C16 How To Play Sandbox Games

In Wetland Park, outside the deserted nursing home, there are wooden piles of different sizes.

"I heard that if the wood that has just been cut is not treated, it will crack and deform." Looking at the logs piled up randomly on the wall, Bunny, who was sticking an ax, said with a frown.

Tomorrow asked, "How do you usually deal with it then?"

Bunny reply, "Dry the moisture in the wood, or paint both ends and wait for the wood to dry naturally. You can also throw it in water and soak it, but it will be more difficult to handle... I hope it will not rain these days."

Bunny made a rough estimate. Taking into account yesterday's labor results, he cut all these logs into 3-4 meter long logs, sharpened both ends into the soil, and it was more than enough to repair the north and west walls of the nursing home. It's just that these logs are untreated logs, so it's hard to guarantee their sturdiness, and they might rot after a few rains. So he discussed with Tomorrow and decided to change his thinking and use cement as a building material. There is a lot of concrete waste on the wasteland, even in nursing homes.

After time of weathering, thermal expansion and contraction, wind and rain, most of these concrete blocks peeled off from the steel bars have turned into slag. Do not count on how reliable these materials are. But mixing these materials with cement and fixing them with some steel bars removed from the ruins, it is still no problem to build simple concrete fortifications.

Although it is a tofu dregs project, it is much stronger than wood. No plans to build skyscrapers anyway. However, if you want to use these concrete wastes, you must first have cement. To make cement, they first need enough coal and a furnace that can withstand a high temperature of 1450 degrees.

Just at this time, Gale and Walker came back.

Tomorrow noticed that the plastic bucket in Gale's hand was full of mud with a uniform texture.

"There is a river to the east of Lonia Lake, which is not shown on the map. It should have been formed in the last two hundred years. We have explored the entire lake shoreline from the east to the south. The areas where the heterogeneous species are active and the locations of suspected lairs are marked. It's on the map."

With that said, Gale made Walker take out the map, on which some marks were drawn with charcoal. With this map, it will be much safer for them to go to the lake to fetch water.

But Tomorrow's attention was on the bucket in his hand, "What's in this bucket is..."

"I found it by the river." Putting the bucket on the ground, Gale continued, "I suddenly thought that this thing could be used as building materials, so I brought it back."

"This thing can't be used as a building material. It will be gone as soon as the water is washed." Squatting on the ground, Bunny stretched out his hand to pick up some mud, rubbed it with his thumb and index finger, and suddenly there was an excited expression on his face, "But this thing It's a good thing, our kiln is gone."

"Kiln?" Walker was taken aback.

"I discussed it with Bunny and planned to make cement." Tomorrow said.

Gale looked at him in surprise.

"This... can it work?"

"What's wrong? Isn't this a sandbox game?" Bunny stood up and said excitedly, "Just pour the mud here, and you can get a few buckets back. Tomorrow will help me pick up some branches. Hurry up."

"Okay." Tomorrow went with great enthusiasm.

Gale and Walker looked at each other and left in a daze.

...

The creek is not deep, but there is a lot of silt beside it, and it is not too far from the sanatorium, so it didn't take much effort to get a pile back.

Bunny surrounded a circle with silt, and dug two holes on the side as air inlets, and then put charcoal and dead leaves left over from the previous fire and cooking in the mud circle, and lit it with the match left by the manager.

The fire quickly rose. The surrounding mud is slowly drying.

Bunny dug new mud with his hands, and built it on the furnace wall while drying it, until the furnace was as high as his thigh, and then he continued to stuff the thumb-thick wooden sticks into it.

"What is this for?" Tomorrow looked curious. Although he had played survival games, he had never done such detailed work in games.

"Burning charcoal! There is no coal, so we can only use carbon instead. If you want to make cement, you cannot burn wood. We have to start from the most basic."

"How do you understand this?"

"I used to play in my hometown when I was a child."

"..."

