This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 670: Why Does This Monster Keep Coming in Waves?

Chapter 670: Chapter 670: Why Does This Monster Keep Coming in Waves?

North shore of the Baiyue Strait, northwestern part of Potato Harbor, behind a one-step-wide trench lay a three-meter-high dirt wall, buffered by a fence made of sharpened wooden stakes at the front.

Just off the fence wall, in the nearby brush, lay bodies strewn haphazardly everywhere.

Most of them were left by Variants, and a few were unprepared players caught off guard.

Looking at the bodies on the ground and the mud almost dyed red with blood, Elena, who just turned off her rifle’s safety, said with a subtle expression, "I always have this illusion."

Standing beside her, Gnome King Riches looked at her.

"What kind of feeling?"

Gazing at the dense rainforest and thickets in front of her, Elena pondered for a long time and said with uncertainty, "...This land feels as if it’s alive."

Blood-stained shadows of trees and rustling thickets appeared particularly glaring under the scorching sun, especially with the constant buzzing of insects from the shadows—like the whispers of monsters, and the dense rainforest seemed like the mouth of those monsters...

This wasn’t the first time she’d had this feeling.

The first time she went out in search of water, she had felt this way too...

...

Time shifted to two hours earlier.

When the sky was still dim, more than twenty diligent Strength-type players logged on early and, armed with axes and chainsaws, headed to the forest on the northwestern side of the camp to clear the land.

"Brothers, let’s push harder! Let’s try to reach the peak before dark!"

"Roar!"

On the northwestern side of Potato Harbor was a relatively high hill, not only did it provide a panoramic view of the entire Potato Harbor, but it also overlooked almost ten kilometers of coastline.

Moreover, there were abundant freshwater resources nearby and commonly found "ruin mines" in Wasteland, underscoring its strategic significance.

Controlling the high ground on the northwest was undoubtedly a great help for the development of Potato Harbor.

Therefore, for the convenience of clearing operations, the Autonomous Player Committee of Potato Harbor unanimously decided to build a highway to that highland to facilitate vehicle commuting.

And the task of clearing the roadblocks was contracted to a trade team registered in the Merchant Guild, called "Dog Alert," for one hundred thousand silver coins.

In "Wasteland OL," the trade team system benchmarks against the Legion System, which is equivalent to the guild organization for players of life professions.

After the trade team leader won the bid, he immediately hired a batch of Strength-type beasts to storm into the forest on the northwest side.

However, the work had hardly been underway for half an hour before more than thirty mutated spiders suddenly burst out of the jungle, colliding head-on with the players busy at work.

The spiders, as tall as a person, had colorful faces like butterfly wings, and could spray highly viscous silk to bind their prey, using dagger-sized chelicerae to tear it apart.

"What the hell is this?!"

The player who first made eye contact with the creature was almost scared offline. Fortunately, he had relatively good psychological quality; he grabbed his axe and swung it, splattering the spider’s brain with his cumbersome axe.

"Chii—"

The mutated spider shrieked miserably and staggered a few steps back.

The player was about to chase after it to finish the job but hadn’t stepped forward when his face was plastered with a white silk line shot from the side. He didn’t even see where his opponent was before a massive force tore open his side ribs.

Seeing their teammate’s condition, a nearby player immediately dropped his axe, took out the assault rifle strapped to his back, and, while turning on the safety, shouted loudly, "Enemies ahead—!"

Actually, if the distance was enough, a few dozen mutated spiders would definitely not be a match for these well-armed players.

However, the creatures in this game were notoriously infamous for not fighting fair, emerging without as much as a greeting.

Plus, with dense jungles and bushes all around, several Strength-type players wielding axes and chainsaws almost had just seen the shadows of the spiders when sticky silk covered their faces, instantly rendering them incapable of resistance.

Luckily, their location was not far from the camp’s enclosing wall, and players nearby immediately came to their aid.

The continuous gunfire drowned out the jungle skirmish, with tracers piercing through leaves and chitinous shells mixed with fluid.

Faced with the gunfire, the mutated spiders’ silk and fangs were slightly inferior, and the battle quickly turned from evenly matched to a one-sided slaughter.

After dropping a dozen bodies, the creatures probably realized that these bipeds were not to be messed with and hurriedly retreated into the depths of the jungle.

The victorious players tallied their losses and spoils of war, untied those unlucky ones bound by spider silk, and dragged the bodies of deceased players back to the camp, ready to send them to the Active Substance Extractor for recycling into clone materials.

After cleaning up the battlefield, everything seemed to return to normal.

The players of Potato Harbor continued to busy themselves with their tasks: those chopping trees chopped trees, those fishing went fishing, those mining went mining, and those exploring went out to explore.

