This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 72: The Bird Droppings Business

Chapter 72: Chapter 72: The Bird Droppings Business

This was the second snowfall that Qingquan City had encountered since entering September.

And quite coincidentally, it happened right when the players were switching between being online and offline. Many who pushed open their doors saw specks of silver white scattered around the torches.

"It’s only late September, isn’t it? Winter seems to have come too early."

"It is indeed a bit early."

"Analyzing this rationally, perhaps the orbital debris in outer space is blocking some of the sunlight, causing the planet to absorb insufficient heat. Moreover, the rapid decline in civilization due to the war has reduced the proliferation of vegetation, weakening the greenhouse effect..."

"Wait, can this game even simulate that realistically?"

"That depends on how the game operators set it up. Didn’t their official settings mention that they reached heaven? If they can make up stories, why can’t I?"

"Dammit..."

At the north gate, there was a banging sound.

After confirming it was one of their own, the guard on the wall greeted them, and the player by the door lifted the latch to let the people outside in.

Chu Guang looked towards the north gate.

He saw a Strength-type player and a Perception-type player, carrying a man tied up like a rice dumpling, missing one ear, and quickly approaching, before throwing him down in front of himself.

Also thrown to the ground was the corpse of a mutated hyena.

"Respected Manager, we found this guy near the observation point on the northern overpass!"

Both players were injured, but the man was obviously more severely hurt, with a broken arrow stuck in his knee, causing him to grimace in pain.

The man on the ground, not understanding what the two behind him were saying, simply stretched out his head in a panic, pleading with Chu Guang.

"Sir, I am a nearby Scavenger, I don’t know where I offended you."

"Scavengers shouldn’t still be outside at this time."

"I, I was inadvertently delayed for a while..."

Ignoring this pale excuse, Chu Guang pulled five silver coins from his pocket to give to the players, telling them to share it among themselves. Then he bent down and with his forefinger, hooked the necklace at the man’s collar.

It had a human phalanx strung on it.

And it seemed to be an index finger.

In the Blood Hand Clan, skulls were the exclusive vessels of the leaders, while the phalanges were decorations favored by most Looters.

They would chop off the captives’ index fingers, dry them, and make them into bracelets, necklaces, hanging ornaments, or even decorative bone armors to flaunt their bravery and savagery.

Disgustedly tossing aside the greasy necklace, Chu Guang straightened up, expressionless.

He didn’t look at the man whose face was ashen, but instead at the two players.

"Looter."

"Send him to the gallows."

The two players respectfully replied.

"Yes!"

"As you command!"

It was only because bringing them back alive was more rewarding that the players were familiar with the tactics of the Manager towards Looters.

So, when they heard the command to send him to the gallows, they weren’t surprised at all.

However, for the man who was about to be hanged, it was a different mentality.

As if guessing his own fate, hysterical wails and pleas followed him as he was dragged to the north gate, adding a touch of fear and bloodiness to the desolate woods outside.

The sound and the sin abruptly ceased.

The north gate closed again, and the two players dragged the body toward the direction of the morgue.

Standing in front of the sanatorium, Chu Guang felt not the slightest pity, even yawning as he watched the extraction furnace begin to operate, then turned and walked towards the sanatorium’s elevator.

It was already midnight.

He still had to get up at six o’clock tomorrow.

These players’ enthusiasm for logging in was higher than Chu Guang had anticipated, and he felt his biological clock was almost getting messed up.

...

The snowfall wasn’t heavy, but it persisted for a long time, continuing from before dawn until five in the morning the next day.

A layer of white frost formed on the ground, making a crunching noise when stepped on, which would vanish completely once The Sun rose, as if it had never been.

"Variants in the urban area seem to have decreased last night."

"Is it because of the snow?"

"It’s likely, the cold weather probably made them take cover, but those Eaters seem unaffected; I saw them coming out of the residential area and wandering the streets until four or five o’clock before slowly making their way back."

"Do you remember where they came out of?"

"I have a rough idea, I’ll go offline to eat, and later I’ll mark it on the map and post it on the forum."

"Bro, solid!"

Players returning from scout duty to Outpost Base’s square chatted with other players. Chu Guang, standing at the entrance of the infirmary, heard all these conversations.

Since there was no radio, players usually exchanged information in the square, especially during peak times of logging in and out.

For Chu Guang, it became another excellent source of information besides the forum.

The players were like his eyes.

However, he had other matters to attend to soon and couldn’t stay here indefinitely.

He had to make another trip to Brown Farm to exchange some supplies before the heavy snow made the roads impassable. This time, he had prepared a new trade item—bird feces stones.

At Brown Farm, they should fetch a good price.

"Manager, the supplies you ordered are ready, we can leave at any time!"

Wrapped in a hyena skin coat, the excited "Escaped Vole in the Canyon" approached.

On his back, he carried a 7mm bolt-action iron pipe rifle supplied temporarily, a studded wooden club and a short knife strapped to his left side, and on his right, a Molotov Cocktail filled with wood tar, increasingly resembling the indigenous people of the Wasteland.

Yet, he hadn’t mastered the essence.

