59: Chapter 59 Firefight

However, just as he stepped out of his room, he ran head-on into several veteran players who had just logged in.

"Holy crap!"

[Why Panic When I Have Flash] widened his eyes and circled Lin Li twice.

"Boss! Where did you get that red power armor? This is way too cool!"

[Praise Ming Shen] carefully examined the texture of the armor.

"This design... it looks a bit like a mini version of the Space Marine power armor. But the details are more modern. This look is incredible!"

The players surrounded Lin Li in a flurry of chattering discussion.

Lin Li kept a straight face throughout, maintaining the absolute coldness of an NPC, and walked through the crowd with an expressionless face into the elevator.

The veteran players also rushed in, all wanting to go to the third basement level to see the excitement of the new students' arrival.

The elevator doors slowly opened on level B3.

In the vast cultivation pod array area, the indicator lights of three hundred hibernation pods turned from red to green simultaneously.

Accompanied by a uniform sound of pressure release, the pod doors opened.

White low-temperature steam instantly filled the entire space.

Three hundred new players of various appearances crawled out of the nutrient solution stark naked.

The silence lasted for only three seconds before a clamor erupted that was loud enough to lift the ceiling!

"Holy shit! It's real! Holographic immersion is real!"

"Badass!!! This modeling! This sense of touch!"

"How is this technology even implemented? A brain-computer interface?"

The third basement level instantly turned into a chaotic mess.

Just like the previous batches, the new players were doing all sorts of things.

Some were excitedly lying on the ground with their butts in the air, licking the stainless steel floor to test the taste engine;

Some came up and gave themselves two hard slaps, tears streaming down from the pain while they giggled foolishly;

And some male players looked down at their own size, then looked at the female players next to them with complex gazes, falling into deep thought.

Just then, a terrified scream suddenly came from the crowd.

"Holy crap! Where did such a huge rat come from?!"

Everyone looked toward the source of the sound.

Beside a cultivation pod in the corner stood a player who was only about 1.5 meters tall.

He had a standard rat-like appearance, with a pointed mouth and monkey-like cheeks, and a long, flesh-colored tail trailing behind him.

"This is... like a Guangdong rat turned into a spirit." A nearby veteran player couldn't help but roast him.

This Mutant Rat-man player's ID was [Playing Valorant Is Too Noisy].

He was blankly clutching his tail in a daze.

However, after a few seconds, he suddenly threw his head back and laughed, a human's arrogant laughter coming from the rat's head:

"Hahaha! I pulled a hidden character! What's wrong with being a rat? This rat right here is a one-in-a-ten-thousand hidden character! Can I change my ID? I want to change it to Great Horned Rat!"

Before the noise here had ended, another shout came from the other side.

"Holy crap! Brothers! I can fly!"

On another player's naked back, there was actually a pair of huge fleshy wings similar to those of a mutant bat.

He was standing on the edge of a cultivation pod, excitedly flapping his wings and jumping down.

As a result, since this new body had no muscle memory for flying, he had barely left the ground by half a meter before he fell flat on his face, even knocking out half of his front teeth.

"Damn! There's definitely some inside dealing! Why does he get to create a character with wings!" A group of ordinary human players were green with envy.

Looking at this group of newcomers who seemed like they were on a break from a mental hospital, Lin Li sighed helplessly.

"Ahem."

Lin Li gathered his breath and let out a low, powerful cough.

All the new players quieted down and turned to look at this NPC in red power armor with a powerful aura.

"Seeds. Please put on your clothes. And then, be quiet."

Lin Li coldly scanned the room, "Welcome to the Fire Seed Shelter."

"I am the supreme administrator here. You can call me by my code name—Dawn."

He paused, his gaze becoming cold.

"I must tell you, you are currently in a desperate, dark universe. The Milky Way here has long been torn apart by the fires of madness and endless evil."

"Here, life is cheaper than weeds. Your only task is to survive and clear all obstacles for the revival of humanity."

After fluently reciting this opening speech that he had long ago memorized, just as Lin Li expected, the new players' emotions were completely stirred up, their eyes burning with fanatical fighting spirit.

Having finished his grand display, Lin Li turned and left.

He threw the troublesome task of guiding the newcomers entirely to the sharp-tongued 73 and the veteran players.

At the same time, he posted a [Veteran-Newbie Assistance Quest] on the pv terminal: as long as a veteran player assisted a newbie in successfully reaching level 2, they would receive a 10-point credit reward.

...

It wasn't until noon that the clamor of the Shelter's newcomers finally quieted down.

Surface camp.

The veteran players sat under the sunshade, discussing what they had seen that morning.

"The boss's red power armor is so cool. When can we get a set to wear?"

Flash stuffed a piece of roasted meat into his mouth, his face full of envy.

"Don't worry, we'll be able to build it eventually."

Liver Emperor was wiping his exoskeleton on the side.

"Didn't we also start the game stark naked? Now look, aren't we wearing exoskeletons?"

