Chapter 71 Celebration Activities
The Dawn Base was unusually lively today.
Eight o'clock in the morning.
The base's imposing metal gates opened.
People waiting in line outside the gate were checked by the security team and then proceeded to the outer gate passage to register and undergo pollution concentration testing at the window.
Between the city gate and the outer city area, there is a very long passageway with two gates. This area is called the buffer zone.
Most of the people who came into the city today are residents of nearby small settlements who came specifically to participate in the celebrations.
While large bases are safe, the cost of living is very high.
The southwest region is rich in resources, and small bases are generally located near water sources and land.
Unless there are special circumstances, most people are unwilling to move.
Furthermore, they are not far from the Dawn Base. If they encounter a large-scale attack by mutants, or if a contaminated zone is created nearby, the major bases will not stand idly by.
People came in groups this time because of the prizes offered at the event.
All the inspection windows at the main entrance were open, and registrars were busy testing the pollution concentration and registering the identity information of the people entering.
I was busy until 10 a.m., and everything was normal as in previous years.
In the city.
All members of the guard and patrol teams were on duty, and no one took leave.
The guards patrolled along the city walls, while patrol teams maintained order along the streets where the event was being held.
Cheng Dongshu was among them.
This team consists of ten B-level sentries. They just returned from outside last night, and will serve one more day today before taking leave tomorrow.
*
When Yun Zhao went downstairs, he received a reply from Bai Yu.
Bai Yu was originally on leave, but this morning a team of senior sentries from a sentry post was transferred back to base. The two teams consisted of fourteen people, all of whom were senior sentries.
So far, Dawn Base has only five A-level guides.
If a low-level guide has a match value of 60 with a sentinel, they can also guide high-level sentinels, but only a few guides can do that.
There weren't enough people in the evacuation room, so Bai Yu was temporarily called in to help.
Helpless, Bai Yu replied, "The work isn't too busy. I can probably take a break after directing two sentries. I'll come out to find you later."
Yun Zhao replied, "Okay."
Yun Zhao followed his teammates downstairs.
The six members of Team Zero left the operations department and walked to the venue for the celebration in the outer city.
After walking a few streets from the inner city, before even getting close, I could hear deafening music and noise coming from the other side.
In the distance, a large stage for a performance had been set up in the park square outside the city.
at this time.
The stage lights flashed incessantly, the music was deafening, and the crowd below was enormous, looking out as if they were swarming ants, gathered in every corner of the square.
Duan Xi craned his neck to look around, and said thankfully, "Luckily, I blocked some of my senses, otherwise this sound could have killed me on the spot."
"There are so many people!" Tao Haohao was dumbfounded.
Song Liang was still not quite used to it; the thumping music made his heart race.
Not just them.
Almost all the sentries on the nearby patrol were wearing earplugs.
The square faces two streets, with many small vendors set up on both sides of the streets.
Every fifty meters, there is a small activity platform where you can play ring toss, riddles, shooting, and other entertainment activities such as jigsaw puzzles, handicraft competitions, drawing competitions, and memory challenges.
In designated areas of the streets outside, there are also treasure hunt games where participants search for clues, and each treasure chest contains a prize.
Looking up, the streets were teeming with people, who thronged between stalls and activity booths, with almost every booth packed with people.
When Yun Zhao arrived at the scene, he finally understood why the sentries were unwilling to participate in the celebration.
They also understood why the city's patrol teams only had B-level sentries.
It's noisy.
The highly sensitive senses of a senior sentinel simply cannot withstand such torment.
Moreover, there were so many people, it was so crowded that you couldn't see anything on the stage at all.
Yun Zhao's teammates shielded her in the middle to prevent her from being bumped by the crowd, and the group walked and looked around.
Duan Xi craned his neck to look through the crowd at the shooting competition next door: "I remember when I came here to play as a child, there were hardly any people."
At that time, the population of Dawn Base was less than 100,000, but in just over a decade, it increased to nearly 300,000.
"I haven't been here for at least ten years."
Tao Haohao muttered, "Back then, the prize was just a small bag of rice, and people around us would fight tooth and nail for that one bag..."
"This proves that everyone's life is getting better and better," Yun Zhao said.
Because a group of soldiers braved danger to rush into the strange contaminated area and brought back a lot of technology and supplies to improve the lives of the people.
She is one of them now.
Xie Tu stood protectively in front of Yun Zhao, his brows furrowed the entire time, not wanting to say a word at all.
He is tall and has long legs. When he walks on the street, he will be bumped into by some pedestrians from time to time. The street ahead is crowded with people, and it is inevitable that there will be some physical contact if he wants to pass.
This made Xie Tu frown even more.
...
It was almost noon.
The winners of the morning competitions were announced one after another. The park square was still bustling with people, while the city gate passage gradually became deserted, with only a few people still undergoing entry checks.
Today is Liu Li's group's shift.
As the team leader, she diligently stayed in the inspection room, observing the people coming in through the window.
There are fewer people around right now.
Liu Li said, "Xiao Li, you go eat first, I'll take over for you for a while."
A young woman named Xiao Li stood in front of the window, holding a testing instrument, leaning slightly forward against the window to test the pollution concentration for people entering the city.
She replied, "Okay, team leader, I'll finish this up."
Liu Li stared at the figure that had just walked into the passage, a strange feeling welling up inside her. She turned around and asked, "How much contamination did that person have?"
Xiao Li was confused, but still subconsciously picked up the registration form and read, "Reporting to the team leader, the results for the three times are 22%, 22%, and 24%."
To avoid instrument malfunctions, contamination concentration tests are typically performed three times.
Dark matter is everywhere, and ordinary people can also be affected by it.
They lacked the resistance and physical strength of sentries.
Generally, local distortions will occur when the pollution concentration exceeds 60%.
But ordinary people are eroded very slowly.
They have no special abilities, no spiritual realm, and dark matter cannot attach to them for long.
As long as people stay away from polluted areas, avoid contact with mutated species, and stay away from gray fog and dark matter, very few people will now become mutated.
Pollution concentrations below 30% are normal.
Seeing that the guards didn't react, Liu Li suspected that she was overthinking it and nodded, saying, "Then you go and eat first."
*
On the street.
The crowd was packed together in layers, all trying to squeeze towards the small activity booths on both sides of the street.
Yun Zhao walked for a long time but couldn't see anything except people.
The weather was hot, and she was covered in sweat.
This is absolutely terrible.
If I had known this would happen, I shouldn't have come to join in the fun.
Xie Tu, who was walking ahead of her, looked even worse; his tightly furrowed brows looked like they could trap a fly.
The wrinkles squeezed out of his clothes intensified his frustration.
Xie Tu glanced back at Yun Zhao every now and then to make sure she wasn't separated from the crowd, the message in his eyes was very clear.
He didn't want to stay here.
Yun Zhao received the signal and quietly said, "Let's go back to the inner city shopping center to pick up the pre-ordered ingredients."
She's so rich now, she doesn't need to compete with ordinary people for prizes.
There were so many people in front of each event booth that it was impossible to squeeze in.
The teammates breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.
Many people haven't been here for years, and no one expected there to be so many people at the event.
The group planned to exit through this street and take a detour back to the inner city.
As Yun Zhao turned around, he saw a patrol team squeezed into a corner, and Cheng Dongshu was among them.
He also saw Yun Zhao and waved to her.
The scene was too noisy.
So much so that when the first scream erupted from the crowd, it was instantly drowned out by the noise.
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