This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 174: The New Gathering Point and Steel Mill Relocation

Chapter 174: Chapter 174: The New Gathering Point and Steel Mill Relocation

To avoid trouble, Old Luka discussed with Wrench for a while and eventually decided to separate the two groups of people.

young and strong laborers recruited from the Refugee Camp were assigned to the cement factory’s construction site, overseen by the player "Spare People Under the Knife" and four foremen selected from the brick factory.

These foremen all wore VM, which could translate the players’ language into simple and understandable phonetic symbols.

Having worked at the brick factory for so long, they were already familiar with how to work with those "Blue Jackets," and as long as they had translation tools, communication was not a big issue.

"Spare People Under the Knife" was in charge of directing the construction, while the foremen were responsible for leading the people in their work—the division of labor was clear, and each had their responsibilities.

The other 25 prisoners of war were escorted by two guards along the elevated road leading out of the city, clearing obstacles from Changjiu Farm to Linghu Wetland Park.

If there were piles of rubble, they used shovels to throw them to the side of the road. If there were abandoned vehicles, they used tools to dismantle them on-site, loaded them onto trailers, and transported them to the south gate of Changjiu Farm.

The people from the Pioneer hadn’t taken all the equipment away before, leaving two hydraulic presses in the warehouse for Shelter No. 404 that could press roughly cut waste into blocks for easy transportation to the steel plant to be remelted into useful materials.

From Changjiu Farm to Outpost Base is a full 10 kilometers, and due to the frequent activities of the players, this area had become relatively safe.

While repairing the road, Chu Guang planned to set up a heavy industrial base along it, relocating Steel Factory No. 81 there and building related supporting industries nearby.

Like bullet production lines, firearm production lines, and so on.

After all, with the terrain of Linghu Wetland Park, big vehicles simply couldn’t get in, and with trees all around, the only place to recycle metal resources was an outdoor parking lot.

The resources in that open-air parking lot were scarce to begin with and, after being scavenged by players round after round, not to mention rusty car frames, even the railings next to the parking spaces had been taken away.

To scale up production, you still needed to be close to resource points and then have convenient transportation, and it would be even better if there were existing buildings that could be utilized.

Taking these factors into account, Chu Guang immediately thought of the Blood Hand Clan’s old base—the abandoned tire factory.

Not only did it have a complete enclosing wall, but it also had a fairly spacious warehouse, the kind that trucks could drive directly into through the main gate.

Geographically, the tire factory was just a short distance from the elevated road out of the city, located right between Linghu Wetland Park and Changjiu Farm—and it was even closer to the Wetland Park side.

Originally, because there weren’t enough hands and it was too far from the respawn point, Chu Guang simply gave up the base, asking players to set a fire before they left.

Now, with the number of NPCs and players on the rise, it was entirely possible to reuse it.

The only trouble now was that the place was probably crawling with Mutant Cockroaches and rats; they would need a few players to go in and clean it up.

But this was not a problem for Chu Guang.

It was the perfect job to throw at the newcomers who had entered the Game with the Alpha 0.8 version to level up and get familiar with the gameplay and combat skills against the Variants.

"I should have gotten a nutrition paste synthesizer from the traveling merchants at Red River Town back then."

He heard that nutrition paste made from Mutant Cockroaches and rats was quite popular over at Red River Town.

Chu Guang silently regretted it and tapped twice on the VM screen with his index finger, placing a marker on the map.

[Quest: Clear the Variants in the abandoned tire factory (located 4 kilometers north of Linghu Wetland Park)]

[Requirement: Kill at least 10 Mutant Rats or Mutant Cockroaches. This quest can be accepted repeatedly.]

[Reward: 10 Silver Coins, 20 Contribution]

In a while, he would send a guard to the entrance of the "Monster Den" as a related NPC for the quest, responsible for issuing the quest and confirming its completion, essentially supervising the players at work.

"I heard that Mutant Rat tails might be edible, but I don’t know if that’s true."

Although the players wouldn’t eat it, the refugees wouldn’t mind.

It’s all meat.

Who cared where it came from?

...

kilometers north of the Wetland Park, at the fork in the road connecting the city to the elevated highway.

A young guard carrying an "Arbitrator" rifle was stepping on the snow-covered ground, heading in the direction of the abandoned tire factory.

His name was Lu Bei, the youngest member of the Outpost Base Security Team.

