"Hello, please sign for the delivery."
In the suburbs.
Outside a dilapidated farmyard.
The courier unloaded several heavy cartons from his electric tricycle.
Su Wu took the pen, glanced at the cartons a few times, confirmed there were no damages, and lowered his head to sign the delivery slip.
"Are you planning to build a shelter here?"
"You bought so many tools."
As Su Wu checked the delivery, the courier asked curiously.
"You've heard about the doomsday rumors too?"
Su Wu raised his eyebrows, slightly surprised.
"Of course. We were just discussing it in our work group today."
"Now, many things on the market are expensive and hard to find."
"There must be something going on—something serious enough for the government to control it secretly."
"Maybe doomsday really is coming soon."
A hint of worry crept into the courier's tone. The end of the world wasn't a game. If it truly arrived, ordinary people would have no way to resist it.
"That makes sense."
Su Wu nodded seriously.
"But there's no need to worry. If something really happens, the government will step in to protect us. We won't just be left to die."
"I hope so."
The courier sighed, still looking uneasy. The government might help, but there was no telling what kind of life people would have by then.
This was Earth in a parallel world.
All continents belonged to a unified federal government.
Technology was far more advanced than in the world Su Wu had come from. Even controlled nuclear fusion had shown signs of breakthroughs.
Human civilization stood on the brink of the interstellar age, ready to embark on space exploration and colonization.
Yet all these bright prospects—
Couldn't stop the impending apocalypse. Whether humanity had a future was now a giant question mark.
One by one, Su Wu carried the boxes into the yard.
After carefully locking the door, he looked around.
The yard was spacious. Apart from a two-story old house in the eastern corner, the rest of the space was filled with cement, sand, angle iron, steel bars, cans, plastic bottles, and various discarded appliances and tires.
To an outsider unaware of the situation, it would undoubtedly look like a scrap yard—
A place where waste was collected and resold.
And in truth, it wasn't far from that.
Most of the items in the yard were things Su Wu had purchased wholesale from different recycling stations in the city over the past half month.
He had spent a full six million in cash on them.
That might sound expensive, but considering the sheer amount of scrap metal alone—over 3,000 tons—it was actually a bargain.
Even at the lowest price, iron cost around 60 or 70 cents per pound. High-quality steel bars could go for over a yuan per pound.
Spending six million to acquire everything had taken meticulous calculations and relentless effort.
"A house—"
"In exchange for all of this."
A surge of emotion welled up in Su Wu's heart. He couldn't tell if it was regret or melancholy.
When he crossed over to this world half a month ago—
He had been living in a downtown apartment in a first-tier coastal city.
It was the only property his parents had left him.
Along with it, he had received two million yuan in compensation for their deaths in a car accident.
If—if there was no apocalypse—
With that house and the compensation money, he could have lived a life of leisure, never needing to work again. It would have been the kind of carefree existence he had only dreamed of in his past life.
But there was no "if."
The moment his Apocalypse Survival System activated—
Su Wu, knowing what was coming, immediately sold the apartment. With the money and compensation in hand, he rushed to a high-altitude inland city in the central part of the continent.
Jianghe City.
There, he rented this farmyard in the suburbs—
And began preparing to build a shelter.
"It's still too late."
"If I had crossed over earlier—"
"Maybe I could've found an abandoned underground bunker."
"That would have been much better than this."
Su Wu wasn't entirely satisfied with this place.
The ideal location for a shelter would be an underground air-raid bunker or a cave in the mountains—
Large spaces that could drastically cut down construction costs.
But when Su Wu searched for such locations—
He found that those once-ignored places had either been requisitioned by the government or had already been privately acquired long ago.
He spent more than ten hours scouring the internet without sleep, but nothing suitable turned up.
With no other choice—
He settled for this yard and decided to build a shelter from scratch.
It was expensive, but at least the surrounding environment was safe and the cost of living was low—
Much better than the first-tier coastal cities.
Just then, his phone rang.
Su Wu took it out of his pocket and answered.
"Boss Su, your basement construction application has been approved!"
"I just sent you the permit on WeChat!"
The agent's excited voice came through the phone.
"Thank you."
"I'll pay the remaining balance once I confirm it."
Su Wu replied calmly.
Even in remote suburbs, you couldn't just dig underground freely.
Building a shelter required government approval.
To get it, Su Wu had signed a 20-year lease for the farmyard—
And paid 50,000 yuan to an agent to expedite the process.
Thankfully, everything had gone smoothly and didn't take too long.
Just in time.
"You're a straightforward boss!"
After hanging up—
Su Wu resumed carrying the boxes inside.
In the living room on the first floor, he placed a box on a cleaned solid wood table. Carefully, he opened it—
And took out a pair of 70 cm mechanical arms wrapped in protective foam.
"The materials are solid, and the joints are flexible."
After a brief inspection, Su Wu was satisfied.
It was worth the price—16,000 yuan per unit. The craftsmanship was top-tier.
But despite the quality, he couldn't help feeling a pang of distress.
Just a month ago, these mechanical arms had sold for 8,000 yuan.
Now, the price had doubled—and there were purchase limits.
After buying these, he wouldn't be able to get any more.
But this wasn't the time to dwell on that.
Focusing his mind—
Su Wu locked his gaze onto one of the mechanical arms.
A translucent interface appeared in his field of vision.
[Neat Ordinary Mechanical Arm]
Compatibility: 90%
Evaluation: A functional mechanical arm suitable for basic production tasks.
Upgrade Paths:
Industrial Mechanical Arm I – Universal Hand (1 Survival Point)
Industrial Mechanical Arm II – High-Frequency Oscillating Cutter (1 Survival Point)
Industrial Mechanical Arm III – High-Energy Smelting Laser (2 Survival Points)
His eyes hovered over the third option.
Su Wu made his choice.
"Upgrade to Industrial Mechanical Arm III – High-Energy Smelting Laser."
A faint light flickered over the mechanical arm—
Instantly, its appearance changed.
It became shinier, more robust.
The five human-like fingers at the end vanished—
Replaced by a fist-sized transparent crystal.
Su Wu knew—
That crystal was the core upgrade: the high-energy smelting laser emitter.
He checked his system panel.
After spending two points on the upgrade, he still had 14 left.
Without hesitation—
He opened another box and used survival points to upgrade the other two mechanical arms in different paths.
"Now that the full set is complete, I should be able to manufacture a universal engineering robot."
His fingers traced the metallic surface of the arm, feeling its cool texture.
Excitement welled up inside him.
For half a month, he had toiled relentlessly—
And now, he had finally obtained his first piece of advanced technology.
From this moment on—
His fate would be different from that of ordinary people.
He now had the means to turn his shelter from imagination into reality.