Chapter 81.2: The Early Stage of the Dormant Phase
Coriander and Jin Yu had been among the first City Lords to leave.
Both of them were only Tier-2 Transcendents. Their strength simply wasn’t enough. They couldn’t hope to fight the beast tides, nor could they endure the ever-plunging temperatures.
Before departing, the two of them had practically competed to express their loyalty to Cheng Qisheng, both saying they hoped to meet the leader of Blue Sea again in the next world.
Before leaving, Coriander transferred 1,100 Building Item Cards to Cheng Qisheng, while Jin Yu transferred 890.
The two had evidently planned it beforehand. Afraid Cheng Qisheng would refuse the gifts, they transferred the cards first and immediately withdrew from the world.
Each left her with only a brief farewell message.
[Coriander Safe City: Boss, since you’ve been buying Building Item Cards in the group chat, I figured you must have a use for them. Once these cards are deployed, they can’t be moved, so they’re not much use to me. You can have them. See you next world, Boss!]
[Jin Yu Safe City: Boss, these are all the Building Item Cards I have. They aren’t very useful to me, so I hope they can help you. Thank you for giving me some of your residents. I’m heading out now, Boss. See you in the next world!]
How could Item Cards possibly be useless?
Even if they couldn’t be relocated once deployed, City Lords could simply merge multiple cards together to create a higher-tier Item Card before placing it inside their Safe City.
That was essentially the same as adding a new building to the city without spending any crystals.
And if that still wasn’t worthwhile, they could always sell the cards to another City Lord.
Item Cards were valuable no matter what type they were. There would always be another City Lord willing to buy them.
For Coriander and Jin Yu to hand over that many Item Cards, they had truly paid a steep price.
After accepting the cards, Cheng Qisheng couldn’t help feeling a little sentimental.
Sometimes she felt that Coriander and Jin Yu were practically like two extra civilizations she was raising.
Most of the time, they needed no supervision at all. Occasionally they required a bit of help. Every so often, they’d offer her all kinds of resources and energy, send over valuable intelligence, sweet-talk her without being annoying, liven up the group chat, work diligently…
…and even present her with tribute.
If she could gather seven subordinates like that, it would almost feel like the old days back on Dark Star.
Though among them all, Old Eighth would always remain her favorite.
Meanwhile, on Dazzling Star, Safe Cities were withdrawing one after another, while Blue Sea’s residents continued tirelessly transporting the Dazzling Star people.
By the time the Dazzling Star population in Blue Sea Safe City reached 2 million, there were 21 Safe Cities left in the world.
When the number reached 4 million, only 13 remained.
When it climbed to 7 million, there were just 4 left.
Even after Blue Sea’s Dazzling Star population reached 19 million, there were still 4 Safe Cities remaining.
Now, however, aside from Blue Sea Safe City, the final remaining Safe City was preparing to leave.
It was a Tier-4 Safe City.
Before departing, its City Lord deliberately tagged Cheng Qisheng in the group chat.
[Bear Banner Safe City: @Blue Sea Safe City, You’re incredible, my friend. You can really endure.]
Although he had posted it in the group chat, there were only two people left in the entire group now—him and Cheng Qisheng.
At that point, it was practically the same as a private message.
[Bear Banner Safe City: To be honest, we’re a Bearfolk civilization. We’re naturally more resistant to the cold, which is the only reason we’ve lasted this long. But even I can’t hold out anymore. And yet you can endure even better than us Bearfolk. You’re too bear!]
Among the Bearfolk, too bear was roughly equivalent to saying “you’re unbelievably strong.”
The Bearfolk revered the strong, and Bear Banner genuinely admired Cheng Qisheng.
Although he was currently Tier 4 while Blue Sea was only Tier 3, the feat of single-handedly wiping out three Safe Cities was enough to convince Bear Banner that Cheng Qisheng was someone worth investing in.
[Bear Banner Safe City: I’ve got a feeling you’re going to become incredibly powerful someday. How about we become friends? I’ve got a little gift for you as a token of friendship. Since you’re only Tier 3, I doubt you’ve ever gotten one of these.]
—Bear Banner Safe City has transferred a World Preview Card (30 seconds) to Blue Sea Safe City.—
Among City Lords, let’s be friends essentially meant, “Let’s promise not to attack each other proactively.”
If their interests aligned, they could even become allies under certain circumstances.
In other words:
Plastic friends.
If making a plastic friend meant receiving a World Preview Card she’d never seen before, Cheng Qisheng would have to be crazy to refuse.
She immediately replied:
[Thank you. I’d be happy to be your friend. You bought my silk fabric before, so I figured you must really like the feel of it. My friend, these are a return gift for you.]
—Blue Sea Safe City has transferred 200 crates of silk fabric to Bear Banner Safe City.—
Cheng Qisheng had plenty of other things she could have sent as a gift.
But she understood one simple principle:
When giving someone a present, you should give them something they actually want.
Bear Banner had bought silk fabric before—and not just a little, but 50 crates. At the very least, that proved he genuinely liked silk.
So giving him more silk couldn’t possibly be the wrong choice.
