Master Tian's words went round and round, but in the end, he specifically added a supplementary remark. However, Cheng Ye understood the meaning in his words perfectly clearly.

Getting in and out of sanctuary cities was too difficult. One could only struggle in this small patch of land, with pitifully narrow paths for development.

But this point was fundamentally unsolvable. Once the speed of population flow accelerated, the proportion of infection bodies appearing would rise accordingly. With the checkpoint's current scale, they simply couldn't handle it.

In the current environment, ninety-nine percent of sanctuary cities adopted the approach of Happiness City's industrial zone, completely locking down population flow in an area to barely secure some development space.

Once coming and going became frequent, infection sources would be automatically attracted, leading to infection tide outbreaks.

As for focusing technological research and development on screening infection bodies and infinitely strengthening checkpoint intensity.

This calculation didn't even need to be done carefully. One could tell at a glance that the investment and proportion were completely disproportionate.

Not to mention that infection sources were still constantly evolving. Once undetectable fish slipped through the net and mixed into the city, all previous research and development investments would significantly depreciate, even becoming meaningless.

More critically were wandering infection tides.

This was a calamity no sanctuary city could avoid. Without solid hard strength, once an infection tide struck, a sanctuary city could collapse at any moment.

Moreover, the resources needed for research and development didn't appear out of thin air. Precision instruments required rare metals, pharmaceutical development needed special biological samples, and even the most basic resources had to be obtained through external mining.

When Happiness City was first established, it couldn't escape this law either. It still had to form Pioneer Corps, with countless people buried in the wilderness in exchange for initial startup resources.

Only over these ten years, as Happiness City's industrial level continuously advanced, did it gradually acquire the capital to attract surrounding talent.

Relying on advantages like more advanced weapons, more stable supply chains, and more complete industrial facilities, it harvested surrounding small settlements and sanctuary cities, either absorbing them or making them vassals providing raw materials.

If one didn't think about becoming stronger and only wanted to defend.

What would have risen in Shi Province wouldn't be Happiness City, but other sanctuary cities.

"Haven't you thought about making a move?"

"Forget about me."

Master Tian quickly shook his head, couldn't help but smile, "Inspector Cheng, all crows under heaven are equally black. Even super sanctuary cities like Beacon Sanctuary City with tens of millions of people are actually similar to ours, it's just that some people don't believe in fate and insist they can make something of themselves."

"You've been to Beacon Sanctuary City?"

Cheng Ye was startled. According to the map, the two sanctuary cities were nearly four thousand kilometers apart in straight-line distance, with an infection source-occupied no-man's land in between.

"Not been there, I came from there... Well, many of Happiness City's founding personnel came from Beacon Sanctuary City."

Master Tian was somewhat nostalgic, "Beacon Sanctuary City isn't divided into buffer zones and inner cities like ours, but has more detailed divisions, like industrial zones, agricultural zones, production zones, scavenging zones, collection zones, transport zones, outer city zones, inner city zones... dozens of large and small areas."

"Different areas are at different distances from the core zone, and the epidemic prevention measures they're equipped with differ greatly in level and scale. The scavenging zone is next to the outermost ruins, having to deal with wandering infection bodies daily. Epidemic prevention relies entirely on fighting hard, but people there who can survive and accumulate enough merit can apply to move to the agricultural zone, where they can at least safely grow some crops. People from the agricultural zone climb further up to enter the industrial zone..."

"Which zone were you in then?"

"Transport zone!" Master Tian patted the steering wheel, grinning, "Driving big trucks back and forth to mining areas every day. It was a bit better than now, at least there weren't so many infection bodies then, but the death rate was consistently around 20%. When one batch died, another batch replaced them."

"Later I really couldn't hold on and ran away, wandering the wilderness for over ten years before eventually coming to Happiness City to settle down."

"To put it bluntly, all sanctuary cities use the same formula with different packaging. Layer upon layer, wherever you go there will be the safest places and the most dangerous places. If you want to enter the safe places, you have to compete with others for spots. But our Happiness City doesn't pretend, directly marking clear prices, letting you know that once you save enough you can go in and enjoy life. Many sanctuary cities I heard still hold auctions, arranging people to drive up prices, which is even more disgusting."

"You see things quite clearly."

Cheng Ye couldn't help but sigh.

Actually, when he got the sanctuary city distribution map, he already had awareness of this point.

If any sanctuary city's ideology could really work, really achieve stability for everyone, why would there be so many large and small sanctuary cities?

"Inspector Cheng, you seem very interested in the outside world?"

"Yes, I need to understand in advance. Otherwise, we have to do external duties. I can't go in completely blind, knowing nothing."

