Rewards

Natural disasters were beyond human control; all they could do was prepare and live their lives as best as they could.

The family enjoyed a hearty dinner, including meat and seafood.

After dinner, Alice took a comfortable hot bath. Having spent almost two weeks mostly inside the car, lying in bed was a luxury she appreciated.

The Base had internet access, and Alice logged into the Base's forum to check the latest information.

Many people on the forum were venting their frustrations, criticizing the Base for taking on tasks beyond its capabilities. Some had moved from afar and didn't even have a place to live.

There were responses below, expressing resentment towards those living in apartments and villa areas.

One particular "anonymous user" caught Alice's attention. The user declared, "Sooner or later, I'll burn down their houses."

Alice furrowed her brow and reported the comment.

At that moment, the official Base updates finally came in.

[The food transport team has brought back the supplies. Starting tomorrow, everyone can come to the supermarket to buy food. The unified price for rice is five work points per pound. Each person is limited to purchasing one pound per day.]

The price wasn't too high. For those working in the Base, they could earn around twenty work points a day, which was sufficient to buy rice.

The announcement sparked a flurry of comments. Many expressed gratitude.

"Thanks to the hard work of the food transport team."

"Does this mean we won't run out of rice in the future? This is a Base that takes action."

"Five work points may not be much, but why can't they just give it to us directly? Isn't the rice in the granary already ours? It belongs to us ordinary folks."

"Is everything okay upstairs? Do you know how many people are at the base? If everything is distributed for free, no one would bother working, and how would the base develop?"

"There will come a day when the food distribution will be exhausted. The base is in the process of construction. If everyone goes on strike, the consequences will be borne by us. For long-term planning, it's necessary for the base not to provide everything for free."

"Don't say you can't earn even five work points a day. I have a friend who can earn eighty work points a day. When they first arrived, they couldn't even afford a dormitory. Now they live in a two-story house, and they've gradually acquired blankets and cotton clothes."

"..."

Fortunately, most people understand the base's approach, and there are very few complaints. Alice also expressed support in the comments.

On the second day back, Alice went to collect the reward for transporting grain with two others.

Since the people who went with her had all defected, only she, Hurley, and Cecilia remained, making the settlement very quick.

Craig said, "The promised reward was a hundred kilograms of rice, but due to your outstanding performance, the base has decided to give you three hundred kilograms of rice and three hundred work points."

This reward was close to what Alice had estimated, and just the three hundred work points alone could buy a considerable amount of rice.

"Thank you, Craig," Alice expressed her gratitude.

She looked around but didn't see Hurley. Craig seemed to know what she was thinking and smiled, saying, "Hurley has been called to the research institute."

Alice: "Hmm."

Cecilia arrived a few minutes late, and Craig also increased her reward, "Originally, since you joined midway, you could only get fifty kilograms of rice, but due to your good performance, the base has decided to give you a hundred kilograms of rice and fifty work points."

Cecilia didn't expect to receive a reward and was overjoyed, expressing her thanks repeatedly.

Cecilia turned to see the siblings, Alice and the others, and greeted them with a smile.The attitude between Alice and Arnold was very cold. Alexander, feeling awkward to ignore them, nodded lightly. The three siblings loaded 300 kilograms of rice onto the car. Alice handed the car keys to Arnold, saying, "I'll take a round at the mall, you go back first."

"Okay, stay safe," Arnold replied with a gentle smile.

 Just as Alice was about to leave, Cecilia called out to her, "Wait a moment."

Alice turned around, her face expressionless, "What?"

"I borrowed a pound of rice from you last time, and now I have rice. I want to return it to you," Cecilia hurriedly said. Alice understood, she wanted to get back the gold bracelet.

"Alright." Alice reached into her pocket and took out the gold bracelet from the space, handing it over. Cecilia asked Craig for a bag, grabbed some rice into it, weighed it, feeling it wasn't quite enough. She was about to continue pouring rice into the bag when Alice spoke, "That's enough."

"Huh?" Cecilia was puzzled for a moment, paused, "Wait a moment, let me borrow a scale from Craig." She quickly ran back and happily said, "It's just over a pound, you estimated it so accurately."

Finishing her words, Cecilia grabbed a few more handfuls of rice into the bag, "The extra is a gift from me to you. Adding flowers to the brocade is nothing, but giving timely help is truly unforgettable."

Alice replied, "Mine wasn't timely help; I just liked your bracelet." 

Cecilia smiled apologetically, "This bracelet was left to me by my mother, and I don't want to sell it."

 Alice didn't say much and walked away with the rice Cecilia returned.

In a secluded place, she stored the rice in her space and casually left with her hands in her pockets. Alice went to spend the 300 work points she had just received. The base no longer lacked rice, and she encountered many people carrying rice on the way.

Arriving at the third-floor mall transformed from the canteen, Alice found a considerable number of people inside, mostly selling cold-resistant items.Alice walked into a shop selling quilts and noticed that many of them were quite dirty.

"Boss, do you have any clean quilts?" someone asked, echoing Alice's thoughts.

The lazy boss sat on a stool, basking in the sun, "Do you think it's still like before when you could go everywhere to get goods? These quilts are collected from outside. The cotton inside can't be washed. Just make do with it. After all, you're sleeping in cotton clothes, what's there to be afraid of."

Someone muttered, "There's a strange smell on these quilts. I think they were picked up from the neighborhoods outside."

Many people arrived at the base during the extreme heat, carrying everything during the move, except quilts. So, when the extreme cold came, many people went to neighborhoods or villages in the city to find quilts. Some went out for half a day and brought back a carload of quilts.

People followed suit, and those who couldn't compete used work points to buy them. So far, there was almost no shortage of quilts. Of course, there were also warnings on the forum to always close the door and lock the quilts and clothes, as those who didn't earn work points might resort to theft.

"How many work points for one bed of quilt?" someone asked the boss.

"Fifteen work points."

"Too expensive, can't it be cheaper?"

The boss replied, "Buy it or not, there are plenty of people who want it."

The person didn't say anything more, picked a relatively clean quilt, paid, and left. Alice didn't like these dirty quilts, so she went to other stores. She found that the ones selling clothes were similar to those selling quilts, with either dirty or torn clothes and pants.

However, clothes and pants were cheaper than quilts, ranging from three to five work points. Buyers were constantly coming and going. What else could they do if they didn't buy? The base's production had just started, there was no fabric yet, and no one knew when clothes would be available for sale.

The second floor of the mall was dedicated to food. After observing for a while, Alice found that the variety of items for sale was limited. It was either mixed grain buns or simple snacks, and fried foods were out of the question – everything was boiled.