The newcomer named "Mosquito" was really good at woodworking.
Old White and Ample Time used the steel bar as a ruler and tried to make wooden planks for a long time, but they still couldn't make any. However, this brother could easily produce a pile with just a saw.
Moreover, these wooden planks also had ridges that interlocked together, and they could be easily put together to form a boxy hollow brick mold.
In a short while, a better number of brick molds were assembled.
"You can't handle logs like this. Look at this… it even has mushrooms growing on top." Mosquito wiped off the sweat, put the saw aside, looked at Ample Time and Old White and asked, "Is this enough? "
"Enough, it is enough! Thanks, brother, you've been a great help!" Old White patted Mosquito on the shoulder with a beaming expression on his brow.
Mosquito smiled shyly.
"You're welcome! Just tell me what you need."
Old White grinned and patted him on the shoulder.
"Okay! I remembered, I will definitely tell you!"
Mosquito: "..."
With molds, making mud bricks was much easier.
Old White and Ample Time put a little water on the yellow mud collected from the river, knead it into a viscous mud and poured it into the mold. They then laid them on the ground, put some charcoal between the gaps, and smeared the surface of the mud brick with ash.
This was what Old White learned from survival videos.
When the first layer of bricks were almost dried, they changed their orientation and continued to stack the second layer, then another, until the bricks were higher than their heads.
When it was done, Old White carefully ignited the carbon in the brick stack, allowing the fire to burn from the middle which gradually engulfed the entire brick stack.
"Will we be successful this time?"
Looking at the smoking "mud pile", Ample Time wiped the sweat from his forehead with his muddy arms, looking as if he had crawled out of a cesspit.
Old White's image was not better than his. His face had more soot than him, like he had just crawled out of a coal kiln.
"Who knows, we can only wait and see."
It was the first time that he made this thing. When he was a child, he only watched adults make it.
They could only wait until tomorrow.
"Let's go, we just need to let it burn at the moment."
"Let's go check the cement kiln. I feel that we are very close to the finished product. Let's try to get a bucket out before going offline!"
On the other side, with the help of [WC_really_has_mosquitoes], Gale and Night Ten finally completed the improvement of the ninth generation fishing trap.
They replaced the original cylindrical structure with a cage-like structure, replaced the weak wooden bars with strong steel bars, and reinforced the main structure of the trap.
No matter what fish it was, they would not be able to leave after they got in now!
The three of them went to the lake together, planning to try again. They seemed to be very excited.
As for Chu Guang, he was still trying to figure out how to smoke meat.
Although there was still not much progress...
"Dear administrator, what are you doing...?"
Hearing the sound coming from the side, Chu Guang stood up in front of the meat rack, patted the soot on his hands and looked towards the direction the sound came from, only to see [Tomato_scrambled_eggs] looking curiously at the meat rack he made.
If he remembered correctly, this man seemed to be a chef who graduated from New Oriental?
Thinking of this, Chu Guang's eyes lit up suddenly.
"I'm studying how to make smoked meat... You came here just at the right time. From now on, you will be the chef at Outpost 404!"
With that, Chu Guang didn't give the player a chance to speak and watched him with a serious face before continuing.
"The situation we are now facing is very severe. In addition to the construction of the outposts on the surface, we have to store enough food for the 100 compatriots who will arrive on the surface before the winter."
"I need your help!"
Scrambled Egg looked dumbfounded.
He didn't mind being a chef...
In reality, he was also a chef. Before he went online, he had to fry two dishes before handing the frying spoon to his colleague. Unexpectedly, he would have to do his job in the game.
Was this the equivalent of a class option in the game?
It took a long time before he opened his mouth.
"But... what can I do for you?"
"Good question."
Chu Guang looked at the meat rack on the side.
"I tried smoked meat, but the effect was not satisfactory. I need you to solve the problem of preserving food... I have read your information and the organization says you have relevant experience in handling food, is that right?"
Scrambled Egg was stunned.
"I probably know a little bit, but games are games after all—I mean, I'm also not sure if my experience will work here."
Thinking that this was the game world, Scrambled Egg brother temporarily changed what he wanted to say. But it seemed that the NPC didn't seem to care about it, probably because the program was set to automatically ignore any reality-related elements that had nothing to do with the game.
"It's okay, I need professional advice," Chu Guang looked at the meat rack beside him, "Help me see what went wrong with the meat rack I made."
Looking at the wooden shelf in front of him, Scrambled Egg fell into silence.
Not so much what went wrong...
It would be better to say that there were problems everywhere.
"This... First of all, the smoked meat must be in a confined environment. Your roasting method is probably useless if the outside is scorched. Also, the meat is sprinkled with what spices?"
"A special kind of tobacco leaf."
"Tobacco leaf?!"
"Mhm," Chu Guang nodded, looking at Scrambled Egg with a surprised look. "This is an inland area, and salt is very expensive. The local survivors use this kind of tobacco leaves rich in aromatic compounds and tar instead of salt. It is crushed and applied to the surface of the food to achieve the antiseptic effect."
This game could even do this?!
Scrambled Egg was shocked.
Some aromatic compounds could indeed be used as food preservatives, but it was the first time he's heard that they were edible.
Maybe it wasn't lethal if they didn't overdo it?
But his instinct told him that this kind of smoking technique was almost equivalent to fighting poison with poison...
"In fact, you can smoke meat even without salt… but the flavor wouldn't be good. I don't understand the method you've told me, but such smoked food is not suitable from a health point of view."
The explanation of Scrambled Egg was more euphemistic because he had heard that there was an NPC favorability setting in the game, and only when the favorability was high could they trigger hidden missions.
In reality, he might have already rolled his eyes directly.
"No need for salt?!" Chu Guang was stunned.
"Mhm… microbes need water to survive. Smoked meat is essentially drying the water in the meat to achieve the dehydration effect. The effect would be better if salt is used; the preservation time would be longer, and the flavor would be better. But if there is no salt, you can still use this method."
"Of course, if the fat content is high, dehydration will be more troublesome... It still depends on the specific meat."
Having said that, Scrambled Egg paused, glanced at the meat rack next to him a little awkwardly, and whispered.
"But no matter what the situation is, you haven't even sealed them… It's definitely not good."
If food could be preserved without consuming this weird tobacco leaf, it would undoubtedly be a happy event for the outpost.
However, Chu Guang still had some doubts.
Even if the survivors of Bett Street were ignorant, since they've been able to survive in this wasteland to the present, they shouldn't have mistaken this kind of important survival skill.
So, what went wrong?
However, Chu Guang did not intend to think about such troublesome things for the time being.
The first reason was because he didn't have much time.
And the second reason was that if an NPC needed to solve everything by himself, why did he need players?
"Very well, this glorious and arduous task will be left to you!"
He patted this moe newbie's shoulder vigorously and said.
Chu Guang solemnly handed over the work of meat to [Tomato_scrambled_eggs], told him some basic safety information again, and then left happily.
Good.
He solved another problem.
Speaking of which, now that the food issue would soon be solved, should he try to recruit more players to increase productivity?
With these few hands alone, he may not be able to repair the wall of the nursing home until the end of the month.
Just as Chu Guang was thinking about this, an excited cheer suddenly came not far away.
"Fu** yeah!!!"
"YES! It's finally done!"
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