This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 168 This Game Seems to Have Recruited a Planner from Company P

Chapter 168: Chapter 168 This Game Seems to Have Recruited a Planner from Company P

Guns, at any time, are more persuasive than words.

Like now.

Li did not take long to make a decision, he had no doubt that these people could destroy them without even a charge.

Even though the refugees behind him were not willing, he still tried to persuade them.

"We have no choice, they won’t let us move forward, and we can’t go back."

A ragged Waste Land Wanderer couldn’t help but shout, "What if we hand over the weapons and they just open fire on us?"

"What if we don’t hand over our weapons?" Li looked at the man and said, "They could annihilate us without even a charge."

The Waste Land Wanderer had no rebuttal.

There were a total of over one hundred and eighty people, more than half of whom were the old, weak, women, and children. The adult men capable of fighting numbered less than seventy... and this was only by counting the children between the ages of eight and fourteen.

All the firearms added up to just over twenty, the rest were bows and spears which were enough to deal with equally lousy Looters, but still only good for hiding and keeping distance when faced with tougher opponents.

They had been driven away by other Survivor Bases before, almost no one would open up their living room during winter.

At least, these people didn’t open fire despite being capable of destroying them.

That was the greatest kindness...

After the refugees laid down their weapons, Chu Guang had Wrench send two people in to collect their weapons and, keeping his promise, set up a large pot in the open space at the east gate.

Chu Guang couldn’t feed them as well as the players, but he wasn’t going to watch this group of refugees starve and freeze in the cold wind.

He issued a quest through the VM, asking Tomato Scrambled Egg to go to the warehouse to collect fifty kilograms of green wheat to make porridge for those refugees.

At the same time, he asked the man named Li to take the younger adults who were still able to work and set up camp fifty meters outside the east gate.

The terrain here was uneven, with dead trees embedded in the snow everywhere, and there were also concrete fragments and a few building ruins that could be used.

Building a makeshift shelter was a necessary skill for every Waste Land Wanderer, and these people were no exception. After they were given some shovels, wheelbarrows, and other tools, the work progressed smoothly.

Meanwhile, the large pot at the east gate was set up, and as the water boiled, the Egg Brother poured all the green wheat into it.

The wheat with a tangy smell was hard to whet anyone’s appetite and needed to be boiled for a while to get rid of the astringency.

But that was for the players.

For those who were close to starving, even a bit of murky soup was a supreme delicacy.

The white steam rising from the pot made all the refugees swallow, and the speed of building the camp quickened.

Standing behind Chu Guang, several players whispered.

"These people look pretty pitiful."

"Yeah, it’s sad. Even the kids are helping out."

"But who would’ve thought that this Survivor Base would have people arriving just after it was constructed?"

"The effect is too quick."

Listening to the whispers of the players, Chu Guang was also puzzled. Although he had given the order to light the smoke, he hadn’t expected to draw people over on the second day.

Why didn’t anyone come when the Pioneer was still around? The smoke from the camp was much bigger than now, as his players got up early to cook for themselves.

And now they come!

If these refugees had arrived just two days earlier, their meals would have been so much better. The people from the Pioneer weren’t lacking in food or clothing, even more, sympathetic to the poor than himself. Chu Guang even dared to bet that if he showed willingness to accept these refugees, they would have generously offered a batch of supplies to him.

As for now, all Chu Guang could say was that he would do his best.

While these refugees were building the camp, Chu Guang got Old Luka to take a census.

There were a total of 187 refugees, 61 of whom were able-bodied men over the age of fourteen, the rest were the old, weak, women, and children, including 5 infants under a year old and 4 pregnant women.

Chu Guang estimated that their group, at its largest, probably had around three to four hundred people. It seemed they had lost about half their number along the way.

Even so, their situation was still much better than the Nomads who settled in the vicinity of Wetland Park.

If he remembered correctly, Old Luka, with his clansmen from River Valley Province, walked all the way here northwards and were nearly wiped out, even eyeing their own seeds.

The security team had finished confiscating the guns, and they allowed them to keep knives, axes, and bows and arrows.

According to Wrench’s count, they handed over a total of 23 mismatched caliber iron tube rifles, including 5 old smoothbore guns, which genuinely surprised Chu Guang.

They had actually managed to come this far with such equipment.

It was truly unimaginable.

