In Linghu Wetland Park, outside an abandoned sanatorium, there are wooden piles of varying thicknesses and sizes.
"I heard that if the newly chopped wood is not treated, it will crack and deform." Looking at the logs piled randomly on the wall, Lao Bai said with a frown and an axe.
Fang Chang asked.
"How is it usually handled?"
Lao Bai said.
"Bake the moisture in the wood, or paint both ends and wait for the wood to dry naturally. You can also soak it in water, but it will be more difficult to pick it up... I hope it won't rain in the next few days."
Lao Bai made a rough estimate, and after taking into account the results of yesterday's work, he cut all the wood into logs 3 to 4 meters long, sharpened both ends and dug them into the soil. It was more than enough to build the north and west walls of the sanatorium.
It's just that these woods are all untreated logs, so it's hard to guarantee their sturdiness, and they might rot after a few rains.
So he discussed it with Fang Chang and decided to change his mind and use cement as building materials.
There is a lot of concrete waste in the wasteland, even in nursing homes.
After time of weathering, thermal expansion and contraction, wind and rain, most of these concrete blocks peeled off from the steel bars have turned into debris.
There is no expectation of how reliable these materials are.
But there is no problem in building simple concrete fortifications by mixing these materials with cement and fixing them with some steel bars removed from the ruins.
Although it is a shoddy project, it is much better than wood.
We don't plan to build skyscrapers anyway.
However, if you want to utilize these concrete waste materials, you must first have cement.
To refine cement, they first need enough coal and a furnace that can withstand high temperatures of 1,450 degrees.
Just at this time, Kuang Feng and Ye Shi came back.
Fang Chang noticed that the plastic bucket held in Guangfeng's hand was filled with a bucket full of mud with a uniform texture.
"There is a river to the east of Linghu Lake. It is not on the map. It should have been formed in the past two hundred years. We have explored the entire lake shoreline from the east to the south. Areas where alien species are active and the locations of suspected nests are marked.
It’s on the map.”
As he said that, Guangfeng made Ye Shi take out a map, with some marks drawn on it with charcoal.
With this map, it will be much safer for them to go to the lake to get water.
But Fang Chang's attention was on the bucket in his hand.
"What's in this bucket is..."
"I found it by the river," Guangfeng continued as he placed the bucket on the ground. "I suddenly thought that I could use this thing as building materials, so I brought it back."
"This thing can't be used as a building material. It will disappear as soon as the water washes it off." Squatting on the ground, Lao Bai stretched out his hand to pick up some mud and rubbed it with his thumb and index finger. An excited expression suddenly appeared on his face, "But this thing
It's a good thing, our kiln is ready."
"Kiln?" Ye Shi was stunned for a moment.
"Lao Bai and I discussed it and planned to make cement," Fang Chang said.
Kuangfeng looked at him in surprise.
"Is this... okay?"
"What's not good? 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 helps me pick up some branches. Move quickly.
.”
"Okay." Fang Chang went there with great enthusiasm.
Kuang Feng and Ye Shi looked at each other and left in confusion.
…
The creek was not deep, but there was a lot of silt beside it, and it was not far from the sanatorium, so it didn't take much effort to get a bunch of it back.
Lao Bai made a circle with mud and dug two holes on the side as air inlets. Then he placed charcoal and dead leaves left over from previous fires in the mud circle and lit it with matches left by the administrator.
The fire started quickly.
The surrounding mud is slowly dried.
Lao Bai dug out the new mud with his hands and built it on the wall of the furnace while drying it. When the furnace was as high as his thighs, he began to stuff sticks as thick as his thumb into it.
"What is this doing?" Fang Chang looked curious. Although he had played survival games, he had never done such detailed work in a game.
"Burn charcoal! If we don't have coal, we can only use carbon instead. If we want to make cement, we can't burn wood. We have to start from the basics."
"How do you still understand this?"
"I played in my hometown when I was a kid."
"..."
It's okay to play it.
Who has nothing to do with this?
Standing up, Lao Bai clapped his hands and started to cap the stove before the fire in the stove ignited the firewood.
