Chapter 808: Isn't Eating Three More Meals a Day a Reward?

Chapter 808: Isn’t Eating Three Extra Meals a Day a Reward?

“…The life-support device is passable.”

Staring at the report submitted by a certain player, Chu Guang’s face twisted into a mix of laughter and exasperation.

What a pity.

Though he had the authority to decide who received the game helmets, he lacked the permission to “add new production lines for products.”

And besides…

Isn’t eating three extra meals a day a “reward”?

From what he’d gathered, quite a few players were overjoyed at the prospect of becoming gluttons. Especially the group of drunkards led by Old Bai, whose favorite pastime was getting plastered online, then logging off to keep drinking.

In truth, it wasn’t just about food.

“Second Life” brought players joy and indulgence far beyond mere feasting—including, but not limited to, the Bath Emperor who scrubbed his feet raw online, only to log off and keep scrubbing.

Personal tastes were something Chu Guang simply couldn’t control; after all, *Wasteland OL* wasn’t a tailor-made single-player game.

“Feeling full online and losing appetite offline”—that sort of private matter could only be resolved by the players themselves.

But come to think of it, why had this guy written such a thing in a report meant for the administrators?

Had his alt account been exposed?

A flicker of doubt crossed Chu Guang’s mind, but after mulling it over for a moment, he dismissed it.

That possibility was slim.

By normal logic, that little player probably thought that during the closed beta, the devs would be eagerly peeking at the screen—especially at “review feedback” personally penned by players, which they’d surely sneak a glance at.

And even if he’d guessed right, it didn’t matter.

A truth stumbled upon or guessed by chance was like a lottery number dreamed up in sleep—neither could be acknowledged nor cashed in.

Knowing such a thing existed meant nothing at all.

Just as Chu Guang was about to close the report, Xiao Qi, perched on the pen holder, suddenly leaned in and chimed in eagerly.

“Actually, it’s not that hard from a technical standpoint, Master! You could just outsource that part of the equipment to qualified companies in the parallel world!”

According to her observations, many players and cloud players ran businesses related to the game in reality—some profiting from information gaps, others from tech gaps, and still others from currency exchange and selling peripherals.

Especially the currency exchanger, whose trade was the biggest. He’d not only roped in top-ranked players from the server but also leveraged his silver coin reserves to expand into AI and precision machinery manufacturing.

Given that player’s abilities, building a low-tech cultivation pod in reality shouldn’t be a big problem!

After hearing Xiao Qi’s words, Chu Guang merely smiled faintly.

“I considered that method long ago.”

“Huh?”

Xiao Qi tilted her head, puzzled.

“Then why didn’t you do it, Master?”

Chu Guang thought for a moment before speaking.

“Because… I’m not keen on weakening their real-world social ties. What they gain from *Wasteland OL* isn’t just money and status in reality—it should also be knowledge, technology, experience, methods, and principles.”

“They should use these things to bring positive changes to their hometowns, usher in their own era of prosperity, and explore their own future.”

“Even though I can’t go back, that place is still my homeland.”

Whether they chose gentle reform or radical change, Chu Guang believed they would eventually walk a path different from the wasteland world.

Even if most players hadn’t realized it yet, they were already united in fact.

And indeed, they possessed the power to change the world.

…

The next morning.

Si Si, lying in the hotel room, opened her eyes, got up, and walked to the door to check the marks she’d left there. Confirming nothing was amiss, she went into the bathroom for a quick wash, then headed down to the hotel lobby.

This was a habit she’d picked up on the road—one shared by many players when staying overnight outside.

After all, once you logged off, you couldn’t control your in-game character.

Though the VM had “online life monitoring and offline message alerts,” it wasn’t foolproof—only capable of warding off fatal dangers.

When Si Si reached the ground floor, the four guides and bodyguards arranged by the Mammoth State authorities were already waiting in the lobby.

The leader was a young woman named Bella. She wore a crisp military uniform, a LD-47 assault rifle slung across her back, with short, neat hair cropped above her ears. Her sharp eyes suggested she’d seen battle.

