Chapter 2: 0 Contribution Points

Chapter 2: Chapter 2: 0 Contribution Points

Huai Yu couldn’t remember her past clearly. Her mind felt like a vast, white fog; nothing remained except her name.

She had joined the queue, thinking that just maybe, they would have a record of her here. But looking at the crude equipment and the equally crude hall, she couldn’t even spot a single security camera...

So, she could only stay silent in bewilderment.

The person across the counter scrolled through the screen. "Which ’huai’? Which ’yu’?"

"’Huai’ as in ’embrace,’ and ’yu’ as in ’elm tree.’"

The worker clicked their tongue. "Oh, Yu Qian’er. Just hearing it sounds fierce. Back when I was starving, I wanted to see if they were edible. Good heavens, a handful of Yu Qian’er scattered like shrapnel, nearly slicing us into a thousand pieces—"

Huai Yu smiled obediently. "That wasn’t me."

"I know for a fact it wasn’t you..." The worker stared at the screen, glancing back and forth. "Huh, there’s no such name! Was it registered incorrectly? Give me your Residential Contribution Card, let me take a look..."

She thought about it, then shook her head honestly. "I don’t have one."

She didn’t have one?!

From all directions, the crowd’s disdainful gazes and whispering voices drifted over.

After the flora and fauna mutated, everyone’s living environment had become terrible. To maintain stability, every person had to participate in labor... That was how Contribution Points were earned.

And for someone to have zero Contribution Points in this kind of environment...

Tsk!

She was definitely a coward who clung to life and hid away.

Everyone here had experienced hardship. They deeply despised this kind of behavior and couldn’t even be bothered to say a word to her.

The worker’s expression instantly turned impatient. They hastily issued a new card according to protocol and tossed it onto the desk.

"Alright, it’s done. Go over there to the Housing Management Office to get a house assigned."

At the Housing Management Office, queueing and signing were handled separately. The system automatically matched people, so the line moved quite fast. This time, it only took a little over an hour before it was her turn.

However, the clerk took one look at her blank Contribution Card, swiped it on the machine, and only a few meager options popped up.

"It’s based on your contribution! Someone like you with a score of zero doesn’t get to be picky! You get Golden Yuan District right on the edge of the Wilderness. Let’s see, Building 8, 32nd floor, Room 808. No elevator."

The electronic screen displayed three options, one of which was a 33rd-floor walk-up.

Huai Yu pointed to the bottom option. "Rose Mansion No. 1, is this one not okay?"

Her eyes were innocent, and her voice was soft. Even though the clerk looked down on people like her, she couldn’t help but sigh and patiently explain.

"Were you not from our Flower City before? Rose Mansion was originally meant to be a clubhouse. The boss went bankrupt right after laying the foundation. The place is massive, but you can’t handle it."

"Why?" Huai Yu patiently pressed on.

The clerk rolled her eyes. "Why? Why? Use your little brain! The flora and fauna mutated! That place is right next to the Rose Corridor on one side, and on the other, it’s got wild grass, trees, forests, ponds, you name it... Why do you think?

"An unfinished building gives you 100 square meters, but Rose Mansion gives you 600 mu, and nobody wants it! Why do you think?

"The Rose Corridor is what our Major General Wu Yue risked his life to accelerate the growth of! With it and Sanqing Mountain there, forming a natural defense line is the only way to ensure the flora and fauna from the Wilderness don’t just invade whenever they please.

"It’s tyrannical and fierce. If you live right next to it, do you have a death wish?

"Even though climbing the stairs of an unfinished building is exhausting, at least the roof is capped. Shielding you from the wind and rain is no problem.

"If you choose Rose Mansion, are you going to wear a leaf on your head when it rains? If the plant mutations break the critical threshold one day, you’ll lose your life!"

"But it’s so big..." Huai Yu murmured. When she first came out of the mountains, the wall of roses she saw—was that the Rose Corridor they were talking about? She really liked it.

