Safe City Ch.86.2

Chapter 86.2: Manifest

Cheng Qisheng looked over the reports detailing the two girls’ supernatural abilities.

First was Cheng Anjing’s ability: Mind Domain.

It belonged to the Mental-type abilities.

As the name implied, it allowed her to connect to other people’s minds. While it couldn’t control them, it could make them see whatever images she chose to project.

Floating before Cheng Qisheng, Aether read through the ability’s description.

“Like most Mental-type ability users, Mind Domain users possess little offensive capability in the early stages. However, in the later stages, they can develop into Illusionists, becoming extremely lethal against intelligent lifeforms.”

A Mind Domain ability user could make multiple nearby people perceive the same scene.

In other words, once Cheng Anjing grew stronger, she would be able to construct intricate illusions, pulling every intelligent creature with a brain within a wide area into a fabricated reality of her own making.

For example, if a mutant beast attacked her, she could make it believe there was a cliff directly ahead—or convince it that she simply wasn’t standing in front of it at all.

“Only Mind Domain ability users of the sixth tier and above gain the ability to create true illusions. Before that, Mind Domain users primarily serve in a support role.”

Aether projected a tiny virtual image of Cheng Anjing, no larger than a thumb, with a faint red glow shining above her head.

The jellyfish floated past, and over a hundred black stick figures holding fishing rods appeared around Cheng Anjing.

From the red glow above Cheng Anjing’s head, strands of crimson light extended outward, connecting to the heads of all the anglers.

“A Mind Domain ability user can do more than simply connect to other people’s minds. Centered on themselves, they can also enable all the intelligent beings linked through their Mind Domain to communicate with one another.”

In the projection, the separate red strands quickly interconnected, forming a vast crimson network above the residents’ heads.

Every connection converged on Cheng Anjing at the center.

Cheng Qisheng understood immediately.

“So Cheng Anjing can basically create a group chat in her mind, then invite other residents into it so they can all talk to each other inside her Mind Domain?”

“Yes, City Lord. That’s an accurate way to think of it. So although Mind Domain ability users have little offensive power in the early stages, their contribution to a Safe City is enormous. Not only can they allow all the residents to share information seamlessly in both daily life and combat, but they can also directly project blueprints, data, and other information into the residents’ minds.”

What an incredible—and incredibly useful—ability.

Aether could also provide the Safe City with a communications network, but its coverage was limited to the area surrounding the city. Beyond that, it simply couldn’t reach.

Cheng Anjing, however, was effectively a walking Wi-Fi hotspot.

Wherever she went, the network went with her.

And she had only just awakened as a Tier 1 ability user. As she advanced through the ranks, the coverage of her “network” would only continue to expand.

“What’s the current range of Cheng Anjing’s Mind Domain?”

Aether answered, “The temple has already conducted tests. Its coverage is 10,000 square kilometers.”

Ten thousand square kilometers?

That was considerably larger than Cheng Qisheng had expected.

In other words, if Cheng Anjing went out into the field, every resident within a 10,000-square-kilometer area of the vast ocean around her could join the same mental group chat.

Whether it was sharing information or calling for help in an emergency, there would no longer be any need for Cheng Qisheng to relay messages one person at a time.

If anything urgent came up, everyone could report directly to Cheng Anjing, who would then communicate with Cheng Qisheng immediately.

Cheng Qisheng thought to herself that this was real life.

If this were a spy drama, she’d already have the perfect codename for Cheng Anjing.

Group Leader.

Simple and self-explanatory.

Cheng Qisheng asked, “Does this ability have any limitations? For example, does prolonged use cause headaches or mental fatigue?”

She really wanted the “Group Leader” to get to work.

But Cheng Anjing was only eight years old. She was still a child, and Cheng Qisheng had no intention of pushing her beyond her limits.

“All Mental-type abilities require gradual training,” Aether replied. “Given Resident Cheng Anjing’s current condition, I recommend she begin by maintaining the link for no more than two hours per day.”

Aether added, “However, Mind Domain ability users possess no offensive capabilities in the early stages and cannot forcibly break into another person’s mind. When Resident Cheng Anjing uses this ability, the cooperation of the linked residents is required.”

