The Invasion Day – Chapter 85
Table of Contents | Character Guide
Chapter 85
Back in Yun City’s central warehouse, although the place was also surrounded by reinforced walls, those were far from the spectacular walls that Pei City had built. Not to mention, merely a few months ago, no such structure existed.
Fu Shiwu couldn’t help himself and quickly got out of the passenger seat. Tang Xuhai looked at the line of cars in front of him, stopped the engine and got off.
“These city walls were built by special ability users.” After observing for a while, Fu Shiwu said affirmatively.
“Uhm?” Tang Xuhai blinked, looked at them for a while with his arms folded and said: “How do you see that?”
“This sort of construction can’t be completed with traditional engineering in just two months.” Fu Shiwu gazed at the two long walls in the distance: “It’s not something that can be made by modern humans. Only thanks to humanity’s current earth-type and metal-type abilities that this miracle can be accomplished.”
Tang Xuhai pondered for a moment and roughly figured this was related to Fu Shiwu’s profession. He didn’t know much about this, but Fu Shiwu could see at a glance what was unusual about these city walls.
“Reinforced concrete…” Fu Shiwu’s eyes gleamed as he mumbled softly: “It seems that drastic changes have been made to the material.”
At this moment, Huo Enting walked over from behind and heard his words. Feeling a tad uneasy, he asked: “What’s the matter? Is there anything wrong with Pei City’s situation?”
Tang Xuhai turned around and said to him: “There’s nothing wrong, but after the sky veil opened, the way that humans build houses has also changed. They don’t even use bricks anymore.”
Huo Enting didn’t fully understand Tang Xuhai’s rambles, so Fu Shiwu repeated what he had just discovered with a stern expression.
“Oh.” Huo Enting breathed a sigh of relief.
“Why? Do you have relatives in Pei City?” Tang Xuhai said.
“Uhm, I have an uncle here.” Huo Enting reluctantly put up a smile: “I wonder how he is now?”
“With a survivor base this impressive, the chance of survival is very high, so don’t worry. “Fu Shiwu said, pushing his glasses up.
The length of the line of fleets that tried to enter the city was as mind-blowing as the astonishment of the people at Pei City upon hearing of the arrival of Ping Nan survivors.
Two months had passed since the start of the apocalypse, and it had been a while since such a large number of survivors came here.
The base’s administrative official rushed over immediately and personally received the survivors.
He somehow saw Tang Xuhai, Fu Shiwu and Wen Xiaoming as the group’s leaders.
An official surnamed Zhu walked towards them, then he cordially held Tang Xuhai’s hand and said with exhilaration: “We’re very happy to hear of the arrival of Ping Nan town’s citizens. We welcome you to settle down in Pei City. Regarding the placement of survivors, you can rest assured that we now have a very established process. Certainly, you won’t be left to suffer, please, just rest assured.”
Tang Xuhai said with a dark face: “You are mistaken, we’re not from Ping Nan, we are from Yun City.” Tang Xuhai turned his head and shouted to the back: “Zhou Weihua!”
Zhou Weihua ran over.
Tang Xuhai said to the official: “He’s from Ping Nan.”
The official was a tad stunned, but still, he smiled at Tang Xuhai: “The people of Yun City are also very welcome. How many people are in your group?”
Tang Xuhai said in a slightly disgruntled mood: “Not many, only a dozen.”
The official’s smile didn’t fade at all as he continued: “Don’t worry, we’ll carefully arrange for you too.” Then he turned and walked a few steps, took Zhou Weihua’s hands and shook them: “You’ve worked hard! We’ve also heard of the tragedy in Ping Nan town, but we could only give you our prayers, for we didn’t have enough manpower. We’re very sad that Shi Zheng’s atrocities have caused the people of Ping Nan to suffer. Now everything is over, as long as you’re here in Pei City, you don’t have to be afraid anymore. Everyone has jobs and food on their table. Life will get better.”
As the official blabbered on and on, Zhou Weihua could only be carried away by his talking.
Wen Zhaoming stood by and watched with nonchalant eyes, then he let out a soft chuckle.
Fu Shiwu felt the most troubled when facing this kind of scene. Since the beginning, he had been standing on the side with an expression as blank as that of a portrait.
Seeing that the official surnamed Zhu shifted the target to Zhou Weihua and the others, he secretly heaved a sigh of relief.
Then he began to reflect on himself. He was now the captain of their team, how could he harbour this kind of mentality of wanting to escape unpleasant situations? He seriously shouldn’t.
But this official was really not easy to deal with. His antics were far more sophisticated than that of Fu Shiwu’s director.
At this point, Miao Jia crawled out from nowhere and signalled to the three of them. Fu Shiwu pushed Tang Xuhai a bit, making him turn around to look over. The three quietly walked to Miao Jia’s side.
“I’ve made some inquiries.” Miao Jia stealthily looked at the intriguing scene over there and whispered to the three of them: “Pei City has undergone a thorough reconstruction and is divided into the East Development District, the Old Town and the three-part New Town. The Old Town was basically the original Pei City that has undergone revamping, and this is where the refugees are heading to. On the other hand, the New Town was entirely re-built with special ability users’ powers, where places of business, entertainment, food, administration and scientific research flock. Survivors who originally come from Pei City have all moved to this place. The East Development District is a newly developed urban area that expands from the original Pei City. The facilities here are relatively intact, not damaged by any aliens at all, so this area is especially suitable for living. This district is reserved solely for army personnel, people with ‘special’ backgrounds, as well as groups formed by special ability users.”
“East Development District?” Wen Zhaoming, a native of this provincial capital, pondered for a moment: “Let’s not go to the Old Town. We should sell the medical equipment and move directly into the East Development District.”
Miao Jia was taken back: “But the housing there is quite expensive. Would we earn enough from the equipment?”
