“Leaving behind a memory simulacrum while you went ahead to search for ways to break through—what meticulous planning!
“But don’t you worry. If my technology level is high enough someday, this mere hard drive won’t be able to keep you trapped!”
Staring at the camera, Su Mo saw the camera shaking inexplicably following his words. He gave a relaxed smile and stood up.
Since the technology for storing one’s consciousness was already available, in the future, one could just extract this consciousness and insert it into a suitable body.
By using science and technology, it was not impossible to achieve a certain immortality for one’s consciousness.
Right now, it was also the little trick that old Ma Fei had up his sleeve.
He had conducted a filtering process with multiple choice questions, then utilized the weapons on the second floor to support the abilities of the person from the future. Not only that, he had used the information on the third and fourth floors as temptation.
If not for the energy issue, whether or not Su Mo followed up on this matter, Ma Fei could still have waited for the next fated person and gained the possibility of resurrection.
“Agh! I finished asking about the mysteries, but I didn’t ask about the core’s power increasing each time I enter the ruins. Damn!
Coming across an “old eccentric” like Ma Fei, who had lived in the apocalypse wasteland for ten years, Su Mo—who had only been in the wasteland for a month—was naturally full of curiosity.
Unfortunately, the old boy had run off too fast, leaving Su Mo no chance to cross-examine him properly.
“That won’t do, I have to find out how to get to the third floor as soon as possible. When the time comes, I’ll have to corner Ma Fei and ask him about these secrets.”
He tried pulling out his iron pickaxe. After triggering a critical hit, Su Mo struck at a silvery-white door that had just appeared.
However, as expected, this silver door was so strong it was outrageous.
After the iron pickaxe’s critical hit was triggered, it could still produce a cloud of dust if it struck a wall.
However, Su Mo could not make a single dent in this door when he struck it, even when he swung his arms.
Moreover, all the kinetic energy was absorbed as soon as it came into contact with the material.
Even with a satchel of dynamite, the probability of breaking in here by force was infinitely close to 0.
“From the looks of it, if I want to get to the third floor, I should probably wait until there’s a dramatic advancement in my technology tree!”
He waved his hand and motioned for Moore to stop—the bear had been eagerly waiting to try his luck with the pickaxe. Su Mo then took out the materials and pots he had stashed in his storage space.
For the time being, thanks to the Tibetan mastiff Doudou’s shameless “brown-nosing” behavior, Oreo had temporarily accepted this extremely obedient younger brother.
Leading the three little ones, Su Mo walked all the way down the winding stairs. After going through the dilapidated room on the first floor, they returned to the courtyard that still had a red sky.
Through the top, they could even see fiery red meteors falling continuously, streaking past the burning clouds and into the distance.
When faced with a sight like this recorded in the heavens, he felt a sense of security as if he were stealing a moment of leisure from work!
There were still a full six hours until it was time to return. After realizing that it would be the same regardless of whether he went back earlier or later, Su Mo was simply not anxious in the least. He sat in the courtyard and began making dinner.
He started the fire and poured some cold oil into the hot wok. He stir-fried the cabbage and carrots till they had become soft and broken down, then added the handmade noodles that had been prepared much earlier.
Doudou was immediately stunned by how adept Su Mo was at this.
Lady Luck might not be on one’s side even if one took orders, put one’s head down, and worked hard a hundred times. However, brown-nose a hundred times, and the sky was one’s for the taking.
Bowls of vegetables over noodles were served fresh from the oven to praises from the brown-nosing Doudou.
“F*ck, it smells so good!”
Even though his body was formed from mist, Doudou could not help an exclamation after eating the noodles, causing Moore, seated beside him, to burst into gales of laughter for a while.
Of course, in the entire world, Su Mo was probably the only one who was able to treat living in the ruins like a vacation.
At a time like this, others in the outside world were either busy preparing supplies to cross the sea or rushing to settle their affairs.
A disaster was imminent. Vacations did not exist.
After they had eaten their fill, Su Mo brought out a large bucket of pure water and passed it to Moore for cleaning the wok, then walked back to the small four-story building.
By following the established railroad, he returned to the cyberpunk room. Seeing drawers everywhere and the surroundings that had not yet been explored, Su Mo’s eyes brightened!
“After struggling for so long, now…
“It’s time to enjoy the fruits of this ruin!”
