Crossing the wilderness to survive, starting with a broken kitchen knife.

Time was running out, and the four of them said goodbye to each other and prepared to evacuate.

Before leaving, Wu Qing took out three pills and distributed them to them. Before anyone could ask, she spoke first.

"Antidote, take it within 10 hours, or you will die."

After saying that, Wu Qing turned into white light and disappeared in the copy.

The remaining three people looked at each other with the pills in their hands, speechless.

Zhang Shi was speechless for a moment, feeling that his sincerity had been betrayed. But he could also understand Wu Qing. After all, in the wilderness, no one dared to gamble their own safety with the morality of others.

A flash of white light showed Zhang Shi back in the familiar stone house. Seeing Zhang Shi back, Pipi excitedly jumped on him and played with him.

After a full day of fighting in the dungeon, the sky gradually darkened and it was almost sunset. The wind and snow outside had subsided. Zhang Shi checked the courtyard. Everything was normal, only the temperature was getting lower and lower.

The items produced during this dungeon trip were all combat-related and were not very helpful for production and life. However, Zhang Shi still had to take care of the tasks he was supposed to do.

After collecting charcoal and iron ore as usual, Zhang Shi opened the trading market and sorted out his harvest. He found that many people under his trading orders were speculating about his identity.

Zhang Shi wasn't impressed. Ever since he'd publicly sold plums in the chat room, he hadn't bothered to hide his real name. Aside from this dungeon run, he'd never heard of any survivors meeting each other. He wasn't afraid of being targeted.

I checked the seedlings in the greenhouse. Thanks to the farmer module, the seedlings are growing vigorously and have already grown leaves. If they continue at this pace, they will mature soon.

In the poultry house, two eggs were still incubating and there was no reaction. Zhang Shi even suspected that they were rotten eggs.

After feeding some hay to the sheep in the pen, Zhang Shi returned to the stone house, made himself a dinner, took a hot bath, and went to bed early to rest.

In fact, some people in the trading market have already taken action on fuel resources.

Chen Beipan’s mutual aid association has many members, including several survivors who live near coal mining resources near the shelter.

Chen Beipan invested a lot of resources in training them and, through them, obtained a large amount of coal, which caused a sensation as soon as it entered the market.

Coal has a longer burning time and releases more heat than charcoal. In the original world, the price of charcoal is more than ten times higher than that of coal. Affected by the mining cost in the wilderness world, the coal circulating in the market was actually much more expensive than charcoal.

Chen Beipan, whether intentionally or unintentionally, set the price of one unit of coal at the same price as two units of wood, which was the same as the charcoal sold by Zhang Shi. This move greatly affected Zhang Shi's charcoal business.

Zhang Shi lay in bed, observing the market for any anomalies, and soon discovered a familiar ID.

"Prometheus, this guy again?"

Zhang Shi discovered that a large portion of the coal flowed through his hands. It seemed that this person had no intention of hiding in the dark, but was openly competing with him on price.

Zhang Shi wasn't worried about this at all. The mining costs were there anyway, and his charcoal production was almost fully automated. It all depended on who could rely on whom.

Afterwards, Zhang Shi entrusted Zhao Feng to purchase a large amount of coal from Prometheus.

"It would be a waste if you don't pluck this kind of wool."

……

Meanwhile, Chen Beipan was trading some tools and food for several members who owned coal resources. After the transaction was completed, he didn't forget to give the members a big promise.

Chen Beipan: Dear coal miners, you've braved the freezing cold and worked hard today. Here are some high-quality tools and some high-calorie food. I hope you'll keep up the good work. Once we completely dominate the fuel market, I guarantee you'll all have a good time.

He then ordered his men to spread rumors about charcoal in chat channels and trading markets. Rumors like, "A friend of mine got poisoned after burning charcoal, and another friend froze to death because the charcoal wasn't warm enough."

Zhang Shi opened the regional chat channel and found that there were still many survivors who relied on the panel unlocking and high physical attributes to choose to go out and explore, but the efficiency was very low and the gain did not outweigh the loss.

Wang Wu: Hi, after I unlocked the panel today, I thought I had become an old man. I walked two miles in the freezing temperature, hoping to hunt some game, but I ended up being frozen like a grandson. I didn’t get anything and even caught a cold.

Zhu Dachang: Brother, hurry up and get some medicine. Getting sick in this world is no joke.

Cheng Xiaobai: Bro, I have some ginger. Let me trade it to you. You can boil it and make some water to drink.

Wang Wu: Thank you everyone, don’t worry about me, I have upgraded the stone house, and I have strong yang energy so I am not afraid of the cold.

Duan Bi: Brother, tell me more about the heavy yang energy, @Wang Wu.

Hou Kun: Oh, I feel like this chat channel is becoming more and more like a crematorium. Everyone is talking about irrelevant topics, and the heat is getting higher and higher.

Zhu Dachang: @Hou Kun, how can you talk like that? Message me privately and turn on the microphone.

……

Seeing that the direction of the chat channel had changed again, Zhang Shi switched back to the main panel.

Wang Wu’s words just now reminded him that after the novice period ended, he didn’t know whether the next stage of the shelter would be unlocked.

When I opened the shelter interface, I found something new.

[Brick and Tile House (Unlocked): An intermediate-level shelter that can protect against wind and rain and maintain warmth. It also offers good defense against natural disasters and wild beasts.]

Zhang Shi looked at the upgrade requirements. They required 500 pieces of wood, 1000 pieces of bricks, 500 pieces of concrete, 100 pieces of pig iron, pieces of glass, and a blueprint for any level shelter.

Zhang Shi looked at the material requirements again and found that none were available on the market. He then checked the manufacturing formulas for the materials and was delighted. Materials like bricks and glass could be crudely manufactured using smelting furnaces and brick kilns, and he already had two of these working non-stop at home.

Zhang Shi immediately climbed out of bed, took some sand, and put it into the smelting furnace to melt it. Not long after, Zhang Shi received a system prompt.

System prompts, congratulations on obtaining:

[Glass (white) x1: Basic material, colorless and transparent, essential for building intermediate and higher-level shelters.]

Seeing that the experiment was successful, Zhang Shi added enough sand and gravel and prepared to continue refining all night.

Making concrete is actually very simple. You just need to mix cement and sand and gravel in proportion. The problem is that cement is rare in the trading market and the price is extremely high.

As for the square bricks, they needed to be shaped in advance, which was a bit more labor-intensive. Zhang Shi built a bonfire in the yard, dug a pit, added water to the pit, and made mud blocks.

Finally, use an old saw to divide it into small, neat pieces and put them into a charcoal kiln for firing. Soon, a pile of neat square bricks will be produced.

After systematic processing, each brick has sharp edges and uniform size, which saves Zhang Shi a lot of work. Zhang Shi made a large number of clay blocks at one time, piled them next to the campfire, and added new clay blocks whenever he had time.

Lying back on the bed, Zhang Shi's mind was filled with trivial matters. Although the shelter wasn't large, there was a lot of work to do. Zhang Shi was already feeling a little tired and fell asleep soon after.

In the middle of the night, Pipi started barking violently. Zhang Shi was woken up by the noise. He was originally in a bad mood, but when he heard the slamming of the iron door outside, he calmed down suddenly, and then became even more angry.

"Damn it, can't you let me sleep well?"