Chapter 65: Aftermath
Just as the unlucky City Lord who had accidentally wandered into the Safe City battlefield was preparing to relocate, he suddenly changed his mind.
“No, no, wait a second.”
The reason he had been so quick to move was that one of his residents had awakened as an ability user with the Deviation ability.
Deviation meant that, in combat, a bullet might still be destined to hit the ability user, but they could use their ability to alter the wind’s trajectory.
The bullet’s path would shift. A shot that was originally headed straight for the ability user’s heart might end up striking their shoulder instead.
Deviation couldn’t change the outcome that “the bullet will definitely hit you,” but it could introduce a slight deviation into that outcome—turning “a shot through the heart” into “a shot in the shoulder.”
In theory, whenever the Deviation ability activated, it allowed its user to avoid the worst of an impending crisis.
It was precisely because he had this resident that the City Lord had decided to relocate.
What if moving into the middle of the Safe Cities’ chaotic battle was actually the Deviation ability taking effect?
He pondered the matter long and hard but still couldn’t figure out how ending up on a battlefield could possibly count as a favorable deviation.
Or… perhaps he had originally been destined to descend right into the center of the battlefield and be focused down by all five Safe Cities at once?
Then, thanks to the Deviation ability, he had instead arrived at a location somewhat farther from the fighting?
Or maybe every other possible landing site was even more dangerous, making this place the safest option after all?
The moment that thought crossed his mind, he shook his head vigorously.
Out of the five City Lords, two were dead. Another’s identity was still unknown, but through his binoculars he could see the shattered gates of that Safe City. One glance was enough to tell that its lord had barely escaped with their life by abandoning part of their territory and fleeing.
If a place like this counted as safe, then there wasn’t a single safe place left on the entire planet.
Could it be… that the real “deviation” was warning him?
That Dazzling Star had become far more dangerous than before, with one—or perhaps two—terrifying new figures now roaming the planet? That by dropping him here to witness it firsthand, the ability was telling him to keep his head down… and perhaps even leave Dazzling Star altogether before it was too late?
“That actually seems very possible!”
And if he relocated, there would be no way to earn crystals on Dazzling Star. If he spent another 1,000 crystals to move and ended up in another bad location, what then?
His Safe City had landed on elevated ground, some distance from where the Safe Cities were fighting. He still had a few minutes to think things through.
“I’ll consider whether I should just leave this world early.”
The AI responded obediently, “Understood, City Lord. Random relocation has been canceled.”
The Tier-2 City Lord, Jin Yu, felt as though his mind were in complete disarray. Every possible outcome brought about by the Deviation ability tangled together in his thoughts until he almost wished he could pull his brain out of his skull and rinse it clean with water.
Fortunately, every Safe City Lord had their own team of advisors.
A major decision like relocating was naturally discussed with them.
He immediately told his advisors everything he had seen about the battle between the Safe Cities and ordered them to reach a decision within three minutes.
“Should we relocate… or leave this world altogether?”
The Tier-2 City Lord wasn’t being reckless. After all, his Safe City was still far from the battlefield. This was Dazzling Star, where firearms were completely suppressed by the environment, and moving across the snow was painfully slow.
In theory, even half an hour should have been more than enough.
But he was so cautious that he compressed the discussion into just three minutes.
That level of caution would have been perfectly adequate against any Tier-3 Safe City.
Either they wouldn’t discover him at all, or even if they did, the distance was too great and calculating his exact landing coordinates would be extremely difficult. With so little time, there would simply be no way for that Safe City to reach him.
Jin Yu thought his reasoning was sound.
His only oversight was that the binoculars he had purchased weren’t powerful enough to make out the dark silhouettes circling above the Safe Cities.
All he could see was the enormous Safe City in the middle of the ongoing fusion.
Jin Yu had decided to relocate because he was being harassed by Skywing Dragons, so he naturally assumed that the tiny black dots flying over the battlefield were flying snow beasts.
In reality, those black dots were Blue Sea citizens.
The battle had already ended, and they were now clearing the battlefield and hunting down any remaining enemies.
Before Jin Yu had arrived with his Safe City—
The White-Robed Bishops had split into two groups.
Those without wings remained on the ground, treating the wounded and providing emergency medical care where they fell.
Those with wings took to the skies, searching for injured soldiers buried beneath the rubble. Whenever they found one, they would glide down gracefully, either carrying or supporting the wounded before transporting them to the centralized treatment area.
This was the Temple’s responsibility. Even if other Blue Sea citizens found an injured person first, they would immediately notify the White-Robed Bishops.
It was a common sight: the moment someone shouted, “There’s a wounded person over here!” several White-Robed Bishops would descend at once, medical kits in hand.
“Thanks be to our God. They’ve only fainted from blood loss. They’re suffering from hypothermia, but it isn’t too severe yet.”
Two White-Robed Bishops lifted the casualty onto a stretcher and hurried them toward the medical zone, where heated treatment shelters with different temperature settings had been set up.
