in2ebook Chapter 246 Online Fees
Chapter 246 Online Fees
"It's nothing, just chatting casually, I just mentioned it casually."
Xu Jing waved her hand, the calm, analytical look on her face fading away, and she returned to her usual detached demeanor, maintaining an appropriate distance from strangers.
"That's right, just saying, let's exchange information."
Xiaoling smiled, her eyes still lingering with the aftertaste of the "business acumen" she had described, but her gaze towards Xu Xiaoyan became much more friendly.
She made an excuse, "Then I won't bother you any longer. I need to find where the public restroom is and tidy up. Thanks!"
She pointed to her slightly messy hair and clothes, indicating that she had just gotten up.
"Oh, go straight to the end, turn left and then right. There's a blue sign on the wall, it's quite eye-catching," Xiaoling enthusiastically pointed out the direction.
"Thank you!" Xu Xiaoyan thanked them again, then nodded politely to the three of them, turned around, and walked in the direction Xiaoling pointed.
The moment she turned her back to them, the complex expression on her face—a mixture of humility, confusion, and gratitude—quickly faded, and her eyes instantly became calm.
"Licenses...official suppliers...purchase volume and price...background..." Xu Xiaoyan's steps were steady, but her brain was working at lightning speed.
The girl named Xu Jing said that "it's very difficult for ordinary people to get in," but not that it's "absolutely impossible."
Moreover, the system has an open "points threshold," which means that points are at least one of the officially recognized and publicly acknowledged hard requirements.
She still had some points left over from previous "information fees" and daily savings. Although not many, they might serve as a stepping stone to test the waters.
More importantly, the "hard currency" in her space is likely worth far more than its original face value.
I wonder if it can serve as a "stepping stone"? Or as a bargaining chip to "exchange" with someone who might have some connections but lacks specific resources?
She quickened her pace and headed towards the public restroom.
In the public restroom, Xu Xiaoyan quickly and simply tidied herself up using the faucet with its meager water flow.
She wiped her face and neck with a damp handkerchief; the cold water jolted her awake and barely dispelled her lingering sleepiness.
She then used her fingers to quickly comb through her long hair, which had become somewhat messy and tangled from sleeping in the capsule, and retied it into a neat low ponytail.
After tidying herself up, she prepared to begin her first task of the day—finding the registration point or application channel for a "mobile food truck" permit.
No matter how great the difficulties or how vague the information, we must always take the first step to explore the way.
Just as she turned to leave the restroom, an almost instinctive thought flashed through her mind—why not check the base's official app first?
During the ground phase, despite the harsh living conditions, the basic communications and internal networks maintained by the base served as important channels for information flow and mission dissemination.
That fully-featured base app used to be her main way of getting announcements, checking points, and exchanging supplies.
Almost instinctively, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. As her fingertips touched the cold screen, a feeling of being in another world washed over her.
Since entering the underground city, she has been pushed along by a series of emergencies and her own survival crisis, her mind is on high alert, and all her attention is focused on dealing with the specific threats at hand and finding a place to settle down next.
They completely ignored what should be the most basic need in modern society—internet connectivity.
She stood in a quiet corner by the bathroom door, her fingers quickly swiping across the main screen to find the Base app.
The app launch animation flashed by, and then... the screen froze on the loading screen.
The small, constantly rotating progress bar spun for a good ten seconds before finally stopping.
The application interface became blank, with a red exclamation mark and a short error message displayed in the center: "Unable to connect to the server."
"Hmm?" Xu Xiaoyan frowned slightly. Was the signal bad here?
Or is the application outdated and needs an upgrade?
She went back to the home screen, tried closing the app in the background, and then clicked to open it again.
Same process, same result.
She tried a third time, a fourth time...
My finger tapped repeatedly, but the application interface stubbornly remained on that frustrating error message, unresponsive.
She stopped focusing on that particular app and instead swiped the screen to look at the top right corner of the phone screen—where signal strength and network connection status are usually displayed.
The two cold Chinese characters "No Service" caught her eye.
No, it's not just "No Service"; the area next to the signal indicator where the Wi-Fi connection status should be displayed is also blank.
She quickly pulled down the notification bar, entered the settings menu, and tapped the "Wi-Fi" option.
On the screen, the Wi-Fi switch is turned on, but the "Select network..." list below is empty.
