Chapter 118: Shelter Under the Department Store

Next day.

East Bank of Linghu Lake.

"Ready!" A loud and sharp voice echoed on the edge of the woods.

"Fire!"

The fuse was lit.

The large iron pipe fixed on the wooden post blasted out fire and white smoke. The cannonball turned into a black shadow, drew a beautiful parabola in the air, and smashed heavily into the lake hundreds of meters away.

After waiting for a few seconds, a column of water burst into the sky. Water splashed and fell, and the muffled sound echoed across the lake like waves of spring thunder.

"What the fuck?!"

"Who the hell is firing cannons there!"

"Fuck you, Mosquito!"

"You scared all my fish away!"

On the shore of the lake, the players who were fishing and had been bragging and chatting with each other brandished their fishing rods and shouted for a while, but Mosquito who was very excited and couldn’t hear them.

Since the production problem of nitric acid and sulfuric acid was solved, his small workshop was now able to produce a small amount of nitroglycerin, and by adding a little vegetable fiber, he could even produce nitrocellulose, which could be dissolved and gelatinized using a mixed solution of ethanol and diethyl ether to make very effective gelatinous gunpowder.

Although the drying process to solidify the particles had not been unlocked, it was much stronger than the original black powder!

The power of this shot was at least equivalent to thirty... No, fifty kilograms of black powder!

"Hahahahaha, Nice! I finally succeeded!" Mosquito threw his fist excitedly, but his fist hit the trunk beside him. Although it didn't hurt, he almost broke his hand.

It was a pity that there was too little sugar in the warehouse. It wasn't even enough to eat. Otherwise, he would be able to make even more awesome stuff with sugar and potash.

Not satisfied with just one shot, Mosquito used tongs to take out the hot cartridge case, loaded another round into it, and then turned it back to the previous angle before lighting the fuse.

Another loud bang filled the skies.

This time, the shell flew almost a full one hundred meters further than the last.

The sound of the explosion once again echoed across the lake.

The nomads who were coming to fetch water from the shore of the lake were all frightened by the thunderous sound, standing there looking at the water column shooting up to the sky from the lake.

"What, what is that?"

"Big guns?!"

"That... That should be a cannon. I have seen those cannons in those larger survivor strongholds, and they used those cannons to deal with large mutants."

"That’s really fierce! No wonder they can hunt a Crackleclaw Crab!"

Different from the shocked and amazed nomads, the fishing players finally couldn't hold back their anger and they all went to look for Mosquito from the lake with fishing rods in hand.

"Where the fuck are you, Mosquito?!"

"Can you go to other places with your cannon?!"

"You scared my fish away!"

"That's right! Fishing is already very hard in this game, but it’s even more difficult with you messing around!”

Seeing that the fishermen led by Quit Bullshit were walking towards him aggressively, Mosquito hurriedly pushed his little cannon cart and ran away in a hurry.

...

Meanwhile...

A department store not far from the south of the abandoned tire factory.

Five players were in the underground parking lot on level B2, fighting fiercely with the mutants lingering there.

The radioactive source was behind the door next to the freight elevator in the B1 area of ??the underground parking lot. They had already farmed the dungeon many times, so they knew where it was clearly.

After several times of kiting, pulling aggro, charging and focusing fire, the Bull and Horse Squad gradually cleared the Crunchers lured out by Irene, and successfully used the traps laid in advance to trap the Creeper Dungeon Boss inside.

Working with his teammates, Ample Time drew the Daybreaker and penetrated the Creeper's skull with a fully-charged shot, successfully killing it.

Night Ten, who was leaning against the concrete pillar, let out a long sigh of relief. He threw away the hatchet that had been damaged in his hand, raised his arm to wipe off his sweat, and cursed. "Whew! We finally cleared it! The dungeon in this game shouldn’t spawn any more monsters after it’s cleared, right? I don’t want to see another group coming out all of sudden."

Old White and Gale glared at him together.

"Don't jinx it!"

"Shut your mouth."

Night Ten drew his neck and closed his mouth.

"It shouldn't be able to spawn any more monsters. If they continue to spawn, I'm afraid we'll go bankrupt." Ample Time walked near the creeper and pulled out the arrow stuck in its forehead. After glancing at it, he threw the arrow away.

Obviously, it could no longer be used.

"Are you sure there won't be any other monsters down there?" With his right hand holding the wall, Irene walked out from the side with his lips twitching.

Night Ten smirked at him. "Don't be afraid, it's cleared now."

Gale gave a thumbs up: "We'll wait for your good news."

Irene: "What the hell?! Are you all not afraid?"

Old White responded as if it was a matter of course: "There's nothing to be afraid of, it's not a horror game after all."

"..."

That made sense. So much so that he didn't even know how to respond.

After dawdling at the door for a while, Irene finally got in with a crowbar and explosives to break the door.

It was a corridor that was neither wide nor narrow. It was probably a place like a spare warehouse before the war.

