Wasteland Border Inspector

Chapter 228: The Predicament of Shi Province, Cruel Reality!

Dark clouds swept across the sky one after another, obscuring the already sparse moonlight into a fragmented glow.Only a few scattered glimmers of light fell upon the river's surface, swaying with the rolling waves.

The three of them arrived at the riverside. The water flow of the White Water River was much more turbulent than during the day. Waves crashed against the embankment, sending fine droplets into the air that shimmered with a faint silver light in the dark night.

Perhaps because they had finally figured out the risks lurking beneath the river, they no longer felt such deep fear toward the unknown infection source.

Cheng Ye gazed at the river before him. Instead of his previous tension, a touch of the same sentiment he felt when he first saw this place welled up in his heart.

How beautiful!

If he were to put down roots in Dabo Town in the future and build a residence and office, he would definitely emulate Tang Si, that sophisticated older man. He would have his office face the White Water River, install a massive floor-to-ceiling window, and take in the expansive upstream view and the winding downstream curves all at a single glance.

He would furnish it with a Walnut Executive Desk just like Tang Si's. Whenever he grew tired of handling pioneering affairs, he could stand up, walk to the window, and zone out while overlooking the surging river.

What a wonderful luxury that would be!

Just thinking about it was enough to lift his spirits, diluting a good portion of the current tension.

"The Demonic Eye Sponge is forty meters underwater right here. During the day, Inspector Luo and I went down several times and caused it quite a bit of trouble. As long as we can safely make it through tonight, we can figure out a way to find its core for containment tomorrow. We aren't far from victory!"

Cheng Ye explained, pointing toward the center of the river.

Wang Kang took a look, his gaze landing on the water before eventually shifting back to the dock.

The crab fusion entity that had been dragged ashore, after contributing four iron-whip-like crab claws, was casually tossed back into the water by Cheng Ye, washing all the way downstream.

However, the traces left behind by the battle could not be erased. The shattered bluestone slabs, the smashed concrete walls, the large pools of blood on the ground, and the two massive crab claws left behind...

Wang Kang could not help but click his tongue. It was not hard to imagine just how terrifying the battle that erupted today had been.

Yet, before that layer of cognitive impairment had been broken, he hadn't been able to see a single thing. He had only heard a loud explosion by the river, followed by absolute silence.

"Yeah, this is what the Abyssal Water Cave Crab fusion entity left behind... right before it died."

Saying this, Cheng Ye glanced at Luo Kuke, whose mouth twitched slightly.

After patrolling a lap around the banks of the White Water River, perhaps due to the bonus of boundless stamina, Wang Kang no longer felt sleepy either.

"I'll head back and lead the men on a patrol through the town. I won't disturb your and Inspector Luo's work."

He was well aware of his own strength. Staying behind would not only fail to help but might also drag them down. After saying his piece, he turned around decisively and walked briskly toward the camp.

Watching Wang Kang's figure disappear into the night, Cheng Ye and Luo Kuke strolled along the riverside, making their way back to the dock before sitting side-by-side on the steps leading into the water.

The river water lapped against the steps, splashing cool mist onto their visors, quickly forming a layer of white fog.

"If you're tired, go ahead and sleep a bit more. We can take turns keeping watch," Cheng Ye said, turning his head to look at Luo Kuke. The dark circles under the older man's eyes were much heavier than his own, clearly indicating a lack of any physical enhancement talents.

"No need," Luo Kuke shook his head. "From midnight until four in the morning, as long as there are no anomalies, the two of us can go back and catch up on sleep before dawn. We can sleep until ten before we start preparing for the containment. That's plenty of time."

As his voice faded, the dock plunged into a period of silence.

Both of them exuded a deep sense of mental exhaustion. Only the sound of the surging river water and the rhythmic rise and fall of their breathing echoed softly in the night.

They sat there for over half an hour. Once the clock struck midnight, the two stood up again and leisurely patrolled another lap along the river.

The Demonic Eye Sponge seemed to have truly given up on targeting Dabo Town. The river surface was calm and unruffled, showing absolutely no signs of crab-men coming ashore.

