Chapter 82.1: New World: Green Billow Star
“They ran fast.”
A trace of regret flickered across Cheng Qisheng’s face as she looked at the 3 square kilometers of land ceded by Chimi Safe City as war reparations.
Chimi Safe City had retreated so quickly that she’d only caught a fleeting glimpse of it. Its territory had to be at least 10,000 square kilometers.
As expected, every City Lord was hiding impressive capabilities.
Blue Sea had barely been on the ground for three seconds before Chimi Safe City had already surrendered, ceded territory, and fled.
What incredible reflexes. What lightning-fast decision-making. Just how quick did someone’s mouth have to be to issue orders that fast?
Cheng Qisheng, whose laughter still tended to stutter, couldn’t help feeling envious.
Chimi Safe City hadn’t left Blue Sea with only 3 square kilometers of land.
It had also left behind more than 10,000 vanguard troops.
Clearly, three seconds hadn’t been enough time for Chimi Safe City to recall them. They had been charging forward according to their City Lord’s original orders.
The good news: Chimi Safe City’s war corridor connected directly to one of Blue Sea’s residential districts.
The bad news: Every single Blue Sea resident was a formidable fighter.
More than ten thousand vanguard soldiers from Chimi Safe City stood there clutching their weapons, staring blankly at the hundreds of thousands of tall, muscular Blue Sea residents before them.
They wanted to turn and run, but when they looked back, not only were there no reinforcements, even the war corridor had already closed.
It was obvious.
Their City Lord had ceded both them and this patch of land to Blue Sea Safe City.
The ten thousand-plus vanguard troops: “…”
Cheng Qisheng paid them no further attention. Instead, she turned her gaze toward the other two Safe Cities, whose reactions hadn’t been nearly as swift.
She was far more interested in the size of the territories belonging to the two cities that hadn’t managed to escape.
Blue Sea citizens had one distinctive trait.
Whether they were top students or poor students, whether they had experienced a kindergarten-style scuffle or a full-scale battlefield melee, after every battle, every single Blue Sea citizen would conduct a meticulous after-action review.
These debriefs were extraordinarily detailed and comprehensive.
As a result, nearly every Blue Sea citizen carried a small notebook with them at all times to record these lessons.
Inside were notes on how to prepare supplies before a battle, how to assess the enemy’s condition, how to quickly bring their own side into peak fighting form, what mistakes to watch out for during combat, which tactics had proven effective, what attack tempo to maintain, how to avoid risks and hidden dangers on the battlefield, and how they could improve afterward.
Different battles called for different lessons.
For example, after a kindergarten playground fight, the lesson to write down would be:
The teachers won’t let us get our hands on weapons, so make flexible use of our teeth.
After fighting Skywing Dragons, the note would be:
Don’t let them take to the air.
And after fighting a Safe City, the lesson was:
The moment the battle begins, secure footholds across every district of the enemy Safe City so they can’t cede territory and retreat.
This was still a relatively new lesson.
But the people of Blue Sea carried it out flawlessly.
Blue Sea residents equipped with flight wings descended from the sky.
Those without flight wings surged in from the ground.
The two City Lords who had initiated the Safe City war listened as urgent notifications from their AI systems rang continuously in their ears.
“City Lord, Blue Sea residents have occupied 75% of our Safe City’s territory.”
“City Lord, Blue Sea residents have occupied 89% of our Safe City’s territory.”
Each notification sounded like another tick of a countdown to death.
“City Lord, Blue Sea residents have occupied 98% of our Safe City’s territory.”
Then came the final announcement.
“Tian’ou Safe City no longer has any unoccupied territory. The territory-cession surrender function has been automatically disabled.”
“Mingqin Safe City no longer has any unoccupied territory. The territory-cession surrender function has been automatically disabled.”
Both City Lords were stunned.
Everything had happened far too quickly.
The AI’s occupation reports came one after another in rapid succession. No sooner had one message finished than the next began, leaving them no time whatsoever to react.
They had hesitated for only a moment when 75% of their territory had been occupied.
That brief hesitation cost them even the chance to surrender and flee.
The reason they had been lying in wait on this high ground in the first place was to catch newly arrived Safe Cities before they had time to prepare. By forcing a war immediately, they could prevent the newcomers from relocating.
Instead, Blue Sea had used the exact same tactic against them.
By now, both City Lords realized exactly what kind of opponent Blue Sea was.
Chimi Safe City’s lightning-fast retreat…
And Blue Sea Safe City’s immediate response after war was declared—cutting off every possible escape route…
They had definitely kicked an iron plate.
Though the two City Lords were in different Safe Cities, the expressions on their faces were identical—grim and ashen.
If they could, they would have gladly skinned the Chimi City Lord alive.
Even so, while their expressions were ugly, they managed to keep their composure.
“Then we fight.”
“We’re still two Tier-3 Safe Cities. It’s not as if we don’t have superpowered residents. Blue Sea is obviously a winged civilization—their weakness is their wings. Tell everyone to focus their attacks on the Blue Sea people’s wings!”
“It’s still too early to say who’ll come out on top.”
If they didn’t have a few trump cards up their sleeves, they would never have dared ambush a newly arrived Safe City.
Four hours later—
Watching the Blue Sea residents fight their way to the doorstep of the two City Lords’ mansions, Cheng Qisheng looked genuinely surprised.
