Chapter 13 “Blue Angel”
Chapter 13 “Blue Angel”
Chu Guang tied the seal of the plastic bag tightly and continued.
”You should be thankful that you didn’t go any further inside. This kind of mushroom usually grows near the nest of mutant leeches.”
Ye Shi was stunned.
”Mutated leeches?”
Chu Guang said casually.
”Well, the mutant leeches in their infancy are only as big as a palm. Apart from the special mouthparts, they look no different from normal leeches.”
”However, once they enter adulthood, their size will quickly increase to more than 1 meter, and even up to 3 meters. Their eating habits will also change. I heard that they can even swallow a living person in one bite… Of course, I just heard it.”
After listening to the manager’s narration, Ye Shi felt a chill all over his body.
He said that he felt something was wrong when he was picking mushrooms, but he couldn’t tell what was wrong. In this way, he had slipped a corner at the gate of hell.
”Can’t eat it?” Kuangfeng’s face was full of regret. Looking at the mushrooms that Chu Guang had put away, he muttered, “I thought it could add buffs.”
”Don’t think too much.”
There are not so many buffs.
There was one thing Chu Guang didn’t say.
Although this thing can’t be eaten, it is the main raw material for making radiation neutralizers.
Chu Guang didn’t know the specific principle either. He also heard about it from Old Charlie on Beth Street.
Blue parasol mushrooms contain a special polypeptide substance that can effectively alleviate and heal non-lethal damage caused by gamma rays.
The caravans in Boulder City will purchase this thing, and the price offered is not low. It is usually transported to Boulder City and sold to the factories there.
But this thing is really hard to get. Few scavengers are willing to risk their lives to search for mutant leech nests in swamps, subways, and sewers.
It’s one thing to be hard to find.
It’s another thing to find it but not be able to bring it back alive.
Even if life is forced, no one wants to deal with these tentacles that eat people without leaving any bones…
I didn’t expect that there was a nest of mutant leeches so close.
Chu Guang was in a mixed mood.
He was happy that the blue umbrella mushroom could be sold for a lot of money, but he was worried that the mutant leeches were not easy to deal with.
Sprinkle salt?
Where can I get hundreds of kilograms of salt? It’s better to sell salt directly.
Set fire?
This thing usually lives in humid areas and is really not that easy to light.
”Do you remember the specific location of the sewer entrance?”
Facing the manager’s inquiry, Kuangfeng quickly took out the map and pointed to the marked location on it.
”It’s here.”
Chu Guang glanced at the location on the map and silently memorized it.
”I know.”
…
The blue umbrella mushrooms that Kuangfeng and Ye Shi brought back were estimated to be 2 kilograms. Generally, 50g can be exchanged for a few chips.
2000g is 40 chips!
This is almost equivalent to all the savings Chu Guang has accumulated in the past five months.
And this is the price offered by the recycling station on Bet Street.
The actual value of this thing is at least twice this number!
Chu Guang plans to sell all these mushrooms and use the chips he gets to buy the supplies that the outpost urgently needs.
”The outpost needs to replenish its supplies. I’m going to go out for a while. You stay here and remember not to go too far.”
”At 5 pm, Xiaoqi will open the elevator for you on time and return to the shelter.”
”When I’m away, Xiaoqi will count your work results. You can also ask it if you don’t understand something.”
As for the 2 kilograms of blue umbrella mushrooms, Chu Guang gave Kuangfeng and Ye Shi a total of 220 contribution points.
200 of them were for discovering the nest of mutant leeches, and the other 20 were for blue umbrella mushrooms.
It’s not that he was stingy to give only this much, but he was afraid that if he gave too much, these players would get a taste of the sweetness and take the risk to pick this thing and accidentally die in it.
Before finding a generator that can power the “active substance extractor”, he felt that it would be better to be cautious.
Lunch was green wheat porridge. Although
it’s called porridge, Chu Guang thinks it’s a bit like mung bean soup without sweetness.
This thing has no taste at all, it’s just for filling the stomach.
But what surprised Chu Guang was that the four players ate it voraciously, like starving ghosts reincarnated. Is
it so delicious?
Chu Guang began to doubt his cooking skills.
Am I actually good at cooking?
It shouldn’t be…
He quickly finished the meal.
Putting away the pots and pans, Chu Guang put out the fire and set off alone. There were only four players left in the sanatorium, and an AI robot hanging upstairs.
Fang Chang stared at the task board inserted at the door of the sanatorium and fell into deep thought.
