Safe City Ch.132

Chapter 132: Exchange Station

Even after seeing the astonishing news on the announcement board, Old Man Tagu still refused to believe in the [Company].

But when he heard that [Ota Company] had set up an exchange station in Deer River Town, offering supplies of greater value than before in exchange for the various mutated plants the townspeople collected, he still couldn’t resist going to take a look.

The exchange station, with its pristine white exterior, looked completely out of place in Deer River Town, where yellow earth covered the ground everywhere.

The townspeople stood in line outside the exchange station, each carrying the mutated plants they had collected, and every one of them wore an excited smile.

Xue Fei, the eldest daughter of the town mayor and one of the few literate “educated people” in town, was weighing the goods brought in by the townspeople on the mayor’s precious handheld scale.

“Eighty grams of Blood Moss Grass can be exchanged for one and a half Stone Bean Cakes.”

“Seventy Thorn-Horned Snails can be exchanged for 200 milliliters of drinking water.”

Every time Xue Fei announced a new exchange rate, the people waiting in line would let out a quiet cheer.

The exchange rates really had gone up.

After all, in the past, it took a hundred Thorn-Horned Snails just to exchange for 100 milliliters of drinking water.

And the drinking water they received before wasn’t particularly clean, either. It always had a faint yellowish turbidity, and it tasted rather strange when they drank it. But it was indeed safe enough that it wouldn’t kill them, so the water remained precious to them.

But now, look at this.

Xue Fei set down the handheld scale, then put on a solemn expression and carefully lifted the lid of the large water tank beside her.

The tank was filled to the brim with a large quantity of crystal-clear water.

Gulp.

The townspeople all swallowed at the sight.

Although every single one of them desperately wanted to rush over and carry away this enormous fortune, no one actually dared make a move. No matter how intense their longing was, their feet remained firmly rooted to the spot.

The merchant caravans that passed through from the central cities always assumed that people living in the remote wastelands were crude and savage, ignorant of rules and utterly lacking in self-restraint, no different from beasts.

But in reality, this was simply prejudice against the inhabitants of the wastelands.

The wasteland was an extremely dangerous place. Only human settlements like Deer River Town could provide people with shelter and protection. In the eyes of a lord, the town mayor might be nothing more than an insignificant little ant, but within the town, the mayor controlled the guard force, so naturally, his orders carried more weight than the heavens.

If the townspeople disobeyed the mayor, they could genuinely be driven out of town. Sometimes, their families would even be expelled along with them.

In an environment like the wasteland, anyone driven out of town wouldn’t even survive a single night.

So there was no one who understood the rules better than these townspeople.

Even when their instincts screamed at them to rush forward, to charge over and gulp down a mouthful of water, the longing on their faces practically spilling over, not a single person actually took even one step forward.

Xue Fei wasn’t frightened by the townspeople’s expressions, which had become almost twisted from their overwhelming desire.

She was one of the rare mutants who had gained extraordinary strength without their bodies becoming deformed. Even if one of the townspeople truly lost control and tried to seize the water, she was confident she could restrain them.

However, compared to the confidence she felt when imagining herself getting into a fight, Xue Fei was now so nervous about the task of drawing the water that sweat had already begun to bead on her back.

She took the stone bowl from the townsman who had brought the Thorn-Horned Snails, then picked up the long-handled bone spoon that her father and mother had worked together overnight to make for her. Carefully, she checked the measurement markings on it.

With the conviction that it was better to be slow than to waste even a single drop, she scooped the water in small amounts, several times over, until she had measured out exactly 200 milliliters.

Both Xue Fei, who was handing over the water, and the townsman receiving it looked tense and solemn.

Only after making sure that the townsman had a firm grip on the stone bowl did Xue Fei slowly, cautiously, begin loosening her own hold.

The two of them completed the handover as carefully as though they were passing along some priceless treasure.

The clear drinking water gently rippled inside the stone bowl. The townsman holding it was beaming with joy.

As he slowly turned around, the other townspeople waiting in line hurriedly scattered to either side, opening up a wide path for him.

The people didn’t dare stand too close, afraid they might accidentally knock over the bowl of water, yet they couldn’t resist craning their necks in longing, just to see the crystal-clear water inside the bowl.

And when they thought about how they, too, would soon be able to exchange their goods for drinking water like this, the anticipation in their hearts became impossible to suppress.

With the “precious treasure” successfully handed over, Xue Fei secretly breathed a sigh of relief. She composed herself again, resumed her solemn expression, and picked up the goods handed over by the next townsman in line.

