Human—but they still couldn’t let their guard down.
What if she was some kind of creature capable of disguising itself?
One of the soldiers shouted, “Can you speak?!”
The little girl cried out, “#￥%￥%”
Well, they had already realized from the writing they had seen earlier that there was definitely a language barrier between the locals and the people of Blue Sea.
It didn’t matter that they couldn’t understand her. At least she had proven that she could speak.
But the Blue Sea civilization never underestimated anyone—even a child.
The combat team still tossed down a pair of small handcuffs and ankle shackles, gesturing for the girl to put them on herself.
Then two soldiers climbed down. One of them fitted her with a bite guard.
It was a little too large, but since it was adjustable, they just barely managed to make it fit the girl.
Finally, the child—wearing a bite guard, handcuffs, and shackles—was lifted out. The moment she reached the surface, she was placed inside a hastily constructed wooden cage.
The girl had been terrified at first, but when she realized that these strangely dressed adults, wrapped in heavy protective suits, seemed even more afraid of her than she was of them, she gradually calmed down.
The combat team remained on high alert, their guns trained on the child.
“Requesting a High Priest from the temple to conduct an examination. We need to determine whether she is safe.”
One soldier stepped forward and used a hooked pole to pass over some food and water they had found inside the house.
The little girl looked at the person standing three meters away and then at the long hook. She took the food and water and lowered her head to eat.
She was very thin—so thin that her cheeks had sunken in. The ravenous way she ate made it obvious that she had been starving for a long time.
One of the white-robed bishops carefully observed the girl.
“She can eat food, so she’s probably not a zombie. I tested it before—zombies can’t eat human food. Even if you force it into their mouths, they’ll just vomit it back out.”
Another white-robed bishop turned to him.
“? How did you test that? Weren’t all the ones sent to us already corpses?”
“That’s easy. Just ask the soldiers to bring you a live one. But be careful during the experiment. Getting bitten would be disastrous.”
“Since we’re such good friends, if you get bitten, can I study you?”
“Sure. I’ll designate you as my autopsy bishop—but you have to designate me as yours too.”
“No problem. By our god above, it’s settled.”
The two white-robed bishops immediately reached an agreement. There was no need for contracts or formal documents. To the people of Blue Sea, a vow made “By our god above” was already the highest possible level of commitment.
After giving the girl a thorough examination, they reached a conclusion.
“She’s not a zombie, but she’s severely malnourished. She must have been starving for a long time.”
“Don’t let her keep eating. Give her some lightly salted water first. Right now, she can only handle liquid food.”
The personnel who had gone down to inspect the cellar also returned.
“There are food scraps and human waste inside. She’s been living down there for at least several months.”
The captain leaned over and checked the depth of the cellar.
“At this height, a child couldn’t have gotten down there on her own. And the lid was closed. It looks like her family hid her there.”
Which meant the disaster in this world had already been going on for at least several months.
The deputy captain nodded and handed over a photograph.
“We found this in a nearby house. She should be the youngest daughter of that family.”
In the photograph, the girl stood beside a middle-aged couple and a young man who looked no older than his early twenties.
“Also…”
Although they knew the little girl couldn’t understand them, the deputy captain still instinctively lowered their voice before handing over the tactical tablet.
On the screen was a photograph of a female zombie that had been shot dead. Most of her face had already badly decayed, but it was still obvious that she was the middle-aged woman from the family photo.
“The soldier who killed her said that when they found her, she had locked herself in the back room. There were deep bite marks on her arm, a hammer lying on the floor, and most of her teeth had been smashed out. The forensic specialist said she had knocked out those teeth herself.”
A trace of respect appeared in the captain’s eyes.
“It seems that when the disaster happened, the adult had already been infected and only had time to hide the child.”
“Even at the very last moment before she completely turned, she still tried to reduce the threat she posed to her child.”
The deputy captain was also moved.
“Has there been any decision from above about what to do with this child?”
The captain nodded.
“Orders have already come down. Someone will come to take her. She’ll remain in the rear and move forward together with the vanguard exploration team.”
The deputy captain nodded, unsurprised. After all, she was an alien. Those in authority would never agree to let her enter the temple.
Seeing the concern on the deputy captain’s face, the captain patted them on the shoulder.
“Don’t worry. The expert group will use her to speed up the process of deciphering this world’s language. She’ll be well taken care of.”
The captain’s guess was correct.
When the expert group received the girl, they treated her like a treasure.
By the sixth hour after the vanguard set out, the experts had learned the girl’s name. In the Blue Sea language, it sounded like “Huan Lingfeng,” but its actual meaning was “Yu Bao.”
