This Game Is Too Realistic

In Hope, guarding the gate is an easy job.

Although there is only one door between here and the wasteland, and two steps ahead is a hell where everyone dies and no one cares, but it is not the wasteland after all, so you can get a considerable salary without taking too much risk.

And the job is respectable enough.

Regardless of whether they are doing serious business or not, they will be more or less relaxed when they are near a settlement.

Even if you are plundering, you will need such a safe place to exchange the stolen goods for other things you need.

Otherwise, the things they rob will be worthless garbage, which can only be thrown on the ground waiting for the scavengers to pick it up, or become the trophies of other wastelanders.

Especially nowadays, most of the wastelanders in this area use automatic rifles produced in the southern part of the River Valley Province.

It is no longer possible to survive relying on hand-made iron barrel rifles. They also need to keep pace with the times and hide themselves where they should...

Standing at the west door, Mark yawned, took out his rusty pocket watch and took a look at it, calculating how many hours were left until he got off work.

This job is just to pass the time.

This is especially true at the west gate where visitors from the wasteland rarely come.

Just when he was thinking about where to drink after get off work, the guard standing next to him suddenly raised his head and looked to the west, frowned and muttered.

"What's the sound?"

"What... what's the sound?" Closing the brass cover, Mark put the pocket watch away and looked at the new guy.

This young man joined the town guard house just a few months ago. He was the son of an Orion in the town. He had some impressions of his father and they had drinks together.

"Didn't you hear?" The young man looked at him and continued, "Something exploded."

Hearing this sentence, Mark couldn't help laughing.

"Haha, that's not too normal. If you take a few steps outside, you'll be in the wasteland. The sound of gunshots and explosions is not too common... Just get used to it."

To be honest, this is actually not that common.

Loneliness and cold are more common than death in the wasteland.

In an uninhabited wilderness, there may be no living creatures for many days, and only swaying grass can be seen for dozens of days.

If a wolf howl suddenly sounds there one day, it may be time to be alert.

But Mark didn't want to think so.

Rather than what happened in the nearby wasteland, he was more interested in the fact that what happened was an accident that had nothing to do with them.

The key to survival is to mind your own business. He knew clearly why he became a guard. It was precisely because he would not pay attention to things that had nothing to do with him.

The young man was lying on the ground, putting his ear to the ground, still muttering to himself.

"The sound of gunfire and the sound of running were at least thirty or forty kilometers away. Bang bang bang... who was fighting with whom."

Mark couldn't help but go up and kick his ass.

"Stop worrying so blindly, get up and stand guard."

After being kicked on the butt, the young man stood up in embarrassment and honestly shut his mouth and stopped talking.

Being disturbed like this, Mark's mood, which had been relatively good until noon, was also messed up.

Once people know that something big happened next to them, but don't know what the specific thing is, they can't help but think wildly, and then start to feel anxious.

Especially when you have nothing to do.

Mark was no exception. The young man seemed to have put the matter aside, but he couldn't help but think about it over and over in his mind.

㳔Who is fighting whom?

Speaking of which, going west here, are there any larger settlements?

At this moment, there was a sudden rustling in the forest not far away, followed by a "whooshing" sound through the air.

Before Mark could recover, an arrow flew past his hat and nailed the wooden pillar behind him with a clang.

Startled, he quickly picked up the rifle in his hand and loaded it, turned on the safety and pointed at the direction where the arrow was flying.

"Who's there!"

No one answered.

Mark swallowed, his eyes flashing with confusion and nervousness. The muzzle of his gun was pointed straight at the invisible woods, but he did not dare to go up to see the situation.

At this time, the young man next to him ran behind him, pulled the arrow out of the pillar, and shouted at him.

"Sir! There's something tied to the arrow!"

"What is it?" Not daring to look away from the sight, Mark stared at the woods and shouted with his back to him.

"It's a roll of animal skin! There seems to be something written on it..." After opening the roll of animal skin and barely recognizing what was written on it, the young man suddenly became speechless.

Animal skin?

Mark was stunned for a moment, eager to know the content above, but he didn't dare to let down his guard.

So he maintained his aiming posture, stepped back to the side of the young man, and used his left hand to pull the animal skin over.

There were indeed two words scrawled on it written in animal blood.

And it was written wrong.

After guessing and recognizing the content above, Mark's face lost all color in an instant, turning as pale as if it had been painted with white paint.

"Damn..."

Cursing in his mouth, he quickly looked at the dumbfounded young man next to him and stared at him with warning eyes.

"You stay here and I'll report the news... Don't tell anyone about this!"

