The Players' First "Naval Battle" Since Launch!

"Did you meet the Alliance's Administrator?" "I did... but they didn't seem very warm toward us." Inside a guest room at the Ideal Grand Hotel, Noreg, the Foreign Minister of the Free State, reported everything he had seen and heard at the banquet to Mayor Odo in full detail. Truth be told, the Alliance's strength had somewhat exceeded his expectations. He had initially assumed this place was just another settlement pieced together by wastelanders and scavengers. Never could he have imagined they would raise a clean, orderly city-state from the ruins at a pace visible to the naked eye. Building something from nothing was always the most astonishing phase. The Free State had also experienced that journey from absolute barrenness to a skyline of high-rises. Noreg knew all too well how difficult that process was. Therefore, he would never be naive enough to gauge a settlement's potential purely by its number of concrete towers, nor would he underestimate Dawn City simply because it was still in its developmental stage. These people possessed adequate technical reserves, the productive capacity to turn those technical reserves into finished products, an enterprising drive pushing their society forward, and the cohesion required to resolve internal divisions. While the various strata of the Free State were still quarreling endlessly over whether to lean toward the Legion or the Enterprise, the Alliance was already marching resolutely down its own path. If the Alliance sustained its current rate of development, then as long as they had enough population, they would soon shoot up like a space elevator to stand on equal footing with the Free State. Especially now that they had mastered the technology to manipulate slime mold fruiting bodies! In fact, the Alliance's population growth rate had already reached a jaw-dropping level. More and more wastelanders, thoroughly sick of chaos and yearning for order, were joining the Alliance and assimilating into the social ideals it championed. The scene was hauntingly familiar. In the early years following the dissolution of the Reconstruction Committee, something very similar had happened. It was precisely because wastelanders fed up with the Post-War Reconstruction Committee had unswervingly chosen the Free State that the incredible miracle in the northern River Valley Province had been born in the first place. Of course, what alarmed Noreg even more was another matter entirely. Unlike the Free State of old, which had adhered to isolationism, the Alliance took an active stance of intervention in regional affairs. Riding on victory after victory, it had not only won the goodwill of ancient survivor factions, but had also amassed immense prestige for itself. One could glean clues of this from the incident in Jinchuan Province. No matter how much the farm owners there disliked the Alliance, when forced to choose between the Church of the Torch and the Alliance, those cunning men had unanimously defected to the Alliance's side. Even if they had been making eyes at the Church of the Torch's apostles just moments before. "...Compared to the strength the Alliance has displayed in economic, military, and cultural spheres, what worries me even more is their increasingly staggering prestige." "The banquet hall looked like nothing less than an assembly of vassal nations paying court. Even survivor settlements as far away as Yunjian Province took Enterprise flights to dispatch envoys to them, and several radical settlements have even voluntarily offered to join them." "If we let them keep developing like this, they will likely become our greatest rival—and perhaps even become the 'Sixth Great Power' following our own heels!" This was an informal convention established within the Free State itself. Under the broad consensus of local survivors, the Great Rift Valley, which inherited the orthodoxy of the Post-War Reconstruction Committee, was the foremost power on the Central Continent. The Legion and the Enterprise were tied for second, the reclusive Academy held fourth place, and the Free State sat in fifth. In Noreg's eyes, the Alliance already had the potential to become that Sixth Great Power! They had already grown into a force that could not be overlooked! *** While Mayor Odo was nursing a headache over how to conduct diplomacy with the Alliance, Chu Guang was likewise nursing a headache of his own. To his pleasant surprise, he had received a very special gift at the banquet—a free vault! And a double-digit vault at that! Yet what troubled him at the same time was that this vault lay at least two thousand kilometers away from the Alliance, situated deep behind the Alliance's sworn enemy. After concluding his meeting with Sun Yuechi, Chu Guang had returned to Level B4 of Shelter 404, studying the map over and over. The shortest route to Shelter 70 cut straight across Jinchuan Province and Haiya Province before reaching the southern sea. If one used the map of parallel-world Earth as a reference, analogizing the Central Continent to Eurasia, the Wandering Marsh to Siberia, and the Tianshui to the Yangtze