My Apocalypse Territory

Time flowed like water and, before one knew it, two days had passed.

In the central square of the holiday resort, beside the tavern, a grand new building had recently been constructed.

Employment Center.

Considering the large number of survivors, the Employment Center spanned even more area than the Adventurer Guild.

Early in the morning before the doors had opened, a crowd of survivors had already gathered around.

These survivors, mostly from the former Fafa Sanctuary, along with some who came to Green Shadow Sanctuary later, except for a few talented individuals and some lucky ones chosen for various departments and teams, the majority were now here.

"Why hasn't the Employment Center opened its doors yet?"

"Weren't they supposed to open at seven? It's not seven yet, right?"

"Who knows how many jobs are available in the Employment Center, what if we can't snatch one?"

A skinny teenager, seeing the overwhelming crowd around him, felt very uneasy.

The survivor beside him nodded in agreement, "Yeah, the food portion the Sanctuary provides for free is only plentiful for the first week. If we can't find a job after a week, we'll only have the Sanctuary's relief food, which is very limited."

After tasting the delicious food at the Sanctuary's canteen these days, the survivors were even less willing to settle for the relief food that was hard to swallow and might leave them hungry.

Especially in the canteen, some dishes made them crave immeasurably, but constrained by the limited free allowance provided by the Sanctuary, they could only watch others smacking their lips, smelling the aroma of food, and then look back at their own fast-food plates...

They felt like they had just suffered 999 points of mental damage.

The young man particularly longed to eat those delicious dishes, but he knew himself well enough. Except for having a slightly handsome face, without any particular skills and unable to compete in physical labor, if he truly couldn't find work, the mental damage he'd suffer might need two extra zeros.

Suddenly, a commotion came from the front.

The large doors of the Employment Center opened and the survivors swarmed in.

The skinny teenager immediately became anxious, trying to squeeze to the front but unable to push through. Instead, he was jostled about by others, nearly unable to keep his footing, and could only watch helplessly as other survivors passed by him and entered the Employment Center.

After waiting for a while, as the crowd thinned, the teenager finally made it inside the Employment Center.

The hall inside was very spacious, with a dozen windows available to take jobs, and without exception, there were long queues in front of each.

The skinny teenager felt very gloomy as he chose a line and obediently took his place at the end.

At the entrance, survivors kept coming relentlessly, and in no time, a dozen more people had joined the line behind the teenager.

Seeing this, he actually felt relieved. There were plenty of staff members maintaining order inside; otherwise, considering the robust man waiting behind him and his own feeble appearance, it seemed likely he would have been picked up and thrown to the back of the line.

Time ticked away, second by second.

Survivors in front who had received jobs were leaving through a passage, their expressions excited.

As the line slowly shortened, the skinny teenager felt a growing worry: were there any jobs left? And even if there were, could he meet the requirements?

After a while, it was finally his turn. The young lady at the window asked emotionlessly, "Name?"

"Yang... Yang Wei," the teenager replied nervously.

The lady at the window glanced at him, seemingly puzzled by the mismatch between his appearance and his name.

"Um, what jobs are available?" Yang Wei couldn't help asking.

"Look for yourself, they're all listed over there."

Yang Wei looked up and realized for the first time that several walls in the employment hall were embedded with screens rolling through the list of job recruitments.

Welder: limit 20 people, recruited 20, Requirements: ***

Mason: limit 50 people, recruited 46, Requirements: ***

Reinforcing Bar Worker: limit 30 people, recruited 30, Requirements: ***

Carpenter: ...

Concrete Worker: ...

Laborer: no limit, Requirements: None.

...

At that moment, the staff at the window asked, "Have you decided? What kind of work do you want to choose? Oh yes, some jobs have specific requirements, and there will be a brief assessment when you get to the construction site. If you fail the assessment, the job will be revoked."

"I, I, will choose to be a laborer," Yang Wei hesitated in his response.

The staff nodded, quickly printed out a form, and handed it to Yang Wei.

Upon receiving it, Yang Wei saw that the form included his name, gender, chosen job type, and even carried his photograph.

