The deliveryman is about to celebrate his birthday?
He Fang stared at the birthday invitation from the deliveryman on his phone, utterly astonished. He had never received a birthday invitation before in his life.
But receiving an invitation and being able to attend were two entirely different things. He Fang was well aware of just how severe his social anxiety was; he couldn’t interact with people like a normal person. The deliveryman was so perfect-looking. He was the kind of person who’d attract plenty of friends just for his appearance alone. There was no way he would have invited only He Fang.
Birthdays were supposed to be a joyful occasion, and that kind of joy had to be built on the foundation that everyone was cheerful and outgoing. If someone like him—gloomy and withdrawn—showed up at the party, and everyone else was happily enjoying themselves, then if the deliveryman, as the birthday star, happened to notice him, with how warm and considerate he was, he would definitely try to comfort him.
And once things turned out like that, He Fang wouldn’t be celebrating the deliveryman’s birthday—he’d just be ruining it.
The other party hadn’t sent any more messages, as if waiting for his response.
He Fang thought it over, then typed out a message: I’m really glad you invited me, but I don’t want to attend the birthday party. I’m not very good in lively settings. I’m sorry.
He Fang read the message over and over again, and in the end, still sent it out.
Maybe it was a bit inconsiderate, but he didn’t want to become a gloomy shadow in someone else’s joyful moment.
He Fang felt a little anxious. He was afraid the other person might invite him again. If they did, it would only stir up his hopes again, only for him to have to turn them down once more. And repeatedly rejecting someone would only make him seem even more heartless.
But the reply came quickly: It’s okay. I won’t pressure the customer.
Staring at the message, He Fang couldn’t quite tell what he was feeling. Was he disappointed that the delivery guy hadn’t invited him again? Yes, maybe a little. But at the same time, he also felt relieved that there had been no follow-up invitation.
Looking at the message, He Fang finally let out a helpless smile, then edited and sent a new one: Thank you for the invitation. Happy birthday.
He turned off the screen and set the phone aside, lying quietly on his bed. All of a sudden, he didn’t feel like doing anything.
He knew his response this time had been a bit distant, but he really did care about the deliveryman as a friend.
He Fang had always been like this. When he was a child, his parents would at least still celebrate his birthday. But as he grew older and his condition worsened, their expressions began to show more and more anxiety. Eventually, his birthdays were simply forgotten.
He understood that his parents had reached their limit with the way he was. Around the time of his university graduation defense, he hit the breaking point with them. His advisor had called his parents multiple times, and from then on, He Fang began to feel an oppressive, suffocating pressure from everyone around him—until he finally ran away from home.
He Fang didn’t know whether his escape had caused any trouble for his family, but at the very least, up to now, he had never received a single call or inquiry from them. That alone told him enough. He chose not to think about it, not to dig deeper.
Birthdays were meant to be joyful. Celebrating with family was joyful, and celebrating with friends should be joyful, too. He Fang hoped that the deliveryman, his only person who could currently be called a friend, could fully enjoy that happiness.
He Fang thought for a moment and decided he should prepare a gift.
After all, this was his first real friend in the true sense of the word. He wants to do something for his birthday.
Birthdays call for gifts. He Fang sat up and climbed to his desk, skillfully opening a shopping app, and then searched for: “Gifts for guys.”
A dazzling array of items instantly flooded the screen. He Fang, who had never given anyone a gift before, was quickly overwhelmed and immersed himself fully into browsing.
—
Angel City was currently undergoing renovation. According to the city lord’s instructions, the entire Angel City should be remodeled to be open and filled with sunlight. At the very least, everyone should be able to see the sun. The city lord had said that the amount of sunlight a person received would affect their mood—it was absolutely essential.
Another directive was to dismantle as much of the cramped indoor housing as possible. If conditions allowed, it would be best to ensure one home per family, following the standards set by Hope City.
However, Hope City had already been torn down into a bare skeleton, which made redesigning it much easier. In contrast, renovating the still-intact Angel City on such a large scale was incredibly difficult. For this reason, several architects had been specially transferred from the design institute in the main city to draft the new renovation plans for Angel City.
Yuan Sanjin followed closely beside one of the designers from the main city. After a series of measurements, the designers reported that, if Angel City were to be renovated according to the bare minimum standards, the space would likely be insufficient to accommodate 800,000 people. Expansion would be necessary, and that expansion had already hit a deadlock. After all, real expansion involved far too many complex considerations.