River, then River Valley Province corresponded roughly to the region spanning Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan down to northern Hubei. Meanwhile, Shelter 70 and its artificial island were located in the "Philippine Islands." That distance was anything but short! To bypass the territories controlled by the Church of the Torch, Sun Yuechi had chosen to come ashore in the eastern provinces, pass through Yuema Province, cross the southeastern border into River Valley Province, and follow the southern corridor all the way to Qingquan City. The total distance of that overland trek exceeded five thousand kilometers! Farther than the journey from the Alliance to the Enterprise! Staring at the map in contemplation for a long time, Chu Guang could not help showing a look of difficulty. "...It seems reclaiming Shelter 70 will have to wait until we liberate Haiya Province." Right then, Xiao Qi suddenly called out in a soft voice. "Master." Pulling his gaze away from the map, Chu Guang instinctively looked toward Xiao Qi, who was sitting on the pen holder at the edge of the desk. "What is it?" Resting her chin in her hands, Xiao Qi swung her little legs and looked at him curiously. "Why not ask your players, just like you used to?" Hearing this suggestion, Chu Guang was momentarily stunned. The place was over a thousand kilometers from the nearest save point... Were there any players active in that region? Almost the instant that thought surfaced in Chu Guang's mind, a certain ID popped right out with it. *Wait—* Though it felt thoroughly unreliable... If he really had to count someone, there actually was one... Chu Guang's eyes instantly lit up. He turned quickly to Xiao Qi and asked, "Is there any way to authorize them remotely?" Xiao Qi pondered for a moment and said seriously, "Hmm... An Administrator's authentication password and biometric data aren't suitable for remote transmission. It would be bad if they were intercepted. However, a dynamic password for granting short-term managerial privileges is only a string of characters! Xiao Qi thinks sending it to the player as an 'official website message' would work just fine. All the player needs to do is enter it into the terminal once, and it's OK!" This kind of authorization granted via an offline dynamic password functioned like a custody token. Its generation was somewhat similar to security tokens in early online games, automatically updating based on non-fixed parameters like special algorithms and dates. The authorization period was generally seven to fourteen days, and once expired, it could be renewed by entering a fresh code. Upon hearing this, Chu Guang was overjoyed. *Good grief.* *This morphogenetic field technology is even more badass than quantum communication!* The security of granting remote authorization through this method was unbeatable. Unless someone could intercept electromagnetic waves in another world, it was impossible to hijack. With a plan forming in his head, Chu Guang immediately ordered, "Xiao Qi, help me draft an offline quest... Hmm, actually, never mind. Just write in the message that it's a new map test." Because he wasn't sure how much loot there would be, or even what treasures he had inherited, Chu Guang couldn't easily pin down the quest rewards. Better to just label it a test and hand out rewards based on the situation. It was a closed beta, after all. It's the taking part that counts! Were rewards really that important? A sense of participation was the key! Immediately catching her master's drift, Xiao Qi snickered and said, "Roger that!" "You really get me." Chu Guang nodded in satisfaction and temporarily set the matter aside, focusing his attention on the details of the cross-regional cooperation organization. The participation of the Academy and the Enterprise was essentially locked in. In addition, more than twenty survivor settlements of various sizes had indicated their intention to cooperate. Currently, the first batch of settlements and regions included in the mutant slime mold neutralization program comprised Binghai City in the far north and Yunxia City in the far east. Once Yu went over to open branch bases there, the Alliance's "territory" would expand by a whole ring. Figuring out how to properly develop these two new maps was what truly concerned the welfare and gameplay experience of the vast majority of players. And as the Alliance's Administrator, that was Chu Guang's most pressing duty at the moment... *** While Chu Guang was kicking the ball that had flown from the south right back down south, Tail and her crew—still logged into the game—did not immediately receive that long-awaited message. Nor did they have the leisure to check. At this moment, across the surging southern sea, a cargo ship displacing just under five thousand tons pitched and rolled amid the waves under cover of night. Its design was bizarre to the extreme. The edges of its riveted steel hull were lined with black ironwood planks meant to repel xenotypes, while a towering smokestack chugged out incompletely combusted gray smoke. Although the entire vessel incorporated many modern shipbuilding