After Alpha 0.5 had been live for a while, several days of experimentation finally allowed everyone to gradually get used to the new version's gameplay.
Many hot posts sprang up on the official website.
There were in-depth guide analyses, as well as silly players shitposting.
Stop Bullshitting: "This winter is way too cold. Just to go fishing, my hands almost cracked from the frost, and last time a bunch of morons even snatched one of my fish. Damn it! QAQ"
Xiao Xiao Xiao Bookworm: "Has anyone seen Brother Scavenger? Haven't seen him in days."
Elven King Fugui: "I saw him! He tried to go outside several times, passed out from the cold, and got dragged back in. One time it was even the Administrator himself who dragged him back! That guy's currently scheming about stuffing a stove into his clothes, hahaha."
WC Really Has Mosquitoes: "I designed a heated inner lining for him. Paired with a padded coat, it should work. But there are two unresolved issues right now: one is lack of batteries, and the other is that it easily sets the padded coat on fire."
Elaina: "Why not replace the electric heating with a kerosene stove? (funny)"
WC Really Has Mosquitoes: "!! Very good! Now there's only one problem left! (grinning)"
Scavenger Lv99: "Are you guys trying to kill me?! (terrified)"
Winter was indeed rather unfriendly to Brother Scavenger. In this kind of weather, lizards were supposed to hibernate; going outside might have been a mistake in itself.
Yet staying in the shelter all the time left him with nothing to do. Eating cost money every day, and he hadn't finished paying off what he owed Brother Mosquito. Brother Scavenger was in utter despair.
Fortunately, his buddies in the Cow and Horse group were brainstorming terrible ideas for him. For now, the most viable option seemed to be crafting a set of armor with built-in heating.
As long as it could heat over sixty percent of his body, maintaining his core temperature shouldn't be much of an issue.
If all else failed, he could strap a steam boiler to his back, boiling water while shouting "Ura!" In a pinch, he could even squirt scalding water right into an enemy's face, and if his teammates got thirsty, he could turn around and brew them a cup of tea.
A battlefield tea orderly—supremely practical.
Mole on the Run from the Canyon: "Speaking of which, there are several bluecoats in the new rooms on Floor B2! Hahaha, Yaya never has to worry about dying and having no clothes to wear again!"
Yaya: "A punch to your nose! ψ(＊｀ー′)ψ"
Gale: "I'd suggest switching to hunting attire if you're traveling far. Bluecoats are non-renewable; even if you accidentally poke a hole in one, its heat retention drops sharply."
Construction Boy and Bricks: "No need to be too stingy. Clothes are meant to be worn, not worshipped on an altar. Once we unlock Floor B3, there might be a whole pile of them. But on another note, the boots from Tengteng Cottage are amazing! After putting them on, I feel like I've turned into a dog."
Tengteng: "...I'll just take that as a compliment."
...
After finishing the posts in the chit-chat section, Chu Guang turned his attention to the guides section. Whenever professional analysis posts appeared in the general forum square, Xiao Qi would mark them as featured and move them over to the guides section.
The IDs in this section were always those few familiar faces.
For instance, [Mole on the Run from the Canyon].
This guy had created a dedicated thread investigating the NPCs at the brickworks, even compiling a tree diagram of their dialogue "scripts."
His diligence was frankly a bit excessive.
"Hello everyone, this is your Big-Nosed Mole! Based on three consecutive days of grinding quests for research, I've basically figured out those NPCs at the Cow and Horse Brickworks!"
"As usual, conclusions first: these NPCs are not as intelligent as weapon shop proprietress Xia Yan or warehouse manager Luka!"
"Take the two foremen, for example. They have roughly the most lines—I've already recorded over twenty unique ones. But the other brickmakers are rather wooden; they only say four lines: 'Thank you,' 'Yes,' 'Understood,' and 'Brickmaker.' I hypothesize either the dialogue for these NPCs isn't finished yet, or they simply aren't key plot characters, so they haven't been pre-loaded with comparable linguistic functions."
"Oddly enough, however, my observations show that while these NPCs cannot communicate with players, their behavior isn't rigid at all. In fact, they're quite smart, and they even interact with one another. Perhaps their core programming includes machine-learning settings? For example, the master AI observes player actions, and sub-AIs simulate and extrapolate, eventually enabling more and more NPCs to converse normally? Just thinking about it gets me hyped!"
"I'm out of my depth here, so I'll wait for cryptography and linguistics experts to weigh in. It's currently unclear whether the developers created a language akin to Hilichurlian or used AI technology to randomly generate disordered phonetic symbols. Either way, it completely blew my mind!"
"What can be confirmed right now is that only NPCs holding a VM can communicate fluently with players and trigger quests. However, each NPC can only trigger one quest per day, and the reward is a measly 5 copper coins—way too low! I strongly urge the developers to increase the quest rewards, or increase the number of triggers to five times per person. That would be much more reasonable."
Brother Mole's posts were always high quality, with over a hundred replies underneath.
Chu Guang skimmed through the post, surprised at how much free time this player had on his hands—he had actually extracted every single line of dialogue Chu Guang had designed.
"Low rewards are only natural. The two foremen were never key NPCs to begin with; they're just easter eggs tossed in to flesh out the game."
In other words, purely to satisfy their rampant curiosity.
A twenty-jin catfish brought to the NPC warehouse could fetch at least 1 silver coin, and if made into fish soup at the north gate market to sell to players, a pot of delicious soup could easily fetch at least 5 silver coins.
