Cave Refuge-Chapter 156 - 155: Leaving_1

As Dong Tianyu said, stumbling upon a cultivation method and successfully practicing it all by yourself is not impossible, it’s just extremely improbable.

Observation is the first step of the compulsory courses in traditional Chinese medicine. Through the observation of Dong Tianyu’s Essence, Qi, and Spirit, Dr. Zuo had known that Dong Tianyu was not just a martial artist, but a master stronger than himself. There was no way Dong Tianyu was just practicing casually as he claimed.

However, thinking about how the Officials invited him to join their organization after confirming his acquisition of Inner Strength, he found Robinson William’s name on the member list of the West City District. Moreover, he was even appointed as the Command Post leader in the West City District.

Before joining, he thought this organization was just another department of the Officials, but after joining, he learned this organization, although part of the Officials, held more power than the other departments, and that even an ordinary staff member like him could have access to resources from multiple departments.

Recognizing Dong Tianyu’s strong abilities and him stating Robinson William’s name directly, Dr. Zuo conjectured that Dong Tianyu was also a member of the organization.

With this in mind, Dr. Zuo relaxed and said to Hugo, "Alright, don’t be nervous. He’s one of us."

Hearing what Dr. Zuo had said, Hugo asked with some doubt, "Shouldn’t we confirm over the phone first?"

"No need. You know the situation well enough. No matter what he did before, as long as he didn’t make trouble after the disaster struck, all refuge centers welcome survivors."

The situation in the underground refuge center was different than what it had been just before the catastrophe came.

Upon the onset of the catastrophe, each refuge center had limited supplies. An increase in the number of survivors would mean fewer resources for each individual, so most refuge centers were not welcoming strangers then.

But as the subway network connected the majority of the underground refuge centers in Pengcheng, along with the fact that most of the previously stored materials in each refuge center had been depleted.

The majority of resources in each refuge center now depended on the distribution by the Officials, mainly the food reserves stored in the War Reserve Warehouse.

After these food supplies were distributed to each district’s Command Post, they would be allocated based on each Refuge Center’s assessment.

This assessment mainly considered the number of survivors living in each refuge center, along with the contributions these survivors have made to Pengcheng.

One didn’t need to talk about the number of survivors, but as for contributions, one can regard each refuge center as separate departments within a factory. Although survivors are all hiding in the underground refuge center, they still need to contribute to Pengcheng through labor.

The simplest and most basic tasks are underground mushroom cultivation and manual labor, while more complex tasks like research work also require manpower.

Due to a shortage of electricity, large amounts of manpower were needed to complete these tasks.

Because of this, refuge centers with more people tend to receive larger allocations of supplies.

Now, each underground refuge center in Pengcheng rank first, second, third and so forth. Survivors in small shelters aspire to be in big shelters.

In order to prevent all survivors from flocking to the big refuge center, the population registration system was brought up again. Every shelter began to register the population.

From the day of registration, all shelters were only responsible for distributing and exchanging resources for survivors registered in their own shelter. Non-registered survivors were unable to obtain any resources from the shelter.

This regulation might seem familiar as it resembles the ration coupons popular in the 50s and 60s. These could only be used in specific cities and except for national ration coupons, local coupons were not accepted in other places.

While the refuge centers do not distribute ration coupons now, the reason simply being the small number of survivors, the principle is the same.

However, after this registration, the survivors who used to stay in the Private Sanctuary and occasionally went to the Officials’ refuge center to collect supplies were left flabbergasted.

Because normally, these Private Sanctuaries are not connected to the underground network, so when registration started, they were unaware of this new policy by the Officials and did not register.

But when they came to know of this new regulation and wanted to register, the procedures to acquire residency became complicated.

To register in an Officials-controlled refuge center, you either had to pay sufficient money or make a significant contribution.(Think about immigration policies).

The Officials knew about the exploitation happening in the Private Sanctuaries, but they had been busy and did not have the time to deal with them. Furthermore, regardless of what was said, these people were still residents of Pengcheng, and they did not cause any chaos. Thus, the Officials turned a blind eye.

However, as resources became scarce, if these people were going to continue exploiting without contributing, the Officials would not tolerate them anymore. A new regulation was introduced, which effectively made most of the Private Sanctuaries useless.

Because of this regulation, many survivors living in the Private Sanctuaries had to move to the Officials’ refuge center under high temperatures.

Dr. Zuo assumed that Dong Tianyu was one of these people. After all, those with capabilities generally don’t like to be controlled by others.

Even the most capable person cannot survive without food, so when the Officials tightened the supply distribution, many survivors returned to the Officials’ refuge centers.

If Dong Tianyu had not mentioned the name Robinson William, Dr. Zuo would’ve loved to get him to join the organization. Unfortunately, as Dong Tianyu brought up Robinson William, Dr. Zuo assumed that Robinson William already served as Dong Tianyu’s introducer.

With this in mind, his previously high spirits cooled down. He sighed slightly and told Hugo, "You bring him to the entrance of the underground network."

Upon saying so, Dr. Zuo did not wait for Hugo’s reply and turned to leave.

Watching the somewhat disappointed Dr. Zuo, Hugo felt a bit perplexed. However, he still dutifully followed the instruction and took Dong Tianyu to the subway network entrance, telling him:

"You mentioned earlier that you want to go to the People’s Square, right? Here is the map of the subway network in Pengcheng. This is our current location, you take this route to get there, and then...."

Hugo pointed at the map drawn on the wall, explaining in detail which route Dong Tianyu should take to reach People’s Square.

Listenting to Hugo’s heartfelt introduction, Dong Tianyu gave up the idea of going above ground, thinking it might be nice to take a change of scenery and walk underground.

The underground passage was not as dark as Dong Tianyu imagined. He wasn’t sure what equipment was installed on top of the tunnel or what material was applied.

The entire passage was not bright, but with careful observation, one could see the underground roads clearly.