Chapter 88 Seeking skin from a tiger (please subscribe)
As soon as it started snowing, it kept falling.
The north wind blew loudly, and there was a whooshing sound in the woods. The woods outside the outpost were dark, and every tree seemed to have people hidden behind it, and every blade of grass seemed to be breathing.
The guards on the wall were tensed up, fearing that they would be killed by the plot, just like the fisherman who was beaten.
On the official website oB, it’s too torturous.
Not only the players on duty were nervous, Chu Guang was also nervous in his heart.
He has already killed two groups of people from the Bloody Hand clan. Logically speaking, the other party cannot leave him alone. Even if they are seriously injured, they still have to get back the situation.
However, there was no movement from the predators in the north, and Chu Guang felt uneasy. He sat upstairs for half the night wearing an exoskeleton, and did not come down until about one o'clock in the morning. He slept until ** o'clock the next day and didn't get up.
Those players, on the other hand, were in high spirits and came online in shifts. They seemed not to feel the heavy snow in the sky, and they were not affected at all by their work.
I really envy.
Since my body is not my own, I can’t feel excessive pain. Even if my hands and feet are so cold that I can’t feel anything, I can recover after eating some meat and carbohydrates and lying down in the culture chamber for a few hours.
Of course, winter has just arrived and the coldest part has not yet arrived.
Don’t say that ten degrees below zero is not cold. Go to the south and experience magic attacks. It doesn’t even need to be below zero. A strong wind can blow away half of your life.
“You should add a heating tube to this exoskeleton.”
“Forget it, let’s wait until they make the armor linings first.”
Watching the carts of bricks being transported from the warehouse into the industrial area, Chu Guang had a smile on his face and nodded with satisfaction.
good.
These players are very sensible.
After receiving the budget, Brother Wusuo and Brother Lai were determined to spend money. As soon as they went online the next day, they used the budget given by Chu Guang and bought 5,000 bricks and 500 kilograms of cement directly at the warehouse. Under the envious gaze of a group of players
We got off and headed to the industrial area.
Since the silver coins used are all in the business account, it is enough to directly debit the account book. Old Luca has been able to complete this job skillfully, and Chu Guanglai does not even need to worry about it.
As for the sand used for plastering, we don’t have much in the warehouse. It was basically used up when building the wall.
But it doesn’t matter, just spend some silver coins to rent a cart and hire two people to pull it to the abandoned construction site in the north direction. 1 silver coin per cart, calculated as five carts per side, it is enough to pull about nine carts for the time being.
Anyway, it’s only a little over 2 kilometers away, and the road is flat and not difficult to walk. There are many people rushing to do this job.
There are piles of sand and gravel there, which are used to build hundreds of meters high buildings. You can’t tell what the ingredients are by looking at them, but I think the quality of the things from the pre-war era is not bad.
Although part of the sand was washed into the foundation by rainwater, the part buried in the soil alone was enough for them to use for many years.
To build a 18-meter wall per square meter requires 96 bricks, 10 kilograms of cement, and more than 50 kilograms of sand.
A 20x10 steel plant requires 30,000 to 40,000 bricks and 4 to 5 tons of cement when fully enclosed. Even if the warehouse is emptied, there will not be so much material available.
But it doesn’t matter.
There is no need to be so particular in the wasteland. If it doesn't work, you can just paste up the north wall first, then pick up some scrap metal and plastic sheds, and build a "same"-shaped semi-open factory. You can save more than half of the materials.
The wasteland should have the atmosphere of the wasteland. The shack that Chu Guang had on Beit Street didn’t even use a pound of cement. It could still accommodate people.
That’s called post-apocalyptic style.
At least the two factory directors, Brother Wusuo and Brother Lai, don't care.
The top priority is to build a steel-making converter first, then use scrap metal to melt and cast two rollers, and then build a set of powerful armor for the great manager!
This is their top priority right now.
In addition to hiring two people to transport sand, they also hired three players who had worked on the construction site to help build walls and build the base of the converter.
Everything is going on in an orderly manner.
However, compared with the smooth progress of the "No. 81" steel plant, the progress of the Niuma Brick Factory is not so smooth.
Lao Bai, who was a step late in getting online, Fang Chang and the others were dumbfounded as soon as they arrived at the warehouse.
Hey guys, where’s that pile of building materials?
Yesterday there was such a high pile, and now it’s all sold out?!
“Gan!”
“Why are they moving so fast?!”
“Tsk, what a mistake.”
“The people who carry buckets are professionals...Forget it, brothers, don’t panic, let’s go inspect the terrain first and then think of a solution.”
The four of them made a selection in the warehouse, and finally bought only a wooden cart, a shovel, an axe, and a hatchet for land clearing, and set out against the heavy snow with dry food for four people.
It’s not that they want to save money for the shelter.
