“What’s so important that you had to drag me down to level B7? Didn’t I say I’ve been busy these days, wait, what the fuck?!”

Level B7, Shelter 404.

The moment Yin Fang reluctantly stepped out of the elevator and set foot on level B7, he froze in place, his expression blank, his mind clearly lagging from what he was seeing.

After a few seconds of stunned silence, he slowly turned his head toward Chu Guang, who was standing by the terminal with a faint smile, and spoke in disbelief. “... This is your shelter?”

Chu Guang nodded. “Obviously.”

Seeing that calm nod, Yin Fang nearly spat blood. “Then why didn’t you show me this earlier?!”

Chu Guang’s face twitched slightly at that question.

As if I didn’t want to!

The problem was that the damn First Administrator hadn’t let me access it sooner, what can I do about that?

But explaining all that would be way too troublesome. Knowing Yin Fang’s habit of digging endlessly into everything, he would never hear the end of it. So after a brief pause to improvise, Chu Guang cleared his throat and said casually, “... I forgot the access code for this floor. Just remembered recently.” 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Yin Fang stared at him blankly, the words “Do you think I’d believe that?” practically written across his face.

Chu Guang, however, had no intention of explaining further. He simply changed the subject. “Help me take a look, what level would you say this equipment’s at?”

Yin Fang took a deep breath and spent a whole minute forcing himself to calm down before answering. “... Let’s put it this way. If an ordinary survivor settlement somehow gets its hands on this full set of manufacturing gear, as long as they aren’t stupid enough to use it to peel apples, they will leap straight from the early Industrial Age to the Information Age without a hitch!”

Chu Guang looked mildly disappointed. “Only the Information Age?”

“... I said an ordinary survivor settlement. But are we an ordinary survivor settlement?” Yin Fang gave him a look of sheer disbelief, then burst out in frustration. “We’ve got not only a massive industrial district, but also a full-fledged research and archaeological system, hundreds of experts working within it, and a city-grade fusion reactor! I’m not even counting the thousand cubic meters of nuclear fuel and all the data sitting in this database. Only the Information Age? Are you kidding me? With this setup, we can build another Ideal City on this wasteland!”

Then he suddenly stopped.

His expression shifted, from exasperation to shock, as his eyes widened at Chu Guang.

Quietly, almost under his breath, he muttered, “Good god... You were serious.”

Chu Guang frowned slightly. “Serious?”

“I remember you once said you will build a new Ideal City on these ruins. I thought you were joking...” Yin Fang swallowed hard, eyes bright with excitement, his voice almost dreamy. “You weren’t joking, you meant it!”

Looking at the awestruck Yin Fang, Chu Guang’s expression turned subtly awkward.

Ah. So that’s what this is about.

Come to think of it, he had said something like that once...

But honestly, it had just been a bit of motivational fluff, a throwaway line during one of his more enthusiastic speeches. And later, after his people visited the Enterprise and saw what the legendary Ideal City actually looked like, he hadn’t dared bring it up again.

Up until now, until Yin Fang’s sudden reaction, Chu Guang had never seriously thought that day might actually come.

But still...

“When have I ever lied to you, my friend?” he said solemnly. “Like you said, we don’t just have a massive industrial zone, a team of brilliant researchers, a giant reactor, and all those unspoken reserves of nuclear fuel and technical data... Most importantly, we have you.”

“I...” Yin Fang’s face flushed scarlet, his voice trembling with emotion.

“No need to be modest. With your experience and understanding of the Prosperity Era, you know better than I do how to maximize this facility’s potential. I believe you can show us that era firsthand, not just admire its relics.” Looking at the man whose face was crimson, Chu Guang patted his shoulder earnestly. “Alright, you got this.”

...

Back on Earth, in the Bull and Horse Squad group chat.

Discussion about the Wasteland Online Beta 0.6 update had spilled over from the forums into the players’ private chat groups.

Compared to the chaotic chatter on the public boards, the veteran players, those who had been around since early versions, preferred listening to old-timer Ample Time’s analysis.

