Chapter 379: Open Stratagem

Chapter 379 – The Sunlit Scheme

On the other side, Mountain City.

Chen Jian had just received a report from Huang Meng.

The news that a band of slave traders had been wiped out could not stir any feeling in him; after all, in this wasteland world everything is scarce, but the one thing that is never lacking is the trade in human lives.

Especially now, with monsters severing the roads between towns, the traffic of people has grown ever more frequent.

At times, one must admit, such traffic of bodies, in its own grim way, has spurred exchange across the wasteland, allowing the great towns to blossom at a swifter pace.

And that, in turn, has given humanity a greater chance of survival.

——

Of course, that is not a justification for the trade in people.

It is merely a “base” choice that humanity makes when forced into desperation.

Chen Jian does not intend to condemn the practice; he simply orders its destruction with cold indifference.

Yet, the incident at Ya Creek Town has shown him a new trend.

“The Mechanical Cult is losing its grip on the towns,” he declared.

Chen Jian turned to He Shuo and said:

“Especially in the core zones battered by the Beast Tide, and in the main transit corridors.”

“Just as we saw in Liangxi City before, the bulk of the Mechanical Cult’s forces scattered to the first opportunity.”

“They poured into other great cities, abandoning the small towns that were, in fact, the very foundations of their existence.”

“That is our opening.”

“If this trend proves true, we could reap a great harvest of people without a single violent clash.”

“And people are exactly what we need most right now.”

“Sidestep conflict, acquire population.”

“Then, in reverse, wield that population to gain influence.”

“What do you think, does this path seem viable?”

“Certainly.”

He Shuo nodded without hesitation.

“Provided Huang Meng’s intelligence is accurate,” he added.

“And, to be frank, we must wait.”

“We must wait for these people to be turned into slaves—only those who have been reduced to bondage are the kind of population we truly require.”

“Their faith, their ideology will undergo a cleansing, which will vastly ease our task of indoctrination.”

“Of course, such a course carries risk—chief among them, the loss of lives.”

At this point, Chen Jian understood He Shuo’s meaning.

After a brief pause of contemplation, he spoke:

“Then let nature take its course.”

“Do not deliberately steer it, nor amplify the trend.”

“If necessary, we should even strive to curb it as far as we can.”

“Understood.”

He Shuo gave a solemn nod, and Chen Jian turned his question to:

“Fuxi, have you uncovered any new findings in the decoding of the Mountain City archive?”

In recent days he had been occupied with the intake of personnel, urban construction, and the subsequent technological development within Mountain City—tasks that, in theory, should have taken precedence over the “information decoding” work, which had been temporarily set aside.

Yet, of course, that work had never truly stopped.

It was merely that he himself had not been attending to it.

Upon hearing his words, Fuxi’s voice rang out immediately in the command center.

“Decoding is thirty percent complete.”

“As previously reported, we have secured partial control of the telemetry satellites, but have yet to obtain command of the navigation satellites.”

“Current data indicates that Mountain City once possessed a functioning navigation satellite.”

“However, within three years—perhaps due to satellite aging—that navigation satellite has gone silent.”

“If we wish to restore it, we may need to launch a rocket to conduct repairs.”

“—Better to abandon that plan.”

Chen Jian shook his head helplessly.

A rocket?

Let’s just scrap that idea.

Every rocket launch is a massive systemic undertaking; even in humanity’s golden age it was no simple feat.

Now?

We can’t even produce fuel, let alone launch one.

What a far‑c fetched fantasy!

With that thought, he pressed on:

“Any other discoveries?”

“Yes. I retrieved historical monitoring images from Mountain City’s telemetry satellites.”

“The images show that, for a period, Mountain City conducted global satellite surveillance, focusing especially on major cities of other nations.”

“According to the telemetry, most of those cities exhibit clear signs of human activity.”

“That aligns with our prior forecasts—there could never be a world where only we survived.”

Of course.

