Chapter 234 Fuel Engine

Before twelve o'clock at midnight.

The convoy finally arrived at the Changjiu Farm.

And the players also returned to the outpost base one after another, or logged off near the save points on the farm.

Quite a number of people had symptoms such as fever, weakness, and dizziness before logging off.

Having read the strategy posts on the forum, they immediately understood what was going on and went to lie down in the hibernation pods one after another.

Near the save points.

The air was filled with an atmosphere of joy.

"Hey, buddy! You're here too?"

"Hahaha, everyone's here. What a coincidence!"

"I don't ask for much. Just give me an SSSR talent when drawing talents!"

"Isn't that asking for a lot?!"

"Dear planner, I'm willing to sacrifice the single life of everyone here in exchange for an invincible talent."

"The planner said he got it and will arrange a talent for you that can turn you into a futanari."

"Damn it."

The awakened players celebrated with each other. Those who were still a little or a lot short were extremely envious, with expressions full of envy, jealousy, and hatred on their faces.

Although the talents hidden in the gene sequences had been determined from the moment they "logged into the game", and the planner couldn't change them, Chu Guang was still sincerely happy for them.

At least ten players had awakened in this battle.

Maybe even twenty!

It was a big step forward towards forming an awakening chain.

Standing beside the warehouse of the Changjiu Farm, Chu Guang looked at the trucks full of supplies and those young players who were growing up healthily, and a fatherly smile couldn't help but appear on his face.

The sprouts in the fields had grown taller again.

How nice.

...

The players who had logged off took the situation on the front line to the forum and shared the joy of victory with the life profession players in the rear and the cloud players who were still waiting in line.

By the way, they also took a few "photographic-level" game concept artworks that had passed the review to show off.

On Chu Guang's side, he finally got the battle report he had been waiting for all day.

First was the blocking battle at the highway entrance. There were 227 participating players, facing four overstaffed hundred-man teams under Black Snake, as well as the logistics transport team and the artillery team, totaling 628 people.

Among the players, 17 were killed (including the seriously injured), and 33 were wounded.

A total of 371 raiders were killed, 257 were captured. The ones who escaped in the chaos were not counted, and it was estimated that there were only about 10 to 20 of them.

Among the captives were a centurion and two staff officers.

To Chu Guang's slight regret, the chiliarch Black Snake was killed during his escape, and his little players didn't manage to capture him alive.

But it didn't matter much. Capturing the staff officers was the same. What could be asked from Black Snake could also be asked from his staff officers.

What couldn't be asked was basically something they really didn't know.

The captives with interrogation value were temporarily locked up in the Changjiu Farm, and the captives without value were handed over by Chu Guang to Luka.

Recently, he had planned a labor camp in the northern part of the Linghu Lake area, which was responsible for reclaiming the wasteland north of the Linghu Lake.

Although that labor camp was still a bare piece of empty land at present, Chu Guang would give those prisoners a dozen or so logging axes and let them build their own cells by themselves.

It was very humane.

Escape?

That was a creative idea and they could give it a try.

Apart from the captives, there were also 488 liberated slaves.

It was said that there had been 2,000 people at first. By winter, only half were left, and now there were only these remaining.

Most of them were young and middle-aged laborers. Many were craftsmen like Wu Mu, the factory director of the paper mill, proficient in architecture, forging, planting, animal husbandry, and even simple medical skills, or had learned arithmetic, literacy, and other skills.

Most of them came from the central and northern parts of the River Valley Province, and some from other southern regions. Most of them were captured by the raiders when they looted villages and had suffered both mental and physical torture along the way.

Chu Guang planned to temporarily settle them in the refugee camp and let them attend literacy classes with the refugees to learn reading, arithmetic, and geometry.

Only educated laborers could become high-quality laborers.

These people would form the foundation of industrialization.

Although it would put some pressure on food supply in the short term, in the long run, this investment was definitely worthwhile.

Moreover, Chu Guang had just obtained a batch of food from the raiders. The roughly estimated usable amount was about 84 tons, half of which was potatoes, 30% was rice, and the rest were various grains and miscellaneous cereals.

In addition, there were 21 tons of nutrient paste, probably used by the raiders to feed the slaves, which could just be used as rations for the prisoners of war.

"...We captured a total of 25 trucks. Besides food, the supplies carried on them also included a large number of cotton products, untreated cotton, and animal furs."

"In terms of weapons, the raiders mainly used legion-standard weapons, including 610 'Ripper' rifles, 50 Pu-9 submachine guns, 98 'Blade' assault rifles, as well as a small number of iron pipe rifles and centurion pistols."

"In terms of ammunition, their trucks were loaded with 60,000 rounds of 7mm bullets, as well as a small number of bullets of other calibers. There were also 100 Iron Fist rocket launchers and 150 rounds of 100mm ammunition, and so on."

