The canteen in Area 1 of the University Town was a huge one, but it was bustling with people. Not only were there survivors and their companions dining together, but there were also many smaller mutant animals, such as mutant birds and mutant dogs, who also entered the canteen with their own plates in their mouths. Each of them had a small bag containing points tickets hanging around their necks, and they stood in front of the canteen window like the survivors, queuing up while waiting for the canteen aunt to serve them their meals and collect their tickets.
The survivors who had just joined the Zootopia survival base were quite shocked when they first saw the fire, but as time went on, the fire developed a habit of changing the color of their faces, and they even found the scene a bit funny and reassuring.
The cafeteria aunties are so familiar with the mutant animals that they don’t need to communicate much with them. Just by looking at their waving wings and their gazes, the aunties can accurately judge what set meal they want today.
Chen Peng glanced at La Tiao, who was carrying his own plate to buy food. He felt like his dog might run away if he kept this up. The reason he and La Tiao had originally partnered up was because La Tiao had a stomach problem and needed to eat cooked food. But now, La Tiao could use his points ticket to buy cooked food in the cafeteria without any help from him, choosing a delicious meal. This had been making Chen Peng restless lately.
"What are you looking at? Looking at Latiao again? Brother, let me tell you, whether this mutant dog stays or leaves is none of your business. Latiao earns more than you every day and eats better than you. If it turns around and finds a bitch to marry and has puppies, you will be a burden to its family. You, a grown man, can't live on a corgi, right?" When Chen Tong saw that his brother had to turn into a 'dog-watching stone' every day, he immediately patted Chen Peng on the shoulder and comforted him perfunctorily without any brotherly love.
The two siblings, along with five or six members of Chen Peng's team, had been at the Animal City Survival Base for nearly half a year. At first, they felt a little uncomfortable, perhaps because they had lived in the dark, chaotic underground shelter for so long. They weren't used to being woken by the birds early, nor were they accustomed to the city's point system. They were even more unaccustomed to the unmanned mutant animals roaming freely within the base. They worried about the large mutants accidentally biting them.
After all, before the outbreak of the virus, walking a puppy without a leash was illegal.
Not to mention that these cats and dogs have become huge beasts nowadays, and it is no problem for them to feed an adult at a time.
Even though the survival base's small radio told everyone every day not to worry about mutant animals hurting people and that there would be a mutant animal law enforcement team, everyone was still quite frightened. At that time, Chen Tong felt that he was frightened much more often every day in the base than when he lived in the underground shelter.
But humans are animals with a strong ability to adapt.
In just less than a month, a group of people went from living in fear every day to...
#Holy crap! This mutant animal has a higher IQ than me and can even solve high school geometry problems! Could it be that I'm the one with the mental retardation? #
#It’s so unfair! There’s a parrot that knows eight different languages! And even knows dialects from different ethnic groups! And there’s a tall bird right next to me! #
#Mutated animals actually have to go to school?! Is this a decline in morality or social progress? #
#Today I went out to work, and when I came back, a mutant dog passed by me, holding its nose, its face full of disgust. QAQ! Human: I thought I was the mutant animal's backup food. I didn't expect the clown to be me! #
In short, to sum up.
After only about a month, Chen Tong finally understood why this survival base was called the Zootopia Survival Base. He also realized that the mutant animals that had previously been avoided could actually coexist peacefully with humans, living in the same survival base like neighbors!
Every day I take my points ticket to the cafeteria to buy breakfast, then go to the mission hall to pick up today's mission, or follow the mission team to clean the streets, etc. Although I am busy every day, I feel at ease.
Half a year ago, Chen Tong couldn't even believe that one day she would be able to take the bus again in Xingyue City and travel through the city's main roads!
so……
Although such a comfortable life has led to Latiao having her own job and having to go to school every day, and no longer being with her brother 24 hours a day like before, it is still great that she can live peacefully in a spacious and bright room every day without having to worry about mutant beasts attacking in the middle of the night!
