Aether, who was currently coordinating with the city planning chief team on where to build the industrial district, swam over.
“My City Lord, this column-type residential district was designed and constructed by the Blue Sea government. After I joined, I ran calculations and concluded that this structure is highly feasible and does not require modification.”
“First, it achieves extreme savings in both materials and land usage. You only need to construct a cylindrical high-rise structure and then carve appropriate sections into it to create individual compartments.”
“Second, it does not make residents feel suffocated. Although each compartment is small, everyone has their own independent space and private entrance. The open field of view also makes compact living spaces easier for residents to accept.”
“Third, the threat of zombies outside still gives residents a sense of urgency. In the face of an apocalyptic crisis, people want to live among their own kind, but they also want personal space. At the same time, low-rise housing cannot provide the same sense of security as a Safe City.”
“Now that they live at higher elevations, residents feel safer—even if zombies infiltrated the city, they would not be able to climb that high. In addition, each compartment has its own window facing the outside world, improving ventilation and allowing residents to better observe external conditions.”
“Therefore, Aether believes the Blue Sea government’s construction concept is completely correct.”
Cheng Qisheng was convinced.
Indeed, it was the most material-efficient and space-efficient design, while also being one of the easiest for Blue Sea citizens to accept.
If individual rooms were instead divided into smaller compartments inside a shared space, forcing residents to pass through other people’s areas just to leave, Blue Sea people—who clearly had a strong sense of personal territory—would definitely refuse to accept it.
This cave-like structure might make it look as though everyone was surviving in some wilderness settlement, but the residents themselves were willing to live there.
So for now, this would do.
With so much land now freed up, once they obtained more materials from this world, they could begin constructing more conventional housing.
Cheng Qisheng continued watching.
In the past, whenever she observed her believers, her thoughts were always along the lines of: “Don’t do anything reckless,” “How are you even trying this,” or “Oh no, so many people died again.”
But now that the disease had eased and the future had become hopeful, she found herself watching them with a more relaxed, almost leisurely curiosity.
And honestly—it was kind of interesting.
***
Song Xi was carrying a backpack and had already grabbed hold of an iron chain.
“Come on. Remember the number of this area—56. Don’t go the wrong way, or you’ll have to switch channels again. It’s pretty troublesome.”
So you Blue Sea people call this chain a “channel”?!
Wang Moning walked over in a daze. Song Xi placed her hand on the chain, then put gloves on her, looked around, found a safety rope, and clipped it onto her.
“Normally we don’t use this thing—it gets in the way. But you’re not very strong, and I’m afraid you might not be able to hold on, so we’ll attach it anyway.”
Then she patted Wang Moning on the back.
“Let’s go!”
Wang Moning: “……”
Go? How exactly were they supposed to go? Like everyone else, walking directly on the wall?
“Hey! Move aside, sister!”
A voice came from above. Wang Moning looked up and saw several Blue Sea people holding onto the chain and looking down from roughly three meters above the ground.
She quickly let go of the chain—but they didn’t climb down it at all. Instead, the moment she moved aside, they simply jumped down lightly.
Three meters!
They just jumped down!
The group clearly considered it perfectly normal. After landing naturally, they smiled and patted Wang Moning on the shoulder.
“You must be the new alien, right? You’re too skinny. Eat more and put on some weight in the future. May our God bless you.”
After greeting her, they walked away smiling, treating her exactly the same way they would any other Blue Sea person.
Wang Moning stared blankly at their backs.
“Do they all know me?”
Song Xi said, “Yeah. Everyone already knows that an alien believer of our God is joining Blue Sea.”
Wang Moning asked, “But how do they know it’s me?”
She had only just arrived!
Song Xi glanced at Wang Moning’s arms, which looked relatively thin compared to her own.
Wang Moning lowered her head and looked at them too. Over the past half month of following the exploration team, she had gained some muscle from constantly climbing up and down, but compared to the Blue Sea people, it was still almost negligible.
Among the Blue Sea people—all tall, heavily built, and possessing considerable physical strength—she definitely stood out.
Wang Moning still felt a little overwhelmed.
“Isn’t everyone being a bit too nice to me? I thought I was different from everyone else, and that it would take some time to integrate into the group.”
Song Xi laughed.
“How are you different?”
“If our God has acknowledged you, then you’re the same as us. You’re also a child of God—our sister, our family.”
Wang Moning froze.
Is it… really that simple?
She… she had just integrated like that?!
From the sidelines, Cheng Qisheng clearly felt Wang Moning’s faith “line” become noticeably thicker.
Was she moved by the words “sister” and “family”?
Sipping her warm milk tea, Cheng Qisheng thought to herself that this child was still too naive.
In Blue Sea, as long as you were a child of God, you were indeed family.
But family still argued.
And fought.
Throughout Blue Sea’s history, there had been plenty of cases where “family” had beaten each other senseless.
