No One Is Better at Rummaging Than the Players

"Awoooo!" "Wreck 'em!" The players raised their weapons in excitement, answering the esteemed Administrator's summons with thunderous momentum. Satisfied with their attitude, Chu Guang nodded and waved his hand forward. The group passed through the park's north gate, following the ruined elevated highway out of the city straight toward the marauders' lair four kilometers away. It was an abandoned tire factory. Crude fortifications were erected outside the walls, and bizarre patterns and symbols were smeared across the surfaces with filth. [Mole on the Run from the Canyon] lowered his voice and whispered to [Midnight Chicken Slaughter] beside him. "This graffiti reminds me of the savages in The Forest." "Savages in The Forest?" "A PC game." "I know... but these guys don't live in a forest, do they? Aren't we the ones living in the woods?" "..." Although the enemy's main force had already been wiped out, Chu Guang did not let down his guard, remaining wary of the surroundings and any potential traps. Interestingly enough, when Chu Guang and his entourage arrived, they found the gates to the marauder lair wide open. At the same time, the moment he confirmed the fall of the Bloodhand Clan's stronghold, a pale blue pop-up window appeared before his eyes. [Quest Complete.] [Shelter 404 Level B2 clearance authorized. Lockdown will lift in 24 hours.] [Countdown: 23h 59m 59s] Tsk, still had to wait twenty-four hours. Whatever. Chu Guang was not in any rush anyway; before exploring Level B2, he had a mountain of matters to handle. Including the captives. And the rest of the spoils. At the same time, Hein, who had been waiting anxiously atop the stronghold gate, finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Chu Guang. If it had not been him, or if he had not arrived on his own two feet, Hein's little life would likely have been forfeit. "I still think getting involved in local disputes isn't a good idea," the muscular female mercenary warned her employer, cradling a boxy assault rifle. "We have zero control over this area. A single whim from them could decide our fate." "I agree with Lenna," the other brawny mercenary said, glancing out at the crowd with a frown. "What do you plan to do if they decide they want it all?" His name was Wen, and he was the strongest among the three. Hein brushed off his subordinates' concerns. "That's a concern, but not a huge one. We even do business with marauders, so why not them? Trust me, switching to a trading partner who plays relatively by the rules isn't a bad thing." "Is that so?" The female mercenary whistled, teasing, "I don't find them much more civilized than the marauders." "All right, shut it and wait here for me!" Leaving his two bodyguards behind, Hein hurried down the stairs and rushed out the gate with excitement plastered across his face, acting as though they were lifelong friends. "My dear friend! You have no idea how thrilled I was to see you walk up here safe and sound!" "Likewise," Chu Guang smiled faintly, glancing at the gate with slight surprise. "You took down this outpost all by yourself?" Hein chuckled heartily. "Of course not by myself. Unless you're a dead-broke pauper or a gambler down to your last copper, nobody travels this far for business alone. Come on, let's not stand talking in the doorway. Please, come inside! "I'll introduce my two bodyguards and assistants to you in a moment. Thanks to them, our plan went off without a hitch!" Hein courteously ushered Chu Guang and his group inside, giving a colorful account along the way of his sheer brilliance: how he had tricked the chieftain of the Bloodhand Clan, and how he had coordinated with his bodyguards ambushed outside to take the stronghold from both within and without when the guards were off duty. To be honest, Chu Guang was not particularly interested in his "heroic deeds." No matter how extravagantly Hein spun the tale, it could not possibly be more thrilling than what Chu Guang had just experienced firsthand. Still, having the fortress breached from the inside saved him a great deal of time. Chu Guang had originally been prepared to have players act as human bombs, charging the gates with ten kilograms of black powder. Now it seemed that extra expense could be spared. Next came the looting. Nobody was better at this than his players. The moment the order was given, green light practically shone in the players' eyes, and they swarmed into the marauder outpost in a frenzy. Never mind the cupboards in the rooms—they would not even spare a loose floor tile! "What's in this jar?" "Blech, stinks so bad." "Probably shit." "Holy crap, there's a human head in this drawer... that's sick." "Found white plastic pieces under the floor!" "What're these for? Casino chips? Collectibles?" "These? Holy shit, great stuff! According to the guides on the forum, you can turn them in at the warehouse for cash. One chip trades for five copper coins!" Watching these bluecoats act even more like bandits than the marauders, Lenna clicked her tongue, while Wen beside her wore an equally strange expression. The bluecoats he had seen before were all rather reserved, even pedantic. Seeing ones with zero pretension