NPC No. 2 Goes Online and a New Stall Gameplay!

The players' performance truly did not disappoint Chu Guang. The two fellows majoring in metallurgy took merely two days to fabricate the tools needed by the "weapon shop lady boss." They had even improved the blast furnace on the side, cleverly resolving the issue of air bubbles in their backyard steel castings. Among the finished castings were a boring tool, a lathe turning tool, and a milling cutter. Although they were all cast parts, their strength was quite reliable. With proper care and maintenance, lasting a few months would be no problem at all. In addition, there was a dual-rail threaded caliper modified from screws, steel bars, and scrap gears, with one side of the caliper connected to a winch fitted with a drive shaft and handle. Through the gears, this apparatus converted torque into horizontal thrust. Each notch turned on the winch pushed the caliper's tool holder horizontally by exactly one millimeter. While its efficiency could not compare to an electric lathe, it could still make do when machining parts requiring millimeter-level precision. The only thing that left Chu Guang utterly speechless was probably the IDs of the two brothers who had completed these commissions. One was named [Who Will Smell My Athlete's Foot], and the other was [Ya'er I Wanna Go to the Restroom]. What kind of cursed names were these... Regardless, according to the order sheet outside the warehouse, the two received a huge sum of eighty silver coins in total, splitting it evenly at forty each. Per their plan, they intended to grind contribution points for a week to scrape together two thousand points as soon as possible so they could buy a plot of land in front of the sanatorium. The rewards for crafting the tools had given them a taste of the sweetness. They planned to set up a workshop when the time came, specializing in metallurgy and forging. "...Are these tools enough?" In front of the weapon shop, Chu Guang placed the wooden crate of metal implements on the table before Xia Yan. Xia Yan glanced at the tools in the crate and nodded reluctantly. "They'll do. With these tools, making bullets at least won't be a problem. If you can get seamless steel tubing, I can even make you some simple pipe rifles... Did you buy these?" "The players made them." "Made them?" Xia Yan looked at Chu Guang in surprise. "I didn't expect your people to have this kind of skill." Chu Guang smiled and said, "How do they compare to Boulder City?" "Boulder City is huge. It depends on who you're comparing them to." As Xia Yan mounted the threaded caliper to the wooden table, she continued indifferently, "Not everyone there is a pauper like us. There's also a regular army armed to the teeth—Boulder City's militia. They have power armor, twin-engine aircraft, neural-link drones, half-track support vehicles, and things I can't even name." "Oh? That strong?" Chu Guang said with a smile. "Then how come I've never seen them march out this way?" "Who knows? Maybe they just aren't interested. There's nothing good in the countryside anyway," Xia Yan replied vaguely. In truth, she hadn't said everything. Although Boulder City's militia certainly possessed some good hardware, obviously not every militiaman was armed to the teeth. Take the power armor: as far as she knew, the entire militia possessed barely a double-digit number of suits, over half of which were shoddy post-war knockoffs with relatively outdated power sources and weaponry. Only a small fraction were pre-war equipment that had yet to break down, powered by helium-3 cold fusion batteries that grew scarcer with every one used up. As for things like drones, aircraft, and support vehicles, they sounded terrifying, but in reality their deterrent value far outweighed their practical combat utility. Especially in zero-distance urban warfare, cannon fodder was always the most cost-effective choice. In the slums of Boulder City, turning an infant into a soldier took only thirteen years, and the "maintenance cost" was nothing more than nutrient paste made from cockroaches, spiders, and rats. Though Chu Guang never believed more than half of what this girl said, these interesting background details could certainly be added to the official website's database. Whether backseat gamers or active players, they all loved this kind of pie-in-the-sky lore. ... Toward evening. The players returned to the outpost one after another. Chu Guang noticed that on the open ground just inside the outpost's north gate, several players had actually set up stalls. And the hottest stall among them belonged to Yaya. "Mushrooms for sale! Fresh mushrooms! Don't miss out as you pass by, quack!" "After working hard all day, aren't you going to stew a pot of mushroom soup to reward yourself for your efforts?" "It smells amazing!" Unable to accept quests from NPCs and unwilling to starve, yet too embarrassed to sponge off others for meals every single day, Yaya had no choice but to set up a stall. Aside from the mushrooms used to complete her penalty quest, she had kept about twenty jin for herself. With the mindset of giving it a shot, she arranged them at her stall and began hawking them. Passing players quickly gathered around. "Are your mushrooms edible?" "Are they fully ripe?" "Are they male or female?" "Are they safe for sensitive skin?" "If I eat them, will I see dancing little men?" "Edible, completely edible! And you can see—wait, no, no, no, you can't see them! See for yourselves if you don't believe me!" Yaya picked up a mushroom, stuffed it into her mouth, and took a bite, hopping in place to show she was still alive, having neither disconnected nor felt dizzy. Seeing the stall owner eat one herself, the players crowded around hesitated no longer and took out their copper coins one after another. Just as Yaya said, one jin of mushrooms wasn't expensive, selling for only 3 copper coins, far cheaper than the food sold at the granary. The new version had already been live for two days, and the vast majority of players could afford it. "Give me a jin. No meat for me today; I'll try cooking mushroom porridge." "Grilled mushrooms sound pretty good too." "Boss, give me a jin. If it doesn't taste good, I'm coming back for a refund." "What a pity I won't see little men. Next time bring some that let me see them! I want Klee to call me her husband." "Hello? 