Chapter 6: Nuclear Crystal Hunters
While Cheng Qisheng was thinking about how to make her move, she casually sent a “Hello everyone, newbie reporting in” kind of message in the group chat, only speaking up occasionally.
The other city lords didn’t pay much attention. There were lurkers in the city lord group too, and only a minority actually liked chatting.
Only Blue Leaf felt a bit disappointed—if a city lord barely spoke even in group chat, chances were they weren’t willing to join an alliance.
So now, apart from Coriander in the group, only the “Cosmic Lord” was paying attention to Cheng Qisheng.
But he felt that Cheng Qisheng had reached Tier 2 right after arriving, meaning she was a tough opponent and needed to be observed carefully before making a move.
As for Cheng Qisheng, she felt that Cosmic Lord was Tier 3, and she wasn’t sure whether a Tier 3 safe city had powerful weapons or defenses, so she also needed to observe carefully before making a move.
Both sides once again achieved a mutual understanding of “waiting and watching.”
—Nothing happened among the city lords for the time being, and the Blue Sea civilization resumed its large-scale construction efforts.
However, this time, with the AI core using its massive computing power to plan everything, all Blue Sea people felt things were much easier than before.
As mentioned earlier, although the Blue Sea people were irritable and loved fighting and brawling, they were genuinely willing to work when needed.
And if they believed that working was the will of the god, they became even more motivated.
Although full construction would still take some time, at least residential areas had been separated and defined.
Small rooms were partitioned off, and hive-like structures quickly took shape. People’s movement routes were also planned. When going to get food, they no longer had to wait in line for hours only to end up without eating.
After receiving Cheng Qisheng’s approval, the AI core introduced a points system.
The Blue Sea civilization’s previous modern lifestyle was no longer suitable for a safe city that constantly moved across different worlds.
Now, in the Blue Sea civilization, everything was centered on survival.
All past social wealth had been reduced to nothing. Currency had disappeared, the stock market had collapsed into emptiness—everything was now judged solely by how much one contributed to the Blue Sea civilization.
Those who contributed more earned more points and held higher status. They could eat better food and live in more spacious housing.
Those who contributed less earned fewer points, only enough for basic survival.
Aside from minors and the elderly, who still received basic welfare, all other Blue Sea people had to work hard just to survive.
The entire society had effectively become a military system—everything existed only for survival.
Joining the military and becoming a soldier had become the top choice among the youth.
This was because soldiers not only had high social status and stable point income, but also a clear promotion system and reward structure.
The government issued tactical watches to soldiers (modified from collected “Genius Watches”). These watches could not only receive commanders’ orders and provide navigation, but most importantly, they had cameras that could be monitored by the AI core during combat.
As long as a soldier was willing to fight and could achieve results in battle, the AI core would automatically record and calculate kill footage into tactical points.
It was like playing a game, where the system automatically analyzed how much each player contributed in a match—who got the kills, who got the assists, and who was the MVP.
Soldiers just needed to charge forward aggressively, which suited the hot-blooded, combat-hungry nature of the Blue Sea people very well.
However, there were also people who either did not want to be constrained by the military, or who failed to enlist for various reasons, yet still wanted to earn more points through adventure and combat.
Thus, “Nuclear Crystal Hunters” came into existence.
“Nuclear Crystal Hunters? Sounds like something from an adventure guild in a novel—but it’s only been two days, and there are already this many of them?”
Cheng Qisheng looked at the fully equipped Nuclear Crystal Hunters and counted them. Just this group leaving the city under the “Nuclear Crystal Hunter” identity already numbered over a thousand.
The Blue Sea civilization was truly bold.
For other things, they might drag their feet—but when it came to combat, everyone became impatient and aggressive.
She flipped through the job description of the Nuclear Crystal Hunters.
Yes—within just two days, not only had this profession appeared, but there was already a detailed occupational guide for it.
So-called Nuclear Crystal Hunters were small teams that went out to kill zombies and collect nuclear crystals along with various resources.
