On the long white table, there is an open silver suitcase.
Lying in the suitcase was a jar half as long as an arm, with a completely transparent kidney soaked in the dark green solution.
It is made of unknown flexible materials, and its exquisite structure makes people wonder what kind of advanced civilization can accomplish such a meticulous miracle.
And this "miracle" that combines thousands of research results is just a piece of dust that has fallen from that great era.
Gracie had an expression of obsession on her face, stretched out her index finger like a dead branch and slid it over the jar, murmuring in a low voice.
"Forcing O-166..."
"What?"
"The number of this thing..."
Gracie sighed softly with a look of ecstasy on her face, "The bionic prosthetic body from Ideal City is the crystallization of mechanical engineering and biology. It is the most ideal substitute for biological organs, perfect as a work of art...
Even if it’s just a fake.”
All the miracles in the ideal city are just a copy of the People's League era.
But even so, for the many survivors in the Wasteland Era, those imitation miracles are still an insurmountable gap.
While Gracie was intoxicated with the artwork in front of her, Fang Chang, who was standing next to the long white table, was lost in thought.
After staring at the balding middle-aged man for a while, he suddenly spoke.
"Aren't you going to ask about Edmund?"
He had heard that the "butcher" named Edmund was once Gracie's apprentice. He was spotted by Jeff, the boss of the Dagger Gang, because of a surgery, and later worked for the Dagger Gang.
This guy introduced the business to him, and he turned around and sent Edmund to the prisoner-of-war camp of the New Alliance in exchange for 100 silver coins and a reward of 200 contribution points.
Fang Chang didn't believe that this guy knew nothing about what happened to his apprentice.
However, when she heard the name Edmund from Fang Chang's mouth, Gracie curled her lips and said nonchalantly.
"Why are you asking that guy? Does he have anything to do with our transaction today?"
The expression on Fang Chang's face couldn't help but be a little strange.
But when he saw the corners of Gracie's opened mouth, a hint of surprise suddenly appeared in his eyes.
"……you do this delibrately?"
The New Alliance and the Marauders are at odds with each other, and this is a well-known fact in Qingquan City.
It is no exaggeration to say that the alliance itself was born out of the war between Vault 404 and the Predators.
Under this background, the probability that this transaction can be completed is less than one tenth.
If there is anyone who would benefit from the closing of Edmond's clinic, it is undoubtedly Gracie's clinic.
Without those cheap "original" parts, Dan's mercenaries could only choose more expensive bionic prosthetics.
Can’t afford to replace it?
There is always someone who can afford to replace it.
Even if he could pry away one-tenth of Edmund Clinic's clients and extract 500% of the profits from them, this guy would still be able to make a lot of money.
High value-added bionic prosthetics are the real huge profits!
Human cloning?
That's just a bad way to save money.
"I don't understand what you are talking about...but I believe in one thing, that is, if you often walk by the river, there will be no shoes that don't get wet. If you do business with predators, you will either be killed by the predators, or you will be killed by the predators.
Become a predator yourself.”
"So, I only do safe business with safe customers and in safe places."
Gracie smiled, reached out, closed the silver suitcase, and stuffed it into the drawer under the table.
Then, he took out a gold-plated storage box from somewhere and gently placed it in front of Fang Chang.
"This is 500,000 chips, click on it."
There are 50 black and white plastic pieces neatly stuffed in the storage box, with a crown pattern printed on the side.
The black and shiny luster is as good as new, and not even a trace of fingerprints or dandruff can be seen.
Fang Chang took the storage box, counted it briefly, and suddenly said.
"I'm suddenly curious, how much money can you make by changing hands?"
Gracie smiled faintly.
"This is a trade secret. Besides, why bother asking me? You've made a lot of money yourself... haven't you?"
Fang Chang smiled and did not refute.
really.
500,000 chips, converted into 1 million silver coins, but the cost is only 600,000 silver.
Even if he and a few good brothers collected the 600,000 silver coins together, one person can still get a lot.
This is already far more wealth than ordinary players can obtain through tasks...
Weighing the weight of less than half a catty in his hand, Fang Chang couldn't help but have a strange thought in his mind.
If the silver coin trading platform is understood as a stock exchange, can my own deposits be considered a shareholder of "Wasteland OL"?
Even if you are a spiritual shareholder.
"If you still need bionic prosthetics, you can contact me."
Gracie said with a smile.
"I know how to do it, but I probably won't need it these days. In the past few days, a batch of bionic prosthetics from Ideal City suddenly appeared in the inner city. The price I found out is about half a million chips... I don't know.
I'm wondering if the mysterious seller is you."
"I'm only selling it to you for the time being."
NPCs can also trade with each other. Fang Chang didn't find it strange, but he was just a little curious about who could do such a big thing.
Liszt?
Or that Dietwei who sells nutritional creams?
or……
Manager?
