robot assembly line.

Even without the tremendous productivity bonus that the robots would provide, the disaster points alone were already a stable source of income.

Besides, the attributes of the robot workers now were far from their peak. Among the three main modes, apart from the manufacturing mode, which had a logic rating of 82%, the rest had a lot more room for development.

"If only I could perfect these three modes and mass produce them, the manufacturing level of the Underground Shelter would undergo a tremendous leap forward!"

As someone who had seen the robot workers in combat mode, Su Mo had greater expectations for them considering how they performed with their current attributes.

Back at the storage room, Su Mo took out a USB cable. A complete control panel popped up after he opened the robot worker's rear hatch and connected it to the host computer.

The term "semi-intelligent" was a nicer way of saying that he had to write a set of programs and codes for the robot to execute it in accordance with its logic.

After realizing that he could not understand a single thing about the code, Su Mo lightly tapped his finger on the desktop, but then quickly focused his attention as he summoned the system.

For now, the cost of survival points required for the robot to be fully-intelligent was likely to be out of his reach. However, what if the system just slightly improved it?

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Chapter 287: Upgrade! Multifunctional Bionic Mechanic!

The system's appraisal and game's appraisal took two different directions.

The game would clearly tell players the item's detailed properties and usage methods.

However, the system would not. In addition to giving unique comments, not only did it display pitifully few properties, but it also included certain contraband options, inciting one's "desire to consume".

Hence, as the number of times he used it increased, Su Mo became even more careful and vigilant when using the system's appraisal function.

"Today's daily system announcements didn't come again. It was probably combined with yesterday's, so I'll only be able to view them tomorrow. All I have left is…"

"8200 points!"

"System, oh, system. This time, just give me something that can be used; don't tempt me with high-end products!"

"It's not that I'm unwilling to use them, it's just that I really don't have the money!"

Maintaining the stance that crying to the system was not shameful, after muttering a few choice words, Su Mo requested the system's appraisal mentally, and a blurry green light slowly started emitting from his body.

The level of technology of the robot worker was not particularly advanced, so the scan was completed extremely quickly.

A few seconds later, as the green light retracted, an ocean-blue properties panel that was mixed with a dizzying number of comments appeared gradually.

[Fei Fei Semi-intelligent Series—Robot Worker (Excellent)]

[Description: This robot worker has no design or technological sense. From beginning to end, it was created with the concept of "forcing a miracle". By forcefully using the quality of the materials to make up for the lack of design sense, whether it is the robot worker's outer shell or the inner neural transmission network, even though expensive synthetic materials were used, it instead reached a transmission efficiency of -3520%, becoming ridiculously weak.]

[Design Flaws:

[Mechanical (15 common sense errors, 34 logical errors, 129 anti-human errors, 422 mechanical design errors)]

[Bionic intelligence (69 common sense errors, 1235 conceptual errors, 5520 design errors)]

[Logic processing chip (326850 lines of redundant code that reduces efficiency, 45023 lines of repeated code that speeds up wear and tear, 28030 lines of code errors that increase energy consumption)]

[AI learning (completely wrong)]

[Mechanical potential (completely wrong)]

[Maintenance module (completely wrong)]

…

[First upgrade option: Bionic Mechanic: Remove all errors in the bionic intelligence design and add 19 algorithm model adjustments such as ant colony algorithm, particle swarm algorithm, artificial bee colony algorithm, differential evolution algorithm, memetic algorithm, and cultural algorithm to ensure that the machine achieves a 99% similarity rate to a human during actual operation, as well as adjusting the error rate to less than 0.00005%. This will reduce the energy consumption of the machine and greatly improve the machine's ability to operate and adapt to the environment. Survival points required (21960)]

[Second upgrade option: Combat Agent: Remove every mechanical error, reconstruct the mechanical structure of the agent, adopting a more reasonable mechanical structure to ensure that the agent has higher stability in combat. At the same time, the combat component program in the logic chip will be rewritten to ensure that the error rate in battle is reduced to less than 0.0000001%, and that the agent will gain the ability to wield 3590 basic weapons. Survival points required (43200)]

[Third upgrade option: Almighty Engineer: Remove all logic errors, reformat the chip's coding, rewrite all the logic programs in the engineer's chip, installs Type-I combat logic, Type-I manufacturing logic, and Type-I learning logic programs, and increase the engineer's various all-around abilities, greatly reducing energy consumption, greatly improving mechanical work efficiency, and reducing durability loss moderately. Survival points required (43200)]

[Fourth upgrade option: Psychic Energy Special Forces: Installs the dark energy absorption module, installs the ultra-long-distance signal receiving module, installs the VII high-precision logic chip, installs the VII all-terrain combat chip, installs… The unit can operate at temperatures up to 20000 degrees and will not suffer any damage when operating up to negative 160 degrees. A dark energy protective film will be fixed on its surface and it can withstand the impact of a million-ton nuclear bomb and, as long as its energy isolation shield functions, it will never run out of energy. Survival points required (36000000, psychic energy crystal x36)]

[Comment: I'll invest in a "genius" project like Wang Duoyu![1]

"Good heavens! So the robots Ma Fei designed contained this many errors. Is it really that bad?"

Seeing the four upgrade options the system gave, as well as the prompt for the tens of thousands of design flaws, Su Mo was stunned.

In the ruins, Su Mo had personally seen just how strong this kind of robot had been with his very own eyes.

If he did not have enough ammunition, plus Moore to dual wield the machine guns to provide a crazy amount of firepower; had it just been Su Mo alone, even if he possessed those guns, he could only run if he encountered a swarm of those robots!

This could be seen from the fact that dozens of mutant creatures had been cut into pieces in Ma Fei's courtyard, yet the robots were unharmed.

However… something this strong was actually so flawed in the system's eyes.

This was definitely something that was out of Su Mo's expectations!

If Ma Fei had not used better materials in this robot worker's original design, the system's complaints might even have been more exaggerated.

"It seems that in the future path of development, relying on robots to form an army of steel can also be considered a good combat concept!"

"Although human bodies are weak, if I have more than ten thousand psychic energy special forces robots…"

"Whatever this hateful God of the Ocean is, I'd be able to flip its nest over today!"

Staring greedily at the fourth upgrade option, the moment he thought of the domination of machines from a certain light novel from Earth, Su Mo could not help but have even more expectations for the robot in front of him.

However…

Imagination was rich, but reality was dire.

When he realized that he could not even afford one upgrade from the fourth option, Su Mo still rationally brought his attention back to the first three.

Currently, among the upgrade options the system gave, none of the three options were cheap, but this cost reflected his current stock of robots.

For example, the cost of upgrading 36 robot workers using the first option of bionic mechanics for manufacturing work was 21960 points.

Laying it all out, the price for a single robot was 610 points!

He only needed 610 points for the robot worker in front of him to complete a giant transformation to obtain 99% of a human's ability in creating and manufacturing.

The second upgrade option of combat agent had a cheaper unit price because it only required the inner mechanical structure to be reconstructed and a simple combat program written, resulting in a price of 480 points per robot.

As for the almighty engineer from the third option, because four different logic programs had to be installed, it cost the most. One unit was priced at a dizzying 1200 points.

"I definitely don't have enough survival points to upgrade them all. Even if tomorrow's daily system announcements can earn me 10 thousand points, it's still far from enough."

"Counting the 10 thousand points I want to set aside because I'm going out to sea, I have to save as much as I can in performing this upgrade."

"Not to mention the fact that I don't need that many robots at all!"

Taking out a pen and paper, he lay sprawled in front of the workbench. After calculating for a while, Su Mo temporarily planned out the number he currently needed for the shelter as well as the upgrade route for the robots.

At the moment, the shelter most urgently needed manufacturing workers… He definitely needed a few bionic mechanics.

He needed two for grain and cotton processing, one to deal with nitrocellulose for creating ammunition, and four for shipbuilding, which meant that he needed a total of 7, which would cost 4270 points.

At the moment, he was not going out to sea yet, so he only needed one combat agent to be responsible for the shipyard's safety at night. This would cost him 480 points.

He would have a survival points balance of 3450.

As for the third type, after looking through the description a little, Su Mo was in no hurry to use that upgrade option. Instead, he chose eight robots and started the first wave of upgrades.

After seeing modifications costing a few thousand, up to ten thousand points, a modification of a few hundred points per unit was not a big deal.

As three minutes passed, the robots that he brought back from Ma Fei's ruins finally no longer had tracks on their lower halves nor the rough appearances of their upper body that carried various tools. Instead, they transformed into two completely different forms.

The first was the bionic mechanic that was painted silvery-white. It had been completely transformed into a humanoid shape. Not only had its hands and feet evolved, but the system even very carefully designed its subtle joints and muscle tissues. Disregarding its size, it had the exact anatomical model of a human being.

As for the second one—combat agent—it was painted in camouflage colors. While the upper body calipers had become more than three times larger than before, the tracks on its lower body did not disappear. Instead, telescopic fixed brackets were installed to ensure that they would not fly off due to external impact in battle.

"Not bad, not bad. Just looking at their appearances, it's much better than before."

"But…"

Opening the new properties panel, after seeing the new upgrade options, Su Mo immediately chose one bionic mechanic and one combat agent and selected the third upgrade option without any hesitation.

For a robot, its style and design would never be the key factors that determined its performance—only logic was.

Good logic could transform rubbish into jewelry and turn something stupid into something intelligent.

It could also make a very crude product popular due to its advanced logic.

This was the consensus of all smart device manufacturers back on Earth, and also the main reason why Su Mo wanted to make another upgrade on top of the previous one.

2400 points were deducted!

Seeing that there were only 1050 survival points remaining, Su Mo smiled helplessly and closed the interface.

Survival points were good, but they existed to be spent. With just a small series of upgrades, the survival points he had accumulated over so many days vanished into thin air.

"Not to worry. Once I go out to the ocean and explore, I'll definitely have an endless supply of survival points coming in!"

He got up while the system was still in the midst of the upgrade process, and moved all the miniature robots that were not being upgraded to the garage to charge.

Everything else in Ma Fei's design was very clumsy in the system's eyes but, under Su Mo's vehement request, the only design concept retained was that the battery could be removed and replaced.

"Quick-charging technology and large batteries have too many drawbacks. The ability to replace batteries is a charm of machinery!"

When sailing at sea, one would have to face all kinds of sudden risks at any given time. If the danger came, and these robot workers ran out of power as they worked, then Su Mo would be left helplessly alone!

To avoid such a risk, Su Mo intended to allocate 6 to 10 robots to the provision of energy.

These robots would not need to be upgraded. It was fine as long as they were charged in a timely manner every day and assisted with the battery replacements of the other robots.

The cable in the garage was the thickest, and it could connect and charge up to ten of them at once.

Without a new type of energy, although relying on electrical power depleted his energy reserves extremely quickly, when he saw the continually rising power gauge percentage on the robots' display panels, despite his "poverty", Su Mo still felt a little bit of comfort in his heart.

"Eat up, eat up! Once you're full, work hard for me!"

His heart ached as he adjusted the generator to its maximum power output, and he continued to connect the upgraded robots to charge.

As he waited, Su Mo did not remain idle either and started researching programming relentlessly.

Fortunately, he finally had some diesel reserves. Just after 8pm, all the robots were fully charged, and he even had ten spare batteries set aside!

"With so many power-consuming monsters, it only took a few hours to use up my nearly 300L diesel reserves!

"Now, let me see just what these expensive robots can do!"

Eagerly standing up, after putting four bionic mechanics and one combat agent into the storage space, Su Mo opened the garage gate and rushed to the shipyard before night fell.

There were only seventeen days left to build the destroyer. Time was ticking!

[1] A character from the movie Hello Mr. Billionaire. Slang for someone completely lacking business acumen who invests in worthless items.

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Chapter 288: Huaxian Dragon, Growing Outrageously!

Under this dark sky, the interrogation of all the murderers—over a hundred of them—from the Zeus Shelter had all been completed at this point.

It was a little after 8pm and, aside from a few villagers holding torches, who were still collecting and sorting the spoils, everyone else had returned to Iron Rock Mountain to rest.

Having had a busy day, there was no time to continue working on the top of the mountain, so some progress was delayed.

However, having cleared out such a large group of "bandits" and seized an amazing amount of spoils, all of the villagers were extremely excited. Even if they returned to the village to rest, they still hastily joined in on the inventory counting exercise.

When the two militia guards that Chen Shen had gotten to stay behind to guard the shipyard entrance saw Su Mo coming over from a distance, they did not step forward, but quietly left after they gave him a standard salute instead.

Su Mo did not like people standing guard while he was there.

This was common knowledge among the people after being in Hope Village for so many days.

Regarding this strange misunderstanding, Su Mo could not be bothered to explain things either. It just happened to make things leisurely, with nobody around to bother him.

In the wilderness, the truck that had its glass broken by Moore was currently parked next to the shipyard—the villagers had exchanged grain for glass and installed it.

The large No. 2 print looked quite ironic at this time.

Walking up, he looked around the truck and found that its properties were unremarkable. Su Mo nodded, and then walked along the scaffolding back to the main shipyard entrance.

"Huh, Master is back. Moore is earnestly standing guard!"

He had been leaning on the gate until Su Mo walked in to violently smack his shoulder. It was only then that Moore—who was even drooling in his sleep—reacted. He rubbed his head as he called out strangely.

"Woof woo…"

Still, after this little trick, upon hearing Oreo's disdainful howling behind him, Moore's face reddened, and he involuntarily hopped two steps to the left.

"It's fine. Go back and sleep if you're sleepy. Starting tomorrow, you don't have to guard here anymore!"

From being woken from slumber to working intensively in the ruins for over ten hours, and then helping the villagers interrogate the prisoners non-stop after that, Moore was not like Su Mo, who could still use the psychic energy water and the Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll card to recover.

If not for the villagers' loving treatment and good food in the noon and afternoon, he probably would have long slept like a log in the shelter.

"Moore, Moore isn't tired! Moore wants to wait at the entrance for master!"

It was as if he knew Su Mo was about to start building the ship throughout the night. Moore willingly sat on the ground at the entrance, leaning on the wall and pretending to look forward energetically.

This appearance made Oreo respect him a little more, and her jeering tone stopped.

"That works. Then you sit here. I'll get Oreo to patrol the perimeter!"

Patting Moore's head, Su Mo took out the source energy fruits he received earlier after some thought and picked out two of them, passing one each to Moore and Oreo.

Though it was written on the source energy fruit's properties that it could help wasteland creatures evolve, it was just like a snack to the current Oreo and Moore.

Of course, taste-wise, even the most delicious food could not compare to the thirst they felt for the source energy fruit in their genes.

Upon receiving the fruit, Moore's eyes lit up instantly in the dark, and he hastily received it from Su Mo, swallowing it in one mouthful.

Oreo beside him received the fruit with her mouth and sat elegantly with her paws crossed, eating it slowly.

"Stand guard. I'll get to work now!"

After seeing Oreo nod, Su Mo opened the door and walked in like he owned the place, sitting in front of the center console.

In the daytime, this place was covered with solid iron panels and became the temporary meeting room for Hope Village.

However, at night, after Su Mo pressed a button at the back of the console, with a ringing sound, the iron panels started sliding back, driven by the mechanical shaft. The panels revealed a large control panel that looked technologically advanced.

From left to right, there were three different screens that each had a small lever for their corresponding controls.

The first lever was responsible for the auxiliary arm, which was used to help the main arm affix the steel plates.

The second and third levers controlled the two welding arms, which were used to quickly weld the steel plates together.

Pressing the console's start button, once the self-diagnosis process was completed, the generator placed on the shipyard roof hummed as it started up.

Unlike the generator inside the Underground Shelter, because the shipyard's arms ran on fuel, aside from the console, it was only a few headlights that consumed electricity.

Thus, seeing that the shipyard's power consumption was not high, he chose to add a small-scale generator on the roof, where the noise would be tolerable.

Sitting in the pitch-black shipyard control room, Su Mo was not in a hurry either as he waited patiently.

After a few minutes, the generator gradually became stable and, as power was delivered, the headlights on the shipyard ceiling started lighting up slowly, emitting light.

The eight large spotlights on the scaffolding also started turning on simultaneously, shining onto the shipyard. Behind the blast-resistant glass, the shipyard was suddenly lit up.

Once the lights came on and the three-screen dashboard completed the self-diagnosis process, he entered the creation function panel.

Having controlled it several times before, Su Mo had naturally become familiar with the shipyard creation function. However, his current goal was not here.

Flipping his wrist and waving his hand, four bionic mechanics dropped onto the floor, making dinging sounds.

Turning on all the bionic mechanics, he picked up three of them and placed them in front of and behind the three dashboards' levers.

There were three difficulties he had to overcome if he wanted the bionic mechanics to learn to build a ship.

Firstly, the robots would need to coordinate between the shipyard's three-screen dashboard and use the levers in tandem. The three lever positions had to match. Given the size of these miniature robots, a single one would definitely be unable to handle all three controls, so three of them had to work together and cooperate.

Secondly, the main lever operated the arm that picked up the materials, and had to be used in tandem with the auxiliary arm to fix the steel plate into position, before he could have his hands free to continue picking up more materials. This would require no small amount of focus.

Thirdly, the robots would have to develop a response plan when errors were encountered. As the master, when Su Mo was around, he could stop the operations immediately once an error was detected and work to fix it before continuing. However, this was not written into the robot's programming, so continuous A.I. learning was required for them to learn it.

As long as the robot workers learned how to deal with the three things mentioned above, then he would be able to completely delegate control of the shipyard's arms to these robots and save time and effort, even if they were slightly less efficient than if he did it himself.

"These three robot workers had nineteen algorithms inputted and would only require simple A.I. learning to control the shipyard arm's operations."

"As for the robot that I've upgraded twice, with its advanced logic chip, it'll be responsible for controlling this main lever as well as overall coordination between the team of robots here!"

After setting the four robots' responsibilities and writing numbers on them with a pen, he clicked the learning function button one by one to officially start the machine learning process.

If he dragged things out for a day, that would be a day wasted.

After the system wrote all-new algorithms for the bionic mechanics, in terms of operations, they were almost indistinguishable from humans.

Based on his usual efficiency, he moved his hands constantly as he placed a steel plate down, and then slowly adjusted the steel plate into position.

The auxiliary arm fixed it, then the two welding arms began work. After the welding was complete, and he confirmed that the leftmost screen had detected no issues, he controlled the main lever to return to the pile of materials again to pick up another steel plate.

This process was then considered successful.

Of course, without the shipyard's assistance, it would take at least 8-15 minutes to finish fixing one steel plate by hand.

He demonstrated each step of the process through his actions.

As the robot workers needed to use their own logic to deduce what to do in each step, by the time the first steel plate had been welded into place, an hour had passed without him realizing it.

Adjusting his stiff shoulders, he stared at the robot workers' eyes that were still flashing with a curious light. Su Mo's expression was bitter as he began the second round of demonstration.

This round fared much better. Among the four robot workers, the middle one who had been upgraded twice learned the quickest. In just 40 minutes, the second plate had been successfully welded "on board".

The third round… 38 minutes.

In the fourth round… The first error was encountered. After demonstrating the response plan for dealing with errors, this round was completed in 56 minutes.

The fifth round… 30 minutes.

In the sixth round… The second error happened, but it was handled in just 7 minutes. A total of 38 minutes were used.

Seventh round… 18 minutes!

…

One round after another was completed as Su Mo sat in the shipyard. From having to exert concentration at the beginning, he now could even occasionally sit back and leisurely watch the robots work independently for ten or so minutes.

