"Are you the City Lord?"
"I believe I am."
Under the vast expanse of yellow earth, the scorching sun hung high, warping the air with its heat.
A colossal steel beast roared as it rolled across the wasteland, kicking up a cloud of dust that blotted out the sky.
In a cramped room of less than five square meters, this brief conversation took place.
Qi Honglang, the logistics officer of the mobile city "Deep Blue," stared expressionlessly at the frail yet inexplicably imposing slave before him:
"Where's the proof?"
In response to the skepticism, Jiang Zhixu pulled a piece of bread from his pocket.
He held the bread up to the dim light above, which revealed moldy green spots on its surface. "Do you know how much this bread is worth now?"
Without waiting for an answer, he revealed it himself:
"Fifty gold coins! A full fifty gold coins! That old bastard, because the city's grain production can no longer support over nine hundred people, plans to starve a batch to death."
Qi Honglang's expression remained unmoved. "So what? He's the City Lord, he controls this city, all the soldiers obey him, and the lives of all the slaves are his. What, you want to start an uprising?"
"An uprising? Haha! Well said! You didn't use the word 'rebellion,' which means you..."
"Don't accuse me!"
"Don't you want to?"
"Want my ass! Stay away from me, don't get blood on me!"
Qi Honglang gave Jiang Zhixu a hard shove and turned to rush out the door. "I'm going to report you."
A tremendous force collided with him.
Jiang Zhixu's body had starved to death, leaving him unable to resist. His lower back slammed hard against the edge of a metal locker, and the sharp pain made him gasp.
He watched Qi Honglang rush out of the room but wasn't in a hurry.
Because—
Qi Honglang backed into the room step by step.
In front of him, a dozen ragged, emaciated slaves surrounded him, each holding sharpened iron shards or steel pipes.
"You're just a bunch of slaves. If you rebel with him, you'll surely die!"
Qi Honglang cursed in a low voice.
At this moment, Jiang Zhixu stepped out from the shadows of the room, still holding that moldy piece of bread.
Instantly, all eyes were drawn to him.
"This piece of bread is worth 50 gold coins, but in my hands—"
[Target: Ordinary White Bread]
[Type: Quantity Critical]
[Talent Activating]
[Activation Successful, Multiplier: 88 times!]
Crash!
Dozens of identical loaves of bread appeared out of thin air, crashing onto the metal floor, rolling and colliding with the city's tremors.
Jiang Zhixu's voice rang out clearly: "It's worthless!"
Qi Honglang's eyes widened instantly, staring intently at the bread, his Adam's apple moving involuntarily.
The slaves' eyes turned a shade of red.
However, without Jiang Zhixu's command, they suppressed their instincts, not daring to move.
Until Jiang Zhixu said, "It's on the ground, don't be picky, pick them up," and only then did they pounce like hungry wolves, frantically gathering the bread into their arms.
Jiang Zhixu turned, his gaze calmly meeting the utterly dumbfounded Qi Honglang: "You have two choices, join us, or..."
"Join!"
Jiang Zhixu paused, "Is that a statement, or are you cursing me?"
Thud!
Qi Honglang answered with action.
He clung to Jiang Zhixu's leg, his eyes sincere: "Honglang has wandered the wasteland for ten years, only regretting not meeting a wise leader! If you don't abandon me, I am willing to serve the City Lord to the death!"
A few days later.
Over two hundred insurgents, singing the "March of the Volunteers," burst through the doors of the City Lord's Chamber amidst a hail of bullets.
As a head rolled lifelessly to the ground.
The dust settled!
...
The twenty-meter-high mobile city stood on the yellow earth.
Its shell was welded from steel plates of varying thickness, with patches of different ages layered over each other, the surface marred with scratches and shallow dents.
The city's base was a wide track, deeply embedded in the yellow earth.
The vehicle's underside housed a massive lift platform, with thick water intake pipes hanging from its sides.
On each side of the city were two ordinary cannons with blackened barrels, protruding from makeshift firing ports, along with four additional sealed cannon ports.
At the front of the city's top was the driver's cabin observation window, the middle housed the workshop's exhaust pipes, and the highest point was a watchtower equipped with a telescope.
Inside the city, the City Lord's Chamber, resource warehouse, planting area, medical station, and artillery room...
Layer upon layer, orderly and structured.
This was the entirety of the city Jiang Zhixu had seized—"Deep Blue."
Ugly and rough, yet an envied sanctuary in this world.
[Congratulations on becoming the new City Lord of "Deep Blue." May you always move forward, towards the stars and the sea!]
Qi Honglang, with a few drops of unknown blood on his face, stood by Jiang Zhixu's side, looking at his back with respect.
Jiang Zhixu raised his hand to touch the control console, a hint of emotion on his face.
He had been in this world for half a month now.
From a dying slave to the lord of a city, it wasn't easy.
Because he relied not on sweat, nor effort.
But on a cheat.
To be precise, he relied on the talent that every City Lord would awaken, except his talent not only awakened early but was the only God-tier Talent.
"Omni-Crit Lv. 1"
Quality: God-tier!
Feature: Select a target to perform a "Quantity" or "Quality" Crit.
1. When performing a quantity crit, the multiplier is randomly between 2-100 times.
2. When performing a quality crit, the multiplier is randomly between 2-10 times.
Description: "Look, this is the philosopher's stone, the only one in the entire alchemy universe, snap! Now, there are 101."
As a God-tier Talent.
"Omni-Crit" had many restrictions.
For example, it could only be used once a day, items that had been critted couldn't be critted again, items generated by crit couldn't be critted again, and the target of the crit couldn't exceed the current level of the city...
But this didn't affect its strength as a rule-based talent, and from that "Lv. 1," it seemed it could be upgraded!
Only Jiang Zhixu hadn't found a way to upgrade it yet.
"Honglang."
"Brother Jiang!"
Qi Honglang immediately stepped forward to listen to orders.
"How's the situation in the city now?" Jiang Zhixu turned, his gaze on Qi Honglang.
Qi Honglang quickly reported: "Before the uprising, the total population of the city was 961 people, now, 579 remain, most of the dead were the former City Lord's men.
"The ordinary residents in the city are a bit scared and anxious, I've assigned many calm brothers to reassure them, I believe it will stabilize soon."
As frail slaves, their battle loss ratio was extremely low, not because the slaves were strong fighters, but because the other side surrendered too quickly.
The former City Lord's cronies enjoyed the good life with him and weren't willing to die easily!
However, after taking in the captives, Jiang Zhixu still ordered them all to be executed.
...