Safe City Ch.99.1

Chapter 99.1: Merchant Ship and Sea Monster Barrier

Yuan Moshu was utterly shocked. Then he realized that, apparently, he still hadn’t been shocked enough.

The restaurant aboard the Little Blue Sea was genuinely enormous, with an open upper level as well.

Thus, Yuan Moshu could see the five-meter-long back of a sea wolf monster, a six-meter-wide rock turtle sea monster, seven-meter-long lobster claws roasted until they glowed bright red, and a gigantic conch large enough for more than twenty people to stand inside.

People were lining up to climb inside and cut themselves some conch meat.

It was enough to make anyone wonder just how they had managed to cook the body parts of such enormous sea monsters all the way through.

The grand restaurant, which had looked so elegant and refined when he had toured it earlier, was now filled with all kinds of body parts from enormous sea monsters. In an instant, it had transformed into a gathering of a primitive tribe.

Yuan Moshu stared in stunned disbelief.

Cheng Qisheng, meanwhile, looked deeply nostalgic.

It really had been a long time since she had seen the Old Eighth arrange a spread like this.

Back when the Old Eighth were still living in their primitive era, they had loved presenting food this way.

During tribal feasts, Cheng Qisheng would occasionally glance over and see large wild boars, enormous black bears, and towering moose laid out right in the center. Every now and then, there would even be a tiger, a crocodile, or something similar.

—The latter appeared less often, mainly because they weren’t very tasty.

To the Old Eighth, displaying large prey in its entirety for everyone to see was a way of showing off their strength.

Later, the Old Eighth entered modern society. Their population exploded, and although their living environment improved, they could no longer simply grab a spear and go hunting whenever and wherever they pleased as they had in the past. Naturally, Cheng Qisheng rarely got to see spreads like this anymore.

How nostalgic.

She watched with a beaming smile as the Old Eighth happily walked among the food carrying plates and knives. Through the faith chain, she could sense the pride and joy in their hearts.

Yuan Moshu, a Green Billow Star native, was nowhere near as relaxed.

As he walked among the “food,” he had the distinct feeling that he was surrounded by sea monsters.

He even turned his head and found himself staring directly into the severed head of a four-meter-tall sea serpent, its face hideous and its fangs bared.

Yuan Moshu: “…”

Jinfan Gang enthusiastically invited him, “Come have some of this. It’s really delicious.”

Yuan Moshu’s hand trembled as he held his plate.

“No, no, I’m fine. I’ll look at something else.”

He turned his head and immediately saw an ivory clam sea monster displayed in the middle of the restaurant, approximately thirty meters long and twenty meters wide.

It was the kind of poisonous-gas ivory clam that could make people dizzy and unable to stand just by releasing a little toxic gas.

How on earth had they managed to kill this thing?

No, wait. Even if they had killed it, how had they managed to move such a massive, heavy creature into this elegant seaside restaurant and then cook it through?!

“It was really easy to kill.”

Jinfan Gang patted the shell of the ivory clam sea monster and explained, “All it can do is spray poisonous gas. Just put on a gas mask, and that’s it.”

Yuan Moshu’s voice practically cracked.

“You actually have gas masks?!”

It was true that Green Billow Star had practically everything. But that also meant that ships often hauled up things they had no use for, while obtaining things they actually needed, such as gas masks, was a matter of luck.

If one wanted to make an analogy, it was somewhat like this: every day, the people of Green Billow Star dredged up tens of thousands of different objects, and by the next day, those tens of thousands of objects would have been replaced by an entirely different batch.

So, what were the odds of precisely dredging up the particular item you wanted from among all of them?

Because of the poisonous mists at sea, gas masks were considered treasures among treasures on Green Billow Star.

When Yuan Moshu heard that they had gas masks, he had assumed Jinfan Gang meant that only a few people among them possessed gas masks, so whenever they encountered a sea monster capable of spraying poisonous gas, those people could be sent in to deal with it.

Instead, Jinfan Gang said in the most natural tone imaginable:

“We all have one.”

