Chapter 290 “Awakening Serum”!

  Chapter 290 “Awakening Serum”!

  The red brick house next to the outpost guard station.

  When the wave broke out before, in order to deal with the plague caused by the decay of corpses, this place was used as a temporary relief station and temporarily took in nearby residents with fever symptoms.

  After the wave ended, the problems of plague and spore cloud were solved, and this place naturally became a health center for local residents.

  Most of the medical staff currently working here are temporary workers trained by Heya, mainly recruited from literate refugees. On the one hand, they cooperate with Heya to conduct some necessary experiments on the wastelanders, and on the other hand, they are also responsible for medical rescue.

  If these medical staff are evaluated according to the standards of the People’s Union, they are obviously not professional, and some are not even quacks. They just watched one or two online courses with VM and started working.

  But even so, they know how to bandage and stop bleeding, which is much better than those tribal witch doctors who use folk remedies to treat diseases.

  The requirements of wasteland people for doctors are usually very low.

  Not to mention curing, it’s good enough to ensure that they don’t die.

  There were more than fifty wooden single beds in the spacious room, and now it was full of people.

  These people were the backbone of the guards, many of them were veterans who had experienced more than two battles, and some of them had even been following Chu Guang for several versions.

  The reason why they were lying here was certainly not because of injury or illness, but because they volunteered to participate in the experiment of the medical laboratory of Shelter No. 404 and were injected with induced expression serum.

  Nurses in white coats walked around, asking everyone about their clinical reactions and recording key information and characteristics on the VM.

  ”Clinical studies have shown that there is a greater probability of awakening between the ages of 15 and 30, and the probability of awakening will gradually decrease thereafter… These induced differentiation serums have answered many of my confusions.” Standing next to Chu Guang, He Ya, as before, handed a tablet to Chu Guang, and talked about her findings with a beaming face.

  Chu Guang, as before, could not understand her thesis and those colorful charts, but he still politely browsed the contents on the tablet and got straight to the point.

  ”I’m not interested in those too professional things. You can just tell me the conclusion, such as what the specific probability is.”

  Heya: “The probability of the first shot is 27%, the probability of the second shot is 15%, the probability of the third shot is 9%, and the probability of the fourth shot is 3%… Of course, this is just a theoretical estimate, which is different from the statistical probability. There are too few samples in the experiment now, and there are too many uncertainties in the selective expression of genes. I can’t give you an absolutely accurate data.” If

  the first shot can’t awaken, can you still get the second shot?

  Chu Guang showed a slightly surprised expression on his face.

  ”What about the side effects?”

  Heya: “After the injection, the fever will continue for 2 to 3 days, accompanied by symptoms such as muscle weakness and drowsiness, but it is generally safe. As for other side effects… In addition to making it more difficult to give birth to offspring, other side effects have not been found yet, but it is not ruled out that there will be in the future, so I don’t recommend you to promote it on a large scale throughout the society. After all, I have never heard of this thing in the Prosperous Era. I think it is probably a semi-finished product that the researchers themselves can’t make up their minds about.”

  Chu Guang coughed lightly.

  ”I know this without you telling me.”

  The production of induced expression serum is very small, only about 20 units a day, and it seems that it can only be produced through black boxes at present.

  Considering that the cold fusion battery used in the black box is a non-renewable resource, the hidden cost of this injection is probably much more expensive than it actually looks.

  Whether it is from the perspective of output, production cost, or deeper social level, this serum is not suitable for large-scale promotion.

  ”By the way, what about the residents of the shelter? Are there any reactions after the injection?”

  Chu Guang remembered that the first experimenter to be injected with the reagent seemed to be the lucky player who won the special prize in the celebration event. Among them, some have not awakened yet, and some have already awakened, a total of twenty people.

  After all, the players can be resurrected, and even if there is a problem, they can explain it with “Sorry, the server is buggy”, and at most give some compensation later.

  The closed beta server has compensation, which is already the conscience of the industry!

  Heya: “According to clinical observation, the effect of this serum on the first batch of experimenters is very limited, so limited that it can even be ignored.”

  ”Personally, I speculate that this may be related to the special nature of the DNA of the residents of your shelter. The expression level of your DNA is very high, and there is a stable and rigorous evolutionary route… This is also what I am most curious about.”

  After listening to Heya’s statement, Chu Guang nodded thoughtfully.

  He tried to understand it.

