Chapter 129.2: Fat Rat
Cheng Qisheng poked Aether.
“You should ask me what we do if they use a superior horse.”
Aether obediently did exactly that.
“City Lord, what do we do if they use a superior horse?”
Cheng Qisheng nodded.
“You’ve asked exactly the right question!”
“If they use a superior horse, we run immediately!”
Yes. Despite how convincing Blue Sea’s disguise currently looked, everyone was prepared to pack up and flee with the entire city the moment they were exposed.
For example, suppose the plan succeeded halfway. Blue Sea used Broken River’s resources to grow stronger, but then accidentally exposed itself while interacting with an outside faction.
Then they would run.
Or suppose Blue Sea remained undiscovered, but the Companies noticed them ahead of schedule and decided to eliminate Ota as a competitor—while Blue Sea still hadn’t grown strong enough to go toe-to-toe with a genuine [Company].
Then they would run.
In short, this operation had another name:
[When Things Get Tight, Run Like Hell.]
Blue Sea had calculated everything carefully. There was no “superior horse” in the Lord of Broken River’s hands. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been unable to deal with a single mutant giant python in the first place.
So if they needed to flee, the escape would go smoothly. Blue Sea could disappear without a trace before attracting the attention of a genuine [Company].
As for whether fleeing meant an ordinary relocation, a complete withdrawal, or simply heading straight into the greater universe, that would depend on the circumstances at the time.
Cheng Qisheng watched the surveillance footage as the Lord of Broken River and his people entered the city. They were escorted into a “reception room” that Blue Sea had painstakingly recreated down to the smallest detail based on architectural images of Moon Silk from the past.
“Victory or defeat comes down to this.”
…
The former Deputy Minister of Blue Sea’s Department of Economic and Trade, now the regional integration officer of [Ota Company], Qian Heng, hurried in with several subordinates.
She wore a sharply tailored formal suit, with a gem-encrusted brooch that sparkled brilliantly under the lights. The smile on her face was so perfectly practiced that it looked almost engraved there.
Just the sight of her polished, glamorous appearance was enough to make the already-nervous Lord Broken River adjust his cuff.
A large number of plant fibers on Moon Silk had undergone mutations. Combined with the monopoly on knowledge and the lack of manufacturing technology, ninety-nine percent of Moon Silk’s people wore clothing made from animal hides.
Only those with a certain degree of status and influence could purchase finished clothes or high-quality fabric from merchant caravans.
The formal suit Lord Broken River was wearing had cost him a fortune to purchase from a merchant caravan. He had been told that it was a nobleman’s garment manufactured before the apocalypse, and that despite being preserved for 150 years, it was still as bright and pristine as ever.
Yet compared with the luxurious garment on the woman before him, which looked as though it had just been made, even his suit seemed somewhat dull by comparison.
He sat in the enormous, completely empty, plain-white room, whose stark furnishings were done in the style of a hundred years ago. Surrounded by so much white, he failed to notice that the lighting where the other party was sitting was brighter and more concentrated.
With that much spotlighting, of course her clothes were going to sparkle.
Qian Heng sat steadily beneath the bright lights.
“I’m sorry. Everyone only just woke up, and there were a lot of matters I needed to deal with, so I kept you waiting.”
She apologized verbally, but there was hardly any trace of remorse on her face. She simply sat down and flipped through the documents in her hands.
“Hmm… You said you’re the lord of this region, correct? We’ve already gathered the relevant information. Lord… that’s equivalent to a viscount from the old days, isn’t it?”
Lord Broken River paid no attention to her arrogance.
According to his stereotypical impression of [Companies], this was exactly how they were supposed to behave. If an employee of a [Company] wasn’t arrogant, he would actually find that strange.
The first news he received was that [Ota Company] had killed the mutated giant python that even his father had been unable to defeat.
Then he had been overwhelmed by the sight of the enormous, sprawling city, before riding the [elevator] all the way to this stark white space. The sight of the other party’s luxurious clothing had overwhelmed him once again. At this point, he had completely failed to realize that the right to control the conversation had already shifted into the other party’s hands.
