CHAPTER 192: CHAPTER 190: A SMALL NOTE

As Chen Xin was considering how to make snow treads, the atmosphere in the city was becoming increasingly tense.

Although on the surface everything seemed calm, beneath this facade was a looming tempest ready to erupt.

Each main shelter entrance was guarded by a strict checkpoint manned by city management personnel, police, and armed police, enforcing rigorous checks on everyone entering and exiting.

Management personnel were responsible for identity checks to ensure that everyone passing through had verifiable identities and possessed shelter residency permits and passes issued by the city government.

This management system was only implemented after the disaster; though residence and travel permits were used before, enforcement was not as stringent, much like IDs before the disaster.

Police were responsible for security checks, ensuring no one entering or exiting carried dangerous or prohibited items, while armed police maintained order, arresting or detaining suspicious individuals, and could neutralize those who resisted.

Under this tight coordination, while it wasn’t entirely foolproof, order appeared to be well-maintained, making it nearly impossible for malicious criminals to blend in.

Shelters were closely guarded, especially the City Hall Shelter.

As the current office location of the city government and the residence of the joint investigation team, soldiers from Star City stationed there made the defense even higher than that of other shelters, to the point where not even a fly could get in, although flies no longer existed.

However, despite stringent checks for entering and exiting, standing by the shelter entrance for a smoke was relatively easy and simple.

Due to the closed environment inside the shelter, smoking was quite troublesome.

Smoking in an enclosed space leaves an unpleasant odor and poses a fire risk.

Thus, smoking was banned inside the shelter, but cigarettes themselves weren’t; smoking was allowed at the entrance where ventilation was better.

Given the high stress in a post-apocalyptic world and the prevalence of smokers, each shelter had a designated smoking area at the entrance.

However, the so-called smoking area was merely a corner exposed to the wind. While the cold wind didn’t blow snow on one’s face, standing long enough as one smoked was the limit before one’s feet froze physically.

But for smokers, smoking in such an environment was a rare pleasure, even though cigarettes were costly, requiring trade with food or resources on the black market, or being earned from monthly allocations for significant contributions or work points.

For officials just out of meetings at City Hall, it was a similar situation. A cigarette indeed provided a refreshing effect after the fatigue of long meetings.

While the management level wasn’t short on cigarettes, smoking still had to follow regulations at the designated area.

Since the smoking area was within the entrance checkpoint, the police and armed police only glanced there without much attention, and staff naturally wouldn’t offend their superiors.

Hence, more smokers gathered at the entrance of the City Hall Shelter.

"Lucky I still have a cigarette left. Otherwise, these continuous meetings are unbearable," said a rather plump official with a Star City accent, indicating his provincial government background.

A nearby city government official smoking, echoed, "Indeed! In these times, having a smoke helps handle the craving."

These officials took advantage of a break during meetings to smoke, unconcerned about differences between provincial and city government levels, chatting mainly about smoking-related topics.

However, a cigarette doesn’t last long, and neither does the break during the meeting, so they soon finished their cigarettes, ready to return indoors for more meetings.

Only one person lagged behind, seemingly reluctant to go back inside.

This naturally drew others’ attention, and an official asked, "Secretary Li, aren’t you going back in?"

"Let me finish this cigarette first," the addressed person replied, lifting his half-smoked cigarette with a smile.

His questioner understood, as a cigarette was precious now and should be finished rather than extinguished halfway.

The other officials refrained from asking more, with those who had finished smoking gradually returning inside, leaving Secretary Li still smoking.

A half cigarette’s time was short, as others left, Secretary Li’s cigarette was nearly finished.

He took a few last puffs, discarding the cigarette butt into a nearby trash can.

Just as Secretary Li was about to go back, he found his shoelaces untied, so he squatted to retie them.

After tying his shoelaces, he stood and headed back indoors, nodding politely to a sanitation worker he encountered as a greeting.

The worker respectfully greeted Secretary Li, and after he passed, the worker approached the smoking area where officials smoked, sweeping up cigarette butts and emptying the trash can into his bag.

This was not suspicious, so police and armed police paid no attention. Their focus remained on the shelter’s exterior, vigilantly monitoring everyone entering and exiting.

However, nobody noticed that as the sanitation worker replaced the trash can, a piece of paper had somehow found its way into his hand.

After cleaning the area, the sanitation worker carried the bag of garbage back into the shelter.

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Inside Chen Xin’s shelter, the design of the snow treads was soon completed.

Connecting the snow treads to the wheels remained a problem. However, after some consideration, Chen Xin decided to add chains under the car, incorporate fixed rods on the hub to increase anchoring points, and use the clip on the wheel to secure the snow treads and prevent slippage.

Removing them is simple: unfasten the hub rods and undercarriage chains, fix the snow treads, and pull the wheel out.

Chen Xin examined his blueprint, believing it to be accurate enough, with structural and detail differences being minor issues.

The next challenge was how to fabricate it. Part manufacturing was easy with the system, but without rubber, making the treads was impossible.

Rubber, before the disaster, was a common industrial material, and rubber products were ubiquitous.

An essential industrial raw material, both natural rubber from Southeast Asia and chemical rubber from petrochemicals were readily accessible before the disaster.

But now, acquiring rubber post-disaster was challenging.

Besides pre-disaster stockpiles, there’s likely no natural rubber left; even if the trees weren’t scorched, they’d lost their environment in this new ice age, and no one’s harvesting latex.

Chemical rubber might still be produced nationally, as a vital raw material used across industries, though its quality doesn’t match natural rubber. In current conditions, building rubber plantations isn’t feasible.

Chen Xin estimated the country retained some industrial facilities and oil wells pre-disaster and likely resumed production after months.

However, with semi-isolated transportation, only railroads work, and almost paralyzed road networks, produced rubber goes to priority areas, not non-core industrial cities like theirs.

Despite hosting large chemical plants, vital to production, nearby chemical factories experienced fire damage, making equipment inventory difficult.

Chemical plants are flammable, something Chen Xin, growing up near one, knew well.

Hence, the city’s industrial base is nearly gone, with only government factories slightly supplying shelters, with limited or no chemical rubber available to Chen Xin.

Thus, Chen Xin’s only option for rubber treads was scavenging pre-disaster rubber products, extracting rubber via the system.

The best rubber product: tires.