Chapter 145: Leaving the City! The Wasteland! Stepping Toward the Sea of Stars!

Dawn was breaking.Cheng Ye had just climbed out of bed when Fire Sprout woke up too, "chirping" on the pillow demanding food.

He fumbled for his lighter and flicked it with a "click," but Fire Sprout still shook its head, clear longing flickering in its dark little eyes.

"Finally know you're hungry?"

Cheng Ye was instantly delighted, his drowsiness completely dissipating.

Since the last time he'd fed it Dry Wood Fire, this little guy was asking for fire from the fire basin for the first time on its own initiative.

He pulled out the pendant from his chest and took out the Flame Eagle fire basin.

Without him even needing to act, Fire Sprout, whose body had already grown fine downy feathers, tilted its head and actually fluttered directly from the bed into the fire basin.

This time it wasn't eating Dry Wood Fire, but the deep blue peat fire beside it, emphasizing balanced nutrition and equal treatment.

Wisps of deep blue flames were absorbed by Fire Sprout, and the downy feathers on its body gradually began to glow faintly, red mixed with blue, like being wrapped in flowing nebula, looking quite peculiar.

"Hao chi!"

A vague syllable suddenly exploded in Cheng Ye's mind, weak but clear.

Cheng Ye was stunned for a moment, thinking it was his imagination, but soon a second sound rang out.

"Hao chi!"

"Eh?" Cheng Ye stared at the little guy in the fire basin, his eyes lighting up, "You can talk to me now?"

Fire Sprout was eating happily, its round body rolling around in the fire basin, its downy feathers trembling as it made soft "chirping" sounds, seeming to respond or simply expressing satisfaction.

Cheng Ye leaned closer, examining it carefully.

It was now the fifth day since Fire Sprout's birth, having grown a size larger than when they first met, with denser downy feathers.

Only its wings were still tender and soft, not yet able to support flight.

"Were you the one calling just now?" Cheng Ye asked tentatively.

Fire Sprout didn't respond, just rubbed its head against the edge of the fire basin, making "purr purr" sounds in its throat, exactly like a cat begging for food.

"Alright, eat quickly. Once you grow a bit more, I'll take you out to see the world."

Cheng Ye poked its head, no longer forcing it. He hadn't forgotten to look for books about raising transcendent creatures in the survival library before.

Unsurprisingly, there wasn't a single one.

This obviously involved the real secrets of transcendents and couldn't possibly be open to ordinary people.

He'd have to wait for a future opportunity to try his luck at the inner city library.

After Fire Sprout finished eating, Cheng Ye put away the fire basin and opened the door, planning to go outside to fetch water for washing.

He'd barely taken a few steps when he saw Jiang Chuan standing by the window at the stairway entrance, a wooden stick in his mouth, his fingers tapping on his defense communicator, concentrating on playing the built-in Tetris game.

"Hey, so focused?" Cheng Ye walked closer.

Jiang Chuan didn't look up, only reacting when called, raising his eyes with a smile, "Inspector Cheng, it's just past six o'clock. You're up quite early."

"Went to bed early last night, so got up early." Cheng Ye raised the water basin in his hand, "What about you? When did you arrive?"

"Just got here a few minutes ago. Station Chief Ding asked me to complete the second round assessment with you."

Jiang Chuan put away his defense communicator and spat out the wooden stick from his mouth, "The car's parked downstairs. Shall we set off after breakfast?"

"Second round?"

Cheng Ye was stunned, "How do we complete the second round?"

"Go to Dapo Town!"

Buzz.

After washing up and using the excuse of going back to his room to prepare things, Cheng Ye still felt his head buzzing.

Was he going to leave the city?

Was he going to the wasteland?

He had to admit, he'd been anticipating this day for a long time but when it really came to the final step, all that anticipation turned into bewilderment, mixed with an indescribable excitement churning in his chest.

Countless thoughts exploded in his mind, countless pieces of information automatically assembling.

Starting from the inspection station, taking the provincial road, passing through county roads, walking country roads, arriving directly at Dapo Town.

All the routes had been gone through countless times in his mind last night, even his dreams were filled with simulations of leaving Happiness City, stepping beyond the yellow line, walking into the dangerous wasteland, step by step entering Dapo Town.

It was somewhat incredible, but in his dream, he quickly became the town's mayor.

