Safe City Ch.69.1

Chapter 69.1: Mianyin City Lord

Safe City Lords had always fought their own battles.

At most, a handful of them would form an alliance—while secretly distrusting and guarding against one another every step of the way.

Getting every City Lord who had descended into the same world to cooperate on a single objective was practically impossible.

Yet the Lord of Mingxia had somehow accomplished exactly that.

One City Lord sighed in admiration.

“Truly unprecedented. And I doubt anyone will ever replicate it. Even a hundred years from now, I think I’ll still remember the name Mingxia.”

The City Lord whose name everyone would remember—Mingxia himself—fell silent.

“…”

He was on the verge of losing his mind.

Dazzling Star was enormous. In theory, even with more than forty Safe Cities scattered across it, they couldn’t possibly occupy the entire planet.

However, the planet’s environment was only suitable for people living in widely dispersed settlements.

That unique characteristic naturally expanded the “territory” controlled by each Safe City.

Residents would spread out across the region surrounding their own Safe City and live independently. Every month or two, however, they would find a way to return to the city.

Otherwise, if the Safe City relocated—or left this world ahead of schedule—and they failed to make it back in time, they would be stranded on a world doomed to destruction.

Previously, every City Lord had hated Dazzling Star’s living conditions because of this.

The residents lived in constant anxiety, afraid they wouldn’t return to the city in time. The City Lords were equally worried that unexpected incidents might prevent them from gathering all of their people before departure.

But now, the City Lords had begun to see that Dazzling Star’s environment had its advantages as well as its drawbacks.

At the very least, if Mingxia Safe City descended somewhere near one of their residents’ settlements, they would learn of it almost immediately.

After all, the Lord of Mingxia had fled in disgrace with a shattered Safe City. Aside from taking as many crystals as he could carry, he had left nearly all of his other supplies behind.

That meant he had no choice but to disperse his remaining residents and have them hunt snow beasts to sustain themselves.

Before this disaster, the vast majority of Mingxia’s residents had never been scattered like that.

Strictly speaking, the residents of Mingxia, Dihai, and Mianyin Safe Cities had never been dispersed before.

After all, they had been preparing to wage Safe City wars. Naturally, the more residents they had concentrated together, the better.

Why waste time hunting snow beasts?

Destroying a single Safe City yielded far more resources than hunting snow beasts ever could.

The thought made Mingxia grit his teeth.

Damn it!

Why does Blue Sea Safe City have so many residents?!

Even the combined populations of all three Safe Cities hadn’t matched Blue Sea’s.

And those damned Blue Sea residents weren’t just numerous—they were all formidable fighters. Some of them could even fly.

Every last one of them fought with fearless ferocity, charging into battle as if they had no regard for their own lives.

What kind of bizarre civilization did they crawl out of?!

The residents were bizarre, and so was their City Lord!

She had actually offered a Purification Station—worth 4,500 crystals—as the bounty for capturing him, even though he had already ceded territory.

Mingxia regretted everything.

If he’d known Blue Sea was this terrifying, he never would have suggested making it their target.

She was already that powerful, so why had she always acted like a complete nobody in the group chat?

Mingxia had noticed Coriander calling her “Boss” when Blue Sea descended. But Coriander was only a second-tier City Lord, and since that guy called practically everyone “Boss,” Mingxia hadn’t thought much of it.

If only I’d known…

The calm voice of the city AI interrupted his spiral of regret.

“City Lord, our food reserves are critically low. If you continue refusing to release the residents and allow them to survive independently, there is an 83.4% probability that your Safe City will experience a large-scale rebellion within the next seventy-two hours.”

A splitting headache pounded through Mingxia’s skull.

“There are over forty City Lords searching for me! They’ve already published my race and physical appearance. If I let the residents leave the city now, they could attract the attention of nearby City Lords. How can I possibly release them under these circumstances?!”

The city AI was only third-tier and had yet to develop emotions, so it continued its analysis in the same calm, impassive tone.

“Yes, City Lord. The situation is indeed dire. If you allow the residents to disperse and live independently, there is approximately a 79.6% probability that they will attract hostile forces. Comparing the two probabilities, this AI concludes that a 79.6% risk is preferable to an 83.4% risk.”

Mingxia: “…”

Is there really that much difference between those two numbers?!

What’s the difference between dying quickly and dying a little later?

Even so, he still wanted to survive. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have dragged his battered, two-hundred-square-kilometer Safe City all the way here in an attempt to escape.

In the end, Mingxia reluctantly released his residents.

On the third day, Mingxia Safe City was discovered by a nearby City Lord, forcing him to relocate in a panic.

Another 1,000 crystals vanished from his already meager reserves.