“Seven small bundles of Moisture Spider Silk…”

Xue Fei stopped and looked at the woman in front of her with mild surprise.

“This is good stuff. Kou En, when did you manage to save up so much?”

Moisture Spider Silk was a type of webbing that could only be produced by a mutated spider known as the Myriad-Eyed Spider. Even when trading with merchant caravans in the past or paying taxes with goods, Moisture Spider Silk was considered a “premium” commodity.

And obtaining it was extremely difficult.

The Myriad-Eyed Spiders themselves were not aggressive toward humans, but they lived in swamps where countless poisonous mutated creatures also dwelled. It was a place filled with danger at every turn.

The Myriad-Eyed Spiders lived underwater, so collectors had to constantly change positions and slap the surface of the water while searching through the swamps. They might spend several days without even finding a single web, all while remaining constantly alert to the dangers lurking in the swamp.

As a result, Moisture Spider Silk was collected very slowly, and its exchange value was correspondingly higher.

This was the first time Xue Fei had ever seen someone accumulate seven small bundles of Moisture Spider Silk.

Kou En nervously rubbed her hands together.

“You know, Miss Xue Fei, my mother is a mutated person who’s undergone aberration. She needs natural food to ease the pain in her limbs. I’ve been collecting this spider silk for half a year. I originally planned to wait for a merchant caravan to come and exchange it with the caravan masters for some natural food. But I heard… that I can exchange for natural food here, too…”

Xue Fei couldn’t help looking at Kou En with admiration.

In the wasteland, people with endurance, courage, and strength were always more respected.

“You heard correctly. You can indeed exchange for natural food here. And you’re in luck—the [Company]’s people only delivered some fresh natural food this morning.”

She took out two round, yellow foods and handed them to Kou En.

“Take these home. They’re called [potatoes]. They were a crop grown over a hundred years ago. You can roast them over a fire. Once they’re soft, you can give them to your mother.”

“Also, don’t call me Miss Xue Fei anymore. Did you forget the regulations issued by the [Company]? You’re a [Company] P1 asset, and so am I. We’re the same. From now on, don’t treat me as the mayor’s daughter. Just call me by my name.”

Kou En was both delighted and terrified.

She had originally hoped to exchange for just a little natural food. After all, natural food was incredibly precious. Even when she traded spider silk with merchant caravans, she could only get one or two pieces of natural leaves in return.

She had never expected to receive two such large pieces of natural food. There was so much of it that it should be considerably more effective against radiation sickness, so naturally, Kou En was overjoyed.

At the same time, though, the thought of directly calling the mayor’s daughter by her name made her feel as if she were disrespecting the mayor’s authority.

But seeing the serious expression on Xue Fei’s face, she still nodded.

“Okay, Miss Xue—Xue Fei. I’ll remember. I won’t get it wrong again.”

Old Man Tagu watched Kou En happily run home with the two pieces of natural food. He was shocked that the [Company] was actually willing to exchange natural food with an ordinary townsman, but he was also puzzled by what Xue Fei meant by “P1.”

The well-informed Rui En explained it for him.

“It’s our [asset] level, Uncle Tagu. You’re P1 too. Apparently, it can keep increasing. The most powerful [assets] can supposedly reach P14.”

Old Man Tagu was even more confused.

He knew that the [Company]’s researchers were divided into different ranks, but could [assets] be upgraded too?

Rui En was still happily talking.

“By the way, I heard that a lot of the mining areas outside no longer allow the use of mine sl*ves. Since the mine sl*ves also live on [Company] property, they’re P1 [assets] just like the people occupying the mines. Since everyone is P1, those people don’t have the authority to physically harm the mine sl*ves.”

This was truly wonderful news.

Rui En’s bedtime stories as a child had always been things like, “Some naughty child from Such-and-Such Town ran out of town, got captured and turned into a mine sl*ve, and every day they had to dig in the bottom of a bottomless mine. Even after they dug until they went blind, they still had to keep digging.”

Her parents used stories like that to scare her into staying at home.

It wasn’t until she became an adult that Rui En learned it had only been a story.

Naughty children who ran out of town wouldn’t actually be caught by mine owners and turned into mine sl*ves.

Because given a child’s combat ability, they wouldn’t even make it to the mining area. They’d be eaten by a mutated plant or mutated animal first.

Only adults with enough ability to protect themselves—people capable of gathering and hunting in the wasteland—would be captured and forced into becoming mine sl*ves.

