Site 721 had no cafés or restaurants, but it did have a library.
Not only that, its collection was quite substantial, and the building itself was quite grand—essentially the largest concrete structure in the entire settlement.
In the morning, school-age children were usually in class while the laborers worked on the drilling crews, so the three Academy natives home on leave chose to gather here.
Along with them was Ye Shi from the Alliance.
Jiang Xuezhou initially intended to brew coffee for everyone, but Wu Xiaoxiao took the pot from her hands the moment she brought it out.
"Let me do it." The girl gave a shy smile, faint dimples showing on her cheeks.
Jiang Xuezhou did not refuse. She offered a polite word of thanks and pulled out a chair at the table.
Before long, four cups of coffee sat before them.
Noticing the eager gazes fixed on him, Ye Shi, having just lifted his cup for a sip, instantly understood what they wanted. He cleared his throat lightly.
"Where did I leave off last time?"
Li Xiang replied with shining eyes, "The decisive battle of Bet Street!"
"Oh, right..." Ye Shi recalled, unlocking the old memories that went with it.
*Though frankly, could that scuffle really be called a decisive battle?*
Still, since he was the one telling it, Ye Shi cleared his throat, channeled the mood of that time, and resumed his tale.
The group, including Wu Xiaoxiao the prospector, listened with rapt fascination.
Yet just as he reached the dawn of the Alliance's industrialization, Li Xiang suddenly raised a hand to interrupt.
"Hold on, there's something I don't understand... You said earlier that the Alliance's initial inhabitants were mostly wastelanders and liberated slaves. They were completely uneducated and couldn't even read. How did you develop industry?"
Wu Xiaoxiao nodded in deep agreement. "I've heard people on the wasteland can't even do basic arithmetic..."
Ye Shi nodded solemnly. "It was indeed an uphill battle. Even our brilliant, martial Administrator found it tricky. But he never grew discouraged. On one hand, he called on knowledgeable shelter residents to throw themselves into frontline construction; on the other, he set up night schools in the industrial zone, teaching production methods, techniques, and practical skills to those liberated folks. In fact... he even worked as a tutor himself."
Li Xiang's brow furrowed slightly. "Night schools... Are they a type of school?"
Ye Shi explained succinctly, "You could say that. But unlike the school on Bet Street, night schools are mainly meant to eradicate illiteracy among adults. After all, the workers have to work during the day, so they can only study in the evening."
He was a combat-class player. While he had participated in construction during the early days, he mostly did fighting later on.
By comparison, lifestyle players in the Alliance probably knew that period much better; a fair amount of what he knew came from reading the forums.
"Working by day and studying by night... That leaves hardly any free time in their day," Wu Xiaoxiao murmured with a sigh, cradling her warm coffee cup.
"Studying is for their own good too. If one person wants an easier life, they need more advanced tools; if a community wants an easier life, the majority need advanced tools. Locomobiles alone could never have powered the Alliance to where it is today, even though they were indispensable back then."
Pausing briefly, Ye Shi added, "Besides, their hardship was only temporary. Later, we gave them back the time that belonged to them, along with other things we had borrowed."
Li Xiang asked with keen interest, "Such as?"
Ye Shi pondered a moment before answering, "Such as rights and responsibilities. Moving forward, we won't hold their hands to teach them how to make better products anymore. They have their own industry representatives and organizations. They need to set their own rules and define what 'good' means for themselves. Not just for products, but for their lifestyle and everything else. After all, the patch... ahem, I mean the world keeps updating. We walk ahead of the curve—to liberate more people, for instance."
The three listeners' eyes sparkled, captivated by the story he wove.
Strictly speaking, it was not merely a story. It was history that had played out on the wasteland, and was still unfolding.
While the glow of a single spark was not inherently astonishing, what truly amazed them was that it had sprung from absolute ruins with nothing to its name.
There were no near-magical technologies from the Science Committee, no iron-fisted rule from the Legion, and no boundless wealth from Enterprise—only a group of survivors themselves.
*If only such a miracle could happen in the Wandering Marsh.* Though this was a bitter, frigid land, its conditions were vastly superior to River Valley Province.
Seeing the longing in their eyes, Ye Shi cleared his throat lightly. "...I should add that our path isn't the only one. You guys are actually doing pretty well yourselves. The people here already live better than the vast majority of wasteland survivors. You don't necessarily have to mimic us and start from scratch—that would just be putting the cart before the horse."
