Chapter Eight: Designing Ventilation and Lighting

Chapter Eight: Designing Ventilation and Lighting

"First, I need to think about how to transform the base's ventilation system; this is a major issue for the underground shelter."

Sitting on a somewhat uncomfortable wooden chair, Soma began to recall knowledge from the civilized era.

And the designs of shelters from various apocalypse movies…

An underground shelter requires a large air filtration and regulation system, but any exposed ventilation duct would become a safety hazard.

Therefore, in Soma's conception, using an internal circulation system would be best, but the premise is that there is water and electricity, which could electrolyze to produce oxygen, providing the possibility for internal air circulation.

Of course, it cannot be completely sealed off from the outside; such a fully sealed environment has extremely poor stability, and ventilation holes leading to the outside are still necessary.

For concealment, these ventilation openings should not be too large and must have sealable switches that can be closed at any time.

If it weren't for terrain limitations, setting the ventilation opening below the low water level of a riverbed or on an uninhabited island would be the optimal solution.

These slender pipes could draw in purified fresh air into the shelter and could be closed at any time, utilizing internal circulation.

However, given the current conditions and equipment in the shelter, this idea could only remain a concept.

After checking the items currently for sale in the trading channel, Soma decided to stick with the most mechanical design.

Using the periscope structure of a submarine.

He would create a window in the center of the shelter that serves both ventilation and lighting functions.

The specific design involves first digging out a cavity above the shelter and installing glass with good light transmittance.

Then, drilling holes in the glass to ensure air can flow through the pipes.

Along the dug cavity, a "Z" shaped turning hole can be made in the middle.

In the "Z" shaped hole, install two parallel flat mirrors at a 45-degree angle to the incoming light, transmitting the light into the shelter to solve the daylight lighting issue.

After the first layer of ventilation glass, a mechanical explosion-proof glass can be designed to ensure that in case of disaster, the explosion-proof glass can be closed to prevent liquids or toxic air from entering.

Such a simple design could be thought of even by a high school student, but implementing it would be quite a challenge.

Without matching tools, drilling down to a depth of five meters in the shelter while ensuring precision would be a major project.

However…

"I have a system!"

With his current understanding of the system, Soma was now completely aware of how it worked.

When there are no materials, it's extremely costly for the system to create materials out of thin air using survival points.

But when materials are available, the system functions more like a construction team, requiring only a small amount of survival points to achieve upgrade goals.

After some contemplation and confirming feasibility, Soma opened the trading channel.

Currently, the resources he could utilize include:

Ordinary mineral water (1000ml), ethereal water (600ml), and 10 pounds of bread.

As for the remaining pet egg and energy bicycle blueprint, he didn't plan to trade those.

Trading channel:

[Seller: Soma]

[Trading Item: 50ml Ethereal Water]

[Required Item: Explosion-proof Glass]

[Remarks: Water that can enhance the body, don't miss out, only 2 units of glass needed, high quality please private message.]

…

[Seller: Soma]

[Trading Item: 15ml Mineral Water (Limit 975ml)]

[Required Item: 1 Iron Block (Single transaction limit 1/1)]

[Remarks: Each person can only complete one transaction.]

After successfully listing these two items, Soma spent 25ml of water to purchase two units of reflective mirrors, using up all of his ordinary mineral water.

Soma exchanged 15ml of water for 1 iron block; although it was an extremely unscrupulous merchant behavior, for some players struggling on the brink of life and death, it was akin to a savior's act.

Additionally, the reason for limiting each person to one transaction was also part of Soma's plan.

Water, at this moment, was liquid gold; he wanted it to be consumed, not hoarded by some opportunists.

World chat channel:

"Anyone short on water or iron blocks, hurry to the trading channel, Soma is selling water again! One transaction per person, hurry!"

"Wow, Soma is generous!"

"Hehe, it's already too late; I was lucky to follow Soma's personal channel early to grab a sip of water. Don't you see Soma has over 400,000 followers now? You guys are just passersby!"

"Where is Soma getting all this water? Yesterday he spent 700ml on the illustrated guide, and today he's using 1000ml to buy iron blocks. Does he think he has too much?"

"You guys should check it out; the ethereal water Soma listed can actually enhance the body and cure diseases. Anyone with explosion-proof glass should hurry to trade!"

"Sigh, people are making me feel inferior. I've been digging all morning and haven't found a single drop of water; I'm dying of thirst!"

"…."

With daily speaking limits, a large crowd gathered in the world channel to discuss, not to mention the lively regional channel.

Even Soma's personal messages were overflowing at this moment.

First, within two seconds, the iron block he listed for sale had already been traded successfully, with 65 units of iron blocks quietly resting in his inventory.

At the same time, countless people were approaching with other resources, calling out to trade for a sip of water.

"Water is too in demand!"

Soma thought to himself.

In these two days, while others were listing resources to buy water, he was uniquely trading water for resources, making him appear quite distinct.

Using the filtering function in his private messages, Soma filtered out 80% of useless messages with the keyword "iron block."

After filtering, he selected dozens of messages that mentioned explosion-proof glass and began to check them out.

After browsing through many messages that wanted to exchange ordinary quality explosion-proof glass for more water, Soma finally found an eye-catching one.

Feng Mengyue: "Soma, I have a piece of ordinary quality explosion-proof glass, but I think you won't be interested. If you are willing to increase the price, I can trade you one piece of excellent quality and one piece of rare quality explosion-proof glass."

The profile picture showed a woman with a delicate face and an air of heroism.

Seeing the words "excellent" and "rare," Soma's eyebrows twitched, and he smiled.

Currently, the quality classification had five levels: ordinary, excellent, fine, perfect, and rare.

Feng Mengyue, being a woman, managed to acquire rare quality explosion-proof glass just two days into the game, showcasing her luck.

"She asks for an increase right away but doesn't quote a price; she seems to be a tough negotiator."

Soma shook his head, not falling for it and instead countering.

Soma: "You should understand the value of ethereal water now; among the many items in the market, the only thing that can enhance physical condition is my item. As for explosion-proof glass, I'm buying it to replace the windows of my shelter; whether it's good or bad doesn't really matter."

Feng Mengyue: "Is 300ml acceptable?"

Soma: "Don't even think about it; it's just two pieces of glass, not worth that much. If you don't want it, I'll drink it this afternoon."

Feng Mengyue: "Let me think about it."

Seeing the other party's reaction, Soma couldn't help but chuckle.

In a market where only he was selling ethereal water, it was absolutely a seller's market; once he decided not to sell, the buyers could only stare helplessly.

After two minutes, Feng Mengyue's message came again.

Feng Mengyue: "For two pieces of glass, I'll add one piece of information, 300ml of ethereal water."

Soma: "What information?"

Feng Mengyue: "Information on how I obtained these glasses."

Looking at the chat box, Soma pondered for a moment and then chose to agree.

In the apocalypse, resources have a price, but information is priceless.

For instance, killing the chameleon; without sufficient information, Soma might have gone in fully equipped but ended up as food.

After listing the 300ml ethereal water in the private trading channel, the transaction was completed.

[Record]: You have lost 300ml of ethereal water.

[Record]: Congratulations, you have obtained Explosion-Proof Glass (Excellent) *1, congratulations, you have obtained Explosion-Proof Glass (Rare) *1.

[Record]: Would you like to extract glass information?

"Extract."

As the words fell, a voice began to play in the empty shelter.

"Ruins will randomly refresh in the wilderness. When I got up today, a mysterious ruin refreshed near me. It looked very dangerous, so I only managed to scavenge a few pieces of glass from the outskirts. Just as I wanted to continue exploring, the ruin suddenly disappeared."