Chapter 65 - 64: Still Neighbors with Hayden Hanson

"Miss Steele, I am leaving. Take these as a meeting gift for your children," Rick Kaye said.

Before Sev Steele could decline, he vanished via Instant Teleportation.

Doctor Jenkins said, "Just accept it with peace of mind. The value of those venoms isn’t low, either."

Fifteen minutes later, the aircraft carrier set off. Sev and Doctor Jenkins watched the aircraft carrier drift further away until it completely disappeared from their line of sight.

Sev prayed silently in her heart, "Good luck, you big shot cannon fodder! You must live a long time so I can ride your coattails in the future!"

With Rick Kaye and Doctor Jenkins gone, Sev finally felt a wave of dizziness wash over her. Having fought for half the night, warned Rick, and prepared the venom for him, she had been in a constant state of high tension. Now that she could suddenly relax, she wanted nothing more than to collapse onto her bed and sleep for a thousand years. However, looking at the devastated courtyard before her and the countless corpses of the Mutant Rats, she simply didn’t dare to sleep.

Just as she was worrying about how to dispose of all these Mutant Rat corpses, a loud megaphone blared to life.

"Attention, all residents. We are now broadcasting a notice:

"Last night, our district encountered an extremely rare Third Level Mutant Rat swarm. The Slums suffered heavy losses. This is especially true for Area D, where almost all housing has been damaged.

"Fortunately, the higher-ups of our district sought help in time and invited the renowned Lord Judge to take action and quell the rat swarm.

"The eradication operation has now officially concluded. After discussion among the management, it has been decided that the survivors of Area D may go to the Housing Administration to apply for housing in Area C free of charge.

"However, we also ask for everyone’s understanding regarding the management’s difficulties. Please contribute your own strength to help the authorities construct new housing.

"The specific regulations are as follows: Each household must provide eight hours of labor per day for a period of half a month.

"Anyone who fails to meet this standard will be charged a one-time labor fee of five thousand points; otherwise, they will not be permitted to apply for housing."

The broadcast repeated three times. Upon hearing it, Sev immediately decided to pay the labor fee upfront. As for putting in the labor hours, she felt it was not cost-effective at all. Working eight hours a day for half a month straight was such high-intensity labor that she would be better off going out to scavenge for scraps. Her haul might even be greater that way.

Thinking about moving to a new home and not knowing what kind of new neighbors she would encounter, she felt a headache coming on. It would be wonderful if she could just continue being neighbors with someone like Hayden Hanson.

The thought of Hayden prompted her to decisively tap open her watch and dial his communication number.

He answered in a second. "Hey! Sev, I was just thinking about contacting you. Did you hear the announcement just now? Are you planning to pay the fee or put in the manual labor?"

"Pay the fee," Sev said.

"Why don’t we go apply for housing in Area C together? That way, we might still be able to be neighbors," Hayden said.

"There was no one at your place last night. Did your house get chewed through too?" Sev asked.

"No, those Mutant Rats have very sharp noses. Since there were no living people or meat inside, they wouldn’t waste the effort to burrow into the house.

"But this time, at least eighty percent of the people in Area D died, and the houses are practically all destroyed.

"I estimate that the higher-ups will just bulldoze Area D directly. This whole patch of land will probably be reallocated to the Agricultural Science Institute to build radiation-proof sheds and cultivate crops," Hayden explained.

Hayden’s analysis was very reasonable, but Sev only felt a wave of desolation upon hearing it. She had only transmigrated here a few days ago and hadn’t had much interaction with the surrounding residents, but those had been living, breathing people. Now, they were dead overnight. No one mourned their passing; everyone calmly accepted such a cruel reality. If Hayden and Seth Jennings hadn’t come over last night, and if Doctor Jenkins hadn’t arrived, she and her four cubs probably would have become the Mutant Rats’ dinner.

No, she had to work hard to become stronger. She had to try even harder to raise her four cubs into formidable fighters. Otherwise, none of them would have a future.

Sev went to the Housing Administration with Hayden.

The Housing Administration was located on the ground floor. At this moment, dozens of people were already lining up outside the door. Seeing the bandages wrapped to varying degrees around their bodies, it was obvious they had all been injured last night. In contrast, although Sev and Hayden’s clothes were wrinkled and dirty, they didn’t look nearly as battered.

The two of them waited in line for a full half hour. During this time, Sev gleaned a rough understanding of last night’s tragic circumstances by listening to the discussions around them.

Over ninety percent of Area D’s residents had ended up in the bellies of the Mutant Rats. Among them, thirty percent had died on the road while trying to flee to The Gilded Ward, while the remaining sixty percent had perished in their own homes. The lucky ones who survived had done exactly what Sev and her group did: several neighboring households had gathered in a single courtyard, with all the adult men and women standing guard at the chewed-through holes in the walls to kill the rats.

The residents of Sector A, Zone B, and Area C had also suffered varying degrees of casualties. The casualty rate in Area C was roughly twenty percent, Zone B was ten percent, and Sector A was five percent. This outcome was actually within Sev’s expectations. After all, the lower the combat power of the slum dwellers, the fewer opportunities they had to earn money.

The houses in Sector A, Zone B, and Area C all required rent. The closer one got to The Gilded Ward, the higher the rent and the higher the residents’ combat prowess. This was especially true for Sector A, which housed quite a few Ability users, so their chances of survival were naturally much higher.

All in all, the aftermath of this Mutant Rat swarm was simply too gruesome to look at. However, it was exactly because Area C had lost twenty percent of its residents that quite a few empty houses had freed up. Otherwise, the higher-ups wouldn’t have allowed the people of Area D to apply for Area C housing for free.

After this disaster, Area D would cease to exist, making Area C the outermost fringe of the entire safe zone. The higher-ups had no choice but to waive the rent for these new Area C residents, otherwise the survivors from Area D simply wouldn’t be able to afford it. The district still needed this cheap labor force to forage for wild vegetables for the entire safe zone; they couldn’t exactly drive them all to their deaths.

When it was finally Sev and Hayden’s turn, Sev blinked at the clerk and then smiled brightly. "Let’s add each other’s communication numbers. It’ll be convenient to ask you for advice if anything comes up in the future."

The clerk was a sly fox of the workplace. Seeing her act like this, he knew there was an underlying motive and readily presented his 3D QR code to her.

After scanning the code, Sev discreetly transferred a thousand points to the clerk before saying, "Sir, please do me a favor. This gentleman behind me and I have been neighbors for years, and we’ve always looked out for each other. Is it possible for us to remain neighbors?"

"Seeing as you’re a pitiful woman raising children all alone, I’ll agree to it," the clerk said, looking at her with a face full of sympathy.

The two exchanged a glance, both extremely satisfied.

The clerk assigned Sev and Hayden two houses that were very close together. After deducting five thousand points from each of them, he tossed them their initial housing cards and sent them on their way.

Sev and Hayden asked around along the way and eventually found their assigned houses.

Hayden’s house was No. 132, Row 9 in Area C, while Sev’s house was No. 136, Row 9.

Area C had a total of ten rows of houses. The fact that they were able to get houses in the ninth row was obviously due to the one thousand points Sev had transferred to the clerk.

Sev felt that these thousand points had been well spent. Hayden hadn’t noticed the transaction at all and genuinely believed the clerk had given them a pass out of pity for her.

Sev didn’t try to claim any credit, either. She was truly grateful to Hayden, and to her, this small amount of money was not even worth mentioning.