This time I chose Paladin

The plain near Shelter 4701 is called the 'Pale Plains', but that is not its original name - its original name disappeared a hundred years ago.

Yes, another hundred years ago.

The decline in mental strength known as "withering" began a hundred years ago, and since then, the traditional form of communication, "empathy," has faded from the scene. The Pale Plains also began to appear a hundred years ago. This lifeless, flat terrain is like a strange fungal infection, corroding the world into a thousand holes. When it spreads, it changes the terrain, devours life, and reduces everything to pale ash, which drifts endlessly between heaven and earth like clouds and mist—just as Nie Weiyang had witnessed when he arrived.

No one can tell when the Pale Fields appeared, and the location where it was first discovered has not been recorded. People only know that it is a vast and quiet world, and everything that is swallowed by it can never come back.

No living creature could survive 24 hours in the Pale Wilds.

The reason for the closure of the shelter is external danger. In the past, this danger manifested itself in the following forms:

Monsters appear in the Pale Fields. They will leave the fields and indiscriminately attack all living things.

The Pale Plains expands, and if creatures are contaminated by its ash, they may be assimilated and lose their vitality. If monsters or ash enter the shelter, the creatures inside will also die. However, the shelter itself will not be assimilated. If all creatures inside die, the shelter will immediately undergo internal cleansing and be sealed until it is next opened by Homo sapiens.

Now, Nie Weiyang has completely understood the surface personnel composition and material reserves of Shelter 4701. As expected, the internal resources of the shelter are only enough for about 60 days.

Two months of survival time is a very unreasonable configuration. According to regulations, spare supplies must be usable for at least three years. Before closing the shelter, the resource delivery queue dispatched by the central city should have filled up the warehouse long ago.

Nie Weiyang stared at the console panel, where a gray button appeared, which could not be triggered for the time being.

【Unlock the shelter】

The shelter will be closed for at least seven days each time before it can be reopened, and it is unlikely to complete the task within two months. The main task must have arranged an opportunity to open the shelter midway. "New World" will not let players die here meaninglessly.

Of course, you have to seize the opportunity yourself...

Nie Weiyang turned his eyes away from the computer screen and called the Minister of Logistics Dane and the Minister of Security Kang Sen to come over.

……

When Dann walked in timidly, Nie Weiyang was lost in thought in front of the densely packed surveillance screens.

"Mr. Administrator," the logistics director, whose previous behavior in the meeting room had been completely inconsistent, bowed deeply from the start, looking honest and timid. "Excuse me..."

"There are only two months' worth of supplies left. Why don't you report it proactively?" Nie Weiyang asked.

"Central City said earlier...that additional supplies will be delivered soon."

"..." Nie Weiyang made a strange sound in his throat. He turned around and signaled to the security minister Kang Sen who had just arrived.

"Select a team of scouts and go out to collect resources the day after tomorrow," he said.

"You want resources?" Kang Sen subconsciously wanted to argue, but the moment he saw Nie Weiyang, he couldn't muster up the courage: "...We are too far from the central city."

"Who told you to go to Central City? Go to other shelters around here."

"...Isn't that just robbery? The supplies from other shelters..."

"You don't have to ask for it," Nie Weiyang said coldly. "Next month I'll hang you at the entrance of the security department and watch your people starve to death. Will that make you happier?"

If you tell these people about ordinary people, they probably won't care - people like Kang Sen probably can only have emotional reactions to people and things that are closely related to them.

Of course, Nie Weiyang didn't care who Kang Sen had feelings for. As for threats, as long as he put in some powerful conditions, he would have to obey even if he was disobedient.

After hearing this, Kang Sen quickly left to check on the person. Nie Weiyang looked away, pretending not to notice the other person's clenched fist, and continued to stare at the monitoring interface.

In less than a week, Nie Weiyang had already met 3510 members of the shelter, either directly or indirectly. The feeling these people gave him was... there was no connection between them.

According to his experience, in real history, the number of people in the shelter would most likely be multiplied by a random number between 20 and 1000, and the map would be even larger.

However, data of that magnitude would only appear in a Chaos-attributed shelter, and most likely a multiplayer instance. It wouldn't appear at this stage, and the player certainly wouldn't be an administrator.

