Chapter 25: Not Enough Men
The cheers came from the bunch of cement kilns on one side of the nursing home.
Chu Guang walked over and had a look. Ample Time and Old White were piling a heap of light gray powder on the ground. They were adding water and sand while stirring it into a paste-like slurry. By their rough estimate, the batch of cement they made was about twenty kilograms. It was also only a trial run, so they hadn’t made that much. Judging from the volume of the cement kiln, it wouldn’t be a problem to process half a ton in a day. Although it wasn’t as good as professional equipment, it was enough for the time being.
"Dear Administrator!"
Noticing Chu Guang coming toward them, the players dropped the tools and greeted him excitedly.
"Cement! We finally made Portland cement!"
It really hadn’t been easy. In order to make the kiln reach over 1450 degrees, the two of them had been squeezing the bellows desperately, moving shovel after shovel of charcoal. They felt like the muscles on their arms had bulged to twice its original size. Old White, who had the strength attribute, felt it especially. His level was about to go up again after only three days!
"You did an excellent job." Chu Guang looked at them and nodded with approval. "With this cement, we have taken a big step forward from the first phase of the plan. The organization will remember your contributions, and you will each receive one thousand contribution points as your reward!"
An expression of joy appeared on the faces of the two players. Their past few days of hard work had not been in vain! What they didn't know was that the NPC standing in front of them had already begun to think about how to recover those same points he had just given out.
Inflation shouldn’t happen too quickly or it could affect the pace of the game. He was even thinking if should create some sort of gacha function and make each draw a thousand points. It wouldn’t be impossible to implement it either.
Just when Chu Guang was thinking it over, Ample Time and Old White looked at each other and said respectfully, "Administrator, there is one thing we must report."
"What is it?"
"Now that the cement has successfully been made, we need more manpower to start outpost construction!"
Chu Guang looked at them. "How many people do you need?"
Old White rushed, "At least ten people! Of course, the more the better! The cement kiln requires people to manually pump air in order to work. Two people can operate one kiln in shifts, and we’re building a second one soon. This means we’ll need four people at the very least! Transporting materials from the construction site requires at least four more, and the remaining wall and building repairs will need at least eight strong workers..."
Chu Guang calculated mentally. That would mean they would require at least sixteen people. At the moment, they only had enough food saved for seven members, including himself. It would only last them a week if they didn’t continue to hunt or gather more. If the population suddenly tripled, he didn't know if there would be enough food for everybody.
Chu Guang hesitated but decided to take the risk. It was already the ninth of the month; nearly one-third of September had passed. If he didn't work hard, it would be difficult to complete the outpost before winter.
"Okay, I’ve got it." Nodding and looking at the players, Chu Guang continued, "I’ll request support from my superiors. Three days from now, a group of new members will wake up from deep sleep and come to the surface to join us."
Expressions of joy appeared on the faces of Old White and Ample Time. By adding more workers, their plans would be so much easier to execute than before!
Ample Time's theory also proved correct. The NPC they were speaking to wasn’t an ordinary NPC. He could even affect the game's testing process. Ample Time couldn’t help but think of the online games in some of those web novels…
- The game runs on a supercomputer with unlimited computing power. The game company has formulated a worldview framework, and the content is completely and dynamically generated by AI…
Maybe Wasteland Online was just like that!
Ample Time became more excited the more he thought about it, and he felt that he understood more about the game.
...
With a carpenter and a chef, the players' working conditions and quality of life visibly improved.
With the help of Mosquito, Old White and Ample Time’s construction team now had molds for making bricks, and Gale and Night Ten improved their fish traps. He even made a wooden toilet seat (that was more comfortable) from a tree stump. Now, everyone could finally sit down in the toilet, but not everyone liked that.
Gale was one of them.
Gale seemed to have OCD. Even in the game, he couldn't accept the feeling of using the same toilet that anyone else had used. He stubbornly dug a hole next to the original toilet and made another cubicle. Thanks to him, the outpost now had two toilets!
