Chapter 652: Chapter 448 Buying a Boat Ticket or Buying a Boat
The reason Ye Liuyun was now eager to purchase metal was the second piece of news from the other party, which was that, due to the prophecy, the Imperial Court was preparing to construct a floating base in the nearby sea.
Unlike an aircraft carrier, in addition to ensuring stability on the sea, the most crucial aspect of the floating base was to expand the living space as much as possible, allowing more people to have a place of survival when the flood disaster came.
Under normal circumstances, building a large ship would normally take three to five years, but with the involvement of Awakeners and their eclectic skills, it was estimated that it would only take about three to five months. As long as there were enough materials, the base could be launched, and the subsequent work to perfect it would take at most about a year.
Because this new floating Platform was for accommodating more survivors, the Imperial Court this time initiated a presale mode. The Platform would first disclose the maximum number of residents, then list the necessary supplies for reservation, and then begin the presale.
Once the capacity for the number of people on the floating Platform was reached with the recruited materials, the booking for the second floating Platform would be immediately opened.
Through Ye Liuyun’s account, the floating Platform was broadly divided into three areas based on residential locations.
The first was the upper area, where the living conditions were relatively spacious, and each person could more or less have thirty square meters of living space, but a significant amount of materials was required for reservation.
Then came the middle area, where residents could only get about fifteen square meters of space per person. After the floating Platform was launched, residents could choose whether to participate in the daily work on the Platform. If they worked, they would be provided with three meals a day and receive a certain wage.
The last area was the lower section, located inside the hull. Those residing in this area would each only have about five square meters of accommodation space.
Those staying in this area were required to participate in the daily work of the floating Platform and, in the event of dangerous work, they had to be the first to step forward.
However, those who lived in this area did not need to pay any fees to stay on the floating Platform. Just like the crew before the disaster, they only had to complete the daily tasks assigned by the Platform to live there.
To gather more materials to construct the floating Platform, the Officials not only limited the capacity of the three areas but also set different conditions for occupancy.
The right of residence in the upper area was obtained through bidding with construction materials.
The right of residence in the middle area was obtained through the assessment of talents and technical skills.
For the lower area, one only needed to undergo a physical examination to ensure good health with no criminal record and be scored according to the Officials’ assessment criteria, with admissions going from the top down without any cost.
Hearing Ye Liuyun finish recounting the information he had gathered, Dong Tianyu instantly understood why the Imperial Court was doing this.
Letting the wealthy living in the upper levels fund and contribute to the construction of the floating Platform, having top talents of various industries in the middle levels to ensure the health and daily life of the residents, and the people living in the lower levels to maintain regular operations of the Platform.
Actually, the Imperial Court’s distribution arrangement was quite reasonable; after all, if all boarding qualifications were based on competitive bidding, the entire ship would be occupied by the wealthy, then who would do the tough, dirty, and exhausting work on the floating Platform?
Besides, if someone on board were injured or for some other work that required expertise, those wealthy individuals would not be capable of doing it either.
Yet without the financial support of those wealthy individuals, it would be almost impossible to construct the floating Platform relying only on the reserved materials of the Imperial Court.
Thus, the three areas divided by the Imperial Court according to the location on the floating Platform perfectly corresponded to the gathering of materials in the initial phase, the operation in the intermediate phase, and the repairs in the later phase.
Once the Imperial Court’s construction model became successful, replicating it would become very simple.
But to those with discerning eyes, the floating Platform with the serial number one was bound to be successfully constructed. After all, without looking at the whole of China, just in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, there was no shortage of wealthy people in control of resources. By the time the Imperial Court publicly disclosed this news to start presales, it was estimated that many would spend all they had to be part of it, as everyone could still distinguish which was more important between money and life.
Although Ye Liuyun left Pengcheng with a fair amount of funds, at this time, it was challenging to purchase supplies in bulk, even for someone with money.
Since he had been collecting metal resources incessantly since his acquaintance with Dong Tianyu, Ye Liuyun, left with no alternative, could only think of contacting Dong Tianyu again to see if he could purchase some supplies from him.
Just when Ye Liuyun was full of hope for Dong Tianyu’s response, Dong Tianyu directly countered with a question, "Have you contacted Saxon County Camp about this? What are their thoughts on this matter?"
Hearing Dong Tianyu’s inquiry, Ye Liuyun’s expression grew even more troubled as he helplessly said to Dong Tianyu, "You probably won’t believe I didn’t contact them, but as soon as I learned of this, I immediately informed my folks back home.
It’s just that the folks back home didn’t seem to take my notification seriously. To be honest, I can understand their attitude. After all, we are still in the midst of a disaster, and there is no telling when the flood disaster will strike."