"Hehe, brother, don't be too sad. After all, you are an old man in the survival base, and you know the rules of the base. There is no such thing as a master-pet relationship now. Those who are willing are called living together and are companions. Those who are unwilling and want to start a family are called friends and neighbors. We are all residents of the base city with the same status and position. We can't stop each other from living our own lives, right?" Perhaps because his brother's expression was too difficult to describe, Chen Tong cleared his throat and comforted him again, this time with a lot more seriousness.
"I heard from our captain a few days ago that the base leaders have been discussing the establishment of a beast language academy. Not only will all mutant beasts need to go to school and understand our daily language, they will also recruit some human students to learn the languages of other mutant beasts. Also, they say they will popularize the common expressions of the eight major mutant animal tribes to all survivors in the base."
"If you are really worried about Latiao and want to live with him in the future, you should at least know how to speak dog language, right? Otherwise, when the school is built, I will enroll you in a dog language academy?" Chen Tong actively gave advice to his elder brother, and his look was extremely enthusiastic.
Although she didn't want to learn to bark like a dog, the number of mutant dogs and wolves in the base city was huge, and the job prospects were vast! They heard that if you learned dog talk, you could almost learn wolf talk, too. It was said that the difference between dog talk and wolf talk was like the difference between British and American English. Her brother had to seize this great opportunity!
Chen Peng: “…”
Chen Peng silently withdrew his gaze from the dog. He thought being friendly neighbors with Latiao was actually quite nice. He should let Latiao go to school and learn human Mandarin while he continued to be a heartless worker. He hadn't even passed the English test at the police academy. He had already graduated from university so many years ago. Why was he still going to phonetics school? Wouldn't that ruin his reputation? No, wouldn't that be harmful?
"Tongtong, you're overthinking it. I'm not reluctant to part with Latiao... I just think he's so handsome, it's time to arrange a blind date and find him a wife. Look at the dog in Zhang Hu's house in Community 6? They have a tricolor corgi, and a pretty little girl."
Chen Tong was stunned to see that his brother's expression immediately changed when he talked about going to college.
Chen Tong: You are indeed my brother!
"Hehe, Brother Chen, what are you two siblings still talking about? If we don't eat soon, the captain will deduct our points! I heard your team leader say last night that we are going to Jiangbei He'an Community today. The person in charge there communicated with our base two days ago and said that it will be merged into the base. We have to clear the roads in advance and then arrange people to go to the new community in the base." Gangzi came up with a big bowl of soybean paste cakes and a smile.
Due to the difference in physical strength between men and women, and the fact that everyone knows different things, Chen Peng's team automatically disbanded shortly after entering the base city. Chen Peng and La Tiao joined the cleaning team, Chen Tong joined the cleaning team, and Gangzi, relying on his ability to repair sewer pipes and electrical lines at home, directly joined the power team, specializing in repairing and building new community electrical lines.
The city has undergone tremendous changes in recent years. Not only have many houses in the community collapsed due to the sudden growth of mutant plants, but many habitable houses have also had their water and electricity cut off and need to be rebuilt.
"It's been half a year, how come your power team still hasn't finished laying half of the circuit lines? I heard that they have only finished laying the east and south districts, and the central street. The communities that were merged to the north and west in the past two months have not been completed yet?" Chen Peng didn't worry about whether Latiao would forget him after he got married. He turned around and talked to Gangzi about the construction of the base city.
Ever since the base advertisements floated all over the Star-Moon City like snowflakes, free of charge, almost every shelter that was tortured and lived in fear every day chose to join the base city. At first, the number of shelters willing to merge into the base city in the first month could be counted on ten fingers, but after three months, when the crops in the cultivated fields, flower beds and green belts grew and matured, and everyone was immersed in the joy of the harvest, the number of shelters willing to automatically join the survival base every month had reached more than one hundred, and sometimes there were even more than ten shelters willing to merge into the survival base every day.
At that time, everyone was really busy. They had to arrange for the survivors of these shelters to integrate into the base, and also arrange personnel to clean up the streets in the communities where these shelters were located and open up new land for planting.
