At 9 AM,
After the preliminary integration of the Official Shelters,
Su Wu opened an online meeting once again.
This time, the meeting involved the management personnel of all the civilian shelters in Jianghe City.
Regardless of whether they managed a large shelter with hundreds of thousands of people or a small one with just a few families,
Everyone, without exception, was present.
Fu Yongyuan glanced at the attendees in the meeting.
Due to the large number of participants,
Many had not turned on their video windows, showing only their names.
In the center of the window,
There was a large blank area, occupying two-thirds of the screen.
That space was reserved for Su Wu, who would soon be joining the meeting.
The distribution ratio subtly hinted at Su Wu's current position in Jianghe City.
"The world changes so quickly."
Looking at the many faces in the meeting room that had once been familiar,
Now lost in earthquakes, viruses, and the flames of war,
Even the so-called giants—the massive civilian shelters that theoretically could support survival for half a century—
Had seen their numbers dwindle from double digits to single digits in less than half a year since the apocalypse began.
Fu Yongyuan sighed to himself,
Feeling the heavy weight of the changing times.
"Boss Fu, this meeting doesn't seem like it's going to be good for us."
A large shelter manager named Su Wenrui suddenly sent Fu Yongyuan a private message.
"Why do you say that?"
Fu Yongyuan's eyes narrowed slightly, sensing a tone of trouble.
"Look at the history of how he annexed Jingyuan Shelter and Zhou Xiwujia Shelter,"
"Not to mention his domineering actions in consolidating the Official Shelters."
"I don't think we'll be spared either."
Su Wenrui's mood was heavy, and his words carried a strong sense of unease.
"I've heard you have a good relationship with him."
"Could you help mediate for us?"
"As long as we can keep our position,"
"It doesn't matter if we have to provide resources or obey him, we can negotiate."
Su Wenrui's near-total surrender in his words made Fu Yongyuan hesitate.
He had originally wanted to say something in response,
But now, he just silently swallowed his words.
Suddenly, he had no more interest in scheming and plotting.
He merely sighed and said,
"I don't have any special relationship with him."
"But from what I know about him,"
"He won't allow us to stay independent as we did with the Official Shelter."
"Let's just see how much wealth he leaves us with."
Without military power,
In this era where all rules must be set by Su Wu and all order maintained by him,
Any resistance was meaningless.
Perhaps, simply holding a meeting to discuss the fate of these civilian shelters would already count as his greatest mercy to them.
And they could not expect more.
Things went as Fu Yongyuan predicted.
In the following meeting,
Su Wu directly announced that all civilian shelters would be converted into the Ash Stone faction's affiliated shelters,
Or more precisely, Jianghe City's affiliated shelters.
Because the power Su Wu represented was now Jianghe City itself.
As for the personnel who had held management positions in the various civilian shelters,
They would be compensated with a certain amount of contribution points, which could be used to trade goods in Jianghe City's various shelters,
And then dismissed.
The only consolation for the civilian shelter managers
Was that the compensation in contribution points was quite generous.
While these points couldn't be used to purchase large quantities of basic resources or precious metals,
They could be freely used for exchanging food, water, and various daily necessities.
This was enough to allow them to live as relatively wealthy middle-class citizens, preventing them from falling into poverty.
As for the leaders of larger shelters,
Their compensation was enough to guarantee their quality of life for the next several decades without a significant drop.
However, without the power to back them,
They would no longer be able to act as they once did, treating ordinary people's lives as expendable.
Under these conditions, not too bad, but certainly not as comfortable as before.
After this, the process of power transfer went smoothly without much turmoil.
After cleaning up a few people who couldn't see the situation clearly,
Su Wu successfully brought all of Jianghe City's civilian shelters under his control.
Compared to the Official Shelters,
The civilian shelters had suffered even heavier losses in past disasters, particularly in the recent viral catastrophe.
The combined population had decreased from an initial 1.4 million to about 750,000.
Despite the sharp drop in population,
The resources they had accumulated had not been significantly depleted.
They still left Su Wu with millions of tons of fuel and close to a million tons of various raw materials.
Moreover, the vast spaces within these shelters,
Which had even started to feel a bit empty,
Were also an important resource for Su Wu.
He no longer had to worry about how to accommodate his overcrowded population.
In the rural compound, underground,
Su Wu flipped through the statistics reports from the civilian shelters.
Two striking numbers caught his attention.
These were the population distribution statistics for the civilian shelters.
Among them, the shelters located in the city and nearby suburbs had a population of 550,000, while those in the mountains had 200,000.
"I didn't expect the mountain area, which was initially the most dangerous,"
"To have a higher proportion of survivors."
Thinking back to several months ago,
When he had just moved into the underground shelter in the rural compound, he had witnessed the terrifying fire that engulfed the entire mountain area.
At that time, he had been glad he didn't build a shelter there
And had felt pity for the people staying there.
But now, those who lived there had a higher survival rate than those in the city shelters.
Truly, the world is unpredictable.
But to Su Wu, this was merely a small matter.
After a moment of reflection,
He immersed himself back into his busy tasks.
After barely consolidating control over the entire Jianghe City's influence,
Su Wu's immediate priority
Was to restore the surface environment.
Another large-scale disinfection operation was needed.
Even though Su Wu had developed vaccines and healing agents,
The contagiousness and lethality of the Rola Virus had not been significantly reduced.
If Su Wu ignored the situation
And allowed these viruses to continue to spread across the surface,
It would inevitably trigger another horr
ific disaster.
After all, not every place had the resources to conduct research like Su Wu.
The greater likelihood was that they would be wiped out before they could develop vaccines.
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