82: Chapter 82 Firefighter Suit

"2,500 Core Points! All in!"

Familiar, exaggerated special effects bloomed on the screen, light flickering.

Lin Li leaned back in his chair, crossed his legs, and waited happily for a while.

But strangely, the alloy wall on the side of the room didn't open a delivery port as usual.

"Is it a bug?"

Just as Lin Li was feeling puzzled, a dull sound of metal objects colliding suddenly came from the hall outside Room 1.

"What the hell?"

Lin Li jumped up and rushed out the door.

Previously, everything drawn came directly out of Room 1. Why did it end up outside this time?

And judging by the noise, the volume wasn't small.

Could it be some kind of SSSR?

Lin Li arrived in the outer hall, and with a quick scan, he immediately noticed a mountain-like pile of miscellaneous items in the corner against the wall.

These things looked like a pile of abandoned trash, scattered randomly on the cold floor.

Lin Li complained inwardly,

"This pile of stuff looks like junk. Is it possible it really is just household waste that our Golden Age ancestors didn't want?"

But complaints aside, he knew very well.

Even if it really was trash from that era, for this dirt-poor wasteland, it was a rare, priceless treasure.

Lin Li strode over in a few steps and began rummaging through the pile.

The first thing that caught his eye was a heavy set of Power Armor, not yet fully unfolded, and dark red in color!

"Another set?"

Lin Li's eyes lit up as he carefully examined this new armor.

The design of this thing was completely different from the Competitive Power Armor he was currently wearing, which prioritized flexibility.

Its external armor was visibly much thicker, and there was even a special coating on the chest plate and pauldrons that looked incredibly impressive.

What excited Lin Li the most was that there were actually two thick vector thrusters mounted on the back of this suit!

"Heavy armor with a jump pack?"

Lin Li's heart pounded wildly,

"Good stuff!"

Coincidentally, the left arm of the competitive Power Armor he was wearing had taken a direct hit from a power axe during the deathmatch with the Orc Warboss earlier today. Although he hadn't died, it left a dent in the armor. While not broken, it was somewhat unsightly.

That Warboss's axe wasn't just ordinary scrap metal; it was an 'I fink' power axe wrapped in a WAAAGH field.

That kind of field cut through thick ceramite armor as smoothly as a hot knife through butter.

Lin Li even felt a bit of lingering fear:

"Golden Age technology really is incredible. The penetration resistance of this competitive armor is simply amazing. If I had been wearing standard Space Marine Power Armor, I'd probably be dead by now."

"Since I have a new one, the old one can retire."

Lin Li patted the new red armor with satisfaction, then turned and shouted:

"73, get your ass out here and work! Come see what kind of good stuff is in this pile."

*Whoosh—*

Red light flickered, and STC-73's body, which looked like a metal washbasin, floated over slowly.

It emitted a fan-shaped red scanning beam that swept across the pile of items.

After a few seconds, a detailed list was projected in front of Lin Li:

[Blackstone × 12]

[G-04 Type II Firefighter Power Armor × 1]

[G-22 Type III Firefighter Ultrasonic Vibration Axe × 3]

[Medical Exoskeleton × 6]

[Civilian Multi-function Auxiliary Prosthetic × 1]

[Concentrated Candy (Watermelon Flavor) × 1 Full Crate]

Lin Li quickly scanned the list, his eyes widening.

"Holy crap, Firefighter Power Armor? This is the work uniform firefighters wore back then?!"

Lin Li was completely shocked by the opulence of the Golden Age.

To give firefighters heavy armor that could withstand an Orc Warboss and even came with a jump pack as a work uniform—what kind of insane era was that?!

"No wonder the armor is so thick and has a high-temperature resistant coating."

Lin Li clicked his tongue in amazement.

He would definitely wear this new armor himself.

As for the dented competitive armor he was currently wearing, Lin Li had already decided its fate.

"Post it directly on the player mall with an astronomical price tag! It'll serve as an ultimate goal for those hard-working players to strive for!"

Lin Li put those thoughts aside, his gaze falling on the 12 pieces of Blackstone at the top of the list.

He had drawn this before, and 73 had used it to set up a ring of miniature Repulsor Fields around the Shelter, specifically to isolate Warp energy pollution.

"73."

Lin Li pointed at the pile of Blackstone, which had strange geometric shapes.

"Can these 12 stones be added to the previous field network? To make the coverage area larger?"

73 gave an affirmative answer after a few seconds:

"Certainly. After adding the nodes, the coverage area of the Repulsor Field will increase exponentially. The estimated effective radius will reach 20 kilometers, sufficient to cover the entire current camp and the outer Nomads' outposts."