Chen Jian thought to himself.

The cataclysm three centuries ago razed every civilization on this world alike, yet it also left a spark in each of them.

Those sparks will endure; they are the stubborn resilience that belongs solely to humanity.

——

Yet a question arises.

“Do the levels of civilization in other regions match ours?”

“I mean, does the degree of destruction correlate with geographic location?”

As his words faded, Fuxi’s voice resonated once more.

“From the telemetry images, the cataclysm's influence and destructive power bear no relation to physical location.”

“It possesses no directionality, nor does it discriminate by orientation.”

“Understood.”

No directionality—this, in fact, already counts as a crucial clue.

With this clue in hand, the hypothesis of “cosmic rays” can be entirely ruled out.

“What of the degree of civilization's recovery?”

Chen Jian pressed on:

“Is there any civilization that has rebounded to a relatively vast and advanced state?”

“None.”

Fuxi replied:

“We are the swiftest.”

“In fact, we ought to be the fastest.”

“Because, absent strong artificial intelligence and comprehensive disaster‑recovery infrastructure, attempting to restore civilization with limited manpower is virtually impossible.”

“According to the latest telemetry images from four years ago, most zones of human activity host settlements of minuscule scale.”

“Image analysis reveals no large‑scale industrial apparatus, no long‑distance paved roads, no trace of extensive modern weaponry.”

“They should still be in a rather primitive stage.”

“It is even possible they will remain permanently at this stage.”

As the words faded, Chen Jian was about to ask another question, but Fuxi pressed on:

“The Ring facilities should represent humanity's final joint undertaking worldwide—this project was launched twenty years after the cataclysm, when the momentum of recovery was at its peak.”

“Industrial installations remain functional, and the transmission of knowledge has not been wholly erased.”

“The original designers of the ‘Ring’ were fundamental physicists; they conceived the apparatus and broadcast its schematics worldwide.”

“Numerous other nations and civil settlements answered their call.”

“Yet in reality, aside from three domestic Ring installations, no other Ring anywhere in the world has ever been fully constructed—they are all merely half‑finished.”

“Or, more precisely, they are ancillary devices lacking core functionality.”

“Even so, they still attempted to activate the apparatus.” “The final outcome has yet to be decoded.”

The information abruptly halts here.

Chen Jian exhaled heavily, then said:

“Then let us continue the decoding.”

“We must obtain the final dossier before we can decide whether, and how, to fire up the Ring.”

“This is of great importance to us.”

“Understood.”

Fuxi gave a terse reply, then fell silent once more.

Chen Jian, however, gazed pensively at the ground beneath his feet.

There, in the deepest subterranean vault, lies a system that could alter humanity's destiny.

But now, that system has been forced into silence.

No one knows when it will awaken again.

Some even deem it humanity's final chance.

Yet Chen Jian knows it will certainly not be the last.

Elsewhere, at Yaxi Town.

After the smoke cleared, every armed resistor in Yaxi Town had been slain.

What remained were the shrewd souls who wisely laid down their weapons and abandoned the struggle.

All the slaves in the pens had been freed; Huang Meng led his mercenaries to scour the entirety of Liangxi Town, and only after they pried open the slavers' warehouses did they finally locate enough garments to clothe each “slave”.

The problem of nakedness was finally remedied, and once clothed, those former slaves seemed to shed their very identity.

Everyone rose, silently watching the contingent that seemed to have descended from the heavens.

Perhaps in their hearts, they beheld a miracle.

Just minutes earlier, this army, as if forged of steel, thundered across the arrogant slavers.

Artillery fire and smoke rose in an instant, then vanished just as swiftly.

Only the corpses of the guilty littered the ground, while the survivors stood unscathed, not a single scratch upon them.

It was not a battle at all.

It scarcely even qualified as a hunt.

They merely crushed their foes with a casual swipe, then, with unrivaled poise, brushed the dust from their soles.

In the eyes of the crowd shone reverence, even a fanatical obsession.

