"F*ck ," he cursed.
"Let the bastards get away."
Standing on the edge of the forest to the northeast of Elm District, Chu Guang held binoculars in his hands and gazed at Far Creek Town hundreds of ters away, unable to help swearing under his breath.
A few days ago, the guard’s track vehicles were patrolling the entire "North Suburb", hunting six squads of a hundred. Three were exterminated, but more than half of the Looters had escaped.
Chu Guang guessed that a portion of the Looters had fled towards Lion Teeth, bringing the news of Black Snake’s defeat to them.
What he hadn’t expected was for these people to be so tenacious.
Instead of charging forward, they turned their heads and ran!
"They fight when they can and run when they can’t—quite the Looter style," Vanus, holding binoculars as well, observed for a while before continuing.
"...But these defense works are more like the style of an Army."
The Looters had reinforced the ruins with wood and dug trenches in the streets, setting up barricades and covers.
This place had been transford into a fortress.
On a three-story ruin, even an emplacent reinforced with sandbags and wood was visible.
The "concave" shooting holes suggested it was probably so kind of infantry cannon with a high arc of fire.
However, the cannon there had already been removed.
"You can tell they retreated in a hurry. They only managed to set fire to it...most of the defenses were left undestroyed."
Chu Guang put away the binoculars and lightly touched the side of his helt with his index finger.
"Squad 1, move forward."
"Roger that."
Liuding, standing 500 ters ahead, received the command and gestured to the players beside him.
After receiving the command, 5 squads of 10 mbers each imdiately advanced, entering the abandoned town from five different directions.
Wearing exoskeletons patched with steel plates, Old White carried an LD-47j light machine gun, his barrel circling around the windows at the street corners.
His back was even equipped with a two-ter-long Cavalry Gun, although at this close range, it likely wouldn’t be needed.
"It’s so quiet here."
"The Looters stationed here must have retreated," Fang Chang glanced at a human skull by the roadside and cautiously surveyed the surroundings, "This whole town doesn’t seem to have any living people."
Blood sars on the walls ford sinister graffiti, along with so twisted text and symbols.
It looked like the ritual of so evil religion.
Half-eaten corpses were tossed by the road, sordid refuse littered the streets, and there was a ss everywhere.
Night Ten swallowed his saliva.
The atmosphere here was so oppressive it made him feel suffocated.
He would rather have an upfront fight with the Looters than explore a place that made him feel physically uncomfortable.
"Damn, it feels like a horror ga..."
Wild Wind glanced around and nodded expressionlessly.
"Yeah, Resident Evil ets Silent Hill...a similar vibe."
It was too quiet around them.
Not a living person to be heard.
Not even a mouse could be seen.
The group continued along the route indicated on the VM, coordinating with other squads to search the outskirts of the town.
After confirming there were no Looters, they continued deeper along the main road, advancing to the center of the town.
There stood a bell tower with an open view around it, the tallest building in the town, probably used by the Looters as a command post or sothing similar.
Opening the wooden door of the bell tower, Old White, taking the lead, walked in but was quickly driven out by the stench inside.
"Motherf*cker..."
"What did you see?" Night Ten curiously approached.
"I advise you’re better off not looking."
But it was too late. Having passed through the door, Night Ten, holding onto the doorway, retched violently.
The hall of the bell tower was piled with corpses like a small hill.
The buzzing of flies was like a tsunami, dark creatures scurrying over the heap of bodies, and the hot breath that hit their faces carried the stench of rot. It seed as if all the cockroaches in the town had gathered here—so as big as a fist, and others larger than shoes...
Wild Wind peeked inside and was montarily stunned.
"This is just too..."
That visual impact.
Even with a filter, it sohow also carried a taint on the psyche.
It was simply like a nightmare.
"I feel like the public beta is an eternity away. If we don’t change the blood and corpses into green cubes, it’s going to be tough to wrap up," Gno King Riches said, smacking his lips.
Elena gave him a suggestive look.
"Confidence is key. Get rid of those feelings."
...
After an hour’s thorough search, it was pretty much confird that the thousand team stationed at Far Creek Town had evacuated.
Moreover, they had likely pulled out three days prior, with their destination being West State City to the direct north.
Before evacuating, the Looters executed all the slaves and sprinkled insect eggs on their bodies, burned the supplies they couldn’t carry with them, and even set fire to the defense works.
However, due to the lack of fuel, apart from the food being destroyed, most of the wooden shelters and roadblocks survived.
If left for another half a month, the entire town would probably beco a paradise for the Mutant Cockroaches and flies.