Communication was still difficult, but Yu Bao knew how to draw.
Through her drawings and gestures, the expert group quickly pieced together what had happened when the “unclean miasma” erupted.
It hadn’t appeared in the form of an illness, nor had there been any warning signs.
It had simply emerged without warning one evening.
Some people suddenly turned into zombies and began chasing and biting those who hadn’t changed.
Anyone who was bitten quickly transformed into a zombie as well.
By the seventh hour, the temple had moved equipment out of the safe city and established a temporary research facility outside.
There, they reached the same conclusion Yu Bao had described.
“The ‘unclean miasma’ currently spreads only through blood transmission. Infected individuals spread it by scratching or biting others. Once it enters the bloodstream, it replicates rapidly.
“Its target is the brain. The closer the wound is to the brain, the faster the infection spreads. At its fastest, it can turn a living person into a zombie in as little as two seconds.”
The stationed military officer who had been sent over asked with a serious expression:
“Your Excellency, are we certain it only spreads through blood?”
The white-robed bishop nodded.
“I’m certain. It does not spread through the air. Otherwise, given the infection speed of the unclean miasma, all of us would already have become newly turned zombies.”
Soon, the president also received the report.
Her expression remained calm.
“This is good news. The soldiers no longer need to fight while wearing heavy, cumbersome protective suits.”
“Pass down the order. Continue advancing outward, secure more safe locations, eliminate more zombies, and obtain more core crystals to offer to our god.”
By the eighth hour, freed from their protective suits and gas masks, the soldiers were moving much faster than before. They cleared the fourth village and brought out thirteen local survivors.
By the tenth hour, all five villages had been cleared.
Including Yu Bao, a total of thirty-two survivors had been rescued.
Drones flew high into the distance and transmitted images of a nearby town.
It was densely packed with zombies.
There were at least seven or eight thousand of them in the town.
With such a massive horde so close to their rear lines, Blue Sea had no choice but to eliminate them, regardless of the reason.
First, they needed to clear the roads.
The villages were connected to the town by roads, but those roads were now clogged with vehicles and scattered groups of zombies.
These were probably locals who had tried to flee when the disaster struck, only to become trapped on the highway.
By the eleventh hour, the Blue Sea vanguard had cleared all visible zombies from the roads.
By the twelfth hour, heavy military vehicles finally arrived.
One by one, the small cars blocking the highway were shoved aside, clearing a route for the convoy to advance.
By the thirteenth hour, the vanguard reached the town.
The helicopters arrived before the ground troops.
Armed with rockets, they used their loud, droning roar to lure large numbers of zombies out of the town.
Then the large-scale extermination began.
First came the rockets, followed by fighter jets and drones.
The thunder of combat never stopped, and soldiers even stood inside the helicopters, firing machine guns downward to finish off the remaining targets.
Only after that did the real assault on the town begin—the operation to clear out the zombies that hadn’t been drawn out by the helicopters.
By then, night had fallen.
Human vision was limited, and zombies couldn’t be detected with infrared imaging, making it seem like an unsuitable time for an attack.
But that didn’t matter.
When it came to warfare, the Blue Sea civilization always had its methods.
—Whoosh!
—Bang!
The survivors hiding inside the town had only just excitedly spotted the helicopters—
when the sky outside suddenly lit up.
Flares shot into the air one after another as though they cost nothing.
Before one flare had finished illuminating the sky, another followed.
The entire town became as bright as day.
Brighter, even, than daylight.
This time, the number of zombies was nothing like the scattered handfuls they had encountered in the villages.
The town’s environment was far more complex, and casualties during the clearing operation were inevitable.
But the people of Blue Sea did not fear battle.
Here, they would build the fence of their homeland!
Under the blazing light of the flares, the soldiers raised their guns and lifted their left arms.
“By our god above!!”
“Blue Sea endures forever!!”
In the next moment, under command, the soldiers advanced into the town.
By the seventeenth hour, the town had been completely cleared, and 315 survivors had been rescued.
The harvesting teams then moved in to collect the core crystals—
By the eighteenth hour, following the President’s orders, the soldiers began carrying out the long-planned “Fence Plan,” using materials found in the town along with supplies transported from the safe city.
Every house in the town was demolished and reduced to bricks and chunks of concrete.
Rebar, rubble, iron doors, wire fencing—anything that could be used was used.
Truck after truck rolled out from the safe city, carrying both materials and manpower.
Among them were engineering troops and ordinary civilians alike.
After all, construction was something Blue Sea excelled at.
Before leaving their home planet, they had already mobilized the entire population to build within the temple.
