Trash in the Apocalypse

After the stories about the expelled citizens spread in the territory, all the survivors in Black Haven realized that the Guild leader wasn't someone you could take advantage of. Even more, he wasn't as kind and nonchalant like how he usually acts.

Black Haven was neutral territory. It wasn't a place where only good or bad people gather. The rules it established for everyone was fair and reasonable, albeit siding with those with strength. Still, strong survivors were people who worked hard for themselves. In a sense, Black Haven promotes actively improving yourself.

The National Police left with most of its citizens but dozens from the Volunteer group changed their minds after getting expelled. They thought they could retain their rights to use Black Haven facilities even after they left but unfortunately, they weren't allowed to do so.

Due to the hundreds of people wanting their citizenship back, the area in front of the Black Haven Compound became too crowded. Nevertheless, no one left their line nor jumped lines. 

One of the reasons why everyone remained civil even though they were bitter was the armored soldiers stationed at the entrance, clearing any bad ideas from everyone's mind. Anyone who caused trouble would be sent to a tent for a chat, before getting tossed to the back of the line.

After everything was done, the seminar finally started. There were two options if one wanted to hasten their application process. They could work as manual labor for Black Haven, or work as a security officer.

If you choose the first option, you are expected to do logging, quarrying, or construction jobs. Compared to the first option, the second option was a lot more relaxed, but might be boring or risky depending on the individual; that is working as a border patrol.

As border patrols in charge of territory security, they would be tasked to clean wandering carriers while interviewing random survivors they meet on the way.

Black Haven had four towns under its territory; Binangonan, Angono, Cardona, and Morong. Considering the number of survivors, everyone could actually live in a single town, but that would lead to several problems. They can't leave adjacent towns empty due to the Red Portals that constantly spawn random carriers. Most importantly, different towns had different resources they could farm. It would be a waste not to take advantage of them!

Although a lot of undecided survivors returned, the National Police group continued its march forward unaffected. Everyone from that party has already decided to move out by the time they heard the notice yesterday. For them, Black Haven was a place not for the meek.

Time passed by and the official announcements for current events appeared in the forum. Overall, there were three big projects coupled with a few minor ones.

The Great Wall Project was announced as the top priority, followed by the Army Expansion, and Province Sweep.

The Great Wall Project was the construction of the stone barricades Jun copied from the Antipolo Stronghold. The towns under Black Haven would all be surrounded by two layers of barricades that would further be strengthened and modified, so everyone can safely defend themselves from the top of the wall.

The main goal of the project was to ensure and increase the defender's safety while stalling the carriers charging towards the town. With the high-ground advantage of the patrols, shooting the enemies with bows and crossbows would become an easy task.

This would also help in defending against Evolved Hunters. In the new world, everything has set durability with walls and defensive items having a higher amount than daily life items. Even if elemental carriers appeared, it would take some time before the barricade gets destroyed. Also, due to its height, it could fend off Destroyers and Hunters from jumping over. Still, carriers could still climb up if things piled up against the wall, so clearing and looting the dead bodies could become a problem.

For all the towns to be surrounded by walls, a lot of materials would be needed, especially stone. Thankfully, they have a mine that can be worked upon. They might even find other resources while mining for stone!

Although the mine was shut down in the past, it doesn't affect the result for this project since it wasn't closed down due to its lack of minerals. The only reason it was shut down was due to environmental safety and preservation passed by the law. However, there are currently no laws now, and who cares about something like that when you're life is on the line?

Together with the details and information about the project, Black Haven would provide a simple training session for those who were interested to ensure work efficiency. Of course, the training session would be held inside the mines and the training could be considered as free labor.

And because the quarrying would be done inside the mine, which is a dungeon, a good number of fighters would be needed to be mobilized due to the sheer volume the mobs would respawn. Commonly, a single survivor would respawn five cave rats per minute. Even though they only need one strike each, their attacks are annoying and they could interfere with the quarrying work.

The mine can accommodate up to three hundred people working inside the mines simultaneously and that would summon thousands of cave rats every minute. With that said, only 200 people can work as miners while 100 would become the dungeon cleaners. All the work regarding permissions and dungeon time allotment was already finished and agreed by the ruling parties.

During these few weeks, while the project was ongoing, the ruling factions unanimously agreed that dungeon ownerships would be temporarily waived since building the defensive walls would greatly help with their survival.

No one felt irked about it since they could still enter the dungeons by applying as defenders during the project time. It would even benefit them since they keep the mob loots while earning contribution points paid by Black Haven.