Yuan Zhiran stood motionless in place, his posture perfectly straight in military form. He had witnessed with his own eyes the exact moment when their Creator’s model came online. At that time, he had been contemplating the current situation in the northern district when suddenly, the Creator’s model appeared out of nowhere. He wasn’t given even the slightest moment to react.
Yuan Zhiran and several other military officers all stood rigidly straight, facing He Fang. One by one, they looked like complete fools.
Yuan Zhiran noticed that their Creator was staring straight at him, eyes fixed, as if seeing through something completely. Step by step, He Fang approached him.
His heart pounded faster and faster. He was deeply afraid that the Creator had discovered something unusual. Yet, to his surprise, the Creator merely reached out a hand to gently touch his cheek.
Soft fingers pinched his face and stayed there. Yuan Zhiran didn’t dare to move at all. His entire body was stiff, allowing their Creator to do whatever he pleased to his face. But he caught a faint trace of puzzlement flickering in the Creator’s gaze. His heart gave a heavy thud. Was there something wrong?
The Creator softly rubbed his cheeks, pinched his ear, his nose tip, and even pressed down on his lips, carefully checking his teeth.
At that moment, the Creator seemed to think of something and suddenly reached out with a fingertip to carefully touch his eyeball. Because of an unconscious bodily reaction, his eyelashes trembled ever so slightly. The Creator suddenly seemed to realize something and swiftly withdrew their hand.
From beginning to end, Yuan Zhiran didn’t resist. He even seemed a little happy from the Creator’s touch. This was his first time having such close contact with the Creator.
However, that one sudden reaction seemed to bring the Creator back to their senses.
He Fang, watching this once-serious meeting, suddenly recalled that the last time he logged off, it had been in Yuan Zhiran’s combat command room.
Last night, while sleeping, his mind had remained a blank slate. But the later it got, and the more active his thoughts became, the stranger he felt the situation during the day had been.
Strange scenery, a strange self, strange people all around.
He suddenly felt that this world was far too similar to the one in his game, as if the entire game world had been perfectly replicated into the real world. During the twenty years before he chose to shut himself in, he had been extremely familiar with the world. It was impossible for him to feel such an overwhelming sense of strangeness. His world was never this beautiful, and there was no way he should be experiencing this kind of luck.
The more he thought about it, the stranger it felt. Yet no matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t come up with a proper explanation.
As soon as He Fang logged in today, he saw Yuan Zhiran. He had taken the initiative to reach out and touch Yuan Zhiran.
The sensory pod was fully capable of simulating any kind of sensation; He Fang was already quite certain of that. But the moment he touched Yuan Zhiran, he felt that his understanding had been far too superficial. It wasn’t just all his senses being engaged; even the texture of touching Yuan Zhiran’s skin felt exactly like it would in reality.
“It’s practically real,” He Fang couldn’t help but murmur.
Yuan Zhiran’s heart gave a sharp jolt. He quickly spoke up to pull the Creator’s attention back: “City Lord, do you have any instructions?”
He Fang was momentarily stunned before he came back to his senses. Forget it. Even if it felt this real, it had to be a matter of technology.
His suspicion was strange. Why did it all feel so uncanny?
“It’s nothing,” He Fang decided to dismiss his odd thoughts and asked, “What were you all discussing?”
One day offline for him had already passed as fifteen days in-game. Those fifteen days, rather than being a window for discussion, had in reality been a window for action, for his people. They were to plant Nightmare Beast Seed Jammers across the entire northern district. And on the fifteenth day, everyone in the northern district personally witnessed a colossal Divine Lord. They saw with their own eyes the “Descent of the Divine Lord”, which signified that all ordinary land had been transformed into the Holy Land.
“So that means the campaign to drive out the resisting mobile cities has already begun? How many cities refused to become friendly cities?” He Fang asked. According to his predictions, there should’ve been quite a few radical factions unwilling to comply.
“Everyone accepted,” Yuan Zhiran replied.
He Fang raised an eyebrow. “Everyone?”
“Yes,” Yuan Zhiran cleared his throat, trying to ease a bit of the shyness he felt after the Creator had squished his face. “After truly witnessing our strength, no one resisted. Everyone is convinced that in the future, we’ll definitely control all the land. Rather than resist, it’s better to immediately start striving for the greatest benefits for their own cities.”
