This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 292: Can Silver Coins Be Exchanged for Money Now?!

Chapter 292: Chapter 292: Can Silver Coins Be Exchanged for Money Now?!

"... the ignorant old fool," Chu Guang muttered. "If I had told those Looters that he had several valuable bionic components on him, would he still be alive? He would have been whittled down to nothing by now!"

Watching the figure head downstairs, Professor Sun Zewen hummed to himself as he limped toward his own room.

The Manager of the New Alliance had arranged a new job for him—he could continue his research on Resonance Fields and Mind Interference Devices.

Chu Guang planned to deploy a Psyche Interference Tower near the settlement to drive away mutated hyenas, moles, cockroaches, two-headed dogs, brown bears, Hu wolves, and falcons among other common Variants.

The specific method was to emit emotions of fear through the Resonance Field, either driving the Variants to the players’ hunting grounds or at least away from farmlands and villages.

The current problem was that different creatures had their own specific "frequencies." Although he had existing data to reference, specific research for each species was still required.

But before that, he needed to return to his room to pack up his luggage as he had to visit Shelter No. 401 to download data, then head to the New Alliance headquarters—Shelter No. 404—to start his new life.

Yin Fang remained in the control room, touching and examining the terminal that controlled the mind control tower, constantly muttering incredulously.

There was too much here that baffled him.

"... How does this thing work? Simulate brain wave frequencies? No... it doesn’t seem related to brain waves... What’s the medium for transmitting information?"

Heya was unusually disinterested, biting her lip, her eyes filled with complexity as if she was preoccupied with something.

As for Chu Guang, he was not concerned about his two subordinates at that moment; instead, he was fixated on the tablet in his hand, a faint smile playing on his lips.

The spoils were quite astonishing this time.

One was an old professor who specialized in "Resonance Field Theory" and "Mind Interference Devices."

Although Professor Sun Zewen was obscure in the pre-war era, he was still an old stick who had been frozen over from two hundred years ago.

The other was a researcher in bionics, a bit rigid or naïvely sweet in character, but that didn’t impact his expertise in his field.

For Chu Guang, the price paid for all this was merely some Contribution Points and silver coins.

An absolute steal!

The only imperfection was that three other residents of Shelter No. 117 had unfortunately perished, which is why there were three skeletons and an iron plate engraved with a torch at the entrance of the ecological park.

The losses at Shelter No. 401 were equally severe, with only six of the "new generation" residents surviving besides the self-preserving Sun Zewen.

These six had experienced the vilest torments at the hands of the Looters, almost losing their human form, their eyes devoid of any light.

Chu Guang assigned all of them to Professor Sun Zewen as his research assistants.

Residents of the shelter lived much longer than Waste Land Wanderers, and though these people were also not young, they had elite education from the shelter, making their foundation much stronger than that of a typical Waste Land Wanderer.

The technology related to "Resonance Field Theory" and "Mind Interference Devices" must be passed down.

Clearly, Professor Sun Zewen understood this, so he readily accepted the task Chu Guang assigned him.

As for the other 109 slaves who were rescued, most of them were bought from slave traders by Tus. Chu Guang instructed the Ox and Horse Squadron to bring them back to the City of Dawn along with the seized spoils.

Adapting to a new life required time.

Before granting them freedom, Chu Guang first needed to ensure that they were capable of making a living instead of becoming a menace to society.

Fortunately, up until now, the job opportunities provided by the New Alliance far exceeded the labor supply. The series of measures Chu Guang adopted to stimulate the economy had attracted a massive influx of merchants. Rapid expansion was evident in both the primary and the secondary sectors.

Chu Guang had already spoken with Old Luka, who would be responsible for settling these unfortunate people afterward.

Besides tallying the spoils of war, with the assistance of Xiao Qi, Chu Guang had also briefly organized the intelligence collected earlier.

As he suspected, twenty years ago, Torch had been here and copied the research materials related to the resonance field from Shelter No. 401.

The collar worn by Chu Guang’s pet, named Nicole, was a device modified based on a similar technological principle.

Although it was impossible to control the Death Claws through the indiscriminate resonance field, it was a different story when tubes were directly inserted into the brain.

Due to ideological and goal divergences, Torch at Shelter No. 401 split into two groups: one part headed south in search of specimens of alien life, while the other stayed to build a home.

