Safe City Ch.137.1

Chapter 137.1: We are the Longevity Faction

What?

The first time the Old Eighths had been asked to voluntarily help, and they ended up helping a white-clad researcher?

Cheng Qisheng focused more of her mental power on observing this researcher, whose standing in the scientific community had been quite high even before the apocalypse on Moon Silk Star.

She looked to be around forty or fifty years old, which matched the characteristics of an Old Human: a sufficiently long lifespan.

Come to think of it, before the apocalypse on Moon Silk Star arrived, the Moon Silk people had already broken through the limits on human lifespan. Through scientific research, they had extended the average human lifespan to around two hundred years.

Although the New Humans living on this land had later seen their lifespans fall back to around thirty years, that was because of the effects of the radiation environment. The technology for extending human lifespan itself still existed.

After learning this bit of background about Moon Silk Star, Cheng Qisheng had always wanted to get her hands on that lifespan-extension technology.

Although ability users could increase their lifespans, Blue Sea wasn’t a civilization where everyone had become an ability user yet.

There were still a large number of ordinary residents, whose lifespans were only around ninety years.

Every believer was extremely precious to Cheng Qisheng. If she had no access to lifespan-extension technology, then so be it. But now that such technology existed on Moon Silk Star, she was absolutely going to get her hands on it.

By now, the development path of the Safe City was already very clear. As the Safe City advanced through its tiers, the Blue Sea civilization would take another giant leap forward as well. More and more “energy” would accumulate within the city, and the residents’ chances of awakening their supernatural abilities would increase accordingly.

It was basically like when a student was doing poorly in school and their parents hired a tutor for them during the holidays.

What? Your grades are bad, and you can’t keep up with the school’s curriculum?

No problem, kid. Just keep studying, keep studying. I’ll hire you a one-on-one tutor and have them cram all the knowledge into your brain. Let your brain soak in knowledge every single day. Even if you just memorize everything by rote, your grades are bound to improve at least a little.

For Blue Sea, it was—

What? Your supernatural attributes are too low, so you can’t awaken your supernatural abilities?

No problem, kid. Just keep living, keep living. Live until the Safe City advances through enough tiers and the Blue Sea civilization becomes filled with “energy.” Let your body soak in that “energy” every day. Even if you just keep soaking in it, it’ll eventually soak you into becoming an ability user.

Cheng Qisheng’s little scheme was practically clattering away in her head as she turned her gaze toward the white-clad researcher named Colleen.

She began her ritual:

‘She researches lifespan extension. She researches lifespan extension. She researches lifespan extension.’

Colleen spoke.

“My primary field of research is energy.”

Ah! The ritual had failed!

Cheng Qisheng was slightly disappointed for half a second before quickly perking up again.

Energy was good too. Energy was great, actually.

Energy was the blood and bones of every industry. What could you do without energy?

Even if Blue Sea wanted to upgrade its weapons and equipment in order to seize Moon Silk Star’s lifespan-extension technology, wouldn’t that require energy too?

Unlike the optimistic Cheng Qisheng, Colleen and her family weren’t nearly as optimistic.

The good news: They had been rescued.

The bad news: They had been rescued by a [Company].

The good news: The people from this [Company] were unexpectedly easygoing.

The bad news: What they said was, “Hurry up and pack your things and come with us. [Ota Company] needs you.”

In Colleen’s eyes, the scene was essentially like this:

A glass box designed to contain a brain was holding out ports connected to various neurons. While crackling with electricity as it zapped her brain, it cheerfully invited her:

“Come on, come on! Hurry up and become one with us!”

But could Colleen refuse?

After personally experiencing the near-death of her family, she was no longer as optimistic as she had been a hundred and fifty years ago.

Especially when she was riding in an [Ota Company] vehicle and saw the outside world through windows sealed behind protective mesh.

Yellow dust filled the sky. Strange, grotesque monsters roamed everywhere. Some raced across the ground, while others had wings and swooped down from above to attack the vehicle, only to be dealt with one after another by the Four-Winged People, who also had wings.

After the vehicle had been traveling for about half an hour, a fluffy clump of grass that looked completely harmless rolled past them from the side.

