Chapter 194: Chapter 194

After the queuing channel opened, Cheng Ye first glanced at the situation under the other awnings.

Surprisingly, those high-term inspectors were still observing and weren't in a hurry to make their move. They clearly wanted him to get the fire started first before seizing the opportunity to act.

However, this situation actually aligned with Cheng Ye's initial plan.

He had originally worried that after he set up his operation, the other inspectors would immediately ramp up their competitive intensity. But now it seemed he had been overthinking it. He had already raised the bar so high that if others wanted to compete, they'd have to consider whether their resources were sufficient first.

Since he had already become the focus of twenty thousand refugees, there was no need to pay too much attention to the movements of those few dozen inspectors.

The first person in line was a single young man. After Big Dragon let him through, he quickly stepped forward and hurriedly introduced himself, "Inspector Cheng Ye, hello! My name is Bao Dashan, and I'm from Bluebird Settlement, which is six hundred forty kilometers from Happiness City."

Cheng Ye immediately searched for this settlement's location in his mind. After finding it, he discovered it wasn't on the Walker's route.

"You didn't come with the migration wave, did you?"

As Bao Dashan spoke, he pointed toward the edge of the formation behind him, where over a dozen young men were standing.

Seeing Cheng Ye's gaze turn toward them, the young men immediately waved excitedly, instantly becoming the focus of the crowd.

"We never expected to run into the migration wave. We originally planned to leave and go somewhere else, but when we heard that Happiness City was building satellite cities, we stayed to see if we could settle down here."

After he finished speaking, without waiting for Cheng Ye to respond, he added, "Sir, please rest assured, we're different from those people. We genuinely want to find a place to live peacefully, not just to get Happiness Coins."

Cheng Ye nodded slightly. As expected, people attracted by future prospects rather than direct benefits were of higher quality.

Bao Dashan's cooperation level had already risen to 71%, which was enough to prove his words weren't exaggerated.

"You can go over there and take a look first. When we gather twenty people in a group, I'll come over to explain."

"Okay, okay, thank you, sir!" Bao Dashan immediately walked to the side, his gaze falling on the posters.

As the representative chosen by over a dozen young men, he naturally could read.

But after just a few glances, he couldn't help but excitedly scratch his head, as if he had discovered some novel treasure.

This made the people waiting behind him even more curious.

The second group Big Dragon let through was a married couple. The two hurriedly explained their identity, saying they came from a small settlement two hundred seventy kilometers from Happiness City, right near the Walker's route.

After being influenced, they no longer felt content and immediately set out for Happiness City.

"Alright, please go over there. I'll explain in a moment."

Cheng Ye pointed toward the posters, and the couple immediately left happily.

Under Big Dragon's deliberate control, the first round of twenty people admitted consisted mainly of married couples.

Additionally, since over four thousand young men had already been selected by other groups, many of the young men now queuing had already received badges from other groups and were politely asked to leave.

The last group was a family with children.

A middle-aged couple with weathered faces stepped forward, followed by two timid children.

They both looked about fourteen or fifteen years old. The boy was slightly more robust, his hands covered with rough marks left from hard labor. Although the girl had been somewhat protected, her features still carried the heavy vicissitudes of the wasteland.

"Hello, sir. We're from Iron Rock Mine. My name is Lin Xiaoshan, and this is my wife, Shen Yan."

The middle-aged man hurriedly introduced himself.

Cheng Ye's gaze fell on his right hand. The crisscrossing scars, though healed, still clearly revealed that these were the hands of a bottom-tier wasteland laborer.

He didn't need to say anything else, this was enough to prove the authenticity of their identity.

It fell under the administrative jurisdiction of White Stone Sanctuary City.

This was a large sanctuary city slightly smaller than Happiness City with average technological capabilities, but it had entered the super-tier ranks thanks to its exceptionally favorable geographical conditions.

The importance of Iron Rock Mine to White Stone Sanctuary City was comparable to Happiness City's industrial district.

