Safe City Ch.13.1

Chapter 13.1: Blue Sea Housing

Regarding the history of Blue Sea, there is an idiom that runs through both ancient and modern times: waging war without restraint.

The reason the Blue Sea civilization—despite having the support of Cheng Qisheng—has only developed to a population of 360 million is precisely because they have pushed those four words to the absolute extreme.

Fortunately, this generation’s president is quite capable and realized early on that they couldn’t just keep recklessly advancing.

Between the two choices of “pause and focus on development” and “keep fighting and fighting,”

President Qin Zhi chose… both!

——

When Song Xi led the Explorer Squad into the city, she could already hear explosions coming from all directions in the distance, along with the rumbling clatter of road-breaking machines.

It was so noisy it sounded like a million houses were being demolished at the same time.

Who would have thought it? They had already left the range of Qianli City, yet on the rooftop of the neighboring city they unexpectedly ran into the Blue Sea civilization’s forward exploration team.

After asking around, they learned that the Temple had actually moved directly to Qianli City.

They had set out from home and traveled thousands of miles, passing through multiple cities over half a month—only to look up and find that “home” had followed them here too.

Song Xi, of course, happily brought her team members back.

This was perfect—it allowed them to replenish their spent weapons and ammunition, and it also gave Wang Moning a chance to get to know Blue Sea.

“What are they demolishing that’s making such a huge noise? Let’s go ask at the information desk.”

She led the team, detouring from Gate Passage 44 to Gate Passage 45, heading to the inquiry office there.

Wang Moning followed closely behind her. It was her first time in an alien city, and she was extremely nervous, afraid she might get separated if she wasn’t careful.

Seeing Song Xi deliberately take such a detour just to go to Gate 45’s inquiry office, she asked curiously,

“Captain, Gate 44 also has an inquiry office.”

Song Xi laughed. “I know. But the receptionist at Gate 45 is my classmate.”

“Oh!”

So that’s how it was.

Wang Moning thought to herself: so even aliens rely on connections and familiarity to get things done.

Song Xi arrived at the inquiry desk at Gate 45. Instead of first asking why there were explosions everywhere, she deliberately placed her tactical watch on the counter.

With a loud thud, her wrist hit the platform, and the points screen on the watch was turned directly toward the staff.

The young man sitting behind the desk glanced over casually at first. But when he saw the number of points displayed, his expression shifted to shock.

“So many? Did you wipe out a zombie nest outside?”

Song Xi tilted her mouth slightly. “Receiving the blessings of our God, these are all rewards from Her.”

The young man’s expression immediately changed from surprise to intense envy.

“You actually received the God’s reward?!”

He straightened up at once, even patting his chest as a gesture of admiration toward Song Xi.

Song Xi’s smirk grew even more pronounced, her whole demeanor radiating a thoroughly satisfied, smug energy.

Wang Moning, standing behind her, was speechless: “……”

So the reason she took a detour wasn’t to rely on familiarity for convenience—it was to show off to someone she knew.

After finishing her display, Song Xi finally didn’t forget to ask about the distant booming explosions throughout the city.

The young man replied, “The Temple absorbed that defeated city, along with all the buildings on it. But those buildings aren’t really suitable for living. Some are so luxurious they’re blinding, but with too few rooms; others are so dilapidated they’re completely unlivable.”

“So the President issued an order: demolish all buildings from the defeated city, flatten everything, and rebuild from scratch.”

“I see,” Song Xi said curiously. “So if they’re too dilapidated to live in… why were there houses at all? Who was living in them?”

“The sl*ves of the defeated city. I’ve been there before—those ‘houses’ were only this tall and this narrow.” He gestured. “They’re not really houses. Just a few wooden boards put together. They can’t even block wind and rain. People just slept directly on the dirt floor.”

The young man measured the size with his hands: about waist height, and only around two meters wide.

“Those blue-skinned people are really cruel. It’s not like they don’t have enough people or space to build proper housing. If they disliked the sl*ves, they could just kill them outright. Why bother torturing them instead?”

Song Xi nodded repeatedly in agreement as she listened.

“Yes, those blue-skinned people are truly hateful. So what’s happening to those sl*ves now? I saw them outside, and it looks like they’re building houses too.”

The young man replied, “A divine oracle has been issued. Our God is merciful and is willing to temporarily shelter them. At the same time, among them, some who also believe in our God will be selected and brought into Blue Sea.”

Song Xi’s eyes lit up. She pulled Wang Moning forward.

