Chapter 210 - 209: Nail

Chapter 210: Chapter 209: Nail

"What’s a ’nail’?"

Gu Su didn’t understand the term, turning to Yuan Guang with clear confusion in his eyes.

Yuan Guang sighed, an expression on his face that said, ’I knew you wouldn’t get it.’

He leaned against the bar and started to explain in a low voice:

"When conquering a Game World, sometimes you run into a situation where a newly discovered world has none of our forces, no friendly factions, and not even a Newbie Village.

When players go in, they can’t even find a foothold, let alone any supplies.

Sleep in the wild? What if you get carried off by monsters? What if you starve? What if you’re attacked by enemies in the middle of the night?

That’s why someone needs to go in first and establish a point."

He paused, and seeing that Gu Su was listening intently, he continued.

"That’s when we need to arrange for a few players with Earth Type Golden Fingers to go in first.

They use their Golden Fingers to act as a temporary base. That’s the ’nail.’

They get hammered in first to secure a piece of territory, so that when the subsequent players arrive, they have a place to land.

Once they’ve conquered other cities or established their own forces, we can consider more in-depth strategic directions."

After hearing the explanation, Gu Su mulled it over for a few seconds before a term popped into his head.

"Oh, so it’s sort of like being cannon fodder."

He said this in a relaxed tone, clearly thinking he’d understood.

But Yuan Guang shook his head, a hint of exasperation on his face.

"That’s not it. Cannon fodder has to go to the battlefield, to fight for their lives.

A ’nail’ doesn’t necessarily have to fight. They just need to go over and hold a position."

Yuan Guang continued to explain, "You deploy your Golden Finger, set up a temporary base, and then just stay there, waiting for the other players to arrive.

Or, you get in good with the natives inside, take over a town, and open up contact with the outside to let other players in.

To put it bluntly, you’re just an early-game tool."

Hearing this, Gu Su pretty much understood.

Seeing that Gu Su got it, Yuan Guang added, "Basically, it just means temporarily unlocking a player’s Golden Finger to build a temporary base inside the game, to make it easier to deploy subsequent players.

After all, not every player has an Earth Type Golden Finger.

And even among Earth Type Golden Fingers, there are distinctions. Some are mobile, and some are stationary.

When some games are just starting out, players don’t have their own territory and run into all sorts of trouble.

That’s when some players with Earth Type Golden Fingers are needed to step up."

Gu Su nodded, now completely understanding the ins and outs of it. He turned his head to look at Li Li.

With her makeup removed, the girl looked much more refreshed. She was leaning against the bar, chin in one hand, watching him with great interest.

Her pure black bob cut framed a small, delicate face with refined features, but the composed and appraising look in her eyes suggested she was more than she seemed.

She seemed to be waiting for his answer, but also assessing his reaction.

Gu Su didn’t beat around the bush and asked directly, "What do I get out of it?"

A smile played on Li Li’s lips, as if to say, ’I was waiting for you to ask that.’

"Don’t you want a Golden Finger?" she said. "After this is done, I’ll give you a white-grade one. You can choose from ’Land, Methods, Companions, or Wealth.’"

Gu Su’s eyes lit up.

’A Golden Finger, and I get to choose?’ 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

If anyone else had said that, he would have dismissed it as bullshit.

But coming from this girl, it carried a different weight. Her father was the boss of DT-501, controlling the entire region with businesses spread all over the core district.

For a family like that, getting their hands on a white-grade Golden Finger really wouldn’t be difficult.

He quickly ran the calculations in his head.

’Be a nail, no fighting required, just hold a position and wait for other players to arrive.’

’The risk sounds low, and I get a Golden Finger out of it.’

’Compared to the time I was scammed into buying that crappy, grey-quality Golden Finger, this deal is an absolute steal.’

’As long as she isn’t after my body, it’s fine.’

"Okay." He agreed immediately.

Li Li nodded, seemingly pleased with his decisiveness.

She reached out and slapped the bar, and two items landed in front of Gu Su.

The first was a palm-sized metal badge engraved with a menacing skull.

The shape of the skull was rather unique; if you looked closely, you’d see it was formed from the outline of a mushroom cloud.

The cloud, rising from an apocalyptic nuclear blast, twisted into the shape of a skull. Its edges had patterns like radioactive fallout, exuding the rugged air of a doomsday wasteland.

The second item was a card, similar in material to a hotel key card, with some incomprehensible patterns and numbers printed on its smooth surface.

"We leave in three days," Li Li said, her tone as casual as if she were commenting on the weather. "Spend the next few days getting your territory in order. Make whatever repairs and patches are necessary.

Also, this—" she pointed to the card, "—build it ahead of time."

Gu Su picked up the key card, and a string of information popped up before his eyes.

[Doomsday Tavern Blueprint (White): A blueprint for constructing a Doomsday Tavern (Hotel). After learning, you can build it in your Mobile City by consuming the required materials.]

[Doomsday Tavern (White): Use 10 units of Wood, 10 units of Stone, and 10 units of Metal to build one Doomsday Tavern in a designated location (minimum area of 5 by 5 meters).

Once built, it can provide ten individual beds (for other players to live in and enter/exit the game normally).]

Gu Su stared at those few lines of text, stunned for several seconds.

’Ten individual beds?’

He looked up, first at Li Li, then at Yuan Guang beside her, his gaze filled with obvious confusion.

"Ten players?" Gu Su asked, a little speechless.

Li Li nodded without a word, simply lifting her glass and taking another sip.

Gu Su’s mind was in turmoil.

He had thought that being a "nail" this time would mean building some kind of large base to accommodate dozens, even hundreds of people.

’But it’s just ten beds?’

’She’s going to all this trouble just to ensure the safety of ten players?’

’This isn’t right.’

’With her family’s power, couldn’t she just find any random player with an Earth Type Golden Finger to do this?’

’Why pick me, a newcomer she just met?’

He opened his mouth, wanting to ask something, but he didn’t know where to begin.

Yuan Guang watched from the side, his expression subtle, as if he knew something but couldn’t bring himself to say it.

He glanced at Li Li, then at Gu Su, and finally just picked up his own glass and silently took a drink.

Li Li, on the other hand, looked completely unfazed. Her fingers tapped lightly on the rim of her glass, and her gaze swept over Gu Su, as if she were either waiting for him to figure something out or didn’t care what he was thinking at all.

Gu Su looked down at the two items in his hand, his mind a whirlwind of thoughts.

Finally, he glanced one more time at Yuan Guang and Li Li before putting the two items away. He raised his head to meet Li Li’s gaze and nodded.