Safe City Ch.197

Chapter 197: Fallen Heaven Star

As Blue Sea Safe City moved forward, Cheng Qisheng noticed with some surprise that the planet, which hadn’t looked particularly large from a distance, seemed to double in size every time they drew closer.

At first, it had appeared as though the various Safe Cities were surrounding it completely. But once they approached, they discovered that compared to the planet, the Safe Cities were so tiny they weren’t even as large as a single strand of hair.

Moreover, the planet’s appearance and structure were unlike those of any other planet Cheng Qisheng had encountered.

The closer they got, the more dazzlingly radiant it became.

The enormous planet floated in the vast cosmos, countless strands of light spilling upward from its surface like flowing, iridescent feathers. These luminous strands came in a myriad of colors, layered one over another, creating an extraordinarily gorgeous spectacle that the naked human eye could behold.

“My God…”

Cheng Qisheng wasn’t the only one staring in fascination. The residents inside the Safe City were also rushing to higher ground or open spaces, gazing at the hazy, luminous feathers that continuously curled and flowed in countless wisps across the surface of the enormous planet.

The sight was simply too breathtaking, too beautiful. As people gazed at it, they couldn’t help but breathe a little more softly.

“It’s so beautiful…”

Standing in an open area, Bo Huan gazed at the awe-inspiring scene before him, a thousand emotions surging through his heart in an instant.

Although they lived in an apocalyptic world, where the residents would never stop moving forward as long as their Safe City kept going, this existence also allowed them to witness countless extraordinary sights that they would never have seen in their entire lives back in their native civilizations.

This was especially true after joining Blue Sea. Once they felt secure, their outlook began to change. Sometimes, life spent wandering through the vast cosmos could practically pass for interstellar tourism.

After all, Blue Sea Safe City really would stop at an appropriate angle whenever it passed a planet with beautiful colors and planetary rings, allowing its residents to take pictures with it in the background.

Just like now, Bo Huan had already pulled out his phone and begun snapping pictures out of habit.

Yet when he checked his phone, not a single trace of those dazzling, iridescent lights had been captured in the photos.

“Hm?”

Bo Huan lowered his head in puzzlement and checked his phone. Unable to find anything wrong with it, he turned to look at his captain, who was also gazing up at the planet’s strange, flowing lights.

“Captain, can your phone capture those strands of light?”

The captain was staring so intently that he didn’t even blink. Without turning his head, he maintained his upward gaze and pulled his phone out of his pocket, handing it to Bo Huan.

“No idea. Try it yourself. The password is My God Loves Me.”

Bo Huan: “…”

Now that was a password that was hardly surprising.

Different civilizations had different technologies and cultures, so their passwords varied as well. In Bo Huan’s native civilization, for instance, passwords were generally numerical. In Blue Sea, however, passwords could consist of either numbers or entire sentences.

He suspected that at least eighty percent of Blue Sea’s residents had more or less the same passwords. After all, everyone knew that if you blindly tried passwords like I Love My God, My God Loves Me, or My God Above All, you could probably unlock at least fifty out of every hundred communication devices.

It was just that the people of Blue Sea would never commit such an act of blasphemy.

Still, the thought crossed Bo Huan’s mind: what if he set his own password to “My God Loves Me”? Every time he unlocked his phone, he would be reminded, with absolute clarity, that his God was watching over him, that he was his God’s believer, and that he was now completely safe…

—Bo Huan decided he would change his password to I Love My God as soon as he got the chance.

He tried taking pictures with his captain’s phone, but sure enough, it couldn’t capture those strands of light either.

“Strange. Why is that?”

Bo Huan wanted to ask his captain what he thought about it. But when he lowered the phone, he saw that the captain had already opened his portable weapons bag and was picking out a weapon that felt right in his hands.

“This planet is so beautiful. My God, I wonder how long it’ll be before we reach the surface. If I take my weapons to a gun-painting specialist to get them recolored now, I wonder if there’ll still be time.”

Bo Huan: “Recolored?”

“Of course! We’re about to enter a new world, so we can give our weapons a fresh coat of paint in colors that suit it.”

As the captain spoke, he gradually worked himself into a state of excitement.

The residents of Blue Sea didn’t mind hardship. They were perfectly happy living like savages when necessary. But when they weren’t roughing it, they were also willing to spend points to improve their quality of life.

Moon Silk had propelled all of Blue Sea Safe City up an entire tier, and its residents had likewise entered an era of substantial savings.

“Which means we can afford a few luxuries now!”

Like getting their weapons repainted, for instance.

Just imagine it: fighting on a dazzling, iridescent planet while wielding weapons painted in the same shimmering colors. The sheer sense of ceremony during battle would be off the charts!

The captain was already lost in his own wonderful vision of the future.

