This time I chose Paladin.

Chapter 39 Clues
In the next few days, by searching the database and communicating with others, Nie Weiyang figured out all the surface information of this copy.

There are three other shelters around Shelter 4701, which may not correspond to reality, because the dungeon story can even put two distant continents together when necessary, let alone put several shelters together.

The plain near Shelter 4701 is called the 'Pale Plains', but that is not its original name - its original name disappeared a hundred years ago.

Yes, another hundred years ago.

The decline in mental strength known as "withering" began a hundred years ago, and since then, the traditional form of communication, "empathy," has faded from the scene. The Pale Plains also began to appear a hundred years ago. This lifeless, flat terrain is like a strange fungal infection, corroding the world into a thousand holes. When it spreads, it changes the terrain, devours life, and reduces everything to pale ash, which drifts endlessly between heaven and earth like clouds and mist—just as Nie Weiyang had witnessed when he arrived.

No one can tell when the Pale Fields appeared, and the location where it was first discovered has not been recorded. People only know that it is a vast and quiet world, and everything that is swallowed by it can never come back.

No living creature could survive 24 hours in the Pale Wilds.

The reason for the closure of the shelter is external danger. In the past, this danger manifested itself in the following forms:

Monsters appear in the Pale Fields. They will leave the fields and indiscriminately attack all living things.

The Pale Plains expands, and if creatures are contaminated by its ash, they may be assimilated and lose their vitality. If monsters or ash enter the shelter, the creatures inside will also die. However, the shelter itself will not be assimilated. If all creatures inside die, the shelter will immediately undergo internal cleansing and be sealed until it is next opened by Homo sapiens.

Now, Nie Weiyang has completely understood the surface personnel composition and material reserves of Shelter 4701. As expected, the internal resources of the shelter are only enough for about 60 days.

Two months of survival time is a very unreasonable configuration. According to regulations, spare supplies must be usable for at least three years. Before closing the shelter, the resource delivery queue dispatched by the central city should have filled up the warehouse long ago.

Nie Weiyang stared at the console panel, where a gray button appeared, which could not be triggered for the time being.

【Unlock the shelter】

The shelter will be closed for at least seven days each time before it can be reopened, and it is unlikely to complete the task within two months. The main task must have arranged an opportunity to open the shelter midway. "New World" will not let players die here meaninglessly.

Of course, you have to seize the opportunity yourself...

Nie Weiyang turned his eyes away from the computer screen and called the Minister of Logistics Dane and the Minister of Security Kang Sen to come over.

……

When Dann walked in timidly, Nie Weiyang was lost in thought in front of the densely packed surveillance screens.

"Mr. Administrator," the logistics director, whose previous behavior in the meeting room had been completely inconsistent, bowed deeply from the start, looking honest and timid. "Excuse me..."

"There are only two months' worth of supplies left. Why don't you report it proactively?" Nie Weiyang asked.

"Central City said earlier...that additional supplies will be delivered soon."

"..." Nie Weiyang made a strange sound in his throat. He turned around and signaled to the security minister Kang Sen who had just arrived.

"Select a team of scouts and go out to collect resources the day after tomorrow," he said.

"You want resources?" Kang Sen subconsciously wanted to argue, but the moment he saw Nie Weiyang, he couldn't muster up the courage: "...We are too far from the central city."

"Who told you to go to Central City? Go to other shelters around here."

"...Isn't that just robbery? The supplies from other shelters..."

“Fine, you don’t have to ask for it,” Nie Weiyang said coolly. “Next month, I’ll hang you at the entrance of the security department and watch your people starve to death. Would that make you any happier?” Talking to these people about ordinary citizens is probably meaningless—people like Kang Sen are likely only emotionally affected by people and things that are closely related to them.

Of course, Nie Weiyang didn't care who Kang Sen had feelings for. As for threats, as long as he put in some powerful conditions, he would have to obey even if he was disobedient.

After hearing this, Kang Sen quickly left to check on the person. Nie Weiyang looked away, pretending not to notice the other person's clenched fist, and continued to stare at the monitoring interface.

In less than a week, Nie Weiyang had already met 3510 members of the shelter, either directly or indirectly. The feeling these people gave him was... there was no connection between them.

According to his experience, in real history, the number of people in the shelter would most likely be multiplied by a random number between 20 and 1000, and the map would be even larger.

However, data of that magnitude would only appear in a Chaos-attributed shelter, and most likely a multiplayer instance. It wouldn't appear at this stage, and the player certainly wouldn't be an administrator.

Let a new player manage tens of millions of strangers alone, and those people have almost no cohesion?

It would be better to execute him directly, at least it would not be painful and would not waste time.

Nie Weiyang remained silent, but Dann, standing behind him, looked practically sweating profusely. In his eyes, this terrifying young man with black and white hair appeared calm, gentle, and difficult to discern his true intentions. This was even more terrifying than his appearance in the meeting room earlier... because before, they knew he wanted them to obey. But now, Dann had no idea what Nie Weiyang wanted him to do!
Gradually, Dann's fake sweat turned into real shivers, and beads of sweat slid down from his hair and hit the clean silver floor.

Nie Weiyang heard the sound clearly, but he did not rush to speak out. Instead, he recalled some things that happened before.

……

Now, the entire shelter knows that the new administrator is a Source.

No one objected to this, at least not to my face.

On the surface, the people in the shelter completely obeyed Nie Weiyang, regardless of their status or power. However, the actual data displayed by the system was only: [Current progress: 12/3510 (2808)]

The current progress is composed of 11 children and one injured person. The conflict between the active and passive people has not spread to the children. Nie Weiyang's communication with the children is smooth, which is the only good news.

The wounded man was injured on the way to the shelter, but the medical department was short of staff, so no treatment was given for such a long time. The wounded man could only wait at the door of the medical department with his injured arm in his arms - just wait, even though people were coming and going at the time, no one even looked at him twice.

The lack of empathy has atomized this society to a terrifying degree. Even if people live in the same space, they are almost indifferent to the experiences of strangers.

Nie Weiyang observed for a while, and finally walked up, holding the long sword at his waist with one hand, letting the sword touch the other person, and gave him a [Healing Spirit].

The light from the weapon flowed through the wounded flesh, and the wound immediately began to heal. The wounded were very surprised and grateful to him, and the mission progress increased by one...

"Where were you injured?" Nie Weiyang asked.

"On...the Pale Plains." The wounded man replied awkwardly.

"Hmm?" Nie Weiyang frowned. Theoretically, the Pale Wilderness was off-limits to travel. "Why did you pass through there?"

"Because I received a message saying that the administrator of Shelter 4701 needs to collect dead branches from the Pale Plains... If you bring them to her, you can get some money." The injured person said, "But after arriving here, I found out that the administrator's name is not Angelita..."

...Administrator, Angelita?
　Yesterday's first update was blocked for a long time, and I couldn't figure out why it was blocked from the beginning to the end ()

　　
　
(End of this chapter)