Wasteland Border Inspector - Chapter 957

Chapter 957: Chapter 304: Overlord’s Foundation, Main City Structure!_3

“Oh, okay, I’ll wait in line too.”

Cheng Ye turned around, nodded lightly, and took the chance to sit down on the chair behind the young man.

After his physique evolved, his build had slimmed down a bit and that sharp edge of his had withdrawn somewhat, but his young face and distinctive aura still made people instinctively glance at him a couple more times.

Seeing that Cheng Ye actually sat beside him, the young man scratched his head and hurriedly apologized, “Sorry, man, I just got impatient. I’ve been waiting since this morning—almost five hours now—and it’s still not my turn.”

“Huh? This slow?” Cheng Ye was genuinely surprised.

“It’s not that the process itself is slow, it’s that an Inspector came over earlier and contracted thirty-seven plots in one go!” The young guy explained, an unconscious hint of envy surfacing on his face. “Just verifying all his documents took three hours. Otherwise, for people like us who just contract small shops, it takes at most half an hour per person.”

He paused, his tone full of emotion. “The deposit for each plot is five thousand Contribution Points. Thirty-seven of them is a hundred eighty-five thousand. The annual rent on top of that is an astronomical figure. But that Inspector lord didn’t even blink when he paid. What we earn in our whole lives probably isn’t even a fraction of that.”

“Oh?” Cheng Ye’s heart stirred.

There was actually an Inspector who made a move before him, and even contracted thirty-seven plots at once? What was going on? Since when did such a quietly raking-it-in tycoon pop up in the Inspection Station?

“Do you know which area he contracted?” Cheng Ye asked.

“There’s a map on the wall.” The young guy pointed to the other side of the wall. “White tags are unleased plots, yellow ones are already reserved or contracted.”

Cheng Ye got up, walked over to the wall, and stood there observing.

On the map, the plots in the Buffer Zone were divided into standard grids of five hundred square meters each, densely packed, adding up to several hundred.

He focused on the South Suburb area. Two-thirds of the plots there already had yellow tags, including the three-thousand-square-meter factory (six plots) he’d previously selected remotely, which was prominently among them.

The remaining white tags were mostly concentrated on the fringes of the South Suburb, some even already bordering the Inspection Station’s range.

“Looks like I’m not the only one who picked up the scent of opportunity here…”

Cheng Ye rubbed his chin, mentally calculating at high speed.

The reward for containing the Immortal Objects had mostly been converted into Satellite City Infrastructure Points; he had only received a one-off reward of fifty thousand Contribution Points.

The Destruction Level mission reward, aside from a permissions upgrade, included five thousand Contribution Points equivalent to fifty thousand Contribution Points, and the Inspection Station had kicked in an extra thirty thousand in cash.

Setting aside the scattered expenses over this period, he still had just over sixty thousand on hand.

His original plan was to put up half as deposit and use the other half as Phase I construction funds for the factory—that was already decisive enough.

Yet he hadn’t expected that there’d be someone with an even bigger appetite, taking down thirty-seven plots in one shot.

“I can recoup my investment quickly because I’d already nailed down an industrial plan. For this suddenly appearing Inspector to grab so many plots at once, how many years will it take him to break even?”

Cheng Ye walked back to his seat and sat down, thinking to himself, his curiosity about this mysterious colleague’s background growing stronger.

Seeing Cheng Ye’s face set in contemplation, all trace of his earlier relaxed demeanor gone, the young guy misunderstood and hurried to comfort him: “Listen, man, I’m telling you, contracting plots is something people like us shouldn’t even dream about in this lifetime. One plot costs five thousand Contribution Points—that’s enough for a whole family to move into the Inner City and live comfortably. Why stay in the Buffer Zone and suffer?”

“Besides, everything has to start small. Over the years, plenty of people have made it into the Inner City just by running shops. Now that Happiness City is developing so fast, we start with a shop, slowly build up capital, and maybe one day we’ll have enough to rent a plot too!”

“Oh right, I haven’t asked—where are you planning to rent? What kind of business?”

Maybe it was because everyone else in line ahead of him was middle-aged and he had no common topics with them, but once he’d caught hold of someone his own age like Cheng Ye, the young guy suddenly became quite cheerful, even a bit chatty.