“From now on, whenever we visit a new planet, we’ll have all our weapons customized to match that planet’s color scheme. No need to change our clothes, though. Black looks better, and it goes perfectly with my skull necklace.”

Bo Huan: “…You can actually do that?”

“Of course you can! If you want something done, you just have to do it.”

The captain tapped away at his phone. “Let me see if there are any mechanical weapon painters taking online commissions… Ah.”

He lowered his phone with a disappointed look.

“I thought of it too late. Every online mechanical weapon painter is fully booked.”

Bo Huan: “…So it’s not just the captain who’s had this idea?!”

People were naturally inclined to follow the crowd. When something was in high demand, it always made others feel that it must be worth having. Bo Huan was no exception.

And now that he thought about it, fighting in different worlds with weapons painted in different styles did sound pretty interesting.

Hesitantly, Bo Huan lowered his gaze to his own cryogenic gun, wondering whether he should book an appointment to have its paint job changed, too.

As Bo Huan seriously considered what kind of design he wanted, he completely forgot to ask about why the planet’s flowing lights couldn’t be captured on camera.

The main thing was, in the past, no matter what sort of disturbance occurred, he would have investigated it thoroughly at the first opportunity. If he couldn’t get to the bottom of it, he absolutely wouldn’t take a single step forward. And he had to be the one to uncover the truth himself.

But now, he was in Blue Sea.

Blue Sea had a fully functioning society.

When major events occurred, ordinary residents like them didn’t need to rack their brains, investigate the situation, or figure out how to respond. The Blue Sea government would stand at the forefront and resolve the matter based on the interests of Blue Sea as a whole.

As a resident, all he needed to do was follow the orders of his God and the government.

…

The great Creator God of Blue Sea was multitasking.

She was chatting privately with Meow Meow while watching the Blue Sea government mobilize personnel to investigate the surrounding area as thoroughly as possible. At the same time, she was flipping through the Octopus City Lord’s Book of Answers.

[Blue Sea Safe City: So, these wispy things that look like strands of light are actually the energy of the local inhabitants of this planet, Fallen Heaven Star? And because the owners of these energies have no faith, the energy drifts out on its own and dissipates?]

[Meow Meow Safe City: That’s right, meow!]

The name of this planet had actually been chosen by Meow Meow.

City Lords couldn’t bring their Safe Cities into this world. They could only float around outside the planet, so there was no City Lord group chat. However, they could still accept the World Mission.

Once the residents of a Safe City set foot on the planet’s surface, they would receive the World Mission.

For now, the City Lords communicated through private chat channels purchased from the Safe City Mall.

Cheng Qisheng suspected that other Safe Cities might have given the planet different names. But since a name was merely a label, she simply adopted Meow Meow’s name for it: Fallen Heaven Star.

Ever since Cheng Qisheng had saved Meow Meow with a Holy Bullet on Velvet Star, Meow Meow had been very close to her. The two also had an established relationship, and now that Blue Sea had advanced to Tier 7, there was no way Meow Meow would pass up the chance to get close to such a powerful ally.

Therefore, even though Meow Meow had only arrived here a short while ago herself, she shared all the information she’d managed to gather without holding anything back.

[Meow Meow Safe City: Fallen Heaven Star has its own conversion field. On most solid planets, matter neither appears out of nowhere nor vanishes without a trace, so the planet’s total mass remains more or less constant. But this planet is different.]

[Meow Meow Safe City: The emotions, mental energy, and willpower of every intelligent being on the planet can all be converted into energy. The energy produced by a single individual is very weak, but through faith, it can be gathered together. Once absorbed by the one who receives that collective energy, it transforms into divine power. That’s why the Divine Path flourished here in the past.]

On top of that, Fallen Heaven Star was a world resembling ancient times, with no technological advancements to speak of. This allowed the Divine Path to flourish even further.

[Meow Meow Safe City: Fallen Heaven Star is mainly divided among the Divine Path, demons and monsters, and ordinary humans. I’ve already explained the general mechanics of the Divine Path. The demons and monsters are more complicated. Some are physical beings that cultivated themselves into demons, while others were born from negative emotions that hadn’t been dissolved.]

[Meow Meow Safe City: The Divine Path used to suppress the demons and monsters, but for some unknown reason, a section of Fallen Heaven Star’s conversion field has been damaged.]

Meow Meow sent over an image of that section.

[Meow Meow Safe City: These conversion fields can’t be photographed with technological devices. This was drawn by an artist in my Safe City. Take a look.]

Cheng Qisheng received the image. Sure enough, it was a hand-drawn illustration. Amid the countless flowing, iridescent lights, one particular area was conspicuously dark. It looked as though something had taken a bite out of the enormous planet.

[Meow Meow Safe City: Normally, the conversion field would automatically dissolve negative emotions, which are considered full of impurities on Fallen Heaven Star. But now that the conversion field has been damaged, it can no longer break down those impure emotions on its own.]

