ATIGIBTC Chapter 116.2

“We didn’t place any restrictions on those two cities at all. They did that themselves. Our confidentiality agreement only requires that we don’t leak some major information related to the cities, that’s all.”

He Fang’s words made Shi Canghai fall into deep thought. The two cities that had always remained silent and never communicated with others, existing as dependents under Hope City, had, in fact, chosen on their own not to interact with other cities. If you think about it carefully, it’s understandable. They are independent cities, not under the protection of Mirage, but they do have the right to trade with Hope City. Because their power isn’t very strong, and to ensure that their cities aren’t used as tools by others, it’s only natural that they would start keeping things secret.

“If you’re interested, you can go see Pangu City and Gaia City for yourself. Of course, I have no way of letting you in. You’ll have to find a way yourself.” He Fang shrugged. After all, they are cities with independent governments; he was just using trade and collecting rent to enrich himself, that’s all.

“Then, if we become an alliance city, what can we get in return, and what do we have to give?” Shi Canghai continued asking.

“If it’s the alliance, then everyone’s treated equally. There are no restrictions at all, and you’ll be under the jurisdiction of the main city. The people of our main city are really something. Once you see them, you’ll know. Just looking at them gives you this strong sense of security.” He Fang was always extremely proud of the attributes of the NPCs from his main city.

“Can we apply for mechs, too?” Shi Canghai, in the end, couldn’t hold back the expectation in his heart and asked the question out loud.

“Mechs? What kind of mecha do you want?” He Fang asked.

“……” You can even choose what kind of mech. Shi Canghai had thought through all sorts of requirements and conditions, but he hadn’t expected that He Fang would just casually say something like that. The shock in his heart simply couldn’t be suppressed. “We can even choose our own mech?”

“I suppose so. Lately, Zhu Yan has been researching mechs. He’s made some progress. After all, with the Rainbow Squad as models, Zhu Yan’s research has been advancing quickly. Plus, Zhu Yan has always been using mech research to study intelligent robots, too. He’s not sure if the machines’ workmanship can help ease the workload in the Library. When the time comes, if you’re interested, you can join Zhu Yan to experiment and discuss things together.” He Fang spoke calmly, not feeling that there was anything unreasonable about this request at all.

“Rainbow Squad… We can even have the Rainbow Squad?” Shi Canghai had already been so overwhelmed by this shocking news that he couldn’t hide his excitement at all.

“Rainbow Squad? That should be fine, I suppose. However, the activation conditions for the Rainbow Squad are a bit strict. If you insist on using the Rainbow Squad, they might not be as practical as the mechs Zhu Yan is developing.”

Shi Canghai saw that He Fang was actually discussing directly with him how to allocate the mechs. For Angel City’s Rainbow Squad Xiao Lu, they had always been so envious of them. And now, at this moment, he simply couldn’t hold back the excitement surging in his heart.

“We really can have such powerful mechs?” Shi Canghai almost couldn’t believe it and even asked, trembling with excitement.

“You can. Anyway, the main city doesn’t really need them. These mechs are extremely formidable, but they don’t really listen to people. They’re purely defensive mechs. They only activate once they detect real damage.” He Fang’s expression looked a little subtle. “Back when we used them, it was always around the lamp posts. We’d have people get ready in advance, and then when we needed them, we’d attack the lamp post at point-blank range, trigger them first, then deploy them. With the Library’s current abilities, it might be a bit difficult to trigger them.”

Shi Canghai had seen such overwhelmingly powerful mechs in the footage before. He knew clearly that these kinds of mechas were not meant for trivial skirmishes.

“Becoming an alliance city of Hope City is really just too tempting. You can even freely use land that won’t be contaminated by Nightmare Beast seeds. So, may I ask, what do we need to give in return?” Shi Canghai knew very well that for anything gained, something must be given.

“……” He Fang’s expression looked very puzzled. From under the brim of his baseball cap, he glanced at Shi Canghai and lowered his voice. “Didn’t we already agree on that before? Are you planning to go back on it now?”

Shi Canghai’s heart tightened. What they had agreed on before was that if the Library became an alliance city of Hope City, they would unconditionally contribute all the knowledge in the Library, so that everyone would have the chance to study and understand it. And if possible, they hoped the people of the Library could even become teachers for all the cities. These teachers might even go teach the people of Mirage.

“Is that really all that’s needed?” Shi Canghai simply couldn’t believe it. Why would such huge benefits only require them to give up so little? Heaven knows that spreading culture has always been the Library’s lifelong wish. This was practically handing them an immense blessing.

“To gain knowledge, and that’s all? You really look down on knowledge, don’t you!” He Fang shot him a look full of disdain. “And you even call yourself a scholar. Yet you still think like this?”

Shi Canghai was at a loss for words.