“That’s true. It seems this military parade really did provide a strong deterrent for them,” He Fang recalled the apocalyptic parade and felt a complex mix of emotions.
“Not to mention, the Western District hasn’t even been fully converted into the Holy Land yet. The Northern District, as the first batch of mobile cities to become the Holy Land, can be the first to take advantage of their position to seize land and develop.” Yuan Zhiran frowned slightly. “So now, the problem is actually this matter.”
“What’s wrong?” He Fang didn’t see what the issue was. Wasn’t everything developing in the best possible direction?
“There are two troublesome things,” Yuan Zhiran said to He Fang, his expression slightly grim. “First, the cities that have already confirmed signing the Friendly City Treaty with us are racking their brains trying to seize larger and more resource-rich land. Even though outsiders can’t attack cities that signed the treaty, they can fight amongst themselves.”
He Fang froze. He had overlooked this point.
There were many mobile cities. Unlike fixed cities like his Hope City and Angel City, which expanded as much as needed, mobile cities were bound to want to occupy as much land as possible. The vaster the territory, the more resources they’d have. Since land could be contested artificially, wars between mobile cities naturally broke out.
“After learning about the situation here, the City Lord of the Western District voluntarily sent a message requesting that their land also be converted into the Holy Land.” This, in itself, wasn’t the part that required concern. What did require concern was: “Because of these two matters, mobile cities in the Southern and Eastern Districts received the information. The mobile cities in the Eastern District bordering the Northern District have started attacking the mobile cities of the North. The reason given was malicious land seizure, and they’ve even gained the support of the Southern District.”
He Fang felt a thump in his chest.
The situation had become complicated.
At the very beginning, his original intention was simply to acquire the Library. But what he had failed to consider was that once land could be successfully occupied, the concept of “nation” would be reestablished. Without proper prior planning, the whole world would fall into immense turmoil as everyone scrambled to seize land.
“I never intended to give them the land in the first place! What I granted them was just usage rights—use as much as needed, that’s it. Wasn’t that clearly written in the contract?” He Fang frowned. How did it turn into warfare?
“It was usage rights,” Yuan Zhiran replied, “but those rights weren’t precisely defined. No one knows what mobile cities will become in the future, so everyone wants to seize as much land as possible while they can. Their reasoning is sound: the contract says this land can be used under the current plan. So from a legal perspective, there really isn’t an issue.”
Yuan Zhiran furrowed his brow further and continued, “Also, many mobile cities are doing everything they can to seize territory along the edges of the Holy Land. Their goal is to develop early, so that if and when the City Lord decides to convert the surrounding areas into the Holy Land, they can be the first to gain access to even more land.”
He Fang paused in thought. “Did none of the conquest personnel who drafted the contracts think of this?”
“They did. This was…” Yuan Zhiran’s eyes flickered for a moment. After a brief hesitation, he decided to just tell He Fang directly. “It was Lu Hu’s idea.”
“…?” Why was Lu Hu involved in this?
“Lu Hu is a thoroughbred war hawk. In fact, she’s even more aggressive than the average war hawk. Her philosophy is to intentionally stir up conflicts between mobile cities, making sure they never have the opportunity to unite and resist Hope City together. She also believes the strong should occupy more land. It’s only natural in a world where the weak are prey to the strong. Let the more powerful mobile cities take more land, and that will lead to greater development. In Lu Hu’s eyes, that’s a more efficient path for economic growth. That’s why she deliberately crafted such vague and ambiguous clauses in the treaty.”
He Fang: “……”
A mental image of Lu Hu appeared in He Fang’s mind. That flamboyant woman, red like fire, with eyes that constantly shimmered with arrogance and greed. Just looking at the opulence of the Ministry of Finance was enough to show how restless and unruly her personality truly was.
Rubbing the space between his brows with some difficulty, He Fang asked dryly, “So… are we just going to let them fight?”
Yuan Zhiran nodded. “Zhu Yan said that the mobile cities currently have very limited weaponry. Even if fighting does break out, casualties won’t be too high. Let them fight if they want to. We’ll just observe from the sidelines. Staying out of conflicts between mobile cities will better reflect our impartiality.”
