Chapter 72: Guano Business

It was the second snowfall that Clearspring City has ushered since September. And very coincidentally, just in time for the players to change shifts. As soon as a few of them pushed the entrance, they saw the silvery white smudges scattered beside the torch.

"It's only late September... Winter is coming too early."

"Yeah, it is indeed too early."

"According to my rational analysis, perhaps the orbital debris in outer space blocked part of the sunlight, causing the planet to absorb insufficient heat. Coupled with the rapid decline of civilization activities caused by the war, the luxuriant vegetation weakened the greenhouse effect..."

"Can this game be so real?"

"That depends on the game settings. Anyway, doesn't the setting of the official website say that they even had a war in outer space? So why is it not possible?

"Damn..."

There was a knock on the northern gate all of a sudden.

After confirming that it was friendly, the guard on the wall signaled the player next to the gate to lift the latch to let the people outside in.

Chu Guang looked towards the north gate.

He saw a strength type player and a perception type player carrying a man who had been tied up and missing an ear walking in quickly. When they arrived before him, they threw the man to the ground.

What was also thrown on the ground was the corpse of a mutant hyena.

"Dear administrator, we found this guy near the viaduct observation point in the north!"

Both players had injuries, one of them was obviously far more affected. There was a broken arrow stuck in his knee, and he was grinning in pain.

The man lying on the ground couldn't understand what the two people behind him were saying. He raised his head in panic and begged Chu Guang for mercy.

"Sir, dear sir, I am a scavenger nearby, I don't know where I offended you."

Chu Guang snorted in response, "Scavengers won't be out at this time."

"I... I was accidentally delayed..."

Ignoring this weak excuse, Chu Guang took out five silver coins from his pocket and handed them to the players, asking them to divide it by themselves. He then leaned down and looked at the man, using his index finger to hook the necklace he was wearing.

There was a human finger bone strung on it, and from the looks of it, it was an index finger bone.

In the Bloodhand Clan, skulls were royal vessels for the leader, and fingers were the favorite decorations of most marauders.

They would cut off the index fingers of the captives, dry them, and make them into bracelets, necklaces, pendants, and even bone armor, showing off their bravery and barbarism.

Throwing away the oily necklace in disgust, Chu Guang straightened his body.

He didn't look at the man whose face had already turned pale but looked at the two players.

"He’s a marauder. Send him to the gallows."

The two players replied respectfully, “Yes!”

They only brought the man back alive just because the rewards for doing so were higher than bringing back a corpse. Players were no strangers to the administrator’s method of dealing with the marauders.

After hearing the order to send the man to the gallows, they didn’t look surprised at all.

But the person who was about to be hanged had a different mentality.

As if he had guessed his own destiny, the hysterical wailing and begging for mercy were dragged all the way to the north gate, adding a bit of fear and blood to the bleak woods outside the gate.

Then the voice and sin came to an abrupt end.

The north gate closed again, and the two players dragged the corpse toward the morgue.

Standing in front of the nursing home, Chu Guang didn't have the slightest pity in his heart. He even yawned. He watched the extractor start before turning to enter the elevator.

It was already twelve o'clock in the morning.

He had to get up at six the next day.

The enthusiasm of those players to go online was higher than expected, and Chu Guang felt that his biological clock was about to be messed up.

...

Not much snow fell, but it lasted a long time. It didn't stop until five o'clock the next morning.

There was a layer of frost on the ground which produced a crisp snap when one stepped on it. When the sun rose, it disappeared completely, as if it had never been there before.

"It seems that there were fewer mutants in the city this evening."

"Is it because of snow?"

"I guess so. They might be hiding because of the cold weather, but those Crunchers do not seem to be affected. I saw them walking out and wandering around the street until four or five o'clock before moving back slowly."

"Do you remember where they came from?"

"Yes, I'll go offline for a meal first, and post the location map on the forum later."

"Old Brother, you are really reliable!"

Players who returned from their shift from the observation point talked to other players in the square of the base, and Chu Guang, who was standing at the entrance of the nursing home, caught these voices.

Because there was no radio, these players usually exchanged information on the square, especially during the peak period when they went online or offline.

For Chu Guang, it was another good channel for obtaining information besides forums.

Those players were like his eyes.

However, he still had things to do and it would be impossible to stay there and listen to them forever.

He had to make another trip to Brown Farm before the road was blocked by the heavy snow and get some supplies. This time he prepared a new trade product, struvite.

It should fetch a good price at Brown Farm.

"Administrator, the materials you ordered are ready, and we can set off at any time!"

Escaping Mole, dressed in a hyena fur coat, walked over with an excited expression.

He had a 7mm bolt-action iron-barreled rifle temporarily given to him on his back, a nail-studded stick and a short knife tied to the left side of his waist, and a Molotov Cocktail filled with wood tar tied to the right. He looked more and more like the native people on the wasteland.

However, he hasn't grasped the essence of one yet.

After Chu Guang tried so many weapons, the one he liked most was still a sharpened steel pipe.

Nodding his head, Chu Guang said, "Wait for me."

With that, Chu Guang turned back to the shelter and walked out wearing the KV-1 exoskeleton, putting the Nitrogen-Powered Hammer drawn from the system on his back.

