Yu Yuan-a Man of Action

Yu Yuan—a Man of Action. Phew—

Yu Yuan dropped the newspaper and rubbed his cheeks hard. They had gone a little numb.

"Calm down, calm down!"

The threat posed by the Orange Typhoon was no joke.

The heavy rain it would bring could spell disaster for someone living in the sewer.

That was one of the main concerns he had weighed when choosing the sewer.

Finding an air-raid shelter level built decades ago had temporarily solved the problem. Until the rain filled the city's sewers, he didn't need to worry about the safety of his hideout.

But what happened once they were full?

He had to make the shelter watertight against a flooded sewer.

As for the warning's advice to take refuge in a high-rise building...

Yu Yuan considered it, then quickly ruled it out.

The hideout was what he relied on. He had no idea whether abandoning it for a high-rise would have consequences.

Even if the chance was one in ten thousand, he couldn't take that risk.

If anything happened to the hideout, he would be helpless in the Wasteland World.

Yu Yuan opened the Virtual Map and examined the structure of his section of the Air-Raid Shelter Level. Two exits connected it to the sewer.

One was the ladder exit he used all the time. The other was only seventy or eighty meters from his hideout.

To keep sewer water out of this section, he had to seal both entrances. The other sections of the shelter level weren't connected to this one, so he could leave them aside for now.

To be safe, Yu Yuan picked up his flashlight, left the hideout, and inspected his entire section of the shelter level.

The air-raid shelter had been built decades ago. Its brickwork looked dated, but its quality was beyond reproach.

Apart from the two exits, every wall was intact.

Seal those exits, and the rainwater in the sewer couldn't pour into the shelter level.

Both openings were about 1.2 meters across. To seal them completely, he needed covers large enough to block them, then waterproofing material to close the gaps.

He also needed something heavy on top of each cover to withstand the upward force of the sewer water.

Yu Yuan quickly wrote everything down in the Hideout Memo.

Then he returned to the hideout to check his supplies.

His two truck tarps would do nicely. They were waterproof already.

For the covers... bed boards should work. As for the weights...

Yu Yuan remembered the sandbag walls used as defensive fortifications inside Phoenix Tree Apartments. There had been quite a few of them.

And the building had no shortage of bed boards.

Once the plan came together, Yu Yuan couldn't sit still. He sprang into action.

He grabbed a quick bite and drink, cleared every item he had listed in Taotao Cave, then listed twenty-five packs of cigarettes at 1,000 Survival Points each.

Taking his weapons, he ran toward Phoenix Tree Apartments. He was racing against time, and every second counted.

By the time he reached Phoenix Tree Apartments, it was nearly seven thirty in the morning. All twenty-five packs had sold, earning him 25,000 Survival Points.

He immediately raised his Taotao Cave Access Level from level 2 to level 4—two levels at once.

He could now list fifty products at the same time.

He opened the sewer manhole, confirmed it was safe, and scrambled out. After setting a warning trap, he hurried into Phoenix Tree Apartments.

The moment he entered, he saw two more bodies in the first-floor lobby. A powerful stench hung in the air. Fighting back nausea, he hurried up to the fourth floor.

Sure enough, he found two rows of sandbags serving as defensive fortifications. Rather than move them at once, he checked every room on the fourth floor for hidden enemies. Only then did he return to the sandbags and list them all.

He listed fifty sandbags at a time. Each round trip took twenty-five minutes.

It took Yu Yuan two hours to clear out every sandbag on the fourth and fifth floors. As a bonus, he found a set of outdoor gear on the balcony of a sixth-floor room: a tent, an insulating blanket, and a large rain tarp. He was thrilled.

By ten thirty that morning, the passages of the Air-Raid Shelter Level, which had never felt especially narrow, were crowded with supplies.

Sandbags were piled around both exits, along with bed boards and truck tarps.

Dozens more sandbags stood in the passage outside the hideout's security door. They would be the hideout's last line of defense.

Yu Yuan dropped his cigarette butt at his feet. At last, he felt a little more alert.

"If I remember right, there was a lot of Quick-Drying Cement in the basement of that woman with the beauty mark. And if I seal the Air-Raid Shelter Level, I need to build ventilation for the hideout right away. Wait—didn't Security unlock a waterproofing and seepage-prevention Optimization Path?"

Yu Yuan immediately opened the hideout management panel to check.

Sure enough, the level 2 Security upgrade screen showed an Optimization Path for a Floodproof Door. He had unlocked it with the optimization blueprints he'd found at the East City Water Affairs Center.

He only needed to build [Security Level 2—Simple Security Door], then gather silicone sealing strips, automatic door-bottom seals, waterproof sealant, and other materials. With those, he could optimize it into [Security Level 2—Stainless-Steel Floodproof Door].

He could find all of those things at the woman's house. Her door had them; he could simply take them off.

Before leaving, though, Yu Yuan needed to upgrade Ventilation, the Water Collector, and Security. He had gathered the Construction Supplies at her house earlier, but catching the sheep and dealing with the typhoon had delayed him until now.

[Ventilation Level 1—Single-Pipe Ventilation] required PVC pipes ×2, sealant ×1, and a vehicle air-conditioner exhaust fan ×1.

[Water Collector Level 1—Faucet] required stainless-steel water pipes ×3, faucet ×1, and pipe sealant ×1.

[Security Level 2—Simple Security Door] required security door lock ×1, steel ×10, rivets ×20, and a nail gun ×1.

As the construction materials vanished, a green Light Screen enveloped the hideout again. One minute later, Ventilation and the Water Collector were complete.

A vent had appeared in the hideout's ceiling. The vehicle exhaust fan was set into the wall, turning slowly on its own.

A faucet had appeared on the wall to his right. It looked just like the tap connected to an ordinary household washing machine's water inlet.

Their effects were straightforward.

[Ventilation Level 1—Single-Pipe Ventilation]: Safety Level +1, indoor-outdoor airflow speed +15%, risk of airborne poisoning reduced by 20%.

[Water Collector Level 1—Faucet]: Safety Level +1, provides up to 24 L of municipal water per day.

They were only level 1 facilities. Yu Yuan hadn't expected much.

At least they addressed his concerns about air and water.

The level 2 Security upgrade would take thirty minutes, so Yu Yuan decided not to wait.

He returned to 68 Kanchino Street. The front door was still shut.

When he reached the basement, the bodies of the woman with the beauty mark, the man, and the child were gone.

The refugee's body, however, had been left a bloody mess.

Someone had stabbed him with a dagger.

Yu Yuan breathed a sigh of relief.

"Good. They're gone."

He quickly found the Quick-Drying Cement—four large bags of it. The family had probably planned to build something. He listed the bags.

He then went to the basement door and began removing its sealing strips, hinges, and other parts. There weren't enough, though. In the end, he risked going into the long-abandoned house next door and gathered the rest of what he needed to upgrade the Floodproof Door.

Yu Yuan didn't linger. He returned to the hideout and began the next round of construction.