From an hour in the beginning to a few short minutes later on, after learning the basic logic sequence, the robot workers' speed increased more and more, and the precision of their work was rising higher and higher as well.

Moreover, unlike Su Mo's unrefined work, with the robot workers' logic chips, they could even automatically improve the process by comparing it with the blueprint. As they strived to make it more perfect, they also became more precise when they worked on the materials.

After watching them for a while and realizing that he did not need to interfere too much, when the robot workers' could also keep the process under 15 minutes, Su Mo leaned on the wall and shut his eyes groggily.

He had worked the entire day the day before and had only slept four or five hours before entering the ruins, where he had ended up working without rest for 16 hours. When he came out, he mentally exhausted himself working through the night as well.

Even supplemented by the magical abilities of the psychic energy water, leaning on the wall, after a few minutes passed, Su Mo's breathing became deeper as he gradually fell into deep sleep.

In the shipyard control room, Su Mo slept very peacefully.

Even the beeping sounds made by the four robots upon finishing one round did not rouse him.

Outside the shipyard, Moore laid on the floor at the entrance and was also sleeping very comfortably. The heavy dew of the night did not make him stir at all either.

Oreo, lay furthest away on the ground as well. While it looked as if she was asleep as well, from her occasionally twitching ears, one could tell she was not deeply asleep.

The headlights were shining, and the shipyard was still at work.

One after another steel plate was carried over into position by the main arm and then welded together by the welding arms.

From the one hour a plate at 8pm to three minutes a plate at 4am, the four arms worked in tandem as if they were being controlled by intelligent beings. They worked at a shockingly fast rate. Just as each steel plate was put into position, before the main arm could bring over the next plate, the previous one had already been welded.

Fast asleep, Su Mo could not see this scene.

However…

The Zeus Shelter captives tied up at the edges of Iron Rock Mountain could see it very clearly.

They had placed their attention on it from the moment the shipyard lights lit up.

However, during the first hour, when Su Mo only completed fixing one steel plate, the few leaders of Zeus Shelter showed some ridicule.

Just this?

With this speed, he still dared to make such a large ship?

As their circle of tacit ridicule ended, the night was slowly encroaching. Having been interrogated for a day, they were so tired that they sat on the ground and napped.

However, the good times did not last long and, as the faint noises started sounding out in the night, more and more prisoners awakened!

Following the direction of most people's gazes, when Big Beard opened his eyes as well and looked at the shipyard below…

He was dumbstruck!

Compared to the slow speed earlier, which was as if an old person had been operating it, now, deep into the night, the shipyard lights were still bright, but the speed of the main arm had changed drastically!

Watching the proceedings for a few minutes more, they realized that not only had the main arm's speed changed, but the speed of the remaining auxiliary arm and welding arms had changed as well!

Transfer, extend, pick up steel plate, transfer, release, fix and weld.

For these seven steps, even though their view was blurry, since it was two kilometers away, all the captives were shocked as they noticed…

Within this set of actions, there was no trace of redundancy!

Each step reached the limit of absolute precision. The entire process seemed like a work of art!

As for the two welding arms, as they rotated and intertwined in the air, they created afterimages.

The screeching electrical sparks never stopped from beginning to end, like fireworks were being set off, shocking the group of captives!

"This is fully-intelligent creation?"

Nobody answered Big Beard's question because, in their eyes, when they had initially witnessed the manufacturing speed of an hour per steel plate in the beginning, nobody would have believed this was operated by A.I.

There seemed to be only one answer left!

Sitting on Iron Rock Mountain, all the captives were awakened.

It was not the meaning of being awakened from slumber, but rather that they were "awakened" to their own situation upon seeing the power Su Mo displayed.

Nobody spoke and nobody yelled. They only watched in dumbfounded silence.

Observing the shipyard's work below, observing the structure of this Huaxian "steel dragon", at a speed visible to the naked eye…

Grow outrageously!

Chapter 289: Harvest, Back to Five Digits

Croak…

Croak…

Croak croak croak croak…

"It's said that frog croaks indicate a good harvest for Daohuaxiang!"

"With so many frogs, next year's harvest is definitely…"

"Huh?"

In a trance, Su Mo—who was dreaming that he was standing in a field filled with frog sounds all around him—suddenly realized that these frog sounds seemed to be…

Surrounding his ears!

He was certain that he was dreaming but, the next moment, slowly opened his eyes as his consciousness slowly returned to his body, his entire body aching.

Last night, he had fallen asleep slumped against the corner of the wall. Having slept in this 90-degree position, not mentioning the other parts of his body, his waist was already protesting madly.

Rubbing his waist, he felt that his dreams and reality couldn't have been more different.

Hearing the persistent croaking noises around him, Su Mo put one hand against the wall and stood up, looking toward the source of the sounds.

"So it's the warning alerts that these bionic mechanics are out of battery. Despite being charged for so long, they've already run out of juice after just a single night of use. As expected, keeping the battery detachable was a wise decision!"

Rubbing his hands together, Su Mo could not help but laugh when he saw that the four robot workers were like little animals waiting to be fed, squatting obediently together as they stared at him.

"You energy-consuming monsters—you can eat so much; how am I supposed to raise you guys?"

"Let me see if you slacked off last night. Did you work properly…"

"F*ck me!"

The pain in his body was real, which meant this was reality, but the strange scene in front of him made him freeze in shock, and he cussed elegantly to express his emotions.

"F*ck me, f*ck me!

"This is what they can accomplish in one night?"

Standing behind the glass panel, he could not see the full progress of the ship's construction clearly. However, when he noticed that all the steel plates had disappeared, Su Mo pushed the door open in one go and ran out with an unbelievable sense of anticipation in his heart.

At the entrance, Moore was still fast asleep. Su Mo stubbornly stepped on Moore's shoulders and climbed up to the shipyard's roof.

Moore, after being stepped on, was also startled awake.

Just as he was about to protest, he noticed that it was Su Mo and spat out a couple of complaints before adjusting himself into a more comfortable position, laying on the ground and resuming his slumber.

The sunlight was great.

The breeze in the wasteland was not dry either.

However, when Su Mo climbed up to the roof to truly see the progress of the destroyer's construction in the distance, Su Mo's heart…

Thumped rapidly!

The steel plates he had accumulated over two days, from yesterday's rough estimate, had been close to, or more than, 500 pieces.

If Su Mo were to do it personally, he would have had to work without rest for a whole day before he could finish assembling this many steel plates.

Now, however, the pile of steel plates had now been emptied overnight!

In its place was the large hull of the destroyer that had been 60% completed!

He only needed another 300-450 steel plates and this 80-meter Tier 3 Destroyer would be able to progress from the "hull construction" phase to the "block assembly" phase.

By then, the construction speed would be more than doubled!

"As expected, humans should maximize their strengths by utilizing our intelligence."

"Creativity and innovation are our weapons, and steel is the best medium for us to transform our ideas and plans into reality!"

"At this rate I won't even need 17 days. I'll be done in 10 days!"

"After 10 days, the construction process of the destroyer will enter its final phases. There's definitely enough time!"

Su Mo was not discouraged by the difference in his work rate and that of the four robot workers. Rather, he became even more excited and animated!

If the Underground Shelter could accumulate a large army of robots after going to the new world, when the time came, no matter what sort of updates the game decided to throw his way, he would not panic, even if he completely lost the ability to open up an underground space for his shelter.

With such terrifying construction abilities, the concept of rebuilding a prosperous human metropolis in the new world…

Was entirely within the realm of possibility!

Even if he wanted to construct an unbelievable underground city, he would be fully capable of doing so with the assistance of these robots!

"So this was the original intention behind Ma Fei researching and developing these kinds of robots."

"Productivity is always king!"

He jumped off the roof energetically, rolling on the ground to decrease the impact, before steadily striding back to the shipyard and packing up the four croaking bionic mechanics for charging.

At the same time, Su Mo opened his storage space and took out the combat agent he upgraded yesterday and placed it on the ground.

Compared to the mechanics, the agent was configured with a set of patrol routes and protocols.

It was just a pity that there were no weapons that could be used by the small combat agent in the shelter, and there were no fixed weapon installations available in the shipyard.

Thus, Su Mo could only let it act as a moving sensor for now, using it to monitor the surrounding environment and raise alerts.

Having done all this, the sleepiness from yesterday vanished completely. He opened the door again and walked out.

"Get up Moore, Oreo! Stop sleeping!"

It was just past 7am in the wasteland, when the dew was at its heaviest. Moore's fur was already completely soaked. As he was roused awake, he stood up groggily.

As for Oreo who had stood guard in the middle of the night, because she had exercised and stretched her legs a little, she was still pretty energetic. She followed beside Su Mo, her gaze full of interest as she ran back and forth.

Standing in front of the shipyard, he welcomed the rising sun and fresh air as he took out the spear from the storage space and started performing his daily training routine.

Su Mo never forgot about the physical requirements that the level five shelter upgrade needed.

If he wanted to improve his physical capabilities, he could not slack on his daily training.

The Su Family Spear technique. One move, one stroke. Open and close.

His tendons, numb from last night's uncomfortable sleep, were awakened by the motions, making popping sounds as he went through the first cycle of movements.

Drops of sweat gushed out of Su Mo's body, removing the toxins and impurities in his body. At the same time, it repaired his tired and strained muscles, allowing his physical fitness to increase to even greater levels.

The exhaustion he felt over the past few consecutive days, from working and the lack of sleep, dissipated somewhat as he continued to exercise.

Sensing that Moore was also energized after watching him train, Su Mo took out the three-pointed two-edged sword and tossed it over. The man and bear started training together.

Half an hour passed by quickly. When it was 7.30am, a villager and two militia members arrived in front of the shipyard, the three of them carrying large baskets of food.

"Wow, Almighty Su sure is amazing. Using this spear technique—on Earth, he would be part of a prominent martial arts family at the very least."

"You know sh*t. The martial arts on Earth are simply just for show. Almighty Su's technique is truly lethal."

"Lethal?"

…

Su Mo observed the three people chatter among themselves, as they placed the baskets of food down in the distance before leaving.

"Nice! Having people deliver food after working out my muscles early in the morning isn't too bad. I'm living the life of a little lord!"

Putting his spear away, he wiped off the sweat on his body and felt his whole body relax.

The fake wasteland: He had to cook every day, struggle to survive in the wilderness, skip meals and go hungry.

The real wasteland: People came to deliver meals on time, farming was in progress at the same time, and the warehouse was filled with abundant supplies.

"Let me see what today's meal is after reaping yesterday's spoils!"

Striding up to the food basket, he opened it. Inside, there was a food basket containing enough food for him, Moore and Oreo.

The basket had four layers. The top layer contained a large portion of soy sauce beef that weighed at least three catties.

The jade-like sheen of grease covering it whetted one's appetite just by looking at it.

Uncovering the second layer, there were four small vegetable dishes. There was a small plate of shredded radish, a large plate of hot and sour potato shreds, a plate of fragrant mapo tofu, and some brightly-colored stir-fried celery.

Contained in the third layer was the village's staple morning food. Following the tradition of the northerners, there were more than ten large, piping hot, white steamed buns.

As for the fourth layer, it contained a large dish containing fragrant porridge.

"Not bad, not bad. The supplies we gained from Zeus Shelter can greatly supplement Hope Village's reserves and also improve our meal quality.

"I really hope we encounter a few more waves of such naive and ignorant people!"

Glancing in the direction where the mob from Zeus Shelter had come from yesterday, he thought about the foreign races waiting to pass through the Underground Shelter, as well as the Cursed Tiger clan. Su Mo's eyes lit up with killing intent before calming down again.

If it had been a typical day when he received news of a plan like this, Su Mo would have definitely brought his people over to slaughter them.

However, given the changing times, he would save himself the trouble unless they forced his hand. It was best to wait until the destroyer was finished and seaworthy, after which he would reconsider and review his long-term plan.

As for whoever wanted to court death during this process, with Zeus Shelter as the precedent, he would naturally slaughter them. End of discussion!

Despite this luxurious breakfast, Moore—who had eaten freely yesterday—did not eat much. As such, Su Mo was able to feast comfortably; he had been so busy yesterday afternoon that he had neglected to eat any food.

A mouthful of beef, a bite of a steamed bun, a mouthful of veggies, and finally a scoop of rice porridge—these days were quite wonderful.

After eating his fill and finishing up all of the food, Su Mo put the emptied food basket back in its original place.

He packed up, and then closed the shipyard gates.

Bringing the two similarly-satiated little ones along, he rubbed his stomach. Just as Su Mo was just about to open the alloy gate of the Underground Shelter and head inside to sit down, the daily announcements that had been missing for two days finally arrived!

"The daily announcements finally arrived! If it hadn't, I would have really ended up broke!"

Seeing his remaining balance of only 1050 points, as well as the green light that only appeared with the daily announcements, Su Mo focused mentally and excitedly opened the announcements.

[Doomsday Calendar Month 2, Day 4 – Doomsday Calendar Month 2, Day 5 (Combined)]

[The first village belonging to you was established within your shelter's territory. This is a milestone and a monumental occasion. You have become the village chief of 137 people, and will also shoulder heavy responsibilities, but with courage you will eventually become fearless! (Survival points 10000)]

[You successfully used your influence to complete a market trade transaction, and this trade transaction caused heavy losses to countless people who coveted your position (Survival points 1000)]

[You learn how to construct your first purely handcrafted vehicle, increasing your crafting skills significantly (Survival points 500)]

[You purchased enough basic materials at a low price. You are very happy (Survival points 300)]

[The first large-scale building was constructed in your shelter's territory, and the morale of the people in your territory has been slightly increased (Survival points 2000)]

[Your first large-scale building has been fully upgraded and streamlined with the existing concept and design of your current shelter (Survival points 500)]

[You successfully entered Liangfang Town ruins and discovered some of its secrets (Survival points 300)]

[You successfully understood the clues left by the predecessors regarding the rise of their nation (Survival points 200)]

[During your interaction with predecessor Ma Fei, you secured an advantage which allowed you to obtain even more supplies (Survival points 100)]

[You successfully brought back a large number of supplies from the ruins and put your shelter's path to development on the fast track (Survival points 400)]

[Milestone – Light up (one)—as a human in the wasteland, you started up a computer in the wasteland within the shortest time (Survival points 200)]

[Milestone – Village chief (one)—you became the village chief of a village with a population of over a hundred people. You have even more responsibility (Survival points 1000)]

[Milestone – The rise of a nation—you gained insight into one of the ways to leave the wasteland world (Survival points 500)]

[Milestone – A.I. power (one), you have successfully activated A.I. technology within your shelter's territory and greatly enhanced your productivity (Survival points 200)]

[Scanning host survival environment. Survival points evaluation in progress. 679 survival points gained today.]

…

Final total: Survival points 17979

Remaining survival points: 19029

Chapter 290: Two Types of Blueprints, Radar Concepts!

"I still need 1000 more points—then my survival points will be back to 20,000!

"Sure enough, as long as I stir up trouble and ferret out more secrets, I'll get more survival points!"

His dried-up pool of survival points seemed to have been revitalized by a living spring. As Su Mo looked at the numbers climbing back up to five digits, he could not help but clench his fists in excitement.

Although at present, the daily environmental assessment points had been increasing, he would only get 600 points even if he accumulated all of that and set it aside.

Conversely, every time he stirred up trouble, he could gain a whole month of points. It was ridiculous.

Su Mo was very much aware that this was a flash in the pan.

Before the ocean disaster happened, this might be his last big haul.

For the next ten days, barring anything unforeseen, the maximum number of points he could accumulate was only 10,000. It would be fairly impossible to achieve the same amount of points as now.

Therefore, all the survival points had to be spent in the right areas to ensure they would not be wasted.

Given the alternatives, Su Mo was not in a hurry to upgrade the remaining robots. After he had charged the four robots that were low on battery, he slowly headed back to the warehouse on the third floor.

Currently, the production of the mini destroyer was officially in full swing. As long as the materials were systematically transported over every day, the installation could be left to the robot workers.

As for what remained for Su Mo to finish, that would be the mini destroyer's entire operating system and the auto-pilot system.

Other than that, if he had the chance and the time, he could even create more sub-functions similar to those for controlling details.

Only through more comprehensive consideration and a more complete auto-pilot system would the 80-meter long mini destroyer be able to achieve optimum performance!

He sat on the stool that was beside the warehouse. After checking through the attributes of each of the other small items he had brought back from the ruins of Liangfeng Town, Su Mo returned to the first floor and turned his attention to the cube that occupied most of the space in the garage.

The other items that he had brought out from the ruins were mostly good-quality. There were even a few excellent-quality ones that had some minor magical functions.

However, for someone like Su Mo, who was about to head out to sea to take part in a war that might involve billions of living beings, these items would be of no help in "turning the tide".

If he wished to stay alive and return triumphantly with sufficient spoils of war, out of all the items he had brought back, the only one that gave Su Mo enough confidence to participate in this war of three races was the one in the garage…

The vertical missile launcher system!

Su Mo had seen this in his dreams several times and had hands-on experience with it more than five times.

As for how overpowered it could be, Su Mo was very much aware of this during the memory transmission in his dream.

Once the big box in front of him could be fully paired up with the destroyer, the ship's firepower would surpass the average standard of World War I and II right away, advancing into the modern era and resulting in an exponential improvement.

With a feeling of reverence, after figuring out the structure of the external wrapping, Su Mo went to the side of the toolbox, took out the scissors, and lightly snipped through the ropes tied around the missile launcher.

Once the ropes were cut through, the groundsheet around the device loosened now that it was no longer secured.

Su Mo took hold of the corner of the groundsheet and tugged lightly on it…

Whoosh!

The vertical missile launcher system made its first appearance in the real world!

It had a silver-white casing that had absolutely no nicks or scratches on it and resembled a large cube. Together with its R33 coating, it was an extraordinarily domineering presence!

Su Mo was not anxious or rash. Going on his familiarity with the device in his dreams, he moved to the back of the device in a clockwise direction, placed his hands on the little corner below the third word 3 of the R33 coating, and pressed gently.

A second later, a small casing popped up.

There was a red button below the casing. There was also a full set of expansion requirements painted beside the button.

It was a vertical missile launcher system with expansion capabilities, 12 meters long, 8 meters wide, and 7.5 meters in height.

"Sure enough, it's this device. It looked exactly the same in my dream!

"If even this thing is a match, then it indicates that Ma Fei didn't make it himself, but obtained it from somewhere else!

"He didn't open it, so all the accessory items in the package should be here!"

The garage was too small, with completely no room for expansion. When Su Mo looked down and ascertained that there was a small box on the right side of the button, he could no longer suppress his agitation and carefully closed the lid.

"Game, I choose appraisal!"

Su Mo had prepared for this for a long time. As he focused his mind, a small number of points were deducted and the attributes of the vertical launcher system began gradually emerging.

[R33—Shipborne Vertical Missile Launcher System (Rare)]

[Description: Created by ?? company, ?? company was contracted to produce a classic vertical cold launch system with an ejection mechanism. Discarding the massive size of the original launch system, they converted it into foldable modular technology. The framework of the whole module uses high-strength materials. After millions of launching experiments, none have failed.

[Attached Blueprint: R-1 rocket launcher blueprint, R-3 short-range ballistic missile blueprint

[Theory of Propulsion: Ejection launching

[Compatible Projectiles: Compatible with any missile that has its own engine. Compatible with any rocket launcher model.

