Wasteland Border Inspector-Chapter 352 - 143: Abandoned Hydropower Station, Planning Dapo Town! (3)
The county road is the first hurdle. The road surface has collapsed in many places, with frequent appearances of infected bodies and mutant beasts, especially near the section Cheng Ye marked out as the ruins of "Wenlu County," where infected bodies often wander and mutant beasts attack humans in packs.
The last 7 kilometers of rural road are even more challenging, entirely dirt tracks, and when it rains, they inevitably become muddy and impassable.
In addition, when the Lin River rises, this part is bound to be flooded, and even navigating with a boat might become difficult then.
Interspersed among the pages are annotations of high-risk points along the route.
The ruins of Wenlu County remain the number one threat; once a county seat of the old era, it has now become a nest for infection sources.
Despite the extensive and ongoing cleanup efforts by Happiness City over the years, new sources of infection continue to emerge relentlessly.
Another hidden threat lurks beneath the waters of the Lijiang Tributary, where infection sources from the main river channel often lie dormant at the bottom. Especially during the flood season, they can easily launch surprise attacks on human settlements along the waterways.
More surprisingly, the latter pages provide a complete annotation of the specific situation within Dapo Town, information that even Cheng Ye’s own materials do not mention.
For instance, "Jiajiale Supermarket" at the town’s western end remains structurally intact, with its load-bearing walls undamaged. After clearing, it can accommodate at least five hundred people for short-term residence.
Additionally, though damaged, the office building in the town center has a stable framework, which could serve as a temporary worksite after repairs. Even the water tower on the top floor could be restored for use.
On the eastern edge of town, the abandoned grain station comes with underground storage, excellent for humidity control, making it ideal for storing supplies...
All this information is annotated with specific times, the earliest dating back to April of this year, and the latest just two days ago.
It’s evident that although residents of the Celestial Essence Community seldom venture out, they have kept their channels open for obtaining outside information.
Perhaps they heard it from some scrap gatherers or learned it through conversations with coworkers.
This information may have been of little use before, but it holds invaluable value the moment Cheng Ye asked about it.
On the final page, Elder Song also noted the types of infection sources that might be encountered along the route, yet perhaps wary of Cheng Ye’s inspector status, this part is vaguely written without detailed features; presumably, out of concern not to "show off" before a professional in Cheng Ye’s field.
"Indeed, the most pressing issue right now seems to be... the water threat."
The more Cheng Ye read, the calmer he felt, not deterred by the dangers outlined in the information.
It’s meaningless.
Beyond Happiness City, the wilderness is fraught with peril everywhere.
Unlike zombies, many infection sources, often transmitted by mutant creatures, water series exchanges, or even naturally induced, do not reveal themselves from a distance for easy targeting.
The current Void Mist, for instance, remains a mystery, leaving no clarity as to what new infection sources it might have brought to Stone Province.
Therefore, choosing a site for safety itself is the greatest fallacy.
What truly should be considered is the difficulty of preventing these dangers.
"It would be expected that inspectors wouldn’t avoid Wenlu County. It’s the largest county between Happiness City and the Industrial Zone, and logically, it should be rebuilt as a resource transit hub, potentially more valuable than the Satellite City before the Buffer Zone."
"Therefore, I don’t need to overly worry about threats from Wenlu County. The military force from Happiness City will likely target this area as a primary sweep objective. The real concern... lies with the water hazards of the Lin River and the infection sources spreading from the water series."
Cheng Ye pulled out a sheet of white paper and began jotting down keywords.
[Water threat warning], [Flood season status], [Embankment situation], [Underwater infection source characteristics]...
Life is unpredictable.
A few days ago, when Master Zhang talked with him about the rainfall, Cheng Ye was worried about whether the Yueye Shelter would be flooded.
Now he had to ponder if the Dapo Town he chose would be swallowed by rising waters.
Should I use the third opportunity to ask again?
Cheng Ye hesitated slightly, then decided against it. At this point, there was no room to switch locations; within the sixty-kilometer overlapping circle, the options were limited.
If a better option indeed existed, it wouldn’t be too late to apply for an adjustment after securing the contract qualification.
Apart from threats, the reconstruction difficulty must also be calculated.
Based on Elder Song’s information and data, the underground pipeline network of Dapo Town had been defunct long ago.
This was within his expectations, sparing future effort in reconstruction altogether.
Besides, if it’s thoroughly ruined, installing a new pipeline might be easier than repairing the old one, allowing new plans to avoid the layout constraints of old pipelines.
A considerable number of old-era buildings remain preserved, sufficient to get through the difficult initial stages.
"I’ll choose... Dapo Town!"
Cheng Ye exhaled a long breath, turning to Zhang to confirm his choice.
"Okay, Inspector Cheng." Zhang handed over a manila envelope, "Please open the exam questions and answer; incidentally, we need to reclaim these materials. Would you like to review them a bit longer or start answering the questions now?"
Has it turned into a closed-book exam? 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎
Cheng Ye took the test packet without hesitation: "Let’s begin now."
Tearing open the envelope, the test questions were more complex than expected, with a full twenty-one major questions, all open-ended discussions with no standard answers. For instance:
Discuss the core objectives and strategic significance of selecting this location, the role of the area’s development prospects in bolstering the overall plan of Happiness City, specific short-term construction goals (3 months) and long-term development directions (1 year), and how to balance the speed of refugee settlement against the prioritization of building a defense system...
Yet, compared to modern tenders, these questions were much simpler, requiring no precise calculation of every input cost, no need to rack one’s brains "cutting corners" within the budget to enhance competitiveness; instead, merely clearly explaining the reasons and methods sufficed.