If there weren't a lot of talented people in these shelters and the top leaders of the survival base were not good at knowing how to use people, the physics professor who arrived almost in the afternoon of the first day would have been able to bring people to the research institute the next day to re-plan the thermal power plant for the base.
I'm afraid it's impossible to reopen thermal power plants, water plants, hospitals and other infrastructure at this moment.
"Oh no! Our team would like to speed up, but don't we still have to buy the wires and other things from the Longquan Survival Base next door? So it's better to go to the water pipe team. The water plant over there already has quite a few water pipes, and they can also patch things up. Now that what needs to be done has basically been done, the only things left are those that have not yet been incorporated into the survival base." Gangzi munched on a soybean paste pancake.
But Gangzi chewed a few mouthfuls and chuckled again: "But our slow pace has its advantages. Although the points are slightly lower than those over there, I guess after they finish their work, they will have to go and build the city wall with another group of people."
Despite the huge number of mutant animals in their survival base, no other foreign mutant animals dare to approach it on weekdays. However, there are always those brave mutant beasts, brainless ferocious beasts, and some people from the periphery who are not residents of Animal City, who always peek in and try to sneak into the base.
In peacetime, it would be fine if the highway toll booths were blocked, but how could it be possible in times like this? We still have to build a wall like other survival bases.
"Let's go! Everyone's eating so slowly, we're almost late for the bus! We still have to get electricity to Yuewei Community today! We in Group 7 can't lose to the other two guys in the power group!"
Before Gangzi could continue talking to Chen Peng, he was slapped on the head. The leader of the power team 7, who was wearing a safety helmet, tanned all over, and carrying a large bundle of wires on his back, shouted at his team members.
"Why are all the captains so angry nowadays? The leader of our cleaning team was the same yesterday. He slapped me on the shoulder and it hurt so much that I grimaced." Chen Tong subconsciously touched his forehead. He felt that the slap Gangzi received was like a hit on his own head.
Even though the cleaning crew was mostly women, they had developed powerful arms from brushing and bathing the mutant animals. With such strength in their arms, ordinary men wouldn't necessarily be able to defeat them.
Chen Peng: “…”
Chen Peng glanced at his sister and slowly looked away, then asked Latiao, who had just returned from breakfast, to eat at the same table with him.
Although Latiao is just a dog, as a mutant animal, Latiao's physical strength and combat ability are much stronger than his master, and he earns many more points than him every day. Therefore, Latiao's breakfast every day is more sumptuous than his.
Chen Peng looked at the simple starch pancake in his bowl, then looked at the two large insect burgers in the spicy strips bowl next to him, and chewed his own pancake without any appetite.
There is no way. Although the name of the insect burger sounds bad, the burger itself is actually made of fried grasshoppers coated with starch as filling, and then topped with lettuce leaves and tomatoes. It is crispy when you bite it, and has a strong meaty aroma.
These mutated grasshoppers, which are grown specifically to feed on mutated plants, are each as big as a fist. After their internal organs are cleaned, coated with starch and fried, they taste no different from shrimp meat when chewed.
At first, Chen Peng wasn't quite used to eating the mutant insects. He even thought that raising insects to supplement protein for the upper levels of the base was completely out of his mind! Even if he died of starvation and thirst, he would never eat these insect feasts!
But when the mutant animals started buying insect burgers and fried insects one by one, the rich aroma of meat wafted throughout the cafeteria, and the survivors who had remaining points couldn't help but buy a few to try.
Once there is the first one, there will be a second one. Except for some survivors who really cannot accept the mutated insects, many people in the base also like insect delicacies like the mutated animals.
However, compared to mutant animals that can easily bite through steel plates with their teeth, ordinary survivors prefer to eat insects with softer skins such as cicada pupae and stick insects.
"Woof!" (Pengpeng, do you want one?)
When Latiao saw Chen Peng staring at him, his eyes seemed quite resentful. He tilted his head and thought for a while, then pushed his plate over.
"No, you eat it yourself. I'll eat this..."
