Luo Hua and Ace continued to build the barracks, but the players around were bored and chatted impatiently.

"Jeez, these NPCs are so slow."

"Yes! It’s just to set up a tent, but they still couldn’t get it done after such a long time."

"Can’t they set up a table to finish the registration first? They are so dumb that they don’t know how to work around it!"

"When will these NPCs finish building the tent? Can you give me a progress bar? If it’s too long, I want to cut down a couple of trees first."

"It’s too slow! I can’t stand it anymore, I want a new map. I want to play the new map!"

If Luo Hua and Ace knew those shelter residents were complaining about their inefficiency, who knew what expressions they would show?

Would they actually be happy?

After all, they couldn’t wait to start working.

Would they be struck speechless?

It was reasonable. After all, no one liked to be rushed.

Too bad neither of them knew what the players were saying.

Just like the surrounding players didn’t understand what the NPC named Luo Hua was chattering about.

Luo Hua grumbled softly, "Don’t these blue coats have anything else to do other than watching us? Why don’t they come and help us if they are so free?"

"..."

Luo Hua turned to Ace and asked, "Speaking of which, what are we going to eat for lunch?"

Ace sighed, "We’re eating freeze-fried food."

"Sigh, fine. I knew it was freeze-dried food. When I think of those people sitting in the air-conditioned room drinking hot cocoa and playing poker, but I have to accompany a group of blue coats, I just want to ask if this is reasonable? I’d rather not have the 50CR subsidy per day! Speaking of which, what is the use of money in this stupid place? The natives don’t accept our money… How many times has this happened?!”

"..."

Maybe realizing that he was a little annoying, Luo Hua sighed again. "Okay... I admit that I’m talking a bit too much, let’s hurry up and finish this."

“Yes.”

Before it snowed, the barracks had to be completed.

Taking out the folding bracket from the box that Ace had carried earlier, Luo Hua carefully marked four points on the ground with the help of a protractor, inserted the frame on the ground firmly, and then covered the four sides with a plastic sheet.

After that, the frame of a model house was revealed.

Of course, it was not over yet.

Luo Hua then used a marker and a ruler to draw a door and windows on the plastic sheet, while Ace, who was beside him, held a metal can with a nozzle and sprayed gray foam against the transparent plastic sheet.

The foam was light, but highly sticky. It was fine, uniform, and had a matte finish, with its pores invisible to the naked eye.

Luo Hua took out the folding spatula and skillfully spread the foam sprayed on the plastic film evenly.

The whole job looked as easy as putting cream on plastic wrap.

The light gray foam was quickly spread on the plastic sheet. After it completely hardened, the color of the foam gradually darkened, and the whole foam layer became a wall that looked no different from a concrete wall.

Of course, that was what it looked like from outside.

When touched by hand, the texture of polymer materials was still very different compared to silicate materials.

Standing on the side, Sword Execution widened his eyes in surprise. He mumbled to himself, "What the hell? What material is this? Polyurethane? It doesn’t look like that... Is it sprayed directly on the plastic sheet? Can this thing be used as an exterior wall?"

Night Ten said with a contemptuous smile, "Be more imaginative, the background setting is in the future, is it weird to build a house with foam?"

Sword Execution held back for a while, and finally gave up the idea of arguing. "You are right, it’s a game after all."

If it was a game setting, it was not unacceptable.

The first foam wall was completed quickly, and the second wall was also completed the same way. When the two NPCs finished the construction of the second wall, the first wall was already completely dry.

In less than 30 minutes, a waterproof and warm mobile barracks was built.

Although the shelf life was less than one year and the quality was not as reliable as the proper silicate material, it was completely enough as a temporary facility!

Standing on the third floor of the nursing home, Chu Guang looked envious.

Those guys really have a lot of good stuff.

I have to find a way to get some of those things...

At this time, Luca, who came back from outside, walked towards the guests who came from afar, and handed Luo Hua a VM.

Luo Hua gave the old man a strange look, but did not reach out to take it. "We don’t need this."

Old Luca said respectfully, "This is what the administrator ordered me to send to you. It can help you to have some simple communication with these shelter residents."

Remembering the language barrier, Luo Hua didn’t continue to reject it and took the VM from Luca. "Okay, thanks."

Luca nodded slightly. "You are welcome."

...

After the barracks was built, two signs, one large and one small, were erected at the entrance in Chinese characters.

