The next morning.
Outside the sanatorium walls, there was a lively buzz of people and shouts.
"Abandoned construction site, need labours for transporting stones! Group of four, waiting for one more, two small carts rented, speedy join to get on board!"
"Any strength profession buddies? Waiting for a teammate to chop trees, earn money, and level up together!"
"Agility gamers seeking group! Perception-based preferred, intelligence-based can take the cold bench. We're doing the scavenging mission in the northern row of buildings! Quick quick!"
"Damn, do intelligence gamers have no human rights anymore???"
"The outpost is recruiting a part-time warehouse manager, offering a fixed daily salary of 9 silver coins and 100 contribution points. Working hours are from 6 AM to 6 PM with a 3-hour break in between. Job responsibilities include checking accounts, counting inventory, procuring and selling goods. Intelligence gamers are preferred, and only two positions are available. Note that the supervisor is always watching you, and any discovery of favoritism or cheating will be severely punished... Damn it! I'm signing up!"
"The carpenter's hut is also hiring! Guaranteed daily salary of 10 silver coins and 200 contribution points, with additional bonuses for completing tool-making orders. Uh, woodworking experience is required, must be able to handle raw log, and able to craft furniture, bows, and spears of good or higher quality... I'm out, I'm out."
After the version update, each gamer received a newbie gift package of 5 copper coins from the generous governor.
What can you do with 5 copper coins?
Actually, quite a lot.
For example, you can rent an axe at the logging cabin for 5 hours, or rent other tools like carts and wheelbarrows at the warehouse for 5 hours.
In addition to renting, you can also buy a pound of horn yuccas, green wheat, or 100 grams of dried jerky from the warehouse. The purchasing power is impressive.
It has to be said that gamers are always the most adaptable creatures.
If it were the scavengers of Bette Street, they would probably immediately confront anyone trying to replace their century-old chips with metal tokens.
But gamers are different.
They are like particles moving about in a bottle, with chaos and order existing in them simultaneously. As long as they continue to repeat the action of putting on and taking off their helmets, they can never escape from this bottle.
The game has its own rules, and updates and adjustments are the norm.
For gamers, this is common knowledge.
In less than an hour, these self-taught little geniuses had familiarized themselves with the rules of the new version and started thinking about how to adapt to the gameplay of this version.
An open space in front of the walls.
Tomorrow didn't leave immediately but gathered White, Nighten, and Hurricane together, sitting in a circle and starting a strategy meeting.
Tomorrow: "The biggest changes in Alpha 0.3 are the economic system and the identity system."
Tomorrow: "I just consulted with the assistant of the governor. To earn contribution points, besides making significant contributions, the only way is through employment. Taking the warehouse manager with the lowest threshold as an example, working for a day can earn 100 contribution points. If you start from scratch, it would take about 20 days to become a citizen."
Hurricane touched his nose and raised his hand to speak.
"Let me add something. It's not just through the employment system; there are daily quests as well. For example, chopping down 20 trees and dragging them to the carpenter's hut not only earns rewards for cutting the trees but also 80 contribution points... However, the daily limit for earning contribution points through daily quests is only 160 points, so completing two quests would max it out."
Tomorrow: "Hmm... using the rest time during the rotation of occupational tasks to complete daily quests, theoretically, the maximum contribution points one can earn in a single day is 260. It would take 8 days to accumulate 2,000 points. However, for the average person, it would be quite challenging."
Nighten said softly.
"Holy crap, so you're saying... my 3,000 contribution points are pretty awesome?!"
White rubbed the back of his head and grinned.
"I have 5,000."
Nighten: "Damn!"
When they first entered the game, the contribution points for chopping trees were calculated based on the length and thickness of the wood. For a tree with an arm's thickness, it would earn 1 point per meter. For a tree with a thigh's thickness, it would earn 2 points per meter.
Perhaps the game's numerical design wasn't well thought out, as a result, White, with his strength-based avatar, managed to accumulate a whopping 800 points just by chopping trees. Even Tomorrow, who had the lowest stamina, earned 300 points in a single day.
This was clearly unreasonable.
Starting from Alpha 0.2, the income from chopping trees was greatly reduced. In the current Alpha 0.3 version, chopping down a tree only rewards either 2 or 4 copper coins based on its thickness and length. And if you didn't have your own axe, you had to pay a rental fee of 1 copper coin per hour, which could be deferred.
Even if you chopped down 20 thigh-thick pine trees in a day, you would only earn 80 copper coins, which converted to 8 silver coins.
When combined with the 80 contribution points rewarded for chopping down 20 trees, the lumberjack profession had been greatly nerfed compared to the early days of the game.
However, the outpost didn't really need much wood anymore, and chopping trees was probably meant for preparing the land for farming in the coming spring.
"Thanks to the contribution point overflow issue in the early stages of the game, the four of us currently have the highest contribution points in the game. I have already upgraded my identity to citizen, and you guys should do the same later. This way, we'll have a total of 20 square meters and can claim a piece of land near the sanatorium."
"What's the point of claiming lands?"
"Are you stupid? We can build houses! With 20 square meters, we can easily build a three-story apartment without any issues, as long as it doesn't exceed the height of the sanatorium in the middle. The ground floor can be used as a storefront, while the second and third floors can be divided into separate rooms, one for each person, with a bed and a box. Isn't that great?"
Tomorrow gave Nighten a disdainful look. How could he ask such a dumb question?
"That makes sense..." White's eyes lit up. "We can engage in business!"
