Chapter 5.1: Coincidentally, she had also set her sights on him
Wen Huahua forcibly suppressed his disappointment and anxiety, trying to keep his tone cheerful and likable: [Sob sob, big boss, please accept it, otherwise I’ll feel too embarrassed, wuwuwu~]
[Blue Sea Safe City: Really no need, haha. I have to arrange for residents to move the grain back now, talk later~]
Wen Huahua almost blurted out “Don’t go!”—but his last bit of rationality made him hold back.
No, no. It wasn’t easy to find a city lord willing to give food—and one who even revealed that their residents were still bringing food back into the Safe City. He had to seize this opportunity.
If they don’t need wood… what about something else?
Nuclear crystals? With his residents’ work efficiency, they could barely earn enough just to repair the city walls!
If he used them to trade for food, sure, they wouldn’t starve—but before starvation, the city walls would collapse, and everyone would die together anyway.
Wen Huahua rubbed his temples, thinking hard: Come on, think—what else does the Safe City have besides wood that could be used for trade?
Or at least, something that could make the Blue Sea Safe City’s city lord like him enough to help.
One minute later, he arrived at an answer: —Haha, aside from wood, he had nothing.
Wen Huahua slumped in the City Lord’s residence, staring outside at the zombie combat squads surrounding the Safe City.
No!
He still had a way!
Blue Sea is a newcomer and doesn’t know much yet—should he use information to buy food from her?
No! He shouldn’t make it a transaction.
Judging from how Blue Sea gave 3 tons of rice in return for just 1 ton of wood, she clearly responds better to friendly goodwill.
If it turns into a trade, first, she might not even be willing to buy.
Second, that guy in the group, Gu Gaga, is already selling information. Since Blue Sea is Tier 2 and can open private chats, she might have already spent nuclear crystals to buy information.
He had opened a private chat with her now—but who could guarantee that Blue Sea hadn’t already opened a private chat with Gu Gaga and completed an information trade?
He couldn’t take that risk.
Better to give the information for free first, build goodwill, and get closer to Blue Sea as much as possible.
If Blue Sea hadn’t bought information yet, then he would be the one helping her.
If she already had, then at least he would come across as kind and helpful—and compared to Gu Gaga, who charges nuclear crystals, Blue Sea would be more inclined to get closer to him.
As long as their relationship warmed up, he would have a chance to buy food from her.
Having made up his mind, Wen Huahua began rapidly sending messages.
[Okay, okay, go ahead and get busy!]
[Oh right! Blue Sea, you’re new, so there must be a lot you don’t know!]
[You probably already know that you need at least 10,000 residents and that we have to travel through different disaster worlds. Let me tell you some things you might not know~]
Afraid that responding too slowly would get him ignored, he typed at lightning speed.
This favor—he had to give it. No one could stop him!
[First, like Meow Meow said before, never—absolutely never—reveal your Safe City’s coordinates to other cities, or you might get wiped out.]
[Also, if your Safe City stays in a world for over a month, your AI will issue a mission to the city lord. These missions are usually related to that world’s core disaster. For example, if it’s a flood world, the mission might be to build an ark. If earthquakes destroyed local homes, the mission might be to help rebuild part of their settlements.]
[These missions are optional—there’s no penalty for not completing them. But if you do complete them, you’ll receive a lot of nuclear crystals! So it’s definitely something to keep an eye on!]
[Nuclear crystals are very important. Right now we only have access to Tier 1 stores, so it looks like we can only buy basic things like ordinary buildings. But in my last world, I heard from a big boss that high-tier crystal stores can sell anything! I heard you can even buy spaceships!]
[As long as you have enough nuclear crystals, you can expand the Safe City’s area, renovate and upgrade buildings, relocate by changing coordinates, launch wars against other Safe Cities, or even spend crystals to avoid war, blah blah…]
[If you win a Safe City war, you can seize the opponent’s city core. The core can’t be used to upgrade your city, but it can expand your territory!]
[Also! Advancement! The earlier you level up, the better! After reaching Tier 2, there’s a chance your residents will evolve into “transcendent” beings. Once you have transcendent residents, your survival rate in disaster worlds increases significantly!]