If he tossed aside the insignificant matters regarding Blazeland and focused solely on the loot from this trip to the ruins, it was sure to be a rich harvest.
“If I install this thing on my boat and some missiles as well, wouldn’t it be invincible?!”
Patting the enormous vertical missile launcher taking up space in the center of the ground, Su Mo could not resist letting out an impudent laugh.
Prior to taking this device away, Su Mo had already expected that it would cost him an exorbitant amount of time, possibly a few hundred days.
However, upon seeing that 400 days had really been fully deducted, a sense that he had made a massive profit surged through his entire body.
“Tsk, taking away a vertical launcher used to cost me 400 days, but now… it’s free!”
Taking out the large net bag that he had prepared beforehand, he simply placed it on the launcher…
Hey, the property rights were now transferred!
Walking to the door and turning on all the lights in the room, Su Mo once again went to the small corner where the computers were stored.
Unlike the high-end ones that could be retracted to and fro, these two computers in the corner were probably Ma Fei’s obsolete ones.
Just by looking at the dust that had gathered on top, they had probably not been used after being obtained and been left idle—a set of dated items.
“These computers are basically like scrap here. No one bothers about them. If they were taken to the outside world though, who knows how many people would break their necks over them!”
Taking out a rag and painstakingly wiping off all the outside dust, Su Mo removed the dust cover on the main unit and took out all its main parts. He wiped off all the dust he could reach and cleaned it all up as best as he could before reinstalling everything.
After trying to connect it to the power outlet on the second level and ensuring that the main unit could power up, Su Mo stored the two computers away, his mind at ease.
Items such as computers could not truly be considered sturdy, as they could not really handle falls or look elegant. However, one also could not say that they were fragile, because if one took appropriate measures, as long they could power up, there would be no loss of performance even if they were stored for over ten years.
“I’ll take them away. I’ll take them all. All I need is one more, and perhaps I can create some of the good stuff from that epic design blueprint I acquired previously.”
Su Mo had been constantly thinking about the Code 01—Storage-type Desktop Computer from the blueprints that he acquired previously in the second trading ruins.
As of now, he only needed one more computer to fulfill the conditions. No matter what anyone said, he had to find it as soon as possible. He had to think of a way to acquire it!
After packing up these two items, the only large item left on the second floor was the wall made of robots.
First, he walked to the middle of the wall and removed the robot right in the center. After fumbling around, Su Mo found the manufacturing and maintenance manual that Ma Fei had mentioned.
The manual was not thick. Based on the feel of it, it was probably just over a hundred pages.
After these records made on the most primitive kraft paper had been turned into a manual, it had even been sealed tightly with a plastic film on the surface to ensure that it would not be affected by the humidity in the air.
After flipping to the first page and reading the overview as well as the table of contents on the second page, Su Mo decided to abandon the idea of learning everything in a short period.
Without Ma Fei, the difficulty was too high.
Ma Fei had been able to survive for ten years after doomsday. Although he was just a small-town mayor, the Blazeland higher-ups had felt he was worth pulling over onto their side. It was enough to prove that Ma Fei was not as simple a person as he seemed on the surface.
From this manual, Su Mo could also see the expertise of future technology.
There were more than sixty drafts of large and small design blueprint breakdowns, from the simplest mechanical transmissions to the connection of a neural axis.
From basic AI programs to complex logical judgments.
Ma Fei’s design concept was originally to simulate a group of maintenance combat workers that were like humans, but smaller.
There were too many considerations early on in this project and skills that had not yet fully been developed, resulting in too much engineering that was required. It was never fully perfected, but thanks to the accumulation of work done in the early stage, it could be considered…
Black technology!
“Let me do the math. If 18 machine guns were installed on my big ship, then I would need 18 small robots to control them.
“That, plus another small team of 6×2 for daily maintenance—that means I’ll need to take away at least 30 this time.”
At present, the robot wall housed 72 robots. After a round of selection and ensuring that there were at least 30 to maintain the core, Su Mo took 36 of them in one go.
He would use 30 for work and 6 for logistic replacements in case of emergency.
After settling these large items and turning out the remaining boxes and cabinets, Su Mo instantly became a lot more adept.
“Circuit board… microwave… electric toolbox, and an electric saw that needs only one operator. I’ll take all of it!
“Four power strips and two USB chargers. Damn, there’s even some light-absorbing paint in the corner for painting plaques. Good stuff.