He didn't know when it had been taken.

Just then, he heard the staff say, "Take this form, and go find the person in charge of Group Seven at the city gate."

Yang Wei hurriedly acknowledged with a few hums and turned to leave.

.......

"The job you all are taking on will last for ten days. During this time, you will be under my command. Any questions?"

There were about twenty people in the squad, all laborers, with Yang Wei standing among them, listening to the person in charge speak.

No one else raised any objections, and Yang Wei was not about to say anything. The group followed the team leader to the entrance of a holiday resort.

By this time, there were already many survivors there, and Yang Wei saw quite a few people moving building materials around. There were several large trucks, excavators, construction vehicles, etc., parked around.

Everywhere he looked, there was a scene of busy activity.

The group leader of Group Seven had already returned with their assignments and gathered everyone, clapping his hands together, "Our task has been allocated. We must complete the excavation of the foundations for this area by today. Any questions?"

Looking at the large area the team leader was pointing to, someone in the squad couldn't help but ask, "Captain, with just us people, how is it possible to finish excavating the foundations for such a large area in one day?"

Yang Wei also wore a puzzled expression. This wasn't a matter of working hard—it was simply impossible to accomplish.

Then they heard the team leader continue, "Oh, I forgot to mention, although it's our responsibility to excavate this area, an expert will come to assist us before we begin. When that time comes, we just need to tidy up the foundations a bit."

"As for who the expert coming to help is, I'm not sure either, but they should be arriving soon."

Expert?

Yang Wei was puzzled. Could it be one of the Awakeners? But even for Awakeners, was it possible to excavate such a large area completely in just one day?

.......

In Lindong, inside Lu Jianjun's office, he was looking at the documents in his hands with a grave expression.

Ever since the incident where Lin Wei died and the team he led was nearly wiped out, the originally obscure Green Shadow Sanctuary had entered his radar.

It was then he discovered that a Sanctuary with such formidable strength had surfaced near Lin City.

"According to the information gathered from the investigation, Lin Wei had been in conflict with the Green Shadow Sanctuary over a Source Crystal Mine for quite some time. The force he led there was nearly annihilated in front of the Green Shadow Sanctuary not long after they arrived. It can be seen that Green Shadow Sanctuary's forces are much stronger than Lin Wei's. Without a doubt, the Source Crystal Mine is also under the control of the Green Shadow Sanctuary."

Lu Jianjun was indeed envious of the Source Crystal Mine but wouldn't make a similar move to what Lin Wei had done.

Instead, he was more concerned with how powerful the forces of the Green Shadow Sanctuary truly were.

Regrettably, despite extensive investigation from multiple sources, he only knew that Green Shadow was powerful, but as for how many Awakeners they had or the extent of their strength, he couldn't get more detailed information.

It seemed as though a powerful Sanctuary had rapidly formed and was continuing to grow stronger.

Beyond his surprise, Lu Jianjun also thought of some past events in Lindong.

Like how the Scarlet Hand was eradicated by a mysterious person, whose identity he couldn't determine even after investigating.

Or the several Demon-slaying Longswords that surfaced at the Black Market auction. He was naturally aware of that, including the transaction between Dean Sun and the mysterious person, who then vanished without a trace until not long ago when this mysterious person reappeared, bringing equipment similar to the Demon-slaying Longswords.

Now it seemed likely that those were people from the Green Shadow Sanctuary.

Not only did they possess considerable strength, but they also had superior equipment. The more he investigated, the more astonished he became by the power that Green Shadow Sanctuary revealed.

"Do we have any more intelligence on Green Shadow Sanctuary?"

The intelligence officer beside him shook his head, "The information we've gathered from external sources is all we have. For the rest, we'll have to see what our agents can find out from inside Green Shadow Sanctuary."

With this in mind, Lu Jianjun sighed, "It's hard to say if the sudden appearance of a powerful Sanctuary is a good or bad thing. I just hope that the ones in charge of Green Shadow Sanctuary will make an effort to shelter survivors, rather than act recklessly and abuse their power like some Sanctuary leaders do."