  The effect of this induced expression serum is probably similar to a catalyst, allowing people who have the potential to awaken to awaken faster, but it has almost no effect on people who have already awakened. The

  clones produced by Shelter No. 404 are extremely special. Since they use genes that have been specifically enhanced, their compatibility with this serum is very low.

  Simply put, this serum is mainly used to enhance the physical functions of the natives, but this enhancement is quite random.

  Some people feel that their strength has increased, some people just feel that their reaction speed has increased, or both, but neither is strong.

  ”Understood.”

  Chu Guang returned the tablet in his hand to Heya, walked into the ward, and came to the bed closest to the door.

  A young boy was lying there, staring at the ceiling, as if in a daze.

  Chu Guang recognized this man, a 14-year-old boy who had been following the Blood Hand Clan since he was rescued from their dungeon. He was also the youngest member of the guard team.

  If he were in the civilized society before he traveled through time, this young man who hadn’t even grown all his hair would probably not even be old enough for a male high school student.

  But in this wasteland world where human life is worthless, many of his peers are already fathers.

  ”How do you feel?”

  Hearing the voice from the side, the boy twisted his neck, and when he saw Chu Guang’s face, his confused eyes suddenly cleared up.

  ”Mr. Administrator?! Why are you here?”

  Hearing this voice, the other people in the ward also cast surprised glances in this direction.

  Lu Bei was surprised and wanted to get out of bed, but was stopped by Chu Guang.

  ”No need to be so solemn, just tell me how you feel.”

  After saying this, Chu Guang glanced at the other people in the ward, indicating that they didn’t need to care about him, and then continued to look at Lu Bei.

  Seeing the manager who came to visit him, Lu Bei’s face flushed with excitement, and he said in high spirits.

  ”Sir, I feel great now!”

  Chu Guang nodded, looking at him resting in bed and said seriously.

  ”Thank you for your contribution to the new alliance. If you have any physical discomfort in the future, the alliance will take care of you for the rest of your life.”

  Sitting on the bed, Lu Bei nodded slightly.

  ”Please don’t say that. It’s my honor to share your worries! What’s more, I feel that I am much stronger now than before! If I face the predators again… I will definitely not be as embarrassed as before.”

  The sneak attack on New Year’s Eve caused heavy losses to the guard team, and he also lost his old friend who had always taken good care of him in that battle.

  Chu Guang put his hand on his shoulder, patted it gently, and comforted him.

  ”You have done very well, don’t be too hard on yourself. And even if you gain stronger abilities, remember that you can’t take it lightly, let alone use it to do evil.”

  After a pause, Chu Guang continued.

  ”I plan to set up a special force, which is independent of the guard team, and its name is… the Guards. This team will be composed of awakened people. Are you willing to join?”

  Lu Bei straightened his back, clenched his right fist against his left chest, and said with a piercing look.

  ”I do! You saved my life. Even if you let me die, I will never frown!”

  Chu Guang looked at him and nodded gently, saying in a gentle voice.

  ”I will remember your loyalty.”

  ”Rest well now.”

  The first batch of serum was injected. Among the fifty participants, only sixteen were awakened.

  The remaining thirty-four unawakened people still have three injection opportunities. It is up to them to decide whether to continue to participate in the experiment.

  But no one gave up.

  If there were no dosage limit for this opportunity to become stronger, they would have increased the dosage and finished four injections at once.

  Including the four experienced veterans selected from the awakened guards, Chu Guang planned to organize these twenty people into an independent corps.

  In fact, the idea of ​​assembling a corps composed entirely of awakened people was not something Chu Guang came up with temporarily, but he had a similar plan long before unlocking the beta version.

  Although awakening is rare in the wasteland, it is by no means rare. Before obtaining the serum, there were naturally more than a dozen awakened people in the guards.

  However, the awakened ones are different from the players who have awakened by accumulating development progress. Most of the awakened abilities have no regularity, and the quality is relatively average. It is rare for them to specialize in a certain attribute growth like players.

  But one thing is certain: the awakened ones have naturally stronger combat power and battlefield survival ability than ordinary people.

  Equivalent to super soldiers!

  Chu Guang plans to select the most loyal warriors from the guards, inject them with serum, equip them with 10 sets of “heavy cavalry” exoskeletons, 100 sets of light cavalry exoskeletons, and matching small drones – equivalent to half of the equipment on the B4 floor, to form a “Guards Corps” composed of wastelander awakeners!