[Special Ability: Overwhelming power (All artillery shells that are loaded into the launching system will gain a default power increase of 5%-35% based on their attributes)

Barrage of missiles (Launch system enters firing mode within 60 seconds. Default firing rate is raised by 500% for 60 seconds. 1-hour cooldown)

Precision (Under guided fire or fire-control system calculation, the precision of artillery shells increases by 100%)

[Limitation 1: Missile launch must be paired with the corresponding guided radar. Otherwise, it will not launch

[Limitation 2: Rocket launch must be paired with the corresponding fire-control system calculation, otherwise, it cannot be launched

[Limitation 3: System load must be paired with the corresponding ship or shelter (Ship: Level 5 or above, Shelter: Level 10 or above)

[Recovery value: Main body (5000 disaster points) R-1 rocket launcher blueprint (1000 points) R-3 short-range ballistic missile blueprint (3000 points)

"Good gracious, this thing's immediately given me an exorbitant price of 9000 points.

"Anyone else might have sold this on impulse, but Ma Fei chose to give it to me…Well, he more or less gave it to the right person!"

After double-checking that the two blueprints on the properties panel were indeed included in the device, Su Mo was finally relieved.

After using the destroyer's design blueprint, the game had already fully given Su Mo the memory transmission in his dreams. It had even allowed Su Mo to gain hands-on experience with it.

Of all the weapons that were mounted on the level 1 destroyer, this vertical missile launching device could definitely be listed in the top three, although it would not be in the top spot. It could be called a walking "bomber"!

Normally, if it were paired with a suitable phase array radar, it could continuously launch short-range ballistic missiles within a short time, precisely hitting the target locked down by the radar.

However, once the enemy was near, the device could be operated again to change the angle, which would then turn it into a strafing weapon that could fire 12 rockets simultaneously, resulting in extremely intense firepower cover in an instant.

The device's overpowered properties were precisely the main reason why Su Mo had been willing to risk his safety and dash in to investigate after seeing it in Ma Fei's shelter.

"Now that I have the module, it's just the beginning. I'll have to create a fully compatible radar and fire-control system within ten days.

"At the same time, once the next disaster hits, sailing out to sea and killing 500 foreign races will upgrade the shelter to level 5. I can then create an advanced version of the machine tool.

"Once I have a small and medium-sized machine tool, even though it can't produce missiles at the moment, I can still manufacture the rocket launcher.

"When the time comes, I'll use RPG targeted strikes for close range. I'll initiate the launch system for long-range attacks and use the rocket launcher to clean up the aftermath!

"With such firepower, I'd like to see who can scheme against me!"

Su Mo let out a slow, deliberate sigh to release the anger that his agitation had stirred up and covered the launch system with the groundsheet again. After he went back to the third floor, his brain was already working things out.

Previously, he had still been hunting for an excuse to sell weapons to Tundra Shelter, thereby making sure that it would be absolutely safe before everyone relocated.

However, from the looks of things, there was no need to worry anymore.

The shelter still needed a lot more technology chains. In the fields that humans had researched, upgrading any of them through the system was far too much of a waste.

On the contrary, dealing with an official organization like Tundra Shelter was more cost-effective.

Su Mo pondered for a while, took out a notebook, and began to plan and prepare all the items that were to be traded this time.

First and foremost, the most important thing was… radar technology!

Radar was the acronym for radio detection and ranging; it was also called radio positioning.

When activated, the radar emitted electromagnetic waves that were reflected off the target. The echoes received were then used to calculate information such as the distance between the emitter and the target, the speed at which the target moved, its position, as well as its elevation.

The earliest appearance of radar could be dated back to World War 1 on Earth. To modern people who had embraced the rapid advancement of knowledge and the equally rapid development of technology, it was considered a product of "ancient" times.

Therefore, in terms of theory and manufacturing difficulty, if an ordinary person wanted to put together a simple, basic radar, as long as there were blueprints and guidance available, it would not be a problem for them.

As for the radar to be mounted on the destroyer, Su Mo actually did not have a great variety of choices.

On modern ships, usually, the high-level ones were mounted with six types of radar—early-warning radar, guided radar, phased array radar, skywave OTH radar, fire-control radar, and collision avoidance radar, respectively.

Of the six types of radars, for an 80-meter long level 3 destroyer, apart from needing to mount 3-5 collision avoidance radars on it to ensure navigational safety, the other five could be installed based on what was required.

"There's no need for the early-warning radar which is used for detecting enemies. Once we're at sea, even if there are humans out there, they might be enemies as well. I won't let any strangers onto my ship, so this can be excluded right away to save on cost.

"The guided radar for directing carrier-based aircraft, and the skywave OTH radar won't be needed either. Even if there's an aircraft, I wouldn't know how to pilot it.

"So the remaining choices are the fire-control and phased array radars. I'll have to choose between these two!"

Su Mo emphasized the two types of radar by circling them in his notebook, and he began gradually recalling the information that he had heard on a random strategic deception agency program.

A phased array radar required a computer system to control the power fed to the arrays of antennas and each radiating element, achieving an electronically scanned array through changing the shape and the direction of the radio waves.

This kind of radar was the current modern and mainstream shipborne radar, but its origins were fairly recent.

Its use had slowly increased since the economic recovery in the 90s.

Of course, since it was the main radar in use, the requirements for technology and manufacturing standards were considerably higher than that of other radars.

In contrast, the requirements for the fire-control radars that were standard installations on warships since the 1950s were much lower.

"There are many requirements for the phased array radar. Even if I have the blueprint, I'd probably need to spend an exorbitant number of survival points to make it.

"If I'm really going to do this, I may as well use the fire-control radar and the OTH radar right away to roughly approximate it. Even if the accuracy isn't as good, that's unavoidable!"

Su Mo smacked his palm against the table and scribbled out the phased array radar with his pen at once, choosing to abandon it.

If he did not have the means, he would just strike accurately. If he had the means, he would barrage his enemies with firepower.

Between accuracy within 1 meter and accuracy within 100 meters, Su Mo unhesitatingly decided on the spot.

"As long as I can make a short-range ballistic missile, there's no difference whether the enemy is in the center or within 100 meters.

"I might as well use all the materials and survival points that I've saved to make ammunition. If I can't hit them in one go, then I'll hit them with one hundred rounds!"

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My Post-Apocalyptic Shelter Levels Up Infinitely! #Chapter 291 - Weapons Ready, The Transformation Of Hope Village - Read My Post-Apocalyptic Shelter Levels Up Infinitely! Chapter 291 - Weapons Ready, The Transformation Of Hope Village Online - All Page - Novel Next

Chapter 291: Weapons Ready, The Transformation Of Hope Village

In modern warfare, from the smallest destroyer and frigate to the largest cruiser and aircraft carrier, all these ships would not choose to install short-range ballistic missiles. Instead, they would choose anti-ship ballistic missiles.

The reason for choosing these was simple.

There were no more battleships!

What was the hallmark of a battleship? Heavy armor and large-caliber guns!

More than 90% of the mainstream anti-ship missiles currently in use were barely effective against the battleships of the olden World War II era.

If battleships still existed, the Russian idea of mounting ballistic missiles on the Kirov class cruisers would probably still be able to flourish. Now that battleships were gone, this would naturally become mere idle talk.

Since battleships had such great advantages, what if they had not become obsolete and could be equipped with missiles?

The reason this did not materialize was also very simple.

In modern times, due to the large number of precision components needed and the complicated technology, the price per unit for weapons could not in any way be compared to prices in the World War II period.

Likewise, the heavier the displacement, the higher the cost of building a battleship.

Based on the respective sizes of a battleship and an aircraft carrier, a modern battleship with displacement that was comparable to an aircraft carrier would require much stronger radar and more precise instruments.

The hull of the battleship itself would not be cheaper to construct than an aircraft carrier. Taken together with the battleship's missiles, which were numerous and varied, the price for its manufacture could compete with that of an aircraft carrier.

Besides, since all ships sailed on the ocean, they were affected by the curvature of the Earth, so the capabilities of shipborne radar in detecting surface ships were actually weaker.

If they were unable to utilize the airspace for attacks, they would have to get close-range to fire missiles at their opponents!

Steering such a valuable battleship to engage in close-range combat with missiles—however foolhardy a hoodlum one might be, they would not have the funds or the boldness to do this.

Therefore, as battleships became obsolete and the "skin" of various types of ships became thinner, it made no sense to choose large-caliber missiles, even heavy-duty anti-ship ballistic missiles that only weighed around 500 kilograms.

Furthermore, ballistic missiles had better carriers in modern warfare—nuclear submarines, which were both convenient and stable.

The other factor was that the environment for launching ballistic missiles was not good at all.

If a hot launch was employed, the missile would launch on deck right away, which meant that the electronic devices of the whole ship would probably be exposed to the missile tail flame.

If the missile was cold launched, then it would need to be ejected to an extremely high altitude before its engine could ignite. The swaying of the ship's deck would severely impact ejection precision, and the missile's accuracy would be compromised in the end.

This had led to an inevitable outcome in the development of weapons technology.

However, if circumstances in the wasteland were moved to the ocean, such considerations would need to be fully integrated into the actual situation.

Short-range ballistic missiles were also known as tactical missiles.

Normally, they were used in land wars and fitted with conventional warheads. They were used mainly for attacking fixed or moving targets outside the range of ground artillery or deep within the enemy's tactical position.

R-3 short-range ballistic missiles measured 7.1 meters long and 0.82 meters in diameter, with a launch weight of 3050 kilograms. They utilized solid propellants and had a firing range of 320 kilometers, with a velocity of 960 m/s. They also had a digital calculator and autonomous inertia controller attached to them, as well as an aerodynamic rudder on their tails.

With the benefits of advanced technology, the R-3's effective blast radius was 165 meters, and its explosive limit was 310 meters.

Compared to equivalent tactical missiles on Earth, there was no doubt that the R-3 was smaller, faster, and more powerful.

Unfortunately…

This was far from what Su Mo wanted!

"Everyone will be moving all the time on the ocean. It's very possible that before I fire my missile, the enemy would still be within range, but once I've launched the missile, they might have left before it hits them.

"If the enemy is 250 kilometers away and I decide to attack, the missile's ETA would be…

"4.5 minutes!

"If I calculate based on the scenario that everyone is using wooden ships, without taking the wind direction into account, after 4.5 minutes, they'll be at least four hundred meters away, which is way outside the blast radius."

After making some calculations, Su Mo looked at the range of the R-3 missile and assessed the estimated distance. He then substituted the calculations into the equation, and an idea gradually came to mind.

From the looks of things, fitting a standard conventional warhead on the missile would not work. The blast radius was too small; even if he had a silo for launching, the radius would still be more or less the same.

Most probably, once the missile was launched, it would only make a loud noise and be as effective as a fireworks display.

That was why, after looking at the explosives stored in the base, Su Mo's heart sank. He decided that in the next ten days, the shelter had to advance in another technology tree…

TNT!

Furthermore, this kind of TNT was not trinitrotoluene in the conventional sense. It was a super-explosive made by integrating psychic energy water and enhanced nitric acid!

"Based on the power of psychic energy water in combination with TNT, if I replaced an equal weight of explosives in the missiles with even higher-quality TNT, they would be even more terrifyingly powerful.

"Theoretically, a kilogram of exploding TNT produces 4.2 million joules of energy.

"Given the 100%-300% increase in power after the addition of psychic energy water, the 50% increase from enhanced nitric acid, and the 5%-30% boost from the system, a kilogram of TNT can achieve 18 million joules of energy.

"Taking into account the ratio of the explosives' expansion efficiency to the force of impact, the number could probably go higher if I convert the equivalent blast range of the explosives and substitute it into my calculations…"

Calculating equivalents was not that hard after all.

After substituting the numbers in his calculation and discovering that an equivalent amount of this special TNT could actually effectively increase the lethal range from 300 meters to 1.4 kilometers or more…

Su Mo could no longer maintain his calm, and his heart began pounding like a drum.

A blast radius of 1.4 kilometers… Good gracious, what was this?

The legendary M388 nuclear artillery shells that had a larger killing radius than their range only had an actual killing radius of up to 500 meters.

As for the usual outfitted missiles, excluding nuclear and hydrogen bombs, there were only a handful that could exceed a kilometer.

Now, however, all he needed to do was add in the miraculous psychic energy water and mix it in, just like that.

The power of the explosives would effect a qualitative change.

"That's it; psychic energy water can't simply be put up for sale next time, otherwise it will fall into the wrong hands.

"I'm afraid an inconceivable disaster might happen!"

Before the psychic energy water had been upgraded, it was already able to produce such terrifying results after being added to conventional weapons. As for how much more powerful it could be now that it had been upgraded—Su Mo could not help but shudder at the thought.

Under such circumstances, when might was right, the only thing necessary was to do whatever it took to add psychic energy water into the upgraded TNT.

Even Dongfeng 17 that he had previously launched in front of the kobold's castle could not compare with this special edition super-explosive.

Su Mo shook his head and set aside these warmongering thoughts. He turned over to a new page and began to study how to make this special T

NT.

TNT, as in trinitrotoluene, was simple to make. He had learned it from his chemistry textbook during high school—toluene reacted with concentrated nitric acid and concentrated sulphuric acid to form 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene.

However, before he was transmigrated, there were many countries on Earth that could not produce TNT.

Su Mo did not know the specific reason, but now, since he had decided to have dealings with officials, he was not worried about their deviousness. He went to the side of the machine tool right away and took out the robot workers that he used for producing nitrocellulose.

After several times of use and entering the ruins, the machine gun ammunition in the shelter had already been used up.

There were 1500 rounds of rifle ammunition left and 400 rounds remaining for the handgun.

When he considered the dealings he would be having with Tundra Shelter and that he would be going to sea soon, he would not be able to make ammunition for a long time, not before reaching the new world.

As for the amount, Su Mo made a grand gesture and designated a massive set of numbers right away.

50 machine guns with 800,000 rounds of ammunition!

200 rifles with 500,000 rounds of ammunition!

100 handguns with 30,000 rounds of ammunition!

The combined 810,000 rounds of bullets, with a total weight of 1.4 tonnes, were nothing for a destroyer that had a carrying capacity of thousands of tons.

As for the materials needed to produce this ammunition…

He was short of nitric acid, so he would need to put serious pressure on the saltpeter mine for once.

Once the cotton had been manufactured to standard, the remaining one-third of it could wait until he had reached the new world.

The most important element was bronze. Even if Su Mo doubled the amount of ammunition, given the convenience of market trading, he would quickly be able to replenish the necessary amount.

Now that he had a plan, Su Mo rapidly organized what was left to do today.

He taught the robot workers how to begin making nitrocellulose in batches, turning it into ammunition in the end, and storing it up.

He gave orders to the mining teams of Hope Village to head to the saltpeter camp and conduct large-scale mining for natural saltpeter.

Using Connie the lioness' game panel, he needed to continue figuring out the game functions that the foreign races were able to use, as well as investigate their current movements.

Three missions, which completely took up a full day's work.

After carefully putting away the notebook with all his crazy plans into his storage space and clearing the miscellaneous items on his workbench, Su Mo began teaching the robots again.

The saltpeter that the shelter currently possessed and some of the leftover materials that were insufficiently pure were piled up in the corner.

Using this to make batches of nitric acid would produce inferior results, but for use as teaching materials to demonstrate for the robot workers, it would be more than sufficient!

The first time, after the AI learning function was switched on, the robot watched and learned while Su Mo made it, just like before.

The second time, the robot slowly followed the steps to make it, and Su Mo sat beside it to provide guidance.

For the third, and fourth time, even without Su Mo's help, the robot had already mastered this simple chemical reaction. In fact, it was even more precise than Su Mo in the measurement ratios.

Once he had the nitric acid, Su Mo brought some cotton over. Very quickly, after another three times, the robot finished learning the process of making nitrocellulose.

Of course, just like the robot workers that constructed the shipyard—from making nitric acid from saltpeter, then taking the raw materials, making it into nitrocellulose, and setting it aside to dry—the robot was so fast throughout the process that Su Mo felt quite moved.

However, he had already been surprised before. Su Mo was not in a hurry either. After making sure the robot was already able to work normally, he left the base and headed to Iron Rock Mountain.

"It feels good to have someone working for me. In the past, I'd have to mine the saltpeter myself!"

As he walked out of the Underground Shelter and got nearer and nearer to Iron Rock Mountain, Su Mo could sense just how much the activities of Hope Village had influenced nature and his life.

Currently, on the left and right sides of Iron Rock Mountain, the land within three hundred meters had been entirely plowed with rotary tillers by the villagers who had had enough of poverty and starvation. They had planted garlic scapes that had a shorter growth cycle.

Given the growth rate of the garlic scapes and the efficiency of light on the wasteland, they definitely could be harvested before the ocean disaster occurred.

When he went further, he saw that Iron Rock Mountain was also slowly being dug into the shape of what Su Mo had designed before.

Below the fifteen-meter radius that would be submerged under the ocean, there was not much change.

However, after passing this height, human wisdom manifested itself!

On the gentle slope eighteen meters up, a small platform had been chiseled every two meters.

In the middle of each platform was a slight hollow depression that could fully receive sunlight from the sky.

All they had to do was wait until the ocean disaster, then scoop some seawater into these platforms. With the evaporation brought about by the blazing sun, they could obtain the most important item for sustaining human life…

Salt!

Salt obtained from treasure chests would eventually run out once mutant creatures decreased, or the foreign races' treasure chests reduced drastically.

Salt could replace all the other base materials and become one of the top strategic materials that humans needed.

Iron and bronze would not be needed, wood and stone slightly less. At most, this would only slow down the pace of the shelters' development.

However, if there was no salt, it would be a slow process of low blood pressure developing into edema, followed by the decline of muscular strength and neuronal excitability, then brain edema, and eventually urinary retention and death. Torture like this would drive a person mad!

"Good, good. Sure enough, Chen Shen hasn't let me down.

"When the time comes to head to the new world, we can build the base beside the ocean and slowly develop while extracting salt and fishing for marine animals."

Drawing parallels from inference, when Su Mo considered that salt could become a currency, he could not help feeling rather excited.

Once he had the destroyer, occupying an expanse of shoreline to construct a shipyard would not be a problem.

With the ship, they could rely on the sea and establish the Underground Shelter there. Then they would have land rights, air supremacy, and even maritime power taken care of in the future.

With such a comprehensive battlefront, no matter how cunning the enemy was, it would be very difficult for them to attack!

After he walked past the salt bays made from four or five platforms, the elevation rose to 25 meters above sea level, only 15 meters or so away from the top of the mountain.

Here, the land was completely flat, and there were numerous caves that had been customized into various storerooms with different functions.

However, before Su Mo could do a thorough inspection, Chen Shen appeared at the end of the corridor when he walked past a corner.

"Huh, Brother Su, you're here—I was thinking of going down to look for you!

"It's really strange, yesterday those dozen-over Zeus Shelter management people were still so unyielding, shouting about human rights, claiming that we can't just simply interfere with different borders and that we have no rights to cross borders and deprive them of their freedom!

"When I woke up in the morning, without exception, all of them were crying and confessing—they even brought out a lot of good stuff!"

Although his expression was full of confusion, Chen Shen's eyes brightened up when he mentioned that there was good stuff!

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Chapter 292: Big Changes, The Rules Of The Wasteland

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"Oh? There's good stuff? What's the grade, and why are you so surprised? "

Su Mo chuckled when he saw the gleam in Chen Shen's eyes. He strode forward and patted Chen Shen's shoulder.

Even if Zeus Shelter had previously been the No. 2 shelter in a whole world of billions of people, this only indicated that they had better luck during the first seven days in the wasteland.

