Safe City Ch.135

Chapter 135: Those “in need of help”

“Is this the wasteland?”

A fleet of enormous, uniquely designed vehicles traveled across the yellow earth of the Broken River Desert.

The reason a place was called a desert was precisely because its soil was so barren. Layer upon layer of yellow earth piled up here, yet almost nothing could be grown in it.

As the vehicles drove past, the yellow dust they kicked up immediately coated the windows, even covering the tall roofs of the vehicles. No one inside could open a window at all, and when they tried to look outside, all they could see was a hazy yellow landscape.

Even so, Marg couldn’t resist pressing herself against the sealed window, trying her best to peer through the haze at this vast stretch of land whose boundaries seemed nowhere in sight.

Among the yellow earth, they could vaguely make out the corpses of numerous mutated animals, as well as the ruins of buildings whose original forms could no longer be distinguished.

A few mutated animals scattered across the wasteland. When they spotted the unusually tall vehicles, they first swept their cold eyes over the iron beasts. Only after determining that they probably couldn’t defeat them did they silently stop where they were, watching the vehicles gradually disappear into the distance.

“Marg, be careful. I’ve heard that some flying mutated beasts will crash into vehicle windows. Don’t get so close to the glass.”

From behind her, Ruo Buyan, who was sitting in the middle seat, reminded her.

The young girl immediately sat properly. “Okay, Teacher.”

Marg was only twelve years old. She was a native of Dazzling Star. She had originally joined Blue Sea together with her family, and naturally, the moment she saw Blue Sea Safe City, she and her family became devout believers in Our God.

Under normal circumstances, she should have been attending classes in Blue Sea by now.

Living the wonderful life of spending her days doing nothing but sitting around during breaks while also attending all kinds of tactical, combat, and warfare classes.

But Marg had awakened an extraordinary ability: [Insight].

It was an incredibly overpowered ability. Simply put, without using any instruments, she could observe with her naked eyes the complete microscopic structure of matter, from its macroscopic surface all the way down to its crystal grains, crystals, dislocations, and other microscopic structures.

Her [Insight] could even reach the micrometer scale.

Marg was still very young, and her ability had only just awakened. She was only at the first tier, so she didn’t have much control over it yet. Inevitably, this extraordinary ability affected her everyday life.

But once this ability was applied to scientific research, it was like adding wings to a tiger.

As a result, Marg had been specially admitted to the Academy of Sciences. She was now half a student who still needed to attend school and half a scholar-in-training who would eventually study at the Academy.

It was somewhat like the internship rotations at the temple. Marg had spent time in various academic departments, and for these three months, she had been assigned to Ruo Buyan.

Marg was therefore extremely excited.

For one thing, she knew that Teacher Ruo Buyan had developed the flight wings.

For another, Ruo Buyan had decided to leave the temple and establish a research base in the Broken River Wasteland.

This was an entirely different world!

Because of her young age, twelve-year-old Marg had not been allowed to leave the city when they were on Green Billow Star. So she had been looking forward to this for a long time.

She obediently sat in her seat, keeping a certain distance from the window. As she stared out at the barren landscape, where nothing could be seen except yellow earth, she couldn’t help turning back toward Ruo Buyan.

“Teacher, it looks like there’s nothing here. Why did we come all the way out here?”

Ruo Buyan was very patient. Her tone was calm and gentle as she answered,

“When we’re in the Academy of Sciences, all the experimental materials we see have already been screened and selected before being sent to us. As researchers, we still need to personally observe the various mutated creatures on Moon Silk Star. Only then can we conduct better research.”

The military couldn’t possibly bring every mutated creature they encountered back to Blue Sea.

For example, there was one type of mutated creature that would attack the moment it saw a person. It was impossible to capture, and once it was killed, it would turn into foam within half an hour.

Even if Blue Sea transported the foam back, Ruo Buyan wouldn’t be able to learn anything from it.

Why did this creature turn into foam after it died? What purpose could it serve while alive? During the half hour after its death, could the process of its body transforming into foam produce some kind of substance that might be useful for a particular research project?

Ruo Buyan went through these questions one by one. As she watched the young girl nodding earnestly, a faint smile appeared at the corners of her mouth.

Ten years ago, she absolutely never could have imagined that she would one day find herself in this position.

