Shelter 404, Floor B4.
Sitting on the sofa in the reading room, Chu Guang scrolled through his laptop, reviewing the intelligence Xiao Qi had compiled and organized.
Based on what the players had uncovered, he was virtually certain that the driving force behind last night's arson and the daytime siege of City Hall was Boulder City's largest grain supplier—the Weijia Trading Firm.
The photographs Fang Chang had taken and the excerpts from his audio recordings would serve as crucial evidence.
As for when to play this card, Chu Guang needed to weigh the timing carefully.
Boulder City's radio stations and broadcasts wouldn't cover the story right now, and publicizing it at this juncture wouldn't win the New Alliance much sympathy anyway.
At such a critical moment, even if Dulong knew Weijia had set him up and incited the residents to surround City Hall, he wouldn't dare say much.
After all, they currently faced a common threat.
Once the friendship agreement was signed, however, the situation would change.
After the two hundred million chips hit their account, the surge in employment would mend relations between the New Alliance and Boulder City, both among the public and the authorities. The Alliance would become an honored guest of City Hall, and anyone attempting to sabotage ties would be treated like a rat crossing the street.
Chu Guang would choose a less sensitive moment to have the Alliance's newspaper establish a branch in Boulder City, then run the revelation as the front-page headline.
When that time came, he could smoothly let his diplomats throw a fit, reasonably excluding the Weijia Trading Firm from the procurement list, and none of Boulder City's various factions would have anything to say.
A mere trading firm was at best an annoying troublemaker in the grand scheme of things. It wasn't worth Chu Guang's full attention; leaving it to the NPCs and players would be more than enough.
What truly commanded his focus was Boulder Military Industries.
Though it hadn't participated in the negotiations from start to finish—not even showing its face—Dulong, the chief of City Hall, prioritized its interests above all else.
Every gear seemed to revolve around it.
Everything else was negotiable.
Yet when it came to Boulder Military Industries and the City Lord, there was simply no room for compromise.
The so-called big figures in the outer city—whether municipal department chiefs, bank presidents, wealthy merchant heads, major factory owners, or gang leaders running rampant in the slums—were insignificant before that military-industrial conglomerate.
Like screws and gears clustered around an engine, they were swept along by an immense, inescapable force.
At present, Chu Guang possessed only a single scrap of intel on them: the conglomerate's chairman was apparently named Ebers.
Very little public information existed on the man. He almost never appeared in public, and rumors held that he was a favored guest of the City Lord. Though he lived in the outer city, even the nobles of the inner city held his power and influence in awe.
*They possess a serum capable of inducing Awakening... called Dragon's Blood.*
*While its success rate is higher than what the black box produces, its effects are far harsher. Basic adverse reactions include vomiting and diarrhea, while severe reactions can result in permanent disability.*
*Beyond that, they possess the technical capability to independently manufacture bionic prosthetics...*
Chu Guang closed his eyes, resting them while turning the facts over in his mind.
Across all his plans, only one variable had defied expectations so far.
The mastermind behind the attack on the New Alliance's diplomatic convoy was actually Boulder Military Industries.
From his perspective, he had already yielded a massive slice of the pie to them.
Anyone else had a reason to reject the friendship and cooperation agreement, but Boulder Military Industries stood to lose no major interest.
Unless...
Their perception of interest was entirely different from his own.
Chu Guang opened his eyes, murmuring thoughtfully to himself.
"...Was it a test?"
Right then, a call suddenly came through.
Pressing the accept button, Chu Guang picked up the headset from the table and slipped it on.
It was Luka on the other end.
His voice carried palpable excitement, tinged with a hint of hesitant nervousness.
"...They agreed to our proposal, but they added a supplementary condition."
Chu Guang raised an eyebrow. "What condition?"
Over the comms channel, Luka continued, "...City Hall raised it. They demand that before we use the loan, we must submit a procurement list in advance. Funds will only be disbursed upon their approval."
"That's all?" His brow relaxed slightly. Leaning back against the sofa, Chu Guang chuckled. "No problem. Let them add it."
Seeing the Administrator agree so readily, Luka hesitated. "...Is that really fine?"
Chu Guang answered without hesitation. "Why wouldn't it be? It's not like we're doing anything underhanded."