However, just when everyone thought today’s trouble was over, less than two hours later, another dozen ugly, sparsely furred mutated leopards showed up looking for trouble.

These beasts, like the last, initiated no greeting and, with no warning, pounced at anyone they saw, biting fiercely.

The injured were still the "Dog Alert" trade team and the Strength-type beasts they had hired.

Although the temporarily hired Perception-type players sensed the threat in advance, the time left for them to prepare was still only a few short seconds.

Many people had just discarded their axes and chainsaws, and before they could pick up the rifles leaning nearby to load them, they watched as about a dozen monsters had already pounced onto their faces.

These mutated leopards’ combat power was certainly not comparable to that of the mutant spiders from before, and the casualties caused by this attack were much more severe than those from two hours earlier.

In just half a minute, nearly ten unlucky kids were pounced upon and bitten to death on the spot, with only a few quick responders managing to retreat.

Looking at the messy logging camp, the leader of the "Dog Alert" trade team sported an expression of wanting to cry but having no tears.

"This damned planner must have something against me!"

Elena patted his shoulder sympathetically.

"Condolences, brother."

He and Gnome King Riches had just happened to be at the gate, and upon hearing the gunfire, they had helped out with the other players.

Like the previous round of attacks, this group of mutated leopards dropped ten bodies and then turned tail, disappearing into the woods.

Elena always felt that these Variants seemed to have an agreement to take turns running to their camp entrance to deliver themselves.

"...say, have you noticed that in these past few days, the Variants attacking our camp come in waves, and they are even categorized in groups?"

Gnome King Riches spoke with a complicated expression.

"Lucky for us they come in waves; if a big group came all at once, our camp might not have been able to withstand it."

"That might not necessarily be the case... Let’s not worry about it for now, let’s collect the game first."

Elena smiled, bent down, and lifted a freshly killed mutated leopard, calling out to Gnome King Riches, "Come help me out."

They couldn’t let their fallen brothers have died in vain.

"Alright!"

Seeing Old Na already cleaning up the battlefield, Gnome King Riches immediately threw his rifle onto his back and came forward to grab the two hind legs of the mutated leopard.

The two of them carried the game back to the camp, bringing the dead leopard to the slaughter spot not far from the west entrance of the camp.

A player wearing a leather apron was aggressively sharpening a boning knife on a whetstone, his whole body covered in sticky blood, indicating that he had been working non-stop since the morning.

His name was Green Lantern Old Wine, and he was reportedly a doctor in real life, though it was unclear why he had become a butcher in the game, a profession completely unrelated to his real one.

Seeing his skilled movements, Gnome King Riches couldn’t help but speculate in his mind that the guy was probably too embarrassed to admit he was a veterinarian.

Moreover, with both "Lantern" and "Wine" in his ID, it sounded like an uncle from the 70s or 80s, probably an old veterinarian.

Seeing the pair approaching with the game, Green Lantern Old Wine wiped off his sweat, glanced at them, and then motioned with his chin toward the digital scale next to him.

"Do the weighing yourselves."

"Okay!"

Elena tossed the mutated leopard onto the scale, and Gnome King Riches stepped up, starting a casual conversation with the shopkeeper.

"Business seems good, brother."

Green Lantern Old Wine gave a heh-heh laugh.

"Hah, just making a laborious living."

Curious, Gnome King Riches asked.

"Say, are you really a vet?"

"Yes—ptui, screw that, what vet, I’m a doctor!" The words he almost blurted were choked back, and Green Lantern Old Wine glared harshly at the man.

Gnome King Riches, unfazed, continued speaking cheekily.

"Really? Then your shifts end pretty early, huh? No overtime?"

Green Lantern Old Wine waved dismissively.

"Hah, screw overtime, I resigned a few days ago."

"Resigned?" Gnome King Riches was taken aback, "Why?"

Green Lantern Old Wine chuckled and explained.

"Why not? My little clinic didn’t have many people anyway, just earning a fixed salary. The boss was annoyed by me, and I was sick of him too. Better to come here to work, easily making a hundred thousand a month, right? Once I have money, I’ll open my own hospital!"

"666!" Gnome King Riches admired him greatly.

If he had money, he wouldn’t waste it like that.

Wouldn’t putting it in the bank be nicer?

As they chatted for a bit, Elena, who had finished weighing the catch, came over from the digital scale and interrupted their banter with a smile.

"It weighs a total of sixty-five kilograms, how much do you think that’s worth, boss?"

Green Lantern Old Wine calculated and then proposed.

"I’ll take a loss, how about 217?"