Huang Meng noted the crowd's reaction, his brow furrowing slightly.

He shook his head, turned to Huang Xing and asked:

“What shall we do with these people?”

“Can you spare any men? Send a detachment to return them to Jinling City?”

“The journey is short—round‑trip under two hundred kilometres.”

“If all goes well, within a few days the dispatched party could be back in time to rejoin us.”

“I’m afraid not.”

Huang Xing shook his head and replied:

“Company commander, escorting a force of this magnitude is no simple task.”

“If we truly must escort, we need at least twenty personnel, all combat‑trained.”

“I cannot muster that many— even if I could, it would not be the optimal choice for us.”

“Further along our route lie many similar settlements; must we escort each one back and forth?”

“Our progress would be severely hampered, conflicting with our plans.”

Indeed

Huang Meng nodded thoughtfully.

In truth, under the original plan, personnel escort was never even a consideration.

Because the projections allowed the interleaving company to “liberate” certain towns en route.

Yet most of those towns should be fully functional, self‑sustaining, and possess a degree of migratory capability.

But in truth, amid the rampant slave trade, such “slave camps” have become the norm.

The social fabric of the whole town has been shattered, and those who survived have been stripped of agency.

They are in need of rescue.

Not to mention the perils of a long‑distance exodus; even lingering in place could doom them to annihilation.

In that moment, Huang Meng finally felt the weight of the decision.

Alleviating suffering is not merely a matter of eradicating villains.

Even the vilest of villains bear a responsibility toward the slaves.

And once the villains are eliminated, that responsibility falls upon us.

After a long silence, Huang Meng spoke:

“Then there remains only one final choice.”

“Take them with us.”

“Forward, we shall reach Xuan Cheng.”

“Leave them in Xuan Cheng, and we press on.”

Hearing Huang Meng’s words, Huang Xing’s gaze shifted.

Xuan Cheng?

At present, Xuan Cheng remains under the sway of the Mechanical Cult.

Is handing these people over to them any different from handing them to the slave traders?

According to the information supplied by those traders, these people would most likely be dispersed by the Mechanical Cult to various locales, consigned to workshops, or reduced to serfs of the town.

With that in mind, he said:

“If nothing else works, I will arrange the escort myself.”

“We cannot consign these people to the Mechanical Cult.”

“For them it is a one‑way road, for us—”

“—no.”

Huang Meng’s eyes suddenly brightened.

“We should indeed hand them over to the Mechanical Cult.”

“It is the choice that maximizes short‑term benefit and the only way to ensure their survival.”

“Moreover, it costs us nothing.”

“Why?”

Huang Xing looked at Huang Meng with puzzlement, furrowing his brow as he asked:

“We rescued them, isn’t that to expand our own numbers?”

“We cannot simply tell the Mechanical Cult of Xuan Cheng that these people are merely temporary guests in their city, can we?”

“Of course.”

Huang Meng exhaled heavily.

“We shall say it just so.”

“These people are merely temporary residents of their city.”

“When we complete our mission and return, they will come with us back to New Jinling City.”

“Captain, do you truly think the Mechanical Cult is so easy to negotiate with?”

Huang Xing could only laugh at the absurdity.

He had intended to utter a single word—“naïve”—but seeing Huang Meng’s expression, he sensed it would not be taken as a joke.

So he swallowed the snicker that rose to his lips, and, with solemn resolve, prepared to plead a few more words.

At that moment, Huang Meng raised his hand, signaling that no further words were needed.

Then a faint, enigmatic smile crept across Huang Meng’s face.

“The commander is not here; we must think for ourselves.”

“Truth be told, if Commander He Shuo were here, he would have already proposed a complete solution.”

“I wager his plan would differ little from mine.”

“You just said the Mechanical Cult isn’t so easy to reason with, didn’t you?”

“Do you really think my 30A tank’s howitzer would be so pliable?”

(End of chapter)