"Sir, we've arrived at North Checkpoint. Please take your belongings with you, and thank you for riding with us."
At a platform four hundred meters from the checkpoint, the driver brought the bus to a stop, stood up, and looked back at Cheng Ye.
"My defense comm ID is 41504, surname Tian. If you ever need a vehicle in the future, feel free to call me anytime."
"You're going to come pick me up in a bus?"
Cheng Ye found it somewhat amusing.
Counting it up, this was already the third person who wanted to invest in him, after Uncle Dong and Gwen.
Stranger still, the latter two had only met him once and barely exchanged a couple of sentences before deciding to invest.
"Not in this, no. Besides the bus, I do deliveries on the side for the Works Bureau—I've got a small van."
With that, Master Tian pointed out the window toward the checkpoint. "If you can secure charging clearance from the Works Bureau, driving that van past the checkpoint won't be an issue either."
Cheng Ye nodded and entered the ID into his defense comm. "A word of warning first: you might never get a call from me."
"No, I'm a pretty good judge of character. Someone like you isn't the sort to stay caged, no matter how stable or comfortable the environment is."
"I'll take that as a good omen."
Grabbing his backpack, Cheng Ye stepped off through the rear exit and squinted into the distance.
The Buffer Zone of Happiness City possessed an outer perimeter entirely wrapped in wire mesh, forming a massive arc designed to block outsiders and mindless infected alike.
The sharp barbs on the three-meter-high mesh were regularly maintained and replaced, with sentry watchtowers erected every five hundred meters. In terms of security, it far surpassed the buffer zones of other shelter cities.
As long as they couldn't fly or burrow underground, anyone—infected or human—who wished to enter the Buffer Zone had to pass through one of three checkpoints:
The Central Main Checkpoint, and the North and South Branch Checkpoints.
Unlike the Main Checkpoint, which had been built at Happiness City's inception and could only ever be expanded within its original framework, the North and South Stations had only been completed twelve years ago. Inner City construction crews had used heavy machinery to drive the foundations twenty meters into the earth, ensuring the colossal structure could withstand any impact.
The complex resembled an ancient fortress, squarely built. An eight-meter-high wall stretching nearly a kilometer ran across the terrain like a gray leviathan, enclosing an internal space of nearly twelve hundred mu.
Directly before the gate, eight lanes resembling modern highway toll booths were neatly aligned, gaping like the maw of a beast.
Each entrance was equipped with automated retractable spike barriers and sensor-activated machine gun turrets. If the metal detection coils embedded in the ground sensed anyone running the gate, the turrets would unleash their full firepower instantly, riddling the intruder into a sieve.
Beyond the entrance, the interior was divided into six zones.
Entrants were channeled into one of the first four partitioned zones for inspection according to their category:
Zone A: primarily for vehicles.
Zone B: primarily for scavengers and ordinary people with resident IDs.
Zone C: for arrivals from other shelter cities.
Zone D: for special personnel, such as sentries returning from patrols, inspectors on field duty, and Inner City security guards.
As for the other two zones, Zone E was the administrative office area, while Zone F was the combat readiness area.
The former was where Cheng Ye would soon report to finalize his intake, while the latter served as the rest area for the checkpoint's patrol guards.
*Now this actually deserves to be called a checkpoint!* Cheng Ye could not help admiring inwardly.
The Central Main Checkpoint was only used for refugees and survivors; keeping its layout simple helped ease their wariness and fear. But the North and South Branch Checkpoints were the public face of Happiness City, through which all traffic from neighboring shelter cities passed. If they looked dilapidated and shabby, outsiders would inevitably look down on the city, disgracing the higher-ups of Happiness City. Moreover, as an industrial shelter city, Happiness City needed to showcase its might in places like this to attract more partnerships.
"Hey, you over there! What are you standing around staring for? If you want to leave the city, go line up at the gate!"
Cheng Ye's lingering gaze from a short distance away drew the attention of several guards on duty at the base of the wall.
The North and South Stations corresponded to the Western and Eastern factions.
Easterners generally used South Station when coming and going, because as long as they followed the rules, they were rarely harassed on purpose. But if an Easterner took the wrong path and ended up at North Station, leaving the city might only earn them some spiteful sneers, while entering would inevitably mean a thorough shakedown that stripped away a layer of grease.
Standing here with an Eastern face, Cheng Ye stuck out like a sore thumb.
As for the gates the guard had mentioned:
There were three gates beneath the wall. The two smaller side gates accommodated pedestrian traffic, while the large central gate was reserved for vehicles.
It was not yet eight o'clock, the opening time, but over a dozen people were already waiting at the right-side gate, queued up to head out into the wilderness ruins.
"I'm talking to you! Acting deaf, are you?"
Seeing Cheng Ye fail to react, two guards cursed under their breath as they stomped over.
Yet a second later, the moment they saw the badge in Cheng Ye's hand, their expressions shifted drastically.