The young man nodded blankly.

Mark glanced at the forest, gritted his teeth, put the gun away on his back, took the arrow and the roll of animal skin, and ran towards the town without looking back.

In the forest, a pair of green pupils hidden under the hood stared at the figure running in the small town. It wasn't until the guard disappeared behind the gate that he disappeared from the shadow of the forest...

…

Hope the town is in the center of the office.

The round table in the conference room was filled with prominent figures in the town.

There is the owner of the Grizzly Bear and Street Lamp Tavern, an old carpenter, a tanning shop owner, a landowner who controls thousands of acres of land, and a mayor who is in charge of thousands of households.

They are not the kind of people who are idle, but at this moment they are all sitting here in silence, smoking first-hand or second-hand cigarettes.

Even though the acrid smell of smoke can make people choke to tears, the people sitting here still cover the doors and windows tightly and have no intention of opening any windows for ventilation.

Still, no one spoke.

At this moment, there was an arrow lying on the round table in front of them.

About noon, someone shot this arrow at the west gate of the town, and it was picked up by the guard standing there.

There was a roll of animal skin tied to the front, with two characters written in animal blood.

[Oger, wants to eat people. 】

【Run! 】

"If this is a joke, this is definitely the worst and most vicious joke today!"

The first person to break the silence was the mayor here.

His name is Ma Hechang. Although he is fifty years old, he is still strong and has considerable prestige in the town.

The owner of the Grizzly Bear and Street Lamp Tavern, who was sitting not far away from him, hugged his head and muttered to himself in pain.

"Why does this happen."

The conference room was filled with noisy complaints and discussions, and the expressions on everyone's faces were full of panic and uneasiness.

They didn't know what Wouog was, but looking at the words "eating people" and "running fast", it was not difficult to guess what it meant.

Ordinary plundering tribes would not dare to take action against a settlement with thousands of households like Hope Town. Presumably, it would only be those unreasonable mutants.

But people still can't believe this is true.

The "Qi" tribe didn't come to Jinhe for the first time. I heard they were there a century and a half ago. Those green-skinned baboons were indeed a bit too strong, and their numbers were terrifying, but they were actually different from the mutants in other places. They took action against the surrounding surviving mutant settlements.

There are rumors that they keep some slaves in the tribe, so they don't need to plunder frequently. There are also rumors that their ancestors are actually humans, but they became like this accidentally. This will make their descendants restrain themselves and not take action against those villages and farmland.

However, these are just rumors.

Most people who believe this don't actually know why things are like this. They just give a reason to convince themselves and others about things that cannot be explained, and seek peace of mind amid panic.

The Qi tribe has existed for more than a century, and they have lived here for more than a century. No one knows why they stopped eating them, let alone why they have changed their minds now.

At this time, someone suddenly spoke.

"Could it be just a joke?"

No one paid any attention to him.

Because this is nonsense.

Even if most people think so in their hearts, no one dares to joke with the lives of themselves and their families.

Ma Hechang lowered his voice when he looked at the director of the town guard sitting next to him.

"Have the sentries been sent out?"

The director of the town health center nodded and said nervously.

"It has been dispatched...no news yet."

Mayor Ma breathed a sigh of relief. At least at the moment, he didn't have to worry about the group of greenskins suddenly barging in during the meeting.

Then he looked around at everyone present and said in a serious tone.

"Now the first thing we have to figure out is who is warning us! If that person really has conclusive information, why did he use this method instead of telling us face to face!"

"I think so too! If the news is true, why didn't he tell it face to face? All of us would thank him and even give him a sum of money." The boss selling glassware complained.

At this moment, he suddenly thought of something. Mayor Ma looked at the blacksmith sitting in front of the round table.

"Do you recognize this arrow?"

"...I recognize it. I did sell these arrows here," the blacksmith in the town frowned and said after staring at the cluster of arrows for a long time. "But the hunters in the town all use arrows made by me. This doesn’t mean anything.”

For experienced hunters, hunting with a rifle is not cost-effective; traps and bows will be more economical.

A trace of hope appeared on Mayor Ma's face.

At this time, a slightly wealthy man wearing a devil's silk gown suddenly spoke.

"Ahem, listen to me, there are too many abnormalities in this matter... I prefer that someone wants to drive us out of here so that they can take the opportunity to rob our property."

His name is Xiao Zhixue, and he is in the beer business. He has a brewing workshop in the town and employs about twenty people. Basically, all the drinks consumed by the wastelanders in the past come from him.

A shopkeeper asked you back.

