Winter Was Coming, and Humanity Struck Back! (First Update)

After closing the outermost Stone Gate to block the cold wind from flowing back in, the passageway was finally free of the biting cold.

As they continued down, after closing the second door, Su Mo could clearly feel the temperature in the shelter rising again.

As soon as I stepped into the house and pushed open the door, a warm and cozy feeling rushed towards me.

Compared to the minus seven or eight degrees Celsius outside, the four or five degrees Celsius inside the shelter is practically a luxury.

After glancing at the three little ones who were still fast asleep, Su Mo walked to the ventilation duct in the Breeding Room and looked up for a while.

A gust of cold air blew down from the ventilation ducts, making the temperature inside the Breeding Room significantly lower than in other rooms, even lower than in the living room.

However, despite the decreasing temperature, the plants in the Culture Medium showed no signs of frost damage.

"This Culture Medium is simply amazing. At this temperature, it can still absorb sunlight effectively, lock in internal humidity and temperature, and provide the best growing environment for every seedling."

Su Mo touched the Tomato Seedlings that had now grown more than a dozen large leaves, as well as the cabbage seedlings that had covered a large area, and marveled at them.

With the nourishment of the Big and Little Spark, and following this growth rate, the cabbages in the Culture Medium do not need to be raised at all; the ample sunlight and nutrients are more than enough for their growth.

"In another ten days or so, we should be able to pick a few cabbages to try, but these garlic cloves will probably take another twenty days or so."

After fiddling with the garlic sprouts pushed aside by the cabbages and tearing off a few particularly "annoying" and "eye-catching" cabbage leaves, Su Mo happily carried them out of the Breeding Room.

The cabbage inside hasn't sprouted yet, and the outer leaves aren't old either. Chop them up, add oil, stir-fry them, and they'll have a unique flavor.

The north wind was howling outside, carrying snowflakes, so Su Mo had plenty of free time. He went to the Supply Room, found some rice, and started steaming it.

"Well, there's nowhere to put these treasure chests right now, so we'll just leave them for now. We'll open them all at once when the Trading Realm opens, or when we have a place to put them!"

Looking at the Treasure Chest Wall, Su Mo sat comfortably on the stone bench, admiring it.

The base currently has no shortage of urgently needed supplies, and there's no need to open the crates to retrieve them immediately. If something new were to be found inside, and there's nowhere to store it, it would be a waste.

There are only a few days left until the opening of the Trading Realm, so we can wait until the trading season to open a lot of boxes.

Moreover, this naturally luminous wall can also be used as a light source at night.

While the rice was steaming in the pot, Su Mo picked up a water cup to rinse his mouth and wipe his face. After scooping out some water to water the Culture Medium, the rice was just cooked.

Move the rice cooker aside, pour in a little oil and heat the pan. Chop the cabbage leaves and stir-fry them briefly. Add some seasonings, and a plate of fragrant green stir-fried vegetables is ready.

The weather, the smell, the steam and warmth emanating from this Earthen Pot — Su Mo felt so good she could fly away.

He called the three little ones to wake up, then fried the rice into the stir-fry, stirred it a few times, and after making enough for the three little ones, he poured the rest of the Su Mo into his own bowl.

Su Mo was incredibly satisfied with the simple breakfast.

Upon arriving in the wasteland, the first meal of fresh leafy greens naturally received a 200% boost in flavor, so delicious that it made one bite their tongue.

After finishing his meal and washing the pots, Su Mo didn't want to stay in the living room for even a second longer in this weather. He moved several glowing wooden boxes to the bedroom and plugged in the Electric Blanket.

The Big and Little Spark, drawn by the heat, fluttered over and lay quietly on the two corners of the small bed, feeling the warmth of the Electric Blanket beneath them, their little eyes squinting comfortably.

Seeing that no one was playing with him, Oreo ran over and started jumping around on the bed, causing trouble.

"Relax, we'll go out later today. It's too cold now, it'll freeze your head off if we go out!"

Hearing "cold, "Oreo shook its head dismissively, strode confidently into the Breeding Room, and then swaggered back, indicating that it wasn't afraid at all.

Su Mo was amused by his proud and smug little appearance.

He got up, forcibly hugged Oreo to his arms, lifted the blanket, Su Mo lay down inside.

"Ah, so comfortable! In this kind of weather, without hot water to soak my feet, it's so nice to have a warm blanket to keep my feet warm!"

Huskies' cold resistance makes Oreo more active in this kind of weather, while humans, on the other hand, become stiff and have difficulty moving around in this weather, and outdoor activities require a lot of energy.

