This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 336: The Dog Plan Strikes Again to Harvest Leeks!

Chapter 336: Chapter 336: The Dog Plan Strikes Again to Harvest Leeks!

"...we met the people from Shelter No. 404."

In the center of a pristine white room, Hoene’s face was filled with devotion.

"Oh?"

As if coming from the ether, a gentle voice rose at his ear.

"What kind of people are they?"

Hoene answered respectfully,

"They are a very special group... my experience does not help me make a more specific judgment. They extended an invitation, and I would like to send a few people to visit them."

"That’s a good idea, you need to maintain communication with other survivors. Have you decided who to send?"

The voice carried a hint of approval.

A joyous expression momentarily graced Hoene’s weathered face as he continued respectfully,

"Not yet, but we plan to choose one student and two engineers."

The voice that seemed to come from the depths sunk into contemplation.

After about two to three minutes, it continued,

"Let Pai go."

To his mentor’s words, Hoene felt a hint of surprise but said nothing.

"I will heed your teachings."

The elder spoke respectfully, paused for a moment, then continued with his thoughts,

"The capital of the New Alliance is over 100 kilometers from us; for safety, I’d like to request a bodyguard."

"Approved. The doors open at 6 AM tomorrow." The voice from the ether quickly responded.

Hoene slightly bowed his head.

"Thank you."

"You’re welcome. Go prepare well," the voice continued, "I too need to pick a suitable gift for our neighbors."

The communication ended.

Once the voice had departed, Hoene slowly raised his hands, his index fingers fumbling near his temples before he removed the VR glasses he wore on his head.

The pure white light faded from around him.

At that moment, he was standing in the management center of the camp.

The doors of the Shelter did not open easily.

For significant discussions like these, he would sit in his office and communicate with the Manager using VR devices.

After pondering for a moment, Hoene pressed a button on the touch screen on his desk.

Looking at the icon indicating that communication was connecting, he slowly started speaking,

"Ask Aven to come to the management center."

"I have important matters to discuss with him."

...

"Wasteland OL" Official Website.

The settlement of the "Blade Unsheathed" expansion is in full swing.

The battle had raged for two months, and virtually all players had reaped substantial rewards, amassing a large pool of points waiting to be spent.

Even before the settlement began, numerous people had already posted screenshots on the official website, bragging about their point balances.

Ice and Fire Brother: "Damn, 100,000 points?!"

Fight it out with you: "Did you open something?!"

Falling Feather: "Jealous? Earned it with my life. (Proud)"

100,000 points wasn’t even the most remarkable, a certain fat Mole had even scored 120,000 points.

The most eye-catching were probably the Burning Corps, with an average near 80,000 points.

Even the less visible Sterling Silver Corps, a third-tier legion, had an average score above 30,000.

It must be said, the Legion System truly is the father of the version; for individual players to secure high points, they must carve a different path like the "Difficult for the Strong" method.

However, with the Legion System, as long as there is a leader in the group, and the rest aren’t excessively idle or disobedient to commands to the point of being kicked out, the yield is basically guaranteed.

Though points cannot be converted to Silver Coins, missions that reward points usually also offer Silver Coins or Contribution.

This shows how much "War Treasures" they distributed!

Less Bull BS: "This time, the average score might be around 20,000."

There actually are Mosquitoes in the WC: "Be confident, I think at least 40,000. (Proud)"

Mole on the Run in the Canyon: "Suddenly feeling anxious..."

Makabazi: "What’s there to be anxious about? Isn’t it good to have more?"

Mole on the Run in the Canyon: "Not that... You can’t just look at the surface of the problem, more points mean more people in the prize draw. Given the design of this game’s lottery system, it’s not the explosion rate that’s fixed but the pool of prizes..."

Less Bull BS: "Hold up, can you speak human?"

Mole on the Run in the Canyon: "In human terms, it means the prize pool might be diluted."

Construction Youth and Bricks: "Damn?!"

Debt Giant Eye: "Is it that dogged?!"

Fang Chang: "Your surprise looks like you’re playing this game for the first time. (Sly smile)"

As players fervently discussed, Ah Guang’s ID suddenly appeared on the forum.

Seeing the planner’s ID, not just the players perked up, but also the Backseat Drivers, spies from various countries and companies, and the silly netizens straightened up.

"Hello everyone, I’m your most beloved planner, Ah Guang. First, allow me to represent all the developers and wish everyone a happy Children’s Day!"

"To celebrate the holiday, and to keep our programmers from anxiety, our attacking lions designed an automated banana-feeding machine... sadly, we’re out of type 5 batteries here, and there’s no supermarket, so we had to solve this ourselves."

