Chapter 209: The Silent Colossus

Jiewei Shelter

In Hall 15, Hive Wall 02, Yang Cheng sat at the entrance of his capsule, watching the large projection on the opposite side. The daily routine of the Arshi News was playing.

"Xiaocheng, how many people do you think are here?"

His neighbor, Yue Ming, leaned over and started a casual conversation. Yue Ming was a man in his 40s with some baldness, who had once been a junior supervisor at a cosmetics company. His question stemmed from the news currently playing, which was showing an extremely impressive farm. Judging by what Yue Ming could see, the area was easily larger than two football fields, much bigger than the entire farming space from the medium shelter he'd previously stayed at. But this vast area, according to the news, was just a newly established farm that was completed in just a few days. And yet, despite this enormous space, it was still not enough to meet the food demand for the growing population.

"I guess there must be at least one million people here."

"All the infected from the entire Jianghe City will eventually be sent here."

"Plus, just in the past few days, 150,000 people have already moved to new dormitories through the lottery."

"Every day, 50,000 to 60,000 more people are being moved."

Yang Cheng did some quick calculations and guessed that this was the approximate number. These figures were openly available on the projections. Considering the lottery for new dorms that happened every two hours, the number seemed reliable. There were always people being selected for the move, and new ones filled the vacancies.

"That's a lot of people."

"No wonder I never win the lottery."

"I thought my luck couldn't be that bad."

Yue Ming clicked his tongue. He hadn't realized yet that over one million people had already gathered at this place. It made sense why everyone had to be crammed into capsules with just two cubic meters of space, unable to go outside freely. With so many people, being able to have a place to sleep was a luxury. If they wanted to go out, they'd probably have to go to the surface.

"Actually, whether or not we win the lottery, we're still quite lucky."

Yang Cheng smiled, taking a more positive view. Although they couldn't go out, from the news and the daily interactions, he could sense that the shelter housing them was doing everything it could to give them the best treatment. The rules might be rigid, but they treated everyone fairly and consistently. Fairness seemed simple, but even before the apocalypse, it was a concept that most people had little access to.

After watching the news, Yang Cheng soon had a mechanical arm deliver a phone to him. This was also a prize won through the lottery. However, unlike the lottery for moving into new dormitories, the requirement to participate was that you didn't have a phone. Even if you won, you still had to work and repay the debt.

Taking the new phone in hand, it felt heavy, almost two centimeters thick. But its functions were not far behind ordinary phones. After playing with it for a while and testing its functions, Yang Cheng tried to connect to the internet. The familiar social forums and long-awaited interactions made him feel as though he had returned home. But as he browsed, he quickly noticed something odd.

Almost all of the friends he had met online, if they were online now, were either living in capsules or had already moved into new dormitories. Their experiences were strikingly similar to his own.

"How many people have been sent here?"

Yang Cheng felt that his previous guess was a bit too conservative. Perhaps, more than half of Jianghe City's population had already gathered here. Was the mainstream of Jianghe City already here?

Not spending too much time reminiscing on the forum, Yang Cheng soon remembered that he now had a considerable amount of debt to repay due to his new phone. He quickly opened the specified game. Now, he needed to work in the game and earn game currency to pay off his debt.

Like Yang Cheng, many others had realized something was wrong. With the creation of the Everlasting Treatment Medicine, there was no longer a death risk from the Rola Virus. Many of the shelter's higher-ups, no longer fearing death, slowly realized that their shelters' populations had drastically reduced to a level that was hard to accept. The worst-hit shelters were almost empty. Once large shelters housing tens of thousands of people had now shrunk to small shelters with fewer than 2,000 people. There weren't enough people to maintain basic utilities like water, electricity, and farming, and much of the equipment had been sealed away in warehouses.

In comparison to the past, many people felt an unspoken sense of loneliness and panic. Even though the remaining people had more resources per capita, the desolate shelters made the emptiness feel haunting.

"Currently, our shelter's total population has decreased from 3.1 million before the virus outbreak to around 2.4 million."

"About 100,000 are confirmed dead or still in various quarantine zones."

"Approximately 600,000 severely infected individuals were sent to the Arshi Shelter."

At an official high-level, private meeting, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported the latest shelter statistics, making many high-ranking officials look uneasy. Although most of them had always looked down on the lower-class people, they also knew that their power was based on the numbers of these people. Losing one-fifth or more of the population effectively diminished their power and status.

"What's the situation with the civilian shelters?"

The meeting's host, Bai Rui'an, asked.

"Their loss is even more severe."

"More than half of the population has likely been relocated to Arshi Shelter."

"In fact, Arshi Shelter is now the main body of the civilian shelters."

"O

thers are just the minority."

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