The level requirement for the mission to go to Boulder Town was LV10 and the player’s contribution level had to place them as a Middle-Class Citizen.

After all, it was a test of the new system, and the developer might feel that it was more suitable to arrange reliable players to take the mission, so the threshold set was very high. The number of recipients was limited.

The process of the mission was very simple: escort the goods to Boulder Town, and serve as the NPC’s guard after the goods are delivered to ensure the smooth establishment of the office of Shelter 404 in Boulder Town.

During this period, players could move freely, and there would be an NPC to follow them, acting as a translator and responsible for communicating with the locals.

By the way, in addition to the office in Boulder Town, the outpost’s chamber of commerce was also under construction. A plot of land had long been selected at the north gate, and now the players were all waiting for the devs to develop the contents of the new folder.

Unless something expected happened, these facilities should be the prototype of the future Shelter 404’s "Commerce Guild".

According to Light’s own words, they intended to set up an interface in the game to make it easier for players to find NPC employees in a form that was more in line with the game’s style and setting.

After the function was implemented, all operations could be completed through the VM.

Thinking of the promises that Light had made, Quit Smoking looked at the NPCs at the door who were busy loading and unloading goods, his heart filled with determination to grow stronger.

He decided to work harder and try to get his level above LV10 before the new version was released.

In this way, in the new version, he would be able to experience more game content!

"Lone Wolf, do you want to go to the fifth ring to level up later?" Quit Smoking looked at the newcomer next to him, with an energetic smile on his face.

Lone Wolf froze slightly. "Me? I don’t need it. I’ve completed the Passing The Torch mission, and got the VM already."

Looking at this unambitious guy, Quit Smoking said with a serious face, "You just reached LV3, how can you be so lackluster? After you get the VM, the game just officially starts! Don’t you want to go to a higher-level world? Don’t you want newbies to hug your leg and call you boss?"

To be honest, Lone Wolf really didn’t think that way. He enjoyed the process of playing the game itself more than showing off in the game.

What’s more, in reality, there were many people who called him boss...

"Uh, there’s no need for that, right?" Lone Wolf smiled embarrassedly, "I’m an intelligence type player. There are quite a few ways to gain experience for me, and I don’t have to fight monsters to level up. I’m going to go to the industrial area later. So maybe you can find someone else?"

Quit Smoking couldn’t help but curse, "Damn it!"

So hateful!

This guy… He ditched me as soon as he got the VM.

Where’s our friendship?!

Thinking that chips might be very important mission props, Ample Time and Old White discussed whether to bring any more specialties to Boulder Town.

At this moment, a burly figure wrapped in cotton-padded clothes and with green skin swaggered out from the south gate and let out a happy howl. "Hahaha, spring! Spring is here! I finally got through it!" ŘＡ₦ọ𝖇ĘṨ

Gasp…

Still a little cold!

However, his level had gone up, his metabolism had also been enhanced. In addition, with cotton-padded clothes, it was not as bad as it was in the past.

Garbage was very happy, but the people at the door were terrified.

Especially the few mercenaries next to the caravan. They were so shocked that they even took out the guns on their backs.

Fortunately, the nearby guards quickly stopped them, which prevented a bloody conflict.

"What the heck, where did you get such a big lizard!? Is this Deathclaw’s cub?!"

"He can even speak human language!"

Seeing the two frightened mercenaries, Xu Shun coughed dryly and explained, "This is our administrator’s pet… He has a special training method."

The two mercenaries looked at each other, and saw the shock in each other’s eyes.

The blue coats have this kind of ability?!

I’ve never heard of it!

They had seen nobles in the inner city dress dogs, but it was the first time they had seen someone dress up as a Deathclaw.

Is it really okay not to tie a rope around its neck?

"... I’ve never seen something so incredible."

Hearing his companion’s speech, the other mercenary also swallowed. "I bet those slackers in the tavern have never seen it before either."

...

The loading and unloading of the goods did not take too long.

Before noon, a caravan composed of players and NPCs, with psychoid leaves worth tens of thousands of chips, a radio station for communication, commodities for testing the market, and the hopes of countless players, set off in the direction of Boulder Town again.

The size of the caravan this time was much larger than last time, and both the number of people and the number of goods had doubled.

Hopefully, they will be back with good news in a week’s time.

Whether Shelter 404, which had already embarked on the fast lane of development, could step on the accelerator again, it all depended on whether players and NPCs were able to do it well.

"May good luck be with you!"

"The warriors who are pioneering the future."

Standing upstairs, Chu Guang watched as the caravan disappeared at the end of the cement road outside the south gate, sending his blessing to them, and then turned around and went downstairs.

Liszt, who finally got the equipment, couldn’t wait to take the personnel and equipment to the industrial area.

30 workers were ready to start working for a while now.

According to Liszt, the equipment could be installed within a week, and within three weeks the engineers would complete the job training for the workers and start supervising the production.

