I'm playing Frostpunk in Arknights

The screen dimmed, and Wang Zhan caught a glimpse of his still-handsome face. Perhaps it was because his company had just declared bankruptcy, and his once-thriving life had plunged into a deep abyss. Although young, his brows now carried a hint of gloom.

Currently, he could only make a living by testing games for others.

Frostpunk, developed by 11bit Studios, depicted the societal reconstruction process under extreme cold conditions. This was the game Wang Zhan was tasked with testing, though it was just one of its DLCs.

Taking a deep breath, he noticed the loading icon in the bottom-left corner had stopped spinning. The game had finished loading but stuttered slightly. Considering the DLC was privately developed, the lack of smooth performance was expected.

[Survivor Mode Activated.]

Wang Zhan felt a jolt of dread. Survivor Mode meant the game couldn't be paused and came with an extreme difficulty level—a daunting challenge for someone like him, who had only just started playing. The game was already notoriously hard and incredibly frustrating.

Who would have thought that, in a setting with temperatures plummeting below minus 100 degrees Celsius, people would still have duels and go searching for chickens?

After finishing the A New Home storyline, the developers even had the audacity to end it with a question: "Was it all worth it?"

Having seen the diversity of human nature, Wang Zhan merely sneered. He called his boss, hoping to switch to another game for testing, but was predictably rejected.

"Fine," he thought. "Maybe I was being a little too headstrong."

[A mysterious tower has suddenly appeared on the Ursus Northern Plains. The temperature has plummeted, and storms rage around the energy tower. While we can't confirm whether this land has plunged into an eternal frost, one thing is clear: we must survive the incoming storm and natural disasters.]

Clicking on the screen, the camera zoomed down from the sky, revealing a black energy tower sitting in a gorge. The gorge stretched north to south, with a nearly circular clearing in the middle. On one side of the circle lay an abandoned village. Birch forests covered the southern edge, while the northern entrance was narrow.

[We need manpower to activate the generator. It will provide heat and energy, becoming a refuge in this frozen wilderness against the coming cold.]

Great. No manpower—starting from scratch. Kind of like his current situation. Wang Zhan clicked "Confirm," and the game officially began.

[Use the Recruitment System to gather manpower.]

The taskbar in the bottom-left corner puzzled Wang Zhan since this feature didn't exist in the original game.

He found the "Recruit" button above the population count in the bottom-right corner. Just as he was about to click it, he noticed a small figure standing beneath the energy tower, looking up curiously at it.

The figure was a girl with deer-like antlers, wearing an old-fashioned long dress and holding a fruit basket in her arms. Wang Zhan moved his mouse wheel to get a better look at her face. The camera instantly zoomed in, and the girl filled the screen. Her delicate face was full of confusion.

"Strange, when did this structure appear here?"

The NPC spoke!

Wang Zhan's interest was piqued. Clicking on the NPC, he opened her information panel. Her name was Alina, and her current occupation was listed as "Teacher."

Could his boss have integrated advanced AI into this DLC, allowing NPCs to communicate autonomously? The girl's lively eyes showed no trace of stiffness; she seemed almost lifelike.

Was this really just game AI?

Alina looked around, then approached the generator, placing her hand on its metallic surface. The cold texture satisfied her, reminding her of descriptions of Victoria's high-speed terrestrial warship in her books. The structures shared a similarly icy touch.

A look of longing appeared on her face.

Wang Zhan exclaimed, "Amazing!"

"Who? Who's there?"

The girl's startled voice came through his headphones. She blushed and scanned her surroundings. The thought of someone catching her daydreaming about a giant metal structure was mortifying.

Outside the screen, Wang Zhan was even more shocked. The NPC could hear him and respond so naturally? Was this really a game he was meant to test?

Just the free dialogue system alone would have made him willing to spend money on it.

"What? I've been discovered? Hmph, as expected of an Elafia—so sharp-eyed."

The reply to Alina's question didn't come from Wang Zhan. A group of people emerged from the birch forest and surrounded her. Wang Zhan's face filled with disbelief—could the NPCs actually rob people in this game?

"What do you want?" Alina asked.

The burly man with bear-like ears leading the group glanced at the generator. He seemed to recognize it as something belonging to the Ursus elites. "We're starving. Can you give us your basket of fruit?"

Such a polite request—wasn't this just robbery?

Wang Zhan observed silently, thinking this might be part of the storyline, which would provide a solution eventually.

"No… this is for the guerrillas," Alina said firmly. She hoped the name of the Patriot's Guerrillas—renowned protectors of the Infected—would deter the group. They had always been respected by the Infected, and invoking their name should earn her some understanding.

The leader, whose hand bore Oripathy crystals, scowled. "Guerrillas? So you're one of them!"

His face twisted with anger as he pointed at her. "Good! You're not getting away today!"

Alina's complexion paled, but she bravely declared, "These are just fruits! If you're starving, the guerrillas can provide food for you!"

"Food? They threw us out with nothing but empty promises! Damn that Talulah—she said we'd never go hungry!"

Alina fell silent. She knew she had no way to reason with them. Backed against the energy tower, she clutched the fruit basket tightly, searching for an opening to escape.

The situation was dire. Even if she surrendered the basket, her fate wouldn't change.

Wang Zhan sighed. Of course, it was up to him to help.

But he couldn't find a way to intervene.

Was this scene meant to highlight the harshness of the world?

As expected of the developers. They loved adding these bleak twists.

Wang Zhan searched for a "skip cutscene" button. Watching a murder wasn't exactly his idea of entertainment.

[Interact with NPCs. This game features AI capable of free dialogue. Use your microphone to assist the game's progression and influence the storyline. Enable your microphone and try speaking with the NPC.]

...What?

Wang Zhan glanced at his microphone, hesitated, and then nervously said, "Uh… hello?"

Alina froze upon hearing the voice. In the tension of the moment, her overheating brain misinterpreted the voice as authoritative and powerful. She felt as though she had grasped at a lifeline.

But the attackers didn't stop advancing.

Desperation filled her eyes as she scanned her surroundings for the source of the voice. Beyond the energy tower and the encroaching robbers, there was only the snowy wilderness and towering cliffs. It was impossible for anyone to be nearby.

Her faint hope was quickly extinguished, tears welling up in her azure eyes. Yet she still defiantly glared at the robbers.

Outside the screen, Wang Zhan was speechless. Only Alina could hear him? This game's mechanics were absurd.

If he could talk to Alina, it meant she was an important NPC. But without a clear way to save her…

It must be a bug! Restarting should fix everything.

No restart button.

Damn it!

[Recruitment System: Select individuals within the energy tower's range to form your initial workforce.]

A solution at last!

Wang Zhan opened the Recruitment System. A list appeared, showing wandering Infected, Shieldguards, peacekeepers, vagrants, Kal'tsit, the Emperor's Blade, and royal researchers. The wandering Infected were listed as being very close to the tower.

Recruiting these robbers as his workforce would stop their violence.

[Recruitment requires meeting specific conditions. If conditions are met, recruitment will succeed.]

Wang Zhan marked all the names of the wandering Infected, selected them, and clicked "Recruit."

[Recruitment successful. You now have your first group of citizens. Begin constructing the energy tower and build an automated city to explore this unfamiliar land.]

The population count in the bottom-right corner rose to 16. Wang Zhan smirked.

These thugs had fallen into the hands of a former capitalist. He had plenty of ways to deal with them.

Right or wrong didn't matter—it was just a game, after all.

"Get to work, my people!"

.