Shelter, the Hope of Upgrading!

"Bind?"

It was only when the unfamiliar mechanical voice rang out for the second time that Su Mo reacted. He hurriedly answered, "Yes."

"Binding in progress. Progress: 0.1%. Progress: 0.2%."

One after another, illusory green scanning beams spread out from beneath Su Mo's feet, extending into the distance.

When they reached their limit, the beams returned, and the progress increased by 0.1%.

While the binding was in progress, Su Mo opened the wooden door and looked inside.

Behind the wooden door was a flight of stairs made from packed earth.

Following the stairs downward, he silently counted to fifteen. Then, the space before him suddenly opened up.

With the faint daylight filtering in from the entrance, Su Mo could barely make out the structure inside.

The ground and ceiling were both covered with wooden planks, forming a stable foundation and ensuring that the enormous underground pit would not collapse.

"I bet right!"

Su Mo's face lit up with delight.

Choosing the surface naturally had its advantages, allowing one to gain some convenience during the early stages of development.

However, he had never forgotten one thing. With the tools in the crafting interface, building a house aboveground would not be difficult.

But constructing a shelter underground required more than tools. Sufficient architectural knowledge was also necessary to ensure the stability of the underground structure.

Otherwise, after digging around recklessly, he might die in a collapse that night without even knowing how he had died.

Seeing that the Doomsday Survival System's binding progress bar was still rising slowly, Su Mo simply sat down on the stairs. While conserving his stamina, he opened the chat interface.

Perhaps other people also had this so-called Doomsday Survival System?

He observed the World Channel for a while, then opened the Area Channel and watched for a while longer.

No one mentioned anything about it.

"Looks like I'm the only one with two systems?"

Su Mo reached a conclusion.

At this point, most of the active speakers in the World Channel and Area Channel had chosen surface shelters, while only a small number had chosen underground shelters.

However, after those who had chosen underground shelters complained a few times about how miserable it was belowground, they began exchanging information about searching for supplies.

Without any reference or even knowing what this thing was, Su Mo could only continue waiting.

Fortunately, the progress bar rose steadily. After more than ten minutes, the green light finally stopped scanning. Once it returned to Su Mo's body for the last time, a crisp notification sounded:

Doomsday Survival System bound successfully.

First Binding Reward: 100 Survival Points.

Scanning host's survival environment. Evaluating Survival Points. Obtained 5 Survival Points today.

Final Settlement. Total Survival Points obtained today: 105!

Remaining Survival Points: 105!

As the notification sounded, a large amount of fragmented memories was transmitted into his mind.

The Doomsday Survival System had originally been something he could have bound back on Earth. Unfortunately, his individual strength had been limited at the time, so Su Mo had hidden inside an official shelter.

Naturally, he had not had the time to excavate a Personal Shelter either, causing him to miss the chance to bind the system.

After arriving in this world, if the Survival Game panel was a game panel that everyone possessed and could use, then the Doomsday Survival System was a cheat tool that only Su Mo had.

According to the Doomsday Survival System, surviving each day would grant him a certain number of Survival Points.

Survival Points were similar to points in a game and could not directly be exchanged for items.

Their function was similar to the item-upgrading feature in a game, except that the range of things they could upgrade was far more comprehensive.

As he learned more and more, Su Mo suppressed his excitement and focused his gaze on the crude underground survival base.

Personal Shelter

Owner: Su Mo
Space: 100㎡ (Ceiling Height: 4.2m)

Integrity: 100%
Facilities: None
Description: An extremely crude shelter without any survival facilities. At most, it could be considered a small tomb in the apocalypse.

Looking at the description on the panel, Su Mo's heart stirred. He turned his head toward the only item in the shelter—the wooden door.

Shelter Entrance

Effect: Slightly prevents theft, slightly protects against radiation.

Upgrade Direction One: Increase the wooden door's thickness and the wood's sturdiness. Slightly protect against fire and water. (10)

Upgrade Direction Two: Change the material and upgrade the wooden door into a stone door, greatly increasing its durability and other attributes. (60)

Evaluation: You don't plan to live through the apocalypse relying on a wooden door, do you?

After observing it for a while, Su Mo barely sorted out how to use the Doomsday Survival System.

