This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 115 Version 0.6 Update!

Chapter 115: Chapter 115 Version 0.6 Update!

Outpost Base’s south gate entry.

Carrying a hefty wild boar carcass weighing dozens of kilograms and 300g of coarse salt, Yu Hu and Niu Li staggered out of the main gate.

Neither of them were good drinkers, having rarely the chance to drink, not quite two liang and already slightly tipsy, their footprints in the snow were somewhat askew.

But their heads were clear.

"Huzi, is this really okay?"

"You mean leaving Little Fish there?"

Niu Li nodded.

"Yeah."

Yu Hu frowned in thought, then shook his head.

"I don’t know, but Brother Chu isn’t a bad person."

Niu Li whispered,

"Little Fish is of age to get married, aren’t you worried... about people on the street gossiping?"

"Who dares! If anyone dares, I’ll beat them up!"

Yu Hu’s eyes glared, but he soon realized that wasn’t very realistic. After all, he only had his pair of fists, not enough to beat everyone.

Maybe just able to handle that little rat from the Wang Family.

"No worries, she’s pretty good staying there, better not come back," Yu Hu swayed his head sobered by the north wind, muttering, "Anyway, staying with Brother Chu, she’s definitely in a much better place than ours."

Niu Li nodded.

He agreed with that sentiment.

Even though he didn’t know much about this Brother Chu, with so many in Blue Jackets working for just him, he must be some big-shot like the town mayor, at least.

Silent the whole way.

The two crossed the snowfields, passed through the ruins, skirted a pack of Hyenas gnawing on giant rats, and quietly reached the entrance to Bet Street.

The snow hadn’t started falling yet, so the journey back wasn’t too difficult.

Gatekeeper Walter, with a cigarette in his mouth and a hunting gun in hand, stood guard at the entrance, not even giving them a glance.

The two hurried through the main gate, planning to slip into the alley, but as they passed Old Charlie’s general store, they were stopped by the old man himself.

"You two, wait a moment."

Yu Hu and Niu Li halted, exchanged glances, then looked over at Old Charlie.

"What is it?"

Old Charlie, the mayor’s retired butler now running the general store, supplied many of the town’s delicacies.

The survivors in town respected, or rather, feared the old butler, who could mingle easily with the merchants traveling from the south to the north.

After all, those traders never looked straight at them, but with Old Charlie, they would laugh and chat merrily.

However, respect was a thing of the past.

Since dealing with Brother Chu’s people, Yu Hu increasingly felt that Old Charlie wasn’t any good either, cut from the same cloth as the mayor; even with clearly priced goods, he’d skimp on the weight and always sold them subpar items.

As Brother Chu would put it, "He doesn’t play by the rules."

Definitely not a good person.

Old Charlie glanced at the plastic bags in their hands, then at the snow on their shoulders, his nose twitching slightly before his muddy eyes narrowed.

"Did you go north?"

They shook their heads like rattle drums.

"No, no."

Even if they did, they wouldn’t admit it.

What could he do?

"Don’t head north, it’s not safe there."

After staring at them for a while, Old Charlie took his gaze off them, said nothing more, waved his hand, and dismissed them.

At that moment, the eldest son of the Wang Family, Wang Biao, came through the door, carrying a Hyena cub on his shoulder, and slapped his catch on the wooden table beside him with great enthusiasm.

"Old Butler, I bagged some game, even a young one! Take a look, if the Mayor doesn’t want it, I’ll just take it over to the slaughter stand."

Although Old Charlie was no longer a butler, that’s still what everyone called him.

Charlie glanced at the Hyena cub that lay dead on the table.

The meat of the Hyena had a strong gamey smell, which would turn foul if not processed in time, so survivors in the area applied crushed Red-Rib Smoke Leaf from Brown Farmstead to remove the smell with smoke.

Whether it was healthy was one thing, but it truly could cover up the stench.

Unlike adult Hyenas, the Hyena cubs were an exception; their meat was fresh and tender, especially the ribs from their legs—they were considered top-tier delicacies.

It was said that this was because they had been weaned not long ago and had consumed less carrion.

"Leave it there."

Old Charlie pulled open a drawer, took out four chips, and tossed them onto the table.

Wang Biao grabbed the chips with a delighted expression.

Four chips!

That’s enough for four taels of gleaming salt!

Having no meat wasn’t terrible; for an experienced hunter, as long as one had enough patience and attention to detail, one would always bag some game.

