Chapter 62: You saved our entire family

Light Chu didn't pay much attention to the expression with which Raven_raven entered the mutated leech nest.

However, when she appeared at the warehouse door carrying a large bag of mushrooms, her face was filled with a joy that couldn't be hidden.

Looking at the bag full of blue mushrooms, Light Chu couldn't help but sound surprised.

"So many?"

Raven_raven, panting heavily, nodded vigorously and chuckled.

"I went in three times! I almost got bitten, hehe."

Light Chu: "..."

Three times?!

That's too daring.

But he wouldn't dare himself.

After weighing them, the bag of mushrooms totaled seventy kilograms.

This number far exceeded Light Chu's expectations.

Based on his original estimate, he thought he could pick around forty to fifty kilograms at most, but he didn't expect her to gather seventy kilograms.

"A total of 560 copper coins, equivalent to 56 silver coins. In addition, there are also 700 contribution points..."

Did he give too much?

Oh well.

After all, she earned it at the risk of her life.

Upon hearing the numbers recited by the governor, Rara jumped up in excitement, waving her fists.

"Nice!"

"I'm rich now, hahaha!"

Light Chu: "..."

Although I'm an NPC, can't you get excited in a place where no one is around?

The thickness of a silver coin is less than 2 millimeters, and 50 of them make a stack about 9 to 10 centimeters high. Compared to the small treasury in the shelter, it was just a drop in the bucket.

After receiving her reward, Rara happily hummed a tune and left, while Light Chu stood at the warehouse door, rubbing his chin in contemplation.

The richest gamers at the moment are probably White, Tomorrow, and the others. Their strength and understanding of the game are among the top tier of gamers.

During this period, they have been hunting and have almost figured out the highest-activity areas of nearby prey. Their daily income has risen from 52 silver coins to a maximum of 100 silver coins. Even though hunting income is not stable, they should have accumulated a considerable amount of money over the past few days.

For safety reasons, Light Chu checks the gamers' lockers every day.

Without any surprises, today the Shachuko Squad should be able to accumulate 200 silver coins, pooling resources to buy the land closest to the resurrection point.

In addition to them, other gamers' savings are also steadily increasing. Even after purchasing wooden weapons, iron/steel weapons, leather armor, warm coats, tools, and food, gamers with the least amount of savings still hold at least 10 silver coins.

"Maybe I should update the 'bank' feature."

In doing so, it would not only save storage space for the players but also distribute the silver coins they stored back to them.

The more Light Chu thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed. He immediately took out his small notebook from his pocket and made a note.

When there is an opportunity, this feature must be implemented!

...

While storing the mushrooms in the warehouse, Light Chu took the opportunity to take inventory.

Aside from the portion consumed in trade with the merchants in Redstream, there was almost 700 kilograms of smoked meat left. Deducting daily consumption, approximately 100 to 200 kilograms could be stored each day, and most of it was contributed by the Shachuko Squad.

Today is already the 20th.

If luck wasn't too bad, the stockpile should be increased to 2,000 kilograms by the end of the month. About half of it would be exchanged for grains and yuccas, which should amount to at least 5 tons.

Based on calculations of 200 grams of meat and 350 grams of rice consumed per person per day, 1,000 kilograms of dried meat would be enough for the consumption of 100 people for 50 days, and 5 tons of grains would be enough for the consumption of 100 people for 142 days.

Of course, these were all ideal scenarios, and it wouldn't be surprising if the actual situation deviated more than 20% from the estimated values. After all, the amount of food consumed was related to the level of physical activity. When doing more work, one would naturally get hungry faster, but it would be no problem to have just one meal a day when there was no work to do.

"...If the number of testers is to be increased to 100, the theoretical estimated food reserves must be doubled. Especially meat... It would be great if we could still hunt in winter. It would be troublesome if we couldn't find any game."

But looking at it from a different perspective, perhaps we wouldn't need that much food?

There was no need for everyone to be online during the coldest times, and not even every day.

Moreover, when in hibernation mode, the consumption of resources by the clones would be significantly reduced. In the longest case, they could even go without eating for 7 consecutive days.

