ATIGIBTC Chapter 110.2

Although the small group’s whole families often complained, they still held onto hope. From the moment they became a small group, their lives and deaths were no longer in their own control. Now, even the tiniest spiritual support was a sliver of light in despair.

The people of the small group struggled forward with difficulty, but suddenly, in the distance, they saw a herd of animals. Instantly, the small group did not dare to go any further.

It was a pride of lions. The leading male lion, upon seeing them, had already taken up an attacking stance, and the lionesses surrounding the male lion also showed signs of preparing to attack.

The leader of the small group only felt a chill in his chest. A human’s running speed could never outrun a lion’s. With so many of them, it was clear that even if they scattered and fled, they would not be able to escape. The best plan was to face them head-on.

But even if they faced them head-on, they could only prepare for the worst. They would lose many people.

“Don’t be afraid. If we’re afraid, then not a single one of us will survive. If even one can live, then that’s one.” The leader of the small group gripped the weapon in his hand tightly, waiting for the male lion’s attack. “Kill as many as you can. Every lion is meat. At least we can solve a few days of rations!”

The small group’s leader knew well that what he was saying was just to ease the pressure. It was wishful thinking. But if he didn’t say it, what else could he do?

As the male lion stepped forward, the leader of the small group gripped the small pendant he always wore, praying one last time in his heart: “Divine Lord, if you can hear me, please help your follower.”

Suddenly, the male lion pounced. The leader of the small group’s eyes filled with ferocity. He was ready for a fight to the death.

Just as they were about to clash, all of a sudden, something from afar slammed fiercely into the pouncing male lion, sending it flying. It was a huge rock.

The lionesses, who had been charging forward, halted their attack, quickly leaping back to the male lion’s side.

The entire small group was stunned by this unexpected turn. They looked in the direction the attack had come from, and what they saw was a face they had never seen before. A face so perfect it seemed only the gods of this world could possess it.

The man at the front wasn’t wearing any armor, but every member of the squad he led wore armor so perfectly crafted and exquisite that it made people tremble with awe. They walked forward casually. As soon as the male lion saw these few people, it forced itself up and fled with the entire pride, as if it had encountered its natural enemy.

Every pair of eyes in the small group stared in shock at the people who had arrived at their side. They couldn’t understand. Why, when there was such perfect armor, was the leader not wearing any armor, just wandering around here?

“The Divine Lord heard your prayers and sent me here to help.” The incomparably handsome young man in the lead looked down at them from what seemed like a vehicle but was actually a hovering craft without wheels, gliding right above the ground. “Do you have any other difficulties?”

Everyone in the small group was stunned. The leader of the small group asked, his voice trembling: “You are… you are… a Mirage Envoy?”

The man in the lead raised an eyebrow: “You came looking for Hope City?”

He did not deny it. He really was a Mirage Envoy, and he even mentioned Hope City!

“We… we wish to enter Hope City, could… could we? Lord Envoy.” Seeing this handsome and splendid Mirage Envoy, the small group even doubted whether they were worthy to enter Hope City.

“You can.” Saying this, the dazzling Mirage Envoy lifted a finger and pointed in a direction. “You’re very close now. Just keep walking in the direction I’m pointing, and you’ll see it. You can go by yourselves. The lions have fled and won’t come back here for a while.”

The small group only felt their hearts surging and their blood boiling. They had walked for so long, and had once believed that Hope City was nothing more than a city imagined by people in despair. But now they knew, it was real. It was actually real!

“Thank you, thank you for the rescue. Truly, thank you so much.” The leader of the small group suddenly knelt before the Mirage Envoy, and the rest of the small group followed, kneeling together. Their hearts were full of excitement, full of expectation for this reality, their eyes even brimming with tears.

“Remember to pray more to the Divine Lord when you return. After all, it is God who guided us. Now, go quickly.”

The small group thanked him again and again. This danger, which they thought would end in bloody despair, had been so easily resolved. In their hearts, their faith in the Divine Lord, this Mirage God they had never met before, was already firm and unwavering.

Watching the departing back of the Mirage Divine, the leader’s child asked him, “Daddy, why doesn’t the Mirage Envoy wear armor. Is it because he doesn’t have any?”

The leader of the small group lowered his head and said to his child, “Because the Mirage Envoys cannot be parasitized by the Nightmare Beast Seeds. They are the incarnations of the gods.”