But even if he had noticed, Lord Broken River wouldn’t have dared try to reclaim it.
This was a [Company], after all.
Damn it. He knew far too little about how many [Companies] had existed before the apocalypse. He had no idea what kind of position [Ota Company] held.
But one thing was certain: the people here—even every single one of them—had undergone surgery to have a translator implanted in their throats.
Lord Broken River couldn’t even imagine the astronomical sum of money required to perform translator implantation surgery on so many people. All he could do was answer meekly:
“Yes. More or less equivalent to a viscount from the old days.”
Good heavens.
A viscount. Such an ancient title.
If he hadn’t asked his butler to tutor him on the way here, he genuinely wouldn’t have known what the other party was talking about.
“It is the honor of all Broken River that [Ota Company] was able to awaken on my territory. To express my respect for your [Company], I have specially brought many gifts—”
Before Lord Broken River could finish, Qian Heng interrupted him.
“You may have misunderstood something.”
She casually placed the documents in her hand on the table, then leaned back in the leather chair that was clearly from 150 years ago, its surface evidently refined through meticulous craftsmanship.
“This region is Ota’s Third Asset Cluster. It belongs to [Ota Company].”
The smile on Lord Broken River’s face froze.
He knew it!!
If a [Company] were actually willing to let him remain the boss, that would be the truly impossible thing.
Still, Lord Broken River wanted to struggle a little.
“Yes, yes, but my family has been deeply rooted here for more than a hundred years…”
The smile on Qian Heng’s face remained fixed at exactly the same angle.
It made Lord Broken River’s scalp crawl.
He was beginning to wonder whether the other party was actually a robot. He had heard that [Companies] were very fond of employing robots, but he certainly didn’t have the courage to verify it on Ota’s territory.
The “robot” in front of him calmly pulled out several paper documents and laid them on the table.
This was another distinctive trait of [Companies]. Even though all the data could be stored on electronic devices, they insisted on using precious paper documents.
Was this just a way of flaunting their wealth?
Lord Broken River grumbled internally for a moment, but soon lost the mood to complain.
Because the other party was smiling as she slowly said:
“According to the original land deed records in our [Company]’s database, the surface usage rights, underground mineral rights, and airspace rights of this region, designated as [K762–32G], were legally purchased by our [Company] in the year 5089. These property rights are permanently valid.”
“Since you have acknowledged that your family has occupied our [Company]’s assets for nearly a century, I believe we can calculate the compensation your family owes us. We have land rental fees, geological maintenance fees, mining loss compensation, natural vegetation appreciation fees, underground resource depletion fees…”
The conversation in the pure-white room was transmitted through the surveillance feed to the Analysis Department.
A department head from another division asked:
“Won’t this push him too far? It sounds like we’re practically robbing him.”
An expert from the Analysis Department shook his head.
“These things have to be said. A true [Company] would absolutely behave this way. If we were too easygoing, it would actually make people suspicious.”
Lord Broken River was already completely stunned.
“The national government doesn’t even exist anymore. The old land deeds… shouldn’t they be invalid by now?”
Qian Heng replied, “So, are you saying that we should set aside rules and laws and resolve the matter directly through brute force?”
Lord Broken River: “……”
The image of that mutated giant python that [Ota] had dealt with surfaced in his mind.
“No, no, that’s not what I meant… I simply mean that I don’t want to oppose your [Company]. Is there perhaps some way for us to coexist peacefully?”
He stood up and seemingly earnestly took Qian Heng by the arm as he pleaded, secretly slipping a nuclear crystal into her hand.
The entire procedure had been drilled into him by his chief steward during the journey here.
Now, he could only hope that the other party wasn’t a robot.
Qian Heng proved through her actions that she wasn’t one.
She casually opened her palm and glanced down at it.
A Tier 5 nuclear crystal.
Worth 50,000 ordinary nuclear crystals.
The smile on Qian Heng’s face, which had remained fixed like a preset template until now, finally became somewhat more enthusiastic.
“I understand what you mean. Indeed, during the more than one hundred years our [Company] was in hibernation, your family did make an effort to keep our assets operating smoothly. I will report the matter truthfully to my superiors.”
