Regardless of whether Lao Bai was bragging or not, the moment Brother Levin heard him out, he immediately turned and hurried back into the adjacent workshop, rolling out a freshly assembled 20mm autocannon on a handcart.
Rushing back to Lao Bai, his eyes gleamed as he spoke.
"Bro, let's go give it a shot."
"If you can really shoulder this thing and fire a round, we'll try making the weapon you asked for!"
Building a weapon that most people couldn't use was pointless—there was no way the No. 81 Steel Mill would open a dedicated production line just for a single player.
On the flip side, if an outrageous weapon like this could actually be used, they'd make a fortune!
The 20mm barrels and ammunition were readily available.
A rotating bolt wasn't particularly difficult either; they could just scale up the receiver from the Arbiter Type I bolt-action rifle!
There were easily two to three hundred Strength-type players on the server, and in another month, at least half of them would awaken.
What a massive market that would be!
The mere thought sent a surge of adrenaline through Brother Levin.
Lao Bai found the proposal quite reasonable and readily agreed.
"Sounds good!"
Without lingering, Lao Bai reached down and hoisted the autocannon, which weighed nearly fifty kilograms, then strode out the door.
The sheer might of a Strength-type was no exaggeration; in his hands, that autocannon felt as light as a baseball bat.
Brother Levin and Brother Toilet Cable grabbed several test rounds, while Fang Chang and Midnight Chicken Slaughter tagged along out of curiosity.
The group soon arrived at the Goblin Technology rocket test site on the edge of the industrial zone.
Concrete debris littered the area. A five-meter-tall building had been blown to smithereens after repeated explosions.
When they arrived, Mosquito was emerging from the ruins carrying half of a rocket tailfin.
Seeing the crowd, Mosquito paused.
"What are you guys doing here?"
Lao Bai grinned.
"Hey brother, we're borrowing your testing ground!"
In the dead of winter, the mutants had all holed up indoors, making it nearly impossible to find a live target on the streets.
Mosquito's range, however, had plenty of dummies.
To test his rockets' lethality, Mosquito had carved wooden dummies and even strapped steel plates to many of them to simulate marauder- and mutant-style armor.
Having a background in woodworking, Mosquito handled these tasks with ease. He had even modified his tools to assemble a nail gun, which benefited all the woodworkers across the industrial zone.
Although annoyed that they were interrupting his experiments, Mosquito was also curious about the firepower of the massive gun in Lao Bai's hands. He kept his complaints to himself and stepped aside to watch.
"How about going straight for a twenty-millimeter steel plate? See if you can punch through it," Mosquito muttered aloud, glancing sideways at Brother Levin.
"Isn't that obvious?" Brother Levin rolled his eyes at Mosquito's remark.
Brother Toilet Cable, who was standing by helping Lao Bai adjust the weapon, couldn't resist scoffing either.
"Exactly! If it can't even punch through twenty millimeters of steel, how can you even call it a cannon!"
Mosquito chuckled, intrigued. "Alright, spill it then. What's your penetration depth?"
Brother Levin gave a smug smirk and held up five fingers.
"At a hundred meters, fifty millimeters. At five hundred meters, twenty millimeters."
"Tch, keep bragging!" Mosquito rolled his eyes with total disbelief. "Damn, that'd be stronger than a Barrett!"
Brother Levin sneered back.
"No shit! We told you it's a cannon! Look at our rifling length, the shell length, and how much powder we packed in!"
"How much?"
Brother Levin clamped his mouth shut.
He had a feeling Mosquito was fishing for trade secrets.
That propellant ratio had taken a big chunk of their budget to work out through trial and error.
If he wanted the formula, he'd have to pay up!
Seeing that he couldn't pry the info loose, Mosquito looked disappointed.
By this point, Lao Bai had already gotten the hang of handling the autocannon. Resting the rearward-protruding magazine against his shoulder, he confirmed with Brother Toilet Cable beside him.
"It's set to semi-auto, right?"