"Fortunately, our attacking lions are reliable enough not only to make a battery but also to solve some interesting issues. Hint: it involves a layer of film. Everyone decided it’d be a shame not to use it to make some money for snacks, so we decided to sell it to the highest bidder!"

"So, the auction starts in three days, starting bid—1 million Silver Coins!"

"Back to the main point, with June arriving, ’Wasteland OL’s’ closed beta server will soon enter the hot summer, rainfall will increase, and urban and forest areas will become more dangerous; crawling and arthropod animals are entering a strong period... probably no player has explored the southern hemisphere yet, so this statement isn’t wrong."

"Also, thank you all for your continued support. The expansion ended successfully, and we gained valuable experimental data! Thanks to this data, we’ve taken a big step closer to the open beta!"

"The boss says we’ve won big, and I believe it’s not just us, you guys are the same! Isn’t it exciting to see all those zeros in your account? Aren’t you happy? Haha, I’m as happy as you are!"

"To thank everyone for your support, we’ve prepared rich prizes! Starting now, the point lottery and achievement exchange activities officially begin!"

"Let’s celebrate this victory!"

As soon as the post was made, the official website unlocked the lottery system, and the forum instantly erupted in celebration.

points per draw, 10,000 points for a 100 consecutive draws!

Although this game stingily has no setting for giving 20 free draws on a 100 consecutive draw, with everyone averaging 40,000 points, drawing them all at once would still be very thrilling!

As players were busy scratching tickets and Backseat Drivers joyously watched, the intelligence systems of various countries were also busy, with some peering through screens and others holding meetings, in a flurry of activity.

After more than two months without posting, Ah Guang reentered their sights.

For those who had been busy for months without any progress, there was nothing more exciting than this!

"Type 5 batteries out of stock... An organization with mature quantum computing technology is out of Type 5 batteries?"

"That’s nonsense!"

"There must be some hidden clues in this... What is Ah Guang hinting at?"

"Lock down all areas within a 5-kilometer radius that do not have a supermarket!"

"Is that on a global scale? That would be too many..."

Somewhere.

Listening to the discussion of his colleagues, the square-faced man sighed and closed his notebook.

"Is there a possibility... that this person is just spouting nonsense?"

Everyone in the conference room was momentarily stunned.

The man in the police uniform was the first to recover, tapping his index finger on the table.

"We cannot rule out that possibility!"

Without sufficient evidence, any possibility exists.

Various signs indicated that the man whose existence had been erased seemed unaware that he had been abducted by an extraterrestrial civilization, or perhaps he was aware but indifferent and had fully accepted his new job.

At this moment, the elderly man sitting at the table suddenly spoke.

"What do you think the ’membrane’ is?"

The square-faced man was slightly startled.

"Membrane...?"

The old man nodded.

"Didn’t they say they had solved some interesting problems?"

Saying this, he looked at the others in the room and continued to ask.

"Do we have any experts on batteries here?"

Everyone looked at each other and shook their heads.

The man in the green shirt frowned and spoke.

"Batteries... Our unit purchases batteries from cooperative units, so I’m not very familiar with this part."

Just then, a consultant from the chemical sector suddenly spoke up.

"Could he be referring to the SEI membrane?"

The square-faced man immediately asked.

"What is that?"

The consultant explained.

"It’s actually not something rare... Simply put, it’s a solid electrolyte interface, essentially a passivation layer that covers the surface of the electrode material, approximately 100 nanometers thick. For example, in lithium batteries, a good SEI membrane can prevent solvent molecules from co-intercalating, allowing lithium ions to pass through smoothly and embed themselves, thus inhibiting the formation of lithium dendrites."

The old man sitting at the conference table looked confused.

"Lithium... what?"

He didn’t quite catch that.

Anticipating this reaction, the consultant sighed and continued to explain.

"Simply put, it’s a technical challenge that lithium batteries face. When lithium ions reduce, they form dendritic metallic lithium that continuously consumes the electrolyte during the charge and discharge cycles, leading to irreversible lithium metal deposits, reducing coulombic efficiency... and might even pose safety hazards due to contact between the positive and negative electrodes."

The Moli company in the 1980s went bankrupt due to this issue, later acquired by the electrical giant NEC at the time, but still has not overcome the technical challenges of lithium metal anode batteries.

The mainstream method in the industry is to use carbon-based materials for electrodes, sacrificing battery capacity to ensure safety.

Although the energy density of lithium anode material is tempting, no one wants to carry a bomb on them, or sit on a rocket.

The old man was still pondering, but the square-faced man seemed to understand and nodded thoughtfully.

