“Grave robbers?”

“You mean a tomb raider, right?”

Chen Dong looked a little puzzled. “Don’t we usually call them ‘wandering Taoist’ around here? That jargon doesn’t sound like something people in our area would use. Jiang Xia, where did you hear it?”

Oh, no. Not again!

The moment she finished speaking, Jiang Xia realized she’d once again let some underworld slang slip out.

Why was it so hard to keep her mouth under control?

She was a little annoyed with herself, but this wasn’t something she could simply stop doing just because she wanted to.

After all, once certain knowledge or skills became deeply ingrained, they could turn into something like a conditioned reflex. The body would react before the brain had time to think, and when it happened, the response could feel perfectly natural.

It was like a designer who regularly used Photoshop trying to draw something on paper. If they made a mistake, their first instinct wouldn’t be to reach for an eraser and redraw it. Instead, their right hand might instinctively press Ctrl+Z, as if they could undo the mistake. Or consider asking anyone in China who had gone through the nine years of compulsory education, “How are you?” Chances were, they’d instantly give the same automatic reply without thinking.

Fortunately, she hadn’t said much. It should be easy enough to explain away.

Keeping her expression perfectly natural, Jiang Xia replied, “I heard it down south. A few days ago, I went to Quzhou to draw a portrait and happened to get caught up in a case related to feng shui. So I chatted with the spirit medium who came over, and that term came up in the conversation. I just happened to remember it.”

She briefly recounted the cannibalism case from beginning to end, hoping to divert his attention.

“Hiss—”

Chen Dong sucked in a sharp breath before she had even finished the story.

Over the years, Chen Dong had seen plenty of murder cases and dead bodies, so he wasn’t particularly squeamish. Even so, hearing about someone who had unhesitatingly murdered a child and then eaten the child’s flesh and bones just to cure his leg still horrified him.

Huang Xueling was even more appalled. She raised a hand to cover half her face, unable to believe what she was hearing.

“A six-year-old child! Can you even call the murderer human?”

Jiang Xia sighed. “Well, he at least looked human.”

“A case like this… Sigh.”

Everyone felt a pang of sorrow. Fortunately, all three children had been rescued, and the murderer had already been apprehended. There was no doubt he would receive a heavy sentence, which made them feel at least a little better.

However, it didn’t take long for Liao Zhongsheng to realize something else.

Jiang Xia hadn’t just drawn a portrait for the family annihilation case. She had also drawn one for this cannibalism case.

If she’d drawn a portrait for this one, what about the other cases?

She must have drawn portraits for those too!

Considering Jiang Xia wouldn’t be staying much longer, who knew how many cases these people would bring her to work on before she left?

A surge of indignation rose in Liao Zhongsheng’s heart.

The Quzhou police were far too ruthless! Given Jiang Xia’s circumstances, they should have let her rest for a few days. Even taking a stroll to clear her head would have been fine. How could they drag her into more work?

Was it really a case of not caring because she wasn’t one of their own?

If they’d been in a neighboring city, he might have been able to do something about it. But Quzhou was in another province, and there was nothing he could do to demand justice on her behalf.

The thought made his liver ache with anger.

Liao Zhongsheng couldn’t help resenting Lu Yixing.

Usually, that kid was pretty perceptive. Why hadn’t he stepped in to stop this, at least?

What a useless fellow!

“Let’s leave that aside for now.”

Jiang Xia deftly steered the conversation back on track.

“Brother Chen, how long ago was this grave-robbing tunnel discovered? If it’s been too long, there might not be much trace evidence left at the scene.”

“I was just about to ask the same thing.”

Trace Examiner Li was equally puzzled. “This doesn’t seem like a particularly major case. The local police station should be able to handle it. Why was it referred to us?”

“The tunnel is quite old, probably over a year old. There really aren’t many traces left.”

Chen Dong answered their questions one by one. “The case was initially reported to the local police station. They sent people out yesterday and spent the entire day searching. Then they found another six excavated graves in the surrounding area. That made things much more serious, and the station couldn’t handle it on its own, so they referred it to us.”

After a moment, he added, “Apparently, one of the six tunnels looks relatively new, as though it was dug within the past week or two. There’s a good chance we’ll be able to find the perpetrator’s footprints there.”

“I see. That explains it. Let’s go, then.”

Trace examiner Li nodded in understanding and stood up. He turned to Huang Xueling. “Xueling, you’re coming too.”

Chen Dong then looked toward Photographer Zhao. “You should come along as well, Photographer Zhao. If we find any footprints, we’ll need you to photograph them and preserve the evidence.”

Photographer Zhao nodded. “All right. I’ll go get my camera.”

“I’ll come take a look too.”

The case didn’t sound particularly difficult, and since it involved grave robbing, Jiang Xia wanted to get some practice in. She volunteered, “The countryside covers a huge area. It’ll take Trace Examiner Li a long time to search by himself. I’m pretty good at tracking footprints, so we’ll find things faster if I help.”

I almost forgot about that!

Chen Dong slapped his thigh.

Over the past few months, Jiang Xia had spent so much time drawing suspect portraits that he’d forgotten how, the first time they’d met, she’d already shown herself to be just as good at examining footprints as Trace Examiner Li.

He immediately agreed. “That’s excellent! Maybe we’ll be able to get there and back sooner than expected.”

Trace Examiner Li and Photographer Zhao gathered their respective equipment. Jiang Xia also took her portrait case along, just in case it came in handy.

The group hurried downstairs.

Compared with the local police station, the municipal public security bureau had much better transportation. Its officers had a fleet of motorcycles, many equipped with sidecars that turned them into three-wheeled motorcycles. Each driver could carry two passengers.

The only problem was that these vehicles were difficult to handle. They were hard to turn and prone to tipping over. Once cars became more widespread, they were gradually phased out.

For now, though, they remained a primary means of transportation for many public security bureaus, and plenty of police officers knew how to ride them.

The case didn’t seem particularly complicated, so Captain Tan hadn’t assigned many people. He’d simply sent Deputy Captain Zeng Jun and Chen Dong to take the technical personnel to inspect the scene. Two motorcycles with sidecars were just enough to accommodate everyone.

Chen Dong was driving Jiang Xia’s group’s motorcycle, with Photographer Zhao riding behind him. Jiang Xia sat in the more spacious sidecar.

On the way, Chen Dong struck up another conversation. “I heard the local police are still counting the graves. I reckon they’ll find that more than seven have been dug up. Given how long this has been going on and how many graves there are, there’s a ninety percent chance the culprits are local farmers. What a bunch of shameless bastards! Aren’t they afraid they might dig up their own relatives?”

“Come to think of it, they might have started with their own ancestral graves.”

Jiang Xia chuckled and replied casually, “When people are desperate for money, what won’t they do? Digging up graves to borrow money from the dead isn’t unheard of. Back in the Republican era, plenty of descendants of the Qing imperial family used the excuse of relocating their ancestors’ remains to have people dig up their family tombs and take the valuables. Even princes weren’t spared!”

Of course, this was all knowledge from her tomb-raiding skills. She’d even seen actual footage of it. She’d watched it like a documentary on the train, and it had made for pretty entertaining viewing.

Come to think of it, digging a grave robbers’ tunnel was nowhere near as satisfying as having descendants lead the way. Just imagine being able to dig openly in broad daylight…

Stop right there! She didn’t want to break the law, nor did she want to change careers and become an archaeologist.

“Good grief! People actually did that?”

Chen Dong had never heard of anything like it. He looked rather surprised. “Where do you get all this stuff?”

“Various miscellaneous books, old newspapers and magazines, that sort of thing. I’ve read so much random stuff that I can’t remember where I came across it all. Yesterday, I even bought a copy of the Book of Burial and the Book of Changes to read.”

Jiang Xia continued building up her new persona. “As criminal investigators, we need to learn about all sorts of things from all over the country. You never know when that knowledge might come in handy.”

“That’s true.”

Chen Dong wholeheartedly agreed.

After all, crime victims and perpetrators came from all walks of life, and their occupations often left distinctive traces. If investigators knew what to look for, they could quickly narrow down the pool of suspects.

“Actually, we should also read more about forensic techniques. Those are even more useful.”

Listening to their conversation, Photographer Zhao suddenly chimed in. “I read in a journal that there’s a new reagent called luminol. Even if there’s only a tiny trace of blood, you can spray it on the area, draw the curtains, and turn off the lights. In the dark, it’ll glow blue.”

“That means we won’t have to worry so much about crime scenes that have been thoroughly cleaned. Blood seeps into the flooring, so even if someone scrubs everything until it looks spotless, the blood only disappears to the naked eye. Residual traces will still remain, and the reagent can reveal them. I heard it won’t be long before our municipal bureau receives a batch!”

Jiang Xia looked at Photographer Zhao in surprise.

Well, well! She’d assumed Photographer Zhao was just a lazy fellow who spent his days reading newspapers. Who would’ve thought he was secretly working so hard behind the scenes?

If he already knew enough to bring it up, he might even have figured out the reagent’s formula and how to use it.

No wonder he could get away with openly slacking off. It turned out he had the core technology in his hands!

“Is it really that useful?”

Chen Dong perked up, too. “When will we get the reagent?”

“Soon.”

Zhao thought for a moment before giving a more conservative estimate. “Maybe in another half a month or so.”

“That’s wonderful, then!”

A hint of delight appeared on Chen Dong’s face. “We won’t have to worry so much about cases where the crime scene has been cleaned up!”

“That’s a problem for the future.”

Jiang Xia steered the conversation back to the case. “By the way, Brother Chen, with ordinary people’s graves, the only valuable thing is usually the corpse itself. Unless the body was taken for a ghost marriage, after four years it would have decomposed quite a bit. I imagine only the bones are left. Medical schools and health sciences colleges have a real need for those. Is it possible the bones were sold to one of them?”

“Captain Tan had the same thought.”

They were approaching an intersection. Chen Dong slowed down and carefully steered around the corner as he replied, “That’s why he sent Little Lu and Old Guo to investigate.”

Once they’d picked up speed again, Chen Dong continued, “Schools do need human skeleton specimens, but the source has to be legal. So there’s probably an intermediary involved. Someone might even forge donation documents. That wouldn’t be quick to investigate, either, so we’re pursuing both leads at the same time.”

Jiang Xia nodded slightly.

After all, the demand for human remains in China was relatively straightforward. They were either used in ghost marriages or needed for teaching at schools. There weren’t all sorts of bizarre uses, such as collecting bones, making ornaments out of them, consuming them as medicine, or using them in occult rituals.

With such a limited range of possibilities, the investigation should be relatively easy. If things went smoothly, they might even solve the case in just a few days.

The only question was what condition the bones were in, and how many they could recover.

As Jiang Xia pondered this, the motorcycle with its sidecar left the city.

After following the highway for a while, Zeng Jun and Chen Dong turned onto a dirt road, one after the other. Both instinctively slowed down.

Even so, the uneven road made the vehicle bounce and jolt incessantly. They had to grip the handlebars tightly to keep it from veering sharply to either side.

Jiang Xia could no longer sit as casually as before, either.

She grabbed both sides of the sidecar and braced her legs against the wooden box in front of her, pinning it firmly against the side so it wouldn’t keep rocking back and forth and banging into her.

At that moment, she decided that the policy of connecting every village with roads was the greatest policy in the world. No contest!

The two motorcycles with sidecars continued rattling and bouncing along the dirt road.

They were heading toward the farmland of Xiaobei Village. The most recently robbed grave was in that village. However, Captain Zeng didn’t know its exact location, so he had to stop every now and then to ask for directions.

After more than forty minutes of bouncing along the rough road, a village gradually came into view.

“That should be Matun Village,” Zeng Jun shouted. “Xiaobei Village is just a little farther ahead. We’re almost there!”

Jiang Xia let out a long sigh of relief.

They were finally almost there.

The motorcycle and sidecar continued forward at a steady pace. As the sun climbed higher, the heat began to build. Farmers working in the surrounding fields put away their tools, walked barefoot to the field edges, slipped on their straw sandals, hoisted their tools onto their shoulders, and headed home in twos and threes.

The roar of the motorcycle was impossible to miss. Before the vehicles had even passed them, the farmers were already looking over. Most wore envious expressions, while others looked surprised.

They envied the motorcycles. Riding in one looked so impressive. Those who were surprised, meanwhile, couldn’t figure out why so many public security officers had suddenly shown up.

Had someone died somewhere again?

<< _ >>

The post Criminal Master System Ch.62.1 first appeared on A Wandering Potato.

—BOOM!!

The chase up ahead finally came to an end.

The vehicle was violently flipped over, and the people inside were dragged out.

Since this area was so vast and sparsely populated, Lu Kan could still faintly hear the three important figures begging for mercy and screaming in agony, even though they had already traveled quite a distance.

“Let me go! Please, I’m begging you! I have—I have a lot of assets! I’ll give them all to you, every last bit! Just don’t kill me! I’ll lick your shoes! I can—I can work for you! Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do it! Please, I’m begging you…”

The Safe City residents who had captured the executives pretended not to hear a word.

Before they set out, their City Lord had repeatedly warned them that once they captured the executives, they absolutely must not listen to any of their nonsense.

“They might have some assets, but everything they own belongs to Blue Sea now. [Ota] has made it perfectly clear that it wants every [Company] executive dead. It doesn’t matter if you fail to catch your targets, but if you’ve already got them in your hands and then let them go out of greed, and [Ota] finds out about it, our Safe City might not even survive.”

In the Safe City system, it was hardly unusual for someone to possess extraordinary abilities that allowed them to uncover all sorts of secret events.

Didn’t the lord of Greenroot have exactly that kind of ability?

And lately, Greenroot and Blue Sea had been getting along famously.

Their City Lord had issued an absolute order.

“No matter how convincing these executives make their promises sound, don’t listen to a word they say. Kill them and bring back their heads.”

The residents sent out to carry out the bounty missions had, of course, been carefully screened beforehand. They were completely unmoved by the [Company] executives’ desperate pleas for mercy. Without hesitation, they drew their blades.

The [Company] executives, who were kneeling helplessly on the ground, felt their hearts jolt at the sight. Overwhelming terror sent them into a frenzy of desperate struggling, but in the hands of several extraordinary ability users, they couldn’t move even an inch.

“No! No! Don’t kill me! Please, I’m begging you! I really can do anything! Please, don’t kill me! Don’t…”

Hadn’t everything they had done been for the sake of immortality, so they wouldn’t have to face death?

For the sake of eternal life, they had fled like rats, eaten rotten food that would never have been allowed anywhere near them in the past, and drunk filthy yellow and brown water. They had stumbled from place to place in desperate flight, betrayed by their subordinates, hunted by mutant beasts, and pursued by people determined to kill them. They had lived without the slightest shred of dignity, comforting themselves with the thought that everything would be fine once their Safe Cities arrived.

But now, death was right before their eyes.

The terror that nearly overwhelmed them completely left the [Company] executives weeping uncontrollably, tears and snot streaming down their faces. They desperately racked their brains, trying to come up with something valuable enough to trade for their lives.

Yet all they could do was watch in utter despair as the blade drew closer and closer.

“Please, don’t! Don’t—AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!”

…

Tagu was staring blankly out the window.

After informing [Ota] about the weapons depot at the Institute of Science and Technology, he had finally fulfilled his life’s mission.

Tagu didn’t know what [Ota] would do, or whether it would win. But he knew that he could now die in peace and go to see his mother without any regrets.

A knock sounded at the door.

