Chapter 716.1: "WE GOTCHU!"

One after another, beach canopies had been set up along the shore in front of the Men’s Dream Tavern.

“How the fuck does time fly so fast?!”

Feeling the sea breeze blowing against his face and watching the setting sun tilt toward the horizon, Irene sat on a tiny stool by the beach, wiping grease off a perfectly roasted lizard drumstick. His face was full of comfort and satisfaction.

Not far away, Elf Wang was chugging beer by the gallon while competing with the brothers of the Jungle Corps to see who could drink more... Well, he was an agility type scrub and had never once managed to win.

Behind the counter, Her Drunken Recluse had finally chosen to honestly embrace his unusual hobby and was now wearing one of Teng Teng’s maid outfits together with a group of beautiful Moonfolk girls.

What surprised everyone was that the players who had originally joined in just to stir shit up had expected it to be unbearably cursed, but unexpectedly, this guy actually looked pretty damn good in women’s clothes.

Especially that one time when a sailor who completely misunderstood the situation actually mistook the tavern owner for a pretty ladyboss, then teamed up with several vicious-looking companions to stage an outdated hero saves the beauty routine. The joke that followed had players laughing from inside the game all the way onto the forums...

The war 2,000 kilometers away, and even the war practically at their doorstep, felt as though they didn’t exist at all.

In the peaceful evening breeze, there was only the faint scent of the sea.

Irene tossed the gnawed-clean lizard bones toward the stray cat wandering around outside the tavern. Nobody knew which ship it had followed here from, but he stretched lazily and stood up from his stool.

Already drunk out of his mind before nightfall, Elf Wang let out a loud burp and supported himself against the table with both hands before shouting at Irene. “Heading back this early?”

“Not early anymore. It’s almost time.” Almost the moment the words fell, Elf Wang, who had just stood up, swayed sideways, and was immediately caught by the arm before he could collapse.

Looking at the strength type beasts bursting into laughter around them, Irene skillfully freed one hand, clasped his fist in greeting, and said with a grin, “I’ll drag this guy back to the save point. You all keep going.”

Prone Model chuckled mischievously. “Thanks for the hard work, Irena.”

Black lines instantly appeared across Irene’s forehead as he smiled dangerously. “Fuck’s sake, how many times do I have to say it? Can you people change that damn nickname already?”

Originally, barely anyone reacted. But the moment he said that, the entire crowd exploded into cheers.

“Got it, Irena!”

“Take care on the way, Irena!”

“Say hi to your master for me!”

“Fuck!” Rolling his eyes at the bunch of bastards, Irene cursed under his breath and carried Elf Wang toward the save point.

That had basically become the daily routine these days. Take quests and clear monsters in the forest. Turn in quests and drink on the beach. Carry the drunk idiot back to the save point before nightfall, then head onto the forums to bullshit and brag.

It was stable enough to feel like a nine-to-five job.

Life had become so comfortable that, unless he deliberately thought about it, he hadn’t even realized that it had already been nearly two months since the brothers of the Burning Corps had marched off to the Poro Province.

And while his own daily life hadn’t changed much during those two months, French Fry Harbor itself had undergone changes so drastic they could only be described as earth-shattering.

The shantytown that used to crowd the eastern side of the settlement had now turned into orderly rows of wooden houses with their own little courtyards. The wooden racks hanging outside the doors no longer held only dried fish, fur pelts, or clothes. Now they were covered in creeping green vines bearing colorful fruits and vegetables.

The New Alliance Biological Research Institution had expanded its operations in the region. They were no longer merely gathering clues about the Hive in the area. They were also cultivating high-yield crop seeds suited to the local environment.

Watermelons, grapes, tomatoes, and more.

Because of that, many Moonfolk girls had gained another source of income. As long as they collected a packet of seeds from Chen Yutong, planted them outside their homes, regularly recorded their growth, and reported the results back to the Biological Research Institution, they would receive additional pay from the New Alliance.

Of course, they also had to keep seagulls and other birds from stealing the crops.

The diligence of the new immigrants left even the strength type players feeling ashamed. It was the first time the players had ever seen NPCs capable of grinding just as hard as they did.

Those NPCs didn’t possess the powerful physiques of players, nor did they have the rich experience and knowledge of Coral City’s survivors, but they possessed a talent for working three jobs at once.

Some physically strong young girls spent the daytime processing hides in the fur factory, then worked evenings in bars carrying tea, washing dishes, and serving customers. Back home, they also cared for experimental crops entrusted to them by the Biological Research Institution. Whenever they had free time, they picked up odd jobs like laundry, garbage collection, and oyster harvesting.

Although New Alliance law strictly limited each employee’s working hours, it never limited how many jobs a single person could take on.

Relaxing and enjoying life for even a short while seemed to fill them with some kind of guilt.

As the survivors from Coral City described it, those girls wished they could finish an entire year’s worth of work in the first few months, then spend the remaining months working on next year’s tasks.

But it was precisely because of their diligence, and because the players unconsciously viewed them more with a mindset of raising than exploiting, that these poor people managed, in just two months, to live lives their fellow Moonfolk kin back in the Poro Province would never even dare dream of.

And the residential district wasn’t the only place that had changed dramatically.

For example, the sawmills and slaughterhouses that used to be haphazardly crammed into the settlement had all been relocated to the very beach where soldiers of the Xilande Empire and aquatic mutants had once landed.

That was the new district on the western side of French Fry Harbor.