But this time was different. While the whole forum was obsessed with the new Entity Cultivation System, Ample Time’s attention was caught by a much less noticeable line in the patch notes.

Ample Time: ... Honestly, I’m more curious about what level B7 actually is than about the Entity Cultivation System.

Night Ten: I thought you were gonna say you were more curious what bugs they fixed this time. (˵ ¬ᴗ¬˵)

Old White: Haha, as if Light would ever tell you.

Ample Time: I’m being serious here.

Quit Smoking: Level B7? Wait, wasn’t B6 already the lowest floor in the shelter? ( ˶°ㅁ°)

Ample Time: You guys didn’t read the announcement carefully enough. Besides the Entity Cultivation System, Beta 0.6 mentioned tons of new ruins around Clearspring City and the newly unlocked level B7 I’m talking about.

As for the planet, Gaia, mentioned in the same update, Ample Time completely ignored it.

That kind of five-light-year-away feature had zero relevance to the current storyline, it was probably just a map texture dump at best.

He knew Light too well. But level B7? That was different.

Ever since the server launched, the shelter’s floor progression had been tightly tied to the New Alliance’s overall development. Every single unlocked level had changed gameplay in some meaningful way. He had good reason to believe this one would be no different.

However, something was odd, despite the update mentioning the new floor, he’d logged in and tested every elevator in the shelter, yet found no entrance to level B7.

That only made it more suspicious.

Seeing Ample Time tease the topic without elaborating, Night Ten couldn’t resist typing.

Night Ten: So what do you think level B7 is? ( ╹ -╹)?

Ample Time: Since the system skipped the still-locked level B5, and level B6 was a biological lab, I suspect level B7 is a physics or engineering lab, or at least some facility related to those fields.

Gale: A physics lab, huh... It doesn't seem very practical to build a particle collider in a shelter. And pure theoretical science research feels too inefficient for the wasteland setting.

Ample Time: Exactly. From a gameplay standpoint, a physics lab wouldn’t affect player experience much. So here’s my bold prediction. Level B7 is likely an engineering or manufacturing facility! A workshop for machine production!

Tomato Eggs: You’re talking way too deep, my head hurts. Just tell us, what’s it mean for gameplay? (ᗒᗣᗕ)

Quit Smoking: +1.

Ample Time: Remember those high-tech weapons and gear from previous versions?

Mosquito: Wait... oh! You mean... those items were all made in level B7?! ✧｡٩(ˊᗜˋ)و✧*｡

Ample Time: Exactly, and it’s very likely! I’d bet that starting from Beta 0.6, those old lottery-only legendary items will start getting downgraded, made available for limited purchase or even demoted to standard NPC shop gear.

Night Ten: What the fuck?!

Old White: For real? ꉂ૮(°□°'˶)ა

Sword Execution: 666!

Garbage: HAHAHA! Light is really awesome! Finally nerfing you rich bastards, feels good! ( ≧ᗜ≦)

Night Ten: Please. What’re you celebrating for? Even if high-end gear becomes cheaper, you’ve got less than 5 intelligence points, you can’t use any of it! And if my Gauss rifle becomes common, every newbie will have one. Meanwhile you’re still scratching people with your claws, so who’s really getting nerfed here?

Garbage: WHAT?!

Sword Execution: Garbage: The clown... was me all along. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

The group’s reactions to Ample Time’s theory were mixed.

Some gloated, others cursed at their gear’s devaluation, while a few simply watched the drama unfold.

Ample Time, though, took it all in stride.

He knew the truth. In any game, as versions evolved, god-tier gear inevitably turned into common gear. Especially in a closed beta, the developers’ main goal wasn’t balancing the few testers’ experience but refining the game’s core systems.

Focusing too much on a handful of elite players was unrealistic.

Ample Time: If you think about it another way, it’s actually a good thing. In previous versions, the power ceiling came either from shelter-issued equipment or spoils taken from other survivor factions. That was enough to bully NPCs, but objectively we still lagged far behind the major old-world factions. With those old legendary weapons becoming mainstream, new ones will appear eventually. I say, it’s something worth looking forward to. ٩(^ᗜ^ )و

...