Chapter 53: Consider it a special welfare for the gamers

"Huh? Already 30 reward points?"

Recently, gamers have been quite diligent.

Light Chu was about to go to sleep after shutting down his computer. He opened the governor's allowance and found that he had accumulated thirty reward points. Without hesitation, he allocated twenty points to intermediate blind boxes and the remaining ten points to the primary blind boxes.

However, the rewards he obtained were not ideal.

At least not what he wanted.

"A box of oral antibiotics capsules, approximately twelve capsules. A box of hemostatic bandages, containing two packs, can be used twice... Unfortunately, no muscle enhancement injections were obtained."

"Even a healing shot would have been nice."

He sighed as he picked up the supplies from the conveyor belt.

It's not that they were completely useless.

Just mediocre, at best.

As for the ten primary blind boxes, apart from a bunch of colorful lollipops, the only useful items were a 500ml bottle of soy sauce and a 500g bag of salt.

But the bag of salt seemed interesting.

"...Consuming more than 10g at once can increase immunity and metabolic capacity by 1-5%. Wow, is this a legendary drop?"

What would happen if the entire bag was consumed?

Light Chu's mind immediately thought of stacking buffs, but he quickly realized how foolish the idea was.

Consuming an entire bag of salt.

It would probably turn him into a mummy.

"Well, I'll put it on the shelves tomorrow."

The 500g bag could be divided into five independent 100g packets and sold for 3-5 silver coins each. That wouldn't be unreasonable, right?

Speaking honestly, this was really not unreasonable! After all, it was high-quality refined salt without sulfur, sulfate ions, or organic impurities. The pure white kind, and it even had a buff bonus.

Consider it a special welfare for the gamers.

Soy sauce was not as easy to split. It was hard to find 100ml sealed containers, so he could just hang a price tag of 20 silver coins and put it on the shelves.

Anyway, he wasn't planning to become a chef in a restaurant, and he doubted any gamer would buy that.

"That's it, time to sleep... Qi, wake me up at 6 a.m. tomorrow."

Qi, who was idling in the corner, flashed her signal light.

"Okay, Master."

Light Chu soon fell asleep.

However, his neighbor in the next room, Summer Salt, couldn't fall asleep no matter how hard she tried.

It wasn't because of someone's snoring; the sound insulation in this room was quite good, and once the door was closed, she could hardly hear anything.

What kept her tossing and turning was the fact that tomorrow would be her first day on the job as the "armory shop owner."

Was this job for real?

For the past few days, Light Chu had been pampering her with "good food and drinks," and she couldn't help but feel uneasy.

After all, in general, captives were usually given nutrition block that does not really has any nutrition, or maybe even sawdust mixed with tree bark or something else.

Let alone meat and porridge, having normal food was already a luxury.

But over the past two days, she felt like she was gaining weight...

After overthinking for a while, she felt drowsy. Holding the script in her hands, Summer Salt unintentionally fell asleep. When she was awakened from her half-asleep state, it was already 8 a.m.

"Get up."

Looking at the man standing at the door, Summer rubbed her eyes and, leaning against the wall, was about to stand up from the ground when she noticed two crutches in front of her.

"These... are for me?"

Light Chu chuckled.

"Who else here would need them besides you?"

If conditions allowed, he should consider giving her a prosthetic limb. Looking at her current state, it was indeed pitiful.

"..."

This guy!

Why does he always say things that irritate people!

Summer clenched her teeth, one crutch in each arm, and struggled to stand up from the ground.

Watching her complete the entire set of movements on her own, Light Chu nodded approvingly, satisfied with her strength and determination.

"Not bad, seems like it suits you."

Summer Salt's face turned cold, stiffly saying, "Say whatever you want... After all, I'm your captive. Even if you want me to..."

"Alright, stop talking." He didn't want to hear about her wild ideas, so Light Chu decisively interrupted her, cleared his throat, and continued, "I'll assign you some work later. For now, come with me outside."

It had been three days since she last breathed the outside air.

Following Light Chu, she stepped onto the elevator and went straight to the surface.

As she looked at the sunlight shining in front of the sanatorium, Summer instinctively raised her left arm, with the crutches, and narrowed her long eyelashes. She felt that the light was a bit dazzling.

"Did you build the walls outside?"

Light Chu casually asked.

"Just giving an evaluation."

Summer shrugged.

"It's okay, probably enough to deal with a few raiders from the countryside. But if it's mutant creatures, they could probably flip it over with something to step on, not to mention encounters with The Tide."

Hearing unfamiliar terms, Light Chu looked at her curiously.

"The Tide?"

Summer Salt said casually.

"It's something that frequently happens along the Highway Ring No.3. You probably won't experience it here. Groups of feeders migrate from the vicinity of the Highway Ring No.2 to the area around the Ring No.3, mixed with many crawlers—and mutants even stronger than crawlers... Even if I tell you this, you probably can't imagine it."

Due to the huge size of Boulder City, whenever any mutants migrated from the city to the north, they would inevitably pass through this surviving fortress.

And the war between humans and mutants was inevitable.

Although the mercenary squad Summer Salt belonged to was just a small team on the edge, they had participated in several missions against the The Tide.

When they acted with the main forces, the danger wasn't that high, and these missions usually paid well.

In order to restore trade and production as soon as possible, the big shots in the city would spare no expense to hire them and generously provide them with ammunition.

All they needed to do was pull the trigger while bracing the gun against their shoulders.

Many poor people living in slums became mercenaries during The Tide.

"That's true," Light Chu nodded, "I've only seen a few feeders... They seem to be afraid of light?"

That was when he had just arrived in the wasteland.

He almost died...

Summer nodded.