However, gamers might not be willing to stay offline for that long. They would definitely whine on the official website.

But Light Chu had also figured out a countermeasure. When the time came, he could just announce server maintenance.

Are there servers that never need maintenance?

That's perfectly reasonable.

As he looked at the ledger in his hand, Light Chu was contemplating the future of the sanctuary when a gamer rushed in from outside.

"Respected governor, some natives have arrived!"

Natives?

Light Chu, who had shifted his gaze away from the ledger, was slightly stunned.

Didn't Sun Shiqi just leave? He couldn't have come back so soon, right?

Could it be someone else?

Returning the ledger to the gamer serving as the warehouse manager, Light Chu asked the person who reported to him.

"How many of them are there, and from which direction did they come?"

"From the south! Two grown-up men and a girl!"

From the south?

Hearing that direction, Light Chu already had a rough idea of who might be coming...

The south gate of the outpost base.

An old man with wrinkles on his face and wearing a fur coat looked up at the hundred-meter-wide concrete wall. His cloudy eyes were filled with shock and astonishment.

It seemed like the last time he came to Wetland Park was about two years ago.

The scavengers on Bette Street mainly explored in the southern direction. Unless they were hunting, they rarely traveled north along the elevated highway out of the city, as they might encounter raiders who attacked passing caravans.

As for the Wetland Park, it was probably a blind spot for both scavenging and hunting.

There were not many games or prey to hunt, and there wasn't much trash to collect. Very few survivors would deliberately visit this place.

But unexpectedly, someone had built a survivor stronghold in this forest!

Although the three-meter-tall concrete wall looked a bit shorter, it was new and sturdy compared to the dilapidated wall on Bette Street. The sense of security it provided was immeasurable.

Near the gate of the wall, there were some sanctuary residents wearing blue coats.

The old man gathered his courage and shouted, "I've come to see your leader."

No one responded to him.

Those people just looked at him, whispering among themselves impolitely. It was hard to tell from their eyes whether they carried goodwill or malice.

It seemed...

More like pure curiosity?

"...Are you sure this is the place?"

The old man looked at his second son beside him, showing some hesitation in his eyes.

With a large package on his back, Tiger Yu, facing his father's questioning gaze, nodded vigorously and said with certainty, "It's here!"

The expression on the old man's face became even more hesitant.

"They don't seem to welcome us."

Tiger's expression was subtly awkward. He leaned closer to his father and whispered, "Maybe they're not unwelcoming, but... they can't understand what we're saying."

The old man was taken aback.

Can't understand?

That can't be true... Didn't that outsider in the blue coat understand?

Fishie Yu glanced at her father and brother, then glanced at the wall in front of her, her round eyes filled with curiosity.

This was her first time leaving Bette Street, and it was to come to such a distant place.

Is Light Chu really here?

At this moment, a familiar figure appeared at the door. When she saw the face clearly, Fishie's eyes instantly lit up.

However, there were too many unfamiliar people nearby.

Hiding behind her brother, she only revealed half of her face, looking timid yet curious.

Amidst the crowd of blue coats, Light Chu walked up to the three of them and stopped.

Looking at the old man in front, Light Chu hadn't even had a chance to greet him when the old man suddenly knelt down with a thump, leaving everyone bewildered.

Light Chu was also dumbfounded.

What's going on??

"Dad?!" Tiger exclaimed in surprise, but before he could ask anything, his father pulled him down to kneel as well.

Fishie looked puzzled.

She didn't understand what her father and brother were doing or what she should do, so she tried to imitate their actions.

"What are you doing... Get up!" Chu Guang was at a loss, stepping forward and helping the old man up from the ground.

But the old man refused to get up, just kept his head down. It took a long time for him to squeeze out a few words from his mouth.

"Thank you."

"You saved our entire family!"

He was already old, at most he could work for another two or three years, but even this year was a bit of a struggle.

His son, Bear, as the eldest son of the Yu family, was also the strongest labor force in the family and could be considered the backbone of the entire family.

If anything happened to Bear, the whole family would suffer from hunger and cold.

The old man understood this very well.

This outsider not only saved his son's life but also saved their entire family.

