This Game Company's Scope Is Way Too Broad!

"Holy crap... Have these bastards lost their minds?" Inside a half-collapsed residential building. Standing in a ceilingless, open-air bathroom with binoculars raised to his eyes, Ye Shi stared flabbergasted at the street three hundred meters away. It was five in the morning. The sun had not yet risen, but the sky was already faintly lit with dawn. Around fifty marauders marched tightly alongside a truck welded with steel plates. Mounted on the truck bed was a single—no, to be precise, four machine guns! Perhaps because there weren't enough 12mm heavy machine guns to go around, the Fang clan marauders had linked light machine guns together in a row, using iron wire, steel bars, and screws. It made Ye Shi think of the quad-Maxim mounts he had once seen in movies; this contraption shared virtually the same ingenious concept. The only difference was that one was water-cooled, while this one was a slightly more advanced air-cooled setup. Intuition told Ye Shi, however, that the marauders probably hadn't learned this from films, but had copied the Skeleton Corps' quad anti-aircraft truck. "Using 7mm machine guns for anti-air... what genius came up with that idea?" Fang Chang couldn't help snarking. Sitting nearby gnawing on a wheat cake, Lao Bai chuckled. "Don't laugh. If their ammo supply can keep up, the density of fire might be downright terrifying. With Brother Mosquito's wooden plane, coming down from the sky would be a matter of half a second." Kuang Feng rubbed the bridge of his nose with his index finger and said, "...Judging by the results, we probably hurt them bad that night." Watching the patrol disappear around the street corner, Ye Shi lowered his binoculars and sighed. "True enough, but now that they're bunching up, it's getting annoying." The game's AI was extremely smart. Not only did it fleece players like leeks, but it also adjusted its behavioral strategies in real time based on player actions. The marauders, who previously could only stare helplessly at airplanes, had eventually DIYed their own anti-aircraft weapons after fighting enough battles. What was that term again? Right! Machine learning! As expected of the world's only fully immersive virtual reality MMO, its AI technology was undeniably top-tier. Munching on his cake, Lao Bai said calmly, "No rush. The Fang clan is moving troops to the front line these days. We just need to keep an eye on their tanks." Currently, the Burning Corps had dispersed into smaller units scattered across the urban area. Taking on a hundred-man marauder company head-on with a four-man fireteam was still a bit much. But that didn't matter. They could call in airstrikes. Normally, the marauders kept their tanks hidden in underground parking garages. Now that they were all transferring toward the front lines, the players didn't need to go head-to-head with the armor at all. As long as they pinned down the general position, the pilots in the air would naturally deliver a nasty surprise. In just one week, the Burning Corps had called in airstrikes that wrote off four Conqueror 10s, while another, though not totaled, had been crippled. Without logistical support, the barbarians' technical skills were only good for repairing tracks at best. A damaged engine or ruptured fuel line was practically equivalent to scrapping the vehicle. "Looks like no tanks will be passing down this street today." Fang Chang glanced at the time on his VM; in the distance, the horizon was already showing the pale white of daybreak. Lao Bai tossed aside the wrapper from his wheat cake, picked up his rifle, and got up from the floor. "Let's find a safe spot to log off." Just as he spoke, a faint creak came from downstairs. The four immediately went on high alert. Lao Bai moved swiftly to the living room foyer, leaning half his body out to cover the staircase with his weapon. Kuang Feng immediately launched his Firefly drone, flying it out through the damaged ceiling and descending along the building's exterior. Ye Shi said in a low voice, "No killing intent sensed... The target probably hasn't spotted us, or isn't sure of our exact position." "Searching..." Operating the drone, Kuang Feng's expression suddenly froze, and he paused. Peering from a downstairs window was a youthful face, disheveled and covered in grime, making it difficult to tell the child's gender. Kuang Feng could only tell that they were young; even factoring in the stunting effects of malnutrition, the kid was at most seven or eight. Those dark, gleaming eyes stared unblinkingly at the drone outside the window, pupils brimming with