[The Pioneer office in Outpost 404!]

[Volunteer Registration Office]

That was right. Chu Guang wrote them personally and they looked quite neat.

At the same time, almost all players near the outpost received a message alert on their VMs, and players without a VM also heard the broadcast echoing inside the base.

[Server Announcement:

Quartermaster NPC is now online! A new building has been added to the outpost - the Pioneer office in Outpost 404!

]

[Quartermaster Luo Hua:

Dear residents of Shelter 404, I salute you! I’m the quartermaster from the Pioneer, and we’re having a little trouble with our fortress. This request may be very sudden, but we need your help!]

[Hint 1:

The quartermaster from the Pioneer seems to have some troubles. A quest has appeared on the map. Hurry up and talk to him.

]

[Hint 2:

The VM’s player profile page is now updated with exclusive event points for the expansion pack. Players can now earn event points upon completion of the missions in the new map! For players without a VM, you can check the points at NPC Luca or the administrator assistant, Little Seven, or log in to the official website to check after you go offline!

]

There was a huge crowd around the entrance of the barracks.

Almost as soon as the announcement was received, the players ran so fast that they almost flipped the table over.

"Me, me, me! I want to sign up!"

"Choose me! I am a strength type! Moving bricks is my speciality!"

"Fuck! Save your energy and stop pushing me. You are going to squeeze me to death!"

"How can I get to the front with so many people here?" Yaya, who couldn’t squeeze through the crowd, stomped her feet in frustration at the edge of the crowd. She stood on tiptoe and looked inside, but that made her look even more desperate.

The collision mechanism in this game is so annoying!

It would be nice to be able to pass through other players like any other MMORPG.

"Just give up." Looking up at her, Teng Teng sighed and looked up at the sky. "This feels like when a famous restaurant suddenly opened a new branch near my house. I was never able to reserve a table anyway, so I might as well wait until everyone loses interest."

Yaya finally came back to her senses. "It makes sense... Anyway, there will be a rotation every three days, we can also wait for the first wave of players’ strategies."

Teng Teng nodded in agreement. "Right?"

Not expecting the residents here to be so enthusiastic, Luo Hua, who was in charge of the registration list, was caught off guard for a while.

Ace, who was standing beside him, was also stunned.

She actually saw a bear in the crowd?!

It was also a White Bear!

"... Why is there a bear?"

Luo Hua, who was sweating profusely, had no time for her question. He only had time to take photos with his tablet to register shelter residents, and hurriedly issued numbered badges to them. "Who knows, it’s probably their pet… Don’t just stand there, can you help me?!"

"..."

It was the first time she saw such a well-behaved bear, and it was so fluffy.

Hmm...

She really wanted to pet it.

The office was in chaos.

Fortunately, the administrator had anticipated this situation in advance, and sent a helper to assist Luo Hua in completing the registration.

When he finally completed the personnel registration, Luo Hua set up a satellite dish and antennas on top of the barracks. After a short period of debugging, he finally received the signal from the Pioneer.

"... How’s the situation on your side?" It was the voice of a colleague in the logistics department that came out the radio.

Luo Hua replied, "It went very smoothly. So much so that it was beyond my expectations! These blue coats are so enthusiastic. As soon as our office opened, they swarmed to register... To be honest, I’m a little moved, I didn’t expect that there’s such a group of kind-hearted people living in the far inland area!"

The communication channel was silent for a while.

Li De coughed and continued, "...It’s quite surprising."

Luo Hua added, "Let’s not talk about what happened here. How long will it take for you to arrive here? Looking at their reaction, they can’t wait to start working."

"Almost there. Our captain is 2 kilometers away from you," Li De answered.

Luo Hua couldn’t help but frown, "Our captain?"

Li De nodded even though Luo Hua couldn’t see him, "Yes, he will personally lead the team and escort our reinforcements."

...

Leaning against the door of the weapons store, biting a frozen and wilted dog’s-tail grass, Xia Yan looked at the lively scene at the entrance of the office from a distance.

No players came to bother her today, and they all went to line up at the new office.

After working here for so long, she had accepted the identity of an NPC.

However, occasionally she was confused by this identity, because Chu Guang always emphasized the difference between NPCs and players. Moreover, he also said that NPCs rarely called themselves NPCs, just like players rarely called themselves players.

So what does this identity mean?

This role play is getting really weird.

