Chapter 75.2: Beast Tide
Within the territory of the Little Blue Sea Nation—
Ever since a new batch of clergy had arrived, the three leaders, who all came from the “priesthood”, had happily handed over all domestic affairs to them and gone right back to hunting snow beasts.
In truth, the three of them spent their days wandering all over the country for one simple reason.
Song Xi constantly had to deliver Gu worms to every relay station, while Wang Moning and Shen Jinyang were practically inseparable from her.
As a result, the trio had become the biggest wanderers in the entire Little Blue Sea Nation.
To put it another way, imagine the snowfield trains as buses.
Then Song Xi was the person responsible for recharging those buses.
She had to travel nonstop between stations, replacing each train’s new “engine.” Since those stations were scattered across almost the entire Little Blue Sea Nation, her daily routine consisted of either traveling…
…or traveling to continue traveling.
She might be at the castle today.
Three days later, she could be at the very edge of the nation’s territory.
The cycle repeated endlessly, with hardly a moment to rest.
The three hundred soldiers assigned to accompany them were utterly worn out by the constant marching. Every time the trio returned to headquarters, the escort had to rotate out and be replaced by fresh troops.
Yet the three leaders themselves remained endlessly energetic.
They even hunted snow beasts for fun while traveling.
After all, they had plenty of experience covering long distances.
This little bit of travel was nothing to them.
The three leaders had just killed two snow beasts and were about to collect the Item Card that had materialized from their corpses.
Then another dozen or so snow beasts slowly emerged from the snow.
Wang Moning narrowed her eyes.
“Are these all newly arrived?”
This area lay on the newly claimed frontier of the Little Blue Sea Nation.
Because the frontier was so far from the nation’s central region, any emergency there would be difficult to reinforce in time.
For that reason, whenever the Little Blue Sea Nation acquired new border territory, it always organized a thorough sweep of the area first, reducing the local snow beast population to a manageable level.
Each of the dozen-odd snow beasts stood nearly three meters tall and more than two meters wide. They looked anything but manageable.
They were obviously newcomers.
Shen Jinyang drew her saber.
“Who cares? Let’s kill them first.”
Song Xi was already grinning with excitement.
“The one in front is mine!”
She charged forward at full speed and slashed downward with her blade.
Her eyes narrowed slightly.
…That doesn’t feel right.
Song Xi instantly leaped backward, narrowly avoiding the massive claw sweeping toward her, and shouted a warning,
“They’re Tier 2!”
Wang Moning drew her own saber as well.
“All of them are Tier 2?”
A grin slowly spread across her face.
“Then that’s… even better!”
She and Shen Jinyang rushed into the fray together.
The accompanying soldiers also charged into battle, their faces filled with excitement.
Imitating their leaders’ favorite catchphrase, they shouted at the top of their lungs,
“Woohoo!!!”
The snowfield trains were excellent in every respect…
…except that a single snow beast could pull one for only five days and five nights before dying.
As a result, a snowfield train could travel continuously for no more than two and a half days.
Any farther than that, the passengers could be transported out—but there would be no way to bring them back.
That was why Song Xi had to spend every day traveling across the nation, constantly “recharging” the transportation network.
But snowfield trains pulled by Tier 2 snow beasts were a completely different story.
Tier 2 snow beasts were stronger and far more enduring.
They could run without rest for ten days and ten nights.
The problem was that Tier 2 snow beasts were nowhere near as common as Tier 1s.
Having more than a dozen of them suddenly appear…
…was practically the same as having a dozen perpetual-motion engines with a ten-day battery life drop out of the sky.
On top of that, after the Divine Envoys arrived, many of the nation’s regulations had been revised.
The old, chaotic barter system—and the practice of using Castle Residence Day Passes as currency—had been replaced with a formal points system.
As long as someone had enough points, they could exchange them for anything in the national warehouses.
If they accumulated enough, they could even redeem a Lifetime Snowfield Train Usage Pass.
Granted, the price of that card was so astronomical that most people felt they wouldn’t be able to save enough points for it even after ten years.
If a squad of soldiers managed to pin down even a single Tier 2 snow beast, then regardless of whether it dropped an Item Card after death, the value it could create simply by serving as the “engine” of a snowfield train would be enough to make them a fortune.
Even if it took several people working together to subdue one and they had to split the reward points among themselves, it would still be a tidy profit.
After all, those points…
…could be spent in the Divine Kingdom as well.
After years of battling snow beasts, the people of Dazzling Star had developed a fear of them that was etched into their very bones.
Faced with snow beasts that were not only more numerous but also more powerful than before, they should have been afraid…
Anxious…
Hesitant…
But—
The faith engraved into their very souls continuously filled them with courage.
Snow beasts were terrifying.
Yet at this moment, in the eyes of the citizens of the Little Blue Sea Nation, they had become something else entirely.
Points.
Food.