Bulk purchases couldn't be bought off store shelves; orders had to be placed with factories first.
Once the orders were locked in, if City Hall refused to sign off, the factories wouldn't receive their money from the bank. In the end, the ones suffering the loss would be Boulder City themselves.
Chu Guang knew what City Hall was worried about. They feared he would take the chips and wreak havoc—like buying up all the nutrient paste in the city and dumping it, or outright buying out bankrupt factories.
If they thought that was his aim, their vision was far too narrow.
Noticing that Luka still harbored reservations, Chu Guang, intending to groom him, continued, "Great enterprises are rarely built on petty trickery. You can rely on unconventional gambits to win once or twice, but to keep winning, we must rely on open strategies as much as possible.
"Once we complete the second step of our plan, the vested interests holding Boulder City's wealth will find themselves unable to live without us."
"And the third step?" Luka asked curiously, finally voicing the question he had harbored for so long.
Chu Guang had naturally considered that final step long ago.
In fact, it had been conceived back when the New Alliance and Dawn City were first founded.
"The third step is their residents."
Luka paused. "Residents?"
Chu Guang nodded. "Yes. Whether it's the hundreds of thousands within the massive walls or the over one hundred thousand outside them. Those survivors who have been neglected for so long—we will give them a taste of a good life. When the systemic flaws are exposed, we will lead them to face the darkness directly. We will unite them, shatter those invisible walls, and bring an end to the chaos in the southern river valley once and for all."
Even if production methods advanced to the point where human labor was largely unnecessary, where populations could be conveniently "manufactured," and human bodies could be modified with genetics and machinery...
The foundation of civilization remained human beings.
"...I want you to remember this, and tell those around you: the Human Reconstruction United Front is not just a survivor settlement, much less an enterprise or a legion.
"We are an alliance, born upon the ruins.
"And we are an alliance that belongs to every survivor."
***
Official Website Forum.
Today was bustling as usual.
While construction at Daybreak City proceeded in full swing, the restless Death Corps and Skeleton Corps pushed further east, advancing into the neighboring Tianshui City.
The Snake Clan stationed there had already withdrawn, but a small band of marauder deserters remained behind, engaged in alley skirmishes with slaves who had fled amid the chaos.
With close air support from the Goblin Corps, the Death Corps and Skeleton Corps crushed the local marauders' resistance without breaking a sweat.
Fearing a resurgence of the Bone Chewer tribe and reprisals from remaining marauders, the local survivors eagerly expressed their desire to follow the mighty fighters who had vanquished their oppressors.
Brother Edge and Brother Mole reported the local situation to the logistics NPC and quickly received a quest to set up a temporary relief station and escort the survivors toward Xizhou City.
Over the coming month, more than ten thousand survivors were projected to arrive at Daybreak City in waves.
The housing that had barely been sufficient was now running short once more.
Brother Edge posted a group photo of the local survivors on the forum. Wrapped in scarves and slinging LD-47s across their backs, they bore a striking resemblance to Syrian summer-job temps.
A certain mischievous Mole even photoshopped the picture, blurring Edge's face and slapping bold text across it: *[Skeleton Corps is hiring! 50,000 a day! No different from regular battle royale! DM if interested! Working is as fun as a chicken dinner!]*
Jieyan: *"6666!"*
Tail: *"Woah! Take Tail along too!"*
Brother Edge: *"What the hell! Fine, you blurred my face, but why the fuck did you slap your own corps' emblem on it?!"*
Debt-Ridden Big Eye: *"Hahaha, that damn Mole is too wicked! (Grin)"*
A Bit Rebellious: *"Fifty grand a day sounds alright. Dumb question, but where do I sign up?"*
Tyrannosaurus Warrior: *"I don't need wages, big bosses, just give me a helmet! T_T"*
*"..."*
Ever since the Northern Expedition's victory and the opening of the new map, available quests had multiplied.
Aside from corps hunting down marauders and hunters pursuing giant mutants, players keen on running merchant caravans were equally busy. They wore their helmets to run trade routes by night and shared travel anecdotes on the forum by day.
The Northern Expedition had yielded mountains of cheap war spoils. While they were of little use to the New Alliance, they were absolute treasures to small survivor settlements lacking industrial capacity.