“One of the conditions Blue Sea imposes for us to go out and venture on our own is that everyone must carry at least two gas masks. Otherwise, we aren’t allowed to operate independently.”

Yuan Moshu’s voice sounded as though a sea monster had bitten his throat, every word squeezed out with difficulty.

“Everyone… two?”

He looked around at the number of people in the restaurant. There were at least a thousand here, with even more people outside.

And every single one of them had two, or even more, gas masks.

Yuan Moshu suddenly looked resolute.

“May I ask, what do I have to do to truly join you?”

Cheng Qisheng’s gaze turned toward him.

All right. From Captain Yuan’s reaction, she now knew that gas masks on Green Billow Star were even more sought-after than Blue Sea had estimated.

Hmm… This was information worth sending back to Blue Sea.

After all, when there were enough people, everyone was bound to have their own preferences.

And not every Blue Sea ship sailing across Green Billow Star had switched to combat mode.

Among the many warships, there were also a small number of ships and guilds that believed there was another way to obtain resources: doing business.

At this very moment, quite a few Blue Sea merchant ships were sailing around Green Billow Star, looking for customers and accumulating wealth in their own way.

—

“Captain! Aren’t there two people floating on that piece of wood?”

The Sun had deliberately chosen a different route, determined to avoid the Green Skull pirate group (Insane Version) at all costs.

Now, seven days had passed since they encountered the Green Skull pirate group.

Since then, surviving that “disaster” seemed to have brought them some good luck as well.

First, they encountered their ally, the Star.

Then, they received some good news from the Star.

“Recently, a merchant ship called the Rush Rush Rush has appeared in these waters.”

“That merchant ship is extremely well-stocked with daily necessities. They’re even willing to trade food. The prices are expensive, but the advantage is that they have just about everything.”

“It’s truly hard to imagine that in an environment like this, there’s still a merchant ship that genuinely does business instead of setting traps to lure people in. If a ship that had run out of food happened to encounter them, they could literally save lives.”

Everyone aboard the Sun was filled with longing after hearing this.

Especially when the captain of the Star showed them the dry shampoo powder she had bought.

Before the apocalypse, not taking a bath might simply mean being a little dirty and smelly.

If someone really couldn’t afford to bathe, they could always find a river and wash themselves from the bank.

But for people living at sea, fresh water was an extremely precious resource. They barely felt they had enough to drink, let alone enough to use for bathing.

The crew sweated heavily every day, yet had no fresh water with which to bathe. As sweat and grime accumulated, their hair became matted and lumps would develop on their scalps. The itching was bad enough, but they also didn’t dare shave all their hair off.

Otherwise, without the protection of their hair, even a bald head covered by a hat would still get sunburned after prolonged exposure to the sun.

Their bodies were no different. With sweat constantly coating their skin and their bodies frequently in a state of dehydration, the crew’s skin would become cracked and dry. Sometimes the cracks would even break open and become inflamed. If they weren’t treated with medicine in time, once the wounds became swollen, red, and ulcerated, there was a chance the infection could prove fatal.

But in the apocalypse, how could they possibly get medicine simply because they needed it?

Even if they got extremely lucky and managed to haul some medicine out of the sea, there was no guarantee it would be what they needed at the time.

The most precious medicine Captain Kuka currently had in his possession was a tube of hemorrhoid cream that had been hauled up from the sea three years ago.

So the dry shampoo powder displayed by the Star was enormously appealing to every single member of the Sun.”

They kept praying silently that a spatial rift would not appear at a time like this. They desperately hoped they would run into that merchant ship and be able to trade for some dry shampoo powder as well.

And it was precisely at that moment that the crew of the Sun spotted a wooden plank drifting on the waves in the distance, with two people on top of it.

Captain Kuka stood on the deck, narrowing his eyes as he peered into the distance.

“Looks like there really are two people.”

“Captain, should we haul them up?”

Kuka hesitated for a moment. He looked around and saw no other ships nearby. Thinking about it, their own ship wasn’t very large, so surely no one would go to the trouble of setting such an elaborate trap just to deal with a little ship like the Sun.

“Haul them up!”

