Chapter 120: Sixteenth Day! The Last Obstacle!
The moon set and the sun rose.
A little bit of sunlight came from the crop culture room. Coupled with the lights from the glimmering wall of treasure chests, it illuminated most of the shelter.
Sitting at the bedside, Su Mo quietly awaited the arrival of eight o’clock prompt.
[Doomsday Calendar Month 1, Day 16]
[You laid down in front of the wall of treasure chests you harvested. You have slept very securely, your whole body has become relaxed (Survival points +10)]
[Your shelter has received the mystical blessing of the Lion G.o.d. Obtained the power of the wind (Survival points +50)]
[You have the obtained your first excellent-quality armor. In the cold winter, your chance of survival has increased (Survival points +60)]
[Your pet Oreo spotted a potential threat and you avoided a potential wave of danger (Survival points +10)]
[You have detected four waves of enemies in succession and formulated thorough countermeasures (Survival points +30)]
[You killed an enemy and completed your declaration on the doomsday wasteland. At the same time, you feel that your intentions were well understood (Survival points +500)]
[You have harvested an incomplete batch of supplies. Some harvesting remains to be completed (Survival points +30)]
[Scanning host survival environment. Survival points evaluation in progress. 232 survival points gained today.]
…
Total calculation: Survival points +922
Survival points remaining: 1982
“This harvest isn’t too bad. Given how much time I spent relaxing yesterday, I didn’t expect to receive this many survival points!”
After seeing the huge sum of 500 points given after killing Kento Maeda, and the daily fixed survival points restored to 232 points, Su Mo nodded in satisfaction.
There was no specific rule when it came to obtaining survival points. Sometimes it would suddenly increase by several hundred points just because of a small incident.
At other times, when Su Mo thought that a few hundred points would be added for an event, the system would only award a few dozen points, which was confusing.
“According to the current bonus, I feel that the more comfortable and relaxed I am in handling an incident, the more points are given by the system. It’s an ideal style for me!”
After looking at the system panel once more, Su Mo turned off the heating pad, got dressed, and got out of bed.
Compared with the temperature of the shelter from yesterday’s snowfall, the temperature today had risen a lot to about 5 degrees.
Su Mo went to the commands center and turned on the TV, before beginning his routine investigation of the shelter’s surrounding situation.
“Hey, it doesn’t seem to be snowing anymore?”
The picture on the TV was abnormally calm. When he turned on the camera, the snowflakes had stopped falling, the breeze had stopped blowing, and the ground was quiet.
After checking that there was no problem nearby, Su Mo simply put on his combat uniform, opened the door, and walked out.
Compared with yesterday’s squall of wind and snow, the weather today was finally much better.
Over the horizon, even the sun had came out to release its rays of light.
Even though the temperature brought by sunlight was like a lamp in a refrigerator, Su Mo still felt a touch of warmth in his heart.
“This is more like it. If it kept snowing seven days before the disaster, who would be able to stand it!”
Taking off his mask, a could wind blew in.
Although it was still a bit cold, it was much better than yesterday’s biting chill.
Su Mo walked over to the hill and looked around the vicinity of the shelter. After moving his body around for a while, Su Mo returned to the shelter again.
This kind of weather was suitable for traveling, and it was also suitable for…
Revenge!
The saltpeter mining camp was the lifeblood of kobolds. If they wanted to increase the power of their fireball technique, the camp was an indispensable resource point.
After a day, even if they were slow, the kobolds would have regained the mining camp already, or even resumed resource production.
“The previous bomb completely blew up the defensive layout of the saltpeter mining camp. Without the help of Kento Maeda, even if the kobolds had stockpiled resources, it would not be possible to rebuild a similar level of defense in the short span of a single day.”
“This would be the moment when the defense of the saltpeter mining camp is empty.”
While taking out some flour to make breakfast, Su Mo looked at the description of the camp that was saved in the private message channel.
Although there were currently reserves of sulfur and toluene, the saltpeter, an important item for making picric acid explosives, had all been used up.
Attacking the camp with bombs was the first option to be excluded from consideration by Su Mo.
Set a fire? Dig a tunnel? Diversion tactics?
After thinking about it, without revisiting the current defensive layout of the saltpeter mining camp, Su Mo couldn’t think of a solution, so he simply let it be.
Su Mo came to the crop culture room and saw that the leaves of the Chinese cabbage on the side of the culture medium were about to be bald, so Su Mo had to hold his tongue and walked back to the cooking pot.
“I have eaten noodles for so many days. I should just make some unleavened pancakes today, and take this stuff along with me to work.”
The unleavened pancake was also a favorite delicacy of the people from Shan Xi.
When one was hungry at night and did not want to eat rice or noodles, one could go straight out to the barbecue stall beside the ancient city wall.
This dish was served with a handful of beef and lamb skewers that were grilled to be crispy and tender, as well as tendon and kidney skewers. Of course, all these were combined with the essential unleavened pancake.
Spread out the pancakes and sandwich the meat skewers between them. Press down on the pancake fiercely and watch as the oil from the skewered meet seeped into the pancakes, creating the fragrant aroma of tongue-biting spicy fresh meat.
After a bite, the mouth would be full of pancakes and meat. The more you chew, the more the aroma exploded and, finally, top it off with a flagon of beer. The taste was… simply beautiful.
