This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 533: Card Master Chu Guang

Chapter 533: Chapter 533: Card Master Chu Guang

"Wasteland OL" Official Website.

A sudden post appeared on the forum, sparking heated discussion.

Wild Wind’s Niu Niu: "Big news! Giant Stone City has a batch of discounted second-hand devices for sale! Players of life professions who are interested should pay attention these days! If you need a purchasing agent, message me quickly! Good price, buy now before they’re gone!"

The poster was a merchant player who frequented Giant Stone City, whose favorite games were maritime and merchant simulations. They weren’t interested in leveling up; instead, they loved making a profit by trading between two markets.

Using silver coins to buy cheap goods and transporting them to Giant Stone City to earn chips was normal arbitrage behavior, not a so-called game bug.

However, it was also true that Giant Stone City’s spending power was on the decline, and goods often remained unsold for a long time, with luxury goods like bionic prosthetics fetching better prices.

A few months ago, he could still exchange his chips directly for silver coins, but after the Alliance and Giant Stone City Bank signed a loan agreement, the bank’s printing press was reluctantly activated to release liquidity, and the Alliance no longer lacked chips. Now at the Alliance Bank, only 2 silver coins could get 1 chip, and thinking about exchanging 1 earned chip for 2 silver coins was out of the question.

In the black market, the exchange rate between silver coins and chips had completely flipped, now it took 2 to 5 chips to get 1 silver coin.

Soon, the official rate of the Alliance might adjust as well. The delay in adjustment could perhaps be due to their disinterest in collecting so much "junk".

Having no choice, the merchant player could only use the devalued chips to buy commodities in Giant Stone City that were not increasing in price as fast, and then sell them back to the Alliance.

Strangely, while prices for various goods and real estate in Giant Stone City were on the rise, production equipment specifically wasn’t increasing much in price; some were even discounted.

Wild Wind’s Niu Niu immediately sensed a business opportunity.

Wasn’t the Alliance currently undergoing industrial transformation?

By buying up the machines and equipment that the Alliance precisely needed and selling them for silver coins, wouldn’t he be able to easily liquidate the chips he earned?

The post included a detailed inventory list.

From durable consumer goods sectors like plastics industry, home appliance industry, leather industry, and furniture industry to fast-moving consumer goods sectors like food industry, papermaking industry, chemical industry, and cleaning product industry; it covered nearly all industries that the Alliance was still lacking or remained small-scale workshops.

In reality, second-hand equipment from Giant Stone City wasn’t really big news.

Before the war ended, there were already some hardly seen second-hand devices appearing in auctions, and they were all about ninety percent new.

At that time, many players discussed on the official forum, although those devices didn’t seem like any particularly advanced black technology, some of their seemingly illogical creative designs could maybe be utilized in the real world?

Many experts and students from related industries were incredibly intrigued, and even greatly inspired. The profound depth of "Wasteland OL" further fueled boundless imaginations.

However, most players’ attention remained on the game itself.

Shortly after the post was made, nearly all life profession players on the forum stormed in.

Quit Smoking: "Why have so many second-hand devices suddenly appeared?"

Teng Teng: "Weren’t they expanding production just a few months ago? 0.0"

Crow: "Is something going to happen?"

Fang Chang: "Maybe it’s just due to overproduction, in a small place with just over fifty thousand people, how much industry can it really support?"

Makabazi: "Hey, I don’t quite get it. Logically, even before the formation of United Human, there was a long period of international history, right? You all keep exploiting it for benefits... wouldn’t they notice?"

Fang Chang: "What you’re saying, does that mean historic events will never occur again? If that were true, people in that world would have been living in paradise for generations."

Wild Wind: "History doesn’t simply repeat itself, but people keep falling in the same way. (sideways glance)"

Night Ten: "But you think... is the city lord blind? And even if the city lord is blind, shouldn’t the bank president or other high-ups realize something is off?"

Canyon Escapee Mole: "Theoretically, yes, assuming all the high-ups in Giant Stone City are Intelligence System superhumans who went through intelligence tests and professional skill evaluations, and they are unified in all matters, the exam questions selected completely designed and distributed by an AI disconnected from worldly affairs... it would be difficult to deceive them. (funny face)"

Fang Chang: "Actually, it’s not that complicated... The simplest example, drinking harms the stomach, but do you drink or not?"

Makabazi: "Still, you’ve got to drink a little."

Fang Chang: "Have you ever considered how your stomach feels?"