According to the description in the Inspector's Manual, the mine had tens of thousands of regular miners, and during peak periods, there were even five hundred thousand people. Due to its semi-reclusive nature, personnel movement wasn't allowed freely, and infected entities naturally found it difficult to infiltrate. It was considered a rare safe haven in the wasteland.

Of course, "safety" came at a price.

Whether adults or children, the only way out was to become a miner. To survive, to have food to eat, a place to live, and clothes to wear, one had to go down into the mines.

Fortunately, Shi Province had special geology. Due to the presence of Black Stone, the mine tunnels had extremely high safety ratings. Even with casual excavation, they didn't collapse easily.

Additionally, transcendent curses could continuously absorb plant characteristics and generate high-quality ore. As long as the right ore bed was found, it could be mined by human labor alone for hundreds of years without being exhausted.

"Mm, only in this kind of absolutely closed environment, combined with the protection of a super sanctuary city, could stable large families possibly exist."

"Those small settlements claiming to be closed have such poor risk resistance that a couple with one child is already the limit."

Cheng Ye wasn't surprised.

It made sense that families with children and elderly would come from places similar to Iron Rock Mine.

Everyone knew that mining was hard work, that mining until death would hardly offer any way out, yet they still couldn't bear to leave. After all, the mine provided shelter and stable income. Leaving meant venturing into the unknown to take risks.

Under the Walker's influence, some families who originally wanted to change their lives finally couldn't hold back, which led to this massive migration wave.

"When you left the mine, did White Stone Sanctuary City try to stop you?"

"Of course not. If they restricted miners' freedom, wouldn't that make us slaves? When we left, White Stone Sanctuary City even gave each family a month's worth of food."

Sensing that Cheng Ye didn't seem to understand the mine's special nature, Lin Xiaoshan hurriedly explained.

The types of ore at Iron Rock Mine were extremely complex. Those regular ores could be extracted on a large scale using machinery.

But when it came to extremely valuable minerals, like magnetite crystals...

Not only could they be used as ultra-micro computing cores, but because they were extremely sensitive to external magnetic field changes, they could serve as intelligent regulation components in circuits. Defense communicators contained magnetite crystals.

They could sense changes in surrounding signal strength and frequency in real-time, dynamically optimizing circuit performance to maintain stable, high-speed communication connections.

Besides these uses, they could also manufacture biomagnetic batteries, temperature-difference magnetic-electric conversion devices, and even serve as carriers for precision targeted drug delivery.

Correspondingly, however, the mining difficulty was extremely high. Untreated magnetite crystals would react violently to electromagnetic signals or energy fields produced by machinery. At best, the ore's structure would be irreversibly damaged; at worst, it would trigger the ore's self-detonation.

Only manual excavation was the most reliable method.

Additionally, some fragile ores required manual labor using hand tools, applying force slowly with vibration-free operations to extract them intact.

There were even quite a few ores that were only in a stable, mineable state during specific time periods each day. During other times, they would merge back into the surrounding rock.

The deployment, activation, and positioning of machinery far exceeded the window of availability, so only human labor could be deployed and kept on standby.

"These high-value ores are White Stone Sanctuary City's lifeline, which is why they support tens of thousands of miners. But training miners isn't as troublesome as training industrial workers, so they don't restrict freedom."

Lin Xiaoshan added, "However, when we entered the mine back then, the sanctuary city provided quite a bit of supplies. If we wanted to leave, we had to leave behind all the property and tools we'd earned over the years, and we also had to pay a certain amount of special minerals as redemption money."

"They allow private hoarding of ore?"

"In principle, no, but since everyone can't leave the mine anyway, hoarding a bit doesn't matter."

Lin Xiaoshan explained with a smile.

He felt somewhat strange inside. Cheng Ye didn't have that high-and-mighty air he had imagined at all. His attitude was even better than the mine foremen's.

He couldn't be sure, but he saw that Cheng Ye had already stood up and was gesturing for them to walk toward the poster wall, "Come on, we've just gathered enough people. I'll explain Dapo Town's development plan to you all!"