The power station humming, nets full of big fish in the fishery, steam from the cannery drifting past the town entrance, products from various handicraft workshops being transported out continuously. Dapo Town developed vigorously in his dream.

So much so that in the minutes before his alarm went off this morning, he was still busy in the dream attending meetings, discussing the town's next transformation with his subordinates, how to break free from basic limitations and develop more distinctive and competitive advantages.

When he woke up, he felt somewhat regretful. If the dream had lasted longer, his subconscious might have helped him sort out more details.

"What you think about during the day, you dream about at night."

"Although I suddenly have to leave the city, I actually realized it when I was answering questions yesterday."

Cheng Ye pulled out the armor case from under the bed, thinking while spraying liquid onto the armor plates.

Don't think that just because so many ordinary people could survive in the wasteland and even migrate back and forth so casually, it was easy.

A grain of sand from the era, when it falls on each person's shoulders, becomes a mountain.

The infection sources in the wasteland weren't range-type attacks, but constantly selected lucky ones from among humans.

If you were unlucky enough to be chosen, you needed sufficient strength to survive.

After putting on his armor, covering from neck to ankles, the seams' patterns looked like burning flames, quite imposing.

Even Fire Sprout ran out from his field of vision, "chirping" loudly as if cheering but Cheng Ye didn't stop, pulling out a custom raincoat from the wardrobe.

This was something he'd had made after getting the armor, specifically to cover the armor.

Since he hadn't had a chance to wear the armor these past days, it was perfect for this occasion. The pure black raincoat, when put on, just covered the gold-red armor plates.

Of course, it couldn't hide his suddenly enlarged physique.

Without the armor, his build could only be considered robust, still a step behind someone like Liu Bi's lean strength.

Now he looked inflated, broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, a whole size larger. Standing there, he radiated a heart-palpitating sense of power.

Next, Cheng Ye pulled out two waterproof backpacks from under the bed.

He'd always been a cautious person. If carrying a suitcase wouldn't look strange, he really would want to stuff all his belongings into a case.

Finally, the two long guns naturally had to be carried, along with sufficient ammunition.

"About right."

Cheng Ye had a bulging large backpack on each shoulder, and carried a long gun in each hand.

Standing in front of the mirror, he almost filled the entire mirror surface but this gave him a sense of security, this was the proper attitude for stepping out of a sanctuary city to the wasteland.

Opening the door, Jiang Chuan standing not far away raised his eyebrows slightly, his gaze sweeping over him once, and indeed didn't find his caution strange.

"Inspector Cheng's outfit was quite popular during the Great Development Era, though it's not commonly seen in recent years."

"Was it very dangerous outside before?" Cheng Ye cleared his throat lightly, asking in a muffled voice.

"The dangers before were different from now." As the two walked downstairs, Jiang Chuan explained, "Before it was more about calculations between people, going out meant having to guard against being treated as prey. Now it's different, it's mainly about humans contending with infection sources and mutant beasts."

At the beginning of the New Era, infection sources weren't numerous, and infected hosts were only one ten-thousandth of today's numbers.

Back then it was more about cleaning up the mess left after the great war between transcendents.

Like shattered terrain, city ruins, and some transcendent curses that wouldn't dissipate.

Humans recuperated for more than ten years, population slowly grew, and then entered the so-called Great Development Era.

The opportunities of this era lay in gold prospecting, in scavenging, in disorderly development.

"Picking up things from the old era in ruins, grabbing a piece of land with water sources, even daring to claim kingship in the mountains with just a few guns, everyone wanted to rise during the chaotic times. Large and small forces fought constantly, settlements could be destroyed at will, even more frightening than today's infection sources."

Jiang Chuan spoke while shaking his head helplessly, "Disorderly chaos naturally gave infection sources opportunities. Dead people and abandoned wounded were easily targeted, the number of infected hosts grew accordingly, and infection sources themselves rapidly mutated in this chaos, gradually changing from initially scattered haunting to the main enemy threatening human survival."

"By now, before the next Great Development Era begins, everyone has learned surface harmony."

When the two walked out of the stairwell, it was still drizzling outside, fine rain hitting the raincoat with soft rustling sounds.

Jiang Chuan raised his hand to pull down his raincoat hood, covering his head.