The rancid smell was so strong that it was almost suffocating. The floor was full of bodily fluids excreted by Crunchers and Creepers, and an unknown fungus was growing in the corners.

In this terrible environment, even the mutant cockroaches would probably shy away.

Although the last Creeper had already been lured out and killed by him, Irene was still very nervous.

The atmosphere here is so creepy.

He couldn't help remembering several horror games he had played.

Is this really a joy-oriented game that focuses on leisure and recreational activities?!

Like hell I would believe it!

Fortunately, what he feared did not happen.

With the light from the VM and the scanned map, Irene walked to the end of the passage smoothly.

There was a rusty alloy door at the end of the passage, and a corpse in a chemical protective suit lying down at the door, but the corpse had been reduced to just bones.

There was no bite or tear on the protective suit. It seemed that the person should have died before Crunchers occupied the place. It was at least a few decades earlier.

"The radiation index is getting higher and higher... It seems like the radioactive source is behind this door."

The guy lying on the ground should be the owner of this small shelter. In the backpack thrown aside, it was stuffed with some cans, puffed food packaging bags, as well as mushrooms and rotting remains that were beyond recognition. These should be the supplies the person foraged from outside.

No one knew why, but he died at the door of his house.

"Brother, forgive me."

Although reluctant, Irene still bit the bullet and took the fairly complete protective suit off the skeleton and put it on himself.

The air filtration system was broken, but it didn’t matter.

He only needed to block some gamma rays, and then the resistance and recovery bonuses provided by the constitution attribute should be able to handle the rest, so it shouldn't be a big problem!

After installing the explosives at the door and lighting the fuse, Irene quickly ran towards the exit of the passage.

Boom!

The smoke from the explosion filled the entire passage in an instant. After waiting for the smoke to dissipate a little, Irene returned to the door again.

The alloy gate remained motionless, but the concrete wall beside it was destroyed, exposing the steel structure inside.

"My goodness... It's so sturdy."

After a lot of work, Irene finally cleaned up the concrete debris from the broken wall with the crowbar in his hand. Then he slid the crowbar in with his arm and opened the bolt locks one by one.

Fortunately, there were no more protective structures.

Accompanied by the creaking sound, the thick alloy door panel finally opened, letting out the murky air wrapped in a fetid smell.

Stepping into the room, Irene held his breath, turned off the faintly glowing VM screen, and lit the lantern he brought with him.

The flames flickered for a few seconds before it became stable. Then it gradually illuminated the nearby space.

There were many indications that this was indeed a small shelter.

Well, at least it used to be.

The area of ??the shelter was not large. It could even be said to be quite pocket-sized compared to Shelter 404.

However, unlike the larger shelters with official backgrounds like Shelter 404, the small shelter was fairly compact.

Not to mention the kind of airlock room with two air locks and pressurization functions, there was not even an entryway here.

Behind the open alloy door, there were rows of shelves covered with moss.

Walking into the shelter with the lamp in hand, Irene carefully observed these shelves and found that above the glasswares displayed on the shelves, there were long strips of lights connected to them.

"Could it be... Soilless cultivation?"

This should be a planting area, probably used to produce crops such as vegetables and staple food, as well as to improve the air quality in the shelter.

But after so many years, the water in the culture tank had long been dry, leaving only a layer of dead moss and a few pieces of dry and curled plant fibers.

Irene couldn't even see what had been planted before.

Checking the radiation index on the VM, Irene carried the lamp and continued forward.

Behind the planting area, there were rows of real shelves.

It was the things displayed on these shelves that made him widen his eyes.

Copper ingots, steel ingots, aluminum ingots, lead... and a large number of metals that could not be accurately identified by his scavenging experience were neatly placed on them.

In addition, there were a large number of non-metallic materials such as glass fiber, graphite powder, rubber products, hydraulic oil, lubricants, adhesives, etc.

There were even some liquid or powdered chemicals of unknown composition!

And these materials, unlike the garbage scattered in the ruins, may have been treated with anti-oxidation. They were well preserved, or at least they seemed to be usable.

In addition to these materials for making equipment, Irene also found some unfinished tools and parts on the last row of shelves, as well as five yellow gold ingots and ten silver ingots!

When he saw this, his eyes almost popped out.

"Holy shit..." He couldn't help blurt out.

I’m rich!

It could be seen that the owner of this shelter must have been a rich person in the past, and it was very likely that he was the owner of the department store, or at least a major shareholder!

The dude’s sense of crisis and hands-on ability were exceptionally strong.

Immediately behind the shelves was a DIY workbench.

In addition to basic tools like screwdrivers and wrenches, it was also connected to guide rails, guide plates, mold balance devices, and hydraulic overload devices. Various interchangeable tools and processing modules were also hanging next to the workbench.

The entire workbench hardly used high-precision electronic technology, so even if it encountered EMP, its function would not be affected in any way.

And it was not difficult to maintain it at all!

Even in case of a power outage, one could use manual cranking to replace the electric motor and drive some of the processing modules on the workbench!