The delicious insect burger, with its rich wheat aroma mixed with the smell of meat filling, kept going from the tip of Chen Peng's nose into his nasal cavity. Chen Peng touched his nose and felt too embarrassed to snatch the food from his dog. He tried hard to retract his greedy gaze and said with difficulty.
"Woof!" (If you don't want to eat it, I'll eat it myself!)
When Latiao saw his plate being pushed back, he happily shook his big furry butt and dove into the plate, eating it happily with a crunching sound.
"Let's go, let's get to work, let's get to work! Those who are cleaning the He'an Community in Jiangbei today, hurry up and follow me! Those who haven't taken the bus to the He'an Community by 8:30 will have ten points deducted today!" As the cleaning team began to appear in the cafeteria, the people who led the team shouted for help, and a series of wailing from the team members followed one after another.
"Wow, captain, are you going too far? Even if we take the bus from here to He'an Community, it will take at least 30 minutes, and I haven't even finished my bun yet!"
"You still have points to buy dried bamboo shoots and worm buns, which means you have plenty of points. If you dare to be late today, your points will definitely be deducted!"
“Hua La La~”
A group of people who needed to go to work quickly stuffed the last bit of breakfast into their mouths and stood up to wash the dishes. No one wanted to be left behind. Although 10 points may not be much, it is enough for their food expenses for the day!
…
Xingyue City Jiangbei He'an Community, next to Hexing Community.
Several young people, whose clothes had been washed to a pale color, were craning their necks to look towards the He'an Community.
One of the young men with a crew cut and wearing a pink shirt looked with envy at the survivors who kept walking into the Nenghe'an Community, holding various tools in their hands and followed by mutant animals.
"Brother Fan, look at the people in the He'an Community shelter. They've all been incorporated into the Animal City Survival Base. They're all smiling so happily. Are we really just going to watch and do nothing? The people in this Animal City Survival Base have no worries about food and clothing. They're very powerful. Dear..."
The young man in the pink shirt looked eagerly at his boss. "I think it's a good idea to merge into the Zootopia Survival Base. Otherwise, if we keep waiting like this, maybe everyone in our shelter will run away before we can even merge into the Zootopia Survival Base."
As early as half a year ago, the reputation of the Animal City Survival Base spread throughout the streets and alleys of Xingyue City along with the flyers that fell from the sky.
However, not many people were interested at first, after all, no one knew whether the Zootopia Survival Base was really reliable.
However, as time went by, more and more people joined the Animal City Survival Base, and the proportion of survivors in Star Moon City who knew about this survival base became larger and larger. Some shelters that were about to go bankrupt chose to join the survival base without hesitation, including their people and land.
"You think I haven't thought about this in the last few months?"
The young man with a scar on his face, known as Brother Fan, sighed and helplessly looked at his companion as he explained, "I've asked others before. This Animal City base is different from other survival bases. All mutant animals there are treated as citizens of the base."
"This isn't a bad thing. Isn't my Da Huang a mutant? But the problem is that they only accept warm-blooded mutants... like cats and dogs. Cold-blooded mutants are not within their protection range at all."
"I suspect that we may have just joined the Zootopia Survival Base in the last second. In the next second, Dahuang's family will be in trouble and eaten by other mutant beasts." Brother Fan sighed, and the helplessness in his eyes was almost turning into reality.
Before the virus outbreak, Brother Fan was just an ordinary white-collar worker, his favorite hobby being pets like lizards and ball pythons. However, after the outbreak, only Da Huang, a ball python, and his family of five remained. Perhaps because they were naturally attached to their owners, even after the mutation, Da Huang and his family still had low IQs, they were willing to follow his command and protect the sanctuary.
However, it is precisely because of this that the entire Hexing Community shelter was built on Dahuang's family. If Dahuang could not join the Zootopia Survival Base, how could Brother Fan, as the leader, abandon the ball python family of five and bring the survivors of the shelter to join the survival base alone?
Putting aside other things, Brother Fan and his family's feelings for the ball python Dahuang over the past three years are genuine.