Tagu continued gazing at the natural plants outside the window without turning his head. He simply said, “Come in.”

[Ota] had indeed treated him very well.

After giving them the coordinates of the weapons depot and the access codes, he had originally intended to wait quietly for death.

But [Ota] had provided him with plenty of good food and drink. Meals were delivered to him at regular times every day, and they had also brought him a large collection of audiovisual entertainment to pass the time. A doctor even came to examine his health daily.

Nevertheless, Tagu continued to waste away rapidly. It had nothing to do with his treatment. He was simply old, and having finally fulfilled his life’s mission, he had let go of the last thing keeping him going.

Besides, he no longer wanted to live.

He was afraid of hearing that [Ota] had failed. Rather than risk that, he would prefer to die while still holding on to hope.

“Tagu, I’m coming in.”

A familiar doctor in a white coat walked into the room. This time, however, she hadn’t brought any of the medical equipment used to check his vital signs.

Instead, she walked over and switched on the old-fashioned television in the room.

“The Three Major Companies have been eliminated. I thought you’d want to see this.”

Tagu, who had been sitting motionless by the window like a man already dead, suddenly lit up.

He whipped around. “W-What?”

“These are videos and photographs from the scene. Take a look.”

Tagu practically threw himself at the television, almost too impatient to wait another second.

He had never visited the territories of the Three Major Companies, but he recognized their insignias.

He watched the footage documenting the battles, saw the places where buildings that had once belonged to the companies now lay in ruins, and then watched as photographs of one company executive after another appeared on the screen, each labeled with a name. Beside each photograph was an image of their corpse, confirming their death.

These were the people who had caused his mother’s death, turning what should have been an apocalyptic plan to save the people of Moon Silk into a genuine apocalypse.

And now, every last one of them was dead!

Tagu gazed greedily and intently at the photographs, delightedly studying the lingering expressions of fear and agony on the [Company] executives’ faces.

He wanted to burst into hysterical laughter, yet he also wanted to break down sobbing.

It was as though something had filled his heart to the brim, only for it to become utterly hollow in the very next instant.

His entire life had been leading to this moment. Everything he had done had been for this very day!

Ota had done it!

This force that had disguised itself as a [Company] had actually done it!!

Tagu laughed maniacally, tears streaming down his face. He laughed until every last bit of strength had drained from his body, then leaned against the table and gazed up at the ceiling.

“Mom… I did it. I avenged you. I avenged all of us…”

“I can… I can finally die in peace…”

The Blue Sea cleric had refrained from disturbing Tagu, allowing him to release all the emotions he had kept bottled up inside.

But when she heard those words, she still spoke up.

“Actually, you don’t have to die.”

“We have anti-aging medication that can extend your lifespan. Although your situation is rather unusual, and the deterioration of your body differs from that of an ordinary person, a researcher named Jin Yin has still managed to develop a medication specifically tailored to your body.”

The cleric, whose actual age was eighty-two but who looked no older than an ordinary middle-aged person thanks to the anti-aging medication, slowly approached. She gently patted Tagu on the head as he lay sprawled on the floor, staring up at her in bewilderment after suddenly hearing that his life could be extended.

“Tagu.”

She slowly crouched down, meeting the gaze of the deeply wrinkled old man.

His eyes still held the look of that same young child who had lost his mother in the midst of terror and fear.

Tagu listened as the other woman spoke softly.

“How about we give you the injection today?”

“You’ve completed your revenge. You did it.”

“Now, you can begin a brand-new life.”

“One lived for yourself alone. For Tagu.”

Tagu looked at her with bloodshot eyes. After a long moment, he finally nodded hard. “Okay.”

His lips trembled as tears rolled down his face one drop at a time. He wept like a child, nodding as he cried.

“Okay.”

…

Cheng Qisheng wasn’t surprised in the slightest to discover that Tagu had become her believer.

Or, to put it more accurately, Tagu had first become a believer in Blue Sea. Then, once he understood the concept of Blue Sea’s Creator God, he had seamlessly become a believer in the Creator God in the span of a single second.

He might need some time to recover, but with the Creator God’s blessings and Old Eighth’s care, Tagu would be able to welcome a new life.

Cheng Qisheng was also living a brand-new life of her own.

Blue Sea had truly struck it rich this time, and the profits were still rolling in.

She was currently planning to upgrade the Safe City to the next tier.

After all, they needed to accommodate the people of Moon Silk while also storing the enormous quantity of supplies and energy resources they had collected from the planet. Blue Sea simply didn’t have enough space anymore.

Ah! What a wonderful problem to have~

The higher a Safe City’s tier, the more nuclear crystals it needed, with the cost doubling at each successive upgrade.

The cost of upgrading from Tier 6 to Tier 7 had shot straight up to fifty million nuclear crystals.

Cheng Qisheng: No problem. We’ve got money! Upgrade!

At this point, she was practically rolling in wealth. The nuclear crystals Blue Sea had earned from the Truth Stone alone were more than enough to fuel a series of rapid tier upgrades.

Moreover, the situation on Moon Silk had made Cheng Qisheng realize something.

The Tier 5 and 6 City Lords had all been willing to pay 1.88 million nuclear crystals just to ask a single question.

In theory, the higher a City Lord’s tier, the more worlds they had experienced, and the wealthier they were as a result—with the exception of the Octopus City Lord.

Once she reached Tier Seven, wouldn’t she be able to take the Truth Stone to other worlds and earn nuclear crystals from Tier 7 City Lords, too?

Cheng Qisheng eagerly began planning with Aether how to make use of the additional space Blue Sea would gain after its upgrade.

She was happily admiring the plans when several private messages suddenly popped up.

[Coriander Safe City: Boss! Guess what! My residents found a new mine, and while digging, they struck treasure!]

[Coriander Safe City: Boss! It’s a weapons depot, hehe! There’s so much stuff! My residents are still cracking the access codes. Once we get it open, let’s split the loot, okay?]

[Coriander Safe City: Wait, I found treasure? Doesn’t that mean I’ve triggered the Fortune Comes from Taking Risks?]

[Coriander Safe City: …Boss! There really is a huge underground shelter even deeper down! It hasn’t been opened, and I saw the insignia of the real Ota!]

Cheng Qisheng: Here it comes.

Blue Sea had previously speculated that there was a good chance the real [Ota] still existed. After all, given the way the real [Ota] operated, it was unlikely to have been outmaneuvered by the Three Major Companies. If anything, it was far more likely to have outmaneuvered them instead.

Besides, the Three Major Companies had believed that the real [Ota] possessed a [Heaven’s Punishment] weapon.

If the real [Ota] had appeared earlier, then even without a [Heaven’s Punishment], its recorded strength would have left Blue Sea with no choice but to retreat, however reluctantly.

But the real [Ota] was appearing now.

The Three Major Companies had been wiped out, and the world-mission rewards had already been distributed.

Blue Sea now possessed three [Heaven’s Punishment] weapons.

So, tell me: who’s the real [Ota] now?

<< _ >>

The post Safe City Ch.192.2 first appeared on A Wandering Potato.

After witnessing firsthand how Blue Sea Safe City operated internally, large numbers of residents from other Safe Cities joined Blue Sea on the spot.

Those who didn’t join immediately all had people they still cared about or assets they had left behind in their former Safe Cities.

At this point, all they could do was hope their City Lords would bring their Safe Cities back into view, giving them a chance to pack up their entire families and flee.

As for the City Lords, with the generous rewards from World Mission and Blue Sea’s bounty notices targeting [Company] executives, they were already having far too good a time to think about leaving.

Even Safe Cities that hadn’t participated in the bounty hunts could approach Cheng Qisheng and pay some nuclear crystals to purchase the location of an underground mine.

Cheng Qisheng hadn’t set the price particularly high. After all, there were plenty of underground mines on Moon Silk, and Blue Sea couldn’t take them all away anyway.

For a small or medium-sized mine, she charged 360,000 nuclear crystals. That was an absolute bargain.

As long as the City Lords stayed behind to mine, bringing their residents together to devote themselves wholeheartedly to the work for half a year, they could earn back at least four times their initial investment, including labor and material costs.

Most importantly of all, Blue Sea Safe City was willing to sign contracts. Any Safe City that purchased an underground mine from her or had received a bounty reward even once would receive her guarantee that she would never launch an attack against them of her own initiative. This meant those Safe Cities could remain on Moon Silk and harvest its resources without worrying about being attacked by Blue Sea.

Now that was an irresistible offer.

They had clearly been terrified by Blue Sea’s strength, yet they still refused to leave. Wasn’t it precisely because Moon Silk was so rich in resources?

Even without mining, the second-order mutant beasts roaming everywhere, the mutant plants that could be put to use in all sorts of fields, and the scattered pieces of Moon Silk technology they could collect were already enough to make the City Lords as happy as mice spotting rice, foxes spotting chickens, or humans spotting a paycheck.

They had originally thought that as long as Blue Sea Safe City didn’t use the excuse, “I took down the Three Major Companies, so I’m the boss of Moon Silk now. You can’t just take my stuff whenever you want,” to stop them from gathering resources on Moon Silk, that would be good enough.

They hadn’t expected Blue Sea to deliver those resources right to their doorstep.

Three hundred and sixty thousand nuclear crystals was certainly no small sum, but the important thing was that the underground mineral deposits would absolutely allow them to recoup their investment and earn several times that amount in profit.

Blue Sea was truly benevolent!

For a while, the City Lords’ group chat on Moon Silk once again became a cheerful, harmonious place, all thanks to Blue Sea Safe City’s latest move.

As for Cheng Qisheng, all she had to do was hold the map of Moon Silk’s underground mineral deposits and open her mouth to name a location.

It was a win-win situation.

And so, practically everyone on Moon Silk had fallen into a mining frenzy.

Oh, no, that wasn’t quite right. Some people weren’t mining at all. Instead, they were running around hunting down [Company] executives.

Although the various Safe Cities were focusing primarily on mining, their City Lords were all at the fifth or sixth tier. They were hardly so socially inept that they didn’t know how to behave.

Since they had benefited from Blue Sea’s generosity, and Blue Sea was now the undisputed boss of this planet, they naturally had to find a way to give Blue Sea what it wanted.

Besides, the City Lords had plenty of residents at their disposal. They could easily have large numbers of people mining in one area while sending another group to hunt down company executives.

Whether they actually managed to kill any executives was another matter. But the whole process of sending people to hunt them down and demonstrating their support for Blue Sea was absolutely essential.

…

Lu Kan discovered that Moon Silk had changed.

Of course, with all three major companies gone, Moon Silk was bound to be different.

But that wasn’t what he meant. What he meant was that things had changed in a truly astonishing way.

First of all, after [Ota] took down the Three Major Companies and became Moon Silk’s new uncrowned king, it didn’t impose taxes on the New Humans.

The various lords, both great and small, who had heard about the shift in power and hurriedly brought people and gifts to pay [Ota] a visit returned looking like entirely different people. Not only had their taxes and fees dropped dramatically, but they even started paying people they recruited to work in the mines.

At first, Lu Kan assumed that only the lord governing his own area had changed. But as the owner of a small merchant caravan, he traveled through three different regions, and the people in all three had entered an entirely new way of life.

They mined, earned wages in [Ota] coins, and used those coins to buy food and other necessities.

Those once-impoverished little towns had gained a great deal of prosperity almost before his eyes. With so many people finding work as miners, they now had money to spend.

At first, Lu Kan hadn’t known exactly when [Ota] had taken down the Three Major Companies. Of course, as the owner of a small merchant caravan who kept himself fairly well informed, he had long since noticed the strange atmosphere among the four companies and suspected that a major battle between them was inevitable.

He had simply been puzzled when the local lord stopped collecting land taxes.

Then some of the smaller factions operating under the lords had also stopped going around capturing people and openly treating them as their sl*ves, as they had done before.

Only later did Lu Kan hear the news: [Ota] had won. It hadn’t merely seized one [Company] and taken its place. Instead, [Ota] had wiped out all three major companies.

Ota had announced to every lord that the entirety of Moon Silk now belonged to [Ota] and was considered [Ota]’s property.

And that property included human beings.

That meant they were all now [Ota]’s possessions, classified as first-level assets. This was why those factions no longer dared to openly seize people and ensl*ve them: doing so would amount to plundering [Ota]’s assets. The lords had also stopped collecting land taxes, because the land itself belonged to [Ota] as well.

And that brought things to where they were now, with Lu Kan witnessing all of this firsthand.

[Ota] had a remarkably deep affection for underground mines. No matter where Lu Kan went, the people in that region were sure to be hard at work mining every single day.

One thing worth noting was that, at least in the regions Lu Kan had visited so far, [Ota] coins were accepted and widely used.

People were more than happy to receive [Ota] coins. For a newly introduced currency, it had certainly spread at an astonishing speed.

Moon Silk’s people were now facing a whole host of changes: a new currency for trade, new taxes and fees, new jobs, new food, new social interactions, and a new way of life.

“Over there!!!”

“Quick, chase them!!!”

Lu Kan and his caravan watched as a vehicle sped past them. Behind it, several people without vehicles took off in hot pursuit, running so fast that they could keep up with the car using nothing but their own two legs.

Yes, this was another new development.

For the sake of safety, merchant caravans generally tried to travel through areas that had once been saturated with radiation but were now relatively safe.

The people of Moon Silk were reluctant to leave their hometowns, so these vast stretches of land, once known as the [Name] Death Zones, made excellent shortcuts for merchant caravans.

There were few mutant beasts in these areas, and no humans lived there. Even during the Eternal Night, the number of night beasts gathering in these places was relatively small.

Most merchant caravans had their own routes through the Death Zones. They would quietly make their way through these uninhabited regions, enjoying the rare feeling of having the entire place to themselves.

But recently, things had changed.

For some reason, despite these Death Zones being remote, far away, and sparsely populated, nobody had ever bothered coming here before—not apart from small merchant caravans like theirs.

But people who looked like important figures had inexplicably started showing up in these places.

Then, for equally inexplicable reasons, all sorts of strange people would come after them, trying to hunt them down.

“This is the third time this has happened, isn’t it?”

Lu Kan stood beside his trained mutant donkey and motioned for the other members of his caravan to remain just as still as he was. They waited for the pursuit up ahead to come to an end.

Based on his experience from the previous two encounters, if the pursuers managed to catch their targets, they would probably be in an excellent mood afterward. They might even come over to his caravan and buy some expensive food to celebrate.

Under similar circumstances, Lu Kan would have long since taken his caravan and fled as fast as possible. After all, on Moon Silk, the rule had always been that whoever had the bigger fists got the final say. These people were mutants with all sorts of unusual abilities. If they took a fancy to his goods and decided to rob him, his caravan might well lose the fight, even with its own weapons.

But now he had some experience to draw on, didn’t he?

This wasn’t Lu Kan’s first encounter with such a situation. The people who had been hunting those important figures during the previous encounters really had wanted to take some of his goods by force.

However, when one of them tried to approach the caravan, his companions stopped him.

The group argued for a while in a language Lu Kan couldn’t understand. In the end, they reached an agreement, left the caravan alone, and instead took out [Ota] coins to buy some food and water.

The second time, Lu Kan encountered another group. They also spoke a language he couldn’t understand, but they were much friendlier. They even spent an entire night of the Eternal Night alongside the caravan and, in halting Moon Silk, explained why the previous group had wanted to make a move but ultimately held back.

“You can think of it this way: we were all sent out by our respective lords, and [Ota] considers every one of you a resident—in other words, an asset. Our lords don’t dare offend [Ota]. They’ve repeatedly warned us not to cause trouble for them while we’re out and about. So even if someone takes a fancy to your goods, they wouldn’t dare actually do anything about it.”

