Chapter 1619.1: Last Star Chart

[Frost Snow, the Traveling Merchants Association's Front Desk:

Recently, the trading price of copper ore in Red River Town has fluctuated sharply. Affected by the increase in supply, the reserves of copper and sulfur in the New Alliance are close to the upper limit of the reserve. Its benchmark purchase price is now lowered by 10%, and its benchmark sale price is also reduced by 6%. For traveling merchant players, please note the risks involved.

]

[Charlie, President of the Traveling Merchants Association:

Warm reminder, the Traveling Merchants Association provides hireable NPCs with trading level 3 or higher, which can help you get better prices in deals. If you do not have enough confidence in your negotiation and language skills, it is recommended that players hire 1 to 2 NPC followers.

]

[

The NPC followers with VM will be your good helpers during the journey. Some of them are good at fighting, some are good at hunting or medical treatment, and their abilities can grow together with you during the journey. However, serious injury or death will cause them to leave the team permanently, so please make sure to protect their safety!

]

The official forum was still as lively as ever.

The first batch of caravans to Red River Town has returned one after another. Thanks to the strategy written by Escaping Mole, the players who dared to trade with Red River Town made a lot of money.

Due to the early completion of the trade, they only found out about the price fluctuations of the ores after they turned the returned goods into silver coins.

Tail: Huh? The price of copper ores has increased?

Sisi: Emmm... It seems that it has nothing to do with us. When you guys were discussing the price increase, we were already on our way back.

In fact, she had more or less expected that this might happen, so she kept urging Tail to hit the road quickly; although in the end she was still delayed for some time because of the team name.

Fortunately, they arrived at the right time and completed the shipping just before the price of copper rose. The price only rose when they woke up the next day.

Thinking about it now, Sisi couldn't help but feel happy.

Luckily, she insisted on spot settlement at that time. If she had been given tickets back then, or had waited until the next day for settlement, it would've caused the profit for the trip to Red River Town this time to drop at least 10 to 20%

Makka Pakka: Come clean now! How much did you earn!

Tail: It's not too much, it's only a couple hundred thousand. Mhm, it's a big step forward to the dream of setting up a mercenary guild! (Satisfied)

As soon as this reply came out, the post was flooded with comments instantly.

𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Silver's Father: Holy smoke...

Quit Smoking: A couple hundred thousand?! Are you talking about real money or silver coins?!

Sisi: Ahem... Tail is talking nonsense, please don't believe it.

Sideline Slacking: I actually find it hard to tell which one is lying.

Escaping Mole: Wait, where did Tail get so many silver coins!?

Tail: Ehe, this is a girl's secret! (ゝω·)☆

Escaping Mole: Ehe my ass! Just tell me already! (Crazy)

Eye Owe Money: I'm afraid there must be some kind of shady deal behind this!

Quit Bullshit: Shady deal?! How shady?

Makka Pakka: Tell everyone! Tail is no longer pure!

Lost Newbie: Wuwuwu, sugar mummy, I'm hungry, I don't mind it!

Tail: ?!Σ(ﾟДﾟ;)

In the end, still, no one was able to figure out where Tail got so many silver coins.

After all, no matter how they look at it, the woman was just an ordinary netizen, and she didn't look like someone who was rich in real life.

Sisi, Sesame Paste, and Roshan knew the truth, but they didn't disclose it. And Tail herself slipped away from the post quietly after being educated by her bestie through private chat.

Compared to the first group of traveling merchant players, the second group of players was not so lucky.

When many people came to Red River Town, the price of copper had already started to go on a roller coaster. It was just a one-day difference, but some people spent more than 1,000 blue tickets for a ton of copper.

But there were also people who were very lucky to arrive just in time for the crazy dumping of copper ores by major mining areas.

As of a few hours before the announcement on the official website, except for the trading post in Horseshoe Town, players could almost buy copper ores from all trading posts at a price that was almost the same as the price of cabbages.

