Chapter 12: Work-for-relief, natural disaster threat!
Since he had been arranged to "die" at the North-South Expressway Post, Cheng Ye simply skipped work and was too lazy to even call the checkpoint to ask for leave.
The North and South stations are managed by the East and West factions respectively.
The central checkpoint is managed by two factions in rotation. Today it is the turn of He Fei, the duty station chief of the Eastern faction.
"Stationmaster He, there is a sudden situation here. I may not be able to report to the checkpoint for the time being..." Before Cheng Ye finished speaking, He Fei's hearty laughter came from the receiver, mixed with the intermittent beeps of the communicator in the office.
"Cheng Ye, Station Chief Ding just mentioned you to me. Don't worry, the express post carries a heavy responsibility, and it's not easy for a newcomer to take on this responsibility. So, I'll give you vacation until the day after tomorrow. Prepare well and don't let Station Chief Ding and everyone else down!"
He Fei deliberately emphasized the word "expectation".
The implication is obvious: you can take leave to prepare, but don't think of taking leave to avoid going to the fast-track post.
"Okay, thank you for your understanding, Station Master He. I will be at my post on time."
After exchanging a few pleasantries and hanging up the phone, Cheng Ye didn't expect that he would have one more day off. The originally tight preparation time suddenly became ample.
I fetched some water and washed my face. The cool water splashed on my face, washing away the fatigue from a sleepless night.
After staring at the mirror for a long time, Cheng Ye suddenly forced a smile.
Suddenly arriving in this strange wasteland, everything familiar around him disappeared in an instant, including friends, relatives, social relationships, and especially the changes in his appearance. This made him feel a huge sense of emptiness and unreality, as if he was wandering outside the world.
There was also a voice in my heart shouting: What's the point of struggling? Just give up. Giving up may allow me to return to the familiar Earth immediately and no longer have to be trapped in this man-eating wasteland, struggling in vain in suffocation.
This idea continued to ferment over time.
As a result, for the past two months, Cheng Ye often woke up from nightmares, stood by the window, went to the rooftop, and wanted to try to "reopen" more than once.
But now, he suddenly found that all those thoughts in his mind had disappeared.
It seemed like just last night, as his strength grew, it disappeared completely.
What was even stranger was that when he stared at himself in the mirror, countless new thoughts popped into his mind:
He suddenly realized that he seemed...
Suddenly feel a little bit like this world?
A little reluctant to leave?
It's not just because the wasteland is the same as Earth, there are people here who truly care about him and treat him well.
It is also because this is a world full of crises and undercurrents.
It’s simply... so fucking exciting!
The game between people and the struggle between two factions are often life-and-death calculations.
Compared to the repetitive life on Earth day after day, a life with a stable job is a life that you can see the end of.
This day is so exciting.
"Damn it, I'm not a masochist, am I?"
Liking excitement and being tired of repetition should be two completely different personalities.
Cheng Ye thought about it and felt that he should be more inclined to the latter, but the social environment suppressed that part of his personality and it has been unable to express itself.
For example, give him another chance to choose between two worlds.
Cheng Ye had no guarantee that he would firmly choose to return to Earth and return to a life like an NPC.
"With my identity, I will never be able to integrate into the Western faction."
It's not just because of his oriental face, but also because of Cheng Long's influence and Liu Bi's identity. As long as Cheng Ye can't cut these off cleanly, the Western faction will never allow him to join.
"So if you want to survive, there's only one stupid way... Go back to the table and try your best to show your worth."
This is actually not difficult for Yu Chengye.
Because his current strength has undergone earth-shaking changes, there is a huge gap between his impression and Ding Yishan's.
"I managed to get through the period of rapid epidemic inspection without any help from anyone."
"I'll find another suitable opportunity to show my fighting ability and overall quality. I don't believe that my points are higher than Garcia's, and Ding Yishan is willing to fight against Xipai!"
After wiping the water droplets off his face, Cheng Ye returned to the house and put the remaining seven bags of nutrient solution into his backpack.
In order to quickly get started with the work of an inspector, he had focused most of his energy on familiarizing himself with the inspection process. He completed all the theoretical knowledge tests by rote memorization and even broke a small record at the inspection station.
However, this allocation of time also resulted in his insufficient understanding of the infected bodies and the entire wasteland world, or in other words, in order to survive, he had no intention of understanding these things.
Now that I have been rotated to the rapid epidemic inspection post, these are things that I must understand as soon as possible.