Back then, let alone taking on students, even her “colleagues” were people she couldn’t trust or cooperate with.

Who could have imagined that one day she would willingly and wholeheartedly pass all her experience and knowledge on to a student in name only, without holding anything back and without the slightest worry?

But she had to admit, it felt quite good.

She knew that the young person in front of her was also a believer of the great Creator God. They worshipped the same deity, and they were connected through that faith.

Ruo Buyan didn’t need to worry about anyone betraying her. She didn’t need to worry about scheming and infighting at work. She didn’t even need to worry about funding.

All she had to do was focus purely on her research.

Take this trip, for example. She believed that her field of expertise would only be able to reach its full potential if she went outside and observed more of the local mutated creatures firsthand.

So she submitted an application.

She filed her request to leave the city that evening, and it was approved the next morning.

It had barely been approved that morning before she had packed her things by noon and taken a seat in this military vehicle, bringing along a large amount of equipment and several researchers.

Oh, Our God!!!

Just thinking about it again sent wave after wave of excitement surging through Ruo Buyan.

She was so excited that, in an effort to calm herself down, she closed her eyes and began reciting the [Holy Scripture].

With every line she recited, she felt another measure of happiness.

—Watching as Ruo Buyan had already evolved into a fanatic believer, Cheng Qisheng went:

‘Wow.’

She really had discovered something.

For scientific researchers, regardless of which civilization they came from, once they placed their faith in her, the depth of their faith would continue to accumulate and grow stronger over time.

The depth of these experts’ faith was already almost on par with that of the clergy in the temple.

More precisely, some of the experts seemed quiet and unassuming, but in reality, the depth of their faith had already reached the level of fanatic believers.

Could it be that the research environments in all the civilizations throughout the greater universe weren’t particularly good?

Cheng Qisheng looked at Ruo Buyan, who was devoutly reciting the [Holy Scripture], and at Marg, who had joined in after seeing her teacher do so.

The only way she could make sense of it was that genuine scientific research was pure by nature, and in some respects, Blue Sea’s environment was completely pure as well.

After all, everyone trusted the great Blue Sea Creator God. Wasn’t that a form of purity in itself?

But…

Looking at the extraordinarily capable Ruo Buyan and the exceptionally talented Marg, Cheng Qisheng couldn’t help patting both of them on the head while simultaneously enjoying what she already had and eyeing what was still in the pot.

If scientific researchers all continued to accumulate faith and grow increasingly loyal after joining Blue Sea…

Then what about the scientific researchers on Moon Silk Star?

Would they be the same?

Cheng Qisheng took a sip of her juice, already looking forward to finding out.

There were quite a lot of scientific researchers on Moon Silk Star!

Never mind the researchers kept by the [Company] and the various factions. Even among those living independently outside, the local researchers who had emerged from the shelters and were within Blue Sea’s reach were quite numerous.

Cheng Qisheng was the type to act as soon as she had an idea. She immediately had Aether pull up Blue Sea’s recruitment plan for scientific researchers.

Then she discovered—

Not a single local researcher had applied to Blue Sea.

Generally speaking, in an apocalyptic environment, researchers rarely possessed much ability to protect themselves. Judging from the situation on Moon Silk Star, the researchers here were probably much the same.

But unlike researchers from other civilizations, who would immediately flock toward any major faction as soon as they discovered one…

The researchers on Moon Silk Star seemed to be afraid of something.

Every single one of them was keeping their head down. Some who had been identified as possessing scientific abilities even pretended to be ordinary people with no special skills whatsoever.

What was going on?

It was impossible that they looked down on the [Ota Company].

At least, not here in the Broken River Wasteland.

By now, [Ota] had completely taken over this entire region and could absolutely be called the biggest boss around.

What were these researchers thinking?

Cheng Qisheng put down her juice.

Forget it. No point thinking about it.

She issued a divine revelation:

“There’s no need to wait for people to come forward on their own. Whenever you see someone who appears to be a scientific researcher and is “in need of help”, send someone to “help” them.”

She refused to believe she still couldn’t recruit anyone this way.

The moment the divine revelation was issued, Blue Sea immediately took action.

At the edge of the Broken River Desert, outside a shelter, the military immediately rushed over.

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