For a time, the entire renovation of the city reached a deadlock.
After learning about the situation, the city lord issued a rather strange order to all of Angel City: from now on, anyone could demolish or remodel the areas they didn’t like, using their own ideas and designs—so long as they first reported it to the architects and didn’t damage the structural framework of Angel City. There was also one more requirement: no arguing during the remodeling process.
Yuan Sanjin couldn’t understand why such a casual and unrestrained order would be given, but the architect explained to her: “If you have a piece of deserted land and completely open it up for people to walk across, over time, you’ll find a few small footpaths appearing. Those paths are the result of people’s choices—the most convenient routes. The city lord wants to open up Angel City for self-directed renovation because he wants to observe your preferences.”
Only then did Yuan Sanjin understand the city lord’s intention. She also realized how seriously the city lord regarded the so-called will of the people.
After explaining the current situation to her grandfather and Mr. Qian, two of Angel City’s former top authorities, both of them fell silent.
Yuan Feng let out a long sigh. After a while, he slowly spoke: “The will of the people… the will of the people… To think I’d live to see a world like this again.”
Yuan Sanjin hadn’t been in charge long since taking over from Yuan Feng, but she had grown up in Angel City. In the past, when everyone in the city was striving solely to keep Angel City running, none of them had ever thought there was anything wrong with it. After all, they were born into it—it was simply the way things were.
But now, when someone told them to do what they truly wanted to do, the people of Angel City were thrown into confusion—yet at the same time, a flicker of hope was ignited.
“I’ve never understood,” Mr. Qian said as he sat calmly in his chair. He was so old, he looked as if he might die at any moment. Yet his voice was filled with reflection. Within that reflection was a deep sense of release. “I never understood why the world ended up the way it did. Maybe this world was meant to filter out humans like us—those without any true meaning.”
At first, Yuan Sanjin couldn’t grasp what Mr. Qian meant. But after thinking it over carefully, she began to understand.
The Nightmare Beast seeds couldn’t infect people from the main city. They didn’t even need the protection of the Divine Lord.
The powerful physical strength and abilities of the people from the main city all, in a way, highlighted their inner fragility. Perhaps that was exactly why the Nightmare Beast seeds filtered out this fragile group. So that the City Lord’s city could become the ruler of this world.
Maybe…
This was an evolution brought on by the world itself.
One night, Yuan Sanjin was sorting through data on the areas currently being damaged by Angel City’s residents. The main city had given them a very unique tool—an object that could instantly generate a full 3D model of Angel City and allow modifications to be made directly on a computer. After studying it for a while, she had become quite proficient at using it.
After all, this was a matter concerning Angel City. She and Qian Qu, the two leaders, handled most of the affairs themselves. They couldn’t rely on the people from the main city to manage everything.
Looking at the battered, riddled model of Angel City—torn apart by her own residents’ will—Yuan Sanjin couldn’t help but feel a strange sensation rise up within her.
Could it be that her people were truly that dissatisfied with the living conditions in Angel City?
Thinking it through carefully, it was probably true. After all, in Hope City now, almost every family had their own large home, while the residents of Angel City were still cramped into tiny partitions. The ones who had been shackled and confined for so long, of course, resentment had begun to build among them.
“So amazing…” Yuan Sanjin stared at the 3D model in awe, her heart filled with wonder. “Did the City Lord even foresee this?”
Perhaps this destruction was, in its own way, a way to dispel the long-festering gloom inside Angel City.
Although Yuan Sanjin had heard countless people from the main city describe the City Lord as powerful, beautiful, and impossibly perfect, in their own eyes, the City Lord had always just seemed like an ordinary young person.
But the more they interacted…
The more they came to understand the City Lord’s greatness.
Yuan Sanjin suddenly recalled how every time the Vice City Lord of Hope City, Wei Qixuan, looked at their City Lord, his eyes would light up. In that moment, she realized that there might truly be a cognitive chasm between them and Hope City.
While Yuan Sanjin was still dazed, a strange sound suddenly came from the distance.
That sound resembled an explosion.
But the instant the word “explosion” registered in her mind, Yuan Sanjin abruptly sprang up from her chair and ran to the window to look in the direction the sound had come from.
What an explosion meant, how could she possibly not know?
Along with the continuous explosive sounds came a thunderous roar. Yuan Sanjin looked up, and in the dim night sky, she saw several aircraft flying.
