Shelter 79—or rather, Underground Metropolis 79.
Muzzle flashes moved rapidly from the shelter entrance along a wide corridor toward the nearest high-rise.
The elevators had long fallen into disrepair, leaving the emergency stairwells as the only way to move between levels.
The corridors, hundreds of meters above the floor below, were overgrown with moss, but what proved most lethal were the mutated creatures darting through them.
It was not just one building, either. Every tower here was the same.
Fortunately, they did not have to fight their way from the top floor all the way down to the ground; they could advance along skybridges connecting the buildings.
And the Administrator named Yong Shi had already plotted out the shortest route for them, downloading it to their VMs. All they had to do was push forward along the pre-set path.
Even so, "clearing" this place was by no means an easy task.
Even if they didn't go looking for trouble with the mutants, the mutants would come looking for them.
"Holy crap! What the hell are these things?!"
Looking at the multi-legged mutants charging toward them, Tail, who was perched on Rourou's back, gave a start. Gripping the machine gun with both hands, her index finger squeezed the trigger hard.
Orange-yellow tracers ripped through the mutant in an instant, but more immediately swarmed forward.
Rourou let out a roar, and her bear paws, studded with steel armor plating, swept out violently, batting two rushing monsters through the air and sending them plummeting into the abyss beyond the corridor.
Sisi and Sesame Paste raised their rifles, plugging the gaps in their firepower.
Spent brass ejected from the chambers clattered continuously against the alloy floor, though the ringing clangs were entirely drowned out by the explosive gunfire. In just a few breaths, the trio had burned through several hundred rounds.
Thankfully, the game had no endless monster respawn mechanic.
Faced with the overwhelming firepower of the White Bear Knights, the surging assault finally tapered off.
The group finally broke through the mutants' encirclement and pushed into the high-rise at the end of the corridor.
The space here was vast, spanning the size of three or four basketball courts. Opposite a semi-circular front desk stood rows of seating; it had likely once been a registration hall or something similar.
The double doors slammed shut.
Leaning her back against the cold metal door, Sisi propped her rifle beside her, breathed a long sigh of relief, and slowly sat down on the floor.
Her face was slightly pale, her chest rising and falling gently.
Standing next to her, Sesame Paste also caught her breath, hooking a finger into her sweat-dampened collar to loosen it from her neck.
"They were spiders..."
"Yeah..." Catching her breath, Sisi braced herself and nodded. "While it makes sense that arthropods would adapt better to confined terrain... if I had the choice, I'd really rather not deal with those things."
From the shelter entrance to their current location, they had made roughly 3% progress.
First, they had taken down two saber-toothed tigers, then clashed with a swarm of waist-high giant wolf spiders.
They hadn't encountered a Deathclaw yet, though they had spotted one through a pane of bulletproof glass.
That Deathclaw wasn't huge, but it was still a bit bigger than Scavenger.
"Huh? Sisi's actually scared of spiders!" Tail looked over, her eyes sparkling as though she had discovered a new continent.
Sisi shifted her gaze with a subtle, awkward expression.
"...Actually, it's not that bad. If it's just an arthropod, fine, but if it's an arthropod and furry... that's where I draw the line."
If only the gaming helmet could filter out that sensation.
Unfortunately...
For a game in closed beta, one couldn't expect it to be as polished as a full release.
"Heheh."
"...No pranks, Ah-Wei."
"I wouldn't! Is Tail that kind of person?"
"Emmm..."
"Wuwuwu, my Sisi actually hesitated!"
A smile appeared on Sisi's face, and she was about to say something, but right then, a faint creak came from the distance.
Like someone stepping in dust on the floor.
Alerted, Sisi immediately reached for her rifle, but three whistling sounds tore through the air almost simultaneously.
Three whooshes rang out. Unable to scramble up in time, she let out a muffled grunt and fell sideways, pulling the trigger toward the direction the sounds had come from.
Thunderous gunfire echoed through the empty room.
At the same time, Tail and Sesame Paste reacted swiftly, nimbly dodging the incoming arrows, raising their muzzles, and opening fire at the uninvited guests beyond the display windows.
Shrill screams soon followed.
Terrified by the fire-spitting sticks, the archers gibbered in panic, using walls, chairs, and counters for cover as they scattered in flight.
"People...?!"
Seeing the faces in the dark, Sisi's eyes filled with surprise.
However, they weren't speaking the Human Alliance language.
Or to be precise, it didn't sound like a language at all, resembling more the guttural howls of beasts.
