Chapter 40.1: A Temporary Outer City Resident’s Thoughts
“Bzzz… Bzzz…”
The vibration of a phone alarm sounded, and Leo opened his eyes.
His resident dormitory didn’t have a “curtain,” so the moment he woke up, he could see the light filtering up from below. Across from him, in the neighboring “caves,” other residents were already getting up, getting dressed, and tidying their living spaces.
Leo climbed out of bed as well. After neatly making it, he couldn’t help running a hand over the quilt, reluctant to let go. A surreal thought crossed his mind.
I can actually live like this… even in the apocalypse.
Then it was time to line up for the ladder.
He had heard that only the residents of the Outer City needed ladders to get in and out of their living quarters. Those aliens in the Inner City only needed a single chain.
As expected of aliens.
Leo climbed down the incredibly sturdy ladder. He first scanned his resident card at one of the faucets, then carefully held a kettle beneath it to fill with water. Throughout the process, his eyes stayed fixed on the digital display. When it was almost full, he reacted instantly and shut off the faucet.
The display above it stopped at exactly 1.49 liters.
“Yes!”
Leo clenched his fist in delight, celebrating his small victory.
Water usage in Blue Sea Safe City was charged according to a tiered pricing system.
For everyday drinking water like this, as long as each person used 1.5 liters or less per day, the price was extremely low.
But once consumption exceeded 1.5 liters, the cost immediately jumped to the next pricing tier.
Many Outer City residents who had lived in Blue Sea Safe City for several months already had savings and stable incomes, but everyone remained frugal.
Learning how to stop the faucet just under the 1.5-liter mark had become a skill every resident needed to master.
Most Outer City residents hoped to save up enough contribution points to buy a small home of their own.
Because once they purchased a house in the Outer City, they would officially become registered Outer City residents, gaining access to some resident benefits. It meant they were, at least to some extent, finally accepted as part of Blue Sea.
Instead of what they had now—a temporary Outer City resident permit. Not only did temporary residents receive no welfare benefits and have to pay higher living costs than official residents, but they also constantly worried that, because they weren’t officially recognized, the Safe City might one day abandon them.
Many Outer City residents who had held leadership positions before the apocalypse could see through the policy. It was clearly designed to motivate Outer City residents to work harder, earn more contribution points, and do everything they could to contribute to Blue Sea Safe City.
Leo, for one, understood this perfectly.
But instead of feeling discouraged, it only convinced him that Blue Sea was an even better place.
He didn’t mind that climbing the social ladder required tremendous effort.
What he feared was having no path upward at all.
Blue Sea’s advancement system for ordinary residents was remarkably straightforward:
Temporary Outer City Resident → Official Outer City Resident → Temporary Inner City Resident → Official Inner City Resident.
The final step was a bit less tangible. According to what he’d heard, becoming an Official Inner City Resident required sincerely believing in Blue Sea’s Great Creator God.
Still, as long as you worked hard enough and had the ability, becoming a Temporary Inner City Resident was a realistic goal.
That was Leo’s current objective.
For Temporary Inner City Residents, water was much cheaper—only half the price paid by Outer City residents. The lowest pricing tier also covered up to 3 liters per day instead of 1.5 liters.
There were also far more job opportunities in the Inner City, and the wages were higher. Rumor had it that many factories had recently opened there, and anyone willing to work could easily find employment.
On top of that, Blue Sea Safe City offered generous rewards for field assignments. If you were really short on contribution points, you could earn them by venturing outside to explore, killing zombies, or even discovering plant seeds that weren’t already in Blue Sea Safe City’s seed bank.
As a result, the overall atmosphere in the Outer City residential district was one of optimism and determination.
Of course, Leo believed that much of this positive attitude stemmed from the fact that, before arriving at Blue Sea Safe City, almost everyone had been living with too little food, too little clothing, and no sense of security whatsoever.
Slipping the water bottle onto his back, Leo set off with what would be his entire drinking water for the day.
He had developed a habit lately.
As he walked, he would occasionally open the bottle and take a look at the water inside.
Colorless.
Crystal clear.
Completely odorless.
