[Type 20 "Needle" Gauss Rifle]
[Description: As standard anti-materiel equipment for orbital drop troops, the Type 20 "Needle" Gauss rifle features a barrel-less design with an open magnetic guide. Its standard ammunition is a 9mm-caliber, 100-gram "Spike" fin-stabilized projectile.]
[When fired with standard ammunition, its theoretical muzzle velocity reaches Mach 5, with a muzzle energy of 144,755 Joules. Given the unique operational environment of orbital drop troops, the Type 20 "Needle" Gauss rifle is designed to fire conductive reaction mass via side loading even in the absence of standard ammunition—such as cut-off iron nails or steel ball bearings. Note, however, that when firing non-standard ammunition, ballistic stability and accuracy cannot be guaranteed. Please consult the user manual and exercise caution when choosing your munitions.]
144,755 Joules of muzzle energy!
When Chu Guang first laid eyes on this number, he thought his vision was playing tricks on him.
If he remembered correctly, the 20mm M61 Vulcan cannon on an F-16 fighter jet had a single-shot kinetic energy of only around 50,000 Joules.
Over 140,000 Joules of muzzle energy—an entire order of magnitude higher than an autocannon!
Could this damn thing even be called a rifle???
Still, judging purely by caliber, calling it a rifle wasn't technically wrong.
Picking up the terrifyingly potent Gauss rifle from the conveyor belt, Chu Guang examined it closely for a moment before ejecting the heavy magazine.
The rounds nested inside were remarkably long. Rather than resembling nails, they looked more like elongated shuttles. The grooved fluting near the tail end was presumably the "stabilizing fins," designed to maintain aerodynamic stability along the trajectory.
The Gauss rifles used by Lu Yang and his squad seemed to follow a different technological path—fully enclosed magnetic rails with a rifled barrel seated between them.
When observing them earlier through the drone camera, Chu Guang had noted that after sustained firing, their Gauss rifles required manual barrel swaps due to overheating.
Intuition told Chu Guang that while a barrel-less design likely involved higher technological sophistication, its maintenance and operating costs were another matter entirely.
"The recoil on this must be immense... Without an exoskeleton or power armor, one might not even be able to handle it."
"Then there's the ammo. Ten rounds is way too few."
"I wonder if we could machine similar rounds out of tungsten steel."
Given the outpost's manufacturing limitations, producing ammunition with identical metallurgical properties was out of the question, but copying the basic geometry shouldn't be much of a problem.
Chu Guang intended to conserve these ten "original rounds" for high-value targets. For standard mutants, improvised knockoffs should suffice.
Additionally, the optical sight mounted on the rifle was a fine piece of hardware, offering up to 12x magnification.
Unfortunately, it seemed he had exhausted all his luck on the advanced blind boxes—the eleven basic blind boxes had yielded eleven lollipops in a row.
And every single one was chocolate-flavored.
Nevertheless, Chu Guang was in high spirits. Far from letting his blood pressure spike, he handed a lollipop to Xia Yan and Xiaoyu respectively, sharing the joy in his heart.
A cannon and a suit of armor.
This was far beyond a win.
He had hit the jackpot!
...
The following day brought rare clear skies.
The boundless heavens did not hold a single cloud.
Yet the snowfall the night before had been heavy. Feathery flakes had fluttered down all night long, and by dawn, the snow at its deepest reached past the knees.
Chu Guang hired two nomads to clear the snow as usual.
After inspecting the guard corps' training progress, Chu Guang found Old Luka.
"I have a task for you. The details have been updated on your VM. Go over to the brick factory right now and pick two sharp survivors to act as your assistants."
"In a little while, our allies will send someone over to register the labor dispatch roster. After that, follow the instructions I outlined on the VM, gather them up, and set out."
Old Luka bowed respectfully.
"Understood, my Lord."
Not long after Old Luka departed for the brick factory, Chu Guang spotted an off-road vehicle with massive tires plowing through the snow from the north via the overhead drone.
Four people sat inside.
Aside from the driver and the bodyguard in the passenger seat—both clad in exoskeletons and carrying light firearms—the two passengers in the rear didn't even have exoskeletons. They wore matching gray overcoats and appeared to be civilian staff.