Brother Toilet Cable took a step back as he replied.
"It's set. Pick a target and pop a shot, you'll see!"
"Alright."
Excited, Lao Bai raised the long barrel, lining up the iron sights with a dummy about a hundred meters away.
A twenty-millimeter steel plate hung across the dummy's chest. Sculpted to mirror a burly man of 1.8 meters, it looked quite convincing.
Taking a deep breath of the freezing air, Lao Bai braced every muscle in his body for the recoil and squeezed the trigger.
*BANG!*
A deafening, thunderous crack exploded.
A half-meter tongue of flame erupted from the muzzle, and the violent recoil rippled through his body straight down to the soles of his feet.
A cloud of snow blasted out from behind Lao Bai's heels, blowing backward and showering Mosquito and Brother Levin right in the face.
The ground shuddered beneath them!
In the distance, the wooden dummy looked as though it had been struck by a speeding truck. With a resounding crash, it shattered into flying splinters, and the impacted steel plate was hurled backward, slumping to the ground as a mangled heap.
"Holy crap! That's insane!" Mosquito's eyes went wide, forgetting even to wipe the snow off his face.
A moment ago, he had doubted whether this contraption could manage fifty millimeters of penetration at a hundred meters. Now, he was actually starting to believe it!
Lao Bai, still shouldering the autocannon, along with Fang Chang and Midnight Chicken Slaughter watching from the side, were all dumbfounded.
This firepower was absurd!
The two managers of the No. 81 Steel Mill chuckled, their faces plastered with pride.
"You think we're joking?! We told you it's a cannon! Do you even know what a cannon is?"
"Exactly! Did you think the detonation velocity boost from X-4 fiber was a joke?"
Just as Brother Levin was puffing out his chest, he froze upon hearing his partner blab their secret, quickly clamping a hand over Brother Toilet Cable's mouth.
"Shut up, stop talking!"
"Mmph, mmph!"
In truth, whether he spoke or not hardly mattered; it was already public information on the official website.
They had simply referenced real-world data and figured out a reliable ratio that maximized muzzle velocity while ensuring the barrel could handle the chamber pressure.
Mosquito swallowed hard.
Though he had heard that using X-4 fiber in place of standard plant fiber to produce nitrocellulose granted a "detonation velocity bonus," he had never actually tested it.
After all, it somewhat contradicted his common sense.
Who would have guessed it was actually true?
A short distance away, Lao Bai had already shed his exoskeleton.
That first shot had given him a rough sense of the recoil.
Next, he was going to try firing it unarmored from a standing position!
The onlookers stopped chatting and turned their eyes toward him.
Another thunderous blast erupted!
With the autocannon pressed against his shoulder, Lao Bai's body jerked violently backward, but he managed to brace through it with raw muscle strength.
"Hiss... that recoil packs a punch..."
"Still manageable, though!"
Lowering the autocannon, Lao Bai pulled open his collar to check his right chest.
A shoe-sole-sized red mark had been stamped there by the recoil, but there was no bruising or other injury.
He was currently LV12 with 19 points in Strength. With just 1 more point, his muscular strength would be four times that of an ordinary person!
With such terrifying physical power, it was no exaggeration to say he was half a mutant himself.
And the kind whose skin didn't turn green, at that!
If he had activated "Limit Break," he probably wouldn't have swayed in the slightest.
Fang Chang couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.
"As expected of the server's number one muscle man! I, Fang Chang, crown you the strongest!"
Lao Bai chuckled sheepishly.
"You flatter me, you flatter me."
Midnight Chicken Slaughter stepped forward with envy, reaching out to touch the autocannon resting on the ground, its barrel sizzling against the snow in wisps of white steam.
He lifted it to test the weight; it didn't feel overly heavy.
Midnight Chicken Slaughter turned around.
"Can I give it a try?"
Brother Levin nodded eagerly, speaking generously.
"Go right ahead, don't be shy!"
He hadn't realized that "awakening" would be this impressive.
