This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 527: Filth is Spreading Silently

Chapter 527: Chapter 527: Filth is Spreading Silently

"No, you can’t eat this fruit!"

A dispute erupted in front of a fruit stall on North Street.

A broad-chested girl, like a mother hen protecting her chicks, shielded two other girls, one older and one younger, behind her. In front of her, a fierce-looking stall owner glared at her, looking as if he wanted to devour her.

Seeing that the crowd of onlookers was growing, Frost Snow, not wanting to cause trouble for the Manager, anxiously tugged at Crow’s arm.

"Crow, let’s... let’s not buy it."

Watching Crow and the fruit stall owner confronting each other, Frost Night, hiding behind her sister, was even more frightened and whispered,

"Please... no fighting."

She was just curious about the taste of the green fruit and had pestered her sister to buy one to try, not expecting to cause such a commotion.

The thought of possibly troubling her sister nearly brought her to tears.

"It’s not about whether you buy it or not!"

Looking earnestly at Frost Snow, Crow bent down, patted her sister’s head to calm her, and said softly,

"... Sister isn’t fighting, there are bad people selling harmful things in our settlement, should we allow them to continue harming others?"

Frost Night blinked.

"Bad people?"

"Yes."

Crow nodded firmly, then straightened up, turned, and grabbed a green, shiny fruit from the stall, lifting it high. She scanned the surrounding crowd and shouted,

"Everyone, be careful, this fruit is poisonous! Do not eat it randomly!"

As her words fell, the crowd erupted in a buzz.

"Poisonous?!"

"What’s going on?!"

"Shh... I think someone bought it to eat."

"Could something bad happen?!"

Hearing the whispers around him, the face of the fruit stall’s owner flushed red, and he yelled at her,

"You! Be careful or I’ll sue you for slander! This is a fruit from the south... it’s not poisonous!"

Crow hummed proudly, puffing out her chest.

"I can tell at a glance whether it’s poisonous or not!"

Teng Teng, standing aside without speaking, glanced at her not-so-smart friend, sighed, and crossed her arms saying,

"That could backfire, you know."

"Huh?!"

"That makes sense," Jiujiu, looking puzzled, rubbed her chin and mused, "My brother always drags me leveling when he’s free. It’s so annoying... Is this what they call reverse psychology?"

Teng Teng facepalmed.

"... It’s actually not really about reverse psychology."

Crow’s talent was only effective for herself, in her world, anything poisonous emitted a green glow, but others couldn’t see it.

Moreover, her intuition wasn’t always 100% accurate; there had been incidents where players consumed something and ended up fine.

Perception was one of the most mystic attributes of this game, serving as a composite of all kinds of intuitive abilities, and Crow’s "Toxin Intuition" was particularly enigmatic.

No sooner had Crow spoken than the crowd exchanged looks, and whispers quickly spread.

"Poisonous?!"

"The green shiny look does seem off..."

"I think that girl is right!"

"She’s wearing a Blue Jacket!"

"And such a big one!"

"But... just because she’s a Resident of the refuge and says it’s poisonous, isn’t that a bit presumptuous?"

"Indeed, based on the standards they brought from the Prosperity Epoch, there’s too much poisonous stuff in the Wasteland, it seems even the people are poisonous!"

"Bringing fruit from Brocade River Province isn’t easy..."

"Us Wasteland Wanderers aren’t as fragile as them, if we’re starving, we’d even eat Eaters!"

"Tsk tsk, no matter what, having angered someone you shouldn’t have on the Alliance’s turf... this boss is probably doomed."

The residents of the alliance naturally stood by their own people; they did not doubt Crow’s words at all.

However, most of the survivors from other places felt sympathy for the boss, especially those who were small merchants in the Wasteland.

In the settlements they had visited, there were not so many rules and regulations.

Seeing that sympathy seemed to be siding with him, the fruit stand owner, who had previously been somewhat weak, suddenly became emboldened.

After scrutinizing the fruit for a moment, Jiujiu felt it looked familiar and suddenly realized, "Ah... Isn’t this fruit the Jade Fruit that garbage collectors found in the south?"

Although there was no signal, and no photos had been uploaded to the official website, the description from the post unquestionably matched that of the "Jade Fruit."

So...

Was this Jade Fruit and the "Nago" that the boss claimed actually the same thing?

"Yeah, they do look somewhat similar."

Teng Teng was surprised to discover this too, and then turned to the stall owner and placed a 100 silver paper money on the fruit stand.

