This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 210: The Sudden Blizzard

Chapter 210: Chapter 210: The Sudden Blizzard

Kevin didn’t need to remind Gang Ya; he already knew that group was trouble.

By the end of one day, with back-to-back battles and two losses, he had nearly lost forty men and a quarter of his ammunition, including one blown-up light pickup truck.

If they didn’t leave now, he feared the rest of his men might not make it out alive!

Meanwhile, as Gang Ya and his remaining forces fled the North suburb of Qingquan city at dusk, the gamers who just went offline were still discussing the newly introduced "Medal System" with the soft update.

In fact, the concept of medals existed before; after every battle, outstanding squads or individuals would receive one.

But those medals lacked physicality; they were merely a number on the personal display page, without even an emblem.

However, this time was different. Not only were there specific medal designs, but there were also physical medals to be claimed within "Wasteland OL" – a first for the game!

Proof of victory in an epic battle!

This was way cooler than any pay-to-win skin!

At this moment, many gamers were surprised to discover that the medals they had received previously had all transformed into a gear-shaped icon following the server-wide announcement.

Upon closer inspection, the teeth on the two concentric gears of the medal added up to exactly 404.

When selecting the medal, there was also a line of description —

[We march to battle from here!]

A massive overhaul of the Medal System!

However, it seemed like these basic medals were just visually updated with designs and collectability elements and were given version numbers, but remained electronic without a physical counterpart.

The changes appeared to be made solely to distinguish them from special medals.

Yet even so, for the absolute majority of combat professional players, this was a pleasant surprise.

What if?

What if the operators decided to fill the gap in a future update? Maybe award physical medals for previous awards in-game, or unlock a hidden achievement when a player collects a certain number of medals.

It wasn’t impossible!

Spring Water Commander: "I’ve got it! The ’gear’ medals from ordinary battles are whiteboard medals, so they only have electronic versions, not physical ones!"

Battlefield Atmosphere Group: "Adding to that, the unlock conditions for the ’Shield’ medals are to achieve final victory in an epic-level defense mission!"

Quit smoking: "Wait, does this mean that there are similar achievements for assault, support, or raid missions? (excited)"

Wen Levin’s Athlete’s Foot: "Wild guess, if there’s a Silver Medal, there should also be Copper, Gold, and Diamond Medals."

Ya’er I Need to Visit Brother Ciso: "Throw in a Master rank, too. It’d feel strange without one."

Debt Giant Eye: "What if they introduce a military rank system in the future? (grinning teeth)"

Canyon Fugitive Mole: "Unlikely, unless there’s an increase in the player population, then it might be possible. Besides, we already have an Identity System. If they were to create a separate military ranking system just for the Soldier class, wouldn’t all players flock to it? However, it’s still a good suggestion for the operators to add a ’Command’ skill to the skill proficiency list. It would let it level up like Shooting and Combat. This would lure out the leaders who enjoy being captains, preventing those clueless about leading from taking captain spots, leading to disaster. (sigh)"

Elena: "I suspect you’re subtly taking a jab at Brother Killing Chicken. (amused)"

Midnight Chicken Killing: "(confused_black_man.jpg)"

Construction Boy and Brick: "Hahaha, makes sense! The ones afraid of taking the blame love to just tag along with the infantry. But yes, we need to give the big shots a little incentive. Just not too much, or it would upset game balance. (evil grin)"

Night Ten: "Planners: They’re copying, they’re copying. (amused)"

...

That night,

after the peak hour for going offline,

Chu Guang, back at the Shelter, glanced over the forum discussions about the medals.

When scrolling down to Night Ten’s comment, Chu Guang chuckled.

Copying?

Think bigger!

Aren’t the planners listening to the players’ voices something to be grateful for? If I didn’t read a single post, you’d still be using Contribution Points as money!

"Most of the Contribution Points and regional reputation actually come from military achievements, so setting up a separate military ranking does seem a bit redundant," Chu Guang mused, stroking his chin thoughtfully.

"...However, adding proficiency for the Command skill does seem necessary."

He casually copied the post from Brother Mole onto a document and noted at the bottom.

[Change: Add ’Command’ proficiency level. Based on difficulty, scale, casualty rates, and war score of the battle, calculate players’ ’Command’ skill proficiency gained during the match.]

