Chapter 115: Nutrient Solution Synthesizing Machine
Looking at the two enormous red marks, the Blue Sea people fell silent.
For a moment, they didn’t know whether they should question their own eyesight or wonder if these two were questioning their intelligence.
The Blue Sea soldier responsible for checking their stomachs looked at the mother and child in front of him, carefully choosing his words before asking tactfully:
“So… you’re doing this because you want to join us?”
The mother’s body was still trembling. His blunt question caught her off guard, and she quickly bowed respectfully.
If the Blue Sea soldier hadn’t caught her in time, she would have already dropped to her knees.
“I-I can do anything. I can cook, repair ships, and I know a little mechanical maintenance and basic electrical work. I can fight, too. I can even act as bait. My child is still young, but he can run errands and do chores. When he grows up, he’ll be very loyal to you…”
“Please, please let us stay! We don’t eat much. Really, just a little food a day is enough!”
The woman pleaded desperately.
She might not have been unaware of how clumsy her ploy was, but the gentle attitude the rescuers had shown toward the survivors had given her hope.
Her ship had already been destroyed, and she had a child with her. Children who were old enough to understand basic things, take care of themselves, and perform simple chores were the most sought-after among sl*ves. After buying such a child and indoctrinating them from a young age, the buyer could generally obtain an obedient and loyal subordinate.
Of course, there was one condition: when the child was sold, they had to be separated from their mother.
After all, if a child had their mother, naturally they would only listen to her.
From the moment they were captured, the woman had realized what fate awaited both her and her child.
But now, there was suddenly a glimmer of hope.
She had to take the chance and beg these people to let both her and her child stay.
The other survivors who had yet to leave also pricked up their ears. They slowed their movements as they climbed the ladder, waiting to see how the Blue Sea people would respond.
Of course, they wanted to be allowed to stay, too.
Most of these people had ended up aboard the sl*ve ship because they had already lost their own vessels and loved ones. Other than seeking shelter under someone else’s ship, they didn’t think they had any other options.
After a battle at sea, captured sl*ves like them would generally be treated as sl*ves by the victorious side as well.
But the Blue Sea people’s attitude was remarkably ordinary.
There were no scoldings, no declaration of, “From today onward, you are our sl*ves.” They even treated them as though they were people of equal standing.
Yet this did not make the survivors feel fortunate. On the contrary, they were utterly at a loss.
If these people didn’t regard them as “spoils of war,” then what were they supposed to do afterward?
Besides, this faction was incredibly wealthy. Although they had been ruthless toward the sl*ve traders, they were remarkably gentle with the survivors, making it hard not to want to stay.
The survivors instinctively held their breath. Their movements had already been quiet, but now they desperately tried not to make even the slightest sound.
Then the tall Blue Sea soldier said:
“Sure.”
It was such a casual response, yet the woman and the other survivors were instantly filled with incredulous delight.
The Blue Sea soldier continued:
“As long as you’re willing to work, that’s fine. But until you accept faith in our God, you can only be an Outer-City resident.”
“Yes, yes! I’ll work hard! I promise I’ll work hard!”
The woman repeatedly expressed her gratitude. She instinctively tried to kneel and kowtow, but the Blue Sea soldier quickly stopped her.
The management system for Blue Sea’s Outer City had already matured, and the Temple had likewise developed a streamlined, assembly-line-style process for spreading the faith.
Combined with the ever-expanding area of Blue Sea Safe City and its continuously growing reserves of grain, Blue Sea was now keeping its doors open to survivors who wished to join.
Every Outer-City resident was essentially a prospective believer.
And even if they couldn’t be converted into believers, they were still a source of labor.
—When people are in desperate need of help and at their most grateful, they are also at their most susceptible to developing faith.
Cheng Qisheng watched as the mother and child climbed onto the deck. They had been exposed to the culture of the Blue Sea Creator God for less than two minutes.
Yet a new link in the faith chain had already appeared.
The child was still too young and had not developed any faith yet.
