Because the hardware store’s restocking time is always at night, and this time the shipment was said to be more important, Hope City still couldn’t produce it, so they had to transport the goods from the main city. The store needed to operate during the day, so the boss organized everyone to go together to the main city at night.
These hauling jobs were generally preferred by young people, but the city lord of Hope City had once required that anyone still able to work should not be excluded due to age. So after Uncle Zhou eagerly signed up, he also surprisingly managed to get a spot this time.
There were more than twenty people this time, both men and women, big and small, all inside the train carriage. Because it was dusk, there were already fewer people around, and it wasn’t crowded anywhere.
“You just came to Hope City, right?” At this moment, a man who had also come to work spoke proactively to Uncle Zhou, standing next to him.
Uncle Zhou was a bit stunned. Seeing the other’s puzzled expression, he quickly explained, “Yes, I just didn’t react right away. It’s been a long time since a stranger talked to me.”
The man was somewhat surprised: “Are you a freelancer, or did you come from another city to seek refuge?”
“The latter,” Uncle Zhou said.
“Ah, if you came from a mobile city, then I understand. Indeed, everyone doesn’t really talk to each other there.” The man’s expression became a little absent-minded, as if this conversation reminded him of something, but then he immediately smiled. “But here in Hope City, you don’t have to worry. The people here are all very warm-hearted. You don’t know how warm-hearted they are. When I just arrived, knowing nothing, I was just standing there, and someone actually came up to ask if I needed help. God knows I was just stunned looking at Hope City.”
Uncle Zhou chuckled bitterly; he wasn’t really used to such casual, uninhibited conversations with people.
The man chatted carelessly with Uncle Zhou: “Actually, I really like talking, but in the city I was in, I never had much chance to talk. People didn’t talk to me, so I was always talking to myself. Back then, people around me treated me like a lunatic. But it’s different here in Hope City. I love talking, talking to all kinds of people, so I’m always the first to find temporary jobs. If you have just arrived and don’t know what to do yet, you can come to me. If there’s any temporary work, I can introduce it to you.”
Uncle Zhou was silent for a moment. Looking at the middle-aged man beside him, he asked, “Does this benefit you in any way?”
“Ah? Benefits? It’s just something done casually. What benefits do you need? Just to make a friend,” the man said with a careless laugh.
Uncle Zhou didn’t answer. He simply couldn’t understand the lifestyle and thought patterns of these Hope City residents—each one carefree and without any worries.
“How did you know I just came here?” Uncle Zhou suppressed the strangeness in his heart, trying his best to act no different from others. Of course, he wouldn’t argue with this person who took the initiative to start a conversation.
“You can tell at a glance you just arrived.” Saying this, the man suddenly patted his belly, “Who here in Hope City isn’t fat?”
People who had just arrived in Hope City never expected that their little bit of money could buy so much food. One after another, they indulged in compensatory consumption, basically all getting fat. Looking around, anyone who was still skin and bones was basically just new. Even if they really had no money at first, farmers who worked the land would help a little. Once familiar, after doing a day’s work paid daily, who wouldn’t eat freely?
“I’m actually doing pretty well.” The man rubbed his round belly and said, “You don’t know, there was once a mercenary who was highly favored by the lord of the city at the start, but now he no longer holds any important role. Guess why?”
Uncle Zhou looked at the man’s mysterious expression and thought for a moment, then said, “The leader doesn’t want a mercenary—someone so rootless and drifting—to become a trusted aide, so they discarded him early.”
“…” The man was momentarily stunned, then clicked his tongue. “You’re such a dark thinker. Let me tell you, it’s because he got fat—really fat. He was the only person from other cities with a main city resident ID card. After entering the main city, he lost his ambition. Man, we were so jealous of him. That was truly our goal.”
“You really want to become someone from the main city?” Hearing the words “main city”, Uncle Zhou’s eyes flickered slightly.
“Of course, who doesn’t want that? But even now, I haven’t gotten the Hope City resident ID card. I’m just a temporary worker.” The man stretched his legs out flat and let out a long sigh. “The main city is good. Really good.”
Uncle Zhou didn’t give a definite answer. Thinking of Ao City, he said, “Is it better than the super-large mobile cities, or even the allied cities?”
