Chapter 394.1: SSSR Mount... It's Not Going Too Far If I Sell By Weight, Right?

"You've already obtained the permissions for the main gate... Oh, that means the 'traitors' outside are all dead now." A laugh like sandpaper scratching a wall emanated from the decaying body. Lying in the hall, the Mother of Deathclaws looked at the players standing before her and said in a relaxed tone.

Surprisingly, though she used the word ‘traitor’ to describe Yong, her voice carried little hatred for his betrayal.

Having lived for over a century, perhaps even longer, she had seen too many births and deaths over the years and had long reconciled with her past.

Tail cocked her head, not quite understanding. "Traitor?"

"That was a story from over a century ago. There’s enough stories to make a several hundred-hour TV series... You wouldn't be interested.” The Mother of Deathclaws sighed.

"If you're referring to that guy who calls himself Yong... Yes, I did finish him off," Sisi glanced at the VM on her arm and continued, "Also, when I realized it, I already had the administrator permissions. Are the permissions tied to the VM?"

After she killed Yong, a new symbol suddenly appeared in the top right corner of her VM. After selecting and connecting, it unlocked features to control the shelter's systems.

That included the doors to the corridors, the air systems for different areas. Even the cameras in each room could be viewed.

It was like a console in an RPG game, so much so that she initially thought she had discovered a game bug and unintentionally unlocked the developer mode.

However, after some experiments, she quickly realized the permissions weren't as amazing as she had imagined.

At the very least, it wasn’t at the level of a bug.

The complex functions were hard to implement fully through the VM. It might require pairing with other more sophisticated terminals or auxiliary AI devices to be put to full use.

Otherwise, even with permissions, only a few basic operations could be executed.

Furthermore, the permissions could be transferred.

Considering the task bar of her mission where she had to obtain the permissions for Shelter 79, it wasn’t hard to imagine their administrator, Dawn, would take it away.

After all, in the game setting, the shelter was a public respawn point for players. They wouldn’t allow another player to retain the administrative rights to it.

Whatever it was, the strange experience was still quite fun for her.

In response to the young girl's questions, the Mother of Deathclaws answered casually, "To be precise, the shelter's permissions are linked to biometric features, which include multiple elements for cross-verification... Those are the real keys. The VM is just your terminal to access the Shelter System."

"VMs, biotechnology chips... Hardware that features biometric recognition. At best, they can serve as the carriers to connect with the Shelter System."

"I see." Sisi nodded thoughtfully. "So... Does killing the administrator transfer the shelter's permissions to the killer?"

The Mother of Deathclaws grinned at her analysis. "You misunderstand the rules. The correct interpretation is that when the life signal of the permission holder disappears from the signal collection area and no heir has been designated, the permissions will be inherited by the nearest terminal device holder."

"Your VM is one of those terminals. It records your biometric features, and although you're not registered in Shelter 79's logs... You're technically a resident of a shelter."

The rules sounded a bit convoluted, but Sisi tried her best to understand them.

Simply put, if there was no heir, whoever was closest to the VM before dying would inherit the permissions...

What kind of battle royale rule is this?

Seeing the odd look in Sis's eyes, the Mother of Deathclaws smiled faintly and continued nonchalantly, "I know what you're thinking... You’re probably thinking that such rules obviously have loopholes. If no heir is designated, it leads to the situation you mentioned... The killer inherits the administrator's permissions."

"The first administrator of the shelter designated me as the next administrator in his final moments, but perhaps out of distrust in me, or for some other reason, he did not transfer all the permissions. Instead, he split the permissions into many parts and set the rules for their inheritance."

"He wanted us to decide our own fate, including whether or not to continue the experiments."

"Ironically enough, although he made many preparations, everything proved to be meaningless. What he feared most still happened. We mastered the ability to breed demons before we could develop a morally perfect leader..."

The Mother of Deathclaws paused, her voice softening as she continued, "I will transfer the shelter's permissions to you... But before that, can you fulfill a small wish of mine?"

While there were more direct ways, like just killing her, the task didn't require them to eliminate the creature.

Sisi asked immediately, “What wish?"

If it wasn't too much trouble, she could fulfill it.

"I want to meet your administrator. It merely wish to satisfy my curiosity. In fact, a video call will do... You should be able to manage that, right?"

Sisi nodded. "That's a reasonable request. I'll convey it to him."

...

"A Deathclaw that stands two-story-tall... It's unbelievable that you guys managed to kill such an incredible monster. Before you kill it... Couldn't you let me study it first?"

In the library on level B4 of Shelter 404... Or rather, in Chu Guang’s office.

When news of what happened at Shelter 79 reached Hyrja, she was stunned as she stared at Chu Guang with wide eyes.

However, her reason for shock was a bit different from that of ordinary women her age.

After patiently listening to the New Alliance’s Chief Biologist's complaints, Chu Guang closed the file he had just organized and sighed, "Isn't the evolved type Slime Mold from Clearspring City enough for your research?"

While the players were raiding Shelter 79, Chu Guang was also busy.

Although he wasn’t on the front lines, he kept up with the players' raid progress.

His attention was placed on the experimental logs recovered by the players, strategic posts compiled on the forums, players’ plot analysis, and speculations about experimental accidents. With the help of Little Seven, he managed to organize them all into files. They were stored both digitally and physically, stored in the servers and the library of Shelter 404.

Although the plan ultimately failed, it was still an attempt by people of that era to save themselves.

Once everything was over, when the declining civilization entered a new era, he planned to donate his archives and records to a museum for future generations’ evaluation.