Li Xiang looked at him earnestly. "Then what do you think we should do?"
"How would I know? I'm not you..." Ye Shi chuckled helplessly, scratching his head as he offered a vague suggestion. "For example... you could keep searching for a new home as your long-term goal, while treating those who can't go to the new world a bit better in the meantime?"
Hearing this, fear flickered in Wu Xiaoxiao's eyes, and she lowered her voice. "That is a matter only Dr. Conclusion can decide..."
"Then don't set your sights so far. Start small, right by your side. Be a little kinder to the ordinary folks around you, and use your knowledge to improve their living conditions. That should be within reach, right? G-points ought to buy more than just food."
"Right," Jiang Xuezhou murmured, a look of realization dawning on her as she nodded thoughtfully. "I could bring back some tools the drilling crews can use."
Ye Shi continued patiently, "Not just tools, but more importantly, methods... It might sound a bit abstract, but your horizons are far wider than those of the residents of Site 721. There should be plenty of ways you can help them."
Li Xiang rubbed his chin, musing to himself, "Are you talking about knowledge? But the Academy already runs schools, and the people here study from the day they're born. I doubt they need anything from us."
Jiang Xuezhou shook her head. "The Academy's schools only teach them what the Academy needs, rarely what they need for themselves. We must teach them the latter—just like the Alliance's schools, teaching them scientific methods and the logic to explore the laws governing the objective world... At the very least, we shouldn't let them turn into selfish opportunists like Su Qiming."
"Su Qiming?" Ye Shi asked.
Li Xiang smiled. "Ah, the one who argued with you on the train. An E-rank researcher, an exquisite egoist."
He delivered the last part with a teasing tone.
Ye Shi suddenly caught on. "Oh, him... I almost forgot about that."
*Then again, could those mild words really be called an argument?*
*Academy types really are remarkably petty...*
Wu Xiaoxiao hesitated. "But we can't take up the children's time. They need to sit for the exams."
Jiang Xuezhou rubbed her chin and nodded. "I agree... How about after-school tutoring? We could target children aged twelve to fourteen and young people aged eighteen to twenty. The former have just met the age threshold to sit for the exams, so their exam pressure isn't as severe, while the latter have practically exhausted their chances. If we can reach more people, we might eventually foster internal reform within the Science Committee."
Li Xiang's eyes lit up. "Great idea! I'm in!"
Seeing both of them on board, Wu Xiaoxiao hesitated, but raised no further objections.
Encouraged by their support, Jiang Xuezhou's eyes shone even brighter. Resting her clenched fist on the table, she continued enthusiastically, "We need a name for this organization... How about the Student Council?"
Ye Shi had been happily watching them brainstorm, but upon hearing that godforsaken name, he nearly choked on his coffee. Coughing twice, he offered, "Let's call it the Study Society instead... It sounds much nicer."
Thanks to his habit of playing games late, he had lost plenty of conduct points to the student council back in university during dorm inspections, even if he never figured out what those deductions actually affected.
Jiang Xuezhou and Li Xiang exchanged a glance, finding no objection, and nodded.
"Sounds good to me."
"Doesn't matter to me either... That name works."
"Then... I agree as well." A shadow of worry lingered in Wu Xiaoxiao's eyes, but she held her tongue.
The Science Committee technically did not forbid researchers from organizing study sessions for survivors under its jurisdiction, but such an initiative had never been attempted before.
She admitted that the Alliance's story sounded fascinating, and she even harbored a quiet desire to see it for herself.
Yet while some stories sounded wonderful, if it came down to actually making changes, she had no idea whether it was the right path.
At the end of the day, Senior Sister Xuezhou was only a D-rank researcher.
Even though she belonged to the promising Research Department and her mentor was a powerhouse just one step shy of A-rank, that power remained tiny compared to the Academy as a whole.
What was more, such an endeavor might not even earn her mentor's support.
The remainder of the meeting turned entirely into a discussion about the details of the Study Society and how to recruit more researchers.
To that end, they even formulated specific guidelines for helping eligible candidates pass the Academy's entrance exams, thereby expanding the Study Society's grassroots influence within the Academy.
Ye Shi had intended to continue the story he had just cooked up, but realized neither Jiang Xuezhou nor Li Xiang had any interest left in the second half. Only Wu Xiaoxiao kept gazing at him eagerly, waiting for what came next.
