"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Is this the legendary Mammoth State?"
On the deck of the *Rou Rou*, a short-haired girl was perched on the back of a massive white bear, clutching a telescope and gazing excitedly toward the distant shore.
Rou Rou, beneath her, stared toward the land with equal excitement, whooping and hollering, "What a huge port... and there's Sesame Paste's church!"
"What does that have to do with me..." Sesame Paste said, caught between tears and laughter as the cat ears atop her head flicked left and right.
Every time she felt embarrassed, those ears seemed to develop a mind of their own.
Staring with wide-eyed curiosity at the approaching port, Tail jabbered away without pause.
"*Giao!* Hey, this place looks so much like Silver Moon Bay! It's like it came out of the exact same mold!"
"Even the docks' statues!"
"Isn't that one actually Sesame Paste?"
"How could that even be possible..."
Listening to their noisy bickering, Sisi smiled as she walked down the companionway from the bridge and stepped out onto the deck.
"Well, you could call it a clever little trick by the locals."
From up high, she had already taken in a panoramic view of Mammoth City's entire port. It was virtually identical to the most bustling district of Silver Moon Bay—in fact, it was built even better.
After all, Silver Moon Bay had been pieced together bit by bit as its believers fumbled their way forward, like a toddler stacking toy blocks wherever the mood struck.
This city, on the other hand, had absorbed all the lessons and missteps of its predecessor, tracing an improved design onto a clean canvas.
Backed by the authorities of Mammoth State, it not only incorporated all of Silver Moon Bay's strengths, but also patched up its shortcomings.
Rou Rou tilted her head toward Sisi and asked curiously, "A clever trick?"
Sisi nodded and explained, "Silver Moon Bay merchant ships pass along the eastern coast of Bolo Province whether heading to Golden Gallon Port or the western parts of the Central Continent. Nobody would turn down an extra resupply point along that route. On top of that, Mammoth State has a massive population, and population itself is a resource.
"Through a series of policies, the authorities gained the trust of Silver Moon Bay's believers and leased land to them. Those believers then built churches, banks, and harbor facilities here... which essentially means the Mammoth State administration got a brand-new port without spending a single copper."
Before that, the area had been nothing but a stretch of barren mud. No matter how you crunched the numbers, the Mammoth State authorities had come out wildly ahead.
Sisi guessed that the leadership here had likely borrowed a page from Golden Gallon Port's playbook. After all, those rogue officers had hailed from Golden Gallon Port themselves; even if they had never eaten pork, they had certainly seen pigs run.
"I see... So this is that legendary win-win thing."
Rou Rou nodded in sudden enlightenment, while Tail, still slumped across her back, had already drifted off to a completely different subject.
"Will there be mammoths?!"
Hearing that mindless blurt, Rou Rou couldn't help snorting with laughter. "How could those things possibly exist!"
Tail retorted, "Eeeh! Then why is it called Mammoth State?"
Listening to the exchange, Sisi's expression turned subtly amused. She cleared her throat softly and said, "Actually... there really are."
"Huh?!"
Caught completely off guard, Rou Rou and Sesame Paste both whipped their heads toward her in disbelief.
Tail, in particular, nearly lunged off the bear's back in excitement. Her eyes shone brightly as she asked, "For real?!"
Seeing that expectant look, Sisi nodded gently. Searching her memory for clues she had come across in old records, she began, "Supposedly, because they were so wildly popular, research institutes under the Human Alliance used genetic engineering during the Era of Prosperity to resurrect prehistoric mammoths and adapt them to the new era's environment... They usually roam the high plateau beneath the Zhuobar Mountains at the far northern edge of Mammoth State. Rumor has it they only migrate down to the Tasang River basin during winter."
"They brought them back to life just because they were popular?" Sesame Paste wore an expression that was half amusement, half despair, completely at a loss for words. "...The citizens of the Human Alliance really did whatever the hell they pleased."
Rou Rou scratched her head, thoroughly baffled. "Wouldn't that mess up Earth's ecosystem, though?"
Sisi thought for a moment before answering offhandedly, "Bolo Province during the Human Alliance era was basically one gigantic nature preserve anyway... Tossing a few weird creatures into the mix probably didn't disrupt much."
Besides, the Wasteland Era had thoroughly demonstrated that the ecosystem's capacity to adapt was far stronger than humanity had ever imagined.
