Chapter 201
Su Jing placed her palm on the manganese crystal door knocker of the villa's main entrance. A pale blue spatial energy spread from her fingertips, covering the entire villa and its surrounding glass enclosure.
When the superpower touched the building, the villa's walls began to glow with a transparent light, like bubbles enveloped by water, gradually shrinking.
Little Jin perched on her shoulder, its claws gripping her collar tightly, its eyes wide: "Su Jing, won't the villa get crushed? There are still spirit herb seeds inside!"
"Don't worry, there's a buffer layer in the space, the supplies won't be damaged."
Su Jing exerted force with her fingertips, and the fluctuations of her supernatural power suddenly intensified. The villa, along with the abandoned cars and refining equipment in the yard, were compressed into a transparent ball of light about half a meter square, which slowly floated into the spatial entrance in her palm.
Robot No. 1 was busy moving the last batch of heat-resistant fragments and high-level heat-resistant agents into the space. The robotic arm precisely sorted and stacked the supplies in the storage compartments: "Report to Su Jing, all supplies have been stored. A total of 1 villa, 32 pieces of manganese crystal equipment, 15 kilograms of spirit herb seeds, and 200 bottles of heat-resistant agents have been stored. The space has 30% capacity remaining."
Su Jing put away her spatial abilities and turned to look at the flying car parked next to her—its body was covered with a heat-resistant coating, and Robot No. 1 had just put it into its space for later use.
She activated her flight ability and flew with Xiao Jin towards the deep mountains in the northwest. The map in the communicator showed that there was a flat valley with a stream that never dried up at the bottom, and it was far away from the activity area of the Flamewing Beasts, making it the best location to set up a temporary base.
Half an hour later, Su Jing landed on a clearing in the middle of the valley—the ground was covered with a thick layer of pine needles, which were soft to the touch. A stream flowed gently at the bottom of the valley, with a water temperature of only 18°C, nearly 50°C lower than the ambient temperature during the polar day.
She first took out the manganese crystal measuring instrument from her space, walked around the open space to confirm that there were no traces of acid corrosion in the soil or any remnants of monster activity, before ordering Robot No. 1: "Start building the double-layer sunshade, first fix the bottom heat-resistant glass frame."
Robot No. 1 retrieved prefabricated manganese crystal supports (each 4 meters long and 10 centimeters in diameter) from space and fixed them to the ground by driving piles according to the size of the open space (25 meters in diameter). Su Jing then activated her mineral powers and used light blue energy to weld the joints of the supports to ensure a seamless connection.
After the base frame was erected, she took out the heat-resistant glass (each piece was 2 meters by 1.5 meters), and embedded it piece by piece into the bracket slots. The edges of the glass were filled with heat-resistant sealant to prevent the glass from shifting when the temperature was high.
"The bottom layer of glass can block 60% of direct sunlight, and with the top layer of heat-resistant canvas, the temperature inside the shed can be kept below 30°C," Su Jing explained to Xiao Jin while applying sealant to the glass.
Xiao Jin squatted on a nearby rock, helping to hand over the sealant gun: "If a Flamewing Beast flies over, won't the canvas get burned through?"
Su Jing pointed to the material label on the canvas: "This is heat-resistant canvas with added manganese crystal fiber, which can withstand a high temperature of 500℃. Even if a spark falls down, it will only burn a small hole and will not catch fire."
As they spoke, Robot No. 1 had already erected the upper manganese crystal support frame. Su Jing manipulated the robotic arm to unfold the canvas, cover it with the support frame, and secured the corners with manganese crystal nails. The double-layered sunshade quickly took shape.
From above, it looks like a giant silver-gray dome perched in the center of the valley, with a stream flowing under it, bringing a refreshing coolness.
Next was ice storage. Su Jing took out three small refrigeration devices (driven by third-order manganese crystals) from her space, placed them in a depression next to the stream, connected the water inlet of the devices to the stream water, and aligned the outlet with the manganese crystal ice cellar that had been dug in advance (2 meters deep, 3 meters wide, with heat-resistant glass lining the inner walls).
