Perfikot was inspecting the underground city beneath the Lord's Mansion in Chernobyl.

Just like the underground shelters built in settlements, even though Chernobyl is now the largest city in the Northern Territory, Perfikot designed an underground city for it during urban planning.

However, Chernobyl's underground city is different from other underground shelters, as this is a city.

Based on Chernobyl's urban layout, there are four underground cities beneath the city, each corresponding to a different district above ground.

The largest underground city, directly connected to the Lord's Mansion, serves as the core underground city, with dedicated underground passages linking it to the other three. The other three underground cities have no direct road connections to each other.

Such a layout was adopted because Chernobyl covers a vast area above ground. While the city population cannot compare to Langton, it is still quite sizeable.

Therefore, more underground cities are needed to accommodate the city's population, along with more Energy Towers to provide heating.

This layout also grants the central underground city beneath the Lord's Mansion functions not available in other underground cities.

Although located beneath the Lord's Mansion, the mansion itself does not sit directly above this underground city. More accurately, the square in front of the Lord's Mansion is the city's center, and it is where the central Energy Tower extends above ground.

The Energy Tower must extend some structure above ground due to the use of coal as fuel, which is needed for expelling exhaust gases after combustion.

Perfikot could use alchemy to recover the gases after combustion and even reclaim some waste heat, but after considering it, she decided it wasn't necessary.

After all, this is still the steam age, where energy issues are not yet a concern for this era, and recycling even the minimal waste heat isn't necessary.

As for air pollution caused by exhaust gases? It's even less worth worrying about. Humankind now needs to think about survival, not protecting a post-apocalyptic world that's just a vast expanse of white in temperatures below minus dozens of degrees.

"The Energy Tower is currently operating at low power, mainly supplying energy to the Lord's Mansion and surrounding districts," an engineer was explaining the situation to Perfikot.

Although the underground city has been activated, most people are not yet accustomed to living underground.

Additionally, as Chernobyl is a new city, considerations for cold-proofing and insulation were made prior to construction, so in temperatures below minus twenty degrees, as long as indoor heating devices like fireplaces are lit, it generally doesn't feel too cold.

After all, it is winter, and the heating conditions of this era are limited. People are somewhat mentally prepared for the cold itself.

Though underground spaces are indeed warmer, even in settlements not everyone is willing to live underground; more people still prefer to live above ground.

Even if living above ground consumes more fuel and poses various inconveniences, some simply cannot get used to living underground.

Perfikot wouldn't force them because, even if a true post-apocalyptic winter arrives, living above ground is not entirely unfeasible as long as proper cold-proofing and heating are implemented.

Of course, implementing adequate cold-proofing and heating in temperatures of minus sixty or seventy degrees is no easy feat.

"How's the occupancy situation in the surrounding districts?" Perfikot's gaze swept around and she noticed a considerable number of people around the Energy Tower, with quite a few looking in her direction.

Though not everyone lived underground, most residents of Chernobyl still preferred to be in warmer areas with no snow.

This reflects some of Perfikot's minor design intentions when designing Chernobyl's underground city; she connected the above-ground houses in Chernobyl to the underground city, where the houses' above-ground parts are unified into two levels below, with one level in the ground and another in the underground city.

This way, even if the citizens of Chernobyl don't plan to live underground, they can still access the underground city through their basements.

Through this method, quite a few citizens can be redirected to activities underground.

Indeed, it is very cold above ground, and in such seasons, commercial activities above are not worth discussing; people walking on the streets wish they could walk faster, and some even come down from above ground to take longer routes through underground streets to their destinations for comfort.

As a result, the underground city streets have seen quite a few pedestrians, with some merchants and stalls set up underground, and even people wanting to offer carriage rentals, painting a prosperous scene no different from above-ground commercial districts.

Perfikot largely permitted these, though carriage rentals were an exception.

The culprit being the smell of manure; Perfikot didn't want an unpleasant smell permeating the underground city.

She specifically designed a steam bus, powered by steam stored in tanks. Though production and use have yet to commence and remain only as designs on paper, once operational, such buses could greatly enhance the prosperity of the underground city.

The response from the official in charge of the underground city's management further fortified Perfikot's confidence in this matter.

"Lord, although most residents of Chernobyl still retain habits of living above ground, much of their daily time is gradually shifting underground. People are spending more time in underground activities," the official explained to Perfikot, while the engineer tactfully retreated to the side.

For this engineer, Perfikot's reputation and presence were too intimidating, making him hesitant to stand beside the Lord of the North.

His minor actions went unnoticed, except Perfikot glanced at him, but no one else paid attention.

Meanwhile, the official in charge of the underground city continued explaining the situation enthusiastically; such an opportunity to appear before Perfikot was invaluable to these officials, none would waste it.

Listening to this official, Perfikot also learned that some poorer citizens have already chosen to abandon above-ground living on the level below them and moved underground.

This prompted Perfikot to decide to take a walk down to the next level and see how people are living there.

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