"Sir, I discovered someone had contracted typhoid at their camp," Luka reported to Chu Guang upon his return from the Refugee Camp.

Chu Guang, "Is it serious?"

"I’m not sure. Most of them are in poor health. It could be hunger, or it could be genuine illness... I can’t tell," Luka said cautiously, "I’m worried they’ll bring in a plague. We have neither doctors nor enough medicine to handle this situation."

After pondering for a moment, Chu Guang nodded.

"I got it, I’ll figure something out."

To be honest, Chu Guang didn’t really have any good solutions.

Hygiene wasn’t a real issue for the players, at least not a core one.

Even if one wasn’t a Body Constitution System player, as long as they reached Level LV7 or above, they would generally have a constitution of 6 to 7 points, which is already 120% to 140% the efficiency of a normal adult’s immune system.

As for Chu Guang himself, his constitution had reached 14, with an immune system almost three times as efficient as that of a normal person. Ordinary diseases were no problem for him, let alone a certain dosage of poison or mild radiation.

Seeing that Manager Chu Guang understood, Old Luka paused before continuing,

"Also, there’s the food..."

"Go ahead."

"Even when providing the least for relief, the daily consumption of food for over a hundred and eighty people is nearly fifty kilograms. We’d need about one and a half metric tons a month, and that’s an ideal scenario. Although you’ve obtained some food from the Pioneer, this harsh winter might last until the end of February, or even the beginning of March... Our own food supply is already very tight."

The number of players at Outpost Base was now five hundred, with a staggering daily food consumption of half a ton. Sometimes Old Luka really felt that those people were like bottomless pits, without a shred of thriftiness, as if they could eat double or even triple of what he could every day.

Currently, the total food reserves at Outpost Base were just over thirty metric tons. A third consisted of corn, rice, and potatoes purchased from the Pioneer; another third was made up of fresh meat, jerky, and the catch of the day from hunting and fishing.

The rest were spoils of war obtained from the Blood Hand Clan and Old Leech, and a portion that was voluntarily tributed from Brown Farm.

Conservatively estimated, given the current consumption trend, the food supply would probably only last until the end of the year.

"Food is indeed a problem," Chu Guang pondered for a moment, "I’ll come up with a solution."

Just a month ago, Outpost Base didn’t even have enough food to last a few dozen people half a month.

Worst comes to worst.

He could just ask the neighbors to lend him some.

...

After the porridge for the relief of the starving was distributed, the clamor in the Refugee Camp gradually subsided.

Many people had been on the move for a long time, unable to bear the exhaustion. With their bellies now full of warm food, they curled up in their sleeping bags underneath their shelters and fell asleep.

Although they were asleep, Wrench did not dare to relax his vigilance. He arranged for people to stand on the Enclosing Wall to keep watch, constantly monitoring the Refugee Camp.

Chu Guang was not too worried.

He didn’t even take the Blood Hand Clan seriously, let alone some refugees.

In the house near the east gate of Changjiu Farm, he welcomed a man named "Li."

This man must be the representative or rather, the leader chosen by the group of refugees.

"Thank you for your generosity!"

Upon entering the house, Li kneeled on one knee and nodded, "If it weren’t for you, many of us wouldn’t have survived the night."

"We don’t do kneeling here, get up," Chu Guang continued as he watched the man stand up, "We can offer you shelter, but you must be aware of your place and follow our rules and customs. Also, you should understand, this isn’t without cost."

Li nodded his head.

That was a reasonable request.

No one welcomed a guest who didn’t follow the rules.

Besides, before becoming refugees, they had their own homes and were aware that being "homeless" was unwelcome.

"What do you need?"

Chu Guang, "It’s simple. Work for us, and we’ll compensate you. Then you can use that compensation to exchange for food, fuel, or other things."

Before unlocking B3, the number of players had hit a temporary bottleneck. Without new players replenishing their ranks, he needed more indigenous people to replace the growing newcomers and take on those low-end, low added-value repetitive tasks.

Although he always joked that players worked harder than beasts of burden, he couldn’t always treat them like beasts of work.

Moving bricks occasionally was part of experiencing life, but doing it every day made it work.

Hearing what the Manager said, Li’s expression relaxed slightly, and he even showed a trace of joy.

In his expectation, just having food to eat would have been good enough. In other Survivor Settlements, the status of refugees was no nobler than that of slaves; as for the idea of compensation, he hadn’t even thought about it.