At the time, Lu Kan hadn’t understood. “But this place is so remote. Even if those people really did something to us, how would [Ota] ever find out?”

The man gave him a mysterious smile.

“To be honest, they aren’t sure whether [Ota] would find out, either, or whether it has some way of gathering information like this. But if [Ota] does find out, their actions will be considered a provocation against [Ota], and the territory they belong to could end up being treated as enemy territory.”

“The people we’re hunting are enemies of [Ota]. They’ve already lost any ability to fight back, yet [Ota] is still offering an enormous bounty for their capture. That’s what happens when you go against [Ota].”

Lu Kan listened in growing alarm. At the time, he had thought that this explained why those people had fled to the Death Zones, and why others were still pursuing them there.

Fortunately, he was just a nobody. He had never even had the opportunity to offend [Ota].

He cautiously asked, “Then, do you know what [Ota] has planned for us?”

The man’s expression grew somewhat complicated. Perhaps Lu Kan was mistaken, but he even thought he detected a trace of envy in the other man’s eyes.

“All I can say is that [Ota] doesn’t do anything without a purpose. Since it won’t allow our lords to harm you, that proves it has plans for you.”

He gave Lu Kan a hug. Although they had only known each other for a day and a night, they had gotten along remarkably well. So he offered Lu Kan a piece of advice, too.

“Remember this: if one day [Ota] says it wants to take you somewhere, you must agree, no matter where it says it’s taking you or whether you even understand what that place is. You must agree to go with [Ota]. No matter what, follow it.”

At the time, Lu Kan had been utterly bewildered by those words, but he had still hurried to agree.

It was true that the New Humans had received little education and had limited knowledge. But they were still ordinary human beings who could recognize what was good and what was bad.

And the fact was, ever since [Ota] had wiped out the Three Major Companies, life for the New Humans had been getting better with each passing day.

Lu Kan had also noticed a sharp decline in the number of times he was targeted by robbers. After all, people could now find mining jobs almost anywhere that paid enough to cover their food and drink, with some [Ota] coins left over to save.

That was a much faster way to make money than robbery.

Even without the advice from his new friend, if [Ota] wanted him to do something, Lu Kan would agree without the slightest hesitation.

<< _ >>

The post Safe City Ch.192.1 first appeared on A Wandering Potato.

It was a holiday.

As dawn began to break, Qian Le placed a bulging cloth bag and a water flask into his bicycle basket. He tied a shovel and a sickle to the crossbar, put on his straw hat, and swung his leg over the seat. Pushing down hard on the pedal, he rode out of the alley.

He was planning to visit his old man outside the city.

His father had been gone for four years now.

In the city, most people were cremated, and their ashes were buried in public cemeteries. But his father simply couldn’t accept that. He believed cremation was no different from having one’s bones ground to dust, leaving the dead unable to find peace in the afterlife. He had insisted on a traditional burial.

Fortunately, their family still had relatives in the countryside, and they were fairly close kin, sharing a great-great-grandfather several generations back. With a little help from money and connections, his father had secured a plot beside a small hillock. A proper funeral had been held, complete with music and ceremonial processions, and he had finally been laid to rest. At least that way, his last wish had been fulfilled.

The only problem was that the grave was rather far away. Apart from the Qingming Festival and the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth lunar month, he hardly ever had time to visit and pay his respects.

The previous year, especially, the snowfall had been so heavy that he’d worried about slipping on the road and being unable to make it back. After agonizing over it for a long time, he’d ultimately decided not to go.

But this year’s Qingming Festival, he’d made the trip. He’d even borrowed some tools and done a rough cleanup of the area around the grave.

There had simply been too many weeds to clear them all. He’d removed the growth in front of the tombstone and pulled up some of the weeds around the burial mound, but there was still plenty left unfinished when time ran out.

For some reason, though, after that visit, everything had been fine for about a month. Then, over the past month or two, he’d started dreaming about his father repeatedly.

At first, his father berated him for being an unfilial son. Not only did he rarely come to visit, but when he finally did, he couldn’t even clear away all the weeds! The grave soil had eroded away, and he hadn’t bothered to add any fresh earth, either.

Later, his father inexplicably began to cry, mumbling something indistinctly as he did so.

No matter how hard Qian Le tried to listen, though, he couldn’t make out what his father was saying.

At first, Qian Le hadn’t taken the dreams seriously. But eventually, his old man started crying so miserably that Qian Le could barely sleep anymore.

So he’d taken care of his family affairs, arranged shift swaps and compensatory leave with his colleagues, and finally managed to free up two days. Now he was going to give the grave a thorough cleaning.

Once he finished, he’d burn some extra paper money for his father, hoping the old man would finally stop visiting him in his dreams at night.

Otherwise, he was seriously considering hiring someone to perform an exorcism!

With that thought in mind, Qian Le pedaled and puffed his way along for most of the morning. At long last, he arrived at his father’s grave.

The entire area was covered in lush, thick weeds of all kinds. Some were blooming, while others had shot up wildly to heights well over half a person’s height. The tombstone was almost completely submerged in this sea of greenery.

The burial mound behind it was in even worse shape. It had shrunk to less than half its former size and was now entirely concealed beneath the weeds.

A burial mound was formed by piling the excavated soil back over the coffin after burial. The earth wasn’t packed down particularly tightly, so wind and rain gradually washed it away. Without regular additions of fresh soil, the mound would steadily shrink.

One look at this grave made it clear that no one had tended to it for a very long time.

Qian Le sighed, a pang of guilt rising in his heart. He took the bicycle off his shoulder and leaned it against the side.

After resting for a few minutes, drinking some water, and eating a couple of steamed buns with pickled vegetables to fill his stomach, Qian Le took out his sickle and began clearing the weeds around the grave.

As a city dweller, he rarely did this kind of work, so his movements weren’t particularly quick. Fortunately, he was patient. After four or five hours of work, he finally managed to cut down all the weeds in front of the tombstone, on the burial mound, and in the surrounding area.

But that alone wasn’t enough.

Without digging out the roots, the weeds would grow back wildly before long.

Qian Le cleared away more weeds around the area to create a firebreak. Then he took a bottle of gasoline he’d prepared in advance from his bag, found a fairly thick branch, and fashioned it into a torch. He began burning the remaining weed roots and stems.

This method wouldn’t solve the problem once and for all, but at least he wouldn’t have to worry too much about the weeds for the rest of the year.

As he burned the weeds on the grave, he muttered, “Dad, I’ve cleared all the weeds off your grave now. I’ll add some fresh soil in a bit, too. Just sleep peacefully down there, okay? Please, please don’t come looking for me again.”

As he continued burning the weeds, Qian Le began to feel as though he’d finally fulfilled one of his obligations. His body was exhausted, but his heart felt considerably lighter.

He poured a little more gasoline onto the torch, then circled around to the side. Just as he was about to continue burning the remaining roots, he suddenly noticed a small piece of brown wood sticking out beside them.

What was that?

Puzzled, Qian Le reached out and brushed away the surrounding weeds. He picked up the object and examined it. It was only about the size of the tip of a finger, and its reverse side was black, as though it had been coated with black lacquer.

Wait. Black lacquer?

His father’s coffin had been coated with black lacquer on the outside!

A sudden sense of dread washed over Qian Le. He looked down again and suddenly realized that the soil in this spot seemed a little different from the soil elsewhere.

The dirt nearby was grayish, the old surface layer that had been exposed to the elements for years. But here, the soil was brown, as though fresh earth had recently been dug up from below.

Qian Le’s heart gave a sudden lurch.

He hurriedly stuck the torch into the ground, grabbed his shovel, and began digging furiously.

More than twenty minutes later, a large, unmistakable hole had appeared before him.

Suppressing his disgust at the stench, Qian Le strained to peer inside.

The coffin, which had once been intact, had begun to rot. Overall, though, it was still holding together and hadn’t collapsed inward. The end where the feet should have been, however, had completely rotted away, leaving a gaping hole. Through the opening, he could just make out what lay inside.

Nothing but dirt.

There was nothing else at all.

Qian Le’s mind went blank for several seconds before he gradually began to comprehend what he was seeing.

Where’s my dad?!

Which bastard stole my father?!

Are they even human?!

Paying no attention to anything else, Qian Le grabbed his shovel and sickle, hoisted his bicycle onto his shoulder, and ran toward the road dozens of meters away.

No wonder his father had been coming to him in tears! Even after being buried underground, the old man couldn’t rest in peace!

He had to call the police. Right now!

He needed to find his father as quickly as possible—and then make the bastard who’d dared to steal his dad pay with his life!

…

Jiang Xia had finally returned to work.

She’d been away for several days, and seeing this familiar environment again gave her a surprising sense of nostalgia.

But why did she feel as though people kept looking at her?

Puzzled, Jiang Xia went upstairs as usual. The moment she pushed open the door to the Technical Division, every single person inside turned to look at her in perfect unison.

What was going on?

“Jiang Xia, you’re finally here!”

Zhao Zhaoxiang was the first to greet her. With a broad smile on his face, he picked up the journal and waved it around.

“Your paper got accepted by Forensic Science and Technology! It’s on page eighty-six!”

Accepted?

So soon?

Jiang Xia’s breathing caught, and she suddenly felt a little dizzy.

She was confident that the techniques described in her paper were good. But then again, what technique published in a journal like this wasn’t good? She’d been fairly certain her paper would be accepted, but she hadn’t been one hundred percent sure.

Now that she’d heard it had actually been published, the weight she’d been carrying in her heart suddenly lifted. She felt as though she might float right off the ground.

It had really been accepted!

No wonder people had seemed to be staring at her as she’d come upstairs. So that was why!

Jiang Xia took a deep breath and hurried forward.

“Quick, let me see!”

“It’s right here.”

Zhao Zhaoxiang had already placed a bookmark on that page. He immediately opened the journal and handed it over.

“Look, your name is right here! By the way, I didn’t really do anything. Why did you include my name, too?”

“Aren’t we all in the same division? Besides, everyone helped me a lot with this project.”

Jiang Xia smoothly delivered the usual polite response, but as she gazed at her name printed on the page, she was absolutely delighted.

To have her name published in a journal of this caliber—she could finally say that her transmigration into this world hadn’t been in vain!

The more Jiang Xia looked at the journal, the happier she became. Forensic Doctor Sun rarely lifted his head from his work, but now he looked up with a cheerful grin.

“I still remember, Section Chief, you said that if this paper really got published, you’d treat us all to a meal. So, when are you treating us?”

Zhao Zhaoxiang immediately chimed in. “Exactly, Section Chief! What about that celebratory dinner?”

“Oh, honestly! Every last one of you is eyeing the few coins in my pocket!”

Liao Zhongsheng pretended to be displeased as he pointed at them one by one with his index finger. Then he turned to Jiang Xia and said,

“But this is such wonderful news that we really ought to celebrate. Jiang Xia, where would you like to eat?”

Speaking of dinner reminded Jiang Xia that she’d also promised to treat someone to a meal.

It would be a perfect excuse to meet up with him in private.

I’ll go find him later.

She raised her head, just about to answer Liao Zhongsheng, when someone suddenly appeared in the office doorway.

It was Chen Dong.

He first looked toward Trace Examiner Li’s desk, but then his peripheral vision caught sight of Jiang Xia.

“Trace Examiner Li, there’s a—Jiang Xia, you’re back! Congratulations!”

“Same to you, same to you,” Jiang Xia replied, playing along.

Seeing how hurriedly he’d arrived, she asked, “Is there a case?”

Chen Dong nodded slightly. “Yes. Someone came to report that his old man back in the countryside is gone. I was going to ask Trace Examiner Li to come take a look with me.”

“If someone’s died, shouldn’t you be looking for Forensic Doctor Sun?”

Trace Examiner Li, meanwhile, looked confused.

“What use would a trace examiner like me be in this situation?”

“Listen to me, I misspoke.”

Chen Dong slapped his forehead. “I didn’t explain it clearly. His father died four years ago, but someone dug up his grave and stole everything—the corpse and all the burial goods!”

“Someone dug up a grave?”

Jiang Xia immediately perked up. Puzzled, she said, “It’s not an ancient tomb, and there shouldn’t be any valuable antiques inside. Who would go to the trouble of robbing it? This doesn’t sound like the work of professional grave robbers. It sounds more like someone in the countryside stealing corpses to sell…”

She paused, then added, “But isn’t that usually done with female corpses? Why would they even steal someone’s father?”

The moment she said this, both Chen Dong and Liao Zhongsheng turned to look at her in surprise.

How did Jiang Xia even know about this sort of thing?

And she’d casually thrown around all that underworld jargon, too. She sounded just like someone who worked in the trade!

<< _ >>

The post Criminal Master System Ch.61.2 first appeared on A Wandering Potato.

Cheng Qisheng could sense that the Eighths were in a very bad mood.

In fact, ever since they entered this [Norn Technology Park], the Blue Sea residents had been feeling terrible. However, they had been mentally prepared for this, and with the blessings bestowed upon them by their God, they had still managed to keep their emotions under control and carry out their tasks according to plan.

But when this anonymous person appeared—a person who had endured years of suffering, whose thoughts had been shattered into fragments, yet who still remembered to give them the shelter address of a colleague—the anger in the hearts of the Blue Sea residents reached its peak.

The people of Blue Sea had always revered the brave.

They admired those with powerful bodies who could fight ferocious beasts in hand-to-hand combat. They also admired those with strong minds who remained true to themselves, no matter what they encountered.

To the people of Blue Sea, both were heroes.

It was much like the first world Blue Sea Safe City had descended upon. Back then, Blue Sea itself was overcrowded, with people packed shoulder to shoulder and nowhere near enough space in the city.

One of the most important reasons they had been willing to accept the residents of Velvet Star was their admiration for the first Velvet Star native they had encountered.

After being infected with the zombie virus, she had been determined not to hurt her daughter. Relying on sheer force of will, she had managed to pull out her own teeth within the limited time she had left, then locked herself inside a room to keep herself away from her child.

It was witnessing all of that, and coming to admire her courage and resolve, that had led the people of Blue Sea to begin accepting residents from other civilizations.

And now, the more they admired this anonymous person—someone whose age, gender, and name were unknown, and who had been turned into a brain in a vat—the more fiercely their anger burned.

And so, everything returned to the familiar track the Eighths knew so well.

Bad mood = mental discomfort = physical discomfort = subconscious feeling of being attacked = must drag out whoever attacked them and kill them.

At this point, they no longer felt uncomfortable, nor did they find this area unbearable. Their minds were filled with nothing but the fighting spirit to take on the company’s executives.

“I’m going to drag them out one by one! I’m going to turn those company executives’ faces into flatbreads with my fists!”

“I’m going to kick them so hard I’ll break their ribs!”

“Then, like catching moles, I’m going to dig up those blasphemers one by one and drag them out of their holes!”

Cheng Qisheng did not interfere with the will of the Blue Sea residents.

Originally, she hadn’t intended to hunt down the company executives who had fled. Although she detested their actions, the Great Annihilation was still waiting for them, and as the victorious party, all she wanted was to devote her time to gathering resources faster and in greater quantities.

From a broader perspective, what Cheng Qisheng was doing was indeed the most advantageous course of action for her side. It would allow Blue Sea to obtain greater benefits.

But then again…

That anonymous person had delivered 451 researchers to Blue Sea, including as many as 39 Black Researchers.

