Chapter 101.1: Good Quality Merchandise
The giant sea monster was, of course, still alive.
Sea monsters were extremely difficult to kill, and different sea monsters had different vital weaknesses.
Under normal circumstances, most animals in nature would die if their heads were cut off, but the sea monsters on Green Billow Star were very different.
Over the past while, the Blue Sea residents who had ventured out to explore had suffered repeated failures.
Many times, they had already churned a sea monster’s head into pulp and chopped its heart into mince, yet those monsters could still drag their mangled bodies into the depths and successfully escape.
Thus, the Blue Sea people had an epiphany.
Unless they blasted a giant sea monster to pieces with a Holy Bomb, no one could know which part of its body had to be severed before it would truly die.
And so, the Sea-Locking Chains came into being.
Just like the Dragon-Locking Nets designed specifically to deal with Skywing Dragons, the Sea-Locking Chains were specially made for sea monsters. Equipped with long spikes and heavy hammers, their greatest purpose was to prevent a sea monster from escaping when it could no longer win the fight.
But honestly, this was the first time the Sea-Locking Chains had ever encountered an opponent this enormous.
In the end, it took more than two hundred Sea-Locking Chains and nearly an entire night to finally make the giant sea monster completely unable to break free.
But their efforts would be rewarded!!
The Gourmet-type ability user arrived atop the giant sea monster and, after examining it with his ability, reached a conclusion.
“Not poisonous. It’s edible.”
The many Blue Sea residents looked at the giant sea monster, which stood more than three hundred meters tall just by height alone:
——Hahahahahahahaha!!!
More than three thousand ships had come for this operation. Of them, 70% were one- or two-person ships, 25% were medium-sized ships carrying anywhere from dozens to more than two hundred people, while the remaining 5% were large ships, with an average of eight hundred to 1,200 people per ship.
In other words, there were roughly 300,000 people taking part in the operation.
This giant sea monster had a massive body and countless tentacles. By a rough estimate, even if everyone ate it every day, there would be enough to feed 300,000 people for an entire year.
A whole year!!!
Just think of how many points that could save!
And how many resources it could save back home?!
Even if they didn’t eat it themselves, they could take it home and sell it. The points they got in exchange would be enough to buy plenty of good things.
The hardworking Blue Sea masters were instantly fired up.
Thank you, our God, for bestowing us with such a blessing!
The exhaustion from a whole night of intense fighting vanished in an instant.
The hardworking Blue Sea masters weren’t afraid of hardship or fatigue. They put on their masks and gloves and began cutting here and slicing there, trying to find the weakness that would finally kill the sea monster.
But to the group of pirates who had barged in, it looked as though they were cutting up the sea monster while it was still alive.
Cutting up… a sea monster while it was still alive?!!!
The entire pirate crew had still been laughing uproariously just moments ago, but the instant they saw this scene, they fell completely silent.
They watched as the ship they had chased all night continued sailing forward as if nothing had happened, naturally merging into the other ships.
From the distance came the lively shouts of people calling out to one another.
“Over here! Catch this piece of tentacle!”
“Shouldn’t the heart be somewhere around here?”
“Is it dead? It’s not dead yet?!”
These people… sounded as though they were having an ordinary casual conversation, their tones relaxed, yet every sentence was saturated with a chilling air of bloodshed.
To them, killing such a terrifying giant sea monster was as easy as killing a seabird.
At this point, even the dumbest pirate knew they had bitten off more than they could chew.
“Leave… now…”
The pirate captain lowered his voice, practically forcing the command out of his throat in a whisper.
The ship turned and slammed into the sea monster barrier.
The pirates: “…”
Of course. They should have guessed. They hadn’t been able to see this scene before they charged inside.
“Don’t panic… Don’t lose your heads…”
The pirate strategist managed to remain relatively composed.
“There are so many ships here. They’re all different sizes and don’t even look alike. They may not all know one another.”
The first mate also calmed down. “I understand. You mean we can pretend we’re one of their own.”
“The sea monster barrier here was obviously created by that monster they’ve chained up. We can blend in here, and once those people kill the monster and the barrier disappears, we can escape.”
“No.”
The strategist said, “We can’t immediately flee the moment the barrier disappears. Wouldn’t that be practically announcing to them that we’re not one of their own?”
“We should keep moving slowly, act as naturally as possible, and gradually separate ourselves from the other ships.”
The pirates had come up with a pretty good plan.
But how could the Blue Sea people possibly lower their guard before the battle was completely over?
Above them, more than a dozen clerics hovered in midair, staring intently at the scene below.
When the pirate ship had first entered, the clerics really hadn’t noticed anything unusual.
But now, it had been inside for more than three minutes.
