Chapter 280
The drivers for Bus Line 2 and Line 3 had already been carefully selected by Old Li on Tang Yu’an’s behalf.
After all, with the construction team constantly building new roads, it was clear there would be more buses in the future—one was never going to be enough. So right after Shu Gen was hired, Old Li started selecting candidates for the second batch of drivers.
A week ago, the second batch of rookie drivers officially started their jobs, training under Shu Gen’s guidance.
The original plan had been for them to rotate shifts with Shu Gen. After all, Shu Gen’s lunchbox business was booming, and keeping him tied to Line 1 was honestly a bit of a waste.
Unfortunately, now that Bus Lines 2 and 3 had opened, the two rookies had new roles, and the shift rotation had to be postponed again.
Shu Gen didn’t mind. He was happy to see the bus routes finally gaining traction and starting to flourish.
Thus, the three routes—“Desolate City Haven – Jufeng Mountain,” “Jufeng Mountain – Linhai Settlement,” and “Linhai Town Center – Guanyu Village”—officially began operation, laying the foundation for a basic transportation network.
Among them, the “Linhai Town Center – Guanyu Village” route had more stops than the other two, since it passed through five villages along the way.
It could be expected that Line 3 would eventually become the busiest route of them all.
Of course, this would also help boost the other two lines, since the Desolate City Haven remained the most livable place.
With Lanhu Trees to regulate the temperature and Star-Chain Vines to enrich the soil, it had become the most vibrant area in this snowy, barren world.
Almost everyone who came wanted to stay. And those who managed to settle down would often try to bring in their family and friends.
As a result, people seeking work and opportunity were showing up outside the Desolate City Haven every day.
The settlement had begun its second phase of expansion.
Due to the oncoming cold disaster and looming food shortages, the Desolate City Haven had increased both its farmland and livestock operations.
And now, the homeland’s first food processing factory had officially been established.
The factory mainly processed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and star-chain fruit. Current products included potato chips, sweet potato chips, potato starch, yam starch, and dried fruit.
These items were easy to store and, though time-consuming to make, weren’t complicated to process.
And right now, the one thing the haven didn’t lack was labor. Whether it was the tens of thousands in Linhai Town or the hundreds of thousands of future immigrants from Purple Sky Fortress, everyone needed a job so they could eventually support themselves.
Just relying on the rule that limited overnight stays wouldn’t cut it if employment wasn’t addressed.
Otherwise, such a massive population wouldn’t just fail to generate value—they’d also become a destabilizing factor.
In addition to plant-based goods, a meat, egg, and dairy processing factory was also being planned.
At this point, talent development was becoming more and more important.
Thankfully, Zhou Qi had brought some people from the original world. Though they were a bit older, they were more than qualified to serve as educators.
Old Li had also set his sights on the first-floor lounge in the dormitory building—he was planning to convert it into a night school.
As for movies and entertainment, those would be moved to the outdoor plaza.
Now that they had the Lanhu Forest, it stayed warm in the Haven even at night. Just hang up a screen, and they could project films outdoors.
With no artificial lights around, outdoor screenings actually looked better, and the screen was much bigger than what they had indoors.
Now that the Haven had more residents, there was no need for everyone to squeeze into cramped rooms anymore.
Of course, the Haven no longer provided snacks and drinks—residents could bring their own or buy from small stalls in the plaza. That became a new source of income.
Meanwhile, the night school would enroll adults looking to improve themselves, serving as the homeland’s talent development hub—
After all, waiting for the kids in school to grow up would take way too long, and the Haven’s development couldn’t afford to wait.
When Tang Yu’an saw the “Talent Training Plan” that Old Li submitted, he couldn’t help but be impressed.
“Grandpa, you really thought of everything!”
Old Li smiled and shook his head. “Just borrowing ideas, really. I learned all this from the books you guys brought back to the homeland.”
When the apocalypse hit, he had only just graduated high school and had no experience in administration. Most of his decisions up to this point had come from life experience and instincts.