But I really have money but can’t spend it...
By the way, since the business account can only be used in the warehouse, you cannot use it to buy guns at the weapons store.
To verify, Fang Chang even made a special trip to try it out, but the proprietress of the weapon shop didn't bother to pay attention to him at all, so he had no choice but to give up.
There was heavy snow outside the outpost, and the north wind was blowing even more.
Ye Shi, who was holding an iron barrel rifle in his hand, bared his teeth, used his arms to wipe the snow hanging on his bangs and eyebrows, and complained softly.
"The wind is blowing really hard. Is it okay to be so exaggerated at the end of September?"
Lao Bai was optimistic and said with a smile.
“It’s probably to test whether the weather system is stable. Isn’t it a matter of planning whether it snows in the game world? I wouldn’t be surprised if it snows in summer.”
Fang Chang glanced at the only perception system in the team and reminded him.
"You should be careful. We are currently at war with the Bloody Hand Clan. Although this river is in the Wetland Park, it is not far from the north gate. If the predators attack by surprise, we may be the first to engage the enemy.
of."
Ye Shi grinned.
"Be afraid! This is our home ground in the forest! When the predators come, I go up and scream, but I feel uncomfortable. There seems to be someone in front of us."
“What the fuck? Seriously?!”
Although Ye Shi is not very reliable, this guy's perception is the highest among all players currently.
After receiving Ye Shi's warning, the other three players did not dare to hesitate and hurriedly dropped the cart, and the looters dispersed nearby.
This is not the first time they have teamed up for hunting.
This is not the first time I have faced predators.
Ye Shi leaned against the tree, his usual playful and smiling expression gone, leaving only seriousness and vigilance.
He carefully poked his head out and glanced around the snowy forest, his eyes suddenly fixed on one spot.
Humbling in a general direction with his hand, Ye Shi gave the other three teammates a look of affirmation.
“Outflank the past.”
"learn."
Lao Bai, who was on the outermost side, was the first to act. The four people advanced in sequence in a tacit understanding, spreading out in a quadrilateral shape to surround them.
Ten meters.
Fifteen meters.
Twenty meters!
In the vast snowy fog, a sneaky figure finally emerged.
The man was wearing a gray coat, a thick cotton felt hat on his head, and an iron barrel rifle on his back. While pressing the brim of the hat that was constantly blown by the wind with his right hand, he was facing the direction of the outpost.
Go.
It doesn’t look like a good thing at first glance!
Fang Chang made an immediate judgment, and before the man noticed them, he immediately pulled out the bow string, put an arrow on it, aimed at the man's right arm, and snapped the string loose.
There was only a sound of whooshing through the air.
The man had no time to react, and was shot in the thigh by an arrow. He howled in pain and fell to the ground.
“If you don’t want to die, don’t move!”
Lao Bai rushed forward first, kicked away the gun in his hand, and put the javelin on his head menacingly.
The man looked frightened and screamed, not knowing what he was talking about.
Fang Chang suggested.
“We need someone to take him back.”
"I come."
Quangfeng raised the crossbow in his hand.
Although it is an intelligence system, something like a crossbow does not require too many attribute bonuses.
The other three people were also reassured by Guangfeng's carefulness and had no objections.
Lao Bai returned to the cart, found a rope to tie up the man, and poked his back with a javelin to threaten him.
“If you dare to run away, we will remove your other leg!”
Having said that, regardless of whether the man understood or not, Lao Bai handed him over to the strong wind and watched as the strong wind carried the limping prisoner away towards the outpost.
…
Watching the cattle and horse team leave the outpost earlier, Chu Guang saw that it was getting late, so he went to the warehouse to chop a crab leg, and found a room in the former sanatorium to roast and eat it.
In this snowy weather, food is not so perishable, so there is no problem in eating these crab legs for two or three days.
This stuff is high-quality protein, so you need to eat more of it to build muscle.
Chu Guang has nothing to do now. He just wears an exoskeleton for a walk without turning on the power, or carries a nitrogen-powered hammer to do push-ups and bench presses to practice arm strength.
Every time I finished practicing, I would go to the bathroom to take a shower, take the clothes I changed out to dry, and get some food by myself when it was time to eat. My life as a child was much more comfortable than when I was on Beit Street.
Although the traces of training on his body are not very obvious, and the attribute panel has not changed in any way due to exercise, he can still clearly feel that his strength and muscle coordination have improved slightly.
Chu Guang speculated that the data scanned and summarized by physical examination equipment mainly measures the "basic hardware" of the body, and exercise may provide an efficiency bonus to the hardware in the form of BuFF.
For example, "Strength +3%" or "Strength +5%".
The greater the base value of the attribute, the more obvious the effect of exercise will be.
For players with power gene sequences, exercise can also accumulate gene sequence development progress and break through the boundaries of hardware.