Ye Shi asked from the side.
”What are you looking at?”
Fang Chang said.
”Judging from the attitude of the manager, this blue umbrella mushroom should not be useless, but the reward for the task is only 20 contribution points, which is equivalent to cutting down two trees… Do you think this is reasonable?”
Ye Shi was stunned.
”Any questions?”
Fang Chang said.
”Of course there is. Normally, the benefits players get from a mission should be positively correlated with the difficulty of the mission. Not only have you unlocked a new dungeon, but you have also collected high-value materials. It is not reasonable to say that there is only this little reward.”
Kuang Feng pondered.
”Then why do you think it is.”
Fang Chang snapped his fingers.
”Priority!”
”Priority?” Ye Shi was stunned.
”That’s right.” Fang Chang nodded, “Do you remember what the manager said in the previous plot? The first priority at present is survival!”
Is there?
It seems so.
Ye Shi didn’t listen too carefully. In most games, he didn’t read the plot and just Ctrl+Shifted past it. Although this game can’t Ctrl+Shift, it doesn’t make any difference if you are distracted for a few minutes.
Fang Chang continued.
”…So I guess that the tasks on the task board are not all the tasks. This game gives us a lot of autonomy. Tasks can not only be issued by NPCs, but also be triggered actively.”
Kuangfeng frowned.
”Reason?”
”Haven’t you received the reward?” Fang Chang said, “Although we didn’t find the generator, we found the alien nest and collected valuable materials.”
”So I judge that as long as our behavior meets the current needs of Shelter No. 404, we can get contribution points. And the value of the reward is positively correlated with the value created by our behavior!”
”For example, building a cesspool and toilet is a task issued by the manager after adopting our opinions. Lao Bai and I both received a reward of 200 contribution points.”
Lao Bai nodded.
”It seems to be like this.”
”I roughly understand what you mean,” Kuangfeng said, touching his chin, “but can’t you get contribution points for completing the tasks on the task board?”
And the points are not low.
”This is the second point I want to say,” Fang Chang showed a mysterious smile on his face, “Do you still remember the favorability setting that the planner told us?”
Kuangfeng’s face floated with a trace of realization.
”I see… I understand what you mean.”
Ye Shi and Lao Bai were still confused.
”What do you understand?”
”Explain yourself clearly!”
Fang Chang said slowly.
”In simple terms, although we can get a fixed guaranteed reward by completing the fixed tasks on the task board step by step, we cannot show our ability. In contrast, actively triggering tasks can better reflect our own abilities! In theory, it should be able to improve the managers’ evaluation of us.”
Of course, these speculations are based on the fact that Wasteland OL is a “completely real” immersive virtual reality game, and the behavior of managers is dominated by program logic, not artificial settings.
If his intelligence is not as high as imagined, this inference may not be true.
However, at present, the manager’s intelligence is still quite high, and there is no problem with normal communication. He even couldn’t help but wonder if this guy was played by a real person.
After understanding Fang Chang’s explanation, Lao Bai touched the stubble on his chin and nodded.
”This idea is interesting and worth a try… Then what do you think we should do?”
”I’m still trying to figure out how to do it, but my intuition tells me that compared to contribution points, it’s more important to accumulate more NPC favorability before the second round of closed beta testing. This can ensure that we have a higher ‘starting point’ than other players in the second round of closed beta testing.”
After a pause, Fang Chang snapped his fingers.
”I propose to form a team!”
”Teaming up means…” Ye Shi asked in confusion.
Lao Bai nodded.
”I have no objection.”
Kuang Feng also nodded.
”I agree too.”
Ye Shi was stunned.
”I have no objection either, but can you explain the details of the team to me?”
Fang Chang explained patiently.
”In short, from now on we are a team, everyone shares intelligence and helps each other. Then, what we have to do is to play to our respective strengths.”
Fang Chang looked at Kuang Feng and Ye Shi and continued.
”Kuangfeng, Yeshi, you guys scout along the lakeshore of the wetland park, pay attention to the distribution of alien species, their activity tracks, and mark any suspected nests… But remember, don’t get too close, especially to avoid fighting. We need a safe water point.”
Kuangfeng nodded.
”Okay.”
Then, Fang Chang looked at Lao Bai.
”As for us, what we need to do now is to chop more wood.”
”I’ll log off in a while, I’ll go online to look up some information, and tomorrow I’ll find a way to use all the wood I’ve stockpiled!”
(End of this chapter)