If every Awakened Strength-type player could handle this recoil, wouldn't their weapons sell like hotcakes?!
This was infinitely more lucrative than selling axes!
Sure enough.
Strength-types were the GOAT!
With Brother Levin's permission, Midnight Chicken Slaughter took a shot as well.
However, his result was noticeably rougher than Lao Bai's. Not only was the barrel kicked upward by the recoil, but he staggered backward several steps, nearly tumbling over.
After all, he had only just awakened. At LV10, he typically possessed only 17 points of Strength, falling short of Lao Bai's level 12.
Without those two points, he truly couldn't brace against it without triggering a talent.
From this, they could deduce that the optimal stats for this weapon were likely 20 Strength and 10 Constitution. Alternatively, if mounted as a fixed emplacement, anyone could use it.
"What a great gun!"
Midnight Chicken Slaughter was thrilled, but he soon calmed down, shaking his head as he set the autocannon down.
"Unfortunately, with this much recoil, there's no way to fire it in bursts on the move."
"Much less charge forward while carrying it."
It was powerful, yes.
But it didn't synergize well with his newly unlocked "Berserker" talent!
Hearing that, Brother Levin nearly choked on his spit.
"What the hell's the point of charging forward with a monster like this? The barrel would poke right into their face!"
Brother Toilet Cable joined in the ridicule.
"Exactly! You have no appreciation for art! Just go back to swinging your axe!"
Midnight Chicken Slaughter: "..."
Damn it!
What was wrong with swinging an axe?
Looking down on melee players?
Step up and duel if you're so tough!
Lao Bai and Fang Chang walked over, turning to the two managers of the No. 81 Steel Mill.
"So, what do you think? Is it doable?"
"Can you convert this autocannon into a single-shot version?"
The two managers exchanged glances.
"If it's converted to single-shot, you can hardly call it an autocannon."
"True."
Unconcerned by such minor semantics, Lao Bai laughed heartily.
"Then what do you think we should call it?"
Brother Levin pondered for a moment. His eyes suddenly fell upon the modified chest armor of Lao Bai's exoskeleton, and his gaze instantly lit up.
"Lance!"
Turning to Brother Toilet Cable beside him, Brother Levin said with bright eyes.
"How about calling it the 'Lance' anti-tank rifle?"
He did a quick mental estimate: production cost would be around 900 silver, and they could price it at 950 or 1,000.
It could use the exact same ammunition as the autocannon without any modifications.
Once the number of Awakened players grew, this gear was bound to sell like crazy!
Their wavelengths immediately aligned, and Brother Toilet Cable excitedly gave a thumbs-up.
"Works for me, brother! Sounds great! Though, at twenty millimeters, wouldn't it count as a cannon?"
"Tch, quit nitpicking. As long as it sounds cool, that's all that matters!"
Watching the two of them, Mosquito stood off to the side, burning with envy.
Evidently, he could also see the commercial potential of this weapon.
Damn it!
Everyone was making a killing in the arms trade!
It looked like he needed to step up his game too.
...
As the end of December drew closer, the Wartime Regulations entered their twenty-fifth day of implementation.
Barring any extensions, nearly half of the mandated period had elapsed.
Over the past twenty-five days, both the steel production capacity and the literacy rate among workers in the new industrial zone had doubled.
Thanks to the night school and study group systems instituted across the new industrial zone, after completing their twelve-hour shifts, factory foremen organized the workers to learn literacy, arithmetic, and geometric drafting.
Literacy was especially emphasized.
Under the new industrial zone's regulations, basic literacy was one of the primary evaluation criteria for an apprentice to be promoted to a full worker.
Once promoted, their pay doubled from two silver coins a day to four, and they could sign long-term, stable employment contracts with the factories, with a shot at becoming a foreman directly employed by the shelter.
Those foremen carrying VMs were the envy of all: not only could they chat and laugh with the blue coats, but rumor had it their daily wage had already risen to 5 silver coins!