The man was momentarily stunned. His gaze drifted from looking up at the train ceiling to fixing on Uncle Zhou, then suddenly he laughed: “I don’t know how those cities are, but I don’t think anyone in this apocalypse is happier than in the main city.”
Happier?
Uncle Zhou showed a trace of speechlessness. Could it be that these people weren’t happy under the protection of their city? In the apocalypse, just being alive was already happiness.
“We’ve arrived, everyone get off the train!” At this moment, the hardware store’s boss spoke, and everyone obediently got off.
Uncle Zhou followed, but suddenly furrowed his brows.
When they arrived at the main city, it was already completely dark. What he saw was a sprawling city glowing with lights, rising and falling in layers.
It was a real city, not a moving city, but the kind of city they had only seen in the preserved data fragments.
“No matter how many times I come, I always think this scene is too beautiful,” someone beside him patted his shoulder, seeing Uncle Zhou’s expression, then suddenly smiled, “Look, look, I knew no one could resist the charm of the lights.”
Uncle Zhou couldn’t help but straighten his body. He wanted to see more clearly whether those colorful lights lighting up the entire city, which wasn’t far away, were real. Hope City was brightly lit even at night, but since it wasn’t fully developed yet, it mostly had ground-level lights. This, however, was like lighting up the sky with fire.
“Get on the bus!” the boss shouted loudly nearby, pulling Uncle Zhou out of his shocked mood. He was led by someone to a… bus.
A bus—this old mode of transportation had basically been completely abandoned, now only seen in some old artifact museums. But here it was right in front of them. Uncle Zhou boarded the bus and sat on a soft seat, which even had cushions specially made for comfort.
“A bus, of all things,” Uncle Zhou murmured.
“It’s not a bus, it’s a tour coach,” the person beside him explained. “Buses are managed by the public transport company and aren’t rented out. The boss rented the tour coach to take us.”
“Are we going somewhere far?” Uncle Zhou looked out the window. It was his first time riding this kind of vehicle. At last, he felt a flicker of emotion; no matter how much he tried to brainwash himself, he had to admit that at this moment he was nervous from encountering something ‘new’.
“A little far. We’ll probably stay here for a while tonight. Renting the coach means that if we get tired before the goods are fully counted, we can take a nap.” The man pressed some buttons, and Uncle Zhou suddenly reclined backward, startled. The man laughed heartily, “This seat can recline. If you’re tired, you can sleep. If not, we can walk around the city within the time.”
At that moment, Uncle Zhou felt an opportunity had arrived. He had the person adjust his seat back upright, his expression complicated. “It’s just work, so why prepare everything so thoroughly?”
“Maybe it’s because the boss is from the main city. I’ve heard people from the main city are like that,” the man shrugged.
The main city…
Uncle Zhou looked out the window. The prosperity here was completely different from Ao City.
As the vehicle slowly moved forward, Uncle Zhou kept looking out, gathering all kinds of information. But the more he looked, the colder his heart grew bit by bit.
When the vehicle reached the spot, the boss said they had to check the goods. Within the set time, everyone could go out and walk around. Uncle Zhou, using the excuse of wanting to explore, looked around on his own.
The more he looked, the more silent he became. What kind of city was this—powerful everywhere, yet defenseless everywhere at the same time?
Because it was night, all the shops around were brightly lit. Many people were out shopping on the streets. Whether adults or children, they could appear in every corner of the city without restraint, without any order. Each person’s expression was different, as if they had stepped into a colorful, vibrant world.
If one were to say there was no defense whatsoever, he simply couldn’t see anything here that could be called “defense”. They were surrounded on all sides by the Nightmare Beast Forest, yet these people showed not the slightest trace of fear. Not a single person wore any identifying symbols, there was no clear purpose, no direction, and no one acted as a guard. Occasionally, one might catch sight of a lone guard booth. In Hope City, there were still patrol soldiers—yet here, there was nothing at all!
The passersby along the road were each dressed differently, some even brazenly exposing their bodies without restraint. They laughed loudly and without shame, paying no mind to those around them, weaving freely in and out of all kinds of shops.
At a glance, it was like witnessing the final-day revelry—no rules, no constraints, no sense of responsibility. Any one of the mobile cities could easily wipe this place off the map!
