Safe City Ch.194.2

Chapter 194.2: New Residents Moving In

Qian Liyun felt deeply uneasy.

She sat in the car with her younger brother, staring out at the desolate landscape beyond the window, her heart filled with anxiety.

Her younger brother, Qian Litu, wore the same apprehensive expression.

Their original civilization had been struck by the apocalypse. Their parents had fled into a Safe City with their eldest son, and it was only afterward that the couple gave birth to Qian Liyun and her younger brother.

After their parents passed away, their eldest brother took care of them.

When Qian Liyun was five, her elder brother had carried her in his left arm while holding their younger brother in his right, leading them to relocate to another Safe City.

When she was ten, their original Safe City was destroyed. The victorious side was a predatory civilization, and her elder brother didn’t trust them. He took the siblings and fled, moving them to yet another Safe City.

Then another. And another. And another after that.

Qian Liyun wasn’t afraid of moving from place to place. After all, she’d been moving around ever since she was born. In an apocalypse, no one knew when disaster might strike. Some Safe Cities treated their residents terribly, some were too weak to defend themselves, and others could be destroyed without warning. For capable residents, moving to a different Safe City was perfectly normal.

But she’d never seen anyone change Safe Cities like this before.

It wasn’t a case of her elder brother taking them and fleeing, nor was it a matter of remaining outside their Safe City after completing a mission and simply refusing to return.

Instead, her elder brother had first gone to another Safe City. Then that Safe City had directly contacted the one they were currently living in and asked for his family members to be handed over.

Was that normal?

Something about this was wrong, wasn’t it?

Could one Safe City really do this to another?

Moreover, their City Lord had been remarkably generous, even sending out a convoy of vehicles so that a large number of residents’ family members, including Qian Liyun and Qian Litu, could travel to Blue Sea Safe City in comfort. They wouldn’t have to walk, face any dangers, or worry about their safety. Under the escort of a security team, they could simply sit back and relax on the way there.

Qian Liyun had never heard of Blue Sea Safe City before, but judging from the guards’ attitudes, she could tell that it was definitely a Safe City nobody should dare mess with.

What on earth was going on?

Her elder brother had said he would return after fighting one battle, but he never came back. At first, the entire city had been on high alert, with everyone living in fear. Then, for some inexplicable reason, everyone in the city had suddenly been ordered to go mining.

Initially, they had been told that everyone could return to the city once the mining was finished.

But after they had been mining for a while, someone suddenly approached Qian Liyun. Next thing she knew, she and her younger brother were being told to pack their belongings and were sent aboard this vehicle.

Qian Liyun had even gotten the impression that the other party was in a terrible hurry to send them off, as though sending away two ordinary people like her and her brother would somehow earn them some incredible treasure in return.

All she could do was hold her younger brother’s hand tightly as they began their journey across Moon Silk.

And now—

The driver called out from the front, “Look ahead, everyone. That’s Blue Sea Safe City.”

Qian Liyun looked up. At first glance, she saw an enormous Safe City that seemed almost large enough to come crashing down on them.

The sheer scale of the city was breathtaking.

Yet as their vehicle drew closer, Qian Liyun’s gaze fell on her elder brother, who was waiting in the parking area.

In an instant, all her uneasiness, anxiety, and worry vanished the moment she saw him.

She rolled down the window and waved excitedly outside with her younger brother.

“Big Brother!! Big Brother!!! We’re over here!!!”

The ability user with the [Teleportation] ability, Qian Lishi, excitedly ran over to them. He wouldn’t let either of his siblings carry a single piece of luggage, using his ability to teleport all their belongings away at once.

“You’re finally here! The Safe City is already getting ready to leave Moon Silk. If you hadn’t arrived soon, I would’ve flown an airship over to pick you up myself.”

Qian Liyun was astonished. “Big Brother, is it a Moon Silk airship? You can fly Moon Silk airships in Blue Sea?”

“Of course! I’ve passed the licensing exam and paid the security deposit. As long as I want to fly one, I can just rent an airship. Don’t worry, you two are both minors, so you can live with me.”

Seeing his siblings again, Qian Lishi felt as though a huge weight had finally been lifted off his shoulders. He led them inside as he continued talking.

“I bought an apartment. It’s got three bedrooms and a living room, so we’ll each have our own room. I’ve already finished furnishing it, so you can move straight in. I’ve also found a school for you two. It’s right near our apartment building.”

Qian Liyun’s eyes grew wider and wider as she listened.

Her elder brother was a Tier 4 ability user with the [Teleportation] ability. He was doing quite well for himself in the various Safe Cities; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to raise both his younger siblings on his own.

But… buying a house? A three-bedroom apartment with a living room?

And she was already sixteen this year. Was her elder brother actually planning to send her to school, too?

Could sixteen-year-olds still go to school in the apocalypse?

Qian Liyun asked, “Big Brother, did you strike it rich?”

“More or less.”

