After the Star House system announced the optional mission completion, Yu Xi sought out Ya Tong and learned that the latter’s shelter base mission had not yet been completed.
Thus, she realized that the minimum requirement for establishing a shelter was 50 people. However, among these 50 people, the majority consisted of technical specialists they had recruited:
Crew and Shipbuilders
: Skilled in observing water currents, weather, operating cruise ships, and performing daily maintenance on ship mechanics.
Mechanical Technicians
: Responsible for ship inspections and maintenance, including modifications like installing water filtration systems and lighting for planting areas.
Medical Personnel
: Tasked with treatment and healthcare.
Cooks and Kitchen Assistants
: Experienced chefs or those proficient in preparing home-style meals to manage the ship’s three meals a day.
Divers and Sailors
: Skilled swimmers with snorkeling and diving experience who occasionally dive into submerged cities to search for supplies.
Fishers
: Experienced in fishing, understanding fish habits, preparing bait, and making fishing equipment.
Tech-Aided Farmers
: Use technology to maximize limited space for planting and hydroponics, even developing growth enhancers under restricted conditions (e.g., human fertilizer).
Security Patrols
: Maintain ship order, escort refugees, and monitor the ship 24/7 via shifts in the control room.
Cleaning Staff
: No technical skills required—just diligence, hard work, and reliability.
In the initial phase, these roles were sufficient. Once operations stabilized, they planned to develop additional areas and roles, such as:
Aquaculture
: Producing fresh fish and meat.
Diplomacy
: Collaborating with officials to exchange resources.
Education
: Teaching and guiding children.
Mechanical Research
: Reinforcing and modifying the ship, experimenting with wind and water power for electricity, and developing protective shields.
Yu Xi and Ya Tong shared the same vision: they weren’t doing this just to complete a mission. Given this opportunity, they wanted to take a long-term approach and do it well.
Their shelter didn’t need idle people. The previous societal order had collapsed, and on this limited-space cruise ship, they would set the rules.
They weren’t here to do charity, nor did they have the resources for it. Every bit of help they provided required a return.
No violence or bloodshed in any area of the ship.
Workers can bring one family member. If the family member is under 16 or over 60, they receive a free daily meal.
Workers receive compensation:
Three meals a day.
Weekly water rations.
Monthly supply rations.
Ship credits (currency used on the ship) based on their roles.
Yu Xi and Ya Tong, as the ship’s leaders, retained the right to expel any refugee at any time.
There was no talk of freedom or human rights here, but neither were there social classes. Refugees had one choice: comply or leave.
Most of the refugees on board were shipbuilders, cooks, fishers, security personnel, and cleaning staff.
Yu Xi and Ya Tong understood that many people were still hesitant about the ship. After back-to-back disasters, people were fearful and preferred to trust official shelters.
The Luyuan Scenic Area highlands were overcrowded, but the authorities were not idle:
They had larger fleets where they housed important personnel.
Construction crews were expanding housing on the highlands, with plans to turn the temporary area into a large-scale shelter.
Under these circumstances, those who dared to board the ship were either desperate criminals or people with nowhere left to go who refused to resign to fate.
Wang Mufeng belonged to the latter group.
His family of three each dug up ten kilograms of damp soil, packed it into plastic bags, and prepared to paddle across to the cruise ship in an inflatable raft.
They took out their enclosed inflatable raft again. Once activated, the raft would automatically inflate at an incredibly fast speed, making it their most valuable possession right now.
Nearby, others were also waiting—some observing, others preparing to board the cruise ship.
The cruise ship docked every two days at a fixed time (near the highlands), allowing those waiting to board. The process was swift: interviews were conducted, some people were allowed to stay, while others were sent back the same way. If anyone didn’t want to wait and had the means to go over to the ship themselves, the crew would also let them board.
Seeing their inflatable raft, a previously hesitant man approached and asked if he and his son could join them.
The man was a father with a son who was barely twenty. From the father’s facial features, it was clear he had once been quite handsome. However, both were now thin, haggard, and wearing dirty, tattered clothes. They carried nothing but a small backpack each, clearly having had a rough time.
After confirming their weight, Wang Mufeng agreed to take them.
Several others also asked to join, unwilling to wait. However, the raft was a small family-sized vessel and couldn’t possibly take on more people.
When Wang Mufeng refused, the others seemed a little disgruntled. Without a word, Wang Mufeng retrieved a fire axe from his bag and gripped it tightly, his warning gaze sweeping over the crowd.