Seeing Sisi down on the floor, Tail dashed over immediately, her face full of concern. "Sisi! Are you okay?!"
"I'm fine..."
Two arrows had struck her chest, but stopped by body armor, she barely felt them. The troublesome one was the arrow stuck in her shoulder...
Sisi gripped the shaft, gave it a slight tug, but quickly gave up on pulling it out. Instead, she snapped it in half.
Watching Sisi push herself up from the floor using her rifle, Sesame Paste said worriedly, "...Maybe we should pull back first."
This shelter didn't look like something that could be cleared in a single day anyway.
Tail and Rourou both nodded.
"Tail thinks so too!"
"+1."
"Yeah, let's head back to the shelter entrance first..." Looking at her worried companions, Sisi nodded.
Just then, her eyes fell upon the body lying dead from gunshot wounds.
Intrigued, she walked over and squatted down to examine it.
The figure wore clothing fashioned from leaves and vines. His skin was pale—a sickly white, as if untouched by sunlight for ages. His eye sockets were deep red, pupils bloodshot. His facial features resembled a human's, but his arms were noticeably longer and his fingernails sharp.
Frowning slightly, Sisi ran an index finger across the corpse's chest, felt around carefully for a moment, and then pulled her hand back.
"Find anything?" Rourou leaned forward curiously behind her.
"...Twenty-six ribs."
"Twenty-six ribs?" Tail looked blank.
"Normal humans have twenty-four... This guy probably isn't human, or at least not the same kind as us," Sisi said, getting up from the ground and dusting off her hands. "Let's take a body back to study."
...
The group retraced their steps, returning to the room connected to the shelter blast door that overlooked the entire underground metropolis.
They had left the vintage radio at the room's entrance.
Sesame Paste stepped forward and picked it up.
Having apparently witnessed the battle just now, praise came through the radio.
"Not bad. You're stronger than I thought."
"It seems my judgment didn't fail me."
Hearing that, Sesame Paste showed a bashful smile... Although she only grasped the gist of it, she could vaguely sense the admiring tone.
As for Tail, she was far less modest, beaming happily.
"Oh! Tail is super awesome!"
"Haha, impressive indeed, but you'll still need to put in more effort..." A cheerful chuckle came from the radio, though the tone carried a subtle, meaningful undertone.
Sisi suddenly spoke up. "Why are there people inside?"
The radio replied casually, "Merely savages who have degenerated into animals... Pay them no heed; you can think of them as monkeys."
Pausing, it smoothly shifted the topic. "It is getting late... Rather than worrying about those savages, I suggest you tend to the wounds on your body as soon as possible."
In-game time was approaching evening.
Without realizing it, they had spent an entire day inside Shelter 79.
The milky-white light cast from the dome was slowly receding, and the underground metropolis outside the floor-to-ceiling windows was gradually being swallowed by darkness.
It seemed this place had not only a jungle of steel, but also its own cycle of day and night.
If only this fortress had not fallen...
"...If it's the apocalypse, living in a place like this doesn't seem half bad," Sesame Paste remarked wistfully, standing at the door of the buffer chamber and looking back at the floor-to-ceiling window.
"Yeah."
"Why do you think the people here ran away?"
"Who knows? Maybe they had it too good."
Sisi replied casually, but out of the corner of her eye, she glanced at the radio Sesame Paste was holding.
She had a feeling this wasn't so simple.
After pondering for a moment, Sisi said in the Human Alliance language, "This isn't going to work. We don't have enough manpower... Do you mind if we call in more people?"
The radio replied unconcernedly, "Not at all. Why would I mind?"
He couldn't wait to have more people help.
However, what he understood as "calling in more people" was clearly not what Sisi meant.
A slight smirk curved Sisi's lips. "Then I'm relieved," she continued.
...
The elevator slowly ascended, stopping on the second floor of the Ruigu Municipal Library.
Weaving past rows of bookshelves to the door, Sisi reached out and opened it, only to see Wu Tao, mayor of Xiangling Street, standing guard outside with several burly survivors.
The weapons in their hands were an eclectic mix—pipe rifles, hoes, hand axes, and meat cleavers.
When Sisi and Sesame Paste had gone back earlier to fetch their teammates, they hadn't returned empty-handed; they had killed the saber-toothed tiger with protruding fangs near the entrance and hauled it back.
When they saw that hideous mutant hauled out of the room on the library's second floor, the survivors of Xiangling Town were scared out of their wits.
Compared to a tiger whose fangs were longer than daggers, the big white bear named Rourou looked practically adorable and gentle.
