Fourth Calamity

Laborer Management Discussion Group.

This was a small group with only four people.

The group owner was Fleeting White Steed, and the members were three laborers from the adjacent group—in other words, dog administrators: Woke Up Over Ten Times Last Night, Level 8 Gale, and There Will Be Plenty of Time in the Future.

Night Ten: [You all received the helmets???]

Old Bai: [Received... This thing is really strange, it was just thrown at my doorstep.]

Fang Chang: [I found it by the garage door...]

Gale: [It was on my desk... I thought it belonged to a colleague.]

Night Ten: [None of you are as strange as me, this package was delivered directly to my dorm room! My three roommates were all there, and none of them saw how this thing got in! And the strangest thing, I don't know if you noticed, is that you can see a countdown when you put on the helmet, but no one else can see anything.]

The group was eerily silent for a while.

The first to break the silence was the group owner, Fleeting White Steed.

Old Bai: [...Now that you mention it, it is a bit strange.]

Fang Chang: [Who do you think this game company is that's so powerful, not only do they know our addresses, but they can also deliver packages to us without anyone noticing?]

Gale: [Yeah, that's what bothers me the most. The address is one thing, if they used the IP address from clicking the link, it's theoretically possible to analyze our real-world location. But the logistics... I don't understand. I'm in Jinling, and I remember Night Ten is studying in Jiangcheng, which is five hundred kilometers away, but we almost simultaneously found that we received the helmets.]

Night Ten: [Yes... and it was shortly after clicking the link.]

Old Bai: [Holy crap, should we call the police?]

Fang Chang: [There's no property loss, the police probably can't do much, and besides, what would you tell the police? The delivery was wrong? There's something wrong with the helmet? Only the person using it can see anything, others see nothing when they wear it.]

Gale: [Yeah, that's the biggest problem, it's hard to explain to others what this thing is. I tried it before, I put my phone inside while wearing the helmet, but even though I could see things, the phone couldn't capture anything.]

Gale was a teacher in real life, likely teaching science, so he spoke in a more organized manner, and his words were unanimously agreed upon by Fang Chang and Old Bai.

Night Ten: [How about... we take the helmet apart and take a look?]

Gale: [Doing that isn't impossible, but there are risks. At least I haven't found any place to disassemble it. If we force it open, it'll be hard to guarantee we can put the helmet back together.]

Fang Chang: [True, we can't screw over Ah Guang either.]

Given that they could so miraculously place the helmet at his garage door, he was starting to believe what the guy with the ID "Guang" had said.

Maybe this company was a mysterious research institution supported by a state agency?

Whatever it was, at least for now, they hadn't suffered any losses. And he himself was quite interested in fully immersive VR games.

That countdown had successfully piqued his interest.

Gale: [I messaged Brother Guang privately on Penguin, but he hasn't replied yet. The official website address doesn't look like a domestic website, it doesn't even look like a normal website domain, I can't find its registration information.]

Night Ten: [Dark web?!]

Gale: [Not sure.]

Old Bai: [Let's leave it at that for now, discussing it further is meaningless. Anyway, in three days, we'll know exactly what this helmet is all about!]

While the players were discussing, Chu Guang, who was in the Wasteland, was still busy making the final preparations.

5 kilograms of green wheat and some iron tools.

It took Chu Guang a lot of effort to move these things from Bett Street to the Wetland Park three kilometers away without attracting attention.

Shelter 404 was hidden underground in this park, with the entrance inside an unremarkable sanatorium.

There was abundant vegetation here and it was near a lake, so theoretically there should be many wild animals active in this area.

After getting close, Chu Guang was very careful, guarding against potential dangers in the surroundings.

Fortunately, however, no accidents occurred.

Checking the mark he made at the sanatorium entrance, confirming that no Mutants or Marauders had slipped in while he was away, Chu Guang used the pointed pipe in his hand to push open the door and carefully walked in.

The entrance to Shelter 404 was the elevator at the innermost part of the sanatorium lobby, and only that elevator's dial had the B1 Level marked on it.

Chu Guang went down once first, throwing the grain into the corridor between the elevator base and the airlock door outside the buffer room.

This was an open area, about forty to fifty meters below the surface.

Honestly, this wasn't very suitable for storing grain, but storing it here was better than leaving it in the sanatorium where it might be targeted by passing rats or mutated cockroaches.

Passing through the two airlock doors of the buffer room.

Walking into the lobby, Chu Guang looked at Xiao Qi who was squatting in the corner and said.

"Is the forum function for the official website developed?"

"It's done."

"What about the players? Did they receive their helmets?"

"They've received them."

So fast?

Chu Guang was slightly surprised.

He remembered leaving the shelter at six in the morning, and it was only around one in the afternoon now, a gap of just seven hours.

"Is the time flow here in the Wasteland really 1:1 with the time in modern society?"

"Of course, but the time here is equivalent to the West Fourth Time Zone on Earth."

Hua Nation in the present world is in the East Eighth Time Zone, with a time difference of about twelve hours from the West Fourth Time Zone. This means it's currently one in the morning in the eastern part of Hua Nation.

Chu Guang sat down in front of the computer and logged into the official website's backend.

Xiao Qi had added a forum function to the official website as he instructed, but there was no traffic yet, so naturally, there wasn't a single post.

The database and illustrated guide were the same.

"How do I upload photos from here?" Chu Guang asked, pointing at the image gallery on the screen.

"You can just upload them directly."

"...What I mean is, how do I take pictures? Or rather, do you have something like a camera?"

It was ridiculous that such a large shelter, the entire B1 Level, had absolutely nothing.

Setting aside leaving some weapons for himself, they should at least prepare some basic survival tools, right?

"Uh, there probably isn't a camera, but my camera can help you take pictures... What kind do you want to take? Right here?"

Looking at the robot in the corner that resembled a wastepaper basket, Chu Guang sighed and said, "What's the point of taking pictures here... Forget it, I'll figure something out myself."

He couldn't possibly bring Mutants here.

However, getting Xiao Qi outside was something to consider.

Most Mutants weren't very interested in inedible metal objects. If he disguised it a bit and placed it on the rooftop like a surveillance eye, it would be an absolute home security artifact!

The more Chu Guang thought about it, the more reliable it seemed.

He logged into his Penguin account through the computer in the resident hall.

Chu Guang found that all four players had sent him private messages, asking him which company he worked for, what "fully immersive game" actually meant, and what was going on with the game helmet.

Honestly, Chu Guang didn't know how to answer these questions, and it was impossible to tell them the truth about this world.

He had to make them believe this was a game world.

Only then could they descend as the "Fourth Calamity," fearless and willing to work tirelessly, becoming his strongest tools.

"Master."

"What is it?"

Looking at Chu Guang, who had turned off the computer and stood up from the chair, Xiao Qi, squatting in the corner, asked curiously, "Aren't you going to reply to their messages?"

"There's no need."

The more he explained, the more loopholes there would be. It was better to just brush it off as corporate or national secrets.

As for the rest?

Let them guess.

Otherwise, what were their brains for?

Weren't they for filling in the blanks?