(Readers are strongly recommended to listen to the vocal section of Hotel California while reading this chapter)
Su Mo lifted his head under the boundless moonlight.
It was as if he saw Magoo’s smiling face outlined in the grey skies above; a true man who refused to give up.
May his soul rest in peace.
Holding Magoo’s notebook, Su Mo felt the burden that he was carrying grow slightly heavier.
However, it was not the time for mourning.
He could hear Oreo’s continuous barks from below; she was obviously curious about the buggy.
Su Mo briefly covered the remaining traces on the ground before descending the hill at a brisk and light pace.
There was a single-seat cabin in the buggy, but Magoo had also added a rear compartment behind the engine, which Su Mo assumed was used to carry a small cargo load.
Oreo was able to fit into that space perfectly.
He sat Oreo down inside and buckled her in.
“Be careful and don’t randomly move about. If you fall, you’ll become a disabled dog.”
After he gave Oreo a warning, he looked at her sitting quietly in place. Su Mo smiled before returning to the front.
He bent down and climbed into the buggy’s cabin, buckling up before starting the engine like he usually did.
The buggy’s engine ignited and started humming.
Oreo, who was sitting behind it, was clearly frightened by this, but as Su Mo had given her a reminder, she did not make any sudden moves.
After making sure that everything was fine, Su Mo shifted the gear into drive and released the brakes.
The buggy began to move slowly!
“Arf? Woof woof? Woof!”
Oreo looked around curiously, not understanding how she was moving forward despite sitting absolutely still.
The next second, Su Mo stepped on the accelerator, and Oreo was fed with a gust of wind when she opened her mouth, woofing away.
“Arf woooooooooooooooof~”
“Oh yeah!”
Su Mo shouted excitedly as he felt another gust of howling wind blowing past.
The sound waves created by revving the engine were as good as the V8 luxury sports cars on Earth!
The birds that were flying above in the sky were shocked and scattered in all directions.
He moved his hand toward the radio and pressed on the Music button. A song started to play, pulsing like a bass subwoofer through the quiet wasteland:
On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair~
Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air~
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light~
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim~
I had to stop for the night~
There she stood in the doorway~
I heard the mission bell~
And I was thinking to myself~
This could be Heaven or this could be Hell~
…
It was a classic song that Magoo had picked up somewhere. Together with Oreo’s woofs, it echoed melodiously through the Wasteland.
Traveling at 40km/h, it wasn’t long before he was back in front of the shelter, parked while waiting for a song to finish playing.
“With this speed, I’ll have no issues paying a visit to kobold’s saltpeter mine tomorrow.”
Oreo was still slightly frightened, but seemed to still want to continue the ride, nudging Su Mo as she was being removed from the buggy.
Su Mo had to prepare a garage for the buggy.
That place would be… the gap that Huang Biao and the others had dug into previously.
“Those people were a big help to me. All I have to do is construct a sloped roof, put up some wooden boards, and it can serve as a temporary garage.”
Su Mo was all smiles as he took the shovel out and started work on their unfinished project.
The construction progressed quickly with the help of Su Mo’s good-quality equipment.
Su Mo easily dug out the slope within ten minutes. At the other end of the slope was the surface of the shelter’s stone walls.
Although the temporary garage looked simple and crude, it was sufficient to guard against the mutant beasts.
As for humans, Su Mo thought that there would be no one else who would be as daring as him to cross the wasteland at night.
Even if there were, with Oreo’s surveillance abilities and his cache of weapons, it would be akin to those people handing themselves to him on a silver platter.
Back at the base, Su Mo quickly cut out a few wooden boards and took them out; laying them atop the slope and completing the simple garage construction project.
Su Mo then went back to the buggy and, after examining the structure to make sure that there were no problems, he started it up and reversed perfectly into the garage. He then laid down a few wooden boards in front so that it looked like a wooden box had covered up the buggy.
“Great!”
Su Mo brushed off the dust on his shoulders, nodded his head satisfactorily, and went back to his base.
“My progress is way too fast. Just wait till my sister sees this! I’m afraid that she would never expect to have such an impressive brother!”
After drinking a mouthful of psychic energy water and making sure all the shelter doors were locked, Su Mo felt satisfied as he walked over to where the kobold was lying.
“Huh, it seems like someone’s hungry~”
He patted its head. Su Mo finally recalled what he had forgotten when he was having dinner.
The wound on the Kobold Mage had not worsened after its treatment with psychic energy water. While it looked like he was dying, it turned out to be only because he was hungry.
Su Mo searched about and took out some biscuits mixed with psychic energy water and placed it in front of the kobold.
The Kobold Mage should be kept alive before he found the location of the saltpeter mine and kobolds’ camp.
Su Mo nodded as he looked at the Kobold Mage wolfing down the food, before heading back to the center of the base.