[And—never, ever turtle up. Don’t think you can just hide inside the Safe City and avoid going out. That’s what I did in my last world—I thought I could just endure it and things would get better in the next world. But this world is even worse!]
[Also, never give residents access to City Lord permissions! Seriously, you’ll die! Residents can kill us and take over the City Lord position, and the AI is basically useless—it won’t stop them!]
[And don’t treat residents too well either. Don’t let them get used to receiving food without working…]
He sent three separate messages just about residents alone—it was obvious Coriander had suffered losses in that area.
[Don’t dig basements! Every time the Safe City moves to a new world, underground structures disappear! But building upward is fine—high-rises are no problem!]
[I’ve only been through one world myself—a primitive forest full of mutant beasts. I couldn’t beat any of them, so all I could do was chop trees nonstop, wuwuwu. But I met some big shots in my last world, and they told me that most disaster worlds are actually pretty similar!]
[Usually it’s things like floods, volcanic eruptions, droughts… and the key point is—every world has mutant beasts! You can think of them like zombies!]
[This zombie world is dangerous, but honestly, it’s still relatively good. At least there are still plenty of resources left. If you run into a world with no resources at all, then you’re really stuck. Big boss, if you have the strength, you should definitely gather as many resources and nuclear crystals as possible!]
[Blue Leaf from our group has formed a Home Alliance. They’ll definitely try to recruit you, big boss—but don’t agree! Alliances are actually a trap. Once you join, your coordinates will be known to everyone in the alliance. If even one city lord has bad intentions, you’re done for.]
[It’s best if you recruit as many locals from this world into your Safe City as possible. Upgrading the Safe City requires a fixed population, and the higher the level, the more people you need. After Tier 5, you won’t encounter many civilizations similar to ours anymore. You can recruit other civilizations, but mixed populations tend to cause conflicts.]
[Oh right! Big boss, you’re human civilization too, right? Before Tier 5, Safe Cities only descend into worlds similar to your own civilization. After Tier 5, it becomes completely random. Like Meow Meow in our group—she’s from a catfolk civilization, with a cat head and human body, and blah blah…]
Cheng Qisheng hugged a pillow and leaned against the sofa, watching messages from Coriander Safe City pour in like machine-gun fire.
“See? Information.”
Aether floated around the messages in confusion, its jellyfish-like body swaying.
“According to calculations, Coriander Safe City is in urgent need of food, and information is the most valuable commodity between Safe Cities. This information could be exchanged for at least 50 tons of food. Why would the city lord give it to you for free?”
Cheng Qisheng kept pressing and releasing the pillow, exercising her hand mobility.
“Because he doesn’t just want 50 tons.”
“Fifty tons—if 10,000 people ration it carefully, it could last a month or even longer. With some luck, it might be enough to survive this world.”
But Coriander had already learned his lesson.
In the previous world, he failed to obtain resources. Now, in this world, he was facing starvation with no means to fight back. Would he still choose to just “turtle” his way into the next world?
“He’s a smart person. He won’t repeat the same mistake. In this world, he’ll fight desperately to obtain whatever resources he can.”
“So, he needs more food.”
Moreover, Coriander Safe City couldn’t be sure whether she had already bought information from others, nor could he directly ask about it in the group. So he would never openly bring up selling information.
Someone who can rely on sweet talk to get information for free is definitely not some naïve, innocent fool.
Cheng Qisheng was certain—when Coriander sent that one ton of wood, his main goal was to build a favorable image in front of the other city lords.
And it was the right move.
In the Safe City environment, everyone is like an isolated island. If you present yourself as kind, gentle, and someone who repays kindness, you’ll always gain more.
And you’re less likely to be targeted.
Even if someone sees through it, so what?
Take this moment for example—regardless of whether Coriander was cultivating an image or not, Cheng Qisheng did receive that one ton of wood, and the “Withered Star” he helped would certainly feel grateful.
Besides, since Coriander’s goal is to build goodwill with others, he wouldn’t sabotage himself. The information he provided would definitely be genuine.