“This is a local friend I know. She has already received the God’s blessing, so can I apply for a resident card for her now?”

Suddenly pulled to the front, Wang Moning became extremely nervous.

She had been trying to piece together the conversation the whole time, guessing at most of it, and she did understand Song Xi’s last sentence.

She wanted to say that she might not necessarily join Blue Sea. But then she thought of her family, who were already confirmed dead, and the survivors who had been tortured by those blue-skinned aliens—and suddenly it felt like she really didn’t have any other choice but Blue Sea.

At the very least, the Explorer Squad members had already become her friends. The so-called Creator God had also “noticed” her and even given her a very good feeling… and even paid her a salary.

But… did she really have to join an alien civilization?

To completely separate herself from her familiar language and culture, and integrate into another civilization?

Could she really fit in? Would the aliens accept her?

In her world, even different human races discriminated against each other—let alone beings from different planets.

The young man looked at Wang Moning, his gaze lingering especially on her arms, which were much thinner compared to Blue Sea people.

Wang Moning was already anxious, and that look—like “this weak little thing can also receive divine blessing?”—made her especially sensitive to it.

Fortunately, the man only glanced briefly before carefully taking a crystal ball out of a drawer.

“Please place your hand on it.”

Wang Moning didn’t understand what this was for, but she obediently placed her hand on it anyway.

The crystal ball emitted a faint, shimmering white light—weak, but unmistakably present.

Wang Moning was stunned.

So this is what a world with gods looks like?!

It was unbelievably strange—and amazing!

The young man’s expression immediately turned warm and enthusiastic. He gave her a big smile.

“You’ve received divine blessing, so you’re eligible for a resident ID. I’ll process it for you right now. Come on, face the camera—smile.”

Wang Moning could clearly feel the shift.

Just moments ago, he had still been looking at her with a “this is an alien” attitude. But now, his tone had become as familiar as when he spoke to Song Xi and the others.

After the recording, snap—the young man pulled out a registration form for the resident ID.

“Now just fill this out. If you can’t read, you can have Song Xi help you. Once it’s filled in, I’ll input it into the system and your ID will be done.”

That fast?

Wasn’t it supposed to be that she passed some kind of test first, then was told to go to a government hall, submit her information, get questioned, verified, checked—and only after several working days would she get it approved?

How could a resident ID be processed right here at a gate inquiry desk?!

Three minutes later, Wang Moning was holding her own resident ID.

It was extremely rough and simple—only her name, gender, and address were written on it.

She looked at it and asked, “What does this address mean?”

When Song Xi filled out the form earlier, she had asked whether Wang Moning wanted to spend 100 points per month to rent subsidized housing. It wasn’t guaranteed they’d be neighbors, but they could be assigned to the same building.

Wang Moning had almost instinctively wanted to stick to her like a chick following its mother hen. Hearing that she might be placed in the same building, she of course nodded eagerly.

She still couldn’t read Blue Sea script yet, but even from the length alone, she could tell something was off.

Wasn’t this address a bit… way, way, way too long?

Song Xi took the resident ID and read it out:

“District 9, Sector 309, Street 184, D79 Residential Area, Building 176, Floor 81, Unit 56 from the left.”

She smiled brightly.

“Arthur really is quite reliable. I’m on the 82nd floor—we’re neighbors!”

Wang Moning’s head was already spinning just from hearing all those “district, sector, street” terms.

When she heard “81st floor,” she looked even more shocked.

“So high up?”

As expected of aliens—such advanced technology, living in buildings that tall.

Wait… if she remembered correctly, the captain had mentioned before in casual conversation that Blue Sea was also undergoing large-scale construction and was currently in a period of resource tightening. Over eighty floors—there shouldn’t even be elevators, right?

Song Xi looked surprised.

“Elevators? Why would we need elevators?”

Wang Moning was even more shocked than her.

“No elevators? You climb everything by foot?”

How long would that take?!

Song Xi patted her shoulder.

“Don’t worry. It won’t take long. Two minutes to get up. Very fast.”

Wang Moning: “……”

Eighty-plus floors… in two minutes?

She felt that the “climb” Song Xi was talking about and the “climb” she was imagining were probably not the same thing.

Just as she was silently mourning her legs, Wang Moning suddenly raised her head sharply and looked toward the sky.

Song Xi and the other team members all followed her gaze in unison.

“What’s wrong?”

“What are you looking at?”

Wang Moning scratched the back of her head.