Before Old Na could speak, and Gnome King Riches quickly responded with a laugh.

"Let’s round it to 220, and we’ll split it evenly, 110 each."

Green Lantern Old Wine readily agreed.

"Done!"

As she rolled up her sleeves to show her VM, Elena couldn’t help feeling a pang of realization; this guy must have earned quite a sum in his role as a butcher.

He didn’t even bother to bargain.

After transferring the money to Old Na and Old Wang, Green Lantern Old Wine dragged the game he had placed on the weighing board to the back of the stall, temporarily tossing it under the canopy, planning to deal with it later.

The space under the not-so-spacious canopy was already piled up with a lot of game, mostly dragged in from the forest just outside the west gate of the camp.

The meat of the mutated leopards was average in taste, not much different from that of the mutated hyenas. After slaughtering, it was usually air-dried and salted to make jerky, which was sold to exploration teams in need of dry food.

Being situated by the sea, salt was something they had in abundance.

Actually, jerky didn’t fetch much money; the real money-spinner was the hides of the mutated leopards. Their hides were considerably more expensive than those of mutated deer and taking advantage of the current low market saturation, selling them either back to the Alliance or at Silver Moon Bay could be quite profitable.

Besides mutated leopards, there were also mutant spiders.

Although a certain Intelligence-type player had already demonstrated with their life that eating spiders in this rainforest was a no-go, their silk glands and venom sacs were valuable.

The mutant spiders of Baiyue Province were much larger than those in River Valley Province, and the materials they dropped were of much higher quality.

Though more than a dozen players had died in Potato Harbor just this morning, overall, it was still worth it.

Overall.

Glancing at the string of numbers on the VM screen, Gnome King Riches walking towards the camp entrance suddenly muttered,

"Old Na, who keeps buying silver coins, actually?"

He had been curious about this for a long time.

Although most players started out part-time, it didn’t take long for them to become professional gamers like him, online for 16 hours a day.

If game characters didn’t need to sleep and real life didn’t require eating and exercise, he might have moved directly into the world of "Wasteland OL".

It wasn’t about addiction.

The world was just too realistic.

It felt like life had been rebooted, except without the possibility of dying.

Still, there were many oddities when he thought about it.

Like the mysterious operators of "Wasteland OL," and the inexplicably continuous buyers at the "Silver Exchange."

Due to some kind of "unspeakable" tacit agreement between the parties, closed-test players of "Wasteland OL" could meet their real-life needs by just doing a couple of tasks in the game. Playing a bit longer and respecting the not-so-strict rules of the game meant they could afford to lie flat in the real world, even dissociating completely from employment.

It felt like a group of people were content to support them, hoping they’d spend all their time in "Wasteland OL."

He didn’t mind this feeling, as he quite enjoyed this fully immersive gaming experience, which also greatly reduced his material desires in reality.

He just didn’t quite understand.

What exactly were these behind-the-scenes "big shots" after?

"Sigh, if someone’s willing to buy, there must be a reason for it; why worry about it," Elena gave him a sidelong glance and teased.

Gnome King Riches thought for a moment and then speculated wildly,

"Imagine if, just for instance, right now only a few tens of thousands of players don’t see any issue, but when the game goes public, and so many people stop working and rush to earn gold in the game, wouldn’t society be thrown into chaos?"

Elena said, "emmm... is there a chance that silver coins can be exchanged for something that makes it unnecessary for people to work, or reduces the number of people needed for some jobs?"

Gnome King Riches was momentarily stunned.

"What do you mean."

Elena said casually,

"I mean it literally. For instance, the City of Dawn used to rely on Strength-type draft animals for brick moving, but now a set of miner’s exoskeletons can allow one person to do the work of five. Doesn’t that free up four people? Whether they go to coat dust, make furniture, or lie in bed on welfare, it’s surely more comfortable than five people moving bricks together."

Of course, this calculation discussed only the total social wealth created by unit labor power, without involving distribution methods and other issues.

The advancement of productivity is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the improvement of living standards. A high-tech, low-living standard scenario like in Bugra Free State isn’t inconceivable.

But one undeniable point remains: if people are willing to pay them to soak in the game, then the actions performed by these players in "Wasteland OL" for earning silver coins must create societal value commensurate with that money.

Previously, rumors had circulated on the forum that the auctions post-expansion pack actually featured black technologies.

Some had even specifically observed this.

Shortly after each auction, the industrial or academic realms would leak hints of significant breakthroughs in key technologies.

Then, a while later, as people digested the news, many would start using the outcomes of these technological breakthroughs.

He recalled how, not long after "Wasteland OL" began operations, smart mobile phones typically had a battery life of just a day or two. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, major cellphone brands successively began launching models that lasted a week per charge.

