Chapter 52: Puya Safe City
For the past few days, Wen Huahua had been focusing on chatting with a city lord whose spawn region happened to have a large number of Skywing Dragons.
“Weren’t you worried about this before? Your finances were already tight, and now you’re supposed to relocate just because of a bunch of practically useless, low-value snow beasts.”
Patiently, he broke down the numbers for the other party.
[Moving costs 1,000 crystals. But now, if you’re willing to pay just a 399-crystal combat service fee, Boss Blue Sea will wipe out all those Skywing Dragons for you. The contract is this clear and comprehensive, so what are you still hesitating for? The moment I got this commission, I came straight to you.]
The city lord’s name was Quan Shazi.
To people from other civilizations, the name Quan Shazi might sound rather strange, but in his own civilization it carried a meaning roughly equivalent to “Strong Stone”—a name meant as a heartfelt blessing.
His life had followed much the same path as that of most city lords. He had been living an ordinary life in his home world when the apocalypse suddenly descended, and by sheer luck, he became the lord of a Safe City.
He named his city Puya Safe City.
There was no special meaning behind it. When it came time to choose a name, he had been so terrified by the apocalypse that the only thing he could think of was the name of the company he worked for—Puya—so that became the city’s name.
That alone was enough to show that Quan Shazi was, by nature, not a particularly courageous person.
But Wen Huahua also knew that besides being timid, Quan Shazi had another defining characteristic:
He was poor.
Among Safe Cities, city lords at Tier 2 or below were generally strapped for resources. They lacked supplies, talented personnel, and crystals. Every decision required careful budgeting.
If it had been a wealthy city lord with crystals to spare, they would have flatly refused the moment someone asked for their world’s spawn coordinates, no matter how thorough or secure the alliance agreement was.
But for someone like Quan Shazi—who wished he could split every single crystal in half to make it stretch further—it was a different story.
It was much like the protagonist in a horror movie living in a haunted house: no matter how many terrifying incidents happened every few days, they would stubbornly refuse to move because they simply couldn’t afford to.
“Is it really that he doesn’t want to move? No—he just can’t afford to live anywhere else.”
How much money could someone who was willing to live in a haunted house possibly have?
That was exactly Quan Shazi’s situation.
To him, this alliance agreement was like that haunted house. Even though nothing seemed wrong with it on the surface, it still made him uneasy.
But if he turned it down… the truth was that he didn’t have many crystals left. 399 crystals —that was 601 crystals cheaper than the relocation fee.
There were no crystals to be found in this world. Saving six hundred crystals was like, before the apocalypse, being forced to spend a million dollars but then discovering you could save six hundred thousand instead.
Quan Shazi had spent the last three days reading and rereading the alliance agreement Coriander had sent him. He had practically memorized every word, yet he still couldn’t find a single loophole.
Even so, he still couldn’t bring himself to make a decision.
The main reason was that if such a powerful figure was willing to spend her own resources to descend into his world, she had to be after something.
Quan Shazi couldn’t figure out what she wanted, so naturally, he assumed she must be after something of his.
Wen Huahua knew exactly what Quan Shazi was worried about.
Blue Sea wasn’t in a hurry to descend, so he had planned out his entire persuasion strategy in advance. He deliberately waited until about three days had passed before, when Quan Shazi once again voiced his concerns, putting on a mysterious expression and letting slip a tiny piece of information.
Coriander Safe City: [You’re worried because you think Boss Blue Sea isn’t getting anything out of this, right? Well… I’ll tell you something, but you absolutely can’t tell anyone else.]
Quan Shazi’s eyes immediately lit up.
I knew there was something going on!
A hiring contract this generous, a combat service fee this cheap—if there wasn’t some hidden reason behind it, that would be the strange part!
He hurriedly promised,
[Tell me! I swear I won’t leak it! I’ll even sign a nondisclosure agreement!]
Without missing a beat, Wen Huahua sent over an NDA.
Quan Shazi instantly became even more convinced that whatever information this was, it had to be extremely important to that powerful city lord.