“Nothing… I just feel like something is watching me. Maybe I’m mistaken.”

——

Cheng Qisheng watched this scene and remarked, “She’s quite sensitive.”

Is it because she’s a newer believer, making her more special? Or is it simply that this girl named Wang Moning has naturally sharper senses?

She had originally been observing the advance of the vanguard team, but suddenly sensed that a tiny portion of her distributed attention had reacted—so she shifted her perspective over.

The crystal ball used at the inquiry desk to test faith was a new invention she had developed herself.

Since she could already distribute her attention across multiple regions of Dark Star, could she break it down even further?

After multiple attempts, Cheng Qisheng successfully split off an even finer, almost microscopic thread of attention and distributed it into those crystal balls.

As long as a believer touched one of them, that thread of attention would trigger a switch inside the crystal ball—making it light up.

This small invention was, of course, designed for those alien believers.

Cheng Qisheng had already made a decision regarding these other civilizations.

When the time came to leave this world, she might take some members of other civilizations with her—but official resident IDs would only be issued to believers.

Everything else could be faked, but faith—faith could not be fabricated.

As long as someone believed in her, she could sense their existence. If she focused closely enough, she could even vaguely perceive their emotions.

She could distinguish loyalty from betrayal at a glance.

It wasn’t that all believers of Cheng Qisheng were necessarily good people—human nature was far too complex for that.

She couldn’t ensure every new believer in Blue Sea would be righteous, but as long as they were believers, they would fall within her “monitoring range,” and major chaos would not escape her notice.

There were still bad people in Blue Sea. Even when doing evil, they still believed in the great Creator God.

Cheng Qisheng did not expect to build a perfectly harmonious society without crime. A world where law enforcement consistently outweighed criminals was already good enough.

To her, this power of faith was like a game she had created: all believers were players in that game.

Players could act normally, do all kinds of things—there would be both righteous players and destructive troublemakers—but no matter what they did, the highest authority of the game world always remained in the hands of its server administrator: her.

And now, Wang Moning was the first “external player” after the game’s launch.

Cheng Qisheng couldn’t help but pay a bit more attention to her.

Oh right—the spokesperson of Cosmic.

She had already had Qin Zhi investigate and locate them.

It was a researcher named Ruo Buyan.

She still hadn’t obtained eligibility to enter the Safe City, but Blue Sea had always followed a principle of rewarding merit. Ruo Buyan had contributed significantly in the recent Safe City war—without her tricking Cosmic into spending more core crystals, Blue Sea would not have won so easily.

So although Ruo Buyan was still outside the city walls, her benefits and treatment were first-class. She had even successfully secured a position at a research institute (which was still under construction). The house assigned to her was among the first batch to be completed, and 10,000 points had already been credited to her temporary account.

Ruo Buyan was very satisfied with her current life—but she was not content to stop there.

Cheng Qisheng had once seen, through a Blue Sea staff member who coordinated with her, that ever since Ruo Buyan learned that only believers of the Creator God could obtain official Safe City residency, she had become the most diligent visitor to the temporary temples outside the Safe City.

Every day, she memorized how the great Creator God had created and saved Blue Sea, rapidly studied the Blue Sea language and writing, and spent day and night poring over a scripture compiled by the Blue Sea Temple called Genesis.

She even seriously asked temple personnel whether Blue Sea had any kind of “physical brainwashing technology.”

Something like cutting out part of the brain to create a brief memory blank, then implanting new memories that she was a believer of the great Creator God.

At the time, she had rushed to ask a preacher:

“If there is, please use it on me! I’m willing! As long as it doesn’t affect my knowledge, even if there are memory gaps as a side effect, I still accept it!”

This frightened the young preacher badly.

“Manipulating the human brain is an evil act! Please calm down!”

Rejected—and nearly labeled a heretic—Ruo Buyan had no choice but to give up reluctantly. As a compromise, she began to continuously recite the greatness of the Creator God every day, using constant repetition to “brainwash” herself psychologically.

Even Cheng Qisheng couldn’t help but admire her.

With that level of determination, Ruo Buyan would succeed at anything she set her mind to.

She planned to wait until these other civilizations had settled down a bit, then create a “miracle” to see if she could attract more people to believe in her.

Cheng Qisheng had already made a decision: even if Ruo Buyan saw the miracle and still failed to become her believer, she would still bring her along when Safe City left this world.

Although she would not be allowed into Blue Sea’s core circle due to the inability to fully control her, every bit of value she created would still be rewarded accordingly.

