This Game Is Too Realistic-Chapter 545.2: We Choose Our Own Path

The curious girls had no choice but to line up at the next table to register with the House of Refugees...

Though the players had done a lot, hundreds of them were still struggling to manage tens of thousands, let alone the over half a million still inside the wall.

The scene was chaotic, and many couldn’t help but doubt whether they could really pull it off.

But someone was trying, and that alone was touching. A few people even stepped forward to help.

The Burning Corps and First Corps had entered Boulder Town, completing the defense handover with the city’s 1st Battalion.

Old White led a team to the armory. Joey showed them part of the weapons stash and another part was stored in the inner city’s warehouse and tarmac.

When they saw the weapons inside, all the players couldn’t help exclaiming in awe.

"Holy shit! Exoframes!" Quit Smoking rushed up to touch the iron hunk standing in the room.

"Want one, bro?" Peepo grinned.

Quit Smoking nodded furiously. "Of course I do! I dream about this stuff!"

"Good to have dreams," Kidney Warrior patted his shoulder. "Now grind for contribution points... and don’t forget to get your wallet ready."

“Fuck!”

There were 30 sets of exoframes, all pre-war models. Over half were Dragon Cavalry models like Old White’s.

Some were too old to function, but with Yin Fang, the New Alliance’s little meddling expert around, that wasn’t a real problem.

Still, their reclaimed gear was quest-related. While some might later appear in NPC stores, they would require contribution points to purchase.

"Damn it..." Night Ten muttered under his breath. "What a waste, giving this kind of gear to those bastards!"

"Be grateful we came in time, or it’d be in the hands of marauders by now." Old White looked away from the exoframes and glanced at the boxes marked with radioactive symbols in the corner.

According to Joey, those were leftover tactical nukes from the Post-War Reconstruction Committee, each about the size of a bowling ball, with yields around 1 to 10 ton each.

For comparison, their 155mm shells had yields around 45 kilograms depending on the model.

In real life, one could hardly make a nuke that small. It was small enough they could toss it like a bowling ball.

But hey, Wasteland Online was a game!

Destruction was far easier than construction. Clearly, behind the scenes, the administrator had done extensive contingency planning.

Otherwise, this exploding dead whale of a city could’ve thrown Clearspring City and the entire south of the River Valley Province into chaos for 10... or even 20 years...

The fall of Boulder Town didn’t mean that there would be more random mobs for the players in the surrounding region. It would be a crisis even worse than the Bonechewer Clan!

"But seriously, why didn’t they use any of this during the riots?" Night Ten scratched his head, completely baffled.

He couldn’t make sense of it!

One tactical nuke could vaporize an entire street.

Gale shot the kid a sideways look. "You’ll understand when you’re older."

Annoyed by the way Gale was speaking to him, Night Ten rolled his eyes. "What do you mean I need to grow up? Don’t talk to your father like that!"

Meanwhile... At the gates of Boulder Town.

Those people were also on an aid mission. But unlike the players scrambling for quests, contribution points, and fame, most of the New Alliance NPCs weren’t particularly motivated.

To clarify, they were genuinely passionate when it came to helping needy survivors. They never showed a sour face to the refugees from Boulder Town either.

But giving doorstep delivery wasn’t something many had anticipated.

Staring up at the towering wall, Zhao Rat muttered, "Why?"

Yang Seconddog glanced at him. "Why what?"

Zhao Rat pointed at the guys with briefcases at the gate, not quite pointing at them, but more at what was behind them. "Why are we helping those people?"

The two were residents of Baker Street, once working in the Bull and Horse Brick Factory. They rose as high as foremen. Even Vanus had done labor under their watch.

When the New Alliance was founded, everything got formalized. The House of Refugees became a semi-official aid agency. They went there too, helping build up the grand institution with fellow survivors.

Zhao Rat knew Boulder Town inside and out.

When he learned those lucky bastards could make almost the same money by tightening screws in a factory as scavengers risking their lives in the wasteland, his contempt for the rotting settlement only deepened.

The city wall was evil in itself. It didn’t just block out Slime Mold. It locked countless survivors out in the cold.