Leave aside prehistoric beasts like mammoths that had once genuinely existed on Earth; even creatures like Deathclaws, Yaoguai, and polypods—monstrous creations engineered from head to toe—had merely ended up as parts of the local food chain.
Rou Rou couldn't help marveling, "...What a wild time to be alive."
Tail stroked her chin in deep contemplation for a good long while before suddenly blurting out another question. "If they managed to bring back mammoths, why didn't they bring back dinosaurs?"
Sisi replied, "Uh... maybe they ran out of time?"
As the group chatted, the *Rou Rou* sounded a long, resonant blast of its horn.
The wide cargo vessel glided gently toward the edge of the pier.
Thanks to the coordinated efforts of the crew and deckhands, the ship was brought securely alongside the berth.
Conditions on the ground were starkly different from the rumors.
Golden Gallon Port's *Survivor Daily* had claimed that floodwaters had submerged the region into an expanse of ruins, yet what greeted their eyes were level stone-paved streets and marble-carved buildings in the style of Silver Moon Bay.
The city districts in the distance had indeed suffered damage; heaps of construction rubble and makeshift shacks were visible from afar, but concrete structures had already begun rising over the debris.
With her sharp eyes, Rou Rou quickly spotted that those buildings appeared to be assembled from precast concrete panels—panels whose shapes were identical to the ones seen in Boulder City.
Further out, cranes were visible across several construction sites, their presence lending further support to Rou Rou's hunch.
Rou Rou figured the local authorities had likely tapped into some of their foreign exchange reserves to import precast concrete production equipment and crane-rigging technology from the Alliance, then procured steel and cement from elsewhere to assemble these 'corn-tower' apartment blocks.
Mammoth State was said to have a population in the tens of millions, the majority of whom had previously lived worse than livestock. To make matters worse, a disastrous flood had swept across a third of the state not long ago.
Expecting them to move straight from cattle barns into spacious residences overnight was entirely unrealistic; back when the Alliance had sought merely to feed and clothe a hundred thousand people, it had required an immense effort.
Yet the heartening thing was that conditions here seemed to be improving step by step.
Just as Dawn City once had.
Rou Rou, who had not held a particularly high opinion of Laxi, found her stance shifting slightly.
Perhaps these hard-fisted military officers weren't performing as terribly as she had imagined?
Talking about equality here was far too premature; their first priority was ensuring the people had enough food on the table...
***
After finalizing the cargo delivery manifests and wrapping up their paperwork, the group prepared to take a stroll around the docks to tour the developing settlement. To their surprise, they ran straight into an acquaintance.
A man clad in a garish, flamboyant robe was arguing flushed and furious with several uniformed officers.
Or rather, spouting desperate excuses.
"I'm clearly selling frozen livestock! On what grounds are you slapping me with a fur and pelt tariff?!"
"Cut the crap," the uniformed officer scoffed unceremoniously. "Does mink fur grow on a pig? Go find me a pig covered in mink fur, then!"
Mogavi's face turned bright red. "Just because you haven't seen one doesn't mean it doesn't exist in the wasteland! In Baiyue Province... bizarre things like that are everywhere!"
The officer rolled his eyes, his expression screaming that his intelligence was being insulted.
Right at that moment, a cheerful voice piped up from the side.
"Whoa, really?! Then how come Tail stayed there for ages and never saw one?"
"—!"
"Got any more excuses?" the uniformed officer sneered at Mogavi. But Mogavi's eyes were wide as saucers, staring at the bizarre party of three girls and a bear as though he had seen a ghost.
"...Sisi? Tail?"
Tail peered at him for a few seconds, finding the face faintly familiar.
In that split second, a distant memory clicked into place, and she squealed in delight.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! You're that pelt peddler!"
Struck dumb by the label, Mogavi nearly choked on his own spit, coughing repeatedly before catching his breath. "What do you mean, 'pelt peddler'?! I have a name, you know!"
"Hehe, sorry, totally forgot!" Tail scratched the back of her head sheepishly.
The uniformed officers followed his gaze. When their eyes landed on the massive white bear, their postures visibly tensed, though only for a fleeting second.
When they noticed the bear was speaking, their strained nerves actually relaxed.
What kind of weirdness hadn't the wasteland seen?
A talking bear was hardly out of place.
As long as they could communicate, it was fine.
"Are you... customs officials?" Sisi stepped forward, glancing over their uniforms before asking curiously, "Mind if we listen in on the drama... er, I mean, mind filling us in on what's going on?"