Of course, it would be best if Ruo Buyan could become her believer through this kind of self-driven “brainwashing.”

A talent like this—ruthless toward herself and others, highly intelligent, extremely capable, and deeply knowledgeable—was perfect for Blue Sea.

Cheng Qisheng’s gaze passed through one Blue Sea believer and briefly fell on Ruo Buyan, who was frantically memorizing Genesis, before shifting again to her first alien believer: Wang Moning.

Meanwhile, Song Xi had already taken Wang Moning across several transfers and routes, arriving at Building 176 in D79 Residential Area.

“So lucky—we only spent two hours getting here. Development really is fast. When I left, every route required resident quotas. Leaving the city could take five hours.”

But Wang Moning’s face was pale.

“Captain… is the bus going too fast?”

The vehicle they were riding looked similar to buses from her memory—just longer and wider.

Before boarding, she had even thought alien transport didn’t look that different after all. But once it started moving, she immediately realized she had been completely wrong.

It wasn’t driving—it was flying.

At that speed, if anything went wrong, everyone on board would die instantly, crushed beyond recognition.

Song Xi laughed.

“It is a bit fast. But don’t worry—my classmate said that all city routes are now controlled and allocated by the AI. The AI ensures that no people or objects will ever appear on a bus’s route.”

“Then if there’s an obstacle ahead—like a broken bus blocking the road—the AI will notify the driver immediately and reroute everything, so accidents are absolutely impossible!”

AI?

It sounded incredibly advanced.

Wang Moning was once again pulled into thoughts of “alien technology is truly unbelievable”, while quietly worrying that she might look like some unsophisticated bumpkin.

Next time she encountered something like this, she told herself, she must act calmer—at least keep her expression composed.

She lifted her head and looked at the towering building in front of her.

It reached straight into the clouds, its exterior design extremely rough—just raw concrete forming a massive cylindrical structure.

It was enormous.

The building had as many as ten entrances alone.

So this was where Blue Sea people lived?

Compared to it, she wasn’t even an ant—she was nothing more than a speck at the gate.

Song Xi didn’t notice her local friend’s silent amazement. She stretched lazily.

“Alright, let’s go in. We’ll drop off our luggage first, then go buy you some basic necessities.”

She held her resident card up. Beep—the gate responded.

The barrier opened.

Song Xi walked in first and gestured for Wang Moning to follow.

Wang Moning nervously took out her own resident card as well. Another beep.

She stepped inside.

—And then froze, mouth slowly opening.

The outside of the building already looked rough and massive, but the inside was even rougher.

No paint on the walls at all—just exposed concrete.

There were no stairs, no visible floors stacked upward.

It was clearly a women-only residence; tall, strong Blue Sea women like Song Xi could be seen walking back and forth.

In the center was a circular hall. Above it, rows upon rows of what had to be at least hundreds of water taps were installed along the ceiling.

Some people were doing laundry there, some were washing up, and there were even small rooms whose purpose she couldn’t quite figure out.

These small rooms were the only remaining “proper housing” that Wang Moning could access.

She looked upward.

The walls were densely packed with openings, like a beehive—except unlike a hive, these openings stacked upward layer after layer without occupying the central space.

Some openings had clothes or fabric hung up as makeshift curtains. Others were completely open, allowing Wang Moning to see inside—beds, bags hanging on the walls, and storage cabinets behind them.

The highest openings seemed to extend at least a hundred floors up.

There were no elevators, no stairs—only iron chains hanging down from above in long strands.

There were many of them. People were constantly grabbing the chains to move up and down. Others used them to transport items. If someone was already using a chain below, people above would simply twist and shift to another chain beside it, all very naturally and efficiently.

She even saw a child living in a room dozens of levels up swing directly across to a friend’s room using a chain, then grab another chain, climb a few steps, and enter another opening where another child was already waiting.

Wang Moning: “……”

Her mind went completely blank.

And she wasn’t the only one shocked.

Cheng Qisheng, who was happily drinking a milk tea, was also stunned.

“Aether, this is the residential district you all built?”

She knew Blue Sea civilization and Aether had been aggressively developing infrastructure, but before, she had only seen towering buildings from a bird’s-eye view. She had been busy with work—and dealing with Cosmic—so this was her first time actually seeing what the inside looked like.

While Blue Sea citizens could practically cosplay Tarzan, this residential structure was basically a full-on beehive.

Which genius came up with this?

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