Chapter 460: Volcano
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After seeing Chen Jiayi, Luo Yuan did not stay for long. Work had been hectic recently, and he was only home when he had time to spare. He returned to the City Hall right away.
The staff employees on shift were busy at work. Although they had some high-class meat for breakfast, they could not hide their exhaustion. Luo Yuan nodded to them and headed to his office. There were people waiting for him at the secretariat.
"Mayor!"
"Good morning, Mayor!"
…
Luo Yuan nodded to them and said to his secretary Cheng Guanghui,"Let them in!"
"Sure, Mayor!" Cheng Guanghui said respectfully.
Luo Yuan walked into his office immediately. The first one was vice-mayor Tian Jinping. After Bi Jianping left, Tian Jinping who was in charge of the industrial area became the temporary second-in-command of Hope City.
He did not look good. He was dark skinned, skinny, and his head only reached up to Luo Yuan’s chest when he stood up. However, Luo Yuan had a good impression of him. He had been running everywhere these few days without rest and completed his missions within a limited time which was impressive. No one was as efficient as he was.
"Mayor, I’m here to report on our progress. The work on fighting the cold has been efficient, and so far we have produced 1,500,000 electric blankets and 35,000 heating lamps. The production of steam pipe will commence today at 5 a.m. ..."
Looking at him losing his voice, Luo Yuan thought he had gone too far. He nodded and said," Place the documents here, I’ll take a look at them on my own. I’ll assign you your next mission later. Go take a good rest and come back to work at night."
"No, Mayor. You haven’t been resting, so why should I!" Tian Jinping was shocked to hear what Luo Yuan said.
"That is an order!" Luo Yuan said without further explanation. With his physique, he would not feel a thing even if he did not sleep for months.
Even since he became the mayor, Luo Yuan was not as friendly as he used to be to the people around him. He became unapproachable on purpose. The people here had been in the bureaucracy for many years. If he showed preferential treatment or weakness in front of them, he would be bullied as if he were a rookie in the field.
"Mayor, I would like to check with you. What is the target for the production of electric blankets?" As a senior in the City Hall, he had received word that there would be people moving to Hope City. After all, among the cities, the one that recovered best was Hope City.
"So far, the current amount we have is sufficient for six million people. The rest of the products will follow the same target."
After giving it some thought, Luo Yuan said,
"Alright, got it!"
After Tian Jinping left, the one who was in-charge of the agricultural sector walked in. "Mayor, this is the documents you asked for."
Without offering him a seat, Luo Yuan started reading the documents. Within seconds, he had glanced through all the documents, "Is the production of vegetables enough to feed two million people?"
"Yes, Mayor. The previous winter killed most of the plants that could not survive in cold. Fortunately, it was only temporary. We estimate in a month’s time, production numbers will go back to normal!"
There was no lack of food in Hope City. To fight any possible crisis in the apocalypse, every city in reconstruction area had a certain amount of food stored. Even if there was no harvesting in the agricultural sector, based on the storage quantity alone, it was sufficient to last each city a few months.
What Hope City lacked was vegetables. It was not easy to store such large quantities, besides the 10 tons of dehydrated vegetables in the warehouse which were meant for the military. There were no other vegetables. As all these had been moved into the spacecraft during the migration, the supply of vegetables in Hope City was worrisomely low.
"One month is too long!" Luo Yuan mumbled to himself.
As he looked at the next document, he said, "The standard 500 grams for each person is too high. As we are in a time of crisis right now, let’s take it down to 300 grams. In the meantime, increase the production. I hope in half a month, the agricultural area would have sufficient food and vegetables to supply the needs of six million people."
300 grams of vegetable was sufficient for the daily vitamin intake. It would not affect a person’s health. The biggest difference would be a slight drop in their standard of living. Looking at the situation, the people should rejoice that they were still alive instead of demand for more, Luo Yuan thought to himself.
"Also, strengthen the food control and do better in the eyes of the public!" Luo Yuan ordered.
Facing a powerful being like Luo Yuan, there was nobody in the City Hall that dared to object his decisions. The vice-mayor said without hesitation," Yes, Mayor!"
The City Hall got used to this. In reality, when the reconstruction area was set up, necessities were severely insufficient. There were no supermarkets without strict control measures on products they sold.
