Consider It a Perk for the Players

"Huh? Already thirty reward points?" The players had been quite diligent lately. Chu Guang shut down his computer and was getting ready for bed. Before turning in, he checked his Administrator Allowance and was surprised to find he had scraped together thirty reward points. Without a second thought, he allocated twenty points to an intermediate blind box and dumped the remaining ten into beginner blind boxes. However, the prizes he drew were far from ideal. At least, none of them were what he actually wanted. "A box of oral antibiotic capsules, about twelve in all. A box of hemostatic bandages containing two packs, good for two uses... What a pity, no muscle enhancement injection." "Even a healing injection would've been nice." Gathering the supplies from the conveyor belt, Chu Guang sighed inwardly. They weren't entirely useless, but they were thoroughly mediocre. As for the ten beginner blind boxes, aside from a pile of brightly colored lollipops, the only useful items were a 500-milliliter bottle of soy sauce and a 500-gram bag of salt. Still, that bag of salt was rather intriguing. "...A single intake exceeding ten grams boosts immunity by one to five percent and metabolic capacity by one to five percent. Holy crap, did I just roll a legendary item?" What would happen if someone ate the whole bag at once? The notion of stacking buffs flashed across Chu Guang's mind, but he quickly realized how idiotic that was. Eating an entire bag of salt would probably pickle a person from the inside out. "Whatever, I'll put it on the shelves tomorrow." Five hundred grams could be divided into five individual hundred-gram packets. Selling each packet for three to five silver coins seemed more than fair, didn't it? In all good conscience, that really wasn't asking for much! It was refined salt, pure white, free of sulfur, sulfate ions, and organic impurities—plus it came with a stat buff. Consider it a perk for the players. The soy sauce was harder to divide, as sealed hundred-milliliter containers were tough to come by, so he might as well just slap a price tag of twenty silver coins on it and put the whole bottle on the shelf. Unless a player planned on opening a restaurant, nobody was likely to buy it anyway. "That's that, time to sleep... Xiao Qi, wake me at six tomorrow morning." Idling in the corner of the room, Xiao Qi blinked its indicator light. "Understood, Master!" Chu Guang drifted off to sleep shortly after. In the adjacent room, however, Xia Yan sat huddled in the corner, unable to sleep a wink. It wasn't because of anyone's snoring; the soundproofing was actually quite good, and closing the door blocked out virtually everything. What truly kept her tossing and turning was the fact that tomorrow was her first official day on the job. Was this job as the "weapons shop proprietress" really legitimate? Chu Guang had been feeding her good food and drink for the past few days, leaving her feeling uneasy. After all, captives were generally given nutrient paste with practically no nutritional value, or sawdust mixed with tree bark, or whatever other awful slop was on hand. Never mind meat and porridge—getting actual, normal food was something to thank the heavens for. Yet after just two days here, she felt as if she were actually putting on weight... Dwelling on wild thoughts for too long made one drowsy. Clutching her script, Xia Yan unconsciously drifted off. When someone roused her from her stupor, it was already eight in the morning. "Up you get." Looking up at the man standing in the doorway, Xia Yan rubbed her eyes. Bracing against the wall, she tried to stand, only to find a pair of crutches placed before her. "Are these... for me?" Chu Guang chuckled. "Who else here would need them?" Once conditions improved, he would look into getting her a bionic prosthetic. Seeing her like this really did look a bit pathetic. "..." *This guy! Why is he always so infuriating!