Safe City Ch.202

Chapter 202: Establishing a Heavenly Court

The more Cheng Qisheng thought about it, the more feasible the idea seemed.

To put it plainly, the Heavenly Dao was an all-powerful supreme entity that combined the functions of maintaining order, supervision, adjudication, law enforcement, checks and balances, and defense.

According to the Octopus City Lord’s Book of Answers 2.0, after a Great World lost its Heavenly Dao, it might take another ten thousand years or even longer for a new Heavenly Dao to gradually come into being.

But without the Heavenly Dao’s supervision, if the Great World descended into chaos during those ten thousand years and completely lost its balance, even the last line of defense, the World Consciousness, would fall into disarray along with it.

At that point, there really would be no saving it.

Fortunately, this was easy to solve.

If Fallen Heaven Star lacked supervision, then all they had to do was give it a supervisor.

Cheng Qisheng knew perfectly well that she wasn’t capable of reforging the Heavenly Dao. After all, even now, she still had no idea how to withstand the Great Annihilation head-on, whereas Fallen Heaven Star’s Heavenly Dao had somehow managed to resist it for five whole years.

But if the goal was simply to fulfill the functions of the Heavenly Dao, they could absolutely take an indirect route to success by establishing a Heavenly Court!

The greatest advantage of the Heavenly Court system was that every divine office had its own responsibilities. If a department didn’t have enough deities to handle its duties, then instead of a hundred, they could appoint a thousand. If a thousand weren’t enough, they could appoint ten thousand.

It was just like a company with an exceptionally talented technical expert who could do the work of three hundred people, single-handedly handling the entire department’s workload.

But when that expert left the company, the company couldn’t very well get rid of the entire department just because they were gone. There was no choice but to grit their teeth and hire replacements. Three hundred people, three thousand people—either way, the work still had to get done.

Cheng Qisheng immediately sent Book of Answers 2.0, along with her idea of establishing a Heavenly Court on Fallen Heaven Star, to the Blue Sea government.

For now, the first thing they needed to do was figure out how to create some divine offices in accordance with Blue Sea’s wishes.

Cheng Qisheng decided to run a few experiments first.

——

At that moment, Blue Sea Safe City was in the middle of a massive queue.

One Blue Sea resident after another stood in long lines, each wearing the shabbiest clothes they owned.

With so many people around, things were bound to get lively. By now, the residents’ arrival poses on Fallen Heaven Star had evolved from the original, proper and by-the-book approach into all sorts of creative stunts.

So far, they had unlocked several different ways of arriving: the Leap of Faith, falling backward with arms spread wide, hopping in on one foot, diving headfirst, and so on.

Among the people waiting in line, Cheng Qisheng spotted Lu Song.

Of the tens of millions of Moon Silk natives brought back to Blue Sea earlier, every single one had witnessed their home planet being swallowed by the Great Annihilation. Once they fully realized that the planet disappearing into the void had been their former home, the Moon Silk natives understood that if Blue Sea hadn’t brought them out, they and their families would have vanished forever into that bottomless, unseen void as well.

Later, they had accompanied Blue Sea Safe City on a week-long voyage through the greater universe, witnessing the vast starry cosmos—something they would never even have dared to imagine seeing before.

By now, at least two-thirds of the Moon Silk natives had converted and become believers.

As a result, the number of residents in the outer city was currently being kept at around forty million.

Quite a few of them had also chosen to enter this world, even though they knew perfectly well that the moment they took that step, they would be different from the Inner City residents. They wouldn’t have the Creator God there to provide them with a safety net.

Fallen Heaven Star was different from other worlds. After arriving, if they failed to secure a divine position and gain believers, they wouldn’t be able to return to the city through their own efforts.

They might end up stranded on this planet. And if they encountered danger, with no outside help to rely on, they would have to face it alone. They might even die without anyone ever knowing what had happened to them.

