This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 385: Wait for Me to Rally People on the Forum

Chapter 385: Chapter 385: Wait for Me to Rally People on the Forum

Shelter No. 79—

Or rather, Underground City No. 79.

The flash of gun muzzles lit up as it moved rapidly from the entrance of the shelter along the wide corridor toward the nearest building.

The elevators were long out of order, forcing movements through a stairway in the safety passage.

Hundreds of meters high, the corridors were covered in moss, but the most lethal were the mutated creatures roaming through them.

It wasn’t just one building like this.

Every building here was the same.

Fortunately, they didn’t have to fight their way from the top floor down to the surface; they could move between the buildings via the sky bridges.

The Manager called Yong had already planned the most recent route of action for them, downloading it to the vm; all they had to do was progress forward along the path of the contagion.

Even so, achieving a "clear" was far from easy.

Even if they didn’t actively seek trouble with those Variants, the Variants would actively find them.

"My gosh! What on earth are these things?!"

Watching the multilegged Alien charging, Tail, who rode on Meat Meat’s back, was startled and clung to the machine gun, fingers tightly gripping the trigger.

A trail of orange-yellow bullets tore the Alien apart; however, more quickly surged forward.

Meat Meat roared and with a mighty swipe of its steel armor-like bear claws, sent two of the onrushing beasts flying off into the abyss beside the corridor.

Si Si and Sesame Paste were holding rifles, filling in the gaps in firepower.

Shell casings from the rifle barrels continuously clinked against the alloy floor, utterly muted by the roaring gunfire; in mere moments, the trio had fired hundreds of rounds.

Luckily, this game did not have a mechanism for infinite spawn.

Facing the overwhelming firepower of the White Bear Knights, the surge of attacks eventually weakened.

The group finally broke through the encirclement of Aliens and rushed into the building at the end of the corridor.

The area inside was spacious, easily the size of three or four basketball courts; directly opposite the semi-arched front desk was a row of seats, which likely was once a registration area or similar.

The doors closed vigorously.

Leaning against the cold metal door, Si Si propped her rifle aside, let out a breath, and slowly sat down.

Her face was slightly pale, her chest rising and falling gently.

Standing beside her, Sesame Paste also steadied her breathing, her index finger pulling loose the soaked collar sticking to her neck.

"It’s spiders..."

"Yeah..." Si Si gasped for air, hardened her resolve and nodded, "While it makes sense for arthropods to adapt better in narrow terrains... if possible, I really don’t want to deal with these creatures."

From the entrance of the shelter to their current location, they had roughly made 3% progress.

First, they had taken down two saber-toothed tigers, and then faced a group of Giant Wolf Spiders as tall as their waists.

They hadn’t yet encountered a Claw of Death, although they did see one through bulletproof glass.

That Claw of Death was not very large, but still a bit bigger than Trash King.

"Eh? Si is actually afraid of spiders!" Tail lit up, eyes sparkling as she turned to look.

Si Si shifted her gaze subtly.

"...Actually, it’s okay if it’s just arthropods, but if it’s a fuzzy arthropod... I really can’t handle that."

If only the game helmet could block this kind of sensation.

Unfortunately...

A game still in closed beta testing couldn’t be expected to be perfect like a officially released game.

"Hehe."

"...You better not play pranks, Ah Wei."

"Not at all, would Tail do that?"

"emmm..."

"Wah, my Si actually hesitated!"

A smile spread across Si Si’s face as she was about to say something, but just then, a slight creaking noise suddenly came from the distance.

Like stepping on the dusty floor.

Si Si’s heart tightened, and she reached for her rifle immediately, but almost simultaneously, three whooshing sounds rang out.

Three sharp whizzes were heard, and before she could rise from the ground, she grunted and collapsed to the side, pulling the trigger towards the direction of the sound.

The thunderous gunfire echoed in the vast room.

At the same time, Tail and Sesame Paste swiftly responded, skillfully dodging the incoming arrows and raising their guns to fire back at their unwelcome visitors outside the showcase.

A series of pained screams quickly followed.

Those shooting the arrows were frightened by the fire-sticks, shrieking incomprehensibly as they scattered behind walls, chairs, and counters to escape.

"Humans...?!"

Seeing the faces emerge from the darkness, a look of surprise appeared in Si Si’s eyes.

However, these people were not speaking the language of the United Human.

To be more precise, their sounds were more like the howls of wild beasts than a language.

Seeing Si Si on the ground, Tail immediately rushed over, her face full of concern.

"Si! Are you alright?!"

"I’m okay..."

