After confirming the location on the system map, He Fang placed the two of them in a relatively flat area of the ice field, allowing Sai Gu to personally modify his aircraft. Each trade has its own specialization. Zhu Yan was indeed excellent, but in front of a true master of machinery, there was still a certain gap. Now that Sai Gu was the one upgrading his aircraft, its performance should be able to reach an even higher level.
He Fang only hoped he wouldn’t end up in a situation where he had to use the aircraft.
He glanced at Qiao Qiao, who was huddled to one side by the fire, and hadn’t expected that in this day and age, one could still see such a primitive method of keeping warm.
“You don’t have armor?” He Fang asked. Armor should at least be able to provide some warmth.
“In a place this cold, if you use armor and it malfunctions, the harm it causes to the human body is enormous. Armor is a weapon meant for dealing with Nightmare Beasts. Here on the ice field, there’s no wildlife to be found, so naturally Nightmare Beasts won’t come.” Qiao Qiao, full and warm now, clearly had much more energy. “Besides, I’m guessing that in the future, armor will be phased out bit by bit.”
“Hm?” He Fang lowered his head, his expression beneath the mask showing a trace of surprise.
“The City Lord of Mirage, He Fang, has already announced that once the regional division is completed, all the soil will be converted into Holy Land. At that time, Nightmare Beast seeds will no longer be something that threatens our lives.” Qiao Qiao tugged at her hat, wrapping herself up. Even though she faced the firelight, the breath she exhaled while speaking still condensed into a thin white frost.
He Fang looked at Qiao Qiao, and Qiao Qiao looked at Sai Gu. He could see that the girl’s eyes were very calm.
“Isn’t that a good thing?” The reason the Holy Land Transformation Plan had yet to be carried out was simply to allow enough time to plant Nightmare Beast Seed Blockers, then investigate the surrounding environment, while also making sure those mobile cities that fought over land wouldn’t go too far.
“Alright.” Qiao Qiao’s gaze was complicated as she finally withdrew her eyes from Sai Gu. “It just feels a bit unreal. After all these years, we long ago gave up competing with Nightmare Beast Seeds. Any attempt to study them is bound to exact an extremely heavy price. Even if we hate Nightmare Beast Seeds to the bone, it’s useless.”
Even through the mask, He Fang could see the grave hatred on Qiao Qiao’s face. She was undoubtedly an ordinary person who had suffered deeply in a world ruled by Nightmare Beast Seeds.
“It’s almost like dreaming,” Qiao Qiao sighed. “As long as Nightmare Beast Seeds can no longer threaten us, we’re willing to pay any price, even if it means being targeted by a demon.”
He Fang was slightly taken aback. “A demon?”
“Is Mirage not a demon as well?” Qiao Qiao’s expression grew even more complex, as though she was recalling something. “Once, I had a brief encounter with the City Lord of Mirage, He Fang. Back then, he was a young man with eyes that were incredibly clear. People with eyes like that are usually those who haven’t experienced much hardship. Such people are bound to act as they please, unrestrained. They possess immense power to change the world, and the ability to control it. And for the sake of peace, we have no choice but to submit to him.”
It was the first time He Fang realized that, in the eyes of wild NPCs, he was actually such a terrifying existence. He hadn’t done anything particularly detestable, had he? So it was true. Power alone was enough for people to fear you.
These misunderstandings would take time to slowly dissolve. Once peace was achieved, there would be more opportunities to express his position.
It was just that he now understood that for those who had suffered under the apocalypse, the fear of Nightmare Beast Seeds was likely already etched into their very genes. And so, all of a sudden, he could understand the actions taken by the Summit of the World.
“If you had a choice to make the Nightmare Beast Forest disappear from the world, but at the same time lose all the land it occupies, would you be willing?” He Fang asked.
“I would.” Qiao Qiao gave no fancy explanation or elaborate answer; the crisp, clear tone of the girl’s voice conveyed nothing but certainty to He Fang.
“Then, if you could gain all that land by submitting to a demon, or lose the land occupied by the Nightmare Beast Forest, which would you choose?” He Fang asked.
Qiao Qiao froze for a moment. She blinked, and for quite a while didn’t give him an answer. Then she said, “It doesn’t matter either way. As long as we can live well, that’s enough.”
