Chapter 62: Replaced
Under normal circumstances, if they had already figured out that a Safe City was laying a trap and waiting for a big fish to take the bait, Wen Huahua would definitely advise staying as far away from it as possible.
After all, the most important thing for a Safe City’s survival was to play it safe.
But when that “big fish” happened to be Boss Blue Sea, the situation was a little different.
He hadn’t forgotten that when the boss was only Tier 2, she had killed a Tier 3 enemy.
Then, after reaching Tier 3, she had slain a Tier 4 zombie and rescued Meow Meow Safe City, another Tier 3 city.
He had never once doubted the boss’s strength.
Without even trying to talk her out of it, Wen Huahua immediately agreed.
[Got it, Boss! I’ll send you all the detailed information right away!]
The Safe City trying to lure Blue Sea into a trap this time was called Mianyin Safe City.
Mianyin was only a Tier 2 city. They were fairly active in the group chat and came across as cheerful, outgoing, and completely guileless.
[But I searched through all of Mianyin’s chat history. When they first joined the group, they really did complain about how annoying the Skywing Dragons were. Back then, they approached a lot of city lords looking to form alliances. Later, they stopped complaining, but they still kept trying to make alliance agreements, saying they were weak and willing to become subordinate to another city lord. Most importantly, the alliance terms they sent to the other city lords weren’t the same as the version they sent us.]
[I don’t think they’re targeting you specifically, Boss. They’re just casting a wide net and seeing who they can catch.]
The reason Mianyin hadn’t approached Blue Sea before was simply because Blue Sea had never spoken in the group chat.
But once Blue Sea announced that it was willing to take commissions to eliminate flying snow beasts, Mianyin immediately set its sights on Blue Sea Safe City.
And after going quite some time without mentioning the snow beasts at all, Mianyin suddenly started complaining about the flying snow beasts again right after Blue Sea completed its deal with Puya.
Wen Huahua hadn’t been idle over the past six months, either. He had been steadily cultivating friendships with the other city lords all along.
Although those friendships certainly weren’t very deep, casual day-to-day conversations were never a problem.
Besides, the Four-City Alliance Treaty from Velvet Star had been incredibly comprehensive.
Wen Huahua had no idea what alliance agreements used by high-tier Safe Cities looked like, but the Four-City Alliance Treaty was undoubtedly far more thorough than any alliance contract circulating among the low-tier city lords.
After all, it had been drafted jointly by three Safe Cities, bringing together all of their brightest legal and administrative minds, and refined over an exceptionally long period before becoming the final treaty governing the four-city alliance.
Using the Four-City Alliance Treaty as a template, Wen Huahua had persuaded the other city lords to exchange copies of the alliance agreements Mianyin had previously sent them.
[The version of the alliance agreement Mianyin sent out before was much more detailed and carefully written. You could tell it was the most comprehensive contract they were capable of producing.]
[The one they sent us looks like it has more clauses on the surface, making it seem more complete, but in reality it’s full of loopholes compared to the earlier version.]
After hesitating for a moment, Wen Huahua finally voiced his conclusion.
[Boss, I think Mianyin’s city lord has already been replaced.]
A Safe City’s lord could indeed be replaced.
If a resident killed the city lord and obtained the City Lord Core, they could become the new city lord.
Alternatively, the current city lord could voluntarily hand over the position to one of their residents. As long as both parties agreed, all it took was a token fee of 100 crystals to complete the transfer.
The city lords’ group chat provided no notification whatsoever when a city’s leadership changed. The new city lord simply inherited everything that belonged to the previous one.
Unless the new city lord admitted it themselves, the other city lords generally had no way of realizing a change had taken place. After all, their interactions were limited to chatting in the group.
For safety’s sake, almost no city lord was willing to leave the protection of their own Safe City to meet another city lord in person.
Cases like Withered Star, where the new city lord flooded the group chat with over a dozen messages after taking over—
“Hahahahaha, I killed that damned thing!”
“Die! Die! Die!”
“He’s dead! He’s dead! He’s dead!”
“I’m the city lord now! Hahaha!”
—were actually quite rare.
Meow Meow had later told Cheng Qisheng in private that Withered Star’s mental state had been in pretty bad shape at the time. It only gradually stabilized afterward, and by the time Blue Sea Safe City arrived on Velvet Star, Withered Star had more or less returned to normal.
In short, aside from unusual cases like Withered Star, residents who replaced the original city lord generally didn’t make a public spectacle of it.
[Coriander Safe City: I don’t actually have any proof. Mianyin acts almost exactly the same as before, but… after reading through all of their chat history, I just keep feeling that something isn’t quite the same.]
