Targeted by the Damn Devs!

In the crowd, the ratman brother was just lamenting the cold indifference of the world when a broad, warm hand suddenly clapped down on his shoulder. He looked up to see a human. And one who didn't seem afraid of him at all. "Brother! Care to link the fire?" Commander Spring's eyes shone as he stared at his large, round nose, looking as though he had just struck gold. Qiangren Suonan blanked for a moment. "L-link the fire?" "Passing the Torch! You know, that novice quest!" Commander Spring gave a dazzling, sunny smile, showing off a mouthful of gleaming white teeth. "Don't sweat the details. Just stick with me, and I'll power-level you!" Power-leveling? Such a sweet deal existed?! Qiangren Suonan nodded excitedly. "Hell yeah, brother! I'm rolling with you from now on!" Commander Spring's grin nearly split his face in two. This batch of newbies was so easy to coax! Just then, however, an interloper barged right in. "Brother! Don't go with him, come with me! I guarantee you'll ride high and look cool as hell!" Grabbing the rat's shoulders and shoving Commander Spring aside, Brother Mosquito's face was flushed with excitement, as if he had just pulled five Golden SSRs in a single five-pull. Seeing someone ruin his good fortune, Commander Spring naturally wouldn't stand for it. He snatched the plump rat right back. "Bro, don't listen to him! This guy is the least reliable person on the whole server!" Hearing himself called unreliable, Mosquito bristled on the spot. "Fuck! Who're you calling unreliable?! Feel the steel plates on your exoskeleton—doesn't your conscience hurt?!" Commander Spring might have kept his temper if the matter hadn't been brought up. The moment it was mentioned, he exploded. "You've got the fucking nerve to bring that up! I went and asked No. 81 Steel Mill! They only charge 150 silver to make it!" Mosquito's expression instantly grew awkward. Averting his gaze, he scratched his cheek. "Ahem... that included fifty silver coins in design fees... I had to turn a little profit, right?" "You call that fucking 'a little'?!" Caught between the two, Qiangren Suonan blinked his beady, mung-bean eyes, his bewildered face utterly blank. Just a moment ago, he had been lamenting that he picked a friendless race and would probably have to pioneer alone until his buddies logged on. Who could have guessed he'd actually be in such high demand? This stroke of good fortune had arrived too suddenly. ... "Recruiting Strength-type newbies! Tree-chopping convoy rolling out—guaranteed to take you from zero to one in two days!" "Convoy leaving for the Floor B3 entrance-exit tunnel! Any newbies want on board?" "Anyone taking Intelligence-types? Honest question: where do you buy drones and cybernetic implants?" "In your dreams." "#*!&%" After the daily briefing concluded, Chu Guang left the players to their own devices. He turned back toward Floor B1 of the shelter and sat in front of the computer in the Administrator's Office for a while. Through the veteran players who took the Passing the Torch quest and the shelter's entry and exit logs, Chu Guang could easily monitor the new players' movements from here. Some players who intended to pursue combat professions chose the Hunter profession and followed veterans down into the underground tunnels. Others were escorted to the surface. With the liberation of 76th Street, a vast urban sector east of the shelter was waiting to be reclaimed, and his little players had already discovered numerous high-quality resource nodes. As player numbers grew, Chu Guang sought to increase administrative efficiency by having NPCs handle more tasks, reducing how often he handed out quests personally, and shifting his focus toward managing human resource allocation and steering the big picture. Huayuan Street Subway Station had 112 players, and the tunnel at the Floor B3 exit had 121, totaling 233 players exploring the "underground world." Changjiu Farm, the Yumu District tree farm, and the abandoned northern urban sector had 255 players in all. Apart from those on special missions, the rest were mostly near the outpost. Using the program Xiao Qi had helped him build, Chu Guang skimmed through the distribution of player classes across the map. The outpost was dominated by production-class players, who made up sixty percent of its population, mainly concentrated in the new industrial zone and the old industrial zone south of the sanatorium. Frontline areas like Changjiu Farm were dominated by combat-class players, who accounted for a whopping seventy percent: twenty percent soldiers, twenty percent hunters, and thirty percent scavengers. In addition, the allocation of core and non-core NPCs across each region, resource statuses, and remaining inventory were all displayed on the spreadsheets. Pity he couldn't drag and drop the little figures on the map. Otherwise, it would really be an RTS game. "Master." Hearing Xiao Qi's voice, Chu Guang answered casually, "What's up?" Squatting in the corner, Xiao Qi said softly, "Xiao Qi feels like you're