Lying in bed, before the system's 8 o'clock harvest arrived, Su Mo decided to check the chat panel first.

With focused attention, the blue display screen shone directly in the center of my field of vision.

After selecting the world chat channel, a ripple flashed, and streams of information began to scroll rapidly across the screen.

As Su Mo focused his gaze, the scrolling began to slow down, gradually reaching a speed acceptable to the human eye before ceasing to change.

"Damn, it's freezing! Anyone in the basin? My choice of the high mountains was a classic mistake, I'm freezing!"

"I'm right here in the basin. The snow has already turned into rain. Hehe, I've collected half a basin of it since this morning. I boiled it and tried it, and it's drinkable!"

"The water problem is finally solved now, but do you have enough firewood? I was wearing a sweater when I came, and it was so cold!"

"Let's take it one step at a time. If all else fails, we'll gather more plant fiber and confine ourselves to the middle so we don't have to go out."

"This awful weather is going to last for more than ten days, and the snow won't just stop right after the disaster. Why don't you take advantage of this time to gather more supplies? Are you planning to wait until the snow is completely gone before you go out to get them?"

"That makes sense, but it's a shame to go out and work now; we've almost wiped out all the Mutated Creature around here."

"Hey? I heard that a couple of days ago, three shelters with over a thousand people teamed up to fight a centaur force of over two hundred people, and they actually won! I wonder how much loot those two hundred centaurs dropped! I'm so envious!"

"What are you envious of? Do you know how many people died? More than five hundred! Five of us fought one, and we almost lost. Those beasts were really something else."

The more information you browse, the more the chat panel seems to remember your preferences.

While browsing, a pop-up message will deliberately appear asking players whether they want to block similar messages when the player shows signs of emotional fluctuation.

For example, even now, there are still people on the world chat channel complaining about being poor, and some are even living like beggars, begging others for food and supplies.

I don't know what kind of thoughts this person has.

They have hands and feet, but instead of going out to find a solution, they squat in the shelter doing useless things, trying to trick some innocent random players into giving them things.

After looking at it, Su Mo made a slightly disgusted expression. Immediately, a prompt popped up. After mentally selecting "yes," these begging messages disappeared instantly, completely blocked by the Game Panel.

As for the remaining advertisements, Su Mo examined them one by one with great interest.

"The Dead Fire Sea Shelter is recruiting veteran anime and manga fans. Requirements: male players with high body fat (at least 22%), who can endure hardship and are not afraid of fatigue. Once hired, you will be guaranteed at least 300g of food and 200ml of clean water per day. Excellent benefits. If you are near XX and need to join, please contact me quickly!"

"The Farsal Association is recruiting players with a combat mindset. Physical stature and height are not required; as long as your combat ability is sufficient, you will be guaranteed half a pound of food per day after joining the shelter, including at least 100g of meat. The specific location is XX; keep an eye out for anything within a 200-mile radius."

"Tatz Temple is recruiting players with life skills. As long as you have a skill that allows you to craft a large number of basic items, you are welcome to join us. We have enough combat power to ensure your safety, and enough food to help you get through this cold winter. As long as you are willing to work long hours, we look forward to your arrival at location XX!"

"Flying Tiger Shelter is currently located at XX. We have scouted out a group of about 150 Minotaur nearby. Are there any other large shelters in this location that we could cooperate to attack? We can then distribute the spoils according to our contributions. If we take them down, we'll have enough supplies for the winter!"

Each of the shelter's advertisements was quite interesting. After watching for a while, Su Mo was surprised to find that Farsal Association one of the three shelters that casual players on the World Channel were discussing.

The other two shelters that partnered with them suffered heavy losses after the battle, with one of them having fewer than forty people left.

Fortunately, the three shelters decided to merge into one. The treasure chests dropped by the more than two hundred centaurs and the meat they harvested were more than enough for them to survive the cold winter.

"More and more fantastical races are eyeing humanity, but at the same time, some powerful vaults can also turn around and devour smaller races whose power has not yet developed. On the wasteland, it seems that only constant killing can ensure survival."

After flipping through the pages twice, Su Mo suddenly had a clear understanding of the current state of humanity.

Because the Western Sanctuary only recruited elites in the early stages, they were able to rely on their strength to attack these fantasy races and annihilate them before they could develop their full potential.

On the contrary, these refuges in the East, due to their uneven strength and unwieldy nature, are hesitant and unable to effectively deal with these fantastical races, lagging far behind the West, and their current situation is precarious.