Ever since OId Wine Lamp and the other Lifestyle Profession players had moved all the little workshops over there, the air throughout French Fry Harbor had become noticeably fresher.

There was no longer wood dust and animal fibers flying through the residential areas, and even the greasy fishy smell from the beaches had faded significantly.

According to the plans of the new City Hall, the new district packed with small factories and workshops would eventually become French Fry Harbor’s official industrial district.

While French Fry Harbor wasn’t suitable for heavy industry, saying there would be no industry at all would have been too extreme. After considering raw material costs, product value, transportation losses, and maintenance expenses, light industries such as salt refineries, sugar mills, breweries, timber processing plants, and food processing factories were all considered commercially viable in the region.

Processing raw logs into planks before shipping them to Port Gallon for furniture production was far more economical than simply loading untreated logs directly onto ships.

The same applied to fruits, game meat, and fish catches.

Turning them into canned goods or processed food products meant they could not only be sold in Port Gallon, but would also attract every merchant vessel passing through the Baiyue Strait.

After the industrial zoning was established, French Fry Harbor City Hall modeled its regulations after Dawn City’s industrial district management system, creating detailed rules governing production methods, labor practices, and taxation.

Once tax revenue began flowing in and responsibilities were clearly defined, French Fry Harbor City Hall used that tax income as collateral to secure a loan from the distant Dawn City Bank and improve infrastructure in the new district.

For example, the two concrete docks extending into deep water, as well as the highway connecting the industrial district to French Fry Harbor’s core urban area, had all been built by the Bull and Horse Group using prefabricated steel, concrete panels, and cement produced in Port Gallon.

In addition, the Bull and Horse Group’s airships transported prefabricated components manufactured in Boulder Town from Dawn City and assembled a small gantry crane and cargo rail line connecting one of the industrial district’s freight docks to the harbor warehouses, greatly improving cargo loading efficiency.

At that point, it was impossible not to praise the technicians brought over by the Dolphin and the improved crab-class amphibious exoskeleton they had developed based on the achievements of Shelter 100.

Once equipped with those things, the laborers became even more terrifyingly efficient. The docks practically grew forward at visible speed.

From then on, French Fry Harbor’s import and export routes, along with the relocated factories and workshops, gradually shifted from the central beach area to the western industrial district beaches.

To make commuting easier for local residents, French Fry Harbor City Hall established a transportation office and opened bus and passenger boat routes to the new district.

Five or six kilometers wasn’t too far. And with the military base on the northwestern highlands monitoring the mutants in the forests and the coastline already fenced off, the northern side of the coastal highway had also been reclaimed into orchards, farms, and plantations surrounded by fences. As long as people avoided traveling at night, safety wasn’t too serious a concern.

As a result, some daring Moonfolk girls had even begun commuting by bicycle.

As for French Fry Harbor’s original wooden pier, it had become exactly what planners envisioned from the beginning, a paradise for anglers and tourists.

Besides the facilities already completed, construction was still underway on an ocean current power station located on the seabed beneath the strait, as well as a solid-state hydrogen energy storage facility onshore.

However, those two facilities weren’t being handled by the Bull and Horse Group. The contracts had instead been won by a renewable energy company based in Daybreak City.

Interestingly, this company also had ties to the Southern Archipelago Federation.

They were called Guangwei Energy, established less than two months ago, and its founder was none other than Huang Guangwei, a survivor from the southern seas and also a resident of Shelter 70.

Back when he first arrived in Dawn City, he had famously punched the former administrator of Shelter 70 unconscious in a single blow, gotten hauled off by the guards, and even made the front page of the Goblin Observation.

However, that was a long time ago now.

Today, Mr. Huang had fully adapted to life in the New Alliance and, just like the former Shelter 70 administrator he once punched, had chosen to contribute to rebuilding the wasteland in his own way.

Objectively speaking, a huge part of French Fry Harbor’s rapid development was thanks to the help of these survivors from Shelter 70 and Coral City.

For many of the difficulties players could only brute-force through with strength type players and 21st century knowledge, those survivors offered far more constructive solutions.

And many Lifestyle Profession players working in related industries learned plenty of new things from those solutions. Whether in engineering, or sociology.

Over the course of these two months, both sides had benefited tremendously from their interactions.

And aside from industry and infrastructure improvements, the player living districts had also changed significantly. The best example was probably the Seaside Commercial Street near the old docks.

Originally, the Men’s Dream Tavern had been the only place to drink there. Now the street was densely packed with bars, inns, and restaurants of every kind.

Some were opened by Lifestyle Profession players. Others were investments from merchants in Dawn City and Silvermoon Bay who believed in French Fry Harbor’s future. There were even investors from the Federation’s Ring Island.

Every evening, the entire street lit up with dazzling nightlife.

It wasn’t just questing players who came here to drink and brag. Federation fishermen working nearby, as well as captains and sailors passing through the region, found themselves irresistibly drawn in by the sight of all those thirst-inducing long legs. In the end, they stopped by for a few mugs of ice-cold beer.

Of course, not everyone kept their thoughts limited to food and alcohol. Some had inevitably developed ideas about... other things. However, after seeing the New Alliance flag flying above French Fry Harbor City Hall, most wasteland drifters still chose to remain rational.

The merchants and sailors from Silvermoon Bay especially knew better. They had personally witnessed how ruthless the New Alliance could be. Recently, there had even been a huge troublemaker beaten half to death for refusing to follow the rules.

As for wastelanders from farther away, they suppressed their darker urges under the threat of force after seeing the sheer number of awakeners roaming around.

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