Hardworking Players

How long would it take to gather 100 kilograms of mushrooms?

Chu Guang didn't really have a clue. He generally wouldn't touch that stuff.

He always procured his own food. Unless he had absolutely no other choice, he would never choose fungi as food.

Meanwhile, Ya Ya left the shelter with a dejected look on her face. The moment she stepped onto the open ground in front of the sanatorium, the sight before her left her utterly stunned.

"Th-this is a map update?!"

It was a scene she had never seen before!

A three-meter-high concrete wall now encircled the sanatorium. Cement blocks and crushed gravel formed a slope along the inner side of the wall.

The top of the wall had been fitted with makeshift cover made from hoods stripped off wrecked cars and aluminum alloy bars picked up from the wasteland.

It looked pretty cyberpunk.

Not only was there a wall, but two brick-and-wood buildings—one large and one small—had also been erected directly in front of the sanatorium.

Wooden signs hung above their doors. One read Weapon Shop, while the other read Bathhouse.

She had only been offline for three days, yet it felt like an entire century had passed.

The changes in this update were way too huge.

Ya Ya stood there with a completely blank expression.

After a while, she found the gate in the wall. As she walked over, she happened to spot two players standing nearby, using hammers and nails to secure sharpened wooden stakes into a row.

"What are you guys doing?" Ya Ya asked curiously as she approached.

The two players didn't even look up. They were working away with great enthusiasm.

Ya'er I Need to Use the Toilet: "Making barricades and cover! We picked up the quest at the carpentry hut! It only needs two people—you're too late!"

Who'll Smell My Athlete's Foot: "That's right! Reinforcing a piece of cover gets you 5 silver and 50 contribution points! If someone attacks us, we'll push the barricade to the gate. Even if they break through the wooden door, we can box them in with the cover and shoot them from a distance! It's super useful!"

"Still, do we really need to make it this complicated? The quest board said we just needed to lay two wooden stakes across."

"What the hell do you know? This is a wooden anti-tank Czech hedgehog modeled after World War II designs! Once we get the materials to wrap it in barbed wire, forget a few scavenger raiders—even green-skinned muscle freaks would get stuck in the gate and slaughtered like chickens."

"Keep bragging. Isn't it just a shitty barricade? I almost believed you."

As they talked, the two players seemed to start arguing over how practical the fortification really was.

Ya Ya watched with a baffled look, question marks practically filling her head.

Silver coins?

Were those the currency added in the recent update?

And what was this about getting quests from a logging hut? Weren't quests normally displayed on plastic signs?

Ya Ya pondered inwardly.

It looked like this update had made some pretty major changes...

No matter what, she needed to hurry up and finish her punishment quest, restore her resident status, and make sure she didn't miss out on this version only for another new one to arrive.

With that in mind, Ya Ya decided to find a container for holding mushrooms first.

However, just as she was about to pick up a plastic bucket, she discovered that all the junk piled inside the sanatorium had already been collected and stored together in a wooden shed.

When she walked over, she found a player sitting at a wooden table with his legs crossed. A notebook lay on the table, with a permanent marker hanging beside it.

Seeing Ya Ya approach, the player raised his eyes and said in surprise.

"Huh? You're alive?"

Ya Ya froze for a moment.

"You know me?"

The player grinned mischievously.

"Duh. How could I not? Since the server opened, you're the only one who's ever gotten yourself killed for free."

Ya Ya was so angry she wanted to hit him, but she didn't think she could win, so she merely shot him an annoyed glare.

"Move. I need a bucket."

"Small buckets cost 1 copper coin. Large buckets cost 2."

"What?" Ya Ya's eyes widened. "You're charging money for this junk?"

Why don't you just rob people!

"Miss, I didn't make the rules. I'm just working here," the player said helplessly, twirling the permanent marker in his hand. "If you've got a problem, take it up with the NPC."

"But I just respawned. Where am I supposed to get money?" Ya Ya said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "Hey, little brother, could you make an exception? I'll return it as soon as I'm done using it."

"No, no. If I don't follow the rules, I'll get punished. We can make steel tools, but this junk is for sale only, not rent," the player replied with the bluntness of a true straight man, shaking his head like a rattle drum. "Didn't the update give everyone 5 copper coins? It's not expensive. Why not just buy one?"

Ya Ya froze.

"Huh?! They gave out money? Why didn't I get any?"

The player clearly didn't know either, scratching the back of his head.

"Uh... could it be a favorability issue?"

"Did you offend an NPC?"

Hearing that her favorability had dropped, Ya Ya was so upset she was practically about to cry.

Damn it!

She had already been punished, and her favorability still had to drop too?

Just then, a voice as sweet as heavenly music came from behind her.

"I'll pay for her."

Ya Ya whipped around and saw a short girl barely five feet tall, carrying a thick stack of fur coats. She walked up to the warehouse table and heavily set the goods down on the wooden surface.

"Heave-ho, two pieces in total. Write that down!"

"Hang on."

The player opened the notebook in her hand and used a permanent marker to write a line.

...day...hour, "Tailor" Teng Teng completed 2 hyena-hide coats.

After taking the tailor job, as long as they completed a certain number of orders each day, players would receive a guaranteed base salary, plus a reward of 2 silver coins for every finished coat that met the quality standard.

Of course, players could also buy materials such as fur and fibers from the warehouse, make coats themselves, and then sell them to other players or back to the warehouse.

It was basically self-employment.