Wen Zhaoming thought hard and said: “Do you know what sort of currency is used for transactions in Pei City as of this moment? Money should’ve depreciated drastically by now. I don’t think the savings I have in the bank can be used any longer.”
Wen Zhaoming’s family were all locals, so they did have a house in the city. However, when the apocalypse took place, the whole family wasn’t here. He had no idea if their house still remained intact after the city’s reconstruction.
Miao Jia nodded: “I haven’t gotten the time to inform you, but I actually went to study this in advance. I checked on the Internet when we were on the road: currently, all major survivor bases have stopped using state-issued currency, but it hasn’t been abolished either. Instead, a Contribution Point system has been temporarily implemented. After the order is restored, people’s original savings can be exchanged for the new currency”.
Monetary savings hadn’t become trash paper, which was indeed the commoners’ greatest consolation. They could also hope to be able to continue using it when peace is restored someday in the future.
“Do all transactions now use Contribution Points? How can such points be transacted, and where do they come from?” Fu Shiwu asked.
“Contribution Points are income from labour. If you get a job, you’ll be given a certain amount of Contribution Points, then you can use these points to carry out transactions and buy food.” Miao Jia explained: “The transaction method is very simple, you can just swipe your ID card. The Contribution Points issued every day are directly accumulated in each person’s ID card.”
ID card?
Fu Shiwu put on a disheartened expression: “I have no idea where my ID card has disappeared to.”
Tang Xuhai also shrugged: “Mine is gone too.”
Wen Zhaoming took out a badly tattered wallet from his trouser pocket: “I still have it here.”
“No problem at all. The Internet is still functional, and the citizenship system has been reactivated. As long as you enter the ID number and it gives a match, you can apply for a new ID card.” Miao Jia winked and said triumphantly: “Besides, you forget who I used to be. I’m a policeman, it’s a piece of cake for me to reissue you an ID card.”
“Great, then how do we get these Contribution Points? How many points can we get for selling these medicines and equipment?”
“I don’t think earning Contribution Points will be challenging for us.” Miao Jia said casually: “In fact, Contribution Points are more for the needs of citizens living in the city. For people like us, we can use another type of point.”
“For special ability users that need to travel between cities, it’s more convenient to employ a common currency. There’s a special organisation founded for special ability users called the ‘Civil Hall’. In this place, the government will issue missions, for example, to help protect a town, kill aliens somewhere or collect materials from a certain place, and the rewards given are Civil Points. In addition, other people or groups can also put up missions in this hall, and needless to say, they have to fork out the points themselves.”
Tang Xuhai thought a little, they might not always stay in the same city in the future, so it was indeed more convenient to get Civil Points.
Being a cautious man, Wen Zhaoming asked: “Is there any difference between Contribution Points and Civil Points?”
“They’re almost the same, and both can be used for transactions. The only difference is that Civil Points can be exchanged for Contribution Points, but the reverse can’t happen. Moreover, certain items, such as ammunition, can only be purchased with Civil Points.”
Wen Zhaoming nodded, feeling that this was more reasonable, because compared to Civil Point points, Contribution Points could simply be earned by working in the city.
“When we enter the city, let’s go to the Civil Hall to discuss further?” Fu Shiwu softly suggested.
“Uhm.”
The team didn’t take their leave early, instead, they waited for the people of Ping Nan town to pass through the gate together and to accompany them to the new settlement.
It was as though two different worlds existed inside and outside the walls.
The walls seemed to block all fear and suffering outside. The activities of people here made it seem as though everything was before the apocalypse; everyone was going to work and getting off work, living their life as usual.
It was just a little bit different from before. There were people hurriedly rushing through the city, and the traffic and population were much less than before the disaster struck Earth.
Upon entering the city, they headed straight in the direction of the New Town and drove through it to get to the Old Town.
The tremendous size of this refugee group attracted much curiosity from the pedestrians on the road.
The construction of the New Town was indeed commendable. If it weren’t for the apocalypse, the tall buildings would make people feel as though they were in a highly modern, cosmopolitan metropolis.
After driving for a long time and passing through many big roads of the New Town, they finally arrived at the Old Town and saw the mess left behind by the aliens.
Now they fully understood why this place was called the Old Town.
With the emergence of special ability users, constructing a building no longer required heavy machinery, nor did it need to transport building materials from outside.
The existing manpower was enough for this.
Earth-type powers truly played a huge role here, and each of them could conjure new powers that humanity had never imagined. They barely had to lift a finger and a tall building would eject from the ground.
Of course, aid from other types of abilities were indispensable, especially metal-type ability. The two needed to cooperate to completely create a building. Meanwhile, decoration and other issues were taken care of very swiftly under the hands of special ability users.
Because resources had to be reserved for the New Town’s establishment, beside stripping materials from collapsed buildings within the New Town itself, certain things from the Old Town had also been taken away.
Compared with the glamour of the New Town, the Old Town looked rather shabby.
But even when this was the case, it remained a great shelter for the wandering survivors and those that had lost their homes.
It’s just that the outer wall has been stripped off, but doesn’t the building still remain in good shape?
Not to mention, not all buildings had been uprooted. A large complex of intact buildings stood firm within the Old Town.
Although there were still some traces of battles, the doors and windows were broken and the furniture was incomplete, this was acceptable. After a bit of repair, this surely would be habitable.
Translator and reviewer at Strictly Bromance blog. In essence, she lives to indulge in plot-driven stories sprinkled with camaraderie and slow-burn drama-free romance, especially more so if they belong to adventure, mystery or supernatural genre. A trope that she always thirsts after: “Comrades who go through life and death together”.
Wasn’t it mentioned earlier that the only one with a connection to this place was Huo Enting?
New Town with New Missions – Thank you for the update