Baker Street, Brown Farm... Every kingdom-like or semi-feudal survivor community was part of Boulder Town’s legacy.

He had learned it all from Survivor’s Daily.

Boulder Town was the first to rot. Then the ideological plague spread, along the chain of chips, to every other settlement.

The south of the River Valley Province became a breeding ground for decay.

Sure, there were worse settlements out there than Boulder Town. But Boulder Town was right next to them back then, and naturally, he hated their people most.

Especially since their survivors loved to show off, always mocking outsiders as blue moles, or calling them hillbillies behind their backs.

As if he didn’t know!

Zhao Rat spat silently in his mind. "Filthy beggars..."

Can’t even afford a green wheat cake!

You damn well deserve it!

Yang Seconddog glared at him. "What the hell are you saying?!"

"You think I said something wrong?" Zhao Rat snorted. "We fed this bunch with things we scavenged and crops we grew! Now that they've stirred up a mess, we still have to clean up after them! If you ask me, we should be saving the survivors from outside the walls, they're the truly innocent ones. The people inside should just rot in prison for life!"

Yang Seconddog frowned. "That was the fault of their masters. What does it have to do with ordinary folks? They probably lived worse than us. They couldn’t even chew on wild grass."

Zhao Rat rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on. They had it way better than we did. And when we were being exploited, did any of them ever speak up for us?"

Working in the factory was definitely safer than scavenging and hunting in the wild. They weren’t exactly deprived of everything.

Over more than a century, Baker Street’s population barely grew, and the average life expectancy was only around 30 years old. From that perspective, the city workers had quite literally stolen years from Baker Street’s people.

"You're not wrong," came a voice from behind, interrupting the increasingly heated argument.

Turning around, they saw Luca walking over.

When the two men saw the old man, or rather, the current mayor of Dawn City, they immediately shut their mouths.

Zhao Rat apologized while looking guilty. "Sorry..."

Luca looked at the young man and said in a softened tone, "You don't need to apologize. I understand your anger. When I saw Brown, I too wanted to kill him and his household, servants included."

"We could have sealed the gates, forced those ‘filthy beggars’ inside to keep working for us, feeding them only enough swill to stay alive, and squeezed every last drop of blood out of them and their descendants..."

"But do you think a New Alliance like that would ever end the Wasteland Era?"

"Or think about it another way. Have you ever, even for a second, expected the Army to save us, especially if you aren’t a Wislander?"

"Almost the entire desert, openly or secretly, stood with us. We united everyone we could, and even our enemies didn’t dare face us. Not because we were stronger, not because we had the biggest fists..."

"But because we are the New Alliance, not an empire."

Looking at the scrawny old man, Yang Seconddog gave him a thumbs up while revealing a goofy smile. "That’s exactly what I was thinking. I’m just not good with words."

Zhao Rat scratched his head, still not understanding the meaning.

Frankly, he didn’t care whether the New Alliance was an alliance of factions or whatnot. If the administrator wanted to be emperor, he would support it with all his heart. Better yet, maybe the administrator could marry the Yu Family’s youngest daughter, then his old neighbors might even get to live the good life.

That skinny little girl had already grown into a real beauty and was well-liked by the shelter residents.

At least in his view, she was leagues better than that crude red-haired mercenary.

Luca patted him on the shoulder and didn’t force him to understand. He simply led the group forward again.

Whether those people were worth saving or not didn’t matter. Since the administrator had declared that Boulder Town would become the New Alliance’s 5th city, that made them comrades. Luca would do what needed to be done.

No further justification was required. He would represent the New Alliance and go to Boulder Town to handle matters that the Worker’s Union and the militia could not, to make up for the necessary compromises made under pressure.

That included criminal cases during the riot and incomplete purges.

Inner city residents could, of course, be forgiven by the outer city residents. The black cards had already been abolished, and the depth of accountability was something the residents had demanded during their uprising. Whether it was thorough or not wasn’t for others to decide, nor was it their place to.

But that said, every matter had its due process. Whether to accept those people into the New Alliance, or only some of them... That was for the New Alliance to decide.