This step is critical.
Before the firewood is ignited, he needs to leave a hole at the top, wait until the temperature in the stove is high enough, and then seal all the holes with mud, letting the wood inside suffocate for a day, and he will have a full harvest tomorrow.
The stove is full of charcoal.
"If you fill up all the holes, the fire inside will be extinguished."
"It won't be destroyed immediately, and this is the effect we want."
Lao Bai wiped his sweat and patted Fang Chang's shoulder.
"Don't be idle. Let's renovate a few more kilns and get the cement burners out tomorrow."
"good……"
Not only did Fang Chang join Lao Bai's "construction team", but Fang Feng and Ye Shi were also recruited after moving enough mud.
The four players worked together to build four earthen kilns for making charcoal, and built a slightly larger one using aluminum-containing silicate clay dug from the river.
In Lao Bai's words, they can try to make some cement tomorrow.
What he plans to make is plant ash cement.
The cement made by this local method has little technological content and is not very reliable, but it is definitely stronger than wood.
And with plant ash cement, he can try to build a cement kiln that can withstand higher temperatures.
Lao Bai has already made up his mind to check the information online when he is offline.
"What the hell...I finally understand why the manager asked us to find a way to build a bathhouse." Smelling the stench of sweat all over his body, Ye Shi, who was already a bit of a germaphobe, felt like he was about to be stinked.
died.
This game is too hardcore.
"How about we go to the lake and take a bath before logging off?" Lao Bai suggested.
"I agree...but what about the manager? It's almost time to go offline. Why hasn't he come back yet?" Kuangfeng asked.
"Maybe there's something going on."
"Then how should we let him know the results of our work this afternoon?" Ye Shi asked quickly.
Fang Chang glanced at the nursing home behind him.
"There's no need to worry. I've already talked to the robot named Xiaoqi, and it said it has counted our results and will report the situation to the manager truthfully."
After hearing these words, Ye Shi finally felt at ease.
…
Just as the players were offline, taking off their helmets and getting up, ready to start a new day, Chu Guang, who was still on Beit Street, was carefully removing the plastic bucket from under the water purifier.
There are public wells on Beit Street, and each household has its own water collector, and Chu Guang is no exception.
Except for "luminous rain" that carries radioactive dust, or when the clouds obviously look abnormal, the rain in the wasteland is usually very safe, even safer than in the pre-war era.
After all, this is already two hundred years after the decline of civilization. Specialties of industrial society such as acid rain, smog, etc. are difficult to see here.
Of course, even so, drinking rainwater directly is not a wise thing.
By cutting a plastic water bottle in the middle, Chu Guang placed a layer of sun-dried pine needles and moss under the bottle mouth, and then added crushed charcoal ash on top.
In this way, a simple water filter is completed.
Chu Guang didn't know whether graphite could absorb radiation, but in the suburbs far away from nuclear craters, radiation was not the main threat to survival, diarrhea and dehydration were.
He still remembered that in the first month he lived here, he had to have a bowel movement almost every other day. He didn't die from the alien's hands, but almost died from his own intestines and stomach.
"Less than 10L...a drop in the bucket."
Looking at the bottles and jars in the room, Chu Guang sighed.
After saving supplies for many days, this player has only been here for a few days and has already used them almost.
You have to think of some ways.
At this time, there was a knock on the door.
Chu Guang stood up, walked up, pulled out the latch, and opened the door.
I saw Xiaoyu standing at the door, with his hands behind his back, staring at him with his big black eyes, and not speaking.
Chu Guang, who was just about to say hello, suddenly remembered the marriage that the second eldest son of the Yu family had told him about before, and couldn't help but feel embarrassed.
Take ten thousand steps back.
If there were no Shelter 404, no system, no players, and he would be left alone and helpless, he could only try to integrate into the society here... He wouldn't be able to do that!
too skinny.
Anyway, I'll keep it for another two years.
"What's the matter?" Chu Guang said calmly.
Yu Xiaoyu stretched out his arms hidden behind his back.
Only then did Chu Guang see that she was holding a small piece of black cake in her hand, which must have been made from green wheat paste.
