"Recently, the airship Niuma, departing from Dawn City, safely arrived at the eastern Baiyue Strait and established an outpost on the northern shore to explore Baiyue Province."
"Currently, over three hundred residents of Shelter 404 are stationed at this outpost. The local construction team has already outlined the perimeter of the camp with a one-meter-wide trench and a three-meter-high earthen wall, erecting watchtowers and machine-gun firing points along various sections of the perimeter to ensure camp security."
"Furthermore, search teams formed by the shelter residents have expanded their operational area from five kilometers along the shore to ten kilometers, incorporating the 'Shilong City ruins' adjacent to the coastline into their search perimeter in search of possible shelters or survivor communities."
"In interviews, residents of Shelter 404 stated that they will search the region for survivors and pre-war relics, radiating outward from the coastal outpost to restore civilization and order to the area."
"If all goes well, this will become the Human Renaissance United Front's first restoration zone in Baiyue Province. The Administrator expressed high praise for this accomplishment and deployed the Jungle Corps and Burning Corps to support local restoration and construction efforts."
"Meanwhile, by a unanimous vote of the expedition personnel, the outpost has been named Port French Fries."
"The Southern Archipelago Federation, situated in the southern waters, has sent a congratulatory message. While extending sincere greetings to the Alliance's Administrator, President Mengge of the Southern Archipelago Federation also earnestly expressed hopes that the Alliance would establish more ports and settlements in the region."
"Residents of Port French Fries declared that they will certainly live up to their neighbors' expectations!"
"...This has been a broadcast from Dawn City Television!"
Three days after the presidential palace of the Southern Archipelago Federation replied to Port French Fries's telegram, the dispatch traveled back to Dawn City aboard the returning airship Niuma.
At this moment, the waiting hall of the Dawn City train station bustled with people coming and going. The television hanging in the corner of the hall was broadcasting the eight o'clock morning news.
A crowd of travelers carrying luggage gathered around the screen, listening to the announcer report the day's headlines, their faces filled with surprise.
The Alliance had added another settlement!
And in Baiyue Province, over two thousand kilometers away!
Although the players had been discussing this on the forum for several days, it was still major news to the residents of Dawn City.
Survivors who had just returned from other settlements began gossiping with the travelers beside them.
"Port French Fries?"
"Like the french fries they sell with cola?"
"Incredible... Baiyue Province. If I remember right, isn't that place a tropical jungle?"
"Have you been there?"
"No... I just passed by on a boat once."
"Damn, somebody's actually been that far!"
"I went to Poluo Province back then to purchase spices and pelts, intending to transport them to the coastal settlements in Yunjian Province. Taking the overland route meant crossing a massive stretch of wasteland, so I hired a merchant vessel from Silver Moon Bay and took the sea route... In any case, any merchant ship traveling east and west has to pass through that channel."
"Such a prime location didn't have a settlement?"
"A settlement? Haha, forget a settlement, you wouldn't even see a living soul."
"All of Baiyue Province is a no-man's land. The closest settlement requires going to the southern seas or Haiya Province. Come to think of it, the Death Coast used to have a few survivor settlements, but ever since the Church of the Torch arrived in Haiya Province, you rarely hear anything about them."
Hearing the name of the Church of the Torch, many travelers who had looked intrigued immediately wore expressions of dread or even terror.
Many residents of the Alliance had fled from Jinchuan Province.
Merchants who had once traded there in particular had witnessed firsthand the countless heinous crimes committed by the Church of the Torch across its dioceses.
If ordinary marauders were simply evil, those fanatics were evil with a deranged sense of mission.
Hardly anyone could truly understand what they wanted, and by the time you realized, you were already their fertilizer.
Baiyue Province was simply too close to the sphere of influence of the Church of the Torch.
If the Church of the Torch moved against Port French Fries, the Alliance might not even have time to send help.
However, despite safety concerns, most traveling merchants remained extremely optimistic about the economic potential behind Port French Fries.
Word had it that the industrial zones of Dawn City, Daybreak City, and Boulder City had all made a killing off orders from the Niuma Group.
Strip the armor plating off a tank chassis from Factory 81, weld on a mechanical arm from Boulder Military Industry, and you had an excavator for moving earth.
Goblin Tech stuck two pontoons beside the bomb rack of a W-2 attack aircraft, and voilà—a seaplane capable of taking off from the water.
All of these items sold remarkably well in Port French Fries.