But it’s probably unlikely for managers.
Fang thought about it for a long time, but couldn't associate that highly respected man with a philistine businessman.
This is not to say that the NPC has no business acumen, but the pure personality is a little bit wrong. Besides, there are so many talents in the alliance, and there is no need for the "adult" to do this by himself.
"Really? It doesn't really matter."
Gracie chuckled, "I didn't sign any exclusive agreement with you. You are free to sell to whomever you want. Besides, my clients will eventually contact me for transplant surgery... Are you okay? I'll suggest you if you're okay.
You go to the bank first, it’s not a good idea to carry so many chips with you, there are a lot of pickpockets in Boulder City.”
Fang Chang smiled faintly.
Pickpockets are okay.
As an agility player with the third stage of genetic sequence, pickpockets who can steal things from him are probably not born yet.
It's not that he is very confident.
But if you really have this ability, there is no need to be a thief. You can just find a caravan or mercenary group to go in. What do you want?
After putting away the storage box, Fang Chang was about to leave.
But at this moment, he suddenly thought of something, stopped and said.
"...Right, let's make a deal."
"What deal?" Gracie raised her eyebrows.
"Next time you have a business competitor, you don't have to beat around the bush, you can tell me directly... you know what kind of competitor I'm talking about."
The new alliance prohibits players from "privately" invading survivor settlements above neutral, but this does not include predator lairs.
Although the criteria for determining a "predator" are very flexible, as long as you submit "sufficient evidence" to the great manager's assistant, you will have a chance of obtaining permission to "legally suppress bandits" and unlock the option of "unrestricted war".
The types of evidence include but are not limited to videos, photos, audio recordings, etc., and the judgment of evidence will refer to both the level of regional civilization and the strength of the evidence.
If the conditions are insufficient, a follow-up investigation task will usually be triggered to further verify the situation... Because there are too many issues involved, this is usually a fairly complicated process.
But it would be much easier if someone could help them target it.
Especially in the stronghold of "Edmund Clinic", the value of the loot is far beyond that of the general looter's nest. It can both serve justice and make money, which is equivalent to winning twice.
Isn’t it perfect?
Staring at Fang Chang with interest, a meaningful smile suddenly appeared on Gracie's face.
"Have you finally discovered a business that makes you money quickly?"
"But I still have to give you a piece of advice. When you try to take something away from the night, don't forget that the night is also staring at you."
Fang Chang had an indifferent expression on his face.
joke.
He can't die.
"All you have to do is tell me if you're interested."
"Of course I'm interested. I hope you can help me get rid of all my competitors who have gone astray."
Gracie stretched out her right hand and said with a smile.
"Wish us a happy cooperation."
…
"and after?"
"Later, my friends took the homeless people to the Alliance, and the homeless home there accepted them..."
The Tavern in Boulder City.
While Fang Chang sprinkled the roasted lizard tail skewers with the cumin that Lao Bai brought along, he chatted with Dolly about what happened the past few days.
Perhaps because he has been eating these things recently, he found that he was surprisingly able to tolerate this rough and dark cuisine.
Perhaps, when we return to Shuguang City, we can exchange experiences with Lao Na about tasting delicacies from other worlds.
Dolly, who was sitting across from the wooden table, listened very carefully.
There was an expression of interest on her face, her legs were dangling slightly under the table, and she was holding a brand new pen in her right hand, writing in a palm-sized shorthand notebook.
Although he has only been on the job for a short time and has not even passed his probation period, this guy is becoming more and more like a reporter in both his demeanor and actions.
"Will it make any difference if I go there?"
"Well, it's hard to say," Fang Chang thought for a while and said, "There are also poor people in the alliance, but we will give them a bite of food so that they will not starve to death. We will teach them the skills to make a living and give them a choice to live.
What a chance to live.”
"As for whether or not to integrate into our society, and how to integrate into our society, they can make their own decisions. If they feel uncomfortable, they can leave, and they can come back at any time if they want to."
His mouth was dry as he spoke, so he took a long sip of cold beer.
Looking at Dolly taking notes hurriedly, he couldn't help but make a joke.
"It seems you have adapted to your new life."
The corners of her thin lips curled up slightly, Dolly dropped the pen in her hand, leaned on the chair, stretched out comfortably, and said happily.
"It's not bad. Although it was a little tiring at first, once I got familiar with it, I found that it was actually quite interesting."
"The working hours are flexible every day, you don't have to stay up late, and you can hear a lot of interesting gossip... Of course, the most important thing is that the pay is good."
Seeing that cheerful expression, Fang Chang was also sincerely happy for her.
Turning over the notes in her hand, Dolly, who was leaning back on the chair, suddenly sat up straight and looked curiously at Fang Chang, who was sitting opposite.
"Actually... I still have some questions about what you just said."
