Safe City Ch.193.2

Chapter 193.2: Real Ota VS Fake Ota

Alden brought up the external surveillance feeds and discovered, with some surprise, that quite a few of the channels he used to receive images from the outside world had gone dark.

“Looks like the great war is already over.”

The last time he had awakened, he had noticed the emergence of a new faction. It had disguised itself as [Ota] and entered into a standoff with the Three Major Companies, with both sides wary of one another.

Alden hadn’t cared that the other side was using [Ota]’s name. In fact, he was delighted to see this fake [Ota] swaggering around and deceiving people outside. It was doing him a favor by drawing attention away from the real [Ota].

It was merely a faction trying to piggyback on the status of the [Companies]. Although the videos and images the [Fake Ota] faction managed to collect were scarce, Alden could still tell that it was doing little more than bluffing.

Any one of the [Companies] could crush it in no time. That was why Alden hadn’t paid it any attention.

But now, nearly 98% of his surveillance channels for the Three Major Companies had been destroyed?

What had happened?

Alden quickly pulled up the bionic surveillance feeds he had previously deployed throughout Moon Silk Star. Most of those had been destroyed as well.

The remaining cameras were transmitting footage that was badly corrupted.

Even so, through those fragmented images that were practically blinding him with their flickering, Alden managed to piece together what had happened outside.

The [Fake Ota] had actually wiped out all Three Major Companies.

This was abnormal.

Before [Heaven’s Punishment] first appeared, Alden had already thoroughly mapped out every faction on Moon Silk Star.

He turned these factions into chess pieces, manipulating them from behind the scenes, making them advance, retreat, or vanish into the river of history at his whim.

[Norn], [Zephyr], and [Zipa] were the three ideal sources of nourishment Alden had carefully selected.

They weren’t particularly stupid, but neither were they especially clever. There were differences in strength between them, but none so overwhelming that they couldn’t form a perfect triangle of competing powers.

Alden had gone to considerable lengths behind the scenes to create this situation. He helped them eliminate some of their rivals, then guided them into eliminating others themselves.

In other words, the Three Major Companies believed they had reached the pinnacle of Moon Silk Star through their own strength and good fortune. In reality, Alden had used an invisible hand to push them into those positions.

All so that when [Ota] needed to devour them, it could obtain a sumptuous feast without having to expend much effort.

And now, the Three Major Companies, raised to be plump and juicy, had indeed been devoured by [Ota].

Only it was the counterfeit, shoddy version of [Ota].

“No, this can’t be right! I calculated everything so precisely. Where on earth did it come from? How could it possibly have this kind of strength?”

Ever since he had begun implementing the apocalypse plan, Alden had meticulously arranged every step. He had never made a single plan based on baseless speculation.

This was the first time he had made a mistake, and immense fury surged within him.

Along with it came a subtle, unsettling sense of agitation, as though something had slipped beyond his control.

But then he remembered that he had two [Heaven’s Punishment] devices right there in his room, and he quickly regained his composure.

With [Heaven’s Punishment] in his hands, he could remain the player moving the pieces on this planet indefinitely. Whether it was the Three Major Companies or that fake [Ota], they could only ever be pawns under his command.

Through the surveillance devices outside the shelter, Alden watched the humans who had trespassed into [Ota]’s territory.

Something was wrong.

He was certain that his calculations had been flawless.

There was no way a fourth powerful faction could have emerged on Moon Silk Star.

Alden stared at the Coriander residents. Some had scales on their faces, while others had red hair. Yet in Alden’s eyes, every single one of them looked like an ordinary Moon Silk New Human.

And still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.

Alden slowly closed his eyes.

“The Safe City…”

“It can only be the Safe City…”

His eyes told him that these were all New Humans, and that the fake [Ota] was a faction of New Humans as well.

His brain told him that no matter how he examined the footage, the cities shown in the videos were nothing more than folded cities.

But he was the one who had drawn the chessboard. For another entity to suddenly appear on that carefully arranged board and devour every piece was simply abnormal.

Was it possible that the Safe City had already arrived, but that for some reason, they couldn’t see it?

Was it possible that those New Humans outside, who looked so utterly ordinary, were actually residents of the Safe City?

Alden’s brain was frantically warning him that his assumptions were wrong.

But in the end, the chairman of [Ota] still entered three layers of passwords and, with a dark expression, pressed the switch that would awaken all of [Ota].

He chose to trust his own ability to calculate.

