This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 184: The Players’ First Awakening

Chapter 184: Chapter 184: The Players’ First Awakening

"The ’Black Box’ was borrowed by Yin Fang for research.

Considering the space on Level B2 was too small, Chu Guang found a slightly more spacious single room for him on Level B1 to borrow, doubling as his lab and ’surgical operating room.’

However, Chu Guang soon discovered that the guy didn’t just stuff his personal belongings in there, but even hauled in the bed and bedding.

It looked like he planned to live at his post.

Given this situation, Chu Guang, as the Manager, deeply reflected on himself for a few seconds.

It was clear that his little players had indeed caused no small trouble for Doctor Yin.

But even so, Chu Guang still felt that Yin Fang doing so was somewhat unnecessary.

After all, as long as he still planned to go to Zone A on the second underground level to eat, drink, and attend to other needs, it was almost inevitable for him to run into players who were interested in him.

’Why bother?’

Avoiding those energetic players too much, on the contrary, could make them more likely to target him. About such matters, Chu Guang had too much experience.

He hoped Doctor Yin would adapt to his new life sooner rather than later.

After silently wishing him well in his heart, Chu Guang saw that it was getting late, so he got up and went to the marketplace at the North Gate of the Outpost Base.

As the newbies of the Alpha 0.8 version gradually got the hang of the Game, recently, quite a few interesting stalls had newly opened in the marketplace.

For example, there was one selling ramen and another selling fried rice.

The former was run by a player who used their real name as an ID, who was said to cut the meat thinner than paper and pull the noodles as thin as data cables, pretty much authentic.

The latter wasn’t a newbie. Rumored to be the disciple of ’Tomato and Egg Stir-fry’, the ID was ’Hot and Sour Potato Strips’, also a name that sounded quite appetizing.

However, due to the scarcity of supplies in the Outpost Base, there were neither eggs nor Lao Gan Ma chili sauce. Even though this fellow cooked with great effort, eating it still felt like it was lacking soul. Chu Guang tried it once and then never again.

Seeing Chu Guang sit down in front of his stall, Zhang Hai was so startled that he almost cut his fingers.

’Manager, what would you like?’

NPC!

And a Manager at that!

Could it be a hidden quest was about to be triggered?!

As for the new players’ great surprise, Chu Guang was used to it and didn’t take it to heart.

He found a wooden table to sit at and said,

’One bowl with meat, please.’

’Coming right up!!!’

Soon enough, the ramen was placed on the table.

White steam rose, the fragrance of the noodles mingled with the aroma of the meat, making it very tempting to the appetite. Especially the meat in the bowl, almost covering the noodles, which seemed different from the rumors, right?

Just as Chu Guang was about to take a bite, he heard the commotion nearby.

’Damn it! Why do I have so little meat?’

’Exactly! Isn’t this too little?’

’I seriously suspect this bastard shifted all the meat from our bowls to the Manager’s!’

Seeing the customers complaining noisily, Zhang Hai wasn’t flustered at all; without even pretending, he declared righteously,

’What’s all the fuss? Are you an NPC? Can you give me a hidden quest? Can you help me jump from T5 to T0?’

The crowd of players: ’%￥#@!’

’...’

To avoid the players’ dispute turning toward him, Chu Guang decided to pretend he didn’t hear anything and focus on eating his noodles.

Ever since the end of the month, the weather had been getting colder by the day.

However, the marketplace at the North entrance was getting livelier by the day.

Everything was slowly improving.

The only fly in the ointment was that Crow’s mushroom stall seemed to have closed, and Chu Guang hadn’t seen her open for business for several days in a row.

It was really too bad.

Chu Guang quite liked the mushroom soup that little player cooked.

Let’s hope this damn winter ends soon!

...

After dinner.

Upon returning to the Shelter, Chu Guang first washed his face, then exchanged the 200 Reward Points he earned for completing side quests for 2 advanced blind boxes.

Perhaps it was the effect of washing his face, but the rewards from the blind boxes, surprisingly, didn’t disappoint him.

Besides an EMP grenade, he actually drew a set of Type 5 ’Light Cavalry’ light-duty police exoskeleton!

’Holy shit! Does washing your face actually make a difference?!’ Looking at the equipment lying on the conveyor, Chu Guang’s face showed surprise."

To be honest, before opening these two blind boxes, he had been somewhat pessimistic.

After all, not long ago he had just pulled out a second Hummingbird drone, and from a metaphysical perspective, it seemed only reasonable he should run into a streak of bad luck a few times.

