"Generator? Why do you ask about that thing?"
In the present world, at the cafeteria of Jinling University.
Professor Wang Haiyang paused with his chopsticks as he looked at Professor Yan Feng, who had asked the question earnestly across the table.
He didn't know much about Professor Yan, only that he was from the Physics Department and about the same age as himself, around thirty. He couldn't even remember when they added each other on WeChat, and after that, they never really conversed. Wang was in the Institute of Engineering Management, so they hadn't had much overlap in their work either.
But today, out of the blue, he received an invitation from Professor Yan for lunch in the cafeteria. Yan had said he wanted to consult him about something.
To be honest, when he saw the word "consult," Wang had assumed it was about a project, but when he arrived, he hadn't expected Yan to ask such a peculiar question.
The conversation drifted on in a casual tone.
Yan Feng explained, "I've been reading a post-apocalyptic novel recently, and I'm curious—if such a situation were to occur, how would survivors deal with power issues?"
"Why take the novel so seriously? Just see how the author writes it," Professor Wang chuckled, "But your question is interesting. An apocalypse… it really depends on the type of apocalypse and how many days have passed after the end of the world."
He enjoyed reading novels too, mostly of the cultivation genre, and didn't read much post-apocalyptic fiction.
He never imagined that one day, he'd be sitting here, seriously discussing the content of a novel with a colleague from university.
"The setting is two hundred years after a nuclear war," Yan Feng added.
"Two hundred years? A nuclear war?" Wang Haiyang was taken aback and hesitated, "That might be troublesome. Unprotected electronic devices would be damaged by the electromagnetic pulse from a nuclear blast, and the more intricate the equipment, the harder it would be to survive."
"Is there a way around it?" Yan Feng frowned.
"There are ways," Wang replied thoughtfully, "For instance, small residential areas or restaurants often have backup diesel generators. They're not highly advanced equipment, but after two hundred years, they've probably all been scavenged. Even if they haven't, they'd need regular maintenance, and parts would have likely deteriorated. And then there's the issue of fuel—two hundred years after an apocalypse, I highly doubt there's any gasoline left in gas stations."
Wang stroked his chin and paused before continuing, "But it's not entirely impossible."
"What's the solution?" Yan Feng asked eagerly.
"Generally speaking, every car has a recyclable generator. If you get the rotor spinning, it'll produce a stable 12V DC. With some repairs, it should work. Small-scale power generation, like for lighting, would be sufficient with 12V. If you can find an inverter to convert the DC to 240V AC, that could work too… by the way, is it necessary to take notes on this?"
Yan Feng pulled out a notebook and began writing down everything seriously, leaving Wang Haiyang in a state of bewilderment.
He thought to himself, is it really necessary to be this serious about a novel?
Yan Feng pushed up his glasses nonchalantly and replied, "Don't mind me, please continue."
Wang Haiyang: "…."
He'd often heard that people in the Department of Physics were eccentric, and he used to think it was just a stereotype.
Now, though, he was starting to believe it.
…
In the wasteland.
Shelter 404.
Chu Guang was sleeping on the floor in the common room. He woke up at 4 a.m. and opened his eyes to see a pop-up notification from the system.
[Congratulations, host! You have unlocked the achievement "Beginner Guide" (player logged in for over 8 hours on the first day).]
[Reward: +10 reward points]
Such luck?
Waking up to another round of blind-box draws.
Rubbing his sleepy eyes, Chu Guang opened the system and navigated to the "Administrator Subsidy" section.
He hesitated between the basic blind-box costing 1 reward point and the intermediate blind-box costing 10 points. In the end, he put all his "chips" on the intermediate blind-box button and silently prayed.
Please, just don't give me some damn cough syrup!
A faint blue light flickered.
Under Chu Guang's nervous gaze, a metal door on the wall of the common room opened, and a plastic-wrapped syringe appeared on the platform.
[Muscle Cell Enhancement Injection (slightly permanently increases muscle strength, usage interval 24 hours, repeated use results in diminishing returns).]
"Permanently increase muscle strength?"
This is good stuff!