Those aircraft were dropping bombs onto the ground’s defense facilities, triggering a series of explosions.
In an instant, the entire city’s enemy attack alarm blared. All the soldiers of Angel City are fully geared up and prepared for combat. But this was a complete air assault, there was nothing they could do.
An air raid! This was an attack they hadn’t encountered in a very long time. Aircraft were rarely used in mobile cities. They had a high chance of inadvertently coming into contact with Nightmare Beast seeds without realizing it. Aircraft had basically become an abandoned resource, precisely because it was far too easy for them to accidentally get contaminated by Nightmare Beast seeds and bring catastrophe to an entire city. So, the use of aircraft had simply been abolished.
Yet now, these aircraft circling in the sky were of a unified design. Judging from their size, they were single-pilot combat jets, and highly agile at that. They didn’t seem like undeveloped models at all. Clearly, some cities had been secretly developing aircraft all along.
This was a blatant violation of the Peace Treaty!
Yuan Sanjin had a terrible feeling. Bombs being thrown without regard for resources? That looked like a direct attempt to destroy Angel City’s border defenses!
After losing the Archangel, the soldiers of Angel City no longer had the ability to fly. They certainly couldn’t easily interfere with the movements of aircraft.
“Damn it.” If this were the Angel City of the past, no one would’ve even dared to attack! All the intel they once held in their hands to threaten other cities—gone!
Air combat. Damn air combat.
“Get inside.” While Yuan Sanjin was anxiously biting her finger, trying her hardest to think of what to do in this kind of situation, a voice suddenly sounded next to her ear. She turned her head and saw soldiers from the main city, dressed in black military uniforms, walking forward. One of the passing soldiers grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her behind him.
Yuan Sanjin stared at those soldiers with wide eyes. They were just standing on the open ground, raising their heads to look at the aircraft endlessly circling the border defenses, yet never approaching Angel City itself. Those planes seemed to be deliberately provoking them, constantly bombing the ground’s defensive equipment.
“Don’t stand out in the open! Get to the center of Angel City. No matter how powerful the aircraft’s firepower is, it can’t directly hit the core of the city!” Yuan Sanjin hurried forward and grabbed at the black-uniformed soldiers.
A soldier turned back with a confused look: “Why are you still here? Get all your people inside the city. It’s dangerous to stay out here.”
“It’s dangerous for you, too!” Yuan Sanjin cried out anxiously, trying to pull the soldier toward the interior of Angel City.
The soldier stared at the flustered Yuan Sanjin. His sharp gaze never left her face. Then, with a sigh, he pushed her behind him and said, “If you won’t go in, then just stay here and take cover. This area shouldn’t be within the blast range.”
A vehicle drove in from a distance and stopped in front of them. The roof opened, and a strikingly handsome young man popped out—it was Chong Ying.
Chong Ying looked off toward the planes in the distance, swarming like flies as they endlessly assaulted the border defenses on the ground. “So strange. Why do they keep circling the border? Are they trying to blow something up?”
“It looks like they’re wary of the city interior, or maybe they’re doing this on purpose to provoke us?” The extraordinarily beautiful and refined Yuan Zhiran stepped down from the driver’s seat. He narrowed his eyes. “Chong Ying, how many are there?”
“A lot. Seventy-nine aircraft. That’s a pretty significant number for today’s mobile cities, right?” Chong Ying replied.
However, Yuan Sanjin, who was standing off to the side, suddenly cried out in alarm, and everyone’s attention immediately shifted to her. Yuan Sanjin said anxiously, “Seventy-nine! There are actually seventy-nine illegal aircraft!”
“Illegal aircraft?” Yuan Zhiran was stunned.
Yuan Sanjin briefly explained the situation and immediately said, “This is very likely an illegal combat city. We’ve been targeted!”
Yuan Zhiran frowned and looked at Chong Ying. “Can you see clearly what kind of aircraft they are?”
“They’re all the same. Looks like they’re mass-produced.” Chong Ying looked up at the pitch-black night sky. Even though there wasn’t much light, he was still able to easily see the situation in the air.
“There haven’t been any reports of mobile cities approaching this area recently. These aircraft are most likely heading straight for Angel City with a clear objective.” Yuan Zhiran’s brows knitted together. “They haven’t had enough of bombing yet? Just wasting ammunition to bomb a mere border defense?”
