Prices Went Up? It's Closed Beta, You'll Get Used to It!

*Psssshh—* The hatch hissed open. Climbing out of the incubation pod, Construction Site Youth and Brick looked up at the ceiling and let out a howl like a man reborn. "Holy crap!" "I'm finally alive again!" Three days! Three whole days unable to log in! Only he knew how agonizingly he had suffered through those three days. The first order of business after getting out was naturally a hot shower to wash away the bad luck. He threw on his clothes in record time, snatched the VM from the head of the pod, strapped it on, and dashed into the bathroom at light speed. Moments later, he stepped out, refreshed and invigorated. However, the moment he checked his water bill, his cheerful mood instantly soured into a barrage of curses. "Dammit! I only showered for ten minutes! How is it already one silver coin?!" He clearly remembered timing it perfectly, stepping out right at nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds! Just then, a large lizard emerged from the adjacent shower stall. Scavenger glanced at him and chuckled. "Bro, how long have you been offline?" Construction Site Youth and Brick gave him a side-eye. "Three days! Why?" "Three days. No wonder you didn't know. Shower fees went up yesterday. It's now one silver coin for every ten minutes, and starting from the thirtieth minute, it's two silver per minute." Construction Site Youth and Brick was instantly dumbfounded. "One silver for ten minutes?! Why don't they just rob us?!" As if expecting this exact reaction, Scavenger said calmly, "Relax. The shower water got pricier, but quest rewards have been raised over the past two days as well. Take the tunnel-clearing quest—it refreshes daily now. Slaying forty gnawers nets you fifty silver!" Construction Site Youth and Brick stared at him in disbelief. "Fifty silver?! Are you kidding me?" Scavenger grinned. "Why would I lie to you? If you're short on cash, I'll take you down into the tunnels. The mobs down there are dumb as rocks, there's tons of them, and mowing them down feels awesome!" Inflation. Actually, wasn't this a good thing?! You didn't need to shower every day, but quests had to be done every day! It wasn't just the payouts that had been adjusted, but the variety and quantity of quests as well. Previously, spending a whole day down in the tunnels yielded barely fifty silver coins; now it easily topped a hundred, literally doubling! And it wasn't just veteran players enjoying the rising tide. Even total newbies were riding the wave of increased rewards. Take the "corpse runner" quest, carrying gnawer corpses to the recycling station next to the active substance extractor: it used to take ten bodies to earn one silver coin, but now five bodies paid one silver. Plenty of newbies teamed up with transport squads just doing this delivery work. With good luck, they could pull in twenty silver a day. That was miles better than the past, when sweating through an entire day barely yielded ten silver coins! Glancing at the quest board on his VM, Construction Site Youth and Brick finally understood what Scavenger meant. Quest rewards had indeed surged across the board. Previously, the lowest-tier quests paid out in copper coins, but now coppers seemed to have vanished entirely from the quest board. Even the simplest errand-running task offered at least one silver coin, and inter-settlement errands started at five silver. Looking at it that way... A slight hike in water bills didn't seem so outrageous after all, did it? "I was only offline for three days... Why does it feel like I missed three whole months of spectator mode?" Construction Site Youth and Brick sighed, lowering his VM. Scavenger patted the man on the shoulder. "It's closed beta, totally normal. You'll get used to it!" "I remember Mole made a dedicated thread yesterday analyzing the across-the-board increase in quest rewards. The writing was on the wall, honestly. The second-generation currency revamp only redesigned the silver coins without a single word about copper. The devs are probably trying to reduce the number of circulating currencies in the market, so they simply dumped coppers altogether!" Construction Site Youth and Brick listened with a bewildered expression. After a long pause, he asked, "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Scavenger shook his head. "Hard to say. A mixed bag, I guess. People sitting on huge cash reserves will definitely hurt for a bit, but on the flip side, grinding for gear is going to be much easier from now on. For the vast majority of players, it's definitely a win." "Especially 7mm ammo—it surprisingly didn't go up at all, still one silver per round! I saw a bunch of people who used to hold back from full-auto even with automatic rifles now treating themselves to a burst or two." However, that didn't seem to have much to do with him. He couldn't handle ordinary rifles at all, and the weapons shop wasn't about to custom-build a gun just for him. As far as the unlocked mutant sequences were concerned, only the ratmen lacked the "Calloused