Chapter 15

In the Henghu Wetland Park, outside the abandoned sanatorium, stood various sizes of wooden stakes.

"I heard that freshly cut wood will crack and deform if not treated." Old Bai, frowning, said while leaning on his axe, looking at the logs piled haphazardly against the wall.

Fang Chang asked.

"How is it usually treated?"

Old Bai said.

"Dry the moisture in the wood, or paint the ends and let it dry naturally. You can also soak it in water, but it will be harder to handle when you take it out... I hope it doesn’t rain these few days."

Old Bai roughly estimated that, including yesterday's work, cutting all these logs into 3-4 meter long pieces, sharpening the ends, and driving them into the ground would be more than enough to repair the north and west walls of the sanatorium.

However, these logs were untreated, and their durability was hard to guarantee. A few rains might make them rot.

So he and Fang Chang discussed and decided to change their approach, using cement as the building material.

There was a large amount of concrete debris in the wasteland, and even in the sanatorium.

After weathering, thermal expansion and contraction, and wind and rain, most of the concrete blocks that had peeled off the rebar had already turned into fragments.

It was unrealistic to expect these materials to be reliable.

But mixing these materials with cement and using some rebar from the ruins to reinforce them, building simple concrete structures should be no problem.

Although it would be a shoddy project, it would still be better than wood.

They weren’t planning to build skyscrapers anyway.

However, to use this concrete debris, they first needed cement.

To produce cement, they needed enough coal and a furnace that could withstand 1450 degrees Celsius.

Just then, Kuangfeng and Yeshi returned.

Fang Chang noticed that Kuangfeng was holding a plastic bucket filled with a bucket of uniform mud.

"There’s a river to the east of Henghu, not marked on the map. It probably formed in the last two hundred years. We explored the entire eastern and southern shorelines, marking the areas where mutants are active and the suspected locations of their nests on the map."

As he spoke, Kuangfeng had Yeshi take out the map, which had some marks drawn with charcoal.

With this map, they would be much safer when fetching water from the lake.

However, Fang Chang’s attention was on the bucket in his hand.

"What’s in this bucket?"

"I found it by the river," Kuangfeng said, placing the bucket on the ground, "I suddenly thought it could be used as a building material, so I brought it back."

"This won’t work as a building material; it will wash away with water," Old Bai squatted down, picked up some mud, and rubbed it between his thumb and index finger. Suddenly, an excited look appeared on his face, "But this is a good thing. Our kiln is secured."

"Kiln?" Yeshi was puzzled.

"I discussed with Old Bai, and we plan to produce cement," Fang Chang said.

Kuangfeng looked at him in surprise.

"Can this... work?"

"Why not? This is a sandbox game," Old Bai stood up, excitedly said, "Just put the mud here, go get a few more buckets, and Fang Chang, help me gather some branches. Move quickly."

"Sure thing." Fang Chang enthusiastically went.

Kuangfeng and Yeshi exchanged glances and went with a puzzled look.

...

The river wasn’t deep, but there was plenty of mud nearby, and it wasn’t far from the sanatorium. They didn’t have to exert much effort to bring back a pile of mud.

Old Bai used the mud to form a circle, dug two holes on the side as air inlets, and placed charcoal and dry leaves from the previous fire in the mud circle, lighting it with matches left by the administrator.

The fire quickly rose.

The surrounding mud gradually dried.

Old Bai dug new mud with his hands, drying it and building the kiln walls until it reached his thigh. Then he started inserting thumb-thick sticks into the kiln.

"What are you doing?" Fang Chang was curious. Although he had played survival games, he had never done such detailed work in a game.

"Burning charcoal! Without coal, we can only use charcoal. To produce cement, burning wood won’t work. We need to start from the basics."

"How do you know this?"

"I played with it when I was a kid."

"..."

Playing with it is one thing.

Who does this for fun?

Standing up, Old Bai clapped his hands, and while the fire in the kiln hadn’t ignited the wood, he began to seal the top of the kiln.

This step was crucial.

Before the wood was ignited, he needed to leave an opening at the top. Once the temperature inside the kiln was high enough, he would seal all the openings with mud, letting the wood smolder for a day. By tomorrow, they would have a full kiln of charcoal.

"If you seal all the holes, won’t the fire go out?"

"It won’t go out immediately, and that’s the effect we want."

Old Bai wiped his sweat and patted Fang Chang’s shoulder.

"Don’t just stand there. Let’s build a few more kilns and prepare for tomorrow’s cement production."

"Sure..."

Not only did Fang Chang join Old Bai’s "construction team," but Kuangfeng and Yeshi, after fetching enough mud, were also recruited.

The four players worked together, building four charcoal kilns and a slightly larger one using aluminum silicate clay from the riverbank.

According to Old Bai, they could try producing some cement tomorrow.

He planned to produce wood ash cement.

This method wasn’t high-tech and wasn’t very reliable, but it would definitely be better than wood.

With wood ash cement, he could try building a kiln that could withstand higher temperatures.

Old Bai had already decided to look up information online when he logged out.

"Damn... I now understand why the administrator wants us to build a bathhouse." Yeshi, who had a bit of a cleanliness obsession, felt he was almost being stunk to death by the smell of sweat.

This game was too hardcore.

"Shall we go to the lake for a bath before logging out?" Old Bai suggested.

"I agree... But, where’s the administrator? It’s almost time to log out, and he hasn’t returned yet." Kuangfeng asked.

"Maybe he has something to do."

"How do we let him know about our afternoon’s work?" Yeshi asked urgently.