The lead customs officer shot a cold look at Mogavi and sneered. "This fellow wrapped pork in mink pelts and declared it as livestock products, trying to exploit the duty-free loophole for food imports!"
Mammoth State was in dire need of foreign exchange, yet these crooked merchants were attempting to snatch the silver coins that overseas laborers had scraped together through blood and sweat!
If their superiors hadn't ordered them to 'reason with emotional sincerity and appeal to logic' when handling foreign traders, they wouldn't have wasted their breath—they would have let rifle butts do the talking long ago!
Rou Rou stared in shock at the thoroughly flustered Mogavi and couldn't resist remarking, "Man, that is way too dirty of you."
Knowing he was in the wrong, Mogavi still stubbornly argued, "How is this my fault... The rules they designed had a loophole!"
Sisi subtly averted her eyes. "...Be that as it may, I think you crossed the line here."
Shouldn't someone in this situation slip a little bribe?
Seeing his panicked state, though, he had probably tried already and been flatly turned down.
The commotion by the pier quickly drew bystanders, and within minutes a sizeable crowd had gathered along the street.
Just then, an elderly man in his late forties or fifties, accompanied by two young men, strode over. He was about to ask what the fuss was about when he caught sight of several familiar figures in the crowd.
"What happened—Sisi?!"
Seeing the astonished older man, Sisi and her companions also looked surprised.
"...Are you Yaxi?"
"You still remember me!" Overjoyed, the old man rushed forward and grasped both of her hands tightly. "It's been so long!"
Sisi smiled, returning the handshake and giving his hands a firm pump. "Yes, it's been a long time."
This man was one of the senior veterans of the Moon Clan Resistance.
Back when the White Bear Knights had wreaked havoc in Golden Gallon Port, it was this old man named Yaxi and his fellow Moon Clan fighters who had resolutely stayed behind, giving up their chance to escape by boat so the rescued women and children could flee. That sacrifice had given birth to the subsequent Moon Clan Resistance.
Though the resistance had fought clumsy battles and had later been repeatedly treated as an 'experience pack' to be farmed by local warlords, the simple fact that they had possessed the courage to stand their ground against regular armies was an extraordinary feat.
The old man was so emotional that tears and snot ran down his face, leaving the younger recruits beside him utterly dumbfounded.
"Everyone has missed you so terribly... Ah, by the way, how is Grandmother Sangru doing?"
"Oh, she's doing amazing! Just the other day I saw her chugging a giant bottle of beer!" Tail answered with boundless enthusiasm.
Hearing that, a relieved smile spread across the old man's face.
"That's wonderful... Knowing they're all living well puts my heart at ease."
With that, he glanced toward Mogavi, then turned back to Sisi and asked, "Is this... a friend of yours?"
Sisi wore a complicated expression, ignoring Mogavi's pleading gaze as she replied, "You could say that, roughly... But even so, I hope you won't cut him any slack on our account. Handle it strictly according to the regulations you established."
Taking advantage of the poor was crossing the line, no matter how you sliced it.
Seeing this old acquaintance refuse to bail him out, Mogavi panicked and immediately played the emotional card. "Oh! How can you do this... I helped you back then! Have you forgotten?!"
Sisi looked back at him unmoved. "Those are two entirely separate matters... Besides, even back then, it was cash on delivery. Did we ever shortchange you?"
At her words, Mogavi was left speechless, unable to muster another excuse.
Feeling all the surrounding eyes trained on him, he raised both hands in surrender and said dejectedly, "Fine, I give up. I'll pay... I'll pay the back taxes, alright?!"
The young customs officer looked toward his superior, Yaxi, who nodded with a stern expression.
"Issue him an invoice. In consideration of it being a first offense, waive the fine, but every cent of the owed duty must be paid in full!"
"Yes, sir!" The young man nodded, then tore off a receipt and thrust it into Mogavi's hands with a smirk. "Thank our director. And don't try pulling these clever little stunts next time."
Mogavi glared at him fiercely, uttered not a single word, took the slip, and hurried away.
Seeing that the show was over, the gathered crowd dispersed.
Turning back to the benefactors he hadn't seen in so long, the sternness vanished from Yaxi's face, replaced by warm hospitality. "What are your plans while you're here?"
Sisi glanced around. "We initially planned to look around and see if there were any investment opportunities... Ah, right, we also intended to pay a visit to customs."