These hunters did not advance together with the Blue Sea military. Instead, they were private groups operating in areas where Blue Sea forces were not stationed.
What was the point of going to places already secured by the military?
Sure, they were safe—but there were no zombies left to kill for nuclear crystals, and no resources to scavenge. Any territory officially taken over by the military was considered official property.
Uncleared areas, however, were different.
Even intelligence alone was valuable—for example, estimates of how many zombies were in a region, what the map routes looked like, or where large factory equipment might be located, and so on.
Even without intelligence, the entire zombie world itself was a massive treasure trove for Nuclear Crystal Hunters.
First, killing zombies yielded nuclear crystals, which were a direct, exchangeable currency for points.
Second, the world had likely been in a post-disaster state for about half a year. If one searched carefully, there were still plenty of usable supplies left—whether for personal use, exchanging for points back in Blue Sea, or trading with others. It was essentially risk-free profit.
Even without thinking about profit, the idea alone was highly appealing: “My homeland is safely in the rear, while I travel through another world on an adventure path with my backpack.” It perfectly matched the Blue Sea people’s innate combat instincts and wilderness romance.
What? They didn’t speak the local language?
Not a problem. Just gesture.
And doesn’t that make it even more like an otherworldly adventure?
After reading the AI core’s compiled information and reports on Nuclear Crystal Hunters, Cheng Qisheng came to a conclusion.
“An adventurer guild… and a pretty chuunibyou one at that.”
Still, she didn’t disapprove of it. In fact, she was quite pleased.
As the creator god of Blue Sea, as long as she wished, she could see the environment and visuals of every single one of her believers.
The Nuclear Crystal Hunters were scattered all over the place on their adventures. To Cheng Qisheng, it was no different from livestreaming the zombie world—if anything, the footage was even clearer.
The creator god observed these “brave ones” and decided to give them a bit more incentive for adventure. She issued a directive:
“Selling intelligence like this—first going to places to gather information, then bringing it back to sell—is way too time-consuming.”
“Aether, grant the Nuclear Crystal Hunters loan access. Add an [Information Trading] function into the tactical wristbands so they can upload major intelligence when they discover it.”
Aether reminded her: “City Lord, my computational coverage only extends within a 500-kilometer radius of the Blue Sea Safe City.”
“I know,” Cheng Qisheng said. “Just add it. The information will find its way back.”
After all, she had been managing Dark Star for hundreds of billions of years—she had long since trained herself into multitasking on an absurd level.
She had no choice but to.
The great creator god often saw, within the same field of vision at the same time:
—A professor in a white lab coat and glasses, hiding in an underground laboratory, mixing various chemicals while laughing nervously and saying he would change the world.
—A genius who had lost his family to enemies, kneeling before their graves, swearing the entire world would pay for their deaths.
—An ambitious figure trying to unify the world, already having developed weapons and preparing to purge everything.
—An organization attempting to change the planet’s environment, planning to launch climate weapons to reshape the atmosphere.
It was easy to imagine just how explosive Cheng Qisheng’s mental state had been at the time.
She forced herself to endure the headache-level mental strain, constantly multitasking and cleaning up the messes in real time—barely managing to keep several civilizations alive for that long.
Otherwise, back in the “caveman era,” when some mentally unhinged tribe leader—howling “Uraaa!” while pounding his chest—decided to take the remaining primitive humans to challenge a three-meter-tall, one-ton cave bear, humanity would have gone extinct long ago.
At her peak, she could monitor hundreds of millions of people simultaneously.
Now she was only tracking Nuclear Crystal Hunters. When those hunters eventually gathered intelligence and sent it back to the Safe City, Cheng Qisheng wouldn’t even need to devote much attention to it.
But… was this normal for a person?
Forget it. It didn’t matter. The most important thing now was to stabilize this world, secure more resources, and obtain more nuclear crystals.
Being able to multitask was a good thing anyway. She could simultaneously keep an eye on the city lord group chat, oversee military expansion and frontier development, and follow the hunters’ perspectives to see what the outside world beyond the zombie apocalypse looked like.
