Chapter 45: Redstream doesn't grow crops

What surprised Light Chu was that there were quite a few valuable items on the cow's back. For example, there were five "Rider" revolving rifles on top.

These firearms had a caliber of 7mm and featured two simple rifling grooves in the barrel, which helped stabilize the bullet trajectory within a range of fifty meters. The spring-loaded breech block mechanism of these rifles was simple and easy to maintain, making them reliable even in combat. In case of a jam or misfire, a simple flick of the cylinder would get them shooting again.

The barrel could also be detached to use the rifle as a pistol, but accuracy would be left to chance.

However, what pleased Light Chu the most was the rate of fire of these rifles. Although they were semi-automatic, with a fast trigger pull, it was no problem to rapidly fire six rounds to suppress enemies in a short amount of time. It could be considered quite user-friendly.

While Light Chu was contemplating whether to choose a rifle as "compensation," his gaze suddenly fell on the sacks tied to the sides of the two-headed cattle.

Opening one of them, he found it filled with coins—brass-colored and silver-colored, made of some unknown material, and surprisingly not rusted. The brass coins were slightly smaller, while the silver ones were a bit larger, and their face values were marked as 1 and 10, respectively.

"Pre-war currency? No..."

Picking up a coin and flipping it over, Light Chu quickly recognized the small words printed on the back: "Galaxy Arcade."

Well, well. They were game tokens.

"Where did you get these?" Light Chu asked, tossing the coin back into the sack and scrutinizing the merchant last named Sun with a nervous expression.

Upon hearing Light Chu's question, Sun Shiqi honestly replied, "I found these coins in the basement of an arcade. I thought I could melt them down to extract some copper and steel, so I just took them."

Caravans rarely stopped to scavenge. They usually traded with local scavengers, which benefited both sides and helped avoid potential conflicts. However, just as impoverished mercenaries occasionally dabbled in looting, merchants who were short on funds would take risks scavenging for themselves.

This merchant before him seemed to be new to the trade. Perhaps even the cattle he had with him was recently acquired after pooling together some money.

"Are there more there?" Light Chu asked.

Sun Shiqi hesitated for a moment, then instinctively nodded. "There seem to be two more crates... Each sack like this can hold around four to five of them."

"Very well, I'll take them all," Light Chu said, unloading the two sacks from the cow's back and addressing Sun Shiqi.

"These two sacks and the coins inside them will serve as compensation for us. When you come here next time, remember to bring the remaining coins. Let's see... for every 100 kilograms of coins, I'll give you four kilograms of dried meat. How about that?"

One hundred kilograms would be roughly the amount in one sack, which would amount to around thirty to forty thousand coins.

Business was about building long-term relationships, and Light Chu didn't want to squeeze too hard. He picked these two sacks, as they could be useful to him, and he didn't want to make his need for weapons too apparent since he intended to let this person go.

Obviously, Sun Shiqi hadn't anticipated that this junk would be of interest to anyone. His face filled with surprise, but he didn't dare show it too openly. He quickly nodded and said, "No problem! As long as you need them, I will definitely bring all the coins next time!"

He didn't care about what this man would do with those coins. Perhaps it was for sentimentality's sake? Or maybe for another reason? It was difficult to understand these old popsicles.

Originally, he planned to take those coins to the Boulder City to sell them for copper and steel, although he wouldn't get many chips for them. If he could use them to open up a market for a sanctuary, the deal would be worthwhile no matter how he looked at it.

Furthermore, reducing some weight in advance would make the rest of the journey easier for him.

In addition to the two sacks of coins, Light Chu also kept the five revolving rifles he had set his sights on, and he bought the 200 rounds of 7mm ammunition Sun Shiqi carried.

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

Although their first encounter had involved many misunderstandings, the overall outcome was satisfactory for both parties. Light Chu obtained what he desired, and the merchant named Sun got the trading rights and food he needed.

Survivors in Springvale couldn't imagine the situation in Redstream Town. Although the two places were less than a hundred kilometers apart, their ecological environments were completely different.

According to Sun Shiqi's account, there was a large-scale chemical industry base and a landfill site in the area before the war. Due to the lack of maintenance after the war, there were leaks in the stockpiles, resulting in severe soil contamination. The heavy metal content, in particular, exceeded standards, leading to extensive desertification and soil compaction that had yet to be fully restored.

Moreover, due to the fragile ecosystem, the local mutants primarily consisted of scavengers and arthropods.

Interestingly, the landfill that had faced protests from the locals before the war had become the greatest wealth of the survivors in the post-nuclear era.

Buried there for nearly half a century, a significant portion of the garbage hadn't had the chance to decompose. In the current wasteland era, the buried trash had become a "non-natural mineral deposit" of another kind and contributed to the prosperity of local mining, archaeology, and trade.

