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

At this moment, in Chen Beipan’s shelter, Redneck, the adjutant, and One-Eyed Man were sitting around the table, discussing something with him.

The one-eyed dragon looked suspicious, his tone full of distrust, "Are you sure that man is Zhang Shi?"

The mercenaries were not in the same division as Zhang Shi, and all the information they obtained came from Chen Beipan. Facing someone they had just met, there was no trust between them except for the exchange of interests.

"After we evacuated that day, we sent people to investigate near his shelter, only to discover it had vanished. We suspect he'd used a migration card or something to hide. We couldn't find his exact coordinates, so we couldn't take action against him."

The adjutant shared the information from the spy with Chen Beipan, but Chen Beipan looked indifferent.

"It doesn't matter. The monk may escape, but the temple cannot. The enemy is in the open, and I am in the dark. As long as Zhang Shi is still active in the chat channel and the trading market, we will find a way to target or find him."

……

The next morning, Zhang Shi got up early and first used his VIP privileges to open the treasure chest dropped by the Gray Wolf King.

Ding, successfully opened the exquisite treasure chest (green), triggered the VIP privilege, doubled the items, and obtained:

[Workbench (Green) x2: Can be used to craft various facilities, props, and equipment. Mastering this skill can significantly increase construction speed and reduce material consumption.]

Zhang Shi immediately built a wooden house in the courtyard, placed a workbench and some commonly used tools and materials in it for the engineers to use, and planned to develop it as a research and development center.

The recruitment was complete last night. Zhang Shi gathered all seventeen soldiers and divided them into groups, assigning Zhang Dazhuang, Gong Yi, Yi Yi, and Cai Yi as team leaders. After distributing equipment to the new recruits, Zhang Shi built several wooden houses for them to live in.

Seeing that everything was ready, Zhang Shi notified everyone, used the resource acceleration card, and then began to recruit soldiers according to the same configuration.

As the number of people gradually expanded, the soldiers' food and daily life also became a big problem. For this reason, Zhang Shi arranged Yi Yi to be Xiaomei's deputy, and even invited Ge Dalong to help handle the logistics of the shelter.

Ge Dalong had already had some plans for the construction of the shelter. The first thing he did was to arrange supporting facilities for the soldiers' dormitories, and he even bought bathroom facilities with his own money.

He explained that while soldiers may be resistant to extreme weather conditions, that doesn't mean they won't get sick. In such a concentrated environment, the virus could easily spread, leading to widespread infection. Therefore, good personal hygiene is crucial.

Afterwards, Ge Dalong arranged for the commandos to temporarily stop training and instead follow him to cultivate farmland in the shelter.

As the population in the shelter increased, the amount of food needed also increased greatly. Ge Dalong and Zhang Shi discussed it and decided to reclaim some farmland, get some seeds from the trading market, and plant some high-yield staple foods to fill the food gap.

Zhao Feng drove a jeep early in the morning, enduring the scorching weather as he took the two young Winged People to explore around the shelter. Occasionally, they would go to the creek to collect fish and collect some fresh wild fruits and vegetables to cultivate seeds.

Zhang Shi thought about it and realized that the effect of the protective light curtain was temporarily ineffective. The people from the Eagle Group might come back to cause trouble. Having someone patrolling could prevent any problems before they happen. It was also a good opportunity to test the scout's ability. So he agreed to Zhao Feng's request, but still repeatedly reminded him to pay attention to safety.

Everyone worked step by step, hoping to maximize their profits within these 24 hours.

Zhang Shi specifically sought out Gong Yi and Gong Er to inquire if they had any construction skills. This question actually yielded a pleasant surprise.

Gong Yi still saluted respectfully, and then answered Zhang Shi in detail.

"Your Excellency, I will manufacture a heavy crossbow. This crossbow can be mounted on the wall. It is extremely lethal to large beasts and can greatly enhance the defense of the shelter."

Gong Er, a plump man in his thirties, answered right after him.

"Report to the Lord, I am good at refining materials. Through my skills, I can refine various common materials to higher grades."

Zhang Shi was immediately delighted when he heard this. Currently, the shelter's supply of refined iron depended entirely on that single smelting furnace, and its output couldn't keep up with the pace of development. Now that Gong Er had joined, Zhang Shi could alleviate some of the pressure on the ironwork.

Open the warehouse access to the two engineers and tell them that they can freely use the materials in the workbench and warehouse. The current task is to make use of their expertise to build weapons and refine materials.

After the two entered the so-called research center, they noticed two workbenches at first sight and their eyes were firmly attracted to them.

Seeing that they were still a little reserved, Zhang Shi spoke.

"Don't hesitate. These two workbenches are temporarily at your disposal. Feel free to use your expertise and don't worry about failure. There's plenty of materials!"

After hearing what Zhang Shi said, the two engineers stopped being so hesitant and started working. Zhang Shi watched curiously from the side and supervised their work.

It's true, once the two of them got into work mode, their whole spirit changed immediately. They were no longer as timid as before, and their temperament seemed to have changed. They were like two masters of crafts, clanging and banging all kinds of tools in their hands, which made Zhang Shi dazzled.

Not long after, Gong Er finished the work first and handed a piece of glittering metal to Zhang Shi, reporting with excitement on his face.

"My Lord, I have fulfilled your mission. This material is made from refined iron."

Zhang Shi picked up the metal and checked some of its properties, his eyes suddenly widening.

[Fine Steel (Green) x1: An alloy with high hardness and resistance to deformation. It is a high-quality basic material in the wilderness world.]

He didn't expect that Gong Er could actually use fine iron to make steel with his bare hands, breaking the law of conservation of matter. His skill was like turning stone into gold.

Excited, Zhang Shi did not forget to ask.

"Very good. What is your success rate in refining?"

Gong Er thought seriously for a moment, then answered cautiously.

"Reporting to the Lord, if I use refined iron as the material for refining, my success rate is about 30%."

Zhang Shi was satisfied with the success rate after hearing this, and then asked about the success rate of refining pig iron into refined iron. The answer he got was 5%, which was similar to the probability of a smelting furnace.

Zhang Shi nodded with satisfaction and gave instructions.

"Keep going. While ensuring the quality of the steel, try to increase the success rate."

Perhaps due to the resource acceleration card, Gong Yi also quickly completed the production of the heavy crossbow.

A heavy iron crossbow half a person's height appeared in front of Zhang Shi. Zhang Shi found that the size of this crossbow was similar to the bed crossbow used in ancient wars. It was definitely not the light crossbow that he had imagined that could be controlled with one hand.

Zhang Shi tried to pull the bowstring and found that the crossbow was quite powerful and it took him some effort to pull it fully. If it were an ordinary soldier, it would probably take two people to use it together.

Gong Yi introduced on the side.

"My Lord, this is a heavy crossbow of ordinary quality. Its range can reach a thousand meters. The specific range depends on the material grade of the crossbow and arrows."

Zhang Shi weighed the fine steel in his hand and asked.

"I'll give you this as material to make a crossbow and arrows. Can you make a high-quality heavy crossbow?"