A Parking Lot Overgrown with Grass

Chu Guang racked his brain for a long time but couldn't come up with a solution.

Although the principle of a generator is simple, something even junior high students know – it's just about "a conductor cutting magnetic field lines" – turning that sentence into a 10KW generator is far from simple.

When he asked Baidu, all it pushed were purchase links.

Heh.

If I could shop online, would I need you to tell me which one to buy?

Useless!

After much effort, Chu Guang finally found some reliable tutorials, but considering the current scarcity of resources, none of the information was truly useful.

Time quickly reached six o'clock sharp.

Accompanied by the sound of the cabin doors opening, the four Players woke up.

"I'll look into it later."

Chu Guang lowered his legs from the table, tidied himself up using a salvaged mirror, and calmly walked to the adjacent room.

When he entered the room, the four Players were checking their attributes through the display screens of their Cultivation Pods.

"As expected, my Gene Sequence is Strength-based... my initial Strength is 7 points, but my Intelligence is only 3? But I don't feel stupid."

"That doesn't sound very smart... Also, your beard is growing way too fast."

Old Bai's beard was indeed a bit exaggerated.

Yesterday it was stubble, today it was already as long as a fingernail.

"I don't know what's going on. By the way, is there a razor here?"

"Apparently not. How about you try using an axe?"

"Get lost."

"Speaking of which, I'm actually Agility-based. I thought I was Intelligence-based." Fang Chang pinched his chin and fell into thought, seemingly contemplating something.

"I'm Intelligence," Gale said with a wry smile, raising a hand. "Is 3 points of Strength a bit too low? 7 points of Intelligence... I don't feel like I've gotten smarter either."

"I'm Perception-based. What's the use of Perception? Can I predict the future?" Night Ten was a little depressed.

Compared to such ambiguous attributes, he'd rather have better performance in Strength or Agility.

Even Constitution would be fine, at least he could be a tank.

"It should be an intuition for danger. Did you forget how you dodged that Mutant's sneak attack yesterday?" Fang Chang mused. "If this attribute is used well, it might be quite broken... It's a shame it's in your hands."

"Scram."

"Ahem."

Chu Guang, who had just walked into the room, coughed, interrupting the Players' conversation.

Perhaps because he had talked to them about Affection as the planner last night, the four Players looked at him differently.

For the sake of the Players' immersion, Chu Guang decided to maintain his dignified image and continued in a serious tone.

"Time is short, I'll keep it brief."

"There's a mountain of work to be done, but not much time left. To avoid affecting subsequent plans, we need to complete our Outpost on the surface before winter arrives."

"Food, drinking water, fuel... these need to be stockpiled, as well as building fortifications and surface shelters."

"I've organized all the necessary work on the plan sheet. You can check it on the notice board at the entrance of the Sanatorium."

The Players' eyes lit up, and eager expressions appeared on their faces.

Had the Quest System been improved?

"That's the basic situation. Do you have any questions? If not, we'll set off."

"Wait, wait a minute, Manager!"

"Speak."

Night Ten, his face red, raised his hand.

"Please, please, where's the toilet?"

The toilet.

That was indeed a problem.

Shelter 404's B1 Level was more like a reception area. Although there were cubicles for the Cultivation Pods, there were no living facilities inside.

Looking at the Players who rushed out of the Sanatorium after arriving on the surface, Chu Guang suddenly realized that with the influx of Players, not only eating and drinking would be a problem, but defecating would also quickly become a big problem.

There were public toilets on Bett Street where human and animal waste was collected, reportedly sold to the nearby Brown Farm.

After arriving at the Sanatorium in Wetland Park, Chu Guang had always found a safe spot in the woods to relieve himself and hadn't considered the issue of a hundred people defecating and urinating.

Perhaps they had upset stomachs, as all four Players were limping when they returned.

"It's so damn uncomfortable without an outhouse."

"There's no toilet paper either, I had to use leaves... almost scraped myself raw."

"+1."

"Damn, why does it feel like it's burning... Do you guys feel it?"

"No."

"Did you wipe your butt with nettle leaves...?"

"Huh, what are nettle leaves?"

"Nothing, just bear with it, it'll pass."

"???"

Chu Guang listened from the side, looking awkward.

He seemed to have forgotten to tell these guys they could use moss to wipe their butts, a little piece of knowledge he'd learned from the survivors on Bett Street.

However, they didn't seem to give him a chance to speak.

Just bear with it.

Everyone goes through this.

"Manager," Fang Chang limped over to Chu Guang and said respectfully, "I propose we build a toilet."

