Apocalypse Survival: Starting with a Shelter

This time, the robots and transport vehicles were dispatched to retrieve the fallen signal tower. However, the journey was far from smooth.

As the convoy approached the signal tower, the terrain became increasingly challenging. Massive boulders piled together and sheer cliffs carved by past storms posed significant obstacles.

The two specialized transport vehicles frequently had to deploy their platforms, using electric picks and shovels to carve through the rock and terrain, painstakingly clearing the way. Despite the short straight-line distance of just three to four kilometers, the convoy took nearly five hours to reach the tower.

By the time they arrived, night had completely fallen.

The two vehicles switched on their headlights, illuminating the collapsed signal tower at the center. The beams revealed every detail of its twisted top.

Beyond the illuminated area, the strange shapes of countless hills loomed in the darkness, eerie and foreboding. The sight made Su Wu shudder, even from the safety of his shelter while watching through the screen.

He adjusted the camera angles on the vehicles, refocusing on the signal tower to avoid looking at the unsettling scene.

Upon closer inspection, Su Wu noticed that the casing at the top of the tower was severely distorted, as though a powerful, unseen force had twisted it like a piece of candy.

"This much damage… I'm not sure it's repairable," he muttered. Still, since he was already there, giving up halfway wasn't an option. It was worth bringing it back for a closer look.

"Get to work," Su Wu commanded.

The waiting robots and vehicles got to work, extracting the partially buried signal tower from the ground. They loaded it carefully onto the beds of the two transport vehicles, securing it at both ends.

With their task complete, the convoy began the journey back.

Since the signal tower took up the entire cargo space of the transport vehicles, the robots couldn't ride along and had to follow on foot. This wasn't much of an issue, as the transport vehicles, burdened with the heavy load, could only move at about one meter per second on the rough, newly cleared path, matching the robots' walking speed.

Su Wu estimated it would take about forty to fifty minutes for the convoy to return to the shelter.

He confirmed that everything was running smoothly with the convoy before diverting his attention back to the control center. The eerie atmosphere of navigating the jagged, shadowy hills was unsettling, and he was more than happy to focus on other tasks.

In the control center, Su Wu switched to the shelter interface and reviewed the three-dimensional map of the facility.

The fourth underground level excavation was nearing completion and no longer required the full workforce. Su Wu redirected half of the construction robots and part of the engineering team to the surface to begin constructing an exit shelter.

With an abundant supply of steel, Su Wu decided to be extravagant, using triple the planned amount of rebar and iron mesh for the project. The walls were constructed with a one-meter thickness, matching the shelter's outer walls. The core was filled with construction debris, coated with cement on both sides, and reinforced using survival points to harden the structure.

Once completed, the high-strength walls would be capable of withstanding heavy artillery and missile strikes. Over time, as excavated soil and rocks from the underground levels covered the shelter, it could even rival the safety of facilities built into mountains.

"Having plenty of materials feels great," Su Wu mused, savoring the rare pleasure of indulging in abundant resources.

The safer the shelter, the more stable Su Wu's life would be—a comforting thought.

After initiating the final surface construction project, Su Wu turned his attention to refining the local network he had created.

He began uploading practical resources, such as techniques for underground farming and livestock raising, common first aid knowledge, basic encyclopedic data, as well as entertainment content like movies, novels, and anime.

Leveraging the vast archive of publicly available data his AI had downloaded before the apocalypse, Su Wu could replicate much of the pre-apocalypse internet. However, he exercised discretion, filtering and limiting the content to avoid potential issues.

Time flew by as Su Wu organized and curated the network's offerings.

When Su Wu finally looked up, he saw that the convoy had arrived at the shelter's entrance, the signal tower securely in tow.

"This thing can't be brought into the shelter," Su Wu observed. "But it can be dragged onto the lift platform."

The signal tower's length meant it would fit snugly into the entrance tunnel, which came as a relief. For upgrading equipment using survival points, proximity within one centimeter was required. If the signal tower had to be left outside in the searing heat, it would have posed a significant challenge.

This served as a reminder to Su Wu to prepare for future situations where upgrades might require him to leave the shelter.

"Let's inspect it first," Su Wu decided.

He instructed the engineering robots to perform a preliminary check on the ground.

Design schematics for signal towers were part of the public domain and accessible via the AI's archives. While there might be minor differences from the actual tower, the AI could guide the engineering robots to conduct basic repairs unless the damage was extensive or critical components like chips were irreparably compromised.

The inspection would reveal how much of the tower could be salvaged and repaired.

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