The Sun changed course and headed toward the floating plank.

…

On the plank, Ma Yuetian and Zhu Feifan were yawning.

A plank without the protection of a ship’s hull was extremely “popular” with sea monsters. Last night, the two of them had spent almost the entire night fighting.

As a result, they were both a little too keyed up to sleep now. All they could do was stare at the waves rolling across the sea, each holding a fishing line and trying to catch some fish to eat.

“This lousy place is rich in resources, sure, but it really is short on food. Those seven small and medium-sized sea monsters we fought last night were all poisonous and couldn’t be eaten.”

Ma Yuetian rubbed her stomach and looked at the three crystals on the plank. She felt satisfied to have them, but at the same time, she couldn’t help thinking that crystals might be valuable, but they sure didn’t fill your stomach.

Zhu Feifan yawned and pulled half a piece of dried meat from his pocket.

“Here. This is the last half.”

Ma Yuetian shook her head. “Forget it. Don’t eat it yet. Save it for when we need to fight at high intensity.”

Fortunately, Ma Yuetian had awakened a water-type supernatural ability. They might be hungry, but at least the two of them didn’t lack drinking water.

“Ah! If I’d known, I wouldn’t have rushed in to fight that sea monster when we saw it!”

Zhu Feifan looked equally regretful.

“Fighting it wasn’t really the problem. The problem was that we didn’t win.”

Damn it!

Although the ship had been smashed apart by the sea monster at the time, he had already managed to get a firm grip on its longest fang.

As long as they killed that sea monster, its enormous size alone would have provided them with enough food to last for several days. They might even have been able to find a crystal inside its brain.

Yet that sea monster would rather break off its own tooth than turn around and sink back into the sea.

You’re a sea monster!

Shouldn’t your teeth be indestructible, firmly rooted in that lumpy, tumor-covered head of yours?!

In the end, their ship was gone, and so was their prize.

If every Blue Sea resident hadn’t been required to carry an emergency floating plank whenever they left the Safe City, the two of them would have had no choice but to ride that sea monster’s fang and pray to Our God for help.

The two sat on the plank, fishing as they went over what had happened.

“Next time, we should restrain its head. Just grabbing the tooth wasn’t enough.”

“Yeah. That sea monster had to be at least three meters long, right? It was ugly, but it looked delicious.”

“I think it was more than three meters. It was too dark to see clearly, but from what I could make out, it should’ve been around four meters.”

“More than half of it was underwater. It might’ve been five meters.”

“It could even have been six. Its tentacles were thaaaaat long.”

“Sigh!”

“Sigh!”

The two let out a simultaneous, regretful sigh.

They had been so close. Just a tiny bit closer.

Although, as members of the Agriculture Department, their main reason for leaving the Safe City was to search for more seeds and contribute to the development of their agricultural endeavors.

Still, when Blue Sea people encountered prey and failed to keep it, it was always a source of considerable disappointment.

Especially for Zhu Feifan.

During the previous two apocalyptic worlds, his hemophobia had prevented him from ever leaving the main base, so he had never participated in any expedition outside.

But he had never slacked off because of it.

During the day, Zhu Feifan worked hard in the fields. At night, he trained himself to exhaustion. On holidays, he went to the temple to make donations, and before bed, he routinely prayed to the great Creator God, hoping that the great Creator God would give him a chance to go out and explore as well.

Finally!

The great Creator God had blessed him!

Zhu Feifan had finally gotten his chance.

The blood of sea monsters on Green Billow Star was green!

Zhu Feifan was afraid of blood, but not sea-monster blood!

Zhu Feifan was incredibly excited, but he couldn’t afford a small boat on his own. So he and his colleague Ma Yuetian hit it off immediately. The two pooled their resources, bought a small boat together, and decided to explore the various crops on Green Billow Star.

The two agricultural researchers firmly believed that this was a small step for them, but a giant leap for Blue Sea agriculture!

Then, less than ten days after leaving home, their little boat fell apart.

“It’s fine.”

Ma Yuetian was still full of spirit.