[Coriander Safe City: It’s only a gut feeling, though. If you asked me exactly what changed, I honestly couldn’t tell you.]
[Blue Sea Safe City: Give me a moment. I’ll have someone analyze it.]
Cheng Qisheng quickly skimmed through the complete chat history Wen Huahua had sent over.
“Aether, make a copy and send it to the Vice President. Have him assign experts to analyze it—as quickly as possible.”
“Understood, City Lord.”
Aether promptly carried out Cheng Qisheng’s instructions.
Within moments, a carefully selected team of specialists throughout Blue Sea Safe City—including psycholinguists, computational linguists, criminal psychologists, and psychological profilers—all received the same assignment.
None of the experts wasted any time. They immediately began analyzing and interpreting the chat logs.
If Wen Huahua had been able to sense that something was off through intuition alone, then for a team of national-level experts working together, identifying the anomaly would be a straightforward task.
Cheng Qisheng poured herself a cup of hot water. As she sipped it leisurely, she listened to the experts’ analysis.
“The imitator’s word choice, sentence structure, pauses, and even punctuation all show obvious signs of trying to imitate the original owner. The imitation is so deliberate that it’s precisely what gives them away.”
“In normal conversation, people don’t stick to the same sentence patterns all the time. Their emotions naturally fluctuate in response to different situations, and human thought itself is scattered and nonlinear. Judging from the original city lord’s earlier messages, he was straightforward, openhearted, and emotionally expressive. He wasn’t the type to consciously police the way he spoke.”
Another expert picked up the discussion.
“Exactly. Based on my psychological profile of the original city lord, his social age was roughly equivalent to that of a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old. He was mentally relaxed, disliked restraining himself, had a simple and genuine mindset, and still possessed a student’s way of thinking. As a result, he sometimes spoke without paying much attention to how his words might affect other people.”
“But the imitator is different. Their social age is around thirty. They’re extremely emotionally restrained, and every sentence appears to have been filtered before being sent. Their logical thinking is stronger than the original’s, and they’re much better at avoiding potential conflict in conversation.”
“I believe that, in their original world, this person likely occupied a relatively high social position. They’re highly goal-oriented. They don’t strike me as someone from politics—more likely someone from the business world.”
“In fact, they don’t particularly enjoy imitating the original city lord’s manner of speaking. Whenever they use one of the original’s catchphrases, they subconsciously change the subject almost immediately afterward. I believe they feel a sense of guilt toward the original owner, but it’s only fleeting. Most of the time, they’re in a state of complete self-satisfaction, as though everything is going exactly as they planned.”
Another expert added, “I also believe the original city lord was a student. He likely came from a happy family and had enjoyed a smooth life, so even when faced with difficulties, he remained relatively optimistic.”
“The imitator, on the other hand, instinctively approaches every conversation with a far more meticulous way of thinking. Even though they’ve wrapped their messages in the original owner’s tone of voice, the difference between the two is as obvious as starfruit vegetables and cocoa beans—they’re nothing alike.”
The criminal psychologist then offered his conclusion.
“I believe the two were relatives. Not distant relatives, either. They were closer than that, though not exceptionally close. My best guess is that they were cousins.”
“The older cousin took advantage of the younger cousin’s trust and caused his death.”
“The last thing the younger cousin said before he died was probably, ‘Things will get better.’ That was also a phrase he frequently used in the group chat to comfort other people. Ever since the imitator took over the account, however, he has never used that expression again when comforting others.”
The psychologist tapped the table.
“Verifying this is simple. Have someone strike up a conversation with the older cousin and deliberately say those words. Then observe his reaction.”
The experts continued discussing the case, digging even deeper.
National-level experts truly were impressive. Cheng Qisheng even had the feeling that, given a little more time, they could reconstruct the two men’s entire lives from childhood onward.
But what they had already uncovered was more than sufficient.
She instructed Aether to summarize the findings, organize them into a concise report, and send the package to Coriander.
[Blue Sea Safe City: Use the last method. Test him.]
Coriander hurriedly skimmed through the report.
Two minutes later, the group chat was flooded with exclamation marks.
[Coriander Safe City: !!! You guys are incredible!! The experts on your side are insanely good!!!]
[Coriander Safe City: Oh my god!! Give them just a little more information, and I feel like your people could even figure out the color of their underwear!]
[Coriander Safe City: As expected of you, Boss!! You’re amazing!]
Wen Huahua was genuinely stunned.
Such incredible analytical ability… Just how many experts had they assembled? It felt like they had specialists from every conceivable field.
Amazing. Simply amazing.
Blue Sea wasn’t just overwhelmingly powerful in combat. Moments like this made him feel as though his boss had somehow moved an entire nation into the Safe City.