anxiety, nervousness, and curiosity. The child probably thought they were well hidden, unaware that the camera captured everything inside the room with crystal clarity. "Looks like a local survivor... It's a kid." As he spoke, Kuang Feng synced the drone's feed to his teammates' VMs. Fang Chang asked cautiously, "Anyone else nearby? Any weapons?" Child soldiers were not uncommon among the marauders; he wasn't going to let down his guard just because it was a child. Kuang Feng shook his head. "None in sight... I haven't seen a marauder this skinny yet." "All clear." At least for now... Lao Bai let out a breath, lowered his rifle, and engaged the safety. In some respects, this game was uncomfortably realistic. Even though the Dream Filter filtered out most sensory stimuli beyond acceptable limits, players with excessive immersion could still feel psychological discomfort when boundaries were crossed. Like watching marauders throw living people into cauldrons of boiling oil... If possible, he really didn't want to treat someone younger than him as an enemy combatant. Patting Fang Chang on the shoulder, Lao Bai said, "Let's go. Time to relocate." Daylight had broken. The marauders' tanks wouldn't venture out during the day, so continuing to camp here was pointless. They might as well log off and browse the official forum for a while. However, most players were online at this hour; between 6:00 PM and midnight in the real world, the forum belonged to the armchair players. Having fought night battles every single day lately, their sleep schedules were completely wrecked... Reaching the stairwell, Lao Bai suddenly remembered something. "Right, we haven't retrieved last night's airdrop crate yet. Let's grab it before logging off." Ye Shi asked curiously, "Didn't you say there was no rush to retrieve it?" Lao Bai didn't answer the question directly. Instead, he pulled out a large leftover bag of green wheat cakes from his backpack and placed it on the floor. "I changed my mind." Fang Chang sighed. "You really shouldn't treat the game too much like reality. In the lore, there are at least five or six thousand survivors in this city. A few airdrop supplies won't make a dent. If you really want to drag them out of misery, we'd better wipe out the marauders sooner." Lao Bai chuckled. "I know. Just consider it self-satisfaction on my part." The group departed. Hearing the sounds upstairs fade away, the boy tiptoed upstairs, hoping to see if the New Alliance soldiers had left behind any salvageable trash. Things like spent cartridge casings could be traded for food at the resistance stronghold. He didn't hold out much hope for casings, though. The entire night, these people hadn't fired a single shot. It would be a miracle if there were any casings lying around. Ever since the marauders arrived, the survivor settlements had been destroyed one after another. Survivors were either captured into slavery or forced underground. With no farmland, they could only cultivate fungi that required little light, or forage outside for wild green wheat and ram horn potatoes, or even resort to eating dirt and gnawing on tree bark. They could have scraped by like that, but recently a plague of rats had broken out in Xizhou City. Mushroom crop yields had plummeted, and wild crops like green wheat and ram horn potatoes had nearly vanished from the city, plunging the resistance stronghold into an unprecedented crisis of survival. Previously, everyone could receive a tiny ration of relief food, but now even nutrient paste had to be traded for with scavenged scraps. The boy had originally wanted to join the guerrillas—he heard they provided meals—but he was too young. After looking him up and down, they turned him away, leaving him no choice but to carry a burlap sack and scavenge the streets. Fortunately, New Alliance soldiers had recently begun entering the battlefield. Not only were they better equipped than the guerrillas, but they also had a wonderful habit of being wasteful. Not only did these people never pick up casings dropped on the ground, but whenever a skirmish broke out, they wouldn't even bother packing up half-eaten rations, tossing them aside instead. The guerrillas encouraged them to collect casings from the ground; twenty brass casings could fetch one hundred grams of nutrient paste. Sometimes the boy couldn't help thinking how wonderful it would be if he had the chance to go to the New Alliance. The people of the New Alliance didn't even want brass casings left on the ground. Their homes must have endless junk waiting to be scavenged. Climbing the stairs, the boy was just about to slip into the adjacent