Chapter 29: Upgrading
“How lively!”
Wang Moning walked through the crowd, her eyes darting from stall to stall, almost unable to take everything in.
After the apocalypse, food had become hard currency for every civilization. Many items that had been expensive before the disaster but couldn’t fill an empty stomach afterward had become little more than burdens.
Throw them away? What a waste.
Keep them? When people could barely feed themselves, what was the point of all these fancy, decorative things?
But now there was a marketplace. Suddenly everyone thought:
“Hey? Maybe other civilizations don’t have this item. Nobody in my civilization wants it, but if I put it out for sale, someone else might!”
As a result, the stalls Wang Moning saw were filled with all kinds of strange and unusual goods.
There was even a type of glowing lamp that required no energy source, and it was surprisingly popular.
The light wasn’t particularly bright—about half as bright as a small nightlight—but it didn’t require any power at all.
The vendor gestured enthusiastically, drew diagrams, and even took the lamp apart to show her how it worked before finally managing to explain that the inside was coated with a luminous powder. Judging from the illustrations, the powder was made by grinding up a mushroom native to that civilization.
He even pulled out a shriveled, dried-looking mushroom. Despite appearing somewhat shrunken, it still glowed.
The item immediately caught the Blue Sea people’s attention.
The main reason was that most Blue Sea residents currently lived in caves. They didn’t have electricity, and at night they relied primarily on their exceptionally sharp eyesight. Even a faint source of light was enough for them to see their surroundings.
A glowing lamp that seemed rather useless to other civilizations was practically perfect for the Blue Sea civilization.
Every member of the Explorer Team bought one, including Wang Moning.
She herself didn’t possess the Blue Sea people’s extraordinary vision, but prices at the market were fairly cheap from a Blue Sea resident’s perspective. Besides, her cave was always pitch-black. Having a little nightlight sounded nice, so she promptly paid for one.
Afterward, they moved on to admire miniature figurines made from feathers, music discs that came with songs whose lyrics they couldn’t understand but whose melodies they could still appreciate, various handmade leather pouches, leather tents, and even a fragrant ointment that, when applied to the body, gave off the unmistakable smell of stinky tofu.
The stinky tofu–scented fragrant balm was also quite popular.
Song Xi said, “Don’t think it smells bad. If you go to a world full of wild beasts, this pungent smell can actually keep them away.”
The vendor clearly knew he was selling something valuable, so he set a relatively high price. Song Xi pulled out some dried mutton, wearing a serious expression as she bargained with gestures.
The moment the stall owner saw the jerky, his eyes lit up. In the end, he couldn’t resist and agreed to trade the fragrant balm for the meat.
As soon as he got the jerky, the vendor acted like he was committing a crime. He looked around cautiously, then used his stall as cover and carefully wrapped it layer by layer.
People who survived the apocalypse were far from kind-hearted. If he didn’t hide it properly and someone saw it, it might get snatched away outright.
There were Blue Sea patrols nearby, but they weren’t always present. If someone desperate for meat came rushing over and shoved it into their mouth, even if the patrols managed to restrain them afterward, his jerky would already be gone.
The Blue Sea people were the most popular civilization in the market because they were the most willing to buy things—and they were also willing to purchase items that other civilizations considered useless, things that couldn’t be eaten or drunk.
From the Blue Sea people’s perspective, everything at this gathering was simply way, way too cheap.
Unlike other civilizations that still had to worry about starving, they had already moved on to higher-level needs.
For example, eating more meat, wanting fruit, and hoping to live a more modern lifestyle.
As for housing, just like those nightlights that were quickly sold out, during this period the Blue Sea people had been traveling everywhere, scavenging supplies on their own, and most of them had money in their pockets. They were very willing to improve their quality of life.
Beef jerky, mutton jerky, fish jerky, wild rabbit jerky, wolf jerky, even expired biscuits scavenged in small amounts—all of these could be exchanged for useful everyday items. Why wouldn’t they trade?
In the end, both buyers and sellers were very happy.
—Zhang Xiongyuan also wandered from stall to stall.
However, for him, this could be considered a kind of “paid shopping trip.”
The Agricultural Research Institute had sent out many of its staff, dividing them into teams with leaders. They were scattered across the market, searching for seeds, plants, or seedlings from different civilizations.
Anything that was alive—whether edible or not—would be bought back and added to their Blue Sea civilization’s grand plant hybridization project.
Zhang Xiongyuan was the leader of one such team. The team members didn’t stray too far; instead, they spread out to check which stalls were selling seeds, and once they spotted something, they would call him over. Everyone would gather for analysis, and only then would they carefully decide whether to buy.
The main issue was that alien crops could never be judged by familiar standards.
For example, right now, Zhang Xiongyuan was carefully observing a seed in his hand.
It was about the size of a fist, shaped somewhat like a virus, and bright red in color. When gently squeezed, it felt flattened inside. When placed in water, it floated up with a slight wobble.
