This Game Is Too Real Chapter 109: Resettling the Refugees

[Quest: Nomads from the Wilderness]

[Summary: An unidentified group of nomads has co from the north, no matter what their purpose, we must be fully prepared.]

[Description: Players within 30m of the Manager automatically trigger the quest, just follow the Manager with "weapons" to enter the conscription status.]

[Reward: 1 Silver Coin.]

...

North of Wetland Park.

A ragged band of refugees stopped in their tracks.

A burly man stepped to the front of the crowd, beholding Chu Guang at the North Gate of Wetland Park with a gaze that was neither servile nor overbearing.

"We an no offense and seek only to draw so water from the lake."

The way the others stepped aside and looked at him with respect suggested he was their leader.

Chu Guang glanced over the crowd following him, roughly sixty or seventy people, maybe even eighty, among them children, the elderly, pregnant won, and even infants.

They were unlikely to be Looters.

In terms of property, these people had two cows, a bull, two calves, and eight cals loaded with luggage and supplies.

For weapons, only five guns were visible, the rest were bows and arrows, short crossbows, spades, axes, hoes, and even clubs.

It would only take one charge to scatter this rabble, and their belongings would undoubtedly beco his spoils of war.

The only question was whether to remain a person.

Behind him stood nearly fifty players, guns at the ready.

Chu Guang didn’t order an attack but observed the group of exhausted travelers from afar.

"Your journey leads into my territory; you can continue south along the freeway overpass or leave to the north."

The crowd stirred.

The man’s face showed difficulty.

"We need fresh water, if not, our livestock will die of thirst."

"Town has everything you need, and there’s snow everywhere on the ground. The eastern and southern banks of Rhombus Lake are ho to Crack Claw Crabs, not a good place for water retrieval."

"The water in town is frozen, and we don’t have enough fuel to lt the snow. As for the Crack Claw Crabs, they can’t be more terrifying than the monsters in town."

An old man by the man’s side took a step forward and implored with downcast eyes, "We beg your rcy, we won’t disturb you."

If everyone told the truth, the world wouldn’t have turned out this way.

Chu Guang’s face remained impassive as he weighed the pros and cons in his heart.

Allowing this group to camp by the lake might lead to complications in driving them out.

Maybe their next move would be to chop wood for camps, build ramparts, or even bring over their distant relatives, until the refugees outnumbered the indigenous people, who would then be the ones ousted.

Such scenarios were not uncommon in the Wasteland and often ended in bloody conflict.

But on the other hand...

These people were labor; they could take positions the players were unwilling or too lazy to fill.

And with their extensive hunting experience and knowledge of survival in the Wasteland, perhaps they could teach his players so interesting things.

All things considered, the opportunities outweighed the risks.

Chu Guang lifted his chin to look at the man before him.

"I’ve said this before, the land before you is our territory. Every tree, even every patch of soil here, belongs to us."

"Out of compassion, I will offer you two choices. Either accept our settlent and follow our laws, camp at the designated spot."

"Or, leave this place."

The man glanced warily at the ard warriors behind Chu Guang and spoke carefully.

"I need to discuss with my people."

Chu Guang nodded.

"I’ll give you ten minutes."

In fact, it didn’t even take ten minutes.

A few tatterdemalion refugees huddled together for a consultation, after which the man ca back to Chu Guang and presented his hunting gun with both hands.

"We are willing to accept your arrangent."

Chu Guang hadn’t anticipated his voluntary surrender of his weapon.

But then again, it made sense.

After all, he had said that this entire park was his territory. It was only logical to disarm when seeking refuge on soone else’s land.

The hunting bows and crossbows were allowed to be kept.

Chu Guang assigned the group a spot to settle, one hundred ters outside the east entrance of Outpost Base, on a patch of land the size of a basketball court. They were permitted to chop down trees within the area and establish their ho there.

Separated by a trench, an enclosing wall, and a hundred-ter buffer distance, Chu Guang was not particularly concerned they would cause any trouble.

Especially since Xiao Qi was positioned on the rooftop.

He would know imdiately if anything happened.

"What is your na?"

The man answered with a thick voice.

"Iron Axe, sir."

"Iron Axe?"

