He thought long and hard, but Chu Guang couldn't come up with a result.
Although the principle of the generator is simple, something even middle schoolers knew—essentially "the motion of a conductor cutting magnetic lines of force"—turning that concept into a 10KW power generator was not so simple.
Searching on Baidu only led him to purchase links.
Heh.
If I could buy online, would I really need you to tell me which one to buy?
Absolutely useless!
After much effort, Chu Guang finally found some reliable tutorials, but considering the current scarcity of resources, none of the information was truly useful.
Time quickly reached six o'clock sharp.
With the sound of the chamber doors opening, four players woke up.
"Let's research more later."
Chu Guang took his legs off the table, tidied up his appearance in a scavenged mirror, and calmly went to the neighboring room.
When he entered the room, the four players were checking their attributes on the cultivation chamber's display.
"As expected, my gene sequence is strength type... starting with 7 points of strength, but only 3 in intelligence? I don't feel dumb though."
"That statement doesn't sound very smart… And how quickly has your beard grown?"
Old White's beard was indeed a bit exaggerated.
It was just stubble yesterday, but today it was as long as a fingernail.
"I have no clue what's happening, but is there a razor here?"
"Obviously not, maybe try using an axe?"
"Get lost."
"I can't believe I'm an agility type; I thought I was intelligence type," Fang Chang said, chin in hand as he fell into thought, seemingly pondering something.
"I'm intelligence," Wild Wind said with a bitter smile, raising his hand, "is 3 points in strength too low? 7 points of intelligence... I don't feel any smarter."
"I'm perception type, but what's the use of perception attributes? Can it predict the future?" Night Ten seemed a bit frustrated.
Compared to such ambiguous attributes, he would have preferred excelling in strength or agility.
Or at least constitution, to at least be a tank.
"It's probably an intuition for danger, remember how you dodged that mutant's ambush yesterday?" Fang Chang speculated, "This attribute might be quite OP if used well… it's wasted in your hands."
"Screw you."
"Ahem."
Chu Guang, who had walked into the room, coughed to interrupt the players' conversation.
Perhaps because he had chatted with them as a planner and discussed their affection points last night, the four players looked at him differently now.
In order to maintain a sense of immersion for the players, Chu Guang decided to continue upholding his authoritative image and spoke sternly.
"Time is pressing, so I'll make it short."
"The work that needs to be done is piled up like a mountain, but we don't have much time left. In order not to affect subsequent plans, we need to complete our outpost on the surface before winter arrives."
"Food, drinking water, fuel… these all need to be stockpiled, along with building defensive fortifications and surface dwellings."
"The tasks to be completed are all organized on the plan sheet, which you can check on the notice board at the entrance to the sanatorium."
The players' eyes lit up, their faces showing eager expressions.
Has the task system been perfected?
"That's the basics. Any questions? If not, let's head out."
"Wait, hold on, Manager!"
"Speak."
Night Ten, his face turning red, raised his hand.
"Please, where is the restroom?"
...
The restroom.
Indeed, that was a problem.
Level B1 of Shelter No. 404 was more like a reception area; although there were compartments with cultivation chambers, they lacked any living facilities.
Chu Guang suddenly realized, observing the players who rushed out of the hospital after reaching the surface, that with the influx of players, not only food and drink were problems, but defecation would soon become a big issue as well.
On Bet Street, there were public toilets, and the manure from humans and animals would be collected and reportedly sold to nearby Brown Farm.
Since arriving at the hospital in Wetland Park, Chu Guang had always found a safe spot in the woods to relieve himself, never considering the logistics of one hundred people relieving themselves.
It seemed that some had upset stomachs because four players returned limping.
"No toilet is damn uncomfortable."
"No paper either, I ended up using leaves...almost scraped myself bloody."
"+1."
"Damn, why do I feel a burning sensation...do you guys feel it?"
"No."
"Did you wipe your butt with nettle leaves or something..."
"What, what are nettle leaves?"
"Never mind, just endure it and it'll pass."
"???"
Chu Guang listened from the side with a face full of embarrassment.
He seemed to have forgotten to tell these guys that they could use moss for toilet paper, a little tip he learned from the survivors at Bet Street.
But they didn't seem to give him a chance to speak.
Endure it.
Everyone's been through it.
"Manager, sir," limping over to Chu Guang, Fang Chang spoke respectfully, "I propose that we should build a toilet."
Night Ten: "Second that!"