The 5 copper coins lost on the quest could simply be written off as charity.
Naturally, many players in the replies speculated that the reason for the meager quest earnings was that part of the reward came in the form of favorability.
As for what getting favorability from a foreman NPC was actually good for, it remained an enigma.
Still, most players—including Mole himself—expressed understanding in the discussion.
It was an open-world game, after all.
The fun was in the exploration.
Perhaps that "Thank you" was the true reward, and the 5 copper coins were merely a bonus throw-in. Thinking of it like that instantly made the whole game feel full of wholesome, positive energy.
Closing Brother Mole's thread, Chu Guang scrolled his mouse and continued reading down the page, soon spotting another familiar ID.
However, this ID was rarely seen in the guide section; Chu Guang mostly saw him posting in the chit-chat section, constantly clamoring about farming.
Makka Pakka: "Brothers, I can't hold back anymore! I want to farm! Does it make any sense for a farming game to not let you farm?! Tomorrow I'm trying out a greenhouse. I'll throw a plastic roof over it, set up braziers inside, and burn charcoal to raise the temperature. I refuse to believe I can't grow anything!!"
Ye Shi: "Go for it, bro! Just don't set yourself on fire when you light it!"
Fang Chang: "Hahahaha, watch out for carbon monoxide poisoning. This game is surprisingly realistic in weird places. Last time, Mosquito almost lit himself on fire."
WC Really Has Mosquitoes: "Need goblin technology? We not only sell explosive special effects, but also fertilizer for farming. (funny)"
Makka Pakka: "No money! QAQ"
WC Really Has Mosquitoes: "No problem, we offer credit and financing services! Only two percent monthly interest, what a steal! (funny)"
Fang Chang: "Don't listen to him. Just go to the warehouse, buy a sheet of paper, write a proper proposal, and submit it to the Administrator. If the plan is written well enough, you might even get a subsidy."
Ye Shi: "Right! Our outpost happens to be short on food anyway. I think it's viable!"
Makka Pakka: "Brother Fang Chang is awesome! Damn, how could I forget about that!"
Gale: "Speaking of farming, I suddenly remembered that when hunting earlier, I saw the ruins of a tower-like greenhouse in a residential compound. I don't know if there's anything salvageable inside—we didn't go in at the time—but if you want to farm, maybe go check it out and see if there's anything useful."
Fang Chang: "True, now that you mention that big building, I remember it too. But dismantling and hauling that thing back might not be so easy, right?"
Gale: "Just a suggestion."
Makka Pakka: "Thanks, everyone! I'll go give it a shot right now!"
A greenhouse, huh.
Interesting.
Watching the back-and-forth discussion in the thread, Chu Guang rubbed his chin with keen interest.
In fact, judging from the pre-war maps, vertical farming technology had been widely applied in Qingquan City.
However, this wasn't because the concept of vertical farming was inherently superior, but simply because controlled fusion had provided virtually limitless energy to every sector.
What did virtually limitless energy mean?
It meant every grand vision had the foundation to be realized, and the cost of energy could essentially be struck from every link of societal production.
From a single screw on an industrial machine to a single grain of rice on a supermarket shelf.
Such an era of extreme utopian abundance was difficult to imagine for people still in the middle of building utopia.
"I'd really love to see the pre-war era with my own eyes."
Unfortunately, those two diaries hadn't mentioned a single specific detail about the pre-war world.
Sighing with emotion, Chu Guang finished reading the interesting posts on the forum, then stood up and headed outside the shelter.
The north wind howled.
The snow on the ground was already knee-deep.
To prevent the snow from blocking traffic, Chu Guang had been forced to have Old Luka post a snow-clearing quest, recruiting two Strength-type rookies to clear the main thoroughfare.
At 1 silver coin per hour, the two rookies carried shovels, happily huffing and puffing away.
Just then, a player clutching an application hurried over from the direction of the warehouse.
That player was none other than [Makka Pakka], who had been chatting up a storm on the forum earlier.
"Respected Administrator! I believe our shelter needs more food, and I want to build a greenhouse farm for our outpost! This is my proposal. Please grant me ten minutes of your time to explain my plan in detail—"
"Approved."
Cutting off his long-winded speech, Chu Guang took the proposal, gave it a brief glance, and casually shoved the paper—worth 1 copper coin—into his pocket.
Looking at Brother Pakka, who stood there slack-jawed and babbling, Chu Guang pondered for a moment before continuing, "Your land is located along the lake outside the outpost's west gate, covering twenty mu. There is fresh water and fertile soil necessary for cultivation. The only trouble is that it is uncultivated wilderness, but I believe that will pose no problem for you."
Seeing Brother Pakka open his mouth to say something more, Chu Guang directly cut him a check.
"Starting now, your 'Greenhouse Farm' will receive a budget of 2,000 silver coins. The quest has already been updated on your VM. You may choose whether to accept this budget."
"W-Wait a second!" Makka Pakka panicked upon hearing this.
It wasn't because the budget was too small.
Rather, he had written his proposal in such a rush that he had forgotten to name his project, simply slapping [Greenhouse Farm] as the title in the header of the document.
Yet how could Chu Guang ever give him the chance to change it? It had taken him so long to finally come across a normal name.
"Do you wish to abandon the quest?" Chu Guang asked, looking at him.
Brother Pakka swallowed hard.
After a brief internal struggle, swayed by the temptation of silver coins, he finally gave a helpless, wry nod.
"I accept."
Chapter 105