Chapter 62: You Saved Our Family!

Chu Guang didn't see what expression Yaya had when she stepped into the mutant leech lair.

But when she appeared at the door of the warehouse carrying a large bag of mushrooms, her face was filled with joy.

Looking at a sack full of blue mushrooms, Chu Guang couldn’t help but feel shocked.

"Why is there so much?"

The panting Yaya nodded vigorously, and said with a smile, "I went in three times! I almost got bitten by them!"

"..."

Three times?! She was just too damn brave.

There's no way he would dare to do it.

After weighing the sack, he saw that she brought back a total of seventy kilograms of Blue Umbrella Mushrooms! Her harvest far exceeded Chu Guang's expectations.

According to his original estimate, she would be able to pick up about forty to fifty kilograms. He didn’t expect her to bring back seventy kilograms of it!

"A total of five hundred and 60 copper coins, which is equivalent to 56 silver coins. In addition, you will get seven hundred contribution points..."

Did I give too much? Nevermind... After all, she risked her life in order to earn them.

Hearing the numbers, Yaya jumped in excitement and she waved her fists about happily.

"Hell, yeah! I'm rich now, hahaha!"

"..."

Although I am an NPC, can you find a place where you can get all excited by yourself?

The thickness of a silver coin was less than two millimeters, and fifty pieces in a stack were about ten centimeters. Compared with the small vault of the shelter, it was only a drop in the ocean.

After getting paid, Yaya hummed happily and left. While Chu Guang, who was standing at the door of the warehouse, stroked his chin and thought to himself.

At present, the richest players were probably Old White and Ample Time. Their strength and understanding of the game were almost the highest tier among players.

During the time they had spent in the game, they had been hunting and they almost figured out the areas with the highest activity of prey around the outpost. Their daily income had risen from 52 silver coins to somewhere close to a hundred! Even if their hunting income was unstable, they should have saved a lot of money.

For safety reasons, Chu Guang checked the players' lockers every day.

Not surprisingly, the Bull and Horse Club should be able to save up the funds required to buy the land closest to the nursing home.

In addition, the wallets of other players were also getting thicker. Even if buying wooden weapons, iron weapons, leather protective gear, warm coats, tools, and food would consume some money, even the poorest had more than 10 silver coins!

"Perhaps I should update the bank function."

He would not only be able to save the players’ storage space, but he would also be able to collect the coins they had and redistribute it back in a way he saw fit!

The more Chu Guang thought about it, the more it made sense. He immediately took out the notebook in his pocket and wrote it down.

“I have to arrange for this function the moment the chance comes.”

...

While storing the mushrooms in the warehouse, Chu Guang checked the warehouse inventory while he was there.

Excluding what was consumed by trading with Sun Shiqi, he still had close to seven hundred kilograms of dried meat left. After deducting their daily consumption, they would be able to increase their surplus by a hundred to two hundred kilograms every day. More than half of it was contributed by the Bull and Horse Club!

It was the twentieth of the month. If their luck wasn’t bad, Chu Guang would be able to gather two thousand or so kilograms of dried meat. If he traded half of them away, he would be able to exchange them for five tons of grain.

Based on each person’s consumption of one hundred and fifty grams of meat and three hundred grams of rice per day, one thousand kilograms of air-dried meat was enough for one hundred people to consume for fifty days, and five tons of grain was enough for one hundred people to consume for one hundred and forty two days.

Of course, that was only under ideal conditions. It was not surprising that there was a deviation of more than twenty percent between the actual situation and the theoretical estimate. After all, the amount of food required was also related to how much they exerted themselves. Without exercise, it wouldn’t be a problem to feed them a single meal a day.

"...If I want to increase the number of players in the closed alpha phase to one hundred, I must double the theoretical estimate of food reserves. Especially meat... It would be great if players could still catch prey during winter, but if they can’t catch anything, it will be very troublesome.”

But from another perspective, maybe I don’t need so much food when the time comes...

When it's too cold, there is no need for everyone to go online, and they can come online every other day.

If the clones are in a dormant state, the food they require will be greatly reduced. The longest they can go without food should be seven days...

The only problem is that the players might not be happy to be absent from work for such a long time, and they will definitely start complaining on the forums!

