This Game Is Too Realistic-Chapter 505.2: Ruh Roh

In fact, it wasn’t just the Enterprise staff and Wislander officers who were confused. Even the players themselves didn’t really know what they were doing.

But that was the fun of an open world game. Everything was about the experience, not the final result...

The administrator told them the New Alliance planned to keep it as an outpost in the Great Desert. They could design buildings as they liked, and the five engineering vehicles would support their creative minds before being recalled.

So, those interested showed up with a bunch of building materials, grinning from ear to ear.

With few tasks on the new map, many players took on camp expansion missions. The rewards weren’t great, but it was surprisingly fun.

Chu Guang hadn’t told them how the outpost should look. He left it entirely up to them.

As it turned out, his cute little critters were more capable than he expected. From clean water to steady food sources, hygiene to security... They had it all covered.

There were even detailed plans for the placement of various facilities... Those weren’t just products of imagination. To a large extent, they referenced real-world layouts of overseas military bases or construction sites and considered scenarios where supply lines were cut off, ensuring the planned camp had a degree of self-sufficiency.

Looking at his busy little players running around, Chu Guang nodded in satisfaction. "Not bad!"

If it had been outsourced to an Enterprise’s construction team, it would have cost at least several million CR. Even using his own in-house team would have run up a budget of a few million silver coins.

But once he handed it over to the players, they got it done for less than 100,000 silver coins! Labor was practically free, materials were locally sourced, and the designs were copied and discussed online.

Of course, since the outpost was being built for their use, he couldn’t really claim he was profiting from it.

Shifting his gaze from the players, Chu Guang walked to a corner of the camp where rooms for the rescued survivors had been set up.

Thanks to the treatment provided by the medical pods, most of the survivors’ wounds were already healed.

Basic mechanical prosthetics weren’t particularly expensive. Otherwise, even scavengers wouldn’t be able to afford them.

Conveniently, some simple bionic limbs had been seized earlier from the Wislander troops, so Chu Guang had the Enterprise's medics install them for the survivors.

Incidentally, one of the Enterprise’s journalists on the airship, perhaps trying to score PR points, had convinced Wu Changnian to cover part of the cost of helping the survivors.

Chu Guang didn’t hesitate. He casually quoted them 100,000 CR, and Wu Changnian signed off without even batting an eyelid.

Later, when Chu Guang had his logistics officer tally up the actual cost, they realized the value of all the mechanical limbs combined probably didn’t even reach that amount.

That left Chu Guang feeling a little awkward. He still had his principles. It was never his intention to profit off those poor people, let alone over a mere 100,000 CR.

But going back to the Enterprise to say they overpaid didn’t seem right either. Since Wu Changnian had already played the part of a generous savior, Chu Guang had no choice but to let his logistics officer keep the secret.

The barracks door creaked open.

Seeing the light from the doorway and hearing footsteps, the women lying on the hospital beds instinctively shrank back.

Only when they saw the newcomers weren’t Mutant Humans did they begin to relax.

The women in the room were all survivors who had just undergone prosthetic surgery. There were about 20 of them in total.

Although he didn’t want to force them to relive traumatic memories, Chu Guang still gently asked in a soft tone, trying to gather information about the torch insignia. "Where are you from?"

The women looked at each other in silence.

The air grew tense.

Just as Chu Guang was considering calling in a female player with a softer image to help ease the conversation, a young woman in her early twenties timidly raised her hand and spoke with a hoarse voice, "My name is Rama... I’m from the Poro Province."

"Poro Province?"

The birthplace of the two-headed oxen?

That would be southwest of the Camel Kingdom.

That’s... pretty far.

Chu Guang continued gently, "Would you mind telling me how you ended up here?" Suddenly recalling something, he paused and added, "Of course, if you don’t want to recall painful memories, we won’t force you."

Rama shook her head. "It’s alright... I’m grateful that you pulled us out hell." She paused, then continued, "I was born in a small village. One day, some traveling merchants came. They said they were buying two-headed oxen to transport to Silvermoon Bay in the northeast. They were generous and offered a great price, and the villagers treated them well. The village chief even brought out fine liquor to entertain them... I had a bit too, and when I woke up, I was inside a cage."

Chu Guang was silent for a moment. "Were they slave traders?"

"Probably..." Terror filled Rama’s eyes, but she still spoke bravely. "They even said... that it was my family who sold me to them. But I don’t believe that. They must’ve gotten everyone drunk."

Chu Guang sympathized with her ordeal, but that wasn’t what he was most interested in. Frowning, he asked further, "... Did those slave traders deal with Mutant Humans?"

To his surprise, Rama shook her head, her fear intensifying. "They... sold us to another group. It was those people who took me across the desert and brought me here."

Chu Guang clenched his fists and asked in a low voice, "Who were they?"

"I don’t know..." The girl hugged her head, her trembling fingers clutching her hair. Just remembering seemed to terrify her.

Changing tactics, Chu Guang asked patiently, "Did those people have any distinct features? Like appearance, clothing, or some kind of matching accessory?"

