Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 218: Two-Star Supply Storage Warehouse

"Cousin, everything's ready."

"Good. Let's get to work."

Leon and Thomas each gripped a sledgehammer, while Li Wei and Zhao Xuanxuan each held a steel chisel. They picked their spots and started swinging.

This was how they planned to break through the concrete sealing the underground chamber's entrance.

They took turns swinging the sledgehammer and holding the chisel steady. With everyone's current physical attributes, landing three hundred blows without stopping was no problem at all. The thunderous pounding echoed through the entire building.

The concrete layer was thick, though. Whoever had done this must have had something in mind.

Even with four of them rotating through, it took nearly half a day of solid work before they finally broke through the layer — nearly a meter of solid concrete. Absolutely brutal.

Then again, looking at it from another angle, they had to be grateful to whoever had left this treasure behind.

"Adai, go take a look first."

Once the underground passage was opened, Li Wei didn't rush in. He sent Adai flying in to scout ahead. He was fairly certain there was no danger inside, but it was better to be safe.Before long, Adai came flapping back out and perched in a spot off to the side where he wouldn't be in the way, looking thoroughly bored with existence and clearly unwilling to be disturbed.

Right. Looked like it was clear.

Li Wei waved them forward. They filed in one after another — and every single one of them froze in astonishment. Because what lay below was a warehouse. Not just any warehouse — something like a hardware and building materials store. So the five-story building above had originally been the town's shopping center?

They'd struck it rich.

Li Wei led the group on a full sweep of the nearly 500-square-meter warehouse. No dangers detected. Whatever magical radiation source had been here seemed to have been completely depleted.

A rough reconstruction wasn't hard to piece together. Near the rat burrow that had been broken through, they found human bones bearing bite marks. Scattered nearby were roughly two tons of coke, spread all over the floor. It seemed the magical radiation source had been hidden within the coke — first triggering the Rat King's mutation, then injuring many of the shopping center's staff. Left with no choice, the owner had sealed off the underground entrance.

Too much time had passed to know the full truth of what happened that day. But Li Wei had genuinely struck it rich this time.

【You have discovered a Two-Star Supply Storage Warehouse. Because this was uncovered during a Monthly Main Task, all contents will be incorporated as household property.】

【Current inventory list: Cement ×50 tons, Fine Sand ×50 tons, Steel Rebar ×2 tons, Standard Glass ×200 square meters, Bulletproof Glass ×50 square meters, Tents ×10, Plastic Sheeting ×500 meters, Cotton Quilts ×500, Tableware Sets ×500, Charcoal ×1 ton, Coke ×2 tons, Fire Axes ×12, Tire Pump ×1, Candles ×100 packs, Table Salt ×100 kg, Assorted Wire Gauges ×500 kg, One-Star Corn Seeds (upgraded via radiation) ×10 kg. All remaining items have expired, evaporated, or structurally disintegrated.】

【Due to the above inventory, the maximum Contribution available to the household has increased to 5,000.】

【Due to the Autocrat Camp Buff, you have received 100 Contribution points. Current total Contribution: 1,600 points. Other participants have received 5 additional Contribution points each.】

"Ha! I've never fought a battle this flush with resources! Looting really is the way to go!"

Li Wei was thrilled.

But once the excitement settled, he found himself wrestling with a dilemma. Fifty tons of cement sounded like a lot — but in practice it was only so much. He'd been planning to wall off the entire town.

That was clearly impossible now.

Li Wei looked over at Leon and Thomas — both Three-Star Stonemasons. "Cousin, Thomas — what do you think?"

Leon immediately shook his head, though his expression was oddly guarded. What was there to say about this?

Thomas also shook his head. "Old friend, this one's your call. Just give the word and we'll charge through fire and flood to make it happen."

So there was something to this after all. Those two were trustworthy allies — Night Owl must have given them special instructions before they set out.

Damn. I'm not an architect. What better ideas am I supposed to have?

Night Owl, you really do think highly of me.

Li Wei paced back and forth several times, turning it over in his mind.

He had two options.

The first was to prioritize using the cement to protect the farmland. He had two fields — one only fifty meters from the building, the other a full kilometer away. He was planning to plant One-Star Corn in the distant field and dig a well nearby for irrigation.

That was the choice that put agriculture first.

But if he did that, the Scavenger Camp building itself would be left poorly defended. That touched on a number of systemic factors — for instance, his camp's fixed assets were already this substantial, so why hadn't it leveled up to Tier 3 yet?

Obviously, it was missing a perimeter wall.

A wall was like having a house without a courtyard, or a courtyard without a gate — there was always that missing layer of security as a buffer.

So the second option was to leave the two farmland plots alone for now, increase patrols in the meantime, and prioritize building the wall to reach Tier 3 Camp — which would unlock another population slot.

At the very least, with a wall in place, they'd have the option to sortie out and fight in the open field if something came up.

After wrestling with it for a while, Li Wei chose the conservative approach: build the wall first, then worry about increasing the population.