Night Ten: "Seconded!"

Old Bai: "I also agree. And with a toilet, we can dig a large pit to collect the waste, mix in plant ash and sawdust for composting, let aerobic bacteria and fungi decompose the organic matter to generate heat, killing the pathogenic microorganisms and pathogens in the waste to make fertilizer."

Fang Chang: "Exactly, and not just for producing fertilizer, we can also seal some of the waste and organic residue together, letting anaerobic bacteria convert it into flammable methane! That's how the biogas digester at my old home worked. The biogas produced could be used for lighting and even electricity."

"That's a good idea, we can adopt it," Chu Guang nodded approvingly.

Biogas.

He had been so worried about survival before that he had forgotten about this.

He remembered that although Bett Street didn't have a biogas digester, the adjacent Brown Farm did.

Seeing the expression of approval on the Manager's face, the four Players became even more excited, pooling their ideas one after another.

Building a toilet wasn't difficult, and even a biogas digester wasn't that hard. The only tricky part was the materials for sealing and gas storage.

Fortunately, this wasteland lacked many things, but not plastic.

Especially beverage bottles and garbage bags.

Since burning them produced toxic gas, few survivors burned this stuff; at most, they used it as kindling.

If they searched carefully, they should be able to find quite a lot in the nearby suburbs.

Thus, another scavenging quest was added to the quest board – collect plastic bags and bottles and jars.

"Manager, I have an idea about the generator," Gale, who hadn't spoken until now, suddenly said.

Chu Guang looked at him.

"Tell me."

Gale said.

"Cars usually have built-in generators. I want to know if there are any roads nearby? Or a parking lot would also work. If we can find a car, this problem should be easy to solve."

Chu Guang said.

"Cars aren't hard to find. There's a parking lot near the Wetland Park where we are, but I've looked at the cars there, and there's nothing worth salvaging."

"I want to try," Gale said, not giving up. "If we find a usable generator, our outpost on the surface will have electricity!"

"Then you can go, but I can't let you go alone," Chu Guang glanced at the Players in front of him, his gaze falling on Night Ten. "You and Gale go check out the parking lot together."

Night Ten said enthusiastically.

"Yes!"

Night Ten's Gene Sequence was Perception-based, so his intuition for danger would be useful.

Before they set off, Chu Guang had them take two short knives used for cutting grass. These were more effective than clumsy axes when encountering Mutants.

In addition, Chu Guang repeatedly instructed them that if they encountered Mutants, they must avoid combat and run if possible.

But if the other party had already discovered them and showed clear hostility, they should never turn their backs on the enemy, no matter what.

Doing so was tantamount to suicide...

Holding the Wetland Park map and a simple compass, Gale led Night Ten away from the Sanatorium.

Old Bai and Fang Chang, who remained, looked at Chu Guang and asked.

"Manager, should we continue cutting trees now, or...?"

Chu Guang looked around, counting the dozens of unprocessed logs on the ground.

"We won't cut trees today, we need to solve the toilet problem first... Alright, you two go get shovels and axes, and I'll teach you how to do it."

The parking lot was southeast of the sanatorium.

Two hundred years had passed with no one visiting.

Nature had completely reclaimed the area.

Tree roots had broken through the hard concrete ground, and shrubs and weeds grew rampant, already knee-high.

Rust-covered vehicles were covered in vines, and through the broken windows, one could even see moss covering the seats and air vents.

Seeing all of this, Gale finally understood what the Manager had said.

There really wasn't anything worth salvaging here.

Night Ten also looked troubled.

In this state, finding a generator was like finding a ghost.

"Should we go back?"

Gale was silent for a moment, then walked forward, unwilling to give up.

"We're already here."

Night Ten shrugged and followed.

Having known him for so many years, his biggest impression of this online friend was his stubbornness. He had no idea what he did in real life.

Many cars in the parking lot had their hoods rusted shut and couldn't be opened at all. Gale searched the entire parking lot before finding one whose hood could barely be opened.

However, after opening the hood, he froze.

This was...

An engine?

"What's wrong?" Night Ten leaned over and asked.

"It looks like an electric motor... but it also doesn't," Gale said, frowning deeply. "Do you know cars?"

"I haven't even gotten my driver's license, how would I know this?" Night Ten said, sweating. "Didn't you say you've been working for many years? Didn't you buy a car?"

"I live in the company dorms, I only have a bicycle."

Gale, not giving up, continued rummaging under the hood. He even went around to the back of the car and lay underneath it... checking every place he could.

But suddenly, his hand stopped.

Noticing the expression on his face, Night Ten asked.

