The message was posted to the group.
The chat went quiet for a moment.
Then, all at once, messages started bubbling up.
Lao Bai: "Beijing won the Olympic bid."
Fang Chang: "Tianyi 3G is way too fasttt."
Kuang Feng: "Are you a GG or an MM?"
Ye Shi: "Fuck! Are you guys even listening to me?!"
Motherfucker!
The moment I saw a chance to get rich, I thought of you bastards first.
Holding his phone, Ye Wei stood frozen between tears and laughter, both irritated and amused. Just as he was about to type an explanation, another message popped up from brother Fang Chang.
Fang Chang: "No, it's just that the group has already been discussing it for half the day. Dropping that out of nowhere left me a little at a loss."
Ye Wei: ???
What?
Discussing it for half the day?
Startled, Ye Wei quickly swiped up across his screen with his index finger. Sure enough, there were countless messages about the sudden, explosive surge in the price of silver coins.
Good grief.
Was I the one living under a rock?
Ye Wei's expression turned awkward.
He had planned to flex in front of his bros.
Now he just looked like an idiot.
Fang Chang: "Let's skip straight to the conclusion. The buyers showing up on the official website definitely have serious backing."
Jieyan: "What do you mean? Spill it."
Fang Chang: "Does that even need explaining? Would a normal person drop a hundred million to buy a bunch of digital numbers?"
And it wasn't just one person.
It was a whole crowd buying in coordinated waves like a syndicate!
Leaving aside the other foreign currencies, in the RMB trading section alone, a tycoon had splashed a hundred million, breaking a buy order for 2,000,000 silver coins into twenty parts, neatly filling the entire price range between 45 and 55.
Although the orders were anonymous, making it impossible to determine whether they all came from the same buyer, the sum of money did not lie.
Posting an order on the silver coin trading platform wasn't as simple as typing in a number.
It required proof of funds.
Scavenger Lv99: "Are these people insane? (dumbfounded)"
WC Really Has Mosquitoes: "Fuck, tell me these aren't company shills planted by the devs!"
Fang Chang: "I wouldn't rule out the possibility, but it's unlikely. Big gaming companies with decent player counts wouldn't bother with petty micro-manipulation like this, let alone a studio with millions of followers, epoch-making technology, and headsets loaned to you for free."
Jieyan: "Then what the hell are they after?"
Fang Chang: "My guess is that it has to do with that auction."
Staring at his phone screen, Ye Wei paused and typed:
"...Auction?"
Without explaining, Fang Chang forwarded Ah Guang's post directly to the chat.
And terrified that his brother might miss it, he even drew a red circle around the key part.
Looking at the circled text, Ye Wei was utterly flabbergasted.
Ye Shi: "Holy shit... Isn't that just Ah Guang's daily bullshit?!"
Wasn't spouting nonsense in announcements Ah Guang's signature move?
Every veteran player knew that!
How could there really be an auction...
And auctioning what? An automatic banana feeder?
Fang Chang: "That's true, but what if someone took it seriously?"
Ye Wei tapped on the screen.
"How... how could anyone take that seriously?"
Fang Chang: "For example, the battery."
"The battery?!"
Doesn't Ah Guang work at a gaming company? Ye Wei was completely bewildered.
Fang Chang: "Let me pose a hypothesis. How many years do you think that helmet is ahead of our current 5G smartphones?"
Kuang Feng: "...They aren't even comparable."
Fang Chang: "Exactly! They aren't comparable at all. Those two things feel like they belong to entirely different eras, and that is precisely the point! If a mysterious organization possessing mysterious technology suddenly announces an auction for a technology never heard of before... suppose you happened to work in that field—wouldn't you be interested?"
Ye Wei stared at his phone screen, stunned.
Put that way...
It actually made some sense.
Though Ah Guang frequently joked about their company's potato servers, logically speaking, how could a "fully immersive virtual reality game" capable of hosting thousands of simultaneous players possibly run on a potato server?
Forget potato servers...
Even a Tianhe supercomputer might not be enough!
It might very well be running on some legendary quantum computer.
And not an experimental prototype in a laboratory, but a mature supercomputing array composed of multiple quantum processors!
Ye Wei felt his head buzzing.
His imagination had hit its limit.
Scavenger Lv99: "Holy mother of god... The more you talk, the more I feel like this game was made by aliens. (trembling.jpg)"
Jieyan: "Should we just @ Ah Guang and ask? (nervous)"
Lao Bai: "Ah Guang won't answer questions about the game, and his account hasn't been online in ages. Pinging him is useless."