Still marveling, Wen Huahua carefully read through the entire report.
[Got it, Boss. I’ll test him right away!]
Starting a conversation with Mianyin would be easy.
Wen Huahua was constantly active in the group chat, and so was Mianyin. The two of them chatted regularly to begin with.
Besides, the city lords’ group spent most of its time complaining about one thing or another.
After all, surviving in a post-apocalyptic world meant there was always something worth complaining about.
When I complain, you comfort me.
When you complain, I comfort you.
Or everyone joins in and compares whose situation is worse.
That was the group’s normal dynamic. Even though words of comfort couldn’t solve any real problems, they at least made people feel a little better.
And when city lords shared the hardships they were facing, it also served as a warning to everyone else, giving them a chance to identify weaknesses and prepare for similar dangers.
For example, at that very moment, one city lord was pouring out their grievances.
[This damned place even has blizzards—blizzards in the middle of the night! Residents who didn’t manage to get torches can literally freeze to death inside their cabins. It’s completely ridiculous. I’ve lost at least a quarter of my population!]
That single message immediately drew responses from nearly two-thirds of the city lords.
[What? There are blizzards too?!]
[This cursed world really doesn’t want us to survive.]
[As if the other worlds are any better.]
[You make getting a torch sound easy. A single Tier 1 torch might require one person to kill more than a dozen snow beasts before it finally drops.]
[Were there any warning signs before the blizzard hit?]
Unlucky City Lord: [There are warning signs. Pay me 700 crystals and sign a non-disclosure agreement, and I’ll tell you what they are—and how to survive a blizzard.]
[As far as I know, this information is exclusive to me. Last night’s blizzard didn’t just kill my residents; it killed a lot of the native inhabitants of Dazzling Star as well. This blizzard definitely never appeared before, otherwise the locals wouldn’t have been completely unprepared for it!]
The moment payment was mentioned, the city lords immediately began haggling.
[Seven hundred crystals is way too expensive. Since blizzards have already appeared, there’ll definitely be a second one. Everyone will find out sooner or later.]
The unlucky city lord refused to budge from the price.
[There will be a second one. But if you have my information beforehand, then when you encounter the next blizzard, you’ll at least be prepared. You won’t end up like me and lose so many residents.]
After bargaining for a while, the others saw that the unlucky city lord wasn’t going to lower the price, so they reluctantly paid the crystals.
After all, no one could guarantee that the next blizzard wouldn’t strike their own Safe City.
Both Wen Huahua and Cheng Qisheng bought the information as well.
The warning sign for a blizzard was that the horizon in the affected region would begin glowing with a faint red light—even at night.
The red glow would last for about an hour before the blizzard arrived, bringing with it a dramatic plunge in temperature.
Unlucky City Lord: [After reviewing everything that happened, I’ve come to this conclusion: if you want to survive a blizzard, you either need to stay inside a Tier 1 Shelter with both the fireplace and a Tier 1 torch lit, or you need to live in a Tier 2 Shelter.]
[If you’re caught outside, you can also survive by wearing cold-weather gear and an oxygen mask, then burying yourself more than a meter beneath the snow. But you’ll probably suffer from hypothermia, so whether you make it depends a lot on your physical condition.]
After rattling off the information, she sent another message.
[Blue Sea, do you have any residents for sale?]
Cheng Qisheng replied: [No. Are you running short on residents?]
The unlucky city lord, Moonspirit, had reached the point where she had nothing left to lose.
Most city lords would never reveal their weaknesses.
But in order to sell her information, Moonspirit had disclosed what had happened during the blizzard. Even if she hadn’t admitted it outright, the other city lords could easily infer that her population had suffered devastating losses.
[I haven’t been able to count my remaining residents yet. They’re scattered all over the place, so it’ll take some time to gather everyone and get an accurate number. But I already have a rough idea of the outcome.]
Moonspirit Safe City was actually far from weak. In fact, it could even be said that she had enjoyed a significant advantage in this world.
That was because her home world had also experienced severe cold waves.
Her residents all knew how to deal with freezing weather, so when they first arrived on Dazzling Star, they adapted remarkably well.
The problem was that the cold waves in Moonspirit’s original world had never been anything like this overwhelming blizzard.
Precisely because they were experienced with harsh winters, the residents assumed that any cold wave would cause temperatures to drop gradually. Even after obtaining Tier 1 Torch Cards, many of them chose not to activate them immediately, since each torch only lasted for fifty days.
Their thinking was simple:
We’ll save it until we really need it.
But who could have anticipated that the blizzard would arrive with an almost instantaneous plunge in temperature?
The guards Moonspirit dispatched later found unused Tier 1 Torch Cards inside the homes of many of her residents.