"What now?"

"It's a bit strange... I can't find the power source." Wiping the mud and water from his face, Gale frowned and pondered for a long time. "I can roughly find the engine, but... I haven't found the power source."

"Could it have been removed?" Night Ten suggested a possibility. "After all, it's been two hundred years in the wasteland. It's normal for survivors to have visited here, right?"

"That possibility isn't ruled out."

Habitually closing the hood, Gale looked at the abandoned cars filling the parking lot, his mood complex.

Actually, there was another possibility.

In the game's background setting, the pre-war society's technology was advanced enough that perhaps they had reached a point where they could replace fixed power sources with remote ones.

But no matter which possibility it was, it wasn't good news for him.

Hoping to find a generator from these abandoned cars now seemed unlikely...

On the other side.

There was new progress on the toilet construction.

Under Chu Guang's direction, Old Bai and Fang Chang first dug a pit two meters wide, three meters long, and deep enough to bury a person, in the open space outside the sanatorium. Then, they inserted sawed-off logs around the pit as walls and filled the inside with some crushed stones and leaves.

Once the latrine pit was built, the toilet itself was much simpler.

Chu Guang directly had the two of them build two simple sheds next to the pit and connect them to the nearby latrine pit using flexible plastic pipes removed from the sanatorium's outer wall.

With that, a simple toilet was completed.

"Feces and urine should be stored separately. Mixing them easily forms sludge. And urine is sterile, it can be directly used to water crops... but let's leave it like this for today," Chu Guang said, nodding approvingly as he looked at the results of their morning's work.

Old Bai and Fang Chang, leaning on their shovels and panting, exchanged a look, their faces full of helplessness.

Even though it was a 100% realistic virtual reality game, was it really necessary to be this realistic?

"Bathing is also a problem... There's a water source within a kilometer, but there are quite a few mutants near the source, so we need to be extra careful when getting water."

We'll build a bathhouse later.

Otherwise, a bad smell is a minor issue, but getting sick would be a major problem.

"Manager." Fang Chang raised his hand.

Chu Guang looked at him.

"What is it?"

"I think we should consider the safety aspect," Fang Chang said. "Judging by the mutant we encountered yesterday, this wasteland isn't safe."

No kidding.

You don't say.

"I know, but hygiene is also a serious issue. The shelter doesn't have enough medical supplies. If an infectious disease breaks out, the consequences will be severe."

Safety, on the other hand, wasn't as pressing. The mutants in the Wetland Park were less active than those in the city, and there were no survivors frequenting this area. Even if danger arose, they could just hide in the shelter.

However, the hygiene of over a hundred people was a major problem.

Every household on Bett Street used iron buckets to store water, heated and disinfected on their rooftops, and washed themselves every two or three days. It wasn't because the people there were particularly fastidious, but because if you smelled too bad, you'd genuinely be kicked out.

Fang Chang and Old Bai exchanged glances.

Could this Manager's AI settings include a germaphobia trait?

They'd have to be careful in the future.

"Speaking of which... there's a question I've been wanting to ask," Old Bai interjected. "Why does such a large shelter have absolutely no supplies? And we've been on the B1 level, what about the other floors?"

"The other floors are temporarily closed. They will be opened in the future."

Chu Guang didn't explain the reason, simply stating the facts.

Although the two players were curious, seeing that they couldn't get an answer, they didn't press further, just assuming it was part of the setting.

Just then, Night Ten and Gale, who had gone out exploring, returned.

Looking at Gale, who was covered in mud, Chu Guang asked.

"How did it go? Did you find the generator?"

"We didn't find it, but it wasn't a complete waste."

Saying that, Gale opened a plastic bag he'd presumably picked up from a trash can. Inside was a bag full of blue mushrooms.

These mushrooms weren't large, only about the length of an index finger, with translucent fine hairs on the surface. Following the纹路, one could see a colorful sheen.

Chu Guang took a look, a surprised expression on his face.

"Where did you find these things?"

With a hint of subtle pride on his face, Gale reported truthfully.

"There's a concrete drainage pipe near the parking lot, about two people high. A lot of these mushrooms were growing inside the pipe. I wasn't sure if they were edible, so I picked a little to bring back."

Actually, he had initially wanted to take a bite, but the game was simply too realistic. He hesitated for a long time and couldn't bring himself to do it.

"Its name is Blue Umbrella Mushroom, scientific name 'Blue Angel'. I heard that people who eat it can see a real angel within an hour at most."

"Don't doubt it. Unless you're a mutant immune to all poisons, you definitely can't eat this."

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