Why hadn’t anyone come rushing out, eagerly charging toward the giant sea monster?
They had already arrived late and missed the actual battle. If they didn’t hurry over now, wouldn’t they have come all this way for nothing?
Just look at the Blue Sea ship that had charged in ahead of them. It had practically come in with sparks flying and lightning flashing, shooting straight toward the giant sea monster.
The next second, dozens of Blue Sea residents had leaped out of it and immediately started scrambling upward, without wasting even a second.
Now that was what normal Blue Sea residents were supposed to look like.
One of the clerics stared at the eerily quiet pirate ship and sent a flag signal.
“See? Just like this. They haven’t noticed us…”
The pirate captain was still quietly reassuring himself when he suddenly noticed that the people bustling about on the ships beside them had all turned to look in their direction.
No—not just the ships beside them.
All around them, everything suddenly became quiet except for the sound of the wind.
The noisy yet relaxed and casual chatter from before had, at some point, completely stopped.
The pirates looked around in every direction, and suddenly their hearts clenched.
The ships ahead, the ships behind, and even many of the people who had been busily working away on the giant sea monster all suddenly stopped what they were doing and turned their heads toward them.
—
“These pirates are actually pretty wealthy.”
Pan Tuan rummaged out a chest filled with crystals. A rough estimate put the number at at least 500.
Not bad, not bad.
She heard that the giant sea monster had finally died, and that they had also found a Tier 4 crystal inside its brain.
Naturally, that crystal would also be offered to our God.
Grinning from ear to ear, Pan Tuan stored the chest in the “Offerings to Our God” section, then began knocking on the floors and walls of the cabins belonging to the pirate crew’s higher-ups one by one. To her delight, she found a small black stone hidden beneath the floorboards under the captain’s bed.
“A Kansidang Key?!”
This pirate crew actually had the qualifications to enter the Pirate Assembly?
Pan Tuan was overjoyed.
According to the newly established “Kansidang Key Acquisition Process,” as long as a resident had participated in the battle, once they found a key, the right to use that key belonged to that resident.
In other words, she could either use it herself or sell it to another resident.
If this had been the old Pan Tuan, she definitely would have thought it safer to play it safe.
Her combat strength had been steadily increasing, but she still hadn’t reached 75. Breaking into the Pirate Assembly was simply too risky.
But now, as Pan Tuan held the Kansidang Key in her hand, her eyes were filled with determination.
She went to the ship belonging to the clerics and registered that she had found a Kansidang Key.
The cleric nodded and recorded it without showing any intention of asking Pan Tuan what she planned to do with it.
This was also one of Blue Sea’s distinctive traits.
As long as you were an adult, and the rules were clearly laid out, they would respect whatever decision you made.
Although the cleric didn’t ask about the Kansidang Key, she noticed that Pan Tuan was injured.
“Your injuries aren’t serious, but if you leave them untreated for too long, they could cause lasting complications. Treatment Room 31. You’re number 09, so go inside and wait in line.”
The cleric took out a numbered tag and quickly tied it around Pan Tuan’s arm.
Pan Tuan nodded. She didn’t even ask about payment or anything like that, and simply walked straight inside.
Blue Sea’s various systems for surviving the apocalypse were gradually being perfected.
For battles involving tens of thousands of residents, the final spoils of war—the giant sea monster—would have 15% set aside under the temple’s name to serve as medical expenses for residents injured in the battle.
If there wasn’t enough, the temple would cover the difference.
If there was more than enough, the surplus would simply be treated as a donation to the temple.
Ever since joining Blue Sea, Pan Tuan had spent every day either fighting or on her way to a battle, so she’d gradually grown accustomed to regulations like this.
Moreover, when the temple treated its residents, it had always spared no expense.
As long as it could save someone, no matter how expensive the medicine was, they would use it on the resident.
Once, Pan Tuan had been so badly injured that she’d even started writing her last letter, only for the temple to drag her back from the brink.
And because she’d been injured during a Safe City war, she hadn’t had to pay even a single point for her treatment. On top of her originally allocated share of the spoils, she had also received an additional 5% injured-combatant subsidy.
Pan Tuan now understood especially well why the Blue Sea people were always so fearless and heroic in battle.
She was the same way now. She wasn’t afraid of getting hurt at all. To put it bluntly, even if she were to die in battle right now, she could close her eyes in peace knowing that she had nothing to worry about.
Because she could be one hundred percent certain that the compensation for her death in battle would reach her family.
Of course, Pan Tuan wasn’t actually planning to die in battle.
She lowered her head and looked at the Kansidang Key in her hand, unable to suppress a little chuckle.
It was simply that, with all of Blue Sea there to have her back, she had become much bolder than before—and her ambitions had grown as well.
