Chapter 4

Two hundred years ago.

To be precise, in the year 2125, a war broke out on this prosperous planet.

Both sides in the war were determined to completely destroy each other, using almost every means at their disposal.

The war lasted only three years.

But in just three years, it destroyed everything on the surface.

The long nuclear winter almost extinguished the spark of civilization. Both sides successfully sent each other to hell and buried themselves in the process.

Since then, a more desolate post-apocalyptic era has begun, even more desolate than the Great Depression.

Although it has been two centuries since the apocalyptic war, and the nuclear winter ended more than a century ago, humans have not returned to the top of the food chain.

The rampant use of nuclear, biological, and even genetic weapons has led the planet's ecosystem to evolve in extreme directions.

And those mutants, known as "aberrants," are the main threat faced by the survivors struggling in the ruins.

For example, when Chu Guang first arrived in this world, he encountered a two-headed wolf dog, which was one of them.

However, even among aberrants, there are strong and weak ones.

Aberrants like the two-headed hyena, which are the result of gamma radiation, usually have low combat power. Except for a few lucky exceptions, their combat power is even lower than before they mutated.

In contrast, aberrants like the Feeders and Crawlers, which are the result of biological weapons and have mutated to the point where their ancestors can no longer be traced, are truly monsters born for slaughter.

Their nervous systems are eroded by mutant fungi, and they usually hide in the ruins, sewers, or subways during the day, only coming out to forage at night.

The situation in the suburbs is much better than in the city.

Especially in the far suburbs.

In the past five months, the most dangerous aberrant Chu Guang encountered was a mutated brown bear. Although it was powerful, its reactions were quite slow.

Chu Guang carefully avoided it before it noticed him.

The morning light filtered through the broken concrete walls and the shadows of the steel debris, falling on the street filled with car wrecks and rubble.

It was now eight in the morning.

Here, the time zone is about twelve hours different from the East Eighth Zone in the real world.

Looking at the two mutated hyenas wandering on the street, Chu Guang gripped the pointed pipe in his hand and carefully circled around to the back of the ruins.

Although he was confident he could take them down, there was no need to complicate things.

Moreover, these beasts are quite smart, even using their own kind as bait. No one knows how many more might be hiding in the shadows of the ruins.

He walked along the path through the dilapidated neighborhood.

When he saw the sign for Bet Street Children's Park, Chu Guang finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Ahead was "Bet Street" — a relatively large survivor settlement in the area, home to over a hundred families.

Before the war, this place was a children's park with many amusement facilities and a wide lawn.

After the war, the military designated it as a temporary shelter, accommodating a large number of citizens who had fled from the city center.

What happened to those refugees is unknown, but more than two hundred years later, this place has developed into a "town."

People used discarded plastic sheets, awnings, and wooden and metal frames to build makeshift shacks on the barren mud.

It looks a lot like the "rogue era."

The park's walls serve as a natural barrier and have been reinforced with barbed wire and spiked boards.

In the center of the park stands a five-story classical castle, which looks like something out of a fairy tale. However, the paint has long since peeled off, and the wall facing the city center has mostly collapsed, leaving only the north side and a precarious tower.

Even if it is a fairy tale, it is definitely a dark one.

But even in this state, it remains the "most luxurious" building on Bet Street.

It is also the mayor's home.

Although he has lived here for five months, Chu Guang has never met the mayor. The man is very mysterious and rarely shows himself.

"Hey, you're back so early."

Seeing Chu Guang walking from the street corner, the old man named Walter squinted his eyes and puffed out a wisp of white smoke from his nostrils.

He held a double-barreled shotgun in his hand.

Although it looked old, no one doubted its power.

Chu Guang had once seen this old man fire two shots and take down a mutated brown bear that was charging towards the Bet Street gate.

Since then, he has been eager to own one himself.

"I was delayed outside all night."

"Outside?"

The old man glanced at the pointed pipe on Chu Guang's back and raised an eyebrow in surprise.

No one knew better than he did how dangerous the night could be.

Every time he was on night duty, his finger never left the trigger, and any slight movement would make his nerves taut.

Although the aberrants in the suburbs were not as dangerous as those in the city, there were many predators eyeing this place.

Falling into their hands would not be much better than being killed by an aberrant.

Old Walter found it hard to believe that this guy could survive a night in the wasteland with just a pipe.

"There was an accident."

Chu Guang didn't explain, just gave Old Walter a tired look and walked straight through the settlement gate.

