Chapter 491 Level 4 Resource! A Mind-numbingly Terrifying Gain!
Doomsday Month 4, Day 3. It was the final week until the 100-day milestone of humankind’s arrival on the wasteland.
The weather in the Deep Ocean was unknown.
In the basin area, beginning at two o’clock, a light drizzle of rain poured down, falling on the tops of the residents’ tents with reassuring pitter-patter sounds. After being scorched by the sun for a few days, there were large patches of cracked ground all over the territory.
At this moment, the ground received the nourishment of rainwater and slowly started “healing”.
Then, at 5.50 am, not only did this rain not stop, but it became even heavier. The despairing cold winter of the New World had yet to arrive, but the long rainy season had already quietly arrived. Although Iron Rock Mountain’s cave network could still be used for now, it could only accommodate two to three hundred people.
Even before the heavy blizzard came, the need for infrastructure and construction work was already placed before everyone!
“Get up! Hurry up and get up! Quickly tidy this place up. We have to dig out a moat before nine o’clock!
“Everyone, wake up! Wash up and eat, then we’ll get to work!”
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Chen Shen stood halfway up Iron Rock Mountain as he beat a gong and a drum. His voice, through the loudspeaker, could be heard far and wide.
Thanks to his thoughtful “wake-up call”, the villagers that were still dreaming all quickly crawled up out of their beds.
They took out their washbasins and collected rainwater.
Amid the cooling rain, in just less than twenty minutes, all the villagers completed their morning routines. On the other side, the cooks of Hope Village also warmed up the dry rations they had brought with them previously. Steamed buns, salted vegetables, and congee. It was a simple and plain breakfast but, on this doomsday wasteland, it gave everyone who queued up to receive it, a long-lost sense of peace!
“Motherf*cker, why did I never notice how tasty this plain congee with salted vegetables was? Now that we’re living on the wasteland, it smells so fragrant that I could bite my tongue off!”
“Indeed, indeed. As a southerner, I’ve never had such a firm steamed bun. Eating two of these has satisfied my appetite.”
“Heh heh, I don’t know when we’ll be able to have some meat. The taste isn’t as stimulating for me. I really want to eat some good food.” “Zhuang Shi[1], your name means simple, but you are not. Ha ha ha, where in our territory can you even find a shadow of an animal? Even if you want to eat meat, there’s nowhere to find any.” “Hey, don’t say that. Just look at those…” “F*ck me, you even dare to have designs on the lizards we caught yesterday! No, no, I will claim them first!”
Squatting under the canopy, all the villagers chatted with each other as they held their breakfasts in their hands.
Nearby them were the thirty lizards or so that were happily jumping about as they watched the cooks prepare them a grain breakfast. The gazes of the villagers revealed ill intentions.
In modern society, they were used to fish and meats, their meals never lacking in meat, eggs, and milk.
During the civilized era, many people did not need to perform manual labor and, as such, their desire for meat could still be suppressed. However, on the doomsday, after long periods of daily manual labor, the genes in their body had been stimulated, and even a slice of meat would thrill them so much that their scalps would turn numb.
That sensation of consuming protein and fats was something that vegetables and dry foods could never compete with.
“I’m warning you all—these lizards are my babies.”
“If things work out well, the scale of our breeding program will increase in a year and a half. At that time, it’ll be no problem to give you all some meat.”
“Now though, each of you better take a good, hard look. Whoever dares to have any ideas about these babies, you better believe that I’ll cut a year’s worth of your food!” Overhearing these villagers’ chatting, he knew that they were all joking. Still, Chen Shen knocked on the side of his own bowl and gave everyone a warning. Last night, after Su Mo interrogated Paulie the dwarf and locked him in Iron Rock Mountain, Chen Shen did not remain idle.
Along with Shen Ke, Qi Qin, and Zhang Long, they all participated in the follow-up interrogation process. After questioning him in detail for over two hours, thanks to dwarf Paulie’s forthcoming answers, they obtained a lot of valuable information!
Among these, the most valuable was about these lizards!
For a normal small lizard, the process from the moment the mother lizard was pregnant to the point where it laid and hatched the egg only required 30 days! Moreover, the time needed for a normal small lizard to grow to adulthood was only 90 days! If managed properly, the number of lizards present in the territory could double to more than a hundred in four months.