Then came new energy vehicles; suddenly, their driving range also doubled, and the market value of many battery and new energy vehicle companies more than doubled as well.

Gnome King Riches scratched the back of his head, "You mean to say... silver coins can buy a Miner’s Exoskeleton in the real world?"

Elena made a helpless expression.

"I was just giving an example, I didn’t say it had to be an exoskeleton, it could also be something more basic, with a wider radiation range across various industries, like something related to energy, information, or materials."

He couldn’t resist cracking a joke as he spoke.

"Who knows, maybe one day reality will turn into the ’Prosperity Epoch’, and everyone who feels like working will work for a couple of days, and if they’re unhappy, they’ll just fire their boss and hang out on the Moon. Are you still worried about no one wanting to work after the game’s public testing? Maybe Earth’s leader would rather have you guys, who are idle, go move bricks in the game!"

Gnome King Riches: "Damn, the Prosperity Epoch is just a game setting, right? And who the hell is the Earth’s leader?"

Elena rolled her eyes.

"That’s why I said ’what if’. How can you be so devoid of dreams!"

Gnome King Riches furrowed his brow and thought for a while.

"Still, if what you’re saying is true, and there was such a black tech that nobody would need to work, wouldn’t it at least solve nuclear fusion or something..."

But such outrageous technology didn’t exist on Earth.

It couldn’t just appear out of nowhere, could it?

Could it be that Wasteland OL’s operators had researched it themselves?

Could an organization be so impressive that it pushes the whole civilization’s scientific and technological progress by itself?

No—

Wait.

Come to think of it, the company that operates Wasteland OL was indeed impressive.

Not to mention the completely immersive Game Helmet they launched, which lets people live a second life in their dreams, the fact that nobody even knows the company’s name to date is already astounding!

Sometimes Gnome King Riches couldn’t help but suspect that their dear Ah Guang had been abducted by aliens.

"...No matter what it is, that technology must be incredibly expensive, there’s no doubt about that. It’s probably why the silver coins are so pricey."

Patting Old Wang on the shoulder, Elena joked and continued.

"For a better tomorrow, for reality to enter the Prosperity Epoch sooner, and for our Old Wang to buy a bionic maid in reality sooner... let’s first think about which relic to clear today?"

Compared to those distant matters, this was a more immediate problem.

Hunting income was just enough for ammo money for these "pro gamers." To truly strike it rich, they needed to explore relics from the pre-war era.

Hearing Old Na’s teasing, Gnome King Riches snapped out of his daydream and chuckled.

"Ah, that’s easy to say, we’ll have someone issuing tasks in a little while."

Elena was stunned.

"Someone issuing tasks?"

"Yes, I heard from Night Ten that this time the scientific research group will come over with the Bull-Mule, and they’re setting up a branch in Potato Harbor. I remember they left the night before last, so they should be arriving soon—"

Gnome King Riches looked up at the sky.

Coincidentally, just as he finished speaking, two silver-white figures appeared in his line of sight, floating one after the other just below the clouds.

His eyes suddenly lit up.

"Goodness! They’ve already arrived!"

And two ships at that?!

Elena took out her VM and glanced at it. The previously grayed-out "Scientific Research Group" sub-option in the mission interface was now selectable.

He immediately clicked to check, and a line of "Regional Mission" suddenly caught his eye.

[Mission: Locate the Lair in Baiyue Province]

[Issuer: Alliance Biological Research Institute]

[Description: According to clues obtained by the Alliance Biological Research Institute through analysis of the Nago Primitive Fungus Strain, there is a suspected or previously existing "Mutated slime fungus" lair in Baiyue Province, which may be related to the abnormal biological evolution in the province.]

[Requirement: Find it!]

[Reward: Any valuable clues provided can obtain stage-task rewards. The player or team who finally finds the lair will unlock the "Jungle Conqueror" exclusive title and receive a total of ten thousand contribution points and one million silver coins!]

Upon seeing the rewards section, Elena was stunned for a solid half-minute until a cry of astonishment came from nearby.

"Damn?! One million?!"

Gnome King Riches, who had also opened the mission panel by then and was staring at a long string of digits on the VM screen, had his eyes wide open.

Especially when he noticed that this task stemmed from the Nago Strains sample they previously collected, his expression suddenly became as uncomfortable as if he had constipation.

"Damn! This Dog Plan Fang Chang is too wicked!"

He hadn’t remembered wrong—the sample had sold for just ten thousand silver coins! After deducting equipment losses, dividing it among ten people meant just a few hundred silver coins per person.

This was a downright loss to granny’s house!