Jieyan: "I still don't get it. If they really need money... why go through all this trouble? Going into open beta would rake in a fortune, wouldn't it?"
Open pre-orders, cash in, and slack off—isn't that how the gaming industry usually plays it?
Working behind closed doors like this is what's truly strange!
Fang Chang: "Yeah, it really is strange. My speculation is... maybe Ah Guang was telling the truth all along. Their server really can only support a few thousand people online at once."
Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes, who had remained silent the entire time, suddenly spoke up.
"If Ah Guang was telling the truth, then those dead programmers..."
The chat fell silent for a moment.
Lao Bai: "Ahem, alright, stop telling ghost stories... We were talking about the price of silver coins. How did we veer off into Ah Guang? Never mind him for now—what are your plans?"
Dreaming, of course.
Ye Wei was most excited about this topic. Unable to hide his grin, he typed:
"Buy an apartment! Does that even need asking?"
He had already thought it through.
Housing in Jiangcheng wasn't expensive, and second-hand apartments were even cheaper. While silver coins were in such high demand, he'd cash out two or three million, buy one near campus, and buy another for his parents.
When the time came, he'd have "one apartment out front and another behind the scenes"—whenever someone asked what his property management fees were, he'd pull out two sets of keys—"Junior sister, which apartment are you asking about?"
Cheesy as hell, sure.
Who cared!
The whole point of flexing was his own satisfaction.
Noticing the strange look from the guy sitting next to him, Ye Wei realized he was getting carried away again. He cleared his throat and wiped the exaggerated grin from his face.
Messages kept zipping across the phone screen.
Jieyan: "Tycoon!"
Scavenger Lv99: "666!"
Fang Chang: "That works. Upgrading your quality of life is reasonable. But when it comes to large transfers, you have to be extremely careful with security."
Looking at the screen, Ye Wei paused.
"What do you mean by security...?"
Fang Chang: "A few hundred thousand, or even one or two million, is fine. Small sums like that won't attract attention; plenty of small business owners handle that kind of cash flow. As long as you pay your taxes legally and aren't involved in criminal activity, the bank will at most call to ask if you want to buy wealth management products."
"However, once the amount hits tens of millions, or exceeds a hundred million, you have to carefully consider who you're trading with and how the transaction is handled."
Anonymity and security were always relative concepts, never absolute.
Anomalous cash flow in a personal account would automatically place it under close regulatory scrutiny. If the incoming funds were foreign exchange, taxes would be the least of his worries.
Furthermore...
What worried Fang Chang most wasn't the money itself, but the identities behind those benefactors.
If they were ordinary corporations, fine.
His real fear was that it wasn't just corporations, and that far more complicated matters were involved.
Fang Chang even had a feeling.
Somewhere out of sight, an entirely different game was underway.
In fact, several rounds had already been played. The opposing sides had reached a tentative consensus through their maneuvering, maintaining a tacit, seemingly stable balance.
WC Really Has Mosquitoes: "Hey, if that thing is really that good, what if we pool our silver coins together and win the bid ourselves? (smirk)"
Though it sounded outlandish, it was actually feasible.
The boss of Niuma Brick Factory and the boss of Goblin Technology were both in this group, alongside a large roster of early-version players.
One million silver coins was steep, but if everyone gritted their teeth, they could scrape it together.
Forget one million—bring in a few more partners, and two million wouldn't be a problem.
Crucially, there were only so many chips on the silver coin trading platform. As long as they shut off the tap, they could completely corner the auction.
When that time came, no matter how much outside capital there was, those tycoons would only be able to stare helplessly at the trading board. As long as the official site didn't disclose the buyer's identity, no one would even know who bought it in the end.
Fang Chang: "I know what you're thinking, and I admit it's an option, but I don't want to be the nail that sticks out. Besides, even if they handed me some battery blueprint, I'd have no clue what to do with it. Playing the game is my main gig; I don't have the time or energy for anything else."
Lao Bai: "Haha, what kind of slacker talk is that... Though I'm hardly in a position to judge. My advice is the same as Fang Chang's: sell a few silver coins to improve your daily life and leave it at that. Wasteland OL is only in closed beta; cashing out completely now would be a massive loss."
WC Really Has Mosquitoes: "Sigh, you guys have zero ambition... Running a company and playing a game aren't mutually exclusive!"
Cornering a bid wasn't something one person could pull off; they had to do it together to ensure the chips stayed in their hands.
