Chapter 103.2: World Mission
Quite a few of the city lords present already had people from Green Billow Star living inside their Safe Cities.
As though knowing what they were thinking, Duxi added:
[Don’t worry. Back then, almost our entire civilization was on the verge of being pulled into subspace. Space itself was constantly overlapping, and large numbers of people were falling into subspace every day. Green Billow Star isn’t anywhere near that bad yet.]
[If Green Billow Star really were in that kind of serious condition, the ones descending here wouldn’t be us below the Tier 5.]
Everyone immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
Some of the city lords also realized that Duxi really was someone who had seen the wider world.
Most city lords came from modern civilizations. Duxi’s native civilization, however, was an interstellar civilization.
At most, they had only encountered Tier 5 city lords. Duxi’s civilization, on the other hand, had cooperated with high-tier city lords. Since he knew about the differences in the Tier 6 shop, he probably knew plenty of other information about the higher tiers as well.
Most Safe City lords had to figure things out on their own as they progressed. If they wanted information, they could only spend crystals to purchase it—and even then, the information they obtained might not be complete.
Free information obtained from other city lords was also quite likely to be false.
A city lord like Duxi, who clearly knew so much about the rules and inner workings of Safe Cities at a glance—if they could become friends with him, how much trouble could they save themselves?
Some city lords had ulterior motives and asked Duxi:
[@Duxi Safe City By the way, boss, do you have any interstellar products for sale?]
Surely products from an interstellar civilization would be more useful than those from a modern civilization, right?
[Duxi Safe City: No. Don’t you know? The rules governing a Safe City’s descent are calculated based on its overall strength. If I brought a large amount of interstellar technology and knowledge with me, we’d be classified as a high-level civilization, and the first world we descended into would be much more dangerous. Given the Empire’s strength at the time, our survival rate would have been practically zero.]
[Duxi Safe City: So in the later stages, the Empire deliberately stopped our generation from learning technological knowledge beyond the level of modern civilization. Many scientists who possessed interstellar-level knowledge and technology were still alive when the Safe Cities descended. To ensure the continuation of the civilization, they chose not to enter the cities.]
The group chat fell silent again.
Even Cheng Qisheng was stunned for several seconds by such a willingness to sacrifice everything for the sake of ensuring the continuation of civilization.
Thinking about it carefully, Blue Sea Safe City had indeed progressed through the worlds noticeably faster than other Safe Cities of the same tier right from the beginner world.
On Velvet Star’s zombie world, Cheng Qisheng had been the only newcomer.
On Dazzling Star, everyone—including Coriander—had experienced at least three worlds. Cheng Qisheng alone had reached Dazzling Star on only her second descent.
And Green Billow Star was even more obvious. The fact that they needed to spend crystals to purchase floating devices just to remain there was enough to filter out quite a few city lords.
At this point, Cheng Qisheng actually began to feel fortunate that Old Eighth was obsessed with warfare and had developed technology so slowly.
If the rules governing Safe Cities meant that greater abilities came with greater dangers, then it really was safer to rise through the lower tiers step by step.
Better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix.
The choice was obvious.
Of course, it was better to be the head of a chicken first, accumulating resources step by step, transforming into a phoenix, and eventually becoming the head of the phoenixes.
Seeing that his one remark had caused the group chat to fall silent, Duxi took the initiative to share another piece of good news.
[Duxi Safe City: Since fate has brought us all together, let me share some good news. Although the prices of items in the shop increase after reaching the Tier 6, Tier 6 Safe Cities can spend crystals to choose which world they descend into when entering an apocalypse world.]
Cheng Qisheng found herself not surprised in the slightest.
She wasn’t surprised that they could choose their worlds, nor was she surprised that it cost crystals.
If there was one stereotypical impression of how Safe Cities operated, it could be summed up in four words:
Desperate for crystals.
As long as you had enough crystals, you could buy anything.
If you didn’t have enough, you could barely take a single step forward.
But for the city lords, this was indeed excellent news.
The greatest difficulty facing Safe Cities was their lack of choice. What city lords feared most was encountering a world where death came the moment they opened the door.
Just like Blackstone Safe City. It had been so powerful, yet it had still been ravaged by the virus to the point where it had no choice but to cede territory, cut off its own tail to survive, and flee in haste.
After a brief lull, the group chat became lively again.
[We can choose? That’s fantastic! I’m terrified of virus worlds.]
[If we can choose, no wonder the world-preview cards become unusable after ranking up. Turns out we won’t need them anymore.]
[Then we’ll be able to prepare in advance.]
Although the city lords themselves had no idea whether they’d ever manage to reach the Tier 6, let alone whether they’d have enough crystals to choose a world when the time came, that didn’t stop them from feeling hopeful about the road ahead.
