Chapter 49: Chu Guang the Chessmaster

Actually, Ample Time wasn’t the only person who noticed the true meaning of the newest update. Many people discovered what was going on.

The significance of the update was far more than just perfecting the economic system and incorporating contribution points into the honor system.

Its greatest significance was to emphasize the cooperation between players! As the number of players increased, interaction with each other was actually inevitable.

A good social system could not only increase players' gaming experience but also their desire to play and daily activity.

Although the latter was somewhat redundant for technically advanced games like Wasteland Online...

So far, Chu Guang only screened hardcore players to allow them to enter the game. Almost all of them wanted nothing more than to stay online 24 hours a day! None of them would leave unless they were forced to go offline. They were so self-disciplined, almost as if they didn't have a sex life!

In any case, in the eyes of most players, the impact of the update on cooperation between players would be profound.

Although the official social system hadn’t been updated, many settings were actually paving the way for team formation and guild systems.

For example, the setting that allows players to share land use rights with friends...

Players might not be able to do much with five square meters of land, but when four players shared with each other, they would be able to obtain a significant twenty square meters of land! It was more than enough to build a small house.

Wasn’t that the prototype to create a guild?!

𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

"Little Seven, do you know what the soul of a game is?"

"Hmm, what is it?"

Standing on the third floor of the nursing home, watching the players coming in and out of the outpost base busily, Chu Guang's mouth slightly curled upwards. "It's mathematics."

"Mathematics?"

"Mhm, to be more precise, it should be numerical design. This is an art, and excellent numerical design can even be a type of gameplay in itself. In contrast, plot, graphics, and settings are the additional value added to the game."

After a pause, Chu Guang continued slowly, "Through the design of numerical values, we can keep the contribution points and money that most players who follow the steps can get in a reasonable range in a day."

"For example, under normal circumstances, it takes two to three weeks to be promoted from a resident to a citizen. We can’t make this time too long as that would make players lose confidence in the game and we can’t make it too short either as things that are too easy to come by will become meaningless. When players become citizens and our core users, we will immediately set new goals for them, such as buying land."

Little Seven tilted its camera and wondered out loud, "Buying land? But the land price you set doesn't seem to be expensive, right?"

"Yes," Chu Guang nodded. "For players who have obtained citizenship, it will not take long to buy the land itself, but after buying the land, they still have to build something on it!”

"Building a house requires cement and bricks. A stronger small western-style building also requires steel. If a few more houses needed to be built, the demand for building materials such as cement, bricks, and steel would definitely increase, don't you think so? I don’t believe that these players would be satisfied to live in a shack in the game. In terms of why citizens can only buy five square meters per player... If I give them ten square meters, or even twenty square meters per player, soon our safe area will be filled with useless shacks and garbage."

Little Seven gasped in its robot-like voice, "Ah, this..."

For an AI, it was difficult to understand emotional manipulation like that, but Chu Guang didn't care.

With a faint smile, he continued, "When the house is built, you can't live in it unfurnished, right? Whether it's a bed, a table, a cabinet, carpets, curtains, or light bulbs when electricity comes... With demand, supply and production will inevitably increase."

Whether it's buying land to build a house or buying furniture, these all cost money, right?

And where did the money come from?

Hehe it was a shame the game was still in its alpha test stage and real currency couldn’t be used. If players wanted to make real cash, they could only do missions like an honest man!

Through the lever of the mission system, Chu Guang can easily control the flow of money, thereby indirectly controlling the behavior of the players.

For example, if the shelter lacked food, he would increase the remuneration for gathering and hunting tasks. If the shelter needed more houses, increasing the income from moving bricks, plastering, and making cement would be the way to go!

What if mutants or marauders came to their doorstep?

... Well, it would no longer be a matter of money then!

Chu Guang will start the "Never Retreat" war mobilization in the form of in-game activities, and temporarily exempt players from the death penalty during the event and issue them weapons.

Facing a group of maniacs that were not afraid of death... Even mutant humans who didn’t know what fear was in the past would be enlightened!

"... When they’ve tried almost all the daily tasks, I would open up a new identity level. There will be intermediate citizens above the regular citizens, and the land that can be purchased will be increased to 25 square meters. Then the second wall will be built. When that time comes, there will be no shortage of cement, bricks, wood, and steel. Not surprisingly, they will build a bigger house and experiment with other things."

