No rules, no order.
Especially when it came to players who loved causing trouble, he couldn't go easy on them.
Shelter Resident Handbook, Version 1.0.
1. The Administrator's orders took precedence over everything. All shelter residents were required to obey unconditionally.
2. For residents who violated the rules, the Administrator reserved the right to employ ultimate measures such as "forced hibernation" and "confinement." (Note: Forced hibernation was equivalent to being forcibly kicked from the game, while confinement meant having login privileges banned.)
3. The Administrator retained final interpretation rights over all the above clauses.
Getting kicked from the game for breaking the rules was already beyond the authority of an ordinary NPC.
After seeing the note beneath the second rule of the Shelter Resident Handbook, the players finally understood. The NPC before them wasn't merely an NPC—he also possessed some GM privileges and could "ban" people who affected other players' gaming experience.
There were few people for now, so these were the only three rules. If anything needed adding later, Chu Guang would consider releasing Version 2.0, or even Version 20.0.
For example, rules governing player-to-player contact, player-to-"NPC" contact, and prohibited activities within the game.
One reason for running a closed beta before the alpha test was precisely this.
The shelter wasn't very large. Though it seemed to have more than twenty rooms, each one was tiny, crammed full with four cultivation pods.
The previous Administrator seemed terrified that Chu Guang would sit around doing nothing and eat through the supplies, so he had stripped the entire B1 level clean, leaving behind not even a scrap of anything useful.
Chu Guang didn't remain in the shelter long. Once he finished explaining the rules, he led the four players and Xiao Qi onto the elevator leading outside.
These four closed beta players were fairly obedient and gave him, the Administrator, plenty of face. Their curiosity was just a little too exuberant.
From the moment their feet touched the ground, they were like country bumpkins visiting the grand gardens for the first time, touching this and staring at that, wanting to poke at everything they saw.
Not a single cell in their bodies could stay still!
The elevator came to a stop.
As they watched sunlight spill through the broken windows and onto the ground before the elevator, the four players once again let out awestruck cries like they had never seen the world before.
"Holy shit..."
"This light! These walls! This, this, this..."
"This is way too awesome!"
"Sunlight passed through the gaps in the concrete ruins, shining on the grass sprouting from the floor. Visible motes of dust drifted through the beams... Every frame is art, every second is money burning!"
"Awesome! Brother Sun sure has culture!"
"Fuck off, call me Brother Fang!"
"Sure thing, Brother Tomorrow."
"..."
What a bunch of bumpkins...
Chu Guang found it somewhat amusing, though he understood. He pretended not to hear anything and carried out his duty as an NPC, leading them outside the sanatorium.
Looking at the tools laid out on the ground, Chu Guang turned to face them.
"As you can see, the nuclear war ended two hundred years ago."
"We are currently located in the far northern outskirts of Clear Spring City, far from the nuclear crater. Unless you encounter 'glowing rain' or a visible radioactive cloud, there is no need to worry too much about excessive gamma levels."
"The shelter cannot protect us forever, nor can our civilization hide beneath the ruins forever. Remember, we are the vanguard returning to the surface. Behind us, thousands upon thousands of people are waiting for good news. There is no time to waste."
"The first thing we need to do is repair the sanatorium beneath our feet and establish an outpost amid these ruins."
"It will become our bridgehead for returning to the surface."
"I have a task for you. Pick up the axes on the ground and go outside to chop some wood."
"Before winter arrives, we need to stockpile enough fuel and repair the broken walls around us."
"Remember not to go too far. If you encounter mutants, do not act rashly. Retreat immediately."
"Move out!"
Chu Guang had originally thought he would need to spend some time persuading them.
Unexpectedly, these players were even more obedient than he had imagined. They promptly picked up their axes and headed out to work.
They moved so quickly, it was as though they had been impatiently waiting for him to finish talking, afraid that he would delay them from working.
"Master, are these people really going to be all right?" Xiao Qi, following beside him, voiced its concerns. It always felt that these clones weren't quite right in the head.
"That's why I had you come out too." Chu Guang raised his head to glance at the sanatorium behind him, paused briefly, then continued, "Go to the north-facing window on the third floor and keep watch. If they run into trouble or wander too far away, let me know."
As for himself, he first needed to check the reward for completing the quest.
The mobile trash bin parked beside Chu Guang didn't move.
After a while, Xiao Qi spoke softly.
"...Master."
"What is it?"
"Um, I don't have feet."
The mobile trash bin circled Chu Guang's lower leg, displaying the way it moved. Only then did Chu Guang realize that it had been gliding around on four pairs of rollers the entire time.
"...Fine, I'll carry you upstairs."
With a sigh.
Chu Guang crouched down and hoisted it onto his shoulder.
Damn.
It was pretty heavy.
Crack crack—
Duang!
A thigh-thick tree slowly toppled over, crashing onto the ground with a dull thud.
"I don't think this place looks like a wasteland."
"Then what does it look like?"
"More like a forest... I mean The Forest. I don't know if you've played it, but you chop down trees like this and build houses."
"The ultimate co-op game. Of course I've played it. Not only played it—I even built my house in the sky. But building there was much easier. You just clicked the mouse. Unlike here... Fuck, this axe is pretty heavy."
"Speaking of the setting, I think this actually feels pretty realistic. I remember watching a documentary about returning to Chernobyl. After forty years without humans disturbing it, it had evolved into a new ecosystem. Buildings were wrapped in vines, and trees grew taller than houses... This game is set two hundred years after the wasteland, right? That's not impossible. I even feel like the city will be more extreme than this."
Looking at the mess behind him, Old White wiped away his sweat and clicked his tongue.
"If this were real life, we'd probably be spending the rest of our lives in prison."
