Chapter 494 The Four Neighbors, “Affluent” Basin! (Two In One)
About 40% of the supplies that had been loaded onto the s.h.i.+p before setting sail had been used up during the voyage to the New World.
The originally plentiful food supply had now been severely depleted.
Based on meal size estimates, the remaining reserves would only last 1405 people five months before being completely exhausted.
If they included the food required to feed the lizards, yaks, and sheep into this equation, the food reserves would likely be exhausted in four months at most.
However, this data was based on the calculation of everyone having three meals a day to fully satiate themselves.
meals, and the meal size was cut by 60%, the
year.
“Let’s remain generous with the distribution of food! Only when everyone gets their fill will they have the energy work. We shouldn’t let our people go hungry while we still have food.”
“When it comes to planting crops, let’s also hold our horses. We’ll first wait for the heavy blizzard disaster to pa.s.s and only make preparations when the soil is fully nourished with nutrients.”
Standing behind the railing and looking down at the villagers below, who were behaving like ants moving their nest, Su Mo’s words expressed very little concern. Naturally, the leaders.h.i.+p team beside him had no objections. They nodded and approved of his plans regarding the distribution of food. Next, Pei Shao, who was sitting on the second spot from the left, stood up, took out a small notebook, and began his report. “Chief, based on dwarf Paulie’s intel, our territory is surrounded by four foreign races.” “They are the Northwest Dwarfs, Northeast Ents, Southern Demon Race and, finally, the Southwest-humans respectively!”
Judging based on the intelligence data that he provided, Paulie had done an excellent job.
Even though they were limited by the scope and range of their territory, and could not go out to explore, the basin area still successfully obtained intel regarding their enemies.
“Humans? They aren’t from Earth, correct?” Pei Shao nodded. “Correct. Based on what Paulie said, these humans aren’t from Earth, but rather from a nation called the Light Empire.” “These fools’ nation has such a pristine and honest-sounding name, but they are home to such despicable trash.” “Just take a look, you guys!” Pei Shao handed over the notebook after flipping over to the next page. After examining the information on the notebook page with a frown, Su Mo returned the notebook, and the entire leaders.h.i.+p team pa.s.sed it around while discussing. “Huh? Did these people modify their own bodies? What route are they even taking? Are they mad orcs or cyberpunks?” “Some even have avian characteristics with wings? This one’s pretty good, they would naturally have air superiority!”
“They even replaced one of their arms with a s.h.i.+eld? The idea’s impressive, but which madman thought of it?”
“They cut off their legs and replaced them with wheels! Are they cosplaying Hot Wheels?”
Ten so-called “humans” with differing forms could be seen from a glance, inciting lots of discussion from everyone present. The pictures were drawn so realistically and vividly that, other than the blurred expressions on their faces, all the details of the important parts were clearly visible on the notebook page. “These humans from the Light Empire number around sixty thousand, which may increase as they develop. Their strength is no
joke.”
“Based on what Paulie said, within this society of strange humans, authority and power are decided by one’s level of body modifications.”
“Those who only modified their limbs occupy the lowest level in their society. Their bodies are extremely weak and susceptible to external forces, and they are not that different from normal humans,” Pei Shao explained while shaking his head, pointing at the first two examples of those who modified their own legs and arms. Continuing on, Pei Shao pointed at those who modified their bodies and organs and said, “These ones are one level above the previous examples. Their bodies have exceeded the feeble limits of normal humans. With bodies as strong as metal, their four limbs have an absurdly high potential for modification and, other than the weak point which is their heads, these humans can slaughter any foreign race creature without special abilities. Their speed, strength, and reaction speed are terrifying.” Not only were there images, but Pei Shao also listed down three key data points. 100-meter sprint, 8.9 seconds. Bench press, 210 kilograms. High jump, 2.9 meters. These modified humans could easily surpa.s.s the thousands of years’ worth of human evolution back on Earth. Furthermore, these modifications were holistic, without weaknesses, and could be described as humans transformed into precise killing machines. “Of course, the only caveat was that these kinds of humans would only be able to function on the battlefield as individual soldiers. Once the scale of the battle grew, their weak heads would become an easy target to exploit by the ma.s.ses.” “However, the ones from the third kind onward are the real threats that we have to pay attention to!”