Makabazi: "Huh? Can a stomach even feel anything? (baffled)"

Fang Chang: "Is that just what your brain thinks?"

Quit Smoking: "Damn, that kind of makes sense."

Makabazi: "Makes no sense at all!"

Fang Chang: "Right? Humans aren’t the kind of animal to put health as a top priority, how can you imagine a group of people coming together to form a beehive mentality? An addict seeing opioid won’t be thinking about quitting it. Without external interference, they’ll think about getting a few more hits until death. Just like old Quit Smoking here, he’s had that ID for years, and odds are he hasn’t quit. (side-eye)"

Quit Smoking: "Oh come on! Called out!"

Crow: "Hahahaha! o(*≧▽≦)ツ"

Quit Smoking: "Still quitting... Damn, ever since I got that helmet, I’ve nearly stopped, but damn Fang Chang’s comment made me want one again. T.T"

Night Ten: "Just put on the helmet. (facetious)"

Fang Chang: "Guess that’s on me... Anyway, I just don’t see the appeal. (sweating)"

In a sense, debt is a more dangerous thing than poison, especially because it’s highly deceptive.

The accumulation of a bubble is a slow and sweet process, but its bursting often happens in an instant.

Giant Stone City is not devoid of clever people. Both highly cunning and slightly cunning people abound; probably some have seen the impending danger.

Otherwise, who is selling these chips on the Black Market?

Long before the war had ended, the black market exchange rate had already inverted compared to the official Alliance rate, this wasn’t a recent occurrence.

If analyzed through superficial logic, it’s the Alliance that has to repay debts by the end of the year, and they owe chips. Giant Stone City Bank could pressure the Alliance with debts, logically, the chips should cost more, right?

Fang Chang: "Checked the list, the items are pretty good, but my recommendation would be to wait, and we could get them cheaper. Actually, the most valuable industry to introduce from Giant Stone City is the Huge Rock Military Industry. They can produce everything from exoskeletons to phased array radars, except power armor... If we could drain them, it would definitely fill a big gap in our military industry."

Mosquito: "That sounds quite challenging."

Fang Chang: "But it’s not entirely impossible, Giant Stone City is experiencing industrial hollowing out. A single factory can hardly keep up. Moreover, Huge Rock Military Industry is not just one factory, they have many subsidiaries, handling both military and civilian orders, similar to our economic model. If we start from the grassroots employees to the assembly-line equipment, little by little, we’ll corner them completely."

Mosquito: "Wow, you’re bad! (grinning evilly)"

Fang Chang: "How’s that bad? It’s just the game... Besides, looking back over generations, who isn’t a descendant of the United Human? It’s a pure waste to leave these things in their hands; might as well let us strengthen and expand. (side-eye)"

Quit Smoking: "Brother Fang Chang is awesome!"

Night Ten: "I’d call that efficiency. (facetious)"

...

Dawn City Town Hall.

While discussing the budget issues of the Corn Tower project with Luka, Chu Guang suddenly sighed out of nowhere.

"To be honest, the problems with Giant Stone City might be more severe than I originally anticipated. I underestimated them."

Luka was slightly taken aback.

"Giant Stone City... aren’t we discussing the Corn Tower project?"

Chu Guang nodded.

"Correct, but the two aren’t unrelated. The newly developed Corn Community is largely intended for the refugees from Giant Stone City."

Luka looked at Chu Guang, his expression quickly turning serious.

"...How many do you expect?"

Although Chu Guang wasn’t sure what the Manager had done, he didn’t doubt that what the Manager said would happen.

Chu Guang thought for a moment and said,

"Originally, the estimate was slightly over forty thousand... This figure was within our society’s capacity to absorb, but now it seems it might exceed this number."

No other way.

The development of events wasn’t always within his expectations; he hadn’t expected that the nobles of the Inner City would get so wildly carried away.

In the initial roadmap, Chu Guang had prepared three cards for them.

The first card was a loan agreement, first using a 200 million loan to let them taste the sweetness of a trade surplus.

This way, the nobles and merchants made profits, and the ordinary survivors got jobs to support their families. Then, the debt size of the Alliance slowly expanded to 510 million, which was both due to the instigation of vested interests like Melvin who had tasted the sweetness, and Chu Guang’s tacit approval, fully aware of the implications.

Then came the second card.

As the debt size increased, a few wise men within Giant Stone City gradually became alert, starting to realize that risk was also a cost that couldn’t be ignored, so they tried to use their debt holdings to force the Alliance to make concessions on trade issues.