"Thank you, sir. We appreciate your trouble!"

Lin Xiaoshan and his wife Shen Yan, who hadn't spoken until now, hurriedly took their children's hands and followed.

The boy timidly surveyed his surroundings, clearly feeling withdrawn from suddenly being in an unfamiliar environment.

The girl was even more shy, keeping her head down the entire time, made uncomfortable by the gazes from the formation.

"Don't be afraid. They're looking at you because they envy you."

Seeing this, Wang Kang spoke to comfort them.

The two children showed no reaction, but hearing this in Lin Xiaoshan and his wife's ears made them even more curious.

When they reached the poster wall, the sixteen people who had come over earlier, like Bao Dashan at the very beginning, had already finished reading the posters and were now full of questions.

Seeing Cheng Ye approach, everyone immediately perked up.

"Everyone, please form a circle and listen to me explain Dapo Town's development plan."

Cheng Ye waved his hand, and Big Dragon immediately brought four militiamen over to maintain order.

After the formation was set up and Wang Kang had also taken his position to the side, Cheng Ye cleared his throat.

This should be considered his first complete explanation of Dapo Town's plan to outsiders.

Although he wasn't a professional tour guide and hadn't practiced any speaking techniques in advance, having seen and known so much, he was confident and wasn't at all worried about awkward silences.

"First, let me introduce myself. I am Cheng Ye, a trainee inspector for Happiness City."

Cheng Ye spoke loudly, his gaze sweeping over everyone, observing their changing expressions.

Among the twenty people, only Lin Xiaoshan's family showed no reaction. The others all had varying degrees of emotional fluctuation.

Clearly, they knew about Happiness City's inspector ranking system and understood what tier "trainee" represented.

But was it a big problem?

Cheng Ye continued without concern, "Speaking of trainee, everyone might be a bit worried about my experience, but please rest assured. My father, Cheng Long, is a fifth-term inspector at Happiness City's Inspection Station, which means he's reached the pinnacle of ordinary inspectors. The next step up would be station chief."

"And my grandfather, Cheng Wu, was the founding station chief who established Happiness City's Inspection Station, and he is also the creator of the inspection station model for all sanctuary cities in the wasteland."

In terms of family background, without exaggeration, none of the inspectors present could compare to him.

This was what they called competitive differentiation!

Cheng Long's status as a fifth-term inspector wasn't particularly impactful, but upon hearing the two words "Cheng Wu," and then hearing keywords like "founding station chief" and "model creator"...

Visibly, all the complex expressions on everyone's faces instantly disappeared, replaced by realization, surprise, delight, excitement, flattery, and various worldly emotions.

Especially those few couples who had shrunk back earlier, they now couldn't help but squeeze forward, wanting to hear more clearly.

As for Lin Xiaoshan and his wife, they showed expressions of "just as we thought," clearly having investigated some information beforehand, or rather, they knew what the surname "Cheng" meant at Happiness City's Inspection Station.

"Before the explanation begins, let me tell everyone some good news. I'll be using a question-and-answer format for the explanation, and everyone can actively raise their hands to answer. It doesn't matter if you're right or wrong. Inspector Wang will record those who answer correctly. Anyone who can answer five or more questions correctly will qualify to receive a Dapo Town badge."

Cheng Ye smiled and looked at Wang Kang, who immediately held up his notebook and ballpoint pen.

Although this segment hadn't been rehearsed in advance, it didn't count as an unexpected situation and was simple to handle.

"Dapo Town is a very important part of Happiness City's satellite city plan. Why is it so important? Everyone, please follow my guidance and look at this diagram!"

Cheng Ye pointed to a poster recording the terrain around Dapo Town. Taking the wooden stick that Big Dragon handed him, he first pointed to the nearby Lin River, then traced along the river all the way to Baishui River, "First question: What is Dapo Town's advantage?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Bao Dashan immediately raised his hand.

After getting Cheng Ye's nod of approval, he immediately answered, "Sir, it's because Dapo Town is the only place around Happiness City with a complete water system!"

