```
Night fell deep.
Chu Guang slept restlessly, waking several times and only falling back to sleep intermittently after feeling for the gun hidden in his sleeping bag.
The shelter was too comfortable; there was no need to worry about any danger, so much so that he found himself somewhat unable to adapt to this unsettling environment all of a sudden.
"I've become complacent."
Chu Guang sighed, his hand unconsciously touched the gun concealed under the blanket again, the rough and long barrel filled him with a sense of security.
He wondered how things were going with the players.
Although he had explained to Xiao Qi what to do in his absence, he couldn't let go of his worries when he wasn't around.
Waking up again at five in the morning, Chu Guang found he could no longer sleep, so he lay there with his eyes open, waiting quietly.
It wasn't until the faint light of dawn filtered through the window that he crawled out of his sleeping bag, dressed, and slung on his steel pipe and the newly purchased gun.
This time when he left, he estimated it would be a long while before he could return.
The mayor's demands forced him to move up his plan for relocating; all preparation had to be completed before the end of the month.
If he couldn't stockpile enough resources for a hundred people, the next trial wouldn't happen until February or March of the next year.
The entire winter would be wasted.
He pushed open the door.
Equipped and ready to depart, Chu Guang happened to run into the men of the Wang Family.
Wang Defu, who had caused trouble at his doorstep just the day before, gave him a look—no words were exchanged, but his eyes carried a hint of provocation.
Perhaps because his father and older brothers were by his side, and with hunting weapons on his back, he had more courage than the day before, almost as if he was showing off.
Of course, Chu Guang had no intention of stooping to the level of petty children.
A sixteen-year-old boy was considered a full-fledged man on Bet Street, but to him, the boy was nothing more than a kid whose whiskers hadn't even fully come in yet.
"Hey, don't go dying on me."
Chu Guang ignored him, didn't even glance his way.
The Wang Family kid grew angry, his teeth clenched and face turning red; he felt humiliated by this outsider's disregard.
However, just as he was about to do something rash to provoke a reaction, his older brother suddenly placed a hand on his shoulder.
Although still somewhat dissatisfied, Wang Defu quickly calmed down.
It was clear that the kid listened to his brother.
Chu Guang stole a glance at the Wang Family's eldest son—this strong and imposing man was also looking at him.
Chu Guang sensed a faint danger from the man, but it wasn't pronounced.
Interestingly, during their observation, the man's face also revealed a hint of surprise, though he concealed it carefully.
Hunter's intuition—
This guy is trouble!
After a brief eye contact, both parties quickly averted their gazes.
There was no need to stir up unnecessary trouble.
The Wang Family moved on.
Chu Guang also prepared to set off.
Just then, a crisp voice came from behind.
"Be careful on the road."
Chu Guang paused, turned around, and saw Little Fish peeking at him from behind the door.
He smiled faintly and said,
"Yeah, thanks."
"No need."
In the blink of an eye, the girl scurried back into the house and disappeared.
...
At six in the morning, the sky was almost fully bright.
Bet Street's gate slowly opened, and survivors armed with knapsacks, bows, and arrows, knives, crossbows, and other equipment tread across the cracked concrete and through weeds sprouting from the fissures, heading in groups towards the ravaged ruins.
But on this day, two hundred years later, finding good things in the Wasteland was not so easy anymore; even a bullet casing dropped by mercenaries or Looters could be considered a treasure.
Chu Guang didn't leave the settlement immediately. Instead, he lingered at the gate for a while, waiting until everyone else had gone far, and then he visited Old Charlie's recycling station.
"I need 7 kilograms of green wheat; here are 21 points of tokens. Also, how much tobacco for curing meat can I get for 4 tokens? I've never bought any," Chu Guang asked.
"One point per tael."
"Then give me four taels!"
Food was the key to development.
Only by stockpiling more food could he recruit more players to do work for him.
The survivors couldn't be expected to subsist on thin porridge made from green wheat every day; even if they could endure it, he could not.
Now with a gun, hunting would be much easier than before.
Chu Guang planned to buy some tobacco leaves to take back, to make cured meats from the surplus that couldn't be eaten immediately, which would serve as a winter reserve.
Old Charlie lifted his eyelids.
"I remember you just bought five kilograms of green wheat a few days ago, didn't you?"
"Is that a problem?" Chu Guang replied nonchalantly.
Old Charlie just curled his lips.
"No problem, it's good to save up."
Chu Guang, planning for the future, suddenly became alert.
A word from the speaker, a listener's attention.
He realized a potential issue.
He hadn't brought back any useful trash or other findings for a while, yet had made two substantial purchases in a row.
The mayor might not notice such a small figure as himself, but it might breed suspicion in others' minds about where he was getting all this money from.
But Old Charlie didn't say anything, perhaps he didn't care at all—he weighed out the grain, and with a smile, saw him out.
"I've been careless..."