“But the residents of every other Safe City have to face the same situation.”

Lu Song might not usually be one to talk much to people he didn’t know well, but when he genuinely wanted to persuade someone—or an entire group of people—he was surprisingly good at identifying exactly what mattered most to them.

When addressing the Outer City residents, Lu Song kept his message simple.

“I won’t bother talking about anything else. I’ll just ask you one question: How long can your accumulated points and savings cover the rent for your residence in Blue Sea?”

This was when the points system Blue Sea had established earlier really showed its value.

You worked as much as you did, and you got paid accordingly.

Back when Blue Sea had fewer residents and lacked sufficient equipment, there had been labor shortages everywhere. Whether they were Inner City or Outer City residents, as long as they were willing to look for a job, they could find one today and start working as early as tomorrow.

But as Blue Sea’s population continued to grow and the city developed, available jobs had gradually become insufficient to meet demand.

Take Blue Sea’s factories, for example. In the past, almost every factory needed workers. Especially when the city entered a particular world and needed to collect some specific resource, they would recruit people on a massive scale. Everyone would work overtime around the clock, and the overtime pay was generous.

But Blue Sea had only just returned from Moon Silk Star, and leaving aside all the scientific researchers, even the entirety of [Norn Company]’s technological infrastructure had been brought back to Blue Sea.

One benefit of technological advancement was that the prices of many goods began to fall. For the Outer City residents, however, the downside was that finding a job was no longer as easy as it used to be.

Some people might still be able to turn a blind eye to the reality and lament that jobs had become difficult to find.

But Lu Song cut straight through the illusion behind this complaint.

“This is a Safe City. This is the apocalypse. Our job is to find ways to obtain more supplies, nuclear crystals, and talented people from other apocalyptic worlds, then bring them back to our own Safe City.

“Right now, the savings everyone has can still support you for a while. But what about the future? And the future after that?

“Even if we put aside the question of whether you have enough points, if you don’t improve your combat abilities now, are you really going to wait until Blue Sea faces a crisis and you have to protect yourselves, only to discover that you don’t have the slightest ability to fight back?”

Lu Song wasn’t a believer, so Cheng Qisheng couldn’t see this part of his experience from his perspective.

However, while Lu Song was giving his speech, a deity was maintaining order overhead, which meant she could access the deity’s memories and watch the scene for herself.

It was worth mentioning that Lu Song really had managed to persuade a great many people. Most notably, a new batch of residents from other Safe Cities had recently joined the Outer City.

In their eyes, those Outer City residents who refused to leave the city simply because they wouldn’t be able to contact other people once they were outside were downright idiots.

This was an apocalyptic world! Which Safe City resident could stay in contact with others after leaving the city? Weren’t residents of every Safe City putting their lives on the line whenever they ventured outside?

Whether ordinary residents or supernatural ability users, the only value they could bring to a Safe City was obtaining supplies from the outside world. Blue Sea was already going far beyond their expectations by being willing to give these people jobs.

In their original Safe Cities, the high-paying jobs inside the city were all held by people with connections. As for those earning low wages, there was an eighty percent chance that they had family members risking their lives outside the city, allowing them to remain inside and collect a meager salary that couldn’t even support them.

To be honest, they didn’t believe Blue Sea actually had a god, either. They assumed it was simply some kind of centralized control mechanism used by Blue Sea’s civilization.

It was one thing for the native residents of Blue Sea to believe in their god. But these newcomers weren’t even locals. How could they believe in that sort of thing, too?

Once these new residents from other Safe Cities explained the situation in their former homes to the longtime residents, many of the Outer City residents finally began to see things differently.

What left Lu Song with complicated feelings, however, was that after these Outer City residents decided to leave the city and descend upon Fallen Heaven Star, at least a third of them changed their minds because of that decision and became believers in the great Creator God of Blue Sea.

