In the icy world, Nie Lu, who had just returned from the main god space, stood at the window, looking at the city that was about to be completed from afar. The cold wind blowing in from the window was still biting, and the outdoor temperature was as low as minus thirty degrees Celsius, but all these could not cover up the heat in Nie Lu's heart.
Winter Home has now grown to nearly 20,000 survivors, and the people from other nearby survivor camps have all been integrated into this city. The gathering of people has made the whole town full of vitality, but it has also made the city overcrowded. Various safety hazards have continued to emerge with the increase in population, and everyone knows that a new city must be built.
The location of the Winter House was chosen after careful consideration. This valley can block some of the cold wind while retaining heat to the greatest extent. This is all for the purpose of saving resources. However, it is no longer needed now. Many forces in the main god space have broken away from the need for basic resources and can fully feedback to the ice world.
Moreover, the new technology obtained from other worlds has opened up a new resource line for Winter House, that is, the oil existing in the earth, which provides basic energy support for the establishment of the city.
Therefore, in order to solve the current emerging problems and for the future development of all survivors, the construction of the new city has been ongoing with the assistance of many parties. For the sake of their new home, all the builders have been working hard in the cold wind. Finally, after more than a year and nearly two years of construction, the city has now come to the end.
The name of this city was decided early on. It was called Guangming, which means a bright future. It also symbolizes the sun in the sky that is gradually regaining its vitality, and it represents a brighter future for everyone.
Wearing a thick cotton coat, Nie Lu walked down the office building. People on the road had smiles on their faces. The news that Guangming City was about to be completed had spread throughout the camp.
People who heard the news are happier now than they were during the New Year. That happiness comes from the bottom of their hearts and is full of new positive energy. It's a bit of a pity that for safety reasons, firecrackers are not allowed in the Winter House. After all, the Winter House is not abandoned directly after the new city is built. It still has its function.
"Brother Lu, something happened."
When Nie Lu was feeling this beautiful hope, a man ran up to him breathlessly and spoke to him.
Nie Lu shuddered. He had a bad feeling about what could happen at this time.
Xiao Liu looked very bad, "Chief, the chief is critically ill, he wants to see you."
Without saying a word, Nie Lu turned around and ran towards the central medical center.
A few minutes later, Nie Lu arrived at the medical center, which was one of the busiest buildings in Winter House. The injuries caused by the cold weather were something they had not yet resolved. The entire center was full of people waiting for treatment, and most of them were older.
Nie Lu took a deep breath, rubbed his face to stop himself from looking so sad, then pushed open the door of a single nursing room and walked in.
The leader was lying on the bed, his face pale but looking into the distance through the window with a smile, a slight breathing sound coming from the tip of his nose.
His body was already on its deathbed. The fact that he had managed to survive for so many days was considered a miracle by all the doctors. However, how could he die? He had to hold on until the next leader, the next bellwether, returned from the main god space.
"This nurse is so unprofessional. Next time we meet, I will definitely ask them how they did the training. They must have cut corners." Nie Lu felt the cold wind blowing in through the window and tried his best to sound joking when he spoke.
"Ahem, don't close it." The leader stopped Nie Lu. The moment he saw Nie Lu, he felt better. "I told them to open it. I want to see it over there. It's great, a new city."
"Chief, what you need to do now is to take care of yourself. We are still waiting for you to continue to lead us forward. The future is still long. When you recover from your illness, there will be plenty of time to see you. By then, you will definitely get tired of seeing you every day." Nie Lu insisted on closing the window. How could a patient be blown by the cold wind? Although he knew in his heart that whether there was wind or not would not make much difference to the chief.
The weakened leader struggled to turn over and turned his head to Nie Lu, "I'm tired of looking at it. I guess it's time for my next life. I know my body well. You have to walk your own path in the future."
Nie Lu suppressed the sadness in his heart and stretched out his hand to pinch the gap in the quilt, "No, you just like more..."
"No need to say more. I asked Xiao Liu to call you here this time because I want to teach you something." The leader squeezed his body, which had been stretched to the limit, and held the hand that Nie Lu extended.
That passion is the youthful vigor and the hope of this world.
Nie Lu kept tidying up the bed. He was a little afraid to look at the leader's face, "You say."
"Ever since the sun became a mere decoration and the temperature kept dropping, I knew something was seriously wrong with the world and that humanity was about to face extinction."
"I have been building the Winter House for so long, and I have had many fantasies. From the delusion that I will wake up tomorrow to find a group of prey lying on the ground without resistance, to a new open-pit coal mine, to the new greenhouse design and the improved energy tower."
“But I never thought that we would be able to rebuild the city one day. This is really amazing. I also never thought that Winter House would be able to gather so many people. All this is thanks to you, thanks to the invitation letter you brought that time. It brings hope to the world.” The leader spoke weakly, but very clearly.
Nie Lu's lips moved slightly but he couldn't say a word. He was always grateful, grateful that the main god space gave them a chance, grateful that the leader went against everyone's opinion and let him be the first person in the Winter House to enter the main god space.
Then the leader began to talk about the things he had encountered along the way, the people he had met, the difficulties he had overcome, and the old friends who had sacrificed their lives. There were those who walked into the blizzard to find the missing persons and finally disappeared together, there were the engineers who repaired the equipment in the cold night and finally fell ill, there were those who dug coal in the mines due to insufficient resources and sacrificed their lives in exchange for the normal operation of the energy tower, there were the medical staff who worked around the clock for countless days and finally died at their posts, and there were the old people who walked into the wind and snow to meet their death in order to save food for the hunters and young people.
After listening quietly for a few minutes, Nie Lu looked at the leader's face which began to glow red, and he didn't know what to feel. He knew that this was the last rays of light. When the red light faded, life would also come to an end. "Don't say anything, take a break, take a break..."
