Talent Etched in the Bones

The construction site at the former sanatorium.

Dust billowed, hammering sounds were incessant, and the clanging of unloading goods created a scene of bustling activity.

These players seemed to have inexhaustible energy and enthusiasm. They pushed small carts salvaged from abandoned construction sites, transporting cart after cart of stones to the cement kiln. There, they would smash the stones with hammers before pouring them into the kiln for calcining into rough cement material.

A player squatting nearby vigorously worked the bellows, trying to make the fire in the kiln burn hotter. Not far away was a continuously operating charcoal kiln, and even further were earthen kilns for smoking meat and racks for smoking fish. The rising smoke and noise even drove away the birds in the trees.

Working together, the players mixed the fired cement with sand and water to form a thick cement paste, and soon the foundation for the first section of wall was completed.

Wisp after wisp of green smoke merged together.

This place was like a nascent tribe, young and full of vitality.

Having handed over the construction site to [Spare Me], who had a background in civil engineering, Old Bai and Fang Chang had already begun researching "primitive steelmaking."

Meanwhile, Gale had also improved the fishing traps, using mutated leech larvae as bait. Catching a dozen or so fish a day was no problem at all. Any fish they couldn't eat were given to Brother Scrambled Eggs to be made into dried fish.

The aquatic life in the lake was even richer than he had imagined.

The only thing to be mindful of was not putting too much bait in the traps and not deploying them in water that was too deep, otherwise large fish attracted by the bait could easily damage the traps.

But these were minor issues.

Once the knack was mastered, everything would slowly become proficient, and the process itself was full of fun.

It was the same for the new players.

They didn't even need to actively seek it out; everything here was so new to them, something almost impossible to experience in modern society.

Many people sat in offices all day, repeating work that anyone could replace, day after day, losing themselves in trivial matters.

However, it was different here.

This difference wasn't just due to a temporary sense of novelty, but also stemmed from the satisfaction of self-worth realization.

A civil engineering dog who hadn't made it to management after five or six years on construction sites would be immediately hailed as a big shot by other players here just by shouting "I'm in engineering," and be entrusted with important tasks.

And there were also workers who mixed cement and plastered walls on construction sites.

The vast majority of players were ordinary people, whose jobs in reality might not be particularly noteworthy, but here, as long as they had a skill, even if it wasn't too outstanding, they could gain collective affirmation.

And the surface outpost of the shelter was also improving at a visible speed due to the efforts of each and every one of them.

In Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, this is the highest level of need. It transcends any low-level pleasure, and the spiritual enjoyment it brings is incomparable to any other pleasure.

Most importantly, obtaining it doesn't require a high price. Even if their muscles ached from exhaustion, it was the in-game character who was tired, and it wouldn't affect their life the next day.

On the contrary, by going to bed early, they would be even more energetic the next day.

All of the above were just guesses made by Chu Guang, who had returned to the outpost with his spoils, upon seeing the players working with such fervor.

Of course, he couldn't possibly know what the players were thinking.

For the Manager, that kind of thing was simply not important, and he didn't care.

As long as the number of reservations was always greater than the players on the list, there was no need to worry about not having fresh young leeks coming in to sweat it out.

Quitting the game?

AFK?

As the saying goes, please give your helmet and account to someone who needs them, and try a more primitive way of playing the game.

Getting back to the main point.

The harvest from this outing was quite gratifying.

Two 5mm Pipe Rifles, 62 rounds of 5mm ammunition, and three backpacks that hadn't been rummaged through yet.

These were all found on the two Marauders and the unlucky fellow they had chased and killed.

Chu Guang was not a wasteful person. Including the Mutant Hyena that had been shot in the neck, he collected everything.

Taming wouldn't affect its taste; after all, to Chu Guang, they were all Mutants.

After tossing the Mutant Hyena to Brother Scrambled Eggs, who served as the Cook, Chu Guang began rummaging through the salvaged backpacks with the two players, Night Ten and Trash Lord.

"Matches, a compass, a map, and... a few pieces of smoked meat? And some plastic chips? What's written on this stuff?"

Hearing Night Ten's mutter, Trash Lord, whose claws weren't very nimble, also leaned in, picking up a chip with interest and examining it closely.

"It looks a bit like casino chips."

"Give me the plastic chips, I have a use for them."

Chu Guang quietly confiscated these twenty-odd white "plastic chips." Anyway, these things were useless to the players.

Then, he looked at the smoked meat Night Ten was holding.

"...Forget about these smoked meat pieces, I don't recommend you eat them."

Night Ten, who was about to take a bite, paused.

"Why?"

Chu Guang thought for a moment and used a tactful way of speaking.

"Marauders usually aren't picky eaters. You can't be sure what kind of meat this is."

Before Trash Lord could react, Night Ten, who was beside him, had already dropped his dried meat and started gagging.

Even in a game, he couldn't accept certain settings.

Seeing Night Ten's reaction, Chu Guang suddenly became curious about what these players were thinking, so he looked at Trash Lord and asked,

"What does it feel like to kill someone?"

