Eleven minutes passed quickly.
Under Yu Hong's expectant gaze, the thick wooden beam supporting the door blurred with a hiss and turned into a pitch-black metal rod in less than two seconds!
The metal rod looked like an oversized chocolate bar, with anti-slip pads at both ends to increase friction. The material seemed to be iron but was much darker in color.
Yu Hong picked up the rod and examined it closely.
"Although it's still a simple structure, the material is enhanced, obviously much sturdier than before... Impressive!"
He was amazed.
Then, he repeated the process to enhance the second thick wooden beam.
After a dozen minutes, two black metal pillars on the back of the door symmetrically supported it from the left and right.
"This is way better than the three of us using our shoulders to brace it."
Yu Hong nodded in satisfaction.
"Then, there's one last troublesome issue."
Candles.
He hesitated to go back to Baiqiu Village, but the candles, water filters, pots, and cups were all there.
"I only have one candle here, definitely not enough... unless I make a fire... Wait!"
Suddenly, Yu Hong squinted his eyes and looked at the stove by the stone wall.
This stove, which Stammering Yiyi helped him retrieve, connected to a smoke pipe and had not been officially put to use yet....
*What if I enhance this?*
This thought brought a strong sense of anticipation to Yu Hong's heart.
He suddenly remembered the axe he had enhanced earlier, so he went to the corner to fetch it.
The axe was different from before.
At first, it was just a simple wooden-handled axe, with plenty of nicks on the blade from chopping.
Now, after enhancement, the axe had a much larger metallic handle suitable for chopping wood.
The long black handle featured anti-slip patterns, and the silver head of the axe was noticeably thicker, with a blade that gleamed sharply.
One could say the ordinary old axe had transformed into a fine woodcutting axe.
Putting down the axe, Yu Hong walked to the stove.
The stove was square-shaped, made of metal, coated with black paint, resembling a low black table.
Yu Hong reached out and placed his hand on the edge of the stove.
The icy touch jolted him awake.
*Enhance the fire... no, enhance the lighting and heating system.*
A flash of inspiration hit him as he quickly revised the stove's name.
Ssss.
A black line oozed from the Black Mark on the back of his hand, seeping into the stove's surface.
Soon, a number appeared on the stove's surface: 12:07.
'Enhance the lighting and heating system?' The Black Mark's query was heard.
'Yes!' Yu Hong responded forcefully.
Instantly, the number on the stove changed from a static figure to a countdown.
*Hope it works.* A hint of anticipation rose within Yu Hong.
The time until nightfall was still far away, and he had a candle to last through tonight. By dawn tomorrow, it should be fine.
But if tomorrow's enhanced stove still couldn't meet his expectations, he'd have to risk entering Baiqiu Village to retrieve the candles and other supplies left by Stammering Yiyi.
As he watched the stove's time decrease, Yu Hong found a dry spot to sit down, feeling utterly exhausted.
The series of changes today had caught him off guard, and the effort of reinforcing the two support beams had drained his energy....
Weariness overwhelmed him, so he took out the candle early, held it by his side, and leaned against the steel pyroxene rod, slowly slipping into slumber.
"Old Yu?"
"Old Yu??"
A gentle voice woke him from his sleep.
Yu Hong opened his eyes to find a familiar pretty face hovering before him, smiling down at him.
It was his colleague from work, Chen Huiru.
"Old Yu is awake. I was scared to death, thinking something big happened. Thankfully, it was just a scare." Chen Huiru turned to speak in another direction.
"I told you Old Yu isn't that fragile."
"We went too far with this prank; we're all from the same unit after all."
"Old Yu usually brags about his courage, yet here he was, scared like a dog. Man, I got enough material for a year!" Laughter erupted.
Yu Hong rubbed his eyes and realized he was sitting on the lawn outside his unit building, surrounded by his colleagues, all cheerfully chatting.
Each of them was smiling warmly at him, chatting away animatedly.
"Pretty realistic, huh?"
"That bug was a model I rented from a nearby film crew. You're the fourth person to be scared by it, including yourself! You're lucky; Yuan Zhou almost wet his pants, and we caught it all on video!"
"That's your dumb idea!"
The colleagues laughed and joked, encircling Yu Hong on the sunny lawn.
Their smiling faces were warm and harmonious.
As they continued chatting, they started holding hands, circling around Yu Hong.
One lap.
Another lap.
Another lap.
"Look, Old Yu still hasn't snapped out of it."
"It's too funny!"
"Don't be mad. Later, Brother Gao will treat us to hot pot!"
"Snap your pictures, folks! Cheese~~"
The voices kept entering Yu Hong's ears.
He sat there dazed, watching his colleagues spin around him. Their smiles were so real, so warm.
*So it was all a prank.* Yu Hong finally relaxed.