The road conditions across the wasteland were atrocious, especially within urban sectors, where a single road could boast ten uneven fissures. In places with wider fractures, buried pipelines lay exposed, with gaps exceeding two meters in width.
Forget vehicles—even pedestrians and pack animals struggled to cross, forced to detour through the deeper-founded ruins along the streets.
The drive along the remains of the outbound elevated highway had been far from smooth, with many craters concealed beneath the snow.
Watching from the sky, Chu Guang and Xiao Qi placed bets on when the vehicle would break down. In the end, Xiao Qi guessed right: roughly one kilometer from Wetland Park, the vehicle's front wheels plunged straight into a ditch.
Snow whipped into the air, but no matter how the tires spun in the pit, they couldn't climb out.
The passenger and driver had no choice but to step out. Grabbing the wheel hubs with both hands, they relied on sheer exoskeleton strength to hoist the vehicle's front end out of the hidden ditch.
Chu Guang had initially considered sending a couple of Strength-type players to assist, but dismissed the idea immediately upon seeing that display.
"The power of technology is truly impressive."
When would he be able to equip each of his lovely little players with a suit?
Imagine how fast they could haul bricks then!
Sighing emotionally to himself, Chu Guang watched the group climb back in and drive up to the north gate of Wetland Park. He switched off the VM screen and headed downstairs to wait by the gate.
...
The off-road vehicle couldn't enter Wetland Park, so the driver stayed behind with the vehicle while the other three proceeded on foot.
The group soon reached the outpost, met the local Administrator at the north gate, and followed his invitation to the reception room.
"Allow me to introduce ourselves first. I am Li De from the Logistics Section of the First Pioneer Corps, Silverwing Group, under the Enterprise. Behind me is my colleague Luo Hua from Logistics, who will serve as the head of our temporary liaison office at your camp, responsible for communication and coordination. The other is Ai Si from Security, who is primarily assigned to his protection."
"Greetings, Administrator," said the man named Luo Hua. He wore glasses and looked rather refined.
The sharp, capable female bodyguard merely nodded to him without uttering a word or joining the conversation, as if she were thin air.
Shaking Li De's outstretched hand, Chu Guang wore a smile as warm as a spring breeze.
"Chu Guang, Administrator of Shelter 404. It is an honor to cooperate with you. Please, take a seat, everyone."
A handsome face naturally inspired goodwill.
Even with facial muscles stiffened by the northern wind, Li De managed to squeeze out an equally amicable smile upon seeing Chu Guang's warmth.
Dealing with civilized people was vastly more comfortable.
Being poor didn't matter; at least they could communicate.
The natives Li De had encountered along the journey had truly tested his patience—there was simply no reasoning with them in a civilized manner.
Aside from the bodyguard standing guard at the door, the three men took their seats.
Li De didn't beat around the bush. Once seated, he cut straight to the chase, pulling a tablet out of his shoulder bag.
"Let us begin, then. I have a list here detailing the provisions we can supply to you. The rate we offer for each laborer remains at 1 CR per hour. For two hundred workers on a ten-hour workday, the daily payroll expense totals 2,000 CR... This is our budget."
Chu Guang took the tablet from him and skimmed through the list, his index finger swiping across the screen.
Overall, CR possessed substantial purchasing power.
Perhaps because their production lines were mounted directly onto crawler tracks, the prices on the list were closer to East Coast domestic levels than those of wandering merchants from parts unknown—in fact, they seemed slightly cheaper than local East Coast survivor settlements.
Quite a few bulk commodities could be purchased wholesale for 1 CR.
However, when he scrolled down and saw peculiar trade items such as one kilogram of starch, one kilogram of glucose, one kilogram of sucrose, and one kilogram of amino acids (thirty varieties, including lysine, tryptophan, etc.)... Chu Guang froze.
They were actually breaking goods down to the molecular level for sale?
Naturally, beyond these ultra-hardcore commodities, standard goods existed as well.
For instance, rice, wheat, and corn—these agricultural products were priced at 2 CR per kilogram.
Chu Guang recalled that rice had a starch content of only around 75%. Wouldn't buying rice actually be more expensive than buying pure starch?
In addition, plant-based meat patties or minced meat were likewise priced at 2 CR per kilogram, astonishingly matching the price of rice and wheat.
