Actually, there was no real choice.
Summer Salt was well aware that with only one leg left, it would be difficult for her to even walk out of this street, let alone return to Boulder City.
Besides, what could she achieve by going back?
Although she had been a mercenary for quite some time, she hadn't managed to save much money. The better neural link-style bionic prosthetics cost tens of thousands of chips, while the cheaper mechanical prosthetics still cost thousands of chips.
That price was comparable to a set of chemical-powered exoskeletons.
Even if she sold herself, she couldn't afford it.
Either she went with these people or she waited here to die.
In reality, the choice wasn't that difficult.
Sitting on the edge of a swaying wooden cart, bouncing up and down together with the piled sacks, Summer Salt sighed silently in her heart.
Perhaps this journey would be the last bit of freedom she had.
Apart from being captured and forced to bear children, she couldn't think of any other use she had for the man in front of her.
Her skills?
Work?
Ha, ha.
After careful consideration, she realized that all she had left was her body, which still had some value.
She had heard that the process would be very painful, but she didn't know if it was true...
"We've arrived."
The voice from up front interrupted her nonexistent daydream of at least two hundred thousand words.
Snapping out of her reverie, Summer Salt abruptly looked up and discovered that she had been brought by this group of people to a small forest at some point.
In the center, surrounded by the jungle, was an open space with scattered wooden stakes. Standing in the middle of the open space was an unfinished concrete wall.
Next to the concrete wall were smoking kilns, and further back were pits for smoking meat and fish racks.
The air was filled with the aroma of grilled meat, accompanied by the clanging of hammers.
Some people were hammering limestones, others were operating bellows to fan the fire, and there were those who were carrying polished stone, building walls, or chopping down trees.
This place seemed like a large construction site.
Primitive yet busy.
These people... were his subordinates?
Looking at everything in front of her, Summer Salt's pale face was filled with astonishment. She quickly counted and realized that there were quite a few people here. Just from what she could see, there were more than a dozen or twenty people, all wearing identical blue uniforms.
And in the instant she recognized the clothes they were wearing, which took less than a second, she guessed their identities.
Sanctuary residents!?
She hadn't heard of any sanctuary nearby.
But...
What were they doing?
Summer Salt was puzzled.
Sanctuaries around Springvale were not uncommon. Some had opened many years ago, while others were still sealed, waiting for the unlocking time to arrive.
The well-established sanctuaries could even be considered as a faction, while those who didn't fare well mostly turned into mutants or food for the mutants.
Summer Salt remembered that there was one not far from Boulder City, but the survivors living there were rather exclusive, unwilling to interact with people outside, and tended to stay within the sanctuary. They rarely ventured out onto the surface for major construction projects.
Did this kind of fence serve any purpose?
It was indeed sturdy, and bullets probably couldn't penetrate it, but could it be more solid than the gates of a sanctuary?
That thing couldn't even be penetrated by gamma rays.
"...Are you people from the sanctuary?"
"Indeed," Light Chu glanced at the wound on her leg and said, "I thought you had passed out."
She had been quite obedient and quiet all along this journey.
Light Chu's attention had mostly been focused on the surroundings, so he hadn't paid much attention to her. He thought she had passed out due to excessive blood loss.
He didn't expect her to still be awake.
"I'm not that fragile."
Summer Salt lifted her chin slightly, her eyebrows and expression stiff as if they were made of lead. She thought it might make her appear a bit more courageous.
At least she wouldn't seem timid.
However, unfortunately, no one paid attention to her pretentious attitude, and some didn't even notice it at all.
"I can tell," Light Chu casually remarked, retracting his gaze from the bloody, mangled leg. "Your wound healing speed is indeed slightly faster than an average person."
Applying the attribute template of Sanctuary 404, this guy's physique is at least 8 points, with an error margin of about ±1.
For an ordinary person, even without excessive blood loss, they would have passed out from high fever by now.
But this gurl could still hold on, only sweating profusely on the forehead, pale face, and slightly clouded consciousness.
Of course, it could be due to their "talent."
Most of the survivors in the wasteland have some connection to mutations, so having some genetic traits different from ordinary people is not surprising.
Light Chu looked at the two gamers and gave them an order.
"Deliver the food to Tomato_scrambled_eggs and have him store it properly."
A few days ago, Light Chu had instructed Tomato bro to build a grain and meat storage facility.
It should be completed by now, without any surprises.
Whether they are dried and stored or simply piled up in bags, this chef is more professional and reliable than himself.
Since there are gamers available, Light Chu doesn't want to bother with these trivial matters anymore.
Last time, just making some smoked meat was enough to give him a hard time. If he had to plan the food storage, it would probably end up molding or being eaten by mice before winter.
Upon hearing the manager's orders, Tomorrow and Nighten nodded in unison and took on the task.
"Yes!"
"Understood!"
Light Chu didn't say anything.