"That's really... born in the wrong era. When the New Era first began, it was most suitable for people like you. Now that the pattern is initially set and infection bodies are rampant, going out once is too difficult."

As Master Tian was speaking, the bus slowly stopped.

However, it wasn't at the terminal, but at a position about two hundred meters ahead.

"Where do you plan to get off? My vehicle is almost out of power. This morning many vehicles were crowded over there charging, and I didn't get to charge. Now during lunch break there should be open spaces."

"Charging?"

Cheng Ye raised his eyebrows, suddenly excited, "Can I follow along to take a look? I happen to have some business at the Works Department too."

"No problem. The charging area is just a few hundred meters from the office building."

The bus started again, continuing along the urban district streets.

The Works Department was located in the south of the buffer zone, chosen on an undeveloped empty lot in the surrounding area.

Occupying about three hundred acres, with over ten office buildings inside, as well as a large parking lot where many engineering vehicles could be seen parked from afar.

"Master Tian, why are there still people in the vehicle?"

Four guards approached from far away, noticing Cheng Ye sitting in the middle of the carriage.

"I have some business and want to go in and take a look." Cheng Ye rolled down the window and handed out his identification badge.

The guard saw the large "Inspector" character on the badge, was stunned, and quickly took it to scan on his defense communicator.

Seeing the inspector identity displayed, his expression immediately became respectful.

But further down, the identity information showed another piece of information that shocked him immensely.

[Works Department: Level 7 Authority]

Level 7?

The Works Department's internal hierarchy was divided into levels 1 to 9, with 9 being the highest. Level 7 was already considered high-level management personnel.

He had been guarding here for so long, this was the first time he'd seen an inspector with such high authority!

"Lord Cheng, with your authority level, you can go anywhere in the Works Department. It's just that according to regulations, we need to record this. You're here today to..."

"I want to invest in renovating an area and came to consult about plans and budgets."

"Uh..."

The guard was stunned, "It's lunch break now, the engineers should be resting. Do you need me to call them out?"

"No need, you all do your thing. I'll just look around."

"Understood. With your authority level, if you need anything, just make requests to any staff member!"

"My authority level?"

"Yes, you have Level 7 authority at the Works Department, equivalent to a department director."

"Hm?"

Cheng Ye was startled and took back his badge.

He hadn't expected that "joining" the Idealist Faction would have this benefit!

But thinking about it again, it felt reasonable. When the elders allocated funds, they specifically deposited the twenty thousand contribution points at the Works Department, clearly intending for him to directly interface with renovation matters.

To mobilize resources and advance projects, how could he do it without sufficient authority?

The barrier lifted, and the bus continued forward, soon entering the charging area within the parking lot.

At a glance, there were densely packed fast-charging stations everywhere, at least forty charging guns!

Over twenty engineering vehicles with thick steel plate reinforcement occupied the left side charging positions.

The buses were on the right side, currently with no available spaces, but someone was already moving their vehicle.

Cheng Ye couldn't help but swallow hard. Back when he didn't have the Horned Starfish for protection, he would never dare risk it here.

But now, with strength came boldness.

Opening the panel, the charge value in the upper right corner was only 21%, barely enough to search for Lv1 skills.

To search for Lv3 required 60% charge value, which was 240 kWh, leaving a gap of 160.

Charging at home would take three days to satisfy this, too slow!

"Master Tian, what's the approximate power output for charging here?"

"Um... the engineering vehicles use 240kW ultra-fast charging, our buses use 120kW fast charging."

How much?

240kW?

Cheng Ye felt his head buzz, an irrepressible desire surging up.

If he could charge here, just two hours would fill the collector completely.

Even the 120kW fast-charging stations were twice as fast as that 60kW one at the checkpoint.

Just mooching for an hour or two would be takeoff!

He had to seize the time to build up strength before autumn arrived and hydroelectric power dried up.

Otherwise, during autumn and winter when power supply couldn't keep up, no matter how bold he was, there'd be nowhere to charge.

"A space opened up, just right for us to fill in."

As Master Tian spoke, he spun the steering wheel hard. The bus's massive body was like a nimble fish in his hands, sliding precisely into the charging space with two "click" sounds.

Cheng Ye got off with him, his gaze falling on the nearby charging station.

The metal post was well-protected, showing no wear despite years of use.

Noticing his interest, Master Tian specifically demonstrated the charging process, which was very simple.

Just insert the charging gun, take out the work card and swipe it in the sensor area, and the charging station screen immediately lit up, displaying "Detecting battery status."

After thirty seconds, with a click sound, the DC box's fan started whirring for heat dissipation.

This was a bit troublesome.