It did not mean that their development could be the same as Su Mo's after a month—ahead of everyone else.

A month after the three disasters, without exception, all the shelters that were ranked top ten after the first disaster had vanished without a trace, other than Su Mo, who was still very active in the public eye.

Even an official organization like Tundra Shelter was no exception.

Of course, this was an inevitable development.

In the wasteland, something like luck was very important on occasion, and sometimes not that important at all.

Given the combat abilities of the land-based foreign races, most of the creatures had probably already encountered special forces armed with basic weapons.

If the foreign races did not possess any strong special abilities, there was only one outcome…

Total annihilation without casualties!

As for the hidden official underground shelter, before the war on the ocean kicked off, they would still be an unknown factor in terms of how powerful they were.

However, if one wanted to talk about shelters that were previously on the ranking list, Zeus Shelter's development potential would most probably not make even the top ten thousand in the world.

Otherwise, they would not have gotten mixed up with Hope Village, which had only three guns. They would also not have been in a confrontation with the villagers that lasted several hours because Zeus Shelter was too afraid to make a move.

Chen Shen was not anxious when he heard Su Mo's random question. He moved closer and spoke into Su Mo's ear, his voice low.

"Brother Su, don't look down on this bunch of villains. These days, they've been using trucks to steal and plunder on the go. They've migrated more than 3,000 kilometers this way.

"They've got one epic-quality and two rare-quality items, as well as six excellent-quality ones from plundering other people.

"If they hadn't encountered us, they'd probably have kept on robbing and plundering all the way to the new world, then they could make a fortune out of all these supplies again!"

Su Mo sucked in his breath…

After hearing that there were epic and rare items…

At this point, Su Mo, who had been nonchalant earlier, could no longer suppress his excitement.

Epic-quality?

Good gracious, after all this time, it was only because he had entered the ruins of time and returned to the past, secretly plotting against the Abyssal Dragon Zeta, that he had obtained an epic-quality item there and only one at that.

Otherwise, the only other item that he had now was the epic-quality design blueprint that he had been traded the last time he had entered the trading ruins.

He did not expect that Zeus Shelter, in its current wretched state, would have one as well!

When did epic-quality items become so common?!

Chen Shen rubbed his head when he finally saw deep interest on Su Mo's face. He did not waste time in idle chatter and led him up right away.

According to the rules of the village, confiscating captives' trophies had to be witnessed by the management. After these had been inventoried, they would be put in the warehouse.

Items that had no grades, like food supplies or base materials, could be submitted in a report first and reported to the supplies supervisor.

After the supplies supervisor had written in comments, the report would then be passed to Chen Shen for perusal. A copy would be made of the report, which would be signed and issued.

Every cycle, all bound copies of base material inventories on file would be summarized by the supplies supervisor and handed to Su Mo for review.

These rules could fully guarantee that no corruption would occur in Hope Village, and would also make sure that during times of emergency, there was no need for too many formalities in issuing the supplies catalog.

However, these were only for base materials. For graded items, the procedures were more troublesome.

When making an inventory of these things, graded items would need to be stamped with seals from every member of the management team, and securely stored on the supply shelves in the warehouse.

If anyone's seal was broken, that person would have to take responsibility.

With all the management keeping tabs on each other, it could be considered a means of entirely eliminating the possibility of internal corruption.

If the people of Hope Village wanted to take these graded items out, apart from needing to obtain approval from all the other members of management, including Chen Shen, they would have to hand the proof to Chen Shen and wait for him to review it, and approve.

This would then be handed to Su Mo for a final review. Only then could the item be taken out.

Therefore, after an inventory had been made, even Chen Shen as the head of the village had no jurisdiction over the supplies. It was all up to Su Mo's discretion.

As one of the people who set up this rule, Su Mo was fairly satisfied with it and made no objections to the cumbersome procedures.

He went up the mountain one step at a time; the path was not "smooth" at all.

The mountain trail was currently full of captives from the Zeus Shelter. Most of the captives were tied up at the edge of the cliff and had all been collectively bound together.

As he passed by, Su Mo personally witnessed the strange phenomena that Chen Shen had mentioned.

During the process of interrogation yesterday, when these ruffians saw him, they had displayed a spurious sort of fear.

It was not the kind of fear that came from their hearts; it was because their lives were in Su Mo's hands.

Today, however, when Su Mo walked around the corner, the first captive saw him and shrieked…

This time, the situation had totally changed!

Without exception, it was as if everyone had seen a monster. Their faces first displayed inconceivable expressions, then desperation to stay alive.

Su Mo was no stranger to these expressions.

It was the same when he had destroyed the saltpeter camp and rescued Chen Shen and the others—they had looked at him like he was their savior.

However, as if they knew that they were currently only lowly prisoners, these men did not make a fuss. They merely stepped aside to give way to Su Mo, watching with a mixture of fear and respect as he left.

After passing through the most crowded part of the trail, the "road conditions" became much better as he was nearing the platform on top of the mountain.

Su Mo had seen the engineering blueprints drawn up by the construction team that Hope Village had contracted for such a high price. A system appraisal revealed that there were no issues with them at all.

Therefore, after the blueprints had been passed down, work on the shelter's platform began progressing rapidly.

With the magical tools and creation panels that mankind possessed, even ordinary people were on par with professional construction workers. They worked surprisingly fast.

The last time when he interrogated the lioness, Su Mo had been too anxious, so he had not looked carefully at the platform.

This time, now that construction was slowly getting underway, Su Mo could clearly see what was going on and approved of it mentally.

In just a few days, Hope Village's construction on top of the mountain had already gotten off to a flying start.

The top of the mountain was no longer a large, bare platform—it had been turned into a tiered structure!

There were four pillars positioned on all four sides of the platform. On top of the pillars were downward-curved eaves modeled after those of pavilions.

This design ensured that rain could flow down along the curved eaves during rainy days without affecting the pit in the center that Hope Village had been digging.

It would also ensure that they would have sufficient light on ordinary days, so they would not need to live in darkness.

As for the caves with the hollow depression in the middle—the areas where all the villagers would live—a large pit three meters deep had been excavated.

Around the hole were iron plates for further security, to make that nothing would fall or collapse.

Walking down the steps that had been cut into the stone was like entering another mini-world. When coming into the brightly lit caves especially, this feeling became even stronger.

"Well done, Chen Shen. With your capabilities, keeping you on as the village chief is really a waste!"

Su Mo then saw the walls of the cave were inscribed with the names of every villager and their role in the construction process.

There were no fawning words or pretentious motivational slogans.

Su Mo stepped forward. As he touched the rough words on the wall, he complimented Chen Shen, feeling emotional.

No matter where it was—on the doomsday wasteland or in large companies or corporations on Earth—as soon as profits and benefits were involved, inspirational slogans and mottos could only motivate new recruits into giving their best. It was a load of rubbish to expect that these would be able to continuously motivate everyone.

In a big corporation, for everyone to be motivated, cohesive as a team, and to work hard to achieve their goals, there was no need for any ritualistic team-building activities or nonsensical motivational slogans.

If a company could give its workers two days off every week, no overtime during weekdays, and permission to leave half an hour earlier on Fridays—even if the pay was average in the industry, any employee of that company would certainly remember how kind the boss was.

Likewise, this was more obvious in the wasteland.

As long as fairness, justice, and transparency were achieved, there would be no need to worry that someone would slack off or that the shelter could not develop.

These things were Papa Su's most heartfelt sentiments after his demobilization and going to sea.

There were times when Papa Su would involuntarily reveal some knowledge of management over dinner, initiating a discussion with the whole family.

Su Mo had not expected that Chen Shen had been able to figure this out too. If the boy had been given the opportunity on Earth, he would have gone far in his workplace.

"Brother Su, you honor me far too highly!

"These are all just little motivational ploys. If we want the villagers to have a good life, we'd still have to rely on you to support us. Without the security of your capabilities, if we want to live a good life…"

"Stop, stop. Little rascal, there you go again after I praise you!"

When Chen Shen was about to start flattering him with the same old story, even though Su Mo knew he really meant it, he still could not help but feel a headache coming on since he had heard so much of it. Therefore, he hurriedly stopped Chen Shen from continuing.

Chen Shen, who was behind him, saw him behaving this way and could only shake his head. There was a trace of a different sort of admiration on his face, and he quickly hurried to catch up with Su Mo.

Having a good leader was important for the management.

A man of action like Su Mo was a subordinate's dream.

He did not need flattery; he only needed one to do their job. This was such a luxury in the wasteland!

Su Mo walked ahead, commiserating with the villagers who were still working while drawing the attention of the villagers in the distance.

Only after he had followed the twisting, turning path into the deepest part of the cave did Su Mo realize that the storage room was a completely different world altogether.

It had been excavated a level lower than the villagers' living quarters.

The entrance to this level was not obvious; the doors were only visible after Chen Shen pulled aside the wooden boards on top of them.

A narrow passage with stairs led downward, wide enough for only one person to go down at a time. The passage itself was covered with three sets of anti-theft doors that resembled manhole covers, and each door was about 10 centimeters thick.

Furthermore, after Su Mo subtly studied them, he was stunned to discover that the materials of these anti-theft doors were not ordinary iron but alloy materials that were very similar to the shelter doors.

With materials like this, even if someone carried an excellent quality level iron pickaxe, there was no way they could break in.

Of course, there were still vulnerabilities.

If the thief knew that this was the passage to the storage room, they would not need to break through the entrance—they could just chisel a way in from somewhere next to it.

However, considering that this was the heart of Hope Village, even if one were standing on the mountainside, they would still be able to clearly hear the sound of chiseling activity, so this vulnerability was not something that needed to be taken into consideration for now.

Once the iron door opened, they walked down along the stairs. When they had gone three meters below, they came to solid ground and arrived at the storage room, which took up around fifty square meters.

There were already shelves attached to the walls.

There were not many items on the shelves for the time being. Looking up from below, there were around fourteen to fifteen of them, all covered with seals.

However, these things glowed with ordinary light green, indicating they were only good-quality items. There was nothing like the good stuff Chen Shen had mentioned.

"Brother Su, wait, we have a more secure design here!"

When he saw Su Mo looking over, Chen Shen smiled and took out his flashlight. Aiming the beam of light at the wall, he felt along it.

"Huh? There's a mechanism?"

Watching Chen Shen searching for the switch to activate the mechanism like in a tv series, Su Mo's curiosity was piqued.

There was a mechanism in the Underground Shelter too, located in the bedroom's secret door. Pushing on it gently would allow the door to pivot into the armory so one could retrieve the weapons stored inside.

He had never expected Hope Village's storage room to actually implement such construction techniques.

However, the method of activating the wall mechanism was not that hard. As he watched, Chen Shen located three points and gently pressed down on them. A small hinge plate popped out.

Chen Shen pressed down on the plate with all his might, and the wall began to swivel slowly.

Faint rays of light began growing brighter with the angle of the wall's rotation until they illuminated the shelter vividly.

The light blue glow of excellent quality items, the bright purple glow of epic-quality items, and the orange-yellow glow of legendary-quality items—when the three colors mingled together, it was like opening a treasure chest. Just a glance, and it was hard for people to tear their gazes away.

The epic item that belonged to Zeus Shelter met Su Mo's gaze as the wall swiveled.

"Huh… This epic item looks a little odd!"

"Is this an… iron pot?"

After seeing the flashy, high-class pretentiousness of the Mind Ring, and the elegance of the epic-quality design blueprint, when he suddenly caught sight of the black iron pot in front of him…

Su Mo was startled!

Chapter 293: Dimensional Constraints, Cosmic Human Beings!

As if he had expected Su Mo to display such an expression, Chen Shen could no longer hold back his amusement and burst out laughing.

"Brother Su, heaven took pity on us. Right after I confiscated this item, everyone had the same expression.

"But take a look at its attributes. Once we have enough points in the future, this will be an invincible divine item.

"I wonder how these people from Zeus Shelter got lucky enough to possess something like this!"

"Oh?"

When Su Mo saw Chen Shen extolling the virtues of the black pot in front of him and actually giving it such a good review, he stepped forward doubtfully, grasped the handle of the iron pot, and picked it up.

The pot was not heavy. Su Mo, who had strengthened his hand muscles several times already by now, estimated that the pot's weight was within five to eight catties.

However, if one were to consider that the pot only had a diameter of 38cm, compared to an equivalent pot from Earth which would weigh around three to four catties, this black one was way heavier.

If one ignored the orange-yellow glow that radiated from the entire pot, the color of the pot itself was extremely classy.

The entire thing appeared to be pure black, and it was hard to tell if there were any impurities in the color just by looking at it with the naked eye.

"Even if this pot were just a normal one instead of an epic-quality object, it's still pretty high quality.

"This wooden handle in particular—it feels like I'm holding a piece of jade. And it doesn't slip either, so it will be really good for cooking."

After he flipped the pot upside down with credible skill and brushed his fingers over the complicated patterns inside it, Su Mo gave the item a very high evaluation.

The lifelong dream of a chef was to possess a handy iron pot.

As a foodie, Su Mo liked this pot very much indeed.

After repeatedly toying with it for a while, Su Mo focused his mind. Since someone had already used some points to appraise it, the black pot's attribute panel gradually appeared.

"Huh, using it to cook will give one a bonus. Sounds good; it can even make epic-quality dishes…"

Su Mo scrolled down the attributes of the iron pot one by one. After he noticed that spending different amounts of points meant that he could cook food of different grades—the highest level not exceeding epic-quality—he was rather delighted.

No wonder Chen Shen had said this was something good. If he truly had the points to make epic-quality dishes, that would be amazing!

However, amid his excitement, Su Mo's gaze fell on the next attribute which had a locked word on it. He felt his heart beginning to beat very fast.

"Wait, what's this?"

The appearance of this locked word was nothing like Oreo's attribute panel, which had not been completely leveled up and was sealed.

Instead, there was a black mist floating on top of the word that seemed to have been imposed over it for concealment. Furthermore, a vague sense of familiarity kept circling in Su Mo's mind.

"Black mist?

"The two blueprints that I brought back from the unknown space-time previously had black mist on them too!"

This suddenly dawned on Su Mo, but before he could continue ruminating on the epiphany, the system in his body that had hitherto been silent suddenly began to become uncontrollably restless.

Simultaneously, an ear-piercing buzzing noise suddenly exploded in Su Mo's ears.

Su Mo was familiar with this noise.

The first time he heard it was in the mysterious SYQ organization's rift. When the two blueprints were delivered to him, the system's alarm began ringing.

In the end, only after he used magical energy to cleanse them of the black mist could the blueprints be used normally.

The second time was after the welfare disaster had ended. When the golden light swept over him, the system had also raised the alarm like this.

Although the alarm from the previous two times sounded rapid and urgent, it was not strident. It was only informing Su Mo that the items were dangerous, and he needed to stay away from them or destroy them.

Now, however…

The sound in his ears had become a rumble that sounded like a drumroll on the eve of battle. As he stood there, Su Mo's entire body began shuddering uncontrollably as if an electric current had shot through him. He could barely control himself.

There was something wrong with the black pot!

Furthermore, it was something very wrong!

The system wanted to come out to battle it!

'This won't do… There's someone in here with me!'

Su Mo shrieked this loudly in his mind, forcibly suppressing the shudders that came from his very core. He gritted his teeth and shouted each and every word!

"Chen Shen, get out now! Close the doors securely and wait for me!

"Guard the entrance up there, no one is allowed to come in without my orders!"

These two explosive yells were like a sudden awakening, and the intense blaring of the alarm snapped Chen Shen back to reality—he had been standing to one side, transfixed by Su Mo's attitude.

Without any hesitation or wasting time in idle chatter and seeing that there were large beads of sweat rolling down from the top of Su Mo's head, Chen Shen—who had finally realized how serious the matter was—scrambled to the stairs and hastily ran up.

Clang, clang, clang…

Three heavy clangs came from the iron doors as they were shut, the sounds beginning to resonate endlessly in the storage room.

When Su Mo heard the clangs, he could not hold on any longer and immediately released administrator authority to the system right away.

An instant later, the storage room that was still dark in areas was illuminated completely by only reddish-black rays of light.

Glowing!

From head to foot, indescribable reddish-black rays of light surged out from Su Mo's body, from the hair on his head all the way to his toes.

The rays of light seeped out from every area they could possibly exude from, bombarding the black pot.

However, once the black pot sensed the threat of the reddish-black light, it no longer remained in its earlier easygoing, ordinary state.

A strange black aura emerged from its surface and carried the pot itself into the air, swaying wildly as it tried to flee.

However, the system was still the system. Once it struck, there was no chance at all for the black pot to escape.

As the first beam of reddish-black light bombarded the black pot, it stopped moving!

The greyish-black color covering the pot began to change slightly.

The black on its surface began gradually sloughing off like a skin, falling to the ground.

However, before the black substance reached the ground, the beams of light melted it right away and dissipated it, making sure none of it was missed out.

As if it was limited by "output power", it took the light a great deal of effort to bombard each square centimeter of the iron pot's surface.

It took three to five seconds to slough off an area of the greyish-black substance, exposing the original color of the iron pot.

During this process of bombardment, Su Mo was still standing where he was and leaning on the wall of the storage room. His entire body was like a heated soldering iron, his body temperature rising madly.

Sensing the threat to his life, the Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll card that radiated silver-grey star power had emerged from his storage space, revolving in the air unceasingly and radiating pure light to envelop everything below.

Su Mo forced off the tops of bottle upon bottle of psychic energy water as if they cost nothing, directly pouring the bottles over his head.

Sizzle…

Sizzle…

The contact between the water and the high temperature caused the water to evaporate again and again. The small storage room was already full of white mist.

One minute…

Two minutes…

The stubborn greyish-black skin on the iron pot was still slowly sloughing off, but Su Mo, who was leaning on the wall, was on the verge of total exhaustion.

"Agh…

"Hurry up…

"I can't take it much longer!"

Every second, the reddish-black light that was ripping his muscles and the tissues of his body apart would clash with the restoration function of the Mountain and Sea Painting scroll.

This tearing sensation was ten times more painful than torture. If it had not been for everything Su Mo had been through in the wasteland, experiencing numerous terrors between life and death—if it were not for the benefits that the Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll card and the psychic energy water had on his body …

Su Mo would have passed out the very first second!

Fortunately, the system seemed to be able to sense Su Mo's body had reached the verge of collapse.

As an intense burst of light bombarded it, the last bit of coating on the iron pot finally sloughed off. It fell through the air and was utterly melted by the beams of light, then it began to dissipate slowly as it was sucked away.

Clang…

Without the light keeping it aloft, the pot hit the ground with a loud ringing clang.

At this point, however, Su Mo, who was now lying flat on the ground as his body twitched violently, had lost any desire to see if there were any anomalies on the iron pot.

"Huff…"

"Huff…"

Exhaustion!

Extreme exhaustion!

Exhaustion that he could die from!

The bombardment from the system's beams of light did not take long—it was only around 2.5 minutes—but it was these 2.5 minutes that made Su Mo feel as if he were leaping back and forth from the gates of hell.

If it had not been for the Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll restoring his body, and the upgraded psychic energy water that could replenish his mental state—if either one of these two were missing, there would have been only one outcome…

Death!

"F*ck, it wasn't the people from Zeus Shelter or the people of Hope Village who had to deal with this. At the end of the day, I still had to handle it.

"Sure enough, empiricism is deadly. Next time I should be extra careful when it comes to graded items. A situation like this must never happen again.

"Otherwise, if the system comes out to do battle once more, I'm not certain whether I'll be able to pull through or not."