Chong Ying dialed the communicator. “Bro, have all the people at the border been secured? …Mm… Yuan Sanjin, how many people do you have stationed at the border?”
“Seven hundred…” Yuan Sanjin glanced at the aircraft’s attack range. “Seven hundred and thirty-two people.”
Chong Ying raised an eyebrow. “Seven hundred and thirty-two. Bro, confirm that. Once you confirm, I’ll launch an attack on them.”
Hearing what Chong Ying said, Yuan Sanjin froze for a moment, then asked instinctively, “Attack? You’re going to attack? How are you going to attack—that’s the air force!”
None of them paid attention to Yuan Sanjin’s words. Instead, Yuan Zhiran said to Chong Ying, “Let Chong Xiao take control of one aircraft to give to the research institute for study. Don’t worry about the rest.”
“Only keeping one as a backup?” Chong Ying asked.
In the nighttime breeze, Yuan Zhiran looked out at the endless plains where explosions were continuously lighting up the sky. A mysterious smile appeared on his lips. “Zhu Yan has already spoken with me. We don’t need to keep a single person alive. What we need are only their aircraft.”
Yuan Sanjin’s eyes widened. She simply couldn’t believe what she was seeing and hearing. How could they speak so casually about such things? Even though they had aerial defense systems, those defenses only operated at low altitudes, altitudes that didn’t even surpass the height of Angel City. Like this, how were they supposed to make those arrogant aircraft in the sky stop?
“Big bro says it’s okay now.” Chong Ying retrieved a jet-black launcher from inside the vehicle and hoisted it onto his shoulder.
At this moment, the soldier who had been standing in front of Yuan Sanjin all this time turned back to her and said, “Close your eyes. Cover your ears.”
Yuan Sanjin was stunned.
“Attack,” Yuan Zhiran’s voice came through.
Yuan Sanjin felt as if something had suddenly exploded inside her mind. It was a sound; a colossal sound unlike anything she had ever heard before.
She turned toward the source of the sound and saw that youth with a half-smiling expression on his face, and the launcher in his hand had already been casually tossed aside.
Suddenly, Yuan Sanjin felt as though the entire world had plunged into daylight, engulfed in blinding brightness. It was so dazzling that she instinctively squinted her eyes. What was that? That thing that had suddenly burst into such intense light—what was it?
The deafening sound seemed to pass directly through her body and shake her soul. Yuan Sanjin felt as if all her internal organs were about to rupture. The violent pain left her mind blank, almost making her faint. But a strong arm grabbed her own, holding her up just in time to keep her from collapsing completely. Yet in that moment, all the strength drained from her body as if it had been completely emptied. Yuan Sanjin had lost all strength and directly passed out.
Far off in the distance, the swarm of aircraft circling in the sky all lost power. Like headless flies, they scattered chaotically. In the end, they crashed into the surrounding ground one after another, setting off a series of massive explosions. The sounds that followed were even more thunderous than the previous barrage of artillery fire.
The next time Yuan Sanjin woke up, she was in a hospital. Her entire body ached, as though something had run her over from head to toe. The very first thing she did upon waking was to feel nauseous and vomit. She tried to support herself and get out of the hospital bed, but her entire body was limp and powerless. In the end, she could only vomit to the side.
Just then, a hand pushed a trash can to her side, and all of Yuan Sanjin’s vomit landed squarely in it.
It took quite a while before that wave of nausea and dizziness finally eased a bit. She lay back weakly on the hospital bed, feeling as though she had just died and come back to life.
“That’s why I told you to hurry up and get inside Angel City. What were you even doing hanging around outside?” A somewhat low voice came from beside her. Yuan Sanjin weakly twitched her eyelids in annoyance, turned her head slightly, and her vision slowly shifted from blurry to clear. She saw that it was the same unnamed soldier who had stood in front of her before.
“What happened?” Yuan Sanjin asked feebly. She hadn’t even had time to react. Why had she suddenly passed out?
“Chong Ying’s newly developed weapon. It can directly affect the human body within a certain range. Those who get too close basically die instantly—it’s over in a moment. We were already standing pretty far away, but the fact that you were still so strongly affected means there was probably an error in Chong Ying’s calculations during development.” The soldier sat against the snow-white wall. His black military uniform made him look especially sharp and capable.
“What about the people in Angel City?” Yuan Sanjin asked anxiously.