Claws" debuff. Before long, Edge Paddler, Indebted Big Eye, and the rest of the crew also revived one after another, strolling out of their respective rooms. The moment he saw Edge Paddler emerge, Big Eye trotted up with a grin and clapped a hand onto his shoulder. "Brother Paddler, where are we feeding our lives away today?" Edge Paddler rolled his eyes. "Get lost, don't jinx me. If you want to feed, go by yourself. I'm farming up for a few days first! Dammit, I'm never rushing in like an idiot again. Waiting around on the forums nearly drove me insane." Big Eye chuckled. "I hear you. Next time, do it again!" "Screw off," Edge Paddler retorted. Even though he hadn't been in the game over the past three days, Edge Paddler had camped on the forums, keeping tabs on every development. Thanks to the heroic stand made by him and his squad, the vanguard of the Bone Chewer tribe had been forced to pull back from Qingquan City. Over the past three days, howling winds and heavy snow had battered the land continuously. In many spots, snowdrifts reached from knees to hips, deep enough to bury half a person. Because the roads were choked with thick snow, the transit routes between Changjiu Farm and Yumu District had been completely halted. They could barely maintain operations in the industrial zone and keep the flight path between the outpost and Changjiu Farm open. Predictably, the Bone Chewers were unlikely to push south again before next spring. "By the way, does anyone know where we claim our medals?" Edge Paddler checked his VM and found a message in his personal inbox. "The VM says they're awarded by the Administrator in person at his office..." He had only gotten halfway through the sentence when a notification popped up on their screens. [Server Announcement: The war between Shelter 404 and the marauders has reached a fever pitch. To ensure wartime material supplies, the Wartime Management Regulations are hereby enacted, placing certain daily necessities under control. Times are tough; we hope everyone will pull together to overcome this.] [Duration: 60 days.] Everyone froze for a second, surprised looks spreading across their faces. Was this... A new expansion pack dropping already?? *** *Wartime Management Regulations*, Article 1: Green wheat and ram horn potatoes are classified as controlled goods. Private purchases are suspended, and they will be centrally rationed by the warehouse. Article 2: Baseline prices for staple grains such as corn, wheat, rice, and flour are adjusted to 200% of the baseline price. Secondary produce such as Chinese cabbage and regular cabbage are adjusted to 150% of the baseline price. Article 3: Survivor settlements and temporary shelters under the direct jurisdiction of the shelter will provide essential daily nutrition to residents, with each person entitled to two portions per day. Article 4: Residents receiving relief food are obligated to participate in labor. This includes, but is not limited to, production work, shelter construction, and answering mobilization calls when necessary. Article 5... There were eighteen articles in the Wartime Management Regulations. Only about a third were relevant to players; the rest primarily targeted the refugees. This included assigning them to build housing, produce fuel, and work in the workshops. With bellies filled and fuel to keep warm, the refugees' morale remained fairly steady. As for the players, they were impacted even less. Many players even treated the *Wartime Regulations* as the game's third expansion—a continuation of *Wasteland OL*'s first expansion, *Winter Is Coming*. On the forum, in the casual discussion board. Not long after the peak offline hours passed, discussions surrounding the *Wartime Regulations* grew lively. Ye Shi: [Any study reps around to break this down? What is Ah Guang plotting now? (Funny)] Elaina: [Let me tag the study reps for you @Fang Chang @Mole on the Run from the Canyon. (Funny)] Mole on the Run from the Canyon: [What's the use of tagging me? Tag Ah Guang! (Side-eye)] Fang Chang: [Ummm... Looking at it right now, the meta pick should be lifestyle players, though lifestyle players also took the heaviest nerfs. If anyone can figure out how to feed the most people with the least food, they'll probably be blessed by the meta. Just a wild guess.] Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes: [How about roasted flour? If you don't care about taste, that stuff is filling and the ingredients are dead simple.] Spare the Blade: [That treats the symptoms, not the cause! What's missing is food itself, not the recipe. I think we need to discover more edible ingredients!] Old Bai: [Like what?] Elaina: [How about roaches? (Funny)] Elven King Fugui: [Holy crap, Lao Na, your tastes are vile! (Horrified)] Old Bai: [+1. Even in a game, I'm never eating that crap!] Drum Washing Machine: [What about rats? Three Squeaks is pretty famous where I come from. (Funny)] Qiangren Suonan: [Shivering in terror.] Tail: [Why don't we just eat Meat-meat! (｀·ω·′)] Meat Mountain Steamed Bun: [No way! My gene sequence might be Mutant, but I'm