In the rumors that had been spreading all this time, it turned out the Mirage Envoys really could not be parasitized. Even he himself found the Mirage Envoys extremely mysterious.

Just as the Mirage Envoy had said, their journey after that wasn’t difficult at all. The closer they got to Hope City, the lusher the surrounding grass and trees became, with quite a few edible wild grasses. And if they were lucky, they could even see delicate wild fruits. Although the taste wasn’t great, they were an unexpectedly delightful food.

Compared to their past life of drifting about, never knowing if they would have the next meal, now it was as if they had already stepped into paradise. Such a perfect plain surely hadn’t been disturbed by Nightmare Beast Seeds or Mobile Cities for a very, very long time.

Was it because they were getting closer to Hope City?

The more they thought this, the more everyone’s hearts were filled with anticipation.

And finally, when they saw a line of border posts, everyone in the small group froze in place.

That was… what kind of place was that!

Even from so far away, they could see an endless stretch of farmland, not overgrown with wild weeds, but neat and comfortable fields. The lush green vegetables are so striking to the eye. The border defense was laid out very simply, but at every interval, there was a guard post. And the soldiers at the border each looked incomparably alert and robust, carrying extremely advanced weapons.

Looking out from where they stood, there was even a strange feeling of being moved welling up inside.

“Can we really go in?” At this moment, his wife next to him asked with great unease. To become a resident of any city, they always had to pass all kinds of tests. Could such a place really be true?

“Of course. Haven’t all those beautiful poems we heard come true, one by one?” said the leader of the small group.

Even though he had made a promise to his wife, he still felt uneasy deep inside. They weren’t sure if they would really be accepted.

Gathering his courage, he approached the border post. When the guard came down, he felt as if his heart tightened up, but the guard simply said to them calmly, “Are you the small group? All of you come here to register.”

Register? To enter Hope City, they only needed to register?

They were made to wear something, which was said to be a lie detector. Then the border guard asked them a few simple questions, got some basic information, and asked them directly about their purpose for coming to Hope City, as well as whether they had any past ties with other mobile cities. The questions weren’t complicated, but they were enough to understand everyone in their small group.

Then everyone in their group received an identity card. It was said to be a temporary identity card for inside Hope City. When they walked right through the border checkpoint into Hope City, it still felt unreal to them.

This was Hope City, the legendary Hope City. They had actually gotten in so easily?

“What are you standing around for?” At this moment, the border guard asked them, “Just follow the road and you’ll get into the city.”

The small group walked along the road, feeling as if it still wasn’t real. The vegetable fields on both sides were full of fresh fruits. A few old farmers were humming songs while working in the fields.

One of the farmers saw them, lifted his head, and said, “Hey, you’re new here, right? Want to buy a watermelon? The watermelons right now are just right, sweet as can be!”

Watermelon…

The people in the small group knew what a watermelon was, but none of them had ever really eaten one. Looking at that big green watermelon. Such a luxury item in a mobile city, how could they afford it?

The leader gave a bitter smile and said apologetically to the friendly old farmer, “Sorry, we can’t afford a watermelon.”

“You’re new here, so I’ll give you a cheaper deal,” the old farmer said. He picked out a watermelon from the field, stood up, and handed it to them. The leader was about to refuse when he heard the farmer name a price so cheap it was hard to believe.

The leader was stunned. “How can this be? If you sell the city’s goods at such a low price, you’ll be punished in ways you can’t even imagine.”

“No, no, that won’t happen. This isn’t a mobile city. This is Hope City. Besides, this is just about the price of a watermelon here. Even if it’s more expensive, it won’t be by much. In a while, when it’s watermelon season, there’ll be even more, and they’ll be even cheaper. And these fields aren’t owned by Hope City. They’re mine, contracted to me. All the watermelons here are mine. I can sell them however I want! Hehehe.”

The small group was stunned. They couldn’t help but look at this old farmer with new eyes. Only now did they notice that though he was old, he was healthy and moved with an easy, energetic air, looking strong and sturdy.

“Is… everyone like this?” Holding the watermelon, they felt completely bewildered.

“Yes, all like this. You’ll find out soon enough. Hope City is a good place, the best place in the whole apocalypse!” The old farmer said this with great pride, as if being a resident of Hope City was something worth showing off.

Each one in the small group felt light-headed, their hands and feet floating. They hadn’t imagined that this was real.

