Finally a New NPC?

In truth, she had no real choice. Xia Yan knew very well that with only one leg left, she would struggle even to hobble out of this street, let alone make it back to Boulder City. Besides, what good would going back do? Though she had been a mercenary for a good while, she had barely saved any money. A decent neural-link bionic prosthesis easily cost tens of thousands of chips, and even a cheaper mechanical-drive prosthetic went for thousands. That was comparable to the price of a chemically powered exoskeleton. Even if she sold herself, she couldn't afford one. It was either go with these people or wait here to die. The choice wasn't actually that hard. Perched on the edge of the swaying wooden handcart, jostling up and down alongside the bulging sacks of grain, Xia Yan let out a silent sigh. Perhaps this journey was the last bit of freedom she would ever know. Aside from dragging her back to bear children, she couldn't fathom what possible use she was to this man. A specialized skill? Labor? Ha. Thinking it over, the only thing she had left with any slight value was this body of hers. She had heard it hurt a lot. She wondered if that was true... "We're here." A voice from up ahead abruptly shattered more than two hundred thousand words of nonexistent melodrama. Snapping out of her daydream, Xia Yan jerked her head up and realized that, without her noticing, the group had brought her into a small grove. At the center of the ring of trees lay a clearing dotted with wooden stumps, where an unfinished concrete wall stood tall. Beside the concrete wall were kilns billowing pale smoke, and further back were earthen pits for smoking meat and racks for smoked fish. The air was thick with the scent of roasted meat, accompanied by a chorus of clanging and hammering. Some people were shaping stone with hammers, some worked bellows to pump air into the kilns, and others hauled rocks, laid masonry, or chopped timber. It looked like a massive construction site. Primitive and bustling. *Are all these people... his subordinates?* Taking in the scene before her, Xia Yan's pale face filled with shock. She did a quick rough count and saw quite a few people—nearly twenty in plain view—all dressed in matching blue uniforms. The moment she got a clear look at those clothes, it took her less than a second to deduce their identity. *Shelter residents?!* She had never heard of a shelter anywhere near here. Still... *What on earth are they doing?* Xia Yan felt utterly bewildered. Shelters weren't entirely uncommon in Qingquan City. Some had opened years ago, while many remained sealed to this day, waiting for their scheduled opening date. The ones that fared well occasionally became regional powers, while those that fared poorly mostly ended up as rations for mutants or alien beasts. Xia Yan recalled there was a shelter not far from Boulder City, but its survivors were deeply xenophobic, refusing contact with outsiders and keeping their heads down. Far from embarking on grand surface construction, they rarely stepped foot outside at all. For that matter, did a wall like this even make sense? It was sturdy, sure—bullets probably couldn't pierce it. But no matter how sturdy a wall was, could it ever surpass a shelter's blast door? That thing could block even gamma radiation. "...You people are from a shelter?" "Yes," Chu Guang replied, glancing down at the wound on her leg. "I thought you'd passed out." She had been remarkably quiet the entire way, making no fuss at all. Chu Guang had spent most of his attention scanning their surroundings and hadn't paid her much mind, assuming she had blacked out from blood loss. To his surprise, she was still conscious. "I'm not that fragile." Xia Yan lifted her chin. Her brow and facial expression were as stiff as poured lead; she thought it might make her look a bit more resilient. At the very least, it kept her from seeming cowardly. Unfortunately, nobody cared about her tough front. In fact, no one even noticed. "I can tell," Chu Guang remarked casually, pulling his gaze away from her mangled stump. "Your wound is healing slightly faster than an ordinary person's." Applying Shelter 404's stat template, this woman's Constitution had to be at least eight points, give or take one. An ordinary person in her position, even if they hadn't bled to death, would have slipped into a feverish coma by now. Yet she was still holding on, showing only cold sweat on her brow, a pale face, and somewhat groggy awareness. Of course, it could also be a latent "talent." Nearly every wasteland survivor was touched by mutation to some degree, so it was hardly surprising for someone to possess physical traits beyond the norm. Chu Guang looked over at the two players and gave his instructions. "Take the grain to Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes and have him store it properly." Chu Guang had told Brother Scrambled Eggs a few days ago to build a granary capable of storing grain and meat. Barring any mishaps, it should be finished by now. Whether the grain needed drying before storage or could simply be stacked in sacks, Chu Guang trusted that the chef was far more knowledgeable and reliable on the matter than he was. With players around, Chu Guang couldn't be bothered to sweat the trivial details. Last time, just making smoked meat had been exhausting enough; if he tried to plan a granary himself, the food would probably rot with mold or get eaten by rats before winter even arrived. Hearing the manager's command, Fang Chang and Ye Shi nodded in unison and accepted the quest. "Yes, sir!" "Understood!" Chu Guang said nothing more. Reaching down, he