Chapter 47

The next morning.

Outside the walls of the sanatorium, the area was bustling with voices and shouts.

"Recruiting for stone transport at the abandoned construction site, four-person teams, third-class. Two wheelbarrows are already rented, hurry up and get on board if you want to join!"

"Looking for strength-type teammates? Waiting for one more to team up, chop trees, earn money, and level up!"

"Agility-type needed! Perception-type preferred, intelligence-type on the side, scavenging tasks in the northern row houses! Let's go!"

"Damn, are intelligence-types not human anymore??"

"Outpost recruiting part-time warehouse managers. Daily fixed salary of 9 silver coins and 100 contribution points, working hours from 6 AM to 6 PM with a 3-hour break. Job duties include verifying accounts, inventory management, procurement, and sales. Intelligence-type preferred, only two positions available. Note: The manager is always watching, and any favoritism or fraud will be severely punished... Holy crap! I'm signing up!"

"The carpentry hut is also hiring! Daily guaranteed salary of 10 silver coins and 200 contribution points, with additional commissions for tool-making orders. Requires carpentry experience, ability to process logs, and make furniture, bows, and spears of good quality or better... I'm outta here."

After the version update, each player received a starter package of 5 copper coins from the generous manager.

What can you do with 5 copper coins?

Actually, quite a lot.

For example, you can rent an axe for 5 hours at the logging hut, or rent a cart or wheelbarrow for 5 hours at the warehouse.

Besides renting, you can also buy a pound of yam, green wheat, or 100 grams of jerky at the warehouse, which is quite a good deal.

It must be said that players are the most adaptable creatures.

If the scavengers on Bet Street heard that someone wanted to use metal pieces instead of the tokens they had used for nearly a century, they would probably fight to the death against that person.

But players are different.

They are like particles in a bottle undergoing Brownian motion, embodying both chaos and order. As long as they need to repeatedly put on and take off their helmets, they will never escape this bottle.

Games have their rules, and updates and adjustments are the norm.

For players, this is common sense.

In less than an hour, these self-taught geniuses had already familiarized themselves with the new version's rules and started to figure out how to adapt to the new gameplay within the rules.

In the open area outside the walls.

Fang Chang did not immediately set out but called over Lao Bai, Ye Shi, and Kuang Feng to sit together for a strategy meeting.

Fang Chang: "The biggest changes in Alpha 0.3 are to the economic and identity systems."

Fang Chang: "I just consulted the manager's assistant. To earn contribution points, besides making significant contributions, you can only do so through employment. For example, a warehouse manager, the lowest threshold job, earns 100 contribution points per day. If starting from scratch, it would normally take 20 days to reach citizen status."

Kuang Feng rubbed his nose and raised his hand to speak.

"I'll add that it's not just through the employment system. Daily active tasks have a guaranteed minimum. For example, chopping 20 trees and dragging them to the carpentry hut earns you 80 contribution points in addition to the chopping reward... However, the daily contribution point cap for active tasks is 160 points, which is about two tasks."

Fang Chang: "Hmm... Combining job tasks with active tasks during breaks, the theoretical maximum contribution points per day is 260, which would take 8 days to accumulate 2000 points. But for most people, that's quite difficult."

Ye Shi whispered softly.

"Damn, so... my 3000 contribution points are pretty impressive, right?!"

Lao Bai scratched the back of his head and chuckled.

"I have 5000."

Ye Shi: "Damn!"

When they first entered the game, contribution points for chopping trees were based on the length and thickness of the wood. A tree as thick as an arm earned 1 point per meter, and a tree as thick as a thigh earned 2 points per meter.

Perhaps the game's numerical designer didn't plan it well, resulting in Lao Bai, a strength-type, earning 800 points just by chopping trees, and even Fang Chang, with the worst stamina, earning 300 points in a day.

This was clearly unreasonable.

Sure enough, from Alpha 0.2 onwards, the income from chopping trees was drastically reduced. In the current Alpha 0.3, chopping a tree earns only 2 or 4 copper coins based on its thickness and length. Additionally, if you don't have your own axe, you have to pay 1 copper coin per hour for rental, which can be paid on credit.

Even if you chop 20 thigh-thick pine trees a day, you would only earn 80 copper coins, or 8 silver coins in total.

Including the 80 contribution points for chopping 20 trees, the logging profession is now drastically nerfed compared to the early days of the game.

However, the outpost indeed doesn't lack wood anymore, and chopping trees is probably for preparing the land for spring planting.

"Thanks to the initial overflow of contribution points, we four are now the highest contributors in the game. I've already exchanged for citizen status, and you should do the same. This way, we can combine for 20 square meters and claim a plot of land near the sanatorium."

"What do we need the land for?"

"Are you stupid? To build a house! A 20-square-meter small apartment with three floors should be fine, as long as it doesn't exceed the height of the sanatorium in the middle. The first floor can be a storefront, and the second and third floors can be divided into rooms, one for each of us, with a bed and a chest. Isn't that great?"

Fang Chang rolled his eyes at Ye Shi, wondering how he could ask such a stupid question.

"That makes sense..." Lao Bai's eyes lit up. "We can do business!"