Beyond heavy equipment, there were entrenching shovels for digging, fishing nets, oxygen cylinders for diving, and more.
Nor were these benefits merely short-term windfalls.
If the Alliance could open a maritime trade route between the east and west coasts of the Mid-Continent, the economic value would be impossible to measure in currency!
Currently, the only route connecting Dawn City and Port French Fries was an airship flight operated by the Niuma Group. However, an airship service had limited capacity and efficiency, and would inevitably be replaced by other modes of transport in the future.
Many sharp-minded merchants were already turning things over in their heads, wondering how to forge new trade routes starting from Yuema Province to the east or Sunset Province to the west.
For example—
Integrating Oasis No. 4 into the Alliance's railway network.
That way, goods produced in the Dawn City industrial zone could be loaded onto ships at the port of Silver Moon Bay and transported along the west coast of Baiyue Province to the Alliance's port at the Baiyue Strait.
Railway and shipping freight costs were far lower than airships, with vastly greater capacity...
...
While travelers in the waiting hall engaged in lively debate, the airship gas station on the outskirts of Dawn City was equally bustling.
A similar scene had unfolded a few days prior.
Back then, the area had been packed tight with players buying tickets for the new map. Now, a few days later, it was crowded with hawking vendors.
"Come take a look! Fresh seafood from the Baiyue Strait! Cold-chain air freight! Guaranteed fresh!" Not far from the airship unloading point, a player dressed as a fisherman sat on a small stool shouting, next to a long row of foam boxes filled with ice and marine goods.
The pungent fishy smell caused passing pedestrians to detour around, but plenty of people with a taste for seafood crowded around.
The airship Niuma had brought back to Dawn City not just friendly greetings from southern sea survivors, but also gifts of the sea and rare beasts from the shore.
Most of the live captured specimens were sent to the Dawn City Zoo or Shelter 79, which specialized in wasteland species. As for those that hadn't been captured alive or had died en route, they naturally became treats for Dawn City's foodies.
Dragging her second older sister Shuangxue over to a stall, little Shuangye squatted down inquisitively and poked a rock-hard frozen starfish with her index finger.
"Boss! What's this?"
Seeing customers, the player immediately began an enthusiastic pitch.
"A starfish! Fished up by my brother Stop Bullshitting!"
Hearing that odd-sounding name, Shuangye recalled that the uncle was always fishing by Ling Lake, occasionally sharing his catch with nearby residents. She looked around, but didn't see him.
"Where is Uncle Stop Bullshitting, then? Why isn't he here?"
Meeting those wide, curious eyes, the fish-selling player gave a subtle dry cough.
"Uh, that guy's chilling in the shelter. Probably won't come out until tomorrow, so he had me help sell it first."
Shuangxue gently tugged her little sister's sleeve and reproached her softly, "Shuangye, don't go prying into the shelter residents' affairs. You'll trouble them."
"I was just curious..."
Shuangye puffed out her cheeks and looked away, but being a sensible girl, she didn't press further, turning her attention back to the starfish, which was as big as a washbasin.
"Can you really eat this?"
"Of course! We always let the Intelligence-type guys test-eat first. We only sell it once it's proven safe!"
With that, the player picked up a rock-hard starfish and made a couple of slicing motions on it with a small knife.
"Right here. Once it thaws, just slit it open with a blade. It's packed with roe—dip it in some soy sauce, and it's heavenly! Or make a stew with it!"
"Sister..."
Meeting her little sister's yearning eyes, Shuangxue gave a helpless look and pulled out her purse.
"Then... give me one."
"Coming right up! I'll wrap it for you!"
Skillfully lifting one from the foam box, the player weighed it, packaged it, and handed it to the young woman.
"That'll be 26 silver!"
Twenty-six silver coins wasn't cheap, but for Dawn City residents who faced little pressure to survive, buying something novel to try was hardly a problem.
Since the start of this year, Dawn City had seen virtually no jobs paying under 1,000 silver coins a month, let alone her job at the Merchant Guild, which paid quite well.
Counting out 26 silver coins from her purse and handing them over, Shuangxue smiled warmly as she watched Shuangye happily hug the starfish in her arms and cheer. She patted the little girl's head.
"You can't play with food. Hold it properly, and when we get back, I'll make a soup for you."
"Mm!" Shuangye nodded excitedly, clutching it even tighter. "Before Mr. Starfish is stewed into soup, I'll take good care of him!"
Just as the two were about to browse other stalls to see if there were other novelties, they heard a cry from a neighboring fish-cleaning stall after taking only a couple of steps.