"Even if you encounter strangers in the wasteland, as long as they're not prey you've been watching for a long time, generally they won't attack easily." He walked while talking, "After all, no one wants to finish fighting only to be finished off by infected hosts attracted by the smell of blood, and no one wants to offend an unknown force because of this."

Cheng Ye nodded, keeping this information in mind.

The two walked out of the residential area and saw a military green pickup truck parked in front of the convenience store, bearing inspection station markings.

What greatly surprised Cheng Ye was that the truck bed actually contained quite a lot of "professional gear"!

Two fishing nets wound neatly, with mesh about three fingers wide, net thread diameter around 1 millimeter. The brand-new net surface gleamed finely, edge ropes sturdy and straight, obviously not yet tested by water.

Two fishing rods that looked like carbon steel material leaned against the tailgate, about 2.5 meters long. Cheng Ye's gaze paused, stopping at the hooks, which were actually large Iseama No. 12 hooks.

Nearby, three blue plastic buckets were arranged in a row. Even on this rainy day, a faint fishy smell could be detected.

Besides these, there was a black-green folding tent with an entrenching tool, camping lamp, multi-function saw pliers and other camping equipment pressed on top.

An deflated inflatable raft was stuffed in the corner, wrapped tightly in waterproof cloth.

"This is..."

Cheng Ye touched the fishing rod. Although he'd never actually fished, he'd seen plenty in short videos.

Iseama No. 12 hooks were at least for fish weighing ten pounds or more.

Could Jiang Chuan be planning to take him fishing in Dapo Town to verify the feasibility of the fishery economy?

"Related to your answer yesterday, this is the second round of the contracting scheme exam."

Jiang Chuan unlocked the car door, his voice carrying a hint of mystery, "Get in. Your ranking from yesterday and today's questions are in the car. I need to drive over first to change to off-road tires. We just need to be back by ten tonight!"

"The second round has already started?"

Cheng Ye's heart tightened, quickly shaking off raindrops from his raincoat, then grabbing a nearby cloth to wipe the wet marks from his back before opening the door and sitting in the passenger seat.

The pickup's interior was more spacious than imagined, and sure enough, there was a familiar brown paper bag on the back seat.

Cheng Ye reached back to take it, untwisting the string seal. The materials inside carried the fresh scent of ink.

The top sheet was a printed ranking list. Looking down, his name was prominently placed at 37th position.

"This high?"

Cheng Ye was stunned, a flash of surprise in his eyes.

He'd thought making the top 50 this round would already be a pleasant surprise, after all, the fishery economy was a relatively modern, idealistic scheme. He hadn't expected to break through 40th place directly and squeeze into the 30s.

"There are two other inspectors who also chose Dapo Town like you." Jiang Chuan gripped the steering wheel, catching his expression from the corner of his eye and smiling, "One ranked 39th, one ranked 41st."

Cheng Ye's gaze immediately located them on the table, finding the other two names below, conveniently one from the east and one from the west, both third-term inspectors.

Two third-term inspectors' scores didn't exceed his own?

Cheng Ye's fingertip tapped lightly on the paper, falling into contemplation.

Turning to the second page, the supercomputer's listed data was clearly visible, each item clear and intuitive:


[Satellite City, Dapo Town]

[Proposer: Cheng Ye]

[Comprehensive Scheme Score: 53 points]

[Construction Feasibility: 21 (Faces extremely large obstacles during construction, high technical barriers, harsh environmental limitations, all aspects require breaking through multiple barriers, implementation difficulty significant)]

[Development Potential: 42 (Has certain growth space, future possibilities for improvement in industrial expansion, population absorption, but explosive power still appears insufficient)]

[Scheme Feasibility: 69 (Realistic conditions relatively mature, good compatibility with existing resources, possesses strong operability)]

[Comprehensiveness: 63 (The connection between various scheme components and modules relatively reasonable, can form a relatively complete system, but local coordination still needs strengthening)]

[Resource Input Level: 65 (Demand for human, material, financial resources at moderate level, resource allocation pressure moderate, within controllable range)]

"Construction difficulty is this high?"

Cheng Ye's gaze fixed on the first score, not expecting Dapo Town to score only 21.

Compared to the 60+ scores below, this was too glaring.