The storefront would be right in front of the sanatorium's entrance, the gamers' respawn point. It was simply the prime location within the prime location, and selling anything there would make you rich!
"That's right! I thought about that!" Tomorrow snapped his fingers, a smile appearing on his face.
He confidently said, "The new version clearly encourages gamers to unleash their creativity, organize production and trade spontaneously! Do you remember what the dog planner—cough, he emphasized from the beginning? The goal of Wasteland OL is to create an economic system that truly reflects demand-supply relationship. This means that gamers' equipment and supplies, to a large extent, will have to be obtained through p2p transactions!"
Why wait any longer to claim land?
Unfortunately, the identity system limited the amount of land each gamer could purchase. Otherwise, Tomorrow would have liked to save up money and buy all the land around the sanatorium, directly developing wasteland real estate.
Isn't this more cost-effective than buying property in major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou?
Is there still a chance for this game to not become popular during the open beta?
"Awesome!" This time, even Hurricane couldn't help but give a thumbs-up.
The analysis is spot on!
Nighten and White exchanged glances, their faces filled with excitement.
"How much does it cost to buy land?"
Tomorrow smiled and said, "I checked. It's only 10 silver coins per square meter. What we need to do now is to gather enough 200 silver coins before other gamers and buy the closest 20 square meters to the sanatorium!"
White hesitated and asked, "What if someone beats us to it?"
Tomorrow made a helpless expression.
"If that happens, we'll just invite them to join us."
Currently, there aren't many gamers who have reached the citizen level. Even if someone is faster than them, how many could there be? A couple more won't be a problem.
The three nodded, agreeing without any objections to inviting others to join them.
"I have another question," Nighten raised his hand and said, "What should we do to earn money? I looked it up, and the job of making cement is the highest-paying job among the entry-level professions. But the daily income is only 10 silver coins. With a 20% production bonus, the maximum would be 12 coins... And we only need two people."
Hurricane pointed to a direction, reminding them, "Besides, there are no more spots left. Look over there at the cement kiln... the smoke is already rising, it's probably full of people."
Although White and Tomorrow built the cement kiln, after the land system was updated in Alpha 0.3, all facilities within the walls were considered public facilities.
As the builders of the facilities, White and Tomorrow had a 30-day priority to purchase them.
However, the location of the cement kiln was too remote, almost against the wall. There was a possibility that one day, if there was an invasion from enemies, a burst of bullets could destroy it.
Neither of them planned to waste their precious "land purchase quota." After all, the technical content of building it was not high. It was better to wait for the 30-day period to dispose of assets, officially confiscating the fixed assets above the land. The management would compensate them with money and contribution.
They even wished for the confiscation to happen now so that they could use the compensation money to buy land.
Tomorrow rubbed his chin and said, "Even if we don't recruit anyone else, I don't recommend applying for those fixed positions. To surpass other gamers, we must find a different path."
Nighten looked at him and asked, "Like what?"
"Like hunting!"
"Hunting... hunting?" Nighten widened his eyes.
"Yes, I just saw it at the warehouse entrance. The corpse of a mutated hyena can be exchanged for 5 silver coins. If the game weighs more than 30 kilograms, each additional kilogram earns an extra 2 copper coins."
Nighten's eyes widened.
"5 silver coins? That much?!"
And that's the lowest standard!
Although the weight of mutated hyenas was generally around 30 kilograms, it was currently autumn, and most game animals would be storing fat, so their weight would generally be higher than usual.
This detail was well-designed in the game.
"...Yes, besides mutated hyenas, mutated reindeer are also on the purchase list, and the price for each game is at least 12 silver coins! Basically, if the four of us team up and can hunt down 8 mutated hyenas in a day, we can earn a stable income that surpasses four people making cement together! If we get one more, that's pure profit!"
This was the method Tomorrow came up with to quickly earn 200 silver coins.
"But... where can we find so many game animals?" White hesitated and said, "It seems like there are only birds and small preys in the wetland park. We have to go to the urban area to find a larger game, right?"
Tomorrow hadn't answered yet when Nighten, who was sitting next to him, raised his hand.
"Don't worry about that! I've been hunting with the manager these past few days. I've been keeping track of the dangerous areas and places with more game animals around here. And yesterday, the manager and I discovered a migrating herd of deer. Just follow their tracks, and it's easy to find one!"
Hurricane nodded. "Yes, our Nighten is a perception-profession avatar. With 9 points in perception, he currently has the highest perception among all gamers. Searching for games and preys shouldn't be difficult. The problem now is how to hunt. The armory shop isn't open yet."
Tomorrow smiled confidently and said, "There's no need to use guns. Javelins, slingshots, bows, crossbows... as long as they are used properly, these weapons perform just as well as guns in close to medium range."
Hurricane furrowed his brow and asked, "Have you used a bow before? It's not easy to hit the target."
When their university organized a group activity at the archery club, he had tried archery once, using a professional bow with a sight.
Not to mention hitting the target 20 meters away, even just being able to touch one's own target after shooting a bag of 10 arrows was considered somewhat talented.
Many people aimed at their own targets but ended up hitting other people's targets or the protective foam spread on the floor and ceiling... It was a common occurrence.
If it was a bow and arrow without a sight...
Hurricane couldn't imagine how low the accuracy would be.
However, Tomorrow didn't seem worried about this issue and maintained a confident smile on his face.
"Don't worry about that. Leave the archery to me; I have some foundation in it. You'll be in charge of making traps and finishing blows, White will be in the front line, and Nighten will handle reconnaissance and vigilance."
"Trust me, this lineup is solid!"