“Collect the Faith of Your People and Reforge the Divine Authority…”
Wendy stepped forward and helped Feng Jianan, who was huddled on the floor, to her feet.
The thin girl stared blankly at her, seemingly unable to believe that she had survived the ordeal. But in the next second, she suddenly threw her arms around Wendy.
“Thank you, Lieutenant Jiang.”
Her voice was still hoarse from crying, but the confusion that had filled her eyes after the apocalypse was gone. Her gaze had become clear and resolute, as though she had made some kind of decision.
Wendy patted her back and waited for her to gradually calm down.
A few minutes later, Feng Jianan released her.
Wendy looked at the girl in front of her. She was still wearing the standard uniform issued to the evacuees, her thin body looking almost lost inside the slightly oversized clothes.
She looked exactly the same, yet somehow, it seemed as though everything about her had changed.
“You were frightened, weren’t you? Luckily, I made it in time.” Wendy smiled gently. “There’s something I should tell you. Everyone in the Wang family was infected during this sudden crisis. No one survived.”
Feng Jianan’s eyes widened.
She froze for a moment. Seemingly thinking of something, her expression became complicated, but in the end, she smiled in relief.
“Whatever happens to them was their fate. It has nothing to do with me anymore.”
“All I know is that being able to survive is already something I should be grateful for. Thank you, Lieutenant Jiang.”
Wendy met her clear eyes and nodded.
“Then let’s go. I’ll show you the cabin that will belong to you from now on.”
With the Wang family dead, the knot in Feng Jianan’s heart was finally undone.
After obtaining her consent, Wendy used her authority to assign her a private cabin.
It was a spacious, bright cabin of roughly seven square meters, with all the basic facilities provided.
Looking at the cabin before her, Feng Jianan could not help recalling the past.
The cabin she had previously shared with four people was only a little more than half again as large as this single-person cabin. Even though there had been partitions inside, living conditions had still been extremely inconvenient.
Especially under that family’s exploitation.
It feels so good to be alive. This must be a gift from heaven.
She thought silently.
“Complete your cabin registration,” Wendy said, looking at her. “Previously, you were registered as an accompanying person, so your information wasn’t complete. This time, you’d better fill in your personal information carefully.”
A blue screen in the center of the silver-white cabin door flickered continuously, reminding the person standing before it to complete the authentication as soon as possible.
Feng Jianan stared intently at the screen.
Her left hand hanging by her side slowly clenched into a fist.
Accompanying person.
Yes, she remembered.
Back then, she had not even been allowed to fill in her own registration information.
Wang Guangzong, the head of the Wang family, had been responsible for filling out everyone’s information. She had not even known what had been entered under her name.
But now…
As she looked at the information displayed on the blue screen, Feng Jianan trembled slightly with anger. Her clenched fists grew tighter until her fingertips gradually turned white.
The screen displayed:
[Name: Feng Jianan
Gender: Female
Education: Junior High School
Occupation: Other
Relationship: Other]
She knew they looked down on her.
They had never regarded her as a member of their family. They had merely treated her like a servant, ordering her around like a nanny.
She had been too blind to see it before. In order to win Wang Tianci’s affection, she had desperately tried to gain his parents’ approval.
But now, she no longer cared.
She had already expected them not to acknowledge her identity in the registration information.
But what gave them the right?
What gave them the right to falsify her educational background?
When they had first boarded the boat, the guards had specifically warned them that their registration information was extremely important and that they must not be careless.
The information would ultimately be collected and uploaded. It would determine each person’s resource allocation and identity arrangements after they arrived at the Ark.
Even though the guard had said that the evacuees’ information would be verified after entering the Ark, who could guarantee that falsified information would not happen to slip through undetected?
No education.
No skills.
No value.
The Wang couple looked down on her and refused to acknowledge her, yet they still wanted her to serve as their nanny for the rest of her life.
They had certainly planned it well.
If she failed to demonstrate any value worth other people’s time and effort, perhaps no one would ever care about her.
She might have remained trapped by that family for the rest of her life, unable to break free.
