Wasteland Development Diary

In the bonfire, branches crackled as they burned.

The firelight stretched Zhou Yi's shadow.

He pulled out a black-covered diary, flipping to the latest page, which listed a series of goals and plans.

——Collect juvenile samurai crabs (crossed out)

——Fatten up the first samurai crab (crossed out)

——Train samurai crabs (crossed out)

——Find raw materials in the surrounding environment to create basic weapons (crossed out)

……

The latest entry hadn't been crossed out yet.

——Return to land to live, and contact the new human society.

Returning to the surface wasn't difficult for Zhou Yi.

The challenge was finding a place with abundant Dead Sea resources nearby.

For most terrestrial life, the Dead Sea was a forbidden zone. Even light-adapted species on land rarely entered it.

In the Dead Sea, massive amounts of deadlight mixed with the air. These light streams, branching like trees, were difficult to predict. They created high-pressure fields, deadlight bursts, and torrent surges.

In high-pressure field areas, everything moved slowly. Being in them not only made movement difficult but also permanently reduced the body's defense value. The longer one stayed, the greater the body's wear and tear.

Light bursts looked like exploding high-intensity flashbangs. Their high-energy radiation indiscriminately killed anything nearby, causing life value decay that ignored defenses. Zhou Yi worked hard to increase his health bar mainly to withstand light bursts, ensuring he wouldn't be instantly evaporated.

Torrent surges resembled electric, flashing torrents. If one failed to dodge and got caught, the body's energy would be sucked away. Failure to escape quickly would result in energy depletion, turning one into drifting duckweed.

It was worth mentioning that they had no effect on dead objects covered by light membranes.

Terrestrial creatures had no experience dealing with these disasters.

Only light-adapted species living in the Dead Sea could adapt to such an extreme environment.

In addition, the Dead Sea was home to a wide variety of light-adapted species. Powerful creatures emerged one after another, though they mostly haunted the upper and middle layers of the Dead Sea. Seemingly weak life forms could also pose significant threats; the jumping snake was one example.

The mortality rate for terrestrial species entering the Dead Sea was very high.

But on the other hand, light-adapted species in the Dead Sea grew faster. The deadlight concentration here far exceeded that on land, making it a more competitive area with faster turnover.

For Zhou Yi, the most important thing was the legacy of human civilization in the Dead Sea.

The various supplies sealed within those tall buildings.

Thanks to the special effects of the Dead Sea's light membrane, various tools and even packaged foods were still usable. Simply tearing open the surface light membrane would allow them to reconnect with the outside world, allowing matter to resume movement.

This sea area contained a considerable number of urban buildings, natural mines that could be developed at any time.

That was why Zhou Yi considered settling nearby.

Although the Dead Sea was dangerous, he had many years of living experience. On the contrary, the current state of new humans on land felt foreign and intriguing to him.

……

In the darkness, a point of light caught Zhou Yi's attention.

The light approached, gradually revealing the figure of a baseball-capped teenager holding a glowing stick.

It was A Jin.

"Master, I'm here."

Zhou Yi looked at the stick in his hand.

It was a smoothly polished branch with several glowing insects tied to the top.

When Zhou Yi asked about it, A Jin said, "Master, when people here go out at night, they either use rhombus lamps or firefly sticks."

"Rhombus lamps are a type of rhombus stone that forms on the shores of the Dead Sea. They absorb light during the day and emit light at night. Rhombus lamps are heavier, more expensive, and rare. We collect all we can find, but most are in the dangerous Dead Sea."

"Firefly sticks are like the one in my hand. We use fireflies for lighting. They rest during the day, and we feed them a little leaf at night, and they glow."

So it was bioluminescence.

Zhou Yi had some impression of rhombus stones; those glowing stones weren't very bright but were soft and stable.

He asked again, "Don't you use torches?"

"Master, we're very short on fuel here."

A Jin shook his head, "The west of Mao Valley Town is a desert, with only this oasis strip. We burn branches, leaves, and dry grass from the oasis for fire. We have to conserve it. Using a torch would be too wasteful; it would burn a thick piece of wood in one night, and no one is willing to do that."

