Chapter 189: Barbecuing in the Middle of the Apocalypse
What did they mean… [Ota] was a Safe City?
The residents of the other Safe Cities who were still on the battlefield were left utterly bewildered.
There were nearly two hundred Safe Cities on Moon Silk, all of them at the Tier 5 or 6, with populations that were by no means small.
The number of residents dispatched by each City Lord was generally around one or two million.
Some Safe Cities knew their residents weren’t particularly strong and only wanted to get a little benefit out of the situation, so they sent out a small number of people. Others believed they had plenty of residents and could afford the losses, so they dispatched several million at a time.
Taking everything into account, approximately twenty-five million residents from other Safe Cities had gathered on this battlefield.
Among them were also large numbers of ability users.
And they weren’t all fighting on the battlefield where the [Zephyr Company] was located. Two other groups of residents had followed Blue Sea’s other armies to the battlefields of [Zipa] and [Norn].
“Hurry up and get into the city! We still need to go to [Zipa] and [Norn] to pick up the people over there!”
As large numbers of Blue Sea residents rushed toward their own Safe City from every direction on the battlefield, they didn’t forget to remind the residents of the other Safe Cities, either.
Those who had no close ties with the people of Blue Sea could only squat down on the ground and try to make sense of what had happened.
“[Ota] was a Safe City in disguise.”
“Our City Lords sent us here to disguise ourselves as locals, pledge our allegiance to [Ota], and go to war.”
“So, what happened was that we disguised ourselves as locals and ended up in Blue Sea, which was disguised as [Ota]. Then we attacked the real [Companies], while the Blue Sea Safe City, disguised as [Ota], might have known all along that we were residents pretending to be locals.”
Some people were getting a headache just trying to work it all out. Others were still clutching their heads in bewilderment.
“No, I don’t care what [Ota] is or what Blue Sea is! I just want to know—what about my Safe City? I mean the one I was living in before!”
One resident ventured a guess. “Could [Ota] have… could Blue Sea have wiped it out?”
That was entirely possible!
They had fought on the battlefield alongside Blue Sea’s forces, so they knew full well how formidable these people were. The idea that Blue Sea had wiped out all the other Safe Cities somehow didn’t seem surprising at all.
A Blue Sea resident happened to pass by and overheard the group becoming increasingly confident in their claims that the Blue Sea Safe City had destroyed every other Safe City. He hurried over to set the record straight.
“Don’t make things up! We haven’t started a Safe City war.”
If they really had, their God would have long since summoned people to join the fight.
Without a divine revelation, that meant no war had been declared.
The Blue Sea residents passing by might have offered only a word or two of explanation, but those who had always had Blue Sea friends by their side were hearing a great deal more than that.
“Back then, our Safe City was disguised as [Ota], and none of our residents were allowed to reveal our true identities to outsiders. So we could only interact with you as [Ota] employees. But my name is real! I’m really called Li Bujing.”
Yu Bo, the ability user with the Talisman Paper ability, stood on the land that had been reduced to ruins. Looking at Li Bujing, who was only seventeen or eighteen herself, she gave her an embarrassed, sheepish grin.
Li Bujing: “…”
Come on. Yu Bo had traveled through so many worlds and met so many people. She was practically an experienced veteran by now.
It was perfectly reasonable that she hadn’t seen through an entire Safe City’s disguise.
But Li Bujing was different. Just one look at the girl was enough for Yu Bo to discern her underlying personality: carefree, good-natured, and fond of a lively atmosphere. She had probably always been well protected and hadn’t suffered much hardship, but she wasn’t afraid of fighting, either. Most importantly, she would protect anyone she considered a friend without the slightest hesitation.
Someone with that kind of personality shouldn’t be very good at lying, and she certainly shouldn’t be able to keep her mouth shut about things.
So how on earth had she managed to fool Yu Bo?
Li Bujing, meanwhile, wasn’t thinking nearly as much as Yu Bo. She was simply relieved that she could finally tell her friend the truth about certain things. As she spoke, she began rummaging through her belongings.
“Back when we were pretending to be [Ota] employees, there were so many things we couldn’t share with you. But now that’s all over!”
She took out a green stone, turned it upside down, and shook it over the ground. In an instant, a pile of items came tumbling out with a clatter, accompanied by pots, bowls, and all sorts of kitchen utensils.