Although he had been on the job for less than a month, his loyalty had already been recognized by the Manager.

Just a moment ago, the Manager himself had entrusted him with the task of overseeing the clearance of Variants from the abandoned tire factory by the residents of the refuge.

Lu Bei still remembered this place.

After all, just over a month ago, he was a prisoner of the Looters here.

It was an unbearable memory.

Although the Looters here had been purged, he still couldn’t help but shiver instinctively when he returned.

"Come on... Lu Bei, you have to pull yourself together."

He slapped his own face hard, and the 14-year-old boy took a deep breath of the icy air, overcoming his fear with loyalty.

"This is a task personally given to you by the Manager!"

Regaining his courage, Lu Bei took the heavy rifle off his back and stood at the entrance of the abandoned tire factory.

It wasn’t a long wait.

Soon, several residents of the shelter, carrying long and short cold weapons and dressed in hunting gear, approached.

Despite the ghastly weather, their faces were still filled with sunny, confident, and optimistic smiles, but they did not have VMs on their arms.

According to the Manager, they were all "newbies" who needed to accumulate merit before they could obtain proof of identity.

Thinking of this, Lu Bei couldn’t help but feel proud because he happened to wear such a "proof of identity" on his arm.

The players approached him and asked,

"Hello, do we pick up quests here?"

"Big bro, we’d like to do that mission clearing out the Variants at the abandoned tire factory, do we need to do any paperwork?"

"Damn, where’s the quest pop-up?"

"Are you freakin’ stupid or something? There’s no quest pop-up; user info is all integrated into the VM, and you can’t pay for it until you’re Citizen level!"

"Crap, this game is too damn realistic, paying for a user interface!"

Lu Bei could not understand what they were babbling about.

But that was not important.

The Manager had told him that he just needed to follow the prompts on the VM, do what he was supposed to do step by step, recite the dialogue he was supposed to recite, and then supervise their work.

"You have finally arrived."

He saluted these people military-style, stood up straight, and spoke with a sonorous and powerful voice,

"The abandoned tire factory has been occupied by a group of Variants, and we need to clear them out."

"Your mission is to kill at least ten mutant rats or mutant cockroaches. After completing the mission, I will report your results to the captain."

Although Lu Bei himself was not quite sure what he meant by these words, the players, upon hearing them, rushed excitedly into the abandoned tire factory to fight the Variants roaming inside the building.

The sight of them bravely fighting without regard for their own safety was hard not to admire.

They might not have been wearing VMs, but their valor was second to none.

Watching their retreating figures, Lu Bei felt a mix of admiration and a tinge of shame.

Just a few minutes earlier, he had almost been too scared to come near because of an unpleasant memory.

"Clearly, I still need more training..."

With a more resolute gaze, Lu Bei tightened his grip on his rifle.

To not let down the VM on his left arm, to deserve that proof of identity, he still needed to be more loyal!

...

As the new players were wielding axes and clubs, enthusiastically clearing the mutant rats and cockroaches in the abandoned tire factory, the Spring Water Commander, who had changed into new equipment, was now leading two familiar players in tackling the abandoned school in the Northern urban area of Changjiu Farm.

The school wasn’t very large; it was probably a community college before the war.

Last time, he and a comrade with a Sensing Sequence had found an abandoned military camp as well as traces of survivors’ past lives here.

His instinct told him that there might be something good to be found here.

The successive gunshots shattered the silence.

Breaking into the abandoned academic building, his two teammates used their automatic weapons to continuously harvest the Eaters wandering in the hall on the first floor.

Raising his hand, he took down three charging Eaters with a burst of fire and shouted excitedly to his fellow teammate, "Hahaha, brother, I’m not bragging, but this ’Sickle’ is freaking awesome!"

Worthy of being a CF co-branded weapon!

This rat-tat-tat sound was much more satisfying than the hissing cough-like sound of a pipe rifle!

"+1!" Flush-faced with the flames dancing from the muzzle, "I Max Black" shouted enthusiastically, "I freaking love shooting!"

Compared to the Sickle Assault Rifle, the 5mm revolver rifle he’d used before was like a mere water pistol!

At this moment, the Spring Water Commander, clad in an exoskeleton, was also holding a crowbar.

Seeing his teammates wasting bullets on the Eaters, he couldn’t help but curse,

"Damn, save some ammo, will you? One bullet for 1 Silver Coin!"