However, Chu Guang also thought of a countermeasure. When that happened, he would just say that the server had to be shut down for maintenance.

How can there be unmaintained servers? This is a reasonable reason for stopping them from coming online.

Looking at the book in his hand, Chu Guang thought about the future of the shelter. Just then, a player trotted in from outside.

"Administrator, some natives are here!"

Natives?

Chu Guang looked away from his book, slightly confused.

Sun Shiqi just left, so he shouldn’t be back. Who else can it be?

After returning the book to the player who was working as the warehouse clerk, Chu Guang looked at the other player who came to make the report and asked, "How many of them are there? Which direction did they come from?”

"They’re coming from the south. There are two men and a girl!"

South?

Hearing where they came from, Chu Guang could pretty much guess who they were.

...

At the south gate of the outpost.

The old man with wrinkles on his face was wearing an animal fur coat as he stared at the concrete wall that spanned hundreds of meters long. He failed to hide his shock.

The last time he came to Linghu Wetland Park seemed to be two years ago.

The scavengers on Baker Street mainly explored the south. Unless they were hunting, they would rarely follow the Viaduct out of the city to the north. After all, there might be marauders who often rob the passing caravans.

As for the Linghu Wetland Park, it was probably a blind spot that people who went out scavenging and hunting would miss.

There were not many prey to be hunted there, not much trash to pick up, and almost no survivors would visit the area.

Unexpectedly, someone built a survivor stronghold in the forest!

Although the three-meter-high concrete wall looked a little shorter, it was new and strong. Compared with the broken wall along Baker Street that had been repaired countless times, it looked much safer.

Near the gate, some shelter residents in blue coats stood on guard.

The old man mustered his courage and called out, "I'm here to meet your administrator."

No one responded to him.

Those people simply watched and whispered to themselves, but the old man couldn't tell whether they had kind or malicious intentions.

It seemed... more like pure curiosity.

"...Are you sure we’re in the right place?" The old man looked at his second son with a trace of hesitation in his eyes.

Carrying a large package on his back, Yu Hu nodded vigorously in the face of his father's questioning gaze, and said resolutely, "Yes!"

Though the expression on the old man's face was obviously more hesitant. "They don't seem to welcome us."

Yu Hu's expression was a little bit awkward, and he approached his father and whispered, "Maybe they don't understand what we are talking about..."

The old man was stunned.

They don’t understand?

It can’t be... After all, that outsider in a blue coat understood when he spoke.

Yu Xiaoyu glanced at her father and elder brother, then at the wall in front of her, curiosity filled her big black eyes.

That was the first time she ventured so far away from Baker Street.

Chu Guang... Is he really here?

The next moment, a familiar figure appeared beyond the gates. When she saw the face clearly, Xiaoyu's eyes lit up.

However, there were too many strangers nearby.

Hiding behind her elder brother, she only showed half of her face. She stared at those people timidly and curiously.

Surrounded by a crowd of blue coats, Chu Guang arrived before the trio.

Looking at the old man who was standing before the other two, Chu Guang hadn’t given his greeting before the old man fell to his knees, shocking everyone around.

Chu Guang was also dumbfounded.

What the hell?!

"Dad?!" Yu Hu looked surprised, but before he had time to ask, his father grabbed his arm and pulled him to kneel before Chu Guang.

Xiaoyu was confused.

She didn't understand what her dad and elder brother were doing and didn't know what she should do. In the end, she tried to imitate the actions of her old man and her elder brother.

"What are you doing? Get up!" Chu Guang felt very troubled and stepped forward to lift the old man from the ground.

But the old man refused to get up. He just lowered his head, and his Adam's apple bobbed up and down for a long time, before he finally said, "Thank you. You saved our family!"

He was old, he could only work for two or three more years at most. In fact, he was already struggling that year.

And his son Yu Xiong, the eldest son of the Yu Family, was also the strongest labor force in the Yu Family, and could be said to be the pillar of the entire family.

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

If something happened to Yu Xiong, their family would suffer from hunger and cold.

The old man knew very well the situation of his family.

The outsider not only saved his son's life but also his entire family.

However, Chu Guang didn’t think too much about it. After all, he didn’t have to be so calculative. Saving them was easy.

