Chapter 25: World Peace
For Cheng Qisheng, she had merely sent out a mass message proposing cooperation.
For the three city lords, however, there was much more to consider.
“What do you think? Is this so-called cooperation really what she claims it is—a joint operation against a Tier-3 zombie—or is it simply a pretext to trick us into revealing our trump cards?”
Blue Leaf sat upon his throne, with more than a dozen of his most trusted civil and military ministers gathered below.
Yes. Although the other city lords all suspected that Cheng Qisheng had probably been an emperor in her original world, the truth was that Blue Leaf was the actual emperor.
Before the apocalypse, he had been nothing more than an overlooked prince. But once the apocalypse arrived and he became the lord of a Safe City, everyone’s status changed.
After a series of bloody court struggles—so extensive that describing them would probably take tens of thousands of words—Blue Leaf ultimately secured his position as city lord, successfully ascended the throne, and cultivated a governing faction loyal to himself.
If all Safe Cities had civilizations with ancient-era backgrounds, Blue Leaf would have lived quite comfortably.
Unfortunately, most Safe Cities came from modern civilizations. Those city lords might not have enough population or obedient subjects, but they possessed firearms and technology far beyond ancient standards.
Still, Blue Leaf had advantages of his own.
Everyone in his civilization had grown up under an imperial system. Combined with the city lord’s authority to exile residents, Blue Leaf’s word was absolute within his Safe City. Through sheer manpower and organization during the early stages, he forcibly closed the gap with the Safe Cities that had modern backgrounds.
Now, he could proudly declare:
“So what if my original world was an ancient one?”
Their Blue Leaf Safe City could still far surpass contemporary civilizations that came from modern worlds.
In times of peace, perhaps the social systems of modern civilization were admirable.
But for Safe Cities that had to travel through one disaster-ridden world after another, having the entire realm follow a single voice was, in his view, the most suitable system—and the one most capable of preserving the greatest number of lives.
For those Safe Cities where power was fragmented and the city lord could not fully centralize authority, Blue Leaf had always harbored a sense of superiority.
Although he had no choice but to seek alliances with other city lords, that was only so he could learn their technologies after becoming allies and use them to develop his own people.
Blue Leaf firmly believed that one day, his Safe City would become a powerful civilization that combined absolute authority in the hands of the city lord with every advantage of modern technology.
Then Blue Sea appeared out of nowhere.
Blue Leaf : “…”
Blue Sea Safe City’s starting point was the very destination he had spent all this time striving toward.
Compared to the other city lords, Blue Leaf was the first to recognize how terrifying Blue Sea truly was. He understood exactly how formidable a Safe City like that could be in combat.
He didn’t know what the other city lords were thinking, but as for himself, Blue Leaf had never once considered fighting Blue Sea.
If he didn’t desperately need crystal nucleus, the best course of action right now would probably be the same as Gu Gaga’s—pack up and leave.
His ministers shared much the same perspective. They racked their brains trying to interpret Blue Sea’s intentions.
“This… Your Majesty, I believe that regardless of what Blue Sea Safe City intends to do, since she has already proposed cooperation to Your Majesty, she has likely extended the same invitation to the other city lords. If Your Majesty refuses, and Blue Sea forms an alliance with the others, then our Blue Leaf Dynasty will be in grave danger!”
“I support a temporary alliance. We should remain cautious and observe how the situation develops.”
“Blue Sea has already completed the world mission and received its rewards. Having achieved its objective, it should have no reason to attack other Safe Cities now.”
“The Chancellor’s reasoning is flawed. How do you know Blue Sea hasn’t simply eaten its fill, regained its strength, and is now preparing to make an even bigger move?”
The ministers quickly went from “offering their opinions” to “attacking one another’s opinions.”
Meanwhile, Blue Leaf sat on his throne, expressionless as he watched his ministers argue.
He was used to it.
Just another ordinary day in court.
Come to think of it, the situation over in Blue Sea was probably much the same, wasn’t it?
…Right?
Before proposing cooperation with the other Safe Cities, Blue Sea’s own “court” had surely looked much the same—civil and military officials arguing among themselves, debating endlessly before finally reaching a decision.
—Blue Leaf’s court argued until evening before reaching a conclusion. The other two Safe Cities went through roughly the same process.
