“White Highlands, coordinates 55°E, 24°W. Those who understand, our gathering place goes by the code name ‘Berserker’. We are recruiting fighters with outstanding combat abilities. You won’t need to bring your own rations or weapon, and you aren’t required to provide any resources at all. As long as you pass our tests, we will be able to provide housing, weapons, food, and even women for you!”
“Looking to exchange moonlight grass in large quantities for any materials, including food, weapon, technological items, guns, and ammunition. Those who are interested in trading, please go to channel 411! We’re willing to do door-to-door service if you’re nearby!”
“Anyone interested in robbing the goblin caravan three days later? They have a lot of rations this time round! We can take advantage of the heavy snow and outnumber them to rob the caravan. Then, everyone will divide the resources according to their contributions so we can all get through the winter! Wouldn’t that be great?”
“Location XX. XX, we have found a new relic, and we urgently need a group of veteran adventurers. Those interested can tune in to channel 325 to discuss the details. You won’t have to worry about the reward. As long as you have strong capabilities, we can make things work!”
“Everyone should avoid the Backfire Gathering Place on the west coast. The manager of this gathering place is scum! He will spread fake news to attract you, then take all your supplies and try to get you to help them attract new people there, promising to give you back your stuff after a month.”
“Three high-level agricultural talents and five mechanical talents are urgently needed. We provide complete scientific research equipment, a scientific research environment, and the safest and most comfortable residence. If you are interested, please go to channel 228 for further details.”
“…”
After the radio decoding, countless messages could be heard with about 70% to 80% clarity even without the aid of the base station.
For a split second, the noises from the headphones made Su Mo feel as if he had entered a wet market in the age of modern civilization.
There were shouts and advertisements everywhere.
Without thinking too deeply, it even felt like shouts in a game’s chat channel.
‘Ha! After developing the modern network, radio communication was already gradually eliminated.
‘I never expected it to play such a big role in the doomsday wasteland!’
On one side, Su Mo could hear Zhang Biao’s gossip, and on the other side, he could hear the lively shouts on the radio channel.
He followed the instructions, tuned in to some of the private channels, and listened to their conversation for a while.
Su Mo was amazed and returned to the public channels.
“Shelter leader, most of the people in channel 145 are shouting en masse. You can try to switch to channel 433. There are many talented people there, and it’s very lively every day!”
“Oh?”
Su Mo muttered gently and raised his hand to turn the knob to channel 433.
“We’re quitting! We’re quitting! Everyone, listen carefully. The Moon Wolf Clan has refused to pay our wages for three days! It seems they’re planning to welch on their debts before the winter! This is a reminder to any brothers out there who plan to head over to work! Please beware!”
“Is anyone recruiting a small group of people? I have fifteen brothers here. We’re all great risk-takers! Are any reliable sources willing to introduce a place to us to survive the disaster? We’re willing to reward any tips of a good location!”
“By the way, hasn’t Almighty Su arrived in the New World? Why hasn’t he been spotted after so long? It would be great to find and join his territory!”
“The winter is coming. Stop making a fuss. Hurry and pack your things to prepare to get through the disaster. There hasn’t been any peace in most places for the past two days.”
“Are there any good brothers willing to share locations of ruins? You only have to provide us with the location and won’t have to be there physically when we open up the relics! We will still divide 20% of profits to you!”
“Exchanging food for guns, food for guns! Anyone willing to trade? If not, I’ll ask again later!”
“…”
There was still a bunch of nonsense in channel 433 compared to channel 145.
Moreover, there were far more foreigners than descendants of Huaxia.
There was a high probability that none of these people in the channel would be able to understand each other if it were not for the language translator provided by the game that had yet to expire.
“You guys have to filter through this information every day?”
After listening for more than ten minutes, Su Mo felt as if he had a headache and quickly took off his headphones to rub his temples.
Apart from the private channels that allowed a one-on-one conversation, the other public channels on the radio were swarms.
.
Moreover, each communication could not achieve a real-time conversation, and the shortest delay was about ten seconds.
This made communicating much more complicated, and it was hard to judge who was talking to whom and who was replying to which message.
It was like an information attack, and being experienced would hardly help to distinguish the useful and useless information.
Zhang Biao, who sat beside him, noticed Su Mo’s expression and quickly scratched his head embarrassedly.
“Ah! Shelter leader, you have it wrong. How could we understand even after listening to it every day if you don’t understand?” said Zhang Biao.
“It’s fine to listen to their nonsense and bragging when we’re free, but it becomes very annoying when we’re busy.
