Chapter 180: Shelf Second Floor (Alliance Leader Bonus Chapter 4/10)

The existing stainless steel utensils still lack enough material for such a large project; to build a high-position artillery platform, we must develop the shelves above the second floor.

But this in itself is also an extremely difficult task.

Although the gantry crane is also in the planning stage, actually implementing it still requires some time, because the kinetic energy provided by the current spring device makes it almost impossible to lift large items on the shelves.

In this situation, to move the goods down there are only two methods.

One is to let Chen Mu go up, continuously dismantle items and throw them down one by one.

Two is to send more people up, then using some means, directly push the things down.

The first method takes too much time, and Chen Mu still has endless things to do each day; wasting time and energy on this is somewhat not worth the loss.

The second method is good, but the difficulty is a bit high, and the biggest problem is that pushing a stainless steel iron pot down the shelf is, for people on the ground, like heaven collapsing and earth splitting; if one must do this, the things below must be replanned—move what should be moved, dodge what should be dodged.

Finally, after discussion, they still chose the second plan.

Of course, implementing this plan still cannot be done without Chen Mu; at least he needs to build a ladder for everyone to climb up.

This task's difficulty is not great; Chen Mu spent one day using the shelf's own structure to build a ladder leading to the second floor.

The shelf has five layers total, each 50 centimeters high, plus a 10-centimeter gap between each layer and the floor, making 2.1 meters high, while the storage room's layer height is 2.8 meters.

That is, the gap between the top layer and the ceiling is only 0.7 meters, and at the top layer's position one can see some items wrapped in woven bags and several red plastic barrels, though it's unknown what's inside the barrels.

The ladder to the second floor is naturally also 50 centimeters high and completely vertical, so the climbing difficulty can be imagined.

The next day, when everyone climbed, only Wei Dalei and He Ying succeeded in going up; others either didn't dare to try, and most people climbed a few steps then returned the same way.

Although knowing that the injury from a fall now wouldn't be high, psychologically it's still hard to accept.

On the third day, Qian Fei gritted his teeth and successfully reached the second floor.

This greatly encouraged the others; even Zhao Xiao Yan went to try, although she climbed less than a tenth, she still received praise from Dong Junwei.

Among the girls, aside from He Ying, Dong Junwei was the first to go up; as a leader, even in areas she's not good at, the Class Monitor will still strive to do her best.

The second was Feng Xiao Yu.

He and Qian Fei, as two ordinary people without Special Ability, seem more focused on how to prove themselves, thus they can endure hardship more than others.

And the funniest was Du Jia Jia.

Perhaps the kitchen work gave her exercise; this girl's strength is not bad, considerably stronger than Zhao Xiao Yan, and she climbed nearly halfway up in one go.

However, after reaching mid-air, she paused to catch her breath, forgot Chen Mu's warning, couldn't help looking down, and was so frightened she couldn't move at all.

Not only that, she started crying for her parents and calling for help.

This gave Chen Mu a big headache.

Actually, to be safe, two towels were placed directly under the ladder as a safety mat, which would be absolutely sufficient, but Du Jia Jia refused to let go no matter what, hanging suspended halfway up.

While everyone was thinking of a solution, urgent scratching sounds came from outside the door.

Obviously, the fear Du Jia Jia felt in her emergency attracted Little Yellow and Little White; these two cats rushed to save Du Jia Jia, but naturally couldn't get in.

In the end, Chen Mu still climbed up and threw Du Jia Jia down in one go.

Finally.

On the fifth day, a total of eight people reached the second shelf.

A height of 50 centimeters feels like the former seventeenth or eighteenth floor of a building; looking down, everything appears much smaller.

The first task for the eight people was to push a stainless steel stew pot down.

If using brute force, even Wei Dalei couldn't move it at all.

But if some round iron rods are placed at the bottom of the stew pot, pushing it becomes much easier.

This naturally also needs to be done by Chen Mu.

This stainless steel stew pot isn't actually large: height 9 cm, diameter 18 cm, net weight 1.6 kg, 304 stainless steel, three-layer craft.

Even such a milk pot already satisfies the material needs for most of the project.

Finally, after nearly three hours, with everyone's joint effort, the stew pot was pushed down the shelf.

The people below had already run to the wall corner; thus even if the iron pot fell and bounced, it wouldn't press on anyone.

Over the next few days, everyone basically did this, gradually bringing down four iron pots, big and small, but together the material for the artillery platform project is already sufficient.

And the second floor of the shelf was cleared out into a large open space.

Originally the space on the first floor was already insufficient; Dong Junwei was worrying about how to develop more areas, but this open space naturally wouldn't be wasted.

However, getting people up to the second shelf is already strenuous, let alone moving goods.

"Actually, referencing the watchtower, building another lift would also be a good idea."

Chen Mu looked at the lift at the gate position; here the height is a bit lower, and it can make maximal use of the shelf's own structure, so the difficulty is naturally lower.

Tang Jing also agreed, saying: "Even if a crane is built later, people will still need to go up and down, and our future utilization of the shelf will only increase; relying solely on climbing by hands and feet is not a long-term plan.

"But I still suggest building the artillery platform first, after all the outside situation is not optimistic; defense projects should be given top priority."

"I agree."

Chen Mu nodded and added: "Moreover, I really doubt that Qingbei and Yi Zhong are simultaneously monitoring us; later when we go out, we'll probably hardly avoid being detected."

"What exactly does Qingbei want to do?" Dong Junwei frowned and said.

"The more people, the more things they can do; such an organization having some grand aims is understandable; they want to ensure control over the school grounds, having people monitor us is also reasonable."

"Then can we go out at night?" Dong Junwei asked.

"It's possible, but it's too dangerous for us." Chen Mu said: "Humans and insects are different; we basically rely on vision to observe and detect danger; at night, facing various animals and reptiles, we would suffer greatly."

"Then what should we do? We can't just never go out."

"I'm thinking, maybe we could dig another passage in the wall; that would not only facilitate covert entry and exit, but also serve as an emergency escape."