```
Stepping out of the gate of Bet Street and turning a corner, Chu Guang finally let out a sigh of relief, paused to observe his surroundings for a while, and then continued on his way.
Over 10 chips was already considered a substantial "fortune" for the Scavengers, as they usually couldn't save any money.
Yet he had twice consecutively taken out more than 20 chips to purchase supplies that he couldn't exhaust in a short amount of time.
Old Charlie was relatively kind to him, given that they both had come out from the same refuge, but at the end of the day, he was still the servant of the town mayor.
With this thought, Chu Guang's brow furrowed.
It was a pity that the Merchant named List only accepted grains and sold industrial products from the Giant Stone City.
Perhaps he should try his luck at the Brown farmstead.
...
Seven kilograms of green wheat and ten liters of drinking water, along with bullets and gear, weighed more than twenty kilograms in total—a heavy burden on his shoulders.
Aside from carrying the load, Chu Guang also had to be careful to conserve his strength and watch out for dangers lurking in the shadows.
Even with strength hidden in his muscles that was extraordinary, he could only walk a distance before stopping to check the road conditions and then continue moving on.
The roads outside of the settlement were rough to traverse; sometimes, he had to detour around collapsed highways and weave through fallen skyscrapers.
Chu Guang suddenly felt envious of the protagonists in "The Last of Us" and "The Fading Light," who could parkour through the ruins with a bunch of stuff on their backs, while he could only plod along step by step.
Maybe...
Next time, should he buy a cow?
Just not sure if List would sell one.
Fortunately, the Variants he encountered along the way hadn't discovered him.
Passing through the ruins.
After following the road for a while and arriving at the sanatorium located in Wetland Park before eight thirty in the morning, Chu Guang was surprised to find that all four closed beta players were already online.
Not only that.
Outside the sanatorium's Enclosing wall, there stood four half-man-tall furnaces and a hemispherical kiln about a person's height.
What...
What's this?
He didn't remember assigning them the task of building furnaces.
"Manager Sir! You're finally back," Fang Chang said with a smile as he approached the evidently surprised Manager.
"I was delayed outside for one night," Chu Guang, still fixated on the furnaces and having forgotten to put down the things on his back, asked, "How are things here? Did you encounter Variants or other survivors?"
"Everything is normal! There were no accidents!"
Fang Chang reported their work to Chu Guang with a bright face.
Those four half-man-tall furnaces were for charcoal burning, and the one with the bellows was for calcining the raw material for cement at high temperatures.
"We burn the bark into ash, then mix it with water and stir, filter out the potassium carbonate solution from the top, and squeeze the remaining mud to extract the calcium hydroxide and calcium carbonate needed to make cement."
"Next, we put these raw materials into the blast furnace to calcine until they turn orange-red, then mix them with sand we've picked up from the riverside, add water and mix well, and—voila—we've got ash cement!"
Damn?
Honestly, Chu Guang was amazed by the practical skills of these players.
He himself had tried mixing grass ash with mud to make cement, following methods found on forums, but what came out crumbled easily and was utterly useless.
Now, it seemed he had been doing it wrong all along.
Was the key in the blast furnace and a secondary calcination?
And the purity of the ash...
Fang Chang didn't stop talking and continued.
"We plan to use the cement to repair the sanatorium's Enclosing wall! Oh, and those potassium carbonate solutions we filtered out, we collected them too. They're really useful for tanning leather!"
"You all... did very well."
After a long thought, Chu Guang couldn't think of any reward to give to these players, only coming up with this commendatory phrase.
But to Fang Chang who heard it, he was thoroughly exhilarated.
It went up!
The favorability!
It definitely had gone up!
Not missing the opportunity, Fang Chang recited the speech he had thought about all night with an earnest expression.
"For the continuation of civilization!"
"It is our honor to alleviate your worries!"
"..."
Chu Guang suddenly didn't know how to respond to him.
Compared to himself, these players seemed a bit too noble.
"Spoken well... for the continuation of civilization, and for the future of all of us."
Coughing, Chu Guang kept up a dignified expression and said to the excited players, "I'm going to put down the supplies downstairs. Your plan is very good... go ahead with confidence!"
Fang Chang stood tall and proud, brimming with enthusiasm.
"As you command, Manager Sir!"
"You all should also pay attention to balancing work and rest, don't overexert yourselves," Chu Guang advised.
It was not so much out of conscience as it was worry that these players might overdo it and burn out their enthusiasm too soon.
However, this player did not seem to grasp his well-intentioned concern, as he proudly declared his loyalty.
"Serving you is our mission, and it also is my declaration under the banner of United Human!"
Hearing this, Chu Guang nearly choked.
A declaration, huh...
Have you ever seen what the United Human flag looks like?
"Alright, that's the spirit, go ahead."
Watching the player jog away, Chu Guang silently sighed in his heart.
After all, his concern was unnecessary.