So after reaching adulthood, whenever Rui En ventured outside, she not only had to watch out for mutated creatures but also be wary of unfamiliar humans.

Now that she no longer had to worry about being captured and turned into a mine sl*ve, she felt incredibly relieved.

“My dad said that Cousin Nuer, who disappeared a few years ago, came back yesterday. It turns out he wasn’t eaten by a mutated beast. He was captured and made into a mine sl*ve. The mine owner is also an [asset], and unless they actually hire mine sl*ves, they don’t have the authority to use or exploit other [Company] [assets]. So Cousin Nuer was able to come home.”

“Aunt Nasha is so happy. My mom said that this winter, Aunt Nasha’s family will have another strong worker, so things should be much easier for them than in previous years. She won’t have to worry about Aunt Nasha starving to death anymore.”

Old Man Tagu felt as though his brain had just been put through a hundred town mayors doing a striptease.

Liberating mine sl*ves — abnormal.

The Company not allowing its own [assets] to be appropriated by others — perfectly normal.

Letting the townspeople exchange for more food — abnormal.

People and land are the [Company]’s [assets], equivalent to the [Company]’s wealth. The [Company] wouldn’t deliberately act against its own wealth — normal.

Old Man Tagu couldn’t help crouching down and clutching his head.

“Abnormal… normal… abnormal… normal…”

Rui En was startled and hurried over to support him.

“Uncle Tagu, what’s wrong?!!”

Old Man Tagu waved a hand.

“Don’t mind me, don’t mind me. I just need to… think for a moment.”

“I need to think this through carefully… They… what exactly do they want from us?”

—

“Blood Moss Grass contains a polyhydroxyquinone compound that Blue Sea has named Blood Moss A, a nitrogen-containing heterocyclic small molecule named Blood Moss B, a small peptide named Blood Moss C, and a certain type of fungus capable of entering a hyper-division cycle…”

Cheng Qisheng interrupted Aether, who was reciting the research data.

“I don’t need to know the research process in that much detail. Just tell me the results.”

“Understood, City Lord.”

Aether projected footage of the experiments, rapidly skipping through numerous animal trials before finally arriving at the final experiment.

He explained, “Using Blood Moss Grass as the raw material, Blue Sea has produced a lyophilized injectable therapeutic powder. It can be used to treat deep wounds such as lacerations, extensive burns, and postoperative wounds.”

In the experimental footage, a soldier whose combat power was clearly at least 80 was lying on a bed.

How could Cheng Qisheng tell at a glance that she was a soldier?

Because she was still wearing a helmet whose only real function was to look good.

In the video, a white-robed cleric was preparing the treatment while pushing over a medical cart. She curiously asked,

“Why are you wearing a helmet indoors?”

“I’ve had a therapeutic injection on Dazzling Star before. It hurt so much that it brought tears to my eyes. You’re recording this, aren’t you? I’m a soldier, after all. I should at least pay attention to keeping my facial expressions under control.”

The cleric understood and smiled gently.

“Don’t worry. We’ve already tested it. This injection isn’t that painful. At most, you’ll feel a little heat and pressure.”

The soldier wasn’t convinced.

“That remains to be seen. Isn’t the whole reason I’m here to be a test subject? What if I end up discovering some kind of super-extreme pain?”

As soon as she finished speaking, she hissed.

“Did a mosquito just bite me?”

The cleric put away the now-empty syringe.

“I was giving you the injection. Told you it wouldn’t hurt, didn’t I?”

The soldier took off her helmet and stared at her wound with an expression of disbelief and delight.

“It really doesn’t hurt?”

She had been injured while fighting on the front lines. The claws of a mutated beast had nearly pierced straight through her thigh, and in order to keep fighting, she had pulled the claw out herself on the spot. The wound was a bloody mess. Without the therapeutic injection from the item collection and the use of a medical pod, she would have needed at least a month or two of recovery.

Every Blue Sea resident both loved and hated the therapeutic injections they had obtained from Dazzling Star.

They loved them because they could rapidly heal wounds on the battlefield.

They hated them because the injections hurt—really hurt. The pain was even worse than the wound itself.

Even so, most Blue Sea residents still chose to get the injections during battle.

After all, enduring the pain for a little while in exchange for being able to keep fighting was pretty satisfying.

But now, she had received a painless therapeutic injection. And with the naked eye, she could actually see that as time slowly passed, the edges of her wound were pulling inward and contracting.

It was as if someone were sewing up a piece of clothing—the inside of the wound was stitching itself back together.