In the past, Wen Huahua would have simply told him from the very beginning:
[Boss needs those Skywing Dragons, so this is a win-win for both of you…]
But recently, after attending management lessons alongside Boss Blue Sea, he had learned quite a few new tricks.
Some kinds of information, if you blurt them out from the start, won’t necessarily be believed. The other person might even think you’ve fabricated the whole thing as a trap. And even if they do believe you, the moment they realize that something worthless to them happens to be valuable to someone else, they may start thinking:
“If you need it that badly, shouldn’t you be the one paying me crystals?”
But if you first focus on the other party’s needs, then deliberately let a few clues slip so they can piece together part of the truth on their own, the situation becomes completely different when you finally reveal the information.
During those three days, Quan Shazi had undoubtedly agonized over the matter countless times. He hadn’t accepted the offer—but he hadn’t rejected it, either.
That meant he wanted to say yes.
He was simply afraid of the risks.
Over those three days, he must have repeatedly weighed the pros and cons, gone over his finances again and again. And the more he calculated, the more he would realize just how badly he needed this opportunity.
So when Wen Huahua finally revealed that Blue Sea wanted the Skywing Dragons, Quan Shazi’s first reaction would be:
“Thank goodness. I knew there had to be a reason. As long as she’s not after me, it’s fine.”
In the end, Quan Shazi saved himself the relocation costs, Blue Sea achieved her objective while earning a modest combat service fee, and everyone got what they wanted.
Creating that kind of win-win outcome was exactly what Wen Huahua, as the middleman, was striving for.
Truth be told, he was still somewhat inexperienced at this sort of thing. But as he gradually got the hang of it, it felt as though an entirely new world had opened up before him.
Come to think of it, if Boss had negotiated with Quan Shazi personally, she probably could have achieved the same result—perhaps even faster than he could.
Yet she had spent crystals to formally hire him as the intermediary…
Wen Huahua couldn’t help but read deeper into it.
Could Boss be using this opportunity to evaluate what I’m capable of?
I have to handle this perfectly. Everyone should come out ahead! I can’t let Boss’s painstaking efforts go to waste!
While these thoughts raced through his mind, the tone he used when speaking to Quan Shazi remained perfectly businesslike.
[Boss Blue Sea has a use for the Skywing Dragons. That’s all I can tell you.]
—Sometimes, acting mysterious is a strategy in itself. The other person will fill in the blanks with their own imagination.
[Think it over carefully. Boss doesn’t lack crystals—she just wants the Skywing Dragons, so she takes on combat commissions like this as a side job. Shazi, give it some thought and let me know by tomorrow if possible. If you decide against it, I’ll have to look for someone else.]
Quan Shazi suddenly understood.
Now it all makes sense.
Although he couldn’t understand why something as bizarre as Skywing Dragons would be useful, there were countless civilizations across the myriad worlds. Perhaps they were worthless to his civilization, but valuable to Blue Sea’s.
Even so, he didn’t make his decision simply because everything finally seemed to add up.
Instead, he summoned the think tank of Puya Safe City, and the group held an intense strategy meeting that lasted for more than two hours.
In the end, they decided to accept the offer.
The reason was the same as always:
They were poor.
Not every Safe City entered a new world after making thorough preparations. Puya Safe City had nearly been wiped out in the previous world. Fortunately, Quan Shazi had acted decisively, cutting his losses and retreating before it was too late.
But that ordeal had left the city severely weakened, and its stockpile of crystals had dwindled to almost nothing.
Although this world offered valuable item cards, crystals remained the very foundation of a Safe City.
If the next world also turned out to be one where crystals couldn’t be obtained, Puya Safe City might not even be able to afford the cost of leaving. They could end up stranded there permanently.
Even after deciding to take the risk, however, Quan Shazi remained cautious.
[I want the contract to be signed in the group chat, where everyone can see it. And I want it made clear beforehand that if anything happens to us, I’ll immediately post Puya Safe City’s coordinates in the group.]
This was beyond Coriander’s authority to decide, so he immediately forwarded the message to Cheng Qisheng.
Cheng Qisheng was actually somewhat impressed with Puya.
She wasn’t sure whether this idea had come from Lord Puya himself or from one of his residents.
