Chapter 24

The cheers came from the direction of the cement kiln.

Chuguang walked over and saw Fang Chang and Lao Bai piling a heap of light gray powder on the ground, mixing it with water and sand to form a paste-like slurry.

A rough estimate put the batch of cement at around 20 kilograms.

Since it was a trial run, the batch was not large. Judging by the capacity of the kiln's feed opening, processing half a ton a day should not be a problem.

Although it was not as good as professional equipment, it was勉强能用了.

"Respected Administrator!"

Noticing Chuguang approaching, the two players dropped their tools and excitedly came up to him.

"Cement!"

"We finally made Portland cement!"

It was indeed no easy feat.

To reach a temperature of over 1450 degrees inside the kiln, the two of them had practically worked themselves to the bone, fanning the bellows and adding charcoal shovelful by shovelful, almost developing麒麟臂.

Especially Lao Bai, whose gene sequence was strength-based, had almost leveled up in just three days!

"You did a great job."

Chuguang looked at them approvingly and nodded.

"With this cement, we have taken a big step forward in the first phase of the plan. The shelter will remember your contributions, and each of you will receive 1000 contribution points as a reward!"

The two players' faces lit up with joy.

All the hard work over the past few days had not been in vain!

However, they did not know that the NPC and game designer standing before them was already thinking about how to recover the excess "currency" in their hands.

Inflation was too fast, affecting the game's lifespan.

What if...

He added a gacha feature?

1000 contribution points for one draw?

It wasn't a bad idea.

Just as Chuguang was pondering how to proceed, Fang Chang and Lao Bai exchanged a glance and respectfully said to him.

"Administrator, there is something I must report to you!"

"Go on."

"Now that the cement has been successfully produced, we need more manpower to start the outpost construction!"

Chuguang looked at them.

"How many people do you need?"

Lao Bai spoke up.

"At least ten! Of course, the more, the better! The cement kiln requires manual fanning and calcination, and two people can operate one kiln in shifts. We will soon build a second one, which will require four people! Transporting materials from the construction site will need at least four people, and building walls and houses will require at least eight more."

Chuguang did a quick calculation in his head.

That would be sixteen people, wouldn't it?

The current food reserves at the outpost were only enough for seven people, including himself, for a week. A sudden tripling of the population would be a strain on logistics.

After much hesitation, Chuguang finally made up his mind to take a gamble.

It was already the 9th.

Nearly a third of September had passed, and if they did not speed up, it would be difficult to complete the outpost before winter.

"Alright! I understand."

Nodding, Chuguang continued to the two players.

"I will request support from the higher-ups. In three days, a new batch of members will awaken from hibernation and join us on the surface."

Hearing this, Lao Bai and Fang Chang's faces lit up with joy.

With the addition of new members, their infrastructure plans would be much easier!

Moreover, Fang Chang's suspicions were confirmed.

This NPC's authority was not just that of a simple NPC; he could even influence the game's beta testing process.

This made Fang Chang think of the fantasy settings in early web novels about online games—

[The game runs on a supercomputer with infinite computing power. The game company sets the world framework, and the content is dynamically generated by AI.]

Wasteland Online might be just like that!

Fang Chang grew more and more excited.

He felt he understood it all.

...

With the addition of a carpenter and a chef, the players' working conditions and quality of life visibly improved.

With the help of [WC Really Has Mosquitoes], Lao Bai and Fang Chang's construction team received molds for making mud bricks and improved the fishing traps for Kuangfeng and Yeshi.

They even used tree stumps to create a wooden toilet that didn't cut the buttocks.

Now the toilet could be used while sitting.

However, not everyone liked this sit-down toilet.

For example, Kuangfeng.

This guy seemed to have a bit of a germ phobia. Even in the game, he could not accept using a toilet that others had used, so he dug another pit next to the original toilet and set up a wooden screen.

Thanks to this, the outpost now had a second toilet.

However, compared to these minor issues, the most exciting thing was Kuangfeng and Yeshi's fishing plan.

With the improved traps, the two of them finally caught their first fish before evening.

