Chapter 277: Whatever You Wish For Comes True

“Captain, you lost so much money. Do you want us to compensate you?” Xiao Huang texted as the three of them set off.

Yang Bo replied while walking, “No need, you guys worked hard too.”

“Captain, who exactly are you?” Xiao Hong texted from the other side.

Yang Bo was slightly surprised by the personal question but responded, “A Resident!”

“Captain, do residents have this much money?” Xiao Huang replied incredulously.

“I made some money in the Mecha Game,” Yang Bo responded again.

Xiao Hong privately messaged Xiao Huang after seeing that response, “This guy probably isn’t a Resident.”

Xiao Huang continued chatting with Yang Bo while also privately talking to Xiao Hong, “He’s likely not a Resident. You need a Mecha Pilot talent to play the game. He’s probably in another profession.”

“Exactly, even us junior Mecha Pilots don’t make much. How could a Resident earn money in the Mecha Game?”

“Whatever, we make our own money and spend it ourselves. No need to look at anyone’s face.”

“Exactly. We make our money and spend it without guilt. When it comes to money, the annoying family always brings it up during every festival.”

“What can we do? We’re seen as the trash of the family. Even a manager looks down on us.”

“Did your family try to set you up with someone?”

“Yeah, but the woman was involved in all sorts of messy clubs. What can we say about love in our situation?”

“Right now, all I hope for is that my son has better talent and can rise up in the family.”

“That’s a pipe dream. The ones who hold power in the family will match you with someone with bad genes.”

“Not necessarily, there are examples of exceptions.”

“How often does that happen? Once in how many years?”

“And those arrogant guys who used to swagger around with their underlings? Now they’re locked up, following others like little brothers. It’s a different life.”

“Who would’ve thought that the idiot across from us is from a big family? Are they brain-damaged or something? Protesting about driving bans, saying anti-gravity vehicles have radiation risks, and now giving us trouble after getting hit by one.”

If Yang Bo knew what they were saying, he’d be speechless. Cars nowadays are so advanced; the chance of hitting someone is incredibly low. Those guys were probably driving manually and causing the problem themselves.

“They clearly just want to get famous. Unable to secure a place in the family anymore, they have to join random groups to stir things up.”

“Should we start a club too?”

“What would the club’s purpose be? Every idea’s already been taken.”

“Look at that Restroom Club. There used to be two bathrooms; they protested. Now they got their own separate bathroom and claim it’s discrimination. Now, all the Alliance bathrooms are non-gender specific.”

“Then they said their special group’s still not accommodated?”

“Setting aside the facts, whoever runs that is smart. That person’s now a parliamentarian on some Capital Star.”

“Sigh, why didn’t we think of this earlier?”

“Some guys who are locked up, should we invite them to play games?”

“The captain could use more people; it’s not like they’d take his money.”

“Most of them are probably at home, drunk, wasting away.”

“Drinking too much becomes like that.”

“Let’s see how things go. If the captain runs out of money, what’s he planning to do?”

“Who knows? The world is full of weirdos.”

“The captain acts decisively; his combat style reminds me of those people from the underworld.”

“Honestly, I’ve heard of assassins who went broke, but then made big money playing games.”

“Yeah, when we first saw the captain slaughter all those zombie sheep, we couldn’t believe it.”

“If the captain’s an assassin, we could ask him for help in the future. Storing up money in the game might just save our lives someday.”

“Family’s always watching us. Some people think if they control our money, they control us.”

“What I’m scared of is if some idiot gets into trouble and we end up being the scapegoats. The fools in society don’t think: How could we possibly use family resources for that kind of crap?”

“It’s all for the family…”

“At least in the Alliance, life’s a bit better. We don’t have to worry about food and drink, and we can even get into private prisons.”

“I gotta say, this game is well-made. Last time, I was chased by zombies. That thrill gave me such a rush.”

Now that they had entered the wilderness, Yang Bo became more alert. As for their private chat, he just didn’t care.

