Chapter 39: Finally A New NPC
Actually, she had no other choice.
Xia Yan knew very well that with only one leg left, it was difficult to even leave the street, let alone return to Boulder Town.
Moreover, what could she possibly do if she got back?
Although she had been working as a mercenary for a long time, she didn't save much money. A better neuron-linked bionic prosthetic would cost tens of thousands of chips at least, and a mechanically driven prosthesis would also cost thousands.
The price was almost the same as a set of chemically powered exoskeleton.
Even if she sold herself, she still would not be able to afford it.
She either left with them or awaited death on the streets. The choice wasn’t difficult actually.
Sitting on the edge of the swaying wooden trolley while bumping up and down with the piled sacks, Xia Yan sighed silently in her heart.
Perhaps this journey is the last moment of freedom for me.
Apart from taking her back to have a baby, she really couldn't think of any reason why the man in front of her wanted to take her with them.
Skills?
Work?
Haha… Very funny.
After thinking about it, the only thing she had left was her body.
I heard that the first time will hurt, but I don’t know if it’s true...
"Here we are."
The sound from the front interrupted a novel of at least 200,000 words that already formed in her mind. Recovering from her daydream, Xia Yan suddenly raised her head and found that she had been taken to a small forest by that group of people.
In front of her was an open space strewn with wooden logs surrounded by the forest, and an unfinished concrete wall.
Beside the concrete wall were kilns emitting smoke, with pits for smoked meat and fish racks alongside it.
The air was filled with the smell of barbecue as non-stop banging sounds filled the air.
There were people smashing the stones with hammers, operating the blowers to blow air into the kilns, carrying stones, building walls, or cutting trees.
She seemed to be looking at a massive construction site.
It was primitive but busy.
Are they… Are they all his subordinates?
Seeing all this in front of her, Xia Yan's pale face was filled with surprise. She counted them roughly and found that there were more than twenty people around her, and they were all wearing the same blue uniform!
The moment she saw their clothes, it took her less than a second to guess their identities.
Shelter residents?! I haven't heard of a shelter near here.
But… What are they doing?
Xia Yan was a little confused.
Shelters were not uncommon in Clearspring City. Some had been opened many years ago, and many of them were still locked up, waiting to be opened.
Shelters that had done well could be regarded as a powerful force, and those that failed basically turned their residents into mutant human rations.
Xia Yan recalled that there seemed to be a shelter not far from Boulder Town, but the survivors who lived there were more exclusive and unwilling to contact people outside. They were also rather stubborn and they rarely emerged.
What’s the point of building a fence anyway?
It looked strong, and bullets should not be able to penetrate it, but no matter how strong the wall they built was, it couldn’t be stronger than a shelter’s gate!
That thing could block explosions and the resulting gamma rays!
"... Are you from a shelter?"
"Yes," Chu Guang said, taking a look at the wound on her leg, "I thought you passed out."
She was very obedient along the way, and Chu Guang's attention was basically on the surroundings; he didn't pay much attention to her, so he thought that the woman had lost too much blood and passed out.
Who would have thought that she was still awake?
"I'm not that weak." Xia Yan cocked her chin and made her eyebrows as stiff as her expression. She felt that it made her look a little stronger. At the very least, she wouldn’t look like a wimp.
Unfortunately, no one cared about her pretentiously tough posture, or even noticed it at all.
"I can see it," Chu Guang said casually, withdrawing his gaze from the bloody and broken leg. "Your wounds are healing a little bit faster than ordinary people."
Applying the attribute template of Shelter 404, the woman's constitution was at least 8 points, and his estimations would be off by a point at most.
If it were an ordinary person, even if they didn't lose too much blood, they would have passed out with a high fever by then.
The woman could actually hold herself steady and other than beads of perspiration forming on her forehead, she seemed completely fine.
Of course, it may be due to an innate talent she had.
The survivors in the wasteland were more or less mutated. It wasn’t surprising that they had some physical characteristics that were different from ordinary people.
Chu Guang looked at the two players and ordered.
"Send the food to Tomato Eggs and get him to store it properly."
A few days ago, Chu Guang told Tomato Eggs to build a granary that could store grains and meat.
If nothing went wrong, it should have already been built. Whether the food should be dried before putting into storage or just piled in whole bags, he believed the chef was more professional and more reliable than himself.
Now that there were players, Chu Guang didn't bother to worry about these trivial matters.
In the past, smoking meat already brought him a massive headache. If he built the granary himself, the food would either grow moldy or be eaten by rats.
Hearing the Administrator's instructions, Ample Time and Night Ten nodded and accepted the task.
"Yes!"
"Yes!"
Chu Guang didn't say anything else.
