This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 371 Power and Duty

Chapter 371: Chapter 371 Power and Duty

Clinic Grey.

Atop the long white table lay an opened silver briefcase.

Inside the briefcase rested a jar about half the length of a forearm, in which a completely transparent kidney was soaked in a dark green solution.

It was made of an unknown flexible material, and its exquisitely delicate structure made one marvel at the advanced civilization capable of crafting such a meticulous miracle.

And yet, this "miracle," embodying thousands of research achievements, was but a speck of dust fallen from a great era.

Fascination written all over his face, Grey traced a bony forefinger across the surface of the jar, muttering softly to himself.

"BIO-166..."

"What?"

"The code for this item..."

Grey, intoxicated, sighed in admiration, "A bionic organ from Ideal City, a crystallization of mechanical engineering and biology. It’s the most perfect substitute for a biological organ, so flawless it’s like a work of art... even if it’s just a replica."

All the wonders of Ideal City were mere copies of the Human Alliance Era.

Yet, even so, to the many survivor settlements of the Wasteland Era, those replicated miracles were still an insurmountable chasm.

Just as Grey was indulging in the beauty of the artifact before him, Fang Chang, who stood beside the long white table, was lost in thought.

After watching the balding middle-aged man for a while, he suddenly spoke up.

"Aren’t you going to ask about Edmond?"

He had heard of the "Butcher" named Edmond, who was once an apprentice of Grey, seen by the Dagger Gang’s boss, Jeff, during an operation and later went to work for them.

The guy had referred the business to him, and he, in turn, had sent Edmond off to the New Alliance’s POW camp, for a reward of 100 silver coins and 200 contribution points.

Fang Chang didn’t believe this guy knew nothing about what happened to his apprentice.

However, when Fang Chang mentioned Edmond, Grey merely curled his lip and dismissively responded,

"What’s the use of asking about him? Does he have anything to do with our deal today?"

Fang Chang’s expression turned odd.

But seeing Grey’s smirk, a sudden glimmer of understanding crossed his eyes.

"...Did you do it on purpose?"

The New Alliance and the Looters were bitter enemies, a well-known fact in Qingquan City.

It was no exaggeration to say the alliance itself was born from the conflict between Shelter No. 404 and the Looters.

Given such a backdrop, the odds of this transaction succeeding were less than one in ten.

If one were to benefit from Edmond’s clinic closing, it would undoubtedly be Clinic Grey.

Without those inexpensive "raw" parts, mercenaries who accidentally blew up their gonads would have no choice but to opt for the pricier bionic organs.

Can’t afford it?

There’s always someone who can.

Even if just one-tenth of Edmond’s clients were taken and milked for 500% profit, this guy would be rolling in money.

High-value bionic organs are the real cash cows!

Cloning extraction?

That’s just an unsavory way to save money.

"I don’t understand what you’re saying... but I believe in one thing, and that’s if you always walk by the river, you’re bound to get your shoes wet. Doing business with Looters, you either get killed by them or become one yourself."

"So, I only deal with safe clients, in safe places, making safe deals."

Grey chuckled softly, closing the silver briefcase and tucking it away in a drawer beneath the table.

Then, from who knows where, he produced a gold-plated storage box, gently setting it before Fang Chang.

"Here are 500,000 chips, go ahead and count them."

Stacked neatly inside the storage box were 50 black-and-white plastic chips, their edges embossed with a crown-like pattern.

Their dark, shiny luster was as if brand new, without even the slightest hint of fingerprints or dandruff visible.

Fang Chang took the storage box, quickly counted through it, and suddenly spoke up.

"Suddenly I’m curious, how much will you make on this flip?"

Grey smiled faintly.

"That’s a trade secret. Besides, why ask me? You’ve made quite a bit yourself... haven’t you?"

Fang Chang smiled without rebuttal.

Indeed.

500,000 chips, converted into silver coins, amounted to one million, while the cost was merely 600,000 silver.

Even though he and a few good brothers had pooled together the 600,000 silver, each person would get a substantial share.

This was wealth far beyond what ordinary players could obtain through quests...

Weighing the heft of less than half a pound in his hand, Fang Chang couldn’t help but entertain a peculiar thought.

If the silver coin trading platform was akin to the stock exchange, could his savings make him a shareholder of Wasteland OL?

Even if just in spirit.

"If you need more bionic organs, you can contact me."

Grey said with a smile.

"I will, but I shouldn’t need to for a while. Lately, a batch of bionic organs from Ideal City suddenly appeared in the Inner City. The price I’ve heard is also about 500,000 chips each... I’m beginning to wonder if that mysterious seller is you."

"So far, I’ve only sold to you."

NPCs trade among themselves, too, and Fang Chang was not surprised, only a bit curious—just who could swing such a big deal?

List?

Or that Detwei who runs the nutrition paste business?