Pointing at the humans with modified wings and those that had their entire lower bodies replaced with tank tracks, Pei Shao’s tone held a trace of caution. “This kind has had a wide range of modifications performed on their bodies. To a certain extent, they’ve ascended beyond the categorization of humans. Avian people like these can fly up to 40 yards per second, and have a maximum round-trip flight range of 200 kilometer or so. The crawlers, on the other hand, don’t get tired and, if they are supplied with enough energy, they can keep moving endlessly.” “Their heads are enhanced and strengthened to the point that they can resist our pistols’ bullets!”
Once Pei Shao’s voice quieted down, Zhang Long quickly followed up with another question, “What about the rest of them? I see no spectacular modifications on their bodies. They can’t be the strongest ones, right?” Pei Shao nodded. “Yes, from the outside, their physical features don’t differ much from ours but, in reality, these people hold the highest status in their society, and the greatest power.” “Every part of their bodies can be simply replaced and refitted, except their heads. Just like a cutter head on a machine tool, the parts can be swapped to suit any requirement.” “They can add wings to soar freely in the sky, or change their arms into missile launchers to bombard the ground below, or even switch their legs with wheels for greater speed and mobility. It wouldn’t even be an exaggeration to say they can even add a bunch of scanners and transform themselves into humanoid weapons!” They were just like the humans from a science fiction setting. Pei Shao got more and more excited as he continued on, as he most likely had similar ideas regarding self-modification in the past, and perhaps intended to join the “cyborg” division of some futuristic human army.
As he reached the end of his report, he noticed the frantic look in the eyes of people around him. He could only shrug and say, “The good news is that these modified humans have an extremely friendly att.i.tude toward Earth’s humans. If we head over for trade, it’s unlikely that we will encounter much resistance. Even if we want to modify our own bodies, as long as we pay an appropriate price, even their most advanced technology can be availed of.”
“However, the bad news is that they’re very greedy and only look at high-value objects and items when it comes to trading. They don’t look highly upon things like food, grain or normal minerals!”
Once he heard that the opposite party was willing to sell their most advanced technology, Su Mo, who was quietly leaning against the railing, grew interested and a faint gleam in his eyes.
This kind of body modification technology was not foreign to humans. Most of the AAA masterpieces in video gaming back on Earth frequentlyfeatured modified humans as playable and non-playable characters. Even in movies, these kinds of humans weren’t rare.
Even though these things cropped up every now and again, the ethical restrictions of the time meant that any practical development of such concepts was destined to face resistance.
However, there were now actually living beings who had made it that far ahead and were willing to sell their expertise.
He figured that he still had the system as a backup if things went south. After a brief period of deep contemplation, Su Mo coughed twice to silence the whispers and chatter of the people around him. “Since they seem to be friendly with us Earth humans, we can try and go over and interact with them once the heavy blizzard pa.s.ses.” “If they really are willing to sell their modification technology, we might just be able to cobble something together to make it worth their while, and see if we can decipher and reverse engineer their work and modification technology!”
Chen Shen nodded as he noted down Su Mo’s big plans. “Regarding the other two races other than the dwarves, is there any intel on the demon race or the ents?” Pei Shao replied, “Yes, there is. There’s more information about the ents and less about the demons.” “The foreign races from the last summoning were mostly animals with human features, so they hadn’t exactly broken away from the limitations of their form. Even the Five Royal Clans, based on what Paulie said, were only supported by True G.o.ds with average levels of strength or power.” “However, among the current group of foreign races, the ancestors of races like the ents are True G.o.ds of the upper-tier, while the forefathers of the demon race are—Main G.o.ds!”