The automatic search function was running, but the constantly spinning search icon seemed to be in an endless, futile loop, without popping up any available network names.
There was no familiar encrypted Wi-Fi name that the ground base had used, nor any seemingly public or private hotspot signal.
No network?
Xu Xiaoyan could hardly believe her eyes!
She blinked, then blinked hard again, wondering if the dim lighting in the bathroom was making her mistake her vision, or if there was something wrong with her phone screen.
She exited the settings and went back in, checking repeatedly, but the result was still the same. She even tried turning off the Wi-Fi switch, waiting a few seconds, and then turning it back on.
After the phone rescanned, a long wait of more than ten seconds, the list was still a glaringly blank page.
A sense of absurdity instantly gripped her.
Having been in the dungeon for so long, from passing through security, entering Area B, going through the lottery, encountering interception, deciding to temporarily avoid Area C, passing through the guard gate, finding the capsule pod... this series of experiences is so tight it's almost suffocating.
Her mind was completely occupied by the most pressing questions of "what to do next", "where is the danger", and "how to survive", and she didn't even notice the network problem!
She implicitly assumed that the underground city would provide a basic, internal network covering residential areas, similar to the surface base.
It is at least used for receiving official notifications and conducting necessary points management. After all, how could such a large and complex underground social system operate without the support of an information network?
However, reality dealt her a heavy blow!
Outside the public restroom deep within Zone C, her cell phone, the device that had kept her in a weak connection with the information world of the past, had become a delicate brick, unable to communicate with the outside world.
"Could it be... that the underground city doesn't have a fully covered public network at all? Or is it that a specific access method or permission is required?" She forced herself to calm down and began to analyze quickly.
It's impossible to be completely without internet!
The communication equipment used for security, the surveillance systems in various locations, the rental terminals, and even the license plate management system for the "mobile food trucks" must all rely on some kind of internal network.
However, this network may not be as open to ordinary residents as it is on the ground, or... it may require payment?
She went back into the Wi-Fi settings and instead of waiting for an automatic search, manually clicked the "refresh" or "search for networks" option, and the phone started scanning again.
This time, the wait seems to be even longer.
Just when she was about to give up and think that this might be a dead zone, a result finally popped up on the screen!
The network name "Dungeon Area Network C" appeared prominently in the list!
The signal strength is displayed as full bars!
Xu Xiaoyan's heart skipped a beat; sure enough, there was one!
She immediately clicked on the network and tried to connect.
The phone screen redirected, but instead of directly entering the page, an identity verification page popped up.
The page design is very rudimentary, resembling a login portal for some kind of internal system. At the top is the text "Underground City Resident Identity Verification," and below it, it requires the user to enter their [Resident Area and ID Number].
She hesitated for a moment, then entered her full number in Zone B (B East Zone 000063).
Although she is currently in Zone C, this number is her only official and verifiable identification.
Click Submit.
The page refreshed, and new content appeared, starting with a bolded message:
[Identity verified. Welcome, Xu Xiaoyan, resident of Zone B. We have detected that you are currently located in Zone C. We will connect you to the Zone C regional network service.]
The following section details the internet usage pricing plans:
[Dungeon C Area Regional Network Access Service]
Hourly rate: 0.01 points per hour.
Daily fee: 0.1 points per day (calculated on a calendar day basis, valid for 24 hours from the first connection).
Monthly subscription fee: 2.5 points per month (calendar month, unlimited access).
Please select your payment method and prepay the fee. The fee will be deducted directly from your residential account. Your internet connection will be automatically disconnected when your balance is insufficient.
[Note: This area network is limited to internal communication within the dungeon and access to the base's intranet. The final interpretation right belongs to the Dungeon Management Committee.]
It turns out that the dungeon does have internet access, but rather that internet access itself has become a resource that needs to be purchased!
Just like living space, heating, and food, information channels are also priced and incorporated into a strict resource management system.
0.01 points per hour may seem insignificant, but it adds up and becomes an extra expense that residents of Zone C need to consider.
For those who need to frequently look up information or perform certain online operations, this cost is even more significant.
This also explains why she couldn't find any networks when she first connected—it's very likely that the network SSID is hidden from the device before authentication and payment options are completed.
Without much hesitation, Xu Xiaoyan chose the "time-based billing" option, as she couldn't predict how much time she would need to use the internet each day.