Safe City Ch.148.1

Chapter 148.1: The Greatest Criminal Organization

Cheng Qisheng wore a face full of question marks.

Before seeing this supplementary information about the [Ota Company], she had been secretly praising the Greenroot City Lord in her mind for being experienced and thorough. At first glance, he seemed like an exceptionally reliable and seasoned information broker.

But now, staring at that glaring “Five Stars,” Cheng Qisheng, as the City Lord of Blue Sea, had begun to question the other party’s professional competence.

Was this reasonable?

Was this normal?

If they really had a five-star danger rating, why would they be hiding out in Broken River with the Old Eighths?

They would have charged straight out long ago and kicked the [Companies] around one after another.

Cheng Qisheng suppressed the image that had popped into her mind of the Old Eighths charging into a [Company], guns blazing, and decided to look at the detailed information first.

She scrolled down to the details page. Skipping over the detailed introductions of the three major companies, she went straight to [Ota].

The moment she read it, Cheng Qisheng’s expression shifted slightly.

[Ota Company]—

Registered: New Lunar Calendar Year 4987, 568 years ago

Registered Location: Ruins of the Hat Nation

Founder of the [Company]: Unknown

Initial Registered Capital: Unknown

Founding Basis: Unknown

The Greenroot City Lord really did have some connections.

The [Ota] in his information, including its background and history, was all based on the real [Ota Company] that had once existed on Moon Silk Star.

When Blue Sea had first decided to disguise itself as a [Company], they had carefully combed through Moon Silk Star’s history and selected the [Ota Company] as the outer shell for their disguise.

There were many reasons for this.

First, [Ota] was mysterious enough. Its upper management rarely showed themselves, so there was little need to worry about other people noticing that Blue Sea’s personnel didn’t match the original company.

Second, based on Blue Sea’s investigations, [Ota] was considered to be quite powerful. Its base might have been located in a small country, but judging from the information Blue Sea had managed to uncover, [Ota] held a very special position among the [Companies].

Whenever it came into conflict with other factions, it had always managed to emerge unscathed.

At the very least, it wasn’t a small company. And it was a company with plenty of secrets.

Why had there only been three major companies on Moon Silk Star before this?

Because once the smaller companies emerged from their shelters, they were immediately turned into experience packs for the three major companies.

Blue Sea had chosen [Ota] and descended in the distant Broken River Wasteland. Even if the other companies heard about [Ota], they might choose to watch from a safe distance rather than launch an immediate attack for the sake of competing over resources and “employees.”

Of course, this was merely Blue Sea’s speculation.

If [Ota] didn’t actually hold the special position they had calculated it did, and the three major companies sent people to attack after hearing about the emergence of a new company, Blue Sea had a solution for that too.

They would simply pick up the entire city and run.

At present, the Broken River Wasteland was not only covered with surveillance cameras everywhere, but Wang Moning, who possessed the ability of [Perception], had also been dispatched to patrol the outer perimeter of Broken River in circles.

On top of that, Tian Buke’s [Luck] was also doing its part. Previously, Blue Sea had compiled a full twelve potential company names similar to [Ota Company] that could be used for their disguise.

[Ota Company] hadn’t originally been the most suitable choice.

Blue Sea had chosen it because [Luck] had chosen it.

Technology and mutations had both been brought into play one after another. Blue Sea had practically exhausted every means at its disposal.

But apparently, they still hadn’t understood the real [Ota] well enough.

Cheng Qisheng stared at the various pieces of information on the data screen.

—There was evidence indicating that the outbreak of war on Moon Silk Star had been instigated by [Ota].

—After the war broke out, [Ota] joined forces with seven major companies to monopolize the supply chains for ammunition, energy, medical care, military merit, and other sectors, raking in enormous profits.

—In order to amass wealth, [Ota] had secretly funded two opposing countries, leaked false intelligence, bribed nobles in various nations, manufactured public opinion, and incited wars.

There was plenty more information about [Ota]. It was practically the textbook definition of a behind-the-scenes final villain.

But the most important information was still further down.

—Even before [Heavenly Punishment] was launched, [Ota] had already begun constructing a large-scale shelter. Its location was unknown, giving reason to suspect that [Ota] had known about the function of [Heavenly Punishment] long beforehand.

—Likewise, there was reason to suspect that [Heavenly Punishment] had not actually been completely destroyed 150 years ago, as the people of Moon Silk Star claimed. At the very least, there was a ninety-percent probability that [Ota] possessed [Heavenly Punishment].

To be honest, when she saw the information about [Heavenly Punishment], Cheng Qisheng’s eyelid twitched involuntarily.

But she had to admit that the more she read, the more reasonable it seemed.

The status of scientific personnel on Moon Silk Star was not particularly high. The [Heavenly Punishment] project had been established specifically to turn its country into the most powerful nation in the world. During the research and development process, it must have attracted attention from all sides and been subjected to extremely strict monitoring.

This wasn’t like Jin Yin’s seven-person research team, where the seven of them could keep the entire matter hidden as long as none of them wanted their brains harvested.

The birth of [Heavenly Punishment] had inevitably involved layer upon layer of monitoring at every stage. With so many top scientists gathered together, how could no one have noticed anything suspicious?

Unless there had been a colossal force behind the scenes that had taken care of everything.