"But what if what the letter says is true?"

The wine merchant named Xiao stared.

"Really? How is that possible! That 'Qi' never attacks settlements, they only catch those guys wandering around the wasteland!"

"It didn't happen before, but that doesn't mean it won't happen in the future. Maybe they changed their minds on a whim."

"But this doesn't make sense! Aren't they allies of the Torch Church? We have already converted to the church, and there is even a pastor of the church in our town!"

Pairs of eyes looked at the priest in front of the round table. The middle-aged man who was irritated by the gazes could not help but wipe his sweat and said nervously.

"I don't know... I haven't been able to contact the apostle since the past few days. Ah, could it be related to this guy?"

"To the west... there seems to be a small place called Dust Town." The blacksmith said, touching his chin.

The priest nodded hastily.

"That's the name! I remember the apostle said before he disappeared that he was going to take the believers there to preach!"

At this time, the owner of the tanning shop suddenly said.

"Could it be that those mutants went to Dust Town to search for the whereabouts of the apostles, but failed to find them... and then those green-skinned baboons went crazy and killed people?"

This seems to be the most reasonable explanation.

Although this is also something that no one wants to face.

Mayor Ma knocked the table hard with his fist and said loudly.

"That's enough, we don't need these things. What we need is what should we do now? Should we stay and fight them, or should we move to other places to avoid -"

Before he could finish his words, the wine merchant screamed.

"Transfer to other places? Are you kidding me? Where can we go? There is no place around here that can accommodate so many people!"

Others patted their butts and left.

His brewery can’t be moved!

If those mutants didn't kill anyone, they would definitely set a fire and burn this place down! At that time, all his property here was destroyed!

So does most everyone else.

The people sitting here are the most famous and wealthy people in the town, and their homes and property are all here. This is not just a small town for them, it's their foundation.

Although no one wants to face those green-skinned monsters, no one is willing to just escape.

"If you don't leave, you'll have to fight with them," Mayor Ma said with a gloomy expression. "To be honest, I don't have the confidence to be a match for those guys."

A mutant tribe of tens of thousands of people...

Even the Pinecone Farm in the southeast, a large landowner with nearly 50,000 people, could not be a match for the mutant tribe.

The size of the two sides is not in the same dimension at all.

At this time, the director of the health center suddenly stood up from the conference table and walked towards Fang Yan at the door.

Mayor Ma looked at him.

"Where are you going?"

The director stopped.

"Mobilize the residents of the town and give them guns. If we continue this discussion, we won't be able to leave, and we won't have time to fight. We will have to sit here and wait to die."

As soon as he finished speaking, the wine merchant who was sitting not far away stood up.

"Wait, you can't do this! Send the gun down now, everyone will know something is going to happen!"

The director of the town guard frowned.

"What time has it been? Is it useful to cover it now?"

The wine merchant lowered his voice and said.

"There are some wastelanders in the town. They can fight better than us. The worst we can do is give them some money! But if they get the news in advance and know that their opponents are mutants... I bet they can run faster than rabbits. Faster!"

The director of the health center looked at him blankly, and thought about it, it seemed to make sense.

No matter what, those wastelanders are more powerful than the militiamen in the town. It is better to mobilize those guys than to mobilize a group of guys who have never fought in a war to kill them.

The people sitting at the conference table exchanged glances, and most of them had looks of approval in their eyes. Mayor Ma thought for a long time and nodded slowly.

"I think so too... But we can't put all our hopes on those foreigners. We have to be prepared."

After that, he took a look at the director of the guard station.

"Send the weapons in stock to the wall, then block the four gates in the southeast and northwest with obstacles, and dig out some work... As for the wastelanders, we will tell them that we have received news that there is a group of plunderers. People have wandered into this area, and the town needs to strengthen the defenses. Vehicles and goods will not be allowed to enter or exit for the time being. After three days, if the alert is lifted, we will remove the defenses and they can come and go freely. "

"During this period, Hope Town will provide free accommodation and food to its guests."

If you retain the goods, you will retain the merchants in the town. If you retain the merchants, you will retain their private soldiers.

If it were only delayed for three days, those merchants probably wouldn't do anything too outrageous and rashly offend this small town.

While this may have an impact on Hope Town's reputation, it is clear that the existential crisis is more urgent at the moment.

As for those mercenaries, although it is difficult to force them to keep them, you can hire them on the pretext of dealing with the looters wandering around this area.

After a moment of pause, Mayor Ma said with a hint of luck.

"Actually... it may not be as bad as we think."

