Chapter 193.1: Real Ota VS Fake Ota
As the person directly involved, Wen Huahua was feeling extremely panicked.
After suffering the consequences of [Fortune Comes from Taking Risks], he had come to deeply understand one principle: when this ability was triggered, he might not actually get his hands on the fortune, but the “danger” would definitely be right in his face.
“Don’t move! Nobody move for now!”
Standing inside the City Lord’s Mansion, Wen Huahua held a communicator and issued orders to the residents in the underground area. He was practically screaming himself hoarse.
“Stop trying to crack the armory’s password! Under no circumstances are you to open the armory!”
If they didn’t open it, there was at least a fifty percent chance that, since they hadn’t obtained the “fortune,” the “danger” might not be triggered.
But if they opened it, they would be in danger with one hundred percent certainty.
Even without taking his notoriously unlucky ability into account, all he had to do was think for a moment to realize just how important an armory was. How could the real [Ota] possibly have left it unprotected?
Either there were dangerous traps or some other perilous setup inside, or opening the armory might very well awaken the real Ota.
“Listen up, everyone! Don’t move for now. If you’re standing, don’t sit down. If you’re sitting, don’t stand up. Everyone, maintain whatever position you’re currently in. There might be some kind of mechanism or trap there, so whatever you do, don’t move around and accidentally trigger it! Wait for my order, and then return here immediately!”
At this point, Wen Huahua wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of there.
[Coriander Safe City: Boss, although the real [Ota]’s shelter hasn’t opened yet, I have this really strong premonition that it definitely will. I’m having all my residents return now so we can evacuate this area immediately.]
Cheng Qisheng replied as well.
[Blue Sea Safe City: All right. To be on the safe side, don’t try to save your nuclear crystals. You can relocate frequently. Retrieve your residents at the fastest possible speed.]
[Coriander Safe City: Waaahhhh, okay! Thank goodness I listened to you, Boss, and didn’t let the residents spread out too much. It’ll take about three hours. I should be able to finish relocating everyone in roughly three hours.]
[Coriander Safe City: Waaahhh, I was wondering how I could possibly be this lucky! The Moon Silk Star is so huge, yet the place I chose was the least conspicuous, perfectly suited for my residents to train their troops, and with no other Safe Cities anywhere nearby. It was practically as if that location had been chosen by fate specifically for my Safe City! Turns out my ability had activated after all.]
He planned to abandon anything he could do without. After all, the ores they had mined earlier had already been transported back to his Safe City. All he needed to do now was recall his residents.
Coriander Safe City began frantically recalling its residents at top speed.
Cheng Qisheng also began making preparations, sending the news back to Blue Sea.
The members of Blue Sea’s Military Department had only just entered their vacation period. Taking advantage of the break, they had happily donned their hard hats and work clothes and thrown themselves into enthusiastic mining work. Now, they were being called back yet again.
The real [Ota] was even trickier to deal with than the Three Major Companies. Blue Sea had suspected for a long time that the real [Ota] was the mastermind behind everything, and the intelligence they had subsequently obtained from the Three Major Companies had indeed confirmed this.
The prolonged war on Moon Silk Star had been instigated by the real [Ota].
The technology for extracting brains, which had been sealed away, had been brought back into use by the real [Ota].
The real [Ota] had taken the lead in bringing about the creation of [Heaven’s Punishment].
An organization that had manipulated every single [Company]—and arguably, every person on Moon Silk Star—like puppets on strings couldn’t possibly have been eliminated so easily through a scheme, could it?
Cheng Qisheng turned her gaze toward Blue Sea’s Military Department, which had resumed work once again.
Although it hadn’t been long since they had acquired those 451 researchers, Blue Sea was already beginning to change.
For example, the large screens that had originally hung throughout the Military Department had now been replaced with virtual three-dimensional projections.
These projections could be freely enlarged, shrunk, and moved between layers at the Blue Sea residents’ command. The images appeared in three dimensions, complete with various interactive features and auxiliary windows. Combined with Aether’s computing power, they really had that interstellar-civilization feel to them.
Apparently, the Science and Technology Institute was now attempting to incorporate similar technology into the residents’ tactical watches.