If not for the Nightmare Beast Forest, this city would be completely defenseless!
These people indulged in their peace as if they were flowers nurtured in a greenhouse, entirely devoid of even the most basic fear or reverence toward the apocalypse!
And yet…
Even though his mind clearly told him that there was absolutely nothing praiseworthy about this city, when walking down the middle of the road, Uncle Zhou felt an unprecedented fear.
These people clearly looked like ordinary folk raised in a peaceful world—nothing special at all—yet his instincts screamed at him not to make a single unnecessary move.
Because even the children who ran past him, the girls chatting and laughing on their phones, and the adults standing in front of storefronts watching television—these people all appeared, from head to toe, to be nothing but “ordinary”. And yet, he felt a pressure unlike anything he had experienced before—a pressure that only came from facing the strong.
These people were all exceptionally good-looking.
At a glance, it was as if they had been handpicked from among the finest.
Though they appeared too delicate to even truss a chicken, when that child ran past him just now, he felt the wind howl in their wake.
That was an insurmountable chasm—one he wouldn’t dare to cross head-on, no matter what.
This city was a world of the strong, concealed beneath a facade of ordinariness.
Uncle Zhou remembered that some cities, in order to ensure superior genetics among their people and to select truly powerful individuals, would use all kinds of technology, sacrificing countless lives, and in the end, only a few would be left—just a handful of elite. But such methods could at most cultivate a few people, not an entire city!
“What do you want to know?”
Just as Uncle Zhou was still in shock, a voice filled with laughter came from beside his ear. He turned around immediately and saw a girl in a short skirt standing next to him, much shorter than him. Her eyes were beautiful—exceptionally so—but the moment they locked eyes, Uncle Zhou felt as if he had been targeted by some kind of terrifying nightmare.
“I know,” the girl said. “You want information. Then go to the government. The government is in that direction.”
As she spoke, she raised her hand and pointed.
Uncle Zhou’s heart clenched, and his next instinctive action was to run in the direction she had pointed.
He was afraid—deeply afraid.
He didn’t care whether that direction really led to the government. His instincts pushed him to obey her words.
Uncle Zhou walked for a long time, but just as he was about to stop, another voice came from his side:
“To the left.”
Uncle Zhou immediately turned to look. It was an elderly man walking a dog. The eyes beneath his white brows held a certain chill.
Uncle Zhou, without the slightest resistance, followed the direction the man had indicated.
“What do you want to know? The secret of this place?”
“Do you want to know how we know what you’re thinking?”
“Turn right—yes, that way.”
“You went the wrong way, you know. The government building is straight ahead.”
“Hahaha! Why aren’t you taking a vehicle? With those old bones of yours, how long will it take you to get anywhere?”
“Can you not wander around like that? At this rate, when will you ever reach the government building?”
Voices came from all directions, and Uncle Zhou felt as if he were on the verge of breaking down. He couldn’t fight back against these people, no matter who it was, even someone who looked weak to the extreme.
He had already looped around the same place multiple times. He wasn’t stupid. He knew he’d been walking in circles. But he couldn’t resist.
It felt as though just anyone could exert mental control over him. He even started to wonder if he was stuck in a nightmare he couldn’t wake up from.
He had clearly come here to infiltrate—so why did it seem like everyone already knew what he was thinking?
Why couldn’t he sense anyone approaching him, and yet whenever he turned around, he would always see an unnaturally perfect face, with eyes that were far too cold?
Uncle Zhou felt like he was about to suffocate. This constant, suffocating fear pressing down on every inch of his body made it nearly impossible to breathe.
Finally, he managed to flee to a certain spot.
He was too tired. He was already at the age where someone like him would only be used by a scouting team as a last resort. If not for his city lord, his fate would have already been sealed by death.
It was his city lord who helped him escape that tragic end.
So now, seeing the people of Hope City casually possess the very honors he had once fought with all his might to obtain, felt like everything he’d done in the past was a complete joke. The dream that had once seemed so impossibly far away to him had become nothing more than an ordinary reality in Hope City.
It wasn’t a sense of inferiority—it was a sense of despair.
All his years of loyal service to the city lord suddenly felt like a mistake.
He had done everything in his power to prove that he was right.
But now, he no longer knew what right even meant.