Cheng Qisheng slowly scrolled down, reading the Greenroot City Lord’s notes:

“The reason [Ota] is so mysterious is that every employee who joins [Ota] undergoes repeated purges. Information simply never makes it to the outside world.”

“There is no such thing as resigning from [Ota]. Employees who disagree with [Ota]’s ideology or possess moral scruples are silenced along with their families.”

“The above information was all discovered at the hiding place of an employee who escaped from [Ota]. He was a White-rank researcher, and at the same time, a spy planted inside [Ota] by the military of a certain country. He had deliberately gathered all this information. I suspect that he awakened the supernatural ability [Teleportation].”

Moon Silk Star was a world with an extremely advanced technological tree. If a native possessed an exceptionally powerful supernatural talent, it was indeed possible for them to awaken a supernatural ability.

Cheng Qisheng continued reading.

“According to him, he discovered that he possessed a special ability that allowed him to travel from one area within the [Company] to another in the blink of an eye. However, by that time, his country had already been destroyed. It wasn’t until [Heavenly Punishment] appeared that he finally understood why the [Company] had built large-scale shelters—and why the [Company] hadn’t made a major effort to hunt him down.”

Because there was no need to anymore.

[Heavenly Punishment] would wipe out a huge number of people.

Those who survived and wanted to keep living would have no choice but to build shelters, purchase cryogenic pods, or procure the materials needed to construct their own cryogenic pods.

Since [Ota] had already begun building shelters in advance, how could it possibly pass up such a lucrative opportunity to control the shelters and the materials for cryogenic pods?

In this matter, [Ota]’s control would reach its peak.

And as long as the “traitor” purchased any of the relevant materials, [Ota] would immediately be able to track him down.

That White-rank researcher knew [Ota]’s methods all too well. Even though he knew that staying aboveground would mean certain death, he still held out and refused to build his own shelter or cryogenic pod.

In the end, he died from radiation exposure.

Before his death, the White-rank researcher recorded everything he knew and hid it in his refuge.

It wasn’t until 150 years later, when Green City Safe City descended upon that region, that the information was finally discovered.

Because the City Lord was an information broker, the residents of Green City Safe City were also highly sensitive to information. After all, useful information brought back to the city could be exchanged for supplies.

The words had been carved into the floor itself. The section of flooring containing the writing was brought back to Green City Safe City, where experts specializing in deciphering ancient texts translated it.

The Green City City Lord continued:

“After seeing this information, I immediately tried to gather intelligence on [Ota] from every possible source. But the current Moon Silk Star is dominated by the three major companies, and [Ota] has never appeared. So I assumed that perhaps it had been taken out by another [Company].”

Companies screwing each other over had been fairly common 150 years ago.

Back then, there had been hundreds of companies on Moon Silk Star that were well known by name. Some disappeared amid the chaos. Others had problems with the materials used to construct their shelters—meaning they had been sabotaged—and while they were asleep, people from Moon Silk Star who had remained on the surface broke in.

There were also those that simply vanished without a trace and never appeared again. In those cases, either someone had tampered with the shelter doors, or a virus had been planted in the cryogenic pod systems, causing everyone inside to die silently during their centuries-long slumber.

After all, once everyone woke up, it would be a brand-new era.

In this new era, every [Company] would have a chance to become the undisputed ruler of Moon Silk Star.

And the earlier they awakened, the more easily they could seize the initiative.

For example, the three major companies were now the undisputed rulers of Moon Silk Star, which also made it convenient for them to eliminate the remaining smaller companies.

The Green City City Lord had originally assumed that [Ota] had been caught off guard and sabotaged by another [Company], which was why it had never appeared.

That was until he purchased a new piece of information:

A resident of a Safe City had personally witnessed [Ota Company] appearing in the Broken River Wasteland.

Cheng Qisheng: “……”

Yep. She had already anticipated it.

From this point onward, the whole situation was going to take a dramatic turn.

The Green City City Lord continued:

“They regard every person in Broken River as an asset. All of these assets belong to [Ota]—from birth to death, from body to soul. They do not permit these people to leave [Ota]’s territory. At present, ordinary people in the Broken River Wasteland are allowed to enter, but not leave, except for other factions that maintain dealings with [Ota].”

The Green City City Lord believed that this was proof that [Ota] truly had a policy of “employees not being allowed to resign.”

All employees were assets, and no assets were permitted to leave [Ota]’s sphere of surveillance.

Didn’t that line up perfectly?

Cheng Qisheng: …How does that even line up?

The rule existed simply because Blue Sea was pretending to be a [Company], and they were also afraid that news would spread too early and attract the attention of other [Companies].

The Green City City Lord continued:

“Furthermore, [Ota]’s strength is also exactly as terrifying as the records describe. It directly wiped out all the large-scale mutant beasts in the Broken River Wasteland. The Safe City resident who witnessed it firsthand said they used ordinary weapons, yet their effects were actually comparable to ultimate weapons in the hands of civilizations below Tier 6.”

“From this, it is clear just how terrifying [Ota]’s strength is.”

Cheng Qisheng: “……”

Of course their effects were comparable to ultimate weapons.

Because they were ultimate weapons.

But there was nothing to say about that.

Blue Sea had originally wanted everyone to believe that the Holy Bullets were nothing more than ordinary weapons in their hands, precisely to intimidate others.

So in a way, they had gotten exactly what they wanted.

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