By the time they returned to sit on the steps, Luo Kuke's eyelids were fighting a losing battle against sleep. He had no choice but to break the silence first. "Inspector Cheng, after this mission in Dabo Town is over, you should be heading out for field assignments, right?"

"Yeah, pretty much. I can't stay stuck at the trainee stage forever," Cheng Ye nodded. "Why do you ask? Do you have any good recommendations, Inspector Luo?"

For the inspectors of Happiness City in this current era, field operational capabilities were clearly prioritized over inspection abilities. The former allowed an individual's influence to expand to other parts of the wasteland, granting them more power, while the latter only affected their standing within the city—or more accurately, within the Inspection Station itself.

This could be seen from the fact that high-tier inspectors were stationed outside all year round. Ever since the Great Reclamation Era ended, the core focus of an inspector's duties had long since shifted.

"I wouldn't call them recommendations. I'm just a Phase Three inspector. When it comes to familiarity with the wilderness, I definitely can't compare to Inspector Liu Bi."

Luo Kuke chuckled, his tone lightening up a bit. "However, Inspector Liu hasn't gone out on many field missions in recent years, so he probably isn't too familiar with the recent changes in the wilderness. On the other hand, from the New Era Year 29 up until last year, I spent five solid years running missions outside. I might have a clearer picture of the situation in the neighboring provinces."

"Feel free to share, Inspector Luo." Cheng Ye sat up slightly straighter, his tone growing serious. "I really don't know much about the wilderness, and the location for my first field assignment hasn't been decided yet. This is the perfect time to hear your thoughts."

They had nothing else to do anyway.

Sitting here doing nothing was unbearably boring. Having a deep conversation with a Phase Three inspector was actually a pretty good alternative.

"Well, the field range for a trainee inspector is limited. You can only choose from the provinces directly neighboring Shi Province."

Luo Kuke put away his smile, his tone turning solemn. "Let's start with Hai Province, the one we used to trade with the most. That place is completely ruined now. Around New Era Year 25, the tropical climate in Hai Province started getting more extreme by the day. Summer temperatures constantly hover around 50 degrees Celsius. During the dog days of summer, it can even spike to nearly 60 degrees Celsius. It's completely unsuitable for human survival. Now, only a handful of large shelter cities are still toughing it out, mainly because they refuse to abandon Hai Province's massive aquatic resources."

"Sixty degrees..." Cheng Ye couldn't help but click his tongue.

That temperature far exceeded the limit of human endurance. Especially when operating in the wild, without top-tier heat-resistant gear, a person would likely fall into a dehydration coma within half an hour.

"Back at the inspection station, I actually ran into a merchant caravan from Hai Province," Cheng Ye recalled, adding, "They brought quite a bit of dried salted fish and aberrant crystals over for trade."

"That's right. These days, the only things Hai Province can offer are those marine products."

Luo Kuke shook his head helplessly. "Under such extreme heat, normal industrial production is impossible to maintain. The only lifeline for those large shelter cities is to head out to sea and hunt. The sea areas near Hai Province have far more mutant beasts than we do here in Shi Province. If they get lucky on a single voyage, they can haul in thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of mutated fish. They can extract aberrant crystals from them and dry the meat into salted fish reserves. Plus, there are some unique materials exclusive to the sea that still hold decent value."

"But for us inspectors, and for Happiness City as a whole, opening a trade route to Hai Province isn't very necessary."

"We've already traded for a vast amount of those special raw materials from Hai Province over the past few years. Even if we stopped importing them now, Happiness City's reserves would last for a decade or two. Moreover, many precious raw materials now have cheap industrial substitutes. The shelter cities in Hai Province are living in absolute misery themselves. They can only distribute their goods to private and affiliated merchant caravans, sending them out to trade for supplies... The way I see it, by the New Era Year 50 at the latest, at least half of those large shelter cities will have to evacuate."

"Even the large shelter cities will have to evacuate?" Cheng Ye fell silent for a moment.

To be classified as 'large', a city had to have a population of at least three hundred thousand. If gathering places of that massive scale had to abandon their foundations, then the small gathering places that relied on them for survival would face an even harder time staying alive.

"Yeah. And it's not just Hai Province; right here in Shi Province, two large shelter cities have already evacuated over the past decade as well."