Sure enough, Bear Banner was delighted and promptly replied with several homemade “Too Bear!” reaction stickers.
Bear Banner even took the initiative to explain:
[World Preview Cards are usually rewards that only Tier-4 or higher Safe Cities can obtain after completing a World Mission. The way they’re used is pretty much what the name suggests.]
[They let you see the environment of the planet you’re about to descend to 30 seconds before you actually arrive. Thirty seconds may not sound like much, but sometimes it can save your life. For example, if the new world is an apocalyptic planet overrun by a virus where simply breathing the air infects you, you can use those thirty seconds to buy a citywide Air Barrier.]
[Or if the planet’s environment is especially hostile to your civilization or race, you can prepare in advance and retreat the moment you arrive.]
Cheng Qisheng understood immediately.
[Blue Sea Safe City: This preview is incredibly useful! Thank you so much!]
She quickly accepted the World Preview Card before asking:
[Blue Sea Safe City: May I ask roughly how many Preview Cards you receive as a reward for completing a World Mission after reaching Tier 4?]
She figured that something this useful couldn’t possibly be common, especially since it was a World Mission reward.
Anyone who had ever completed a World Mission knew just how difficult they were.
Since this was such a rare item, why would Bear Banner be willing to give one away to nothing more than a plastic friend?
[Bear Banner Safe City: Not many. Usually just one. Occasionally you’ll get two.]
[Blue Sea Safe City: ! There are so few of them, and you still gave me one? Thank you so much! That’s so bear! But if you gave it to me, what are you going to do?]
Bear Banner immediately understood what Cheng Qisheng was really asking.
In fact, he’d been waiting for her to ask.
[Bear Banner Safe City: I’ve still got two left, which is enough for me. Besides, this version of the World Preview Card only works for those below Tier 5. I’m about to advance to Tier 5, so giving you the extra one isn’t a problem.]
After a brief pause, he added one more sentence.
[Bear Banner Safe City: One more thing. Dihai and I are allies, but it’s purely an alliance of convenience. We have more than a dozen allies like that. I don’t have any deep friendship with her, and I’m certainly not interested in avenging her. I just hope you won’t misunderstand me because of Dihai.]
Bear Banner’s wording was very diplomatic.
Translated into plain English, it meant:
The Dihai you killed is technically my ally, but we’re just plastic friends. I’m worried you’ll think I’m on her side and decide to kill me too, so I’m clearing things up in advance. I don’t hold any grudge against you because of her, so please don’t come after me.
The truth was, when Dihai had been fighting Blue Sea, she had called for reinforcements.
The person she’d contacted was Bear Banner.
However, Bear Banner had long suspected that Dihai was planning something on Dazzling Star. So when she asked for help, he honestly didn’t trust her character.
What if she claimed she needed reinforcements, only for him to arrive and walk straight into an ambush?
Although Dihai was only Tier 3, she’d devoted herself entirely to plundering other cities. Her actual combat strength wasn’t much weaker than that of a Tier-4 City Lord.
Now she was claiming that a mere Tier-3 Blue Sea Safe City was beating her.
Who would believe she couldn’t handle a fellow Tier 3?
Bear Banner wasn’t one hundred percent confident he could defeat Dihai himself, so no matter how desperately she pleaded, he never went.
Sure, they were allies.
But weren’t allies made to stab each other in the back?
And as luck would have it, Dihai happened to excel at exactly that.
Bear Banner had no intention of getting stabbed, so he played dead the entire time.
Back then, he’d even suspected that Blue Sea and Dihai had secretly joined forces and were simply waiting to lure him over.
His plan had been perfect.
He would wait a full day before replying:
“Sorry, my friend. I fell asleep.”
If Dihai asked for help again, he’d simply respond:
“You said you couldn’t win a whole day ago, and yet you’re still alive and kicking, aren’t you?”
It was a flawless strategy.
And so Bear Banner watched the entire exchange unfold, observing Dihai’s emotions shift from calm as she called for help, to obvious panic, and finally to the eerie composure that came after despair.
Bear Banner thought to himself, She’s quite the actress. Too bear.
Then Dihai Safe City’s name turned gray.
Bear Banner’s reaction at the time:
???
Honestly, up to that point, Bear Banner had felt pretty good about the whole situation.
Then Blue Sea posted a bounty on the Mingxia City Lord in the group chat.
Mingxia had already ceded territory, leaving it with far too few residents to ever leave this world alive. But because it had participated in the attack against Blue Sea, Blue Sea intended to wipe it out completely.
From that, Bear Banner concluded that Blue Sea was the type who never forgave a grudge.
Even then, it wasn’t too concerning.
Until now.
Relying on the Bearfolk’s natural resistance to the cold, he’d managed to stay on Dazzling Star until this very day.
Yet Blue Sea had outlasted even him.
That gave Bear Banner a distinct sense of crisis.
True, Blue Sea might never find out he had been one of Dihai’s allies.
And even if Blue Sea did learn about it, there was no guarantee she’d come after him.
But Bear Banner wasn’t willing to gamble.
What if?
After all, he and Dihai had belonged to the same alliance network. Plenty of City Lords knew they were allies.