No agricultural area was developed to produce crops at the time. But lately, there were more crops discovered and farmed on the land. So, it was fortunate that there was food for the people every day.
After receiving all the reports from a few more staff members, his office was quiet again. He tapped on his table while in deep thought. Now that everything was ready, the migration of the three neighboring cities to Hope City could commence.
Due to the nuclear fusion reactor, there was an endless amount of energy in Hope City which allowed them to survive the terrible winters. The other three cities were not as lucky as they lived in icy cold climates and complete darkness. If the situation persisted, the people would die sooner or later.
Luo Yuan picked up his phone and called his secretary. "Contact the political and legal committee counsel, Li Feng, and tell him I wish to see him!" he barked into the receiver.
The guard division of Hope City had always been on standby on the ground but all of them were killed during the disaster. Now the strongest defensive unit they had in Hope City was the police. There were 20,000 of them. Although the number made it seem like a large force, the weapons they possessed were pathetic. Besides some light weapons, there was no heavy fire artillery at all. The other three cities had the same firepower.
The mission this time was not just migration, but it also meant the handover of authority.
Since New Capital City had fallen, there were no available communication lines. No matter what, the three cities were independent. Nobody knew the opinions of each managing organization. Politics was never about being nice. There would always be greed and unexpected behavior. Luo Yuan had the worst case scenario in his mind.
Their attacks would mean nothing to Luo Yuan. With his abilities, even bomb attack could do him no harm. However, no matter how strong he was, he was alone. It was easier to destroy than to maintain order, in his opinion, but he had to adhere to the objectives. After all, the mission was not to destroy but to save lives. Thus, he could not go about doing everything on his own. He needed many more military police just in case any of the people objected the current arrangement.
10 minutes later, the political and legal committee counsel, Li Feng, walked into his office. He soon left with an excited look on his face.
…
In the evening, about 10,000 military police were sent up from the underground city. They were wearing thick leather jackets that were produced in a rush. They stood in a neat formation and left Hope City immediately.
The military police after the apocalypse were different from the police before the apocalypse. Their training was no different than that of ordinary soldiers. They were in charge of the safety of the city and at the same time, also trained to handle the invasion of mutated creatures.
During the crisis, they would even have to fight during times of war. From their formation, it was hard to differentiate them from a team of ordinary soldiers.
The weather outside was getting colder to a point when the water vapor that they exhaled turned into ice almost immediately. Sheens of ice covered the area till the ground could not be seen.
Luo Yuan stepped lightly on the ground. The ice beneath him cracked and spread like spider webs across the ground. It only stopped after it was about 10 meters away.
Due to the cold, the layer of ice was thick but cracked easily if one was not careful. Once a piece was broken, a big part of the area would be affected. The ice sheets seemed to be about 30 centimeters thick.
In reality, the temperature here was no different to the temperatures in the north and south-poles. To be soon covered in 3,000 meters of ice was just a matter of time.
He looked far beyond the horizon and saw a gigantic smoke column standing tall, with sparks spewing out of its peak.
Nobody knew where this mountain came from. It seemed to have popped out of nowhere!
As the dust fell, the light in the area was brighter as compared to a few days ago. It was not as dark as before but the sunlight still had not broken through the dust clouds.
But, the dimmed lighting did not affect Luo Yuan at all as his eyes saw his surroundings to be as bright as a sunny day. With his four-dimensional vision, the dust-filled air was nothing to him.
The newly formed volcano had a glowing tip of red, obviously spewing lava. Perhaps the earthquake that happened yesterday was triggered by this volcano.
As the wind was blowing in a perpendicular direction to the police force, and the volcano was a few hundred kilometers away, the volcanic ash had not affected them or else they would have to put on gas masks.
"What happened, Mayor?" Li Feng who was leading the team asked curiously.
"It’s nothing, just a volcano." Luo Yuan shook his head and proceeded to walk.
"Were there any volcanoes around here?" Li Feng thought to himself, as he stopped where he stood and spaced out. A cold wind blew and he shivered. He quickly caught up to Luo Yuan and soon, they arrived at the gigantic spacecraft that was stationed near Hope City.
...
Half an hour later, the spacecraft slowly ascended into the air. The plasma jets that shot out from the engine port created a bright, high-temperature flame in the air. The remaining heat alone evaporated the snow under the spacecraft. Soon, they flew towards the United City.