Apocalyptic Reincarnation: Start with a 30-million Bonus

"Ah, come in." Li Yu stepped forward, helped open the door, and then assisted her inside.

"With such strong sun, not taking proper protection, how can this be okay! What do you need me for? You could have contacted me through the walkie-talkie. Heatstroke isn't a joke; it could easily cost you your life."

He then helped her sit down in a chair.

Hearing Li Yu's angry scolding, An Ya wasn't upset, instead, she felt his concern.

Director Li, as a person, really does care tremendously for everyone at the base.

The air conditioning in the duty office blew refreshing cool air, completely unlike the stifling heat outside, which revitalized her significantly.

After catching her breath, she said: "Director Li, it's extremely hot now. The crops are greatly affected; the crops have been accelerated in growth, and now can be harvested.

Additionally, other fruit trees in the mountain forests, like the navel oranges, have also been impacted, and many immature young fruits have fallen."

Song Min poured her a glass of ice water from the water dispenser.

An Ya gulped it down in one breath.

Just a few hundred meters and a couple of minutes' walk had left her severely sunburnt.

Listening to An Ya, Li Yu pondered deeply.

He was aware of the dangers of high temperatures, but he hadn't realized the damage to crops could be this severe.

He then asked, "How much will that affect us?"

An Ya, with a somewhat dim look, replied: "Production will reduce by about 30%. The outdoor cultivation area is approximately seventy acres, estimated to yield less than 30 tons of rice.

However, the base's underground plantation has about 18 acres of cultivated area and can harvest about 10 tons, totaling 40 tons of rice in all.

The sweet potatoes and corn are slightly better off, drought and heat resistant, with an estimated yield of about 15 tons.

This time, the total food harvest will amount to 55 tons!"

55 tons?

Based on the current population, including both the Inner and Outer City, with 120 people in the Inner City and 134 in the Outer City, that makes a total of 254 people.

Including Xiao Jun and his group, there would be nearly 300 people.

An average adult consumes at least 240 pounds of grain per year.

At least 36 tons of grain are consumed a year.

This doesn't include the food for extra staff and cooperative personnel working with the base.

Adding in the extra staff's monthly ration and the grain exchanged with other cooperative personnel in Xin City, there's about 10 more tons.

Roughly calculating, the annual grain consumption is at least 46 tons.

55 tons.

Just enough to get by.

This is after the base has been continuously expanded, including more than a hundred acres to the scope of the Outer City, and the recently constructed Second Outer City itself taking up over sixty acres.

If relying on the initial cultivation area alone, it would have long been insufficient.

55 tons, that's the production for one season.

Including both indoor and outdoor harvests of the Inner and Outer City.

Here in the Southern region, under stable weather, it's very manageable to have three harvests a year.

The annual production could easily exceed 200 tons. Even more.

But now, the weather is too unstable.

That is why Li Yu firmly resolved to integrate residential housing with production.

The Inner City's residential buildings have an underground planting area of 10 acres,

The First Outer City has 8 acres of underground plantation.

The recently constructed Second Outer City, which is currently being outfitted, includes residential buildings with 10 acres of underground plantation.

The Bunker has 2 acres.

And the mountain cave area, where 6 acres have now been developed.

After sorting out the mountain cave and the Second Outer City's underground plantation, the base will have a total of 36 acres of underground plantation.

These underground plantations aren't affected by outside weather; they only need enough water and light to keep producing.

However, as it's indoor cultivation, the yield isn't high, but the advantage is that planting can continue uninterrupted.

Coupled with cows, sheep, pigs, and human feces for fertilizer, along with Bai Jie and An Ya working together to create agricultural fertilizers like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium,

It is indeed achieving a full ecosystem.

But there's also a significant hidden downside—water supply.

Mountain Pond, despite its depth reaching 20 meters and being nestled between two mountains with a storage capacity of 100,000 cubic meters of water,

It's enough to irrigate 800 acres of land.