If they waited a further four months, these hundred-over lizards could quintuple in number; reaching over 500 was not an impossible feat. Furthermore, if they were allowed to reproduce for up to a year, and given sufficient food supplies, the number of lizards in the basin would definitely exceed the 2000 mark.
By that time, everyone could have one as a mount and could even use them to perform other tasks.
Aside from this, Paulie informed them that the lizards could undergo changes in their bloodline under specific circumstances, which would give them all sorts of strange and unique abilities.
Due to this, for these more than 30 “babies”, Chen Shen crawled out of bed early in the morning and specially ordered the cooks to make their favorite food. After his warning, the villagers all reined in their desires and did not speak of the matter any longer. At 6.40 am, work officially started.
The Hope One needed a suitable environment that could support it. Without sufficient materials, the village could not build a suitable frame at the moment.
However, digging a trench that would keep Hope One from tipping over was not difficult.
Looking at the Underground Shelter in the distance that still had its doors shut tight, everyone worked hard; their shovels working up a frenzy.
However, what they did not know was that Su Mo—who was on the third floor of the Underground Shelter-had also gotten up early.
At six-thirty in the morning, hearing the sound of rain coming from the second floor ventilation duct, Su Mo got up, full of energy.
Although he had only slept for six hours, the peace he felt after returning to the Underground Shelter allowed Su Mo to fall into a deep sleep, so he woke up extremely satisfied.
Moreover, the moment he thought about the fact that the basin area would obtain twelve different resource nodes today, as well as about how he could finally access his survival points gains and receive the completely new territory upgrade system, Su Mo was so moved that he got up immediately. He kept clenching and unclenching his fists again and again to relieve the excitement in his heart.
“I hope this territory upgrade is similar to what I’m imagining. Otherwise, even if the basin area gains twelve new resource nodes, it would still take a lot of effort to catch up to the other foreign races’ territories!” He used the fresh rainwater to wash his pots and pans. Walking through the passageway on the second floor, he arrived in front of the storage room that had been sealed for a long time, from which he took out a batch of supplies. After a long absence from the Underground Shelter, Su Mo prepared breakfast here for the first time.
The pot started to emit steam. An hour later, when Su Chan-who had still been sleeping-got up from the fragrance of the food that was cooking, Su Mo laughed and lifted the pot’s lid. “Hurry and wash up since you’ve woken up. The beef soup will be done soon. Have a bowl of beef noodle soup, and it’ll keep you from being hungry all day!” The meat he used for this dish was the good beef that he had obtained from a treasure chest.
The soup had a mellow taste and had been mixed in with the enhanced psychic energy water that was naturally sweet. The noodles were hand-pulled, resulting in an incomparably chewy ramen that had been stretched to 32 feet before being portioned out.
He added in the appetizing oils and spices, white and tender radishes, and garnished it with some coriander. By the time Su Mo had filled up five bowls, Moore-who stood beside him—had started drooling all over the floor long ago.
Picking up his own serving, Moore slurped down a big gulp of soup, disregarding the heat.
“Flavorful…”
“So flavorful!”
Drinking a second gulp of soup and chewing on the noodles and beef, Moore was so moved that his tears glistened. It attracted Su Mo’s attention as well. “Come and rate your brother’s cooking skill!” “Absolutely!”
The beef noodle soup that had enhanced psychic energy water added to it had completely overthrown the previous taste of beef noodle soup back on Earth. Thanks to its effects, no matter whether it was the spiciness of the chilis, the umami of the beef broth, or the taste of the coriander, all of those sensations had been increased many times over.
Every sensation massaged their taste buds.
Every bite was an incomparable pleasure.
One full pot of beef broth and noodles contained enough to feed ten people but, in less than half an hour, its contents were completely demolished by the two large and four little ones.
Seeing that the clock hanging in the living room was already pointing at 7.15am, Su Mo put his bowl and chopsticks down.
“Moore, I’ll let you handle the dishwashing. I’ll head off to work first!”
“Okay!”
As he poured the last bit of soup into his bowl, Moore was not dissatisfied with the task Su Mo assigned to him.
He smiled as he looked at Su Chan, who was still happily slurping down the noodles in her own bowl. Su Mo widened his stride and walked up to the first floor. He collected the psychic energy water and the diesel fuel that accumulated yesterday and stored them into bottles and barrels.
By the time Su Mo had finished dealing with this “daily task” and opened the shelter doors, the clock had just struck eight o’clock in the morning.