Investment needed to be cautious, many fledgling rookies had been taught a valuable lesson by NPC.

Wasteland Online's economic system was not just about buying low and selling high. Especially when the copper price suddenly fell later, many people felt that there was an invisible hand behind all of this.

Escaping Mole: Actually, I have always suspected that someone had already started hoarding before the expansion was launched. I knew that if there was a war, the price of copper ore and sulfur would definitely increase.

Lightning Professor: Then why didn't you buy some, buddy? (Grin)

Escaping Mole: Sigh, I would like to. But this kind of business can't be done without tens of millions.

The price of copper was almost 10 times that of iron, and this thing was more suitable for processing into bullets than steel, so it was rather difficult to find in the wasteland.

The market price for making a set of 100 kilograms pure steel breastplate was 100 silver coins, but if it was pure copper, it would cost 1,000 silver coins... Although no one would use copper to make armor.

Based on that, 1 ton of copper would cost 10,000 silver coins.

And the NPC warehouse reserves would always start from 100 tons; it was even said that it had already reached thousands of tons.

If this was true, it would mean that there were at least 10,000,000 silver coins worth of goods in the NPC warehouse!

Even the sum of silver coins in the pockets of all players on the server was less than that!

This game had a loan function, but players could only apply for a loan for production and business purposes in the name of a business. Once it was determined that the use of funds violated regulations, or there was a suspected transfer of interests in the accounts, the player and their business would be punished to bankruptcy in minutes.

Unprofessional Retort: Oh damn. So you think the price of copper was raised by NPCs?

Irene: The NPCs in this game are really incredible. They even know how to scam players. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Although the fluctuation of the trading price of copper ore was only a small episode on the eve of the expansion, stories of players making a big fortune really made many people envious.

Especially since there was an official silver coin consignment platform, in which not only players could participate in the transaction, but even cloud gamers could participate as well.

Ye Wei, who was sitting in the classroom playing with his mobile phone, had a helpless expression on his face as he watched the posts in the general chat section predicting whether the silver price of the new expansion would rise or fall.

The main reason was that the topics these people were talking about were getting more and more complicated, and he couldn't understand them a bit.

Aren't you tired of discussing this on the forum every day?

Lightning Professor: You don't understand! This is also a kind of fun! (Proud)

Ye Wei: ...

This guy.

He's completely unaware that he is being played by Light.

Ye Wei even heard that there was a cloud gamer named Warrior Worker who had 10,000 silver coins in their account before they even entered the game.

However, what made this guy smarter than other cloud gamers was that he had completely utilized the rule that any form of virtual assets can participate in transactions.

He contacted players qualified for testing through the trading platform to register a company for him in the game. Then he paid for the technology himself, asked players qualified for testing to help hold shares, and produced inverters that converted direct current to alternating current in the game, completely treating Wasteland Online as a business simulation game.

Although it was not something with high technical content, it sold surprisingly well and had received quite many orders from many downstream manufacturers.

The official website recognized the right to freely dispose of unbound assets in the game. Although most people couldn't enter the game, their legitimate rights and interests in the game could be guaranteed.

As long as one didn't take advantage of the loopholes in the rules to maliciously farm silver coins, everything would be alright.

Ye Wei had thought about it carefully. Although Light often made empty promises to them, he actually treated the players very well.

Other game companies treated players as cash cows, but only their brother Light treated players as brothers. Not only had he never exploited them, but he even developed a function to help them make money.

When he thought about it, Ye Wei was almost moved to tears.

Such a game company was simply too kind!

...

"Ah Choo!" Chu Guang sneezed all of a sudden.

"Caught a cold?" Xia Yan, who was standing aside, glanced at him.

"No. Maybe someone secretly praised me for being handsome." Chu Guang rubbed his nose and muttered.

It's probably pollen.

Xia Yan rolled her eyes at him. Realizing that it was not a cold, she no longer cared about it.

Today was the first weekend of April and her first day off for the month.

