This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 135: Can That Be Called Labor Dispatch? That’s Called a Time-Limited Event!

Chapter 135: Chapter 135: Can That Be Called Labor Dispatch? That’s Called a Time-Limited Event!

The three power armors remained at the north gate.

As for their captain, Lu Yang, he followed Chu Guang into the Outpost Base.

It was clear he was very confident in his own strength and was not at all worried about encountering any mishaps.

Of course, Chu Guang had no intention of causing trouble for himself either.

Having invited Lu Yang into the sanatorium’s reception room, Chu Guang intended to offer him something hospitable, but when he brought out the wine glasses, Lu Yang quickly waved his hand to stop him.

"I appreciate the gesture! But I’m currently on a mission and can’t drink alcohol."

"What about milk?"

"Really, there’s no need. Our armor has reserves of fresh water and liquid food. In the field, we can only consume our own supplies, as a matter of discipline."

"How about the stool—"

"There’s no need, it might break under me."

"Alright then."

Chu Guang had not expected to encounter such a disciplined force in the Wasteland.

Of course, it could also be a matter of caution.

Chu Guang didn’t insist any further and put the items away.

"Speaking of which, I’m a bit curious what exactly your SC-500 Track Transport Platform looks like, and what it means when put together... could you satisfy my curiosity?"

Lu Yang nodded.

"Of course, no problem."

With that, he tapped a button on his helmet, and a button-sized integrated light at the collar projected a beam over the burning brazier.

On closer inspection, the light was made up of many fine strands as thin as filaments, which soon began to gently wave, weaving a transparent three-dimensional holographic image above the flames.

"Holographic projection?"

"Yes," Lu Yang nodded, his face showing pride, "This is our Pioneer! Impressive, isn’t it?"

Four tracks, each nearly twenty meters long, supported a 50-meter square platform. The platform was stacked with rectangular modules, fitted together like shipping containers, looked like an irregular Rubik’s Cube or a three-dimensional mosaic from afar.

And there were a total of four such platforms, laid out in a matrix at the corners, connected by a series of pipes in the middle, appearing as if they could separate.

Rather than saying it was a cruiser that had taken to the land,

It’s more like a fortress on four legs!

"It is indeed impressive... Do you have photos? I mean, photographic images, not these skeletal holographic projections."

Lu Yang was taken aback for a moment, then nodded.

"Photos? I do have some... if you need them, I can send one to your VM."

"Please send me one!"

Although Lu Yang was puzzled as to why Chu Guang wanted a photo, he still selected one that was not too sensitive and sent it over.

Concealing his pleasure, Chu Guang gave a light cough, maintaining a serious expression as he continued to look at Lu Yang.

"Thank you, this is a big help. Also, I have a rough idea of your demands. To put it simply... you need one hundred laborers for resource gathering and materials transportation work, correct?"

Lu Yang nodded earnestly.

"Yes, it would be even better if we could have more people! We need a lot of labor to collect vehicle wreckage and other metal rubbish, to drag them to our production workshop for melting down and re-smelting into the steel and other alloy materials that we need."

"As for the technical issues, you don’t need to worry about those, our engineers will handle them! Your people only need to do some simple work."

"And in return, we are willing to provide food and accommodation for every worker, and pay them a wage of 1 CR per hour, settling accounts daily,"

Chu Guang asked,

"What is CR?"

"...I almost forgot, this is it!" Lu Yang smacked his head and pulled out a 100 CR paper bill from his waist, showed it to Chu Guang, and explained with a smile, "It’s a bond issued by the company, which also serves as money, the full name is Credit Points, abbreviated as CR! You can use it at any survivor base on the East Coast to buy anything you want... as long as they have it."

"Additionally, all commercial teams from the East Coast acknowledge its value, and you can exchange this bill for any of the goods they have. A paper bill like this is enough for an enterprise employee’s expenses for a week, and with frugal spending, it can last for two weeks!"

Chu Guang said with a playful smile,

"So a wage of 1 CR per hour is the company’s minimum wage?"

"We don’t have a concept of minimum wage, but this is the rate for basic manual labor. A wage of 1 CR per hour for a 12-hour workday equals 12 CR, isn’t that enough? We will provide food and lodging for your workers!"

"This is River Valley Province, not some East Coast. Hmm, do you have chips?"

Lu Yang looked puzzled.

