Doomsday: Humanity shrinks 100 times

Chapter 36 Weather
Lu Yuning spent almost the entire afternoon working diligently as a digger.

The others helped to boil some of the food they had taken back, and finally gave some to Xu Qi. Lu Yuning sealed and processed the rest, mainly because Xu Qi couldn't take too much at a time.

The reason why not all of it was boiled was mainly due to the problem of water storage.

In fact, if we only calculate based on volume, boiling all this water would be enough for them to drink for several years. After all, their current body volume is only one millionth of the original size.

But in reality this is not the case. Firstly, they now consume a lot of water every day, which may be mainly related to changes in body density.

Another problem is that the water will deteriorate.

In fact, Lu Yuning had thought about this problem before. The drinking water in the pavilion shelter should have begun to deteriorate.

Under normal circumstances, the shelf life of unsealed boiled water is only one to two days, after which bacteria will begin to grow.

Bottled water is slightly better, but its shelf life is also very short after opening.

The remaining water in the pavilion had been opened, and it had been almost 10 days since the end of the world, so the water had naturally deteriorated a bit.

Recently I heard from Xu Qi that people in the pavilion started to have stomach problems, and this might be the reason.

He talked about this problem with Xu Qi, and she suddenly realized it, so the freshly boiled water today was like a timely help.

Therefore, it is impossible to store too much drinking water at one time.

"That's great. At least I don't have to worry for a few days." Xu Qi said happily as he looked at the two full containers of water hanging around the chipmunk's neck.

"Make it again after a few days. It will go bad if left for too long." Lu Yuning reminded.

"Well, thank you. I know the people over there..."

"There's no need to say that. I don't care what happens to them. Helping you get water is also a form of mutual assistance and cooperation. You don't need to think too much about other things." Lu Yuning interrupted Xu Qi.

"Okay... then I'll leave these walnuts to you." Xu Qi nodded and said nothing more.

"Oh, by the way, where did you find this thing? I want to stock up some." Lu Yuning suddenly remembered this after taking the walnuts and asked hurriedly.

"Well... I'm not sure of its exact location, but it should be in this forest area. I always ask Xiao Jin to bring it back, and I don't dare to go deep into the forest."

“…Okay, let’s see if we can get this guy to take us there later.” Lu Yuning said after thinking for a while.

After the two finished their conversation, Xu Qi happily ran to the pavilion with two containers of drinking water.

……

Walnuts are very nutritious and easy to store, making them perfect as food reserves. However, they do have a high fat content.

But speaking of fat, maybe we can squeeze some oil out of this thing?

Lu Yuning was thinking about this problem when the four people next to him started shouting.

"There are so many bugs over there!" Zhang Xinyue looked a little panicked.

"Where?!" Zou Yunxin hurriedly picked up the shield and protected Zhang Xinyue in front of him as if facing a great enemy.

"I didn't see it either." Zhang Qian looked for a long time but didn't find the swarm of insects that Zhang Xinyue mentioned, so she had to squat down and hide behind Wu Xiao.

"It should be correct. I heard it very clearly, very densely packed," Zhang Xinyue answered affirmatively.

"So dense? Could it be in the sky? Wait a minute, what is that?"

Wu Xiao first looked up at the sky for a long time, but saw nothing. However, he narrowed his eyes and finally found something.

Following his gaze, they spotted a black line, a moving line, running across the concrete floor of the square. Because it was quite far away, they paused for a moment before finally recognizing it as a swarm of ants.

"There are so many of them. What are they going to do? Are they coming for us?" Wu Xiao was also a little nervous.

Lu Yuning thought for a while, then looked up at the sky.

"It shouldn't be, but there should be an ant nest nearby. We should be more careful in the future." Lu Yuning said.

"So what's going on with them?"

"Moving? It's probably going to rain," Lu Yuning explained.

"rain?"

Everyone suddenly realized.

"Ants move when it rains. I read it in the textbook when I was in elementary school. I would have forgotten it if you hadn't reminded me." Zou Yunxin scratched his head and said.

Lu Yuning nodded: "Indeed, but moving doesn't mean it will rain."

"There are many reasons why ants move, but looking at the weather, it looks like it's going to rain, and it should rain quite heavily."

Lu Yuning explained.

But he actually only had a vague understanding. Their field of vision was very limited and they couldn't see the clouds in the sky clearly. They could only feel that the light was a little dim. Combined with the ants' strange behavior, he could only make this guess.

……

"I don't know when it will rain." Zhang Xinyue was a little worried.

"It's okay. We have basically dug out the tree hole. If it doesn't work, we can just hide in it." Lu Yuning gave everyone a reassurance.

"Yeah, it's a good thing you prepared for a rainy day, otherwise there would be some trouble on the river bank. If it rains heavily, even the cans would be washed away." Zhang Xinyue said.

She paused, then suddenly thought of something and added, "...The people in this park are probably going to be in dire straits. This rain could kill many people."

"Is it so serious?" Zou Yunxin was a little confused.

"Of course, if it rains heavily, we will be thrown to the ground in an open air place and might even be drowned." Zhang Xinyue said seriously.

"Well, it is indeed very dangerous. The momentum of raindrops is very great for us. If we are knocked to the ground, it will be difficult to get up. Although it is not fatal, we may be drowned. However, smart humans will always find a way, such as digging holes, or building homes in trees like us. Besides, people who come out to camp should have tents, and there are quite a few buildings in the park." Lu Yuning expressed his thoughts.

The four of them thought about it and realized that this was indeed the case. Those who were still alive should have found suitable shelter.

Wu Xiao suddenly reminded him, "Do you want to get some water? Rainwater doesn't need to be filtered, right?"

Lu Yuning was stunned. It was true. He had actually forgotten about this. If only he had a big water tank now, he wouldn't even have to fetch water from the river in the future.

But it’s definitely too late to do it now, there’s not enough materials, and it’s very difficult.

If the volume is made larger, the container itself needs to have pressure resistance, which requires a lot of work. In addition, ordinary plant materials are definitely not suitable and will rot after a short time.

There wasn't much plastic left, and apart from what was needed to build the shelter, it could only be used to make a container one-third the size of a mineral water bottle.

After a discussion, they finally decided to keep some of the remaining plastic as a shelter and make a container for the rest.

However, this container can only be placed on the square side, and it probably won’t catch any rain under the tree roots.

And we have to find a way to fix it.

(End of this chapter)