When he opened his eyes again, the world outside the window was still pitch‑black.

Chen Yun glanced at his phone. It was just past four o’clock. Four hours of sleep had wiped away the exhaustion from yesterday’s hard work.

He got up, stepped outside the courtyard, and made sure no one was around. With a wave of his “space” he summoned the truck and parked it next to his car.

Back inside, he freshened up, headed to the kitchen, and decided to make a proper breakfast since it was still early.

After half an hour of fussing, Master Chen boiled a pot of millet porridge and tossed together cucumber salad and cold tomato slices with the vegetables Lin Wanwan had delivered the day before. The food was… edible, but nothing to write home about.

Thinking back to the dinner at Lin’s house the night before, Chen sighed. He really had no knack for cooking.

He finished his breakfast. Dawn was just beginning to lighten the sky, and the summer heat hadn’t risen yet. Chen pushed open the door and stepped into the yard.

In the yard, twenty hollow, red‑brick cubes were neatly stacked in a line. He paused, then headed straight for the gate. He planned to drive to the county seat first, pick up a batch of seeds and the supplies for greenhouse and hydroponic growing, and then finish assembling the cubes when he got back.

After locking the gate behind him, Chen walked over to the truck parked in the corner, opened the door, got in, and drove toward the county town.

The county seat was only a short distance‑wise from Pingle Village, and traffic was light. He rolled along at a good clip and arrived in about thirty minutes.

The town was small, and the morning streets were fairly clear, so Chen headed straight for the farmers’ market.

Inside the biggest seed shop in the market, he went straight to the owner.

“Hey, I need cabbage, lettuce, spinach, cucumber, winter melon…,” Chen listed the vegetables in a flat tone. “Two hundred bags of each, please.”

The owner raised an eyebrow. “New face, huh. You starting a farm nearby?”

“Yeah, just setting up a farm, stocking up,” Chen replied.

The owner didn’t press further. He called a clerk, and they began loading boxes of seeds onto the truck. Chen swiped his card, paid, and helped haul the seed bags into the cargo area.

Next, Chen drove to the agricultural supply wholesale market on the other side of town. There he bought a large quantity of plant nutrient solution and growing media for his hydroponic system.

With seeds and hydroponic supplies in hand, he headed to a gas station on the edge of the county. His tank still had about half a tank left, but he wanted to conserve fuel—he had a reserve of gasoline in his “space” for emergency use, and every drop saved mattered.

The station already had a line of cars. Chen waited his turn at the back. A burly, bald driver in the truck ahead started shouting at the attendant.

“What’s the deal? Why can I only fill 300 yuan worth? I’m a long‑haul driver; this won’t get me anywhere!”

The attendant sounded resigned. “Sorry, sir. New regulation came out yesterday. Each ID can only purchase up to 300 yuan of fuel per week….”

“Damn it! What am I supposed to do on a long run?” the driver snapped, slamming his palm on the window.

“The only way is to get a certificate from your community or street office, then report it to the police station. With that paperwork you can fill up,” the attendant explained.

“Ugh, what a hassle,” the driver muttered, revving his engine and driving off.

Listening to the argument, Chen fell into thought. Fuel caps being imposed—had the authorities started to sense something? Had they picked up on early signs of a disaster?

After topping off the 300‑yuan fuel allowance, Chen turned the truck around and headed back to Pingle Village.

He arrived back just before noon. He parked, walked into the courtyard, and put on a pair of work gloves he pulled from his “space.” He dragged a sack of cement and resumed stacking the hollow cubes.

Cube 21… [requires 420 points]

…

Cube 24… [requires 300 points]

Cube 25… [300 points]

He stopped, realizing the point discount had hit its ceiling.

He took a deep breath, placed his hand on the stone cover of the cellar, and called up the system in his mind. “Alright, let’s start the reinforcement.”

Detecting hollow brick cube. Consume hollow brick cube to reinforce the cellar?

Reinforcement direction: expansion.

Required points: 300.

“Yes,” Chen said.

He felt a subtle tremor under his feet. The progress bar on the system’s holographic display surged forward.

A few seconds later, the bar filled, and his vision blurred. When it cleared, the stone slab that had covered the cellar was gone, and the dark opening beneath it had vanished as well.

Where the cellar and slab once stood, there was now a smooth expanse of blue‑brick flooring, blending seamlessly with the rest of the yard.

“Where…?” Chen muttered. “Where did my cellar go?”

The system’s mechanical voice chimed in his head.

Reinforcement successful!

New entrance location generated — Living room.

“Whoa, it got reinforced into the living room,” Chen thought, surprised. “If the cellar entrance is inside the house, that’s a huge safety upgrade. Not a bad surprise.”

He pushed open the front door and entered. The living room’s layout was unchanged. He scanned the room, then spotted a slight dip in the floor near the back corner—about a one‑meter square area with a small, palm‑sized bump at the edge.

“This must be the entrance,” he whispered. “Do I just press this?”

He pressed the bump. A soft buzz rang out, and the floor shivered, sinking down. A dark hole opened, and a gray‑black stairwell descended from its rim.

Chen took a deep breath, grabbed a high‑intensity flashlight from his “space,” switched it on, and carefully descended the stairs.

The staircase was long—about ninety steps before it reached the bottom.

The flashlight beam swept the cavern, and Chen inhaled sharply at the sight.

The space below was far larger than he’d imagined “cellar.” He estimated the depth at roughly 50 meters, with a total floor area of at least 2,000 square meters—far bigger than his entire old house.

Looking up, the ceiling was a deep‑gray slab about eight or nine meters overhead.

“Based on the stair length and how far I’ve walked, I’m probably about eleven or twelve meters below the surface,” he thought. “That means there’s still roughly three meters of soil above the cellar.”

He turned around. The underground chamber was utterly empty—four walls, a floor, and a ceiling, with no columns, beams, or any supporting structure in sight.

The sheer emptiness was unsettling.

He crouched, examined the floor. Under the flashlight’s glow, the gray‑black surface reflected a faint metallic sheen.

“The material’s the same as the house,” he muttered. “Looks like this stuff is way stronger than I imagined.”

Standing up, he exhaled slowly.

“Now the base of the facility is in place. The next step is to fill it up.”