151: New infrastructure

In his middle age, and in the apocalypse no less, Liu Zexue hadn't expected to still be able to work in his professional field.

A few hours ago, the Xinhuo Train was selecting wilderness surveyors. Due to his rich pre-apocalypse wilderness surveying experience and professional competence, Liu Zexue was fortunate enough to be chosen as the captain of a surveying team after several rounds of tests. He oversaw three surveying groups, and with his own surveying group, the team comprised 20 people in total.

To ensure their safety during surveying, the Xinhuo Train dispatched an augmented platoon of over 50 people to protect them.

Although they encountered some turbulence during the survey, it was a close call but without serious incident.

Because of this mission, Liu Zexue even met his big boss, Lu Yang, and his heart was greatly stirred.

After the debriefing, the rewards from the train arrived very quickly; before he even left the debriefing hall, Xiao Xin's reward notification was sent to his wristband.

In addition to Merits, there were an equivalent amount of redeemable work points, several discounted food coupons, and a clothing coupon, which greatly invigorated him.

Walking out of the Sanmin Village base's debriefing hall, Liu Zexue prepared to return to the train's cafeteria according to his previous memory. However, as soon as he stepped out, he and several other surveying team captains who had also attended the debriefing were instantly dumbfounded.

"No, where did that wide road I saw before I came here go? How did it turn into a wall?"

Just as the few of them were in a state of surprise and doubt, a mechanical unfolding sound came from above. The sky, which had been visible moments before, was rapidly enveloped by a large shadow.

Several semi-finished building materials, using train carriages as their base, were placed on the multi-functional expansion platform.

Then, like stacking building blocks, they were pieced together and closed.

Outside the debriefing hall, it darkened in the blink of an eye.

Then, incandescent light strips illuminated one after another, 'da, da, da, da,' making the area outside the debriefing hall as bright as day.

"It just turned indoors?"

Fortunately, a guard promptly jogged out from inside the debriefing hall.

After saluting Liu Zexue and the others, he said, "Excuse me, Captains, we just received news from the base construction command that this area has been designated as the first defense zone of the inner city and is undergoing rapid construction of defensive facilities."

"At the same time, according to the latest notification, the Xinhuo Train itself cannot be returned to for now. Those who came out for work will be assigned new collective dormitories, with Supporting facilities public facilities like cafeterias and bathhouses."

"Captains, please follow me this way. The living area is almost complete, and you have been assigned as the first batch of residents."

Liu Zexue and the others looked at the guard with a mix of belief and doubt, until Xiao Xin's SMS notification for their assigned dormitory number arrived. Then they smiled and said, "Is that so? Then we'll trouble you, brother."

The guard also seemed a bit unsure of the way. While leading, he kept looking at his wristband. After an unknown number of twists and turns through countless corridors, their In front of you finally brightened, and they saw the light of day again.

Looking back, the area centered around the original debriefing hall, which was the Sanmin Village territory hall, had already transformed into a small fortress tens of meters high and covering tens of thousands of square meters.

And it was still expanding outwards, primarily in the east, west, and south directions.

Although the northern part of their current base was also under construction, it mainly consisted of a few residential buildings, and it seemed to be expanding downwards.

This proved to be true.

For example, Liu Zexue's dormitory, room SDX1023, represented room 23 on the first underground floor of the dormitory building. The room numbers of the other surveying team captains who were with him were either adjacent to his or in the same room as his, such as SDX1024, SDX1025, and also some who were SDX1023.

In Liu Zexue's line of sight, he could see giant ballistas, each occupying a significant area, being installed in their designated positions, with countless laborers working feverishly.

The entire base seemed to have suddenly transformed into a super construction site.

"Captain Liu, don't just stand there. The smart AI Xiao Xin has sent the latest living area map. The cafeteria is on the same floor as the dorms, and the introduction says a new convenience store has also opened."

"Let's go check it out after dinner to see if there's anything we can buy. It would be great if they had soap. Just rinsing with water every time never feels clean enough, and my hair is always greasy. It's so uncomfortable."

"Oh, a convenience store too? We have to check that out. I'm not like you; I can tolerate the washing situation. I just want to buy two rolls of softer toilet paper. Otherwise, if I keep using that hard, leaf-like paper, my hemorrhoids will flare up."

After speaking, the few of them eagerly ran towards the cafeteria.

And the guard, seeing his mission complete, tapped 'submit completed' on the [Leading Mission] on his wristband. Seeing the 1 point of Merits and 2 work points credited to his personal account in real-time, he also happily jogged back the way he came.

Everything was proceeding in an orderly fashion.

At the same time, the Sanmin Village temporary command center, after a period of construction, had already begun to take shape.

Numerous large display screens stood here.

There were screens for enemy detection radar, internal monitoring of various base areas, observation perspectives from various watchtowers, and drone perspectives.

Most of these devices came from the Xinhuo Train, and some were scavenged from ruins.

On the central screen at this time, a team of several thousand people was assembling.

Judging from their appearance, some resembled upright frogs, with heads smaller than Wa Qi, whom Lu Yang had seen on the Golden Coast, but they were much taller, about 1.3 to 1.4 meters.

Each held simple weapons like knives, spears, clubs, and sticks. They looked chaotic, shouting gibberish at an old Frogmen holding a wooden staff at the very front of the team.

On the command center's enemy detection radar, in addition to the red dot representing this team of several thousand people, there were two other red dots, each representing over a thousand people.

Seeing this, Lu Yang picked up the walkie-talkie in his hand.

"Act. First, eliminate these appetizers. Remember to have the logistics team bring more material boxes and collect all the materials. In alien combat, not a single resource can be wasted."

From the other end of the walkie-talkie came a slightly buzzing 'Yes' several times.

Following Lu Yang's order, several fully armed teams drove out of the barracks on the southwest and southeast sides of the base. Besides one-third of the regular army from [Cornerstone Pillars], two-thirds were reservists.

Taking advantage of the early stages of the battle, which were not yet intense, Lu Yang consciously wanted to train his troops. At the same time, he wanted to use the pretext of meritorious service to give some of the more outstanding soldiers physique-enhancing potions, mental-enhancing potions, and so on.

Otherwise, rewarding without merit might be acceptable once or twice, but too many times would easily lead to instability among the people.

Only with clear rewards and punishments can people be more convinced.

This is also an inevitable path for a force to grow stronger.

Reasonable systems are always more reliable than human rationality.