Chapter 27: Winter Is Coming
"The leaves are withering, the temperature is dropping, and an unprecedented crisis is approaching. This winter will be harsher than in previous years, and it will arrive earlier; There is not much time left for us to prepare. From now on, we must seize every minute, every second! Before the situation worsens, we must prepare for the cold wave!
"The mission panel has been updated with a list of necessities, facilities to be completed, and their corresponding rewards. Remember, only through unity will we overcome our difficulties! Winter is coming; This is our test of fate!" In the resident hall of the shelter, an inspiring voice echoed.
In response to the players’ high spirits, Chu Guang delivered an impassioned speech and officially began the prologue of the game’s first expansion since the closed alpha, "Winter is Coming". With the opening of a new chapter, the atmosphere of the shelter was beginning to change, much like the mood of the game’s official website.
It wasn’t just the players, even Chu Guang himself could feel the slightest sense of urgency in the gradually cooling air. The material reserves at the outposts weren’t enough to begin with, but the population soared from six to thirty; A full five-fold increase! Although this population surge had brought more labor, it had also doubled the supply pressure on the outpost. In order to feed thirty people, Chu Guang had been working very hard for the past two days. Nearly every day from morning to night, he went out hunting with Night Ten, who had the perception-type gene sequence, just to stockpile more food. For a while, they disrupted the entirety of Linghu Wetland Park, but the results were gratifying.
In only three days, Chu Guang had killed more than ten mutant hyenas himself, and the hares and squirrels caught in their traps were countless. Although they were all mutants, they were still edible.
Night Ten, who was responsible for alerting and scouting for enemies, had successfully advanced from LV0 to LV1. Chu Guang also quietly felt that he was close to the edge of a breakthrough, but the administrator's genetic sequence was too unique.
Chu Guang hadn't figured out the trick to leveling up yet, so he could only use the medical equipment to confirm that his genetic sequence’s development was progressing slightly.
On the other hand, the other players’ performance was quite outstanding, utilizing their talents to the fullest extent.
Old White and Ample Time used charcoal as their reducing agent. Through calcination, a small amount of iron slag was recovered from rusty steel bars, auto parts, and other iron-filled waste. This slag was added to the kiln and mixed with crushed limestone and clay to make a more reliable cement clinker.
This was a very physical job. Whether it was manually operating the bellows or using a two-wheeled trolley they had repaired to transport stone, it took a lot of effort. Though because of this, Old White, with his strength-type sequence, had leveled up once again, moving from LV1 to LV2 and increasing his strength attribute by one point.
As for Ample Time, who worked with him in shifts, he finally broke through and increased from LV0 to LV1. Unlike Old White, his attribute growth was not in strength, but in agility. It seemed that although genetic sequence development fit the law of "use and disuse", the growth of attributes was a separate matter.
When it came to leveling, Gale’s situation seemed to be the saddest. Until now, he was the only one at LV0 among the four closed alpha players. He spent his days using his improved trap to catch lots of fish, but he seemed to always fall short of enough experience to get to LV1. The experience gained from trapping mutants didn't seem to be as much as what he could get from killing mutants in frontal combat. Gale had thought about this, but there didn’t seem to be a good solution at this point.
Aside from the four chat group administrators– who were the first to experience the game– the two new players also seemed very motivated. They had not been idle a single moment over the past few days.
Mosquito was in no hurry to level up. He was still doing carpentry work, occasionally helping Old White and Ample Time or helping Gale fix any damaged traps. While he did all this, he was also busy with his own projects. By Mosquito’s own account, he intended to build a simple wood cabin to serve as his chemical laboratory and warehouse. While he helped carry stones from the construction site, he picked up bottles and jars and placed them next to the cabin.
Although Chu Guang doubted the safety of a log cabin, seeing how much he enjoyed it, he felt that it was better to not interfere too much with players' choices.
Compared with the leisurely life of Mosquito, Tomato Eggs was a model player among them all. As the chef of the outpost, he was not only responsible for cooking but also for helping the administrator handle the meat. This included bleeding, skinning, deboning, cutting, and most importantly, smoking. Since there wasn’t enough salt at the outpost to be used for smoking the meat, Brother Tomato Eggs used the most primitive method of smoking: adding nothing. He hung the cut meat directly on a steel frame and stuffed it into a cave made of clay and adobe. He smoked it with charcoal smoke by slowly roasting it over a low fire, and drying out the moisture in the meat. Then he sealed the hole with pine branches and leaves.
The meat preserved this way was more like air-dried meat. It could be stored for a long period of time without salt, and there was no need to use tobacco leaves to coat the surface.
By the beginning or middle of next month, it will be nearly Winter. When the time came, they could wrap the jerky in plastic bags or bark and bury them directly in the snow. It wouldn’t be difficult to eat them until the start of next Spring, even if this method didn’t make the meat’s taste or texture that great.
Tomato Eggs also didn’t want to waste the skins lifted from the mutant hyenas, so he collected them to make leather. Tanning was a very tedious and complicated process; far more troublesome than making jerky. What the shelter needed right now was not smooth high-end furs, but a warm material that could keep out the cold. Their quality didn’t matter, so any unnecessary processes were skipped.
When Old White burned wood ash earlier, the filtered potash water had been stored in the plastic bucket they picked up. Tomato Eggs used all of the potash water as a tanning liquid, which was used to soak the raw hides he had skinned from the game.
After waiting until the skins and tanning liquid had fully combined, he then hung them from a simple tanning rack to dry so that the leather would be of decent quality.
"Dear Administrator, I need to tell you that I’m overwhelmed with my work. I really need some help, even if it’s just one person!"
Taking the game that had just been shot from Chu Guang's hands, Tomato Eggs's sight floated to Night Ten unconsciously. He always felt that he seemed to be very idle, and he didn’t seem to do anything other than help the administrator hunt.
He might as well be helping him.
Night Ten could tell what he was thinking at a glance. He waved his hand quickly, "Don't look at me, I'm too busy." Tomato Eggs must be joking. Where else would he get the chance to follow the NPC and level up? He didn’t want to learn how to cook with him!
Seeing Night Ten’s resistance to the idea, Tomato Eggs couldn't help but roll his eyes and thought to himself, ‘Busy my ass!’
Hearing Tomato Eggs’ complaint, Chu Guang pacified him, "Night Ten needs to help me hunt for game and his danger perception is very important. I can't let him stay and help you, but I promise your problem will soon be solved. Reinforcements are already on the way, and soon they will reach the surface."
"Fine, then. Thank you. If that's the case, I can wait." Tomato Eggs sighed, paused for a moment, and continued, "There’s one more thing. Although I tried tanning the hides, I can only manage a few simple treatments. I have no idea how to turn them into clothes."
Chu Guang said with a smile, "Don't worry about it. The incoming reinforcements include someone with this very talent. I will leave the work of tanning and making warm clothes to them." There wasn’t just a tailor. Among the twenty-four new players he had selected, there were talents from all walks of life. Although they weren’t necessarily industry experts, some were students, their abilities could still be used to some extent. Besides, there was still the internet.
Chu Guang had full confidence in these energetic players. As long as they worked hard enough, one day they would all be able to move into a big house.
There was no doubt about that!
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