Chapter 121.1: A New Home
“Next stop: West District Residential Facility No. 987, Shuttle Platform No. 2123.”
“The doors are now open. Please exit from the rear in an orderly manner.”
About half of the passengers stood up and lined up at the doors to get off.
Since this was a fixed-route, one-way line, there were only passengers getting off; no one was waiting outside to board.
Qian Wu hurriedly stood up as well, gripping his hard hat tightly in his hand. Once he was on his feet, he carefully pulled a small bag from his pocket and opened it. Inside was a piece of fabric—not particularly soft, but washed as clean as he could manage.
The middle-aged man quickly and thoroughly wiped down the seat he had been sitting in. Only after making sure he had cleaned away every trace of sweat did he breathe a sigh of relief and join the end of the line.
Of course, he knew that Blue Sea had dedicated workers who cleaned the buses every day.
It was actually a decent job. Many residents who weren’t particularly strong or who were getting on in years would apply for cleaning positions.
But Qian Wu cherished his life in Blue Sea Safe City far too much.
Because he treasured it so much, he didn’t dare make even the slightest “mistake.” All he wanted was to do everything he could to make himself a better resident.
He had originally been a sl*ve in Blackstone Safe City. After Tian’ou Safe City was defeated, he was taken in by Blue Sea.
Blue Sea had no system of sl*very, so at first, Qian Wu’s status was that of a prisoner of war.
But even as a prisoner of war in Blue Sea, his life was still far better than it had been as a sl*ve in Blackstone or Tian’ou.
Blackstone Safe City had forced them to consume nutrient solution, keeping their bodies weak enough to control, yet capable of working. They couldn’t resist their masters even if they wanted to.
Blue Sea, on the other hand, not only fed them natural food, but never beat or verbally ab*sed them either. They could exchange their labor for food, and they were given enough sleep every day.
For a long time, Qian Wu felt as though he were living in a dream.
Every single day, he was afraid that Blue Sea would sell them off again—or simply drive them away.
Qian Wu noticed that, at first, Blue Sea genuinely had no idea how to deal with them. Blue Sea had no sl*ves, but they had participated in the war, and Blue Sea couldn’t possibly be so accepting as to simply classify the prisoners of war as residents.
So during those first few days, he was constantly worried, afraid that Blue Sea would decide to send them away. He had even secretly prayed that Blue Sea would take them in as sl*ves.
Deep down, of course, he didn’t want to be a sl*ve. Who would willingly spend every day living on their knees when they were perfectly good human beings? But after experiencing life in Blue Sea, he truly didn’t want to leave for anywhere else.
Yet even Blue Sea’s prisoners of war lived better than the most highly valued sl*ves in Blackstone Safe City.
Qian Wu hadn’t originally been a sl*ve. He had offended someone in Blackstone Safe City and was subsequently demoted to sl*very. He knew very well that, in terms of abundant resources, Blue Sea might not even be as well-off as Blackstone.
But so what?
In Blackstone, he had lived worse than an ant.
In Blue Sea, even if he was at the very bottom of society, as long as he worked hard, he could at least eat his fill.
It wasn’t until Blue Sea announced that every prisoner of war carried a war debt of 5,000 points, and that they could only become official Blue Sea residents after paying it off, that Qian Wu finally felt completely at ease.
Blue Sea was keeping them!
As long as they paid off their points, they could become residents of Blue Sea’s outer city!
Qian Wu knew that the nutrient solution capable of killing people had become part of Blue Sea’s spoils of war.
They could have continued feeding the prisoners of war nutrient solution.
But Blue Sea didn’t.
Whenever Qian Wu went to work at various construction sites, he would secretly seek out prisoners of war from other areas and ask them about it.
Not a single prisoner said they had been ordered to drink nutrient solution.
Faced with this nutrient-solution machine—the easiest and most resource-efficient way to feed people—Blue Sea had actually chosen not to use it.
Qian Wu worked even harder.
He was even promoted to team leader because of how well he worked, and his wages went up accordingly.
Blue Sea had actually raised the wages of prisoners of war?!
Qian Wu cherished Blue Sea even more. As time passed, he gradually became more and more accustomed to life as a prisoner of war in Blue Sea.
So when all the prisoners of war were ordered to leave the places where they had been living six days ago, Qian Wu was scared out of his wits.
Was Blue Sea going to sell them off? Or were resources in the Safe City running short, so they were being driven away?
This had happened several times in Blackstone Safe City. Every time, the sl*ves living together in the same place were uniformly ordered to leave without even being issued weapons. None of those people had ever returned.
The sheer terror left Qian Wu’s mind completely blank.
But he didn’t dare resist. All he could do was follow them outside.
In the end, none of the things he had feared happened.
The guards who led them onto the vehicles merely took them to a vast open area. From a distance, it was already packed with people.
Mats had been laid out across the ground. The head guard said,
“The city is being expanded over the next few days. You’ll stay here for now and move back once the expansion is finished. Your bedding and pillows will be brought over shortly. Once they arrive, look around and find which ones belong to you.”