Or perhaps...

The Manager?

But it seemed unlikely to be the Manager.

Fang Chang thought it over and could not associate that respected man with a shrewd merchant.

It was not that the NPC lacked business acumen, but purely because his character settings didn’t quite match. Besides, with so many talents in the Alliance, that "dignitary" had no need to involve himself in these matters personally.

"Really? It doesn’t matter anyway."

Grey chuckled, "I didn’t sign any exclusive deal with you, who you sell to is your choice, plus my clients will eventually come to me for the transplant surgeries...anything else? If not, I suggest you head to the bank first. It’s not wise to carry so many chips on you, there are plenty of pickpockets in Giant Stone City."

Fang Chang smiled faintly.

Pickpockets were not a concern.

As an Agility system player at the third stage of Gene Sequence, it was unlikely that a pickpocket capable of stealing from him had even been born.

It wasn’t overconfidence.

If they really had the skill, they wouldn’t need to be pickpockets; they could just join a Commercial Team or a Mercenary Group, what wouldn’t they have access to?

After putting away the storage box, Fang Chang was ready to leave.

But just then, he suddenly thought of something, stopped in his tracks, and spoke up.

"...Right, let’s make a deal."

"What kind of deal?" Grey raised his eyebrow.

"The next time you have business competitors, you don’t need to beat around the bush, just tell me directly... You know what kind of competitors I’m talking about."

The New Alliance forbade players from "privately" invading survivor settlement neutral or above, but this did not include the dens of the Looters.

Although the criteria for "Looter" was flexible, as long as you provide "sufficient evidence" to the great Manager’s assistant, there was a chance to obtain permission for "legitimate bandit-elimination" and unlock the "Unlimited War" option.

The types of evidence included, but were not limited to, videos, photos, recordings, etc., and the assessment would also take into account the level of civilization in the area and the strength of the evidence.

If the conditions were inadequate, it would usually trigger a follow-up investigation mission to verify the situation further... Due to the vast array of related issues, this would typically be a quite complicated process.

But if someone could help them pinpoint the target, things would be much easier.

Especially the "Edmund’s Clinic" location, its spoils of war far exceeded those of typical Looter dens. Upholding justice and making money at the same time, equivalent to winning twice.

Wasn’t that perfect?

Watching Fang Chang with interest, an enigmatic smile suddenly appeared on Grey’s face.

"Finally, found a quick way to earn money, huh?"

"But I still have a piece of advice for you: when you try to take something away from the night, don’t forget—the night is also staring back at you."

Fang Chang wore a dismissive expression.

A joke.

He couldn’t die.

"You just need to tell me if you are interested or not."

"Of course I’m interested, I wish you could take out all the competitors who have gone astray for me."

Grey extended his right hand, smiling as he spoke.

"Here’s to a successful partnership."

...

"What happened next?"

"After that, my friends took those homeless people to the Alliance, where the Home of the Refugees took them in..."

In a small tavern in Giant Stone City.

Fang Chang sprinkled some cumin that Old White had brought along over his skewered Lizard tail, while casually talking to Dolly about things that had happened a few days before.

Perhaps it was because he had been eating these things recently, but he found that he was unexpectedly able to accept these rough dark delicacies.

Maybe, when he got back to City of Dawn, he could share tips on tasting the delicacies of a Different World with Old Na.

Sitting across the wooden table, Dolly listened intently.

Her face showed deep interest, her legs gently swinging under the table, her right hand holding a brand-new pen scribbling quickly on her pocket-sized notebook.

Although she had not been on the job for long and hadn’t even passed the probation period, this girl was becoming more and more like a journalist in demeanor and action.

"Would going there make any difference?"

"Hmm, hard to say," Fang Chang thought for a moment and said, "The Alliance also has poor people, but we will give them food so they won’t starve to death, we will teach them livelihood skills, give them a chance to choose how they want to live."

"As to whether they want to integrate into our society, or how to integrate, they can decide for themselves. If they feel uncomfortable they can leave, and whenever they want to return, they are always welcome to come back."

After talking until he was parched, Fang Chang took a long drink of chilly beer.

Looking at Dolly who was hastily taking notes, he couldn’t help but tease her.

"It looks like you’ve adapted well to your new life."

The corners of her lips slightly turned up, Dolly tossed away the pencil in her hand, leaned back in the chair comfortably stretching, and cheerfully said,

"It’s alright, although it was a bit tiring at first, once I got used to it, I found it quite interesting."

"The work hours are flexible, no need to work overnight, and I get to hear a lot of interesting gossip... of course, the key point is that the pay isn’t bad."

Watching her cheerful expression, Fang Chang truly felt happy for her.

Flipping through her notes and suddenly sitting up straight from leaning on the chair, Dolly looked curiously at Fang Chang sitting across from her.