Feng Jianan took several deep breaths, trying to calm herself down, and shifted her attention back to the blue screen in front of her.
It doesn’t matter.
As long as I survived, that is their punishment.
And I am the one who still has a chance to start over.
She looked at the screen and deleted all the previous information.
Then, stroke by stroke and word by word, she began filling it out again.
[Name: Feng Zhao
Gender: Female
Education: Bachelor’s Degree
Institution: Huaijiang University
Major: Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Brain Development]
Yes.
Feng Zhao.
This was the name she had chosen for herself.
Spring comes again, gratitude returns; the sun shines brightly.
She had broken free from the mud and gained another chance to choose her own path, just like the arrival of spring once more, bringing warmth back to heaven and earth and allowing all things to grow.
From this day onward, there would be no more Feng Jianan.
There would only be Feng Zhao, living for herself.
Wendy stood to the side with her arms folded, watching the thin girl fill out her information again.
A remarkable light slowly ignited in her eyes.
Meanwhile, as the educational level on the blue screen changed, the subsequent information fields changed as well.
Her gaze lingered on the newly entered name for several seconds before moving down to the final line—the major.
The corners of her lips curled upward.
The 028 Intelligent Brain needed a professional to diagnose and repair it.
But Wendy had investigated the evacuees aboard this escape boat and discovered that there was no one working in a related field.
Under these circumstances, only she and Feng Zhao had the ability to repair the 028 Intelligent Brain.
But she was currently the guard Jiang Qiao.
She should not know how to repair an Intelligent Brain, so she could not step forward herself.
But Feng Zhao could.
She could walk toward the life that belonged to her.
After settling Feng Zhao in, Wendy returned to the dormitory.
It was already nine o’clock the next morning.
The entire cabin was bathed in simulated sunlight projected by 028.
It was extremely bright and completely unsuitable for catching up on sleep.
Yet Mingmei was already lying on the bed, sleeping deeply. If not for the slight furrow between her brows, she would have looked completely unaffected by the brightness.
Wendy turned off the lights.
With no other source of light, the cabin instantly became dark, like a silent night.
Mingmei smacked her lips, and the tension in her brow relaxed.
“Stupid bugs! Eat this, you bastards!”
Obviously, she was still fighting the Xenotypes in her dreams.
Wendy shook her head with a quiet laugh, washed up briefly, and lay back down on her own bed.
The moment she was wrapped in the bedding, she finally became aware of the exhaustion spreading throughout her entire body.
She raised her wristband and calculated the time.
It had been a full 27 hours and 15 minutes since she had opened her eyes after waking up the previous day.
The Man-Faced Mosquitoes had differentiated far too quickly.
In just a single day, the entire escape boat had gone through every stage of invasion, parasitism, and differentiation.
The speed was astonishing.
She had been awake for an entire day and night.
The bedding was like a key that unlocked the fatigue she had been suppressing, and her sore, swollen eyelids began to droop.
Wendy buried her face in the pillow, wanting nothing more than to fall asleep immediately.
But she couldn’t yet.
There was still something she had to do.
After setting an alarm for the nighttime patrol at four in the morning, Wendy entered the Sea of Consciousness.
Within the vast, boundless space, the blue planet rotated alone.
She enlarged it.
The first place she looked at was the Royal City.
With the spiritual energy of the temple’s Chosen Possessors and the support of the Sea Hunters clan, the Royal City had been completely restored.
Across the vast plains of the seabed, a magnificent city stood in orderly splendor.
A massive Magnetite Stone enveloped it, while countless mermaids hurried through the streets.
The entire city looked full of life.
Just then, a notification window appeared in Wendy’s field of vision.
[Your Priest—Hega Luoyin—is attempting to summon you. Would you like to respond?]
[If you respond, 2 Action Points will be deducted.]
Hega Luoyin wanted to contact her. Could it be that there had been some new development with the Man-Faced Mosquitoes?
Wendy was puzzled at first, but then she thought of this possibility and immediately chose to respond.
Her Action Points were deducted, and her field of vision instantly shifted.
To Wendy’s surprise, however, Hega Luoyin was not in the temple.