In any survivor camp across Qingquan City, meat could never sell for the same price as crops grown from the soil!
Furthermore, processed, ready-to-eat meals were also on the list.
A Class-C nutrient pack with a net weight of 430 grams cost 1 CR, containing sufficient carbohydrates, fiber, protein, and essential minerals to sustain a normal meal. However, pricing seemed a bit steep at the higher tiers—an 800-gram Class-A nutrient pack cost a staggering 8 CR.
Was this meant to be a family bucket?
Those were essentially all the food options available. Starting at 10 CR, the catalog shifted toward daily necessities and manufactured industrial goods.
For example, a kilogram of sulfur soap was priced at exactly 10 CR. Divided into 100-gram bars, that yielded ten bars—equivalent to 1 CR each.
Salt was another example; they only sold refined salt, or rather pure sodium chloride, also at 10 CR per kilogram.
Interestingly, their salt was priced at ten times the cost of grains, and ten times that of meat. Chu Guang couldn't quite tell whether that should be considered cheap or expensive.
In any case, around here, salt was sold by the liang.
Moving up to the 100 CR tier, some truly impressive items began to appear.
Such as a submachine gun for 200 CR, and an assault rifle for 300 CR. There was also a ballistic vest for 100 CR, and heavy, full-coverage body armor for 300 CR.
Ammunition was remarkably cheap—1 CR bought three rounds, equivalent to a jin of rice.
"Why are there no Gauss rifles?"
Chu Guang scrolled straight to the bottom. While he found some production tools he might put to use, he saw neither the power armor nor the Gauss rifles he coveted most.
Li De straightened his expression and said solemnly, "My apologies, Administrator. Our power armor and Gauss rifles are the lifeblood of our soldiers. They are not for sale."
Chu Guang nodded. "Understood. Pardon my forwardness."
Got it.
Seems manufacturing that stuff isn't easy for you guys either—at least not to the point where everyone gets a set.
In Chu Guang's impression, while the principle of a coilgun was simple enough, practical application was a bottomless money pit—so costly that the Americans once mounted the gun on warships only to strip it back off after securing their defense budget.
And reasonably so: how cheap were traditional cannons?
Easy to maintain, every shot was a guaranteed bang, and if a barrel wore out, you just swapped in another and kept firing.
Chu Guang had spent half the previous night studying the Type 20 "Needle" Gauss rifle without deciphering what material was used for the magnetic rails, nor did he dare disassemble it to peek inside.
He wasn't an idiot.
What if the magnetic rails were loaded with metallic hydrogen?
That would blow up in his face.
Tinkering with black-box technology was more nerve-racking than opening blind boxes. Upon reflection, Chu Guang decided not to waste his effort. Even if he understood the theory, he couldn't necessarily replicate it; he lacked the basic equipment and prerequisites to comprehend it in the first place.
Every minor breakthrough was the culmination of hundreds of research topics and tens of thousands of experimental trials. And when quantity accumulated into quality, manifesting as a mature technology, it embodied tens of thousands of tiny breakthroughs.
So opening blind boxes was better.
At least whatever came out of a blind box was ready to use immediately.
Only with weapons could one secure food; only with food could one attract people; and only with people could one develop industry, expand territory, and scavenge junk further afield. Once food, electricity, and mineral resources were all in place and production capacity caught up, only then would he be qualified to discuss a tech tree.
Otherwise, it was all castles in the sky.
Chu Guang spoke, "The compensation terms look fine. Around here, a kilogram of rice costs... well, 10 copper coins. So converting that, I believe a reasonable exchange rate would be 1 CR to 5 copper coins."
Chu Guang had originally wanted to suggest 2 CR to 1 silver coin.
On second thought, he opted for a more diplomatic framing.
To his surprise, this quartermaster friend didn't take the bait at all, shaking his head.
"Administrator, I may speak rather bluntly. Our squad leader is a straightforward man who doesn't understand these matters, but do you think I don't either?"
"Let's not make things overly complicated. Exchanging each other's currencies back and forth is meaningless anyway; we won't be staying here permanently. We will pay you the full sum directly at the rate of 1 CR per hour. As for how many silver coins you choose to pay your residents, that is an internal matter for your camp, and we will not interfere."