—
Wang Moning curled up inside a wooden cage, watching the busy Blue Sea soldiers moving back and forth—people in white lab coats, along with various logistics staff.
Her emotions had gradually calmed down now, but she was still very nervous, and her memories were hazy.
She only vaguely remembered that yesterday, when a soldier tried to get her to leave the wooden cage, she had struggled with almost all her strength just to avoid being taken out.
Wang Moning was seventeen years old, a high school senior. Her academic performance was very poor, so when the zombie outbreak happened, she had been attending cram school downstairs from her home.
She witnessed classmates beside her turning into terrifying monsters, which then quickly infected other students.
She and one classmate desperately hid in the storage room of the cram school, surviving on the food and water inside.
Then, after an unknown amount of time—maybe three months, maybe four—the classmate who had been hiding with her developed some kind of illness. At first, they complained of severe abdominal pain, then back and waist pain as well. After struggling for two or three days, they died.
Wang Moning stayed alone with the corpse for a very long time. The smell of decay, the dwindling food supply, and the constant pounding and howling of zombies outside kept her in a state of constant tension.
Until two days ago, gunshots suddenly rang out, and the storage room door was opened. A group of fully armed soldiers rescued her.
Just when Wang Moning was in a dazed state, thinking she had been saved, she was shocked to realize she couldn’t understand a word the soldiers were saying.
It wasn’t her country’s language, nor any other widely known language. Were these people… aliens?
Wang Moning was placed inside a wooden cage. At first, she thought she was being treated like a prisoner. But after seeing a survivor in a neighboring cage transform into a zombie, she realized this was quarantine.
After the quarantine period ended, she refused to leave the cage. Wang Moning had seen people who were released before her being taken away—and never coming back again.
She didn’t know where those people had gone. The language barrier had become fertile ground for imagination.
The people in white lab coats here held a very high status. Whenever soldiers on patrol encountered someone in a white coat, they would place a hand over their chest in what was clearly a gesture of respect.
She had watched many movies—what kind of place gives white coats such a high status? Of course, a research facility.
What if those people who were taken away were being dissected by the white coats?
Or maybe not. After all, these “aliens” hadn’t harmed her yet—but Wang Moning didn’t dare take that gamble.
So she stubbornly refused to leave, and had been secretly observing her surroundings, planning to find a chance to escape.
But these alien guards were simply too tight. There were no gaps at all. Wang Moning could only keep waiting.
And today, an opportunity finally seemed to appear.
A squad of alien soldiers arrived with several other aliens in different clothing (not military uniforms, so probably not soldiers). They stood in front of her wooden cage and pointed at her while talking.
It looked like… they were advertising her.
Were these aliens trying to sell her to someone else?
Uneasy, Wang Moning tried to interpret what they might be saying.
Were they saying she was disobedient? Uncooperative?
Were they going to drag her out and eliminate her?
Meanwhile, Sergeant Mia from the logistics support camp was enthusiastically praising Wang Moning to a group of Nuclear Crystal Hunters:
“She’s very brave, and very strong. Yesterday she even kicked a soldier’s arm and left a bruise.”
Mia kept praising this “fierce local native”:
“Also, she has guts. The soldier who brought her here said she had been locked in a room with a rotting corpse for over a month. A native like this is exactly the kind of talent you want!”
The leader of the Nuclear Crystal Hunters, Song Xi, looked Wang Moning up and down:
“I don’t see any muscle definition on her.”
Mia rolled her eyes.
“Of course you don’t. She’s been trapped for half a year, barely had enough food to eat. Whatever muscle she had is long gone.”
“You just tell me—are you hiring her or not? If you’re not willing to hire her, we can’t provide any more candidates. You arrived too late; the other teams have already hired all the locals willing to work as translators.”
Song Xi cursed: “These ridiculous long-legged rabbits.”
She and her team had already rushed fast enough, but the group in front had moved even faster, leaving them now with only one local candidate.
“Fine, then her it is.”
