[Welcome to Doomsday Survival Game. As you can see, you have arrived at a strange place.]

[Survival is your only goal—in order to survive, be sure to keep the following key points in mind.]

[1. The disaster will refresh periodically, and all survivors will receive a warning seven days prior to the refresh.]

[2. Do not place your Safe House thoughtlessly, for finding an optimal location to place it will increase your chances of survival.]

[3. Danger and opportunity coexist. Survival supplies can be found in the wild, but also dangerous mutants. Kill the mutants to receive a surprise.]

[4. The key to survival is to procure as many survival items as possible.]

[5. Once the Safe House is placed, it cannot be moved anymore. You can choose to put it above or underground the first time you place it.]

[6. If you run into your own kind, congratulations, you may form an alliance, trade, or plunder each other's hard-earned supplies.]

[7. By focusing, you can open the game panel and explore more features.]

[8. Don't worry about the elderly and children, they will be sent in much later than you. Priority will be given to your relatives. Happy gaming.]

A vast and endless stretch of wilderness. Su Mo perused the survival manual in his hand with a frown on his face.

There were tiny black letters floating on the first page, and when he flipped to the second page, a dazzling light shot out of it.

When the light subsided, the manual had disappeared, and it was replaced by a set of glowing turtle armor.

"Doomsday Survival Game, huh?"

Seeing an azure screen following his vision as it swayed before his eyes, Su Mo accepted his fate immediately.

On December 22, 2022, no one had expected that the Mayan prophecy would come true so suddenly after a ten-year delay.

Solar flares erupted, asteroids struck the earth, and right as he watched monstrous flames hit the earth, Su Mo passed out.

When he awoke, he was already at this place.

[Safe House]:

1. If you choose to place it on the ground, it can form a 120-square meter wooden house. Has weak resistance toward disaster but great potential for development.

2. If you choose to place it underground, it can form a 100-square meter underground pit with a height of up to 4 meters. Has weak resistance toward disaster and poor potential for development.

Picking up the turtle armor and carefully examining it, Su Mo noticed two strings of black, tiny letters engraved onto it.

After taking a quick look at the wilderness surrounding him, he decided against placing his safe house right there on the spot. Su Mo recalled the previous hints and focused, pulling up the game panel.

It was similar to the system of a video game.

There were several different options on the panel.

Chat, Trade, Create, Item… 

In the upper right corner of the panel was an icon that showed the number of days.

5 days.

When Su Mo focused on the number, a line of text prompts popped up.

[Countdown to the next disaster event outbreak: 5 days]

[Disaster Event (Novice Protection): Acid Rain]

"Five more days until a strike of acid rain? Glad I chose not to set down the base right away."

Su Mo's face turned a bit solemn as his gaze shifted to the chat button.

The page transformed.

Two brand new buttons appeared.

They were [World Channel] and [Regional Channel] respectively.

He entered the World Channel first.

"Wasn't I just in the refuge a moment ago? How am I suddenly in this hellhole?"

"There's a lion next to me. Help! It's got its eyes on me!"

"The end of humanity has come. Haha, everyone will die!"

"Does everyone else also only have one Safe House that you can place?"

Lines and lines of dialogues slid by.

Su Mo noticed a small trumpet icon next to the chat button.

Which was followed by the number 1.

[Trumpet: At the beginning of the game, you may only publish one message per day on the World Channel. Each time you survive a disaster, you will get +1 to your trumpet count. To chat without restriction, you can enter the Regional Channel.]

"Are they trying to prevent players from teaming up? Or are they restricting national strength?"

Su Mo's gaze drifted into the distance.

Based on the current information he had, he understood that everyone was trapped in the wilderness and they all started off the same way—beginning from the Safe House.

"With only one message a day, not even a state apparatus could gather enough people to begin a development. What's more, no one even knows how big this place really is."

Su Mo quit the World Channel.

Then, he entered the Regional Channel to take a look.

Like a Telegram chat room, the number on the members' tab showed 1000.

