Salute to You, Residents of Shelter 404!

Luo Hua and Ai Si continued assembling the prefabricated barracks, while the players crowding around them grew restless, whispering impatiently to one another. "Damn, these NPCs are moving way too slow!" "Seriously! How does putting up a shack take this long?" "Can't they just set up a table and handle the registrations first? Zero flexibility!" "How much longer until these NPCs actually start working? Can we get a progress bar? I need to know if I have time to chop down a couple of trees first." "Too slow! I can't take this anymore! I want the new map unlocked! I want to go haul bricks on the new map!" If Luo Hua and Ai Si knew that the shelter residents were standing there complaining about their lack of efficiency, there was no telling what expressions they would make. Happy? After all, these people were genuinely eager to work. Speechless? That would be justified too—nobody liked being rushed. However, neither of them could understand what the crowd was saying. Just as the surrounding players had no clue what the NPC named Luo Hua was rambling about under his breath. "Don't these bluecoats have anything better to do than gawk at us? If they're that bored, why don't they come give us a hand?" Ai Si said nothing. Luo Hua: "Speaking of which, what are we having for lunch?" "Freeze-dried rations," Ai Si replied. "Ugh, fine. I figured as much," Luo Hua groaned. "To think those folks are sitting in air-conditioned rooms sipping hot cocoa and playing cards, while I'm stuck out here babysitting a bunch of bluecoats... Is that even fair? I'd rather give up the fifty-CR daily allowance! Besides, what good is money in a godforsaken place like this? The natives won't touch our useless paper notes anyway. How many times has that happened already?" Ai Si remained silent. Perhaps realizing he was being annoying, Luo Hua let out a sigh. "All right... I admit I talk too much. Let's just hurry up and get this done." "Agreed," Ai Si said. While it wasn't snowing yet, they had to get the barracks set up. Taking out folding struts from the crate Ai Si had carried over earlier, Luo Hua carefully used a protractor to mark four points on the ground, firmly anchored the supports, and then stretched plastic sheeting around them to form four walls. The frame of a model shelter stood complete just like that. Of course, they weren't finished yet. Luo Hua then used a marker and a ruler to outline doors and windows on the plastic film. Standing beside him, Ai Si raised a metal canister with a spray nozzle and spritzed gray foam across the transparent plastic sheeting. The foam was very light, highly adhesive, and fine and uniform in texture. No pores were visible to the naked eye, and its surface possessed a matte finish. Luo Hua drew a folding scraper and skillfully smoothed the foam that had been sprayed over the film. The entire process looked as effortless as spreading cream across plastic wrap. A light layer of gray foam soon coated the plastic film. Once it cured completely, the foam darkened into a shade nearly indistinguishable from concrete, turning into a solid foam wall. Of course, that was only in appearance. To the touch, the texture of polymer material was vastly different from silicate concrete. Standing nearby, Spare the Life Under the Blade stared wide-eyed, muttering nonstop. "Holy crap... What material is that? Polyurethane? Doesn't look like it either... They're just spraying it straight onto plastic film? That stuff can serve as an exterior wall?" Ye Shi gave a cheeky grin. "Use some imagination. The setting is the future, remember? Is building a house with foam really that bizarre?" Spare the Life Under the Blade paused for a moment before finally talking himself into accepting it. "Fair point. It is a game, after all." As a video game setting, it wasn't impossible to accept. The first foam wall was completed in short order, and the second followed the same routine. By the time the two NPCs finished constructing the second wall, the first was already bone dry. In less than thirty minutes, a windproof, waterproof, and heat-retaining operational barracks stood complete. Although its shelf life was under a year and its durability couldn't compare to genuine silicate materials, it was more than sufficient as a temporary structure! Standing on the third floor of the sanatorium, Chu Guang watched with an expression of pure envy. Those Enterprise folks really had a lot of good stuff. He had to figure out a way to get his hands on some... Just then, Old Luka returned from outside and walked toward the guests who had traveled from afar, holding out a VM to Luo Hua. Luo Hua gave the old man a puzzled look and made no move to take it. "We don't use those things." Old Luka spoke respectfully. "The Administrator instructed me to bring this to you. It will facilitate basic communication between you and the shelter residents." Only then remembering the language barrier, Luo Hua