There was one major drawback to fighting on Dazzling Star.
During combat, cold-weather suits were easily damaged, greatly reducing their insulating ability.
Blue Sea warriors, caught up in the intensity of battle, were usually so exhilarated that their awareness of the surrounding temperature dulled. Many never even noticed that their protective suits had been torn.
If they escaped without injury, it wasn’t a major problem.
But once they were wounded and began bleeding, their body temperature would plummet. With their cold-weather gear no longer providing adequate insulation, the extreme cold could quickly send them into hypothermia, causing them to lose consciousness on the spot.
The good news was that Blue Sea citizens were remarkably resilient. As long as they were found quickly and the clergy reached them in time, they could usually make a full recovery.
And somehow, the clergy could always pinpoint the location of wounded Blue Sea citizens amid the mountains of rubble.
“Truly miraculous.”
The prisoners stood inside circles drawn in the snow, watching the Blue Sea citizens in white robes and black wings soar through the air, effortlessly locating one wounded Blue Sea soldier after another.
“They were terrifying enough in battle. How are they this good at finding people too?”
Among the captives were Dihai soldiers glaring hatefully at the Blue Sea citizens.
There were also Mingxia residents, still dazed and unable to accept that their City Lord had abandoned them.
And then there were the Mianyin residents, most of whom had surrendered almost immediately after Moonspirit Safe City broke through their defenses, offering little resistance.
Of the prisoners from the three Safe Cities, the people of Mianyin had adapted the best.
Although the three Safe Cities had acted together, anyone could tell that Mianyin Safe City—the weakest, lowest-ranked city, used as bait—had never been treated well.
Officially, the three Safe Cities had been allies.
In reality, the people of Mianyin had been treated little better than sl*ves and cannon fodder.
In just a short time, they had suffered enormous casualties.
When people live under relentless oppression and despair for long enough, they eventually lose the will to resist.
By comparison, the soldiers of Moonspirit Safe City treated them far better than the residents of those two Tier-3 Safe Cities ever had.
At the very least, they weren’t beaten or cursed at over the slightest thing.
Nor were random Mianyin residents dragged out to be humiliated whenever someone felt like it.
In fact, despite being prisoners, Moonspirit Safe City had even put up a large shelter made from plastic sheeting for them, so they wouldn’t have to remain exposed to the wind and snow all day.
The Mianyin residents had already been at rock bottom.
Ironically, because of this, their outlook had actually improved.
At this rate, even if we end up as sl*ves under the victorious Safe City… at least we’ll be treated better than before.
The prisoners from the other Safe Cities had no mood for conversation.
The Mianyin residents, who had spent the past several months pretending to be mute under constant oppression, were now chatting away cheerfully.
Their own treatment had improved—that alone made them happy.
And seeing the residents of the two Safe Cities that had b*llied them now receiving far worse treatment?
That made them even happier.
“I saw it with my own eyes. Someone in a white robe with wings dug one of their own people—who was nearly frozen solid—out from beneath the rubble of a collapsed building.”
“No wonder Dihai and Mingxia lost. Do they have X-ray vision or something?”
“There’s more. I was being used as cannon fodder in Mingxia Safe City just now. A building collapsed, trapping me together with one of their people. Then a group of those winged, white-robed people showed up, cleared away the rubble on top, and pulled me out too. I swear, it couldn’t have taken more than five minutes!”
“They’re incredible. Can every single one of them see through walls?”
As several Mianyin prisoners quietly exchanged what they had witnessed, the Pope sat atop the walls of Blue Sea Safe City.
His eyes were closed.
His black hair hung loosely over his shoulders, and a black face covering shielded him from the wind and snow. His sacred robes fluttered gently in the blizzard.
In his hands were more than a thousand thin cords.
As his fingers moved, he pulled different cords backward, causing the flags attached to them—each a different color—to constantly change direction.
Every flag carried a different meaning.
Combined together, they formed an even greater variety of signals and commands.
The White-Robed Bishops scattered across the battlefield could then follow the flags’ instructions to locate one wounded soldier after another.
It was one of the Temple’s oldest methods of communication.
Long ago, whenever Blue Sea went to war, the local Temple would erect tall poles along the edge of the battlefield.
Clergy members would climb onto the poles, using their elevated vantage point to search for wounded soldiers in need of rescue.
Whenever they spotted someone, they would wave an intricate series of signal flags—flag semaphore understood only by the clergy—guiding the priests who had entered the battlefield to the correct location so they could carry the wounded to safety for treatment.
A scene like this would have been impossible in any other civilization.
No matter how fiercely the people of Blue Sea fought one another, they always held the Temple in the highest respect.
The Temple’s watchtowers erected along the battlefield were never destroyed by either side. In fact, both armies would deliberately steer the fighting away from them.
When Blue Sea entered the modern age, technology made communication across the battlefield possible. Drones could fly overhead, providing remote command and coordination.
As a result, the Temple’s highly efficient flag semaphore system for rescuing wounded soldiers gradually fell out of use.