"The sentries haven't brought back the news yet, at least those mutants are not near us yet. Maybe as Mr. Xiao said, this is just a trick to scare us away."

Everyone sitting at the table looked at each other.

If only it were that simple...

…

Forests dozens of kilometers away.

After the banquet, the mutants smeared the blood and grease of their prey on their faces, hummed rude shouts and songs, and embarked on a journey to the next banquet.

More than two hundred of Og's brothers died, including a centurion and a big brother.

He had to chop off four hundred heads to relieve his anger.

As for the Torch Church's anger, what does it have to do with Og?

He is not only dissatisfied with the old priests in the clan who care about this and that, he also dislikes those nagging humans...

At this moment, the vast majority of the residents of Hope Town are not aware that danger has quietly loomed over their heads.

A few people who knew about it still imagined that the situation might not be so bad after all, and that the arrow tied with the animal skin was just a clumsy hoax.

On the other side, Luo Yu, who had had lunch at the hotel, learned from Wu Wenzhou, the leader of the caravan, that there were news of looters running around and the town being blocked.

"Predator?!"

After hearing the news, Luo Yu's face showed an expression of surprise, and he quickly remembered the group of people he met at the junction of the provinces.

"...could it be the people we met?"

On the way here, they encountered a group of marauders and seized a Maxim from those marauders.

But if it was those people, he couldn't think of any need for repair work.

"I don't know." Wu Wenzhou smiled bitterly and shook his head, "Anyway, the four exits of the town are blocked. Although people can enter and exit, goods cannot pass through. We can't let them tear down the roadblocks and bunkers. "

Although this is a safe area, it is also in the wasteland. He does not dare to leave the goods here, and the people run out.

[At that time, the goods were lost and there was no place to reason.

But there is actually no need to go out.

It was not an exception like the bone-chewing tribe. Most of the predators were headbutted by the settlements. Only some small villages could have accidents.

There are so many mercenaries and caravans here, there is no need to worry about safety issues at all.

"Are we just going to wait here?" Luo Yu couldn't help but frowned, remembering the advice given to him by the guy named Jinsha.

If he is delayed for one more day on the road, his one hundred thousand silver coins will increase the risk of being wasted for one day.

Seeing that he was about to leave for his destination, he was really reluctant to lose control at this juncture.

Wu Wenzhou sighed helplessly.

"At present, there is no better way... Anyway, it's only three days, so just wait."

After a pause, he continued.

"Of course, although their reasons are reasonable, we can't just let them do it without any reason. I will go to other businessmen to discuss it later, and they have to give us an explanation."

If the roadblocks are still not removed after three days, they can unite with local residents and the town hall to put pressure.

Of course, this is a last resort.

If possible, he really didn't want to conflict with the locals, and hoped that the town would be one of the few relatively safe and reliable settlements on this trade road.

When staying overnight in some small settlements, he usually hides his pistol under the pillow and sleeps. Here, he can sleep soundly by locking the door.

"...I'll go look around, maybe I'll find some clues."

With that said, Luo Yu pushed away the chair and stood up.

The thought of wasting three days in this small town made him feel uncomfortable. He might as well go out and look for it now to see if there was anything he could do to pass the time.

Wu Wenzhou nodded.

"Go ahead and remember to come back before dark."

Walking out of the hotel's Luoyu Station Street, Zuo took a look and found that the town was surprisingly large. It was completely different from his first impression last night. It was probably home to more than a thousand people.

There are many merchants and mercenaries stranded here like them, and they are also gathering near the hotel to exchange what they heard.

It might be a good idea to talk to them.

But just when Luo Yu was about to walk over, he suddenly realized awkwardly that he was actually not a particularly sociable person.

Forget about NPCs.

In fact, he has relatively few contacts with players.

He has been playing this game for a while, and he has become familiar with Brother Mosquito and his teammates in the Goblin Corps, and then made some acquaintances of Brother Mosquito.

Before raising Xiaoyu, he often played solo.

Just when he was thinking about how to casually walk over and intervene in the conversation, and then extract information from the mouths of those old fritters, a familiar voice suddenly came from the side.

"Luo Yu?!"

I didn’t expect there were any acquaintances in this shabby place.

Hearing someone calling his name in Mandarin, Luo Yu turned around subconsciously, and then he saw a familiar face, and his eyes widened in surprise.

"Should I blanch it?"

"Why are you here?!"

-

(PS: I have been coughing for two weeks, and my throat is almost gone. Now my words sound like bubbles. I have successfully given up the habit of talking to myself when writing code...)