From Now On, You're the Shelter's Cook!

That newcomer named "Mosquito" is indeed skilled at carpentry.

Old Bai and Fang Chang spent ages using rebar as a ruler, but couldn't saw out a single plank. He, on the other hand, just grabbed a saw and whipped out a pile of planks in no time.

Not only that, these planks even had interlocking edges, making them easy to piece together into square, hollow brick molds.

Before long, quite a few brick molds were ready.

"Your wood isn't processed well. Look at this... it's practically growing mushrooms," Mosquito wiped his sweat, leaned the saw to the side, and asked Fang Chang and Old Bai, "Is this enough?"

"More than enough! Thanks, brother, you've been a great help!" Old Bai beamed with joy, patting Mosquito's shoulder.

Mosquito looked shy and gave a dry laugh.

"You're welcome! Just let me know if you need anything."

Old Bai chuckled and patted his shoulder again.

"Alright! I'll remember that, won't be polite next time!"

Mosquito: "..."

With the molds, making mud bricks became much easier.

Old Bai and Fang Chang mixed the yellow mud collected from the riverbank with a little water, kneaded it into a thick paste, and poured it into the molds, arranging them in square shapes on the ground. Then, they stuffed some charcoal into the gaps in the middle and smoothed ash over the surface of the mud bricks.

This was a method Old Bai had learned from a wilderness survival video.

Once the first layer of bricks was mostly dry, they rotated them and continued stacking the second layer, and so on, layer by layer, until the brick stack was taller than their heads.

When the job was done, Old Bai carefully lit the charcoal inside the brick stack, allowing the fire to start burning from the center and gradually engulf the entire stack.

"Can this thing actually work?"

Looking at the "mud stack" billowing smoke, Fang Chang wiped the sweat from his forehead with his muddy arm, looking like he had just crawled out of a cesspool.

Old Bai didn't look much better, and he had even more charcoal ash on his face than Fang Chang, as if he had just climbed out of a coal kiln.

"Who knows, we'll just have to wait and see."

This was his first time firing these things too. He had only seen adults do it when he was a child and had no idea if the method would work.

Everything would have to wait until tomorrow to see.

"Let's go, let it burn here for now."

"Let's go check on the Cement Kiln. I feel like we're very close to the finished product. Let's use more force with the bellows this time and try to get a barrel out before we go offline!"

Meanwhile, with the help of [There Really Are Mosquitoes in the WC], Gale and Night Ten finally completed the improvement of their Nth generation fish trap.

They replaced the original cylindrical structure with a cage-like structure and replaced the fragile wooden strips with sturdy rebar, reinforcing the main structure of the trap.

No matter what kind of fish, once they entered, they wouldn't be able to leave!

The three of them went to the lake together, planning to try again.

They seemed to be having a lot of fun.

As for Chu Guang, he was still racking his brain trying to figure out the technique for smoking meat.

Though he still hadn't made much progress...

"Esteemed Manager, may I ask what you are... doing?"

Hearing the voice from the side, Chu Guang stood up from the smoking rack, clapped the charcoal ash off his hands, and looked over. He saw [Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes] staring curiously at the smoking rack he had made.

If he remembered correctly, wasn't this fellow a chef who graduated from New Oriental?

Thinking of this, Chu Guang's eyes immediately lit up.

"I'm researching how to make smoked meat... You've come at the right time. From now on, you are the chef of Outpost 404!"

Saying this, Chu Guang didn't give the player a chance to speak, looking at him with a serious expression and continuing.

"The situation we are facing is very severe. In addition to constructing the facilities on the surface outpost, we must also store enough food for the one hundred compatriots who will arrive on the surface before winter comes."

"I need your help!"

Scrambled Eggs looked bewildered.

A chef, huh...

He was a chef in reality. Before going online, he had even stir-fried two dishes before handing the spatula over to his colleague. He didn't expect to be doing his old job in the game again.

Was this equivalent to transferring to a life skill player?