As the number of players gradually increased, the work of the weapon shop became more and more busy. A certain black-hearted boss finally succumbed to his conscience and arranged for a few more people to help, and she finally got a day off every week.

There was no need for her to go to work, and she could be very openly lazy.

In this rare leisure day, Xia Yan originally planned to spend the day reading novels on the sofa in the reading room. However, the ultimate scammer managed to lure her out with a single sentence. “Follow me, there’s a treasure I want to show you.”

To her surprise, Chu Guang was very low-key this time. He actually went out without wearing his iconic blue exoframe, not even his blue coat.

Xia Yan was quite embarrassed at first, thinking about what kind of treasure he was planning to show her in the wilderness without wearing his iconic clothes. When she arrived at the destination, she was stupified.

Next to the refugee village stood a tall red brick mill, and behind the muddy ridge not far away, there were endless emerald green crops swaying in the wind.

The nearby residents were busy working in the fields. Beside them were two-headed oxen with sturdy limbs and round waists, and several chugging tractors that were running on the road, pulling the cargo boxes full of bulging sacks.

That was north of Dawn City, the west side of Longevity Town.

The scenery was not bad, but...

This was the treasure he wanted to show her?

Xia Yan blinked, her expression a bit confused.

All right.

She admitted that this endless farmland was indeed quite spectacular to look at. However, it was just a bit different from the tryst she imagined.

She had thought that this guy would take her for a walk by the lake, or go hunting for bird eggs in the woods.

However, she suddenly remembered that just 3 months ago, this place seemed to be a wasteland full of shrubs and gravel.

It was truly unbelievable that everything could change so much in 3 short months.

Following behind Chu Guang, Xiaoyu, who had been looking around curiously, had a surprised expression on her face as if she had discovered the new continent. She pointed forward and yelled with excitement, "A lot of green wheat!"

"Hahaha!" Chu Guang rubbed her hair with a smile and explained in a pleasant manner. "That's not green wheat. It's wheat. The cake baked with wheat flour is much more fragrant than the dry green wheat cake."

Xiaoyu swallowed unconsciously and looked up at him expectantly. "Really?"

Chu Guang smiled and nodded. "Of course! Not only pancakes, but also bread, steamed buns, and noodles that can be made from wheat flour... In short, there are many ways to eat it."

When April arrived, wheat would enter the heading and flowering period. At this stage, the young ears of wheat would begin to differentiate and grow rapidly.

At the moment, it was necessary to ensure that there was enough water in the field, and it was also necessary to topdress the field to prevent pests.

If those problems were not dealt with properly, the wheat fields would not only have yellow leaves and dry leaf tips, but may even age prematurely.

It was not an exaggeration to say that the work at this stage would directly determine the grain output from July to August.

At present, whether it was refugees or players, whether it was contracted fields, resettlement fields, or collective farming fields, they all used seeds cultivated by shelter plantations.

Although the genetics of those seeds were already excellent, if they wanted to obtain a greater yield, they still needed to take good care of them.

It was exactly for this reason that Chu Guang allocated at least half of the portable steam engine purchased from Boulder Town to irrigation canals.

The matter of fertilizer was a little easier to solve. There was a lot of bird and animal manure on the edge of Linghu Lake. These were natural high-quality fertilizers, which could be used directly after a little treatment.

As for pesticides, the most widely used in Longevity Town was organophosphate, which was produced by a chemical plant in a nearby industrial area.

It was said that the large-scale plantations in the Prosperity Era all used integrated planting techniques that integrated infrasonic killing devices.

Although long-term exposure to high-intensity infrasound waves would seriously affect people's health, farmers at that time did not have to work in the fields like farmers in the New Alliance. They all used smart wearable devices to sow seeds with a single click, so their healths weren’t affected in the slightest.

But the New Alliance wasn’t able to do the same. At present, only relatively primitive pesticides could be chosen to prevent and control pests.

"What about there?" Xiaoyu tiptoed excitedly, looking at another field not far away.