“We collect information through several Huaxia channels and the small channel we created ourselves in the village!”
Zhang Biao took out a small aluminum-cased notebook from his desk drawer. He maintained a neutral expression, but his voice was full of pride,
Gathering information seemed like a non-technical task.
They only had to switch channels, listen to information and record the important parts on paper.
In the villagers’ words, as long as you were a normal person without any serious mental problems, it was a task that anyone could perform.
They said that Zhang Biao and the other five people were fortunate to get such an easy job. If they had been slightly luckier, they would also be capable of doing it!
However, it took less than four days for Zhang Biao to prove to the other villagers that not anyone could do the job well!
“The information in the earlier days was very complicated and troublesome for us to gather. There was also significant difficulty in communicating with the people outside.
“We got together and planned to set up a small, basic knowledge channel first and got those who were talented to teach regularly for about twenty minutes each time.
“The classes didn’t cover much and they weren’t very technical, but most of the content was very practical for survival. Since we were the first to start such a thing, it only took a little over two days to attract a large audience that followed our channel regularly.
“Afterward, we used the crowd profiling to secondarily divide the audience attracted to us and integrated a total of three channels we collected information from.”
Zhang Biao’s approach was not unfamiliar.
When short video applications were trending in modern civilization, this tactic was called the matrix marketing method.
First, one would use all sorts of methods, including teaching basic principles, popping up on user feed, and other tactics as long as it attracted traffic.
In short, they had to set up an entrance for people to get introduced to their product.
Then, after the “user” walked through the entrance, they would continue to expand the exposure and advertisement through other means.
After the matrix link was completely formed, they would be able to find a way to realize their goals.
In modern civilization, their goals were to earn money from these fans.
In the doomsday wasteland, their goal was to squeeze out information from these fans.
The principal of the two was the same, and there was a slim difference in the means to achieve their goals.
After understanding the details from the people in front of him, Su Mo gestured in approval for Zhang Biao to continue his explanation.
“We set up three channels to facilitate better collection of information. Additionally, to make it convenient for other people to use, we did not make it complicated. The three channels are …
“The ruins adventure and combat channel, which we mainly selected some militiaman to explain combat knowledge and techniques, camouflage, how to fight in a small-scale battle when outnumbered, and other battle situations. We also deliberately shared instructions on what to do when one comes across ruins and the correct way to deal with them. Gradually, with more information shared on the channel, people started to share their experiences. From these people’s mouths, we screened out some suitable information and summed them up for subsequent sharing on the channel.
“We also have the farming and agriculture channel. This channel is much more audience-friendly than the previous one. It’s because there is a lower percentage of people in the New World who are willing to farm and cultivate plants. Otherwise, I would guarantee that the audience circulating on this channel would be several times higher than on the combat channel. Two days ago, we talked about protecting the soil and plants during the winter and how to construct a greenhouse. I made a rough calculation, and at least 300 people joined the class. The most important thing about this class is that through this channel, we’ve been able to gather precious information about the hot-selling products outside and the directions of caravans.
“Finally, we have the territory construction channel. This channel is the slowest in terms of growth among the three. In the beginning, we planned to attract a group of territory lords to the channel to allow a deeper level of communication with one another. However, these territory lords were shrewd freeloaders and only came for the information. After we shared about how to restore soil fertility and certain means to treat and heal villagers’ illnesses, they finished the class for free and left immediately when it ended without any extra words. We can only maintain the channel without any gains, and hopefully, it will earn better results in the future.”
Zhang Biao explained in detail, and Su Mo listened very attentively.
After one explanation, he was already clear on the functions of the three channels.
Channel number one, the combat channel, was mainly responsible for collecting regional information, figuring out the relationship between various forces, and collecting information on ruins as much as possible.
Channel number two, the farming channel, was mainly responsible for collecting information about the development situation, finding out the development speed of each collective, and some popular commodities in other places, to prepare the basin for future business trades.
Channel number three, the territory lord channel, was mainly responsible for exchanging confidential information, conveying information that was hard to share in other places, and building tighter cooperation and alliances.
“Great work. We shouldn’t give up on channel three. We not only have to keep it alive, but we also have to insist on sharing high-quality information.
“These freeloaders are also human. They’ll eventually feel embarrassed after they benefit for free in the long run. Our previous efforts will be worth it once they get embarrassed and reveal a little bit of information once!”
Su Mo immediately made the decision.
The villagers present nodded in agreement.
It was necessary to have a long-term vision in order to expand and become stronger in the wasteland.
They just needed one incredible stroke of luck to be able to achieve a huge gain which would be enough to change the current situation.