"When they get tired of building houses, I would give noble titles to these old players and then arrange a slightly distant fief, so that they can have fun in their own territory and little kingdom. Weapons, ammunition, food, fuel, building materials... If they can't produce any, they can import them from the shelter, and those can also be tasks for new players.”

"As for what I can give them after that? I'll leave it aside at the moment. Damn, I just unlocked level B1 myself but I have to worry about what I can do for them...”

It's still unknown how many nurturing cabins were stored in Shelter 404. In the future, he might have to figure out where to build other nonsense.

He was convinced that the first Administrator, who seemed to possess great magical power and comprehended the unprecedented amazing technology, would leave him with something.

After the secrets were dug out by him, the truth would be revealed.

Although the road ahead was unpredictable, Chu Guang was still full of confidence in his version 0.3 update.

After all, he was playing a long game.

In the first phase of his plan, players who have received nine years of compulsory education were all high-quality productive forces. There would be no problem skipping the agricultural society to jump straight into industrialization.

After completing the most basic industrialization, the prerequisite for survival on the wasteland will be ready.

In the second stage, as the number of players expands, Chu Guang would try to procure a batch of native people from the wasteland to join the outpost to engage in basic production tasks such as farming, cutting trees, and producing cement. If there were special talents among these aboriginal people, he would also arrange special positions for them.

Players who have been upgraded to citizens can be freed from basic manual labor positions and devote more time to challenging and fun work such as creativity, combat, and exploration, and play to their advantage of being respawnable.

After that would come the third and final stage...

Ideally, the native people would act as NPCs and the players who were made from clones would form a special symbiotic social relationship by then.

They would complement each other's strengths and restrain one another.

If everything went well, the players who had real estate, property, equipment, friendship, and even love would regard Wasteland Online as their second life and become a champion of order rather than a challenger, forming a good game ecology.

Actually, games like that existed in reality. The phenomenon was also commonly known as a server environment.

Of course, Chu Guang knew that his plans would never keep up with changes. As such, he came up with many backup plans to deal with anything that might pop up suddenly.

But at least for now, the implementation of the first phase was pretty successful.

These closed alpha players carefully selected by Chu Guang were obviously convinced by his empty promises, and they were more cooperative than he thought.

Little Seven raised its camera, looked at its master standing next to it, and reminded in a low voice, "Master, do you know that you are smiling like a villain now?"

"Villain? Have you ever seen a kind villain like me?" Chu Guang glared at the rude robot...

"I liberated them from their boring daily routines and gave them an extraordinary and extra twelve hours in their lives! All they need to pay is a little sweat and the time they spend dreaming. Other than that, they don’t lose anything!”

Damn it! Now that I think about it, I should be charging for those damn helmets!

But after thinking about it again, Chu Guang didn't know what he would use the money for anyway. He couldn’t get anything he bought online, and he didn’t need to pay for the use of electricity and the production of those helmets.

At the very least, collecting money would pose to be a massive challenge.

Shaking his head, Chu Guang retracted his gaze from the window, turned his back to Little Seven, and yawned. "The wind here on the roof is pretty strong. I’ll head back into the shelter for now and leave matters here to you!”

The Bull and Horse Squad he was most optimistic about had already set off with the bows, arrows, javelins, and dry food. From the looks of it, they should be going out to hunt.

Before, Chu Guang had been deliberately training Night Ten, not only teaching him the experience of living in the wasteland and how to use his senses to track prey and insight into danger but also leading him to successfully find the deer herd.

If Chu Guang did so much and their squad still failed... Night Ten should be pretty ashamed of himself.

As it happened, there were not many 9mm bullets left, and Chu Guang decided to give himself a day off.

Little Seven bobbed its camera and responded obediently, "Yes, master."

...

At noon.

A hoarse whimper came out of the half-opened nurturing cabin next to the residents’ hall in the shelter.

"Wuwuwu, I finally respawned!" Because she was excited, she knocked her forehead on the hatch that was not fully opened when she sat up from the nurturing cabin all of sudden. Yaya rubbed her red forehead and sat up from the nurturing cabin again.

Looking at the delicate skin in the mirror opposite, tears filled her eyes.

