Chapter 8 Wasteland Currency <TOC> Chapter 10 Shattering at a Touch
Translator: SumTLMan
Zhou Yi chose the location for his house next to the bonfire on the beach.
The terrain here was relatively flat and not far from the water source of the oasis river.
Behind him lay the Dead Sea, making it convenient to exploit underwater resources.
In such shallow coastal areas, large Light Absorber species generally wouldn’t appear. They frequent the deep-sea regions, where the density and intensity of the Dead Light they can absorb are much higher, and abundant high-quality prey exists for them.
The Warrior Crabs still sealed off the surrounding area to avoid any interference during construction.
Zhou Yi then rode his bicycle back into the sea.
As for the specific process of building a house, he was basically clueless.
So Zhou Yi decided to appropriate existing resources.
Amidst streams of light and misty shadows, visibility greatly decreased; everything in the Dead Sea became hazy and blurred.
Previously, Zhou Yi’s crab army marched slowly; visibility was a significant factor. The crabs could sense danger but couldn’t recognize the surrounding remnants of buildings, making it difficult to describe complex objects in detail.
This time, Zhou Yi deployed Red Falcon.
The drone hovered overhead.
On the remote control’s electronic screen, a large amount of light streams and mist were filtered out, and visibility became very clear. The light mist turned into a kind of ripple on the lens but didn’t affect the observation of the surrounding terrain.
A highway next to Zhou Yi’s team was already clearly visible, and not far away stood a collapsed overpass.
He asked Red Falcon: “Do electromechanical lifeforms not get affected by the Dead Sea?”
A synthesized voice sounded from the remote control: “No, we are also subject to the effects and influence of the Dead Light’s power and mostly cannot stay in such an environment for a long time. My [Bird’s-Eye View] deployed in the Dead Sea area consumes energy several times faster.”
“But I was previously a member of the Recursion City rescue team, responsible for searching for trapped electromechanical lifeforms in various environments and undertaking rescues of other Light Absorber species. My structure and components were modified to serve in extreme environments. As long as no alarms appear, it’s within controllable influence.”
A professional match, indeed.
Zhou Yi felt relieved.
With navigation assistance, he quickly found the nearest building complex.
It was an old residential area; judging by the style, it looked like buildings from around the year 2000, without a name, totaling seven units, each with six floors, built right next to the highway.
The entrance had become a raised broken wall and a twisted, skewed iron gate.
Zhou Yi entered the community and looked up; he could still see clothes hanging on the protective railings of each floor and empty flower pots.
Furniture and daily necessities could be collected from here.
The difficulty lay in the main structure of the house.
Zhou Yi remembered that when he came from the east, he had passed by a construction site.
He used the drone for a wide-area search and quickly found that place.
The construction site was in disarray; the high-rise buildings under construction had collapsed for some unknown reason. Although various materials piled up on the ground were scattered messily, they were fortunately complete.
Zhou Yi was in high spirits.
In the past, he felt that construction sites made everything dusty and caused traffic jams, but now they had become crucial strategic resource points.
The long spears, shields, and even the back armor equipped by the Warrior Crabs were made from the steel bars and iron sheets here.
Building materials for the house would also start here.
His gaze fell on the open space on the other side of the construction site, where several special buildings were well preserved.
Found it!
This is exactly what I need.
……
Night fell.
A Jin carried large and small bags on his back, holding a clay pot in one hand and hugging a large bundle of dry grass in the other. A glow stick was tied around his waist, and he was sweating profusely as he moved toward the beach.
As he approached, he suddenly felt something was not quite right.
Why was it so bright?
He looked carefully and was startled.
There was a glowing hill ahead.
Could he have come to the wrong place?
But the Warrior Crabs patrolling and guarding in the distance proved that the master was indeed here.
What was going on?
A Jin cautiously walked up to the Warrior Crab guards. For a moment, he felt uneasy and didn’t dare to proceed; the master was not nearby, and he didn’t know if they would attack him.
The Warrior Crabs didn’t even look at him and continued their sideways night patrol.
Suddenly, someone said to him: “Walk straight ahead; they won’t harm you. Zhou is waiting for you.”
This unfamiliar voice was cold and majestic, as if coming from the horizon.
A Jin was stunned.
The master was called Zhou Yi, so Zhou referred to him.
He gritted his teeth and continued carrying his bags forward.
As he got closer to the glowing hill, A Jin saw that the master was sitting on a fluffy leather armchair.
Above his head was a large square black umbrella, and beside him was a finely crafted, square wooden table with a lamp made of prismatic stones placed on it.