Chu Guang followed her gaze and said with a smile. "There are leeks planted there."

Leek was also a good crop. Other vegetables could only be planted once or twice a year, but leeks could be planted all year round.

And the most important thing was that it grew fast and could mature within a month. Especially in early spring... Leeks grown in that period were the most tender and fragrant.

After finding the leek seeds in Shelter 117, Chu Guang immediately had people plant them.

Thinking of scrambled eggs with leeks and dumplings stuffed with leeks and pork, Chu Guang swallowed unconsciously and began to think about the recommended recipes he would be publishing the next day.

Just when his thoughts were drifting away, Luca, the person in charge of the farm, walked towards him, looked at him in surprise, and said. "Sir administrator? Why are you here?"

In the past few days, due to the busy farming season, he was in the field almost every day. In fact, he nearly brought his bed over to sleep by the fields.

Chu Guang looked at Luca and smiled. "I'm just taking a look. Don't mind me. By the way, how's the farm's harvest this month?"

As soon as the matter was mentioned, Luca revealed a look of joy. "1,998,000 square meters of vegetable fields and 3,330,000 square meters of early-maturing potato fields are already being harvested!"

"Thanks to the harvester your residents made, we are able to harvest the crops very fast." After saying that, he couldn't help but sigh in admiration. "That harvester is so useful. It not only harvested the crops, but also plowed the land! We can plant new seeds without even the need to plow the soil again!"

Listening to Luca talking excitedly, Chu Guang also showed a happy expression. "Very good!"

There were a wide variety of vegetable fields, mainly relatively fast-growing leafy vegetables such as cabbage and Pak choy, which could mature in 20 to 30 days.

The only downside was that these vegetables wouldn't last very long and were mainly used to improve their meals.

The same couldn’t be said for potatoes. Not only were they rich in nutrition, it could be eaten as a meal. They had a great yield as well.

Although they planted the early-maturing variety that would mature in 60 days, and they planted them at the end of January, they still had a yield of 1,000 to almost 2,000 kilograms per 666 square meters.

So for 3,330,000 square meters of farmland, at least 5,000 tons of potatoes could be produced!

These 5,000 tons of potatoes could be said to have solved the urgent needs of the New Alliance.

Players could eat a lot, but the awakened strength type savages could eat even more. The amount of food they ate in a meal could be as much as the food eaten by 3 or 4 adult residents. In fact, if they didn’t restrain themselves, they could eat as much as 5 people!

With these 5,000 tons of potatoes, no matter whether his players would eat them steamed, fried, or in different ways, Chu Guang would no longer have to worry about looking at the list of food reserves.

Potatoes were good for everything. The only disadvantage was that its water content was too high. Because 70% of it was water, if Chu Guang wanted to store them on a large scale for a long time, he had to either dry them or grind them into powder.

However, if he did that, he wouldn’t be able to grow more.

Coupled with the debuff that monocropping could cause production reduction, few countries would regard it as a staple food.

However, when there was not enough food to eat, it was still very good to rely on potatoes for emergencies.

Using high-yield potatoes and vegetable crops with a short growth cycle to meet the nutritional needs of residents of the New Alliance until the harvest of wheat, rice, corn, and other staples in July and August was the highest priority task assigned by Chu Guang to the logistics department.

Only when the granary of the New Alliance was full of food could he absorb more NPCs and recruit more players.

When the time came, life would finally get better.

"... You must remember the crop rotation I told you about before. Don't keep planting the same crop in the same field. After planting potatoes, you can plant spring corn. After planting leafy vegetables, you can replace them with rice."

Although Chu Guang knew that Luca had written everything he said in a small notebook, he couldn't help but remind him again.

Luca replied with a smile, "Don't worry, sir, I will never forget what you told me! In fact, when we were working on Brown's Farm before, after we planted a round of crops, we would usually sow a handful of green wheat seeds, the kind that can mature in 2 months. We used to keep half of the harvested crops for ourselves, and half for our livestock. The rest of the straw would be burned to ashes and used as fertilizer.”

