"Leaves are turning yellow, temperatures are dropping, and an unprecedented crisis is approaching."
“This year’s winter will be more severe than previous years and will come earlier... There is not much time left for us to prepare.”
“From now on, we must seize every minute, even every second! Get ready for the cold wave before the situation gets completely bad!”
“The task panel has been updated, which lists the list of necessities, facilities that need to be completed, and the corresponding rewards.”
“Remember, only by uniting can we overcome difficulties together!”
“Winter is coming.”
“This is the test of fate for all of us!”
In the resident hall of the shelter, inspiring voices echoed.
Facing the high-spirited eyes of the players, Chu Guang delivered an impassioned speech and officially opened the prologue of the game's first expansion pack since its closed beta testing - "Winter is Coming".
With the opening of a new chapter, the atmosphere of Vault 404 Outpost, just like the game's official website, has begun to become different.
It’s not just the players.
Even Chu Guang himself could feel the slightest sense of urgency in the gradually colder air.
The supplies stored in the outpost were not very generous to begin with, but the population soared from 6 to 30 people, a five-fold increase!
Although the surge in population has brought more labor, it has also doubled the supply pressure on outposts.
In order to feed the thirty mouths that are about to come, Chu Guang has been worried for the past two days. He has been busy from morning to night almost every day. Ye Shi, who carries the gene sequence of the sensory system, is hunting around outside, just to stock up on more.
A little ration.
For a time, the entire Linghu Wetland Park was in a state of panic due to them.
But it’s quite right, and the results are quite gratifying.
Within three days, the mutated hyena Chu Guang alone killed more than ten animals, and caught countless hares and squirrels in traps.
Although they are all mutants, they are still edible.
In addition, Ye Shi, who was responsible for guarding and searching for enemies, was successfully promoted from LV0 to LV1, and Chu Guang also vaguely felt that he was close to the edge of a breakthrough.
It’s just that the manager’s gene sequence is too special.
Chu Guang hasn’t figured out the secret to upgrading yet, so he can only use physical examination equipment to confirm that the development progress of the genetic sequence has indeed increased slightly.
On the other hand, the performance of other players is also very good, and it can even be described as showing their own special abilities.
Lao Bai and Fang Chang used charcoal as a reducing agent and recovered a small amount of iron slag from rusty steel bars, auto parts and other iron-containing scraps through calcination. They added the iron slag to the cement kiln and mixed it with the crushed iron slag.
Limestone and clay are mixed and calcined to make more reliable cement clinker.
This is a physical job.
Whether it is manpower to operate the blower or use a repaired two-wheeled cart to transport the stones, it takes a lot of effort.
But precisely because of this, Lao Bai of the strength department was promoted again, his gene sequence was raised from LV1 to LV2, and his strength attribute also increased by one point.
As for Fang Chang, who was working the same shift with him, he finally broke through the boundary and was promoted from LV0 to LV1.
However, his increased attribute is not strength, but agility.
It seems that although the development of gene sequences conforms to the law of "use it or lose it", the growth of attributes is another matter.
Also speaking of upgrades, the saddest one is probably the strong wind.
As of now, among the four closed beta players, he is probably the only one whose gene sequence level is still 0.
These days, he has caught a lot of fish using the improved trap, but he is still a little short of "experience points" from LV1.
The "experience points" gained by killing alien species through traps do not seem to be as much as those obtained by killing alien species in frontal combat.
The strong wind was also puzzled by this.
But unfortunately, there seems to be no good solution so far.
In addition to the four dog managers who were the first to experience the game, the two new additions are also very motivated and have hardly been idle for a moment these days.
For example, “There are really mosquitoes in WC”.
This guy is not in a hurry to upgrade. He is still doing carpentry work, occasionally helping Lao Bai and Fang Chang, or helping Guangfeng repair damaged traps.
Besides these tasks, he is busy with his own affairs.
According to Mosquito himself, he seems to be planning to build a simple cabin out of wood to use as his chemical laboratory and warehouse.
These days, while helping to carry stones from the construction site, he picked up a lot of bottles and cans and put them next to the cabin.