Half of it was caused by pain, and the other was because she was excited.

Before going online, she had been watching other people discussing the game on the forum for three days!

Three whole days!

God knows how she survived these three sleepless nights without a helmet.

Wiping her tears, Yaya quickly put on the clothes placed in the cabin storage compartment and ran out of the room.

The lights in the residents' hall were on.

Chu Guang, who had just returned from outside, was sitting in front of the computer in the lobby and surfing the Internet.

Hearing the sound of footsteps coming from next door, he turned off the webpage he was browsing, released the mouse, and looked at the player who entered the lobby.

"Dear Administrator, please allow me to apologize to you for my hasty and reckless behavior!"

Although the game designer told her that an apology wouldn't help her much, the NPC was too realistic.

Especially when he looked over, she always felt that if she didn't apologize, she wouldn't be able to forgive herself.

"You don't have to apologize to me. What you failed is the trust of the organization and the people who are still waiting underground." Chu Guang glanced at her clothes and muttered.

If he recalled correctly, there were only two sets of blue jacket uniforms for each nurturing cabin. If the player died again, she would probably have to play without clothes!

Although Teng Teng has made some warm animal skin jackets, they are only suitable as outerwear. If there was nothing inside... It would be somewhat unsuitable...

Especially since Yaya’s figure was a bit special...

Chu Guang continued blankly, "... According to the rules, I should deduct 500 contribution points, but unfortunately, you have no contribution points to deduct."

Yaya lowered her head and whimpered with shame, "I'm really sorry, I’m willing to accept any punishment!"

"Punishment is for you to learn your lesson. If you want to survive in this wasteland, you need not only bravery, but also brains. I hope you can cherish your life, and cherish the hard-earned chance to come to the surface even more..." Chu Guang paused and continued, "I'll give you a task right now. Collect one hundred kilograms of food outside, including but not limited to wild vegetables, berries, and mushrooms. Until the punishment task is completed, your status will be reduced from 'resident' to 'criminal'. You can't get any rewards even if you receive tasks normally."

"Remember, your balance is no longer enough to pay the death penalty. If you die again, I will send you back underground permanently."

"Good luck."

Permanent repatriation meant kicking her out of the game forever

In the fictional game setting, all players came from the deepest part of the shelter. It was a dormant center that froze thousands of people, acting as an advance force that would return to the surface.

Hearing how she would be permanently banned, Yaya trembled and said quickly, "Yes! I promise that I'll never be reckless again!"

Satisfied with her attitude, Chu Guang nodded gently. "Now go."

Yaya was dejected and was about to walk towards the door, but she was suddenly stopped by the Administrator sitting at the desk.

"Wait a moment."

Yaya stopped and turned back. "Do you have any other orders?"

"Mhm, wait a moment, I'll show you something." With that said, Chu Guang took out a metal-packaged can from the drawer, pulled off the tab, and tore off the lid of the can.

An aroma wafted out from the can.

Actually, Chu Guang was shocked when he saw what happened. Who would have thought that not only was there no layer of stagnant oil, but it looked the same as it had when it had just been produced?

Was it produced recently?!

Chu Guang revealed a strange expression.

Do I still need to test if it's poisonous? I feel like it's unnecessary.

Yaya, who had just been resurrected, didn't think much of it.

Her stomach was empty at the moment. She was not hungry originally, but when she saw the delicious canned food, she couldn't help but gulp.

Looking at the administrator, she revealed a look of fright.

"Is this... Is this for me?!”

Chu Guang didn't answer. Instead, he asked a question of his own, “Do you want some?”

Yaya nodded quickly. "Mhm."

Chu Guang continued to ask, "Is there anything wrong with the color? For example... can you see if it's glowing in green light?"

Yaya shook her head vigorously. "No!"

When she was hungry, everything would taste delicious. Her attention was completely drawn to the food, and she couldn't help swallowing again.

The Administrator was really a good man!

It was true that he had just punished her, but, but...

"Okay, thanks." Chu Guang muttered before retrieving the can.

"I just want to show it to you, don't think too much about it."

???

In the end, she ran out of the shelter with tears in her eyes.

Sitting on his chair and eating the can of food, Chu Guang felt that he might have gone a little too far...