The next morning.
In the tailor shop, as Teng Teng started her work, she peeled a note off the wooden board.
"Task... make a set of clothes for the weapon shop's owner, reward 5~10 silver coins?" After reading the note from head to toe, Teng Teng's eyes slowly lit up.
It took only a second for a perfect design plan to form in her mind.
"Yay, leave it to me!"
Stuffing the note into her pocket, she immediately dashed toward the direction of the weapon shop, full of excitement.
On the other side.
Inside the shelter.
Chu Guang stood in the resident hall, facing twenty new players who had just crawled out of the cultivation chambers, and finished the script he had struggled to concoct.
Perhaps it was because of the long wait, or perhaps because there was one more female player than last time, but this batch of newcomers was much more docile than the previous batch—at least no one did anything as eyesore-inducing as stripping in public.
It seemed that gradually raising the reservation threshold, practicing some hunger marketing, increasing the waiting time cost, and selecting high-quality human players did have some effect.
Of course, it might also be because the game was too realistic and without the possibility of creating alternate accounts, everyone had to consider their decency a bit since a bunch of old planners were "secretly watching" from above.
After having Xiao Qi explain the gameplay to the newcomers, Chu Guang led them onto the elevator to the surface and herded them outside like ducks.
Standing on the dirt in front of the sanatorium, these newcomers experienced for the first time the immerse shock of being there.
"Holy shit... Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!"
"Is, is this the world of Wasteland OL?!"
"The sun feels just like in the real world, the wind kissing my cheeks; it's like a dream! No, it is a dream!"
"The kids cried, man, the technology these days is too advanced!"
"This isn't even open for public testing yet! Damn! What else does the development team want to test? Hurry up and launch it, give me a code and I'll buy everything!"
"One word, epic!"
All new players seemed to have a similar reaction upon entering the game.
Chu Guang could understand this state.
From the moment he received the helmet, what started as a semi-joking fun turned into skepticism, endured the most torturous 72 hours tossing and turning, until, upon the opening of his second pair of eyes, all expectations turned into reality through a touch of senses.
It was like being reborn.
The impact of that moment was indescribable with words.
Stepping onto the soil of a foreign world, inhaling the fragrance of the dust, chasing butterflies in the bushes, embarking on an adventure with an unknown future... How many gamers dreamt of this?
Not just them, even Chu Guang had daydreamed more than once about the day he could step onto the virtual world's soil.
Only, it was a pity...
Knowing all the truths, he was destined not to enjoy the game's fun like them. Perhaps for him, the untouchable reality was the virtual.
"Go forth, warriors."
"Go change this decaying world!"
"With your own hands."
Amidst his sentiments, Chu Guang improvised and added three lines of script for himself.
Then he didn't linger there but left the time to these players themselves, taking Xiao Qi to the third floor and placing it in front of the window with the best view... This spot was a prime seat to overlook all the players.
Meanwhile, on the open space in front of the sanatorium.
The new players who had just stepped into the game world had not yet had the chance to breathe in the air of the wasteland when they were surrounded by old players who had arrived at the surface earlier.
"Any of you brothers with special talents? Raise your hands... What? You have? Holy cow, awesome, what's the talent... Calm and composed, what the heck? Sounds so useless."
"Any strength-type newbies here? Let's go pull trees to boost attributes, it's so much fun!"
"Boss, I'm strength-type, how should I play this game?"
Seeing a newbie finally paying attention to him, that old player was overjoyed.
"You're strength-type? What's your name?"
"Construction Site Kid with Bricks!"
"Holy cow, buddy, you get this game! Listen here, as a strength-type player you should chop more trees, move more bricks, roll up your sleeves and just do it, chop down a hundred trees and shoot straight to LV1! 7~8 points of strength will make you invincible in the wasteland, if you encounter mutants just swing your axe and it's done!"
"What if I encounter someone with a gun?"
"Just do it!"
"???"
Standing in front of the third-floor window of the sanatorium, Chu Guang looked down and observed the players below for a while.
Watching those newbies gradually grasping the tricks of playing this game under the guidance of the old players, he couldn't help but nod in satisfaction.
Very good.
Very reliable.
These closed testing players indeed lived up to his expectations.
The only thing that slightly disappointed Chu Guang was that although this batch of newcomers was very obedient, it seemed there was no easter egg—the special gene sequence known as "Variants," left by the First Generation Manager.
However, two special talents did catch his interest.
One was "Calm and Composed," which increased the base resistance to negative mental states like "Fear" and "Despair" by 50%, allowing for quicker removal of negative mental effects.
