Two Hundred Years Ago.
To be exact, in 2125, a war broke out on this once-thriving planet.
Both sides in the war were determined to completely destroy each other, using nearly every weapon and tactic available.
The war lasted only three years.
But in those three years, everything on the surface of the Earth was destroyed.
A long nuclear winter nearly extinguished the flames of civilization. Both sides succeeded in sending each other to hell, while simultaneously burying themselves.
Thus began the Wasteland Era, which was even more desolate than the Great Depression.
Although two centuries have passed since that apocalyptic war and the nuclear winter ended more than a century ago, humanity has not yet returned to the top of the food chain.
The rampant use of nuclear weapons, biological weapons, and even genetic weapons has caused the planet's ecosystem to evolve in extreme directions.
The "mutants," also known as "other species," are the primary threats faced by the survivors struggling in the ruins.
For example, when Chu Guang first arrived in this world, he encountered a pack of mutant wolf-dogs with two heads. These creatures were one of those mutants.
However, not all mutants are the same in terms of strength.
Mutants like the two-headed hyenas, which were caused by gamma radiation, generally have low combat power. Except for a few lucky exceptions, their fighting abilities are even weaker than before their mutation.
In contrast, the "devourers" and "crawlers" — mutants created by biological weapons that have mutated to the point that they no longer resemble their ancestors — are truly monsters born for slaughter.
Their nervous systems have been eroded by mutant fungi, and during the day, they typically hide in ruins, sewers, or subway systems—places where sunlight doesn't reach. They only come out at night to hunt.
The situation in the suburbs is much better than in the city.
Especially in the outer suburbs.
In the five months since Chu Guang arrived, the most dangerous mutant he encountered was just a mutated brown bear. Although it was strong, it was also slow and sluggish.
Chu Guang carefully avoided it before it noticed him.
The faint morning light filtered through the broken concrete walls, casting long shadows of rebar and debris onto the street, which was littered with car wrecks and rubble.
The time was 8:00 AM.
The time here was roughly 12 hours ahead of the East 8 Time Zone in the current world.
Seeing two mutant hyenas wandering the streets, Chu Guang gripped the sharp-ended water pipe in his hand and carefully maneuvered around the back of the ruins.
Although he was confident he could take them out, there was no need to cause unnecessary trouble.
Moreover, these creatures were smart enough to use their own kind as bait. No one knew how many more might be lurking in the shadows of the nearby ruins.
He moved through the dilapidated street, walking along a narrow path.
When he saw the sign for "Beter Street Children's Park," Chu Guang finally relaxed.
Ahead was "Beter Street" — a relatively large survivor settlement in the area, home to over a hundred survivors.
Before the war, this place was a children's amusement park, with a large number of amusement rides and a spacious lawn.
After the war, it was designated by the military as a temporary refuge and housed many citizens who fled from the city of Qingquan.
What happened to those refugees, no one knew, but today, more than two hundred years later, this place had developed into a "town."
People had used abandoned plastic sheets, rain shelters, and wooden and metal frames to construct makeshift huts on the barren, muddy land.
It looked very much like the "Era of Trouble."
The amusement park's walls were a natural barrier, and after some crude repairs, they were reinforced with barbed wire and wooden planks with nails.
At the center of the park stood a five-story classical castle, which had a fairy-tale vibe. However, the paint on its surface had long worn off, and the wall facing the city center had collapsed almost entirely, leaving only half of the northern side and a rickety solitary tower.
It was a fairy-tale, but definitely a dark one.
Even though the building was in such a state, it was still the "most luxurious" building on Beter Street.
It was also the home of the town mayor.
Although Chu Guang had lived here for five months, he had never met the mayor. The mayor was a mysterious figure who rarely showed his face.
"Yo, you're back so early," said Old Wat, who appeared from around the corner, squinting his eyes and puffing a cloud of murky white smoke from his nostrils as he dangled a dry cigarette from his mouth.
He held a double-barrel shotgun in his hand.
Though it looked somewhat old, no one doubted its power.
Chu Guang had once seen with his own eyes how the old man had taken down a frenzied mutant brown bear that charged toward Beter Street's gate with just two shots.
