After the crowd was received by Talulah, Flandre skipped over to Alina's side, her crystal wings chiming merrily with every step.
"Alina, I'm one step ahead of you!"
"I know, Flandre. You're the best and so amazing, of course you'd be faster than me!" Alina reached out with a warm smile and picked up Flandre, who happily gave her a loud, affectionate peck on the cheek.
The two followed the tail end of the procession and soon arrived atop the massive steel deck of the mobile module. At this time, the processing office here was still receiving the large influx of people Flandre had brought up earlier. The reason for this sluggish pace was simple: there was only a single administrative window handling the registration matters.
The staff members needed to thoroughly understand the family situations of the arriving Infected, their past technical specialties, and the specific industries they hoped to work in. Then, they would meticulously cross-reference that information to find the relevant, vacant work teams from a thick stack of logistical documents. If there were several qualifying teams available, they would even let the individual choose their preferred placement.
Among the refugees, minors under fourteen and seniors over sixty-five were completely excluded from this vocational scope. The former would enter the newly established school system to study, while the latter would be arranged into specialized nursing homes. Of course, if a family explicitly chose to take care of their elderly themselves for personal family reasons, the Reunion Movement would not refuse the request.
Consequently, the speed of overall progress was not fast. The reason the administration had initially set up only one window was that the probability of two large transport teams arriving at the exact same time—totaling nearly two hundred people like today—was normally not very high. Most of the time, those coming to seek refuge were scattered groups consisting of just a few individuals to a dozen people. Furthermore, it wasn't necessarily a daily occurrence. Thus, stationing more administrative personnel at this specific post on a permanent basis would be a pure waste of human resources.
But encountering a bottleneck situation like today's naturally led to immense congestion. When Flandre and Alina arrived at the courtyard outside the office, they saw a long, winding line stretching down the corridor.
Among the crowd, children and seniors over sixty-five were actually quite easy to handle. Talulah quickly stepped in and opened a separate window to process them directly. After all, these two specific categories didn't require complex job assignments; they only needed to be asked if they had arrived with surviving family members. If they had family, they were asked if they intended to live together; if they had no family, they would be immediately arranged into specialized nursing homes and collective dormitories.
Even so, the processing speed was still very slow. After the initial fear, anxiety, and breathless anticipation of reaching safety had faded, as the waiting time in the corridor grew longer, a noisy commotion broke out in the crowd once again.
And the underlying reason for the commotion was incredibly simple. The people stuck at the very back of the line were getting impatient. There were also individuals who had temporarily left the queue to go to the restroom to handle personal matters, only to find they weren't allowed back into their original spots upon returning, leading to heated arguments.
Once their basic physical safety was fully guaranteed, some people naturally began to cause trouble solely for their own immediate benefit.
Fortunately, Alina and Talulah had plenty of past experience dealing with this aspect of human nature and had strictly arranged armed guards along the length of the line. The moment someone began to cause a loud scene or push others, they were directly hauled out of the line by the guards. After the immediate dispute was handled, they were forced to walk to the very back of the crowd to restart.
After all, the Reunion Movement took a direct, strict, one-size-fits-all approach to such administrative disruptions. Anyway, the guards' primary job was simply to maintain absolute stability here; it didn't matter to them how long the refugees stayed in line. So, as long as there was even a hint of physical conflict, verbal argument, or fighting, both involved parties would be instantly dragged out to resolve it outside the building. Once resolved, they had to restart the queue from the absolute back.
After several hot-headed people were handled roughly in this manner, those remaining in line suddenly became remarkably well-behaved.
But even with the line stabilized, it wasn't entirely without problems. For example, right now, the person at the very front of the registration desk was loudly slamming his fist onto the wooden table, glaring fiercely at the young registrar.
The underlying issue was simple: he was completely illiterate and only knew how to perform heavy physical mining labor. When asked about his personal hobbies and desired job placement, he stated his hobby was boxing, but he adamantly demanded to work permanently on the mobile module itself.