In the blink of an eye, the impatience, disgust, and contempt vanished without a trace, replaced by fawning, servile smiles.
"Lord... Lord Inspector."
Cold sweat beaded on the tall guard's forehead, his voice trembling slightly. "May I ask what brings you here?"
"Orders from Station Master Ding. I've been transferred from the Central Main Checkpoint to rotate through the North and South Stations. Today is my first day."
"The station master's orders?"
The guard froze, then asked reflexively, "For duty... shouldn't you be reporting to... South Station?"
"I felt like coming to North Station first. Is there a problem?"
"No, none at all!"
Among the guards, an unwritten consensus prevailed:
No matter how viciously the Eastern and Western factions fought within the checkpoint, and no matter how fierce the infighting among the inspectors grew, none of it had anything to do with lowly guards like them.
Whether Ding Yishan or Harlin held power over the checkpoint, neither would ever give them a shot at becoming inspectors.
With their upward mobility firmly locked down, meddling in factional struggles was the height of foolishness.
Even if Cheng Ye bore an Eastern face, these Western guards still had to attend to him as if he were one of their own. Otherwise, if an official report were filed against them, they might not lose their lives, but they would certainly lose the hard-earned official slots they occupied.
Taking Cheng Ye's badge, the guard swiped it against his defense comm. His expression grew even more deferential.
"Inspector Cheng, please come in. The intake desk is at Window 4 in Zone E. I've already sent word ahead."
"All right. Mind if I stand here and wait a moment?"
"Huh?"
"Waiting for a few people. If they're caught unprepared, dealing with them one by one later will be a pain."
Cheng Ye smiled with narrowed eyes. The guard blinked in confusion before catching his drift, his neck instinctively pulling back into his collar.
He had seen plenty of arrogant people, but never someone as brazen as Cheng Ye.
"Got something to say?"
"No, sir." The guard shook his head hastily. "My lord, we're just tools of the checkpoint. Whether you need to use us or another inspector does, we wouldn't dare harbor any second thoughts."
"Is that so?"
Cheng Ye stepped forward, resting his left hand casually on the man's shoulder. "Then why don't you fill me in on the current state of North Station?"
"Uh, well..."
"Didn't you just say you're a tool that I can use too? What, am I not allowed to use you now?"
"N-no, I wouldn't dare!"
Startled, the tall guard broke out into a cold, clammy sweat across his back, wishing he could slap himself across the face.
Why had he felt the need to butt in? If the guy wanted to stand there and stare, why couldn't he just let him?
Now he had walked right into it—this newcomer clearly wasn't someone to be trifled with.
Refuse to talk, and he offended an inspector directly.
Talk, and if this guy stormed inside and raised hell, wouldn't the blame land right back on him?
*Damn it all!*
After inwardly cursing his partner guard's maker, the tall guard forced a bitter grimace. "My lord, what exactly would you like to know?"
"Walk me through the hierarchy here at North Station, ranked from highest authority to lowest."
"By authority?"
Relieved that the man wasn't prying into the private affairs of any specific inspector, the tall guard let out a quiet breath and hurried to explain:
"The one with the greatest authority at our North Station is definitely Duty Station Master Binn Downs. Below him is Duty Deputy Station Master Evan Davidson, though the deputy station master is constantly out on field missions, so you rarely see him.
"Apart from the two station masters, the inspectors like yourself hold the most power. The rule at the checkpoint is that Zones A, B, C, and D are assigned randomly, rotating every week.
"The shifts run from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and from 4:00 PM to midnight, so every week eight inspectors rotate through here on a fixed schedule."
"Go on."
"B-below them are the inspectors' children. They handle the clerical work and filing, and they also verify the information of incoming travelers."
"Do they hold official postings?" Cheng Ye asked with narrowed eyes. "As far as I know, inspectors' offspring aren't supposed to enter the checkpoint until they inherit the title, right?"
"In principle, that's correct, but..." The tall guard stammered, "To prevent a situation where an inspector is killed in action and their heir takes over without knowing the ropes, the station master allows them to do unpaid internships here, taking on part of the workload to train ahead of time."
"What a clever 'unpaid internship,'" Cheng Ye remarked with a sigh of admiration.
Quite the slick maneuver!
What did the checkpoint's base salary amount to, anyway? Did anyone actually expect to get by on those few Happiness Coins?
Stationed here, as long as one squeezed out just a bit of grease, the take-home pay was easily several times higher than the official wage. Even an honest man like Liu Bi, who never skimmed a thing, could effortlessly pull in over a thousand Happiness Coins a month.
This supposed "unpaid" arrangement could only fool fools.
No, even a fool would understand the value of wielding authority inside the checkpoint.
"And below them?"
"Below them are ordinary folks like us—observers, guards, clerks, runners, meal delivery staff. Basically, anyone lending a hand to the inspectors. As long as we're inside the checkpoint and not sent outside, we're at your beck and call, without a single complaint!"
Chapter 24