At present, it is the best time to fight for upward mobility.

Especially for those new residents who have joined Happiness City and for the poor kids living in the shantytowns who refuse to be consigned to their fate; if they fight now, they can seamlessly blend into the main city district.

Once winter passes and a new wave of residents rushes in, they will transform overnight into Buffer Zone veterans.

And at this juncture of new and old transitions and social mobility, bloody conflicts are bound to be inevitable!

Celestial Essence Community wants to continue to grow.

Only by holding onto the land they have now can they qualify to discuss expansion and seek development.

If not, on the vast pedestrian street, if they really invest according to Cheng Ye's ideas, with the current strength of Celestial Essence Community, on what grounds could they suppress those foreign scavengers who are lured by the scent?

"Hmm."

Er Long nodded lightly and soon left with a group of thirty to fifty people.

Such matters are always best done sooner rather than later; the earlier you go, the better you can prove to the outside world that the strength of Celestial Essence Community has not been affected by the infection outbreak.

After all, those kids in the shantytowns are sharp; if they really want to climb up, they will definitely first target the communities that have suffered heavy losses.

...

Leaving the community.

On the way back to the electronics factory, they could already see people gradually heading to work.

In Happiness City, even after surviving a calamity, there isn't much room to catch your breath.

Yet everyone's acceptance of this is astonishingly high; even though the ground is still lined with thick, undried blood, no one shows any sign of strangeness, all with expressionless faces.

It's as if last night's infection outbreak was just a nightmare, and now that the dream is over, it has vanished.

However, Cheng Ye naturally became the focus of the crowd.

It was indeed because his gold-red battle armor was too eye-catching, refracting colorful gleams under the sunshine, making him look like a moving flame on the gray street, impossible to ignore.

"Huang Sheng."

"Captain, you say."

"The squad has disbanded. Don't call me Captain anymore."

Cheng Ye waved his hand, "Since we're all neighbors, just call me by my name in the future. If you're not used to it, you can call me as you did before."

"Uh..." Huang Sheng shook his head awkwardly, "How can that be? I was too stupid before..."

After hesitating, he pondered and suggested, "If outsiders are around, we'll call you 'Sir,' and if not, we'll call you 'Lord Cheng,' how's that?"

"As you wish."

Cheng Ye didn't pay much attention to these titles.

The position of the Inspector in the Buffer Zone is indeed too high, and with his "brave" achievements from last night, expecting Huang Sheng and the others to treat him with the same casual attitude as before is evidently unrealistic.

However, Cheng Ye didn't find it bothersome, as managing a community is similar, and adding three more isn't an issue.

This night, indeed too many things happened.

The infection outbreak, fusion body, extraordinary items, the attention of Inner City factions, and a pile of mess waiting to be cleaned up...

Although his mind was now foggy and chaotic, he was crystal clear about one thing:

With some intentional guidance from the higher-ups, when stepping on this path, power accompanied the Inspector invisibly, only depending on whether he wants to use it and can use it.

"Based on the 13-year infection outbreak, what will happen next?"

"Hmm..."

Huang Sheng hesitated, but Zhu Xiang, who was silent beside him, took over the conversation.

"There's definitely going to be a great upheaval for a while. The Nightmare Leech outbreak occurred in spring and the chaos lasted for over three months. At that time, there was intense gunfire every night; ordinary people were powerless, and even the on-duty guards couldn't help, with dozens or hundreds of bodies being carried out from alleys every day, all of them dying in battles for territory."

"And yet, the Nightmare Leech back then was relatively controllable, and Happiness City had a strong regulatory effort. Even so, in the end, nearly eighty thousand people left gradually; this time, the impact of the Stand-In Starfish was much worse, with more than a hundred thousand direct deaths, I guess many will want to leave for other places before winter arrives."

"Approximately how many people?"

"At least... a baseline of a hundred thousand!"

"That many?"

Cheng Ye was indeed surprised.

The original population in the Buffer Zone was just over five hundred and twenty thousand; according to the information just pushed by Defense Communication, after this infection outbreak, the number of survivors should be around three hundred ninety thousand.

If another hundred thousand were to leave, it would mean the population would have nearly halved following an infection outbreak!

"There might even be more than that..."

Wu Zhihong said somewhat somberly, "Lord, there are hundreds of Shelter Cities across the Wasteland, each with its own unique advantages and ideals. We still need to charge for providing shelter and food here, while some Shelter Cities offer Nutrient Paste that you can drink as much as you want— join them, and you immediately get a house allocation.

Many people join Happiness City just wanting to use it as a springboard, taking advantage of our industrial strength to stockpile weapons and gear before leaving— they never intended to be locked in here for life; this is their opportunity."

"Currently, the largest Firewood Shelter City has nearly nine million people, yet there are still massive population movements every day; to retain people, we still ultimately rely on... Inspectors like you who can hold the line."

Subconsciously, Cheng Ye thought these words were just empty flattery.

But thinking about it, he felt somewhat silent.

Indeed, there is no solution to population fluidity. Since Happiness City itself operates on a migratory bird model, when residents sense danger, naturally, they can also leave at any time.

Moreover, can people staying in the Buffer Zone really be considered as having entered Happiness City?

Some leave to join other Shelter Cities, and some enter settlements in the Wilderness— it's all quite normal.

Ultimately, stabilizing the population and achieving growth fundamentally depends on the checkpoints.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.