This rigid stance made the registrar feel incredibly troubled. Because based entirely on his physical skills and hobbies, the most suitable structural paths for him were naturally being a miner or joining the Reunion Movement's active army.
The Reunion Movement's current mines were not hazardous Originium mines, but rather a small iron mine and a copper mine located within their secured territory. These were relatively safe, conventional mining areas that would not cause or worsen an infection through the extraction process. Joining the army went without saying.
But neither of these two viable options would allow him to remain stationed on the mobile module. To be completely precise, the vast majority of refugees would not live on the mobile module permanently but would instead be assigned to live in the various settled communities under the Reunion Movement's banner across the six thousand square kilometers.
But the man stubbornly insisted on staying on the mobile module, even aggressively asking why others were permitted to be here while he was being excluded.
The registrar patiently explained to him that due to the limited physical size of the mobile module, the residential arrangements here were strictly monitored. Aside from children under fourteen who stayed behind to attend the central school, it basically only housed the various functional and administrative departments of the Reunion Movement. If he truly wanted to stay on the mobile module, the best structural way was to enlist in the army. The military garrison assigned to the mobile module rotated every three months, meaning he could legally stay on the platform for at least three months out of the year.
As for why he couldn't simply become a permanent member of an administrative department...
Naturally, it was because to join a functional department of the Reunion Movement, an individual first needed to enter a specific trade, demonstrate notable talent there, and be officially reported up through the organizational ranks. Finally, when a rare vacancy appeared in a middle-to-high-level position, Talulah herself would have to personally approve the joining. This entire vetting process usually took about a year of consistent performance.
Or, if he were a skilled bricklayer or engaged in construction-related infrastructure, he would be temporarily assigned here when new houses were actively being constructed on the mobile module deck. Of course, it was statistically far more likely he would be dispatched to the various small settlements below to help build houses or establish vital infrastructure.
Upon hearing this explanation, the man resolutely refused to cooperate. He loudly stated that the primary reason he had fled all the way to the Reunion Movement was because he heard they possessed their own independent Mobile City. If he ended up being assigned to a rural settlement outside the city anyway, what structural difference was there from his previous life of misery?
The registrar was long since accustomed to encountering such unreasonable people. She calmly pointed toward the dense crowd behind him that was rapidly losing its patience and said, "Are you entirely sure you want to keep being unreasonable with me here?"
"Me, unreasonable?! I clearly see with my own eyes that there are many empty spots and houses in this city, so why can't I live here?!" the man barked, his face flushing. "Are you only going to arrange for people to live in this city if you get paid under the table, and not if you don't?!"
The man's voice grew louder and louder, echoing off the stone walls. The helpless registrar looked past his shoulder toward Talulah beside her, as well as Alina and Flandre, who had quickly rushed over to the front desk upon hearing the rising noise.
Since Talulah was standing right there at the secondary window, she had witnessed the entire escalating conflict between the two parties from start to finish. She walked over smoothly, picked up his paper registration form from the desk, looked it over briefly, and then faced him.
"I'm giving you three definitive options right now," Talulah said, her voice calm but carrying an unyielding weight.
"First, report directly to the regional mines. You have worked in various mines for twenty years, so it is your old, established trade. Moreover, our industrial mines are not Originium veins and carry absolutely no threat of toxic Originium Dust, making them entirely safe for your health."
"Second, proceed to the local barracks and formally apply to join the army. Although you are a bit advanced in age, your physical fitness is decent enough, so the commanders will accept you if you enlist."
"Third, leave the Reunion Movement immediately."
Hearing Talulah's cold, decisive words, the man's face instantly turned incredibly pale. He stiffened his neck, trying to mask his sudden fear with bravado, and stared directly at Talulah.
"On what grounds?! I have to leave just because you say so?!" the man yelled, gesturing wildly. "Do you have the final say in the Reunion Movement?!"
There was absolutely no hint of anger or irritation from the blatant provocation in Talulah's eyes; instead, she looked at his trembling form with absolute calmness.