Compared to these trivial things, the most surprising thing was the fishing plan Night Ten and Gale had come up with. With the help of the improved traps, the two finally caught their first fish before evening fell. And it was a big fish!
Based on its appearance, it was likely a catfish.
Likely, only because its wide lips and head were massive and bizarre, dark blue patterns decorated a body that was splattered with white spots, sporting coral-like red whiskers to top it all off. There was no doubt about it. They definitely caught a mutated fish.
Seeing the big guy twisting in the trap and trying to escape, Gale and Night Ten were so excited that they almost cried. Three days! Three full days, and they had finally caught one!
Before the huge bird hovering in the sky and the beasts by the lake discovered them, they hurriedly dragged their fish in its trap from the lake to the shore, cruelly beating it to death with steel rods. It wasn't until it was completely dead that its head and tail were tied to a steel bar with ropes. The two carried the still-twitching fish back to the outpost.
"Brother Tomato Eggs, look! Do you think we can eat it?"
"What the heck? What is that?"
Staring at the catfish that Gale and Night Ten threw on the ground, Tomato Eggs, who was working on the smoking rack, was shocked.
He had been cooking his entire life, and it was the first time he had seen such a big catfish. The head alone could fill a basin! If he threw it into a lake, could there be any other signs of life?! After all, catfish were carnivorous creatures!
"It should be a catfish…" Gale mumbled.
"Of course I know it's catfish!" Tomato Eggs squat down slightly and opened the lips of the fish to take a closer look. He tugged on it and gasped, "My goodness. This is at least fifty kilograms!"
Night Ten quickly asked, "Can you make smoked fish?"
"Who uses catfish to make smoked fish…?" Tomato Eggs was speechless, but he continued, "This thing is very fat and has a moisture-retaining mucus on its skin. It is difficult to deal with, I don't know if it can be dried."
"So what should we do with it?" Gale asked.
"I haven't tried it before, but let's give it a go..." Tomato Eggs fell silent after a glance at the rack that he had been working on for a while. The fish might be too heavy for it…
He would have to make another…
...
At dusk, Tomato Eggs took the place of the Administrator and stewed a pot of fish head soup for the players, proving through action that the creature was indeed edible. It tasted surprisingly good. Though there was no tofu for a side dish, and no onion, ginger, garlic, and cooking wine to remove the fishy smell, Tomato Eggs still flexed his superb cooking skills and only used salt and soy sauce to season a pot of fish head soup that was fresh but not greasy.
The players nearly burst into tears when they tasted the soup. Tomato Eggs and Mosquito were surprised to be able to taste in game, and the other players were touched that they could finally eat a bite of normal food.
Wuwuwu, it’s really not easy...
The players went offline at six o'clock in the evening in-game, which was six in the morning in reality. The closed alpha players had just gotten off of the game and hadn’t yet logged into their chat app, but the Bull and Horse Club had already exploded with messages.
Quit_smoking: Holy shit! Quick! Look at the official website!
This_lord_is_arrogant_what_can_you_do: You still haven't given up yet...
Hold_the_sword_execution: What happened to the site?
Quit_smoking: Alpha 0.2 version major update! The website will once again give 24 players access to the game! The number of closed alpha players will reach an impressive 30!
Hold_the_sword_execution: For real?
This_lord_is_arrogant_what_can_you_do: Hehe, they’re starting to sell access, right? How much is it? Let me see if it's enough for the police to set up a case. (Picking_nose.jpg)
Quit_smoking: I think it’s free. The announcement didn’t mention any charge! Haha, I’m definitely getting in this time!!
Garbage_pickup_level_99: You’re thinking too much. The number of applications has already broken a hundred. With 24 additional players, the probability of getting in is less than one-fifth, right?!
Quit_smoking: More than a hundred applicants?! What the hell, there’s that many people in our group??
Garbage_pickup_level_99: Uh, not everyone is from our group... I saw a lot of game groups talking about this last night.
Hold_the_sword_execution: Other groups?! (Shock!)
No_one_understands_love: Mhm, I just checked it. The number of applicants has already reached 111.
Quit_smoking: Fuck!
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