The night grew late.
Chu Guang lay restlessly, waking several times, his hand instinctively searching for the gun hidden in his sleeping bag before he drifted back to a fragmented sleep.
The shelter was too comfortable—no danger, no threats. It had lulled him into a sense of security. But returning to this unstable environment, he found it harder than expected to adjust.
"Complacency…"
With a sigh, Chu Guang reached once more for the weapon tucked beneath the blanket. The thick, reassuring barrel filled him with a sense of safety.
He wondered how things were faring with the players.
Although he had entrusted Xiao Qi with instructions on what to do in his absence, he could not completely ease his mind while away.
At five in the morning, Chu Guang awoke again and found himself unable to sleep. He simply lay there, wide-eyed, waiting in silence.
As the first light of dawn filtered through the window, he climbed out of his sleeping bag, donned his clothes, and strapped on his steel tube and newly acquired gun.
This time, he knew he would be gone for quite a while.
The mayor's pressing demand for payment had forced him to move up his relocation plans. Everything needed to be completed by the end of the month.
If he couldn't stockpile enough supplies for a hundred people, the next round of testing would have to wait until February or March next year.
That meant the whole winter would be wasted.
He pushed open the door.
Fully geared, Chu Guang was about to set off when he encountered the men of the Wang family.
Wang Defu, the one who had caused trouble in front of his door yesterday, gave him a glance without saying a word. But there was a clear air of provocation in his eyes.
Perhaps it was the presence of his father and elder brothers nearby, or the hunting equipment on his back, but his courage seemed inflated, as if he was trying to show off.
Chu Guang had no intention of engaging with such a child.
At sixteen, Wang Defu might have been considered a man on Bet Street, but to Chu Guang, he was still nothing but a boy, barely out of his adolescence.
"Hey, don't get yourself killed."
Chu Guang didn't even spare him a look, nor did he acknowledge his presence.
Wang Defu, infuriated by the disregard, clenched his teeth, his face flushing with anger. The slight from this outsider had wounded his pride.
Just as he was about to do something rash, his elder brother suddenly placed a hand on his shoulder.
Though still disgruntled, Wang Defu quickly quieted down.
It was clear that the boy listened to his brother.
Chu Guang's gaze shifted briefly to Wang's eldest son, the sturdy man who met his look with an expression of quiet scrutiny.
From that man, Chu Guang sensed a faint but unmistakable danger, though it was not overt.
Intriguingly, the moment their eyes met, the man seemed startled, though he masked it quickly.
Hunter's intuition—
This guy is not someone to underestimate!
Their brief exchange of glances was all it took before both parties turned away, each aware of the unspoken tension. There was no need to stir up unnecessary trouble.
The Wang family left, and Chu Guang prepared to leave as well.
However, just as he took a step forward, a light voice called out from behind.
"Be careful on the road."
Chu Guang stopped and turned to find Xiao Yu peeking out from behind the door.
He smiled faintly and replied, "Thanks."
"No need."
Before he could say more, the girl swiftly disappeared back inside.
---
By six in the morning, the sky was beginning to lighten.
The gate of Bet Street creaked open slowly, and survivors, bearing baskets, bows, short knives, crossbows, and other tools, began to march in groups over the cracked concrete and through the grass sprouting from the fissures in the road, heading toward the desolate ruins.
Yet, two hundred years after the fall of civilization, finding valuable items in the wasteland was no easy task. Even the spent shells dropped by mercenaries or raiders were considered treasures.
Chu Guang did not immediately leave the settlement. Instead, he lingered at the gate, waiting until the others had moved on, before heading toward Old Charlie's recycling station.
"I need 7 kilograms of green wheat, that's 21 tokens. And how much can I get for cured meat with tobacco leaves? 4 tokens for how much?" he inquired, having never made such a purchase before.
"1 token for one liang."
"Then give me four liang!"
Food was crucial to progress.
Only by stockpiling enough supplies could he recruit more players to work for him.
The survivors couldn't survive on green wheat porridge forever. Even if they could endure it, he himself wouldn't be able to.
Now that he had a gun, hunting would be far easier.
Chu Guang planned to buy some tobacco leaves to preserve the meat, turning it into cured goods to prepare for the winter.