Having received such a benefit, helping them take a little revenge on the executives was only fair and reasonable.

Cheng Qisheng had Aether display a global virtual map of Moon Silk.

The map had been obtained from the [Norn Company]. It marked various types of mineral deposits, showing which areas contained resources and which had already been cleared by company personnel.

The [Companies] had been deliberately concentrating Moon Silk’s resources in their own warehouses. However, they hadn’t actually plundered every last deposit. Instead, they had intentionally left some wild mineral deposits scattered throughout the various regions.

After all, the [Companies]’ original plan had been to wait for the apocalypse to bring Safe Cities to the planet, then kill their city lords and seize control of the cities.

And Safe Cities hadn’t come here for sightseeing. Their fundamental purpose in visiting each apocalyptic world was to replenish their own supplies.

Without enough bait scattered across the planet, how could the companies ensure that these Safe Cities would be willing to stay?

Now, Blue Sea had effectively acquired the enormous treasure trove of resources the companies had already extracted or were still in the process of mining. Simply transferring all of it directly back to the Safe City would already make Blue Sea incredibly wealthy.

There were still plenty of small and medium-sized gold mines scattered across the planet, some already exposed and others still hidden underground.

The [Companies] had long since thoroughly surveyed Moon Silk’s various mineral deposits, including all kinds of underground resources.

Although these underground deposits appeared to be outside the companies’ control, their coordinates had already been marked on the companies’ maps. They were simply waiting for the Safe Cities to arrive, ready to be used as bait.

—In fact, some of the mineral deposits controlled by [Norn] had indeed attracted Safe Cities. It was just that, under the influence of the Cognitive Lock, the company’s executives had failed to recognize them entirely.

And now, all of them belonged to Cheng Qisheng.

She tapped the map in midair, quickly selecting a large number of small and medium-sized mineral deposits.

They were all medium-sized mines, producing energy resources that Blue Sea currently had in abundance.

The situation was now like this: the biggest tool Blue Sea had at its disposal was a bucket.

But the resources on Moon Silk could fill an enormous water vat.

Even if Blue Sea started mining around the clock from this very moment, it still wouldn’t be able to extract all the mineral resources currently available on Moon Silk.

Rather than leaving them on the planet to be annihilated along with everything else when the Great Annihilation arrived, she might as well use them to trade for something.

Cheng Qisheng had Aether compile the sizes of these mines and estimates of how many resources each could yield, then sent the information straight to the City Lords’ group chat.

[Bounty for company executives! Dead or alive, executives from any of the Three Major Companies are acceptable. Five executives in exchange for one mine.]

[The areas around the mines have already been cleared by the Companies, and some mining equipment has been left behind. The general details are listed below—]

[In addition, I’m selling the precise coordinates of underground mineral deposits. DM me with your offer.]

After sending the messages, Cheng Qisheng selected several underground mineral deposits near Coriander and sent over the detailed information compiled by the Companies.

[Blue Sea Safe City: Coriander, finish mining these deposits within four months, then pack up and leave~]

Now that she had a huge water vat at her disposal, Cheng Qisheng naturally didn’t mind splashing a little water on her little underling.

[Coriander Safe City: !!!]

[Coriander Safe City: Waaaaah, thank you, boss!!! I’m so grateful, boss! I’ll pledge my loyalty to you until the end of time!!!]

Coriander immediately launched into another round of extravagant flattery and fervent declarations of loyalty.

…

Meanwhile, the City Lords’ group chat was just as lively.

The City Lords of the Safe Cities all shared one characteristic: under normal circumstances, everyone kept their cards close to their chest, hiding this and concealing that, never revealing too much.

But whenever a benefit appeared, they would rush forward faster than anyone else.

Even if a City Lord offered a hundred pieces of rotten wood, there would still be people scrambling to get them.

Let alone a bounty like this, with a clearly stated price, a formal contract, and the offer posted directly in the group chat.

The City Lords who had previously been so cautious around Cheng Qisheng that they practically wished she didn’t even know they existed suddenly became extremely active.

[As expected of a big shot! You’re so generous!! I’m sending my residents out to look for leads on the company executives right now!]

[Five executives for one mine!! Aaaah, I’m in!]

[Don’t worry, boss! My residents are experts at hunting people down!]

Some City Lords happily accepted the bounty, while others gave orders to their residents. Still others coveted the mineral deposits but felt that hunting people down wasn’t their strong suit, so they contacted Cheng Qisheng privately to ask how much she was charging for the mines.

But regardless of what these City Lords were doing, they were all quietly raising their assessment of Blue Sea’s threat level.

—Although, to be fair, that threat level had already been pushed about as high as it could possibly go.

The various Safe Cities had witnessed the battle between Blue Sea and the three major companies. They understood perfectly well that this had been an overwhelming victory for Blue Sea.

Some well-informed City Lords had heard rumors that the company executives had fled, but they didn’t take the matter seriously at all.

So what if they’d run away?

The company executives were terrifying neither because of their physical prowess nor because of any unparalleled intelligence.

The fundamental reason for the rise of the [Companies] was their exploitation of researchers. They seized the various technologies developed by those researchers and put them to use in every field imaginable.

Now that the executives were fleeing in disarray, they certainly wouldn’t have many trusted subordinates around them, and they definitely wouldn’t have much weaponry at their disposal. Add the looming Great Annihilation to the equation, and even if they managed to escape, they wouldn’t pose any future threat.

There’s a saying about kicking a dog when it’s down. The [Company] executives weren’t merely dogs that had fallen into the water anymore. They’d been skinned alive and were now barely clinging to life.

And yet, even under these circumstances, Blue Sea still intended to hunt them down.

“Write down the name Blue Sea Safe City and mark it clearly. Under no circumstances are we to provoke her. If we ever have to choose between her and another Safe City, as long as the difference in their levels isn’t particularly large, we must choose Blue Sea.”

Inside one of the Safe Cities, a City Lord was giving careful instructions to his record keeper.

“Also, make sure we’re polite and courteous when speaking to her… Hmm, let’s add some emojis, too.”

He personally disliked using emojis when he spoke. His native civilization simply didn’t have that custom.

But since Blue Sea used them, that meant she liked them. Catering to her preferences couldn’t hurt.

He wasn’t hoping to grow closer to her or make her develop any particular fondness for their Safe City. He simply wanted to avoid giving her a bad impression.

The record keeper quickly jotted everything down, then looked up and asked, “My lord, how many stars should I assign to this in terms of importance?”

“Ten! Max it out!”

The City Lord took a deep breath, thought for a moment, then added;

“…Also, see if there’s any way we can establish a friendly relationship with Blue Sea.”

A Safe City with overwhelming strength, an aura that could crush everyone else, and a long memory for grudges—one that would even chase down and kill its enemies when they were already beaten—was truly terrifying.

In the past, if he’d encountered a Safe City like that, he would undoubtedly have preferred to leave the planet as soon as possible, even if it meant giving up some resources.

Strangely enough, however, Blue Sea Safe City didn’t seem particularly inclined to attack others of its own accord.

It even had a follower.

And judging by the way that follower chatted and spoke, he was enthusiastic and cheerful, and his flattery of Blue Sea came so naturally that he didn’t seem the least bit afraid of saying the wrong thing. It was clear that Blue Sea treated this follower, who went by the name Coriander, quite well.

That sent everyone a message: Blue Sea was approachable. It was possible to communicate with her and build a relationship.

Watching this unfold, they naturally began to wonder, ‘What would it be like if I were one of Blue Sea’s followers?’

When danger struck, wouldn’t having such a powerful figure backing you up be the equivalent of having an extra life?

The more this City Lord thought about it, the more convinced he became that this was the right approach. In the end, he issued an order.

“We won’t be staying on Moon Silk for long. Have the social relations department come up with a plan to befriend Blue Sea within two days. Flattery, gifts, whatever works. The action gets nine stars for importance.”

“Yes, my lord.”

…

After the Blue Sea residents followed the coordinates provided by the anonymous researcher, successfully excavated a shelter, and used the access key to open its doors…

141 researchers were awakened from their cryogenic pods.

To avoid any misunderstandings, the Blue Sea residents sent to carry out the mission immediately recited the code phrase given to them by the anonymous researcher.

“We’re going to have a group barbecue at Kaxi’s Barbecue Restaurant today.”

The researchers, who had been awake for less than a minute, all wore expressions of sorrow.

One of them stepped forward and asked, “They’re dead, aren’t they?”

The Blue Sea officer leading the team nodded. “Yes. We’ve buried them.”

“Thank you. I’m Qiu Ka. What should we do next?”

This Black Researcher named Qiu Ka quickly composed himself. His reaction left the Blue Sea officer, who had been preparing to offer them some words of comfort, momentarily bewildered.

“Aren’t you going to ask what happened?”

Qiu Ka replied, “The code phrase has already told us everything. It means the plan failed and our colleagues are dead, but they found people worthy of our trust. We can trust you and follow your instructions.”

“If our colleagues hadn’t trusted you enough, they would never have said those words.”

She went on to recount the great rebellion that had taken place several hundred years ago.

To put it simply, the Science and Technology Institute had already discovered that something was wrong back then, but by the time they realized it, it was too late.

Some people had betrayed them. Those who remained had weathered countless hardships together, desperately trying to turn the tide. In the end, however, they had still failed to protect even the last remnants of the Science and Technology Institute.

Some researchers had families and couldn’t simply leave on their own, so they chose to stay and fight back. They covered the escape of another group of researchers who had no family ties, allowing them to flee and enter cryogenic pods, preserving a final spark of hope for the future.

“Seven hundred years. That’s how long we calculated the cryogenic period should last. Originally, we weren’t supposed to wake up until seven hundred years had passed. But since our colleagues decided to wake us early, that proves the time has indeed come for us to awaken.”

The Blue Sea officer was slightly stunned. “Your cryogenic pods can operate for seven hundred years?”

“Of course.” Qiu Ka looked at him. “Has technology regressed? In our time, cryogenic pods could preserve people for seven hundred years. They were used to freeze patients with terminal illnesses, allowing them to wake up again once a cure had been found for their diseases.”

The Blue Sea officer could only sigh. “I thought our current level of technology was already quite advanced. I didn’t realize technology was even more advanced in your era.”

Still, it made sense. If technological progress could have continued under the [Companies]’ methods, that would have been truly absurd.

He thought of the anonymous researcher who had endured unbearable pain, forcibly resisting the instinctive longing for release, just to tell Blue Sea the coordinates of this place.

“Can you tell us who knew the coordinates of this place? They’re truly someone worthy of admiration, but we still don’t know their name.”

Qiu Ka lowered her eyes slightly. The moment she heard this question, she knew what must have happened to their former colleagues.

Under what circumstances could someone be stripped of even their name?

Still, this had been one of the possibilities she’d considered upon waking. After all, their former colleagues had stayed behind for the sake of their families. Naturally, they would have been willing to do other things to ensure their families’ safety as well.

She suppressed the tears welling up, but her eyes remained red. Forcing herself to lift her head, she looked at the Blue Sea officer.

“Everyone.”

The Blue Sea officer was taken aback. “What?”

Qiu Ka replied, “There were seventy-nine people who stayed behind. Every single one of them knew the coordinates of the shelter.”

The Blue Sea officer fell silent for a moment before suddenly speaking.

“I can only tell you this: you’re Blue Sea residents now. Blue Sea will not spare anyone who has harmed you.”

He was going to apply for an assignment abroad.

He was going to personally twist the heads off those [Company] executives!!!

—And he wasn’t the only Blue Sea officer taking action.

Mineral deposits held enormous appeal for every Safe City.

And when those deposits belonged to the current overlord of Moon Silk, and the right to mine them had been explicitly granted by that overlord under a formal contract, they were all the more secure.

Nearly every Safe City still remaining on Moon Silk sprang into action.

They would make sure that, during what remained of their lives, the [Company] executives who had escaped would spend every moment drowning in fear and despair—

…

The ability user with the teleportation ability still had no idea what was coming.

After trying every possible way to wait for his own Safe City to show up, only to come up empty-handed, he had no choice but to go with the flow and enter Blue Sea Safe City alongside the other residents.

The main reason the [Teleportation] ability user was willing to enter Blue Sea Safe City was that he’d discovered the city didn’t restrict residents from coming and going.

Want to enter? Just register at the entrance.

Want to leave? You could do so at any time.

The [Teleportation] ability user: I’m just here to take a look.

He entered the Inner City.

He saw the residential facilities for Inner-City residents.

He checked out the newly opened movie theater.

He also visited the Inner-City hospital (the Temple), where he took the opportunity to ask about the prices of various medications and treatments for different illnesses.

The [Teleportation] ability user spent two whole days exploring the inner city, yet still couldn’t manage to see everything.

But he did confirm one thing: according to Blue Sea, the Safe City he’d previously lived in hadn’t been destroyed, nor had it left Moon Silk.

The [Teleportation] ability user was overjoyed.

He was still going to keep watch for his former Safe City.

Then, as quickly as possible, he would get his younger siblings out of there.

And bring them with him to join Blue Sea Safe City.

<< _ >>

The post Safe City Ch.191 first appeared on A Wandering Potato.

“Oh, heavens…”

Bo Huan, from Kadan’er Safe City, stared at the scene with a deathly pale face.

He had been rather confused about what was going on at first.

He’d originally been fighting [Zephyr] alongside the main force. Then, in the middle of the battle, his squad leader announced that [Ota] had started fighting [Norn] as well, so their unit was reassigned to deal with [Norn]’s remaining forces.

Those winged mutants were practically demons. [Norn]’s remaining forces had already been crippled by the mantle-piercing weapons, and then these mutants had proceeded to beat them into the ground.

Then [Ota] emerged victorious.

Bo Huan suddenly learned that [Ota] was actually a safe city called Blue Sea.

Before he could even process that revelation, he had already followed the main force to [Norn Company]’s headquarters.

Now, he no longer felt the slightest confusion over the fact that “[Ota] was Blue Sea.” After seeing those brains, Bo Huan’s mind had gone completely blank.

He had heard about the things the local [Companies] did, but hearing about them and witnessing them with his own eyes were two entirely different matters.

Especially when he watched the electrical currents being directed into the brains, constantly assaulting them and forcing them to think every second of every day. And when he looked at the Moon Silk script displaying scientific and technological knowledge on the giant screens, he noticed that approximately every three paragraphs, a line of tiny, densely packed text would appear.

[—Kill me kill me kill me kill me kill me please kill me kill me—]

With a deathly pale face, Bo Huan forced himself to keep reading the text displayed beneath the giant screen. It stated that the brain nearest to him had already been “working” for five hundred and thirty years.

Five hundred and thirty years.

Five hundred and thirty years of experiencing excruciating pain without a single second of respite, all while being forced to calculate various sets of data under that torment.

Bo Huan only had to imagine himself in that position for a moment to feel a chill run through his entire body. A sense of despair rapidly swept over him.

In his native civilization, an intelligent mind was a gift from heaven.

But on Moon Silk, an intelligent mind was practically a curse.

The most despairing aspect of this whole situation was that their minds had been thoroughly controlled. Each once-vibrant, brilliant life had been reduced to nothing more than a tool.

And not just any tool, either, but an extremely useful one capable of generating even greater profits for others.

Those who controlled these brains demanded that they think, and they were not allowed to stop.

All they could do was endure the pain, forever, throughout the long years that followed.

Bo Huan pressed his lips together and forced himself to look away from the nearest brain. He said nothing.

What could he possibly say?