"Correct." Cheng Ye nodded approvingly, "The Baishui River and Huangshui River that flow through Dapo Town are very special. They guarantee water system security for Happiness City and are also the best locations for future waterway expansion. They have innate geographical advantages that other satellite cities cannot match."

"Now look here. This is the infrastructure situation around Dapo Town..."

The wooden stick continued to move. Under Cheng Ye's organization, everyone immediately formed a clear impression in their minds.

The sturdy dam could still be used today. It could both block floods and still retained old-world dock facilities.

After the rivers split near Dapo Town, they formed the best fishing spots with astonishing catches.

At the end of the split, there was also a hydroelectric station that could provide electricity for construction and daily life.

"In surviving in the wasteland, humans can never be separated from energy."

Cheng Ye's voice carried power, "Whether for industrial development or daily life, with energy comes the potential for development. Take Happiness City, for example. Precisely because it has a giant hydroelectric station, it can provide long-term free and unlimited electricity to buffer zone residents. This is also one of the foundations for Happiness City to become the hegemon of all of Shi Province."

"And our Dapo Town has a hydroelectric station of its own."

"Everyone, do you know what this means?"

Cheng Ye spoke with great passion and was about to further stir up emotions when he saw Bao Dashan raise his hand again.

Wait, this wasn't even a question!

Nevertheless, he still stopped and gestured for Bao Dashan to speak.

Bao Dashan immediately smiled and said, "Sir, this means that Dapo Town has the potential to become the hegemon of all satellite cities in the future!"

Holy crap, buddy, are you sure you're not a plant I hired?

Cheng Ye was momentarily stunned, but he saw that the other people around also showed thoughtful expressions of agreement.

Indeed, energy was an important marker for distinguishing levels of human civilization.

Without stable and sufficient energy, any development was empty talk. Especially in terrain like Shi Province that wasn't suitable for farming, without being able to be self-sufficient through agriculture, they needed even more energy to support industrial development.

A hydroelectric station, even a micro one, was still a huge advantage that couldn't be ignored.

"It seems these refugees' quality is indeed good. Or it's possible that these twenty thousand people screened by the Inspection Station were already the batch with relatively higher cognitive levels among the refugee population."

Cheng Ye felt pleased.

Facing a group of refugees who only focused on immediate benefits and had no concept of the future versus facing a group of refugees who had expectations for future development and could understand long-term value were completely different matters.

After forming a basic conceptual understanding of Dapo Town, the subsequent question-and-answer session went incredibly smoothly.

Breaking down Dapo Town's terrain, categorizing building models, and depicting future prospects.

Cheng Ye didn't exaggerate wildly but realistically listed plans that could form actual tasks.

He could be as detailed as how to handle a piece of ruins and how to recycle materials from those ruins for secondary use.

He could also expand to building another large hydroelectric station on Baishui River in the future to continue expanding their advantages.

Huangshui River would serve as a port, continuing to be widened to lay the foundation for future wasteland coastal economy.

After finishing the introduction, almost everyone had been called on to answer questions.

Bao Dashan answered five correctly and directly qualified to receive a badge. He grinned foolishly with delight.

Although he hadn't decided whether to join Dapo Town yet and still needed to go back and discuss with his brothers, the envious looks from others made him very satisfied.

Additionally, Lin Xiaoshan's couple and two other couples had also answered five questions correctly. Follow current novels on 𝗻𝗼𝘷𝗲𝗹•𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮•𝕟𝕖𝕥

Before even visiting the unit sample house, the twenty people had already vaguely divided into three factions.

The family faction led by Lin Xiaoshan's couple, with three other couples behind them, totaling 10 people. They had already shown great interest in Dapo Town's future and seemed like they could be easily won over with just a bit more persuasion.

The labor faction led by Bao Dashan, with three other young men behind him, totaling 4 people. Although there was concern in their eyes, Cheng Ye understood that this concern didn't represent worry about prospects but naked ambition.