Obviously, the charging station could identify battery packs, detect battery degradation and current tolerance in real-time, automatically adjust output power to avoid overload.

If he switched the pendant up there, would it fail to activate charging?

"It's started. The bus has a 300kWh battery pack, usually takes three and a half hours to charge."

"During this time, those living nearby go home to rest. People like me just make do in the hall over there."

He pointed diagonally across to a low building in the parking lot corner with a "Driver Rest Room" sign hanging over the entrance.

As soon as he finished speaking, two more buses came around the corner one after the other, slowly stopping in the open area ahead.

The doors opened, and two tired-looking drivers got out.

One saw all the charging spaces occupied, shook his head directly, and went to the rest room. The other walked straight toward the charging station area, checking the charging progress on each screen.

"Whoa, why are they all only at forty or fifty percent?"

That driver clicked his tongue, his gaze sweeping to the charging station next to Master Tian's. The screen showed the current progress bar had climbed to 81%.

Still quite a distance from full, but it was already the fastest here.

"Old Tian, I'll park my car in front of you. When you're done charging later, help me back it in for a charge, will you?"

"Sure." Master Tian agreed readily, "Are you going home to rest?"

"Rest my ass." That driver spat on the ground, his brows twisted into a knot, "Our community has been in chaos these past two days. A bunch of people from the shantytowns insist on squeezing in, saying we're all from the buffer zone, so why should you live in brick houses? I need to go back and check, in case by the time I finish this trip, someone's pried open my door."

"The infection tide just passed, people's hearts are restless. It's inevitable."

Master Tian sighed, "Go ahead. Just leave the keys and work card with me."

That driver stuffed his car keys and work card to Master Tian, then hurried out of the parking lot, his retreating figure showing obvious anxiety.

"Inspector Cheng, shall we go rest for a bit? Lunch break still has an hour left, or I can take you directly to find an engineer?"

Cheng Ye pondered for a moment, pointing at the bus next door, "Whose car is that? Do you know the driver?"

"Old Lu's. He's the one sitting by the rest room entrance."

"Get him over here to move the car. 80% is enough for today."

"Hm?" Master Tian was startled but didn't ask why Cheng Ye said this. He immediately ran over to call the person.

Hearing someone call to move the car, Old Lu was a bit puzzled, but upon hearing the words "inspector," he ran faster than Master Tian.

"Inspector Cheng, I'll move it right away, going to work right now!"

The balding Master Lu's head even broke out in a fine sweat, thinking he was slacking off and had displeased this inspector.

Bowing and apologizing, even pulling out the charging gun crookedly, almost hitting the station body.

In less than half a minute, the vehicle quickly left the charging station and drove out of the parking lot.

"You reverse the car, I'll try charging."

"Sure thing."

Master Tian handed over the work card and took the keys to get on the bus, starting to reverse.

Cheng Ye pulled out the charging gun, seemingly examining the interior while actually palming and stuffing the pendant inside.

No different from slow charging stations, the pendant immediately got stuck inside the station body.

Whether it worked or not, whether it could charge, he had to try to know.

Cheng Ye was prepared. If there was a problem with the charging gun, he'd claim it was his first time using it and he wasn't familiar, playing dumb to get by.

But if there was no problem, sneaking over to charge every few days would be absolutely amazing!

He had to seize the time to build up strength before autumn arrived and hydroelectric power dried up.

Otherwise, during autumn and winter when power supply couldn't keep up, no matter how bold he was, there'd be nowhere to charge.

Click.

The charging port at the car's rear popped open. Cheng Ye pretended to insert the gun but actually didn't push it all the way in.

Returning to the charging station, his heart was pounding as he picked up the work card and gently swiped it on the side.

The screen suddenly lit up, without the expected immediate error.

[Detecting battery status...]

A line of small text flashed by, making him extremely nervous.

After about twenty seconds, a delightful click sound rang out, and the DC box fan also started up, beginning heat dissipation.

Success!

Cheng Ye's heart jumped violently, his whole body trembling as if electrified.

The panel popped open. The lightning symbol in the upper right corner was neither the light gray of household power nor the dark gray of slow charging stations, but the hopeful, smile-inducing green.

[Current Power Efficiency: Normal (lv.3 Energy)]

[Time remaining until full charge: 3.07h]

Meanwhile, Cheng Ye noticed that the values displayed on the screen were exactly the same as those on the collector panel.

Both showed 21%.

This pendant actually had adaptive charging functionality!

"Awesome!" Cheng Ye didn't plan to steal a full charge here, but just one hour would give him over a hundred kWh.

Just this lunch break hour and a half would be enough to charge him to around 70%.

"Let's go rest."