room when a delightful aroma caught his nose. Twitching his nostrils, he followed the scent. When his gaze fell upon the green wheat cakes on the floor, his dark eyes widened instantly. Starving, he pounced forward, snatched up a piece, and shoved it into his mouth. A sensation of pure bliss spread across his tongue and palate, and an expression of disbelief washed over his sallow face. He couldn't describe what the flavor was, but he had never tasted green wheat cakes so delicious... In fact, were these really green wheat cakes? Why did they carry the rich aroma of fat, without a hint of that bitter oxalic acid taste? How had they managed that? Were these people messengers of the Great Horned Deer God?! Finally swallowing the mouthful, the boy eyed the rest of the green wheat cakes greedily. Resisting the urge to keep eating, he carefully packed them into his burlap sack. "I have to get back before full daylight." If he stayed out too long, his sister would worry... Silently thanking those generous people in his heart, the boy carefully secured the remaining wheat cakes, squeezed through a narrow crack like a rabbit, and slipped out of the apartment building. He had no idea why the New Alliance soldiers had left such a delicacy behind. Just as at this very moment, he had no idea that four pairs of eyes were tailing him from behind. "Say... is it really okay for us to stalk a kid?" Ye Shi asked with an odd expression. Fang Chang didn't answer the question directly. Or rather, he didn't answer from Ye Shi's angle. "Let's make a bold hypothesis. Assuming an NPC's behavioral logic is foraging for food, what's his next step once he's gathered enough?" Ye Shi paused. "...Bring the food home?" "Bingo!" Fang Chang snapped his fingers soundlessly, smiling. "As long as we follow him, we can find his home." Ye Shi clutched his forehead. "Come on, man... You aren't planning to loot a scavenger's chest, are you?" Kuang Feng chimed in as well. "I don't approve of that. Carrying a guilt trip for a handful of silver coins isn't worth it." Fang Chang coughed. "When the hell did I say I was going to rummage through someone's chests? Am I that much of a dog?! I'm just purely curious about where he lives. Aren't you guys curious?" Ye Shi and Kuang Feng exchanged a glance. "Don't they live underground?" "Yeah... the official website's lore background mentioned that the survivors of Xizhou City hide underground to skirmish with the Bone Chewer marauders, and formed a resistance organization and guerrilla units." Fang Chang said with exaggerated heartache, "Exactly! You know they formed a resistance, so think about it rationally—if they have an organization, shouldn't they have a fixed base? A survivor settlement is right beneath our feet, yet we've been on this new map for over half a month and still don't know where it is! Aren't you curious what it looks like?" Kuang Feng blinked. "Thinking about it rationally... that logic actually tracks." "Man, I just wanted to do a casual good deed. Why do you always have to complicate things..." Lao Bai rubbed the back of his head with an exasperated sigh. "Fine, you have a point." If they could establish contact with the local resistance, it would definitely help them. Come to think of it, it was strange: they had been here for over two weeks, yet the local resistance had never reached out to them. Was it hardcoded into the program that players had to discover it themselves? "Are we still going to retrieve the airdrop crate later?" Ye Shi asked. "Forget it for now. Daylight's almost here; we'll grab it after dark... Let's meet the local resistance first." Lao Bai reached over and swiped two packs of green wheat cakes from Fang Chang's tactical chest rig. "Lend me two." "Damn it! Take them from my backpack! I have those on my chest to stop bullets!" Fang Chang reflexively dodged, covering his chest with both hands. Lao Bai couldn't help rolling his eyes. "Like hell that'll stop a bullet!" Ye Shi: "Hahahaha!" Kuang Feng cleared his throat. "Don't lose him... Let's move." Following behind the boy, the group crossed two streets and walked about two kilometers before arriving at a half-collapsed subway station entrance. The boy stopped at the entrance, glanced around cautiously, and then slipped inside. Fang Chang and the others followed him in, passing through the turnstiles and heading down from the platform into the tunnel. There were countless rats here; inside the abandoned carriages, thick, dark swarms of them were too numerous to count. They weren't afraid of humans, even baring their teeth at passersby. The boy pulled out a length of rebar, swung