As far as Blue Sea was concerned, he was an outsider himself. His own city lord had sent him along to share in the spoils of war. The fact that his identity had been exposed but Blue Sea hadn’t seized him was already fortunate enough.

And here were at least a hundred thousand brilliant brains. No matter who obtained them or where they ended up, their owner would essentially be able to leap straight from Technology Level 1 to Technology Level 7, then continue climbing the technological ladder as time went on.

Faced with such enormous potential gains, no one would be willing to let these brains go.

Bo Huan felt compassion for them, but his own life mattered more. The only thing he could do was avert his eyes.

As he lowered his head to stare at the ground, his squad leader returned, patted him on the shoulder, and handed him a pair of heavy-duty shears.

“Come on. I’ve got the tools ready, and here’s a pair for you. Your next task is to use these to cut the wires connected to the brains. Remember, cut every single wire.”

Holding the shears, Bo Huan froze.

“Why are we cutting the wires?”

He had assumed Blue Sea would transport the brains away together with their glass tanks. But if they cut the wires, wouldn’t the brains lose their viability?

The squad leader’s face was also slightly pale. Clearly, he couldn’t bear the scene here, either, though he was holding up reasonably well. He explained quite naturally,

“Cut the wires to give these brains a merciful end.”

Bo Huan froze again. As if parroting someone else’s words, he repeated stiffly, his tongue seemingly refusing to move.

“…A merciful end?”

“Yeah. To kill them.”

The squad leader sighed and patted Bo Huan on the shoulder.

“Brother, I know you can’t bear to do it. But trust me, this is the kindest thing we can do for these people. It’s what these brains want. We’re doing the right thing, understand?”

Bo Huan’s tongue still felt stiff.

“The right thing…”

Faced with at least a hundred thousand brains belonging to researchers who could dramatically increase an entire Safe City’s technological capabilities, Blue Sea had decided to give them a merciful end?

“We’ve already studied this thoroughly. These brains can only stay alive when they’re being electrocuted and forcibly kept in a state of suffering. Freezing them or trying anything else won’t work. So the only option is to end their lives. We can’t just leave them to suffer like this forever, can we? We did the same thing in [Zipa].”

“Did you know? They can hear us. The screens here transmit outside voices directly to them. But they can’t move or speak, and they have to remain in constant agony, forced to think endlessly under coercion. Even what they hear is beyond their control—”

As he spoke, the squad leader shuddered.

“Terrifying. My God, I’m going to pay a proper visit to the Temple and pray when we get back.”

Ever since Velvet Star, he had killed quite a few enemies. He had killed zombies, mutated beasts, and hostile combatants.

But killing an enemy was one thing. Torturing someone was another.

Watching this scene unfold, Cheng Qisheng did nothing but continue bestowing blessings upon the believers present, soothing their deeply shaken minds.

It wasn’t that Cheng Qisheng had never considered finding a gentler way to preserve these brains.

But even Moon Silk’s technology couldn’t accomplish that, so naturally, Blue Sea had even less chance of succeeding.

Blue Sea had even invited Xicao, an expert from the Duxi civilization, to examine them. However, Xicao explained that the Duxi civilization’s technological development was focused on transferring human consciousness into machines.

To achieve that, though, leaving aside whether the necessary equipment even existed, the human body itself had to remain intact. The brains on Moon Silk no longer met that requirement.

“Furthermore, if these brains really have been suffering continuously from electric shocks, as you described, without a single moment of respite, then even their thought processes have been damaged.”

Xicao explained, “No one can endure such agony. At this point, death is what they need most.”

Cheng Qisheng didn’t take long to reach her decision.

Since she couldn’t put an end to their suffering by other means, she would let them enter eternal peace.

[Norn] had possessed at least a hundred thousand genius brains, and hadn’t it still lost to Blue Sea?

Blue Sea wasn’t afraid of battle. Even without these brains, it could continue advancing, step by step.

“Our God above, may you sleep well.”

Meanwhile, the squad leader turned around. Offering a blessing, he began cutting through the various wires connected to the brain in the nearest vat without the slightest hesitation.

As one wire after another was severed, the giant screen above the brain first paused in the middle of its calculations, then displayed several lines of garbled text, as though trying to confirm something.

Finally, two Moon Silk characters appeared on the screen.

[Thank you]

The screen went dark, signifying that after enduring such prolonged torment, this brain—one that had never been given a name and was identified only by a number—could finally enter the world of eternal sleep.

Bo Huan looked at the darkened screen, then at the squad leader as he moved on to the next brain in a vat, and finally at the Blue Sea residents around him.

They were all doing the same thing.

Moving past one brain in a vat after another, they wielded their heavy-duty shears, freeing each one from its endless agony.

Bo Huan felt as though a massive boulder had slammed into his heart, then rebounded, leaving him unable to utter a single word.

For some inexplicable reason, his eyes grew red, and his nose began to sting. He strode forward and chose the nearest brain in a vat, helping it find release as well.

From the perspective of a city lord, Blue Sea’s decision might have seemed overly idealistic, giving far too little consideration to profit and the future.

But Bo Huan was a resident.

As he forcefully snipped through one wire after another, he made up his mind.

When he caught up with the squad leader, he continued cutting as he asked, “Captain, can I join Blue Sea?”

“Of course! Once you join, you’ll become an Outer-City resident.”

Many Safe Cities were divided into different social tiers. Bo Huan understood that much.

“Then what do I need to do to become an Inner-City resident? Is there some kind of merit-based system?”

The squad leader carefully took out the small statue of the Great Creator God of Blue Sea that hung around his neck.

“Blue Sea worships our God.”

“If you become a believer of the Great Creator God of Blue Sea, you can become an Inner-City resident.”

Bo Huan had already guessed that Blue Sea worshipped a deity. After all, ever since they had stopped pretending to be [Ota], they had been saying things like ‘Our God above’ and ‘Oh, my God’ at every turn.

But he hadn’t expected that the requirement for becoming an Inner-City resident of Blue Sea was simply to become a believer.

Worship the Creator God of Blue Sea?

Standing among countless brains in vats, Bo Huan gazed intently at the small pendant depicting the statue.

—Cheng Qisheng sensed it: a new chain of faith was slowly rising within her vast sea of believers.

After feeling that warm, gentle pat on the head, a single tear finally fell from Bo Huan’s reddened eyes.

“My God…”

How could he describe this feeling?

It was as though a wanderer who had been away from home for years had finally found his way back.

He could feel that, at this very moment, the squad leader beside him and all the other Blue Sea residents he had never even met before had become people he could trust.

So this is the world the captain and the others experience?

It really was… wonderful.

—One giant screen after another went dark under the tireless efforts of Blue Sea’s residents.

[Thank you]

[Thank you]

[Kill me kill me kill me—thank you]

[Thank you]

Countless expressions of gratitude were the final messages displayed on the giant screens before they went dark.

Once they realized what the people of Blue Sea were doing, almost all the brains seemed desperate for them to hurry.

The residents of Blue Sea understood. Who wouldn’t want to be freed a little faster, then a little faster still, after enduring eternal suffering and finally glimpsing the hope of release?

One Blue Sea resident had even developed muscle memory from all the snipping.

He would snip-snip through the wires connected to the brain in the vat on his left, then execute a smooth turn and snip-snip through the wires connected to the brain on his right.

—Snip, snip.

After finishing with the wires on his left, the resident glanced at the giant screen to make sure it had gone dark, then immediately turned around.

Snip, snip… Huh??

The giant screen above the brain in the vat on the right displayed something different from the others.

It wasn’t a string of Moon Silk numerals that could be vaguely deciphered, nor was it a [Thank you] or a jumble of garbled characters. Instead, several neat, orderly lines of text appeared on the screen.

The Blue Sea resident hesitated.

Cheng Qisheng’s spiritual power immediately detected what was happening.

She promptly issued a divine oracle, ordering the believer whose shears were already poised over one of the wires connected to the brain in the vat to stop.

Among Cheng Qisheng’s believers, the prophet Gong Cheng and his butler, Xie Wuke, were both natives of Moon Silk.

Once Gong Cheng became a believer of the Great Creator God of Blue Sea, Cheng Qisheng gained an understanding of the Moon Silk language and written script that her believers knew.

She studied the lines of Moon Silk text on the giant screen.

[Please do not cut my life-support lines. At least, not yet. Thank you for everything you have done. Thank you for your help. Thank you for saving my colleagues and my descendants. Pain—I heard you. I saw you. I know you can be trusted—

Please go to these coordinates and open the underground shelter there. There are 451 people inside, 39 of whom are Black-tier researchers. All the rest are White-tier. Please take them away and save them. Once they learn what you have done, they will work for you.]

Beneath the message was a set of coordinates identifying a location somewhere on Moon Silk.

<< _ >>

The post Safe City Ch.190.2 first appeared on A Wandering Potato.

As the old saying went, there was no point in wearing fine clothes on a nighttime stroll. Once you had made a fortune, you had to return to your hometown and show it off. Now that his work had been published in a journal, how could he possibly pass up the chance to go out and hear everyone express their envy?

After admiring the names printed in the journal several more times, Liao Zhongsheng handed it back to them. He estimated how much time had passed, waited a little longer, then picked up his cup and headed out to the break room to get some water.

Of course, somehow, he never managed to fill the cup. And somehow, despite having worked in the building for years, he started getting lost in it. One moment, he would appear in the lobby downstairs; the next, he would find himself on the top floor. In short, he just couldn’t find his way back.

Meanwhile, the news was indeed spreading like wildfire throughout the various offices.

The journal was distributed down through the administrative hierarchy, eventually reaching the municipal public security bureaus and even county-level offices. The provincial department was far away, but it had plenty of money, so it mailed copies directly to every city. The cities, however, weren’t nearly as well-funded. Since it was only a few hours’ drive, they simply left the journals lying around until someone from a lower-level office came by on official business and could take them back.

As a result, the Logistics Department still had several copies of the journal on hand.

Some people had originally picked one up just to browse through it like a newspaper and kill some time. Who could have imagined that halfway through, they would actually come across their own people?!

Huh? You say that’s the Technical Division? What do you mean, which Technical Division? Just tell me, aren’t they all from Changning Municipal Public Security Bureau?!

In short, the moment people saw the place name and the names of the personnel, they were stunned. They called over their office colleagues to confirm what they were seeing. Those colleagues then went to find other people to verify the news, spreading it along the way.

The news raced from the Logistics Department to the Personnel Department in no time. Even the few copies of the journal were being snatched up and passed around as everyone scrambled to see whether it was really true.

So, when Liao Zhongsheng found himself wandering around the building, he saw people in office after office huddled together, their heads bent over something, or letting out one astonished exclamation after another.

Some people were even out in the corridor. The moment they spotted Liao Zhongsheng, they congratulated him.

“Section Chief Liao, have you heard? Jiang Xia from your section got published in a top-tier journal?!”

“Congratulations, Section Chief Liao! Your section is famous now!”

“You’re the project lead, Old Liao! You’ve just made a name for yourself nationwide!”

…

“Oh, I only just found out myself!”

“Luck, that’s all. Just good luck!”

Liao Zhongsheng suppressed the corners of his mouth, answering everyone with an air of modesty while his heart was already floating up into the clouds.

Just as he was basking in the moment, a figure suddenly sprang out from behind him and hooked an arm around his neck.

“You old fox, Liao! How dare you keep something this huge from us?!”

That voice could only belong to Captain Feng.

Liao Zhongsheng hurriedly broke free of the headlock and protested, “A gentleman uses his words, not his fists!”

But the moment the words left his mouth, Captain Zhao appeared in front of him, looking as though he was practically grinding his teeth.

“You even got published in a journal… How did you manage to snatch her away from us back then?!”

As he spoke, Zhao Zhenzhong grabbed Liao Zhongsheng and dragged him toward the stairs, shouting loudly, “No way! We absolutely have to take him to the state-run restaurant today and make him pay for a feast! Old Tan, get over here and help us get him!”

Good grief, where was all this sour smell coming from? It was practically overwhelming!

Tan Bingyi, who had only just learned what was going on, hurried out of his office. Putting on an indignant expression, he said, “You sly old fox, Liao! You even used the Thirty-Six Stratagems on us! We’re absolutely going to make you pay through the nose today!”

As he spoke, he too started pushing Liao Zhongsheng toward the stairs.

Well, so much for being on cloud nine. Now his wallet was going to suffer for it.

“Hey, hey, hey! You three planned this together, didn’t you? It’s not even mealtime yet! At least wait until noon!”

Liao Zhongsheng shouted in protest, but he couldn’t stop grinning.

He didn’t mind spending the money. Right now, all he wanted was to see the envy, jealousy, and resentment on their faces!

…

Jiang Xia didn’t get off the train until three in the morning.

There was no helping it. In addition to the usual delays along the way, she’d also run into a train inspection that had brought everything to a halt for five or six hours straight. As a result, she’d arrived at this rather awkward hour.

When she stepped off the train, countless passengers were getting off alongside her, while others waited to board.

In the distance, the sky was pitch-black. The moon hung overhead like a jade plate with a corner missing, surrounded by a few scattered stars. Dim streetlights shone down from high above, stretching people’s shadows into long, eerie shapes.

One of the officers who had accompanied her off the train gazed into the distance. All he could make out was a vast, pitch-black silhouette. Its true appearance was impossible to discern; it looked like some enormous, clawed beast lying in wait, ready to swallow something whole.

This really wasn’t a good time for someone to go home alone.

He took the initiative and said, “It’s far too dangerous to go home alone this late. We’d better escort Comrade Jiang home before buying our tickets back.”

Jiang Xia was always cautious when it came to personal safety. She had no intention of letting her guard down and getting caught off guard by some unexpected mishap. Hearing the officer’s suggestion, she immediately agreed.

“Then I’ll have to thank you both.”

With two police officers escorting her, the deterrent effect would be more than sufficient. In theory, there was absolutely no need for anyone else to accompany them.

But after hesitating for a moment, Lu Yixing quickly made up his mind.

In a perfectly casual tone, he said, “I’ll come along, too. It’s on my way back anyway.”

‘Do you honestly expect me to believe that?’

The way he was saying one thing while clearly meaning another was just too amusing. The older officer twisted his mouth to one side, unable to resist the urge to tease him a little.

He smiled and said, “It’s fine, Comrade Lu. Don’t worry. We know you think it’s dangerous to walk home alone at night, too. We’ll make sure to escort you home as well.”

Lu Yixing immediately choked on his words.

‘How can you twist the facts around like that?!’

Yet, as much as he wanted to argue, he couldn’t think of anything to say in his defense.

After all, if he refuted the officer’s words, he’d have no excuse to keep accompanying Jiang Xia home.

His silence ended up looking very much like an admission.

And so, an outstanding criminal investigator who wouldn’t have flinched at facing three armed and gun-wielding robbers with nothing but his bare hands had now developed a fear of walking home at night.

“Ahem.”

Jiang Xia gave a light cough and came to his rescue.

“I just remembered that there are a few things I haven’t finished discussing with Comrade Lu. We might as well walk together.”

‘Oh, great. Another person saying one thing while meaning another.’

‘They’d spent two whole days and nights on the train together. What on earth could they possibly have left to discuss?’

“Oooh—”

The older officer seemed to suddenly understand everything. He played along, but didn’t tease them any further. Smiling broadly, he said, “Then let’s get moving! We’ll go outside and find two pedicabs. You two can sit together, and that’ll give you a chance to talk.”

After teasing the pair just enough, the officer knew when to quit while he was ahead. He didn’t want to push them so far that they got annoyed, so he promptly headed outside.