About a dozen meters away, a rabbit-like creature roughly half a person tall was gnawing on a rat-like creature about the length of a human arm.

The two were clearly at what seemed like a fairly safe distance from each other.

Yet from within that fluffy clump of grass, more than a dozen long “threads” suddenly shot out like lightning, each one precisely latching onto the wild rabbit.

The wild rabbit didn’t even have time to struggle or flee. Within just a few seconds, its entire body rapidly flattened.

From more than a dozen meters away, the unknown creature had drained it completely dry in a matter of seconds.

And once the rabbit’s dried-out body collapsed onto the ground, the round, fluffy clump of grass that looked utterly harmless continued merrily rolling away.

Then several black insects, each about the size of a fist, crawled out from beneath the sand. They surrounded the dried rabbit—which was still nearly half a meter long despite having shriveled up—and swarmed over it.

A mere dozen seconds later, the black insects suddenly scattered just as abruptly as they had appeared, crawling back beneath the sand.

Across the vast expanse of yellow sand, there was no longer any trace of the rabbit-like creature. From beginning to end, less than half a minute had passed, and its half-person-tall body had been stripped of every last tuft of fur.

Colleen watched the entire scene in silence.

When she had entered the shelter back then, she had imagined that things might become terrible in the future.

But she had never imagined they would become this terrible.

Just from glimpsing this tiny corner of the world, Colleen could easily understand that ordinary people simply could not survive on Moon Silk Star anymore.

Never mind that bizarre fluffy grass. Even the rat-like creature that the rabbit-like beast had been eating earlier would be enough to cause them trouble. Judging by its long fangs and sharp claws, if they actually had to fight it, her entire family might not even be able to defeat it without using weapons.

And ammunition would inevitably run out someday.

A Blue Sea soldier stood nearby with a rifle in his arms, watching Colleen with bright, alert eyes, afraid that she might run off or that something might happen to her on the way back.

‘This was a white-clad researcher! A precious treasure!’

Hadn’t the Flight Squad—which had always been as reckless as possible during previous rescue missions—refused to simply carry Colleen’s family back by air this time?

They were worried that too many flying mutated beasts might appear along the way. If they got caught up in a battle, they might fail to protect their passengers properly.

Every person who had participated in this rescue operation would receive a reward of 2,000 points.

Moreover, all resources used during the operation would be reimbursed by the government. If they encountered any “roadblocks” along the way, they were authorized to open fire at will.

Any spoils they brought down would count as team earnings. Once exchanged for points at the Exchange, Aether would also use the footage transmitted by their tactical watches to distribute this additional income according to each person’s contribution to the mission.

It was such an incredibly sweet mission, and somehow, he’d been the one lucky enough to draw it.

The Blue Sea soldier was practically beaming inside. He proactively introduced the sights to his precious treasure—ah, no, to Colleen:

“Those insects are called Devour-Nothing Bugs. They’re one of the most numerous types of mutated beasts on Moon Silk Star right now. However, they only attack individuals that are seriously injured or already dead, so you don’t really need to worry about them normally.”

“The one that got eaten was a Gale Rabbit. They usually only attack people who are alone. Since we’re in a vehicle, they won’t come near us. The one that ate the Gale Rabbit was a Luoluo Grass. Luoluo Grass is good at ambushing its prey and lives by sucking blood and flesh. It’s afraid of water, so if it latches onto you, just splash water on its leaves and branches. So you don’t need to worry about that one either.”

The Blue Sea soldier felt that he was being incredibly considerate, proactively explaining the various species to Colleen, who had only just left the shelter and didn’t know much about the current situation.

He hadn’t merely told her the names of these mutated creatures. He’d also explained their characteristics and weaknesses, so that if they encountered them in battle, she’d know how to deal with them.

The Blue Sea soldier thought for a moment before adding:

“Luoluo Grass actually tastes pretty good when served cold with a dressing~”

‘Haha, I’m so considerate.’

‘I’ve told her the characteristics and weaknesses of these mutated creatures, and now I’ve even told her what they taste like. That should help reduce her fear of mutated creatures.’

Surely this white-clad researcher feels much safer now, right?

Colleen did indeed thank him.