getting lazier and lazier." "What do you know?" Chu Guang chuckled, leaning back in his office chair and speaking leisurely. "This is called focusing on the big picture and delegating the small stuff—cutting down on micromanagement." Xiao Qi made no reply. Master's words were growing harder and harder to understand. To avoid any misunderstandings, it would have to search the internet first. ... Roughly sixteen kilometers northeast of the outpost in a straight line, surrounded by dense forest, lay the Mid-Continent Aerospace Ecological Laboratory ruins. In the trashed, messy lobby, hundreds of gnawer corpses lay strewn about in every direction. Kicking the Crawler sprawled on the floor, Kuang Feng yanked his javelin from its carcass, wiped off the black blood clinging to it, and slotted it back into his javelin quiver. "The newbies should be logging in around now, right?" Fang Chang checked the time on his VM. "Just about time. They ought to be online. Wonder if any lucky bastards in this batch pulled an SSR." Ye Shi grinned mischievously. "How do you know they're lucky bastards? What if they're cursed with bad luck like Brother Trash?" Fleeting White Horse chuckled. "Hahaha, picking on Brother Trash again! He's not doing too badly, honestly—at least he was top dog for two versions." Roughly half an hour ago, the Ox and Horse Squad had caught a truck at Wetland Park's north gate and arrived here. According to data analysis provided by Yin Fang, leader of the scientific expedition, Ecological Park No. 3 beneath Laboratory Building No. 3 was still operational, and the reactor and fuel rods they sought were inside it. As the server's top combat force—a well-rounded powerhouse across all six stats—the Ox and Horse Squad naturally found clearing a mere mob of novice EXP bundles a breeze. Even the Crawler, a "mini-boss" from earlier versions, couldn't withstand the "anti-armor javelins" hurled simultaneously by Fleeting White Horse and Kuang Feng. Those things hit like artillery shells. Tipped with steel spearheads, two strikes to the upper torso could cut a Crawler's combat effectiveness in half. A strike to the head meant instant death! They were honestly more effective than bullets! For now, among slime-mold mutants, only the Tyrants described in the lore posed any substantial threat to them. Supposedly, that creature's hardened hide was so tough it could shrug off rifle bursts, making it rather difficult to penetrate. However, this place was located in the distant outskirts far from the urban core, where mutant slime mold activity was very low; they were virtually guaranteed not to run into a mutant that only appeared in areas of intense slime mold activity. Carrying his mechanical compound bow, Fang Chang walked over to the lobby reception desk, rummaged through the drawers for a moment, and found a notebook printed with a floor plan. "The entrance to the ecological park on Basement Level 1 should be midway down the corridor on our right. There's an elevator there that's still running... matches the intel Dr. Yin Fang provided." "Looks like the data we pulled from the security room came in handy." Fleeting White Horse hung his crowbar onto his exoskeleton, took the Sickle assault rifle off his back, and grinned. "Let's go take a look." According to the map, the ecological park occupied Basement Level 1 of the laboratory, accessible only via a single elevator and a fire escape. It covered nearly fifteen mu, roughly the size of a soccer field. Even after two hundred years, the UV lights on the ceiling remained lit. Without upkeep, however, the ecosystem had clearly spiraled out of control. Broad-leaved vegetation had taken over completely, turning the entire place into a tropical rainforest. Rather than risking the elevator, the group opted for the more dependable fire escape, passing through two blast doors to enter. A wave of hot, humid air washed over them. Watching palm fronds sway right before his nose and taking in the astonishing sight ahead, Ye Shi couldn't help muttering softly, "Was this modeled after some tropical island? I'm actually feeling kind of hot." "The temperature in here is a full thirty degrees, after all..." Clad in heavy armor, Fleeting White Horse took the lead and surveyed their surroundings. "Hard to believe no survivors have targeted this place." Just then, Ye Shi's brow furrowed slightly, and he glanced back over his shoulder. "Wait, why do I feel like... someone's closing in on us?" Fleeting White Horse paused. "For real?" Even as he asked, Ye Shi did have the highest Perception on the server, so the other three instantly went on guard. Kuang Feng asked cautiously, "From the front or behind?" Ye Shi frowned, focusing his senses as hard as he could. "Behind us, most likely, but I can't tell if they tailed us in or found this place on their own." "Whether they followed us or not, after seeing the lobby, they've definitely realized we're here." Fang Chang unslung the mechanical compound bow from his back and exchanged glances with his teammates. "Prepare for