On the surface, this talent might seem useless, but anyone who has experienced actual combat knows how important this quality is in battle.
The other talent was "Thermal Vision"; the player who possessed this talent was named "Gnome King Riches," under the agile gene sequence.
Just reading the system's description of this talent sounded miraculous for night battles! In a focused state, activating this talent would make the retina more sensitive to infrared light.
Specifically, it meant that within a certain range, one could see heat sources in the dark!
Of course, this talent was basically useless against "cold-blooded animals".
Chu Guang silently noted this "Elf King Fortune", and, if needed in future night battles, he would use it.
Moreover, there were several other strange talents.
For instance, "Temperature Intuition" which allowed for contactless sensing of heat source temperature, "Plant Speaker" which provided insights into the growth state of plants, and "Insect Hunter" which enabled one to smell the pheromones released by insects, among others.
These talents weren't very significant in combat, but if used in production and exploration, they could still play a considerable role.
Chu Guang believed that the players themselves would figure out the best way to utilize these without any hints from him.
...
In the North Apartment Area of the Wetland Park.
A four-person squad was carefully closing in on their prey.
The terrain within the urban area was quite complicated, as seen from the dilapidated tower-style Greenhouse Ruins, indicating that people before the war probably lived quite comfortably.
Wild Wind: "People from the pre-war era sure knew how to enjoy life… Let me speculate, residents living in the community planted vegetables and fruits inside the tower, making this place both their marketplace and garden."
Old White: "Who would maintain it?"
"There must have been a property management company, outsourcing the space to a specialized enterprise isn't a bad idea either. This type of ecological community is quite instructional; the designer of this game is a master." Wild Wind highly praised the design, showing great interest in it.
"You all should focus more on our prey, I feel like we are very close to it."
Night Ten immersed his senses into the surroundings, and through the flowing aura, he seemed to hear the heartbeat of the prey… One strong, one weak.
Wait, two?
"Ahead."
Fang Chang had spotted the arrow-struck reindeer falling to the ground, but as he was about to move forward, he suddenly saw another arrow stuck in the prey's neck.
The neck?
He paused.
Didn't he remember hitting the butt?
Caught off-guard, his eyes met with the young man opposite him.
Both were startled; the next second, they instinctively moved, each drawing their bow and arrow aimed at the other.
"Who are you?"
"NPC?"
The two exchanged gibberish, not understanding what the other was saying.
Wild Wind and Old White reacted quickly, noticing Fang Chang's situation they immediately flanked from both sides, approaching the young man's flank.
The young man, tense, backed up against the concrete wall, concealing his back.
Fang Chang could feel the killing intent emanating from the shimmering point but did not fear, he steadily advanced forward.
After all, from a distance, he wouldn't be able to hit.
"Don't come any closer."
"Drop your weapon, you are surrounded."
What is this person saying?
Looter?!
The young man saw the three approaching and thinking about how those captured by looters died, he suddenly determined, released the bowstring.
Whiz—
The whooshing sound came flying like the wind.
Fang Chang instinctively sidestepped, dodging the arrow that grazed past his cheek, the feathers nearly brushing his nose.
Had he not dodged, it would have been straight back to the springs!
"Damn! Catch him!"
Cursing elegantly, Fang Chang, both anxious and furious, dropped his carpentry, drew a steel reinforcement, and charged along with Old White and Wild Wind.
Faced with a desperate situation, the young man pulled out a small blade from his waist, ready to fight to the death.
Yet just then, a stone whizzed through the air, hitting him square in the forehead, leaving his consciousness clanging in confusion.
"Hurry up!"
With a slingshot in hand, Night Eleven called out, and the three quickly surrounded him, a cudgel knocking the small blade from the young man's hands, forcing him onto the ground.
"Let me go!"
The young man roared furiously, struggling with all his might, but the person restraining him was none other than Old White.
A technology-enhanced man's strength was no joke.
"Keep still! Damn, this guy has some strength! Fang Chang, what do we do now?"
Watching the young man struggle on the ground, Old White, who had tied him up, looked over at Fang Chang.
In Wasteland OL, simple killing or monster-hunting didn't provide experience; the experience of Gene Sequences naturally grew through combat or training.
In other words, the experience from capturing was the same as from killing.
Wild Wind checked the young man's pack, finding inside nothing but a pancake, a few arrows, and a delicately crafted small blade.
Shaking his head, he stood up and said.
"Pretty poor."
Looking at the young man lying on the ground glaring furiously at him, Fang Chang fell into thought.
"I can't guess what he is saying either."
"For now, just tie him up, bring him back, and exchange him for money."