In a frigid apocalypse, I went on a shopping spree with the reborn.

During a break, Jiang Qingyue turned on her personal computer and saw messages from the world channel and regional channel.

The fingers that were sliding down stopped.

After a long pause, he turned off the quantum computer and continued his relentless struggle with steam power generation.

Even though the phone contained detailed instructions, Jiang Qingyue, being a novice, still made various mistakes.

Fortunately, all difficulties can be overcome. If it doesn't work the first time, try the second or third time... until you get it right.

Day 1: She dug out an area, built the power station foundation with stones, and repeatedly tamped and leveled it.

Day 2: Excavate the outline of the furnace chamber, mix clay to seal all gaps between the stones, and ensure that the furnace will not leak gas or fire during subsequent combustion.

Day 3: Cut and polish hardwood to the appropriate size, build a three-dimensional support frame to support the boiler, shaft and generator set, and firmly fix each load-bearing point to ensure the stability of the overall structure.

Day 4: Disassemble the dry powder fire extinguisher, empty the internal residual agent, and modify it into a simple pressure boiler suitable for the furnace.

Day 5: The modified fire extinguisher canister was precisely placed above the furnace. Wooden supports were used to secure it in place. Clay was used to seal the connection between the canister and the furnace, and the sealing performance was initially tested.

Day 6: Locate the bearing removed from the three-wheeled vehicle, grind the shaft interface, and since there's still time, get the secondary combustion smoke extinguishing furnace sorted out.

Day 7: Connect the machined bearing shaft to the boiler power end and generator set.

Day 8: Complete the basic layout of the exposed wiring, connect the generator and output interface in sequence, and connect the entire power unit's circuit system.

Day 9: Repeatedly inspect all sealing points of the furnace and boiler, conduct multiple partial trial runs, and troubleshoot any jamming or gas leakage issues.

tenth day.

July 12th is also the twentieth day of the end times.

"The time has come to test the results of our work."

Jiang Qingyue took a deep breath and stuffed the various branches, pine needles, and some wood chips that she had collected while cleaning up the traces into the furnace.

Take out a lighter and light it.

These don't last long, but luckily there are enough of them.

Jiang Qingyue sat beside him, constantly adding firewood into the stove, countless times, until the water boiled.

A misty steam billowed from the top of the tank, and the generator, which looked extremely rudimentary and a hodgepodge, began to operate.

The generated electricity is stored in the battery.

Since the apocalypse, Jiang Qingyue's shelter has been lit by this set of batteries, and it also uses this set of batteries occasionally when cooking something in that small pot.

She used to have a small diesel generator to charge her batteries, but it was very noisy and there wasn't much diesel fuel, so she never used it.

Perfect timing! The generated electricity goes directly into the battery for storage.

If the supply remains stable, diesel fuel can be saved.

After all, compared to diesel, which is almost a non-renewable resource for her, firewood is something that can be found all over the mountains.

As Jiang Qingyue stuffed firewood into the battery, he glanced at it, where the charging efficiency was only about 8%.

"Not very stable."

Jiang Qingyue calculated that at this rate, she could only store two kilowatt-hours of electricity per day.

"This efficiency is really low."

The data suggests a much higher efficiency, around 12%.

However, something went wrong with her; she followed the steps one by one, yet her efficiency was only 8%.

Jiang Qingyue thought of something and quickly got up to take out the appliances she would need to look at them.

Actually, the thing she uses the most electricity for now is the shelter's lights, especially when she's digging. She brings the lights up wherever she digs.

The phone is negligible; she doesn't use it much, only occasionally to look up information or check the time. Otherwise, it's in standby mode, and a single charge lasts for several days.

As for that small cooking pot, she hardly uses it anymore, because the stove is on every day, and she can just put it on the stove to cook or boil water.

Before the apocalypse, she bought four sets of batteries, each with a capacity of six kilowatt-hours.

In other words, if there is no shortage of firewood, the generator can operate 24 hours a day, and it takes about three days to fully charge a set of batteries.

If there isn't enough fuel to replenish the firewood, efficiency will decrease, and it might take 7 or 8 days to fill a set.

But she doesn't use much electricity.

Jiang Qingyue looked at the batteries; this set of batteries had been in use since the very beginning of the apocalypse.

Even though she only used that small pot to cook a few meals at the beginning, it only used two kilowatt-hours of electricity in 20 days, and the battery still had four kilowatt-hours left.

It only needs two more charges to fully charge, and it will be fully charged in a day.

Jiang Qingyue was delighted after she calculated it.

At first, I thought the efficiency was too low, only charging two kilowatt-hours a day. What kind of garbage efficiency is this?

