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

Zhang Shi stepped forward to check the specific properties of the fine steel heavy crossbow.

[Fine Steel Heavy Crossbow (Green): Exquisite-grade weapon with astonishing destructive power and a maximum range of 1500 meters.]

Zhang Shi fixed the heavy crossbow on the ground and pulled the bowstring tentatively, but found that the bowstring did not move at all. Zhang Shi was secretly surprised. He gritted his teeth and exerted all his strength to barely pull it.

"How could it be so strenuous to use a fine-grade heavy crossbow?"

After Zhang Shisong unstretched the bowstring, he stretched his wrist and marveled at the power of the crossbow. He then sent someone to place the heavy crossbow on top of the wall.

Gong Yi leaned over and whispered.

"Reporting to the Lord, this fine steel heavy crossbow is powerful and has a long range. Paired with high-quality crossbow arrows, it is enough to kill large beasts of the same rank in one shot. However, it consumes too much steel, and the success rate is not high."

Zhang Shi nodded, knowing that this thing could not be mass-produced for the time being, and then took out the muskets and firearms he got from the mercenaries and handed them to Gong Yi.

"Study it and see if you can replicate it. If you do well, there will be a big reward."

Gong Yi took out the two firearms, took a quick look at them, and nodded in affirmation.

"Please rest assured, Lord. I will quickly research the structure of this machine and replicate it as soon as possible."

When Gong Er and Gong San heard about the reward, they swung their hammers even harder, which made Zhang Shi very satisfied. It was a pity that he had no source of gunpowder. It was unrealistic to assemble hot weapons on a large scale with only the little gunpowder flowing out of the trading market.

When Wu Qing passed by the farmland, she noticed the golden rice that was being planted. Her eyes were attracted and she grabbed a handful of rice. She found that they were all of high-grade, and some were even of exquisite grade.

"Where did you get so much high-grade rice?"

Zhang Shi looked at Wu Qing with an expression of disbelief, feeling secretly happy, and then told her about the golden rice.

"If you're interested, you'll be able to take care of all the farmland in the shelter from now on."

Wu Qing stared at Jin Guangdao and nodded in response. Zhang Shi breathed a sigh of relief.

"Another free laborer."

……

Dinner was held in the fortress. The air conditioner in the room kept the temperature very comfortable. The four of them were old friends. They gathered together to talk about the development of the shelter in various directions and share interesting things they saw in the chat channel.

Zhao Feng shared the system panel and pointed at a chat record.

"Did you see that? Liu Yu exposed the Mutual Aid Association and the Eagle Group colluding to rob individual members. Now the Mutual Aid Association is like a rat crossing the street in our district, everyone is shouting and beating it up. Chen Beipan is like a turtle hiding in his shell, not daring to come out. It's really satisfying."

Ge Dalong was also quite indignant when he learned from Zhang Shi and Wu Qing what happened tonight.

"Chen Beipan, out of personal vendetta, actually colluded with foreigners to harm Zhang Shi. This time, he lost both his wife and his army. The members of the Mutual Aid Society scattered in the dense forest were either devoured by wild beasts or fainted from the heat. The Mutual Aid Society was severely damaged, and this was retribution for their evil deeds."

"After this incident, the Alliance of Light is about to rise. I hope their people can do things in an orderly manner."

Zhang Shi drank the drink in the cup in one gulp.

Meanwhile, chaos ensued at the Bright Alliance stronghold, with over half the members experiencing symptoms of poisoning, either collapsing or suffering from vomiting and diarrhea. Leader Liu Yu also felt dizzy and only managed to stay afloat thanks to medication.

"What's going on? Did someone poison the water source?"

Liu Yu's face was gloomy. He swept the pile of parchment on the table to the ground and got angry in front of everyone for the first time.

Vice President Tang Hao's legs were so weak that he didn't even have the strength to stand. He could only sit aside and answer weakly.

"The water source has been under constant surveillance, and there are no abnormalities. Furthermore, everyone's reactions to the poisoning are different, and not all members have been infected. I suspect the transmission channel is not the water source."

Liu Yu pondered for a moment, then remembered the two mercenaries who were imprisoned and quickly sent someone to check on them. However, before he could even send them out, his men had already rushed to the conference room to report.

"Chief, something happened! The guard was poisoned and fainted, and the two mercenaries escaped in the chaos."

Liu Yu was a little overwhelmed by the series of accidents, and pointed at his subordinates and shouted angrily.

"Go after them! Their watches are in our hands. It's so dark and hot outside, they can't get away!"

……

Zhang Shi planned to make full use of the effect of the resource acceleration card to save time in recruiting soldiers. For this purpose, he specially prepared two large cups of coffee for himself to refresh himself.

At midnight, the extreme heatwave had entered its fifth day, and the temperature showed no sign of dropping. Zhang Shi had completed another wave of recruiting soldiers. The current number of soldiers in the guard team had reached 12, including 37 each of the special forces. Zhang Shi had used the remaining recruitment slots on assault troops. The current size of the shelter didn't require many special forces; the primary combat force was the best choice.

As the number of sign-ins was refreshed, Zhang Shi clicked the golden finger to sign in.

System prompts, congratulations on signing in and getting:

[Resource Generation Card (Purple) x2]

Zhang Shi knew that the rare quality resource generation card could generate some new and interesting things, and he couldn't help feeling a little happy, and even the slight sleepiness he felt completely disappeared.

Zhang Shi couldn't wait to pick up the resource generation card and check it out. He directly clicked on the mineral resource classification and then searched for the two key minerals he needed.

Sure enough, the props produced by the system did not disappoint him. Sulfur ore and saltpeter ore both appeared in the generated list, and the two most critical ingredients in the gunpowder formula he got from Liu Yu were saltpeter and sulfur.

"Great! With this thing, the problem of gunpowder is solved."

If nothing unexpected happens, the manufacturing process of the musket is copied and subsequently mass-produced, Zhang Shi will be able to equip a hot weapons unit. Only then will he be able to truly dominate this wilderness world.

The giant sunflowers illuminated the area around the shelter, making it as bright as day even in the dead of night. Atop the walls, the Black Mist Guards and their escorts diligently patrolled the perimeter, guarding against intruders. Upon seeing Zhang Shi, the escorts saluted respectfully. Zhang Shi waved his hand and called the Black Mist Guards out of the shelter.

Through the territory control module, Zhang Shi observed the layout around the shelter and finally decided to place the sulfur mine and saltpeter mine in the open space between the shelter and the mine, next to the iron mine.

In order to obtain gunpowder as soon as possible, Zhang Shi sneaked into the iron mine, took away the mining machine, and placed it in the sulfur mine and saltpeter mine respectively.

After a long time of struggling, Zhang Shi became more energetic and went to Lao Bai's room to discuss with him the details of the shelter's resource reserves. The conversation lasted until dawn.

Zhang Shi saw the dawn approaching, realizing it was already dawn. After collecting a new batch of soldiers, he handed all the work over to Lao Bai, instructing him to inform Ge Dalong about the gunpowder and arrange for the mining. He rubbed his groggy head and returned to his bedroom, where he fell asleep as soon as he hit the pillow.