Chapter 2: Game Plan #1: Bunker Up!
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The only difference between reality and a game was that you had neither energy towers to provide heat, nor robots to work. Moreover, you would not see sunlight for a hundred years.
Faced with a calamity of this scale, Chen Xin felt that he did not need to do anything if the impact site was in the hemisphere where he was. He would eat well and have fun for a few months, then just raise his middle finger at the meteorite when it eventually falls.
However, if luck was on his side, and the meteorite falls on the opposite hemisphere, then he should be able to survive the disaster by digging a deep enough bunker. He would then face a hundred years of extremely cold long nights.
In that case, digging a bunker was not unrealistic.
In fact, in the 1970s, when Vermillion and Russia had a bad relationship, Russia had planned to carry out a surgical nuclear strike against Vermillion. However, it was not followed through because the United States of America opposed the plan at that time.
On the other hand, based on the news leaked in the USA newspapers, The Director proposed a plan to build underground bunkers. They invested a lot of manpower and material resources to construct a large number of air-raid shelters across the country. Those constructed at important and strategic locations were even connected by long underground tunnels.
There were bunkers scattered in every city in Vermillion, and most of them were still intact.
The air-raid shelters were usually 20 meters deep, 200 meters long, and 3 meters wide. The two walls were brick walls, and the roof of the cave was made out of cement boards that were held together by support tools.
There was ventilation, electricity, lighting, and other equipment in the cave, which could be used to survive air raids during the war, as well as post-nuclear war temporary residences for emergency evacuation.
Furthermore, those air-raid shelters were in use until the 1980s and 1990s.
After the Soviet Union's collapse, due to the increase of Vermillion's overall national strength, the international situation had gradually improved. Those air-raid shelters gradually lost their place post-war, and many had been repurposed for civilian use. Many places became material warehouses, vacation spots during summer, and even underground commercial streets.
Besides that, subway stations that were built in major cities and double-deck residential underground parking lots were also another form of an air-raid shelter. After all, subway stations that ran tens or even hundreds of meters deep made for excellent cover, as nuclear bombings or airstrikes were not enough to cause structural damage.
At any rate, it would be difficult to destroy the overall structure of the bunkers, even with specially-designed earth-penetrating weapons or cloud blast bombs that had proven to be effective at underground destruction.
For the first time, the subway lines that extended in all directions could serve as the main transportation network. The bomb bunkers and subway stations would evolve into underground cities like those seen in "Wandering Earth", but not as deep.
Chen Xin looked through his ideas and the information he found on the Internet. He was fairly convinced that the government would start digging deep underground following the meteorite impact, to provide the people with the means of evacuation and self-rescue.
However, simply digging a bunker could only guarantee people's survival when the disaster struck. How would mankind go on to survive the cold dark winter that would last for decades?
Food storage? That was indeed a feasible method. Most emergency foods on the market had a shelf life of 5-10 years at room temperature, but as the global temperature drops, subzero temperatures would be sufficient to preserve those foods for decades or even up to a century.
Nevertheless, in the few months before the meteorite hit, one would be considered very lucky to have collected enough food to last a few years. Unless you were prepared ahead of time, it was impossible to amass enough food to last a few decades.
Moreover, there was another critical necessity - energy.
After the meteorite hits Earth, the impact would disrupt its ionosphere, sending out an EMP shockwave around the world that would render a large number of electronic devices useless. In that case, it was impractical to count on the electrical power supply being fully-functional.
Although post-disaster reconstruction would start as soon as the environment had stabilized, and should the power supply be restored within a year, power generation required a source of energy.
When the global temperature drops to subzero, the Three Gorges Project, Vermillion's largest water dam and hydroelectric power station would freeze into a huge lump of ice. All similar power stations in the country would also share the same fate, regardless of size.
That would deprive Vermillion of nearly 20% of its power generation.
It was not a small number. More than 70% of Vermillion's power came from thermal power stations. Under a global disaster of that scale, how many power stations and power supply lines would still be intact?
The answer would be a very pessimistic number, because most of the high-voltage transmission lines in Vermillion were built at high altitudes, due to safety issues.
Under ravaging firestorms and subzero temperatures, the probability of those cables surviving was really small.
By that time, the situation would be akin to life during the ice age. Humans would need to harvest coal for heat and cooking food.
To a large extent, society may also regress to the city-state era, where each city would work only for themselves and struggle to survive.
Of course, with the Vermillion government's influence and execution capabilities, their basic government functions and social structure should remain. Life after the disaster may be a little tough, but mankind could still survive.
On the other hand, having taken into consideration the various scenarios and actual conditions brought about by the meteorite impact, it would take at least one to three years for the situation to stabilize.
Therefore, what laid before Chen Xin was how to prepare in those three months so that he could survive that catastrophe smoothly and get through the first few most turbulent years.
Fortunately, when Chen Xin conceived of that idea, he had already formulated a complete plan following some serious discussions with friends on the Internet and in-depth research.
If his plan was implemented from now, everything was still not too late despite the tight schedule!
As he thought of that, Chen Xin did not waste any time. Through his connections, he hurriedly put together a team of trustworthy engineers. He planned to dig an underground bunker for himself.
Regardless of whether the meteorite would hit Earth, and whether he would survive the first impact, it was always better to be prepared.
In addition to digging bunkers, storage of food and drinking water was also very important. Chen Xin took out his mobile phone to check his bank balance and decided to go on a buying spree.
Fortunately, due to prior disasters, Chen Xin had also stocked up a lot of things at home, such as gas masks and medical first aid kits. Those were items that he did not need to buy. What he needed to stock up instead were food and water.
As long as there was food, drink, and a bunker to hide in, the necessities for human survival were not too elaborate.
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