Wasteland Border Inspector

Chapter 5: A Storm is Brewing, the Target Appears!
For lunch, as usual, I had two packets of nutritional syrup to supplement protein and carbohydrates, and a piece of maltose syrup to supplement fast-acting sugar.

Cheng Ye didn't eat the synthetic jerky that Liu Bi gave him, intending to save it as a strategic resource to replenish energy in emergencies when going out on field missions.

After lunch.

He stood by the window until the rain subsided slightly before putting on his raincoat and heading towards the quarantine area.

Perhaps the rain in the neighboring city of Yun was too terrifying, because workers could be seen everywhere on the road urgently setting up flood control fortifications, making the already narrow alleys seem even more hurried and chaotic.

Under a makeshift rain shelter by the roadside, several new residents, clearly just joined Happiness City, huddled together, gazing worriedly at the churning dark clouds on the horizon.

The damp resident ID cards couldn't buy them a place to live. For them, they had to race against time to find a job so they could have a place to stay before the rainstorm hit.

"Prosecutor Cheng, the window you are in charge of today is still number 8."

"There were already quite a lot of people in the morning, but I didn't expect the flow of people to be even greater in the afternoon. If there is an emergency that we cannot handle, we can call for support from the station at any time."

"understand!"

Cheng Ye nodded, put on the mask to conceal his identity, and walked forward with his head held high.

Just by standing in the passageway leading to the front area, you can see a huge crowd of people crammed in front of the conveyor belt.

At least seven or eight hundred people?
The torrential rain was one reason, and the wave of infections in Yuncheng was another.

Some survivors had to leave, and the nearby City of Happiness was naturally the best evacuation option.

"Window number eight is now open. Survivors, please line up in an orderly fashion to enter the isolation cage."

Just as Cheng Ye sat down at the quarantine station, the loudspeaker in the watchtower sounded.

It's a secure job, after all. He took half a day off this morning, but even with so many survivors crowding in line outside, window number eight remained empty and unopened.

As the crowds on the other seven conveyor belts stirred slightly, the isolation cage was quickly pushed in front of Cheng Ye by the conveyor belts.

Three figures were huddled in the cage: two women and one man, a typical "family" combination in the wasteland.

"Name?"

“Zhou Tian, ​​Yun Zi, Yun Duo”.

It was obviously a made-up fake name. Cheng Ye pretended to be writing it down, but actually called up the panel to check.

The blue panel flickered slightly, and the search function immediately displayed information for three people.

[Zhou Tian, ​​42%, Searchable range: Intelligence, Items]

[Yunzi, 55%, Searchable for: Intelligence, Items, Skills]

[Clouds, 18%, Searchable range: Intelligence]

"Just asking for a name is enough to achieve a 55% cooperation rate?"

Cheng Ye was taken aback.

He thought that cooperation required these people to tell the truth, but he didn't expect that the logic for measuring this value was far more ambiguous than he imagined.

Should we search or not?
Cheng Ye hesitated for a moment, but did not waste the precious opportunity on these three people.

Based on his observations over the past few days, he concluded that the strength of family combinations can be roughly divided into the following levels:
One man and two women < One man and multiple women < One woman and multiple men < Lone wolf < One man and one woman < One man and one woman with a child
The three people in front of me are at the very bottom level. They would have a hard time making a living by doing manual labor once they entered the buffer zone. There is no need to waste opportunities on them.

However, given the cloud's poor cooperation, Cheng Ye looked up and lightly tapped the table with his fingers:
“Yunduo, right? Do you see the first thermometer on the table in front of you? Please pick it up, press it against your forehead, and then tell me the reading.”

When Cheng Ye called out to her, a hint of surprise flashed in Yun Duo's eyes, but she still obediently picked up the thermometer.

"Sir, the value is 36.9."

"Very good. Now please pick up the second thermometer, point it at your chest, press it down, and tell me the reading."

The value is 117.

"The third."

"16."

As Cheng Ye requested, the cooperation level on the panel gradually increased as Yun Duo continued to report.

After all three instruments were used to measure, the result had increased from 18% to 44%.

This change gave Cheng Ye a preliminary understanding of the logic behind measuring cooperation.

"Alright, you three can leave now and go to the back to complete your residency procedures."

"Huh?" Zhou Tian couldn't help but show a surprised expression.

"Any questions?"

"Sir, aren't you going to ask us where we came from, whether we're in danger, or if we're infected?"

“I already know. You came from Yuncheng, encountered danger on the way, but didn't have direct contact with the infected.” “?”

Zhou Tian's Adam's apple bobbed, and his expression changed slightly.