"...Chips?"

"Yes, around Qingquan City here, we mainly use these plastic chips as money. Traders coming here all know about it, I thought you’d at least be somewhat aware." Saying that, Chu Guang took out a white chip from his pocket and gently swung it in front of Lu Yang.

The anti-counterfeit paint on the chip, even after two centuries, had no sign of fading at all, as if it were fused with the material itself.

Lu Yang looked somewhat troubled.

"Unfortunately, we are not merchants... To be honest, we are on an important mission to the west, which is related to the fate of everyone on this planet. Could you cut us some slack for the sake of the future of civilization? As far as I know, the River Valley Province is also within the company’s business scope. I guarantee with my credit points that these bills are valid!"

"Talk of ’the future of civilization’ has been chewed over and over a century ago. Now it is already Wasteland Era Year 211, and nothing has changed."

Pocketing the chip in his hand, Chu Guang continued to speak to Lu Yang.

"Your team must have something to trade, right? It’s not like you’ve lived on air all the way here. Whether it’s food, weapons, or production tools and methods, we really need these. These paper bills you’re giving me are pointless; heaven knows when the East Coast’s commercial teams will pass this way. And what use is ’valid’ anyway? Even if 100 CR can buy a suit of power armor on the East Coast, it might still not buy a cow here!"

Even in a civilization with convenient logistics, the purchasing power of different currencies varies in different regions, let alone in the wasteland.

Would a commercial team cross tens of thousands of kilometers just to exchange their goods for a bunch of local unusable paper?

They’re in business, not in the delivery service.

They have to bring something back!

Lu Yang cleared his throat and said, "...100 CR could never buy a power armor, not even a broken one. However, I think I understand what you mean. You need food, weapons, and production tools, right?"

"Exactly right!" Chu Guang looked at him with bright, intense eyes and continued, "If you want to hire my people, you need to pay them with Silver Coins and Copper Coins. If you want Silver Coins, use what we need in exchange!"

Lu Yang nodded.

"Got it, that’s a fair demand. But I’m not good at this, the trade matters will be discussed by someone from the logistics department, they will arrive here tomorrow morning. Also, if possible, I would like to set up an office here to facilitate timely communication. This office won’t be very big, probably with a staff of two people, how about that?"

Chu Guang readily nodded.

"That’s exactly what I’m hoping for!"

Finally, a smile spread across Lu Yang’s face.

Communicating with civilized people is always more satisfying than with the natives. Even if the trade is a bit troublesome, he can just leave it to the logistics department to worry about.

The Pioneer did not lack food and fresh water, and they could produce their own living supplies; what they truly lacked was ore and electricity. With the working miners, the problem with ore had been solved, now only one last issue remained.

"...Then it’s the matter of finding a guide."

Chu Guang looked at him and said, "No problem, my people are very familiar with this area. The key is what it is you’re looking for."

Luka: "Controllable fusion fuel rods! Of course, I’m not talking about those fusion batteries used for power armor, tanks, or small workshops, but rather those with a helium-3 reserve exceeding 5 kilograms and an output power between 100MW to 1GW, which can power up the Pioneer. The model of these fuel rods is a bit special, but our people can recognize them."

Chu Guang: "Then do you know where to find these things?"

Luka nodded confidently.

"Of course, based on our analysis of pre-war map data, there’s a carbon dioxide collection station near the fifth ring of the northern suburb of Qingquan City. This kind of public facility is common in densely populated cities. Its main function is to absorb the carbon dioxide accumulated in the urban areas during off-peak electricity hours, essentially to maintain so-called carbon balance."

"The backup generators in the carbon dioxide collection station use fuel rods that are almost the same model as ours. However, the tricky part is that they’re usually not marked separately on civilian maps but merged with high-rise buildings like offices and apartments, typically located between the 20th and 30th floors. We can only speculate on its approximate location based on the limited information we have."

Hearing this, Chu Guang couldn’t help interrupting him.

"Are you sure it hasn’t been searched already?"

"We’re not certain, which is why we need a local guide to work with our marines to find places that haven’t been scavenged."

After a pause, Luka proposed the terms of exchange.

"If we’re lucky to find it, we only want the controllable fusion fuel rods from there. As for the other by-products, like long-chain alkanes, olefins, or ketones and esters, you can take them at will. It doesn’t matter to us whether you use them for firewood or for making something else."