It probably wouldn’t be long before the modified “Genius Watches” carried by the Eighths and the others could become genuine tactical watches.
…
The Blue Sea residents working with the virtual three-dimensional projections were also highly motivated.
After learning that the real [Ota] was indeed still around, Blue Sea’s Military Department had one immediate reaction: eliminate it.
“Isn’t it still asleep? That makes things easy. We can use the Mantle-Piercing Liulis to bury it underground forever.”
Hadn’t the abandoned people of Moon Silk Star once eliminated the government shelters in the same way?
“No.”
Among the teams of experts in relevant fields who had also been summoned, two teams almost simultaneously voted against the proposal.
They waved their hands, using gestures to bring a three-dimensional model of the entire Moon Silk Star before them, then enlarged it until it filled the center of the conference hall.
All the detailed information covering every aspect of the planet had been copied directly from the [Norn Company]’s database. It had to be said that this had saved Blue Sea a great deal of trouble.
Everyone sat around the conference table. In the empty space at its center, an enormous projection of Moon Silk Star floated in midair. As the experts explained, the projection separated into several layers, revealing the boundary between the mantle and the core beneath the surface.
“When Moon Silk Star was cooling and taking shape in its early stages, a mantle-plume anchor existed at the boundary between the mantle and the core.”
“If we compare Moon Silk Star to a house, this gigantic rock pillar is equivalent to the main load-bearing beam supporting the entire planet. And right now, [Ota] is sitting right on top of that load-bearing beam.”
“If we use the mantle weapons to attack that area, convection within the planet’s mantle will immediately become unbalanced. Enormous amounts of heat from the core will surge outward, affecting the planet’s superplates across the globe. The crust will fracture, and there’s a very high probability that the planet itself will disintegrate.”
The Minister of Military Affairs stared at the enormous planetary projection in the very center of the room, which continued to split apart and rotate as the experts explained.
“So you’re saying [Ota] planned all of this?”
Without the access key, there was no way to open the shelter from the outside. The only option was to have someone inside open the door.
The mantle weapons could bury the shelter underground forever, but [Ota] had placed the shelter’s coordinates directly above the mantle-plume anchor.
Killing [Ota] would mean everyone on the planet died with it.
Ota had provided false coordinates, luring the other [Companies] into attacking that decoy location.
As for the real coordinates, they had been placed somewhere that made anyone hesitate to act. Even if the Three Major Companies had actually discovered the real location, they would never have dared to kill a thousand enemies at the cost of a thousand of their own lives.
“Moreover, only major powers have the resources to survey the mantle in such detail. Once they discovered this, they would never make the information public. They’d want to prevent ordinary people, driven to desperation by extreme exploitation, from finding a way to take everyone down with them. Even if they discovered that this place had a load-bearing pillar, they absolutely wouldn’t disclose it.”
After all, the [Companies] were well aware of the importance of maintaining their reputations. The various methods Blue Sea had uncovered in [Norn Company]’s files for preventing ordinary citizens from resisting were so numerous that they could practically fill an entire book.
“I have to say, I’m not surprised in the slightest.”
The Chief of Staff “grabbed” a section of the three-dimensional projection from the edge of Moon Silk Star, repeatedly enlarging and shrinking it in his hands as he examined the scenery in the magnified area.
This was so much fun. He could easily spend several hours playing with it.
“One could say that [Ota] had calculated everything hundreds of years ago. And when it came to its most important shelter, how could it possibly have failed to make thorough preparations?”
“But I have a question.”
The section of the three-dimensional projection he had separated was spotted by the groups of experts huddled together in quiet discussion. They took it back, leaving the Chief of Staff with no choice but to stand up empty-handed. He didn’t dare provoke the experts.
“If [Ota] is so accustomed to calculating every possible outcome, why did it delay its awakening?”
“It did all this for the sake of the Safe City. Wasn’t it afraid that, during the period when the other [Companies] had already awakened but it was still asleep, the Safe City might descend and the other [Companies] might achieve their goals, leaving [Ota] to miss out entirely?”
The Chief of Staff of Defense fell into deep thought.
As for this question, it fell within her area of expertise.