Later on, he’d have Xiao Qi help design a formula to improve the experience for squad leaders.

After all, as many gamers had observed on the forums, leading a team was a hassle: if the battle goes well, it’s a team effort; if not, the leader takes the blame on the spot.

Command skill proficiency could clearly reflect a player’s organizational abilities.

Big shots forming teams always had players clambering to join, whereas lousy teams often struggled to fill up and ended up merged by the system, with captains chosen by vote.

In the future, players with high Command proficiency and numerous medals are likely to become sought-after assets by large guilds—or they might even become guild masters themselves.

This could be considered a hidden benefit.

After reading the suggestions, Chu Guang moved to the fan art section of the forum, curious about the progress of the design tasks he had publicly outsourced.

To his surprise, many talented artists had already submitted their work!

"Everyone’s so quick?"

As Chu Guang was about to dive into his little gamers’ creativity, he casually opened a post, almost spitting out his drink in disbelief.

This talent had directly put his face on a silver coin!

And not as a profile, but a full-faced portrait!

No exaggeration, it was a close resemblance, boosting the silver coin’s aesthetics significantly.

However, by that same token, it was almost too close for comfort; Chu Guang felt one could identify him in person with just that coin.

"Good grief, are they trying to curse my long life here?"

Standing out too much in the Wasteland is never a good thing.

After all, in this world, there are way more lunatics than normal people.

Great drawing!

Next time, don’t do it like this though.

Chu Guang thought to himself that when the United Human eventually revived and the Wasteland Era came to an end, he could come and claim the credit without any issue.

As for now, it was better to play it safe.

Besides having his own head drawn, there were also some peculiar designs. Some depicted Little Fish, others had Crow and Teng Teng in them... these were relatively normal, but Chu Guang couldn’t help wanting to lock the posts that weren’t.

After browsing around for a while, Chu Guang found that the most reliable one was undoubtedly Brother Mole.

Ever since he got muted last time, he had turned over a new leaf and stopped drawing comics; instead, he started drawing more profound and serious stuff.

Like this time’s silver coin design.

On his design, one side of the silver coin featured an artistic "N," which looked like the game’s numeral "1."

On the other side, there was a pincer of a Crack Claw Crab, which, along the coin’s edge, was outlined to form a "F," with scales juxtaposed so finely that it resembled a forked olive branch.

The coin had an anti-counterfeiting milled edge—202 large milled edges and 202 fine milled edges, adding up to exactly 404, spaced very closely, thus increasing the difficulty of forgery.

Since each silver coin weighed 10g, 100 silver coins equated to one kilogram. Even if someone managed to figure out the materials, crafting process, and succeeded in forging the coins, they would be quickly discovered in circulation.

The guards at the posts would inspect all the silver coins individuals carried when entering the Survivor Settlement, and market regulators would increase patrols and oversight, making it nearly impossible for someone to bring a large number of counterfeit silver coins into the settlements under shelter No. 404.

"404, Not Found, censorship... Not bad," mused Chu Guang after reading the post, his eyes lighting up as he immediately marked Brother Mole’s post.

The overall design was elegant and beautiful, with complete features without being cluttered, and manufacturing posed a certain threshold.

If by the time he woke up tomorrow morning there was no better design,

Then this would be the one!

...

The next morning.

The little players from Shelter No. 404 streamed out of the sanatorium, stepping into the early morning sun.

Just as the first batch of players reached the surface, everyone on the server received a pop-up notification.

[Worldwide Announcement: Congratulations to the player "Mole On The Run" for their design being adopted by the official bank of Shelter No. 404!]

[As the player has chosen to make the achievement public, it will be recorded in the Hall of Fame!]

Players who had just stepped onto the plaza saw these two messages and instantly felt envy.

"Holy shit! Inside job!"

"That’s right! That’s so unfair! I even drew the Manager’s avatar and it wasn’t accepted!"

"Damn it, that stinky mole got Little Fish’s mystery gift!"

True Mole, who had just emerged from the sanatorium, heard the players’ cursing and was confused, looking up.

"What? Who’s calling me?"

All the good names are taken by dogs: "We didn’t call you! We’re talking about that mole!"

