The Type-80 machine gun had a rate of fire of about 700 rounds per minute, not to mention the rate of fire of the M-1 automatic rifle

If each bullet cost 2 points, then it would cost 1400 survival points per minute. Who could afford such an expense?

"To build my great steel torrent, I must ensure that I have enough ammunition. Otherwise, everything is but empty talk."

"Smokeless gunpowder must be acquired."

On the path to making guns and ammunition, Su Mo had taken 99 steps on this road, with only the last step remaining. Even if he could not get through, he decided that he would have to go hard and, even if he could not push, he would have to push hard.

Adhering to the tradition of the older generation of scientists in China, Su Mo has full confidence in adhering to this aspect.

However, before that...

"Airdrop, airdrop, when will it arrive?"

Su Mo walked out of the garage door and looked at the cloudless, tranquil, sky. Not even the shadow of the airdrop could be seen.

The reward that Su Mo would receive for achieving world's first made him very curious, and he could hardly wait to see what kind of good things the game would put in.

Seeming to hear Su Mo's groan, the game panel popped out by itself, and a beep cordially sounded.

[Record]: The remaining time before the airdrop arrival is 02:13:45.

"Huh, it will take two hours to arrive?"

Looking at the game prompts and confirming that the remaining time was decreasing, Su Mo was reassured and began to calculate the cost of buying cotton.

65 survival points would net him 500g of cotton and, through a series of manufacturing processes, about 350g of smokeless gunpowder could be produced from that amount.

After calculating the amount needed to load a bullet, each bullet was worth about 0.3 survival points, notwithstanding other labor and material costs.

Given the rate of fire of the Type-80 machine gun, it would end up costing 260 survival points per minute!

"Expensive! It's still too expensive! In the future, I must have a suitable sustainable supply of cotton to reduce my losses. Otherwise, if this continues, I don't need to think about guns. Every battle will cost thousands of survival points."

As he was not on Earth, he was unable to accumulate the requisite materials. Even if he wanted to search for them, he could only explore the ruins.

A thing that could be easily solved on Earth became arduous when brought over to the wasteland. It was necessary to build a series of assembly lines from scratch to overcome the issue.

"In the end, it boils down once more to a population problem. The more people there are, the more resources can be collected. At the same time, it can speed up the development of shelters and provide stronger disaster resistance."

Despite figuring out the source of the problem, Su Mo was unresigned as he looked at the garage space where Oreo was still playing with Big Spark and Little Spark. He could only open the trading channel and try to search for cotton.

Like wood, cotton was also a material in short supply during this winter period, and was sold at a high price.

Su Mo could not figure out what kind of cotton could make guncotton so, for the time being, so he used 65 survival points to create a catty first, and would choose according to the cotton he had on hand.

This time, the goal was much clearer.

He spent the equivalent price of 10 pancakes and 10 disaster points in exchange for 20 kilograms of cotton.

After deducting the wastage, the supply of cotton could produce about 3000 rounds of bullets, which was enough for the shelter for the time being, so there was no need to worry about ammunition.

Seeing that the airdrop timer was still slowly approaching, Su Mo did not waste time. He first walked over to the oil well and replaced the toluene selection with ethylene.

Producing nitric acid and sulfuric acid was already a familiar process, so it was naturally completed without a hitch.

It did not take much effort, and Su Mo completed the manufacturing of guncotton in one hour. After carefully retracting and putting away the wet guncotton into the storage space, seeing that there was still more time, Su Mo simply continued to prepare picric acid.

The benefits of having continuously produced tools over the past two days were evident. When making picric acid, Su Mo could feel that his speed had increased significantly.

Especially while waiting for the reaction to take place, he could allocate energy toward subsequent preparations. This was enough to show that his production level had significantly improved.

Su Mo did not intend to retain all the saltpeter. Except for the amount of sulfuric acid and nitric acid used to catalyze the guncotton, everything else was used to prepare picric acid in preparation for conquering the kobold castle.

As Su Mo became absorbed in the crafting process, he could not really feel the passage of time. Before he realized it, the system prompt for the airdrop's arrival popped out, and Su Mo stood up and walked out of the garage gate, waiting quietly.

As soon as the clock ticked over, the airdrop reward for world's first arrived as scheduled.