“That’s not a problem.”

They were all believers. A single divine decree from her, and the residents would cooperate without hesitation.

“Wait.”

Cheng Qisheng suddenly frowned.

“You said she can’t forcibly enter other people’s minds. Then how did the Holy Bombs happen?”

Aether floated back over and projected images of Holy Bombs above the heads of the virtual residents connected by the red threads.

“While unconscious of what she was doing, Resident Cheng Anjing linked the minds of 132 residents, synchronizing the image of Holy Bombs from her own mind into theirs.”

“And because those 132 residents were already thinking about Holy Bombs, the projected image did not trigger any mental resistance.”

Cheng Qisheng: “…”

There had only been 132 people fishing in that area.

And every single one of them—without exception—had been thinking about Holy Bombs?

Old Eighth…

As expected of You.

Aether continued reconstructing what had happened.

A thumb-sized projection of Sylvia appeared beside the equally tiny projection of Cheng Anjing.

“Resident Sylvia possesses the Luck-type ability Mass Manifestation. If multiple people nearby are imagining the same object, she can manifest that object into reality.”

“Resident Cheng Anjing used Mind Domain to project both the image of the Holy Bombs and a clear understanding of how to use them into the minds of the 132 residents. Resident Sylvia then activated Mass Manifestation, manifesting the Holy Bombs that existed in the minds of those 132 residents.”

Aether perched atop Cheng Qisheng’s head.

In the virtual projection, the Holy Bombs above the residents’ heads all began to glow. They then flew into the “water” on their own, each conveniently hooking itself onto a fishing line.

“As a result, all 132 residents successfully reeled in Holy Bombs. City Lord, this is the temple’s complete analysis of the incident. Would you like Aether to project the full report?”

Cheng Qisheng picked Aether up and set it on her shoulder.

“That’s not necessary. I understand what happened now. Do you have any recommendations?”

Aether did.

“I recommend that these two ability users operate together whenever possible. Unless absolutely necessary, they should not be separated.”

“Ability users with the Mass Manifestation ability are, in fact, not welcomed by most Safe Cities. This is because they cannot control their ability. Whenever multiple people nearby are imagining the same thing, the Manifester will involuntarily bring it into reality.”

That was an extremely dangerous ability.

Safe Cities survived by descending into different worlds, and in apocalyptic environments, people inevitably thought of far more terrible things than hopeful ones.

If Manifesters could control what they manifested, it wouldn’t be so bad.

The problem was that a Manifester was merely a bridge.

They had no say in what was manifested.

Even if the Manifester themselves was imagining a feast piled high with food, if everyone around them was thinking about monsters…

Then the only things that would materialize would be monsters.

And when confronted with monsters, people became even more terrified.

Fear, in turn, had a way of giving birth to the most horrifying monsters of all.

“So Mass Manifestation ability users have another name: Calamity Vessels. In fact, Calamity Vessel is the term most people actually use. Whenever a Safe City discovers one, it either banishes them… or kills them outright.”

The various Safe Cities didn’t care that what was manifested came from other people’s thoughts rather than the Manifester’s own intentions.

All the city lords and residents saw was this:

Wherever that person went, disaster followed.

Who wouldn’t be afraid?

Some city lords had tried to make use of the ability.

But the minds of intelligent beings were never completely under their own control.

Getting a large group of people to focus on the same pleasant thought was incredibly difficult. Human minds naturally wandered in all directions.

One moment it was, I want to buy a big house.

The next, What should I have for dinner tonight?

Or even, I did something so embarrassing back in elementary school.

That kind of mental drift was perfectly normal.

But when a large group of people faced the same fear…

That was a different story.

Under those circumstances, their thoughts became highly synchronized. They couldn’t stop themselves from imagining the same terrifying possibilities.

Take a zombie apocalypse, for example.

As people fled for their lives, even if they couldn’t hear anything outside, they would inevitably think:

There aren’t zombies out there, are there?

What if the moment we open the door, one is waiting to ambush us?