"Yes, not only are they afraid of light, but other mutants like mutated hyenas, jackals, moles, and bat flies don't really like them either. When they're extremely hungry, they even treat them as prey... So these creatures often gather in the subway or sewers."

"Generally speaking, if you see one, it's equivalent to seeing a group. It's still dangerous to encounter them in narrow places."

Quietly noting down these clues, Light Chu decided to update the term "The Tide" in the official database later.

But now was not the time to do that.

"...From now on, this house will be your workshop. If conditions allow, I'll have someone build a new one for you."

"For now, just make do with it."

Light Chu brought Summer Salt to the entrance of the armory and hung the wooden sign that had been placed there on a hook next to the door.

"I've carved the prices on the wooden sign, and I've taught you the appropriate phrases. If you have any questions, you can ask Qi... but it's on the third floor, and it's not easy for you to go up there. My gamers are all very friendly, so if you don't understand what they're saying, just stare at them expressionlessly."

For an introverted otaku, staring expressionlessly at him was already sufficiently impactful.

"Gamers?"

When Light Chu used this term in Chinese, Summer didn't understand what it meant.

"Translated, it means 'sanctuary residents'," Light Chu explained casually. "You don't need to remember their names, nor do you need to deeply understand the meaning of this word. Just call them that."

It felt impolite to call sanctuary residents using that term...

But since Light Chu said so, Summer didn't have any objections.

Her identity was just a slave, so having a decent job was already the greatest mercy for her.

"Remember, every item you sell needs to be recorded, and I will check the ledger and inventory every day. But even the cheapest steel pipe rifle costs over a hundred silver coins, and the 'gamers' can't afford it for now, so your work shouldn't be too busy. When you're free, help me repair the assault rifle and make some bullets and weapons within your capabilities."

Summer Salt glanced at the empty room. Apart from a table and a chair, there was only a board with nails sticking out.

On the nails hung some low-quality steel pipe weapons, as if to prevent her from forgetting the prices, and there were wooden tags hanging below with the prices written on them.

With a vacant gaze, Summer looked at Light Chu and couldn't help but ask, "Are you planning to have me scrape together a gun using my fingernails?"

Light Chu: "Can you do it?"

Summer: "How the hell am I supposed to do it? Even if there's no electric lathe, there should at least be a manually operated workbench, right?!"

Mercenaries often couldn't find the ammunition and accessories they needed on the shelves of stores because they used DIY weapons. In such cases, they would usually go to small workshops that made custom machine parts or precision instruments to rent their workbenches and process what they needed themselves.

Due to her poverty, Summer Salt had made her own weapons and bullets, although she couldn't afford the high-end intelligent automatic machining centers that could "print" objects instantly. It wasn't difficult to make these things using some affordable electric lathes, and it didn't take too much time.

But the current situation was beyond her imagination.

Forget about electric lathes; here, there is neither electricity nor a lathe. Not to mention different types of cutting tools, there isn't even the most basic turning tool, boring tool, or milling cutter.

How the hell am I supposed to make any weapons here?

Light Chu didn't pay much attention to her complaints and continued in a calm tone.

"So, if you need something, just say it. Don't make me guess."

"Now, I want you to make a list and write down the things you need. It would be best if you can draw a simple sketch of what they look like. If they can be found, I'll have gamers try to find them for you, and if they can't be found, I'll figure out a way to buy them... Oh, and remember to write down their prices. I don't want to waste money."

Summer: "Turning tools, boring tools, milling cutters, and also pliers and hammers. These are the most basic ones. Besides these, I also need a slotted tool with threads and markings... Oh forget it, I'll just draw it for you."

"It's best to have a drawing. You can try to make it as detailed as possible. Maybe my gamers can make it for you."

Light Chu took out paper, a pen, and a wooden ruler and handed them to Summer Salt.

With a furrowed brow, Summer took them and, relying on her memory, started writing and drawing on the paper.

Light Chu didn't rush her.

Making these things clear and understandable to others through drawings was not an easy task, especially for a non-professional mercenary.

But everything has to start from the first time, right?

After Summer Salt finished drawing, Light Chu added a few lines of text to the paper. Then he went to the warehouse and found a gamer sitting at a wooden table on duty.

He handed the paper to the gamer and briefly said, "I need these things on the paper."

"If someone comes here to sell something, tell them to pay attention while scavenging."

"When you have free time, copy the drawings according to this paper. Make a few more and put them up at the entrance. Also, bring one to the steel refining furnace."

The warehouse manager's job also included collecting and issuing production tasks. After all, it was too troublesome to assign tasks one by one.

The gamer who took the paper looked at it and his eyes widened.

[Task: Forge or collect a turning tool (with illustration)]

[Reward: 10 silver coins, 100 contribution]

10 silver coins!

Holy cow!

That's equivalent to a day's wages for burning cement!

If they could find it, wouldn't they strike it rich?!

There seemed to be more than one task; there were similar ones for boring tools, milling cutters, and so on.

Ignoring how envious the gamer sitting in the warehouse manager's position was, Light Chu finished his instructions and left the place.

Although the task mentioned forging or collecting, to be honest, he didn't have high hopes for the gamers finding such good items on the wasteland.

Even before the outbreak of the nuclear war, the pre-war society might not have used these "primitive" processing tools, let alone now in the 211st year of the Wasteland Era. It wouldn't be surprising if they had already popularized more advanced production methods.

Such as 3D printing and the like.

Although this technology was not mature in the 21st century on Earth, who knows what the future holds?

What Light Chu truly anticipated were his lovely gamers, who could solve this problem with the limited tools and materials they had.

For example, among gamers in the third batch of closed beta testers, there were several big bros who frequently discussed metallurgical technology on the forum. Even a few more were added in the fourth batch.

Aside from armchair theorists, he believed that among these gamers, there were always one or two who could truly solve problems.