Since then, Chu Guang had longed for one of his own.
"I got delayed out there for a night."
"Outside?"
The old man glanced at the pointed metal pipe that Chu Guang was carrying behind his back, raising an eyebrow in surprise.
No one knew how dangerous the outside was better than he did.
Every time he worked the night shift, his index finger never left the trigger. Any slight rustle in the wind would make his nerves snap taut.
While the mutants in the outskirts weren't as dangerous as those in the city, there were too many marauders who eyed this place with greed.
If they got their hands on you, your fate would be no better than dying at the claws of a mutant.
Old Water didn't really believe that this guy had survived the night on the wasteland with just a steel pipe.
"Something unexpected happened."
Chu Guang didn't elaborate, only gave Old Water a tired glance, letting him figure it out, and then walked straight through the settlement's gates.
Bet Street only had one recycling station, and it was easy to find, right next to the main entrance of the settlement.
There was an old-fashioned electronic scale that never worked right under the shutter door, and beside it stood a sign that said, "Fair Prices, Honest Dealings."
This shop belonged to the town mayor, and it was the only place on Bet Street that bought scrap parts and mutant mole rat skins.
To monopolize the scavenger business, the mayor had even passed a law.
The law stated that no one could sell the things they scavenged or hunted to passing merchant caravans.
The reason, according to him, was to ensure that Bet Street's goods were sold at a fair price, instead of being ruthlessly undercut by "shrewd merchants."
This absurd rule passed mainly because the survivors here were mostly uneducated and easily manipulated.
Most merchant caravans wouldn't risk offending the mayor to buy those pitiful scraps from the scavengers.
They only did big business, and they only dealt with trusted people.
"Sell? Or buy?"
The shopkeeper was a man in his fifties named Charlie. It was said that he used to live in a shelter in another province, but was later captured and made into a slave. The mayor bought him from a slave trader and put him in charge of dealing with the scavengers.
Most of the residents here were "wasteland-born" survivors, uneducated, with poor math skills. Some couldn't even do basic addition or subtraction without errors.
But Charlie was different.
He came from a shelter.
Although every shelter on the wasteland was different, one thing was the same: the people living in them were all war-era elites. Their children inherited their sharp minds and received a solid education from an early age.
If the world hadn't gone to ruin, Charlie might have become an engineer, doctor, or scholar, just like his parents.
Instead, he was here, keeping the books.
"Sell."
Without any extra words, Chu Guang pulled out six old batteries and five tubes of adhesive from his backpack and tossed them onto the scale's tray.
These were things he had scavenged from nearby building ruins before he found the 404th shelter.
Charlie picked up the batteries on the table, casually checked their model and whether they were swollen or damaged, then tossed them onto the scale.
This was definitely junk, but the materials inside could still be recycled.
"Quality's alright. This area's probably been scavenged clean. Where'd you get these decent items?"
"Just got lucky."
"Heh, I was just asking. Well, the batteries are good, but the adhesive's only so-so. The seals have been broken, and the contents are probably a mess. I'll give you half the price… All in all, three tokens."
Chu Guang didn't bargain. He took the three white tokens from Charlie's hand.
These metallic plastic tokens were the currency of the largest survivor settlement in the area, Stone City, and they could be exchanged for food and supplies at most survivor settlements around Clear Spring City.
The tokens had their denomination on the front, and the back had special anti-counterfeit codes and stamps that shimmered in the sunlight.
They were durable, easy to store, and hard to counterfeit with post-apocalyptic technology.
In settlements like Bet Street, which had a small population and no industrial capability, they mainly traded with merchant caravans from Stone City, exchanging agricultural products, hunted animals, and scavenged goods for necessary life supplies and even weapons.
Naturally, this currency circulated here.
However, it didn't always work well. If no caravans arrived one month, the entire settlement's prices would be in chaos.
The mayor had tried introducing a local currency—a kind of paper voucher—but no one accepted it.
Even the survivors knew that the paper was only good for wiping, useless like scrap paper.
"Need anything? Just got some new stock from a caravan from Stone City."
Just as Chu Guang was about to leave, he stopped and turned back.
"Got any guns?"