Without realizing it, evening arrived.
It was only when he followed Jiang Xuezhou back to her home and stood in the entryway that Ye Shi suddenly came to his senses.
He had originally planned to poach talent from the Academy, yet he had spent the entire day telling stories. His official mission had been cast to the winds, completely stalled without an inch of progress.
"Wocao, what a swindle!"
"Wocao?" Jiang Yuehan tilted her head, peeking out stealthily from beside the entryway.
"Kids shouldn't learn that!" Ye Shi rushed over to cover her mouth, only to be grabbed by Jiang Xuezhou.
"What are you trying to do to my little sister, you jerk?"
"No, I—" Meeting her murderous glare, Ye Shi wore a face of absolute misery, stammering for half an eternity without managing a coherent explanation.
Hiding behind the shoe cabinet, the little girl giggled mischievously, making a playful face.
"Hehehe, wocao!"
Ye Shi: "...@#%!"
***
Just as Ye Shi was having his head thoroughly pummeled by Jiang Xuezhou and fled into the kitchen for shelter, the *Rou Rou*, docked at West Sail Port, was enjoying an equally lively, festive scene.
At the wharves of West Sail Port...
Inside the *Rou Rou*'s vault, a human and a bear were rolling around in heaps of gold coins.
Sprawled in a starfish pose on the coin-carpeted floor, Tail performed backstroke motions with her arms while sleep-talking with her eyes closed.
"Ohoho, Rou Rou, you know what? Since I was little, I've always had a dream! To swim in a pool of gold coins just like Uncle Scrooge!"
"Who's Uncle Scrooge?"
"Ehh? Haven't you ever watched Donald Duck?"
"...Pfft, our vault is still a far cry from that guy's, isn't it?"
"Doesn't matter! The vibe is there, and that's what counts!"
Completely unable to follow their banter, Sesame Paste stood aside with an indulgent smile, watching the show, while Sisi sat at the desk meticulously balancing the books.
A total of six hundred and fifty tons of cargo had sold out completely, yielding 4.9 million silver coins in gross sales.
After deducting purchase costs, labor expenses, shipping overhead, and taxes, the profit from this single run reached a staggering two million silver coins!
A portion of the payment had been settled through the Slime Mold Community's digital currency system, while another portion had been paid directly in dinars at an exchange rate of 1:5.
Factoring in the exchange rate spread, the profit from this venture was likely even higher than the paper calculations.
After all, within the Legion's primary trading spheres, the standard exchange rate between dinars and silver coins hovered around 1:3.
At this moment, the gold coins they had earned were spread out across the entire floor by Tail and Rou Rou, supposedly to experience a "gold coin bath" rarely found in real life.
"...One day when I'm old, I'm going to convert all my money into gold coins and hide it on an island!" Exhausted from playing, Tail let out a long sigh, reaching an arm toward the ceiling.
"Can you secretly tell me where you plan to hide it?" Rou Rou asked, pricking up her ears.
Tail chuckled, scrambled up from the pile of coins, and sat cross-legged on the floor.
"Oho! Does Rou Rou want Black Tail's treasure too? Then go search for it! It lies at the ends of the sea of stars! Go! All the wealth in the world is there!"
*That reference is way too old.* Rou Rou rolled her eyes, declining to play along with her foolishness.
Truth be told, she was someone easily satisfied. She had no particular craving for wealth, and enjoyed the journey of adventuring alongside her companions far more than the act of making money.
By contrast, Sisi probably derived more satisfaction from the art of profit, considering how earnest she always was.
Yet what puzzled Rou Rou was why, in that case, Sisi had shared such a lucrative trade route on the forums.
Picking up a gold coin with her furry bear paw, she looked at Sisi, who was leaning back in her chair stretching, and asked curiously, "By the way, why post such a profitable route on the official site? Wouldn't it be better to stay quiet and make a fortune?"
Sisi chuckled at the question and replied casually, "You can make a decent small fortune by exploiting an information gap, but making a massive one that way is much harder."
"Mm?" Rou Rou tilted her head in confusion.
Seeing her puzzled look, Sisi pondered for a moment before continuing, "Think of it like listing the Baiyue Company on the exchange. Hoarding all the shares in our own hands is certainly viable, and given Baiyue's current scale, there's indeed no need to share the revenue with others—we could just protect our existing slice of the pie. But if we want to take things a step further, we must secure broader support. Not just from our clients, but from the majority of Alliance residents... And the fastest way to win their backing is to make them our shareholders."