But Light Chu didn't think so much. He didn't calculate everything. Saving people was just a natural instinct for him.

"You're making it difficult for me... Anyway, get up first."

It wasn't the time to be modest. He couldn't let them kneel forever.

With a little force, Light Chu helped the old man up from the ground.

Perhaps because of Light Chu's comment about making it difficult, the old man didn't continue to kneel after getting up. Instead, he reached out and took off the package from his second son's back.

It was a package made of deer hide, containing animal fur neatly stacked inside, making it look heavy.

The old man held it with both hands and handed it to Light Chu, speaking earnestly.

"You are our Yu family's benefactor. We can't let you waste precious medicine."

"We have nothing else to give you. These furs were taken from mutant hyenas and reindeer, a total of seven pieces... After setting aside the tribute for the mayor, this is our entire possession."

"I know these things are not enough to repay your kindness, but if we do nothing, we will feel uneasy."

"Please accept them!"

Taking the entire wealth of impoverished people like this would truly make him feel uneasy.

Light Chu was at a loss for a moment, not knowing whether to accept them or not.

However, at that moment, Light Chu had a thought. Even if the old man took these furs back, he would sell them to the old leech on Bette Street, who would then take a hefty cut, resulting in very little money.

He remembered clearly that there was a sign hanging at Old Charlie's grocery store, stating that a piece of mutant hyena fur could be exchanged for 2 chips, and a piece of reindeer fur for 4 chips.

Among these 7 furs, 4 were mutant hyena fur and 3 were reindeer fur. According to Bette Street's prices, this old man could at most get 20 chips.

Such an unequal trade was already exploitative, not to mention that these 20 chips couldn't buy much of value in Bette Street. For example, to purchase wheat, one kilogram would cost a whopping 3 chips, almost triple the price at Brown's farm!

It meant that exchanging 10 pieces of warm animal fur wouldn't even get him 10 kilograms of grain.

And that was before the price of grain increased.

Was that reasonable?

Definitely not!

Of course, these survivors mainly used the chips obtained from selling furs to exchange for salt or other daily necessities, and direct purchase of grain was relatively rare. After all, they could cultivate some horn yuccas themselves, dig plant roots, catch mice, and hunt for food.

But no matter what, that old leech was too much beyond.

Light Chu had long disliked him!

Therefore, he decisively reached out and took all the furs, handing them to the nearest player and instructing them.

"Take these to the warehouse and bring back 1 kilogram of coarse salt. I'll give you 5 copper coins as a reward."

Though 5 copper coins were not insignificant, where was the interesting plot twist?

The gamer's face showed reluctance.

Although he couldn't understand what the overseer and the natives were chattering about, who hadn't watched a couple of movies without subtitles these days?

But the governor had already handed the things to him without giving him a chance to refuse.

Seeing that he was hesitating, and the plot wasn't progressing, even if the player was unwilling, he had to run back to the base.

They didn't have to wait for long.

The gamer who had run back to the base quickly returned, holding a black plastic bag and jogging over.

Light Chu took the coarse salt from him and handed it to the old man.

"I've accepted the furs. This coarse salt weighs about 1 kilogram. Consider it a token of gratitude!"

The old man was taken aback, seeing the salt in the bag, and became anxious, quickly pushing the bag of coarse salt back, refusing to accept it.

"How can that be?"

"You are our Yu family's benefactor. How can I accept your gift!"

One kilogram of coarse salt!

In Bette Street, 100 grams would cost 2 chips. For 1 kilogram, it would be 20 chips. Not to mention, whenever they weighed salt, they always ended up with less than a kilogram, and the better-quality ones would be flipped and resold.

Although the coarse salt Light Chu brought was also coarse salt, its quality was much better than what was sold at the grocery store under the old mayor's name.

At the very least, it looked transparent, with less cloudiness, and the color wasn't as yellow!

"You should accept it. Let's consider it a small favor from me."

Without waiting for further arguments, Light Chu firmly pushed the plastic bag back, smiling at the old man.

"If you have more of these furs in the future, bring them to me."

"A piece of hyena fur can be exchanged for 150 grams, and deer fur for 300 grams."

"However many you have, I'll take that amount!"