Safe City Ch.187.1

Chapter 187.1: World Mission Completed

—[Ota] must be threatening him.

The ability user with the ability [Teleportation] began to tremble uncontrollably.

He was a seasoned resident, which meant he had seen plenty of things in his time. He had witnessed countless unexpected events, encountered all kinds of dangerous situations, and even faced life-or-death crises.

But never once had any of those experiences caused his supernatural ability to stop working.

What was a supernatural ability, after all?

It was the very foundation upon which a resident of a Safe City stood. An ordinary resident had a frighteningly low chance of surviving within the Safe City system. Only by awakening a supernatural ability could someone maximize their chances of protecting themselves and their family across the various worlds.

It was no exaggeration to say that everything he possessed now was built upon the fact that he was an ability user with the ability [Teleportation].

And now, [Ota] had used some unknown method to render his ability ineffective.

The ability user could no longer sense his ability at all, yet Cheng Qisheng could perceive it with perfect clarity.

As his mind wavered in shock, an enormous energy that was invisible to the naked eye, but perceptible to mental power, began to struggle uncontrollably, repeatedly crashing against the mental power wrapped around it.

If she had to compare it to something, it was probably like a fish thrashing about in a net, a tiger pawing at the bars of an iron cage, or a student attending evening self-study under the watchful eye of a teacher.

—In any case, keeping this energy locked up was a piece of cake for her.

And Cheng Qisheng had accomplished this simply by imagining that the portion of mental power was a room.

In fact, this wasn’t the kind of technique she had originally intended to develop.

Ever since Cheng Anjing awakened the [Mind Domain] ability on Green Billow Star, Cheng Qisheng had been fascinated by the power to select people within a certain area and pull them directly into a group chat.

Unfortunately, Cheng Anjing’s ability was subject to geographical restrictions.

When she had first awakened it, she could pull Blue Sea residents within a radius of ten thousand square kilometers into the group chat.

As her ability developed over time, Cheng Anjing eventually advanced to Tier 4. She could now pull residents within a hundred thousand square kilometers into a single group chat.

A hundred thousand square kilometers was an enormous area, large enough to cover almost the entirety of Blue Sea Safe City.

But an apocalyptic world was certainly much larger than a mere hundred thousand square kilometers.

Back when she was on Green Billow Star, Cheng Qisheng had wondered whether she could learn Cheng Anjing’s [Mind Domain] ability and recreate the same kind of group chat.

After all, she could already send private messages to all her believers. All she needed to do was change those private messages into a group chat and bring her believers together in it.

From then on, whenever she had free time, she would conduct all sorts of experiments with her mental power.

She still hadn’t managed to create a group chat for her believers, but she had discovered that she could indeed use her mental power to do many things.

For example, she could stack her mental power like bricks and tiles, building a “room” wrapped in layer upon layer of intertwined mental energy.

When Cheng Qisheng had first started “building houses,” she hadn’t actually known what to do next. She’d simply figured that since she had nothing better to do, she might as well have some fun with her spare mental power.

Now, she knew exactly what this “room” was good for.

She could build it around an ability user, preventing them from using their abilities.

Wow! Cheng Qisheng gave herself a little pat on the back.

I actually built a prison for ability users!

If this were a film or TV production, a character like her, capable of nullifying the abilities of ability users, would definitely have to be a major villain.

In reality, however, the would-be villain Cheng Qisheng was still figuring things out.

She had discovered that the energy emitted by ability users varied depending on their abilities and tiers.

Take this ability user with [Teleportation], for example. While at rest, his energy could radiate outward to a radius of fifty meters, with his body at the center.

That worked out to an area of just over seven thousand square meters.

Cheng Qisheng’s “mental prison,” meanwhile, covered approximately ten thousand square meters.

Just enough to enclose him completely.

And this [Mental Prison] was something Cheng Qisheng had cobbled together on a whim out of sheer boredom. If she wanted to, she could keep building it even further.

If that was the case, then once the prison she built grew large enough, wouldn’t she be able to strip even sixth-, seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-tier ability users of their abilities when the need arose?

In the future, if Blue Sea Safe City went to war with another Safe City and the enemy sent a high-tier ability user onto the battlefield…

She could simply march over and slam a mental-power lid down over them.

Hahahahahaha!

Cheng Qisheng was getting carried away with her own fantasies. As her mental power continued to contract and coil around the target, she was delighted to discover that as she actively shrank the area of the [Room], the [Teleportation] ability user’s energy shrank along with it.

Now that was useful. Even more convenient!

She had watched the entire process when the ability user used [Teleportation] just moments ago. She had noticed that the energy emanating from his body had enveloped the seventy pieces of mantle-piercing Liuli before carrying them away, hopping off like a rabbit.

That’s right. This [Teleportation] ability didn’t transport its user directly to the destination in a single leap. To reach the location of the [Norn Company], he had made at least ten thousand jumps along a straight-line route.