To be honest, Mosquito was genuinely interested in whatever Ah Guang was auctioning.
Not that he expected it to be ridiculously valuable, but rather... his hands were just itching to tinker.
What if it was something awesome?
Buying it back just to take a look couldn't hurt, right?
If it proved useless, he could always slap an extra zero onto the price and sell it off.
There were still three days before the auction began, and people on the official site were already offering a hundred million to buy silver.
If they wanted it that badly, they could have it for a hundred million, and keep Ah Guang from pocketing the transaction fee.
Still, on second thought, Mosquito realized Fang Chang had a point.
Recklessly getting involved in things beyond his understanding was indeed unwise.
"...Fine, fine, you're right. Thinking it over, the whole thing feels a bit eerie. Better to wait and see."
Fang Chang: "Glad to hear you think that way. By the way, I have a suggestion."
Jieyan: "What suggestion?"
Fang Chang: "Ye Shi mentioning buying a house reminded me. There will probably be plenty of opportunities to sell silver coins in the future. Frequent personal transfers carry risks. Why don't we just register a company? We can transfer private funds to the corporate account, then pay it out from corporate to personal. It adds an extra step, but it makes paying taxes much easier and keeps everything compliant."
Seeing the message on screen, Ye Wei's eyes lit up, and he immediately typed his agreement.
"Brilliant idea!"
Being a corporate shareholder sounded way more impressive than being a landlord!
Of course, it wasn't purely for flexing.
He simply felt that explaining his income as an individual and dealing with tax authorities was too much hassle.
He had university classes to attend, bricks to haul on the wasteland, and his own social life in reality.
Just as Fang Chang said, it made far more sense to register a company and hire professionals to handle the paperwork.
Scavenger Lv99: "What kind of company should we register?"
Fang Chang: "That's straightforward. We can just follow the template of standard power-leveling services or gaming studios. Some register under IT services, others under e-commerce. There are plenty of ways."
Jieyan: "Holy crap, you can do that?"
Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes: "Uh... won't there be an issue with the business scope?"
Fang Chang: "Depends on the region. The same regulation is enforced differently across localities, and things are pretty relaxed here."
"If you guys are fine with it, I can handle the paperwork!"
Compared to how to spend money, a joint venture clearly sparked far more enthusiasm for discussion.
The group chimed in with all sorts of chatter.
Some suggestions were serious, others completely unhinged.
The conversation soon drifted from the company's business scope to old-school web novel tropes about online gaming romances.
Watching the messages scroll by, Ye Wei suddenly thought of something and typed:
"By the way, what should our company be called?"
Don't tell me it's going to be Ox and Horse...
He still needed to hand out business cards to flex.
The chat went silent for a moment.
Fang Chang: "Does that even need asking? (side-eye)"
Kuang Feng: "Indeed."
Lao Bai: "Did this guy get hacked?"
Jieyan: "Hahahahaha!"
Ye Wei: "..."
Fuck!
***
Camp 101.
Alvin was flipping through the documents in his hands.
As the camp's archivist, his primary duty was to organize and categorize the knowledge bestowed upon them by the "Mentors," then select appropriate portions to hand over to the Production Division or Education Division as production guides or teaching materials.
It was by no means an easy job.
Science and technology were not merely sheets of paper, let alone strings of data.
They constituted an entire "system."
In the distant era of the People's Federation, hundreds of millions of researchers and related professionals had collectively supported that scientific system.
Some gathered data, some analyzed, some verified, some pointed out directions, some raised doubts, some synthesized, and some managed...
It was a living body of flesh and blood composed of hundreds of millions of cells.
And technology was nothing more than the hair growing from that flesh.
As for now?
All they could do was gather the giant's stray hairs and wrap them around themselves for warmth.
Forget him...
Even what about the legendary "Academy"?
Quite a few among them were genuine old popsicles from that era.
Yet even so, the heritage of the People's Federation was bleeding away second by second, and all they could do was preserve as much of it as lay within their power.
Alvin believed his work was meaningful. After all, as long as they remained alive, hope endured.
It didn't matter if they couldn't build starships; they could start from the most basic screws.
Yet as he grew older, the work became increasingly exhausting.
In truth, this burden was never meant to fall on one person's shoulders alone.
Unfortunately, Camp 101's population was simply too small, forcing many people to wear multiple hats.
Take himself, for instance.
He was the manager of the archives, a professor at the school, and whenever the Production Division ran into problems they couldn't solve, they still had to trouble him—a jack of all trades—for assistance.