"Please, get up... You're putting me in a tough spot."

It wasn’t the time to be humble, but he couldn’t let them kneel in front of him in front of so many people.

With that said, Chu Guang used a little strength to lift the old man from the ground.

Perhaps because of what Chu Guang said, the old man didn't continue to kneel after he got up. Instead, he reached out his hand to remove the package from his second son's back.

It was a package with deer skin and some animal fur on it. The stack looked pretty heavy.

The old man held it carefully before handing it to Chu Guang. He said sincerely, "You are the benefactor of our Yu Family, and we can't let you waste precious medicine in vain."

"We have nothing else to give you. These furs are peeled off from mutant hyenas and reindeer. There are seven pieces in total... Except for the tribute to the town mayor, this is all we have."

"I know these things are not enough to repay your kindness, but if we do nothing, we will feel uneasy."

"Please, accept them!"

If he really accepted all the wealth of a poor person, Chu Guang would also feel uneasy.

Chu Guang didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He couldn’t accept them, nor could he decline them.

The next moment, he suddenly thought of something. Even if the old man took those furs back, they would sell them to the old leeches on Baker Street, and then they would be ripped off. They wouldn’t be able to trade for much!

He remembered clearly that there was a sign hanging in front of Old Charlie's store, saying that a mutant hyena skin could be exchanged for two chips, and a piece of reindeer skin could be exchanged for four chips.

Of the seven skins, four were from mutant hyenas and three were from mutant reindeer. With the prices in Baker Street, the old man would only be able to get twenty chips at most.

The trade was unfair for the old man and it was already a type of exploitation, not to mention the fact that the twenty chips wouldn’t be able to exchange for much back there.

For example, if they wanted to buy green wheat on Baker Street with chips, they needed three chips to get a kilogram. The price itself was almost three times that of Brown Farm!

It was equivalent to ten sets of animal skins that could keep out the cold. Because of the unfair deal, they could only exchange less than ten kilograms of grain.

That was also before the price of food increased for the winter!

Was something like that reasonable? Of course not!

Of course, these survivors often used the chips to exchange salt or other daily necessities. Direct purchase of grains was still relatively rare. After all, they would plant some shofar potatoes themselves. They would also dig roots, catch mice, and hunt animals for food.

But in any case, what the old fart was doing was too much.

Chu Guang had long since disliked him!

In the end, Chu Guang decisively reached out and took those furs, handed them to the player closest to him, and said, "Send them to the warehouse and bring over one kilogram of coarse salt. I will pay you 5 copper coins for your troubles."

Although 5 copper coins were quite a lot for such a small mission, it was not as interesting as watching the cut scene.

The player looked reluctant. Although he couldn't understand anything they said, it was not like he had never watched an anime without subtitles before.

It was a shame that Chu Guang had already shoved the item into his hand and he had no chance to refuse.

Seeing that he didn't move, the cut scene couldn’t continue. Even if the player was doubtful, he could only run into the base.

It didn’t take much time for the player to quickly run back carrying a black bag.

Chu Guang took the coarse salt and stuffed it into the old man's hand.

"I have accepted the fur. There should be close to one kilogram of coarse salt here. You can treat it as a gift from me.”

The old man was taken aback and saw the salt in the bag. He immediately became anxious and quickly pushed the bag of coarse salt back. He refused to accept it.

"I couldn’t possibly accept it!"

"You are the benefactor of our Yu Family, how can I accept your gift!"

One kilogram of coarse salt!

On Baker Street, a hundred grams of coarse salt would cost two chips, and one kilogram was twenty chips! Not to mention that they would always cheat when they weighed salt, and they would increase the price when it was of good quality.

Although the bag of salt that Chu Guang brought was also coarse salt, the quality was much better than the one sold in the grocery store under the name of the old mayor.

At the very least, what he had looked better and it wasn’t too yellow.

"Just keep it." Pushing the bag back without any explanation, Chu Guang smiled as he looked at the old man. "If you get more fur like this, you can bring them all over to me.”

"One hyena skin can be exchanged for one hundred and fifty grams of salt, and deer skin can be exchanged for three hundred grams of salt. We will take as much as you have!"