Hauling salvage gathered from other players, caravans began traveling east across the plains, peddling these "implements of civilization" to settlements in need.
Because the Snake Clan had fled eastward, the demand for weapons across the eastern provinces had spiked dramatically. Many survivor settlements were eager to trade food, ore, or valuable relics they had scavenged for arms.
More and more trade-accessible settlements appeared on the map. Not only were players actively sharing coordinates, but the official forum was also updating information on those settlements in real time.
Naturally, this prompted plenty of players to complain in private chat groups about how lazy the dog developer was.
The map was already drawn, yet the developer couldn't even be bothered to write descriptions, simply copy-pasting players' forum posts for the settlement overviews.
Utterly shameless!
Of course, caravan trading and corps operations were primarily geared toward high-level hardcore players.
Very few could survive alone in the wasteland for a week without a respawn point, cut off from supply lines and communication, all while struggling through language barriers.
Whether waging war or running trade routes, sticking together in groups was the only viable choice.
Yet players possessing capital, business acumen, and organizational skills remained a minority.
For most players, daily life still revolved around standard quests within the game system's framework.
Ever since the silver coin trading platform reopened, moving bricks had become a genuine joy.
Strength-type players, whose single arms could do the work of two, boasted a 200% brick-moving efficiency. They instantly became the top pick for countless hard-grinding players, reclaiming their throne as the meta build of the current version.
A single silver coin fetched thirty to forty RMB at minimum, and major buyers consistently bought them up every day.
This was infinitely sweeter than moving bricks in real life!
The only shame was the scarcity of helmets.
Worst of all, the dog operator was playing the artificial scarcity game. Three days ago, they had released the final two helmets, freezing the closed-beta slots at 4,500.
Nobody knew who those two lucky bastards were—they hadn't even come to the forum to brag!
Truly infuriating!
Beyond sharing tips on trading and brick-moving, many players working at the Daybreak City construction site shared recent progress photos.
Through the joint efforts of players and NPCs, they had dug out the framework for the entire settlement's drainage system following a revised blueprint.
The planned Daybreak City was designed to house at least a hundred thousand permanent residents.
If all went smoothly without unforeseen hiccups, they would finish the project before the rainy season arrived.
Spare the Blade: *"...That NPC who came from Camp 101 is seriously cracked. The old guy redesigned the sewer construction plan for us. I stared at the blueprint for half the day and couldn't find a single flaw! Especially later, when I looked back at my own earlier draft, it looked riddled with issues no matter how I sliced it."*
*"Sigh, to think that after working in civil engineering for so many years, I'd get schooled inside a video game. Absolutely wild!"*
Ye Shi: *"Is it possible that you just freeloaded the server's computing power to coincidentally solve an unsolved problem in real life? (Grin)"*
Spare the Blade: *"Uh, to be honest, I've been wondering—is that something raw computing power can even solve?"*
Elaina: *"Our New Alliance's science and technology is number one in the world! (Grin)"*
Elven King Fugui: *"By the way, why has Ye Shi been on the forum every single day lately? (Grin)"*
WC Really Has Mosquitoes: *"Why else? He threw his life away and got put in jail. (Smirk)"*
Ye Shi: *"Piss off! I died a heroic death! (Rage)"*
Makabaka: *"Hahahahaha, dead!"*
Ye Shi: *"#%@%!"*
Seeing himself getting roasted across the forum again, Ye Wei rolled his eyes, closed the webpage, and switched over to his chat app.
Today was the final day of his "jail time." Come evening, he would be able to log back in.
Over the past three days, plenty had unfolded both inside and outside the game.
In-game, Fang Chang and the others had headed to Boulder City, taking part in the border and trade negotiations between the New Alliance and Boulder City.
As for the real world, even more had transpired.
Setting aside the endless barrage of headline news, a mountain of things had happened in his personal life alone.
First, the Niuma Company had been officially registered and incorporated, resolving the hurdles surrounding large-sum silver coin transactions.
Then there was Ye Wei himself.
The paperwork for the apartment he had purchased along the river had finally cleared. It was a mid-sized 126-square-meter unit with large living room windows and a balcony overlooking the river, fully furnished with quality renovations—costing five million in full cash.
