Safe City Ch.80

Chapter 80: Habits

Cheng Qisheng estimated the current number of new believers.

Including Little Blue Sea Nation, the total had already surged past seven million.

The main reason was that the beast tide had disrupted the century-long pattern of solitary living among the people of Dazzling Star. In order to survive, those who had once lived scattered across the world had gathered together, making it much easier for Blue Sea residents to “pick them up.”

Strictly speaking, though, they were rescuing them.

As everyone knew, the people of Dazzling Star were not particularly strong fighters.

Among the adults currently living in Safe City, most had combat power ratings between 30 and 37, with only a tiny minority exceeding 37.

It wasn’t exactly fair to call them weak. After all, the people of Dazzling Star hunted almost every day, so they possessed plenty of real combat experience.

Every adult who had survived had a combat power of at least 30.

In that respect, they were very different from the people of Velvet Star.

Perhaps because the catastrophe on Velvet Star hadn’t lasted very long, its people hadn’t had enough time to improve their combat abilities. Their combat power varied enormously—some had ratings in the single digits, while the strongest exceeded 80.

The people of Dazzling Star, on the other hand, were the type whose upper limit wasn’t especially high, but whose lower limit wasn’t low either.

Back when snow beasts were generally only Tier 1, fighting them had already been an arduous struggle for the people of Dazzling Star.

Now, however, the planet had entered the final stage of its Extinction Period. Beast tides were erupting everywhere, and among them appeared large numbers of Tier 2 snow beasts. Given the combat capabilities of the people of Dazzling Star, it was inevitable that they would be unable to withstand the onslaught.

It was under precisely these circumstances that the people of Blue Sea descended from the sky.

With the exception of Tian Buke, whose strength came from his luck-based supernatural ability, every Blue Sea resident who had qualified for a pair of Flight Wings possessed formidable combat power.

Once equipped with Flight Wings, they became even more unstoppable, charging into battle without the slightest hesitation.

For those dreaming of founding their own nations, the situation was simple: as they flew across the land, they found the citizens they wanted—and plenty of snow beasts conveniently delivering item cards right to their doorstep.

The Blue Sea residents’ attitude could be summed up in one sentence:

“We’ll take them all!”

From the perspective of the people of Dazzling Star, however, it looked very different.

Just when they were at their most helpless and despairing, a towering stranger with black wings descended before them, standing between them and the countless powerful snow beasts.

One snow beast after another fell beneath the stranger’s attacks. Even when some beasts tried to slip past and ambush the survivors, none could break through the airtight protection the warrior provided.

When the last snow beast finally crashed to the ground, the powerful fighter was splattered with blood from the battle.

Yet the very same warrior who had unleashed such merciless attacks against the snow beasts now folded in those black wings slightly, smiled at them, and extended an invitation.

“I am a divine envoy sent from the Kingdom of God. I am currently founding a nation. Would you be willing to become one of its citizens?”

What person from Dazzling Star could possibly resist an invitation like that?

At that moment, let alone claiming to be a divine envoy—

Even if the stranger had claimed to be a god, they would have believed it.

The reason the number of new believers had only reached seven million so far was simply that many Blue Sea residents had not yet found their own citizens.

The Blue Sea residents originally dispatched to reinforce Little Blue Sea Nation had been sent because Cheng Qisheng knew its conversion rate to the faith was too low. Without a unified belief, a large force was naturally needed to maintain order and deter trouble.

But now, every citizen of Little Blue Sea Nation had become a believer.

The nation was completely under Cheng Qisheng’s control.

That meant there was no longer any need to keep so many combat personnel stationed there.

Batch after batch of Blue Sea residents continued arriving.

A small number chose to remain in Little Blue Sea Nation and work there, but after hearing that Lu Song’s group had followed Song Xi and the others’ example by founding their own nation, the majority decided it was an excellent idea.

Now, they too were searching everywhere for citizens of their own.

At first, Cheng Qisheng’s number of new believers increased by roughly one thousand a day.

Then it became three thousand a day.

Now, it had already climbed to five thousand a day, with no signs of slowing down.

Even Cheng Qisheng couldn’t estimate how many people from Dazzling Star she would ultimately bring under her faith.

One thing was obvious, though.

Blue Sea Safe City, which had only just become a little more spacious, was about to return to being packed shoulder to shoulder.

The good news was that the people of Dazzling Star were small in stature and had virtually no sense of territoriality. They loved living in groups and sharing with one another, and they cared very little about the size of their living space. As long as they could stay together with their families, they felt genuinely happy.

Whenever Cheng Qisheng looked toward the communal residences during her breaks, she would see clusters of Dazzling Star natives—short, fair-skinned people with silvery-white hair and pale-colored eyes—snuggled closely together.

