He Was Our Good Companion—You Have to Pay More!

No one had expected something like this to happen right as the mission drew to a close. Everyone was weighed down with heavy hearts, their morale hitting rock bottom. The only exceptions were the three utterly bewildered young players and the Bet Street guide, who didn't know what to do with himself. Chu Guang announced that he wanted to be alone for a while to calmly figure out how to break this cruel truth to the deceased's family. He wasn't very good at comforting people anyway. If his acting came off too exaggerated and he blew his cover, it would be thoroughly embarrassing. In moments like this, saying nothing was far better. Sometimes, silence was the best language. Lu Yang placed a hand on Chu Guang's shoulder, offering an understanding look. "I fully understand how you feel, but it will be dark in another two hours, and the situation in the ruins will become very complicated. Once we get back, I'll have Li De contact you... regarding compensation for the deceased's family." It was at least twenty kilometers from here back to the Pioneer, and they needed to make every effort to return before sunset. Although the dark wasn't a lethal hazard to them, prudence dictated they shouldn't dawdle too late. "You go on ahead. I'll head back once I handle the aftermath." "Still... are you sure it's safe for you to stay here?" Lu Yang hesitated slightly, glancing involuntarily at the gear in the hands of the three remaining shelter residents. Pipe rifles. The most common weapon in the wasteland. Yet calling them weapons was generous; in his eyes, they were practically indistinguishable from actual plumbing pipes. "Don't worry. We know this area inside and out. It's how we've always survived." Seeing Chu Guang put it that way, Lu Yang pressed no further. After giving him a resolute nod, he led his men back along the route they had taken. Once they were well out of sight, Chu Guang issued a quest through the VM instructing the three young players to scavenge the spent casings scattered across the floor, and then set off carrying the body of Brother Makka. To be fair, Chu Guang wasn't genuinely desperate for a couple of shell casings. The main issue was that keeping up the act for the entire journey back would have been exhausting. He used to work in sales, not funeral arrangements, so he truly had zero professional experience in that department. It was far better to let Lu Yang and his team leave first. On the trek back to the outpost, as they passed Bet Street, Chu Guang remembered the guide's fee, fished out five silver coins, and dropped them into Zhao Yang's palm. Looking at the silver coins in his hand, Zhao Yang beamed with joy, bowing repeatedly in gratitude. "Thank you, my Lord!" At first, the folks in Bet Street had been wary of this metal currency. But once they discovered it could buy plenty of great things they had never been able to obtain before, they gradually came around to accepting it. What difference did it make whether they used chips or silver coins? No caravans from Boulder City would wander out here in the dead of winter anyway. What they needed were food, fuel, and warm clothing—or ideally, a new set of bedding for the family to make life a little more bearable. Nothing more. "This is what you earned. If I need you again, I'll come find you." After sending Zhao Yang off, Chu Guang returned to the outpost and moved the corpse from the morgue into the active substance extractor. Three days later, he would be a fresh hero once more. As for the off chance that someone remembered his face? Chu Guang didn't consider that an issue at all. If anyone actually grew suspicious, he could simply claim the guy had a twin brother. Or post an announcement on the official website? Something like: Due to a temporary, unresolved bug in the expansion, players who died within the expansion could not immediately respawn, and the official team would later issue a limited-edition assault rifle or event reward points to affected accounts as compensation? That sounded entirely reasonable. What game was free of bugs? Not to mention they were in closed beta, where the core game itself was basically a free gift wrapped around bugs. As long as the compensation was fair, the players would emotionally accept it. At most, they might suffer a few withdrawal symptoms—like Yaya losing sleep for three consecutive days. Chu Guang was slightly troubled; he actually had quite a few cards in his hand. The real issue now was that he didn't want his young players running off to commit insurance fraud the moment they caught wind of the rewards. That would make their deaths look too fake, treating the other side like complete fools. Yet at the same time, he also hoped the players could help him harvest a bit more condolence compensation. After all, three full days of work earned thirteen CR at most; asking for four digits over a death wasn't unreasonable, was it? Tsk. If only there were a more plausible way for them to bite the dust. Figuring Li De's call would be coming through soon, Chu Guang made his way over to the office barracks. Coincidentally, just as he walked in that direction, Luo Hua stepped out of the barracks. His eyes lit up when he spotted Chu Guang, and he greeted him enthusiastically. "Hey, you're finally back!" "Your section chief is looking for me?" Luo Hua stared at Chu Guang in surprise and nodded. "That's right! He told me to call him the moment I saw you return... How did you guess?" Chu Guang started to smile, but quickly remembered he couldn't—or at least shouldn't—smile right now. Forcing it back down, he