Chapter 39: Finally a New NPC?

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In fact, there was no choice at all.

Xia Yan was well aware that with only one leg left, even walking out of this street was difficult, let alone returning to Giant Stone City.

What's more, what would be the outcome even if she could go back?

Although she had been a mercenary for quite some time, she had barely saved any money. The better neurally-linked bionic prosthetics easily cost tens of thousands of chips, while the slightly inferior mechanical prosthetics still cost thousands.

The prices were comparable to a set of chemically-powered exoskeletons.

Even if she sold herself, she couldn't afford one.

Either go with these people or wait here to die.

The choice wasn't really that hard.

Sitting on the edge of a shaking wooden cart, jostling up and down with the bags packed full, Xia Yan quietly sighed in her heart.

Perhaps this journey was the last bit of freedom she had left.

Besides taking her back to have kids, she truly couldn't think of any other use she could have for the man before her.

A particular skill?

Work?

Haha.

After thinking it through, the only thing she had left was her body, which still held some value.

She had heard it would hurt a lot, but she didn't know if that was true...

"We have arrived."

A voice from ahead interrupted her brain-filling fantasies that had at least two hundred thousand characters missing.

Snapping back to reality from her daydreams, Xia Yan jerked her head up and realized that at some point, these people had brought her to a small grove of trees.

In the center of the grove, surrounded by bushes, was an open space dotted with wooden stakes, standing on which was an unfinished concrete wall.

Next to the concrete wall were furnaces emitting wisps of blue smoke, and further back were pits for smoking meat and racks for smoking fish.

The air was suffused with the scent of roasted meat, and the sound of clinking and clanging echoed in her ears.

Some people were hammering stone materials, others were operating bellows to blow air into the furnace, and more were transporting stones, building walls, or cutting trees.

The place was like a large construction site.

Primitive and busy.

All these people... were they his subordinates?

Looking at everything before her, Xia Yan's pale face was filled with surprise. She quickly counted and found that there was a sizable number of people here, at least a dozen or two, all wearing uniform blue work uniforms.

And in the instant she clearly saw those clothes, it took her less than a second to guess the identity of these people.

Residents of the refuge!?

She hadn't heard of any refuge in the vicinity.

However...

What were they doing?

Xia Yan was a bit perplexed.

Refuge shelters in Qingquan City were not uncommon; some had been open for many years, and many were still in lockdown, awaiting the arrival of their unlocking dates.

Those well-off refuges could occasionally count as a local force, while the poorly-off ones usually became food for mutants or Variants.

Xia Yan remembered that there seemed to be a refuge not far from Giant Stone City, but the survivors living inside were quite reclusive, unwilling to interact with outsiders and very cautious. Let alone undertaking large-scale construction on the surface, they rarely came out of the refuge at all.

Speaking of which, what was the point of this wall?

It seemed sturdy enough; bullets probably couldn't penetrate it, but was any wall really more robust than the main gate of a refuge?

That thing could even withstand gamma rays.

"...You are from the refuge?"

"Yes," Chu Guang glanced at her injured leg and said, "I thought you had fainted."

She had been very quiet the whole way, not making a sound.

And Chu Guang, with his attention mostly elsewhere, had thought she had fainted from blood loss.

He hadn't expected that she would still be awake.

"I'm not that fragile."

Xia Yan lifted her chin, her eyebrows and expression as stiff as if they were filled with lead. She felt this might make her look a little more dignified.

At least it wouldn't seem cowardly.

Unfortunately, no one cared about her pretense of toughness, and nobody had even noticed.

"I can see that," withdrawing his gaze from her grisly severed leg, Chu Guang casually remarked, "The healing speed of your wound is indeed a bit faster than that of an ordinary person."

Using the attribute template from Shelter No. 404, this person's constitution would be at least 8 points, with a probable error margin of ±1.

For an ordinary person, even if not from blood loss, they would have passed out by now due to high fever.

Yet this person was still hanging on, with only beads of cold sweat on her forehead, a pale face, and semi-consciousness.

Of course, it could also be due to "Talent."

Survivors on the Wasteland more or less had something to do with mutation; it was not unusual to have some physical traits that deviated from the norm.

Chu Guang looked at two players, instructing them.

"Take the food to 'Scrambled Eggs with Tomato' to keep it properly stored."

A few days prior, Chu Guang had instructed Brother Eggs to plan a granary that could store grains and meats.

If all went well, it should be finished by now.

Whether the food was dried and stored or just piled in bags, he trusted the professional judgment and reliability of the cook over his own.

With players around, Chu Guang couldn't be bothered to fuss over these minor details.

The last time he had a hard time just with smoking meat, leaving the granary planning to himself would probably lead to spoilage or becoming rat food before winter hit.

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Hearing the Manager's orders, Fang Chang and Night Ten nodded in unison, accepting the task.

"Yes!"

"At your command!"

Chu Guang didn't say anything.