To this day, he still remembered the dumbfounded expressions on the real estate agent's and landlord's faces when he made the payment.
Since it was a relatively new second-hand property, he hired cleaners for a deep clean, bought some clothes and bedding at the mall that very day, and moved right in without even unpacking his old luggage.
Today happened to be the weekend, and with no classes to attend, Ye Wei slouched on the living room sofa first thing in the morning, alternating between browsing the forum and scrolling through chat logs.
Normally by this hour, Lao Bai and Fang Chang would have logged off long ago. Today, however, they had lingered in-game, and it wasn't until noon that Lao Bai finally surfaced.
In the Niuma group chat:
The moment Lao Bai popped up, he hollered:
*"Fang Chang, where the hell did you run off to? Why didn't you answer my messages in-game?"*
Murderous Dagger: *"And he didn't return to the save point either!"*
All Good Names Taken by Dogs: *"Confess! Did you go off doing something shady?"*
Those two were recent recruits added to the group.
Along with Kidney Fighter and other members of the Burning Corps, they had joined during the previous expansion.
Jieyan: *"What? Fang Chang went off doing shady stuff? What shady stuff? Spill!"*
WC Really Has Mosquitoes: *"Hahaha, now that you mention it, I'm all ears! (Smirk)"*
Naturally, Mosquito wasn't the only one intrigued; the animals in the chat erupted one after another.
Among them was Ye Wei, who chimed in to fan the flames.
As the speculation grew increasingly absurd, Fang Chang, who had evidently been lurking, couldn't hold back any longer and finally piped up.
*"Holy crap, I just logged off to smoke a cigarette. What kind of nonsense are you guys spewing?"*
Lao Bai: *"An after-sex cigarette?! (Smirk)"*
Fang Chang: *"Screw off, degenerate!"*
WC Really Has Mosquitoes: *"I heard your last tracked location was the Queen of the Night bar. Confess! Did you do something dirty? (Smirk)"*
Messages flooded the screen faster than he could answer.
Fang Chang simply pretended not to see them and typed away on his own:
*"...Enough nonsense. This time, I mainly verified three hypotheses about Wasteland Online.*
*"First, regarding the trigger condition for hidden quests: actively gathering relevant intel based on your faction's current needs carries a certain chance of triggering a hidden quest.*
*"For example, the side quest I'm currently running—gathering information on the warehouse district arson and the protest organizers—was actively triggered by trailing key targets."*
Lao Bai: *"Are the quest rewards good?"*
Fang Chang: *"A bit higher than regular quests, especially the regional reputation reward."*
Scavenger Lv99: *"What about the second hypothesis?"*
Fang Chang: *"...Regarding bionic prosthetics. While Boulder City's weapons shops sell basic prosthetic limbs, their performance is pretty lackluster—their operational efficiency is even worse than original biological limbs.*
*"Earlier, I saw the guard beside that NPC named Liszt, and the parts installed on him were visibly far more powerful. That got me wondering whether Boulder City might have something akin to a black market where you can purchase equipment not found on the open market."*
WC Really Has Mosquitoes: *"Did you find where the black market is? (Curious)"*
Fang Chang: *"Yeah. There's a private clinic in the outer city. An NPC I just met gave me a business card, telling me to take chips to that guy and he could hook me up with hard-to-find 'good stuff.' Supposedly, they don't just have bionic prosthetics made by Boulder Military Industries, but also androids and certain varieties not sold to the public. I plan to head over and take a look tomorrow."*
The moment that message landed, the group chat instantly blew up.
Bionic prosthetics from Boulder Military Industries were impressive enough, but androids too?
That was insane!
Jieyan: *"Holy shit, awesome!"*
Lao Bai: *"6666!"*
Tomato Scrambled Eggs: *"Such a massive update without an official announcement? Doesn't sound like Brother Guang's style. (Shocked)"*
WC Really Has Mosquitoes: *"Maybe Brother Guang hasn't finished developing that section yet and you stumbled on it early. You're done for, prepare for the ban hammer. (Smirk)"*
Scavenger Lv99: *"Damn it! Fess up, did you sell your soul to the dev?"*
Fang Chang: *"Get lost! Slander me all you want, but is Brother Guang that kind of person?! (Rage) (Rage)"*
Reading the long stream of messages on his screen, Ye Wei couldn't help marveling.
