Chapter 369.3: That's Why Human Nature Is Complicated

Ample Time replied with indifference, "No, I'm just playing the game normally, while those who bring real-world rules into the game are the weird ones. Would you feel guilty for killing a civilian in

GTA 5

, or pressing the nuclear button in

Civilization VI

?"

Old White thought for a moment before replying, "Not really, but I do feel empty after pressing the nuclear button."

After all... Once they started planting mushroom clouds all over the map, the game would pretty much end.

They had set the location for the transaction to be at the edge of the fifth ring.

The straight line distance from Dawn City to the edge of the fifth ring was further than from Boulder Town, but the actual journey was shorter.

There were buildings sparsely sprinkled around in the once residential area, and the New Alliance’s players had explored this area, but due to low returns, the exploration degree was not as high as the forest in the east.

The person buying the organs of those awakeners wasn’t Gracie. Instead, it was his customer, Edmund.

He was once Gracie's assistant, then caught the eye of the boss of the Dagger Gang, Jeff, and served as Jeff's personal doctor for a while.

Whether it was because the money was too little or for some other reason, Edmund later left the Dagger Gang to set up his own shop on the wasteland, opening a hospital.

Although he never named his hospital, the mercenaries familiar with the place habitually called it Edmund's Clinic or Edmund's Ranch.

As for why he gained his name... That was unknown.

In any case, the nobility in the inner city looked down on flesh and blood transplant. Not even mechanical substitutes that smelled of machine oil could catch their eyes. Only clean and hygienic bionic prostheses could be accepted.

Therefore, the users of the parts the Bull and Horse Squad were selling were mostly mercenaries who lived on the edge of the blade, bounty hunters, or even marauders.

People who often get shot at wouldn't think of equipping themselves with expensive parts. Cheap and durable was the way to go.

After all, no one knew when they would be hit by an EMP grenade when fighting out there. Electronic parts would only be a burden.

The parts of an awakener, although not enough to make them one, definitely meet the durability criterion.

"Golden Dunes Cinema... it's right ahead." Night Ten checked the map and locked his gaze on a relatively tall ruin nearby. "I'll go over there and help you set up camp."

"I'll go with him." Gale glanced at Night Ten and followed.

After all, they were conducting a transaction in the lawless land so it was better to be careful.

"Yeah, be careful." Watching the two disappear around the corner, Ample Time, standing in front of the team, waved his hand forward. "Keep moving."

The 20 or so players continued forward.

The abandoned cinema was on the other side of the street, the half-collapsed ruin transformed into a fortress.

All the horror-themed interactive holographic movies that had been screened 200 years ago were nothing compared to the reality of 200 years later... After all, people were dying left and right in the wasteland.

Kidney Warrior stared at the building for a while, then muttered softly, "Why do I feel like this is a marauder's den?"

Ample Time didn't speak but slightly furrowed his brow.

After hearing Kidney Warrior, it really did seem like a marauder’s hideout.

The blood-stained stakes and the scraps of flesh and limbs hanging on the stakes instinctively reminded him of the Bloodhand Clan they encountered several versions ago.

However... That was the trickiest part of Wasteland Online. Marauders wouldn’t openly reveal themselves, and it wasn’t as though there was a bright-red highlighted name indicating they were enemies.

As the players were sizing up the building in front of them, a pair of eyes hidden inside the building were also looking at them.

At that moment, the door opened. A bare-chested hulking man, accompanied by 4 underlings, emerged.

He exuded a strong smell of blood, the kind that was so thick it seemed visible.

Stopping about 20 meters from Ample Time, he raised his chin. "Where's the stuff?"

"Right here," Ample Time glanced at the boxes carried by a few players nearby, then at him. “Are you Edmund?"

"Dr. Edmund is performing surgery; I'm his apprentice, you can call me Iron Thorn." The man grinned before looking at one of his skinny underlings.

The gaunt man understood, immediately opening 2 boxes, showing Ample Time the chain of green, 25 points chips inside.

Ample Time didn’t move. Instead, he glanced at the nearby building where he could see the barrel of a machine gun emitting a sinister gleam from the shadow of a window.

Noticing his gaze, Iron Thorn laughed. "Don't mind us, we're very trustworthy, after all, only trustworthy businesses last long, right?"

"The chips are here, want to count them?"

Ample Time nodded and stepped forward. However, just then, his eyes moved beyond Iron Thorn's shoulder, and he saw the row of elliptical iron cages displayed inside the door.

The cages held men and women, mostly under 30, some even younger than 20. Their hair was disheveled, faces blurry. They were mostly clad in tattered clothes and some were even naked.

It was a similar scene to what he had seen in the stronghold of the Bloodhand Clan.

The only difference was that those people weren't kept in dark, damp dungeons. After all, what those people needed were healthy parts.

Meeting those despairing eyes, Ample Time felt his heart tighten slightly.

What kind of people am I dealing with?

He stopped, his legs as heavy as lead as his gaze turned to the man in front of him.

"Who are those people?"

"Those?" Iron Thorn was slightly taken aback, turned to look behind him at the iron cages behind the door, then turned back with a hearty smile. He chuckled nonchalantly, "Oh, those... They’re just some scavengers, some who owed gambling debts and were sent here, or defective products from the clone factory."

"But they're lucky, our customers are more interested in awakener's parts, and they can live a bit longer before we find a buyer."

That casual, objectifying tone and expression, treating people as goods, made many players feel physically uncomfortable.

Old White shifted his gaze subtly. He had always been slightly skeptical about Wasteland Online and he maintained a wait and see attitude towards the game.

Simply put, he hadn't fully regarded the game as a complete world, but he hadn't fully immersed himself in the gaming mentality either.

As such... He wouldn't judge other players' actions in the game with his own moral standards, nor would he allow in-game events to affect his real-life emotions.

However... He would probably decline the next time anyone called him for transactions like that.

Looking at the man and the chips in his box, Ample Time fell silent for a while. He eventually seemed to realize something and he sighed, "If it were

Stellaris

, even if I canned an entire planet of living people, I wouldn't feel any guilt."

"But in some games, even taking a can from an old man's house will make me feel conflicted for half a day."

Iron Thorn was stunned and he frowned at Ample Time. "What the hell are you talking about?"

He completely couldn't understand what the person before him was saying. It seemed as though the language wasn’t something he was familiar with.

He only felt that the atmosphere around this person seemed a bit off.

Ample Time ignored him, also not minding his shifting footsteps. He continued to speak in his incomprehensible words. "Nothing."

"I just suddenly felt... If I dealt with people like you, I won't be able to eat dinner tonight."

Standing behind Ample Time, Old White, who had previously had a complex expression, finally showed a gratified smile. "Haha, I knew you'd say that!"