Wasteland Border Inspector-Chapter 354 - 144: Yu Erlan’s Gift, A New Assignment!
"Submit your papers, anyone who hasn’t finished must stop writing immediately, or it will be considered a violation."
After Cheng Ye submitted his paper, he didn’t leave right away but waited for a while for Matthew Lee and only left at five past six.
Not long after the two of them left.
The clock on the wall pointed to six-thirty, Harlem stood up, glanced at the time, and his voice spread throughout the venue via the microphone.
There were only twenty or so people left in the hall by now, mostly first and Second-Phase Inspectors.
Among them, there were only seven Eastern People, the rest were all Westerners.
This ratio made Harlem’s face slightly darken, but he was helpless.
After all, most of the Eastern Inspectors came from the Academy Faction, with solid foundational knowledge, giving them an edge in these kinds of written exams.
The Westerners, on the other hand, put more emphasis on field operations and practical work, focusing on inspection processes, wilderness survival, and... factional alignment; in front of the exam papers, their weaknesses were laid bare.
"Harlem, let them continue to answer," Ding Yishan suddenly pushed up his reading glasses, stood up, and stretched his shoulders twice, his voice gentle yet indisputably powerful, "The patience we should have, we must still have. The checkpoints test your abilities, not to deliberately make things difficult; answer at ease."
As soon as he finished speaking.
The remaining Inspectors in the room suddenly felt a weight lifted off their shoulders, the anxiety in their expressions dissipating quite a bit, even steadying the hands holding their pens.
Harlem was stunned, Ding Yishan had personally instructed him this morning to strictly maintain the rules, and now he unexpectedly relaxed them?
Soon after, he nodded thoughtfully, realizing the significant changes in Ding Yishan after several trips back and forth to the Inner City.
Is he planning not to continue delegating authority, wanting to personally control the pace?
Interesting.
There was not a ripple on Harlem’s face as he sat back down, seemingly as if nothing had happened, and began to peruse the pile of answer sheets in front of him.
The exam content was complex, and each Inspector’s understanding of the Satellite City development varied greatly.
The staff sorted them according to "popular locations", prioritizing the submission of review records.
The top-ranked location was somewhat unexpected, Chuan City’s West Suburb Ruins, surprisingly chosen by 17 Inspectors.
Happiness City faces the South Suburb direction of Chuan City, while the West Suburb is on the opposite end of the city, once the core Industrial Zone of Chuan City.
Back then, the area was heavily protected by the Extraordinary; despite the passage of time, the main structures of the factories and warehouses were still largely intact, and even parts of the core pipelines of production lines had not been completely destroyed.
For the Inspectors, this place was practically a ready-made framework for a Satellite City, with reconstruction far less challenging than starting from scratch.
Just... Harlem couldn’t help but shake his head.
If it were really that simple, why didn’t Happiness City start its development from the West Suburb back then?
Why not attempt to rebuild Chuan City?
The cities of the old era mostly had a fatal flaw, spreading too wide on the surface and utilizing vertical space very poorly.
The area of the West Suburb Industrial Zone alone is ten times larger than the current Happiness City.
If built, how would the defenses be set up? How should the checkpoint layouts be organized? How to prevent the infiltration of infection sources?
More critically, the core purpose of the Satellite City is to settle refugees, not for Inspectors to replicate another Happiness City.
The Inspectors who chose this place clearly haven’t grasped this point and are likely to be eliminated in the first round.
Harlem glanced at the list of those who chose the West Suburb, and suddenly raised an eyebrow, secretly pleased.
Heh, out of the 17, twelve are Eastern Inspectors; these Academy Faction bookworms are quick to answer but their brains seem to be muddled like paste.
Only considering the ease of reconstruction, they haven’t even thought about whether it can be defended.
Continuing to flip through, the second-ranked choice was Xia Sha County Town near the Industrial Zone, with 14 Inspectors listing it as their top choice.
This place is only 33 kilometers from the Industrial Zone, a city-level county larger than Wenlu County.
Despite severe damage to the surface buildings during the Extraordinary battle, the underground pipelines remain intact and could be put to use after cleaning.
Even more tempting is its locational advantage; proximity to the Industrial Zone means getting material support fastest, with many Inspectors directly stating in their answer sheets that they want to "integrate Xia Sha County Town with the Industrial Zone," their ambition evidently blatant.
However, there are still significant issues, or rather, they haven’t considered the distribution of power.
The Industrial Zone is the domain of the Technology Faction, with the Deputy City Lord personally overseeing it; is it the place for an Inspector to manage?
If there truly is such intent, wouldn’t the Industrial Zone itself expand outward?
Moreover, there’s still the issue of scale; expanding the site is one thing, but what’s more important is how to protect this site.
If infection bodies constantly cause chaos, should the Satellite City even exist?
If the refugees living inside are in constant fear, they might soon choose to continue migrating.
In such a case, all plans for Happiness City would fall through.
He turned to the list for those choosing Xia Sha County Town, and the slight pleasure he felt regarding the Easterners turned instantly to fury.
Damn, these idiots!!
Among the 14 Inspectors, 10 were Western Inspectors.
Have they become so addled in their frenzy to seize power? So eager to devour this juicy piece of the Industrial Zone?
Harlem’s expression noticeably darkened, yet Ding Yishan sitting beside him watched with keen interest.
Over the years, to unify belief and control the big direction of the checkpoint in all aspects, he had long stopped concerning himself with such low-level affairs.
Each time, he only needed to set the big framework, leaving the specifics to Harlem for supervision and execution.
Now, taking up these trivial matters again gave him a slight feeling of returning to more than ten years ago, fresh and interesting.
Browsing through the statistical records, the third most popular choice was Wenlu County Town, with 9 Inspectors listing it as their first choice.
Interestingly, the composition of Inspectors choosing this location was quite unique.
