Chapter 70: Cleaning Up The Battlefield

The north gate of the outpost.

The brawny man with his feet on the wooden stool and a rope hung around his neck begged for mercy with tears.

His name was Badger.

However, he was anything but someone who resembled a badger at the moment. He was more like a pitiful worm. "Please, don't kill me, I told you everything you want to know. You said you’d let me go!"

The players next to him couldn't bear to see a man cry like this. They all talked in a low voice.

"Is it a bit too much?"

"Yeah... This guy has already surrendered, maybe he can be our companion."

"It's a pity."

However, Chu Guang's expression did not change because of the brawny man's pleas for mercy.

The outpost didn’t have a cell to keep the prisoners, and it was even more unrealistic to lock them in the shelter. Moreover, it was foreseeable that no merchant who would be interested in slaves would pass by the outpost throughout the winter. Keeping those captives would only waste food and bring hidden dangers.

As for the information he gained from them...

What he got was not much different from what he had guessed.

Chu Guang never promised that he would spare them if they confessed.

For all the ruthless things they had done, hanging them was the most lenient punishment he could give.

"Confess your sins in hell."

Seeing that there was no hope for survival, the expression on the brawny man's face instantly distorted, and he yelled, "You scumbag! Liar! Even if I go to hell, I won't forget what you did! Just you wait, my leader will avenge me! He will hang you on the street lamp and let you watch your compatriots being slaughtered and rap-"

Before he spouted something even worse, Chu Guang, who was too lazy to listen to his nonsense. He kicked the bench away.

Hearing a soft snap, Badger ended his sinful life in the gallows of Shelter 404.

The makers of the gallows, Athlete Foot and Bathroom Goer looked at the execution from a distance, their eyes widened in shock.

None of them thought that the gallows they made for the sake of the post-apocalyptic feel would actually come in handy one day.

Looking at the corpse hanging there, the two of them turned pale, but they weren't very scared.

After all, they were just in a game.

It was just that the expression of the punished was too damn realistic!

He looked just like a real human who had been hanged!

"This game is always very realistic with strange details."

"May Buddha forgive us, Amitabha." Standing not far away, Teng Teng felt a little emotional. "Alas, war never changes."

She was a casual player and didn't really enjoy the fun of fighting. Of course, her dislike for battle was also related to her intelligence type attribute and her short legs...

The more she thought about it, the more depressed she felt.

Is this reasonable? It's not reasonable at all!

"It's okay! This elder sister will protect you!"

Standing next to her, Yaya smiled. She originally wanted to put her hands on Teng Teng’s shoulder, but accidentally put her hands on top of her head instead.

Teng Teng’s forehead was full of black lines and she clenched her fists. "I'll punch you if you touch my head again."

Yaya quickly let go and explained hurriedly, "Huh? No, I didn't mean it, I wanted to..."

"Okay, okay, just stop talking about it."

Nearby players were chatting as they discussed when the next wave of attack would come and how much stronger the wave would be.

Confirming that the man on the gallows was dead, Chu Guang looked at the two players closest to him, took out 5 copper coins from his pockets, and threw them into their hands. "Take these corpses to the morgue, strip them naked, and throw them together with the other corpses."

"When the generator is assembled, send them to the active matter extractor for extraction."

The two players recovered and nodded immediately. "Yes! Administrator!"

...

It didn't take long to assemble the generator.

Many of these players had good hands-on skills. Even if they didn’t understand what the manual was saying, just by understanding the structure of a generator and a few pictures, they actually completed the installation.

The whole set of power generation equipment was divided into two parts; one was a vaporizer for wood, and the other was a thermal generator driven by gas.

The structure of the former was very simple. It was essentially an airtight column with a cover on top.

As wood was fed into the generator from above, it would be dried before being heated up; it would crack from internal heating before partially burning with limited oxygen.

In this process, a large amount of heat would be generated making a layer of hot charcoal in the airtight column, which would react with the steam and other combustible gases produced by pyrolysis and finally form a mixed combustible gas rich in hydrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide.

Actually, that wasn’t a particularly sophisticated technology. During

World War II

, the German army used similar firewood vaporization equipment to power some tanks in the absence of fuel.

Generally speaking, three to four kilograms of firewood could produce the same effect as one liter of gasoline. The specific consumption depended on the type, density, and dryness of wood, making it impossible to generalize.

But it did not matter how much it would consume. What the outpost didn’t lack at the moment was firewood! All he needed to do was to arrange for someone to clean everything up and feed wood into the generator!

With his new power generator, he could produce ten kilowatts of electricity to the outpost. Even at full load, it would consume less than ten kilograms of wood per hour. It could be said that the generator was very cost-effective.

Starting it up successfully, the players roared with excitement.

Their outpost finally had electricity!

Many tasks that could not be carried out in the past were no longer stopping them!

"I'm going to dig for some wires and come back!"

"Can wires from two hundred years ago still work?"

