Chapter 617.2: The Development

Because the area had more hills than plains, most locals lived in high-density apartment buildings, making elevators practically standard-use.

The three or four story detached houses seen in Dawn City, housing just one or two families, were nowhere to be found in Daybreak City.

Since so many intact foundations could be used, the Daybreak City authorities simply built new housing atop the ruins of West Continent Municipality’s abandoned buildings.

Although homes from the Prosperity Era were mostly unusable, their foundations had survived surprisingly intact, and of astounding quality! Building new fifty-year apartments on top posed no problem at all.

In fact, when those new apartments reached the end of their lifespan, the buried foundations might still remain intact.

Given that current New Alliance infrastructure lagged at least a century behind the Prosperity Era, such things were entirely possible.

What’s more, the area had been a low-density livable city in the Prosperity Era. Its buildings were not tall, so demolition was easier than in Clearspring City. Even concrete rubble could be recycled using technology provided by Ideal Group. The cost of building a 20 story building in Daybreak City was therefore far lower than elsewhere.

Currently, Daybreak City’s registered permanent population has grown from 80,000 to 110,000, virtually the settlement’s entire populace.

As the New Alliance’s industrial hub, it was not as commercially prosperous as Dawn City in the south. Most people came over to find work.

Any work required taxation, and taxation required registration. Thus unregistered households were, in theory, the fewest in the entire New Alliance.

Aside from housing and industries tied to daily livelihood, Daybreak City’s other major infrastructure project was the dam on the northeast shore of the West Continent Lake.

West Continent Lake, a Federation Era environmental project, was the largest artificial lake in the River Valley Province.

It had once played a vital role in combating desertification in the central continent. Yet after the Wasteland Era began, the abandoned lake, due to post-ice age rainfall increases, changes in lakebed structure, and more, had developed into a severe flood hazard.

If restored as a man-made reservoir, vast black-soil farmlands stretching from northwest West Continent Municipality to the Heavenly Water River could be reclaimed.

The project was expected to add hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland to the New Alliance.

And unlike the Sunset Province’s farmland, maintained only by fragile Levee systems, their land would not rely on any unknown technology that was passed down from god knew where.

Although the New Alliance’s food was mainly imported from vassal states and agriculture was not Daybreak City’s focus, no one ever disliked having more farmland.

Even if NPCs had no interest in farming, turning it over to Lifestyle Profession players like Makka Pakka and Beating Tiger, who were obsessed with it, would be perfect.

Hundreds of thousands of acres, new production methods and relations, and challenges in reclamation, if this were

Dough 1800

by the

Potato Corporation

, it would be enough to make an expansion pack.

In real life, contracting a hundred acre manor brought endless troubles. In the wasteland, one only had to occasionally deal with wandering mutants and raiders.

In short, though they endured war and many hardships, Daybreak City’s workers had, in the end, overcome it all.

With designs and plans from environmental engineer Butan, and the combined effort of Camp 101’s experts and builders, the West Continent Lake dam was finally completed.

Not only had the northern black-soil farmland resurfaced, but even the fourth ring, once submerged beneath the lake, reemerged.

Crossing the area would no longer require boats.

There was more.

As the waters receded, the district sealed under the lake for nearly a century and a half revealed unexplored regions.

Such as Shelter 100 near the fourth ring’s subway line.

According to Camp 101’s records, Shelter 100 had been designed to shelter 30,000 people, scheduled to open in the 60th year of the Wasteland Era.

Tragically, in Year 52, floodwaters engulfed the fourth ring, sealing the Shelter.

Public data stated Shelter 100’s mission was the reconstruction of West Continent Municipality.

Even the underground backup controlled-fusion reactor, currently used by the New Alliance, had originally been built for it.

It would be clear that the Shelter contained Helium-3 reserves, with many nuclear engineers among its residents.

Dr. Methods of Shelter 101 calculated its survival probability at just 3.1%. The chance of still fulfilling its mission was below 1%, near zero. That was why he shared the reactor’s coordinates with Camp 101 wastelanders.

But what Shelter 100’s true shelter plan had been, only its administrator might know.

Perhaps, like Shelter 79 in Lucky Valley Municipality, its publicly stated mission of rebuilding the West Continent Municipality concealed some other project.

Yin Fang was extremely interested in them. After all, his profession was tomb raiding... Or rather, archeology. His fascination with coffee machines, electronics, and even medicine was just incidental.

