"If the snowstorm keeps going like this, it seems that it'll be really hard for the large shelters in the east to survive! They can't afford to have a large war between races—they rely on chopping trees and hunting mutant creatures. How can they possibly hold on?"

Lying in bed, he observed that the people crying pretty much all had Huaxian names, and Su Mo's head started hurting involuntarily.

The game's delivery was very inconsistent.

In some places, there could be dozens of people put together in one go based on their familial relationships.

In some other places, they would be completely alone, just like Su Mo.

"It's lucky that my Su family was handed down solely to me. Moreover, being in the big city these few years, there haven't been many familiar relatives to drag me down. Otherwise… it'd be really difficult!"

In the post-apocalyptic wasteland, Su Mo could not guarantee that he could stay calm—or cold-blooded, so to speak—if he saw his relatives calling for help.

After seeing the Huaxian siblings' situation, Su Mo could only watch and not contribute.

The strength of a single person was not worth mentioning in front of hundreds of millions of people. Even Huaxia's infrastructure could not give birth to a complete supply chain system in ten short days.

Moreover, after the addition of all those limitations to the trading system, if one wanted a mutually beneficial trade, then one could only wait for when the secret trading realm opened.

As such, under the present circumstances, one could only trade valuable resources after the secret trading realm opened, otherwise…

"Other than war, the only option is still war. One would only be able to survive by taking the lives of others for the sake of their own. Otherwise, they can only wait for death when disaster comes."

In just a little over ten short days, there had already been several shelters that shared their experience of warring against other races.

After absorbing the experiences shared by the other shelters, Su Mo opened the private message channel he used as his diary and quietly recorded down two lines.

"After this disaster is over, I have to think of a way to quickly take down the lion and kobold clans. I can't just sit here and watch them continue developing.

"At the moment, I've detected a small human shelter 110 kilometers west of the base. When needed, I can get into contact (identity exposure issue)!"

After recording this down, Su Mo turned and tapped open the Regional Channel.

Previously, when he exited the ruins, there were 812 people in the Regional Channel. After two days, this number had not changed too much. There were still 799 people.

A few of the more active ones like Liang Jian were still active currently in the Regional Channel.

Furthermore, because of today's weather, there were quite a few people on the Regional Channel. Everyone was speaking freely there, discussing how they could protect themselves from the disaster effectively.

[Zhao Zhiyong: You know, this darn snow? Either you snow harder, or you don't snow at all. It's already freezing cold with just this little snow, and nobody can go out to do anything either. All it's doing is making people anxious.]

[Liang Jian: I've previously even thought about building an igloo for warmth. It seems I can't do it with this snow.]

[Sun Xian: For those of you who chose to build above-ground wooden shelters, you can do what I do—pry open the planks in the middle of the house, dig a hole, hide in it, and cover the top with weeds. Hear me out. Aside from being a little damp, it's actually quite warm. Before the blizzard comes, I plan to make this hole deeper with a few planks. When the blizzard arrives, I'll lie inside for three days straight!]

[Emma Devon: It's been two days since Mr. Su Mo last sent a message. It couldn't be that something has happened, could it? Lone wolf players like us can only head to the secret trading realm when it opens to look for Mr. Su Mo and trade for some food supplies to get through this winter!]

[Cai Junfeng: Hey, you foreign devil! How could something happen to the Almighty Su? You can sit back and relax—he'll be here even if you're gone.]

[Na Wenxing: Exactly. I'm not even asking to trade for anything amazing, All I ask is to be able to enter to trade some food with the big guys. I'm really near the end of the road here.]

…

Compared to the World Channel, there was a lot less hostility in the Regional Channel. Everyone was harmoniously discussing how to survive in this wasteland.

Of course, among these casual chat messages, not even three messages could be sent before a topic related to Su Mo would be brought up, and then another heated discussion would ensue.

"After the natural disaster eliminated the first wave of people, the remaining humans all have the basic ability to survive in the wasteland. At least before the secret trading realm opens, there probably wouldn't be too big a change to this number. Hopefully, I can have a good round of trades when it happens!"

Seeing that many people were saying that they had good things to trade, Su Mo's attention was piqued as well, and he sent a message in the Regional Channel.

[Su Mo: I have plenty of food and tools. If you want to trade, you can bring your valuable items to barter when the secret trading realm opens!]

Wow!

The Regional Channel, which had been slowly refreshing, instantly exploded after Su Mo sent out his message!

Countless lurkers stepped forward one after another, saying things like how they had many valuable items in their hands, and were only looking to trade them for some food.