Chu Guang didn't hesitate. He tore open the packaging, removed the cap, but to his surprise, there was no needle.
How is this supposed to be used?
After a brief moment of confusion, Chu Guang pressed the end of the syringe to his arm and pressed what seemed to be a switch. His arm felt like it was stung by something, and then…
Nothing happened.
"Is that it?"
Chu Guang was confused. He flexed his fist but didn't feel any noticeable changes in his body.
Was it expired?
After all, this was something from two hundred years ago…
Out of caution, Chu Guang decided to give himself a physical checkup.
When he got the results, the confusion in his mind was finally cleared up.
[
ID: Chu Guang
Genetic Sequence: Administrator
Level: LV.5
—Basic Attributes—
Strength: 9
Agility: 6
Constitution: 7
Perception: 7
Intelligence: 6
]
"The genetic development didn't change, but strength and constitution both increased by 1 point… hmm, this is interesting!"
Normally, a 20-year-old adult male without any special training would have strength and constitution stats at 5, which is the baseline for all attributes.
In other words, these 1 point increases in strength and constitution are equivalent to 20% more physical power than a normal adult male.
Now, Chu Guang was just 1 point away from doubling his strength compared to an average adult male.
As he examined his updated attribute panel, he wondered whether he should try doing some push-ups to test it out. But just then, he noticed that the "Administrator Log" had been updated with new tasks.
He opened it and froze.
What the hell?
Yesterday, there had only been one unfinished side quest, but today, the number of uncompleted tasks had skyrocketed to over 20!
The tasks were all over the place.
From "Hunt an alien species," "Stockpile 5 tons of wood," "Stockpile 100 liters of fresh water," to more complicated tasks like "Repair the outer wall of the nursing home," and "Repair the second-floor walls of the nursing home."
As for the rewards, they ranged from 1 point to 20 points.
All of these tasks had one common tag—"Daily."
"What does 'Daily' mean? Does it refresh every day?" Chu Guang muttered.
But no one answered him.
The shelter system didn't talk, and Little Qi was on guard duty outside the nursing home, so Chu Guang was alone in the shelter.
Chu Guang mentally calculated. If he completed all 20 of these tasks, he would earn a total of 150 reward points.
Of course, at least three-quarters of those points wouldn't be easy to obtain—not in just a day or two.
Chu Guang fell into deep thought.
If he did all of these tasks himself, he would be exhausted. But if he handed them off to players, it seemed like he could get away with paying just a few "contribution points."
With that thought, his mind cleared.
There were markers in the drawer of his desk.
Grabbing a marker, Chu Guang went straight to the surface and searched around the nursing home. After a while, he found a plastic board that hadn't yet been scavenged by the raiders.
Wiping the dust off, he grabbed the marker and drew two lines on it, then erased them, nodding in satisfaction.
"Perfect."
Writable and erasable.
This is it!
It took him some time, but Chu Guang selected a few tasks from the "Administrator Log" that players were likely to complete, and wrote them on the plastic board.
[Collect wood (usable as building material): 1 point per meter.]
[Find water storage containers (materials: plastic, metal. Shape: barrel-shaped, kettle-shaped. The bigger, the better!): 1-10 contribution points.]
[Search for recyclable waste: 1+? contribution points.]
[...]
"Done!"
Looking at the time, it was 4:30 a.m. and there was still an hour and a half before the scheduled online time.
Chu Guang wasn't idle. He returned to the shelter, opened the computer, logged into the official website's backend, and saw that the number of reservations had increased by 10 since last night.
It was now 35 people.
Looks like the discussion in the group yesterday had some effect—another ten fresh "little leeks" had raised their hands.
But Chu Guang thought to himself, the user potential of the "Bull and Horse Club" might be nearing its limit.
After all, it was just a game group with only about a hundred people, and there were probably only a handful of active users. The 35 people might already be the full count of live users.
"Maybe it's time to try a different promotion strategy."
Running ads wasn't realistic, as the Wasteland OL website was not registered in the country, and the server might not even be on Earth.
There was also another issue.
If the user