While reporting the situation, Wrench handed a list to Chu Guang.

Besides weapons, food, and things for keeping warm, there were some other supplies on the list.

For example, gold.

For example, various kinds of alcohol.

These raiders not only inherited the equipment of the legion but also inherited their habits of loving gold and alcohol.

After looking through the whole list, Chu Guang had only one feeling in his heart.

These guys were really fucking rich. They could be described as disgustingly wealthy.

How much family property of the expeditionary force had the Bone-chewing Tribe inherited?

These equipments might be a bit insufficient to arm a regiment, but it was more than enough to arm an enhanced company or a battalion.

If every thousand-man team was this wealthy...

Putting down the list in his hand, Chu Guang sighed softly.

"Thanks to my bro for sending the express delivery all the way here. I'll make good use of it."

Wrench was slightly stunned.

Express delivery?

What was that?

However, it wasn't the first time he had heard some words he had never heard of from the Lord Administrator, so he wasn't too surprised.

Wrench knew very well that in front of the Lord Administrator's vast knowledge like an ocean, what he knew was just a drop in the ocean. It was normal that he couldn't understand.

"The caliber of the legion's rifles is also 7mm, but the length of the cartridge cases is different, and they are not compatible with each other... What a pity for these 60,000 rounds of bullets."

Wrench nodded and said, "Indeed, but their Pu-9 submachine gun is a good thing. Although its power is smaller than that of our Short Scythe, its maneuverability is much higher."

The Short Scythe was the short-barreled version of the LD-47, the assault rifle with the receiver of an automatic rifle and firing full-power cartridges, which was a submachine gun.

Compared with the Short Scythe, the Pu-9 submachine gun was mainly designed for urban warfare environments and trench sweeps. The engagement distance was within 50 meters, and it rarely had the chance to reach 100 meters.

At this distance, a small-caliber, high-rate-of-fire submachine gun indeed had certain advantages. When equipped with an extended magazine or a drum magazine, it could even burst out a firepower advantage not inferior to that of a machine gun in a short time.

Chu Guang picked up one from the truck compartment, played with it in his hand for a while, and an interested expression appeared in his eyes.

This thing was very light, weighing less than three kilograms.

Its shape was a bit like the Thompson submachine gun, but only the angled grip looked similar. The internal structure was obviously not the same thing.

Chu Guang inserted a magazine and fired a burst at the snowdrift beside him.

The sound like tearing cloth was rather crisp and pleasant to the ear, but it just felt that the power was a bit weak.

"It's quite useful for dealing with ordinary Eaters or Detonators. It's a bit difficult for dealing with Crawlers, and it probably can't break through the defense of Tyrants."

"It's okay for dealing with mutant cockroaches, rats, and hyenas. The high rate of fire can make up for the lack of accuracy. There's no difficulty in manipulation at close range, and it's suitable for dealing with low-protection targets."

"However, it's probably not cost-effective to use it to deal with cockroaches."

Chu Guang turned off the safety of the gun and put it back in the compartment, giving a fair evaluation.

"It can be given to new players."

The "new players" here didn't refer to the novice players who had just entered the game, but those at the stage from level LV2 to LV5.

Most of them had already completed the "Passing on the Torch" task, mastered the basic combat or survival abilities, graduated from their mentors, and their contributions had mostly reached the level of citizens, and they had saved enough money to buy the "user interface".

According to the economic system designed by Chu Guang for the players, players at this stage could complete their second equipment change in their game lives within 3 to 7 days, replacing iron pipe rifles or bows and arrows with "modern weapons" and starting to experience the complete game content from then on.

However, the LD series weapons designed for the current development environment of the shelter were actually not suitable for new players.

Especially for the intelligence-based ones. If the initial intelligence attribute was 7, usually the strength would only be 3. There was a chance to add one point of strength in the first ten levels, and another point after awakening. Basically, it was only at level LV10 that they could steadily have 5 points of strength... which was the average level of a normal adult.

Without the help of exoskeletons or mechanical prosthetics, it was a bit difficult to operate the LD-47 assault rifle.

For them, using weapons designed for ordinary people from other factions for the transition was a good choice.

After checking the weapons, Chu Guang went directly to the back row of the convoy.

There was an armored pickup truck parked there.

It was the only one intact among the 8 armored pickup trucks. The others were more or less damaged and needed to be repaired before they could be used, or they were so damaged that they couldn't be repaired at all.

Chu Guang was very curious about this vehicle, especially its power source.

After opening the hood and checking it, Chu Guang then walked to the rear side of the Kala truck and found the fuel tank on the rear compartment.

The position of this thing was very cleverly hidden. In front was the cab, on both sides were armored steel plates, and there was also a protective cover on top, which was used to place the base for fixing the machine gun.