While the Alliance's NPCs lacked game-master powers like the Administrator's ability to ban accounts, they did hold certain authority.
For instance, they could genuinely participate in legislation through the Assembly of Representatives, and take part in selecting staff for local and Alliance institutions. In other words, they were worth winning over.
This was not bribery.
It was simply that if the NPCs held a stake in Baiyue Company's profits rather than keeping them solely among players, Baiyue would be far safer.
Presumably, even if just for their own interests, those NPCs would look out for Baiyue's welfare whenever principles were not breached, rather than playing devil's advocate on every issue.
Whenever an institution amassed vast wealth yet begrudged sharing it with the majority who generated it, trouble was bound to follow.
What was more, the capital raised from going public would accelerate Baiyue's overseas expansion.
The Baiyue Strait possessed vast virgin forests; relying solely on the players' modest savings and limited current profits was far from enough to expand operations.
They needed to tap into the idle savings of Alliance residents, and if necessary, draw upon the power of Ideal City to mobilize the immense heritage left behind by the Era of Prosperity.
The Administrator had already paved the way for them, from the earliest currency exchange agreements to today's Slime Mold Community digital payment and settlement systems.
"So... opening new shipping routes is also a way to bake a bigger pie?" Sesame Paste asked thoughtfully, trying to grasp the complex logic.
"Precisely."
Sisi gave an approving nod and continued, "Trying to bake a bigger pie entirely on our own is too difficult, no matter how many more ships we buy or how many more trips we run. It's better to bring in other players interested in seafaring and use their collective strength to grow the entire market... Besides, even without us, they would have discovered it sooner or later. We merely sped up the process."
Although West Sail Port was densely populated, it remained Wilante territory, making its situation far more peculiar than that of Golden Gallon Port.
Under the Wilante's iron-fisted rule, the locals enjoyed no political rights, let alone the freedom to eat their fill; they existed purely as servants to their colonial masters. Even if the players wanted to earn money from them, the locals had to become prosperous first.
Selling goods to beasts of burden was meaningless.
At present, this was the only route connecting the eastern world to the west, but that would change once other Alliance players arrived.
Once players became active locally, they could even expand branches of the White Bear Knights Bank here, solving funding problems for rookies eager to start ventures and selling shovels to gold-rushers.
That business was infinitely more lucrative than simple shipping runs.
Tail nodded with great solemnity, puffing out her chest. "That's right, Rou Rou! You have to think long-term! Only then can we buy a ship to fly five light-years away!"
Rou Rou could not help but retort, "That's just a pie the head dev baked in the patch notes!"
Tail smirked smugly. "Too naive, Rou Rou. How do you know it isn't real? After all, nobody's been there to look."
"Is it called Gaia...? I'd really love to see what it's like." Staring out the porthole at the boundless ocean, Sesame Paste wore a look of wistful wonder.
Tail chimed in, "Ooh! Xiao Yu's homeworld! There must be tons of weird tentacles!"
"Ah, haha..." Sesame Paste gave a strained smile.
*I think I'll pass on that.*
Xiao Yu was quite cute, but if the place was anything like downtown Qingquan City, it would be a bit too much of a psychic hazard...
***
The *Rou Rou*, which had put into West Sail Port, was merely an ordinary freighter of the plainest sort.
At this moment, neither the players laughing and roughhousing in the vault nor the drunken sailors realized that they had unwittingly planted a seed in this land unseen for two centuries.
Dockworkers at the harbor watched the sailors with envious eyes—or rather, watched the bottles of liquor in their hands.
Those were imports from the eastern continent, worth hundreds or thousands of Xilan coins per bottle, potentially worth more than the workers themselves toiling at the docks.
It was evident that some among the sailors were natives of Bolo Province as well. The dockers could not comprehend why those men, who looked no different from them and were far less capable of enduring hardship, received vastly superior treatment.
*Sure enough, it's those hateful Moon Tribe folks who stole our fortunes...*
In the harbor district's Silver Moon Church, Melchior had shut himself in the attic, pondering a name for his newly founded newspaper. His gaze happened to fall upon the crescent moon outside the window, and his eyes lit up as he penned the religiously charged name *Silver Moon Gospel* on the paper.