Luo Kuke sighed, his tone filled with lament. "The underground mineral reserves in Shi Province are undeniably rich. They'd be highly valuable anywhere and are absolutely crucial for industrial production. But when it comes to overall development, the restrictions are just far too immense!"

He lightly traced his finger against the stone steps, organizing his thoughts as he spoke. "Shi Province's economy is almost entirely tied to mining. It looks like we're holding onto a mountain of gold, but in reality, we're trapped in a passive state dominated by a single resource, which has completely boxed in our overall development. Take Baishi Sanctuary City, for example. Their entire economic focus is placed on mineral extraction and crude processing. High-value-added industries, like deep processing of minerals and equipment manufacturing, haven't even recovered to pre-disaster levels. They can only mark up the prices of refined ores and sell them to neighboring provinces."

"The locals only earn a meager sum for backbreaking labor. They've been stuck in this vicious cycle of being rich in resources but economically impoverished for a long time, completely unable to climb out of it."

"Furthermore, the industrial space of the shelter cities is being heavily squeezed. Setting agriculture aside, if anything goes wrong with the external supply chain for nutrient paste raw materials, even Happiness City would find itself in a desperate scramble."

Luo Kuke paused, shifting the conversation to a more core issue. "But the most fatal problems are the brain drain and the technological gap. Only Happiness City has an industrial zone capable of training skilled workers and providing technical jobs. Most of the other shelter cities in Shi Province are still stuck in the phase of relying on manual labor to eat. Young people either have to go down into the mines to earn a hard living, or travel to other provinces to fight for their future. If it were you, which would you choose? It'd definitely be the latter! Who wouldn't want to find a job where they can learn a skill and have room for promotion?"

"And then there are the merchant caravans. They've been growing fewer and fewer over the past few years. For one thing, it's not like other provinces don't have minerals. As shelter cities everywhere expand their pioneering ranges, their local resources have basically become self-sufficient. There's no need to travel all the way to Shi Province to stock up. Secondly, the shelter cities in our Shi Province have focused all their energy on mining, completely neglecting infrastructure reconstruction. Ruined roads are left unrepaired, and several bridges connecting to neighboring provinces have collapsed. Once a road is cut off, vehicles simply can't pass. Detouring means driving hundreds of extra kilometers, all while running the risk of straying from safe routes. Who'd be willing to go through all that trouble?"

Everything Luo Kuke said was incredibly grounded in reality.

Infrastructure like road networks required timely maintenance from surrounding shelter cities to stay operational.

However, apart from Happiness City, the other shelter cities in Shi Province were basically built around mining areas and resource points, situated thousands of miles away from the road networks left behind by the old era.

Who would be willing to expend massive amounts of resources just to repair these fragmented roads solely for the convenience of outsiders?

In contrast, the neighboring provinces, which had a much higher density of shelter cities and gathering places, did not share this concern.

Many of their shelter cities were built upon former cities, counties, and towns, making road maintenance a matter of mere convenience.

If one city repaired a section, and another city repaired the next, the entire road network would naturally be restored.

"On top of that, the shelter cities in Shi Province rely entirely on battery power, and charging facilities simply can't be extended into the wilderness. But the neighboring provinces are different. They've been restoring gas stations. Some operate externally by relying on small gathering places, leaving a five percent cut for the locals and taking the rest back. Others just run the stations themselves, specifically fueling up passing merchant caravans."

"With drivers taking turns, those fuel trucks can cover hundreds of kilometers in a single day. Can you imagine how high their freight turnover efficiency is? Combined with their technological advantages, it's only natural that merchant caravans prefer heading over there."

As Luo Kuke spoke, a touch of helplessness bled into his tone.

Cheng Ye listened quietly, a heavy feeling settling in his chest. As expected of an inspector who spent all year running field missions, everything that came out of his mouth detailed the very real, practical dilemmas of Shi Province's development. It was far more specific and far more cruel than the information Cheng Ye had gathered in the Buffer Zone.

"Inspector Cheng, I saw your test answers."

Luo Kuke suddenly chuckled, his tone carrying a hint of probing. "I asked Station Master Ding to let me borrow it. You aren't angry, are you?"

"It's fine. It's just an exam paper." Cheng Ye shook his head.

