We're a Legitimate Company

Post body:

I admit it! I really shouldn't have touched it! But it couldn't be helped—blame the "Toxin Intuition" talent. Anything poisonous glowed green in my eyes. It was practically torture for someone with OCD!

What the fuck?

Chu Guang was stunned at first, then utterly astonished.

"You can identify it directly with the naked eye? That's insane."

But what exactly counted as "poisonous"? Was there a dosage threshold? And what was the activation mechanism for this talent?

He couldn't figure it out...

Chu Guang decided to put aside what he couldn't understand for now and kept reading.

The post continued.

...Following the Administrator's assigned task, I initially picked mushrooms and raspberries in the forest. Thanks to my character talent, I could identify most poisonous berries and mushrooms, so I was pretty efficient. Before long, I'd filled several plastic buckets and brought them back.

I figured I'd already picked everything near the sanatorium, so I decided to go farther out. As I walked, I came upon a place that looked like a parking lot. There were lots of mushrooms there, and after picking quite a few, I was about to head back when I suddenly saw a huge, tall concrete pipe. It looked a little like a sewer entrance, and there was a massive patch of green light glowing inside!

I didn't think much of it at the time. I just figured there were so many mushrooms inside, I might as well take a look. I could identify anything poisonous anyway, so as long as I didn't touch it, it would be fine.

And since I didn't see any dangerous monsters nearby, I walked over and stuck my head inside for a look... I swear, I really only took one look!

Then something horrifying happened!

A lump of flesh... I don't know what kind of flesh it was, but it slammed right into my face. I couldn't breathe or open my eyes, and before long I couldn't even move. It felt like something had swallowed me?

Anyway, there was no pain, but the feeling was absolutely awful! Almost the instant I lost consciousness, I woke up in reality. Everything that had just happened felt like a nightmare.

At first, I thought I'd disconnected, so I hurriedly put on my helmet and reconnected. Then I saw the words "Connection Interrupted" in the helmet, followed by "Login Restricted." No matter what I tried, I couldn't log in again. Sob sob sob.

Damn.

She really just threw her life away...

After reading the post, Chu Guang was dumbfounded.

This player was seriously bold. She had genuinely used her face to scout the bushes. He definitely wouldn't have dared do something like that.

The commenters below the post were equally unfriendly.

Some had already gotten closed beta access and were just watching the show, but even more were netizens who couldn't get a reservation no matter what. They all condemned this shameless waste.

After all, the resurrection cooldown was at least three days!

Throwing away a life like that meant wasting three whole days of game time!

Wouldn't it be better to do literally anything else with that time?

Ye Shi: Losing your head is one thing, but Headless Senior Sister? (smirk)

Quit Smoking: What the fuck?! That's it? That's it? If you seriously can't play properly, please donate your game access to someone who needs it! Fuck! T.T

Indebted Big Eyes: You really were asking for it. Wasn't that just throwing your life away? You should've let me do it instead!

Yileina: Keep updating! Tell us in detail what it felt like when you were being eaten? (smirk)

All the Good Names Were Taken by Dogs: Now that you put it that way, my mind's going somewhere else. Bro, let's talk somewhere private. (smirk)

The thread probably started going off the rails around there.

It had originally been a perfectly good help post, but in the end, nobody cared whether her problem had been resolved.

Perhaps because the official account didn't respond and the commenters were too foul-mouthed, the post gradually turned into the original poster fighting a verbal battle against the masses, furiously arguing with the netizens.

This little player had quite the sharp tongue too. One look was enough to tell she was an experienced troll.

Chu Guang couldn't stand it anymore. He locked her post and sent her a private message through the backend.

"Hello, I'm a Wasteland OL game planner. We have received your feedback. According to the game's death penalty settings, resurrection requires 72 hours. Please wait patiently for the resurrection cooldown to end, after which you may log in to the game again."