He stretched out his hand to pick up the female mercenary who was lying on the trolley. Ignoring the latter's exclamation, he carried her on his shoulder like a sack.
Stretching out his other hand, he grabbed the backpack Night Ten had taken from the other mercenaries before strolling towards the nursing home.
Night Ten and Ample Time watched him with admiration in their eyes.
A living person and the equipment-filled backpack would easily add up to 50 kilograms.
To be able to pick them up and walk casually…
The Administrator is too strong!
Looking at the Administrator walking towards the nursing home, Old White, who noticed the situation, quietly approached them.
"What happened? Who is our boss carrying?"
"Ask Ample Time. He saw the whole plot. I got disconnected." Either searching the bag or being used as a hostage, the hapless Night Ten felt like he was a tool that was being used by NPCs repeatedly.
Ample Time revealed a helpless expression.
"Don't look at me, this game doesn’t have subtitles, and I don't understand what the NPCs are talking about... You can think of her as a newly added NPC."
He had a rough idea about what happened, but it was a bit difficult to tell it in detail, so he could only wait for the official website to update before learning of what happened.
Old White was a little confused.
"Okay… but then again, why was she injured so badly?"
"Sigh, let alone the serious injury, she almost didn’t make it," Night Ten grumbled, "You don't know what we encountered on the way back."
"What happened?"
"We ran into a Creeper!"
"Seriously?!" Old White looked at Night Ten with a surprised look and quickly continued, "What did it look like?"
There was information about Creepers on the official website, but apart from a few abstract text descriptions, there was no description of what they could do.
There was no picture book to refer to either.
Old White only remembered that a Creeper belonged to the same category as a Cruncher. They were all symbiont mutants born under fungal infections. They seemed to be related to biological weapons, and it was hard to tell who their ancestors were.
Originally, he still thought that a Creeper was probably a monster still being designed and the game company might not have made a model for it.
Unexpectedly, those two fools actually ran into one!
"It has four long arms, and it’s very ugly. It's about half a person tall when crawling, and two meters tall when it stands up. That creature is not only ridiculously powerful, but the key point is how fast it was! We were using guns to shoot at it, but we missed! In the end, the Administrator used his steel pipe and stabbed it to death."
Night Ten described the situation at the time, however, his description was so vague that it didn’t provide much useful information.
Old White looked at Ample Time for help and the latter sighed.
"I’m also not very clear about what happened, but it’s basically what he said. The Creeper is really strong!”
"I think the new expansion not only updates the in-game activities, but also adds more mutants, new NPC camps, and related missions. Let’s talk about this when we go offline... The administrator asked me to send the trolley to Tomato Eggs. Let me complete the mission first."
Although Old White really wanted to talk to Ample Time about his new discoveries, there were only three hours left before dark, so there was really not much time to talk.
Old White sighed and nodded.
"Okay, you go do what you need to... I'll research more about the small blast furnace, and you can help me when you're done."
"Mhm, see you later."
...
On the other side, in the nursing home.
The players who were constructing on the scaffolding noticed the Administrator returning.
Of course, they also noticed the woman he carried on his shoulders.
"Damn, look, look, the Administrator is carrying a person over to us!"
"Who is that?"
"New NPC?"
"It’s a girl!"
"Finally there is a new NPC! Brothers, we are one step closer to the open beta!"
"Oh, oh, oh!"
Thinking that they were one step closer to the open beta, the players became even more energetic like they were on some kind of drug.
Xia Yan, who was on Chu Guang’s shoulder, felt her cheeks burning. It wasn’t just because of her posture, but also because of the gazes the players were shooting.
She couldn't understand what those people were saying, but she didn't need to understand.
She could guess that it was nothing but dirty talk, evident from the lecherous gaze she was getting.
She could imagine that they were like hyenas on the wasteland, cheering for their leaders and hoping to get a bone after he was done with the prey.
Obviously, she was the tender and delicious lamb in their eyes.
Xia Yan became more frightened as she thought about it, her clenched teeth couldn't help clicking repeatedly, and her eyes teared up a little.
She suddenly regretted her decision. Instead of being humiliated by a pack of wolves, she might as well kill herself and die with dignity.
It was a shame her body didn’t listen to her at all.
… Eventually, the elevator went down to the basement.
Chu Guang strode through the gate of the shelter, through the airlock, and into the residents’ hall. He threw the backpack to the side before dumping Xia Yan onto the chair beside him.
"Ow! Can you not be gentle?... Wha, what are you doing?!"
After letting out a painful grunt, Xia Yan stared at Chu Guang who was approaching. She gulped in fright.
"Don’t move," Chu Guang muttered while opening the drawer. He took out a silver-white metal tube and after removing the plastic cover, he flicked the tube habitually.
"It shouldn't hurt, bear with me."
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