"Dead, someone died?!"
Old White was dumbfounded, unable to regain his senses for a while.
But when he recovered, his first reaction was, "Can people even die in this game?"
Logically speaking, unless one actively seeks death or acts recklessly, it's quite difficult to die in this game.
Not just Old White, Chu Guang was also puzzled.
He hadn't expected that the third batch of players had just logged in when they suddenly encountered a non-combat reduction in their numbers, at least half a month earlier than he had anticipated...
The player who died had the ID "Crow," with a "Perception " gene sequence, and her talent was Toxin Intuition.
Chu Guang remembered sending her out in the morning to gather berries and edible mushrooms, but somehow, she ended up near the mutated leech nest.
Checking the player list, Chu Guang could determine the players' general locations, and as he explored, he found her last active area was beyond the mutated leech nest and immediately gave up the idea of recovering the body.
Young mutated leeches were bearable; their mouthparts had degenerated, and even sucking blood was difficult for them. They mostly fed on decaying food, and occasionally, wasteland cockroaches and rats gnawed at them, or diligent players would capture them for nesting.
However, adult mutated leeches were a different matter.
These creatures would swallow their prey whole, and their anesthetic digestive fluids would relax the prey's muscles within a minute, causing them to lose consciousness within minutes.
There was no doubt that not even bones could be found now.
Anyway, it was also time to log out.
Chu Guang took the players back to the shelter in batches, settled them back into their sleep cabins to log out, then he returned alone to the surface and came by the Active Substance Extractor.
A layer of dust had settled on the cylindrical extraction furnace. Chu Guang hadn't used it once since getting it, as there was no electricity.
What was particularly annoying was that although the cultivation chambers had a wireless charging interface compatible with the shelter, the device earned from the reward lacked one, having only a plug with positive and negative poles.
Clearly, the device's designer did not intend to allow him to steal electricity from the shelter.
"Xiao Qi,"
"What is it, Master?"
"How should the synthetic substance generated by this device be injected into the cultivation chamber?" Chu Guang asked, stroking his chin.
"It's quite simple, the active substance storage tanks of the cultivation chambers are removable; just pour the active substance into them, and that should work, right?"
Chu Guang, pondering, nodded slightly, then suddenly changed the subject.
"That means… it's also possible to remove the storage tanks from other cultivation chambers?"
Xiao Qi paused.
"Uh, I don't know, Master, you wouldn't be thinking of stealing…"
"It's borrowing,"
Chu Guang interrupted Xiao Qi, speaking decisively, "We can't get our hands on a generator until the end of the month, and I can't wait until then to revive a dead player."
"There are still 70 unopened cans anyway, just sitting there. We might as well use the active substance in them for now."
Xiao Qi whispered.
"But... what if we run out?"
Chu Guang didn't hesitate.
"We'll think of a solution when the time comes; let's solve the immediate problem first."
There are always more solutions than problems.
Increasing the death penalty or imposing extra penalties for consecutive deaths could curb the players' curiosity a bit.
Once more players join, maybe create a "Novice Village" where players below level five aren't allowed to leave to prevent wastage—there are plenty of methods available.
Chu Guang still couldn't understand what this player named Crow was thinking. Everyone else aside, she was, after all, a Perception-type.
When he returned to the shelter later, he planned to talk to her in his capacity as a former planner.
However, the main issue wasn't how she died but that the dead player was a newbie with no Contribution Points to deduct.
In other words, she couldn't afford the death penalty.
This was a bit troublesome.
It wasn't like they could just say to owe it.
What would other players think? Wouldn't they all let loose?
"…Seems like we need to set up compulsory labor or penalty tasks, as substitutes for the death penalty when it can't be paid."
"Hmm, there's also a drop in affection level, and extending the revival cooldown for consecutive deaths."
There are always more solutions than difficulties.
Having returned to the shelter with Xiao Qi, Chu Guang first compiled and summarized today's work outcomes in a computer document.
That was a habit he had developed recently.
With more and more players joining, the daily changes in inventory were significant.
As the Manager, he had to plan and coordinate every item of inventory.