Everyone in the chat room used their real photos as their avatars and their nicknames were a combination of their names and height.

"Is the wilderness the only terrain here? Does anyone have a water source nearby? I'm dying of thirst."

"Do not place the Safe House underground. Damn it. This is such a trap. No lighting, no ventilation, no drainage. When the acid rain comes, staying inside will be like sheltering in a grave."

"Don't give up, guys. Open up the creation page. Minecraft players must be ecstatic. Also, prioritize choosing high grounds to place your Safe House."

"I can't believe no one in the whole wide world has found a place near a water source to place their Safe House. This is outrageous!"

After observing silently for a few minutes and collecting some useful information, Su Mo exited the room.

The first wave of the Survival Game was meant to eliminate the elderly and children, leaving only strong young people behind. Excluding the handful who had never experienced hardships since childhood, the majority of the people had already begun to take action to save themselves.

However, there were also some who were bold and curious enough to already place their Safe House, forcing them to be stuck on the same spot until now.

Next, Su Mo checked the trading function.

The trading platform offered an avenue for players to trade items.

The trading rules were fair and players had the freedom to give their items away to designated players.

The trading function had also given rise to an auction function.

No intermediary fee was charged.

"Open the creation page."

Su Mo looked at another function,

Swoosh!

It was a full page that filled the screen.

[Wooden board: wood 0/1]

[Wooden box: wood 0/4]

[Charcoal: wood 0/1, fire source]

[Ordinary shovel: wood 0/2, iron 0/2]

…

More than a dozen basic items were listed, each requiring different materials to synthesize.

Clearly, gathering and creating materials was especially important in the Survival Game.

He cast his gaze to the final function—items.

As he placed the Safe House in his inventory and retrieved it again by concentrating, Su Mo had a general idea about the basic functions of the game.

"I have to hurry and pick a spot to place my Safe House."

Seeing that the sun had risen directly above his head, Su Mo froze and quickly looked around him.

The endless great plain was decorated with unfamiliar plants that were about half the height of a human. There was also some weed on the ground, and the place did not look so barren anymore.

As far as the eyes could see, he could not make out a trace of a river or a lake.

"Guess I can only pick a high ground for my Safe House."

He walked away from the place he arrived, lying on the ground from time to time to examine the terrain.

Eventually, Su Mo picked a small sand dune.

After retrieving the Safe House's turtle armor, the options appeared once more.

Above ground or underground.

The first option was a wooden house above ground. This was probably the more common option that could get anyone safely through the early novice disaster without having to worry about the subsequent developments.

If one could continue to expand the land beside the Safe House in subsequent developments, it might even evolve into a city eventually.

Underground was the other option. This choice provided natural security from, say, beast waves, the cold, and similar disasters. It provided a certain degree of safety against disasters that might be extremely difficult to weather if you were above ground but were mostly harmless if you were underground.

On the flip side, if he could not build a good drainage system underground before the acid rain disaster struck, then it would be a catastrophe.

Su Mo mulled over it for some time.

If the first option focused mainly on developing potential…

Then the second option focused mainly on safety and security.

In most cases, being one step ahead in a post-apocalyptic world was critical. After an initial stumble, there would be problems cropping up in subsequent developments.

"Acid rain… highlands… Potentiality for development is crucial…" 

"Therefore, I choose…"

Su Mo shook his head while toying with the turtle armor in his hands, choosing the second option resolutely.

[You have selected an underground shelter. In the process of generating terrain…]

The turtle armor emanated a crimson glow, leaping out of his hands and falling to the ground.

As the glow intensified, the stones on the dune gradually melted away and were replaced by a major change in the terrain.

The slightly sloped terrain became even steeper, like a bulging hill.

As the crimson glow faded, a wooden door embedded in the ground materialized in front of Su Mo's eyes.

[Congratulations, the underground shelter has been generated. Current shelter properties can be viewed in the panel.]

"Ding! The host has been detected to have owned a complete shelter. Would you like to bind to Doomsday's Survival System?"