Chu Guang’s strength attribute is currently 10, and his hardware base is almost 200% of that of a normal adult male (base value 5).
Even without any skills and unable to maximize muscle coordination, he can still easily crush opponents of the same weight class with his attributes.
If he met the Creeper again, even without the exoskeleton and nitrogen-powered hammer, Chu Guang would not be able to win easily, at least he would not be as embarrassed as before.
but.
This assumption is also unlikely to be true.
After all, let alone going out, even if he is in the outpost, he wears his exoskeleton under his deerskin coat whenever he has something to do.
Just don’t turn on the power at ordinary times, just think of it as weight-bearing training.
Of the five kilograms of crab legs, two and a half kilograms were all shells, but the remaining two and a half kilograms of crab meat was quite solid. After Chu Guang finished eating, he clapped his hands and put out the fire.
At this time, a player came in from outside holding down a native in a coat.
After taking the prisoners to the main building of the sanatorium, Fengfeng stood at attention with a serious face and reported to the manager.
“Dear Lord Administrator...we have captured a raider scout!”
“Captive?”
Chu Guang wiped his mouth and squinted his eyes to look at the person in front of him.
I saw that the man's body was covered with snow, mud and dead leaves, a broken arrow was stuck in his thigh, and half of his pants were stained with dark red blood. He looked very embarrassed.
He gritted his teeth and said.
“Is this how you treat guests?”
“Hospitality is reserved for guests.”
Chu Guang felt that he didn't look like a plunderer, but he didn't look like a nearby scavenger either, so he continued in an interrogating tone.
“Who are you? Why did you enter our territory? There are signs at the three entrances of the Wetland Park, and it is clearly written on them that no outsiders are allowed to enter. Even if you don’t know the words, you should recognize the skull sign.”
“I’m here to mediate!”
“Mediation?” Chu Guang narrowed his eyes and said in a somewhat unkind tone, “Are you a person with bloody hands?”
“No! I don’t belong to anyone!”
Sensing the unkindness in the tone, the man hurriedly clarified, but the wound was too painful. When he got emotional, his muscles were involved, and the pain made him grin.
It took a long time to recover. The man struggled to stay awake and squeezed out a few words through his teeth.
“…Can you treat my wound first? If I wait a little longer, I might be dead.”
It’s okay if it’s gone.
Looking at you being so calm, I thought you were not seriously injured.
Chu Guang looked happy, but he didn't make things difficult for him.
Throwing 5 silver coins in Guangfeng's hand, he sent the little player away, then he took out a roll of bandages from a blind box from his pocket and threw it to the man.
I haven’t tried the hemostatic effect of this thing.
Just use him as an experiment.
The man obviously knew how to use this thing. After skillfully taking it apart, he first broke off the arrow shaft, pierced it into the flesh with the tool inside, and endured the pain to take out the arrowhead.
The blood came out like a faucet was turned on, and flowed all over the floor along his trouser legs.
Chu Guang frowned as he watched and couldn't help but be speechless. However, the man acted as if nothing was wrong. After gritting his teeth and putting the bandage on, he breathed a sigh of relief.
“Are you feeling better?”
“It’s better,” the man nodded, took a deep breath, and continued the topic, “My name is Hain, a businessman from Honghe Town.”
"Why do the merchants in Honghe Town mix with the looters?" Chu Guang looked at him with interest and continued, "And it takes fifty or sixty kilometers from Honghe Town to here."
"Fifty or sixty kilometers? Oh, that's a straight-line distance. If you want to bypass the urban agglomeration, you have to walk at least 130 kilometers! Of course, if you want to be safer, you have to bypass the highway bridge... It's almost 150 kilometers.
"
"So?" Chu Guang looked at him and raised his chin, "You didn't answer my question, why did you hang out with the predators."
“Well, it’s not that they are mixed up, it’s just that... we have some business dealings.”
Hain’s eyes were a little wandering, and he continued after an awkward moment.
"Okay, let me tell you the truth. I am a businessman... or an employee of the Horseshoe Firm in Red River Town. Because of the relationship with the boss, we occasionally do business with some trustworthy raider tribes in the southern part of the River Valley Province, mainly with the population.
Related. Don’t look at me like that. Without us, those prisoners wouldn’t have survived the winter. At least we gave them a chance to start a new life!”
“So you are in the slave business?” Chu Guang touched his chin with interest, but his interest was not shown on his face.
"That's right!" Hain nodded and continued, "This time I was sent to Qingquan City by my boss to buy some slaves from them. But when I got here, I heard that you were at war?"
Chu Guang smiled kindly and said.
“Yes, and the enemy of your trading partner is thinking about something now. Suppose your boss doesn’t know that you have been to my place.”
Hain swallowed and nervously interrupted Chu Guang's words.
