In the night, Earth Tiger drove steadily on its way to the west shelter.
Compared to the plains surrounding the Underground Shelter, the terrain became flatter and more fertile as they traveled westward.
There were weeds as high as the height of one’s knee. Even under the heavy snow, they still managed to push their shoots up.
“I can only bring you within 5 kilometers of the shelter, and then you will have to contact someone to come and rescue you…”
“In such a big shelter, the others still idled, relying on a girl to come out to search for supplies…”
Focused on driving, Su Mo saw Oreo lying on Zhong Qingshu’s lap happily. Su Mo twitched his mouth disdainfully.
Regarding the shelter in the west, after chatting with Zhong Qingshu for a bit, Su Mo already found out some things.
If what Zhong Qingshu said was true, then this shelter had great cooperation value.
First of all, the people who constructed the upper-level rights of the shelter were four prison guards; and they were not recruited via the civil servant pathway, but were transferred from the army!
They all came from the army and, as soon as they met on the wasteland, they immediately developed kinship and quickly formed an initial combat unit.
Relying on simple weapons and plausible martial art techniques, after the three most difficult days in the initial period, some people gradually joined this small gathering place of four people.
Five, eight, then fifteen…
Suddenly arriving in an unfamiliar environment, most human beings adopted the herd mentality; especially when most of the shelters in the west were Chinese, the level of cohesion was even higher.
The cruelty of the wasteland caused more and more people to flee here, and they quickly built up a small shelter with more than 70 people.
‘
Of course, thanks to the initial organizational structure and constructing rights of the shelter, the four prison guards still currently had sufficient voice and jurisdiction in the shelter, despite no longer being as powerful as the shelter’s main fighting force.
Forming a team and hunting around the shelter, they maintained the consumption and expenditure of the shelter at an acceptable level.
Even before the lion people’s shelter was breached, relying on hunting kobolds who were alone, the shelter had collected a small reserve of resources.
Before the disaster, the reserves and consumption had reached a delicate balance.
However, this balance was completely broken after Chen Shen and his group joined, resulting in the additional burden and consumption of more than a dozen people. Despite that, it was impossible not to let them join in.
This was the call to mobilize everyone in the shelter to go out to find supplies to survive the cold winter.
“No, Uncle Song is stressed. I just wanted to help him and didn’t expect to cause trouble again.”
As humans who lived under the protection of a peaceful era and, even after coming to the wasteland, joined an orderly shelter; naturally, such human beings would not be like those portrayed in some zombie movies; acting like ordinary people in the morning, but turning into killer psychopaths when the sun set.
At least when observing Zhong Qingshu, Su Mo could still feel traces of that peaceful era.
“Your strength is not bad, but… are you still in training?”
“Are you from the families of ancient martial…”
In the small Earth Tiger, the two spoke at the same time, and then laughed in an instant.
“There are no families of ancient martial arts. You have read too many novels! I’m just an ordinary person who just learned a little bit of the basics from training.”
“What a coincidence, it’s the same with me! Zhong Qingshu, a second-year graduate student from the National University of Defense Technology, reporting!”
Seeing Zhong Qingshu’s non-standard salute next to him, Su Mo forcibly suppressed a smile so as not to expose her lies, and bypassed the topic.
“Does your shelter lack food?”
“Yes… but with the supplies I brought back today, everyone should have no problem surviving this winter at least.”
Most of the two square meters of storage space were filled with food, which was substantial for a shelter for 70 or 80 people.
People who went out to work could eat a little more and those who stayed in their rooms could eat a little less. Everyone could have a frugal meal, and surviving for three days would not be a problem.
“By the way, did you see a turtle armor in the treasure room…its size should be about…”
“The size of my steering wheel.” Su Mo tried to make an approximate gesture. Seeing the smile on Zhong Qingshu’s face, Su Mo’s face went dark.
“It is the core of a safehouse. It is damaged and looks valuable at first sight. I have an urgent need of it and I’m willing to exchange it for food with you.”
Hearing those words, Zhong Qingshu shook her head and said seriously, “I didn’t see it. If it was there, I would give it to you. When I went in, I took the outermost thing, and then you came in. Maybe it is in the materials room, but there is no way for us to go back.”
Hearing what Zhong Qingshu said, Su Mo fell into deep thought.
If she did not take it, Su Mo could guarantee that Magoo’s safehouse core was not there on the ground when he was scanned through the treasure room.
‘Where did the core go? Is it possible that Magoo’s safehouse core was not dropped at all?’
As if echoing Su Mo’s deep thoughts, the car fell silent again.