"That should also be considered a type of crop rotation, right?”

Chu Guang coughed lightly and mumbled, "Green wheat... Don't plant it on a large scale in the future. Although it grows fast, the yield is too low, and it will affect the yield of the wheat field. For us at this stage, planting it only has disadvantages, and we cannot see the benefits."

The most important thing was that it was unpalatable.

The sour taste could not be removed no matter how long it was cooked, and the cake baked using it was very dry. Chu Guang always suspected that it might be neutralized with the alkali used in the dough to form calcium salt or something else.

Since there was enough arable land, Chu Guang was still more inclined to let his residents and players have better food.

As for the wasteland crops such as green wheat and shofar potatoes, they were good for providing relief to refugees, supplying prisoner-of-war camps, and pastures for tribal people.

He heard from the people of the Frost Spear tribe that the two-headed oxen fed with green wheat not only gained weight faster, but also produced more milk than those fed with grass. Therefore, it was okay to grow a little in the pasture.

Luca nodded seriously. "I will remember it, sir."

After not interfering with Luca's work and letting him go about his own business, Chu Guang walked around the ridge.

Admiring the luxuriant leek seedlings in the field, the corners of Chu Guang's mouth curled up unconsciously. The thriving scene was really something he would never tired of seeing.

If only autumn would come sooner...

At that time, the scenery on the north shore of Linghu Lake would definitely be more spectacular.

Xia Yan asked curiously after following behind Chu Guang, "Is this how you spend your day off?!"

Chu Guang joked, "My day off? Is there anyone else who can rotate with me?"

Xiaoyu gave him a worried look. "Brother Chu should also pay attention and rest well. Don't work too hard."

Chu Guang smiled and said, "Don't worry. Although I don't have holidays, I don't work 24 hours a day. I can still find time for rest and collecting inspiration materials."

However, it was true that he'd been very busy recently, and he actually had to sneak out of his busy schedule for a walk.

The day of the Northern Expedition was getting closer.

In addition to discussing with the staff to formulate a specific attack plan, he also had to coordinate the production of the industrial zone and develop the economy of the New Alliance.

Although Little Seven helped him a lot, it was impossible for a robot to do everything for him.

Using AI to assist management was a municipal experience in the era of the Federation, but it was an unimaginable path to completely entrust AI to make decisions.

Xia Yan looked at Chu Guang in surprise and didn't speak.

Seeing Crazy Xia staring at his face, Chu Guang touched the tip of his nose subconsciously. "Is there something on my face?"

Xia Yan shook her head. "No, I just feel a little surprised... By the way, how long are we going to stay here?"

Chu Guang reckoned that she was not interested in farming, so he said with a smile. "We come here just to take a look... Let's go, the good stuff I'm going to show you is on North Street in Longevity Town."

"Speaking of which, it has grown bigger than the market at the north gate of our base, so let's go there for a stroll."

As soon as Xia Yan heard about the market, she suddenly became excited, and all the exhaustion in her body was swept away. "I want to buy clothes!"

"Sure!" Chu Guang said with a laugh. "Anyway, you got your wages already. You don’t have to let me know how you wish to spend it."

...

"... Copper ores were discovered in Remote Creek Town to the south of us? And it's a million-ton-level ore vein?"

In the department store in Bluestone County.

After listening to his subordinate's report, Lion Fang, who was sitting reclined on the chair, revealed a surprised expression.

Copper ore? Remote Creek Town?

Is there such a thing?

"Are you sure the information is accurate?"

During the heavy snowfall last year, he stayed in Remote Creek Town for several months and didn't find any copper ore. How could the group of blue coats find copper ores as soon as they passed by?

There’s no way things were so coincidental!

Of course, it may also be that his subordinates did not have that level of skill.

As a leader, he knew best how dumb his subordinates were.