Fang Chang glanced at the sanatorium behind him.

"You don’t need to worry. I already talked to the robot named Xiao Qi, and it said it has recorded our work and will report it to the administrator."

Hearing this, Yeshi finally felt relieved.

...

As the players logged out, removed their helmets, and got up to start a new day, Chu Guang in Bet Street was carefully removing the plastic bucket from the bottom of the water purifier.

Bet Street had public wells, and each household had its own water collector, including Chu Guang.

Except for the "glowing rain" carrying radioactive dust or when the clouds looked abnormal, the rain in the wasteland was generally safe, even safer than in the pre-war era.

After all, it had been two hundred years since the decline of civilization, and industrial byproducts like acid rain and smog were rare here.

Of course, even so, drinking rainwater directly wasn’t wise.

By cutting plastic water bottles in half, Chu Guang placed a layer of dried pine needles and moss at the bottom of the bottle and added crushed charcoal ash on top.

This created a simple water filter.

Chu Guang didn’t know if graphite could absorb radiation, but in the suburbs far from the nuclear craters, radiation wasn’t the main threat to survival; diarrhea and dehydration were.

He still remembered that in the first month he lived here, he almost died from his own digestive issues, not from mutants.

"Less than 10 liters... It’s like a drop in the bucket."

Looking at the bottles and jars in his house, Chu Guang sighed.

The supplies he had accumulated for many days were almost used up by the players in just a few days.

He needed to think of some solutions.

At this moment, there was a knock at the door.

Chu Guang got up, removed the latch, and opened the door.

He saw Yu Xiaoyu standing at the door, her hands behind her back, her big, black eyes staring at him without saying a word.

Just as Chu Guang was about to greet her, he suddenly remembered what the second son of the Yu family had said to him earlier about a marriage proposal, feeling a bit awkward.

Even if he took a step back.

If there was no Shelter 404, no system, no players, and he was isolated and had to try to integrate into this society... he couldn’t bring himself to do it!

She was too thin.

Maybe in two more years.

"Is there something you need?" Chu Guang said calmly.

Yu Xiaoyu extended her arms from behind her back.

Only then did Chu Guang see that she was holding a small, black cake, which was probably made from green wheat porridge.

"My second brother asked me to give this to you. He said to tell you that I made it for you." She spoke slowly, word by word.

The subject-verb relationship in her words confused Chu Guang for a while, but he eventually figured out that Yu Hu had asked her to give him the cake.

"Thank you?"

"You’re welcome."

She handed the cake to Chu Guang and then turned and ran away, leaving him standing alone, feeling a bit lost.

...

In the real world.

In Jinling.

Rock Wind removed his helmet, rubbed his nose, and felt around on the bedside table for his glasses, which he put on.

After sitting on the bed for a while, he got up, went to the bathroom, washed up, put on a coat, went downstairs, and slowly rode his bicycle to the cafeteria.

It was 5:30 AM.

Except for students preparing for the postgraduate entrance exam, few people would come to the cafeteria at this time. The hall was empty, with only a few windows near the door in operation.

The cafeteria aunt, who was busy at the window, immediately recognized this regular customer and said with a smile.

"Professor Yan, you’re here so early today."

"Yes, I went to bed early yesterday... Two buns, please."

"The buns are just being steamed, you’ll have to wait a bit."

"No problem."

Rock Wind took out his meal card and swiped it on the reader.

The steam from the steamer smelled delicious.

Rock Wind liked this smell; it made him feel comfortable, but unfortunately, it wasn’t friendly to his glasses.

He took off his glasses, wiped the fog off, and couldn’t help but think about his character in Wasteland OL.

In the virtual world, although his initial strength was slightly weaker, he was still much stronger than in the real world.

And the most important thing was that the virtual world version of himself wasn’t nearsighted.

At this moment, someone patted his shoulder.

Rock Wind put on his glasses and turned around to see Professor Wang Haiyang.

"Class in the morning?"

"No class, I just couldn’t sleep."

"I thought you guys in physics would work late."

"That’s a misconception. I rarely bring work home," he pushed his glasses up, suddenly thinking of something, and said, "By the way, I have something I want to consult you about."

Professor Wang Haiyang raised an eyebrow.

"Is it about yesterday’s topic?"

Rock Wind nodded.

"Yes."

"Wait a moment, let me ask you one thing. The novel you mentioned, isn’t it something you wrote yourself?" Professor Wang Haiyang said with a smile, "Novels are best when they are somewhat ambiguous. If they were exactly like reality, they wouldn’t be interesting."

"It’s not a novel, to be honest, it’s... a game."

"A game?"

"Yes," he took the buns from the cafeteria aunt, peeled open the plastic bag, and took a bite, "A post-apocalyptic game."

Professor Wang Haiyang became interested and asked.

"Can you be more specific?"

"I’m not sure myself. The game is currently in closed beta, and I don’t know much about it." Rock Wind paused, "You mentioned a highly developed society where cars don’t even have power sources."

"No power source?" Professor Wang Haiyang was puzzled, then laughed, "Are you talking about using remote power supply technology to replace fixed power sources?"

"Is it difficult?" Rock Wind asked.

"I’m not sure, but from my professional perspective... wireless power supply technology isn’t difficult. The challenge lies in how we can obtain clean and cheap energy, so that even if the energy loss reaches 90% or more, the cost is still acceptable."

He paused and continued in a joking tone.

"Besides the controlled nuclear fusion described in science fiction, I can’t think of a better solution."

"Nuclear fusion?"

Rock