Cave Refuge

This time when Dong Tianyu left, he would not be seeing his parents again for a short while, at least not until a month before the winter era arrived. He wouldn't be home until then.

What Dong Tianyu had prepared for his parents, relatives, and friends was not very valuable or attention-grabbing in the early stages when there was some confusion.

But, as time went on and the value of these items increased, the stuff in the war reserves bag should be nearly depleted, and even if there were any leftovers, they should not be excessive.

According to Dong Tianyu's calculations, given what the officials provide as basic supply, the goods in the war reserves bag should last for three to five months.

By that time, although it would still be the winter era, the reserve granaries and war stockpiles should be operational. Hence, people wouldn't go hungry.

When he returned, Dong Tianyu, using a hammer he took from his house again, borrowed a shared bicycle near the bus stop, leaving behind the lock-breaking hammer for others to utilize.

This time Dong Tianyu passed through the village below the mountain again, a place usually quiet but was now bustling with people. It appeared that the villagers who usually work outside had returned to their village.

Odong Tianyu was not familiar with anyone in the village. He moved through the village, advancing on the footpath leading up to the mountain, as the wary villagers watched him.

One of the villagers who regularly worked outside asked the people around him, "Who is this guy? Why is he going to the mountain at this time? Did something happen at the temple?"

"He's not going to the temple. This guy paid money to rent out that cave halfway up the mountain, claiming to create some internet-famous maze in there. He's probably heading to the mountain to check on the situation in the cave now."

"The one halfway up the mountain? Is that the cave connecting to the cemetery on the opposite side?"

"Yes, that's the one. This guy is unlucky. As soon as he rented the place, the virus began to wreak havoc, halting construction for two to three years. I heard from the village chief that it was just expanded recently."

"They were looking for someone to design it and prepare for the construction, but this situation occurred. He only signed a ten-year contract with the village, and more than half of that time has passed, yet the interior decoration hasn't been finalized."

Hearing about the plight of the cave they were discussing, any lingering hope inside him vanished.

Given his previous experience, although still extremely tired when ascending the mountain this time, Dong Tianyu did not directly lay down upon reaching the Refuge Center.

After resting for one night and casually eating something, out of boredom, Dong Tianyu started exploring the broken electric bicycle. Although he dismantled it into parts using tools, he was not familiar with how electric bicycles work. Therefore, he ultimately couldn't identify where the problem lay.

Eventually, the parts on the ground turned into dust upon Dong Tianyu's wave and were absorbed by the cave mansion, slightly increasing the amount of minerals in the earth vein.

Now that he had officially moved into the Refuge Center, Dong Tianyu switched the equipment, which had always been operating at low power, to normal power.

Though the Refuge Center is currently classified as mysterious, it actually possesses many technology-related electronic devices.

There's an egg incubator for breeding chickens, along with a fully automatic small breeding chamber.

There's also a fully automatic thermostatic grow room for growing vegetables.

An algae pond, responsible for oxygen production, has a machine which releases nutrients on a fixed timetable. And a similar device is present in a fish farm pond.

Besides these, there are various types of equipment in the module room where Dong Tianyu lives.

The only problem now is the consumption of fuel. The original low-power operation coupled with Dong Tianyu seldom staying here after work meant consumption of fuel was minimal.

But now, after officially moving in and the rise in electricity usage, the consumption of diesel oil had also increased considerably.

"If only the capacity of Shadow Space could increase," thought Dong Tianyu unconsciously.

'Shadow Space size is tied to the area of the cave mansion and can be enlarged through survival points.'

Listening to System's hint, Dong Tianyu immediately realized that he is a System user.

'System, introduce the methods on increasing cave mansion space.'

'The cave mansion holder can either increase the size of the cave mansion through levelling up or by directly using survival points. Every 10,000 survival points can increase the space of a small-sized cave mansion by 1 cubic meter. For every 9990 survival points, the space of a medium-sized cave mansion can be increased by 1 cubic meter….'

Contrary to the usual thinking pattern where the cost of upgrading would increase as the level rose, the reality was that the higher the cave mansion level, the lower the cost to enhance the space size.

Hence, to enhance the space of the cave mansion, upgrading the cave mansion level was the most practical approach.

With three years of time, where Dong Tianyu basically didn't make any movements, he has only saved over two thousand survival points, while upgrading the cave mansion level would cost over five thousand survival points.

Fortunately, the second wave of heavenly disasters had already arrived, and the survival points Dong Tianyu could get each day had increased from the initial two points to three points.

This pace carried on for more than two years. The cave mansion's level could be increased rapidly.

'Not fast at all!'

Based on his experience from his previous life, within two years, they would have already reached the end of the flood period.

But luckily, besides relying on survival points to level up, the mansion holder could also strengthen the foundation of the cave mansion to reduce survival points required for levelling up.

Basically, this means absorbing various supplies inside the cave mansion to off-set the survival points needed to level up.

The original plan was as long as they had enough money, all kinds of supplies could be moved into the Refuge Center. However, now all the vehicles were broken down, how to move the supplies into the Refuge Center became the most significant issue.

"If only the Shadow Space could be utilized outside the cave mansion."

'By consuming one survival point, you can create a Shadow Copy, which when used, opens a portal outside the cave mansion that links to Shadow Space, allowing deposits or withdrawals of one item.'

'With the consumption of fifty survival points, you can make a strengthened Shadow Copy. After use, it opens a Shadow Space passage for five minutes, during which any items can be stored freely.'

'By using a thousand survival points, you can produce an eternal Shadow Copy. The user can deposit and withdraw items from the Shadow Space freely within a certain range.'

Hearing the System's prompts, Dong Tianyu realized that although he had researched the System for so long during the virus-outbreak period, he still wasn't clear about many abilities of the System.

Take this incident as an example. Initially, he thought survival points could only be used for upgrading or converting the technology-based items into mysterious ones.

Only today did he realize that the usefulness of survival points was far more significant than he had imagined.

With Shadow Copying, it's equivalent to having personal storage space. Though it can only be used near the cave mansion, this was a vital improvement in practicality from Dong Tianyu's perspective.

Originally, Dong Tianyu wanted to make some Shadow Copies to temporarily stave off some needs, and buy eternal Shadow Copies when he accumulated more survival points.

But after examining the Shadow Copies in detail, Dong Tianyu decided to go all out and spend half his survival points to purchase an eternal Shadow Copy.

The reason Dong Tianyu gave up on the Filo was simple. Neither type of Shadow Copy could be made unless Dong Tianyu was in the cave mansion, and the definition of an "item" fluctuated greatly within the limit.

If he encountered a valuable item outside and didn't have enough Shadow Copies, that would be quite a hassle.