let out a soft sigh. "It's a sad story... Let's talk about it next time over drinks." Luo Hua was utterly mystified, unable to fathom why it had to wait for drinks, let alone why the ever-urbane Brother Chu wore such a grim expression. Still, it had only been a passing question, and seeing that it touched on something sensitive, he didn't press further. "Alright..." Chu Guang gave a nod and strode toward the office. Stepping through the door of the barracks, he saw Ai Si cleaning her weapon. She glanced up at him, said nothing, and practicedly powered on the holographic communication system on the desk, sending a connection request to the Pioneer. This bodyguard rarely spoke—practically never, in fact. Chu Guang thoroughly admired her demeanor. If only Boss Xia could take a page out of her book, both in work ethic and sheer professionalism. Dark-green beams of light crisscrossed in the air, weaving into a three-dimensional lattice. After a brief pause, a bust of Li De appeared within the holographic projection. For two seconds, he and Chu Guang stared at each other. Seeing that Chu Guang had no intention of opening the conversation, the Logistics Division chief cleared his throat. "I've already heard about what happened from the captain. I'm deeply sorry for the young man's passing. Naturally, words of regret alone cannot express our apologies. If you have no objection, let us discuss the matter of condolence compensation." *Just as I thought.* Chu Guang understood perfectly, yet his face remained impassive. With a slight nod, he replied, "Go ahead." Guessing this old fox wouldn't be the first to name a price, Li De wasted no more time waiting and continued, "You aren't employees of the Enterprise, so we cannot issue condolence pay according to Enterprise standards or employee pay grades. The compensation package we've decided upon after review is... 1,000 CR. The equivalent of a thousand hours of standard wages." Chu Guang fixed his gaze on him. "I cannot accept that. In your eyes, is a human life only worth 1,000 CR?" One ton of starch was an insult! Makka Pakka was their good companion! He had to pay more! Li De stared right back at Chu Guang, entirely unswayed by the sleight of hand. "I know a human life is worth far more than that. Life cannot be measured in money, but we must also take reality into account... Furthermore, his death was not caused by us. Am I right?" *Oh?* Chu Guang was mildly surprised. He hadn't expected the man to have gotten smarter. Evidently, before placing this call, the Logistics Division chief had done his homework, having at least debriefed his captain on every detail of the operation. It was true. Strictly speaking, Brother Makka hadn't died due to any mistake of theirs, but rather because his own luck was garbage and he had triggered a mine while rummaging through cabinets. Li De's implication was glaringly obvious—in fact, it wasn't even an implication anymore, but an outright statement: *The deceased did not die because of us. However, he did die during an operation connected to us, so we are willing to pay compensation out of moral duty, but don't you push your luck.* Chu Guang knew that full well, of course. But anyone expecting him to fold so easily severely underestimated his professional dedication. Nodding, Chu Guang took a step back to advance two. "Yes, it cannot be denied that we both share responsibility for what occurred, and I have no intention of shifting all the blame onto you. Frankly speaking, the fact that you are willing to compensate the victim's family is already a rare and noble gesture. But please also understand that from my position, it is only natural for me to fight for a little more on behalf of our people." Li De replied, "Understood. So what is your answer?" Chu Guang said, "I accept the compensation you offered. In addition, I will personally provide his widow with an additional 2,000 silver coins in condolence money. That should ensure she won't have to worry about material needs for a good while." Li De's brow relaxed slightly. Before making this call, he had spent a long time bracing himself mentally, yet the discussion had gone surprisingly smoothly. To be honest, he was quite shocked. That this old fox hadn't seized the opportunity to bleed them dry was so unexpected that the entire script Li De had prepared in his head went completely unused. What a waste. "It seems we have reached a consensus." "Yes, a consensus on the matter of the condolence compensation." Li De had initially cracked a smile upon hearing "Yes," but the qualifier in the second half of the sentence made his blood pressure spike instantly. Glaring at Chu Guang's hologram, he reached into his pocket for his blood-pressure medication while barking aggressively, "What do you mean by that? Are you trying to tell me that every shelter resident is collective property of the shelter, and that on top of his personal loss, we have to compensate you as well?!" *Huh?* *You can spin it that way?!* Never having even considered that angle, Chu Guang was taken aback, yet secretly impressed. He mentally jotted the excuse down, intending to put it to use whenever the opportunity arose. Taking a single second to compose himself, he looked straight back at Li De's hologram with righteous indignation. "What are you implying? In your eyes, am I someone who cares only about money?" *Who else would you be!