Chapter 17: Chapter 17: Winning Over People’s Hearts
In the chat room.
[Brother Ye is awesome!]
[I’m still looking everywhere for a decent weapon. Brother Ye, you’re a lifesaver!]
[Long live Boss Ye!]
[Hurry up and start the raffle, Boss! The only thing I have right now is a single White-grade melee weapon.]
[Brother Ye, count me in too.]
...
Seeing that everyone wanted to participate, Ye Yun wasn’t surprised.
The [Damaged BB Gun (White)] was just too cost-effective. For 110 White-grade components, it was a superb deal, even if you just kept it for yourself.
Even if you bought it just to secretly trade with someone else, you could flip it and make a profit of several dozen White-grade components.
Ye Yun had, of course, already considered this loophole. However, he didn’t mind, nor did he make a point of mentioning it.
It was something he couldn’t control, and there was no need to.
This was all just a small tactic to win these people over.
People are inherently profit-driven. If there’s nothing to be gained, they might gather around him, but they would never truly work for him.
As long as he could lead them to continuously acquire more benefits and grow stronger, the cohesion of this small group he had formed would only increase.
Ye Yun smiled, watching the lively scene in the chat room with satisfaction.
He knew that future potential was, after all, still in the future. If he couldn’t show these people tangible benefits now, their loyalty would begin to waver.
Providing some small advantages was all it took; he didn’t need to offer much.
Ye Yun didn’t reject this profit-seeking mentality. On the contrary, he preferred to channel it into a driving force, pushing the team to constantly move forward.
He believed that in this chaotic world, only the strong could survive, and competition among the strong was the norm.
Therefore, he didn’t mind if they used the resources he provided to gain even more benefits for themselves.
As long as they could bring greater returns to the team, this exchange of interests was worthwhile.
After successfully trading away the [Damaged BB Gun (White)], Ye Yun performed the same operation in Chat Room 2 half an hour later.
Once he had taken care of these matters, Ye Yun finally had time to check on the movements of Bionoid 1 and Bionoid 2.
Bionoid 1: Explored for 30 minutes, discovered a box buried in the dirt, obtained item(s).
Bionoid 1: Explored for 1 hour, in the ruins...
Bionoid 1: Explored for 2 hours...
Bionoid 1: Explored for 3 hours and 30 minutes, discovered a small mutated cockroach, successfully killed it.
Bionoid 1: Explored for 4 hours, discovered a small mutated cockroach, successfully killed it.
...
Bionoid 1: Explored for 6 hours and 10 minutes, ambushed by multiple small mutated cockroaches, successfully repelled them with Bionoid 2.
Bionoid 1: Returning to the shelter.
Ye Yun immediately dragged the progress bar to check the previous exploration report.
Soon, he noticed two differences between the exploration reports.
1. Bionoid 1 and Bionoid 2 encountered the mutated cockroaches sooner. Previously, they ran into them at the four-hour mark, but this time it was after three and a half hours.
2. After being equipped with more powerful weapons, the two bionoids’ behavior also changed, shifting from passive defense to active offense.
Ye Yun wasn’t certain about the first discovery. After all, he had collected too little information so far for it to be generalizable.
Mutated cockroaches were creatures that moved around. Perhaps this earlier encounter was just a fluke—a single small cockroach got a sudden whim to see the outside world, or maybe it got lost and wandered near the shelter.
Previously, to verify his theory, Ye Yun would have had to arrange more exploration missions, and even then the data might not have been accurate. But things were different now.
After thinking for a moment, he opened the chat rooms for Group 1 and Group 2:
[I’ve noticed something. It seems like my bionoids are encountering mutated cockroaches earlier than before. Can everyone check if you’re seeing the same thing?]
With tangible benefits on the line, everyone’s level of cooperation had clearly risen a notch.
In just a few moments, dozens of replies flooded both chat rooms.
[Reporting, Boss! Haven’t run into that situation yet!]
[I think it happened to me, too. Before, it was 3 hours and 50 minutes. This time, it was 3 hours and 30 minutes.]
[Mine was 25 minutes earlier, too.]
[Brother Ye, I haven’t seen it on my end.]
...
Ye Yun scanned the messages, taking in ten lines at a glance.
About 90% of the managers had noticed their bionoids encountering the mutated cockroaches earlier.
’Good. This confirms that what happened to Bionoid 1 and Bionoid 2 wasn’t an isolated incident.’
Now that he had confirmed it wasn’t a special case, things became much simpler.
Encountering them earlier proved that the mutated cockroaches were appearing closer to the shelter. This meant either something was attracting them, or their population was growing, causing their territory to expand.
Comparing the current and previous activity logs, Ye Yun guessed the former was more likely.
The time Bionoid 1 and Bionoid 2 first encountered mutated cockroaches was indeed earlier, but their encounter with a large swarm of them was not significantly earlier.
If the cause was a population boom leading to a larger territory, then the time Bionoid 1 and Bionoid 2 ran into the large swarm should have been earlier as well.
After just a moment of thought, Ye Yun arrived at a highly probable theory.
’It seems highly likely these mutated cockroaches are heading for the shelter.’
Ye Yun glanced at the time.
Time remaining until the first danger: only 4 days and 7 hours.
’So, what exactly will happen on the tenth day?’
’Will mutated cockroaches appear right on my doorstep?’
’Or will they attack immediately after finding the shelter?’
Regardless, he had finally figured out a counter-strategy.
He opened the production interface and looked at the only green option.
[Damaged 0.32 Handgun (Green)]
[Production Requirements]:
[Power: 10] [10/10]
[Construction Bot: 1] [1/1]
[Basic Component Requirements]:
[Defective Steel Pipe (Green)] x3 [3/3]
[Crooked Scope (Green)] x1 [1/1]
[Rusted Trigger (White)] x1 [1/1]
[Damaged Wooden Grip (White)] x1 [1/1]
[Broken Iron Wire (White)] x5 [5/5]
[Assessment Type: Production]
...
[Assessment: 100% chance to obtain a Green-grade item, Risk: 4%]
If the situation got bad enough, he would take the risk of failure and produce it anyway.
The production risk was a bit high, but he had accumulated a good number of components over the past few days. A 4% risk was something he could reluctantly accept in a critical situation.
Besides, after outfitting Bionoid 1 and Bionoid 2 with new equipment, his efficiency in acquiring Green-grade components had noticeably improved. Perhaps in the next few days, he would even find the perfect recipe and successfully lower the risk to 0%.
