105: Wasteland Online

After Yang Kui finished introducing all the deployments, the Train Police Officers returned to their rooms in an orderly fashion, put on their holographic glasses, and lay down on their beds.

Wang Hu was one of the last few to log in.

He put on his holographic glasses, tapped the air a few times with his finger, and opened the game software called [Wasteland Online]. A nebula rapidly approached from the distant edge of interstellar space, magnified, and froze into a planet in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The large characters "Wasteland Online" gradually appeared, filling Wang Hu's vision, coupled with the oppressive background music, instantly reminding him of the even harsher reality.

Fortunately, there was still the Xinhuo Train.

With this thought flashing through his mind, Wang Hu began identity verification according to the login prompts.

"Name: Wang Hu"

"Identity: Captain of the Xinhuo Train's First Train Police Squad"

"Identity verification—"

"Verification successful, identity meets requirements."

"Mental scan—"

"Scan successful, mental state stable, meets login requirements."

"Thought link—"

"Thought link successful, first login, synchronizing mental sub-body generation, game character generation in progress."

"Game character generation successful!!!"

"Welcome to the Wasteland world, Captain of the Xinhuo Train's First Train Police Squad—Wang Hu."

Wang Hu opened his eyes and found himself standing in a small farmhouse courtyard, which closely resembled the small courtyards of rural homes before the apocalypse.

Cement walls, red brick ground, and a vegetable patch nearby.

In the distance, there seemed to be the sound of cicadas.

The sun in the sky was intense, like midsummer.

His memories were instantly pulled back to that summer when he was reunited with his family, and tears streamed down his cheeks uncontrollably.

At the same time, a curve symbolizing the degree of emotional fluctuation at the corner of his eye was changing from dark green to light green.

This indicated that Wang Hu's emotions were fluctuating, but because it was a memory of his family, it was still considered a relatively healthy state and did not require special attention.

This was specially set up by Xiao Xin to monitor everyone's mental state in the Demon Net world.

It was to prevent excessive negative energy from being generated due to various stimuli.

If someone thought about or did things that could easily generate negative energy, Xiao Xin would remind, warn, or force them to log out, depending on the severity.

This was to avoid the massive accumulation of negative energy within the Demon Net, which could lead to undesirable effects.

The specific standards were all based on Lu Yang's requirements. When there was an incident requiring forced logout, Xiao Xin would also report it to Lu Yang immediately, so there was no need to fear a risk of loss of control.

Wang Hu stood there in a daze for a few minutes, gradually coming back to his senses only when the system prompt clearly sounded in his ear.

"Player Wang Hu, please operate the game according to the novice operation guide in a timely manner. As one of the first batch of internal test players, your testing plays a crucial role in the improvement of the Wasteland world."

After the system prompt sounded, Wang Hu saw a row of illusory footprints extending from his feet towards the vegetable patch.

Next to the vegetable patch near the corner of the wall, there was a small cloth bag filled with seeds and a watering can.

Wang Hu followed the prompts, planted the seeds, and took out the watering can to water them.

Just like Lu Yang first saw, the seeds quickly completed the entire process of germination, growth, heading, and maturation.

In front of Wang Hu, it transformed into a rice plant laden with grains.

"Player Wang Hu, please pick up the sickle in the corner and perform your first crop harvest."

Wang Hu walked over, picked up the sickle, cut down the rice, and put it into the cloth bag.

"Congratulations, Player Wang Hu, you have completed your first rice harvest, gaining Planting Experience x1, Rice x1 kg, and Rice Seeds x10."

"Please continue with a new round of rice planting. A standard vegetable patch can sow a maximum of 10 seeds each time. The standard growth time is 12 hours, and the standard yield is 1 kg per plant. Special conditions such as pests, diseases, or lack of water may lead to reduced yield or extended growth time. Please deal with them promptly."

After planting 10 seeds following the previous steps, Wang Hu clearly saw the countdown to crop maturation.

A total of 12 hours, with 4 hours each for the germination, growth, and heading stages. When the countdown ends, it's the maturation stage, and it can be harvested.

The maturation stage can last for up to three days. If not harvested, it will turn into seeds and begin a new round of self-growth.

After finishing the planting novice guide, Wang Hu was originally going to check out the combat training room that Yang Kui had specifically instructed him to visit.

Unexpectedly, the second step of the novice guide was to have him go to the kitchen and cook a pot of rice with the freshly harvested rice.

This left him utterly puzzled.

It's just a game, what's the point of cooking rice here?

However, he still followed the novice prompts.

The first time cooking rice was also a quick process.

Wang Hu followed the instructions, scooped a bowl of rice into the pot, and then added water up to one finger-width above the rice.

He used a flint to light the firewood in the stove.

Before he could even stand up, Wang Hu heard a gurgling sound of boiling from the pot.

Then a strange aroma of rice permeated the entire kitchen.

He couldn't help but swallow his saliva wildly.

When the boiling sound stopped, the system prompted him to open the lid.

An even richer aroma of rice wafted over, and the glistening rice grains were plump and full.

He scooped a spoonful with a spatula, blew on it, and put it in his mouth to chew.

A faint sweet fragrance mixed with the fresh scent of straw and the mellow aroma of rice instantly burst in his mouth.

It tasted better than any rice he had ever eaten before.

A feeling of pleasure and satisfaction instantly welled up from the bottom of his heart.

So, his spatula moved quickly, and in the blink of an eye, he ate all the rice cooked from one jin of rice, leaving it spotless.

"Burp, so delicious!!!"

"This game... it's too realistic!!!"

Wang Hu licked the spatula and muttered to himself.

Although it was in the form of a game, everything felt real.

If it weren't for the information prompts and the exit button at the corner of his eye, he would have thought this was a real world.

This is 90% fidelity?!

It's too amazing!!!

This game, let alone playing it and earning work points, even if he had to spend work points to play, Wang Hu felt it was worth it. This one meal of rice alone made it worth the price of admission.

Then, Wang Hu followed the novice guide to the third step—the combat training room.

This was a place to train combat skills.

Players could initially choose one skill for free among [Shooting], [Melee Combat], and [Cold Weapon Usage] for training.

Only after reaching the proficient level could they enter adventure maps.

Because he had practiced [Shooting] and [Melee Combat] in the Train Police Squad, Wang Hu chose [Cold Weapon Usage] here.

And it was the relatively difficult-to-master cold weapon, the long spear.

Compared to other cold weapons, this item was stronger the longer it was.

Of course, Wang Hu chose cold weapons for another reason, considering future adventure maps.

Although hot weapons were convenient, ammunition consumption was very expensive.

This was something Yang Kui had specifically reminded everyone about before they entered the game.

Therefore, for those who were not among the few with exceptional shooting talent in reality, Yang Kui's advice to others was to first learn a cold weapon.

This way, when everyone teamed up for adventures, they would initially have sufficient combat power.

Otherwise, they would have to collectively save money to buy guns, which would significantly affect the testing progress.