Ya Ya: "Huh? I have to wait three days... Can't you change it to one day? I can top up. Just tell me how much."

Chu Guang: "This isn't about money."

Ya Ya: "Can't you make an exception? Please, Mr. Planner, I really didn't do it on purpose. Please help me. Oh right, what's your QQ number? Can I add you? Typing here is such a hassle. Let's talk on QQ instead. (pitiful)"

Chu Guang: "Rules are rules. I can't help you with this."

Ya Ya: "You really can't make an exception? (pitiful)"

Unmoved, Chu Guang continued typing.

"I'm not finished. Besides the resurrection cooldown, a player's first death in the game also deducts 500 Contribution Points."

Ya Ya: "It deducts Contribution Points too?! B-but I don't have that many..."

Chu Guang: "That's where the trouble lies. At present, you only have 30 Contribution Points from gathering tasks. Those Contribution Points are nowhere near enough to pay the death penalty."

Ya Ya: "What happens if I don't have enough? (nervous)"

Chu Guang: "Under the current settings, it will affect NPCs' evaluation of the player. In other words, your favorability will decrease."

Ya Ya: "My favorability will decrease?! No! QAQ"

Now she knew to be afraid?

Why didn't you do that earlier?

"Clearly, you haven't realized the severity of the problem. Imagine this: the character you were playing was entrusted with the mission of saving civilization. Yet as a human elite sent to the surface to support reconstruction, not only did you fail to create any value, you caused everyone so much trouble instead. Don't you feel even the slightest bit guilty?"

She hadn't even earned 500 freebie coins, yet she'd wasted a whole canister of active matter.

How could she have the nerve?!

Ya Ya: "B-but this is a game..."

"That's right, it's a game, but it isn't your game alone," Chu Guang typed righteously. "You've played murder mystery games before, right?"

Ya Ya: "I-I have..."

Chu Guang: "Think of it as a thirty-player game. Twenty-nine people are playing seriously, but one person is fooling around—and they're even holding a key role card. You should understand how awful that kind of behavior is for the other players."

It really wasn't that exaggerated. She was only a newbie; if she died, she died. But Chu Guang felt that if he showed no reaction at all, these players would never learn their lesson.

She had to be taught a lesson!

But perhaps he had put it too harshly. Maybe this little player was too thin-skinned, or perhaps she'd really been screwed over in a murder mystery game before.

Sitting before her computer, Ya Ya was practically crying from his scolding as she frantically typed out apologies.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I was wrong! It was my fault! QAQ"

A string of messages flooded the chat window. Chu Guang, who had been about to continue typing, felt a little embarrassed instead.

Why did this feel like he was emotionally manipulating her?

Forget it...

It didn't matter.

Chu Guang: "You don't need to apologize to me. I was only explaining the game's punishment system and why it was designed that way. Later, you can explain it to the other players in your post as well. I'll unlock the post."

Chu Guang: "Also, I need to emphasize this again: Wasteland OL is positioned as a hardcore game. At least during the early stages, there won't be many casual elements, and that was decided when we designed the game's overall framework. If you truly can't accept the setting, we suggest you switch to another game, or wait until the open beta version launches and there's more content before playing."

Ya Ya: "No, I want to play! I'll die without a helmet! QAQ"

Ya Ya: "Um, Mr. Planner, I don't have any objections to the death penalty anymore. How can I restore the favorability I lost? Would it help if I apologized on my own after reviving? QAQ"

Chu Guang: "It might help, but not by much. The Administrator's AI personality and behavioral logic are set to lawful neutral. His evaluation mainly depends on whether a player's actions align with the shelter's overall interests. So if you want to make up for it, let him see your hardworking side. Don't do such thoughtless things again."

Ya Ya: "I understand. Um... can I make one tiny suggestion?"

Chu Guang: "Go ahead."

Ya Ya: "Could you add some paid gifts or something in the future? The kind that can increase favorability. I've seen them in other games, like Big-Nosed Mole Manor... I can pay for them!"

