Gracie Clinic.

On the long white table, there is an open silver suitcase.

In the suitcase lay a jar half the length of a small arm, and a transparent waist soaked in the dark green solution.

It is made of an unknown flexible material, and its exquisite structure makes one wonder what kind of advanced civilization can accomplish this meticulous miracle.

And this "miracle" that integrates thousands of research results is just a piece of dust that fell from that great era.

Gracie had an obsessive look on his face, and he stretched out his index finger like a dead twig and slid it over the can, muttering to himself.

“BIO-166……”

"What?"

"The number of this thing ......"

Gracie sighed softly with a look of fascination and emotion, "Biomimetic prosthetics from Ideal City, the crystallization of mechanical engineering and biology. It is the ideal substitute for biological organs, perfect as a work of art...... Even if it's just a fake. ”

All the miracles of the ideal city are just a copy of the era of the people's union.

Even so, the miracles of imitation are an insurmountable chasm for the many survivor settlements of the Wasteland Age.

While Gracie was intoxicated by the artwork in front of him, Fang Chang, who was standing next to the long white table, fell into deep thought.

After staring at the middle-aged man for a while, he suddenly spoke.

"Aren't you going to ask Edmund about it?"

He had heard that the "butcher" named Edmund was once Gracie's apprentice, and because of an operation, he was favored by Jeff, the boss of the Dagger Gang, and later helped the Dagger Gang.

The guy introduced the business to himself, and he turned around and sent Edmund to the New Alliance's POW camp in exchange for a reward of 100 silver and 200 contribution points.

Fang Chang didn't believe it, this guy didn't know anything about what happened to his apprentice.

However, when he heard the name Edmund from Fang Chang's mouth, Gracie pursed his lips and said nonchalantly.

"Ask what that guy does, does he have anything to do with our deal today?"

The expression on Fang Chang's face couldn't help but be a little weird.

But when he saw the corners of Gracie's mouth open, there was a sudden look in his eyes.

“…… Did you do it on purpose? ”

The New Alliance and the Marauders are on the same page, and this is a well-known thing in Clear Springs City.

It is no exaggeration to say that the alliance itself was born out of the war between Vault 404 and the Marauders.

Against this backdrop, the probability of this deal being made is less than 1 in 10.

If the closure of Edmund's clinic is good for anyone, it is undoubtedly Gracie's.

Without those cheap "raw" parts, I accidentally burst the egg. The Egg's mercenaries will have to choose the more expensive biomimetic prosthetics.

Can't afford it?

There's always someone who can change it.

Even if you can pry a tenth of the customers from Edmond Clinic and squeeze 500% of the profits out of them, this guy can make a lot of money.

High value-added biomimetic prosthetics is the real profiteering!

Clone picking?

That's just a money-saving trick.

"I don't understand what you're saying...... But I believe in one thing, and that is that I always walk by the river, and there is no one who does not get his shoes wet. Do the business of marauders, and either be killed by marauders or become marauders yourself. ”

"So, I only do safe business with safe customers, in safe places."

Gracie smiled and reached for the silver suitcase and tucked it into the drawer under the desk.

Then, out of nowhere, he took out a gold-plated storage box and gently placed it in front of Fang Chang.

"It's 500,000 chips, you click on it."

The box is neatly stuffed with 50 black and white plastic sheets, and the sides of the discs are printed with a crown-like pattern.

The jet-black sheen was as good as new, and not even a trace of fingerprints or dandruff could be seen.

Fang Chang took the storage box, counted it briefly, and suddenly spoke.

"I'm suddenly a little curious, how much can you make from this change?"

Gracie smiled faintly.

"That's a trade secret. Besides, why bother asking me, you have made a lot of money yourself...... Isn't it? ”

Fang Chang smiled and didn't refute.

Truly.

500,000 chips, converted into 1 million silver coins, and the cost is only 600,000 silver.

Even if the 600,000 silver coins were made up by him and a few good brothers, one person could get a lot.

This is already far more than the average player can earn through quests......

Weighing the weight of less than half a catty in his hand, Fang Chang couldn't help but have a strange thought in his heart.

If the silver coin trading platform is understood as a stock exchange, can you be considered a shareholder of Wasteland Online with your own deposits?

Even if it is a spiritual shareholder.

"If you still need biomimicry, you can contact me."

Gracie said with a smile.

"I will, but I don't think I need it lately. In the past few days, a batch of bionic prosthetics from Ideal City suddenly appeared in the inner city, and the price I heard was about 500,000 chips...... I'm wondering if that mystery seller is you. ”

"I'm just selling it to you for the time being."