If she were [Ota], if she were the one orchestrating all of this—
The Chief of Staff of Defense said, [Ota]’s style of operation makes it impossible for it to simply wait around blindly.”
She stated with absolute certainty, “[Ota] must have been continuously monitoring the situation on Moon Silk Star throughout its slumber, using methods of its own.”
“It delayed its awakening simply because it felt the time wasn’t right yet. [Ota] isn’t in a hurry for the Safe City to descend, either. But it doesn’t have many resources at its disposal. The Three Major Companies might very well be the practice material [Ota] deliberately left for itself.”
Cheng Qisheng agreed that this was a very reasonable deduction.
Before the apocalypse, the Three Major Companies hadn’t been particularly powerful. Yet with their “luck buffs” stacked to the max, they had leaped to the top of Moon Silk Star’s corporate hierarchy a hundred and fifty years later.
If their rise were attributed solely to luck and their talent for scheming against others, that explanation would indeed be a little far-fetched.
But if someone behind the scenes had deliberately engineered their success, the whole thing sounded much more plausible.
As Cheng Qisheng listened to the Military Department’s meeting, she looked at the virtual three-dimensional image of Moon Silk Star that Aether was transmitting to her in real time.
She tapped the location of the mantle-plume anchor.
“Using the mantle weapons is out.”
“But don’t we still have [Heaven’s Punishment]?”
At worst, they could go for a mutually assured kill.
Destroy one [Company], and they would be rewarded with one [Heaven’s Punishment].
By that calculation, Blue Sea wouldn’t be losing out.
…
Alden was awakened by the gentle movements of robots.
He slowly rose from his cryogenic pod, allowing several robots to attend to him. After rinsing his mouth, he stepped into a fully automated medical scanner for a physical examination. In just a few minutes, the machine produced a health score of 48%.
Better than expected. Acceptable.
Alden then drank a cup of nutritional fluid to protect his stomach, followed by his remaining health supplements, taking them one by one. He had the robots help him get dressed, then checked his reflection in the mirror. Only after confirming that he still looked as radiant and distinguished as ever did he nod in satisfaction.
Back when the various [Companies] had chosen to enter their shelters to escape the radiation devices, many of them had wanted to ensure that they wouldn’t miss anything important. To that end, they arranged for a particular occupation known as a [Timekeeper].
These people would not enter hibernation. Instead, they would remain awake inside the shelters, using external surveillance machines to investigate conditions outside on behalf of their [Companies]. Whenever anything unexpected happened, they would awaken the designated personnel to deal with it.
However, as the current chairman of [Ota Company], Alden believed this was a recipe for disaster.
He would be sinking into an unconscious slumber while his employees remained awake and active outside. What was that, if not practically offering his own neck to a blade?
No matter how many security measures they put in place, there was no way to guarantee that nothing unexpected would happen.
Even though [Ota] had already eliminated all employees whose beliefs conflicted with its own or whose loyalty to the [Company] was less than absolute, Alden still believed that, when it came to human nature, there was no such thing as “absolute loyalty.”
Alden trusted only himself.
Therefore, the operating system inside [Ota]’s shelter had always relied on robots to automatically gather information about the outside world. But robots were, after all, not real humans, and their operating protocols were far too rigid.
That was why Alden woke up several times every year.
He never stayed awake for long. In total, his waking periods added up to only about a week each year.
Without cryogenic protection, he had inevitably suffered some radiation exposure, even inside a heavily shielded radiation-proof chamber.
But it was all worth it.
He had secured absolute safety. No one in all of [Ota], except him, could awaken ahead of schedule. Just as before, he remained in complete control of everything.
Alden had understood long ago that everything in life could be weighed in terms of costs and benefits, even his own health.
He was sacrificing his health now for the sake of an immortal future—for the chance to await the arrival of the Safe City in absolute safety.
Let the Three Major Companies enjoy their arrogance for now. They were nothing more than poultry raised by [Ota].
The harder the Three Major Companies worked to gather all kinds of resources on Moon Silk Star, the wealthier [Ota] would become.
“Let’s see if they’ve been behaving themselves and growing nice and plump.”
