Chapter 82

In the evening, Chu Guang had a very long dream.

He dreamed that he was playing a game called The Sims, going to work, coming home, eating, and sleeping every day, then waking up to go to work again, eat, and sleep, until one day a truck came and scared him awake.

"Damn... even in my sleep, I'm working. I must be crazy."

Why can't I have a better dream?

Breathing heavily, he woke up and instinctively reached for his chest, only to find his clothes were drenched.

"Is the air conditioning set too high?"

Muttering to himself, he jumped out of bed, stretched his limbs, and heard his joints crack, feeling incredibly refreshed.

Wait a minute.

Could it be that I've leveled up?

With a sudden thought, Chu Guang immediately went to the community hall to find a physical examination device and gave himself a full-body scan.

As he had expected, his gene sequence had advanced a level, from V7 to V8!

[

ID: Chu Guang

Gene Sequence: Administrator

Level: LV.7 → LV.8

—Basic Attributes—

Strength: 10

Agility: 6

Constitution: 8

Perception: 7

Intelligence: 6 → 7

]

"Previously, the increases were all in physical abilities, but this time it's an enhancement in brain cell activity?"

Chu Guang moved his arms, looking at the examination report and pondering.

"Sure enough, as I suspected, my gene sequence also grows when I command other clones in battle."

Of course, the attribute panel is just for reference.

More important than simply stacking numbers is being able to fully utilize the advantages of one's physical functions.

Like that crawler last time, none of its four attributes except intelligence were lower than mine, but I still managed to turn the tables and defeat it.

That's the best example.

"Once the players' levels reach around LV10, I'll throw the 117th shelter at them as a dungeon."

I've heard there's power armor there.

Chu Guang is still missing a set of armor to match his nitrogen-powered hammer.

When he has both the armor and the weapon, he'll truly be a human tank. Forget crawlers, even more formidable mutants standing in front of him would only be able to scratch him.

Feeling pleased, Chu Guang went to the next room and woke Xia Yan, ignoring her protests and urging her to go to work.

"Can't you let me sleep a little longer? At this hour, the weapon shop won't have any business!"

Standing in the elevator, Xia Yan used her free left hand to smooth her disheveled red hair and muttered a complaint.

"An early start is key. I can't afford to be lazy if I want to live a good life in the future. Don't worry, once winter is over, your work will be much easier."

Chu Guang joked, looking at the tuft of hair on the back of her head and reaching out to press it down. "You should go to the bathhouse and get some water. This tuft probably won't go down."

Her hair roots are pretty stiff; looks like she's been eating well lately.

It's really killing my OCD...

Xia Yan, who was still half-asleep and dazed, suddenly jumped to the side like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, hugging her cane and crouching in the corner of the elevator.

"What are you trying to do?!"

Chu Guang shrugged, not sure how to explain and not really caring.

Little Qi, who had been idling and observing the entire time, lifted its camera and stared at Xia Yan, who was crouched in the corner, for a moment.

Suddenly, it spoke.

"According to Little Qi's analysis, the probability of the master having ulterior motives is less than 99.7%. From DNA data analysis, any chromosome stored in the 404th shelter's gene bank is more attractive and valuable for reproduction than the chromosomes you possess."

Xia Yan's face instantly turned as red as her hair, staring at the robot in the corner and letting out a nervous laugh.

"Hehe, hehehe!"

This person must be crazy.

Chu Guang, equally dissatisfied, looked at Little Qi.

"Why is there still 0.3%?"

Is this AI also doubting my upright and righteous character?

Little Qi tilted its camera and explained logically.

"Because the master is still young, and having thoughts is understandable. After all, if there's not even a 0.3% chance, it would seem a bit off in various aspects, right?"

Chu Guang stroked his chin.

"…You make a good point. I don't know how to argue against that."

Little Qi: "Right?"

Xia Yan didn't react to the conversation between the human and the AI, her entire demeanor darkening as she laughed.

Chu Guang felt that her gaze at Little Qi was a bit off.

To be honest, this AI probably has been in standby for too long, with hardware aging or something, making its brain a bit slow and its emotional intelligence extremely poor.

But still, you've been a mercenary before, so why is your mental resilience so poor?

Or is it that anyone with hands can be a mercenary in Boulder City?

Chu Guang was also at a loss.

...

Since Chu Guang no longer micromanaged the players' login rights and approved nighttime logins, he no longer slept in the community hall but moved into an empty room next to Xia Yan's.

Every time he slept, he would hand over the shelter's various permissions to Little Qi, which was charging, to manage, as long as the players didn't go through his things.