"As for the issue you raised regarding CR not circulating locally, we have already resolved that for you. The list in your hands was compiled overnight by my colleagues in Logistics. I am confident the supplies listed here are far richer than anything you've seen from any caravan around here. Don't you agree?"
In short: you can't fool me.
Pay your people whatever hourly wage you like; this is all we're offering.
Selling goods to you at cost is already an act of pure good faith.
Having worked as a salesman for years, Chu Guang naturally caught the subtext and offered an embarrassed smile.
"Fair enough."
He had originally planned to claim his people (the players) had a minimum wage of 1 silver coin, which converted to 2 CR. But the man was too sharp; he had no interest in their local money.
Seeing Chu Guang's agreeable attitude, Li De looked at him cautiously. "May I assume, then, that we have reached a consensus?"
Just yesterday, Lu Yang had bragged to him about how agreeable the Administrator of Shelter 404 was, claiming they had reached an agreement in less than ten minutes.
Looking back now, it wasn't that this guy was agreeable—it was that their squad leader had been too agreeable...
"Halfway," Chu Guang nodded, continuing, "Your squad leader promised me that you would provide food and lodging for our people. After all, the distance between us and your site is ten kilometers; our workers cannot waste hours traveling back and forth every day. And meals are another major concern."
Li De had been reaching into his pocket for blood pressure medicine when he heard "halfway," but relaxed upon hearing the second half.
That was indeed a reasonable request.
"Rest assured on that front. We have already constructed a temporary camp for your workers. While it cannot rival the comfort of a shelter, it is fully insulated against the wind and cold. As for meals, please do not worry; we will deploy a mobile kitchen for you, providing three meals a day at the standard of 1 CR per meal."
Chu Guang nodded thoughtfully.
"1 CR per meal... so that's 3 CR a day?"
Li De was momentarily taken aback, then nodded guardedly. "Er, yes, sir."
A smile surfaced on Chu Guang's face.
"At 3 CR per person per day, you can just transfer that money directly to us. We will make bulk purchases and prepare our own food. That way, you won't need to organize a mobile kitchen—just lend us some cookware for preparing meals. What do you say?"
Li De was utterly dumbfounded.
That works too???
However, he didn't voice his opinion immediately, quietly calculating the costs in his mind.
Deploying a mobile kitchen at their workers' camp would carry an actual daily running cost of at least 1,000 CR, and if someone fell ill from the food, there would be endless disputes.
When cooperating with natives in the past, similar problems had occurred.
Paying out 3 CR per person daily came out to only 600 CR for two hundred people—cutting the cost by forty percent while eliminating all operational risk.
Li De nodded decisively in agreement.
"Deal!"
Chu Guang extended his right hand with equal decisiveness.
"It's a deal!"
...
Having reached a consensus, the two parties quickly drew up a written contract, signing their names and pressing thumbprints in place of official seals.
At this moment, Li De finally understood what his squad leader had meant by calling this Administrator "agreeable."
Indeed.
His efficiency was impressive.
It was truly a waste of talent for him to remain in a place like this...
Luo Hua, who was serving as head of the liaison office, remained behind, while Li De set off under Ai Si's escort to return to the vehicle waiting by the Wetland Park gate.
Afterward, she would return to the outpost, where she and Luo Hua would use the materials they brought to erect a simple barrack as their office.
"The conditions here are far too primitive... They're still using archaic smelting methods to produce steel," Luo Hua remarked, gazing toward the towering smokestack to the south.
Ai Si offered no comment on the facilities, speaking only after a moment of silence.
"That man is very strong."
"Strong?"
"Yes. An Awakened, probably Stage One."
"Which one?" Luo Hua looked around curiously, noticing quite a few shelter residents nearby.
These people were looking back at them with equal curiosity, wondering what they were up to.
"The one who spoke with you earlier."
"You mean their Administrator?" Luo Hua looked astonished. "But from what I remember, awakening requires—"
"Enduring countless trials between life and death. At the very least, walking through the gates of hell once."
Ai Si's face remained impassive, but a glimmer of caution surfaced in her eyes as she uncharacteristically added another sentence.
It seemed the squad leader's assessment was correct.
"That man is very strong."
Chapter 139