“Two bags of cotton gloves, a set of fishing equipment, and half a bag of random seeds…”
The second floor did not seem very large, but with Ma Fei’s design, the storage space was not small either, and everywhere there were cabinets to be searched.
Each cabinet was a new blind box. When he opened the cabinet closest to his seat, Su Mo was instantly delighted and surprised.
“F*ck me… This old fellow Ma Fei even had an electric razor. That’s it, I have to confiscate this from you as well!”
Wow!
This small item was worth its weight in gold. From the ruins to the wasteland, it was very hard to find.
For someone like Su Mo, who was slightly OCD, it was even more than merely necessary!
Taking out a small bottle of mineral water, he poured it over the razor blade to clean it.
Taking advantage of the time needed to charge the electric shaver, Su Mo took out a pot of clean water and washed his face on the spot.
He had not shaved for a month.
The stubble on his chin had begun to irritate him. When he felt it every night before he slept, Su Mo always felt an intolerable urge to shave it off with his kitchen knife.
Now, he had an electric razor. After putting cleansing foam on his face, he pressed the switch on the razor, and it started up with a whirring sound.
The blade of the electric shaver was extremely sharp. Quite a lot of black technology was probably used in its construction because even without the use of shaving gel, there was no jerkiness at all.
Stroke after stroke, whenever the blade glided over his skin and took off the stubble beneath, a continuous sense of glee surged over him like an electric shock.
“That’s the feeling! It’s right, so right!”
Su Mo did not stop shaving until all the stubble was gone from his chin; in fact, in places, he had even broken the skin.
He felt his chin, which was finally smooth and free of any protuberances.
He put away the razor. Once he pasted on the Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll, his skin healed rapidly.
He sucked in his teeth with a hiss… how refreshing!
He was in an excellent mood now, so his speed in collecting the spoils greatly increased as well.
In just a short half-hour, after making sure that anything he could take was placed in the net bag, Su Mo called over his two little ones and sat beside the bag.
“There’s still five hours left in this entry to the ruins, but there’s no need to delay it any longer. Just a short repair…
“And I can take my babies home!”
Fully restoring the energy of Ma Fei’s core would require the use of 10,000 disaster points.
Despite seeing that he only had 9012 points, Su Mo was not worried. He first put 500 points into the game panel to test the waters.
After the input of the points was confirmed, the progress bar that had been almost all the way at the bottom reacted as if it just had met nectar and slowly climbed up a notch, increasing the progress by about 4-6%.
At the same time, the damage time in the shelter rapidly changed from a countdown of 5 hours and returned to 36 days.
“From the looks of it, even if the energy is fully recharged, the shelter core’s damage time can only be maintained for about two years.
“Ma Fei probably left quite a bit of energy behind to supplement the consumption. Unfortunately, it’s all used up now.”
Su Mo calculated the time to his next visit to the ruins and checked his current remaining points before gritting his teeth and putting in 4500 points straight away, bringing the time back to 365 days.
“A full year is definitely enough. When I come in again next time, I need to bind you!”
At spending 5000 points, even Su Mo felt a touch of heartache.
However, after considering that this was a level 17 shelter core, his distress eased slightly.
As the progress bar slowly climbed upward, the time increased as well.
At the same time, an automatic exit button popped up at the bottom of the game panel. All Su Mo needed to do was select the items he wanted to take away, and in an instant, he could return to the wasteland.
He tried circling all the things he wanted to take away with him from the second level. As he expected, Doudou was excluded from this list.
“Doudou, before I bind this place, you can’t leave, so just wait for us here.”
This silly dog, Doudou, was a very good scout. Due to his brown-nosing personality, Su Mo decided to temporarily include him as outsourced staff.
He would wait until the day he obtained something similar to a pet contract to bind Doudou and let him fully join the team.
Doudou also had no objections to Su Mo’s decisions and nodded obediently, shying off to one side to hide.
“Get ready—we’re leaving!”
Su Mo signaled for Oreo and Moore to sit by him. As the automatic exit button lit up…
Whoosh!
A beam of light shot through the sky, instantly breaking through the protection of the sky barrier and enveloping Su Mo, as well as all the items in his net bag.
A second later, he and his two little ones—as well as all the goods in the net bag—vanished from Doudou’s sight as if they had evaporated, completely disappearing from the ruins.