Trash Lord was startled for a moment, then scratched his head.

"Didn't notice..."

What kind of feeling could a game give? It wasn't like he hadn't played more bloody games.

In fact, the blood effects in this game weren't very exaggerated, so he hadn't paid much attention at the time.

However...

When he charged forward and thrust his javelin into the chest of the last Marauder, and blood splattered on him, at that instant, he suddenly felt a craving to eat.

It was like a biological instinct.

Chu Guang glanced at this "Lizardman" with a hint of surprise. He hadn't expected this player's psychological resilience to be quite good.

Could it be that the dream state diluted the feeling of death?

Or was there some kind of filter he didn't understand in how players viewed this world?

He wasn't sure.

After all, this set of equipment wasn't designed by Chu Guang, nor had he used the players' helmets. He had no idea if the world they saw was exactly the same as the world he saw.

It seemed he needed to talk to the players more often in his role as the planner...

By five o'clock in the afternoon, the northern wall of the sanatorium had been largely repaired.

He had to say, these players were simply geniuses.

Chu Guang even felt that he, the NPC, was redundant.

Some Talents weren't written on the Attribute panel but were ingrained in their bones. Just give them a plot of land, and it would turn into a field by tomorrow.

Even if the server reset and the world was destroyed tomorrow, they could rebuild this place brick by brick.

The treasures on the construction site weren't just those grayish-green stones, but also the piles of cement blocks wrapped in burlap sacks.

These things were too heavy for ordinary Survivors to take or use, so they remained in their original state from the beginning of the nuclear war.

Although this cement had long since hardened and couldn't be mixed with sand to pour foundations, with a change in perspective, it was excellent for use directly as bricks for building walls.

At least, it was much more reliable than the pile of yellow mud bricks Old Bai had fired!

Under the leadership of [Spare Me], the players drove pine logs, sawed into four or five-meter lengths, into the ground. They piled cement blocks transported from the construction site in the middle, then inserted Rebar stolen from the site for reinforcement, and finally poured the mixed Calcium Carbonate Cement over it.

Once the cement dried, a simple but reliable concrete fortification was complete.

As for the inside of the wall, it was piled into a slope using cement blocks and concrete waste.

If attacked, players inside the wall could simply lie prone on the slope and use the cover to return fire on the attackers.

Considering that the Outpost would expand further in the future, another layer of defense could be built outside the fortress, along with guard posts and watchtowers for vigilance.

"...The entire terrain of the Wetland Park is relatively flat, and the area around the sanatorium is a forest plain with no steep slopes for cover. I can cut down all the trees around here, so we can spot any target approaching the Outpost immediately!"

"Alright, buddy, what do you do in real life?" Old Bai asked, looking at the new player beside him with surprise.

He had some impression of the ID [Spare Me], but only a little. He only remembered that he had joined the group quite a while ago.

He hadn't expected such hidden talents to be lurking in their small game group.

Spare Me smiled shyly and said awkwardly,

"...I'm just a Civil Engineering Dog, a nobody at my workplace. I spend all day drinking tea and reading newspapers, and hardly anyone gives me a second glance."

"No, no, your skill is great! Honestly, I never thought we could finish a whole wall today."

"You're too kind, really too kind!"

It was already evening, and the sky was turning a hazy yellow.

Brother Scrambled Eggs, who served as the Cook, set up a large pot in the open area in front of the sanatorium, threw in the fish Gale had caught from the lake, and made a pot of Pine Nut Fish Soup.

The players sat on the ground, each with a bowl and a piece of Smoked Meat jerky. Eating like this, one bite of fish soup and one bite of meat, had a unique flavor.

Of course.

Not everyone could accept this flavor.

For example, Tengteng, who was sitting on the ground, was pinching her nose and looking at the bowl in her hand with a troubled expression.

"Ugh, it's so fishy..."

Whether in the game or in reality, she was very sensitive to smells and simply couldn't accept this heavy-flavored cooking method.

Brother Scrambled Eggs, who was not far away, heard her and rolled his eyes.

"You think I want to... There's not even cooking wine here, I've done my best."

His expression clearly said, 'Eat it or don't, I don't care.'

"Just make do with it, you'll get hungry if you don't eat in this game," Night Ten also chimed in comfortingly. "Why don't you just hold your nose and chug it? I can help."

Tengteng flinched away.

"Absolutely not necessary."

Speaking of which, do NPCs need to eat too?

Tengteng looked around and noticed the Manager wasn't far away.

However, he wasn't eating with the players. He only stayed for a moment before hurrying off again.

When he returned, many players who were nearby saw that his face was ashen, and he seemed to be in a bad mood.

A ripple of commotion went through the players.

Noticing the situation nearby, Old Bai's curiosity was piqued, so he put down his bowl and stood up from the ground.

He quickly walked over and stopped Gale, who was relatively close, to ask.

"Brother, what happened?"

Gale's expression was solemn as he said in a low voice.

"I heard..."

"It seems someone died."