18 Floors Above the Apocalypse novel Chapter 151

Stella called out to Angela, "We've got some drought-resistant sweet potatoes sprouting, are you still interested in planting?"

Sweet potatoes took four to five months to grow, and the water level would go down in just one or two months. Planting them seemed pointless.

Nothing could deter Angela from leaving, "Stella, you go ahead and plant them."

Once everyone had left, Stella suggested, "How about planting them in Arcadia?"

Planting outside required constant care, with worries about sun exposure and daily watering. It was simply too much trouble.

Jasper pondered, "Why not plant half in each place?"

The soil in Arcadia was rich. If the sweet potatoes grown there turned out differently from those grown outside, it could cause unnecessary trouble during trades. Planting half in each place also allowed for a comparison.

Stella had no objections. So the two divided the task. Jasper took care of the ones outside, while Stella handled those planted in Arcadia.

After dinner, Jasper sent Rosie and Cooper next door, and he began discussing with Stella, "The water level has dropped to the fourth floor. Soon, survivors will start going out to search for supplies. Should we make a trip tomorrow?"

People from 1803 didn't have any diving suits, so there was no point in involving them. Plus, they had already decided to leave and wouldn't be interested in searching for non-essential supplies.

Stella agreed, taking out a paper map and an offline map on her phone.

The flood had softened the foundations of the houses, the extreme cold had made the building materials brittle, and the intense heat had caused the houses to swell.

After the ice melted, houses with shallow or old and dilapidated foundations had collapsed, not to mention that an earthquake could leave the entire city in ruins. The most important element in rebuilding was steel.

Griffith did not produce steel, but it was home to Steel World — a one-stop service for processing, procurement, and trade. It was the largest professional steel market in the country, serving the entire coastal city.

After some discussing, the two went to bed early, not forgetting to inform room 1803 that they would be going out for a stroll.

Rosie was left in Cooper's care, and the two would stay at home all day. Not only Rosie, but even Cooper had learned to operate the walkie-talkie. If anything happened, they only needed to call out into the walkie-talkie.

The days were long in the intense heat, and it was already light before five in the morning. In order to avoid attracting attention, the two got up at three in the morning and quietly left.

Steel World was located on the outskirts of the city, about forty kilometers away.

Dressed in their thermal suits and protective gear, they rowed their inflatable boat out of the residential area, and started the motor towards the outskirts.

The water surface in the outskirts was littered with rubbish, and there were unknown dangers lurking beneath the water. They didn't dare to go too fast, and it took them two hours to arrive.

There were no residential buildings or commercial houses nearby. As the water level dropped, the sign of "Steel World" was faintly visible on the water surface. In the dim morning light, it looked run-down.

The huge rusty iron frame was covered with scaffolding, a far cry from its former glory.

Now, it was not yet fully light, and the visibility was not very clear. Using the large billboard as a cover, Stella took out a diving suit and an oxygen tank from Arcadia.

The diving suit was fully enclosed, and carrying an oxygen tank made it a bit heavy. Fortunately, they had been physically trained regularly, otherwise, it would have been too much.

Once they were underwater, Stella stored the inflatable boat in Arcadia.

Turning on the headlamp on her forehead, they dived down into the water.

Steel World was vast, covering an area of five to six thousand acres. The types of steel were diverse, including wear-resistant, drop-resistant, climate-resistant, bendable, H-section steel, channel steel, angle steel, I-beam, composite steel, and hundreds of other varieties.

The shops were all large, starting from several hundred square meters, with the larger ones even reaching a few thousand square meters. The annual processing capacity could reach 20 million tons.

There was so much steel that it was dazzling. They couldn't possibly take all of it, and they could only stock up on the types of steel needed for building construction, such as shaped steel, steel pipes, and steel bars.

When they found a shop selling steel bars, Stella carefully swam upwards, grabbing the steel bar on top and tried to store it in Arcadia.

Steel bars were heavy; a roll of coiled steel bars could weigh between 1-2 tons. Stella was worried that she might not be able to store it, but to her surprise, it was a success.