Under the light of the prismatic lamp.
This mysterious and powerful elder was drinking a kind of red canned beverage. He frowned, seeming to have encountered some troublesome matter.
A Jin cautiously said: “Master, Master?”
The other turned his face: “You’re here?”
“Master, my leg is completely healed; your medicine worked wonders! I can start building the house right now; I brought tools.”
A Jin first shook his leg, then put down his bags and took out a stone awl and an iron shovel: “Tell me, where should I dig the hole?”
The master shook his head: “No need to dig a hole; the main structure of the house behind me is already built.”
Behind?
Only then did A Jin turn his gaze to behind the master.
That glowing hill.
It was composed of giant blue and white square structures, layered upon each other, totaling two floors. The light was coming from inside these structures, as if passages had been carved through.
An above-ground cave?
What kind of technology is this?
A Jin observed carefully and found that this ground-level duplex dwelling possessed a very symmetrical and sleek beauty. Each cavity was perfectly square, all exactly the same size, combined into a special ring shape.
In less than a day, the master had made such a complex and luxurious underground dwelling rise from the ground!
If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, A Jin could hardly believe it.
“Master, you are truly amazing.”
He sighed sincerely from the bottom of his heart.
A Jin then felt a burst of loss and confusion: “Such a perfect cave dwelling doesn’t need my rough skills at all…”
The master said somewhat irritably: “It’s called a container house; in fact, it has quite a few shortcomings.”
Zhou Yi’s real target was the container houses on the construction site. These ready-made structures could be moved, and the Warrior Crabs’ monstrous strength was enough to transport them to the surface.
Under his command, the Warrior Crabs erected a two-story small quadrangle courtyard on the beach, surrounding the container houses in a circle. This way, it was accomplished in one step; the extra containers could be used as warehouses and utility rooms.
Then Zhou Yi discovered some specific troubles.
Each box-style house had only one entrance and exit, so moving between different rooms required climbing up and down. The Warrior Crabs could use simple tools, but tasks like cutting and welding were a bit beyond them.
In addition, these simple houses had poor sound insulation; people walking inside would make clanging noises. Due to only simple stacking and rough reinforcement, the upper-level containers would still make creaking and shaking noises in the wind, greatly affecting the quality of living.
An unexpected gain was that quite a few prismatic stones were found in the shallow waters of the Dead Sea, sufficient for basic night lighting.
A Jin scratched his head as he listened.
“I think these are not problems at all, Master. If you don’t mind, can I try to fix it a bit? Which room do you live in?”
Zhou Yi said: “You can try the first room on the left; it’s not a cave, it’s a box-style house.”
“Okay, okay.”
Then A Jin opened his worn-out backpack and took out many pieces of wood. He nimbly climbed up and down between the container houses, stuffing various sizes of wooden pieces into the gaps and smearing mud on them, hammering to reinforce.
The creaking sounds were greatly reduced.
Zhou Yi tried it and found that walking inside was much quieter.
The boy wiped his sweat: “Master, if it’s still noisy, I can plaster a layer of mud inside, adding branches and dry grass, and it will be very quiet. There are actually various noises underground; doing this makes it basically possible to sleep.”
This was a good method.
But Zhou Yi still decided it would be better to get some wood to serve as soundproofing panels.
“Very good. A Jin, well done.”
The praised boy was somewhat flattered: “I didn’t help much; I just did some small tasks. Since the house is built, I’ll go back now.”
Saying that, he was about to pack up his things.
“It’s just the beginning; there are many later renovations and maintenance issues with the house, all of which are your responsibility.”
Zhou Yi told him: “You are my employee, so of course you will live in the staff dormitory. Just stay in the room next to mine.”
A Jin paused for a moment before reacting, and he was overjoyed: “Really? I can live in such a luxurious cave… container house?”
Zhou Yi nodded: “I said I would provide food and accommodation. Go and rest.”
“But Master, it’s nighttime now; it’s time to work.”
“Oh, I forgot about that. Then you can first check the dormitory thoroughly to see if there are any problems and do some repairs.”
“Alright!”
The boy began to move his things into the house.
At this moment, Red Falcon’s voice sounded from the remote control.
“Three suspicious targets have been found, scouting our camp from the periphery for up to half an hour.”
“One of them is an Enhancer.”
Zhou Yi raised an eyebrow.
First day after moving in, looks like it’s time to clean house.
Chapter 8 Wasteland Currency <TOC> Chapter 10 Shattering at a Touch