This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 668: The Wholesome Return of the Bull and Horse

Chapter 668: Chapter 668: The Wholesome Return of the Bull and Horse

"Recently, the Bull Horse airship, which departed from Dawn City, successfully arrived at the eastern region of Baiyue Strait and established an outpost on the northern shore for exploring Yue Ma Province."

"At present, the outpost is garrisoned by more than three hundred residents of Shelter No. 404. The local construction team has marked out the camp’s perimeter with a one-meter-wide trench and a three-meter-high earthen wall. Furthermore, watchtowers and machine gun positions have been established at various sections of the enclosing wall to ensure the camp’s security."

"In addition to this, the search team formed by the residents of the shelter have expanded their activity area from five kilometers from the shore to ten kilometers, incorporating the ’Old Site of Shilong City’ adjacent to the coastline into their search range to look for possible shelters or survivor communities."

"In an interview, residents of Shelter No. 404 stated that they would search for survivors and relics from the pre-war era in the area, with the shoreline outpost serving as the center for spreading out and restoring local civilization and order."

"If all goes well, this will become the first restoration zone of the Human Revival United Front in Yue Ma Province. The Manager highly commended this initiative and dispatched both the Jungle Corps and the Burning Corps to support the local restoration and construction efforts."

"At the same time, on the unanimous vote of the exploration personnel, the outpost was named Potato Harbor."

"The Southern Islands Federation, located in the southern sea area, sent a congratulatory message to our side. Along with sincere greetings to the Alliance’s Manager, the President of the Southern Islands Federation, Mongo, also earnestly expressed his hope that more ports and settlements could be constructed in the area."

"The residents of Potato Harbor stated that they would not disappoint their neighbors’ expectations!"

"...Broadcasted by Dawn City TV Station."

Three days after the President of the Southern Islands Federation responded to the telegram from Potato Harbor, the telegram returned to Dawn City along with the returning Bull Horse airship.

At this moment, the waiting hall in Dawn City’s train station was bustling with people. The news from eight o’clock this morning played on a television hanging in a corner of the hall.

A group of travelers carrying suitcases gathered in front of the television, watching the news anchor announce today’s headlines, expressions of surprise appearing on their faces.

Another settlement has been added to the Alliance!

And it’s more than two thousand kilometers away in Yue Ma Province!

Although players had been discussing this on the forum for a few days, it was still big news for the residents of Dawn City.

Especially for those survivors who had just returned from other settlements, who began to gossip with other travelers nearby.

"Potato Harbor?"

"Is that the fries sold with Coke?"

"Incredible... Yue Ma Province, if I remember correctly, that place is a tropical jungle!"

"Have you been there?"

"No... I just passed by there once on a boat."

"Wow, someone actually visited such a remote place!"

"I was going to Poluo Province to buy spices and beast skin, planning to transport them to a coastal settlement in Province of Yúnjiānxíng. Traveling by land would have required passing through a vast Wasteland, so I took a commercial ship from Silver Moon Bay via sea route... In fact, any commercial ship traveling east-west passed through that waterway."

"It’s surprising that such a prime location doesn’t have any settlements."

"Settlement? Ha, not just no settlements, there were no living people to be seen at all."

"The entire Yue Ma Province is an uninhabited zone, the nearest settlements are either in the southern sea area or Haiya Province. Speaking of which, there were some survivor communities on Death Coast before, but ever since the Torch Church reached Haiya Province, we haven’t heard much from them."

Upon hearing the name of the Torch Church, many of the originally interested travelers showed expressions of taboo and even fear.

Many residents of the Alliance had fled from Brocade River Province.

Especially some merchants who had traded in the Brocade River Province area had witnessed first-hand the unspeakable evils committed by the Torch Church in various parishes.

If regular looters were simply bad, those guys were evil with a twisted sense of mission.

Very few people could truly understand what they were striving for, and by the time they realized, they had already become their fertilizer.

Yue Ma Province was too close to the influence zone of the Torch Church.

If the Torch Church intended to strike at Potato Harbor, the Alliance might not be able to support the survivors there in time.

However, despite safety concerns, most traders were very optimistic about the economic value behind Potato Harbor.

It was heard that the industrial zones of Dawn City, City of Dawn, and Giant Stone City had made a hefty profit thanks to orders from the Bull Horse Group.

At Factory No.81, tank chassis had their armor plates removed and welded with mechanical arms from Huge Rock Military Industry to form earthmoving excavators.

Goblin Technology had inserted two buoys next to the bomb dispensers of W-2 attack aircraft, transforming them into seaplanes capable of taking off from the sea.

