Chapter 45: The Red River Town that Does Not Produce Grain

What Chu Guang hadn't expected was that the ox back was carrying quite a few good things.

For example, the five "Rider" model revolver rifles placed on top.

This device had a 7mm caliber, with two simple rifling grooves inside the barrel, which could keep the bullet trajectory within fifty meters relatively stable.

Especially its simple spring-plate type action structure was not only easy to maintain but also quite reliable in combat, so one did not need to worry about incidents such as jams or misfires, as a light flick of the cylinder would allow shooting to continue.

If the barrel was removed, it could even be used as a pistol, though the accuracy would be left to fate.

Of course, what satisfied Chu Guang the most was the firing rate of this thing.

Although it was a semi-automatic design, as long as one could pull the trigger fast enough, firing six bullets in a short period to achieve a suppressing effect was not a problem at all!

One could say it was quite user-friendly.

As Chu Guang was pondering whether to pick a rifle as "compensation," his gaze suddenly fell on the sacks tied to the sides of the double-headed cow.

Upon opening one, it was stuffed full of coins.

These coins were either brass-colored or silver-white. It was uncertain what material they were made of, but they did not rust. The brass-colored coins were slightly smaller, and the silver-white ones were a bit larger, with denominations written as 1 and 10, corresponding to their values.

"Pre-war currency? No...

Chu Guang picked up a coin and flipped it over, quickly recognizing the line of small characters in United Human language printed on the back—

[Galaxy Arcade]

Well, now.

They were game currency.

"Where did you get these from?"

Chu Guang tossed the coin back into the sack and sized up the merchant surnamed Sun, asking with the nervous expression on his face.

Upon hearing Chu Guang's inquiry, Sun Shiqi answered honestly.

"I found these coins in the basement of an arcade, thinking they could be refined into some copper and steel, so I just packed them."

Commercial Teams rarely stopped to scavenge, usually dealing with local Scavengers, which benefited both parties and avoided potential conflicts.

But nothing was absolute, just as impoverished Mercenaries occasionally moonlighted as Looters to rob homes, cash-strapped merchants would naturally risk scavenging themselves.

Like the current merchant, who clearly hadn't been in the business for long, and the double-headed cow behind him might have been just recently purchased with pooled money.

"Is there any more there?" Chu Guang asked.

Sun Shiqi was stunned for a moment and then nodded subconsciously.

"There seem to be two more cabinets... with these sacks, you could probably fill four or five more."

"Very good, I want them all."

Chu Guang unloaded two sacks from the ox's back and said to Sun Shiqi,

"These two sacks and the coins inside will be your compensation to us. Next time you come here, remember to bring all the remaining coins. Let me think... for every hundred kilograms of coins, I'll give you four kilograms of dried meat. How about that?"

A hundred kilograms, roughly the amount in a single sack, could yield about thirty to forty thousand coins.

Doing business favors a slow and steady flow, so Chu Guang didn't want to fleece the man too harshly. Therefore, he picked out those two sacks, which he just so happened to have a use for.

And...

Since he was planning to let the man go, Chu Guang didn't want to appear too desperate for weapons.

Clearly taken aback by Chu Guang's interest in these junk items, Sun Shiqi's face was full of surprise, but he dared not let it show too much and hastily nodded his head, saying,

"No problem! As long as you need them, I'll make sure to bring them all next time!"

He didn't care what the man in front of him needed the coins for. Was it for sentimentality? Maybe another reason? These old popsicles were always hard to figure out.

He had originally planned to haul these coins to Giant Stone City to sell them as copper and steel, even though they weren't worth much in chips.

If he could use them to open up a market in a shelter, he couldn't think of this deal as a loss!

Besides, shedding some weight in advance would make his upcoming journey a bit easier.

Aside from those two sacks of coins, Chu Guang also kept the five revolvers he had taken an interest in earlier, and he also purchased 200 rounds of 7mm ammunition the merchant carried.

In exchange, he provided the traveling merchant with a total of 50 kilograms of smoked meat and 10 kilograms of smoked fish.

Although there were many misunderstandings during their initial encounter, overall, the result satisfied them both.

Chu Guang got what he wanted, and the merchant surnamed Sun got the trade rights and food he needed.

Residents of Qingquan City would find it hard to imagine the situation in Red River Town, even though the two places are less than a hundred kilometers apart, the ecological environment there is a completely different picture.

According to this merchant surnamed Sun, there was a large-scale chemical industry base and a landfill site in the area.

Because these facilities went unmaintained after the war, with storage leaking, this resulted in severe soil contamination, especially in terms of heavy metal content exceeding standards, extensive desertification, and hardpan, which nature has not completely restored even now.

Furthermore, due to the fragility of the ecosystem, the main Variants there consist of scavengers and arthropods.

This extreme situation has led the local survivors to have almost no arable land to utilize and made maintaining a living through hunting exceedingly difficult.

However, interestingly, the landfill site that had faced protests from the locals before the war, became the survivors' greatest asset in the two centuries following the nuclear conflict.

Nearly half a century's worth of garbage was buried there, much of which had not yet degraded.