But now that I've calculated it, her production capacity is clearly excessive.

Even without using the other three sets of batteries, using only the current set, one day's worth of power is enough for her to last for 20 days.

There's nowhere to store the electricity generated over the remaining 19 days, and she can't use it.

"Could we do something else?" Jiang Qingyue pondered. "How about we build a greenhouse and grow some vegetables?"

Although she didn't buy seeds, when preparing supplies, she never imagined that she, an ordinary person, would be able to grow vegetables in the extreme cold of the post-apocalyptic world.

She saw people selling seeds when the trading area opened last time, so she figured there should be some next time. She should look around and buy some.

"No matter what, fresh vegetables are always tastier than vitamin pills, right?"

But she didn't know how to set up a greenhouse to grow vegetables. She only had a vague idea: to use a few lights instead of sunlight to bake the vegetables, and to water and fertilize them on time.

But how come she doesn't know how to set up a separate area for this greenhouse?

"It's not a big problem." Jiang Qingyue opened her phone again.

Sure enough, I found the information I needed after flipping through it for a short while.

"Thank you for my wisdom."

If I hadn't downloaded it so frantically back then, I'd be completely lost now.

Eating while scrolling through my phone, adding firewood every now and then, a busy day quickly passes by.

Coincidentally, just as all the pine needles and twigs that had been collected to clean up the mess were burned, the battery was full.

Jiang Qingyue let the fire go out, and she didn't plan to generate electricity for the next two days; she was just testing it out.

First, she has no shortage of electricity. Second, she doesn't have a lot of firewood. Her priority now is to chop more firewood to prepare for the third cold wave.

As for power generation, let's talk about that when this battery pack is almost used up.

In a good mood today, and having not showered for almost a month, Jiang Qingyue went outside to dig out some ice, boiled a big pot of water, and washed herself from head to toe.

I changed into clean clothes and, using the bathwater, scrubbed the patina-covered clothes.

There was no way to air them out, so they were placed next to the stove to bake.

Now that she's stronger, she's not as stingy with resources as before.

Most importantly, my health has improved, and I'm no longer afraid of getting sick.

With her previous weak body, even if she could boil water to wash, she wouldn't dare to.

To prevent the flesh from melting, the overall temperature of the shelter was kept at around -8 degrees Celsius. At that temperature, given her previous physical condition, she would have gotten sick after taking a bath.

I still feel a bit warm after washing it.

I looked at the three major ranking lists while lying in bed. Ten days had passed, and the rankings had changed a lot.

She was originally ranked fourth on the New Power Ranking, but she has now been pushed down to eleventh.

The individual combat power rankings remain largely unchanged.

1st place: Long Jiuxing; 2nd place: Jiang Qingyue; 3rd place: Wang Dawei.

However, apart from Jiang Qingyue, the combat power of the other two has increased.

Long Jiuxing's combat power has exceeded 1, making him the first person in the Eighth Experimental Zone to achieve this feat.

To this, Jiang Qingyue could only say: Awesome.

Wang Dawei, the reborn individual, has also reached a combat power of 580.

Then there's the survival index ranking.

Survival Index Ranking:

First place: Jiang Qingyue, survival index 280

Second place: Wang Dawei, survival index 279

Third place: Huang Yali, survival index 191

Fourth place: ...

"I've become number one!"

Jiang Qingyue was stunned for a moment.

She had looked at these three lists last night, and at that time she was ranked second on the survival index list.

And now, she has suppressed the reborn Wang Dawei.

Jiang Qingyue looked at the bizarre generator and exclaimed, "It can generate its own electricity? Is it that powerful?"

Yesterday it was 240, but today, after it was able to generate steam, it increased by 40.

This is more than what she gained when she first received the Lucky Star, which only added 9 points.

After witnessing the usefulness of this device, Jiang Qingyue immediately decided to put into practice Xiao Yi's suggestions to build a greenhouse, grow vegetables, and acquire emergency rescue capabilities.

The fact that generating electricity can increase one's power supply by forty points demonstrates the importance of having a power supply during the third cold wave.

Greenhouse cultivation and emergency medical care, which have a significant impact on the survival rate, must also be equally important.

Although I don't know why it's important, since it seems that electricity is far less important than fire.

Having fire provides warmth, allows you to dig ice to melt water, indirectly solving the water problem, enables you to cook food, and provides lighting... it has many uses.

However, Jiang Qingyue's main approach was to do things even if she didn't understand them.

Jiang Qingyue yawned, propped her legs up with the blanket, and closed her eyes while wearing a thin nightgown.