She was in the Royal Tower.
The scene visible through Wendy’s perspective appeared to be a flower garden inside the Royal Tower. The ceiling had been opened up and covered with a crystal dome, while the surrounding area was supported by pure-white pillars carved with murals.
The gentle glow of the Magnetite Stone atop the Royal City flowed down through the dome, illuminating the flower garden.
At the center of the garden were countless floating islands, each roughly the size of a round table. Various flowers and fruits grew upon them.
The plants differed so greatly in appearance that anyone could tell at a glance that they had originally grown in different regions of the sea, only to be harvested, cultivated, and brought here as tributes.
The tiny elderly mermaid was gesticulating excitedly as she pointed toward one of the plants.
She picked a round fruit glowing with an icy-blue light, held it carefully in her palm, and desperately raised it toward the sky.
In Wendy’s field of vision, an icon representing the fruit suddenly appeared.
[Your Priest—Hega Luoyin—has offered you a Storm-Nest Fruit harvested from the Storm Sea. Will you accept it?]
[Accepting it will deduct 10 Action Points.]
Wendy hesitated for a moment.
She had originally thought that Hega Luoyin had suddenly contacted her because there had been some important new development.
She had not expected the old woman simply wanted to give her something to eat.
She looked down again.
After receiving no response for quite some time, the old woman became visibly anxious. Still holding the fruit in her hands, she began swimming around in circles in agitation.
Does she really want me to eat this that badly?
Wendy raised an eyebrow and first clicked [Listen].
A tiny bubble slowly floated up beside the elderly mermaid with her white hair.
[The King is alone on the surface of the sea. I wonder how she is doing.]
[Her Majesty Alai Dayi loved eating Storm-Nest Fruits the most. The King should like them too, right?]
Alai Dayi was her mother’s name.
Wendy looked at Hega Luoyin’s thoughts and sighed after a moment.
Although spending 10 Action Points on a few pieces of fruit was indeed somewhat wasteful, disappointing an old woman’s heartfelt gesture did not seem like something a good Sea Tribe King should do.
She clicked [Accept].
[You have accepted your people’s tribute. The “Inventory” function will automatically be unlocked for you. 10 Action Points deducted.]
Wendy’s breath caught.
She watched helplessly as the fruit Hega Luoyin was holding transformed into a streak of light and disappeared.
The original ten Action Points were also deducted instantly, as though afraid she might change her mind.
What is this? Forced purchasing?
She felt a little regretful.
She had originally thought that only ten Action Points would be deducted.
But when she saw the elderly mermaid below happily spinning around after receiving her response, Wendy could only smile helplessly.
Well, what can she do? She’s a good King, after all.
The old woman swam around cheerfully, but her status bar showed “Exhausted.”
Thinking about her own exhaustion today, Wendy realized that it was probably because creating the spatial tunnel had consumed a great deal of spiritual energy.
A priest could not afford to suffer any mishaps.
She immediately used [Blessing] to restore the old woman’s status to full.
Using [Blessing] consumed 5 Action Points.
But after receiving the healing, Hega Luoyin became noticeably more excited and contributed another 10 Faith all by herself.
Watching the points transform into specks of light and be added to her panel, Wendy narrowed her eyes slightly.
Action Points could awaken cities and activate abilities.
From the Sea Tribe’s perspective, each use was essentially another display of a miracle that only a god could perform.
And displaying these “miracles” could earn her Faith.
An ordinary member of the Sea Tribe could contribute 1 point of Faith each time, while religious personnel could contribute anywhere from 2 to 10 points at a time.
Action Points could awaken cities and activate abilities.
They seemed far more practically useful than Faith, which could only be used to upgrade “Dominion.”
That was why Wendy had initially focused all her attention on Action Points.
But now, after realizing that “Dominion” was not merely the power of the Sea Tribe’s King but also one of the divine authorities of the gods, she suddenly understood the true purpose of Faith.
Faith could be used to upgrade one of the divine authorities—“Dominion.”
So, once she accumulated enough…
Could she—
awaken the other three divine authorities?