still human, okay?! (Horrified)] Midnight Chicken Slaughter: [Bear paws! (乛﹃乛*)] Meat Mountain Steamed Bun: [QAQ] *** Near the new industrial zone, in front of the abandoned department store. Untreated logs were stacked in pyramid piles across the open ground. Refugees bustled back and forth around the timber, working without pause. Some wielded axes, splitting the hefty logs into smaller firewood. Others sawed them into planks and carried them into the abandoned department store to patch broken walls and seal drafty doors and windows. The ventilation in the underground parking garage was worse than anticipated. Only after arriving did they realize it couldn't shelter so many people. The relocated refugees had no choice but to take up temporary residence on the department store's first floor. Fortunately, the shelter folks had promptly sent over truckloads of lumber and bricks for building stoves. Those logs and bricks were an absolute lifesaver! With brick stoves and exhaust flues, smoke could be vented safely out of the building without them having to risk fire or suffocation by keeping burning charcoal right next to their bedrolls. With the damaged walls and windows boarded up, fuel consumption dropped considerably. Cooks set up large cauldrons near the entrance, boiling porridge. Even though the air smelled strongly of weeds, the rolling bubbles gave the red-nosed survivors a glimmer of hope for the future. The Administrator in the blue armor had kept his word. The blue coats hadn't abandoned them. Life here was far from ideal, but at least they could survive. As long as they could stay alive, there was hope! *** Up to this point, over the span of three days, the relocation of survivors from five separate outposts—including the Chaowei Battery Factory, Winter Willow Camp, and Highway Town—had been completed. A vacuum buffer zone had formed along the outermost perimeter of Qingquan City's northern outskirts. The next time the marauders came, they would find nothing but useless trash. The Scorched Earth Plan had begun to take shape! However, due to the days of blizzard and shortages of food and fuel, the second and third waves of the relocation plan had to be paused. Chu Guang gave a promise to the remaining seven survivor settlements. If they came under attack, shelter reinforcements would arrive within half an hour. They only had to hold out for thirty minutes, and the shelter's soldiers would handle the rest. Truthfully, though, the odds of an attack in this wretched weather were even lower than freezing to death. Even on the ten-kilometer stretch of road between the outpost and Changjiu Farm, where repairs had smoothed out noticeable potholes, trucks passing through still broke down once or twice. Attempting to march across the open wilderness was unthinkable. Given the cratered, treacherous terrain of the wasteland, a large force wouldn't make it a few kilometers before getting trapped in the snow to die. Besides, the Bone Chewers were based further north, where conditions were bound to be even harsher. Temperatures in the northern outskirts dipped well below minus ten, potentially dropping to minus twenty or thirty. Even cannibals had to cook their meat. This winter wasn't just harsher than usual; it could only be described as brutal. Chu Guang had previously visited Bet Street, inspecting the situation and chatting briefly with Old Charlie. Old Charlie had remarked that he had lived there for many years, yet in all his memory, conditions this severe had occurred only twice before... *** The second day of the *Wartime Regulations*. The sudden strain on food supplies made daily living a little rougher, but it hadn't dealt an unbearable blow to the players' gaming experience. The restrictions primarily targeted green wheat and ram horn potatoes. Rice, potatoes, wheat, corn, and various flours remained exempt from purchase limits. With their current income, players could afford the latter. Still, baseline prices doubling put massive pressure on the lifestyle players running food stalls. At the north gate market, right around mealtime. Players crowded around Zhang Hai's ramen stall, voicing their grievances. "Boss Zhang, why did your noodles go up again?!" "Seriously! The meat is sliced thinner than paper, and now even plain noodles are two silver a bowl?!" "Twice the price! This is outrageous!" Fed up with the bickering, Zhang Hai banged his ladle against the boiling pot and snapped impatiently, "What are you whining at me for?! Go ask the warehouse selling the flour! A kilo of corn flour is going for five silver coins! Is two silver too much to ask for a hundred grams of noodles? Huh?!" Keep complaining, and tomorrow it'll be three silver! To Zhang Hai's surprise, the diners weren't intimidated in the slightest and yelled right back. "Dammit! I knew the portion looked small—it's only a hundred grams?!" "Saying it's too much is an understatement, this is straight-up extortion!" "Where's the market watchdog bureau?! I want to report this! There's an unscrupulous merchant cutting corners here!" Zhang Hai: "@#%!" Son