"It should. Actually, it doesn’t matter. Even if it doesn’t we can melt it down and pull more wires from it. I will think of a way and see if I can make a transformer and a voltage stabilizer, and we can try to make steel directly on the electric furnace."

"Bro, you are such a genius!"

Listening to the conversations of the players, Chu Guang was also very happy.

The Active Matter Extractor with a thick layer of dust finally started to work, extracting the material left in the corpses into active matter.

He obtained close to four units from the ten corpses, and he finally made up for the active matter deficit caused by a certain dumb player.

"The battle is over? We won?" Xia Yan, who was waiting by the elevator, asked quickly as she looked at Chu Guang who was walking towards her.

Chu Guang replied casually, "I wouldn’t be here if we didn't win."

Xia Yan continued to ask, "Were they from the Bloodhand Clan?"

Chu Guang glanced at her. "You know them?"

"No, but I can guess. They are quite famous in the northern suburbs of Clearspring City." With a helpless expression, Xia Yan exclaimed sighed, "You better be careful. They may only send a small group this time, but they are not as weak as they seem. There once was a merchant who probably wanted to seek revenge or something and hired a team of twenty mercenaries from Boulder Town. But guess what happened?"

"I don't like guessing, just say it."

"Alright then... In the end, only one escaped, and he also lost one arm," Xia Yan took a deep breath and continued, "That mercenary team had pretty good equipment. They weren’t weak either. There were even two soldiers who used to be in the Boulder Town Militia. However... fighting marauders and fighting mutants were completely different things, especially in the city."

"They planted tin mines and decoy bombs on the road, led Crunchers from the subway entrance to the shops along the street, and even tamed mutant hyenas... According to the person who came back alive, the battle was like a nightmare. They were facing a group of Crunchers who could shoot, lie down, support, and attack."

Whether it was from a DIY iron-barreled rifle or the most advanced assault rifle, once one’s vital part was shot, it was over! All it took was one good shot for the battle to be over! Even if they missed the first time, they would need another shot at best.

The mercenaries in Boulder Town were not regular soldiers, and it was impossible to use powerful protective gear. Most people use wire and steel plates to protect their vital parts. Only a few rich people could afford exoskeletons or full body armor.

"Maybe those mercenaries underestimated the enemy," Chu Guang said casually.

Xia Yan frowned, "Maybe. The people of Boulder Town look down on countryside survivors..."

"Like you?"

Xia Yan was embarrassed and quickly explained, "Uh, of course, not including me."

Chu Guang smiled and didn't care.

Although he had never been to Boulder Town, it was not difficult to understand this sense of superiority just by looking at the survivors of Baker Street when they mentioned it.

After all, it was the only city left in Clearspring City and the only place of order left in the area.

Even though the people living there were impoverished, they were still considered far superior to outsiders.

"Speaking of which, why do I feel that you are not scared of the attack we faced?"

"What's so scary about it, you’ve even torn a creeper with your bare hands, do you think you won't be able to beat them? Plus, there are so many people here," Xia Yan gave Chu Guang a strange look, seeming not to understand why he asked this strange question, "Why are you so nervous? From the sound of gunfire, there were at most seven or eight people who came, and they were out in the open."

"..."

Emmm... It makes sense.

Chu Guang didn't know how to refute for a while.

...

Late at night.

In an abandoned tire factory in the northern suburbs of Clearspring City.

Looking at the man prostrating under the steps, Bear said in a lazy voice while leaning on his chair, "How's the situation over at Badger's side? Have all the spoils been sent back?"

According to clan traditions, whoever won the battle had the priority of choosing their loot. After sending the rest back, everyone would enjoy them together, regardless of their level.

Generally, if the survivor’s stronghold was captured, the raiding team would usually stay there for a while and spend some time having some fun, such as having a party or other activities.

As the leader of the clan, Bear was naturally very considerate of his men. However, he was starting to get suspicious as the sky was already dark and no news of Badger had returned.

Are they not coming back yet?

"... There is still no news..." The man prostrating below the steps pressed his forehead to the ground, not daring to raise his head even a millimeter.

"No news yet?" With a deep frown, Bear growled impatiently, "Didn’t they set off in the morning?”

"Yes."

"They’re too slow." Bear calmly stared at the man below the steps and continued, "Send someone over. If they meet them on the road, then tell them to hurry up. If your guys arrive and they haven't set off, come back and tell me."

"Yes!"

Looking at Cha who walked out of the tent, Bear stroked the beard under his chin, feeling a little irritable.

It's just a 30-person survivor stronghold. Why haven't they come back? Could they have run into an accident?

It’s not very likely, right?

Shaking his head, Bear decided to stop thinking about it and got up from his chair.

Even if the opponent was not an easy target, with Badger's alertness, he could definitely escape.

There was only one possibility for there to be no news for so long, and that was either because they had forgotten the time because they were having too much fun, or they were spending too much time searching for loot.

Bear was no longer worried, and he felt a lot more relaxed. Especially when he thought of the almost broken toy in his room. A frightening smile appeared on his rough and ugly face.

It seemed as though his winter wasn’t going to be a boring one.