Coats made this way brought in roughly 1 to 5 silver coins in profit each. And if one was made especially well, then once everyone had more money, perhaps some players might even be willing to pay a high price for it.

Teng Teng planned to improve her skills a little more, save up some money, buy a plot of land, and open a clothing store right at the entrance of the sanatorium.

Wouldn't running her own shop make more money than working for an NPC?

"Teng Teng..."

Coming back to her senses, Ya Ya grabbed Teng Teng's arm, tears of gratitude welling in her eyes.

She had never expected that after coming out here, the only person willing to lend her a hand would be Teng Teng, the person she had argued with before.

Teng Teng grew a little embarrassed under her gaze. Blushing, she tried to pull her hand back.

"...Don't look at me like that. It's just one copper coin, it's not much. Y-you can pay me back later!"

"I'm sorry. I was wrong before. You're such a good person!"

"...Well, I wasn't really holding it against you. Anyway, keep it up. I still have clothes to make, so I'm leaving."

Leaving a copper coin on the table, Teng Teng picked up the wooden basket piled with fur and turned to leave. However, Ya Ya snatched it from her and eagerly said, "Let me help you!"

"No, no, go do your own thing. Just leave me alone."

Teng Teng looked overwhelmed as she reached out to take it back, but because of the height difference, she couldn't reach it. Ya Ya nimbly dodged aside.

Holding the wooden basket high in the air, warmhearted Ya Ya giggled.

"How could I let that happen? You're so tiny—how can I let you carry so much stuff? Where's your station? I'll bring it over for you."

"..."

Why was everything this girl said so punchable?

Black lines rose across Teng Teng's forehead, and her shoulders trembled.

Her fists clenched.

Carpenter's Hut.

Sitting on a stool, Mosquito had a blade of grass hanging from his mouth. With practiced hands, he used tools to secure two wooden strips together, sandwiching a thin sheet of elastic alloy scavenged from the wasteland between them.

After stringing it with a bowstring made from tanned mutant hyena sinew, a simple wooden bow was complete.

"Done."

Another order completed. Two silver coins in the bag.

Mosquito hung the finished wooden bow on a nearby rack, waiting for other players to come pick one out.

Strictly speaking, these simple steps were nowhere near enough to make a true hunting bow.

Mosquito had only heard that for a good hunting bow, even the moisture level of the wood used for the grip required considerable attention.

That said, for players without firearms, this thing was already pretty good. Within thirty paces, killing a mutant hyena wasn't much of a problem.

Of course, that was assuming you could hit it.

He certainly didn't have that kind of skill.

"Twenty wooden bows, required to pierce a mutant hyena's skull within twenty meters... This order will probably take until the day after tomorrow."

Mosquito muttered as he glanced at the jars and bottles set in the corner of his table.

They contained saltpeter he had refined from nitrate soil. The bottle beside it held gypsum powder containing calcium sulfate, while the bucket of black, hard lumps beneath the shelf was charcoal.

Originally, he had planned to figure out black powder first today, but the rewards from the Administrator's orders were simply too tempting.

As long as he made five wooden bows a day, he could collect a guaranteed wage, and each bow came with a two-silver commission.

"Forget it, making money comes first..."

It wasn't good to keep doing chemistry experiments in the carpentry shack anyway.

He planned to save up some money, buy a plot of land, then purchase cement and bricks to build a small house dedicated to selling the weapons he designed.

Wasn't that far more interesting than being a carpenter?

Just then, the door to the carpentry shack was pushed open, and Fang Chang, who had bought a bow from him earlier, strode inside.

"Give me another twenty arrows!"

"You used them up already?" Mosquito froze for a moment when he saw Fang Chang covered in blood. "Don't tell me you forgot those things can be recovered."

"I know, but are you sure they can still be used?" Fang Chang gloomily set his quiver on the table.

Inside was a heap of broken arrows, along with arrowheads that had come loose from their shafts.

He dropped onto a stool beside the table, sighed, and continued complaining, "The quality of these things is just heartbreaking!"

Mosquito picked up the quiver, pulled out an arrow for a look, and stroked his chin.

"Hmm... objectively speaking, being able to leave the arrowhead inside the prey should count as an advantage. But you're right—if you're using them for hunting... the attrition rate is a bit high. Let me think about how to improve them."

The arrowheads were made from sharpened metal pieces and fixed onto wooden shafts with pine resin. Their quality really wasn't great.

"I'm counting on you!"

"No need to be so polite. It's my job, after all."

Mosquito counted out twenty arrows from the rack beside him and handed them to Fang Chang.

One arrow cost two copper coins, so twenty arrows came to four silver. Without hesitation, Fang Chang pulled four silver coins from his pocket and generously lined them up on the table.

He had traded the prey he had just hunted for them.

"Thanks, brother."

"You're welcome. Happy hunting," Mosquito said with a chuckle, waving at Fang Chang as he headed out the door. "Oh, right. Want to try my new weapon? I guarantee it's really useful."

Upon hearing that, Fang Chang, who had just reached the doorway, nearly tripped over the doorframe.

"Ahem, definitely next time!"

That was testing it with his life!

Thinking of the "Hell Shower" this guy had designed before, Fang Chang steadied himself against the doorframe. He didn't even dare look back as he fled with the quiver in hand.

Mosquito rubbed his nose, looking utterly puzzled.

"Is it really that exaggerated?"

He had originally planned to add a bayonet for close combat to his "Hellfire 0.1."