Chapter 2: Step 1 Preparation, Dig Deep

Words : 1193 Updated : Sep 9th, 2025

The only difference between this and a game is that you don’t have an Energy Tower to keep you warm, no robots to do the work, and for a hundred years, you won’t see the sun. Under a disaster of this magnitude, if the impact point is on this hemisphere where he is, Chen Xin feels that he doesn’t need to do anything at all, just spend the next few months eating well, playing well, and when the meteor comes crashing down, just flip it the middle finger. But if luck is on his side and the meteor lands on the other side of the blue planet, then digging a deep enough shelter should allow him to survive the disaster and then face the hundred-year-long freezing night. Don’t think it’s unrealistic to dig a shelter. In fact, back in the 1970s, when Flame Country and Lucia had fallen out, Lucia had planned a surgical nuclear strike on Flame Country, but it never materialized due to the opposition from the Federation at the time. In response, the Great Ancestor proposed a plan to dig deep tunnels, investing massive human and material resources nationwide to dig a large number of air-raid shelters, and some important locations even had tunnels connecting these shelters. These air-raid shelters were built in every city in Flame Country, most of which remain well-preserved to this day. These shelters are typically 20 meters deep, 200 meters long, and 3 meters wide, with brick walls and concrete slabs as roof supports. They are equipped with ventilation, electricity, and lighting facilities that can be used to avoid air raids during wartime and offer emergency refuge and temporary residence after a nuclear war. Up until the eighties and nineties of the last century, these air-raid shelters could be put to use at any time. Sёarᴄh the NôvelFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. But as Lucia disintegrated and Flame Country’s comprehensive national strength improved, the international situation gradually improved, and these air-raid shelters lost their military role and were repurposed for civilian use, serving as warehouses for supplies, cooling spots in summer, and even underground shopping streets in many places. As for the major cities’ subway stations and the double-layer underground parking lots in communities, they are actually another form and extension of these air-raid shelters, after all, subway stations tens or even hundreds of meters deep underground are perfect shelters, not easily structurally damaged by nuclear strikes or air raids. Only specially developed bunker busters and fuel-air bombs have significant destructive effects on such deep underground bunkers, but they still find it hard to destroy the overall structure of the shelters. And the extensive subway lines can quickly form an underground transportation network, turning these shelters and subway stations into underground cities like those in ’Wandering Earth’, only not as deep. As Chen Xin flipped through the creative ideas he had jotted down and related materials he found online, he could be certain that, with the confirmation of the meteor strike on the blue planet, the government’s next likely move would be to start deeply digging underground shelters as a disaster precaution and self-rescue strategy. But merely digging shelters only ensures a better chance of survival when the disaster hits. How then would one endure the long night and winter that could last for decades? Stockpiling food? That surely is a feasible approach. Emergency food supplies on the market mostly have a shelf life at room temperature between 5-10 years, but with the global temperature drop, tens of degrees below zero should preserve these foods for decades, if not a hundred years. However, no matter how much food you store, collecting enough food for one person to last several years in the months before the meteor strike is already remarkable unless you have prepared in advance. It would otherwise be completely impossible to rely on stored food to survive the long decades. And there’s one critical issue—energy. In the aftermath of the meteor’s impact, it will disrupt the blue planet’s ionosphere, creating a global EMP wave, causing a massive breakdown of electronic devices. Counting on a reliable power supply under such circumstances is no longer practical. Though post-disaster reconstruction would begin once the environment stabilizes, and power supply should be restored within a year, generating electricity requires energy. With global temperatures plunging to tens of degrees below zero, Flame Country’s largest hydropower project and power source—the Three Gorges Dam would freeze into a giant block of ice, sharing its fate with all other hydropower stations across the country, irrespective of their size. This would strip Flame Country of nearly 20% of its electrical production. Don’t think that’s not a significant figure. Although more than 70% of Flame Country’s power comes from thermal power plants, under such a global disaster, how many plants will remain operational and how many power lines intact? The answer would be grim, since the majority of Flame Country’s high-voltage transmission lines are above-ground cables due to safety reasons. In the global storm of fire and frost at temperatures of minus tens of degrees, these cables’ survival chances are slim indeed. Thus, when that time comes, the situation might mirror the Ice Age, where humanity would have to rely on coal mining for sufficient energy to heat and cook food. To a large extent, humanity might regress back to a city-state era, where cities govern themselves, struggling to survive. However, with the Flame Country government’s control and execution capability, basic government functions and social structure should be assured. Life after the disaster might be harder, but still viable. But, considering the various disasters and real situations following the meteor strike, it would take at least one to three years for things to stabilize. Hence, what lies before Chen Xin now is how to properly prepare within these three months to ensure survival in the face of this great disaster and safely navigate through the most turbulent one to three-year period afterward. Luckily, when Chen Xin devised this scenario back then, he seriously discussed it with friends online, referred to numerous materials, and crafted a comprehensive plan. If implemented from now, although time is tight, it’s still doable! With this thought, Chen Xin wasted no time and urgently contacted a trustworthy construction team through his connections, planning to dig an underground shelter for himself first. No matter whether the meteor will eventually strike the blue planet, and whether he will survive the initial impact, being prepared is never a mistake. Besides digging a shelter, the storage of food and drinking water is equally crucial, so Chen Xin took out his phone to check his bank account balance, deciding to make a substantial purchase. Fortunately, with the frequent disasters earlier, Chen Xin has already stockpiled quite a few things at home, like gas masks and medical emergency kits, so there’s no need to buy more. What he mainly needs to stockpile now is food and water. As long as there’s food to eat and water to drink, and a place to stay, the survival needs of humans are actually not that high.

Chapter 2: Step 1 Preparation, Dig Deep

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