It wasn't that they hadn't considered recruiting more hands, but ordinary wastelanders were utterly useless for such tasks. At most, they could help cook, sweep floors, or scavenge scrap...
After a moment's thought, Alvin slipped the last stack of printed pages into a folder.
Just then, a knock came from the door.
Recognizing the visitor by the rhythm of the knock, he spoke.
"Come in."
The door swung open.
A melodious voice drifted in with the breeze.
"Master, you were looking for me?"
Standing in the doorway was Pai.
She wasn't particularly tall, wearing a blue-striped white jacket. Pale golden short hair fell just past her chin, her nose and brows held a touch of spirited sharpness, and her eyes were an oceanic azure... though Alvin had never seen an ocean.
Perhaps because her eyes were the exact color of her blue jacket, she had been pampered by the Vault's pioneers from an early age. They had even gifted her a precious bionic chip, granting her memory and computational power far surpassing ordinary humans.
Rumor had it that not even a black box could manufacture such a device; it had been exceptionally rare even before the war, and every one lost was gone forever.
Thanks to that gift, at just sixteen years old, she had already mastered mechanical engineering, microelectronics, and astrophysics.
By Academy standards, her expertise was already sufficient to serve as a D-rank researcher or prospector. The only gap between her and higher-ranking researchers was experience.
After all, experience could not be acquired simply through study.
Hearing that lively voice, Alvin sighed softly, looked at the girl in the doorway, and corrected her matter-of-factly:
"It's Teacher."
Pai pouted.
"Yes, Teacher!"
Why so serious?
Still, recalling what the Education Commissioner had told her earlier, she tried her best to mind her manners.
It would make her appear a little steadier, better-behaved, mature—and above all, dependable!
Looking at Pai, Alvin's expression grew conflicted.
This girl was his proudest pupil, not only brilliant, but hardworking.
Yet she had plenty of shortcomings as well.
For instance, she was restless, lacked reverence, and couldn't endure tedious, repetitive work...
The "treasure" bestowed by the pioneers spared her the agony of deep, grinding contemplation, yet many virtues—including patience—had to be forged through hardship.
Alvin simply could not picture her sitting obediently at a desk sorting documents the way he did.
It seemed his retirement would have to be postponed once again...
"The school should have informed you. Starting tomorrow, you will serve as the representative of our delegation to visit Dawn City, the capital of the New Alliance."
Pai straightened her posture, brimming with drive.
"Don't worry, Teacher! I'll definitely bring back a wonderful agreement!"
Alvin chuckled.
"That won't be necessary. Your mission is primarily to convey goodwill, then observe their local culture and social environment... Once you return, I need you to write an investigation report."
"Huh? So I'm just a mascot...?" Pai's face fell.
When the Education Commissioner had brought this up with her, she assumed she was being appointed an ambassador, representing the people of Camp 101 and the pioneers of Vault 101 to sign an agreement of equality, friendship, and mutual aid with the New Alliance and Shelter 404.
That was it?
Traveling far from home was nice, of course, but she wanted to do more for everyone.
Something truly meaningful.
Anticipating her reaction, Alvin explained gently:
"Understanding precedes communication. Do not underestimate this assignment; your investigation report will help us evaluate our neighbors far more accurately. It is critical."
That lifted Pai's spirits somewhat.
Especially the words "is critical."
"Leave it to me, Teacher! I guarantee I'll count every single screw in their settlement!"
Seeing her vigor return, Alvin nodded approvingly.
"There is no need to go that far. Just converse with them politely... Go back and prepare. You depart first thing tomorrow morning."
"Understood!" Pai happily raised an index finger in a salute, then bounded away.
Listening to the cheerful sounds receding outside the door, Alvin shook his head with a smile and tucked the folder into his drawer.
He knew Horne wouldn't place all his hopes on her alone.
There were others in the entourage.
Compared to the investigation itself, showing respect and courtesy mattered far more.
To be blunt, his only expectation of her was to be an earnest, hardworking mascot.
Everyone had their own role to play.
Doing one's job well was more than enough.
***
Early the next morning.
The camp at Daybreak City.
Across what had once been barren ground now stood rows of boxy shipping container dormitories.
By Dawn City standards, the living conditions were undeniably spartan, but compared to the shacks most wastelanders built for themselves, they were a vast improvement.
Through the joint efforts of the aid construction corps and the local survivors, the surrounding land had been mostly leveled.
Having addressed temporary lodging, Rudy, the captain of the aid construction team, hadn't rushed into building permanent housing. Instead, he led his crew in excavating trenches across the ground.