Before the apocalypse, Leo had never been much of a water drinker. Back then, experts on television constantly reminded people that everyone should drink 1.5 liters of water a day, but very few actually managed to drink that much, and most didn’t think they really needed it.
Only after the apocalypse, when clean water became a scarce resource, did humanity realize just how agonizing it was not to have enough to drink.
Over the past years, Leo had drunk unfiltered rainwater, water from ponds that still smelled of fish, and even muddy water mixed with dirt. At his lowest point, he had even drunk his own urine.
Back then, hiding in a basement, venturing out every day in fear to search for food and water, Leo had never imagined there would come a day when he could simply turn on a faucet and have clean water flow out of it.
He paused once again and looked into his water bottle.
The other Outer City residents walking nearby barely paid him any attention. There were countless people just like Leo. Some residents even burst into tears while eating, crying as they shoveled food into their mouths.
The walkway was wide enough that when Leo stopped, everyone else simply walked around him.
After admiring the water for another moment, he carefully fastened the bottle back in place and looked down below.
From this vantage point, he could see layers upon layers of elevated roadways stretching beneath him, with countless vehicles traveling back and forth. Very few people in the Outer City could afford to rent a private vehicle, so about ninety percent of them were public transport.
Gun-equipped drones patrolled above and below the roadways. If anything unexpected happened, they could take control of the situation immediately.
Leo was currently about the height of a fifty-story building above the ground. A pedestrian walkway had been built at this level, leading directly from his residential dormitory to the nearby cafeteria.
After about twenty minutes of walking, the cafeteria came into view.
From his angle, the enormous dining hall looked as though dozens of long pipes had been plugged into it from every direction. But a closer look revealed streams of people moving along those “pipes.”
They weren’t pipes at all—they were walkways.
A single cafeteria was connected to roughly eighty pedestrian walkways.
The defining feature of these walkways was that they were relatively short and didn’t connect to one another. Their sole purpose was to allow residents living nearby to reach this particular cafeteria.
This was another distinctive feature of Blue Sea Safe City.
Life here offered very little room for personal choice.
Where a resident lived, which walkway they took each day, which cafeteria they went to, and even which serving window they used—all of it was planned by the city’s central AI.
There were simply too many people. If everyone ignored the AI’s scheduling and moved however they pleased, it would take only a few dozen people to create massive bottlenecks, turning what was normally an incredibly efficient meal service into long lines and causing residents to miss the buses taking them to work.
Leo lowered his head and checked his phone.
It showed that today’s breakfast assignment was to enter through Gate No. 3 and eat at Serving Window No. 76.
Lucky.
Window 76 wasn’t far away. Then again, if he’d been assigned to a window numbered over 200 today, he probably wouldn’t have been directed onto Walkway No. 12 when leaving his residence.
With practiced ease, Leo picked up a tray and joined the line at Window 76.
Thanks to the AI’s scheduling, he waited only ten minutes before it was his turn.
The AI had already sent him today’s breakfast menu early that morning. Full of anticipation, Leo swiped his resident card and ordered the meal he had decided on hours earlier.
A bowl of brown rice porridge mixed with cracked corn and beans, two pieces of pickled vegetables, one boiled egg, and a block of tofu.
Carrying his tray to Seat W146, which had been assigned to him for the day, Leo first picked up a piece of pickled vegetables and put it into his mouth, savoring the taste.
A rich, satisfying saltiness.
This is amazing.
Anyone who had lived through the apocalypse for long knew just how essential salt was to the human body. Without enough salt, no matter how much water you drank, your body couldn’t retain it.
Like sugar, salt had already been considered a strategic resource before the apocalypse. After civilization collapsed, it became an expensive commodity.
Leo had once lived in Meow Meow Safe City, but the catfolk civilization had very little need for salt. Nor were they going to prepare specially salted meals just for the tiny number of human residents living there.
To survive, the human residents had no choice but to kill more zombies, collect crystals, and exchange them for costly salt.
But here in Blue Sea Safe City…
They actually served pickled vegetables.
And not just any pickles—they were wonderfully salty!
The price wasn’t high either. Even someone like him, a temporary Outer City resident, could easily afford them.
