Chapter 5: The storm is coming and the target appears!
For lunch, as usual, I had two packets of nutritional syrup to supplement protein and carbohydrates, and a piece of malt sugar to supplement quick sugar.
Cheng Ye couldn't bear to eat the synthetic dried meat given by Liu Bi. He planned to keep it as a strategic material and use it to replenish energy in an emergency when going out on field missions.
After lunch.
He stood by the window until the rain subsided a little, then he put on his raincoat and walked towards the isolation area.
Perhaps the rain in the neighboring Yuncheng was too heavy, and workers could be seen everywhere on the road urgently building flood prevention works. The already narrow alleys seemed even more hurried and chaotic.
Under a temporary awning on the roadside, a few people who were obviously new residents of Happiness City were huddled together, looking worriedly at the dark clouds rolling in the sky.
The damp resident certificates cannot buy them a place to live, so they have to race against time to find a job so that they can have a place to stay before the heavy rain comes.
"Inspector Cheng, your assigned window today is still number 8."
"There were quite a lot of people in the morning, but I didn't expect the flow of people to be even greater in the afternoon. If there is an emergency that we can't handle, we can always call for support from the station."
"clear!"
Cheng Ye nodded, put on the mask to conceal his identity and walked forward.
Just standing in the passage leading to the front area, you can see a sea of people crowding in front of the conveyor belt.
At least seven or eight hundred people?
The heavy rain was partly to blame, but the wave of infection in Cloud City was also a factor.
Some survivors had to leave, and the nearby Happy City was naturally the best evacuation option.
"Window number eight has been opened. Survivors, please line up in an orderly manner and enter the isolation cage."
As Cheng Ye sat down at the quarantine counter, the horn in the sentry tower sounded at the right time.
After all, it was a stable job. He took half a day off this morning. Even though there were so many survivors queuing outside, window number eight remained empty.
As the crowds on the other seven conveyor belts became slightly agitated, the isolation iron cage was quickly pushed in front of Cheng Ye by the conveyor belts.
There were three figures huddled in the cage, two women and one man, a common "family" combination in the wasteland.
"Name?"
"Zhou Tian, Yun Zi, Yun Duo."
It was obvious that the name was made up. Cheng Ye pretended to lower his head to record it, but actually called up the panel to check it.
The blue panel flickered slightly, and the search function immediately displayed information about three people.
[Zhou Tian, 42%, searchable scope: intelligence, items]
[Yun Zi, 55%, searchable range: intelligence, items, skills]
[Cloud, 18%, Searchable range: Intelligence]
"Just by asking a name, you've already reached 55% cooperation?"
Cheng Ye was surprised.
He thought that the degree of cooperation required these people to tell the truth, but he didn't expect that the measurement logic of this value was far more vague than he imagined.
Search or not?
Cheng Ye hesitated for a moment and did not waste the precious opportunity on these three people.
Based on his observations over the past few days, he concluded that the strength of family groups can be roughly divided into the following levels:
One man and two women < One man and multiple women < One woman and multiple men < Lone wolf < One man and one woman < One man and one woman with children
The strength of the three people in front of me is at the bottom. It will be difficult for them to make a living by doing hard work in the buffer zone. There is no need to waste opportunities on them.
However, the cloud's cooperation was so low that Cheng Ye raised his head and tapped the table with his fingers:
"Yun Duo, right? See the first thermometer on the table in front of you? Please pick it up, press it against your forehead, and tell me the reading."
When Cheng Ye called out to her, a hint of surprise flashed in Yun Duo's eyes, but she still picked up the thermometer honestly.
"Sir, the value is... 36.9."
"Very good. Now please pick up the second thermometer, press it against your chest, and tell me the reading."
"The value is... 117."
"The third one."
"16."
In accordance with Cheng Ye's requirements, as Yun Duo continued to report, the degree of cooperation on the panel gradually increased.
By the time the three instruments finished measuring, the rate had increased from 18% to 44%.
This change gave Cheng Ye a preliminary understanding of the logic of measuring cooperation.
"Okay, you three can leave and go to the back to complete your residency procedures."
"Ah?" Zhou Tian couldn't help but look surprised.
"What's the problem?"
"Sir, you didn't even ask us where we came from, if we were in danger, or if we were infected?"
"I already know. You came from Cloud City and encountered danger on the way, but you didn't come into direct contact with the infected."
"?"
Zhou Tian's Adam's apple rolled and his expression changed slightly.