Tall, muscular, and visibly strong from years of exercise, Wang Mufeng knew how to assess situations. If outnumbered, he wouldn’t waste energy on futile resistance that might provoke further violence and endanger his family. However, this crowd was disorganized and not part of any unified group. The raft was their family’s only lifeline, and Wang Mufeng was prepared to fight for it.
The fire axe not only deterred the other onlookers but also sent a clear warning to the father and son sharing the raft.
The journey from the highlands to the cruise ship was grueling. The father and son sat far away from Wang Mufeng’s family, struggling to paddle with a small makeshift oar.
Heavy rain and strong headwinds made the crossing difficult, and it took nearly two hours to reach the ship. By the time they arrived, someone lowered a soft ladder to help them board, pulling the inflatable raft up as well.
The man who greeted them was young, sturdy, and had a slightly fierce look in his eyes. He wore what appeared to be crew attire, but the badge on his chest clearly read “Cruise Ship Security – Zhou.”
Despite their muddy, disheveled appearance, the man showed no disdain and directly led them into a room near the entrance of the ship’s cabin.
The moment they stepped through the hatch, the deafening sound of rain was sealed outside. The dry air inside felt incredibly comforting, and the thick, absorbent sponge mats on the floor soaked up the water dripping from their clothes.
They walked into the room, which was nearly empty except for a table with a computer on it. Next to the table was a chair connected to a machine—a lie detector.
The security guard adjusted the computer’s camera, then gestured for them to take off their raincoats, set down their backpacks, and place any soil or fuel they were carrying to one side. He instructed them to line up, submit their identification cards or their ID numbers, then sit in the chair and put on the wristbands and helmet nearby.
The somewhat hasty interview process left them confused. The guard glanced up, about to urge them along, but remembering his own experience during his first arrival, he softened his tone:
“Don’t be nervous. The interview is simple—just don’t lie. I heard there’s meat for lunch today. Finish early, and those who pass can go claim their meal.”
The scrawny father and son, who had been standing at the back, immediately rushed forward when they heard about the meat, eager to start their interview.
The questions asked during the interviews were the same for everyone:
Have you ever killed anyone? Why?
Have you ever harmed anyone? Why?
What was your previous occupation? What skills do you have? What are you best at?
If allowed to stay on the ship, are you willing to follow all the rules and do your assigned work?
Since there were only five people, the process was quick. When each of them answered, the lie detector consistently displayed green lights, indicating they had all passed.
The father and son looked especially pleased. After being rejected and bullied for so long, they were genuinely happy, even if they were currently only assigned to cleaning duties due to a lack of specific skills.
Just as the five of them picked up their belongings, preparing to follow Security Officer Zhou to register and claim their first month’s supplies, the phone in the room rang.
Moments later, Officer Zhou’s expression darkened. He called in another security guard and instructed him to take the father and son to the neighboring room for temporary detention. He also ordered that their soil and personal items remain untouched. When the ship next docked, they would be expelled.
The father’s face turned to despair, and he shouted in protest, yelling about unfairness and corruption, insisting that the lie detector had clearly shown they hadn’t lied.
“This is an order from our commanding officer,” Zhou replied coldly. “On this ship, the officer’s word is law. Fairness? Are you dreaming?”
Zhou’s already intimidating appearance grew even fiercer as he glared at the man, making his spine go cold with fear.
Zhou hated people who preyed on the weak but cowered in the face of strength. Stepping closer, he stared him down and added, “Oh, one more thing. Our officer’s surname is Qu. Does that ring any bells?”
He had heard about people who were so skilled at self-deception that even when they committed atrocities, they could convince themselves of their innocence. Such people believed their own lies, making it difficult even for lie detectors to expose them.
The middle-aged man, Zheng Kun, froze. The moment he heard the name “Qu,” his pupils widened in shock.
Of course, he hadn’t forgotten. Their ostracism, his wife’s death during a food conflict, and the desperation he and his son had endured—all of it began with that decision that had cost someone else’s parents their lives.
Even back then, when other parents—unable to bear the bullying and isolation—went to apologize to Qu Yichen, Zheng Kun refused to go, adamantly believing he had done nothing wrong.
And yet, here he was, boarding this ship in his final moment of hope, only to realize it belonged to Qu Yichen!
Why?
That boy was supposed to be ordinary, someone who should have been worse off than them. How could this happen?
But Zheng Kun would never know the answer.
The cruise ship would never accept them, and on the highlands, many had already deemed them easy targets for looting and bullying. With nowhere else to go, they could only continue to scrape by, surviving day after day.