However, the system, defying any routine, tossed him an SSR straight away.

Chu Guang figured it must be because he usually liked to do good deeds.

His karma was simply off the charts!

After retrieving the exoskeleton from the conveyor belt, Chu Guang initially planned to hang it up for sale at Boss Xia’s weapon shop.

However, after a few seconds of thought, he dismissed that idea.

The reason was simple.

Up to that point, apart from one "Miner Type I" exoskeleton that had been given away in a lottery, none of the nine displayed in the shop had been sold.

It wasn’t just because of the purchasing threshold of "Contribution Level Citizen, Player Level LV10", it was also because the equipment’s price was there for all to see.

silver coins.

The number of players on the server who could come up with that much money was countable on one hand.

And as the "Model 5 Light Cavalry" exoskeleton was a pre-war society’s police equipment, its performance in all aspects obviously exceeded that of the corporate-designed Miner Type I, not to mention it came with integrated composite material bulletproof armor—its price surely couldn’t be lower than the latter’s, right?

If taken to the corporations on the East Coast, such pre-war equipment could easily be traded for at least five "Miner Type I" sets!

"How many silver coins it sells for can be discussed later, Miner Type I is Level 10 equipment, but something as good as the Model 5... should reasonably be Level 15 or even Level 20."

"If the lower-grade equipment hasn’t sold yet, putting a higher-grade piece on the shelf now would be pointless other than gathering dust."

That being the case, it would be better to take it to the Guard, letting NPCs with duty requirements use it first.

Under the premise of not disrupting the balance of Wasteland OL, that was the best way Chu Guang could think of to ensure the equipment realized its true value.

Watching his reward points dwindle to single digits, Chu Guang impulsively bet them all on basic blind boxes.

However, the rush of good luck from before seemed to have used up all his fortune, and this time nothing exceptional came out—just lollipops.

And they were the kind without any attribute bonuses.

But Chu Guang didn’t mind.

One shouldn’t be too greedy.

Just getting an exoskeleton out was a massive gain!

The blind box drawing was done.

Catching the peak of players going offline, Chu Guang intended to browse the forum for a bit, but just as he had sat down in front of the computer, a pale blue pop-up message appeared before his eyes.

[System: Player "White Horse Passing a Gap" has achieved 10% of gene sequence development.]

Huh?

"There’s already a player at Level 10?"

Chu Guang was surprised in his heart and immediately opened the player list, spotting Old White’s number at a glance.

"Xiao Qi, help me pull up the player’s attribute panel!"

The wall-mounted speaker immediately responded.

"Received, Master!"

Soon, the computer screen on the office desk displayed a chart.

[

ID: White Horse Passing a Gap

Gene Sequence: Strength Type (Stage 2)

Level: LV.9→LV10

—Basic Attributes—

Strength: 12→17

Agility: 6→7

Constitution: 6→7

Perception: 6→7

Intelligence: 4→5

]

[

Talent:

Boundary Breakthrough (Strength Type): Breaks through the body’s limits in 0.5 to 3 seconds, gaining a 150% to 200% Strength Attribute boost, fatigue accumulation rate of 200% to 400%, with a cooldown time of 30s to 1min.

]

Staring at the attribute panel, Chu Guang stroked his chin with interest.

"Strength Type awakening, main attribute increases by 5 points, the rest increase by 1 point... These panel data are pretty good."

Especially those 17 points of strength, just like my own!

And that "Boundary Breakthrough," capable of obtaining up to a maximum of 200% strength boost in a short time, 17 points of strength instantly doubling to 34?

Though its short duration is a problem, for melee players, victory or defeat itself is a matter of moments.

To be able to achieve strength comparable to Mutants within a short time with a human body is already terrifying!

Chu Guang didn’t doubt for a second that his players could make creative use of this skill.

"Awakening takes 6 to 8 hours, during which time clone revival is not possible... It seems my speculation is correct; leveling up happens during sleep."

Perhaps because growing always takes place while sleeping?

Chu Guang noted that the cultivation chamber could speed up this process to some extent.

In addition, after awakening, the vital substances needed to revive a clone increased from 1 unit to 2 units. As for the cooldown, there’s no change; it’s still 72 hours.

After organizing the information collected from Old White, Chu Guang selectively updated the "Wasteland OL" official database.

He hoped this information would provide some reference for his players.

...

At ten o’clock in the evening.