From her shoulder insignia, she held the rank of sergeant. As for her specific position, Yaxi hadn’t mentioned it, but Si Si guessed she was a squad leader—equivalent to a decurion in the old imperial army.

The others, judging by their insignia, were privates. They showed little sign of training and didn’t look like combat veterans—likely new recruits whose usual duties were clerical or administrative.

Upon seeing Si Si, Bella pressed her right fist to her chest in a military salute and spoke politely.

“Good morning, esteemed guests from the Alliance. I hope you rested well last night?”

“Good morning. I slept fine…” Si Si returned a relaxed smile. “No need to be so formal—just call me Si Si.”

A troubled look crossed Bella’s face, but she nodded obligingly.

“Very well, Miss Si Si.”

Her superiors had tasked her with fulfilling every reasonable request from these honored guests of the Alliance and leaving a positive impression.

For the Mammoth State authorities to survive in this perilous wasteland, they needed support from at least one major power.

She knew how crucial her mission was.

Seeing the overly earnest Bella, Si Si made a helpless expression but said nothing more.

Noticing Si Si’s silence, Bella continued courteously.

“May I ask what your plans are for today?”

“Hmm,” Si Si thought for a moment, glancing toward the stairs. “I’m waiting for my companions to wake up. After that, we plan to take a walk nearby, scout the area, that sort of thing. Oh, by the way—are there any places to eat around here? The kind locals frequent. We’d like to grab some breakfast.”

Upon hearing this, Bella immediately replied.

“Places to eat? Understood. Just let me know when you’re ready to set out.”

As they spoke, a great white bear and a short-haired girl descended the stairs.

Soon after, Zhimahu came down too, rubbing her sleepy eyes and yawning.

Accompanied by the four guides and bodyguards, the trio and the bear left the hotel and soon arrived at a street brimming with the aroma of daily life.

Standing at the street’s entrance, Bella looked at Si Si and her group, speaking a bit stiffly.

“This is the parish’s snack street. The shop owners are all residents from Silvermoon Bay. They’re the only ones who usually eat breakfast… I’m not sure if it’ll suit your tastes.”

Si Si smiled warmly in response.

“Your worries are unfounded.”

Tail chimed in energetically.

“Oh! That’s right! The eating habits of Silvermoon Bay residents were actually learned from us!”

Bella was taken aback.

“Huh? Is that... really so? That’s wonderful—I was always worried you might not feel at home.”

She hadn’t known about that connection.

Zhima Hu grinned warmly.

“You’re too polite, really. No need for that—everyone here is easygoing.”

“Speaking of which, a ramen shop all the way out here... that’s some serious spread...” Rou Rou glanced down the street, surprised to find it was practically a replica of Dawn City’s North Street.

It wasn’t just the ramen shop. There were stalls selling buns and siu mai, soy milk and fried dough sticks, even fish noodles and hot dry noodles.

The tantalizing aromas stirred the hunger in her belly, and she couldn’t help swallowing several times.

Beside her, Tail was the same, nodding with a satisfied look.

“Not bad, not bad—Hai Ji’s legacy lives on... Old Man Zhang would be pleased, I reckon.”

Rou Rou couldn’t help but tease.

“What’s with ‘Hai Ji’s legacy’? And you’ve already decided he’s an old man?”

Tail said smugly,

“Isn’t it obvious? What young person uses their real name as a screen name?”

“By the way, don’t you eat breakfast?” Zhima Hu asked Bella curiously.

Bella shook her head, her hair swaying gently by her ears.

“That’s too much of a luxury for us. We used to eat only one meal a day, and sometimes we had to make do with dirt... It’s only recently that we’ve started having two.”

“Sorry.” Realizing she’d asked an inappropriate question, Zhima Hu’s voice carried a hint of apology.

But Bella just smiled, unconcerned.

“It’s nothing. That’s all in the past.”

The group walked into the ramen shop and sat down. Bella was about to pull out money, but Si Si stopped her.

“We exchanged some currency when we disembarked. Let me pay.”

With that, she left two hundred-mammoth-bill notes on the table and said to the owner,

“Eight bowls of noodles, please.”

Seeing that this honored guest was treating them to noodles, Bella and the other three guides were taken aback.