concepts, its overall aesthetic was purely steampunk. What was even more astonishing than its appearance was the motley array of equipment mounted across the deck. Spread across the spacious deck were six wheeled 100mm short-barreled field guns, along with one Alliance-manufactured 155mm cannon and two towed quad-barrel 20mm autocannons. In fact, aside from these heavy weapons, the ship also carried various models of harpoon guns, depth charges, and other gear. Yet compared to that eccentric heavy firepower, those conventional weapons seemed hardly worth mentioning. A flag depicting a roaring polar bear flapped noisily in the blustering sea wind, though that bellowing roar felt a bit flustered. Because less than ten nautical miles behind her, two warships flying green twin-scimitar banners and over a dozen assault boats were hot on their tail. True to form, this crew of troublemakers had finally run into trouble... "Sisi! Step on it! The pirates are catching up!" Standing at the stern, Tail planted one foot on the gunwale and held a monocular spyglass in one hand, gazing out at the hazy silhouettes in the distance. She wore a red bandana representing freedom wrapped around her head. Rather than calling the crossed scimitars on those flags pirate banners, one might sooner say that she, standing at the stern, looked far more like a pirate captain. Both in demeanor and appearance. As for their pursuers, they belonged to the Xilan Empire, which had unified Bolo Province—in other words, bona fide regular troops. It was just that because this "empire" had been founded somewhat haphazardly, the sailors on board were all landlubbers. The warships at their disposal had been bought from the Camel Hump Kingdom just like their own, very likely produced by the exact same shipyard. Consequently, the two sides had pecked at each other like rookie roosters across hundreds of nautical miles of open ocean without managing to scratch a single flake of paint off each other's hulls. Even so, Sisi, clutching the helm, didn't dare drop her guard for a second. In fact, she was panicking on the inside. Although she had been steering ships for a while now, this was her very first time engaging in a naval battle against "regular troops." "We're already at max speed! Damn it! We're carrying way too much stuff! At this rate, they're going to catch us sooner or later!" She had heard that riding the tides and sea winds could make a ship go faster, but she didn't have time to tab out of the game and ask Baidu. The throttle lever was practically welded to the full-speed-ahead notch, yet the enemy was visibly drawing closer. Staring with knitted brows at the increasingly distinct dark shapes, Tail quickly turned toward the big white bear behind her, and the 155mm gun the latter had wheeled to the stern. "Rou Rou! Are you ready yet?!" "Almost... Loaded!" After bustling about for quite a while, Rou Rou finally managed to stuff the shell into the breech with clumsy bear paws, then locked the breechblock shut. Seeing this, Tail turned excitedly toward Sesame Paste and shouted, "Fifteen kilometers! Roughly!" "R-Roger!" Sesame Paste took a deep breath, adjusted the firing parameters against the range table, and then her cat-like pupils narrowed into thin slits. Her talent enhanced her hearing. Yet as her level increased, she had also exhibited traits unusual for ordinary Agility-type players in terms of eyesight, particularly in low-light environments. Watching the black silhouettes rising and falling over the distant swells, she completed her final calibration, then hurried to give Tail a "good to go" look. Clenching her fist, Tail threw it forward with gusto. "Fire!" "F-Fire, meow—!" The instant Sesame Paste pulled the lanyard, she clamped her hands over her ears. The deafening roar of the cannon sounded like a thunderclap detonating across the sea surface, rattling the deck beneath them. While a land-based artillery piece looked like a mere toothpick out on the open sea, a 155mm caliber was still a cut above the enemy's 100mm guns. Unsurprisingly, the impact point was off by at least five kilometers from the aiming mark. That orange tracer shell, clearly intended for the warships trailing behind, plunged into the water right ahead of the dozen assault boats. The geyser exploding right before their eyes terrified the sailors riding the assault boats, shocking them right out of their seasickness. However, the captain standing inside the warship's bridge, gazing forward, took it as a direct provocation. His face darkened as he barked an order. "Open fire on them!" The adjutant standing beside him dared not dally, rushing to relay the order to each gun position. Three 100mm guns were rolled forward to the bow and secured. Between the two warships, a total of six guns pointed across the waves at the pitching cargo ship. With the order given, blast after blast erupted, sending orange tracers arcing through the night sky toward the freighter. The enemy's accuracy was equally abysmal. Their shells either fell too far or fell short, completely unable to hit such an enormous target. The two sides traded fire back and