Whenever war broke out, the Temple would instead activate its command center.
Drone after drone would take to the skies above the battlefield, while clergy stationed in the command center searched the live video feeds for wounded soldiers. The system would then automatically identify the nearest available priest and dispatch them to carry out the rescue.
It was an exceptionally efficient operation.
But then Dark Star was destroyed, and under the radiance of the Great Creator God, all of Blue Sea was transported to another world.
In these disaster-ridden worlds, the people of Blue Sea united to survive.
They changed in many ways.
They learned how to build houses.
They stopped fighting civil wars.
Daily life became much more peaceful.
They no longer brawled with one another…
Well, all right—they still brawled.
Ever since Blue Sea’s dueling arena had opened, there hadn’t been a single day when every match slot wasn’t fully booked.
Still, the people of Blue Sea had changed tremendously.
The greatest change of all was that some of them had awakened supernatural abilities.
The Pope was one of them.
With his eyes closed, countless sounds flowed into his ears—the beating of hearts, the rhythm of breathing.
The gift of universal communication bestowed upon Blue Sea by the Great Creator God allowed him to understand every voice he heard.
He heard a Blue Sea resident complaining that someone had snatched away the weapon he had wanted.
He heard a resident of the Dihai civilization cry out in terror:
“They’re practically monsters! Demons!”
He heard a resident of the Mingxia civilization repeatedly asking, still unable to grasp what had happened:
“Did the City Lord really abandon us and run away? Then… what about us? What’s going to happen to us?”
He also heard the Mianyin residents quietly whispering among themselves:
“I think we’re obviously being treated differently from the people of the other two Safe Cities. It feels like the guards are much friendlier toward us.”
“I think there are actually two victorious Safe Cities… but whatever. No matter what, it’s still better than being sl*ves before.”
The Pope let these scattered conversations drift past.
The heartbeats of Blue Sea citizens were much easier to identify.
Perhaps it was because they all worshipped the same Great Creator God.
Or perhaps it was simply because the Pope himself was one of the people of Blue Sea.
Whatever the reason, amid the countless overlapping voices, he could always pinpoint the wounded Blue Sea citizens with uncanny precision.
He would then pull on the cords in his hands, signaling with the flags to guide the White-Robed Bishops to the correct locations and bring the wounded back.
Throughout the process, the countless fragmented conversations from the various civilizations were filtered away like sand through a sieve.
“We were sl*ves captured by Dihai. We’re not really on their side. Maybe this Safe City will take us in.”
“I’m a blacksmith. I wonder if my skills would be useful to them.”
“I’ve been saying all along—we should’ve gotten rid of the City Lord and taken over ourselves. He was never reliable. See? He dragged us into a war, and the moment he couldn’t win, he abandoned us and ran.”
“As if we could’ve killed the City Lord!”
As he continued filtering through the voices, a different set of conversations suddenly caught his attention.
“So this is our new landing site? It looks pretty nice.”
“We seem to be somewhere very high up.”
“Should we head outside now?”
It was a language unlike that of any of the five Safe Cities.
The Pope’s eyes snapped open.
He pulled several cords at once, causing multiple signal flags to swing into position.
Every one of them pointed in the same direction.
There—
Another Safe City had appeared.
More than half of the White-Robed Bishops who had been flying across the battlefield searching for the wounded immediately received the command.
Without the slightest hesitation, they turned and sped toward the direction indicated by the Pope’s signals.
The Blue Sea troops on the ground, who had been clearing the battlefield, also spotted the flag signals. As one, they turned toward the direction hidden behind the howling snowstorm.
An officer barked out an order.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
The soldiers equipped with flight wings launched into the air as well, following the White-Robed Bishops toward the same destination.
…
Jin Yu watched the passing seconds with growing anxiety.
“Well? Have you reached a decision yet?”
“City Lord, we may need a little more time to discuss it thoroughly…”
Jin Yu clenched his teeth.
“No. What if they’ve already discovered us?”
He strode toward the center of the meeting room.
Halfway there, however, he accidentally tripped over the resident with the Deviation ability.
The ability user was startled as well and hurried over to help him up.
By the time Jin Yu got back on his feet, only about half a minute had passed.
His mind was already in turmoil, so he paid the incident no attention. He hurried to the center of the room, picked up a crystal, and gave the order.
“AI, initiate an early departure from this world.”
The AI’s calm voice answered:
“I’m sorry, City Lord. Your Safe City has already been occupied by a large number of outside residents. The city can no longer be relocated as a whole. Would you like to abandon part of your territory and leave instead?”
Jin Yu’s heart nearly stopped.
“What?”
How was that possible?
Only a few minutes had passed!
The two locations were so far apart!
Can the residents of that Safe City fly?!
“C-City Lord… l-look!”
A guard burst into the room and hurriedly led everyone out of the windowless meeting hall, which had been built without windows to conserve heat.
Outside—
The sky above Jin Yu Safe City was already filled with countless figures, densely packed across the air.