* Xia Yan ground her teeth, tucked a crutch under each armpit, and struggled to her feet. Watching her complete the entire motion on her own, Chu Guang gave an approving nod, quite satisfied with her grit. "Not bad. Looks like they suit you." With a cold, stiff expression, Xia Yan retorted, "Say whatever you like... I'm your prisoner anyway. Even if you want me to—" "All right, that's enough out of you." Having no desire to entertain her wild imagination, Chu Guang cut her off without hesitation, cleared his throat lightly, and continued, "I'll assign you your work in a moment. For now, follow me outside." The last time she had breathed outdoor air had been three days ago. Stepping onto the elevator alongside Chu Guang, she rode it straight to the surface. Seeing the sunlight spilling across the ground before the sanatorium, Xia Yan instinctively raised her left arm, crutch included, narrowing her eyes behind her long lashes against the dazzling brightness. "Did you build that wall out there?" Chu Guang replied casually, "Give me your appraisal." Xia Yan curled her lip. "Mediocre at best. Might be enough to handle a few backwater marauders. But if mutants came, they'd probably hop right over it just by stepping on something, to say nothing of facing a Tide." Hearing an unfamiliar term, Chu Guang glanced at her. "A Tide?" Xia Yan spoke in an offhand tone. "Something that happens fairly often along the Ring Three line. You probably don't experience it all the way out here. Hordes of Gnawers migrate from around Ring Two toward Ring Three, mixed with plenty of Crawlers—and even mutants far stronger than Crawlers... Even if I explain it, you probably couldn't imagine it." Due to the sheer scale of Boulder City, whenever mutants migrated northward from the city interior, they inevitably passed through this survivor fortress. War between mankind and mutants was naturally unavoidable. Though Xia Yan's mercenary squad had merely been a fringe unit, they had participated in several missions dealing with the Tide. Operating alongside the main force actually lowered the risk considerably, and the money for such missions was usually easy to earn. To restore trade and production as quickly as possible, the big shots in the city spared no expense, paying massive sums to hire them and providing ammunition without the slightest stinginess. All the mercenaries had to do was pull the trigger and brace the stock against their shoulders. Many of the poor living in the slums had embarked down the irreversible path of merc work during a Tide. "Indeed," Chu Guang nodded. "I've only seen Gnawers a few times... They seem to be photosensitive?" That had been back when he first arrived on the wasteland. He had genuinely come within a hair's breadth of dying... Xia Yan nodded. "Yes, not only are they photosensitive, but mutant hyenas, jackals, moles, bats, flies, and rats don't take kindly to them either. When starved enough, they'll treat them as prey... That's why those creatures usually cram into subways or sewers." "Generally speaking, if you see one, you're effectively looking at a horde. Running into them in cramped quarters is extremely dangerous." Silently noting down these clues, Chu Guang decided he would update the official website's database with an entry for "Tide" later. For now, however, was not the time for that. "...From now on, this building is your workshop. When conditions allow, I'll have someone build you a new one." "For now, just make do with this." Leading Xia Yan to the entrance of the weapons shop, Chu Guang took the wooden board resting by the door and hung it on the hook beside the frame. "I carved the prices onto the board and taught you the relevant lines. If you have any other questions, go find Xiao Qi... though it's on the third floor, so getting up there won't be easy for you. My players are very friendly. If you don't understand what they're saying, just stare at them blankly." For shut-in nerds lacking social skills, an expressionless stare was lethal enough. "Players?" Because Chu Guang spoke the term in Chinese, Xia Yan had no idea what it meant. "Translated, it means 'shelter residents,'" Chu Guang explained offhandedly. "You don't need to memorize their names, nor do you need a profound understanding of the word. Just address them that way." Calling shelter residents "shelter residents" felt a bit rude, somehow... Still, since Chu Guang had put it that way, Xia Yan raised no further objections. She was nothing more than a slave; having a decent job was already the greatest mercy she could hope for. "Remember, keep a ledger for every single item sold. I'll inspect the books and inventory daily. That said, even the cheapest pipe rifle costs over a hundred silver coins, and the 'players' can't afford them for the time being, so your work shouldn't be too hectic. When you have free time, help me repair that assault rifle, and craft some bullets and weapons within your ability." Xia Yan peered into the empty room. Aside from a table and a single chair, there was only a wooden board hammered with nails. Crude pipe weapons hung from the nails, and beneath them hung wooden tags displaying prices, apparently out of concern that she might forget