In a world composed entirely of physical matter, negative emotions had little impact. Everyone got angry sometimes; what mattered was whether they could control those feelings or work through them.

But Fallen Heaven Star was different. Here, emotions and faith could become energy, and things that were originally unreal could become real once they acquired enough energy.

With the negative emotion elimination mechanism no longer functioning, nothing could remain under control.

Since intelligent life possesses the ability to think, it naturally experiences all kinds of emotions and occasionally harbors dark little thoughts. Most people, however, simply entertain those thoughts in their minds without ever acting on them.

But now, Fallen Heaven Star was filled with the negative emotions of generations of its inhabitants, along with all the dark thoughts that had accumulated over hundreds and thousands of years.

To put it simply, Fallen Heaven Star had once been a swimming pool. People swam in it every day, inevitably introducing dirt and grime into the water. Fortunately, the pool attendants were diligent and responsible. They cleaned it thoroughly every day and changed the water at regular intervals, allowing everyone to swim happily. If someone occasionally noticed a bit of dirt, they would simply clean it up themselves.

Then, one day, someone suddenly stabbed the attendants in the eyes, blinding them. Unable to see where the dirt was accumulating, they could no longer clean the pool or change the water on schedule. As a result, the pool grew dirtier and dirtier until its water gradually turned into sewage.

Once a swimming pool became a cesspool, those who continued soaking in it faced two possible outcomes. They would either fall ill from the filthy environment or become contaminated themselves, eventually turning just as filthy as the surroundings and blending into them.

At present, Fallen Heaven Star was still barely maintaining an outward appearance of peace.

However, quite a few deities of the Divine Path had already been corrupted and fallen into the demonic path. They had gone mad, slaughtering their own believers in a frenzy and transforming from righteous gods into evil gods.

Cheng Qisheng felt complicated emotions as she listened, but she immediately grasped the key point.

[Blue Sea Safe City: So, if our residents enter Fallen Heaven Star, they could also be at risk of being corrupted?]

[Meow Meow Safe City: Absolutely! It all depends on whether the residents can keep their minds steady, meow. If they happen to become attached to an evil god’s statue, they could very well be influenced by the emotions of that evil god’s believers.]

[Meow Meow Safe City: But once residents become gods themselves, even if they only become a minor village god, they can possess a small divine kingdom of their own. With a divine kingdom, they can fly straight back to their Safe City. For example, one of my residents was almost corrupted, but at the last moment, he managed to bring back a divine kingdom of about 100 square meters to the Safe City. The only problem was that his personality became much more irritable afterward. He went from being a good-natured old cat to a fire-breathing cat.]

What Meow Meow meant was that residents really could be affected, but once they obtained a divine kingdom, they could return to their Safe City at any time. At least that gave them a way out.

[Meow Meow Safe City: However, make sure to quarantine them when they return to the city. I haven’t been here long and haven’t encountered anything myself, but not long after one Safe City’s resident returned, he burned down three buildings and killed quite a few other residents.]

Even so, the City Lords still dispatched large numbers of residents to Fallen Heaven Star.

The sheer size of the land available was simply too tempting.

Compared to the land area their Safe Cities could gain, losing some of their residents was an entirely acceptable price for the City Lords.

—Cheng Qisheng, however, found that completely unacceptable.

Had she already forgotten about Old Eighth?

Blue Sea’s residents were formidable fighters, but when it came to mental attacks, that was undoubtedly their weak point.

Simply seeing certain things with their own eyes that they couldn’t bear to witness was already enough to push Old Eighth to its limit.

And Fallen Heaven Star involved mental contamination.

Cheng Qisheng was already considering abandoning this world altogether. The vast cosmos was so enormous that if one world could provide them with additional land, there had to be other worlds that could do the same.

After thinking it over, she decided to consult the Truth Stone.

Ever since it had accompanied Blue Sea Safe City into the vast cosmos, the Truth Stone had been on permanent vacation. Occasionally, someone from the research institute would come to ask it a question. Since they were all Blue Sea’s own people, it had never cheated any of the city’s residents.

Of course, the fact that Blue Sea had always maintained a plentiful supply of nuclear crystals and had never let it go hungry for even a single day was also an important factor.

Now that its master was finally asking it a question again, the Truth Stone, which had been enjoying its comfortable vacation, immediately perked up.

This time, it played a recording of a Blue Sea resident speaking to a companion before asking a question.

“We ask it what method someone could use to accomplish a certain thing. If the Truth Stone doesn’t state the number of nuclear crystals required to answer the question, that means it can’t be done.”

Cheng Qisheng was actually already familiar with this trick. After all, she had used precisely this method to get numerous City Lords to ask questions about life-and-death crises, earning herself a fortune in the process.

