This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 96: The Second Underground Level of Shelter No. 404!

Chapter 96: Chapter 96: The Second Underground Level of Shelter No. 404!

Chu Guang had a really long dream.

This time, he wasn’t dreaming about working so hard he got hit by a dump truck, but rather about starting a game of Civilization 6, and it was even the enhanced marathon edition with one turn per year for bladder challenge.

When he started from a primitive society, sent out scouts like crazy to stomp on villages, and climbed and climbed up the tech tree... after thousands of turns, he finally ground several deity-level AIs to death and achieved a technological victory.

But the moment he opened his eyes, everything was gone.

"Damn it, at least let me finish the dream!"

As expected, had he continued, it would probably have been cosmic civilization?

He stretched lazily, sitting up from his bed, and his bones cracked and popped.

Something clicked in Chu Guang’s mind, and he immediately went to the resident hall next door to find a medical examination device and conducted a full body check on himself.

Just as he had anticipated, he had leveled up!

[

ID: Chu Guang

Gene Sequence: Manager

Level: LV.8→LV.9

——Basic Attributes——

Strength: 10→11

Agility: 6

Physique: 8

Perception: 7

Intelligence: 7

]

[-

Skills: Wild Instinct

]

"Sleeping really does help you grow taller."

Good kids should go to bed early.

After confirming his electronic medical report in front of the computer, Chu Guang casually dragged it into a folder to save it and stood up to stretch his arms.

With 220% of a normal adult male’s base strength, plus the attribute boost from "Wild Instinct," Chu Guang felt he was braver than ever.

"Time to go out and get some food."

Yes, also to distribute the spoils to the players.

With that thought, Chu Guang hummed a tune as he entered the buffer room, donned the exoskeleton lying there, and hung the big iron hammer securely on his back.

Once ready, he stepped into the elevator heading for the surface.

Wasteland time, 5:30 PM, and it was the busiest time at the Outpost Base.

Especially the market at the north gate, where players returning from scavenging packed the area.

Even though snow had started to float down from the heavens, it didn’t dampen the lively atmosphere here at all.

Players had developed a habit now; they would first set up a stall at the north gate with the trash they picked up or the spoils from hunting, and only if no one bought them would they send the materials to the warehouse.

After such a process, they could earn a couple of more copper coins than before, and those players with a need to shop would also browse here before heading to the NPC’s store.

"I don’t know whether to call them cold or strong. A tenth of the population died yesterday, yet there isn’t a single person mourning the dead, not even a decent funeral." Standing at the north gate, Luna looked at these blue jackets with utter surprise.

She found that she could not find even a trace of sadness on their faces.

"Coldness and strength don’t conflict. The world has become this way; if people don’t toughen up a bit, they’ll fall apart before others have a chance to beat them down."

Hain was seeing these kinds of blue jackets for the first time as well, but having seen much stranger things, he was only momentarily surprised.

Existence is the basis of legitimacy.

Besides, if they were the type to wallow in sadness and weakness, perhaps it would have been a different group of people standing here.

Distracted by a nearby stall, Hain walked over and examined the crack claw crab legs on the iron rack for a while before asking curiously,

"How much for this?"

Crow looked up at the NPC.

Though she didn’t understand what he said, she roughly guessed what he wanted by his gestures—he probably wanted to buy her grilled crab legs.

Crow wiggled her index finger.

"Small ones, 1 silver coin."

She hadn’t decided yet how much to sell the big ones for and planned to think it over since they weren’t cheap to buy from the warehouse.

Does he mean he’s offering a chip?

It seemed like survivors in Qingquan City only traded with chips.

"I’ll take two."

Hain gestured two fingers, then pulled two chips from his pocket and placed them on Crow’s outstretched hand.

However, Crow, upon seeing the chips, shook her head and quickly produced two silver coins, waving them in front of him.

Hain and Luna looked completely baffled.

They’d been to so many places yet had never seen these metal coins.

Crow sighed helplessly when she saw that they didn’t respond and reached out to pick up two tokens.

"Two plastic pieces, only worth one silver coin."

Saying this, she tapped the two tokens against a silver coin to indicate their equivalent value. Then she took out a roasted crab leg and handed it to Hain, who was standing in front of the stall.

tokens for one roasted crab leg?!

Has she gone mad!

It would have been fine if it were a bit bigger, but this small crab leg obviously weighed only two or three pounds, and the meat inside probably didn’t even amount to one pound.