True Mole: "???"

Unable to bear it any longer, Brother Mole burst out,

"Damn! Have some conscience, will you? My design had all the elements, why wouldn’t they use it?"

Line by Line Master: "I don’t care! It’s an inside job if they didn’t use mine!"

Mole On The Run: "@#%!"

...

Inside job or not,

Even though being envious of the Exalted is common, everyone was still curious about what the mystery gift was.

Surrounded by a crowd, Brother Mole arrived at the bank’s door and from Little Fish, he unlocked the legendary mystery gift—

"Thank you! Thank you for your contribution to the community!"

Little Fish, who stood up from behind the counter, sincerely expressed her gratitude.

This unexpected bow made Brother Mole feel a bit flustered.

Only those who are thanked know what that feels like.

"No trouble at all... just lending a hand..." he responded.

Of course, the mystery gift wasn’t just a thank-you.

Afterwards, Little Fish pulled out a golden coin from the drawer and handed it over.

The coin was quite unique, with an "α" symbol on one side and the number 1 next to it—seemingly commemorating the soon-to-end Alpha version.

And on the other side was the gate of the shelter—the pattern was exactly the same as the "gear" medal updated earlier.

"This is where we embark!"

Suddenly, a realization dawned on Brother Mole.

Perhaps this was the second-generation currency that the operators originally intended to use.

Realizing this, Brother Mole felt a surge of indescribable emotion.

His actions had changed the game.

Even if just by a little bit...

As for the onlookers gathered around, they didn’t have so many thoughts running through their minds. Seeing there were no other rewards, they slowly dispersed, their excitement waning.

"Tsk, what mysterious gift, just a commemorative coin."

"No stat bonuses, disperse, disperse."

Upon hearing these short-sighted remarks, Mole gave this group of people a disdainful glance.

"You know shit!"

How could this limited edition commemorative coin, with only one issued server-wide, be like any regular commemorative coin?

Wait till the public test has more people, and as long as the official doesn’t do any "return to factory" event, this coin will be worth at least a houseful of silver coins!

Can the collectible value be summarized simply as "commemorative coin"?

He carefully pocketed the coin and planned to store it in his warehouse later to treasure it, and even get insurance for it.

This would be his lucky coin from now on.

No matter how much it’s worth, he wouldn’t trade it!

A new day began with the Warehouse Manager’s supply requisition list and daily tasks.

The junior players who collected the tasks lugged their weapons or tools and set off towards the Wasteland under the morning sun.

But...

This was only part of the players.

While some players had already started their work, another group of players was currently stuck underground at the sanatorium.

In front of the elevator leading to the surface, a long queue had formed from the elevator’s entrance all the way inside Shelter No. 404!

Looking at the sea of people in front of the elevator, Crow couldn’t help but exclaim,

"There are way too many people."

With a twitch of the cat ears on her head, Ao Ao Sesame Paste, who was standing beside her in the queue, sighed lightly.

"I’m already starting to get social anxiety."

Tail, who was not far from them, had been staring at the cat ears for a long time wanting to pull them, but was stopped by Si Si.

Wearing an exoskeleton, the Spring Water Commander craned his neck and looked forward, getting impatient and couldn’t help but shout,

"Can those in front move it along? I’m in a hurry to get up there and recharge!"

The people in the queue ahead didn’t want to pay attention, but when they saw it was the Exalted, they immediately retorted without hesitation.

Zhang Hai, "Rush, rush, rush, what’s your rush? As if I want to be slow?"

Gnome King Riches, "Exactly, you’re not the only one annoyed by the slow elevator! We can only grind out a max of 16 hours a day, and queuing up is almost taking half an hour!"

The youngster carrying fishing gear heard this and was instantly shocked,

"Holy shit, a full 16 hours, are you a devil?!"

Fishing simulator for 16 hours?!

Gnome King Riches looked at him strangely.

"What else? Isn’t it basic to complete the daily tasks and grind for the Warehouse’s demands? Without grinding, where does the money for guns come from, how else do you increase your Sequence Level, how else do you get strong! Sixteen hours isn’t even enough for me, they should remove the fatigue limit!"