"Start the equipment, set the cooling temperature to -15℃, and make 500 kilograms of ice to store for later use."
Su Jing pressed the device switch, and the refrigeration unit emitted a low hum. After the stream water was sucked into the device, it quickly froze into ice blocks and slid into the ice cellar through the outlet. Robot No. 1 used manganese crystal plates to neatly stack the ice blocks to prevent them from melting.
"The temperature inside the ice cellar can be maintained at -5℃, so the ice will melt very slowly, enough for us to last a week."
Su Jing touched the ice cellar wall; the heat-resistant glass insulated it from the high outside temperature, and a thin layer of white frost covered the inner wall. Xiao Jin curiously touched the ice, then quickly withdrew her hand: "So cold! It's even colder than the refrigerator in the villa! We can use ice to cool down now!"
By the time the ice cellar was full of ice, the sky had entered the "cool night period" of the polar day—the communicator showed that the temperature had dropped to 35°C, the coolest time of day.
Su Jing decided to take this opportunity to collect supplies from a nearby abandoned mining area. It used to be a manganese crystal mining site, and there might be high-grade manganese crystals or abandoned mining equipment left behind, which could be used to reinforce sunshades or make weapons.
She took out a silver-gray heat-resistant suit from her spatial storage (it had heat-resistant properties, but it was just in case she encountered a Flamewing Beast), put it on, and clipped a manganese crystal knife to her waist. She said to Robot No. 1, "I'm going to the abandoned mine. You stay in the shed and guard the ice cellar. If anything unusual happens, contact me immediately via the communicator."
Xiao Jin jumped onto her backpack: "I'll go with you! I can help you see if there are any monsters!"
The two arrived at the abandoned mine in a flying car—the entrance to the mine was blocked by a collapsed mine door. The door was made of manganese crystal alloy, and although there was rust on the surface, the core components were intact.
Su Jing used a manganese crystal knife to split open the mine entrance. It was pitch black inside. She took out a powerful flashlight from her spatial storage. When the beam of light illuminated the passage, she found many manganese crystal fragments scattered on the ground and the mounting frames of mining equipment remaining on the walls.
"Su Jing, look! There's a big one over there!"
Xiao Jin pointed to the mine cart at the end of the passage, inside which lay a fist-sized third-order manganese crystal, its surface gleaming with a pale blue light.
Su Jing walked over and picked up the manganese crystal, scanning it with a detector: "85% purity, can be used to make high-grade heat-resistant coatings."
She put the manganese crystals into the storage box and continued walking. In the abandoned control room, she found half a box of manganese crystal drill bits for mining (compatible with the previous drilling machine), a damaged ore analyzer (which could be repaired), and several unopened packs of miners' rations (within their shelf life).
On the way back, Su Jing's communicator suddenly vibrated—it was a few scattered messages from the national chat area of the "China" (a fictional country in China), with some casual users saying, "The nearby stream is scalding hot from the heat, there's no water to drink."
Some people even asked, "Does 'I am the God of Wealth' still have any stored ice? I'm willing to exchange it for a demon core."
She frowned and silenced her communicator—ice reserves were limited at the moment, and the mountain stronghold was not yet secure, so she could not supply ice to the outside world for the time being. She could only focus on strengthening her own defenses.
As the flying car landed next to the valley sunshade, Robot No. 1 was busy applying a heat-resistant coating to the manganese crystal support frame outside the sunshade.
Su Jing took the collected supplies out of the storage box and sorted them on the storage shelves in the shed. Xiao Jin lay down next to the ice cellar and tapped the ice with its little paws: "Su Jing, did you hear a message on the communicator just now? Are there any refugees who are about to run out of water?"
Su Jing wiped the sweat from her forehead (the temperature inside the shed was 30°C, cooler than outside) and nodded, saying, "Yes, but our current ice and water can only protect us. We'll consider helping them after we collect more supplies and make more ice."
She looked out at the sky—the "cool night period" of the midnight sun was about to end, and the temperature was about to rise again.
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