He realized that here, those people—the ones who had been toying with him—seemed to have vanished.
He felt that, after running around under their influence for so long, his body had reached its limit. Exhausted beyond movement, he sat down.
The main city—a terrifying place that appeared so unguarded it could be attacked by anyone, yet so powerful that no attack could ever hope to destroy it.
When Uncle Zhou finally caught his breath, he began to notice the changes in his surroundings.
Where… was this place?
All around him were flowers—useless ones, grown solely for the use of the upper class. This area was much quieter than the rest. The few people he saw seemed to be deliberately detouring around it.
He then realized he was sitting on the steps of something. Lifting his head, he saw a very clear statue.
A statue?
An instinctive sense of unease welled up inside him. Images of religious trinkets sold in Hope City floated through his mind. It was only now that he realized he had been leaning against that statue all this time!
A god?
Suddenly, fear surged through him. But then, he thought: in this world, how could gods truly exist?
This must be what the people of Hope City called the true form of the Divine Lord.
If he just stepped back two paces and looked up, he could see the statue—massive, exquisitely carved, down to the fine strands of hair.
Something like a god… was impossible.
If it were truly a god, how could it be left exposed in such a place, with no shelter from wind or rain?
As expected, this so-called Divine Lord was probably just a fabricated tale used to fool the ignorant masses of Hope City.
Yet suddenly, Uncle Zhou froze. Just now, out of the corner of his eye, he seemed to see the statue… move.
Was it an illusion?
How could that be? How could a statue move?
It had to be his imagination.
But right before his wide-open eyes, the statue actually began to move—slowly and steadily. That tall, muscular figure lowered its head, and its unadorned stone eyes seemed to turn in his direction. At the same time, beneath the statue’s feet, the enormous, terrifying beast—also carved from stone—had opened its mouth wide. Its sharp, gleaming white fangs radiated an unmistakable aura of death.
In that moment, his body already drained, his mind shattered from all the mental strain, faced now with this final, unknowable terror, Uncle Zhou collapsed into unconsciousness.
He fell straight backward and hit the ground with a thud.
The statue resumed its original form. The beast that had just scared someone into fainting gave a cold, disdainful glance at the cowardly human, looking exceedingly proud of itself.
But then, suddenly, that proud beast seemed to sense something. In an instant, it returned to its previous pose, lifting its head high as if nothing at all had happened, calm and unmoving as always.
From the distance came a voice filled with puzzlement: “Huh? Why is there a red name inside the main city?”
They were their Creator. He Fang walked toward the landmark in confusion, and at a glance, saw that red health bar—already down to half.
He Fang: “?”
What happened to this guy?
A spy? Came here on a spy mission, but his mental fortitude was too weak, so he scared himself unconscious?
He Fang stared fixedly at the man hanging under a ‘Fainted’ label.
——
By the time He Fang returned, several days had already passed. He hadn’t expected the missions to drag on for more than a day. That night, he ended up going through every single incident in the city to confirm there were no problems before collapsing into bed. The next morning, as soon as he woke up, he logged in to find Zhu Yan.
“Why would you bring the former City Lord of Hope City in at a time like this? That doesn’t feel like your style.” If it were up to He Fang, he thought it might make sense to let the man in. But if the order came from Zhu Yan, then he truly didn’t understand what Zhu Yan was thinking.
He Fang had a very simple reason for allowing the man in. After all, he was once the leader of Hope City and likely still had deep and complicated ties with its people. Letting him in could be seen as a move made for the sake of the Hope City residents.
But the reason not to let him in was just as straightforward: a direct conflict of identity. A clash was inevitable. And when those in power clash, it’s always the common people who suffer. He Fang didn’t want to see that happen.
Zhu Yan was a little scheming. With his personality, there was no way he would’ve let the man in.
Zhu Yan smiled and said, “The fact that he came here at all is suspicious. Rather than keeping him outside and staying on guard, why not just put him right under our noses and watch him?”
Zhu Yan’s answer was simple, but it made sense. He Fang thought about it and realized it was true.
“Then… did you guys find anything?” He Fang asked.
Zhu Yan directly displayed all the messages that Bei Ji had been sending to Ao City during this period for He Fang to see. “I’ve checked these messages from Angel City. All of them use the most advanced encryption methods currently available. Ao City must’ve been very confident that the information could be received without being discovered. Unfortunately for them, they ran into us.”
