"The leaves are turning yellow, the temperature is dropping, and an unprecedented crisis is approaching."
"This winter will be harsher than in previous years, and it will come earlier... We don't have much time to prepare."
"From now on, we must seize every minute, even every second! Get ready for the cold wave before the situation gets completely bad!"
"The task panel has been updated, listing the list of necessities, the facilities that need to be completed, and the corresponding rewards."
"Remember, only by unity can we overcome difficulties together!"
"Winter is coming."
"This is a test of fate for all of us!"
In the resident hall of the shelter, inspiring voices echoed.
Facing the players' high-spirited eyes, Chu Guang delivered an impassioned speech and officially kicked off the prologue of the first expansion pack since the closed beta of the game - "Winter is Coming".
As the new chapter begins, the atmosphere of the outpost of Shelter No. 404, like the official website of the game, begins to change.
Not only the players.
Even Chu Guang himself can feel a sense of urgency in the gradually colder air.
The outpost's reserves of materials were not abundant, but the population soared from 6 to 30, a full five times!
Although the surge in population has brought more labor, it has also doubled the supply pressure of the outpost.
In order to feed the upcoming 30 mouths, Chu Guang has been worried about it for the past two days. He is busy from morning to night almost every day. Ye Shi, who has the perception gene sequence, is hunting outside to stock up on more food.
For a while, the entire Linghu Wetland Park was in chaos because of the two of them.
But it is quite right, and the results are also quite gratifying.
In three days, Chu Guang killed more than ten mutant hyenas alone, and caught countless hares and squirrels with traps.
Although they are all mutants, they are edible.
In addition, Ye Shi, who is responsible for vigilance and enemy detection, has also successfully upgraded from LV0 to LV1, and Chu Guang also vaguely feels that he is close to the edge of a breakthrough.
However, the manager's gene sequence is too special.
Chu Guang has not yet figured out the trick of upgrading, and can only use the physical examination equipment to confirm that the development progress of the gene sequence has indeed increased slightly.
On the other hand, the performance of other players is also quite outstanding, and can even be described as showing their magical powers.
Lao Bai and Fang Chang used charcoal as a reducing agent, and through the calcination method, they recovered a small amount of iron slag from rusty steel bars, auto parts and other iron-containing waste materials, and added these iron slags to the cement kiln, mixed with crushed limestone and clay for calcination, and made more reliable cement clinker.
This is a physical job.
Whether it is to operate the blower manually or to transport stones with a repaired two-wheeled cart, it takes a lot of effort.
However, it is precisely because of this that Lao Bai, who is a strength system, has been promoted again, and his gene sequence has been upgraded from LV1 to LV2, and his strength attribute has also increased by one point.
As for Fang Chang, who was on the same shift with him, he finally broke through the limit and was promoted from LV0 to LV1.
However, his increased attribute is not strength, but agility.
It seems that although the development of gene sequences conforms to the law of "use it or lose it", the increase of attributes is another matter.
Speaking of upgrading, Kuangfeng is probably the most miserable.
Up to now, among the four closed beta players, he is probably the only one whose genetic sequence level is still 0.
These days, he has caught a lot of fish with the improved traps, but he is still a little short of LV1.
The "experience points" gained by killing aliens through traps do not seem to be as much as those gained by killing aliens in direct combat.
Kuangfeng is also puzzled by this.
But unfortunately, there seems to be no good solution so far.
In addition to the four dog managers who first experienced the game, the two newbies who joined are also very motivated and have been busy for almost a moment these days.
For example, "There are really mosquitoes in WC".
This guy is not in a hurry to upgrade. He is still doing carpentry work, occasionally helping Lao Bai and Fang Chang, or helping Kuangfeng repair damaged traps.
In addition to these tasks, he was busy with his own things.
According to Mosquito himself, he seemed to be planning to build a simple cabin with wood to serve as his chemical laboratory and warehouse.
These days, while helping to carry stones from the construction site, he picked up a lot of bottles and jars and put them next to the cabin.