"Thank you for giving us the chance to survive."

"All we can offer you is a chance, whether you grasp it or not is up to you," Chu Guang paused before continuing, "I was told by my men that you previously had a survivor settlement. Does that mean you are not nomads?"

Li hurriedly nodded and said.

"Yes, my lord."

Chu Guang: "Tell me what you can do."

Li immediately replied: "We can do many things, including hunting, farming, weaving hemp ropes, and we also have carpenters and blacksmiths... Whatever you need, we can do it for you."

Watching Li eagerly pitch their skills, Chu Guang nodded slightly with satisfaction.

Hunters, carpenters, and other craftsmen were exactly what he needed, and as for blacksmiths, with a little training they could be placed in the steel factory.

While these laborers might not compare to his players’ quality, they were certainly better than the nomads. However, these survivors might have slightly weaker physical constitutions and they had not brought any livestock that Chu Guang desired.

"Settle yourselves in for the next couple of days."

"In a few days, I’ll arrange work for you."

"By the way, your name is a bit ominous and could cause confusion. You could add a surname for yourself, or I can give you a new name."

Offering a name or a surname meant acceptance, as well as acknowledgment of conversion.

The man’s heart leaped with joy at the unexpected generosity of the local lord and he hurriedly said.

"Please bestow a name upon me, my lord!"

Chu Guang thought for a moment and said.

"We call this place Changjiu Farm, so it wouldn’t be appropriate for you to take the surname Chang. You’ll take the surname Jiu instead, and change your given name Li to the ’Li’ from ’dawn.’"

"From today on, your name is Jiu Li."

...

Official Website:

[Announcement: A group of wanderers has arrived at Changjiu Farm (Prosperity +50).]

[Changjiu Farm gets "Migration Tide" buff: Increased demand for food and furs, population influx rises.]

[Old Luka’s Concerns: We don’t have much food ourselves; we can’t always keep feeding them. It would be great if we could find them some work to do. (Tip: There are many excellent hunters and artisans among the refugees, once you reach a "Friendly" reputation level, you could operate local industries and hire them for work.)]

[Today’s Recommended Recipes: Salt and Pepper Corn, Mapo Tofu (can be non-spicy too).]

[Vine Cottage: Vine Cottage is restocking with a large array of silk products for you.]

Tail: "!! New storyline! What did you guys do while Tail was away?!!! ∑(ﾟДﾟノ)ノ"

Quit smoking: "Damn! A new NPC?! The planners are awesome!"

Escaped Mole from the Valley: "I guessed right, the prosperity really does link to the NPC population number! But it seems the value is not calculated through a fixed formula based on population, but event-driven?"

Night Ten: "I suspect the operators have hired a Company P planner, waiting for the unchangeable ancestral laws and comets to come crashing down on us. (Funny)"

Irina: "Speaking of which, Tail, how did your Crack Claw Crab hunt go? Did you take care of it? (Funny)"

Sisi: "Ugh, don’t remind me, Ah Wei evacuated me first, and in no time he came down too."

Tail: "Wait, can you blame Tail for that! That rocket launcher was faulty, it wasn’t accurate at all! And it backfired with flames! (ŎдŎ;)"

Xiao Xiaosha Chong: "How can a recoilless gun not backfire..."

Tail: "But the one Mosquito sold didn’t backfire!"

Xiao Xiaosha Chong: "That’s because what he’s selling is definitely NOT a recoilless gun, what penetrating power? It’s just an unscrupulous cannon you shoulder."

Mosquito: "!!! You’re dragging me into this!"

Crow: "Hahaha! Rookie! Hahaha! Noob! o(*≧▽≦)ツ"

Thanks to the noble sacrifices of Tail and Sisi, everyone got a heads-up: this tube isn’t just for fun like Mosquito’s Firecrackers—do NOT point it at people when firing.

Anyway, the equipment and VM were retrieved.

It’s just a three-day OB, no big deal.

The arrival of the refugees sparked quite a debate on the official forum, but it didn’t become the focus of players’ discussions as in the past.

After all, it wasn’t the first time refugees had arrived, and besides, there was just too much happening today to discuss it all.

Makabazi, who received seeds from the Manager, was exchanging corn farming techniques with others in the forum.

Mole Old Brother and Mosquito’s joint venture in tackling the Shelter No. 117 mission also garnered considerable player attention, as the mission is suspected to be linked to the main storyline of the Game.