Hearing Chu Guang's comment, Hyrja snorted, "Of course not! The mutation of mycelium is not an isolated process, but a result of mutual influences with the external environment. The Evolved Type is just a subset of the entire complex system. To understand the whole system, we need more clues..."

Listening to Hyrja's endless chatter, Chu Guang rubbed his temples as he felt a headache coming.

Ever since he came to this world, he had an increasingly strong feeling the compulsory education he received, along with his 4 years of higher education were pretty god damn useless.

"Sorry, I didn't quite understand. Can you simplify that?"

Hyrja stopped speaking abruptly, sighed gently, paused for a moment, then continued, "In short, research on non-mycelium species can promote and enhance our understanding of mutant mycelium... Do you understand my explanation now?"

Although still somewhat unclear, it was much better than before.

Watching Chu Guang nod thoughtfully, Hyrja couldn't help but complain again, "However, such a perfect research sample... It’s a living fossil that lived for over a century! You guys killed it even though it was right before your eyes!”

It's such a waste!

They’re simply squandering resources!

Watching Hyrja's indignantly flushed face, Chu Guang smiled faintly and continued, "That creature was too dangerous. Keeping it might have been useful, but we couldn't risk it getting out of control, so I ordered it to be dealt with."

He paused, then added, "As for the research sample you mentioned, don't worry about that. We just eliminated the uncontrollable one. There's still another in Shelter 79."

Hyrja's eyes instantly lit up, her hands slamming down on the table, "Really?!"

Watching Hyrja's intense gaze, Chu Guang subtly took a step back and nodded gently. "Yes. Also, its identity surprised me. I didn’t expect the Great Stag God to really exist. I always thought it was just a legend.”

Shelter 79's administrator actually became a spiritual pillar for the wastelanders of the River Valley Province.

Though it sounded strange, it wasn't hard to understand.

In the eyes of those cloned beings, those researchers who could transfer consciousness into Deathclaws while controlling their life and death were basically gods.

Since the goal of their gods was to create an Immortal Emperor among them, sending calamity after calamity to weed out the weak and allowing those who survived to continue reproduction... If the story turned into a religion, their evil experiment could really be interpreted as mythology.

Later, some of the clones and experimental subjects followed Yong to escape, carrying that memory and their genes with them, passing it down generation after generation...

As he thought about it, Chu Guang revealed a strange expression.

As it turned out, the Great Stag God could actually be traced back to the experiments of a shelter...

In that case, could the Spirit of the Desert acknowledged by those in Sunset Province also be connected to some secret experiment?

Chu Guang had an increasing feeling it was possible.

It seemed necessary to organize a team of explorers to collect the strange and ancient rumors from the wasteland. They might actually find something big behind the seemingly casual clues.

Just as Chu Guang was pondering which small tavern to assign a new NPC for the players to, Hyrja continued to speak while shooting him an intense look. "... Alright! I’m planning a trip to Shelter 79 now! Have you obtained the permissions there? Grant them to me!"

Chu Guang frowned. "I haven't gotten the permissions for the shelter there yet, but it's just a matter of procedure. I'll go with you. I have some matters to handle there too."

Hyrja revealed a slight smile. "Alright! By the way, after sorting out what you need to do there, what do you plan to do with that shelter?"

Chu Guang pondered for a moment before he replied, "I haven't decided yet, I need to see if there’s anything valuable there."

Hyrja spoke cheerfully, "Great! If you haven’t found a use for it, you can give it to me to serve as my laboratory. Besides Deathclaws, the other species there are also excellent research materials! I've recently trained a few qualified researchers, and I plan to send them there to complete their training."

Hearing her suggestion, Chu Guang's eyes lit up. "That's a good idea, I'll consider it!"

While the exact condition of Shelter 79 was still unknown, according to Yong, the energy stored there could keep the shelter operational for five centuries.

Compared to the meager energy reserves of Shelter 404, Shelter 79's reserves could be described as ‘outrageously generous’.

Shutting down the facility would allow the recycling of its nuclear materials, but maintaining the shelter's operation could serve as a biological research facility and a respawn point for players...

Energy +10068? Research +10? Or should it be an extra respawn point...

After briefly pondering over it, Chu Guang chose the latter.

He still had a fuel rod on hand, so he wasn't exactly short on fuel for the shelter.

As for the research facilities within that shelter... Those, along with recruiting more players' respawn points, were exactly what he needed!

Not only that, but the Deathclaws bred in Shelter 79 could also serve as a mount! Capable of traveling and fighting, and notably durable, they were extremely practical!

Combined with the technology recovered from Shelter 401 they had successfully reverse-engineered the Torch Church's Neural Interference Device with compatible equipment produced from the black boxes recovered from Shelter 117.

Though they couldn’t mass-produce it at the moment, limited production was still feasible.

Fitting a Deathclaw's neck with one and taming it as a mount wasn't too difficult!

Neeko, who was tied up in the outpost was the perfect example. Chu Guang rode it every time he went to the eastern district of Clearspring City. Even when he wore his exoframe, there was no problems riding Neeko.

It had been proven that Deathclaws could be domesticated by technological means.

Combining the research data on Deathclaws stored in Shelter 79, he might even get Hyrja's help to produce a lizard better suited to be a powerful mount.

As he thought of it, a meaningful smile crossed Chu Guang's face.

Such a badass and game-breaking Super Ultra Rare mount... Would selling it for 50,000 silver coins be too cheap?

Right, maybe I’ll just sell them by the pound! The heavier the Deathclaw, the more expensive!