All these items sold very well in Potato Harbor.

In addition to these large machines, there were engineer shovels for earthmoving, fishing nets for fishing, diving cylinders for diving, and more.

And it wasn’t just these immediate benefits.

If the Alliance could establish a maritime trade route connecting the East and West Coast of the Central Continent, the economic value behind it was immeasurable by money!

Currently, there was only one airship route operated by the Bull Horse Group from Dawn City to Potato Harbor. However, the capacity and efficiency of airship transport were not very high and would definitely be replaced by other means of transport in the future.

Many shrewd merchants were already pondering in their minds, contemplating how to open up new trade routes starting from the eastern Yue Ma Province or the western Falling Leaves Province.

For instance—

Incorporating No.4 Oasis into the Alliance’s railway network.

The goods produced in the industrial zone of Dawn City could then be loaded onto ships at the port of Silver Moon Bay and transported along the west coast of Yue Ma Province to the Alliance port in Baiyue Strait.

The cost of rail and sea freight was much lower than that of airships, and the transportation capacity they provided was also significantly larger...

...

As passengers inside the waiting hall engaged in lively discussions, the airship inflation station in the suburban area of Dawn City was equally bustling.

A similar scene had occurred a few days earlier.

Back then, the place had been packed with players buying tickets to the new map, and now, several days later, it was crammed with the sounds of merchants hawking their wares.

"Come and see, fresh seafood from Baiyue Strait! Cold chain air transport! Guaranteed fresh!" Near the airship unloading point, a player dressed as a fisherman had set up a small stool and was yelling to sell his goods, which were placed next to a long row of foam boxes filled with ice and seafood.

The pungent fishy smell had passers-by walking around the area to avoid it, but there were also many who liked it and gathered around.

The Bull Horse airship brought back to Dawn City not only friendly greetings from the survivors in the southern sea area but also gifts from the sea and rare beasts from the shore.

Most of the live specimens were sent to the Dawn City Zoo or to Shelter No. 79, which specialized in researching wasteland species. As for those that weren’t captured alive or died on the way, naturally, they ended up pleasing the food lovers of Dawn City.

Pulling her older sister Frost Snow along, the little one, Frost Night, curiously squatted on the ground and poked a starfish frozen solid.

"Boss! What’s this?"

Seeing a customer show interest, the player enthusiastically began to explain.

"Starfish! Caught by my brother with less chatter!"

Hearing this strangely pronounced name, Frost Night remembered that uncle always fished by Rhombus Lake and occasionally shared his catch with residents nearby. So she looked around but didn’t see him.

"Where is Uncle Less Chatter? Why isn’t he here?"

Looking at those curious big eyes, the fish selling player coughed subtly.

"Uh, that guy is staying in the shelter and won’t be out until tomorrow, so he asked me to sell these in his stead."

Frost Snow gently tugged at her sister’s sleeve, softly chiding her.

"Frost Night, don’t go asking about the affairs of the residents of the shelter, okay? It might trouble them."

"I was just curious..."

Frost Night puffed her cheeks and turned her head away, but she wisely stopped asking further and once again focused on the starfish, which was as big as a washbasin.

"Can you really eat this?"

"Of course! We first allow the intelligence system to taste it, and only if it’s deemed safe do we bring it out for sale!"

Saying this, the player picked up a starfish frozen as hard as rock and took out a small blade to gesture on it.

"Right here, once it’s thawed a bit, just cut here with a small blade. Inside is all yellow, tastes wonderful dipped in soy sauce! Or you can make a soup with it!"

"Sister..."

Seeing the longing in her little sister’s eyes, Frost Snow made a helpless expression and took out her wallet.

"Then... give us one, please."

"Right away! I’ll wrap it up for you!"

The player skillfully picked one from the foam box, weighed it, packed it, and handed it to this NPC young lady.

"That will be 26 silver!"

silver coins were not cheap, but for the residents of Dawn City, who had little pressure to survive, buying it to try something new was no issue.

Since the beginning of the year, jobs paying less than 1000 silver a month had disappeared in Dawn City, not to mention she worked in the well-paying Merchant Guild.

She counted out 26 silver coins from her wallet and handed them to the stall owner, watching the delighted Frost Night hugging the starfish and cheering. Frost Snow couldn’t help but smile and gently rubbed the little one’s head.

"Don’t play with food, put it away, and I’ll make you a soup."

"Mmm!" Frost Night excitedly nodded, clutching it even tighter. "Before Mr. Starfish turns into soup, I’ll take good care of it!"