From their nicknames, Yang Bo suspected the two knew each other—possibly even a couple.

Of course, in the Alliance, no one would ever assume the couple was a man and a woman. Calling a couple a man and a woman would be considered discriminatory and get you condemned.

As he walked, Yang Bo casually picked up rocks, tossing them far away at other rocks, tree trunks, whatever he could find.

He was using the noise to scout for nearby zombies, setting off a few alarms along the way.

In this world, there were also normal animals. Yang Bo found their relationship with the zombies strange. Most left each other alone, but sometimes zombies hunted animals, though they rarely caught them. Some animals even hunted zombies.

Yang Bo hadn’t yet figured out the logic behind it.

After walking for an hour, they finally reached the farm, only to find it partially flooded by a landslide that had buried the original stream.

The farm sat across the river. They could see plenty of zombie sheep among the tall grass and bushes. Yang Bo observed that unless there was noise, he could get as close as 50 meters to the average zombie. Beyond that, they’d notice him.

The leaders, though, noticed him from further away—about 80 meters. Most of the time, unless there was noise, the zombies wouldn’t move.

So as he stood on the abandoned road, the zombie sheep on the other side didn’t react.

“Captain, do we have to go across the dam?” The three of them looked around and realized to get to the dam, they’d have to detour several kilometers. The dam had formed a winding reservoir, and it wasn’t clear how far they’d have to go.

“Let’s make a raft,” Yang Bo said, looking at the nearby bamboo forest.

“A raft?” Xiao Huang and Xiao Hong both gasped in surprise.

Yang Bo inspected the bamboo forest, pulled out a dagger, and began cutting bamboo.

Xiao Hong and Xiao Huang were stunned, watching Yang Bo skillfully strip the bamboo.

“Damn, his hand speed is like a high-level Mecha Pilot,” Xiao Huang tried controlling his own character but couldn’t make his actions as seamless as Yang Bo’s.

“No wonder he could make money in the Mecha Game. Maybe he really is a Resident. Residents have good benefits, and even we have to tread carefully with them. Accusing a Resident of discrimination could be big trouble.”

“This captain is impressive.” They tried copying Yang Bo, but their actions weren’t nearly as smooth.

After Yang Bo finished cutting the bamboo, he used vines to start building the raft, leaving them even more in awe. Was it even possible to control a character so perfectly?

This game had two control modes. The standard mode provided by the officials allowed characters to walk, run, jump, shoot, gather—basic actions.

Gathering, for example, only required aiming at a target and pressing a button for the character to automatically begin gathering.

The other mode was a free control mode, much more complicated. It allowed for combinations of commands that made characters perform non-standard actions far beyond the official settings.

Like binding bamboo with vines, this wasn’t a standard action. You had to know the control codes well to execute it smoothly.

The smoother the character’s movements, the faster the player’s hands. Just like watching a skilled excavator operator, their work looks seamless and fluid. Some, however, look clumsy and awkward with frequent pauses.

Though Xiao Hong and Xiao Huang had traveled with Yang Bo, they had rarely seen him perform such actions, as they were always busy gathering items or running to buy bullets.

This was the first time they saw Yang Bo perform such non-standard actions, and it left them stunned.

They weren’t inexperienced; they knew how difficult this was.

The reason it was so challenging was that the Bionic Puppet relied on a control system for each joint, and each movement required many control codes.

Even a simple gesture like bending a finger required multiple control codes to drive the actuators.

Judging by his speed, Yang Bo’s hand speed had likely reached that of a high-level Mecha Pilot.

“No wonder people who play this game have some skill.”

“No wonder some people can make money in the game. A high-level Mecha Pilot can earn tens of thousands or even millions a year in real life.”

“Let’s just follow along and pick up the money.” After trying several times, Xiao Huang and Xiao Hong realized they couldn’t do what Yang Bo was doing.

Their bamboo cutting technique was wrong, causing the bamboo to split from the bottom.

As for tying the raft with vines, neither of them could manage that either.

