Out of four million people, only twenty thousand could receive full protection, if this got out, it would definitely trigger a riot.
If Xin Xiaoru were here, she would realize that this shelter was basically an enlarged version of the one she had desperately tried to get into in her previous life.
Back then, medical staff were extremely scarce. She had fought tooth and nail just to secure a spot. But the shelter was severely underprepared; even having a spot, life there was miserable, there was barely anything to eat and no proper bed to sleep on.
During high temperatures, it was hot and full of mosquitoes, dirty, and reeked of disease-carrying filth. In extreme cold, bodies were covered in frostbite, with no mattresses or blankets; people had to huddle together to survive, relying solely on each other’s body heat.
If one day she noticed a cold patch nearby, it meant that person had died, no longer generating warmth.
Now, the Yicheng shelter was better prepared. They borrowed a university campus in Yicheng, fenced in nearly four thousand acres of land with temporary structures, topped it off, creating an enclosed space. There was even an artificial lake, serving as the so-called water supply area.
Housing ten thousand people here was relatively manageable, leaving room for proper operation. Squeezing in twenty thousand would be extremely tight, with no margin for error; even slight food shortages, pest infestations, or minor accidents could cause massive casualties.
The Yicheng Base leadership debated for a long time but could not make a decision.
They leaned toward the cautious option: accept ten thousand people. But if a few years passed and the external environment proved stable enough to sustain twenty thousand, the lives of the ten thousand who had been left out would weigh heavily on the decision-makers.
For a while, the leaders in the meeting room could not choose.
They temporarily decided to start by sending five thousand people in for trial residence, gradually transfer all research institute resources inside, and proceed step by step.
But the very first step already posed a problem, how to choose five thousand people?
Once selected, how would they even be notified?
The Base prioritized protecting senior decision-makers and researchers. But what about their families, should they be included? What about the frontline personnel, like police and civil servants, and their relatives, should they be protected? What about the young and able-bodied friends and relatives of those chosen, should they also be included?
Everyone is human; surviving the apocalypse isn’t easy, and protecting family isn’t easy. Those with families to care for have it even harder.
Logically, for survival, the shelter should retain the fittest, the most skilled, and the strongest people. But if these people could only enter the shelter by abandoning all family and friends, and everyone inside was aware of this, what kind of atmosphere would the shelter have afterward?
Moreover, the laborers currently building the shelter and the farmers cultivating the land inside all assumed the large plots of land were simply for planting crops. How would they feel if they realized all their effort was actually preparing nests for someone else?
There was no choice. The Base leadership could only act quietly, first move in the research institute, and deal with the rest later.
They came and went with the construction teams, keeping their actions under wraps.
At first, everything went very smoothly. But before long, the construction workers noticed something unusual. They began whispering to their family and friends, and small rumors started spreading within a limited circle.
The researchers at the institute, upon hearing the news, quietly began moving out. Their family members, young and old alike, had to work daily like everyone else. Over time, as people interacted, the sharp-eyed and familiar ones inevitably noticed something amiss. More and more people began to suspect.
One night in early April, when the last glass roof panel of the shelter was sealed, everyone noticed that the research institute, which used to be brightly lit, suddenly went dark. The building had long been empty.
The small, localized rumors suddenly blew up. Once people’s suspicions were seemingly confirmed, all kinds of gossip went rampant.
“Is the Base abandoning us?”
“They’re moving all the resources from Yicheng into the shelter, pulling the laborers to build it, and now they’re just going to leave us?!”
“Are they letting us die?!”
“I heard they detected upcoming torrential rains. Most of the low-lying areas of Yicheng won’t survive, so they’re hiding in the higher-altitude shelter ahead of time!”
“All the energy in Yicheng, oil, diesel, they’re shipping it into the shelter!”
“I was driving the truck that transported the oil last week! What a fool I am! I should have just driven it away myself!”
Yicheng, normally so orderly, descended into chaos in just two days.
The superpowered individuals grabbed megaphones and relayed messages on behalf of the Base leadership: “The shelter is to preserve the spark of humanity! At least one group of people will survive! Running the shelter does not mean abandoning everyone! Can’t you see our superpowered camps are outside protecting everyone? So don’t worry!”
What the superpowered individuals said was true.
But it did nothing to convince the crowd.
The civilians could collapse under heat or mutation at any moment; they could die at any time, or even turn into zombies. Meanwhile, the superpowered individuals had successfully mutated, and were entirely resistant to further mutation and harsh weather. Even if everyone else in the Base died from radiation-induced mutations, these superpowered people would still survive.
The civilians went on strike, demanding that non-superpowered leaders come out and speak.
Xin Xiaoru, who often cooperated with Yicheng, had been flying to various spots in the city over the past few days, rooftops of newsstands or low-rise buildings, to observe the Base’s situation.
Seeing the civilians demanding that the leadership address them, Xin Xiaoru realized the shelter situation would not improve.
With so many leaders, surely someone would come out to make a statement. Someone would try to stabilize the people, even moving their families to live outside.
But would this lead to a good outcome?
No.
This would only drive those with a sense of justice, those who genuinely wanted to protect everyone, out of the core leadership. They would run around handling affairs on all sides, while the ones left to enter the shelter would be the more selfish, power‑hungry figures. For the people outside, getting in would only become harder and harder.
Money would be demanded. Grain would be demanded. Women would be demanded. All kinds of shady dealings would grow increasingly frequent. The shelter would no longer be everyone’s refuge, but the private domain of those in power.
But unless those in power themselves became superpowered, it would be impossible for them to command and lead a group of superpowered individuals without holding the moral high ground or protecting the masses.
Just like her.
Xin Xiaoru herself could cooperate with Yicheng Base, mutual benefit, everyone getting along. Even for things like long‑distance water transport, she would do it even without negotiating benefits in advance.
But if the partner she was dealing with changed from a base that still retained a national character into a completely transformed shelter, then the only thing she could negotiate over would be interests, nothing but interests.
Other superpowered individuals who were willing to be driven by leaders, who weren’t driven by bloodlust or acting entirely for themselves, were mostly the same.
Once the nature of things changed, they would immediately see you as a fat sheep, as a competitor. Either you step aside for me, or I take your land, your people, and all your resources.
Xin Xiaoru sat in the vehicle, silently watching everything unfold with He Guying in the passenger seat.
“If you were one of the people outside, what would you do?” He Guying suddenly asked.
Xin Xiaoru said, “I’d say I’m a nurse, join the medical team, and fight for a spot to get in.”
He Guying asked, “And if you weren’t a nurse, if you were someone with no value to the shelter?”
After a moment of thought, Xin Xiaoru drove the RV toward the shelter’s gate.
Looking at the crowd, all tensed and ready to act, she said, “I’d be just like them, finding every possible way to take resources from the shelter. Even a little is still something.”
Don’t talk to me about preserving the spark of humanity.
If I die, if my family and friends die, and if, to some extent, our deaths are the result of certain people siphoning away the resources right in front of me, letting me foresee my own death, then what does humanity’s survival have to do with me?
I only have this one life. There’s no time travel, no reincarnation. Once I die, the world is empty.