It honestly looked like something that had been cooked.
But the vendor insisted passionately that it was an excellent seed, and that once it grew, it could become extremely tall, with leaves up to five meters long.
The vendor also explained a long list of uses for the leaves, but to the Blue Sea people it sounded like complete gibberish. In the end, the vendor grew anxious, asked for paper and pen, and spent half an hour drawing explanations using the tendrils on his head.
Zhang Xiongyuan was patient due to his age, and the rest of the team also held back their impatience because the vendor himself looked so unusual.
He was only about one meter tall, with long tendrils near his ears and eyes. He had only one eye and one mouth, no nose at all. His back was also covered in many flexible tendrils.
He had no hands, no feet—only those long tendrils, each one highly dexterous. It wasn’t even clear whether he had a gender.
To the Blue Sea people, he looked like corn silk that had gained sentience.
Is this really a human civilization?
It didn’t look like it at all.
Other human civilizations—no matter how different their appearances might be—could still be recognized as humanoid at a glance. But this being, standing there, looked so strange that anyone unfamiliar might have mistaken it for some kind of alien food instead.
The “tendril-sprouting” stall owner, despite having extremely agile tendrils, had absolutely terrible drawing skills.
With dozens of tendrils working at once, it spent half an hour drawing something that, in the end, no one could recognize.
It looked… like a spherical object?
And inside that sphere were even more tendrils?
Was it trying to say that this plant, once it grew, would become a ball, and when the ball fell to the ground, it would turn into a corn-silk-like humanoid?
The stall owner tried hard to explain, pulling its own tendrils around and then pointing at the drawing, connecting the tendrils to the sphere in the picture, before finally pointing all of them toward the sky.
But the more it explained, the less anyone understood.
Zhang Xiongyuan actually still didn’t fully get it, but holding the red, virus-like seed in his hands, he had a strong intuition that it was something good.
It was a strange kind of intuition—based on nothing at all, purely instinctive.
“How much?” he asked.
The stall owner couldn’t understand Blue Sea language, but from their gestures it could tell they wanted to buy it.
Immediately, it used its tendrils to mark out an open space, then gestured that it wanted enough food to fill that entire area in exchange.
Everyone behind Zhang Xiongyuan was stunned.
What an outrageous demand!
Just the area it had marked out would take at least a ton of grain to fill.
“Does it think we’re easy targets?” someone muttered.
Seeing their expressions change, the tendril stall owner quickly raised its drawing again, pointing at it and chattering excitedly.
This drew the attention of Cheng Qisheng.
There were plenty of vendors in the market asking high prices, but this one was truly on another level.
She focused her gaze on the stall owner, watching it repeatedly gesture—pointing, pressing its tendrils against the drawing, and then pointing toward the sky.
Hmm?
Cheng Qisheng became interested and carefully looked at it again.
If there was anyone in the world best at interpreting meaning from gestures and expressions in a language-barrier situation, Cheng Qisheng would rank second—no one would dare claim first.
After all, she had raised eight civilizations, and in their early stages, they had relied almost entirely on body language to communicate.
She slowly translated what she was seeing:
“Its leaves can be used to build flying ships in the sky. They are extremely hard, extremely… this part is too complex; using our own (this term wasn’t understood) we can control the ships and fly very far. It is very powerful, and very expensive—it is worth this much.”
Ship material?
At that thought, Cheng Qisheng immediately became energized.
Originally, organizing the market had just been a casual attempt—casting a net and seeing what might come up. She hadn’t expected an unexpected bonus like this.
This thing didn’t seem like a human civilization at all. Where had it come from?
“Aether,” she said. “Scan the alien civilization currently speaking with Zhang Xiongyuan. See if you can find relevant data. Do they have spacecraft technology?”
The previous city lord had reached the fifth tier and must have traveled through many worlds. Perhaps they had encountered this civilization before.
Aether, who had been planning new city structures, immediately floated over.
“Yes, City Lord. Aether has begun scanning.”
“Scan complete. This alien civilization is the Long-Tendril Civilization. It is non-human. It does possess spacecraft construction technology. When the previous city lord was at the fourth tier, they had encountered the Long-Tendril Civilization. At that time, they were at their peak, already advanced to the fifth tier. The Long-Tendril Civilization is proud in nature and possesses multiple advanced technologies. It was once the leader of the largest city alliance known to the previous city lord.”
Aether added: “The Long-Tendril Civilization places great importance on its members, especially its elderly. Judging from appearance, this Long-Tendril individual has already entered old age and would normally be under the protection of its clan.”
Cheng Qisheng understood.
Aether’s last encounter with the Long-Tendril Civilization alongside the previous city lord had been hundreds of billions of years ago. Although it was still uncertain how the time flow between the various safe cities compared to that of the Dark Star, it had likely still been an unimaginably long span of time.
Long enough that the once-prosperous Long-Tendril Civilization might have already declined, losing the ability to protect its elderly members.