They weren’t being sold.
Blue Sea was simply expanding.
Qian Wu let out a tremendous sigh of relief.
To be honest, those few days living in the open area were actually quite pleasant. Since construction was happening everywhere and there was no way to have people work, the entire city had been given time off.
The workers even brought out a giant screen in the open area and started showing movies.
Every day, clergy from the Temple would come to preach, recite the Holy Scripture, and treat people’s illnesses.
They had even cleared out a large section and designated it as a martial arts arena, where people could freely challenge one another to spar.
When disaster struck Qian Wu’s original world, he had been twenty years old.
Now, he was forty-two.
Twenty-two years.
For the first time in his life, he was experiencing truly uninterrupted free time.
His rational mind told him that resting like this felt wonderful.
But emotionally, he couldn’t help feeling tense, anxious, and at a loss.
As a prisoner of war, he didn’t have a phone, but he did have a watch. It displayed important notifications, such as his monthly wages and where he had been assigned to work. He could also use it to set alarms, and when he wasn’t feeling well, he could select the option to request leave.
In all the time Qian Wu had been in Blue Sea Safe City, he had never taken a single day off.
He wanted to work.
The phrase “Only by creating value can you survive” had been etched deep into his mind over twenty-two years of life. Whenever he wasn’t allowed to work, his brain would constantly sound the same sharp warning:
You’re going to be abandoned.
Fortunately, it wasn’t long before Blue Sea’s staff brought them some work to do.
They were all simple handicraft jobs that could be done while sitting in one place.
Things like stripping discarded cables so the copper wires could be recycled; cutting washed old clothes or bedsheets into small strips and rolling them into bundles, which would apparently be sent for batch sterilization and then used for various purposes; matching up assorted nuts and bolts; dismantling hemp rope; loosening compressed cotton batting; and so on.
None of the work was particularly strenuous, but it took a great deal of time and could all be done without moving from one’s spot.
Anyone who wanted to work could simply go collect a task and earn points based on the results.
It wasn’t just Qian Wu who went. Most of the prisoners of war did too.
They knew the work was monotonous and that it earned very few points, but working made them feel secure.
As for the open areas, they had actually been deliberately cleared out to be developed into farmland. They weren’t all connected, either, so Qian Wu naturally had no idea that the Blue Sea residents had even found the whole situation rather puzzling.
During those five days and five nights of expansion, with the entire city on a massive holiday, the Blue Sea residents had an absolute blast.
They loved the feeling of camping “in the wilderness.” During the day, they trained and sparred. With no official organization involved, they simply divided themselves into pairs, just like they had when they were children, and played war games with the two sides fighting against each other.
No weapons, no military formations—just hand-to-hand combat.
And for those who weren’t particularly interested in large-scale war games, there were plenty of smaller games to choose from as well.
Wrestling, arm wrestling, tug-of-war, grabbing a bell hung overhead with four, five, or six people all scrambling for it, throwing beanbags, throwing spears, and trying to snatch the flag from an opponent’s back.
Once they got tired from fighting, they could switch to chess or independently initiate tactical-scenario challenges. Basically, as soon as someone called out for volunteers, players and referees could be gathered within ten minutes.
There were also people who didn’t play any of the above. They simply sat where they were and played games on their phones.
As soon as the Great Blue Sea Creator God announced that Blue Sea would be expanding, the government had already cleared out spaces for residents to stay and thoughtfully moved charging stations over there as well.
With real-life combat available, the once-declining mobile battle games saw their player numbers reach an all-time peak during those five days and five nights.
Fortunately, most residents still preferred real-life duels. Otherwise, those games probably wouldn’t have been able to handle the sudden surge.
After the apocalypse, all kinds of games had reappeared as everyone gradually got their own phones. But land was now in short supply and resources were relatively scarce. Just finding enough space for server rooms was already enough to give game developers a headache.
Whether Blue Sea should approve the development of various games had even been formally discussed at government meetings.
Naturally, the final conclusion was to approve them.
Old Eighth’s way of thinking wasn’t, “It’s the apocalypse. Isn’t having enough food and water already good enough? How can people still enjoy games?”
Rather, it was, “It’s the apocalypse. Everyone’s life is hard, and their rooms are so small. Having some mobile games to unwind with is good for their mental well-being, too.”
So when the Blue Sea residents saw the prisoners of war refusing to watch movies, refusing to use the dueling arena, and not even organizing games on their own, instead staring at them expectantly and hoping for work, they couldn’t quite understand it.
But although these people were called prisoners of war, they had actually been in Blue Sea for quite some time. The ones who had been allowed to stay were all honest workers who had made considerable contributions through their labor. In practice, they were really no different from the Outer-City residents except for the title.
So in the end, the Blue Sea people still brought them work.
Old Eighth had always been straightforward about things like this.
If the other party was willing to work, then let them work.
After all, they would be paid according to the results.