of a bitch! Tomorrow I'm charging three silver a bowl, just watch me! It wasn't just the ramen vendor raising prices. The barbecue stalls and the steamed bun vendors had all hiked their rates too. Only now did players truly miss Boss Crow's mushrooms. That one-silver bowl of mushroom soup had been a ray of warm hope in the freezing winter. They used to think it was expensive, but in hindsight, it had been a steal. When spring came and the mushroom beach reopened, they only hoped Boss Crow would preserve that shred of sweet nostalgia and keep his prices down... Strolling through the north gate market, Chu Guang pondered what to eat for dinner while listening to the players' chatter. Checking the pulse of the populace was part of an Administrator's duties. After all, relying solely on written reports made it far too easy to slip into the trap of an armchair strategist. All in all, the fallout from this wave of inflation remained manageable, and the outcome aligned with Chu Guang's expectations. Player daily earnings had risen by 50% to 100%, while prices for daily necessities like food and clothing went up by 100% to 150%. Meanwhile, industrial manufactured goods such as weapons and ammunition remained unchanged—and holding steady was effectively a price cut. In a nutshell: lifestyle players weren't truly nerfed, while combat players received an epic buff! As far as the market was concerned, the only goods that hadn't seen a price hike were milk sold by the nomads and dried jerky made from hunted game. The pastoralists of the Frost Spear tribe had brought traditional drying techniques from afar, giving their air-dried meat a distinctive flavor. Being portable and cheap, it was a hit among players who ventured out to hunt. The taste was slightly inferior, but as dry rations, its value was unmatched. After all, green wheat was now a "controlled substance," and green wheat cakes had vanished from the market. Without wheat cakes to eat, players had to rely on jerky as trail rations. Walking beside Chu Guang, Xia Yan muttered under her breath, "Is it just my imagination, or is my salary buying less and less?" Dinner tonight had cost her seven silver coins! For the first time, she felt a creeping sense of financial panic. Chu Guang didn't share her anxiety, answering breezily, "Look at it another way. The more guns players buy from you, the higher your commission. Soon you'll find your pay doubling or more." Xia Yan frowned. "A gun lasts a long time, doesn't it? Your players aren't going to buy a new gun every day." Chu Guang explained patiently, "You can't look at it like that. Once they buy a gun, they need bullets, right? Once they have the gun, they'll want attachments, right? Sights, body armor, helmets, frag grenades, tougher backpacks, bandages... All of that costs money." Back when the shelter lacked production capacity, Chu Guang had to be extremely cautious when setting quest rewards to prevent runaway wealth accumulation among players. Now, the shelter's industrial capacity had reached a new phase. Chu Guang needed players to spend, buying up the arms and armor produced by the workshops so production could scale up and drive unit costs down further. Only by maintaining this flow could they establish a virtuous cycle balancing supply and demand. Looking at the utterly bewildered Xia Yan, Chu Guang offered a faint smile. "Don't worry if you don't get it. This stuff is too complicated for you anyway." Xia Yan shot him a suspicious look. "I get the feeling you're mocking me." Chu Guang wasn't about to admit it, replying casually, "I never said that." After completing a circuit around the market, Chu Guang settled on three meat buns, along with two bottles of milk from the sisters Qiu Cao and Qiu Ye, calling it dinner. The weather was too cold to work up much of an appetite. Besides, with everyone tightening their belts, it wouldn't look good for the Administrator to be extravagant. Heading toward the sanatorium, Chu Guang reached the entrance just as Yin Fang stepped out of the elevator. The man held a small metallic gadget roughly the size of a basketball. It had a blocky, angular profile shaped somewhat like a little octopus, with four mechanical legs attached beneath its chassis. Taking a bite of his bun, Chu Guang looked at him with curiosity. "What's that in your hands?" Catching sight of Chu Guang, Yin Fang's eyes lit up with excitement. "A quadruped robot built on neural-link technology! Remember that black box you retrieved from Vault 117? Based on the neural-link interface it generated, I modified it using a VM and some spare parts, and voilà—this little guy was born! Pretty neat, huh? Built it myself!" *Holy crap? It can do that?!* Forgetting all about his dinner, Chu Guang stared at the machine in the man's hands and asked immediately, "How do you use it?!" "Simple! You just put on a specialized link device... It just so happens I was about to test its performance!" With that, Yin Fang pulled a thumb-sized wireless earpiece from his pocket, tossed it to Chu Guang, and grinned broadly. "Put it on and you'll see!"