them. Looking rather dazed, Xia Yan turned to Chu Guang and couldn't help but ask, "Are you expecting me to gouge out a gun with my fingernails?" Chu Guang asked, "Can you do that?" Xia Yan snapped, "Like hell I can! Even if there's no electric lathe, you should at least have a manually operated workbench, shouldn't you?!" Mercenaries who used DIY weapons frequently found themselves unable to purchase the necessary ammo and parts from store shelves. In those cases, they usually went to small or mid-sized machine shops that customized mechanical parts or precision instruments, renting a workbench there to fabricate what they needed themselves. Out of poverty, Xia Yan had crafted weapons and ammunition before. While she couldn't afford high-end automated machine tools where one could simply input blueprints and produce parts, making these items on budget-friendly electric lathes was neither difficult nor particularly time-consuming. Yet the sight before her exceeded her wildest imagination. Never mind an electric lathe—there was neither electricity nor a lathe here. Forget about various types of cutting tools; there wasn't even a basic turning tool, boring bar, or milling cutter. What kind of weapon could anyone possibly make here?! Unfazed by her complaints, Chu Guang calmly said, "So, if you need something, say it. Don't make me guess." "Now I need you to draw up a list. Write down everything you need, and preferably sketch simple drawings of what they look like. If they can be scavenged, I'll have the players do their best to find them. If not, I'll figure out a way to buy them... By the way, remember to write down their approximate prices. I don't want to overpay." Xia Yan replied, "Turning tools, boring tools, milling cutters, pliers, and hammers—those are the bare minimum. Besides that, I need a slotted rail with threads and measurement markings... Never mind, I'll just draw it." "Sketches are best. Make them as detailed as possible; my players might even be able to fabricate them." Chu Guang produced paper, a pen, and a wooden ruler, handing them to Xia Yan. Taking them, she knitted her brows and began writing and sketching from memory. Chu Guang didn't rush her. Drawing these things in a way that others could understand wasn't easy, especially for an amateur mercenary. Then again, didn't everything start with a first time? Once Xia Yan finished drawing, Chu Guang added two lines of text to the paper, then headed to the warehouse and found the player on duty behind the wooden desk. Handing the sheet over, Chu Guang said concisely, "I need the items on this paper." "If anyone comes here to sell items, pass the word along for me and tell them to keep an eye out while scavenging." "When you have free time, trace this blueprint and make a few extra copies. Post one by the door, and send another over to the blast furnace." The warehouse keeper's duties also included posting gathering and production quests, since assigning them one by one himself was too troublesome. The player took the paper, and his eyes flew wide. [Quest: Forge or scavenge a turning tool (drawing attached)] [Reward: 10 silver coins, 100 contribution points] *Ten silver coins!* *Holy crap!* *That's equivalent to an entire day's wages firing cement!* *If I can scavenge one, wouldn't I be rich?!* There seemed to be more than one quest; identical notices offered rewards for boring tools, milling cutters, and the like. Leaving the warehouse keeper drooling over the rewards, Chu Guang gave his final instructions and turned to leave. Though the quest stipulated forging or scavenging, to be frank, he didn't harbor much hope that the players could scavenge such good things from the wasteland. Setting aside the fact that it was already year 211 of the Wasteland Era, pre-war society before the nuclear conflict might not have even used such "primitive" machining tools. For all he knew, they had long since popularized far more advanced manufacturing methods. Like 3D printing, for instance. While the technology hadn't fully matured on twenty-first-century Earth, who could say how far the future had come? What Chu Guang truly looked forward to was his lovely players solving the problem using the limited tools and materials at hand. For example, several bros who regularly discussed metallurgy on the forums were all on the roster for the third wave of closed beta players, and the fourth wave had added a few more. Aside from those who were all talk and no action, he believed that among these players, there would always be one or two who could genuinely solve practical problems.