But without salt, that was a matter of life and death; without salt, one wouldn’t have the energy, without energy, one couldn’t bag any game, and without game, a family would starve.

Just as Wang Biao was about to leave, Charlie suddenly called out to him.

"Come back."

Wang Biao stopped in his tracks, turning with a simple smile to ask.

"Do you have any instructions, Old Butler?"

Charlie asked.

"You live next to the Yu Family, don’t you?"

Wang Biao hurriedly nodded.

"Yes, we’re not far from their house."

"Keep an eye on their youngest son for me, what’s his name... Yu Hu? Anyway, if you see him heading north one day, follow him and see where he goes," Charlie pondered for a moment before continuing, "If you discover anything, you don’t need to disturb him, just come back and report to me. The reward will be no less than the amount you’re holding in your hands."

Wang Biao’s heart rejoiced, clutching the chips even tighter.

"Don’t worry! I’ll definitely keep an eye out for you."

"Keep your voice down," Charlie scolded him, glancing left and right to see if anyone was there, then waved his hand to shoo him away, "Go on."

...

Yu Hu and Niu Li split the meat and salt between them and went back to their respective homes.

Yu Xiong was coming out of the house just as he saw Yu Hu returning alone. He was initially taken aback, then a whiff of alcohol that Yu Hu brought with him made his nose twitch instinctively.

"Have you been drinking?"

Yu Hu’s face turned red, and he scratched the back of his head, looking embarrassed.

"Uh, a little... but I didn’t take advantage of anyone, ha! It was Brother Chu who insisted I drink, so I did."

Yu Xiong took a look behind him and didn’t see anybody else nor the little footprints, which made him ask.

"Where’s Little Fish?"

Yu Hu hemmed and hawed for quite a while before he said.

"She... uh, stayed behind."

Upon hearing this, Yu Xiong’s eyes widened in shock.

"You left her there alone??"

Yu Hu hurriedly explained.

"It’s not that I left her there, Little Fish herself said she wanted to help Brother Chu with work—so I put in a good word for her. Brother Chu is so nice, there won’t be any problems!"

"What kind of work can Little Fish help with!?"

Yu Xiong simply didn’t believe that nonsense.

He had tried Little Fish’s pancakes once, and it nearly knocked his teeth out; in the end, he had to boil it into a mushy paste to finish eating it.

Yu Hu was anxious to explain, but unfortunately, he didn’t really understand it himself; how could he explain it clearly?

"I, I, how would I know, why don’t you ask Brother Chu? Come on, I’ll accompany you there now."

Yu Xiong was torn between laughter and tears.

"No need, forget it, what’s the point at this time of night? Sigh, you... how am I supposed to explain this to Dad later? Tell him you traded for some salt and left your sister there as alcohol?"

Yu Hu was about to cry.

"Don’t say that, bro, Dad will kill me."

Yu Xiong shook his head and sighed.

"You figure it out, does this make any sense to you?"

Burying his head, Yu Hu muttered to himself.

"What’s confusing about it? It’s all good, isn’t it? They even have food and make alcohol... Little Fish won’t starve with them, right? Brother, if you’re worried, I’ll go there every day for the next few days. If Little Fish is mistreated, I’ll bring her back immediately!"

Yu Xiong looked up to the sky and just sighed.

"Forget it, I won’t say anything more, do as you please."

What more could he say at this point?

They would have to take it one step at a time.

...

Outpost Base.

Players in the square curiously examined the direction of the sanatorium, chattering and gossiping.

"Who’s that little girl next to the Manager?"

"That’s Yu Xiaoyu from Bet Street, an NPC. It says so on the official website. Old players understand, there have been a few stories about Bet Street before, it was even discussed on the forums, you should be able to find it if you look through the earlier posts."

"Damn! I’m new, I don’t get it!"

"Did I miss a storyline or something?"

"Kali! Okay, not Kali... but it doesn’t matter, she’s so cute! I can’t take it!"

"Demon Demon Spirit, huh? I think this person is not right, come and take him away. What? You can’t intervene? I can step in!"

"I’ll do the shooting!"

Shelter.

Level B1, Residents’ Hall.

Xia Yan, who was sitting at a wooden table learning a foreign language, had been staring at Chu Guang straight ever since he came back from outside with Little Fish.

Seeing that she wasn’t busy and had the leisure to moon over him, Chu Guang tossed two silver coins onto the table in front of her.

"Go to the market at the east gate and buy a pound of milk for me."