After watching the outside world for a while longer, she returned to the last row of seats. She looked at her eight-year-old daughter, who was sleeping soundly, and gently stroked the child’s face with a loving touch.

She looked at her parents as well. Both of them had worried expressions in their eyes, so Colleen gave them a reassuring smile before sitting down beside her partner.

When Regg saw her return, he first cautiously glanced at the soldiers sitting in the front rows before asking in a low voice:

“How did it go? I saw one of their people talking to you. Did they say where we’re going? Do we have any chance of escaping?”

Colleen shook her head and whispered, “He was threatening me. They’ve realized that we’re thinking about escaping.”

The faint hope that had been lingering in Regg’s expression instantly turned into despair.

Colleen analyzed the situation. “He deliberately described how terrifying the monsters outside were in a casual tone. I saw it with my own eyes—a monster called Luoluo Grass drained another half-person-tall monster dry in just a few seconds.”

“And in the mouth of the [Company] employee, Luoluo Grass was nothing more than a dish that happened to taste pretty good.”

Colleen gave a bitter smile.

“There are also monsters outside that attack humans who are alone, as well as monsters that can swarm over an injured creature and devour it completely within a dozen seconds. Those monsters are even spread across the entirety of Moon Silk Star.”

“The [Company] is warning me. If we want to survive, we have no choice but to accept their offer. Otherwise, we can’t even deal with those monsters. How could we possibly resist a [Company] that can treat those monsters as nothing more than a dish on its plate?”

Regg tightly clasped his partner’s hand.

“Darling, you know we’ve already made our preparations. We’ll go into slumber together with you.”

Colleen had already made her decision.

“No, Regg. I’m not afraid of death. Neither are you or my parents. We’ve lived long enough. We’ve witnessed Moon Silk Star’s former glory. We’ve witnessed the devastation of war and the silence that fell over the land.”

“But Seraphine is different.”

Seraphine was the couple’s daughter—a child who was only eight years old.

“She’s still so young. She’s such a well-behaved child, and ever since she was born, she’s never had a normal life. How could you bear to let our Seraphine enter eternal slumber at such a young age?”

Colleen had already made her decision.

She was willing to sign the Contract, and she was willing to offer no resistance whatsoever when the [Company] implanted a chip into her brain.

At this point, Colleen could only pray that [Ota Company] belonged to the “Inspiration Faction”—those who allowed researchers to live out their natural lifespans before removing their brains.

Rather than the “Data Faction,” which believed that a brain needed to remain constantly active in order to produce more inspiration.

The “Data Faction” believed that while a brain remained inside the human body, it would spend a great deal of time being idle. But once removed, the brain could work without interruption, allowing it to produce more results.

Therefore, if a researcher signed a contract with the “Data Faction,” their brain would be removed immediately.

That had been one of the reasons Colleen had refused to sign a contract back then.

If the [Norn Company] that had approached her at the time hadn’t belonged to the “Data Faction,” she wouldn’t have refused so firmly.

But there was nothing she could do about it. Among all the [Companies], the “Data Faction” was the mainstream, while the “Inspiration Faction” was a minority among minorities.

Come to think of it, [Ota Company] had already been an extremely mysterious [Company] a hundred and fifty years ago.

They had practically occupied the entire Yulin Kingdom. Compared with the many high-profile [Companies], [Ota]’s upper management had always been extremely secretive. Yet [Ota] held a special position among the various [Companies], because once, a major [Company] had gone up against [Ota]—and in the end, it was that major [Company] that went bankrupt.

No one knew exactly how many assets [Ota] possessed, which countries it had established its influence in, or even who its owner was.

Colleen had once heard a rumor that [Ota] had built a kingdom of its own underground, harboring the ambitious desire to overthrow the entire world and become its ruler.

She believed the rumor, because anyone could see that nearly all the active Companies had more or less the same ambition. Only those decaying national governments that cared about nothing but amassing wealth would actually believe they could cooperate with the [Companies].

Because [Ota] was so mysterious, no one knew which faction it belonged to. That gave Colleen a glimmer of hope.

Please, please let them be part of the “Inspiration Faction.”

If that were the case, at least she could spend the next few decades with her family.

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