The second disaster arrive!

"No way! I understand limiting items, but why touch the crafting system? Now even making a single wooden spear costs one disaster point. They only gave me thirteen!" "The apocalypse is truly upon us. This damn game has no good intentions; it's just finding new ways to kill us off!" "Down with game tyranny! The people should be in charge of this world! Hurrah!" "Trading now requires points? Four kilograms of goods need three points in handling fees? Why don't you just rob us instead?!" "Heavy reward offered! My mother was deployed to XX location. Is there anyone nearby? Please help me look after her, she doesn't have any points, and we can't private message!" "I'm finished. Without storage space, my meat will rot in a few days!" "Looking for kind-hearted people to team up with. My location is around XX. If you're interested and nearby, private message me!"

Liam sat in his shelter, now overflowing with items from the expanded inventory, his face grim as he read through the shelter upgrade announcement. This update undoubtedly pushed the somewhat game-like survival world a big step closer to reality.

The crafting system had been nerfed. The torch, made from one piece of wood and two plant fibers, which could burn for twelve hours, was gone. Other similar items that could be crafted with simple materials were also removed, leaving only essential tools and weapons, all requiring disaster points to craft.

"Trading needs points, inventory needs points, crafting needs points, private messaging needs points... everything needs points!" All the update announcements revolved around disaster points. Everyone thought the days of being strapped for cash were over, but they never expected it to return in such a ridiculous way.

Liam opened the system interface and saw his points displayed prominently in the bottom right corner: 632 points!

"Thank goodness I upgraded the shelter first and got a good ranking. First place was worth a whopping 400 points, what a steal!"

Liam's worries eased after checking the point costs for various items. Because he was ahead of everyone else and had received all the disaster points himself, he appeared incredibly wealthy in the eyes of others.

Until further changes were made, he could still utilize the crafting and trading systems. As for the others... the end of the novice period meant that many people still hiding in their shelters would be forced to face the harsh reality. It was time to step out and explore the wasteland!

The most significant change for Liam was the drastic reduction in storage space. Previously, the inventory didn't have a size limit; no matter how large the item, it only occupied a single slot. For example, all his stone and iron blocks could be stacked into one inventory slot, which was incredibly convenient.

Now, the storage space was limited. He could no longer hoard dozens of units of resources in one go. Liam clicked on the space icon in his inventory and thought, "Use 100 disaster points to open storage space."

Like purchasing inventory expansion slots in a dungeon crawler game, Liam's vision seemed to penetrate space, entering a small one-cubic-meter space.

"[Record]: Your disaster points -100. Your current storage space volume: 1 cubic meter."

Even with the storage space unlocked, the method of use remained the same. By focusing on an item for one second, he could store any unowned item within. Stored items could also be retrieved instantly, appearing in Liam's hand or at a designated location within fifty centimeters.

After experimenting with the trading channel, Liam abandoned the idea of continuing his water-selling business. The current trading system charged fees based on weight. The starting price for the first three kilograms of goods was two points, with each subsequent kilogram costing one point. This meant that large-scale resource hoarding through trading was no longer feasible. The game panel's ultimate goal was to promote the exchange of goods between regional channels. If people wanted to trade resources, they could do so in the Secret Realm.

"This really isn't just a simple survival game," Liam thought. "Fortunately, my sister is sixteen and my parents are fifty-four, so I don't have to worry about them being deployed in this disaster. Otherwise, with the current exploration progress, I would have to risk my life."

After observing the world and regional chat channels for a while, a sense of urgency washed over Liam. He exited to the top right corner of the game panel, where the disaster information was displayed. A number "15" and a snowflake icon had appeared. When Liam focused on the number, a prompt popped up.

"[Time remaining until the next disaster: 15 days]

[Disaster event: Blizzard (minus 20 degrees Celsius, lasting 72 hours)]"

"Damn it, minus twenty degrees? Is this game crazy?!" Liam cursed.

The black and white text on the panel remained indifferent to his anger. "We just had acid rain, and now a blizzard? How are ordinary people supposed to survive this?" Liam suppressed his anger, his face flushed.

If the first acid rain disaster was a challenge for underground shelters, then this blizzard was a major test for those above ground. Once the temperature plummeted, finding food, exploring, and most importantly, staying warm would become huge problems for ground shelters.

"Seventy-two hours..." Liam gritted his teeth.

His underground shelter was now 140 square meters, meaning the temperature inside would be much lower than in smaller shelters. If he couldn't find a suitable heating solution within half a month, he might...

Liam closed the game panel anxiously and started brainstorming ways to prepare for the disaster in fifteen days. The disasters in this survival game were too frequent. If it were one disaster per month, Liam was confident that he could return to the electrical age within a year using his survival points. However, this second disaster, coming in just fifteen days, completely disrupted his plans.

"I'll go scavenging tomorrow, no, today! I have to find a heating solution as soon as possible!"

With the impending disaster, Liam couldn't wait any longer. He spent another 200 points to upgrade his storage space to two cubic meters and began organizing the items scattered on the floor.

First, he moved all the stone and iron blocks to the innermost corner of the shelter. Then, using eight units of wood, he built a crude storage cabinet and placed all the food supplies inside.

Now, only miscellaneous items remained on the floor.

"Huh... isn't this the complete shelter core?" Liam picked up the glowing turtle shell, touching his forehead.

He had been so busy that he hadn't had time to fuse this core last night, his attention completely captured by the generator. Now, it seemed like a blessing in disguise. The shelter was already large enough, and expanding it further would only lower the temperature.

Liam carefully stored the turtle shell in his inventory and moved all the remaining items to the corner. He then began preparing the items he would need for his exploration trip today. With the disaster looming, exploring the outside world was a top priority.