“Come on, let’s go! If we don’t hurry, it’ll be daylight before we know it!”

He quickly moved to the front.

Seeing that the officer wasn’t going to say anything else, Jiang Xia breathed a sigh of relief. She glanced at Lu Yixing, only to find him looking at her in surprise. The moment he realized she’d noticed, however, he immediately looked away.

Carrying his suitcase, he hurried ahead with a distinctly guilty air.

Tsk.

Why was he avoiding her?

Jiang Xia huffed inwardly and followed after him.

Beside the road, towering streetlights cast a warm glow. Under the lights shining from both ahead and behind, three shadows stretched across the ground. The shortest was the darkest, another was gradually growing longer, while an extraordinarily long shadow was slowly fading away.

Watching them, Jiang Xia suddenly remembered the night she and Lu Yixing had formally met.

Her thoughts took an unexpected turn.

Come to think of it, handsome young men really were in danger when walking alone at night.

They were liable to run into hooligans, you know.

Although they’d claimed there were things they needed to discuss, once the two of them were seated in the same pedicab, neither said a word.

Instead, the two drivers were extremely talkative. They chattered nonstop about everything under the sun: another armed brawl that had broken out somewhere; how, despite it being summer, vegetables at the market stalls hadn’t gotten any cheaper and had actually gone up in price; how some poor fool had been robbed while venturing out at night; and how one driver had taken a passenger to a faraway destination, thinking he’d landed a lucrative fare, only to have the passenger rob him of an entire day’s earnings…

Listening to all this, Jiang Xia almost wanted to sigh and lament, ‘Whatever happened to the good old days? The world really is going downhill!’

At long last, they arrived at her apartment building.

Jiang Xia had brought back quite a lot of things. The group decided to see the job through to the end, carrying her suitcase and all the local specialties upstairs before finally taking their leave.

She opened the door and quietly set her things beside the cabinet. After confirming that neither of her parents had woken up yet, she tiptoed back to her room and went straight to sleep.

Seven o’clock.

Jiang Xia pushed open her bedroom door, full of energy, only to look up and find her mother sitting at the table, snapping the ends off long beans.

Bundles upon bundles of long beans covered the table, and more were scattered all over the floor. Green seemed to be everywhere she looked. Jiang Xia’s vision went dark, then dark again. Somehow, this sight was even more terrifying than a tomb chamber.

As the saying went, every province had its own nightmare food, and Shandong was no exception. These local yardlong beans had a short growing season, produced abundant yields, were easy to cultivate, and cost very little. As a result, they became the most common vegetable on summer dining tables.

It was always the same story: you ate them once a year, but that one stretch of eating could last half the summer. Every meal, morning and night, featured the same beans until the mere sight of them made you want to run away.

“Mom, there are only three people in our family. Why did you buy so many beans?”

Jiang Xia took a deep breath. “Couldn’t you at least buy some eggplants, tomatoes, mushrooms, or something?”

“Look at you! You’ve barely gotten home, and you’re already complaining again. How many meals of beans have you even eaten so far?”

Zhou Mei kept working without pausing.

“Do you have any idea how expensive vegetables are these days? Even Chinese chives cost seventeen fen per jin now. Thank goodness your aunt has a yard where she grows beans. She can’t eat them all, so she can pick some for us. Otherwise, we’d barely be able to afford vegetables at all.”

“Seventeen fen? How did they get so expensive?”

Jiang Xia was puzzled.

After all, there was a saying that Chinese chives harvested in the sixth lunar month could stink up the place so badly they’d make even a dead dog recoil. From the sixth through the eighth lunar months, chives developed more fiber, had a stronger smell, and tasted their worst. On top of that, other summer vegetables were coming into season, giving consumers plenty of alternatives. As a result, chives usually couldn’t command a high price.

In previous years, they’d cost around seven or eight fen per jin. This year, however, the price had more than doubled!

“I haven’t heard anything about a drought anywhere.”

“Who knows what’s going on?”

Zhou Mei set aside the bunch of beans she’d just finished trimming at both ends.

“Anyway, that’s what all the vegetable vendors are charging. And the prices just keep going up, never down. Nothing is as affordable as it used to be.”

Huh?

Jiang Xia raised an eyebrow.

Remembering the complaints she’d heard from the pedicab drivers the previous night, Jiang Xia couldn’t help suspecting that the vegetable vendors might be working together to drive up prices.

Something wasn’t right.

Most vegetable sellers were independent vendors. Even if they organized themselves by village, there was no way they’d spontaneously band together on their own. Someone had to be taking the lead.

But who could get so many vendors to reach a consensus? And how had they managed to coordinate with one another?

Jiang Xia had a vague sense that something was wrong. Before she could think it through, however, Zhou Mei picked up another handful of beans and said, “You haven’t had breakfast yet. I’ll make you something.”

“No need to trouble yourself, Mom.”

Jiang Xia immediately put her thoughts aside, stepped forward, and hurriedly took the beans from her mother.

“Let me do it instead!”

If she left her mother to cook, the meal might as well be poison!

“Fine.”

Hearing her daughter offer, Zhou Mei didn’t even get up. She simply let Jiang Xia take the beans away.

Jiang Xia went into the kitchen and began washing them. As she worked, she said, “By the way, Mom, while solving this latest case, I ran into an expert from the provincial public security department. He said I could go to the provincial department to take part in a conference on cracking cold cases.”

“Go to the provincial department?”

Zhou Mei’s face lit up with delight.

“Then you’ll have even more prestige at work!”

“Oh, right! Does that mean you can get promoted and earn a higher salary?”

“Uh…”

Jiang Xia felt as though she’d just taken a knife to the heart.

“Not in the short term.”

Unlike technical workers, who could get a pay raise simply by advancing a grade and a promotion by earning a merit award, police officers didn’t have all that much room for advancement. Their salaries were largely fixed, too.

The only thing this job could really offer her was honor.

As an ordinary person, Zhou Mei naturally had rather down-to-earth aspirations. Still, if a promotion came, that would be great; if not, so be it. Her daughter was already working at the municipal public security bureau. Just telling people that was enough to make her proud. If Jiang Xia couldn’t climb any higher for now, that was fine, too.

“It’s all right.”

Zhou Mei even turned around and comforted her daughter.

“You’ve only been working at the municipal bureau for a short while. How could you expect to get promoted so quickly? The eldest son of your Auntie Wang is already in his thirties, and he’s still just a junior clerk.”

“Then I’ll definitely get promoted faster than him.”

Jiang Xia shook the water off the beans, placed them on the cutting board, and began chopping them as she continued preparing her mother for what was to come.

“I’ll probably be busier in the future, too. I’ll have to travel for work more often.”

Zhou Mei’s hands stopped sorting the vegetables.

Her brows drew together, then quickly relaxed again. With a sigh, she said, “You two sisters really are something else. Each of you spends more time away from home than the last.”

“But you and your older sister are different.”

Zhou Mei lowered her hands and looked seriously at her younger daughter, who was busy chopping vegetables in the kitchen.

“Your sister may not spend much time at home, but at least she’s settled down in one place. You can’t keep traveling all over the place forever, can you? That kind of life is exhausting. Besides, with you living like this, it’ll be hard to find someone to marry!”

At that, Jiang Xia raised an eyebrow.

Not necessarily.

“Oh, right.”

Having brought up marriage, Zhou Mei grew curious again.

“Isn’t there anyone suitable at your workplace you could consider?”

But as soon as the words left her mouth, she immediately rejected the idea herself.

“No, no, no! Everyone at your workplace is a criminal investigator. They earn low salaries and are never home. After you get married, all the housework would fall on you. How could that possibly work? At the very least, you need to find someone like your father, someone who’s willing to lend a hand around the house!”

In those days, most men in society still clung to traditional male chauvinism. Men who left all the housework to their wives, or wouldn’t even bother picking up a fallen bottle of cooking oil, were everywhere. Still, some men had become more progressive under the influence of communist revolutionary ideals, and Jiang Xia’s father was one of them.

Not only did he willingly take the initiative to do household chores, but when his wife’s health deteriorated, he also didn’t insist on having more children. Instead, he underwent sterilization.

For this, he’d even received a certificate recognizing him as an Outstanding Birth Control Advocate of the city. Jiang Xia had once dug it out herself.

Unfortunately, his decision had also invited plenty of ridicule from outsiders. Even though their family was doing reasonably well, her paternal grandparents, uncles, and other relatives frequently came around to take advantage of them, using the fact that the family had no male heir as an excuse.

Back then, they’d even tried to force her mother to give her job to Jiang Xia’s male cousin. The dispute had ultimately ended with the family severing ties with those relatives entirely. From then on, they maintained contact only with her maternal grandmother’s side of the family.

The original Jiang Xia’s determination to become a police officer, as well as her willingness to dive into the water to save people, had something to do with all of this. She had desperately wanted to prove that she was no less capable than a boy.

Putting those complicated memories aside, Jiang Xia grew serious.

She and Lu Yixing did indeed have feelings for each other. However, relationships between men and women were still taken very seriously in those days. Dating without the intention of getting married was considered nothing more than playing around with someone’s feelings. If they really took things a step further, it would mean they were heading toward marriage.

But that absolutely could not be allowed to interfere with her career.

After all, what man could compare to having her name written into the history of public security, becoming a towering figure for future generations of police officers to look up to?

That said, anyone who became her partner was destined to make considerable sacrifices.

He would have to shoulder the burden of family life and endure the pressure of public opinion.

Meanwhile, there was very little she could offer him in return.

She couldn’t compensate him financially, and the honors bestowed upon her by the state weren’t something she could genuinely split in half with him, either.

Would he accept a future like that?

Hmm…

She needed to have an open and honest conversation with him.

<< _ >>

The post Criminal Master System Ch.61.1 first appeared on A Wandering Potato.

Cheng Qisheng’s mental power also began focusing its attention on the [Norn Company].

[Zephyr] had already been reduced to rubble. Aside from the weapons on the ground, there was practically nothing else left to salvage as spoils of war.

As for [Zipa], its upper management had fled with some of its resources. Apart from things they couldn’t take with them, they had carried off pretty much everything that could be moved.

But it was precisely because of this that Blue Sea had been able to seize a [Company] with virtually no bloodshed and obtain one [Heaven’s Punishment] weapon. Cheng Qisheng was therefore quite content with the outcome.

—So, strictly speaking, [Norn Company] was the first complete jackpot Blue Sea had obtained after being rewarded with three [Heaven’s Punishment] weapons.

Rather than saying that Blue Sea’s residents had opened the gates to [Norn Company], it would be more accurate to say that after destroying its automated defense system, they had blasted their way through its massive, sturdy isolation barrier.

That was right. The headquarters of the three major [Companies] were less like corporate offices and more like entire cities.

If the apocalypse hadn’t been brought about by the [Companies] themselves, this place really would have looked like an enormous surface-level safe city built for the end of the world.

Never mind all the scattered branch offices. The area occupied by the headquarters alone was larger than Blue Sea Safe City.

“My God!!!”

Blue Sea’s residents, accustomed to the desolate landscapes of Moon Silk, were stunned by the sight before them after destroying the outer barrier.

This was especially true of those who were either flying in the sky or riding in airships, giving them a much farther-reaching view.

They could clearly see that this vast expanse contained lush green plains, rolling hills and mountains, and even an enormous artificial lake.

Clusters of cities stood in concentric rings. Surrounding them was an entire industrial manufacturing complex, with individual factories arranged like little soldiers guarding the cities.

Straight, wide roads stretched out in every direction.

Blue Sea had also built roads in Broken River, but its roads were primarily intended for transportation and the movement of goods. Combined with Blue Sea’s aesthetic preferences, the overall style was rather rugged and utilitarian.

[Norn Company] was different.

With the apocalypse having already engulfed Moon Silk, even a single naturally growing plant out in the wilderness could fetch an astronomical price. Yet here, at [Norn Company]’s headquarters, there were neatly trimmed ornamental plants, carefully sculpted into decorative shapes, lining both sides of the roads.

Whether it was the factories’ architecture, the lakes, the mountains and rivers, or the towering skyscrapers at the very center, everything looked exquisitely refined at a glance.

One could even call it art.

Cheng Qisheng was rather surprised by what she saw as well.

She knew the [Company] wouldn’t let its own people live in poor conditions, but this standard of living was far too good! From the looks of it, this place was even more advanced and comfortable than Blue Star.

No wonder the [Company] was so confident.

The environment here really was much better than that of a safe city.

It was just that when compared with the vast, barren wasteland outside, the contrast was particularly ironic.

“This is truly an eye-opening experience!”

A Blue Sea resident gazed at the scene and sighed with deep emotion.

But he didn’t think any less of his own divine temple simply because the local power had such a comfortable living environment.

After finishing his exclamation, he flapped his wings, glided lightly to the ground, and headed straight for the ornamental greenery along the roadside.

“I wonder if these trees can be used as building materials. Or we could burn them into charcoal… Can we pull them out now?”

Another companion landed beside him.

“Don’t pull them out yet. The Temple hasn’t arrived. These trees look pretty nice, all green and lush. Maybe we can transplant them back to Blue Sea later. They’d look quite good there, too.”

“Sure, sure! Hey, I’ve got an idea. We could plant them near the kindergarten, so the little kids wouldn’t have to climb fake trees anymore.”

“Some of these trees are species we’ve never seen outside. Could they be natural plants that used to grow on Moon Silk? Mark them down. Once the Temple arrives, we can have the experts take a look. Maybe they have all sorts of uses, just like the long-tendril trees!”

While they discussed the trees, another Blue Sea resident sprawled out on the road and began examining the material beneath her.

“[Norn Company]’s vehicles should be hovercars. These roads are assembled from high-strength, lightweight alloy panels and composite ceramic plates.”

She raised a hand and tapped the surface, a satisfied expression appearing on her face.

“The panels are intact. We just need to dismantle the locking joints, and we can lift them out and transport them away. The metal cables underneath can be recycled, too.”

Nearby, another resident was studying the material of the gigantic isolation barrier that was being smashed to pieces. Hearing this, his eyes lit up.

“Hovercars? Doesn’t that mean Blue Sea will soon have this technology, too?”

The resident lying on the ground replied, “The Science and Technology Institute was already researching hovercar technology. Now that we have actual models to study, it shouldn’t be long before Blue Sea can fully crack the technology.”

Some Blue Sea residents weren’t particularly knowledgeable about technology and had no interest in trees, either. They simply jogged over to the nearest [Norn Company] supply transit hub, tapped and knocked on various parts of it, and calculated how to dismantle it and transport all the usable construction materials back to Blue Sea.

And so, Cheng Qisheng witnessed the following scene:

Faced with this exquisite little world that looked like a work of art, the residents of Blue Sea were busy tearing up roads and digging up soil.

Not a trace of envy crossed their minds at the sight of such a beautiful environment. Their only thought was, Wow! So many good things! I’m taking them all home!

Groups of residents crouched here and flew around over there. They even labeled the earthworms underground as suitable for taking back home, looking utterly determined to carry every useful thing in the entire area back to Blue Sea.

Cheng Qisheng smiled and gently patted her believers on the head, watching as they dug around here and there, then suddenly looked up in delighted surprise, gazing toward the sky with faces full of happiness.

In theory, even after Blue Sea had breached [Norn Company]’s headquarters, there should still have been small pockets of resistance.

After all, what had truly been wiped out was [Norn Company]’s military force.

