Near the new industrial area, in front of an abandoned department store.

Pieces of untreated wood were piled up in the open space in the shape of a pyramid, and the refugees kept walking past the piles, busy with their work.

Some people carried axes and chopped large logs into small firewood. Others sawed them into planks and carried them into abandoned department stores to repair broken walls and seal damaged windows and doors.

The ventilation of the underground garage was worse than expected. After they arrived, they found that it couldn’t hold so many people. The refugees who were transferred here could only temporarily live on the first floor of the department store.

Fortunately, the blue coats brought them a batch of wood and some bricks to make stoves in time by trucks.

Thanks to the wood and bricks, it really helped them a lot!

With brick-built stoves and smoke vents, they were able to get the smoke out of the building without having to risk poisoning and fire by placing burning charcoal next to their beds.

Fuel consumption had also dropped considerably as broken walls and windows were sealed.

The chef set up a large pot at the door, and porridge was boiled in it.

Although the smell of grass permeated the surroundings, the tumbling bubbles still ignited a glimmer of hope for the future life among the survivors with red noses to some extent.

That administrator in the blue armor didn’t break his word!

Those blue coats didn’t abandon them.

Life here was not as good as it should be, but at least they could survive.

As long as they could survive, there would be hope!

...

After three days of evacuation, the survivors of the five survivor strongholds, including Chaowei Battery Factory, Winter Willow Camp, and Highway Town, had all been transferred.

The outermost periphery of the northern suburbs of Clearspring City was completely wiped out. Next time those marauders came again, they would probably only find some useless garbage nearby.

The plan of building strong walls and clearing of wilderness finally reached the completion of its initial stage.

However, due to the blizzard in the past few days and the shortage of food, fuel and other supplies, the relocation plan of the second and third batches had to be suspended.

Chu Guang made promises to the remaining seven survivor settlements that if they were attacked, reinforcements from the shelter would arrive within half an hour, they only needed to hold on for half an hour, and the rest could be handed over to the soldiers of the shelter.

But to be honest, in that damn weather, they were less likely to be attacked than if they were frozen to death.

Even on the repaired road from the outpost to Longevity Town, trucks passing by would occasionally break down, not to mention marching in the wilderness.

With the pitted road conditions on the wasteland, a large army would probably be trapped in the snow before they could march a few kilometers.

What’s more, the Bonechewer Clan was located further north, and the situation they were facing at this moment would not be better than them. The temperature in the further north would be more than just minus ten degrees; it might be minus twenty or thirty degrees.

Even if they were cannibalistic, they still had to cook the meat...

The cold winter that came was not only colder than previous years, it could only be described as worse than anyone could imagine.

Chu Guang went to Baker Street before, and while inspecting the situation there, he chatted with Old Charlie for a while.

Old Charlie told him that he had been living there for several years. But a situation as bad as this year had only appeared twice in his memory...

...

The second day after the implementation of the Wartime Regulations.

The suddenly tight food supply made life a little worse than before, but it did not have an unbearable impact on the players’ gaming experience.

The restricted purchases were mainly green wheat and shofar potatoes, while rice, potatoes, wheat, corn and various flours were not included in the purchase restriction.

With players’ income, they could easily afford the more expensive crops.

However, the doubling of the benchmark price still put a lot of pressure on Lifestyle Profession players who set up stalls in the market.

It was time for dinner at the North Gate Market.

The players sitting in front of Zhang Hai’s Ramen stall shouted loudly, "Boss Zhang, why has the price of your noodles increased again?"

"That’s right! Even the meat is cut thinner than paper, and it costs 2 silver coins for a bowl of plain noodles!"

"Twice as expensive as before! This is outrageous!"

Annoyed by the shouting, Zhang Hai tapped the cauldron for cooking noodles with a ladle and said impatiently, "Don’t complain to me, go complain to the flour seller in the warehouse! 1 kilogram of cornmeal is sold for 5 silver coins now, so is it too much for me to charge you 2 silver coins for a bowl of noodle?

Mhm

?"

If you complain again, it will be 3 silver coins tomorrow!

However, what Zhang Hai didn’t expect was that the diners sitting in front of the booth didn’t buy his noodles and continued to shout.

"Damn it! I don’t care how much your ingredients are, I want more noodles!"

"Yeah, of course it is too much!"

"Where’s the Market Supervision Bureau? I want to call the police, there is a black-hearted businessman cutting corners here!"

"@#%!"

Those fuckers! I will definitely sell a bowl of noodles for three silver coins tomorrow!