The communal residences weren’t particularly cramped.

The people of Dazzling Star simply enjoyed huddling together no matter what they were doing. Their free time, in particular, was devoted to sharing with one another.

Sometimes the elders recounted stories from their youth.

Sometimes the younger generation shared interesting things they had seen at work that day.

Other times, someone who had learned how to tan hides would generously teach everyone else the process without holding anything back.

Cheng Qisheng had come to a realization.

The people of Dazzling Star truly knew how to enjoy life.

Old Eighth had lived in the residential district for quite some time. Most residents’ idea of improving their homes amounted to adding a few more tables and chairs, hanging more weapons on the walls, or stocking up on even more dried meat.

If you asked them whether they owned any “little decorations to make life more enjoyable,” they would probably pull out things like:

A razor-sharp beast fang.

The skull of some snow beast.

A prized collection of poisons.

And so on.

But if you were talking about cooking, cleaning the house, or doing chores, most Blue Sea residents weren’t particularly fond of those kinds of meticulous tasks.

The good news was that, although they didn’t enjoy doing them, they also weren’t picky.

If the food tasted terrible, that was fine—as long as it was cooked, they would eat it.

If the house was messy, that was fine too—as long as it wasn’t dirty.

The people of Dazzling Star, however, were completely different.

Perhaps because ninety-nine percent of their lives had been spent inside tiny shelters, they were exceptionally enthusiastic about keeping things clean.

Ever since the communal residences had been occupied by the people of Dazzling Star, they had remained spotless. Every resident kept their own living area impeccably tidy. They even braided worn-out clothing into large rugs and laid them in the common areas for the children to play on.

They loved spending their days off in the greenhouse-equipped planting district of Blue Sea Safe City, quietly admiring the lush green plants growing from the soil, along with flowers of vivid, exotic colors unlike anything they had ever seen before.

The people of Dazzling Star adored flowers.

Such things simply did not exist on their homeworld.

Before long, they had learned to make artificial flowers from all kinds of materials.

Used paper, leftover scraps of fabric from tailoring clothes, bits of yarn, even plastic bottles and shopping bags—all of it could be transformed by their skillful hands into lifelike blossoms with naturally shaped petals and leaves.

They decorated the communal residences with these handmade flowers, carefully sorted and arranged every item, built their own storage shelves, and even washed and proudly displayed unusually shaped stones that they found beautiful.

The communal residences were now filled with soft cushions, all handcrafted by the people of Dazzling Star. They gathered together to play musical instruments, exchange paintings, make incense from snow beast bones, carve exquisitely detailed candle molds, and then use those molds to create beautiful candles, placing them wherever they felt they belonged.

Cheng Qisheng had watched with her own eyes as the communal residence—once little more than a single large room with almost nothing inside—gradually transformed into the warm, inviting place it was today.

The people of Dazzling Star seemed incapable of sitting idle. They kept themselves busy from morning to night, and more importantly, she could tell that these silver-haired believers genuinely enjoyed being busy.

To be precise, what they enjoyed was the feeling of making their living environment better.

And “living environment” didn’t just mean where they lived—it also included where they worked.

The people of Dazzling Star were the sort who, even without being told by a supervisor, would conscientiously clean their workspaces and organize every item into neat categories, arranging them either by size or by type.

When the first group of Dazzling Star natives began working, every one of their supervisors experienced the same bewildering scene.

Supervisor: “I didn’t ask you to do all this. Please don’t. People are going to think I’m b*llying you into doing extra work.”

Dazzling Star resident: “But… if everything is messy, it just doesn’t feel right.”

After reports of this behavior made their way up the chain of command, the Psychology Department conducted an investigation.

They concluded that, for the people of Dazzling Star, any change in their surroundings instinctively signified danger.

For example, if a bottle that normally stood upright on a box inside their cabin was found lying on its side when the hunters returned home, it could mean that a small snow beast had slipped into the house.

Once alerted, the owner could search for and eliminate the intruder, preventing the possibility of being attacked during the night after taking off their cold-weather gear and falling into a deep sleep.

A cluttered living space made it much harder to notice such subtle changes.

That was why, whenever they entered a new environment, the people of Dazzling Star instinctively organized everything into perfect order—the tidier, the better.

It gave them a profound sense of security.

The psychologists ultimately recommended that there was no need to force them to change. Generation after generation, for more than two hundred years, the people of Dazzling Star had lived this way.

Preventing them from doing so now would be far more likely to cause psychological problems.

The Blue Sea residents’ response was simple:

“As long as it isn’t a psychological problem, we’re good.”