Panting heavily, Su Mo stared at the ceiling, even though various parts of his body were protesting madly.

After the twisting pain was gone, from the very bottom of his heart, Su Mo could feel how "blessed" it was to be free from sickness and pain.

The Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll card was still dutifully revolving in the air, slowly healing the wounds his body had suffered.

Su Mo lay crumpled on the ground all this while. After ten minutes or so, he could feel his body become lighter. Only after the Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll card had ceased its energy output did his breathing slowly stabilize.

"Ouch, it hurts. From the looks of it, I've injured my core. I'll need to take some time to fully recover!"

Although the Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll card could heal flesh wounds, there was no way it could replenish the over-exertion of his cell potency.

He would have to wait until new cells were generated to metabolize the over-extended cells before his body's vitality could be restored.

Of course, he had not suffered so much pain for nothing.

At the very least, during the process of his muscle fibers being torn apart and forced to recover, their endurance and strength had increased substantially.

He only had to wait until his injuries had recovered, then his constitution would definitely go up significantly. He might well be able to achieve the constitution required for the shelter to upgrade to level five.

Su Mo continued to recuperate for a while. After he called up the game panel and sent Chen Shen a reply saying that he was fine, he held onto the handrail of the storage shelf compartment and slowly sat up.

Once he sat up, the iron pot that had fallen on the floor came into his field of view.

However…

"F*ck… this thing isn't epic-quality, it's a???

"One and only item???"

The iron pot that was previously completely black and suffused with an orange-yellow epic-quality glow had now vanished!

In its place was a jade pot with the same body and handle as earlier. It emitted a pale emerald glow.

Even the color of the jade pot had transformed into a unique red.

Red against green—when both colors were combined, it did not look jarring at all. Instead, they mingled together with a sort of classy loveliness.

Without hesitation, Su Mo launched the system appraisal from a safe distance, using it on the jade pot that cost lives instead of money.

This time, the light emitted from the system was no longer reddish-black. Instead, it had turned a green that represented hope and peace.

The green light shone onto the jade pot, resulting in a few seconds' overlay on top of the green color of the pot itself before slowly receding.

Following that, the usual panel that would appear after checking on the attributes of an item did not immediately emerge.

Under Su Mo's gaze, swirls of greenish steam started collecting on top of the pot, and an image slowly began to appear.

As the image played, the seldom-heard system voice that sounded like a pitiable woman began speaking.

"In the ??? era of rapid technological development, cosmic humans had left tracks throughout every corner of the three-dimensional universe. In the process of research, they discovered that if they wanted to break through the third dimension and the limitations of the three-dimensional universe so they could enter a civilized four-dimensional world, the essential step was to look for that "path"!

"Which path was that?

"The cosmic humans were not very sure. Dimensional restrictions made it hard for mankind to bypass these limits with their minds, but during the process of studying how to solve this dilemma, the cosmic humans discovered something amazing.

"Rule authority!

"Simply put, the virtual characters in the two-dimensional world, their lifestyles, and the things they do— even their appearances—are controlled by humans in the three-dimensional world.

"Two-dimensional creatures have no authority to decide on the development of the world, and they don't realize that their lives are being controlled. They're even more unaware of what's wrong with the world.

"In the same manner, energy, gravitational forces, molecular collision, dark energy waves, and many other phenomena in the three-dimensional universe don't happen by chance. These things have their own rules and are controlled by an unknown hand that mankind cannot fathom.

"When they could not break through the mind limits imposed by the fourth dimension, the cosmic humans changed their minds. They chose to start with the rules of the three-dimensional world so they could take control of gravity, energy, the forms taken by individual life, as well as the evolutionary chain within living beings.

"They wanted to restore the great power that the gods possessed in ancient myths.

"In other words, to become the evil dragon, one has to first defeat… the evil dragon!"

The image was too hazy to be able to tell what was being shown. After the image finished playing, even though he had excellent eyesight, Su Mo was still unable to make out what had happened.

However, the system's voice very clearly conveyed the message behind the image.

Once the voice finished speaking, the familiar panel finally popped up. However, one look at the name of the jade pot sent Su Mo into a stunned stupor!

[The Giant Black Pot (1% Wasteland Modification Authority)]

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Chapter 294: The Righteous Thief! I'm… In!

Just by looking at the name on top, Su Mo could already imagine how ridiculously exaggerated the attributes might be—which he would soon be viewing.

As expected, when he sat up fully and focused his mind to check on the pot's attributes…

"Gasp…"

Even though Su Mo was mentally prepared for this, still, he could not help a sharp inhalation of breath.

[The Great Black Pot (1% Wasteland Modification Authority)]

[Description: In the wasteland, there are explorers who will exhaust their strength to transmigrate through the mists. There are also ambitious achievers who wish to harness the power of all nations and sacrifice millions of living beings to fuel their ascension. Similarly, in countless battles, there are "righteous thieves" who refuse to live under oppression and would rather stand and fight, instead of dying on their knees. "Authority" is a sweet, delicious wine that will give you a taste of power; it will also trap you in a honey pot and keep you wanting more of its saccharine fantasy. However, at the same time, authority is also a black pot. If you decide to keep it and bear the burden of its power, you will be permanently branded a "righteous thief", and will be shunned by those who legitimately possess authority.

[Current Authority: 1%

[Authority Interpretation: Food

[Authority Power: If you choose to take on this authority, you have the chance to modify food attributes once every 15 natural days in the wasteland. You are allowed to randomly modify the grade and attribute of the foods. (The effect is not stackable and will reset after usage. As authority increases, the cooldown period will decrease)

[Penalty 1: By wielding this authority, you will be labeled a "righteous thief" and will be completely blocked by the game. You will be unable to use any functions in the game panel (Unless your authority reaches 51% and above)

[Penalty 2: By using the level modification ability that comes with this authority, you will attract the game's attention. Not only that, the more it is used, the higher the chance that you will be found

[Penalty 3: Once you are found, your authority will be taken away, and you will be marked by the game. The number of disasters in the area within 500,000 kilometers around you will be increased 500,000 times and set to default

[Penalty 4: If you possess the black pot but choose not to inherit the title of righteous thief, your luck will be rolled at every first second of a natural day, where rolling 6 means a certain gain, and rolling 1 means a certain life-threatening calamity.

[Comment: Justice is not inclined to power or privilege. Even if one were offered an entire nation, their stance would not waver. Even if one had to sacrifice their life to uphold justice, they would not falter. This is the valor of a virtuous individual!

"1% authority, and permission to modify the attributes of food in the wasteland…

"Does that mean that if I want to modify it to epic-quality, it will become epic-quality, or if I want to make it legendary, then it'll become legendary-quality?

"What will happen if I directly add in an attribute that allows one to fly after eating that food?"

Su Mo was not like ordinary individuals, who would display panic and fear when encountering such an item,

He was immensely bold!

In fact, he was as immensely bold as the literal meaning of those words!

He was so bold that, despite knowing he would embark on a path of no return once he used that authority, he was not afraid at all, even though the penalties were so clearly stated.

Fear came from the unknown.

The more a person knew, the less he would be afraid of.

Moreover, when profits reached 10%, someone would be ready to stir up trouble. When profits reached 50%, someone would dare to take a risk.

When profits got to 100%, people would dare to trample over any doctrines or laws…

When the profit reached 300%, even if it meant going to the gallows, they would not be afraid of it!

As for the black pot…

"No one likes to take the blame, but I'm different. It's not that I want this authority, it's just that…

"Righteous thief is such a cool title, right?"

After his body had gone through the toughest phase of recovery, moving normally right now was no longer a problem.

Su Mo looked at the jade pot lying far away on the ground. He took two steps forward and snatched it up without hesitation.

"There's a good old saying we Huaxians have.

"There's only a thousand days of thievery, not a thousand days of guarding against thievery!

"If I don't want to guard against thievery, then there's only one road left for me!"

It was not by chance that Zeus Shelter had come to the low-lying lands!

Every day, once the dice had rolled its points, the person who possessed the black pot would be restricted by this mysterious power, entering into default bad luck mode and falling prey to a life-threatening calamity.

The black pot was like a baton. No one would turn down an epic-quality cooking "divine item" that could support development, but no one could turn down the bad luck it brought either.

If one were unlucky and by chance, the dice rolled 1 point, there would be only one outcome to the life-threatening calamity….

The black pot would pass on.

When explorers died, they left behind "legacies" all through the wasteland that could aid later generations in continuing to explore even more mysterious places.

When ambitious achievers died, they left behind legacies of discontent that could help later generations rapidly increase their abilities, so they could find an alternate way to continue surviving.

However, for the righteous thieves… the addition of the word "righteous" in front of the word "thieves" was fitting.

What they wanted was pure and simple. In a sense, their desires were even more "simple" than the previous two!

They only wished to pass down their ideals, and find like-minded people to complete their "heroic undertakings"!

"It doesn't matter if a person dies. As long as the black pot still exists, as long as there are living beings who are continuously transported into the wasteland, and as long as there are still individuals who covet epic-quality equipment…

"People who have insufficient abilities won't sense what the black pot really is. Possession of it will only lead to a slow death if they continue carrying it with them, and it will pass down to someone else.

"People who have sufficient abilities will be able to sense what this black pot actually stands for—but how many of them can resist a temptation like this that's already within reach!"

Su Mo had seen how the previous two batches of people in the wasteland had functioned. He had also seen how miraculously the third batch of people had conducted themselves under the same environment and conditions.

Comparing the righteous thieves—most of whom had probably been killed by the disasters that the wasteland had increased 50,000 times—with the first two batches of refugees, Su Mo was even more aware that during natural disasters…

Human beings could be utterly insane!

"I thought what I could do in a month was already considered the most outrageous thing of all among all the human beings in the wasteland.

"Now though, from the looks of things, mankind is never short of madmen!

"Since you're all willing to behave in such a crazy manner, then why would I not dare to join in!"

Compared to the achievers' curiosity about the unknown world, and their desire to soar to illusory heights, there was no doubt that the mindset of the righteous thieves was more compatible with Su Mo's "frequency".

"Soaring? Going to an unknown world to continue fighting? No, no, no, that's too dangerous. This isn't something a rational person should do at all!

"What's that famous Chinese philosophy of revolution again, the one by Chairman Mao—using the rural areas… to encircle the cities…

"Even though a righteous thief has only 1% authority, still, I have the system! As long as I can get 51% authority, I'll hold the controlling interest in the wasteland!

"Perhaps the disasters in this world will also listen to my commands when the time comes. As my ownership rights increase, this place will fully become my base!"

The more Su Mo thought about the idea of the righteous thief and what cosmic humans practiced, the more he agreed with it and the more excited he became.

If one went from the wasteland to another illusory world without any change in the power they wielded, what was the point of talking about crossing dimensions?

As long as one had truly grasped the secrets of this dimension, when the time came to traverse dimensional restrictions, it would only require a mere thought to do so.

The jade pot in Su Mo's hands seemed to be able to sense his thoughts and his excitement. Displaying its intelligence, it no longer struggled.

Furthermore, after rocking slightly for a while, the red light surrounding the jade pot radiated outward, turning Su Mo's arms red as well.

At the same time, a notification sound drifted through the air, accompanied by a prompt panel that floated up in front of Su Mo.

[Record: Current 1% authority is requesting to be transferred to employee "Su Mo"'s account!

[Record: Once it is transferred, you will lose all rights as an employee of the wasteland company. Will you accept the transfer of authority?

"Oh?"

"Interesting! It's treating the wasteland like a company—are all the players employees of the company, with the authority being treated as shares?

"However… who says one must lose my rights as an employee after obtaining the shares?

"Only kids make choices. I, Su Mo… want all of them!"

Su Mo smiled faintly and looked at the prompt panel that popped up. He did not choose to agree immediately, nor did he choose to reject it.

Once he had gathered his thoughts, he moved the check box to the very bottom of his field of view. As his mind focused, his storage space opened naturally.

Suspended in the air was a card he had never used ever since he had gotten it; he had never even taken it out. The card flew out slowly and continually drifted to and fro in the air

.

"I choose to use… the Stealing the Day, Changing the Light card!

Who would have thought that the small storage room built by the inhabitants of Hope Village would have already witnessed the unveiling of so many rare items on the first day of its use.

From the one and only Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll card to obtaining 1% authority of the wasteland, and now the glimmering light of this legendary card…

The storage room was indeed blessed by Lady Luck!

This was also Su Mo's good luck.

Without skipping a beat, once Su Mo had spoken, the golden light that indicated legendary items burst forth in its entirety!

At the same time, under the stimulus of the golden light, Su Mo had already been transported to another expanse of space by the time he opened his eyes.

It was the same as when he used the Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll, but this time what appeared in front of Su Mo was not the terrain of the wasteland's Shifting Skies and Still Earth Model.

It was a clay sculpture as tall as Su Mo. Not only that, it looked exactly like him.

If one did not take into consideration the sculpture's material and looked only at its appearance, it would be impossible to pick out any differences between Su Mo and the sculpture.

"Hey, hey, my appearance is perfect as expected, but there are a few places that need a little work."

There was a table in front of the clay with many "face customization" tools on it.

In this space within the card, no matter how much time had passed, it was only a second in the outside world.

Therefore, Su Mo was in no hurry. He focused his mind to create a stool, then sat in front of the clay, and began modifying it carefully.

There was no need to change anything on the face; he merely strived to make it look real.

The parts he focused on changing were the scars on his body from when he was much younger and more mischievous, and several pigmented moles.

As for the shape of the feet—unfortunately, he was 185 centimeters tall, but his shoe size was only 42, and he had slightly flat feet. Su Mo took drastic action and began modifying the sculpture based on the perfect template.

Time flew by. After about an hour when Su Mo stood up again, although there were no changes in the appearance of the clay sculpture in front of him, its charisma and some "detailed" parts had changed drastically.

Even when both of them stood together, without looking at their faces, it would be difficult to think that they were both the same person, unless it was someone on very close terms with Su Mo.

"Good, good, after changing all the inherent defects, sure enough, humans can have such aesthetically pleasing lines.

"Alright, this will do—let's make it!"

The wasteland was not a place for playing dumb to take advantage of people. Su Mo had not changed the face structure and other attributes such as voice and gender; this was to prevent unnecessary problems when switching into this form.

However, for the sculpture's name, after thinking about it and channeling his sister Su Chan's wicked sense of humor, Su Mo used his finger as a pen and wrote down two words on the name column:

Yang Jian!

Now that there was a model as well as a name, once Su Mo agreed to the rest of the process, the light burst forth again.

He covered his eyes. When he opened them after the light had subsided, he was back in the storage room once more.

He was experiencing the sensation of being in a completely different body. Before Su Mo could even move around, one by one the game's notifications could gradually be heard…

[Welcome to the Doomsday Survival Game. As you can see, you have come to a strange place]

[Survival is your only goal. To survive, be sure to keep the following key points in mind: ]

[1. Disasters will refresh periodically, and all survivors will receive a warning seven days before the refresh happens]

[2. Don't place your Safe House at random. Finding the right site to place it will increase your chances of survival by a notch]

[11… Happy gaming]

[Record: It has been detected that player Yang Jian belongs to the third batch of players transported to the wasteland. Will automatically receive special late placement reward, two draws are allowed.

[Record: Special reward is being drawn…

[Record: Error, error!

[Record: Due to unspecified reasons, your bonus reward has been irrefutably changed to: Anomaly binding (once)

[Record: We deeply apologize for your bad gaming experience, you will receive a game item lucky draw chance x1

[Record: Lucky draw has ended. Congratulations, player "Yang Jian" received Material Substitution Card (Rare) x1

[Record: Reward has been automatically issued, please check. Together with the wasteland world and the game, you will experience a good life

"Experience a good life together? Excuse me, you b*stard!

"You've been spending years living as a blood-sucking capitalist. On this day of universal celebration, I'm going to let you experience…

"What it's like to have your blood sucked instead!"

Su Mo switched off all the notifications and looked at the turtle armor and the Material Substitution Card that appeared beside him. Without any reluctance, he grabbed the jade pot, and initiated the authority binding!

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Chapter 295: God Of Cooking "Su Mo", The God Of The Ocean Is My Comrade-In-Arms?

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

After he chose to bind it, the jade pot absorbed Su Mo's identity information, and the process became much simpler!

Su Mo closed all the game warning alerts that kept popping up because of the authority binding. He sat on the floor and waited silently for the final division of authority.

"The game… isn't a high-dimensional existence in the wasteland. Its role is similar to that of a majordomo.

"If it could manipulate the food rules in the wasteland before I chose the division of ownership rights, then after I use the jade pot and take 1% authority over the food…

"The game's authority would disappear permanently before I die and before I return the authority. It'll lose its authority over food forever!

"In fact, if I'm able to get the ownership rights for temperature, in the following disasters, the system will no longer be able to drop or raise the temperature as it wishes!

"Gaining ownership rights is more than just the process of obtaining power, it's also the most powerful way to protect myself from the disasters!"

The jade pot was like a key for opening the "safe" of power and authority concealed somewhere between heaven and earth in the wasteland.

When Su Mo felt the jade pot vibrating, he set it down on the ground. Standing in this small storage room, he suddenly had a hint of enlightenment regarding authority. At the same time, he gained a whole new understanding of what ocean promotional videos called the clash of titans.

"What if the wasteland authority was previously in the hands of a group of "gods"…

"Then one day, for whatever reason, most of the authority was taken back from the gods, and only a few of them managed to retain some of it through some kind of means?

"As the game gained more and more authority, it could rain down continuous terrifying disasters. The gods whose authority had been stripped away naturally would not be able to defend themselves and would have died out forever!

"However, entities such as the God of the Ocean probably left themselves a trump card. When they gave up most of their authority, they retained some essential powers or perhaps even a small fragment of core authority and managed to survive through these means. However, to escape being hunted down by the game, they chose to fall into a deep sleep somewhere and wait for their chance to come.

"As for the game now... What kind of situation does it want to see?"

Sitting cross-legged on the ground, Su Mo tried to comprehend the information sent to him after binding with the authority. At the same time, he was thinking about the true purpose of the ocean disaster based on the information he had been given.

Did the game want to see the God of the Ocean come back to life and take back his authority?

Impossible!

Currently, Su Mo's authority over food now was only 1%, and the game was already kicking up such a fuss—what more the ocean that encompassed a much wider area.

"That can't be. If the game doesn't want the God of the Ocean to come back to life, wouldn't it be easier to kill him off by raining down disasters?

"Unless…

"The God of the Ocean isn't waking up and trying to get his power back like what the game says. Instead, the game's managed to use some way to more or less pinpoint his location.

"But this way…"

Su Mo sat in the small storage room, where he could actually concentrate better to think about these questions.

With these details in hand, he continued with his painstaking investigation. A guess flashed through his mind all of a sudden.

Su Mo took advantage of the fact that the binding process was not complete yet, so his new identity's game panel was still accessible.

He pulled up the game panel and went into the friends list right away, then began to check and search.

The target of his search was none other than…

Yang Jian!

"So far, I can find a total of 318 players with the name Yang Jian.

"Including me, the latest addition, there'll be 319 people for now."

He recorded this number and checked his watch. After a minute, Su Mo accessed the game panel again and ran a search.

Sure enough, the number of players he could search for had dropped from 319 to 211.

He did not get anxious. Hanging onto his guess for the moment, he waited for another minute. The number of Yang Jians had suddenly decreased to 123.

The most outrageous thing was that before Su Mo could exit, the numbers blatantly changed to 122. The implications were obvious.