He Fang looked through them and saw that most of the content consisted of reports to Ao City on the movements within Hope City, as well as the situation in Angel City. There were multiple mentions of the main city, and it seemed there was a deliberate effort to probe its military strength. But this kind of intelligence was ultimately meaningless—the true core was in the main city, and it was under the control of only a few key departments. No matter how deep their investigations went in Hope City, they would never get to the heart of it.
“Looking at it this way, we can be 100% certain now—Bei Ji is definitely backed by Ao City,” He Fang said, resting his chin on his hand, his expression complicated. “Ao City is honestly too arrogant. They didn’t even bother to hide it.”
“According to Chong Ying’s report, the situation Ao City has set up for us was already a death trap from the start. They didn’t feel the need to conceal anything,” Zhu Yan said, giving He Fang a once-over. After confirming that the Chong brothers had indeed done a good job of protecting their Creator, he finally showed a hint of satisfaction.
In truth, judging by the current situation, it wasn’t so much that Ao City was arrogant—it was more that, as players, their presence in this game world was already a kind of bug. Even if Ao City was a large-scale mission, it was destined to fail from the start.
“There’s also this.” He Fang placed a small black box he had been carrying in front of Zhu Yan. “This belonged to Zhang Guangshi, the envoy who previously came to Hope City. His identity was an Ao City spy, and he was likely involved in a lot of Ao City’s internal dealings. I need you to decode the contents and extract anything related to sabotage against cities.”
Zhu Yan, wearing gloves, took the black box and casually played with it in his hand before asking, “What does City Lord plan to do with it?”
“I need solid proof of the Emperor of Ao City’s crimes,” He Fang said seriously. “I’m going to distribute it to every mobile city using the city’s locator system.”
Zhu Yan laughed. That usually cold and indifferent face now revealed a rare glimmer of eagerness. He was quite pleased by this development.
“This time, when we went to Ao City, we came into contact with the Emperor of Ao City. He is a very self-centered person,” He Fang roughly described his brief conversation with the Ao City Emperor. “Later, according to Sai Gu’s plan, we deliberately allowed ourselves to be captured, and then had a conversation with the young prince of Ao City.”
Zhu Yan raised an eyebrow. “Sai Gu?”
He Fang had always trusted Zhu Yan and trusted his intelligence deeply. He laid out the entire exchange he had with the young prince at that time. Zhu Yan’s casual expression gradually deepened into thoughtful contemplation.
“How was it?” He Fang asked somewhat nervously. He had agreed back then but hadn’t had much time to weigh the pros and cons, as the young prince and he had only one brief meeting.
After a long pause, Zhu Yan’s expression was calm and silent. His gloved fingers gently tapped the black box as if deep in serious thought. Then he said, “Sai Gu is someone who understands human relationships and the current situation very clearly. In terms of his talent for reading people and situations, I am far inferior. Sai Gu must have conducted a very detailed investigation to reach this conclusion. And based on the information we currently have, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.”
Hearing “the benefits outweigh the drawbacks”, He Fang finally breathed a sigh of relief. “I also believe Sai Gu must have carefully considered everything before choosing this method.”
Why Sai Gu chose the young prince among many princes was unknown, but He Fang chose to trust Sai Gu.
The young prince’s proposal was simple: he wanted to use the conflict between Hope City and Ao City to successfully force the emperor to abdicate and take the throne himself. Once he became emperor, he would sign a peace treaty with Hope City, opening all of Ao City’s power and ‘territory’ to Hope City.
“What do you think are the pros and cons?” He Fang asked thoughtfully.
Zhu Yan considered for a moment and chose the simplest way to explain: “Ao City’s territory is vast. Opening it to Hope City means Hope City’s external influence will naturally increase. Ao City’s foundation is stable; changing emperors won’t cause a major split. This city’s status can affect other cities, which is very beneficial for our short-term expansion. This is both a pro and a con, because with a peace treaty signed, if we want to do more extreme things later, we will be restricted by the treaty.”
“Is it really not such a simple matter?” After thinking carefully, at least this could break the current somewhat awkward and fixed situation in Hope City. “But regarding the secret peace treaty between us, the young emperor made one condition: we must first defeat Ao City’s offensive.”
