159: Base construction

Zhang Xile's Shelter was built in the center of a village at the foot of a mountain.

As for the Shelter's manor, the manor's area was a fixed circle, but the Shelter's buildings could be moved freely within it, including buildings constructed from architectural facility blueprints.

A level five shelter had a system panel map of the manor, allowing the Shelter owner to control it even if he was not within the manor.

Three residential buildings were also erected in the village at the foot of the mountain.

The residential buildings were only ten stories high, but each floor had ten rooms on both the left and right sides. However, the rooms were very small, only twenty square meters. This felt very familiar to Tang Ping, because the first time he arrived in the future, the buildings he lived in were of this type.

Now it was the turn of the people in his own base to live in such houses.

Although the houses were small, they could at least provide Shelter from wind and rain, which was much better than the damaged village houses outside, the makeshift shacks, or even sleeping directly in cars.

As for how to allocate them, that could be left to Zhang Xile.

The base gradually stabilized. With contribution points personally forged by Tang Ping using flames, and grain as hard currency, the survivors began to perform their respective duties.

Building walls, reclaiming land, planting crops, clearing weeds, hunting Pollution Beasts, patrolling and guarding, and many other tasks all required manpower. In short, in Tianfu Base, as long as one was not lazy, even cutting grass could provide enough food.

Being able to eat one's fill was already a very difficult thing in this apocalypse...

"Oh my dear mother, I'm exhausted. I reclaimed half an acre of land today, and I feel like my little arms and legs aren't even mine anymore."

The man sat down on the edge of the field, with a digging tool beside him.

"I'm not saying this to criticize you, but why are you working so hard? The contribution points from half an acre of land can already be exchanged for twenty catties of sweet potatoes."

The young man next to him was much thinner. Although he hadn't reclaimed much land, he was still panting and half-dead from exhaustion. After all, he used to work in an office in a big city. How could he handle this kind of physical labor? Even if he awakened his Talent and gained two points of strength and two points of physique, he couldn't sustain it.

"Alas, why couldn't I awaken a good Talent? What's the use of this F-grade Water Splash Talent?!" the young man complained mournfully.

"It's not bad. At least our base awakens everyone. This is still a Talent, and we can be considered extraordinary people," the strong man said, gnawing on a sweet potato. He still had a wife and child to support. If he worked more, his wife would work less, and besides, the child was growing, and he still wanted to exchange for some eggs for the kid.

"What kind of extraordinary is this?" the young man grumbled.

"Hehe, at least drinking water doesn't cost contribution points," the strong man also had a Water-type Talent, also F-grade. He opened his palm, a small splash of water appeared, and then he gulped it down.

"That's about all it's good for," the young man also cupped his hands to drink some water. Digging here, sweating a lot, indeed consumed a lot of water.

Shouts came from not far away.

"Hoes! Hoes! Newly forged hoes!"

A man was pushing a small cart through the fields, filled with various tools for reclaiming land.

These tools were better than those provided by the base and could be traded directly for contribution points or grain.

"If only I had a Metal-type Talent, I could make and sell farm tools," the young man said with a resentful expression. Unfortunately, although water cost money, it wasn't worth much.

"He can't make many in a day, and he doesn't earn as much as I do from digging," the strong man mumbled, chewing on his sweet potato.

The young man immediately complained, "Listen, listen to what you're saying! With your physique, you could punch a calf to death. You spent a whole morning grunting and digging half an acre of mountain land. Who can compare to you?!"

"Hehe, I can't help it, my mother gave birth to me this way, I'm just naturally sturdy," the strong man grinned, showing his big teeth.

"By the way, have you received your house yet?" the young man asked.

"My wife said that a house costs a lot of contribution points each month. With those contribution points, it's better to get some meat for the child. Anyway, the broken houses in the village are still livable."

"But I heard that those scattered village houses are going to be cleared out. After all, the world is vast, but farming is the most important."

"What's there to be afraid of? My wife said, get a tarp, find a few sticks, and set it up, that's enough. Anyway, there are city walls guarding us, and a patrol team. If we live or die, whoever chickens out is a coward."

"Are you willing to let your wife live like that with you? With your ability, you should be able to afford the rent, right?"

"I told you, my wife said if I dared to spend so many contribution points on renting a house, she'd chop off my head with a sickle at night."

"..."

"Anyway, as my wife says, no matter how poor we are, we can't skimp on food. No matter how hard things are, we can't let the child suffer. As for living, making do is fine."

"You're awesome! Your wife is even more awesome!" the young man gave a thumbs up.

The weather was quite nice today, with a bright sun. It was precisely noon, and many people were resting under the trees around the fields.

The rising of the sun also debunked the online rumor that the sun would never rise again. However, what they didn't know was that in three months, the sun would gradually be obscured by gray fog, and sunlight would no longer be healthy, even causing contamination to the body.

And the Shelter was the only existence that could Shelter them. At that time, most people, for the rest of their long lives, might live within the Shelter's manor area. By then, some well-developed bases would even have a level six shelter, a manor of ten thousand acres, totaling 6.7 square kilometers, enough for many people to survive.

Of course, perhaps many people would only be able to survive outside. These people, as long as they solved the problems of food and water, could also live, but their bodies would age very quickly, and their lifespan would be drastically reduced. But if lucky, perhaps their bodies would undergo deformity, or mutate after eating certain things, making them immune to contamination. This group of people was also the earliest batch of Mutants.

At the city wall

A group of people were building the city wall, using cement, sand, bricks, and stones—basically everything usable. Some people were also dedicated to quarrying stone.

Quarrying stone was even more tiring than reclaiming land.

"At this rate, the city wall will basically be functional in a month," a middle-aged man sighed. This man, Zhang Hong, was originally a police officer from Qishan Police Station. He was now a formal soldier of the Tianfu Army, currently patrolling outside the city wall, killing any Pollution Beasts that might emerge to rampage.

After the contamination descended, Pollution Beasts also became more and more numerous. In the near future, the outside world would be the domain of Pollution Beasts.

"Yes, but those Pollution Beasts are still too strong, and they are bizarre and strange. It will be difficult to stop them with just the city wall."

"It can stop some, but mainly, it can bring peace of mind to people," the middle-aged man Zhang Hong turned his head, looking at the highly motivated people, and sighed in his heart, then his gaze sharpened: "To stop the Pollution Beasts, it still requires people like us."

A woman who was moving stones suddenly let out a scream, and then her entire body was dragged underground!