The soldier stared at her leg, utterly fascinated.

Cheng Qisheng was watching too. The difference was that she was watching a video, so she could simply speed it up.

Aether was there to provide additional commentary.

“Experiments have shown that even when a wound reaches as deep as the fascial layer, a single injection of this therapeutic agent will cause the edges of the wound to begin contracting inward five minutes after injection. After thirty minutes, granulation tissue will have visibly formed… and after one hour, the wound will have completely closed, leaving behind only a linear scar.”

After the soldier got out of bed, the video returned to normal playback speed. The soldier who had just been carried in on a stretcher could now hop around on the floor.

“It really doesn’t hurt! It just feels a little sore and tight. The injured area was really warm at first, but it went away after a while!”

The soldier was absolutely delighted.

“This is so much better than the therapeutic injections from the items!”

The cleric smiled and replied, “The healing speed still can’t match the item version. We’ll find a way to improve it.”

“That’s not the point.” The soldier grinned. “The items came from another world, after all. But this injection was made by Blue Sea ourselves. For a wound to recover this much in just one hour, that’s already incredible.”

Watching the smile on the young soldier’s face, Cheng Qisheng couldn’t help curving her lips upward as well.

Indeed.

Although Blue Sea had obtained a large supply of therapeutic injections from Dazzling Star back then, every one they used meant one less remained.

But injections made from Blood Moss Grass were different. They relied on Blue Sea’s own technology.

Blood Moss Grass could be cultivated in ordinary soil. In other words, Blue Sea would be able to keep growing it in the future and produce an endless supply of therapeutic injections.

What a wonderful thing.

It really was a wonderful thing!!

After finishing the report on “Blood Moss Grass,” Aether continued reporting on the other research projects that had already produced results.

“A mutated creature known as the Thorn-Horned Snail has been confirmed to have a shell that, when ground into micron-scale powder and mixed with a substance extracted from the bone marrow of the Fang Wolf Beast, can be applied to the surface of an object to induce rapid migration of pigment particles. The particles automatically mimic and blend into the surrounding environment, achieving an [invisibility] effect for the object.”

“Charcoal Nail Grass… can be used as a fuel.”

“Although Moisture Spider Silk hasn’t produced any practical research results yet, the Institute of Scientific Research believes it may have some connection to airships. They plan to obtain an airship and take it apart for study.”

Cheng Qisheng watched one experimental scene after another, along with one research result after another.

“I understand now why the [Company] is so wealthy.”

The wasteland was practically overflowing with treasures.

Just 100 grams of Blood Moss Grass could be used to produce five therapeutic injections.

But after the disaster, most of the people with scientific research capabilities had been monopolized by the Company, while most experimental equipment and scientific instruments had been destroyed in the bombings. These “treasures” could only be developed to their full potential by the [Company].

So of course they made an absolute fortune.

And Blue Sea had only just figured out the uses of a few of the “raw materials” they had acquired, yet they had already reaped enormous benefits.

If they could develop all of them one by one…

Cheng Qisheng imagined a future in which Blue Sea’s drones and aircraft could all fly through the sky while [invisible].

They could also manufacture large numbers of airships themselves, with the Old Eighths riding aboard them, shouting excitedly as they raised their spears high into the air…

Huh?

Blue Sea was already this technologically advanced, so why were the Old Eighths still carrying spears in her imagination?

The thought of those spears dragged Cheng Qisheng’s mind back on track.

It was easy to imagine that, from this point onward, the experts at Blue Sea’s research institute would be working themselves to the bone studying all kinds of technology and raw materials from Moon Silk.

At the moment, the people at the Agricultural College were still researching how to grow crops in Moon Silk’s wasteland—or, more precisely, whether there was some other way to improve the soil.

For the Agricultural College, the environment here was far better than that of Green Billow Star.

After all, Green Billow Star was covered entirely by seawater. Apart from floating farmland, there was practically no room for the Agricultural College to put its expertise to use.

Moon Silk’s soil, on the other hand, had suffered contamination, making cultivation somewhat difficult, but it wasn’t truly impossible to grow anything. Otherwise, where would the Stone Beans eaten by ordinary people come from?

There was simply far too much room for development in this region.

It wasn’t just the Institute of Technology and the Agricultural College. Many other departments were also eager to join this massive development project.

Cheng Qisheng was flipping through the research materials when, suddenly, she felt a stir in her mind.

She sensed a new chain of faith.

The important thing was that this chain of faith came from a child of the Duxi Civilization.

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