By now, the two of them could practically be considered life-and-death comrades.

Through their daily interactions, he could roughly guess the 'ulterior motives' of this Phase Three inspector. Coupled with the information Liu Bi had passed on to him—where Ding Yishan explicitly stated he could cooperate with Luo Kuke during critical moments—this meant that even if Luo Kuke wasn't one of Ding Yishan's men, he was undeniably someone with a clear head.

Excluding the factors of taking a side and political factions, there were inherently no major conflicts of interest between inspectors.

"I saw what you wrote—that you wanted to rely on the White Water River to establish a waterborne shipping network. That is indeed a very bold idea." Luo Kuke offered incredibly high praise at first, but his tone quickly shifted. "But actually, Yueye Shelter City tried that long before we ever did, and they failed."

"Was it because the risks on the water are too high?" Cheng Ye immediately pressed. This was something he genuinely didn't know.

Furthermore, considering Ruin-level infection sources like the Demonic Eye Sponge were lurking at the bottom of the White Water River, the safety hazards of water transport were absolutely no smaller than those on land.

"Actually, no," Luo Kuke shook his head, speaking with absolute certainty. "The risks on the river aren't much different from the sea. If Hai Province can send ships out normally, why wouldn't we be able to navigate the Linjiang River? The real problem lied in... the trade goods!"

"Don't tell me Yueye Shelter City lacked a trade good that could generate scaled profits?" Cheng Ye realized instantly.

"Exactly!"

Seeing how quick Cheng Ye was on the uptake, Luo Kuke immediately lost all his sleepiness. His eyes brightened considerably, feeling a sense of immense satisfaction at having found someone who was perfectly on his wavelength.

"To put it bluntly, our Happiness City is currently facing the very same issue of lacking trade goods. Let's take firearms and ammunition for instance. They were certainly best-sellers during the last Great Reclamation Era. Back then, there was war and chaos everywhere. Even ordinary people had a severe phobia of lacking sufficient firepower."

"But the times have changed. Since things have gradually stabilized, human conflicts have shifted away from fighting each other and turned toward fighting infection sources and infected bodies. The demand for conventional weaponry is no longer as urgent."

He paused, his tone laced with realism. "Taking a step back, it's New Era Year 35 now. What decent shelter city out there can't manufacture their own guns? At best, the firearms from Happiness City are just a bit more durable and sturdy. But that advantage is mostly just us tooting our own horns. If we were to actually lay it all out on the table for a trade, the other side would definitely ruthlessly negotiate the price down. We wouldn't make much profit at all."

"As for other trade goods..."

Luo Kuke gave a slight shake of his head. "You'll understand once you start running field missions. Honestly speaking, the only decent things Happiness City can offer right now are weapons and medicine. It's not that everything else is worthless, but rather that they are far too distant from reaching a scaled level to sustain a continuous commercial trade route."

A scaled level meant items that could be sold to the hands of ordinary people.

Cheng Ye's mind flashed back to the bounties he had seen earlier in the Intelligence Space.

Happiness Alloy, chips, batteries, Life-Healing Reagent...

These high-value items were all shelter-city-level trade goods. Ordinary people had absolutely no use for them, nor could they afford them.

"Then can we take things like chips and batteries out to sell?" Cheng Ye couldn't help but ask.

"No."

Luo Kuke answered plainly, "We can represent Happiness City to negotiate cooperation contracts with other shelter cities. The follow-up transport and handover will be handled by specialized freight caravans from the city. But we can't run around carrying the finished products ourselves. First, the risk is too high. These items draw too much attention. Running into highway robbers on the road would be immensely troublesome. Second, bringing too small of an amount is meaningless. It wouldn't qualify as official trade and would be considered private smuggling at best."

"So Yueye Shelter City's waterborne merchant caravans eventually went bankrupt because they couldn't make ends meet?"

"You could say that, but it was also inextricably linked to the situation regarding the Linjiang River system."

While speaking, Luo Kuke simply pulled out his Defense Terminal, pulled up the map of Shi Province, and zoomed in on the Linjiang River region. "Look. The Linjiang River runs through four provinces. The route is actually excellent. However, there are barely any large shelter cities along its banks. The vast majority are small to medium-sized shelter cities, or even just large gathering places. If you ship goods to these places, local demand becomes saturated incredibly fast. You simply can't sell in high volumes."