“This... isn’t right.”

Noticing Bella’s flustered expression, Si Si smiled and said,

“It’s just a bowl of noodles. It’s hardly a bribe.”

Bella quickly waved her hands.

“That’s not what I meant...”

Si Si pulled out a chair at the table and said with a grin,

“Then sit down and eat with us.”

Though she wasn’t used to breakfast, Bella couldn’t bring herself to refuse the kindness of these honored guests. She sat down at the table with the other three guide girls.

Si Si secretly observed the four of them. Their awkwardness didn’t seem feigned—clearly, they rarely dined at such “luxurious” restaurants.

She didn’t know much about the living standards of Mammoth State’s high officials, but at the grassroots level, the style was still relatively simple.

She also noted that, besides having a similar exchange rate to the Gallon, the Mammoth currency’s official exchange rate to silver coins was also 10:1. In terms of local purchasing power, the former was even slightly stronger.

A bowl of ramen here cost about 15 Mammoth coins, while in Golden Gallon Port it would be 20 Gallons.

That might be because the Mammoth currency had only recently been introduced and was still scarce in circulation.

Of course, whether 15 Mammoth or 20 Gallons, it was still much cheaper than the beef noodles in Dawn City, which cost 3 to 4 silver coins a bowl—though the portions here were smaller.

Also, because Mammoth State was relatively poor and had limited foreign reserves, the Mammoth currency couldn’t be freely exchanged like the Gallon. Locals could only use it as “consumption vouchers,” and only foreign merchants could exchange it at designated offices according to their quotas.

Of course, exchanging silver coins for Mammoth coins was unrestricted, and large exchanges even came with a small discount.

The authorities seemed to have learned from the mistakes of Tiger State and Leopard State, implementing strict foreign exchange controls rather than blindly copying Golden Gallon Port’s recipe for wealth.

While waiting for the noodles to arrive, she had already gathered a rough understanding of local purchasing power and living standards.

But this was, after all, a district inhabited by Silvermoon Bay residents, so the cost of living was clearly higher than in other parts of Mammoth City.

To truly understand the local situation, she’d have to go see where the locals lived.

Si Si was pondering what excuse to use to get Bella to take her to a local neighborhood when that familiar, slick voice drifted in from the doorway.

“Hey! Si! And Tail, Zhima Hu, and Lady Rou Rou... Ha, what a coincidence—fancy meeting you all again!”

Hearing that voice, Tail, who had been buried in her noodles, looked up and greeted him with a grin.

“Oh! Skin-seller! Good morning!”

“Cough... Please stop calling me that—I do other business too, you know!” Mortified by the rude nickname, Mogavi glared at Tail but ultimately didn’t lose his temper.

Even if not for the goddess’s sake, he had to restrain himself for the money’s sake.

A shareholder in both the White Bear Knights Bank and Baiyue Company—either title alone carried too much weight for a shipping man like him.

Seeing his eager gaze fixed on her, Si Si sighed. Though she had no interest in this slick-talking fellow, she greeted him out of politeness.

“Morning.”

Sitting down at the next table, Mogavi said with a helpless look,

“You’re still so cold.”

Taking a small sip of the noodle soup, she replied casually,

“Why be so enthusiastic this early? Is there something you need?”

“No, I’m just here for breakfast. I plan to check out the market in the nearby district later.”

Noticing the bodyguard with the rifle staring intently at him, Mogavi spread his hands to show he meant no harm, then pulled out a bill and handed it to the nearby waiter.

“Give me a bowl too... the same as the lady beside me.”

“Yes, sir.”

Not wanting to get involved in the private affairs of these big shots, the waiter took the bill and hurried back behind the counter.

Si Si’s eyes flickered. She glanced at Mogavi, who was pulling out chopsticks to eat, and asked with interest,

“You know the market around here well?”

Catching the glint of curiosity in her eyes, Mogavi’s face lit up with a delighted grin as he began to chatter.

“Of course! Before you all got here, I’d been doing business here for two months. No one knows the market better than me... Speaking of which, what business are you here for?”

