My Ability Pool is Superior

The first night after the Return to Surface Plan began.

Civilians’ dissatisfaction was gradually accumulating.

Even though Lu Bai was staying in his own room in the Residential Area, he could feel that the exterior environment was surging with undercurrents.

First of all, there were the disturbances that appeared every few days.

In this afternoon’s time, Lu Bai couldn’t count how many small-scope conflicts had appeared in the Forward Base.

The scope of impact wasn’t large, at most three or four people, and most of the time it was just a single person stepping forward to express dissatisfaction.

These small-scope disturbances were violently suppressed by the Armed Forces shortly after they began, but they would soon reignite.

Suppress this side, and another would pop up on the other side.

The endless security conflicts left the Armed Forces responsible for maintaining order mentally exhausted.

At the beginning, the Unified Management Committee only arrested that group of radicals, trying to ease the opposing emotions between managers and the managed.

Unfortunately, the number of incidents later was really too many, especially for the Armed Forces soldiers working on the front lines, who were extremely annoyed and simply shot to kill the troublemakers on the spot.

However, the more this was done, the more vigorous the civilians’ hidden wrath became.

This led to undisguised hatred in the gazes civilians directed at Armed Forces personnel.

Correspondingly, the soldiers on duty looked at these civilians as if they were potential rioters, with the safety off on the firearms in their hands, ready to pull the trigger at any moment.

The situation had developed to the point where it was almost on the edge of losing control.

It was only because the authorities still held overwhelming military force that a riot affecting everyone had not fully erupted.

The Unified Management Committee obviously realized this, but facing a situation like a pot of boiling water, they currently had no good solutions.

Don’t forget, getting over 100 million people to return to the surface within seven days was itself an almost impossible task, so where was there spare energy to adjust the civilians’ psychological issues.

No choice, just drag it out like this for now—after all, a full-scale rebellion hasn’t happened yet, right?

Of course, saying the Unified Management Committee made no effort at all would be a bit unfair to them.

At the very least, Lu Bai noticed that the vigilance forces in the Forward Base had been raised another level after the conflict occurred.

Patrol teams that originally came once every half hour now came every ten minutes, obviously with a lot more manpower allocated.

At the same time, the number of drones hovering overhead had roughly doubled, by rough estimate.

As for the Civil Defense Project exit, Lu Bai hadn’t gone to check personally, but he heard an additional armored brigade had been allocated there to ensure stability along the road.

These actions, in the view of the Unified Management Committee, were safeguards for the civilization and order of the Forward Base, but the identities of managers and the managed naturally destined mutual suspicion between the two sides.

Would the Unified Management Committee’s series of actions serve to maintain stability or intensify the conflict?

Observing the Forward Base’s atmosphere, Lu Bai rationally believed it was probably leaning toward the latter.

Snort~

Lu Bai twisted open a bottle of ice-cold soda, shook his head to cast aside his messy thoughts, then picked up the soda and took a gulp straight from the bottle.

Feeling the carbon dioxide rushing straight to his nasal cavity, he reflexively frowned slightly, paused for a moment, then muttered thoughtfully.

“It shouldn’t be to the point that even tonight can’t be endured, right?”

……

The night grew deeper.

Amid the piercing broadcast, the Forward Base entered a high alert state.

Ordinary civilians in the Residential Area would no longer be allowed free movement; anything requiring them to leave the Prefabricated Board House would need a report application first.

Fortunately, this regulation had already been notified in the afternoon, and civilians who still chose to stay in the Residential Area already had mental preparation in this aspect and wouldn’t feel dissatisfied due to restricted movement.

But it was precisely because of this regulation that more people gave up the idea of staying in the Forward Base.

Many people preferred to pitch tents around the Forward Base rather than live in the Residential Area’s Prefabricated Board Houses.

Incidentally, after nearly a day, nearly 20 million civilians had cumulatively returned to the surface.

Such a massive quantity—even if only a small portion of civilians chose to pitch tents around the Forward Base—still formed a tent sea stretching over twenty li.

Lu Bai had glanced at it during the day, and it was indeed spectacular.

He estimated that just crossing this spontaneously built temporary rest area by civilians would take several hours.

Even more civilians had taken several days’ supplies and set off on the road for long journeys.

Anyway, even at a place over fifty kilometers from the Forward Base, looking around still revealed other civilians similarly hurrying along.

There were too many people, making it hard to feel loneliness or fear—mostly just some confusion about the future.

Feng Yixuan’s face appeared outside the window; she even knocked on the glass window twice beforehand for fear Lu Bai wouldn’t notice her.

“Deputy Captain Lu, have you eaten?”

“Are you done with your work?” Lu Bai glanced at her and then withdrew his gaze.

Feng Yixuan chuckled: “I’m just off rest now and was planning to come back to find you two to eat together, but Li Shan doesn’t seem to be done yet—I checked, his room is empty.”

After the conflict occurred, manpower was stretched thin at the Forward Base side; to cope with the sharply escalating situation, they as Cheng Zhi Wu would naturally be urgently mobilized.

As members of Cheng Zhi Wu, Feng Yixuan and Li Shan were seen by the Unified Management Committee as far more useful than ordinary soldiers, so they were immediately drafted and assigned to handle stability tasks in respective areas.

In fact, Lu Bai had also received an allocation order, but he promptly forgot about it—no one dared to bother him anyway.

“I still want to continue coasting in Cheng Zhi Wu, so I wouldn’t dare slack off as blatantly as you.”

Feng Yixuan pushed open the door and beckoned to Lu Bai: “Who knows when Li Shan will be back—let’s two go eat something first, I’m starving.”

……

Li Shan, who Feng Yixuan was nagging about, was currently in the Security Department office under the Unified Management Committee, looking troubled.

“So based on the situation I understand, you are still the most suitable to execute this mission.”

The pot-bellied Director adjusted his glasses frame that had slipped to the bridge of his nose, noticed Li Shan’s expression was off, and kindly added: “Team Member Li, if there are any difficulties, you can speak them out—we’ll think of a way to resolve them together.”

Li Shan hesitated, then said: “If it’s just to scout the situation, any fast team member would do, right? It doesn’t have to be me.”

The Director sighed: “You know we’re short on manpower at the Security Department now, and in terms of concealment, your [Wind Riding] is still the most suitable.”