Is there a zombie crawling across the ceiling watching us right now?

…and countless similar thoughts.

If there happened to be a Mass Manifestation user among that fleeing crowd…

Then zombies would almost certainly appear.

At present, Aether’s emotional development was still quite limited. It feared death and had become somewhat attached to Cheng Qisheng, but it had yet to develop much empathy or emotional understanding.

So it analyzed the situation in a perfectly calm tone.

“If Resident Cheng Anjing’s Mind Domain did not exist, Aether would recommend that you either exile or eliminate Resident Sylvia, to prevent her from growing into a catastrophic threat to Blue Sea Safe City.”

But Cheng Qisheng would never drive away one of her own believers.

Even without Cheng Anjing’s Mind Domain, she could still try using divine decrees to guide the residents into thinking about the same thing.

Even if that approach didn’t work, she could simply keep Sylvia from being around large groups of people.

Since the ability was called Mass Manifestation, wouldn’t it be enough to make sure she never came into contact with a mass of people?

Unaware of what Cheng Qisheng was thinking, Aether continued its analysis.

“But now that Resident Cheng Anjing possesses Mind Domain, as long as Resident Sylvia remains with her, Mass Manifestation will become an ability that can truly contribute to the development of the Safe City.”

Cheng Qisheng had to admit that the combination was absurdly overpowered.

Cheng Anjing could make everyone think of the same thing.

Sylvia could manifest that very thing into reality.

Wasn’t that basically another wish-granting machine?

Cheng Qisheng immediately began planning their rewards.

A house, for starters.

A generous amount of contribution points as well.

As for a position… although they were still children, there was no reason they couldn’t hold honorary posts in the Department of Luck.

“Both residents are currently Tier 1 ability users, so the capacity of their manifestation ability is limited. Theoretically, after completing one large-scale manifestation, a Mass Manifestation user would require one to four months for their spiritual power to recover.”

Cheng Qisheng was familiar with that.

After performing a large-scale divine blessing herself, she also needed time to recover mentally.

But…

“Sylvia was still able to manifest candy afterward. Doesn’t that mean she can keep manifesting things?”

“Yes. When she is no longer able to manifest objects, that indicates her manifestation energy has been exhausted.”

“Will it harm her body?”

“No. When the Manifester feels fatigued, she only needs to stop and rest.”

Cheng Qisheng’s eyes lit up.

“Have them manifest Holy Bombs!”

“As many as they can!”

…

It was already nighttime.

There was still about a day and a night left before Blue Sea would lose the ability to interact with objects from the native world.

The waves crashed against the shore in the darkness.

The gloomy sea looked terrifying, as though monstrous sea creatures might emerge from its depths at any moment.

Yet the people of Blue Sea paid the ominous ocean no mind.

Their faces were filled with excitement, and the shoreline was once again packed with residents.

“Cast!”

Dozens of specially made fishing nets were thrown into the sea!

The two children stood at the very front. Because they were so close to the water, they were surrounded on all sides by clergy for protection.

Cheng Anjing closed her eyes.

Images of countless Holy Bombs appeared simultaneously in the minds of every Blue Sea resident nearby.

Sylvia also shut her eyes tightly, concentrating with all her might.

“Haul!”

One net after another was pulled back in.

And with them came one Holy Bomb after another.

That night, no one slept.

Everyone worked with boundless excitement, repeating the same cycle over and over—

Cast the nets.

Haul them in.

Cast again.

Haul again.

At that point, if a sea monster had shown up for a fight, everyone would probably have been even more thrilled.

In the end, however, no sea monster was foolish enough to come ashore and challenge the hundreds of millions of Blue Sea residents.

Only when Sylvia finally became exhausted and could no longer manifest Holy Bombs—her cheeks flushed as she fell asleep in her brother’s arms—did Blue Sea bring its massive precision fishing operation to an end.

The Holy Bombs were transported to the armory.

Qin Zhi strode inside.

Looking at the 3,712 Holy Bombs lined up before her, the President finally let out a long, slow breath.

At last…

Their stockpile of Holy Bombs no longer looked so pitiful.

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