"Generator? What do you need that for?"
In the real world, at the canteen of Nanjing University.
Professor Wang Haiyang paused his chopsticks as he looked at Professor Yan Feng sincerely asking the question across the dining table.
He didn't know much about Professor Yan, only that he was from the Physics Department and was around the same age, in his thirties.
He couldn't remember when they added each other on WeChat, and they had never really talked after adding each other. Professor Wang was from the College of Engineering Management, and they didn't have much overlap in their work.
But today, he suddenly received an invitation from Professor Yan to have lunch at the canteen, mentioning that he had something to consult him about.
Honestly, when Professor Wang saw the word "consult," he thought it was something related to research topics. However, after meeting up, he didn't expect to be asked such a strange question.
The conversation continued in a casual atmosphere.
Professor Yan explained, "Recently, I read a novel with an apocalyptic theme. I want to know how survivors would solve the electricity problem if a similar situation really occurred."
"Why bother with the things in a novel? Just see how the author writes it," Professor Wang laughed and said, "But your question is quite interesting, an apocalypse... It depends on the specific type of apocalypse and how many days have passed after doomsday."
He also enjoyed reading novels, but he mostly read cultivation-themed ones and had read fewer apocalyptic stories.
He never imagined that one day he would have such a serious discussion about the content of a novel with his colleagues at the university.
"In terms of the setting, it's two hundred years after a nuclear war."
"Two hundred years? Nuclear war?" Professor Wang was stunned for a moment and hesitated, "That would be troublesome. Unprotected electronic devices would be damaged by the electromagnetic pulse from a nuclear explosion. The more sophisticated the instrument, the harder it is to survive."
"Is there a solution?" Professor Yan frowned.
"There are some solutions. For example, backup diesel generators can be found in residential areas or restaurants. They aren't highly sophisticated devices, but after two hundred years... they have probably been scavenged long ago. Even if they haven't been scavenged, the components inside would likely have deteriorated due to lack of maintenance. Fuel is also an issue. After two hundred years in an apocalypse... you can't expect to find gasoline at gas stations."
Professor Wang rubbed his chin and continued after a moment of contemplation.
"But it's not entirely hopeless."
"What solution?" Professor Yan immediately asked.
"Generally, every car has a recyclable generator. As long as you make the rotor spin, it can produce a stable 12V direct current. With some repairs, it should be usable. For small-scale electricity generation, such as lighting, 12V voltage is sufficient. If you can find an inverter, you can convert the direct current into 240V alternating current... Do you need to take notes for this?"
Looking at Professor Yan earnestly taking out a small notebook and making notes, Professor Wang couldn't help but look puzzled.
Reading a novel to this extent? Really?
Pushing his glasses up, Professor Yan said nonchalantly, "Don't mind me, please continue."
Professor Wang: "..."
He had often heard people say that the students from the Physics Department were oddballs, and he used to think it was a stereotype.
Now, he was starting to believe it a little.
...
Wasteland.
Sanctuary No. 404.
Light Chu slept on the floor of the residents' hall and woke up at four in the morning. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw a system pop-up notification.
[Congratulations, host, on unlocking the achievement "Newbie Guide" (logging in for more than 8 hours on the first day of gameplay).]
[Reward: +10 reward points]
Was there such a good thing?
Waking up from a nap and being able to open a blind box again.
Rubbing his sleepy eyes, Light Chu opened the system and selected the "Governor's Allowance" subpage.
He hesitated between the primary blind box worth 1 reward point and the intermediate blind box worth 10 reward points. In the end, Light Chu went all-in on the button for the intermediate blind box, silently praying in his heart.
Please, please, don't give me a freaking cough syrup!
A faint blue light flickered.
Under Light Chu's nervous gaze, the alloy door on the side of the residents' hall wall opened, and a plastic-wrapped syringe appeared on the platform.
[Muscle Cell Enhancement Injection. (Slightly and permanently enhances muscle strength, with a 24-hour usage interval and diminishing effects with repeated use)]
"Permanently enhances muscle strength?"
This thing is good!
Without hesitation, Light Chu tore open the packaging, removed the needle cap, but unexpectedly, there was no needle inside.
How do you use this thing?
After hesitating for a moment, Light Chu pressed the head of the syringe against his arm and pressed the button at the tail that seemed like a switch. His arm felt like it was stung by something, and then...
That was it.
"It's over just like that?"
Light Chu was a little dazed. He waved his fist but didn't feel any obvious changes in his body.
Could it be expired?
After all, it was something from two hundred years ago...
Out of caution, Light Chu gave himself a physical examination.
And when he received the examination results, the confusion in his heart was finally answered.
[
ID: Light Chu
Genetic Sequence: Manager
Level: LV.5
--Basic Attributes--
Strength: 9
Agility: 6
Physique: 7
Perception: 7
Intelligence: 6
]
"The gene development progress hasn't changed, but strength and physique have increased by 1 point... Hiss, there's something!"