These were not combat trenches, but future sewers for Daybreak City.
The arrival of the June rainy season would bring severe challenges to construction, so the drainage issue had to be tackled as early as possible.
What pleased Chu Guang was that the aid workers and the local survivors had forged deep bonds through their shared labor.
To put it in Paradox grand strategy terms: [Governing Ethics Attraction +50%, Stability +10].
Though the road ahead remained long and anything could happen, this was undoubtedly an auspicious start.
Standing at the entrance of his command tent, Chu Guang directed Xiao Qi to monitor the feeds of drones patrolling the skies.
Just then, Yin Fang approached from the side.
"Here is the data you requested."
Pulling a thumb-sized memory card from his pocket, he handed it to Chu Guang.
Almost all carbon-based electronic materials in the New Alliance were fabricated from components salvaged from VMs.
This memory card was no exception.
Chu Guang took the card and casually slipped it into his pocket.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome. But why do you even want this? We stopped using lithium batteries ages ago." Yin Fang regarded him curiously, unable to resist asking.
He remembered that before the Northern Expedition, in the Floor B4 reading room, Chu Guang had pulled him into a long, intimate conversation that eventually turned toward lithium batteries.
Even back then, he had found it bizarre.
Although the Prosperity Era had a considerable demand for lithium, it was almost never used in batteries.
Compared to "pure" and environmentally friendly solid-state hydrogen batteries, that relic had virtually zero advantages; at best, it was merely the optimal choice for its own era.
As their conversation drifted into the history of science, Yin Fang had mentioned a membrane material once used to suppress lithium dendrite growth. That immediately piqued Chu Guang's interest, and he insisted that Yin Fang compile the relevant literature and production techniques.
Afterward, nothing more had come of it.
So much time had passed that Yin Fang had nearly forgotten about it entirely.
Hearing Yin Fang's inquiry, Chu Guang offered no elaborate explanation, only a faint smile.
"In the right place, it can serve just the right purpose. Consider it a personal hobby of mine."
Hearing that evasive answer, Yin Fang made a helpless face.
How was that any different from saying nothing at all?
Still, he didn't dwell on it.
While materials predating the Prosperity Era were obscure, they were not complex.
If asked to compile documentation for Class C technology like solid-state hydrogen batteries, the process would take at least a hundred man-hours or more, even with the New Alliance already capable of producing them.
Yet for a historical relic...
Clues could be gleaned even from non-specialized popular science books, requiring only a little tracing of breadcrumbs.
Besides, the Scientific Expedition had plenty of "brave souls" willing to charge headlong into any ruins.
Back when he was a prospector himself, he had never dared to be so reckless.
Training a professional researcher was simply too difficult...
"If you don't want to say, forget it. I was only asking offhand. But speaking of which, how did Camp 101 respond? Is there any progress on the reactor?"
"Repairing the reactor is a systematic undertaking. Before deep cooperation begins, they need to understand me."
"True enough," Yin Fang nodded thoughtfully. "Even after repairs, the reactor must be kept running stably... The wastelanders you've gathered certainly couldn't handle that kind of work."
Chu Guang smiled.
"Naturally. Everyone has their limits. Take me, for instance... if you asked me to study that machine, I'd be utterly lost."
Yin Fang: "Really? I actually think you have quite a talent for it."
"Seriously?" Chu Guang asked, intrigued.
I have talent in that?
This was the first time he'd heard such a claim.
Yin Fang said in an assured tone, "Of course! Even at the Academy, not everyone does research. What they lack most are administrators who truly respect knowledge and researchers. I hear it wasn't like that in the past."
As he spoke, he let out a wistful sigh, seemingly recalling painful memories.
Chu Guang cracked a joke to comfort him.
"Perhaps it's because there are too many talents where you come from. So come join me instead. I have few people here, even fewer smart ones, and they're very easy to fool."
Yin Fang burst out laughing.
"I almost believed you!"
Few smart people?
Easy to fool?
That was the funniest joke he'd heard all day.
As they spoke, the VM on Chu Guang's wrist vibrated softly with a notification from Xiao Qi.
Chu Guang glanced down at his arm, his eyebrows arching slightly.
"They're almost here."
Faster than expected.
He had heard the entourage included not only engineers, but also bodyguards from Vault 101.
Yin Fang asked:
"They? Who?"
"The delegation from Camp 101."
Turning off the screen, Chu Guang looked at Yin Fang and said casually,
"Since you're here, let's go together."
Chapter 337