Hain’s eyebrows and the corners of his mouth twitched, but he didn’t say anything.

After all, he was depending on others now, and it was best to avoid conflict in all things.

Damn!

It still hurt!

In such a backwater place, 2 points in tokens could buy quite a few supplies!

Hain didn’t want to buy a second leg, but he still looked politely at his companion and asked,

"Do you want some?"

Luna, without any nonsense, caught half with her left hand and flicked her curved knife with her right, cleanly splitting the crab leg into two pieces. She shook the half in her hand.

"This piece is mine."

"..."

Accustomed to this person’s rudeness, Hain shook his head without saying anything and bit into the soft and fragrant crab meat.

Hmm.

It’s actually quite delicious.

It’s just that the roadside stand didn’t use much seasoning, so it didn’t compare to the meal Chu Guang treated him to the day before yesterday.

And it felt not quite fresh...

After finishing the crab meat, Luna licked the juice from the corner of her mouth and suddenly asked, while looking at the people at the North gate market.

"What do you think of their strength?"

Hain thought for a moment and gave an honest assessment.

"Very strong. Both in terms of psychological quality and various abilities, these people are much stronger than any Blue Jackets I’ve seen."

"Especially their leader, who seems to have reached the edge of Awakening... I don’t understand, they’re not some barbarian tribe that worships strength, this is the first time I’ve seen a power’s leader train themselves to the brink of Awakening. Aren’t they comfortable with sitting on their strong legs and giving orders?"

While Hain was talking, he noticed Luna’s meaningful expression and hesitantly asked,

"What are you planning to do?"

"I’m definitely not going to do you," said Luna unabashedly, tossing her hair back and speaking frankly, "I like strong males."

Hain looked at her mockingly and then glanced at the girl at the neighboring stall roasting crab legs.

"Look, even she’s roasting crabs. I don’t think that man would be interested in you."

Sensing Luna’s hostile look, Hain shrugged his shoulders in submission, signaling his defeat with a gesture of surrender and walked away.

Just as they were talking, Chu Guang, carrying a big hammer, emerged from the North gate.

The players’ eyes lit up immediately upon seeing the Manager and surrounded him.

Loot!

Contribution Points!

And favorability!

Before the players could act eagerly, Chu Guang, like a real NPC, lifted his right fist majestically and made a gesture to gather everyone.

Then, he announced in a resounding voice,

"Divide the spoils!"

"The old rules apply, so I won’t repeat them."

Walking to the cart piled with spoils of war, Chu Guang casually picked up a double-barreled shotgun with rifled barrels and started doing what NPCs do—

Valuing the equipment!

"...This is an 18mm caliber double-barreled shotgun, the weapon of the leader of the Blood Hand Clan—Bear. Although he, like a gibbon, did evil all his life and died a well-deserved death, ultimately sent to hell by the righteous Iron Hammer, his weapons are innocent. The wooden stock is carved with a bear, although a few strokes might be wrong, but it’s not important; raiders aren’t exactly known for their scholarship."

"Bidding starts now, with a starting bid of 40 silver coins and a cap at 80 silver—"

Mosquito, taking the lead, didn’t even wait for his words to finish and swiftly raised her hand.

"80 silver!"

Chu Guang: "...?"

The surrounding players ready to pounce began cursing in frustration.

"Damn!"

"It’s that person again!"

"Too fast, too fast!"

Chu Guang was also caught off guard.

He originally thought the shabby gun, aside from its quality steel barrel, had nothing else going for it, so he just casually called a moderate price.

And it was snapped up just like that?

But looking at the regretful expressions on the players’ faces, he also realized in an instant.

"Tsk, I was careless... the BOSS’s equipment was collectible."

What was it called again?

Anyway, it was a named weapon!

Chu Guang silently chided himself for being hasty, but he didn’t take it too seriously.

He was a man who didn’t sweat the small stuff.

Besides, there were five Centurion weapons here; he could concoct some exaggerated legends for those oxen and horses later and sell them for a bit more, right?

That could be considered robbing the rich to help the poor.

The rhythm of the auction was fast, with all fifty main weapons being dealt with in half an hour.

The remaining odds and ends were sold for 1 Silver Coin each, and the rest were considered 1 Copper Coin each before being dragged to the warehouse for slow sorting.