Later on, those who stayed, including Professor Zhao Yuan out of pity, rescued a group of refugees who had fled from Giant Stone City—including Tus, whom The Waste King had torn apart.

Then, it was just like the story of ’the Farmer and the Snake.’

The refugees were not at all interested in their ideals; relying on cunning and surprise attacks, they easily subdued the privileged Blue Jackets and used their technology to produce drugs.

This series of events had entirely disheartened Professor Zhao Yuan regarding his faith in the Waste Land Wanderers.

As for the exocolony mentioned by that old icy stick named Sun Zewen...

That was still too remote for the current Chu Guang.

However, Chu Guang still had Xiao Qi update the relevant entries on the official website’s setting collection as a supplement to the world view.

...

Ecological Protection Park’s underground level.

There was an underground tunnel here that connected to the nearby subway station. Passengers arriving here via rail could directly reach the park through the tunnel.

However, now, like most of the subway tunnels in Qingquan City, this tunnel had turned into a paradise for the Eaters.

At that moment, a beam of light illuminated the dark corridor, and heavy footsteps echoed from the direction of the stairs.

The Eaters lurking in the darkness all turned their gaze to the annoying light, hissing and growling with their rotten mouths.

However, before they could approach, thunderous gunfire erupted in the tunnel.

Sparks leaped through the tunnel, and the Eaters fell one after another. In no time, there were more than twenty bodies on the ground.

With the muzzle still smoking, Chu Guang, clad in power armor, cleanly and efficiently changed the magazine, followed by another round of rapid gunfire.

After the gunfire ceased, he put away the smoking gun and casually spoke to Professor Sun Zewen, who was following behind him.

"Didn’t the Looters consider cleaning up this place?"

With his eardrums nearly shattered, Professor Sun Zewen massaged his ears with a pained expression. It took him a while to recover.

"Clean up this place? They wouldn’t bother with such ungrateful tasks. Those short-sighted Barbarians only want to earn more plastic chips... I only found out later that the survivors on the wasteland actually use casino chips as money."

Chu Guang, "It’s not everyone, just more popular on this side of Qingquan City."

Professor Sun Zewen asked curiously.

"You guys?"

"We certainly have our own money."

The entrance to Shelter No. 401 lay down this hallway, cunningly disguised as a workshop in the pre-war era, bearing a "No Entry for Strangers" sign, separated from the visitors by a locked door.

But now, the door was the least of concerns. Even the fist-thick wall was mostly dismantled, leaving only debris on the ground behind a half-open alloy giant door.

"Over twenty years ago, when the electricity in the shelter was exhausted, we had no choice but to evacuate underground and establish a refuge on the surface... this place has been abandoned since then."

Professor Sun Zewen took the lead, guiding Chu Guang into the shelter.

Since the reactor had shut down, it was pitch black behind the gear-shaped alloy giant door; even the air purification system had entered hibernation, with only a few critical functional devices maintaining minimal energy consumption on emergency power.

Although Yin Fang had visited here before, he had only briefly collected the publicly stored data in the shelter and not explored its interior in detail.

Considering that this place would become a new gathering point for players in the future, Chu Guang felt it necessary to come here himself.

Just as Chu Guang set foot inside the shelter, a pale blue pop-up appeared in his field of view.

"Mission: Restart the fusion reactor of Shelter No. 401"

"Reward: Managerial authority of Shelter No. 401"

Witnessing the pale blue pop-up before his eyes, a look of surprise spread across Chu Guang’s face.

Well, well.

He had barely stepped in when he triggered a mission to obtain managerial authority.

Was it that simple?

"Shelter No. 401 has four floors: the first and second floors are residential areas, the third floor is a recreational area, and the fourth floor is a planting area. Theoretically, its maximum shelter capacity is 1600 people, but it can actually accommodate up to 2000."

Chu Guang said somewhat surprised.

"That’s one more level than Shelter No. 117."

Professor Sun Zewen nodded.

"Yes, but the budget for Shelter No. 117 is much higher than ours; their per capita living space can even be 40 square meters, while we only have half of that."

Saying this, a trace of emotion crossed the old man’s face.