“Shelter leader, would you like to give a lesson?”
“We haven’t revealed it to be your territory yet. The channel would explode in no time if they knew!”
Zhang Biao was finally able to express the thoughts in his heart and he was relieved but nervous at the same time.
When the Information Department was established, Su Mo had implemented a policy not to reveal his identity yet and wanted to keep himself hidden for a while.
In the beginning, everyone agreed, thinking that without the Almighty Su as their banner, it would be much easier for them to collect and exchange information without attracting too much attention.
Reality proved them to be too naive.
In modern society, major brands allocate hundreds of millions of funds to the public relations department every year. They would not hesitate to give the advertisement department 30%- 40% of sales revenue.
The sole purpose was to increase brand value and appeal to a larger audience.
Those who have not experienced it would not understand what this appeal meant in the market.
Only those who have experienced it themselves understood how much trouble they would save with the “Almighty Su” as their signboard.
Su Mo did not give an outright rejection nor did he consent to it.
He gave it some thought and gradually shook his head.
“We’ll see. Right now is definitely not a good time. I will take the initiative to come over and let you guys know if the opportunity comes.”
It was like the broadcast on the sea. To achieve the best results, it would be best to pick a suitable time.
It was not shameful to use the Almighty Su as their appeal on the radio.
It was the complete opposite. The right opportunity would bring a series of development opportunities to the basin and maybe even win over a group of pro-Su Mo factions.
‘There are still too few people…
‘I’ve been staying in the basin, farming and developing behind closed doors while other people benefit from the ruins outside.
‘I need to think of a way to make some changes!’
Ruins.
Liangfang Town unconsciously popped up in Su Mo’s mind.
The Blazelanders have built countless big and small cities in the New World.
Some of these ruins have completely lost their outermost protection, and people who had discovered them were given the chance to explore and discover the insides.
Some were like Liangfang Town, hidden in the core of the controller, and had yet to lose the energy surrounding it. These ruins had great potential to be explored.
‘If only I could get the location of the big cities from Ma Fei…’
Su Mo was worried.
He was no longer in the mood to have fun conversations with Zhang Biao and the others.
Su Mo straightened up his collar after he instructed the team to monitor the changes in the channel and collect as much information as possible regarding the Great Mountain. Then, he immediately proceeded to open the door and walk out.
This time, he went straight to the village’s armed forces department to find Li Hu, who was drinking warm water as he pointed at the map, discussing with Su Deben.
“Marshal Wang has gone missing. Since entering the mountain, there has been no news for three days. We can’t continue waiting like this and must take action!”
As soon as he entered the door, Su Mo signaled everyone to leave, except for Li Hu and Su Deben, and went straight to the point.
He had given it careful consideration.
Su Mo decided to send a second group of people over, but not to enter the mountain. They would merely need to find out if the mountain had blocked out signal transmissions.
On the one hand, he came to this decision because the refugee population in the mountains was indeed the best and easiest group to recruit into the basin.
On the other hand, it was to ensure that when the winter came, while the people of the basin were fighting against the disaster, there would not be any potential group of people sneaking over to ambush them.
Seeing Su Mo’s cold expression, Li Hu immediately understood the importance of the situation and stood up.
“Okay, I’ll go make the necessary arrangements!”
“Let them drive Earth Tiger. One day should be enough. Be sure to return to the village before the heavy snowfall tomorrow night.”
Li Hu nodded. “Don’t worry, shelter leader! I am aware of the dangers!”
Once Li Hu’s word`s passed his lips, the planning room’s door was instantly pushed open as he left in a hurry, leaving only Su Mo and Su Deben sitting opposite of each other in the room.
Su Mo was deep in thought and did not speak for a while. Su Deben seemed to be pondering on something, and the room fell silent.
The kettle on the table had dense water vapor, and a mist surrounded it.
After a while, Su Deben realized Su Mo’s worries.
He listened to the movements outside for a while, then glanced at the map for a bit.
“Su Mo, you don’t have to worry too much. We can always find a way to recruit people, and we can always wait until we build a vehicle before we venture to the ruins,” Su Deben said uncertainly.
“Li Hu and I just discussed that if we picked up a few ruins left by our own people, it would definitely be much more valuable than those outside.”
“Our own people?”
Su Mo raised his head and glanced at Su Deben, puzzled by his statement.
This was the first time that Su Mo had shown confusion.
In a split second, Su Mo quickly realized that the people Su Deben mentioned were those of the Earth in the Butterfly Universe.
A bold idea suddenly flashed through Su Mo’s mind.
