Changjiu Farm and Clues to Unlocking Floor B3!

At the same time. On the VM map screen, the "operational camp" icon was replaced by a new one. And a complete data card was updated! [ Settlement Name: Changjiu Farm Settlement Level: Village (Lv1) Prosperity: 100 Industry Index: 0 Commerce Index: 0 Demands: Building Materials (Donations grant regional reputation) Tendencies: Exploration (+10% scavenging mission yields), Construction (+10% infrastructure mission yields) ] Seeing the string of notifications pop up on their VMs, the players standing in the open lot exchanged stunned looks, breaking into excited chatter. "Holy crap! The expansion really did end!" "What the heck is up with the industry and commerce indices both being zero?" "Well, the sweatshop and the illicit brick kiln are registered under the outpost, so zero industry makes total sense. And all the NPCs left, so that explains the zero commerce... just guessing, though." "Changjiu Farm? Where's the 'farm'? What about crops? Why don't I see anything planted?" "Plus one! The devs are baiting and switching us!" Meanwhile, ten kilometers away on Floor B2 of the vault, over two hundred incubation pods opened in unison, accompanied by a rapid succession of doors banging. It wasn't just the players who had died earlier in battle. There were also rookies logging into the game for the first time. Over two hundred people had logged on at once! For the newcomers, the old procedure still applied: let them get excited in their rooms for a bit, wait until they got dressed, and let the broadcast finish playing the beginner tutorial and user precautions before the alloy doors slid open. As for the freshly revived veterans, Chu Guang kept them locked up for a moment to cool off before letting them out as well. After being cooped up offline for so long, their heightened emotions were bound to make them do stupid things. This game didn't allow alt accounts, so social suicide was best committed in private. It was for their own good. And yet... Chu Guang still underestimated the power of withdrawal backlash. The alloy door had barely slid open when Makka Pakka burst into the Floor B2 lobby like an unleashed husky, taking the lead. He threw himself into a baseball slide, threw his arms around the central elevator doors, and began furiously hammering the "Up" button like a twitching lunatic, hollering weirdly at the top of his lungs. "Hahahaha! Daddy's back! First place is mine!" Soon, heavy, thudding footsteps surged from the corridors into the hall, rushing forward on Makka Pakka's heels. "Damn it! Why is this bastard so fast?! Is he a dog?!" "Nobody push! There are only so many elevators! One at a time! Let me go up first to scout the way and see how heavy the snow is!" "Ahhh, let me up first! I want to watch Xiaoyu count money!" "Dog man! What's so great about Xiaoyu?! I want to see the handsome, dashing Administrator!" "I was here first! Clearly I was here first!" Makka Pakka shrieked as he was shoved out of the crowd, staring at the ascending elevator on the verge of tears. They had earlier made a bet on the official forum: one silver coin each, whoever left the vault first took the pot, and everyone else had to pay up. Aside from the miserable Scavenger who couldn't even leave his room, over a hundred players affected by the bug had joined the pool. Over a hundred people! At one coin each, that was a massive fortune! A sea of people crammed in front of the elevators. The rookies strolling slowly behind, poking and prodding at everything and marveling at the lifelike modeling, were instantly petrified upon witnessing the veterans' behavior. What were these people doing? Was this game really this wild? Standing nearby with arms crossed, Xia Yan cast a look of utter disgust at the crowd mobbing the elevator doors, unable to stop herself from grumbling to Xiao Qi. "Are these guys brain-dead? Why do they all seem so dim?" Like Old Luka, she had likely pieced together some of the truth: these players were similar to clones and didn't truly die. She didn't know much about cloning technology, only that it wasn't particularly uncommon in the wasteland, so she hadn't dwelled on it. Who knew? Maybe there really was a technology capable of drawing a tube of brain fluid and fabricating a new clone. She wasn't an expert on the subject. Besides, recalling how Chu Guang meticulously had every corpse recovered and thrown into that furnace used for refining who-knew-what... It was very likely true. Xiao Qi shifted its camera toward Xia Yan and said rather helplessly, "The Master says this is performance art and tells us to ignore them. If anyone does anything strange, just leave it to Xiao Qi." Performance art? What was that? After furrowing her brows and pondering for a long time without coming to a conclusion, Xia Yan decided not to bother with such troublesome thoughts. She walked over to the new players. Dropping her crossed arms, she tossed her fiery red hair and swept her sharp gaze across them. "So you're the newcomers sent by the organization?" "Unfortunately, the Administrator isn't here. I'll be disciplining you today." "If you don't want to embarrass yourselves, you'd better obey." Those were all the lines the weapons shop proprietress had to offer. The beginner guidance that followed would be handled by the Administrator's assistant and chief parrot—little Xiao Qi. However... Evidently, no one was paying attention to the wastebasket-like little guy. Still in shock, the rookies stared blankly at the valiant and striking Boss Xia with goofy expressions. Disciplining? Obey? Wait, was this the kind of content you could get without paying extra? ... With both veterans and newcomers logging in, the player count on the "server" was once again full, hitting the five-hundred cap. Almost at the exact same moment, Chu Guang's Administrator system finally received new non-daily quests after a long dry spell. And two were triggered at once! [ Quest: Explore Vault 117. Type: Main. Requirement: Use the VM's map data collection feature to fully explore all areas of Vault 117, leaving no corner unturned. Reward: Unlock Floor B3. ] [ Quest: Locate the VM of Vault 117's Administrator. Type: Side. Reward: 200 reward points. ] *Access to Floor B3 is actually tied to Vault 117?