I became a god by treasure hunting after arriving 500 years early

"Everyone has worked hard; these past years, I haven't done much, it was all thanks to you that we made it this far. I raise my glass to you all to express my gratitude."

"May we, in the future, work hard together."

The rest of the government's higher-ups looked relaxed; this was what a smooth civilization should be like... Otherwise, simply reallocating power could tear an entire civilization apart, causing it to disintegrate!

After the banquet, Lu Yuan sat at his office desk, and Miss Conch rolled her eyes as she piled the backlogged government documents like a mountain on his desk.

"Why are you rolling your eyes?"

"Just think you're asking for a beating. You've been back for a while yet pretending as if you've suffered hardships for six years." The young girl clenched her little fist and knocked on Lu Yuan's head with a "dong dong dong."

Lu Yuan laughed heartily; it was normal for a civilization to have its secrets when striving for development.

Where in the world is there so much unadulterated nobility?

Even history is nothing but a young girl dressed up at will. Since everyone believes that Lu Yuan should be depicted as a figure of hardship, he could only explain it that way...

"I really did survive outdoors for six years before..."

He already knew what changes had taken place in Sky City but still symbolically flipped through a few pages of these miscellaneous official documents.

"Extraordinary animals and plants, their life force is tenacious, and they were generally protected during the Cold Disaster. But these past six years without sunlight have resulted in very low plant yields, so the human training plan has pretty much been downgraded..." Miss Conch explained with a clear voice, summarizing it simply.

"Alas, we've wasted a good six years of everyone's time," Lu Yuan said as he picked up a pen and signed his name on a few government documents.

"No one's really complaining though; these days, just being alive is good enough," Miss Conch added. "Also, the anti-cold projects have essentially been completed; every household has been fitted with heating. Plumbing has been overhauled too; if another cold disaster strikes, it won't be as desperate."

"The Central Shelter also underwent a significant upgrade; the new ventilation system can filter out most toxic gases."

"But no matter how we retrofit it, our city isn't a spaceship; we can't achieve a closed material cycle."

Lu Yuan nodded; creating an artificial ecosystem was another extremely difficult challenge. Up to now, humanity couldn't possibly self-sustain, cut off from the external ecosystem.

"So some experts believe that an Ultimate Shelter should be built inside the Sky Pit."

This was something that Lu Yuan didn't know. He furrowed his brow and asked, "What's that about?"

The girl paused for a moment: "No matter how you design a sanctuary, there will be flaws. People need to breathe, to eat; as long as there is a material need, they will be affected by the outside world."

"And inside the Sky Pit, time flows at one percent of the outside world. If we're faced with an unstoppable disaster, we'd have no choice but to have everyone hide inside and wait it out. Who knows, the disaster might be over by then."

"This shelter doesn't need to be too complex; just equip it with a large number of hibernation chambers, and let everyone rest inside."

"Isn't this copying the 'Source Fire Civilization'?" Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow.

"Yes... but our goal isn't to avoid the Epoch Disaster. For something like this cold disaster, if we had large hibernation chambers, things could be much simpler."

Lu Yuan flipped through a document—"Ultimate Shelter Project Planning."

The scientists had carefully studied the hibernation ice cabinets of the Source Fire Civilization. Their principle of hibernation revolved around a kind of extraordinary material called "Cold Mian Stone," which could induce a mind-oriented gas that allows humans to enter a state of hibernation.

The quality of these hibernation ice cabinets was quite high; they could slow the metabolic rate of a human body to one ten-thousandth of the normal state.

In a state of hibernation, the emitted life force was naturally very small, making it difficult for external enemies to detect.

So, plans were made to dismantle some materials and imitate the construction of some slightly lower-quality hibernation ice cabinets.

The space occupied by a single hibernation chamber wasn't that big; at 2 meters long, 1 meter wide, and 0.5 meters tall, it was more than enough, occupying only about 1 cubic meter of volume.

Even for a million people, it would be just one million cubic meters of ice cabinets.

And that Da Lai Empire Ship carrying the [Ghost], with its vast internal space, could easily accommodate these hibernation chambers.

"Such an absurd idea; is this to keep company with the [Ghost]?"

"Even if the 'ghost' hasn't escaped its seal, there's no need to go to such lengths."

Lu Yuan frowned and thought for a while, at first feeling it was inappropriate.

But then, it seemed... perhaps there was indeed a necessity...

After all, this was the last resort.

The ecological environment of this world was really fragile, the volcanic ash in the sky had caused six full years of nuclear winter, resulting in a cold disaster.

Who knows what strange disasters might occur in the future.

And the airship of the Great Lai Empire, its defensive capabilities were quite impressive, it even bore some defensive engravings that humans could not decipher.

If one ignored that 'ghost', it really was a good place of refuge.

"We do need to start considering it..."

The next morning at eight o'clock, after a busy night, Lu Yuan quickly approved most of the documents and held a simple meeting.

Okay, after busying himself for so many years, Old Lu, the backbone, had re-emerged, and for the first upper echelon meeting, everyone was quite excited, each one thrilled.

"The Ultimate Shelter plan, I've looked over it... How long is it expected to take? How much money do we need?"

The desert professor from the Great Engineering Institute immediately said, "The difficulty of that project isn't much, just install the Pandora Crystal Stone power system on the airship and fit a few doors, then this giant airship can be operated as a Sky Fortress."

"And the quality of the hibernation chambers needn't be too high, after all, we aren't relying on them to survive through the Epoch Disaster, so we only need between one-tenth to one-twentieth of the materials."

"Including hibernation for animals, 500,000 ice cabinets would cost 1,500 Spirit Essence in materials, mainly Cold Mian Stone."

"If we take into account the future population growth, we might need to add some hibernation chambers. Anyway, it shouldn't exceed 2,000 Spirit Essence."

Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow, you guys really do spend money like it's water, 2,000 Spirit Essence in materials would have been a fortune in the past! Only now, with a bit of money, can we barely afford it.

But however he thought about it...

It still seemed quite necessary.

The key is to be alive, for being dead is worth nothing.

"Fine, I have no objections to this..."

"Is there anything else special? Report it now, and then let's start the work."

Lu Yuan suddenly remembered something and reported to everyone how the Mirage Cloud Dragon survived the Epoch Disaster.

Of course, he hid the existence of the "Chaos Essence Stone," only mentioning that there was a mysterious "White Jade Hall" at the base of the magma, a relic of Gear Civilization.

"Under the barrage of magma, the White Jade Hall was directly ejected into the sky! The structure couldn't withstand the force of the earth; it collapsed and shattered."

"And in the moment the hall shattered, I used Different Space to protect myself. In the end, I only salvaged these few things, along with the inheritance of the 'Great Gear Treasure.'"

Lu Yuan took out a few gears and a wall fragment made entirely of white jade.

The material of these objects was rather ordinary, mere stone, but the engravings at the micron level, even nanometer level, were astonishing, they could be described as divinely skillful. Enjoy exclusive chapters from My Virtual Library Empire

"This 'Great Gear Treasure' is utterly exquisite; I've studied it for six years and yet to penetrate its secrets... I'm really ashamed."

Theoretically, engravings as a belief in mind, could only be carved by hand.

But a micron-level project, even for just a single gear, how much work would that be?

This clearly wasn't crafted with traditional techniques.

Therefore, this inheritance was something Lu Yuan alone couldn't digest; it required the collective wisdom of the entire civilization.