Shi Canghai was the City Lord of the Library. He believed himself to be more learned than anyone else.
But although they possessed countless knowledge, to ensure that they could live peacefully in the apocalypse, they could only maintain the posture of the weak. Such a “fence-sitter” way of survival was the best way for the Library to conduct itself in the world.
However, as time went on, their status gradually declined in the increasingly twisted apocalypse, to the point where now they could be directly manipulated by everyone.
The decisions made in the past were not wrong. What truly should be blamed for leading to this outcome was only the apocalypse itself.
The apocalypse changed all the people in this world.
Shi Canghai looked out the window. This was a city. It was what they had seen in all the records. All of this was very beautiful; it was the once-peaceful era that they cherished and protected.
Shi Canghai had seen far too many records of the past. Those beautiful images preserved in the archives, every one of them was a beautiful past worth preserving. And all who yearned for peace were filled with hope to return to that kind of era.
“Everyone looks very happy.” Looking at the smiling faces of some people passing by inside the city, wearing beautiful clothes, one by one all showing expressions of happiness, they were enjoying the beauty that peace brought. “But it’s still not the same.”
Yuan Sanjin asked in confusion, “What’s not the same?”
“The happiness on everyone’s faces here carries gratitude. They know very well that their current life did not come easily, and they very much want to show off this kind of life.”
Yuan Sanjin’s expression stiffened slightly, as if he hadn’t expected Shi Canghai to see through that they deliberately wanted to put on a show for the foreign envoys: “Yes, but we are also genuinely enjoying the present times. Because we enjoy it, we have the right to show it off.”
Shi Canghai’s gaze, however, was very gentle. He seemed a little greedy as he looked at the scenery outside the window: “This is a good thing. I’m just thinking, maybe it will take two generations, or three generations—at least in this city, by then everyone should be able to believe that the happiness they have now is something taken for granted, and no longer something they need to feel grateful for.”
Yuan Sanjin was taken aback for a moment. She understood what Shi Canghai meant, and the look she gave the man grew somewhat complicated.
“You have vast and far-reaching ideals, and one day you will surely realize them.” Yuan Sanjin showed a faint smile. “Our City Lord is far more powerful than you imagine. The people of the main city have always respectfully called the City Lord the Creator. I think that word is very fitting. City Lord truly is like a Creator.”
Creator? Shi Canghai’s eyes flickered slightly. At first, he had suspected that City Lord He Fang might just be an empty figurehead, a puppet propped up for show. But now, it seemed that might not be the case after all.
“Back then, did you willingly merge into Hope City?” Shi Canghai asked. “If it’s something that must be kept secret, then you don’t have to answer my question.”
“There’s no point talking about it. The details are too complicated, and I don’t think there’s much worth saying. All I can say is that we were defeated by our City Lord, nothing more.” Yuan Sanjin answered simply.
“Even a city as powerful as Ao City had no strength to resist under Mirage’s mechs. Angel City’s defeat was almost inevitable,” Shi Canghai said. As he spoke, something seemed to occur to him, and a look of guilt crossed his face. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said it so directly.”
“It’s fine. That’s not something to feel humiliated about. On the contrary, it was the start of our good fortune. I’ve always felt lucky that we could become part of Hope City’s alliance.” Yuan Sanjin’s smile did not fade.
Though Shi Canghai was speaking, his eyes stayed fixed on Yuan Sanjin’s reflection in the vehicle’s window. Her expression, her tone of voice, all of it was being carefully analyzed by Shi Canghai.
He was searching for signs that Yuan Sanjin was putting on an act.
Since the city naturally wanted outsiders to see only its best side, they would surely pick the good parts to speak of. But in places hidden from sight, in the deeper shadows, was there still some unseen gloom buried away that no one knew about?
“This will be your room. During this period, there will also be other representatives from various mobile cities arriving in Angel City one after another. Before everyone is gathered, you’re free to go anywhere you wish. We’ll do our utmost to provide you all with the greatest convenience. Angel City is now an interesting place that should let you enjoy yourself to the fullest. I hope Angel City can give you a dreamlike experience.”
Shi Canghai stepped into the room Yuan Sanjin had led him to. The entire room’s decor was very subdued and understated, but it was clear that everything used was of the highest quality. A single representative was given a suite with three bedrooms, a living room, two bathrooms, and a kitchen, so the people they brought with them could also stay in the other rooms.
“This place is beautiful and very well designed. It makes people feel at ease. Angel City’s designers are truly capable,” Shi Canghai praised sincerely.
“Thank you for your praise. If you have any dissatisfaction, please tell us right away. We will immediately replace anything for you. Do you have a terminal?” Yuan Sanjin asked.
Shi Canghai’s eyes flickered for a moment. It was clear she also knew they had probed into Hope City before. So he did not hide it: “Yes, I have a terminal.”
Shi Canghai’s terminal was a wristband. He raised his wrist to show it.
“I’ll now lift the restrictions on your terminal. This way, you can communicate with us directly through it.” Yuan Sanjin operated her terminal as she spoke.
