novelODS Chapter 116 Land Unlocking in the Southern District of the Ruined Capital and Guild Entry Guide
Chapter 116 Land Unlocking in the Southern District of the Ruined Capital and Guild Entry Guide
The giant exhaust fans in the underground hub roared as the deadly purple mist that had accumulated in the main road for years was being drawn out through the pipes.
Dim sunlight streamed through the cracks in the dome, finally bringing the ruins of buildings in the abandoned southern district of the city, which had slumbered for countless years, back to life.
At the bottom of the reservoir, a goose is squatting on the green water, carefully examining the remains.
The surrounding puddles continued to hiss.
He carefully used long-handled tweezers to pick up a piece of the not-yet-completely-dissolved green viscous substance and put it into a glass container that had been prepared in advance.
"Brothers, we're rich! We're rich!"
The goose examined the slightly swaying liquid in the vessel, its tone full of excitement.
"This gel is like a natural heavy industrial solvent. With just a little dilution and preparation, it's an absolute game-changer against armored units."
As soon as the words were spoken, both the little snail and the agent felt a sensation in their forearms at the same time.
There's new information about the crest on the left arm.
GM Lynn pushed out a camp-wide announcement to all online players titled "Southern District Land Unlocking and Guild Entry Guide".
The little snail glanced at the text on the emblem and raised an eyebrow.
Besides the staggeringly high land prices, the core of the guide is a completely new economic reform:
Just like back in Pearl Harbor, we can now hire local workers.
As the camp population increases, the rationing system originally in place for laborers will be abolished, and a full-scale employment system will be implemented.
After purchasing land, players must hire indigenous people to carry out infrastructure construction at a rate of no less than 3 credits or 3 maple leaves per day, plus a minimum food allowance of one pound of meat or the equivalent amount of clean water.
"Tsk, this is interesting."
The little snail touched its chin, showing little surprise.
As a seasoned gamer, he had long anticipated the shift in gameplay in the mid-to-late game of this simulation management game. "The game designers are quite mindful of labor laws. The shift from rationing to employment seems to require cash payments, but the work efficiency and initiative will definitely be much stronger than before."
The agent rolled his eyes and checked his account balance.
"You're really good at calculating, but look how many coins we have left! All my savings are probably only enough to hire a few homeless people to guard the gate for half a month."
"That prime piece of land with a basement in the South District is practically impossible to find even a fraction of that."
The agent's words were obviously an exaggeration, but for someone who had previously spent a lot of money on gacha pulls, his current balance was indeed a bit tight.
The little snail didn't respond. He squatted down, picked up a pebble from the pile of rubble, and started gesturing on the ground.
"Money is not the biggest obstacle at all. Look closely at the second restriction. In addition to the guaranteed three credits per day, employers must also provide food for these indigenous laborers."
"After a day of heavy physical labor, the calories we need to burn are so high that if we just relied on those ridiculously expensive black breads sold at the camp and hired a dozen or so NPCs, we'd be bankrupt in no time."
He drew a heavy circle on the ground, circling the words "food".
"To undertake large-scale infrastructure projects in the ruined capital, you need a large quantity of cheap and stable staple foods. Cabbage, or starch."
Without this kind of low-cost logistical output, this land would just be a wasteland, impossible to develop.
Big Goose came over and glanced at the equation on the ground, then nodded: "In other words, if we want to establish a guild in the South District, we need to have our own farm first."
The agent sighed, "This godforsaken city is nothing but rocks and heavy metal garbage. Where are we supposed to farm? There's no way we can make a living here."
Just as the group was at a loss about the exorbitant down payment, the emblem on the little snail's arm resonated once more.
It was a text message sent to the team by a roasted whole lamb.
His tone, even through the words, conveyed a deep sense of despair: "Snail, are you done in the ruined capital? Hurry up and send some heavy firepower to save the day! Managing agricultural contracts in this game is even more torturous than being a foreman in real life!"
"How so?" the little snail replied quickly.
"Don't even mention it, I'm about to break down!"
He stopped typing and switched to voice output, and you could tell he was full of resentment.
"Those armored boars' defenses are definitely problematic!"
In order to protect the outer nursery, we dug a defensive trench more than three meters wide and managed to lure a few wild boars into it.
And what happened? The four of us archers stood on the edge of the pit and shot down for half an hour!
"When the steel arrow hit the pig's back, it didn't even break the skin, except for a few sparks."
"The most ridiculous thing is that these beasts have become smarter now, and the methods used to deal with them in the first place have been figured out."
They now treat the bait at the bottom of the trap like a buffet, eating their fill and then sleeping at the bottom of the pit.
We can't do it now if we fill the hole, and we can't do it if we don't fill the hole.
The land clearing work on the outskirts has completely stopped. Every day, we're spending huge amounts of pesticides and fertilizers to maintain the seedlings. The initial investment is about to go down the drain, and my heart is bleeding!
The whole roasted lamb sighed, then roared again.
"And what's more! Let me tell you, Linzi originally said that monsters don't spawn in this game, but I always feel like there are endless armored boars here."
After dealing with a few dozen, another batch arrived not long after, and they were getting smarter and smarter.
Listening to these distressing voice messages, the little snail and the goose exchanged a glance, both seeing a business opportunity in each other's eyes.