“Are those the cities that have been lurking nearby, watching us closely recently?” Zhu Yan already knew they were besieged on all sides.
“Yeah, but we agreed to this condition. The young emperor also said he would compensate us for testing us,” He Fang recalled the young prince’s words. “He said he would use Ao City’s authority to gather all the people who had once been taken from Hope City and those bought from Arrival City. We would have to rely on our own strength to take these people back.”
In other words, this was a battle they absolutely had to win.
Zhu Yan paused for a moment, then answered decisively, “This must be Sai Gu’s intention.”
“Ah?” He Fang was taken aback.
“As Ao City grows stronger and increasingly oppresses its subordinate cities, the emperor’s authority will be rejected even more. To the emperor, we’re insignificant, but he will still use every means to defeat us. If he wins, the subordinate cities won’t dare complain at all. But if he loses…” Zhu Yan narrowed his eyes.
He Fang thought it over as well. If they lost, Ao City would lose all face, all the prisoners of war would be absorbed by Hope City, and the emperor himself would be undermined by his subordinate cities—his throne would be anything but secure.
But the current emperor definitely wouldn’t consider this. For him, post-apocalyptic cities were not worth relying on; Hope City was his fixed target. Any means used were just precautions, and knowing the emperor of Ao City’s cautious and self-centered nature, he would certainly act accordingly.
“So, in other words, Ao City takes on all the downsides in the end, while we reap all the benefits. Sai Gu uses the information gap to directly defeat the Ao City emperor, support the young prince’s ascension, and gain Hope City even more advantages?” He Fang was shocked.
Does the official team behind “Ruins Without Restart” really have no one involved in politics to play these games? Such a tightly woven plan is almost unrealistic!
Zhu Yan toyed with the small black box in his hand. “As expected of Sai Gu. Unfortunately, in some ways, I really am far inferior to him.”
He Fang was stunned. To possess thinking skills that even made Zhu Yan yield so completely—He Fang pictured that unruly, silver, messy long hair, the lazy smile full of nonchalance, and couldn’t imagine such meticulous thinking coming from him.
Unable to resist, He Fang opened Sai Gu’s attribute panel to take a closer look at the information. Suddenly, in Sai Gu’s tags, he saw one he had never seen before: “Strategist”. He was taken aback.
Good grief…
The quality of this NPC had evolved!
He Fang suddenly felt very tempted. Maybe he should send more NPCs out into the world to gain experience. This kind of evolution was just too exciting.
“To coordinate with Sai Gu’s plan and put us in the most advantageous position, these things are absolutely crucial,” Zhu Yan said, referring to the information Bei Ji had sent out as well as the small box belonging to Zhang Guangshi in his hands. “Looks like I’ll have to borrow some talented speechwriters from the government to craft a speech that will move everyone.”
“Yeah, but be careful, okay? Did you see that box next to the small black box?” He Fang pointed at the object beside the small black box. “That’s a simulated heartbeat device made by Chong Ying. If the heartbeat stops, it might explode.”
“Why would something like that exist?” Zhu Yan asked, puzzled.
“That thing was pulled out from Zhang Guangshi’s corpse, still stained with blood,” He Fang answered truthfully.
Suddenly, Zhu Yan, who was somewhat germophobic, looked very displeased.
He Fang shivered slightly, quietly stepped out of the door of the research lab, and quickly fled.
He stumbled out of the research institute, stretched lazily, and looked out over the entire main city.
It seemed it was time to start expanding the main city. He needed more main city NPCs to lead the development of the wild NPCs. Once all the people taken from Hope City and all those bought from Arrival City were sent back, He Fang didn’t even dare imagine how many people there would be. The scale he had now simply couldn’t hold them all.
It was impossible to use the already established farmland. These wild NPCs had a strange obsession with their fields. Touching their farmland was basically a death sentence.
Fortunately, there was no longer any land division, so he could expand without worrying about the economy. All he needed to do now was locate the right spots, then bury machines for the Nightmare Beast seed barriers, letting the Divine Lord just go through the motions.