“I know what you’re trying to say, but it doesn’t make sense. People die every day in the wasteland, and my death doesn’t matter to my boss at all.”
"Yeah?"
“Rather than what to do with me, don’t you want to listen to my suggestions first?”
"you say."
Hain continued speaking quickly.
"The Bloody Hands want to make a truce with you. They are willing to pay a ransom of 20 chips for each prisoner... Of course, if they are missing arms and legs, they are only willing to pay half."
“Oh, what about the contract they gave you?”
“My?Contract?What contract?”
"Okay, stop pretending," Chu Guang said impatiently, looking at Hai En who was pretending to be stupid, "Do you think you can deceive me? You said people are dying every day in the wasteland, there will be people who want to
Throwing your life away from something that is not good? Or is it good for you to have a truce?"
Hain said with a smile.
"I'm not deliberately hiding it...it's just that there is really no such thing as a contract between me and them. Well, I told the truth. His leader promised me that as long as I can bring their people back, they are willing to take advantage of the wounded."
'Handle' it for me. But it's actually good for you, isn't it?"
“No one wants to fight in the heavy snow, and your neighbors are also worried about the weather. Why don’t we all sit down and talk about it. In fact, it’s not an endless conflict. The misunderstandings here will definitely be resolved.”
"I took the prisoners back to deliver the mission. You received a war compensation and made peace with your neighbors... We can win-win for all three parties!"
Chu Guang smiled.
But the curve of the corner of his mouth is cold.
Misunderstand?
Untie?
Hahaha.
He has never heard such a funny joke.
Had I not met him, and happened to meet this group of players, if it had been another survivor stronghold, not to mention what would have happened to the men and women, their bones would have been sucked clean long ago.
Making peace?
Those people are just waiting for an opportunity.
For example, the snow has stopped.
“Mr. Hayne, I feel you are making me laugh. Reconciling with the predators? Do you believe what you said?”
Hain's expression was a little embarrassed.
In fact, before walking into this outpost, he already had a hunch that this group of people was different from the survivor strongholds he had visited before.
Walls, trenches, sentries on duty, hunting sentries...
No one here is a professional soldier, but everyone seems to be able to fight, and most importantly, they dare to fight.
They wear blue coats but have no illusions about the kindness of the world.
This negotiation is probably going to collapse...
"I understand. You have your difficulties. If we can't talk about it, I won't force it... Can you let me go? I will keep everything I see secret." Hain took a second to make a decision.
Stop loss judgment.
However, Chu Guang did not speak, but just stared into his eyes motionlessly, and looked straight at him for a long time.
The latter felt terrified when he was looked at. He felt like he was being stared at by a creeper, and sweat gradually formed on his back. Unable to bear the pressure, he spoke with trembling lips.
"Even if you kill me, you won't get any benefits... Why bother? You and I have no grievances. You can continue to fight. I promise not to get involved again."
“But there’s no harm in it.”
For a moment, Hain felt that his heartbeat had stopped.
However, Chu Guang’s next words ignited his hope of living again.
“You said, you are in the slave business?”
"Yes, yes!" As if grasping a life-saving straw, Hain nodded hurriedly, "You need slaves? I can help you! We not only import slaves, but also export them, and we also provide door-to-door delivery. If
You are in need"
"follow me."
Looking at the man walking out of the door, Hain was forced to stop talking, swallowed, dragged his legs as if they were filled with lead, and limped after him.
The snow outside was falling harder and harder, and the wind felt like a knife on his face, especially on his wounds. Hain felt as if his blood was freezing.
Fortunately it’s not that far.
The man took him to a simple shack, and then said a few words to the old man on duty at the door. Then he saw the old man nodded, turned back to the house, and took out a wooden box.
Chu Guang weighed the box and then handed it to Hai En's hand.
Hain felt his hands sink after taking the box, and looked at the man who handed him the box in confusion.
"……This is?"
"open to take a look."
He had an ominous premonition in his heart, but Hein still freed his hand and opened the box.
When he saw the ornaments made of finger bones in the box, the blood in his body seemed to have solidified, and his face lost color.
Having dealt with predators all year round, he certainly recognizes these things.
Those people would regard the index fingers of prey as trophies, dry them and wash them, make them into ornaments and hang them on their bodies, as inseparable as their lifeblood.
This devil in blue skin!
There was not a single one left...
“Winter is coming, and I don’t have that many cells here. I’m afraid I can only find the prisoners you want from here.”
Looking at Hain who seemed to have lost his soul, Chu Guang smiled carelessly.
“Let’s make a deal.”
"I guarantee that you will get a large number of... and a large number of captives. You will perform fiercely in front of your boss and reach the pinnacle of your career. If you are lucky, you may even say goodbye to having your head pinned to your belt.
life."
“And I can solve the trouble in the north once and for all.”