When the divine oracle descended, President Qin Zhi was buried beneath an overwhelming mountain of work, with no end in sight.
Under normal circumstances, the temple grounds seemed enormous, spanning a full 800 square kilometers—essentially the size of an entire city.
But with 360 million people packed inside, even that was far too cramped.
To put it into perspective: if there were no buildings at all across those 800 square kilometers and all 360 million people simply stood there, each person would have barely more than two square meters of space.
And that was without accounting for the many enormous structures and divine statues already occupying the temple grounds.
Even after mobilizing resources from across the entire world and hastily constructing several high-rise buildings in the shortest possible time, the survivors had only just managed to squeeze inside.
And getting everyone in was merely the beginning.
With so many people gathered in one place, basic necessities such as food, water, and sanitation became enormous problems. Food alone required at least 180,000 tons every day—and that was only staple food.
How should everything be organized? How should living spaces be assigned? How could food be distributed to every citizen of Blue Sea? What about the water supply and waste disposal?
With so many people crammed together, epidemic prevention was indispensable. Maintaining public security and order would obviously require military involvement. Different forms of energy had to be prioritized for key departments first, or even something as basic as identity registration would grind to a halt at the very first step.
How should all the materials be allocated?
Now that everyone’s former social roles had been disrupted, what would people do in the future?
The citizens were deeply anxious about their new lives. How could they be reassured?
Not every one of these problems needed to be personally handled by the President, but ultimate authority over the overall direction rested in her hands.
Documents arrived one after another, endlessly piling up.
Every document she signed would affect the future of 360 million people.
During the earlier mass relocation, President Qin Zhi had slept for a total of only two hours across three days—and even then, her sleep had been restless, filled with dreams of arranging affairs.
Now, although the relocation had succeeded, she still could not rest.
In fact, she was even busier than she had been during those previous three days.
President Qin Zhi’s eyes were bloodshot with exhaustion, and strands of white had appeared in her hair, yet she remained full of energy.
As she put it, once exhaustion passed a certain point, the drowsiness simply disappeared.
So when she heard the oracle instructing her to send people out to explore the outside world, her spirits rose even further.
“Yes! My Lord!”
The President rose respectfully and bowed in the direction of the temple.
“Qin Zhi humbly obeys the divine oracle.”
The other ten senior officials in the conference room also brightened immediately.
The exhaustion and heaviness on their faces faded, and even their pale complexions regained some color.
It was as if each of them had instantly recovered half their strength.
Before leaving the Safe City, everyone had witnessed the outside world being torn apart and reduced to nothingness.
Only they—a fortunate group—had survived under the deity’s protection.
Yet now that they had arrived in this unfamiliar world, how could they possibly remain at ease while looking at the three suns hanging in the sky beyond the city?
The higher one’s position, the more one knew.
And the more one knew, the harder it became to suppress the anxiety inside.
Even so, everyone tacitly concealed their fear and unease, maintaining calm and composed expressions in order to reassure the guards and civilians around them.
At a time like this, hearing the divine oracle was immensely comforting.
“Madam President, has the oracle descended?”
“What instructions has our Lord given?”
With a faint, deliberately reassuring smile, Qin Zhi swept her gaze across the others in the conference room.
“Our Lord has delivered an oracle. The world outside is a god-abandoned realm, filled with many dangers—but also with many opportunities and benefits.”
“In Her mercy, She will grant the temple divine protection for the next day and night. During that time, no danger from the forsaken realm will be able to enter.”
“Therefore, we have a full twenty-four hours to explore this world, prepare our defenses in advance, and seek out opportunities.”
When the officials heard the words “god-abandoned realm,” their expressions varied, but every one of them stood and respectfully bowed toward the towering divine statue outside.
“We are grateful for our Lord’s mercy.”
A god-abandoned land was still better than a mother planet that had already been destroyed.
Since the deity had personally delivered an oracle, the Blue Sea civilization had nothing to fear.