In the end, everyone is just trying to survive.
For her, it’s always better to deal with smart people than foolish ones.
To be honest, after being sick for three years and having her consciousness immersed in Dark Star for so long, Cheng Qisheng had almost forgotten what kind of person she used to be.
But one thing was certain—
She also wanted to survive until the very end.
“His persona is quite good—someone who repays kindness.”
That was enough. Cheng Qisheng set the pillow aside.
“Now, that persona is mine.”
—Wen Huahua was overjoyed when a new message from Blue Sea popped up on his screen.
[Sorry, I was busy just now and only saw how many messages you sent me! Thank you—this information is very important to me.]
[Hmm… my residents just brought back some more food. If you still want some, you can trade resources with me =v=]
Wen Huahua was so excited he almost cried.
He succeeded!!
He really did it!!
He bet right!!
His voice trembled as he replied:
[Thank you so much! Big boss, you’re saving my life! But I only have wood—it’s not that I don’t want to use other resources, my entire Safe City is basically wood! Could I… could I trade wood for it?]
Three minutes passed.
Blue Sea Safe City didn’t reply.
Aether asked, “City Lord, will you not respond?”
Cheng Qisheng glanced at the timer.
“No—wait a bit longer. For something this important, it needs time to ‘consider.’”
“If I agreed immediately, that wouldn’t be kindness—it would look naïve.”
Kindness earns respect and closeness. Naivety invites exploitation.
That balance had to be handled carefully.
She had no intention of testing human nature.
When the timer hit 6 minutes and 32 seconds, Cheng Qisheng responded.
Wen Huahua, anxiously waiting, finally received the life-saving reply:
[Hmm… alright. I do happen to have some construction projects. How much food do you want to trade for?]
It worked!!!
Wen Huahua was overjoyed. Looking at the mountains of wood in his city, he felt grateful for the first time that, in the previous world, he had forced himself and his people to chop trees nonstop.
Back then, he thought the wood was worthless—despite being expensive in the store, no city lord was willing to buy it.
Precious wood—I misjudged you!
“Can I trade 10,000 tons of wood for 300 tons of rice?”
Ten thousand tons right off the bat?
Just how many trees did his Safe City cut down?
Cheng Qisheng didn’t bargain further. After her deliberate delay earlier, Coriander Safe City’s mindset had already shifted—they would now offer what they believed to be the lowest acceptable price just to secure the deal quickly.
If she negotiated, the other side would probably still agree.
But there was no need.
300 tons of rice might sound like a lot—but in reality, it wouldn’t even be enough for a single meal for Blue Sea Civilization’s 360 million people.
The goodwill had been taken, the wood could be exchanged—both sides benefited. That was enough.
[Alright, ready to exchange now?]
Wen Huahua quickly replied:
[Yes, yes! Big boss, remember to choose a proper location to place the wood. Also, inter-City Lord transactions have a 10% handling fee.]
He was worried Cheng Qisheng might think the fee was too high and refuse to use the transaction system, so he hurried to explain:
[Even though the fee is a bit expensive, it’s safe. For example, if my wood contains rotten or unusable material, the trade will automatically fail until it’s replaced with good-quality wood. So most City Lords use the transaction mode.]
He was especially afraid she would suggest a direct private exchange.
After all, they had only just met—he couldn’t fully trust her.
What if he sent wood over and she sent stones back? Or worse, sent nothing at all? He would have no way to recover losses.
Fortunately, Blue Sea Safe City replied quickly:
[Alright, I’ve selected the trading mode and location. Let’s exchange =v=]
Both sides were sincere, and the transaction proceeded smoothly.
Wen Huahua stared at the 300 tons of rice that appeared in his grain warehouse, trembling with excitement.
With this food, he finally had the capital to turn things around!
But even in his excitement, he didn’t forget to shower Cheng Qisheng with praise, piling compliments so high it could almost form a city.
[Blue Sea Safe City: You don’t need to do that. You also tried to help me. We’re just helping each other and exchanging resources~]
Helping each other…
Wen Huahua looked at those four words, his emotions complicated.