Still, on second thought… Song Xi wasn’t wrong either. Blue Sea people enjoyed high-intensity challenges and looked down on b*llying the weak.
With Wang Moning’s height and build—around 1.65 meters—she would be considered “weak” among Blue Sea people, grouped together with the elderly, the sick, and the disabled.
So she probably wouldn’t run into that sort of situation anyway.
Cheng Qisheng decided to spare a little attention for Wang Moning.
Despite being so weak, she could still keenly sense that someone was observing her, which naturally reminded Cheng Qisheng of what other city lords had called “extraordinary citizens.”
Could she be one?
Whatever. She would just keep watching for now.
She wasn’t short on time anyway.
—Song Xi had no idea that the great Creator God was watching them from the sidelines.
She looked at Wang Moning, who was still standing there motionless, then glanced upward.
“Is it too high for you? Are you afraid to go up?”
Over the past few days, Wang Moning had followed them everywhere and climbed up and down quite a bit. Song Xi had almost forgotten that the locals weren’t actually very good at climbing buildings.
Song Xi shifted her backpack to the front.
“Come on, I’ll carry you. Eat more—may the divine bless you. If you do, you’ll have enough strength to climb buildings in the future.”
Wang Moning shook her head and grabbed the chain.
“No. I’ll do it myself.”
She thought back to when she had first been rescued—when she learned that there were only a few dozen survivors left in total, herself included, and none of them were her parents.
Then she thought of returning to her hometown, when Song Xi had agreed to her request and taken her back to her old house… where she had seen her grandparents, turned into zombies.
At that moment, the entire world had truly seemed to collapse into gray.
Then Wang Moning thought of Arthur’s smile at the inquiry office, of those unfamiliar Blue Sea people who had warmly greeted her just moments ago, and of what Song Xi had said—that she was now a child of God, beneath the warm gaze of the divine.
They had told her:
May God bless you.
She clearly realized that she truly had been accepted.
The god had accepted her.
Blue Sea had accepted her.
Perhaps… she would have a home again.
Her eyes reddening, Wang Moning gripped the chain and, imitating the others, used her core strength to push off the wall and climb upward.
She was still slower than the Blue Sea people, but Song Xi patiently followed behind her, guiding her along.
“Don’t use too much arm strength—push off the wall with your legs.”
Someone was coming down from above. Seeing this, they naturally grabbed another rope and shifted aside. As they passed, one of them casually offered advice.
“Plant your foot firmly.”
“Don’t stick too close to the wall—you won’t be able to move if you do.”
Wang Moning’s arms were sore and aching, and her legs trembled slightly. But the half month of training with the team had built up a decent amount of stamina.
Though she looked somewhat disheveled, she still managed to climb all the way to the 81st floor, to the 56th opening from the left.
The moment she entered, she collapsed onto the ground.
Song Xi jumped in lightly behind her, then set down the backpack that belonged to Wang Moning.
“I was thinking we could go shopping together later, but looking at you like this, you should rest first. I’ll buy everything and bring it back. You can just transfer the points to me afterward.”
Wang Moning leaned against the wall and didn’t try to force herself.
“Thank you, Captain. I really couldn’t have done it without you.”
She struggled to her feet and looked around.
The cave-like room was surprisingly spacious—at least around ten square meters.
And the ceiling was much higher than in her previous home, probably designed for Blue Sea people, whose average height exceeded 1.8 meters.
Inside the cave was a wooden bed and a small window.
Standing on tiptoe, Wang Moning looked outside. She could see dense crowds moving below, and farther away, construction teams were busily demolishing buildings.
There were also roads painted in various colors, stretching outward like ribbons of a rainbow when viewed from above—beautiful and almost overwhelming.
Vehicles moved along these roads in straight, uninterrupted lines.
To her surprise, none of them ever turned. Every road was a one-way straight route, leading directly from its starting point to its destination.
Even the tiny figures of pedestrians below all moved in straight lines—no one turned back, no one veered off course.
The roads never intersected. Every small dot of a person moved steadily along its own path, ensuring that the city never became congested.
Farther away, tall buildings just like the one they were staying in towered into the sky, each one resembling a massive pillar standing across the city.
It was easy to imagine that inside them, just like here, countless residents were moving up and down using chains.
Wang Moning heard the roar of aircraft. She turned her head with some effort and saw several fighter jets taking off, flying toward the distance.
“…So shocking.”
She let out a slow breath.
This place was different from the high-tech city she had once imagined. It felt rough, even somewhat crude in certain ways.
But in a world filled with disaster, the very existence of a city like this was already a miracle.
Perhaps it was precisely this wild, untamed way of living that allowed its people to remain so composed in the face of large-scale catastrophe.
“Let me rest for a bit. I still have to go up and down twice more today!”
Wang Moning steeled herself.
“If I’m going to live here from now on, and I can’t even get home normally, then what kind of life would that be!”