Warm homes.
And…
The hope of reaching the Divine Kingdom and living a happy life.
On a snow-covered plain, a family that had been out on a routine hunt gripped their weapons tightly beneath the rising plume of a lit signal flare.
“Mom…”
The eldest son, who had just turned twelve and was on his first hunting trip, was shielded behind his mother.
Already fair-skinned, his face had now gone deathly pale.
As the five snow beasts drew closer, he could hear their low growls and catch the crimson gleam in their eyes.
Nervously, he pinched a tiny corner of his mother’s winter coat.
He didn’t even dare hold on too tightly, afraid that he might somehow become a burden to his parents.
“Rooaar—!”
These five snow beasts were clearly different from the ones the people of Dazzling Star usually fought.
Instead of charging in recklessly, they advanced cautiously, probing with occasional attacks.
Every arrow the couple fired was deftly avoided.
The parents’ expressions darkened.
“They’re intelligent.”
“They know our arrows can hurt them.”
“They also know we’ll eventually run out of arrows.”
“They’re trying to wear us down.”
Damn it.
When had these beasts become so clever?
Just as the family cautiously retreated, only to find themselves slowly being surrounded…
…a distant rumbling sound echoed across the snow.
A snowfield train, pulled by a snow beast and packed with passengers, happened to be passing by along its regular route.
“There’s a signal flare over there!”
One of the hunters was the first to spot it.
The hunters aboard the train immediately jumped off and sprinted toward the family.
If this had happened in the past, they would have preferred to mind their own business.
After all, the family wasn’t related to them.
But now…
They were all children of God.
The hunters charged fearlessly into battle against the five Tier 2 snow beasts.
The family’s deathly pale faces quickly regained their color.
With so many allies joining the fight, the snow beasts could no longer dodge every arrow with ease.
Amid furious roars, one massive beast after another crashed to the ground.
The twelve-year-old boy remained safely behind the adults throughout the battle.
He stared at these unfamiliar uncles and aunts who had come to save his family.
When the fighting was over, he quietly said,
“Thank you…”
One of the men ruffled his hair.
“Hahaha, no need to thank us. We’re all believers of our God, so that makes us one big family!”
Similar battles were unfolding all across the Little Blue Sea Nation.
Large numbers of clergy had begun patrolling the territory.
Whenever they discovered a battle, they would hover overhead, watching the fight.
If any citizen began to lose ground—or was in danger of being killed—the white-robed, black-winged clergy would dive from the sky and pull them to safety.
These people of Dazzling Star, once so timid…
…were now displaying astonishing courage as they fought against the beast tide.
They had been forced to live in isolation for over a century.
And because of that, they longed for companionship more than any other civilization.
Now, however, they lived beneath the protection of the Great Creator God.
Behind them stood countless compatriots who shared the same faith.
So what was there left to fear?
They had endured this kind of life…
For decades.
They had long since had enough of it!
Another squad of soldiers encountered more than a dozen snow beasts.
The captain at their head raised the long spike in his hand.
This was the twenty-first day since he had joined the Little Blue Sea Nation.
The eleventh day since he had enlisted.
The fifth day since he had devoted himself to the Great Creator God.
And the second day since he had become a squad captain.
He thought of his parents, who had long since passed away.
He thought of his eldest son and eldest daughter, both killed by snow beasts in battle.
He thought of his partner, bedridden by illness and now receiving treatment in the castle.
He remembered that night two years ago when snow beasts had torn apart their home in the dead of night.
He and his partner had managed to flee with their children.
The two of them survived.
So did some of the children.
But their youngest son, only two years old…
…was left behind forever that night.
His partner had also been injured during their escape.
Those injuries had become the root of a lingering illness. For the past two years she had been confined to her bed, no longer the strong woman she once was.
Night after night, he would wake with a start.
He would reach out to check whether she was still breathing.
Then lie awake in the darkness, staring into the night, terrified that she might quietly slip away before morning.
But now…
She lived in a warm, comfortable castle, cared for by the Divine Envoys.
She no longer coughed.
She no longer burned with fever.
Their only two surviving children no longer wore fearful, timid expressions.
They could run and play freely through the castle’s residential corridors every single day.
He had drifted through more than thirty years of life in a daze.
Yet only during these twenty-one days…
…had he truly felt alive.
He would never—
Never again run away!
These damned snow beasts…
They would never be allowed to destroy his home again!
The captain fixed his eyes on the snow beasts before him and charged first.
“Our God watches over us!”
The soldiers behind him roared in unison,
“Long live Blue Sea!!!”
…
Toya was an utterly ordinary native of Dazzling Star.
Unlike the rest of his family, however, he had been frail since childhood.
Even at sixteen years old, he was still incapable of fighting a snow beast on his own.
Because of this, his parents had decided they would continue caring for him.
The family had even held a meeting to discuss his future.