For them, death seemed preferable to living like this.
But Zheng Kun didn’t dare to die, nor could he bear for his son to die. And so, they were left to endlessly repeat these hopeless days…
Of course, that’s a story for another time.
After Zheng Kun and his son were taken away, Wang Mufeng’s family of three received entirely different treatment.
Wang Mufeng’s expertise was deep-sea diving, a skill currently lacking on the cruise ship. Keeping him meant filling an important role, and they could also train a few good swimmers to follow and learn from him.
As for his wife, her listed skill was exceptional cooking, particularly with various noodle dishes, so she was assigned to the kitchen.
Noticing their nervousness, Officer Zhou, who had softened his expression, personally accompanied them to registration and the supply distribution area while chatting along the way:
“…I was lucky. I was personally interviewed by the commander. Back then, there was no lie detector here, yet he could still accurately tell who was lying.
I have an unfortunate appearance—I look intimidating. At the time, I had a dispute with another group of newcomers. The other party, a middle-aged woman with a daughter, falsely accused me of stealing their food and even claimed I had improper intentions toward her daughter.
No one spoke for me, and I couldn’t defend myself. But in the end, the commander kept me and kicked those liars out! I’m truly grateful to him…”
Hearing Zhou’s story, Wang Mufeng’s family gradually relaxed.
The subsequent steps—registration, receiving their point cards, job assignments, collecting monthly supplies, and room allocation—took a little over an hour. By the end of it, the three had removed their dirty, soaked outer clothing and stood in the warm, dry comfort of their newly assigned room.
Wang Mufeng had heard Zhou mention that many rooms on the cruise ship were still under renovation. He had assumed that, as newcomers, they wouldn’t be allocated a room yet.
Not that it mattered to them—being on the cruise ship at all, even sleeping in the hallways or corridors, was infinitely better than staying on the highlands.
But to their surprise, they were given a private room:
It had two beds, a bathroom, and a small round window with a view outside.
Though only 15 square meters, it shielded them from wind and rain and provided a safe, secure place to store their belongings. It was warm, dry, and comfortable.
The room had a timed power supply—30 minutes each morning and evening—and a water source. When the tap was turned on, filtered rainwater flowed out, meant for cleaning and washing. Each room’s occupants were responsible for their own cleanliness.
Drinking water was distributed weekly. It was also rainwater, sterilized with purification tablets and filtered through a clean water system—safe to drink once boiled.
For meals, the family was issued meal trays and boxes. They could collect three meals a day from the dining hall at set times. Portions were limited per person, but how they ate and managed the food afterward was up to them. With water readily available, cleaning was convenient.
In every aspect, the cruise ship had thought of all the details for its refugees.
In exchange, all that was required of them was their skilled labor. As long as they were willing to work diligently, they could continue living on the cruise ship indefinitely.
The family of three stood in the hallway just outside their room for a long time, still unable to believe that they once again had a safe and secure place to live.
After a long while, his wife gently patted the backs of the father and son, softly saying, “Take a bath first. Don’t dirty our new home.”
“Right!” Wang Mufeng wiped the dampness from the corner of his eyes, patted his wife and son’s heads, and smiled. “From now on, this is our home.”
**
In the presidential suite on the third floor of the cruise ship, Yu Xi, Ya Tong, Chen Lei, Security Officer Zhou, and several group leaders from different work areas concluded the day’s meeting.
It was 5 PM, time for the daily safety drill.
After assigning the drill to Chen Lei and sending everyone else away, Yu Xi collapsed onto the sofa.
Both she and Ya Tong were utterly exhausted. The start of anything is always the hardest, and to get this “machine” of a shelter up and running, they had to oversee all the early-stage work and plans personally.
The safety drill was Ya Tong’s idea. When they decided to open the cruise ship to immediately accept refugees, their top concern was safety.
Although no catastrophic disasters like tsunamis, typhoons, waterspouts, or lightning storms had occurred yet, it didn’t mean they wouldn’t happen in the future.
Once the cruise ship was full of refugees, Yu Xi could no longer store it in her starhouse storage, and no matter how powerful Ya Tong’s weapon barriers were, it was impossible to protect such a large space while simultaneously withstanding external impacts and damage.
So they came up with a plan:
They took ten enclosed inflatable rafts already on the ship and bound them together, securing them to the stern of Yu Xi’s yacht.
In the event of a catastrophic disaster, refugees on the cruise ship would have 5 to 10 minutes to drop everything, leave all possessions behind, and evacuate to the rafts.