Seeing the Truth Stone looking at her as if to say, Master, look how considerate I’m being!, Cheng Qisheng reached out with her mental power and gently patted its head.

“Alright, thank you. I get what you mean.”

The Truth Stone was instantly pleased!

When Cheng Qisheng asked whether there was any way to ensure that residents would remain absolutely immune to contamination in a situation like Fallen Heaven Star, a number appeared on the ruby at the center of the Truth Stone, swirling into view amid a series of vortexes.

210,000 nuclear crystals.

Cheng Qisheng was slightly surprised. She had assumed that if an answer existed, it would cost at least a million, or even ten million, nuclear crystals.

Yet it turned out to cost only 210,000.

Blue Sea was quite wealthy now, so Cheng Qisheng immediately had someone put 210,000 nuclear crystals into the Truth Stone.

It wasn’t long before the answer came back.

The Truth Stone seemed a little dejected, as though it wasn’t particularly happy. It played a scene that had never appeared before.

A humanoid figure with a mushroom growing on its head was sighing.

“The well’s already dry. No matter how hard you squeeze it, you won’t get much water out.”

Cheng Qisheng understood what it meant. It was complaining that the respondent had provided too few words.

She reassured it, “This question is different from the previous ones. Those questions could be expanded upon, which was why they produced so many answers. This one is very specific. As long as we get an answer, there’s no need to insist on having a lot of words.”

The Truth Stone was easy to appease. It was immediately convinced and cheered up again, swallowing 200 nuclear crystals to celebrate.

Cheng Qisheng then had someone continue replenishing its nuclear crystal reserves until the storage was full, while she turned her attention to the answer.

[The situation described by the questioner is, in essence, mental contamination. To solve this problem, one simply needs a psychic-type ability user to use their mental power to create a protective zone that isolates external contamination. When a wave of contamination strikes, the protective mechanism left behind by the psychic-type ability user can automatically attack and disperse it.]

[However, there are two caveats. First, psychic-type individuals are extremely rare. Second, protecting even one person consumes a great deal of mental power, so in theory, it’s impossible to protect too many people at once. Use this method with caution.

(This is the only solution I know of.)

[Attached: Instruction Manual]

(The instruction manual really does only contain two lines. It’s not that I don’t want to write more!)

(If you don’t take it, there’s nothing I can do about it.)

(If you don’t take it, I’ll burn the answer.)

(I’m really going to burn it!)]

Cheng Qisheng slowly blinked.

Use mental power to protect the residents?

She looked toward Blue Sea—

Then back at the instruction manual.

[First, it’s best if the other person is willing to let you attach your mental power to them. Trust between both parties is very important. When you’re at point A but can see another person at point B, that means your mental power has successfully been placed on them.]

Cheng Qisheng glanced at the several hundred million believers who already had her mental power attached to them.

She continued reading.

[Next, shape your mental power into a familiar form. It needs to be something sufficiently striking. Finally, place it on them. Done.]

No wonder it had cost only 210,000 nuclear crystals. The answer was truly concise.

Fortunately, Cheng Qisheng already knew how to shape her mental power.

She began modifying the mental power attached to Blue Sea’s residents in bulk, transforming it into more striking forms.

That part was easy enough. Most of Old Eighth’s aesthetic preferences were pretty striking.

After all, to them, striking was practically synonymous with aggressive.

Now, what should she shape it into? Something striking, but also familiar enough…

Forget it.

She’d just find some ready-made examples in Blue Sea.

…

Gong Cheng woke up.

What a fantastical night it had been! The previous evening, he’d had dinner with his family on the rooftop, enjoying a wonderful meal beneath the beautiful, enormous planet.

Today was another beautiful day.

He was staying in the dormitory of the Psychic Department. As soon as he opened the door and stepped outside, he saw a colleague who also belonged to the Psychic Department: Wang Moning, a Perception-type ability user.

Wang Moning was walking past with her head bowed, as though the ground itself were covered in blessings bestowed by their God.

Gong Cheng: “?”

“Moning, did you sleep wrong and get a crick in your neck?”

Wang Moning didn’t even raise her head. She maintained her downward gaze and said, “Come outside and look around.”

Gong Cheng had no idea what was going on, but he walked into the courtyard and looked around.

Then his expression froze.

Staff members were coming and going throughout the courtyard. This area was a shared space, and the Psychic Department wasn’t the only one with people living here. Many staff members who couldn’t be bothered with the commute also stayed in the dormitories.

They went about their daily routines: greeting one another, eating breakfast, and playfully sparring with each other.

But in the eyes of Gong Cheng, a Prophecy-type ability user whose abilities were related to the psychic domain—

Every single person!

Every single person had an enormous, evil-looking eyeball hovering directly above their head, exactly like the ones on Blue Sea’s airships.

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