Chapter 458: Inspection  

The Raging Ape’s veins were thick and coiled around its muscles, like an old tree’s roots. Its terrifying strength was apparent to anyone who laid eyes on it. If King Kong from the movie was to come to life and see this, it would run away in fear of such a beast! It huffed heavily, billowing white smoke from its open mouth due to the cold weather.

It seemed to be tired from the evolution, it’s wide chest heaving as it panted with effort. A while later, it recovered. It then looked directly at Luo Yuan. Its ferocious expression gave him the impression that it was going to burst into rage at any moment.

However, what it did next completely put out the hostile vibe in the air.

It scratched its head and smiled with a wide, chimpanzee grin at Luo Yuan. It then started to hoot and roar in his direction, seemingly venting out its fear and troubles about everything it had just been through.

"Let’s go. Let’s leave this place. We should be able to find food somewhere else!" Luo Yuan said while looking at it. It calmed for a moment and nodded in compliance.

The evolution had skyrocketed its abilities. Although it did not evolve into a level eight creature, it was now level seven. Each of its attributes got a surge in skill points, especially its Strength. It was now +35, which was even higher than Luo Yuan’s Strength!

Although it was winter, the ecological chain was not completely broken. There were still mutated beasts in the wilderness. With its abilities now, it was not difficult to hunt for food on its own. Although, its ability to survive the winter until the sun began rising again was now completely left to fate.

As a mutated ape, its Intelligence was quite fascinating and it could understand some human language. Seeing Luo Yuan trying to chase it away, it shook its head and whined. There was fear in its strange, green eyes.

Luo Yuan just ignored its whining.

He turned around and looked the Giant Lizard’s dead body. He dragged it to the hole that the Raging Ape had made earlier and buried it with gravels. No matter what, the Giant Lizard had followed him for a long time, and he could not just leave its dead body in the wilderness. He looked at the grave made of icy stones and sand mounds for a while, turned around and walked down the mountain.

Noticing that Luo Yuan was leaving, Raging Ape whimpered in sorrow of his departure. It was eager to follow him, but did not dare go near him. The fear was cultivated deep within its bones, and it did not dare go against his orders.

As it whimpered, Luo Yuan did not say a word. He leaped and disappeared from the face of the mountain.

The Raging Ape climbed to the top of the mountain in an instant and looked around. It did not see where Luo Yuan had flown and sat down in disappointment.

...

Luo Yuan got back to Hope City and proceeded to observe the progress of production.

The weather got colder day by day, and it was almost -20 degree Celsius indoors. Many people had gotten frostbite and the hospitals were crowded with people who had the flu and fever. If the situation remain unchanged, death awaited many of them.

"At our current rate, we have managed to produce 3,000 electric blankets. Without delays, we expect to finish 10,000 more by tonight." A factory representative said to Luo Yuan. He was nervous and shivering as he explained.

,000 electric blankets were too few! It was like a drop of sunshine in the bucket of doom, but there was nothing anyone could do about it. Before the disaster, the weather was so hot. Nobody thought about producing electric blankets. Since the start of the mission, all equipment required adjustments and training programmes were mandatory for all the workers. It was amazing that they could run the production facilities at such short notice.

"Mayor, we’re doing our best!" The vice-mayor who was also around said after noticing Luo Yuan dissatisfaction, "There are 10 factories that are producing electric blankets. They can produce 80,000 of them by tonight."

"That’s too little, I don’t care how but the production needs to increase. Time awaits no man. Get the machines from the factories that have stopped working. It’s such a waste to just leave those machines there. We need more workers as well. If there’s a need to do it manually by hand, do it. We need to provide enough blankets to cover each family member of the entire community, by tonight!" Luo Yuan said coldly. Without any countermeasures, many people would be dead by the morning if the weather persisted.

"But, that’s impossible." The vice-mayor attempted to explain, a lost look in his eyes.

"If you can’t do it, then I’ll get someone else who can!" Luo Yuan glared at him and said.

The vice-mayor was stunned. Sweat started dripping down his forehead. He realised that Luo Yuan was a completely different person as compared to the previous mayor.

Apart from being scolded, if Luo Yuan was pushed over the edge, he might even lose his life!

He said immediately,"I will do it right away and I guarantee that the mission will be completed before the night comes!" he stuttered.

"That’s great. Fighting the cold is our top priority, we have to do this right. I don’t want to see anyone die due to the cold weather tomorrow."

To be honest, Luo Yuan was not dissatisfied with this vice-mayor. To be able to achieve what he had done, he had to be extremely efficient. However, time did not wait for no him to solve the problem. There were in fact more solutions to solve the problems. If Luo Yuan did not give him the push he needed, he would have stuck by his numerical expectations and failed. With the possible threat on his life, things would change for the better. It was not the time for persuasion and reasonable conversation.

Then, Luo Yuan inspected the clothing factory, blanket factory, air-conditioning factory, heating lamp factory, thermal pads factory and the steam pipe factory.

Luo Yuan had a stony expression on his face the whole time which pressured the people who followed and feared him.

The factories that were running were all of these functional capabilities. However, the result was not up to parr. The quantity of production was limited and not enough for dissemination while some were still going through adjustments, and production was yet to start.

What they needed the most was time!

After he left the industrial area, he inspected the agricultural area. The situation here was much better. Under massive amounts of light and a constant room temperature, agricultural sector flourished and grew well and in abundance. The amount of vegetables and supplies that were harvested daily were sufficient to feed all the people of Hope City.

...

After an emergency operation of fixing the damaged lighting structures in the reconstruction area all night, the streets were illuminated with bright lights once again. During lunch hour, Luo Yuan went to Chen XinJie’s house.

Staring at Unit No. 12 on Fuxing Street, he hesitated. He then composed himself and knocked on the door. After a while, someone opened the door. It was not Chen Xinjie who opened the door, but a middle-aged woman. She looked like she was in her 30s. There was a resemblance to Chen Xinjie on her face, but he could not be sure. She did not seem healthy. He thought she was perhaps ill, as she was pale and tired.

Looking at Luo Yuan’s unfamiliar face, she asked weakly, "Are you looking for someone?"

"Is this where Chen Xinjie lives?" Luo Yuan asked with a smile.

"May I know who you are?" She replied.

"Nice meeting you, aunty. I’m her ex-colleague, I haven’t been able to contact her so I thought I would drop by to see her!" he responded, as cheerfully as he could.

"So you’re Xinxin’s friend. She’s at work and has not come home yet. Please come in and take a seat." She said with a smile, despite looking rather exhausted.

"It’s alright! Since she’s not here, I shall not disturb you." Luo Yuan said immediately and asked,"Oh right, I thought she was working at the Firearms Bureau. Where is she working now?"

"She’s working at the central committee now, and it’s her seventh day!" She was worried as she continued," She was forced to visit these few days as I haven’t been feeling well, or else...I heard New Capital had fallen."

"Are you not feeling well, aunty? Why don’t you see a doctor at the hospital?" he asked thoughtfully.

"I’ve had this forever, there’s no cure for my illness. I’m living at the moment. What I want is for Xinxin to find a partner so that she could live with and I can die in peace." She said, and chuckled at the end of her sentence.

Luo Yuan thought he could have used his Will to heal her, as there was no illness that could not be treated. However, it would be strange to do that to her after only meeting for the first time, so he thought of putting the thought on hold until he talked to Chen Xinjie.