Except for Oreo’s comfortable hums from time to time, and the puffing sound of Earth Tiger running across the snow, there was only silence between the heaven and earth.
Su Mo drove along the fifty-kilometer stretch extremely smoothly.
When he reached the estimated drop-off location, he stepped on the brakes and Earth Tiger ground to a halt.
“We’re almost there. I won’t send you any further. Have your people come out and pick you up. We’ll see each other again if there’s any luck!”
Su Mo politely made a polite hand gesture and flicked open the lock of the car door.
“Thank you…” Zhong Qingshu was naturally not a person who was clueless about courtesy. With a sweet smile, she touched Oreo’s head, opened the side door, and stepped out.
Bam…
The heavy door slammed shut, and Su Mo pressed the door lock down. Watching Oreo’s reluctant expression on the car window, Su Mo pretended to be hum angrily, “Oh, you stupid dog, you forgot about your dad the moment you met someone else. You’re already been bought over by someone so quickly!”
Su Mo made two double headlight flashes to signal goodbye and laboriously steered the vehicle around, stepped on the accelerator, and drove Earth Tiger back.
However, after hearing Su Mo’s chiding voice, Oreo shook her head and, at the same time, stretched out her tongue to lick the remaining scent on the seat.
“Hey, you mean she also had the smell of a “divine artifact” on her body?”
This time, Oreo nodded, her eyes full of desire.
“Don’t, don’t, don’t. Next time when I find one, I’ll give it to you. It’s not good to grab someone else’s!”
Ruffling Oreo’s head, he watched the rising sun over the horizon and the fading figure in the rearview mirror.
Su Mo had no psychological burdens.
He had rescued Zhong Qingshu for the laser tool.
As for why he had sent her back; it was because Su Mo could not bear to see his own kind die like this in the ice and snow.
However, killing people for goods, for an unknown “divine artifact”, would make him an enemy of the nearby shelter. Su Mo knew that much.
“I hope that Zhong Qingshu can become my pawn to express my goodwill so that it will become more convenient for me when it comes to cooperative transactions or requesting manpower to help build my shelter!”
Facing the rising sun from the east, Earth Tiger’s speed finally picked up.
On the way, Su Mo parked Earth Tiger on high ground. He sat in the front of the car and admired the morning sun while eating the instant noodles that he cooked before going out at night.
With the convenience of the storage space, although the instant noodles were not hot, they were still warm!
Seeing Oreo eating happily next to him on the ground, Su Mo also had an appetite. He gulped down and finished the bowl of noodles, and drank all the soup.
“Another day full of hope!”
Su Mo kept the noodle bowl away and laid on the front of Earth Tiger. Although his body was hurting all over, Su Mo endured watching the whole sunrise.
For more than half a month, living such a busy and “fulfilling” life, Su Mo found a different…
Meaning to life!
To survive all the disasters!
To conquer this land and rebuild a homeland!
To build a shelter of dozens, no, hundreds of people; build a super shelter for humans!
After recording all three statements in his diary, Su Mo quietly added another one: Find a girlfriend as soon as possible!
“Hehe, when my strength is sufficiently strong and I am qualified to recruit members, then I will expand laterally and build a human underground city!”
“However…”
Su Mo took out the laser tool that had not been warmed up and pointed it at the sunrise. He looked at the multiple rays of sunlight scattered by the laser tool. Su Mo could no longer suppress the excitement in his heart.
“The construction of guns and ammunition has finally begun!”
It would take 3380 points to repair the small thermal weapon laser manufacturing machine, which was a huge expense. If he were to solely rely on daily savings, it would take at least ten and a half months.
That alone meant that Su Mo would have to save every penny for it.
However, looking at the prompt that popped up from the system panel, it was clearly stated that the laser tool could reduce the repair costs by about 2,600 survival points. Su Mo nodded in satisfaction.
Yesterday, his survival points were restored to 2304 points. After deducting the 750 points for the upgraded design blueprint, there were 1554 points left.
It’s a pity that it took 1000 points to create the hang glider and now, at this time, he only had 554 survival points left.
780 points were required to repair the thermal weapon laser manufacturing machine; he still lacked two hundred points more.
However, given such a small gap, once eight o’clock arrived, his new survival points would be credited into his account and, at that time, he would have sufficient points required to repair the machine!
“Oreo, stop playing! Let’s go home!” Su Mo yelled to Oreo, who was still playing in the snow in the distance. Returning to the driver’s seat, Su Mo’s spirit was refreshed!
From today onward, he no longer needed to use spears to deal with monsters, or use swords to fight!
The “steel torrent” belonging to mankind would finally begin to release its own “bloody” light on the wasteland!