"Hey, give me a basket, and it won’t hurt you to try a couple yourself."

The stall owner hesitated and his expression tensed up.

"Me, eat two? Why should I eat..."

He remembered the merchant who sold him the goods had mentioned that eating one occasionally was fine, but eating two at once would definitely cause trouble.

"Oh? You won’t even eat what you’re selling?" Teng Teng smirked malevolently. "Just so you know, there’s a law in the alliance that, in the absence of testing conditions, a consumer can request the seller to try the goods after purchase... You’re not going to tell me you’re too full to even eat a fruit the size of an apple, are you?"

Actually, as the alliance grew larger, this imprecise rule, like selling prisoners of war to other settlements, had become somewhat outdated.

The Biological Institute under the alliance flag had established a food safety inspection department responsible for safety checks on commodities sold under the guise of food in the market, and for identifying the toxicity of various parts of variants including multilegged beasts and monsters, researching more scientific ways to process ingredients, and restricting or even delisting the sales of certain goods.

Long ago, proving whether something was edible was mostly determined by players acting bravely on their own.

"You!"

Seeing those who initially supported him also start to grow suspicious, the boss’s beady eyes swiveled cautiously, his fierce face suddenly crumpled into a mournful expression as he threw a tantrum.

"You blue jackets... ganging up to bully a foreign merchant like me! Do you have no shame? Business here is impossible!"

"Oh! This man is twisting the truth too much," Jiujiu, shifting her gaze from the VM screen subtitle, looked at the shameless boss and immediately said, "I’m going to find my brother!"

No sooner had Jiujiu turned her head to leave than Teng Teng grabbed her hand.

"Don’t rely on your brother for everything; what problems can that guy solve anyway?"

Saying this, Teng Teng sighed and earnestly looked at the still obstinate boss.

"I’ll ask you one last time, are you sure you want to continue selling this? I can buy all of it, but if our tests later reveal it’s moderately addictive or severely harmful to consumers, according to current alliance laws, you’ll face three years or more of hard labor and, depending on the severity, possibly even the death penalty."

Before even hearing "death penalty," the boss turned pale just at the mention of three years of hard labor and gave an awkward, forced laugh.

"Really, is that necessary? It’s just a few fruits... just fruits."

And working in a mine with looters...

He hadn’t killed anyone, nor had he set any fires. Besides, consuming small amounts of Nago actually benefited one’s health, easing the pain of those struggling to survive.

Why was it now considered poisonous?

Teng Teng, focusing on the boss trying to change the subject, nodded earnestly.

"We can’t control other places, but this is our home. We built it brick by brick. Don’t expect us to turn a blind eye to what we see."

This statement garnered quite a bit of approval.

Especially as the boss’s expression became increasingly unable to hide his true feelings, people began to doubt whether he was really as pitiable as he claimed.

Why not dare to eat one?

Picking one from his own stall and eating it shouldn’t be such a daunting task.

"Well said!"

"I support this!"

"These tricky merchants... won’t even eat their own products, yet dare to display them!"

"Exactly! Hey, fruit seller, eat two! Then we’ll stand by you!"

The boss turned from pale to flushed with each remark.

At that time, Frost, with Solar Eclipse, walked through the crowd.

"I heard someone here needed help."

With a smile, they glanced at everyone present.

"I’m a member of the Celebration Autonomy Committee. Please tell me your conflict, and I’ll make the fairest judgment according to the alliance laws, ensuring no villains escape and no innocent is wrongly accused."

"No, no! I don’t need a judgement!" Seeing her armband, the boss quickly changed his expression and shook his head. "I’m not selling these fruits anymore."

After speaking, he covered the green fruits with a cloth and planned to pack up the stall.

"Ah... is it over already?"

Frost expressed a slight regret.

Eclipse, standing beside her, glanced at it expressionlessly.

"I don’t understand, isn’t this a good thing?"

Frost muttered.

"It is a good thing, no doubt... but it still feels like a pity."

Watching the owner hastily pack up, Teng Teng fell into thought and spoke.

"We need to report this as soon as possible..."

The residents of the refuge did not have law enforcement authority. She couldn’t just smash the stall or confiscate it just because Crow thought the stuff was poisonous, regardless of the strange looks from others.

Crow also nodded earnestly.

"Yes! This is a big problem!"

Hearing this, Frost’s eyes suddenly lit up, and she regained her energy.

"A big problem? Leave it to me! I will help."

Holding Frost Night’s little hand, Frost Snow hesitated for a moment and looked at Crow.