Under normal circumstances, the strength and physique of a 20-year-old adult male without special training are usually 5 points, and 5 is the benchmark value for all attributes.
In other words, this 1 point increase in strength and physique is equivalent to 20% of the physical abilities of a normal adult male.
Light Chu is now only 1 point away from having twice the strength of a normal adult male.
Looking at the updated attribute panel, Light Chu wondered whether he should do a few push-ups to test it out. But at that moment, he suddenly noticed that there was a new task in the "Governor's Log."
He opened it and was stunned.
Damn.
Yesterday before going to bed, there was only one unfinished side task, but today the number of unfinished tasks suddenly became 20+!
The types of tasks were also diverse.
From tasks like "Hunt down a mutant creature," "Stockpile 5 tons of wood," "Stockpile 100 liters of fresh water," which were not too difficult, to tasks like "Repair the outer wall of the sanatorium," "Repair the second-floor wall of the sanatorium," which looked quite troublesome, they were all there.
As for the rewards, they ranged from a minimum of 1 point to a maximum of 20 points.
All these tasks had a common label: "Daily."
"What does 'daily' mean? Will it refresh every day?" Light Chu couldn't help but complain.
However, no one paid any attention to him.
The shelter system didn't talk, and Qi was stationed outside in the sanatorium. Light Chu was alone in the entire shelter.
Light Chu silently calculated in his mind. If he could complete all 20 tasks, he would earn a total of 150 reward points.
Of course, at least three-quarters of those reward points wouldn't be easy to obtain, at least not within a day or two.
Light Chu fell into contemplation.
If he had to do all these tasks himself, he would definitely exhaust himself. But if he could assign them to the players, he seemed to only need to offer a few "contribution points."
Thinking about this, his plan became clear in an instant.
There was a marker pen in the drawer of the computer desk.
Holding the pen, Light Chu didn't hesitate and took the elevator to the surface. After searching around in the sanatorium, he found a piece of plastic board that hadn't been picked up by scavengers to be burned.
Dusting off the board, Light Chu drew two lines with the marker pen, then erased them, nodding in satisfaction.
"Not bad."
Erasable and writable.
You'll do!
Taking some time, Light Chu picked a few tasks from the "Governor's Log" that gamers had a chance of completing and wrote them on the plastic board.
[Collect Wood (Requirement: Suitable for construction material): 1 contribution point per meter.]
[Find Water Storage Containers (Materials: Plastic, Metal. Shapes: Barrel-shaped, Pot-shaped. The bigger, the better!): 1-10 contribution points.]
[Search for recyclable waste: 1-? contribution points.]
[...]
"Mission accomplished!"
Glancing at the time, it was currently 4:30 in the morning, still an hour and a half away from the scheduled launch time.
Light Chu didn't idle around. He returned to the shelter, opened the computer, logged into the official website backend, and checked. He discovered that the number of reservations had increased by another 10 since last night.
Now it was 35 people.
It seemed that the discussion in the group yesterday had indeed helped attract more players. Ten fresh newbies had joined.
However, Light Chu pondered, it seemed that the user potential of the "Shachuko Club" had been exploited to the limit.
After all, this was just a game group with a few hundred people, and the number of active users could be counted on one hand. Perhaps these 35 people were already all the live gamers.
"I should consider a different way of promotion."
Placing advertisements was not practical. The official website of Wasteland OL was not registered in China, and the server might not even be on Earth.
Moreover, there was another issue.
If a larger influx of traffic was directed here, it would inevitably bring a large number of "low-quality users," meaning troublemakers.
These people might have just clicked "yes" for fun or accidentally.
Bringing in such players would only cause trouble.
"The threshold for reservations must be raised..."
Light Chu pondered in his mind and silently noted this down.
When he had the chance, he would have Qi modify the official website, such as moving the reservation option from the first-level page to the second-level page, requiring users to register an account, provide their phone number and shipping address for reservations.
Although the shelter system didn't seem to require gamers to provide a shipping address, doing so could at least filter out some indecisive gamers and "invalid reservations."
Speaking of which, what if someone used multiple devices to make reservations?
Or perhaps it would be robots and virtual machines?
However, after thinking about it, Light Chu discarded this problem.
Since the system could accurately deliver the headsets to the users, it definitely had a way to identify the identities of the reservers.
He was worrying too much about unnecessary things.
"The new main mission hasn't triggered yet, probably because the conditions haven't been met."
"For now, let's put aside the daily tasks. The crucial thing is the remaining 'side mission'—we need a 10KW power generator."
Power was a big problem.
The sanctuary couldn't be in the future while life on the surface remained in a primitive society.
For Light Chu, who came from modern society, without electricity, it wouldn't be much different from a primitive society.
"Let's think about how to solve the generator issue!"