Seeing the administrator's outfit, the surrounding players’ eyes widened in amazement.

"Damn, this hammer is so cool!"

"So awesome! Did I miss any plot? When did our NPC change equipment?"

"I don't know, maybe it's already in the shelter... Doesn't the official website say that the underground shelter is a huge cryo-hibernation facility? Maybe there is an equipment warehouse?"

"Dammit! I really want one too!"

"Stop dreaming, the NPC's equipment is just for you to see. But I'm curious if this thing really is useful when facing bullets."

"You're really stupid. If you haven't seen great armor, it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. Maybe this thing can be used along with other treasures."

"Now the atmosphere suddenly feels cyberpunk."

"What cyberpunk, this is wasteland punk!"

"I know, I’m just

memeing

, if you take it too seriously, it will only make you look very dumb."

As a diligent NPC, Chu Guang neither went to stop them from messing around in the game, nor did he pay attention to their excited exchanges. He fulfilled his duties and walked to the prepared caravan.

Previously, Chu Guang had spoken to Mosquito in the form of giving out a mission, asking him to design a medium-distance transportation vehicle with a cargo capacity of more than five tons.

Facts had proved that as long as it was to produce tools within the scope of normal people's understanding, that damn guy had pretty reliable skill.

The whole caravan was two and a half meters long and one meter wide, and the space inside was quite sizable. The chassis was also made of simple shock absorbers with springs, so there was no problem for transporting both people or goods.

Taking into account the rain and dust, the roof was covered with two layers of picked-up tarpaulins. The front and rear doors also had curtains.

Even if it was rainy, there was no need to worry about the contents getting wet, which could be said to make it a great vehicle.

The only fly in the ointment was that the outpost did not have cows or mules, so players had to be the ones pulling it for the time being.

"Let’s go!"

Following Chu Guang's order, this caravan composed of six players and one NPC, and under the envious gazes of other players, left the south gate of the outpost and moved in the direction of Brown Farm.

Things were different from last time.

Now that they were moving on such a large scale, they would definitely attract the attention of some mutants.

That especially applied to ones such as mutant cockroaches that were as big as puppies and mutant flies the size of a washbasin. Those insect mutants seemed to have lost their fear of humans after they mutated and emerged from the shadows when they heard the ruckus.

However, those players were no longer new to the game, especially after experiencing that battle, they were able to do well when facing enemies.

Chu Guang didn't take any action at all, simply sitting behind them and watching the players use knives, guns, sticks, and rocks to take out those wild monsters.

If there were mutants they couldn't deal with, or other high-threat targets, he would naturally step in.

What was more interesting was that Chu Guang found that his genetic sequence could only be leveled up through basic exercise, but he could also accumulate a small amount of development progress when leading the players to fight.

This unique way of evolution made Chu Guang very curious.

However, he was currently unable to record the progress of genetic sequence development in real time, so he could only do in-depth research when conditions were available in the future.

After stopping and resuming their journey many times, they bypassed the inaccessible ruins and finally arrived at the destination before half past nine.

Outside Brown Farm.

When Chu Guang and his party arrived near the gate, they saw a well-built man carrying a shotgun while leading a weak slave out of the walls.

When they saw each other, Chu Guang was calm. However, the same couldn’t be said for the members of Brown Farm.

After seeing the exoskeleton on Chu Guang's body and the slightly exaggerated hammer behind him, the man subconsciously touched the shotgun slung on his back.

"We are passing traders, don't be nervous."

"Which trader would pass here at this time... Huh? It’s you!"

Standing on the wall, Liu Zhengyue was dazed. The gun barrel that started to rise was retracted. He stared straight at the exoskeleton and hammer on Chu Guang's body, and the blue coat beneath them.

He clearly remembered that this guy was not dressed like that the last time he came.

"Yes, it's me." Chu Guang smiled faintly, and shouted to him, "We need food, steel, and copper."

"What do you have?" Liu Zhengyue stared at the group of people outside the wall vigilantly, glancing back and forth on their equipment. He felt a little apprehensive.

The group was obviously much stronger than when they came last time.

In principle, it wasn’t a good time to do business. Winter came much earlier than usual, so they had to keep some grain to last them the cold. In addition, they had to prepare some surplus to prevent marauders from taking everything they had.

Marauders from the north would come from time to time. Although the farm was not without guns, no one wanted to risk fighting those people.

If they decided to harass them during harvest season in spring, the loss would not only be grain.

However...

The guns those people were carrying made him think carefully about the risk of rejection.

Chu Guang didn't speak, but walked to the front of the caravan. He opened the curtain, took out a sack from it, and tore the rope tied to it.

Liu Zhengyue's eyes narrowed, trying to see its contents more clearly.

"This is..."

"High-purity magnesium ammonium phosphate, if you don't understand it, you can think of it as struvite. In short, it is a high-quality fertilizer." Chu Guang looked up at Liu Zhengyue on the wall, his tone slightly unhappy, "Can you come down? Talking like this is very tiring.”

"Wait... I have to ask my master for instructions."