Old Luca was watching outside the shelter, so it didn't matter if the players roamed around.

The active substance extractor's furnace didn't stop running all night.

With the 6 cannon fodder from the day and 21 more at night, a total of 12.3 units of active substance were refined. Adding the 4 units accumulated previously and deducting the 1 unit lost to Ya Ya, the active substance stock now stood at 15.3 units.

One extractor can only hold 25 units, so once it's full, the excess will have to be stored in plastic bottles.

I wonder if it will spoil if stored outside.

In any case, the shelter is no longer so short of active substances, and some combat losses are acceptable as long as they're not meaningless deaths.

Apart from prohibiting players from provoking the green-skinned muscle men on 76th Street and harassing neutral survivors in the south who can be recruited, Chu Guang has relaxed the restrictions on the players' activities.

In the future, perhaps the contribution point penalty for death can be appropriately reduced.

When Chu Guang arrived at the surface, many players were already online, busy shuttling around the industrial zone with a pile of clinking parts.

Currently, over 40% of the industrial zone's orders come from the weapon shop owner, including parts needed for making receivers and copper shells and gunpowder for making bullets.

Among the fifth batch of new players, there were a few metallurgy majors who chose the intelligence path. Their development strategy was clear: they were aiming to become life skill players.

After repeated practice and improvement by the two young players "Ya Er I Want to Go to the Toilet" and "Ward's Foot Fungus Who Levin," the steel-making technology at the outpost has improved significantly.

Currently, these players are working on developing the Bessemer process, a method of steel-making from the mid-19th century.

In the absence of large-scale production of pure oxygen, the Bessemer "air steel-making" method is a good choice.

Although it's difficult to remove phosphorus from the ore, the raw materials they use are not phosphorus-containing ores but scrap steel that doesn't contain phosphorus, so the step of adding limestone to remove phosphorus can be skipped.

The "porosity" issue can also be addressed by borrowing from later experiences, such as adding "deoxidizers" after blowing air.

However, the key is that they first need a 1.2-meter-high "furnace" lined with acidic refractories like silica and zirconia to prevent the furnace from being melted by the molten iron.

This is a significant challenge for the sintering process.

But these young players don't seem to be deterred by this difficulty; they see it as a challenge.

Previously, everyone on the forum was boasting and making bold claims.

Now that they have the beta test资格, it's time to show their true skills, even if they've never tried it before, they'll have to tough it out.

Chu Guang had no complaints about the diligence of these young players, but the planning of the industrial zone was rather haphazard.

The charcoal kiln was right next to the brick kiln, and a few steps away was the steel furnace, with no proper planning at all.

This can't go on.

As everyone knows, in a building game, if the first house isn't placed properly, the entire layout will be messed up.

To avoid being driven crazy by OCD and to ensure the safety of these young players, Chu Guang found a wooden stake and a wooden board, walked to the south side of the sanatorium, and planted the stake in the ground, hanging the board on it.

Then, he used a marker to write a few lines on the board, stepped back, and admired his work for a moment.

[Industrial Zone Ordinance 0:]

[1. The southern area of the outpost is designated as the industrial zone.]

[2. New facilities must be approved by the administrator or assistant, with details of the project, type of business, budget, and estimated area, and built in the approved area.]

[3. Facilities that occupy roads, exceed the planned area, or are illegal will be removed.]

"Not bad."

Chu Guang nodded in satisfaction.

After all, Ordinance 0 is just a draft, so the fewer words, the better.

Fewer words make it easier for the young players to read and for him to manage, avoiding the situation where he writes a lot and they claim they didn't see it.

Later, regulations regarding site deposits, rent, management fees, and taxes will be added to the "Industrial Zone Management Regulations." The current rules are to prevent players from building randomly and blocking the road from the south gate to the respawn point.

Before he could leave, nearby players saw the sign and gathered around curiously.

"Industrial Zone Ordinance 0?"

"The southern area of the outpost is designated as the industrial zone... What the heck? Epic buff for life skill players?!"

"Buff my ass. You think it's giving you a buff? This announcement means you can't build randomly in the base anymore. You have to apply, plan, and build."

"Huh? So it's a nerf?"

"But in another way... even without buying land in the industrial zone, you can get the right to use it through an application? This area doesn't count towards private land?"

"What the heck! Amazing!"

"This isn't a nerf at all! Life skill players are winning big!!"

"Awesome, awesome!"

After finally interpreting the less than 100-word announcement, the life skill players gathered around the "NPC" instantly erupted!