However, efficiency couldn’t be guaranteed for the time being.

After all, the educated workers that Chu Guang promised only knew some words and numbers.

But Liszt was full of confidence… Well, it cost him almost nothing.

Silver coins?

That was lent to the company by Shelter’s bank. Whether it was salary payment or buying raw materials, it was not his chips, but the number on the account for him.

Chu Guang had promised him that the factory’s debts would not affect their cooperation, and even if his factory went bankrupt, at most the factory’s assets would be liquidated, and he wouldn’t be liable for any losses.

In Chu Guang’s own words, it was the limited liability system, and only the legal party needed to bear the liability.

It was a new word in Boulder Town, but maybe it was common in the pre-war era.

In any case, the deal was not a loss for him.

Liszt was only thinking about one thing right now, and that was starting the production as early as possible! The earlier he started the production, the earlier he could turn rubbish into chips.

He could also be one step closer to his dream of being promoted to the upper class!

...

That night.

After a busy day in the industrial area and the outpost, Chu Guang returned to the shelter, turned on the computer, and started the work that a game designer needed to do.

The forum was as lively as ever.

Escaping Mole, who went to Red River Town, finally posted his strategy.

In fact, it was not that he hadn’t been on the forum in the past few days, but he’d been fighting monsters along the way. Because it was nothing special, the attention of the entire forum was snatched away by Ample Time’s post.

Now that the guide for Boulder Town had been updated, Escaping Mole, who saw the opportunity, immediately posted the guide and attracted the attention of those players who were craving more game content.

Escaping Mole:... God damn it, we have been really unlucky along the way. Those mutants were so fierce that it was like they were on drugs. I finally figured out why I couldn’t see any people in this area. Most likely, they were caught and eaten by those monsters!

- It’s a monster’s lair! I have marked it on the map, but it is out of communication range and has not been updated to the big map. On the way, we also passed a survivor’s colony, which seems to be a small trading post. There were two other caravans resting there as well.

- According to the heads of the two caravans, Snake Clan is expanding eastward, and the Bonechewer Clan’s territory is getting bigger and bigger. The trade route to the north has been completely cut off by them, and the business is getting more and more difficult to do. But amongst all the ideas of traveling between the Eastern provinces and the Western provinces, passing through the River Valley Province is still the best one … and that could be good news for us.

- In addition, I finally arrived at Red River Town today! To describe it in one sentence, this place is so damn desolate!

- The soil here is probably polluted. There are basically no tall trees here. Flowers, grasses, shrubs, mushrooms, and anything that grows out of the ground are all poisonous! However, there are many arthropods here, and herds of two-headed oxen that seem to be able to break down these toxins. They are the main food source of the survivors here.

- The people that are trading with us are from the Horseshoe Merchants Association. They were the people who bought captives from us before. There are a few soilless cultivation units in their station, but I am afraid that the amount is not enough for everyone to eat. Probably, they are probably only for the rich people.

- When I took out the dry food, many people had a greedy look in their eyes. We should be able to make a lot of money by transporting the extra food here.

- Oh yes, I almost forgot to mention it! The people here don’t use chips, nor do they use gold or CR. Instead, they use tickets issued by the local Mining Association.

- Anyway, most traders won’t stay here too long. The locals simply put the slaves and minerals on the banknotes and marked them with numbers. The red tickets are for slaves, the blue tickets are for mines, and the numbers correspond to the mining areas. You can pay at the Mining Association, or directly at the mining area... In fact, saying it’s a Mining Association, I feel like it’s more like a place where several big slave owners gathered together to make money.

- Also, although this place is desolate, the population is quite significant, primarily scattered in the various gathering areas of the merchants associations. They’re mainly composed of bounty hunters, mercenaries, and cowboys who keep two-headed oxen, as well as their families or purchased slaves.

- Maybe it’s because there is no hive in this place, I didn’t see Slime Mold Mutants like Crunchers. But that doesn’t mean it’s safe here. Those people have a suspicious unclear relationship with the surrounding marauders. The NPC named Qian Duo said that we shouldn’t trust those people completely, but we still have to do business with them. This place is probably the largest slave market in the southern suburbs. Whether it’s captives or clones, they will be sent here. We even met a bounty hunter who came from the east coast to help his employer look for the lost loved ones!

- However, the life of the slave owners here has not been very good recently. A while ago, the rise of the Bonechewer Clan made them a fortune, and the major mining areas are now fully packed, but those bloodthirsty barbarians started to target the south after occupying the middle of the province.

- The leader of Snake Clan seems to intend to do this profitable business himself, but the slave owners do not want to hand over the treasures in their hands. Those mountains of garbage are said to be able to last for centuries, which is worth more than a gold mine!