Yu Bo and her teammates’ eyes widened.
A space stone?!
The entire team stood rooted to the spot like a bunch of country bumpkins, staring blankly as Li Bujing crouched down to rummage through the things for whatever she needed.
“So…”
Yu Bo gathered her thoughts before speaking.
“Not only are you not an ordinary [Ota] employee, you’re not an ordinary Blue Sea resident, either. In Blue Sea, are you some kind of powerful big shot?”
Looking at Li Bujing’s sincere eyes, she thought for a moment and revised her guess.
“Or are your parents some kind of powerful big shots?”
If that were the case, a lot of the things about Li Bujing that had always struck her as out of place would suddenly make sense.
For example, even in an apocalyptic world, Li Bujing still seemed to retain a certain innocence.
Yu Bo had to admit that this very quality—the girl’s innocent sincerity—was precisely what had drawn her to Li Bujing in the first place.
She was afraid of being betrayed, so teammates with simple minds were safer to have around. They were straightforward, and they took things at face value: whatever you said, they believed.
That was also why her team had so many lovable idiots.
But even having idiot teammates came with risks. At their age, after surviving the apocalypse, anyone who could stubbornly cling to such an idiotically straightforward personality had to be either a hardheaded fool or a stubborn mule.
Li Bujing, however, was different.
Although she was simplehearted and sincere, she was also clever. To Yu Bo, finding her had been like discovering a priceless treasure.
Before this, Yu Bo had even figured out how she would persuade Li Bujing to leave with her.
But now, everything had been turned upside down. Li Bujing was a Safe City resident, too—and one who could casually pull out a space stone.
Yu Bo’s heart sank. She knew there was absolutely no way she could lure the girl away now.
“I’m not some big shot.”
Li Bujing looked at her in confusion.
“Other than the fact that I wasn’t an [Ota] employee, everything I told you about myself before was true.”
“I’m just an ordinary Blue Sea resident. School was on break, and I passed the exam, so I was allowed to come out and participate in combat. I’m just a regular person!”
Yu Bo: “…”
What kind of ordinary person carried a space stone around with them?!
“This?” Li Bujing asked, putting the things she didn’t need back into the green stone. “I picked it up in another apocalyptic world. Back then, we weren’t old enough to go far, so we could only scavenge around the outskirts of our Safe City. I was lucky and managed to pick up several of them in one go.”
“Later, I found out they were space stones. I kept one for myself and gave the rest to my family, one each.”
Yu Bo raised an eyebrow at that. “You picked up space stones, and your Safe City didn’t make you hand them over? Or pay taxes?”
“Nope! You only have to pay taxes if you sell them. I didn’t sell mine. I kept it for my own use, so of course I didn’t have to pay any taxes.”
She added another point. “Oh, right! It’s also true that you get to keep any spoils you obtain on the battlefield through your own abilities. At least, that’s how things work in Blue Sea.”
As she explained, Li Bujing continued taking inventory of the various items scattered across the ground. Only after confirming that she’d taken out everything she wanted did she clap her hands in satisfaction and nod.
“All done!”
Yu Bo looked at the collection of items on the ground.
A barbecue grill, charcoal, skewers, tongs, scissors, a small brush, cooking oil, chili powder, honey, plates, a picnic mat, and bags upon bags of meat…
Li Bujing had even taken a small refrigerator out of her space stone. Inside were bottles of ice-cold water that looked like soft drinks.
Even Yu Bo, who had seen plenty of the world and could still think calmly and analyze the current situation after Blue Sea had openly revealed its identity, was momentarily dumbfounded by this spectacle.
“You’re going to have a barbecue? Here?”
“Of course! I’m hungry.” Li Bujing said it as though it were the most natural thing in the world. Sitting on the picnic mat she’d quickly spread out, she tilted her head back and smiled at Yu Bo.
“And besides, didn’t I tell you before? Once we had some free time, we’d treat you all to a meal.”
Li Bujing had indeed said that—but that had been a month ago. Yu Bo had assumed the girl had just been saying it offhandedly.
Who would have thought she had actually remembered all this time? The so-called “once we have some free time” had meant that after Blue Sea revealed its true identity, she could finally take out these barbecue supplies, which seemed extravagantly luxurious on Moon Silk.
“But… but aren’t you all going back?”
Yu Bo looked toward the Blue Sea Safe City, which was still enormous even from this angle.