combat." ... Meanwhile, back in the lobby the Ox and Horse Squad had just vacated. Roughly twenty wastelander marauders arrived. Their equipment was extraordinarily crude—clothing cobbled together from animal skins barely covered their bodies, adorned with bizarre trinkets. Some carried pipe rifles, others hoisted shotguns on their shoulders, and some wielded makeshift automatic weapons. A few had no guns at all, carrying only wire-wrapped baseball bats or chipped machetes. "Shell casings on the floor." A tattooed man crouched down, picked up a spent cartridge from the ground, and narrowed his eyes slightly. Rising, he scanned his surroundings. "The blood is fresh, too..." "Someone's been here!" Judging by the deferential attitudes of those around him, he was their leader. The curly-haired man beside him murmured, "Looks like someone else has their eyes on this place." Fixing a vulture-like gaze onto the corridor ahead, the tattooed man wasted no words and ordered, "They should still be here." "Flush them out." "Understood!" The curly-haired man accepted the order respectfully and led the men down the corridor. ... Inside the ecological park. The elevator slowly descended and came to a stop at ground level. Five men dressed as marauders emerged warily, their grips on their weapons signaling they were primed for battle. Unable to understand their gibberish chatter, Ye Shi, lying prone behind lush undergrowth with his sniper rifle mounted, signaled discreetly to Fleeting White Horse and mouthed: *Don't think they're friendly... What's the call? Take 'em out?* Fleeting White Horse stayed silent, weighing the options in his mind. Beside him, Fang Chang had already made up his mind. Drawing an explosive arrow from his quiver, he nocked it onto his mechanical compound bow and whispered as quietly as humanly possible, "Two possibilities: if they aren't here for the reactor, they're here for us." Not far off, Kuang Feng seemed to share the same thought. His right hand already gripped a throwing knife, ready to strike at any second. Fleeting White Horse silently agreed. Glancing at Ye Shi, he gestured with his left hand toward the high-threat target wielding an automatic rifle. *Take that one.* *Copy.* Prone on the ground, Ye Shi understood immediately. He pressed his eye to the scope, rested his index finger on the trigger, took a deep breath, and prepared to fire. Right at that moment, an unexpected turn of events occurred! The marauders' loud, jabbering chatter seemed to startle a creature in the jungle. A flurry of rapid running sounds burst from the thick woods, charging straight toward the elevator. "Who's there?!" "Who goes there?!" The five marauders by the elevator swung their weapons toward the noise, only to find that the incoming figure wasn't human at all! Terror seized all five pairs of eyes. Before they could pull their triggers, a dark silhouette roughly four meters long lunged from the forest, closing the distance in mere seconds. Razor-sharp talons punctured a chest. Before the prey could even scream, the unlucky fellow holding the shotgun was ripped in two. "Aaaagh!" "Dammit! Fire! Fire!" Blind terror erupted instantly. Paying no heed to his mauled comrade, the marauder with the automatic rifle sprayed frantically into the beast's back, his index finger nearly snapping the trigger. *Roaaar—!* Taking a full magazine straight to its back, the beast unleashed an enraged roar. Its swift claws slashed again, slicing through the man at the waist as if cutting through tofu! Muzzle flashes flickered. Gunfire erupted across the forest! Staring at the four-meter-tall behemoth, its thick, elongated tail, its horrific claws—and the prey torn to shreds—the faces of the four Ox and Horse Squad members drained of color. A Deathclaw! One of the fiercest beasts in the wasteland according to the official website's database! In that moment, Fang Chang finally understood why no survivors had laid claim to this place... Ye Shi swallowed hard, his eyes wide with disbelief. His Perception hadn't picked up on this monster at all! "...Still fighting?" he asked nervously, looking at Fleeting White Horse, his palms slick with sweat. Fleeting White Horse gritted his teeth and made the call. "Retreat first." While the Deathclaw hadn't noticed them and was still feasting on its prey, they could slip out through the fire escape not far behind them. Just then, however, the blast doors of the fire escape suddenly opened, and a flurry of heavy footsteps echoed from behind them. The Deathclaw's ears twitched slightly. Catching the sound, it lifted its head from the carcass. Its amber pupils contracted slightly, and a cruel hiss escaped from behind razor-sharp teeth. It was excited! Prey had delivered itself right to its doorstep! Fleeting White Horse and Fang Chang's faces warped in shock. Their position was agonizingly awkward—trapped directly between this brute and the marauders... Kuang Feng couldn't hold back a curse. "Fuck!" Targeted by the damn devs! Making a split-second decision, Fleeting White Horse roared: "Run!"