"My second brother asked me to give it to you. He asked me to say that I made it for you." He read the words word for word.
This subject-predicate relationship between you, me, and me confused Chu Guang for a long time, and it took her a while to figure it out. It was Yu Hu who asked her to give this cake to him.
"Thanks?"
"Need not."
After stuffing the cake into Chu Guang's hand, Xiaoyu turned around and ran away, leaving Chu Guang alone and messy in the wind.
…
Present life.
Jinling.
After taking off his helmet, Yanfeng rubbed the bridge of his nose, reached out and groped on the bedside table, found his glasses and put them on.
After sitting on the edge of the bed and pondering for a while, he got up and went to the bathroom. After washing himself, he put on his coat, went downstairs, got on his bicycle, and strolled slowly to the cafeteria.
The time now is half past five.
Except for students taking postgraduate entrance examinations, few people would come to the cafeteria at this time. The entire hall was empty, with only a few windows near the door open for business.
The cafeteria lady who was busy behind the window recognized this regular customer at a glance and said with a smile.
"Professor Yan, it's so early today."
"Well, I went to bed very early yesterday...here are two buns."
"The buns have just been steamed, you have to wait a while."
"Not in a hurry."
Iwakaze took out his meal card and swiped it on the card reader.
The mist coming out of the steamer is very fragrant.
Iwakaze likes the smell very much, it makes people feel very comfortable, but unfortunately, it is not friendly to him who wears glasses.
Taking off his glasses and wiping the fog on them, Iwakaze couldn't help but think of his role in Wasteland OL.
Although the initial strength of myself in the virtual world is slightly inferior, it is still much stronger than myself in reality.
And the most important thing is that the self in the virtual world is not myopic.
At this time, someone tapped him on the shoulder.
Yanfeng put on his eyes and turned around and saw Professor Wang Haiyang.
"Is there a class in the morning?"
"There was no class, so I got up when I couldn't sleep."
"I thought you guys would stay up late doing physics."
"That's an illusion. I rarely bring my work home." Pushing up his glasses, Yanfeng suddenly thought of something, looked at him and said, "By the way, there's something I want to ask you about."
Professor Wang Haiyang raised his eyebrows.
"Is it the topic yesterday?"
Yanfeng nodded.
"Um."
"Wait a minute, let me ask first, is that the novel you are talking about written by yourself?" Professor Wang Haiyang said with a smile, "Novel is just as plausible as it is real. It really has to be exactly the same as reality.
On the contrary, it doesn’t look good.”
"Actually, it's not a novel. Frankly speaking, it's... a game."
"game?"
"Well," Yanfeng took the bun from the hand of the cafeteria aunt, peeled off the plastic bag and took a bite, "a post-apocalyptic game."
Professor Wang Haiyang became interested and asked.
"How specific?"
"I don't know the specifics. The game is currently in the closed beta stage, so I don't know much." Iwakaze paused for a while, "How developed a society can you say that a car can't even have a power source?"
"No power supply?" Professor Wang Haiyang was stunned for a moment and said with a smile, "Are you trying to use remote power supply technology to replace the fixed power supply?"
"Is it difficult?" Yanfeng asked.
"I don't know whether it is difficult or not. Just speaking from my professional point of view... Wireless power supply technology is not difficult. What is difficult is how we obtain clean and cheap energy, so that even if the energy loss reaches 90% or more
, the cost is still within an acceptable range.”
Having said 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 novels.
Nuclear fusion?
Yanfeng looked thoughtful.
"That's it..."
It seems that the story background in the setting of "Wasteland OL" is even grander than he imagined.
There should be a lot worth digging into here.
"When do you plan to publish your novel? Can you show it to me?" Professor Wang Haiyang joked, "Maybe I can give you some advice."
Yanfeng glanced at him.
"I told you it's not a novel."
"Okay, okay, if you say no, then it's not."
Taking his breakfast from the hand of the cafeteria aunt, Wang Haiyang smiled and patted his colleague on the shoulder, "I still have classes, so I'll go ahead. I wish you good luck!"