There was no concept of time during the night in the wasteland. Everyone could only use the ancient method of telling the time by looking at the moon.
“It should be around midnight now, perhaps eleven or twelve o’clock. Too bad there’s no nightlife in the wasteland.”
Su Mo tidied up the yellow-stained clothes on him. He felt slightly disgusted and changed out of them. He then took a small cup of water out and rinsed his mouth at the culture medium.
Little Spark and Big Spark had been preparing for sleep when they caught sight of Su Mo. They lifted their chicken heads in acknowledgement before continuing to sleep after that.
“Life’s flourishing. I have a desk lamp and a heating pad. Su Mo’s shelter is finally getting better!”
After rinsing his mouth, he went back to the supply storage and retrieved the desk lamp and heating pad that he had traded for in the morning.
In the master bedroom, Su Mo laid the heating pad down, connected the desk lamp to the electricity supply, and finally laid down on his bed.
“Based on this progress speed, perhaps I can create gunpowder in a few days, or maybe even some upgraded explosives.”
“By that time…”
Su Mo was excited just thinking about the possible treasures he would get from those kobolds.
“No way, I’m too excited. I won’t be able to sleep like this. I should read some chat messages to calm myself down.”
The gentle light from the desk lamp filled the room with warmth. One could almost forget that they were in the middle of the wasteland. Instead, this almost seemed like a scene from a home in the rural countryside.
Su Mo focused his mind while changing into a more comfortable resting position.
The virtual game panel popped out immediately.
Tapping on the World Channel, the screen displayed the messages and news items one by one that were slowly flooding the screen.
At this time of day, most people had already used up their trumpet counts, and the rest of them were filtered by the system. This made it easier to keep up with all the messages.
As he was scrolling, he realized that there was news of the Halflings. Su Mo then nodded his head and switched over to the Regional Channel.
Halflings arrived into this world together with humans. Taking the speed of progress into account, many of them should have already encountered this strange creature, yet no one actually described its characteristics; only mentioning the need to be careful of them.
In the days after the first disaster, the number of players in the Regional Channel had been reintegrated. Two days had passed since then, and there were still 982 people left out of the 1000.
18 of them had been unlucky enough to encounter some form of danger, or unlucky circumstance, and died.
As there were no speaking limits in the Regional Channel, there were dozens of them chattering away as if they were in a Telegram group chat.
[Fei Zhi: Bros, I’m hungry. I’m lying on the floor of a wooden house with broken windows. My whole body is shivering. When will this end?”
[Liang Jian: The bro above, you’re so much better off than I am. I ate a pack of dried noodle snacks. I had diarrhea at night and it was so bad that I almost died from it.”
[Liang Jian: Is there anyone who knows… can we eat what we’ve excreted? I don’t have any grain reserves left…]
[Na Wenxing: Liang Jian, I thought you told us that your shelter was good enough. Why does it sound so bad now? Has it gotten to the point that you have to eat your own sh*t?]
[Liang Jian: Nice one. I bet this shelter will be done for in a few days. Last time, it was mutant beasts going after the humans, and now the humans are going after them instead? How ironic!]
[Liang Jian: I’m toughing it out for now. Once the secret realm trading opens, I’ll look for Su God to trade for something.]
[Cai Junfeng: What have you got there?]
[Liang Jian: Heh, it’s a secret. If everyone can keep surviving, just do it. We’re lucky to have Su God in our channel. I heard that some of the other lousy channels lost half of their members. None of them were good enough to keep everyone’s spirits up.]
[Du Fu: I’m here to introduce something. The tree bark of some bushes are edible. I ate some of it today and it tasted fine. If you can’t stand the hunger, go and get some. It’s better than eating dirt.]
[Emerald: Mr. Su Mo is able to eat his fill right? Sob, sob, sob. I’m so envious of him.]
[LilyHelen: Sigh, I’m going to flee to another shelter for help in the World Channel after I run out of food in two days.]
[Ju Dong: The noob above, don’t get phished!]
[LilyHelen: Huh? What’s phishing?]
Su Mo looked at the Regional Channel. His name had been mentioned a few times, and he could see the miscommunication caused by differences in Eastern and Western cultures. He smiled helplessly, then turned off the chat panel.
If only they knew that he ate fried meat patties and biscuits with psychic energy water. The big and soft bed that he was sleeping on, covered by gentle lighting from the desk lamp at his bedside; even the kobold he caught had psychic energy water with biscuit paste. Those people would go crazy with envy if they knew.
“All done. I’m going to sleep! Got to get up early tomorrow to explore the camp!”
Su Mo slowly fell asleep while thinking about the things he had to do the next day.
He lifted his hand to switch off the desk lamp, and then the shelter turned quiet.