The moment the Safe City landed in its new location, they found… another Safe City nearby.

Mingxia had no choice but to relocate again.

Another 1,000 crystals were gone.

Thus began the great escape of the Lord of Mingxia.

…

Day Five after the bounty was announced—

Blue Sea Safe City completed its initial screening of the residents from the three conquered cities.

They selected those who had already converted into believers of the Great God, along with residents possessing useful skills that Blue Sea might need.

Moonspirit was utterly overwhelmed.

According to their agreement, once the war ended, only Mianyin’s residents were supposed to belong entirely to Moonspirit.

Yet Blue Sea had now informed her that after selecting the residents it wanted, she was free to choose from everyone who remained.

The unexpected windfall left Moonspirit dizzy.

After all, what City Lord would ever complain about having too many residents?

Moonspirit Safe City: “Do you really only want this few residents? Aren’t you going to take more?”

Ever since witnessing Blue Sea defeat two third-tier Safe Cities single-handedly, Moonspirit had started addressing Cheng Qisheng with the respectful “you” (nín).

And after seeing Cheng Qisheng place an extravagant bounty on Mingxia’s head, Moonspirit’s attitude had become even more deferential.

The strong naturally commanded respect.

Those who were both powerful and ruthless—decisive enough to wipe out their enemies completely—were even more terrifying. No one dared provoke them.

Moonspirit was certain that, at least on Dazzling Star, no plundering civilization would ever choose Blue Sea Safe City as its target again.

Every City Lord wanted to capture Mingxia.

At the same time, every City Lord was determined not to become the next Mingxia.

Moonspirit was grateful that Blue Sea’s attitude toward her had remained unchanged. Now, it had even given her more residents than their agreement required.

As a result, the respect she felt for Blue Sea came even more sincerely from the heart.

So she took the initiative to share some valuable experience that circulated among City Lords.

Moonspirit Safe City: [Are you unwilling to accept these people as Blue Sea residents because they participated in the Safe City war? That’s easy to solve. Keep the defeated captives as sl*ves. The next time you encounter a City Lord looking to buy sl*ves, you can simply sell them.]

Blue Sea rejected Moonspirit’s suggestion.

Blue Sea Safe City: [Thank you for the advice, but there’s no need. You, Coriander, and Jin Yu can keep them.]

Moonspirit stared at Blue Sea’s reply, momentarily dazed.

Blue Sea… doesn’t approve of trading intelligent life?

Most City Lords did.

After all, they lived in an apocalypse.

No resource could be wasted.

Everything they did was for survival—for obtaining more resources.

Sl*ves from other civilizations were naturally considered valuable commodities.

And gradually, whenever necessity demanded it, even members of their own civilization became goods that could be bought and sold.

In the apocalypse, under the crushing burden of leading an entire civilization through extinction, City Lords who still clung to their principles—who refused to cross the line into the sl*ve trade—were exceedingly rare.

Before Blue Sea, Moonspirit had only ever met one City Lord with such convictions.

That City Lord had been her friend.

He had once said:

“I don’t like doing that. No matter what happens, I would never buy or sell my own residents or my own people. It just feels wrong. They’re all my citizens. Selling them would be like selling my own children.”

A few seconds later, he withdrew the message on his own.

“All right, I know you don’t agree with me. I’ll take it back. Let’s not argue about this anymore.”

Moonspirit had already seen it before he deleted it.

She had simply thought her friend was naïve.

“That’s your choice. But next time, don’t govern with so much kindness. Look at you now—you were betrayed by your own residents and ended up in such a mess.”

“You’re right. That was my failure as a leader. I’ve already dealt with it, and something like that won’t happen again.”

Sounding somewhat dejected, he continued,

“You were right before. I really was too young… too naïve. I thought that if I treated my residents well enough, they would never betray me. Reality proved otherwise. A leader needs both kindness and authority.”

“Thank you for your advice. I’ll improve my Safe City’s leadership system the way you suggested.”

Moonspirit often complained that her friend was far too soft on his residents.

Yet she also had to admit that the only reason they had become friends in the first place was because he had reached out to help her with genuine kindness.

If she told any other City Lord how they had first met, not a single one would believe her.

A Tier-2 City Lord had just fled from the previous world after losing a Safe City war and being forced to cede territory. Unlucky enough already, she then descended into the new world right beside a fully intact Tier-1 Safe City.

In terms of military strength, her battered Tier-2 Safe City—its population severely depleted from the territorial loss and still crippled from the previous war—was no match whatsoever for a complete Tier-1 Safe City.

To make matters worse, she had already run out of crystals.

She couldn’t even afford to relocate.