Among all the weapons Chu Guang had tried, he found "forked" pipes the most to his liking.

Seeing him nod, Chu Guang spoke.

"Wait for me a moment."

With that, Chu Guang turned and went back into the shelter, soon emerging wearing a KV-1 power armor and carrying the nitrogen-powered hammer he had drawn from the system on his back.

Seeing the manager in this gear, the surrounding players’ eyes widened.

"Damn, that hammer looks cool!"

"Awesome! Did I miss something? When did our NPC change his equipment?"

"I don’t know, maybe it’s just something from the shelter... didn’t the official site say there’s a huge cryogenic hibernation facility underground? Maybe there’s an armory?"

"Damn! I’d like to get one too!"

"Forget it, NPCs’ gear is just for show, but I’m curious if this thing really works in the Wasteland facing bullets."

"Are you dumb? Just because you haven’t seen awesome armor doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist; maybe it’s meant to be used in conjunction with something else."

"Suddenly feels cyberpunk."

"What cyberpunk? This is Wasteland punk!"

"I know, but taking the joke so seriously makes you look silly."

As a dutiful NPC, Chu Guang neither caught on to their jokes nor paid attention to their excited chatter, focusing on fulfilling his duties as he walked over to the prepared covered wagon.

Previously, Chu Guang had tasked "WC There are mosquitoes" with designing a medium-distance transport capable of carrying five tons.

It turned out, as long as the creation was within a range normal humans could understand, the guy’s technical skills were quite reliable.

The entire covered wagon was 2.5 meters long and 1 meter wide. The space inside was quite spacious, with springs added to the chassis to create a simple shock-absorber system, suitable for transporting goods or people.

Considering rain and dust protection, the canopy was covered with two layers of scavenged plastic; curtains had been installed at the front and back.

This way, even in rainy weather, there was no need to worry about the goods inside getting wet, making it quite useful.

The only drawback was that Outpost Base did not have animals like oxen or mules, so players had to pull it temporarily.

"Let’s go!"

At Chu Guang’s command, the covered wagon team, consisting of six players and one NPC, left through Outpost Base’s south gate amidst the envious glances of other players, heading towards Brown Farm.

Unlike last time,

this commotion was so loud that it inevitably attracted the attention of some Variants.

Especially the mutant cockroaches the size of small dogs and the mutant flies as large as washbasins, these insectoid Variants seemed to have lost their fear of humans after mutating and crawled out of the shadows upon hearing the noise.

However, these players were no longer the rookies who had just entered the Game, especially after the baptism of that battle, they had become adept at dealing with enemies.

Chu Guang did not lift a finger, instead, he stayed at the rear, watching the players dispatch these miscellaneous soldiers with knives, guns, clubs, and stones.

If there were Variants they couldn’t handle or other high-threat targets, he would naturally take action.

Interestingly, Chu Guang found that his gene sequence was not only affected by basic training; leading players in combat also accumulated a small amount of development progress.

This unique evolutionary method piqued Chu Guang’s curiosity.

However, he was currently unable to record the development progress of his gene sequence in real-time and would have to wait until he had the resources to conduct a deeper study.

Along the way, making stops and avoiding impassable ruins, they finally reached their destination before nine-thirty.

Outside the Brown Farm.

When Chu Guang and his group approached the entrance, they saw a burly man carrying a hunting gun, leading a frail-looking serf out of the wall.

When the two parties met, Chu Guang’s side was not nervous, but the other side was.

Especially after seeing the exoskeleton on Chu Guang’s body and the somewhat exaggerated hammer on his back, the burly man instinctively reached for his hunting gun behind him.

"We are just passing merchants, don’t be nervous."

"At this time of year, who else would be a merchant—huh, is it you?"

Liu Zhengyue, who was on the wall, was startled. He retracted the barrel he had just extended and stared blankly at Chu Guang’s exoskeleton and hammer—and the blue jacket underneath.

He distinctly remembered, this guy was not dressed like this the last time he had come here.

"Yes, it’s me." Chu Guang smiled lightly and shouted up to the wall, "We need food, steel, and copper."

"What do you intend to trade with?"

Liu Zhengyue watched the group warily from behind the wall, his gaze sweeping over their equipment, indecisive.

This group was clearly much stronger than the last time they visited.

In principle, it was not a good time for trade, with winter arriving earlier than usual this year. They also needed to reserve some food for the winter and extra in case the Looters came plundering.

Looters from the north occasionally visited here; although the farm was not without guns, nobody wanted to risk a confrontation with them.

If there was harassment during the spring planting, the losses would exceed just the food paid as a tribute.

However,

the gun carried on the newcomer’s back made him carefully consider the risk of refusal.

Chu Guang didn’t speak but walked to the covered wagon, pulled back the curtain, and yanked out a sack, tearing off the string that was tied around it.

Liu Zhengyue squinted his eyes to get a clearer look.

"Is this..."

"High-purity diammonium phosphate; if you don’t understand, think of it as bird feces stone. Either way, it’s a high-quality fertilizer," Chu Guang looked up at Liu Zhengyue on the wall, his tone slightly displeased, "Can you come down and talk? It’s tiring to shout like this."