Then the three Safe Cities spent the entire next day drafting a temporary alliance agreement together.
“Since we’re forming an alliance, we should still sign a formal pact. We’ve drafted a preliminary set of alliance terms. Blue Sea, take a look and see whether you’d like to revise or add anything.”
“Okay~”
Cheng Qisheng accepted the document.
A moment later, her eyebrow twitched.
The alliance agreement was formal, professional, and unambiguous.
The only problem was that it was absurdly, ridiculously long—
There had to be over a thousand specific clauses in here, right?
Without hesitation, Cheng Qisheng called out:
“Aether!”
Aether floated over and completed a full scan in a second.
“Aether has completed the inspection. There are no issues with the agreement. Ninety-nine percent of the clauses exist to prevent allies from exploiting loopholes to attack one another. Furthermore, the restrictions apply equally to all parties.”
For once, it sounded genuinely impressed.
“The author of these regulations succeeded. At the very least, Aether could not find any loopholes to exploit.”
Cheng Qisheng nodded.
“Yeah. You could say it’s extremely comprehensive.”
To summarize the entire document in a single sentence:
We are allies. We may not harm one another. Any form of harm is prohibited.
As expected, city lords confident enough to hunt a Tier-3 zombie were no ordinary people. They had talented individuals under their command.
Just from looking at it, it was obvious this agreement had been drafted on the spot.
After all, if the three city lords had already possessed such a thorough alliance treaty yesterday, they wouldn’t have spent so long deliberating.
Feeling quite pleased, Cheng Qisheng had Aether save a backup copy of the agreement.
After all, a document this well-written might come in handy again in the future.
Template Alliance Contract +1 acquired.
“We’ll use this one next time we form an alliance with someone.”
Even though Aether had already reviewed it, Cheng Qisheng still had the agreement forwarded to Blue Sea for a manual inspection, just to see if any issues could be found.
Blue Sea analyzed the document word by word, clause by clause, before reaching the same conclusion:
“My God, there is nothing wrong with this contract.”
Though whoever drafted it was really afraid of getting attacked by Blue Sea.
After receiving a clean bill of health from both reviewers, Cheng Qisheng turned to the three Safe Cities that were waiting for her response.
“That’s fine. If this agreement will put your minds at ease, I’m willing to sign it.”
Her tone remained as gentle as ever.
“Actually, once you get to know me, you’ll realize that I’m not someone who likes to start wars.”
That was the truth.
Cheng Qisheng genuinely wanted to demonstrate her peaceful intentions.
For other city lords, launching a war could bring many rewards: another city’s core, various resources, and—most importantly—a large influx of population.
But for Cheng Qisheng, all those people who didn’t believe in her faith were of limited value.
What was she supposed to do with a huge number of non-believers?
Blue Sea was already crowded enough as it was.
At least for now, such people were more of a burden than an asset.
Having lots of friends and very few enemies—that was the development path she had always envisioned.
…
The three city lords couldn’t care less what Cheng Qisheng was thinking.
They hurriedly signed their names and sent the agreement back to Blue Sea. Only after seeing [Blue Sea Safe City] officially sign as well did they finally relax.
Whew—
Now they no longer had to worry about being wiped out.
At least until that Tier-3 zombie was dead, the four of them could safely stick together.
As for everything Cheng Qisheng said afterward about not liking to start wars and so on…
Nobody believed a word of it.
Boss, have you forgotten that the whole reason we’re forming this temporary alliance is because you proposed going out and killing a Tier-3 zombie? Laughing crying .jpg
To the three city lords, Cheng Qisheng’s claim sounded a lot like:
“I’m actually a very peaceful person.”
—said while organizing a hunting party to take down one of the strongest monsters in the world.
Not exactly convincing.
In short, the four-city alliance was officially established.
While it wouldn’t be accurate to say that everyone was harboring ulterior motives, it was obvious that the members didn’t fully trust one another. They were only able to maintain this uneasy partnership thanks to the reliability of the alliance agreement—a situation of sharing the same bed while dreaming different dreams.
For the next period of time, the residents of all four Safe Cities mobilized at full capacity. They slaughtered zombies and cleared out territory at a much faster pace than before, preparing a battlefield for the coming confrontation.
The city lords weren’t idle either.