"Which one?" Gu Ba
"I seem to have heard about the Edmund Clinic somewhere. It is said that some mercenaries and bounty hunters who cannot afford bionic prosthetics or want to save money will go there for surgery."
"It's similar to what I learned." Fang Chang nodded.
"Well... what about the mercenaries who need to replace their prosthetics?" Dolly tilted her head, "There will always be people accidentally injured. Even if you wipe out the Edmund Clinic, there will still be people who will open another one in a different place, right?"
Although equality is a beautiful concept, most of the time, the price of life is different.
If someone is willing to pay the chips, someone will do the deal.
The cheapest mechanical prosthesis produced by Boulder City costs two to three thousand chips, and for some precision-made bionic organs, five figures are the norm.
In comparison, the lives of cloned humans and slaves are much cheaper. If they are captured scavengers or other civilians, it can even be done at no cost.
As long as people in the wasteland are still struggling to survive, this market will not disappear.
Fang Chang put down the wine glass in his hand, and after thinking for a long time, he slowly spoke.
"We certainly thought about it, so we decided to address that part of the need."
"It's just that we need to change the way."
After leaving the Gracie Clinic that day, he went to the closed beta player communication section of the forum and opened a post. While disclosing the bug that allowed him to farm money, he also discussed this issue with other players who had qualified for the closed beta test.
After listening to what they saw at the "Golden Dunes Cinema", most players had similar thoughts to him.
Although this is indeed a "win-win" business, after all, players will not really die, but using this bug to make money will make them feel uneasy.
Especially many players have become close friends with NPCs in the game.
Ignore the cloud players who haven’t played the game yet.
At least for closed beta players, many people can no longer treat NPCs as mere data.
But another form of life.
Based on the opinions of other players, Lao Bai plans to communicate with the Alliance's First Hospital to save the parts that players have replaced with bionic prosthetics and replace them with survivors who really need them.
As for the fee, a reasonable handling fee will be charged.
In addition, some seriously injured players can also donate their parts before repairing themselves.
Of course, this will be on a voluntary basis.
Players can choose whether to sign a body donation agreement.
For players who have signed the agreement, when they or their friends need replacement parts, they can prioritize surgery.
This is of course unprofitable, but as Brother Guang said, they are not just developing a game, but also building a virtual community.
Silver coins are not everything in this game. In addition to pure benefits, there are many other things in this world worth exploring.
Fang Chang felt that the pattern could actually be bigger.
They are not just building a community, they are building a society.
Including himself, players who have qualified for the closed beta test have long been unable to do without the extra 12 hours a day.
This is their second world, and in fact it has become their second hometown.
Especially as the first group of players to enter the game, they followed the progress of the game and gained a large amount of resources and wealth - both in the game and outside the game.
Due to emotions and reasons, they all have obligations and responsibilities to make this place a better place.
Instead of turning this place into a jungle, squeezing profits from it like a cancer cell, and then spreading it to other places to continue.
"Our alliance will normalize the attack on predator nests, making it harder for predator nests that 'slaughter survivors' to survive."
"...At the same time, we will also supply cheaper replaceable parts through 'shelter technology', making this business unprofitable."
Fang Chang briefly described the decisions he and other shelter residents made in a way that the NPCs could understand.
Dolly looked at him in surprise, her bright right eye filled with surprise.
"I didn't expect you to be quite a responsible person."
Fang Chang smiled faintly.
"Did you just find out?"
Although he wasn't like this from the beginning.
Rubbing her chin with her index finger, Dolly thought for a long time.
Suddenly, she snapped her fingers.
"Yes!"
"Yes?"
"Tomorrow there will be a headline in the Daily Survivor! I plan to write your deeds in the newspaper!" Dolly said with shining eyes.
The headline of the NPC newspaper?
Although it doesn’t sound as attractive as the Hall of Fame on the official website of “Wasteland OL”, it is still a fresh experience.
I happen to be learning Renlianyu myself, so I’ll buy a copy and have a look.
"For the sake of headlines, how about you treat me to this meal?" Fang Chang joked.
"no problem--"
Dolly was just about to pat her chest and agree, but at this moment, the corner of her eye suddenly caught a glimpse of the pile of wooden skewers on the plate.
The raised corners of her mouth suddenly stiffened, and her voice also weakened unsatisfactorily. Dolly continued with a blushing face.
"First of all, I owe you... I will pay you your salary after I pay it."
"Then I will remember it!"
Looking at Dolly with an embarrassed expression, Fang Chang smiled in a good mood, took out a few chips and threw them on the tray in the waiter's hand.
"Pay the bill, no need to look for it."
Looking at the chips spinning in the tray, the waiter saw that he was an acquaintance and couldn't help but secretly rolled his eyes.
It's this guy again.
But then again, this guy has enough to eat...