NPCs themselves would also trade with each other, but Fang Chang didn't find it strange, but he was a little curious, who had such a big deal.

Liszt?

Or that Dietway who deals in nutritional pastes?

Or......

Administrator?

However, it should be unlikely that the manager will be able to do so.

Fang Chang thought about it, but he couldn't associate that respectable man with a mercenary businessman.

It's not that the NPC doesn't have a business mind, it's just that the pure human character is a bit of a mistake. What's more, there are so many talents in the alliance, and there is no need for that "adult" to do this on his own.

"Really? It doesn't really matter. ”

Gracie smiled, "I don't have any exclusive agreement with you, it's your freedom to sell to, and besides, my clients will eventually contact me for transplants anyway...... Are you okay? It's okay I suggest you go to the bank first, it's not a good idea to have so many chips on you, there are a lot of pickpockets in Boulder City. ”

Fang Chang smiled faintly.

Pickpockets are ok.

As a Dexterity player with a third stage of genetic sequence, the pickpocket who can take things from him is probably not born yet.

It's not that he's confident.

But if you really have this ability, you don't need to be a thief at all, just find a caravan or mercenary group to enter, why not?

Putting away the storage box, Fang Chang was about to leave.

But at this moment, he suddenly thought of something, stopped and spoke.

“…… That's right, make a deal. ”

"What a deal." Gracie raised an eyebrow.

"Next time there is a competitor in the business, you don't need to beat around the bush, you can just tell me...... You know what kind of competitor I'm talking about. ”

The new alliance prohibits players from "hacking" into survivor colonies above neutral, but this does not include pillager lairs' dens.

While the criteria for determining a "Marauder" are flexible, as long as you submit "sufficient evidence" to the Great Administrator's assistant, you have a chance to obtain permission to "Lawful Banditry" 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 mission is usually triggered to further verify the situation...... Because there are so many issues involved, this can often be quite a complex process.

But if someone can help them lock in on their target, things are much easier.

Especially in the stronghold of the "Edmund Clinic", the value of the loot is far greater than that of ordinary marauders' dens. Being able to do justice and make money at the same time is equivalent to winning twice.

Isn't it perfect?

Staring at Fang Chang with interest, Gracie's face suddenly showed a meaningful smile.

"Have you finally found a quick deal?"

"But I still have a word of advice, when you try to take anything out of the night, don't forget that the night is staring at you."

Fang Chang had a nonchalant expression on his face.

Joke.

He couldn't die.

"All you have to do is tell me if you're interested."

"Of course I'm interested, I wish you could help me get rid of all the competitors who have gone down the wrong path."

Gracie held out his right hand and said with a smile on his face.

"I wish us a happy cooperation."

……

"And then?"

"Later, my friends took the homeless people to the Union, where the homeless homes took them in......"

Taverns in Boulder.

Fang Chang sprinkled the cumin that Lao Bai had brought by the roast lizard on the roasted lizard's tail skewers, and at the same time talked to Dolly in a casual tone about what had happened a few days ago.

Perhaps because of the constant consumption of these things lately, he found himself unexpectedly able to accept this coarse, dark dish.

Perhaps, when I return to Dawn City, I can exchange with Lao Na about the experience of tasting food from another world.

Dolly, who sat across from the wooden table, listened attentively.

She had an interested look on her face, her calves dangling gently under the table, and she held a brand-new pen in her right hand, scribbling on a palm-sized shorthand notebook.

Although he has only been on the job for a long time, and he has not even passed the probationary period, whether it is his demeanor or actions, this guy is becoming more and more like a reporter.

"Would it make any difference if I went?"

"Well, it's hard to say," Fang Chang thought for a moment and said, "There are poor people in the Alliance, but we will give them a bite to eat so that they don't starve to death, we will teach them the skills to earn a living, and give them a chance to choose how to live." ”

"They can decide whether or not to integrate into our society, and how to integrate into our society. You can leave if you feel uncomfortable, and you can come back whenever you want to. ”

As he spoke, his mouth was dry, and Fang Chang took a sip of cold beer.

Looking at Dolly, who was hurriedly taking notes, he couldn't help but tease.

"Looks like you've adjusted to your new life."

The corners of her thin lips curled slightly, Dolly dropped the pen in her hand, leaned back in the chair and stretched comfortably, and said happily.

"It's okay, although I was a little tired at first, but after getting acquainted with it, I realized that it was actually quite interesting."

"The working hours are flexible, I don't have to stay up late, and I can hear a lot of interesting gossip...... Of course, the most important thing is that the reward is a lot. ”

Looking at that cheerful expression, Fang Chang was also sincerely happy for her.

