Apocalypse Survival: Starting with a Shelter

The living space in the shelter's second underground floor was spacious, comparable to a high-end urban apartment or a rowhouse.

It featured three bedrooms: one master bedroom for Su Wu and two additional rooms reserved for potential future members. Su Wu knew that humans are inherently social beings. While solitude might seem appealing in a bustling city, in the quiet isolation of a shelter, loneliness could grow unbearable over time.

Eventually, even at the risk of complications, Su Wu planned to allow a few outsiders into the shelter.

The entertainment room was designed purely around Su Wu's hobbies. It housed gaming consoles, a high-performance computer, a large-screen TV, speakers, and a treadmill—offering everything from gaming and movie-watching to exercise. If the internet hadn't been at risk of collapse, Su Wu could have comfortably enjoyed this setup for years.

The other areas, such as the living room and dining room, were designed with practicality in mind—functional and straightforward.

Beyond the living quarters, the Control Center was the central hub of the entire shelter.

This room housed Su Wu's upgraded high-energy battery pack, his laptop with supercomputer-level performance, and the control terminal for the shelter's surveillance system, which covered both the shelter and the farmhouse above.

From here, Su Wu could monitor everything happening inside and outside the shelter and manage the engineering crew and all connected devices.

In the future, once he accumulated more survival points, Su Wu planned to further enhance the Control Center's defenses, transforming it into a "shelter within a shelter" for added safety.

Adjacent to the Control Center was the Mechanical Manufacturing Center.

This area was designed to house a small machining tool, a 3D printer, a dedicated engineering robot, and a rare material storage facility. Once fully equipped, it would be capable of producing most small-scale mechanical devices.

Currently, while Su Wu could use survival points to create any machine he needed, this method was expensive and had limited output. A fully functional manufacturing center, on the other hand, could produce cheap, mass-manufactured items as long as it had blueprints and raw materials.

At the farthest edge of the shelter, away from the living quarters and manufacturing center, were the Supply Storage Room and the Water Tower.

The supply storage room was meant to hold everything needed for daily life, including food, medicine, sugar, fertilizer, toiletries, cleaning supplies, clothing, and shoes. It would house all the items Su Wu had temporarily stored in his farmhouse.

The water tower was essentially a large reservoir designed to store and distribute purified underground water. It also served as an emergency water source. In a worst-case scenario, if groundwater became inaccessible and surface water was unavailable, the water tower could sustain the shelter for over a month.

The second underground floor was designed to meet all the requirements for Su Wu's long-term survival.

With its completion, the core of the shelter was essentially finished. Any future work would be enhancements or expansions, more of a luxury than a necessity.

---

Closing the window, Su Wu wiped the sweat from his forehead, already heated by the brief exposure to the outdoor air.

On June 11, the second underground floor was finally completed and fully furnished.

Everything valuable from the farmhouse—including items in Su Wu's bedroom—was moved into the shelter. Naturally, Su Wu himself relocated along with the items.

As he settled into the living quarters, a bright light flashed across the ceiling as the survival-point-activated air circulation and purification system and central air conditioning came online.

The once stuffy and humid air instantly became crisp and refreshing, evoking the sensation of a cool forest morning.

These systems could automatically monitor air quality and temperature, keeping them at optimal levels.

The air Su Wu was breathing was indistinguishable from that in an unpolluted forest. If he wanted, he could even adjust it to simulate an ocean breeze or a garden atmosphere.

"This upgrade cost me 20 survival points in total," Su Wu muttered, feeling a twinge of regret as he noticed his survival points nearly depleted.

Modifying the shelter's core systems consumed far more resources than his previous minor upgrades.

Still, these upgrades were critical. The air circulation and purification systems, along with the central air conditioning, determined not only the quality of life inside the shelter but also its viability in extreme scenarios.

For example, the wildfire Su Wu had seen earlier. A shelter without proper air systems would be filled with toxic smoke. Without advanced air conditioning, poorly designed systems might release heat from vital equipment into the shelter, creating an unbearable furnace-like environment.

The combination of high temperatures and toxic gases could turn a shelter into a deadly trap, leaving no chance of survival.

Satisfied with the reliability of these systems after a quick test, Su Wu left the living quarters and entered the Control Center.

The Control Center was a futuristic-looking hall, dominated by silver and white tones.

A massive wall-mounted display, consisting of four large screens, covered the wall opposite the entrance. These monitors were already powered on, displaying live footage from 96 surveillance cameras scattered throughout the shelter and the surrounding property.

In the center of the room was a sleek, white operations console. It featured a 40-inch curved monitor and a horizontal glass-like control panel equipped with a keyboard, mouse, fingerprint scanner, emergency switches, and more.

Through this console, Su Wu could link to his upgraded laptop and control all the electronic devices in the shelter.

For now, the shelter's facilities were still incomplete, so there wasn't much to operate. The console served more as a symbol of potential than a functional tool at this stage.

The console had cost Su Wu 5 survival points to build—an indulgence for the current state of the shelter. However, it

s top-tier configuration ensured it wouldn't need upgrading in the future.