Chapter 36.1: Evolution of Blue Sea
Everyone in the fishing village—whether they were indoors or outside, whatever they had been doing—stopped in their tracks and stared blankly at the enormous Safe City.
The Yunbula Nation was a coastal country, so it had many islands.
This fishing village was located on one such large island. After the disaster struck, the villagers had voluntarily sealed off the settlement, completely isolating themselves from the rest of the island.
Their only route to the outside world was the small pier facing the sea.
The island itself covered 75 square kilometers.
The fishing village occupied only 0.5 square kilometers.
As for the Safe City that had suddenly appeared—setting aside the area covered by its arrival alone—its actual size was 8,000 square kilometers.
In other words, Blue Sea Safe City was equivalent in area to 16,000 fishing villages like theirs.
As a result, even the fishermen inside their homes noticed that it had suddenly grown dark in the middle of the day.
It was as if all three suns had been swallowed.
The abnormal phenomenon filled them with terror.
They hurried out of their houses to look at the sky, only to see a colossal city that nearly blotted out heaven and earth.
The suns had not been swallowed.
Rather, they had been completely blocked by this city that had appeared out of nowhere.
…Which was somehow even more terrifying.
“What—what is that?!”
Ming Hao stared blankly at the immense city that had blocked out the sunlight. Almost immediately, his gaze shifted to the traveling group standing on higher ground nearby.
They were too far away for him to make out their expressions clearly, but he could tell one thing:
Unlike the other villagers, they did not seem excited or panicked.
It was as though everything unfolding before them had been expected all along.
In his mind echoed the words they had spoken when he had first rescued them.
— “Our god has given us a divine oracle.”
— “Because you saved the Blue Sea people, you will receive Blue Sea’s reward.”
Blue Sea… could this be Blue Sea?
Had it really descended from the sky?
From Ming Hao’s position, he could see that as the colossal city settled onto the island, countless zombies across the island seemed to be thrown away by some unseen force at the same instant, shoved toward the island’s edges.
It looked exactly like the legends of a god descending to the mortal world and cleansing away filth with a casual wave of the hand.
Ming Hao stood there in a daze when he heard someone shouting in a trembling voice:
“The Kingdom of God!! The divine kingdom in the heavens has fallen to earth!!”
Yunbula had its own religions, and faced with such a miracle, some people immediately dropped to their knees, weeping uncontrollably.
“Lord! Have You come to save the world?! Take us with You!”
Even those who had never believed in religion found themselves unable to deny what they were seeing.
They knelt along with everyone else, pleading just as desperately.
“Lord! Please take us away from this world filled with monsters!!”
The behavior spread like a contagion, and soon everyone was kneeling.
Looking up at the gigantic entity that blotted out the sky, they stretched out their hands in longing and prayed for the Lord’s protection.
— Meanwhile, the “Lord” was inspecting the new place after moving in.
It was a little cramped.
Actually, it was very cramped. If the space had been even slightly smaller, Blue Sea Safe City would not have fit at all.
In truth, Cheng Qisheng had never expected the move to succeed on the first try.
A Safe City could not simply descend directly onto a mass of zombies.
To ensure a successful arrival, she had spent a hefty 3,000 crystals in the system shop to purchase a Global Repulsion Field mounted beneath the Safe City.
The purpose of this field was to instantly repel anything within its coverage area that would interfere with the Safe City’s descent.
However, this only worked on things such as buildings, zombies, and mutated beasts. Intelligent lifeforms like humans could not be repelled.
Unless you paid extra.
For the same 50-square-kilometer field, repelling intelligent lifeforms would cost 30,000 crystals.
— And it was still a single-use item.
Even if Cheng Qisheng had that many crystals, there was no reason to spend them that way.
For the same 30,000 crystals at Tier 3, she could buy a Levitation Device, allowing the Safe City to float directly above a designated area. Although it was also a consumable item, it was at least a world-class consumable.
Moving within the same world did not affect the Levitation Device’s operation.
No matter how she looked at it, it was far more cost-effective than the Global Repulsion Field (Intelligent-Life Version).