Beep—beep—

…

Beep—beep—

The Coriander residents, who had obeyed their City Lord’s orders and remained motionless by the entrances to the shelter and the armory, felt every hair on their bodies stand on end when the lights on the door suddenly flickered on.

“City Lord! It looks like the people inside this shelter have awakened!!”

Wen Huahua gritted his teeth.

“Get out!! Move as fast as you can! The Safe City will meet you at the designated coordinates in six minutes!”

At the same time, he sent Cheng Qisheng a message.

[Coriander Safe City: Boss, [Ota] has awakened. Evacuating is faster than relocating the city. To be safe, I’m going to leave this world. Thank you for taking care of me, Boss! Waaahhh, I hope we run into each other again in the next world!]

Right now, he was incredibly grateful that after the battle ended and everyone had started mining like crazy, the Blue Sea instructors who had been stationed in Coriander Safe City had all returned to Blue Sea.

Otherwise, he would have been forced to choose between abandoning the residents who remained in this area and relocating the city to Blue Sea to return its residents, or taking the Blue Sea residents with him when he left.

Wen Huahua recalled what those Blue Sea instructors were like. …Uh, I can’t even imagine it.

He always felt that Blue Sea’s residents had an almost excessive sense of belonging to their city. If he really took them away, they would probably go berserk.

Besides, quite a few of the residents in this area were his trusted subordinates. He couldn’t bear to abandon them, either.

Thank goodness, thank goodness. He didn’t have to choose between the two. This was the best possible outcome.

“Faster, faster, faster!!!”

The Coriander residents rushed out through the passageways and sprinted toward the designated coordinates as fast as they could.

——Inside [Ota]’s shelter, large numbers of bionic soldiers rose in unison from their cryogenic pods.

“Move it!!! Three minutes left!!!”

A Coriander resident called out to the companions behind him while glancing down at his watch.

——Inside [Ota]’s shelter, more than a dozen senior executives rose unhurriedly from their cryogenic pods, allowing robots to attend to them and help them get dressed.

“Is it time already? What’s the next step?”

The Coriander residents reached the designated location just as the six minutes were up. Coriander Safe City had successfully completed its relocation.

The city gates swung wide open, and the security officer shouted, “Quick! Get back inside as fast as you can! Everyone must be back in the city within thirty seconds!!”

——Inside [Ota]’s shelter, Alden watched the “folded city” through the surveillance footage.

No matter how he looked at it, it still appeared to be nothing more than a folded city.

Anyone faced with a situation they couldn’t be certain about would hesitate for a while.

At the very least, he could send soldiers to pursue them or deploy some other large-scale weapon.

After all, [Ota] had only two [Heaven’s Punishment] devices left. There was also the [Fake Ota] to contend with, which was clearly a difficult opponent. And the city before his eyes was nothing more than a folded city, with a high probability of not being a Safe City at all.

But what if it was?

A folded city? Moon Silk Star did indeed have folded cities of this size, but why would one appear in a dead zone saturated with radiation?

Aside from [Heaven’s Punishment], [Ota] had no means whatsoever of keeping a Safe City from leaving.

Alden’s hand nevertheless came to rest on the [Heaven’s Punishment] button.

At Coriander Safe City, the security officer shouted, “Five seconds left!!”

A powerful sense of impending danger suddenly welled up inside Wen Huahua. He remembered what Blue Sea’s boss had once told him: extraordinary ability users might develop a premonition when facing a life-or-death crisis.

Wen Huahua’s heart pounded like a drum. Watching the residents run back through the surveillance footage, he practically screamed at the AI core.

“Go! Leave NOW!!”

…

——In the City Lord Group Chat, the spot where Coriander Safe City had previously been was now empty, indicating that it had successfully left Moon Silk Star.

Cheng Qisheng had been keeping a close eye on the City Lord Group Chat. The moment she saw that Coriander had evacuated successfully, she immediately issued a divine oracle to Blue Sea.

——Inside [Ota]’s shelter, Alden stared at the now-empty stretch of ground.

He let out a regretful sigh.

So close…

His brain told him that the owner of the folded structure had simply packed it away and fled with it.

Yet he still felt that he had missed something just now.

Oh, well.

That was simply how fate had dealt the cards. There was no one to blame. The city that had appeared in that dead zone might not actually have been a Safe City.

Even if it was, it was too weak, and its territory was too small.

But that [Fake Ota]…

Alden ignored the thoughts continuously surfacing in his mind, such as the [Fake Ota] clearly isn’t a Safe City. It must have used some other means to turn the Three Major Companies’ own strength against them.

