This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 62 You Saved Our Entire Family

Chapter 62: Chapter 62 You Saved Our Entire Family

Crow stepped into the mutated leech nest with what expression, Chu Guang hadn’t paid much attention.

But when she showed up at the warehouse door with a big bag of mushrooms, that face was inevitably filled with the joy of being covered in grime.

Seeing the sack stuffed full of blue mushrooms, Chu Guang couldn’t help but express a hint of surprise in his tone.

"So many?"

Out of breath, Crow nodded vigorously, chuckling as she said,

"I went in three times! Almost got bitten, eheh."

Chu Guang: "..."

Three times?!

That’s pretty brave.

Anyway, he wouldn’t dare.

After weighing it, the sack of mushrooms totaled seventy kilograms.

This number far exceeded Chu Guang’s expectations.

He had originally guessed that, at most, she might gather around forty or fifty kilograms, but she actually managed to collect seventy kilograms.

"In total, 560 copper coins, equivalent to 56 silver coins. Besides that, there are also 700 contribution points..."

Did he give too much?

Forget it.

After all, she earned it risking her life.

Hearing the numbers recited by the Manager, Crow jumped excitedly, joyfully swinging her fists.

"Nice!"

"I’m rich haha!"

Chu Guang: "..."

Even though I’m an NPC, could you maybe find a place with no people to celebrate?

The thickness of one silver coin is less than 2 millimeters, a stack of 50 would measure about 9 to 10 centimeters, which compared to the little treasury of the refuge, is but a drop in the ocean.

Having received her reward, Crow walked away happily humming a tune, while Chu Guang, standing at the warehouse door, stroked his chin deep in thought.

Right now, the wealthiest players are probably Old White, Fang Chang, and their ilk, their power and understanding of the game roughly placing them in the first tier among players.

They’ve been hunting these days, almost identifying the areas of highest game activity nearby, with daily earnings having risen from 52 silver coins to as high as 100 silver coins at their peak; even if the income from hunting is unstable, they’ve likely saved up a fair amount these past few days.

For safety reasons, Chu Guang checks the players’ storage lockers every day.

If nothing unexpected, today the Cow and Horse small team should be able to save up 200 silver coins to jointly purchase the piece of land closest to the resurrection point.

Aside from them, other players’ savings are also steadily increasing, even if the purchase of wooden weapons, iron weapons, leather armor, winter coats, tools, and food might take up some, the player with the least savings also generally holds more than 10 silver coins.

"Perhaps the ’banking’ feature should be updated."

This way, it’s not only able to save players’ storage space but can also redistribute the silver coins they’ve saved up back to them.

The more Chu Guang thought about it, the more it made sense, and he immediately took out a small notebook from his pocket and wrote it down.

As soon as there’s a chance, this feature must be arranged!

...

While putting the mushrooms into the warehouse, Chu Guang also took the opportunity to take stock of the inventory.

Excluding the part used in trade with merchants from Red River Town, the remaining smoked meat was nearing 700 kilograms, with daily additions to the inventory of about 100 to 200 kilograms, and more than half of it contributed by the Cow and Horse small team.

Today is already the 20th.

If luck isn’t too bad, by the end of the month, stocks should be able to increase to 2000 kilograms; taking out half in exchange for grain and tubers, at least 5 tons could be obtained.

Calculating with each person consuming 4 taels of meat and 7 taels of rice per day, 1000 kilograms of dried meat is enough to last 100 people for 50 days, and 5 tons of grain is enough for 100 people for 142 days.

Of course, these are all ideal situations, and it won’t be surprising if the actual figures deviate by more than 20% from theoretical estimates; after all, consumption is related to the amount of physical activity, more work leads to faster hunger, while on idle days one meal a day would suffice.

"...If the number of test players is to be raised to 100, the theoretical estimate for food storage needs to be doubled. Especially meat... It would be nice if games could be hunted in the winter too, but it would be troublesome if they can’t."

But viewed from another angle, perhaps not that much food would be needed?

When it’s too cold, there’s no need for everyone to log in, or even log in every day.

And if in hibernation, consumption by the clones would be greatly reduced, potentially allowing them to go without food for up to 7 consecutive days.

Just that players might not be willing to not work for so long, they would definitely whine on the official site.