Consequently, the workers showed immense enthusiasm for learning, particularly the refugees from afar.
They were the ones who longed most desperately to stay.
And they were the ones who craved acceptance most deeply from the territory's "natives"—those blue coats!
Aside from the development of the industrial zone, what pleased Chu Guang most were his little players.
To date, thirteen players had successfully awakened.
Among them were five Strength-types, three Agility-types, two Perception-types, two Constitution-types, and one Intelligence-type.
This roster included Edge Slacker, who frequently skirted the edge of death, becoming the server's second Awakened Perception-type player after Ye Shi.
Both of them had unlocked fairly good talents, which, paired with their personal playstyles, would surely enable plenty of slick plays.
Next came the avid hunter Elven King Fugui, the editor of the *Mole Daily* Mole on the Run from the Canyon, as well as the Constitution-type cook Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes, who always charged at the front lines, and Elaina, who diligently cultivated internal martial arts.
These were all veteran players from the game's early days, consisting of two Agility-types and two Constitution-types.
A batch of later arrivals had also reached LV9, hovering on the verge of breakthrough, and were expected to cross the threshold one after another within a month.
However, the Intelligence-type differed from the other sequences. It exhibited severe polarization, with a stark gap in the higher levels.
So far, out of all the Intelligence-type players, Kuang Feng was the only one who had reached LV10.
Among the remaining Intelligence-types, not a single one had reached LV9, though a few were at peak LV8.
What surprised Chu Guang even more was that non-combat, lifestyle-oriented Intelligence-type players seemed to level up faster than combat-focused ones.
Tengteng, for instance, had been sitting at LV8 for quite some time, and looking at her progress bar, a breakthrough was imminent.
Could it be that the second Awakened Intelligence-type player would end up being a lifestyle player who never set foot on the front lines or hunted monsters?
Players on the official forum had engaged in endless debates over whether this was reasonable.
Brother Mole, in particular, had created a dedicated thread on the subject:
*A Few Thoughts on the Intelligence-Type: Written on the Eve of Alpha 1.0*
"Hello, everyone. This is your Big-Nosed Mole. What I'm writing today isn't a walkthrough, just a few humble reflections."
"As more and more players awaken, the Strength-type has once again cemented its status as the developers' darling, becoming the undisputed flavor of the version."
"Meanwhile, the Intelligence-type continues to sit on the bench without surprise, remaining the only sequence to stay weak from start to finish since the closed beta began, solidifying its role as the little brother of the Alpha closed beta."
"I've predicted the rise of the Intelligence-type more than once, and more than once the big boss developers have slapped me down without mercy. From the arrival of the *Pioneer* to the introduction of the scientific expedition gameplay, opportunity after opportunity that seemed primed to lift the class ultimately failed to benefit all players, with only a handful of lucky bastards catching a break. And even those lucky bastards had to exert a hundred times more effort just to barely catch a glimpse of the other sequences' tail lights."
"The dark cloud looming over the Intelligence-type has never dispersed. Even if one or two players occasionally unlocked unconventional playstyles, their experiences couldn't be replicated by others."
"Every piece of common sense or standard convention regarding MMORPGs seems completely void when applied to the Intelligence-type. It feels like an abandoned sequence; perhaps the developers never intended for it to be effective in combat at all."
"After all, its utility is indeed hard to reflect straightforwardly, and its gameplay options aren't as outwardly flashy as those of the other sequences."
"That's what I thought at first. But later on, I began to realize that perhaps the developers didn't intentionally neglect the Intelligence-type; rather, the sequence was designed this way from the very start."
"Grinding monsters and leveling up isn't the entirety of the game, just as life isn't merely about getting into schools and earning promotions... From the moment you step into the game, you can sense in many ways that the operators are deliberately cultivating this atmosphere."
"They've built *Wasteland OL* into a near-realistic world where NPCs act like real people, and beyond the elements of violence and destruction, they've offered players a completely different path—creation."
"Using your creativity and wisdom to transform this fallen planet, planting the banner of the People's Federation at the edge of the Kuiper Belt."