Besides, they still had an entire day and night of divine protection granted to the temple.
That was more than enough.
One had to remember that the Blue Sea civilization had only been unified six years ago.
The civilization had come a long way, forging an epic history through war and advancing all the way from a feudal society into the modern era.
This, too, could be considered Cheng Qisheng’s doing.
When she first cultivated the new humans, she had chosen a primitive wilderness society as their starting environment in order to better implant ideological conditioning.
In the wilderness, humans had to fight wild beasts almost every day.
Danger was everywhere.
As a result, not only had absolute loyalty to her been imprinted into the genes of the new humans, but an instinct for combat had inevitably been carved into them as well.
After giving it some thought, Cheng Qisheng decided that as long as they did not engage in the kind of self-destructive internal conflict that had destroyed her second, fourth, and fifth civilizations—fighting until they wiped themselves out—she would not interfere.
She had previously cultivated seven civilizations.
Every one of those human civilizations had developed differently, but each had ultimately led her to similar “taboos”:
Humans really were incredibly easy to “raise into extinction.”
So—
let them do whatever they wanted.
Fight if they wanted to fight.
Just don’t start throwing nuclear bombs at each other.
Qin Zhi had become President at only forty years old, and it was not merely because of her political ability.
Two-thirds of the people sitting in that conference room had, at some point, been defeated by her in military command.
The ring on her finger—a symbol of divine authority and recognition—had been won through sheer strength.
Cheng Qisheng had dug it out from the relics of an interstellar civilization and personally bestowed it upon her.
If nothing unexpected happened, then once Qin Zhi reached the end of her natural lifespan, and the next President could no longer suppress the others, the Blue Sea civilization would most likely descend into another round of war.
But now Dark Star had been destroyed.
The Blue Sea civilization had arrived in another world.
And this world still had external threats.
In the past, Cheng Qisheng had been deeply troubled by how fond the Blue Sea civilization was of fighting.
Now, she found the trait immensely reassuring.
Fortunately, this was “the eighth batch.”
If it had been the seventh batch instead—
a civilization that had developed smoothly all the way, focusing almost entirely on technological advancement without cultivating military power or cunning—
—Cheng Qisheng hurriedly looked at the Blue Sea civilization’s expedition force, already fully assembled, to cleanse her eyes.
Yes.
In such a short amount of time, the exploration force had already selected its personnel, prepared its equipment, and stood ready to depart.
—“Report to the Commander-in-Chief! Combat Battalion assembled! Infantry group: 4,000 personnel. Tank group: 2,000 personnel. Drone combat group: 1,000 personnel. Required strength: 7,000. Present: 7,000!”
—“Report to the Commander-in-Chief! Air Operations Battalion assembled! Fifty pilots, twenty navigators, mechanics…”
—“Report to the Commander-in-Chief! Engineering Battalion…”
—“Report… Logistics Battalion…”
—“Report… Reconnaissance Battalion…”
—“Report… Survey Team…”
Finally, the Commander-in-Chief reported to the President:
“Reporting to Your Excellency the President! Blue Sea Vanguard Expedition Force: required strength, 20,000. Actual strength, 20,000. Equipment and supplies fully prepared. Awaiting your orders!”
Qin Zhi looked down at the members of the vanguard force.
“Everyone, you are about to enter a god-abandoned land.”
“As President, I do not know what unknown dangers you will encounter, nor do I know whether you will return alive. I also do not know whether this place can become our new homeland.”
“But there is one thing all of us know.”
“Our mother planet has been destroyed.”
“This is the Blue Sea civilization’s final hope!”
“Set out!”
“Explore it!”
“Develop it!”
“Conquer it!”
“I can promise you only one thing—if you die, I will send a second team.”
“Then a third.”
“A fourth…”
“Until every last citizen of Blue Sea is exhausted!”
Yes.
