Chapter 643: You're a Mature Planner Now; You Should Learn to Pay Yourself

Chapter 643: You're a Mature Planner Now, You Should Learn to Pay Yourself a Salary

Tail: "Giao!! Beta 0.6 version!! ∑(?Д?ノ)ノ"

Sisi: "The last update was still the last time! (Shocked)"

Drum Roll Hair Washer: "The sun rises from the west, when did Brother Guang get so diligent."

Quit Smoking: "Brother Guang is awesome!!!"

Debt Big Eyes: "Holy crap! Epic buff for the Intelligence faction!! (Surprised)"

Spare the Knife: "Begging for a buff to the Strength faction."

Kakarot: "+1, the former version darling is about to be swept into the version trash heap. T.T"

Spring Commander: "Damn! How long has our Intelligence faction been the version's little brother? A slight buff, what's the problem? There's nothing wrong at all!"

Kakarot: "You call that a slight buff?! (Angry)"

Before the Beta version, the Strength faction, due to its early combat power and ease of sequence leveling, attracted many newbies.

Out of every ten newbies, at least half chose the Strength faction as their first pick.

However, since the mass production of KV-series exoskeletons, the Strength faction's first-mover advantage has dwindled, and its late-game advantages have been steadily eroded by technological progress.

The former version's little brother, the Intelligence faction, has been buffed time and again with each version iteration. Especially after the Alliance incorporated Boulder Military Industries and gained the ability to independently produce mechanical prosthetics, the Intelligence faction firmly established itself as the version's darling!

The more parts other factions replace, the stronger the debuff on experience gain, while the Intelligence faction, as long as it doesn't implant bionic chips, can install any number of mechanical prosthetics without affecting experience gain—instead, frequent mental activity passively boosts experience gain!

That's why, since Beta 0.5, people on the forum have been constantly @ing A Guang to nerf the Intelligence faction.

But contrary to everyone's expectations, this update not only didn't nerf the Intelligence faction but actually buffed these LYB even more!

While Strength faction players and Intelligence faction players were locked in a heated debate, some African guy also joined the chorus of complaining about being poor.

Garbage Picker Level 99: "Crying, when will Brother Guang buff the Mutant faction players! T.T"

Night Ten: "Garbage Jun glanced at the attribute panel, probably won't ever reach 10 Intelligence in this life. (Ridiculous)"

Crow Crow: "Hahaha! So weak! I already have 10 Intelligence! o(*≧▽≦)ツ"

Garbage Picker Level 99: "%￥#@!"

Fang Chang: "It's okay, bro, innate is just one aspect. Didn't you see Brother Guang pointed you a way—you can plug a memory stick into your head? (Squinting smile)"

Canyon Escape Mole: "As long as you have enough silver coins, you can even ascend mechanically. (Ridiculous)"

Gale: "The poor rely on mutation, the rich on technology? (Squinting)"

Edge Paddling: "Ah, this game is way too damn realistic."

WC Really Has Mosquitoes: "Hehehehehe, cultivating the sub-entity, hehe."

Falling Feather: "...What do you want to do. (Sweat)"

Irena: "Although Brother Mosquito seems to have said nothing, it's like he said everything. (Ridiculous)"

Elf King Wealth: "Feeling sorry for Brother Falling Feather. (Ridiculous)"

Teng Teng: "Your thoughts are too dirty. Mosquitoes occasionally do some serious things, right, Mosquito? You definitely won't let Little Feather learn bad things, will you?"

Just as Teng Teng was trying to reform Mosquito with kindness, someone even more restless jumped out.

Tail: "Tail wants to make many tails! (*/ω*)"

Sisi: "Is your tail proper? (Guilty)"

Meat Mountain Big Steamed Bun: "Si, keep heading south. (Trembling.jpg)"

Ao Ao Sesame Paste: "Haha... Although exploring the map's edge is fun, I feel like going further south means I'll need a few cotton-padded jackets. (￣▽￣)"

Teng Teng: "Feeling sorry... Brother Falling Feather. (?-ω-)"

Falling Feather: "Wait! Can you guys log into the game? Why the hell can't I log in?!"

Fang Chang: "?"

Old White: "What's going on? (Shocked)"

Falling Feather: "I don't know! I just wanted to go online and check, but as soon as I put on the helmet, I saw the resurrection cooldown hanging there... The problem is, I didn't even die! QAQ"

Canyon Escape Mole: "Good grief, how many bugs have you run into."

Night Ten: "It might not be a bug—maybe you were too cocky and got secretly nerfed by A Guang. (Ridiculous)"

Falling Feather: "Holy crap, no way! QAQ"

WC Really Has Mosquitoes: "Don't worry, bro, I'll take good care of Little Feather for you. (Evil grin)"

Falling Feather: "Where do you live... I'll send you a package right now."