The storefront faces the sanatorium's main gate, the players' respawn point, which is the prime location of prime locations. Selling anything would make a fortune!

"Exactly! That's what I considered!"

Fang Chang snapped his fingers, a smile on his face, and said confidently.

"The new version clearly encourages players to be creative and organize production and trade on their own! Do you remember what the—cough, the designer emphasized from the beginning? The goal of Wasteland OL is to create an economic system that truly reflects supply and demand, which means that a significant portion of players' equipment and supplies will likely have to be obtained through player-to-player transactions in the future!"

If not now, when will we claim the land?

Unfortunately, the identity system limits the amount of land each player can purchase, or else Fang Chang would have saved up to buy all the land around the sanatorium and develop wasteland real estate.

Isn't this more cost-effective than buying a house in Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou?

Is there any possibility that this game won't become popular during the beta test?

"Awesome!" Even Kuang Feng couldn't help but give a thumbs up.

The analysis was spot on!

Ye Shi and Lao Bai looked at each other, their faces filled with excitement.

"How much does buying land cost?"

Fang Chang smiled and said.

"I checked. It's only 10 silver coins per square meter. What we need to do now is gather 200 silver coins before all the players and buy the 20 square meters closest to the sanatorium!"

Lao Bai hesitated. "What if someone gets there faster?"

Fang Chang made a helpless expression.

"If that happens, we can just recruit them to join us."

There aren't many people who have reached citizen status yet, so even if someone is faster, how many could there be? A couple more wouldn't be a problem.

The three nodded, agreeing to recruit others if necessary.

"I have one more question," Ye Shi raised his hand and said, "What should we do to earn money? I checked, and the job of burning cement is the highest-paying among the no-experience jobs, but it only earns 10 silver coins a day. With a 20% production bonus, that's a maximum of 12 silver coins... and it only requires two people."

Kuang Feng pointed in the direction and reminded them.

"Besides, there are no spots left. Look at the cement kiln... the smoke is already rising, so it's probably full."

Although the cement kiln was built by Lao Bai and his team, after the Alpha 0.3 update, all facilities within the walls were listed as public facilities.

As the builders of the facility, Lao Bai and Fang Chang have a 30-day priority purchase right.

However, the location of the cement kiln is too remote, almost touching the wall, and it might be destroyed by enemy bullets at any time.

Neither of them wants to waste their precious "land purchase quota," especially since the technical content of this facility is not high. They would rather wait for the 30 days to pass, have the fixed assets on the land officially confiscated, and receive compensation from the manager in the form of money and contribution points.

They even hope for the confiscation now to get the compensation and buy land with it.

Fang Chang stroked his chin and said.

"Even if the positions are not full, I don't recommend applying for those fixed jobs. To outpace other players, we need to find a different path."

Ye Shi looked at him and asked.

"Like what?"

"Like hunting!"

"Hunting?"

Fang Chang nodded.

"Yes, I saw at the warehouse entrance that a mutated hyena's corpse can be exchanged for 5 silver coins, and for each kilogram over 30 kilograms, you get an additional 2 copper coins."

Ye Shi's eyes widened.

"5 silver coins? That much?!"

This is the minimum standard!

Although mutated hyenas usually weigh around 30 kilograms, it's autumn now, and most prey are storing fat, making them heavier than usual.

This game is very detailed in this aspect.

"Right, besides mutated hyenas, mutated reindeer are also on the acquisition list, and each one is worth at least 12 silver coins! Basically, if our four-person team can hunt 8 mutated hyenas a day, we can earn more than four people working together to burn cement! Each additional one is a profit!"

This is the fastest way Fang Chang can think of to earn 200 silver coins.

"But... where do we find so many prey?" Lao Bai hesitated, "The wetland park mostly has birds and small animals. We'd have to go to the city to find larger prey, right?"

Before Fang Chang could answer, Ye Shi, sitting beside him, raised his hand.

"Don't worry about that! I've been hunting with the manager for days, and I know which areas are dangerous and which have more prey. Yesterday, the manager and I even found a migrating herd of deer. As long as we follow the deer's tracks, finding prey should be easy!"

Kuang Feng nodded.

"Yes, Ye Shi is a perception-type with the highest 9 points in perception among all players, so finding prey shouldn't be hard. The problem is, how do we hunt? The weapon merchants haven't opened yet."

Fang Chang smiled confidently and said.

"There's no need for guns. Spears, slingshots, bows, and crossbows... if used properly, these weapons can perform just as well as guns at medium and close range."

Kuang Feng frowned and asked.

"Have you used a bow before? It's not easy to hit anything with that thing."

During a university team-building event at an archery club, he tried archery once with a professional bow with sights.

He couldn't even hit the target 20 meters away, and out of a bag of 10 arrows, hitting his own target was considered having some talent.

Many people aimed at their own targets but hit others' or the protective padding on the floor and ceiling.

Without sights, the accuracy of a bow would be even worse.

However, Fang Chang didn't seem worried and still had a confident smile on his face.

"Don't worry about that. I'll handle the archery; I have some experience. You'll be responsible for setting traps and finishing off the prey, Lao Bai will be the front-line fighter, and Ye Shi will handle reconnaissance and vigilance."

"Trust me, this team is rock solid!"