Not Enough Hands

Cheers came from the cement kiln.

Chu Guang went over to take a look and saw Fang Chang and Old White piling a heap of light-gray powder on the ground, adding water and sand and mixing it into a pasty slurry.

By rough estimate, there were only around twenty kilograms of cement in this batch.

Since this was a trial firing, they had not made much. Judging from the capacity of the cement kiln's feed inlet, processing half a ton a day should not be a problem.

Though it could not compare to professional production equipment, it was barely usable.

"Honorable Administrator!"

Noticing Chu Guang walking over, the two players threw down their tools and excitedly hurried over to greet him.

"Cement!"

"We finally made Portland cement!"

It truly had not been easy.

To get the temperature inside the cement kiln above 1,450 degrees, the two of them had worked the bellows for dear life and shoveled charcoal into it one load after another, nearly training themselves a pair of Hercules arms.

Old White in particular had a strength-type genetic sequence to begin with, and after these three days, he was almost ready to level up again!

"You did very well."

Chu Guang looked at them approvingly and nodded.

"With this cement, we have taken another major step toward the first phase of the plan. The shelter will remember your contributions. Each of you will receive one thousand contribution points as a reward!"

Delighted expressions appeared on the two players' faces.

Their hard work over the past few days had not been in vain after all!

What they did not know was that the NPC—and shady game designer—standing before them was already figuring out how to reclaim the excess "currency" in their hands.

Inflation could not rise too quickly. It would affect the game's lifespan.

How about...

Adding a gacha feature?

One thousand contribution points per pull?

That could work.

Just as Chu Guang was considering how best to handle it, Fang Chang and Old White exchanged looks, then respectfully addressed him.

"Administrator, there is something I must report to you!"

"Go ahead."

"Now that the cement has been successfully fired, we need more manpower before we can begin construction on the outpost!"

Chu Guang looked at the two of them.

"How many people do you need?"

Old White rushed to answer.

"At least ten! Of course, the more the better! The cement kiln needs manual air blasting during calcination. Two people taking shifts can operate one kiln, and we'll soon build a second one. That means four people! We need at least four more to haul stone from the construction site, and at least eight more to build walls and houses."

Chu Guang calculated it in his head.

Wouldn't that be sixteen people?

The outpost's current food reserves could only feed seven people, himself included, for one week. If the population suddenly tripled, he did not know whether logistics could handle it.

After hesitating again and again, Chu Guang finally decided to gamble.

It was already the ninth.

Nearly one-third of September had passed. If they did not pick up the pace, it would be difficult to finish the outpost before winter.

"Alright! I understand."

Nodding, Chu Guang looked at the two players and continued.

"I will apply to the higher-ups for support. In three days, a new batch of members will awaken from hibernation and come to the surface to join our cause."

Joy appeared on Old White and Fang Chang's faces when they heard that.

With newcomers joining them, their grand infrastructure plan would be much easier to carry out!

Not only that, Fang Chang's guess had been confirmed.

This NPC's authority was clearly not as simple as that of an ordinary NPC. He could even influence the progress of the game's closed beta.

It reminded Fang Chang of the fantasy settings from early webnovels about online games—

The game ran on a supercomputer with infinite computing power. The game company set the framework of the world, while all content was dynamically generated by AI.

Maybe Wasteland OL was that kind of game!

The more Fang Chang thought about it, the more excited he became.

He felt that he understood again.

With a carpenter and a chef, the players' working conditions and quality of life visibly improved.

With Damn, There Really Are Mosquitoes's help, Old White and Fang Chang's construction crew got molds for making mud bricks, and he also helped Gale and Ye Shi improve their fishing traps.

He even used tree stumps to make a wooden toilet seat that would not cut their butts.

Now they could finally sit down while using the toilet.

Of course, not everyone liked this kind of sitting toilet.

Gale, for example.

He seemed to be something of a germaphobe. Even in a game, he could not accept using a toilet that others had used. Stubbornly, he dug another pit beside the original toilet and put up wooden boards for cover.

Thanks to that, the outpost now had a second toilet.

But compared to such trivial matters, the most surprising thing was still his fishing plan with Ye Shi.

With the improved trap, the two of them finally caught their first fish before nightfall.