But Chu Guang had also thought of a strategy for that, at that time a simple server maintenance notice would do the trick.

What server doesn’t need maintenance?

It makes sense.

Looking at the ledger in hand, Chu Guang pondered the future of the refuge, and just then, a player came running in from outside.

"Manager, there are natives here!"

Natives?

Chu Guang’s gaze shifted from the ledger, he paused for a moment.

It couldn’t possibly be Sun Shiqi coming back again, could it?

Could it be someone else?

Handing the ledger back to the Warehouse Manager player, Chu Guang looked towards the player who brought him the news and asked,

"How many of them are there, where are they coming from?"

"From the south! Two men and a girl!"

From the south?

Hearing this direction, Chu Guang pretty much guessed who it was...

...

The South Gate of Outpost Base.

An old man with a face lined with wrinkles, dressed in a beast skin coat, looked up at the hundred-meter-wide concrete wall, his murky pupils filled with shock and amazement.

The last time he came to Linghu Wetland Park seemed to be two years ago.

The scavengers of Bet Street generally explored towards the south, rarely heading north along the elevated highway out of the city because that’s where looters might be encountered, robbing passing commercial teams.

As for Linghu Wetland Park, it is likely a blind spot that would be missed by both scavengers and hunters.

There is not much game to hunt here nor much trash to pick up; hardly any survivors would specifically come here.

But someone has built a survivor base in this forest!

Although the three-meter-high concrete wall looked slightly short, it made up for it in newness and sturdiness, and compared to the patchy broken wall of Bet Street, it gave a sense of safety that was off the charts.

Near the gate of the enclosing wall stood some of the blue-jacketed residents of the refuge.

The old man plucked up the courage and called out,

"I’m here to see your Manager."

No one responded to him.

They just looked on, not very politely whispering and muttering to each other; it was also hard to tell whether their gazes were of goodwill or malice.

It seemed...

More like pure curiosity?

"...Are you sure this is the place?"

The old man turned to his second son, a bit hesitant in his eyes.

Carrying a large bundle on his back, Yu Hu faced his father’s questioning gaze, nodded firmly, and said with certainty,

"This is it!"

The old man’s expression had clearly become more hesitant.

"They don’t seem to be welcoming us."

Yu Hu whispered to his dad with a subtly embarrassed expression on his face.

"Maybe it’s not that they don’t welcome us, it’s just that... they don’t understand what we’re saying."

The old man was taken aback.

Don’t understand?

That can’t be right... The outsider in the blue jacket understood us just fine.

Yu Xiaoyu glanced at her father and brother, then turned her gaze to the enclosing wall in front of her, her big, limpid eyes filled with curiosity.

This was her first time leaving Bet Street, and she was going such a long distance.

Chu Guang...

Was he really here?

At that moment, a familiar figure appeared at the gate. When she clearly saw his face, Little Fish’s eyes immediately lit up.

However, there were too many strangers nearby.

She, hiding behind her brother, only showed half of her face, looking around timidly yet curiously.

Surrounded by a crowd of people in blue jackets, Chu Guang walked up to the three of them and stopped.

Before he could even greet the old man who had led the way, the man suddenly dropped to his knees with a thump, catching everyone around him by surprise.

Chu Guang was also stunned.

What is this for??

"Dad?!"

Yu Hu was shocked, but before he could ask, his dad pulled his arm, forcing him to kneel as well.

Little Fish was bewildered.

She didn’t understand why her dad and brother were doing this, nor did she know what she should do, so she tried to imitate their actions.

"What are you doing... get up!" Chu Guang was overwhelmed, stepping forward to help the old man up from the ground.

But the old man wouldn’t get up, just bowed his head, his Adam’s apple bobbing for a long time before he squeezed out a word.

"Thank you."

"You saved our family!"

He was old, at best, he could work for another two or three years before he couldn’t work anymore, in fact, this year was already a bit of a stretch.

And his son, Yu Xiong, as the eldest son of the Yu Family and also its strongest labor force, was essentially the pillar of the entire household.

If anything happened to Yu Xiong, their whole family would be starving and freezing.

The old man knew this very well.

This outsider had not only saved his son’s life but had saved his entire family.

However, Chu Guang hadn’t thought that much about it. He wasn’t one to calculate every action; saving someone was just something he did if he could.