Shi Canghai suddenly stopped walking.

Shi Canghai suddenly burst out laughing.

Shi Canghai had never imagined that, in his lifetime, he would actually live to see such a day. The apocalypse had lasted too long. So long that the spread of culture had already become a distant luxury. The entire Library had thrown themselves into studying, studying, and studying again, yet they could never see the day when knowledge would truly flourish.

They longed endlessly for that time when countless scholars could freely converse, freely research, and freely love what they studied. Not like now, when gaining knowledge might even become a crime!

Shi Canghai felt that he was truly so fortunate. At such a young age, he could open up a new future for the entire Library. He still had so much time left. He could watch as culture would no longer fall into decline.

“Can I see Mirage?” In the end, under He Fang’s strange gaze that seemed to be looking at an idiot, Shi Canghai stopped laughing and asked.

“No.” The sudden refusal caught Shi Canghai off guard, and He Fang continued, “Even Hope City and Angel City need to meet all kinds of requirements to enter the main city. You have to meet the conditions first if you want to go in, you know?”

Shi Canghai calmed down. Indeed, a place as powerful and mysterious as Mirage definitely wouldn’t be somewhere ordinary people could just step into.

“What kind of conditions do I have to meet?” Shi Canghai was already imagining how much money, how much effort, and how many sacrifices would be needed to enter that place where gods could be born and the world could be changed.

“It depends on what you’re going to the main city for. For example, you could go help someone who needs to go back to the main city to restock goods and carry the goods with them. With your identity, if you’re willing to go be a teacher in the main city, then you can just live there directly. Anyway, you have to have a reason to go. If you don’t have anything to do and you just run around everywhere, aren’t you just loafing about for no reason?”

Shi Canghai’s expression froze for a moment. He really couldn’t keep up with He Fang’s pace at all.

“So you just need to find a reason and you can go in?” Shi Canghai was dumbfounded.

“You can. It’s not like it’s some shameful place no one’s allowed to see. But, compared to that, Angel City and Hope City are more worth seeing. After all, they’ve got the framework of a mobile city. The main city is basically just a flat city on the ground, not very big, and its airspace area hasn’t really been used much. Compared to new cities like Angel City and Hope City, it’s still different.” He Fang certainly wasn’t going to say that, to him, the main city actually looked a tiny bit rustic.

Shi Canghai’s expression was almost numb. That was Mirage! In this world, it was already the most astonishing place, the dream-like paradise that everyone fantasized about in their sleep. That Mirage, like the legendary mysterious vision seen by people in the desert, but coming out of He Fang’s mouth, why did it sound like the countryside?

Partway through, the young city lord wearing the baseball cap said that if he stayed with them too long, it would look suspicious, so he left first.

Because his heart was too overjoyed to rest easy back in his quarters, Shi Canghai wandered all around the city and even tried out quite a lot of interesting entertainment.

Everything here was just too cheap. In a mobile city where any food was already strictly distributed from top to bottom and then purchased with money in very limited amounts, Shi Canghai was still extremely delighted with this fresh experience of “shopping”.

But for some reason, after he made several purchases in a row, the shopkeepers he saw were all forcing smiles, looking very strange.

Sitting at a stall eating, Shi Canghai looked at his guards, each one of them watching warily. In the end, he still made everyone relax and sit down. In a place like this, it was just too comfortable. There was absolutely no sense of malice at all. Only the shop owners, one after another, looked terribly sad.

“Excuse me…” Shi Canghai slowly opened his mouth and asked the shop owner who was serving him dishes, “Are you… not in a very good mood?”

That shop owner glanced at Shi Canghai, then suddenly sat down right across from him.

“Hello, you’re the Library’s City Lord Shi Canghai, right?”

The other party’s sudden words were so shocking that Shi Canghai’s heart gave a jolt. Could any random shop owner so easily know who he was?

“You don’t need to be so surprised. Everyone from the main city knows.” The shop owner’s expression looked truly baffled. “Honestly, if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have known that the Creator thinks we’re still not as good as Hope City.”

Shi Canghai was suddenly at a loss for words, his face turning strange. This person… was from Mirage? Only now did Shi Canghai suddenly notice that the other party had an excellent figure and extremely outstanding features—a very gentle-looking face. Right now, he looked as if he’d suffered some huge grievance like he was about to burst into tears at any moment.

That shop owner took a deep breath as if forcing back tears: “We know too. Compared to the strange and novel mobile cities, the main city is a bit plain, but… but we’re beautiful! The people of the main city… just to have a pretty face… do you know how hard we work for that?”

Shi Canghai froze. What did that mean? Could Mirage people’s looks be adjusted? Cosmetic surgery?

“When we reincarnate, we even have to aim for combining our parents’ best features when picking where to be reborn!” The shop owner clutched his head in heartbreak.