Old White: "I agree, and with a toilet, we can also dig a big pit to collect the excrement, mix it with wood ash and sawdust compost, and let aerobic bacteria and fungi decompose the organic matter to generate heat which kills the pathogens in the waste to make fertilizer."
Fang Zhang: "Exactly, and not just for producing fertilizer, we could also pack some manure and organic debris in a sealed environment and let anaerobic bacteria convert it into combustible methane! My hometown used to do this with biogas pits, which provided lighting and electricity."
"That's a good idea, we should consider it," Chu Guang said approvingly.
Biogas.
He had always been worried about survival issues and had forgotten about this.
From what he remembered, although there was no biogas pit on Bet Street, the neighboring Brown Farm had one.
Seeing the approving expression on the Manager's face, the four players were even more energized, tossing ideas back and forth.
Building a toilet and even a biogas pit wasn't too difficult; the only challenge was finding sealing and gas storage materials.
Fortunately, the Wasteland lacked many things, but there was no shortage of plastic.
Especially beverage bottles and trash bags.
Since burning them would produce toxic gases, few survivors burned them; they were usually just used to start a fire.
A careful search in the nearby suburbs would most likely turn up quite a few.
Thus, the Task board got a new mission—to collect plastic bags and containers.
"Manager, about the engine, I have an idea," Wild Wind, who hadn't spoken until now, suddenly said.
Chu Guang looked at him.
"Let's hear it."
Wild Wind proposed,
"Most cars have onboard generators; I wonder if there are highways around here? Or a parking lot would also do. If we could find a car, the problem might be easily solved."
Chu Guang responded,
"Finding a car isn't hard, there's a parking lot near Wetland Park that I've checked out, but there wasn't anything worth salvaging."
"I want to try," Wild Wind persisted, "if we find a working generator, we could get electricity at our outpost on the surface!"
"You can go, but I can't let you go alone," Chu Guang looked at the players in front of him, his gaze settling on Night Ten, "you go with Wild Wind to the parking lot and check it out."
Night Ten said eagerly.
"Yes!"
Night Ten's gene sequence was of the Perception Type, which proved useful for intuitive crisis response.
Before they set off, Chu Guang had them carry two short scythes meant for mowing, which came in handy when encountering Variants and were more effective than the bulky axes.
Moreover, Chu Guang repeatedly cautioned them that if they encountered Variants, they should avoid conflict and run if possible.
But if they were discovered and the other party showed clear hostility, under no circumstances should they turn their backs to the enemy.
Doing so was tantamount to suicide...
Holding the map of Wetland Park and a basic compass, Wild Wind left the sanatorium with Night Ten.
Old White and Fang Zhang, who remained, looked at Chu Guang and asked,
"Manager, do we continue chopping trees, or?"
Chu Guang glanced around and counted the dozens of unprocessed logs on the ground.
"We're not chopping trees today, we need to solve the issue with the toilets first... here, go get the shovels and axes, and I'll show you how to do it."
...
The parking lot was on the southeast side of the sanatorium.
Two hundred years had passed undisturbed.
Nature had completely overtaken it.
Tree roots had pierced the hard concrete floor, and bushes and wild grasses were knee-high.
Vehicles speckled with rust were covered with vines, and through the broken windows, one could even see moss that covered the seats and air conditioning vents.
Seeing all this, Wild Wind finally understood what the Manager meant.
There truly was nothing worth salvaging here anymore.
Night Ten also looked troubled.
With things in such a state, finding a generator was a ghost's chance.
"Should we go back?"
Wild Wind was silent for a while, then headed forward, unwilling to give up.
"We're already here."
Night Ten shrugged and followed.
Having known him for many years, Wild Wind's most evident trait to him was stubbornness, though he couldn't say what he did in reality.
Many of the cars in the parking lot had hoods rusted shut, unopenable. Wild Wind searched throughout the parking lot before he finally found one that could barely be opened.
But upon opening the hood, he was stunned.
This was...
An engine?
"What's wrong?" Night Ten approached and asked.
"It looks like an electric engine... but it's not quite," Wild Wind frowned and said, "Do you know about cars?"
"I haven't even gotten my driver's license; how would I know?" Night Ten sweated, "Haven't you been working for many years? Didn't buy a car?"
"I live in the company dormitory, just have a bicycle."
Unconvinced, Wild Wind continued rummaging around under the hood, even crawling behind the car to peer underneath... checking every possible area.
But suddenly, his hands stopped.
Noticing his expression, Night Ten asked.