Unless it was attacked from the rear or the side armor was directly penetrated, it was basically impossible to hit the fuel tank.

Chu Guang opened the fuel tank cap, stretched out his index finger to touch it, and then sniffed it close to his nose.

The smell was very light, the volatility was not strong, and the oil was thick, a bit like diesel.

"Diesel engine?"

Wrench was slightly stunned.

"What's that..."

Chu Guang wiped his hands and said casually.

"Nothing. It's an engine that burns oil. It should be considered an antique."

Compared with this world, fossil fuel engines were indeed antiques.

Civilian solid-state hydrogen batteries had been popularized in the Prosperous Era. Some special equipment even used metal hydrogen batteries, completely getting rid of chemical energy and directly using cold fusion.

No matter how advanced the technology was, the bottleneck of fossil fuel engines was there. With the continuous innovation of energy storage methods and energy technologies, it was only a matter of time before they were eliminated.

However, after the decline of civilization, many technologies that had been buried seemed to have been dug out again.

Looking at Wrench, Chu Guang continued to ask.

"Did you see fuel on those trucks? They might be in barrels, just like the liquid in this fuel tank."

Wrench was slightly stunned. After thinking carefully for a while, he nodded and said.

"I think I found some, but I thought it was oil for making Molotov cocktails, so I counted it in the raw materials item. It should be on the list I gave you before."

Chu Guang found the list and looked through it. Sure enough, he found the item of [Combustible Agent] in the raw materials item.

The raiders had quite a large stockpile of these. There were ten 200-liter iron barrels, and some were in 5-liter small barrels.

This fuel might not be enough to supply the whole convoy, but it was enough to supply a few armored pickup trucks.

Chu Guang frowned slightly.

Food could be obtained by looting, but it might be a bit difficult to maintain the supply of fuel by looting.

After all, this was the wasteland.

Survivor settlements with industrial capabilities were definitely in the minority. Even if there was production of alkane fuels, without unified production standards, it would be difficult to match them directly.

"The Bone-chewing Tribe is suspected to control an oil well with an uncertain production capacity and reserve scale, or other special fuel production facilities."

"What can be determined is that this fuel contains alkanes. Anyway, it can't be edible oil."

"Could it be oil crops?"

Petroleum was not only a fuel but also an important industrial raw material.

At present, the common organic chemical raw materials in Qingquan City mainly came from the Kam trees planted in various survivor settlements.

The fruits of this tree could be pressed for oil, and the resin was high-quality rubber. It was not uncommon in the central region of the Central Continent, and the technology was born before the war.

Silently remembering this information in his heart, Chu Guang thought for a moment and then looked at Wrench and ordered.

"Send these fuels to the outpost base."

It would be best to let Yin Fang identify the composition of this stuff and see whether it was dug out from underground or produced from something.

This guy used to be a D-level explorationist in the academy. He definitely knew more about the wasteland than Chu Guang, who had been in this world for less than a year, and also more than Heya, who had just come out of the hibernation pod, and Boss Xia, who was extremely superstitious about urban legends.

If the composition and production route of the fuel could be determined, it would help Chu Guang to have a more comprehensive understanding of the intelligence of the Bone-chewing Tribe.

And it was definitely more reliable than the intelligence he got from the mouths of the captives.

After all, most of those captives were not educated, and when they explained things, they easily added their own imagination. Sometimes the intelligence obtained was very strange.

It wasn't that they didn't want to be honest, but that they themselves didn't understand.

Chu Guang still remembered that believer of the Torch Church who called the "collar" that could enslave Deathclaws a "miracle".

Wrench said seriously.

"Okay, my lord. Do you need me to send it over now?"

Chu Guang thought for a while and said.

"Tomorrow morning. Let's be more cautious."

Remembering the administrator's order, Wrench was about to leave to direct the guards to unload the goods when he suddenly remembered something and then said.

"By the way, my lord, there was something loaded on one of the trucks that we couldn't figure out what it was after studying it for a long time. When we asked the captives, they couldn't explain clearly either. They just said it was something belonging to Lord Black Snake."

Chu Guang's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately said.

"Take me to have a look."

"Please follow me!"

Wrench quickly led Chu Guang to the back of that truck.

Two guards climbed onto the truck compartment and lifted down a wooden box.

Chu Guang opened the box and was stunned for a moment.

This thing...

Wasn't it the thing hanging around the neck of the Deathclaw in the shed at the west gate that he raised?

Chu Guang immediately asked.

"How many of these things are there?"

The guard replied.

"We counted them. There are 37 in total."

Chu Guang's face lit up with joy.

37!

Good heavens.

It seemed that the person who performed the operation had been captured, and these raiders had no idea how to use these things, so they just threw them in the truck compartment.

An epic enhancement for the intelligence-based!

Unlike the previous times.

This time it might really be an enhancement!