"Unable to tolerate the confined space, many have chosen to undergo cryogenic hibernation... including myself. However, cryogenic hibernation doesn’t solve the problem. As our energy reserves gradually fell below critical levels, we had to wake up from hibernation and head to the surface in search of hope before the electricity was completely exhausted."

Chu Guang’s expression was subtly complex.

Twenty square meters per person also called confined?

Then his Shelter No. 404 was practically a prison.

However, having so many rooms here indeed helped Chu Guang a lot.

At present, he had transformed Shelter No. 117 into double rooms, increasing the capacity from 500 players to 1000.

With the addition of 2000 "beds" from Shelter No. 401, squeezing another 400 rooms to accommodate the added players of the Beta 0.1 version shouldn’t be too difficult!

The current priority was to find fuel rods to restore power here and to inherit the managerial authority of this place.

Following Professor Sun Zewen, Chu Guang took a general tour inside the shelter.

Compared to Shelter No. 117, which emphasized comfort, this place had a somewhat institute-like feel.

The single rooms ranged from 20 to 30 square meters, each with a private bathroom and a fridge, with many holding uneaten, spoiled chocolates and biscuits.

The living conditions here were definitely not lacking.

Even the plantation area’s orchard had cocoa and coffee trees planted in it, although, regrettably, these plants had long since died.

However, to Chu Guang’s delight, when he reached the back of the plantation area, he stumbled upon an unexpected surprise.

It was a freezer containing seeds of over a dozen types of crops.

Seeds of cocoa and coffee trees were also preserved!

And the quantity stored was not small!

Judging from the blinking pale green signal light, the freezer was still running smoothly.

"Can these seeds still be used?" Chu Guang asked excitedly.

Professor Sun nodded.

"Of course, the seed bank has its own power supply... even if the reactor shuts down, these seeds can be preserved for one to two centuries. In fact, we planted some around the ecopark... only for the looters to take over and let the crops go to waste."

He wasn’t aware of the specifics there.

Though the looters granted him a degree of freedom, they didn’t allow him to leave the ecopark, let alone venture into the surrounding forests.

Having explored the plantation area on floor B4, Chu Guang had a general understanding of Shelter No. 401.

The two returned to the entrance of the shelter.

Chu Guang glanced at the partially opened alloy giant door, then suddenly asked,

"How many people were there when your door first opened?"

Professor Sun thought for a moment before answering.

"About seven hundred."

Chu Guang expressed surprise.

"It actually decreased?"

Sun Zewen sighed.

"People who didn’t want to sleep are all dead now, those who are alive are not optimistic about the future, and very few are willing to reproduce. I heard that while I was sleeping, the Manager broke the black box for producing birth control injections, but it turned out to be useless... Ultimately, the refuge is just too small, there will always be various problems."

Chu Guang asked, "What about the remaining people?"

Sun Zewen replied, "Most of the original residents have died of old age, some of the new generation died in the tide, others because they fell severely ill due to the unsuitable water and soil. Then the incidents that you had already learned about occurred... In the end, there are only seven of us left now, including me."

After a pause, the old man continued,

"The Manager of Shelter No. 404, I have a treasure I plan to offer you."

Chu Guang looked at him curiously.

"What treasure?"

Professor Sun Zewen’s face showed a pleased expression.

"A black box! You are the Manager, so you definitely know what that is. I don’t need to explain much. One of the black boxes is for making Blue Jackets, the other one is for producing VM. The former’s variable-temperature material is a real boon, and the latter has even wider applications. It can be converted into various survival tools and even recycle cabron nano-electronic components."

Chu Guang looked at the old man in astonishment.

"The Looters didn’t take those?"

Professor Sun Zewen chuckled mischievously.

"Looters? Those uncouth barbarians don’t understand the value of such treasures. I certainly had no reason to tell them about those goodies... but you are different. You are the Manager of the refuge. I believe you can make proper use of our legacy."

"But the problem now is... we had a little incident before, and the black box got locked inside the Manager’s Office. To open the Manager’s Office door, we first need to restart the reactor."

So, to recover the black box, they first needed to restore the power supply to the refuge?

Chu Guang said cheerfully,

"Thank you for your trust!"

"I promise you, we will make good use of these legacies."

The exploration team was already looking for clues about fuel rods, and Yin Fang had responded to him that there shouldn’t be much issue, hopefully sorting it out within a week.