Out of the 50 pieces of equipment, 20 were unsold, and the 30 that sold fetched a total of 971 Silver Coins. As per the usual rules, after deducting the 10% transaction tax, that left 873.9 Silver Coins, rounded down to 873 Silver!

In addition, the 29 captives were priced according to the group battle reward rules at 5 Silver Coins each, which came to a total of 145 Silver Coins.

Plus the combat rewards for killing 21 Looter old soldiers, 5 Looter Centurions, 1 BOSS-level Looter, and various other rewards for conquering the stronghold and saving captives, the total reward astonishingly amounted to 4371 Silver Coins!

By comparison, the funds raised from the auction seemed minor.

All 82 players who participated in the battle would get at least 50 Silver Coins each, and the more fortunate ones could get 55 or even 60 coins!

They were overnight riches!

Players who died in combat received a consolation payout from the Manager on top of their loot rewards.

However, the amount of the consolation wasn’t high; for example, for Gene Sequence LV1, it was about 1 Silver Coin per level per day. After three days, they would get almost 3 Silver Coins.

LV2 was 6 Silver Coins, LV3 was 9 Silver Coins, and so on.

It wasn’t a lot of money, but it was better than nothing, and they’d be back in the game in three days!

"Long live the Manager!"

"Yesss! I’ve got a gun now, haha!"

"Wah, 41 Silver Coins! I’ve never been this rich!"

"Let’s hurry and buy something!"

The combat professional players were cheering and holding the Silver Coins personally distributed by Chu Guang, happily heading out to spend them.

The eight non-combat professional players who did not participate in the fight looked on with envy and were close to tears. If they had known the rewards were so high, they would have joined the fray with shovels and clubs.

Crow stealthily priced the big crab leg at a "hefty" 3 Silver Coins. It didn’t sell earlier, but now it probably would.

Luna and Hain, who were standing by and watching, were utterly confused; it took them a while to swallow their saliva and whisper to each other.

"What are they doing?"

"It looks like an auction."

"I don’t understand. Why are they buying back their own spoils of war? Shouldn’t it be ’finders keepers’?"

"I don’t get it either, but I’m deeply impressed."

Hain suddenly gained a new understanding of this young ruler, not knowing what methods or spells he used, but the art of wielding power had been mastered to perfection by him.

It’s nothing praiseworthy to have a farmer offer up his own harvest, after all, anyone can load a rifle.

But getting a group of farmers to willingly, even gratefully, hand over their coins to buy back their own harvest...

Only a devil could do such a thing.

Whatever the case, this was the second time in a single day that Hain had to revise his opinion about the same person.

However, Chu Guang, the person being mentally evaluated, didn’t care about what others thought of him.

Compared to the Kaili from the heavens, Chu Guang felt he was a kind soul—he wouldn’t dig into players’ wallets, nor would he fool them with hidden drop rates.

Could it really make players happy by giving away too much money?

Those who think so probably haven’t played enough games, not having seen those that throw out billions upon billions of Gold Coins; in the end, only the fresh greenhorns get a quick thrill from recharging for a bit, while the players who grind through the game feel like fools.

Yes, Chu Guang had been fooled more than once, so he was very careful when designing the economic system of Wasteland OL.

He knew that he, unlike those real "Dog Planners," could not recklessly develop "God Equip" to soak up the excess Money, nor could he spawn bosses with inflated stats to encourage players to spend more.

Amid the cheering of the players, Chu Guang waved his hand and passed through the North gate, returning to the sanatorium. He took the elevator down to the basement.

The elevator to Level B2, located in the residential hall on Level B1, was still locked, with a few hours to go before it would open.

Taking advantage of the spare time, Chu Guang sat in front of the computer and updated the settings on the official website with information he had organized from the "Blood Hand Diary" for cloud players and spectators to freely imagine.

Then Chu Guang browsed the forum for a while, skimming through the posts from last night that he hadn’t had time to read.

Some ideas were really good and could be considered for inclusion in the Alpha 0.5 version package.

As the minutes and seconds went by, it finally approached two in the morning.

Chu Guang stretched and stood up from his chair when he thought it was almost time, and put on the Exoskeleton suit, with the Big Hammer on his back.

Even if the chances of the First Generation Manager causing him harm were one in ten thousand, it was better to be safe than sorry.

"Xiao Qi, I’m going down now."

Xiao Qi, who had returned to the corner to charge, lifted its Camera head and nodded obediently.