Originally, he had planned to buy an LD-47 to play with, but alas, he had given all his money to Mosquito.

Thankfully, Mosquito Brother came through for once and really hooked him up with armor that was a replica of the Manager’s.

The suspended armor had covered all the vital parts of his body, turning the standard mining exoskeleton straight into heavy infantry armor without affecting his mobility.

It would have been perfect with a hammer!

The only pity was that he was completely broke, having mooched off his buddy for food yesterday.

If they came up empty-handed this time, they would be facing some lean times.

Brother Battlefield said, "Don’t worry; what’s money for if not to spend?"

I Max Black chimed in with a grin, "Exactly! What’s the point of being stingy in the game? That’d just make you a salted fish!"

Brother Battlefield said, "Bro, I think I’m running low on ammo, could you spare me some?"

I Max Black replied, "Damn, brother, you should’ve said something sooner; I’m almost out too."

Brother Battlefield exclaimed, "Damn! Why didn’t you save some?"

I Max Black retorted, "You seriously blaming me?"

Spring Water Commander: "..."

Although they said that, as they delved deeper into the building’s interior, the sound of their guns firing ’tut-tut-tut’ ceased.

A magazine cost 30 silver coins – thinking about it, that really did hurt the wallet a bit. Battlefield Atmosphere Group fixed a bayonet under the firearm’s barrel, while I Max Black brought out an axe hanging on his belt.

Despite the playful attitudes, caution was necessary when the time called for it.

In such narrow spaces, it was better to resolve things with close combat weapons if possible.

They crossed the hall and entered the corridor.

The trio distinctly felt that the atmosphere was unnatural here.

I Max Black said, "This should be the experimental building."

Battlefield Atmosphere Group asked, "What makes you think that?"

I Max Black replied, "Don’t know – maybe because it smells like liver around here."

Spring Water Commander: "..."

"Seriously, no joking now," I Max Black frowned, his eyes darting around alertly, "I sense something drawing closer to us."

Sensing Sequence LV4, with 10 points in perception attributes – while weaker than the big shots, it was enough to discern common dangers.

They dared not take anything lightly.

Spring Water Commander switched his crowbar from his right hand to his left, then drew a Ten-Husband Long Pistol from his waist with his right hand.

However, almost at the same moment, a shrill roar came from above the partially collapsed ceiling ahead.

All three of them were startled and quickly raised their guns, only to see a Crawler poke its head out from behind the rubble and scream, charging towards them.

"Fuck! A Crawler––"

Standing in the front, Spring Water Commander bore the brunt of the onrushing Crawler and was hit head-on.

It all happened too suddenly.

So sudden that nobody had time to react.

Thanks to the breastplate hanging on the exoskeleton, Spring Water Commander felt his blood surge but was otherwise unharmed.

His pistol was flung away, and both he and the Crawler rolled back five or six meters, colliding solidly with a wall.

As the Crawler bit down, he almost instinctively raised the crowbar, blocking the blood-spewing maw, pushing forward with both hands as hard as he could.

"Roar––!"

The filthy teeth were inches from his face!

Spring Water could even smell the foul breath from its mouth.

"Shit!"

The steel tube gradually bent, and as he avoided the dripping saliva, Spring Water cursed and increased the output power of his exoskeleton. Clenching his right fist, he pushed it outward and finally aimed at the beast’s head.

"For fuck’s sake––"

"Die!"

The moment the words fell, there was a loud bang.

As a thick copper shell was ejected from the side of his arm, a thumb-thick steel nail fired from the front end of his arm, nailing through the Crawler’s skull.

Black blood splattered everywhere.

The Crawler, whose head had been smashed, struggled for a while before finally collapsing heavily next to the Spring Water Commander.

The two who came to support, including Spring Water himself pinned down by the Crawler, were all shocked by its power.

"Holy shit, what kind of equipment is this?"

Wiping the blood from his face, Spring Water Commander spat and said.

"Don’t know... Mosquito called this thing a nail shooter, and also said if I wanted, I could call it Nails 1.0."

The principle seemed to be nitrocellulose compression ignition, to propel the steel nails from the left arm nail shooter. According to Mosquito himself, it could penetrate 20mm thick steel plate at close range.

Just like the one hanging in front of his chest.

"This is too handy..." admitted I Max Black enviously, picking up the hot cartridge from the ground, "But why not use electric drive? You have batteries on you."