As long as it wasn’t something that required intervention, they were more than happy to live in an environment that was clean and tidy every day.

The people of Blue Sea were simply too lazy to clean—not that they disliked cleanliness.

Moreover, the people of Dazzling Star had gentle personalities. They liked keeping things clean themselves, but they never expected the same from others. They simply cleaned the shared spaces quietly without ever inconveniencing anyone else.

That was wonderful.

Because of this, most Blue Sea residents—who normally cared little about anything besides fighting—had developed a strong fondness for the people of Dazzling Star.

When Cheng Qisheng learned about it, she couldn’t help thinking that the people of Dazzling Star had simply been born into the wrong era.

Had they lived in a peaceful world, they could have made fortunes working as professional cleaners or home organizers.

Or they could have become interior decorators.

Just look at how beautifully they had transformed the communal residence.

If people like them had lived on Blue Star, Cheng Qisheng would definitely have hired them.

Nowadays, whenever she wanted to clear her mind, she would turn her attention to the communal residence. Simply looking at the beautifully decorated home lifted her spirits.

Watching the Dazzling Star residents busily cleaning and tidying the rooms was especially soothing.

It had an oddly therapeutic effect.

She decided it was time to start thinking about how to bring everyone back to Safe City.

The more than two million residents who had recently received Flight Wings could finally be put to use.

…

A Safe City stood amid the endless snowy wilderness.

Its City Lord was reviewing the casualty report.

They couldn’t stay here any longer.

The beast tides were becoming larger and larger. They were impossible to eliminate completely, and that alone would have been bad enough.

But the temperature was dropping at a terrifying pace, as though it were in free fall.

The region where his city was located had once been home to scattered survivors from Dazzling Star whom his residents would occasionally encounter.

Lately, however, according to the reports coming in from his people, not a single person from Dazzling Star had been seen.

Had they all died?

Very likely.

In a brutal apocalypse like this, if he hadn’t had a Safe City and the facilities purchased from the system shop, he certainly wouldn’t have survived either.

“We’re leaving ahead of schedule. We can’t hold out any longer.”

On the eve of the city’s departure, the City Lord donned his Tier 2 cold-weather suit and stepped onto the rooftop terrace of the City Lord’s Mansion. Gazing wistfully across the endless expanse of snow, he couldn’t help but sigh.

This damned place…

There were barely any resources to speak of.

The temperatures were absurdly low.

And they had claimed that snow beasts weren’t particularly numerous and rarely attacked large groups of people.

Then, out of nowhere, a beast tide had erupted.

Things had been manageable in the early days. At least they could still earn item cards.

But several months ago, surviving on Dazzling Star had started becoming increasingly difficult.

By now…

Forget him—even a Tier 4 Safe City probably couldn’t squeeze any more benefits out of this planet.

“AI, insert the crystals. Let’s go.”

The next second, his eyes suddenly widened.

Far off in the distance, a massive black object—so enormous it seemed to stretch for over a thousand meters—was sweeping toward them, blotting out the horizon.

The City Lord froze.

What the hell is that?

Some kind of super snow beast?

That’s way too super!

Isn’t this world’s difficulty completely insane? The beast tides were already bad enough, and now there’s a monster over a kilometer long?!

“Go! Hurry! Move!”

The City Lord had absolutely no desire to find out what it was.

His only thought was to run.

He didn’t even dare look directly at the “monster,” afraid that if their eyes met, it might possess some sort of teleportation ability or other horrifying power.

If that happened, they would be finished.

The Safe City vanished in an instant, leaving behind nothing but rippling distortions in the air.

A short while later, a procession of Blue Sea residents passed through the area…

Each of them was helping carry an enormous black greenhouse over a thousand meters long.

“Wasn’t there a Safe City here just now?”

“I think so. Forget it—we’ve got to keep moving.”

Their black wings beat steadily behind them.

Every single person gripped a length of cold-resistant rope tightly in their hands.

The countless ropes hung down like a dense web of threads, securely suspending the gigantic greenhouse as they carried it through the sky.

Cheng Qisheng guided the Blue Sea residents along the way, watching as they flew with increasing enthusiasm.

Inside the greenhouse…

Groups upon groups of people from Dazzling Star lay resting.

The enormous greenhouse swayed gently as it traveled through the air. Safety harnesses secured around their bodies kept them from being tossed about.

Each family huddled closely together.

They could feel the bitter winds outside constantly battering the greenhouse, trying to force their way in.

Yet those terrifying gales never managed to breach its walls.

In the dim interior of the greenhouse, countless people from Dazzling Star sat shoulder to shoulder.

Their eyes, however, shone with bright anticipation.

They were on their way…

To a new home.

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