Apocalypse: Infinite Supplies System - Chapter 71

Chapter 71: Upgrades Can Fail Too
Alex lay in bed at night, thinking, “It’s been two days and still no sprouts. Could it be that they won’t grow at all? I boasted earlier, but if I lose and have to help two girls do laundry, it would be so embarrassing…”

Two more days passed, and like a daily ritual, Alex went to the rooftop terrace to water the seeds.

He was starting to give up.

No matter what he did, the seeds wouldn’t sprout.

He simply watered them twice a day, morning and afternoon, and added a bit of fertilizer, then left them alone.

With a small watering can in hand, Alex approached the foam box.

The hint of green inside the foam box made him feel somewhat surreal.

They’ve sprouted!

The seeds of fruits and vegetables, left to grow naturally, unexpectedly sprouted!

Alex ran to the other foam boxes to check the seeds of other varieties.

All of them had sprouted and were thriving.

Gently, Alex caressed these fragile lives that had miraculously emerged in this post-apocalyptic world, chuckling foolishly.

The vibrant green filled him with joy.

Different from the yellowish-green of the old trees and grass in the wilderness of the apocalypse, these young lives, born anew, reflected a fresh luster under the sunlight.

In the following days, the sprouts grew rapidly, developing tiny stems.

These seeds in the crates seemed somewhat different.

Since sprouting, they had grown at a rapid pace.

In just a few days, they had harvested the first batch of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Meanwhile, Mia and her friends’ seeds showed no signs of growth.

This planting competition ended with Alex’s victory.

That evening, while eating the freshly grown vegetables, Mia and Olivia, though sheepish, still let Alex dictate the terms.

However, Alex wasn’t in a hurry and planned to save them for later use.

…

Establishing a planting area, they would need to transfer these foam boxes to the underground bunker.

Everything he did was meaningful.

Meteor showers were imminent, and they didn’t have many canned vegetables on hand.

Even with an abundance of staple foods and meats, the human body requires various vitamins, minerals, fiber, and more.

If the meteor showers persisted for a long time and their canned vegetables ran out without the ability to gather more supplies, it would be harmful to their bodies.

So, growing fresh vegetables was essential for them.

Planting fresh vegetables before the meteor showers arrived, and because of the uniqueness of these seeds, they had already harvested two or three rounds of produce, stocking up a considerable inventory.

After solving the vegetable problem, the next issue was the defense of the villa.

The recent attack had left Alex with a strong sense of crisis.

He planned to take this opportunity to upgrade the automatic defense system before the meteor shower arrived.

Fortunately, he had already acquired the Laser Defense Device and the Automated Gatling Gun.

While others might not see their immediate utility, they were perfect additions in Alex’s hands.

The first step was to integrate these two items into the automatic defense system.

But currently, many survivors, even those at the Police Station, hadn’t obtained such items.

Alex was unique in this regard.

Upgrading the automatic defense system required a cooldown period of one day, which was why Alex hadn’t upgraded it before. After all, continuously going out to gather supplies meant being vulnerable to invasion during this cooldown period.

However, there had indeed been an invasion.

Although the automatic defense system hadn’t been on cooldown, it made Alex realize that the current system was somewhat outdated.

The survivors now had firearms aplenty.

Handguns were as common as weeds.

Facing this situation, it was absurd that Alex’s automatic defense system still had crossbows and muskets.

Moreover, Alex noticed that even when facing incoming survivors while he wore combat gear and wielded a UMP9 submachine gun, with Mia and Olivia providing backup with handguns, the defensive measures of the automatic defense system seemed unnecessary.

It was imperative to upgrade!

This couldn’t be delayed any longer.

The survivors from Silver Fox and Iron Arm had just been wiped out by Alex. Taking advantage of the residual intimidation, it was the perfect time for an upgrade.

Alex opened the smart assistant of the shelter.

The shelter assistant appeared in Alex’s personal window, speaking with a mechanized female voice, asking crisply, “Respected master, is there anything I can assist you with?”

Alex opened the status bar of the barrier walls and clicked to add materials for upgrading.

“Barrier walls upgrade, do you want to inject materials for upgrading?”

Alex clicked on it and added S-Alloy.

The system issued a prompt: “Respected master, S-Alloy is a special material. If you want to upgrade the barrier walls, it will require a large amount of S-Alloy, and there is a possibility of upgrade failure. Do you wish to continue?”

Without hesitation, Alex clicked “Yes.”

Materials required for barrier walls upgrade:

S-Alloy (249/50)

Upgrade failed!

Alex was stunned.

He stared at the red box popped up by the system, showing the failure of the barrier walls upgrade, and found that he was missing fifty pieces of S-Alloy from his backpack.

“Gosh…”

Alex gasped.

He couldn’t believe that he could fail in upgrading the barrier walls!

Alex opened the shelter’s smart assistant: “Assistant, what’s the success rate for upgrading the barrier walls?”

The smart assistant immediately replied, “Respected master, I’m sorry, but I cannot disclose the upgrade success rate. If you fail, please try again.”

Alex gritted his teeth and cursed the system as a swindler.

“Unbelievable! S-Alloy is already scarce, and you still manage to make an upgrade fail without even mentioning the success rate! Are you trying to cheat me out of my S-Alloy?”

The smart assistant remained silent.

After all, it wasn’t truly fully intelligent; it could only respond to pre-set questions.

Alex clicked to upgrade again, still feeling unconvinced.

“I refuse to believe it. Can the second attempt fail after the first one?”

“Barrier walls upgrade failed again!”

Alex looked at his backpack, now missing one hundred pieces of S-Alloy.

It felt like throwing money down the drain.

Nothing had changed, yet everything had.

Alex clenched his lips tightly.

Now, the S-Alloy he had could only support two upgrades.

If he couldn’t succeed in upgrading, it would truly be a waste.

However, the barrier walls had to be upgraded.

The current barrier walls were just solid walls made of a mixture of cement and steel.

Although sturdy, Alex didn’t dare to guarantee they wouldn’t be smashed to pieces by the meteor shower.

Alex gritted his teeth once again.

“Gamblers don’t keep losing forever!”

“Barrier walls upgrade successful! S-Alloy walls upgraded completed!”

Success!

Alex couldn’t help but nod vigorously, muttering curses under his breath before exhaling deeply.

“I’m done with gambling.”