And it was a big one!

Judging by its appearance, it was probably a catfish.

The reason it was only "probably" was that its thick lips and head were absurdly huge. White spots were scattered amid dark-blue patterns, while coral-like red whiskers decorated its barbels.

Clearly, this was another mutated aberration.

Watching the "big guy" flop about in the trap as it tried to escape, Gale and Ye Shi were so excited they nearly cried. They did not care in the slightest how ugly it looked.

Three days!

A full three days!

They had finally caught one!

Before the birds circling overhead and the beasts by the lake could notice, the two hurriedly dragged the big creature, trap and all, from the lakeside onto shore, then cruelly beat it to death with rebar.

Only after it was completely dead did they tie its head and tail to a length of rebar with rope, carry it between them, one in front and one behind, and bring the still-twitching dead fish back to the outpost.

"Brother Scrambled Eggs, take a look. Can we eat this thing?"

"Holy crap? What is that?"

Staring at the catfish Gale and Ye Shi had tossed onto the ground, Tomato Scrambled Eggs, who was making a fish-smoking rack, nearly had his eyes pop out.

He had cooked for most of his life, but this was the first time he had ever seen such a huge catfish in person.

Its head alone could fill an entire washbasin.

If they threw this thing into a lake, could any other fish even survive???

Catfish ate meat!

"It should be a catfish," Gale said.

"No shit, I know it's a catfish." Brother Scrambled Eggs squatted down, peeled back its fish lips for a look, then tugged at them and clicked his tongue. "Damn... this thing must weigh over a hundred pounds!"

Ye Shi quickly asked.

"Can we make smoked fish with it?"

"Who the hell makes smoked fish with catfish..." Brother Scrambled Eggs said with a helpless look. "This thing has a lot of fat, and its surface is covered in moisture-retaining slime. It'll be a real pain to process. I don't know if we can dehydrate it."

"Then what do we do?" Gale asked.

"I've never tried it either. Let's give it a shot first..." Brother Scrambled Eggs glanced at the fish-smoking rack he had spent half the day making and fell silent.

A fish weighing over a hundred pounds would definitely crush it.

He could only make another one...

At dusk.

Brother Scrambled Eggs took over the cooking from the Administrator and made the players a pot of fish head soup, proving through practice that the thing really was edible.

And it tasted unexpectedly good.

There was no tofu to go with it, nor scallions, ginger, garlic, or cooking wine to remove the fishy smell, but with his superb cooking skills, Brother Scrambled Eggs still made a pot of fish head soup that was fairly fresh and not greasy using only salt and soy sauce for seasoning.

The players ate until tears streamed down their faces.

Brother Scrambled Eggs and Mosquito were delighted that the game actually had a sense of taste, while the other four players were moved because they had finally eaten a proper meal.

Sob, sob, it had not been easy...

They logged off at six that evening, which happened to be six in the morning in real life.

The closed-beta players had just come out of the game and had not even had time to log onto QQ when the Ox-Horse Club chat group exploded with messages.

Quit Smoking: Holy shit! Hurry and check the official website!

Ye Ao Nai Wo He: You still haven't given up...

Spare Me: What happened on the official website?

Quit Smoking: Major Alpha 0.2 update! The official site is releasing another twenty-four closed-beta slots! The number of closed-beta players is expanding to thirty!!!

Spare Me: Damn?

Ye Ao Nai Wo He: Heh heh, they're starting to harvest suckers. Go on, how much is it? Let me see if it's enough for the police station downstairs to open a case. (picking nose)

Quit Smoking: It probably doesn't cost money. I checked the announcement, and it didn't mention any fees! Haha, I refuse to believe I still won't get in this time!!!

Junk Collector Level 99: You're overthinking it. The number of registrations passed a hundred ages ago. Twenty-four extra slots... the odds are probably between one in four and one in five.

Quit Smoking: Over a hundred?! What the hell, can our group even have that many living people???

Junk Collector Level 99: Uh, they aren't all from our group... I saw plenty of gaming groups discussing this game last night.

Spare Me: It actually broke out of the circle. (shocked)

④Who Understands Love: Yeah, I just checked. There are already 111 registrations.

Quit Smoking: Fucking hell!