Miracle Walker had a sudden inspiration:

"Do you think we could get some thick steel plates and find a way to weld them onto the exoskeleton frames? Wouldn't that be like making a low-end version of home-made power armor?"

Ming Shen pushed up his glasses, his eyes lighting up.

"That makes sense! Using crude methods, it might look a bit ugly, but the defensive power would definitely increase by a lot. Let's go try it right after eating."

Just as they were discussing the R&D plan for the home-made Gundam, they immediately got up and ran toward the elevator.

However, as soon as they opened the elevator door, they saw the other two members of the Niuma Squad—[Elbow-Strike Helicopter] and [Second-hand Old A6]—each carrying a heavy metal box, running out while drenched in sweat.

"Old A6, what's that?" Liver Emperor curiously peeked into the boxes.

"Hehe! Good stuff!"

Second-hand Old A6 excitedly placed the box on the ground and opened the lid.

"The Fabricator on the second basement level has been repaired and upgraded! It's incredible! It can perform micron-level construction with multiple materials and complex structures!"

"We tried importing some blueprints and managed to print these things out!"

Everyone leaned in to look.

In the boxes were several crudely made but structurally complete DC motors, inverters, and a bunch of scattered resistors, capacitors, and rough circuit boards!

Seeing these things, Ming Shen's breathing instantly quickened.

"Electronic components... industrial motors..."

It was as if a Big Bang had occurred in Ming Shen's mind. He slapped his thigh hard.

"Holy crap! I have a great idea..."

...

While the Shelter was in full swing with infrastructure construction,

Not all veteran players were at the camp welcoming the newcomers.

For example, there were four lifestyle players currently trudging through the northern radiation wasteland.

Since the four of them were the first to discover the natural passage leading to the north side of the mountains yesterday, they had naturally snatched up today's high-reward bounty mission to investigate the crashed shuttle.

The gray-green radiation storm raged across the plains.

Luluchiu wore goggles, looking at the crude topographic map on her pv terminal, constantly correcting their direction.

"Big sis, we aren't lost, are we? We've been walking for almost two hours."

Dumpling, who was following behind, was wearing a heavy exoskeleton.

On his left hand, he carried a cool-looking, exaggeratedly styled 40mm portable autocannon.

This was heavy firepower he had paid a high price for, specifically commissioning the Niuma Squad to make it.

He also carried a large metal ammo box on his back.

"We shouldn't... be lost."

Luluchiu looked around with some uncertainty.

"The system coordinates show it's right around here."

Dog Bro, walking at the very front, was also wearing an exoskeleton.

He placed the large steel shield by a rock, picked up a monocular, and climbed onto a huge sandstone boulder.

Before long.

"Over there! There's movement over there!"

Dog Bro lowered his voice and waved excitedly to those below.

The other three immediately perked up and approached quickly, crouching low.

Climbing over a sand dune, the scene ahead made all four of them freeze.

In a huge meteorite crater less than three hundred meters away from them, a streamlined orbital shuttle lay quietly, its surface charred and its tail still smoking.

Around the shuttle were fifty or sixty scavengers clearly dressed in wasteland attire.

These people wore ragged radiation suits and held various cobbled-together firearms, chattering and arguing about something around the crashed vehicle.

A few of them occasionally pointed crude home-made shotguns at the shuttle's tightly closed hatch, seemingly threatening the people inside to come out.

"Wild mobs are intercepting! What do we do?"

Daidai Jiaobu lay behind the sand dune, nervously gripping her Logging Gun.

"There are a lot of them, and they don't look very friendly."

"Afraid of what?!"

Luluchiu said, "There are four of us, three automatic machine guns, plus the 40mm autocannon in Dumpling's hands! Our firepower can completely suppress them! And the system regulations say that as long as the other side fires first, we can use justifiable self-defense!"

"But they haven't fired yet!"

Just as she finished speaking.

A Wasteland Scavenger by the crater suddenly noticed the reflection on the sand dune.

He whipped his head around, raised the rusty automatic rifle in his hand, and pulled the trigger without hesitation!

"Bang bang bang!"

Several large-caliber low-quality bullets hit the sand in front of the players, splashing up dirt.

"They fired first! Defensive counter-attack! Open fire!" Luluchiu roared.

"You got it!"

Dumpling let out a wild laugh and jumped straight out from behind the sand dune.

The auxiliary power of the exoskeleton firmly supported his body.

He leveled the heavy 40mm autocannon, aimed it at the densest part of the crowd, and slammed down the trigger!

What he fired were not ordinary solid slugs, but high-explosive fragmentation grenades with mechanical fuses!

These rounds cost as much as 5 credits each.

He had only brought fifty rounds in total.

"Taste the GDP I'm firing!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Three 40mm high-explosive shells exploded precisely among the crowd of Wasteland Scavengers!

Severed limbs and scrap metal were instantly blown into the air!