Wasteland's Only King - Chapter 315 - 68: Oak City! Max Level One-Stop Service? 5.8 Billion Balance!
Gangval Star, Oak City.
This is an ordinary small city located in the southern part of the planet’s northern hemisphere.
The city isn’t very big—its population is just ten million.
On Blue Star, ten million would’ve made it a mega-city, but Gangval Star’s surface area is ten times larger than Blue Star’s, so a mega-city here is just a small city by their standards.
At this moment—
Oak City, aerial port.
One micro and small spaceship after another lands and docks.
Boom—
The spaceship hatches open.
Tens of thousands of passengers file out from the ships.
Most of these “passengers” have faces marked by curiosity, anticipation, and a lingering hint of anxiety.
They all came from Promoter Plaza, just “newcomers” freshly ascended from the Low-dimensional Star System Wasteland Server.
A moment ago—
They boarded these spaceships and left the plaza.
This city called Oak is to be their first stop—
And maybe…
Also the place where they’ll live and work for the next ten or even several decades.
The old currency of Star System Wasteland, Civilization Source Points, aren’t valid here.
In their place: Wasteland Source Points.
The names are only two characters apart, but in reality, the difference is almost infinite.
“Our old mecha, warships, fortresses, spaceships…”
“All gone.”
“The moment we ascended, they disappeared completely.”
“They were all repossessed by the Wasteland game. What we got back was just a cold string of numbers, a string followed by ’Wasteland Source Points’—and the number is pitifully small…”
On the spaceship—
Yu Jin overheard quite a few people sighing.
Which is, indeed, the truth.
Just to pay for this spaceship “ticket,” quite a few promoted players had to go bankrupt, and some straight up went into “debt,” signing labor contracts to be worked off by future salaries.
Yu Jin, however, wasn’t one of those people.
Once he ascended, his Wasteland Source Points balance was unlocked as well.
[Wasteland Source Points: 5,800,000,000]
That number up there…
Not enough to compete for richest man on all Gangval Star, but keeping up with Oak City’s local tycoon shouldn’t be a problem.
After all—
From what Yu Jin had gathered, even a Super Large Fortress once owned by those promoted players was repurchased by Wasteland at just 1,000 Source Points.
And Super Large Fortresses were the highest and most precious resources on the Star System Wasteland Server.
If they’re worth only 1,000 Source Points, you can imagine the buyback price for fortress warships and the rest.
Not to mention…
Not every promoted player had been a Lord in their former civilization/faction.
Lords accounted for only a very small fraction of players.
And when a civilization’s warships got repossessed, the Source Points were credited to the Lord’s account.
The rest?
Maybe in Star System Wasteland they were generals or fort commanders—
But here, they’re just broke wanderers.
If your Lord was kind, you might get a few points.
If your Lord was greedy and tightfisted?
Then you’d have to sign an indenture contract—trade future labor just for a ticket to Oak City.
Of course—
Yu Jin didn’t need to worry about any of that.
On the contrary—
He was considering instead—
“If a Super Large Fortress is only worth 1,000 Source Points…”
“Can I smuggle home like dozens or hundreds of them and bring them back to the Drake-3 Star System Wasteland Server?”
As far as Yu Jin knew—
Fortresses can’t ascend dimensions.
Unless it’s like Dawn Fortress—equipped with a High-dimensional Super Large Fortress Core. That was something Yu Jin bought for 500 million Source Points in the Wasteland OL shop.
But…
Downgrading a fortress should be doable.
“Once I break through to Tier Twenty, I need to seriously research this.”
“If this actually works…”
“The day I return is the day Dawn Fortress dominates Star System Wasteland?”
This time Yu Jin’s Tier Twenty breakthrough in ascension was aimed at boosting his strength, in case Han Ling came after him later.
Tier Twenty is preparation.
More fortress warships? Also preparation.
“Both hands—grab them both, and grab them hard!”
“Let’s hit Tier Twenty for fun first!”
Yu Jin thought to himself, then strode forward and officially stepped into Oak City.
Back at Promoter Plaza, Yu Jin had already discovered—
He couldn’t just pop crystals to level up—not even though he owned over a dozen Tier Twenty Crystals.
He’d found out only after asking around—
In high-dimension, you can’t pop crystals to upgrade your Evolver tier.
To breakthrough, you have to log onto the Wasteland server—a.k.a. a Low-dimensional Server.
At first glance, it seemed pointless—like, Yu Jin literally just came here from the low-dimension.
But after digging for details, he realized there’s a difference.
Not all Low-dimensional Servers are the same.
The Drake-3 Star System Wasteland is truly low-dimension, but you can’t break through to Tier Twenty there.
The Wasteland server provided by the Ophelia Federation is under High Dimension, but “low-dimension” as defined here, and the tier cap is open up to Tier Twenty.
“Every promoted player, the very first thing they do here in the Federation: Get inside Wasteland and level up!”
“After all—”
“If you’re not even Tier Twenty, you’re not even qualified for Limitless!”
“No Limitless?”
“Then you’re a regular human, no extraordinary power at all!”
Yu Jin had just stepped into Oak City when he overheard someone shouting pretty much the thoughts running through his own head.
Yu Jin looked up, seeking the source of the voice.
The other just-arrived promoted players were all paying attention too.
Swoosh—
In everyone’s line of sight hung a huge advertisement display.