In that short span of time, among the more than three hundred survivors from the sl*ve ship, forty-five had already become Cheng Qisheng’s believers.
And after passing the crystal-ball test, they were immediately treated as true members of the Blue Sea community.
Whether it was food or accommodation, their living conditions improved dramatically.
Immediately, the survivors who had yet to become believers became visibly much more enthusiastic about converting.
—This was also one of the Temple’s missionary strategies.
Blue Sea’s inner and outer cities operated under the same laws, but there was a huge difference in their standards of living.
For example, electricity had already been installed in the residences of Inner-City residents. Their living space would continue to expand as the city advanced to higher tiers, yet their rent would remain unchanged.
At the same time, more and more apartment buildings were being constructed, along with various entertainment facilities, and residents had access to very favorable loan terms.
Inner-City residents not only had unrestricted access throughout the entire city, but the rental center was also fully open to them.
Everything from transportation vehicles to protective equipment, various wilderness survival tools, and even life-saving items such as gas masks and bulletproof chest plates could all be rented without a deposit, as long as they could afford the rental fee.
Outer-City residents, however, needed to provide a sufficient deposit or collateral when renting equipment. Alternatively, they could have an Inner-City resident act as their guarantor.
After all, every Inner-City resident was a believer of the great Blue Sea Creator God, and their faith ensured that they would remain forever bound to Blue Sea.
No matter what they rented, how expensive those items were, or whether the items were damaged or abandoned somewhere outside, an Inner-City resident would crawl all the way back to Blue Sea Safe City if necessary.
It’s a bit like using a shared bicycle or power bank by scanning a QR code. The company might tell you, “Your credit score is high enough, so you don’t need to pay a deposit.”
In Blue Sea, having faith in the great Blue Sea Creator God was equivalent to having a credit score.
People naturally long for a better life. The Outer-City residents who didn’t have this “credit score” were already living much better than before, with enough food to eat. But when they saw all the benefits and privileges enjoyed by Inner-City residents, how could they not want them too?
Want them?
Then work hard to place your faith in the great Creator God.
Sure enough, at that very moment aboard the Blue Sea warships, after seeing the dramatic improvement in the treatment of those forty-five new believers, another fifty-one people became followers of Cheng Qisheng within less than two days.
The two Blue Sea warships continued sailing across the sea.
Their mission wasn’t limited to suppressing the remaining pirates and sl*ve ships or searching for Lilithians.
Storms and massive waves were appearing on Green Billow Star with increasing frequency, and they were becoming more violent as well.
Anyone who had sailed out to sea knew that waves and winds large enough could overturn a vessel.
Most of the boats used by the Blue Sea people weren’t particularly large.
The main reason was that they were an impatient bunch who wanted to get out to sea as quickly as possible, so many vessels were one- or two-person boats.
Such small boats couldn’t withstand violent storms.
Recently, more and more Blue Sea vessels had been capsizing. Fortunately, the sea on Green Billow Star had extremely strong buoyancy, so people could still cling to wooden planks or broken sections of hull and scrape by. But when another violent storm came along, even surviving like that became increasingly difficult.
According to the City Lord of Duxi City, once large-scale storms appeared on the Sea of Souls, it meant that the stability of spacetime was beginning to deteriorate severely.
And these massive storms would only become more frequent.
The danger level of Green Billow Star would rise accordingly.
So, in reality, the Blue Sea warships were out there rescuing people.
The larger the ship, the more stable it was. With their enormous displacement and high freeboard, combined with specially optimized storm resistance, the Blue Sea warships couldn’t be overturned by storms of this magnitude.
So, the situation had now become this:
The Blue Sea boats were traveling everywhere in search of Lilithians.
The Blue Sea warships were traveling everywhere, rescuing Blue Sea citizens whose boats had capsized.
Whenever they received information about sl*ve ships, pirate ships, or the like, they would make a detour to deal with them.
And Cheng Qisheng served as a kind of Creator God GPS, providing guidance from above.