What if he happened to run into Blue Sea again in the next world?
And what if Blue Sea happened to learn about that alliance?
And what if Blue Sea was exactly the sort of person who eliminated potential threats before they could grow?
Bear Banner was on the verge of advancing to Tier 5.
Right now, all he wanted was stability.
He didn’t want to leave even the slightest risk unaddressed.
Trading away a World Preview Card he would soon be unable to use anyway in exchange for peace of mind seemed like an excellent bargain.
Besides, if he could establish a plastic friendship with Blue Sea, he certainly wouldn’t be losing out.
Although alliances between City Lords often ended with everyone stabbing one another in the back, they were still incredibly effective when teaming up to attack other Safe Cities.
Bear Banner wasn’t asking Blue Sea to join forces with him against someone else.
He simply hoped Blue Sea wouldn’t join forces with someone else against him.
The Bearfolk possessed keen beastly instincts.
And Bear Banner had a nagging feeling that if he ever fought Blue Sea…
…the one who lost would be him.
So, after finishing his explanation, Bear Banner produced something Cheng Qisheng found exceedingly familiar.
A Covenant of Alliance.
[I normally don’t sign overly detailed alliance contracts, but as it happens, I recently got my hands on a very comprehensive one. If you’re willing, how about we sign this? That way we can both cooperate with peace of mind, right? (Black Bear Handshake.jpg)]
Cheng Qisheng glanced over the agreement.
Just reading the beginning was enough.
It was the Four-City Alliance Covenant.
That thing really had become popular among City Lords.
Cheng Qisheng: “…”
Just what kind of image did Bear Banner have of her?
Was he really this wary of her just because he’d once been Dihai’s plastic ally?
Sure, she relentlessly hunted down her enemies.
But it wasn’t as if she exterminated their entire bloodlines.
That said, signing a friendly alliance with a Tier-4 Safe City and getting a World Preview Card out of it?
Definitely worth it.
[Blue Sea Safe City: Sure! No problem on my end. =v=]
Once the covenant was signed, Bear Banner finally departed with peace of mind.
Amid the endless snowy wilderness, the last convoy of more than a hundred trains departing from Little Blue Sea Nation was finally approaching Blue Sea Safe City.
The trains sped through the “dense fog,” while the newly trained conductors kept their eyes fixed attentively on the tracks ahead.
“Huh? What’s that?”
A fifty-meter-long silver-white train gradually slowed to a stop.
Its conductor had spotted several Dazzling Star people lying unconscious in the snow—or rather, atop the ruins of collapsed buildings—wearing Tier-3 cold-weather suits.
If they’d arrived even a little later, the snow beasts would have come to feast.
Fortunately, the conductor’s sharp eyes had noticed the faint splash of color against the endless white landscape.
Several soldiers wearing Tier-3 cold-weather suits immediately jumped off the train.
They hoisted up the unconscious Dazzling Star survivors—clearly a family—and hurried back aboard.
The train accelerated once more and continued on its journey.
Two days later, one of the Dazzling Star survivors, who had been unconscious in the medical ward the entire time, finally opened his eyes.
The first thing he felt was an overwhelming warmth.
He slowly lifted his head.
Through the train window, he caught sight of an unimaginably vast Safe City outside.
“W-What… what is that?!!”
The train rolled into Blue Sea Safe City.
Having timed it perfectly, Cheng Qisheng said,
“Aether, it’s time to leave.”
—Blue Sea Safe City departed the ice-covered planet.—
Cheng Qisheng summoned Tian Buke, the Luck-type ability user, and had him hold the World Preview Card.
The instant they left the world, he activated it.
She saw an endless expanse of seawater.
City after city lay submerged beneath the flood.
A Flood World—
At the same time, she saw several Safe Cities stationed atop a stretch of high ground.
It was one of the few pieces of land left above water.
They were lying in wait for newly arriving Safe Cities.
And Blue Sea…
…was clearly their next target.
Without hesitation, Cheng Qisheng transmitted a divine decree simultaneously to every one of her believers:
“Initiate War Mode.”
The next instant, Blue Sea Safe City descended onto that patch of high ground.
Three Safe Cities immediately declared Safe City War against it.
“Wait.”
Inside one of those three cities, a City Lord who had been on Dazzling Star during the previous world stared at the notification in front of him, his scalp tingling.
—You have declared Safe City War against Blue Sea Safe City.—
Blue Sea Safe City?!
That Blue Sea? The one that single-handedly destroyed three Safe Cities?
He had left Dazzling Star half a year ago.
Given how brutal conditions had become there…
Blue Sea had actually stayed until now before withdrawing?!
Meanwhile, in the other two Safe Cities, their City Lords watched excitedly as waves of soldiers streamed through the war passage toward Blue Sea Safe City.
Suddenly, their AI assistants issued a notification.
“Chimi Safe City has ceded 3 square kilometers of territory to Blue Sea Safe City.”
The next moment, ripples spread around Chimi Safe City, the ally that was supposed to be fighting alongside them.
Its name disappeared from the City Lord group chat.
Chimi Safe City…
…had evacuated from the world ahead of schedule.
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