Chapter 26

Squeak—ah!

Su Hao pushed open the shelter's big door and strode inside.

"Bro...... bro... brother......"

As soon as the door opened, the little girl jumped down from the panda's belly, ran to Su Hao's side, clung to his calf, and looked at him with worried eyes.

"Hahaha! Don't worry, I'll be fine!"

Su Hao laughed loudly, bent over, and picked up the little girl.

Although the little girl's speech was still not very clear, she could already clearly hear the two words 'brother'.

After going out and being busy all day, as soon as I got home, such a cute little sister ran over and said 'brother'—the feeling was simply wonderful.

The little girl's single 'brother' made Su Hao feel his mental power had largely recovered.

Having a home in the apocalypse feels completely different; it's nothing like being a solitary person.

For himself and also for the little girl and the others, Su Hao became more determined to grow stronger.

Only with sufficient personal strength can one better face the crises of the apocalypse, obtain more resources, and build the shelter to be more perfect!

……

After dinner, Su Hao walked to the corner of the living room wall, moved a black stone onto the living room coffee table; this is the construction platform needed for building.

Now that the materials are all ready, it's time to start building the fireplace.

Next, he took from his storage bag the fireplace's construction blueprints, a fire crystal, 100 units of charcoal, 500 units of wood, and 200 units of stone, placing them on that black stone.

At first, Su Hao planned to use the Eternal Flame as a special material for building the fireplace.

However, after receiving the fire crystal gifted by Hua Yao, Su Hao changed his mind.

Although using the Eternal Flame to build the fireplace would mean no need to add fuel later, even if the fireplace stayed on all year, it would not consume much energy.

Moreover, the fire crystal's material properties require only a small amount of energy to release heat for a long time.

After comparing the two, Su Hao ultimately chose to use the fire crystal as the special material for building the fireplace.

As for the Eternal Flame, Su Hao plans to take it tomorrow for synthesis; he happens to have something on hand that can be combined with it, which is a pretty good option.

After placing all the materials needed for building the fireplace onto the construction platform, Su Hao heard a mechanical prompt sound.

【Please select the location for building the fireplace.】

At the same time, a three-dimensional translucent model of the shelter appeared before Su Hao's eyes, and beside this model there was also a model of the fireplace.

As Su Hao's thoughts turned, the position of the fireplace model would move accordingly.

After briefly thinking for a moment, Su Hao extended a finger and lightly tapped the living room on the shelter model, enlarging the living room area.

With another finger, he dragged the fireplace model and placed it onto the TV wall in the living room.

Although there were energy crystals, the shelter's electrical appliances could still function normally, but the network wouldn't work—there's a hammer's network in the dark forest.

So keeping the TV wall would be useless; it's better to use it to build a fireplace to provide warmth for the shelter!

Just as Su Hao placed the fireplace model onto the TV wall, a prompt sound came again to his ears.

【Are you sure you want to build the fireplace at this location?】

"Yes!"

Without any hesitation, Su Hao immediately made his choice.

The next moment.

The construction platform emitted a dazzling golden light, wrapping all the materials inside, forming a golden light sphere that flew to the TV wall.

After the golden light sphere flew into the TV wall, the golden light expanded from the sphere to the entire TV wall.

Immediately after.

The middle position of the TV wall began to bulge outward, gradually taking the shape of a square fireplace.

About ten seconds later, the golden light gradually faded, and on the TV wall that originally had no shape, a white stone-built fireplace appeared.

On top of the fireplace, a red stone was embedded; even without adding any energy now, it gave a warm feeling.

When Su Hao threw in an energy crystal, the red stone on the fireplace flickered slightly, and a warm flame ignited inside the fireplace.

【Fireplace】

Supernatural Grade: First Rank

Type: Shelter Interior Construction

Effect: It can freely adjust the temperature; only a small amount of energy is needed to give the shelter lasting warmth, eliminating all effects of the cold.

……

"On the third day of the uncanny descent, I completed the achievement of building a fireplace—nice, nice!"

Su Hao smiled faintly and nodded in satisfaction.

With the fireplace, there's no need to worry about tomorrow's extreme cold disaster; moreover, since tomorrow's temperature won't be too low, we can continue exploring for a day.

The apocalyptic extreme cold disaster is not merely a drop in temperature; it is a freezing climate imbued with supernatural power.

If one is outside the shelter and affected by the chill, and the shelter lacks a fireplace, dispelling the internal cold will take one or two weeks no matter what.

In more severe cases, it can even leave a person affected by the chill for life.

However, with a fireplace it's different; although its function is singular, it also counts as a supernatural structure.

Just by sleeping inside a shelter with a fireplace, the supernatural power of the chill that has entered the body will vanish.

Afterward, Su Hao set the fireplace temperature to 25 degrees, lay on Da Xiong Mao's belly together with the little girl to rest for a while, then went back to his room to sleep.

Tomorrow is the last day one can go out to explore before the extreme cold disaster ends; Su Hao plans to make a trip to the ruins.

……

The night passed uneventfully; early the next morning, Su Hao woke up at dawn.

The first thing upon getting up was to pour out all the materials gathered these days from the Storage Bag.

What should I synthesize...

Looking at the materials spread across the bed, Su Hao showed a thoughtful expression.

With the arrival of a new day, the usage count of the Synthesis Heart has also been refreshed.

However, the Synthesis Heart is only at beginner proficiency, allowing only three syntheses per day, while the materials Su Hao has gathered these days cannot be synthesized in just three times.

Not to mention other things, just that pile of contaminated blood would need several days of synthesis opportunities to finish synthesizing them.

The number of syntheses is less than the materials to be synthesized, so how to synthesize must be carefully planned to maximize benefits.

"Got it, let's do it like this!"

After a moment of thought, Su Hao had made a decision.

Since we're going out to explore today, we should prioritize synthesizing items that can enhance combat power.

Su Hao first found the 【Flame Skull Skull】 in the material pile, then used the first Synthesis Heart on the Rock Armor.

In Su Hao's view, only by surviving first can he obtain more resources and strengthen his own strength.

Therefore, defensive equipment naturally became the priority items for synthesis.

However, when the 【Rock Armor】 and 【Flame Skull Skull】 synthesis was completed, looking at the brand-new armor appearing at the bedside, Su Hao's eyes twitched involuntarily.

"How does it feel a bit like a trap?"