[Duxi Safe City: I won’t explain exactly how the selection works. If you want the details, you can message me privately to buy the information. I’ll give everyone a special friends-and-family price~]
The moment he finished saying that, he immediately sent a private message to Blue Sea Safe City.
[Duxi Safe City: Blue Sea, we’ve gotten along well, so I won’t charge you any crystals, hahaha. I’ll just tell you directly.]
[Duxi Safe City: You should know about spaceships, right? Tier 6 Safe Cities can fly through the vast universe. As long as you can afford the energy consumption, you can keep flying indefinitely. Not only can you find worlds currently undergoing disasters and descend into them, you can also find planets that have already completely died and excavate whatever resources remain there, such as ores and the like.]
Cheng Qisheng had been just about to spend crystals to buy the information when the message delivered itself right to her door.
She was somewhat surprised, but not all that surprised.
Duxi had clearly been using information to cultivate relationships all along. Every time, he would reveal just a little, then explain the circumstances of his native world, making it clear that he still knew plenty of other information.
He claimed that they hadn’t brought any interstellar technology with them when they left, but the city lords wouldn’t believe that.
A civilization capable of trading with various Safe Cities—could it really have left its own Safe City without any backup measures?
If it had nothing, then what could it possibly trade with those Safe Cities?
As a result, Duxi’s image in the eyes of the other city lords had become that of someone who knew a great deal of information while also possessing unknown trump cards.
It wasn’t difficult for them to calculate that provoking him wouldn’t be worth it.
Becoming his “friend” was far more worthwhile.
Cheng Qisheng: You’ve kind of stolen my character concept, buddy.
That said, she was genuinely quite willing to maintain this “friendship” with Duxi. Although the city lords were still at the Tier 5 or below, they were naturally more than happy to learn about the higher-tier Safe Cities in advance.
Blue Sea Safe City was strong enough, and it wasn’t surprising that Duxi was willing to share more information with her.
Since he’d already extended an olive branch, Cheng Qisheng naturally accepted it with equal enthusiasm.
[Blue Sea Safe City: Ahhh! Thank you so much! If you hadn’t told me, Duxi, I never would’ve imagined that a Tier 6 Safe City could actually fly through space! =v=]
‘Haha, got you. Actually, I had already figured that out.’
They had already said that the ultimate goal of a Safe City was to become a planet, so it wasn’t particularly surprising that a Safe City could travel through the universe.
But when someone took the initiative to show goodwill, she naturally had to make it seem like, Wow, this information is really important.
It was only proper to return the favor.
Besides, Cheng Qisheng did have something she genuinely wanted to ask.
[Blue Sea Safe City: What exactly do you mean by “the vast universe”?]
[Duxi Safe City: You should have noticed by now that many of the apocalypse worlds don’t actually come from the same universe.]
Cheng Qisheng, who had only experienced three apocalypse worlds: [That’s right.]
[Duxi Safe City: Outside the universe is the greater universe. You can think of it this way: ordinary universes are like little rooms with their doors shut. The greater universe outside is like a hall. Normally, the doors to those little rooms are locked, so the people inside can’t get out, and the greater universe can’t break through the locks either.]
[Duxi Safe City: But when a universe shatters or is on the verge of shattering, the lock falls away and the door opens. That universe is then exposed to the greater universe and can be observed by it. In fact, every time a Safe City below the Tier 6 descends into a world, it uses the energy from crystals to perform a jump through the greater universe.]
[Duxi Safe City: The destination of the jump can’t be specified. It can only be controlled within a certain range. For example, you’re a Tier 4 Safe City. Within the greater universe, there are billions upon billions of apocalypse planets with frequencies similar to your Safe City. The Safe City will randomly descend onto the planet whose frequency is the closest match.]
[Duxi Safe City: But it’s different when the Safe City travels through the greater universe itself. You’ll fly through the greater universe at super-high speed and descend onto whichever suitable planet you encounter. However, this requires a tremendous amount of crystals, because the greater universe is unimaginably vast. Even though there are countless apocalypse planets within it, you might not encounter one quickly. And even if you do, it might not be a type of world suitable for descent.]
Cheng Qisheng more or less understood.
[So, the greater universe can be compared to Green Billow Star, and a Safe City is like an ordinary wooden boat on Green Billow Star, with the boat constantly sailing around in search of high ground?]
[Duxi Safe City: You can think of it that way~]
[Blue Sea Safe City: Thank you so much!! This information is really important. Thank you, Duxi! I don’t really have anything to thank you with, but you bought my mattresses before, so I’ll give you some mattresses!]
—Blue Sea Safe City has sent 800 mattresses to Duxi Safe City.
It was a rather subtle thank-you gift. It wasn’t cheap, but it also didn’t quite reach the value of an information fee.
Duxi thought about it for a moment, then accepted.
