Since he had already been assigned to the North and South rapid posts to die, Cheng Ye simply skipped going in, not even bothering to make the trip to the checkpoint and requesting leave by phone instead.
The North and South Stations were managed separately by the East and West Factions.
The Central Checkpoint, on the other hand, was rotated between the two factions, and today happened to be the East Faction duty chief He Fei's shift.
"Chief He, something suddenly came up on my end, so I might not be able to report to the checkpoint for now..." Before Cheng Ye could finish, He Fei's hearty laughter came through the receiver, mixed with the cacophony of comm alerts echoing across the office.
"Ah, Cheng Ye! Chief Ding just brought you up with me. Don't worry, the rapid post carries heavy responsibilities, and it's no easy task for a newcomer to carry that banner. How about this: I'll approve your leave through the day after tomorrow. Get yourself thoroughly prepared, and don't let down Chief Ding or everyone else's expectations!"
He Fei laid deliberate emphasis on the word "expectations."
The subtext was clear: taking leave to prepare was fine, but don't think you can use it to shirk going to the rapid post.
"Understood. Thank you for your understanding, Chief He. I'll report for duty on time."
After exchanging a few pleasantries and hanging up, Cheng Ye hadn't expected to get an extra day of leave. His prep time, which had felt a bit tight, suddenly became plentiful.
Fetching water and washing his face, the slightly cold water splashing against his skin washed away the exhaustion of an all-nighter.
Staring into the mirror for a long time, Cheng Ye suddenly cracked a faint smile.
Abruptly thrust into this unfamiliar wasteland, everything he knew had vanished in an instant—friends, family, social ties, and especially the change in his appearance—leaving him with a persistent, massive sense of emptiness and unreality, as if he hovered outside the world.
Deep down, a voice had constantly screamed: *What's the point of struggling? Just give up. Giving up might take you straight back to your familiar Earth, so you won't be trapped in this man-eating wasteland anymore, struggling in vain amid suffocation.*
This thought had festered with time.
As a result, over the past two months, Cheng Ye had frequently jolted awake from nightmares. Standing by the window, going up to the rooftop, more than once he had contemplated restarting to see what would happen.
Yet now, he suddenly realized that those thoughts had vanished completely from his mind.
It seemed to have happened last night, vanishing without a trace as his strength grew.
Even stranger, as he gazed at his reflection, countless new thoughts flooded his mind.
He was startled to realize, startled to discover, that he actually...
kind of liked this world?
He was even a little reluctant to leave?
It wasn't just because the wasteland, like Earth, had people who genuinely cared about him and treated him well.
It was also because this perilous, undercurrent-ridden world was...
just so damn thrilling!
The maneuvering between people, the struggle between two factions, the life-and-death schemes at every turn.
Compared to the day-in, day-out monotony of life back on Earth, where landing an "iron rice bowl" job meant seeing your entire life mapped out to the very end—
this life was downright exhilarating.
"Damn, am I a masochist or something?"
Craving thrills and detesting monotony were supposedly two completely different personality traits.
Cheng Ye pondered it and felt he leaned more toward the latter; the societal environment had simply suppressed that side of his personality, keeping it from ever surfacing.
If he were given another chance right now to choose between the two worlds, Cheng Ye wasn't at all sure he would resolutely choose returning to Earth, returning to the life of an NPC.
"With my background, there's no way I can integrate into the West Faction."
Not just because of his Eastern features, but because of Cheng Long's influence and Liu Bi's position. Unless Cheng Ye completely severed those ties, the West Faction would never accept him.
"So to survive moving forward, there's really only one clumsy solution... get back to the table and show my worth."
For Cheng Ye, that wasn't actually difficult.
His strength had undergone an earth-shattering transformation, vastly different from Ding Yishan's impression of him.
"Without relying on anyone's help, I'll endure the break-in period at the rapid quarantine post.
"Then find the right moment to show off my combat power and overall caliber. I refuse to believe that if my cards are better than Garcia's, Ding Yishan would still fold against the West Faction!"
Wiping the water droplets from his face, Cheng Ye returned inside and packed the remaining seven bags of nutrient paste into his backpack.
Previously, to get the hang of an inspector's duties quickly, he had poured most of his energy into learning the inspection protocols, memorizing his way through all the theoretical exams and even breaking a minor checkpoint record.
But allocating his time that way had also left him with inadequate knowledge of infected entities and the wasteland world as a whole—or rather, just to survive, he hadn't had the luxury of learning about them.
Now that he was rotating to the rapid quarantine post, these were things he had to master as soon as possible.
