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

It was already noon when Zhang Shi woke up. As soon as he stepped out of the door, he bumped into Zhao Feng. Before he could say anything, Zhao Feng grabbed him and trotted all the way to the research center.

Gong Yi was holding a shiny musket in his hand, and the gun body made of fine steel reflected a dazzling light under the sunlight.

There was a wooden box on the workbench in front of him, filled with black powder and polished steel balls. Zhang Shi smiled. He hadn't expected Gong Yi to be so capable, having produced both the musket and the gunpowder in just one morning.

Seeing Zhang Shi coming, Gong Yi couldn't wait to introduce his newly made musket to Zhang Shi.

I saw him first pouring a certain amount of gunpowder into the barrel, then filling it with steel balls, and then he got an iron rod from somewhere, put it into the barrel and pounded it hard.

"My Lord, please give it a try."

Zhang Shi could tell that Gong Yi's voice was trembling a little, and he seemed very excited. He then took the rifle and checked its properties.

[Flintlock Pistol (Blue): Made entirely of fine steel, the flint-fired spark ignites the ammunition inside. It's incredibly powerful, but its disadvantage is its low firing rate.]

Zhang Shi came to the training ground, raised his flintlock rifle, aimed for a moment, and fired a shot at the wooden stake.

With a resounding bang, a powerful force erupted from the barrel, nearly causing it to slip from Zhang Shi's grasp. The gunpowder burned, and the steel balls were ejected, instantly shattering the wooden stake more than ten meters away.

Zhang Shi's eyes flashed with surprise. He hadn't expected this weapon to have such a small caliber yet pack such a powerful punch. Although it was a little different from Redneck's musket, it was definitely enough to equip the troops.

When Gong Yi saw Zhang Shi smiling, he was very satisfied and stepped forward to ask.

"My Lord, I'm very familiar with the craftsmanship of this musket. Gong Er and his men are currently working hard to forge fine steel. Do you think it's worth mass-producing?"

Zhang Shi was about to nod in agreement when he suddenly came up with a new idea.

"Don't worry, let's go back to the research center first."

Zhao Feng was puzzled, wondering why Zhang Shi didn't immediately order mass production, but seeing that he looked confident, he didn't say much.

Back at the research center, Zhang Shi found a pen and paper and began to draw and write. After a while, a sketch appeared in front of Gong Yi. As soon as Gong Yi saw the sketch, he was immediately attracted by the structure above and stared at it intently to study it.

"Great, great! This will solve the problem of the low frequency of musket attacks. Your Excellency is truly a genius!"

Zhang Shi pursed his lips and smiled.

The sketch he drew was exactly the structure of a revolver. Although he didn't know the specific details, he could still describe the simple working principle and style.

Based on the sketch, Zhang Shi began to explain to Gong Yi the details of the revolver and the requirements he needed to meet.

"You have to make a chamber and load it with gunpowder and bullets before use. Fix each chamber so that it fits perfectly with the barrel when the trigger is pulled. You also have to make a mechanism so that every time the flint is fired, the chamber rotates to automatically reload."

The two of them gestured back and forth, and everyone present except Gong Yi and Zhao Feng was confused and didn't understand what they were saying.

By the end of the story, Gong Yi, a little old man in his fifties, was jumping up and down with excitement, exclaiming repeatedly.

"Great talent, great talent, the Lord is truly a great talent!"

Zhang Shi felt a little embarrassed by his praise and could only wave his hands repeatedly, signaling him to quickly study the revolver according to the blueprint.

Zhao Feng smiled and put his arm around Zhang Shi's shoulder as they walked out of the research center, jokingly saying.

"Shitou, you're truly talented! You actually thought of using a revolver to solve the problem of slow reloading of muskets. Oh, you're truly talented!"

Zhang Shi pushed Zhao Feng away and scolded him with a smile.

"Don't make fun of me. This thing is just something left over from previous generations. I'm just using it as a temporary fix. I'll definitely need to improve it once I get more advanced weapon blueprints and formulas."

"By the way, where are Wu Qing and Lao Ge? Why don't I see them?"

Zhao Feng helplessly spread his hands.

"Wu Qing went to the fields early this morning, saying he was researching some grafting technique. As for Lao Ge, he followed your instructions and went to the mine to supervise the work himself. He was the one who sent people to bring back this gunpowder this morning."

Zhang Shi nodded, feeling very relieved. With these friends helping to share the work of the shelter, he could save some effort.

Seeing the newly recruited soldiers quickly integrating into the collective, each doing their own job, and the shelter thriving, Zhang Shi felt unprecedented peace of mind.

"There's something else I need to tell you."

Zhao Feng's expression turned serious. Zhang Shi came back to his senses and nodded to signal Zhao Feng to speak directly.

"This morning, I went out on patrol and noticed that the water level in the creek behind the shelter had dropped significantly. Today is the fifth day, and the temperature still hasn't dropped. I think something's wrong. Should we make some preparations?"

Zhang Shi frowned and quickly went to the riverbank to check. As Zhao Feng had said, the river's water level had dropped to one-fifth of its original level. It looked like it would dry up completely in less than two days.

Zhao Feng put his hand into the water and paddled around, startling the few remaining fish and shrimp at the bottom of the water.

"I've already caught most of the fish and shrimp in this river. Even if the river dries up, we won't be too bad. If all else fails, we can just use a resource generation card. Don't worry too much."

Zhang Shi stood in the sun and felt the temperature. He then recalled the system's announcement before the extreme heat disaster. He realized that something was fishy and felt that he should make some preparations in advance.

Zhang Shi went straight to the farmland and found Wu Qing who was watering the crops.

"I want to cover up the entire shelter. Can that sunflower of yours still grow?"

Zhang Shi asked directly. Wu Qing stood up and wiped the sweat from her cheeks with her arm, looking at him puzzled.

"I'm not sure about that. It's already a refined-grade plant. If I want it to grow bigger, I'm afraid I'll have to upgrade it to a rare grade."

Zhang Shi sighed. He didn't know much about this, but upgrading plants from exquisite to rare would inevitably consume huge amounts of resources. With Zhang Shi's current abilities, this approach might not work.

Wu Qing asked softly when she saw Zhang Shi looking discouraged.

"What happened? Why do we have to cover up the shelter?"

Zhang Shi raised his head and told Wu Qing his findings and inferences. After listening to him, Wu Qing thought that Zhang Shi's concerns were not unfounded.

"Actually, on the first day of the extreme heatwave, I also noticed that the system announcement didn't announce the duration of the disaster like the severe cold weather disaster. According to your speculation, this extreme heatwave is likely to continue. If so, most survivors' plans will likely be disrupted, and the entire wilderness world will be in chaos."