“Chong Xiao went out first to give protective support to people nearby. Besides the enemies, no one else died. It’s just that because this weapon hadn’t been tested beforehand, the affected area turned out to be quite large. Many people in Angel City were impacted, but thankfully, no lasting aftereffects were left behind,” the soldier explained to Yuan Sanjin. “You’ll just need to rest a couple more days and let it flush out of your system.”
Hearing this, Yuan Sanjin finally let out a breath of relief. She closed her eyes, trying to resist the dizziness clouding her brain. “What is the principle behind it? Even when Grandpa and Mr. Qian had access to so much information, they had never seen a weapon like this.”
“I heard the inspiration came from researching Nightmare Beast Seeds at the weapons development facility. The effect is very similar to those seeds, but as for the specifics, I don’t know.”
The soldier’s words filled Yuan Sanjin’s heart with shock. Researching Nightmare Beast Seeds? Nightmare Beast Seeds could actually be researched? Yuan Sanjin felt as if she had just heard the most terrifying and at the same time, most exhilarating thing in the world.
The Nightmare Beast Seeds, the root cause of the apocalypse, were nothing more than research tools in the hands of those from the main city?
Yuan Sanjin let out a deep sigh and suddenly noticed that the soldier had been sitting beside her this whole time. Somewhat puzzled, she opened her eyes and looked over. “Why are you here?”
“Minister Yuan arranged it. Said that since I was the one taking care of you from the beginning, I should take care of you to the end.”
There was no extra expression on the soldier’s face. It was impossible to tell whether he was willing or unwilling.
Yuan Sanjin choked for a moment, then cautiously said, “Um, actually, you don’t have to stay by my side.”
“I don’t want to either.” The soldier gave Yuan Sanjin a helpless glance, complaining slightly. “But this is an order. I don’t have a choice.”
Yuan Sanjin: “……” She felt a bit guilty, but it was really hard to say “I’m sorry.”
A brief silence suddenly fell between the two of them in the hospital room.
—
When He Fang logged in, he habitually checked the in-city event statistics on the system panel, but was suddenly startled to see a major incident had occurred.
Angel City’s border defense encountered an attack by unidentified flying objects. Enemy casualties: 79. Survivors: 0. Our side: 0 casualties, minor damage to defense facilities.
The entire enemy attack lasted ten minutes. But in those ten full minutes, not even the Rainbow Squad’s Xiao Lu defense system was triggered. Compared to a real assault, it looked more like harassment. Was damaging the border of Angel City supposed to achieve anything?
But as he kept reading, He Fang froze. There were a large number of Angel City residents who had been hospitalized due to this enemy attack. But if people were harmed to that extent, how could Xiao Lu have remained inactive?
After He Fang went online and understood the situation, his expression turned complicated.
Yuan Zhiran, wearing a deeply remorseful expression, sincerely acknowledged the mistake in his decision this time: “I’m very sorry, City Lord. Because the weapon wasn’t tested in advance, it caused a widespread rejection response. But please rest assured; this weapon will not cause any aftereffects to the human body. With more food and water, the body can recover on its own.”
He Fang rubbed the space between his eyebrows. After listening, he had a rough understanding of how the weapon worked. It was like triggering the human body’s defense mechanisms, and it triggered instantly. Although the effects had already been suppressed to a very low level, he hadn’t expected it to be still too strong, to the point of affecting the people of Angel City.
“Did you guys properly apologize to Angel City?” He Fang felt that the people of Angel City were really unlucky. The attackers didn’t even reach eighty people, and good grief, Angel City’s eighty thousand citizens all experienced rejection reactions. “You’ll have to give some compensation, otherwise, if people start making a fuss in a bad mood, it might cause some bad consequences.”
“Yes, City Lord, we’ll take care of it.” Yuan Zhiran was deeply ashamed as well. “Even though it’s not much, I’ll voluntarily propose a deduction from my salary to contribute toward the compensation funds.”
He Fang didn’t think it was that necessary. “I’ll go take a look at the injured in Angel City.”
Yuan Zhiran was extremely well-behaved. He Fang noticed that Yuan Zhiran seemed to really be feeling terribly embarrassed. The young man who normally held his head high and walked with confidence now looked just like a wronged bride, pitiful and subdued, trailing about five meters behind He Fang. With his already exquisitely handsome appearance, this expression made him look especially heart-wrenching.
He Fang scratched his hair. “Hey, Yuan Zhiran, I’m not scolding you, okay? Don’t make that face.”