* Li De barely suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. "Stop beating around the bush. Just spit it out—what do you want?" Chu Guang adopted a solemn expression. "I have reflected deeply on the cause of today's accident. The reason this tragedy happened was not that your men failed to protect us, but that we failed to protect our own." "If we had been able to equip him with body armor and a helmet, he wouldn't have been killed on the spot. If we had been able to provide him with a submachine gun or a shotgun, today's tragedy might never have occurred at all. If only—" Li De cut him off, unable to take it anymore. "If only we could provide you with a few sets of power armor, so you wouldn't even need us to lift a finger and could just fetch the fuel rods for us yourself, right? Is that what you're trying to say?" Chu Guang desperately wanted to say "Yes." Yet he knew saying it would accomplish nothing, earning him nothing more than an eye-roll. Some things were simply off the table, like power armor or modular production units that worked straight out of the box. However, other things... were still worth pushing for. "That would be far too embarrassing, putting you to so much trouble. Besides, give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime." Chu Guang continued without batting an eye, "Our request isn't excessive. To prevent similar tragedies from repeating, I implore you to dispatch an engineer to assist our construction. For instance, helping us set up a production line to manufacture steel, cement, helmets, protective gear, and weapons." "You call that 'not excessive'?!" Li De stared at him, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets. "What do you take us for—magicians?" Setting up a production line for rifles was infinitely harder than manufacturing a single rifle. Depending on the process, product quality, degree of automation, and expected output, the cost and time required to build such a line differed by leaps and bounds. Furthermore, detached from an industrial system, building an isolated production line made little sense. Components on a production line were constantly subject to wear and tear. If one couldn't manufacture standardized replacement parts, it was better to simply take that money and buy finished goods directly. "Say no more." Cutting off Chu Guang before he could speak again, Li De rubbed the bridge of his nose. After pausing for a moment, he continued, "You're in luck... I happen to have a 'magnetically confined plasma CNC machine tool' here. It's quite an interesting piece of equipment—extremely high precision, convenient to operate, and relatively easy to maintain. An antique we salvaged from the last city. But we have far more advanced manufacturing tools and have no real use for it, so it's just been gathering dust in our warehouse." Chu Guang's eyes lit up. "How much!" Li De chuckled. "I could give it to you for free. Do you want it?" Chu Guang: "...It's broken?" Li De glanced at him in surprise and grinned. "Spot on. Completely paralyzed in every conceivable sense. Even for us, fixing it would take quite an effort." Hearing that, Chu Guang finally understood what the man was up to. Yet having no other choice, he could only bite the bullet and ask, "How much?" "A hundred thousand." Chu Guang: "..." *Motherfucker!* *A hundred thousand?!* Even with two hundred people working ten hours a day, plus the six hundred CR daily meal stipend and nearly a thousand CR in commissions, it would take twenty-seven consecutive days of labor to earn that kind of money! What did twenty-seven days mean? Whether these people would even stay here for twenty-seven days was anyone's guess! "...Your inflation is truly ruthless." "How so? This is already an extremely conscientious price. If you don't believe me, go ask any caravan from the Enterprise and see if they can offer you a cheaper deal." Seeing Chu Guang's choked expression, Li De couldn't help letting out a smug chuckle, though he quickly coughed into his hand to rein in the ill-timed grin. "Well, work hard. In a bit, I'll send over the operating manual for you to look through. Of course, if you truly can't afford it, don't force yourself. The assault rifles and body armor we manufacture can give you self-defense capabilities just the same. And I'd wager their quality will be vastly superior to anything you could produce yourselves." "Oh, right, the condolence money will be transferred shortly... You derailed the conversation so far that I nearly forgot something that important." Dropping those parting words, Li De cheerfully terminated the transmission. From his expression in that final second, Chu Guang could feel the sheer smugness radiating from the man. That feeling must have been immensely satisfying. Chu Guang tried putting himself in Li De's shoes. He realized it wasn't just satisfying—it was practically euphoria. "Do you still need the comms?" Ai Si asked from the side, seeing that he hadn't moved for a long while. "No, that's all." Hearing that, Ai Si wasted no time and reached out to shut down the holographic communication unit. The dark-green beams faded from the barracks. Her gaze swept inadvertently across Chu Guang's face, and she paused slightly, a faint flicker of surprise surfacing on her otherwise emotionless face. She distinctly remembered that just a second ago, this man had looked utterly deflated, yet now there wasn't the slightest trace of defeat left on him. Instead... Had there been a flash of excitement? *Surely not...* Ai Si concluded she must have seen wrong. After all, they had just lost a companion, and the compensation clearly hadn't met his expectations. She couldn't imagine a single reason for him to be happy. Still, Old Li from the Logistics Division was truly stingy. One hundred thousand CR... That would take an awful long time to earn.