Qian Lishi grinned proudly. “Your big brother here received a reward from Blue Sea before I even joined them. A full one million nuclear crystals.”

Qian Liyun: “One million?!!”

Qian Lishi nodded. “Yep! And that’s not all. Blue Sea has a university, too. Little Sis, you and Xiao Tu can go to university now! You know how Mom and Dad always regretted that we couldn’t receive a complete education? Well, that’s no longer a problem. You can start from middle school and work your way all the way up.”

Qian Liyun felt as though she were in a daze. A university in an apocalyptic Safe City?

In the Safe Cities they’d lived in before, allowing residents’ children to attend school until the age of sixteen was already considered a sign that the city placed great importance on education.

After all, this was the apocalypse! Every able-bodied worker was precious.

Now Qian Liyun finally understood why her elder brother had kept refusing to return and had even arranged for both siblings to be brought here.

She didn’t need to look at anything else. The mere fact that Blue Sea had a university was enough to show how well-developed the systems in this Safe City were.

“That’s wonderful, Big Brother! Then you can go to university, too!”

Qian Lishi chuckled. “Hehehe. Your big brother isn’t going. You two are.”

Qian Liyun looked at him in confusion. “Didn’t you say that people of any age could attend university in Blue Sea?”

“That’s right. As long as you can pass the entrance exams.”

Well, wasn’t that precisely the problem? He couldn’t pass them.

Qian Lishi was absolutely determined to make sure his younger siblings went to school.

As for going to school himself?

Forget it. He preferred spending his time on the training grounds.

Ever since Qian Lishi had officially joined Blue Sea, he’d been happy almost all the time. The only moments he felt otherwise were when he thought about his younger siblings still on the road.

He had discovered that Blue Sea was full of like-minded people. They went mining together every day and visited the training grounds together on their days off. With the help of the temple, his supernatural ability had even developed a new option: [Attack].

He wasn’t even an Inner City resident, yet Blue Sea was still willing to help him develop his talent skills.

It was only with the Temple’s assistance that he learned [Teleportation] wasn’t just whoosh— but rather whoosh-whoosh-whoosh-whoosh-whoosh—!

Within a single second, [Teleportation] could activate more than ten thousand times in rapid succession. When Qian Lishi used his ability, he instinctively protected any person or object enveloped by [Teleportation], so they remained unharmed.

However, he could train himself to disable that instinctive protective mechanism.

For example, if he encountered a mutated beast in the future, he could envelop it with [Teleportation] and transport it five hundred meters away.

Throughout those five hundred meters, the mutated beast would receive no protection whatsoever. Instead, it would be subjected to more than ten thousand high-speed jumps in rapid succession, shaking its brains into a smooth slurry.

Wouldn’t that count as a successful attack?

Qian Lishi had been utterly astonished. Then, he was overcome with wild excitement, feeling incredibly fortunate that he’d chosen to join Blue Sea.

The rewards here were generous, the systems were well-developed, and the taxes residents had to pay weren’t particularly high. For Inner City residents, the tax rates were ridiculously low. On top of that, the city would even help them develop their supernatural abilities.

He loved this place.

As he introduced Blue Sea to his younger siblings, his voice carried a note of pride that he himself didn’t even notice.

“That’s why choosing the right Safe City is so important! Just look at these buildings, these wide, smooth roads! Look over there—that’s the Temple, and it’s also a hospital. And look, there are breakfast shops, meat shops, and drink stalls! You two have never seen our original civilization, but before the apocalypse struck our home world, things were pretty much like this.”

“It’s not even the Inner City yet. Once we become Inner City residents, our lives will be even better than they are now.”

Qian Lishi led his siblings through the entrance passageway, where they could admire all kinds of scenery along the way.

On the other side of the passage, another group of people was lining up to enter the city.

Qian Liyun glanced over and immediately noticed a young girl about her age. The girl was dressed in tactical gear, with a long staff hanging from her waist and two guns tucked into her belt. Blood was splattered across her face.

The enormous mutated rabbit carcass she was carrying in one hand made it pretty obvious where the blood had come from.

The girl was standing in line ahead of them. Under normal circumstances, she shouldn’t have noticed Qian Liyun at all.

Yet she turned around abruptly, as though she had eyes in the back of her head, and met Qian Liyun’s gaze with pinpoint accuracy.

Qian Liyun jumped in fright. She remembered that she was a new resident, and there was an unspoken rule in Safe Cities: new residents were expected to defer to the original residents.

She hurriedly tried to avert her gaze, hoping to show that she meant no harm.

But the girl had already waved at her enthusiastically.

“HELLO!!! WANT TO BUY SOME?”

With her free hand, she effortlessly lifted the enormous rabbit carcass.

“We’ve got more meat than our family can eat, so we’re selling it at a huge discount!”

Qian Liyun realized that she could actually understand what the girl was saying. The girl must have been using some kind of translation device.

The young girl gestured animatedly.