When there was a shortage of wood, he mobilized players to cut trees, and when there was a shortage of food, he got everyone to go out hunting and gathering to ensure that construction and production could proceed smoothly without stalling due to a shortage of any resources.
"Building materials inventory includes 84 logs, 500 kg of carbon, 500 kg of calcium carbonate cement, two stacks of yellow clay bricks, and several hardened cement blocks. As for consumption... 220 logs were used, the cement produced during the day was almost depleted, with an additional 200 kg consumed from the stock."
"Approximately."
"Food inventory includes 50 kg of smoked meat, 10 kg of smoked fish... as well as 2 kg of edible roots, and a small amount of raspberry berries. About 10 kg of smoked meat was consumed, and pine nut fresh fish soup was made for dinner without using the stock of smoked fish."
"Maybe I should hire a Warehouse Manager."
He also needed to get a more accurate scale and measuring tools.
Chu Guang took some time, and according to the statistical information provided by Xiao Qi, he allocated Contribution Points to each player's personal account based on actual data.
New players mainly earned Contribution Points by moving bricks, calculated at 10 points per hour, which were mostly divided between the numbers 90 and 100.
Only Teng Teng was still at 0 Contribution Points.
However, making clothes was a technical job, especially with materials that had never been used before, and it would definitely take some time to get the hang of it.
Once she fully adapted to the local tools and materials, he believed her Contribution Points would grow rapidly like a snowball.
After distributing the players' rewards,
Chu Guang then opened the System and confirmed the rewards for today's daily tasks.
[Task: Cut down ten trees, Reward: 1 reward point]
[Task: Kill a Variant, Reward: 3 reward points]
[Task: Collect 1 ton of stone, Reward: 1 reward point]
[Task: Store 10 kg of food, 1 reward point]
A total of 6 reward points.
In reality, the players had completed well beyond the daily task requirements, but those were the easy reward points available each day.
Chu Guang calculated the reward points earned in the previous days, and including today's points, he had a total of 17 points.
"Let's take a gamble!"
After a bit of thought, Chu Guang, who had opened the [Manager's Allowance] subpage, spent 10 points on an intermediate blind box and the remaining 7 points on basic blind boxes.
Soon, the wall trembled.
As the alloy door opened, the rewards from the blind boxes rolled out on the conveyor belt.
[Nanoscale Therapeutic Needle: Mainly used for non-lethal injuries, can enhance tissue repair in a short time to accelerate wound healing.]
"This thing must have come from the intermediate blind box."
Specific efficacy was not listed, side effects unknown, active ingredients and mechanism of action were also not indicated, same as the previous Enhancing Needle—a product with no information provided.
Chu Guang wasn't injured now, so he temporarily stored the therapeutic needle in a drawer of his computer desk and looked at the other rewards.
As expected, five out of the seven rewards were lollipops.
One of them was orange-flavored, like the previous chocolate-flavored one, with a 10-hour attribute enhancement buff, but instead of strength, it boosted Constitution.
The other two items were a 200g bar of chocolate and a 230g box of canned beef.
Emmm…
The chocolate should be edible, but was the canned beef really okay?
If Chu Guang remembered correctly, canned food was invented during the Napoleonic wars in the 1800s. This old can of beef might be older than the museum antiques from his original world...
"Never mind... I'll find a player to try it and see if it's edible."
Chu Guang hesitated for a long time and finally decided to invite a player with high favorability to a meal when the players logged in tomorrow.
Such a good offer was unlikely to be refused.
After confirming all rewards,
Chu Guang returned to his computer desk, sat down, didn't immediately start the group chat, but rather opened the official forum to look for a player with the ID "Crow."
He had expected it to take some effort, but as soon as he opened the forum, he saw this ID on the homepage, with comments in nearly a hundred layers under the post.
"Wuwuwu, it's my fault for being reckless, I shouldn't have taken the risk! Please, dear Planner, have mercy, I didn't do it on purpose, please don't ban my device! QAQ"
Banning the device?
That seemed excessive.
Just having read the title, Chu Guang didn't understand what exactly had happened, until he read through the entire post and finally understood the situation.
This guy…
Really knew how to court death.