Compared with those high-precision tools that would stop working after leaving modern society, those primitive tools that were durable and had a long shelf life could bring people a sense of security.

Seeing this, Irene had a feeling that this workbench was much better than the workbench of the Weapon Shop Owner!

"I’m rich! I’m rich!... Oh right, I need to get to work first."

Without staying for too long, Irene, who was looking for the radioactive source, continued forward and passed the door behind the workbench.

Behind the door should be the living area.

According to the rising radiation index on the VM, the radioactive source should be inside.

Stepping into the living area cautiously, Irene saw the dormant pod facing the door and leaning against the wall at a glance.

The hatch of the dormant pod was open, and it looked like it was broken for a long time.

Judging from the open hatch and scattered parts and tools nearby, someone must have attempted to repair it but failed, likely leading to a severe electrical accident. This ultimately caused a power outage in the shelter, stopped the ventilation system, and potentially suffocated the people inside.

Irene found a single bed next to it, with two skeletons lying flat.

Judging by the shape and size of the bones, both should be adult females, but their exact ages were unknown.

Combining the body found at the door and the only dormant pod in the room, Irene came up with at least four possibilities in his mind on the question of who the owner of the shelter was.

However, it didn't matter which skeleton it belonged to.

For a player who was eager to clear the dungeon, the story of the dead didn't matter at all.

After some careful searching, Irene soon found the radioactive source that made his VM beep in a generator-like facility.

It was a jet-black cylinder inserted into a circular groove.

According to the story background of Wasteland Online, this thing was probably some kind of civilian fusion battery?

Or... Could it be a fuel rod for cold fusion generators?

Regardless of what it was, it was clearly broken, leaving only the damaged shell and radioactive residue that had nowhere to go.

In fact, strictly speaking, nuclear fusion should be clean, because the product was helium.

However, being clean here didn't mean it was harmless. It was just that the nuclear waste produced by controlled fusion was not that difficult to deal with compared to those nuclear wastes produced by nuclear fission.

After all, any material that was irradiated with high-energy neutron rays for a long period of time had the potential to develop induced radioactivity. It was just that the radiation dose of nuclear waste like that would be much smaller, and the harm would usually last for a few hundred years, which may be gone in a few centuries.

To put it more bluntly, as long as one didn't directly grab the damaged nuclear battery, there would be no major problems under normal circumstances.

In this regard, Wasteland Online was relatively realistic.

That was exactly what was happening.

Irene had only been holding the battery in his hand for a while, but he felt like he was dying...

"I’m not joking, I think I can still be saved."

Taking the radioactive source out, throwing it away, and then going back to the Bull and Horse Squads, Irene, whose nose was bleeding nonstop, said with a serious face.

Gale glanced at him and shook his head. "May you rest in peace, brother."

Only in game would he still be able to stand up and talk like it was not a big deal when the blood coming out of his nose was like running tap.

In reality, he would’ve been lying on the ground unconscious.

"Did you hear it? He is a physics teacher in real life, so you should listen to him," Night Ten patted his shoulder with a smile and winked, "Stop struggling, brother, go back and finish yourself off while you can still walk. We will collect the loot in the dungeon for you. Don't worry, we won’t forget your share!"

Irene pulled a long face. "I just wanted to ask, can recycling corpses reduce the resurrection cooldown?"

Ample Time also said with a smile. "How is it possible? Haven't you read the information on the official website? The resurrection cooldown is not a death penalty. But you are lucky, at least your VM is not broken. Otherwise, you'll have to buy it again. By the way, if you are worried about not being able to make it to the base, you can leave the VM with us, lest you die halfway and lose both the corpse and VM. If that happens, then you will be in big trouble."

Irene grumbled, "What the hell! So you guys don’t care about me at all! You only care about not losing the VM! Can there not be a little bit of warmth in this cold world?"

Night Ten rolled his eyes. "We are just worried that you will need to pay for the VM again. If this is not caring for you, then what is it?"

"Okay, stop talking," Old White coughed and interrupted Night Ten. He then looked at Irene and comforted, "We can give you 5% more of the income from the dungeon loots, which should be able to compensate for your losses for the next three days. Next time, if there is an opportunity for cooperation, we will team up with you again, what do you think?"

5% was already a lot. After all this dungeon was discovered by the Bull and Horse Squad, and the damage output was basically done by them as well. They had consumed quite a lot of ammunition and supplies as well.

As a passerby who got invited into the team halfway through, Irene's share in the agreement was originally only 10%, so the extra 5% was already quite generous.

Old White's words finally made Irene feel that there was still a little warmth left in the cold world.

With a sad face and a bleeding nose, Irene took off his VM and handed it to Old White solemnly.

"Please tell Xiaoyu that..."

Halfway through the sentence, he collapsed on the ground with a thud.

Night Ten couldn't hold back and laughed out loudly.

Gale turned his head sideways, shoulders shaking.

Looking at the pool of blood on his sleeve, Old White finally sighed with his lips twitching. "I'll get him into the wagon first. Let's drag him back together when we’re done."