"Give me a moment... I need to consult my master."

After dropping this line, Liu Zhengyue disappeared from above the wall, but soon he returned, leading a serf, and reappeared at the main gate.

"My old friend... you’ve changed quite a bit."

"I’ve recently come into some money."

"Are you really nomads?" Liu Zhengyue stared intently at the blue jacket under Chu Guang ’s exoskeleton, clearly doubting his own judgement.

"Does it matter?" Chu Guang said lightly, "Don’t worry about it, I found this jacket."

Seeing that Chu Guang was not inclined to reveal more, Liu Zhengyue did not press further but instead turned his attention to the bag of fertilizer.

"I need to authenticate the goods."

That was a reasonable request; Chu Guang nodded.

"Please."

The procedure for checking the goods was the same as last time; Liu Zhengyue kicked a serf nearby and pointed to the bag.

The slave stepped forward, dabbed his index finger inside the bag, and nonchalantly tasted it.

"It’s bird feces stone."

Hearing this, Liu Zhengyue’s face broke into a smile.

Though he didn’t know where these people had gotten such good stuff from, it was indeed what they needed.

Animal and human manure, although a type of fertilizer after heating, lacked sufficient nitrogen content and its comprehensive fertility was significantly inferior to bird feces stone harvested over time and washed by the rain.

Often, a handful of bird feces was equivalent to a large bucket of cow manure. If the latter was used, it needed to be mixed with urea.

Brown Farms didn’t have the capability to produce high-quality urea in large quantities. Using it raw not only burned the roots, but when mixed with manure, it could easily lead to soil compaction.

Thus, they often imported synthetic and organic fertilizers from Giant Stone City or Red River Town, mixing them with fermented manure.

Not just Brown Farms, almost all the farming survivor settlements around Qingquan City did the same.

"Name your price!"

"We only brought 300 kilograms this time. Give me a sincere price, and we can cooperate in the future."

A mu of land roughly needed several dozen kilograms of organic fertilizer, which varied depending on the crop, soil condition, type of fertilizer, and expected yield.

According to pre-war maps, the whole farm wasn’t large, merely topping out at about 80~100 mu of cultivable land, which is roughly 7~9 standard sports fields.

Of course, it was also possible they were engaged in vertical farming or indoor planting, as such techniques were not uncommon before the war.

Chu Guang couldn’t guess their needs, so he simply let them name their price.

Liu Zhengyue hesitated momentarily before tentatively responding.

"300 kilograms... How about 2 tons of green wheat?"

Upon hearing this figure, Chu Guang inwardly sighed.

Fortunately, he hadn’t spoken first.

The wholesale ratio he found online back on Earth was about 1:5, his psychological expectation being around 1:6~7.

It seemed that the prices in this parallel world were completely unreliable.

Chu Guang looked at him and said,

"At least 5 tons."

"5 tons?! That’s impossible," Liu Zhengyue exclaimed, "We only produce 500 kilograms of green wheat per mu."

"That’s because you haven’t used our fertilizer. From next year, it will be 1000 kilograms."

These mutant crops really underperformed...

He wished he could get access to a pre-war seed bank.

Considering wheat, the yield per mu on Earth in the parallel world was at least 600 kilograms, easily reaching over 1000 kilograms with no issues and claims of 10,000 kilograms being obviously exaggerated.

Chu Guang thought to himself that his shelter was just making do, but surely the normal shelters should have some seed stocks?

It was unclear if it was due to distance or climate issues that pre-war crops hadn’t become popular in the wasteland.

Or perhaps it was just this area?

"Are you dreaming? A thousand kilograms per mu?" Liu Zhengyue’s eyes bulged as he shook his head, "Friend, if you are really sincere, 3 tons... that’s my bottom line. We have a stable supplier who delivers in bulk. Do you think your bird feces stone is irreplaceable?"

"But it definitely offers the best cost-effectiveness, and I don’t believe they would bring it all the way here just to sell it to you cheap," Chu Guang replied, "1 kilogram for 12 kilograms of grain. Considering this winter has arrived early, that’s the biggest concession I can make."

"Next year, we will also supply this in large quantities. If you can’t accept this price, I’d rather return the way I came and sell to passing merchants."

The bird feces stone around Rhombus Lake was sparsely scattered on the southern shallows and extended to the east side. The reserves were not rich but were certainly not small; it could be mined with some time and manpower.

Chu Guang didn’t know why these survivors hadn’t discovered that geomantically blessed land, but anyway, it was now his territory.

Liu Zhengyue hesitated for a moment, finally nodding his head.

"Alright, you better not be deceiving me... Next spring, we’ll need 3 tons of bird feces stone for sowing season. Where are you guys located, in Qingquan City or nearby? If it’s not too far, we can come to pick it up."

"There’s no need for that, once this winter is over, we will naturally deliver it."

Chu Guang extended his right hand with a smile,

"Then here’s to a pleasant cooperation."

Though his face twitched in pain, Liu Zhengyue still managed a smile and shook his hand.

"... A pleasant cooperation."

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