Players' performance indeed did not disappoint Chu Guang.
The two metallurgy majors only took two days to manufacture the tools needed by the "weapon shop owner's wife."
They even ingenarily improved the blast furnace, cleverly solving the issue of bubbles in the castings made by using primitive methods of smelting.
The finished castings included a boring cutter, a turning cutter, and a milling cutter.
Although all made from castings, their strength was still very reliable. With proper maintenance, they would definitely last a few months.
In addition, there was a set of double-rail thread calipers reconstructed with screws, steel bars, and old gears, with one side of the calipers connected to a winch with a drive shaft and handle.
This device could convert torque into horizontal thrust through the gears, with each click of the winch precisely advancing the tool holder on the calipers by one millimeter.
Though this device can't match the efficiency of an electric lathe, it was still somewhat usable for component processing with millimeter-level precision.
The only thing that left Chu Guang speechless were the IDs of the two brothers who completed these commissions.
One was called "Ward Foot Odor Who of Levin," and the other "Ya'er, I Want to Go pee."
What sort of underworld names are those...
Anyway, according to the order at the warehouse doorway, they made a whopping 80 silver coins in total, splitting it 40 each.
According to their plan, they intended to grind Contribution for a week, striving to save up 2000 points as soon as possible to buy a plot of land in front of the sanatorium.
The reward for making tools had given them a taste of success.
They planned to open a workshop later, specializing in metallurgy and forging.
"Are these tools enough?" At the entrance of the weapon shop, Chu Guang placed the wooden crate containing the metal tools on the table in front of Xia Yan.
Xia Yan glanced at the tools in the crate and grudgingly nodded.
"They'll suffice. With these tools, there's at least no problem making bullets. If you can get seamless steel tubes, I can even make you some simple iron pipe rifles… Did you buy these?"
"Players made them."
"Made them?" Xia Yan looked at Chu Guang in surprise, "I didn't expect your people to have such skills."
Chu Guang smiled and asked,
"How does it compare to Giant Stone City?"
"Giant Stone City is quite vast, it depends who you compare it with."
As Xia Yan installed the thread caliper onto the wooden table, she continued indifferently,
"There's not just poor folks like us there; there are also heavily armed Regular Army—the Militia Group of the Giant Stone City. They have power armor, dual-engine flyers, neural interfacing drones, semi-tracked support vehicles, and stuff whose names I can't even remember."
"Oh? That strong," Chu Guang said with a smile, "Then why haven't they attacked here?"
"Who knows, maybe they aren't interested. After all, the countryside doesn't have much to offer."
Xia Yan answered vaguely.
In fact, she didn't tell the whole story. Although the Militia Group of the Giant Stone City did have some good gear, clearly not all militia members were armed to the teeth.
For example, regarding the power armor, from what she understood, the entire militia group had only a double-digit number, and more than half of those were post-war inferior reproductions, with relatively outdated power sources and weapons.
Only a minority of them were pre-war equipment that hadn't failed yet, powered by He3 cold fusion batteries that became fewer with each use.
As for drones, flyers, support vehicles, and the like, they sounded intimidating but in fact, had more of a deterrent effect than practical combat utility.
Especially in close-quarters street combat, Cannon Fodder was always the most cost-effective option. In the slums of Giant Stone City, turning an infant into a soldier only took 13 years, and the "maintenance cost" was nothing but nutrition paste that could be made from cockroaches, spiders, and rats.
Though Chu Guang always took her words with a grain of salt, the intriguing settings could be added to the official website data archives.
Both Backseat Drivers and players loved this kind of hype.
...
By evening,
Players started to return to the outpost.
Chu Guang noticed that on the open space just inside the northern gate of the outpost, there were already a few players setting up stalls.
And the most popular stall was Crow's.
"Mushrooms for sale, fresh mushrooms, don't miss out, folks."
"Worked all day, why not reward yourself with a pot of mushroom soup?"
"It smells delicious!"
Since Crow could not receive quests from NPCs and did not want to be embarrassed by mooching meals daily, she chose to set up a stall.
Aside from the mushrooms taken to complete the punishment quest, she kept about twenty pounds for herself, trying a sale with a sense of trial.
Players passing by quickly gathered around.
"Are these mushrooms edible?"
"Are they fully cooked?"
"Male or female?"
"Can someone with sensitive skin use it?"
"Can you see little creatures after eating it?"
"You can eat them, you can see them—ah no no, you can't see them! Don't believe me? Look!" Crow took a mushroom, took a bite, and hopped on the spot to show she was still alive, neither disconnected nor feeling dizzy.
Seeing the stall owner eating them herself, the players at the stall no longer hesitated and pulled out their copper coins.
As Crow said, a pound of mushrooms was not expensive, costing only 3 copper coins, much cheaper than the food sold by the granary.
It had been two days since the new version was released, and most players could afford it.
"I'll take a pound, no meat today, let's try mushroom porridge."
"Grilled mushrooms sound good too."
"Boss, give me a pound, and if it's not good, I'll come back and return it."
"It's a pity you can't see little creatures, next time please give me something that can! I want Kali to call me hubby."
"Hello? Demon Demon Spirit, there's a pervert here."
