Chapter 230: Preparation, The Last Busy Day
After figuring out his plans to solve the diesel shortage, and recording it in his list of required materials, Su Mo returned to the third floor.
Once the problem of the combine harvester was solved, dealing with the two blueprints that were still on the table became much simpler.
For the rotary tiller, he only needed to construct the rotary tiller shaft based on the only structure of the tractor. This did not require much technical expertise, and the same could be said for the flour grinder.
The blueprint design he received was for an inclined rotary tiller shaft, and Su Mo completed the sh.e.l.l structure on the workbench by two o’clock in the morning, without much a.s.sistance from the system.
“The workbench is easy to use, but is challenging to make create larger items with. After this disaster is over, things would become more convenient if I build a cutting machine.”
As for the blades in the rotary tiller shaft, he could only rely on the system to slowly a.s.semble and connect the smaller parts together with the sh.e.l.l structure.
Fortunately, he still had an abundant supply of copper and iron blocks from his previous trades. In terms of materials, he did not encounter any major problems.
Time pa.s.sed by gradually, and Su Mo instructed Moore to carry some of the things up and down for him.
When the iron blocks he had prepared were used up, the last part of the rotary tiller was finally finished.
Next, he would just need to wait until tomorrow and exchange some items in the secret trading realm that could reduce the cost of the survival points required. After that, the rotary tiller could be completed, becoming an important part of his mechanized farm equipment a.r.s.enal.
“Master Su Mo, Moore is so sleepy. Moore wants to sleep!”
They had planted the remaining three mu of land, negotiated a deal, and rushed the construction of the rotary tiller and combine harvester overnight. This kind of work efficiency could not have been achieved by such a small workforce even during the civilized era.
Moore, who had been working the entire day, reached his limit. After arriving on the second floor with Su Mo, he muttered a few words and laid down on the ground, immediately falling asleep.
Looking at the sleeping bear warrior, Su Mo could not decide whether to laugh or cry. After using the Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll card on Moore, he wandered back to his small bed.
Looking at his task list for the next morning in the diary, Su Mo ma.s.saged the back of his waist with emotion.
“Doing farm work may not be as dangerous as fighting, but it sure is challenging in its own way.”
“It’s likely that after this experience, all the human beings in the wasteland will become good farmers upon their return to Earth.”
His mind was filled with various thoughts as he flopped down onto the bed. Before he even had time to scan through the comments on the World Channel, a wave of fatigue overwhelmed him.
Enduring the exhaustion of both his mind and body, Su Mo used the Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll card on himself and drank a small cup of psychic energy water. He immediately became drowsy and fell into a deep sleep within a few minutes.
This kind of mental exhaustion was far more tormenting than physical exhaustion.
However, after recovery, he encountered the same phenomenon that increased his physical and mental tolerance gradually.
During sleep, the cells in his brain quickly regrouped and reorganized to ensure that his body would not appear abnormal the next day.
The misty starlight power of the Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll card, and the blue light spots created by the psychic energy water, also constantly roamed around his body, producing various kinds of energy that were required by the human body.
This night, Su Mo slept very deeply; the sound of his heavy breathing rippling back and forth on the third floor of the empty Underground Shelter.
The faint white moonlight cascaded down the gla.s.s window on the second floor, illuminating the four little ones who were sleeping on the second floor.
If one gaze traced the path of the gla.s.s window to the top of the shelter, they would be able to see the bright moon and spa.r.s.ely distributed stars in the sky, depicting a very different kind of beauty on the rugged wasteland.
This was a place of despair.
This was also a place where new life was born.
Countless seeds had been sown on the plowed land one after the other today, waiting for the arrival of the welfare disaster to sprout and thrive.
However, the owners of these seeds were destined to have a sleepless night tonight!
Carrying with them the antic.i.p.ation of tomorrow’s harvest, even after a tiring day, these refugees lay in bed only to realize that they were unable to fall asleep!
They had worked hard all day and were exhausted from all the work, yet they somehow had a bout of insomnia?
It sounded incredible, but the excitement and antic.i.p.ation that they had for the future, suppressed the protests of their exhausted bodies. All sorts of thoughts and imaginations were running through their minds, one after the other.
They have been starved for a month. After eating consuming their daily food rations, if they got hungry again, they could only opt to collect bark, gra.s.s, roots to alleviate the feeling of hunger.
They had all been used to the days where food was never in short supply, as long as they had money, but when they suddenly arrived at such an environment, it was inevitable that everyone would go through an uncomfortable and painful adjustment period.
However, this situation would change after tomorrow.
No matter what kind of crop it was, as long as it was edible, with the bonuses from the welfare disaster, all they had to was carefully cultivate them for a day or two, and they would be able to reap a harvest that could alleviate their urgent food needs.
By then, the food crisis that had been oppressing the inhabitants of the wasteland would be solved, and their maddening pangs of hunger would be quickly satisfied.
“Roasted vegetables, fried vegetables, boiled vegetables…”
“Unleavened pancakes, big white steamed buns, noodles…”
“Chinese cornbread, lotus root soup, stir-fried wild vegetables…”
Every shelter had planted different crops, and the food dishes that appeared in their imagination were completely different.
