City of Time: Falling into the kill zone at the start

Upon hearing this, Lu Chen fell into deep thought.

—The journey is over 600 kilometers and takes at least four days round trip.

With a time limit of seven days between leaving the city and returning, the remaining three days for exploration are indeed quite limited.

Moreover, these three days are not about digging and moving things as soon as we arrive at the location, but about searching again after we arrive.

In theory, there is a considerable probability that after traveling a long distance, you will find nothing and get nothing, and then travel a long distance back.

but……

Doesn't this further illustrate that scavengers almost never go to the northern suburbs?

"The northern suburbs, which are almost never visited, must have more abundant and readily available supplies?"

Upon asking this question, Lu Chen turned his puzzled gaze back to the driver.

Upon hearing this, Yu shook her head and smiled helplessly.

"Compared to factories and mines, scavenging outside the city is indeed more risky."

"But taking risks doesn't mean you can ignore the potential rewards."

"Factory and mine operations only require less than 10 hours of equipment investment to keep going."

"As long as you work long enough, the cost of purchasing equipment can be spread over one, two, or even ten or twenty years and become negligible."

"But scavenging is different."

...

"Going out of the city to scavenge costs at least 40 days' worth of resources each time."

"Furthermore, it also puts their lives at risk."

"The risks are already high enough."

"Investing 40 days' worth of resources, risking one's life to leave the city, and then trying to recoup the investment in seven days, and then striving for additional profits—the risk is already high enough."

As he spoke, Yu rolled up his left sleeve, revealing his timer.

"In addition to the time we carried with us, we each deposited it in the bank for 57 days and 92 days respectively."

"When you return to the city, your time will be completely depleted, and the time you have in the bank, after deducting service fees, will only be left with 50 or 85 days."

"That sounds like a lot."

"But don't forget: at the end of the month, you still have 300 days of bank interest to pay."

"Today is August 3rd."

"Including this time, we can only leave the city a maximum of twice throughout August."

"On average, you need to earn at least 150 days' worth of income every time you leave the city."

"Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Upon hearing this, Lu Chen was slightly taken aback.

Looking back on the day, I'm filled with a multitude of thoughts about the information I've absorbed.

Finally, he seemed to understand something and raised his head.

"You mean, the city gate?"

Yu slowly nodded.

"The city gates open at 7 a.m. and close at 20 p.m. every day."

"Only one vehicle and one scavenger are allowed to leave the city every half hour."

"So each day, there are actually only 28 scavengers—or rather, 28 vehicles—that can go out of the city to scavenge."

"And in the City of Time, there are over a thousand scavengers."

"If you want to leave the city, waiting in line for seven or eight days, or even more than ten days, is nothing at all."

As she spoke, Yu couldn't help but take a deep breath.

Perhaps I was too tired today, or perhaps I just had a lot of bad luck.

Yu surprisingly broke her own limit of "two cigarettes a day" and took out her third cigarette of the day from the cigarette pack.

"Hiss~~"

"Phew~~~~……"

...

"We left the city today, August 3rd."

"At the latest, I need to be back by 7 a.m. on August 10th—to be on the safe side, it would be best to be back on the evening of the 9th."

"The earliest I can leave the city is August 20th."

"This time, and the next time you leave the city, you need to earn enough to cover the bank interest for August [300 days]."

"And next time we go out of the city, I won't cover the entire cost; you'll have to cover half, which is [20 days]."

"As for the 50 days you deposited in the bank, that's enough for natural depletion and expenses, which is already quite good."

Hearing this, Lu Chen finally understood the state of his and Yu's finances.

Just as Yu said, after returning from the city this time, Lu Chen only had 50 days left.

Before the next trip out of the city, money will naturally be lost, and there will be living expenses.

By around August 20th, when Lu Chen is about to leave the city again, his balance will not exceed [38 days].

Of these 38 days, Lu Chen would set aside 20 days as half of the time the two of them would spend scavenging outside the city.

This includes the time taken out of the city for the 7 days that have passed, the service fee for storing the time in the bank for 7 days, and the expenses for food, water, and other supplies.

With only 18 days left, there wasn't even enough money left for Lu Chen to go out of the city to scavenge again.

Therefore, including this trip, Lu Chen needs to earn at least 320 days' worth of income to barely make ends meet after leaving the city twice in August.

To be precise, it's about survival.

Two periods of 320 days each, each of which is 160 days.

This time, Lu Chen and Yu San will split the profits 70/70.

This means that this time, Lu Chen can only receive 160 days' worth of benefits if the earnings reach at least 540 days.

The next time the profits are split in half, the total earnings must reach 320 days for the journey to be divided into 160 days.

...

Lu Chen is heavily in debt, and Yu's financial situation doesn't seem too optimistic either.

Three days ago, on July 30th, Lu Chen clearly saw that the jade timer had 149 days left.

Three short days have passed, but less than a hundred days remain—92 days have been deposited in the bank, and 7 days have been taken out of the city.

Lu Chen could roughly understand: Yu must have made a lot of preparations for this trip out of the city, spending a considerable amount of extra time.

After returning this time, Yu will only have 85 days left.

Although Yu had no debts—at least Yu never mentioned having any debts—Yu's financial situation did not support the possibility that Yu would lose everything and be left with nothing when he went out to scavenge during a certain trip to the city.

...

From this perspective, it is indeed not advisable to take the risk.

—Going to the northern suburbs might yield a bountiful harvest, or it might leave you with nothing!

The upper limit may be very high, but the lower limit must be zero.

In the southern suburbs, although it is difficult to obtain high returns, there is still some income.

To put it bluntly, going to the northern suburbs might bring benefits for one or even two years, but it could also result in nothing.

In the southern suburbs, one might only earn money for a maximum of 100 days, but at the very least, one could earn money for 40 or 50 days—so as not to lose money.

In addition, another concern that Yu hadn't directly mentioned came to Lu Chen's mind.

"There are also security concerns."

"—If you encounter other scavengers in the southern suburbs, you may still have a chance to return to the city gate."

"But in the northern suburbs, it's hundreds of kilometers away; there's no way to escape it even if you run..."

Seeing that Lu Chen had realized this, Yu hesitated for a moment before finally nodding again.

I didn't mean to scare you.

"Since you've already figured it out, there's no point in hiding it."

"—Outside the city gate, there is a rest area."

"If the city gates are closed when the scavengers return, they can wait in the rest area for the gates to open."

"No conflicts allowed in the rest area."

...

"So, you're right."

"--In the southern suburbs, if you encounter danger, you can try to escape back to the rest area."

"But if you go to the northern suburbs and encounter other scavengers, then you'll really be fighting for your life."