* In the central square of the operational camp, Chu Guang stroked his chin after assigning tasks to the players here, studying the two updated quest cards in the system interface with great interest. Neither quest was particularly difficult. Boss Xia knew where Vault 117 was, and he even had the keycard to open the door. In this freezing weather of howling blizzards and frozen terrain, he didn't have to worry about mercenaries from Boulder City swooping in to compete with him. As long as the mutants between the subway entrance and the vault's entrance were cleared, his players wouldn't just map out the terrain—they would strip the place down to the bedrock! As for the VM of Vault 117's Administrator, that would require some luck, since no one could say for sure whether the person was still inside the vault. "The Panzerfaust rocket launchers sitting in the armory finally have a use, and don't we have ten light machine guns? Dealing with Crawlers shouldn't be much of an issue." Either way, they certainly had enough firepower. He would leave that quest for the players to worry about. As for Chu Guang himself, he had more important business to handle. He walked over to the east side of Changjiu Farm, where a barracks made of foam structure held the Legion prisoners. Twenty-six men were crammed into a single room, sleeping on the floor in single layers of clothing, shivering so hard they had to huddle against the hot water pipes. When Chu Guang arrived with two Strength-type players, the decurions inside were whispering among themselves. "The Enterprise people have left..." "They didn't take us along." "Do they plan to leave us to the savages?" Recalling the hundreds of vault residents who had died in that battle, dread showed on many of their faces. Heaven only knew how those barbarians would treat them. Perhaps they would throw them into the snow and watch them freeze to death, or force them to slaughter each other and cruelly execute the last survivor. They were terrified because they had either witnessed or committed such acts themselves. In the Legion, such methods were common. They weren't just used against enemies; they were sometimes used to punish their own kind. Vannus didn't join their discussion. He merely sat quietly against the wall, silently awaiting his fate. The answer was fairly obvious. The Enterprise had refused to sell them to the local survivor settlements and rejected mediation, clearly never intending to let them live. Now it was just a question of how they would die. Just then, the barracks door opened. A gust of biting wind laden with snow swirled inside, chilling the men near the entrance until they curled up, trembling violently. Of course, it wasn't entirely from the cold. It was also partly because of the man standing in the doorway. *He's here!* Looking at Chu Guang's face, Vannus felt his heart leap into his throat. He only hoped these people would give him a quick death without prolonging the torture. Yet to his utter surprise, the vault Administrator standing in the doorway didn't immediately order their execution. Instead, he looked at them and spoke. "From this moment on, you will undergo reform through labor. If you want to live, you work." Looking down at the crowd in the cell with cold eyes, Chu Guang continued, "Who is your commander?" A pair of eyes after another turned hesitatingly toward the man sitting against the wall. Knowing it was impossible to hide, Vannus let out a quiet sigh and stood up cleanly from the floor. "It is I... my lord." Hearing the man address him as "my lord," Chu Guang found it rather amusing. He had just been about to praise him for having some backbone, yet here he was, softening up immediately. Nevertheless, Chu Guang kept an expressionless, authoritative demeanor, fixing the man with a piercing gaze. "The rest of you remain here and await your assignments. As for you, come with me." Following Chu Guang out of the barracks, Vannus felt as if his legs were weighed down with lead. He couldn't shake the feeling that this path led straight to the execution grounds. Yet even so, he had no choice but to walk. The north wind howled. The snow whipped against him like knives. Wearing only thin clothes, Vannus's lips turned purple with cold, his muscles trembling uncontrollably. The two players walking alongside Chu Guang whispered to each other. "Damn, our Administrator is a total sadist." "Torturing the guy before hanging him." "Tsk, tsk, brutal. Truly brutal." Chu Guang ignored the two players' gossip about the quest plot. He led Vannus to the warehouse of Changjiu Farm, picked out a dead man's coat looted from the battlefield by the players, and tossed it into his hands. "Put it on." Catching the fur coat riddled with bullet holes, Vannus, who had assumed he was being led to his death, looked stunned. But he reacted quickly and