stopped refusing and accepted the VM from Luka's hand. "All right. Thanks." Luka gave a slight nod. "You are welcome." ... Once the barracks were assembled, two signs—one large and one small—were propped up outside the door. Written in neat Chinese characters, they read [Pioneer Agency at Outpost 404] and [Volunteer Registration Desk]. Indeed. Chu Guang had penned the characters himself, and the handwriting was fairly tidy. At the same time, nearly every player in the vicinity of the outpost received a notification on their VM, while those without a VM heard an announcement echoing across the base via the loudspeakers. [Server Announcement: The Quartermaster NPC is now online! A new structure has been added to Outpost 404—Pioneer Agency at Outpost 404!] [Quartermaster Luo Hua: Respected residents of Shelter 404, salute to you! I am the quartermaster from the Pioneer. Our land fortress has run into some trouble. While this request may be presumptuous, we need you!] [Tip 1: The quartermaster from the Pioneer seems troubled. An exclamation mark has appeared on your map. Go speak with him now!] [Tip 2: The VM character interface has been updated with expansion-exclusive event scores. Complete missions in the new area to earn event scores! Characters without a VM may check their scores with NPC Luka or the Administrator's Assistant Xiao Qi, or log into the official website after logging off!] A human wall instantly encircled the entrance of the barracks. Almost the instant the announcement came through, the players dashed forward like lightning, nearly knocking over the registration desk. "Me, me, me! Tail wants to sign up!" "Pick me! I'm Strength-type! I'm amazing at hauling bricks!" "Fuck! Save your damn strength for hauling bricks! Stop pushing, I'm getting crushed to death!" "H-How is anyone supposed to squeeze in there?" Unable to push her way through no matter what she tried, Yaya stomped her feet in frustration at the edge of the crowd. She stood on tiptoe to peer inside, only to feel utterly hopeless. The collision volume in this game was infuriating! If only she could phase through other players like in other MMORPGs. "Give it up," Tengteng sighed, glancing at her before looking up at the sky. "This feels just like when an influencer milk tea shop opens downstairs. I never get a spot in line anyway, so I might as well wait until the hype dies down before trying it." Yaya suddenly snapped out of her daze. "That makes so much sense... Besides, rotations happen every three days. We can just wait for the first wave of players to post guides." Tengteng nodded in agreement. "Right?" Unprepared for such overwhelming enthusiasm from the local residents, Luo Hua was momentarily caught off guard as he tried to manage the registrations. Beside him, Ai Si froze in bewilderment. She actually spotted a bear in the crowd? And a white bear at that. "...Why is there a bear?" Sweating profusely, Luo Hua didn't have the bandwidth to care. He frantically snapped photos on his tablet to register people, clumsily handing out numbered work badges. "Hell if I know, probably their pet... Give me a hand here!" Ai Si: "..." It was her first time seeing such an obedient bear. It looked so fluffy. Mmm. She kind of wanted to pet it. Chaos reigned outside the agency. Fortunately, the Administrator had anticipated this situation and dispatched a helper to assist with the registration work. Once the sign-ups were completed, Luo Hua mounted a large satellite dish and antenna onto the barracks roof. After a brief tuning process, he finally picked up a signal from the Pioneer. A colleague's voice from the logistics department came through the radio. "...How are things on your end?" "Going great—better than I could have ever imagined!" Luo Hua replied. "These bluecoats are way too eager. The moment our agency opened, they swarmed us in droves... Honestly, I'm a bit touched. Who knew such kind-hearted people lived out here in the distant inland?" Silence lingered on the other end of the comm channel for a moment. Li De coughed dryly before continuing. "...That is rather surprising." Luo Hua: "Never mind me, how much longer until you guys arrive? Judging by their looks, they can hardly wait." Li De: "Almost there. Our captain is two kilometers away from you." Luo Hua: "The captain?" Li De: "Yes. He's leading the team in person to escort our reinforcements." ... Leaning against the doorway of the weapon shop with a wilted foxtail grass dangling from her lips, Xia Yan watched the bustling scene outside the agency from afar. No players had come to bother her today; they were all queueing up by the new NPC instead. After working here for so long, she had accepted her identity as an "NPC." Occasionally, though, the concept still left her bewildered. Chu Guang constantly emphasized the difference between NPCs and players, yet also maintained that NPCs rarely referred to themselves as NPCs, just as players rarely referred to themselves as