Once Sisi offered to clear out the mutants beneath the library for them, the local residents no longer rejected their presence in the settlement. They even took the initiative to build a sturdier ladder to help Rourou climb over the perimeter wall from outside.
Before Sisi could say anything, Wu Tao, standing at the door, hurriedly asked, "How's the situation down there?"
Sisi said with a grave expression, "Very bad! Right beneath your feet is a mutant nest!"
"A mutant nest?!"
The air went dead silent.
Fear gradually surfaced on Wu Tao's face.
The men behind him were equally terrified, exchanging uncertain, alarmed glances.
"And not just mutants. There's also a tribe of savages down there that can't be reasoned with at all. We brought back a body—it's over there."
Saying that, she glanced back and signaled Rourou to place the corpse they had brought out of Shelter 79 onto the floor.
Staring fixedly at the dead body on the floor, Wu Tao swallowed hard, then shifted his gaze to her shoulder. A broken arrow was stuck there.
"Your wound..."
"Don't worry, I'm about to treat it..." Sisi said calmly. "Shelter 79 has fallen, but we can't just leave it alone. We will clear out the monsters down below, so we might need to stay here for a few more days."
There were many entrances into Shelter 79, but most were ruined from years of neglect.
Sisi and Tail had explored down there earlier, and the only accessible entrance remaining was this elevator on the library's second floor.
Hearing this, Wu Tao didn't hesitate for a second and nodded quickly.
"No problem, you can stay as long as you want!"
Sisi smiled pleasantly.
"Good. Don't worry, with us here, those mutants won't hurt you."
Pausing, she added, "However, our strength alone probably won't be enough. In a few days, our companions will come help us... Could you prepare a few more rooms for us?"
Wu Tao blinked, hesitating. "How many... of you are there?"
"Maybe thirty or forty?"
Or possibly one or two hundred. Sisi gave a conservative estimate, mostly because she wasn't sure how many she could recruit.
Even so, upon hearing that number, Wu Tao's face still registered sheer shock.
"...Are you a mercenary corps?"
Immediately after, he added in a wary, lowered voice, "We can't afford to pay you."
Sisi smiled gently.
"That's fine. We don't charge."
No charge?
Could such a good deal actually exist?!
Hearing this, the residents gathered around the doorway wore expressions of surprise, suspicion, and outright disbelief.
The look on Wu Tao's face was equally priceless, yet he couldn't find a single reason to refuse, nor could he fathom what these people stood to gain.
Exchanging looks with the survivors beside him and whispering a brief consultation, he finally turned back to Sisi and slowly nodded.
"We can lend you the second floor. We'll move the books to the third-floor rooms. We'll... leave this to you then."
...
The official Wasteland OL website.
Every day during peak log-off hours, the forums bustled with activity. Especially these past few days.
With frontline battle reports and new map intel being released one after another, players' enthusiasm for discussion was growing higher by the day.
Right then, a peculiar thread popped up.
Sisi: "Shelter 79 trailblazing raid team recruiting! Requirements: LV10 or above, any gear welcome! Interested folks DM me ASAP!"
Edge Slacker: "Me me me!"
Indebted Big Eye: "Hands up!"
Next Door Old Wang: "Wait, Shelter 79 is in Ruigu City, right?! It's 150 kilometers in a straight line... That's way too fucking far."
Sisi: "Can't you just skydive out around the 120-kilometer mark?"
Next Door Old Wang: "Holy shit, right! We can fly over by plane!"
Aoao Sesame Paste: "Um, if you're planning to skydive over, could you bring us some ammo? We're running pretty low on ammunition... Please, everyone! QAQ"
Fang Chang: "Although I probably won't have time to head over, I'll chip in with a reminder: it's best to agree on the loot distribution before starting the raid."
Sisi: "Oh, don't worry, we've already factored that in! Since the dungeon payout and clear time are uncertain, we plan to give every participating player a flat payout of 10 silver coins per level per day. Simply put, an LV12 joining the run gets 120 silver coins a day. Bring your own weapons, ammo expenses reimbursed by us, death compensation 300 silver coins. Plus, 20% of the final dungeon profits will be a bonus pool, divided among all raid members based on their contribution to progress!"
Mole on the Run from the Canyon: "...Badass. Aren't you worried about losing money?"
Jieyan: "Holy crap! Rich girls!"
Sisi: "Hate to disappoint, but I'm not."
Dragging his mouse to browse the thread, Chu Guang, lurking from inside the shelter, wore an intrigued look.
"Not bad at all."
