This game is too real

Chu Guang tied the seal of the plastic bag tightly and continued.

"You should be thankful that you didn't go any further inside. This kind of mushroom usually grows near the nest of mutant leeches."

Ye Shi was stunned.

"Mutated leeches?"

Chu Guang said casually.

"Well, the mutant leeches in their infancy are only as big as a palm. Apart from the special mouthparts, they look no different from normal leeches."

"However, once they enter adulthood, their size will rapidly increase to more than 1 meter, and even up to 3 meters. Their eating habits will also change. I heard that they can even swallow a living person in one bite... Of course, I just heard it."

After listening to the manager's narration, Ye Shi felt a chill all over his body.

He said that he felt something was wrong when he was picking mushrooms, but he couldn't tell what was wrong. In this way, he had slipped a corner at the gate of hell.

"Can't eat it?" Kuang Feng's face was full of regret. He looked at the mushrooms that Chu Guang had collected and muttered, "I thought it could add buffs."

"Don't think too much."

How can there be so many buffs.

There is one thing Chu Guang didn't say.

Although this thing can't be eaten, it is the main raw material for making radiation abatement agents.

Chu Guang didn't know the specific principle either. He also heard about it from Old Charlie on Beth Street.

Blue umbrella mushrooms contain a special polypeptide substance that can effectively alleviate and heal non-lethal damage caused by gamma rays.

The caravans in Boulder City will purchase this thing, and the price offered is not low. It is usually transported to Boulder City and sold to the factories there.

It's just that this thing is really hard to get. Few scavengers are willing to risk their lives to search for mutant leech nests in swamps, subways, and sewers.

It's one thing to be hard to find.

Finding it but not bringing it back alive is another matter.

Even if life forces it, no one wants to deal with these tentacles that eat people without leaving any bones...

I didn't expect that there was a nest of mutant leeches so close.

Chu Guang was in a mixed mood.

The blue mushroom could be sold for a lot of money, but the mutant leeches were not easy to deal with.

Sprinkle salt?

Where can I get hundreds of kilograms of salt? It's better to sell salt directly if there is so much salt.

Set fire?

This thing usually lives in humid areas, and it's really not that easy to light.

"Do you still remember the specific location of the sewer entrance?"

Faced with the manager's question, Kuangfeng quickly took out the map and pointed to the marked location on it.

"It's here."

Chu Guang glanced at the location on the map and silently memorized it.

"I know."

…

The blue mushrooms that Kuangfeng and Ye Shi brought back were estimated to be 2 kilograms. Generally, 50g can be exchanged for a few chips.

2000g is 40 chips!

This is almost equivalent to all the savings that Chu Guang has accumulated in the past five months.

And this is the price offered by the recycling station on Bette Street.

The actual value of this thing is at least more than twice this number!

Chu Guang plans to sell all these mushrooms and use the chips to buy the materials urgently needed by the outpost.

"The outpost needs to be replenished. I'm going out for a while. You stay here and remember not to go too far."

"At 5 pm, Xiaoqi will open the elevator for you on time and return to the shelter."

"When I'm not here, Xiaoqi will count your work results. You can ask it if you don't understand something."

As for the 2 kilograms of blue parasol mushrooms, Chu Guang gave Kuangfeng and Ye Shi a total of 220 contribution points.

Of these, 200 contribution points were for discovering the nest of mutant leeches, and the other 20 contribution points were for blue parasol mushrooms.

It's not that he was stingy to give only this much, but he was afraid that if he gave too much, these players would get a taste of the sweetness and take the risk to pick this thing and accidentally die in it.

Before finding a generator that can power the "active substance extractor", he felt that it would be better for him to be cautious.

Lunch was green wheat porridge.

It's called porridge, but Chu Guang thinks it's a bit like mung bean soup without sweetness.

This thing has no taste at all, it's just for filling the stomach.

However, what surprised Chu Guang was that the four players ate it voraciously, like starving ghosts reincarnated.

Is it so delicious?

Chu Guang began to doubt his cooking skills.

Am I actually good at cooking?

It shouldn't be...

Having a quick meal.

Putting away the pots and pans, Chu Guang put out the fire and set off alone. There were only four players left in the sanatorium, and an AI robot hanging upstairs.

Fang Chang stared at the task board inserted at the door of the sanatorium and fell into deep thought.