It was simply that he moved so quickly, making over ten thousand jumps in half a second, that it looked as though he had reached his destination in a single leap.

She had to admit, watching the whole thing had been rather entertaining.

It was just like those times when Cheng Qisheng occasionally went downstairs to get some sunlight and sat by a flower bed, staring at tiny ants. Discovering that ants actually had two stomachs and took fragmented naps had been equally fascinating. It gave her the feeling that she had stumbled upon an entirely different side of the world.

—As it happened, this [Teleportation] ability user also felt that he had just discovered an entirely different side of the world.

He stood frozen in place, adopting the attitude of ‘If you don’t move, I won’t move either’.

After all, apart from waiting to see what [Ota] would do next, he had no other way to respond.

But [Ota] made no move against him.

After waiting another dozen seconds or so, they simply repeated the same sentence.

“Pleasure doing business with you. Please take the remaining balance and leave.”

The [Teleportation] ability user’s lips trembled.

If he had initially thought those words were meant to mock and threaten him, then surely there was no need to repeat the threat twice when he was already under [Ota]’s roof, was there?

He wasn’t entirely sure he could believe it, so he asked cautiously, “I can leave?”

“Of course.”

The Blue Sea staff member swept a hand over the boxes filled with nuclear crystals.

“We only asked you to stay because you hadn’t collected the remaining balance.”

“Now that the remaining balance has arrived, please take your money and make sure you keep it safe.”

The [Teleportation] ability user swallowed nervously. Tentatively, he closed his eyes and imagined his ability enveloping the one million nuclear crystals before teleporting them to another location.

He opened his eyes—

The sound of the wind.

A desolate expanse of land.

And tumbleweeds rolling about in the breeze.

He was out!

He had really left!

The [Teleportation] ability user looked down at the boxes scattered across the ground, packed to the brim with first-tier nuclear crystals. Then he ran his hands over his entire body.

He hadn’t lost any limbs. He wasn’t bleeding or suffering from any broken bones. He had left [Ota] completely intact.

How was that possible?

How could this be?

[Ota] had used some unknown method to trap him, yet all it had really wanted was for him to collect the rest of his payment?

Was the [Company] really that trustworthy?

The [Teleportation] ability user stood there in a daze.

If not for the abundant power still coursing through his body after his recent advancement to Tier 5, and the glittering one million nuclear crystals lying at his feet, he would almost have suspected that everything he had just experienced was nothing more than a dream.

…

“Are we really just letting him leave like that?”

Looking at the now-empty seat, a young staff member couldn’t help feeling a little regretful.

“The [Teleportation] ability is incredibly powerful. I thought we were going to try recruiting him.”

The cleric smiled at him.

“We already are.”

The residents of other Safe Cities had merely been sent out on assignments.

To put it bluntly, it was similar to someone traveling out of town on a business trip.

The belongings they had accumulated over the years, along with their family members, might still be waiting for them back in the Safe Cities where they had originally lived.

Blue Sea was busy fighting a war of its own. Forcing people to stay at a time like this wouldn’t accomplish much.

Blue Sea’s development strategy relied primarily on residents voluntarily becoming believers. If their relationship with the city began with coercion, how could these ability users ever come to sincerely believe in their God?

But just imagine what would happen when an ability user resident discovered that [Ota] possessed the ability to suppress other ability users, had money to burn, and always delivered exactly the rewards it promised.

It could have imprisoned him, yet chose not to.

It could have withheld the remaining payment, yet still paid him in full.

And it had just wiped out another [Company].

On the day the three great [Companies] finally fell, those residents would suddenly realize that [Ota] was actually a Safe City.

What would this ability user resident do then?

The staff member suddenly understood. Then another thought occurred to him.

“But what if the Safe Cities evacuate before we’ve revealed our true identities? Ohhh~ Right! With the World Mission still incomplete, they won’t evacuate!”

As he talked it through, he managed to convince himself.

With the Great Annihilation looming ahead, the more timid city lords had already taken their Safe Cities and left.

Those who remained were all hoping to claim a share of the rewards from the World Mission.

Leaving now would mean throwing away everything they’d worked for!

Besides, so many of their residents had been deployed to the battlefield. With the war still raging, they couldn’t recall their people even if they wanted to. They had no choice but to continue fighting alongside [Ota].

And all Blue Sea had to do was keep fighting.

Once victory was secured, everything would belong to Blue Sea.

[Greenroot Safe City: Friends! Friends! Wonderful news!! [Ota] has taken down the [Norn] army!]

Ever since [Ota] and [Zephyr] had gone to war, the messages in the city lords’ group chat had been flooding in at a rate of 999+ every day. It was so lively that it seemed as though every city lord was glued to the chat, surfing through messages around the clock, twenty-four hours a day.

Then again, that wasn’t entirely impossible. They were all Tier 5 or 6 ability users by now, and going without sleep for a while didn’t have much of an impact on their bodies.

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