Flipping through the notes in her hand, Dolly who leaned back in her chair suddenly sat up straight, looking curiously at Fang Chang, who was sitting opposite.

"Actually...... I still have a little bit of a question about what you just said. ”

"Which one?"

"I think I've heard of the Edmund Clinic somewhere, and it's said that mercenaries and bounty hunters who can't afford biomimetic prosthetics or want to save money go there for surgery."

"It's pretty much the same as I've learned." Fang Chang nodded.

"Hmm...... What about the mercenaries who need to change their prosthetics? Dolly tilted her head, "Someone will always get injured accidentally, even if you wipe out Edmond's Clinic, someone will open another one in another place, right?" ”

Equality is a beautiful idea, but most of the time, the price of life is different.

Someone is willing to pay the chips, and someone will do the deal.

The mechanical prosthetics produced by Boulder City cost two or three thousand chips at the cheapest, and some precision-made biomimetic organs, etc., five-figure figures are the norm.

In contrast, the lives of clones and slaves are much cheaper, and if they are captured scavengers or other civilians, they can even be done at no cost.

As long as the people of the wasteland are still struggling to survive, this market will not disappear.

Putting down the wine glass in his hand, Fang Chang thought for a long time before slowly speaking.

"We certainly thought about it, so we decided to address this part of the need."

"It's just that it needs to be done in a different way."

After leaving Gracie's Clinic that day, he went to the Closed Beta player communication section of the forums to open a post, exposing the money-saving bug and communicating the problem with other players who had qualified for the closed beta.

After hearing what they saw at the Golden Dune Cinema, the vast majority of players had similar thoughts to him.

While it's a "win-win" deal, players don't really die, but using the bug to make money can make them feel uneasy.

In particular, many players have become good friends with NPCs in the game.

Cloud gamers who haven't been in the game yet don't care.

At least for Closed Beta players, many people can't treat NPCs as mere stats.

It's another form of life.

Based on the opinions of other players, Lao Bai plans to communicate with the first hospital of the alliance to save the parts that the players have replaced with bionics prosthetics and replace them for the survivors who really need them.

As for the fee, a reasonable handling fee will be charged.

In addition, some players who are seriously injured can also donate their own parts before repairing themselves.

Of course, this will be voluntary.

Players can choose whether or not to sign a body donation agreement.

For players who sign the agreement, when they or their friends need replacement parts, they can prioritize the surgery.

Of course, it's unprofitable to do this, but as Brother Guang said, they're not just developing a game, they're building a virtual community.

Credits aren't all there is to this game, there is a lot more to the world than just pure profit.

Fang Chang felt that in fact, the pattern could be a little bigger.

They are not just building a community, they are building a society.

Including himself, the players who have qualified for the closed beta have long been inseparable from the extra 12 hours a day.

This is their second world, and in fact their second home.

Especially as the first players to enter the game, they follow the progress of the game and gain a lot of resources and wealth - both in and out of the game.

They all have an obligation and a responsibility to make this place a better place.

Instead of turning this place into a jungle, squeezing profits out of it like a cancer cell, and then running it elsewhere to continue to hoho.

"Our alliance will normalize the fight against marauders' nests, making it harder for raiders' nests to survive that 'slaughter survivors.'"

“…… At the same time, we will also be using 'Vault Tech' to supply cheaper replaceable parts, making the business unprofitable." ”

Fang Chang briefly recounted his and the other Vault residents' decisions in a way that the NPCs could understand.

Dolly looked at him in surprise, her bright right eye full of surprise.

"I didn't expect you to be a very responsible person."

Fang Chang smiled faintly.

"Did you just find out?"

Although he didn't start out like this.

Rubbing her index finger against her chin, Dolly thought for a long time.

Suddenly, she snapped her fingers.

"There it is!"

"Got it?"

"Tomorrow the headline in the Daily Survivor is here! I'm going to write about your deeds in the newspapers! Dolly's eyes sparkled.

NPC newspaper headlines?

While it may not sound as appealing as the Hall of Fame on Wasteland Online's official website, it's a new experience.

It just so happens that I'm also learning the language, so I'll buy a copy and see if it's time to do it.

"For the sake of the headlines, how about you have this meal?" Fang Chang joked.

"No problem—"

Dolly was about to pat her chest and agree, but at this moment, her eyes suddenly caught a glimpse of the mountain of wooden skewers on the plate.

The corners of her mouth stiffened, and her voice weakened uncontrollably, and Dolly continued with a red face.

"First, first owed...... Wait until I pay you. ”

"Then I remember!"

Looking at Dolly with an embarrassed expression, Fang Chang smiled in a good mood, took out a few chips casually, and threw them on the tray in the waiter's hand.

