Cave Refuge

Therefore, by common sense, now is actually the safest time in the camp. After all, in the years of disaster and famine, as long as there is enough food and no one is starving to death, there should not be any significant incidents occurring.

So when Madeline said that she had some important matter to discuss with him, Zachary was indeed quite curious.

"My parents are tidying up the villa. After those several natural disasters, some rooms in the house have already begun to collapse. When I saw this situation, I advised them to simply abandon this house.

If they really aren't accustomed to living in the Storage Space and insist on living in a house, they might as well tear down this house and rebuild it. Anyway, I would not recommend them, an elderly couple, to stay overnight in this dangerous building."

Hearing Zachary's complaints, Madeline walked into the courtyard and instinctively agreed: "You're right, after experiencing several natural disasters, even the best houses become dangerous. Rather than living in fear, it's actually better to simply demolish and rebuild."

Having just said this, as if suddenly remembering something, Madeline quickly walked towards a corner of the courtyard. When Zachary closed the door and turned around, he saw Madeline not going to the villa's main door but towards an inconspicuous corner of the courtyard, indicating that this visit was about a rather secretive private matter.

When Zachary reached Madeline's side, he saw that Madeline, who seemed to have successfully quit smoking, was actually taking out a pack of cigarettes from the Storage Space. She pulled out a wrinkled cigarette from the crumpled pack and handed it to Zachary.

Looking at the wrinkled cigarette of an unknown brand, Zachary's face immediately showed a look of disdain. After all, no matter what Storage Equipment it is, anything stored within the Storage Space is usually in a state of absolute stasis.

If that's the case, the wrinkled cigarette box couldn't have become like this due to improper storage; it seemed that the entire pack was already in this condition when Madeline purchased it.

During this period of Natural Disaster, the source of various materials could not be deeply investigated. However, Zachary isn't a smoker desperate for a puff, so smoking or not didn't matter to him. Moreover, with Zachary's cautious temperament, he would refuse such unattractive cigarettes even if they were given to him for free.

Seeing Zachary's expression of refusal, Madeline's face, for some reason, showed a self-deprecating smile. Then, with a smooth gesture, she put the cigarette in her mouth and took out a lighter from her pocket to light it.

Madeline took a deep drag, and through this action, one could tell the difference between a Martial Artist's and an ordinary person's way of smoking. Although Madeline's Martial Realm was achieved solely by consuming pills, her Realm had genuinely reached the Energy Refining Realm. So, just with one deep inhale, the flame that had just appeared at the front of the cigarette rushed to the end near the filter as if on a tenfold speed progress bar.

Noticing there was only the cigarette butt left in her mouth, Madeline took it out with her hand and casually dropped it by her feet, then stepped on it to extinguish it.

Zachary had expected Madeline to exhale the smoke slowly, like the old smokers he had seen, who indulge in their cravings, then re-inhale the exhaled smoke through their noses, recycling it back and forth until no trace of the smoke's scent remained.

Contrary to Zachary's expectations, Madeline forcefully exhaled the smoke she had inhaled, and the gray smoke she breathed out shot forward like a long spear.

After completely exhaling the smoke, Madeline took another deep breath to alleviate the hypoxia symptoms caused by prolonged exhalation.

Seeing Madeline's action, just as Zachary was about to compliment her on the impressive display, he heard Madeline speak very dispiritedly: "Zachary, I am planning to give up this camp, and move to the city built by the Imperial Court."

Suddenly hearing Ye Liuyun reveal his true intentions, Dong Tianyu didn't know whether these words truly reflected his inner thoughts, or if Ye Liuyun had sensed that the Thompson Family was preparing to leave and thus came to probe.

Seeing that Dong Tianyu didn't immediately respond, Ye Liuyun seemed as if he had made up his mind, his tone turning very serious all at once: "Although making this decision is somewhat hasty, in fact, I've had this idea for quite some time.

While I don't like to leave things half-done, I've already invested too many resources into this camp. I knew early on that this wasn't good, but maintaining the normal operation of the camp was like being cut with a blunt knife.

It doesn't make me feel the pain instantly, but by the time I realize it, I find I've invested too much into the camp. When I calculate the accounts, I discover that over this period of time, I've unconsciously poured a vast amount of resources into the camp.

As the camp continued to develop, just as it was about to reach a break-even point and there was finally hope of seeing returns, something like this had to happen.

Now, like your home, the majority of the houses in the camp have become dilapidated. Whether to repair or to demolish and rebuild, it requires a sizable investment.

If I do not foot the bill and carry out a unified reconstruction, then merely demarcating an area for the survivors living in the camp to fund their own housing construction could lead to the possibility that, knowing such a result, some might choose to abandon housing and leave.

Even if most of the survivors are willing to pay for their own house construction, the lack of unified planning and standards would result in a variety of bizarre house shapes, which would undoubtedly affect further development of the camp.

However, with unified planning and construction, although it would not impact the future development of the camp, the estimated funds required are no less than establishing a new camp elsewhere.

After all, compared to founding a new camp, if we choose to stay here, we need not only the cost of new construction but also the additional expenses of demolishing unsafe buildings and cleanup, which is also no small amount.

If no money is spent, then it becomes difficult for this camp to last long. Yet, if money is spent on reconstruction and should those Natural Disasters like a few days ago recur, the funds once again invested in building the camp might go down the drain, and then I'd face the same predicament as now.

Even if the camp survived the next Natural Disaster intact, next time, and next-next time, by this point we all understand in our hearts that such situations will still occur in the future. For those like me privately building a camp in hopes of making a profit, it's like buying lottery tickets.

It's betting that each Natural Disaster will not jeopardize our privately built camp with great effort and care. If each disaster is withstood, then we can rely on the camp to gain substantial profits.

But if we don't survive, it means all our past investments are lost. Should that happen, reinvestment of massive funds for reconstruction or repair would be required.

However, no matter how much money is spent and how strong the base is built, in the face of real Natural Disasters, human effort is ultimately futile. Even the camps built by the Imperial Court, didn't they get destroyed in the myriad of Natural Disasters.

After coming to terms with these matters, I've had a complete epiphany. The little fairy camp built by our family's elders endured without calamities for so long, yet in the end, wasn't it still controlled by the Imperial Court? But even after accepting the protection of the Imperial Court, facing such overwhelming celestial might, it ultimately couldn't escape destruction.

So I've had my epiphany and have given up hope.