- To put it simply, they need weapons to defend themselves, tools to improve the work efficiency of slaves, and food! The priority is in descending order, and weapons are the first priority! The pictures attached are drawn by myself. Because I’m outside the service area, I can only take off the helmet and draw what I saw by hand, so please make do with those pictures.

- (Picture), (Picture), (Picture).

Unlike Ample Time’s post, Brother Mole’s post was rather sloppy, but he still described the whole situation there in detail, probably getting inspiration from Ample Time.

Not only that, this guy had good drawing skills, and he even added a few illustrations to the post.

Maybe it was because of these illustrations that his guide was posted late.

Quit Smoking: Old Brother Mole is awesome!

Elf Wang: Draw us some other illustrations! I want to see Hyrja!! I want to see Xiaoyu! (Crazy)

Night Ten: Boss Xia said she was very sad. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Lightning Professor: It feels like Boulder Town is like a cheap knock-off version of Night City, and Red River Town is a bit like a deluxe version of

Red Dead Redemption

... (Sweat)

Midnight Pubg: Although I feel like you’re forcibly making a connection, uh, but do they look like what you just described?

Drumhead Washing Machine: I never imagined that such a small River Valley Province would gather so many good places!

Old White: It’s not small at all. Besides, this is just in the game. In reality, which provincial administrative region can include two large plains and a mountain range? And there are also two urban agglomerations on these two large plains.

Irene: Morrowind is smiling at you. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Night Ten: Is it a special mod? It’s not necessarily possible without mods. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Chu Guang glanced at the post and clicked the mouse with his index finger, thinking for a moment. Red River Town’s specialty is population and mines, and its needs are weapons and food.

“There are a small number of production facilities there, capable of processing iron-tube weapons and even exporting special revolving rifles. However, the slave owners there have no incentive to industrialize. They don’t even have a stable currency, and trade in tickets," he mumbled to himself.

Tickets were not actually considered a currency, but more like a transaction certificate.

They would be destroyed upon redemption and issued upon production; they could even be issued without production. In terms of attributes, it was a bit like futures contracts.

The Mining Association was more like a guarantee agency by convention. For example, when A’s ticket couldn’t be redeemed today, B would help him pay first lest this idiot would affect everyone’s credit because of a small matter, causing everyone to lose trust in the tickets they issued.

And why the area code of the mining area was marked on the ticket was precisely that.

Party B, who received the ticket, would use it as proof of debt and ask party A to pay off the debt.

If A refused to pay it, then the dispute would be settled either in a civilized or uncivilized way.

Counterfeit? You say.

Such a thing wouldn’t exist.

Few outsiders would keep the tickets in their pockets, and they would basically redeem all their tickets before they left the town.

Because the local merchants often needed to do business with mine owners and slave owners, they would save some red and blue tickets, but they knew each other well, and no one would break the rules for petty profits.

"Interesting." Chu Guang raised his eyebrows with great interest, first highlighting the post, and then copying the content of the guide post in the text document.

He planned to wait a few days to revise it a little and update the setting on the official website for other players’ reference.

Finding that their assumptions accidentally came true in the next version of the game, the players would definitely be very excited.

After all, predicting the future of the game would give a much stronger sense of accomplishment than entering the Hall of Fame.

Of course, these were all small matters.

"... If the trade route can be opened up, it should be able to meet the growing demand for raw materials in the industrial zone."

Grain was not suitable for trading for the time being. This thing was also in great demand. An ability user would consume three people’s rations in one day, not to mention those refugees from the north. Chu Guang had to feed them before sending them to the factory.

In addition, with more food, more players could be recruited. And after the food was processed a little, it could also be sold at a higher price to passing traders easily.

Weapons on the other hand, were a good choice.

The post-war era wasn’t ancient times, even if Chu Guang didn’t sell them weapons, they would be able to get weapons from other people.

And if they bought weapons from other people, Chu Guang would have to find a way to intercept their supply line if they were in a war with them. It was much easier to let them buy from him. In that way, if they had conflicts with them, once they stopped selling weapons to them, they would have to rely on their limited inventory. And if they couldn’t find the new weapon supplier in time, it was a matter of time before they lost the fight.

This was also the reason why Chu Guang stopped importing weapons and made weapon R&D and production key projects, and why he was willing to pay for things made by Mosquito.

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Whether it was good or not, he had to use his own weapons.

"... The only trouble is that Red River Town is too far. The journey is full of mutant nests, and there are marauder guerrillas. If it is fast, it can be reached in two or three days. But if it is slow, it may take a week."

"However, with ability users as guards, it shouldn’t be a big problem!"

"And that place is outside the urban area, so trucks and crawler vehicles can be arranged. The difficulty of making the trade larger is far lower than the difficulty of doing business with the survivors’ stronghold in the city."

"This trade route can be arranged after the spring plowing!" Chu Guang glanced at the calendar and suddenly thought of something. "Speaking of which, it’s been almost three months. The corn at the greenhouse ruin should be ripe soon, right?”