slipped it on. Though the freezing coat didn't provide any warmth, it would at least slow the loss of his body heat. "Your subordinates will remain here to burn cement, carry stones, and build our home, while you will be sent to the brick kiln ten kilometers away." Vannus swallowed, moistening his parched throat. "May I say something?" Chu Guang looked at him. "Go ahead." Squeezing a strained smile onto his frost-stiffened face, Vannus tried to propose, "I have family in the west. I can pay my own ransom... How does a hundred thousand dinars sound? No, two hundred thousand! I can offer all my property!" Chu Guang said, "Dinars?" Vannus explained rapidly, "That is our currency, minted from gold. Two hundred thousand dinars is enough to buy a hundred able-bodied slaves. They aren't mass-produced cannon fodder; they can work, understand human speech, and are virtually indistinguishable from normal people." Seeing what looked like a mocking smile on the man's face, Vannus spoke even faster, his composure completely crumbling into panic. "Of course, if you have no interest in manual laborers, you can use the money to purchase dozens of beautiful female slaves. They all possess superior genetics and professional training... I swear to you, I will pay the ransom! I only beg that you spare my life!" It seemed the Legion used precious metals as currency and relied heavily on the slave trade. Then again, it made sense. With cloning technology that advanced, there was no reason to produce only one variety. Mass-produced clones were thrown onto the battlefield as cannon fodder, while naturally matured clones and survivors served as coolies, sent into factories or mines to labor. The Legion's power truly couldn't be underestimated. Interrupting his pleading, Chu Guang looked at him and said, "Come spring, if any caravans travel west, you may send a letter to your family telling them to bring the ransom to buy your freedom." "Not right now, however." "Like your officers, you must undergo reform through labor. That has nothing to do with ransom. Do you understand what I mean?" Though humiliated, his life was spared. Vannus strained his stiff neck and bowed his head. "Understood..." "I will obey your arrangements." Whether those words were sincere or not didn't matter. Chu Guang only needed to keep these troublesome individuals under his watchful eye until the military situation in the north became clear. After all, neither releasing nor executing them was ideal, and letting them sit around without working felt like a loss. He wasn't like those bleeding hearts aboard the Pioneer, willing to feed them precious rations for nothing. Aside from Vannus, who would be sent to the brick factory, the twenty-five subordinate officers were each issued a shovel and a fur garment barely adequate to ward off the cold. Under the guard of four rifle-toting guards, they were put to work clearing snow from the camp's open spaces and paths. Come afternoon, they would be assigned to level the land outside the farm. Chu Guang planned to construct a cement plant south of Changjiu Farm. The cement produced would be used to pave a road connecting the outpost and Changjiu Farm. Once the road was completed, transit time between the outpost and Changjiu Farm would be cut by more than half. By then, Chu Guang also planned to extend the road toward the subordinate towns to the north, facilitating his players' expansion efforts and allowing them to establish a new operational camp farther out in Tianshui City. Rumor had it that the survivor factions there were somewhat weaker and more scattered, nowhere near as dominant as Boulder City. Since he couldn't expand southward, he would simply expand northward. Chu Guang intended to seize all the land along the northern suburban elevated expressway leaving Qingquan City, absorbing the refugees fleeing from the northern parts of River Valley Province. At any rate, that was the general plan. On the other hand, the players who had finally revived received their compensation for missing the expansion. The highest compensation was three hundred silver coins, while the lowest was one hundred and fifty silver coins. On top of that, they received one hundred event points and a lucky draw opportunity that everyone shared. The final lucky draw was the main event of the entire expansion. According to the rules posted on the official website: One hundred event points could be exchanged for an advanced gift box, guaranteed to yield a Legion pipe rifle worth one hundred silver coins, with the prize pool featuring an expensive, expansion-exclusive assault rifle identical to those used on the Pioneer. Ten event points could be exchanged for an intermediate gift box, guaranteed to drop weapon attachments, armor, or medical supplies such as bandages, with the prize pool also featuring an expansion-exclusive red dot sight worth 233 silver coins. One event point couldn't be used for a draw, but it could be exchanged for one silver coin—though no one was foolish enough to trade it in. Are you kidding? The gift boxes dropped exclusive rewards! If someone pulled a red dot sight, wouldn't they shoot straight to the moon? Only an idiot would trade event points for cash! Since not all players possessed a VM, the expansion's lucky draw was hosted on the official website. At 6:00 PM wasteland time—6:00 AM real-world time—the announcement for gift box exchanges went live right on schedule. When the active players and forum lurkers browsing the forum caught sight of the dazzling prize pool, the entire server erupted instantly!