This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 146: He’s Our Good Partner, We Need to Pay More!

Chapter 146: Chapter 146: He’s Our Good Partner, We Need to Pay More!

No one had expected such a thing to happen at the end of the mission.

All were somber, their morale flagging.

Apart from the three bewildered little players and the Bet Street guide who didn’t know what to do,

Chu Guang said he wanted to be alone for a while, to calmly think about how to break this cruel fact to the families of the victims.

He wasn’t very good at comforting people.

If he came off as too exaggerated, it would be embarrassing, so it might be better to say nothing.

Sometimes silence indeed is the best language.

Lu Yang placed his hand on Chu Guang’s shoulder, indicating understanding.

"I understand how you feel, but it will be dark in two hours, and the situation in the city will get very complicated. After we return, I will have Li De contact you... regarding compensation for the families of the victims."

It was at least twenty kilometers from here to Pioneer. They needed to rush to get back before dark. Although the night was not a lethal danger to them, it was still better not to delay too late out of caution.

"You all go ahead, I’ll handle the aftermath and then leave."

"But... are you sure it’s okay for you guys to stay here?" Lu Yang said, his expression slightly hesitant, unable to help but glance at the equipment in the other three refuge residents’ hands.

Iron pipe rifles.

The most common weapons in the Wasteland.

But to him, they were no different than pieces of plumbing.

"Don’t worry, we are very familiar with this area and have always lived like this."

Seeing that Chu Guang said so, Lu Yang did not insist any longer. After giving him a firm look, he took his men and set off on the long journey back.

After they had gone a good distance, Chu Guang used the VM to issue a mission for the other three small players to collect the shell casings scattered on the ground, and then he too set out with Makabazi’s body.

To be honest, Chu Guang wasn’t really coveting those two shell casings.

Mainly, it was just too difficult to keep up the act all the way, he used to work in sales not as a funeral director, he simply lacked that kind of experience.

So, it was better to let Lu Yang and the others go first.

On the return trip to Outpost Base, when passing Bet Street, Chu Guang remembered the matter of his reward and took out 5 silver coins and handed them to Zhao Yang.

Looking at the silver coin in his hand, Zhao Yang’s face beamed with joy as he nodded and thanked him profusely.

"Thank you, sir!"

At first, the folks on Bet Street were very resistant to this metal currency, but since they found out that they could buy lots of good stuff previously unattainable with it, they gradually began to accept it.

What’s the difference between using chips or silver coins, after all?

In the dead of winter, there wouldn’t be any trading caravans from Giant Stone City coming this way.

What they needed were food, fuel, and warm clothes, and ideally, a new set of bedding for the home to make life a little more comfortable.

That was all.

"This is the compensation you deserve. If needed, I will come to find you again."

After sending Zhao Yang on his way, Chu Guang returned to Outpost Base and placed the body in the Active Substance Extractor.

In three days, another stout fellow.

And if someone remembered his face, what would happen? Chu Guang thought this was not a problem at all. If anybody became suspicious, it was just a matter of having an extra twin brother.

Or maybe post an announcement on the official website?

Such as due to an insurmountable bug in the expansion pack, players who died in the expansion pack cannot be revived temporarily, and later the official will provide a limited edition submachine gun or event reward points as compensation?

That seemed quite reasonable.

What game doesn’t have bugs?

Let alone in the beta phase, the game itself might as well be considered a free gift with bugs.

As long as the compensation rewards are reasonable, the players will be able to accept it emotionally, the worst being like Crow’s previous withdrawal reaction, unable to sleep for three days straight.

Chu Guang was somewhat troubled; he had quite a few cards in his hand.

However, the current problem was, he didn’t want his little players to see the rewards and all start faking their deaths for the payout. That would be too fake, treating people like fools.

Yet he also hoped that the little players could help him earn a little more condolence money. After all, working for three days could only earn a maximum of 13 CR, it wasn’t too much to pay a four-figure sum for a death, was it?

Tsk.

It would be good if there were a way to make the cooling a bit more reasonable.

Chu Guang reckoned Li De would probably be calling soon, so he walked toward the office barracks.

Coincidentally, just as Chu Guang began to head in that direction, Luo Hua happened to come out from the barracks. He lit up upon seeing him and came forward to greet him actively.

"Hey, you’re finally back."

"Is your section chief looking for me?"

Luo Hua looked at Chu Guang in surprise, nodded, and said,

"Yes, he asked me to give him a call if I saw you return... How did you guess?"

Chu Guang was about to smile, but remembered he couldn’t smile, or at least, he shouldn’t, so he swallowed it down and with a light sigh said,

"It’s a sad story... let’s talk about it over drinks another time."

Luo Hua looked clueless, not understanding why they had to wait until they were drinking to talk, or why the always gentle Chu Guang looked so somber.

But, since he had merely asked in passing and since it was somewhat presumptuous, he didn’t pursue further.