"Actually... about what you just mentioned, I have another question."

"Which one?"

"I seem to have heard of Edmund’s Clinic somewhere before; it’s said that some mercenaries and bounty hunters who can’t afford the bionic body replacement or want to save money go there for surgery."

"That’s pretty much in line with what I know," Fang Chang nodded.

"Um... what about the mercenaries who need to replace prostheses?" Dolly cocked her head, "There will always be people who get injured by accident, and even if you eliminate Edmund’s Clinic, people will just find another place to start a new one, won’t they?"

Equality, though a beautiful ideal, most of the time, the price of life is different.

Where there’s someone willing to pay the chips, there will be someone willing to engage in that trade.

The mechanically engineered prosthesis produced in Giant Stone City, even the cheapest one, cost a couple of thousand chips, and for some finely crafted bionic organs and the like, five digits was the norm.

By comparison, the lives of clones and slaves are much cheaper, and if they are scavengers or other civilians who were captured, the cost can even be negligible.

As long as the people on the Wasteland are still struggling to survive, this market will not disappear.

After putting down his wine glass, Fang Chang pondered for a long time before he slowly opened his mouth and said,

"Of course, we’ve considered this issue, so we’ve decided to address this part of the demand."

"It just needs a different approach."

After leaving Clinic Grey that day, he went to the Forum’s closed beta player exchange section and started a post. While disclosing a bug that could be exploited for money, he also discussed the issue with other players who had obtained closed beta access.

After listening to their experiences at the Golden Dune Cinema, the majority of players developed a similar mindset to his.

While it seemed to be a ’win-win’ trade—after all, players wouldn’t actually die—exploiting this bug for money made them feel uneasy about their conscience.

Especially since many players had become good friends with NPCs in the Game.

Setting aside players who had not yet entered the Game.

At least for the closed beta players, many could no longer treat NPCs as mere data.

But rather, as another form of life.

Taking other players’ opinions into account, Old White intended to communicate with the Alliance’s First Hospital to have the parts replaced with bionic prostheses collected and preserved for survivors who truly needed them.

As for the cost, a reasonable fee would be charged.

In addition, some severely injured players could donate their parts before they repaired themselves.

Of course, this would follow the principle of voluntariness.

Players could choose whether to sign an organ donation agreement.

And for players who did sign up, when they or their friends need replacement parts, they could be given priority for surgery.

This certainly wasn’t a profitable move, but as Brother Guang said, they weren’t just developing a game, but building a Virtual Community.

Silver coins were not everything in this game, and beyond mere profit, there were many other things worth exploring in this world.

Fang Chang felt that the scope could actually be broader.

They weren’t just building a community, but a society.

Including himself, the players who had obtained the closed beta access were already dependent on those extra 12 hours every day.

This place was their second world and had effectively become their second home.

Especially as the first group of players to enter the Game, they had followed the game’s progress and accumulated a lot of resources and wealth—both in and out of the game.

By both emotion and reason, they had an obligation and responsibility to make this place better.

Not to make it into a jungle, extract profits from it like cancer cells, and then flee elsewhere to continue their exploitation.

"Our Alliance will make the practice of attacking Looter dens routine, making those ’slaughter-survivor’ Looter dens harder to survive."

"...At the same time, we would also supply cheaper, replaceable parts through ’technology of the refuges’, making the business unprofitable."

Fang Chang explained to the NPCs, in a way they could understand, the decision he and the other residents of the refuge had made.

Dolly looked at him with surprise, her bright right eye filled with astonishment.

"I didn’t expect you to be quite so responsible."

Fang Chang smiled faintly.

"You only just noticed?"

Although he hadn’t always been that way.

With her index finger rubbing her chin, Dolly pondered for a long time.

Suddenly, she snapped her fingers.

"Got it!"

"Got what?"

"Tomorrow’s headline for Survivor’s Daily is set! I plan to write about your deeds and have it published in the newspaper!" Dolly said, her eyes twinkling with excitement.

The headline in an NPC newspaper?

While it didn’t sound as appealing as the Hall of Fame on the "Wasteland OL" Official Website, it still sounded like an interesting experience.

Just what he needed, as he was also learning the United Human language; he might as well buy a copy to check it out.

"How about you treat me to this meal, considering it’ll be the headline?" Fang Chang joked.

"No problem—"

Dolly was about to slap her chest in agreement, but just then, out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the pile of wooden sticks on the plate.

Her uplifting smile instantly stiffened, and her voice weakened embarrassingly as Dolly continued, blushing,

"Let, let’s put it on a tab... I’ll pay you as soon as I get my salary."

"I’ll remember that!"

Looking at the embarrassed Dolly, Fang Chang laughed cheerfully and casually took out a few chips, tossing them onto the tray in the server’s hand.

"Check, please. Keep the change."