  As for the other half of the equipment on the B4 floor, Chu Guang put it in the NPC store and asked Boss Xia to help sell it to players who meet the level requirements.

  Chu Guang will try to control the size of this guards corps between 100 and 120 people, which is equivalent to the strength of a company.

  As the standing force of the new alliance, they will assume different responsibilities from the players on the battlefield and be responsible for handling tasks that players are not convenient to participate in or are not interested in participating in.

  For this army, Chu Guang has only one requirement.

  That is loyalty!

  In addition to the Guards, Chu Guang also plans to establish the First and Second Corps of the New Alliance.

  Currently, the commander of the First Corps is Wrench, and the commander of the Second Corps is Liu Ding. Most of the grassroots officers are veterans who have participated in more than two battles in the Guards and have received guidance and training from Vanus.

  Not only NPCs can join, but players can also join.

  After all, not all players like the social content of MMORPGs. Many individual players like to do tasks and deal with NPCs to experience immersive role-playing. The existence of other sand sculpture players will affect his sense of game substitution.

  If you ask him to lead the team, he will feel annoyed.

  There are many such players in the server. Many players have reached level 5 in combat and shooting proficiency, but their command skill proficiency is still 0.

  Why?

  Because for players who don’t like to lead the team, leading the team is really annoying.

  Just remembering every ID in the team is not easy enough, not to mention building a good relationship with everyone and letting everyone in the team do their own things.

  In addition to the obligations and responsibilities of the standing troops, the First and Second Corps also have the obligation to absorb individual players and newcomers.

  Just as Chu Guang visited the ward and comforted the experimenters who had been injected with the “awakening serum”, twenty fully armed players had arrived at the eastern district of Qingquan City.

  They were divided into two teams of ten, all of whom were awakened.

  A military operation jointly planned by the Burning Corps and the Jungle Corps was quietly opening…

  …

  In the dark room, the broken floor was covered with moss, two animal skin coats were hung in the half-open iron cabinet, and a yellowed booklet was thrown in the corner – it read “Guide to Visitors of the Third Ecological Protection Park in Qingquan City”.

  This is the security room of the Third Ecological Protection Park in Qingquan City, but there have been no tourists here for a long time, and there are no security guards, only a group of predators who have occupied the nest.

  The radio on the table played pre-war classical music broadcast by “The Voice of Boulder City”.

  Sitting behind the table with his legs crossed, Tus lazily lit a cigarette, looked at the curling smoke, and squinted slightly.

  He couldn’t remember how long he had been enjoying such a relaxing life. Maybe it was ten years, maybe it was more than ten years.

  He used to keep a diary, but he couldn’t remember the two words clearly. He gave up after trying several times.

  At this time, footsteps were heard outside the door.

  Tus skillfully opened the drawer where the revolver was placed. His eyebrows relaxed slightly when he saw that it was his confidant who appeared at the door.

  But he didn’t put the drawer back.

  ”Boss, the goods for the next transaction are ready.” The man in the animal skin coat lowered his head slightly. His knotted muscles looked strong, but his face didn’t look very smart.

  Hearing that the goods were ready, Tus’s squinting eyes opened slightly, and his legs that were crossed on the table also fell down.

  ”Take me over to have a look.”

  The strong man nodded respectfully.

  ”Okay, boss.”

  The two of them walked through the corridor one after the other and came downstairs.

  There is a circular corridor here. The center of the corridor is as big as a playground. The fiberglass wall connects the floor and the ceiling, completely isolating the space inside from the outside world.

  In the pre-war era, this place was home to rare animals that children loved, but now it is used by local plunderers as a prison to hold slaves.

  Workbenches were placed on the open ground. Skinny and naked slaves sat in front of the workbenches. The most expensive equipment on them was probably two latex gloves.

  With their reed-like hands, they picked up a bunch of red fungus blocks from the wooden frame beside them, put them in the culture dish, and carefully separated the effective ingredients, fearing that they would make a mistake.

  The predators holding iron pipe rifles stood by, watching them with a covetous look.

  It is worth mentioning that the red fungus blocks in the hands of these slaves are not mutant slime molds. There is no relationship between the two.

  The red mycelium, which is as thick as a thumb, is tangled like noodles. Because it looks like brain flower at first glance, it is called brain fungus or brain mushroom by the wastelanders.