The Blue Sea civilization’s pre-departure mobilization speech was just that simple and brutal:
—Soldiers, don’t worry about dying.
If you die, the rest of us will simply follow one after another until we are all dead!
And strangely enough, the people of Blue Sea responded extremely well to that kind of speech.
The soldiers’ expressions became more and more fervent.
Qin Zhi raised her left arm.
“In the name of the Lord! Blue Sea endures forever!”
The soldiers stood rigidly at attention and raised their left arms in unison.
Their roar shook the earth.
“In the name of the Lord! Blue Sea endures forever!”
The gates of the temple opened wide.
The Pope and white-robed bishops stood on both sides, praying for the deity’s protection.
“May the Lord bless you.”
After the entire exploration force had departed, two hundred white-robed bishops also prayed for themselves.
“May the Lord bless me.”
Once they finished praying, they followed the force outside.
From ancient times to the present, clergy had always served as medical personnel.
Since the expedition force was going on a mission, medical support was naturally indispensable.
Thus, the temple assigned two hundred highly skilled white-robed bishops with battlefield experience, three hundred priests who assisted with medical duties, and two blue-robed archbishops responsible for coordination.
Whenever members of the expedition encountered danger, the bishops and priests would pray for divine protection while simultaneously performing surgery.
Strictly speaking, the prayers really were effective.
After all, the deity could genuinely observe the condition of her believers from something resembling a god’s-eye view.
It was just that before, everything had looked like a video sped up billions of times.
The scenes moved so quickly that they gave Cheng Qisheng a splitting headache, forcing her to guess and infer what was happening.
Frankly, she was impressed that she had been able to understand anything at all.
But now—
everything was moving at normal speed.
Suddenly being able to watch things at normal playback speed…
was actually somewhat difficult to get used to.
It was like someone who had been severely nearsighted for years suddenly putting on a pair of perfectly fitted glasses, only to become dizzy because everything was now too clear.
Cheng Qisheng’s condition was exactly like that.
Only much worse.
Fortunately, her ability to adapt had always been strong.
Suppressing the discomfort, Cheng Qisheng continued observing the expedition force while simultaneously monitoring the messages in the other city lords’ group chat.
From what she could tell, the various Safe Cities had arrived in this world at different times.
Some had clearly been here for a long while. Their messages showed obvious familiarity with the situation.
Others had only just arrived and were still in the early stages of exploration.
Cheng Qisheng focused mainly on the latter.
The city lords who had been here longer were extremely tight-lipped.
None of them were willing to openly reveal what this world was really like.
Only the newcomers still discussed things freely.
[Coriander Safe City: Big shots, do you think it’s safe if I send 200 people out to scout the area?]
[Coriander Safe City: Would 300 be too many? I’m worried they might all get wiped out.]
“Coriander” was clearly trying to pry information from the more experienced city lords.
Not only did they describe their own plans in detail, but they even @-mentioned the others.
Cheng Qisheng noticed that Coriander had a sharp eye.
They did not tag the seemingly friendlier “Blue Leaf.”
Instead, they directly addressed the quiet “Withered Star.”
[Coriander Safe City: @Withered Star Safe City Big boss, could I ask how many people you sent out to investigate when you first arrived? Please, my manpower is too limited. I really don’t dare act recklessly~]
[Withered Star Safe City: You’re Tier 1? A newcomer?]
[Coriander Safe City: No, boss. I’ve already been through one world. This is my second. Wuwuwu… I was too inexperienced and reckless in the last world, and a lot of my residents died. I had to recruit some natives just to fill the quota. It’s not that I’m unwilling to spend energy crystals to buy information—I genuinely don’t have a single crystal left. Please help me, sob sob sob!]
[Withered Star Safe City: If you’re not a beginner, I suggest sending fewer people.]
[Coriander Safe City: Okay, okay, thank you, boss. Could you tell me why?]
[Withered Star Safe City: No. Figure it out yourself.]