In today's Wasteland Era, the landfill's contents have formed a type of "non-natural ore deposit," which has enabled the prosperity of the local mining, archaeology, and trade industries.

"But what do you eat?" After listening to Sun Shiqi's description, Chu Guang couldn't help asking, "Do you rely entirely on imports?"

The price of food must skyrocket to heaven!

"Of course, we can't rely entirely on imports. Although we lack reindeer and hyenas, there are many edible Mutant Moles and rats. Besides, we also catch some less dangerous insects to make protein extracts for feeding livestock or for making nutritional paste like this stuff."

As he spoke, Sun Shiqi took out a sealed glass jar from the package on the back of the Double-headed Cow, which was filled with a dark, jelly-like substance.

It looked a bit like turtle jelly.

Chu Guang had seen this stuff when he was going through the bundles earlier but hadn't understood what it was for, so he didn't pay it any mind.

He never expected it to be food.

"What is this made of?"

Sun Shiqi chuckled and said,

"Mutant Cockroach."

Chu Guang: "..."

Damn!

He felt he could never look at turtle jelly the same way again.

"Although it's extracted from the protein and fats of mutant cockroaches, after boiling, filtering, air-drying, grinding, soaking, and concentrating through several processes, this stuff actually has nothing to do with cockroaches anymore, it's all protein ... Want some?"

Chu Guang said with a poker face,

"No, thanks."

He'd rather starve than eat that stuff.

But...

Listening to this guy, the costs of this kind of food seemed pretty low?

Mutant cockroaches were common everywhere, and certainly, those in Qingquan City would have much less heavy metal content than those in Red River Town.

In a pinch, using this nutrient paste as emergency rations for the players didn't seem like a bad choice?

Chu Guang fell into a long contemplation about whether to go down this path.

However, just then, he suddenly thought of something else.

"You seem to know a lot about insects?"

Sun Shiqi immediately nodded.

"Of course, we deal with those things every day."

Chu Guang continued to inquire,

"Do you have a way to deal with leeches?"

"Leeches?" Sun Shiqi paused, "Are you talking about... those mutated leeches?"

"Yeah."

Seeing Chu Guang nod, Sun Shiqi pondered for a moment with a troubled expression.

"Those things... aren't very common in Red River Town, probably because we have a lot of ants there."

Chu Guang asked with a frown,

"Ants?"

Sun Shiqi nodded and explained,

"Yeah, we have a type called Iron Back Ant. They're about the size of a thumb and can grow up to the size of a fist. These creatures have very hard exoskeletons, are corrosion-resistant, and will eat almost anything. Most soft-bodied animals are no match for them."

Chu Guang asked,

"Could you bring me a few to look at next time?"

Sun Shiqi said with a smile,

"No problem! Consider it done!"

After the trade was completed, the merchant named Sun didn't stay for long and chose to continue on his journey.

Chu Guang didn't hold him back but reminded him of a mutants' camp near Street No.76 and signs of Looter activity towards the north of Wetland Park before wishing him a safe journey.

The silhouette of the double-headed cow gradually disappeared into the forest.

The players who watched him leave were all talking amongst themselves.

"That guy was indeed a merchant!"

"Damn, glad we didn't hit him."

"Even if we had hit him, it probably wouldn't have mattered, we could have kept all his stuff."

"That's true, but what if the merchants don't respawn after they die?"

"It's unlikely they just won't respawn if they die, but it's possible that the upcoming 'Winter is Coming' expansion pack will really only have this one merchant. And didn't you hear the game designers say? Wasteland OL aims to create an economic system that truly reflects supply and demand. If this isn't just pie in the sky, playing the long game is the smart move!"

"...That sort of makes sense."

Ignoring the players' discussions, Chu Guang's mind was completely focused on those two sacks of game currency.

He had a bold idea.

If plastic chips could serve as a general equivalent, why couldn't metal currency?

Those two sacks of coins must contain at least sixty or seventy thousand each, and it wouldn't take long for Sun to bring him another huge batch.

For a community of under 500 people, these coins were more than sufficient!

Copper coins would be the yellow-brass ones, and silver coins would be the silver-colored ones, with a value of 10 to 1.

The original Contribution Points would be incorporated into a new honor system that could be used to purchase status, titles, and even private land.

Meanwhile, the mercenary, commercial team, guild, and army systems to be introduced in the future would also be linked to Contribution Points. Only players with sufficient contributions would have the legitimacy to lead other players.

This not only would strengthen management but also greatly limit those troublemaking players.

After all, the higher the value of players' accounts, the more they would cherish their hard-won gaming privileges and be inclined to invest more effort and voluntarily maintain order within the game.

Troublemaking was fun.

And that was human nature.

Lugging two nearly hundred-kilo heavy sacks, Chu Guang returned to the shelter alone. He found an empty room without an active cultivation chamber and leaned the sacks against the corner of the wall.

Then he turned around, went back to the residents' hall, turned on the computer, logged into the official website backend, and began to write a title.

[Wasteland OL Closed Beta Version alpha0.3 Update Announcement: Major Economic System Overhaul!]

As he typed this line, Chu Guang opened his document.

He had copied quite a few brilliant ideas from the forum before.

Now it was the perfect time to make use of them...