“Oh, I’m planning to rent in the South Suburb and run a small livelihood-related business.” Cheng Ye replied casually.

“South Suburb, huh?” The young man lifted his chin slightly, thinking as he spoke. “That place is under construction like crazy right now, and there’s definitely a lot of foot traffic, but the spending power is average. A lot of people, if they’re going to buy stuff, will go back to the central area. If you open a little convenience shop there, you’ll probably only make some hard-earned money.”

“What about you?” Cheng Ye didn’t respond to that, instead turning the question back on him.

“Me? Of course I’m opening in the central area, in the B9 district managed by the Celestial Essence Community. The order there is excellent!” As if he’d been waiting for Cheng Ye to ask, the young guy immediately put on a proud expression. “I’m also in the livelihood trade, but my line of business is a bit special. I won’t officially open until next spring—no way you’ll guess it!”

“So mysterious?” Cheng Ye couldn’t help but smile. “You look like you only joined Happiness City recently.”

“You can tell that too?” The young guy froze for a second, then nodded straightforwardly. “I was born in Yue Ye and managed to tough it out all these years, but who knew Yue Ye wouldn’t hold out against the infection tide this year. Good thing our family got advanced notice and moved here directly, otherwise we’d barely have escaped disaster.”

“Yue Ye, huh?” Cheng Ye glanced down at the young man’s hands resting in front of him and shook his head slightly. “You’re probably not from Stone Province.”

“Hey, don’t talk nonsense! How am I not?” The young guy immediately denied it.

“Your left hand is a size bigger than your right and clearly stronger. That would be normal if you were left-handed, but the way you’re holding your documents with your right hand is completely natural—that doesn’t add up.”

Cheng Ye said slowly, “And there’s a callus on the inside of your left thumb, thicker than anywhere else. Plus, you’ve got a lot of burn marks on your skin. Let me guess—where are you from? Sea Province or Sand Province?”

Swish.

The young man’s face changed instantly. He covered it up quickly, but that trace of awkwardness was still painfully obvious.

“I’m from Yue Ye, not from any Sea Province or Sand Province.”

“You’re a chef?” Cheng Ye pressed on.

As soon as he said it, the young man’s expression completely changed; he suddenly tensed up. “Do you know me? Or have you investigated me?”

“No, no…”

Cheng Ye shook his head with a smile and was about to continue when the man at the nearby workstation suddenly stood up, smiling as he took the documents the staff handed over.

The middle-aged man in front of Cheng Ye and the young guy quickly stood as well and was just about to sit down to handle his business.

But the staff member inside suddenly raised his brows, gesturing for him to wait. Then he stood up respectfully and looked toward the stairwell. “Inspector Zhang!”

Following the staffer’s gaze, whether it was the middle-aged man who had just finished his paperwork, the few people waiting in line, or the other staff in the office, all of them instinctively looked over.

From the stairwell came a medium-built, slightly chubby middle-aged man with slightly tanned skin, dressed in a black casual outfit.

His short hair was neatly combed, the tips carrying a light brown shade from long-term sun exposure. A few shallow lines on his forehead etched a sense of steadiness. His nose wasn’t particularly high but its outline was clear, and his lips were on the thicker side; when pressed together they carried a natural air of authority.

The most striking thing about him was his eyes—sharp and bright. When his gaze swept across the crowd, he exuded a silent authority that made people instinctively hold their breath.

The young guy’s eyes rolled slightly, and he quickly lowered his voice, trying to divert the topic that had just exposed him. “That’s the Inspector Zhang who bought thirty plots in one…”

But before he could finish the sentence, Inspector Zhang’s gaze had already fallen directly over.

The young man’s heart clenched; he thought he’d been caught gossiping. But in the next moment he realized that the man’s eyes weren’t on him at all.

And following that line of sight…

Huh?

Why was Inspector Zhang looking at the young man beside him?!

The young guy was stunned for a moment, still processing, when he saw Inspector Zhang already striding over. There was a genuinely warm smile on his face—one that no one had seen all morning—as he proactively extended his hand. “Inspector Cheng, hello, nice to meet you! I’m Zhang Qingyang.”

What?

Inspector Cheng?

…