It was much like a war between safe cities. Once one side’s military strength was destroyed, the rules would automatically determine that the war had ended.

However, as Blue Sea explored [Norn Company]’s headquarters, it didn’t encounter a single opposing force. Clearly, [Norn]’s upper management had already fled in a hurry.

The good news was that although they had taken their trusted subordinates with them, they hadn’t been able to carry away the material resources, which required enormous amounts of space.

If Blue Sea really wanted to track them down, it shouldn’t be a problem, either.

After all, Blue Sea was now the undisputed ultimate villain of Moon Silk. Having wiped out all three major [Companies] in one fell swoop, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the entire planet now belonged to Blue Sea.

But Cheng Qisheng didn’t order Old Eighth to pursue them.

What would be the point?

Judging by the usual tactics of the [Company]’s upper management, they had probably fled to some underground shelter they’d prepared long ago for emergencies. They would hide there, consumed by resentment, hatred, panic, and fear, hoping to wait until the storm passed before making a comeback.

But according to the timeline, Moon Silk would face the Great Annihilation in another six months.

By then, all their ambitions and schemes would turn to nothing.

—Blue Sea didn’t have much time to spare, either.

They had to use these six months to reclaim all the “inheritance” left behind by the three major [Companies] and bring it back to the Safe City. At the same time, they needed to collect every resource they could find on Moon Silk.

The native inhabitants of Moon Silk also had to be brought back to the Safe City from every region of the planet.

Putting everything else aside, just the vast mineral deposits buried beneath this planet’s surface would be enough to keep Blue Sea mining day and night without ever exhausting them.

The good news, however, was that the three major [Companies] had their own mining technologies. Now that Blue Sea had inherited them, half a year of mining should yield an impressive harvest.

Blue Sea had already gained so much on this planet.

Cheng Qisheng’s mental power passed over the heads of one believer after another, following the perspectives of different believers as it continuously ventured deeper into the complex.

She saw vast, empty military barracks, complete with soldier training grounds, tactical airships that hadn’t been deployed to the battlefield, and fully equipped hangars.

—All Blue Sea’s now.

She saw heavy equipment factories, where all kinds of armored vehicles, weapon casings, and alloy components moved back and forth along suspended freight transport routes.

—All Blue Sea’s now.

She saw robot production lines. These robots had no independent thought, but they were agile enough to help humans with a wide range of tasks. Having received no explicit orders to stop, they continued working diligently on the production lines even after the [Company] had been destroyed.

—All Blue Sea’s now.

She saw energy production facilities. Inside were not only various power generation units, but also three enormous factories for energy storage batteries. They were already fully operational, so Blue Sea could simply dismantle them and take them away.

The more Cheng Qisheng’s mental power saw, the more excited it became. It swept past the remaining underground vertical farming complexes, tens of thousands of enormous supply warehouses, countless hover vehicles that could be brought straight back to Blue Sea and put to use, and technology parks filled with all manner of equipment, semi-finished products, and completed goods…

Gradually, her mental power came to a halt.

Every [Company] had its own technology park.

But compared to what Colleen remembered of Moon Silk before the apocalypse, when at least a group of White-tier and lower-tier researchers would have been bustling about like worker bees, the situation here was clearly very different.

Now that the [Company] had risen to the very top of the world, it had completely shed its outward facade and become even more brazen in its actions.

The entire technology park was silent. Not a single staff member could be seen. Only robots moved constantly between the various giant screens, following their programmed instructions.

Like bees gathering nectar, they collected the information displayed on the different screens and consolidated it, or transferred it to other screens.

And beneath those giant screens were rows upon rows of brains in vats.

There were at least a hundred thousand of them.

Even the residents of Blue Sea, who had mentally prepared themselves for what they might see, felt their souls tremble when confronted with the sight of brains operating continuously under electrical stimulation in a space that stretched beyond the limits of their vision.

The place had been cleaned meticulously. There wasn’t a speck of dirt anywhere. But that only made it even more unbearable for Old Eighth and the others.

This was more horrifying than blood smeared across every wall. The suffering seemed to overflow and fill the entire space, like an unfathomably deep ocean. Once immersed in it, one couldn’t help but feel as though they were suffocating.

<< _ >>

The post Safe City Ch.190.1 first appeared on A Wandering Potato.

What did they mean… [Ota] was a Safe City?

The residents of the other Safe Cities who were still on the battlefield were left utterly bewildered.

There were nearly two hundred Safe Cities on Moon Silk, all of them at the Tier 5 or 6, with populations that were by no means small.

The number of residents dispatched by each City Lord was generally around one or two million.

Some Safe Cities knew their residents weren’t particularly strong and only wanted to get a little benefit out of the situation, so they sent out a small number of people. Others believed they had plenty of residents and could afford the losses, so they dispatched several million at a time.

Taking everything into account, approximately twenty-five million residents from other Safe Cities had gathered on this battlefield.

Among them were also large numbers of ability users.

And they weren’t all fighting on the battlefield where the [Zephyr Company] was located. Two other groups of residents had followed Blue Sea’s other armies to the battlefields of [Zipa] and [Norn].

“Hurry up and get into the city! We still need to go to [Zipa] and [Norn] to pick up the people over there!”

As large numbers of Blue Sea residents rushed toward their own Safe City from every direction on the battlefield, they didn’t forget to remind the residents of the other Safe Cities, either.

Those who had no close ties with the people of Blue Sea could only squat down on the ground and try to make sense of what had happened.

“[Ota] was a Safe City in disguise.”

“Our City Lords sent us here to disguise ourselves as locals, pledge our allegiance to [Ota], and go to war.”

“So, what happened was that we disguised ourselves as locals and ended up in Blue Sea, which was disguised as [Ota]. Then we attacked the real [Companies], while the Blue Sea Safe City, disguised as [Ota], might have known all along that we were residents pretending to be locals.”

Some people were getting a headache just trying to work it all out. Others were still clutching their heads in bewilderment.

“No, I don’t care what [Ota] is or what Blue Sea is! I just want to know—what about my Safe City? I mean the one I was living in before!”

One resident ventured a guess. “Could [Ota] have… could Blue Sea have wiped it out?”

That was entirely possible!

They had fought on the battlefield alongside Blue Sea’s forces, so they knew full well how formidable these people were. The idea that Blue Sea had wiped out all the other Safe Cities somehow didn’t seem surprising at all.

A Blue Sea resident happened to pass by and overheard the group becoming increasingly confident in their claims that the Blue Sea Safe City had destroyed every other Safe City. He hurried over to set the record straight.

“Don’t make things up! We haven’t started a Safe City war.”

If they really had, their God would have long since summoned people to join the fight.

Without a divine revelation, that meant no war had been declared.

The Blue Sea residents passing by might have offered only a word or two of explanation, but those who had always had Blue Sea friends by their side were hearing a great deal more than that.

“Back then, our Safe City was disguised as [Ota], and none of our residents were allowed to reveal our true identities to outsiders. So we could only interact with you as [Ota] employees. But my name is real! I’m really called Li Bujing.”

Yu Bo, the ability user with the Talisman Paper ability, stood on the land that had been reduced to ruins. Looking at Li Bujing, who was only seventeen or eighteen herself, she gave her an embarrassed, sheepish grin.

Li Bujing: “…”

Come on. Yu Bo had traveled through so many worlds and met so many people. She was practically an experienced veteran by now.

It was perfectly reasonable that she hadn’t seen through an entire Safe City’s disguise.

But Li Bujing was different. Just one look at the girl was enough for Yu Bo to discern her underlying personality: carefree, good-natured, and fond of a lively atmosphere. She had probably always been well protected and hadn’t suffered much hardship, but she wasn’t afraid of fighting, either. Most importantly, she would protect anyone she considered a friend without the slightest hesitation.

Someone with that kind of personality shouldn’t be very good at lying, and she certainly shouldn’t be able to keep her mouth shut about things.

So how on earth had she managed to fool Yu Bo?

Li Bujing, meanwhile, wasn’t thinking nearly as much as Yu Bo. She was simply relieved that she could finally tell her friend the truth about certain things. As she spoke, she began rummaging through her belongings.

“Back when we were pretending to be [Ota] employees, there were so many things we couldn’t share with you. But now that’s all over!”

She took out a green stone, turned it upside down, and shook it over the ground. In an instant, a pile of items came tumbling out with a clatter, accompanied by pots, bowls, and all sorts of kitchen utensils.

Yu Bo and her teammates’ eyes widened.

A space stone?!

The entire team stood rooted to the spot like a bunch of country bumpkins, staring blankly as Li Bujing crouched down to rummage through the things for whatever she needed.

“So…”

Yu Bo gathered her thoughts before speaking.

“Not only are you not an ordinary [Ota] employee, you’re not an ordinary Blue Sea resident, either. In Blue Sea, are you some kind of powerful big shot?”

Looking at Li Bujing’s sincere eyes, she thought for a moment and revised her guess.

“Or are your parents some kind of powerful big shots?”

If that were the case, a lot of the things about Li Bujing that had always struck her as out of place would suddenly make sense.

For example, even in an apocalyptic world, Li Bujing still seemed to retain a certain innocence.

Yu Bo had to admit that this very quality—the girl’s innocent sincerity—was precisely what had drawn her to Li Bujing in the first place.

She was afraid of being betrayed, so teammates with simple minds were safer to have around. They were straightforward, and they took things at face value: whatever you said, they believed.

That was also why her team had so many lovable idiots.

But even having idiot teammates came with risks. At their age, after surviving the apocalypse, anyone who could stubbornly cling to such an idiotically straightforward personality had to be either a hardheaded fool or a stubborn mule.

Li Bujing, however, was different.

Although she was simplehearted and sincere, she was also clever. To Yu Bo, finding her had been like discovering a priceless treasure.

Before this, Yu Bo had even figured out how she would persuade Li Bujing to leave with her.

But now, everything had been turned upside down. Li Bujing was a Safe City resident, too—and one who could casually pull out a space stone.

Yu Bo’s heart sank. She knew there was absolutely no way she could lure the girl away now.

“I’m not some big shot.”

Li Bujing looked at her in confusion.

“Other than the fact that I wasn’t an [Ota] employee, everything I told you about myself before was true.”

“I’m just an ordinary Blue Sea resident. School was on break, and I passed the exam, so I was allowed to come out and participate in combat. I’m just a regular person!”

Yu Bo: “…”

What kind of ordinary person carried a space stone around with them?!

“This?” Li Bujing asked, putting the things she didn’t need back into the green stone. “I picked it up in another apocalyptic world. Back then, we weren’t old enough to go far, so we could only scavenge around the outskirts of our Safe City. I was lucky and managed to pick up several of them in one go.”

“Later, I found out they were space stones. I kept one for myself and gave the rest to my family, one each.”

Yu Bo raised an eyebrow at that. “You picked up space stones, and your Safe City didn’t make you hand them over? Or pay taxes?”

“Nope! You only have to pay taxes if you sell them. I didn’t sell mine. I kept it for my own use, so of course I didn’t have to pay any taxes.”

She added another point. “Oh, right! It’s also true that you get to keep any spoils you obtain on the battlefield through your own abilities. At least, that’s how things work in Blue Sea.”

As she explained, Li Bujing continued taking inventory of the various items scattered across the ground. Only after confirming that she’d taken out everything she wanted did she clap her hands in satisfaction and nod.

“All done!”

Yu Bo looked at the collection of items on the ground.

A barbecue grill, charcoal, skewers, tongs, scissors, a small brush, cooking oil, chili powder, honey, plates, a picnic mat, and bags upon bags of meat…

Li Bujing had even taken a small refrigerator out of her space stone. Inside were bottles of ice-cold water that looked like soft drinks.

Even Yu Bo, who had seen plenty of the world and could still think calmly and analyze the current situation after Blue Sea had openly revealed its identity, was momentarily dumbfounded by this spectacle.

“You’re going to have a barbecue? Here?”

“Of course! I’m hungry.” Li Bujing said it as though it were the most natural thing in the world. Sitting on the picnic mat she’d quickly spread out, she tilted her head back and smiled at Yu Bo.

“And besides, didn’t I tell you before? Once we had some free time, we’d treat you all to a meal.”

Li Bujing had indeed said that—but that had been a month ago. Yu Bo had assumed the girl had just been saying it offhandedly.

Who would have thought she had actually remembered all this time? The so-called “once we have some free time” had meant that after Blue Sea revealed its true identity, she could finally take out these barbecue supplies, which seemed extravagantly luxurious on Moon Silk.

“But… but aren’t you all going back?”

Yu Bo looked toward the Blue Sea Safe City, which was still enormous even from this angle.

Li Bujing waved a hand. “There are too many people. The line will probably be really long, and I’m not in a hurry to go back anyway. So we might as well eat first.”

Her eyes sparkled as she looked at Yu Bo, her affection and cheerfulness just as strong as before.

“Or, if you don’t want barbecue, we can go look around near the Safe City. People will definitely have already set up stalls by now.”

Liu Tiegu, who was still trying to wrap his brain around the revelation that [Ota] was a Safe City, listened in utter bewilderment.

“Set up stalls?”

“Mm-hmm!” Li Bujing explained as though it were the most ordinary thing in the world. “After a large-scale operation like this, residents are allowed extra time to enter the city because they bring back so much loot. Everything has to be disinfected and go through security checks. Some residents also want to exchange their spoils for points, so they need time to ask about prices and things like that. All of that makes the lines really long. That’s when people start setting up stalls right there on the spot. Whatever you want to eat, you can just buy it on the spot.”

Yu Bo had already thought [Ota] was an utterly unbelievable [Company].

But now that [Ota] had turned out to be Blue Sea, she still found Blue Sea to be an utterly unbelievable Safe City.

Li Bujing continued looking at them expectantly.

“So, are we having barbecue, or are we going to buy something else from the stalls?”

Yu Bo silently sat down.

“Barbecue, I guess.”

The remaining teammates sat down as well. Feeling a little awkward but also rather excited, they began trying to figure out which tasks they could help with among the pile of tools.

Barbecuing right there in the middle of the apocalypse, without a care in the world… In all these years, it was the first time they’d ever done something like this.

“How do you turn this grill on?”

“Whoa! This is some good charcoal. Come to think of it, making charcoal is actually my specialty. Back when I was at the Safe City before the last one, I made a fortune producing charcoal in an apocalyptic world. Too bad all my savings disappeared when that Safe City fell.”

“What kind of meat is this? Sea monster meat? You’ve even been to a sea monster world? Oh my god, what do sea monsters look like?”

“That smells amazing! So amazing! I know it’s not cooked yet, but I’m Liu Tiegu, with an iron stomach! Bujing, just let me have a bite. I definitely won’t get sick from it!”

The enormous Safe City stood quietly in the distance—

Vast numbers of Blue Sea residents, along with residents from other Safe Cities, were converging toward it.

Meanwhile, this group was happily enjoying their barbecue.

Anyone looking out over the scene would have noticed that quite a few Blue Sea residents had simply pulled out all kinds of equipment and started cooking right where they stood.

Some Blue Sea residents didn’t have space stones or hadn’t brought any cooking equipment. But when they got hungry, they didn’t head toward the Safe City to look for food stalls, either. Instead, they looked around for people who were already cooking, then approached with gifts to ask if they could join the meal.

The gifts were usually various kinds of weapons or other resources they’d picked up on the battlefield.

Some Blue Sea residents who really knew how to eat went straight from one household to another, sampling a little here and a little there.

One person even came over carrying a Moon Silk rifle and traded it to Li Bujing for a roasted leg of lamb.