Most importantly, she simply didn’t have that many crystals.
If there really were intelligent lifeforms on this island and they prevented the Safe City’s descent, then her options would be:
Either send the travel team to find those people,
or choose another landing location.
Or…
Have the Safe City descend on the other side of the sea.
That was not a good idea.
Traveling across the open ocean was much more dangerous.
When Blue Sea had moved before, the Safe City’s area had been too limited and there hadn’t been enough time, so they hadn’t brought along any of the ships from Dark Star.
If they relied solely on the Velvet Star vessels currently docked at the harbor, transporting soldiers alone would take around seven days per trip, and many trips would be required.
Oh, right.
Now that they had arrived in a coastal nation and the Safe City’s territory had expanded, they should collect as many ships as possible and store them away. They might come in handy in some future world.
Cheng Qisheng made a note of that in her notebook, then pulled up the Safe City’s information panel.
[Safe City — Tier 3]
[Actual Area: 8,000 square kilometers]
[Descent Area: 50 square kilometers]
[Key Facilities:]
Air Tower ×1 (Tier 1)
(Coverage: Supports up to 500 million humans)
Water Wells ×2 (Tier 1)
(Coverage: Supports up to 300 million humans)
Through the eyes of her believers, she surveyed the surroundings.
At first glance, it looked as though the Safe City was floating directly on the ocean. In reality, it wasn’t. The city’s descent area fit onto the island with almost perfect precision, even leaving a tiny bit of room for the zombies.
It was simply too large.
The small fishing village sat beside it like a pebble next to a massive city.
If the travel team hadn’t still been in the village, Cheng Qisheng might not even have been able to make it out clearly from her bird’s-eye perspective.
Had the island been any smaller, it wouldn’t have been large enough to accommodate the Safe City’s descent area.
While the fishermen of the village stood awestruck by this miraculous city, the “Lord” had already finished inspecting the new environment and begun balancing the books.
This was one of Cheng Qisheng’s habits. Although she always knew exactly where every crystal nucleus had gone, she still liked to neatly write the expenses by hand in her ledger after spending them. Only then did things feel truly settled.
First, she checked her savings:
8,340 crystals.
Then she reviewed her recent income and expenditures.
When the crystals from Mianyan City were divided, Cheng Qisheng received:
One Tier-4 crystal (worth 40,000 ordinary crystals),
20,000 crystals from a Tier-3 zombie,
Plus an additional 13,121 crystals as her share.
Including her previous savings and the crystals earned by Blue Sea’s residents and military from ordinary zombies in Mianyan City, she had accumulated a total of 47,219 crystals.
(Her believers were truly hardworking.)
That brought the grand total to:
94,340 crystals.
Expenses:
Upgrading to Tier 3: 30,000 crystals
Constructing Safe City facilities (most of which went toward purchasing floating-road equipment): 20,000 crystals
Purchasing an additional Water Well, completely solving the city’s water supply problem: 15,000 crystals
Purchasing weapon-production materials: 20,000 crystals
Relocation costs: 1,000 crystals
Finally, the accounts balanced perfectly.
The ledger closed without a single discrepancy.
She should indeed have exactly 8,340 crystals remaining.
That amount of crystals would be considered a fairly comfortable reserve for any Tier-3 Safe City.
But Cheng Qisheng had realized something:
This “savings account” wasn’t enough.
Although Blue Sea’s current weapons stockpile was still relatively abundant, at the present rate of consumption, their stored mineral resources would not last long.
She had two choices:
Either spend crystals in the shop to purchase weapon-manufacturing materials,
or devote a significant amount of time in this world to sending residents to mine resources from various mining regions.
That would likely require quite a bit of time. The good news was that the agricultural zone also needed more development time, so the two needs overlapped.
The same amount of time could produce two different gains.
In addition, this latest relocation had made Cheng Qisheng realize that they would not always be lucky enough to find a suitable landing site.
She had no idea what the next world would be like, so she preferred to plan around the worst-case scenario.
— What if there simply wasn’t enough space for the Safe City to descend?