One hundred thousand, two hundred thousand, one million—
In the end, five million people of Blue Sea spread out like a swarm of bees, occupying every stretch of land between the town and the villages.
The line was immense, forming a complete sixty-kilometer circle.
And all along that line stood the tireless people of Blue Sea.
They carried bricks, stacked walls, and worked without rest.
No one slacked off.
If they had merely been working for a boss, perhaps some of them would have dragged their feet.
But this was a command from their god.
Every single person poured all their strength into the task, sweating as they built a protective wall for their homeland upon this land freshly cleansed by war.
Twelve minutes remained before the twenty-four-hour deadline—
—the final brick was placed atop the wall.
From Cheng Qisheng’s vantage point above, she could clearly see it.
Centered on the safe city, a massive wall now encircled the cleared villages and town, rising high toward the sky.
It would stand there indefinitely, blocking the zombies outside—ensuring that even after the beginner protection period ended, the safe city would no longer have to fear being overrun.
—The Fence Plan was complete.
From this moment onward, there would always be a solid line of defense beyond the safe city.
She shifted her gaze back toward the temple.
A total of 5,098 core crystals had already been cleaned and carefully placed as offerings before the statue of the Creator God.
The jellyfish-like central AI’s steady voice showed a slight fluctuation.
“Core crystals detected. Marketplace unlocked. City Lord may use core crystals to purchase items or upgrade and modify safe city structures.”
“Safe city has met upgrade requirements.”
“Conditions: 1) Population has reached 1,000,000. 2) Core crystals have reached 3,000.”
“City Lord, would you like to use 3,000 core crystals to upgrade?”
“Reminder: After upgrading to Tier 2, the area of your safe city will double, and the protection level of all defensive structures will increase by one fold.”
It hadn’t forgotten that the City Lord was currently unable to speak, so it added:
“To upgrade, please blink three times. To decline, please blink four times.”
Cheng Qisheng chose not to upgrade.
The AI was slightly puzzled, but it obeyed.
Cheng Qisheng waited patiently as time continued to pass.
Five minutes.
Three minutes.
One minute.
The final ten seconds.
3—2—1—
“Attention: Beginner protection period has ended. Your safe city is no longer immune to external threats.”
The jellyfish AI swayed as it announced:
“Your safe city is now officially active. City Lord will advance to Transcendent Tier 1 along with it.”
The transparent barrier surrounding the safe city instantly dissipated.
At the same time, Cheng Qisheng felt a warm current flow through her body.
She slightly opened her mouth.
“Te… test…”
Then she moved her hand again.
After struggling for two minutes, her fingers finally lifted slowly.
Good.
That was enough.
Test complete.
Cheng Qisheng first closed her eyes and sent a group message to all her followers, informing them that she intended to expand the temple.
As for why—
she didn’t need to explain.
The people of Blue Sea would come up with some grand and noble reason on their own.
Only then did she finally look at the AI core and, slowly but firmly, issue the command with great difficulty:
“Up… grade.”
“Understood, City Lord.”
[Safe City has advanced to Tier 2—]
The virtual screen instantly updated.
[Safe City — Tier 2]
[Actual area: 1,600 square kilometers]
[Manifestation area: 10 square kilometers]
[Resident capacity: 360 million]
[Status: Fully manifested—]
Cheng Qisheng didn’t look at the screen.
She slowly raised her left hand.
Then her right.
Very slowly—like an elderly person moving—but still far faster than before.
At the very least, she could now barely manage basic movements on her own.
“As expected.”
This time, her speech was smooth and fluent, without any of the previous difficulty.
The test result matched her expectations.
As long as she continued upgrading, her body would continue to recover.
Cheng Qisheng controlled her body and slowly sat up.
She took a deep breath.
The feeling of regaining control over her body was… intoxicating.
Light flickered in her eyes—joy, and ambition.
The gaze of the Creator God fell upon the safe city.
—The people of Blue Sea were staring in shock at their homeland, which had suddenly doubled in size.
After the initial astonishment, they erupted into cheers, followed by tears, gratitude, and reverence.
Then, for reasons none of them could explain, three hundred million people simultaneously raised their left arms and shouted:
“By our god above!! Blue Sea endures forever!!!!”
“By our god above!! Blue Sea endures forever!!!!”
Cheng Qisheng looked at this most obedient and well-behaved child of hers and lightly tapped the screen.
Compared to the other city lords… she really was quite fortunate, wasn’t she?
This child wasn’t the smartest, nor was it the fastest to develop.
But it was absolutely the one most suited to the environment of the safe city.
Cheng Qisheng smiled.
“Good child… Tier 3, Tier 4, Tier 5…”
“Let’s keep climbing all the way to the top together.”