Chapter 524.1: All Attention On Us

In the north of Brocade River Province was an aged ruins that sat in the middle of a bunch of mountains and forests.

Its name was Brocade Lake Municipality, located 700 to 800 kilometers away from Clearspring City, a distance roughly equivalent to that between Jiangcheng and Shancheng on Earth.

In the outskirts of Brocade Lake Municipality, on a gentle slope at the edge of the forest, stood a small settlement named Dust Town.

There were 200 to 300 households there and a one meter tall low wall encircled the settlement. At its center stood a blocky watchtower built of granite.

Settlements like that were common throughout the Brocade River Province.

After all, unlike the Sunset Province, which had deserts and river embankments as natural barriers to limit mutant migration and predation, the Brocade River Province was humid, warm, and rainy due to its subtropical location. Those conditions actually encouraged large numbers of mutants to migrate from other provinces.

There, Mutant Slime Mold were not the greatest threat. The real danger came from Mutant Humans migrating inland from the East Coast and from scattered pockets of radioactive waste across the land.

Just over a month ago, while the New Alliance army was engaged in a fierce war with the Army in the Sunset Province, the secluded Dust Town was quietly raking in huge profits. The town’s mayor earned a fortune trading with the New Alliance, then used his silver coins to buy LD-47s and Maxim guns decommissioned from the front lines, replacing the old iron pipe rifles and rusted short swords. He even hired some ruthless thugs as bodyguards, not only to help him squeeze more from the farmers toiling in the fields, but also to guard the silver coins he stashed in the watchtower.

But the good days didn’t last. The mayor was an ambitious man, but so were the thugs he had hired.

Seeing that this place had mountains, rivers, and fertile fields, and that doing business with factory owners up north was practically free money, those thugs, already laden with criminal histories, quickly reached an agreement. They resumed their old trade without hesitation and used the mayor’s guns to slaughter him and his entire family.

Thus Dust Town changed hands for the first time.

For a while, the thugs lived like kings, bullying the weak and doing as they pleased. Most traveling merchants turned a blind eye to their deeds. If nothing unexpected happened, a few more years down the line, once the able-bodied were all dead, some burst of cruelty would turn the place into a full-fledged marauder camp.

Unfortunately for them, a talking lizard, a talking rat, and a human who couldn’t speak misread the map, and stumbled right into town.

Originally, they had just planned to ask for directions. So they sent the only one who looked remotely human to inquire.

But when the thugs heard the naive newbie’s babbling, they burst into laughter, and soon set their eyes on the silver coins in his pocket. The thought of robbery and murder arose.

To rob and kill... That was what they lived for. What happened next was inevitable.

Over 20 marauders were no match for the odd trio. Leaving the newbie aside, even without guns, Garbage and Make Me were both veteran players from the Alpha version. One handled the main fighters, while the other poked the other enemies. They wiped out the entire town’s marauders like they were mobs in a game.

At first, the townsfolk were terrified. But after realizing the damn lizard, or rather, the Deathclaw they were looking at, could speak, their fear gradually faded.

After all, there were too many bizarre things in the wasteland.

A talking Deathclaw was hardly the strangest of them. And if a Deathclaw could talk, then a talking rat wasn’t that shocking either.

The surviving townspeople actually grew quite fond of the duo.

Compared to the previous tyrannical mayor and the abusive bandits, the self-proclaimed Lord Garbage and Make Me were ugly... But they weren’t scary.

To thank the trio for their heroic intervention, the villagers built statues in their honor, and even constructed a shrine to worship them.

At first, the three players were reluctant, but the joy of being idolized was simply too tempting. Eventually, they accepted it with sheepish grins and half-hearted resistance.

Later, the big lizard promised to ensure the villagers’ safety.

The rat even declared, “With me around, no other rat will dare to steal grain from the granary!”

The townsfolk, in turn, promised to offer 20% of their harvest as tribute. Compared to the 70% taken by the old mayor or the 90% demanded by the thugs, they were getting a bargain!

The players were honestly overwhelmed.

Even if Garbage had a bottomless stomach, there was no way he could eat that much food!

In the end, the three fools had a meeting and decided to sell the surplus food to passing merchants. They would use the silver coins earned to buy New Alliance-made tractors and fertilizer for the poor villagers, improve the farmland yield, and maybe even buy tools for well-digging and house repairs. That way, future offerings might increase too.

To streamline management, they let the survivors vote for a new mayor. They appointed a few respected elders to handle the militia, weapons, finances, and grain.

