tkworld Chapter 190 Mutation
Chapter 190 Mutation
Holding her phone, Xu Xiaoyan was fully awake. The information conveyed by the notification sent chills down her spine: "Increased movement of unidentified persons," "Increased pressure on social security," "Strictly refuse unnecessary contact," "Do not disclose personal belongings"... These keywords combined implied the chaos and danger that would follow. Images of the crowded, numb or restless crowds on the first floor of the trading center instantly flooded her mind.
She unconsciously opened the official forum app on her phone. The dim screen light illuminated her solemn and worried face as she looked for more detailed information.
Sure enough, the moment she clicked on the homepage, a post pinned by the administrator immediately caught her eye—"[Breaking News] The base has begun forcibly evicting 'homeless' people!!! Just now, the North Third District has started clearing out the area!!! Pictures and proof available!!!"
The title was eye-catching enough and chilling enough. "Forced eviction," "homeless," "clearing out"... every word struck her already tense nerves. Xu Xiaoyan clicked on the post almost without hesitation.
The post was quite long and refreshed very quickly, interspersed with a large amount of personal analysis, emotional venting, and sensational speculation from the poster "Survival Observer 007," but the core information gradually became clear amidst numerous replies and additions:
It turns out that it wasn't just the area where Linchuan was located that suffered from the extreme cold wave. According to some people who had fled there, the coastal areas were hit by a terrifying tsunami at the beginning of the cold wave or even earlier. Huge waves swept across the coastline, and countless densely populated and economically developed cities were instantly submerged and destroyed. Infrastructure was completely destroyed. Those who survived faced the devastation of rapidly cooling temperatures after the ruins and floods. They were forced to migrate with their families, or even alone, to the inland areas where there was still a possibility of order and shelter. Linchuan Base, as the largest and most well-defended survivor stronghold in this area, naturally became the destination or hope for many people.
Many of these survivors who traveled a long way were truly "left with nothing." Apart from the thin, worn-out clothes they wore and a few personal belongings, they were almost empty-handed. If they had a stable and well-managed base, as long as they were willing to work hard, sell their labor, and participate in infrastructure, transportation, sanitation, or even dangerous search missions, they could always earn some points to exchange for basic survival supplies and find a way to survive—even if it was a way to survive on the brink of starvation.
The problem is that this long, hellish escape not only destroyed material possessions but also reshaped the minds and survival rules of many people. A considerable number of them, in the wilderness and ruins where there were no laws or moral constraints, and under the extreme threat of hunger, cold and death, gradually became accustomed to relying on violence, fraud, robbery and plunder of others for survival. They tasted the "sweetness" of getting something for nothing and the survival of the fittest, and regarded this "survival wisdom" that was alienated in desperate situations as the truth.
After these people finally arrived at the relatively stable Linchuan base, where resources were beginning to concentrate, many of them "couldn't change their ways," or rather, they had lost the willingness and ability to return to normal social cooperation.
Theft, robbery, extortion, and even more serious cases of assault and murder began to occur frequently in the outer city areas, especially in areas where newcomers gather and areas with weak supervision, and the crime rate rose significantly.
Although the base's security forces have increased patrols and will impose penalties such as forced labor, confiscation of points, or even more severe punishments on those caught in the act, there are still a considerable number of such individuals, and their actions are becoming increasingly covert, making them difficult to apprehend and limiting the deterrent effect.
Worse still, the actions of these "plunderers" have had an extremely negative demonstration effect. Some new survivors, who might have initially been kind-hearted or hesitant, begin to lose their composure when they see others easily obtaining food, fuel, or shelter through illegal means, while they themselves toil all day for little reward.
Especially after seeing those who mooch off the heating in public areas like the trading center and mission hall, and who occasionally commit petty theft but seem to be able to get by, a negative feeling of "why bother?" begins to spread.
More and more people are unwilling to pay for individual rent and heating costs, so they simply bring their families or form small groups to live in public areas such as the halls, corridors, and basements of various official buildings in the outer city. They rely on taking advantage of the heat and occasionally committing petty theft to get by. This has led to public spaces like the first floor of the trading center being overcrowded, disorderly, and unsanitary, seriously blocking normal functions and bringing huge safety hazards and the risk of disease transmission.
Therefore, after repeated warnings, guidance, and limited clean-up efforts yielded little result, the base management made a decision: under the pretext of "maintaining order in the core area, ensuring basic public services, and preventing large-scale public health events," to launch a forced clean-up operation to forcibly expel all personnel without formal housing lease contracts, unable to prove their fixed employment and source of points, displaced, or who have been staying in public areas for a long time, to the outer area of the fourth city under construction!
They were required to build temporary shelters themselves using the limited building materials provided by the base to get through the winter. At the same time, a specific area was designated in the fourth city, and stricter access control and patrol systems were established to indirectly isolate these "unstable factors" from the core residential area.
Once the policy was leaked, it naturally caused a huge backlash and panic. Those who were about to be evicted, especially those with families, the elderly, the infirm, or those who were unable to rent a house simply because they did not have enough points, felt desperate and angry.
Unable to directly confront the fully armed military expulsion team, they began to wage a soft resistance in another way, which was also their last attempt to survive: knocking on the doors of residents in the outer city who seemed to be in relatively good condition, acting pitiful, seeking sympathy, telling tragic stories, and even kneeling and begging, asking the indigenous people to have mercy and take them in temporarily, even if it was just a corner of the corridor or kitchen, or allowing them to build a shed in the yard. For a time, "knocking on doors for help" became the norm in many neighborhoods of the outer city at night.
The post's final section, in bold and a chilling tone, mentions that around the time the notice was issued, at least six confirmed malicious incidents had occurred: some kind-hearted people, unable to bear it, opened their doors to seemingly pitiful people seeking help, only to find that once these "guests" entered and saw the state of the house's supplies and the owner's vulnerability, they immediately turned on them, taking over the house, violently driving the original owner out, and even stealing all their belongings.