They didn’t have to worry about spending all their money just to buy a watermelon.

When the watermelon was cut open, each of them got a big slice. The sweet juice of the watermelon filled their mouths, and their family members’ faces all lit up with surprise and joy. Not just the bright red flesh, even the watermelon rind and the juice dripping onto their hands, they wished they could eat it all up. They didn’t even bother to spit out the seeds.

After eating the sweet, sugary watermelon, they even felt stronger as they walked. But as they got closer to the city, they were so astonished they couldn’t even speak.

What kind of place was this?

Countless houses were scattered all around them. The deeper they walked in, the more they could see buildings rising layer upon layer. They, who were so good at long journeys, suddenly realized that with their strength alone, they could never finish walking through this entire city. The forest of buildings under the blue sky, the shops lining the streets everywhere, this fresh new world felt just like heaven.

“It’s so wonderful, so wonderful… We’ll actually get to live in this city in the future.” All of a sudden, the whole small group burst into tears. “I just saw everything around us, it’s all so prosperous, so prosperous… Wuuuu… I can’t believe there’s such a good place. We’re so lucky. Can we really live a good life here from now on? Wuuuu…”

The leader of the small group also felt as if he were dreaming. It was like he had died somewhere along his long, hard journey, and everything now was just an illusion of his soul. He even pinched himself to make sure that what he saw in front of him was real.

“Daddy, I’m hungry. Can we eat something?”

The leader of the small group looked over at a street stall. At the stall, he carefully asked about the prices, and the vendor explained them one by one. Everyone listened, wide-eyed and stunned.

In the end, he couldn’t help but ask, “Really… is it really this cheap?”

“Yes! You’re new here, huh? Amazing, isn’t it? But that’s really the price! Come on, buy more. How can you not eat your fill when you’ve just arrived? Buy it all from me, hahaha. Cheap, but I can still make good money if I sell a lot!” The street vendor laughed cheerfully as he called out for their business.

And the people in the small group were overjoyed, almost giddy.

While the leader of the small group was waiting for the food, he happened to catch sight of a young man in the distance.

The young man was dressed in fine clothes and carried himself with an extraordinary air. He stood there smiling warmly at them, but when he noticed someone looking back at him, he turned and walked away.

He Fang had recently gotten hooked on a new hobby: sneaking around to watch the looks of shock on the faces of wild NPCs when they first arrived in Hope City, and their awe at his city’s astonishing development.

Because the NPC detail rendering in “Ruins Without Restart” was done so well, He Fang could see every subtle expression on their faces. And what could be more satisfying than seeing people marvel at the city he had poured so much effort into creating?

Their astonishment was the best praise He Fang could ever receive. Everyone’s reaction was more or less the same—shock and wonder. But he just loved watching it.

The more he watched, the more thrilled he felt!

Recently, He Fang hadn’t deliberately gone out to take on any more external missions. What he needed now was development, not endlessly stuffing people into cities that couldn’t handle them. So He Fang sped up the flow of time and focused solely on infrastructure.

The construction over at Angel City was very convenient and easy. The new energy experiments were going well, too. Because of this, the energy blocks invented by Zhu Yan have been widely applied to all kinds of things, greatly cutting down the city’s energy costs.

Because there were already a lot of people and the early-stage investment was strong, the returns in the later stages were also very high. With Hope City and Angel City supporting each other, in a short time, He Fang felt like everyone was on the path to a comfortable life. After all, a game is still a game. Things that would normally take ten years to develop in reality could be achieved in one year in the game. He Fang suddenly felt that these NPCs were really giving it their all to build the city.

Angel City made a lot of money. Besides being used for Angel City’s own infrastructure, He Fang used the treasury’s funds to expand the main city once again. The population of the main city had already reached two hundred thousand.

A population of two hundred thousand was already a pretty decent figure compared to many other save files in “Ruins Without Restart”. Quite a few people had quit the game around the two-hundred-thousand mark, because at this point, the main city was likely to run into a series of problems.

He Fang felt this was probably because of “Ruins Without Restart’s” built-in algorithms. When the main city’s population hit two hundred thousand, certain urban crises would start to appear.

So now, He Fang didn’t dare to recklessly expand wild land either. He wanted to wait and observe the main city’s changes while things were stable, to see if it would be like other save files in “Ruins Without Restart”—whether at two hundred thousand people, there would be a major event that could wipe out the entire city.

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