"Pay the bill, don't look for it."

Looking at the chips that fell on the tray and swirled, the waiter saw that it was an acquaintance, and suddenly couldn't help but roll his eyes secretly.

It's this guy again.

But then again, this guy has enough to eat......

Glancing at the pile of wooden skewers on the plate, and then at the young man who was looking at Si Svenwen on the surface, the waiter couldn't help but smash his tongue in his heart.

What a human being is not to be seen......

……

Vault 404, Browsing Room on Level B4.

Chu Guang, who was sitting on the sofa, was holding a copy of the "Survivor Daily" that had just been printed out in his hand.

And the page before his eyes was the headline of the latest issue of the Daily Survivor - a report on the Edmund Clinic.

The newspaper selectively displayed several photos taken by the players at the Edmund Clinic.

Including the corpses that were discarded at will, and the survivors who were locked in iron cages like lambs to the slaughter, the shocking images shocked people's eyes and also shocked people's hearts.

Of course, the inhabitants of the outer city know the cruelty of the wasteland, after all, their distance from the outside world is only 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 though "Voices of Boulder" often mentions the suffering beyond the walls as fun, the narrative style is mostly cynical and flattering to the city lord.

It was not so much to please the lord who didn't care about them as it was to cater to his audience.

Like "Survivor Daily", it is the first time in more than ten years that the truth of Chiguo has been brought to people's noses.

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 of discussion.

What's even more interesting is that the residents of Boulder City have a clear disagreement on the same issue.

For the general population, they are more concerned about the survivors who are locked in iron cages.

After all, there are not only people in the slums, but also a few residents from the outer city.

No matter what reason those poor people were sent to the bloody slaughterhouse, they were in the same position, and there was a slight crack in their hearts about the illusion of the giant wall.

The unbreakable walls weren't as impregnable as they thought, and eternal isolation didn't really keep them away from the wasteland.

However, the end result can still be called very happy.

The evil raider's nest is destroyed, and the survivors return home to reunite with their loved ones.

While the Unbreakable Wall isn't absolutely reliable, the Unbreakable Alliance seems to play a little bit of a role.

However, this is not good news for the mercenaries.

This meant that they had to take more risks to complete their orders, and they had to pay more chips after an injury to buy expensive and not necessarily useful mechanical substitutes.

Of course, the newspaper also mentions at the end that New Union Hospital No. 1 is exploring an alternative with the help of Vault 404.

It is recommended that mercenaries in need of healing try their luck in Dawning City.

Sitting on the coffee table in front of the sofa with his legs straight, the puppet ornaments manipulated by Xiao Qi were looking up at Chu Guang with a look of adoration.

"Worthy of the master!"

"Actually, you guessed that your players would do this, right?"

He had long been accustomed to the little assistant's sycophancy, Chu Guang just smiled faintly, turned the page of the newspaper, and said in a casual tone.

"I'm not as godly as you think, and human behavior can't be simply predicted."

"But I admit that they did make a choice that I am happy with."

No matter how strict the rules are, there will definitely be loopholes, especially with the increase in the number of players in the server, Chu Guang knows very well that it is impossible for him to personally plan the game trajectory of each player as before.

What's more, there's no need to do that.

Players are also part of Wasteland Online, and of course they can also participate in the development of the rules of the game 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 the "game content" and maintain the "server order".

This is their power.

It is also an obligation.

The newspaper paper turned to the last page, Chu Guang closed the newspaper he had finished reading, put it on the coffee table next to Xiao Qi, and was about to open his laptop to take a look around the forum.

Just then, 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 expression of his eyebrows, Chu Guang guessed that something good had happened. Thinking that this guy has been busy repairing that power armor recently, he blurted out.

"The 'Dragoon' has been repaired?"

"No, it's still a little bit, but it's only been a few days," Yin Fang said happily as he sat on the sofa opposite Chu Guang, "I'm going to tell you another piece of good news." ”

Chu Guang asked with interest.

"What's the good news?"

"Based on the clues gathered by the expedition, we locked on an abandoned shelter...... Although the Vault is old, the data is new, and based on historical reading records, we are likely to be the first to discover its coordinates, and you should know what that means. ”

Taking out the tablet that VM had changed from, Yin Fang skillfully clicked twice on the screen, and then handed the tablet to Chu Guang's hand.

"It is numbered 79 and is located one hundred and fifty kilometers from here in the city of Uigok, at the junction of the provinces of Hagur and Luoxia."

Yin Fang continued with an excited expression on his face.

"Double-digit vaults, you should know what that means!"

——

(Thanks to the leader of "Rainy Night Thirteen" for his reward!! ）