[Coriander Safe City: Alright, alright. You’ve already helped me a lot, thank you so much~ Boss, this is some timber I obtained in the previous world. I’m not sure whether it’s useful to you, but it’s all the resources I have right now. Please accept it. I’ll give you more when I have more later~]
[System notification: Coriander Safe City has transferred 80 tons of hardwood to Withered Star Safe City.]
Another prompt immediately appeared, showing that Withered Star Safe City had accepted the transfer.
Cheng Qisheng stared at the virtual screens.
There was too much information.
She needed to sort through it.
First:
Safe Cities were not confined to a single world.
They traveled through many worlds.
And those worlds were clearly dangerous.
Why?
Were Safe Cities only permitted to remain in disaster-stricken worlds?
Energy crystals seemed extremely important.
They were most likely some form of currency.
And there was a high probability they could also be used to upgrade a Safe City.
Population was equally important to a Safe City.
If the population became too small, residents had to recruit natives to fill the required quota.
Considering that the Safe City had previously seemed to require a population of at least one thousand to activate, Cheng Qisheng inferred that if the number of residents fell below a certain threshold, the city might not even function properly.
Transactions between Safe Cities could apparently be conducted directly through the group chat.
Though it was unclear whether the system charged any kind of commission or “tax.”
There was also the matter of population size.
The populations of these other Safe Cities were probably not especially large.
Judging by the earlier argument between “Meow Meow” and “Cosmic Lord,” a Safe City with more than ten million residents was already considered enormous.
And even Coriander thought sending out three hundred people was “too many.”
Cheng Qisheng thought about her own 360 million residents—
and the 20,000-member vanguard expedition force she had just sent out…
Coriander had also mentioned that their original world had been destroyed.
Did that mean all Safe City lords were survivors who had escaped from destroyed original worlds using their Safe Cities?
Most likely, they had all been ordinary people before obtaining a Safe City.
Which meant they could only bring in survivors from the native civilizations near them.
But Cheng Qisheng was different.
Dark Star had indeed been destroyed.
However, she herself was not a native of Dark Star.
Before the Safe City activated, her identity had been that of Dark Star’s Creator God.
The Blue Sea civilization trusted her absolutely.
With a single command from her, the entire civilization had relocated into the Safe City.
Other Safe Cities, however, had residents who could rebel.
“Withered Star,” for example, had only become the new city lord after the previous city lord had been killed.
But Cheng Qisheng never had to worry about anything like that happening to her.
After reviewing her own advantages, Cheng Qisheng felt slightly more reassured.
She still clearly remembered what “Meow Meow” had said.
“Cosmic Lord” intended to kill her and seize her Safe City core.
Safe Cities were clearly not always friendly toward one another.
She needed to remain prepared for the possibility of war at any moment.
But for now—
she needed to focus on the information provided by “Withered Star.”
Cheng Qisheng did not know whether Withered Star had been telling the truth.
Still, making hypotheses and taking precautions in advance could never be wrong.
—“If you’re not a beginner, send fewer people?”
What was the greatest difference between a beginner and a non-beginner?
Cheng Qisheng immediately thought of the twenty-four-hour newcomer protection period.
During that period, dangers from outside could not enter the Safe City.
So why would sending fewer people be better?
If the threat were something direct and physical, then logically, sending more people should be safer.
An image suddenly flashed through her mind—
the unfortunate seventh interstellar civilization, which had been wiped out by a virus.
Could it be something contagious?
Yes.
It was probably related to contagion, or something similar.
The more people sent out, the more chaotic the situation would become once it began spreading—
from one person to ten,
from ten to a hundred.
But a beginner Safe City could isolate external danger.
Viruses could not enter the Safe City.
Therefore, for non-beginner Safe Cities, sending fewer people would indeed be safer.
Cheng Qisheng immediately closed her eyes and transmitted this information to the expedition force.
Whether Withered Star’s words were true or false, taking extra precautions could never hurt.