"Who is it?!"
Chen Yuan stood by the door, a low, wary growl in his throat.
After a moment, a woman's voice came from the other side.
"We're from the Fenghuo Squad. Would you like to join us? We have a base at the Dongyao Shopping Mall. Everyone is out scavenging for supplies right now, and we need more people."
Chen Yuan listened, his brow furrowed slightly. He pressed his ear against the door and could hear other doors in the hallway being knocked on.
His grip on his dagger tightened. In a deep voice, he called out, "I'm planning to freeze to death in here. You'd best be on your way!" He deliberately raised his voice this time.
But the person outside didn't seem to give up, continuing to knock. "There's hope as long as you're alive! Our squad already has more than fifty people. If we all stick together, we can definitely get through this."
"I'm not going. You should hurry and find someone else."
Perhaps it was the firm, unquestionable resolve in his voice, or perhaps it was because time was short. The person said nothing more and turned, her footsteps receding down the stairs.
Chen Yuan moved to the window and pulled the curtain open, leaving just a small crack. Peeking down, he saw a group of five people emerge from his building and head toward the building across the street.
He let out a small sigh of relief and returned to the sofa.
In this apocalyptic world, everyone's first instinct was to gather together for warmth and safety. But that was only sustainable if there were enough supplies. As time went on and resources were depleted, teammates would inevitably turn into enemies. To survive, to reduce consumption, groups would start kicking people out.
Unless a new organization with a complete system of rules could be established, one that also controlled a source of energy, bloodshed and conflict were unavoidable.
But that was a distant concern. At this stage, some semblance of reason and civilization still remained in people's minds.
For Chen Yuan, this apartment was his personal shelter, and he would absolutely not allow anyone else inside. Never mind an invitation; even if someone were to die right outside his door, he wouldn't spare them a second glance.
He washed his face with some melted snow and settled onto the sofa, turning on the radio. The man who usually made the announcements was gone. In his place were various self-organized teams, broadcasting recruitment messages.
Taking a sip of the mineral water to soothe his throat, Chen Yuan thought of something else.
Wood. He needed a lot of wood.
But so did everyone else. Even if the trees were frozen solid, they wouldn't disappear, but the amount of greenery in a city was finite.
"I'll get a good night's sleep today. Tomorrow, I start scavenging."
He had made up his mind. If this entire building was empty, he would seal the main entrance at the bottom. A single small room was not enough to store all his supplies. This was a five-story residential building; he would categorize the rooms for different uses. Ideally, he would set up a watchtower on the roof. With this as his foundation, he could weather the apocalyptic crisis in relative safety.
The night passed without incident. The next morning, Chen Yuan woke up early.
After eating a compressed biscuit, he packed a bottle of mineral water and some combustion pellets into a backpack. Dressed in his thermostatic suit, with the Flame Dagger tucked into his belt and the axe in his hand, he left his home.
His first stop: the street outside.
His residential building was located in an alley, about five or six hundred meters from the main road. The snow, trampled down the day before, was now once again deep enough to cover his calves. Each step made a soft crunching sound.
In the silent sky, snowflakes drifted down sporadically. Chen Yuan knew the Ice Age hadn't truly begun yet.
He walked slowly, step by step, his senses on high alert, terrified that someone might jump out from the side. But perhaps because that squad had canvassed the entire alley last night, it was now exceptionally calm.
When he reached the main road, some of the smaller cars were already buried under mounds of snow. He looked left and right. Not a single person was in sight.
He tightened his grip on the axe and began to chop at a greenbelt tree on the sidewalk. The thump, thump of the axe echoed down the street, sending snow showering down from the branches. Chen Yuan swung the axe while continuously scanning his surroundings. He had to admit, chopping down a tree was real physical labor. For someone accustomed to city life, it was exceptionally strenuous.
After a great effort, he finally managed to cut down a tree as thick as his thigh. He then walked over to an abandoned car. The items from the Apocalypse Store were related to the materials he put in, and these cars were full of various electronic components.
Deciding to give it a try, Chen Yuan used his axe to smash the driver's side window of a small car.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
The car alarm shrieked through the silent street.
Chen Yuan frowned slightly and quickened his pace. He violently smashed the center console and pulled out the car's infotainment system. Then, he opened the hood and removed a portable jump-starter battery. The main car battery was too heavy to carry, but a jump-starter the size of a tissue box was manageable.
He stuffed the items into his backpack, turned, and began to drag the tree back home.
He now felt that every minute spent outside was dangerous. In this world, putting aside the environment, the most dangerous thing was other people.
"It would be nice to have some kind of transport vehicle. This is a bit inefficient," Chen Yuan muttered to himself, his steps quickening.
The six-hundred-meter journey seemed exceptionally long. When he finally reached his building, he still had to break down the tree. But here, at his own doorstep, he felt a greater sense of security.
By the time he had finished all this work, it was already afternoon. Perhaps because of the Ice Age, the sky was already beginning to grow dim.
Panting as he sat on the living room sofa, an unconscious smile spread across Chen Yuan's lips. It was his first time out scavenging, but the haul was quite substantial.
After chopping the wood into easily stackable pieces, he carried the car's main computer unit to the Apocalypse Store. The jump-starter could still be used; he would only throw it in when it ran out of power. That was called recycling.
He needed many things now. For example, a power generation device, so he could charge his radio. He also needed a transport device; otherwise, the amount of material he could bring back alone was limited.
After tossing the main unit into the insertion port, he added glass, iron wire, screws, iron chunks, wood blocks, foam, fabric... In short, a lot of miscellaneous junk.
With a hopeful heart, Chen Yuan pressed the red button.
「Ding-a-ling~ Material insertion successful. Exchanging product automatically. Please wait...」
「This insertion: one main computer unit, various wooden planks, wood blocks, glass shards, iron wires...Output: one Fuel-Driven Load-Bearing Robot Dog.」
Watching the scrolling text and the robotic arm tracing circles on the platform, Chen Yuan's breathing became heavy. Perhaps because the construction of this robot dog was more complex, the robotic arm moved back and forth, sparks flying from its tip.
One minute, two minutes...
After standing there for a full ten minutes, a look of ecstatic joy finally broke out on Chen Yuan's face.