like this was rare indeed. "What language are they speaking?" "No idea. Never heard it before. Definitely not from around here." "Are they really shelter dwellers?" "Who knows? And who cares whether they are or not." "You're so boring to talk to." "I just don't have as many questions as you." The two mercenaries conversed in hushed tones. The fiercest faction in the area had been eradicated, and no one would disturb them for the rest of the night. Standing nearby, Hein and Chu Guang were also conversing cordially, discussing how the profits from this massive haul should be divided. "Seven died on my side... eight, actually. One poor kid had his arm chopped off by the marauder chieftain and died from blood loss before we could save him." "Hiss... that... that really is tragic." Hein clicked his tongue, putting on a wide-eyed look of shock and regret. He did not know how many people the outpost actually had, estimating it could not be more than a hundred. Losing eight in a single battle meant their total population took a ten-percent hit; the cost was indeed heavy. "...Don't take it too hard. People die every day on the wasteland; combat losses are unavoidable. Last year I had four bodyguards; this year, only two are left." Hein sighed, speaking in a comforting tone. "At least their sacrifice brought peace. The survivors, including every survivor around here, will be grateful to them." "They will compensate us later, but that's not what we're discussing right now," Chu Guang said, looking at Hein. "You seem to have misunderstood me. I wasn't looking for your sympathy; I was informing you that we're taking the lion's share." Hein looked dumbfounded. Caught completely flat-footed, he even stammered. "Ah, well... I mean, of course. Yes, it's what you rightfully deserve, my honored sir." Chu Guang nodded. "Very good. Now we can talk about the specific split." The two mercenaries exchanged a speechless glance, not daring to speak aloud, communicating only with their eyes. 'First time I've ever seen a bluecoat this ruthless.' 'I bet the boss hasn't seen one either.' 'A formidable figure.' 'Brutal enough. Right up my alley.' ... There were 29 marauder captives in Wetland Park, 10 of whom were severely wounded, unsure if they would even survive the night. The marauders' dungeon held about 30 people; counting the two marauder boy soldiers tossed in just now, there were 32 in total. However, half of them were critically injured or sick, some hanging on by a single breath, looking thoroughly wretched and liable to drop dead at any moment. According to the agreement between Chu Guang and Hein, all marauders—whether lightly or severely wounded—could be packaged together and sold to Hein. In exchange, Hein had to provide a shipment of goods of equivalent value. There were 31 marauder captives in total. Without a unified currency, pricing was difficult, so Chu Guang simply used Red River Town's specialty, "coarse salt," as the standard of exchange, charging twenty kilograms of coarse salt per head. Back when Chu Guang traded air-dried meat for salt with Sun Shiqi, roughly three kilograms of meat traded for one kilogram of salt. By that calculation, each person was equivalent to sixty kilograms of cured meat. He found that quite reasonable. Although Hein had not drawn any comparisons to cured meat, the price was barely acceptable to him. A sturdy laborer needed only a little breaking in before being sold to the mine owners of Red River Town for two to three times the price without issue. Crippled captives did not matter either; Red River Town lacked food, but it had no shortage of nutrient paste. Keep them alive until next spring, and someone would buy whatever intact parts they still had. The only problem now was that Hein had not brought that much cargo with him. To rush this final deal before winter set in, he had only carried Qingquan City's hard currency—those plastic chips. Those few chips were enough to buy two or three strong laborers, but swallowing thirty-odd in one bite was something of a pipe dream. Hein made one last attempt, looking at Chu Guang. "We didn't bring that many goods! I can swear on my credit that I'll bring what I promised come next spring!" Chu Guang scoffed. "Stop talking in your sleep. If you actually had credit, we wouldn't be standing here talking business. Red River Town is only a two-day journey from here anyway. You can go back and fetch it right now." Hein cried out, "Are you crazy? It's winter! It was snowing heavily outside just a few hours ago! You want me to make a round trip to Red River Town and back?" Chu Guang replied nonchalantly, "Winter has barely begun, and that was only the third snowfall. The ground temperature hasn't even dropped below freezing—you call that heavy snow? You weren't even afraid to come to my place alone as a lobbyist, yet you're worried about a little risk like this?" Take two or three people back, or take thirty? Chances for a deal like this did not come often. Weighing the pros and cons, Hein did not even need a full minute to make his decision. In principle, no caravan was willing to trade at this time of year. Yet when profits outweighed risks, principles were merely principles. Chu Guang was pleased with