Those "little guys," although not strong in combat and unlikely to pose a direct threat to the Waste Land Wanderers, are quite adept at spreading disease and stealing supplies.
Clearly, Lion Tooth didn’t want this "fortress" to fall into the hands of the North Suburb survivors, so they tried to prevent their take-over with such thods.
Chu Guang ordered the players to set fire to the Bell Tower, incinerating the Variants and corpses inside.
It was nearly 30 kiloters from there to the Outpost Base, making the recovery of these bodies too difficult, and uneconomical in terms of the cost.
Two Active Substance Extractors had been operating for twenty-four hours straight, with production tasks backlogged from the beginning to the end of the month.
At least for a while, there was no need to worry about the issue of Resurrection Coins.
Standing at the northern entrance of Far Creek Town, Wrench unfolded a map in front of Chu Guang and marked several red crosses along the contour lines with a marker.
"...It’s nearly 20 kiloters from Far Creek Town to the southern edge of West State City. The entire route is covered by hills and forests. Although there are three pre-war era highways, they’re essentially abandoned. If they plan to move from the north towards us, their marching routes are quite limited."
"I suggest establishing a mobile operations base in Far Creek Town, erecting radio stations, and building sentry posts along the northern hills, with radios and communication devices to closely monitor any movents from the north!"
Chu Guang stared at the map for a while before looking toward those hills covered with forests to the north. The treetops loaded with snow ford a continuous expanse, and in the vast white snow, only a few abandoned high-voltage towers and so unidentified ruins could be seen.
The view there was excellent, and the surrounding terrain was open.
If they could establish a sentry post at the top of those hills, covering an area of five to even ten kiloters within sight shouldn’t be a problem.
The only worry was the Variants in the forest.
Creatures like Monsters, Potholing Beasts, Mutant Brown Bears, wild boars, apes and even the Claw of Death might lurk in the forest.
Each sentry post would have to deploy at least two machine guns and a 20mm cannon and also keep a couple of Iron Fist Rocket Launchers ready.
This should ensure the safety of the sentries.
Nodding slightly, Chu Guang said,
"This is a good suggestion. How many people do you think would be appropriate to station?"
After a mont of thought, Wrench replied,
"Three n should be ready at each sentry post, with shifts changing twice a day. 30 n should be enough!"
Chu Guang picked up the marker and added three more marks to the map, then handed the map back to Wrench.
"I’ll give you 50 n, and raise the number of posts from 5 to 8. Make sure to keep a tight watch over this area!"
"Report to promptly with any situations."
The work of standing guard could only be assigned to the defense team; players couldn’t possibly do such tedious work 24/7 for a whole week.
He himself played gas and could squat for a day for a boss, but couldn’t possibly squat forever.
However, it was feasible to issue so tasks related to Far Creek Town to divert a group of Hunters, Scavengers, Explorers, as well as players with lifestyle professions to be active in this area, with the number controlled between 20 to 90.
Combined with NPCs’ fixed posts, they should be able to ensure absolute security.
Wrench saluted with his hands clasped together,
"Yes!"
The plains of the River Valley Province are mainly concentrated at both the southern and northern ends, traversing east to west on the map in a strip-like pattern, serving as a traffic hub from the Eastern Provinces to the Western Provinces.
Like two corridors.
And the large area sandwiched between the two corridors is mostly dominated by hills and gentle slopes, with a few plains scattered throughout.
Pre-war cities were also mostly built on these plains, or at least centered around them, spreading along the contour lines towards the hills.
The survivors of Qingquan City mostly had it good, with a large part of that due to their location on the transit hub connecting east and west, where there are broad plains.
Unless there was heavy snow blocking the roads, there would usually be many comrcial teams passing through the northern or southern suburbs of Qingquan City, often carrying plenty of valuable goods.
Far Creek Town was located right at the northernmost edge of Elm District and also at the northernmost end of this southern corridor.
Crossing the hills to the north and continuing for over twenty kiloters, you’d arrive at West State City, which was under the control of the Ya Clan.
Whether to protect the farmland and Long Endurance Farm’s safety or to ensure the smooth flow of trade routes, it was essential to take control of Far Creek Town, this strategic location.
"If I were from the Chewing Bone Tribe, I would wait until autumn to make another trip," said Vanus, glancing northward as he stood beside Chu Guang.
"Should we consider deploying a 100mm cannon on the hillside that’s not part of the army? It’s not great against armor, but it can blast infantry or break tracks without much of a problem," Chu Guang remarked to him.