players. So what was the point of that label in the first place? This roleplay stuff was truly bizarre. Right then, Chu Guang approached her, holding a spindle-shaped projectile. "I need you to help me make something. This is a sample. Try to use tungsten steel or other metals with higher melting points, and replicate the rest at a one-to-one scale." "Sure, I'll take a look at it in a bit." Reaching out to take the strangely shaped spindle, Xia Yan curiously examined the exoskeleton Chu Guang was wearing. "Where did you get that exoskeleton?" Seeing that someone had finally noticed his new look, a smile spread across Chu Guang's face. "Looks sharp, doesn't it?" "It's okay," Xia Yan replied, unable to stop herself from rolling her eyes inwardly at his smug demeanor. "So where did you actually get it?" "Found it." Xia Yan: "..." Chu Guang chuckled. "Just kidding. Found it in the shelter." Xia Yan shook her head helplessly. "I only asked casually. If it's inconvenient to say, forget it... Speaking of which, how did you get involved with the Enterprise?" "They arrived yesterday and took care of the mutants on 76th Street for us while they were at it... Is there a problem?" Noticing the odd expression on Xia Yan's face, Chu Guang gave her an inquiring look. "No, I just find it hard to believe," Xia Yan said, her expression intriguing as she glanced at the two people in the distance. "A long, long time ago, an expeditionary force from the Enterprise came to Qingquan City." "An expeditionary force?" "Yes, but that was ages ago. Besides, I heard the Enterprise is massive, with countless factions clustered along the East Coast. Supposedly they weren't originally called the Enterprise, but because they kept changing front names, outsiders just started referring to them as the Enterprise. Later on, maybe they grew accustomed to it, or maybe they realized that name carried the most fame, so they started calling themselves the Enterprise as well." Chu Guang looked at her with surprise. "You know about that?" Xia Yan replied nonchalantly, "It's no secret. But that expedition happened so long ago that I wasn't even born yet." Chu Guang: "Do you know why they came?" "Why else? They were called an expeditionary force, so obviously to fight a war," Xia Yan said, shooting him a strange look. "All I know is that in the end, they lost. After that, you rarely saw their people in Qingquan City, though their merchant caravans still visited regularly for trade." It seemed the folk of Qingquan City had been quite fierce back then. Then again, with a straight-line distance of over a thousand kilometers and a supply line stretching over ten thousand, it would have been a miracle if they hadn't lost. Having gleaned some interesting intelligence, Chu Guang nodded in satisfaction. "All right. We'll talk more when I get back. I'm heading out for a bit. If anything comes up, contact Xiao Qi—it knows how to find me." Xia Yan asked, "Where are you going? That fortress thing?" "Why would I go there?" Chu Guang checked the map on his VM and dropped a coordinate marker. "There's a signal tower on 76th Street. If I'm not mistaken, it should be near the mutants' nest. I plan to check it out and see if I can fix it." Luka was keeping watch over the Pioneer situation, so there was no need for Chu Guang to go in person. His players were his eyes; whatever they saw would naturally be posted on the forum. The urgent priority right now was repairing that signal tower. Once it was restored, Shelter 404's communication radius would cover the entire northern suburbs of Qingquan City at the very least, and the drones' operational range would expand even further. When that time came, whether it was issuing quests or keeping tabs on his dear players, everything would become far more convenient than it was now. "You should watch your safety. Why not bring a couple of people with you?" This certainly wasn't out of concern; Xia Yan was purely worried about losing her meal ticket. Not even her father, who had vanished off to who-knows-where, had ever provided for her like this. Devil or not didn't matter anymore; right now, she thought having a devil around was pretty great. "Good point." Chu Guang pondered for a moment and found her suggestion sensible. However, the players were currently fixated on the expansion event, so they probably had little interest in mundane quests. Still, Chu Guang wasn't worried; it was only a matter of waiting a short while. There were currently 250 players on the server, while his contract with Captain Lu Yang only promised two hundred laborers. That meant no matter how fiercely they scrambled, fifty players were bound to miss out on the slots, beating their chests in grief and despair. As an Administrator with high emotional intelligence, Chu Guang felt obligated to comfort their wounded hearts. Yes. When the time came, he would simply pick two high-quality human cannon fodder to stroll around the mutants' nest with him.