Although Chu Guang already had the black box for producing VM, who would mind having another?

Just like the black box for making Sleep Cabins, such broadly useful devices were naturally the more the merrier.

As for the black box for producing Blue Jackets, it was an unexpected boon for Chu Guang.

The Blue Jacket made from variable temperature material could automatically adjust its breathability and thermal dissipation according to the external environment, allowing the wearer’s body temperature to maintain a comfortable range at all times.

From today onwards, players no longer had to worry about their clothes getting more tattered and daring not to wear their "limited edition skin" Blue Jackets for long trips!

...

"Wasteland OL" Official website.

Today’s Forum was as lively as ever.

The cause was the Jungle Corps posting their battle video on the forum.

Those men in heavy armor wielding machine guns truly caught the eyes of many players of the same gender, leading to thousands of new players registering, at least half of them listing Strength Type as their first choice in the survey.

In comparison, the Burning Corps was slightly disadvantaged.

Although in terms of single-round combat power, the Burning Corps were clearly superior to the Jungle Corps, the personalized configuration of the Corps made them less recognizable in small-scale battles.

To put it plainly.

Steps in coordinated tank action might be efficient, but they lacked the visual impact of a steel torrent—ten KV-1 Exoskeletons welded with steel plates lined up, just the sight of those machine guns firing was enough to get the blood pumping.

However, although most of the limelight was stolen by the Jungle Corps, the Mosquito’s air raid still dazzled many spectators.

Especially the incendiary bomb dropped at the end, which made the two factory heads from the neighboring Factory No. 81 claim it was unscientific.

Kid I Need the Bathroom exclaimed, "Damn! An incendiary bomb?"

Levin’s Foot Odor, Who’s Levin joked, "Bro, what thickening agent did you use?"

Real WC Mosquito replied jokingly, "Guess! (smirk)"

Soul Chaser explained, "You make aluminum stearate by mixing a sodium stearate solution with aluminum sulfate, thickening fuel is easy! Noob!"

Real WC Mosquito responded, "???"

Lower Your Voice, I’m Boren exclaimed, "Awesome!!! You guys are brutal!"

Lone Wolf of Doomsday suggested, "You guys should prepare a backup at the police station..."

Most of the veteran players’ posts revolved around discussing the Legion System updates for the beta round, tactical matches, and gameplay, or they discussed the new map of the Eastern District of Qingquan City.

The entire Eastern District was a pristine forest.

Here, the vegetation density and air humidity were much higher than the north and west of Qingquan City, with a large number of wild Variants active in the collapsed ruins and densely vegetated streets.

Besides the Iron-Back Ape and Silver-Mouthed Snake, Brother Fang Chang summarized a few common monsters, updating his post for other players’ reference.

This time not only Brother Fang Chang, but Wild Wind also unprecedentedly wrote a post, uploading photos of Shelter No. 401 he had taken.

Previously, when Yin Fang went to the refuge to recover data, Wild Wind coincidentally received an escort mission, and the photos were taken then.

"... Shelter No. 401, like Shelter No. 404, appears to have a controllable fusion reactor as its power source. However, due to the depletion of energy, the refuge is currently in a state of abandonment."

"I came across a task to find fuel rods in the exploration team, and I still recommend everyone to refresh the exploration team’s Job Level when they have time. Although the tasks of the exploration team have long cycles, the rewards for completing a whole task chain are quite generous."

Wild Wind was rather tactful in his wording.

Considering these guys always shouted for a cut, he did not reveal how much they had gathered from Yin Fang.

However, despite knowing the high earnings of exploration team tasks, most players still preferred tasks from the Hunters Guild.

After all, the former often involved traveling many kilometers, venturing into uninhabited and unknown dangerous areas, and collecting those elusive files and data.

Even a minor mistake could lead to a complete wipeout for the entire team.

Without absolute confidence in themselves and their teammates, few non-hardcore players would choose such high-risk, high-reward missions.

As veteran players were sharing their strategies, the newbies from the B-round beta test also took to the Free Talk section where there was no posting threshold, sharing their "beta test feelings."