He Fang’s expression was complicated. He remembered that Zhu Yan was also a neutral party. Sure enough. Easy to talk big when you’re not the one hurting.
“Isn’t there even one pro-peace faction?” This had barely even begun, and they were already fighting. Would they later come crying to the main city asking for subsidies? He Fang’s goal in developing was to make money and expand the main city, not to do charity.
Yuan Zhiran pointed innocently to himself.
He Fang: “……” Looked like that was a dead end.
Yuan Zhiran was capable, yes. But this NPC had dumped all his stat points into combat, totally lopsided. Guo Miaofeng was also a pro-peace figure, but his brain probably couldn’t keep up with the rest of these people.
He Fang awkwardly opened the system panel and checked the government personnel statistics. Just as he suspected, the ratio of war hawks to peace advocates was four to one—an overwhelming majority. His city was practically the textbook definition of a war-hawk stronghold.
If he wanted peace, the ones who could really hold the line would probably be Yuan Sanjin and Wei Qixuan. But due to their attribute differences, it was hard for them to have much say among the main city’s NPCs.
At times like this, the flaws really showed.
But why was it that after expanding the city, every new NPC seemed so aggressive, as if they couldn’t wait to charge out and teach the outside world a lesson?
“So now… we’re just not going to do anything?” He Fang still didn’t have much of a solution. After all, while he didn’t want to see war, Lu Hu’s logic wasn’t wrong either—occupy as much territory as your power allows.
“At the moment, there’s nothing we can really step in on,” Yuan Zhiran said. “Just as the government side is saying right now, if we intervene too much, it’ll compromise your position as someone who stands for fairness and impartiality.”
“Ah…” He Fang slumped into his seat, staring at the mess of sand tables and at the emotionless NPC who had stood silently to the side this entire time. He let out a deep sigh. “What about the Library, then? That shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
“We already notified the Library as soon as the treaties were signed, and informed everyone that the Library will remain fully open to the public in the future. So far, everything’s been going smoothly. It’s estimated that in about a week, the Library will be ready to settle into the designated area we prepared earlier.”
Yuan Zhiran’s words finally brought He Fang some good news. He opened the system map and saw that the orange mission was still flashing. Everything was now practically guaranteed. Only the last step remained: the people arriving.
He Fang handed over the scanned blueprint to the person beside him. “Take this to the Design Institute.”
This design was something He Fang had made that morning. He’d directly borrowed the layout of the Science City, then gave a few instructions: tell the Design Institute to think boldly and revise freely according to the situation for now. Once all the Library staff arrived, they could sit down and discuss it together. Since everyone at the library was knowledgeable, they might as well make use of it.
“Still, with such great teachers arriving, we’ll need to organize study sessions again. But I’m guessing I won’t have to personally worry about that, right?” He Fang recalled that when he’d input the actor data, even without giving many instructions, many interested NPCs had gone to study on their own initiative. Zhu Yan had even learned to the point of drawing inferences from one instance to many. By the time the Library folks arrived and hadn’t even warmed their seats, the researchers would probably swarm in.
“Yes. Chong Ying and Zhu Yan have already rushed over,” Yuan Zhiran said.
“Gone? Gone where?” He Fang didn’t immediately catch on.
“To the Library,” Yuan Zhiran replied. “Many other cities stored some of their own technologies in the Library. Now that the Library is becoming part of Hope City, even though we’ve guaranteed that we won’t touch those stored materials, many mobile cities are requesting to take back their things.”
“Then… then Zhu Yan and Chong Ying went because…” He Fang’s expression was one of horror.
“To read through everything before those people can take their things back,” Yuan Zhiran replied, his face full of complicated emotions.
He Fang was stunned. “Do they not have any sense of morality?”
“They probably do. Chong Ying said he’s fine with being punished however you want once he comes back. He just has to read it. He even said he could help protect the Library. As for Zhu Yan…” Yuan Zhiran’s expression turned even more peculiar at the mention of Zhu Yan, “Zhu Yan forced Chong Ying to take him along. Totally shameless about it.”
He Fang: “……” What… what would a shameless Zhu Yan even look like?
