Zombie Apocalypse: Creation

”This plan is being continuously updated...”

As Xiaoyun read through the entire plan, he could sum it up into three major phases that Yuqi had set up.

Phase One was a Mass employment opportunity through Hard labor, from pouring more money into construction to easing restrictions for land development.

The end goal was to lower the unemployment rate by half, from the average 25% unemployment rate to around 10%.

The construction part he had already witnessed firsthand, as throughout his trip to Foshan and back to Luoping, there were dramatic upticks in road repairs.

For land development, there were two parts.

The first part was for basic farming without machinery, and pond farms in certain areas, generally more towards agriculture.

The second part was specifically targeted towards manufacturing, specifically the two main arms manufacturing in Luoping.

Both Anna and the three Russians had already submitted a joint expansion plan towards Foshan and Guangzhou, and even including Dongguan and Shenzhen.

A short hyperlink quickly led to their plan of using pre-existing factories and converting them into war production.

”Seems pretty good... But what’s the issue here?”

Scrolling down, Xiaoyun soon encountered why the plan was too good to be true.

It directly requested a half-billion-dollar loan with zero interest. A number so high that it just looked even more insane than his military budget increase.

”What the fuck are they thinking? A billion dollars? No wonder this part of the plan isn’t accepted.”

Closing their plan and returning to Yuqi’s plan, Xiaoyun’s attention was instantly caught by the Phase Two focus.

It was in more scientific, technical areas that were heavily overlooked, from meteorologists to subsea engineers.

All these jobs may sound unimportant currently, but they play a critical role in future expansion. Knowing the weather pattern was critical to farming, as was the case with subsea engineers for an oil rig later down the line.

The end goal of Phase Two was to solve the unemployment question even further, reaching down to 5%.

”Can’t really afford it right now...”

Seeing the estimated budget to be in the billions to revamp everything, Xiaoyun already knew this part of the plan was nowhere near in sight.

Not to mention, at the very bottom of phase two, it even had a little note stating the lack of available inventory. Even if he had the money, there was no way for them actually to execute something on such a large-scale implementation.

Of course, it wasn’t all doom and gloom.

The plan itself already splits phase two into three separate parts of its own, with the first part of the weather study well underway.

”Weather balloons and Computer models... They really still work?”

Xiaoyun didn’t dig too deep into it as he scrolled down to the next part, only to be met with an incomplete page.

”I guess that’s how far they had planned... Now, why is Phase One not really lowering unemployment as initially expected?”

As he pulled out the simplified unemployment data with all cities included, it showed an average of 20% unemployment, or 1 in 5 people.

Tying back to earlier data showing high unemployment mostly in Guangzhou, with 1 in 4, and the population shifting recently, it became apparent what the issue was.

”Too many people in Guangzhou and too few opportunities...”

Searching for construction jobs and manufacturing jobs data, they both showed to be almost fully saturated despite the investment going into these companies.

All of them are already at record-high hiring with their weekly reports, yet the unemployment rate continues to be trending up.

Even the agriculture sector was hiring rather than receding, as the substitution of machinery only added to the pre-existing production.

In other words, what he had imagined of mechanized farming displacing basic tools didn’t come true at all.

People were stuck farming on land, despite the fact that their skills could be used somewhere else more usefully.

The lack of job opportunities just killed any kind of possibilities of more advanced, scientific farming, as every angle showed labor was just too abundant.

Inefficient allocation was through the roof, but it was still better than having them do nothing and survive on handouts.

”How can we have record-hiring numbers and even more people working on the farm? This doesn’t make any sense——”

”Because the number of people keeps on increasing. I’m surprised you didn’t realize that.”

Turning around, Yuqi was standing right behind him, holding some sort of files in her hand.

”Number of people? What do you mean by that?”

”The raw population. Think about it. If we have one million refugees flooding in, what do you think happens to the unemployment rate?”

”It... It goes up.”

”Exactly. So our unemployment rate will keep trending up as more people come here... Here, let me show you something.”

Yuqi quickly took over the mouse, going back to the main interface before pulling up recent population data.

Right before Xiaoyun’s eyes, he could see the chart indicating 2 million people back in April, then jumping straight to 4 million by the end of May.

”4 million? What the fuck? When did we double our population out of nowhere?” Xiaoyun questioned, refusing to believe the statistics before him.

”All within 30 days.”

As she scrolled further down, a map of the entire country popped up, showing clusters of red dots indicating where the refugees had come from.

Going as far up as Qiaodao city in Shandong province, to as far south as Hainan’s Sanya city, everywhere had some refugees coming to Guangzhou.

All of the paths were highlighted, with almost every single highway road having been taken, every single direction from all four sides leading up to them.

”You see why I’m so worried about this whole unemployment thing? Having so many new people only makes things more chaotic.

Xiaoyun slowly nodded, his mind realizing this problem was way bigger than he had ever imagined.

”I’ll try my best to help you with it.”

”Yeah, right. Have you come up with a plan so far, then?” Yuqi questioned, her eyes glancing over the notes he had written.

”Not exactly.”

”Then you can help me with one right now... Your friends over in Changsha had been one of the biggest contributors to this issue.”

Seeing the massive red dot right at Changsha, Xiaoyun began to realize the real root cause of the issue.

”I’ll send someone to tell them to stop... No, I’ll go talk to them myself.”

”And what do you think they can do for you? Tell those refugees to stay when they have zero resources to handle them?”

Yuqi’s comment made him fall into silence. He knew her point was valid, but requesting them to stop just appeared to be the most straightforward solution.

”We’re on our own for this problem. We just have to suffer the consequences of being too nice to people.”

”What do you want me to do exactly, then?” Xiaoyun questioned.

”I need you to go out and talk to them.”

”What? Didn’t you just say talking to them won’t do anything?”

”I’ve never said that. All I said is they won’t stop sending people... I want you to negotiate with them to provide proper protections for these refugees.”

”Proper protection?”

Yuqi didn’t answer right away. She slowly put down the paper she had been holding the whole time onto the desk.

It was a newspaper from Luoping Daily, with a distinct, bold letter title right at the top that no one could miss.

”Story of the Refugee... When did you care about people’s lives over solving problems?”

Xiaoyun asked, looking at her face with a curious look. His mind was a little surprised by the change of heart from her.

”Hey, I’m not that heartless. Just because they had been giving me a headache doesn’t mean I hate them.

It’s just that they put such a big burden on all the citizens living in our cities that hasn’t done anything wrong——”

”Mhm, okay, Miss tsundere.”

”I’m not a tsundere, you idiot... People’s views can change, okay? I just happened to change after reading this.”

”Really? A newspaper changed you?”

Seeing his face looking all surprised, Yuqi’s face blushed for a second before forcefully turning his head back to the paper.

”Yes, really. You would have the same feeling if you read it yourself... Anyway, I have work to do.

And remember to talk to your friends in Changsha. Don’t you dare to forget about it, or else I’m going to nag you all day later.”

”Okay, okay... Geez. What did Shen Wen let his editors do to convince a heartless woman to change her view?

With footsteps disappearing further into the distance, he was now all alone in his cubicle as he looked down at the folded newspaper in front of him.

As he unfolded the newspaper, it revealed the headline story taking all four pages front and back rather than the usual one block on a single page.

”A Survival Story from a Refugees...”