"Brother Fan, don't worry so much. Everything will work out when the time comes. Why don't we go ask them first? Dahuang and his family are so powerful, there's no reason why the Zootopia Survival Base wouldn't want them to join. If you're worried about Dahuang and his family biting people, we can assure the survival base leaders that they won't cause any trouble. As for what you said about them being eaten by other mutants... that shouldn't happen. I heard that the survivors and mutants at the Zootopia Survival Base all have ID tags on their bodies, so they can recognize each other."
"As long as we are careful and try not to bring Da Huang and his family around those mutant lions and wolves, other mutant animals will have no way to deal with Da Huang."
The scarred man seemed moved by his companions' words. He thought for a moment, gritted his teeth, and nodded, "Alright! Let's go ask them now. If all else fails, you can take the remaining survivors from the base to join them. I'll take Da Huang and the others out of Xingyue City!"
The Animal City Survival Base had been quite active over the past six months, encompassing over 90 percent of Star-Moon City. While their Hexing Community wasn't located in the city center, as part of Star-Moon City, it already had a significant presence within the city. They certainly didn't want to see a refuge like this lying around outside of Animal City.
"Brother Fan! Don't be like this! If their base really doesn't want to accept us, I will leave with you!" Although he really wanted to join the Zootopia Survival Base, the young man in the pink shirt was more willing to trust the boss who had lived with him for many years.
"That's right! Brother Fan, I'm going with you too!"
"I'll go with you, Brother Fan!"
Several other young men also had red eyes and swore at the scarred man.
"Nonsense! You have family living here, why are you coming with me? Besides, they might really be willing to accept Dahuang's family." This time it was Brother Fan who turned around and persuaded everyone.
After a few people talked to each other, they finally decided to go together to inquire about joining the Zootopia Survival Base!
…
Base leader's office.
A little girl, about fifteen or sixteen years old, with a ponytail, was wearing a pair of blue denim overalls and a white T-shirt with a pink face printed on it, making the girl look particularly energetic and lively.
"What? The Hexing Community Shelter in the north wants to be incorporated into our survival base? Then can't we just incorporate them according to the old rules?"
"You said the other leader's mutant beast is a ball python? Then tell him that the mutant snake can walk in the city and have its own resident ID card, but he must ensure that his mutant snake cannot attack any official residents in the survival base, not even mutant rats! Otherwise, we have the right to arrest the mutant ball python and expel him from the survival base."
Xia Runrun was reviewing the base documents delivered today while speaking to Chu Hang without raising her head.
In just half a year, Xia Runrun captured the hearts of many furry creatures with her charm (?), and used this ability to recruit (cheat?) many survivor residents. Except for a few shelters that were not willing to be incorporated into the survival base for the time being, other matters of the base were almost on track.
Even the picture guide shows that it has increased from two stars and an overall score of 63 six months ago to the current five stars, 49.145.
Even though the base city is now a five-star, its overall rating is only 49.145, a long way from passing. However, the entire base's population has already reached 2.86 million! The base city's area has expanded to 12,322 square kilometers.
Thermal power plants, water plants, solar car routes, primary and secondary schools, textile factories, hospitals, market trading areas and other infrastructure, almost all of which can be done nowadays, have been fully developed in the base city, and some places have even developed to a level that is not much different from before the virus outbreak.
But after reaching this point... the comprehensive score of the base city is almost impossible to increase.
If her total points could increase by 0.01 every day, she would burn incense and pray to Buddha.
Xia Ruanruan was thinking, should she wait until she established the University of Animal Language, then rebuild the city's communications, open an exclusive TV station belonging to the Animal City base, and then set up a police station, a regulatory bureau, etc., only then could her points continue to rise.
After all, it took less than three months to upgrade from a two-star base city to a four-star base city, but now it is almost four months from four stars to five stars, and there is no sign of any upgrade.
But it really made Xia Runrun so worried that her hair turned white. She even lost the heart to admire the handsome guy Chu Hang.
Chu Hang: “……?”
Chu Hang always felt that the girl in front of him suddenly exuded a strong negative energy as she spoke.
Could it be that his job as a 'secretary' is not up to standard?
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