The marauder kneeling on one knee under the steps lowered his head, hesitated for a moment and then said. "I'm not sure about it... But I heard that the whole Dawn City is talking about it, and it even spread to Red River Town."

Lion Fang immediately felt even more uneasy.

Copper ore! That was copper they were talking about!

No matter how stupid he was, he still knew that copper bullets were better than iron bullets. And whether it was an iron barrel rifle or an automatic rifle, it was also the same.

And the most important thing was that smelting copper was much easier than steel.

The inability to increase steel production capacity had always been a problem for the Bonechewer Clan. Although they had taken over a large number of armaments from the Army, it was definitely not good to always eat other people's leftovers.

The equipment was enough for now, but they still had to make bullets by themselves.

In fact, it was not that they hadn't tried to solve the supply problem themselves, but there were too few educated people among them.

Even if there were some capable people among the marauders, depraved mercenaries, and bounty hunters who came to join them from neighboring provinces, the development of industry couldn't be solved by just a few people and a few design plans.

The carrier of technology was people, and the basis of industrialization was also people, and it needed to be educated people. However, unfortunately, this in itself conflicted with the organizational philosophy of the Bonechewer Clan.

What they wanted to establish was a country of marauders, not a country of civilized people. That was also why they were able to attract to many like-minded people.

It was precisely because of this, whether it was Fang Clan, the Snake Clan, or other clans, they weren't good at industrial development.

They managed their factories in the same way they managed slaves. On the one hand, they used large furnaces to make steel, but on the other hand, they used the primitive forging process to strike the steel on the anvil, using quantity to make up for the inferior quality.

Lion Fang didn't bother to think about how the bullets were made, but he knew that the they needed copper.

A copper mine with a reserve of 1,000,000 tons, and it's discovered so quickly. Maybe it won't be too difficult to mine.

Thinking of this, a hint of greed floated in Lion Fang's eyes.

To marauders, the spoils always belonged to whoever captured it. If he could occupy the copper mine in the south, he would not only be able to become a Division Commander with this accomplishment, but he would also be able to have his own clan flag.

Seeing the greed in Lion Fang's eyes, staff officer Bernie standing to the side frowned and reminded him in a low voice, "It might be a trap."

Lion Fang furrowed his brows. "Trap?"

Bernie nodded. "This possibility cannot be ruled out... Maybe those blue coats deliberately release information to lure us out of Bluestone County."

Lion Fang froze for a moment, then laughed out loud, "With them alone? So what if they lure us out."

Bernie shook his head. "Obviously, they're not the same people as they were a few months ago. Didn't you hear those guys from the Death Coast, they even have planes."

After a pause, he continued with a serious tone. "A few months ago, they could even crush Black Snake without those things. So we'd better be careful."

Hearing his staff officer, Lion Fang calmed down.

Although he was greedy, he was not stupid.

Black Snake's equipment was much stronger than his, and they even had a powerful tank. However, they still couldn't pull out that stubborn nail nailed to the north of Clearspring City.

But that being said...

There was a copper mine!

Seeing that Lion Fang still couldn't let go of the copper mine, Bernie said in a deep voice, "The most urgent task now is to find out whether the information is true or not. I suggest sending a team of scouts to head over to gather intelligence. In any case, we have to determine whether there is one, and if so, where it is, before we can make the next step."

"It makes sense! We have to figure out the situation first!" Nodding his head in agreement, Lion Fang glanced around at his subordinates, then casually pointed to the burly man with a big face and round waist on the left.

"Copper Furnace, you have the word copper in your name, so you should understand this better than others. You take some people there to have a look, and report back to me immediately if you find anything!"

The man named Copper Furnace froze for a moment, his face full of shock.

Although there was the word copper in his name, he didn't know anything about copper mines.

What does a copper mine even look like?!

But after all, that was an order personally issued by the Brigade Commander. He didn't even dare to ask any questions, let alone complain. So he quickly lowered his head.

“Yes sir!”