Burning them should not be an option.

Chu Guang felt he would not resort to such a wasteful act.

Those high-quality industrial raw materials could be sold if not immediately needed. Survivor bases with industrial capabilities, like Giant Stone City, would likely be eager to buy.

Chu Guang remembered Old Luka once saying that every year, a Commercial Team from Giant Stone City would come to the Brown farm to purchase oil and resin produced from the Cam Tree.

Looking at Luka, Chu Guang nodded.

"No problem."

"I’m glad we’ve reached a consensus. That’s all," Luka said with a pleasant smile on his face, extending his right hand, "I wish us a happy cooperation!"

As he shook the extended right hand, Chu Guang’s face also wore a smile.

"Happy cooperation!"

...

Watching the captain emerge from the Enclosing wall, the tense marines stationed at the north gate finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The curious stares from around made them uncomfortable.

Had these country bumpkins never seen power armor before?

Fortunately, these people were restrained and didn’t come up to touch.

"It’s getting late, we’ll head back now!" Stopping beside his teammates, Luka looked at Chu Guang with a smile and said, "Our people will come back tomorrow!"

Chu Guang nodded.

"Then I won’t see you off."

Luka was preparing to leave with his subordinates.

However, at that moment, a voice came over the comms channel.

"Captain, there’s the light of an explosion and gunfire to your east... My visibility isn’t good, but it looks like a firefight."

Luka was slightly stunned and turned to Chu Guang to ask.

"Are you in a war?"

Guessing that it was probably their elder brother left outside who had seen it, Chu Guang calmly replied.

"You mean the east side? If that counts as a war, our people are indeed in combat with the Mutants."

"Mutants?" Luka’s expression changed slightly, "Are there Mutants here?"

"Where aren’t there any? Those green-skinned guys are everywhere," Chu Guang said with a smile, "Of course, I’m not sure if the Mutants in River Valley Province are the same group as those on the East Coast. I heard that deep green and light green are not the same."

"Whatever the kind, they all are a bunch of disgusting creatures! This tumor-like, beastly humanoids are incurable, like a cancer to civilization!"

Luka said through clenched teeth, with a look of virulent hatred, while Chu Guang felt there was a story there.

Moved, Chu Guang looked at him and said.

"Would you be willing to help us eliminate this trouble? For the future of civilization."

Luka was taken aback for a moment, hesitated, and then replied.

"This... isn’t really appropriate, our discipline doesn’t allow us to intervene in local disputes."

If they interfered in local disputes, one troublesome issue would follow another, which he had experienced all too well.

Not to get involved in local disputes, okay.

Why didn’t you say that when you were asking us for help?

"But Mutants can’t be considered human, right?" Chu Guang didn’t give up and spoke patiently, "Plus, by extending a helping hand to us, you’re effectively helping yourselves too."

Luka: "What do you mean..."

Chu Guang: "Think about it, if we have to deal with Mutant harassment, how can we give our all to help you? I promise you, if you deal with the Mutant trouble for us, we can double the number of laborers we provide support with... which means two hundred people. A fair trade, does that also violate your discipline?"

Two hundred workers...

It looks like Alpha 0.7 will have to be released early.

Chu Guang contemplated, the new version would be perfect to launch a New Map and send players over for labor. Of course, officially this couldn’t be called "labor dispatch," but a time-limited event in the game.

Time-limited events in the beta phase, with rewards that don’t require microtransactions, where else could you find such a conscientious Game Company?

Chu Guang was nearly moved by his own conscience.

Meanwhile, Luka standing opposite him was completely stunned.

Two hundred people?!

Did this Survivor Settlement have two hundred people??

If you include the villagers outside, perhaps it did, but what he needed was able-bodied laborers, not the old and weak.

It was also possible there were more people underground yet to come up.

Weighing the pros and cons, Luka eventually nodded reluctantly.

"I hope you keep your promise."

More people to help would mean faster progress. If possible, he didn’t want to waste too much time here. Since entering the River Valley Province, they had been moving too slowly!

"Of course, I’m a man of my word!"

Chu Guang said, smiling brightly.

He knew.

From the moment the man before him bowed his head, the Mutants loitering on Street No.76 were as good as dead...

-

(Today’s release is a bit late, sorry! Searching for typos has made my eyes blurry. T.T)

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