After talking to the G.o.d of the Ocean, Jiang Chu, Su Mo gained a certain understanding of how the levels of G.o.ds from different regions were divided and categorized into.
On the whole, this system still followed the level distinctions of the western mythology back on Earth, and the G.o.ds were divided into
-quasi G.o.ds, demiG.o.ds, lower-tier True G.o.ds, middle-tier True G.o.ds, upper-tier True G.o.ds and, finally, Main G.o.ds. The Heavenly Dog Pseudo G.o.d from before would be categorized as being in between a demiG.o.d and a True G.o.d which had never possessed any authority. His power would only allow him to act violently in his own domain, but once he was outside his doman, he would be weakened and thrown into disarray. Once one reached the tier of True G.o.ds, it marked the first step to becoming a living being that could possess authority. The downside was that this authority would not be the wasteland’s authority, but that of other “small compartments” in the incubator.
They would be like Phaethon, who flew too close to the Earth and was struck down.
Since they weren’t the closest to the exit of the incubator, a small compartment’s authority would be taken back by the game in an instant once its reduction measures were implemented. Who could bear the consequences? This caused the G.o.ds of the small compartments to not feel safe and be forced to work for the game.
Only when they reached the level of Main G.o.ds would their situation change to a certain extent.
The level of Main G.o.d represented the fact that this being possessed 20% of a small compartment’s authority, at which point they could put their race’s growth and development under their protection.
Just like strong ants, they could travel to other compartments and still retain a certain degree of power. Their race would be superior to a normal True G.o.d’s race by a large margin, owing to that protection. Their abilities would also be weird and unpredictable. “If we calculate the authority I possess, I would probably be considered an upper-tier True G.o.d in the small world.”
“Factoring in the fact that my authority originates from the main world, my power would not be below any of the Main G.o.ds of these small worlds.”
“The most important thing is that I’m not controlled by the game. The game can’t decide my fate, or whether I live or die, on a fundamental level!”
The game’s version update clearly indicated that no G.o.ds from other races could ever enter the wasteland. As such, Su Mo, who possessed insider information, was not worried. Those leaders who did not possess this intel would probably now be bewildered and clueless as to who or what these so-called main G.o.ds could be.
“The Ents are a friendlier race, whose current strength and power is unclear. Based on an a.n.a.lysis of their behavior, there’s a likelihood that we can initiate communication with them and establish a trade and commerce relations.h.i.+p.”
“They seem to be very interested in high-level plants. If we could cultivate some special plants, we might be able to trade them for manual labor that they’re currently exporting.” “Their ability to work cannot be denied. They don’t even need food to function. They are truly nature’s workers!” “Regarding the demon race, however, their abilities are… perplexing!” Although he was stationed at Black Stone base
intel about the outside world.
His ambitions weren’t minuscule, so much so that every time he was tasked to deliver coal for trade, he would try to get his hands on valuable intel from the conversations he had with his own kind.
Different from other living beings, those mysterious races under the Main G.o.ds’ protection had very little information circulating about them.
Even tens of thousands of dwarves would not dare to rashly approach or establish contact with them. It could be clearly seen that their power and influence was immensely strong!
“The demon race possesses human technology, but also has strange magic of their own, along with a bunch of weird talents and abilities.”
“Not much is known about them at this time.”
“There is still some good news though, the demon clan and the Light Empire are lifelong enemies, so we don’t have to worry about them becoming an imminent threat for the time being.”
“They also dislike the cold, so they won’t start a war during winter that could extend into our territory.” The work of gathering and presenting enemy intel had to be precise, and yet fully honest and accurate. Pei Shao withheld some of his speculations, choosing to instead jot them down in the notebook before pa.s.sing them to Su Mo. “Are those demons just like the ones from horror stories?” “Where in the daytime they maintain their physical forms, yet during the night they transform into spiritual bodies that are impossible to defend against?”