110? There's a pervert here." In less than five minutes, the entire pile of twenty jin of mushrooms was completely sold out. Looking at the handful of sixty heavy, shimmering golden little copper tokens in her palm, Yaya was so moved that tears nearly squeezed from her eyes. Is... is this what it feels like to be rich! It really hadn't been easy! Although... When she did the math, it was really only six silver coins. On the other side, players who had finished buying mushrooms suddenly noticed, as they passed the weapon shop, that several never-before-seen tools had appeared on the wooden table in front of the weapon shop lady boss. As everyone knew, the dog devs of Wasteland OL were all about the details. Sharp-eyed players had already recognized that the items on the table were cutting tools used for crafting equipment. In other words... In the future, they could grind materials and have the NPC help them mod equipment?! "Are you Kiri from Empyrean?" "Lady boss, where's the boss?" "Stupid, she's the mercenary the administrator rescued earlier! There is no boss." "I know, but taking it so seriously just makes you look dense." Xia Yan stared bewilderedly at the players surrounding her. Although she didn't understand a word they were saying, she still remembered what Chu Guang had instructed. Wearing a cool expression, she looked at them and recited her lines word for word: "Hello, I am Xia Yan of the weapon shop. How may I help you?" "This NPC doesn't look very smart." "That's normal. In a server this big, being able to support one or two expressive NPCs is already pretty good!" "5mm smoothbore pipe rifle, quality [Poor]... Fuck, even a poor-quality one costs a hundred silver coins! I'm out of here." "Sigh, can't afford it, can't afford it." "Wuuu, she really is Kiri from Empyrean. I can already smell the stench of wealth right off the price list." Xia Yan: "..." These people are so annoying. Why do they talk so much? Are they buying or not! However, what brought Xia Yan slight relief was that, just as Chu Guang had said, their attitudes were indeed quite friendly. Although staring was rather impolite, at least they wouldn't do anything irrational just because she ignored them. In Boulder City's taverns, ninety-nine percent of brawls started because Person A looked at Person B one second too long. ... After the players logged off, a new thread appeared on Wasteland OL's official website, and its popularity quickly surged to make it the number one trending post of the day. [Mole Daily: Shelter 404 Welcomes NPC No. 2! The Weapon Shop Lady Boss from Empyrean (Wait, No)—Xia Yan!] Mole on the Run from the Canyon: [Hello everyone, I'm the red-nosed mole who fled from the Canyon. There wasn't enough land to farm back in the manor, so I decided to hide out in the wasteland for a while.] [Getting back to the topic, today let's talk about the newly added NPC, Xia Yan!] [This NPC actually went live yesterday, but yesterday was probably a debugging phase. Even though she sat in front of the table, a 'closed' sign hung at the door. Today, not only was the closed sign taken down, but guns were hung on the shelves, and a set of tools appeared on Boss Xia's table! Bold prediction: this will be your Kiri from now on. Wonder when we'll see a +14 reinforced pipe rifle. (Funny)] [Also, attaching my crude hand drawing for reference only. No flame if you don't like it.] [Image] Although Wasteland OL did not support in-game screenshots, that didn't stop top artists from sketching the in-game characters on their drawing tablets. Take this Brother Mole, for instance. Who would have guessed he was secretly a master artist? The drawing actually looked remarkably legitimate. Fleeting White Horse: "666!" Ye Shi: "Practically identical!" Tengteng: "Love it, love it! She's so badass, totally radiating alpha energy! (Cute) (Cute)" Mole on the Run from the Canyon: "Hehe, I actually studied fine arts, but switched fields after failing the Central Academy of Fine Arts entrance exam. A tiny suggestion for the devs: you could give the new NPC a punk-style Z-shaped studded belt and goggles, change her outfit to jeans and a white shirt, and pair it with red hair to make her look even more badass! Just a suggestion, of course." Quitting Smoking: "Master artist, draw the Shuguang Boss too! I'm way more interested in him! (Pity)" That Touch of Longing: "Exactly, exactly! Who wants to see the weapon shop NPC? I want to see what the Boss looks like! The website doesn't even have a single preview image of him!" Mole on the Run from the Canyon: "Don't rush me, I'm drawing him right now. Dammit, what's so great about a male NPC? Just give me a bit." Elaina: "No rush, I'll be able to log in tomorrow night anyway. (Funny)" Quitting Smoking: "&%@#!" Xia Yan had completely stolen the spotlight on the official website today. Chu Guang glanced at the drawing by Brother Mole, then glanced at Xia Yan sitting in the corner memorizing her lines. It was indeed quite a good likeness. Still, would adding that studded belt and goggles really look better? As a dyed-in-the-wool straight man, Chu Guang's fashion sense was roughly equivalent to the algorithmic feeds of Taobao and JD.com; he was self-aware enough to know that much. Then again, he looked good in whatever he wore, so it hardly mattered. Noticing Chu Guang's gaze, Xia Yan shrank back nervously. "Wh-what are you doing..." "Nothing. Just wondering how many days it's been since you last changed clothes." Chu Guang looked at her right leg. The wound there had mostly healed, but the blood on her trousers remained, looking rather unhygienic. Ch-change clothes? Xia Yan grew even more flustered, her face pale, flushed with red, and tinged with green. "Relax. I just wanted to ask for your measur—tsk." Mid-sentence, Chu Guang shook his head. "Never mind." It was indeed inappropriate for him to ask about that himself. Better to write a quest slip and have Tengteng take her measurements.