Zhou Yi nodded, "How's your foot injury?"

"Much better."

A Jin pointed to his re-bandaged right leg, "It's still a little swollen and hot, but it's normal for injuries to hurt. I just need to wash it with water a couple more times. It'll be fine once my leg gets used to it."

Swollen and hot?

Zhou Yi frowned, "Let me see the wound."

The teenager was puzzled but still unwrapped the cloth on his leg, revealing a red, swollen, and congested wound filled with a lot of pus.

It was an abscess caused by an inflammatory reaction, and it was likely infected.

Zhou Yi sternly warned him, "This hasn't improved. If the wound further ulcerates and worsens, you might not be able to save this leg."

A Jin was stunned, his face showing some fear, "But, but... Mr. Gong said this was normal recovery... Will I lose my leg? Master?"

Zhou Yi opened his backpack, first taking out a bottle of iodine to disinfect the wound, then tearing open a package of cotton cloth to bandage it. Finally, he found a box of amoxicillin capsules and had A Jin take two with water.

"Come find me again at this time tomorrow, and I'll see if the wound has improved."

A Jin came back to his senses, "Okay, okay, Master, you're also a doctor!"

Originally, Zhou Yi wanted A Jin to go back and rest, but A Jin insisted that it was nothing and volunteered to take him to Mao Valley Town for a tour.

The two walked the entire way, escorted by the samurai crab squad, through the oasis to the hilly area where the town was located.

Along the way, Zhou Yi learned about the local customs and conditions from A Jin.

The entrance to Mao Valley Town was a cave in the mountain.

Some stone piles were also stacked next to the cave entrance, and the outer wall of the cave was painted with bloodstains resembling fish or insects.

After Zhou Yi and A Jin entered the cave, they walked diagonally downwards and soon came to a fork in the road, where people were sparsely entering and exiting with firefly sticks.

"This is our cave dwelling."

A Jin said, holding up the firefly stick.

Zhou Yi looked back at the cave entrance behind him, "There are no fortifications or shelters, and no patrolling guards. Aren't you afraid that monsters from outside will rush in?"

"The caves we live in here are very narrow, and claw pigs can't get in. During the day, the monsters have to absorb light and don't have time to drill underground and waste time."

A Jin said, "If we find danger, we'll run out of another safe cave entrance."

Mao Valley Town was even more rudimentary than Zhou Yi had imagined.

Most of the locals only glanced at Zhou Yi's arrival as a stranger, showing curiosity and some restraint towards this stranger, and then hurried out.

The residents were mostly teenagers, and he hardly saw anyone in their twenties or thirties.

"Master, time is precious at night, and everyone goes out to pick up things. Mainly branches, leaves, and some dry grass. They're not only fuel but also keep the cave warm and safe. If you're lucky, you can also pick up dry dung, rotten meat, and bones."

Returning to his hometown, A Jin became much more talkative.

He lived in the 11th cave on the left, and the 10 caves in front were empty, with only some stones piled up inside.

"This is my cave."

A Jin lifted the grass curtain used as a door and installed the firefly stick on a branch rack on the cave wall.

The indoor stone walls were covered with overlapping and interwoven branches, and the ground was covered with a thick layer of dry grass, looking like a large bird's nest.

Tools hung on the branch wall on one side of the cave: claw-shaped wooden hooks, ropes made of twisted dry grass, wooden-handled stone hammers, a basket, several tattered and mended pockets, and some bone needles and thread. Some branches and dead wood were piled below.

The bonfire was in a separate corner of the cave, surrounded by a circle of mud walls, with an exhaust hole connecting to the outside above.

Even with various ingenious insulation measures, the cave was still cool.

Zhou Yi could now understand that this environment really needed a lot of firewood.

"Master, what do you think? There's no problem sleeping here. I can build you a cave exactly like mine, even better and softer than mine!"

A Jin volunteered.

Zhou Yi's face twitched, and he completely gave up on settling in Mao Valley Town.

This was simply a translated version of caveman life.

It was still better than the smoggy, light-polluted Dead Sea apartment...

Never mind.

He still had to build his own house.

Do it yourself, and have plenty to eat and wear!