Standing next to him, I Max Black heard this and couldn’t help but shake his head,

"Too much grind, way too much!"

Is it necessary?

It’s just a game, after all!

Although he had been online for 16 hours these past few days as well...

Standing on the third floor of the sanatorium, Chu Guang and Xiao Qi looked down together at the bustling square.

Although they couldn’t hear the players’ complaints under the elevator, Chu Guang could already feel the pressure brought by the increase in server population from the long line.

Fortunately, he had left some space and hadn’t opened the remaining 300 cans of food.

Otherwise, 1100 people, just the thought of it was terrifying!

Xiao Qi raised her camera, looking at Chu Guang standing beside her.

"Master, Xiao Qi feels that the elevator’s capacity is not enough."

Chu Guang nodded in agreement,

"Indeed, we need to think of a solution."

Even though the B3 level maze had redirected some players, there were still four to five hundred people squeezing in front of that one elevator leading underground during peak hours of logging on and off.

At its most extreme, the queue could stretch from the elevator all the way to the buffer chamber’s doorway.

Even if the elevator could cram 20 people at a time, it would still require more than 20 round trips to transport all the queued players to the surface.

In reality, if players brought equipment, the maximum capacity per trip might just be 12 to 15 people.

If it weren’t for the save points, many players would just opt to live outside full-time.

Now Chu Guang had two proposals, one being to demolish the sanatorium, dig a hole in its place, and construct a bigger lift that could transport over 100 people at a time.

The other proposal was to forego the elevator altogether and dig a several hundred meter-long ramp, angling directly from the surface down to the entrance of Shelter No. 404.

However, both proposals had high thresholds, whether it was demolishing the sanatorium to dig a well twenty to thirty meters deep, or tunneling a "garage entrance" hundreds of meters long, neither was an easy task.

For now, the only feasible solution seemed to be to manufacture more Sleep Cabins and deliver them to the surface, making Shelter No. 404 a true revival point, with the save point located on the surface.

To date, 67 Sleep Cabins have been produced, and aside from the 30 allocated to the industrial area, the rest were sent to Changjiu Farm.

Chu Guang planned to increase the Sleep Cabin quota at Changjiu Farm to 100 units before the next version release, serving as the public save point for players.

As for a more convenient saving method...

Honestly, Chu Guang wished there was such a method, but unfortunately, there was no better solution available at the moment.

Scanning and recording the gene sequence’s development progress is a complex process, despite being briefly mentioned in a single sentence, it involves a hot and cutting-edge research area in DNA studies—epigenetics.

Mainstream views suggest humans have 20 to 30 thousand genes, but not all of these genes are expressed; most of them are like the commented-out code in a computer program.

How to let specific genes selectively express to produce the desired traits is in fact, a more complex task than simply modifying a certain segment of the gene.

Although the genes stored in the shelters are the selected quality breeds from the gene banks of the pre-war civilization, it is clear that even the First Generation Manager didn’t master the method to fully express these genes.

If it were possible, it likely would have been considered a "Singularity" level technology.

However, although the First Generation Manager did not complete this work, he did provide a reliable "solution" for his successors before he died.

That is, allowing clones to evolve actively under natural selection, then recording their DNA’s selective expression process through scientific means, and imitating that process in the synthesis of the next clone, growing step by step, to gradually approach the ultimate 100%.

The principle behind the Sleep Cabin’s scanning is the same as the cultivation chamber, requiring a check of all body cells, which roughly takes 3 to 5 hours—just right to complete while the clone is asleep.

Being able to save at any moment, however, seems quite unlikely for now.

Fortunately, in contrast to the synthesis of clones, the scanning function does not consume much energy, so the Sleep Cabin’s rated power is much lower than that of the cultivation chamber.

It only needs a 100KW generator to meet the operation of 100 Sleep Cabins, which can be said to be quite economical.

"Generators are almost not enough, and the industrial zone is an even bigger energy consumer, we need to find a solution to the energy problem."

Building an entire nuclear fusion generator is not very feasible; fusion cells are too expensive and can’t be recharged, using up one less each time. Fuel rods last long, but are hard to find, and electricity in the shelters can’t be stolen.

Currently, the best option available is the wood-powered generator.

In the Wasteland, everything else is scarce, except wood.