“Just 80 points for one leg~”

Qian Liyun couldn’t have imagined, no matter how hard she tried, how things had somehow ended up like this.

Before she could figure out how to respond, her elder brother, who usually preferred to keep to himself whenever he went out, had already replied with tremendous enthusiasm.

“Sure, sure!! Can I buy two legs? My younger sister and brother are coming home today, so we should have a proper celebration!”

The girl immediately agreed. “No problem! Congratulations to you all! Our God above, your family is finally reunited! I’ll cut you some extra hindquarter meat. Do you know how to stew it? I just learned a new recipe. Here, add me as a friend, and I’ll send it to you.”

Qian Lishi leaned over, stretching his upper body out as he pulled out his phone.

“Here’s my terminal code. Thanks so much! I’m honestly not very good at cooking. Oh, right! Where did you hunt this rabbit? I heard we’d wiped out all the rabbits around here!”

“Hahahahaha! We did wipe out the ones nearby, that’s true. But my group rented a hunting airship, and we went out for a whole day of fun. It was pretty great! Are you interested? The group tours are suspended for the rest of this world, but you can book a mystery tour for the next world at half price! Want me to send you the link?”

“Sure, sure! That sounds pretty interesting.”

Qian Liyun stared in utter disbelief.

She watched with her own eyes as her elder brother—the very same man who had repeatedly warned her and her younger brother never to talk to strangers, to pretend to be deaf and mute whenever they were out, and to avoid attracting anyone’s attention whenever possible—became practically a chatterbox.

He was chatting enthusiastically with a complete stranger they’d just met along the way, all while continuing to move forward in the queue on the other side of the railing.

Their conversation had already seamlessly shifted to topics like “Do you have any recommendations for beginner tutoring classes?” and “Which kind of sea monster meat tastes best?”

They didn’t say goodbye until they’d successfully passed through the passageway, waving at each other as though they’d already become good friends.

Qian Liyun hadn’t even had time to ask her elder brother what on earth was going on when she spotted two winged people gracefully landing on an extra platform attached to the security checkpoint building ahead.

People with wings weren’t particularly rare. Everyone in the Winged civilization had wings, and Moon Silk also had mutants with fleshy wings.

But!

After the two people landed, they reached behind their backs and took their wings off.

Qian Liyun was once again left dumbfounded.

Qian Lishi had memorized the names of several tutoring classes. When he looked up and saw his younger sister staring fixedly ahead, he followed her gaze and then seemed to understand.

“Those are Flight Wings. You can think of them as detachable wings. Lots of Blue Sea residents have them.”

Qian Liyun: “Detachable wings…”

Before she could finish processing that information, a large number of airships swept low overhead. The sinister, oversized eyes on their hulls seemed to be silently watching everything below.

She instinctively grew wary, but her elder brother merely glanced down at his phone before waving a hand.

“Over here!!”

With a whoosh, an airship stopped right in front of them. Its virus-shaped door slowly opened, revealing a head.

“Last digits of your resident ID?”

Qian Lishi shouted, “997521!”

“Get on!”

Qian Lishi practically sprang aboard as if he had springs in his feet, then turned around to pull his younger brother and sister up after him.

“Come on! The Outer-City apartment we’re staying in is too far from this city gate. We’ll take an airship there.”

Take—an—air—ship—

Oh, heavens.

Other than when they’d moved house, Qian Liyun had always stayed safely inside their Safe City, just like her younger brother, under their elder brother’s close protection. She’d hardly ever gone out.

Now, sitting inside an airship, she stared out the window at the scene unfolding below.

Silver-white high-rises stood scattered across the landscape, their arrangement seemingly haphazard. Many buildings were covered in thick armored plating that gleamed with a metallic sheen under the sky. Vast stretches of green were faintly visible in the distance, and above those green farmlands floated enormous islands, one after another.

Looking around, she saw round water towers distributed throughout the city. Suspended roads spread in every direction like a tightly woven spiderweb, their layout dense and orderly.

People stepped off the roads floating in midair and walked directly onto platforms twenty or even thirty meters above the ground, entering the buildings on that level.

Countless airships traveled above the suspended roads. On the road ahead, she could even see drones directing traffic.

Every so often, someone would flap their wings, fly past, and land on the floating platform of one of the towering buildings.

In a certain stretch of airspace ahead, numerous hot-air balloons covered in strange symbols floated in midair. Strange patterns adorned their surfaces, and when the patterns converged, they seemed to form a series of eyes. Those eyes moved across the balloons like living creatures, monitoring everything around them.

A notification sounded inside the airship.

“You have entered the Magic Eye AI breeding zone. Please take care to avoid the area—”

Sure enough, the airship altered its course slightly to steer clear of the zone.

Qian Liyun looked out through the window and happened to meet the gaze of a Magic Eye as it swam across one of the hot-air balloons.

She was utterly stunned.

Had the outside world really developed to this extent already?

<< _ >>