forth, shells crisscrossing over the churning waters. The only ones suffering were the sailors caught in the middle and the fish swimming beneath the waves. "A bunch of useless trash! What the hell are you all doing?!" The captain on the warship cursed furiously, his clenched fist practically crushing his binoculars. He only wished his warhorse could swim; otherwise, he would have led the charge himself and torn those man-stealing scoundrels to shreds. The adjutant beside him trembled, murmuring in a low voice, "Captain, sir... The sea is pitching too violently. It's difficult for our guns to aim from this far away. I suggest we hold fire until we close the distance." For one thing, their ammunition was running low; for another, he worried about blowing up their own men ahead. Though he couldn't swallow the indignation, the captain finally regained his composure and raised a hand to give the order. "Cease fire!" The cannon fire that had raged for ten minutes finally fell silent. The sailors on the assault boats breathed collective sighs of relief, praying with all their might to the diesel engines and the Sun-Bearing Divine Bull, hoping they could board the enemy's deck before running out of fuel. Their superiors had promised that anyone who set foot on the deck would receive a bounty of one thousand dinars, five slaves, and thirty days of leave. The stowaways and smuggled cargo aboard the ship were all theirs for the taking. By custom, the first to board would have first pick. On the other side, Tail, clutching her spyglass, suddenly noticed with delight that after ten minutes of artillery duel, the "dark shadows" that had once been looming closer had vanished once again into the pitching, shadowy night. All at once, realization struck her. "*Giao!* Rou Rou! It's the recoil! Keep firing!" Sesame Paste smiled wryly. Though she wasn't a physics teacher, she doubted that bit of recoil was enough to push a cargo ship of nearly five thousand tons. The reason the gap had widened was more likely that the enemy's guns hadn't been positioned properly, their firing sequence was disorganized, and the recoil had thrown their ships off course. The enemy had clearly realized this as well, which was why they had ceased fire. Continuing to fire now might end up having the opposite effect... Just as Sesame Paste was about to speak up, Sisi's voice crackled over the comms from the bridge. "Forget about those two warships for now, Tail! Their assault boats are practically right on top of us!" As she spoke, she switched on the searchlight atop the bridge, sweeping the beam toward the stern. "Holy *giao*?!" Tail gasped in surprise, immediately lowering her spyglass to look nearby. Sure enough, amid the churning waves, the silhouettes of assault boats emerged one after another. The closest one was less than six hundred meters away! The sailors had already fixed bayonets to their rifles, and the men seated at the bows had mounted light machine guns with drum magazines, slickly chambering rounds. Under the glare of the searchlight, she could even see the sinister grins on their faces and the remnants of vomit clinging to their beards. They had chased the whole way, vomiting the whole way. Now that victory was finally within reach, every one of them rubbed their palms together, spoiling for a fight. The soldiers of Bolo Province were invincible under heaven! Except for the Wilante and those endless clone cannon fodder, they had never feared anyone! Yet they weren't the only ones excited. Tail, standing at the stern, was getting hyped too. "Awoo! Rou Rou! Wheel our close-in weapon system up here! Time to blast some fish!" "On it!" Rou Rou let out an excited roar of her own and scampered on all fours to the middle of the deck, soon hauling back the quad-barrel anti-aircraft gun assembled from 20mm "Light Lances" to the stern. This piece of gear was a masterpiece of Alliance military engineering. It had shown its might during the Bone Chewer Rebellion and was renowned as an absolute lawnmower. Though it was nearly obsolete within the Alliance, it remained a hot seller in less developed regions across the wasteland. "Depress the flak guns, face court-martial... Load the armor-piercing incendiary rounds, Rou Rou!" muttering excitedly, Tail spun the handwheel with all her might, depressing the barrels down a few degrees. Rou Rou hauled over an ammo crate, pulled out an ammunition belt, and handed it to Sesame Paste. The latter snapped the belt into the receiver and shouted to Tail: "Loaded!" Just as the quad-barrel autocannon finished loading, the Xilan Empire sailors crouching in the assault boats finally spotted the flak gun mounted by the gunwale. The sneering grins vanished from their faces almost instantly. The centurion leading them bellowed in sheer terror: "Fire! Everyone fire!" Across this open expanse of sea, there was nowhere to hide! Though five hundred meters wasn't an ideal engagement distance, he had no time left to hesitate. If they couldn't disable that autocannon, every last one of them was dead meat! A storm of gunfire erupted almost instantaneously, a hail of bullets sweeping toward the