"Alright..."

Chu Guang nodded and continued toward the office.

Through the door of the barracks.

Ais, who was maintaining the weapons, looked up at him. Without saying a word, she skillfully activated the holographic communication system on the table, sending a connection request to the Pioneer.

This bodyguard usually said very little, one might even say hardly anything at all.

Chu Guang appreciated her personality; if only Boss Xia could learn from her.

Whether it was her attitude toward work or her professional dedication.

Green beams wove in the air, forming a three-dimensional net.

After a brief wait, Li De’s bust appeared in the holographic image.

After making eye contact with Chu Guang for two seconds, the logistics department head cleared his throat and began to speak since Chu Guang showed no intention of starting the conversation,

"I’ve heard about what happened from the captain, and I’m truly sorry for the young man’s death. But of course, feeling sorry is not enough to express our apologies. If you have no objections, let’s discuss the compensation next."

As expected.

Chu Guang understood inside, but his face gave nothing away.

He nodded slightly and said,

"That’s fine."

Anticipating that this old fox wouldn’t initiate a "quote," Li De didn’t waste more time waiting and continued,

"You are not corporate employees, so we can’t issue you compensation based on corporate standards or employee levels. Our proposed compensation plan is... 1000 CR, equivalent to 1000 hours of hourly wages."

Chu Guang stared at him.

"I cannot accept that. Do you really think a life is only worth 1000 CR?"

A ton of starch is too outrageous!

Makabazi was our good companion!

We need to add more money!

Li De was also staring at Chu Guang, unfazed by this bait-and-switch tactic.

"I understand, a life is worth far more than that, and money cannot measure life, but we have to consider reality... Besides, his death wasn’t caused by us. I’m right, aren’t I?"

Eh?

Chu Guang was slightly surprised inside; he hadn’t expected the man to have wised up.

It was apparent that before taking the call, this logistics section chief must have done quite a bit of homework, at the very least understood the entire process of the operation after speaking with their team leader.

Indeed.

Strictly speaking, old Makabazi didn’t die due to their mistake, but because of his own bad luck, stepping on a mine while rummaging around.

The implication in Li De’s words was obvious, it could even be said that it wasn’t an implication at all, but an outright statement—the deceased didn’t die because of us, but he did die in an operation related to us, and we are willing to pay a sum for compensation out of morality, but don’t push it too far.

Chu Guang was well aware of the situation inside, but expecting him to just give up was underestimating his professional ethics.

He nodded slightly and employed a tactical retreat.

"Yes, I can’t deny that we both bear responsibility for what happened, and I have no intention of pushing all the blame onto you. Frankly, your willingness to offer compensation to the families of the victims is already a praiseworthy act of kindness. But I hope you understand that from my position, I naturally have to try to secure a bit more for our people."

Li De, "I understand, so your answer is?"

Chu Guang, "I accept the compensation you proposed. Additionally, I will personally give the widow an additional 2,000 silver coins as a pension. This sum should be enough for her to be free of material worries for some time."

Li De’s brow relaxed slightly.

He had mentally prepared himself for a lengthy discussion before making the call, but unexpectedly, the conversation went incredibly smoothly.

To be honest.

He was quite surprised.

This old fox hadn’t tried to take advantage of the situation to extort them, which was completely unexpected and rendered the prepared speech in his stomach useless.

What a waste.

"It seems we’ve reached an agreement."

"Yes, we have reached an agreement on the matter of the pension."

Having heard "Yes," Li De allowed a smile to appear on his face, but as he heard the second half of the sentence, his blood pressure shot up instantaneously.

Staring at Chu Guang’s holographic image, he fumbled in his pocket for some blood pressure medication while pressing aggressively,

"What do you mean? Are you suggesting that since each resident of the refuge is an asset to the collective, in addition to his individual loss, we have to pay you as well?"

Eh?

Can it also be interpreted like that?

Chu Guang, surprised by this layer of meaning he hadn’t considered, quietly admired the argument internally and made a mental note to use it when the opportunity arose.

Taking a second to collect his composure, he steadfastly faced Li De’s holographic image and said with righteous indignation,

"What do you mean by that? Are you implying that all I care about is money?"

Or else what!

Li De suppressed the urge to roll his eyes.

"Stop beating around the bush, just say it, what do you really want?"

Chu Guang said with a heavy expression,

"I’ve seriously reflected on the cause of today’s accident, and it wasn’t because your people failed to protect us, but because we failed to protect our own."

"If we had provided him with a bulletproof vest and a helmet, he wouldn’t have been killed on the spot by the explosion. If we had provided him with a submachine gun or a shotgun, today’s tragedy might not have even occurred. If—"

Li De couldn’t help but interrupt him,

"If we could provide you with a few sets of power armor, you wouldn’t even need our help, and you could find the fuel rods for us yourself, is that what you’re trying to say?"