He flipped to the back of the score sheet and indeed saw reference rankings for each data point:

[Sample Size: 36]

[Rankings: 29, 21, 13, 13, 9]

[Comprehensive Ranking: 17]

[Rankings generated only for first round answers, this data does not participate in subsequent evaluations]

"Construction difficulty very high, potential average, but the scheme I provided, Dapo Town's significance to Happiness City, and resource input all scored highly."

Cheng Ye murmured to himself, gradually getting a sense of things.

He still had some questions about the construction difficulty score, but when reflected in the overall ranking, it matched his initial expectations for Dapo Town.

This was a place that wasn't popular but wasn't unpopular either, stuck in the middle tier of all locations, a choice where competition wasn't particularly fierce.

Flipping further, were the second round questions.

The top was still essay questions targeting his previous day's scheme, precisely picking out details to probe:

Such as how the overall fishery layout should be planned, how to control the spatial distance between fishery and residential areas, what technical means and management measures to adopt to ensure the fishery water source wouldn't be contaminated by potential surrounding infection sources...

Fortunately there weren't too many questions, only 12 items.

But after the essay questions, three practical operation questions were added, with bold text, particularly eye-catching:

1. Fish in Dapo Town's Baishui River, must catch 5 different fish species, submit samples.

2. Visit key locations mentioned in the scheme, take samples to verify scheme feasibility.

3. Walk through designated country roads on foot (supervised by supervisor throughout, cheating prohibited).

These questions...

Cheng Ye was first astonished, then his heart relaxed. It seemed choosing Dapo Town yesterday was really the right choice.

The supercomputer would indeed issue targeted questions based on first-round location selection. If he'd chosen those popular locations and been assigned to drill underground pipe networks for investigation, that would be truly troublesome.

"Seems the second round's core is verifying whether the scheme can be implemented."

Cheng Ye's fingertip traced over the word "fishing," suddenly turning to Jiang Chuan, "Thanks."

Jiang Chuan raised an eyebrow and smiled, "These are supporting equipment for Inspector Cheng's exam questions. I'm the supervisor, don't try to bribe me. I'll record your entire performance and report it truthfully to the inspection station."

That's what he said, but having Jiang Chuan as supervisor was too convenient.

Everyone knew Jiang Chuan was the station chief's personal bodyguard.

Since Ding Yishan was willing to send Jiang Chuan as supervisor, on one hand it showed importance, on the other hand...

"Could Ding Yishan be interested in my scheme?"

Cheng Ye leaned back in his seat, pondering silently, while Jiang Chuan drove to the Public Affairs Department station.

Several workers quickly surrounded them, soon changing the pickup to deeply treaded slip-resistant off-road tires, and fully charging the battery at the Public Affairs Department charging point.

From getting in the car at 6:30 AM to arriving at South Station at 8:05 AM.

Affected by the migration wave, there were very few scavengers going out at this time, with hardly anyone queuing at the passage.

Although according to regulations, the inspection station's exit passage wouldn't open until 9 AM, inspectors executing missions were obviously not restricted by this.

The isolation door slowly opened, and several inspection procedures were quickly completed.

By the time Cheng Ye came to his senses, that yellow line symbolizing the boundary between civilization and disorder was prominently spread across the front of the vehicle.

The wasteland's muddiness was visible to the naked eye. Continuous rainfall had washed fine waterways across the ground, winding toward the distance.

Mist hung like thin gauze over the wilderness, with visibility only about six to seven hundred meters. Distant tree shadows and ruin silhouettes appeared blurry and unclear.

"What? Nervous?"

"No." Cheng Ye took a deep breath, put down the materials in his hand, and straightened up slightly.

"Let's go. Everyone has to have a first time."

The moment the wheels crossed the yellow line, he clearly felt the vehicle body shake violently, as if passing through an invisible membrane.

After crossing that spiritual barrier, instead of the anticipated anxiety and restlessness, there was a strong sense of anticipation and exhilaration, like long-suppressed emotions finally finding an outlet.

Now he was no longer the gatekeeper watching over this boundary line but a pioneer about to step into a completely new world, seeking those infinite possibilities.

Rolling down the window, wind carrying moisture poured in, and even the smell in the air seemed different.

Gone was the stuffiness and oppression under the framework of order, replaced by the fishy smell of earth, the astringent taste of wild grass, and a faint, elusive wild breath belonging to the wasteland!