"Mhm, understood, Master. Be careful."

Just about to step onto the elevator, Chu Guang stopped in his tracks and glanced back at this trash can.

"What do you mean by ’be careful’? You mean there’s something down there? Or do you know something?"

Taken aback by the barrage of questions, Xiao Qi was stumped for a good while before finally responding dully.

"I don’t know... probably not?"

"Then why did you tell me to be careful?"

"Ah?! That, that’s just a routine phrase stored in the language area..."

Er.

There’s a setting for this?

"...Come with me."

Chu Guang reassuredly stepped onto the elevator heading to Level B2, as he watched Xiao Qi, who had closed its mouth and obediently rolled next to his feet.

It wasn’t that he was scared.

It was purely out of cautious consideration.

As soon as Chu Guang stepped in, the touch screen, originally pitch-black, immediately lit up with two buttons for B1 and B2, along with a dialog box that read "Authorized."

Chu Guang extended his index finger without hesitation towards the B2 button.

The elevator door closed with a slight buoyancy, and after a slight dip, it opened again in less than three seconds, revealing a gust of dry and refreshingly clean air that whiffed through the cracks.

Even a hint of heartening fragrance was mingled within it.

"...Air freshener?"

Chu Guang looked at Xiao Qi beside him with an odd expression.

"You go and scout ahead."

"Okay..."

The voice sounded listless and somewhat aggrieved.

But Xiao Qi still obediently headed forward, rolling its wheels woollily.

With his right hand on the hammer handle behind him, Chu Guang stepped forward steadily, cautiously stepping into this area that was said to have been untouched by humans for over a century.

The floor here was very clean, without a speck of dust, and stepping on it produced no creaking sound.

Not just the floor, everything around was so new that not a single trace could be found that indicated people had lived here.

The elevator was situated at the very center of a circular hall, which resembled the stage of an amphitheater, more spacious than the resident hall on Level B1.

The hall had four main doors to the east, south, west, and north, each leading to a straight main road and into four fan-shaped areas divided by the main road.

Adjacent sections had controllable alloy doors that normally stayed open by default but could be closed down to isolate the sections completely if necessary.

Zone A was a functional area with complex facilities, which Chu Guang decided to explore later.

The structure of Zones BCD, however, was quite simple; a glance at the floor plans posted at the entrances revealed this to be a residential area.

The dense array of doors and numbers filled the hallway like pigeonholes, barely large enough to fit a cultivation chamber and a table about 4 to 5 square meters in size, which was less than half the area of Level B1.

"Do people really live in this place?"

Walking in Zone C, Chu Guang secretly marveled, casually opening a room to find nothing inside but a cultivation chamber.

Well.

There was nothing wrong with that.

Maybe this place wasn’t meant for living after all.

"...The rooms are small, but changing a four-person room to a single makes sense; it does take players’ privacy into account after all."

Each section had two hundred rooms, and with both Zones CD equipped with cultivation chambers, there were a total of four hundred.

The population capacity of the shelter had been directly increased from one hundred to five hundred people, which was undeniably great news for Chu Guang, who was in desperate need of labor.

All these spaces could last for several versions!

The only pity was that such a large population was not needed for winter.

But no matter, there would be plenty of work to be done come spring planting season!

As for Zone B, it had a very ordinary setup, with just a bed and a foldable table in each room, not even a stool.

"This side should be for living."

Chu Guang thought, but no matter how much he searched, he could not find any personal belongings left behind.

Including the provided bedding, everything was folded neatly, looking like tofu blocks, so precise that not even a ruler could measure a millimeter of difference.

"...If people had lived here, the place seems too clean, as if someone had tidied up."

Really?

It was as if someone had been erasing evidence of a crime.

Just as Chu Guang was thinking this, he came to a halt in front of the last room on the main road of Zone B, and so did Xiao Qi who was rolling ahead.

"Master, there seems to be something on the floor."

"I see it."

It was a card that looked somewhat like an ID card.

The card laid in front of the room at the end of the corridor, right beneath the doorknob... It looked deliberately placed there, as if baited for someone to notice.

Chu Guang approached and picked up the card.

Light from the passageway illuminated the white card, revealing a metallic sheen along the hexagonal pattern, though its material was unfathomable.

The card bore no photo or name, only two words that seemed to be job titles or codenames printed on it—

"...Guard?"

Chu Guang seemed to grasp something.

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