hotmtlnovel Chapter 68 Outpost Future Planning
Chapter 68 Outpost Future Planning
Of the three people brought in by Gao Yuan, Ning Tieshan walked in first. As he entered, he subconsciously rubbed the soles of his shoes on the threshold to clean the dust off his feet.
Zhao Yongqiang followed behind him, unsure of what to do with his hands, and finally crossed them in front of his chest.
Sun Xiulan walked at the very back, her apron already untied, but the sleeves were still rolled up to her elbows, her arms still wet with water droplets from washing the pots. After entering the room, her gaze quickly swept around the living room of 501, her expression somewhat restrained.
The three men all wore expressions of varying degrees of unease, completely unprepared to be brought into a high-level meeting.
"Please sit down! Make yourselves at home." Lu Chen sat on the sofa and pointed to the folding chairs opposite the coffee table.
The three of them found seats and sat down. Gao Yuan opened his notebook again, cleared his throat, and began.
"This is what I think." He tapped the Xiangyang residential area floor plan he had drawn in his notebook with the tip of his pen.
"Now everyone is crammed into this one building, Building 3. The warehouse and dormitories are mixed together, making it very inconvenient to keep track of supplies and inventory, and items are also easy to get lost."
"Now that we've planned the entire Xiangyang community as a base, we should make full use of the whole community."
Lu Chen nodded in agreement.
"Because the outpost needs to operate long-term, supplies are the most important thing in the post-apocalyptic world. Therefore, I suggest that the supply warehouse and the living area should be separated, and it would be best to use an entire building as a separate warehouse for storing supplies."
"There are several advantages to this."
"First, all materials are centrally managed, and inventory data is readily available."
"Secondly, since the warehouse is located in a separate building, access control can be installed at the building's entrances and exits for easy management and to prevent unauthorized theft."
"Third, after separating the residential area from the storage area, the noise and flow of people in daily life will not interfere with the inventory and allocation of materials."
"No problem." Lu Chen thought for a moment, "Let's go with Building 2!"
"Building 2 is right next to Building 3. They're close by, so Qingci's ability can detect the warehouse's condition at any time."
"I will station two zombies at the entrance of Building 2, and with the cameras that will be airdropped tomorrow, we will install them in several key locations, so no one will be able to enter at will."
Gao Yuan quickly jotted down the decision in his notebook, then turned to the next page and raised the second issue.
"The second area that needs improvement is accommodation. The current dormitory-style layout, with five or six people crammed into one bedroom, is definitely not a comfortable place for anyone."
"Now all seven buildings in the community have been cleared out, there are many empty rooms, and some survivors have even mentioned to me that they want to move into an empty room."
"But my advice is to maintain the status quo as much as possible and not to allocate vacant rooms arbitrarily."
Upon hearing this, Ning Tieshan and the others were stunned. Allocating housing would greatly improve everyone's comfort level, and there were indeed many vacant rooms available.
But Gao Yuan suggested not to split it, which they didn't quite understand.
Lu Chen seemed to understand something; he appeared to grasp Gao Yuan's intention in doing so.
Before anyone could ask, Gao Yuan took the initiative to explain.
"As I've said before, contribution points are the most important thing here at our base. And if we want to really use contribution points as currency, then we need goods."
"Clothing, food, housing, and transportation can all be considered commodities... The braised pork that Sister Sun made today is a commodity, as are clean clothes and daily necessities. Similarly, housing can also be considered a commodity."
He turned to Ning Tieshan and Zhao Yongqiang, as if explaining to them, "If we distribute empty rooms for free right away, one room per person, then the rooms will no longer be commodities, and the contribution points will lose one of the most direct exchange options."
"But if we hold onto the vacant rooms, we can gradually open them up for exchange based on contribution points... If you want to stay in a nice place, you can use contribution points to exchange for one. There's one price for a single suite, another for a family suite, and yet another for a room on a good floor with good lighting. In this way, contribution points will have a consumption outlet that everyone can see and touch."
"Of course, it's okay if you don't want to switch. If you don't want to contribute points, you can continue to live in the dormitory. This is the basic guarantee that the base provides for all survivors. We won't kick someone out just because they don't have any contribution points."
"But if anyone wants a better quality of life, wants a private room, more plentiful meals, and priority in rations, then they should work harder and earn more contribution points."
"This is the freedom of choice. No one is forced to work, but the quality of life for those who work and those who don't will definitely be different. Only in this way can we motivate everyone."
"The base only has 130 people now, so there are no major problems yet. But if it grows to several hundred or even a thousand people, this set of rules will be the guarantee for its normal operation."
Ning Tieshan and the others nodded in sudden realization. The matter was not difficult to understand; it was just that they had never thought of it from this perspective before.
Zhao Yongqiang subconsciously glanced at his hands, which were calloused from moving corpses that afternoon, and then at Ning Tieshan... As field personnel, their contribution points were among the highest in the entire base, second only to Lu Chen and Shen Qingci.
If the housing is indeed allocated based on contribution points, they will be among the first to receive a private room.
At this moment, Lu Chen spoke up, his tone agreeable, but he added a time constraint: "Your suggestion is fine. But don't set the threshold for contribution points too strictly in the early stages."
"Let's first create a group of role models, let them be the first to get private rooms, eat and live well, and set an example for others, after all, we only have half a month."
Gao Yuan nodded immediately and quickly took out a pen to jot down notes in his notebook. He was well aware of Lu Chen's concerns... All reforms of the system must be based on the principle of retaining people.
And they also have an additional time limit: half a month!
If these survivors cannot be persuaded to stay at the base within this timeframe, they will simply board the military convoy without looking back when it arrives at the community entrance.
At this moment, Shen Qingci, who had been silent, spoke up. She sat on the armrest of the sofa, her hands folded on her knees, her tone as calm as ever, but the question she asked was incisive.
"The ambitious plan is fine, but we need to consider a practical situation. These houses in Xiangyang Community originally belonged to these survivors."
"If someone doesn't want to follow our rules and instead requests to move back into their original house, what do we do? From a property rights perspective, it is indeed their house."
This was indeed a problem, but Gao Yuan had obviously considered this situation long ago. He picked up the conversation as soon as Shen Qingci finished speaking, almost without any pause.
"Easy, let him go back." He turned to another page in his notebook, which contained a record of his conversations with the survivor.
"But the prerequisite is... you have to leave the team. Once you go back, you'll have to provide your own supplies and be responsible for your own safety."
"I paid special attention when registering supplies this afternoon. Most people's food reserves are only enough for three to five days at most, and those that can last a week are considered well-off. Anyway, I don't believe anyone can rely on their own food reserves to last for half a month, until the military arrives."
Lu Chen nodded in agreement; no one who isn't stupid would leave the group easily.
Living alone at home, without protection, without hot meals, without companions to talk to, and with the roar of zombies outside the window after the lights are turned off at night... such a life, let alone half a month, can drive a person crazy in three days.
Even if there are a few extremely stubborn individuals who are determined to go back to their original homes, it won't affect the overall situation.
The departure or retention of one or a few people cannot change the overall direction of the base's operation.
Of course, it cannot be ruled out that someone might deliberately use this incident to stir up trouble, but if that happens, then don't blame him for making an example of them.
Zhang Zhenhua gave him three unconditional killing quotas, and he hasn't used a single one. Establishing rules with swift and decisive action is often more effective than a hundred speeches in a meeting.