Two arrows lodged in her chest, but the bulletproof vest had protected her; she barely felt anything.

The more problematic issuebjergvkb was the arrow stuck in her shoulder...

Si Si grasped the arrow shaft and gently moved it, quickly giving up on pulling it out and instead broke it in half.

Seeing Si Si supporting herself on the hunting gun and standing up from the ground, Sesame Paste said worriedly.

"...Maybe we should retreat for now."

The shelter wasn’t something that could be conquered in a day anyway.

Tail and Meat Meat nodded in agreement.

"Tail thinks so too!"

"+1."

"Well, let’s head back to the entrance of the shelter for now..." Si Si nodded at her worried friends.

At that moment, her gaze suddenly fell on the body that had fallen to the ground with a gunshot wound.

Feeling curious, she walked over and crouched down to examine him.

The man was dressed in clothes made of leaves and vines, his skin pale and sickly white, as if he hadn’t seen sunlight for a long time. His eye sockets were deep red, his pupils filled with blood vessels, and his features were similar to humans, but his arms were slightly longer, and his nails sharp.

Si Si furrowed her brows slightly and stretched her index finger across the man’s chest, carefully searching for a while before withdrawing her hand.

"Did you find anything?" Meat Meat, who followed behind her, leaned forward curiously.

"...26 ribs."

"26 ribs?" Tail looked bewildered.

"Normal people have 24... This guy must not be human, at least not the same kind as us," Si Si said as she rose from the ground, dusting off her hands, "Let’s bring one back to study."

...

The group retraced their steps, returning to the door that connected to the shelter, a room with a view overlooking the entire underground city.

They had left an old radio at the entrance of the room.

Sesame Paste went up to pick it up.

Apparently seeing the fight they had just had, the radio emitted a word of praise.

"Not bad, you all are stronger than I imagined."

"It seems I wasn’t wrong about you."

Hearing this, Sesame Paste displayed a shy smile... Although she only roughly understood, she could subtly feel the tone of admiration in that sentence.

Tail, less modest, happily curled her lips.

"Wow! Tail is awesome!"

"Haha, impressive indeed, but you still need to keep it up..." The cheerful laughter came from the radio, yet the voice seemed somewhat profound.

Si Si suddenly spoke up.

"Why would there be people inside?"

The radio answered nonchalantly.

"They are just savages degenerated into animals... Don’t worry about it, you can treat them like monkeys."

Pausing for a moment, it subtly changed the topic.

"It’s getting late... Instead of those savages, I suggest you’d better deal with your wounds sooner."

The time in the game was nearing evening.

Unknowingly, they had spent a whole day in Shelter No.79.

The milky light pouring from the dome was slowly receding, the underground city outside the floor-to-ceiling windows was gradually being swallowed by darkness.

It seemed this place had more than just steel jungles; it also had day and night cycles.

If this fortress hadn’t fallen...

"...If it’s the end of the world, it would be nice to live in a place like this," standing at the doorway of the buffer room, Sesame Paste suddenly felt a bit sentimental as she looked back at the floor-to-ceiling windows.

"Yeah."

"Why did the people here run away?"

"Who knows, maybe they ate too much."

Si Si said casually, but the corners of her eyes subtly glanced at the radio in Sesame Paste’s arms.

She always felt there was more to it.

After pondering for a moment, Si Si spoke in United Human language.

"This isn’t a solution, we are short on personnel... Would you mind if we call more people over?"

The radio answered nonchalantly.

"I don’t mind. What’s there to mind about?"

He couldn’t wait for more people to come help.

However, what he understood by "calling more people" wasn’t quite what Si Si meant.

A smile curling at her lips, Si Si continued.

"Then I’m relieved."

...

The elevator slowly ascended.

It stopped at the second floor of Rui Valley City Municipal Library.

Passing through rows of bookshelves, Si Si reached the door and opened it, finding Wu Tao, the town chief of Xiangling Street, standing at the doorway with several strong survivors.

The weapons in their hands were varied, consisting of iron pipe rifles, hoes, short axes, and meat-cutting knives.

Earlier when Si Si and Sesame Paste had gone back to call their teammates, they hadn’t returned empty-handed; they had also killed and brought back the ugly saber-toothed tiger at the door.

When the hideous mutant was carried out from a second-floor room of the library, the survivors of Xiangling town were terrified.

Compared to the tiger with teeth longer than daggers, the large white bear named Meat Meat seemed innocently charming and endearing.

Once Si Si offered to help them eradicate the Variants under the library, the local residents no longer rejected their access to the settlement and even voluntarily built a stronger ladder to help Meat Meat climb over the enclosing wall.