Lu Song: “……”

The Temple continued to follow its usual policy: every time an existing Blue Sea resident converted into a believer, it awarded fifty points as a reward.

And so, Lu Song’s points balance began skyrocketing.

His already considerable fortune took another massive leap, and by now, he was even wealthier than Qi Yi and Qi Er.

Lu Song: “……”

Fortunately, he’d grown used to this by now. Situations like this no longer fazed him in the slightest.

Even after getting rich overnight, Lu Song had no intention of giving up on his plan to descend upon Fallen Heaven Star.

At that very moment, his turn was fast approaching.

He began to grow nervous. His heart pounded wildly, and his breathing quickened. For one brief moment, a thought surfaced in the depths of his mind.

Maybe I should just forget it.

Even if he spent his entire life inside the Safe City, with the contributions he’d made, he would still be able to live comfortably even if the outer city were eventually abolished.

But Lu Song quickly forced himself to suppress that thought.

He wasn’t willing to spend his entire life hiding inside a Safe City. If he continued like this, he’d never become a believer of their god, nor would he ever become a true Blue Sea native.

Besides, this was a path he’d chosen for himself today. He was mentally prepared and knew what he was about to face.

What if something unexpected happened to Blue Sea in the future, and he was forced to leave it? That would truly be a disaster falling from the heavens.

So he had to give it a try. He had to find out whether this world was the one foretold in the prophecy.

If it wasn’t, then he’d try the next one, and the one after that, and the one after that—

In the end, he was still that same special forces soldier.

Lu Song turned around and hugged Qi Yi and Qi Er one after the other.

The two patted him on the shoulders. Worry was written across their brows, but neither tried to talk him out of it.

The people of Blue Sea had never been the type to stop their companions from doing something courageous.

Well, except when it came to blowing up manure pits with firecrackers as children.

“Take care of yourself. If we get the chance, we’ll come find you.”

“If a whole bunch of people gang up on you, and you can’t beat them, then swallow your pride and back down. Once we find you, we’ll make sure you get your revenge.”

Lu Song fought back the sting in his nose and could only nod over and over.

“I’m off.”

He waved goodbye to his two best friends.

Qi Yi’s eyes were already red, and Qi Er wasn’t doing much better. Sniffling, he waved as well.

“May our God watch over you. May our God bless you.”

“Go on.”

Lu Song stepped into the iridescent passageway.

——

Cheng Qisheng could no longer see him.

Without a chain of faith connecting them, there was no way for her to protect him. All she could do was wish him safety.

The talisman-paper supernatural ability user, Yu Bo, was also waiting near the back of the line. She had witnessed Lu Song’s farewell with Qi Yi and Qi Er.

Clingy.

Seriously, Blue Sea was wonderful in every other way, but ever since joining this Safe City, Yu Bo had discovered that its residents behaved completely differently from those in other Safe Cities.

Here, friends were actually people you could entrust with your life.

No, on second thought, that wasn’t quite accurate.

Even if they weren’t friends, even if they were merely teammates, the people of Blue Sea took it for granted that they had to look out for one another’s lives.

And every Inner City resident was unbelievably affectionate in the way they spoke. Take Li Bujing, the friend Yu Bo had made. Ever since Yu Bo got a phone, she had practically received messages from Li Bujing every single day.

[I miss you. Want to go out for a meal?]

[You passed the Blue Sea driving test! And in such a short time, too! That’s amazing! Let’s go out for a meal to celebrate!]

[Are you feeling down? I’ll come find you in the Outer City. Wait for me, wait for me!]

And that was just how friends treated each other.

The last time Yu Bo went to take her driving test, a staff member she’d never met before—someone she was meeting for the very first time—had showered her with compliments the moment she got out of the car. The person had even enthusiastically asked to add her as a friend and recommended several car models to her.

At first, Yu Bo had assumed the staff member was moonlighting as a car salesperson and was simply an exceptionally smooth talker.