Si Si didn’t hide it and answered directly,

“We imported a batch of grain from Silvermoon Bay, along with some anti-inflammatory drugs and malaria preventatives.”

“Anti-inflammatory drugs—those are hot commodities. I hear there’s huge demand at the front lines... But grain? The profit margins are too thin. The floods happened after the autumn harvest, so food here isn’t that scarce—especially for those who can afford it.” Mogavi shook his head, looking a bit regretful.

Sisi continued with keen interest.

“So what kind of business can be done here?”

“You’ve come to the right person! I wouldn’t tell just anyone, but for you… I can let you in on it for free,” Mogavi said, winking mysteriously and lowering his voice. “Priceless jewels, handicrafts from Ideal City, and rare furs… especially the furs favored by the desert tycoons—they fetch a fortune here!”

At these words, Tail and Sesame Paste exchanged bewildered glances. Meatball, sitting nearby, was blunt and looked at him with confusion.

“Furs favored by desert tycoons… why not just sell them directly to the desert tycoons?”

Sesame Paste also asked, puzzled.

“Yeah… can the prices here really beat those in Silvermoon Bay?”

Mogavi smiled mysteriously and continued with ease.

“You don’t understand. Even the poorest places have rich folks. They buy these luxuries not just for themselves, but as a store of value. That’s why they’re willing to pay an even higher premium than the desert tycoons.”

Sisi pondered and asked.

“Are there many rich people here?”

Mogavi laughed heartily.

“Far more than you imagine! Especially the old nobles. The new authorities bought up their lands, but they paid for them—with Mammoth coins.”

At this, a glint flashed in Sisi’s eyes as she saw through the scheme.

“I see… you’re in the money laundering business…”

Mogavi gave a thumbs-up and chuckled.

“As expected of you—nothing escapes your notice.”

Meatball looked blankly at Sisi and whispered in Mandarin.

“What does that mean… how is it money laundering?”

Sisi said softly.

“It’s simple. The Rasi authorities issued a flood of Mammoth coins to buy up the old nobles’ flood-damaged lands. But since Mammoth coins can’t be freely exchanged, those nobles used the money to buy relatively stable luxury goods. These are easier to transport than cash—once moved to Silvermoon Bay, they can be turned into a pile of silver coins.”

Although Baiyue Province was rich in furs, there were grades of rarity. Cheap ones cost less than cotton cloth, while expensive ones were absurdly priced.

As far as she knew, a high-quality sable pelt could sell for a million silver coins.

On the forum, a newcomer had struck it rich overnight by catching a lucky sable.

Hearing this, Meatball sighed with emotion.

“Those nobles are real dogs…”

Sesame Paste still couldn’t understand and looked at Sisi, confused.

“But… why did Rasi give them money? Couldn’t they just take the land by force?”

Sisi patiently explained.

“Paying has its advantages. A regime can’t rule a region by fear alone, especially since the Moon Tribe Resistance is an outside force. To govern, to abolish slavery and boost productivity, they need some level of cooperation with local powers.”

“Of course, it’s possible Rasi didn’t think that far—he might have just copied the Burning Legion’s approach in Golden Harbor.”

It was the same when the Burning Legion occupied Golden Harbor.

Apart from throwing war criminals like Nihack into prison, Brother Fang and his men took nothing from the locals, noble or commoner.

Though many old nobles were left behind by the changing times, the class transition was relatively gentle, at least avoiding a massive backlash from conservatives.

Rasi made some improvements, especially on land issues.

After all, the Alliance didn’t need land to make money, nor did Golden Harbor. But Mammoth State’s economy was agricultural, with zero industrial base, so they had to focus on land and population.

Pausing, Sisi continued thoughtfully.

“Besides buying loyalty, I suspect he hoped the old nobles would invest in industry. Even if they just hired people to build houses in Mammoth City, it would help the economy…”

“But clearly, not all nobles shared his vision. Some might have invested in businesses, but others only schemed to convert their Mammoth coins or commodities into silver and cash out.”

Seeing Sisi and her companions speaking in a language he didn’t understand, and the soldiers glaring at him like they wanted to kill him, Mogavi felt extremely uncomfortable. The chair beneath him felt like it was on fire.

