The next day, Jiang Ling, donning protective gear and carrying her belongings, arrived at the waiting hall on the ground floor at around 8:00 AM. Several gates connected the area to the distribution center, resembling a passenger terminal hall, with rows of plastic seats, a glass-enclosed service area, and occasional voice announcements.
"Search teams needing to assemble at Exit A3, please arrive quickly. The isolation hatch is about to close!"
"Search teams needing to assemble at Exit C2, please arrive quickly. The isolation hatch will be closed in thirty minutes!"
Jiang Ling looked at the large digital screen flashing red, green and yellow, which showed all the isolation cabins that would be in operation today. The red ones were already closed or undergoing maintenance, the yellow ones would be closed within half an hour, and the green ones had not yet entered the countdown.
She needed to buy an object radiation detector, which was available at one of those service areas. The device looked like a thermometer gun, with a switch and a trigger. It was said to be able to operate for two hours in strong radiation, which was basically enough for use in the Yellow Zone. This small device cost her thirty points, and Jiang Ling hung it on her chest belt.
It was already late. By the time Jiang Ling finished her shopping and emerged from the service area, most of the isolation pods had already entered their yellow waiting time. Jiang Ling was alone, so she randomly chose the nearest one. It was Exit B1, which would close in about five minutes. She hurried over, arriving just before the final warning.
The isolation chamber had two doors. Opening either door required the other to be closed; otherwise, the chamber could not be opened. Inside the chamber wall, there was a two-meter-long, twenty-centimeter-wide observation window made of thick leaded glass. On the other side of the observation bed was the control room. The walls of the isolation chamber were covered with a quickly replaceable organic material that was somewhat soft to the touch.
When Jiang Ling entered the cabin, there were already more than a dozen people standing or squatting inside. Most of them had not put on helmets yet, and some were still talking and laughing.
"...It would be great if I could get the enhanced protective suits. That way I could go out at least three times a month! If the profit is good every time, then it would be a huge profit!"
"It's a bloody profit. Just getting a protective suit is hard. If you go out alone and encounter a mutant, you're lucky to come back alive. Do you think you're the protagonist of some game? The world doesn't revolve around you. Most of the time, no one will come to help you if you're injured, no one will rescue you if you're in danger, and you can't find a usable filter canister if it expires. If something happens to you, no one will kick you when you're down, which is considered a help. And you even saved your life last time, aren't you satisfied?"
"Forget about it. We're all just like you, with families to feed and elderly parents to support. If we hadn't learned any skills before, we would have found a job by now instead of doing this life-threatening job. Do you think you're amazing just because you took a stabilizer injection in advance and didn't die? Do you think you're amazing just because the stabilizer enhanced you into a superman? If you're so amazing, why don't you join the army like those people and fight mutants? Let me tell you, you're nothing! You're a guy who gets scared when he sees a saber-toothed beast, you're nothing!"
Jiang Ling finally understood what was going on. They weren't joking, they were mocking him. The mocked guy slowly retreated to a corner, while the rough guys burst into laughter, some booed, and even applauded. None of them were actually insulting, but some couldn't stand the huge gap between reality and imagination.
"Ding-ling-ling~ ahem! Everything is ready, it's time to close the door!" The sound of a loudspeaker rang out in the cabin, and a man sitting in front of the observation window spoke into a microphone.
Everyone stopped laughing and put their helmets on, tweaking them to make sure they were secure. Then, almost simultaneously, as if they'd rehearsed, they all installed both canisters onto their helmets, clicking loudly. Of course, some people only installed one, likely the site's surface maintenance personnel, whose protective gear even had a different color.
Jiang Ling followed them in putting on her helmet, realizing she was different. There were seventeen people in the cabin, and only she wore a reinforced protective suit. The caravan's description was true; this model was difficult to obtain.
The inner door was both electrically and manually controlled, while the outer door was purely manual. After the inner door closed, a few minutes passed before the control room personnel, seemingly finished their inspection, gave them another round of instructions and pressed the door-opening button. A few impatient men turned the steel wheel on the door, which continued for five minutes before a click was heard. The door slowly opened with a combined effort, the heavy alloy door sliding along the outer rails, occasionally making a harsh grinding sound.
A silvery-white scroll unfolded before Jiang Ling, and then she was drenched in the icy cold of the snow. She wiped the water from her eye lenses, realizing she'd forgotten something—a pre-war map.
"Hey! Do you have a map? It needs to be the one before the war!" She shouted hurriedly before these people left.
Everyone was shocked, and then two of them stopped and asked, "Do you want the pre-war map?" One of them took out a thick stack of paper photocopied maps from his backpack.
"I only have this kind of map here, and it's a black and white city map near the station. Ten points for one!"
"Okay, I'll take two. Are the highways marked on the map?"
"All of them. The three suburbs near the city are all on it, but the ink will smudge if it gets wet! We only put tape on the side with the map printed on it."
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