Watching the chips spinning on the tray, the server recognized the familiar face and couldn’t help but roll their eyes secretly.

It’s this guy again.

But come to think of it, this guy sure can eat...

Glancing at the pile of wooden sticks left on the plate and then eyeing the seemingly civilized young man, the server clicked their tongue in their mind.

Appearances can be deceptive...

...

Shelter No. 404, Floor B4’s viewing room.

Chu Guang, sitting on the couch, was holding a copy of the freshly printed Survivor’s Daily.

The page unfolded before him featured the latest headline of Survivor’s Daily—an article about Edmund’s Clinic.

The newspaper selectively displayed several photos taken by players at Edmund’s Clinic.

Images of bodies discarded carelessly, and survivors locked in cages like lambs waiting for the slaughter, were startling; the shocking imagery jolted both the viewers’ eyes and their hearts.

The residents of the Outskirts certainly knew of the harshness of the Wasteland, after all, their separation from the outside world was nothing more than a door.

Yet, it was the existence of that great wall that allowed them to avoid daily contact with things not of their world.

Even though Voice of Giant Stone City often spoke of the miseries beyond the wall in jest and sarcasm, along with flattery toward the city lord,

it could be said they were not so much trying to please a lord who could care less about them but more to cater to their audience.

Such as Survivor’s Daily exposing the crude truth right under people’s noses, it was indeed a first in these past dozen years.

It was for this reason that the matter caused a huge sensation in Giant Stone City’s outskirts and swiftly became a hot topic of discussion.

More interestingly, there were significant opinions divided among the residents of Giant Stone City regarding the same issue.

For the general residents, they were more concerned about the survivors locked in those cages.

After all, they weren’t just people from the slums; some were residents from the outskirts.

No matter what reasons those poor people ended up in the bloody slaughterhouse, it created a slight crack in the fantasy of the great wall for others in a similar position.

The supposedly unbreakable wall wasn’t as indestructible as imagined, and eternal isolation couldn’t truly keep them away from the Wasteland.

However, the ultimate outcome could still be called greatly satisfying.

The evil Looter’s nest was destroyed, and the survivors were reunited with their families at home.

Though the unbreakable wall wasn’t completely reliable, the seemingly unbreakable Alliance seemed to have played a bit of a role.

For the mercenaries, though, this wasn’t such good news.

It meant they had to face greater risks to fulfill their commissions, having to pay more chips for expensive and not necessarily effective mechanical prosthetics after being injured.

Of course, the paper also mentioned at the end that Alliance’s First Hospital was exploring alternative solutions with the aid of Shelter No. 404.

It suggested that mercenaries in need of treatment should try their luck in the City of Dawn.

Sitting straight-legged in front of the coffee table, the puppet manipulated by Xiao Qi admired Chu Guang with a look of adoration.

"You truly are the master!"

"You had figured out that your players would do this, hadn’t you?"

Used to his assistant’s flattery, Chu Guang simply smiled faintly and turned the page of the newspaper, speaking in a casual tone.

"I’m not as clairvoyant as you think; human behavior simply cannot be predicted so easily."

"But I admit, they did make a choice that pleases me."

No matter how rigorous the rules, there would always be loopholes, especially with the increasing number of players in the server, Chu Guang was well aware that he couldn’t, like before, personally plan every player’s game trajectory.

Besides, there was no need to do so.

The players were also a part of Wasteland OL; of course, they could participate in the creation of game rules and explore the future path together.

Chu Guang was more eager to see the players take initiative and spontaneously improve the "game content" and maintain the "server order."

This was their right.

And their duty.

Flipping to the last page, Chu Guang closed the finished newspaper and placed it on the coffee table next to Xiao Qi, preparing to browse the forum on his laptop.

Just then, a knock came from outside the viewing room.

"Come in."

The alloy door opened.

The person who came in was Yin Fang.

Seeing the excited expression, Chu Guang guessed that something good must have happened, and considering this guy had been busy fixing the power armor, he blurted out.

"Is the ’Dragon Cavalry’ fixed?"

"No, it’s close, though, just a few more days," Yin Fang said, sitting on the couch opposite Chu Guang with a pleased mood, "But I’ve got another piece of good news for you."

Chu Guang asked with interest,

"What good news?"

"Based on the clues collected by the exploratory team, we’ve pinpointed an abandoned refuge... Although the refuge is old, the data is new, and according to the access logs, we’re likely the first to discover its coordinates—you know what this means."

Pulling out the VM-modified tablet, Yin Fang tapped the screen a couple of times with expertise before handing the tablet to Chu Guang.

"Its number is 79, located in Rui Valley City, about one hundred and fifty kilometers from here, right on the border between River Valley Province and Luo Xia Province."

With an excited expression on his face, Yin Fang continued,

"A two-digit numbered refuge—you know what that implies!"

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