He simply reached out, lifted the female mercenary, who was slumped over the handcart, without regard to her exclamation, and carried her on his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

Then, his other hand stretched out, grabbed the backpack that Night Ten had licked from the other three mercenaries, and strode towards the direction of the sanatorium.

Night Ten and Fang Chang watched from the side with admiration.

This big bag of equipment and a living person together must weigh at least a hundred kilograms.

To pick them up with just two hands and walk off, that was too strong!

Watching the Manager head towards the sanatorium and noticing the situation here, Old White quietly came over.

"What happened? Who's the person our BOSS is carrying?"

"You ask Fang Chang; he's the one who watched the entire plot unfold. I just watched my loneliness." Whether it's rummaging through packs or being a hostage, Night Ten felt he was just like a tool person, looking utterly dejected.

Fang Chang made a helpless expression.

"Don't look at me; this game doesn't even come with subtitles. I couldn't understand a thing the NPCs were saying to each other during the cutscene... Just think of her as a newly added NPC, I guess."

One could guess the general idea, but explaining it in detail was a little difficult. Better to wait for the official website to update.

Old White said blankly.

"Okay... But how did she get so badly injured?"

"Hah, never mind the severity of the injury, she was almost gone," Night Ten sighed and said, "You have no idea what we encountered on the way back."

"What did you encounter?"

"Crawlers!"

"What the fuck?" Old White looked at Night Ten with surprised eyes and quickly pressed on, "You ran into Crawlers? What do they look like?"

The official website had information on Crawlers, but besides a few abstract descriptions, there was no detail on their combat power.

There were no illustrations to refer to either.

Old White could only remember that these creatures and Eaters seemed to belong to the same category, both symbiotic Variants birthed from fungal infections, and somehow related to biological weapons, their ancestry beyond tracing.

He had thought this creature was probably just a monster in the setting, and that the game company might not have even designed the model yet.

He never expected that these two would actually run into one!

"It's ugly looking with four long arms, crouching about half a person's height, probably two meters when standing. Not only is it outrageously strong, but the key thing is, it's damn quick too! We shot a round with three guns and didn't hit it once. Later, it was the Manager who was awesome, swinging a steel pipe and stabbing it to death in just a few hits."

Night Ten described the situation vividly, though his abstract storytelling style basically didn't clear anything up.

Old White looked at Fang Chang for help, who let out a sigh.

"I can't explain it clearly right now, but essentially, it was like Night Ten said, that Crawler was unbelievably strong."

"I'm guessing the new expansion didn't only update in-game activities but also introduced more Variants, new NPC factions, and related tasks. Let's talk about this after logging off... The Manager asked me to deliver the handcart to Brother Egg Fry's place; I'm going to complete a task."

Although he wanted to discuss his new findings with Brother Fang Chang, there were only three hours left before nightfall, and there truly was no time to slack off.

Old White sighed and nodded.

"Alright, go ahead... I'll go think about the steelmaking furnace some more. Once you're done, hurry up and help me!"

"Mhm, see you."

…

Meanwhile, inside the sanatorium.

The players working on the scaffolding all took notice of the Manager returning from outside.

Of course, they also noticed the woman he was carrying on his shoulder.

"Damn, look quick, the Manager's got someone on his shoulder!"

"Who's that person??"

"A new NPC?"

"And it's a girl!"

"Finally, a new NPC! Brothers, we're another step closer to the beta test!"

"Oh oh oh!"

Thinking of being a step closer to the beta test sent the players into overdrive, hauling bricks and plastering with more vigor.

Xia Yan, carried on Chu Guang's shoulders, had cheeks burning like a fire, not just because of the position but also because those gazes made her feel like needles in her back.

She did not understand what those people were saying, but she didn't need to.

She could guess they were saying trash just as crass as the lustful glances those men threw her way.

She imagined they were like Hyenas of the Wasteland, offering flattery and respect to the male leader in this manner, hoping to get a bone or a mouthful of broth after he had his fill of the prey.

Clearly, she was that tender and succulent lamb.

The more Xia Yan thought about it, the more terrified she became. Her clenched teeth involuntarily rattled, and her eyes became wet, even shedding tears.

She suddenly regretted her choice; rather than be humiliated and thrown to the wolves to be torn apart, she would have preferred to end herself, to die with a bit of dignity.

But her body didn't obey her.

The elevator descended.

Arriving.

Chu Guang strode through the gate of Shelter No. 404, passed through the buffer room and into the residents' hall, tossed the packed bag aside, and then dumped Xia Yan in a chair.

"Sss, be gentle… What are you going to do?"

She inhaled sharply from the pain and stared tensely at Chu Guang, who was approaching.

"Behave."

Too lazy to entertain her, Chu Guang casually pulled open a drawer, took out a silver-white metal cylinder, flicked off the plastic cap with his thumb, and habitually tapped it with his index finger.

"It shouldn't hurt, just bear with it."