pitching, rolling gunwale, clanging loudly against the broad gun shield. "Whoa-ho-ho! Taste this!" Having finally lined up her sights, Tail let out a wicked chuckle and clamped down hard on the firing trigger. A relentless *thump-thump-thump* merged into a roar like a tearing canvas sheet. In an instant, that thick, elongated tongue of fire became the most dazzling beam of light across the sea! The lead assault boat was shredded to pieces in an eyeblink. The centurion crouching at the bow didn't even have time to scream before being pulverized into mincemeat. The fuel tank, ignited by the armor-piercing incendiary rounds, flared up like a lighter, exploding into a burning fireball over the waves. Then came the second boat, the third, the fourth... Even though the remaining assault boats scattered at the first opportunity, half of them were blown apart by that quad-barrel autocannon in less than half a minute. Faced with that raging hurricane of fire, the surviving sailors lost all courage to pursue. They swung their rudders around and fled back toward their own ships. Watching the assault boats retreat out of the autocannon's range, alongside the sailors bobbing in life rings and shivering in the sea, Tail chose not to keep spraying them. She merely clicked her tongue, feeling unsatisfied. "Tch, too weak!" Given the enemy's level of professionalism, rescuing those men in the water would likely take quite some time. The two warships behind them probably wouldn't be catching up anytime soon. May the Great Horned Deer God watch over them. Hopefully their allies could arrive before the rip-tooth sharks or other mutant sea beasts caught scent of the blood. This was already far from the borders of Bolo Province; the Sun-Bearing Divine Bull likely couldn't protect them here. Still, even if help didn't arrive in time, she wouldn't feel any sympathy for those men. Especially after seeing the state of Golden Gallon Port and Tasang, the City of a Thousand Pillars, her only regret was not being able to save more people... *** Watching the distant silhouettes of the ships fade away, Sisi let out a yawn of relief. The sweat-drenched crew and the mercenaries on high alert finally relaxed their taut nerves as well. "Praise be to the Spirit of the Sand Sea..." A mercenary from the Lion Kingdom knelt devoutly on the deck, praying toward the rolling waters. A mercenary from the Camel Hump Kingdom beside him curled his lip and couldn't help grumbling, "The Spirit of the Sand Sea has no jurisdiction out here. You'd be better off thanking the emissary of the Silver Moon Goddess." Sesame Paste, who could now understand their language, smiled sheepishly. The praying mercenary ignored him entirely, continuing to mutter under his breath. Several mercenaries from Qingquan City helped Captain Rou Rou—the big white bear—push the artillery pieces back into the cargo hold and lash them down. Tail headed below deck as well. However, she didn't follow them into the storage hold, heading instead to the lowest deck. This area had once been a cargo hold, but the bulkheads had since been knocked out and remodeled into large communal bunks, with additional ventilation vents installed. Nearly a thousand refugees fleeing Bolo Province were crammed in here, packing two levels of cabins. Most were women and children, and all were members of the purged Moon Clan. Bolo Province was known as the land of a thousand tribes, supposedly home to over a thousand clans, each with its own beliefs. Currently ruling Bolo Province was the Xilan Dynasty. Its royal family possessed the bloodlines of the Sun Clan and the Bull Clan, making them the upper-class clans of Bolo Province. Consequently, the Sun-Bearing Divine Bull they mutually revered had become the empire's faith and symbol. Because the sun and moon were deemed incompatible—the moon setting whenever the sun rose—the existence of the Moon Clan was viewed by the Xilan Dynasty as an ill omen. Thus, the Moon Clan was relegated to an underclass. And for that very same absurd reason, survivors possessing Moon Clan bloodlines were subjected to purges and reduced to slaves. Tail was still mystified as to how the people of Bolo Province could pinpoint someone's lineage so accurately from a crowd. After all, to her eyes, they all looked pretty much the same—at least without features as distinct as the Wilante. Yet somehow, they really pulled it off. Perhaps they had their own methods. The iron door swung open. Pairs of anxious eyes instantly darted toward the doorway. Only after confirming that the newcomer was not a Xilan pursuer did everyone breathe a sigh of relief. A young girl slipped out of her mother's embrace, pattering over to Tail's side and clutching the hem of her jacket tightly. Looking at that heartbreaking little face, Tail reached out and tousled the child's messy hair, comforting her in a soft, gentle voice. "Don't be scared! The *Rou Rou* will definitely get you all to a safe place!" Right then, Sisi's voice drifted from behind her, carrying a hint of weariness and languor. "...We probably can't go to Silver Moon Bay anymore. Without a doubt, those people will be waiting for