Yun Duo and Yun Zi also gasped slightly, and their gazes toward Cheng Ye changed.

"The first rule of the Happiness City Residents' Handbook is: Never question the professionalism of officials."

A trainee prosecutor was able to secure a position at the window in just over a month, not because of the favors Cheng Long had left behind, nor because of Liu Bi's influence.

Cheng Ye tapped the table lightly with his fingertips, his gaze sweeping over the muddy marks left by the three people on the isolation cage. "With the continuous torrential rain, the provincial and county roads from Yuncheng to here collapsed half a month ago. There is only one abandoned rural road that is not on the map but is known to the survivors of Yuncheng. The black sand on the soles of your shoes is the rock fragments unique to that rural road."

"Looking down, the mud stains on the inside of the two women's jackets were scattered and splattered, not drag marks or scratches. This is consistent with panicked escape when encountering danger, but not with signs of combat."

"Furthermore, your knees are trembling too fast, which is not typical of someone who has traveled a long distance. Instead, it's exactly like the behavior of refugees who escaped from Yuncheng. This is a consequence of running in extreme fear. So, stop asking me why I'm not getting checked. Since your vital signs are normal, go and get your resident documents. Don't stand here and talk nonsense to me."

Cheng Ye said impatiently, and the three of them immediately shrank back and left, not daring to ask another question.

Are all the prosecutors in Happiness City this professional?
They didn't ask anything, yet they knew everything. This made them feel as if they had been stripped naked, with no secrets left!

"Next person."

As the conveyor belt started moving, another family of one man and two women was transferred over in an isolation cage.

This time, Cheng Ye was even faster, taking only ten seconds to verify the cooperation level before deciding to let them pass.

In fact, very few infected individuals dare to openly enter the Happiness City checkpoint.

This isn't a checkpoint like those small sanctuary cities; there's neither sufficient intelligence nor instruments to aid in judgment, so we can only rely on manpower to make judgments step by step.

Thermometer, pulse meter, respiratory rate meter.

If the whereabouts are clear and the three vital signs are normal, the probability of being an infected person is so small as to be negligible.

Of course, there are also special infected individuals that are deeply lurking, but the higher-ups in Happiness City don't expect the inspectors in the quarantine area to discover such infected individuals.

A vast buffer zone and sturdy high walls will keep all threats out of the inner city.

An hour flies by.

The queue at the entrance did not shrink after window number 8 opened; on the contrary, the bustling queue grew larger and larger as time went on.

Cheng Ye has already released 71 people, but still hasn't found a target worth searching.

This was an inevitable outcome.

As the number of survivors increases, the mixed bag of good and bad within the group will only be magnified exponentially.

The uncertainty of the 8 conveyor belts will further reduce the probability of drawing a strong character.

"Judging from the behavior of these survivors, they are most likely just like me, a nobody at the bottom of the food chain."

"There are a lot of people today, so you'll have to be patient."

Cheng Ye didn't want his excited search for skills to turn out to show that all three of the opponent's skill slots were empty, just like his own.

Even if both chances are wasted on the strong, it's still much better than trying your luck on these small fry.

Soon, another hour had passed.

Bang, bang, bang.

Three gunshots rang out in quick succession, startling Cheng Ye so much that he instinctively turned his head.

Inside the isolation cage of conveyor belt number 4, a man and a woman undergoing inspection were shot in the head by a sentry.

Immediately afterwards, the tentacles that Cheng Ye had seen just yesterday extended from the throats of the two of them; they were once again the highly lurking 'Death Whisper Tentacles'.

This special source of infection, which resides in human obsessions, can hatch hundreds of tentacles in just over a month when it goes to small sanctuaries or settlements, easily causing large-scale man-made disasters.

Fortunately, in such a vast wasteland, there are hardly any people who would be obsessed with the small sanctuary.

"In a sense, the frequent appearance of Deathrattle tentacles is also a recognition of the strength and influence of Sanctuary City."

Cheng Ye sighed inwardly, quickly putting his faint fear behind him.

Because after the tragedy that occurred in isolation zone 4, the survivors who witnessed someone being shot in the head and still dared to enter the isolation cage must have some skill.

As the quality of the survivors rapidly improved, at the end of conveyor belt number 8, a man and a woman were being transferred from a cage. Cheng Ye quickly perked up.

However, at that moment, a sudden argument that broke out nearby drew his attention.

Turn around and look.

"Holy crap, a man and a woman, the wasteland king with a child has finally arrived?"

Thank you to readers 202210 and Ginyah for the monthly tickets, and thank you to Domino's Love, Cool Cola, Missed Golden Rain, and A Regular Storyteller for the rewards!
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(End of this chapter)