Hot water not only helps the body's blood to circulate quickly, but also secretes dopamine to make you happy and speeds up your thought processes.

Soaking in the bucket, Su Mo's thinking became clearer.

At present, there were some enemies who could directly threaten him near the shelter. Besides Kento Maeda, there were the kobolds, people in the saltpeter mining camp, and the lion people.

According to the information revealed by Kento Maeda in his final few words, Su Mo knew that the lion people's situation was not optimistic. 

At the very least, they had been unable to guard their camp. Chased by angry kobolds, their camp was probably razed to the ground.

The kobolds could also be considered weakened at this time as well and, because of the disaster, they would not be able to flourish again within such a short period of time.

"I'm gonna get rid of those bastards in the saltpeter mining camp tomorrow morning. I'll collect some saltpeter along the way and create a large amount of picric acid explosives to solve the major problem that is the kobolds as soon as possible."

With such a significant enemy by his side, Su Mo could not leave them to continue developing.

As long as there were enough picric acid explosives prepared, even if the main pillar could not be located, he would be able to demolish the kobold castle within a few breaths of time.

When that time came, then there would be no enemies and Su Mo could farm with peace of mind and slowly develop in the doomsday world.

Using the advantages of psychic energy water and the motor-pumped oil well, he would be able to trade for a lot of items and resources, upgrade his shelters, and stay ahead of the disasters.

"After sacrificing the second floor of the Deep-sea Shelter later, the Underground Shelter will also gain a second floor. At that time, the first floor must be increased to 220 cubic meters to ensure maximum benefit."

"Should the space layout in this shelter be changed again?"

Looking at the already familiar structure of the shelter, Su Mo pondered on whether he wanted to change the internal structure of the shelter.

He would have to attempt some designs to know whether it would become easier to use or not.

These days, living in the bedroom, Su Mo had discovered some loopholes in the previous design.

First of all, the energy distribution room was too close to the master bedroom. Once the diesel generator was turned on, the loud noises would make him unable to sleep well at night.

Secondly, the backdoor used for escape was placed in the crop culture room. If an enemy broke in, since the weapons storage was near the door, the distance required to escape would be too long. He would undoubtedly be turned into mincemeat if that happens.

There was also no buffer against the enemy. When upgrading the shelter to 220 cubic meters, he had to consider creating a number of buffers to ensure internal security.

As for the smaller details, there wasn't a simple weapon cabinet in the bedroom, no kitchen in the shelter, and no bathroom. These defects had to be considered and addressed during the renovation this time.

Su Mo did not major in architecture as a student and he had no relevant experience. As to whether to save himself the trouble and reserve this project for another day, Su Mo ruled out this dangerous idea from the beginning.

"I hope that someone can take out a perfect design drawing and show it to my face. Tell me, is this it? Is it?"

With his hands folded, Su Mo looked at the wall of treasure chests "religiously", thinking about it.

Such professional work had to be done by the hands of professional people!

"With so many cores, I can find a way to build a garage for parking, cold storage for preserving food, and connect them directly with the game panel. It can also save me the cost of re-upgrading materials and survival points!"

Regarding the urgently-needed modules for the shelter, Su Mo could only put them on hold for a while before he successfully opened Kento Maeda's safehouse core.

Only when the shelters of these gangsters were burned down by fire tomorrow could he make proper plans.

After half an hour, Oreo had almost fainted comfortably in the bath.

Su Mo saw Oreo's head drooping over the edge of the bath barrel, her tongue hanging weakly and her eyes blurred; she was in heaven.

Big Spark and Little Spark had also been soaked thoroughly, lying comfortably in the barrel.

"If I had been able to craft this on Earth, I would be able to make a lot of money by selling this kind of pure and naturally insulated barrel."

There was no need to add extra hot water to maintain the temperature. At first, Su Mo had still thought to look through the World Chat channel a few times to collect some information.

As time passed though, he simply laid in the tub and slept.

He did not take a long nap. It only lasted about half an hour but, after sleeping, the tiredness from the day had dissipated significantly.

Were it not for the notification of an incoming private message, perhaps Su Mo would have slept until the water turned cold.

"Whose private message is it this late at night!"

In a daze, Su Mo opened his eyes and summoned the game panel.

Looking at Shen Ke's message on the private message channel while adding half a bucket of hot water, Su Mo suddenly became energetic.

[Shen Ke: Hello, Almighty Su, your information came in timely today. We have also found out the cause of the disaster through some clues.]

[Shen Ke: First of all, about the issue of the "number of people". After a series of urgent and thorough tests, we found that it should not have much to do with the number of people. The number of people does not affect the extent of the disaster. Of course, there were only seven shelters participating in this test, so this was the statistical result based on their sample data.]

[Shen Ke: However, during this process, we did discover that there was a "variable" that could affect the degree of disaster. When this variable increases, the scale of the disaster expands and, vice versa, when it decreases, the scale of the disaster decreases as well.]

After the three messages, Shen Ke surprisingly did not say what this variable was, but instead left Su Mo in suspense.

After thinking about it, Su Mo tentatively asked.

[Su Mo: The number of safehouse cores?]

As soon as the message was sent, Shen Ke's message on the other side was sent simultaneously.

The speed was very fast, as if she had already typed it out in the chat box and was waiting to send it.

