Chapter 17 People Who Work Hard Have Good Luck

The next day, the neighborhood officially announced and organized the residents' evacuation to temporarily move into emergency housing until their homes could be checked for safety before returning. Residents of building 16 and a few other fortunate buildings didn't have to move.

Ye Nai went out to buy groceries and took the opportunity to search for nearby takeout restaurants on her phone, placing an order for some heatstroke prevention supplies. She had planned to pick them up herself, but suddenly found that waiting for delivery was cheaper than self-pickup, so she decided to wait for the delivery.

She bought two boxes of heatstroke medicine, one hundred cooling patches similar to warm baby patches but with the opposite effect, as well as several cases of mineral water and beverages. She chose a residential community near the vegetable market as the delivery address.

She had intended to buy things nearby, so delivery was very fast. The takeout delivery riders would just take the items, turn a corner, and reach her, and she would put everything into the Space and go home.

When she got back to the neighborhood and arrived at her building, she saw a pile of wet leaves swept to the side of the road. She casually threw some spores onto them.

At that time, many people were downstairs, with one person from each household coming down to make preparations with the organizers for temporary accommodation.

There were, of course, complaints, but one look at the frightening mound of earth next to their homes, and all complaints were swallowed back.

Ye Nai patiently waited at home, occasionally checking the latest news in the group of buildings. After more than an hour, there was not a single message related to that pile of leaves.

She was worried that the leaves had been carted away by a garbage truck, so she pretended to her father that she was going downstairs to watch the commotion and went to have a look specially.

The pile of leaves was still there, and at a glance, it seemed as if none had been reduced. Only upon closer inspection did she realize that what appeared to be leaves were actually Fungus simulating the color of the leaves.

Ye Nai was a little surprised since the Fungus that grew on the vegetable leaves at home was pure white.

She had not expected that in broad daylight, the Fungus would still mimic its environment.

Mimicry was definitely beneficial, there were people coming and going nearby, and Awakeners with badges walked back and forth, seemingly checking for something, yet they didn't notice the abnormal energy right under their noses.

Ye Nai watched as half of the pile of leaves under the mimicry disappeared and the area of mimicry shrunk accordingly, and still, no one noticed.

The results of the experiment were clear. Almost an entire pile of leaves had been decomposed and yet no one saw it; her spores and fungus were genuinely undetectable, invisible.

That was truly pleasant news.

Ye Nai didn't look any longer and went home to make lunch.

After lunch, the neighborhood became even busier. The relocation proceeded building by building, with buses arriving at the entrance to pick up residents, while those with private cars followed behind the buses.

This relocation continued until evening, with large lights lit up everywhere in the neighborhood, construction vehicles coming in to inspect the foundations and repair the damaged ground.

Ye Nai was no longer concerned with these subsequent processes; after all, they would be finished in a few days.

She continued to rest at home for two more days, enduring the rumble of construction vehicles from morning to night, and the food satisfied the whole family.

Just when her siblings thought she might stay home a few more days, Ye Nai received a text from the no. 1 danger zone. The rain clouds had moved on, and work would resume tomorrow.

"Received a message, work resumes tomorrow."

"Ah, big sister is going back to work, our good days are over," her siblings began to wail first.

"Learn to cook for yourselves."

Ye Nai didn't pity them at all. She started to manage household chores and cook for the family before she even entered elementary school because her twin baby brothers needed so much attention from their parents. When she got cut by knives, scalded by water, singed by fire, or splattered with oil, no one pitied her, and she would even get scolded for not being able to help her parents with such simple tasks.

The next morning, Ye Nai left on time and met many of her colleagues at the bus station. After not seeing each other for several days, everyone chatted happily on the way to work.

After arriving, others went straight into the electric grid gate, but Ye Nai went to the public toilet first to stick cooling patches inside her clothes, so that it would be more comfortable to put on the protective suit, and then, unsurprisingly, heard other students complaining about the unbearable heat.

"Cooling patches, heatstroke prevention pills, have you bought them? Brought them? Do you know that East Ridge is very hot in the summer? You were resting at home these days, didn't you prepare at all?" As a fellow student, Ye Nai didn't want to see them succumb to heatstroke, so she kindly reminded them.

"No, not at all, just resting at home."

"Yeah, I'm exhausted to death. I finally got to rest for a few days because of the rain, spending every day sleeping at home."

"You guys are so lucky to be able to sleep at home; if I don't sweep the floor for a day, I get scolded."

"Hold out until noon," Ye Nai offered a solution, "There's a pharmacy on the street, a box of ten small bottles. A few people can pool money to buy a box, carry a few bottles on you. If you really get a heatstroke, the money you earn won't even be enough to cover the medical expenses." After seeing that many people nodded in agreement, she went on to busily attend to her own matters.

During the noon break, Ye Nai saw that some followed her advice and banded together to buy the medicine, while others still stubbornly resisted, and then someone collapsed from heatstroke that afternoon.

It became like a signal; more and more people suffered from heatstroke each day, causing many students who were still doing okay to become frightened and stop coming voluntarily, reducing the number of people at the shuttle bus stop every day.

By the beginning of June, the hundreds of student workers were whittled down to just enough to fill one bus.

The reduction in numbers was too severe.

The male and female students who had persisted until now had something in common whether they were working out of financial necessity or not: They were strong, energetic, and had suffered from heatstroke, but had good physical conditioning and recovered quickly. Ye Nai was the exception; she hadn't collapsed even once.

This group of students who persevered for a whole month naturally caught the eye of the staff in dangerous area No. 1. The employees responsible for checking the passes at the entrance even took out promotional materials for the other six dangerous areas for them to see, listing reliable teams with whom they could get in touch if interested.

Ye Nai was very interested, but she didn't take the flyer. Instead, she went to work first, came out for a break at noon, and after eating lunch and returning, she brought an extra two bottles of drink, giving them to the staff at the gate.

"I glanced at the propaganda material this morning; if it's convenient, could you talk to me about the differences between those dangerous areas?" she asked.

"That depends on whether you want stability or are willing to take risks," they replied.

The two staff members accepted the chilled drinks, opened the caps on the spot, and took a big gulp, sighing in relief.

"Stability and risk? What do you mean?" asked Ye Nai.

"There are seven dangerous areas around our city, 5, 6, and 7 of which are close to the Plane Channels; you know this, right?"

"Yes, 5, 6, and 7 are the most dangerous because of their location, so going there is like taking a risk?" she responded.

"Quick-witted, aren't you, little girl?"

"This No. 1 dangerous zone will be officially cleared in a few more years, and we can roughly predict the ending dates for dangerous areas 2, 3, and 4. The last three are still indefinite because they are more dangerous, always short on people, and thus the cleaning goes slower."

"Does going there for trash removal mean higher income?" Ye Nai asked.

"No, no, no, the compensation is uniform throughout the city. Anywhere you go, it's 2 dollars per bag. But don't just focus on this, look at those teams entering and exiting the Plane Channels. They are in great need of strong Transporters to help carry supplies throughout the mission," they explained.

"Shouldn't these teams have Space Awakened amongst them? Are they still willing to take Ordinary people in to move stuff?"

"Each team's strength varies; of course, large teams with enough strength have plenty of Space Awakened; smaller teams without them have to rely on manpower to transport goods. This is where the risk comes in; it's not safe inside Plane Channels, but the income is much more generous. You get paid before setting off, varying from a few thousand to ten thousand each time," they detailed.

"Wow!" Ye Nai's eyes glinted, and she bowed to the two, "Thank you, I'll consider it carefully."

"You're welcome."