Whew!
Lord Broken River breathed a sigh of relief.
Not a robot. A real person who could be bribed.
The rumors really were true. As long as you had enough “money,” you could get the higher-ups of a [Company] to help you deal with mutated beasts.
The staff in the Analysis Department watching the scene through the surveillance feed also breathed a sigh of relief.
Thank goodness everything had proceeded according to the “script.”
If Lord Broken River had really been pushed to the point of fighting to the death, Blue Sea couldn’t actually have fought him head-on.
Once they really started exchanging blows, Blue Sea would inevitably give itself away unless they carpet-bombed him with Holy Bullets.
The people of Moon Silk would fear a [Company], but they wouldn’t fear an ordinary faction.
Even if Lord Broken River couldn’t defeat Blue Sea, once he spread the news, the mere fact that Blue Sea possessed a weapon capable of killing a mutated giant python would be enough to attract numerous factions to attack Blue Sea.
Only by establishing themselves as a [Company] could they avoid attracting unwanted attention.
After all, [Companies] were supposed to be that powerful.
No one would assume that Holy Bullets were the most powerful weapons in a [Company]’s arsenal. They would simply believe that the [Company] had even more terrifying weapons at its disposal.
Once the “bribery” step was completed, everything went much more smoothly.
Cheng Qisheng had lunch, then dinner, and Moon Silk went through another cycle of its Endless Night.
…
The next day, the two sides finally reached an agreement.
The several [Company] executives who had accepted Lord Broken River’s “bribes” certainly earned their money. They pulled strings and mediated between the two sides several times.
At one point, Lord Broken River was even invited to a sumptuous banquet.
The abundance of natural food and meat without even the slightest hint of a gamey smell further convinced him of just how powerful the [Company] was.
The fact that he had been restricted to sealed corridors throughout the entire visit didn’t surprise him either. Forget the [Company]—even he wouldn’t want other factions to be able to see what was inside his territory.
In the end, from Lord Broken River’s perspective, he and his chief steward had gone to extraordinary lengths and, through “bribing” the higher-ups of [Ota Company], successfully escaped a catastrophe.
Not only did the [Company] refrain from punishing him as someone who had seized their territory, but they also didn’t demand an astronomical amount in compensation.
The [Company] only took roughly three-fifths of his territory.
Although Lord Broken River’s heart ached terribly, he soon turned from worry to joy.
He had been accepted into the [Company].
Lord Broken River became [Ota Company]’s Deputy Regional Executive Representative for Broken River.
Although he was only a deputy, on Moon Silk, this was still equivalent to rising straight to the heavens.
It was like an ordinary elementary school in modern society suddenly becoming an affiliated elementary school of a prestigious middle school.
Or, in a cultivation setting, a small sect suddenly being designated as a “partner sect” under the support of a top-tier sect.
For one thing, just think about how many precious resources the [Company] had stored from 150 years ago.
The [Company] had even promised that he could develop a merchant caravan. In other words, even if Lord Broken River did absolutely nothing, he could make a fortune simply by taking the goods he obtained from the [Company] and selling them to merchant caravans.
Bad luck had turned into good fortune.
Lord Broken River and his chief steward were both overjoyed.
They presented their gifts and happily departed with the first batch of goods.
Among those goods were large quantities of clean water, uncontaminated food, and all kinds of clothing and fabric made from plant fibers.
These were all extremely valuable commodities.
What made it even better was that the [Company] had promised to give him ten percent of the profits from whatever he sold.
But what delighted Lord Broken River most was something else entirely.
Last night, during the Endless Night, he had visited one of the sealed spaces the [Company] had constructed, where the lights could be turned on and people could speak loudly without restriction. While admiring the enormous swimming pool there, he had happened to meet the “child of a high-ranking executive.”
—You really had to be born into a good family.
Just look at him.
He had been a lord for twenty years and had never even had the chance to swim.
Yet this young person, who didn’t even hold any official position, could enjoy such luxurious treatment.
The good news was that the young person was ambitious. She wanted to establish her own private army and carve out a territory for herself in the wasteland.
And her mother happened to be in charge of allocating resources related to natural food.