After all, Puya was only a Tier 2 Safe City, while Blue Sea was Tier 3. If Blue Sea really did descend into their world and immediately declared a Safe City War, Puya wouldn’t stand a chance of escaping anyway.
Theoretically, however, a Tier 3 Safe City couldn’t wipe out a Tier 2 one instantly. That was why Puya insisted that if anything unexpected happened, they would immediately post their coordinates in the group chat.
Among more than forty Safe Cities, there would certainly be some that wanted to join the battle—or at least take advantage of the chaos and grab a share of the spoils.
If that happened, the weaker Puya Safe City would almost certainly be destroyed, but Blue Sea wouldn’t come out unscathed either.
[So, anyone who’s managed to reach Tier 2 really isn’t a fool.]
Heh. Learned another trick.
Cheng Qisheng looked toward the virtual screen.
Ever since arriving in this world, she had hardly spoken in the group chat. There were simply too many Dazzling Star Safe Cities, and the world’s mechanics encouraged residents to explore independently rather than relying on centralized coordination.
But now…
If Blue Sea wanted to obtain as many Skywing Dragon wings as quickly as possible, it was probably time to make an appearance.
The Skywing Dragons in Puya Safe City’s region alone were unlikely to meet Blue Sea’s demand.
Blue Sea needed more coordinates.
Blue Sea Safe City: [Sure! Thanks for your hard work, Coriander. I agree to his conditions. Let’s post the contract in the group chat. =v=]
The Dazzling Star city lords’ group chat was always lively.
But today, something unusual happened.
What had normally been an eight-out-of-ten level of activity suddenly shot up to a twelve.
Puya Safe City and Blue Sea Safe City were going to publicly post an alliance agreement in the group chat!
In the group chats of most worlds, there were usually a few relatively high-tier city lords whose words carried weight, along with moderators who kept discussions under control.
But Dazzling Star was different.
This world was extraordinarily vast, and an unusually large number of city lords had arrived here. Its survival style also revolved around each Safe City fending for itself.
As a result, even after all this time, the group chat remained a free-for-all. Everyone spoke over one another, and there was no such thing as, “You’re stronger than us, so we’ll defer to you.”
With more than forty city lords in the chat, if each person sent just one message, the conversation could be flooded with over forty new messages in a single second.
Some people were even more talkative than others, sending several messages in a row. The chat scrolled so quickly that messages flew past one after another, making it nearly impossible to tell who had said what.
[A public announcement? Does posting it publicly make the contract legally binding?]
[No. They just want to make it public themselves. The important part is the condition afterward—if the alliance agreement has a loophole and the deal falls apart, Puya will release its Safe City’s coordinates.]
[Does anyone know if having your neck half broken is okay as long as you use a healing item to stop the bleeding?]
[A war? In a world so cold people don’t even want to leave their houses?]
[About the guy with the broken neck—if you’re a Tier 3 Transcendent, you’ll be fine. If you’re only Tier 2, you might die.]
[Got it, thanks. One more question: if I have to live with my head tilted from now on, will I get a stiff neck a lot?]
[Camping here for the coordinates. Maybe I can swoop in and snag some leftovers.]
[What exactly is the snow beast they censored in the contract? What kind of creature could make a Tier 3 Safe City willing to pay out of pocket just to relocate there?]
[No idea. Probably a snow beast that drops a huge number of item cards.]
Cheng Qisheng watched the messages continue pouring in.
Fortunately, her eyesight was excellent. She didn’t miss a single one.
Once she was sure that most of the city lords had spoken up and participated in this little “grand event,” she relaxed.
The details about the Skywing Dragons and the combat service fee had been deliberately obscured after she discussed it with Puya beforehand.
To everyone else, it simply looked like an ordinary paid monster-clearing contract for crystals.
Blue Sea had been fortunate enough to stumble upon an opportunity—a seed from the Long-Tendril Civilization.
But what about the other civilizations?
Cheng Qisheng had no idea whether they, too, could obtain similar benefits from flying snow beasts the way Blue Sea had.
However, unless it became absolutely necessary, she had no intention of volunteering that information.
There already didn’t seem to be enough Skywing Dragons to go around. If she also had to compete with other city lords for them, things would become far more troublesome.