He reached out and lifted the female mercenary who was paralyzed on the cart, ignoring her exclamation, and carried her on his shoulder like carrying a sack of flour.
Then, his other hand reached out and grabbed the backpack that Nighten had licked from the other three mercenaries. He swiftly headed towards the direction of the sanatorium.
Tomorrow and Nighten, watching from the side, were filled with admiration.
This bundle of equipment plus a living person must weigh at least a hundred kilograms.
To lift it with just two hands, that's truly impressive!
Watching the governor walking towards the sanatorium, White, who noticed the situation, quietly approached.
"What's going on? Who's the person our boss is carrying?"
"You should ask Tomorrow. He's the one who finished watching the plot. I've been feeling lonely here, either licking backpacks or being held hostage," Nighten said with a gloomy face.
Tomorrow made a helpless expression.
"Don't look at me. This game doesn't even have subtitles. I can't understand what the NPCs are saying to each other during the plot... Just consider her as a newly added NPC."
He could guess the general idea, but it would be difficult to explain it in detail. It's better to wait for the official website to update.
White was puzzled.
"Alright... But by the way, how did she get such severe injuries?"
"Sigh, not only were her injuries severe, she was on the verge of death," Nighten sighed and said, "You don't know what we encountered on our way back."
"What did you encounter?"
"A Crawler!"
"What the heck?" White looked at Nighten in astonishment and hurriedly asked, "You encountered a crawler? What do those things look like?"
There is information about crawlers on the official website, but apart from a few abstract descriptions, there is no description of their combat power.
There are no illustrated guides either.
White only remembers that these things seem to belong to the same category as Feeders, both being symbiotic species born from fungal infection. They also seem to be related to biological weapons and their ancestry cannot be traced.
Originally, he thought these things were probably monsters in the game's setting, and the game company might not have even created their models yet.
But unexpectedly, they encountered them!
"They look strange and ugly, with four long arms. When crawling, they are about half the height of a person, but when standing up, they are probably two meters tall. Not only do they have incredible strength, but their movements are also damn fast! We fired three rounds with our guns, but not a single shot hit. In the end, it was the manager who was amazing. He grabbed a steel pipe and stabbed it a few times to kill it."
Nighten vividly described the situation at that time, although this abstract narrative style didn't explain much.
White turned to Tomorrow for help, and the latter sighed.
"For now, I can't explain it clearly, but basically, it's like what Nighten said. That thing's strength was a bit outrageous."
"I think the new expansion not only updated in-game activities but also added more aberrations, new NPC factions, and related quests. Let's discuss this later when we go offline... The governor asked me to deliver the cart to Tomato Bro. I'll go complete the task first."
Although he really wanted to discuss his new findings with Tomorrow, there are only three hours left until nightfall, and they really don't have time to waste.
White sighed and nodded.
"Okay, you go ahead... I'll think about the steel furnace. After you finish your task, come and help me quickly!"
"Alright, see you later."
...
On the other side, inside the sanatorium.
The gamers working on the scaffolding all turned their attention to the governor returning from outside.
Of course, they also noticed the woman he was carrying on his shoulder.
"Wow, look, our governor is carrying someone on his shoulder!"
"Who is that person???"
"New NPC?"
"And she's a girl!"
"We finally have a new NPC! Brothers, we're one step closer to the closed beta!"
"Oh oh oh!"
Just thinking about getting closer to the closed beta, the gamers were filled with excitement, as if they had been injected with fresh blood, and they worked harder at their tasks.
Summer Salt, being carried on Light Chu's shoulder, felt her cheeks burning, not only because of the position she was in, but also because of the gazes that made her feel uncomfortable.
She couldn't understand what those people were saying, but she didn't need to understand.
She could guess that they were probably talking trash, just like their lecherous gazes.
She could imagine that they were like scavenging dogs in the wasteland, offering flattery and compliments to the alpha male leader in the hopes of getting a bone or a bowl of broth after he finished enjoying his prey.
Clearly, she was the tender and delicious lamb.
The more Summer Salt thought about it, the more frightened she became. Her clenched teeth couldn't help but chatter, and her eyes were becoming moist, even shedding a tear.
She suddenly regretted it. Instead of being humiliated and thrown to the wolves, it would have been better to take her own life and die with some dignity.
But her body didn't obey her.
The elevator went down.
Arrived.
Light Chu swiftly walked through the sanctuary's gate, passed through the buffer room, and entered the residents' hall, throwing the bag full of equipment to the side, then tossing Summer Salt, whom he was carrying on his shoulder, onto a chair.
"Ah, please be gentle... What are you going to do?"
Summer Salt gasped in pain, nervously staring at the approaching Light Chu.
"Behave yourself."
Not bothering to pay attention to her, Light Chu casually opened a drawer and took out a silver-white metal tube. He flicked off the plastic cap with his thumb and habitually flicked it with his index finger.
"This shouldn't hurt, just endure it."