He Fang understood her answer. He didn’t intend to press the question any further.
Just then, Sai Gu returned to He Fang’s side. “You can give it a try.”
“Alright.” He Fang walked past Sai Gu and got straight onto the aircraft, only to pilot it away immediately.
From a distance, Qiao Qiao saw He Fang’s figure disappear, and couldn’t believe it. “He just… left like that?”
Sai Gu narrowed his eyes slightly, gazing for a long time in the direction where He Fang had vanished. Qiao Qiao instinctively looked at him and happened to notice an expression rarely seen on his face. But the cold wind stung her eyes, leaving her no chance to take a closer look.
“You’re not angry?” Qiao Qiao asked. “Isn’t that rather rude?”
“He left us what we needed, and even gave us a lot of food. What’s there to be angry about?” Sai Gu shrugged, then turned and loaded everything onto the vehicle before starting to modify it.
Qiao Qiao leaned closer. “Is there anything I can help with?”
“No need,” Sai Gu gently declined. “Go sit down. If you want something to eat, you can have some.”
Qiao Qiao looked at the food left behind by the masked man who had been sitting in the back seat of the vehicle and said, “These kinds of things always used to feel out of reach. I never thought they’d one day be given away so casually. Even if Mirage is a demon, we really have… enjoyed the comfort that the demon has brought us.”
Sai Gu’s tone lifted slightly. “Mm-hm.”
“That man just now, wasn’t he worried that something might go wrong while we’re doing repairs? He’s way too trusting,” Qiao Qiao couldn’t help but complain.
“I wouldn’t harm him,” Sai Gu said.
“Of course I know that. How could Big Brother Sai Gu ever randomly try to harm someone? I just think that man doesn’t guard himself against others at all. He’ll be tricked sooner or later.” Qiao Qiao, in her spoiled, lively manner, chatted freely with Sai Gu at his side.
“Tricked, huh?” Sai Gu paused in his vehicle modifications when he heard the word, then gave a short laugh, as though recalling something amusing. But he didn’t answer her as to why.
He Fang tested the feel of the aircraft. It was much smoother now. As expected of an NPC with the title of Mechanical Master, Sai Gu truly had his unique strengths.
He Fang didn’t feel like saying goodbye to Sai Gu. He figured they would probably meet again before long, so there was no need for farewells.
In the end, guided by the system map, He Fang finally caught sight of the Summit of the World in the distance. While mobile cities used gatekeepers and scout teams, here, what was used instead was a city wall.
The vast, unbroken city wall stretched endlessly out of sight, its entire surface a shade of blue. Only upon getting closer did He Fang realize that the massive wall was actually encased in countless layers of icicles. These icicles were not man-made; they seemed to be layers of ice that had built up over many years. There were no traces of life within these ice layers, making them impervious to Nightmare Beast Seeds. And because of the ice wall’s nature, Nightmare Beasts could not launch an attack. Those in the air were further battered by frigid winds and snow, leaving them unable to assault the wall.
Passing one area, He Fang spotted a vast blue lake, or rather, a frozen blue lake. Standing on his aircraft, he looked down and opened the system map. His eyebrows lifted. This place was densely packed with health bars—clearly an indication of fish farming. And not just fish; there were also aquatic plants. All around, large and small lakes could be seen. To his surprise, there were even plants growing around them.
The plants appeared to have been specially modified to endure cold and frost, able to survive even on the ice field. Their leaves weren’t green, but pure white, as if snowflakes were resting upon them.
In one spot, He Fang noticed there were fruits. He walked over, picked one, and used the system to check. Non-toxic. He took a reluctant bite. It was like eating a fruit-flavored shaved ice, though it was indeed a fruit. The texture was somewhat like an apple, but the taste was not very pleasant.
Food that could be cultivated on the ice field?
He Fang couldn’t help but admire the abilities of the Summit of the World. This almost defied the very natural laws governing life in this world. No wonder they had been able to remain self-sufficient for so long.
After making a circuit around the place, however, He Fang found no city gate. He frowned slightly. While his aircraft could simply enter from above, barging in suddenly might make the other side view him as an intruder, something that wouldn’t help in building goodwill. He decided against it.