For a moment, he didn't know whether to admire the sheer realism of the game for featuring an actual black market, or to admire Fang Chang's brilliance in actually tracking it down.
*Wait, weren't there three hypotheses? What about the last one?*
Seeing that thought voiced in chat, the clamoring members caught on immediately.
Right.
They had only heard the second piece of juicy gossip.
What about the third?
Confronted with the group's relentless questioning, Fang Chang fell uncharacteristically silent.
Just as Ye Wei assumed he was drafting his response, a line of text popped up.
Fang Chang: *"Sigh... truth be told, it's a bit embarrassing. On second thought, let's talk about it later."*
Ye Shi: *"???"*
What did he mean, *talk about it later*?
Was that something a decent human being would do?
Yet no matter how frantically everyone tagged him, Fang Chang refused to surface again.
Ye Wei despised people who stopped midway through a story. Feeling as if ten thousand ants were crawling across his chest, he flipped open his contact list, itching to call him on the spot and demand an explanation.
Right then, a notification banner popped up at the top of his screen.
Ye Wei tapped it instinctively and saw a message from his younger sister.
Jiujiu Loves Pineapples: *"Bro, I finished my exams!!"*
Finished?
Ye Wei blinked, checked the date, and realized today was already June 9th.
Damn it!
So much had happened over the past few days that he had completely forgotten his sister was taking the Gaokao!
Remembering his earlier promise, Ye Wei immediately opened his e-commerce app and checked out the phone sitting in his shopping cart.
Waiting just a couple of months had actually knocked two to three hundred off the price.
Then he recalled a recent piece of news.
If he waited another two months, wouldn't there be phones with vastly superior battery capacities on the market?
Forget it... he had already bought it.
Worst-case scenario, he could just upgrade her phone again when the time came.
Staring at the payment confirmation screen, Ye Wei shook his head, closed the app, and switched back to WeChat to reply.
*"How'd it go?"*
Jiujiu Loves Pineapples: *"Hmph, in the bag! (Smug)"*
If she said it was in the bag, there was likely nothing to worry about.
A relieved smile spread across Ye Wei's face; this was the best news he had heard all day.
He was about to mention the new phone to her, but his typing had grown a bit rusty lately. Before he was halfway through composing his sentence, another flurry of messages dinged across the screen.
*"By the way, Bro, since I've got nothing to do during the break, I'm coming to Jiangcheng to visit you!"*
*"Plus, I want to look around nearby and see if there are any summer jobs I can do! (Smug)"*
*"What do you think about working at a milk tea shop? (Hopeful)"*
Ye Wei typed back, amused and exasperated:
*"Why are you looking for a summer job, you little brat? Just enjoy your break! You won't get many carefree days like this in the future!"*
Jiujiu Loves Pineapples: *"It's called building social experience! What do you know!"*
*"Besides, I'm an adult now. Calling me a little brat—just how old are you, grandpa? (Eye roll)"*
Ye Wei: *"Cut the nonsense. By the way, the university you're applying to is here in Jiangcheng, right? You might as well bring your luggage over now and leave it at my place first."*
Jiujiu Loves Pineapples: *"Leave it at your place? Are you sure you have enough room? (Side-eye)"*
Reading the message, a fond smile crept across Ye Wei's face.
Come to think of it, he had been so swamped these past few days that he hadn't yet told his family about buying the apartment.
He suddenly felt a surge of anticipation, wondering what look would cross his sister's face...
*"Just bring it along. I'll have a surprise for you when you get here."*
Jiujiu Loves Pineapples: *"Really? Then I'm definitely bringing it!"*
*"Oh right, speaking of surprises, I happen to have one for you too!"*
*"Hehehe, just you wait! (Grimace)"*
Ye Wei froze, his expression turning somewhat strange.
He couldn't tell if it was just his imagination, but the moment he saw the word *surprise*, rather than feeling any eager anticipation, an ominous foreboding washed over him.
*Hopefully it's just my imagination.*
After all, reality wasn't a game.
His Perception couldn't possibly be that high...
Chapter 355