Night of Despair

Yu Hong stretched out his hands to warm them, but suddenly felt an unbearable thirst. He stood up and walked to the barrel to get some water to drink.

The water in the barrel was quite murky, showing a faint gray color, but it was still much better than foul water.

Yu Hong took a piece of charcoal used for drying, then used the edge of an ax to cut off a corner of his clothing. He wrapped the charcoal in the fabric and placed it in the mouth of a wooden cup, making sure it was stuck and wouldn't fall.

With this, he had created a very simple and crude charcoal filter cup.

Picking up the barrel, he carefully and slowly poured the water over the cloth-wrapped charcoal.

The water seeped in very slowly and then dripped even slower from beneath the charcoal-filled fabric, falling into the cup.

Yu Hong observed and noticed that the water dripping out initially had some black charcoal residue, but then it became much cleaner, much more so than the water in the barrel.

Although it was still murky.

"Water is a must, I can't do without it. I'll try this first to see if I can enhance it to perfection. If not, I'll go get one from Black Mark's house."

Yu Hong planned in his mind and reached out to grasp the wooden cup.

The desire to enhance triggered his thought.

Immediately, a new black number appeared on the side of the cup: 2 hours and 34 minutes.

At the same time, the mechanical voice of Black Mark rang in his ears again.

"Do you want to enhance the filter cup?"

"Yes!"

Yu Hong replied eagerly, full of anticipation.

In an instant, the number on the side of the cup turned into a countdown.

He relaxed slightly, sat down, leaned against the fireplace, and felt much more at ease with the warmth emanating from inside.

Two hours wasn't a long time; sitting and resting for a while would be fine.

Sitting on the wooden stool, Yu Hong felt continuous streams of warmth radiating from the fireplace. The warmth brushed against him, seeping through his clothes, making his body increasingly lazy.

Despite the imminent danger of the dark, cold, and damp night outside filled with risks, the warmth made it hard for him to stay alert.

Unnoticed, his eyelids began to droop.

"No! I can't sleep!" Suddenly, he stood up and distanced himself from the fireplace.

By now, a faint smell of sweat was spreading throughout the cave.

It was the odd scent coming from the beddings and himself being baked.

When it was damp before, the smell wasn't very noticeable, but as it dried, the odor dispersed quickly.

"Ugh..." Yu Hong rubbed his nose, knowing that what he should do right now was to open the door to air out the place, but unfortunately, it was nighttime, the most dangerous time to do so.

Hiss, hiss....

The faint sound of insects crawling could barely be heard from outside the door.

Clearly, the bloodsucking insects had started to appear.

He didn't know where these insects came from; they were invisible during the day but crawled out at night.

And they vanished into thin air when exposed to light, which was definitely abnormal.

But there wasn't time to think further.

Standing up, he waited quietly by the fireplace.

The flames in the stove vibrated upward like red silk, and the firelight swayed with the vibrations, flickering uncertainly.

Hiss, hiss....

Soon, at the air vent on the right side of the door, like black sand leaking in, a large number of black bugs started pouring in.

As soon as the mass of black bugs came in, they were hit by the light from the fireplace and immediately dissipated into black smoke.

The fire dimmed slightly for a moment but quickly returned to normal.

"Thank goodness, the bloodsucking insects don't consume much fire; as long as I control their numbers...this firewood should last all night."

Yu Hong estimated the dry firewood in the corner and felt relieved.

Standing by the fireplace, he waited for the invasion of the black bugs to end, always ready to add more firewood.

Time slowly passed.

The firewood gradually dimmed.

Yu Hong's hands moved quickly to toss the dry firewood he held into the fire.

Soon the firewood caught fire, and the brightness returned to normal.

This cycle repeated, with him adding firewood almost every half hour.

Otherwise, the firelight would quickly dim.

This required his undivided attention, constantly keeping an eye on the fireplace.

BANG!!!

Just then, the wooden door was struck violently, making a loud noise.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!!!

A rapid succession of knocks began. The door shook like a drum, trembling continuously, with debris falling from its edges.

But the two newly enhanced support columns were very effective.

Amid the loud noise,

The door constantly trembled, slightly swaying as if the whole cave might collapse. However, with the support columns' help, it firmly held back, and the surrounding screws remained intact.

Yu Hong stood terrified in place, struggling to control himself, not looking at the door but keeping an eye on the fireplace to prevent the firelight from dimming.

Time passed agonizingly.

He didn't know how much time had elapsed, having lost track of time since his phone had long run out of battery and shut down automatically.

All he could do was silently watch over the fire, waiting for dawn....

"Wait!" Suddenly, a thought struck him, "The phone is an item too; can't it also be enhanced??"

He quickly realized that the highest tech item he had was his phone.

If he could strengthen it into a computational processing and intelligent control center...

Perhaps he could eventually build an absolutely intelligent, safe shelter base!

Standing there, Yu Hong let his mind wander.

Eventually, after enduring for a while, the loud banging finally stopped.

Outside, Big Skin seemed to have realized that it couldn't deal with the enhanced wooden door and finally gave up, creeping away quietly until it was silent.