Her previously unfocused pupils suddenly sharpened. Like she had remembered something, Rama dropped her hands and raised her head abruptly. "They all... They wore blue coats."

Blue coats?

Is she serious...?

Hearing this shocking clue, a trace of surprise appeared on Chu Guang’s face. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

From what he had seen around Clearspring City, those naive bunnies who crawled out of the shelters were more likely to be victims than perpetrators.

The reason he had treated Xiaoyu and her family so well was largely because they hadn’t caused him harm, which was rare enough on the wasteland.

Yet Rama wasn’t the only one. Many other survivors in the room quietly nodded, indicating they had similar experiences.

Chu Guang’s expression grew grim. He pulled out his little notebook and wrote down Rama’s account.

Most shelter residents, upon returning to the surface, were clueless about the wasteland and often fell prey to the wastelanders due to pride, kindness, guilt for abandoning others, or a misplaced sense of superiority.

Shelter 401 was a textbook example.

The entire shelter had been wiped out by marauders. Everyone was reduced to pill-making slaves and they nearly lost all their black boxes.

Of course, some shelters had grown into powerful regional factions, like how part of the Enterprise’s ancestors came from Shelter 6.

Shelter 101, while not powerful, still managed to positively influence some survivors under Dr. Method’s guidance.

Shelter 79 wasn’t full of naive bunnies. They simply self-destructed. Apart from the crazy Deathclaw, most didn’t really harm others on the surface.

But the Enlightenment Society... They seemed to be the other extreme among the blue coats.

Chu Guang didn’t know what they had experienced in the past, but they had clearly let go of all pride and restraint as civilized people, to the point of doing business with Mutant Humans and slave traders.

Regardless of their reasons, they had crossed a line. Now that someone had spoken up, more survivors followed suit, revealing their backgrounds and how they ended up in the hands of Mutant Humans.

Most came from the Sunset Province, especially the war-torn Falcon Kingdom and Honey Badger Kingdom, but a few also came from the Brocade River Province or the River Valley Province, which, while not in open war, were just as chaotic.

Chu Guang took note of it all.

He wasn’t so altruistic that he’d seek vengeance for strangers he’d only just met, but that Enlightenment Society made up of shelter residents seriously unsettled him.

Even if not for justice... Just from the perspective of New Alliance interests, he couldn’t allow such dangerous elements to remain unchecked.

At the very least, he had to find out what motivated them, where they were from, and how far they were from the New Alliance’s borders.

"... I’m sorry for what happened to you. You may have encountered some unfriendly shelter survivors, but I believe not all of them are like that."

He paused, then continued. "We’ll provide you with some support."

Gripping the edge of her blanket tightly, Rama nodded sincerely. "Thank you..."

"You’re welcome. Rest well... I’ve asked what I needed. Let the past stay in the past." Chu Guang glanced at his notebook, closed it, and slipped it into his pocket.

But just as he was about to return to the airship, a sudden thought nagged at him. He turned and walked toward Yi Hai’s barracks.

A thought had just occurred to him. If he didn’t clear it up... He wouldn’t be able to sleep.

...

Underground, beneath the entrance to Shelter 0, there was an unknown number of levels.

As the elevator doors opened, a massive gear-shaped metal gate came into view.

At the center of the enormous metal gear was an angular diamond shape. It was hollow in the middle, unmistakably the digit ‘0’ in a stylized font.

The path into the shelter lay beside the massive gate, clearly already accessed by someone.

The crew of the Pioneer was just ahead!

Yet what made Su Ming uneasy was the fact that, despite them having arrived, no one had come to greet them.

"... So Shelter 0 really exists." Overwhelmed by the realization, Yunyi unconsciously took a step forward.

Su Ming immediately followed, sticking close to her.

Staring at the gear-shaped door for a while, Night Ten rubbed his chin and muttered in Federation language, "Weird..."

"What now?" Jiang Xuezhou shot him a sideways glance. That guy had been chattering non-stop the whole way.

Night Ten said sheepishly, "It’s just... This digit looks kind of crooked. Is this really Shelter 0?"

Jiang Xuezhou stared at the symbol for a moment. "Shelter 0 has always been an unnumbered facility. That’s their official symbol, it matches the intelligence the Academy previously gathered."

"Alright then... Maybe I’m just overthinking it." Night Ten shrugged and turned his gaze to the deep hallway ahead, trailing the Enterprise’s representatives further in.

"We’re going too." Wally patted Pangolin on the shoulder and strode forward.

The seasoned soldier noticed a strong excitement and curiosity flashing in Wally’s eyes.

Despite his nonchalant attitude, his body betrayed just how eager he truly was...

The group passed through the corridor and soon reached the interior of the shelter.

But to their surprise, the layout was far simpler. It was almost sloppy compared to what they had imagined.

What they were seeing didn’t look like a shelter at all. It looked like a laboratory.

And what shocked them even more was the dark red Slime Mold streaking through the wall corners and door frames, and the ominous green-gray spores drifting in the air...

Slime Mold.

There was actually Slime Mold in Shelter 0!