it wildly a few times to scare the rats off, and immediately bolted deeper into the tunnel. "Could these all be Brother Nan's little minions?" Ye Shi muttered under his breath behind them. "You're giving him way too much credit... Forget the rats, don't lose the target." Intuition told Fang Chang that they were almost there. The boy stopped in front of an iron door painted green and knocked rhythmically a few times. Before long, the door opened. The boy slipped inside and vanished from the tunnel, as if he had never been there at all. "...That's got to be the entrance to the Xizhou City survivors' underground settlement!" Fang Chang's face was flushed with excitement. A new map! A hit post with 100k+ upvotes was in the bag! Lao Bai rubbed his chin. "I'm thinking about how we should greet them. Knock straight on the door? Or say hello first?" Kuang Feng pondered. "I think identifying ourselves first would be better." While Lao Bai and Kuang Feng were discussing how to introduce themselves, Ye Shi's expression shifted, and he gripped his semi-automatic rifle tighter. "Someone's coming!" Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, footsteps echoed from behind them in the tunnel. A group of shabbily dressed, unkempt men appeared near the subway station platform. Pipe rifles were slung across their backs, and woven bags hung from their hands. Judging by the limp bags, today's haul hadn't been great. Catching sight of Lao Bai's group, the men froze for a beat, then immediately raised panicked shouts, chambering rounds in their pipe rifles. Tension spiked sharply. Resting his index finger on the safety, Lao Bai swept his gaze over their weapons and shot a look to his good buddy Fang Chang. Fang Chang took the hint, lowered his muzzle, stepped forward, and shouted in rather clumsy Human Alliance language: "We are paratroopers of the New Alliance! We come in peace! Please calm down!" New Alliance paratroopers?! Weren't they fighting the marauders? Why were they here? The men at the tunnel entrance were visibly stunned, clearly not expecting New Alliance personnel to appear in this place. Maintaining his aim, the leading man shouted tensely, "...How can we believe you!" Fang Chang replied succinctly, "Allowing you to remain standing is our greatest show of good faith. If you keep aiming at us, don't blame us for what happens next." "Stand down, everyone!" The green-painted door swung open. A man in a leather jacket stepped out. Flanking him stood two guards holding assault rifles, followed by the boy, who clutched his bag while staring uneasily at the four in the middle of the tunnel. Lao Bai glanced at the boy, then at the man in the leather jacket. His chiseled face looked as if carved with a blade, and his sharp eyes readily evoked the jackals common across the wasteland. An expert. Both in experience and combat capability. Lao Bai made an assessment in his head. Even as he observed the man, the man was sizing him up with equally wary eyes. "Wu Chengyi, Mayor of Hope Town and Captain of the Guerrillas. May I ask your name?" the man introduced himself. "Lao Bai." Lao Bai didn't know how to say the idiom "Fleeting White Horse" in Human Alliance language, so he went with the nickname everyone called him. Wu Chengyi didn't find the obviously fake name strange. All sorts of names existed in the wasteland. What someone was called didn't matter. "You are with the New Alliance?" Lao Bai, unskilled in Human Alliance language, cast an entreating look at Fang Chang. Relying on expressions and context to guess the gist was fine, but carrying on a normal conversation was asking too much of him. 'What should I say?' 'Let me handle it.' Recognizing his buddy's awkward predicament at a glance, Fang Chang took over. Assisted by the VM's translation function, he spoke: "Yes. We serve the New Alliance and the Administrator, fighting to revive civilization. We are currently at war with the Bone Chewer tribe... We heard that you are as well, so we thought the enemy of our enemy might become our friend. That's why we came uninvited." The enemy of my enemy is my friend... That was not necessarily true on the wasteland. If an enemy's enemy was equal in strength, they might become friends. If there was a vast disparity in power, one might very well end up as the other's trophy instead. The vast majority of survivors in Xizhou City felt goodwill toward the New Alliance, some even harboring unrealistic fantasies, but Wu Chengyi knew full well there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world. As the leader of a resistance organization, he had to consider much more. Trusting strangers