It's okay to play. But Who is okay to play this?

Standing up, Bunny clapped his hands and began to cap the stove before the fire in the stove had lit the firewood.

This step is critical.

Before the firewood is ignited, he needs to leave an opening on the top, wait until the temperature in the furnace is high enough, and then seal all the openings with mud, let the wood inside be stuffy for a day, and he will be able to harvest a full harvest tomorrow. Charcoal for the stove.

"You fill up all the holes, and the fire inside will go out."

"It won't be destroyed immediately, and this effect is what we want."

Bunny wiped off his sweat and patted Tomorrow's shoulder.

"Don't be idle, let's build a few more kilns, and get out the cement for tomorrow by the way."

"It is good……"

Not only did Tomorrow join Bunny's 'Construction team', but even Gale and Walker were recruited after moving enough mud. The four players worked together to build four earthen kilns for making charcoal, and built a slightly larger one with aluminosilicate clay dug from the river.

According to Bunny, tomorrow they can try to make some cement. What he intends to refine is plant ash cement. The cement produced by this soil method has no technological content and is not very strong, but it is definitely stronger than wood. And with plant ash cement, he can try to build a cement kiln that can withstand higher temperatures.

Bunny has already made up his mind to check information online when he is offline.

"F*ck... I understand now why the manager asked us to find a way to build a bathroom." Smelling the smell of sweat all over, Walker, who was already a bit of a clean freak, felt that he was about to be stinked died.

This game is too hardcore.

"How about we go to the lake to take a bath before going offline?" Bunny suggested.

"I agree... But, what about the manager? It's time to go offline soon, why hasn't he come back yet?" Gale asked.

"Maybe there's something wrong."

"Then how do we let him know the fruits of our labor this afternoon?" Walker asked hastily.

Tomorrow glanced at the nursing home behind him.

"Don't worry about that. I've already talked to that robot named Popo. It said it has counted our results and will report the situation to the manager truthfully."

Hearing these words, Walker finally felt relieved.

...

Just as the players went offline one after another, took off their helmets and got up, ready to start a new day, Lucius, who was still on Beit Street, was carefully removing the plastic bucket under the water purifier.

There is a public water well on Beit Street, and every household has its own water collector, and Lucius is no exception. Aside from 'glowing rain' with fallout, or when the clouds obviously look out of whack, rain levels in the wasteland are generally safe, even safer than in the pre-war era.

After all, this is two hundred years after the decline of civilization, and it is difficult to see the special products of industrial society such as acid rain and smog here. Of course, even so, drinking rainwater directly is not a wise thing to do.

By cutting the plastic water bottle from the middle, Lucius placed a layer of dried pine needles and moss under the mouth of the bottle, and added crushed charcoal ash on top. In this way, a simple water filter is completed.

Lucius didn't know if graphite could absorb radiation, but in the outer suburbs far away from nuclear bomb craters, radiation was not the main threat to survival, but diarrhea and dehydration were. He still remembered that in the first month when he lived here, he pulled water almost every other day. He didn't die at the hands of the alien species, but almost died in his own stomach.

"Less than 10L...a drop in the bucket."

Looking at the bottles and cans in the room, Lucius sighed. After saving supplies for several days, this player has only been here for a few days, and he has already used up almost all of them.

You have to figure out something. At this time, there was a knock on the door.

Lucius got up and walked up, pulled out the latch, and opened the door.

I saw Yuki standing at the door, with his hands behind his back, staring at him intently with his big black eyes, and didn't speak.

Lucius, who was just about to say hello, suddenly thought of the Yuki second brother, the marriage he had mentioned earlier, and couldn't help being embarrassed.

Take a step back.

If there is no Shelter No.404, no system, no players, and alone and helpless, he can only try to integrate into the society here...he can't do that either!

Too skinny for now. At least two more years.

"What's the matter?" Lucius said calmly.