Yaxi's eyes lit up, and he promptly offered, "Then perfect, come with me directly! Mammoth City has a tax-exempt policy on imports of manufacturing machinery, improved crop seeds, food supplies, and pharmaceuticals. I oversee that department, so I can give you a proper introduction."
"Then we would be delighted to accept."
Sisi gladly accepted the old man's offer. After all, gathering intelligence on this settlement was precisely what she wanted.
On one hand, it was her habit while traveling; on the other, it was an assignment handed down by the Administrator.
According to reliable sources, the Legion was attempting to use the powder keg of Mammoth State to exert pressure on the Alliance, aiming to disrupt the Alliance's efforts to advance the space elevator agenda at the Mucilage Community conference.
The Alliance had no intention of letting the Wilante pull strings right under its nose.
Yet before formulating concrete countermeasures, the Alliance needed to understand the ground reality here.
And this glorious, low-stress task naturally fell to their party, who were already engaged in commercial ventures near Mammoth State.
***
Guided by Yaxi, the group made their way to a lounge inside the Mammoth City Harbor Customs Office.
Only after sitting down in the lounge did they learn that this warm, smiling old gentleman was actually the Director of the General Administration of Customs for Mammoth State!
Tail's eyes went round with astonishment as she stared at the old man. "Holy crap, you made it this high up?!"
Under her unblinking, wide-eyed gaze, Yaxi grew flustered and quickly waved his hands. "High official is an overstatement. My post isn't nearly as grand as you imagine... Mammoth City's harbor only opened for trade recently, with monthly import and export volume hovering around a million silver coins. The entire customs administration only has forty-odd people—not even enough to fill a platoon."
At this point, Yaxi sighed with a wistful shake of his head.
"Back then, I commanded a whole battalion. If Laxi's cronies hadn't sidelined me, I wouldn't have been shuffled off here to live out my days."
Hearing that, Tail, Rou Rou, and Sesame Paste—two girls and a bear—exchanged glances.
Sidelined into being the Director of Customs?
Could you even call that being sidelined?!
Apart from commanding fewer troops, that looked like a promotion no matter how you sliced it!
Sisi's expression grew slightly amused as well. She cleared her throat softly and steered the conversation elsewhere. "I heard this area suffered severe flooding earlier. We brought some food and medicine along on this trip... How is the disaster recovery coming along?"
"The flooding happened back in autumn. The Empire carried out a scorched-earth policy in Mammoth State and blew the dikes along the Tasang River... Fortunately, those dikes weren't built very high to begin with, so the damage wasn't catastrophic. We plan to build a new one later that can irrigate a much larger area and generate electricity, too."
When the flood was mentioned, Yaxi's eyes flickered, as though reluctant to dwell on the topic. He emphasized how smoothly the post-disaster reconstruction was proceeding, glossing over the actual casualties and losses in a single breath.
It should have been an ideal opportunity to play the victim and elicit sympathy.
Though puzzled, Sisi did not dwell on it and continued, "What about pestilence? No epidemics broke out, did they?"
Major disasters were often followed by plagues, which was her primary concern.
However, Yaxi shook his head, laying her worries to rest. "None. We brought the situation under control very quickly... A few fell ill early on, but we quarantined them and treated nearly all of them back to health."
This diverged somewhat from what *Survivor Daily* had reported, though such discrepancies were hardly unexpected.
Most residents of Golden Gallon Port felt deep sympathy for the Moon Clan Resistance and harbored fierce hatred toward the Empire that oppressed various peoples, even organizing spontaneous donation drives for the fighters.
A regional news outlet, beyond its duty to report the truth, was inevitably a reflection of its audience's ideological leanings.
Objectivity was always relative; not even Dawn City's *Survivor Daily* could claim to be absolute.
Hearing that conditions were stable, Sisi finally gave an easy nod. "That's good... It seems our worries were unfounded."
"How could they be unfounded? It's just that things might not be as dire as you thought."
Yaxi chuckled to lighten the mood, then went on, "And it's thanks to your support that we managed to recover so quickly. Lately, quite a few Alliance merchants have arrived to open factories—especially Mr. Lister. Even I look at the housing he built for his workers with envy! If you won't laugh at me, my own roof still leaks when it rains, while the workers at Lister Factory have already moved into apartment blocks!"
Sesame Paste showed a look of surprise. "Those buildings we saw by the harbor were built by him?"
Rou Rou was equally stunned, muttering, "That guy has a kind heart after all?"