Falling Feather: "This game is way too hard. (Ｔ▽Ｔ)"

Clear Wind: "Aren’t there any simpler monsters? Those howling Eaters are too scary. QAQ"

Sniper Bai: "There are, the roaches are much easier to bully than the Eaters, and they don’t make a sound when they pop out, so quiet. (funny)"

Corner Old Six: "Ah, the newbies these days can’t take a little hardship! Back in our day, as soon as we entered the game, we were hit with a tide, straight into hell mode."

Quit Smoking: "Dude, cut the bull! Seeing those Eaters chasing you as soon as you entered the game was unbearable!"

Unprofessional Tank: "Damn it! These guys are always on the forum talking about how cute the pigs are, saying they love pigs, but the moment they see me, they either want to pull down my pants or ask for my notebooks, making it impossible for any girls to team up with me! So annoying! ヽ(`Д´)ﾉ"

Difficult for the Strong: "Sob sob, don’t mention it, bro. These face-chasers are really something! If you really can’t stand it anymore, come to West State City. My house is quite large, and you’re welcome to come. I’ll take you leveling."

Unprofessional Tank: "Brother! I’m on my way! QAQ"

Elena: "Speed up to where big brother doesn’t want. (funny)"

Teng Teng: "I can’t even handle this pairing, am I still too young after all? (Ｔ▽Ｔ)"

Crow: "???"

Meow Meow Sesame Paste: "Meow meow meow?"

...

Shelter No.404.

It took Chu Guang the whole morning to move the Manager’s Office to the viewing room on Floor B4.

This place not only had ready-made furniture but also an independent shower room, and it was considerably larger and much nicer than the makeshift office he had before.

Since this floor wasn’t suitable to be opened to other players anyway, he figured he might as well make use of the space.

Sitting on a comfy sofa, Chu Guang was drinking the soda he endorsed while browsing the official forum to see what new tricks his little players had cooked up.

A week had passed since the Beta test had begun.

Over the past four days, thirty to forty newbies had joined the game daily, raising the server’s player count from 1500 to 1620.

"Will we break two thousand in two weeks?"

Chu Guang glanced at the tablet beside him.

It listed last week’s expenditures for various departments.

The most striking line was mission expenses.

In the past week, the refuge had paid out nearly 900,000 silver coins in task rewards.

The average daily income per player had also grown to 97 silver coins.

Of course, this number was mostly boosted by players in the T0~T2 tiers; the income growth curve for players below Level 10 was relatively flat.

Chu Guang had also realized.

The inflation caused by handing out money to players wasn’t as high as anticipated.

On one hand, players had an internal economic system—A player’s earnings would either be spent with another player B or at NPC shops operated collectively by the "Shelter," with only a small portion directly entering the market.

On the other hand, players didn’t need to support families or rear children; at most, they had bigger appetites. Alongside everyone’s habit of saving, their spending power wasn’t as high as imagined.

The storage balance system established by Chu Guang in the early versions effectively stabilized the prices of basic commodities like food and minerals to some extent.

After several rounds of updates and adjustments, this system had matured.

However, expecting one system to solve all problems was unrealistic.

With the continuous increase in number and level of players, new issues gradually emerged.

It took too long for new players to collect a full set of gear; fitting a complete set required grinding for half a month, while old players had so many silver coins that they couldn’t spend them all, forcing him to price high-end gear sky-high.

How to give new players enough game experience while encouraging old players to earn more?

Simple.

Build a "reservoir" to hold the excess silver coins.

With that thought, Chu Guang sat upright on the sofa, rattled away on his keyboard, and created a new folder.

[Beta 0.2 Version Update: Silver Coin Trading System]

[Changes: Players earning VM can digitize their silver coin assets, synchronizing them in real-time to their official forum accounts, to trade with other players in the form of digital currency.]

[Note: Backseat Drivers can also participate in trading.]

Of course, this was just a draft, and the specific trading details still needed to be carefully designed. But these were minor issues, with plenty of examples to draw from.

Looking at the document he had edited, a pleased smile appeared on Chu Guang’s face.

Although he couldn’t directly hand out RMB to players working hard, someone else could always do it for him.

Chips, dinar, CR—who cares if they can convert to RMB?

He was not only giving players a reason to earn more diligently but also making them willingly hand over the foreign currency they earned.

As the value of silver coins increased, more valuable "professional" players would likely emerge.

"Complaining about not affording gear?"

"Whining every day for a P2W option?"

"The market’s open, go play."

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