At this time, Chu Guang walked towards her with a long shuttle-shaped weapon. "I need you to help me make something. This is a sample. The material should be made of tungsten steel or other metals with a higher melting point. The rest can be copied in a one-to-one ratio."

"Okay, I’ll take a look at it for you later." After taking this strangely shaped shuttle, Xia Yan looked at Chu Guang’s exoskeleton curiously and asked, "Where did you get this exoskeleton?"

Seeing that someone finally noticed the difference, a smile appeared on Chu Guang’s face. "Very cool, right?"

"It’s okay," Xia Yan couldn’t help rolling her eyes when she saw the guy’s smug smile. "So where did you get it?"

"It’s a secret."

"..."

Chu Guang said with a smile, "Just kidding, I found it in the shelter."

Xia Yan said helplessly, "I was just asking. If it’s not convenient for you to answer, then forget it. Also, how did you get involved with the people from the Enterprise?"

"They came yesterday and helped us solve the problem with the mutant humans on 76th Street… Is there a problem?"

Aware of Xia Yan’s strange expression, Chu Guang couldn’t help but cast a questioning glance at her.

"No, I was just a little bit surprised." Looking at the two people not far away, Xia Yan had a look of interest on her face. "A long, long time ago, the Enterprise’s expeditionary force once came to Clearspring City."

"The expeditionary force?"

"Yes, but that was a long time ago. And I heard that the Enterprise gathered in the East Coast area is massive, and there are so many internal factions. It’s said that they were not called Enterprise at first, but because they often changed their names, others simply called them that. After some time, they may have gotten used to this name themselves, or they may have felt that this name is the most well-known, so they also started to call themselves the Enterprise."

Chu Guang looked at her, surprised. "You actually know this?"

Xia Yan said nonchalantly, "It’s not a secret. But things about the expeditionary force happened a long time ago. It was so old that I wasn’t even born back then."

Chu Guang continued to question, "Then do you know why they came here?"

"Why else would they come here? Since it was an expeditionary force, it must have come here to fight a war." Xia Yan gave him a strange look. "Anyway, I only heard that they lost in the end. Afterwards, it’s really rare to see their people here. But their caravans still come to Clearspring City to do business from time to time.”

It seemed that Clearspring City was a place that was very hard to conquer.

But after thinking about it again, it was actually quite reasonable. With the straight-line distance of thousands of kilometers and the supply line of tens of thousands of kilometers, it would only be strange if they didn’t lose.

Hearing some interesting information, Chu Guang nodded with satisfaction. "Okay, I’ll talk to you when I get back. I’m going out for a while. If there’s anything urgent, you can contact Little Seven."

Xia Yan raised an eyebrow and muttered, "Where are you going? That fortress?"

"Why do I need to go there?" Chu Guang glanced at the map on the VM and set a coordinate on it. "There is a signal tower on 76th Street, it should be near the mutant human’s camp. I plan to go there and see if I can find it and repair it."

There was Luca watching over the Pioneer, so there was no need for Chu Guang to go there in person. His players were his eyes, and what they saw would naturally be shared on the forum.

The top priority now was to fix the signal tower.

After repairing the signal tower, the communication radius of Shelter 404 would be able to cover the northern suburbs of Clearspring City, and the range of drones would be further expanded.

At that time, whether it was sending missions to players or monitoring his little players, it would be much more convenient than what they could achieve.

"You’d better pay attention to your own safety. Do you want to bring two people with you?"

That was definitely not because she was worried about him… Xia Yan was simply worried that she would lose her protector.

Even her old man, who she didn’t know where he left to, had never looked after her like he did. It didn’t matter whether he was a devil or not. She felt that even if he was a devil, he was a pretty good devil.

"That’s true." Chu Guang thought for a while, and felt that it made sense.

However, the players’ interests were all focused on the expansion, and they probably had no interest in doing ordinary missions.

But Chu Guang wasn’t in a hurry, he just had to wait for some time.

There were currently 250 players on the server, and his contract with Captain Lu Yang only allowed for 200 laborers. That meant that no matter how hard they tried, there would definitely be 50 players who were pounding their chests and feeling heartbroken for not being able to participate in the special event.

As an administrator with high emotional intelligence, Chu Guang felt compelled to comfort those who were hurt in their hearts.

Mhm.

When the time came, he would pick two high-quality human cannon fodders to follow him to the mutant human’s camp.