She was asleep, but Wang Dawei couldn't sleep.

Ten days later, Wang Dawei's aggression intensified.

There weren't many of his underlings who came to his house for a meeting today, but they were all even more nervous.

In Wang Dawei's home, everything that could be broken had been broken: ashtrays, cups, bowls and chopsticks... fragments were everywhere.

Wang Dawei paced back and forth in the living room, his anger escalating with each step: "Are you all just sitting around doing nothing?"

"We sent you to harass Long Jiuxing, preventing her from resting peacefully. With her sickly body, if she couldn't concentrate on recuperating, you could have easily dragged her to her death without doing anything. And what happened?"

The younger brother who was scolded lowered his head and didn't dare to say a word.

Long Jiuxing's individual combat power has exceeded 1,000. Even without Wang Dawei saying it, they all knew that with the increase in combat power, physical strength and physical fitness would also improve accordingly.

Even if Long Jiuxing is sickly as Wang Dawei said, if this trend continues, one day Long Jiuxing will be able to become a healthy person by improving his combat power and physical fitness.

"Boss, I promise..."

"You're just making promises you can't keep!" Wang Dawei kicked him, his combat power of 580 was enough to kill the underling without him even getting his lunchbox.

This made the people around them even more apprehensive.

Wang Dawei was still not satisfied: "And you, I told you to start with Yu You's underlings and find Jiang Qingyue's address. Ten days have passed, where is she?"

A loud shout made the henchman's legs go weak, and he fell to his knees with a thud, painfully pierced by the shards.

"Boss, I really did my best. Only his four closest brothers knew that Yu You was away. After these four went back, they started to seize power."

"After a chaotic battle, all four of them died. The remaining people only knew that Yu You had gone out, but they didn't know where he went. The trail ended there."

The younger brother also felt wronged. It's very inconvenient to go out in this freezing weather, and there's no way to communicate by phone. There are too many messages on the personal computer, and the other party can't see them.

They were all people who risked their lives to go directly to the other side's base to find them.

"Excuses!" Wang Dawei pointed at his head. "They're all excuses!"

"There are only so many people and so many houses in the entire Spring City. Does Jiang Qingyue think he can just grow wings and fly away?"

"She's currently ranked number one on the survival index list, with a score of 280. Do you know what that means? It means she already has the ability to survive when the third cold wave hits."

"I don't have any!"

Wang Dawei broke down not only because he couldn't find Jiang Qingyue, but also because he felt like a failure as a reborn person.

Since his rebirth, nothing he has tried to do has been successful.

Although his survival index was only slightly lower than Jiang Qingyue's, he knew very well that the Happiness Base was now a dangerous building.

He relied on his reborn foresight and grew rapidly before many others could react, which was already the fastest.

Later on, his rate of becoming stronger will slow down.

For example, he used to be able to make some people disappear without anyone noticing and steal their personal computers.

Nowadays, people go out in groups, so it's not easy for someone to disappear.

Also, many people are getting stronger. Although they are not as strong as him, their combat power has reached over 100 or 200.

These people can't beat him now, and he can barely keep them in check, but what about in the future?

He knew very well how ruthlessly he exploited the people at the Happiness Base, and that everyone harbored resentment towards him.

Once these people become stronger, and five or six of them can team up to fight him, his good days will be over.

At that point, there will only be two paths to take.

Either give power to those people, and everyone becomes an exploiter.

But if power is delegated, his growth rate will be slower.

Either you get killed.

As for preventing these people from becoming stronger, or killing them before they become stronger, he simply cannot do that.

Other bases are eyeing him covetously. If he kills all the powerful underlings, he'll be fighting alone, protecting a bunch of weaklings.

Not to mention when the third cold wave hit, by which time many strong individuals had reached the point where they could go out and about without fear of the severe cold.

The activities of the major powers are not limited to this region.

If he prevents his underlings from growing stronger, his only fate will be to be wiped out by other large bases.

Still, death.

Growing angrier the more he thought about it, Wang Dawei finally yelled, "Get out!"

He was afraid that if he thought about it any longer, he would lose his temper and kill all these useless people.

After his underlings left, he stared at Jiang Qingyue's name on the leaderboard again and again.

"What technology have you mastered?"

Jiang Qingyue had no knowledge of first aid.

Most people only know a little bit of basic skills, such as non-standard CPR, artificial respiration, and simple bandaging...

In an extremely cold, apocalyptic world, first aid knowledge is hardly a valuable asset.

"Could it be that they saved a doctor who is at least an associate chief physician?"

"I guess I was just lucky and got a special item—the Plant Doctor?"