“They are able to climb walls, travel underground, fly in the sky, generate electricity from their mortal bodies, even summon and manipulate water as they desire?”
After seeing the speculations made by dwarf Paulie, Su Mo could not stop himself from laughing before closing up the notebook.
Like humans, dwarves tended to speculate on things from the perspective of horror when it came to the unknown. This line of thinking would cause ghastly frights, and would be difficult to shake off. “Enough. Don’t let these speculations cloud your thinking.”
“If the demons were really as strong as he speculated, they would have long conquered the New World and would not be held at bay by some puny modified humans!” “Anyhow, since they are enemies with the modified humans, we can still rest easy. We can start by interacting with the ents, and try our best to use their hard labor to help us complete the base’s infrastructure construction work!”
There were advantages and disadvantages of choosing a territory location surrounded by larger forces. The good thing was that the one thousand people in the basin area would not be worth mentioning in comparison with the opposing forces’ tens of thousands of people.
There was absolutely no need to worry about becoming entangled in conflict during these early stages.
In addition, due the opposite forces’ size and scale, the basin area would inadvertently benefit from interactions, trade and commerce. The development of a relatively smaller area would be sped up to a certain extent.
The bad thing was that, if conflict broke out between one of the major forces, it would result in real trouble.
In comparison to the dwarves that overly expanded their territory, and were scattered all over the place, at least their territory’s terrain gave them enough of a buffer zone to make sufficient preparations to deal with any situations.
If they were to come into conflict with tough opponents like the demon race, or the Light Empire’s humans, the basin area would be faced with an extinction-level destructive event once things spiraled out of control. “To prevent such a situation from occurring, it’s both simple and difficult at the same time.”
“It looks like I’ll have to devise a plan. I might have to personally visit these Ents and try to talk them into an alliance.”
As he listened to the leaders.h.i.+p team continue to report other information, Su Mo thought long and hard about the territory’s future development route.
Regarding the high-quality plants the Ents were looking for, Pei Shao and others had no clue how to cultivate any, nor how to find them.
On the other hand, Su Mo knew that, back in the Underground Shelter, there were two items worth retrieving that would guarantee a successful trade.
The first was psychic energy water. This one was the absolute killer; no living being could ever reject psychic energy water. A substance like this that could cause a change in the fundamental nature of living beings was something no normal living being could ever deny. The second were the energy fruits. Irrigated by psychic energy water, fruits with powers like these could enlarge a shelter, and also provide living beings with the chance to evolve.
Using these for trading would be a safe bet.
What was unfortunate was that, given the current weak state of the basin area, taking these two things out to trade would be akin to giving someone a reason to invade them. With the limited firepower of the basin area, it would be impossible to guarantee that the Ents would not be consumed by greed and rush over to steal the items. “It looks like we have to quickly make use of culture mediums and psychic energy water to ripen some of the high-quality crop seeds.” “Even though the basin area has a lot of good things, the things that are valuable enough to trade are virtually non-existent.”
“From another perspective, while you could also say that the basin area possesses some wealth, it really isn’t much when compared to others!”
He thought about the valuables hidden in his storage s.p.a.ce and Underground Shelter…
Then, Su Mo heard Zhang Long’s vocal complaints that the basin area had too few materials at the moment to finish constructing the territory’s infrastructure, and started laughing. If one equated basic materials with strength, speed, and physical fitness, then the underlying heritage of knowledge represented technique, experience, and one-of-a-kind secrets.
Those who only possessed the former could only be considered second-rate players in the world. They would end their lives without ever reaching the true peak.
Those who only possessed the latter would become peerless old “masters” who could not display their fullest potential, and could only end up as beggars and road-sweepers. The current basin area would be counted among the latter.
All these beggars and road-sweepers wanted to relive their hot-blooded youthful days, and reclaim their status as the top players. This was a challenge that was almost insurmountable.
The basin area had to improve and strengthen its foundation before it could use its heritage to enter the realm of first-cla.s.s players. However, it would only be a matter of time!