Before Si Si could speak, Wu Tao, who stood at the door, quickly asked,

"How is the situation down there?"

Si Si said with a stern face,

"It’s terrible! There’s an alien nest right beneath your feet!"

"An alien nest?!"

The air became deathly still.

A hint of fear gradually appeared on Wu Tao’s face.

Including him, everyone behind him had expressions of horror, exchanging uncertain and apprehensive glances.

"Moreover, it’s not just Variants, there’s also a group of completely uncommunicable... Wild men. We brought back a body, it’s over there."

Saying so, she glanced behind her, signaling Meat Meat to place the body they brought from Shelter No. 79 on the ground.

Staring fixedly at the corpse on the ground, Wu Tao swallowed hard, then his gaze moved to her shoulder.

There was a broken arrow stuck in it.

"Your injury..."

"Don’t worry, I’m about to take care of it..." Si Si continued with a calm expression, "Shelter No. 79 has fallen, but we can’t ignore it. We’ll clean out the monsters below, might have to stay here a few more days."

There were many entry points into Shelter No. 79, but most were now damaged due to disrepair.

Previously, she and Tail explored underground, and the only easily accessible entry now was this elevator on the second floor of the library.

Hearing this, Wu Tao didn’t hesitate at all and quickly nodded,

"It’s fine, you can stay as long as you want!"

Si Si’s face showed a pleased smile.

"Mm, rest assured, with us here, those Variants won’t harm you."

She paused, then continued,

"However, just our strength may not be enough, our companions will come here in a few days to help us... Could you prepare a few more rooms for us?"

Wu Tao hesitated for a moment and then asked,

"How many people are you...?"

"About thirty or forty?"

It could possibly be one or two hundred.

Si Si gave a conservative number mainly because she was also unsure how many could be gathered.

Even so, upon hearing this number, Wu Tao, standing in front of her, still showed a look of astonishment.

"...Are you a mercenary group?"

He added quietly with a wary tone,

"We can’t afford to pay you."

Si Si smiled warmly,

"That’s okay, we don’t take money."

Not taking money?

Such good fortune?!

Hearing her words, the residents gathered at the door all showed expressions of surprise, skepticism, and even disbelief.

Wu Tao’s expression was equally as dynamic, unable to think of a reason to refuse or even understand what these people wanted.

After exchanging glances and whispering with a few survivors beside him, he finally looked at Si Si and slowly nodded.

"We can lend you the second floor, we’ll move the books to a room on the third floor, this place... please take care of it."

...

"Wasteland OL" Official Website.

Every day, during peak disconnection times, the forum was buzzing.

Especially in recent days.

As frontline battle reports and new map information were released gradually, the enthusiasm in player discussions grew daily.

At this moment, a special post suddenly popped up.

Si Si: "Looking for team members for clearing Shelter No. 79! Requirements: Level 10 or above, equipment unrestricted, interested friends PM quickly!"

Edge Shoveling: "Me me me!"

Debt Giant Eye: "Hands up!"

Neighbor Old Wang: "Wait, isn’t Shelter No. 79 in Rui Valley City!? That’s a straight distance of one hundred and fifty kilometers... Isn’t that too far?"

Si Si: "You can just parachute from a position about one hundred and twenty kilometers away."

Neighbor Old Wang: "Fuck, right, we can take a plane over!"

Giao Sesame Paste: "Um, if you are planning to parachute over, could you bring us some ammunition? We’re running low... really appreciate it guys. QAQ"

Fang Chang: "Although I probably can’t make it there, might still be good to discuss the profit distribution before forming the team."

Si Si: "Oh, don’t worry, we’ve already considered that! Since the level profits and clearing duration are uncertain, we plan to provide a fixed income of 10 silver coins per level to every team member, simply put, 120 silver coins for one day at level 12. Weapons are on your own, but we can reimburse for ammunition, death compensation 300 silver. 20% of the final dungeon profit as a bonus, distributed to participating players according to their contribution ratio!"

Mole on the Run: "...Awesome, aren’t you worried about making a loss?"

Quit Smoking: "Fuck! Rich lady!"

Si Si: "You’re disappointed, I am not. (´ｰ∀ｰ`)"

Dragging the mouse and browsing through the forum posts, Chu Guang, sitting in the shelter and peering at the screen, wore a face full of interest.

"Pretty impressive."

According to the numerical system he designed, a Level 10 player, if they chose a task with a moderate risk level, could earn between 80 and 100 silver coins per day.

