EBE Chapter 20 Pearl Harbor is About to Change
Chapter 20 Pearl Harbor is About to Change
With the water and salt crisis resolved, the camp enjoyed a brief respite.
Lynn sat in the shadow of the dilapidated hut, his gaze sweeping across the perimeter of the camp. The starving laborers still lingered in the thick fog, unwilling to leave.
He knew very well that pure water and coarse salt were only the basics for survival; cheap and abundant labor was essential to truly establish himself in this wasteland.
Only by quickly establishing their own power in the shipwreck area can they have the resources to compete with Bolton.
He got up and walked over to the players who were resting. After thinking for a few seconds, he said, "Brave pioneers, our drinking water is now secured, but rebuilding the docks requires a huge workforce. On this abandoned land, nothing is more reassuring than a bowl of hot soup."
Upon hearing this, the little snail, which had been leaning against the dead tree, immediately straightened up.
As the "political commissar" with the best overall perspective and coordination skills among these players, he keenly grasped the hidden information in Lynn's words.
This must be a hidden quest! The system is guiding them to build an NPC employment system using food!
"Here comes the big work, brothers! We're going to do infrastructure construction and capitalize on the demographic dividend!" The little snail slapped his thigh and quickly stood up to take command of the camp.
His mind raced, his gaze sweeping over the group as he began assigning tasks. "Brothers, stop resting! We need to make some money and hire all those NPCs outside as free labor!"
He turned to look at the iron pot stew and pointed to a corner of the camp that was being used as a temporary warehouse.
There were piles of processed pork scraps, the spoils of their hunt the night before they left Pearl Harbor, and next to them were black seaweed picked up from the beach.
After thinking for a moment, the little snail asked, "Big Goose, you're our technical advisor. This kelp has been soaking in poisonous water for so long, do you have a way to detoxify it and then simmer it with this pork to make a non-toxic broth? It doesn't need to be particularly delicious, just fragrant, salty, and oily!"
Faced with the snail's request, the goose nodded and accepted the task without hesitation: "Leave it to me. Although I don't know the logic behind magical purification in this game, my knowledge is enough to deal with this superficial toxin."
Under the coordination of Little Snail, this gradually growing team began to work closely together.
The servants carried buckets to start a fire and set up the large iron barrels, while Xiaoyu went to trim the pig fat and break the pig bones, and Da'e focused on the most crucial task of detoxifying the kelp.
The goose walked to the filter tower it had just built, picked up a basin of waste alkaline water left over from the first failed filtration, which was mixed with quicklime and wood ash.
"The toxins are acidic and mostly adhere to the mucus on the skin's surface."
While throwing the black kelp into the alkaline water and stirring it around, Da'e explained to Xiaoyu, who was helping him, "Strong alkali can neutralize surface toxins and destroy plant cell walls."
After soaking for five minutes, he took the kelp out.
Then he grabbed a handful of coarse salt that had just been boiled on the iron plate and slapped it directly onto the seaweed, rubbing it violently.
"High concentrations of salt create osmotic pressure."
The goose's hands were covered in a dark green sap, "which can forcibly squeeze out the heavy metals and organic toxins remaining in the kelp cells."
The salt grains melted, turning into murky black water that flowed down. The originally blackened kelp lost its terrifying bluish-purple color, revealing its normal dark green hue.
After detoxification, the goose blanched and washed the kelp. Meanwhile, as requested by the little snail, Titongpaolvlu and Xiaoyu heated up the large iron bucket and threw in the chopped shredded pork fat.
Animal fat sizzles when it comes into contact with high temperatures. The transparent fat churns at the bottom of the bucket, and the aroma of the oil explodes instantly with the sound.
The goose threw in the crushed pork bones and stir-fried them, then poured in half a bucket of filtered purified water. Finally, it added the chopped, detoxified kelp to the pot and covered it with a broken wooden board as a lid.
Flames pounded against the bottom of the iron bucket, and soon the water boiled.