In less than five minutes, the twenty pounds of mushrooms piled on the stall were completely sold out.
Looking at the sixty shiny, heavy little copper pieces in hand, Crow nearly squeezed tears out of her excitement.
Is this what wealth feels like?
Such a hard-earned feeling!
Although…
It actually sums up to just 6 silver coins.
On the other side, players who had just bought mushrooms, passing by the weapon shop, suddenly noticed some tools on the wooden table in front of the shop owner that they hadn't seen before.
As everyone knows, the designers of Wasteland OL are quite meticulous. Sharp-eyed players have already identified that the items on the table are cutting tools used for equipment processing.
Which means…
Can they gather materials in the future and let NPCs modify their equipment?!
"Are you Kaili from the heavens?"
"Boss lady, where is the boss?"
"Idiot, she is the mercenary that the Manager saved! There's no boss."
"I know, but being so serious makes you look dumb."
Xia Yan looked baffled at the players surrounding her.
Although she couldn't understand what they were saying, she still remembered what Chu Guang had told her and coolly looked at them, reading her lines slowly,
"Hello, I am Xia Yan from the weapon shop. How can I help you?"
"This NPC doesn't seem very intelligent."
"Normal. It's already good that such a large server can accommodate one or two spirited NPCs!"
"5mm smooth-bore iron pipe rifle, quality 'Inferior'… damn, even the inferior ones are 100 silver! I'm out of here."
"I can't afford it, I can't."
"Wuuu, she really must be Kaili from the heavens, I could sense the wealth from the price list."
Xia Yan: "..."
These people are so annoying, why do they talk so much?
Are they buying or not!
However, what somewhat relieved Xia Yan was that these people were, as Chu Guang had said, quite friendly in their attitude.
Although staring intently was somewhat rude, at least they wouldn't do anything irrational just because she ignored them.
In the tavern of Giant Stone City.
99% of brawls are caused by person A looking at person B once too much.
…
After the players had logged off, Wasteland OL's official website had a new post, quickly rising to become the hottest post of the day.
"Mole Daily: Shelter No. 404 welcomes its second NPC! From the heavens (just kidding) weapon shop owner—Xia Yan!"
Mole on the Run from Canyon: "Hello everyone, I'm a red-nosed mole who escaped from the Canyon. There's not enough land to till in the manor, so I decided to hide in Wasteland for a bit."
"Back to the topic, let's talk about the newly added NPC, Xia Yan!"
"This NPC actually came online yesterday, but it might have been a debugging stage, as she was sitting at the table but there was a 'Closed' sign at the door. Today, not only is the 'Closed' sign taken down, but there are also guns hanging on the shelves, and Boss Xia's table has a set of tools! Bold guess here, she'll be your new Kaili, when will a level 14 enhanced iron pipe rifle come out? (Just kidding)"
"Also, attached is my rough drawing, only for reference, please no hate."
"Image"
Although Wasteland OL does not support in-game screenshots, it doesn't prevent experts with tablets from sketching the characters in the game.
Like this mole brother, didn't expect he was also a hidden drawing master! His drawing is quite something.
Old White: "666!"
Night Ten: "You could say it's a spitting image!"
Teng Teng: "Love it, love it, sister is so cool, this is too awesome! (Cute) (Cute)"
Mole on the Run from Canyon: "Hehe, actually I studied fine arts, but after failing to get into Central Academy of Fine Arts, I switched careers. A little suggestion for the officials, maybe add a punk-style Z-shaped studded belt and goggles to the new NPC's outfit, and change clothes to jeans and a white shirt with red hair, would look cooler! Just a suggestion."
Quit Smoking: "Boss, draw the Dawn BOSS too! I'm more interested in that! (Pitiful)"
That Tinge of Longing: "Exactly, who wants to see a weapon shop NPC, I want to see what the BOSS looks like! There's not even a preview image on the official site!"
Mole on the Run from Canyon: "Don't rush, I'm drawing it right now. Damn, what's so great about male NPCs, just wait a bit."
Elena: "No rush, I'll be online by tomorrow night anyway. (Just kidding)"
Quit Smoking: "&%@#!"
Today, the focus on the official website was completely stolen by Xia Yan, Chu Guang glanced at the drawing this mole brother made, then at Xia Yan who was sitting in the corner memorizing her lines.
It's quite similar.
But would adding that belt and goggles really look better?
As a man of pure straight male lineage, Chu Guang admitted his fashion experience was about equal to the ad pushes on X treasure and X east, he was aware of his limitations.
But whatever he wears looks good on him, so it didn't really matter.
Noticing Chu Guang's gaze, Xia Yan nervously shrank back,
"What, what are you doing…"
"Nothing, just wondering how many days it's been since you last changed clothes."
Chu Guang looked at her right leg, the wound there had mostly healed, but the blood on her pants still remained, looking somewhat unsanitary.
Change clothes?
Xia Yan became even more nervous, her face turning pale, paling to white tinged with red and the red shading to green.
"Relax, I was just wondering about your size…Tch," Chu Guang shook his head, halting halfway through his sentence, "Never mind."
It really wasn't appropriate for him to ask.
Maybe he should just write a task, and have Teng Teng do the measurement.