Just as He Fang was hesitating, the ice field beneath his feet suddenly lit up. The light connected in a chain, forming an unbroken path. He Fang was greatly surprised. Could it be that beneath the ice field wasn’t frozen soil as he had imagined, but machinery?
With the guiding path before him, He Fang reached the main gate. There were no guards here, and as he stood at the entrance, he was allowed through without any formalities at all. He Fang was puzzled. Was no inspection required? However, the system prompt that followed told him that it wasn’t that he hadn’t been inspected, but rather that during the inspection, he had been completely unaware it was happening.
When He Fang stepped into the Summit of the World, he finally saw the true face of this mysterious city.
It turned out to be… a completely ordinary small town?!
Standing there amid the ice and snow, He Fang’s gaze was filled with complex emotions. He had already seen many tall, distinctive mobile cities, yet today, he was suddenly confronted with such a simple, unadorned little town. It was almost hard to believe his eyes.
The small town had the feel of a European village. The buildings weren’t very tall, but were built close together. The ground was not asphalt but stone-paved roads. Snow could be seen everywhere, yet around the area grew unique plants that could survive on the ice field, likely all edible, with no purely ornamental plants in sight.
After he entered, quite a few pedestrians walking along the road turned their heads to give him curious looks.
Each of them was bundled up in thick, heavy cotton coats with large hoods, only half their faces exposed. At a glance, the only way to distinguish male from female was by their body shape. Standing here in his plain, simple, and lightweight clothing, He Fang suddenly felt as if he might be dressed far too strangely.
What he saw here was not hunger and cold. Unexpectedly, the people’s condition was quite good, though the proportion of obesity was relatively high, perhaps due to storing fat to withstand the cold. Beneath their hoods, their skin was flushed red from the chill, and their features were deep-set. Unlike the ignorant, indifferent expressions often found among the lowest classes in ordinary mobile cities, their eyes were calm.
One can judge a country simply by looking at the faces of its lowest people, and now, just by seeing these ordinary passersby on the streets, He Fang could tell that the Summit of the World must be a place where people lived in a fairly good environment.
He Fang noticed a large city map displayed openly in the area, placed there so that anyone could view it. He directly copied the map into his system. In an instant, the full layout of the city appeared on his system’s map, and the city’s entirety was presented before him.
The city was not made up of only residential areas. It also had livestock zones, agricultural zones, industrial zones, research and development zones, as well as administrative zones, and so on. Each area was divided with remarkable clarity. From the orderliness of these districts, it was easy to imagine that the Summit of the World truly was a kind of holy land in the apocalypse, if such a thing could exist at all.
He Fang piloted his aircraft, and the people around him showed no surprise at it whatsoever. It wasn’t until he saw other aircraft flying through the air that he suddenly realized why the city’s roads were so narrow. It was because almost all high-speed transportation took place in the sky.
It was not as cold here as He Fang had imagined. Temperature-wise, it was indeed much warmer than the uninhabited ice field outside the city walls.
He Fang set his aircraft’s destination to the government building and looked down at the dense crowd walking through the low-rise city below. He opened the attribute lists for all of them.
After glancing through the statistical summary, He Fang quietly let out a breath of relief. It was better than he had expected. There were no abnormally powerful NPCs, only the normal values for wild NPCs.
From start to finish, no one had tried to stop him, as if his every move was already under their control. He Fang had no intention of causing trouble just to test it. That would be an unwise course of action.
When He Fang arrived at the government building, even traveling in a straight line through the air had taken half an hour, which showed just how vast the Summit of the World truly was. Parking his aircraft at the entrance, he immediately opened the simplified attribute panels for everyone present.
He lowered his head and glanced at his terminal. Surprisingly, it was usable. It seemed this city did not have a signal jammer in place.
Checking on Xiao Lan’s status, he saw that he was currently on a nearby section of the city wall. If he wanted to approach, it would be easy. This allowed He Fang to relax.