They clearly wanted to negotiate terms with him, possibly not for direct monetary compensation but for future promises.

Additionally, there were four undecided swing voters, three couples, totaling 6 people.

Cheng Ye wasn't surprised and simply shifted all his subsequent introduction focus to the family faction and labor faction.

People who still wavered after listening for over ten minutes naturally weren't suitable to become Dapo Town residents.

He only had five hundred spots and was facing twenty thousand people. He wasn't at all worried about not finding suitable people.

Moreover, the total population for Dapo Town's first phase plan was only two to three thousand people.

Opportunities in this world were inherently limited. Even someone as strong as Inspector Cheng had to fight hard when encountering opportunities.

These ordinary people with no capital who had stumbled upon some luck clearly hadn't understood a realistic yet cruel truth:

Many times, choices were far more important than effort.

Perhaps years from now, looking back, they would slap their thighs regretting their hesitation at this moment.

And the facts indeed bore this out. After the sample house visit was completed, all 10 people in the family faction didn't hesitate at all. Led by Lin Xiaoshan, they all expressed their desire to stay and become part of Dapo Town.

They didn't need extra Happiness Coin incentives or other promises. They were simply moved by Cheng Ye's sincere twenty-minute explanation.

Among the four people in the labor faction, besides Bao Dashan, the other three also immediately expressed their desire to join, not even raising any demands, afraid of missing the opportunity.

"Sir, I want to bring my brothers over together..." Bao Dashan said urgently.

"That's fine. I'll have them come over, and you'll be responsible for explaining everything clearly to them. You must ensure that each person is completely willing."

Cheng Ye nodded, "Additionally, I'm only recruiting 50 young men. The quota I'm giving you is limited to your brothers. This is because you were the first to come over. Understand?"

"I understand! Sir, I understand!" Bao Dashan nodded repeatedly, unable to hide the excitement on his face. He ran off like the wind to gather his companions.

At this moment, the six swing voters hesitantly approached, wanting to negotiate terms.

However, after saying just a few words, Cheng Ye smiled and shook his head, gesturing that they could leave.

"Sir... we actually have families with children and elderly. We just need an extra 5 coins per person..."

Cheng Ye's smile instantly vanished. Big Dragon and the militiamen who had been silent the whole time immediately stepped forward, cracking their knuckles.

"Will you leave on your own, or should we 'invite' you to leave?" Big Dragon asked in a deep voice.

The six people's faces darkened.

The couple who had disguised themselves as single but actually had children and elderly still wanted to say something, but they were frightened into silence by the fierce look in Big Dragon's eyes. They could only lower their heads and quickly leave.

After they left, Wang Kang came over, concern in his eyes, "Brother Cheng, will they go back to the formation and badmouth us? Should we detain them first?"

"Don't worry. They don't have the guts. Do they really think Happiness City is the refugees' Happiness City?!"

Cheng Ye watched the six people return to the formation, then turned to look at the inspectors under the other awnings.

Meeting his gaze, everyone suddenly snapped out of their daze as if waking from a dream.

Although they didn't know what Cheng Ye had actually said, his recruitment seemed unusually smooth. He had already secured a group of families and several couples. Even those young men acted as if they had received some tremendous benefit, completely unlike their ugly behavior when bought off with Happiness Coins earlier.

Just describing the satellite city's prospects could have this effect?

Many inspectors sat back down thoughtfully, the anxiety on their faces gradually fading.

Even Zhao Jia seemed to have realized something. He exchanged glances with the other inspectors, and they understood each other without words.

Asking and not asking, getting and not getting, there was always give and take.

They needed the refugees' help to complete evaluation tasks and needed the extra points from families with children and elderly.

But didn't these families also need to be chosen by inspectors to receive the compensation promised by the Inspection Station?

Damn it, the competition was already this fierce, with more than half of the inspectors set to be eliminated.

At worst, they just wouldn't handle everything anymore. Did these refugees still think they could scrape layer after layer of profit from the inspectors?

What a fucking pipe dream!