These people with the same name as Yang Jian were different from ordinary players in the add friends panel. When they died, their profile turned black in color, indicating that the person could not be added to the friends list.

Without exception, all of them disappeared from the search panel immediately.

It was as if they had never come to this wasteland world and had never participated in this game of life and death.

"Sure enough, the game is a majordomo. It has no way to locate me; all it knows is that there's a person called Yang Jian who took away 1% of its authority.

"Keeping in mind the thought of killing them all without sparing a single one, it instinctively picked all the players named Yang Jian and disabled all of their panels, as well as restricting all their game functions. It's using this to force my guileless "Yang Jian" character into using the authority.

"That's stupid, but it works!"

While he pondered, the "title conferring" progress had continued unabated. Anyway, Su Mo did not hold out much hope for his luck. At the fourth minute, an invisible light wave flashed past.

Not only did the turtle armor and card explode into dust in the storage room, but even the game panel also seemed to be dead. No matter how Su Mo called, it was difficult to get a response.

Yang Jian was the latest addition to the wasteland with the designated number 319 when Su Mo was conferred with the title, which meant all the other Yang Jians…

Had been wiped out!

"Hahaha, so that's how it's done. Not bad, not bad at all!

"Go ahead and ban him however you like.

"You've banned Yang Jian's game access permissions, but that has nothing to do with me, Su Mo!"

After becoming aware of all the game's maneuvers, Su Mo could not help letting out a sigh of relief. He started laughing.

At the same time, Su Mo could do nothing except apologize silently in his heart to the innocent Yang Jian no. 318 who had been dragged into this whole mess.

There was only one path ahead now.

If Su Mo were given the chance to choose again, the outcome would still be the same; he would definitely not hesitate.

"Sure enough, the small group of people who didn't trust the game and chose not to use the game functions were right after all.

"This d*mn thing really can't be trusted in the least!"

There was still 30% left on the binding progress bar; it would not do Su Mo any good to switch back to his identity and go onto the World Channel to see whether people were reacting to this commotion. He could only wait quietly.

Fortunately, it did not take long. After ten minutes, as the jade pot that Su Mo was holding began vibrating continuously before slowly turning into powdery light particles and disappearing from the storage room, the authority binding was finally complete.

At the same time, now that he possessed authority over food, from Su Mo's point of view, the whole world had drastically undergone a change.

All the items, including the ground beneath his feet, the shelf beside him, and even the dust in the air, had their own exclusive "flavor".

Based on this hint of flavor, Su Mo knew that all he had to do was to focus, and the aroma of red-braised pork could burst forth from even the dust.

"Tsk, is this power why the people on Earth are so obsessed with being watchdogs in positions of authority?

"Color, aroma, taste…

"Authority over food doesn't just refer to its grade and the attributes. No wonder it takes up a whole 1% of authority."

The more Su Mo sensed things, the more he understood how miraculous this power was.

After gaining authority over food, why was it that it could be only used once every fifteen natural days?

The reason was very simple. For example, say he wanted to add an attribute to the food that would allow it never to deteriorate.

What he needed to draw on was not just the authority over food—he also had to utilize authority related to its physical form, as well as the authority for exposure to air, internal microbial fermentation, and ten other authorities.

These complex authorities had to be interwoven before a simple attribute could be formed.

Furthermore, if he wanted to invoke these other authorities to be used on food, he could do so, but it would take time.

It was like working in a big company. If one needed the assistance of another department for a project, this was naturally permissible, but one would have to submit a report for approval. Only after approval could this assistance be implemented; one could not simply do as they pleased.

Of course, there were exceptions. For example…

When one became the immediate boss in charge of these departments or the president of the whole company!

At that point, one could do whatever they wanted. Even if they wanted to dissolve the company immediately, that would not be a problem!

"If I look at it like that, then the purpose of the ocean disaster is far too obvious!

"The general location of the God of the Ocean has been exposed due to whatever reason. The game, as majordomo, wants to retrieve the remaining authority that the God of the Ocean still holds.

"However, what's frustrating is that first of all, the God of the Ocean doesn't need the game panel, so the game can't penalize him. The second is not knowing the God of the Ocean's exact location. The game's been forced to use some kind of means to hunt for him, and that's why there's this version update.

"And the most cunning part is, it hasn't directly asked the players to search for the God of the Ocean. Instead, it's using an ingenious way to guide all the players, claiming that the God of the Ocean is about to wake up, and telling everyone how awesome he is. Not only that, it's tempting people with a gimmick, saying that those who get there first can become divine messengers.

"It's even shamelessly been hinting that the God of the Ocean is currently very weak, and the players can easily dispose of him.

"A ploy like this seems like utter rubbish, but it's actually very useful indeed, at least for now. I even fell for it half a day ago."

The truth was, the game's purpose had already been achieved the moment it announced the contents of the updated version and all the living beings on the wasteland had not cast doubts on anything at all.

From the very beginning, the game grasped this point, decking itself out as a god and sending disasters for punishment—at the same time, creating a game function that made everyone struggle for survival.

Under these carrot-and-stick circumstances, all the living beings did not have the time or energy to question what the game actually was, why it was sending disasters, and why it had created a game panel. What was its purpose for doing this?

Of course, after three rounds of disasters, the game thought that its status had been firmly established. After making sure there were no other problems, it had begun to reveal its true nature.

It had deliberately released some false information about the God of the Ocean waking up and might even have given some other missions to the Five Royal Clans of the land-based foreign races, or the several flourishing, powerful human shelters.

People subconsciously believed in the game, so the players who thought they had received a covert mission would naturally want to seize the chance to lure out the God of the Ocean and obtain massive "rewards".

They would not choose to tell the others about their mission. Instead, they would charge ahead with their comrades and secretly go off to complete it.

That way, as long as the God of the Ocean could be found, the game would have achieved its purpose in transporting this batch of living creatures here!

"So, in a sense, I, Su Mo, who become the "God of Cooking" just a few minutes ago, am actually comrade-in-arms to the God of the Ocean who is still asleep—in fact, I need to protect him to make sure that he won't be found by someone else?"

The game and the rules of the golden light were actually very inflexible. In Su Mo's view, it was not something a creature of wisdom would do; it was more like a logical decision procedure that had been set up.

It was similar to the verification of the golden light earlier. It was obvious it had discovered something was very wrong in the Underground Shelter, but since Su Mo was shielded by the system and it could not detect anything wrong with the shelter's owner, it still overlooked the anomalies in the shelter, choosing to ignore them.

This had indicated that regardless of whether it was the game or the golden light, raining down punishment required a "stone hammer" of conclusive evidence!

Without this evidence, even if they discovered that there was a problem, they would not be able to break through logic limitations and implement another judgment approach.

Therefore, all the game had to do right now was to find that piece of evidence and break through the limits of its own logic.

The most important step in gaining this evidence was to find out where the God of the Ocean was.

As for the people who were just tools assisting in the whole process—the Five Royal Clans were not aware that the moment they found the God of the Ocean, they would probably face their deaths.

"A range of 500,000 kilometers, and 500,000 times increase in disasters. If I, this werewolf, reveal myself now, I'm afraid even the God of the Ocean won't survive either."

He recalled that just half a day ago, he was still thinking of sitting back and reaping third-party benefits. He wanted to wait for all the foreign races to strike first, and then it would be his turn to deal with the so-called "God of the Ocean". Once he had obtained the massive rewards, he would bring them with him to develop the new world.

In the end, half a day later, he had become comrade-in-arms to the God of the Ocean, who was in the same camp. Not only did they need to stick together, but he also had to do the part-time job of protecting this "sleeping beauty" from being discovered by the soldiers sent by the evil queen. Su Mo was amazed by this.

"That won't do. If I reveal myself as a traitor and the God of the Ocean dies, then if the God of the Ocean reveals himself to be a traitor, I'll die too.

"Two werewolves can be comrades under certain circumstances, but one would have to make sure that the other won't betray them.

"So, assuming that we're still alive after this disaster, what will I be thinking then, and what will he have in mind?"

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Chapter 296: Simulation, Mess It Up!

"How will he approach this situation?

"Will he think of opposing it? But if he could oppose it, he would have done so from the beginning and wouldn't have waited until now, right?"

"Or will he choose to continue hiding? But even if I can avoid worrying about him being discovered, will he be confident in my ability to hide myself as well?"

Su Mo sat on the floor, his brain working rapidly to analyze all the possible situations he would encounter when he met the God of the Ocean who was being hunted down by the humans, foreign races and even the game.

Situation A:

Both of them met each other. As the God of Cookery and the God of the Ocean were in the same boat, they trusted in each other and wanted to bring an end to the game's dictatorship.

For this to happen, the God of the Ocean had to be somewhat "simple-minded", who would not doubt the secrets that Su Mo kept hidden. Then both of them could join forces and strive to live an enriched life.

Situation B:

Both of them met each other. The God of the Ocean was way stronger than he was and, after the God of the Ocean discovered that Su Mo was a God, but a weak one, he became murderous and greedy, and wanted to swallow him up. However, he never expected Su Mo to have the system and various countermeasures prepared and, by the skin of his teeth, Su Mo killed the God of the Ocean instead.

Situation C:

Both of them met each other. The God of Ocean had become weak after sleeping for such a long time, but was a tricky character as he had lived for a long time. Due to their restraint and caution toward each other, both of them became brothers on the surface, but the God of Ocean always wanted to kill him secretly and to get rid of him, who knew the truth. Eventually, both of them would still have to fight with one another.

Situation D:

…

…

He thought of more than ten different scenarios where he would definitely not strike first, and the situations that might take place when he was facing the God of the Ocean.

Starting from the first scenario, to the last one, Su Mo made a statistical analysis:

The probability of both of them fighting was 92%.

The probability of both of them cooperating was 3%.

The probability of both of them fighting the moment they met, and the God of Ocean getting killed was 2%.

If they fought with each other, when the God of Ocean chose to reveal himself to the game as he was no match for Su Mo, the probability of both of them dying together was 2%.

The probability of Su Mo not being able to beat him, even with the help of the system, and being killed by the God of Ocean was 1%.

Five probable outcomes which included every possibility, that added up to a total of 100%.

Expressions, languages, and actions could deceive people.

Promises, oaths, and guarantees could be made null and void.

However, data could not!

Even if Su Mo had no idea about the personality and manner in which the God of the Ocean handled his affairs, knowing statistical analysis and probability theory could help Su Mo to make a full analysis of the situation that he was about to face in the future.

"There's a 3% probability that we'll work together, while there's a 97% probability that we'll end up fighting."

"Sigh, it looks like the game's decision to be a busybody isn't stupid one. It's a ploy."

"In this case, I don't even need to make a choice. It has already been decided for me."

He stood up, feeling the power that the strong, perfect new body and the magical food authority had brought upon him.

This time, Su Mo made another analysis again and removed the prerequisite of him not picking a fight first.

Su Mo analyzed every possibility statistically, honestly and wholeheartedly, and thought about how he would go about doing it.

This time, the variable scenarios that he had come up with finally increased.

There were twelve possibilities.

However, according to this data, regardless of the success rate of these scenarios, there was one data point that appeared to be extremely obtrusive, achieving a probability percentage of a hundred percent.

"It looks like, instead of figuring out whether the God of Ocean will strike the first blow, I should be thinking more about myself!"

He paused for a long time as he kneaded the paper where it was written that there was a 100% probability of them ending up fighting. He felt the power that was given by the authority once again. As Su Mo focused, the surrounding air seemed to blur instantly.

The perfect and strong body with the name "Yang Jian" disappeared on the spot, and the weak "Su Mo" who had been seriously injured not long ago reappeared.

A true hermit lived in seclusion on a crowded street.

Su Mo tried to open the game panel, and smiled after he discovered that every function was still usable and that there was nothing wrong with it.

Unlike the God of the Ocean, whose approximate location had been found, the game would be racking its brains not knowing that the Yang Jian, who had just become the God of Cookery, was standing right under its nose.

Moreover, with the system's assistance, Su Mo was confident that, even if the second identity's access rights were banned, there was a good chance that he could cover it up by paying some survival points.

"Interesting. So this is how it feels like to be an insider."

"But it's alright, the purpose of making this trip was to take a look in passing, and see if I had the opportunity to kill the God of the Ocean."

"What needs to be done now is not to stand behind and wait to take advantage of the situation, but to take the initiative to jump into the trap and be the first among all the competitors."

"And, since everyone refuses to make the first move, wanting to be the mantis stalking the cicada, then I'll let all of everyone's wishes come true by diving in headfirst."

"Regardless of whatever sh*t that ocean disaster throws at us, let's get everyone to look for the God of Ocean starting tomorrow!"

After thinking things through clearly, Su Mo made a bold decision in his mind that any creature who located the God of the Ocean before he did would have to die.

If the situation was stable, then these people would probably locate the exact location of the God of Ocean with the clues given by the game.

However, if everything was chaotic, then everyone had to rely on their own capabilities to locate the God of the Ocean.

Speaking about this…

Su Mo focused his thoughts and opened the friends list panel, sending Chen Shen a message that it was okay to open the door again. In the meantime, Su Mo was making preparations before he took any action; he paced back and forth examining the attributes of the remaining items in the room.

The remaining items were two rare-quality items, which were a lamp and a foldable recliner chair respectively.

Both items were miscellaneous items, and could not be compared to actual productivity tools. However, as rare-quality items, their attributes were pretty remarkable.

The former item could absorb any light, from firelight to sunlight, up to a maximum capacity of one hundred and fifty thousand lumens, and could provide lighting for up to three hours.

If this item was installed on the ship while sailing the seas, regardless of whether it was used to provide illumination during warfare at sea, or used as a temporary lighthouse during emergencies, it was pretty useful.

This item seemed to be useful at first glance, but had its own usage restrictions and limitations.

Like the traditional large lamps, this rare-quality lamp had a terrible limitation…

It was a fixed installation.

This lamp that could serve as a lighthouse had to be fixed in position to be used and, once it was fixed in place, 1000 disaster points had to be spent to move it again.

It was this limitation that held the lamp back from being able to serve as a unique portable "tool", reducing its value and usage.

As for the foldable reclining chair, it was even more impractical.

After unfolding it, once someone laid down on the chair, the recliner chair would enter into its automatic adjustment mode.

In this mode, the temperature, humidity, light intensity, UV intensity, and other external factors within two meters of the chair would be adjusted, transforming that area into the most conducive environment for one to rest in.

Within this environment, the body of the person resting would gain a certain amount of increased physical recovery speed.

However, in Su Mo's opinion, this buff deserved to be called as:

Better than nothing!

"I've got the Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll for my body recovery, and I've got the psychic energy water for my mental recovery. Perhaps I can try to upgrade this recliner chair if I have extra points to do so."

"I'll take all of them. No one in the village is going to use them anyway!"

To take the items that had been sealed away would have been a troublesome undertaking for the others, but for Su Mo, he only had to inform Chen Shen and have him update the inventory when he went back.

He placed both rare items into his storage space. As for the remaining excellent-quality items, Su Mo was not interested in them.

At this point, excellent-quality items were no longer tempting to him.

As long as it was not a useful or functional item, even if the item was of excellent-quality, its effects and attributes were insufficient to catch Su Mo's eye.

He roughly glanced past them as he saw Chen Shen, who had an anxious expression on his face, climbing down the stairs. Su Mo put down the things that he was holding and stepped forward to welcome him.

"Brother Su, are you alright, the…"

"I'm fine. I'm taking the black pot, recliner chair, and the lamp. Record it down after this."

Su Mo waved his arms and looked at Chen Shen, who seemed to have something to say. Su Mo smiled, and patted the shoulder of this tanned-skin, innocent-looking fellow, and did not explain anything.

The matter of the wasteland authority was truly the biggest secret of this world.

In Su Mo's heart, if the system was ranked number one, then the wasteland authority would definitely be ranked as number two.

Possessing authority meant becoming a major shareholder of this world.

There was no need for him to tell anyone about it. Under Su Mo's protection, all the humans would rebuild their homes in this wasteland peacefully.

However, if they encountered any mistakes in the process.

Su Mo would still have a chance to survive under the protection of the mysterious system, but the others, including all the foreign creatures…

There was no chance for them to survive!

Leaving this secret unsaid, after he recalled that he was about to do something crazy, Su Mo laughed again and said,

"Chen Shen, look at these three doors. What do they represent?"

"Ah?"

He had been mentally prepared for Su Mo not going to explain himself, so once he was questioned by Su Mo, Chen Shen was startled, and then leaned his head closer.

"What does the door… represent?"

"Safety?" Once he said that, he suddenly thought that Su Mo would not have asked a question with such a simple answer, so he changed his answer again.

"It represents a secret!"

"No? It represents the path to another floor perhaps?"

"…"

He gave four to five answers at once, but after he noticed that there were no changes in Su Mo's smiling expression, Chen Shen's face turned bitter.

"Brother Su, what does it actually represent? Aren't they just three doors, or could they somehow be weapons?"

"Hahaha, relax. Think about it again. What if I close all these doors? This time let us switch positions, I'll be on top, and you down below!"

As they continued their deep and meaningful dialogue, Su Mo watched Chen Shen's pondering expression take an unexpected turn…

"I'm down below?"

"Brother Su is on top?"

"Brother Su is on top of me (;д;)?"

Once Su Mo noticed Chen Shen's expression and tone was getting strange, he realized the problem in his words.

However, it was not a big deal. After he repeated the words a few more times, and connected the words with what had happened just now, Chen Shen's eyes suddenly brightened up.

"I know, the three doors are barriers."

"The people on top cannot see or hear and are unaware of what actually happened down there."

"The same goes to the people down there!"

"The door cuts off the transmission of information, so if the people on top want to find out about the information down there, they have to open the door to take a look, while the people down there…"

Chen Shen lifted his head and looked at the three heavy iron gates, and then shook his head.

"Then let me ask you something else. What if someone wants to tear down all the three doors?"

"What will happen after all three doors are removed?"

Su Mo shook his head as he stared at the three heavy iron gates. Without giving Chen Shen the time to answer, he climbed up first.

Thud…

Thud…

The soles of the combat uniform's boots were thick and hard, which made his steps echo as he stepped on the rail.

A little while after Su Mo climbed up and walked out, there were no longer any click-clacking echoes in the storage room.

However, this time the door was not closed and the lights in the cave could still be seen through the passageway.

While it lit up the darkness below, it also indicated the way up at the same time.

Surprisingly, even though Su Mo had already walked out of the cave and returned to the big platform, Chen Shen, who was waiting down below, stood still on the stop, as if he was bewitched. His eyes were full of astonishment!

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Chapter 297: Awakening, Ten Days in a Flash!

In history, people who followed the general trend guarded the country.

Those who went against the trend fought against it.

However, apart from these two groups of people, there was still another group. These people were unique. Their appearance could set off a series of events that would lead to momentous changes.

They would not play by the rules of the game, nor would they adhere to any traditions.

Must all revolutionaries have blue blood?

They would flip the tables on the rules!

In Chen Shen's eyes, Su Mo's actions always made him seem like he belonged to the group of people fighting against the country. He was the kind of person who could become extremely ruthless or very calm, without a flaw, depending on who he was facing. He was one who was able to read and adapt to the times.

Su Mo was merciless and ruthless when it came to enemies, but down-to-earth and approachable to his own people. He could even squat down among a group of refugees and have the same bowl of noodles with them.

From the time Su Mo rescued him, Chen Shen knew that he was a kind man; a good guy.

As Su Mo's follower, he did not have to be afraid of being excellent and getting thrown aside like a weed when his role was complete..