Thus came Dust Town’s next change.

Although only a month had passed, everything seemed to be improving.

Well, that was until a strange patient appeared in town.

The man had ulcers on his limbs that were oozing pus. He ran a fever, had a constant runny nose, and looked terminally ill. But bizarrely, instead of being bedridden in agony, he became unusually strong, and developed an enormous appetite.

Nothing like it had ever occurred in the region before. The townspeople were terrified.

They locked the ‘healthy’ sick man away and immediately reported the matter to their three guardians.

After questioning, the man admitted that he had caught a cold a while back. A hunter from a neighboring village had told him about a green fruit rumored to cure all ailments. He tried it, and his condition did improve initially.

But good times didn’t last.

The cold symptoms never fully subsided, in fact, they worsened. To endure the growing pain and keep working in the fields, he kept eating the green fruit, even secretly planting it in his yard.

Eventually, it seemed his body had come to some twisted truce with the virus. That was as long as he kept eating the green fruit. If he did, he would be spared the torment of illness and feel a constant surge of euphoric strength, even though his body had become a breeding ground for the virus.

But if he stopped eating it, the truce would end. His health would quickly deteriorate, and he would rot away like decaying wood.

Once they understood the situation, the three players took it seriously. It didn’t take much effort to track down the hunter the sick man had mentioned. From there, they quickly identified the source of the green fruit.

It came from a place called Hope Town.

...

Dust Town, in the shrine of the ‘gods’.

"Say, do you still remember that we were originally heading south to see the ocean?" Me Quiet sighed as he slumped on his chair.

Garbage yawned. "Yeah, I remember."

"So when are we setting off again?"

"Seriously? Are you getting addicted to playing savior now?"

Garbage rolled his eyes at the loudly complaining Me Quiet.

"Heh. You’re clearly enjoying it too!" Me Quiet chucked to himself.

"I didn’t have a choice!" he replied, "And hey, we haven’t saved our progress in over a month. You sure that’s okay?"

Before entering the game, he used to brag on the forums about exploring the map’s edge, but once in game, he realized how tough that actually was.

First hurdle was the language barrier.

Even for veterans like themselves, fluent speech was rare. Their VM’s offline translation feature often had glaring machine-translation flaws. Some things didn’t make sense even after translation, and others simply weren’t translated at all.

He barely knew how to handle basic conversation.

Trying to survive in the wasteland with broken speech? That was practically disrespectful to the man-eating horrors out there.

Garbage, however, couldn’t care less.

Save our progress?

Who needs them?

Heh! Having that mentality just makes you weak!

"Man, not saving isn’t a big deal," he chuckled, "You’ll get it once you play long enough. Level is just one tiny, tiny part of this game, just like the dragons in that game, or the wizards in the other, or the rainbow in...

Rainbow Six Seige.

"

"

Pfft

, what the hell does ‘rainbow’ in their name even mean?!"

"Hehe, it’s the same idea," Garbage said proudly. "What’s that tiered power ranking even mean? Does it matter? Does my low level stop me from being badass? Are the NPCs here not realistic enough? Or is reliving life in a new body not exciting enough?"

"I really envy you mutant players," said Me Quiet with a face full of longing.

If he were a mutant creature, he could probably roam the wasteland freely.

After all, most mutants gave Deathclaws a wide berth. Even normal survivors rarely dared mess with them.

"Relax. It’s like having a short-numbered QQ account, only the lucky ones get that kind of privilege." Garbage chuckled at the newbie’s envious look, though his heart was weeping.

He was strong.

Undeniably strong.

But sadly, no matter how strong he was, he didn’t have a ding-dong.

Make Me at least had a whole harem of ‘spiritual wives’, but in front of other Deathclaws, Garbage was always met with sneers and mocking snorts.

That was right...

The other Deathclaws looked down on him as an underdeveloped junior. Even a polar bear could earn respect from its peers just by having white fur.

Every time he thought about that look of disdain from Neeko, he gritted his teeth in frustration, but there was nothing he could do.

Damn it all...

Damn this game’s cursed settings!

That was also why, when the new mayor of Dust Town cautiously asked him whether to appoint a shrine maiden to serve the gods, he rejected the idea without hesitation.

What a joke.

He did all the fighting, why should the newbies around him get all the perks?!

Anyway, those feudal crap had to go.

At that moment, Make Me had no idea what amazing drama he’d just missed. His attention was completely absorbed by a rat that had slipped in from outside.