Besides upgrading purely by relying on Survival Points, the system could also use materials provided by the user, greatly reducing the Survival Points required by an upgrade plan.

For example, to upgrade the wooden door into a stone door, if he provided ten units of stone and two units of wood, the required Survival Points would drop to five.

Survival Points could be used in place of any material, but their conversion efficiency was certainly inferior to that of the original materials.

Therefore, as long as he provided enough similar materials and used Survival Points for conversion and assimilation, he could greatly reduce the cost.

After understanding all this, the survival pressure that had weighed on Su Mo's heart finally eased considerably.

"I have to build a strong enough shelter before my parents and little sister are sent here."

"Before that, I'll solve the supply problem first."

Clenching his fist in secret, Su Mo followed the stairs out of the shelter.

Water and food were the first problems he needed to worry about.

Fortunately, now that he had the Survival System, a rough development route had already appeared in Su Mo's mind.

He first went to a small tree. Using the weight of his body, he snapped off a branch and stored it in his inventory. A notification immediately appeared.

Wood +1

Next, Su Mo searched the ground for sturdy stones and stored stones of various sizes in his inventory. Before long, another notification sounded:

Stone +1

"It really has become game-like. But that's fine too. At least my stamina won't be much weaker than other people's during the early stages."

He stopped dwelling on how closely reality had already begun to resemble a game.

Next, he would try the crafting function first! "Open Crafting Panel."

The interface changed.

Stone Axe (Common): Wood 1/1, Stone 1/1

Materials sufficient.

Stone Axe selected.

Confirm crafting! Record: Wood -1, Stone -1.
Record: Stone Axe (Common) crafted successfully.

A stone axe roughly the length of his forearm appeared in Su Mo's hand.

The axe handle was made of rough wood with decent friction, allowing one to grip it tightly.

The axehead was a polished, extremely smooth and sharp wedge.

Stone Axe (Common): A brand-new, unworn axe. Current length: 60 cm. With it, gathering wood will be much easier.

"Not bad."

Su Mo swung it a few times.

The Stone Axe's sharpness naturally could not compare with an iron axe, but chopping trees was much easier with it.

If you wanted to get rich, start by chopping trees.

Forcing himself to endure his thirst, Su Mo chopped beneath the scorching sun until he had gathered fifteen units of wood and four units of plant fiber. Only then did he follow the same route back to the underground shelter.

The cool underground air slightly soothed the heat in his body, but the protest rising from his throat made Su Mo even more anxious.

A person could last seven days without food, but only three days without water.

Especially after strenuous labor, he would probably die of thirst on this wasteland after just two days without water.

"I need to find a way to make a water-gathering tool!"

"First, I'll try using materials to make a simple water-collecting device and see whether the system can upgrade it."

After resting for a while and recovering some stamina, Su Mo went to the part of the shelter that received sunlight and began dismantling the floorboards with the Stone Axe in his hand.

Careful not to touch the surrounding floorboards, he removed a single plank and took out the wood.

First, he used four units of wood to make a wooden bucket.

Then, he used one unit of wood to make a wooden pole and two units of wood to make a wooden shovel. Finally, he used two units of plant fiber to make Hemp Rope.

The complete set of equipment was ready.

Su Mo picked up the wooden shovel and began digging into the hollow he had opened in the ground.

It was easier than he had imagined.

With a tool, each strike of the wooden shovel brought up a considerable amount of soil.

After digging a deep hole large enough to hold the wooden bucket, Su Mo stopped and began assembling the tools he had made earlier.

He lowered the wooden bucket, hung the wooden pole between two floorboards, and connected the bucket to the pole with Hemp Rope.

Then, he focused his mind, and the Survival System's notification appeared.

Well Water Extractor???

Current Efficiency: 0 ml/day

Upgrade Direction One: Upgrade the wooden bucket's material, increase its capacity, and add a sealing function, greatly extending the freshness of drinking water. Upgrade cost: 20 Survival Points.

Upgrade Direction Two: Deepen the well pit and improve water-extraction efficiency. Upgrade cost: 130 Survival Points.

Evaluation: A pit, a bucket—did you imagine the well water yourself?

This was my first time writing a book, so please, kind readers, cast some recommendation votes~ My thanks!