If the base is to expand significantly in the future, water will be a larger issue.

But, that should be a concern far into the future, for now, the water supply within the base is still sufficient.

Besides the Mountain Pond, three deep wells have been dug in the Inner City of the base.

First outer city and Second outer city each have a deep well.

These deep wells have relatively abundant groundwater.

Cultivation in the post-apocalyptic world requires many conditions.

The first requirement is the necessity of a perimeter wall. Without the protection of a wall, cultivating crops is futile; one cannot possibly risk harvesting and planting outdoors amidst the zombie threat.

The second requirement is a water source, specifically a stable one, which is quite difficult to secure. Only near some reservoirs or rivers can this condition be met.

The third requirement is seeds and cultivation techniques.

...

Meeting these conditions merely lays the foundation for successful cultivation.

The weather in the post-apocalyptic world is unpredictable.

Whether it's extreme heat, drought, or harsh winter conditions, any of these can destroy the crops that were painstakingly cultivated.

Thus, relying solely on outdoor cultivation is absolutely insufficient and unstable.

Indoor cultivation requires even more complex resources.

Talented cultivators! Electricity for lighting! Long-term cultivation!

And so forth.

Achieving these would seem like a pipe dream for people in the post-apocalyptic world.

Just the occasional zombie tides are enough to destroy many bases.

Cultivation is not an overnight endeavor; it often spans several months.

How then can one survive during these months of downtime?

Without any stored food, a little turbulence could lead to a base's collapse.

Because without food, people will riot.

Once people riot, it becomes difficult to manage. And once a zombie tide hits, collapse is inevitable.

Thus, in the current stage of the apocalypse, bases with many people are bound to collapse sooner or later!

One must either ruthlessly reduce the population size through manpower or allow the zombies to thin out the numbers.

Big Camphor Tree Base, however, possesses unique advantages.

The perimeter wall was built early on.

Water source, there is a 20-meter deep Mountain Pond Reservoir.

Food reserves, before the apocalypse, Li Yu had purchased hundreds of tons of rice, various vegetable seeds, crop seeds, tons of salt, and so on.

Over a year ago, he utilized 20 million yuan to leverage funds several times or even ten times larger through loans, installments, and mortgages.

This laid a solid foundation for Big Camphor Tree Base.

And more than a year later,

The paper money becomes nothing but fuel without any value.

...

Li Yu was lost in thought, and when he came back to his senses, he saw An Ya sitting in the chair waiting for his reply.

"We'll start harvesting tonight. Taking advantage of the cooler night temperatures, we'll harvest all the crops except for the outdoor ones, whether it's rice, sweet potatoes, or fruit trees, we'll harvest them all," Li Yu said firmly.

It's already August.

Only two weeks left until the volcanic eruption.

The temperature will continue to rise, and if delayed until a few days before the eruption, the temperature by then will be higher, more intense.

Harvesting then would be even more problematic.

Better to harvest now, especially since the high temperatures have hastened the ripening of the crops; there's no point in waiting any longer.

Better to harvest them now and dry them for preservation.

An Ya was somewhat shocked and asked, "All of them? Even the fruit trees that are still bearing young fruit? It's the time for them to accumulate sugars. Shouldn't we wait a bit longer?"

Li Yu nodded earnestly and replied: "Harvest them, harvest everything. Since we are going to harvest, then let's do it all at once tonight."

As mid-August approaches, he feels increasingly the urgency of time.

After most of the world's volcanoes erupted, the world was shrouded in volcanic ash and plunged into darkness.

What followed was acid rain and falling temperatures.

Once the acid rain falls, all these crops will perish.

The fruit trees will also be corroded.

Darkness, acid rain, cold.

A triple threat.

The most perilous post-apocalyptic environment over the past year is about to arrive!

The high temperatures, locust plagues, or the extreme cold of minus sixty degrees seen in the past year were just appetizers.

The apocalypse, perhaps, is just beginning.