He stood up and reached out to grab one of his most familiar colleagues.
Ssss.
Silence fell all around.
The sounds vanished completely. In the stillness, Yu Hong's vision momentarily blurred.
He took a deep breath and slowly opened his eyes.
The cold stone floor was hard and real, painfully poking into his tailbone.
He was still sitting on the ground, leaning against the musty blanket, staring at the stove still counting down, unmoving, with his arms wrapped around his knees.
The cave was silent, and dim light filtered through the window in the door.
"It was a dream..." he sighed.
The sky was growing dark.
Yu Hong's gaze shifted to the window.
"!!!"
Through the observation window, there was a blurred human face, quietly peering at him through the wire mesh!
Watching him, just waking from the dream!
"Who!?" Yu Hong jumped up, gripping the steel pyroxene rod, trying to stand.
But his legs had been inactive for so long that they tingled when he stood, nearly causing him to stumble.
When he steadied himself on the stove and looked again, the face at the observation window was already gone.
"Huff... Huff..." Yu Hong was pale, realizing it might be the shadow. For he hadn't heard any footsteps. And the other's movement was jerky, skipping distances without continuity, which was the shadow's most significant trait.
He had opened the observation window for ventilation earlier, allowing outside air to flow through the wire mesh.
He didn't expect to be discovered by the shadow so quickly....
"It's just twilight, and it's already showing activity...."
Standing up, he cautiously advanced and reached out, swiftly closing the observation window shutter.
Swish.
The window light disappeared, plunging the cave into darkness.
Yu Hong switched to another ventilation hole for air exchange. Although slower, it was less terrifying.
*Who knew how long that shadow had been watching him while he slept.*
After doing all this, he used the faint light seeping through the ventilation hole to check the enhanced pyroxene behind the door.
The enhanced pyroxene had half of its volume turned from a jade-like substance to an ashen gray.
Yu Hong felt a chill in his heart when he saw it.
*Luckily, the enhanced pyroxene was there, or I might not have even known how I died in my sleep.*
He sighed, detecting a faint scent of dampness in the cave, realizing it would turn moldy if not dried soon....
His only hope now was to see what condition the stove would be in after enhancement.
At this moment, the countdown on the stove had just over ten minutes left.
Yu Hong simply sat there, chewing on a dried mushroom bit by bit.
He stopped looking at the door, keeping his eyes fixed on the stove.
The ten plus minutes quickly ticked by.
The number on the stove was about to run out.
Yu Hong felt slightly tense, as this enhancement might affect his subsequent plans.
Ssss.
At that moment, the stove's number vanished, and the entire stove along with the smoke pipe blurred.
The blurred state lasted a second before everything became clear again.
At the same time, a brand-new stove appeared before Yu Hong.
"!!? Is this...." Upon seeing the new stove, Yu Hong's eyes widened in astonishment.
Because the thing in front of him had completely exceeded his expectations.
Before him was a fireplace seamlessly integrated with the cave wall.
The fireplace seemed to meld perfectly into the rock wall, with the body and smoke pipe entirely embedded in the stone.
But that wasn't the most crucial aspect. What was key was that the stove's external material was entirely transparent!!
All of it was a synthetic material resembling glass crystal!!
Yu Hong stepped closer and lightly tapped the edge of the stove.
Thud thud!
Two dull sounds, very solid.
*This thing... Heating and lighting in one.* Yu Hong was at a loss for words.
A stove already provided heating, but making it transparent naturally added lighting....
This enhancement was pure genius!
He observed the new furnace for a while, until the outside light completely dimmed, and slight rustling sounds were heard.
He quickly took out a match and lit a candle.
The enhanced candle was windproof and could collect soot by itself, quite impressive.
Placing the candle on a stool, Yu Hong swiftly stuffed firewood and kindling into the stove.
The kindling was the wood shavings he had leftover; extremely thin strips cut from wood, coiled and easy to ignite.
He also added some sun-dried grass leaves.
Crackle...
Soon, a dark red flame shimmered inside the fireplace.
The flame grew larger over time, with grayish-white smoke rising and flowing into the chimney, leaving no residue in the cave.
The flame grew brighter and larger.
Gradually, the firelight in the transparent fireplace outshone the candle flame.
Another ten plus minutes later, after the fireplace stabilized and Yu Hong added thicker wood logs, he blew out the candle with one puff.
*Finally, it worked!*
He collapsed into a wooden stool with satisfaction, watching the burning fireplace.'
The warm waves of heat seeped through the transparent exterior of the fireplace.
This material surprisingly had good thermal conductivity, as well.
With the increased warmth, the cave's dampness gradually dissipated, replaced by relaxation and warmth.
For a moment, the entire cave felt as warm as spring, bright and safe.