So... this is the newbie tutorial?
Wildman blinked. This is a bit different from the cyberpunk he imagined—where’s the prosthetics? The shootouts? There should at least be some thrilling big scenes, right?
Then he took another look at the four of them dressed in baggy clothes, with a look like some hooligans, and he understood.
Looking , whatever big scenes there were would have nothing to do with them.
But no worries, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Just from Lin Miao’s few words earlier, he could see that the future story of this game would definitely be grand and dramatic. Moreover, even if it’s a survival-building type game, he’s played those before, and this is a top-ranking holographic game, he’d swallow anything, even crap.
And the ’game system’ was quite considerate, stepping up to guide the players at this moment.
A green border, similar to Lin Miao’s system, popped up in front of the few of them.
[Main Line Newbie Task: Build a New Homeland]
[Task Description: You awaken in a barren small town, guided by the pioneer Lin Miao to take your first step. The urgent task is to build an office together as the foundation to activate more functions.]
[Task Goals: (1) Learn to use the scrap recycling furnace, press machine, and multifunctional manual platform]
[Task Reward: Unlock player panel]
The four of them glanced at each other, understanding in their hearts.
Ah, this is right, what’s a game without a main line task?
The Westlake Giant immediately said, "Alright, I understand. Promise to complete the task." The other three quickly echoed.
Lin Miao found it quite amusing. If real-life employees were this obedient and cheap, then the boss’s Mercedes would probably need changing monthly.
But naturally, he wouldn’t leave the players here by themselves without supervision, so after nodding, a round spherical drone the size of a stew pot flew out from behind Lin Miao, equipped with a turbine fan in three directions providing power for flight and direction correction.
"This is our office’s assistant AI-W. You can ask it if you’re unsure about anything. I’ll go scout the surrounding area, and if anything comes up, I’ll notify you through it. It’ll also warn you about what you can and can’t do; if you violate, you’ll be seriously, seriously punished. I don’t think you’ll want to act like that, right?"
This was a Bumblebee drone Lin Miao bought before leaving the house and used a system AI to overlay its native system. It was a parenting robot designed by Zeta Technology. In Lin Miao’s eyes, these players were no different from four- or five-year-old brats—unpredictable, difficult to control, and extremely destructive.
Moreover, AI isn’t anything rare; the unmanned equipment in Night City all has compact intelligent systems to some extent.
If it wasn’t for an urgency, Lin Miao really didn’t want to leave these people here on their own.
After tossing an Ajax and some ammunition on the passenger seat, Lin Miao drove the cargo truck hidden in a collapsed garage out of the small town.
Though he had learned the location of Stone Ridge Mountain Small Town from street vendors, he knew very little about the surroundings. He’d only heard that Evil Land was ruled by Wanderers and the Chaotic Blade Association, even companies often suffered losses in their hands, but Lin Miao knew little about their distribution and style, so a round of reconnaissance around the town was necessary. Furthermore, his money was nearly spent, he needed to find ways to generate income.
And his actions naturally were watched by Wildman and the others.
No-neck Potato watched Lin Miao’s vehicle disappear at the edge of the town, then turned and said, "That NPC left, and he took a rifle when he left. It seems there really are dangers around here."
But when he turned back, the other three were already gathered around a few machines, knocking and tapping. Wildman asked, "Did any of you major in mechanics or metallurgy? How does this thing work, there’s so much stuff on the panel: steelmaking, iron refining, plastic, cement... way too many features."
Standing at the CNC panel and exploring, Westlake Giant said, "Why bother with so much, aren’t all building and assembly line games ? As long as it works, it’s fine."
"That’s not really the point." Assassin Not Brother Ni stood at the manual platform, picked up a boring knife, and looked it over. "This game’s freedom is ridiculous. Look at this, on the manual platform there’s boring knives, drilling machines, grinders—everything. It can do turning, milling, planning, grinding, drilling, boring, all precision and complete, folded up it’s just table-sized—simply a mini machine tool. Probably the most realistic equipment I’ve seen in a game."
Wildman took a two-handed hammer from the side of the platform, swung it twice, and felt it was quite handy, "Did you study this?"
"No, I just like doing DIY work, sometimes take orders for COS props, over time you pick up some of this stuff."
They all met in a gaming group, but it was mostly limited to online gaming banter. The ones truly familiar offline were Potato, Giant, and Wildman.
While chatting, the four of them were also attempting to operate the machine for production. This type of equipment was entirely foolproof, the panel was in Chinese, and there was a parenting drone guiding alongside—anyone with sense could figure it out with a couple of tries.
No one cares how the machine actually works, presumably you just input materials on the left, delete the program, and suddenly a piece of steel appears at the right exit; the internal modeling is essentially hollow, most assembly-line games are , so-called settings are just for show.
When all four rotated operations successfully and the system judged the task complete, unlocking the panel,
Giant let out a strange scream, "What the...! I awakened the system! Look at the panel! Look at the panel!"
"Nani! My intelligence is only three?"