After about ten quiet minutes.

Outside, other than the usual bloodsucking bugs, or black bugs, there were no other sounds.

Everything had returned to the initial state of attrition.

However, the reinforced wooden door had been struck for a long time, and the door panels were slightly bulging inward.

Sigh...

Yu Hong let out a breath, feeling that half of the night had passed. As long as he persisted a little longer, there should be no problem.

Boom!!!

Just then, a loud noise exploded on the door like thunder that could not be covered.

The door panel was cracked with a burst.

Yu Hong's expression changed drastically, and he quickly dragged a quilt to press against the door panel.

Bang bang bang bang bang!!!

Then another round of striking sounds exploded.

This time, the noise was obviously louder, and the force was much stronger.

"Either it's not the same Big Skin, or Big Skin has gone berserk!"

Yu Hong pressed desperately, speculating in his mind.

The continuous loud noises were incessant to his ears, causing his eardrums to start tingling slightly. The shoulder pressing against it was clearly burning with pain, obviously chafed raw.

Ten minutes.

Twenty minutes.

Half an hour...

Forty minutes...

Until nearly an hour had passed, the pounding suddenly stopped.

It didn't sound again for a long time.

Yu Hong then breathed a sigh of relief, loosened the quilt and inspected the door panel.

The solid back of the door panel had more than a dozen bulges, and the cracks were parallel across it.

He estimated that if it had been pounded for another half hour, the door would have completely broken.

At that moment, the faint light seeping in through the ventilation hole also clarified to Yu Hong that Big Skin hadn't given up, but rather day had broken...

Plopping down on the ground, he was drenched in sweat, both hungry and thirsty.

He turned his head to look at the reinforced water filter cup. The countdown that had been displayed on it had long since disappeared.

In its place was a rather sophisticated black metal large cup.

The cup featured a large clump of filtration devices, like a steelyard weight connected to a cup lid. The cup itself was cylindrical, similar to a beer mug, with a capacity of at least five hundred milliliters.

That was about the same as the bottled mineral water Yu Hong usually drank.

Picking up the reinforced filter cup, Yu Hong quickly lifted the wooden barrel and poured some water into the cup.

The rainwater was slowly filtered, dripping into the bottom of the cup bit by bit, then gradually accumulating into a layer of clearer cold water.

Yu Hong waited a moment, tilted the cup, and poured out this layer of water.

"It's basically drinkable, but it needs to be boiled."

The pot for boiling water was in the house at Baiqiu Village.

Yu Hong could only symbolically sip it to moisten his mouth.

Following that, he walked to the door, pulled aside the cover, and looked out.

Through the peephole, the light outside was increasingly bright, and sunlight once again irradiated down.

Yu Hong checked the surroundings to ensure everything was fine before removing the support and twisting the door lock.

He stood at the door, inspecting the damage to the door inside and out.

The chilling fact was, if the reinforcements had not been made, the wooden door could probably have been breached—it was only the break of dawn that prevented it...

Yu Hong silently extended his hand and pressed it on the door surface.

"Do you want to repair?"

"Yes," he firmly replied.

Watching the countdown emerge on the door, a bit of gloom arose in his heart.

"It still isn't enough; we need to reinforce the door further. If another Big Skin comes crashing in, this door definitely won't hold!"

"So how to reinforce it?"

He stood by the door, carefully pondered, and then quickly grabbed an ax and dashed out. Following the sounds of chopping wood, soon Yu Hong was dragging two thick wooden boards back.

Switching to a hammer, after a noisy clamor, quickly the two thick boards were nailed to the back of the door.

But these thick boards were not directly nailed to the door; they were fixed on both stone walls, one above and one below, parallel to each other.

This arrangement made entering and exiting a bit cumbersome, but it further reinforced the door.

Then, Yu Hong went to repair some wooden planks, vertically attaching them close behind the door to thicken it.

After all this work, he was terribly exhausted and sat down.

Wiping his sweat with a sleeve, he picked up the toolkit that Little Stutter had given him. Inside, there were only two nails left.

"The steel nails are almost gone... I must replenish them."

Though mortise and tenon joints are useful, they must be planned from the beginning; otherwise, later modifications could only rely on bits and pieces like steel nails.

Sitting still, Yu Hong once again filtered a cup of water and sipped it slowly.

Picking up the luminous stone rod, he took a deep breath and scanned the entire cave.

"First, go to Little Stutter's house to move things. Before leaving, reinforce something to save time."

He thought for a moment, then chose to reinforce the newly added door reinforcement boards.

Extending his hand, he pressed on the reinforcement board at the back of the door, his mind focused.

Soon, Black Mark's questioning voice sounded.

"Do you want to reinforce the door reinforcement board?"

"Yes!"

Yu Hong confidently responded in his mind.

Instantly, numbers appeared on the board, turning into a countdown: 1 hour 32 minutes.

"Not too bad... It's not too long,"

he sighed with relief.

Then, picking up the rod and the only piece of enhanced pyroxene, he opened the door.

Resolved, he leaped down the rocky steps and walked toward Baiqiu Village through the mountain forest.