Chapter 73: Final Harvest Before Winter

"Three tons of struvite... According to the average use of fifteen kilograms per six hundred and sixty six square meters, the actual cultivated land area is definitely more than sixty six thousand square meters, which is much larger than I expected." On the way back, Chu Guang spoke his thoughts out loud while writing in his notebook with a pen.

"It seems that my speculation is correct. They should have applied some soilless cultivation techniques, and this part of the production capacity accounted for 15% to 30% of the total production capacity... or even more."

Brown Farm would make some manure itself and buy a little from other merchants. The actual cultivated area was probably larger than Chu Guang thought.

Before coming to this world, Chu Guang heard of a pipe-type soilless cultivation technique that could maximize the use of space and water resources. As long as the land was fertile enough, the actual production could be ten times more than that of the usual land cultivation.

In the pre-war era, there seemed to be a similar technology, and the use of space had been maximized. There were skyscrapers that integrated automatic seeding, cultivation, ripening, harvesting, assembly line transportation, and packaging and distribution being developed regardless of energy costs. Those facilities could really achieve more than tens of thousands of kilograms per six hundred and sixty six square meters.

It was called the

computer numerical control

(CNC) farming tower, which was regarded as the ultimate peak of industrial farming technology.

Very cyberpunk...

Brown Farm didn't have that much electricity, but since part of it could be used to produce food, they definitely had a good supply of it.

In addition, they had been farming for at least a century, so they should've inherited a part of the technology and improved it to adapt to the wasteland environment.

Chu Guang suddenly thought of something.

"Could it be... That they’ve planted some kind of energy crop?"

Brown Farm did not only grow green wheat. It was said that green wheat ripened really quickly. After the harvest, there would be a chance to plant a round of shofar potatoes, beans, fruits and vegetables, or other crops.

Perhaps the latter was the one that needed more fertile soil...

At the end of the 20th century, some people used cash crops, by-products, or artificially cultivated special crops to produce ethanol and biodiesel. With the gradual maturity of this technology, these crops were sometimes specifically classified as energy crops depending on their uses.

Logically speaking, in the pre-war world that had mastered controllable fusion technology, similar technologies may be more advanced than he imagined.

However, in the era of major breakthroughs in nuclear fusion technology, the actual use of energy crops should not be for the production of fossil fuel substitutes.

It was used as an industrial raw material.

"... Brown Farm itself did not have industrial capacity. Some of the cash crops it produces are used as fuel and partly sold to merchants from Boulder Town to supply their factories as industrial raw materials."

"The product is probably some kind of rubber, crude oil, or other hydrocarbons."

"Moreover, the consumption of soil fertility should be pretty significant!"

Chu Guang wrote everything in his notes.

The gain from this transaction was greater than he had imagined.

Not only did they acquire the grains and tools in the wagon and the order for three tons of struvite in the spring of next year, but also the intelligence collected indirectly through transactions.

Especially since this information was impossible to collect when he was a scavenger.

After he went back, he could publish the background information on the official website for the players' reference.

While Chu Guang was analyzing the information, the players next to him were also whispering quietly.

"One kilogram of struvite can be exchanged for ten kilograms of grain? I'm not mistaken, am I?"

"You are wrong, we got twelve kilograms for one kilogram of struvite."

"I don't understand, is this green wheat too cheap, or are the stones we picked from the lake too valuable?"

"Maybe both? Maybe not... Wait, for how much do we buy the food from the warehouse?"

"It seems like one kilogram of green wheat costs one silver coin. I know what you want to say. one kilogram of struvite can only be exchanged for two copper coins, right?"

"Yes! Is this reasonable?"

"Relax, although there is no farming system now, I bet that NPC’s buy-in price of green wheat will definitely not exceed one copper per kilogram. Does it sound reasonable now?"

"Hmm, that does sound a little bit reasonable... My ass! When they sell it to us, it’s one silver per kilogram!"

"Calm down, which game isn’t like this? Besides, in reality, the price of food also fluctuates, does it not? In the future, we can sell it to the players first, and if no one wants it, then we can sell it to the warehouse."