It was already such a breathtakingly beautiful face, and now with that kind of expression… He Fang felt like he was bullying someone.
“City Lord, you don’t need to comfort me. This is my negligence. As a commander, I directly used a weapon that caused harm to our own people. This is absolutely not something that can be easily forgiven.”
He wasn’t wrong, but when He Fang looked at Yuan Zhiran, the normally serious-faced young man now had his eyes slightly lowered. His long, curled eyelashes cast a light shadow, as if forming a hidden cradle for tears. The flush of his face, now tinged with a trace of grievance, made him look even more delicate. It was practically illegal, making it feel like He Fang really was bullying someone!
He Fang instantly covered his face with a hand. He knew, he knew Yuan Zhiran didn’t mean it that way, but still, it was just too…
But just as He Fang was covering his face in despair, out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly caught sight of a little head sneaking out from behind a barrier in the distance. As soon as that small head noticed his gaze, it quickly shrank back out of sight.
He Fang’s mouth twitched. He walked over.
Peeking his head out, he immediately saw Chong Ying sitting behind the cover, staring at him with a face full of terror.
He Fang: “……”
Chong Ying must have really been frightened by the consequences of his recklessness. Still with the appearance of a young boy, he now looked even more pitiful, with tears welling up in his eyes, as if he had suffered the greatest grievance in the world, secretly biting down on his sleeve in a corner while crying.
As soon as Chong Ying noticed him, he started crying even harder. The tears fell like they cost nothing. His eyes were filled with fear, as though he had just seen the scariest thing on earth and had been frightened into sobbing.
He Fang: “……”
He Fang looked up and turned his gaze toward Chong Xiao, who was standing not far away.
Chong Xiao was also momentarily stunned. He turned his head aside to look elsewhere, still standing tall and proud, but no matter what, his eyes refused to meet He Fang’s.
He Fang rubbed his chin.
He had a feeling this situation might not be so simple.
He thought carefully about why the three of them were acting like this.
He Fang’s eyes gradually narrowed.
Suddenly, he grabbed Chong Ying and made the boy look directly at him. “You guys didn’t do this on purpose, did you?”
In that instant, Chong Ying looked like he had been struck by lightning—his eyes widened, and huge tears streamed down his face in a torrent.
The more He Fang thought about it, the more likely it seemed. “You had a safer, more conservative method that wouldn’t cause problems, didn’t you?”
At this point, Chong Ying’s whole body had gone stiff.
He Fang narrowed his eyes. “Chong Ying, with your marksmanship, you could’ve hit the planes, right? There was no need to use this kind of weapon on them. You weren’t using this situation to test your weapon, were you?”
At this point, Chong Ying couldn’t hold it in anymore. With a loud wail, he burst into tears and lunged forward, throwing his arms around He Fang’s waist. “I’m sorry—wuwuwuwu—City Lord, I—I—wuwuwu—really—I—wuwuwuwu…”
He Fang was dumbfounded. Wasn’t this as good as a direct confession?
“Because—because there was no one to test it on! We didn’t know—wuwuwuwu—we didn’t know if it would work on anyone else! We’re so different from them! That thing—wuwuwu—even if it exploded on my brother, it wouldn’t do anything! wuwuwuwu…”
Chong Ying sobbed until he was gasping for breath.
“Don’t hate me! wuwuwu City Lord, please don’t hate me! wuwuwuwu…”
From all the blubbering, He Fang finally managed to piece together what Chong Ying was trying to say.
Chong Ying had developed all sorts of weapons, but in doing so, he had deliberately suppressed their firepower to make them effective against wild NPCs. However, due to the difficulty of accurately gauging the stats of wild NPCs and the impossibility of conducting human trials, they had never been able to find a proper test subject. So, when they encountered an enemy assault, they decided to use the enemy lives to test the new weapon—and ended up completely screwing it up.
After all, this was a live-body experiment, and now it had turned into such a big mess. Chong Ying was sure He Fang would hate him for it. His whole body trembled with fear, and he was crying so hard it looked like he might pass out.
Only then did He Fang realize that this was probably the same mental state Yuan Zhiran was in.
But this time, He Fang didn’t respond right away. Because this matter was indeed a little troublesome.
If the fallout had simply been due to the weapon being misused, that could still be resolved. But if these main city NPCs, from a subjective standpoint, didn’t even see wild NPCs as people worth considering, then this was serious.