Chu Guang's face darkened as he typed.

"My friend, don't always think money can solve every problem. We're a legitimate company!"

The person was already gone. What use was money to him?

Could she burn it over for him to spend?

Ya Ya, sitting before her computer, froze. Her hands stopped over the keyboard, and for a moment, her brain failed to process it.

A legitimate company...

Weren't those the ones that scammed people out of money?

Wouldn't a company that didn't want money be the illegitimate one...?

After closing the webpage, Chu Guang set this little player's matter aside for the time being and logged into his QQ account.

Interestingly, the Ox-Horse Club group was discussing that very post on the official website.

It seemed everyone was quite concerned about the death penalty in the game.

Spare Me: I've played it. Honestly, this game really is awesome. I take back what I said before. I'm convinced!

Ye Ao Nai Wo He: Holy shit, even a thick-browed, big-eyed guy like you got bought off by that dog admin???

("Ye Ao Nai Wo He" has been muted by an administrator for 1 hour.)

Ye Shi: Keep barking, dog?

Old White: Quit screwing around. Did you guys see that post on the official website? The one about the person who died today.

Ye Shi: Saw it. The ID's Ya Ya—the tall, long-legged girl who's 180 cm! Group leader, hurry up and find a way to pull her into the group. (Smirk)

Old White: Get lost, get lost, get lost. Go do it yourself.

Fang Chang: I finished reading the post. I've summarized three points: 1. Losing consciousness or dying in the game will both cause a forced disconnection. 2. Excessive pain really has been removed. This is just like what I found in my previous testing. I have to say, the game developers are very shrewd! No sensation at all wouldn't feel realistic, but too much pain would drive players away. The current balance is just right! Still, I'll say it again: it'd be better if we could adjust it ourselves. (Grin)

Ye Shi: What's the third point??

Gale: Let me add it: if you don't court death, you won't die.

Fang Chang: Exactly.

Quit Smoking: I'm dying here. Why the hell can't I get a reservation? I want to play so badly! T.T

Old White: Uh, why don't you ask Brother Guang to pull some strings for you?

Quit Smoking: I already did. He told me to wait. T.T

Ye Shi: My condolences.

Old White: Huh? It's not that bad, is it? Did you secretly badmouth him or something? That guy really holds grudges. I checked his profile—he's a Scorpio.

Quit Smoking: No way! How would I dare badmouth him?! I'm Brother Guang's most loyal simp, okay?! T.T

Old White: Then that's strange. I'll ask him for you another day.

Fang Chang: Oh right, is Junk Collector Level 99 online?

Ye Shi: No idea. Want me to @ him for you?

Old White: @Junk Collector Level 99.

Junk Collector Level 99: Ahem, what is it? I'm in the group.

Lurking was way more fun than chatting.

Besides, in a group full of acquaintances like this, a newbie who had only joined a few days ago rarely found a chance to jump into the conversation.

Fang Chang: I saw that your character is a lizardman. When you took off the helmet and came back to reality, did you feel anything? Like any sense of disconnect?

Chu Guang, who had also been lurking, became interested when he saw this.

He was rather curious himself about what it felt like for players who entered the game as lizardmen.

Especially since they lost a little tail and gained a big one. He wondered whether they could get used to it.

Junk Collector Level 99: Uh... I don't think so? It felt pretty good. My physical abilities in the game were insanely strong, and my reactions were really fast. Nothing felt off after I logged out, either. But there was one thing I wasn't quite used to. In the game, I kept wanting to eat raw meat, and the sight of blood made my whole body heat up. But it went away as soon as I took off the helmet. It was really strange.

Fang Chang: Damn! Why can we choose nonhuman characters, but not make female characters?!

Gale: Ahem, be rational, brother.

Old White: You're kind of scaring me.

Fang Chang: Piss off! I just wanted to see what it felt like. Pure curiosity, you know.