Nobody was chatting casually in the public channels anymore. Instead, they relied almost entirely on private messages, discussing tactics and making preparations for the battle ahead.
For Cheng Qisheng, this way of interacting felt rather novel.
Perhaps in an effort to ease tensions, the other city lords intentionally mixed bits of everyday conversation into their strategic discussions.
Everyone’s attitude toward her had noticeably become warmer and friendlier.
As for gifts—she had received so many that she’d lost count.
Of course, she knew they were trying to curry favor with her and make sure she didn’t attack them.
But who wouldn’t enjoy an environment where everyone was friendly and pleasant?
After all, when Cheng Qisheng was a child, one of her dreams had been to grow up and bring world peace, making everyone kind and friendly to one another.
Her teacher had been delighted and encouraged her:
“I never expected little Qisheng to have such a noble dream! So, how do you plan to accomplish that when you grow up?”
Kindergarten-aged Cheng Qisheng had answered cheerfully:
“I’m going to become the greatest scientist in the world!”
Her teacher nodded approvingly.
“And invent the strongest weapon in the entire world!”
The teacher began to look puzzled.
“Then I’ll use that weapon to kill all the bad people!”
The teacher started sensing that something was wrong.
“And after that, I’ll put the weapon in the sky. Whenever someone becomes bad, it’ll shoot them dead! Then everyone will be nice to each other!”
The teacher: “…”
Thinking back on her kindergarten teacher’s expression now, Cheng Qisheng felt that she had been a bit too young back then.
Human beings were complicated creatures.
People could change at any moment.
How could world peace possibly be as simple as eliminating all the bad people?
The idea had sounded perfectly logical to her childhood self, but reality was far more complicated than that. Even if every “bad person” disappeared today, new conflicts, disagreements, ambitions, fears, and misunderstandings would arise tomorrow.
World peace wasn’t something that could be achieved with a single weapon.
Still, looking at the surprisingly harmonious atmosphere among the four city lords, Cheng Qisheng couldn’t help but feel that her childhood dream wasn’t entirely wrong.
Having more friends and fewer enemies was, at the very least, a good place to start.
But when faced with a powerful existence, everyone was more than willing to show their best side.
For example, right now.
Meow Meow suggested, “Other alliances all have names, meow. Should we pick one too, meow?”
Withered Star replied, “What’s the point of naming an alliance that will dissolve after we finish killing zombies?”
Blue Leaf: “Agreed.”
Cheng Qisheng said, “I think it’s a good idea. Don’t alliances usually have names?”
Blue Leaf: “…Blue Sea is right. Although it’s temporary, it’s still worth commemorating that we once trusted each other. Having a name would be fine.”
Blue Leaf: “I agree.”
Meow Meow: “Okay, then I have a very good suggestion for a name. What do you think of… Meow Sea Alliance, meow?”
It originally wanted to call it the Meow Meow Alliance, but considering Blue Sea’s combat power was higher, it reluctantly changed it.
Blue Leaf said, “Since there are four cities, why not just call it the Four-City Alliance?”
Withered Star: “What a terrible name…”
Cheng Qisheng: “It’s ordinary, but it works.”
Withered Star immediately withdrew his previous statement: “I agree.”
Meow Meow: “Agreed, meow~”
Just like that, through casual conversation, the Four-City Alliance was officially formed.
Of course, everyone was only joking around—no one truly took the alliance name seriously.
After all, once the zombies were dealt with, the agreement would automatically expire.
And the city lords weren’t exactly idle people either. With a major battle approaching, all Safe Cities had entered full-scale preparation mode.
Finally, ten days later, under the combined efforts of the Safe Cities, most of the zombies had been cleared. This was the result of residents accelerating their work as much as possible.
The four Safe Cities finalized their preparations and selected their coordinates.
In the next moment, four Safe Cities simultaneously appeared around the Tier-3 zombie, tightly encircling it in the very center.
All city gates were thrown wide open. The residents of the Safe Cities surged out in waves, weapons in hand, all locking their gaze onto the Tier-3 zombie.
Blue Sea’s army naturally joined the deployment as well. Although the other three city lords were nervous, they didn’t forget to keep an eye on Blue Sea’s situation.
And then—just one look left them stunned.
“Th—those… are rocket launcher squads?”
