This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 159: Chief, We’re Running Out of Money!

Chapter 159: Chapter 159: Chief, We’re Running Out of Money!

North suburb Fifth Ring Road of Qingquan City.

A skyscraper on the edge of the ring road overpass had its 20th floor hallway covered in dark green slime molds and eroded moss.

Bright orange tracer bullet heads wove a web in the corridor, the scorching air almost charred the atmosphere, and at the center of the concentrated fire was a three-meter tall humanoid beast.

Its skin had completely keratinized; its twisted muscles were pitch black, and its arms protected its head, managing to push forward two steps despite the electromagnetic-accelerated mass bombs.

But just two steps—

"Roar—!"

With a half-hearted roar of defiance, the three-meter-tall tyrant eventually fell heavily under the concentrated fire of the Gauss rifles.

Five power armor suits had no reason to lose in such terrain.

Lu Yang crisply signaled with his hand, and the squad members wearing power armor proceeded forward, continuing along the slime-covered corridor until they reached a hefty alloy door.

One of the squad members approached the door, pulled a thumb-thick cable from the forearm armor, and connected it to the touch screen beside the right side of the door.

"Key acquired... Successfully entered safe mode."

"Open the door."

"Received, opening now."

The door trembled before slowly opening to both sides.

Stale air rushed forth.

Looking at the dust on the ground, Lu Yang felt a surge of joy in his heart.

Leaving two squad members to guard the entrance, he led the other two inside, glancing around, his excited expression growing increasingly evident.

"Comparative results matched..."

"We found it!"

Carbon dioxide trap!

One of the essential public facilities indispensable for high-density urban clusters.

During the height of the Prosperity Epoch, when population and industry were concentrated, carbon emissions reached alarmingly high levels. Traditional green vegetation alone was insufficient to absorb the excess carbon dioxide; even if the entire city were covered in green plants, it couldn’t absorb such vast amounts of greenhouse gases, and oxygen scarcity would become another significant development issue after the heat island effect.

In the mid-Prosperity Epoch, United Human widely adopted a solution that had been tested in space activities—carbon sustainment technology.

That is, setting up carbon dioxide processing devices on specific floors of high-rise buildings, converting carbon dioxide into other carbon-containing compounds through multiple complex chemical processes, allowing the region’s air quality to reach a habitable level while also producing some industrial raw materials.

It’s said that just half a floor of this space could process an amount of carbon dioxide each year that could rival an entire primitive forest or a body of water’s algae.

The group searched carefully within the facility and soon found a backup thermal nuclear fusion generator that had been shut off.

Because soon after entering the Wasteland Era, United Human’s carbon emissions plummeted dramatically, even falling below the levels before the Industrial Revolution, those carbon trappers naturally stopped working, and the thermal nuclear fusion reactors that powered them consequently shut down as well.

For this reason, carbon dioxide traps were among the few facilities from which thermal nuclear fusion fuel rods could be reliably recovered after the war.

Lu Yang, leading his own marines, cautiously dismantled and removed the fuel rods, which contained liquid helium-3.

"Done!"

"How much energy is left?"

"93%"

"That’ll last us a very long time!"

Helium-3 is a stable isotope with a negligible half-life, and although thermal nuclear fusion can’t be turned on and off as easily as cold fusion, it has the advantage of nearly no "fuel" loss when shutting down the reactor.

This was something cold fusion cells simply couldn’t match.

The soldiers carefully stored the fuel rods inside a metal cylinder, completing the operation. Then the marines glanced at the various boxes and storage tanks around them.

"Sir, how shall we deal with the rest of these items?"

Lu Yang looked around.

"Stay here then," said Chu Guang.

"Our allies should find that useful," Game added.

...

At the same time, over twenty kilometers away on the Pioneer, in the logistics department’s office.

Seated in the office chair, Li De, looking at the electronic spreadsheet on the flexible screen, had a face that spelled surprise.

This was the production report from the previous week.

Among the eye-catching data, they had astonishingly recycled 1,872 tons of waste for the past week, achieving 255% of the expected efficiency!

Those Blue Jackets were incredibly hardcore, managing an alarming daily recycling average of 267.4 tons, with each person collecting 1.3 tons per day, more extraordinary than before the great War. If this work had been handed over to the natives, one would laugh out loud if they could achieve even a third of this efficiency.

And their additional expenditure was merely 9,360 CR.

Li De could hardly believe his eyes; if this report hadn’t been personally handed to him by his secretary, he would have wondered if something was amiss.

Were they all robots?!

No, even better than machines!

Up to this day, a week had passed since the battle with the Army, and a sad atmosphere still hovered over the Pioneer, with many engulfed in the sorrow of losing comrades, low in spirits, and working inefficiently.

But these Blue Jackets were different.