After dropping this sentence, Liu Zhengyue disappeared on the wall, but it didn't take long before he led a slave out and reappeared at the gates.

"My dear old friend... You have changed quite a lot."

"I got rich recently."

"Are you really nomads?" Liu Zhengyue stared straight at the blue coat under Chu Guang's exoskeleton, obviously not so sure of his judgment.

"Is that important?" Chu Guang said with a faint smile, "Don’t worry, I found this coat from a ruin."

Seeing that Chu Guang didn't intend to reveal more, Liu Zhengyue stopped asking questions but looked at the bag of fertilizer. "I need to inspect the goods."

It was a reasonable request, and Chu Guang nodded. "Please."

The inspection method was the same as last time. Liu Zhengyue kicked the slave next to him and pointed to the bag.

The slave stepped forward, stretched out his index finger, and smeared it with the substance contained within. He then put his finger in his mouth and licked.

"It's struvite."

Liu Zhengyue showed a smile after hearing the slave.

Although he didn't know where the group of people got good stuff like that from, it was what they needed.

After the feces of livestock and humans were heated, although it could also turn into a kind of fertilizer, the nitrogen content was not enough. The overall effects were obviously not as good as struvite that had been deposited and washed by rain.

Often, a handful of bird droppings was worth a large bucket of cow droppings. If the latter was used, it had to be mixed with urea and sprinkled together.

Brown Farm itself was unable to produce high-quality urea in large quantities. Direct use of urine would not only burn the roots, but also easily cause soil compaction when mixed with manure.

Therefore, they often imported synthetic and organic fertilizers from Boulder Town or Red River Town before mixing them with fermented manure.

That was true not only in the Brown Farm but in all the survivor camps around the entire area of Clearspring City.

"Name your price!"

"We only brought 300 kilograms. If you can give me a reasonable price, we can still cooperate in the future."

Six hundred and sixty six square meters of land would require about ten to fifty kilograms of fertilizer, which could not be generalized according to the crops, soil conditions, fertilizer types, and expected harvest.

Judging from the map before the war, the area of ??the entire farm was not large, roughly forty eight thousand square meters to sixty six thousand square meters of arable land, which was equivalent to seven to nine standard football fields.

Of course, it did not rule out that they were engaged in three-dimensional agriculture and indoor planting. After all, similar technologies were not uncommon before the war.

Chu Guang couldn't guess their needs and simply let them quote their own prices.

After hesitating for a moment, Liu Zhengyue mumbled tentatively, "How about three hundred kilograms... for two tons of green wheat?"

Upon hearing this number, Chu Guang couldn't help feeling like he struck gold.

Fortunately, he didn’t list his price first.

The wholesale price ratio he found on the Internet on the earth was almost one to give, and what he expected was about one to six or seven...

It now appeared that prices in the parallel world could be said to have no reference value at all.

Chu Guang looked at him and said, "I need at least five tons."

"Five tons?! This is impossible," Liu Zhengyue exclaimed. "Our output per six hundred and sixty six square meters of land is only twenty five kilograms of green wheat."

"That's because you didn't use our fertilizer. It will be five hundred kilograms from next year onwards."

The yield of mutant crops was really bad...

Speaking of which, it would be great if they could get the pre-war seed bank.

For standard wheat, the output per six hundred and sixty six square meters of land in the parallel world was at least three hundred kilograms. It was not a problem if it was higher than five hundred kilograms, but it was definitely bragging if they said it was more than five thousand.

Chu Guang thought to himself,

I don’t know if Shelter 404 has any seed banks, but there should always be some seed banks in those normal shelters, right?

I wonder if it is because of the time or the weather that the pre-war crops did not become popular on the wasteland.

Or is it just in this area?

"Are you dreaming? Yield of five hundred kilograms per six hundred and sixty six square meters?" Liu Zhengyue stared with big eyes and shook his head. "My friend, if you are really sincere, we can give you three tons of green wheat in exchange...This is the bottom line I can accept. We have a stable supply anyway. Do you think your struvite is irreplaceable?"

"No, but it is definitely the most cost-effective. I don't think other people will sell this to you cheaply after traveling a long distance," Chu Guang said while looking at him. “One kilogram for twelve kilograms of wheat, this is my biggest concession for the sake of the early winter. Next year we will also supply this stuff in large quantities. If you can't accept the price, I'd rather go back the same way and sell it to the dealers passing by."

The struvite on the shore of Linghu Lake was scattered in the shallows on the south side and extended to the east side. The reserves were not rich, but there were definitely quite a lot.

Chu Guang didn't know why these survivors didn't find this geomantic treasure, but in any case, it belonged to him since he discovered them.

Liu Zhengyue hesitated for a while and finally nodded.

"Okay, you better not lie to me... Next spring, we will need three tons of struvite, which will be used during the planting season. Where are you from? Clearspring City or the surrounding area? If it is not far away, we can pick up the goods ourselves."

"It's not necessary. When winter passes, we will naturally deliver the goods." Chu Guang smiled and stretched out his right hand. “It was a pleasure doing business with you."

Although feeling distressed, Liu Zhengyue squeezed out a smile and held Chu Guang’s outstretched hand. "Likewise..."