Buzz!
An invisible ripple flashed, and the system panel that had been missing for a long time appeared once again.
On the upper left corner of the panel, Su Mo noticed the long-awaited daily system announcements at a glance! Moreover, this time, the color of the daily system announcements button was not the usual white, nor the pale gold from the previous instance, but rather an unprecedented pure gold! As it exuded an eye-catching brilliance, just by glancing at its color, Su Mo was so moved that he wanted to run a few laps right there.
“Adding it all up, it has been more than 20 days since the last round of announcements.”
“If I managed to earn a thousand points every day, twenty days would mean twenty thousand points!”
Picking up a black umbrella, Su Mo slowly walked out under the rain.
In the distance, the villagers noticed Su Mo’s figure immediately and greeted him with cheers.
Chen Shen, who had kept watch at the door, also came up to him. “Leader, you’ve come. Hope One’s trench will be finished soon. We will probably be able to move it in at nine o’clock!”
“Good, not bad. What I’m looking for is this kind of efficiency.”
Taking the blueprint design from Chen Shen’s hands, he examined the details of the trench’s design, after which he nodded in satisfaction. With professionals among the villagers, he finally did not have to manage these minor matters personally. Still, after recalling the changes that were going to happen very soon, which he had noted down, Su Mo paused and then said, “Right. Call the villagers over and tell them to prepare themselves for a surprise later!” “Ah? A surprise?” “Could it be that you’re actually planning to slowly develop this destitute basin area?” Clapping Chen Shen’s shoulder, as he gazed at his seemingly knowing but disbelieving expression, Su Mo laughed. He picked up the pace and walked toward Iron Rock Mountain. In the eyes of those around him, he was someone exalted to the point that he seemed to be out of this world.
Su Mo’s steps were not just steady, they were also very quick. In less than three minutes, he reached the path heading up to Iron Rock Mountain.
After twenty minutes, when the first muffled sounds started echoing, as Chen Shen began briefing the villagers, the basin area started exploding with activity. The 1405 villagers were…
Shocked!
It was as if heaven and earth had opened up, and an earth dragon had rushed through the territory.
The originally cracked ground seemed to gain some luster at this moment.
Before everyone’s eyes, the ground centered around the Underground Shelter suddenly began to change.
The cracks disappeared… No traces of the dried yellow dirt remained either…
It was as if this land had never suffered the baptism of the ocean water. Within just the span of a few breaths of time, the land returned to the wasteland’s usual appearance.
Moreover, within an extremely short period of time, its color began to deepen. Just one glance was sufficient to tell them that the land had become fertile. “Has the basin area been revived?”
When the first villager raised such thoughts, a second loud rumbling sound immediately followed.
A towering mountain no smaller than Iron Rock Mountain appeared at the border of the territory in less than ten seconds.
Even though the sky was overcast, everyone could clearly see this mountain. There were a large number of green plants, and they could even see spots of red among the green. For the poverty-stricken basin area that had been either charred yellow or black, this change of color was like the sweet advent of spring In an instant, the entire land no longer seemed that dark. It even possessed some vitality. However, just like the first time, before everyone could voice their shock at this mountain, a third…
A fourth…
And a fifth… roar sounded again!
Like the roar of loud cannon fire, it was as if the entire land was about to split open, both the mountains and the land shook.
There were even bits of iron debris that fell off the cliffs of Iron Rock Mountain.
However, at this time, Su Mo—who stood at the top of the mountain-did not move at all, almost as if his feet had been rooted to the ground.
Moreover, like the villagers below, Su Mo’s face was full of joy! [Record): Congratulations to player “Su Mo” for successfully using the Level 1 random resource generation card. You have received: fertile land (five mu)*1.
[Record): Congratulations to player “Su Mo” for successfully using the Level 2 random resource generation card. You have received: fruit tree mountain (40 meters)*1. [Record]: Congratulations player… Twelve resource cards. Without any hesitation, after taking them out of the storage space, Su Mo chose to use them all. There were eight Level 1 cards, three Level 2 cards, and one Level 4 card. The sounds that heralded their appearance was enough to shock everyone in this land. However, fortunately, the curtain of rain acted as a natural barrier.
Even if those outside the territory were curious, they could not clearly see the changes that were taking place inside the basin area.
