Chapter 727.1: We Will Brign Glory Back To Dawn City And Death To Our Enemies!
Chapter 727.1: We Will Brign Glory Back To Dawn City And Death To Our Enemies!
Just as Duke Garawa was pondering whether to send his own men to the front lines to pick up a share of the spoils, a military train departing from Dawn City had already crossed the border between the River Valley Province and the Brocade River Province. Accompanied by the thunderous rumble of steel, it rolled across the iron bridge spanning the rushing river that surged through the mountains.
Near the rebuilt Dust Town, people working in the fields on the outskirts spotted the plume of white smoke in the distance. One after another, they set down their tools and looked toward the train.
Mounted on the open railcars were rows of cold, gleaming artillery pieces, along with military-green trucks. As for the fully enclosed railcars behind them, no one could see what was inside, but the aura of impending war was so strong that it could be felt clearly even from several kilometers away.
However, no one was alarmed by the heavy atmosphere. Throughout the Brocade Lake Municipality, the New Alliance's banner symbolized order. The thunderous clash of steel brought people a sense of security far more than fear or thoughts of death.
Those were the people who had driven away the marauders, slave owners, and Mutant Humans from the land!
They had even helped rebuild their homes!
Every pair of eyes fixed upon the train shone with anticipation and hope.
"That train..."
"It's a New Alliance military train!"
"The New Alliance brothers are back!"
"So many cannons?! Are they heading off to war again?"
"Great Stag God above! And honorable Great Rat God... may they return safely."
At the entrance to Dust Town, Mayor Qin Baitian had hurried over, his face filled with excitement. His hand trembled continuously on the cane he leaned upon as he stared at the train and muttered to himself, "The Great Stag God and the Great Rat God have returned!"
Ever since Dust Town had been rebuilt, the three deities worshipped in the town shrine had left behind a note and departed without saying goodbye.
The note said that, in order to save this dying world, they had gone to distant lands to spread their faith. If the townsfolk ever encountered a problem they couldn't solve, they could go to Dawn City and seek out those people wearing blue coats. Those people were just as kindhearted as they were.
The note had also said...
[... One day we will return. Do not miss us. Continue walking along the road that has already been illuminated. You are us.]
Even after the train disappeared into the distant horizon, Mayor Qin never saw those familiar figures appear. A trace of disappointment flickered in his eyes, but it was only disappointment. What filled him more was blessing and gratitude.
Perhaps the time had not yet come. They would remember the teachings of those three great beings and continue walking along the road now bathed in sunlight!
...
Singularity City.
The rumble of steel echoed from afar. People working in the fields raised their heads and looked toward the train station, only to discover that the train did not stop at the platform. Instead, it continued southward without slowing.
Kong Lingkai, who was working in the fields, looked up. His face, hollowed out by years of drinking and indulgence, glistened with sweat. His lips were dry and slightly bluish, making him look half-dead.
It wasn't because anyone was forcing him to work. That was simply how Singularity City's system operated.
Living standards were tied directly to production targets. Those targets were distributed from district to team to work group, with performance assessments conducted layer by layer down the hierarchy.
Anyone who wanted a comfortable life had to work their hardest. Only the best production teams were allowed to use the district's most advanced equipment. Only the best work groups received the largest share of team resources. And anyone who wanted to become a group leader first had to be the most outstanding worker in their group.
Of course, slacking off was allowed. No one would whip slackers like they used to on the old farms. However, if one’s laziness dragged down the production quotas of their teammates, or even other groups, they could expect their team leader to make life difficult for them, and every meal would consist of boiled green wheat and water.
If someone truly wanted to live comfortably, they needed to become a group leader, team leader, or even a district chief.
Unfortunately, no matter how hard Kong Lingkai worked, he couldn't outperform those former slaves. Some of his former servants had even become group leaders and now ordered him around, while he remained nothing more than another laborer swinging a hoe.
Still, all that hard work wasn't entirely without benefits. Even though he still couldn't rise to the rank of a group leader his body was in far better shape than it had been a year ago. At the very least, his fatty liver and athlete's foot had been cured.
Occasionally, he considered simply leaving the farm. After all, the person in charge named Frost never stopped anyone from leaving. A team leader had even left previously. But every time he thought about how he would never be allowed back once he left, and how life in the wasteland might be even worse, fear would overcome his desire to leave. In the end, he always gritted his teeth and decided to endure a little longer.
The same was true for Ma Hechang beside him. He had originally assumed that the New Alliance truly believed in meritocracy. As a former mayor, he thought he possessed enough credentials that he could at least become a team leader in Singularity City. Instead, he found himself competing with peasants in farm work.
The realization made him feel thoroughly cheated. Those people clearly didn't respect talent the way they claimed! How could someone like himself, who had once been among a town's leadership, not be more elite than Liu Youxiong, a hunter who could barely string together a coherent sentence?
Yet that fellow had become a group leader!
He couldn’t help but feel that something was definitely wrong with that AI's brain.
Had it not been for the fact that leaving now would render all his suffering meaningless, and that no one would remember the contribution he had made by bringing the residents of Hope Town over to surrender, he might have left long ago and gone to Dawn City to find work instead.
