Cave Refuge

"What else could we do? We barely exchanged a few words inside the house when that madman pulled out a missile and stepped on it, then put on an act as if he would take us with him if we troubled him.

Although I also knew that he might just be using that thing to scare me and wouldn't dare to actually detonate it, who would dare to bet their life on it? We just wanted to gain some small advantages this time, I didn't want to risk my life."

Seeing Toby Hart still shaken, suddenly a team member spoke up: "Was the missile he took out real? Could it have been a fake, just to scare you intentionally?"

To the doubts raised about his decision, Toby Hart sarcastically retorted: "I really didn't think of that. Anyway, we haven't gone far. Why don't you go back and test whether the missile is real or fake?"

On hearing Toby Hart's response, the team member just gave a sheepish smile and didn't continue the conversation.

Dong Tianyu didn't discuss Toby Hart's purpose for this visit with Father Dong and Mother Dong, as it was best for his parents not to know such things, to avoid inadvertently revealing any flaws.

In the following days, Evan quickly brought people to renovate the old couple's house as previously agreed. All the workers Evan hired for the interior renovations were Awakeners with various abilities.

For wall building, he invited an Awakener with the ability to turn mud into stone, who poured the dirt from the Storage space, controlled it to mold into a wall, then placed a few steel rebars in the center before transforming the original mud wall into a stone wall.

For other construction-related areas inside the room, a similar method was used. In less than half a day, the Awakener completed all the necessary construction modifications required for the room.

The subsequent renovation steps were more or less the same, and the longest part of the whole process was not the remodeling itself but waiting for the workers to come.

Evan somehow found out that Mr. Thompson had bottled liquor available, so when it came to the final renovation payment, he didn't ask for money but took several bottles of the loose liquor instead.

During the indoor renovation, Dong Tianyu felt several spatial fluctuations outside the base, but due to the last incident, he didn't go out to explore and continued to stay at home.

In the span of these few days, the repercussions of Leonard's disappearance gradually expanded. After all, it wasn't just Leonard who had gone missing, but also his special combat squadron, with the exception of two members who had escorted the captured creatures back to the city. All others disappeared without a trace silently.

As the disappearance incident fermented, everyone who had been on the scene started being investigated, but Dong Tianyu, luckily due to Toby Hart's earlier inquiries, managed to avoid the initial screening.

Now in Magic Capital Base, those hunting teams formed by civilians, similar to the pioneers in the age of great navigation, followed the law within the city but revealed a completely different face in the wilderness.

Even though China's population is gradually declining, these bases built by the Imperial Court, like the cities before the Natural Disaster, have a siphon effect on other privately-built small bases. As long as they have the means, most people are willing to settle in the Imperial Court's bases.

The older folks might prefer to settle in those militarized bases with their secure and stable environment. Even though a military-style regimentation is enforced, all non-work aspects are taken care of by the Officials. Although it means repetitive labor every day, the stability is very attractive to the unsettled survivors.

Free territories like Magic Capital Base, however, attract those young people who don't want to be constrained and aspire to make a big leap in life.

During these indoor renovation days, Dong Tianyu also spent some time around Magic Capital Base and gradually deepened his understanding of it.

Though Magic Capital Base was only established a few months ago, since the technological documentation controlled by the Imperial Court didn't experience any interruption, the development of the base showed rapid progress, even with just a few months of stability.

Firstly, not far from the base, proper salterns were established. Salt is essential for human survival. Although salt could be extracted from water during the flood, the concentration in the water wasn't high and there was no space to dry it on the boats.

Thus, even though Water Base could produce salt, the cost was extremely high, making the salt relatively expensive. Fortunately, back then, food wasn't abundant, so they rarely sold salt alone in Water Base, generally using it to make food to sell to residents.

Now that the floodwaters had receded and expansive coastal beaches were available, salterns could be established. With sun drying, a method consuming only labor and no other resources, large quantities of salt could be produced at low cost. Though the crude salt required further purification before use, the cost had been greatly reduced.

In addition to the salterns, another important aspect for Magic Capital Base was the open-pit coal mine discovered not far away. Before the Natural Disaster, there were no coal mines near Magic City. If not for the establishment of a Harbor to undertake overseas trade, it would have been difficult for Magic City to grow and prosper.