Finally, she made up her mind. "I really want to live there! Can I?"

She thought for a moment and softly pleaded with the young female clerk, "Miss, please."

The clerk was speechless.

She fell silent for a moment, then processed the paperwork with a dark expression. "Go over there to sign and transfer the property. When you’re done, go to the hall next door to collect your relief rations."

The property transfer process wasn’t actually that tedious. Nowadays, all these unfinished properties had been taken over by the government, and the plots were pre-planned. All she had to do was sign and press her fingerprint one by one.

"You’ve been assigned Mansion No. 1, which covers 600 mu of land. Further out, there’s No. 2, No. 3...

"Little girl, don’t think you’re getting a bargain just because the place is huge," the man handling the transfer said with a sigh as he guided Huai Yu through the process. "For one person, a tiny plot of land and two mu of vegetables is enough to work you to the bone. Living out there all by yourself is truly dangerous.

"Besides, land isn’t even expensive right now. If you chose an unfinished building and managed it yourself for a few years, then eventually settled down and had kids, the municipal government might even reward you with a better place..."

Huai Yu swiftly signed her name and pressed her fingerprints. She pushed the signed contract back to the middle-aged man in front of her and said obediently, "Sir, I’ve signed it."

She looked to be only seventeen or eighteen. The middle-aged man in front of her, having been ravaged by the cataclysm of the past few years, was only thirty but already wore the face of a forty-something. Hearing her words, he couldn’t help but fall silent.

He thought, "Forget it. A teenager who doesn’t use her brain and has zero Contribution Points must have been overly protected by her family before. She has no idea how harsh the world is... She’ll learn her lesson after suffering a bit."

After some thought, seeing that she wasn’t much older than his own child, he ultimately offered a word of comfort. "If you really can’t handle it, don’t force yourself. Just one kilometer away, our Alien Plant Defense Army is stationed. If anything happens, remember to go find them."

Huai Yu smiled, her voice docile. "I understand. Thank you, sir."

The destructive power of alien plants was too great; nowadays, paper documents were rarely issued to individuals. Only after the electronic files were logged into the big data system did Huai Yu take her completely empty card and head to the hall next door to collect her relief rations.

Compared to the Housing Management Bureau’s hall from earlier, this side was exceptionally noisy.

"I have over six hundred points! Why am I only getting two catties of soybeans, one catty of rice, and a handful of vegetable seeds?"

"Can this standard issue of three hundred bottles of nutrient solution be swapped for some other rice...?"

"You got all that, what more do you want? I only got two catties of soybeans!"

"Bah, you have less than two hundred points! Two catties of soybeans is already generous, okay?"

"Stop arguing, stop arguing! I heard the guaranteed minimum for everyone is one catty of soybeans and a month’s worth of nutrient solution... Your two hundred points is way too low, isn’t it? Have you just been slacking off and getting points deducted this whole time?"

"Holy shit, earlier, some guy with two thousand points got assigned a smartphone!"

"Ahhh, seriously?! Can it go online?"

"I don’t know. If I had known we could redeem smartphones, I would’ve worked my ass off when I was following the reserve army to clear houses one by one..."

"Oh, please don’t. Potted plant mutations might be rare, but they do happen. Don’t go losing your life before you even earn a phone..."

"Wow, I only just found out that if you don’t live in the central downtown area, you can redeem high points for an old electric scooter..."

"Then I wouldn’t redeem one. Only the power plants have a supply, so electricity is insanely expensive."

"I wouldn’t either. Once life gets back on track, we’ll eventually have all these things. But the houses in the central downtown area have all been maintained later on, so safety is guaranteed..."

"Damn it, it’s so heartbreaking. I had to watch helplessly as the person in front of me in line chose the exact house I was paying the mortgage on before..."

"You’re just humblebragging! Back when the government seized everything uniformly, they gave you plenty of Contribution Points for it!"