picked up the mercenary woman slumped on the cart. Ignoring her startled gasp, he slung her over his shoulder like a sack of grain. Then, reaching out with his other hand, he grabbed the backpack Ye Shi had looted from the three dead mercenaries and strode briskly toward the sanatorium. Watching from the side, Ye Shi and Fang Chang were filled with admiration. A heavy pack full of gear plus a living person had to weigh at least a hundred kilograms altogether. Scooping both up with two hands and walking off like it was nothing—that was insane strength! Watching the manager walk toward the sanatorium, Old Bai noticed the commotion and quietly wandered over. "What happened? Who's that the boss is carrying?" "Ask Fang Chang. He's the only one who watched the whole cutscene; I basically got nothing." Ye Shi looked thoroughly depressed, having spent the trip either looting bodies or being held hostage like an NPC prop. Fang Chang made a helpless face. "Don't look at me. The game doesn't have subtitles, so when the cutscene was playing, I couldn't understand a word the NPCs were saying to each other... Just think of her as a newly added NPC." He could make an educated guess, but explaining it in full was tough. It was better to wait for an update on the official website. Old Bai blinked. "All right... But speaking of which, why is she hurt so badly?" "Man, forget badly hurt—she almost died!" Ye Shi sighed. "You have no idea what we ran into on the way back." "What did you run into?" "A Crawler!" "Holy crap!" Old Bai looked at Ye Shi in shock and pressed eagerly, "You met a Crawler? What did it look like?" The official website had an entry on Crawlers, but aside from a few vague sentences, there was no detail about its combat strength, let alone an illustrated bestiary. All Old Bai remembered was that it belonged to the same category as Gnawers—both were symbiotic mutant strains born from fungal infection, seemingly tied to bioweapons, with origins lost to time. He had assumed it was merely concept lore and that the developers hadn't even finished the 3D model yet. Who would have guessed these two had actually crossed paths with one! "Ugly as hell. It had four crazy long arms, stood about half a man's height on all fours, and was probably two meters tall standing up. Not only was the thing ridiculously strong, but it was also absurdly fast! The three of us emptied a round from our guns and didn't land a single hit. In the end, the manager was the total badass—swung a steel pipe and stabbed it to death in a few strikes." Ye Shi described the scene with great dramatic flair, though his colorful storytelling barely conveyed any real specifics. Old Bai looked to Fang Chang for help, and the latter gave a wry sigh. "I can't explain it all in a couple of words, but it was basically just like Ye Shi said. That Crawler was ridiculously overpowered. My guess is this new update didn't just add in-game events, but also introduced more mutants, a new NPC faction, and related quests. Let's talk about it after we log off... The manager told me to deliver the cart to Brother Scrambled Eggs, so I'm going to turn in the quest first." Though Old Bai was itching to discuss the new findings with Fang Chang, there were only three hours left before nightfall. There really was no time to slack off. Old Bai sighed and nodded. "Fine, go ahead... I'm going back to tinkering with the steelmaking blast furnace. Once you're done, get your ass over here and help me!" "Got it. See you in a bit." *** Meanwhile, inside the sanatorium. The players working on the scaffolding quickly noticed the manager returning from outside. Naturally, they also spotted the woman slung over his shoulder. "Holy crap, look, look! The manager's carrying someone on his shoulder!" "Who's that???" "A new NPC?" "And it's a girl!" "Finally a new NPC! Boys, we're one step closer to closed beta!" "Ooooh!" At the thought of drawing closer to closed beta, every single player seemed injected with adrenaline, laying bricks and spreading mortar with newfound fervor. Carried on Chu Guang's shoulder, Xia Yan felt her cheeks burning hot—not just from the awkward posture, but because every single gaze directed at her felt like needles pricking her back. She couldn't understand what those people were saying, but she didn't need to. She could easily guess: it was undoubtedly crude filth matching the lewd stares of these men. She could already picture it—like hyenas on the wasteland, they were fawning and flattering their pack's alpha male, hoping that after he finished with his prey, they might be thrown a bone or a sip of broth. Evidently, she was that tender, succulent lamb. The more Xia Yan thought, the more terrified she became. Her clenched teeth began to chatter, and moisture gathered in her eyes, eventually spilling down her cheeks. Suddenly, regret consumed her. Rather than being humiliated and then tossed to the wolf pack to be torn apart, she would have been better off ending it herself and dying with some dignity. Yet her body refused to obey her. The elevator descended. *Ding.* Chu Guang strode through the shelter's blast doors, passed through the airlock, and stepped into the resident hall. Tossing the backpack full of gear aside, he unceremoniously dumped Xia Yan onto a chair. "*Hiss...* Gentler! What are you going to do?" Sucking in a sharp breath of pain, Xia Yan stared tensely as Chu Guang approached. "Sit still." Too tired to humor her, Chu Guang pulled open a drawer and retrieved a silver-white metal cylinder. Flicking off the plastic cap with his thumb, he gave it a customary tap with his index finger. "It shouldn't hurt. Bear with it."