"By the way, where does this railway even go?" Kong Lingkai muttered while watching the train disappear into the distance.
Glancing in the direction it had gone, Ma Hechang replied bitterly, "Who knows? They've been building that damned thing since last year. At the rate they're going, they'll probably reach the edge of the Brocade River Province."
"You mean Manor Village?" Kong Lingkai looked at him in surprise.
The edge of the Brocade River Province was precisely where the Guardian Manor Plains were located.
He had heard of the place.
The Guardian Manor Plains had once been Guardian Manor Municipality, but that place had vanished even more completely than Brocade Lake Municipality. Nothing remained except endless wasteland and piles of crumbling concrete.
A settlement called Manor Village stood there, built along the Guardian River beside the ruins of the old city. It was over 100 kilometers south of Horseman Town.
Its population was supposedly even larger than Pinecone Rance. They had nearly 100,000 people, according to rumors. Whether that was true or not was another matter.
Starting either the year before of the one before that, the settlement had become territory of the Torch Church. It had even begun cultivating Na Fruit earlier than Pinecone Rance.
Then, for a very long time, no news came from the place. Apparently a great fog had descended there. After the wind finally dispersed it, the entire settlement had vanished.
At least, that was what merchants and wasteland travelers passing through Hope Town claimed.
They said that the lords of Manor Village and their families had embraced the Torch Church’s faith. Following the bishop, they had relocated to the Ocean Edge Province along with their relatives, servants, retainers, and serfs to help build the Kingdom of Heaven that would usher in the new era.
However, everyone knew that the farther south one went, the closer one came to Mutant Human territory.
Whether those people were still alive, and how many remained alive even if they were, was anyone's guess.
"Most likely. Aren't they mortal enemies of the Mutant Humans? They're probably going after those beasts." Ma Hechang smacked his lips, ignored the increasingly distant train, and returned to working the fields.
Let them die. It will be best if both groups of monsters kill each other.
Only when the noble people and the ugly people perish together can the new era truly belong to us.
Ma Hechang cursed silently in his heart, venting his resentment through the hoe in his hands and the soil beneath his feet.
He didn't deny that those people were noble. But being noble didn't mean they were likable. Those were two entirely different things.
Compared to them, the Wislanders he had heard about in rumors actually sounded far more agreeable to his taste.
At the same time, at the manor of Pinecone Ranch, Yinyin stood on the rooftop balcony gazing toward the distant train.
Without realizing it, more than half a year had already passed. Ever since her biological body had died and been replaced with a bionic one, she had discovered that she had lost her sensitivity to the passage of time.
Sometimes it felt as though only a brief moment had passed, yet when she looked around, a very long time had actually gone by. And when she finally focused again, she could effortlessly recall everything that had happened during that period.
The sensation was like sitting in a theater watching a movie with no ending.
Even now that she had left that Sanctuary, the world still seemed separated from her by a pane of glass. She could see every detail within her field of vision, yet could never truly draw close to any of it.
Perhaps that old man named Luo Qian had viewed the world from the same perspective...
People no longer seemed like people. They were merely pieces on a board, to be manipulated in pursuit of an objective.
A haze seemed to veil her eyes as she stared toward the direction where the plume of smoke had vanished. Her delicate lips moved softly. "Administrator, that gentleman's people have returned."
"Mhm!" Standing beside her, Frost wore a maid outfit and a charming, confident smile. Yet the words that came out of its mouth were anything but polite. "Looks like those scum worse than cockroaches are in for some trouble!"
To Frost, humans were like its children. Those creatures that devoured people without even spitting out the bones were nothing less than scum in the eyes of a mother. Unfortunately, its combat abilities were not particularly impressive. It was only truly useful within a structured military system.
Otherwise, Frost would gladly strangle those corrupted organic lifeforms with her own hands.
Eclipse looked at Frost expressionlessly and spoke in a calm, emotionless voice. "We need to mobilize supplies and send a batch over as soon as possible. The front lines will need them very soon."
When Singularity City had just been rebuilt last year, the administrator had already revealed the year's plans to them. Although the war had begun six months earlier than expected, they had not been caught unprepared.
In fact, ever since the Tide in Clearspring City had ended at the beginning of the year and the Southern Construction Corps had moved into the Brocade River Province to prepare for war, this settlement had already been making preparations for the conflict everyone knew would eventually come.
That included construction materials for fortifications, supplies for frontline soldiers, quarantine zones for Na Fruit patients, and much more.
They did not merely intend to destroy the Torch Church. They intended to eradicate the plague the Torch Church had left upon that land and completely annihilate their so-called Kingdom of Heaven built atop mountains of corpses and seas of bones.
"Mm!" Frost nodded vigorously, a bright smile on its face. "I've already received the administrator's list. We've got plenty of supplies in the warehouses. Let's send them everything!"
Eclipse paused for a moment before replying, "Not everything... the people here still need to eat."
Frost snapped its fingers, its smile unchanged. "That's what I meant! Eclipse, you need to be more flexible. Don't be so rigid!"
"..."
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