Safe City Ch.116

Chapter 116: A Dedicated Freight Route

“Finally, we’re back.”

Like the other Blue Sea vessels, the Changming used the steel cables hanging vertically from above to secure its position.

Anyone looking at the area from a distance would see a vast stretch of sea densely packed with ships.

There were heavy vessels as well as light boats, and each section had been assigned its own designated berthing area. Properly sized navigation channels had been left between the sections to prevent collisions.

Because Blue Sea Safe City was located above the clouds, all that could be seen from below were hundreds of thousands of chain passages extending downward from the sky.

People could be seen standing above, while all sorts of cargo were being hoisted up, slowly ascending.

The Tier-3 nutrient solution synthesizing machine was one of the pieces of cargo being lifted. It rose slowly, destined to enter Blue Sea as the Changming’s spoils of war.

Qi Yi, Qi Er, and Lu Song had chosen one of the chains and begun climbing upward.

In fact, most of the chains used for transporting people up and down moved upward automatically, functioning much like elevators.

These chains were enormous. The welded links were large enough for a person to stand on with both feet. At the top was a drive unit, and the principle was very simple: the entire chain formed a continuous closed loop.

One side of the chain went upward while the other went downward, cycling continuously.

Nowadays, most Blue Sea residents relied on these “chain elevators” to enter and leave the city. The type where a single chain was not divided into two sections, but consisted of just one continuous chain, still required people to climb up themselves.

Compared with the “elevators” where people could simply step onto them and let them do all the work, there were clearly far fewer people using these individual chains.

The Blue Sea people were enthusiastic about fighting and didn’t mind climbing up and down either. But it was just like back when they lived on Dark Star: people didn’t mind taking the stairs, but if an elevator was available, then of course the elevator was more convenient.

This was different from when everyone had initially been crammed into a mere 800-square-kilometer area. The residents returning from outside had already gotten their fill of excitement from fighting sea monsters and battling against the waves.

At this point, the Blue Sea people no longer needed to climb the chains just to burn off their excess energy.

Once they took the “elevator” up, they could simply head to the gym or the dueling arena for a more comprehensive workout.

The reason Qi Yi, Qi Er, and Lu Song were climbing a single chain was mainly because they didn’t want to wait in line.

They had been away from home for too long, and they were already itching to get back to their own little nests.

Especially Lu Song.

Because he wasn’t a believer and had no divine guidance, he had stayed practically glued to his two Blue Sea friends the entire time they were outside. Even when it was time to sleep, he wouldn’t sleep in his own room, but instead would go to Qi Yi or Qi Er’s room and sleep on the floor.

Yet even after taking such precautions, he still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.

What if a huge wave suddenly crashed over them, capsizing the ship and blowing him far away in the storm?

If someone else were blown away by a storm, they could use divine guidance to find their way back. Lu Song couldn’t.

If he hadn’t been concerned about safety, he had even considered getting a chain and literally chaining himself to a Blue Sea person.

That way, no matter what happened, he could make sure he wouldn’t get separated and lost.

As one of the “old-timers” who had joined Blue Sea back on Velvet Star, the longer Lu Song stayed in Blue Sea, the stronger his sense of belonging became.

But he just—for the life of him—couldn’t become a believer!

Lu Song himself found it incredibly frustrating.

As a result, he’d developed an additional “homesick” habit.

Rationally, he knew he should be exploring outside and bringing back more resources so that everyone’s lives could continue to improve.

And as a former special forces soldier from Velvet Star, Lu Song was naturally more inclined to fight on the front lines than stay behind handling logistics.

But emotionally, he wished he could simply never leave Blue Sea Safe City at all, avoiding any possibility of being stranded outside.

“The nutrient solution manufacturing machine should be pretty important, right?”

Lu Song climbed upward with ease, gazing toward the area above the clouds. A look of anticipation appeared in his eyes.

“Perhaps this achievement will earn me the attention of our God and allow me to become one of Her believers?”

Cheng Qisheng: All I can say is, I’ll give you points as a reward.

She couldn’t forcibly turn someone into her believer. If Lu Song wanted to become one, he would have to work for it himself.

As one of Blue Sea’s external explorers, Lu Song was actually quite capable.

Although he wasn’t a believer, he had always stayed under the watchful eyes of the Blue Sea people twenty-four hours a day, which, as far as Cheng Qisheng was concerned, was almost as good as being one.