After fixing up his new room, Yin Fang once again came to the Manager’s Office and found Chu Guang.

"Can I get a few more VMs from you? Twenty would be enough."

Upon hearing this strange request, Chu Guang gave a slight pause, then turned to Yin Fang and asked,

"What do you need so many VMs for?"

Although there were nearly a thousand VMs stored on Level B1, now with five hundred players, the average allocation was less than 2 VMs per player.

Even without considering the natural loss due to accidents, NPCs also needed VMs for issuing tasks and communicating with players.

Although Chu Guang had not yet encountered a shortage of VMs, there was certainly no excess to squander.

"Although I’d also like a professional workstation computer, clearly you don’t have one here," glancing at the vintage "suitcase-style" computer on the desk, Yin Fang continued, "The processing power of a VM may be weak, but with some modifications, it can be used. If I link twenty together, they’ll just barely meet my work needs."

Chu Guang shook his head and said,

"Twenty VMs are too many! If you’re in need of computing power, the shelter’s server has ample capacity, and I can assign some to you. How does that sound?"

Yin Fang’s eyes brightened and he said,

"That would be ideal! But even so, I still need a few VMs to act as screens and interfaces—"

"Three," Chu Guang extended three fingers, "Is that enough?"

Looking at these three fingers, Yin Fang scratched the back of his head with some frustration.

"I’m not sure... To be honest, this is my first attempt at DIYing such a makeshift workstation. Back at the Academy, everyone above Level D had their own independent lab for equipment modifications and sample analysis—"

"Well, I’m sorry, but this is what we have here; you’ll have to make do," Chu Guang coughed lightly and continued firmly, looking at him, "However, I assure you that I will have my people keep an extra lookout during scavenging. If they find any usable electronic devices, they’ll be delivered to you first thing. As for VMs... that’s all I can spare for now; if it’s not enough, let me know later."

"Starting a new venture is always tough, right?" Yin Fang made a resigned face and shrugged, indicating no objections.

He was aware of Shelter No. 404’s difficulties.

The place was so stripped bare it was as if it had been robbed; he had never seen a three-digit shelter this impoverished. Not to mention the basics like a medical station, there wasn’t even an automatic kitchen—the food had to be brought in from the outside!

It was tough on the residents here, each one a model of labor commendation, so optimistic it was almost unhumanly so.

In any other shelter, just the issue of the Manager forcing them to eat mutant food might be enough to spark a revolt.

Taking the three VMs he had received from Chu Guang, Yin Fang was about to head out the door when Chu Guang suddenly seemed to remember something and called out to him.

"Right."

Waiting at the door, Yin Fang turned back and asked,

"What is it?"

Chu Guang continued,

"If I want to refuel the shelter’s reactor, where should I look for fuel rods?"

Hearing this unexpected query, Yin Fang first looked perplexed, but then was instantly alarmed after absorbing the implication.

"What do you mean, your shelter’s out of fuel?!"

Chu Guang coughed and said,

"It’s not my shelter, it’s one I... recently picked up."

But as for how long the energy at Shelter No. 404 would last, Chu Guang himself had no idea.

So far, he hadn’t unlocked the floor where the reactor was located, and even if he wanted to refuel the shelter, he had nowhere to do it, so all he could do was hope that the current energy consumption rate of the shelter was still within the parameter set by the First Generation Manager.

A GAME OVER due to a power outage would just be too damned lame!

After listening to Chu Guang’s explanation, Yin Fang breathed a sigh of relief, paused for a moment, and then continued,

"Finding fuel rods for shelter use isn’t easy since the original intent of the shelter project was not to keep survivors underground indefinitely. Some shelters even start phasing out life support systems after activation, or transition from full to partial recycling to encourage the residents to return to the surface for reconstruction work."

Chu Guang’s brows were tightly knotted.

"So that means there’s no way to fix this?"

"It’s not that there’s no way," Yin Fang shook his head, "to my understanding, the institution that designed the reactors for the Central State region’s shelters is Central State Space, and the reactors are the same model as the ’Gong Gong’ series space station and the N series spacecraft."

Chu Guang couldn’t help but say,

"There’s no way I can go up to heaven to find this thing."

Yin Fang nodded and said,

"That’s right, going up to heaven to recover fuel rods is indeed impractical. The situation there is no better than on the ground, and may even be worse. However, although we can’t go to outer space, we can look for some stockpiles that haven’t been sent out there yet. Besides that, some research institutions affiliated with Central State Space should also have these kinds of fuel rods... I’ve heard that their backup generators are similar models."