Mia stepped back. “You handle communication with her yourselves. As long as she agrees, there’s no problem on our side.”
Song Xi was clearly prepared. She signaled her team member to hand over a freshly drawn picture to Wang Moning.
That girl called “Yubao” had already proven something: even if they didn’t share a language, drawings could bridge communication.
When recruiting Nuclear Crystal Hunters, they had deliberately brought a former professional artist on the team, specifically for situations like this where they needed to communicate with locals.
Wang Moning looked warily at the drawing being handed to her.
It showed her… or at least it seemed to be her. Same clothes, same wooden cage.
In the drawing, someone was giving her food, water, and several strange pieces of paper. Then she left the cage and, together with a few others, was surrounded by zombies. She was talking to them. Then they moved somewhere else—surrounded by zombies again, talking again. Then another location, another encirclement, another conversation.
What did it mean?
Wang Moning thought hard. Was this a threat? Was it telling her not to refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a penalty toast—warning her that if she didn’t come out, she would be thrown into zombie hordes like the others?
Seeing that the local girl seemed to be thinking deeply, Song Xi felt quite pleased.
“She’s seriously considering whether to join. Looks like we’ll have a translator soon.”
Even if this translator couldn’t understand their spoken language, they could still build some mutual understanding. They could learn along the way—it was still better than randomly encountering unknown locals outside.
“Quick, show her our sincerity.”
The team immediately placed the prepared canned food, compressed biscuits, candy, and several point vouchers in front of the wooden cage.
Song Xi coughed lightly. “This is your salary. I know it’s a bit little, but if you come with us, food and accommodation are included. You’ll also get 3% of the points earned from this expedition. That’s already quite a lot—after all, you’re not a primary combat member and still need our protection.”
“I already heard from Officer Mia. You refused to join the construction team and even used force when someone tried to recruit you. Very good—this shows you share the same desire for combat as us.”
“Although the military is unwilling to accept outsiders like you into their ranks, we Nuclear Crystal Hunters don’t mind. Come, join us! Let’s work together—under the watchful gaze of the great Creator God—to build the strongest Nuclear Crystal Hunter team!”
Wang Moning stared at her.
What… what was she even saying?
Was this a threat or not?
Forget it. She should just leave first. If she was truly being sold off, at least being with these people was better than staying under this heavily monitored military camp.
Maybe she could even find a chance to escape during transport.
Hesitantly, Wang Moning took a step forward.
Song Xi looked delighted. The team members also looked delighted.
“She agreed!”
“We finally have a translator!”
Wang Moning saw the aliens smiling and forced an awkward, stiff smile back, while silently thinking about how she might escape.
There were seven aliens in total—eight including her—and they led her out of the camp all the way past the tall defensive wall.
Wang Moning was overjoyed. She had noticed that massive wall long ago. When she first tried to escape, she had been thinking of ways to get past it—but unexpectedly, she was simply walked right out.
Great, she was out safely—
…Wait??
Why were there so many zombies outside the wall?
It’s fine. Since these aliens dared to come out, they must be fully confident in the situation outside, right?
Huh? Why are they pushing motorcycles out?
At the very least, shouldn’t they be using a four-wheeled vehicle?!
“Wait? You want me to get on the vehicle? And then what? Any protective measures? No—wait! You’re just going to drive like this?!!!”
Wang Moning was wedged between the others, watching helplessly as they rode motorcycles ahead.
Scattered zombies were gathering from all directions.
The road in front was relatively clear—probably already swept clean—but the further they went, the more zombies surrounded them.
As zombies got close, the person riding behind would swing a weapon and take them down hard. If there were too many, the motorcycles would switch into a drifting mode, weaving wildly between zombies in a thrilling game of cat-and-mouse. It was extremely dependent on the rider’s skill.
This was how Nuclear Crystal Hunters left the city.
Simple. Brutal. And extremely rough.
Wang Moning had already gone numb.
The most absurd part was that she noticed similar teams behind them—and ahead as well.
