As Wave Rider continued to approach, Dong Tianyu also noticed that around the escort ships, there were some wooden planks floating, and upon closer inspection, weren’t these objects similar to wooden planks the initial form of Companion Spiritual Treasures?

Looking at the situation on the surrounding water, Dong Tianyu realized that it seemed the Platform had also suffered from the attacks of the fish swarms. However, when he had left, Magic City Platform Number Three hadn’t had those chaotic and various-tonnage escort ships.

He had only been away for less than ten days, yet such significant changes had occurred at Magic City Platform Number Three; clearly, something he didn’t understand must have happened in the meantime.

As Wave Rider drew nearer, the communication devices of everyone on board rang out at the same time. It should be noted that at this time, the miniature communication satellites that used to orbit the Earth had all been dragged into Blue Star’s atmosphere and fallen due to Earth’s gravity as Blue Star had suddenly expanded.

Due to the continuous occurrences of natural disasters, the ground stations built before the disasters had also been completely damaged, and all the communication methods created before the catastrophes had failed.

The communication devices they were using now relied on the satellites the Imperial Court had gone to great lengths to rebuild and launch, using new materials that had appeared after the disasters and the special abilities of the Awakeners.

Because disasters had disrupted communication, now no one knew whether other countries had launched satellites, or whether the orbits of those satellites clashed with those launched by the Imperial Court.

To prevent any potential conflicts, the Imperial Court had emptied its coffers to launch three communication satellites in different orbits, and only then did the Chinese survivors regain the right to make phone calls.

Since communication satellites had been launched, naturally, there would be communication devices. However, all these communication devices had to be registered with the Imperial Court. At this moment, when the communication devices on Wave Rider all sounded at once,

Everyone present understood that their devices likely had a tracking feature, or perhaps other functions they were unaware of, and that the movements of everyone were probably under the surveillance of the Imperial Court.

As for being monitored by the Imperial Court, everyone present, including Dong Tianyu, didn’t actually have much of a reaction. After all, even before the disasters, it was very easy for the Governmental Office to track someone’s movements without them enabling phone navigation, so the vast majority of Chinese people were accustomed to being monitored.

Everyone took out their communication devices, exchanged glances without speaking, and then stood still. Right in front of each other, they all pressed the answer button together.

"Hello, this is the Communication Department of Magic City Platform Number Three. Your vessel has entered into the secure maritime zone of the Base. Please state the purpose of your visit. If you have entered by accident, please leave this area promptly."

Even though the voice coming from each person’s communication device was different, the content of the message was essentially the same.

"Hello, this is Dong Tianyu. I have already settled on our Base. This time I am relocating my parents from elsewhere. Our address is Room 025 on the 151st floor."

When Dong Tianyu revealed his residential address on the other end of the phone, the face there showed a serious expression immediately. Though the Base claimed to champion equality for everyone, just like before, the differences in status between individuals were still significant in reality.

Unlike the pre-disaster differences that were made through non-transparent means like rights or money, now the distinctions between people could be directly discerned through their residential addresses.

The simplest way was based on the deck; the higher the floor on which one resided, the greater their status onboard.

This implicit distinction existed because the higher the floor, the better the living conditions and environment — after all, although the water platform had been converted into a Base, bluntly speaking, it was still a large ship, just one far larger than the past aircraft carriers, comparable in size to some islands.

Apart from some particularly special floors, the lower the floor, the higher the density of residents and the worse the living conditions naturally became.

Anyone with a certain status, unless for a very particular reason, would naturally choose to live on a floor with better living conditions.

At this time, the majority of the room ownership rights within the base belonged to the Officials, as there were few survivors like Dong Tianyu who could produce a large amount of materials at once.

Even if some people could bring out a large amount of materials, the majority of them could only afford to buy floors significantly lower than the ones they could rent.

Therefore, most people preferred to take out loans to buy property rather than lower their living standards, but getting a loan was not easy unless one had, like Dong Tianyu, a relatively high ranking in terms of martial strength at the base, or had made significant contributions to the base. Otherwise, the Officials would at most only provide rental options and not open up the possibility of purchasing.

As for the lower floors, there’s no need to say much, although everyone knew that prices would definitely rise in the future. However, such an increase was based on the premise that the entire base’s housing market would go up.

Moreover, regardless of how high or low the housing prices climbed, the actual situation had little to do with the residents. The closer to the deck, the less they worried about housing issues.

After all, they were the base’s grassroots workers, residing in government-provided social housing, which was shared but offered to them free of charge. So, no matter the housing prices, it was not of much concern to them.

Therefore, the real estate that was actually circulating within the base was mostly the independent rooms above the fiftieth floor. However, most of the survivors living there now, like the workers of the past, theoretically had to pay monthly rent, which the base paid directly without them having to spend a dime.

As a result, they naturally only had the right to inhabit and not the ownership of the properties. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Because of this, once their status and identity within the base improved, they would naturally choose to move to better floors and would not remain in their original residences like those who purchased property would.

Of course, there are bound to be issues with this type of living arrangement, but since everyone had only just moved into the base, no problems should arise in the short term.

Due to the disaster, although everyone knew that the water base might be abandoned after the flood had ended, no one could be certain of when that would happen.

Therefore, even though many people were aware that there would be various issues with this housing allocation method in the future, for the time being, it was not a concern. After all, who knew whether these issues would arise before the flood subsided?

Because of the precedent set by Kyoto, everyone understood that these problems would not have a significant impact for at least a generation or two.

Aside from Dong Tianyu, everyone else, prompted by his gestures, responded to the person on the other end of the phone that they were planning to settle in Magic City Base №3.

When the Taylor family responded, they only mentioned that the whole family planned to settle there, without mentioning that Dong Tianyu had already settled on this side.

For some reason, the person on the phone did not refuse the Taylor family’s request to settle, but instead invited them warmly to come in for registration.

It was much the same with Father Dong and Mother Dong; after merely stating that their son had already settled at the base without revealing Dong Tianyu’s name, the other party extended a very warm invitation to them.

Because of the need for identity verification, others had hung up their calls while Dong Tianyu’s information was still being confirmed, and after establishing that Dong Tianyu was indeed the owner of Wave Rider.

After arranging a docking area for the Wave Rider, and confirming that Dong Tianyu had a ferry available, did the liaison hang up the phone.

Whether it was a received notice or not, the rafts (Companion Spiritual Treasure) floating in front of Wave Rider vanished in an instant, indicating they were likely recalled back into the Sea of Consciousness by their masters.