Leo slowly held the pickle in his mouth, savoring it as the salty flavor gradually spread across his tongue. It felt as though the salt itself was replenishing his body’s strength.
He had already made up his mind.
He would eat one piece now and save the other to take home. Then, whenever he felt he needed another dose of salt, he could eat it together with that day’s meal.
With the pickle still in his mouth, he took two sips of porridge.
Wonderful.
Not only would the porridge provide him with carbohydrates, it also meant he could take in even more water today.
Squinting contentedly, Leo bit into the boiled egg. The yolk and white spread across his palate, carrying just a hint of savory richness that almost made him feel as though he were eating meat.
After another sip of porridge, he turned to the tofu.
No, Leo still couldn’t afford meat.
But tofu could also provide him with protein, and the seasoning sprinkled on top made him marvel once again at Blue Sea Safe City’s generosity.
Leo ate slowly.
Partly because he genuinely savored every bite of the breakfast, and partly because eating slowly made him feel fuller and was gentler on his stomach.
Heaven…
After spending the past half year drinking bark soup, eating rotten meat and all kinds of expired food, and surviving on muddy water, his stomach could finally enjoy something that resembled a proper meal.
When Leo had first woken up that morning, hunger had been the only thing on his mind.
Now that he was full, he finally had the energy to think about other things.
Lowering his head, Leo stared at the remaining half of his boiled egg and couldn’t help thinking:
If only my family were here too.
His mother had died when he was very young. His father had been his only remaining family.
His father wasn’t an easy man to get along with. He had a bad temper and could be downright irritable.
But Leo knew his father loved him.
And he loved his father.
After saving up some money, Leo had left his father—almost as though he were escaping. He quit the job where they had worked together and moved to the distant Ming Nation.
There, he built a new family.
He had a wife.
A child.
His wife’s parents.
Living far apart had actually improved his relationship with his father. They could finally talk calmly over the phone. Both of them agreed that not living under the same roof was better for them, and their relationship had only just begun to heal.
Leo had originally planned to return to Yunbula with his family that year to visit his father.
Then the apocalypse came.
In a single instant, Leo lost his wife, his child, and his wife’s parents.
Those days were like a nightmare.
While struggling to survive—drinking muddy water and fighting for every scrap of food—Leo had sometimes thought that perhaps it was a blessing his loved ones had died so quickly.
At least they hadn’t had to endure this kind of suffering.
But now…
Now he was wearing clean clothes, sitting in a bright cafeteria, with delicious, nutritious food laid out before him.
He couldn’t stop wondering how wonderful it would have been if they were still alive.
A tear fell into his bowl.
The resident assigned to share his table glanced over and reminded him matter-of-factly,
“You can pour a little water into it, then drink the water together with your tears. Don’t waste the salt in them—you just ate those pickled vegetables.”
Leo nodded.
“Thanks for the reminder.”
He did exactly that, drinking the mixture of water and tears with a reverence that was almost pilgrimage-like, savoring every sip instead of letting it go to waste.
The resident beside him said, “I could tell from the look on your face that someone you cared about died. I’m not trying to compare tragedies, but if it helps at all… my entire family is gone too. My best friend included.”
She raised her water bottle and lightly clinked it against Leo’s.
“But life has to go on, doesn’t it? Before my friend died, her greatest wish was to eat one more hot meal. She said she wouldn’t get the chance… but she hoped that one day I would.”
She smiled faintly.
“And look at me now. I’m doing exactly that. It’s unbelievable—there’s actually a place like this, even after the apocalypse.”
Leo returned her smile gratefully.
“Thank you. I’ve already come to terms with losing my family. I was just thinking about my father.”
“Oh!”
The resident immediately understood.
“So your father’s still alive?”
“I think so,” Leo replied. “At least, there’s a good chance he is. He worked in a very secure facility with lots of enclosed rooms to hide in, and plenty of stored food.”
A trace of envy crossed the woman’s face, but she still offered him a sincere blessing.
“I hope the two of you get to reunite.”
“Thank you.”
Leo smiled.
“I don’t think it’ll be long now.”
Because Blue Sea Safe City was now in Yunbula.
Very close to where his father was.
<< _ >>
