Chapter 2: Shelter 404

Chu Guang, male, aged 26. Since his parents divorced when he was young, he grew up with his grandfather. However, in his second year of university, his grandfather passed away, and he found himself alone.

Fortunately, he was born in a peaceful era, so he was able to finish his education by working while studying. After graduating, he got a job in sales and, because of his outstanding performance and his boss’ appreciation, was soon promoted and became a supervisor.

Just when Chu Guang was starting to feel optimistic that he had survived the toughest period of his life and could finally live a good life, God decided to stop playing by the book. Five months ago, destiny had played a joke on him that seemingly went a little too far.

Chu Guang could still remember what had happened back then...

At the time, he was negotiating a twenty-million-yuan contract with his client. Because his boss happened to be in a great mood, the alcohol didn’t stop coming. However, before he knew it, everything had gone blank.

When he came back to his senses, he found himself lying in the middle of a wilderness that was by no means ordinary.

Much to his shock, despite having walked for two miles, Chu Guang failed to find even just one person. Moreover, he almost got mauled by a giant dog with two heads. Fortunately, the beast’s appearance woke him up from his drunken stupor. Breaking out in cold sweat, he turned and ran as fast as he could.

Perhaps it was because its heads were too heavy, but it exhibited poor coordination while running. After chasing him for some time, it barked twice, then finally gave up.

Even though Chu Guang couldn’t see the beast any longer, he didn’t dare walk back in the same direction. However, he didn’t know where to go either!

Only then did he realize that his wallet and mobile phone were gone. Even his clothes had been replaced with a blue jacket that came from god knew where.

Finding a small puddle, he lowered his head to look at his reflection in the moonlight.

‘Good god! Not only did my outfit change, but I also look different!’

He didn't know what kind of crazy asshole would drug him, change his face, and leave him in this deserted place!

While aimlessly wandering around the wilderness, his attention was drawn to smoke rising in the distance.

Thinking back, Chu Guang felt a trace of lingering fear. While desperately running toward the faint promise of life, he thought of calling the police.

It was fortunate that he had come across a place with signs of life. If the smoke had been caused by predators who would kill without hesitation, like cannibals, mutants, or worse, he might have already been turned into human stew!

Coming into contact with the survivors in the area, Chu Guang eventually went through his fragmented memories. He then discovered that he wasn’t in Hua, the country he lived in. In fact, he wasn’t even on Earth!

In this parallel world, the war had taken place some two hundred years ago and wiped away all the achievements of the civilization that populated the lands, leaving behind nothing but a devastated wasteland and several pitiful survivors.

The year was 2340. The great war that destroyed everything happened at the start of 2129, and it had already been two hundred and eleven years since civilization had been destroyed!

Shock, astonishment, indescribable fear... Those were the emotions he had felt.

Fortunately, Chu Guang's receptive abilities were fairly strong. After getting through the first few days, he gradually began to adapt to life in the foreign world.

He had struggled for the first five months because he had to worry about filling his stomach. Moreover, while worrying about his next meal, he also had to fight mutants and predators with malicious intentions.

A few hours prior, just as Chu Guang was beginning to pessimistically think that this was how his life would forever be, his situation took a huge turn.

In the ruins of an abandoned nursing home, he found the entrance to a facility named “Shelter 404.”

More specifically, Shelter 404 found Chu Guang.

While traveling, a sound rang in his head and guided him to the nursing home. When he approached it, he realized that it was where he had woken up when he first arrived in this world!

If he hadn’t started running around as soon as he had woken up or if the sky had been a little brighter, he might have already found it back then!

In any case, although five months late, he had finally found this “cheat,” and with it, a brand new job fell into his lap. Shelter 404 seemed to have been prepared for him, and it had been waiting for a long time.

The moment he stepped through its doors, his identity changed from a scavenger to the administrator and only resident of Shelter 404, and he had only one job. Using the Internet back on Earth, he had to guide... or fool... a group of creatures named ‘players’ to come to this world and work for him.

Yes, the incredible technology in Shelter 404 could not only connect to the internet of his home world but also had its own official website! Players who applied would automatically be given a number and be registered in the [Shelter Resident Directory] of the administrative system.

As an administrator, Chu Guang could choose a specific number in this system to issue a game qualification to his target. The system would deliver the game helmet to the specified player in a special way. Players would only have to wear it to connect to the nurturing chamber in the Shelter and wake up in a clone’s body.

How considerate, not to mention convenient!

Although there would be no punishment if Chu Guang didn’t take the job, the rewards for completing the missions were not something that he could easily refuse.

The body armor was a great example!

After struggling to survive in the wasteland for five months, he had learned how important such life-saving treasures were.