before understanding their motives was an extremely dangerous gamble. Staring at Fang Chang, Wu Chengyi asked, "One last question: How do you view us?" "How do we view you?" Fang Chang paused slightly, then understood what the man meant. After pondering for a moment, he replied, "You are a group of... brave people. At least you haven't surrendered. Of course, that's just my personal view. If you want to know the Administrator's opinion, you might as well ask him yourself." Wu Chengyi was caught off guard. "Do you have a way to contact him?" Fang Chang looked at him strangely. "Of course. Our radio can connect to rear headquarters at any time." Hearing this, joy broke out across the faces of the people around them. After exchanging a few low words with the guards beside him, Wu Chengyi signaled the guerrilla fighters to lower their weapons. Walking up to the players alone, he extended his right hand. "...Thank you for reaching out to us. Please also forgive our wariness. Over the past half year, we've witnessed the deaths of too many of our kin; it's difficult for us to easily trust any stranger." Fang Chang shook his hand. "Understood." Pausing for a moment, Wu Chengyi added, "Regarding your earlier proposal, I've considered it." "Please allow me to speak with your Administrator." ... New Alliance military camp. Sitting in the command room, Chu Guang was reading a report sent from Qingshi County. The survey work on the copper-molybdenum deposits had been completed, the construction equipment had arrived, and mining and smelting of copper ore were already underway. As of last weekend, the New Alliance was self-sufficient in industrial raw materials such as copper, molybdenum, and sulfur. The transport railway had also been laid from Yuanxi Town all the way to Qingshi County. Over the past few days, Chu Guang had paid special attention to the forum posts made by the few lifestyle-class players "dispatched to prospect deposits in the geological park." Judging from the photos they took and the discussions among other armchair players, the mining equipment left behind from the early Human Alliance era had left everyone deeply awed. Especially the industrial design. Although more than three hundred years had passed and the mining equipment preserved for antique exhibitions could no longer operate, the engineering concepts behind some of the machinery still provided considerable inspiration. That sudden, eye-opening enlightenment from within their professional field was far more shocking to those geology-major players than anything like solid hydrogen or X-4 fiber. All the players involved in the prospecting work couldn't help marveling: This game company's scope of business was way too broad! "Master, there's new news from the Burning Corps you sent to Xizhou City," Xiao Qi's voice chimed in his ear. Setting down the report from the logistics department, Chu Guang asked casually, "What news?" Xiao Qi continued, "Your players have made contact with the local survivors. A man claiming to be the leader of the resistance wants to speak with you." The resistance in Xizhou City? To be frank, in his initial plan, he had considered using the local survivors' strength to deal with the Fang clan. But that was several versions ago. With the cards he held now, he had more than enough power. There was no need to prop up the local resistance; fattening them up too much might actually complicate assimilating them later. Still, since they had reached out on their own initiative... This might be a good opportunity. Tapping his index finger lightly against the desk, Chu Guang pondered for a moment before speaking. "Set up a time for me to speak with them." "Right away, Master!" As his assistant, Xiao Qi was as reliable as ever. As soon as her voice faded, she immediately went to schedule the teleconference. Picking up the tablet on the desk again, Chu Guang flipped to the final document. [Xizhou City Industrial Zone Development Plan (Draft)] After a moment of thought, Chu Guang added a line beneath the title: [...and Reconstruction Plan for the New Restoration Zone and Survivor Settlement] The survivors in Xizhou City were numerous, and along with the marauder prisoners, Dawn City's carrying capacity couldn't possibly absorb them all at once. The best solution was to build a new settlement and house those survivors on-site. Coincidentally, he also intended to relocate heavy industry from Qingquan City to Xizhou City, which was farther away from Boulder City. Looking at the document in his hands, Chu Guang nodded with satisfaction. "This pie..." "Both the players and the locals should like it."