Lord Broken River trembled with excitement just listening to this.
When he had been the highest-ranking person on the Broken River Wasteland, he had hated nothing more than people lining their own pockets, stealing from under their superiors’ noses, or abusing their authority for personal gain.
But if he himself were someone else’s subordinate, that was another matter entirely.
On the way home, Lord Broken River and his chief steward excitedly discussed the matter the entire journey.
“We absolutely have to get close to that young person named Pan Yuan. She wants to establish herself independently, so we’ll help her do it. Whatever happens, we mustn’t let her apply through the [Company]’s official channels to establish her army.”
“As long as she establishes the army privately, she’ll need to purchase her weapons from outside. At that point, we’ll supply her with weapons, and in return, we’ll be able to get a large quantity of natural food from her mother…”
If Lord Broken River had known that Blue Sea was all smoke and mirrors, seeing such an abundance of resources would have made him think only of taking them by force.
But he didn’t know that. So, humbly, cautiously, and secretly delighted, he had assigned himself the role of a “fat rat.”
Just as the Blue Sea experts had predicted, Lord Broken River had voluntarily become Blue Sea’s “front man.”
When [Ota Company], which had no Tier 5-, 6-, 7-, or 8 weapons, encountered an external threat,
Lord Broken River, who had defined himself as both a “fat rat” and an “employee,” would bring his Tier 5-, 6-, 7-, and 8 weapons and become the first line of defense standing in front of [Ota Company].
At the same time, he would continuously funnel large quantities of fifth-, sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-tier weapons to Blue Sea, making Blue Sea stronger and stronger.
…
More than five months.
Hundreds of millions of people working together.
One task after another, one line after another, all that hard work had finally come to fruition.
“The big thing is halfway done!”
Cheng Qisheng poured herself a glass of cola and clinked it against the small cup of cola in Aether’s hand.
She took a sip and looked toward the Broken River Wasteland below.
Across vast stretches of land, the various villages and small towns had all been informed that the sky above their heads had changed.
The various factions occupying the mines were also informed that the regions they controlled now had a new owner.
The new “lord” came from the [Company], and would only be more difficult to provoke—and even more important to curry favor with—than the previous lord.
The various small factions struggling to survive in this wasteland might not possess enough knowledge, or perhaps they didn’t have a complete understanding of the world.
But they all shared one excellent quality:
None of them were foolish enough to pick a fight they couldn’t win.
On the very first day after the news spread, large numbers of factions occupying the various mines began sending gifts to Blue Sea Safe City.
Cartload after cartload of ore poured into Blue Sea.
Bag after bag of crystals was presented as gifts, neatly stacked together.
But those were secondary.
What delighted the people of Blue Sea most were the weapons and various vehicles.
President Qin Zhi stepped into the armory and looked at the Moon Silk weapons arranged neatly before her. They came in all sorts of shapes and designs, but every one of them possessed formidable power.
Other Safe Cities could dispatch large numbers of residents and have them carefully infiltrate and disguise themselves for a year or two, and they still might not obtain this many Moon Silk weapons.
Yet Blue Sea had acquired all of these in less than half a year.
And this was only the beginning. There would be even more to come.
Most of these weapons had been acquired through trades between Lord Broken River and Pan Yuan.
Without the benefit of an omniscient perspective, the two of them were simply a case of one being willing to buy and the other being willing to sell. They were practically a two-person team of fat rats.
But for Blue Sea, the situation was completely different.
“My God!”
Qin Zhi ran her hands over weapon after weapon, her eyes practically sparkling.
With these weapons as their foundation, Blue Sea could finally be considered truly established on Moon Silk.
[Ota Company] could now accomplish so much more.
Blue Sea was no longer merely bluffing with Holy Bullets.
It now genuinely possessed the strength to fight ordinary battles.
She gently ran her fingers over a handheld thermal cannon capable of blasting away half a building, then looked toward the statue of the Great Creator God of Blue Sea outside.
The fervor in her eyes was even greater than when she had been looking at the weapons.
“My God.”
“Whatever it is You desire, Blue Sea will surely offer it to You.”
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