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Chapter 354: Chapter 354: The Future Cafeteria

The dining hall is on the same level as the residential area, bustling like a market.

Its operation is also quite similar to a school cafeteria. After swiping your ID card, you get a tray and a serving of "basic food."

"Is this rice porridge?" Chen Xuan asked, looking at the lumpy food on his plate.

"Rice? That sort of thing isn’t produced in the base. If you want to eat any pre-disaster food, you’ll have to spend credit points to buy it," Zhuang Yu pointed to the counters surrounding the dining hall, "Materials found by the Searchers are managed and repriced by the base before being sold. If you don’t want to spend any money, then you’ll just have to eat this."

"What is it made of then?" Little Pigeon asked curiously.

"Of course, it’s made of synthetic starch," the other replied, "The carbon dioxide exhaled by people in the base is collected and processed into starch. We lose power every night at midnight here because synthesizing food consumes a lot of electricity."

Chen Xuan picked a bit of the paste with his finger and put it in his mouth.

It had a slight salty taste and a gritty texture, not difficult to eat.

But if he eats it every day, he estimated he’d be nauseated after a month, let alone a year.

"If it’s free, it’s not bad," Honglian commented, "At least it prevents the poor from starving."

"I agree. Hopefully, the policy won’t change," Zhuang Yu nodded.

"Why would it change?"

"There are many reasons, like some people think this cultivates laziness, some dislike the power outage at night, and the drop in the fusion reactor’s power is a fact that makes supplying power to defense weapons and shielding devices more important than synthesizing enough starch."

As she spoke, she found an empty table and invited everyone to sit, "Let’s eat here!"

"I’ll go see what the other counters are selling."

Chen Xuan, carrying his tray, went to the less crowded areas and found various prepared dishes at the counters, like chicken feet and stewed pork, as well as many packaged foods and drinks commonly seen in supermarkets. Compared to bland starch porridge, these foods were undeniably more tempting.

Considering the city has already collapsed, the packaged foods must be what the Searchers riskily scavenged from the deserted city. As for fresh animal meat... it’s probably the Hunters’ doing.

The base issues credit points to workers and recovers them through trade, thus binding itself with the refugee residents.

Chen Xuan can return to the store at any time, making credit points meaningless to him, so he doesn’t need to skimp on food.

He immediately ordered three stir-fry dishes, plus several seafood cans.

While waiting for the food, he noticed several beams of eyes directed towards him.

When he looked back, those people quickly diverted their gaze.

With the Divine Eye Technique, Chen Xuan could clearly capture the details of their lips moving, seemingly discussing him.

Is it because he ordered several dishes?

Probably not... although this counter is less crowded, it’s not completely deserted. There are still people willing to spend credit points to improve their meals, yet they weren’t receiving the same amount of attention.

"Food’s ready, kindly pick up your meal." The counter clerk’s call interrupted his thoughts.

After swiping his credit points, Chen Xuan returned to the table with several hot dishes and a bag of canned goods, drawing cheers from his comrades.

Zhuang Yu looked on enviously.

"What are you standing there for? Join us in eating," Honglian invited.

"But..."

"But what? We’re all sitting at the same table, are we going to eat separately?" Wang Baihu directly picked up a piece of braised pork and placed it in her bowl.

In the end, Zhuang Yu couldn’t resist the temptation, swallowed hard, and said, "Well then... thank you."

With delicious food, she became much more talkative, and the relationship between the two sides seemed to suddenly become a lot closer.

Chen Xuan deliberately picked up an empty can to examine, "How long ago was this stuff produced? Not only is it still good, but it tastes decent too."

"Let me see." Zhuang Yu took it, "Hmm... 2107, produced a year ago. It’s likely goods from the High-tech Zone."

So it means now is 2108?

If he directly asked her the year, she would definitely become suspicious. Even a rural village isolated from the world can’t be unaware of the current year.

However, Chen Xuan was also greatly surprised. Produced a year ago? Hasn’t Jiang City already collapsed? Why can such fresh goods still be gathered?

Honglian directly raised this question.

"The city hasn’t collapsed at all!" Zhuang Yu replied directly, "Or rather... only those requiring human intervention have collapsed. Many unmanned factories and devices are still operating. The High-tech Zone’s sanctuary residents have observed several mechanical factories continuously producing military trucks and smart combat vehicles over there."

"Additionally, several automatic railways along Jiang City’s border haven’t been destroyed, allowing some materials to enter Jiang City from there. For instance, the seafood can we’re eating... the sandworm meat inside might well have been processed in Qing City and then transported."

"I see..." Chen Xuan clicked his tongue in wonder. The nano-living body completely destroys human social order yet spares these autonomously running machines? "Won’t the Celestial Patrol stop the cargo trains leaving the city?"

"No, unless the machines actively attack the nano-living body."

"So can’t people just climb onto the train and leave Jiang City?" Jiang Siqi asked puzzled.

"It’s not that simple! People can’t even tell if those autonomously running machines are real machines or disguises of nano-living bodies," Zhuang Yu mumbled as she chewed on a chicken foot, "For all we know, those cars running on the railway are ghost trains."

Ghost trains? Chen Xuan raised his eyebrows, "By the way, what was that ghost subway you mentioned before?"

"That is..."

Before she could finish, someone suddenly interrupted from the side, "It’s a large nano-living body, as some call it one of Jiang City’s four Overlords!"

A man and a woman sat down beside Zhuang Yu holding their trays. The man didn’t forget to introduce himself, "Hello, hello, nice to meet you, I’m Ryan, she’s Mingzi, we’re friends of Little Yu, do you mind us sitting here?"

Although their insertion was somewhat abrupt, their faces showed no disrespect. On the contrary, the man was quite humble, addressing Chen Xuan courteously.

"You’ve both returned safely!" Zhuang Yu rejoiced, "Neither of you had any issues, thank goodness."

Since they were indeed friends of Zhuang Yu, Chen Xuan naturally didn’t mind sharing with them, "Have a seat, the more, the merrier."

"Thank you!" Ryan beamed broadly, "Please take care of us in the future!"

How did we get to seeking care?

Chen Xuan noticed that besides their warmth, their eyes contained a tint of admiration that could not be simply exchanged for a meal with fish and meat.

Looking around, he found similar looks more frequent than not.

He suddenly realized that his abnormal test results might have leaked.

Chen Xuan couldn’t help but sigh softly... this matter has both advantages and disadvantages: the good thing is he now has a celebrity effect, making it easier to build relationships with others, while the downside is that he’ll likely be watched no matter where he goes.

"A subway-like nano-living body?" Honglian asked in surprise, "Underneath this subway station?"

"We’re not in that bad a situation..." Mingzi followed up explaining, "It’s like a ghost, patrolling the former subway system. Actually, a few years ago, the major stations were interconnected, which is why the sanctuary opted to build inside subway stations—the idea is folks can help each other in emergencies, making resource allocation more convenient."

"Then this thing appeared." Zhuang Yu mentioned it with some frustration, "No one knows when it will stop at a platform and instantly claim the lives of four layers of people. The shielding device seems ineffective against it, and some say it follows subway operation rules, able to go anywhere there are rails. We haven’t been able to travel to other bases through the tunnels ever since."