He knew very clearly that his own “friendly, helpful, positive” persona was an act.
But unexpectedly, he had run into someone who was genuinely like that.
After thinking for a moment, he still decided to warn her:
[Big boss, wuwuwu you’re really kind—but you must absolutely not reveal your coordinates in the group, and don’t tell anyone you have a lot of food. If people find out, you’ll definitely be targeted and come looking for you!]
[In my last world, I heard from a big boss that moving a Tier 1 Safe City’s coordinates and initiating Safe City war both require 1,000 nuclear crystals. Tier 2 needs 2,000, Tier 3 needs 3,000—so Safe Cities almost never actively initiate wars.]
[But if a low-tier Safe City has enough resources, it’s different. Once someone obtains its coordinates, they can immediately spend nuclear crystals to teleport nearby and launch a war.]
[Generally, low-tier Safe Cities are poor, but newcomer Safe Cities haven’t had time to consume their original world’s resources. So resource-hunting Safe Cities like to target newcomers. Big boss, you must be careful! In the last world, “Cosmic Lord” killed a newcomer exactly like this—reportedly by tricking them under the pretense of helping suppress residents to obtain their coordinates.]
Wen Huahua gritted his teeth as he sent this information.
If Cheng Qisheng passed it on, there was a chance it could reach the “Cosmic Lord.”
And then he would be making an enemy of that being.
This didn’t fit his usual style at all. He wasn’t like Meow Meow, who was already Tier 3.
But—those were 300 tons of grain.
Cheng Qisheng wasn’t surprised by this information at all.
She considered what she had observed in the past 24 hours.
At present, the highest-tier members in the group were the Tier 3 “Cosmic Lord” and Meow Meow.
And that “Cosmic Lord” had already targeted her before.
[Blue Sea Safe City: Mm-hmm, I’ll make sure not to reveal my coordinates. Thank you for the reminder—I know you must have risked offending the Cosmic Lord to tell me this. I won’t tell anyone it was you who informed me~]
—Blue Sea Safe City has sent 5 tons of millet to Coriander Safe City—
[Blue Sea Safe City: This is a gift =v=]
Wen Huahua was genuinely moved.
He had originally planned to add one more line asking her not to reveal that he told her—but the big boss not only understood everything, she even considered his position and sent him millet.
Such a good person… if the “Cosmic Lord” really targeted her…
And so he would do nothing—
except silently pray for the big boss.
Temporarily ending the conversation with Coriander Safe City, Cheng Qisheng let the jellyfish rest in her palm.
“Aether, I am someone who repays kindness. Do you know what other traits people like that usually have?”
Aether lay flat in her hand, like a jellyfish pancake.
“Soft-hearted kindness?”
“Nope.”
Cheng Qisheng smiled gently.
“It’s vengeance.”
“Have you never heard that saying?”
A drop of kindness should be repaid with a spring; a drop of enmity should be repaid with a drought spanning a thousand miles.
She took out a notebook she hadn’t used in a long time.
It wasn’t a diary—there were names written inside.
Some were circled in red, some in yellow, some in green. Each circle had a ✔ next to it, marking that its “task” had been completed.
She flipped to a fresh page and wrote four words:
“Cosmic Lord.”
Then she took out colored pens and paused in thought, deciding which color to use.
Coriander Safe City’s experience had indeed served as a warning.
In future worlds, there might not always be resources available. So in this world, she needed to become as strong as possible.
Not only gathering resources—but also training forces, and… stabilizing the rear.
There were far too many people in Blue Sea Civilization. Simply buying an Air Tower wouldn’t be enough.
After seizing another Safe City’s core, could the territory be expanded?
Cheng Qisheng looked at the busy Blue Sea citizens.
—The children of Blue Sea did indeed need a larger place to live.
The Cosmic Lord had set his sights on her. Coincidentally, she had also set her sights on him.
How fitting.
In a sense, it was a mutual pursuit.
Cheng Qisheng lifted her pen and drew a black circle around the name of the Cosmic Lord.