She might never be able to match the natural physical strength of the Blue Sea people, but she could train—at least enough to live normally.
Song Xi blinked.
“Not necessarily. If climbing up and down is too tiring for you, you could just rent a more expensive elevator-type apartment.”
“Like those buildings we saw on the way here. Blue Sea has those too, but the rent is pretty high~”
Wang Moning: “?”
“I thought all the houses here were like this… with chains and people climbing up and down.”
Song Xi looked even more surprised than she did.
“Why would you think that? We’re a modern civilization too.”
“It’s just that resources are scarce, so everyone is poor right now and can only afford low-rent housing. Otherwise, why do you think I went out as a crystal hunter? I’m trying to earn points so I can buy a better place to live.”
Wang Moning said, “…I thought you just liked this kind of architectural design.”
She had even mentally prepared herself for a future spent swinging around on chains together with the Blue Sea people.
Song Xi waved her hand.
“Not really. It’s just acceptable. I used to own a 300-square-meter house—that was what I really liked! Unfortunately, it was destroyed along with our planet.”
Wang Moning wasn’t surprised by the mention of planetary destruction. The Blue Sea people had never hidden it from her.
She already knew that their homeworld had been destroyed. It was the great Creator God who had opened a divine sanctuary and led the Blue Sea people to escape, bringing them to her world.
Song Xi continued brightly, clearly lost in daydreams.
“I’ve already planned everything out. Once I save up a bit more points, I’ll first make a down payment on a 30-square-meter apartment. Then I’ll keep saving, and once I have enough, I’ll sell the small place and upgrade to a bigger one. Sooner or later, I’ll definitely own another 300-square-meter house!”
“Come on, let me show you photos of my old home. It was really beautiful—I decorated it with a lot of care.”
“And this one—my classmate sent it to me. It’s a newly built apartment. Don’t be fooled by the fact that it’s only 30 square meters. It has a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen—everything. Fully furnished too.”
Wang Moning looked at it and found that it was genuinely quite nice. She felt a little tempted.
“Then… does Blue Sea have any restrictions on buying property? Like, do newcomers have to wait five years or something before they can buy?”
Song Xi replied, “No. As long as you have points, you can buy. But it’s expensive. Don’t think that just because our rent is only 100 points a month, those apartments are cheap. I heard the down payment alone is 50,000!”
Wang Moning: “……”
“That is expensive. You guys even have down payments?”
“Yeah. It’s a relatively new policy. There wasn’t one before—you used to have to pay the full amount upfront if you wanted to buy. But seriously, if full payment were the only option, who could afford it?”
“Don’t be fooled by the high price. Once you buy it, it becomes your personal property, and it has running water and electricity. Running water and electricity! It’s been so long since I last took a hot shower at home!”
Song Xi excitedly explained her plan to Wang Moning.
“This time, if I make a big profit, I want to rest at home for two months. During those two months, I’ll go to the Vanguard Exploration Team’s field division in the mornings and work at construction sites in the afternoons. That way, I can earn points and contribute to city development at the same time. Once I raise my city construction rating to level three, I’ll only have to pay 30% for the down payment!”
Wang Moning: “…You call that ‘rest’?”
Song Xi replied, “Yeah. Going out with the Vanguard Team isn’t very dangerous, and they provide food and drinks. Construction work is even easier—you just use your physical strength, and you don’t even have to deal with zombies. What else would you call it but rest?”
Wang Moning: “……”
For some reason, she suddenly caught the familiar scent of something called capitalism.
She had thought that people like Blue Sea residents, with their straightforward personalities, wouldn’t have anything like this.
But the key point was that even in this apocalyptic world, even though she could clearly see that these policies were designed to motivate people to work hard, earn points, and build the city, Wang Moning still found herself unable to resist.
At the very least, in this collapsed, apocalyptic environment, there was still a place where working genuinely earned you points—and those points could truly be exchanged for food.
Her expression gradually became determined.
“I’ll do it too!”
“In the name of our God—save money! Buy a house!!”
Cheng Qisheng witnessed everything.
She finished the last of her milk tea and remained deeply anonymous.
Yes—the down payment loan policy… had been her idea.
Back when she had been buying her own house, she had cursed “capitalists” as much as she wanted. Now, however, she found this policy incredibly useful.
Still, Cheng Qisheng had her own principles—no shared floor area calculations.
What you see is what you get.
After finishing her drink, she slowly stood up and walked toward an extra door that had appeared.
It was a new door that had emerged after the core of Cosmic Lord Safe City had been swallowed.
Beyond it lay a vast planting area.
Cheng Qisheng opened the door and looked at the endlessly expansive trees and vegetation inside, letting out a breath.
The existence of this planting area confirmed her hypothesis.
As long as she continued expanding the Safe City, her home would keep generating new rooms with ever-increasing space.
So, in a sense, did that mean that as long as the Safe City kept expanding…
She could even build an entirely new world inside her own home?