Glancing at the pile of wooden picks on the plate, and then at the young man who looked polite on the outside, the waiter couldn't help but click his tongue in his heart.
It’s true that people cannot be judged by their appearance...
…
Vault No. 404, the browsing room on the B4 floor.
Chu Guang, who was sitting on the sofa, was holding a freshly printed "Survivor Daily" in his hand.
The page spread out in front of him was the headline of the latest issue of "Daily Survivor" - a report about the Edmond Clinic.
The newspaper selectively displayed several photos taken by players at the Edmund Clinic.
Including randomly abandoned corpses and survivors locked in iron cages like lambs to be slaughtered, the shocking images not only shocked people's eyes, but also impacted their hearts.
Of course the residents of the outer city know the cruelty of the wasteland. After all, the distance between them and the outside world is, to put it bluntly, just a door.
However, it is precisely because of the existence of that giant wall that they do not have to come into contact with things that do not belong to their own world in their daily lives.
Even "Voice of the Rock" often mentions the suffering outside the giant wall as amusement, but the narrative style is mostly sarcastic and flattering to the city lord.
Rather than saying that this was to please the city lord who didn't care about them at all, it was more to say that it was catering to its audience.
This is the first time in at least the past ten years that a newspaper like "Daily Survivor" has brought the truth about Chi Guo under people's eyes.
It is precisely because of this that this incident caused a huge sensation in the outer city of Boulder City and quickly became a hot topic among people.
What's more interesting is that there are obvious differences among the residents of Boulder City on the same issue.
For ordinary residents, they are more concerned about the survivors locked in iron cages.
After all, there are not only people from the slums, but also several residents from outer cities.
No matter what the reason was for those poor people who were sent to the bloody slaughterhouse, the illusion of the giant wall appeared in their hearts in the same position.
The unbreakable giant wall was not as unbreakable as they imagined, and eternal isolation could not allow them to truly stay away from the wasteland.
However, the final result can still be said to be very satisfying.
The evil predator lair was destroyed, and the survivors returned home to reunite with their loved ones.
Although the unbreakable giant wall is not absolutely reliable, the unbreakable alliance seems to have played a little role.
However, for the mercenaries, this is not good news.
This means that they have to take greater risks to complete the commission, and have to pay more chips after being injured to buy expensive and not necessarily easy-to-use mechanical replacements.
Of course, the newspaper also mentioned at the end that the New Alliance First Hospital was exploring alternative options with the help of Vault 404.
It is recommended that mercenaries who need treatment go to Dawn City to try their luck.
Sitting on the coffee table in front of the sofa with her legs stretched out, the puppet controlled by Xiao Qi was looking up at Chu Guang with admiration.
"As expected of the master!"
"Actually, you have already guessed that your players will do this, right?"
Having long been accustomed to his assistant's flattery, Chu Guang just smiled faintly, turned the page of the newspaper, and spoke in a normal tone.
"I'm not as good at predicting things as you think, and human behavior cannot be simply predicted."
"But I admit that they did make a choice that makes me happy."
No matter how strict the rules are, there will always be loopholes, especially as the number of players in the server increases. Chu Guang knows very well that he cannot personally plan the game trajectory of each player as he did before.
What's more, there is no need to do this.
Players are also an integral part of "Wasteland OL". Of course, they can also participate in the formulation of game rules and explore the future path together.
What Chu Guang hopes to see more is that players can give full play to their initiative and spontaneously improve "game content" and maintain "server order."
This is their right.
It is also an obligation.
The newspaper turned to the last page. Chu Guang closed the finished newspaper and placed it on the coffee table next to Xiao Qi. He was about to open his laptop and browse the forum.
At this moment, there was a knock on the door outside the browsing room.
"Please come in."
The alloy door opens.
It was Yin Fang who came in from the outside.
As soon as he saw the beaming expression, Chu Guang guessed that something good had probably happened. Thinking that this guy had been busy repairing the power armor recently, he blurted out.
"Dragoon is repaired?"
"No, it's still a little bit close, but it's only for the past few days," Yin Fang said happily, sitting on the sofa opposite Chu Guang, "What I want to tell you is another good news."
Chu Guang asked with interest.
"What good news?"
"Based on the clues collected by the scientific expedition team, we locked on an abandoned shelter... Although the shelter is old, the data is new. According to historical reading records, we are most likely the first to discover its coordinates.
, you should know what this means."
Taking out the tablet computer converted from VM, Yin Fang skillfully clicked twice on the screen, and then handed the tablet to Chu Guang's hand.
"Its number is 79. It is located in Ruigu City, one hundred and fifty kilometers away from here, at the junction of the River Valley Province and the Luoxia Province."
Yin Fang continued with an excited expression on his face.
"Double-digit shelter number, you should know what that means!"
——
(Thanks to the leader of "Yuye Thirteenth Lang" for the reward!!!)