After a long while, he finally opened his mouth.

"But... what can I do for you?"

"Good question."

Chu Guang looked at the smoking rack beside them.

"I've tried smoking meat, but the results aren't ideal. I need you to solve the food storage problem... I've seen your information. The organization says you have relevant experience in handling food, right?"

Scrambled Eggs was stunned.

"I understand a little, but a game is a game after all—I mean, I'm not sure if my experience will work here."

Realizing this was a game world, Scrambled Eggs quickly changed his words. However, the NPC didn't seem to notice, likely because the program was set to automatically ignore real-world elements unrelated to the game.

"It's fine. I need a professional's opinion," Chu Guang said, then looked at the smoking rack beside them. "Help me take a look. What exactly is wrong with the smoking rack I made?"

Looking at the wooden frame in front of him, Scrambled Eggs fell silent.

Instead of asking what was wrong...

It was more like everything was wrong.

"This... First, smoking meat needs a sealed environment, right? Your method of roasting will probably just char the outside without doing anything. Also, is that spice sprinkled on the meat?"

"A special kind of tobacco leaf."

"Tobacco leaf?!"

"Yes," Seeing Scrambled Eggs' surprised face, Chu Guang nodded. "This is an inland area, and salt is expensive. The local survivors use this tobacco leaf, which is rich in aromatic compounds and tar, to replace salt. They crush it and rub it on the surface of the food. By heating it, the preservative substances mix with the grease on the food's surface, achieving a preservative effect."

You can do that?!

Scrambled Eggs was completely stunned.

Some aromatic compounds could indeed be used as food preservatives, but this was the first time he'd heard of this stuff being eaten.

Maybe it wouldn't be fatal if not consumed in excess?

But his intuition told him that this smoking method was practically fighting poison with poison...

"Actually, you can still smoke meat without salt... it just won't taste as good. I'm not familiar with the method you mentioned, but from a health perspective, food smoked like that probably isn't very suitable."

Scrambled Eggs' words were quite tactful because he heard that NPCs had an affection setting, and you could only get hidden quests if your affection was high.

In reality, he would have just rolled his eyes.

"You don't need salt?!" Chu Guang was taken aback.

"Yes... Microorganisms need moisture to survive. Smoking meat is essentially drying out the moisture in the meat to achieve dehydration. With salt, the effect is better, it preserves longer, and the flavor is better. But without it, it's still possible if done correctly."

"Of course, if the fat content is high, dehydration will be more troublesome... It still depends on the specific type of meat."

At this point, Scrambled Eggs paused, looked a bit awkwardly at the smoking rack beside him, and said in a low voice.

"But in any case, you haven't sealed this... it definitely won't work."

If they could cure food without consuming this strange tobacco leaf, it would undoubtedly be good news for the outpost.

However, Chu Guang was still a bit puzzled.

Even if the survivors on Bett Street were ignorant, since they could survive in this wasteland until now, they wouldn't be so incompetent as to get such a basic survival skill wrong.

What exactly went wrong?

However, Chu Guang didn't plan to think about such troublesome things for now.

Firstly, he wasn't that idle.

Secondly, if the NPCs solved everything, what would the players be for?

"Excellent, this glorious and arduous task is entrusted to you!"

He patted the shoulder of this little newbie forcefully.

Chu Guang solemnly handed over the smoking work to [Scrambled Eggs] and reminded him about safety issues, then walked away in a cheerful mood.

Not bad.

Another problem solved.

Speaking of which, there's already a glimmer of hope for the food problem. Should he try to recruit more players to increase productivity?

Just relying on these few pairs of hands, they might not even be able to finish repairing the sanatorium wall by the end of the month.

Just as Chu Guang was thinking this, an excited and joyful cheer suddenly came from not far away.

"Awesome!!!"

"Damn it, it finally worked!"

I originally wanted to draw what the mutated leech looked like, but I was afraid you'd misunderstand, so I'll just forget it (:3」∠)