Spring Water Commander: "Mosquito said it’s fiercer this way."

Indeed.

Explosive propulsion was far more powerful than an electric motor; the only downside was that reloading was necessary for a second strike – it wasn’t capable of continuous output like a pile driver.

But that didn’t seem necessary.

Half of the Crawler’s head had been blown off...

Battlefield Atmosphere Group extended a hand and pulled Spring Water up from the ground.

"Brother, you OK?"

"I’m fine, just a stomachache from being hit."

Shaking his head, Spring Water picked up the Ten-Husband Long Pistol that had fallen to the ground and continued forward with his two teammates to explore further.

The crawler we encountered earlier seemed to be the final boss.

Afterward, we met only dimwitted eaters, and two hits in melee easily took care of them without any effort at all.

Next to a laboratory, the group found an entrance to an underground chamber.

The door to the chamber was wide open, and the pitch-black passageway was chilling to the bones.

The Spring Water Commander swallowed hard and said nervously,

"Should we go down and have a look?"

That was obviously a redundant question.

They had already come this far; they couldn’t leave empty-handed.

If there was an entrance to a maze below, or some kind of hidden experimental facility, that would be amazing.

But now the question was...

Who would go down first?

I Max Black, "I have a bad feeling about the inside... Spring Water, it’s up to you."

Spring Water Commander, "Damn! You say there’s something bad down there but you’re sending me‽"

I Max Black, "Then what? You have the highest toughness. If you don’t take the lead, you expect me to take the hits‽"

Spring Water Commander argued anxiously, "Is this really a question of toughness‽"

Seeing that none of his teammates were reliable, Brother Battlefield sighed and bravely stepped forward.

"I’ll do it."

Spring Water Commander looked at him with excitement, his right hand resting on his shoulder.

"Good brother, go for it! It’s all on you!"

I Max Black also placed his hand on his shoulder, cheering him on, "Go ahead, brother, we’ll wait for your news on the official website!"

Battlefield Atmosphere Group, "???"

Fortunately, this time I Max Black’s intuition did not come true. The passageway leading to the underground chamber was free from fatal radiation, traps, or lurking dangerous monsters.

However, at the end of the passageway, they did not find any relics of pre-war civilization, the entrance to an underground maze, or a mysterious experimental facility.

But the trip was not in vain.

In that spacious underground chamber, ten neatly arrayed cryogenic sleep cabins were lined up. The doors were open, and judging from the dust settled on them, they had been opened for a long time.

The batteries had been removed, possibly by scavengers who had been there or taken by people who woke up from the sleep cabins.

Luckily, although the batteries were missing, the electric devices behind the sleep cabins were intact, not even a scratch on them!

According to the purchase price listed by the Outpost Base’s warehouse, the parts from an undismantled discarded sleep cabin could sell for at least 50 silver coins, and up to 100 silver!

And here, there were ten of them!

All three held their breath simultaneously. Especially the Spring Water Commander, who was then clutching his fists with excitement.

Awesome!

Straight up jackpot!

Battlefield Commander, "Now there’s only one problem, how do we carry all this stuff back?"

Spring Water Commander said excitedly, "That’s easy, we can rent a truck and drive to the outskirts of the city. I’ve inquired about the price; it’s about 10 silver coins per kilometer."

It was roughly 20 kilometers back to Linghu Wetland Park, and it would be easy to recoup the travel expenses with a little scavenging.

"Speaking of which... this emblem looks kind of familiar." Standing next to a desk, I Max Black held a metal box that he found in a drawer.

The box was pitch black, made of an unknown material, and its purpose was not clear. There was no visible mechanism or button to open it.

Only on the back of the box, there was an indented circular emblem.

"Let me see."

Spring Water came over to I Max Black’s side, took the black box from his hand, and scrutinized the emblem.

Around the large circle, there was a smaller dot, somewhat resembling Earth and the Moon, as well as a hydrogen atom.

So familiar...

I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere before.

Spring Water furrowed his brows.

At that moment, Brother Battlefield, who was watching from the side, suddenly interjected.

"I’ve seen this! It was in the documents updated on the official website yesterday!"

Spring Water snapped to his senses and blurted out.

"The Academy!?"

The three of them who caught on were immediately stunned.

Damn it‽

Is this the start of a plot twist‽

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