"Yes, sir, that is what my people call . At the age of six, I cracked open a Looter’s skull with an axe."

Chu Guang’s expression was sowhat bemused.

"Your na is unique, but it’s not convenient for our communication and could cause misunderstandings. Here’s what we’ll do: from now on, your surna will be ’Wu,’ and ’Iron Axe’ will be your given na, so you will be Wu Iron Axe."

Although still a mouthful, it wasn’t too problematic with so use.

These nomads were hardly cultured, even less so than the survivors in the settlents; he couldn’t expect them to conjure up a couplet on the fly.

He couldn’t very well na him sothing too literary; the man might not even grasp its aning.

"Thank you, sir, for bestowing a na. From now on, I am Wu Iron Axe!"

The burly man showed no objections, even feeling sowhat honored by their host’s act of naming.

In their tribal customs, only one’s elders had the right to bestow nas.

Now, as these people depended on others for shelter, the act of being given a surna by their host signified a form of acceptance and protection.

At least in his understanding, this was a good thing!

Seeing Wu Iron Axe agree, Chu Guang continued.

"Our laws are simple: no fighting, stealing, murder, coercion, intimidation, or any actions that negatively affect others. You are free to take water from the lake but must not disturb those fishing there. Aside from your camp, you may not fell trees in the woods without my consent; if you need lumber, go outside the park to collect it."

"Additionally, the useful parts and tals collected from scavenging, as well as hunted prey or other useful items, can all be exchanged for goods in our warehouse."

"However, rember that only between six and seven in the evening can you send soone to deliver the trade goods to our warehouse. At no other ti are you allowed to cross our entrance at will."

"For the rest of the specific terms, I will have my servant deliver them to you later. By the way, do any of your people know how to read?"

Wu Tiefu quickly nodded.

"A few of the elders in the tribe can read a little, and so can I."

"Good," looking at this robust man, Chu Guang nodded, "You should take the ti to learn as well. It will be beneficial for you."

...

After settling these refugees who had drifted in from other places, Chu Guang dismissed the summoned players, giving each one silver coin and telling them to go about their own business.

These refugees were also very honest and did not cause any trouble for Chu Guang. After marking the territory, they devoted themselves to chopping trees with axes and setting up camp.

For the standards of their encampnts, Chu Guang did not have stringent requirents, emphasizing only hygiene and security.

That is, indiscriminate defecation was prohibited, as it provided a breeding ground for bacteria. All excrent had to be collected and transported to a designated location for disposal.

Chu Guang made the sa demands of those survivors living in the brick kilns.

Furthermore, the enclosing walls of their residence could not exceed two ters in height, and future buildings could not be taller than the east wall of Outpost Base.

However, for these refugees, such rules were actually sowhat superfluous.

Let alone encircling walls and toilets, having a place that was sheltered from the wind to sleep in and keep the children from freezing was already more than enough for them.

In this way, both parties lived in peace through the night.

Early the next morning, the refugees crawled out of their makeshift shacks and continued their work.

The n conscientiously took their tools to the lakeside to fetch water, dig wells with shovels, cut down trees with axes, and used the collected materials to continue building shelters.

The won and the elderly stayed at the camp, looking after the livestock, nding clothes, repairing damaged tools, and preparing lunch in large pots.

Players watched curiously for a while, finally unable to resist their curiosity, they took the initiative to communicate with these indigenous people.

At first, the indigenous people were a bit scared, but gradually they realized these strangers ant no harm and began to worry less.

Although they could not speak the sa language, a few gestures made their intentions clear.

For example, even monkeys would understand the gesture—’I want to exchange "this" for "that."’

Speaking of which, there was an interesting episode.

Combining observing with the posts and comnts on the official website, Chu Guang noticed a fascinating phenonon.

These players were actually very bright.

Having realized that Wasteland OL had created a language, they quickly mastered the two basic nouns "you" and "I."

Then, words like "hyena," "jerky," "wood," "prey," "fish," high-frequency words that frequently appeared in missions, were not difficult to learn.

So veteran players, when hearing NPCs ntion them, could roughly guess what the NPCs were trying to express.