Whenever Lu Song was inside Blue Sea Safe City, he was practically a regular at the temple.

Every morning and evening, he would faithfully attend the temple’s preaching sessions. Even his daily walks were centered around the statue of the Great Creator God of Blue Sea—the statue served as both his starting point and his destination.

Most Blue Sea people carried just one wooden statue of the Creator God.

Lu Song, on the other hand?

He practically looked like he was wholesaling Creator God statues. Wooden, bronze, jade, marble, stainless steel, resin—he had a whole assortment of statues of different materials hanging from him, clinking and clattering as he walked.

Lu Song had even spent a small fortune on a crystal ball that could test whether someone was a believer. He would check it after waking up, before going to bed, and before breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He treated it like a daily check-in.

Sometimes, when Cheng Qisheng turned her attention to the Changming at night, she could see him through Qi Yi or Qi Er’s eyes, earnestly reciting the scriptures before a statue.

He didn’t even need to look at the book anymore.

He had already memorized the entire thing.

Cheng Qisheng was quite curious as to why this guy had still failed to become a genuine believer.

Normally, once someone developed a sense of belonging to Blue Sea, they would become her believer.

Lu Song’s sense of belonging was practically overflowing, yet for some reason, he just couldn’t become a believer no matter what.

Take right now, for example.

Cheng Qisheng had just gained more than a dozen faith chains.

Following the chains, she saw a group of people.

They had returned aboard a relatively battered ship, traveling alongside a group of Blue Sea people.

There were more than twenty people aboard the ship in total.

They weren’t natives of Green Billow Star. They were residents of a Safe City that had descended onto Green Billow Star.

As the winds and waves on Green Billow Star grew increasingly violent, too many ships had begun falling apart. Many Safe Cities had started recalling their residents, deciding to leave while their losses were still manageable.

These twenty-some people had been particularly unlucky. They were too far away from their own Safe City. By the time they received the recall signal from their locators, they had rushed back as desperately as they could, but they still hadn’t made it in time.

Their Safe City had already left.

Just like the other residents who had failed to return in time, these twenty-some people had been abandoned.

From the Safe City’s perspective, this wasn’t necessarily the wrong decision.

Every city lord knew that when a world began becoming increasingly difficult to survive in, one absolutely couldn’t afford to take chances. Things would only become more dangerous with time. There would be no exceptions.

Right now, Green Billow Star was merely suffering from increasingly violent winds and waves. But what if sea monsters capable of threatening things above the clouds appeared?

Or what if the space-time here became unstable? Who could guarantee that the Safe City itself wouldn’t be torn apart by unstable spatial-temporal energy?

For those Safe Cities that didn’t have many trump cards for self-defense, their only option was naturally to evacuate as quickly as possible, taking as many residents with them as they could.

But for the residents who failed to make it back to their Safe City in time, this was tantamount to a catastrophe.

They had been abandoned in this unfamiliar world, a world doomed to destruction. At that moment, the word despair wasn’t even enough to describe how they felt.

Fortunately, these twenty-some people encountered the Blue Sea people.

For Safe City residents abandoned in a doomsday world, their only way out was to seek refuge in another Safe City. So, once they discovered that the people they had encountered were residents of a Safe City, they immediately begged them to take them back with them.

And the Blue Sea people readily responded to their plea.

Along the way, these people heard quite a bit about Blue Sea Safe City, including stories of the Great Creator God of Blue Sea. But at the time, they hadn’t thought much of it.

Until now—

When they raised their heads and saw the hundreds of thousands of thick chains descending from the sky, as well as the endless fleet of ships stretching as far as the eye could see, every one of them was left utterly stunned.

“My God!”

They cautiously followed the Blue Sea people’s ship along the designated waterway, tense throughout the entire journey. After all, they had already been abandoned once.

However, the sheer number of people in Blue Sea Safe City put them somewhat at ease. A place with so many people should probably be more willing to accept newcomers, right?

On both sides of the waterway were nothing but Blue Sea vessels.

From such close range, they could see that some ships bore deep scratches a meter long. Others were covered in layers upon layers of green sea-monster blood, so much that nearly half the hull had been stained green. On some ships, Blue Sea residents stood on deck brushing their teeth. On others, the carcasses of sea monsters more than ten meters long had been hoisted into the air.

It was breakfast time.