Ye Shi asked from the side.

"What are you looking at."

Fang Chang said.

"According to the administrator, blue mushrooms can be used as raw materials for making radiation-resistant agents, but the reward for the mission is only 20 contribution points, which is equivalent to chopping down two trees... Do you think this is reasonable?"

Ye Shi was stunned.

"Are there any problems?"

Fang Chang said.

"Of course, normally, the benefits players get from the mission should be positively correlated with the difficulty of the mission. Not only did you unlock a new copy, but you also collected high-value materials. It is not reasonable to say that there is only such a small reward."

Kuang Feng pondered.

"Then why do you think it is."

Fang Chang snapped his fingers.

"Priority!"

"Priority, priority?" Ye Shi was stunned.

"That's right." Fang Chang nodded, "Do you remember what the administrator said in the previous plot? The current top priority is survival!"

Is there?

It seems so.

Ye Shi didn't listen too carefully. In most games, he didn't read the plot and just Ctrl+clicked. Although this game can't Ctrl+click, it doesn't make any difference if you are distracted for a few minutes.

Fang Chang continued.

"...So I guess that the tasks on the task board are not all the tasks. This game gives us a lot of autonomy. Tasks can not only be issued by NPCs, but also be triggered actively."

Kuang Feng frowned.

"Reason?"

"Didn't you receive the reward?" Fang Chang said, "Although we didn't find the generator, we found the alien nest and collected valuable materials."

"So I judge that as long as our behavior meets the current needs of Shelter No. 404, we can get contribution points. And the value of the reward is positively correlated with the value created by our behavior!"

"For example, building cesspools and toilets is a task issued by the manager after adopting our opinions. Lao Bai and I both received 200 contribution points as a reward."

Lao Bai nodded.

"It seems like that."

"I roughly understand what you mean," Kuangfeng said, touching his chin, "but can't you get contribution points by completing the tasks on the task board?"

And the points are not low.

"This is the second point I want to say," Fang Chang showed a mysterious smile on his face, "Do you still remember the favorability setting that the planner told us?"

Kuangfeng's face was suddenly enlightened.

"So that's it... I understand what you mean."

Ye Shi and Lao Bai were still confused.

"What do you understand?"

"Speak clearly!"

Fang Chang said slowly.

"In short, although we can get a fixed guaranteed reward by completing the fixed tasks on the task board step by step, we cannot show our ability. In contrast, actively triggering tasks can better reflect our own abilities! In theory, it should be able to improve the manager's evaluation of us."

Of course, these speculations are based on the fact that Wasteland OL is a "completely real" immersive virtual reality game, and the manager's behavior is dominated by program logic, not artificial settings.

If his intelligence is not as high as imagined, this inference may not be true.

However, at present, the manager's intelligence is still quite high, and there is no problem with normal communication. He even can't help but wonder if this guy is played by a real person.

After understanding Fang Chang's explanation, Lao Bai touched the stubble on his chin and nodded.

"This idea is interesting and worth a try... Then what do you think we should do?"

"I am still trying to figure out how to do it, but my intuition tells me that compared to contribution points, it is more important to accumulate more NPC favorability before the second round of closed beta testing, which can ensure that we have a higher 'starting point' than other players in the second round of closed beta testing."

After a pause, Fang Chang snapped his fingers.

"I propose to form a team!"

"Teaming means..." Ye Shi asked in confusion.

Lao Bai nodded.

"I have no objection."

Kuang Feng also nodded.

"I agree too."

Ye Shi was stunned.

"I have no objection either, but can you explain the details of the team to me?"

Fang Chang explained patiently.

"In short, from now on we are a team, we share intelligence and help each other. Then, what we have to do is to play to our respective strengths."

Fang Chang looked at Kuang Feng and Ye Shi and continued.

"Kuang Feng, Ye Shi, you scout along the lakeshore of the wetland park, pay attention to the distribution of alien species, activity tracks, and mark out areas that are suspected of nests... But remember, don't get too close, especially to avoid fighting. We need a safe water point."

Kuang Feng nodded.

"Okay."

Then, Fang Chang looked at Lao Bai.

"As for us, what we have to do now is to chop more wood."

"I'll go offline later, I'll go online to check some information, and tomorrow I'll find a way to use the wood I've stockpiled!"