WC Really Has Mosquitoes: "Cough... Calm down, bro, I was just joking."

Maka Bazi: "Hahaha! Dying of laughter!"

Maybe because it had been too long since the last update.

Although Beta 0.6 didn't bring major gameplay changes, players still erupted in intense discussion.

Especially on the topic of "how to use Little Feather," not only players with 10 Intelligence but even cloud players who hadn't obtained beta keys joined in the chatter.

Amid the cacophony of voices, all sorts of outrageous ideas emerged, and even Chu Guang couldn't help but sigh—if everyone had a game helmet, the Alliance's lampposts probably wouldn't be enough.

Honestly, regarding the newly established ecological reserve on the eastern outskirts of Clear Spring City, Chu Guang didn't have a concrete implementation plan.

That's why he came up with the idea of letting the players tinker with it and asked Little Feather to further improve based on Sia's DNA library, while "preserving the sub-entity's autonomous consciousness."

In fact, the biological prosthetics implanted in players were essentially a kind of sub-entity similar to an incubation chamber, with "node organism" properties.

Players who implanted the improved biological prosthetics acted as signal processors, capable of relaying commands from Little Feather to the sub-entities connected to the node organism.

Just like the mutant leader equipped with bio-powered armor that the Alliance encountered earlier in Jinchuan Province.

With the support of Torch Church's biotechnology, that guy single-handedly led tens of thousands of bat-men!

Theoretically, even without black tech support, as long as a player's brain had enough information processing capacity, leading a hundred-man or even thousand-man squad should be feasible.

For now, this was the least risky strategy.

Even if something went wrong, it could be easily compensated through "server bug compensation" without causing public panic over this immature technology.

On the other hand, players' creativity could also help Little Feather evolve in a direction more beneficial to Alliance society.

Chu Guang had high hopes for this.

He temporarily handed over the task of training Little Feather to his adorable little players, as he had another more urgent matter to personally attend to.

Just at dawn the day after the wave ended, before Chu Guang could even sit up from his bed, he opened his eyes to see a pale blue pop-up window appear before him.

[Hidden Task Completed!]

[Description: The morphogenetic field device detected that the central hive mind has merged into the connection. Anomalous clone (Player ID: Falling Feather) confirmed lost. The cultivation tank is generating a new clone, triggering "flag7" judgment.]

[Reward: Unlock B7 layer access, 20,000 gene sequences!]

B7 layer!

20,000 beta slots!

Happiness came too suddenly. The moment he saw the pop-up window, Chu Guang was so surprised he could hardly believe his eyes.

Based on past experience, every time a new floor of Vault 404 was unlocked, it provided him with a substantial bounty of resources.

This included not only a large amount of cutting-edge equipment that the Alliance urgently needed, but also potentially priceless black boxes!

Although he didn't understand why the vault system had skipped the B5 floor and kept it locked, he wasn't the type to be picky.

Having something was better than nothing!

With a flip, he sprang up from the bed. Chu Guang immediately instructed Xiao Qi to stuff the news of unlocking the B7 floor and the new closed beta qualifications into the Beta 0.6 update announcement. Then, he quickly put on his power armor and hurried out the door.

A long line had formed in front of the elevator on the B1 floor of the vault. The small square was packed with a dark crowd of players.

They were all waiting to go to the B6 floor for bio-cybernetic modification surgery, eager to experience the new gameplay of Beta 0.6!

"Bro, have you decided what kind of sub-entity you want?"

"Heh heh, I've got to get a white-haired, red-eyed succubus!"

"Damn, are you crazy? That thing is slime mold!"

"Humans can't, at least shouldn't..."

"Hello? Is this 911? There's a devotee of Slaanesh here. Come deal with it quickly."

Pretending not to hear the players' banter, Chu Guang walked through the crowd into his private elevator and reached out to touch the control panel.

The icon for the B7 floor soon appeared on the touchscreen.

Suppressing his excitement, Chu Guang immediately reached out and pressed it.

The elevator began to descend slowly.

Just as he was anticipating what surprises the B7 floor of the vault would bring him, the pale blue touchscreen suddenly flickered slightly.

The buttons listed on the screen disappeared, replaced by a circular and triangular audio file play button.

The elevator came to a halt, but the tightly sealed alloy door showed no sign of opening.

Chu Guang could guess with his feet that this was probably another instance of the first overseer's bad habit of forcing his presence—he had to listen to the dying words left behind before the door would open.

Just then, Chu Guang also had some questions he wanted to ask him, so he reached out and pressed that button.

A teasing, humorous voice came from the elevator ceiling, drifting lightly into Chu Guang's ears.

"Respected Overseer of Vault 404, now that you can step into this floor, you must have already received this glorious title from your supporters, so allow me to address you as such."

Hearing this, Chu Guang couldn't help but smile.