He said to the robots, “Tell them to prepare all available forces. I’m going to use [Heaven’s Punishment] against that [Fake Ota].”

Whatever the [Fake Ota]’s true identity might be, there was one undeniable fact.

He had [Heaven’s Punishment]. It didn’t.

He could still win.

——Beep—beep—beep——

The warning tones sounded again.

But this time, they were no longer the relatively gentle awakening chimes. They were urgent, frantic alarms, as though death itself were knocking at the door.

“Maximum Threat Alert. A directional weapon of Level Nine or higher has been detected approaching at high speed. Estimated time to impact: three minutes.”

“——Interceptor units have completed automatic launch. Warning! Warning! Ballistic trajectory simulation updated. Interception is projected to be ineffective——”

“Evasion route planning in progress. Full-area evacuation routes activating. Warning! Warning! All available escape routes and evacuation zones are within the impact radius. Unable to exit the danger zone. Warning! Warning——”

Everything had taken a sudden, catastrophic turn. Under the barrage of warnings, all of Alden’s careful calculations had become meaningless.

“How is this possible?”

He wanted to ask what kind of directional weapon the enemy was using, but the system had already displayed its predicted identification before him.

Alden’s pupils contracted violently.

“[Heaven’s Punishment]?!”

He had no time to think deeply about why another [Heaven’s Punishment] had appeared. The moment he understood why the interception system was useless, he immediately issued an order.

“Launch our [Heaven’s Punishment]! Send it on an intercept course to collide with the enemy’s [Heaven’s Punishment]!”

The robot replied, “Chairman, [Heaven’s Punishment] has a random trajectory alteration function. To achieve a head-on collision, we can only launch ours when the enemy’s weapon reaches directly above our position.”

Alden cursed.

Heaven’s Punishment hadn’t originally possessed the ability to alter its trajectory randomly. [Ota] itself had pushed for that feature to be added.

[Ota] had also insisted that it attack at extreme speed, leaving the enemy no time to escape.

——It was true that the enemy’s [Heaven’s Punishment] would stop changing course once it reached directly overhead. But by then, what would be the point of a head-on collision?

The combined destructive force of two [Heaven’s Punishment] devices colliding would only be greater than that of one. They would simply die even more horribly.

“Warning! Warning! Time until impact: one minute and twenty-two seconds——”

“Warning! Warning! Time until impact: fifty-four seconds——”

Alden frantically worked the controls, desperately trying to find a way out.

How could he die here?

He had gone to painstaking lengths to account for every possibility. He had laid all his plans because he knew that whoever stuck their neck out first was bound to meet a miserable end.

Only by keeping his strength hidden and his edge sheathed could one be the last man standing.

He had spent a hundred and fifty years lying low with [Ota], sacrificing his own health in the process!!!

Wasn’t this supposed to be the moment when he finally reaped the fruits of victory?

Why?!

Why had everything turned out like this?!!!

“No! No! I can think of a solution! I can find a way——”

“Warning! Warning!”

“Time until impact: four——three——two——one——”

Alden collapsed limply in front of the machine. His anguished scream was so piercing it seemed as though he were screaming blood.

“NOOOOO!!!!!”

——A blinding white light.

——BOOM!!!

…

The entire area was reduced to an absolute void.

“Are they dead? They must be dead, right?”

Cheng Qisheng had originally stationed some bionic surveillance units in that area, but obviously, not a single one had survived [Heaven’s Punishment].

The great Creator God of Blue Sea, who was accustomed to keeping everything under her control at all times and in all places, found herself feeling a little unaccustomed to this.

All the video feeds had gone black. Cheng Qisheng could only wait quietly for a while and see whether the world mission would be declared complete.

Fortunately, this time Blue Sea had taken out the enemy single-handedly, so the notification confirming completion of the world mission appeared very quickly.

[Congratulations to Blue Sea Safe City for completing the World Mission.]

[One Heaven’s Punishment has been issued.]

Good. It seemed [Ota] really was gone. Her residents and customers could continue mining without worry.

Before Cheng Qisheng could even take a moment to celebrate, the World Mission notification repeated itself, as though it had gotten stuck.

[One Heaven’s Punishment has been issued.]

Then another message appeared.

[One Heaven’s Punishment has been issued.]

Could the Safe City rules glitch, too?

Cheng Qisheng, who had once suffered from the same problem with glitches, blinked and opened the warehouse where [Heaven’s Punishment] was stored.

One, two, three, four, five.

Wait. It wasn’t a glitch.

The Safe City rules had really awarded Blue Sea three [Heaven’s Punishment] in one go.

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