Chapter 218 - 132: New Mission

Chapter 218: Chapter 132: New Mission

On the third day since the launch of the New Home project, Xu Mo stood on an observation platform, watching the bustling scene before him.

As far as the eye could see, figures moved like ants. Countless people poured in from temporary worksheds and every corner of Jiang City, spreading out in dense lines along the planned routes.

Simple survey stakes stood like a forest, and red-and-white striped warning tape fluttered noisily in the hot wind.

The first phase was clearing the land. Bulldozers worked in tandem with manual labor to level ruins, clear away debris and stubborn vegetation, and fill in any potentially hazardous pits. The tremendous CRASH of impacts, the ROAR of engines, the shouts of work crews, the SHRILL of whistles... Countless sounds blended into a low, powerful background roar. Even from a great distance, one could feel the overwhelming, earth-shattering determination.

The excavation of the foundation followed close behind. Along the planned, massive arc, a trench dozens of meters deep and astonishingly wide was being "gnawed" out by countless shovels, pickaxes, and the few excavators that were still operational.

The excavated earth was quickly transported to the rear and piled into mountains, awaiting subsequent processing or use as backfill.

Xu Mo watched from the observation platform for a long time. He noticed the organization of the construction site was far better than he had imagined.

The workers were divided into distinct sections and processes. Some areas were being cleared while others were having their foundations dug. Farther out, near the edge of the future "Second Ring," they had even begun marking out building foundations with lime powder, preparing for future residential areas, workshops, and warehouses.

A few more days passed. When Xu Mo ascended the observation platform again, the scene had already changed. The massive "scar" encircling the city—the foundation trench—had largely taken shape, like the claw mark of a sleeping dragon deeply seared into the earth.

But what truly made Xu Mo’s gaze sharpen was the width of the foundation.

Even standing high on the city wall from a bird’s-eye view, the cross-section of the foundation was still astonishingly wide. Xu Mo subconsciously used the distant people and vehicles as points of reference, making a quick estimate in his mind.

’Eighty meters, and that’s a conservative estimate.’ Xu Mo arrived at a number that left even him speechless.

An eighty-meter-wide foundation. This already went beyond the concept of a "wall."

The foundations of some large-scale hydraulic engineering projects or special buildings from the Golden Age were probably no wider. This meant that Jiang City wasn’t building a simple barrier just to block zombies. They were forging an unprecedented superstructure with multiple functions.

An image quickly formed in Xu Mo’s mind: such a wide foundation meant the wall itself would be terrifyingly thick. Its interior would have to be hollow or built in layers.

One could imagine that the future "Second Ring Wall" would likely integrate internal passageways, warehouses, barracks, command posts, and even small-scale production workshops or vertical farms.

As for the width of the wall’s top...

’A six-lane, two-way road?’ Xu Mo narrowed his eyes, imagining a flat top paved with concrete or a special alloy. Heavy vehicles, even light armored cars, could maneuver quickly across it. It would be like a mobile, unbreachable "mountain range" encircling the city.

This speculation gave Xu Mo a more direct appreciation for Jiang City’s ambition and power. They weren’t just expanding their territory; they were forging an unprecedented fortress of survival, integrated for both offense and defense.

Launching a satellite into the heavens and expanding the city walls on the earth—between looking up and looking down, a magnificent blueprint for survival and development in the apocalypse was taking shape.

From then on, Xu Mo’s daily routine gained a new, almost ritualistic, activity: inspecting the encircling wall.

It wasn’t a mission; he just wanted to watch.

Xu Mo didn’t venture deep into the bustling construction site—it was strictly managed, and non-personnel were forbidden from entering. Instead, he would use his familiarity with the local geography to choose different routes and observe the growth of that "steel spine" from a distance.

Sometimes, Xu Mo would ride a second-hand bicycle he had scrounged up along the outer wall in the early morning, watching the rising sun gild the edges of the busy construction site. At other times, he would climb a derelict water tower or the ruins of a tall building at dusk to see the winding outline of the foundation cast long shadows. The workers, finishing their shifts, would recede like a tide toward the temporary camps, their lights flickering on one by one to echo the first stars appearing in the sky.

Xu Mo saw massive, prefabricated concrete components delivered by heavy transport trucks, then hoisted by large cranes and set precisely in place, sketching out the initial form of the wall. He saw dense jungles of rebar welded into shape, waiting for the concrete to be poured. Every day, that silhouette changed, growing toward the sky with a steady and resolute pace.

Occasionally, at his observation points, Xu Mo would encounter other citizens who had also come to "watch the spectacle." They would point and chatter amongst themselves.

"Look over there! It looks like they started pouring the concrete for the eastern section’s foundation today!"

"My goodness, how much cement will that take? Can our cement factory even keep up?"

"I heard they’re using materials salvaged from a lot of demolished houses..."

"Once we live in the Second Ring, with this wall protecting us, I’ll feel so much safer!"

"Safer? Do you have enough Contribution Points to buy a house in the Second Ring? I doubt it..."

Hope, amazement, calculation, worry... The diverse emotions of ordinary people were woven into this grand backdrop.

Xu Mo usually just listened quietly, rarely interjecting. He was more like a calm chronicler, recording with his eyes and his heart how this wall—and the order and power it represented—was taking root, spreading, and growing, inch by inch, in this scorched apocalyptic earth.