Even though there was no meat nor skewers on hand today, Su Mo drooled as he smelled the browning unleavened pancakes in the pot.
The novel smell also attracted Oreo, Big Spark, and Little Spark’s attention.
With the help of their wings, Big Spark and Little Spark could flutter up and take glances at the good food in the pot.
Oreo was spinning around anxiously. Without Su Mo’s permission, she dared not climb onto the stove to check out the delicious food in the pot.
“Wait. Before I say you can eat, don’t be hasty!”
Smelling the scent of the pancakes in the pot, Su Mo paused and brushed over a layer of vegetable oil to make the scent more intense.
Such heavy-tasting pancakes could not meet the healthy living standards of low sugar, salt, and oil in the civilized era.
But in the doomsday world, it could be considered first-cla.s.s “fine” food.
Su Mo had been roasting two pots of pancakes. After making enough to last for three or four days, he put them into the storage s.p.a.ce, and stopped the fire.
At this time, the pancakes in the first pan had just cooled down.
Su Mo put several pancakes into three small food bowls and returned to the supplies storage. He took out the long-preserved bag of drunkard peanuts.
The peanuts were salty and spicy, as well as very soft and glutinous.
For this meal, Su Mo ate half a catty of them and finally put the glutton in his stomach to sleep.
“Oh dear, my appet.i.te has been getting bigger and bigger. If this goes on, this amount of food won’t be sufficient for me!”
After finis.h.i.+ng was.h.i.+ng the stove and the food bowls of the little ones, sitting on the stool, Su Mo’s thoughts drifted off.
On Earth, who would have thought that such a simple and plain food item could be eaten as much as a catty at a time without getting tired of it.
When the food in his stomach digested a little, and he did not feel as bloated, Su Mo started to get up and prepare the items he was going to bring with him on this trip out.
First of all, he certainly could not follow Maeda’s people’s footsteps and walk to the saltpeter mining camp on foot.
“Should I create anti-skid chains for the vehicle myself, or directly upgrade it through the system to have the the ability to drive through the snow!”
After looking at the limited remaining resource materials in the base, as well as the survival points that had been restored to nearly 2000 points, Su Mo decided to go for the system upgrade.
As for the things to bring on the journey, there wasn’t a need to prepare much.
Two pistols, a crossbow, a spear, armor, combat uniform, other weapons, and equipment.
Pancakes, a few large bottles of psychic energy water, and the food packed for traveling was all prepared.
Finally, Su Mo brought along a few units of common resource materials in case of an emergency.
“Oreo, let’s go! We’re going out for work!”
Putting on the armor over the combat uniform, he pressed and tested all the electric switches to confirm that there was no problem. Then Su Mo opened the entrance door and went out.
Due to the sense of security brought about by the full-body equipment, even if he opened the door of the shelter and stepped right out, Su Mo felt confident.
Hot air gushed out from the main door of the Underground Shelter. When the cold air in the surroundings and the surging hot air from the main door mixed, they produced a white mist.
While Su Mo was closing the door, the hyperactive Oreo wandered around outside the Underground Shelter.
After confirming that there was no problem, a person and a dog steadily headed toward the Deep-sea Shelter.
Su Mo had traveled and forth several times on this section of the road, and he could easily find the position with his eyes closed.
Within half an hour, the Deep-sea Shelter lay in front of them.
The footprints of the people from yesterday were still faintly visible. Standing around the footprints, Su Mo looked at the top of the Deep-sea Shelter and then sighed slightly.
“Although the old dog Kento Maeda was a beast, he was right. Information is truly the most important thing in the wasteland.”
“Because of my active pursuit and attack, there was a sufficient information gap between the two of us. Had I still been cautiously hiding in the base, they might have won!”
After he walked over to the Deep-sea shelter and pulled the hinge plate, Su Mo successfully ignited the engine and drove the Earth Tiger out.
After closing the door of the bas.e.m.e.nt and the door on the second floor, Su Mo sat in Earth Tiger and tried to accelerate to a speed of 20 yards per second. As expected, if he turned the steering wheel just a little, the next second, he would feel the car oversteering.
The Earth Tiger, as a standard rear-drive vehicle, could easily skid in the snow. If it had an ESP (Electronic Stability Programme) to adjust and reduce the output torque of the engine to brake the wheels and prevent the car from skidding and drifting, it would be great.
However, given its current purely mechanical structure, it had to be completely controlled by the driver. If it was driven a little faster, when turning to avoid obstacles and to change directions, it would likely immediately flip over.
“Without an electronic control unit, many intelligent controls and functions cannot be achieved. It seems that I can only use the dumbest method to prevent skidding!”
Su Mo summoned the system and, as Earth Tiger’s property panel appeared, he looked and found the options for snow chains underneath.
Regarding this tool, although it would damage the tire, if the tire was repaired using the system, there should not be any issues.
After spending 45 points to install it, a green light flashed and the four wheels of the Earth Tiger were covered with anti-skid chains.
This time Su Mo got in the car and tried to accelerate again. As long as he stayed below the speed of 40 yards per second, the car was a lot more stable!
“Everything is ready! After burning down the camp today, no one will be able to hinder my development!”
Looking in the direction of the Underground Shelter from a distance, Su Mo felt pride surface in his heart. After charting the directions to the saltpeter mining camp, he stepped on the accelerator and the Earth Tiger sprinted off vigorously.