Chapter 502: Chapter 183: Surging Momentum, Practical Assessment Begins!

Central Inspection Station.

As the liveliest place in the entire Buffer Zone right now, nearly five thousand people pass inspection and enter here every day.

Cheng Ye stood at the entrance for a while, watching.

As expected, most of those who passed inspection were middle-aged people in their thirties and forties, coming as family units, mostly families of three or four.

A prominent feature was that the children in these families were basically all under eight years old. Because of long-term malnutrition, most of them even looked comparable to modern four- or five-year-olds. It was exactly the age when they couldn’t work and still needed someone specifically to look after them.

And at the gate of the inspection station, a huge poster was pasted up, listing line by line the preferential resettlement policies:

Children under 8 can use their resident ID to receive free daily Nutrient Paste; families with two children can directly apply for resettlement housing in the shantytown area; employment preference will be given to new residents, with dedicated work assignments; there are also medical points offering free diagnosis and treatment, and distribution of common medicines and deworming drugs...

Cheng Ye’s gaze swept over the poster and in the upper right corner he saw the four characters "Fire Alliance," next to the familiar Mount Everest emblem, with two lines of small print below:

[Fire Alliance convalescence agreement: those who meet the criteria can enjoy preferential treatment in any Shelter City within the Alliance]

[If anyone violates the regulations, the Fire Alliance will impose severe penalties]

"So this is an agreement between the Super Shelter Cities..."

Cheng Ye paused slightly.

Though the painful lessons of the Extraordinary Era had made humanity lose the basis for great unity, and also lost the prerequisite conditions for opening the path of centralization of power.

All sides were split, each believing only in their own creed, but on certain matters, they could still form alliances.

Such as resettling the new generation.

After all, population doesn’t just randomly respawn. The core of the convalescence period is to restore total population and accumulate strength for the next age of expansion. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

If they didn’t even care about the new generation, then the "convalescence period" would just be empty talk.

And having these people taken in by the Buffer Zone was also a good thing for the upcoming Satellite City construction.

At the very least, the families in the Satellite City, even if they had children, should have already gained basic survival ability.

The Wasteland is not like the modern world; generally by age ten, children already have the ability to survive. The differences lie only in physical condition, experience, and logical thinking.

At half past twelve, the two of them entered the office area via the internal passage right on time.

It was Wang Kang’s first time in the station administration building, and his eyes were full of curiosity as he looked around and touched everything.

Quite a few Inspectors had already arrived in the courtyard, gathered in groups of three or five, exchanging information related to the Satellite City. It had the same lively feeling as every exam back in school, when you’d already reached the exam venue but weren’t allowed into the exam room yet.

When they saw Cheng Ye bringing Wang Kang in, all eyes immediately turned their way, and then greetings rose one after another:

"Inspector Cheng, you’re here."

"Inspector Cheng, you and Inspector Wang have opened a whole new Chapter for our inspection station."

"Impressive, I read the assessment report you submitted—heroes in their youth indeed."

"For us Eastern People to have a rising star like Inspector Cheng, if the old station master knew, he’d be very pleased.

"Inspector Wang, first time meeting you, I’m..."

A crowd surrounded the two of them, and Wang Kang was a bit dazed for a moment.

Fortunately, with Cheng Ye helping with the introductions on the side, he quickly calmed down and responded one by one, not seeming awkward at all.

While making small talk, Cheng Ye quietly observed.

Everyone’s attitude seemed even more cordial than when they’d visited the ward earlier, especially those diehard faction-jumpers. Even Third-stage Inspectors like Gu Xinjing came over to say hello.

As for the Fourth-stage Inspectors, though they didn’t come forward, there was a hint of goodwill in their eyes.

This is...

After they’d finished a round of greetings and those he only had a vague impression of had drifted away, Yang Xingwen finally walked over and started by offering congratulations.

"Congratulations, Inspector Cheng. Dapo Town is a real treasure."

Yang Xingwen said with a smile, "Once houses go up over there, I have to buy one, no matter what. You’ll have to give me a discount."

"What are you saying, Inspector Yang?" Cheng Ye pretended not to understand.

"Heh, that’s something you don’t know." Yang Xingwen lowered his voice. "This morning quite a few people came to me, wanting me to pick them for Dapo Town. Among them were two Fourth-Phase and three Third-Phase. But guess what? The applications from those two Fourth-Phase were all rejected by the station for ’insufficient experience.’"

He paused and added, "Also, every application asking to transfer into Dapo Town was rejected as well."

"That I really didn’t know." Cheng Ye’s heart gave a jolt, but his expression remained unchanged.

Good grief, Old Ding had blocked off every path just to keep the post for him?

Fourth-stage Inspectors weren’t allowed into Dapo Town, and those assigned to other towns on the list couldn’t transfer in either.

On top of that, there was Wang Kang—who hadn’t even taken part in the first assessment—suddenly appearing on the contracted list.

This was practically telling everyone in the inspection station, in broad daylight, that the Dapo Town slots were reserved for these two Intern Inspectors.

"Inspector Yang Ming has already given up. He jumped ship to West River Town..."

"I’ve given up too. I’m planning to go to Wanzi Town."

Yang Xingwen said it straightforwardly, his tone carrying no extra emotion. "Inspector Cheng, your only opponent now is Luokuke. That guy’s a real troublemaker, same type as Garcia. Nine times out of ten he’s going to butt heads with you. You’d better keep an eye on him."

"Thanks." Cheng Ye nodded. "I’ll save a house for you in Dapo Town."

"Hahaha, then I’ve struck gold!" Yang Xingwen laughed heartily. "Seriously, maybe once your inspection station over there develops, I’ll still have a chance to rotate in. Just don’t look down on my abilities when that time comes."