Each raft could hold
12 people
, totaling
120 people
across ten rafts. The number of rafts could be adjusted based on the number of refugees on the ship.
When the ship was empty, Yu Xi could easily store it away.
After evacuation, Ya Tong would activate her weapon barrier to protect both the yacht and the connected inflatable rafts. Under the shield’s protection, Yu Xi would drive the yacht, towing the raft flotilla to safety, away from the disaster zone and into safer waters.
Once the disaster passed, they could use satellite climate data to compare conditions and decide on their next move:
Release the cruise ship into a new water area.
Return to the original location.
Temporarily stop above a resource-rich city based on their needs.
When this idea was proposed during their internal five-person meeting, it was unanimously approved.
The world was already in chaos—there was no need to hide special abilities. On the contrary, the more capable someone was in this lawless era, the more they earned trust and admiration.
This kind of faith and trust could make their future work far more effective and efficient.
Afterward, they added a few key details:
Each raft was assigned a number.
A fixed passenger list for each raft would be established.
Each raft would have a designated team leader responsible for headcounts during evacuations.
These refinements led to the daily safety drill now in place.
The goal was to shorten the time it took to evacuate safely and orderly from the ship to the rafts. Since the refugees didn’t yet know what Yu Xi and Ya Tong were capable of, asking them to abandon all personal belongings while maintaining order was the biggest challenge.
However, because the cruise ship’s refugees were carefully selected, as long as no one took the lead in stirring up trouble, the plan could be executed safely.
After the initial busy phase, the affairs on the cruise ship settled into a smooth and efficient cycle.
The number of refugees grew steadily, albeit slowly, and every single person accepted onto the ship had passed a moral screening. As a result, since the cruise ship began taking in refugees, there hadn’t been a single instance of chaos or conflict.
Everyone worked together earnestly, striving to make the cruise ship a better place.
Many rooms were still unfinished. Although the current population didn’t require all the available rooms, people often spent their free time outside of work helping out—repairing, cleaning, installing fixtures—doing whatever tasks they could manage.
..
Half a month later, the number of refugees on the cruise ship reached 100 people, just as a new hurricane began sweeping in from the open sea.
Thanks to the previous safety drills, when the hurricane alarm sounded, no one panicked. Everyone swiftly dropped what they were doing and evacuated to the inflatable rafts in record time.
Many assumed that after surviving the hurricane in the enclosed rafts, they would once again have to find a new place to live. The thought filled them with reluctance and sadness.
However, when all the rafts ed their headcounts, something incredible happened: the massive cruise ship that had been their home and lifeline suddenly disappeared before their eyes.
Moments later, the inflatable rafts, which had been tossing and rocking on the stormy waves, suddenly calmed.
Those with sharp eyesight noticed a nearly transparent arc of light enveloping the yacht and raft flotilla. Curious, someone reached out to touch it, only to receive a mild shock from the barrier.
Yet no one was upset. Despite the unknown nature of the event, everyone understood that this light arc was protecting them, and the cruise ship was equally shielded.
A day later, the yacht towed the raft flotilla to a safer water area on the other side of the highlands. The hurricane had subsided, and satellite data confirmed the storm had passed.
When the familiar cruise ship reappeared before the flotilla, the refugees erupted in cheers and tears of joy.
They called it a “divine manifestation.”
In the months that followed, seven or eight destructive disasters struck again. Each time, the cruise ship had to relocate, but by then, the refugees had grown accustomed to the process. The raft flotilla had also expanded from ten rafts to twenty.
Fortunately, Yu Xi’s yacht, originating from the acid rain world, had extraordinary towing strength, enabling it to protect everyone time and again.
By the time the six-month mission period ended, the cruise ship housed nearly 400 refugees. Everyone had their own responsibilities, and no one was redundant.
By now, the small fragmented world had only one-third of its original landmass remaining. Thankfully, the frequency of chaotic, destructive disasters seemed to be slowing down, and even when they occurred, their severity was far less catastrophic.
The cruise ship had undergone multiple reinforcements and upgrades and could now withstand these disasters under the shelter of mountain terrain. Ya Tong already had plans to establish another shelter base on the highlands.
After all, her task was complete, and both she and Yu Xi would have to leave eventually. Before they departed, they wanted to ensure the base’s safety was secured.
Just as Ya Tong’s task status marked completed, Yu Xi finally heard the long-awaited system prompt:
【World Task 1: Survive for six months—Completed. The host has earned 150 Star Coins. Current Star Coin balance: 880.】
【Would you like to exit the current post-apocalyptic world?】
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