The strong acid in the ruined city had just been produced when Archer Village got stuck on the armored monster. It was like a perfect opportunity.
"There are now twenty acres of well-established farmland in Archer Village. The daily crop yield is more than enough to feed the homeless or the gangsters in the backstreets. As long as we bring them in, we can reduce the food costs for our hired NPCs by at least 80%."
As the little snail typed, it analyzed the pros and cons for the goose and the agent, saying, "This is a perfect logistical springboard."
Little Snail tapped his fingers rapidly on his arm and started a voice chat, proposing a grander plan: "Talking about money between brothers is too hurtful. We'll take care of all the armor-piercing technology and ammunition, and wipe out all the Ironclad Pigs for you."
The whole roasted lamb across from them paused for a moment, then asked, "So generous? What are the terms?"
"Let's start a big guild."
The little snail revealed its true intentions: "The technology will be provided free of charge, but those first-tier archers under your command, as well as the mutated farmland that Archer Village has painstakingly cultivated, must all be affiliated with the guild we are about to establish."
From now on, Archer Village will be our guild's exclusive logistical and agricultural base.
There was a silence on the Archer Village side for almost half a minute.
It would be painful for anyone to hand over land that they had worked so hard to cultivate.
Roasted Whole Lamb was clearly having a fierce internal struggle on the other end of the communication line: "Snail, even brothers should keep clear accounts. It's fine to merge the land into the guild, but how will the output be divided? I still have several brothers under me who farm with me and I need to feed them. I can't let them all work for free."
"Distribution is based on work, and the guild has established an independent supply warehouse."
The little snail had already come up with a plan: "All crops provided by Archer Village will be purchased by the guild at 80% of the market price and converted into guild contribution points."
You can use your contribution points to prioritize exchanging for top-tier weapons, armor, and even NPC hiring quotas produced in the ruined capital.
"It's much better to have internal distribution channels than to work hard to grow vegetables only to have them ripped off by middlemen NPCs at a low price."
This well-structured guild economic cycle immediately hit the nail on the head regarding the pain points of roast whole lamb.
With his advance stalled at the front, he urgently needs a systematic armed support system to ensure the continued expansion of agriculture.
He gritted his teeth and sent two words.
"make a deal."
The little snail immediately accessed the newly unlocked cross-region asset binding function of the emblem, drafted a simple electronic contract, and sent it over.
With the other party confirming the authorization, a resource merger across the newbie village was finally finalized.
In order to fulfill the contract as soon as possible, Da'e did not waste a single second.
Holding the jar of strong acid gel, he kicked open the workshop door of Elliott, a player specializing in military-style crafting, and readily transferred an advance payment.
"We need to expedite the process; we need a batch of armor-piercing modules that can be attached to arrows," Goose said bluntly.
Unlike Da Niu, who is rather lazy, Da E is one of the first people Elliot met when he came to this game, so he doesn't mind Da E's energetic demeanor right now.
Elliott stared at the blob of green gel in the glass dish, his brows furrowed deeply.
"This job is too difficult. The corpses of these monsters are too powerful. Ordinary iron pipes or animal hides can't hold the liquid at all. The arrow shafts melt before the liquid is even shot out."
"Who told you to use metal?" Big Goose pointed to the pile of discarded wine bottles and slag in the corner of the workshop. "We used scrap glass to blow liquid storage tubes. The chemical properties of this gel are similar to aqua regia or a mixture of strong acids in reality. It can destroy metal, but it can't do anything to glass."
Elliott was skilled in mechanics, but clearly not so much in chemistry.
The goose spoke at breakneck speed, leaving the foreigner bewildered.
The goose took out an ordinary steel arrow and drew a sketch on the table.
"Make a batch of miniature thin-walled glass tubes, seal the Green Slime King's acid inside, and tie them tightly to the front of the arrow shaft with hemp rope."
The archers in Archer Village were firing normally when the arrow struck the metal shell of the Ironclad Boar, causing the glass tube at the front to shatter.
The strong acid splash corroded the armor over a large area, allowing the steel arrowheads, now free from resistance, to penetrate deep into the wild boar's flesh.
The logic was clear, and Elliott understood it.
This approach of using the lowest-end materials to deal the most efficient damage is probably one of the most interesting aspects of the game.
"The blueprints are acceptable."
Elliott stopped wasting time and immediately started the old machine tool, entering mass production mode for glass tube blowing and encapsulation.
Outside the workshop, the little snail and the agent had already harnessed a reinforced, simple cart.
The very top of the tower.
Lynn stood behind the cold, windproof glass, quietly watching the "armed transport convoy" about to set off below.
Originally, he just wanted to use the price of the land to control these players and make them obediently work in the wasteland for a few more days.
I never expected that before I even had time to create a regional mission to "support the archer village," these guys had already started selling weapons across the newbie villages without any instruction in order to raise enough money for the down payment on land, and even managed to merge the assets of the two major settlements.
This level of initiative is simply astounding.
Looking at the large amount of credits that were about to flow back into the lord's ledger, Lynn, as a leader with a long-term strategic vision, felt very gratified.
Ok.
Once they've paid the down payment, it's only natural that the prices of bricks and cement needed for building the house will rise.