In ninety-nine out of a hundred cases, the outcome would have been obvious.

The Tier-1 City Lord would gleefully declare a Safe City war, kill the unfortunate Tier-2 City Lord, seize her City Lord Core, annex what remained of her territory, and absorb all of her surviving residents.

But that Tier-1 City Lord hadn’t done any of that.

He had been overjoyed—

Only because he was delighted to greet the unfortunate City Lord.

“Hey! Are you okay? I’m new here—I just arrived too. I feel so lucky! It’s the end of the world, and I still managed to keep so many people alive. Friend, do you need any help?”

It sounded like something straight out of a fairy tale.

With the Tier-2 City Lord’s guidance, that Tier-1 Safe City successfully made it through the novice world.

And when the unfortunate City Lord was at her weakest, he helped her survive that difficult period.

That unfortunate City Lord… was Moonspirit.

And that novice Tier-1 City Lord became her friend.

Although Moonspirit often complained that he was too kind, she knew deep down that it was precisely his kindness that had drawn her to him.

Moreover, his kindness wasn’t blind.

He was simply too young. He hadn’t yet learned how to uphold his principles while also protecting himself.

They didn’t meet often.

Over the course of six worlds, Moonspirit had only encountered him twice.

Fortunately, her young friend was intelligent.

He kept learning, absorbing new knowledge, and after his Safe City experienced an internal rebellion, he became much more cautious. He no longer allowed anyone other than newcomers into the City Lord’s Manor, effectively eliminating the possibility of being assassinated and replaced by one of his own residents.

Moonspirit was genuinely happy for him.

And now, they had met again in the same world.

She had advanced to the Tier-3.

Her friend had also reached the Tier-2.

He shared his new policies with Moonspirit, complained about the wyverns he had encountered, and even chatted about little things happening in his daily life.

[There are more and more wyverns around here. I think this place has become their nesting ground. There are more wyverns than residents in my Safe City now. Everyone has fled back into the city, so I have no choice but to relocate.]

He also shared his plan with her.

[I’m sending you my current coordinates. If you ever have to relocate, whatever you do, don’t move anywhere near here. The skies are packed with wyverns. I can guarantee that no matter where you end up, it’ll be better than this place.]

Moonspirit reminded him:

[A hasty relocation can easily throw a city into chaos, and people’s morale will become unstable. Have you prepared a post-relocation stabilization plan? And remember—don’t leave the City Lord’s Manor until everything has settled down.]

[Don’t worry. Before the apocalypse, my cousin was a successful businessman. He’s got far more management experience than I do. I also bought some surveillance equipment from the shop. When the time comes, my cousin and I will stay in the City Lord’s Manor together and keep the situation under control.]

Moonspirit asked one more question.

[Can you trust your cousin?]

Her friend replied without hesitation.

[Absolutely. We’re a big family. His parents passed away when he was young, so he grew up in my house. My parents treated him wonderfully—he’s like a real older brother to me. After he became a successful businessman before the apocalypse, he treated me incredibly well too. He even bought a house for my parents. If the apocalypse hadn’t happened, I’d probably be working at his company right now, getting in through family connections.]

Moonspirit thought to herself that this explained why he had once been so naïve.

He had been an exceptionally fortunate City Lord.

Before the apocalypse, he had enjoyed a happy, loving family, surrounded by relatives who cared for and protected him.

When the apocalypse arrived, his entire extended family happened to be gathered together for a family reunion.

He hadn’t lost a single loved one.

He had entered the Safe City with his whole family.

Whenever he needed help, he always had dependable relatives by his side.

Moonspirit said,

[Get some sleep early. You’ll have plenty to deal with over the next few days.]

Her friend replied,

[You’re right. I should get some rest and recharge. We’re relocating tomorrow. Once we’ve settled into our new home, everything will get better!]

Then he added,

[Good night, Moonspirit.]

At the time, Moonspirit had answered,

[Good night, Mianyin.]

That was the last time they ever wished each other good night.

Two days later, the person who appeared before her…

…was no longer him.

…

At this very moment, Moonspirit stared silently at the photograph in her hands.

Although Blue Sea’s relentless pursuit of Mingxia made it seem as though Blue Sea was ruthless…

…she still felt that Blue Sea’s City Lord had a gentle nature.

Another City Lord would never have allowed residents from another Safe City to enter territory they had already absorbed just to search for information about the previous City Lord.

Blue Sea didn’t even ask why.

She simply replied:

[Sure. Send your people.]

Moonspirit had actually hoped Blue Sea would ask.

That way, she could have told her about Mianyin—what kind of person he had been, how he had met his end—and perhaps serve as a warning.

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