They had endured even more casualties, yet they weren’t defeated by hardship, instead transforming their grief and anger into motivation, living each day actively and optimistically.

What incredible faith and belief this must be!

Thanks to the diligence of those Blue Jackets, they had almost cleared out the entire underground parking garage and two abandoned factories filled with cobalt- and nickel-containing industrial waste.

From this total of 1,872 tons of waste, they had successfully recycled 941.4 tons of metal and turned it into the parts they needed.

And there were even excesses.

As Li De couldn’t help but feel impressed, Wang Jie, the secretary who stood before the desk, suddenly spoke up.

"There’s one more thing," Wang Jie said.

Folding the tablet in his hands like a scroll to the size of a pen and casually tossing it into a drawer, Li De looked up at his secretary in a good mood and asked amiably.

"What’s that?"

Wang Jie wore an awkward expression but still spoke up.

"It’s about the demands of the frontline engineers... They want to increase their attendance subsidy from 10 CR per hour to 15 CR per hour."

"...?" Li De was baffled.

What the hell??

Weren’t these lazy dogs complaining just a few months ago that they had so much cash they didn’t know where to spend it, dismissing his pile of ’useless paper’ that tempted them to work?

Now they’re complaining about insufficient subsidies?

Wang Jie’s expression remained awkward as he quickly continued.

"Perhaps... it’s because the Survivor Settlements we’ve encountered before were too poor, and the benefits on the Pioneer are too generous—they really had nowhere to spend their money. I don’t know what to say, but our employees have indeed been quite extravagant with money recently... I think we might need to put some restrictions."

Li De’s face turned red as he knocked on the table angrily.

"The question is, where are they spending all this money?! Wiping their asses with it? Can buying a few buns cost that much?!"

Wang Jie said, "Of course not just buns. There are dumplings with various fillings, sweet rice balls, soy milk, fried dough sticks, and... ahem. I think we need to upgrade our mobile kitchen. Those Blue Jackets take our raw materials, make slight modifications, sell back to us, and earn a lot of our money."

Li De was speechless.

Wang Jie swallowed and went on.

"Besides food, they’ve also been selling clothes, scarves, and other trinkets lately, especially a silk product that is very popular with the female passengers. They call it Devil Silk, apparently a specialty of the Central Region. Surprisingly, this silk thread is extremely tough, almost comparable to the fire-resistant fibers we use in bulletproof vests... The power of nature, to be honest, is quite marvelous, and even I find it surprising. Our technicians researched it for quite a while, managed to figure out its composition, but never understood its industrial synthesis method."

Li De pressed his temples.

"Just these?"

He didn’t care about the Devil Moth silk, nor did he care about what clothes and trinkets the female passengers had bought.

All he wanted to know was how much CR they had wasted in the hands of those Blue Jackets.

This money wasn’t something you could just sign for at a restaurant.

It had to be cashed in on the spot!

"Uh, there were also some special ingredients, like black truffles... they were very cheap there, selling for 1CR per gram."

Li De abruptly lifted his head.

"1CR per gram? Are there any left???"

Wang Jie looked at the head of the department in surprise and nodded blankly.

"There should be some left. The mushroom seller sets up his stall at the Action Camp around six o’clock every evening... Head of the department?"

Realizing his own lapse in composure, Li De quickly regained his senses and after a light cough, he resumed his serious expression to continue.

"I’m just a bit surprised, I didn’t expect them to know how to enjoy... By the way, is the Magnetic Constrained Plasma CNC Machine Tool fixed?"

Wang Jie nodded.

"It’s fixed. Our warehouse personnel have just delivered it to them, and in a little while it should all be delivered to their outpost on the surface."

Thinking of that machine tool, Li De felt somewhat regretful.

He had been too hasty in his decision-making at the time; just that machine tool alone could have helped them recoup 100,000 CR.

It shouldn’t have been free!

However, those Blue Jackets really did help them out a lot. They didn’t ask for those Blue Jackets to support their war, but they did so anyway, and at the most critical moments of the battle, they rushed forward with guns without a second thought.

Honestly, without them, it’s hard to say what the casualty figures would have been in the end. Perhaps they would have had to abandon the second tactical nuclear bomb, perhaps many more than three people would have perished that day...

Li De pondered and thought if he had to make the decision again, he might still choose the same way.

With a soft sigh, he said.

"Good, as long as it’s delivered. We should be leaving in a few days anyway."

Dragging things out like this was never going to work.

The longer they waited, the tougher the road ahead would be. If it hadn’t been for a sudden breakdown, there would have been no need to get into that fight with the Army.

Wang Jie: "About the salary increase..."