A daily salary of 10 silver coins per level was quite reasonable, and it should attract a decent number of players between Level 10 and Level 15.

As for making a loss?

From a player’s perspective, there indeed existed such a risk.

But being the boss of these diligent little players, how could Chu Guang let them suffer losses?

Once they cleared the level, he would calculate a relatively reasonable profit based on their total expenses and the difficulty of the level, paying them an amount that would make other players envious without affecting the balance.

And himself? He didn’t even need to worry about the specific strategy process, just a click of the mouse and a few keystrokes could earn him a shelter without any effort.

Thinking this, a smile couldn’t help but appear on Chu Guang’s face.

Indeed, he had trained his players well.

Not only could they fight wars for him, but they also could open new bases and he didn’t even have to worry about the initial investments.

Truly perfect.

...

While Si Si was recruiting people on the forum, at the Rui Valley City Public Library’s second floor, the room with the elevator, thanks to the bustling survivors of Xiangling town, was emptied under their efforts.

All the bookshelves and books had been moved to the third floor, leaving nothing but the bare floor and the luggage brought by the White Bear Knights.

Perhaps it was out of consideration for the serum, or maybe it was for the safety of those books.

The manager named "Yong’s" didn’t say a word, tacitly allowing them to turn the elevator entrance into a temporary camp.

The night gradually deepened.

Si Si and Sesame Paste, curled in their sleeping bags, had gone offline, while Tail and Meat Meat sat beside their sleeping bags, guarding the early part of the night.

With nothing to do, Tail, unable to stay idle, started yawning out of boredom. But sitting next to her, Meat Meat was still spirited, stretching her not-so-obvious neck and looking around.

"What’s Meat Meat looking at?" Tail asked curiously upon seeing her constantly looking around.

"Hmm, nothing much, just a bit curious," Meat Meat murmured softly, "Say... is there a camera from the manager in this room?"

"Yeah, didn’t you know?"

"Not that I just found out, but doesn’t it mean... he’s watching us while we sleep?"

Tail looked at Meat Meat in surprise.

"Giao! Now that you mention it, it feels kind of weird!"

Meat Meat said with a laugh and a cry, "Don’t make it sound like I’m the weird one... Don’t you find it strange to have a camera watching you sleep?"

Tail seriously thought about this issue for a moment and then nodded.

"Um... it would indeed be strange in real life, but this is just a game, right? And we aren’t changing clothes here."

If you really think about it, isn’t the entire "Wasteland OL" filled with the "cameras" of the operators?

It’s not NPCs watching but real-life IT developers and site engineers.

Otherwise, how could the dog planners use closed beta players’ gaming behavior to refine the game content?

Thinking of this, Tail’s expression suddenly changed slightly.

Wait!

If that’s the case...

The weird songs she sang while showering, weren’t they all heard by the dog planners?!

"Giao!"

Seeing Tail’s suddenly flushed face, Meat Meat, sitting beside her, was puzzled.

"What’s wrong with you..."

It was the first time she saw him blushing.

And it spread from his face all the way to his ears.

"Nothing... nothing much."

The twitching brow and the forcibly smiling expression were as stiff as stiff could be, his knees nervously rubbing against each other, clearly looking troubled from any angle.

Just as Meat Meat was about to probe further out of curiosity, suddenly a loud "boom" came from outside, shaking the floor and walls.

The awkward atmosphere was instantly swept away.

Both the person and the bear immediately sprang up from the ground.

"From the south! The sound is coming from the south... This place has too narrow a view, I can’t see anything!"

Meat Meat moved up to the window boarded with wooden planks, trying to peek outside through the cracks in the window, but unfortunately, the view was completely blocked by the plants and buildings outside.

Seeing Meat Meat completely leaning against the window, Tail immediately spoke.

"Meat Meat! You stay here guarding Si Si and Sesame Paste, I will go upstairs to check it out!"

"Roger that!" Meat Meat quickly responded.

A distant angry roar followed by the disturbance of the cannonade caused the creature known as The Claw of Death to go berserk, unleashing a bloodbath.

Gunshots resounded throughout the area.

Tail, grabbing her rifle, rushed out and dashed up to the third floor, bumping into Wu Tao who was coming in a panic.

He had a hunting gun slung on his back, his eyes full of alarm.

Tail grabbed him and spoke in an imperfect United Human language, pausing at every syllable.

"Outside, what, happened?"

"Army, army!"

The hunter, who had just become the town’s mayor a few days ago, stammered in a disjointed voice filled with panic, "Those soldiers in black robes! They are back!"