  This kind of fungus block usually grows under some trees with high iron content, and because it releases red spores with extremely strong hallucinogenic effects when picked, it is difficult to cultivate artificially. This also leads to the high price of drugs with stimulant properties such as “Da Li Wan” and “Jiang Qiang Ling” that use brain fungus as raw materials.

  But the interesting thing is that this red spore has a slight effect on the ironback ape, so it is occasionally eaten by the ironback ape as fruit.

  Thanks to the blue jackets who were stationed here before, and thanks to their good thing called “psychic interference field”, Tus made a lot of money by using the monkeys outside.

  Those monkeys are much easier to use than slaves. Not only can they help him collect materials for making medicines, but they can also help him collect money everywhere. The only disadvantage is that they are not very smart. Using bows and arrows, spears and Molotov cocktails is already the limit they can accept.

  Otherwise, he would not have to keep the slaves in the cages. He could just let the monkeys prepare medicines and save two barrels of nutritional paste every day.

  Tus’s men took boxes of small white medicine bottles out of the “cage”, leaving only two barrels full of green mucus, and knocked them with the butts of their guns.

  The clanging sound was like some kind of signal.

  The slaves who heard this sound rushed to the two iron barrels like hungry mad dogs, grabbing the nutritional paste of unknown ingredients with their hands and stuffing them into their mouths.

  The two looters guarding the entrance looked at the slaves who were snatching food like pigs with a sarcastic expression and closed the door of the “cage”.

  As the leader or boss of this group of looters, Tus had no interest in the slaves. His attention was all on the ten boxes in front of him.

  Ten boxes of “power pills”, a total of fifty kilograms of goods.

  Not only mercenaries like to take advantage of these things, but also the nobles in the inner city of Boulder City consume a lot of them. After all, their effects are immediate, not only can they make people stronger in battle, but also outside of battle.

  As for the side effects.

  It’s just bloodshot eyes. As long as you don’t eat a bottle at a time, there’s no need to worry about any major problems.

  ”…The Dagger Gang in Boulder City is very interested in our goods. They are willing to pay us three thousand chips.” The man with an artificial eye in his left eye socket looked at Tus and bowed respectfully.

  His name is Kunke, and he is also a fan of power pills, but since his eyeball exploded, he has given up this thing.

  After hearing the Dagger Gang’s offer, Tus cursed angrily.

  ”These vampires who are asking for sky-high prices are really getting more and more outrageous! Don’t think I don’t know that a 1.2g pill can be sold for 10 chips!”

  ”Tell them that 100 chips per kilogram is the bottom line, and 5,000 chips cannot be less! If they don’t want it, we will find someone else. Also, in addition to women, food, sugar, soap and nutritional cream, let them bring more guns next time they trade, and don’t think of using those iron pipes to fool me.” A

  new alliance was suddenly established in the north.

  Tus didn’t care much at first, after all, Qingquan City is so big, and the straight-line distance from the east bank of Linghu Lake is more than 20 kilometers, and these 20 kilometers may be more difficult to walk than the mountain road.

  His base is hidden in the “deep mountains and old forests”. When ordinary wastelanders see such dense vegetation here, their first reaction is to go around it, and they will never think of drilling in.

  That’s why he didn’t worry when the Bone Chewing Tribe attacked him. At worst, he could just join them.

  However, recently, he heard that Brown Farm was annexed and a group of people were clamoring to abolish slavery and expel the looters, which made Tus feel a little uneasy.

  Abolish slavery?

  Expel looters?

  Are these people bored?

  And how do they know who the looters are?

  Especially yesterday, five uninvited guests came outside. His men reported to him that those people were wearing two sets of exoskeletons, which made Tus even more alert.

  Maybe these people came from the northern suburbs!

  Considering that he might fight with those blue coats with brain problems in the future, he felt that he couldn’t always take care of taking his men to have fun together, and he had to consider stockpiling some weapons for self-protection.

  If conditions permit, he even considered equipping those monkeys with some guns.

  Kunko nodded seriously.

  ”Okay, boss.”

  Looking at Kunko walking out the door, Tus’s brows relaxed slightly, and he picked up a bottle of powerful pills from the box and stuffed it into his pocket, preparing to go back to the bedroom to rest for a while.

  However, at this moment, there was a loud explosion outside, and the walls and the ground were shaking. The

  slaves who were scrambling in front of the iron barrel to grab food raised their heads and looked around in horror. The plunderers guarding the door of the cage also had nervous expressions on their faces and clenched their rifles.

