A Planner Who Understands Human Nature

"Eat."

Inside Vault 404, in the room next to the residents' hall, Chu Guang handed a bowl and spoon to Xia Yan, who was sitting against the wall.

Seeing the venison and fern leaves floating in the green wheat porridge, Xia Yan swallowed helplessly. Not caring whether it was poisoned, she lowered her head and began wolfing it down.

The fact that she could eat meant she had mostly recovered.

Watching the female mercenary devour her meal, Chu Guang briefly glanced at her right leg. Though a severed limb could not regenerate, the wound had basically healed. The scab was even starting to peel away, revealing new flesh beneath.

It seemed this healing injection really was something special.

It would be nice if he could draw another syringe full.

Once Xia Yan had eaten most of her meal, Chu Guang spoke.

"How's the memorization going?"

Xia Yan set down her bowl and nodded nervously.

Honestly, she was not very confident.

But she was even more afraid that if she said no, she would be sold to the farm next door as a serf.

This ruthless man had torn apart a Crawler with his bare hands, and he did not even blink when shooting his own people. Who knew what even more twisted things he might do?

"Very good." Chu Guang nodded and continued looking at her. "You can rest for one more day tomorrow. You'll officially start work the day after."

Xia Yan asked nervously.

"By the way, what exactly does a weapons shop owner do?"

Chu Guang looked at her.

"It's your character setting. You've memorized all the lines and still don't know?"

Xia Yan looked blank, clearly unable to understand what this job entailed.

Chu Guang sighed.

"Forget it. It doesn't matter if you don't understand. My assistant, Xiao Qi, will train you for the position. You only need to carry out my instructions step by step."

"Also, I don't care about anywhere else, but at least in front of other people, you must address me as Administrator. Understood?"

Xia Yan nodded.

"Understood..."

Chu Guang said.

"Say it once now."

"Lord Administrator." Xia Yan lowered her head and submitted.

Huh?

She learned pretty quickly.

Satisfied with her attitude, Chu Guang nodded and handed her a chocolate-flavored lollipop.

"Very good."

"This is dessert after your meal. Keep it."

Xia Yan took the lollipop from his hand with a blank expression, staring at it in a daze. Who knew what she was imagining now.

Chu Guang had no interest in hearing her wild thoughts, nor was he curious about what she was thinking.

Without lingering in the room, he closed the door and returned to the surface. First, he carried Xiao Qi downstairs. Then, like an old farmer, he herded the free-roaming players back into the shelter and settled them into their cultivation pods.

He locked their login permissions to keep anyone from refusing to sleep in the middle of the night.

Other than Garbage Lord, who was out hunting, all twenty-eight players had returned to the nest.

Sitting down in front of the computer in the residents' hall, Chu Guang opened the forum.

Just as he expected, the first thing the little players did after taking off their helmets was not wash up, but unanimously pick up their phones or computers and log into Wasteland OL's official website.

The period just after players logged off was the liveliest time of day on the official forum.

Especially since, just three hours ago, Wasteland OL's official website had dropped such a huge bombshell!

Alpha 0.2 had been online for less than three days when version 0.3 was released. And judging from the contents of this update, there was no less content than in the previous version!

There was no need to pin it at all.

The post Chu Guang had made on the forum as a planner unsurprisingly replaced Long Days Ahead's analysis post and became the hottest thread on the entire forum!

Old White: ??? The most hardworking official team in history! A major update every three days and a minor update every day. Love it!

Spare Me: I'm so touched I'm crying. We finally get paid for doing quests from now on! T.T

Ye Shi: What are you talking about? Didn't we get paid before? Don't contribution points and favorability count as wages? (Grin)

Fang Chang: Wait, I have a question! Does this mean daily quests won't give contribution points anymore?

Gale: Holy shit!

Spare Me: Holy shit, holy shit!

Ye Shi: Don't, bro! You can't do this! (Horrified)

Kakarot from the Future: Actually, there's another detail. With 2,000 contribution points, you can upgrade to citizen status. Could there be some missions that only citizens can accept, while residents can't?

Canyon Escapee Mole: Wuwuwu, I want to build a house! Don't stop me from building a house! By the way, what happens if you build a house without buying the land?

Yileina: It probably counts as illegal construction. (Funny)

Makabazi: What the hell is the point of building a house? I want to farm! Damn it, what can you even grow on just five square meters?! (Angry)

These players always focused on the strangest things.

Chu Guang had clearly only wanted to convey that they would be paid for doing missions and working from now on. Yet what the players focused on was that contribution points would become harder to obtain in the future!

Moreover, they seemed to have misunderstood some things about this update's identity system and private land system.

Though that was also his fault. He really hadn't explained that part clearly enough.

Guang: "Everyone, please calm down. This planner just pulled an all-nighter, and before I even had the chance to close my eyes, I heard from the forum moderator that everyone had a lot of questions about the new version! So let me explain in detail what this private land thing is all about!"

"First of all, players who have already obtained closed beta access should have noticed that Wasteland OL's map is an open world. The actual playable map is extremely vast, practically infinite. However, in contrast, the safe zone provided by the Vault's surface outpost base is limited!"

"This five square meters of private land can be understood as a private space within the walls provided by the outpost base to players. Players can build houses on their own land, as long as the height does not exceed the sanatorium ruins at the center of the base!"