Not only ramen noodles, but also barbecue and steamed buns had gone up in price.

Only then did they start to miss Yaya’s mushroom soup.

The bowl of mushroom soup, which cost only one silver coin, was simply a glimmer of hope in the cold winter.

They used to think it was expensive, but now they finally realized that it was really cheap.

When the spring came, the mushroom stall would resume business. Many players hoped that Yaya would keep some good memories alive, and not increase her price...

Walking in the market at the north gate, Chu Guang listened to the voices of the players while thinking about what to eat.

It was also part of the administrator’s job to observe his people’s sentiments.

After all, if he only looked at one report, he would easily become a map strategist who had no understanding of the real situation.

In general, the impact of his first round of price hikes was still manageable, and the effect had met Chu Guang’s expectations.

The average daily income of players would increase by 50% to 100%, the price of food, clothing and daily necessities would increase by 100% to 150%, and the prices of industrial products such as weapons and bullets would remain unchanged, which was equivalent to a price reduction.

All in all, Lifestyle Profession players were not weakened, Combat Profession players were epicly strengthened!

At present, the only thing that had not increased in price was the milk sold by nomads and some jerky made from prey.

The nomads of the Frost Spear tribe brought the craft of making dried meat from afar, and the dried meat they made had a unique flavor. Because it was easy to carry and cheap, it was very popular with some players who liked to play the jungle role. Although the taste was slightly inferior, it was very cost-effective as dry food.

After all, green wheat was now a controlled product, and green wheat cakes had disappeared from the market.

Since they couldn’t eat cakes, players could only use jerky as dry rations.

Walking beside Chu Guang, Xia Yan murmured, "Is it my illusion? Why do I feel that my salary disappears faster and faster?"

Her dinner actually cost her 7 silver coins!

It was the first time that she had a sense of crisis and felt that her salary was not enough.

Chu Guang didn’t feel much, and replied in a relaxed tone, "Looking at it from another angle, players can now buy more guns from you, and your performance will also increase. Soon you will find that your salary has more than doubled."

Xia Yan frowned. "But a gun can be used for a long time, right? It’s impossible for your players to buy guns every day."

Chu Guang explained patiently, "You can’t think like that, you have to buy bullets when you buy a gun, right? And since you have a gun, you also need to purchase some accessories. Sights, body armor, helmets, frag grenades, more durable backpacks, bandages, etc... These cost money."

In the past, the productivity of the shelter was insufficient, so Chu Guang had to be cautious when setting mission rewards to avoid flooding the market.

Now, the productivity of the shelter has reached a new stage. Chu Guang needed players to consume and buy the weapons and armor produced by the factory, so that the factory could expand production and further reduce the cost.

That way, a virtuous circle of supply and demand balance could be formed.

Seeing the confused look on Xia Yan’s face, Chu Guang smiled lightly. "It’s fine if you don’t understand, these things are too difficult for you."

Xia Yan glanced at Chu Guang and said with some caution. "Why do I feel like you’re laughing at me?"

Of course, Chu Guang would not admit it, and replied casually, "I never said that."

After strolling around the market, Chu Guang finally bought three meat buns and went to Autumn Weed and Autumn Leaves sisters’ stall to buy two bottles of milk for his dinner that day.

It was too cold, so he didn’t have much appetite.

Besides, everyone was cutting down on food and clothing consumption, and as an administrator, he should not have an extravagant lifestyle.

Once he was done, he started to walk towards the nursing home.

Just as Chu Guang walked to the door, he saw Yin Fang coming out of the elevator.

He was holding a cubic metal gadget in his hand, which looked about the size of a basketball. There were 4 mechanical legs under the chassis, which made it look like an octopus.

Taking a bite of the bun, Chu Guang looked at him curiously and asked. "What are you holding?"

Seeing Chu Guang, Yin Fang’s eyes lit up and said excitedly, "A quadruped robot based on neural connection technology! Remember the black box you picked up from Shelter 117? Based on the neural connection device it generated, I modified it a little with VM and some other parts, and then I made this stuff. Isn’t it awesome? I made it myself!"

The fuck?

I didn’t expect him to be so creative!

No longer interested in eating, Chu Guang looked at what he was holding and immediately asked, "How are you supposed to use it?”

"It’s easy! Just put on the special connected device… Right, it just happens that I was about to test its performance!"

Saying that, Yin Fang took out a thumb-sized wireless earphone from his pocket and threw it in Chu Guang’s hand. "You’ll know when you put it on!"