The two were planning to stroll to other stalls to see if there were any other interesting little items, but just as they moved a few steps away, they heard someone exclaim from a nearby fish-slaughtering stall.

"Boss, why is there a sock inside this fish?"

The player holding the sock was also puzzled, scratching the back of his head before tossing it into a nearby trash can, casually dismissing.

"Uh... maybe another fish was wearing it?"

The customers buying seafood around were immediately surprised.

"The fish in Baiyue Strait wear socks?"

Before the player could respond, an old man holding a plastic bag quickly answered with a chuckle.

"Yes, indeed! I just passed another stall, where they found a pair of trousers in the belly of a fish."

The crowd around the stall was murmuring in admiration, calling it unbelievable.

Holding a starfish, Frost Night’s eyes sparkled with curiosity and anticipation.

"The fish in the sea... so amazing!"

With a subtle expression, Frost Snow gently tugged at her sister’s arm, leading her away from the seafood stall.

"Let’s check out other places."

She had thought that 26 silver coins was a bit expensive.

Now, suddenly, it didn’t seem that expensive anymore...

Not only seafood was sold on the open space near the airship inflation station, but also various bizarre underwater salvaged items, and some useless junk picked up from the old sites of Shilong City.

Although in the Baiyue Province area, all traces of civilization had been completely erased, there were still some unusual items that survived for various reasons.

These objects, like fossils, recorded the events that had occurred on that land in the earlier years of the Wasteland Era. Not only did they have certain research value, but the passage of time had also endowed them with an extraordinary sense in terms of collectible value.

The scientific expedition teams from the Alliance and Camp 101 had picked up a part first, and the rest, which wasn’t chosen, ended up in the hands of the players who set up stalls in the market.

Ordinary Waste Land Wanderers weren’t interested in these inedible and unusable trinkets, as such trash was everywhere in the Wasteland, sold by the kilogram at junk stations.

However, for those extraordinary Waste Land Wanderers, the trash seen as common by ordinary people was incredible.

For example, the prospectors and researchers who came to Qingquan City due to the cooperation research agreements signed between the academies and the Alliance.

In the eyes of these archaeology experts, even if it was trash, the trash picked up from different regions was not to be lumped together.

Especially those items from underwater salvage.

Given that the Tiangong Space Station had crashed in the southern sea area, it was possible that debris from the Space Station was mixed in among them!

If they could analyze some related data about lost aerospace materials from these, they could at least put out a paper on it!

Not only the knowledgeable experts, but some semi-informed collectors also expressed great interest in these salvaged items.

Because of this, the stalls selling salvaged items were even busier than those selling seafood, packed with customers picking and choosing and spectators enjoying the scene.

Whenever a piece of inconspicuous trash was sold at an outrageous price, it caused a wave of incredible exclamations among the crowd.

The scene was just like an antique market!

In a corner of the market.

A lean, tall man stood at an unremarkable stall, picking through a pile of trash.

Maybe it was because of the blue jacket that marked his identity, or maybe it was because his rimless glasses made him look like a cultured person who seemed to know everything, possibly even working in the scientific expedition team, hence plenty of people were following behind him, waiting to pick up leftovers.

That guy didn’t seem to care about the large group of people following him, acting as if nothing was amiss, busying himself with searching through the stall.

Just then, he suddenly frowned, picked up a horseshoe-shaped plastic board from the stall, played with it interestedly for a while, then looked towards the stall owner behind the counter.

"Where did you pick this up from?"

Speaking fluently in the United Human language, the player said with a chuckle.

"Near the port area, not sure exactly where, why don’t you buy it and have someone take a look? What if it’s a treasure that fell from the Tiangong Space Station? I thought it looked like a welding ring from a spacecraft, so I salvaged it."

Hearing that it might be a treasure that fell from the Tiangong Space Station, the group of collectors following him immediately had their eyes glued.

Especially that researcher in the blue jacket, uncertainly touching his chin, not doubting its authenticity, he directly asked about the price.

"Interesting... how much?"

The player said briskly.

"Seeing that you are educated, obviously a cultured person, I’ll charge you 1000 silver coins."

Hearing this price, the researcher hesitated for a while, but eventually bit the bullet and paid the money, buying the seemingly useless junk as everyone watched.

Other players watching this scene suddenly saw green.

Good heavens!

A piece of junk actually went for 1000 silver coins!

This NPC money is just too easy to earn!

What was even more unbelievable was yet to come.

