Wasteland Border Inspector-Chapter 350 - 143: Abandoned Hydropower Station, Planning Dapo Town!
After clearing his thoughts, Cheng Ye found his goal instantly clear as he revisited the materials.
Since this is only the first round of selection and not the final site selection, there is no need to rush to focus on those unconventional and peculiar terrains as anomalies.
Even though it seemed to him that some overlooked areas, if properly utilized, might have potential not inferior to the popular locations.
However, the core of the first few rounds of selection is clearly to assess whether the Inspector’s comprehensive approach is practical and whether their knowledge base is solid.
Those "wild ideas" applied to special terrains lack case support and may not necessarily be recognized by the assessment team, potentially even being penalized for deviating from the norm.
Therefore, the optimal solution is to choose a location that is neither too popular nor obscure, yet precisely showcases one’s advantages.
Cheng Ye’s fingers swiftly moved across the materials, first crossing out the first batch of ineffective options, all locations more than sixty kilometers away from Happiness City.
The reasoning is simple: early construction relies on mobile troops for material transport. However, the current situation is marked by frequent rainfall, with heavy rain potentially washing away temporary roads at any time, delaying transportation cycles, not to mention potential attacks from Infected Bodies along the way.
Once the distance becomes too great, the logistic losses alone could undermine initial construction efforts.
The more crucial issues are water and electricity networks. Being far from the main city means starting from scratch to build a power and water supply system, requiring not only an additional substantial resource investment but also drastically increasing the settlement difficulty for displaced people.
For someone like him, who lacks practical construction experience, it’s undoubtedly a self-imposed obstacle.
He then crossed out areas more than sixty kilometers from the Industrial Zone.
The same rationale applies: most building materials and equipment need to be deployed from the Industrial Zone, making nearby transport efficient and low-cost, whereas distant locations might face delays, causing construction schedules to stall.
With Happiness City and the Industrial Zone as centers, drawing a sixty-kilometer radius around each reveals the overlapping area instantly.
Cheng Ye traced along the boundary with his pen point, counting that there are as many as thirteen locations meeting the criteria, richer than expected.
The most conspicuous is an old-era county-level town.
Wenlu County.
According to the data, this was once the battlefield of Extraordinary battles, so most buildings within have collapsed, leaving only a few residential building frames standing amidst the ruins, and a few sporadic shops on the city’s edge still relatively intact.
Notably, the county’s underground water supply and sewer networks may still exist, but to reactivate them would require a massive resource investment for restoration. Just clearing out silt and damage within the pipes could exhaust initial material quotas.
This is also why Happiness City has been hesitant to occupy this location because even the Buffer Zone’s plumbing frequently malfunctions, and no one wants to take a gamble on such an "infrastructure black hole."
In addition, there are two former county-level towns ’Long Water Town’ and ’Cloud Water Town’ (each with a permanent population of over ten thousand) as well as a town-level village ’Dapo Town’ (about thirty thousand people).
What caught Cheng Ye’s slight attention was that Dapo Town has a small hydropower station. Although the turbines were long dismantled, the dam structure remains intact, surely built to century-long standards without cutting corners.
If new equipment could be installed, it could support the initial electricity needs for the entire Satellite City.
Moreover, the reservoir formed by the dam has quality water, solving both drinking water issues and providing irrigation sources—truly a natural "double insurance."
Of course, there’s a critical reason why Dapo Town has become an abandoned wasteland.
The Water Series connected to the Lin River causes Dapo Town to become a swamp whenever it floods.
Each flood brings seeds of mutated plants that take root with the water flow.
So occasionally visiting can find germinated and rooted mutated plants, like the four White Water Grass that Zhang Xiaofan brought came from this process. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞
Finally, there are eight large surrounding villages.
The residences in these villages are mostly intact, barely suitable for initial human habitation.
But choosing here means following a "relocation and reconstruction" path: demolishing existing structures and rebuilding according to plans, equivalent to adding an unnecessary process, suited for those with experience and time to occupy territory, rather than the current need for quick settlement and results.
Of course, the notes at the end of the materials also state that Inspectors can choose terrain to build from scratch.
But this was outright ignored by Cheng Ye, since, to choose such places, one would need to acquire a contracting license and then submit a special application to the inspection station.
Writing "I want to build from scratch" now would likely lead to elimination in the first round.
"Where to choose..."
After pondering, Cheng Ye decided to use the opportunity to consult three times externally.
This mechanism is somewhat like the "help phase" seen in the talent shows he watched before crossing over, ostensibly assisting decision-making, yet testing the Inspector’s judgment, experience, and network.
"Xiao Zhang, I need to make a call."
"Of course," Xiao Zhang replied respectfully, "you just need to specify the consulting target and the question, and we will convey and record the answer for you."
Cannot talk directly?
Cheng Ye was taken aback for a moment, then suddenly understood. The design of this test is indeed clever.
If he could directly call, he could have the counterpart inquire further, indirectly surpassing the three-time restriction.
But through staff relay, one question corresponds to one answer, leaving no room for maneuver.
"Alright, the first call, please make it to Engineer Liu from the Public Works Bureau."
Cheng Ye pondered, "Inquire about the current state of the White Water Dam in Dapo Town, whether the structure can still operate. If not, what resources and technical thresholds are required for repairs? Please have him explain using professional terms."
