“It is now the two hundredth year after doomsday. Fortunately, we have already survived the most difficult years. The fact that you are standing here means you are luckier than 12 billion others, and now I need you to quickly recognize the current situation, and then fulfill your declaration under the banner of the United Human Federation—rebuild our home!”

“This person next to me is my assistant, its name is Little Henry. If you have any questions about the shelter, or if there’s anything you don’t understand, you can ask it.”

That was the opening speech.

When the next batch of players arrives, Brian Carter will say it again.

After all, it wasn’t easy to come up with.

As for Little Henry, Brian Carter had already informed it in advance about what could and couldn’t be said, so there was no need to worry about it accidentally revealing anything.

Actually, even if something did slip out, it wouldn’t matter.

Anything that can’t be explained can be brushed off with “that’s just the game setting.” These days, there’s no such thing as a flawless setting—if you really want to nitpick, even the news broadcast has bugs.

Seeing that Brian Carter had finally finished speaking, the player who registered the nickname Ethan Reed hurriedly asked,

“Excuse me, where is Mr. Carter? I mean, the game designer who gave us the helmets.”

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about,” Brian Carter replied expressionlessly.

“How do we log out of the game?” Old White followed up.

“Lie back down in the incubation pod to log out normally.”

Actually, there’s another way—fainting, sleeping, dying, or other abnormal states will also cause the connection to be interrupted, but Brian Carter didn’t want them to try that at will.

Lying in the pod is more energy-efficient; dealing with bodies lying around everywhere would be a hassle.

“What about levels? Where’s the player system interface? I can’t find it.”

As soon as Gale asked this, before Brian Carter could answer, Long immediately interjected.

“What about the character creation system? Is the character setting unchangeable? And what about character gender—”

“That’s enough. You can ask the dev—cough, it’s not your turn to ask questions yet.”

Cutting off their endless questions with a stern face, Brian Carter handed out four booklets to them in a businesslike manner, not giving them a chance to refuse.

“I’ll show you around and familiarize you with the environment here, and also tell you what you need to pay attention to.”

“Especially what you can do, and what you shouldn’t even think about.”

Chapter 7: If You Want to Get Rich, Start by Stripping Trees

No rules, no standards.

Especially for players who love to stir up trouble, you can’t go easy on them.

[Shelter Resident Handbook v1.0.]

[1. The administrator’s orders are above all else. All residents of the shelter must obey unconditionally.]

[2. For residents who violate the rules, the administrator reserves the right to use “forced sleep” and “confinement” as the ultimate measures. (Note: Forced sleep is equivalent to being forcibly kicked out of the game; confinement means login privileges are banned.)]

[3. The administrator has the final right of interpretation for all the above terms.]

Getting kicked out of the game for breaking the rules—this isn’t something an ordinary NPC can do.

After seeing the note after the second rule in the shelter resident handbook, the players finally understood: this NPC isn’t just an NPC, but also has some GM privileges, able to “ban” players who affect others’ gaming experience.

There are only a few people now, so for the time being, there are just these three rules. If there’s a need to add more later, Brian Carter will consider releasing version 2.0, or even 20.0.

For example, rules regulating player-to-player and player-to-“NPC” interactions, as well as in-game prohibitions, and so on.

Doing a closed beta before the alpha test is half for this reason.

The shelter isn’t very big. Though there seem to be about twenty rooms, each is actually quite small, crammed full with four incubation pods.

The previous administrator seemed afraid he’d slack off and just live off the supplies, so he cleared out the entire B1 floor, not leaving a single good thing behind.

Brian Carter didn’t stay in the shelter for long. After explaining the rules, he took the four of them and Little Henry and stepped onto the elevator to the outside.

These four closed beta players were fairly obedient and gave him, the administrator, some respect—just a bit too curious for their own good.

From the moment their feet touched the ground, they were like Grandma Liu visiting the Grand View Garden, touching and looking at everything, wanting to poke at everything.

Not a single cell in their bodies could stay still!

The elevator stopped.

Looking at the sunlight streaming through the broken window and shining in front of the elevator, the four players gasped in awe like they’d never seen the world before.

“Whoa…”

“This light! These walls! Th-this, this, this…”

“This is just awesome!”

“Sunlight passes through the cracks in the concrete ruins, shining on the little grass poking through the floor, visible dust motes floating in the beams of light… every frame is art, every second is burning the budget!”

“Amazing! Mr. Day really is cultured!”

“Get lost, call me Mr. Long!”

“Okay, Brother Future.”

“……”

A bunch of country bumpkins…

Brian Carter found it a bit funny, but he understood, so he pretended not to hear anything, and, fulfilling his duty as an NPC, led them outside the sanatorium.