As they swallowed the saliva that had rapidly been secreted, they could only endure the emptiness in their stomachs throughout the night. When morning sun arose, most people were still awake; they had only rested with their eyes closed.
However, this tiredness could not defeat the spirit of these humans who had been living in the wasteland for a month.
When the time came, everyone ate a shabby breakfast and quickly rushed to their fields to continue farming.
Of course, Su Mo, who had fallen asleep in the shelter, was unaware of all this.
In his relaxing dream, there were 10000 mu of fertile land near the Underground Shelter. Several small winding rivers, like those that were in Hope Plains, slowly bubbled along. It seemed like paradise on earth.
A plump fish that was swimming along the river was caught by Moore, who was lying next to the stream, making struggling flopping noises.
Oreo was still lying on a high slope with Big Spark and Little Spark, where she could sun herself. She was lying lazily, looking at the scene of the harvest below.
On the ground next to the river, countless sweet melons and fruits were everywhere. The branches of the various fruits on the tree were bent and hung low due to the weight of the ripe fruits.
Picking the fruits at will, the flavor intoxicated his tastebuds, making him feel extremely satisfied and happy.
Ding ding ding…
As the big clock hung on the wall of the gym reached its set time, it began to make a harsh sound.
Su Mo was awakened from his sleep by the alarm, and his consciousness gradually returned to his body.
“What a satisfying dream!”
With a sigh, Su Mo opened his eyes. He had matched the alarm’s timing to his biological clock, which he had developed and maintained while living in the wasteland.
“After sleeping for six hours, my mental strength has fully recovered. It seems that the brain can indeed be trained!”
Su Mo touched the back of his head, which felt a bit chilly, to confirm that he had not lost his hair. After that, he drank a large mouthful of psychic energy water and got up to walk over to the living room.
Different from the fresh smell of the Hope Shelter, the slightly dull air in the Underground Shelter felt a little more real.
After taking two greedy breaths, he picked up the spear and performed a set of warm-up movements of the Su family spear technique. Su Mo then went to the second floor.
Animals generally preferred places bright and windy spots.
Therefore, the third bas.e.m.e.nt floor was Su Mo’s alone, while the four little ones were lying on the ground of the second floor.
Seeing Su Mo approaching, Oreo woke up and flopped about intimately, circling around him.
Moore, who had fallen asleep exhausted yesterday, was still breathing deeply and heavily as he continued his deep sleep.
After strolling around and confirming that there were no abnormalities near the Underground Shelter, Su Mo rubbed his hands together and returned to the workbench. He began to carefully study the tasks he had to complete on this final day before the disaster.
“The collection of seeds is the most important task I have today. It will not only be used in the secret trading realm, but the Candlelight Shelter has to plant them before dawn arrives to avoid wasting any sowing time.”
“As for the combine harvester and the rotary tiller, these can wait. When the time comes, I can arrange for people from the Candlelight Shelter to come over and pick them up. They can be used before the second planting cycle is completed tomorrow.”
The wheat harvested by the combine harvester would lose its outermost layers. Wheat belonged to the category of fruits, and losing this external layer would cause a lower survival rate of the crops planted during the second planting cycle.
Only by harvesting the wheat manually and carefully protecting the outer layers of skin could the seeds be preserved intact and used for the second cycle of planting.
Therefore, whether it was the first harvest of the black soil land or the first harvest of the fields near the Candlelight Shelter, both would require manpower to harvest carefully.
Of course, after the first batch of seeds had been collected, they could begin to use modern machinery to increase the speed and efficiency of harvesting.
As for the seeds of the cabbages and carrots in the black soil land, he would need to wait until they bloom and bear fruit before he could remove the seeds and harvest the plants.
As for soybeans, they were the simplest ones to cultivate. They would only need to wait until the fruit was fully grown. After harvesting, they could be used for sowing.
“Five mu of land… there’s so much for me to do that it’s unlikely that I will finish collecting the harvest in time. Then this task…”
“I will pa.s.s it to Moore!”
He quickly filled in the name of Moore, who was still asleep, in the harvest column, before starting to make arrangements for other tasks going forward.
There were still four hours before the secret trading realm opened.
There were still ten hours before the airdrop arrived.
Including the time for ripening and harvesting, every second of this last day before the disaster mattered.
Su Mo walked over to the material warehouse and took out all the remaining flour, and two cabbages. As was his usual practice, Su Mo made a large pot of noodle soup that was sufficient for them to eat throughout the day.
The scent of psychic energy cabbage filled the air and, by the time the gluttonous Moore had followed the scent to the kitchen, a new day had officially kicked off!
As he was constrained for time, a sense of anxiety and impatience seemed to hang in the air.
After breakfast, Su Mo traveled to the black soil land along with the four little ones. When he looked at the ground beneath his feet, the anxiety in Su Mo’s heart finally eased a little.
“This land is finally ready for a b.u.mper crop!”