“Greetings, esteemed guest.” Just as He Fang had stepped down from his aircraft and was about to walk into the government building, a man at the entrance bowed to him. He wore an extremely thick military uniform, which wrapped around his already well-built, burly frame, making him appear even more robust. His manners, however, were impeccable. In a rough, gravelly voice, he said, “I’ve heard that in Hope City, bowing is the proper etiquette. May I ask if I have done it accurately enough? Please forgive me if I have offended.”
The man’s words made He Fang’s heart sink slightly. It was a clear and deliberate hint that they had investigated and studied Hope City before.
He Fang looked at the tall man before him, who, even when bent at the waist, still stood taller than himself. After some thought, he decided not to mince words and asked directly, “Can I meet the city lord now?”
“The city lord has been quite busy lately, so I will first arrange temporary accommodations for the City Lord of Mirage. The city lord will do his best to find time to meet with you,” the man before He Fang said respectfully.
Yet although the man’s tone was courteous, his actions were anything but respectful. As a fellow city lord, arriving here should have meant being treated as an equal to their city lord. Instead, the treatment made it seem as if the other side stood above him.
“I already sent word before coming. I trust you’ve received it?” The soldier in charge of receiving him lowered his head and confirmed it. He Fang continued, “Then what you’re doing now is deliberately making me lose face, isn’t it?”
He Fang had originally not intended to put on airs as a city lord, but the way the Summit of the World was behaving made him decide to stall for time. According to Zhu Yan, the holes in the Summit of the World had already reached the point where the Nightmare Beast Forest could be directly stripped away. The only difference now was whether they would do it or not.
“Of course we wouldn’t dare,” the man before him said, though there wasn’t the slightest hint of genuine humility in his voice.
“Then you’re still deliberately stalling me?” He Fang sneered. If his NPCs were going to do their utmost to give him the bearing of a city lord, then naturally, he wouldn’t waste that effort. “Do you truly believe that the so-called Summit of the World can stand on equal footing with me?”
Just as He Fang’s words fell, laughter rang out from behind him.
It was bold, hearty laughter. He Fang turned his head, only to find himself staring straight at the other person’s shoulder. His gaze lifted, up and up, until at last he saw her face.
She was an extremely tall figure, solidly built. The wide, heavy cloak draped over her shoulders was undone, revealing a robust physique beneath. She wore less clothing than most, yet showed no sign of feeling cold. What surprised He Fang the most, however, was that she was a woman.
She had nothing to do with beauty in the conventional sense, but she carried herself with a striking heroism. Her physique was nothing like what a woman would naturally possess. It was the result of long, rigorous training. Not fat, but powerfully built. And standing before her, He Fang’s own malnourished, frail frame looked all the more unimpressive by comparison.
“Hello, He Fang, City Lord of Mirage. I am Zhong Yana, City Lord of the Summit of the World.” Zhong Yana extended her hand. He Fang saw a large, calloused palm, calluses so thick they could be felt the moment he clasped her hand.
“I am He Fang.” Even if his physical condition would hardly command her respect, He Fang still carried himself with the bearing of the most powerful city lord.
Zhong Yana laughed heartily, then suddenly looked toward a spot not far away. There was nothing there, nothing visible to anyone. Yet her eyes fixed on it as if she saw something, her smile unchanged, even showing a trace of admiration.
“Indeed, the Summit of the World cannot stand as an equal to Mirage. Even knowing this beforehand, it is still astonishing.” Though Zhong Yana’s manner was rough, her forthrightness was something He Fang found likable. This kind of woman had a certain charm.
But… He Fang’s expression grew complicated. He knew that the direction she was looking toward was exactly where Xiao Lan was. Yet Xiao Lan was invisible to everyone. He Fang was certain that even an extraordinary wild NPC like her shouldn’t be able to see him.
Zhong Yana’s attributes were impressive, exceptionally so. Her stats were superior to any wild NPC He Fang had ever encountered, even surpassing the strongest he had seen. She was a woman of immense power, and in her eyes burned unrestrained ambition. He Fang had no doubt that such a person could conceive of something as mad as splitting the earth apart.
![You’re Causing Chaos Again [e-sports]](https://www.freenovels.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/1sMqC2JNjIep8Ov.jpg "You’re Causing Chaos Again [e-sports]")
Oooo, is he meeting another player??? This is exciting!