“What’s wrong with a plank? You can fish from a plank, and you can fish for supplies too. Look at this flat piece of bone we caught. Sure, it can’t be eaten, but if it rains, we can hold it over our heads and use it as an umbrella.”

“Exactly.”

No wonder the two of them had hit it off so well—their optimism was practically identical.

Zhu Feifan was equally confident.

“Then we can collect some more planks and plastic and build a new little boat right on top of this one.”

They were happily imagining their plans when they suddenly spotted a ship approaching them from the distance.

In an instant, the two young people who had just been slouching together and doing nothing were suddenly tense from head to toe.

Before setting out, they had been repeatedly warned that there were pirates on Green Billow Star.

Their superior, Velvet Star expert Zhang Xiongyuan, had been particularly worried about their safety and wanted to help the two young people get assigned to an official Blue Sea exploration ship.

But they simply didn’t want to follow the main group. They wanted to roam around on their own and experience the joy of freely exploring the world, which was why they had insisted on leaving the city.

So after thanking the old man for his concern, the two still happily applied for a small boat of their own.

They just hadn’t expected the little boat to have such a short lifespan.

Facing the approaching ship, the two sized it up, estimating its size and the number of people aboard, then exchanged a glance.

If this really was a pirate ship… heh heh, wouldn’t that mean they could have a little boat again?

The Sun approached the two of them, and a lifeline with a float attached was thrown down.

“Hurry up and get aboard! What happened to you two? Was your ship destroyed?”

Kuka was actually beginning to hesitate.

The two people on the plank weren’t the kind of “poor souls stranded on a plank after their ship was destroyed” he had imagined.

There was a man and a woman. Even looking down at them from the ship, it was obvious that they were both tall and sturdily built. They looked like the type who had never gone particularly hungry and had plenty of fighting power.

All the crew members aboard his little ship put together might not necessarily be able to beat the two of them.

However, although the two looked rather fierce, there was nothing particularly vicious in their eyes. In the end, Kuka hesitated before adding, “I’m worried you might be pirates. If you want to come aboard my ship, you’ll have to tie your own feet together with a rope.”

The two people on the plank, however, didn’t look relieved at being rescued. Instead, they calmly looked at him.

“You’re not pirates?”

Kuka noticed that, despite the fact that their languages were different, he could actually understand what the other person was saying. Still, there was nothing particularly surprising about that.

On Green Billow Star, finding a high-tech translator while scavenging the sea was perfectly normal.

He interpreted the question as meaning that the two were also afraid the Sun might trick them into coming aboard and then kill them.

Seeing that they were worried too, Kuka felt much more at ease.

At least it meant the two were probably decent people.

He put on a reassuring expression.

“Don’t worry. We’re not.”

For some reason, the two survivors on the plank suddenly looked a little disappointed.

Kuka: …It must have been his imagination.

Ma Yuetian really was disappointed. If the other side had been bad guys, they could have simply boarded the ship and had a fight.

But no matter how he looked at them, they seemed like good people.

In that case, they couldn’t fight them. Blue Sea people never b*llied others.

Should they accept their kindness and hitch a ride aboard their ship?

Ma Yuetian looked at the size of the Sun.

…Forget it. It didn’t look like there was much room to move around anyway.

Once they were on someone else’s territory, they would have to follow that person’s rules. They might as well rely on this Blue Sea-customized plank and slowly build themselves another little boat.

At least while drifting around on the plank, they could still attract more small and medium-sized sea monsters.

She sat back down.

“Just pull the lifeline back. We’re perfectly fine on this plank.”

Captain Kuka: “Huh?”

Zhu Feifan thought he hadn’t heard clearly, so he shouted loudly, “Thank you! We don’t need rescuing! Our plank is great too! Please pull the rope back!”

Captain Kuka looked at their plank, then at his own Sun.

He began to suspect that these two had also encountered the poisonous mists and been driven insane by them.

—There really were more and more crazies on Green Billow Star. It was terrifying.

“All right, then. Stay safe.”

The Sun pulled back the lifeline and continued on its way.

Captain Kuka could never have imagined that he would encounter them again three days later.

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