"Is it really that serious?"

"Of course!" Crow nodded earnestly and said seriously, "The alliance is no longer the small settlement it used to be. Someone selling this stuff here means it’s already circulating among us."

Teng Teng nodded in agreement and casually said.

"Agreed."

"When you see a cockroach in your house, it means there are countless more that you haven’t seen."

...

Just as Teng Teng had guessed, when she, Crow, and Jiujiu arrived at the nearest guard station, the guards were overwhelmed with this issue.

Some residents of the refuge stated that this "Nago" and the "Jade Fruit" they found in the south were the same thing, posing a significant potential risk, yet hard to prove.

The toxicity of "Nago" does not manifest immediately, and its honey-sweet taste has a certain deceptiveness, with consumers even becoming "stronger" over time.

It was precisely because of this that the alliance’s effective routine error correction mechanism had failed at this moment of unaligned perceptions.

Fortunately, the problem was identified in time.

In addition to the regular error correction mechanism, the alliance also had another special system—the player mechanism.

Residents of Shelter No. 404 would always respond to the shelter’s mobilization, whether for sudden wars or maintaining everyday order.

Xiao Qi promptly conveyed the Manager’s instructions to the guard station and the Celebration Autonomy Committee, removing the "Nago" from the alliance market shelves, recalling the products already sold to customers, and registering customers who had already eaten it.

The alliance’s Biological Institute would observe their subsequent symptoms and recover their metabolites.

According to the clues reported on the official website by Pick Up Trash 99 level, people and animals who had eaten Nago would not get sick immediately but would lose resistance to diseases, and over time their feces poisons the soil, preventing the cultivation of crops.

It was still uncertain whether this impact could be mitigated with technological means, but just the "decrease in immunity" and "fecal soil contamination" were enough concerns.

Drones operating in the alliance’s airspace had already started working, and players scattered among the crowd gradually received their missions— this hazardous food.

Must disappear from the alliance’s market!

"...Nago."

Reading the text updated on VM, Fang Chang stroked his chin with interest, seemingly pondering these matters.

Dolly, with a camera hanging around her neck, curiously came over and took a peek.

"What are you looking at?"

"This is our... um, work log," said Fang Chang, introducing it in a way she could understand and then put away the VM, "A batch of harmful fruits called Nago appeared in the market, seemingly brought by merchants from the south. My dear Ms. Reporter, do you have any leads?"

"Nago?" Dolly staggered for a moment, shaking her head in confusion, "This is the first time I’ve heard of it..."

Fang Chang smiled faintly.

"Is that so? It seems the trade hub of the Southern River Valley plains has moved from the West Third Ring of Qingquan City to the ’North Suburb’, which isn’t a bad thing from this perspective."

Though it also meant more challenges were ahead.

"That fruit... is it dangerous?" Dolly asked worriedly.

"Yes," Fang Chang nodded, looking at the bustling crowd in the distance and said succinctly, "Let’s hope this stuff doesn’t follow our trade routes to Sunset Province in the west. We’ve just resolved a food crisis."

Maybe...

The Alliance should take the initiative to do something.

...

At the same time, in the banquet hall of the Alliance.

Chu Guang, who had just announced the start of the celebration at Triumph Square, was immediately meeting the representatives from various parties, including corporate representatives, in the banquet hall.

The victory of the Alliance concerned not only the future of the Alliance itself but also the entire region east of the Great Desert for at least ten to twenty years.

Thus, regardless of whether they were directly or indirectly involved in the expedition to Luo Xia Province, most survivor settlements that had trade with the Alliance took advantage of the celebration to send delegates, bringing blessings from afar.

Chu Guang was familiar with most of these representatives.

For instance, Minister Wu Changnian from the corporations, Prince Wenter from the Lion Kingdom, and the little princess of the Honey Badger Kingdom, Afni, who never left the Alliance, among others.

Apart from these acquaintances, there were also those who came from survivor settlements that had not yet established diplomatic relations with the Alliance. It was Chu Guang’s first time meeting people from those places.

For example, a place called Garbage City, located a bit southeast of the Red River Alliance. They usually had no official interactions but also sent a council member this time.

Another example was from Water Dam City, a survivor settlement in Yue Ma Province located to the east of River Valley Province, which had a population of several hundred thousand. The city lord personally sent his own son over.

The young man, named Zhou Xianlin, had an elegant name and appeared genteel, a rare sight in the Wastelands; he grabbed Chu Guang’s hand excitedly and spoke in an incoherent rush upon their meeting.

