"No way! I can understand putting restrictions on every item, but why did you have to nerf the crafting function? Now I even have to pay 1 Disaster Point just to make a wooden spear, and you only gave me 13 points in total??!!"
"The human apocalypse is here. This damn game really had no good intentions. It's finding new ways to make us die!"
"Overthrow the game's rule! This world should belong to the people! Ura!"
"Even trading costs points now. A 4 kg item costs 3 points in transaction fees. Why don't you just rob us??"
"High payment offered! My mom was dropped at xx location. Are there any brothers nearby? Please help look after her. She has no points, and we can't send private messages!"
"We're doomed! There's no Storage Space. All my meat will rot in a few days!"
"Looking for kind-hearted people to band together for warmth. I'm roughly at XX. Anyone nearby who's interested, message me directly!"
Sitting inside the Shelter Core that was already crammed full of items spilled from his inventory, Su Mo grimaced as he read through the Shelter upgrade announcements one by one.
This change had undoubtedly pushed the somewhat game-like survival world a major step toward reality.
The crafting system had been nerfed. The torch that could burn for twelve hours using one piece of wood and two plant fibers had vanished.
All the other crafting options that could create bugged items simply by providing materials had disappeared as well. Only some necessary tools and weapons remained, and crafting them required Disaster Points.
"Trading requires points, the inventory requires points, crafting requires points, and private messages require points. Everything requires points."
Throughout all the update announcements, Disaster Points were mentioned every few sentences.
Everyone had thought the days when a single penny could thwart a hero were long gone, but they had never expected them to return in such a ridiculous way.
Opening the system interface, Su Mo saw his points in a conspicuous spot at the bottom right:
632 points!
"Luckily, I upgraded the shelter first and got a ranking. First place gives a full 400 points. That's an incredible profit!"
After examining the costs of all the items, Su Mo's heart, which had been hanging in midair, finally settled.
Because he had taken the first step ahead of everyone else, and because he was alone and had enjoyed all the Disaster Points, he was incredibly wealthy in other people's eyes.
Before any further major changes were made, Su Mo could still make use of the crafting and trading systems.
As for everyone else... The end of the newbie period forced many people still holed up in their shelters to face cruel reality.
It was time to leave the shelter and explore the wilderness! Of all the changes, the most fatal one for Su Mo was the drastic reduction to Storage Space.
In the past, there had been no such thing as Space Cubes in Storage Space. No matter how large an item was, storing it in the inventory counted as only one unit.
Take the stone and Iron Block resources in his hands now. They could all be stacked into a single inventory slot. It had been incredibly convenient.
Now, after the changes, he could no longer recklessly toss dozens of units of resources inside at once.
After clicking the space icon in the inventory, Su Mo focused his thoughts and said, "Pay 100 Disaster Points to unlock Storage Space."
Like purchasing an inventory expansion scroll in some Underground City game, without making a sound, Su Mo's vision seemed to pierce through space and arrive in a small area one meter long, one meter wide, and one meter high.
Record: Your Disaster Points -100. Your Storage Space's current volume: 1 cubic meter.
After unlocking Storage Space, the specific method of using it remained unchanged.
As long as he focused his thoughts on an item for one second, he could absorb any ownerless item inside.
An absorbed item could also reappear in Su Mo's hands within one second, or be placed at a location within fifty centimeters of him.
He switched to the trading channel and tried it out.
Su Mo gave up on continuing his water-selling business.
The current trading system charged by weight. The starting price for the first 3 kg of an item was 2 points, and every additional kilogram cost 1 point.
This meant that trying to stockpile resources on a large scale through the trading system had become nothing but a pipe dream.
The ultimate purpose of the Game Panel was to encourage every Area Channel to share what they had and trade resources. If they wanted to trade, they had to enter the Trading Realm.
"As expected, this isn't a simple Survival Game."
"Fortunately, my sister is sixteen, and my parents are fifty-four. For now, I don't have to worry about them being dropped into this disaster. Otherwise, with the current exploration progress, I'd have to risk my life."
After watching the conversations in the World Channel and Area Channel for a while, Su Mo once again felt a sense of urgency.
Returning to the upper-right corner of the Game Panel, he saw a number 15 and a snowflake-shaped icon once again appear where the disaster was displayed.
When Su Mo focused his thoughts on the number of days, a line of information appeared.
Countdown until the next disaster event erupts: 15 days. Disaster Event: Blizzard (minus 20 degrees Celsius, lasting 72 hours).
"Damn, minus twenty degrees Celsius? Is this game freaking insane?!"
The black text on the white panel obviously did not change in the slightest because of Su Mo's fury.
"We just got through the acid rain, and now it's suddenly a blizzard? How are ordinary people supposed to survive?"
Su Mo suppressed the anger in his heart, his face flushed red.
If the first acid-rain disaster had been aimed at underground shelters, making it difficult for them to get through,
then this blizzard would be a super trial for aboveground shelters.
Once the temperature dropped and everything froze, going out to explore, obtaining food, and, most importantly, securing warmth would all become huge problems weighing on aboveground shelters.
"Seventy-two hours."
Su Mo ground his teeth so hard they clicked.
The Underground City currently covered a full 140 square meters, so its temperature would definitely be much lower than that of other underground shelters.
If he couldn't find suitable heating equipment within half a month, then... Thinking of this, Su Mo anxiously shut off the Game Panel and began considering how to prepare for the disaster fifteen days later.
The disasters in the Survival Game came far too frequently.
If a disaster occurred once per month, Su Mo was confident that he could use Survival Points to completely return to the Electrical Age within less than a year.
But now, the second disaster would arrive in only fifteen days, completely throwing his development plans into disarray.
"Tomorrow, I'll go out and scavenge. No, I'll go today. I have to find heating equipment as soon as possible...!"
With disaster looming, Su Mo no longer had any intention of waiting for the rain to dry before setting out.
After spending another 200 points to upgrade Storage Space to 2 cubic meters, Su Mo began moving the clutter scattered across the ground.
First, he carried all the stone and Iron Block to the innermost corner of the shelter.
Then he used 8 units of wood to make planks and cobbled together an ugly-looking storage cabinet, placing all the food resources inside.
Only some miscellaneous items remained on the ground.
"Huh? Isn't this the intact Shelter Core?"
Picking up the glowing Tortoise Shell from the ground, Su Mo rubbed his forehead.
There had been too many things to do every day. He hadn't even had time to fuse this core last night before the generator caught his attention.
Now, it seemed to have worked out perfectly.
The shelter was already large enough. Its supplies could not fill it at all, and if he expanded it any further, the temperature inside would inevitably drop even more.
By then, he would be suffering in silence with no way to complain.
After carefully placing the Tortoise Shell inside Storage Space, then dragging all the miscellaneous items into the corner, Su Mo began preparing the things he would take with him to explore the ruins today.
With disaster looming, exploring the outside world could not be delayed.
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