At that point, all the Alliance needed to do was prove that its financial situation was completely normal, the situation was better than ever, and the risks were nowhere near the unimaginable extent; everyone could continue playing music and dancing, and the game could go on.

Melvin was a wise man; he might have wanted to hit the brakes, but he knew very well that he actually couldn’t stop it.

This ship was never designed with brakes from the start; either no one tries to stop it and just let it slowly slide forward, or only a spectacular crash could potentially stop and reset everything.

And as a bank manager, all he could really do was install a spring under the accelerator, euphemistically called a "kinetic recovery system," to make those greedy nobles press it slightly lighter.

So when Chu Guang presented the second card, which expressed a willingness to "help the Alliance create a pool for the excess money generated by excess debt" and "completely liberalize the exchange rate between chips and silver coins within five years, allowing free conversion between chips and silver coins," Melvin almost immediately agreed.

He had many cards in hand, but actually few he could use.

And the spring given by the Alliance was much better than his own designed deceptive "kinetic recovery system."

In essence, including the third card that hadn’t yet been played, the Alliance’s series of proactive debt-taking actions essentially meant forcefully turning on the water tap of the Giant Stone City Bank and plugging a fusion reactor into the printing press.

Under optimistic circumstances, even if Giant Stone City went bankrupt, it would be a gentle bankruptcy. They would slowly lose a century and a half of accumulated wealth over three to five years. Most people’s lives would change because of this, but the process wouldn’t actually be that long or painful.

However, what Chu Guang hadn’t expected was that his plan had already deviated from the original track; the nobles had acted even more insanely and boldly than he had anticipated when it was time to be conservative.

He had just played the second card when those fools couldn’t wait to turn their own pockets inside out, tossing out the third card he had hidden — exchanging the century-long savings of Giant Stone City for those more fragrant beer bubbles.

Debt had already factually flowed into the production phase!

This was the most terrifying!

Normally, before reaching the final step, Giant Stone City’s economy should have gone through two accelerations and one last frenzy.

But perhaps due to the greed of the Inner City nobles, the crisis was likely brought forward.

The hot money circulating in accounts could even exceed the actual funds circulating in production by several zeros.

The survivors of Giant Stone City were only one trigger away from a crisis that could explode at any time, where fifty thousand chips might be needed for a single loaf of bread...

"... A few thousand refugees are still within our society’s capacity to absorb, but over five hundred thousand permanent residents, plus a bunch of Waste Land Wanderers living off the city’s garbage outside the walls. If the giant wall collapses, if we don’t handle this carefully, we might be dragged down by this long-standing behemoth."

Looking at the concern on Chu Guang’s face, Luka asked somewhat puzzledly.

"... I don’t understand, we have defeated enemies many times our number on the battlefield; this difficulty... actually doesn’t seem like much trouble, right?"

Unsurprised by Luka’s confusion, Chu Guang looked at him and said,

"Have you ever heard of a whale explosion?"

Luka was stunned for a moment.

"...Whale explosion?"

What was a whale?

"Yes."

Chu Guang nodded and continued.

"Whales that beach themselves and die on the shore, due to the accumulation of rotting gases inside, burst open, throwing chunks of flesh as far as a kilometer away, and the smell lingers for months... Thus, dealing with stranded whale corpses is much more difficult than hunting a healthy whale in the sea."

Luka tried to imagine this, some creature even larger than insects, and after a while, frowned.

"So you mean... Giant Stone City is like this whale, and its fall will breed a string of new troubles."

Chu Guang nodded again.

"Last year, there was a Whale explosion incident in River Valley Province, where the Expeditionary Army of the Army fled south and barely fought out the Bone Chewing Chaos. The central part of River Valley Province was left barren, most of the survivor settlements were destroyed, and over ninety percent of the residents of the entire Alliance were survivors of that disaster; you should have some impression of it."

Hearing that the consequences could be so severe made Luka’s expression much more solemn.

"What do you plan to do?"

"If something is bound to happen, sooner or later, all we can do is prepare in advance," Chu Guang paused and sighed, "Using the loan from Giant Stone City Bank, we’ll order some more quilts and cotton clothes from their factories."

He couldn’t just give up on removing the tumor because of the risk it might spread.

They were too close to the Alliance.

Even if Chu Guang didn’t want to wipe the ass of the Post-War Reconstruction Committee, he still had to consider the future carefully.

