Chapter 344: The Leisure District and the Elite Academy (Patreon)

Chapter 344: The Leisure District and the Elite Academy

"There simply weren't any other options."

Song Hong sighed faintly, his expression tinged with bitterness.

Under the tide of the times, even as the leader of a megacity, he was nothing more than an insignificant speck of dust.

Willing or not, the outcome would remain unchanged.

As they spoke, the two stepped into an area surrounded by woods, where every building exuded a strong artistic ambiance.

A group of girls in summer uniforms, their demeanor serene and graceful, appeared at the end of the cobblestone path, chatting and laughing.

With curious glances, they discreetly observed Su Wu and his companion, who seemed out of place here.

"Is this Yuying Academy?"

Su Wu swept his gaze over the surrounding buildings, vaguely connecting them to a renowned school from his memories.

Before the apocalypse, it had been one of the most prestigious elite schools in the nation, with teaching standards and facilities ranking among the world's best. Many of the Eastern Continent's most influential figures had emerged from its halls.

It was the dream institution for countless students of the right age.

Unfortunately, the exorbitant tuition fees and invisible social barriers meant the vast majority could only gaze upon it from afar.

"Correct."

"One of Changming City's landmarks."

"However, due to limited space after relocating into the shelter, the campus was forced to shrink to a third of its original size."

"Only about half the students could continue their studies here."

"Would you be interested in preserving this school?"

"Its educational capabilities are exceptional—it would make an excellent torchbearer for civilization."

Song Hong casually explained.

The slots for relocation to the Western Wasteland Plateau were limited, and space there was scarce.

No matter how reluctant they were, bringing Yuying Academy along was impossible.

If Su Wu wasn’t willing to take it over, the fate awaiting this century-old institution was closure.

"We'll see."

Su Wu remained noncommittal, his gaze pausing briefly on a certain girl surrounded by her peers in the distance.

Her delicate features and clear, bright eyes left him slightly captivated.

Perhaps only in such affluent enclaves, untouched by the post-apocalyptic world, could such beauty still thrive.

After strolling through Yuying Academy’s campus a while longer, their meeting came to an end.

As the leader of a billion people, whether Su Wu realized it or not, anyone in the know would assume his schedule was packed to the brim.

That he had made time out of old camaraderie to bid Song Hong farewell was already remarkable.

No one would be so tactless as to waste too much of his time.

For Su Wu, the benefits of this meeting were clear: he would gain near-total control over Changming City’s population and resources.

Compared to the city’s thirty million inhabitants, the fifty thousand slated for evacuation to the Western Wasteland Plateau were a negligible fraction.

Even the casualties from his campaigns against other megacities had exceeded that number.

The only cost to him was dispatching a single Morning Light-Class Transport Ship—

a mere hour or two to ferry those fifty thousand people and a small portion of supplies to the plateau.

The returns were practically maximized.

Removing the projection helmet, Su Wu sat before the control console and opened the documents submitted by Changming City’s administrative department.

The document listed all the household registrations, assets, and public storage supplies of the residents in Changming City's shelters.

None of this held much significance for Su Wu.

Although it was called a voluntary handover...

After the takeover, Changming City would still undergo a complete reshuffling, just like other conquered super cities.

Every shelter resident, regardless of wealth or poverty, would only be allowed to carry a small amount of personal belongings to the Farmhouse Compound, starting from the same baseline.

As for the assets they couldn't take, they would naturally fall into Su Wu's hands without compensation.

After casually browsing for a while, Su Wu noticed some special categories under the fixed assets section: Water Bamboo Manor, Mirror Lake Residence, and the Yuying High School he had just visited, among others.

These buildings, brimming with historical charm, had mostly been relocated from surface cities into the shelters. They held high artistic and aesthetic value but were utterly useless for basic survival.

In the past, their fate in Su Wu's hands would have been either abandonment or being turned into ordinary construction waste. However, now that Su Wu possessed massive transport capacity and no longer needed to race against time to relocate populations, they had found a new purpose—being moved intact to the Farmhouse Compound as new scenic attractions.

"Perfect timing, since we're about to build a large leisure zone," Su Wu mused. "Relocating these will reduce some construction costs—no waste here."

Just like the parks and amusement parks he had built on the 8th underground level and the aquarium on the 13th underground level, with the slowing pace of population absorption, Su Wu needed to start planning new large-scale leisure zones for shelter residents to relax after work.

Transferring these ready-made historical sites intact would significantly lower the construction costs of the leisure zones. However, considering that the Farmhouse Compound occupied an entire shelter level spanning nearly 40 square kilometers, and the ceiling height of the new leisure zone level—located on the surface—reached 70 meters, the space was exceptionally vast. These buildings alone were far from enough to fill the entire level.

"Let's designate this level as a Human History Memorial Zone," Su Wu decided. "All those Super Shelters, along with medium and large shelters—if they have suitable buildings, we can relocate them there too."

"As for Yuying High School—" Su Wu's mind flashed to the radiant girl he had just met. According to the Farmhouse Compound's education system, after merging Yuying High School, its original students would have to compete with peers among the shelter's billion-strong population. Only the top few hundred would qualify to study there. Given the gap in quality, it was highly likely none of Yuying's current students would make the cut.

"Split it into two parts," Su Wu concluded. "Package most of the faculty and some classrooms as a main campus for the elite selected from the billion. The garden area and arts education program will form a branch school, preserving a small number of the original female students while opening admissions to all age-eligible women in the shelter."

After a moment's hesitation, Su Wu designated the newly separated Yuying Girls' Branch School at the center of the upcoming leisure mega-level, isolating it from the rest of the shelter's residents.

And personally took on the position of school principal.

In the apocalypse, entertainment was scarce.

Occasionally playing a nurturing game.

Might be a good way to relax.