After finishing his meal, Su Mo grabbed a shovel and rushed outside. It was ten in the morning by wasteland time, and the working man Su Mo clocked in right on schedule.
Perhaps because beginner protection was still in effect, the wild animals outside were not yet completely deranged.
After scanning the area, he still failed to find any Mutated Creatures near the base today.
"What a pity. I thought I'd be able to receive a package today."
The Mutated Beasts that others feared like tigers had instead become packages in Su Mo's eyes.
It had to be said that in the apocalypse, once one managed to change one's mindset, life took on an entirely different flavor.
Standing atop the hillock where the shelter was located, Su Mo gazed into the distance. It was still a vast, desolate expanse.
Several days of scorching sunlight had turned the ground, which had previously held a faint trace of green, a scorched yellow.
He walked to the thicket he had been cutting down. The place where he had encountered the chameleon before had already had its traces swept away by the noisy night winds of the plains.
Aside from being somewhat disorderly, there was no obvious sign that a battle had ever taken place there.
Taking out his iron axe, Su Mo began chopping trees.
The wood in the Trading Market was extremely cheap. Even 100 milliliters of water could be exchanged for dozens of units of wood.
However, this was not Su Mo's objective.
Just like in a certain Shadow Clone anime on Earth, even after one had chakra, one still had to begin by practicing its application through the most basic exercises, such as tree climbing and water-walking.
Su Mo's current actions were exactly the same.
Controlling the axe, Su Mo pursued the utmost precision with every stroke.
Controlling his strength, he sought to keep the force of every chop within a certain range—not too strong, but not too weak either.
"Even if I have Thermal Weapons, in a world like this, I'll inevitably have to engage people in close combat."
The more he tried to control it, the more keenly Su Mo felt how difficult it was.
"I don't have the kind of strength that can overcome everything with brute force like in fantasy novels. All I can pursue is speed and precision. The key is to strike vital points. My movements must be fast, my force sufficient, and my accuracy exact."
Looking at the chopping marks on the second waist-high sapling he had felled, which were much neater than those on the first, Su Mo gained a trace of insight.
"Blocking is inferior to dodging, and dodging is inferior to attacking first. Before making a move, I have to be like I am when chopping trees—where should I strike for the greatest efficiency? If I can eliminate an enemy before they make a move, I won't have to worry about being unable to evade their attacks later because I lack professional training!"
The more Su Mo thought about it, the more precise the force of the axe in his hand became.
In less than an hour, he was already able to keep his strength and aim within a broad range with considerable stability.
By then, he had accumulated 20 units of wood and 8 units of plant fiber.
After returning to the base and gulping down several mouthfuls of cold water, he brought a portion to Oreo, who was patrolling and standing guard nearby. Then Su Mo began examining how to design a drainage system.
The shelter did not yet have sewage-treatment pipes. They simply relieved themselves outdoors, so there was no need to consider how to connect the shelter's sewage outlet for the time being.
After being placed, the safe house had slightly altered the terrain of the hill.
It had become a gentle slope.
Under normal circumstances, this terrain would basically not have any drainage problems.
However, this kind of terrain was most prone to forming depressions. During heavy rain, water could collect beneath the shelter's foundation and form a lake-like pool. Over time, the moisture and water pressure would damage the shelter's structural stability.
And if it was acid rain, it would corrode the surrounding terrain even more, leaving it barren and hindering the base's future development.
"A simple drainage ditch won't be enough. I need to dig a terrain feature that can divert the water out in one go—preferably one that can carry it four or five hundred meters away."
After roughly planning the route in his mind, Su Mo got to work.
Fortunately, the shovel created through the Game Panel in this world had a certain auxiliary function. With only a slight application of force, it could lift a patch of earth.
Even so, after digging for three or four hours until dusk, he had extended the drainage ditch only a little over fifty meters.
Three drainage channels resembling scratch marks wound crookedly across the ground. Without cement or concrete to hold them in place, they looked extremely loose and flimsy.
But their effect was beyond doubt.
Su Mo called out to the Survival System in his mind and stared intently at the drainage channels he had dug.