What if a disaster world consisted entirely of endless ocean?
Or what if it was covered by volcanic eruptions?
She couldn’t leave the future to chance.
Cheng Qisheng added another note to her notebook:
Before traveling to the next world, the warehouse must contain 34,000 crystals.
30,000 reserved for a Levitation Device.
Of the remaining 4,000:
1,000 reserved for relocation expenses.
3,000 reserved for emergency early-world-exit costs.
Even if they couldn’t save up enough crystals, then in the absolute worst-case scenario they must at least keep 4,000 crystals in reserve, allowing them to retreat immediately if faced with a situation where the Safe City could not descend.
This was simply Cheng Qisheng’s habit—adding one more layer of insurance against disaster.
Her gaze shifted toward the interior of the Safe City.
The military forces had already assembled and were ready to depart.
The first batch of residents chosen by lottery for the expedition had also gathered.
They were excited.
Every one of them.
Soldiers and civilians alike.
The soldiers were relatively restrained. Thanks to military discipline, only a hint of excitement showed on their faces.
The civilians, on the other hand, had no such restrictions.
They lined up freely at the city gates, raising their voices over the noisy crowd as they enthusiastically discussed things with their teammates, family members, and coworkers.
“I’m almost saved up enough for a year’s apartment rent—I’m only 1,000 points short!”
“I heard this is a huge country, and it’s even a tourist destination. There are supposed to be tons and tons of zombies. That’s awesome! I should be able to grab plenty of kills this time!”
“I’ve already seen the zombies outside. There are so many of them, and they’re all packed together instead of being scattered everywhere. This must be a blessing from our god. Praise be to our god!”
“The ocean! I’ve never seen the sea before! I’m going diving! I’m going fishing!”
As they waited in line, the residents looked toward the military passageway on the level above.
The road was broad, spiraling downward level by level and connecting directly to two of the Safe City’s gates.
One resident watched the soldiers depart and began to worry.
“Why does the military get to go out first? Can’t all the gates be opened so we can go out at the same time?”
He was concerned that the military would clear out a large portion of the zombie hordes before the civilians got outside.
If that happened, scattered residents like him would only be left with whatever zombies the military hadn’t already killed.
And that wouldn’t earn many crystals.
The AI had recently developed the Blue Sea Forum, which felt a bit like how people communicated online before the apocalypse—though it only worked within the Safe City’s boundaries.
Even though users could only post text and images, not videos, it was still a lot of fun.
Some people even posted novels they had written.
His favorite titles included:
—When the Apocalypse Arrived, I Became a Transcendent
—Spreading Divine Oracles in a World of Magic
—After 900 Million Battles, I Upgraded from Public Housing to a Luxury Villa
To enjoy browsing the forum more comfortably, he was eager to move into one of the electrified residential apartments.
With the AI’s current charging schedule for mobile phones, there was no way he could spend enough time browsing the forum.
Unfortunately, he had previously loved food a little too much. He had spent nearly all the points he earned on eating and drinking, leaving him without enough points to move into better housing.
As a result, this resident stared at the zombies outside with eyes that practically glowed green.
The companion beside him reminded him:
“Didn’t you read the announcement carefully? It said there’s a village on this island, and some of our Blue Sea residents are there. The villagers saved them.”
The resident gave an embarrassed chuckle, though his eyes remained fixed on the distant zombie silhouettes outside.
“I only saw that we’d arrived at a new battlefield. I didn’t pay attention to the rest.”
“You should read more carefully next time. The AI issued a notice. Before the official offensive begins, the military will move out first and destroy the two roads connecting the village to the rest of the island, so our fighting doesn’t affect the local people.”
“Oh! So they’ll only bomb the roads, not the zombies, right?”
“Exactly. This is just an island. The military’s main forces will be focused on the mainland of Yunbula.”
Upon learning that the military wouldn’t be “stealing kills,” the resident was completely relieved.
“That’s fantastic!”
Cheng Qisheng silently watched her believers chatting.
She knew that the contingency measures she had planned would most likely never be needed.
— Blue Sea would bring her more than enough crystals.