Having said that, Escaping Mole sighed with pity, "It would be great if the merchant system could be rolled out in the future. If one kilogram of struvite can be transported to Brown Farm and sold to them, we will be able to get twelve kilograms of grain. Even if all the grains were sold to the NPC, we can sell it for more than two copper coins! That’s twelve kilograms we’re talking about. We will gain at least one silver coin! The details of this game are really scary."

Although Chu Guang didn't raise his head, he glanced at the dude and smiled inwardly.

You are right, but you are still too short-sighted.

If you take the struvite to Brown Farm for food and then take the wholesale food to Boulder Town to exchange for guns, you can get at least five or six guns with a hundred kilograms of bird droppings without any problems.

But don't worry.

When the spring starts next year, your great administrator will do this for you. The chips you earn are the foreign exchange reserves of the base, and they will be divided and given back for you to spend!

What? Do you want to settle your pay in Boulder Town currency?

What’s the point? Do you want to buy a house in Boulder Town and marry a wife there?

In fact, Chu Guang didn't intend to exploit his little players. Compared to the master of Brown Farm and the old leech of Baker Street, this was not an exploitation at all.

In the blueprint planned by Chu Guang, with the fifth-generation currency at the latest, the currency issued by Shelter 404 would replace the chips issued by Boulder Town and become the hardest currency in Clearspring City and even the surrounding areas.

To suffer a little bit now was also for the benefit of everyone in the future.

"Administrator, there seems to be people up front."

?!?! Again?!

Sliding his notebook back into his pocket, Chu Guang reflexively stretched his right hand to the hammer on his back. However, as soon as he touched the handle of the hammer, he found that the so-called people were only two people.

He saw the brawny man who had met him at the gate before pointing a shotgun against the slave who had been brought out earlier. The latter hugged his head with his hands and knelt on the ground shivering.

The group stopped.

Chu Guang looked at the brawny man, and the brawny man stared at him in a daze.

"Is there a problem?"

"No."

Chu Guang glanced at the poor man who was pointed at by the gun who didn’t dare to move, then looked at the brawny man, and asked with a strange expression.

"This...?"

The brawny man didn't want to explain, after all, it was their own personal business, but seeing that the group was not easy to provoke, he said cautiously, "... He is the master's slave. He is old, and his leg is suffering from arthritis. He can't do any work. He even broke a plate yesterday. So, the master asked me to take him outside and take care of him."

After listening to the brawny man, Chu Guang remembered that every winter, Brown Farm would dispose of a few slaves who couldn't do heavy work and couldn't be sold. They would wait for the next year to buy new ones from the slave merchant.

As for where those slaves came from... No one knew.

Some were auctioned off by creditors because of their debts, some lost their freedom because they were captured by marauders, and some were simply cloned products, while occasionally, a forgotten shelter facility was suddenly unsealed.

Chu Guang even heard that some scavengers sold themselves or their relatives because they couldn't survive.

In the wasteland, a slave who was about to reach the end of his life was more worthless than a two-headed bison that could carry goods. At least the latter had more flesh.

"Please, please let me go." The man on the ground begged.

The brawny man glanced impatiently at the man who was kneeling on the ground.

"Even if I let you go, where can you go? I can help you end your miserable life here quickly. Don't make it difficult for me."

"Please, please..." The slave could not say anything else.

"Wait a minute." Chu Guang stepped forward and looked at the old man kneeling on the ground. He continued to ask, "How old are you?"

"51..."

It was true that he was a little old.

As far as slaves were concerned, that man was very old.

But from another perspective, it also meant that he had experience.

Chu Guang continued to ask, "What can you do?"

Seeing that there was a trace of hope, the old man turned around with his body shaking like a leaf. He reached out to hug the life-saving straw.

The brawny man quickly kicked him away and scolded, "Don't touch the master's distinguished guest with your dirty hands, do you want to be hanged?"

The brawny man had a feeling that this group of people would do business with his master for a long time.

Although he had been kicked, the old slave didn't care about it at all. He didn't even look at the brawny man when he got up. He raised his wrinkled face and looked at Chu Guang. "I, I can farm, I know how to count, do carpentry, move things... I can do anything. Please, sir, please save me."

"You know how to count?" The brawny man sneered. "All you know is to count a few potatoes, and you call that knowing how to count? Sir, don't listen to him. With his age, he can't do any work at all. This month we had two slave traders visit us, but none of them were interested in him."