And somehow… they actually broke through the encirclement.
Are all aliens this insane?!
At this point, she wasn’t even thinking about escaping anymore. Escape what? There were zombies everywhere. She’d get bitten long before she even got out.
Silently, she grabbed the waist of the alien in front of her, afraid she’d be thrown off by accident.
The one whose waist was grabbed—Song Xi—swung a club and knocked down a zombie charging from the side. She thought to herself that the ancients were right: shared battle truly builds bonds.
See? They had only just started fighting together, and the local translator was already this close to her.
Up ahead, a Nuclear Crystal Hunter squad cleverly used two motorcycles to trip a large group of zombies, triggering cheers from the other teams behind them.
“WOOHOO!!!”
“Beautiful!!!”
Seizing the moment, all teams accelerated in unison and charged toward the fallen horde.
Song Xi also joined in, shouting excitedly with everyone as they rushed forward:
“Kill them all!!!!!!!!”
Wang Moning, hearing the cheers, thought they had already broken out of the encirclement. She quickly looked up—only to find more zombies than before.
“……”
What—what exactly are you all cheering for?!
Compared to her panic, Cheng Qisheng remained much calmer.
She was already used to it.
The Blue Sea people were like this—once combat started, they got excited.
And if combat also came with rewards, they got even more excited.
Her main perspective for the day had been following these Nuclear Crystal Hunters. Although the experts were already analyzing this world’s situation, it would still take time to reach conclusions.
Watching it directly like a livestream was much faster.
However, it would still take a while for the Nuclear Crystal Hunters to reach the next resource-rich city. Cheng Qisheng slightly shifted her attention, diverting more of it back to the group chat to “fish.”
After two days of waiting, an opportunity finally appeared.
A Safe City that had never spoken since she joined the group finally spoke.
[Love Meat Safe City: @Coriander Safe City, I got a batch of grain. It’s old grain, but still edible. 5 tons of grain in exchange for 1,000 tons of wood. Deal or no deal?]
The pricing was somewhat exploitative, but if Cheng Qisheng hadn’t appeared, Coriander Safe City would have been desperately begging and thanking them just to make the trade.
After all, one side could sell or not sell as they pleased, while the other side—if they couldn’t buy—would literally starve to death.
But the key issue now was that Coriander Safe City already had a purchasing channel.
Naturally, Wen Huahua wasn’t about to betray the “big boss” of Blue Sea Safe City. He immediately ran to Cheng Qisheng’s private chat.
[Boss boss, I told Love Meat that my residents found food themselves—what do you think? I’m afraid if I say you’re the one supplying the grain, the other city lords will start targeting you.]
Cheng Qisheng replied quickly: [It’s fine, just tell the truth. I won’t leak coordinates anyway. Also, I’ve found some more grain on my side and want to see if I can exchange it for other resources with different city lords =v=]
[Coriander Safe City: Mm-mm, okay boss! Then I’ll tell the truth. Wish you success in trading for the resources you want! I’m able to go out now—if I find new resources, I’ll ask you first whether you need them!]
After finishing his usual flattery, Wen Huahua returned to the group chat.
[@Love Meat Safe City, thank you thank you! But it’s okay~ The Blue Sea boss in our group already sold us grain, so we’re not short on food for now. Really appreciate you thinking of us, heart~]
[Love Meat Safe City: Got it. Contact me if you need anything.]
The conversation was simple—but it immediately set off a wave among all the city lords.
Grain was a hard currency.
A city lord willing to sell grain definitely had surplus stock.
This new Blue Sea Safe City… was it really that powerful? Not only had it advanced to Tier 2 immediately after arriving, it even had extra grain to sell?
Whether it was because they didn’t understand how valuable grain was, or because they truly had abundant reserves, all the city lords reached the same conclusion almost instantly:
If they were willing to sell to Coriander Safe City… didn’t that mean they might also sell to others?
At that moment, every city lord began thinking the same thing:
They needed to build a good relationship with Blue Sea Safe City.
thanks for the translation