Old Charlie glanced up from his work.
"Didn't you just buy five kilograms of green wheat a few days ago?"
"Is there a problem?" Chu Guang answered casually.
Charlie grinned.
"No problem. It's always good to save more."
Yet, as Chu Guang was planning his next steps, a sudden alertness swept over him.
The speaker's words were careless, but the listener's thoughts were sharp.
He realized with a start that it had been some time since he had brought back any useful salvage or other valuables, yet he had made two large purchases in a row.
While the mayor might not notice this small detail, others were bound to start wondering where he got all that money.
But Charlie didn't seem to care, offering no comment as he weighed the goods, and smiling as he sent Chu Guang on his way.
"Too careless…"
Once outside the gate of Bet Street, Chu Guang turned a corner, then paused to assess his surroundings, finally continuing on his way.
More than ten tokens was already a small fortune for scavengers, who typically couldn't save up that much.
Yet here he was, twice in a row, spending over twenty tokens on supplies he wouldn't even consume in the short term.
Charlie might be kind to him, being a fellow survivor, but in the end, he was still the mayor's servant.
With this in mind, Chu Guang frowned.
Unfortunately, the merchant named Lister only traded in food and sold industrial products from Giantstone City.
Perhaps, he thought, he should try his luck at the Brown Farm.
---
Seven kilograms of green wheat, ten liters of water, plus bullets and equipment—altogether over twenty kilograms of weight pressed heavily on Chu Guang's shoulders.
Apart from hauling supplies, he had to be mindful of his stamina, wary of any danger lurking in the shadows.
Even with his abnormal strength, he could only take short breaks, carefully surveying the road ahead before continuing.
The roads outside the settlement were difficult to navigate, with occasional detours around collapsed highways and fallen buildings.
For a moment, Chu Guang found himself envious of the protagonists in *The Last of Us* and *Dying Light*, who could run and parkour through the ruins, while he could only take one slow step at a time.
Perhaps…
Next time, he should buy a cow?
He wasn't sure if Lister sold them, though.
Thankfully, none of the mutants he encountered on this journey seemed to detect him.
After traversing the wasteland and walking along the road for some time, Chu Guang finally reached the sanatorium near Wetland Park, just before 8:30 in the morning.
To his surprise, when he arrived, he found that all four of the closed beta players had already logged in.
Not only that…
Outside the sanatorium's walls stood four half-human-high earthen stoves and a small half-spherical kiln about the height of a person.
What is this?
He didn't remember assigning the task of building stoves.
"Lord Administrator! You've finally returned," Fang Chang said, stepping forward with a wide grin upon seeing the surprised leader.
"I was delayed outside overnight," Chu Guang said, his gaze fixed on the stoves, momentarily forgetting the burden on his back. "How's everything here? Have you encountered any mutants or other survivors?"
"All is normal! No unusual occurrences!" Fang Chang beamed as he reported their progress.
The stoves, he explained, were used for charcoal burning, while the furnace with a blower was for firing cement raw materials at high temperatures.
"We burn tree bark into ash, then mix it with water and strain out the alkali solution. The remaining paste is pressed to extract calcium hydroxide and calcium carbonate, the ingredients for making cement."
"Next, we fire these ingredients in the furnace until they turn orange-red, then mix them with sand from the riverbank and water to create wood ash cement!"
Chu Guang was honestly amazed by the players' resourcefulness.
He had tried before to make cement using ash and clay, employing the methods from Bihu's teachings, but the results were always brittle and unusable.
It seemed that the problem had been with his method all along.
The key was the furnace and the secondary firing, and perhaps the purity of the wood ash…
Fang Chang continued enthusiastically.
"We plan to use the cement to repair the walls of the sanatorium! And the alkali solution we filtered out is perfect for tanning leather!"
"You… have done well."
After thinking for a moment, Chu Guang struggled to come up with a proper reward for these players and settled for this simple praise.
But hearing it, Fang Chang's face lit up with excitement.
It worked! His reputation with Chu Guang had surely risen!
Without missing the opportunity, Fang Chang solemnly declared the words he had rehearsed all night.
"For the continuation of civilization