After his parents eventually grew old and passed away, his surviving brothers and sisters would take care of him.
If they too died one day…
Then his nieces and nephews would assume the responsibility.
In short, as long as there was still someone left in the family…
Toya would always have relatives who would lovingly look after him.
When he was little, Toya didn’t understand what that meant.
But as he grew older, he gradually realized the truth.
He had become a burden.
His family refused to abandon him, and he himself lacked the courage to end his own life.
So Toya began searching for other ways to help the people he loved.
For example, he experimented with the odds and ends that came out of Item Cards, tinkering until he could make simple little toys.
Over time, whenever something from an Item Card was damaged, his family would simply hand it to him and let him take it apart however he pleased.
By now, Toya had truly become useful to them.
Whenever an electronic device from an Item Card broke, he could painstakingly repair it using the assortment of tools he had accumulated over the years.
Last year, he had even cobbled together what he claimed was a record player—a machine that had existed only two hundred years ago—using a bizarre assortment of parts that no one else in his family could make sense of.
When the record player was connected to the rechargeable battery Toya had built, and his older sister placed on it a vinyl record she had obtained from an Item Card the previous year…
The whole family gathered around and listened together as beautiful, melodious music filled the room.
This year, through nothing but trial and error, Toya had gone a step further.
He built an electric heater that consumed very little power while providing exceptional warmth.
His relatives praised him endlessly for it.
His parents’ faces were filled with pride.
For the first time, Toya felt he had found a purpose in life.
Even though his body was weak…
He could still help his family.
He could still make their lives better.
Some time ago, a stranger had arrived at their family settlement.
The visitor introduced himself as a representative of the Little Blue Sea Nation and invited Toya’s family to join the country.
The elders discussed the matter for a long time.
In the end, they announced their decision.
“We’re joining the Little Blue Sea Nation.”
“It’s still expanding. They have a huge population, powerful weapons, and incredible means of transportation.”
“We’re simply not in a position to refuse.”
Indeed, the biggest reason Toya’s family joined the Little Blue Sea Nation…
…was because they knew perfectly well they couldn’t beat them.
And if you couldn’t beat them—
You might as well join them.
What if they refused and the other side turned hostile?
Before joining the Little Blue Sea Nation, Toya’s entire family had already braced themselves to be extorted.
In their eyes, the Little Blue Sea Nation was nothing more than a band of snow bandits.
A powerful group gathered together…
Armed with superior weapons…
Possessing strange means of transportation—the snowfield trains…
And demanding that unrelated families join them.
Wasn’t that exactly what snow bandits were?
Yet after joining the Little Blue Sea Nation, the entire family found themselves utterly bewildered.
Not only were they not extorted…
They were taught, free of charge, how to make signal flares.
They were also told that if they ever encountered danger they couldn’t handle, all they had to do was light one, and nearby citizens would come to their rescue.
At the same time, the nation dispatched large numbers of people to sweep through the surrounding area, eliminating every powerful snow beast that posed a serious threat to the local residents.
“Incredible!”
After secretly watching the operation, Toya’s parents returned home in amazement.
“They didn’t ask us for a single Item Card! They only said that because our home is on the nation’s frontier, they were clearing out the dangerous snow beasts to keep us safe.”
After the powerful beasts in the area had been wiped out, only comparatively weaker snow beasts remained.
Hunting became far safer for Toya’s family.
Ever since Toya could remember, bad news had periodically reached their household.
Relatives would lose against particularly powerful snow beasts…
Leave to hunt…
And never return home.
Now, however, the chances of a loved one failing to come back had been reduced to the absolute minimum.
Because of that, Toya felt genuine gratitude toward the nation that called itself Little Blue Sea.
His parents returned home one day after another with exciting news.
“My goodness, Toya! The Little Blue Sea Nation actually has a Tier 8 building! It’s just like the Divine Kingdom from the old legends. It’s warm inside, there’s endless hot water, and soldiers guard it outside. As long as we save up enough Item Cards, we’ll be able to move in someday!”
—”Toya, do you remember the stories about the gods that we used to tell you when you were little? No wonder the Little Blue Sea Nation is just like the Divine Kingdom from those legends. It has the blessing of a god. The one who founded it came from the Divine Kingdom.”
—”This is a wooden statue of the Great Creator God. As long as we become one of Her believers, we’ll be able to return to the Divine Kingdom together with the Little Blue Sea Nation. We’ll never have to fear the cold again.”
—”Toya, look! The electric heater you made is incredibly popular. We’ve earned a lot of points! We exchanged them for this insulated winter suit. From now on, you’ll be able to go outside like everyone else.”
—”Toya, we’ve become believers of our God. My dear child… this feeling is wonderful. Since the day I was born, I’ve never experienced warmth like this. It’s as though our God’s light is constantly shining upon me. My child, I hope you’ll be able to experience this same happiness.”