The discovery left her both heartbroken and furious.
Because she knew that most of her people had probably been thinking exactly the same way.
They had wanted to save the more effective heating items for the colder days that they believed still lay ahead.
Even she herself had thought the same.
Once she calmed down and regained her composure, Moonspirit realized she had only one option.
[A disaster that’s similar to one from my home world makes my residents let their guard down. They instinctively respond using the survival methods from our original world instead of adapting to this one. I can’t afford to stay here any longer.]
She was still in the process of gathering her scattered residents.
But she already knew the number of survivors who would return would almost certainly be insufficient for her Safe City to leave this world.
[If you decide to sell any residents, let me know. As long as the price isn’t outrageous.]
Cheng Qisheng silently filed the lesson away, though she doubted Blue Sea would ever have much use for it.
Entering a world whose disasters resembled those of one’s home world could cloud the residents’ judgment…
Fortunately, Blue Sea had lived through so many different kinds of disasters that its people no longer relied on any single set of instincts.
Moonspirit then posted another message to the group chat, addressed to everyone.
[Buying residents. Buying sl*ves.]
None of the city lords found it particularly surprising.
Moonspirit had simply been unlucky.
Under normal circumstances, if a Safe City’s population dropped too low, the city lord could simply recruit enough local inhabitants from the current world to make up the shortfall.
Her plan itself was perfectly logical: sell information to earn crystals, use those crystals to buy residents, and leave this world as quickly as possible.
As long as the next world wasn’t one where everyone lived scattered across vast distances, her Tier 3 Safe City would have a chance to recover gradually.
The problem was that Dazzling Star’s inhabitants were spread out everywhere.
With Moonspirit Safe City’s population having been decimated, while still having to fend off snow beasts and deal with the difficulty of traveling across Dazzling Star, the only practical way to replenish her population was to buy residents from other city lords.
Unfortunately, this world was like a giant sieve.
Anyone who lacked combat ability—or someone strong enough to protect them—simply couldn’t survive in a world where everyone had to fend for themselves.
As a result, the residents still alive in the various Safe Cities were, more or less, all capable fighters.
As for the residents who had originally come from other civilizations as sl*ves, most of them had already died during the first few days after the Safe Cities descended upon Dazzling Star.
Faced with the survivors they still had, the other city lords either couldn’t bear to sell them or demanded exorbitant prices.
And even if someone really was willing to sell residents, there was another problem.
Residents couldn’t be traded through the teleportation system.
The transaction had to be carried out face-to-face.
Moonspirit was still a Tier 3 city lord.
What if her claim of wanting to buy residents was just a pretext to lure another Safe City into a meeting… and then eliminate them?
Judging by the situation, it looked as though Moonspirit wouldn’t be leaving this world anytime soon.
Mianyin Safe City: [If you’re really short on residents, I can sell you a few, though I don’t have many. Or you could wait a little longer. There are some Dazzling Star natives living around my area—I can ask whether they’d be willing to leave with you.]
He came across as exactly what he had always seemed to be: an enthusiastic, helpful, and gentle city lord.
Mianyin and Moonspirit also appeared to be on good terms. They began chatting openly in the group, with Mianyin doing most of the comforting.
Wen Huahua, who had been watching Mianyin closely, waited for the right moment before naturally joining the conversation.
Coriander Safe City: [Or you could take a gamble. Spend 1,000 crystals to reroll your coordinates. If you end up somewhere with Dazzling Star natives nearby, recruiting locals would be much cheaper than buying residents directly, right?!]
Coriander Safe City: [I’m not planning to sell anyone right now, but if you’re still short on people when it’s time to leave, come find me. Pats the boss.]
Coriander Safe City: [You’re so strong! This is only a temporary setback. Things will get better.]
Mianyin, who had been actively chatting just moments before, suddenly stopped replying.
A full minute and a half passed without another message.
Wen Huahua’s eyes lit up.
Ha!
Got you.
What Cheng Qisheng noticed, however, was that after hearing those words, Moonspirit had also fallen silent—for about half a minute.
The following day, she received a private message from Moonspirit.
Moonspirit Safe City: [Coriander works for you, doesn’t he? So you’ve figured out that Mianyin isn’t the original person either?]
Moonspirit Safe City: [There are others backing Mianyin. They’re trying to lure you over. If you’re planning to attack Mianyin Safe City, let’s cooperate. I know my combat strength has been severely reduced, so I probably won’t be of much direct use to you, but I have ways to keep myself alive. I can act as bait and save you a lot of trouble.]
Moonspirit Safe City: [After the battle is over, you can take everything else. I only want the residents of Mianyin Safe City.]