Yuki stretched out the arm hidden behind her back. Only then did Lucius see that there was a small piece of black pancake in her hand, which should have been made of green wheat paste if nothing else.

"My second brother asked me to bring it to you, and he told me to say that I made it for you." The words were pronounced word by word.

This subject-predicate relationship between you, me, and me took Lucius around for a long time, and it took a long time to figure it out. It was Yugin who asked her to give this cake to him.

"Thanks?"

"Need not."

Putting the cake into Lucius's hand, Yuki turned around and ran away, leaving Lucius alone in the wind.

...

Present world.

Taking off the helmet, Charles ( 8th Level Gale ) rubbed the bridge of his nose, reached out and groped on the bedside table, found the glasses and put them on.

After sitting by the bed and contemplating for a while, he got up and went to the bathroom. After washing up, he put on his coat, went downstairs, stepped on his bicycle, and walked slowly to the cafeteria.

The time now is half past five.

Except for postgraduate students, few people would come to the cafeteria at this time, the whole hall was empty, only a few windows near the door were open. The cafeteria aunt who was busy behind the window recognized this regular customer at a glance, and said with a smile on her face.

"Professor Charles, it's so early today."

"Well, I went to bed early yesterday...Today I will take light breakfast with chocolate milk, please."

"It will take little time, you have to wait for a while."

"Not in a hurry."

Charles took out his meal card and swiped it on the card reader. Then he found a clean table and sit down there. Taking off his glasses and wiping off them, Charles couldn't help but think of his role in 'Wasteland OL'.

Although the initial strength of the self in the virtual world is slightly inferior, it is still much stronger than the self in reality. And most importantly, the self in the virtual world is not short-sighted.

At this time, someone patted his shoulder.

Charles put glasses on his eyes and turned around, and saw that it was Professor Delmar Basil.

"Do you have class in the morning?"

"There is no class, and I wake up when I can't sleep."

"I thought you guys would stay very late doing physics."

"That's an illusion. I seldom bring work home." Pushing his glasses, Charles suddenly thought of something, looked at him and said, "By the way, I want to consult you about something."

Professor Delmar raised his eyebrows.

"Is it yesterday's topic?"

Charles nodded.

"Um."

"Wait a minute, let me ask first, the novel you mentioned, you probably wrote it yourself," Professor Delmar said with a smile, "It's good that novels are specious, if they really want to be exactly the same as reality, It's not pretty."

"Actually, it's not a novel. Frankly speaking, it's...a game."

"Game?"

"Well," Charles took the choclate milk from the hand of the canteen aunt, and after saying thanks, he continue, "A game with the theme of the end of the world."

Professor Delmar was interested and asked.

"How specific?"

"I don't know the specifics. The game is currently in the beta testing stage, so I don't know much." Charles paused for a while, "How developed a society are you talking about, so that cars don't even have a power supply."

"No power supply?" Professor Delmar was stunned for a moment, and said with a smile, "Do you mean to use remote power supply technology to replace fixed power supply?"

"Is it difficult?" Charles asked.

"I don't know whether it is difficult or not, but from my professional point of view... wireless power supply technology is not difficult, the difficulty lies in how we obtain clean and cheap energy, so that even if the energy loss reaches 90% or more , the cost is still within an acceptable range.”

At this point, Professor Delmar paused, and continued in a joking tone.

"I can't think of a better solution than the kind of controlled fusion depicted in science fiction.

Fusion?

Charles looked thoughtful.

"That's it..."

It seems that the background of the story in 'Wasteland OL' is more grand than he imagined.

There should be a lot more to dig into here.

"When is your novel going to be published? Can you show it to me?" Professor Delmar joked, "Maybe I can give you an advice."

Charles glanced at him.

"I said it's not a novel."

"Okay, okay, if you say no, then no."

After receiving his breakfast from the lady in the cafeteria, Delmar smiled and patted his colleague on the shoulder, "I still have classes, let's go first. Good luck!"