But now…

Chen Shen was stunned when he sensed that Su Mo seemed to exude a sense of madness from head to toe!

His memory and knowledge of the wasteland made it impossible for him to comprehend what had happened in this storage room that made Su Mo change like this within just a short hour.

Dismantling doors and barriers?

Although Chen Shen could not understand what Su Mo was about to do, a crazy feeling told him that if he succeeded…

The situation on the wasteland would undergo a drastic shift!

The past would be gone forever…

And humankind would welcome a new chapter!

Was this a bad thing?

After being stunned momentarily, Chen Shen shook his head, nodded again, and walked up the staircase with heavy thoughts weighing on his mind.

Clomp…

Clomp…

Chen Shen's steps were so heavy that, as he climbed up the stairs, there was a resounding echo in the storage room below.

He made his way to the top of the stairs. A single step would take him outside, but he paused when he looked toward the storage room below.

Looking at the door that was left ajar, there was a sudden glimmer of understanding in his eyes.

"It turns out…that we are actually on the lower level. I am,and so is Brother Su…"

"What he wants to do is actually…"

Dong!

One step forward and Chen Shen's shoes made a muffled noise that echoed throughout the cave, which was not something unusual.

However, if anyone were to lock eyes with Chen Shen at that moment, they would surely see the undisguised madness within which signified…

A wild ambition!

…

On the other hand, Su Mo knew nothing about the change in Chen Shen's heart and attitude. The further he walked out from the cave, the more passionate he became.

As the saying goes—heroes emerge during troubled times!

It had been exactly a month since he arrived on this wasteland that was devoid of all rules. Su Mo's desire to live as an ordinary person and have a stable life had quickly disappeared alongside it.

"Pushing a door open was not as exhilarating as breaking it down. It's only been a month since we arrived on this doomsday wasteland and yet a clear structure is about to be established."

"Ordinary people who don't understand or are unaware of the truth are being coerced and led by those thieves and villains with ulterior motives to die in the middle of the battlefield."

"But these stupid thieves are also being coerced and led by the game to embark on this deadly path."

"Given the lack of information, I'm afraid that these people won't even know how they died. It's better to cause an uproar than for things to stay like this."

"At least everyone will be aware of the truth and dangers surrounding the wasteland…"

"The game can issue missions to control humans and foreign races. It's not impossible for me, Su Mo…to do the same!"

During troubled times, this small shelter seemed to be able to protect oneself and one's family.

However…

No one could escape from the calamity that would befall the larger group.

If these waves of natural disasters were natural occurrences and happened due to uncontrollable factors, then building a shelter was truly the best choice.

However, after discovering that these disasters were instigated by people with ulterior motives to force humankind to complete their so-called important tasks…

Every human being living in this wasteland would live as if carrying invisible heavy shackles on their necks, struggling to survive.

Despite how powerful these people might become in the future, if these shackles were not removed, it was only a matter of time before these shackles "took shape".

In the end, they would still be a "prisoner" of the game.

"The shelter…"

"To me, an underground shelter is a place for me to settle down but, to the people in Hope Village and to my family, I'm afraid that I am…"

"Their shelter!"

"As long as I'm strong enough, their shackles will come off the moment I tear mine off of my own neck."

"If humankind wants to survive in this wasteland, it's not about competing on who has the stronger shelter, nor on the pace of development of science and technology. It's not even about who can be the last one standing…"

"What humankind needs is to rise above."

"It's about having someone who will rise above like a righteous thief!"

Wow!

As he stepped out of the gloomy cave, the scene in front of him suddenly became clear at once.

The sky was still the same.

The sun was still the same.

Everything was the same as before and nothing had changed but, in Su Mo's eyes, this world was suddenly bigger.

He had to try and decipher the rules of the three-dimensional universe and their beings, along with other "ancient gods" lurking silently in the wasteland.

One would have full power over the wasteland when all the various rules hidden between heaven and earth fell into one's hands.

Compared to living an empty and vague existence, the thought of competing with the gods, fighting against the game, and discovering all the hidden secrets made Su Mo's blood rush.

At the same time, looking at the small hills above the Underground Shelter, Su Mo's eyes seemed like they were traveling through time as he envisioned what this piece of land would look like in the future.

With the current advantage that they possessed, it was not difficult to build an underground shelter that could protect dozens of people.

However, as the situation worsened, and with the knowledge he had about future disasters and occurrences…

Su Mo's thoughts changed.

"As long as I gain more survival points, the speed of my development will surely be unimaginable to this freaking game!"

"In the future, not only will I build a super underground city that can accommodate hundreds of thousands of people, but even on this land I will construct the infrastructure and defenses required to recreate the prosperous and magnificent era back on Earth!"

"When the time comes and my strength has matured, I'll take you down in battle, stupid game!"

Clenching his fist as he stood on the cliff, Su Mo had even more thoughts swirling around in his head.

At the same time, Su Mo already had a rough plan for the crazy things that he was planning to accomplish.

This plan was crazy; so crazy to the point that, once it unfolded, the new world would become the base of operations for humankind to completely stand in opposition to the game.

However, for now, they were still very far from falling out with the game.

Therefore, it was best to insincerely cater to the game for now and utilize its various functions to slowly develop within this wasteland.

After some thinking, and realizing that this matter required thorough consideration, Su Mo did not act rashly. He kept it in the depths of his heart and stopped thinking about it.

He went down the mountain, gave orders to the leaders, and took the mining team to extract some saltpeter.

After communicating with Connie the Lioness for a little while and discovering that the foreign races had no new plans or changes, Su Mo strode back to the base in a mood completely different from when he arrived.

While he had become the God of Cookery and minor shareholders of this wasteland, these slight changes did not greatly affect the overall plan for the situation.

Those humans who were supposed to gather would come together and the foreign races who should escort them would do so. Before seeing his sister, Su Mo chose to keep a low profile to ensure that no unexpected trouble would occur because of him.

Once the mining team collected enough saltpeter, the production of ammunition and weapons would enter a stable state.

Before the disaster struck, despite the undercurrents surging in the wasteland, this small kingdom under Su Mo's authority was still peaceful and stable without the interruption of outsiders.

Time began to pass slowly as Su Mo stayed dormant.

One day, two days, three days, four days…

Time went by very slowly. During his days in the Underground Shelter, Su Mo went out less frequently. He would stay in the shelter all day without stepping foot outside.

Apart from the time when the Hope Village cooks came to deliver his meals on time every day, to the other villagers, it was almost as if Su Mo had disappeared or gone missing.

Of course, as the disaster approached day by day, the thought of what Su Mo was "busy" with did not occur to those busy villagers either.

During the daytime, the villagers of Hope Village would work on constructing disaster-resistant facilities and continue sorting out certain details to ensure that no mishaps would occur during the ocean disaster.

In the evening, a public "trial" would be held. The bad guys from Zeus Shelter were tried according to the crimes they committed to show and warn the villagers of the seriousness of the matter.

Meals were not something they were worried about, and they were even sheltered from the wind and rain. As long as they worked on time every day, they could live comfortably.

Compared to the people on the World Channel who were living hurried and unpredictable lives, not only did these villagers have fulfilling lives, but they were also satisfied.

However, the one thing that gave them the most hope was…

The "metal monstrosity" that was taking shape rapidly!

Every day after they woke up, it became a compulsory activity for all the villagers to stand on the side of the cliff and gaze from afar at the construction progress of the destroyer.

Everyone ate large, white steamed buns as they watched, and even when the side dishes were not even served, the sight of the giant warship was in itself a "tasty meal". It was even good enough to be "eaten" as a side dish!

When they were exhausted from the day's work and accidentally glanced at the destroyer, their bodies would immediately be imbued with a wave of enthusiasm to get their work done and quickly dive into the next construction project.

As for the construction speed of the tireless robot workers, after passing the initial phase of "hull construction", things slowly turned extreme.

It took about 3 minutes for the furnace to create a steel plate, while the robot workers only took one and a half minutes to assemble them.

The furnace could only produce over 400 steel plates in a day, but the mechanics only needed 13 hours to complete the assembly work.

For this reason, at the cost of sacrificing the durability of the furnace, Su Mo chose to run the furnace non-stop, pushing its output to its limits, and used survival points to repair the durability loss caused.

As a result, the production rate of the steel plates finally climbed again, reaching 600 pieces a day.

The increased efficiency and speed meant that it only took 6 days and, when there were still 11 days left until the arrival of the disaster, the ship's overall structure could be observed within the scaffolding. It was already 70% complete!

At this point, the overall shape of the destroyer was set.

"This is a battleship in the shape of a destroyer…!"

After the first experienced villager came to this conclusion, all the villagers gradually began to comprehend what a destroyer and battleship meant.

However, the more they comprehended, the more astonished the villagers became.

Everyone had complete confidence that they could ride on this ship through the oceans and into the new world when the ocean disaster struck.

If such an awesome destroyer like this could not make it through the disaster, how could any of the others survive?

As they maintained their enthusiasm and work efficiency, when the tenth day arrived and seven days before the disaster, the destroyer finally reached its final step of construction.

The robot workers only needed to put and install the steel plates in place before they could officially enter the second stage of the shipbuilding.

The refinement testing stage!

Chapter 298: Ribbon-cutting Ceremony, The Result of Ten Days of Hard Work

"Hurry up and get up now, you guys! It's almost 6 o'clock and you're all still fast asleep!"

"If one person is late and left behind, everyone will not get to have breakfast!"

Early that morning, Qi Qin was knocking on a big gong that came from nowhere as he yelled loudly.

However, the villagers today surprisingly had no complaints at all.

Everyone got up in excitement despite not wearing anything after they heard the gong.

Yesterday, there was moderate rain in the basin area which brought much-needed relief after the dry spell that had gone on for many days. At the same time, the rain cooled the surrounding air.

When it rained, the construction work on the destroyer proceeded as per normal, given that it was all automated, but the construction work in the village had to be put on hold.

Fortunately, as everyone's enthusiasm for work was excellent over the past few days, Hope Village's first construction stage was completed ahead of schedule. After consulting Su Mo, all the villagers were given some time off work.

Their rest lasted for a day.

Should they even be allowed to get a day off in the wasteland?

It sounded a little weird at first, but when Chen Shen gathered everyone together and announced the shocking news, everyone was stunned!

The working hours in Hope Village were set at 12 hours.

They had to wake up at seven in the morning to wash up, and start eating at seven-thirty. The team leaders were responsible for announcing the tasks while everyone was having their meals. At eight o'clock sharp, they would start working.

Six hours later, at two o'clock, it was time for lunch and rest, which lasted for a total of one and a half hours.

They would resume working again at three-thirty until six-thirty. By then, they would have dinner for half an hour. After that, they would continue working up until ten o'clock and call it a day.

There would be three meals a day, and every meal was guaranteed to include vegetables and steamed buns. From time to time, in the afternoon, they would be served noodles.

Everyone was eating consistently. As for the taste of the food, even the old glutton Su Mo savored it every time the cook sent food over, so not much more needed to be said.

In addition to the meals they were given, when the weather in the wasteland was "good", soup was prepared for relieving heat.

On cooler days, they would pick up the soup themselves, but if the temperature was high, the cook would deliver them once every three hours to ensure that no one would suffer from a heatstroke.

It had only been ten days since they moved to Hope Village, yet compared to their previous malnourished selves, the villagers' physical fitness had shown a huge improvement that was even visible to the naked eye. They looked nothing like the refugees they were before!

Of course, given that the workers only got to eat and live without wages, if this scenario played out on Earth, it would surely be criticized as a black-hearted capitalist system.

However, in this wasteland, compared to the 14 or 16-hour work system of other shelters that also had to ration their food…

Hope Village was heaven!

It was not the holiday alone that got everyone excited. What was even more exciting was the second news announced by Chen Shen…

The destroyer's ribbon-cutting ceremony!

The destroyer would officially be completed tomorrow morning and would progress to the testing stage after.

Although the destroyer was still in its prototype stage, and it could only be seen but not used, the villagers were unaware of the specifics.

It was said that a red silk ribbon was to be hung and cut for the ceremony, and they could even personally enter the destroyer and take a look around after that.

At this moment, older folks who were in their fifties, and teenagers who were seventeen or eighteen, all went crazy once the meeting was adjourned!

They had initially arranged for afternoon naps when they heard about the day off, but now everyone shelved those plans upon hearing the news. The moment they returned to their residences, everyone regardless of gender went to one location…

Hope Village's water distribution point!

Water was a controlled resource. Whether it was water from the melted snow or rainwater, it was a precious resource in the wasteland.

Every villager in Hope Village had a weekly quota.

16L!

This water did not only include the water used for washing, but also included their daily drinking water.

If they used it up before the next distribution, they had no choice but to find someone who would lend it to them, or go thirsty until they could drink their fill of soup when mealtime came.

However, today, without exception, everyone put some drinking water aside and drew out all their remaining water supplies.

They did their laundry!

They took a bath!

The dirt on their bodies had been washed clean!

The villagers' clothes had never been washed since they came to the wasteland because there was no change of clothes.

Apart from Zhong Qingshu, ordinary villagers, and even the leadership team had strong body odor.

On this day off, although the rain outside just stopped, the sun was not out yet and it was probably impossible for the clothes to dry in time. Despite that, everyone was not discouraged, and they started moving quickly.

As time went by and afternoon came along, the pavilion on the large platform was covered with colorful clothes. It looked unusual at first glance.

It looked like a beautiful painting from a distance.

As for taking baths, things were even simpler.

They would go to the bottom of the mountain, gather some clean snowflakes, add some water that they drew out, and pay a little from their quota to heat the water.

As they sat in the hot water, the smell and dirt from their bodies were washed away in a matter of just ten minutes.

They did not even need to worry about where the remaining water would go after the bath.

When the water cooled down a little, they would put the bucket in their storage spaces and take it to the vegetable field at the foot of the mountain to water them. It was the perfect cycle!

This busyness lasted until the afternoon meal was finished. At around eight o'clock in the evening, everyone returned home and began to prepare for sleep.

Naturally, when they were woken up at six in the morning, they were not grumpy at all.

…

On the other side, in the Underground Shelter, Su Mo got up bright and early as well on this joyous day and started washing up and eating.

After all of this was done, it was already eight o'clock in the morning. The daily system announcement came on time.

"Hey, there's a good gain of survival points today, about 1500 points…"

"…my current balance of survival points now…"

"…28,000 points…"

As he sat on the sofa, after seeing his survival points balance that was close to 30,000 points, Su Mo, who was known for being as cool as a cucumber, still inevitably showed that he felt moved.

Throughout these ten days, Su Mo was seen as the one rushing to work all day and managing the construction work of the destroyer around the clock with no time to rest.

However, everyone, including Chen Shen, did not know that it was not Su Mo who sat in the shipyard's control room every day, but that it was the…robot workers!

An intelligent robot was a trump card, but at the same time a constraint.

It was best to keep it hidden.

To the villagers, the terrifying efficiency and productivity of the robot workers would not inspire them, but rather make them feel as if they were going to be replaced.

Su Mo could have dealt with those fears, but with so many things on hand, it was more convenient to keep it hidden.

Apart from these, the other things remained similar to the people's guesses. With the help of the robot workers, although Su Mo was not busy in the shipyard, he was not idle in the shelter either.

The trade with Tundra Shelter was completed on the third day.

Five machine guns, ten rifles, and twenty handguns.

30,000 rounds of machine-gun bullets, 10,000 rounds of rifle bullets, 5,000 rounds of pistol bullets, and ten packs of powerful explosives.

Considering that this was such a terrifyingly large expense, were it not for Su Mo's superb "acting skills" that endlessly emphasized the importance and urgency of acquiring a radar system within ten days…

The people in Tundra Shelter would have never believed that they managed to obtain this much super equipment just by paying the price for a fire-control radar blueprint and an ordinary collision avoidance navigator radar blueprint.

With these ammunition and weapons, let alone the odd few foreign race attacks, even if there was an entire group of thousands of them, when these machine guns were strategically placed and utilized on a battlefront, it would be game over for the attackers.

With the two blueprints on hand, the radar manufacturing process was no longer a problem.

After Su Mo's numerous reminders, the version for the two blueprints that he obtained was not the latest one, but rather the old-fashioned radar systems that were active on ships in the 1980s instead.

This kind of radar had lost most of its functionality in newer and more modern ships, but on this wasteland, it had an irreplaceable advantage:

The structure was simple, the materials were abundant, and it was easy to maintain!

Besides, after knowing that Su Mo was merely a layman, the personnel who drew the blueprints was extremely considerate.

It was more of a manual than it was a blueprint!

As long as he assembled them according to the specifications, accurate to the millimeter, in the manual and replicated them, the two radars could be put into use in no time!

With that, on the seventh day, by relying on LCD TV's error correction function, he managed to handcraft most of the larger components, using the system to supplement the creation of the more technical components, in addition to acquiring some smaller components from the trading market. In the end, he managed to create…

The two radars!

Over the next three days, after completing the radar manufacturing, Su Mo hurriedly proceeded to the program configuration process.

Starting the destroyer was not as simple as turning on the engine, transferring the power, holding the steering wheel, and stepping on the accelerator.

An 80-meter-long ship like this required complex controls for multiple systems. If one segment was left out, the ship would not move.

Without a proper operating system, the ship would be rendered helpless. Even if Su Mo gathered up the hundreds of untrained villagers to help, it would be of no use.

Therefore, over the remaining three days, his survival points balance began to fall like flowing water.

After becoming the god of cookery, the system would likely reward him with 20,000 points, which would allow his survival points balance to exceed 40,000 points.

In addition to the thousands of points he received over these ten days, he should have over 50,000 points.

However, Su Mo was not willing to spend such a huge amount of survival points.

It was not expensive to directly create a finished product without its technological components. The time fuze that detonated the explosives was one example. It only required two points per minute of the timer.

But if it involved technical expertise, like creating a destroyer with its corresponding operating system, it required a whopping 100,000 points.

Even if Su Mo tried outsourcing the functions of the destroyer's operating system to the villagers, gathering people and making teams of them responsible for a single module, and then finally using the system to change all the backdoors and connecting them into a system that worked for the destroyer, it would still cost a whole 40,000 points!

In desperation and seeing a large number of points required, Su Mo had to draw on inspiration and personally undergo programming training in the system's training ground to replace the system's transformation process and save costs, and later maintenance expenses.

It would cost 20,000 points.

However, after undergoing a serious amount of training, Su Mo's programming level reached an all-time high.

As he started to modify and improve these systems on the destroyer, he was in his element.

Within only three days, the operating system responsible for the fire-control radar and the collision avoidance navigator radar were modified.

The most important part of the ship's automatic navigation progress reached 90%. All that was left was to finish the ribbon-cutting ceremony, work overtime at night, and the ship would be ready the next day.

"Seven days left. We need to get moving…"

"…tomorrow at the latest, I have to set up all the underlying circuitry, install the engine and all the systems, as well as commence the first round of testing."

The daily system announcement was closed, and the storage space was opened.

When he saw that the faintly blue Divulgence of Heaven's Secret talisman was fully-charged, Su Mo's gaze turned serious, and he quickly had an idea in mind!

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Chapter 299: Divulgence of Heaven's Secret, Three Experiment Chances!

Ship launching was both a ceremony and a challenge at the same time.

Putting aside the various dockside trials that would be conducted on modern warships, even common fisherman boats would undergo a series of tests before entering the water.

From the leak test to the inclining test, and even the test for the operating system's bugs—there would be a technical specialist who would conduct the test and make the necessary modifications.