us in the waters nearby." Tail tried to propose an idea. "Um, what if we take down the flag and sneak in?" Sisi wore a helpless expression. "While I don't think those guys are very bright, do you really think they're blind? They'll definitely board the ship for an inspection." They were on good terms with the Lord of Petra, but Petra was located at the northernmost edge of the Camel Hump Kingdom. Even though Sesame Paste's cat ears worked wonders in Oasis No. 4—where practically everyone was a cat lover—asking the secularized Silver Moon City to provide an escort for them was out of the question. In fact, the Camel Hump Kingdom was doing everything it could to avoid entangling itself in Bolo Province's regional affairs. Even if they managed to make port at Silver Moon Bay, it might not be safe. This was intel she had gathered back at Golden Gallon Port. Though seasoned with a bit of her own deduction, that was the gist of it. Tail looked at her in surprise. "Eek! Are those guys really that persistent?" Sisi sighed and explained patiently, "A healthy young adult slave sells for at least a thousand dinars... Not to mention everything else we did. Do you have any idea how much money you robbed from them?" Sometimes she couldn't help wondering if the Xilan Dynasty's baffling persecution of the Moon Clan was truly about religion. It might just be a convenient excuse. The real motive was likely that the people there wanted a legal way to pillage. At any rate, in her view, not a single one of those so-called upper-class clan members was a decent person. Even the looks they gave her made her stomach turn. Tail calculated sheepishly, "Uh, a... a million?!" Sisi replied, "Probably more than that." Noticing the troubled look on Sisi's face, the woman draped in a robe stepped forward. Taking her daughter by the hand, she gently pulled the girl back to her side. She bowed her head slightly, speaking with remorse. "I'm sorry... for causing you so much trouble." Putting away her helpless expression, Sisi offered her a gentle smile. "It's fine. It's not like we have anything urgent to do anyway." She had already abandoned all hope of the next expansion pack landing right in front of them; otherwise, there was no way she would have agreed to let Tail pull such a reckless stunt. Just then, Tail, who had been deep in thought, suddenly smacked her fist into her palm. "I've decided!" Sisi looked at her. "Hmm?" Tail's eyes sparkled. "We're going to Ideal City!" "By boat... to Ideal City?" Hearing this wild plan, Sisi was completely flabbergasted. "Are you sure?" Ideal City lay on the east coast of the Central Continent. Sailing there wasn't impossible, but the total voyage would easily exceed ten thousand kilometers... Without experienced sailors, she wasn't even sure if there were ports along the way where they could dock to purchase supplies and fuel. "Yep!" Tail nodded earnestly. "We'll make landfall on the east coast. In Yunjian Province, we'll surely find a settlement willing to take them in, right?" This whimsical idea was quintessentially Tail. Then again, that was part of the reason they got along so well. While Sisi liked keeping things organized, she didn't actually enjoy a bland, monotonous life. "I really can't do anything with you," Sisi scratched the back of her head and said helplessly. "I'll give it a shot." With gleaming eyes, Tail gave her a big thumbs-up. "Whoa! As expected of Sisi!" Sisi chuckled sheepishly. "Haha, don't count on me too much, Tail. There's always a chance we capsize halfway there." "Doesn't matter! We can just treat it as going home—" Halfway through her sentence, Tail noticed the other people in the hold. She immediately choked back the ill-omened joke, shrinking her neck and hastily correcting herself in a small voice, "Uh, actually, let's take it easy. There are still so many people on board." Sisi smiled back with an encouraging look, returning the thumbs-up gesture. "Mm! I'll do my best." "Awesome! I'll go ask Rou Rou and Sesame Paste what they think!" A delighted smile broke across Tail's face, and she bounded up the stairs like a whirlwind. Watching the figure disappear up the gangway, the corners of Sisi's mouth curved upward. Looks like she would need to study navigation properly. Even though the ship had foolproof controls, getting it all the way to Ideal City through sheer recklessness was never going to work. And besides— Resupply was going to be a massive headache. After sorting out affairs on the ship, Sisi returned to her cabin, locked the door, and logged out of the game. Taking off her helmet, she slid over to sit in front of her computer. She logged onto the official *Wasteland Online* website, intending to browse the forums to see if any other players were active along the southern coast of the Central Continent. It would be wonderful if someone had discovered other reliable survivor settlements. Just then, she noticed the mailbox icon in the top right corner. A little red dot hovered over it. Clicking on the mailbox casually, Sisi froze, her mouth dropping into an exaggerated 'O' shape. *Southern Sea New Map Test Invitation...* "Holy *giao*?!"