Yun Duo and Yun Zi also took a deep breath, and their eyes changed when they looked at Cheng Ye.
"The first rule of the Happiness City Resident Handbook is never to question the professionalism of officials."
A trainee inspector was able to secure a position at the window in just over a month, and it was not thanks to the favors left by Cheng Long or Liu Bi's face.
Cheng Ye tapped his fingertips on the table, his eyes sweeping over the dirt tracks left by the three people on the isolation cage. "Due to the continuous heavy rain, the provincial and county roads from Yuncheng to here collapsed half a month ago. The only passable road is an abandoned rural road that's not on the map but is known to the survivors of Yuncheng. The black sand on the soles of your shoes is the rock debris unique to that rural road."
"Looking down, the mud marks on the inside of the two women's jackets are scattered splashes, not drag and scrape marks. This is consistent with panicking and running for one's life when faced with danger, but not with the signs of combat."
"Also... your knees are shaking too fast. It's not consistent with a long journey. Instead, it's exactly like the refugees escaping Cloud City. It's the aftereffects of running in extreme fear. So, don't ask me why I didn't check. Since your vitals are normal, go get your residency documents and stop talking nonsense to me."
Cheng Ye said impatiently, and the three of them immediately shrank their necks and left, not daring to ask any more questions.
Are all the inspectors in Xingfu City so professional?
Without asking anything, he knew everything. This made them feel like they were stripped naked, with no secrets at all!
"Next."
The conveyor belt was running, and another family of one man and two women were transferred in isolation cages.
This time Cheng Ye was faster. It only took him more than ten seconds to verify the cooperation and then let him go.
In fact, there are very few infected people who dare to openly enter the Xingfu City checkpoint.
This is not a checkpoint like those in small sanctuary cities. There is neither sufficient intelligence support nor instruments to assist in judgment. We can only rely on manpower to make judgments step by step.
Thermometer, pulse monitor, respiratory rate monitor.
As long as the whereabouts are clear and the three physical signs are normal, the probability of being an infected person is so small that it can be ignored.
Of course, there are also special infected bodies that lurk very deeply, but the top leaders of Xingfu City do not expect the inspectors in the quarantine area to discover such infected bodies.
The huge buffer zone and stable high walls will keep all threats outside the inner city.
...
An hour passed in a flash.
The crowd queuing at the gate did not decrease after the opening of window No. 8. Instead, the bustling queue grew larger and larger as time went by.
Cheng Ye had already released seventy-one people, but still hadn't found a target worth searching for.
This is an inevitable result.
As the number of survivors increases, the unhealthy and unhealthy parts of the group will only be multiplied.
The uncertainty of the 8 conveyor belts will further reduce the probability of drawing a strong person.
"Judging from the performance of these survivors just now, it's likely that they are all at the bottom of the food chain, like me, with nothing."
"There are a lot of people here today, so you have to be patient."
Cheng Ye didn't want to search for skills with great joy, but the result showed that the opponent's three skill bars were empty just like his.
Even if both chances are wasted on the strong, it is much better than taking a chance on these small fry.
Soon, another hour passed.
Bang, bang, bang.
Three gunshots rang out in succession, startling Cheng Ye so much that he subconsciously turned his head.
Inside the isolation iron cage on conveyor belt No. 4, a man and a woman who were undergoing inspection were shot in the head by a sentry.
Immediately afterwards, the tentacles that Cheng Ye had seen yesterday stretched out from the throats of the two men. They were the extremely latent "Deathrattle Tentacles".
This special source of infection, which lives on human obsession, can go to small sanctuaries and gathering places and hatch hundreds of tentacles in just over a month, which can easily cause large-scale human disasters.
But fortunately, in such a vast wasteland, there are few people who are obsessed with the small sanctuary.
"In a sense, the frequent appearance of Deathrattle Tentacles is also a recognition of Sanctuary City's strength and influence."
Cheng Ye sighed inwardly and quickly put the slight fear behind him.
Because with the tragedy in Isolation Zone No. 4, the survivors who witnessed someone being shot in the head and still dared to enter the isolation cage all had some knowledge.
As the quality of the survivors increased rapidly, at the end of conveyor belt No. 8, a man and a woman were transported in a cage, and Cheng Ye quickly cheered up.
However, at this moment, a quarrel that suddenly broke out nearby attracted his attention.
Turn around and take a look.
"Fuck, a man and a woman with a child, the King of the Wasteland is finally here?"
...
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