After all, if Giant Stone City had done everything the Alliance had done, united the survivors around Qingquan City, there wouldn’t have been any Bet Street, Brown Farm, or Blood Hand Clan, or even the Alliance at all. The population migration caused by the Bone Chewing Chaos would inject new blood into the outer city, and even if they had had unpleasant experiences with the Production Department of the Reconstruction Committee, that was a long time ago... They actually had a chance to step into a new era themselves.

If that was the case, it didn’t really matter whether Shelter No. 404 existed or not, Chu Guang might consider going back to his old profession.

Doing business with civilized people was not difficult for him; he did quite well before his transmigration.

But standing in the Wasteland, he looked up and saw Old Leech’s face everywhere, his vision filled with Hyenas and Vultures.

If nothing was done, they would simply become prey for the Variants. If someone had to lose everything, then let it be those who were not deserving from the beginning.

But in the end, they were all descendants of United Human, and even if Giant Stone City had once shut out most of the survivors from the southern River Valley Province, he wouldn’t go to extremes, letting them fend entirely for themselves like the Army would.

Luka, guessing what Chu Guang might be thinking, said seriously.

"I’ll instruct my people to start preparing immediately."

Chu Guang nodded.

"Go ahead."

In terms of resettling displaced people, Old Luka was probably the most experienced old man in the whole Alliance...

...

On the fourth morning after the celebration.

The sky outside the window was still dimly lit. Sleepy-eyed Dolly stretched, yawned, got out of bed, and after washing up, placed breakfast on the table.

As usual, a certain troublemaker was still sound asleep, doing nothing until his regular waking time, unresponsive to any pranks.

But kind Miss Dolly didn’t plan to take advantage of the troublemaker’s sleepiness to capture him.

After watching his peaceful sleeping face for a while, she quietly leaned over and gave him a kiss, then blushed and tiptoed out of the house.

Two days ago, the Alliance’s "Survivor’s Daily" truly adopted her submission, not only dedicating an entire page to her column but also attaching an invitation to join the company in their response to her.

According to the responding editor, the chief editor was very appreciative of her detailed investigation and even asked the staff reporters to learn from this submitting member of the public, to open their eyes wide when it was time to do so.

Honestly, Dolly felt somewhat embarrassed, as, although she wrote the column, much of it wasn’t her own original ideas.

As for the invitation to join the "Survivor’s Daily" included in the letter, she gladly accepted it.

And today was her first day at work.

Not wanting to leave her colleagues with the impression of being late, she left home early in the morning.

The newspaper’s address was on a street near Embassy Street on the eastern side of Dawn City, where the buildings blend various styles. It took her some time to find the newspaper’s location based on the address on the envelope.

However, the working hours of the Alliance were beyond her expectations; she waited a while before a yawning gatekeeper came to open the door.

"Good morning, miss new reporter. You’ve arrived quite early, our president probably just woke up."

"Good morning... Isn’t the work time at six?" Dolly whispered to the gatekeeper who seemed to have just woken up.

The gatekeeper was stunned for a moment and then chuckled.

"That was in the past, after the celebration, the working hours were changed to eight o’clock. Just don’t be late by half an hour."

Embarrassed, Dolly nodded her head and, after thanking him, went inside the newspaper office to the HR office.

The induction formalities were completed yesterday, and her work card was only ready today. HR mentioned this yesterday and asked her to pick it up when she came to work.

Holding her work card, Dolly finally relaxed and let go of all the anxiety she had held in her heart, happily walking to her workstation.

She originally thought there would be many complicated procedures, but everything turned out to be much smoother than she had imagined.

Honestly, before this, she was somewhat nervous.

She had never stayed outside the Giant Wall for such a long time and never thought she would work and live beyond the Giant Wall.

Until last year, the world beyond the Giant Wall was synonymous with wilderness and wastelands. She had several times persuaded Fang Chang, hoping he would stay inside the Giant Wall with her.

But these days, she had gradually found that it wasn’t as difficult as she had imagined; people were very polite, and the food was delicious. Although not everything was perfect here, it was getting better a little bit every day. And this wasn’t just because they had a wise manager, but more so because everyone genuinely wanted to do something for the community.

At least that’s how she felt.

"From now on, it’s a new beginning..."

Thinking she wouldn’t have to live apart from her beloved anymore, a subtle sweetness stirred in Dolly’s heart.

Just then, a light cough sounded nearby.

"Are you... Dolly?"

Instantly snapping back from her reverie, Dolly sprung up from her seat and turned to the veteran employee standing nearby.