"Two days should be enough for me to get familiar with how to handle common infected."
Cheng Ye put on his raincoat, grabbed his backpack, and headed out.
After the delay from several phone calls, it was already past eight o'clock, and the Main Urban District was bustling once again.
Walking along, several lower-lying areas were indeed flooded, leaving the residents inside to scoop out water bucket by bucket in utter disarray.
Perhaps due to the heavy influx of new residents, disaster relief tents had been set up outside several large shopping centers.
Any resident newly admitted to Happiness City could present their resident ID to receive free nutrient paste here—three bags per person per day for three days.
In addition, the Works Bureau had pitched several recruitment tents for work-for-relief.
Cheng Ye squeezed through the crowd, his gaze sweeping over the scrawled handwriting on the posters, noting that the jobs were divided into three main categories:
1. Repairing the old underground drainage facilities and various pipelines.
Paid per person, one could earn sixteen coins a day, equivalent to eight bags of nutrient paste. Compared to surface drainage work, it was definitely a lucrative job.
However, the difficulty was proportionately high, as the subterranean environment was extremely complex, rife with filth, and carried a considerable risk of injury.
2. Assisting official teams to expand the lateral area of the Buffer Zone.
The current Buffer Zone was expanded out from Chuan City's Old Era industrial district, surrounded mostly by barren wilderness and abandoned factories.
Carving out more living space would naturally accommodate more refugees and guarantee personal living space.
Also paid per person, offering twelve coins a day.
3. Leaving the Buffer Zone to scavenge in the city ruins or travel to designated locations to gather resources.
According to the routine of past years, the summer downpours would be followed by a cool, rainless, and windless autumn.
Simple canvas tents could never withstand the bitter winter, so construction materials had to be stockpiled before winter arrived.
Only by starting construction during the autumn could enough shelters be expanded before the harsh winter set in.
Because of the extreme risk, the pay for this task was variable, determined by the type and weight of materials salvaged.
"Winter..."
The first two jobs aligned with the Buffer Zone's current development direction, focusing mainly on repairing the old district plus lateral expansion.
This was no surprise. The high-rises left over from the Old Era, weathered by wind and sun, were mostly dilapidated hazards now; repairing them was far harder than demolishing and rebuilding.
Add to that the elusive mutant beasts and lethally dangerous infected, and the city ruins had always been a forbidden zone for life, where only a handful of scavengers dared tread.
Yet the third task indirectly reflected the Buffer Zone's current looming crisis.
With refugees pouring in like a tidal wave, the Buffer Zone was already overburdened and had reached the limit of its capacity.
"Once winter arrives, everything will freeze over. With the dam short on power, supplying even the Inner City will be a struggle. The Buffer Zone will definitely suffer massive blackouts, and heating will be out of the question... If they don't expand like mad during the coming autumn, every single person living in a tent will end up a popsicle."
Squeezing out of the crowd, Cheng Ye wiped the water droplets from his face, quietly alert.
Given the thickness of the tenement's walls, once the temperature outside dropped below minus twenty, the inside wouldn't be much better than an icebox. It wouldn't take more than a few days to freeze a person sick.
Still, now wasn't the time to worry about how to survive the winter. Only by first figuring out how to survive the rapid quarantine post would he even have the right to talk about facing the natural disasters to come.
Boarding the bus, wheels caked in yellow mud crushed through puddles, the vehicle lurching violently along the muddy road.
Cheng Ye gripped the handrail, his gaze sweeping over the dilapidated buildings rushing backward through the blurred curtain of rain outside.
Previously, he had only traveled from the Main Urban District toward the southern training ground; this was his first time heading north.
Unlike the south, which was filled with open ground and factories, the north was a former industrial residential quarter. The houses lining the road were crammed together, their walls covered in moss and cracks.
Some windows lacked glass, haphazardly patched with broken wooden boards, while others stood wide open, revealing pairs of eyes filled with dead stillness staring out from within.
Riding onward, when the stop announcer rasped out "Library Stop," Cheng Ye stepped out the door alone under the collective gaze of the passengers inside.
Humid, warm wind wrapped in threads of rain whipped against his face, and splashes of water slapped against his rain boots.
Looking up, not far off, a three-story building that had once been a community service center had been converted into a so-called library. Warm yellow light spilled out through its glass windows.
On this overcast, rainy day, the entire world was wrapped in gloomy, cold hues.
That orange glow in the curtain of rain brought Cheng Ye a rare, familiar sense of "happiness."
Chapter 12