It seemed the first overseer didn't quite understand human nature, completely underestimating people's expectations for a savior.

Not to mention unlocking the B7 floor.

As early as a year ago, he had been worshipped in all sorts of ways, especially with some overly explicit titles that made even him blush.

As if giving him time to savor it, the voice paused for a moment, then shed its humorous tone and continued in a narrative manner.

"But there's nothing to be proud of. Everything has just begun, hasn't it?"

"We've only just dealt with the trouble at our doorstep, and there are still hundreds of creatures about the same size as it. Not to mention one even larger, lurking five light-years away! Even if everyone thinks It is dead, I won't be so naive as to believe that. Using a weapon never used before to kill an opponent never fought—though I hope you won't follow in my footsteps, on this one point, I hope you are the same as me... Never hold excessive expectations or illusions about uncertain things."

"I worry about you, my successor. Even though sometimes I reflect that this worry might be unnecessary—since I've chosen to trust the wisdom of future generations, I should trust it more thoroughly... But our chances are truly few. A small mistake could ruin the entire meticulous plan. So please understand why my investment in you is so cautious."

"But since you've come this far and successfully used the card I left on the B6 floor, I have enough reason to believe you are the one I've been waiting for... Taking over my work from you shouldn't mess everything up."

"In any case, you are already a mature game planner. You should learn to pay yourself a salary... It's time to hand over this most precious B7 floor to you!"

"Please use it wisely!"

"I beg you!"

As the voice fell, the elevator door opened, and a vast expanse of space came into Chu Guang's view.

Like the other floors, its space was circular, but its area was as large as two indoor gymnasiums!

What was even more astonishing wasn't just its massive footprint, but the various machines of different shapes placed in this open space.

Among them were cylindrical smelting devices, conveyor belts, and flexible robotic arms distributed along the belts, as well as a pile of things whose functions Chu Guang couldn't discern just by looking at their appearance.

These devices were not connected in series like a traditional assembly line workshop, but spread out in a spiderweb pattern from the center to the periphery.

From any endpoint of the production line to any other node, countless different permutations and combinations could be drawn.

The complex and redundant production processes were like crushed soda cans, stuffed into this "narrow and confined" underground space, all controlled by a unified intelligent terminal!

Even without much knowledge of the prosperous era, Chu Guang immediately recognized what the B7 floor was for.

It was a processing plant!

The shock in his eyes was gradually replaced by uncontrollable joy. Chu Guang unconsciously stepped forward, walking out of the elevator to the nearest terminal.

As he extended his index finger, a pale blue holographic window soon appeared before him.

At the same time, a uniquely shaped mechanical compound bow also appeared in that pale blue holographic floating window.

Looking at that mechanical bow, Chu Guang found it increasingly familiar. Suddenly, he remembered that it seemed to be the one Brother Fang used—the "Dawn" that had been in use since the server opened and was almost worn smooth!

Good heavens!

Chu Guang was completely stunned.

Just as he had imagined, all the prizes he had drawn from blind boxes before were manufactured in this production workshop!

Realizing this, Chu Guang almost instinctively spoke.

"Xiao Qi."

A spirited voice soon drifted into his ears.

"I'm here, Master."

Chu Guang paused and continued.

"Can you connect to this floor's database?"

Besides the main server of Vault 404, each floor had its own separate database, accessible through the overseer's authority.

Just now, he had shared the management authority of this floor with Xiao Qi, which would help him quickly understand all the functions of this floor.

And as always, Xiao Qi did not disappoint him, quickly completing the retrieval of information on the B7 floor.

"Already done, Master! Do you need Xiao Qi to introduce the functions of this floor to you?"

Hearing the proud voice, Chu Guang nodded.

"Yeah, please."

"You're welcome. It's my honor to serve you!"

A shy voice drifted into Chu Guang's ears.

After a brief pause, Xiao Qi switched to a serious tone and began to explain the functions of the B7 floor to Chu Guang.

"...The function of the B7 floor is the processing center of Vault 404. Its main purpose is to produce daily necessities, replacement parts, and security equipment needed by the vault, based on input design drawings and raw materials that meet standards."

"The industrial programs installed on the processing center's server can automatically edit an industrialized production process matching the entire processing system based on the input design drawings. After that, simply input raw materials to obtain standardized finished products."

"You can think of it as a more comprehensive, larger black box! Although it is not the most economical choice in terms of raw material and energy consumption, it can, as much as possible, provide vault residents with higher-quality industrial products outside the production system!"

The processing facilities on the entire B7 level were divided into three zones: one for food processing, one for medical supplies, and the largest by area, for small and medium machinery and microelectronics processing.

"Each zone has a raw material input port and a finished product output port, connected to elevators leading underground and to the B1 level... hmm, control of the latter has now been transferred to you, but the elevators to the lower levels are locked."

