In Linghu Wetland Park, outside a deserted sanatorium, there are wooden stakes of different thicknesses and sizes.

"I've heard that freshly cut wood can crack and deform if it is not treated." Looking at the logs stacked randomly on the side of the wall, Lao Bai, who was holding the axe, said with a frown.

Fang Chang asked.

"How do you deal with it?"

Lao Bai said.

"The moisture in the wood is dried by roasting, or the wood is naturally dried by painting at both ends. You can also throw it in the water and soak it, but it will be more difficult to handle when you fish it up...... Hopefully it won't rain these days. ”

Lao Bai made a rough estimate, counting the fruits of yesterday's labor, cut all these woods into 3~4 meters long logs, sharpened the two ends into the soil, and repaired the north and west walls of the sanatorium.

It's just that these woods are untreated logs, and it is difficult to guarantee the sturdiness, and they may rot after a few rains.

So he discussed it with Fang Chang and decided to change his thinking and use cement as a building material.

There is a lot of concrete waste in the wasteland, and there are quite a few in nursing homes.

After time of weathering, thermal expansion and contraction, wind and rain, most of these concrete blocks stripped from the steel bars have become slag.

There is no need to count on how reliable these materials are.

But mixing these materials with cement and fixing them with some steel bars removed from the rubble made it easy to build simple concrete fortifications.

Although it is a tofu slag project, it is much stronger than wood.

I didn't plan to build a skyscraper anyway.

However, in order to make use of this concrete waste, cement must be available first.

To make cement, they first need enough coal and a furnace that can withstand temperatures of 1,450 degrees.

It just so happened that at this time, Tempest and Night Ten returned.

Fang Chang noticed that the plastic bucket that Hurricane was carrying in his hand was filled with a bucket of evenly textured mud.

"There is a river to the east of Linghu Lake, which is not on the map, and it should have been formed in the last two hundred years. We explored the entire shoreline from east to south, and the areas where xenomorphs were active and the locations of suspected nests were marked on the map. ”

As he spoke, the wind caused Yashi to pull out a map, and there were some marks drawn on it with charcoal.

With this map, it would be much safer for them to go to the lake to fetch water.

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

"What's in this bucket is ......"

"I found it by the river," Tempest continued, placing the bucket on the ground, "and it occurred to me that I could use this thing as a building material, and I brought it back." ”

"This thing can't be used as a building material, and the water will be gone as soon as it is flushed," squatting on the ground, Lao Bai reached out and picked up some mud, rubbed it with his thumb and forefinger, and an excited expression suddenly appeared on his face, "But this thing is a good thing, our kiln has fallen." ”

"Kiln?" Ye Shi was stunned.

"I discussed with Lao Bai and planned to make cement." Fang Chang said.

Tempest looked at him in amazement.

"This ...... Will it work? ”

"What's not to do? Isn't this a sandbox game," Lao Bai stood up and said excitedly, "Just pour the mud here, you go get a few more buckets and come back, Fang Chang will help me pick up some branches, move quickly." ”

"Okay." Fang Chang went with great energy.

Tempest and Yashi glanced at each other, and also went away in confusion.

……

The creek is not deep, but there is a lot of silt next to it, and it is not too far from the location of the sanatorium, so it didn't take much effort to get a pile back.

Lao Bai made a circle with silt, dug two holes next to it as air intakes, and then put charcoal and dead leaves left over from cooking on the fire in the mud circle, and lit it with matches left by the manager.

The fire soon arose.

The surrounding mud is slowly dried.

Lao Bai dug the new mud with his hands, baking it and building it on the wall of the stove until the stove was high to his thigh, and then he began to stuff the thumb-thick wooden stick into it.

"What is this?" Fang Chang looked curious, although he had played survival games, he had never done such meticulous work in the game.

"Burn charcoal! Without coal, we would have to replace it with carbon. If you want to make cement, you can't burn wood, we have to start from the basics. ”

"Why do you know this?"

"I played in my hometown when I was a kid."