"What's wrong now?"
"It's strange... I can't find the power source." Wiping the mud from his face, Wild Wind scrunched his eyebrows and pondered for a long time, "I can roughly locate the engine, but... I can't find the power source."
"Could it have been removed?" Night Ten suggested a possibility, "After all, it's been the Wasteland for two hundred years. It's normal if there were survivors here, right?"
"That's a possibility."
Habitually closing the hood, Wild Wind looked over the parking lot full of derelict cars, his feelings mixed.
There was actually another possibility.
According to the game's background setting, the pre-war society was technologically advanced enough that it could have reached the stage of replacing fixed power sources with remote ones.
But no matter which possibility it was, it wasn't good news for him.
Hoping to salvage an engine from a wrecked car now seemed unlikely...
On the other side.
There had been new progress in the construction of the toilet.
Under Chu Guang's direction, Old White and Fang Chang first dug a pit two meters wide and three meters long, deep enough to fit a person, outside the sanatorium on the open space. They then inserted sawed-off logs into the sides of the pit as walls and lined the bottom with broken stones and leaves.
Once the cesspit was completed, constructing the toilet became much simpler.
Chu Guang directly asked the two to build two simple sheds by the cesspit and used a plastic tube detached from the sanatorium's exterior wall to connect it to the cesspit.
Thus, a simple toilet was finally deemed completed.
"Fecal matter and urine need to be stored separately; mixing them makes mud too easily. Plus, urine is sterile and can be used to water crops... But let's leave it at that for today," Chu Guang nodded approvingly, watching the morning's laborious efforts.
Exhausted and leaning on their shovels, Old White and Fang Zhang exchanged helpless glances.
Though it was a 100 percent realistic Virtual Reality Game, did it need to be this realistic?
"Bathing is another issue... There's a water source within one kilometer, but there are many Variants near it, so we must be extremely cautious when fetching water."
Perhaps building a bathhouse later would be good.
Otherwise, the smell would be the least of the problems, but getting sick would be a major issue.
"Manager, sir." Fang Zhang raised his hand.
Chu Guang looked towards him.
"What is it?"
"I think we should consider safety issues," Fang Zhang said, "Given the Variant we encountered yesterday, this Wasteland is not safe."
Nonsense.
That was something he didn't need to be told.
"I know, but we can't ignore sanitary issues either. There isn't enough medical supply in the shelter, and an outbreak could have severe consequences."
Safety issues, however, were not as pressing. Variants in Wetland Park were less active than those in the city areas, and there weren't many survivors around to worry about, so they could retreat back to the shelter if danger arose.
Sanitation for over a hundred people, however, was a major issue.
In Bet Street, each household used iron barrels to store water and heated it on the rooftops for disinfection, body cleaning every two or three days. It wasn't about being particular; it's just that being too smelly would get them driven out.
Fang Zhang and Old White exchanged looks.
This Manager's AI setting didn't include being a germophobe, did it?
They would have to be mindful of that in the future.
"Speaking of which... there's something I've been wanting to ask. Why doesn't such a large shelter have any supplies?" Old White interjected, "And what about the other floors? We've only been on Level B1 so far."
"The other floors are not open yet, but they will be opened eventually."
Chu Guang didn't explain the reasons, merely stating the facts.
The two players, curious but unable to get an answer, didn't persist and assumed it was just part of the setting.
Meanwhile, Night Ten and Wild Wind, who had been out exploring, had returned.
Seeing Wild Wind covered in mud, Chu Guang asked,
"How did it go? Did you find the engine?"
"No, we didn't find it, but it wasn't entirely fruitless."
With that, Wild Wind opened a plastic bag he had found in a trash can, filled with blue mushrooms.
These mushrooms were small, only as long as a finger, with a surface covered in translucent fine filaments. Following the patterns revealed a shimmering, multicolored gloss.
Chu Guang, looking surprised, asked,
"Where did you find these?"
With a hint of pride, Wild Wind reported truthfully,
"Near the parking area, there's a concrete sewage pipe, about as tall as two men. The pipe was filled with lots of these mushrooms. I wasn't sure if they were edible, so I just picked some to bring back."
He had initially wanted to try one, but hesitated for a long time due to the game's realism.
"Its name is Blue Umbrella Mushroom, scientifically known as 'Blue Angel'. I heard that those who eat it can see a real angel within an hour."
"Don't doubt it—unless you are a toxin-resistant Mutant, you definitely can't eat these."