"Boss, why is there a sock inside this fish's belly?"
The player holding the fish was equally baffled. Scratching the back of his head, he tossed the sock into a nearby trash bin and casually made an excuse.
"Uh... maybe some other fish wore it?"
The surrounding customers buying seafood were instantly astonished.
"Fish in the Baiyue Strait wear socks?"
Before the player could speak, an old man holding a plastic bag beside him chuckled and beat him to it:
"Oh, they do! At the stall I passed just now, I saw them pull a pair of pants out of a fish's belly."
The crowd around the stall marvelled, exclaiming how bizarre it was.
Holding her starfish, Shuangye's eyes sparkled with wonder and admiration.
"Fish in the sea... are amazing!"
Shuangxue gave a subtle expression and gently took her sister's arm, leading her away from the seafood stalls.
"Let's go look somewhere else."
Just a moment ago she had thought 26 silver was a bit steep.
Now, suddenly, it didn't seem so expensive after all...
What was laid out for sale in the open space near the airship gas station wasn't just seafood; there was also bizarre salvage from the seabed, along with scrap of unknown use picked up from the Shilong City ruins.
Although traces of civilization in the Baiyue Province region had been completely wiped clean, unusual items had survived for various reasons.
Like fossils, these objects recorded what had transpired on that land in the early years of the Wasteland Era. Not only did they hold research value, but the wash of time had bestowed upon them unique collectible appeal.
The Alliance's Scientific Expedition and Camp 101 had taken first pick, and what remained unpicked was brought to the market by players to sell at stalls.
Ordinary wastelanders had little interest in useless, inedible junk. After all, trash was everywhere on the wasteland, sold by the kilogram at scrapyards.
Yet to certain uncommon wastelanders, this ordinary garbage was something else entirely.
For instance, the surveyors and researchers who had come to Qingquan City under the cooperative research agreement between the Academy and the Alliance.
In the eyes of these archaeological experts, even if all of it was garbage, trash gathered from different regions was not to be lumped together.
Especially underwater salvage.
Considering that the Tianting space station had crashed in the southern waters, some of this debris might very well be fragments of Tianting!
If one could analyze aerospace materials from it whose data had been lost, one could at least churn out a research paper!
And not just knowledgeable experts—amateur collectors were also full of interest in these salvaged goods.
For this reason, the salvage stalls were even more bustling than the seafood stalls, packed with discerning customers and curious onlookers.
Whenever an unassuming piece of junk sold for an absurd price, it sparked a wave of stunned gasps from the crowd.
The scene looked identical to an antique flea market!
In a corner of the market.
A tall, slender man stood before an inconspicuous stall, picking through a pile of trash scattered on the blanket.
Perhaps because of the blue coat signaling his identity, or perhaps because the rimless glasses on his nose made him look like a scholar who knew everything—maybe even someone serving in the Scientific Expedition—a good number of people hoping to snatch a bargain followed closely behind him.
He didn't mind the crowd trailing him, acting as if they weren't there as he browsed the stall.
Just then, his brow furrowed. He picked up a horseshoe-shaped plastic plate from the stall, turned it over in his hands with great interest for a moment, and looked at the vendor behind the stall.
"Where did you pick this up?"
In fluent Human Alliance language, the player chuckled and said:
"Just in the waters near the port. Where exactly, how would I remember? How about you buy it and have someone inspect it? What if it's a treasure that fell from that Tianting space station or something? Looked like a spacecraft welding ring to me, so I fished it up."
Hearing it might be a treasure that fell from the Tianting space station, the collectors trailing behind him instantly widened their eyes.
In particular, the researcher in the blue coat stroked his chin indecisively. Without even questioning its authenticity, he asked for the price:
"Interesting... How much?"
The player answered readily:
"You look like a fine gentleman, obviously a scholar! Just 1,000 silver coins for you."
Hearing this quote, the researcher hesitated visibly, but ultimately gritted his teeth, paid the money, and purchased the piece of junk whose use was completely indiscernible in full view of the crowd.
Watching this, the surrounding players' eyes practically gleamed green.
Damn!
A piece of scrap could actually sell for 1,000 silver coins!
These NPCs are too easy to fleece!
What shocked them even more came right after.
Shortly after the researcher in the blue coat walked away, the wealthy NPCs rushed the stall like mad, scrambling to buy.
Could junk that fell with the Tianting space station truly be junk?
