The chat channel fell silent, with only Jiang Ye sending messages.
All the online colony commanders were stunned by the news, staring intently at the screens, waiting for Jiang Ye to reveal the answer.
But then, the tone suddenly shifted.
Jiang Ye: Hey, I just thought of a brilliant idea. How about I don't say it publicly here, but tell you privately for a fee?
The chat channel immediately exploded:
Not good! We really have no money!
We'll owe you the money, and we'll definitely pay you back when we have it!
Boss Jiang Ye is the coolest! You definitely don't care about this little bit of money, right?
Saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda! Boss, if you reveal the answer, everyone will be able to escape when they encounter spy robots in the future. This pagoda will reach the heavens!
Boss Jiang Ye is handsome, dignified, majestic, talented, and charming to thousands of girls!
Jiang Ye was quite pleased. Since everyone was so sincere, he decided to reveal the answer.
After organizing his thoughts a bit, he typed and sent them to the chat channel:
First, spy robots don't seem to feel the cold. The two robots I encountered were both dressed thinly, and after being blown by the wind for so long, they didn't even shiver or sneeze. It was particularly strange.
Second, the temperature has already dropped below zero, and our breaths are visible as white mist. But the robots don't exhale white mist at all, like soulless ghosts.
Third, forget it. I need to hold something back. What if the spy robots also see these messages and disguise themselves? That would be bad.
I still have some methods to determine if they are spy robots, which I won't disclose for now. If there are any spy robots in front of the screen, I advise you to be careful. You are full of flaws. We'll kill one that comes, and eliminate a pair that come!
After sending these messages, Jiang Ye felt a bit thirsty, so he placed a pot full of water on the stove to heat it with the stove's fire.
When the water was slightly warmer, he took a few sips and then returned to check the chat channel.
The channel was being flooded with messages, with hundreds or thousands of people sending the same message:
Thank you, Boss Jiang Ye, for sharing your monster-slaying experience! We will never forget your great kindness!
Thank you, Boss Jiang Ye, for sharing your monster-slaying experience! We will never forget your great kindness!
Thank you, Boss Jiang Ye, for sharing your monster-slaying experience! We will never forget your great kindness!
Jiang Ye typed: Mutual help, kill the aliens. It was just a small effort, everyone, good night!
After closing the chat channel, Jiang Ye even went to check the base upgrade options.
There were two conditions for upgrading to a level seven base: one was two million yuan, and the other was to kill one person.
Did killing two robots count towards this condition?
Jiang Ye tried to click on the base upgrade.
A prompt appeared:
[Detected that your balance is insufficient and the kill condition has not been met. Upgrade is temporarily unavailable.]
As expected, robots are not people.
Adding a few coal blocks to the stove, Jiang Ye tiredly lay down to sleep.
In the early morning, Jiang Ye was woken up by the cold.
He was truly frozen awake. The coal blocks in the stove had burned out, and the stove walls were colder than ice.
All the heat in the base had long since dissipated, and frost had formed on the windows!
Achoo! Achoo! Jiang Ye sat up and sneezed.
He felt the cotton-padded jacket on the ground; it had already dried. He quickly put it on.
Then, he hurried to tend to the stove.
There was a handle at the bottom of the stove. Pulling it outwards, the burnt coal blocks fell out.
Then, holding a lighter and corn husks, he started the stove.
His hands were frozen stiff, and it took several tries to press the lighter open.
The corn husks caught fire immediately. He stuffed them into the stove and quickly added coal blocks.
Once a few coal blocks were lit, Jiang Ye generously added half a stove of coal.
Soon, a roaring flame danced in the furnace, making a whooshing sound. The cold air in the base also warmed up.
On the surrounding windows, the hardened frost began to sweat, turning into water stains on the glass.
Jiang Ye looked out through the window, eagerly gazing at the plantation.
He had planted many seeds earlier and hoped that after sleeping, some crops would have slowly grown.
However, he was very disappointed. The plantation was bare, with nothing growing.
The seeds he had planted had either hibernated or frozen to death.
His stomach rumbled, reminding him it was time for breakfast.
There were no stored provisions in the base, so he had to go to the warehouse.
Honestly, in this cold weather, he didn't want to take a single step outside.
Jiang Ye bought himself another set of cotton clothes and pants and put them on. Now he was wearing two layers of cotton clothes, making him as fat as a bear.
He pushed open the base door, and a fierce gust of cold wind immediately rushed in!
Damn it, it's freezing to death!
Jiang Ye gritted his teeth and ran out, rushing into the food warehouse, grabbing a few corn cobs, and running back.
Back in the base, he closed the door and locked it.
It became warm again.
He threw the corn into the pot, added water, and then placed it on the stove.
Jiang Ye found the stove to be quite good; it could provide warmth and also be used for cooking, with a more stable heat output than the earthen stove dug from the wilderness.
He sat patiently by the stove, waiting for the corn to cook, while looking out the window.
There was no blue sky, no sunshine; the pale sky was like tofu soup.
Jiang Ye stared blankly into the distance, lost in thought.
Suddenly, a small moving object entered his line of sight.
He frowned and stared at the small object.
About a kilometer away, a dark mass, clearly some kind of animal, was slowly walking towards them on all fours. The distance was too great, making it almost a tiny black sesame seed.
What the heck is that?
Jiang Ye picked up his needle shotgun and stared at the animal in the distance.
The animal seemed to be heading directly for Jiang Ye's base, but it wasn't moving fast. Its obese body advanced clumsily, like a polar bear strolling on a glacier.
When it got within six hundred meters, he could finally see clearly.
It was indeed a bear!
Jiang Ye quickly grabbed his blood grenades and placed them on the windowsill. Ten blood grenades were lined up in order, with deep red blood plasma visible through their transparent casings.
This was a big one; who knew if his gun could take it down? If it got close, he'd go all out. He didn't believe grenades couldn't kill it!
The bear was now four hundred meters away, and he could see more details.
It was even larger than he had imagined, almost elephant-sized!
The bear's head alone was about the diameter of a car tire!
The bear's legs were like pillars!
When Jiang Ye was a child, he had seen an Alaskan brown bear at the zoo. It weighed six hundred kilograms, and even seeing it through a cage was terrifying.
The alien bear approaching now had a raised back and a massive build, estimated to be at least a thousand kilograms!
Oh my god, don't come here! Jiang Ye was terrified.
However, the dark bear seemed determined to reach Jiang Ye's base, slowly and steadily approaching.
Three hundred and fifty meters!
Three hundred meters!
Two hundred and fifty meters!
Two hundred meters!
One hundred meters!
Damn it, what the hell, do you have to be like this? Jiang Ye trembled as he pushed open the window, picking up a grenade.
The bear showed no intention of accelerating; it just advanced menacingly. He could even faintly hear the sound of its movement.
Jiang Ye began to doubt. This alien bear was outrageously large; could a grenade really kill it?
The bear entered the throwing range.
There was no time to hesitate. Jiang Ye threw it with all his might, tossing the blood grenade high!