“……”

It's okay to play.

Who has nothing to do with this.

Standing up, Lao Bai clapped his hands, and began to cap the stove while the fire in the stove had not lit the firewood.

This step is crucial.

Before the firewood is lit, he needs to leave a hole in the top of the stove, wait until the temperature inside the stove is high enough, and then seal all the holes with mud to let the wood inside simmer for a day, and tomorrow he will be able to harvest a full furnace of charcoal.

"Fill in all the holes, and the fire will be extinguished."

"It's not going to be extinguished right away, and that's what you want."

Lao Bai wiped his sweat and patted Fang Chang's shoulder.

"Don't be idle, let's build a few more kilns, and by the way, get out the cement burning tomorrow."

"Good ......"

Not only did Fang Chang join Lao Bai's "construction team", but even the two of them, Tempest and Night Ten, were also recruited after moving enough mud.

The four players worked together to build four charcoal-making clay kilns and build a slightly larger one out of aluminosilicate clay dug up by the river.

In Lao Bai's words, tomorrow they can try to make some cement.

What he was going to make was grass and wood gray cement.

The cement made by this soil method is not very technical and not too reliable, but it is certainly stronger than wood.

And with the grass ash cement, he can try to build a cement kiln that can withstand higher temperatures.

Lao Bai has already made up his mind, and when he goes offline, he will go online to check the information.

"Damn...... I now understand why the administrator asked us to find a way to get a bathhouse. "Smelling the smell of sweat all over my body, Ye Shi, who was already a little clean, felt like he was about to be stinked to death.

This game is also too hardcore.

"Why don't we go to the lake and take a shower before going offline?" Lao Bai proposed.

"I'm in favor of...... But what about managers? It's almost time to go offline, why hasn't he come back yet. Tempest asked.

"Maybe there's something."

"Then how are we going to let him know the fruits of our afternoon's labor?" Ye Shi hurriedly asked.

Fang Chang glanced at the sanatorium behind him.

"Don't worry, I've already told the robot named Xiaoqi, and it said that it has counted our results and will report the situation to the manager truthfully."

Hearing this, Ye Shi was finally relieved.

……

Just as the players went offline, took off their helmets and got up, ready to start a new day, Chu Guang, who was still on Bate Street, was carefully removing the plastic bucket under the water purifier.

There are public wells on Bate Street, and each household has its own water collector, and Chu Guang is no exception.

With the exception of "glowing rain" engulfed in radioactive fallout, or when the clouds clearly look abnormal, the rain on the wasteland is usually safe, even safer than it was in the pre-war era.

After all, this is two hundred years after the decline of civilization, and it is rare to see the specialties of industrial society such as acid rain and smog.

Of course, even then, it is not a wise thing to drink rainwater directly.

By cutting the plastic water bottle from the middle, Chu Guang padded a layer of sun-dried pine needles and tess under the mouth of the bottle, and then added crushed charcoal ash to it.

In this way, a simple water filter is complete.

Whether graphite can adsorb radiation Chu Guang does not know, but in the far suburbs far away from the nuclear crater, radiation is not the main threat to survival, diarrhea and dehydration are.

He still remembered that in the first month he lived here, he pulled water almost every other day, and he didn't die at the hands of the xenomorph, but almost died in his own stomach.

"Less than 10L...... It's a drop in the bucket. ”

Looking at the bottles and cans in the room, Chu Guang sighed.

I've been saving up supplies for a few days, and this player has only been here for a few days, and I'm already almost using them.

I've got to figure out something.

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

Chu Guang got up and walked up, pulled out the latch, and opened the door.

I saw Xiao Yu standing at the door, his hands behind his back, staring at him intently with big black eyes, and he didn't speak.

Chu Guang, who just wanted to say hello, suddenly remembered the second child of the Yu family, the family affair he had told him before, and couldn't help but be embarrassed.

Take 10,000 steps back.

Without Vault 404, no system, no players, he was isolated and could only try to fit into the society here...... He can't get that hand off either!