If that was the case, then the seed was very likely real.
Even if it wasn’t, with Blue Sea’s resources, it was still worth taking a small gamble.
She directly sent a message to Zhang Xiongyuan, instructing him to purchase the seed.
And to ask whether the Long-Tendril being would be willing to go to the Blue Sea Safe City—any price could be offered.
Zhang Xiongyuan: !
This was his first time receiving a “divine decree,” and he was utterly shaken.
What kind of sensation was this?
He could hear no voice and perceive no emotion, yet a faint, enveloping awareness wrapped around him—warm and gentle. Without any language, he instinctively understood the divine message.
He could feel the other side’s tolerance, warmth, and benevolence, as if he had become a child once again, held safely in a comforting embrace.
So this… was what a great deity felt like?
Zhang Xiongyuan was overwhelmed with emotion, but he quickly carried out the divine command and asked the Long-Tendril being whether it was willing to live in the Blue Sea Safe City.
The Long-Tendril being immediately refused without hesitation.
It gestured with its tendrils:
“Food. Sell. Seed.”
Cheng Qisheng said: “Give it food. Ask it how to cultivate it. Then bring the seed back.”
Zhang Xiongyuan then continued speaking with the elderly Long-Tendril being—and discovered that it didn’t even know what civilization it belonged to.
It had grown up in a Safe City. Later, that Safe City was destroyed, and it moved into another one.
It kept drifting between Safe Cities in this way. Because of its long lifespan, it had seen many of them, but it never managed to learn any of their languages. No matter the species, it was unable to integrate.
It had always been searching for its own kind, but it searched for so long—so long that it grew old—without ever finding them.
Because of this, it also didn’t want to join Blue Sea. It knew it wouldn’t be able to fit in.
Cheng Qisheng once again considered Qin Zhi, the Marshal, and the Pope, and ultimately chose the Marshal.
She instructed the Marshal to send people to monitor the Long-Tendril being and see which Safe City it would go to after receiving the food.
Zhang Xiongyuan complied in a dazed state.
What surprised Cheng Qisheng was that after receiving the food, the Long-Tendril being didn’t go to any Safe City at all. Instead, right in front of the Blue Sea soldiers delivering the supplies, it used its long tendrils and spent an entire day consuming all of the one ton of food.
Even Aether was seeing the Long-Tendril Civilization eat for the first time. While recording the process, it made an analysis:
“Some civilizations possess an innate ability to rapidly convert food. Based on current observations, the Long-Tendril Civilization appears to be such a case. They can quickly digest large quantities of food within their bodies and convert it into required energy. Until that energy is exhausted, Long-Tendril individuals will not feel hunger.”
Cheng Qisheng praised Aether for finally using its brain well.
Then she looked at the Long-Tendril being, still only about one meter tall.
No wonder it directly demanded food without worrying about being robbed—it had this kind of physiological trait.
How convenient. That alone saved so much trouble.
After finishing the food, the Long-Tendril being silently left. It didn’t return to any Safe City it had stayed in before. Instead, it walked out beyond the barbed-wire fences and went straight into the already-cleared Mianyan City.
Military personnel tracked it for about five days, but it showed no intention of returning to any Safe City. It found a relatively intact high-rise building, gathered dry grass to make a nest, and seemed intent on staying in the zombie world permanently.
Cheng Qisheng asked: “Aether, can you estimate how much lifespan it has left?”
Aether replied: “Long-Tendril individuals are a long-lived species. They only enter an aged, near-death state during the final three years of their lifespan.”
Three years…
Cheng Qisheng stared at the surveillance footage sent back by the military. The Long-Tendril being was sleeping in a pile of grass. The building’s windows had been roughly sealed, but they still let in drafts, so it didn’t sleep very peacefully.
Was this elderly Long-Tendril being consuming all the energy required for its remaining lifespan in one go, and then choosing to wait for death in the zombie world?
A civilization that once possessed advanced technological weapons and had been the leader of the largest Safe City alliance—had just quietly declined into obscurity like this.
So much so that even the current generation of Safe Cities no longer knew such a civilization had ever existed.
Even that Long-Tendril individual itself didn’t know the name of its own civilization.
Cheng Qisheng turned off the screen and closed her eyes.
Caution.
Cheng Qisheng, you still need to be more cautious.
Could Blue Sea Safe City really be stronger than an interstellar civilization, a naturally long-lived species like the Long-Tendril Civilization, with all its racial advantages?
She opened her eyes and looked toward the red seed.
Perhaps this was the last thing the Long-Tendril Civilization had left behind. No matter what it was, she would make good use of it.
And then, she would lead the Blue Sea Civilization to continue living on.
Looking at Aether, who had already completed the city’s planning, Cheng Qisheng smiled again with a gentle expression.
“Aether, advance the tier.”
Blue Sea Safe City was also due to upgrade to Tier Three.