[Don’t mention it. If there’s anything else you want to know in the future, feel free to ask me. My strength isn’t anything special, but I do know quite a lot of things~]
The two exchanged a few more polite pleasantries before ending their private conversation.
…
Inside Duxi Safe City, City Lord Duxi let out a breath.
He didn’t know whether winning Blue Sea over would benefit him in the future, but at least for now, Blue Sea seemed quite easy to deal with and didn’t seem like the type to prey on those close to home.
Strictly speaking, this was the first time City Lord Duxi had won over more than a hundred city lords.
Some had formed deep friendships with him, while others were only at the very beginning of a relationship, like Blue Sea.
But that didn’t matter. He had plenty of time to build a good relationship with Blue Sea.
Even if he couldn’t become Blue Sea’s friend, he absolutely couldn’t become its enemy.
He needed to use the information he possessed to make the other city lords believe that he was useful and couldn’t be touched. This was the path the Empire’s strategists had laid out for him when Duxi Safe City left their native civilization.
If necessary, he would also use the information he possessed to find Duxi Safe City a powerful backer.
Everything was for the sake of survival.
To live longer.
To survive until Duxi Safe City became powerful enough.
Duxi stopped paying attention to the virtual screen before him and walked into the city lord’s room.
His city lord’s room didn’t contain a bed. Instead, it held a gigantic object shaped somewhat like a USB drive from modern civilization.
Duxi walked over and gently placed his hand on the enormous object.
It contained the consciousnesses of every person from Duxi’s entire civilization.
This was the only piece of interstellar technology he had brought into the Safe City.
But there were simply too many consciousnesses, and the amount of knowledge they contained far exceeded that of a modern civilization. They couldn’t be released until Duxi Safe City had grown strong enough to withstand greater risks.
“I’ll do it.”
Duxi pressed his face against the enormous consciousness vessel, his eyes reddening as he made his promise.
“I’ll definitely survive to the very end and bring all of you back.”
…
“City Lord, the world mission has been announced.”
“Mission: Take Lilith away.”
“Mission success reward: 1 million nuclear crystals.”
The world mission had finally arrived.
Staring at the one million crystals, Cheng Qisheng immediately revised her plan to buy a permanent floating device after earning five million crystals.
She now only needed to earn four million more.
But… had world missions always been this abstract?
At least in the first world, the mission had specified the target’s occupation. But now, the mission for Green Billow Star had been reduced to nothing more than a person’s name.
Take Lilith away.
Who was Lilith?
…
“Come in!”
“Next!!”
Ma Yuetian stood with the sea monster at the edge of the narrow boundary where the sea met the sky.
As one Kansidang key after another was thrown inside, the rift would briefly open.
Ma Yuetian put on an expression of utmost seriousness as she sent Blue Sea residents inside one group after another.
Unfortunately, the Kansidang key really was hard-limited to taking only one thousand people. Ma Yuetian couldn’t secretly squeeze any more people through.
This group was made up of Blue Sea residents. Send them in.
Most of this group were Blue Sea residents too. Send them in.
Half of this group were Blue Sea residents, while the other half were ordinary pirates…
Ma Yuetian glanced at the ships behind them. Groups of Blue Sea residents were standing aboard them, and it was obvious that the captain of this pirate ship had decided not to take them inside.
She exchanged a glance with Zhu Feifan.
Zhu Feifan immediately splashed the water with a powerful flap.
Ma Yuetian put on a stern expression.
“You, you, you, and all of you. Your heartbeats are wrong, and you smell wrong. Out!”
One person and one sea monster successfully kicked out most of the ordinary pirates, forcing the captain to fill the empty spots with the Blue Sea residents he had kept in reserve.
“Next!!”
Ma Yuetian was thoroughly satisfied and continued shouting:
“Next.”
The next group arrived in front of her.
She looked at the young girl wearing a hat, then at the Kansidang key.
“The Thorn Pirates?”
The young girl nodded.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Ma Yuetian: She doesn’t look like a Blue Sea person.
Zhu Feifan sniffed her as well.
She doesn’t have that bloody pirate smell either.
The person and sea monster exchanged a glance, hesitating for a moment.
In the end, Ma Yuetian nodded.
“Go ahead.”
The girl led her people inside, while Ma Yuetian continued diligently performing her duties as a gatekeeper.
Ever since becoming a sea monster, Zhu Feifan’s hearing had become exceptionally sharp. He glanced at the captain of the Thorn Pirates ahead, his ears twitching slightly as he heard someone call her Captain Lilith.
Cheng Qisheng, who had been pondering the new world mission, immediately caught the crucial information through the sliver of attention she had kept focused on Ma Yuetian and Zhu Feifan.
Lilith?!!
Was she the Lilith mentioned in the world mission?
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