Once the final Level 4 resource card was activated, disregarding the water pooling at his feet, Su Mo immediately sat down cross-legged and summoned the game panel to examine his gains. [Land resource (fertile land)… Level 1] [Tree resource (Chinese red pine)… Level 1] (Tree resource (Scotch pine)… Level 1) [Mineral resource (copper ore)… Level 1] (Water resource (freshwater lake)… Level 1] [Vegetation resource (dense green grass)… Level 1] [Animal resource (yak)… Level 1] [Animal resource (sheep)… Level 1]
(Land resource (fruit tree mountain)… Level
[Food resource (carp)… Level 2)
[Mineral resource (heatstone mine)… Level 2) [Mineral resource… (high-quality tungsten ore)… Level 4)
Wow!
From top of the list to the bottom, after noticing that every single one was very useful, Su Mo involuntarily laughed like a maniac.
The reason why these were so important was because, firstly, the basin area had become so barren that even five mu of green grass was an extremely rare resource node.
Secondly, there were enough people in the basin area to rapidly maximize the usage and potential of each of these resource nodes.
Based on the game’s rarity and usefulness ranking, after categorizing the resource nodes, Su Mo tapped on the first few resource nodes and took a serious look at them.
esource
[Mineral Resource (high-quality tungsten ore… Level 4)
[Mineral state: Complete; yet to be mined; at full capacity]
[Mining value: Four stars (Maximum: Four stars)]
[Special ability: High quality (the purity of the mined tungsten ore will be higher)] [Mining difficulty: High-Very high) [Remaining reserves: Four million tons] “Ss… there are actually four million tons, my goodness!”
The tungsten ore that originated from the Level 4 resource card, which he had obtained from the God of the Ocean title promotion ruins, had given Su Mo a great surprise from the start.
In the civilized era, a single ton of tungsten ore would sell for 60 thousand!
r
Moreover, anyone who knew a little about steel and the military would be aware of the importance of tungsten.
Hollow-point bullets, traditional armor-piercing bullets, the blades on lathes, metal-cutting blades, drill bits, super-hard die casting, and more, all required tungsten! If steel was like the meat that was regularly eaten at the dining table, then tungsten was like the knife and cutlery used to eat it. Without them, it would be very difficult to
eat.
They now had a reserve of 4 million tons of the hardest metal in the world. This meant that Hope Village, with regard to the development of metal production and its derivative industries, had…
Boundless potential!
“Originally, I was still worried about how to deal with the issue of the cutter head on the machine tool. With this tungsten ore, even if it is very difficult to mine, I can still find a way to get my hands on some in an emergency.”
“Truly worthy of being a Level 4 resource card!”
Exhaling a long breath of air, after closing it, Su Mo looked at the remaining resources that he had obtained.
[Animal Resource (Yak)… Level 1] [Special ability: Cold resistance (Resistant to the effects of cold weather up to negative twenty degrees)] [Remaining reserves: 10 adults (equal number of males and females)]
[Animal Resource (Sheep)… Level 1]
[Special ability: Fluffy (Wool growth speed +30%)]
[Remaining reserves: 10 adults (equal number of males and females)]
[Food Resource (Carp)… Level 1]
(Special ability: Growth (Time to maturity: -25%)]
[Remaining reserves: 2000 adults (equal number of males and females)]
[Land Resource (Fruit Tree Mountain)… Level
[Resource state: Peach trees, persimmon trees, apple trees, hawthorn trees, cherry trees.]
(Harvest value: Two stars (Maximum: Two stars)]
(Harvest difficulty: None] [Special ability: Tasty (the taste of fruits growing on the mountain increases by 15%)]
[Remaining reserves: 100%]
[Mineral Resource (Heatstone mine)… Level
Resource state: Complete: yet to be mined
Level 4 Resource! A Mind-numbingly Terrifyin… growing oli me 110urlLalli HICIEases Dy 1570)
[Remaining reserves: 100%]
[Mineral Resource (Heatstone mine)… Level 2]
[Resource state: Complete; yet to be mined]
[Mineral introduction: A type of ore that can absorb heat. After a large amount of heat is absorbed, the heat inside will be slowly released to its surroundings over a protracted period of time.)
(Mining value: Two and a half stars (Maximum: Two and a half stars)]
[Mining difficulty: Medium]
(Special ability: Durability (number of repeated uses +50%)]
[Remaining reserves: 50 tons] (1) È zhuāng shí; the # in his name is the same character as EF “lãoshi” which can mean honest or simple-minded