Since the decision to go out was made, the first thing to check is, of course, the means of transportation.
Chen Xin's vehicle is an SUV, and there's no need to fold down the rear seats. Loading two hundred pounds of vegetables in the trunk is a piece of cake, but to fit a refrigerator exceeds the car's capacity, as a refrigerator cannot be laid down.
Thus, even if Chen Xin traded for a refrigerator, how to bring it back is a problem that needs consideration.
Maybe it could be tied on the roof? Or tilted in the trunk and secured with ropes?
Chen Xin pondered over this problem; transporting a refrigerator with an SUV is really not an easy task.
However, the issue wasn't particularly urgent. For Chen Xin, as long as he could acquire a refrigerator, he would figure out a way to bring it back.
After all, he had lived in this city for so many years and knew quite a few people. In this post-apocalyptic environment, trading a couple of cabbages for someone to help transport a refrigerator is not impossible.
However, Chen Xin wasn't sure how many of his friends could still help him instead of struggling for survival in the official shelter.
The car had been parked in the shelter for a month, and although there's a layer of dust on the surface, the car's condition was still pretty good. After checking it over, Chen Xin found no issues; it just needed a full tank to depart.
After checking the car, all that was left for Chen Xin to prepare was himself.
Although the external environment is uncertain, corresponding precautions must be taken, such as whether the outside air contains toxic gases and what the actual temperature is; these issues need consideration.
Even though Chen Xin had a car, considering possible issues, personal protection had to be well-prepared.
So Chen Xin dug out his old outdoor gear, all of which had adjustable cuffs, collars, and pant legs. Such clothing could not only protect against mosquitoes outdoors but also provide excellent waterproofing and insulation. Once clothes get wet outdoors, they quickly lose heat.
Even in summer, hypothermia in the wild is extremely dangerous, and now the external environment might be akin to winter, making insulation even more crucial.
Besides thick and warm clothing, Chen Xin also took his gas mask, out of concern for the outside air quality.
It's known that a global fire occurred before, and the burning produced toxic and harmful gases that still lingered in the air. Chen Xin didn't want to battle smog with his own body.
After getting all these items ready, Chen Xin hesitated for a moment but opened his weapons cabinet.
Even though before entering the shelter, the Flame Country's government hadn't collapsed, maintaining a complete administrative structure and actively organizing people into shelters, no one could say for sure what the outside environment was like now.
Perhaps officials could still maintain previous laws and order inside the shelter, but what about outside?
Chen Xin didn't believe that everything was as peaceful and stable as before.
Moreover, bringing along a self-defense weapon wasn't a hassle; being prepared was much better than being caught off guard in real danger.
After organizing his everyday carry gear and putting it on, Chen Xin took a dagger from the weapon cabinet and tucked it into his lower back. After some thought, he also slipped another dagger into his pant leg, and finally grabbed the pen-shaped baton he usually had on his keychain.
Chen Xin had some confidence in his combat skills and believed that with these tools, he could handle two or three people as long as they didn't have guns.
However, this also made Chen Xin think about the weapon cabinet upgrade option that included firearm manufacturing capabilities. In such times, having a gun would greatly boost his sense of security.
But Chen Xin had spent all the survival points he accumulated this month on the water supply system, leaving him with only 28 survival points. He would have to wait until next month to upgrade the weapon cabinet.
Without thinking any further, after preparing everything, Chen Xin put two big plastic boxes filled with vegetables into the car's trunk, also taking along four 25-liter large plastic barrels, then opened the shelter's gate.
These large plastic barrels were intended for gasoline. The shelter's only energy source now was the 4000 liters of gasoline he had stored, and 300 liters had already been used.
Including the 50 liters added to his car today, Chen Xin's gasoline reserves were nearly a tenth less than before. In this situation, Chen Xin clearly needed to replenish his gasoline.
The shelter's gate had two sections, and after opening the inner gate, Chen Xin started the car and drove into the passageway connecting the shelter and the outside world.
After driving into the passageway, Chen Xin stopped the car, got out, closed the inner gate of the shelter, then put on his gas mask and walked forward, standing in front of the gate between the shelter and the outside world.
Chen Xin took a deep breath and placed his hand on the lever used to open the gate.
A month ago, Chen Xin had personally closed this gate, isolating himself from the outside world. Now, it had been exactly a month since the meteor impact.
What would the world outside be like after the ravages of disaster? How many people survived this catastrophe? What was the current state of the outside world?
Various questions filled Chen Xin's mind, causing his thoughts to become somewhat chaotic, even fearful of opening this gate, as he feared that when he opened the door, the entire world would already be destroyed, leaving him the only surviving human.
Although the possibility was extremely slight, since a meteor striking Blue Star, such a low-probability event had happened, Chen Xin felt he couldn't dismiss the option that the world had already been destroyed.
Nonetheless, he still had to open this gate to see firsthand what the outside world was like.
After another deep breath, Chen Xin forcefully twisted the lever on the gate, unlatched the bolt on the door, and then gave it a strong pull!
The door opened.
Yet no light shone in from outside.
What unfolded before Chen Xin was an exceedingly dark sky. Although it should be morning, the sky was dim as if night were about to fall, filled with gray-black clouds, occasionally pierced by a meteor streaking down with a long trail.
As for the earth, it was a scene of charred black and ash white, bearing traces of burns everywhere, covered in a layer of grayish dust.
This was the world after the meteor impact, a post-apocalyptic world both familiar and strange to Chen Xin.