According to the stat and economy system he designed, an LV10 player taking on medium-risk quests could expect daily earnings of roughly 80 to 100 silver coins.
A daily wage of 10 silver coins per level was fairly reasonable and bound to attract plenty of players between LV10 and LV15.
As for taking a loss?
From the players' perspective, that risk certainly existed.
But as the Daddy of the players, how could Chu Guang let his hard-working little gamers get the short end of the stick?
Once the dungeon was cleared, he would calculate a reasonably generous payout based on their total expenses and the dungeon's difficulty—rewarding them with an amount that would make other players envious without destabilizing the game balance.
And he himself wouldn't even need to worry about the actual clearing process; with a few clicks of his mouse and keyboard, he could bag an entire shelter for free.
Thinking this, Chu Guang couldn't help but smile.
Truly worthy of the players he had raised.
Not only could they lead troops and fight wars for him, but they could also establish new outposts—all without requiring him to spend a dime on upfront investment.
Pretty sweet.
...
While Sisi was rallying players on the forum, on the second floor of the Ruigu Municipal Library, the room containing the elevator had already been cleared out through the efforts of Xiangling Town's survivors.
All the bookshelves and books had been relocated to the third floor, leaving the entire room with bare floors and the luggage brought by the White Bear Knights.
Perhaps for the sake of the serum, or perhaps considering the safety of those books,
the Administrator named Yong Shi said nothing, tacitly approving their conversion of the elevator entrance into a makeshift camp.
Night grew deeper.
Curled up in their sleeping bags, Sisi and Sesame Paste had already logged off, while Tail and Rourou sat beside the two sleeping bags, keeping watch during the first half of the night.
With nothing to do, the restless Tail was yawning out of boredom, whereas Rourou beside her remained full of energy, craning her barely perceptible neck as she glanced around.
"By the way, Rourou, what are you looking at?" Seeing her constantly looking around, Tail asked curiously.
"Um, nothing, I'm just a little bothered," Rourou whispered. "Say... that Administrator has cameras in this room, right?"
"Yeah, didn't you know?"
"It's not that I didn't know, it just feels like... doesn't that mean he's watching us while we sleep?"
Tail looked at Rourou in shock.
"Holy crap! Now that you mention it, that sounds super pervy!"
Rourou said, caught between laughter and tears, "Don't say it like I'm the pervert here... Don't you think it's weird? Having a camera right next to where you sleep."
Tail rubbed her chin and gave the matter serious thought before nodding.
"Mm... in real life that'd definitely be weird, but this is a game, right? Besides, it's not like we're changing clothes here."
If you really thought about it, wasn't all of Wasteland OL packed with the developers' "cameras"? And the ones watching weren't even NPCs, but code monkeys and engineers in reality!
Otherwise, how would that dog developer refine game content through the closed-beta players' behavior?
Thinking of this, Tail's expression suddenly shifted.
Wait!
If that was the case...
Wouldn't all the weird songs she sang while bathing have been overheard by that dog developer?!
"Giao!"
Looking at Tail, whose face had suddenly turned beet red, Rourou paused.
"What's wrong with you...?"
It was the first time she had ever seen Tail blush. And red all the way from her face to the tips of her ears.
"N-nothing."
Her twitching brow and forced smile were as stiff as could be, her knees rubbing together restlessly; from no angle did she look remotely fine.
Just as Rourou was about to press further out of curiosity, a thunderous boom erupted outside the window, shaking both the floor and the walls.
The awkward atmosphere vanished instantly.
The girl and the bear sprang up from the floor by reflex.
"South! The sound came from the south... The view here is too narrow, I can't see anything!"
Rourou pressed up against the boarded-up window, trying to peek through the cracks, but her view was hopelessly blocked by the thick vegetation and buildings outside.
Seeing Rourou plastered against the window, Tail immediately said, "Rourou! Stay here and watch over Sisi and Sesame Paste! I'll go check upstairs!"
"Roger!" Rourou replied at once.
A furious roar drifted from afar. Disturbed by the cannon fire, the Deathclaw outside seemed to have gone berserk, embarking on a bloody rampage.
Gunfire erupted all around.
Grabbing her rifle, Tail dashed out the door and sprinted up the stairs to the third floor, running right into a frantic Wu Tao.
A hunting rifle was slung across his back, his eyes brimming with panic.
Tail grabbed him and asked in broken Human Alliance language, separating each syllable, "Outside, what, happened?"
"The... the Legion!" stammered the hunter, who had only been mayor for a few days, his voice choked with incoherent terror. "Those black-cloaked soldiers! They're back!"
Chapter 385