The air, which should have been filled with the salty stench of the sea, was instead saturated with the aroma of food—a scent that was practically a miracle in the apocalypse.

Yet no one tried to snatch someone else’s food simply because delicious smells were coming from every direction. Nor did anyone regard the newcomers with hostile or suspicious looks.

In fact, everyone was simply busy with their own affairs.

Some people had steamed buns clenched between their teeth as they ate while repairing their decks. On newly arrived ships, injured or sick residents were carried down by clergy dressed in white and taken to medical vessels for treatment. Some people stood high up on their ships, bowls in hand, eating their meals. Others were holding fishing rods and fishing.

In the sky, tall figures with four black wings growing from their backs flew back and forth, sometimes carrying things, sometimes flying down from above the clouds, and sometimes flying back up again.

The atmosphere among the residents of this Safe City was remarkably peaceful. With so many people gathered together, there was hardly any noise at all. There were even winged people flying low above the area, circling around as if they were on patrol.

It was just that, for some reason, their patrol patterns kept going up and down. Sometimes they even caught the wind and drifted downward, making them look nothing like they were actually patrolling.

Instead, they gave the impression that they were simply playing around.

“Hey!”

As their ship passed a medium-sized vessel, someone on board suddenly called out loudly to the Blue Sea ship they were following, making the twenty-some newcomers jolt in fright.

“Back already? How was the haul?”

The captain of that ship also replied with a smile.

“The wind and waves were so strong I almost capsized, but I managed to fish up a whole lot of cups. We can take them back and sell them, too. I also brought back some new residents.”

The kindhearted Blue Sea captain, who had willingly agreed to bring them back to his Safe City, turned around and enthusiastically waved at them.

“This is my friend. You can just call him Vixi!”

The twenty-some people, still stunned by everything they had seen, nodded timidly. Afraid that they might do something wrong and be rejected, they didn’t dare call out as loudly as the others. They could only smile at Vixi.

Vixi, whose hair was silver-white, responded with a big smile.

He pointed the way and said, “Do you have any goods to bring back into the city? If you do, you’ll need to go through the freight channel first.”

The Blue Sea captain was surprised. “There’s a freight service now? That’s great! Carrying everything ourselves was always such a hassle.”

“It was introduced two months ago. You’ve been away for too long. Here, just head that way. The freight fee is one percent of the value of the goods.”

Following his friend’s directions, the Blue Sea captain led the group of “new residents” toward another waterway.

The twenty-some newcomers had noticed the enormous number of chains hanging down from above long ago, but it was only after they drew closer that they realized the “black dots” on those chains were actually individual pieces of cargo.

One Blue Sea ship after another waited in line. Workers would board the ships, pack up the cargo, and attach it to the chains.

Some of the cargo was only as large as a big crate, while other pieces were a full ten meters tall.

At this very moment, all of it hung from the “freight lines,” slowly ascending toward the Safe City above the clouds.

“Lower it! Lower it again!”

“That’s it! Send it up!”

The twenty-some newcomers waited at the back of the line, watching as tens of thousands of thick chains carried countless loads slowly upward. No manual labor was required to transport them. There was an entire system in place for getting everything back to the Safe City.

They couldn’t help thinking of the Safe City they had originally lived in. It had ladders too, but whenever people wanted to transport cargo, they had to climb up and down themselves, carrying everything one trip at a time. If their hands gave out, they could even fall from the ladder…

But this Safe City had actually gone to such lengths to build a dedicated freight route.

At this point, they truly believed that this Safe City was under the protection of a god.

“Hello. Do you have any cargo you’d like to have transported?”

While they were staring blankly at the “freight route,” two Blue Sea workers with wings had already flown onto their ship.

The Blue Sea captain who had brought them back flew over as well. After he explained the situation, the workers immediately understood.

They smiled cheerfully. There was none of the rejection toward newcomers that these people were familiar with from the “old residents,” nor did they show any arrogance toward the newcomers in their ragged clothes.

Instead, he simply said naturally, “New residents? Come on, let’s test you first.”

The worker took out a crystal ball and tested them one by one.

As the crystal ball lit up with white light, the smile on his face became noticeably warmer.

He smiled and embraced the new residents.

“You’ve all already become believers of our God. You’ll be granted Inner City resident status.”

“Welcome back to Blue Sea Safe City.”

<< _ >>