As for the more difficult verbs, less frequently used adjectives, and specialized grammatical particles used in certain contexts, these were actually not commonly needed in everyday communication. Moreover, the linguistic connoisseurs among the players had not reached a consensus on how to precisely translate so of the pronunciations.

In truth, mastering a foreign language is a lengthy process, not sothing that could be achieved by a "big shot" writing a few papers out of thin air.

Especially systematic mastery, which normally requires long-term contact and communication between two civilizations, reaching consensus on certain objective things, actions, and even deeper philosophical concepts.

The more advanced a civilization is in material and spiritual culture, the broader its vocabulary and the more versatile its grammar.

Their language might even contain many nouns, verbs, and adjectives unknown to lower-level civilizations, thus making deciphering even more challenging.

However, just for everyday communication, it wasn’t as difficult as one might imagine.

Maybe in a few years or even a decade, players might actually be able to converse with the indigenous people effortlessly without the help of translation tools... only if soone is so bored that they’d rather learn the language of the ga instead of taking the CET-4 or CET-6.

Chu Guang hadn’t yet decided whether to give them a helping hand and settled on observing during the closed beta phase before making a decision.

After understanding the players’ intent to trade, these vagabonds also took out their valuable goods.

They had dried at, which included hunted hyena at and slaughtered beef and cal at.

In addition, they had various animal furs and their own handmade slingshots, scabbards, and other leather goods.

However, what surprised the players the most was that these indigenous people actually had such good things as cow’s milk and cal milk!

Unlocking two recipes at the sa ti was too thrilling!

"Guys! We can trade for furs with these people! And there’s cow’s milk and cal milk!"

"Three kilograms of ram’s horn potatoes can be traded for one kilogram of dried hyena at!"

"Three kilograms of ram’s horn potatoes for just 3 silver coins... Holy shit?! That ans 1 kilogram of dried hyena at can be traded for just 3 silver coins! If you buy it from an NPC’s warehouse, 3 silver coins can only buy 600g, right?!"

"Trade for hyena at? Have you not had enough? Damn it, I haven’t even eaten cal at in real life. Let go to the warehouse to exchange so stuff and try a couple of pieces!"

"How many points is this jug of cal milk worth... Slls so strong, can it be drunk?"

"Alpha0.5 version rocks! Planning Daddy is unbeatable!!!"

"These indigenous people also sell leather goods and ironware! But... the quality doesn’t seem too great."

The indigenous people were clueless as they watched these Blue Jackets.

Even though they couldn’t understand what they were saying, they seed very excited.

In that case, it might not be a problem to charge a little more...

...

The players quickly spread the news to the official website.

Without waiting long, Brother Fang Chang, who never disappoints, summarized a strategy guide.

Trading coarse salt for dried at was the most cost-effective, as 100 grams of coarse salt could be exchanged for one kilogram of dried hyena at.

The forr costs only 2 silver coins at an NPC’s warehouse, while the latter costs 5 silver coins to buy!

However, this thod was only practical for stocking up on supplies, not for making money.

Firstly, the buying and selling prices in NPC warehouses were different, and the price difference for the sa item could be as much as 1:10.

The dried at you exchanged could either be consud personally or sold to other players at a lower price, but it was impossible to sell in bulk to the warehouse for cash.

Selling to other players was also impractical; once the news spread, there’d be no information advantage, and making money from it naturally beca impossible.

Who would want to be the sucker?

Another impractical reason was that in-ga prices were influenced by supply and demand.

Not long after Elder Fang Chang’s post went up, the "bug" for stocking up on supplies was fixed by an invisible hand.

Later, players who took 100 grams of coarse salt hoping to trade with those distant indigenous people for at found that they simply refused.

They no longer lacked salt; satisfying hunger was their primary need. As for cal milk and cow’s milk, they needed to save so to feed the babies in their village—they were not selling it for now.

The only things left for trade were so furs, leather goods, and so nice-looking trinkets without any attribute bonuses.

Players didn’t have a lot of silver coins in their pockets to splurge, and besides, the indigenous peoples’ leather goods and clothes were not as nice-looking as those from Vine Cottage.

Appearance is more important for "skins" without added attributes!

Just like that, the burgeoning trade craze ca to a temporary close.