"This makes me uncomfortable... Stand up, anyway."

It wasn’t a time for modesty; one couldn’t just let someone keep kneeling.

Saying this, Chu Guang applied a little more force with his hands and helped the old man up from the ground.

Perhaps it was Chu Guang’s words about feeling uncomfortable that made the old man stand up after getting help and not continue to kneel. Instead, he took off the pack from the back of his second son.

It was a bundle made of reindeer skin, filled with various animal furs, looking quite heavy.

The old man held it with both hands and handed it to Chu Guang, saying sincerely,

"You are a savior to our Yu Family; we cannot let you waste your precious medicine for nothing."

"We have nothing else to give you, these pelts are stripped from mutated hyenas and reindeer, totaling seven... After subtracting the tribute reserved for the Mayor, this is all of our possessions."

"I know this is not enough to repay your kindness, but we would feel uneasy if we did nothing."

"Please accept them!"

To take the entire wealth of a person who had nothing, that would truly be the cause of unease.

Chu Guang at a loss between laughter and tears, couldn’t simply accept it, nor could he refuse it.

But just then, Chu Guang’s heart stirred with an idea, realizing that even if the old man took these pelts back, he’d only end up selling them to Old Leech on Bet Street, and then be severely overcharged, barely exchanging them for any money.

He remembered clearly, at the storefront of Charlie’s general store, a sign read that one mutated hyena pelt could be traded for 2 chips, and one reindeer pelt for 4 chips.

Out of these 7 pelts, 4 were from mutated hyenas and 3 from mutant reindeer, according to Bet Street’s prices this old man could at most get 20 chips.

Such an unequal trade was already exploitative enough, not to mention that 20 chips could hardly get anything good on Bet Street.

For instance, to buy green wheat with chips on Bet Street would cost an entire 3 chips per kilogram, this price was nearly triple that of Brown Farms!

Essentially, 10 beast skins that could protect from the cold, once sold and bought, couldn’t even exchange for 10 kilograms of grain.

And that was before the food price increase.

Was that reasonable?

Definitely not reasonable at all!

Of course, these survivors mainly exchanged the chips they got from the pelts for salt or other daily necessities rather than buy grain directly, as they could grow some buckhorn, dig up tree roots, catch mice, and hunt for food themselves.

But no matter how you looked at it, Old Leech was too excessive.

Chu Guang had taken a dislike to him long ago!

So Chu Guang decisively reached out and took all the pelts, passing them to the player nearest to him, instructing him.

"Take these to the Warehouse, then get 1 kilogram of coarse salt and bring it here, I’ll give you 5 bronze coins as reward."

bronze coins were not few, but where was the fun in the storyline?

That player was clearly reluctant.

Although he couldn’t understand the native language exchanges between the Manager and these locals, who hadn’t watched a couple of foreign films without subtitles these days?

But the Manager had already put the items in his hands, leaving him no chance to refuse.

Seeing that the scene would not progress if he did not act, the player, even with a thousand reluctances in his heart, had to run back inside the base.

The wait was not long.

The player who had hurried back earlier quickly returned, carrying a black plastic bag and trotting out.

Chu Guang received the coarse salt from his hand, placing it in the hands of the old man.

"I’ll take the pelts, and this coarse salt, nearly a kilogram of it, you can consider it mutual courtesy!"

The old man was stunned, then seeing the salt inside the bag, he became frantic, pushing the bag of coarse salt back, adamantly refusing to accept it.

"How can that be!"

"You are a benefactor of the Yu Family, how can I accept your gift!"

One kilogram of coarse salt!

In Bet Street, 100 grams would cost 2 chips, so a kilogram would be 20 chips, not to mention they were always short-changed when they weighed the salt, and quality salt would be resold repeatedly.

The bag of coarse salt that Chu Guang brought, though also coarse, was of much better quality than what was sold in the Mayor’s store.

At least it looked clear, less cloudy, and not as yellow!

"Just keep it, consider it me taking advantage of you this time."

Without further discussion, he pushed the plastic bag back and Chu Guang, smiling at the old man, said.

"Next time you have pelts like these, bring them to me."

"One hyena pelt for 150g, reindeer pelt for 300g."

"As many as you have, I’ll take them all!"