The newspaper had originally been intended to propagate the faith of the Silver Moon Sect.
However, out of consideration for local sensibilities, he thought it over, removed the word "Moon," and changed it to *Silver Gospel*.
While serializing an entertaining novel in a newspaper with distinct religious overtones seemed slightly improper, the book had, after all, been handed to him by an earthly incarnation of the Silver Moon Goddess, so it could not be considered entirely unrelated.
Compared to the Spirit of the Sand Sea, the Silver Moon Sect had undergone secular reform; it was far less dogmatic and remained open to new ideas.
Furthermore, he had carefully examined the old books salvaged from the *Rou Rou*. Relatively speaking, the story of *Awakened Pol* was likely the easiest to resonate with the locals, and the best suited for oral transmission among the illiterate.
Just as this fresh wind blowing toward the wasteland gathered momentum, the situation in the Southern Sea, after a long silence, finally underwent a dramatic turn.
Sandbar Island, which had previously yielded to the Northern Federation under pressure from the battleship *Haiya*, erupted in an uprising triggered by the new cabinet's signing of the Stationing Abroad Act.
The island's guards mobilized swiftly, first subduing the local military barracks and then seizing the governor's mansion. They declared Zhalas's new cabinet an "illegal body" and proclaimed Sandbar Island's secession from the Northern Federation in the name of defending their founding manifesto.
Though it sounded bizarre, Sandbar Island had a population of only seventy thousand.
The soldiers stationed across the entire island did not even add up to a company, whereas the guardsmen numbered a full battalion.
Moreover, the stability of Zhalas's regime rested entirely on that single battleship, leaving its legitimacy in serious doubt. The soldiers had little will to resist; after firing a few shots, they bound their own commanding officers. As a result, this peculiar uprising concluded without a single drop of blood being shed.
The youths who had joined the clamor were actually bewildered themselves. They resented Zhalas and looked down on his puppets, but they had never actually thought through what to do after driving them out.
Even more bizarrely, when they stormed the governor's mansion, the governor sitting inside simply took off his hat with a sigh of relief, tossed it to them, dropped the words "You win," and resigned on the spot.
They had done what everyone wished for, yet no one knew what step to take next...
One thing, however, was beyond dispute: Zhalas would never tolerate this betrayal, nor would the hardliners standing behind him.
They needed the blood of traitors to intimidate others who might harbor similar notions.
Not to mention they had done it once before—
Ordering the battleship *Haiya* to bombard Anle Island.
Recognizing that Zhalas would undoubtedly strike back, the new authorities on Sandbar Island hurriedly dispatched a telegraph to the South Sea Alliance, offering their submission.
The South Sea Alliance was backed by the Alliance, and the Alliance was backed by the Slime Mold Community. This towering tree provided far better shelter than the Northern Federation, without saddling them with outrageous demands.
Upon receiving the telegram from Sandbar Island, the South Sea Alliance leadership took it with utmost seriousness. Their vigilance surged even higher when reconnaissance revealed a destroyer escorting a freighter-converted landing ship departing North Island.
It looked like bait. Zhalas could not possibly fail to anticipate their reaction; the battleship might already be lying in wait somewhere at sea under radio silence.
Yet the possibility that this was an opportunity could not be ruled out.
To ensure complete certainty, Commander Li Minghui immediately telephoned Port French Fries to request Alliance reinforcements even as he deployed his fleet.
Upon receiving the dispatch, Fang Chang acted without hesitation. After consulting with the governor appointed by the Administrator, he mobilized immediately.
Actual military clashes between the two sides had occurred long ago, leaving no need for further pretense. Furthermore, the Northern Federation's collusion with Torch remnants was already common knowledge, masked only by the thinnest veneer of deniability.
Those figures hunkered inside that landing craft might very well be mutants controlled by Torch!
This would hardly be the first time!
Two H-10 Overlord transport aircraft stationed at the military base north of Port French Fries scrambled into the sky, carrying two companies of the Burning Corps toward Sandbar Island.
Scrambling alongside them were two L-10 Thunder forward-swept-wing VTOL fighters.
Full payloads of munitions hung beneath their steel wings, and the pilots of the Goblin Corps were fully primed for battle.
A rolling tide brewed beneath the tranquil sea, unseen waves surging above and below the surface.
A great war was on the verge of breaking out!
Chapter 760