Chu Guang too was intrigued.

But while Yin Fang wondered why the Shelter sank, Chu Guang was more curious about what treasures it might hold.

New Alliance workers were installing pumps to drain flooded tunnels into the northern Heavenly Water River.

But with hordes of Crackleclaw Crabs and Battleship Shrimps nesting in the waters, the project faced many obstacles.

Currently, excavating Shelter 100 ranked second in Daybreak City’s work logs, just after industrial expansion plans.

When Shelter 100 resurfaced, all its treasures and secrets would come with it.

Chu Guang held high hopes for it. Digging up even a few old popsicles would be ideal.

Experts in pre-war technology were worth far more to the New Alliance than any black box.

Compared with the ever-changing Dawn City and Daybreak City, Falling Leaf City in the New Alliance’s western frontier seemed quieter, but its potential was not to be overlooked.

As a trade hub between the Sunset Province and the south of the River Valley Province, its most vital infrastructure was its train station and logistics warehouses.

From above, through hummingbird drones, half the city’s buildings and factories were clearly tied to the task.

While wastelanders sometimes migrated in from the west, few stayed long. Most treated it as a springboard to enter Dawn City or Daybreak City.

Pioneer City had little impressive achievement beyond its population growth.

Every so often, players roaming the Great Desert caught slave-hunting teams smuggling captives from the Poro Province, or discovered Mutant Human tribes hidden in ruins, each time, Pioneer City’s population swelled.

This put pressure on the small city, not only from its rapid population spikes, but also from having the most skewed gender ratio in the New Alliance.

Like hens outnumbering roosters in a coop, Mutant Human tribes such as the Blackstone Tribe usually kept only a few male survivors for breeding, cooking the rest.

𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

And slavers dealing with them seldom bothered to sell worthless male slaves there.

Mayor Teresa’s reports showed most rescued survivors came from the Poro Peninsula south of the Great Desert.

Some man-made catastrophe was unfolding there, but it was too far. The nearest route from the New Alliance meant sailing from Camel Kingdom’s Silvermoon Bay, or crossing the Federation Era’s Eastern and Southern Industrial Zones from Pioneer City.

Thus, though sympathetic, Mayor Teresa made no impractical requests.

For the time being, they could only strike nearby Mutant Human tribes and slavers, and unearth desert-buried ruins to grow stronger.

Pioneer City’s population now neared 3,000, many times its original 300 survivors.

Though conditions remained harsh, life was far better than before.

Cargo airships from the east and caravans from Bist Town occasionally brought new hope to the struggling settlement.

From Dawn City to Pioneer City, the New Alliance’s four children had grown from stumbling toddlers to kids who could run on their own.

And Boulder Town, once under the Post-War Reconstruction Committee, now under the New Alliance, had climbed back from its fall.

Compared with the dramatic growth of other settlements, its changes weren’t as striking.

The city was still crowded and noisy, and it was still the same size.

Its changes were more subtle, felt more by residents than by outsiders.

Drafty homes no longer leaked, neglected problems were finally addressed, store shelves grew fuller, crowds busier, and security was stronger.

Through blood and struggle, its survivors made life into what it should have been, like letting those who made canned food eat what they made. Nothing more.

Yet even that “nothing more” was rare and precious on the wasteland.

Though Chu Guang had not personally been in Boulder Town during the entire saga, he was not unfamiliar with these events.

Most New Alliance administration was digital.

From logistics to city planning, digitization covered nearly every aspect of survivors’ lives.

Though not as advanced as the Prosperity Era’s total Internet of Things, even taps connected globally, it was far ahead by wasteland standards.

Thus, even far from the political center, Chu Guang kept a firm grasp on all regions as long as he could connect to the Shelters’ servers.

Still, with the recent focus on the frontline, even digital governance had left him with mountains of backlogged work.

Both as the game designer of Wasteland Online and the administrator of Shelter 404.

Yet before returning to his office in level B4 of Shelter 404, Chu Guang first visited West Continent Municipality in the New Alliance’s northern front.

It housed the New Alliance’s largest research institutions and universities, larger even than Shelter 79’s Biological Research Institution.

He had promised Xia Yan he would visit her there.

And also because, in a recent call, Dr. Methods, administrator of Shelter 101, said he had matters to discuss.

As it happened, Chu Guang also wanted to discuss the Sanctuary and the Torch Church.

He agreed to meet Dr. Methods with no hesitation.