After an uninformative briefing and words of thanks, the relationship between Doomsday Fortress and Cozy Cabin rose to 70, and the standard cost for hiring an NPC now was 12 kilograms of edible meat. This price was tempting for Lin Wu, but Maya did not approve of it. In deciding the base's major directions, Lin Wu still gave much face to Maya and decided against hiring.
Stone later told Lin Wu that not hiring was the correct decision, because it was a commercial trap. NPCs couldn't generate value, they only consumed it. If you insisted on hiring them for 20 kilograms of meat, then quests would never appear. When you refused to hire them, they would offer discounts. For Dawn, their value lay in consuming player resources, so as long as you kept not hiring them, they would continuously post quests.