"Good job."

Lin Li waved his hand and kicked the pile of Blackstone toward 73.

"Hurry up and get to work. Get that field up for me."

73's optical lens flickered sharply, and a clear trace of resistance entered its electronic voice:

"Please note, Creator, I possess an independent high-level logical personality. Please do not use such a tone as if you are driving a mule or horse to command me. It causes slight code redundancy, leading to emotional instability."

After speaking, 73 used its newly installed mechanical tentacles to scoop up the Blackstone and zipped away to work.

Lin Li stood frozen, his mouth twitching.

"This piece of junk machine... was it just throwing a tantrum at me?"

Lin Li was speechless.

"This guy really thinks he's human, doesn't he? Saying all that, it's like a mental patient very seriously telling you: 'I'm a mental patient, you'd better not mess with me.'"

Lin Li recalled the crazy things this STC said when he first awakened it and slapped his forehead:

"Wait! This guy really might be a cyber-psychotic!"

Lin Li shook his head, deciding not to argue with an AI with glitched code.

He continued looking through the remaining items.

Lin Li picked up the [G-22 Type III Firefighter Ultrasonic Vibration Axe].

The shape of this axe was very similar to a firefighter's axe on Earth, except there was a layer of extremely fine micro-serrations on the edge.

Lin Li weighed it in his hand, feeling a bit of an itch to try it out.

He found a ten-centimeter-thick alloy armor plate from a nearby scrap pile.

He lifted the axe with one hand and, without much effort, just gave it a casual swing.

*Hum—*

The moment the axe blade touched the alloy, it emitted a high-frequency vibration sound that set his teeth on edge.

That incredibly hard alloy plate was cut into two pieces by the axe as smoothly as if it were a block of tofu!

The cut even glowed with a searing red light due to the high-frequency friction.

"Incredible!"

Lin Li sucked in a breath of cold air.

This armor-piercing capability was even more powerful than the Steel Halberd in his hand.

"Good stuff is good stuff, but it's a pity it's too short."

Lin Li made a few gestures; he was still more used to the wide, sweeping strikes of a long-handled weapon like a halberd. After all, an inch longer is an inch stronger.

"Put these three axes on the mall too! 20,000 points each shouldn't be too much, right?"

Lin Li happily packed up his spoils.

Now, it was time for the most important business.

After the bloody battle today, his gene development progress had finally reached 20%, and his level had risen to 20.

This meant that the permissions for the fourth basement level (B4) of the Shelter were now officially open to him.

Lin Li walked to the elevator door.

Below the floor buttons that originally only went from B1 to B3, there was indeed a B4 button glowing with a faint blue light.

Lin Li took a deep breath and pressed it.

The elevator began to descend smoothly.

After about a few dozen seconds, with a *ding*, the elevator doors slowly opened.

Lin Li stepped out of the elevator and was instantly shocked speechless by the sight before him.

This was a vast underground space.

Lin Li did a rough calculation; this area was larger than two top-tier standardized football fields put together!

The entire large space was rigorously divided into five massive fan-shaped zones.

And in each zone, rows upon rows of cylindrical glass pods were arranged in perfect order.

Under the cold white lights, Lin Li actually felt a bit of a chill.

Lin Li walked along the aisle for ten minutes, doing a rough count.

In each zone, there were exactly one thousand incubation pods!

Adding the five zones together, that was a full five thousand pods!

In the incubation fluid glowing with a faint green fluorescence, five thousand clones of various appearances and robust physiques slept.

"Five thousand players waiting to come online..."

Lin Li's heart began to race.

You should know that the number of people currently in the queue on the official forum didn't even add up to five thousand.

In his mind, he could already see the terrifying scene of over five thousand Fourth Calamities rampaging across the wasteland like a plague of locusts, grinding the Orks into the dirt.

"This is more like it! A few dozen or a few hundred people is just playing house!"

But after the excitement, Lin Li quickly realized a very realistic physical problem.

"If thousands of people come online at the same time, or need to travel between the surface and underground every day, relying on this little elevator would crush everyone to death."

Lin Li wandered around the vast space, trying to find a solution.

Soon, on the metal wall directly opposite the elevator, he found a huge rectangle outlined with yellow warning tape.

The width of the box was a full twenty meters.

In the center of the box was a red control button.

Lin Li walked over and pressed the button.

*Rumble—*

Accompanied by the dull sound of mechanical gears engaging, that thick metal wall actually split slowly from the middle and retracted to both sides.

As it turned out, a giant gate twenty meters wide was hidden here!