"If you want to expand your private territory, aside from working hard to earn contribution points and raise your identity level, you can also cooperate with friends, develop it together, and share its use!"

"Of course, some young players are surely wondering: if I don't have my own land but still want to build a house, can I build one outside the outpost base's walls?"

"The answer is yes. We have promised that players can freely exercise their creativity and reshape this world. The server will preserve those changes, and this is also one of the core gameplay elements of this game!"

"However, please note that free construction is merely a feature supported by the server! Players may use this feature, but they must also follow the rules established by the in-game NPCs. After all, according to the setting, players are residents of Vault 404."

"The outpost's territory does not only consist of its walls. It also includes the defensive buffer zone outside the walls, agricultural zones, and so on. As long as you do not occupy these lands or pose a threat to the outpost's public safety and facilities, players may freely build as they please."

"However, please note that facilities outside these territories are not protected by the Vault."

"Also, since the outpost's scale will continue changing as it develops, nearby land may be incorporated into new territorial boundaries at any time. Therefore, for the sake of your gaming experience, if you absolutely must unleash your creativity, please choose somewhere a little farther away from the outpost."

"If your building is accidentally incorporated into the outpost's territorial boundaries, there is no need to worry too much. The benevolent Administrator will not immediately demolish illegal buildings within the territory, but will instead give their owners thirty days."

"During these thirty days, you will have priority purchase rights for that land. Whether by raising your identity level or cooperating with other players, as long as you turn the land beneath the building into your private land, you can keep the illegal structure. Very humane, right?"

"Of course, if the player does not exercise their priority purchase right within thirty days, the Administrator can only reclaim the land in accordance with the Vault's management regulations and confiscate the illegal building on it, sending it into the asset disposal process."

"During the asset disposal process, the Administrator will decide whether to demolish it, designate it as a public facility, or auction it off based on the building's purpose and quality. Depending on how the building is handled, the Administrator will provide the displaced player with appropriate compensation."

"Also, I should mention in passing that the current currency is only a temporary currency for the closed beta and even the internal testing stage! This line must be highlighted!"

"By the end of the game's testing period, we will consider using digital currency and electronic bookkeeping to integrate the currency system with the attribute panel, presenting it directly to players through a visual interface, just like the games you play on traditional PCs! Attributes and assets will both be available for review at any time!"

"However, implementing this feature will not be easy. It involves many complex technical issues, so please wait patiently and give our development team some time!"

"Oh, right. This update has added twenty new closed beta slots. I believe the lucky players should have already received emails in their inboxes, so please check them promptly."

"I've worked all night, so I need to sleep for a while. If you have any other questions, leave a comment under this post. I'll reply to them all after I wake up!"

Of course, Chu Guang did not sleep.

It had only just gotten dark on the wasteland side. It was not even half past six in the evening. If he went to sleep that early and woke up in the middle of the night, what then? It wasn't like he had a gaming helmet to help him sleep.

He might as well lurk on the forum and watch these idiots chat.

Just as Chu Guang expected, less than two minutes after his post was updated, the replies beneath it exploded again.

Battlefield Atmosphere Team: Awesome! The planner actually came out to reply!

Human Outline Noob Master: Brother Guang!!! Screw you!

Sweat Drips Beneath the Wheat: I'm begging for closed beta access, wuwuwu! Please, just give me a chance!

Ye Ao Nai Wo He: Keep making things up. I refuse to believe it. I'll say it again: there is no such thing as a fully immersive virtual reality game in this world. All those accounts upstairs are bots! Real people on the forum, don't let the dog moderators from the workhorse group fool you! They're no good!

Yileina: There are still real people on this forum? Aren't they all my alts? (Funny)

Quit Smoking: Holy crap? All twenty slots have already been sent out?! Why didn't I get anything in my inbox?!

Indebted Big Eyes: Hahahahaha, I got one!

That Trace of Longing: +1, haha!

Huh?

The ID Ye Ao Nai Wo He looked a little familiar.

It seemed to be from the workhorse group!

What Chu Guang hadn't expected, though, was that this little Ye Ao had actually followed them onto the forum.

Hadn't this guy always said that the official website was a shady site infected with a Trojan?

Why had he bowed to reality now?

Chu Guang clicked on the account and found it even more amusing.

Good lord, she was actually a registered player. And she had answered all ten questions after he raised the registration requirements.

Chu Guang smiled to himself and did not take her idiotic remarks seriously.

She wasn't the only person on the forum who refused to believe the game really existed.

All Chu Guang had to do was pick another twenty reliable players from the three hundred-plus "reservists."

His methods included, but were not limited to, analyzing user profiles through their forum post history, quiz scores, activity levels, and login times. Having worked in sales before, he was practically an expert at this.

Those little pufferfish who thought this wasn't reasonable, that wasn't reasonable, and only they were reasonable need not bother coming. There was so much rebar at construction sites they refused to carry, yet they insisted on entering a game to act like geniuses. How inappropriate was that?

Couldn't get a reservation?

Fuming with rage?

Haha.

He couldn't be bothered.

As a dog of a game designer who understood human nature inside and out, Chu Guang only needed to consider how to use the fewest possible words to get the players to willingly haul bricks for him all day.