These tests were very important. If the vessel failed even one test, it was entirely possible for it to fall apart when encountering a situation that exceeded the tested parameters.

However, it was truly unfortunate it was not possible, given the wasteland's situation, to conduct any of these tests!

Setting aside the dockside trials for Su Mo's 80-meter destroyer, even if it was a small rowboat just a few meters long, there was still no body of water for him to conduct the sea trials.

When the ocean emerged, everyone would only have one chance. If they did not succeed, they would have lost that chance.

Of course, to regular people, it would not be a big issue if the boat they made sank so long as they reformatted the shelter core; they could still try to cross the ocean to the new world by using the core to make a raft.

To Su Mo, however, if the destroyer sank… Putting aside all the materials and effort he would have wasted, just considering the time spent, he simply could not allow it to fail!

Still, it was fortunate that despite the Divulgence of Heaven's Secret talisman taking such a long time to recover, it had recovered to its peak state two days ago, and he could utilize it anytime to simulate the disaster.

Moreover, because Su Mo was becoming more and more famous throughout the wasteland—even becoming very famous among the foreign races—his level of influence in the wasteland world was soaring by the day.

Aside from the two levels of authority he had previously unlocked, the third was also displayed now.

Gathering his concentration, the system's appraisal light automatically showed the complete properties of the Divulgence of Heaven's Secret he brought back.

[Divulgence of Heaven's Secret (One and Only)]

[Description: A mysterious talisman. Only after discovering the special activation method can one discover its secrets.]

[Current holder: Su Mo (bound)]

[Function: Currently unlocked the first, second and third levels of authority.]

[First level of authority: The Divulgence of Heaven's Secret has the power to break through the shackles of knowledge. Based on the current disaster and direction of development of the wasteland world, it can predict the events of the next disaster. The accuracy of the prediction depends on the level of influence that the player has on the world. (Current influence: 3.946%)]

[Second level of authority: If a situation occurs that would interfere with the judgment of the Divulgence of Heaven's Secret while it is predicting a disaster, it will automatically erupt with all of its energy, pulling the player into the prediction of the disaster event and conducting an on-site simulation. The intensity and timespan of the simulation depends on the influence that the player has on the world.]

[Third level of authority: Once its energy is fully-charged, the player can enter the Divulgence of Heaven's Secret's simulation world and choose to exit at will before receiving any fatal injuries within it. The remaining energy value will be retained (the energy value will not be restored before the remaining energy is used up).]

[Energy acquisition: The source of the Divulgence of Heaven's Secret's energy comes from the influence that the holder has on the world. The greater the influence, the greater the speed of its energy recovery and size of its energy reserve. On the other hand, when the player dies, the Divulgence of Heaven's Secret will automatically burst and change its holder.]

[Current energy: 9/9]

Compared to how entering it once would use up all the energy, even when the energy reserves were full, things have become a lot more convenient after the third level of authority was unlocked.

"If one portion of energy can allow free exploration for an hour, it would probably be better to explore three hours at a time, divided into three sessions in total."

"The sea trials, weapon status tests, and combat maneuvering tests all have to be carried out simultaneously."

"If there's a chance, I have to find out the data on the ship's limit as well!"

He had three chances to test. Each was very precious.

Given the remaining seven days in the wasteland if, for one test, it took one day to conduct the tests and sort out the improvement plan, and then another day to modify the ship according to the improvement plan, then he would ideally require a total of six days for the three test sessions.

Once this process was completed, if there were no other surprises, then there would only be a day left to make the final preparations.

Compared to the small wooden boats the others were constructing, for the destroyer, time was already very…

Tight!

Waving his hand to place the Divulgence of Heaven's Secret talisman back into the storage space, Su Mo stood up and strode over to the armory.

Ribbon-cutting ceremonies on Earth were mostly for show.

However, in the wasteland, it was something that attracted the attention of the villagers, and was something that could greatly increase their collective sense of belonging and pride.

Hence, when Chen Shen asked about it, Su Mo agreed to this request without second thought.

At 8.40 in the morning, wasteland time…

After Su Mo had put on his combat uniform and armor, he opened the shelter doors while holding the spear and arrived in front of the shipyard, where all the villagers had gathered around, curiously evaluating the giant object in front of them.

As of today, after the destroyer's structure had been completely assembled according to the blueprint design, it had entered the final stages of construction.

Regardless of whether it was the command room above the deck, the layout of the rooms below, or the hold, all of it had been completed within these few days.

Even some of the general furnishings had been installed thanks to the robot workers' "dedication".

Aside from a few important rooms—such as the main captain's room, the main energy room, and the bridge—which were still empty awaiting Su Mo's personal touch, even if all the villagers were moved in now, there would be no problem at all!

In terms of appearance, under Su Mo's modification, based on the idea of creating the thickest sheet of "armor" to withstand the most vicious assault, the Tier 3 destroyer had completely departed from the traditional destroyer's "shadow".

Equipped with a special steel plate that was half a meter thick, the overall elegant and streamlined shape of the traditional destroyer had completely disappeared and had been replaced by the stable structure of a battleship!

Moreover, in terms of height, because he was afraid that the enemies below could use special abilities to climb up onto the ship, Su Mo had altered the height of the ship to the maximum allowable within the blueprint design…

21 meters!

It had to be said that, using the current Tier 3 destroyer's length of 80 meters to calculate the ratio, the actual height of the ship should have stood at around 16 meters, under reasonable circumstances.

After it entered the water, that height would be reduced to 11 to 13 meters above sea level.

However, now that Su Mo had increased its height by a full five meters, the difference between the ship and the destroyer could clearly be seen from its structure.

Of course, if a cannon with a caliber of several hundred millimeters could be installed on the main deck, once the ship sailed out, calling it a battleship would not be an exaggeration at all!

A distance away, when he saw Su Mo walk out, Chen Shen—who had been waiting at the entrance of the Underground Shelter—strode over joyfully as he shouted.

"Brother Su, today is a great day for our Hope Village. Everyone is here; not a single person is missing."

"The moment all the villagers heard they were to attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony, many people couldn't sleep last night just waiting for this."

The celebration's ribbon-cutting was going to happen at 9am.

At this moment, on the destroyer, a wooden staircase that had been hastily built was already mounted on the deck.

On the staircase rails, a celebratory red ribbon had been hung, giving off a festive feel.

At the very front of the stairs, there was an arch that was painted red.

The arch was not large. It was just enough to fit two people walking through it side-by-side, but now, because of the ribbon-cutting ceremony, a red ribbon like a finishing line hung horizontally across it.

The standards of the entire ceremony were, in this wasteland, already considered to be extravagant.

"Sigh, I say, Chen Shen. Has the excitement gone to your head? So much red cloth—you've wasted this much on decorating?"

Glancing at the red cloth hanging on the staircase as well as the eye-catching red on the destroyer's railing, Su Mo's gaze sharpened, and there was not a bit of happiness in his tone.

Though he was met with this expression, Chen Shen was not frantic. He took a few steps over to Su Mo's side, then continued speaking.

"Brother Su, it isn't that we're wasting money. This red cloth was a steal on the trading market. We didn't spend much money on it."

"Yesterday, everyone was clamoring about washing clothes. Only after washing did we realize we didn't have any clothes to wear, so I thought about it."

"Why don't we go onto the trading market and buy some red cloth? Once the celebration is over, we can take the cloth down and give everyone in the village a change of clothes. Two birds with one stone!"

Rubbing his head and unable to see Su Mo's expression beneath his mask, Chen Shen laughed awkwardly.

Of course Su Mo would have asked about such an obvious "extravagance". Hence, before he arrived, Chen Shen had already prepared these words in advance.

However, he was still worried about whether or not his explanation would be accepted.

For other leaders, on a day like this, they definitely would not blame him.

But for Su Mo, who did not follow the script at all…

Turning his head and seeing the slight worry in Chen Shen's gaze, Su Mo pulled down his mask and smiled helplessly.

"Just this once. Next time you do something wasteful like this, I'll deduct the cost directly from your portion!"

To say that everybody lacked clothing… With the current incredible probability of clothes appearing in treasure chests, as well as the low price of the clothes, buying them directly from the trading market would definitely have been much cheaper than this red cloth.

This little speech of Chen Shen's might have been able to fool others, but it definitely could not fool Su Mo who went to check out the trading market every day.

"Next time, next time definitely!"

Seeing Su Mo's knowing smile, Chen Shen's expression relaxed and his nervousness disappeared.

"Brother Su, it's about time now. Shall we begin?"

"Okay! Let's get this done. I have to run tests on the ship a few times. Time is of the essence!"

Patting Chen Shen's shoulder as if to confirm the commencement of the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the two of them walked toward the destroyer.

The place the ribbon-cutting ceremony was being held was around 800 meters away from the Underground Shelter.

Because he had arrived at 8 in the morning, the ceremony had not officially started yet either.

It was casual. Upon seeing the villagers' high spirits, the leadership did not make the villagers line up in silence either.

As such, the villagers were a little scattered and chattered, extremely excited.

"F*ck me, the ship Almighty Su built is so big. When I saw it from Iron Rock Mountain, it didn't seem that big, but looking at it from here, I'm dizzy just looking at it."

"I heard that traveling on the ocean is rocky. Won't we be dizzy standing on such a large ship?"

"Dizzy? If you get dizzy on such a large ship, then would you not be even dizzier if it was a small wooden raft instead?"

"My goodness, I've never even been on a ship throughout this lifetime, even on Earth. I never thought that I'd still have the chance to travel on a warship upon arriving at this wasteland!"

"When the ocean emerges and Almighty Su sails this warship, our Hope Village can become famous too!"

80 meters long, 21 meters tall…

Only when one stood in front of a ferocious metal monstrosity like this could one feel how small humans truly were.

Behind the crowd who came to watch the ceremony, Connie the Lioness also stood along with the two remaining lion people.

Unlike the villagers' excitement, to foreign races, a "steel beast" like this was a serious transcendental problem.

Putting aside the two regular lion people, even Connie, who was part of the Council, was a little dazed.

When they had chosen to join Su Mo previously, it had just been on impulse.

Over these past few days, Connie had thought about it numerous times as well, and would sometimes even felt a little regretful.

Having their core bound by Su Mo meant they had their chariot fully chained to his.

If Su Mo was strong, the lion people could still rise one day.

If Su Mo suddenly died, the lion people would follow him to the grave.

With this kind of psychological pressure, Connie could not sleep well and was often startled from nightmares.

Today, however, when she saw the two lion people next to her shouting in excitement and praising themselves for their foresight, Connie suddenly felt as if she had been overly anxious.

Old Devil Su was so strong—once he sails his ship on the ocean, he could send everyone to the new world. What was she worrying about?

'I really am… worrying unnecessarily!'

Still, before Connie could open her mouth to scold the lion people beside her and tell them to calm down so that they did not look as if they had been stuck at the bottom of a well, a commotion started up among the crowd at the front.

"Almighty Su is here!"

"The leader is here! Quiet!"

"Hurry up and line up, the ceremony is about to start!"

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Chapter 300: One Cut! Slicing Open The Future!

Dressed in silvery gray armor, and a combat uniform lined with pure black, Su Mo held a spear in hand.

The villagers had not seen Su Mo in full combat attire more than a few times. Suddenly seeing it now instantly caused a commotion.

His handsome face paired with this outfit—if he could get himself a white horse, he would be a living doomsday-version of "Zhao Zilong".

This appearance not only made all the female villagers in Hope Villager drool, but it even made a few male villagers who had dreams of being a hero feel their blood start pumping.

All of them had once been young!

All of them had once harbored childish high school dreams of superiority!

This uniform of a general on the battlefield would definitely be the focus of the crowd even in a cosplay exhibition on Earth, let alone the wasteland.

"Ahem ahem, hurry up and assemble!"

"It's not like it's your first day seeing the leader! Why are you all acting so foolishly?"

After a pause, upon noticing that everyone was still stunned silly after Su Mo had walked up close to a hundred meters, Qi Qin coughed twice and banged the gong he had in his hand helplessly.

It was amazing. Other shelter leaders relied on martial prowess and tricks.

However, in Hope Village, Qi Qin believed that, even if Su Mo lost his strength, he could still sit steadily on the precious throne of leader of the shelter without issue at all.

He was truly terrifyingly impressive!

Luckily, although the shouting did not work, the physical reactions the gong brought about were still useful.

With three clear clangs of the gong, everyone finally came back to their senses and—under the guidance of their team leaders—found their positions, standing in groups.

After nearly two months of training, compared to the crooked lines they had in the beginning, their current formation was really reminiscent of troops standing before inspection.

Facing everyone's worshipful gaze, after walking around the crowd, Su Mo came to the arch at the very front of the crowd.

Taking note of the time, after making a few subtle signals, a speaker was brought out, and Chen Shen received the microphone that had already been connected to it long ago.

"Ahem, ahem. It is currently Month 2 Day 6 of the doomsday calendar, 8.15am."

"There are still five minutes before our destroyer's ribbon-cutting ceremony. I think, at this moment, everyone is already finding it hard to suppress their excitement."

Clap clap clap clap! The applause was thunderous!

"Moving from the plains to the basin, from the previously precarious days to the present days of never having to worry about food or clothing, it was this destroyer that has witnessed the transformation and development of our Hope Village."

"As the head of our Hope Village, often before I fall asleep at night, I would think about how things would have been if the one we followed now was not our Leader Su Mo, not the Almighty Su in everyone's hearts…"

"Of just how helpless we would be during this ocean disaster we are about to face!"

"How panicked would we be when facing thousands of kobolds!"

"But fortunately, luck was on our side. Almighty Su was willing to take us in. It was Almighty Su who gave us this platform, and…"

An unscripted speech!

Ever since Su Mo had given his first speech, all of the Hope Village leaders would go home and practice at night, polishing their speeches in preparation.

Highlighting the little things for the bigger picture, standing on the stage, Chen Shen used the last five minutes to slowly provide a complete summary of Hope Village—from its establishment, to how they had migrated now as well as all the changes it had undergone.

All the villagers' expressions below were led along by Chen Shen's speech, occasionally lamenting the difficulties of the past, and then occasionally applauding the progress of the current village development.

Standing aside, Su Mo listened to Chen Shen's emotionally-rich speech with interest as well.

As Chen Shen had said, all of the current villagers in Hope Village were "lucky" people.

If not for Su Mo, even in the best-case scenario where everyone had enough food and did not worry about safety, when the ocean disaster's arrival loomed, everybody would also have to worry about how to get to the new world.

How could they be like they were now—wearing clean clothes after eating breakfast, standing steadily in front of the destroyer as they attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Chen Shen had prepared very well. Not just regarding the content of his speech, but also in regards to the timing of it as well.

Seeing that it was just about to reach 9 o'clock, Chen Shen's speech took a turn, and his tone started becoming energetic.

"Even just the littlest bit of food and clothing were hard-won. We should always be aware of the difficulties we faced in order to obtain these materials and cherish them in turn."

"Living in Hope Village, our hearts carry hope. Under Almighty Su's protection, we must always remember Almighty Su's grace."

"Now, it's nearly 9 o'clock. I declare…"

"Hope Village's first major event—the destroyer's ribbon-cutting ceremony—has officially started!"

Bang bang bang bang bang bang!

After Chen Shen spoke, Wu Feiguang—who had been hopping around since long ago—instantly lit up the firecrackers from the stairs.

As the firecrackers sounded explosively, along with the familiar smell of gunpowder, everyone was in a trance. It was like they had returned to Earth again.

Peace and harmony!

There was no need to fear the present nor be lost about the future.

As the firecrackers sounded, the celebration ceremony also entered its climax.

Walking up, under everyone's watchful gaze, Chen Shen solemnly handed the microphone over, passing the speaking rights to Su Mo.

Wow!

Without any prior signal, the moment they saw Su Mo pick up the microphone, applause loud enough to drown out the firecrackers rang out.

Furthermore, after a few seconds of adjustment, when the frequency of everyone's clapping aligned and the sound was so in sync that it increased everyone's sense of awe even more.

At this moment, under the blue sky, above the emerald-green basin.

Looking at the villagers who were so moved that they could not handle it anymore, Su Mo took up the microphone. The words he had prepared were lost, and so was the heart-moving speech.

Just like in the movie Iron Man, when Tony had prepared many words before the press conference. When he saw the crowd below, only one sentence was left—I am Iron Man.

In a situation like this, there was no need for words to fan the feelings anymore, and there was no need for extra steps to set off the atmosphere.

He only had to pick up the scissors, and that would be the climax!

He tossed the microphone straight to the side.

When the dull sound of the microphone crashing onto the floor rang out, with his face covered by the mask, Su Mo took the scissors straight from Chen Shen's hands amid everyone's shocked expressions, he then made a historic cut into the ribbon!

This one cut sliced away the fog covering everyone's futures!

This one cut also sliced open a historic new chapter in the wasteland!

This one cut was a sign that humans had officially returned to the steel age in the wasteland, and was the prelude to Hope One becoming the hero of the wasteland ocean!

After the ribbon fell, Qi Qin and Chen Shen at the side quickly reacted to Su Mo's actions.

Without hesitation, the red ribbon had been cut by Su Mo.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony had really become just a ribbon-cutting ceremony!

As Chen Shen waved his hand, a wooden sign flew out, landing firmly in their grasp.

There were elegantly-written Huaxian words on the wooden sign. Taking a closer look, it was the destroyer's new name that had been prepared long ago!

Barrier Class, Type 03-Destroyer!

Hope One!

On the bright red plaque, the large words were written in gold.

Under the brilliant sunlight of the bright sky, the plaque seemed to be shining, attracting everyone's gazes.

With steel as the foundation and hope as the bugle, on the sea, this ship was not just the villagers' hope—it was the embodiment of humans' greatest combat strength.

In the future, sailing on this Hope One, Su Mo not only wanted to give his little sister hope, but he also wanted to bring fellow ordinary humans who were about to drown in the whirlpool…

Hope!

Taking the plaque solemnly, after he straightened his waist and hung the plaque on the arch, Su Mo stepped off the platform.

"The ribbon-cutting ceremony has ended. Everyone, get on board! We'll have lunch on the ship!"

Whoosh!

Thunderous applause and cheers resounded again. Standing on the stage, seeing that the three lion people at the back were cheering too, Su Mo nodded, and then walked to the arch.

The red cloth covered the stair rails. Looking at the stairs that led directly to the top of the deck, before everyone's eyes…

Su Mo took a historic step forward!

Thud…

Thud…

Thud…

With every step, the sound of his boots meeting the wood rumbled.

The stairs were made from solid wood. With the support of the scaffolding, there would be no problem at all even if more than ten people went up at once.

Following Su Mo, all of the leaders started climbing up the stairs in an orderly fashion, slowly walking up to the destroyer's deck that was 21 meters high.

While in the ocean, because of the draft, the ship's height would go down to 16 meters above sea level.

However, on land, with the scaffolding holding it in place, Hope One reached a full 21 meters in height; as tall as a seven-story building on Earth.

As they walked up using the wooden stairs in an open-air environment like this, they were able to see the destroyer's extremely sturdy craftsmanship even more clearly as they walked steadily upward.

There were many places where the hull had been welded together, but apart from the important seams, the other welds were nearly invisible, as if these steel plates had originally been one.

As for the large seam in the middle that connected the whole ship, it was like a sharp sword had run through the front to the end, and it exuded the artistic beauty of steel.

Before they had even seen what the deck looked like, everyone was already full of anticipation for what the warship's interior would look like.

When the final person stepped onto the wooden staircase, Su Mo, who was at the very front, had already stepped onto Hope One's main deck.

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