"I’ve been thinking about that, so how far can your army’s artillery shoot?" Vanus pondered for a mont before answering.
"The effective range is 11 kiloters, but sotis it can hit targets up to 13 kiloters. If it’s a rocket-assisted projectile, the range could double, but the batches of shells you seized all seem to be standard high-explosive bombs."
Previously, during the attack on the Pioneer vessel, the two howitzers he used were the army’s standard 100mm cannons, deployed in the forests of Elm District, hitting Long Endurance Farm over ten kiloters away.
However, those two cannons proved ineffective.
Not only were the vast majority of the shells intercepted by the higher-tech dot defense system, but they were later targeted by drones, and corporate employees dispatched them to heaven with two tallic hydrogen bombs.
However, it must be said that compared to the expensive and costly-to-maintain high-tech equipnt, these cheaper, more brutally effective large-caliber cannons were better suited for the Wasteland environnt.
After all, using sothing as valuable as tallic hydrogen to combat Looters was a waste.
It was like using a submachine gun to kill a cockroach.
After leaving Wrench, Liuding, and several other mbers of the guard team there, Chu Guang led the players back ho.
A whole winter spent exhausting troops and depleting resources had finally opened up room for developnt.
Now that spring had co, it was critical to start farming to avoid starvation.
Back at Shelter No. 404, Chu Guang first opened the shelter system and entered the Manager’s Allowance page to check his reward points.
Thanks to the players’ diligent work during this period, the reward points had significantly replenished since the expenditure during the recent festivals; there were now a total of 271 points.
"It’s ti for the enjoyable task of opening blind boxes."
After so careful consideration, Chu Guang selected 2 advanced blind boxes, 5 interdiate blind boxes, and 21 basic blind boxes.
Accompanied by a slight shake of the wall, the alloy door opened, and the rewards from the blind boxes ca out along the conveyor belt.
Looking at the items on the conveyor belt, Chu Guang’s face showed a surprised expression.
"What is this..."
It was a jet-black exoskeleton, with visible blue lines on its surface, vaguely resembling the Type Five Exoskeleton, but it was by no ans small, at least a size larger.
To make an inappropriate but illustrative comparison, if the Type Five Exoskeleton were compared to basketball attire, then this would be Arican football gear. Thick composite material plates hung in front of the chest, and scale-like armor pieces covered more than 90% of the body.
[Type Six "Heavy Cavalry" Police Exoskeleton: An improved model of the Type Five, it offers more robust bulletproof capabilities than the Type Five "Light Cavalry" Exoskeleton, not only resisting fire from light weapons but also providing certain protection against the shockwave and shrapnel damage from explosions.]
"This is sothing else."
Interested, Chu Guang donned the exoskeleton and flexed his limbs.
The power was likely supplied by a chemical battery such as azide or solid hydrogen, which would last about 24 hours under normal use conditions.
Compared to nuclear-powered armor, this gadget was more suitable for everyday wear; once the battery was depleted, it could be recharged rather than constantly searching for cold fusion cells.
As for the other advanced blind box, the reward was quite ordinary—an EMP grenade.
Of all the items that had co out of the advanced blind boxes so far, this was the least useful.
The items from the interdiate and basic blind boxes were decent, including two healing syringes, two boxes of bandages, a box of antibiotics, and a large quantity of canned goods, portable food, and seasonings.
"It’s a pity that no seeds ca out this ti."
Unlocking a few more high-yield crops would have been perfect!
After confirming the rewards, Chu Guang sat down in his office, turned on the computer, and logged onto the official website to browse.
The players today were as dedicated as ever.
The two managers at Factory No. 81 were having an intense discussion with the backseat drivers, debating whether to switch the 20mm machine gun to a 37mm rapid-fire cannon to increase the explosive effect of the shells.
Mosquito had drawn a diagram with a pencil that only he could understand, showing the new equipnt under developnt by Goblin Technology—a "Crab Chariot" armored with Rift Claw Crab Shells, powered by a wooden engine, and ard with an 88mm short-barrel mortar and a 20mm machine gun!
Although people teased that it might not withstand a tank blast, Mosquito insisted that this was the equipnt suited for the Wasteland.
"Where are so many steel supplies to make tanks! And we’re in the Wasteland, brothers, where are so many tanks for you to fight?"
"Clearly, we need a heavy-duty piece of equipnt that can quickly harvest soft targets and traverse rugged terrain. It doesn’t need heavy protection; as long as it can block bullets, that’s enough."
