Zhang Shi woke up at noon and bumped into Zhao Feng as soon as he stepped outside. Before he could say anything, Zhao Feng pulled him away and ran all the way to the research center.

Gong Yi held a gleaming musket in his hand; the steel barrel reflected a dazzling light under the sunlight.

On the workbench in front of him was a wooden box filled with black powder and polished steel balls. Zhang Shi smiled, surprised that Gong Yi was so efficient, managing to produce the flintlock pistol and gunpowder in just one morning.

Upon seeing Zhang Shi approach, Gong Yi eagerly began to introduce his newly manufactured musket to him.

He first poured a certain amount of gunpowder into the barrel, then filled it with steel balls, and then somehow got hold of an iron rod, which he inserted into the barrel and pounded it vigorously.

"My lord, please give it a try."

Zhang Shi noticed that Gong Yi's voice was trembling slightly, indicating that he was very excited. He then took the musket and checked its attributes.

[Flintlock Musket (Blue): Made entirely of high-quality steel, it ignites the internal ammunition with sparks from flint upon firing, resulting in immense power. Its drawback is its low firing rate.]

Zhang Shi arrived at the training ground, raised his flintlock musket, aimed for a moment, and fired a shot at the wooden stake.

With a deafening roar, a powerful force surged from the gun barrel, nearly causing it to slip from Zhang Shi's grasp. The gunpowder ignited, and a steel ball was launched, instantly shattering a wooden stake several meters away.

Zhang Shi's eyes widened in surprise; he hadn't expected this weapon, despite its small caliber, to be so powerful. Although it differed somewhat from the Redneck's musket, it was more than enough to equip the team.

Seeing Zhang Shi smile, Gong Yi was very satisfied and stepped forward, bowing to inquire.

"My lord, I have thoroughly mastered the craftsmanship of this musket. Gong Er and his team are currently working hard to forge the high-quality steel. Do you think we need to mass-produce it on a large scale?"

Zhang Shigang was about to nod in agreement when he suddenly had a new idea.

"Don't rush, let's go back to the research center first."

Zhao Feng looked puzzled, wondering why Zhang Shi hadn't immediately ordered mass production, but seeing his confident demeanor, he didn't say anything more.

Back at the research center, Zhang Shi found paper and pen and began to draw and write. After a short while, a sketch appeared in front of Gong Yi. As soon as Gong Yi saw the sketch, he was immediately attracted by the structure on it and began to study it intently.

"Brilliant! Brilliant! This solves the problem of the low firing rate of the muskets. Your Excellency is truly a genius!"

Zhang Shi smiled.

The sketch he drew depicted the structure of a revolver. Although he wasn't familiar with the specific details, he could still clearly describe its basic working principle and design.

Using the sketch as a guide, Zhang Shi began to explain the details of the revolver to Gong Yi, as well as the requirements it needed to meet.

"You need to make a chamber, which is pre-loaded with gunpowder and projectiles before use. You need to fix each chamber in place so that it aligns perfectly with the barrel when the trigger is pulled. You also need to make a mechanism that rotates the chamber each time the flint is fired, thus enabling automatic reloading."

The two gestured wildly, leaving everyone present, except for Gong Yi and Zhao Feng, completely bewildered and confused.

By the end of the story, Gong Yi, a man in his fifties, was so excited that he jumped up and down, exclaiming repeatedly.

"A genius! A genius! Your Lordship is truly a genius!"

Zhang Shi was so embarrassed by his praise that he could only wave his hand repeatedly, signaling him to hurry up and study the revolver according to the blueprints.

Zhao Feng walked out of the research center with a smile, putting his arm around Zhang Shi's shoulder.

"Stone, you're a genius! You actually thought of using a revolver mechanism to solve the problem of slow reloading of muskets. Wow, you're a genius!"

Zhang Shi pushed Zhao Feng away and laughed and cursed.

"Don't joke with me. This thing is something that people have already done before. I'm just using it as a temporary solution. When we get more advanced weapon blueprints and formulas in the future, we'll still need to improve it."

"By the way, where are Wu Qing and Lao Ge? I haven't seen them."

Zhao Feng helplessly shrugged.

"Wu Qing went into the fields early this morning, saying she was going to study some grafting techniques; as for Lao Ge, he followed your instructions and went to the mine to supervise the work. These gunpowder were the ones he sent back this morning."

Zhang Shi nodded, feeling very gratified. With these friends helping to share the work at the shelter, he could save some effort.

Watching the newly recruited soldiers quickly integrate into the group, each performing their duties and doing their jobs, the shelter was thriving, and Zhang Shi felt a sense of peace he had never felt before.

There's something else I need to tell you.

Zhao Feng's expression turned serious. Zhang Shi snapped out of his daze and nodded, signaling Zhao Feng to speak directly.

“This morning I went out on patrol and found that the water level of the small river behind the shelter had dropped a lot again. Today is the fifth day, and the temperature still shows no signs of dropping. I think something is wrong. Should we make some preparations?”

Zhang Shi frowned and quickly went to the riverbank to check. Sure enough, just as Zhao Feng had said, the water level of the stream had dropped to one-fifth of its original level, and it looked like it would dry up completely in less than two days.

Zhao Feng dipped his hand into the water and swam around, startling the few remaining fish and shrimp at the bottom.

"I've already caught most of the fish and shrimp in this river, so even if the river dries up, we won't lose too much. If all else fails, we can just use a resource generation card, so there's no need to worry too much."

Zhang Shi stood in the sunlight, felt the temperature, and recalled the system announcement before the extreme heat disaster. He realized that something was amiss and felt that he should make some preparations in advance.

Zhang Shi went straight to the farmland and found Wu Qing watering the crops.

"If I cover the entire shelter, will your sunflower still be able to grow?"

Zhang Shi asked directly, and Wu Qing stood up, wiped the sweat from her cheeks with her arm, and looked at him with a puzzled expression.

"I don't know either. It's already a refined-grade plant. If we want it to grow bigger again, we'll probably have to upgrade it to a rare-grade one."

Zhang Shi sighed. He didn't know much about this, but upgrading a plant from refined to rare would inevitably require a huge amount of resources. With Zhang Shi's current abilities, this path was probably not feasible.

Seeing Zhang Shi's dejected look, Wu Qing asked softly.

"What happened? Why do you have to cover up the shelter?"

Zhang Shi raised his head and recounted his findings and deductions. After listening, Wu Qing agreed that Zhang Shi's concerns were not unfounded.

"Actually, on the first day of the extreme heat, I also noticed that the system announcement did not announce the duration of the natural disaster like it did during the severe cold disaster. According to your prediction, this extreme heat is likely to continue. If so, most of the survivors' plans may be disrupted, and the entire wilderness world will be in chaos."