"So, by solving the issue with that ’membrane,’ we can increase the energy density of the batteries?"

A bitter smile appeared on the consultant’s face.

"You could understand it that way... However, I must emphasize that lithium dendrites are just one of the technical challenges in lithium battery research, and the artificial SEI membrane is only one of the current academic solutions proposed for this issue."

"As for whether it’s useful or how to use it... these are points of contention. Currently, the main research directions are building houses and walls; maybe both approaches are right, maybe neither."

A curious colleague sitting nearby asked, "What do you mean by neither being correct?"

The consultant responded concisely.

"It means that not all problems will definitely have a standard answer."

The old man suddenly spoke up.

"This ’membrane’... approximately how much could it increase the energy density of batteries?"

The consultant took a sip of tea, moistened his throat, and continued.

"...That depends on what battery you’re comparing it to. According to the white paper we published on the development of power batteries, the target for 2025 is to reach 400Wh/kg and by 2030, 500Wh/kg. I don’t know much about batteries, but these data should be based on opinions from academic and industry experts."

"If we could replace the graphite anode in lithium batteries with pure lithium, the energy density could theoretically increase by an order of magnitude."

"An order of magnitude?!" The man in the police uniform showed a look of astonishment.

Not just him, everyone in the conference room showed similar expressions of surprise.

Just hearing the numbers didn’t mean much.

But once they had a point of reference for comparison, they immediately understood the value of this technology.

The consultant continued.

"Roughly around one to two thousand, which is about an order of magnitude, but as for the exact amount... you’d better ask someone knowledgeable in the industry."

The man in the green shirt suddenly stood up.

"I’m going to make a call to my unit."

The old man sitting at the conference table nodded, his expression serious.

"Go ahead."

At the same time, a similar scene was playing out in various parts of the real world globally.

This developers’ log of less than a thousand words had been analyzed over and over again by various organizations’ intelligence agencies, not even sparing the punctuation marks.

Most intelligence agencies came to the same speculation—this might be a signal of enlightenment released by an extraterrestrial civilization.

As is well-known, one of the three pillars of modern technology is energy.

If this mysterious website truly possessed technology far beyond that of the current era, it could undoubtedly provide favorable evidence for the theory of "third kind of encounter."

After all, no technology can exist without the support of a scientific research system; it cannot just appear out of nowhere.

While players were busy with their lotteries, the silver coin consignment platform had already quietly heated up.

Although it was unknown what "Wasteland OL" official website planned to auction in three days, it was always good to prepare in advance.

"Foreign exchange," the kind of thing you can’t think of just when you need it.

The daily trading volume on the platform is just so limited, it’s not even a matter of whether it’s a buyer’s market or a seller’s market, it’s that there simply aren’t enough silver coins in the pool to be bought.

Players need silver coins to upgrade their devices, to eat, sleep, and even to bathe.

Yes.

According to the intelligence they gathered from snooping on the official website, this damn game even charges for bathing.

"Shit... do these lucky bastards even know what they’re doing?"

Fang Chang, arms crossed, couldn’t help but swear with envy as he stared at the string of numbers on the computer screen.

Just half an hour ago, their project team received a batch of funds.

Though the money wasn’t exactly in their pockets, it was "within a reasonable range" to improve their work environment and living conditions.

A portion of these funds came from official institutional grants.

But even more came from giants whose positions were aligned with the official institutions.

After all, official agencies themselves don’t produce anything, and even if they got the technology, it’s useless without businesses or individuals to register patents, expand production, create monopolies, and snatch up others’ cake.

This was the rule of the game in the real world.

"They better never find out!"

"Indeed, truths like these, the fewer who know, the better... otherwise, where would we get such cheap silver coins?" the intelligence officer standing beside him teased with a laugh.

The colleague next by clenched their fists, cheering and urging in front of the computer screen.

"Buy now, dammit, why can’t this trading volume increase? They’re not selling even for 8 US dollars per silver coin?!"

The trader sitting at the computer analyzed gravely.

"It’s probably not a matter of price... Players with US dollar and cryptocurrency accounts make up too small a proportion! There’s a barrier to foreign exchange transactions, and many people might just avoid the hassle and filter out less commonly used currencies."

"It’s not just that, some dense small trades clearly don’t seem like player activities... They’re more like speculators who haven’t directly participated in the game."

"In other words, we didn’t get any of those big orders over 1000 silver coins!"

Not only players could participate in the silver coin trading platform, but Backseat Drivers could trade just the same, even indirectly joining in the game’s investments through protocol holdings.

When the silver coin trading platform was first launched, many people hoarded a bunch of silver coins.

