NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1: Chapter 1: Building a Shelter from Scratch
"Hello, please sign for the delivery." In the suburbs. Outside a run-down farmhouse. The delivery driver hefted several heavy cardboard boxes off the back of an electric tricycle. Su Wu took the pen, his gaze briefly sweeping over the boxes to confirm there was no damage, then bent down to sign the receipt.
"Are you planning to build a shelter here? You've bought quite a few tools." As Su Wu inspected the delivery, the driver couldn't help but ask curiously.
"You've heard the doomsday rumors too?" Su Wu raised an eyebrow, a bit surprised.
"Of course. It's been the talk of our work group all day. Things on the market are suddenly expensive and hard to get. Something's definitely up. Must be the government quietly stepping in to regulate supplies. Maybe the rumors about the apocalypse are true."
A trace of worry flickered in the delivery driver's tone. The end of the world wasn't some trivial joke. For ordinary people, surviving it would be nearly impossible.
"That makes sense," Su Wu nodded seriously. "But there's no need to worry. If something really happens, the government will step in to ensure we survive."
"Let's hope so," the driver sighed, his expression still grim. Sure, the government might act, but the quality of life afterward? That was anyone's guess.
This was a parallel Earth. All continents were unified under a single federal government. Technology was far ahead of the world Su Wu had come from, with controlled nuclear fusion nearing breakthrough. Humanity stood on the brink of the interstellar age, poised for grand exploration and colonization. Yet this promising future was overshadowed by the looming apocalypse. The survival of human civilization itself was now a massive question mark.
Carrying the delivery boxes into the yard one by one, Su Wu carefully locked the gate and surveyed his surroundings. The yard was quite spacious. In the eastern corner stood an old two-story house, while the rest was piled high with cement, sand, steel bars, scrap metal, aluminum cans, plastic bottles, old appliances, and tires. To outsiders, the place would look like a junkyard. And frankly, it wasn't far from the truth.
Most of the items cluttering the yard were things Su Wu had spent the last half month hauling back from scrap yards across the city. It had cost him six million yuan in total. Expensive? Sure. But among the haul were over 3,000 tons of scrap metal, which alone made it a solid investment. Even at the lowest price of six or seven yuan per kilogram for iron, quality steel bars could fetch more than double that. Spending six million to amass all this was a testament to Su Wu's careful calculations and tireless effort.
"A whole house… all traded for this." A wave of mixed emotions surged through Su Wu's heart—uncertainty, regret, perhaps a bit of hope. When he had crossed into this world half a month ago, he had been living in the downtown district of a major coastal city. The apartment he'd been staying in was the only inheritance left to him by the original owner's parents, along with two million yuan in compensation from their fatal car accident.
In a world without impending doom, this inheritance would have allowed Su Wu to live a carefree life, free from work, enjoying luxuries he could only dream of in his previous life. But there were no "what-ifs." When the survival system that accompanied him through the transmigration activated, revealing the coming apocalypse, Su Wu had made an immediate decision. He sold the apartment, took the cash and compensation money, and fled to a remote inland city with higher terrain: Jianghe City. There, he rented the farmhouse he now stood in, intending to build a shelter to face the looming disaster.
"It's still too late. If only I had crossed over earlier, I might have snagged an abandoned underground bunker." Such a place would have been the ideal shelter—spacious, durable, and far cheaper than building from scratch. But when Su Wu had scoured the internet for leads, he discovered that these previously overlooked locations had already been seized by the government or sold off. Despite searching tirelessly for over ten hours, he couldn't find a single suitable option. With no other choice, he settled on this farmhouse as a compromise. Starting from scratch wasn't ideal, but at least the surrounding area was safe, and the cost of living was low—much better than staying in a coastal city.
A phone call interrupted his thoughts. Su Wu pulled out his phone and answered.
"Mr. Su, your application to build a basement shelter has been approved. I've sent the permit to you on WeChat." The voice on the other end belonged to an excited broker.
"Thank you," Su Wu replied calmly. "I'll transfer the remaining payment once I've confirmed the documents." Although the area was remote, government regulations were still in place. Excavating land to build a shelter required official approval. To secure the permit, Su Wu had not only signed a 20-year lease for the farmhouse but also paid a five-thousand-yuan fee to the broker. Fortunately, everything had gone smoothly and without much delay.
After hanging up, Su Wu resumed moving the delivery boxes into the house. In the freshly cleared living room, Su Wu carefully opened one of the boxes on the hardwood table, unwrapping layers of foam padding to reveal a pair of 70-centimeter-long mechanical arms.
"Sturdy materials, flexible joints," he murmured after inspecting them. These high-end mechanical arms, priced at 16,000 yuan each, were indeed worth the money. Their craftsmanship was impeccable.
Even so, Su Wu couldn't help but feel a pang of heartache. A month ago, these would have cost only 8,000 yuan. Now, not only had the price doubled, but they were also being rationed. After buying these, he couldn't find any more available.
But now wasn't the time for complaints. Focusing his mind, Su Wu's gaze fell on one of the mechanical arms. A translucent interface, visible only to him, popped up in his field of vision:
[Standard Mechanical Arm]
Compatibility: 90%
Evaluation: A reliable mechanical arm suitable for basic production tasks.
Upgrade Options:
Industrial Arm I: Versatile Dexterity (1 survival point)
Industrial Arm II: High-Frequency Oscillation Cutter (1 survival point)
Industrial Arm III: High-Energy Smelting Laser Emitter (2 survival points)
Su Wu's eyes locked onto the third option. With a thought, he made his choice.
"Upgrade to Industrial Arm III: High-Energy Smelting Laser Emitter." A faint glow enveloped the mechanical arm, which transformed before his eyes. The design became sleeker and sturdier, and the human-like fingers were replaced with a fist-sized transparent crystal. Su Wu knew that this crystal housed the cutting-edge laser emitter, the primary upgrade feature.
Checking his system panel, he noted that after the upgrade, 14 survival points remained. Without hesitation, he opened another box, upgrading two more mechanical arms along different paths.
"With this complete set of mechanical arms, I should be able to build a universal engineering robot." Running his fingers along the metallic surface, feeling its cool texture, Su Wu couldn't suppress the surge of excitement and anticipation.
Half a month of tireless effort had finally paid off. For the first time, he held a piece of technology that surpassed the current era. From this moment on, his fate diverged from that of ordinary people on this planet. He now had the mea
ns to turn the dream of a shelter into reality, step by step.