his decision. After all, if Hein refused, the gallows of justice would have its hands full again. There was no way Chu Guang would spend precious food feeding these marauders; the returns on doing that were far lower than turning them into raw materials for summoning the Fourth Calamity. These people were inherently unruly, and slacking off was second nature to them. Breaking them would take massive amounts of time and manpower, and even if successfully tamed, they would not be half as useful as the players. Why bother? He would be able to open Level B2 soon anyway. When that time came, there would be even more closed-beta slots to satisfy those long-waiting folks. ... Once the division of spoils was settled, Chu Guang instructed the players to head to the dungeon and clear out the space to house the marauders from the brick kiln. When the dungeon doors were pushed open, the foul stench that wafted out nearly choked the two players heading down. They had to air it out for a good while before raising their torches and continuing onward. The deep, murky stone walls were coated in slimy stains. Fist-sized roaches crawled across the floor, while shoe-sized rats fought each other over a rotting corpse. Men and women chained by their hands and feet stared blankly at the figures appearing at the entrance. Their eyes were hollow, and those with intact limbs could be counted on one hand. Thumb-thick maggots crawled over some of them, completely ignored. [Elven King Fugui] could not hold it in and puked on the spot. "I'm never doing this job again." [Mole on the Run from the Canyon] was doing fine, however. He even chuckled and teased him, "Weren't you the one clamoring to come?" "...I thought there'd be an injured little Klee." "Tsk, how do I call the cops here?" Seeing the two walking ahead, [Elaina], who had stopped at the threshold, froze in place, wearing an odd expression that looked remarkably like the trembling corner emoji. "I... I can watch your backs from here. Mainly worried marauders might ambush us from behind." Fugui and Mole looked at each other and chuckled in unison, turning together to face their good brother. "Don't be like that, bro. You're already here." "The quest reward is five silver coins. We gotta get these people out." "Exactly, exactly," the Agility-type Brother Fugui grabbed Elaina just as he tried to slip away, grinning. "Where would marauders even come from down here? Be a good boy." "Let go of me! Aaaargh!" Getting all the dungeon captives up to the surface took quite some time, while the scavenging of loot on the other side continued uninterrupted. The players looting the spoils practically turned the entire tire factory upside down. Not only did they take anything obviously valuable, but they even gathered up the marauders' pots, pans, bowls, tables, and chairs. Speaking of which, there was a little episode. While searching the marauder boss's room, players found a wooden torture rack inside. Hanging from it was a clone who had long gone cold, her fair skin marred by stains and scars. Chu Guang had some impression of her. He remembered it was at the entrance of Bet Street, when he saw Liszt negotiating business with Old Charlie—a gunman from the caravan had led her down from the vehicle. "The clone bought by Old Leech... how did she end up in the Bloodhand Clan's camp?" Chu Guang rubbed his chin, lost in thought. Roughly four possibilities—A, B, C, and D—crossed his mind, ranging from serious to rather scandalous. The four players who followed him into the room were whispering behind his back. "Is this game really wholesome?" "Probably...?" "Then why is there doujin plotline stuff?" "What do you mean doujin plotline? Doujin is all you ever think about! It's called lore and worldbuilding, get it? Man, once I log off, I've gotta hype this up on the official forums. The details in this game are insane. Hope they don't censor it when open beta drops." "Forget getting an official license; just play on the international server." "Though, honestly, our Administrator is pretty upright. On a wasteland where people's hearts are colder than ice, having such a righteous, fair, and kind NPC is seriously rare." This sentiment won unanimous agreement from the players. Objectively speaking, countless details proved that their esteemed Administrator was a truly charismatic leader. Otherwise, why would the weapon shop proprietress always be sneaking glances at him? Overhearing the players' chatter, Chu Guang chuckled inwardly. What else did you expect? If I were anything like a normal wastelander, the clones hanging from that torture rack would be you. Think carefully about where these "goods" are produced in the first place. Grabbing a piece of cloth at random, he tossed it over her body, then turned to the players behind him. "Take this poor soul down and carry her back. "Leaving her remains here would only feed the roaches. Better to let her contribute some leftover warmth toward rekindling the fire of civilization. "Also, search this room thoroughly. Report any clues to me immediately. "Be mindful of traps." The four players answered with high spirits: "Yes, sir!" Looting corpses! Rummaging through NPCs' cupboards! Nothing was more their forte!