Let a new player manage tens of millions of strangers alone, and those people have almost no cohesion?

It would be better to execute him directly, at least it would not be painful and would not waste time.

Nie Weiyang remained silent, but Dann, standing behind him, looked practically sweating profusely. In his eyes, this terrifying young man with black and white hair appeared calm, gentle, and difficult to discern his true intentions. This was even more terrifying than his appearance in the meeting room earlier... because before, they knew he wanted them to obey. But now, Dann had no idea what Nie Weiyang wanted him to do!

Gradually, Dann's fake sweat turned into real shivers, and beads of sweat slid down from his hair and hit the clean silver floor.

Nie Weiyang heard the sound clearly, but he did not rush to speak out. Instead, he recalled some things that happened before.

……

Now, the entire shelter knows that the new administrator is a Source.

No one objected to this, at least not to my face.

On the surface, the people in the shelter completely obeyed Nie Weiyang, regardless of their status or power. However, the actual data displayed by the system was only: [Current progress: 12/3510 (2808)]

The current progress is composed of 11 children and one injured person. The conflict between the active and passive people has not spread to the children. Nie Weiyang's communication with the children is smooth, which is the only good news.

The wounded man was injured on the way to the shelter, but the medical department was short of staff, so no treatment was given for such a long time. The wounded man could only wait at the door of the medical department with his injured arm in his arms - just wait, even though people were coming and going at the time, no one even looked at him twice.

The lack of empathy has atomized this society to a terrifying degree. Even if people live in the same space, they are almost indifferent to the experiences of strangers.

Nie Weiyang observed for a while, and finally walked up, holding the long sword at his waist with one hand, letting the sword touch the other person, and gave him a [Healing Spirit].

The light from the weapon flowed through the wounded flesh, and the wound immediately began to heal. The wounded were very surprised and grateful to him, and the mission progress increased by one...

"Where were you injured?" Nie Weiyang asked.

"On...the Pale Plains." The wounded man replied awkwardly.

"Hmm?" Nie Weiyang frowned. Theoretically, the Pale Wilderness was off-limits to travel. "Why did you pass through there?"

"Because I received a message saying that the administrator of Shelter 4701 needs to collect dead branches from the Pale Plains... If you bring them to her, you can get some money." The injured person said, "But after arriving here, I found out that the administrator's name is not Angelita..."

...Administrator, Angelita?

Yesterday's first update was blocked for a long time, and I couldn't figure out why it was blocked from the beginning to the end ()

Chapter 40 Angelita

"...Dan," Nie Weiyang's thoughts returned to the present. He said softly, "How long have you been working here?"

"Five years." Dan finally breathed a sigh of relief and answered in a low voice.

The impact of the Boundary War is too frequent, so the shelter is usually maintained and operated, and all important positions are fully staffed in case of emergency.

"Five years... Have you met the previous administrator? What kind of person was he?" Nie Weiyang's voice was gentle.

Dane tried to recall: "She... is a rich person."

Nie Weiyang raised his eyebrows: "Rich? Nothing else?"

"It's like this. The former administrator Angelita didn't have much contact with us. She just came here to gild her reputation." Dane waved his hand meaninglessly. "She came from Hope Space Station - about three years ago. You know, the environment on the mainland is much worse than that on the space station. Sometimes those noble people from above will come back to get some practical experience..."

...Oh, so you’re here to get your internship certificate.

Nie Weiyang gestured for Dan to sit on the sofa while he returned to his administrator's chair and opened the database again, searching for more information on the Boundary War and the state of the outside world. He had already reviewed this information several times before and had a good idea of ​​its general nature. He now focused on the past three years and quickly found some data.

——Three years ago, after a vote, the citizens of Hope Space Station unanimously decided to sever ties with the planet.

Nie Weiyang had previously read about the Hope Space Station. It was a massive space structure, and without quantum technology, it could communicate with the planet in ten minutes. Interestingly, because the people here used to be able to communicate directly through empathy, and even remotely via specially trained "psychic messengers" acting as landlines, their communication technology was strangely backward. In the early days of losing empathy, communication was essentially a matter of shouting. A hundred years later, despite the loss of empathy and the resulting delays in their work, they were still able to maintain some of their old structures, but they had never figured out quantum communication.