Chu Guang actually wanted to say "Yes".

But he knew there was no point in saying such things; they were meaningless beyond eliciting an eye roll.

Some things are non-negotiable, like those power armors and those plug-and-play modular production units.

However, some things...

There’s still room to negotiate.

"That would be too much trouble for you, and besides, it’s better to teach a man to fish than to give him fish," said Chu Guang without a blush, continuing, "Our demands are not high; to prevent such tragedies from happening again, I humbly request that you send an engineer to support our construction. For example, help us establish a production line that manufactures steel, cement, helmets, protective gear, and weapons."

"You call that a ’not high’ demand?" Li De glared at him, his eyes nearly bulging out, "What do you think we are, magicians?"

Building a production line for rifles is much more difficult than producing a single rifle.

The costs and time required to build such a line vary enormously depending on the type of process, product quality, level of automation, and expected capacity.

Moreover, establishing a single production line outside of an industrial system is hardly significant. Parts on the line are constantly wearing out, and if those replaceable standardized parts cannot be made, it might be better to buy the products directly with the money instead.

"No need to say more."

Li De interrupted Chu Guang, who seemed to want to say more, and after pinching the bridge of his nose and pausing for a moment, continued,

"You are in luck... As it happens, I have a ’Magnetic Constrained Plasma CNC Machine Tool’ here. That thing is quite interesting, very precise, convenient to use, and relatively easy to maintain; it’s an antique we got from the last city. But we have more advanced production tools, so we never really used that piece, and it’s been gathering dust in the warehouse."

Chu Guang’s eyes sparkled, "How much?"

Li De smiled and said, "I can give it to you for free, do you want it?"

Chu Guang, "...Is that thing broken?"

Li De looked at him in surprise, chuckled, and said, "Exactly, and it’s paralyzed in every sense of the term. Even for us, it would be quite an effort to fix."

Hearing this, Chu Guang finally understood what the guy was up to.

But he had no choice; he braced himself to ask.

"How much?"

"100,000."

Chu Guang, "..."

MMP!

100,000?!

people working 10 hours a day, plus a total daily meal allowance of 600, and nearly 1000 CR commission, it would still take 27 days of continuous work to earn that amount!

What’s 27 days?

Who knows if these people would even stay here for 27 days!

"...Your inflation is pretty ruthless."

"How so? This is already a very conscientious price. If you don’t believe me, you can ask the commercial teams from corporations to see if they can offer a better price than ours."

Watching Chu Guang’s crestfallen expression, Li De couldn’t help but smile proudly, but soon coughed lightly and restrained his inappropriate expression.

"Right, work hard. I’ll send you the instructions for that device later to take a look at. Of course, if you really can’t afford it, there’s no need to force it. Our produced submachine guns and bulletproof vests can also provide you with the ability to defend yourselves. And I bet the quality will be much better than anything you could produce on your own."

"By the way, the death compensation will be transferred over soon... You veered so far off-topic, I almost forgot about such an important matter."

With that, Li De happily ended the communication.

From his last-second expression, Chu Guang could feel the guy’s triumph.

That must feel pretty good.

Chu Guang tried to put himself in his shoes.

Turns out, it wasn’t just good—it was freaking amazing.

"Do you still need the phone?" Seeing him immobile, Ais, who was waiting nearby, asked.

"No more."

Upon hearing there was no need, Ais didn’t dawdle, and reached out to turn off the holographic communication device.

The dark green light beam vanished from within the barracks.

Ais’s gaze unintentionally swept across Chu Guang’s face, and she was slightly taken aback, a hint of surprise slipping onto her expressionless face.

She clearly remembered that this person had a downtrodden look just a second ago, yet now there wasn’t a trace of it to be found.

Instead...

There seemed to be a flash of excitement?

That can’t be right...

Ais thought she must have seen it wrong.

After all, they just lost a teammate, and the compensation didn’t seem to meet expectations. She really couldn’t imagine any reason for him to be happy.

But that quartermaster Old Li really was a stingy one.

100,000 CR...

That would take a long, long time to earn.

-

(This month I’ve updated a total of 260,000 words; to be honest, I’m quite surprised at myself, but feeling like I’ve been emptied out is also true. Sometimes not getting enough sleep—less than six hours a day, I probably need to improve my writing technique and typing speed. I’ll need to reflect on this.

A new month starts, I’m setting a small goal for myself, try to write 10,000 words a day! I’ll do my best to maintain the tradition of updating by 10pm! If I can’t make it, just go easy on me; I will work hard to maintain at least 8K, ensuring quality.

Considering my efforts this month, I kindly ask for a half-day sick leave, I’m off to the clinic soon... Although I know it’s probably a minor cold due to erratic sleep patterns, I feel more at ease getting it checked to see if I need medication.

Sorry, just one Chapter today.)

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