And it was a big one!

Judging by its appearance, it should be a catfish.

The reason for saying "should" was that its wide lips and large head were unusually large, with deep blue patterns and white spots, and its whiskers were adorned with coral-like red tendrils.

Clearly, this was a mutated creature.

Looking at the "big guy" thrashing in the trap, trying to escape, Kuangfeng and Yeshi were so excited they almost cried, not minding its ugly appearance at all.

Three days!

Three whole days!

They finally caught one!

Taking advantage of the fact that the large birds circling in the sky and the beasts by the lake had not noticed, they quickly dragged the big fish, still in the trap, to the shore and brutally beat it to death with rebar.

Only after it was thoroughly dead did they tie its head and tail to the rebar with ropes and carry it back to the outpost, still twitching.

"Brother Fried Egg, take a look, can we eat this thing?"

"What the heck is this?"

Staring at the catfish that Kuangfeng and Yeshi had thrown on the ground, [Fried Egg with Tomatoes], who was making a fish-drying rack, nearly popped his eyes out.

He had cooked for half his life and had never seen such a large catfish.

Just the fish head could fill a basin.

If this thing was thrown into the lake, would any other fish survive???

Catfish are carnivorous!

"It's a catfish," Kuangfeng said.

"Of course I know it's a catfish," Fried Egg squatted down, flipped its lips, and tugged at them, smacking his lips. "Good grief... it must weigh over a hundred pounds!"

Yeshi asked urgently.

"Can we smoke it?"

"Who the hell smokes a catfish..." Fried Egg said, speechless. "This thing has a thick layer of fat and a moist, sticky layer on the surface, making it quite troublesome to process. I don't know if it can be dehydrated."

"What do we do then?" Kuangfeng asked.

"I haven't tried it before, let's give it a shot..." Fried Egg looked at the fish-drying rack he had been working on for a while and fell silent.

A hundred-pound fish would definitely crush it.

He would have to rebuild it...

...

At dusk.

Brother Fried Egg took over the cooking for the players, stewing a pot of fish head soup, proving that the thing was indeed edible.

And it tasted surprisingly good.

Although there was no tofu, scallions, ginger, garlic, or cooking wine to enhance the flavor, Brother Fried Egg still managed to make a fresh and not greasy fish head soup with just salt and soy sauce.

The players ate with tears streaming down their faces.

Brother Fried Egg and Mosquito were delighted by the game's inclusion of taste, while the other four players were moved by finally having a normal meal.

Oh, it was so hard...

The players logged out at 6 PM, which was 6 AM in the real world.

As soon as the beta testers logged out of the game and before they could log into their QQ accounts, the messages in the Niu Ma Club group exploded.

Quit Smoking: [Holy crap! Check the official website!]

Proud and Unstoppable: [You're still at it...]

Spare the Man: [What's up with the official website?]

Quit Smoking: [Alpha 0.2 version major update! The official website will release 24 more beta test slots! The number of beta testers will be expanded to 30!!!]

Spare the Man: [What the...?]

Proud and Unstoppable: [Haha, starting to milk the players, huh? How much? I'll see if it's worth reporting to the police downstairs. (nose pick)]

Quit Smoking: [It shouldn't cost anything, the announcement didn't mention any fees! Haha, I won't believe it if I don't get a slot this time!!!]

Garbage Collector Level 99: [You're dreaming, the reservation count has already broken 100. 24 additional slots... the probability is one in four to one in five, at best.]

Quit Smoking: [Broken 100?! What are you talking about, does our group have that many active members??]

Garbage Collector Level 99: [Uh, not all of them are from our group... I saw many game groups discussing this game last night.]

Spare the Man: [It's gone viral. (surprised)]

④Who8UnderstandsMe: [Yeah, I just checked, the reservation count is already 111.]

Quit Smoking: [Holy cow!]

---

Note: The last sentence "我屮艸芔茻!" is an internet slang expression, which is a phonetic representation of "Oh my god!" or "Holy cow!" in Chinese. It is often used to express surprise or shock.