"Yes, hello! I’m the new reporter."

"Yang Yan, editor of the news segment."

Not surprised by the overly enthusiastic reaction of the newbie, Yang Yan casually handed her an unopened package.

"This was sent from Giant Stone City, and since you are here, you can open it."

Many workers in the Alliance come from Giant Stone City. Some had already moved their families over, while others hadn’t done so yet for various reasons.

They would exchange some silver coins into chips and send them back home or directly buy some daily necessities to send back, thus the Alliance’s embassy also handled postal services.

Curious, Dolly reached out and took the package, shaking it from side to side.

"Is it sent to me?"

Yang Yan shrugged helplessly.

"No, but the sender wrote on it ’send to the former editor of the Survivor Daily in Giant Stone City’, and you are the only one here who has worked there."

The Survivor Daily of Giant Stone City and the Survivor Daily of the Alliance just share a name. The former was single-handedly managed by Hal, while the latter was started by the Manager who thought the newspaper in Giant Stone City was well-managed, so he also found some people to create an identical one.

The two had no connection whatsoever in terms of equity structure or personnel, and Yang Yan was puzzled about why someone would send a package here.

Dolly opened the package suspiciously, and inside was a stack of crumpled old newspapers. However, upon closer inspection, it didn’t look like a return. Written on the blank margin of the newspapers were rows of crooked handwriting.

She flattened the old newspapers on the table and read out the headline softly.

"Awakener Bol: A poor kid from the slums accidentally finds a tube of Awakened Spirit Medicine and knocks down a power armor in the final battle... Is that true? Is there such a powerful Awakener?"

Dolly muttered in confusion, but quickly realized this might not be a news submission, and then she noticed the name.

Bol?

That sounds familiar... Wait a minute!

She suddenly came to her senses, wasn’t this the story from the serialized novel in the Survivor Daily’s supplement, the Worker Report?

Someone continued their story?!

This sudden surprise was no less than discovering one day that the seeds casually thrown by the roadside had grown into a towering tree.

Seeing Dolly’s sudden excitement, Yang Yan slightly raised his eyebrows.

"Do you have a clue?"

"Yes! Give me a bit more time to look at this."

Dolly nodded excitedly, sat back down, and continued reading with great interest. Seeing her so absorbed, the senior editor didn’t disturb her and busied himself with his own work.

It must have been about an hour.

Dolly stood up from her seat, her eyes shining, holding the old newspaper tightly, and walked over to the senior editor’s desk.

"This is a novel! It’s written so well!"

She personally felt it was even better than the previous author’s work!

That guy named Spielberg, although he couldn’t produce ornate prose, depicted the complex and tangled emotions of a minor character overcoming class barriers vividly, and his idea of forming a Workers’ Association was simply brilliant.

If the previous author had just written a story about someone rising above others, this writer had truly breathed life into the poor boy who emerged from the slums.

She was eager to know what would happen next!

However, speaking of which, although the main storyline of the novel, both before and after the continuation, had the relationship subplot merely as an embellishment to the main plot, she was curious about who the Awakener Bol would ultimately choose.

He had snapped the hard-earned Black Card...

The noble lady who loved him would surely be heartbroken.

Was he going to make her end up with that evil Thousand Leaders?

As a Pure Love Warrior, she couldn’t accept that!

"I think we can publish it!" Stuffing the old newspaper into the baffled Yang Yan’s hands, Dolly said with bright eyes, "I can edit this book!"

Yang Yan was stunned by this abrupt proposition.

"Wait... publish? A novel?"

Dolly patiently explained,

"This is a novel that was previously serialized in the newspapers of Giant Stone City! It was discontinued because the newspaper was shut down, but now someone is willing to continue the story!"

Yang Yan couldn’t help laughing wryly,

"But... we have no readers in Giant Stone City."

The Alliance’s Survivor’s Daily did have serialized novels, but they were usually shorts occupying only a small part of a page.

Unless they published a supplement.

But he didn’t have the final say on such important matters; only the chief editor had that authority.

Dolly tried hard to persuade,

"It doesn’t have to be in Giant Stone City! It can be serialized in the Alliance’s Survivor’s Daily! We can launch a supplement. This story could help increase the supplement’s sales by serializing a small part in the main issue and the full content in the supplement."

"But we haven’t read the previous part of the story."

Helplessly glancing at this overly enthusiastic newcomer, Yang Yan took the old newspaper from her hands, looked over it briefly, and sighed,

"Forgive my bluntness, but I am completely confused about Bol’s story; I don’t even recognize him... You think it’s good because you read the earlier part, right?"

