I can upgrade the shelter
Chapter 116 - 113: The Longing for Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs

Chapter 116: Chapter 113: The Longing for Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs

"Simple Ground Source Heat Pump"

"Upgrade Option 1: Replace the circulating medium, improve the heat exchange efficiency of the equipment medium, survival points needed for upgrade: 300"

"Upgrade Option 2: Replace the circulating medium, enhance the circulating efficiency of the equipment medium, survival points needed for upgrade: 500"

The ground source heat pump equipment assembled by Chen Xin was still an ugly thing, but compared to the clutter of items created for the initial oxygen machine, this ground source heat pump at least looked like something decent, not overly crude or shoddy.

Seeing the upgrade options displayed by the system, Chen Xin merely raised an eyebrow and clicked to confirm the upgrades, applying both upgrade options to the ground source heat pump.

A flash of green light passed, and the entire ground source heat pump seemed rejuvenated, with changes in its size and structure.

Overall, the equipment got larger, the pipes thickened, and the structure became more complex.

Or it could be said that what Chen Xin had just made was barely something that could be called a ground source heat pump, and it was only after the upgrade that it became a true ground source heat pump device.

However, looking at the large pile of pipes on the ground, Chen Xin scratched his head. Qin Lan’s drill hadn’t arrived yet. How was he going to install this thing into the ground?

The piping part of the ground source heat pump was an enormous structure, and although the equipment was still uninstalled, a large number of pipes were just stacked together.

But looking at that pile of pipes, Chen Xin still felt a headache. It was different from what he imagined; assembling these pipes was like dealing with a huge radiator! It wasn’t something that could be stuffed into a ground hole easily!

Just when Chen Xin felt troubled, the system once again made its presence known.

"Consume 50 survival points to install the ground source heat pump?"

Looking at the system prompt appearing in front of him, Chen Xin scratched his chin. The unshaven beard pricked his hand, but that wasn’t the focus.

"Is the system this powerful? Truly, with survival points, you can do whatever you want!" Chen Xin rubbed his chin. Although he was already aware of the system’s prowess, seeing this made him feel he hadn’t fully utilized all system functions.

Previously, he had considered using the system to install equipment, planning to put his assembled ground source heat pump into the planting greenhouse and pretend to install it, relying on the system’s upgrade power to set it up.

Not like now, where the equipment just lay there and a system click would install it completely.

Since the feature was so convenient, Chen Xin let himself relax and chose to consume survival points to have the system handle the installation.

As for the installation location of the equipment, Chen Xin chose a spot in the public space, near the wall close to the planting greenhouse, and connected a radiator to the greenhouse.

The system’s installation interface was somewhat like the placement interface in certain management and construction games, a green grid-shaped virtual screen.

Chen Xin tried it out; within this interface, he could freely move or adjust the shelter’s structure and item placement, all controlled by thought without any extra operation needed.

Through this interface, Chen Xin could adjust structures and item positions he found unsatisfactory or inconvenient within the shelter, even enlarging or shrinking room sizes and segmenting functionalities, which was remarkably convenient and powerful.

Of course, such a convenient feature was naturally based on the consumption of survival points.

Chen Xin only adjusted and moved a few rooms and changed some equipment placements, and achieving these changes required over a thousand survival points as shown by the system.

Seeing the numbers displayed by the system, Chen Xin could only obediently abandon the idea of wanting to adjust the shelter’s architectural structure and equipment placements, simply installing the ground source heat pump and closing the interface.

Evidently, this interface was not something Chen Xin at the moment could afford to tinker with.

After installing the ground source heat pump, looking at the heat pump taking up a considerable part of the public space, Chen Xin thought he perhaps should quickly upgrade the entire shelter, or save enough survival points to adjust the shelter’s building structure and equipment placements.

Otherwise, he felt the shelter would just get more cramped.

Once the ground source heat pump was in place, powering it up to make it operational, Chen Xin soon felt the heat being emitted from its radiator nearby.

Setting the temperature to 20℃ on the ground source heat pump control panel and after checking to see the equipment was functioning well, Chen Xin took out dinner from the newly added food storage room and prepared to eat.

Today, Chen Xin’s meal was simple, just a portion of shelter rations plus a can of luncheon meat.

Chen Xin simply pan-fried the luncheon meat, and heated the shelter rations in a pot, then sat on the sofa with the pot to eat.

Despite the system helping save a lot of effort, Chen Xin still felt exhausted from all the busyness.

As he ate the somewhat coarse food, out of nowhere, Chen Xin began to miss his mother’s sweet and sour pork ribs.

Those ribs, tender and succulent, were his favorite dish since childhood. After cutting the ribs and blanching them, they were fried, then cooked in sweet and sour sauce, finally thickened with slurry before serving, and topped with scallions...

Even when he was little and there was no meat, just a bowl of thick sauce over rice, Chen Xin could eat a whole bowl.

As he reminisced, tears started flowing from the corners of Chen Xin’s eyes, dropping into the food.

His mother was now far away in their hometown, over six hundred kilometers away, spanning four provinces: Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, and Jiangxi. If not for the system, Chen Xin feared that seeing his mother again in this life would be just a dream.

Though Chen Xin forced himself not to think about it, tears continued to flow, and the longing for his mother surged unchecked from his heart.

His parents were too far away. Despite having a radio, Chen Xin couldn’t get through to them. The hope of seeing them in this life was already dim.

The spoon in his hand felt as heavy as a thousand pounds, and Chen Xin just couldn’t lift his hand to put that close-by morsel into his mouth.

At this moment, what occupied his mind was not the meal, but thoughts of his parents, whether they were doing well in the hometown over six hundred kilometers, one thousand two hundred miles away.

Unable to contain his longing, Chen Xin threw down the spoon, grabbed a tissue to wipe his tears messily from his face, and went to the bedroom to pull out the photo album locked in the box.