Simple Drainage Facility Upgrade Direction One: Reinforce the facility and change its material, greatly increasing drainage efficiency. Requires Survival Points (150) Upgrade Direction Two: Use buried underground sewage pipes. More efficient and concealed, and less likely to be damaged. Requires Survival Points (550) Description: Don't even think about turning corners with this drainage channel. I guarantee you'll fall in!
"Let's try putting in one unit of stone material and see what happens."
After examining the two paths provided by the system, Su Mo took out one unit of stone material and piled it onto the drainage channel.
Sure enough, the first upgrade direction given by the system reduced the requirement by 3 points.
The description also changed to:
Upgrade Direction One: Reinforce with stone, increasing drainage efficiency and durability while making it less susceptible to corrosion. Requires Survival Points (147)
He had a full 200 units of stone material in his backpack. Since this stuff was cheap, Su Mo did not mind using it.
After putting in 10 units, then 20, he continued until he had placed a full 47 units of stone material. The Survival Points required by the system no longer changed as he added more stone.
It settled at 9 points.
"Select Upgrade Direction One!"
As soon as he spoke, a green light burst from Su Mo's body, merging the more than forty units of stone material with the drainage channel.
Starting from beneath Su Mo's feet, traces of stone began to appear in the drainage channel, whose soil had originally been soft and loose.
With every sweep of the green light, more and more stone appeared within the soil.
After three to five seconds, the stone drainage channel—
was complete!
The drainage channel, formed from gray-black rocks, looked neat and orderly. On the barren land, it resembled the Great Wall, inspiring awe in anyone who saw it.
Its complete stone surface looked as though it had been laid by machinery. Not a trace of manual excavation could be seen; the whole thing seemed to have formed naturally.
The more Su Mo looked at it, the happier he became.
"Detected that the player's probability of surviving the first disaster exceeds 99%, and that the player is the only one in the world to have achieved this accomplishment."
"Received one lottery opportunity."
Standing atop the hill and gazing into the distance, Su Mo suddenly felt that two pieces of good fortune had arrived at once. He hurriedly opened the Game Panel to inspect it.
Behind the Game Panel's azure functions, a dazzling new function glittering with multicolored light had appeared: Lottery.
"I never thought digging a drainage channel could count as an accomplishment. If I'd known, I would have dug one on the very first day."
Staring at the large lottery wheel before him, Su Mo focused his eyes on it.
The wheel was divided into five sections: pets, blueprints, tools, items, and resources.
"There isn't even a 'Thanks for Playing.' This game definitely wasn't developed by Old Ma's company."
All five options were extremely useful.
With Oreo already around and resources plentiful, Su Mo did not mind having one more mouth to feed even if he drew a pet. He pressed the lottery button directly.
The wheel spun rapidly at first, but as time passed, it inevitably slowed down. In the end, the pointer stopped in the blueprint section.
Record: Congratulations, player. You have drawn the Hunting Compound Crossbow Manufacturing Blueprint. As soon as the Game Panel's notification ended, a design blueprint glowing with red light appeared in the item bar.
Hunting Compound Crossbow Manufacturing Blueprint: A ranged combat tool. Slow to load but with a high initial velocity and considerable lethality. An essential tool for surviving in the wilderness.
"It's a ranged weapon!"
Su Mo's eyes lit up.
He had already considered making a ranged weapon before his first battle outside.
It was just that he had always shelved the idea because he lacked a good direction for its production and had too few Survival Points.
He had never expected to draw a crossbow that was more advanced than a bow.
The greatest difference between bows and crossbows lay in their accuracy.
A crossbow did not require the user to aim while drawing the string, so it placed lower demands on the user. Although loading took much longer than with a bow, it generally had a longer range, greater lethality, and higher hit rate than a bow. It was a powerful long-distance killing weapon.
Give a bow to a woman, and because of her arm strength, she might be able to shoot only twenty or thirty meters at most.
A crossbow was different. Once someone learned how to use one, they could basically hit wherever they aimed within fifty meters. Its accuracy was frighteningly high.
After crushing the crossbow's manufacturing blueprint, a streak of light flowed into the Game Panel's manufacturing function.
Su Mo impatiently opened the manufacturing list.
He checked the material requirements for making one Hunting Compound Crossbow and its bolts.
Please recommend this novel and add it to your collections, please! It really matters to me. Don't say "maybe next time"! (Crying!)
Before you continue