"Not here. Even if we did, you couldn't afford them."
Charlie grinned and continued, "But we've got food and fuel. If I were you, I'd stock up before the price goes up."
Weapons were hard to find here, even the cheapest ones.
Though occasionally, a caravan would pass through with arms, those weapons usually ended up in the mayor's own warehouse and weren't for sale.
As Charlie said, even if there were any, the scavengers couldn't afford them.
Chu Guang knew exactly why Charlie said that.
As a well-educated man from a shelter, Charlie could see that all the survivors in Bet Street, scavengers or hunters, were being exploited for their remaining worth by the mayor's family.
Even if the mayor never personally took a single token from their pockets.
"Food and fuel going up?"
Seeing the surprise on Chu Guang's face, Charlie smiled faintly.
"Didn't you notice? The temperature's been dropping, and the mutants are starting to get more active."
Chu Guang furrowed his brows, thought for a moment, and suddenly realized something.
"Winter's coming?"
"I remember you arrived here five months ago. You probably haven't experienced it yet, but around this time every year, the temperature starts to drop slowly. This year… Winter might come early. Maybe it'll snow by October."
Charlie paused, then added meaningfully, "Winter's coming."
"Both people and mutants need to prepare early."
When Chu Guang first came to Bet Street, he had worn a blue jacket. Charlie had instinctively assumed he was from a shelter, so he had treated him somewhat better.
Although that care never showed in the prices, Charlie had indeed helped him adapt to life in the wasteland faster.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to adjust to life here so quickly.
Chu Guang nodded seriously.
"I understand. Thanks."
"No problem," Charlie said with a faint smile. "Just don't die."
It was already early September. If winter really came by October, Chu Guang had just over a month to prepare.
For the survivors living here, snow wasn't something to celebrate. It meant that in addition to food, they would need more fuel.
Most of the people here lived by scavenging and hunting. The nearby farms only needed extra help during the busy seasons.
In winter, scavenging became exponentially harder. No one knew if the snow would bury useful scraps or mutant rat fangs.
Even the wild deer and rabbits that provided meat would reduce their activity time, or simply hibernate for the winter.
The worst part was that once winter hit, the caravans wouldn't come.
Even if they found valuable items, they'd be stuck with them until the spring thaw.
Or they could risk a dangerous journey to Stone City, ten kilometers away.
That was the largest survivor settlement in Clear Spring City, and its market would stay open even in winter.
But it was on the edge of the city's northern district, surrounded by countless dangers.
Walking there on foot in winter, when the temperature could drop to minus ten degrees Celsius, was effectively a death wish.
After leaving the recycling station, Chu Guang first returned to his "home."
In truth, calling it a home was a stretch. It was more of a makeshift shack, barely able to keep out the rain, with no real windows or doors.
Until yesterday, he had been planning to gather cement, PVC boards, and other materials to seal the drafty walls before winter came.
But now, it seemed unnecessary.
After rummaging through a moldy sleeping bag, Chu Guang found a rusty aluminum box, pried it open, and dumped the plastic tokens inside onto his creaky wooden table.
A total of 47 white tokens worth 1 point each.
Including the 3 tokens in his pocket, that made exactly 50!
He had saved up this money bit by bit, living frugally, hoping that one day he could leave this hellhole and move to the better-off Stone City.
But now…
He had a new plan for this "fortune."
If he could stand on his own, why stay under someone else's roof?
"The ruins of the sanatorium above the shelter can be used. The surrounding walls are concrete... If there are players available, gathering materials nearby shouldn't be too hard."
"The wetland park near the sanatorium isn't great for collecting scrap metal, but the vegetation is lush, so fuel for heating should be no problem. Also, wood can be used for repairs and furniture... axes! Yeah, need to buy four axes."
Leveling up by fighting monsters?
Not in this game!
Since this was a hardcore survival game, he needed to start with the basics.
"Shovels and saws will be essential too!" Chu Guang was already planning how to assign tasks to the players, even before they logged in.
Of course, besides tools for working, there was one more crucial thing: food.
Once the incubation pods were activated, they'd consume the stored active material to create clones for the players.
And those clones needed to eat!
Although the clones could rest in the