He pointed at the nodes on the map and continued explaining. "Furthermore, there were two unavoidable dilemmas. First, they'd get lowballed by middlemen. The biggest advantage of water transport is tonnage. Every trip, Yueye Shelter City could ship over a massive amount of ore—much more than land transport. But because the volume was so high, the surrounding shelter cities would band together to suppress the prices."

"If you refuse to sell, there are plenty of others who will, so in the end, they couldn't make any money at all. The second dilemma is that water transport would ruin Shi Province's already-failing land transport system. When you ship that much cargo all at once, the land caravans of other shelter cities—who can only transport goods little by little using vehicles—simply can't compete. Come to think of it, when Yueye Shelter City's water routes finally collapsed, the other shelter cities in Shi Province, including our Happiness City, did plenty to secretly fuel the fire from behind the scenes. After all, if water transport fails to establish a sustainable system, we'd be even more reliant on our land caravans."

'Damn, that's incredibly realistic!'

Cheng Ye couldn't help but curse inwardly. If he had to name who least wanted to see Yueye Shelter City strike it rich through water transport, Baishi would definitely be near the top of the list.

While you could sail ships out to sell ore with massive capacity and high speeds, Baishi had to rely on slow, sluggish land transport. Not only were their costs higher, but their market prices would be ruined by your sheer volume, and their entire land transport system would be shaken to the point of collapse.

Because of this, the shelter cities within Shi Province quickly reached a consensus: as long as Yueye didn't die, no one would be able to sleep peacefully.

But the problem was, did Yueye's water transport failing actually solve Shi Province's current predicament?

It just meant they were clinging to life through a different method!

"So your desire to establish a water transport system isn't an issue in and of itself."

Luo Kuke opened his visor and exhaled a breath toward the river, his tone growing far more resolute. "Our Happiness City is leagues beyond what Yueye Shelter City used to be. No shelter city out there would lightly dare to sabotage a system we establish. But you need to think carefully beforehand: what exactly will you transport out to the world that can genuinely aid our city's development? If you don't find the right trade goods, the transport fleet will only bleed money, and the other shelter cities will use the excuse of market disruption to pressure us."

"That question isn't urgent," Cheng Ye nodded. He already had a preliminary plan in his mind. "Building a water transport system will take at least a year or two to finalize. I haven't fully decided what goods to trade yet, but I do have a general direction."

Once he settled down in Dabo Town and had his own laboratory, he could begin analyzing the principles of intelligence gathering.

Manufacturing items with overly complex technological elements might be unrealistic, but creating ordinary items capable of forming a scale effect shouldn't be too difficult.

As long as he applied Source Rail Technology to everyday items, and as long as they met the external demands, he definitely wouldn't have to worry about lacking a market.

However, shifting his perspective after his long chat with Luo Kuke, he finally realized just how difficult Shi Province's developmental situation was despite sitting on a mountain of vast mineral resources.

Tan Ming, that Transcendent, was truly a ruthless character.

Who knew if he had ever contributed anything to this land while he was alive, but the impact he left behind after his death actually managed to cover an area of over a million square kilometers, implicating the tens of millions of people living there.

Even a colossal behemoth like Happiness City was trapped in this affected land, struggling to survive as its original advantages bled away bit by bit. With more and more of its disadvantages exposed, life was becoming increasingly difficult.

Since he was that powerful.

Cheng Ye wondered if the essence that surged into the sponge's breach had been of any use, and if Lord Tan had displayed his mighty power...

Thinking of this, Cheng Ye temporarily reined in his wandering thoughts and asked again, "Then out of all the neighboring provinces right now, which one do you think holds the highest trade value?"

"Guang Province!"

Luo Kuke didn't hesitate for even half a second, blurting out the answer immediately. He then tapped his Defense Terminal a few times, zooming in on the Guang Province region on the map.

Soon, a name with a striking prefix appeared on the screen.

The prefix was the exact same 'Super' title as Happiness City, followed by five clear, bolded words:

Light Rainbow Shelter City!