The first rays of dawn spilled down, warmth seeping through the battle armor into flesh.

A panel notification sound whispered in his ear, and warmth rose from his heart.

Cheng Ye braced his knees to stand up, raising his hand as the beams of light slipping through his fingers caught the sun slowly climbing above the horizon.

It had never seemed so dazzling, so full of hope.

An uncanny sense of survival after the disaster suddenly swept over him.

He knew he might never return to that familiar land, where even memories of the civilized era rapidly faded with each battle.

But turning to look at the bustling pedestrian street, watching the residents of Celestial Essence Mall smile as they carried infected bodies out from the alleys.

Whenever anyone met his eyes, there was undisguised respect and affection.

Cheng Ye let out a long sigh and sat back against the wall.

"Indeed, I have no desire to go back."

He fished out the Blue Medicine concocted by Master Tian and took a deep breath.

However, the cool minty sensation was already eighty percent weaker than when he first used it.

Now it was almost like medicinal oil, barely dispelling some of the fatigue.

It wasn't last night's battle that drained his Heart Power, but the continuous mental stress throughout the entire Starfish incident that kept him strung tight.

At this moment, fully relaxed, physical and mental exhaustion surged over him like a tide.

It was hard to resist, and he didn't want to resist.

Now, he just wanted to wait for the Buffer Zone to lift the infection tide warning and go home for a good sleep.

Close the security door, and no one would disturb him.

Best if he could sleep for three days and nights, driving away all the unease since crossing into the Wasteland.

In the distance.

Huang Sheng came over carrying dozens of boxes of heated Nutrient Paste, and started distributing them at the entrance of the pedestrian street.

"Captain, it's time to eat."

"Give me five packs."

Cheng Ye took the slightly warm Nutrient Paste, tore open the package with his teeth, and slowly sucked it in.

Elder Song sidled over at some unknown time, sitting beside him.

"Inspector Cheng, tonight's haul is really abundant."

The old man rubbed his hands together, a smile wrinkling his face. "Please allow this old man to retract the previous proposal, the community will only take ten percent of all Contribution Points."

According to the current tally, Zone B-7 has already contained exactly 3,274 sources of infection tonight.

By the principle of collective participation, since Celestial Essence Community is the main force, the Happiness third-class merit for counts over 1,000 will also be automatically granted to the community.

The honor value is self-explanatory, and it will come with an extra allotment of as much as 3,000 Contribution Points as community public fund expenditure.

In other words, everyone at Celestial Essence Mall could almost earn 1 Contribution Point tonight.

In the ordinary resource system of the Buffer Zone, 1 Contribution Point's purchasing power is approximately equal to 12 Happiness Coins.

This means that the mall has a revenue of nearly fifty thousand Happiness Coins overnight, which means the repair costs for the mall are completely covered.

"Elder Song, I have no say in point allocation, the drones up there are all recording."

Cheng Ye couldn't help but shake his head, raising his hand to point at the surveillance drones hovering above. "Those who contributed more in the battle should naturally take more, and those with less contribution will take less."

He paused for a moment, then added: "Besides, the community has its own rewards, and I have mine. They are two separate matters."

Elder Song wore a troubled expression and managed to squeeze out a sentence that made Cheng Ye chuckle: "Even so, it's too much money...we just want to renovate the community environment, fix the facilities we've not had the money to repair in past years."

"Too much money, way over budget, and we really don't know how to spend it!"

These days, there's actually such a thing as too much money and not knowing how to spend it?

Thinking about how the Inner City had also allocated a giant sum of twenty thousand Contribution Points, Cheng Ye couldn't help but feel amused.

"The pedestrian street is right next to the mall, isn't it? This time nearly everyone inside is gone; the community might as well include the pedestrian street under our management."

"Pedestrian street..."

Elder Song twirled his beard thoughtfully and then shook his head, "This area used to fall under the mall's management, but later, because it was hard to manage due to the high volume of migrants, the community simply relinquished control. Now taking it back wouldn't cause any criticism, but the problem is we don't know how to use it if we take it. We can't transform the entire pedestrian street into housing, can we?"

"If everyone lives in bunk beds crammed inside the mall, that's fair. If someone goes outside to live more comfortably, that would immediately spark dissatisfaction."

"What's so hard about that?"

Cheng Ye finished one pack of Nutrient Paste and tore open another, saying, "It's almost autumn, the perfect time for construction in the Buffer Zone. Tear down all the illegal and dangerous buildings on the pedestrian street, and rebuild a new pedestrian street."

"With over four thousand people in the mall, they can't all scatter around like migratory birds doing odd jobs. With so many women and children, to grow collectively, we must source and save resources, and give everyone work to stabilize the community. Otherwise, without cash for repairs in two years, we will walk the same old road."

"Give everyone work?"

Elder Song was a bit dumbfounded, thinking he heard wrong.

But he saw Cheng Ye stand up, looking distantly toward Giant Wall Station, "Hmm, the area around the Giant Wall Station is probably completely destroyed, and reconstruction won't be permitted anytime soon."

"This is precisely our chance. As long as we quickly set up a safe trading zone, so scavengers can settle in the pedestrian street, everything can be handled easily, even opening a shop selling only Nutrient Paste. The daily profits would be enough to keep the community running smoothly."

"Moreover...repairing weapons and armor, contracting small goods processing orders, doing outsourced labor, even setting up a small factory inside the pedestrian street could work. The application for qualification isn't hard; I can take a trip to the Public Works Bureau and get it done. Even if it's just producing small industrial items initially, selling them to outer settlements could bring in considerable revenue."

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