Cheng Ye waved his hand. Master Tian didn't suspect anything, and the two walked toward the rest room.

After sitting for about twenty minutes, the charge value had soared to 30%.

Just then, the rest room door was pushed open, and three middle-aged men carrying a stack of materials hurried in.

Although Cheng Ye said to wait until lunch break ended, how could the guard really make him wait?

As soon as he entered, it was already reported up. Three engineers received the notice and immediately gathered materials to rush over.

"Inspector Cheng, we're engineers responsible for old district renovation. My surname is Liu."

"Engineer Liu, sorry to disturb your rest."

Cheng Ye stood up and shook hands with him.

Engineer Liu was somewhat flattered and quickly signaled the two engineers behind him to bring over a table, then turned to the drivers in the rest room, "I need to discuss renovation with Inspector Cheng. Please excuse yourselves to your vehicles."

Inspector?

Upon hearing Engineer Liu's greeting, some drivers had already consciously stood up and walked out.

After he finished speaking, Master Tian didn't dare stay either and quickly waved goodbye before leaving.

"The orders from above have come down. District B-7 has a budget of twenty thousand contribution points. I wonder how Inspector Cheng plans to renovate?"

Engineer Liu spread out the topographical map, found the B-7 area, which was already marked with red pen annotations.

"I want to renovate this walking street area, tear down all the existing houses and rebuild!"

"Tear everything down?"

Engineer Liu pondered, "This would cost about 3,000 points, but if Tianyuan Community is willing to provide labor, it should only cost 1,000 points, mainly engineering machinery usage fees and garbage loading and disposal fees, all calculated at minimum cost."

"No problem."

Cheng Ye nodded, "The walking street should be divided into three areas. One section for scavengers to set up stalls, one section for the community to open shops, and the remaining section I plan to open a factory. I haven't decided exactly what kind of factory yet, but the infrastructure needs to be laid out during autumn."

He paused, specifically emphasizing, "Especially the electrical aspect. Pre-install the largest gauge wiring for me. I have a phobia of insufficient power supply. I can go without using it, but I can't not have it."

"Inspector Cheng, rest assured, we'll definitely do this to the highest standards and guarantee your satisfaction!"

Engineer Liu immediately nodded, not questioning the reason at all.

The higher-ups had already given instructions. Whatever Cheng Ye requested, the Works Department had to satisfy as much as possible.

Never mind just strengthening infrastructure. Even if he wanted to tear down Tianyuan Mall and completely renovate it, they'd have to take on that job.

"Shall we go area by area to specifically determine how to build?"

"Sure. You're the professionals. Present the proposals and I'll listen."

Professional matters should be handled by professionals.

Cheng Ye didn't overstep his bounds by trying to impose modern perspectives on this walking street's planning.

From the most basic water and electrical pipeline renovation plans, to sewage pipeline routing, drainage system expansion design, and optimization adjustments to community transportation routes...

Engineer Liu went through each item meticulously, his pen tip moving across the blueprints, noting time nodes and budget amounts while speaking.

"Autumn is coming soon. Once summer's rain belt withdraws from Chuan City, we can begin full-scale construction. We might need to stop work for part of winter, but by next spring at the latest, the entire walking street will be completely built."

Cheng Ye nodded and responded from time to time, once again truly tasting the convenience that power brought.

No need to handle everything personally. Just set the tone, and naturally someone would fill in the details following that direction.

This sense of control, combined with the steadily climbing charge level on the panel, brought an indescribable sense of security to his heart.

There was quite a feeling that in this chaotic world, while everyone was exhausted from running for survival, he could stay in a relatively safe place and steadily accumulate strength step by step. Small but certain happiness.

Awesome!

After discussing for over an hour, the charge had soared to 67%.

"Engineer Liu, I think this stall area is basically set..."

After talking for a while longer, seeing the charge reach 70%, Cheng Ye was looking for an excuse to end the discussion, leaving a pretext for future "power theft" trips to the Works Department.

However, just then, his defense communicator rang. Looking at it, it was actually the checkpoint's public number.

"Sorry, let me take this call."

The three engineers exchanged glances and immediately tactfully retreated outside, leaving the rest room to him alone.

"Hello?"

"Inspector Cheng?"

"Mm, Big Dragon?" Cheng Ye was startled, not expecting Big Dragon's voice from the public number.

Could he have been arrested by the checkpoint?

That shouldn't be right. The checkpoint was currently sealed, and inspectors were on leave.

"Inspector Cheng, it's like this..."

Big Dragon was also startled and quickly said, "We just caught an outsider in the community, sneaking around asking about your information. We've tied him up."

"He can't produce an identification badge, only says using his defense communicator to press this number can contact you."

"What?"