Chapter 534: Two Announcements

With plenty of hands to work, it took only three days to finish clearing the valley and laying down soil. The valley, over 70 meters long and more than 20 meters wide, yielded just over 2 mu of arable land once cleared. The hot spring water flowed slowly through the finished irrigation channels across the farmland, seeping into the cracks between the stones on either side of the valley, making the whole valley warm and tranquil.

The members of the Lord Alliance stood in a neat row on the big rock, their eyes glistening with tears of excitement.

After the valley clearing was done, the next steps were daily maintenance, installation of supplemental lighting, and water-fetching activities—these chores were handled by Yue Haiying and Qi Fu, so Xia Qing didn't need to worry about them.

The members of the Lord Alliance would team up every few days, entering the Evolution Forest under the pretext of hunting, searching for edible dried fruits, medicinal plant roots and rhizomes, or collecting animal droppings.

Territory No. 15, which had a large demand for drinking water, was the leader of every mountain-entry task group, and also its protector. Though they were all disabled, they possessed firearms and a certain level of combat ability—enough to protect the task team's safety and teach Qi Fu and others the skills essential for moving through the Evolution Forest.

When Xia Qing wasn't going to Mountain No. 49 for training, she would also team up with her allies and take them hunting on the Fourth Peak of Mountain No. 50.

Unlike the other three peaks of Mountain No. 50, the Fourth Peak had not been affected by the poison gas bombs—this was the most pristine Evolution Forest.

Here, Qi Fu and Zhao Ze and the others witnessed the ferocity of large animals like evolution wolves, leopards, foxes, and wild boars, and also experienced the powerful attack power of malevolent evolution plants.

So that winter, not only did Xia Qing grow rapidly in training and solo training, the members of the Lord Alliance were also growing.

"Attention all lords: tomorrow the Safe Zone will send a construction crew over to install ground signal base stations. The installation sites for Territories 1–10 have been set at the edge of the corridor north of Territories 2 and 10. The lords and temporary proxies of these two territories, please approve the construction crew's entry for installation." After the evening news broadcast on January 15, Tan Junjie posted an announcement on the Lord Channel.

The Time Mother in Territory No. 10 waited a few seconds, heard no response from Territory No. 2, and pressed the walkie-talkie, "Territory No. 10 approves."

"Copy that." Tan Junjie responded and asked again, "Temporary proxy of Territory No. 2, please reply."

Only then did Zhou Xun come online, "Captain Tan, I'm currently requesting instructions from the lord, please wait a moment."

Tang Huai came online, "Captain Tan, how many G base stations is our area getting, and how many in total?"

Tan Junjie answered, "Because our area has the largest amount of farmland reclaimed, we're getting 4G base stations—12 in total."

"Wow!" Tang Huai exclaimed, "Thank you, Captain Tan!"

Twelve?! Xia Qing's eyes lit up too as she patted Big Sheep's big head, "Boss! We're going to have signal!"

Big Sheep shook its head and narrowed its eyes dangerously.

"Sorry, sorry." Xia Qing cheerfully rubbed the little tuft of curls on top of Big Sheep's head and continued brushing its fur.

"Ahem, ahem." Zhou Xun coughed twice and began to ask, "Captain Tan, may I ask—if the signal base station is installed within Territory No. 2, who is responsible for its maintenance?"

Tan Junjie corrected him, "The base station signal tower is not being installed within Territory No. 2; it's being installed at the edge of the corridor north of Territory No. 2. The fiber-optic conduit connecting the base stations needs to pass between Territories 2 and 9, and between Territories 10 and 14, so installation requires entering the territories. Maintenance of the ground base station signal towers, fiber-optic conduits, and mobile switching centers is handled by the inspection teams in the respective areas."

Zhou Xun understood, "Copy that. Territory No. 2 approves entry."

Hearing that signal base stations were being installed, everyone was thrilled. Zhao Ze asked, "Captain Tan, after the signal towers are installed, will our area form a local network, or can we achieve communication connections with outside areas?"

For the territories to communicate with the Safe Zone, if not through communication satellites, the fiber optics of the territories' base stations would need to be connected to the Safe Zone's fiber optics—the difficulty of this is extremely high.

The "great difficulty" mentioned here does not refer to technical difficulty, nor to a lack of fiber optics, but to a lack of maintenance personnel. The territory area of Nos. 1–26 is 120 kilometers from the Safe Zone, with vast stretches of Evolution Forest and ruined towns in between. The large numbers of evolution animals and malevolent evolution plants in the forest pose a threat to the safety of the fiber optics.

It's very possible that fiber optics laid just last month could be completely severed next month—by the roots of malevolent evolution plants triggered by a malevolent rain, or by the teeth of evolution animals—along with the conduits encasing them.

Tan Junjie answered, "Of the 200 territories outside Hui-3 Base, only Territories 1–26 can be connected to the Safe Zone signal, because our base stations here will be equipped with antenna devices for satellite communication. However, due to hardware limitations, the speed and quality of our external signal connection will not reach the level inside the Safe Zone for a short while."

"Whoa—" Tang Huai started exclaiming again, "The base has always been so stingy—why are they suddenly so generous this time?"

Questions like this didn't need Tan Junjie to answer.

The lords began an enthusiastic discussion. Although since the start of the disaster everyone had spent far less time online than before it, the lords were still extremely excited at the prospect of connecting to the base's network.

In Territory No. 3, Xia Qing, who had started brushing the sick wolf's fur, was also pleasantly surprised. She had assumed that after the cellular network base stations were built here, all that could be achieved was local communication—she hadn't expected they could actually connect to the outside.

Was this one of the conditions Yang Jin negotiated with the base commander, or was it because the hesitant big shot Zhang San is here that the base made an exception and upgraded the base station specifications for this territory?

Beard Feng came online, "Captain Tan, the Green Dragon Squad requests to install a ground base station on Mountain No. 49, and to connect it to the fiber optics in this area. The installation costs will be covered by the Green Dragon Squad."

Tan Junjie responded, "This is beyond the scope of my authority—you can apply directly to the Base Management Department."

"Copy that." Beard Feng responded.

Tang Huai asked, "Hu Crazy, why are you installing a transmission tower on Mountain No. 49? Are you guys up there for actual training, or do you just want to get online and play games?"

Everyone:...

Beard Feng chuckled, "Territories are getting signal base stations installed—what are you so excited about, want to livestream digging for bugs?"

Zhou Xun immediately came online to back him up, "What's wrong with digging for bugs? You couldn't dig them even if you wanted to!"

Everyone: That familiar flavor, it's back.

"Attention all lords, here is the second announcement: tomorrow morning, the Territory Management Department will send people over to enter and verify each territory's crop losses during the malevolent snow period. Only after the losses are verified can we enter the compensation negotiation stage. Please each territory approve the Territory Management Department's entry."

Beard Feng asked, "Captain Tan, once the verification team sent by the Territory Management Department enters the territory, they'll only check crop losses and won't search other areas of the territory, right?"