They worked for two hours.
Though they weren't very efficient and the stumps they left behind looked as though they had been gnawed by dogs, they still felled around a dozen thigh-thick pine trees, not to mention countless thinner ones.
Still, the Administrator hadn't said how much wood they needed, so nobody knew whether this was enough.
"To be fair, this game is way too realistic... Whether it's the blunt sensation of the axe striking the trees, the flying wood chips, or the sunlight passing through the leaves, it reminds me of—"
"Enough, enough. Quit rambling."
Interrupting Fang Chang's musings, Ye Shi leaned on his axe, looked at the branches and autumn leaves scattered across the ground, and said between breaths,
"Since we can chop trees and build houses, farming shouldn't be a problem either, right?"
The body he had in the game was far more athletic than his real one.
In reality, Ye Shi was the kind of person whose body had been hollowed out by nine years of compulsory education, but here in the wasteland, he could at least squeeze out a pair of biceps.
Of course, the happiest one was Fleeting Time—Old White.
His character didn't look like much, with stubble all over his face, but when he rolled up his sleeves, he was nothing but muscle. He looked powerful.
"If we're going to farm, I suggest we set a fire. We can plow the wood ash into the soil, and once winter passes, it'll be fertile land by spring next year... Of course, that's assuming this game is really that realistic. Otherwise, we'll just be wasting our effort."
"Come to think of it, I've always wondered why Old White's muscles look so solid, like he works out, while I can barely swing an axe."
Gale panted heavily.
His character was probably the closest to his real-life physical condition out of all of them. He was already exhausted after only a short while of exercise.
"Every character's stats must be different... Though I have no idea how they determine that." Fang Chang rubbed the back of his head, thought for a moment, and said, "But I do have a theory."
"What theory?"
The other three players were all quite interested in his discovery.
Anyone who had spent time in the Ox-Horse Club knew that he was a member of the strategy groups for several single-player games, and he also had the largest Steam library in the group.
Whether it was FPS, RPG, or SLG, there wasn't a genre he didn't play.
"You should have noticed that we woke up in silver-white pods. Considering this game's theme, there are two possible explanations. First, we used cryogenic hibernation technology to sleep from before the war until now. Second, we're all clones."
"Of course, I personally think the second setting is more convenient. That way, the issue of resurrection becomes easy to explain too. They can just synthesize another body using DNA stored in the cultivation pods."
Looking at the players staring at one another, Fang Chang continued.
"I'm guessing they'll add things like stat panels and levels later on, and the differences in our physical abilities are probably foreshadowing for that!"
"I'm still looking forward to the developers creating a unique game system. For example... combining DNA with a class system, separating strength-type players from agility-type players, and setting different stat growth curves. That would ensure freedom while also enriching the gameplay."
"It's a shame the characters are random. It would be great if we could decide our own starting stats."
After talking until his mouth was dry, Fang Chang finally stopped.
"Enough bullshit. Once we log off later, I'll talk to Brother Guang about it."
Brother Guang had said that he was the game's planner. Speaking directly with the planner would definitely be better than blindly discussing it among themselves.
At that moment, Ye Shi, who had been staring blankly into the distance, suddenly spoke.
"How big do you think this map is?"
"No idea."
"What if I kept walking in one direction..."
Seeing Ye Shi itching to try, Gale, who was resting nearby with his axe propped against the ground, hesitated before saying,
"It'll most likely be an invisible wall, or maybe a scripted death... But either way, I suggest you don't do that."
"Didn't you forget? The Administrator told us not to go too far from the sanatorium."
"Come on, he's just an NPC. You actually listen to him?"
"But he can make us log off. He can even revoke our closed beta qualifications," Gale reminded him.
Fang Chang added from the side,
"Yeah. And judging by how intelligent the NPCs in this game are, there might even be hidden settings like favorability. You can tell that it doesn't treat every player exactly the same. There must be some hidden algorithm behind it."
"Fine, fine, I won't try it."
Hearing that, even Ye Shi, the most unruly among them, behaved himself.
There was no helping it.
That argument was too powerful.
Anyone with eyes could see the value hidden behind this game.
Fully immersive virtual reality...
Once such technology entered the world, it would have a revolutionary impact on modern society's entertainment—perhaps even its way of life!
Even if someone didn't want to play games, who would object to having twelve to eight extra hours in a day compared to everyone else?
According to what Brother Guang in the group had said, time spent in the game world was equivalent to sleeping in the real world.
In other words, even if they spent the entire night here, it wouldn't affect their work the next day!
It was truly hard to imagine that a game destined to shock the entire world had begun its closed beta in such a "casual," almost silent manner.
Did that company not need to make money?
But no matter what, now that this opportunity had fallen into their hands, not a single one of them was willing to give it up easily.
Just as Ye Shi gave up on exploring the edge of the map and prepared to continue chopping trees obediently, an intense sense of danger suddenly enveloped his entire body.
His hands and feet turned ice-cold.
Cold sweat seeped down his back.
He had no idea where that sense of danger came from, but it was as though he had foreseen his own gruesome death—
His legs went weak, and Ye Shi stumbled backward. Yet that very stumble allowed him to evade the black shadow descending from above.
Riiip—!
Wood chips scattered.
Three claw marks, each half a foot wide, appeared on the tree trunk beside him!
"Kya—!"
It sounded like the howl of a vicious ghost!
The diving bird missed its strike. Using the recoil from kicking the pine tree, it flapped its wings and soared back upward, vanishing beyond the treetops.
Looking at the black feather that had fallen, Ye Shi sat paralyzed on the ground, completely stunned as he instinctively touched his head.
Holy shit?
Before you continue