Little Fish had gone to Level B2 to take a bath, and although the players were very curious about this new little sister, with Xiao Qi by her side, he didn’t need to worry too much.

All day today, Little Fish behaved well and did a great job, learning very quickly everything he taught her.

Especially that diligent and eager attitude, it’s something a certain person really should learn from.

Chu Guang was never stingy in rewarding diligent, good kids, whether they were NPCs or players.

However, eating too much sugar was bad for the teeth; the best thing for growing a body was to drink some milk. Maybe it would even help her grow taller in time. Even if not taller, getting healthier was fine too; at least she shouldn’t be so frail that a gust of wind could knock her down.

Speaking of which, after she officially started her job, he would have to order her a set of clothes with higher recognizability.

After all, her role was quite important.

It might even be more important than the weapons store and warehouse combined.

Looking at the two silver coins rolling and clinking on the table, Xia Yan’s eyes widened, her gaze shifting back and forth between the coins and Chu Guang’s face.

It seemed she couldn’t believe it.

Finally, she couldn’t hold back and said,

"You’re asking a disabled person to run errands for you, you okay with that?"

Be a decent human being!

Chu Guang, who had just opened his computer to edit a document, glanced at her as if she were an idiot.

"I didn’t ask you to go yourself, couldn’t you have the players do it for you? How have I taught you? Open VM, select the task bar, click the edit button, and then make up some passable excuse... for instance, say you can’t sleep without drinking milk every day. Choose someone to issue it to or post it on the public channel, either works."

"Got it, the Manager must drink milk at night to sleep... I’m, I’m, I’m wrong, it’s me who wants to drink, it’s me who wants to drink."

The moment Chu Guang looked over, Xia Yan instantly cowered, a dejected expression on her face as she pressed the backspace key, deleting the task she had just edited and changing it to what Chu Guang had forced her to write.

Very good.

Seeing Xia Yan behave, Chu Guang nodded in satisfaction.

It sure had its perks to be handsome; just one look and they get the idea, not even needing to speak a word to persuade her.

Actually, whatever Boss Xia wrote on the task panel didn’t matter.

NPCs used VM to issue tasks in two ways, one was preset, point-to-point sending, which could be used outside of the refuge’s signal range.

The other was personally edited tasks that had to be sent to the server first, approved by Xiao Qi, and then distributed to a player’s device, or as a "Daily Task" or "Random Task" to the public task area visible to all players.

That meant as long as Chu Guang gave Xiao Qi the nod, no matter what Boss Xia wrote on the task panel, it would be corrected to what he wanted her to write.

"It’s done... A player named Crow accepted it."

Crow, huh?

That’s reassuring.

She would get a taste when it arrived.

"Okay."

Seeing Chu Guang drop a comment and then ignore her to continue hammering away at his computer, not even knowing what he was typing, made the incessant clicking noises even more annoying for Xia Yan, who couldn’t concentrate on her book and finally couldn’t help but ask.

"... so, what’s the deal with that girl? Don’t get me wrong, I’m just asking, even if you’ve stooped low enough to—"

Annoyed by the interruption, Chu Guang typed a typo, twitched his eyebrow, hit the backspace key, and replied dismissively.

"There’s nothing going on, she’s your roommate from now on."

"Wait a minute, roommate?" Xia Yan panicked and quickly said, "Aren’t there still vacant rooms? Why do I have to be her roommate? I can’t take care of someone."

Taking care of someone, alright.

We’ll see who ends up needing care.

Chu Guang said offhandedly.

"I’m planning for you to teach her the everyday language of the players, the one in the book you’re holding."

Xia Yan murmured.

"But, but I haven’t even learned it myself..."

And if they live together, wouldn’t that mean no privacy at all?

There are vacant rooms right next door.

Chu Guang took his hands off the keyboard, eyeing her with interest.

"It’s fine, it’s a good chance to learn together. Once you’ve taught her, I’ll move her to the room next door. Let’s hope that by the time she learns, you won’t still be clueless."

The guy still acting so righteous.

After so long, she still hadn’t learned to insult someone in beautiful Mandarin, just repeating those same two lines over and over, driving the forum’s little players crazy.

"How is that possible!"

"Heh, we’ll see about that."

Ignoring Boss Xia, who was making a fuss, Chu Guang turned his eyes back to the computer screen and typed the last few words and punctuation.

"... all that’s left is copy-pasting."

Looking at his handiwork completed in less than half an hour, a joyful and pleased smile appeared on Chu Guang’s face.

Version 0.6!

Done!