The current arrangement was just right.
By making the contract public, Blue Sea could steadily build up its credibility.
Then, with Coriander acting as the intermediary, they could continue making private deals with other city lords by leveraging his credibility. Each new transaction could also be publicly announced.
Wouldn’t that allow their reputation to grow little by little?
Cheng Qisheng turned her gaze toward Blue Sea.
All of the believers who had gone out exploring had already returned—
Except for Song Xi and her two companions, who were still struggling to survive out in the snowfields.
Cheng Qisheng had already sent them a message informing them that the Temple would be relocating. None of the three were particularly upset.
After all, even if Blue Sea didn’t relocate, they wouldn’t have been able to make it back anyway.
They would simply continue exploring. Perhaps they’d run into the city by chance someday. And if not, that was fine too. Once Blue Sea’s people had flight wings, picking up a few stranded residents would be an easy task.
While Cheng Qisheng busied herself preparing for the relocation, the people of Blue Sea, having received the divine decree, had already made their own preparations.
The Blue Sea government’s plan for acquiring as many flight wings as possible was remarkably simple and direct.
The government didn’t assign quotas.
Nor did it tell anyone they had to kill a certain number of Skywing Dragons.
Instead, the central AI simply distributed information to every resident: details about the flight wings, demonstration videos, and their cost.
Buying a pair of flight wings outright was extremely expensive.
However, if someone brought in all four wings from a Skywing Dragon, they would only need to pay a relatively small number of contribution points to receive a pair of flight wings of their own.
There was one catch.
The supply of materials was limited.
Applications would be processed on a first-come, first-served basis.
The sooner you registered with a complete set of Skywing Dragon wings, the earlier your place in line would be.
Please decide for yourselves.
The people of Blue Sea:
!!!
Flight wings?!
All it takes is one Skywing Dragon and some contribution points?!
Skywing Dragons?!
Where are they?!
Watching the promotional video, with its breathtakingly cool flight wings—large, imposing, practical, and undeniably stylish—
Every Blue Sea resident felt a blazing fighting spirit ignite within them.
—
Quan Shazi stared nervously into the distance.
Blue Sea Safe City was about to arrive.
He had no idea what their first meeting would be like.
At any rate…
He had already made preparations to run for his life if things went south.
Just as he was thinking that, the air in front of him rippled, and an enormous Safe City descended from the sky.
Quan Shazi immediately raised his binoculars and looked over, ready to flee the instant anything seemed amiss.
Then the city gates opened.
Good. They’re probably sending an envoy.
He had already prepared an envoy on his own side. The two parties would have a normal, friendly discussion, and then—
Quan Shazi suddenly froze.
A vast sea of people poured out of the gates, blanketing the snowfield almost instantly.
Even from a great distance, he could feel the overwhelming fighting spirit radiating from them. It was so intense that it nearly made him stop breathing.
This is bad!!
That damned alliance agreement, drafted with such obsessive caution… did it actually have a loophole after all?!
If even a contract like that can be exploited, then is any alliance between Safe Cities truly safe?!
Instinctively, Quan Shazi took a step backward.
He was just about to post his coordinates in the group chat.
Fortunately, although the spectacle had stunned him, he hadn’t completely lost his reason.
It didn’t take long for him to realize something was off.
These people weren’t charging toward Puya Safe City.
Without slowing down in the slightest, they sprinted straight past it in the opposite direction.
It was obvious they had prepared for this in advance. In fact, “prepared” hardly did it justice—they were practically racing one another, striding across the snow with their long legs as if competing to see who could get there first.
Quan Shazi stood there dumbfounded.
His brain seemed to have stopped working altogether.
Only his eyes continued to follow the rapidly changing scene unfolding across the snowy plain, watching Blue Sea’s residents charge forward as though every single one of them were trying to outrun their own teammates.
Wait…
Why are people still coming out of your city gates?
There were simply too many of them.
Every single person wore a black winter parka.
From afar, it looked as though a tide of black ink were steadily spreading across the white snow.
Like an encroaching stain.
That dense black mass rapidly engulfed the region where the Skywing Dragons roamed.