But as the Haven grew larger, he could feel those instincts struggling to keep up.
Fortunately, the books and movies Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi brought back from the original world offered him tons of inspiration.
Even though the characters and recorded information were clearly different from what he was used to…
He could still understand it. A lot of the knowledge was universal.
“Guess it’s true—learn as long as you live.” Old Li chuckled.
Tang Yu’an was pleasantly surprised when he heard that. He hadn’t expected the books his parents had retrieved to be so useful!
“Grandpa, do you need any more books or videos? I’ll try to get them for you!”
“No need for now. But…”
Old Li paused, then said, “It wouldn’t hurt to bring over a few more of those older folks from the other world.”
Those 39 people from the original world—they knew their origins wouldn’t stay hidden, and Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi never intended to hide it either.
After all, once the interdimensional teleportation array was built, they wanted the two worlds to help each other. So letting the truth leak out a bit early wasn’t a big deal.
Zhou Qi had already told the others that they’d arrived in another world—
But people like Liu Changguo just assumed they’d landed on another planet.
The environment here was extremely harsh, but the locals looked similar to them, spoke a similar language, and used similar writing.
So, clearly, these people must have immigrated from Earth! The government must have secretly pulled off something huge!
Since they were so convinced of this theory, and Old Li couldn’t find any holes in it, he just accepted the “alien world” explanation.
As for the other residents, they were simply amazed that the Church of Commerce had such a wide reach—it had even expanded to other planets! Their faith in the God of Commerce grew stronger.
And Old Li really did welcome these “people from another world.”
Compared to the local illiterate folks who often didn’t even understand plain speech, the newcomers were much more knowledgeable. A little pampered, sure—but they were sincere, polite, and easy to manage with just a bit of coaxing.
Even if a few of them had little tricks up their sleeves, to Old Li—who had seen true evil—they just seemed kind of cute.
Unfortunately, the 16 pregnant women would need time to rest after giving birth, and then take maternity leave—at least six months before they could work.
Otherwise, these pure and clear-headed young ladies would also be very capable talents…
In short, Old Li found these “aliens” quite easy to work with, so he really didn’t mind having more of them around.
Tang Yu’an could only play dumb. “Grandpa, they were brought here by the Divine Envoys. I have no control over that.”
“Well, alright then.”
Old Li nodded. “There’s nothing wrong with this training proposal, right?”
“I think it looks good.”
“Alright then, let’s carry it out.”
“Okay! Thanks for your hard work, Grandpa!”
After ending the call, Tang Yu’an finally let out a breath of relief.
He glanced at the family chat logs, pressed his lips together, then pushed aside the unease in his heart and refocused on other matters.
At that moment, a system notification suddenly popped up.
[XP Maxed Out. Merchant Level +1]
[Merchant Level: Lv27. New items available in the store: nuts, marinated eggs, carbonated drinks, vitamin gummies, multipurpose knife. See “Wholesale Market” for details.]
[+2 Inventory Slots (Total: 34). +1 Authorizable Slot (Available: 8)]
[New Item: Night Stay Card. New Feature: Guardian Barrier Merge. See “Shop” for details.]
[+1 Seven-Day Flash Sale Refresh Card]
Wow! Leveled up again!
Tang Yu’an couldn’t help but grin and immediately checked out the new upgrade rewards.
Upon seeing the vitamin gummies, he quickly authorized redemption access for his parents and Zhou Qi.
In a post-apocalyptic world where food sources were limited and unbalanced, people easily developed vitamin deficiencies. These gummies were a great solution—packed with energy and essential nutrients.
Tang Yu’an redeemed a pack for himself too. They were chewy, sweet and sour—absolutely delicious.
Then he continued reviewing the other rewards.
As for the new authorizable slot, he didn’t assign it to Zhou Qi this time. Instead, he gave it exclusively to Tang Xueyun.
When the next slot unlocks, he’ll assign it to Dad—this way, everyone can keep their personal items separate without mixing them up.
