Cave Refuge

When the turmoil had completely ended, the vast majority of people had suffered different losses. Only the Officials on this side had purely profited from this ordeal.

Initially, the families of those young delinquents were not well-off, which is why these youths had embarked on what was once a doomed path. So, when it was time to end it, the constables descended like heavenly soldiers, not only arresting them all but also taking away all the materials they had scavenged.

Thus, in this operation, although those young delinquents had enjoyed statuses and privileges they could never have accessed under normal circumstances, when everything ended, they also had to personally taste the bitter fruits of their actions.

As for the middle class, although their lives were not in danger after the turmoil, there was no doubt that this class had suffered the most.

During the turmoil, they not only lost the hard-earned Enhancement Scrolls, but they were also left powerless as those youths entered and raided their homes under the manipulation of unseen forces.

Otherwise, how could the Government Officials have seized so many valuable materials when arresting those youths?

The residents living in the upper parts of the base, like the Family Li's special situation aside, were not spared during the turmoil.

Even though Mr. Thompson frightened those intruders away with a gun, the big gate of the Thompson Family was brazenly destroyed by those breaking in.

Even with someone as strong as the eldest of the Family Li, a Martial Artist in the Path Entry Realm, their neighbor's security door was also destroyed by the intruders.

Compared to Zachary who could rely on his Divine Sense to observe his surroundings, Martial Artists wanting to probe their surroundings, apart from directly looking, most often relied on their ears to listen and identify positions.

Although cultivation had greatly sharpened their senses, perhaps because these Martial Artists' ears were too sensitive, even within a room, the eldest of the Family Li could easily hear other people talking on the street.

Even though the eldest of the Family Li had the ability to identify positions by sound, he was distracted by the household kids crying and chatting; thus, he missed noting the situation outside the street, which led to those naive youths breaking into his house.

In this way, although the Family Li did not have to clean up their living room bit by bit like the Thompson Family after the drama ended, the door damaged by those youths was still a direct loss.

So, no matter how one looked at it, the residents living in the upper levels of the base (the floors where Mr. Thompson and those below him lived) inevitably suffered significant losses.

In the entire incident, the only ones who probably profited were the Officials, as the initial cause of this event was those youths wanting the families with Enhancement Scrolls to heed the Officials' call and donate their scrolls voluntarily.

Because these youths held such intentions, there were always people protecting them in the shadows, ensuring their operations were successful each time.

And when the situation was about to spiral out of control, the swift action of the Government Officials quickly quelled the turmoil.

While settling the turmoil, the Government Officials not only confiscated the Enhancement Scrolls obtained by the youths but also unexpectedly garnered many other various materials; in short, while they quelled the turmoil, they also reaped much.

However, regardless of others, the losses suffered by the Thompson Family in this turmoil were merely the loss of a front door.

With the calm restored after the turmoil, the previously absent Government Officials reappeared and began patrolling the streets again, this time much more frequently than before.

The Enhancement Scrolls that appeared on the sea, unlike the Mysterious Ship, did not continuously refresh; instead, they were more like rewards for surviving the Dragon Siphon natural disaster.

Although the turmoil had occurred in the base, many team members, in order to protect their families, overwhelmingly chose to stay within the base and did not venture out.

Some team members had brought their families along while venturing out, seeking to avoid the turmoil until it settled before returning to the base.

Indeed, while these team members and their families hid from the natural disaster at sea, they conveniently salvaged the reward treasure chests that emerged after the conclusion of the "Dragon Siphon" disaster.

As time passed, all of these floating treasure chests were eventually salvaged by the humans who had ventured out.

Unfortunately for Dong Tianyu, the treasure chests didn't appear immediately after the Dragon Siphon disaster. They materialized about half a month later.

That was precisely the half-month during which Dong Tianyu had traveled to the Arctic Circle to exact vengeance, coincidentally missing out on this opportunity.

Had Dong Tianyu known that reward treasure chests would surface after the Dragon Siphon disaster, he might have stayed in place and awaited their emergence.

However, what was missed was missed. Now that Dong Tianyu was aware, though somewhat regretful, he didn't dwell on the matter.

Aside from this significant event, nothing much of consequence had occurred at the base since then.

After listening to the other party's story, Dong Tianyu took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket (storage space), which, although a common brand prior to the disaster, had become exceedingly valuable now that even leaves were scarce.

Despite the expiration date indicating that the cigarettes were past their prime, seeing the intact plastic wrapping and undamaged, unmoistened cardboard box, the other party eagerly accepted the cigarettes into his embrace.

He then used his privileges to send the latest regulations issued by the Officials to Dong Tianyu's tablet, needing to be observed within the base, before bidding Dong Tianyu a happy farewell.

After the other party left, Dong Tianyu opened his tablet and carefully read the various regulations stated therein.

From the latest regulations published by the Officials, Dong Tianyu got a sense that, with the expansion of the base, the Officials were highly encouraging residents originally from within the base to relocate to the newly expanded areas.

This was quite understandable since every city has both old and new districts.

Though the old district might offer a slightly poorer living environment, its facilities were well-developed, and colloquially speaking, it was bustling with people.

While the new district, though well-constructed due to being recently expanded, had all the necessary facilities and some residents from the old district enticed by various benefits, the bottom line was it still lacked population and buzz, which couldn't develop significantly without a decade or two.

If before the disaster, a city were to develop a new district, it could quickly attract residents from surrounding towns to settle and invigorate the area.

However, the base now was essentially an isolated island at sea. Though the living conditions on the island were initially poor, the sudden increase in area by two or three times meant that even redistributing the island's residents would leave a large area empty.

Yet, despite this, the Officials, though using various benefits to encourage residents from the lower levels of the base to relocate, only converted their small ten-square-meter rooms into approximately thirty-square-meter suites per person without offering excessively large houses.

After all, besides the areas occupied by residences, with the increased available space, the Officials also needed to consider the development of agriculture and industry.

Even though the usable area of the base had expanded two to three times, it remained an isolated island at sea.