Shi Canghai noticed the word lift the restrictions in her phrasing. Once the unlocking was complete, his terminal now had a lot more functions. Clearly, these functions had always been there, only sealed away until now.
Since this terminal could be connected to the network, and was designed this way from the start, what exactly did that young City Lord He Fang intend to achieve through this?
“You surely need more free time. All the city maps have already been sent to your terminal. This way, you can avoid taking unnecessary detours or stepping into places that shouldn’t be freely entered.”
Shi Canghai looked at the route map displayed on his terminal.
“If you need any help, just send a request through your terminal. The patrol soldiers who are always on watch around you will reach you immediately to assist you.” After Yuan Sanjin finished speaking, she gave Shi Canghai a deep bow, her attitude extremely respectful and calm. “Then I’ll take my leave now.”
Shi Canghai nodded in farewell. Watching Yuan Sanjin’s departing figure, he hadn’t found even the slightest trace of dissatisfaction in her. She truly seemed to enjoy her status and life in this city.
Shi Canghai stepped out from that perfectly furnished room, his guards following by his side as they moved forward.
The whole of Angel City was vast. If one relied solely on their own two legs, it would be nearly impossible to cover it all. But inside Angel City, the high technology it once had as a mobile city was still maintained, so moving about wasn’t nearly as exhausting as in old cities.
The whole time, Shi Canghai kept observing his surroundings. This place was very prosperous, prosperous in the most literal sense. Everyone could afford to spend. He made a few tentative purchases and found that things were astonishingly cheap, so cheap that it left him with mixed feelings.
If prices could be this low, it proved that the city’s resources were not lacking at all.
Thinking about it carefully, that made sense. Their scarcity of resources had always been because of the Nightmare Beast Seeds. In the present world, there were no natural disasters, no over-extraction, and even the mobile cities tried their best to keep moving by manpower alone. The environment was even quite good. The Nightmare Beast Seeds practically seemed like envoys sent by a god to cleanse humanity and return the Earth to innocence.
As long as there were no Nightmare Beast Seeds, people could remain stable on the surface, find mineral veins, find resources, and find water. Although it might be difficult at first, with the superb wisdom passed down by their ancestors, it wouldn’t be that hard to recreate past glory once more.
Yet no one had managed to do it. The only one who could was Mirage.
And Mirage had never conducted any trade with the outside world. At first, he thought it was simply to maintain Mirage’s position. But now it seemed that wasn’t the case. It was very likely because if Mirage traded its resources freely to the mobile cities, it would completely change the balance of power among them.
The more he understood, the more Shi Canghai realized that City Lord He Fang was far from as simple as they had imagined. After all, this was the city lord of an entire city.
“This city is indeed very good, but it severely lacks technological support. It looks as if the apocalypse has regressed into a peaceful era of the past,” Shi Canghai spoke into the air. In reality, he was wirelessly communicating with his sister far away in the library. “Is this how that city lord designed it to be, or is it that his ability only reaches this level? It’s like someone who traveled here from the past but whose thinking is still trapped there.”
“Is that so?” Suddenly, a voice came from beside him. Shi Canghai’s heart tightened. He instantly realized who the voice belonged to. He turned sharply and looked at the person who had been hiding nearby all along.
“City Lord He Fang?” Shi Canghai would never mistake this voice. Even if he had only heard it a few times, he knew exactly who it was.
“Shh.” But He Fang raised a finger and made a quiet gesture. “I sneaked over here. I didn’t tell anyone. Please don’t give me away.”
Shi Canghai’s expression was somewhat complicated. In front of him, He Fang was wearing an oversized robe, perhaps to avoid attention, and had chosen a large hood. Under the hood, he was even wearing a baseball cap. It was an outfit that would seem odd in the apocalypse, but somehow, in this environment, it didn’t look that out of place.
He Fang walked up to Shi Canghai’s side and looked up at him in mild surprise. “You’re actually this tall?”
He Fang hadn’t expected Shi Canghai to be half a head taller than him.
“A pleasure to meet you in person.” Shi Canghai wanted to say something respectful, but remembering the other’s words, he continued, “Since I’m not too familiar with this place, would this kind person be willing to show us around a bit and let us see the surroundings?”
“Of course.” He Fang pressed down the brim of his baseball cap. “What you were saying just now was interesting. I’m very curious. Would you be willing to share more of your thoughts with me?”
He Fang felt that what Shi Canghai had said wasn’t wrong at all. Wasn’t he indeed building things with a mindset from the past? Moreover, the NPCs of his main city, since they were created from within his city, naturally had ways of thinking that matched his level. Even though they’d gone out to learn a bit, in reality, his main city’s NPCs were still quite resistant to accepting design concepts from other cities. They were somewhat blindly confident about his city.
Shi Canghai looked at the city lord He Fang, who was much shorter than him and whose face was almost entirely hidden by the brim of the baseball cap. He couldn’t help but smile.
So this city lord… looked so thin and frail? Unexpectedly, there was no sense of oppressive authority at all.