There were also quite a few people asking if they could join his shelter—even if they had to slave away, they only asked to be able to eat and survive down the road.

After looking at it for a while, Su Mo did not send another message and silently exited the Regional Channel.

He only wanted to give these people the confidence to persevere. He did not have to say anything excessive; he believed that these people could survive if they kept their faith.

The time had gradually reached eight o'clock by the time he finished looking through the chat channels.

The system's notification alert would never be late. As if hearing Su Mo's silent words, it popped out soundlessly.

[Doomsday Calendar Month 1, Day 15]

[You woke early in the morning and ate a satisfying meal. Your vigor was completely replenished (Survival points +5)]

[You detected the location of an enemy camp and took the appropriate countermeasures (Survival points +5)]

[You achieved "surface level" cooperation with another race for the first time (Survival points +50)]

[You snuck into the lion clan's camp, obtained rare items, and destroyed their core shelter (Survival points +200)]

[You ambushed the attacking kobolds and achieved a kill count of more than 200 in a single encounter (Survival points +500)]

[You upgraded your transportation vehicle and named it "Earth Tiger" in the doomsday world. It will become your unstoppable weapon in the wasteland (Survival points +200)]

[You received many treasure chests. Your collection is rich. (Survival points +30)]

[Milestone: The total number of creatures from other races that you have killed has reached 200 (Survival points +100)]

[Milestone: The total number of creatures from other races that you have killed has reached 300 (Survival points +200)]

[Milestone: The total number of creatures from other races that you have killed in a single encounter has reached 200 (Survival points +200)]

[Scanning host survival environment. Survival points evaluation in progress. 191 survival points gained today.]

…

Total calculation: Survival points +1781

Survival points remaining: 1800

"Huh, how did the survival environment's survival points decrease instead?"

Seeing his survival points go from two digits back to four digits, Su Mo was pleasantly surprised.

However, among all these additions, Su Mo still keenly noticed the decrease in the fixed input of survival points at the bottom.

The survival points at the top could be obtained through daily activities and actions, and were irregular survival points.

It was very likely that if a disaster came, and he could not go out for more than ten days, such gains would be reduced to zero.

It was the last category of points, based on the survival environment evaluation, that would be the most important channel for gaining survival points in the future.

"Could it be that the system has determined that my current survival environment has worsened? It's not as comfortable as it was before?"

Lying on the warm bed, Su Mo reached a hand out to feel the temperature in the shelter, and his guess became more certain.

As the temperature outside dropped more and more, even though the shelter was underground, the temperature still hovered between zero to three or four degrees.

Wearing thin sneakers, if he sat in the living room, his feet would be frozen stiff sooner or later. They would be numb even if he stepped on the ground.

As for the above-ground shelters—such as wooden houses—in other places, the temperature definitely would have dropped to below zero at the moment, and the survival environment might be even worse.

After looking over today's survival points income again, Su Mo affirmed his deduction.

"Oh, right. How could I have forgotten about the Lion God sculpture I brought back yesterday!" Su Mo rubbed his head and abruptly thought of the sweet item that was still in his storage space.

With a single thought, the Lion God sculpture that was repeatedly worshipped by the lion people appeared suddenly in Su Mo's hands. 

The Lion God sculpture still emitted its green light. Around the face that had no facial details, it should have had a stiff ring of fur, but somehow this piece of wood had been carved in a mystical way. The slivers of wood felt like real fur when he touched them. It was shocking.

"Woof! Aroooo."

"Coo coo coo coo coo coo."

As Su Mo sat up and studied the Lion God sculpture closely, the three little ones beside him had already been so startled by its "there-but-not-there pressure".

Especially Oreo. She stared at the Lion God sculpture, eyes burning and emitting bursts of sharp light.

Big Spark and Little Spark kept cooing, their chicken heads bobbing back and forth.

Su Mo was not at all unfamiliar with this behavior from the three little ones. It was undoubtedly their performance when they spied a delicacy.

"Huh? You all want to eat this Lion God sculpture? No way, he's made of wood!"

Before Su Mo could even finish speaking, Oreo nodded fervently beside him, eyes full of desire and saliva dripping from her doggy mouth.

"Silly girl, this thing can't be eaten thoughtlessly. Let me examine it first."

Pressing Oreo's doggy head, as well as Big Spark and Little Spark, down, Su Mo reluctantly spent a few Disaster Points.

It was his first time using the game panel's appraisal function. It was different from the system appraisal. This time, the information that popped up was more detailed and complete.

The game panel even thoughtfully attached the usage method as well as… the resale price!