"No, listen to me." The leader stubbornly rejected Nie Lu's suggestion, reached under the pillow with trembling hands, and took out a medal.
"At that time, you were still young, and Winter House had just been established. Someone suggested that I start a movement to create a deity, because on the surface, that would better guarantee the stability of Winter House and my rule." The leader raised the medal as he spoke, looking at the rusty medal. "But I refused in the end. I couldn't let us go back to the way we were. And I firmly believe that order is necessary at all times."
"Promise me! Don't change your heart, don't create gods, and continue along the path of order. I will be waiting down there for the day when New York returns to civilization! Waiting for the day when the world returns to civilization!" The leader, who had taken a breath, became excited and handed the medal to Nie Lu with trembling hands.
"I promise you, don't get excited anymore, I'll go call a doctor." Nie Lu took the medal with tears in his eyes.
"No need. I don't want to struggle anymore. It's been so many years, I should take a break. Lulu, go, open the window and let me see the light." After getting Nie Lu's reply, the leader's spirit seemed to collapse. He seemed to have no strength at all in an instant, and he couldn't clench his hands anymore.
Nie Lu lifted the leader's quilt a little higher, then opened the window behind him, sat on the vent, and used his back to block the cold wind.
"The Lord God Space is a magical place. Although I have never been there, your description and all the information tell me that it is a place that can change the world. There is one thing I want to remind you of. People cannot be without ambition, but if people's ambition exceeds the limit, it will lead to destruction. Also, if people don't know how to be grateful, they are no different from beasts. Don't be like some people and have unrealistic ideas about that place..."
The leader kept giving his final instructions while looking at the light in the distance. In his eyes, the image of the City of Light became clearer and clearer, and soon overlapped with New York. The figures of the heroes who died on the road appeared beside him, with smiles on their faces, as if they were praising him for what he had done over the years, praising him for not wasting any of their contributions.
Nie Lu, who was listening to the leader's teachings beside the bed with his head down, suddenly found that the leader had stopped making any sound. He looked up suddenly and saw that the leader's chest had stopped rising and falling. In the last moment, the leader had been looking at the Guangming City in the distance, his eyes raised upwards and his lips slightly opened, as if he wanted to say something.
After a second of daze, Nie Lu stood up and the leader's hand slipped from his.
"Doctor! Where is the doctor! Where is the doctor!" Nie Lu shouted.
A group of attending doctors rushed in from outside the door amid Nie Lu's shouting, and sat around the leader to perform the final rescue.
During the entire process, Nie Lu was in a daze and was completely unaware of the outside world.
The scenes of his interactions with the chief over the years flashed through his mind. He escaped from a camp of other survivors, and a snowstorm destroyed their last fire. It was the chief who saved him while taking the people out hunting, and then treated him like his own child, teaching him little by little until he grew up.
"Brother Lu, Brother Lu, wake up, wake up."
Xiao Liu kept pushing Nie Lu's shoulders, waking him up from his daze.
Nie Lu, who had been sitting on the chair for an unknown amount of time, looked up at Xiao Liu, his eyes rolled, and his voice was a little hoarse, "The leader..."
"Brother Lu, the leader has passed away." Xiao Liu looked at Nie Lu and was a little worried. If Nie Lu also fell, the Winter House would be in a situation of being leaderless. At present, except for Nie Lu, no one has enough prestige to shock everyone, especially those who have joined the main god space.
"I understand." Nie Lu looked down at the medal in his hand. This was a heavy responsibility. The leader had never allowed them to address each other as father and son, but he had been waiting for this day in his heart, "the son would follow in his father's footsteps."
"Brother Lu, you have to cheer up. The finishing work of Guangming City is still waiting for you to deal with, and the newly acquired resources are still waiting for you to distribute." Xiao Liu said.
Nie Lu stood up, straightened his clothes, and then solemnly pinned the medal on his chest, "I understand. Let's go. Lead the way. We are going to the government office."
The death of the leader made Nie Lu realize that the passage of time is always inevitable, and what he has to do now is to shoulder this responsibility well and find a suitable successor for this world before he leaves.
"Yes! Chief!" Xiao Liu stood up straight and saluted. He understood that from today on, both Guangming City and Winter House would welcome a new chief. This chief would carry the old chief's will and lead them to carve out a new world in this world of ice and snow.
Three days later, countless people gathered in front of the city monument of Guangming City. Except for the necessary rotation personnel and qualified people who were carrying out tasks in the main god space, almost everyone else was present. The warmth gathered from all the people dispelled the bone-chilling cold.
Under the gaze of the crowd, Nie Lu, wearing a dress uniform and a medal of honor on his chest, walked up to the podium. The scene became quiet. After giving a speech, Nie Lu walked to the side of the monument, picked up the shovel stuck in the soil and filled the last piece of frozen soil into the ground. This meant that Guangming City was officially built!
Cheers suddenly rang out, and the sound waves spread towards the sky, pushing the falling snowflakes aside.
Nie Lu came back to his senses and glanced at the cheering crowd behind him, then raised his head and looked at the modified energy tower in the distance that had officially started operating. Coal and oil entered the energy tower from two entrances together, and after a series of links, they became the indispensable heat for the city, sustaining everyone's life.
Those huge robots also began to shuttle around in the city. They are the key to the city's industrial construction. While saving a lot of manpower and material resources, they also play a certain role in maintaining order.
'Dad, don't worry, the world will get better and better, I promise you!'
Nie Lu touched the monument behind him. The previous leader was buried under the monument. He would bless the newly established city and accompany the city as it continues to grow and develop.
(Thanks to Shen Jing v Trajectory for the 100.asxs.coin reward.)