Although Chu Guang doubted the safety of this kind of cabin, looking at the way this guy enjoyed it, he felt that it would be better not to interfere too much with the players' choices.
Comparing to Brother Mosquito’s leisurely style, “Fried Eggs with Tomatoes” is probably a model among the Gan Emperors.
As the chef of the outpost, he is not only responsible for cooking, but also helps the administrator handle the game.
This includes bleeding, skinning, deboning, meat cutting, and most importantly, smoking.
Since the salt at the outpost is not luxurious enough to be used for smoking meat, Brother Scrambled Egg uses the most primitive smoking method.
That is, don’t put anything away.
He directly hung the cut meat on a steel frame, stuffed it into a cave made of clay and adobe bricks, used charcoal fire to make smoke, roasted it slowly over a low fire, dried the moisture in the meat, and sealed the hole with pine branches and leaves.
The bacon made by this method is actually more like air-dried meat. It can be stored for a period of time even without adding salt, and there is no need to wrap any fancy tobacco leaves on the surface.
By early or mid next month, it will almost be winter.
At that time, wrap these dried meats in plastic bags or tree bark, throw them directly in the snow and bury them, and there should be no big problem in eating them until the beginning of next spring.
On the other hand, the texture and flavor of the bacon made using this method can only be described as indescribable.
In addition, Brother Scrambled Egg did not waste the skins peeled off from the mutated hyenas. Instead, he collected them and made leather.
In fact, tanning is a very complicated and tedious process, much more troublesome than making jerky.
However, what the shelter currently needs is not the kind of smooth and high-end fur, but only thermal insulation materials that can keep out the cold. It can be said that there is no requirement for quality.
Hence, many unnecessary processes can be omitted.
When Lao Bai was burning plant ashes, the filtered potash water was stored in plastic barrels he picked up.
“Tomato Scrambled Eggs” utilizes all the potassium-alkali water as a tanning liquid for tanning leather, which is used to soak the rawhide peeled and washed from the prey.
Wait until the leather and tannin are fully combined, and then hang it on a simple tanning rack to dry in the sun. In this way, you can get a piece of leather with acceptable quality.
“…Dear Manager, I must report to you that I am really overwhelmed with my work here. I really need help, even just one person!”
Taking the freshly shot prey from Chu Guang’s hand, Scrambled Egg’s eyes unconsciously drifted to Ye Shi.
He always felt that this guy seemed very idle. Apart from helping the manager to get a prey, he didn't seem to see this guy doing anything else.
Rather than...
Come and give yourself a helping hand.
Ye Shi could tell at a glance what this guy was up to, and quickly waved his hand and said.
“Don’t look at me, I’m very busy.”
joke.
Where can I find such good things as gaining experience for free by leveling up with NPCs?
He doesn’t want to learn how to cook with this guy!
Looking at Ye Shi's resistant look, Scrambled Egg couldn't help but roll his eyes and complained in his mind.
You are busy with your hammer!
Looking at the scrambled eggs complaining to him, Chu Guang spoke to comfort him.
"Ye Shi needs to help me search for prey, and his sense of danger is also crucial, so I can't let him stay to help you. But I promise you, your problem will be solved soon. Our reinforcements have been
On the way, they will soon reach the surface."
“Well, thank you…that would be great if that’s the case.”
Scrambled Egg sighed, paused for a moment, and continued.
“There’s another thing. Although I tried leathermaking, I could only do some simple processing. As for how to make them into clothes... I really have no idea.”
Chu Guang said with a smile.
“Don’t worry about this. There are talents who are good at this among the reinforcements that are about to arrive. I will leave the work of tanning and making warm clothes to that person.”
Not just a tailor.
Among the 24 new closed beta players he selected, there are talents from all walks of life.
Although they are not necessarily experts in the industry, and some are even students, they can still be of some use within their capabilities.
Besides, there is also the tool of the Internet.
Chu Guang has full confidence in these energetic and motivated players. As long as they work hard enough, sooner or later they will be able to move into a big house.