He Fang opened the statistics panel to calculate whether current resources could meet supply and demand, whether resources were lacking, if new mines needed to be developed, or more farmland added. Based on the calculations, he estimated how many additional main city NPCs would be needed and finally determined the expansion area for the main city.
However, as soon as he opened the system map, he saw a flickering little red dot on the main city map. Zooming in, he found it near the landmark. He Fang was puzzled.
Red dots were basically “red names”—usually icons for hostile forces, spies, or lawbreakers. This was the first time He Fang had seen a red name in the main city.
He went to the landmark area and saw a man lying unconscious on the ground. Opening the tag, it read “Temporary Resident”, and the name was Zhou Shu. He Fang was stunned—this person’s surname was Zhou, given name Shu[mfn]Shu can mean Uncle. Hence, why He Fang was quite confused.[/mfn]?
That was quite the cheeky name.
He Fang checked the attribute list and confirmed it was only a temporary faint—no emergency treatment was needed. So he didn’t call an ambulance but bent down to carry the man to a nearby chair.
However, when He Fang tried to drag him…
He couldn’t move him easily.
Using all his strength, He Fang didn’t expect such weight from an elderly man.
Strictly speaking, calling him elderly wasn’t quite right—the man was just over fifty years old. In the mobile cities, that was considered an age to be discarded, but after recuperation in Hope City, he could still work for another twenty years. It wasn’t a very clear dividing line.
But Zhou Shu looked gaunt, his face pale as dust, clearly in poor mental condition. Even while unconscious, his brows were tightly furrowed, as if trapped in fear.
During the dragging process, Zhou Shu suddenly opened his eyes and locked gaze with He Fang, who was dragging him. Both were momentarily stunned.
As Zhou Shu recalled everything he had just experienced, a sudden wave of terror flooded his mind—“This man is going to bury me alive.” Instinctively, he struck out to attack He Fang.
However, his judgment was wrong. In the main city, Zhou Shu had only encountered powerful people he couldn’t control, but the person before him was clearly not one of them. He Fang helplessly watched as Zhou Shu’s fist was about to smash his face; he had no time to react. His nose was about to be hit when suddenly a huge hand fiercely grabbed the incoming fist.
That hand was massive and strong, gripping Zhou Shu’s wrist tightly, like squeezing a fragile reed. Under that grip, a very crisp sound rang out, accompanied by Zhou Shu’s painful scream, which startled He Fang awake.
The person who grabbed Zhou Shu noticed He Fang’s state and immediately stopped using force. He spoke coldly: “Unprovoked attacks on the city lord inside the city are considered dangerous acts. You will be detained and controlled by the police. After the court’s verdict, your prison term will be decided. Now, please come with me to the police station.”
He Fang looked up and saw the tall, imposing middle-aged man. His eyes lit up: “Qi Jingwei!”
The police chief of his city, personally patrolling and happened to arrive at the scene, like a hero descending. Truly impressive!
Qi Jingwei faced their creator with a coldness that melted away like ice and snow, then returned to his usual bright demeanor: “Long time no see, City Lord. Your safety is more important than anything.”
Zhou Shu was taken away. Since the charge of attacking the city lord was severe, a sentence was inevitable. At first, He Fang thought it was a bit exaggerated, but thinking carefully, if it were an attack on an important national figure in reality, Qi Jingwei wasn’t overreacting.
The hardware store owner who brought Zhou Shu nervously came to the police station to give a statement, tears welling in his eyes as he looked at He Fang. He Fang was stirred by that pitiful, wronged expression and comforted him. Then, He Fang watched as the hardware store owner’s mood lifted instantly, his smile spreading so wide it nearly reached his ears.
Standing to the side, Qi Jingwei couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
“What are you laughing at?” He Fang turned around, puzzled.
Qi Jingwei said nothing. He certainly couldn’t admit that the hardware store owner was actually instructed to deliberately bring Zhou Shu in, knowing full well he wouldn’t be implicated. Now, right in front of He Fang, he was just playing the victim, hoping for some sympathy and comfort.
Really.
No one from the main city would ever give up any chance to get close to their Creator.
![Professional Red Thread Cutter [Quick Transmigration]](https://www.freenovels.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_6298.jpeg "Professional Red Thread Cutter [Quick Transmigration]")
Caught up with the translations 😭😭😭😭😭