Li De, without another word: "Tell those slackers... I mean the engineers, the salary increase proposal will be brought up at the monthly meeting at the end of the month; it’s procedure. Also, I’ll think of a way for the mobile kitchen—which I’ll have our technicians look into to see if we can add a few ingredient processing workflows."

Of course, if it was successful, Li De planned to charge a fee.

What was that word again?

Ah, right, additional value-added services!

Upon hearing the salary increase issue being pushed to the end of the month, Wang Jie immediately understood the head of department’s intent, his face betraying a helpless expression.

"Alright, I’ll pass on the message."

When the end of the month comes.

Those people won’t have anywhere to spend their money.

Naturally, they wouldn’t clamor for a raise anymore.

...

The repaired machine tool was still en route; delivery was expected to take a while.

Worried that the players would damage the thing, Chu Guang had specifically arranged for two light trucks for transportation. An empty truck with a snow plow attached to the bumper led the way, with the one carrying the machine tool following behind.

If they encountered a roadblock or hidden ditch, the first truck would detect it in time, and the second truck could avoid it.

To ensure nothing would go wrong, Chu Guang had the reliable Old Luka accompany him in the vehicle.

The road conditions in the Wasteland were truly terrible. The stretches leading out of the city were somewhat better, but many routes within the city were impassable even for animals with four legs, let alone wheeled vehicles.

Chu Guang planned to build a road in the near future to connect Outpost Base and Action Camp.

In the future, wherever the players of Shelter 404 chose to plant their flag, that’s where the road would reach.

How did that saying go again?

If you want to get rich, build a road.

Implementing this project in the Wasteland wouldn’t be easy, but it was definitely worthwhile.

While waiting for the machine tools to be delivered, Chu Guang wasn’t idle. Instead, he sat in the community hall of the shelter and turned on his computer to glance at the official forum.

After simmering overnight, the little players who couldn’t get to work had finally vented their pent-up frustrations. The atmosphere on the forum had returned to normal, with topics shifting from "Let’s all rush Ah Guang" to "What exactly did Alpha 0.8 update?"

But it was as if nothing had happened.

Overall, the players who had experienced the changes in the new version online were quite intrigued by the unique base gameplay and regional reputation system.

Particularly when they learned that "contributing resources could earn regional reputation" and that "once the prosperity of the Action Camp reached 100, it could grow into a Survivor Base," they became noticeably more enthusiastic in their work.

In other MMORPGs, NPC towns are just a bunch of static textures, but in Wasteland OL, Survivor Bases are built brick by brick, through the personal effort of the players. Moreover, they grow alongside the players’ in-game actions.

This wave was a perfect combination of RPG and SLG, experiencing the joy of two games in one.

What a steal!

The players were thrilled, and it hadn’t taken much effort on Chu Guang’s part either.

For him, it was just a matter of devising a few simple formulas based on last month’s report and having Xiao Qi help turn them into a data card similar to the "Attribute Panel."

Even without the Alpha 0.8 update, he would have prepared the monthly report anyway, but now he was presenting it to the players in the form of a "Progress Bar."

As for its purpose?

Mainly, it was to share the joy of a sapling growing into a towering tree with the players.

After all, merely telling the players about how awesome our shelter had become thanks to their efforts would probably leave them scratching their heads. But if all their hard work was quantified into visible progress bars, who could say such a gesture was useless?

Look at Boss Xia’s weapon shop; it has a brick you contributed. Doesn’t that thought give you more motivation when hauling bricks?

Never mind the players who couldn’t revive due to bugs and were utterly miserable; those still online and those who had made reservations were already raving excitedly.

With his mind completely at ease, Chu Guang copied down a few shrewd ideas that struck his fancy, saving them in his notebook. Then, he stretched and leaned back in his computer chair.

"The delivery won’t arrive for another hour, what to do in the meantime?"

Ah, that’s right.

It seemed he could open another Blind Box.

His eyes lit up, and Chu Guang sprang up from his chair, staring intently as he opened the Administrator System and switched to the "Administrator Allowance" subpage.

These days, the players’ in-game actions were relatively monotonous, mainly focused on resource gathering tasks at the Action Camp. The daily active tasks were rather average, with a bunch left unmet every day.

Even so, Chu Guang had still managed to accumulate 33 reward points over the week.

The usual routine, three intermediate Blind Boxes, three basic Blind Boxes.

But just as Chu Guang was about to open his rewards, a thought gave him pause.

Wait.

If it was all a gamble anyway, why not go big and try opening 33 basic Blind Boxes at once?

What if he managed to get rewards from the intermediate or even advanced Blind Boxes? Wouldn’t that be a massive win?

After all, he had no use for so many plasters and syringes.

With this in mind, he no longer hesitated, immediately betting all the reward points on the icon furthest to the left.

"System, bring me 33 basic Blind Boxes!"

"Open!"

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