Suddenly, He Fang felt like maybe his NPCs really did need some kind of psychological guidance.
You can’t just go around seizing other people’s things so easily…
And yet, he also found it quite funny. Were his NPCs really this full of personality?
Seeing He Fang break into a helpless smile, Yuan Zhiran quietly let out a sigh of relief. It seemed He Fang wasn’t angry at him for not stopping them. In truth, Yuan Zhiran himself had felt a bit uneasy about it, especially when the Creator had once said they found the main city disappointing.
So, in his heart, he still hoped their city could obtain more of the knowledge that had survived the apocalypse… and prove that their main city was second to none.
“However, there’s one more thing,” Yuan Zhiran said, his expression turning serious. “Recently, many mobile cities from the Eastern and Southern Districts have sent formal requests for an audience. They want to discuss certain matters with you, City Lord.”
“Mm…” He Fang could more or less guess what they were trying to do. Although the Eastern District had been harassing the Northern District, thanks to the terms of the treaty, the main city was unconditionally supporting friendly cities. There wasn’t much need to worry.
Under these circumstances, the Southern and Eastern Districts were bound to start feeling uneasy. With the main city clearly poised to act against them, they were probably hoping to strike first.
“Temporarily push it back a bit. Don’t reject it, just delay it. Let Ao City hang there for now.”
The northern district still hadn’t settled down yet. He still needed to lay down rail lines and build airports, establishing proper connections between all the cities.
A lot of things depended on luck. He had chosen the northern district, so the northern district should be given priority. If anyone had complaints, then if they wanted to attack Hope City, he wasn’t afraid.
At the very least, up until now, he hadn’t seen a single successful attack on Hope City.
“There’s also something else, recently…” Yuan Zhiran’s expression grew somewhat grim. “Recently, some people who’ve entered Hope City and Angel City… have been stirring up trouble.”
“Stirring up trouble?” He Fang didn’t quite understand. “What kind of trouble?”
“Theft, robbery, violence, fraud, gang activity. Suddenly, the frequency of these illegal acts has increased. We’ve already investigated the situation. It’s because, City Lord, you’ve unconditionally accepted anyone who comes to seek refuge in Hope City and Angel City. So among them, there are some morally depraved individuals or those prone to causing trouble who have slipped in. Some of them are even young and able-bodied people who were expelled from other mobile cities.”
As Yuan Zhiran spoke of these matters, a flash of obvious disgust passed through his eyes.
He Fang, however, frowned.
How could it be… this fast?
It had only been two years.
And already there was crime?
“We suspect it might be that some other mobile cities deliberately released these people and sent them into Hope City and Angel City to damage the atmosphere here. After all, many mobile cities, when dealing with people like this, rather than directly expelling them, tend more to squeeze out every last bit of value. For example, making them part of exploration squads, or even turning them into fertilizer.”
He Fang knew Yuan Zhiran wasn’t a conspiracy theorist.
Even though not everyone in this world could endure hardship and be diligent, it still seemed too soon for such extreme wrongdoers to appear already.
“City Lord, even your prisons are far better than the living conditions at the bottom tier of ordinary mobile cities. So even when these people are imprisoned, they don’t feel wronged. Some even start forming factions inside. Especially now, with that one named Shi Qiu at the lead. Many of the people brought in by Bei Ji have been locked up, and Shi Qiu has used them to establish a ruling group within the prison.”
Yuan Zhiran had already spoken very tactfully, but He Fang understood.
He was saying that the punishment He Fang dealt to criminals was too light, lacking any real deterrent force.
He Fang thought for a moment about modern society. When someone committed a serious crime, they were caught and locked up. Execution did exist, but it was rare. But the apocalypse was different. In this world, the living conditions of most people at the bottom level were barely any different from a modern prison—there was food, drink, and even work. That couldn’t be considered punishment at all.
“Do you think there’s a good way to adjust this?” He Fang asked carefully, then thought for a bit. “How about simply deporting them—banishing them permanently from ever entering Hope City again?”
“No.” Yuan Zhiran shook his head and said, “Given the current situation, with the goal of transforming all the land into holy land nearing completion, time is already very tight. If we drive them out now, they’ll just end up in some other city. That can’t be considered punishment either.”