Now that there’s suddenly a large buy order, those retail investors who aren’t clear on the situation promptly cash out and exit.

Thanks to these people for their contributions of cheap chips.

The real auction would be in three days, and as it approached, the competition would intensify, and the price of silver coins might become even more exaggerated...

The intelligence officer standing beside spoke gravely.

"We still need to figure out a way to get a clean RMB account with funding!"

Damn, why is this so troublesome?!

Phillip couldn’t help but kick the table.

"Fuck!"

...

One thing Phillip’s colleague guessed right was that most accounts selling on the silver coin trading platform indeed belonged to Backseat Drivers.

As for why players didn’t join in, it wasn’t entirely an account issue.

Ultimately, everyone was busy scratching off lottery cards and simply didn’t notice.

Many points magnates went directly for 10 sets of 100 consecutive draws, and the computer screens twinkled with golden light all over.

Every prize had its corresponding card.

Even skipping the lottery animation and reviewing each prize one by one took quite some time.

Not to mention taking screenshots of the grand prizes to show off on the forum, or cursing the Dog Planned for drawing trash in small chat groups.

Closed beta player discussion board.

Many had already posted screenshots, sharing their joy of winning with everyone.

"Wait, what the hell is a military armament gift pack? Who got one?"

"The description says it’s varying amounts of weaponry supplies, usable for trading with other NPC forces, or you can sell them to newbies or use them yourself... So it’s basically war loot, right?"

"I understand all that, but why do I need to draw twice after just one draw?"

"I also got... a Ripper Rifle?"

"What is this, a Russian nesting doll?!"

"Hahaha, I got ten!"

"Awesome!!"

The Ripper Rifle was the standard weapon of Army Cannon Fodder, known for its long and hard barrel, with a bayonet attached, it nearly reached two meters in length.

It also had another name on the forum, called dead fish thrust.

This equipment, aside from saving bullets and not jamming often, really had no other advantages.

In actual trench warfare, the more compactly designed assault rifles like the LD-47 were more practical; using long weapons wasn’t necessarily an advantage.

However, due to their abundance, the Ripper Rifle’s ammunition was much easier to find than the corporate "Black Swan," making this weapon quite popular in many Survivor Settlements.

After all, not every Survivor Settlement could massively equip automatic rifles.

Selling these military supplies in the New Alliance wouldn’t fetch a high price, but if taken to a farther Survivor Settlement for sale, and then dragging back local specials to the New Alliance, one could make a good amount of money.

Overall, this "military armament gift pack" was much better than any consolation prize.

Of course, the new tricks hatched by Dog Planned were just appetizers; what the players truly focused on were the top prizes in the reward pool.

Not everyone had the chance to become Exalted, but getting a whiff of that aura was nice too.

After all, it was a closed beta.

The main focus was testing, so it was normal if the equipment was lacking.

Once the game officially launched, everyone would eventually get to play!

Under everyone’s watchful eyes, the first Exalted of this expansion pack’s lottery event finally emerged.

Spring Water Commander: "Holy shit! Destroyer Type I Exoskeleton! It carries a 120mm caliber mortar on its back... Holy shit?! This gear is freaking awesome!"

Probably overwhelmed by excitement, Brother Spring Water forgot to keep it low-key this time.

Not only did he endlessly brag but also posted screenshots and his award-winning speech, sharing the joy of becoming Exalted with everyone.

However...

Not everyone shared in the joy.

The post exploded instantly.

Edge Shoveling: "Holy shit! Why the hell is it always you!"

Mole on the run: "Damn Exalted! Go die!"

Quit smoking: "Dark curtain! It’s absolutely a dark curtain!"

Spring Water Commander: "A dark curtain my ass! I fucking spent 120,000 points, why wouldn’t I hit it on 1200 draws, bro!"

However, this statement clearly couldn’t convince everyone.

The laid-back crowd didn’t care all that much.

Silver Daddy: "Gross, how can that old dog Coin score 120,000 points when I only have 30,000?"

Pick up trash 99 level: "Woo woo woo, this defies all reason! Begging the developers to nerf it!"

Neighbor Old Wang: "Supported! I wholeheartedly support!"

The Spring Water Commander immediately panicked, hurriedly deleting the post, but it was already too late.

Screenshots of the equipment were uploaded all over the official website.

According to the information displayed in the screenshots, the Destroyer Type I Exoskeleton was even bulkier than the Type 6 "Heavy Cavalry" Exoskeleton, practically on par with power armor.

Different from the Type 6 Exoskeleton, the Destroyer Type I’s armor emphasized protection not from light weapons but from explosive shards and shockwaves.