He grabbed a handful of coarse salt, lifted the wooden board, and sprinkled it in.
When kelp tumbles in boiling water, it releases a large amount of sodium glutamate.
This natural MSG, mixed with the salty and savory flavors of high-calorie animal fats and coarse salt, undergoes a primal chemical reaction.
There was no wind at the camp, but the smells traveled on foot.
This aroma, rich with the scents of oil and meat bones, spread like a blast of air in all directions, forcefully dispelling the rust and acid rain smells that permeate the shipwreck area year-round.
Fifty meters outside the camp, behind a pile of abandoned shipping containers.
The old laborer had his eyes closed, leaning against the cold sheet metal to conserve his energy.
Apart from that piece of black bread, his stomach had been almost empty for the past two days, and the spasmodic pain had numbed him.
Suddenly, his nose twitched twice.
He suddenly opened his eyes, his cloudy eyeballs bloodshot. From the surrounding shadows, the sound of swallowing saliva could be heard repeatedly.
Those lowly laborers who had been hiding in the shadows, waiting to watch outsiders die of thirst, all stood up.
They emerged from behind the ruins like wandering ghosts, their steps dragging, their eyes fixed on the steaming iron barrel in the center of the camp.
Reason? It crumbles instantly in the face of an animal's instinctive craving for high-calorie fats.
Hundreds of figures appeared and disappeared in the thick fog, forming a huge encirclement.
They dared not approach, but merely lingered at the edge of the camp, their Adam's apples bobbing wildly and their eyes gleaming green.
Under the eaves of the dilapidated wooden house, Lynn quietly watched this scene, which was even better than he had expected.
Cheap carbohydrates and fats are a powerful tool for controlling lower-level workers.
He opened the system panel, quickly edited a command, and sent it to the emblem on the player's arm.
In the camp, a notification light flashed simultaneously in the upper right corner of all players' field of vision.
[Major regional main quest triggered: Rebuilding the Shipwreck Area – The Rise of Pearl Harbor Pier 2.]
[Phase Objective: Utilize existing resources to recruit at least 50 laborers to clear the camp ruins and collect necessary supplies.]
[Mission Reward: A large number of credits.]
After reading the task description, the little snail turned to look at the dark mass of people outside the camp and immediately entered the mode of a ruthless contractor.
"Xiaoyu, go find an empty bucket, take an iron pipe and bang it on it to make some noise!"
The little snail methodically issued instructions, while picking up a piece of charred charcoal and quickly writing a few lines on the wooden box.
Xiaoyu picked up an iron pipe from a distance and brought it back, then forcefully struck the rusty iron bucket next to her.
"Clang! Clang! Clang!"
The harsh clanging of metal drowned out the crackling of the firewood.
"Pearl Harbor is about to change!" The little snail stood behind the wooden crate, shouting at the top of his lungs into the crowd through the thick fog, "Stop looking! Anyone who wants soup, anyone who wants to live, bring something to trade!"
He pointed to the empty space at his feet: "Fifty pounds of scrap metal, dried wood, or white seashells! Leave them here, and you'll get a bowl of pork rib and seaweed soup with a small bowl of clean water! Payment made in person, no cheating!"
The laborers in the thick fog were silent for a few seconds.
After a brief moment of thought, a figure suddenly lunged at a piece of scrap steel pipe beside him. He clung tightly to the pipe with his withered hands, dragging it through the mud, and ran wildly toward the open space in front of the little snail.
This was like a fuse that ignited the crowd.
Driven by the luscious savory soup, the laborers rushed like madmen toward the distant slag heap. Some carried stones, some hauled planks, and some slung seashells in rags, all pouring toward the camp in droves.
The players sat around the fire, each holding a broken bowl.
They didn't have to do anything; they just watched as piles of building materials were carried back to the camp by NPCs and neatly stacked up by category.
The sweatshops in the Pearl Harbor shipwreck area officially began operation today.