Before, Mosquito and his team managed to work out a steam engine, Chu Guang believes that putting in a little more effort to develop the pot camel engine won’t be too much of a problem.

In fact, the Army’s light trucks use the pot camel engine, which moves as long as there is wood, making it very convenient. The life profession players in the new industrial zone have already been researching replicas, and it seems that they have made some progress.

"Hope it can be completed before the next invasion of the Chewing Bone Tribe."

Chu Guang plans to set two small goals for the players.

One is to build a 1MW-level thermal power plant in the new industrial zone, Outpost Base, and Changjiu Farm respectively, to enter the electric age preliminarily.

The other is to solve the engine problem and be able to independently produce vehicles.

Not to mention mobilizing an entire motorcycle army immediately, even just having a few more trucks would be good.

With only nine trucks available for four transportation routes, sending forces to slightly farther places still requires freeing up industrial zone vehicles in advance.

This transport capacity is indeed a bit too tight.

Sitting on the third floor of the sanitarium, Chu Guang watched his little players through a Hummingbird drone.

The Ox and Horse Squad had already started a new round of tackling the Greenhouse Ruins, and their progress had reached level B5, which was very close to level B9.

Brother Mole’s team also entered the Greenhouse Ruins; however, their strategy was to ascend rather than descend. Their progress was at the third level, with two more levels to go.

Mosquito was testing the improved rocket on the edge of the industrial zone, trying to make the rocket’s power greater and more fierce, while a fat rat followed by his side.

At Steel Factory No. 81, Brother Ciso and Brother Levin had completely given up on the dream of an 88mm large-caliber anti-aircraft cannon and turned to study a 20mm small-caliber anti-aircraft cannon, just like Mosquito gave up on the small-caliber Thorn Fist rocket.

Although the caliber of 20mm is smaller, as long as there are enough barrels, the power is still substantial!

If a quad mount is not enough,

Then go for a twelve-barrel mount!

Use a barrage to light up the entire sky!

Seeing his little players working so diligently, Chu Guang felt very gratified. As the server increasingly filled with talents, the things he needed to do himself became less and less.

In the past, he had to go to his neighbor’s house to buy vegetables himself.

Now, whenever he needs something, there are players to run errands for him.

...

Time passed, and it was afternoon.

The snow outside the window grew heavier, and visibility outside got increasingly poor.

Initially, one could see 10 meters away, but now standing on the third floor, it was hard to see even the ground below.

For safety, Chu Guang released a server announcement, reminding players to be aware of the blizzard, and had Xiao Qi recall the drones.

The machine was too small and not very powerful, Chu Guang worried the wind might get stronger and blow it right into the lake.

Looking at the growing snow outside the window through the camera, Xiao Qi said worriedly,

"Master, the snow outside seems to be getting heavier."

"I can see that."

Staring at the snow outside the window, Chu Guang had a bad feeling.

Currently, over six hundred survivors were gathered at the New United Gas Station. According to the plan, the survivors from Winter Willow Camp were supposed to arrive at Changjiu Farm by midday.

If the blizzard’s impact exceed expectations, it will undoubtedly cause significant obstruction to the follow-up evacuation plan.

Just then, Chu Guang’s VM suddenly received a pop-up message.

The message was from Luka.

After a glance at the screen, Chu Guang’s expression changed slightly. He immediately stood up and walked towards the power armor parked nearby.

Xiao Qi turned the camera towards him.

"Master?"

"I need to make a trip to Changjiu Farm."

Entering from the back of the power armor and donning his gear, Chu Guang said concisely,

"I’ll leave this place to you."

——

(In the past few days, the update times have been a bit unstable; Cheng Xing apologizes to everyone. It’s really not because I’m being lazy, sometimes I just don’t finish writing. Although I have a complete outline that covers the content of each version and the personal lines of the characters and players, when it comes to writing, I still need to write a detailed outline to make the plot tight.

To ensure sustainability in the future, I humbly ask my brothers to give me three days to refine this detailed outline, so that subsequent updates can also be more stable. Even though there will only be one update during these three days, it will be around 6k words. Once the detailed outline for the next phase is handled, we will resume the daily 10k from the 10th!)

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.