Specifically, the inside of the armor was filled with a thick layer of cushioning material, making it look quite bulky.

The 120mm mortar on its back required a hands-on-ground stance like taking a run-up when deploying and it couldn’t move.

With an automatic reloading system, theoretically, as long as there were enough shells, deploying just one could deliver massive firepower to the target area in a short time.

Basically, it was an "all-terrain" self-propelled mortar that could enter narrow lanes.

Truly a perfect weapon for street fights!

However, due to its cumbersome nature, with a bulky chemical energy battery and external ammo rack, it wasn’t suitable for direct battlefield confrontation.

To put it bluntly, this thing was full of flaws, and it would be quite embarrassing if someone got too close.

Players from the Storm Corps all said, letting that old dog Coin get such doggy equipment might just let him "dog" his way into heaven.

But to give credit where it’s due,

providing close-range fire support before an offense could indeed be extremely advantageous.

The reward pool contained more than just this piece of equipment.

This time, the game officials prepared ten grand prizes, and half of them were previously unseen.

As for the exoskeleton equipped with a mortar, it couldn’t really be considered the ultimate piece.

After all, such equipment was only useful in specific situations, and the ammunition was also an issue.

If you talked about overall combat capability, it might not be more effective than the Type 5 Light Cavalry.

"Plasma Knife! Awesome! I’m changing my class to Force Warrior right now!"

"Magnetic Slingshot... What’s the use of this thing? Is it for shooting birds?"

"Portable flying backpack... I’m just asking, are they planning on making me a target in the sky?"

"Hahaha, you could discuss with the guy above, you be the bird."

"..."

In the school’s computer lab.

While browsing the posts on the official forum, Ye Wei was incredibly envious.

Damn!

He had also saved up over a hundred thousand points, yet why couldn’t he ever win an SSSR?

It must have been balanced by those damn planners!

But actually, it didn’t matter much.

One should not be too greedy.

His earnings in the expansion far exceeded those points, and even if it really was balanced, there was nothing to complain about.

The development of the new map, Dawn City, had just commenced, and the Bull Horse Brick Factory’s orders were backed up until the end of the year; they were now frantically expanding production.

Not just bricks, but also cement, were within their business scope.

Although numerous competitors trying to steal business had also sprung up in City of Dawn recently, in terms of scale, they simply couldn’t compare with their "Shelter-controlled" businesses.

Escaping from the beta players’ section, Ye Wei spent some time on the gossip section, wanting to see what the Backseat Drivers were discussing.

But when he saw the first post, he laughed.

"...Silver Coin price increase?"

What a joke!

It wasn’t that Silver Coin prices hadn’t risen before, but they generally rose when a new expansion or new gameplay had just launched, not possibly at the end of an expansion.

The surplus profit from the expansion was just being resolved, everyone’s pockets were stuffed with Silver Coins, and without the need to change equipment temporarily, even the wealthy wouldn’t be spending their money at this time.

There was no point!

Not to mention that after the previous few battles and crazy cash spewing from expansions, several rich tycoons day-by-day shipped out goods to "improve life," the transaction price of Silver Coin had almost dropped to single digits just days before.

"Hehe, I would be eager to see how high it could climb."

Out of curiosity, Ye Wei casually opened the Silver Coin trading platform to take a look.

And he was stunned.

"What the heck?!"

US Dollars per Silver Coin?!

He checked several times to confirm, and the listings were buy orders, not sell orders.

And there wasn’t just one.

A whole ten buy orders, each for a hundred thousand Silver Coins, lined up with a one-dollar increment!

The topmost order was already 40% fulfilled; the 7-dollar and 6-dollar buy orders hadn’t started transacting since the highest-priced buy order hadn’t been satisfied yet.

Not just in US Dollars, RMB, Euros, and other currencies were also listed.

The offers were outrageous!

It was as if overnight, the market had returned to the early days when the Silver Coin trading platform had just launched.

"Have these people gone mad?!"

Seeing that 52RMB order, Ye Wei’s heart rate sped up, his palm sweating as he gripped the mouse.

His first instinct was to cash in now!

To sell off while he could!

After this village, there wouldn’t be this shop!

However, this thought lingered in his mind for only half a minute before he calmed down.

There was something fishy about this!

The entire trading platform was completely sealed by buy orders; not a single sell order was in sight.

Who in the world was throwing around money like this?

After taking a deep breath, Ye Wei resisted the urge to sell, grabbed his mobile phone from the table, and rapidly tapped the screen to send a message to his buddies in the Bull Horse group.

"Quick!"

"Check the Silver Coin trading platform!!!"