Whether it was useful or not didn't matter—buy first. They weren't short on cash anyway, and hanging it at home as a conversation piece sounded great.
In the blink of an eye, the salvaged items on the stall were completely cleaned out. The vendor counting his cash couldn't close his grinning mouth.
Forget an airship ticket—he'd made enough for a hundred tickets!
"You guys... this is outright scamming," Jiang Xuezhou muttered, cutting her eyes sideways toward Ye Shi beside her.
"No matter how you look at it, that thing was just a toilet seat!"
Who on earth uses plastic for a welding ring!
You didn't even need expertise—did these people really have not a shred of common sense?
"Ahem, how can you call it scamming? At most, it's just being clever... And it's not like we organized this. Stop saying 'you guys' all the time. Even among shelter residents, there are decent folks and shady folks."
Not expecting to see such an ancient trick even in the 23rd century, Ye Shi felt a bit embarrassed, especially with an outsider witnessing it, so he coughed dryly and explained.
In a corner of the bazaar not far away, he saw the "researcher" who had just shelled out big money for the toilet seat quickly strip off the blue coat that symbolized shelter resident status and return it to its true owner.
Though Ye Shi didn't know the player, he could guess with his toes that the guy and the stall owner were definitely in cahoots!
Jiang Xuezhou rolled her eyes at Ye Shi and kept walking forward. But after circling the various stalls, she didn't find a single thing worth buying.
Logically, this didn't make sense.
With so much scrap salvaged from the ocean floor, could it be that there wasn't even one item worth in-depth study?
She didn't harbor grand hopes of unearthing a treasure that would make her mentor look at her with newfound respect; she would be plenty satisfied just churning out a paper suitable for a D-grade researcher.
Yet after a whole lap, she had come away completely empty-handed. Jiang Xuezhou couldn't help muttering softly:
"How is there not even one?"
Ye Shi looked at her strangely.
"Not even one?"
"I mean... something with actual research value. Why haven't I seen a single one?" Jiang Xuezhou couldn't resist complaining. "By the way, how did you guys manage to dodge every single valuable research subject? That luck is almost miraculous, isn't it?"
Hearing her quiet complaint, Ye Shi immediately realized what she was grumbling about, and gave a hearty laugh.
"Ah, isn't that totally normal? Anything with real research value was picked over long ago by the people from our Scientific Expedition. Looking for it here is just a waste of time."
Come to think of it, when Yin Fang left the Academy, he was also D-grade, right?
And that was ages ago.
In that case, the guy could be considered her senior.
Jiang Xuezhou stopped in her tracks, staring blankly at Ye Shi for a long time, her fair cheeks slowly turning the color of pig liver.
"...Why didn't you tell me earlier?!"
Looking at Jiang Xuezhou, who had taken an eternity of teeth-gritting just to squeeze out that sentence, Ye Shi stared back with an odd expression.
"You didn't ask... I thought you came here to buy souvenirs."
Jiang Xuezhou glared at him fiercely, but after thinking it over, she truly couldn't find a valid reason to blame him. In the end, she could only stomp her foot in frustration, turn on her heel, and storm off.
Browsing further was a waste of time.
Besides, there were too many scams here. She didn't want to stay a moment longer.
At the exact same time, a certain Yin, tinkering in his laboratory with scrap freshly acquired from the airship Niuma, sneezed without warning.
"Achoo!"
"...Who's talking bad about me?"
Rubbing his stinging nose, Yin Fang muttered to himself, then promptly tossed the trivial matter aside and turned his gleaming eyes back to the fragment resting on the instrument.
It was a piece of wreckage only the size of a palm.
Its surface glinted with bright metallic luster, sleek and shiny as if carefully buffed with a polisher.
What was astonishing was that no one had polished this fragment; when the players from the Niuma found it on the seabed, it had looked just like this.
For now, Yin Fang couldn't determine the exact technology used in this material. He could only deduce through elemental spectroscopy that it was likely some kind of cermet composite material used in aerospace craft.
Not only did this material possess extraordinary heat resistance and hardness, but its toughness and resistance to mechanical impact were shockingly on par with steel.
If he could delve deeper into this material, based on his experience, he could recover at least a C-grade materials science technology!
And this wasn't the only treasure the airship Niuma had brought back from the southern seas. A whole warehouse of intriguing samples awaited his study.
Yin Fang's eyes burned with fanaticism, his mouth murmuring incessantly:
"This time, we really struck gold!"
Chapter 668