Bet Street has only one scrap recycling station, which is easy to find, right next to the main gate of the settlement.

Under the roller shutter door, an old electronic scale that never shows the correct weight stands, with a sign that reads "Fair Prices, No Cheating."

This store is owned by the mayor and is the only place in Bet Street that buys scrap parts and mutated mole rat skins.

To monopolize the scavenging business, this dictator even issued a law.

That is, no one is allowed to sell their captured prey or scavenged items to passing caravans without permission.

The reason given is to ensure that Bet Street's goods can be sold at a reasonable price, rather than being unfairly squeezed by "cunning merchants."

This unreasonable rule was passed partly because the survivors here are quite ignorant.

And most caravans wouldn't risk offending this dictator to buy a small amount of goods from scavengers.

They only do big business.

And only with people they trust.

"Are you selling or buying?"

The shop owner is a fifty-year-old man named Charlie. It is said that he was once a resident of a shelter in another province, later captured and made a slave, until the mayor bought him from a slave owner and assigned him to deal with scavengers.

Most of the residents here are native "wastelanders," uneducated, and terrible at math, even to the point of making mistakes in simple addition and subtraction.

But Charlie is different.

He came from a shelter.

Although the shelters in this wasteland are not all the same, they share one common feature.

The people who lived there were all pre-war elites, and their children inherited their intelligence and received good education from the Enlightenment era.

If this world weren't so terrible, he would have become an engineer, doctor, or scholar like his parents.

Instead of keeping accounts here.

"Selling."

Without any small talk, Chu Guang took out six old batteries and five tubes of adhesive from his backpack and placed them on the scale.

These were scavenged from the ruins of nearby buildings before he discovered Shelter 404.

Old Charlie picked up the old batteries, casually checked their models and whether they were swollen or damaged, and then threw them on the scale.

This stuff is definitely scrap, but the materials inside can still be recycled.

"The quality is decent. This area's trash should have been scavenged clean. Where did you find these good things?"

Good things?

"Good luck."

"Ha, I was just asking. Hmm, the batteries are good, but the quality of the adhesive is average. The seal has been broken, so the inside is probably a mess. I can only give you half price... All together, that's 3 points."

Chu Guang didn't haggle, just took the 3 white tokens from him.

These plastic coins with a metallic feel are the "currency" issued by Boulder City, the largest survivor settlement in Qingquan City, and can be exchanged for food and supplies in most survivor settlements in Qingquan City.

The front of the token is printed with the denomination, and the back has a special anti-counterfeiting code and pattern that glows under sunlight.

These tokens have many advantages, such as heat resistance, easy preservation, and high recognizability. The most critical point is that they are almost impossible to forge with post-war technology.

For small to medium-sized survivor settlements like Bet Street, which have a small population and no industrial capacity, they mainly trade with Boulder City's caravans, exchanging agricultural products, prey, and scavenged items for necessary living supplies and even weapons.

Naturally, this currency also began to circulate in Bet Street.

Of course, it's not always useful. If the caravan doesn't come in a given month, the prices in the entire settlement will go haywire.

The mayor has also tried to introduce his own currency — a bookkeeping-style voucher, but no one recognized it.

Even the survivors in Bet Street knew that those pieces of paper were useless, not even good for wiping.

"Do you want to buy anything? The store just got a new batch of goods from Boulder City."

Chu Guang, who was about to leave, stopped and turned back.

"Do you have any guns?"

"No, and even if you had the money, you couldn't afford them."

Old Charlie grinned, watching Chu Guang turn to leave.

"But we do have some food and fuel. If I were you, I'd buy some before the prices go up."

Guns, even the cheapest ones, are hard to come by in a place like Bet Street.

Even if a weapons-selling caravan occasionally passes through, those weapons usually end up in the mayor's own warehouse, not on the shelves here.

Moreover, as Old Charlie said, even if such items were available, scavengers like them couldn't afford them.

Chu Guang knew why he said that.

As a well-educated shelter resident, Charlie must have noticed that all the survivors in Bet Street, whether scavengers or hunters, have been completely exploited by the mayor's family.

Even though the mayor has never personally taken a single token from their pockets.

"Are food and fuel going to rise in price?"

Seeing the surprise on Chu Guang's face, Charlie smiled faintly.

"Haven't you noticed? It's getting colder, and the aberrants are becoming more active outside."

Chu Guang frowned in thought for a moment, then suddenly realized something and said,

"Is winter coming?"