Moreover, the quest also rewarded him with a good amount of points, which he could use to redeem loot boxes on the Administrator Menu. He needed one point to buy the basic loot box, ten points for the intermediate loot box, and one hundred points for the advanced loot box.

According to the System’s explanation of the Administrator Menu, the type and quantity of items drawn from a loot box varied, but he would always get something from it. There was no such thing as a wasted chance where he would only get a congratulatory message...

The level of the loot boxes determined what the guaranteed rewards would be. For example, the basic loot box could provide food and supplies, the intermediate loot box was guaranteed to have medicine, and the advanced loot box had the potential to drop weapons.

The System did not mention if one could draw the other loot boxes’ rewards from a basic loot box. However, it was safe to say that even if it was possible, the probability of it happening was really low.

As Chu Guang wondered whether to use the five points he had gained to open a basic loot box or save it until he had enough to draw a weapon, the bin squatting in the corner spoke again.

"Master, a new mission has been uploaded to your administrator log. Please check it as soon as possible."

Annoyed, Chu Guang replied, "Got it,"

Damn it. Who is the master here?!

Rolling his eyes at the corner where the bin was, Chu Guang set the whole loot box debate aside for now. He mentally summoned the administrative system.

Soon, a light blue holographic screen was projected onto his retina.

Administrator Log

[Mission:

Shelter 404 activation conditions have been met, but the first batch of rewards has been sent out. Ensure at least one player logs on.

]

[Type:

Main Mission

]

[Reward:

Active Matter Extractor

]

[Mission:

Prepare a generator with power greater than ten kilowatts

.]

[Type:

Side Mission

]

[Reward:

+100 Reward Points

.]

‘Huh? One hundred points?!’

After reading the missions uploaded to his administrator log, Chu Guang's eyes lit up. The main mission’s reward piqued his interest the most. "Active matter extractor... What’s that used for?"

"Active matter is a raw material necessary for making clones, ”Little Seven replied. “As for how to use it... Maybe you’ll get instructions or something?"

For an AI assistant, Little Seven didn't seem to know much.

Currently, Chu Guang only has access to Level B1. Access to the other floors had to be unlocked through the main missions. If he forcibly destroyed the walls within the shelter to illegally enter the other floors, the shelter's electric generation and air filtration facilities would be interrupted. When he had first entered the shelter, the ‘Shelter System’ loaded into his brain had informed him of this. However, even without the warning, Chu Guang would not do something as stupid as destroying his own house.

‘What a joke! If I demolished the place, where would I live?’

The shelter was just as well designed to withstand strategic-level nuclear strikes, so it wouldn’t be easy to destroy it anyway. Never mind a nuclear bomb. He didn’t even have a gun.

"Okay, I think I get it now."

In other words, the active matter was similar to "resurrection coins,” which were resources players needed to consume to re-synthesize clones.

Level B1 had one hundred nurturing chambers, all of which were in an operable state. Chu Guang believed that he would have to insert one unit of active matter inside one of them to create the first synthetic clones. According to the system's ‘one machine, one number’ setting, Chu Guang could now summon up to one hundred "players" to descend into this world in the form of clones.

Of course, Chu Guang knew that things weren’t as simple as they seemed.

For starters, the official website of Wasteland Online had no web traffic. When people heard that it was a 100% realistic immersive virtual reality game, they immediately assumed that it was a lie. After all, such a technology did not exist in reality. Even those fake news sites wouldn’t make up such obvious lies.

Secondly, even if he did manage to scam eleven players into the game, he couldn’t be sure that they would listen to him! Players could enter and log out of the game on their own, and his power only allowed him to kick out, ban login rights, and confiscate the game qualifications of those players. He couldn’t force them to wear the helmets and log in to work for him!

Hence, he had to carefully select the first batch of beta players! He would rather have fewer subordinates than get troublesome ones!

It was better to be safe than sorry. Otherwise, he could find himself with all sorts of problems!

Well... Finally came his most critical problem. Resources in the wasteland were also extremely limited. He could hardly even support himself. The more people there were, the more difficult things would be, especially since every person he’d add in would be another mouth to feed.

He was basically a pauper right now. Never mind supporting a hundred people. Surviving on his own was already hard enough! Even if he could use all one hundred nurturing chambers, they would just become food for mutants and predators. It was pointless.

Chu Guang went back to the computer and sat down again. After calmly thinking it over, things started to become clear.

Logging in to his Penguin Chat account, Chu Guang opened a gaming group called "

Bull and Horse Club

and created a group chat for just the group owner and the three group administrators. Afterward, he sent them a message.

- Once you’ve applied, please send me the number that the official website has assigned to you. There are only four openings for beta testing at the moment. It would be best to keep the best things for ourselves. If you like, I can ask my company to send the placements and game helmets directly to you.