Since ancient times, strength dictated status. The main city NPCs were inherently untouchable opponents for wild NPCs. Under the deeply realistic personality algorithm of “Ruins Without Restart”, main city NPCs were bound to develop a sense of superiority over wild NPCs, and the wild NPCs had no means to counterbalance it.
If people couldn’t treat each other with calm and equal respect, then an unbalanced city would inevitably emerge.
If things became too skewed in the future, there could even be the risk of a city being wiped out.
It was time to establish laws.
That was what He Fang was thinking.
Moreover, these laws couldn’t be drafted by the main city residents. They had to be drafted by the wild NPCs from Hope City and Angel City.
The strong could never truly understand the plight of the weak.
He Fang reached out and patted Chong Ying’s head. “You can’t do this again.”
Chong Ying looked up at him with tear-filled eyes, like a child who had just been scolded.
Changing ingrained ideas and values would take time. But still…
“At the very least, the fact that you know this would make me angry means you’re still aware of the issue.” He Fang pulled up the teenager who was half-kneeling on the ground, clutching his stomach. “Try to think from others’ perspectives more often. Try to be more considerate. You don’t necessarily have to be gentle, but respecting the weak as someone strong is also a form of strength.”
Chong Ying blinked, a single tear sliding down his cheek. He looked a little lost.
He Fang felt a pang in his chest. Thinking carefully, his city was supposed to be a standard modern urban society, with a crime rate of zero for years. Back then, even when Sai Gu was locked up, it was because he had run in to hide from a romantic entanglement. So, how on earth did such a city produce this pair of brothers?
It just didn’t make any sense.
Although Chong Ying had been sobbing nonstop, part of it had been an attempt to curry favor with He Fang. But now that he realized He Fang truly was upset over the matter, he didn’t dare make another sound. He just held onto the hem of He Fang’s clothes, sniffling and following behind, refusing to let go—as if the moment he did, he would be lost forever.
He Fang was feeling rather helpless, too. In the end, he simply deducted the salaries of the three involved. But beyond that, he honestly couldn’t think of a better solution.
He personally went to visit the hospital ward where Angel City residents affected by the weapon incident were being treated. While 80,000 people had been impacted, in reality, not many were critically ill. Or rather, although the situation was complicated, most patients were able to recover through rest after examination. Getting more sleep, eating, and drinking more to speed up their metabolism would help them recover quickly. It was just uncomfortable.
Those in serious condition were mostly just suffering from extreme dizziness and total lack of strength, temporarily unable to move freely. They were being monitored by soldiers and nurses together. In truth, the most that needed to be done was to help ease everyone’s discomfort and, for those too ill to eat or drink, administer some glucose via IV.
He Fang looked out over the densely packed room of unlucky Angel City residents. At a glance, most of them seemed to be physically fragile women and some weaker men.
He Fang pulled up everyone’s status panels. Sure enough, he found that most of the people affected already had low HP bars to begin with. However, none of their HP had dropped. Instead, each person now had a “Weakness” debuff next to their name, just as Yuan Zhiran had said. So it really wasn’t a severe issue.
He Fang let out a breath of relief. He’d originally planned to speak about compensation, but seeing how pained everyone looked, he scratched his head and couldn’t bring himself to ask them to think about that now.
But then, out of the corner of his eye, He Fang suddenly noticed something. He frowned and looked at the names of all the NPCs lying here, only to find that there were several names he couldn’t see.
There were two situations in which He Fang could view an NPC’s name directly: the first was if they were already residents of his city; the second was if they had already introduced themselves to him or if he had confirmed their identity.
These people weren’t from Hope City?
He Fang turned to Yuan Zhiran beside him and asked, “Where were these people brought from?”
“All from Angel City. Some from the border defense, and some from within the city itself,” Yuan Zhiran replied.
“When Angel City’s border was under attack, were there any people from outside trying to enter?”
“We haven’t confirmed yet. Right now, many of the Angel City soldiers stationed at the border have been heavily affected, and many are still struggling. So for the time being, we haven’t started questioning them,” Yuan Zhiran explained.
He Fang looked at the people lying one after another in hospital beds—so that meant many among them were border soldiers?
He narrowed his eyes and glanced at the status attributes beneath those people’s names, frowning.
Some of their health bars.
They were higher than those of other Angel City residents.
What was this phenomenon?