Sisi wasn't surprised in the least. She remarked softly, "Merchants who lived through the great transformation of Boulder City tend to abide by the rules. It's nothing strange."
Tail nodded earnestly in agreement. "After all, the ones who didn't play by the rules either went bankrupt or stopped breathing."
Watching the three players and one bear confer in a language he couldn't comprehend, Yaxi cleared his throat and continued, "While I cannot speak on behalf of the Mammoth State authorities, as someone who once received your aid, I genuinely hope you can stay a while longer so we have the opportunity to properly host you.
"However, during your stay, I suggest you remain within the parish of the Silver Moon Church as much as possible. If you must leave, try to avoid heading southwest... especially near the frontlines. Recently, the Gray Wolf Army obtained a batch of weapons from somewhere, and their offensives have grown increasingly fierce. We've taken quite a beating on the front."
Rou Rou looked at him with concern. "Are you guys really going to be alright?"
Yaxi smiled genially. "Don't worry, we survived the bitterest days! Now that we finally have a base of our own, nothing can be harder than what we've already endured."
As he said those words, a distinct spark of hope and pride gleamed in his eyes.
Evidently, even if he resented Laxi for 'sidelining' him out of the military hierarchy, he found little to fault in Mammoth State's overall development, even speaking of it with praise.
And while Laxi looked down on the veterans of the resistance, after seizing power he hadn't stomped them into the dirt either; instead, he had brought them into his 'cabinet.'
Setting aside whether this was promotion or marginalization, and regardless of whether it was a show put on for the financiers in Golden Gallon Port and Port French Fries—or the Alliance behind them—Laxi was, at minimum, relatively tolerant of opposing voices.
On that point alone, this warlord was leagues ahead of the ones running Tiger State and Leopard State, who didn't even bother keeping up appearances.
Pondering it, Sisi felt that putting anyone else in their shoes might not have produced better results.
***
That night, the party checked into a hotel near the General Administration of Customs.
Yaxi had not only hosted them warmly, but had also covered all their food and lodging arrangements for the duration of their stay in Mammoth State, going so far as to courteously assign four female soldiers to serve as bodyguards and guides.
After logging off, having just stuffed herself with a lavish meal in-game, Sisi felt no hunger in her stomach, though her blood sugar was running a bit low. She walked over to the refrigerator, popped open a can of cola, and returned to the living room to retrieve the laptop she had tossed onto the sofa the day before.
Sitting cross-legged before the coffee table, chewing on her straw as she gathered her thoughts, she tapped away at the keyboard to complete the two-thousand-word 'investigation report' the Administrator had requested.
It encompassed her observations on the region's development potential, local culture, and customs, as well as her initial impressions of Laxi's administration.
[...It is difficult for me to judge whether the Mammoth State authorities constitute a qualified governing regime, given that their arrival here occurred merely a few months ago. While the locals do not speak ill of Laxi, it is hard to tell whether that is simply because their lives had already hit rock bottom.
Objectively speaking, however, they are genuinely doing constructive work and are willing to expend their limited resources to provide the people here with a better livelihood.
My report does not constitute investment advice, but I am indeed considering expanding the operations of the White Bear Knights Bank into this region.
]
Before she knew it, the two-thousand-word report had ballooned into a ten-thousand-word essay.
By the time she realized it, it was already too late to trim.
Sisi reread the document several times, unable to figure out which lines deserved the axe. Giving up on edits altogether, she submitted the ten-thousand-word draft in its entirety.
Later, she planned to post the report on the forum to share with interested players.
"Finally done..."
Her mission accomplished, Sisi stretched luxuriously and leaned back against the sofa. Only then did she feel her stomach growling. She reached down to rub her flattened belly.
This was the one infuriating flaw of the game.
Even after gorging herself inside the virtual world, she still had to eat again upon logging off.
When she ate too much in-game, she had zero appetite in real life. That bizarre sensation of being simultaneously famished and bloated was pure torture!
Knowing full well that the trash dev probably wouldn't see it—and that the guy never replied to her emails anyway—she couldn't resist sitting back up and tucking two lines of personal editorializing at the bottom of the report meant for the NPC.
[...If the esteemed game dev happens to see this, could you please design a gaming pod equipped with life-support equipment for *Wasteland Online*? I am confident this shouldn't be difficult for your company, and most players would certainly be willing to open their wallets for it.]
[Eating two sets of meals back-to-back is way too overwhelming. If this goes on, I feel like I'll eventually starve to death in my own bed...]
Chapter 806