Unfortunately, there was no progress today.

The situation below the subway entrance is incredibly complex.

Just as Boss Xia said, there are at least hundreds of Eaters inside, not to mention Crawlers.

A single "Black Swan" with limited ammunition is simply not enough.

They need more automatic weapons and Molotov Cocktails, earth grenades, and other throwing objects; perhaps things will look up once the automatic rifles are officially on sale at 200 silver coins in a couple of days.

Contrary to the bad news of the stalled conquest of Shelter No. 117, the good news is that the second layer of Greenhouse Ruins has been successfully captured by the Cattle and Horse Squad.

They have successfully taken control of the gates between the second and third underground levels, and the space of the second underground layer of Greenhouse Ruins has now been freed.

Incredibly, even after two centuries, the facilities there are still in energy-saving mode, operating slowly.

Many of the luminous strips on the culture dishes have broken, but there are still some that light up. The indoor temperature is around twenty-five degrees Celsius, and the Spirit Leaves in the culture dishes are growing well.

Fang Chang wrote a tactical guide, summarizing the techniques for dealing with insect-type heterogeneous nests.

However, compared to the tactical guide that isn’t immediately useful, players on the forum are clearly more concerned about how much money the Cattle and Horse Squad looted from the second underground level of the Greenhouse Ruins.

Fang Chang didn’t say.

But Chu Guang, who was peeking at the screen, knew because he personally handed the money to them.

Taking into account the difficulty of the mission and the profits, they got a total of 1200 silver coins, and with the amount divided among four people, each person got 300 silver coins.

As for costs, Chu Guang didn’t calculate for them, but he estimated that they must have used up some ammunition.

If they had chosen to grind it out slowly with melee weapons, even with heavy armor to hold up, it would probably have taken a very long time. More so, they would have had to hire many people and count on a war of attrition.

When the profits were distributed, it wasn’t worth it compared to just spending some ammo.

After returning from Changjiu Farm, Chu Guang updated the announcement and then sat in front of the computer in the Resident Hall, browsing the official website.

Many players had already started discussing what work to assign to those refugees.

There are suggestions to open a textile factory and others to start a cement factory; suggestions were diverse. Of course, starting with version 0.8, setting up a factory has reputation requirements for the region, which need to be Friendly (1000) or above.

Completing tasks to help with regional development can increase the local reputation, or directly donating the materials needed by the region can boost it quickly.

Players complained that this setting was outright plagiarized from Mount & Blade.

Long live the Doggy Planner!

Additionally, what caught Chu Guang’s attention was that the Spring Water Commander, along with a newbie with high Perception, discovered an abandoned military base in the northern town.

The base was small in size, resembling a field operation base, situated on a community school’s playground.

In the early years of the Wasteland Era, it seemed to have sheltered some refugees, but probably didn’t last long before evacuation, so it didn’t develop into a Survivor Base like Bet Street.

Spring Water looked around there but didn’t find anything useful.

The whole school was searched thoroughly, even the library shelves were dismantled nearly in half, likely used by local survivors for firewood during the early stages of the Wasteland Era.

"It’s strange, that town seems to be a dead city, as is that school. There are no traces of survivors there, nor any Looters, just those Eaters filling the houses and the foul-smelling basement... Our equipment was insufficient, so we didn’t dare to go deeper into the buildings for exploration."

"I plan to head out again tomorrow to look around; maybe I’ll find something."

Chu Guang was also curious about what they might find there.

Although it probably had been scoured countless times over these two centuries, based on his experience, there was always something left behind that wasn’t taken.

While Chu Guang was online inside the shelter, fifteen kilometers north of Changjiu Farm, a few men carrying rifles and wearing thick coats were searching meticulously nearby.

"Those people couldn’t have gone too far," muttered the bearded man, tugging on the dog leash he was holding.

The hunting dog he was leading hissed and sniffed at the ground carefully.

Suddenly, the dog raised its head and barked furiously toward the south.

The man leaned down, patted its head, then extended his index finger to rub the ground.

Beneath the snow were traces of footprints.

He stood up again, squinting toward the south.

"They’re running pretty fast."

-

(Sorry! Four minutes late... Speaking of which, today should have been 10,000 words? But I forgot the progress bar. (༎ຶД༎ຶ))