"Your speech was absolutely brilliant! I... apologize, I don’t know how to express how thrilled I am! With such an outstanding Manager as you, it’s no wonder you managed to achieve such an incredible miracle within a year! We plan to learn from your experience, and after I return, I’m going to transform our settlement into a ’Dam Alliance’!"

"Thank you, the Alliance has many outstanding people. Miracles are called miracles because they aren’t accomplished by one individual alone."

Watching the fervor in the young man’s eyes, Chu Guang was pleased but could not help feeling a touch of unease as he held his hand and spoke earnestly,

"I am very glad that you think so highly of our achievements, but I hope you won’t blindly follow our example. Although we are on the same Wastelands, the problems we face are, in fact, different."

Zhou Xianlin nodded vigorously, excitedly saying,

"I understand! I will bear it in mind! Our immediate priority is to eliminate the remnants of the Chew-bone Tribe... Those Looters running around are just too despicable!"

Looking at the young man’s flushed face, Chu Guang felt that he somewhat resembled Sommer, though not as clever.

It seemed he had unexpectedly gained a little admirer.

However, considering there were many more waiting for him, Chu Guang didn’t spend much time in deep conversation with the young man. After patting him on the shoulder, he went on to meet the next delegate.

He hoped that the young man truly understood the importance of uniting the survivors, rather than merely idolizing the strong.

Taking the corporations as an example, in terms of scale alone, they were much stronger than the Alliance, and the assets they inherited from the Post-War Reconstruction Committee were even beyond his imagination.

However, even in reality, direct transplantation of the methods from Ideal City would definitely collapse the already normal social order.

Because it was itself a "one-in-a-million" coincidence.

If it weren’t for all the residents of Shelter No. 6 and Endeavour Colonization Ship casting an identical vote under that particular circumstance, Ideal City would not exist.

Even one dissenting vote, or if the minority had complied with the majority, their ideals would have definitely been stranded on the ground...

After dealing with all the representatives, Chu Guang was about to rest for a while. Almost as soon as he sat down in his chair, Xiao Qi’s voice came to his ear.

"Master! Your little player has found a batch of fruit suspected to be poisonous at the celebration, similar to the Jade Fruit reported by the player ’Pick up trash 99 level’."

Hearing the crisp voice beside him, Chu Guang frowned slightly.

Xiao Qi had previously reported to him about his little players’ discoveries in the South.

Though he hadn’t participated in the discussions on the forum, he had been keeping an eye on the developments of both that "Nago" and the Mutant tribe called "Qi."

However, relative to other matters, this issue wasn’t a high priority, even less so than the Alliance’s "Big Plane Plan" and the nuclear fuel in Brocade River Province.

Compared to a mutant tribe several hundred kilometers away and a sudden crop emergence, there were too many other issues needing Chu Guang’s personal attention.

Economically, he needed to ensure an orderly growth of debt, while suppressing inflation brought by economic expansion. Industrially, he needed to guide the massive surplus of military industry capabilities towards civilian use, while gathering opinions from industry representatives to prevent resource waste and loss during economic transformation.

In governance, he needed to further clarify the scope of duties and responsibilities of different departments and positions. Affairs that could previously be handled "cheaply and efficiently" now had to follow procedures. Furthermore, he had to carefully incorporate some elements more suited to the Wasteland Era into the Prosperity Epoch’s "AI Municipality Concept" to mitigate the debuff of reduced administrative efficiency and acclimatization issues.

As for military, cultural, and diplomatic aspects, there was a host of tasks to handle... And after all these, he still needed to translate the same rules into the language of games, preparing a Wasteland OL version for the players.

The Alliance was entering an unprecedented golden age of development, with hundreds of people each day deciding to stay and join their cause.

Whether they were citizens of the Alliance or from nearby survivor settlements, confidence in the Alliance was soaring like never before.

Even those who inwardly despised or feared the Alliance had to admit that the Alliance had achieved an almost impossible miracle and would not fade away quietly for at least some time.

As the Alliance’s Manager, Chu Guang was clear about what his foremost job was at the moment.

However, what he couldn’t ignore was that the "Nago" had quietly spread to just under his notice. Some kind of impurity was quietly spreading...

After a moment’s thought, Chu Guang immediately ordered Xiao Qi,

"Send a sample to Heya. Tell her to put aside what she’s working on; I need to see the results of that analysis as soon as possible!"

An enthusiastic reply quickly came through his ear,

"Received!"