The delivery method was not via a cargo aircraft as Su Mo's imagined, but rather a more "advanced" express delivery method that had been seen several times.

The golden light delivery.

The brilliant light flashed across the sky and, when passing the Underground Shelter, it stopped and a box about one cubic meter in size appeared within Su Mo's field of vision.

Seeming to have verified Su Mo's identity, the cloud of golden light trembled and spat out a smaller cloud, which dragged the box along and carried it down.

When the light cloud was about five meters away above the ground, it stopped and disappeared in the same way as the secret realm entrance; it turned into a light spot and shattered.

Without the support of the light cloud, the box was slammed to the ground in front of Su Mo's eyes.

"This method is a bit like magnetic levitation, but it is at a much higher level than the practical theory put forward by humans!"

Watching as the cloud of golden light above his head left, Su Mo did not wait and quickly ran to the fallen airdrop box.

The box looked small and it did not seem like it would contain precious items.

However, after seeing the magic card technology, Su Mo did not show any contempt and carefully picked up the box and walked into the garage.

Closing the garage gate and stone door one after the other, he walked into his own little world, before beginning the unboxing process.

The box labeled all over with No. 1 prints was extremely eye-catching and, under the illumination of the shelter's lights, they reflected a variety of luxurious colors.

He gently unfastened the iron buckle on the box. As Su Mo opened the box, it burst out with the same light as a silver treasure chest. Three items flew out automatically and began to hover in front of Su Mo's eyes.

A black card, a red kit, and an item that looked like a compass.

"It is the card technology!"

Sweeping the box aside, he grabbed the three objects in his hands and sat on the soft fabric sofa. Su Mo began to look at them one by one.

At first glance, the black card shocked Su Mo tremendously!

The attributes of the game panel were displayed for Su Mo to examine.

[Small, single-arm excavator (Good)]

[Description: A small diesel backhoe excavator, produced using heavy machinery, with trench-end excavation, trench-side excavation, straight-line excavation, curved excavation, angled excavation, ultra-deep trench excavation, and trench slope excavation.]

[Total machine weight: 13,500kg]

[Bucket capacity:0.50-0.65(m³)]

[Rated power (kW): 72.7/2, 200]

[Moving speed (high/low - km/h): 5.5/3.5]

[Climbing ability: 70%/35°]

[Limitation: The card is currently locked. Countdown to unlock: 78 hours]

[Usage instructions: Use in an open area to summon the vehicle on the card to the location. Once it arrives, it cannot be retracted. Please choose carefully.]

"Good lord! How is the reward for world's first so awesome?"

Looking at the introduction of the card in a daze, Su Mo rubbed his eyes and found that the wording had not changed. There was no restriction that he could only use it once. He was shocked!

Excavators represented the mechanization level of a country, represented the progress of the machinery industry, and also represented the reduction in human labor requirements.

With its huge bucket, the productivity increase brought about by the excavator alone would be enough to replace dozens of people working at the same time.

Especially when considering architectural endeavors, it had a unique advantage.

"Fortunately, because of Huang Biao, I chose to broadcast live at that time. Otherwise, I would have missed out on this airdrop reward."

Misfortune also came with blessings, and blessings came with misfortune. Through the reward of the world's first, Su Mo instantly decided:

He would also broadcast live the next time as well!

He put the excavator card into the storage space, picked up the red kit, and began to examine it.

[Points Kit (Reward for ranking first - Bound)]

[Description: Open to receive 1000 disaster points directly]

The ordinary item introduction could not conceal the shock brought about by the four-digit number. Without any hesitation, Su Mo directly chose to open the kit, and 1000 points were instantly credited to him.

By the time he reached out for the final item that looked like a compass, Su Mo's mentality had calmed down and showed no trace of anxiety at all.

With the excavator and the bonus disaster points in hand, the airdrop rewards this time could be said to greatly improve the mechanical level of the shelter.

As for the compass, whether it was good or bad, it was not so important anymore.

[Pointer (Rare)]

[Description: Press the button above the pointer and silently think of something you want to find. The vague location of the object or subject would be indicated.]

[Limitation 1: The accuracy of the indicated location increases with the depth or degree of bond the object or subject has with the user (Common bonds: blood relation, friends, pets...)]

[Limitation 2: Number of uses: 3/3]