——
Yuan Moshu was sitting on a bench inside, waiting for his number to be called.
Jinfan Gang had also been injured, with a deep gash across his side that looked particularly serious.
Yuan Moshu’s face went pale when he saw it. On Green Billow Star, a wound like that could easily become infected and prove fatal if it wasn’t treated properly.
But Jinfan Gang didn’t take it seriously at all. He merely chuckled and said that a little treatment would take care of it.
Then he dragged Yuan Moshu over with him and even got a number for Yuan Moshu, who had cracked his head open.
Blue Sea… actually had specialized medical ships.
Jinfan Gang went off to receive treatment, while Yuan Moshu sat alone on a chair, looking completely dazed.
He had been in such a daze the entire way that it wasn’t until Jinfan Gang had left that he finally realized he hadn’t even asked how much material or how many crystals it would take to treat an injury like his!
Seeing Pan Tuan sitting beside him, Yuan Moshu hesitated again and again before finally asking,
“Um, hello. I wanted to ask, in my case, where I hit my head and they said I’d need a CT scan, how much would I have to pay?”
Pan Tuan looked at how uncomfortable he seemed.
“You’re from Green Billow Star?”
“Yes, yes…”
“Did you pass the faith test?”
Yuan Moshu quickly answered, “I did. When I boarded the ship just now, I touched the crystal ball, and it lit up.”
Pan Tuan understood. So he was a new believer who had only just joined Blue Sea and hadn’t figured out how things worked yet.
She smiled and replied, “Then don’t worry. You’re a believer of our God, which means you’re a Blue Sea resident. Injuries sustained in battle are treated completely free of charge.”
Yuan Moshu became even more uneasy.
“But… I wasn’t injured in battle. The ship kept rocking, and I lost my balance and hit my head.”
“It’s the same thing.”
Pan Tuan patted him on the shoulder.
“The ship was rocking because of the sea monster, so the fact that you lost your balance and hit your head can still be counted as part of this battle.”
Yuan Moshu was stunned. “It can be counted that way?”
“But I didn’t contribute anything at all…”
He genuinely felt guilty.
Especially after becoming a believer of the divine being and experiencing that overwhelming warmth, Yuan Moshu couldn’t help wanting to do something for Blue Sea, and for the God they worshiped.
And yet he hadn’t done anything at all. He hadn’t fought the sea monsters, hadn’t fought the pirates, and had even knocked himself unconscious, meaning he was going to waste Blue Sea’s medical resources.
Looking at the ashamed Yuan Moshu, Pan Tuan felt as though she were seeing her former self when she had just joined Blue Sea.
People who had survived the apocalypse often developed this kind of mindset: if you’re useless right now, that means you’ll always be useless.
Because in the apocalypse, there were no circumstances that allowed people to take their time and grow.
But Blue Sea did.
She said, “You only just joined Blue Sea. Even if you wanted to make some contribution, it’s not like you’ve had the chance yet.”
Pan Tuan remembered what her former captain had once said to comfort her:
“For now, you only need to do one thing: eat well, drink your fill, get your body healthy, and exercise as much as you can. After that, there will be plenty of battles waiting for you.”
“Even if you’re not very strong and can’t fight, if you’ve got a good head on your shoulders, you can try taking the civil service exams or become a researcher. If you have technical skills, you can apply for positions in the various technical departments.”
“If you don’t have technical skills or combat ability, you can still become a construction worker, build walls, carry bricks, or work in a factory. You can be a cleaner, a caregiver… In short, as long as you’re willing to work, you’ll always find a way to contribute to our God.”
Yuan Moshu listened with longing, and even the pain in the back of his head seemed to have eased.
“Does Blue Sea really have that many jobs?”
Pan Tuan nodded firmly. “Actually, there are even more. I just only know about these.”
In reality, it was her former captain who had only known about these positions.
After joining Blue Sea, Pan Tuan had fallen in love with fighting. She spent most of her time out there adventuring and only occasionally returned home, so she wasn’t particularly familiar with all the different jobs available in Blue Sea either.
But she knew that Blue Sea’s territory had expanded again, so naturally there would be more and more jobs as well.
“In Blue Sea, as long as you’re willing to work, you’ll definitely never starve.”
Yuan Moshu immediately nodded frantically.
“I am! I’m willing to work!”
Oh, our God.
Could he really go to such a wonderful place?
If he didn’t still have to continue serving as bait, Yuan Moshu wished he could grow a pair of wings right now and fly straight to the Blue Sea Safe City she had described to take a good look for himself.
“Such a wonderful place—even if I could only earn three hundred points a month and live the most basic life possible, it would still be far better than the life I’m living now!”