"The shell of the Rift Claw Crab fits this need perfectly! With eight chanical legs, it can traverse trenches, pits, and barricades like a spider, paving the way for our front-line troops and providing direct fire support! Even the Death Claw would have to scamper away like a reptile in the face of an 88mm mortar shell!"
Human Outline Chef: "Although I completely don’t understand, it sounds amazing."
Thunder Mage Professor Yang: "How do you plan to coordinate the movents of the eight chanical legs? And what if one of them breaks? In my opinion, it would be better to just use tracks or put on so big tires, like an off-road vehicle!"
WC Real Mosquito: "Heh, it’s none of your business! I have my ways!"
Highland Security: "You guys should hurry up and make that plane. Wouldn’t an airship with a piston-propeller be sweet? It can patrol, scout, and handle a few bandits with ease."
Siberian Giant Ivan: "Just go for an airship directly! Those things can drop tons and tons of dynamite!"
WC Real Mosquito: "MMP! Easy for you to say, why don’t you co in and try it!"
Toilet Summoner Arya: "But speaking of which, a wooden plane could be worth a try, I rember the Mosquito bombers were made out of wood and glue, even furniture factories could make them, only the engine, landing gear, and connecting parts were tal. It could carry 4000 pounds of ordnance, especially fast, comparable to the bf109, just a bit rough on the pilots."
Ward’s Athlete’s Foot Levin: "The old Russian Po-2 biplane was also a wooden plane, served for half a century."
Elena: "Charlie from Checker’s? (jesting)"
Watching these little gars exchange ssages, Chu Guang felt imnsely gratified.
Airplanes, ah.
Those are a great thing.
Building a runway at Changjiu Farm and flying to West State City should be no problem.
Then get so photos from the sky, figure out the troop deploynt of the Ya clan of the Chewing Bone Tribe in that area, and be prepared for the next attack.
Who knows, there might even be a chance to strike back.
But there’s no need to rush.
The most critical mont has passed, Shelter No. 404 had spent the entire winter deploying troops, now what’s needed most is developnt.
After entering February, there will be a wave of Comrcial Teams passing through Qingquan City, and the "Corporate Permanent Partnership" buff will soon co into play.
Before that, he needed to be fully prepared to seize this historic opportunity.
"With the food confiscated from Black Snake, we should be able to support an additional 300 people."
"Although it’s a month ahead of schedule, now is exactly when we need more hands."
"The shelter needs more life-profession players, especially those with real-world farming experience."
"It’s ti to release Alpha 1.0."
Selecting these players wouldn’t be difficult.
The number of pre-registrations was quickly nearing 100,000. To choose 300 players with labels such as "agriculture-related occupation or major," "farming inclination," "managent ga enthusiasts," "hardcore gars," was more than possible.
It’s not necessary for all 300 to obediently go farm.
That’s unrealistic and doesn’t fit the logic of the ga.
But if even 1/10 or 1/20 of them are like Old Maca, wishing they could stay in the fields 24/7, that would be enough for Chu Guang.
Ideally, these players would combine their real-world experiences to improve agricultural tools and planting techniques and bring them to the wasteland.
Now the industrial district could independently produce Pot Cal machines, and Mosquito is even starting to make Crab Battle Tanks, so it shouldn’t be too hard to make a couple of tractors before the spring plowing begins.
With so other cheap and effective tools, as long as they could handle 1/3 of the production tasks, they’d be a great help to the Manager.
After pondering for a mont, Chu Guang opened a text docunt and began editing.
[Alpha 1.0 Version Update Announcent!]
[Major Updates:
1. The number of closed beta testers increased to 1,100!
2. New professions such as "Farr" and "Operator" added, with comprehensive upgrades to the agriculture and business systems!]
[Optimizations:
1. More varied mission content: Ga content expanded to the area around Far Creek Town, with more variants available for hunting. However, please be careful, as Death Claws are roaming that area, and since there is full drop-on-death, low-level players should proceed with caution!
2. Richer NPC characters and traders with unique styles: After the ga ti enters February, there will be rchants from the Eastern and Western Provinces passing through Changjiu Farm.
3. A richer ecosystem: In the new version, players can capture variant cubs and dosticate wild animals to turn them into pets. They can be a great help, whether it’s searching for prey, hauling cargo, or ploughing fields... More gaplay is up to the players to discover.
4. Fixed a few bugs.
...
]
[New Expansion Pack: "To Forge Swords into Ploughshares" is now online!]
[B Round Testing will start after the expansion pack is unlocked, more new content, new maps, and elents await!]
-
(Sorry, Chapter Two isn’t finished... Only one Chapter for today... QAQ)
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