Although Chu Guang doubted the safety of this cabin, seeing how happy this guy was, he felt that it would be better not to interfere too much with the players' choices.
Compared to Brother Mosquito's leisure, "Tomato Scrambled Eggs" is probably a model of the liver emperor.
As the chef of the outpost, he is not only responsible for cooking, but also has to help the manager deal with the hunted prey.
This includes bleeding, skinning, deboning, cutting meat, and the most critical smoking.
Since the salt at the outpost is not luxurious enough to be used for smoking meat, Brother Scrambled Eggs uses the most primitive smoking method.
That is, nothing is put in it.
He directly hung the cut meat on the steel frame, stuffed it into the cave made of clay and earth bricks, used charcoal fire to make smoke, and slowly roasted it over a low fire to dry the moisture in the meat, and sealed the hole with pine branches and leaves.
The smoked meat made by this method is actually more like air-dried meat. Even without salt, it can be preserved for a period of time, and there is no need to wrap any tobacco leaves on the surface.
Wait until the beginning or middle of next month, it will be almost winter.
At that time, wrap the dried meat in plastic bags or tree bark, throw it directly into the snow and bury it, and it should not be a big problem to eat it until the beginning of next spring.
But relatively speaking, the smoked meat made by this method, whether it is taste or flavor, can only be said to be hard to describe.
In addition, the skins peeled from the mutant hyenas were not wasted by Brother Chaodan, but collected them and made leather.
In fact, leather making is a very complicated and tedious process, which is much more troublesome than making jerky.
However, what is needed for shelter at present is not the kind of smooth and soft high-end fur, but only the warm material that can keep out the cold, and there is no requirement for quality.
Therefore, many unnecessary processes can be omitted.
When Lao Bai was burning wood ash before, the filtered potassium alkali water was stored in the plastic bucket he picked up.
"Tomato Scrambled Eggs" used all the potassium alkali water as tanning liquid for tanning leather, which was used to soak the raw hides peeled and washed from the prey.
When the leather and tannin are fully combined, it will be hung on a simple leather rack to dry, so that a piece of leather of acceptable quality can be obtained.
"… Dear Administrator, I must report to you that I am really too busy here. I really need help, even just one!"
Taking the prey he had just shot from Chu Guang's hand, Chaodan's eyes unconsciously drifted to Ye Shi.
He always felt that this guy seemed to be very idle. Apart from helping the Administrator to get a prey, he didn't seem to do anything else.
Why not…
Come and give me a hand.
Ye Shiyi saw what this guy was up to at a glance, and waved his hand and said.
"Don't look at me, I'm very busy."
Just kidding.
Following NPC leveling, where can you find such a good thing of picking up experience for free?
He doesn't want to learn to cook with this guy!
Seeing Ye Shi's resistance, Chaodan couldn't help rolling his eyes and complained in his heart.
What are you busy with!
Looking at Chaodan who was complaining to him, Chu Guang comforted him.
"Ye Shi needs to help me search for prey, and his perception of danger is also crucial, so I can't let him stay to help you. But I promise you that your problem will be solved soon. Our reinforcements are on the way, and they will arrive on the surface soon."
"Okay, thank you... If that's the case, it's great."
Chadan sighed, paused for a moment, and continued.
"There is another thing. Although I tried leather making, I can only do some simple processing. As for how to make them into clothes... I really can't do it."
Chu Guang said with a smile.
"Don't worry about this. There are talents who are good at this among the reinforcements that are about to arrive. I will give the work of leather making and making warm clothes to that person."
Not just tailors.
Among the 24 new closed beta players he selected, there are talents from all walks of life.
Although they may not be experts in the industry, and some are even students, they can still be of some use within their capabilities.
Besides, there is also the tool of the Internet.
Chu Guang has full confidence in these vigorous and motivated players. As long as they work hard enough, sooner or later they will be able to move into a big house.
It's quite stable!