Outside the gate was a brightly lit sloped passage paved with non-slip armor plates.

The slope of the passage wasn't steep, enough for large vehicles or even tanks to drive side-by-side.

Lin Li walked up the slope.

The passage turned a corner midway.

Before long, another heavy metal door appeared ahead.

The difference was that in front of this door, there was a blue laser scanning curtain.

Lin Li hesitated for a moment, then placed his hand on the palm print scanner next to the door.

"Beep—Identity confirmed. Overseer."

The door opened with a roar.

A cold night wind mixed with dust instantly blew in.

Lin Li stepped out of the door and froze.

He found that he had actually come directly to the outskirts of the Shelter's surface camp, about a hundred meters away from the main gate.

He turned his head and looked at the door that had just opened.

"Holy..."

Lin Li couldn't help but swear.

This door was actually cleverly hidden inside a massive rock!

And Lin Li was all too familiar with this giant rock.

When players were testing weapon fire on the camp's outskirts or were so bored they threw grenades for fun,

they all used this rock, which wouldn't break no matter how much they blasted it, as a target.

"This concealment work is just too damn good!"

Lin Li patted the thick rock wall.

"This hidden sloped passage perfectly solves the congestion problem for large troop movements."

Since the hardware issue for travel was solved, next, he could start summoning those hungry labor-cow players from Earth.

Five thousand slots obviously couldn't be filled all at once.

First, the current number of pre-registrations wasn't yet five thousand.

Second, the sand potatoes just planted in the Shelter hadn't been harvested yet. Although the existing food reserves now included Ork meat for the players, it definitely couldn't support the consumption of five thousand people.

Most importantly, if thousands of clueless newbies flooded in at once, management would instantly collapse into a chaotic mess.

"One bite at a time. Open up a few hundred slots in small batches every day and increase slowly."

Lin Li set the tone.

And what was the best way to quickly increase the number of pre-registrations and attract high-quality Liver Emperors?

Naturally, it was to use the explosive, epic battle that had just finished!

In today's battle, there was not only air-ground coordination and heavy artillery barrages, but also high-octane footage of him personally taking on a giant mecha.

These video and image materials were simply the perfect promotional blockbuster!

"As long as I edit a high-quality video and post it on Earth's network, it'll definitely cause another sensation! This time, I must put the official website's registration link directly below the video!"

Lin Li excitedly returned to the primary control room on B1.

He had just pulled out his chair to sit down, preparing to open the editing software on his computer to get to work.

*Beep—*

On the holographic screen, a brand-new mission window wrapped in a golden flame border suddenly popped up!

[Main Strategic Mission Triggered: Humanity's Spark!]

[Mission Description: In this dark and hopeless edge of the galaxy, a single spark can start a prairie fire. You must establish a true center for humanity.]

[Mission Objective: The permanent population under the direct jurisdiction of the Shelter must reach over 100,000! (Note: Player clones are not included in the population statistics.)]

[Mission Reward: Full access to the fifth basement level (B5) and all its deep-level permissions! Reward Core Points: 50,000!]

"Holy..."

Lin Li looked at that long string of zeros and sucked in a breath of cold air, causing the overall temperature of the wasteland to drop by a few degrees.

"The difficulty of the missions this system releases is jumping exponentially. Is this forcing me to get into human trafficking?"

Lin Li rubbed his brow, feeling a headache coming on.

Currently, the native population directly managed by the Shelter was less than two thousand people, even when fully counted.

Although the Nomads to the west had signed an alliance agreement, they were in a semi-independent state, so the system likely wouldn't recognize that part of the population.

Although quite a few desperate lone scavengers had come to join them over the last few days, the numbers added up to almost nothing.

Wanting to gather fifty thousand people?

On this resource-scarce wasteland, it was simply as difficult as reaching the heavens.

Lin Li helplessly pulled up the planetary heat source distribution map given by the dwarf Vaughn.

His gaze naturally fell on the largest red dot in the western region of the map.

That was the large southern town over a hundred kilometers away from the Shelter, where that unlucky player Mudslide had his kidney harvested today.

"Perhaps... going to that place to attract some population would be a good way to break the deadlock."

Lin Li stroked his chin and calculated secretly.

"But how to attract them? They have high walls for protection over there and are doing just fine. Why would they bring their families to this godforsaken place of mine that could be besieged by Orks at any time?"

This was obviously not a strategic problem that could be solved overnight.

"Whatever, one bite at a time. Let's set it aside for now."

Lin Li closed the mission window. "First, let's trick that group of free labor-cow players on Earth into coming in!"