"I remember you arrived here five months ago, so you might not have experienced it. Around this time every year, it starts to get colder. This year... winter might come earlier, maybe even snow in October."

Charlie paused, then said meaningfully,

"Winter is coming."

"Everyone, human and aberrant alike, needs to prepare."

When Chu Guang first arrived in Bet Street, he was wearing a blue jacket, and Charlie subconsciously assumed he was from a shelter, so he treated him with some consideration.

Although this consideration never showed in the transaction prices, Charlie did help Chu Guang with some advice.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have adapted to life in the wasteland so quickly.

Chu Guang nodded seriously.

"I understand, thank you."

"You're welcome," Charlie smiled faintly, "Don't die."

It was already early September. If it really started snowing in October, Chu Guang had only a little over a month to prepare.

For the survivors in this area, snow is not a happy event. It means not only more food but also fuel expenses.

Most people here survive by scavenging and hunting, and nearby farms only need workers during the busy farming season.

In winter, scavenging becomes much harder. No one can predict whether the snow will cover useful parts or the fangs of mutated rats.

Animals like deer and rabbits that provide meat will reduce their activity or hibernate.

Worst of all, once winter sets in, caravans won't come here. Even if you find something good, you can only store it at home until spring to sell.

Or, you can risk a ten-kilometer journey to Boulder City.

It's the largest survivor settlement in the Qingquan City area, and its market stays open even in winter.

However, it's located on the edge of the third ring road in Qingquan City, next to the northern district, with countless dangers along the way.

For an ordinary person to walk there in the dead of winter, with temperatures as low as minus ten degrees, is suicide!

...

After leaving the recycling station, Chu Guang first returned to his residence.

Actually, it's more of a shack that barely keeps out the rain, with no proper windows or door.

Until yesterday, he was still thinking of saving up some cement and PVC boards to seal the drafty walls before winter.

But now, it seems unnecessary.

He dug out a rusty aluminum box from his moldy sleeping bag, pried it open with effort, and poured the plastic coins onto a wobbly wooden table.

A total of 47 white tokens, each worth 1 point.

Including the 3 tokens he just received, he now had exactly 50 points!

He had saved this money by living frugally, bit by bit, with the goal of one day leaving this place and moving to Boulder City, where conditions were better.

But now...

He had new plans for this "fortune."

Why live under someone else's roof when you can be independent?

"The ruins of the nursing home above the shelter can be used, and the walls around the building are made of concrete... With players to help, gathering materials and repairing should not be too difficult."

"Near the nursing home is a wetland park, which makes it inconvenient to gather metal scraps, but the surrounding vegetation is lush, so there should be enough fuel for heating. Additionally, wood can be used to repair buildings and make furniture... Axes! Yes, I need to buy four axes."

Leveling up by fighting monsters?

No such thing!

This is a 100% realistic hardcore game, and if it's a hardcore game, you have to start with the most basic tasks!

"Tools like shovels and saws can't be missing!" Chu Guang had already planned how to use the players even before they arrived.

Of course, besides the tools, the most crucial thing is food.

Once the cultivation pods are activated, they will immediately consume the active substances stored inside to create clones for the players.

And these clones need to eat!

Even when the players are offline, the clones can lie in the cultivation pods and hibernate at a low metabolic rate, but they can't stay that way forever.

Living means eating, an eternal truth!

"At least enough food for five adults for a week... If we count two meals a day, one pancake per meal, that's 70 pancakes."

Pancakes are the most common food in Bet Street, and 1 point can buy two.

They are about the size of a palm, hard and rough, like sand mixed with soil, but they fill the stomach and provide a bit of salt.

Cooked in a pot, they can be made into porridge.

70 pancakes would cost 35 points, and even with haggling, 30 points would be necessary. This would exceed his budget.

Chu Guang frowned, but then relaxed.

He had overcomplicated the problem.

There was no need to feed the players too well.

If he bought the raw materials for the pancakes — green wheat from nearby farms — he could get a kilogram for just 3 points!

Five kilograms would last him two weeks!

He would figure out the rest later.

"For now, let's just prepare these things..."

He swept the allocated tokens into his backpack and put it back on.

Although he hadn't slept all night, he was now extremely excited, as if he had found a new purpose in life, with no trace of drowsiness.

When he pushed open the door and stepped outside, he saw a little girl from the neighboring shack peeking at him from the doorway.

Chu Guang recognized her name, Yu Xiaoyu, the youngest daughter of the Yu family.

Most survivors in the wasteland are pale