"Two days should be enough for me to become familiar with how to deal with common infected bodies."
Cheng Ye put on his raincoat, picked up his backpack and went out.
After a few phone calls, it was already past eight o'clock and the main urban area became bustling again.
As we walked along, we found that several low-lying areas were indeed flooded. The residents living there could only scoop out water one by one with buckets, looking miserable.
Perhaps due to the influx of new residents, relief tents were set up in front of the entrances of several large shopping malls.
Any new resident joining Happiness City can receive nutrient paste here for free with their resident ID card, three bags per person per day, for three days.
In addition, the Public Works Department also set up several "work-for-relief" recruitment sheds.
Cheng Ye squeezed into the crowd and scanned the scribbled words on the posters, finding that they were mainly concentrated in three directions:
1. Repair old underground drainage facilities and various pipes.
Based on the work per person, each person can get 16 coins per day, which is equivalent to 8 bags of nutrient slurry. Compared with the drainage work on the ground, it is definitely a fertile job.
However, the difficulty is also great because the underground environment is very complex, with dirt flowing everywhere, and the probability of injury is quite high.
2. Cooperate with the official team to continue to expand the horizontal area of the buffer zone.
The current buffer zone was expanded based on the old industrial zone of Sichuan City, and the surrounding area is mostly open wilderness and abandoned factories.
By opening up more living space, we can naturally accommodate more refugees and ensure personal living space.
Work is also calculated based on the number of people, and each person can get 12 coins per day.
3. Leave the buffer zone and return to the city ruins to scavenge, or go to designated locations to obtain resources.
As usual in previous years, after the summer rainstorms, there will be a cool autumn with no rain and no wind.
Simple canvas tents cannot withstand the cold winter, so building materials can only be prepared in advance before winter.
Only by starting construction in autumn can we build more houses that can shelter from wind and rain before the cold winter comes.
Due to the extremely high risk, the reward for this task is uncertain and the final reward is determined by the type and weight of the recycled materials.
"winter..."
The first two tasks are the current development directions of the buffer zone, which are mainly focused on repairing the old city area and horizontal expansion.
This is not surprising, because the high-rise buildings left over from the old era have been exposed to wind and sun, and most of them have become dangerous buildings. Restoring them is much more difficult than tearing them down and rebuilding them.
Coupled with the elusive mutant beasts and extremely threatening infected bodies, city ruins have always been a forbidden zone for life, and only some scavengers would risk setting foot there.
The latter task, however, indirectly reflects the current hidden dangers of the buffer zone.
Refugees poured in like a tide, and the buffer zone was already overwhelmed and reached its capacity limit.
"When winter arrives, the land will freeze over, the dam will be short of power, and even supplying the inner city will be difficult. The buffer zone will absolutely be without power, and heating will be out of the question... If we don't take advantage of this autumn to ramp up construction, every tent dweller will be turned into a popsicle."
After squeezing out of the crowd, Cheng Ye wiped the water droplets from his face and became secretly alert.
Given the thickness of the wall panels of the tube building, as long as the temperature outside is below minus 20 degrees Celsius, the inside will definitely be like an ice cellar, and people will get sick from the cold in a few days.
However, now is not the time for him to worry about how to survive the winter. He must first find a way to survive the rapid epidemic before he is qualified to talk about dealing with subsequent natural disasters.
After getting on the bus, the wheels covered with yellow mud rolled over the accumulated water, and the body of the bus shook violently on the muddy road.
Cheng Ye gripped the handrail, his eyes sweeping across the dilapidated buildings rapidly receding in the blurry rain outside the window.
In the past, he always went from the main urban area to the south training ground, but this was his first time going north.
Unlike the south, which is full of vacant lots and factories, the north is the former industrial living area, with scattered houses on the roadside crowded together, and the walls are covered with moss and cracks.
Some windows were missing glass and were only randomly nailed with broken wooden boards, while others were simply open, revealing a few pairs of dead eyes.
Moving forward, when the station announcement device hoarsely called out "Library Station", Cheng Ye stepped out of the car alone under the collective gaze of the passengers in the car.
The humid hot wind wrapped in raindrops blew in my face, and the splashing water hit my rain boots.
Looking up not far away, a three-story building that used to be a community service center has been converted into a so-called library, with warm yellow light pouring out through the glass windows.
On this cloudy and rainy day, the whole world is wrapped in gray and cold tones.
The orange light in the rain actually gave Cheng Ye a rare and familiar feeling of "happiness" in his heart.
...
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