"Xiao Qi speculates that the elevators to the lower levels likely connect to waste treatment facilities or warehouses. Ah, by the way, there are some recently finished products on the production line... Huh? These look just like the things you pulled from the blind boxes, Master!"

Xiao Qi's response only deepened Chu Guang's conviction in his suspicions.

He could even infer from this that the inventory in the raw material warehouse on the lower levels of the shelter was probably nearly depleted.

After all, this was merely a shelter.

It was neither Doraemon's pocket nor a universal wish-granting machine; without continuous external resource acquisition, the items it could provide were ultimately limited.

Perhaps the first-generation administrator had chosen this moment to hand over control of the B7 level for this very reason.

Chu Guang opened the subpage for [Administrator Allowance] in the shelter system and, sure enough, found that the points had changed from their original number to ∞.

He and his players had already built a vast settlement above the shelter; those "daily tasks" that once urged them toward the surface had become their everyday routine, and the so-called allowance had naturally lost its meaning.

Whether there was an allowance or not, they would continue their work, and even without Shelter 404, they would keep uniting the survivors of the wasteland and lead them all to rebuild their home beneath their feet.

Just as the first-generation administrator had said in his final words, he was already a mature planner who could pay himself a salary.

To be honest, Chu Guang had never quite understood that enigmatic figure who always kept him in suspense, and he had even wanted to complain more than once that the guy wouldn't even leave him a chair.

But now, a sudden clarity dawned in his heart.

What he had once craved but could not obtain had never been an obstacle to the rise of the Alliance—

Perhaps this was, after all, the best arrangement.

His Adam's apple moved, and Chu Guang let out a soft sigh in his heart.

If only he could meet that guy someday...

Not treating him to a meal would feel like an injustice to all the worry he had caused.

After composing himself for a moment, Chu Guang looked at the terminal before him and continued.

"Xiao Qi, help me tally up... the inventory of remaining finished products on the production line, and the blueprints stored in the server."

"Got it!"

Almost the moment the words fell, a pale blue holographic screen unfolded once again before Chu Guang.

The floating window, divided into a grid by rows of lines, resembled an RPG game inventory, listing rows of items with their descriptions.

According to Xiao Qi's tally, there were about two tons of various medicines, about ten tons of small and medium machinery like exoskeletons, drones, and rifles, and the largest quantity was food—especially lollipops—amounting to nearly fifty tons in total!

If exchanged for points, these supplies would be worth at least tens of millions of points!

And that wasn't all.

Far more precious than these industrial products were the design drawings and industrial flow charts stored in the B7 level database!

These included not only Fang Chang's Dawn Mechanical Bow, but also Old Bai's Thermal Fusion Axe, and Ye Shi's Model 15 "Python" Gauss Rifle—all of them!

Even the nitrogen-powered hammer and Hummingbird drone that Chu Guang himself used were among them.

If this had been the Alliance a year ago, it would have been impossible to digest these materials, even with a few more Yin Fangs.

But now, the Alliance not only had its own research institutions but also a relatively complete industrial production system and a stable source of raw materials.

The vast technical data provided by the B7 level database was enough to elevate the Alliance's technological capabilities to a new level!

"...I've really struck gold this time."

Sliding his finger across the holographic screen, Chu Guang couldn't help but let out an exclamation of admiration as he gazed at the dazzling array of entries in the list.

After savoring this generous reward for a moment, Chu Guang issued instructions to Xiao Qi.

"Xiao Qi, notify Yin Fang. Tell him to drop the junk he picked up from the city center and come to the B7 level immediately. Say I have good news for him."

"Also, transfer some personnel from the logistics department to send the medicines to the Alliance First Hospital and list the equipment in the NPC shop."

Xiao Qi: "Got it! Oh, Master, what prices should I set for the equipment in the NPC shop?"

Chu Guang was about to say "the same as before," but then he remembered that many of these were "limited equipment" that could only be obtained through blind boxes.

This was tricky.

Setting prices too high or too low would upset people, and pricing each one individually was too troublesome.

Chu Guang pondered for a moment, then suddenly recalled that Luca had previously consulted him about establishing a statutory holiday and holding a celebration for the end of the Wave.

At that thought, an idea struck him, and a pleased smile spread across his face.

"Don't list them in the NPC shop just yet... Instead, pick one of each piece of equipment, set the base price at 150% of the cost, and auction them off during the celebration, with a limit of one per person."

"We'll run this kind of welfare auction a few times. Let the interested players argue over the right price themselves. Once the transactions are mostly saturated and they've argued enough, we'll take the median transaction price, add purchase thresholds based on sequence and contribution level, and then toss them into the NPC shop."

After hearing Chu Guang's plan, Xiao Qi was stunned for a full two seconds before replying, "Got it."

No wonder he was the master...

His skill at deflecting conflicts was becoming more and more refined.