But no, the person had genuinely just wanted to make recommendations. After finishing, they had gone straight back to their own work, leaving Yu Bo, who had been preparing to say, “Thanks, but no thanks. I haven’t saved up enough points yet,” standing there in a daze for quite some time.

Still, there was no denying that although Yu Bo wasn’t quite accustomed to this way of interacting—where everyone was so enthusiastic, spoke so directly, and never bothered with beating around the bush—her mood had been improving day by day ever since she joined Blue Sea.

Meanwhile, Li Bujing, who was still in school and could only enter Fallen Heaven Star during her holidays, had come to see Yu Bo off.

Just like before, she gave Yu Bo a big hug, wrapping her arms tightly around her.

After letting go, Li Bujing said earnestly, “Do your best out there, and stay safe. Once my holiday starts, I’ll come find you.”

Her eyes shone brightly.

“May our God watch over us.”

Yu Bo immediately responded, “May Blue Sea endure forever.”

Yu Bo knew that Li Bujing had always hoped she would become a believer of Blue Sea’s Creator God. But honestly, Yu Bo thought the whole business of gods was a scam.

Look, weren’t they about to go to another world and pretend to be gods themselves?

Still, this was Li Bujing’s faith, and Yu Bo respected it. So she was perfectly willing to play along and recite a few slogans with her.

Li Bujing gave her a serious reminder. “Once you get down there, make sure you study the Holy Scriptures properly. You must become a believer in our God as soon as possible. Once you do, our God will protect you.”

“Don’t worry. I will,” Yu Bo replied readily, as if she’d said it a hundred times before.

In reality, she had absolutely no intention of doing so.

“I’m off. I’ll do my best down there, and when the time comes, I’ll come find you, too.”

It was actually a good thing for Yu Bo to go first. That way, she could accumulate more divine power before Li Bujing arrived and be in a better position to protect her.

Yu Bo cheerfully said goodbye to her other teammates, then jumped into the passageway.

Playing the role of a god. What a peculiar experience.

She already had a complete plan in her head for absorbing faith power. How to put on a divine act, how to convince believers that she was the real deal—Yu Bo had everything mapped out in meticulous detail.

After a brief sensation of weightless drifting, her body finally sank under its own weight.

Yu Bo slowly opened her eyes.

Step One: Manifest a miracle.

“Awake?”

A figure floated faintly in midair before her, smiling as they looked at her and the others beside her.

“May our God watch over us. To think that we can actually use faith power to mold divine avatars!”

Yu Bo looked down at the armor she was wearing, then at the others standing in a row beside her, and finally at the deity across from them.

The deity then introduced himself.

“Our God has already issued a divine decree to you, right? Since some of you are Outer City residents, let me introduce myself anyway. My name is Wu Mingfeng, and my current role is the local Earth God of Daluo Village. I’m an Inner City resident of Blue Sea. As for you, your current identities are Heavenly Soldiers and Heavenly Generals. We’re still in the early stages of this venture, so the divine power you’re using comes from me.”

Yu Bo: “???”

“Time is short, so I won’t explain everything in detail. According to our God’s divine decree, one of our residents has run into trouble. It’s not a particularly serious problem, though, so it’s the perfect opportunity to test your divine powers. Heavenly Soldiers and Heavenly Generals are allowed to gang up on their enemies, so hurry up and go help! Remember, once you reach the location, fly there. It consumes divine power, but it looks really cool.”

Standing beside Yu Bo was another tall “Heavenly Soldier or Heavenly General,” also clad in golden armor. He immediately made an OK sign.

“May our God watch over us! We’ll set off right away.”

Yu Bo, who was swept along as everyone rushed out: “???”

Wait, weren’t their identities supposed to be randomly assigned? How had they suddenly become customizable? And how did these people know that a resident was in trouble?

Hold on. Why was everyone running in the same direction without the slightest hesitation?

Did nobody remember to ask for the address first?!

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