Shi Canghai: “?”

“Our city was all carefully created by the Creator. But who knows where these things were randomly generated from… these wild ones… wild ones… wuuuuuuu…” As he spoke, the handsome and elegant shop owner actually started crying like a child.

What did wild ones mean? Generated?

“We once had a glorious past, too. If, if the Creator wanted, no matter how bizarre and fantastical a society was, we could create it however we liked! We really don’t want the Creator to despise us… wuuuuu…”

The way the shop owner was crying looked truly pitiful, genuinely heartbroken at being disliked.

“I think… that probably isn’t what it means.” Although Shi Canghai didn’t understand most of it, he did understand the reason the other party was crying. He comforted him, “A very long time ago, there was an old saying, ‘No matter how golden or silver a nest is, it’s not as good as your own doghouse’. Maybe the other cities are dazzling, but they can never compare to the city that City Lord He Fang personally created with his own hands. The people of Mirage were born under City Lord He Fang’s direct creation. He definitely spent so much unknown hardship. How could he bear to despise you all?”

That shop owner froze for a moment, then seemed to stop crying a little: “We understand that too… we all know just how much City Lord cherishes us. City Lord went to so much trouble to let us live a flawless life. Even the very first laying of the underground water pipes was carefully thought through. Our funding developed so slowly, but City Lord tirelessly waited, spending so, so long to create only that tiny bit, and it’s still just the scale of a countryside place…”

Shi Canghai listened quietly. Every single word from this Mirage resident carried a deep respect and love for City Lord He Fang. Suddenly, he understood what City Lord He Fang’s pacifism really meant.

This man in front of him, though crying so pitifully, with such outstanding looks, in truth, the power contained within his body made everyone at the same table remain on full guard. Someone so easily capable of overturning them all, yet because of one subtle word of disdain from City Lord He Fang, he showed such a sad expression. This showed just how deep his loyalty ran.

“No matter how much effort was put in, or how personally it was created, surely, for the very first city created, the feelings must run the deepest. Just relax.” Shi Canghai comforted the shop owner in front of him, having already said quite a few soothing words.

“You’re a good person.” The shop owner finally took a deep breath. After venting, he looked much better. “Roughly when do you think you can bring your city to join the alliance?”

Shi Canghai froze.

“It’s best if you hurry up. You all should quickly contribute your knowledge. Generally, the people of the Main City learn very fast. Hurry up and study the current apocalypse-era technology and skills. That way we can rebuild new cities in the way the Creator likes.” As he spoke, the shop owner added thoughtfully, “In the future, let’s try to let the Creator create fewer other cities and pay more attention to the Main City. The Main City still has many brothers waiting, wanting to move in.”

Shi Canghai always thought his mind was quite sharp, yet although he understood every single word spoken by this person from Mirage, he couldn’t grasp the meaning behind them at all.

“So, when are you coming?” At this moment, the shop owner suddenly asked.

Shi Canghai suddenly felt a hint of wariness in his heart. He only replied, “This time I came to Angel City precisely to discuss this matter. I believe there will be a good result afterward.”

“You’re giving me official talk.” But the shop owner slightly narrowed his eyes. That flawless face now carried an expression that made Shi Canghai feel danger. The man lowered his voice so that only the two of them could hear: “You’d better hurry up and find a way to come over. Those words you just said, do you think we didn’t understand them?”

Shi Canghai suddenly felt his chest tighten. All at once, he sensed the danger coming from every corner around him. If he just lifted his eyes slightly, he would meet those gazes that didn’t even bother to hide. Those breathtaking faces, with one glance you could tell they were people from Mirage.

“You still have hesitation in your heart. We can all see it. But actually, we quite like you. At least when you speak to the Creator, you show joy and excitement. It’s just that we’re very dissatisfied with your hesitation. I don’t understand what you’re hesitating about. What’s wrong with our Creator? You should be happily running over at once.”

Shi Canghai opened his mouth but found himself suppressed so completely that not a single sound could come out.

“Oh, right, one more thing. You’d better be careful for a while.” That shop owner straightened up, his expression returning to normal again. “Recently, a few cities have been discussing causing trouble here. As advice, you’d better not get involved in any of it. After all, you’ll be our companion in the future. We don’t want any rift before we even become companions.”

After that, Shi Canghai was no longer watched by the people of Mirage. The pressure suddenly lifted, and Shi Canghai’s thoughts returned to order again. He understood, however, that this was a reminder. Someone was plotting a crisis.

Shi Canghai knew that this proved he had gained the recognition of the people of Mirage. It seemed they truly were thirsting for knowledge, desperately eager for talented people.

He only hoped they… could learn some new ways of expressing themselves. Because this was really quite frightening.

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