Yang Bo knew bionic humans needed high-level skills to perform non-standard actions.

But Yang Bo simply used his superpower. The Bionic Puppet’s reaction time limit couldn’t exceed this.

In about half an hour, the raft was ready. The water stretched about 30 meters wide, and the farm was on the opposite hillside, though now it extended down to the foot of the mountain due to the flooding.

Yang Bo pushed the raft into the water, ready to observe. Xiao Huang shouted through the channel, “There are zombies underwater!”

Everyone knew that already. Yang Bo picked up a rock and threw it further away.

The zombies coming toward the raft veered in the direction of the thrown rock, their bodies twisting as they chased after it.

The zombies in the water came in all shapes and sizes—some were animals, some were fish, and some were human.

In the water, the zombies behaved strangely. Some floated motionless, some hovered near the bottom, and others drifted on the surface.

The floating zombies, after drifting a certain distance, would twist their bodies and return to their original position before continuing to drift.

“I’ll go check it out!” With a bamboo pole in hand, Yang Bo spoke to the two over the comms.

“Another non-standard action!” Xiao Huang and Xiao Hong privately chatted as they watched Yang Bo pole the raft over.

“We need to figure out more about the captain. He might be our benefactor.”

“People like us could easily end up as scapegoats someday.”

“Let’s wait and see. We’re not exactly loaded.”

“But we do have information.”

“Let’s gather more intel first.” Xiao Huang and Xiao Hong watched as Yang Bo pushed the raft forward, jumped onto a large rock, and began shooting.

He was focusing on the zombie sheep on the other side. Afterward, they saw Yang Bo throw a bomb into the distance before jumping back onto the raft and poling his way back.

“I’ve drawn the monsters to you guys, so it’ll be easier to collect the mission items,” Yang Bo said over the comms.

These zombie sheep had to be harvested for the brain matter in their skulls. Small animals like chickens, ducks, and rabbits didn’t have enough, so they were pretty much useless.

Yang Bo wasn’t specifically trying to help the two pick up monsters; he needed bullets. He only had 200 rounds, but there were way more zombies than that on the other side.

Besides, with the river in between, the zombie sheep’s speed would slow down.

Yang Bo jumped off the raft and tossed another bomb into the water.

This time, the zombies submerged in the water were drawn over.

Yang Bo stood by the riverbank, waiting for the zombies to crawl ashore one by one. The zombie sheep, despite their twisting bodies, moved much more slowly in the water.

After about 20 minutes, more than 500 zombies had been killed.

Xiao Huang had already left to buy Yang Bo more bullets.

Xiao Hong gathered the mission items from the zombies while Yang Bo used a stick to push the corpses aside.

“Charge +2!” After collecting zombie sheep brain matter, Xiao Hong rewarded Yang Bo with a skill.

The two of them worked well together. 20 minutes later, Xiao Hong finished collecting and rushed back to sell them off and bring Yang Bo more bullets.

“There aren’t enough people!” Yang Bo thought their team felt a bit too small.

Respawning and returning took over two hours, and gathering mission items took two and a half.

On average, it took the two of them one hour and fifteen minutes.

Meanwhile, Yang Bo could clear out a wave of zombies in just 20 minutes, needing several hundred bullets each time.

“I’ll ask the two what they think later.” Yang Bo knew that as the missions took them further away, it would only get harder.

When Xiao Huang returned with more bullets, he saw Yang Bo resting as the zombie sheep were lined up neatly on the ground.

Their necks had been twisted, but the sheep still brayed and snapped their jaws randomly. Xiao Huang had to mute the sound, finding it too unsettling.

“Captain, the return miles are quite long. We have two friends—can they join us?” Xiao Huang decided to test the waters.

“You don’t mind them taking some of your money?” Yang Bo was surprised that this was exactly what he had been thinking.

“It’s the same. We supply bullets quickly, and you clear them fast.” Xiao Huang quickly added.

“You two know each other in real life?” Yang Bo asked as he helped push the gathered zombie sheep corpses aside.