Not long after the researcher in the blue jacket walked away, those wealthy NPCs seemed to go mad, swarming the stall in a frenzy.

Could trash that fell along with the Tiangong Space Station be mere trash?

Regardless of its usefulness, just buy it first, they weren’t short on money anyway, hanging it at home as a decoration and bragging about it wasn’t a bad idea either.

In the blink of an eye, the salvage items displayed on the stall were snapped up, and the stall owner, who was counting the money, couldn’t close his mouth from smiling so wide.

This wave isn’t just about some tickets.

We’ve made money worth a hundred tickets!

"You guys... this must be a scam."

Watching the stall that had just been cleared out not far away, Jiang Xuezhou glanced down and couldn’t help but complain to Night Ten next to him.

"That thing just now, no matter how you look at it, it was just a toilet seat, right?"

Who uses plastic as a welding ring!

This doesn’t even require a professional eye, do these guys really lack even a bit of basic common sense?

"Cough, how can this be called scamming, at most it’s just being a bit cunning... And it’s not like we arranged it, stop saying ’you guys’ all the time, even among the residents of the refuge there are decent and indecent people."

Night Ten also felt a bit embarrassed, especially when outsiders saw it, so he coughed and explained.

In the corner of the market not far from the two, he saw a "researcher" who had previously spent a lot of money to buy the toilet seat quickly take off the blue jacket that marked the identity of the residents of the refuge and return it to its real owner.

Although he didn’t know that player, he could guess with his toes that this guy was definitely in cahoots with the stall owner!

Jiang Xuezhou rolled her eyes at Night eleven and continued walking forward but after making a big round among the stalls, she didn’t find anything worth buying.

Logically, this shouldn’t be the case.

With so many items salvaged from the seabed, there should be something worth a deeper study.

She didn’t hope to uncover a treasure that would impress her mentor, she would have been content with something suitable for a Class D researcher to write her paper on.

However, after wandering around, she came out empty-handed and Jiang Xuezhou couldn’t help but complain softly.

"How is there not even one."

Night Ten looked at her strangely.

"Not even one?"

"Just... those things that truly have research value, how come I didn’t see even one?" Jiang Xuezhou couldn’t help but complain, "Speaking of which, how did you guys manage to avoid all the valuable research projects? You guys must be really lucky."

Hearing this soft grumble, Night Ten instantly understand what she was really complaining about, then with a hearty laugh said,

"Heh, isn’t that normal? Anything truly valuable for research would have been picked up by our scientific expedition team long ago. Looking for that is just a waste of time."

Speaking of which, wasn’t Yin Fang also a Class D when he left the Academy?

And that was a long time ago.

So it seems, that guy should be her senior.

Jiang Xuezhou stopped in her tracks, staring blankly at Night Ten for a long time as her cheeks gradually turned from pale to a liver-red color.

"...why didn’t you tell me earlier!"

Watching Jiang Xuezhou grit her teeth and finally squeeze out a sentence, Night Ten looked at her with a weird expression.

"You didn’t ask me... I thought you came here to buy souvenirs."

Jiang Xuezhou glared fiercely at him but couldn’t think of a reason to blame him, she could only stomp her foot angrily and turn around to leave.

Continuing to look around was also a waste of time.

And there were too many tricks here, she didn’t want to stay a moment longer.

At the same time, in the laboratory, Yin Fang, who was tinkering with the junk just scavenged from the Bull Horse airship, suddenly sneezed out of nowhere.

"Achoo!"

"...Who is cursing me."

Rubbing his nose that felt sore, Yin Fang muttered to himself, then quickly dismissed the trivial matter and, with eyes gleaming, turned his attention back to the fragments lying on the device.

It was a palm-sized wreckage.

The surface shone with a dazzling metallic luster, the gleaming surface looked like it had been carefully polished with some kind of polisher.

What’s surprising was, this piece had not been polished by anyone; when the players of the Bull Horse found it at the seabed, it already looked like this.

For now, Yin Fang couldn’t determine what technology was used on this material, he could only deduce through elemental spectroscopy that it was likely a kind of metal-ceramic composite material used in spacecraft.

This material not only had extremely superior heat resistance and hardness but also had the remarkable toughness and resistance to mechanical shocks equivalent to steel.

If he could delve deeper into this material, based on his experience, he could at least recover Level C material science technology!

The treasures brought back from the southern sea area by Bull Horse airship were more than just this one, there were a lot of interesting samples in the warehouse waiting for him to study.

Yin Fang’s eyes were filled with mania as he murmured incessantly,

"This time, I really found a treasure!"