Dolly scratched her head sheepishly.

"Uh, that’s my oversight, but... I can find my former colleague! He can surely organize the earlier content. He must keep the original manuscript, and when the office was shut down, we moved all our desks back!"

She was rather indifferent toward the original story.

But after that guy Spielberg continued it, she saw different highlights in it.

However, the senior editor had a different perspective.

"There are more issues than that..." Yang Yan sighed, pointing at the newspaper, "Read this title again."

Dolly paused, then read unconsciously,

"Awakener Bol: A poor boy from the slums who accidentally found an awakened spirit medicine and knocked down a power armor in the final battle... Is there a problem? Aren’t newspaper stories always this long?"

"It’s not about the length, but the content," Yang Yan said meaningfully, "Our managers also wear power armor, and this Bol intends to knock down a power armor in the final battle... What is he trying to do?"

"Ah?!" Dolly stared wide-mouthed at the senior editor in shock, "Just because of this? But—"

She had never even considered that angle!

And it clearly stated that it was a story from Giant Stone City. What did it have to do with here?

Yang Yan shook his head.

"This could be a big or small issue, and no one says it’s not allowed, but being cautious won’t hurt. The residents of the Alliance have special feelings for our managers. You have to consider their feelings. If you must publish, I suggest at least changing the title and content—"

Dolly got anxious again, wanting to make one more attempt.

Just then, a cheerful voice suddenly came from the side,

"I think it’s fine!"

Yang Yan immediately turned in that direction, his eyes flashing with surprise, and sprang up from his chair, enthusiastically rearranging the seat.

"Manager? What brings you here? Please, have a seat!"

Dolly also looked surprised in that direction.

It wasn’t her first time seeing the manager of the Alliance, but it indeed was a recent occurrence.

Chu Guang looked at the two and smiled, speaking in a casual tone,

"No need, I won’t sit in your newly bought chairs, haha. Don’t be so nervous, I came to discuss expanding business into Luo Xia Province with your president."

This request came from Hal.

To prevent his father from hindering his career, this filial son learned from his failures in Giant Stone City and planned to invite him to become a shareholder of the newspaper.

Chu Guang found it amusing and agreed.

He was actually a fun person too, just not that obviously.

Yang Yan watched him carefully and asked,

"So you..."

"The official business is already done. I just happened to pass by and accidentally overheard your conversation, forgive me!" Chu Guang smiled and continued, "Since I’ve heard it all, I might as well be straightforward. I think this lady is right, the Survivor’s Daily in Giant Stone City has plenty of supplements, why can’t we have one?"

Yang Yan reminded with a bitter smile,

"Sir... that was done by Giant Stone City."

Chu Guang said nonchalantly,

"It doesn’t matter whether it’s Giant Stone City or something shouted out from a rotten coffin, progress is progress! They have it, and so should we! Later, you also need to start publishing the Worker’s Report. The Survivor’s Daily should cover issues all survivors care about, and the Worker’s Report should focus more on the workers’ concerns. The night school’s results are good; don’t think our workers are illiterate and can’t understand complex texts."

Yang Yan quickly responded,

"I never thought that!"

Dolly watched Chu Guang excitedly,

"Thank you for understanding! If you’ve read it, you should know this novel has nothing to do with you..."

Chu Guang coughed,

"Cough... I don’t mind such things; you guys keep figuring it out."

He was joking; being an Awakener himself, why would he be afraid?

Besides, power armors were abundant in the Wasteland. Without other intentions, who would bother stretching relations that far?

However, returning to the subject, Chu Guang was quite interested in making a cameo as an extra.

These initial serialized novels often held special significance and might end up being adapted into movies due to sentimental value.

As for being cliché or not.

That kind of thing was not important.

Plain and simple things often resounded more with people. Journey to the West, stripped down, was also just a story of four disciples on a quest for scriptures.

The Alliance needed to output some culture to the Wasteland, not just the culture borrowed from the players in the Real World but something closer to what the survivors on the Wasteland needed.

He and his lovely little players had planted seeds in the Wasteland, and they were sprouting.

Clearly, this was a good thing.

"Should I... ask the chief editor?" Yang Yan asked softly.

"I might as well go myself; I just came from there," Chu Guang smiled, "and I might as well have another tea there."

Watching the manager walking towards the corridor, Yang Yan smiled wryly.

He truly hoped his boss had a good heart...