[Shen Ke: As expected of Almighty Su, you guessed it! From a macro perspective, although there will be countless shelters in every place, there will always be a distinction between high and low-level shelters. Advanced shelters will suppress low-level shelters and form a subordinate relationship. In this case, whenever low-level shelters that did not belong to the advanced player were added, or if the person carrying the safehouse core of the shelter enters the area, it would cause a corresponding change in the scale of the disaster.]

She seemed to be afraid that her words were not straightforward enough and therefore directly sent a video call invite. Su Mo did not think much about it. In line with his previous habit, he directly connected to the video.

After a harsh buzzing sound of the signal connecting, images began to pass through clearly.

When Shen Ke raised her head to look at the picture, a blush suddenly appeared on her face.

In the video, Su Mo laid lazily on the edge of the bath barrel, the steaming heat gathered along the edge of the bath barrel looked as if a strange force had bound the heat, causing it to converge back into the bath barrel.

His body that has been repaired and strengthened by the psychic energy water was fair and clean, with sharp features and contours.

Su Mo's broad shoulders were paired with strong, but not exaggerated, chest muscles, looming in the mist. His messy hair that had not been trimmed for over ten days, and the young face with stubble growing on his face made Su Mo look very refined; especially since he sported a nonchalant expression, as if free from worries. 

In the doomsday world, he looked like a true warrior gentleman of Huaxia.

"Huh?" Seeing Su Mo's momentarily stunned expression, Shen Ke laughed, her crescent-like eyes looking extremely charming.

"Ahem, let's just talk about business. I've understood what you've just said, but how are the large shelters planning to deal with this problem?" Su Mo frowned, ruffled his hair, and coughed twice.

Regarding what Shen Ke had just said, Su Mo immediately thought of more issues.

At the same time, given the contents of Kento Maeda's and the big man's safehouse cores, he would be able to verify his thoughts and Shen Ke's conclusion.

On the other side of the screen, Shen Ke lifted her leg and put her chin on her knee. She looked at the notebook in front of her and began to say, "Yes, now that we know about this problem, the shelter has indeed encountered a fair bit of trouble."

"There are two main types of cores. The first type is the one that had never been placed yet, which is the complete safehouse core. This type is very easy to handle. A person who possesses the advanced core could bring one's core and place it down on their behalf. By default, the shelter would become the second shelter of the advanced core's owner. No matter how many shelters are built this way, it would not affect the degree of disaster, nor would it affect all the functions of the player's game panel!"

"All functions?" Su Mo glanced at the functions on the top of his game panel, implying something.

"Yes, including the chat function, storage space, the process of creation, and other series of panel functions, the person who placed it down on behalf of others will not have any viewing permissions."

"This is the second problem I want to talk about. 80% of the people who join our Tundra Shelter have already placed down the core of their shelters. After leaving or destroying the shelters, the safehouse cores that remain on their bodies are incomplete and damaged."

"In other words, as long as they are within the scope of the advanced core shelter, they will add on to the degree of disaster. The higher the number, the greater the disaster, which is the "variable" mentioned by Almighty Su!"

To express things clearly and straightforwardly, Shen Ke said the three paragraphs in one breath. After speaking, she took a big breath.

Seeing Su Mo in the screen fall into deep thought, Shen Ke did not interrupt, but quietly looked at Su Mo in the camera, blinking her big eyes.

"There must be a solution, and I would guess that you have already found it!" After understanding the meaning of Shen Ke's words, Su Mo asked straightaway.

"Yes, we found the solution!" replied Shen Ke.

"What's your price?"

Hearing Su Mo's words, Shen Ke shook her head and continued, "This is an instruction from the head, and he said that as long as you are willing to share information with us in the future, our information will similarly be open to you. We will exchange information with each other without covering up the information! "

She seemed to be afraid of Su Mo's rejection of this kind of favor, so Shen Ke continued to speak cleverly, "In fact, this solution is not sufficiently mature enough either; the protests against it in the shelter are very loud. The reason being is that, if you want to avoid the catastrophic effect of this variable, you need those people to mark their damaged cores with the mark of an advanced core."

"However, after marking, if the advanced core's owner wants to view the subsidiary core, he does not need to get the other's consent and can view it directly through his core's operations."

"For people in the doomsday, this is equivalent to handing over their rights to privacy. Even if our reputation guarantees that we will not steal it, many people below do not agree with it."

"All the panel functions can be arbitrarily adjusted and viewed?" Su Mo asked.

"Yes, all. Including chat panels and storage space. the complete core owner can even take the items in the damaged core owner's storage space without the consent of the latter."

Hearing what Shen Ke said, Su Mo did not continue to ask, but instead asked a seemingly basic question from Shen Ke's perspective, "Could it be that the core can still be summoned out? Doesn't it stay put once you've placed it down, and only explodes and appears after death?"

"Huh? No, if you want to get to the physical core, you'll need to be in your shelter but, if you place an illusionary mark on your core, as long as you summon the core with your mind within a 50-kilometer radius of the shelter, you'll be able to see your core!"

Su Mo had to admit that this exchange of information had been very rewarding. After receiving this news, he no longer had any doubts, and the two of them exchanged a few words before hanging up the video call.

"One can see the core of their shelter by summoning the core with their mind?"

Looking at Kento Maeda's safehouse core in the storage space, Su Mo suddenly became curious about his core.

The next second, Su Mo silently summoned it with his mind.

In his field of vision, a "turtle armor" larger than a human head suddenly appeared and fell as it transformed into a tangible item.

Boom!

Dust was scattered by the turtle armor and danced in the air!

"Damn… This is my core?"