Chu Guang took out a white chip from his pocket and flicked it into the brawny man's hand with his thumb. "Is that enough?"

The brawny man nodded quickly with joy. "Of course!"

Although it was not a lot, it was still a chip, and the slave was not his after all.

After putting the chip into his pocket, the brawny man raised his shotgun and fired a shot into the sky, then picked up the bullet shell on the ground, bowed to Chu Guang, and happily carried the gun back to the farm.

The slave shrank on the ground and shivered, apparently terrified by the shot just now.

Chu Guang instructed a player to pull the old man up to him.

"I bought your life, and now you work for me." He said in a commanding tone.

Finally having recovered, the slave immediately wanted to kneel, but was stopped by Chu Guang.

"We don't do this. Put your right fist on your left chest to show loyalty. If I find out that you want to betray us, your heart will be gouged out and fed to dogs."

Chu Guang only said those words to scare the old slave. If there was really a traitor, they would be thrown into the Active Matter Extractor. There was no need to spend so much time and effort to punish them.

Although Chu Guang himself was a civilized man, after living here and observing for a period of time, he knew that some problems could not be solved with civilized thinking.

The native people and the players were two different creatures. In order to deal with the natives, he had to use the methods native to the wasteland.

It was good for both parties.

"Yes, master," the old man lowered his head respectfully, showing a relieved expression. Then he pressed his right fist to his chest, "To offer you loyalty... My name is Luca, no, I don't have a name. Master, could you please give me a name?"

"You can keep the name." Chu Guang didn't want to waste time. He beckoned to the players the next moment. "Let's go. We have to go back before noon."

...

This trip as a traveling merchant could be said to have been full of rewards.

Three hundred kilograms of struvite were exchanged for three thousand six hundred kilograms of green wheat and shofar potatoes. One hundred kilograms of dried meat was exchanged for five hundred kilograms of green wheat and five tools.

Although Chu Guang wanted to quibble that venison was different from hyena meat, the former was rarer than the latter. After all, it was not always possible to encounter deer migration. However, the other party said that they would only take hyena meat if he was going to differentiate them. Anyway, as long as it was not human flesh, all other meats were the same to them. So Chu Guang had to give up in the end.

However, Liu Zhengyue made a small concession for the sake of a long term trading relationship, allowing him to pick between five tools of his choosing or five hundred grams of tobacco leaves, which was regarded as a gift.

Of course, Chu Guang chose the tools. He ended up with large pipe wrenches and fire axes. Even if he didn't need it, he could make steel and copper out of them after he took them back to the shelter.

In addition, twenty five kilograms of smoked fish had been exchanged for almost one hundred fifty kilograms of waste metal.

Unlike aluminum and steel alloys that could be seen all over the streets, those metals were good products containing copper and zinc.

Originally, Liu Zhengyue didn't want to sell it, but maybe because he thought that the merchants would not come for a few months anyway, it would be useless to keep them in the farm. So, after consulting his master, he nodded in agreement.

The noon sun shone overhead, and the shadows of the trees waved about along with the breeze along their road.

Except for a strength type player pulling the caravan, the rest of the players were scattered around.

Occasionally seeing mutant cockroaches, players would scream and rush up to beat them with sticks excitedly. They were even more excited than mutants.

If mutants could think, they would be stunned right now.

Who the hell are the prey here?!

The only thing Chu Guang needed to do was to stop their looting habit. They would put anything they found in their pockets.

Although mutant cockroach stomach occasionally had some indigestible gadgets, and lucky people could even find chips or bullets, the probability was really too small.

In most cases, there were only cockroach eggs.

Old Luca shuddered when he watched from the sidelines, presumably frightened by their actions.

He had never seen such a strange group of people. He couldn't understand what they were thinking at all.

But Luca knew very well that as a servant, he didn't need to think about this problem. The less he knew, the longer he would live, so he didn't say a word along the way, as if he didn't exist.

Leading the group back to the outpost base, Chu Guang, who had just arrived at the gate, happened to see the two brothers of the Yu Family carrying their prey, gesturing anxiously with the players at the south gate.

Chu Guang's eyes lit up and he called out from a distance.

Hearing a familiar voice, the Yu brothers immediately turned their heads and waved with joy. "Brother Chu!"