“Angel City is already a pretty good city, at least in my eyes,” Shi Canghai said. “From the short-distance teleportation to the planning of the zones, it’s all very reasonable. The repeated sub-zoning and multiple entry points for welcoming guests are also very well arranged. I just don’t know why it ended up like this. It looks chaotic, and a lot of space is obviously wasted.”
“That’s because, at the start, the city lord let everyone design things however they wanted, according to their own ideas and plans. Later, the designers would renovate the entire city based on everyone’s ideas, so that’s probably why it ended up messy,” He Fang replied.
Shi Canghai’s steps paused, his tone lifting slightly. “You let everyone design it themselves?”
“Yeah,” He Fang said. “The city lord said he wanted everyone to design a city they’d love, so everyone just… put in a bit of effort. I guess it really would be better to have a unified design, right?” He sounded a little embarrassed. Was he supposed to say this mess was caused by his laziness? “And, just like you said, it is messy. The wasted space is because the city lord said he wanted the whole city to be full of sunlight, so when people were designing, they always prioritized lighting. If there wasn’t enough light, they’d rather leave an area empty just to make sure light could get through, so… so… is that not very good?”
But Shi Canghai’s eyes went wide. He stopped in his tracks and looked at He Fang as if he were staring at a monster.
“Is… is something wrong?” He Fang felt a bit odd under that gaze.
Shi Canghai’s eyes dimmed slightly. “No. I take back everything I just said.”
He Fang froze for a moment. “What?”
“I mean, no, this city is designed very well. I shouldn’t have jumped straight to critiquing the design itself. What I should do is think about how to make improvements under these circumstances. I think I might have better suggestions for that,” Shi Canghai said, his expression complicated.
“Then I’ll be counting on you,” He Fang said. He didn’t quite understand why Shi Canghai had suddenly changed his tone, but he still went along with it.
But Shi Canghai suddenly fell silent and didn’t offer any more suggestions.
He Fang asked, a little puzzled, “May I ask, do you have no other thoughts?”
“My thoughts can wait until I have a better overall understanding before I speak. I feel deeply ashamed for my shallow, one-sided words just now.”
Hearing He Fang’s words, Shi Canghai realized just how narrow-minded he had been.
What he’d been thinking about was how to build a more reasonable, more systematically planned city. But what He Fang, the city lord, was thinking about was how to build a city everyone would love. From the very root, there was already a huge difference between them.
He had observed Yuan Sanjin for so long and hadn’t found anything particularly remarkable. Yet, just meeting He Fang once, he immediately felt a vast gulf open up between them. In the end, he was still just a city lord enjoying the privileges of upper society in the apocalypse. Perhaps without realizing it, he had already fallen into the thinking patterns of the elite.
“Although the city lord designed and planned this city according to everyone’s wishes, everyone’s knowledge is quite limited. Even though the city lord prioritized what people wanted, he couldn’t guarantee that everyone’s ideas could really be implemented. The city lord worries a lot,” He Fang said.
Shi Canghai could hear the pounding of his own heartbeat. “What does he worry about?”
“The city lord worries about things he might have overlooked. For example, there was an area in Angel City that suddenly started collapsing because of forced demolition. If it hadn’t been discovered in time, it might have caused a major cave-in. Later, the designers added some load-bearing columns and decorated them to make them look presentable, but there may still be quite a few hidden hazards like that inside the city.”
Shi Canghai could hear, in every word He Fang spoke, the constant thought of how to make the city better, how to make life better for its people.
“The city lord’s way of thinking is quite limited, too, especially after coming back from Ao City. Ao City was really stunning; maybe Ao City is what we should really learn from. The city lord’s knowledge can’t compare to yours. If possible, the city lord would really love to have your help.” Under the wide, loose robe, the young city lord’s slim figure and clear, plain eyes gazed straight at Shi Canghai.
Shi Canghai’s heart suddenly settled down.
All the fears he’d had before vanished completely the moment he met Hefang.
Their reaching out for help was the right choice. Maybe they really had found someone who could help them.
“If I can, I’d also like to contribute whatever I can to help a beautiful, peaceful city like this.” Shi Canghai’s voice softened.
“Thank you.” He Fang thanked him sincerely.
“If we become a friendly city to Hope City, what do we need to do, or what would we gain?” Shi Canghai knew he was being sly by asking this. At first, they’d wanted to become an allied city, but now he was asking about being a friendly city instead. The difference between the two words was like heaven and earth. If he were He Fang, he might be angry at this greed.
“If it’s a friendly city, then it’d probably be the same as Gaia City or Pangu City. Gaia City and Pangu City still maintain their own governments. Strictly speaking, they’re like neighboring countries. We’ve always kept friendly trade going and provided land they can use, and they pay land rent. That shouldn’t be part of the confidentiality agreement, right?” As He Fang spoke, he even forgot he was supposed to be in disguise.
Shi Canghai walked aimlessly at He Fang’s side, looking around as they went, but most of his attention was on quietly talking with the city lord beside him.
“Yes, that’s true. It’s just that Gaia City and Pangu City always seem to refuse any visitors, so we haven’t been able to get more information,” Shi Canghai said, noticing that He Fang didn’t show the slightest hint of displeasure, as if he genuinely didn’t mind at all.