"But what do you eat?" After listening to Sun Shiqi's description, Light Chu couldn't help but ask, "Do you rely solely on imports?"

The grain prices must not skyrocket!

"Of course, we can't rely solely on imports. Although we don't have reindeers or hyenas, there are many mutant moles and rats that we can eat. In addition to that, we also capture some less dangerous insects and use them to make protein extracts to feed livestock or make nutritional pastes... like this."

As he spoke, Sun Shiqi took out a sealed glass jar from the package hanging on the back of the two-headed cow. Inside the jar was a dark-colored jelly-like substance.

It looked somewhat like tortorius jelly.

Light Chu had seen this thing when he was rummaging through the package before, but he didn't understand what it was for, so he didn't pay much attention to it.

He didn't expect it to be food.

"What is this made of?"

Sun Shiqi chuckled and said, "Mutant cockroaches."

Light Chu: "..."

Damn!

He felt that he would never be able to look at tortorius jelly the same way again.

"Although it's made from protein and oil extracted from mutant cockroaches, after undergoing several processes such as boiling, filtering, drying, grinding, soaking, and juicing, this thing actually has nothing to do with cockroaches anymore. It's full of protein... Would you like to try some?"

Light Chu said with a straight face, "No need."

He would rather starve than accept eating this thing.

However...

According to this guy, the cost of this food seemed to be very low?

Mutant cockroaches were common creatures no matter where you went, and the cockroaches in Springvale would definitely have lower heavy metal content than those in Redstream.

At critical moments, using this nutritional paste as emergency rations for gamers seemed like a good choice as well.

Light Chu was caught in deep thought about whether to save some humanity or not.

But at that moment, he suddenly thought of something else.

"It sounds like you know a lot about insects?"

Sun Shiqi immediately nodded.

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

Light Chu continued to inquire, "Do you have a way to deal with leeches?"

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

"Yes."

Seeing Light Chu nod, Sun Shiqi thought for a moment and looked somewhat troubled.

"Those things... are quite rare in Redstream. It's probably because we have more ants there."

Light Chu furrowed his brows and asked, "Ants?"

Sun Shiqi nodded and continued, "Yes, there's a mutant ant species called Ironback Ants in our town. They're about the size of a thumb, and the largest ones can grow to the size of a fist. These things have tough shells, are corrosion-resistant, and eat almost anything. Most soft-bodied creatures are no match for them."

Light Chu asked, "Can you bring me a few to see next time?"

Sun Shiqi smiled and said, "No problem! Consider it done!"

After completing the trade, the merchant named Sun didn't stay here for long but chose to continue on his way.

Light Chu didn't try to stop him, he just reminded him about the mutant camp near Street 76 and the signs of raiders in the northern direction of the wetland park. Then he wished him a safe journey.

Two-headed cattle gradually disappeared into the woods.

As they watched him leave, the gamers were discussing among themselves.

"That guy was indeed a merchant!"

"Damn, it's a good thing we didn't beat him up."

"If we did, it wouldn't matter. We could have kept all his stuff."

"True, but what if he dies and doesn't respawn?"

"It's highly unlikely that he won't respawn after dying, but maybe there's only one merchant like him in the Winter Is Coming expansion. And didn't you hear what the developers said? Wasteland OL claims to create an economic system that fully reflects supply and demand. If this isn't just empty talk, then playing the long game and reaping the rewards is the right approach!"

"...That actually makes sense."

Without paying attention to the gamers' discussions, Light Chu's thoughts were completely focused on the two bags of game coins.

He had a bold idea.

Since plastic chips could be used as a general equivalent, why not metal currency?

These two bags of coins would easily amount to sixty to seventy thousand pieces, and Sun could get him even more in no time.

For a community with less than five hundred people, these coins would be more than enough!

The brass-colored coins could be treated as copper coins, and the silver-colored ones as silver coins, with a value ratio of 10 to 1.

As for the original contribution points, they would be merged into the new honor system and could be used to purchase identities, titles, and even private land.

At the same time, the upcoming mercenary, caravan, guild, and legion systems would also be linked to contribution points. Only players with enough contribution would qualify to lead other players.

This would not only strengthen management but also greatly restrict players who cause trouble and troll.

After all, the higher the value of a gamer's account, the more they would cherish the hard-earned gaming privileges and voluntarily maintain order within the game.

Trolling is fun.

And that's human nature.

Returning to the shelter alone, dragging the two nearly hundred-kilogram bags, Light Chu found an unactivated room without a cultivation chamber and leaned the bags against the corner of the wall.

Then, he turned around and went back to the residents' hall, opened his computer, logged into the official website's backend, and started editing the announcement title.

[Wasteland OL Closed Alpha 0.3 Version Update Announcement: Major Economic System Adjustments!]

As he typed these words, Light Chu opened his document.

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

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