"Alright, I'll make the call myself. First priority: build a perimeter wall around this Scavenger Building with sides no shorter than 30 meters. As for the specific construction methods and how to go about it — I don't need to spell that out for you, do I?"

This time, Leon and Thomas didn't hesitate. They gave their assurances readily. Night Owl had indeed given them instructions before they left — they could offer suggestions at the tactical and detail level, but on strategic matters they were to keep their mouths shut.

As for building a wall — especially with cement as a strategic material on hand — that was something they could do with their eyes closed.

"One more thing: if there's cement left over, use it first to repair the building — especially the first floor. Once fighting breaks out, that'll be our most critical defensive position. Use your own judgment on the details. Xuanxuan, I'll have Little Yue help you — the two of you focus on casting two iron gates first: one for the wall entrance, one for the first-floor exit of the building."

"Also, Leon — from now on, our warehouse needs to be split into a living supplies depot and a construction materials depot. You'll double as keeper of this warehouse here. The living supplies depot over there can be managed by Second Aunt."

With the end of the month approaching, Li Wei had no choice but to delegate some authority.

Leon was a given — completely trustworthy.

The new Second Aunt had spent the past days handling logistics and food supply with real skill, and Li Wei had developed a genuine appreciation for her ability — though of course it went no further than that.

In any case, he wasn't going to drive her away anymore. The benefits she brought to the camp were simply too valuable.

Without a capable logistics person like her, a lot of the work would suffer.

Li Wei then took the One-Star Corn seeds south to Farmland No. 5 for planting. Summer was only a few days away — there was no more time to waste.

The planting window was still adequate. By normal seasonal logic, this was precisely the time when winter wheat would be approaching harvest and corn planting would begin.

It took him two and a half days to finish sowing two acres of corn. The seeds ran a little short, so he filled the remaining half-acre with the last few kilograms of wheat seeds and the six pumpkin seeds.

Once the planting was complete, Li Wei's Farmer Destiny Grid smoothly rose to 16 points, and his farming experience accumulated to 1,800 points. If he kept at it through the autumn harvest, reaching 5,000 points would be trivial.

Still, he was only halfway to a Four-Star Farmer Card.

This kind of leveling was different from fusing attribute cards — it required experience earned through his own hands.

Worth noting: this month he had accumulated three more Artisan Cards and two more Scavenger Cards. Counting the three Artisan Cards and five Butcher Cards from before, his total card count had reached thirteen.

But he had no plans to fuse them — just as he had no plans to activate the Perception attribute — because there wasn't enough food.

Without food of at least One-Star quality, any upgrade was just burning through his own foundation and potential.

With only a few days left in the month, Li Wei set aside the idea of digging a well and threw himself into the cement wall construction instead.

Progress on that front was going quite well.

Steel rebar was plentiful — they'd salvaged a good amount while clearing and demolishing the ruins, and combined with what was in the warehouse, it was more than enough. Fine sand was plentiful too. The only slight shortage was large gravel, but that could be solved by smashing concrete chunks into aggregate for the mix.

Finishing before month's end and having it reach full strength — no problem at all.

The iron gate Zhao Xuanxuan needed to cast was a different matter. A single-piece casting required more than their one furnace could handle. In the end they had to quickly adjust the plan and cast a single narrow gate, one meter wide.

During this process, Li Wei's fragile little sister actually offered some remarkably sharp suggestions that proved genuinely useful to Zhao Xuanxuan, helping her solve several technical problems. She was still green, but...

Li Wei watched and mentally confirmed what he'd suspected: both Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi were players at the level of Hathaway and Ron. Night Owl, what were you thinking? What good are Leon and Thomas when you could have sent that bald Four-Star Blacksmith instead?

Though he knew that was impossible.

That bald female blacksmith would naturally be assigned first to Hathaway's pioneering branch storyline. She was Night Owl's real daughter, after all.

What was he, some illegitimate side project, complaining about?

He just wondered how many Pioneering Points this month would bring.

He was looking forward to finding out.

While he was still mulling it over, several lines of text appeared without warning.

【Provisional camp member Liang Yuzhi has cultivated Two-Star quality straw mushrooms on the first floor of the Scavenger Camp. She has received 25 additional Contribution points.】

【Provisional camp member Liang Yuzhi has prepared a Two-Star dish — Mushroom Meat Broth — and has donated the recipe to the camp. She has received 25 additional Contribution points.】

【Note: The household currently meets the requirements for long-term cultivation of Two-Star straw mushrooms, so this recipe donation is valid. However, Liang Yuzhi must prepare at least 120 servings of Mushroom Meat Broth for the camp within the next six months, or 100 Contribution points will be reclaimed from her.】

【Dish Effect: A single serving provides a minor recovery of Spiritual Power. After consuming 120 servings cumulatively, permanently increases Spiritual Power by 1 point.】

【The Scavenger Camp's fixed assets have increased. Current score: 52,000 points. Maximum household Contribution available: 5,200 points.】