Yu Bo and her teammates watched the scene in astonishment. Heaven knew that when the other person had first approached them carrying a gun, every single one of them had jumped to their feet, thinking they were about to face an attack.

Who would have expected the gun to be used to trade for food instead?

And both Li Bujing and the Blue Sea resident who’d made the trade acted as though this were perfectly normal.

Yu Bo and her teammates watched with every hair on their bodies standing on end as the other person cheerfully handed the Moon Silk rifle to Li Bujing, then walked away, satisfied with his roasted leg of lamb.

Looking down at the meat in their own bowls, then exchanging glances with their still-nervous teammates, they all felt an inexplicable urge to laugh.

Li Bujing put the rifle away. “Come on! Let’s keep eating!”

Yu Bo took a deep breath. “Let’s eat!!”

Amid the ruins, the aroma of grilled meat drifted through the air as a group of people sat together, laughing and chatting merrily.

At that moment, no one mentioned the future or how they were going to return to the Kadan’er Safe City.

They were simply enjoying a barbecue together. Nothing more.

…

Meanwhile, the Blue Sea troops stationed at the former [Norn Company] had also successfully destroyed the key mechanisms controlling the various doors.

They shoved open one heavy door after another and began the process of claiming [Norn]’s legacy.

<< _ >>

The post Safe City Ch.189 first appeared on A Wandering Potato.

Forget it.

She now knew how to read feng shui, too. In the future, she could even choose a good place for her own…

Uh, no. Too many people would come digging if she picked a prime location. She didn’t want someone hauling her out of the ground after death just to make her do sit-ups. A hundred years from now, she’d rather be cremated and have her ashes scattered in the water.

Jiang Xia remained perfectly calm.

No big deal. Besides feng shui, she could now appraise cultural relics. One glance was all it took to tell whether a bronze artifact was from the Shang or Zhou dynasty.

In the future, she’d have a chance to browse antique markets, hunt for treasures, and pick up a few undervalued pieces. That would be enough to secure her financial freedom for the rest of her life.

She’d just have to find some books on the I Ching, feng shui, and cultural relics to study later, so she could give her new skills a plausible cover.

With that thought, Jiang Xia felt sleepiness wash over her. She yawned and drifted back into dreamland.

Uncle B was simply too authoritative. After learning from his lessons, even a real haunted burial chamber didn’t seem all that frightening anymore.

After all, everything had rotted away. How could that be as scary as something fresh?

Time to sleep. She could sort through everything after waking up.

…

Let’s turn the clock back to more than twenty days earlier.

The editorial department of Criminalistics, in the capital.

Early in the morning, Editor-in-Chief Zhou followed his usual routine and brewed himself a cup of tea first.

He settled into his chair.

Another day of manuscript reviewing had begun.

Hadn’t there been a few manuscripts left unreviewed yesterday?

Compared with other journals, the field of criminal investigation was certainly more specialized. However, Criminalistics was one of the country’s most prestigious publications, and forensic and criminal investigation professionals from all over the country submitted their work to them.

As for the quality…

It was, to put it mildly, wildly inconsistent.

Editor-in-Chief Zhou opened a letter and read the manuscript titled The Influence of Illness on Footprint Age Estimation word by word. He quickly reached a verdict.

There was nothing particularly wrong with the content, but the margin of error was too large, and its practical applicability was limited. It simply wasn’t suitable for publication.

He neatly wrote a standard rejection letter, set it aside with the manuscript and the author’s address, then moved on to the next submission.

“Editor-in-Chief, these dozen or so submissions all arrived yesterday.”

Amid the morning’s bustle, a newcomer walked over carrying a stack of mail. He placed it on the desk and remarked casually, “This envelope looks really thick. I wonder what they wrote to make it so bulky?”

Editor-in-Chief Zhou looked up.

Indeed, this particular envelope was a full two fingers’ width thick, nearly four times thicker than the others, which were barely half a finger’s width.

As the saying went, ‘A genuine master passes down the truth in a single sheet of paper, while a fraud fills ten thousand volumes with nonsense’.

Judging by past experience, the more useful the information, the less there was to write about. The more useless it was, the more pages it took up. With a package this bulky, there was an eighty-percent chance it was another so-called “groundbreaking masterpiece” fit only for the bathroom.

He might as well rule it out first.

With that in mind, Editor-in-Chief Zhou reached out and pulled it from the pile.

Leaning back in his chair, he casually glanced at the address first.

Changning City.

He took a knife and slit open the envelope.

Inside were two more packages.

One was extremely thin, while the other was remarkably thick. Editor-in-Chief Zhou took both out and opened the thicker one first. Inside was a large quantity of stiff paper. He pulled out the contents and discovered that they were all diagrams he couldn’t make heads or tails of.

The diagrams were circular, each marked with a number in the upper-right corner. Every one was about the size of a baby’s fist and appeared gray and indistinct. Some resembled scratches, while others looked like indentations. It was impossible to make out their full shapes clearly.

All of these drawings were done by hand?

Now that was interesting.

As Editor-in-Chief Zhou looked at the thick stack of illustrations, he began to have a vague feeling that this submission might not be worthless after all. He hurriedly took out the thinner document from the envelope and opened it.

A title immediately caught his eye.

Characteristics of Lock Marks Left by Different Lock-Picking Tools and a Unified Authentication Standard

Whoa!

What an ambitious title!

Editor-in-Chief Zhou straightened up slightly and raised an eyebrow. His eyes moved down the page.

This paper was written by Jiang Xia. I would like to thank my unit’s leadership, Liao Zhongsheng, for his support in determining the research direction and coordinating resources, as well as all department members for their hard work and dedication.

Project leader: Liao Zhongsheng.

Illustrations: Jiang Xia.

Standard verification: Jiang Xia, Li Dechang.

Assistant: Huang Xueling.

Contributors: Sun Guochang, Zhao Zhengwu, Yang Lihua.

Editor-in-Chief Zhou glanced over the full list of names before focusing all his attention on Jiang Xia.

It was immediately obvious. The others were just window dressing, their names added for appearances. Jiang Xia had done all the difficult work herself.

As for adding names to a paper… Well, everyone knew how that worked. There was no need to say more.

Editor-in-Chief Zhou continued reading.

Everything was covered, from the types of locks and their internal structures to common lock-picking tools and the shapes of the marks they left behind. The marks had even been drawn and labeled. Finally, the authors had included details of their experimental procedures and sample sizes.

They had examined a total of 476 samples and drawn more than 2,000 observational diagrams. The illustrations included in the submission were merely a portion of the full collection.

The further he read, the more astonished he became. Without even realizing it, he had straightened up in his chair. He took out his glasses and put them on, then retrieved the numbered diagrams cited in the paper and began comparing them with the corresponding illustrations.

He flipped back and forth between the pages for more than an hour before finally stopping.

Good heavens! The paper is logically rigorous, the experiments are thorough, and there don’t seem to be any problems at all!

Had he just struck gold in a pile of sand?

If he remembered correctly, the field of forensic identification based on marks left inside lock cylinders was still virtually unexplored. Yet burglary and break-in cases were extremely common. If these experimental results were accurate and the proposed standards were sound, then the practical applications of this research would be extraordinarily far-reaching!

Editor-in-Chief Zhou didn’t dare take any chances. He picked up the manuscript and headed straight to another building to find an expert reviewer.

Criminalistics had been established by the Ministry of Public Security, and its editorial office was located close to the ministry’s other departments. After the initial editorial review, manuscripts were sent to experts for a second assessment to determine which ones were suitable for publication.

“Expert Yao!”

After knocking and hearing a voice call, “Come in,” Editor-in-Chief Zhou pushed open the door. He greeted the man and quickly explained, “We’ve received a submission on forensic identification of marks inside lock cylinders. It looks to be very high quality. Could you take a look and tell me whether the findings hold up?”

“Oh? If I remember correctly, no one has researched this particular subject before, have they?”

Expert Yao put on his glasses and reached out to take the manuscript.

The author’s name was completely unfamiliar, and he’d never heard of the place listed in the return address. Yet the content was unexpectedly detailed. He read the entire paper once, then went through it two more times before suddenly reaching for the lock on his office door.

He took out his tools and dismantled the entire lock in a few swift movements. Then he removed the pins and carefully examined them under a microscope.

Only after quite some time did he finally raise his head.

“This submission should be sound.”

Expert Yao explained, “What I just observed matches these microscopic drawings perfectly. In fact, they’re practically identical!”

They really had struck gold!

“Really? That’s wonderful!”

Editor-in-Chief Zhou was visibly excited. “The scope of forensic examination of lock-cylinder marks is enormous. This submission even includes a unified identification standard and illustrated reference examples. Once it’s published, technical personnel across the country will be able to apply it directly. It could help solve a great many cases!”

But as soon as he’d finished speaking, Editor-in-Chief Zhou remembered something.

“The only problem is… the July issue has already been finalized. There’s no way to include this manuscript now. Should we wait until the September issue?”

“Wait until September? Why should we?” Expert Yao immediately objected. “Our journal doesn’t have a fixed page limit! This is an incredibly useful technique. I’ll get people to verify it on an expedited basis right away. As long as all the findings hold up, we’ll add it to the issue immediately. The sooner it’s published, the better!”

Expert Yao waved his hand decisively. He instructed his apprentice to call someone in to prepare some locks for testing, then picked up another microscopic drawing and remarked with admiration, “This author’s drawing skills are really impressive. The illustrations look exactly like photographs taken with a camera. And there are more than two thousand of them! It would probably take a year or two just to draw that many. That kind of perseverance is truly remarkable.”

There was something else he didn’t say aloud.

Anyone with this level of skill, capable of conducting such an extensive forensic trace examination independently, had to be highly competent. Someone like that should have a reputation in their professional circle. So why had he never heard of them?

It was truly strange.

Perhaps he should make some inquiries later.

In the end, the investigation into the author’s background was put on hold because a case came up. Nevertheless, Expert Yao brought in two other experts to help verify the findings, and they all agreed that the paper should be added to the upcoming issue.

And so, the submission was included directly in the July issue. The printing company was instructed to rush the printing, binding, and packaging. The finished journals were then dispatched to the provincial authorities, which would distribute them to the cities under their jurisdiction, one level at a time.

Naturally, this method of distribution wasn’t particularly fast. By the time the journal finally made its way back to Quzhou City, Jiang Xia still hadn’t had a chance to look at it. However, while she was traveling by train, the Changning City Public Security Bureau finally received its package and got its hands on that month’s issue.

At home.

Liao Zhongsheng stood by the wall, counted the days on the calendar, and let out a long sigh.

It was the eighth day since Jiang Xia had left.

I miss her.

Sigh.

Those two really had terrible luck. How on earth had they managed to run into robbers just by going out of town?

Heaven only knew how terrified he’d been when he heard about the incident from the phone call the railway police had made to Captain Duan. Those two were absolute treasures! He couldn’t afford for either of them to get hurt. For one horrifying moment, he’d felt his entire career flashing before his eyes, as though all his prospects were about to go up in smoke!

Thankfully, both of them were safe and sound.

As for the commendations and expressions of gratitude, those weren’t important.

All right, fine. A Second-Class Merit Award was certainly tempting, but even if he wanted one, he couldn’t get it himself.

Still, Jiang Xia and Lu Yixing should just forget about doing this sort of thing again. It was far too nerve-racking!

Liao Zhongsheng desperately wanted to summon the two of them back as soon as possible. From now on, he wanted to keep them practically attached to his belt, taking them wherever he went. Under no circumstances could he let them put themselves in danger again.

Unfortunately, Lu Yixing had called to say that Jiang Xia had been badly shaken by the incident and needed another couple of days to recover before returning. There was nothing Liao Zhongsheng could do about that. He could only sit alone in his office, counting the days on the calendar and hoping the two would come back soon.

Above all, he hoped they wouldn’t get dazzled by the exciting world outside and decide to stay away.

With these thoughts in mind, Liao Zhongsheng headed to the Municipal Public Security Bureau.

The moment he stepped into the corridor, he seemed to sense someone’s gaze locking onto him. But before he could locate the person watching him, Tan Bingyi suddenly appeared and called out to him.

“Section Chief Liao! You’re finally here. I was just about to find you and tell you something.”

“Captain Tan?”

Liao Zhongsheng stopped searching for the source of that gaze and turned to Tan Bingyi. “What do you need me for?”

“Oh, just wanted to let you know they’re safe and sound.”

Tan Bingyi replied casually, “You weren’t here yesterday, remember? Xiao Lu called yesterday afternoon and said they’d be coming back today. They should already be on the train by now. According to the schedule, they’ll arrive tomorrow evening, but trains are often delayed, so they probably won’t reach Changning until the morning or noon of the day after tomorrow. That’s why he asked for another day of leave for Jiang Xia. She’ll be back at work the day after that.”

“They’re coming back?”

Liao Zhongsheng immediately brightened. “That’s wonderful! As long as they’re coming back, that’s what matters!”

What did a little extra leave matter? The important thing was that they would be back in the city!

As for how long they might stay afterward…

Better not to think about it.

Just the thought was heartbreaking.

After thanking Tan Bingyi, Liao Zhongsheng continued upstairs. He pushed open the office door, only to discover that everyone had gathered together, jostling one another in a desperate attempt to get a look at something while trying to keep quiet.

“Let me see! Come on, let me see!”

“That’s me! My name’s in there too!”

“Jiang Xia really is generous. I only helped find a few locks for her, yet she included my name as well… I honestly don’t deserve the credit!”

Liao Zhongsheng stared at them in bewilderment.

“Hey, what on earth are you all looking at?”

“This month’s issue of Criminalistics!”

Trace Examiner Li was visibly more excited than usual. He picked up the open journal and handed it straight to Liao Zhongsheng, his voice trembling slightly as he said, “Jiang Xia’s paper on lock-cylinder marks has been accepted! It’s even been certified by three leading forensic trace examination experts in the field. They’ve called it one of the best in the country, saying it fills a gap in forensic examination of lock marks!”

“Oh?!”

Liao Zhongsheng’s mouth fell open, and he couldn’t close it.

For a moment, he wondered if he’d heard correctly. But he quickly realized that his hearing was perfectly fine. He hurriedly took the journal, turned it around twice, and finally flipped it over to examine the names on the cover.

[Technical Division, Criminal Investigation Division, Changning City Public Security Bureau, Lu Province.

Author: Jiang Xia.]

And directly beneath that, he’d been listed as the project leader.

Liao Zhongsheng was stunned.

To be fair, the department had indeed provided funding for the project. But Jiang Xia had been entirely in charge of it, and she’d done most of the work herself. Aside from keeping the project within the department’s circle and coordinating the supply of locks, he had contributed very little. Naturally, he had no intention of taking credit for her achievements.

Besides, as long as she listed their department as her affiliation, he would already look like a section chief who knew how to lead his people. There was no need to make a big deal out of it.

So when Jiang Xia had asked him to review the manuscript, he’d paid little attention to the matter. Even when he’d seen the title without the list of names, he hadn’t thought much of it.

Who could have imagined that she’d intended to include everyone involved—and had even given him the prestigious title of project leader?!

This was…

Far too generous of her.

Liao Zhongsheng suddenly understood what that gaze from the corner had been about when he’d first arrived.

He fell silent for several seconds.

Goodness! With such wonderful news, there’s no way I could possibly have heard about it yet, right?

Why don’t I take another stroll outside and see who comes to congratulate me?

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The post Criminal Master System Ch.60.2 first appeared on A Wandering Potato.