They often played games together, so giving them these kinds of benefits wasn’t out of the ordinary. More importantly, Chu Guang couldn’t think of anyone he could ask in real life, so he could only rely on these online friends, whom he had never met even though they had known each other for quite some time now.

As for my relatives...

After his grandpa died, he stopped talking to them. It had been years since then. If the police hadn’t notified his relatives about his disappearance yet, they likely still had no idea that he was no longer in their world.

What about my landlord?

Well, his landlord was probably searching all over the place to get him to pay his rent...

My classmates?

He hadn't contacted them since they graduated.

Colleagues?

Haha, what a joke.

Because of his bad luck, Chu Guang found that they had already deleted him from their contacts. Even if they hadn't, he wouldn’t have sent them a message anyway. After all, they probably thought that he had died at the dinner table. Receiving messages from the dead would be pretty fucking scary...

Comparatively, those trolls he met online were the best choice. They didn't know him in real life, and even if he hadn't been online for five months, they wouldn’t think too much about it.

White_Horse_Passing_a_Crevice: You’re the best, Daddy! Boss, you are awesome!

Level_8_Gale: Super! Awesome!

There_will_be_ample_time: 666![1]

Girls_public_enemy_ten_times_a_night: OK! Our brother here is unstoppable! Waiting for this game helmet! (?° ?? ?°)

Chu Guang continued typing his instructions.

- There’s one thing I have to tell you, though. You’re the only one who can use the equipment. Don’t lose it or take it apart. Otherwise, I won’t be able to explain it to my company. The device will be bound to each user’s identity information, so a single device can only run a single account.

He wasn’t really worried that the players would try to share the helmets, though. According to the system, each helmet would only recognize its first user's information, and it wouldn’t work for anyone else.

He didn't need to worry about getting them the equipment either. Since the system could deliver the helmet directly to the player, he figured there had to be a way to provide maintenance and service, so he found no reason to care about it.

There_will_be_ample_time: Does it cost anything?

Chu Guang: No fees during the beta testing phase, but because of the tight budget, there won’t be any remuneration.

There_will_be_ample_time: Noice! I’ve DMed you my game number.

White_horse_passing_a_crevice: Awesome! Hahaha! Give me one too. If it really is a completely immersive virtual reality game like you said, I’ll livestream your game to promote it for free!

Level_8_Gale: Haha, in that case, count me in!

Girls_public_enemy_ten_times_a_night: (?° ?? ?°)

Although the four clearly didn’t believe that a fully immersive virtual reality game could exist, they still sent him their gaming IDs. After all, they were curious and wanted to see what would happen. At the end of the day, it was just a number generated by the website. It wasn’t like it was their banking numbers and passwords.

Besides, they were also very curious about whatever he was doing...

After receiving the numbers, Chu Guang opened the administrative system without hesitation. He then looked for the Shelter Resident Directory and checked the ‘Issue Game Qualification’ box next to their gaming IDs.

It would take three days to synthesize clones in the nurturing chamber. During these three days, the system would use its special means to deliver the game helmets to the players. They didn’t even need to provide a delivery address!

As for the specific method of delivery and whether it would raise the attention of some organizations or whether the government would suspect it as an illegal operation, Chu Guang couldn’t care less.

All he hoped was that more people would notice the website. It would be even better if it caused a sensation. That way, he would have more options.

Perhaps noticing the number of activated nurturing chambers in the next room, Little Seven, who was squatting in the corner, expressed its doubts. "Master, didn’t eleven players apply on our website? Why are you only giving out four slots?"

"I only need a few players right now."

Turning off the Shelter Resident Directory, Chu Guang then opened the Administrator Menu page in the system and spent all five bonus points on basic loot boxes. At his current level, it would be pointless to save for advanced loot boxes.

The reward for his second mission was one hundred points, so he didn’t need to save the five points he just earned.

A fluorescence flickered in the light blue holographic screen, and the wall on one side of the room gently vibrated again. With a light

click

, the alloy door of the delivery chute opened.

Looking at the things lying on the platform, Chu Guang was slightly stunned.

"This... This is the loot box?"

"Probably,” Little Seven replied.

Chu Guang collected himself. "I thought the prizes would at least be packed in boxes."

Little Seven tried to come up with an explanation. "Perhaps the loot box is just a name for the lottery?"

Why’s the point of calling it a loot box if I can’t open it myself?! Why didn’t you just fucking call it a lucky draw?

Staring at the reward in front of the conveyor belt, Chu Guang fell silent.

"Hey! I get that it’s probably just a setting, but I clearly bought five boxes! Why are there only four of them here?!”

1. Chinese way of saying something is awesome ☜