  Holding the handrail of the corridor to stand firm, Tus looked around angrily, grabbed his confidant and shouted.

  ”What happened?”

  The confidant was also confused.

  On the one hand, he was shocked by the explosion, and on the other hand, he was yelled at by the boss.

  ”I, I’ll go outside to see.”

  ”Go!”

  Tus kicked him in the butt and rushed upstairs cursing.

  The explosion seemed to have opened the prelude to the performance.

  Explosions rang out one after another around the Ecological Protection Park, and the trembling of the floor climbed from the soles of his shoes to his liver.

  Even if he was stupid, Tus knew what was happening outside.

  Back in the security room that he used as an office, he grabbed the intercom on the table, turned on the switch and shouted loudly.

  ”Enemy attack!”

  ”I don’t care where you are now or what you are doing, immediately pick up your weapons and get out of your room and prepare for battle!”

  ”We must not let them take our treasures!”

  ”Never!”

  The corridor of the Ecological Protection Park was filled with harsh broadcasts.

  The confidant who was sent outside to gather intelligence had just pushed open the iron door of the rooftop when a shell whizzed into the forest a hundred meters away.

  Boom!

  Fire flickered, and thick smoke and rubble billowed.

  Frightened by the explosion, the predator ducked his head and trotted forward, following the curved railings, and finally touched the tower made of wood and steel. The

  entire dome-shaped ecological park was covered with vegetation, and the tower hidden here was as inconspicuous as a branch in the woods.

  The predator rushed up and was about to scold the scouts on guard, but found that behind the vine-woven cover, there was only a corpse with a hole in the head.

  His hands and feet were cold, and cold sweat dripped from his forehead in an instant.

  He was about to turn back with his hair standing on end, but his chest felt like it had hit a truck and he was pressed to the ground by the huge kinetic energy.

  ”Two… Shi! Brother Fang really guessed it right.” Ye Shi, who was lying on the roof of the half-collapsed building, pulled the bolt and ejected the smoking shell.

  ”Well… it’s not entirely a guess,” Fang Chang, holding a telescope in his hand, carefully observed the building in front and analyzed, “If it’s just bows and arrows and steel bars, it’s fine. Those monkeys even have Molotov cocktails. The cocktails can be picked up, but the fuel can’t be made by those monkeys themselves.”

  Lao Bai also nodded.

  ”Well, and those monkeys are obviously only active in the forest, but they suddenly took action when we approached the ecological park. There is always a sense of deliberateness.”

  Kuangfeng didn’t speak. He controlled the drone to help the players in charge of firing the cannon behind to correct the coordinates.

  Because the vegetation below was too dense and the specific location of the iron-backed ape could not be determined, they chose the tactic of spreading the barrage.

  Sixteen rounds of salvos ended.

  A total of thirty-two 88mm mortar shells were all used up.

  The player in charge of firing the cannon hid the mortar in the building next to it, changed his equipment and prepared to go to the front line.

  At the same time, the roar of propellers came from the sky, and a wooden plane with wings spread appeared in the players’ field of vision.

  ”Mosquito! Damn! The mosquito is finally here.”

  Quitting excitedly waved his hand towards the sky.

  Seeing his teammates, Mosquito smiled and gave a thumbs up, then pulled up his homemade goggles, held the joystick with both hands to raise the nose of the plane, so that it would be convenient for diving and strafing later.

  Midnight Killing Chicken said nothing more, and showed off his shiny one-handed axe and a gun with a barrel thicker than his fist, calling on his brothers to prepare for battle.

  All members of the Jungle Corps were equipped with cheap and easy-to-use KV-1 exoskeletons. Except for the leader Midnight Killing Chicken, almost everyone had an LD-47 light machine gun, and each of them looked like Rambo.

  The Burning Corps had a mix of multiple arms, including heavy infantry that served as mobile shelters and ammunition boxes, highly mobile light infantry, and even non-human players.

  Players like Fang Chang and Kuangfeng, who were good at using personalized equipment, also brought the Pu-9 submachine gun for “fighting against people” this time, ready to sweep the building.

  Garbage King excitedly whipped the ground with his tail, and the steel claws tied to his arms flashed coldly.

  The amber pupils contracted, and a bloodthirsty roar came from the open fangs.

  ”It’s time to kill!”

  (End of this chapter)