With Duxi’s warning that “Green Billow Star’s danger level is rising,” Cheng Qisheng temporarily put aside her work in the real world and began devoting more of her time to observing her believers across the board, so that she could guide them whenever they encountered danger.
Naturally, certain believers who had left a particularly deep impression on her also received more attention from their god.
…
“Pull! Harder!”
The violent fluctuations in spacetime throughout the subspace had caused more than just frequent heavy rain on Green Billow Star. Strange things had also begun falling from the sky along with the rain.
For example, right now, aboard the Little Blue Sea, torrential rain was pouring down, mixed with a scattering of small stones that came rattling down from above.
Wang Moning wore a helmet to protect her head.
As for the rest of her body, covered by a raincoat, it had already been struck by falling stones several times. Quite a few areas of her skin were probably bruised.
But she had already evolved to the point where she barely cared about such minor injuries.
What was a few little stones? She could always start dodging once the sky began dropping nails.
Wang Moning gripped the thick rope in her hands and pulled with all her strength alongside the others aboard the ship.
“Come on! One! Two! Pull back!!!”
“Harder!!”
[Come on! I’ll count! Everyone pull together!]
All the adults were busy putting their strength into pulling the rope, so the two children, Cheng Anjing and Sylvia, were the ones directing everyone.
They held steel umbrellas in their hands, made by the mechanic Toya. As stones went bang, bang, bang against the metal surfaces, Cheng Anjing activated her Mind Domain, directly transmitting her commands into the minds of everyone present.
“One! Two! Three! Pull together!”
“HEAVE!!”
As everyone strained with all their might, the enormous “fishing net” made of massive iron chains was slowly being hauled up.
Slowly, the contents of the “fishing net” finally began to reveal themselves.
It was a huge section of a supermarket, with fresh blood from another spacetime still staining it. The sign above the entrance was still flickering faintly, and half of the building’s walls had been cleanly sheared away.
It had crossed through spacetime, fallen into the Sea of Souls, and been hauled up by the Little Blue Sea.
“Woohoo!!!”
Everyone aboard the Little Blue Sea was exhausted, but after actually managing to haul such a massive thing up, they all erupted into cheers.
“So much stuff! Totally worth it!”
“Imagine how many points this will be worth once we bring it back to Blue Sea?!”
Some people were engaged in their usual fishing.
Others were engaged in something decidedly less routine: fighting.
In another stretch of ocean, torrential rain was pouring down.
Qi Yi pulled his knife out of Red Ant’s body and stood up with a sour expression.
He was furious.
He had originally planned to disguise himself as the captain of the Green Skeleton Pirates and participate in the Blue Sea conference, but halfway there, he had run into the Green Skeleton captain’s “friend,” Red Ant.
The guy had immediately claimed that he had something good to show him.
It turned out to be a trap.
Once the two sides started fighting, Red Ant realized he was outmatched and ran for his life.
God only knew where he’d gotten such a good engine. That thing could practically outrun a sea monster.
But there wasn’t a single Blue Sea person who would take a beating and simply swallow the loss.
Naturally, Qi Yi chased after him all the way.
And just like that, he missed the Pirate Conference!!
Only after confirming that Red Ant was dead did Qi Yi finally calm down.
Damn it!! If he’d known, he should have gone to the conference first and dealt with Red Ant afterward.
Just as Qi Yi was stewing in frustration, Lu Song suddenly shouted from behind him:
“Qi Yi!! There really is something good! Come here!”
“It’s a Nutrient Solution Synthesizing Machine—the kind that can be upgraded by stacking multiple units!”
Cheng Qisheng had initially only glanced over casually.
But the moment she heard those words, her attention immediately shifted over.
A Nutrient Solution Synthesizing Machine?
Blue Sea already had one!
The only problem was that what it produced was practically inedible. Old Eighth couldn’t bring themselves to feed those strange liquids to the residents, feeling that doing so would amount to outright abuse.
So the machine had simply been left unused ever since.
But if it could be upgraded…
Could that useless nutrient-solution machine in Blue Sea Safe City finally produce what people normally understood as actual nutritional supplements?