“They’re this weak, and they still dared ambush people?”
Although both were Tier-3 Safe Cities, even combined they possessed less than 70% of Dihai’s strength.
At best, they were roughly equivalent to 0.9 Mingxia plus 1.2 Mianyin.
And for some reason—whether due to poor judgment or a strategic blunder—the enemy had spent the entire battle focusing their attacks on the Blue Sea people’s wings.
The problem was that, for a winged Blue Sea citizen, the wings were the toughest and most damage-resistant part of the entire body.
As a result, many Blue Sea residents, who had been fired up for battle, found themselves completely baffled.
It felt like they had been playing a game on Hard Mode, only for the enemy to inexplicably switch it to Easy Mode halfway through.
How was that any different from deliberately going easy on them?
The Blue Sea citizens felt that their combat prowess had been insulted, and they fought with even greater enthusiasm.
The battle was completely one-sided. The only thing Cheng Qisheng found puzzling was why the two Safe Cities still hadn’t used their Crystal Exchange Mall to purchase super-heavy weapons to deal with her.
She soon found out why.
Tian’ou Safe City sent her a private message.
[Blue Sea, you should be able to tell that we were simply lying in wait for any newly arrived Safe City. Whoever showed up, we’d have declared war—it wasn’t anything personal. Can we negotiate? We’ll surrender and each compensate you with 30,000 crystals and 50,000 residents. Let’s end this war peacefully.]
Cheng Qisheng was rather curious why they thought they were still in any position to negotiate.
They weren’t even willing to cede any territory as compensation.
She didn’t believe that a City Lord capable of upgrading a Safe City to Tier 3—with territory spanning at least 30,000 square kilometers by the look of it—could possibly be that naïve.
She replied directly:
[If I wipe you out, all of that will be mine anyway~]
Tian’ou Safe City responded at once.
[That’s true in other worlds. But this is Green Billow Star. You’ve only just arrived, so you probably don’t know much about this planet yet. Buy a Tier-2 telescope for 2,000 crystals and look at the sky. As a gesture of sincerity, we’ll cover the cost of the telescope.]
—Tian’ou Safe City has transferred 2,500 Tier-1 Crystals to Blue Sea Safe City.—
Cheng Qisheng didn’t bother with any “I’m not listening no matter what you say” theatrics. She accepted the crystals without hesitation and immediately purchased a Tier-2 telescope.
To the naked eye, the sky above their region was covered by a dense blanket of clouds.
What made a Tier-2 telescope superior to a Tier-1 model was its ability to see through cloud cover.
Only then did Cheng Qisheng see it.
One Safe City after another floated high above the clouds.
There were roughly a dozen of them, large and small alike. At a glance, it was obvious they were all using levitation devices.
[Blue Sea Safe City: Don’t tell me you’re about to say they’re all your allies. =v=]
Cheng Qisheng didn’t believe it for a second.
If they really had that many allies, would Chimi Safe City have fled so quickly?
Besides, she glanced at this world’s City Lords’ group chat.
It was buzzing with activity.
[They’re fighting again! Another war!]
[Tian’ou and Mingqin have finally met their match. The newly arrived Blue Sea is beating them so badly they can’t fight back. Hahaha!]
[Chimi ran. I blinked, and he was already gone.]
[What’s happening? How’s the battle going? Anyone got a video?]
[I recorded it. 150 crystals per copy. Message me if you want one.]
[Tian’ou and Mingqin are done for. They’re obviously no match for Blue Sea. Heh, I hope Blue Sea demands a hefty compensation. Don’t let them off with a token payment. (eating popcorn.jpg)]
Without another word, Cheng Qisheng took a screenshot and sent it to Tian’ou.
[You really aren’t very popular.]
Tian’ou replied:
[I ambushed the City Lord who said that before. We fought to a draw in terms of strength, and I ended up paying him some crystals to end the Safe City war.]
[Do you know why they dislike us, yet none of them dare attack us? Because the region we’re in right now is home to a Catastrophe-class sea monster.]
He sounded remarkably confident, speaking in an even, composed tone. He even took the initiative to explain the world’s environment to Cheng Qisheng.
Tian’ou felt he was projecting the calm, magnanimous air of someone turning swords into plowshares.
Cheng Qisheng, however, thought he sounded exactly like an NPC explaining the game’s world lore.
[Green Billow Star has already been completely submerged beneath the ocean. Only a small amount of land still remains above the water, but it won’t be long before that disappears as well. These seawaters continuously drain the life force of anyone who comes into contact with them. However, whenever the sea senses a vehicle traveling across its surface, it may spit out items useful to intelligent life. That’s why the people here can only survive by constantly traveling aboard vehicles.]
[Green Billow Star is also home to another kind of creature—the ones we commonly call exotic beasts. Here, they’re known as sea monsters. They live in the ocean, are divided into different threat levels, and each occupies its own territory. Killing some of them yields item cards, while others drop crystals.]
[Sea monsters attack any ships or vehicles that pass through their waters. However, as long as you don’t enter the surface waters within their territory, they generally won’t attack. The region we’re currently in just happens to lie on the edge of this Catastrophe-class sea monster’s territory.]
[And I happen to possess one item that can lure it here, as well as another that can blind its senses.]
