First week in wasteland

After opening the hole that blocked the smell, the irrepressible smell from inside made Liam almost certain of the ingredients at the first moment. Gunpowder! Or to be more precise—black gunpowder!

Liam carefully poured the black particles from the wooden stick onto the table, and a pungent smell of sulfur came over him.

"The Kobolds actually need black gunpowder to cast the so-called fireball?"

Liam felt a bit unbelievable when he suddenly received this news.

Previously, in ruis, the Kobold wizard first waved his wooden stick before casting his fireball. Liam thought it was a spellcasting action or a special attribute of the wooden stick.

Unexpectedly, the Kobold still had to respect science to cast a fireball.

"So... are the Kobolds looking for black gunpowder?"

Hearing Liam's muttering, Oreo nodded repeatedly, indicating that Liam's understanding was correct.

The Kobold tied to the table also seemed to have resigned himself to his fate after seeing Liam pour out the black gunpowder and continued to chatter.

Ignoring the communication between Oreo and the Kobold, Liam opened the game panel, selected resource scanning, and checked the raw materials for black gunpowder preparation in the resource options.

[Record]: A small sulfur mine was detected 465 meters southeast of the player's current distance.

[Record]: Today's number of times: 2/3

"Sure enough, what they were looking for today was this natural sulfur mine."

Liam's face was expressionless, and his thoughts gradually drifted away.

The technology of extracting sulfur in modern times had already been innovated countless times, and even after the steps of atmospheric and vacuum distillation, catalytic cracking, hydrocracking, and delayed coking, sulfides in petroleum were separated to make sulfide sewage, and the sulfur in the sulfur-containing sewage was recycled and treated to produce finished sulfur.

In ancient times, when this technology was not available, people wanted to prepare sulfur.

One was to find a way to mine natural sulfur mines like the one near the shelter.

The second was to extract sulfur from pyrite through smelting.

The Kobolds' ability to judge and find sulfur mines proved that they had touched the edge of science.

It was likely that they already knew that after mixing these things in a certain proportion, they would make such amplified gunpowder, which, after being catalyzed by magic, would increase the power of the fireball.

"Woof?"

While Liam was thinking, Oreo had finished communicating with the Kobold and came back.

Oreo pointed at the black gunpowder that Liam had poured out, then pointed to the distance, and finally pointed at the Kobold.

"Are you saying that he is willing to take us to the place where the Kobold tribe is mining?"

Oreo nodded.

"I have sulfur mines here. To make gunpowder, I still need enough potassium nitrate, and potassium nitrate is the main component of saltpeter. Maybe the Kobold tribe has found saltpeter mines on a large scale."

"Should I go or not..."

Liam pondered. Black gunpowder was definitely an indispensable thing for making hot weapon ammunition.

If he could repair that small hot weapon machine tool in the end, the raw materials for ammunition would also be a big gap.

Looking at the still chattering Kobold, Liam decisively walked over and gave the Kobold a dizzying punch.

"I will definitely go. Not to mention anything else, just the treasure chests dropped by the Kobolds are a lot of harvest."

"What's more... I still have to explore their lair, otherwise, it will always be a time bomb around here."

After pondering for a while, Liam made a decision.

It was getting late outside. After checking the situation outside the shelter, Liam walked over.

After checking the ropes on the Kobold again and again, Liam dragged him to the corner of the cave and told Oreo to watch over him at night. Then, Liam went back to his little bed.

In the apocalypse, once it was dark, one could basically only stay in the shelter.

Pulling the light bulb in front of him and turning it off, listening to the rumbling of the generator, Liam gradually fell asleep.

[Apocalypse Calendar January 7]

[You repaired a generator, which improved the level of technological civilization (survival points +10)]

[You found an underground ruin (+5)]

[You encountered an enemy while exploring the underground ruins, and you defeated the enemy forcefully (survival points +10)]

[You made the first electric weapon, and your combat effectiveness was greatly improved (survival points +5)]

[You killed five Kobolds effortlessly and gained a lot (survival points +5)]

[You have a prisoner for the first time (survival points +5)]

[Scanning the host's survival environment, evaluating survival points, and gaining 62 survival points today.]

Final settlement: Survival points +102

Remaining survival points: 175

The morning not only brought good news from the system, but Lily Liu's message was also blinking in the private chat on the game panel.

Sitting at the head of the bed, Liam looked at the Kobold who was being disciplined by Oreo in the corner and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

It was the first time that a stranger had spent the night in the shelter, and this person was a Kobold.

He didn't sleep very well all night, for fear that this Kobold would set fire to the shelter at night.

Opening Lily Liu's message on the chat panel, Liam stared at it.

[Lily Liu: Liam, my uncle has finished drawing your design drawing. This is the transaction link. You can take it after you wake up. If there is anything you don't understand on the design drawing, you can ask me at any time.]

Below the message was a transaction item that only two people could see.

After paying two disaster points, the light flashed, and the design drawing appeared in the storage space.

Leaning against the head of the bed, Liam opened the dead man's private message used to record his diary and began to write with his mind.

"Today is January 7th of the Apocalypse Calendar, the seventh day since I came to the wasteland, which is also a week."

"If the civilized world was still going on, it should be December 29th, two days away from New Year's Day!"

"Alas, this time, my sister's birthday seems to be the Little New Year? It seems that I can't celebrate it. I wonder if Mom and Dad will celebrate this girl's birthday in another place..."

"The materials in the base are still sufficient, enough for me and Oreo to eat for half a month, but yesterday's flour consumption was a bit high. It seems that the oil-splashed noodles can only be made twice, and these two meals should be saved for when the family comes." 

"The M-energy water has accumulated to almost 20 liters. The express fee for this thing in the current trading system is expensive. In order to open up a larger storage space, I'll save the points and not trade for now."

"The captured Kobold is very honest. I plan to deal with the sulfur mine near the shelter today and try to mine some. If I can follow him to find the saltpeter mine later... Maybe I can make black gunpowder, so that safety will be very guaranteed!"

"By the way, today's vegetable cultivation base is still..."

"Wow! The garlic seeds seem to have sprouted, and so have the cabbages! I saw a little green in the black soil. What a memorable day!"

Subconsciously raising his head, Liam saw a little green sprout in the cultivation base under the sunlight.

This green surprise was like a gift from heaven, and it swept away Liam's sleepiness from early morning.

Putting on his clothes and walking quickly to the cultivation base, Liam squatted down and looked carefully.

Where the garlic seeds were pressed, a small green sprout had already emerged.

In the city, basically no one would use garlic seeds to grow garlic. Everyone used garlic cloves buried in the soil, which not only grew quickly but also didn't need much care.

Therefore, it was also the first time for Liam to see garlic seeds grow such a thing.

The growth of the cabbage was even more gratifying. There was a small green stem with two leaves on it, about the size of a fingernail.

Like a mini cabbage, it looked white and tender.

"At this growth rate... it seems that it won't take a month to grow a crop of cabbage!"

"The time has been shortened by almost half!"