"Perhaps this is the true answer to the Intelligence-type in this version."
"And an Easter egg left for us by the game's creators."
*Likes: 666. Replies: 200+.*
Reading the post from start to finish, Chu Guang felt an indescribable emotion stir in his heart.
"What a talent..."
Truth be told, he hadn't thought that far ahead.
Yet interpreted this way, it sounded entirely reasonable.
Conveniently pinning the thread as a featured post, Chu Guang continued scrolling through the forum.
Suddenly, his eyes rested on a post that stood in stark contrast to the forum's current hot topics.
*Speaking of which, New Year's Day is just around the corner. Where does everyone plan to celebrate?*
The post was by Yaya.
Ever since winter arrived, she had been quite active on the forum. After all, for someone who wasn't skilled in combat and excelled only at throwing her life away, there was very little to do in the game.
*New Year's Day...*
Looking at the post, a hint of melancholy touched Chu Guang's face.
It was an important holiday.
He still remembered passing away in March, arriving in this world in April, and discovering Shelter 404 in September.
A full year was about to slip by...
He had no family back home to miss; his life had been a hurried blur, and his friends were mostly online acquaintances. So much so that after transmigrating here, he had never even thought about searching for a way home.
What would he go back for anyway?
At least in the shelter, he was the one collecting rent from others.
Scrolling down with his mouse, he saw some players saying they planned to spectate for a day to spend time with their families, while others didn't care either way, since game time and real life didn't conflict, and they'd at most log in a bit later.
Chu Guang stared at the post for a while before suddenly speaking.
"Xiao Qi."
Xiao Qi's voice drifted softly from nearby.
"I'm here, Master."
Chu Guang pondered for a moment and said, "New Year's Day is coming up. Do you think we should host an in-game event... like celebrating the holiday or something?"
Xiao Qi: "Huh? A celebration like the previous one? But Master... we don't seem to have enough food, do we?"
"I know," Chu Guang sighed softly. "Still, we ought to commemorate the passing of Wasteland Era 211... Is there any relatively inexpensive way to celebrate?"
He had heard that pre-war society had countless holidays—after all, the average annual working hours per capita totaled less than three hundred hours.
Coupled with the dual flourishing of culture and technology, there had been a festival nearly every other day.
After the onset of the Wasteland Era, however, such luxuries vanished.
There were no good days to celebrate here; even the climate ran wild most of the time.
On top of that cultural rupture, many people knew nothing about the People's Federation beyond speaking its language, knowing only that if they didn't work, they wouldn't eat, and if they didn't scavenge, they would die.
Some medium- and small-sized farming settlements selectively preserved festivals to celebrate the year's harvest and pray for the next, but that certainly didn't apply to Bet Street, which relied primarily on scavenging and hunting, nor to Brown Farm, where most inhabitants were serfs.
As it happened, the settlements on the northern outskirts of Qingquan City fell almost entirely into these two categories, with the exception of a few waystation settlements that traded with traveling merchants.
In all his time on the wasteland, Chu Guang had never seen the scavengers of Bet Street celebrate a single holiday.
Yet establishing a holiday could boost morale, foster a sense of belonging, and reinforce cultural identity.
After all, his territory was home to refugees from all directions alongside the players.
He had to find a way to unite them.
Holidays and celebrations were the perfect vehicle.
Xiao Qi went quiet for a moment, whether running searches or genuinely pondering the question.
After a long pause, that obedient voice drifted back meekly.
"Xiao Qi thinks, since this is the wasteland... there's no need to strictly follow Earth's holidays."
"How about... using the celebration as an opportunity to encourage everyone to try new foods?"
"And then, in the name of an event, we could give an award for the most creative recipe or something."
*Try new foods?*
*Give an award for the most creative recipe?*
Chu Guang was momentarily stunned.
For a split second, his opinion of Xiao Qi shifted entirely.
Could this little bot...
Actually be a genius?!
Chapter 218