Too skinny.

It's better to raise it for another two years.

"What's the matter?" Chu Guang said calmly.

Yu Xiaoyu stretched out his arm hidden behind his back.

At this time, Chu Guang saw that she was holding a small piece of black cake in her hand, which should have been made of green wheat and made of paste.

"My second brother asked me to bring it to you, and he said let me say that I made it for you." Words are read word by word.

This subject-verb relationship between you, me, and me circled Chu Guang for a long time, and it took a while to figure it out that it was Yu Hu who asked her to give this cake to herself.

"Thank you?"

"No, you don't."

Stuffing the cake into Chu Guang's hand, Xiao Yu turned around and ran away, leaving Chu Guang alone in the wind.

……

Earthly.

Jinling.

Taking off his helmet, Iwako rubbed the bridge of his nose, reached out and groped around on the bedside table to find his glasses to put on.

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

It's half past five.

Except for the students who are going to graduate school, few people will come to the cafeteria at this point, and the whole hall is empty, only a few windows by the door are open.

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

"Professor Yan, it's so early today."

"Well, I slept pretty early yesterday...... Let's have two buns. ”

"The buns have just been steamed, you'll have to wait a while."

"There's no hurry."

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

The mist wafting from the steamer was fragrant.

Iwakaze likes the smell and makes people feel comfortable, but unfortunately, it's not friendly to him with glasses.

Taking off his glasses and wiping the fog on them, Iwakaze couldn't help but think about his role in Wasteland OL.

Although the initial strength of himself in the virtual world is slightly inferior, he is still much stronger than his real self.

And the most important thing is that the self in the virtual world is not short-sighted.

At this time, someone tapped him on the shoulder.

Yan Feng put on his eyes and turned his head to see that it was Professor Wang Haiyang.

"Got a class in the morning?"

"I didn't have classes, I couldn't sleep and I got up."

"I thought you guys were going to be late in physics."

"That's an illusion, I rarely bring work home," pushing his glasses, Yan Feng suddenly thought of something, looked at him and said, "By the way, there is something I want to consult you." ”

Professor Wang's eyebrows lowered.

"Was it yesterday?"

Iwakaze nodded.

"Hmm."

"Wait a minute, let me ask first, the novel you are talking about, should you write it yourself," Professor Wang Haiyang said with a smile, "It's good that the novel is specious, it really has to be exactly the same as in reality, but it's not good-looking." ”

"It's not a novel, frankly, it's ...... A game. ”

"Games?"

"Hmm," took the bun from the cafeteria aunt's hand, and Iwakaze peeled off the plastic bag and took a bite, "a game with a post-apocalyptic theme." ”

Professor Wang Haiyang became interested and asked.

"To be specific?"

"I don't know the specifics, the game is currently in closed beta, and I don't know much." Iwakaze paused for a moment, "You said how developed a society must be to make the car not even have a power source." ”

"No power?" Professor Wang Haiyang was stunned for a moment, and said with a smile, "Do you want to say that remote power supply technology is used instead of fixed power supply?" ”

"Is it difficult?" Iwakaze asked.

"I don't know if it's difficult or not, just from my professional point of view...... Wireless power technology is not difficult, but the difficulty 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 within the acceptable range. ”

Speaking of this, Professor Wang Haiyang paused and continued in a joking tone.

"I can't think of a better solution than the kind of controlled nuclear fusion depicted in science fiction.

Nuclear fusion?

Iwakaze looked thoughtful.

"That's ......"

It seems that the story background in the setting of "Wasteland Online" is even grander than he imagined.

There should be a lot more to dig into.

"When are you going to publish your novel?" Can you show me? Professor Wang Haiyang joked, "Maybe I can still give you a counselor." ”

Iwakaze glanced at him.

"I'm not a novel."

"Okay, okay, if you say no, it's not."

Taking his breakfast from the hand of the cafeteria aunt, Wang Haiyang smiled and patted the colleague on the shoulder, "I still have classes, go first." Good luck! ”