Humans Shrunk 100 Times

Chapter 178: Two-tiered Shelves

Some existing stainless steel utensils' total material quantity is still insufficient to support such a large project. To proceed with the construction of high-level gun emplacements, it is necessary to develop the shelves beyond the second tier.

However, this itself is an extremely challenging task.

Although the dragon door crane is already in the planning phase, it will still take some time to realize it fully. The kinetic energy provided by the current spring device is almost incapable of lifting larger items on the shelves.

Under these circumstances, there are two ways to move the cargo.

The first is to let Chen Mu go up and continuously dismantle the items, throwing them down one by one.

The second is to send several people up and use some means to push the things down directly.

The first method is too time-consuming, and Chen Mu is already busy with other tasks every day. It would be somewhat uneconomical to waste his time and energy on this.

As for the second method, although it sounds good, it is a bit challenging. The most significant problem is that pushing a stainless steel pot off the shelf would be catastrophic for the people below. If they must do it, they need to reorganize what is below, moving what needs to be moved and finding a safe place to avoid any potential danger.

Ultimately, after discussing it, they decided to go with the second option.

Of course, the implementation of this plan still relies on Chen Mu. At the very least, he needs to build a ladder for everyone to climb up.

Building the ladder is not particularly difficult. Chen Mu spent a day using the structure of the shelves themselves to create a ladder leading to the second tier.

The shelves have a total of 5 tiers, each with a height of 50 centimeters, and there is a 10-centimeter gap between one tier and the ground. This makes a total of 2.1 meters in height, while the storage room's ceiling is 2.8 meters high.

In other words, there is only a 0.7-meter difference between the highest tier and the ceiling. From the highest tier's position, one can see some items wrapped in woven bags and several red plastic barrels, but it's unclear what's inside the barrels.

The ladder to the second tier is also 50 centimeters in height and entirely vertical, making it quite challenging to climb.

On the second day, only Wei Dalei and He Ying succeeded in climbing up. The rest of the people either didn't dare to attempt it or returned after climbing a few steps.

Even though they know that falling from this height won't cause severe injuries, it's still psychologically challenging to accept.

On the third day, Qian Fei gritted his teeth and successfully reached the second tier.

This had a great encouraging effect on others, and even Zhao Xiaoyan tried it. Although she only climbed less than one-tenth of the way, Dong Junwei still praised her.

Among the girls, besides He Ying, Dong Junwei was the first to go up. As the leader, even in areas where she was not proficient, she still tried her best to do well.

The second one was Feng Xiaoyu.

As two ordinary people without special abilities, he and Qian Fei seemed more eager to prove themselves, so they were even more willing to endure hardship than others.

But the funniest one was Du Jiajia.

Perhaps the work in the kitchen had trained her, and her strength was quite good. She climbed higher than Zhao Xiaoyan, reaching almost halfway.

However, after reaching the middle, she stopped to catch her breath and forgot Chen Mu's warning. She couldn't help but look down, and she was scared stiff, unable to move.

Not only that, she started shouting for help.

This gave Chen Mu a headache.

In fact, to be on the safe side, two towels were placed directly below the ladder as a safety cushion, which should have been enough. However, Du Jiajia refused to let go, hanging in mid-air, neither going up nor down.

While everyone was trying to figure out how to help, they heard urgent scratching sounds from outside the door.

Obviously, the fear Du Jiajia experienced in her moment of danger attracted Xiao Huang and Xiao Bai, the two cats, and they were eager to rescue her. But of course, they couldn't get in.

In the end, it was Chen Mu who climbed up and threw Du Jiajia down.

Finally,

On the fifth day, a total of eight people reached the second tier of the shelves.

The 50 centimeters height felt like being on the seventeenth or eighteenth floor of a high-rise building in the past, and looking down, everything seemed much smaller.

Their first task was to push a stainless steel stew pot off the shelf.

If they relied solely on brute force, even Wei Dalei couldn't move it at all.

However, if they placed some round iron bars at the bottom of the stew pot, it became much easier to push it.

Of course, this task also fell to Chen Mu.

This stainless steel stew pot was not particularly large, with a height of 9 centimeters and a diameter of 18 centimeters, weighing 1.6 kilograms. It was made of 304 stainless steel and had three layers of craftsmanship.

Even with this size of a stew pot, it would already fulfill the material needs of most of the project.

Eventually, it took nearly three hours with everyone's concerted effort to push the stew pot off the shelf.

The people below had already run to the corners, so even if the pot bounced off, it wouldn't crush anyone.

Over the next few days, everyone's main task was to work on this. They managed to obtain four iron pots, some large and some small, but combined, they provided enough material for the gun emplacement project.

The second tier of the shelves was cleared out, creating a large open space.

The space on the first tier was already becoming insufficient, and Dong Junwei was worried about finding more space. Therefore, this new open area would not go to waste.

However, even getting people up to the second tier was challenging, let alone moving goods.

"In fact, taking the watchtower as a reference and constructing an elevator would be a good idea," Chen Mu suggested. He looked at the location of the elevator near the gate, where the height was lower, and they could utilize the shelf's structure to a greater extent, making it easier to build.

Tang Jing also agreed, "Even if we have cranes in the future, people will still need to go up and down. Besides, our utilization of the shelves will only increase over time. Relying solely on climbing with our hands and feet is not a sustainable solution."

"But I still recommend building the gun emplacement first. After all, the situation outside is not optimistic. Defense engineering should be a top priority," Chen Mu added.

"I agree," Dong Junwei nodded and asked, "And I also wonder, what does Qingbei want to achieve? Both them and Yizhong are monitoring us. In the future, it will be challenging not to be noticed when we go out."

"The larger the organization, the more they can accomplish. Such organizations often have ambitious goals, and it's understandable for them to want to maintain control over the school's area. So, having people monitoring us is not surprising," Chen Mu explained.

"Can we go out at night then?" Dong Junwei inquired.

"We could, but it's too dangerous for us. Unlike insects, humans primarily rely on vision to observe and detect danger. At night, we'll be at a disadvantage against various animals and reptiles," Chen Mu replied.

"What should we do then? We can't just stay indoors all the time."

"I'm thinking, maybe we could dig another passage on the wall. This way, we can have a convenient and concealed entrance and exit and use it as an emergency escape route," Chen Mu suggested.

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