Novel Full Chapter 49 - Would It Works?
"Say, Satella... Do you know what is the minimal requirement to make your own Survival Camp?" Zhang Qin Feng asked. Except for Stein, who will come up with many ridiculous terms, he only has Satella to ask regarding this.
"I'm... Not sure."
"But all I know is to qualify as a survival camp, they must have three essential equipment with them."
"Substance and Matter Printer, Inventory, and Manpower. As long the base has all three, they can be recognized as a self-sustainable survival camp," she answered based on her general knowledge.
'What's your opinion about this, Stein?' Zhang Qin Feng whispered softly to bring his question to the system's attention.
[Printer-Function available. By reducing the printing quality, it won't be hard to increase the output threefold. As for Inventory and Manpower, we're not doing too well with only two people]
'Which means... All I need is to have more people helping, correct? So what's the best way to get more helpers? Recruitment?' Zhang Qin Feng asked. He's taking it way too positively due to inexperience.
[Slavery. In this post-apocalypse, that's equivalent to employment. Would the user like to explore this option?]
'What?' Zhang Qin Feng turned his head at Satella.
"Satella, answer me... Where did the survival camp get their manpower from? Who's operating all the machinery and taking care of the survival camp's operation?" Zhang Qin Feng asked.
"Where? From nearby the ruins. People are coming out from there all the time. Sometimes, there are more people, sometimes less to not a single one. Those who were captured will be immediately tagged and placed inside all sorts of places to make them work." Satella answered without a feeling of remorse shown on her face.
It was as if she was unaffected by what happened to them.
"How can you do that to them? They're people, just like you all." Zhang Qin Feng said.
"..." his reaction made Satella speechless for a moment. But it only took her a few minutes to get the idea why he's giving out such a reaction towards her reply.
"They're born workers. So getting them to work is just something normal. If they're born differently like Wei-Lian or me, then their fate would be different, of course." she added.
"Different? What differences you're talking about? I can hardly follow you anymore." the more they talked about, the more he was confused about their mentality.
[This is a warning to the user. Further prying the information will add to your mental stress and also confusion. Advising that the user take this positively while the system explains this through tutorial mode]
Stein's warning immediately came before Zhang Qin Feng lost himself.
Zhang Qin Feng's reaction made Satella stare at him with her eyes opened wide. There's some question in her mind, but after a while, she gave him a smile instead.
"Did the Re-population Shelter you're from malfunction? By right, it should be impossible for you to be clueless about this. she said.
"Well, you don't have to worry. The Re-population Shelter around us often releases more candidates out to the open. There are many people with talents from the group we can choose from. As long we managed to afford and secure them, it won't be a problem to make them work for you."
"Of course, all of them still have their basic needs, so even if we're calling it as a Slavery Contract, it is just employment. Forceful or not, everyone needs to contribute to survive here, correct?" Satella smiled after she finishes explaining what she knew.
"Hahaha... I see... I see..." Zhang Qin Feng laughed.
"Are you alright? Did I say something that makes you unhappy?" she asked Zhang Qin Feng as she felt a hint of mockery in his laugh.
"I'm fine. I'm just somewhat confused before this, but I felt much better now after listening to what you said. If I say I wanted to make my own Survival Camp here, do you think this place will do us any good?" Zhang Qin Feng asked.
"This place? It is good, but not for too long. I will suggest we look for somewhere that's much easier to defend and accommodate the people." Satella answered.
Although she's not as experienced as those who specialized in settlement building, it was not hard for her to notice that this residential area is inadequate in several places.
First of all, this place is not as heavily guarded as the others. The defense is going to be a problem when more people are staying here. Based on the zombie's acute sense of smell, it won't take them too long before catching the hint of living humans gathering en masse.
Their next concern would be their resources inventory. Zhang Qin Feng will need a lot of manpower to make this area into a survival camp. By manpower, it includes labor, defensive, and survival.
And lastly, it comes to the number of working labor.
Finding manpower to run the survival camp is not a problem, but getting them is a different matter. Here in the post-apocalypse, manpower is considered a part of resources. They're akin to livestock such as cows, horses, donkeys, or birds.
As long they're fed, they can work. But it only takes a mistake to lose all in a flash.
[Advice to the user... We can proceed by barricading this building first. Although quantity is essential for a survival camp to run independently. nothing can move forward if the expansion ended up as a burden to the settlement]
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[With the system, we're capable of maintaining the quality above a certain percentage. And with that, not only it's easier to manage, but it also is more attractive to others]
"Would it works if we use this building first instead of the entire area?" Zhang Qin Feng asked Satella for her opinion if they only use this apartment block and not the entire residential area.
"By right, it could work. But we'll have to prepare enough resources to barricade the building first. Their foundation should be stable, but there are too many entry spots on the lower levels."
"We also need to create a few escape routes, like a zipline for everyone to escape in case of a horde attack," said Satella. Out of a sudden, she seems to be exceptionally knowledgeable in these matters.