The Hope Space Station carries 1.6 billion people. Although its internal resources are completely self-sufficient, the disconnection from the planet will affect all aspects of its operation. Such a large workload is certainly not something that can be done overnight, nor can it be a temporary idea.

If preparations had been made three years ago, hopefully the space station wouldn't be showing as 'disconnected' now.

All I can say is that the vote was cast three years ago, but the things were not necessarily done three years ago.

So, did Angelita come down from the Hope Space Station to get gilded, or for... some other reason?

Combined with the information given by the wounded man...

Nie Weiyang rubbed his brows and asked a question: "When did this Angelita administrator leave?"

"At the beginning of the month," Dane said, carefully double-checking the information. "At the beginning of this month, she left with her entourage."

At the beginning of the month...

Nie Weiyang glanced at the calendar: June 6th.

...No, that's not right.

Although Nie Weiyang didn't know where the Central City was exactly in this world, by summarizing information from all sides, he could be sure that this world was limited by the threat of the Pale Wilderness and did not have developed public transportation. The main means of long-distance travel was by four-wheeled vehicle, and the distance between the Central City and Shelter 4701 must be more than two months' drive.

Again, the storyline of a dungeon must adhere to the Basic Law. If Angelita had only left earlier this month, how could Central City have dispatched Nie Weiyang, a "temporary administrator," to Shelter 4701 a month or two ago?

Unless... he came here not just to be a shelter manager, but for another mission!

So now comes the problem.

If Nie Weiyang had another mission... why did he have no accompanying team, no supplies and tools with him, and even woke up alone in the pale wilderness?

Who sent the message that the injured person received?

"Angelita left Shelter 4701. Where did she go?" Nie Weiyang asked.

"I don't know..." Dane shook his head.

Nie Weiyang thought for a long time and waved Dann away, but he didn't relax his surveillance. He sat at the table and opened the report on yesterday's material consumption.

He closed the interface after three seconds: This thing gives me a headache.

But there was no other way; he had to read it even though it was a headache. Nie Weiyang sighed and reopened the report, longing for the world outside of dungeons where 90% of problems could be solved by simply eliminating the problem-causing entity. But he wasn't in a hurry, because dungeons would definitely have bosses, and the main quest would definitely fall on the boss and the related storyline. What he needed to do now was find the key to unlock the boss's storyline.

"Staple food, meat, vegetables...protein, water, vitamins..." Nie Weiyang finished checking yesterday's report and began to look at tomorrow's dietary arrangements.

These were all reports submitted by the Logistics Department. Of the four departments, the Logistics Department was the largest and had the heaviest workload. This showed that Dann's tough stance when facing the other ministers alone was justified. His current display of cowardice, incompetence, and lack of courage seemed a bit too deliberate.

After finishing the main work of the day, Nie Weiyang finally breathed a sigh of relief, flattened the sofa into a bed, lay down on it and prepared to rest for a while.

There was no such thing as an administrator's lounge on the map, so he could only rest in the office.

"AI, isn't it a bit too much that the administrator doesn't have his own lounge?" Nie Weiyang complained.

"Greetings, respected Second Administrator," the gentle voice of 'T-4701-AI' echoed in his ear. "If necessary, you can add or remove rooms, adjust their positions, and set their uses in the shelter editing interface."

Nie Weiyang shook his head. He was just talking - although the shelter was a modular structure, there were not many supplies and space, and he was reluctant to waste them on a lounge.

"Report on the status of the shelter today," he said.

That gentle voice sounded again: "Okay, Administrator No. 2.

"Today's shelter system integrity is 99%. Total registered personnel within the shelter: 3510. Overall health index is displayed on the portable terminal.

"The ecological circulation chambers have been disinfected, the water circulation system has been cleaned, the main ventilation system currently has a wind speed of 8m/s, and the laboratory ventilation system currently has a wind speed of 0.6m/s.

"Nerve relaxants are not currently available in the shelter. If you require a supply, please consult with the medical staff."

The shelter is 99% complete? What went wrong?

Nie Weiyang raised his arm and sent a message to check the shelter's seal—luckily, the only thing this world lacked was remote communication technology. But halfway through typing the message, his hand suddenly stopped. A flash of inspiration struck his mind, connecting some of the information.