Ye Shi: No, no, we don't.

Gale: Come to think of it, Ye Shi and Junk Collector, did you two run into raiders while you were out hunting with the Administrator today?

Junk Collector Level 99: Yeah! There were two raiders, plus a tamed mutant hyena. They were executing a scavenger when we found them, but that guy had already been killed by the scripted event! Then we took out the two raiders and took their gear.

Fang Chang: Tamed? So mutants can be tamed. I wonder if players will be able to keep pets later on... I'm guessing this is foreshadowing from the developers. (strokes chin)

Gale: You killed NPCs?

Junk Collector Level 99: Yeah, the Administrator ordered us to attack them... That shouldn't count as breaking the rules in the Residents' Handbook, right? I even checked afterward. It only says that attacking neutral or friendly NPCs is forbidden.

Ye Shi: Uh, I think those were probably spawned wild mobs, not NPCs, right? But the bleeding effects... they really were a little too realistic. I almost thought someone had actually died.

When Chu Guang saw this, he fell into thought.

He had previously wondered whether the world the players saw was filtered somehow. Now, it seemed that might really be the case.

However, the filter was not necessarily the sort used by beauty camera apps. It was more likely a kind of conceptual blurring.

Just like how the device handled pain.

Pain beyond a certain threshold was blocked by the players' brains. Sensory shocks beyond what they could endure were likely subjected to corresponding "emotional dulling" as well.

Otherwise, if it triggered the brain's "circuit breaker," players would be scared awake from the "nightmare," and wouldn't the connection be cut off immediately?

Clearly, the designer of this device had already taken all these details into consideration.

Having analyzed this far, Chu Guang suddenly felt a little envious.

When he had first arrived in the wasteland, it had taken him a long time to overcome those psychological barriers.

Gale: Were they speaking Mandarin?

Junk Collector Level 99: They spoke very strangely. The pronunciation sounded a little like Chinese, but it wasn't Chinese. I couldn't understand any of it. It was probably randomly generated by the program.

When depicting alien planets or other worlds, quite a few films, television shows, and games used similar setups. They created a "foreign language" by scrambling the normal order of sounds in a sentence, while others simply made things up.

Like the mumbling little people in The Sims.

As far as Junk Collector Level 99 was concerned, Wasteland OL had probably used a similar design.

At least in that regard, the game felt quite convincing.

Fang Chang: Yeah, the way this plot was arranged was actually pretty interesting. I feel like it was meant to remind us of the hidden dangers in this wasteland. Just like the mutant tribe we discovered before, the purpose was probably to create a sense of crisis.

Ye Shi: Uh, wasn't it just randomly generated content?

Fang Chang: Everything you see is part of a designed program. There's no such thing as true randomness.

Old White: I think Fang Chang's got a point. This happened on the very day the new players came online... It does feel somewhat deliberately arranged.

Fang Chang: It's only a guess! I think this plot can be understood as follows: as the outpost grows and the players' overall strength increases, conflicts between the players and the wasteland's other factions and mutants will gradually intensify. And competition for survival resources and space may become the main theme of the game's next stage.

Fang Chang: We can actually start preparing for war now! My guess is that if things move quickly, once the Winter Is Coming expansion ends, the next expansion will be Outpost Conflict.

Gale: Holy shit...

Junk Collector Level 99: 6666, that analysis is solid.

Ye Shi: Damn, damn, Brother Fang Chang is operating on another level!

Quit Smoking: Damn! I really want to play! T.T

Then the group members started exchanging tips on backyard steelmaking and making gunpowder, while Chu Guang stared at the screen in utter astonishment.

Good lord, this guy had thought through things even he, the planner, hadn't considered.

What a talent!

Chu Guang sighed inwardly and casually copied the man's analysis into a document for safekeeping.

You're all right.

You're all experts.

If anyone asked later, Chu Guang decided he'd just explain it that way.