“Night Stay Card?”
Tang Yu’an blinked, quickly opened the Night Stay list interface, and sure enough, a new “Night Stay Card” function button appeared in the top-right corner.
[Night Stay Card]
[Price: 10 points per card]
[Description: Once acquired, the card binds to the holder, and their name is automatically added to the Night Stay list. Card settings can be customized.]
[Card Settings]
1. Cancel Binding: The card binds the user and lists their name automatically. Exchangeable (10 points/card)
2. Renewal: Points can be loaded onto the card. It consumes 1 point per day. When the balance hits zero, the card is reclaimed and the user loses Night Stay rights. (10 points/card)
[More features unlocked at higher levels]
Seeing the Night Stay Card settings, Tang Yu’an’s eyes lit up.
This means that from now on, with Night Stay Cards, neither he nor his staff will need to manually update the Night Stay list anymore?
And it even has an auto-renew feature!
That means tenants will proactively top up their rent, or else the moment their points hit zero, the Guardian Barrier will automatically eject them!
Now that the settlement had expanded and the population became more complex, occasional chaos was inevitable. Late rent was already becoming a minor issue.
Although they’d always managed to resolve it, it was obvious that as more people moved in, this kind of problem would only increase.
Many people tend to forget the pain once the wound heals—especially those raised in the wasteland. It’s hard to get them to consistently honor contractual obligations.
But now, with the auto-recall feature tied to the Night Stay Card’s point balance, he didn’t have to worry about that anymore!
Tang Yu’an squinted with a big grin and turned to the next new feature:
[Guardian Barrier Merge Feature Unlocked]
[Cost: 10,000 Store Popularity + 200,000 Points]
Guardian Barrier Merge? What did that mean?
After carefully reading the rules, he finally understood:
When multiple store locations in the same area have overlapping Guardian Barriers, this feature allows the barriers to be merged into one.
The main benefit? The Night Stay capacity would also merge—becoming the sum of all combined stores!
Understanding this, Tang Yu’an was ecstatic.
Currently, the Night Stay cap was just over 111,000, which was more than enough for Desolate City Haven, Mount Jufeng, and Linhai Town.
But there were still tens of thousands of people waiting to migrate from Purple Sky Fortress, and the current number clearly wouldn’t be enough.
Linhai and Jufeng were both using Store #1’s Guardian Barrier. Even if he upgraded the branches to expand the barrier range, overlapping zones would still cause conflicts.
People would need access to all three stores’ Night Stay permissions to move freely between zones—meaning more strain on the limited spots.
Tang Yu’an had originally thought Night Stay Cards might help as a temporary fix, but this merging feature was way better!
Even though each store required individual unlocking at the cost of 200,000 points and 10,000 popularity, with millions of points in hand, that was no problem.
Unfortunately, popularity points were the real bottleneck—otherwise he could build and upgrade stores in the same area endlessly, continuously raising the Night Stay capacity.
But even as it stood now, it was more than enough!
Tang Yu’an immediately spent the required points and popularity to unlock the Guardian Barrier Merge for the branches at Desolate City, Mount Jufeng, and Linhai.
With that, the Night Stay limit jumped to over 140,000! And once the other two shops reached level 3, that number could soar to 330,000!
Too bad the guard station shop in Hong Li hadn’t reached 10,000 popularity yet—otherwise, merging it would add even more capacity.
Speaking of which—
Linhai Town couldn’t take advantage of the new rule to claim more land, but…
What about Mount Jufeng?
Sister Hongli was the mountain’s ruler. She should have ownership rights over the whole area, right?
Since she already donated the guard station to the Church of the Merchant God, surely handing over Mount Jufeng wouldn’t be a big deal either, right?
If it works out, then the entire Mount Jufeng could be covered by the Guardian Barrier, and the mountain folks’ activity range would be greatly expanded!
Without hesitation, after discussing it with Zhou Qi, Tang Yu’an assigned the task to Hong Li.