Chu Guang stared intently at him and said,

"Do you have a good plan?"

Yin Fang hesitated before saying,

"I can’t promise anything, but we can try... If we can get hold of the production data and product numbers from Central State Space or its affiliated factories, we should be able to locate some usable fuel rods."

If I remember correctly, such facilities should exist in the southern part of River Valley Province.

And there, it should be possible to find some electronic devices that could be useful, which is exactly what Yin Fang urgently needs now.

After hearing this, Chu Guang suddenly stood up from his office chair, walked up to him with surprise and joy, and placed both hands on his shoulders.

"It’s all up to you!"

Faced with this eager gaze, Yin Fang paused for a moment and said uncertainly,

"I can only say I’ll do my best..."

It was the year 211 of the Wasteland Era, and before that, there had been a war lasting three years. Throughout these long two-plus centuries, anything could happen.

Even the sanatorium on the surface at Area 404 had been visited by scavengers more than once—it was just that no one had discovered that underneath what seemed to be a broken-down elevator, there was actually a shelter hidden away.

If they could get the fuel rods, not only could the related mission for Shelter No. 117 be completed, but the potential energy crisis at Shelter No. 404 could also be resolved.

It was like killing two birds with one stone!

In a very good mood, Chu Guang swung his arm and immediately allocated a "whopping" budget of 10,000 silver coins to the project for recovering fuel rods.

Finding fuel rods compatible with the shelter’s reactor would become the first mission of the Shelter No. 404 exploration team.

As the leader of the exploration team, Yin Fang could use this budget to recruit players to explore the target or issue a public bounty.

However, Chu Guang also cautioned him that it was best not to spend all the money at once, as giving too much isn’t always a good thing.

The specific methods for using the budget, as well as the setting of reward baseline values for missions of various levels, were detailed in the Shelter Residents Handbook (NPC version).

This was a compulsory course for every NPC starting at Shelter No. 404.

If there was any doubt about any clause within it, one could click the question mark icon on the handbook page of the VM to ask the Manager’s assistant, Xiao Qi, who was online 24/7, and Xiao Qi would answer every question.

However, like Boss Xia when he first arrived here, Doctor Yin did not feel anything for silver coins; instead, he took the opportunity to complain.

"You guys are still using metal currency? Don’t you find it troublesome?"

Chu Guang disagreed,

"Metal currency has its advantages. The sound of coins clinking motivates people to work harder. Money that you can see and touch is also easier to gain recognition from strangers... But I have also been considering, recently, switching to a more convenient form of currency. You go take care of your own matters; you don’t need to worry about this issue. I’ll think of a solution."

After Doctor Yin left,

Chu Guang, sitting in front of the computer, switched back to his role as a planner and logged into the "Wasteland OL" official website’s backend.

When he activated Shelter No. 117, Chu Guang had only recovered the power armor, Doctor Principle’s briefcase, and the Manager’s VM from there, and there were still many areas he hadn’t had the chance to explore in detail.

Currently in his mission list, there were two remaining tasks.

One was to refuel the reactor of Shelter No. 117, after which he could obtain management rights to Shelter No. 117.

The other was a mission triggered by Doctor Principle’s videotape.

That is, to explore the entirety of Shelter No. 117 with the VM in hand, and unlock Level B3 of Shelter No. 404 upon completion!

The mission of finding fuel rods had already been entrusted to Yin Fang to resolve.

As for the latter task, with a current exploration progress of 21%, Chu Guang planned to leave the rest for his small players to complete.

The Variants at the entrance of the shelter had been dealt with, and exploring the map itself was not difficult, so it was a perfect opportunity to distribute some benefits to his players.

Having made up his mind,

A smile appeared on Chu Guang’s face, and with his hands on the keyboard, he began to assign "tomorrow’s" homework to his little players—

[Announcement: The player "White Horse Passing a Gap" has reached Level 10, becoming the first strength-type player to unlock 10% of their Gene Sequence!]

[Announcement: A new version is coming soon, and the time-unlimited event "Our Neighbors" will start precisely at 19:00 tonight!]

[Event Details: Bring your VM and visit Shelter No. 117, check in at all scenes; if the exploration progress reaches 100%, you will receive a mysterious grand prize!]

[Note: The event is not time-limited; just have a VM to participate. To avoid traffic congestion, players are advised to travel at off-peak times!]

-

(Tomorrow will resume two updates!)