[Federation certified, official authority!]
[Exclusive Wasteland server, leveling-up services straight to Max Level Tier Twenty!]
[Fastest three months, as slow as three years!]
[Great price, guaranteed quality, worth having!]
“…”
Yu Jin was momentarily dazed.
Wow.
Here he was wondering how to even find a way to log onto Wasteland, and the advertisements are literally right in his face!
Even better…
That’s just one ad.
As Yu Jin and more new players arrived, Oak City Plaza was filling up with more and more shopkeepers hawking their own services.
“Not 198,000, not 178,000, only 118,000!”
“118,000 Source Points, straight to Max Level!”
…
“Don’t just walk by and miss out!”
“Professional escorts, super-grade leveling!”
“You just pop crystal and level up, we handle the rest!”
…
“Great price, only 128,000!”
“Interest-free installment plan—up to 360 payments!”
“Down payment as low as 28,000, Tier Twenty Max Level brought home today!”
…
The whole plaza was resonating with the sounds of hawking merchants.
The air was thick with that raw, earthy city-vendor vibe Yu Jin hadn’t felt back on Blue Star in years.
This scene was worlds apart from what Yu Jin had imagined of the High-dimensional Federation.
Except…
For the flying cars everywhere, and gleaming crystal-looking sci-fi architecture, anyway.
Otherwise, nothing was all that special.
“98,000?”
“Down payment 28,000?”
“That’s so expensive…”
Not far ahead, a young man was muttering to himself, face drained and bleak.
That was the same new guy from the plaza earlier, the one the Federation official had “pretended” to hassle but actually protected.
He was a Lord from his own civilization too, but clearly didn’t have much saved up—in fact, even 28,000 was worth a huge sigh.
A 28,000 down payment was equal to the buyback price for 28 Super Large Fortresses.
His civilization had ascended, but was ranked at the bottom. Before being promoted, they’d only ever owned barely twenty Super Large Fortresses total.
Let alone…
He’d also split close to half his Source Points among his subordinates.
Yu Jin’s gaze drifted away from the youth.
He paused where he stood, observed a bit.
And finally—
Picked a direction, and walked off.
“Hey?”
“New here, friend?”
“Want to check out our Max Level carry service?”
“We’ve got the best Wasteland server login pods—no one stealing your kills, no one grabbing your crystals!”
He’d arrived at the plaza’s center, the largest business there.
Why? Because…
Their crystal ad display was the biggest, and their prices the highest.
Yu Jin’s goal was speed and minimal hassle—get to Tier Twenty Max Level, fast.
So…
He’d rather spend extra Source Points than spend extra time.
“What’s the fastest I can log into Wasteland?”
Yu Jin cut straight to the point—no small talk.
The counter attendant—shortish, with half-transparent eyeglass frames—blinked.
“You’re not going to haggle?”
Yu Jin didn’t answer.
“…Oh.”
The short staffer blanked for a second, then snapped back.
He looked at Yu Jin with a slightly changed expression.
“You must’ve been a big boss, huh?”
“Can’t remember the last time someone just threw down 138,000 Source Points without haggling…”
He mumbled to himself, but his hands moved fast.
He led Yu Jin to a small spaceship parked at the edge of the plaza, which powered off into the deeper zone of Oak City.
About half an hour later—
Yu Jin stood before a skyscraper fully a kilometer tall.
“This is our corporate headquarters!”
“Uh… on the 19th floor!”
The short staffer had landed a big client, so though he wasn’t exactly deferential, he was at least a lot more polite now.
“Yeah.”
Yu Jin replied and strode inside.
Moments passed.
After a quick but a bit convoluted process—registering identity info, Federation system check-ins—
Yu Jin was led to a relatively spacious room.
In the center of the room rested a silver “capsule” about two meters long.
The staff explained that this was a Wasteland login pod, way higher-end and more comfortable than a helmet.
“Mr. Yu Jin,”
“Would you like to log in now, or…?”
“Rest up and come back to level another day?”
“We also provide accommodations—choose our leveling package and you’ll get ten percent off your room fee—”
Yu Jin waved and cut off the sales pitch.
Click—
The custom metal door shut.
The room fell silent.
Yu Jin scanned the area, flexed his Tier Eleven Unlimiter Perception, and, finding nothing off, headed toward the login pod.
On a little table in front of the pod was a stack of leaflets.
Inside, one could find usage instructions for the login pod, and which Wasteland server node to pick—the company’s escort trainers would be waiting at the designated coordinates.
“So annoying.”
“It’s just popping crystals in a different place…”
“But they managed to spin it into a full-on business system.”
Yu Jin let out a sigh and shook his head.
Ten minutes later—
He put down the instructions and laid down inside the pod.
Buzz—
The pod vibrated slightly.
Yu Jin’s vision dropped away into darkness.
[Player: Yu Jin!]
[Welcome to Wasteland!]
[Please select a server node!]
[…]
…
…
Oak City.
As Yu Jin logs into the Wasteland server to start his Max Level crystal-popping marathon—
Company tower, 19th floor.
The company boss—a guy in a gold-trim suit with shiny greased-back hair—was dazing at a semi-transparent screen in front of him.
On the screen: a long string of numbers.
“One, two, three, four, five, six…”
“Five… Fifty-eight hundred million balance…”
“You sure this isn’t a system error?!”