He wasn’t worried about the soldiers reporting him.

First, he was from Silvermoon Bay, which gave him a certain “immunity” locally.

Second, he had his own backers here to run this shady business.

Most importantly, the authorities hadn’t made any laws against it, had they?

Even if it was immoral.

“Ahem… I have some things to attend to. I’ll take my leave. If you’re interested in the market here, we can talk privately next time.” Finishing his noodles hastily, Mogavi dropped his chopsticks, winked at Sisi at the next table, and got up to leave.

As his figure disappeared through the door, a female soldier at the table couldn’t help muttering under her breath.

“These parasites…”

Mammoth State’s foreign exchange was earned by overseas workers, brick by brick, yet these petty men always tried to steal their meager earnings.

Bella glanced at the girl, who immediately realized she shouldn’t have spoken and shut up.

But Tail overheard her muttering and nodded in agreement.

“Right, right! Tail thinks so too… Stealing from the poor—what a rotten conscience!”

Bella was silent for a moment, her eyes complex as she stared at the door, then sighed.

“That’s true, but we still need these people… On our own, we might not even survive.”

Meatball looked at her, puzzled.

“Can’t we just let the good ones in and kick the bad ones out?”

Bella shook her head.

“Lord Rasi said Mammoth State is like an old, moldy house. We can’t just move in and do nothing. We have to clean it up and open a window for fresh air. Some flies and mosquitoes will get in, but we can’t keep the window shut just because we’re afraid of them.”

Tail’s eyes widened in surprise, muttering in the 404 Shelter’s secret code.

“Holy crap… Did Rasi really say that?”

Sisi also looked surprised, finding it hard to believe those words came from that bandit-like man.

Composing herself, she cautiously suggested.

“Actually… your Lord Rasi is right, but why not put a screen on the window?”

Bella was taken aback.

“…A screen?”

Sisi nodded and continued.

“Even in the Alliance, we don’t leave silver coins unregulated. In fact, we’re still improving our laws on this. You’re just starting out—I’m not suggesting you copy us entirely, but you might consider setting up a central bank for monetary policy, to guide funds where society needs them, rather than relying on merchants’ consciences. These people have no concept of conscience.”

Mogavi wouldn’t dare launder money in Fries Harbor—one fine would bankrupt him.

He wasn’t really a bad guy; he’d done some good deeds, just greedy for money.

Bella looked at Sisi hesitantly.

"But... Mr. Lister is still quite good; we all have a favorable impression of him."

Having said that, she suddenly seemed to think of something and added in a low voice.

"Ah, and of course you all... I think you are also very good people, not like that guy, always trying to find ways to take advantage of us."

Hearing this naive remark, Sisi couldn't help but press her forehead and said helplessly.

"He was trained by our administrators, and... with his asset scale and status, there's no need for him to take risks. If it were someone else, things might be different."

Take Brother Mosquito, for example.

That guy, just for the sake of stirring things up, could even go so far as to not care about making money at all.

Although this fellow isn't really a bad person, whether he might cause trouble is hard to say.

Mulling over these words, which seemed to make some sense, Bella's expression gradually turned serious, and she looked at her sincerely.

"I understand... Thank you for your advice. I will do my best to report it to my superiors."

Seeing her humble and eager attitude, Sisi couldn't help but smile, and then smoothly brought up the idea she had been brewing in her mind.

"We happen to be planning to expand the banking business of the White Bear Knights here, and maybe we can offer you some reference suggestions then."

Bella's eyes lit up, and she looked at her excitedly, nearly standing up from the table.

"Really? Thank you so much!"

That look was all too familiar.

It was exactly like the gaze of those wastelanders looking up at the Pioneer when it first arrived at the outskirts of Clearwater City.

Sisi felt a surge of emotion in her heart as she continued looking at her.

"Of course it's true... But before that, I'd like to learn more about the local situation. If it's convenient, could you take us to the nearby districts where the locals live?"

Hearing this request, a trace of hesitation flickered across Bella's face, but in the end, she nodded.

"No problem... Though there's nothing much to see there, and it might disappoint you."