Li Bujing waved a hand. “There are too many people. The line will probably be really long, and I’m not in a hurry to go back anyway. So we might as well eat first.”
Her eyes sparkled as she looked at Yu Bo, her affection and cheerfulness just as strong as before.
“Or, if you don’t want barbecue, we can go look around near the Safe City. People will definitely have already set up stalls by now.”
Liu Tiegu, who was still trying to wrap his brain around the revelation that [Ota] was a Safe City, listened in utter bewilderment.
“Set up stalls?”
“Mm-hmm!” Li Bujing explained as though it were the most ordinary thing in the world. “After a large-scale operation like this, residents are allowed extra time to enter the city because they bring back so much loot. Everything has to be disinfected and go through security checks. Some residents also want to exchange their spoils for points, so they need time to ask about prices and things like that. All of that makes the lines really long. That’s when people start setting up stalls right there on the spot. Whatever you want to eat, you can just buy it on the spot.”
Yu Bo had already thought [Ota] was an utterly unbelievable [Company].
But now that [Ota] had turned out to be Blue Sea, she still found Blue Sea to be an utterly unbelievable Safe City.
Li Bujing continued looking at them expectantly.
“So, are we having barbecue, or are we going to buy something else from the stalls?”
Yu Bo silently sat down.
“Barbecue, I guess.”
The remaining teammates sat down as well. Feeling a little awkward but also rather excited, they began trying to figure out which tasks they could help with among the pile of tools.
Barbecuing right there in the middle of the apocalypse, without a care in the world… In all these years, it was the first time they’d ever done something like this.
“How do you turn this grill on?”
“Whoa! This is some good charcoal. Come to think of it, making charcoal is actually my specialty. Back when I was at the Safe City before the last one, I made a fortune producing charcoal in an apocalyptic world. Too bad all my savings disappeared when that Safe City fell.”
“What kind of meat is this? Sea monster meat? You’ve even been to a sea monster world? Oh my god, what do sea monsters look like?”
“That smells amazing! So amazing! I know it’s not cooked yet, but I’m Liu Tiegu, with an iron stomach! Bujing, just let me have a bite. I definitely won’t get sick from it!”
The enormous Safe City stood quietly in the distance—
Vast numbers of Blue Sea residents, along with residents from other Safe Cities, were converging toward it.
Meanwhile, this group was happily enjoying their barbecue.
Anyone looking out over the scene would have noticed that quite a few Blue Sea residents had simply pulled out all kinds of equipment and started cooking right where they stood.
Some Blue Sea residents didn’t have space stones or hadn’t brought any cooking equipment. But when they got hungry, they didn’t head toward the Safe City to look for food stalls, either. Instead, they looked around for people who were already cooking, then approached with gifts to ask if they could join the meal.
The gifts were usually various kinds of weapons or other resources they’d picked up on the battlefield.
Some Blue Sea residents who really knew how to eat went straight from one household to another, sampling a little here and a little there.
One person even came over carrying a Moon Silk rifle and traded it to Li Bujing for a roasted leg of lamb.
Yu Bo and her teammates watched the scene in astonishment. Heaven knew that when the other person had first approached them carrying a gun, every single one of them had jumped to their feet, thinking they were about to face an attack.
Who would have expected the gun to be used to trade for food instead?
And both Li Bujing and the Blue Sea resident who’d made the trade acted as though this were perfectly normal.
Yu Bo and her teammates watched with every hair on their bodies standing on end as the other person cheerfully handed the Moon Silk rifle to Li Bujing, then walked away, satisfied with his roasted leg of lamb.
Looking down at the meat in their own bowls, then exchanging glances with their still-nervous teammates, they all felt an inexplicable urge to laugh.
Li Bujing put the rifle away. “Come on! Let’s keep eating!”
Yu Bo took a deep breath. “Let’s eat!!”
Amid the ruins, the aroma of grilled meat drifted through the air as a group of people sat together, laughing and chatting merrily.
At that moment, no one mentioned the future or how they were going to return to the Kadan’er Safe City.
They were simply enjoying a barbecue together. Nothing more.
…
Meanwhile, the Blue Sea troops stationed at the former [Norn Company] had also successfully destroyed the key mechanisms controlling the various doors.
They shoved open one heavy door after another and began the process of claiming [Norn]’s legacy.
