Chapter 776: A Single Stone Stirs a Thousand Ripples

Chapter 776: A Single Stone Stirs a Thousand Ripples

“…Is that so? It sank after all.”

In the browsing room on Level B4 of Vault 404 in Dawn City.

When he heard the news of the Haiya’s sinking, Sun Yuechi froze for two seconds, then a complex expression crept across his face.

Chu Guang could tell that, upon hearing the news, his face bore both the relief of a burden lifted and a hesitation about the outcome, but more than anything, it held the “as expected” he had spoken.

He seemed to have foreseen this result from the very beginning, even before he had dumped the mess of Vault 70 onto Chu Guang.

A flicker of curiosity stirred in Chu Guang’s heart.

But before he could ask, Sun Yuechi, sitting across from him, spoke first.

“Is it all right for you to leave the front lines?”

Chu Guang smiled faintly.

“They don’t really need me there. They’ve been doing fine without me. Compared to that, meeting with the representatives of the Southern Alliance authorities is more important.”

Though the Steel Heart had been on the front lines, he hadn’t stayed there every moment; occasionally he flew back by plane.

For instance, when the Conclave had important agenda items to discuss, or when internal Alliance affairs required his decision.

Sun Yuechi nodded in understanding, a forced smile of relief on his face.

“That’s good… I heard the Southern Alliance was jointly formed by the residents of Vault 70 and the survivors of the southern seas, right? In the end, they managed to bridge the gap… It’s actually pretty foolish, turning the VM into a ‘black card.’ We all forgot we were originally compatriots. The vault doors have been open for a century and a half, and still calling ourselves Vault Dwellers is just stupid.”

“Sometimes I can’t help but think that vaults should have a self-destruct timer—blow up when the time comes… Maybe that would be better for the people who survive.”

“That’s too formalistic. Even without vaults, there could still be ‘black cards.’ When everything is over, wouldn’t it be better to turn this place into a museum?” Chu Guang glanced around and said in a teasing tone, “Like a library-themed museum. I’ve collected quite a few books here—some from the Age of Prosperity, some written by the people of the Wasteland Era themselves.”

Sun Yuechi praised sincerely, “It seems you’ve really learned a lot from Stone City.”

Chu Guang: “We don’t want to repeat the path they walked… That would just fall into a new cycle.”

“That’s good.” Sun Yuechi said earnestly, nodding involuntarily as he looked at Chu Guang.

This was a conversation between two Overseers.

Chu Guang understood the meaning behind that “That’s good”—it was one vault’s affirmation of another vault’s “work”: the Overseer of Vault 70 believed that Vault 404’s methods might actually bring an end to the Wasteland Era.

He felt no regret about handing over the management authority.

Seeing that Sun Yuechi seemed to have nothing more to say, Chu Guang voiced his curiosity.

“I get the feeling you saw today’s ending coming a long time ago.”

Sun Yuechi gave a wry laugh.

“Did that even need guessing? I remember I told you long ago—I’m just a patcher. By my term, I couldn’t patch it anymore. I considered every possibility, but the result was always the same. My residents thought I was irresponsible, but they don’t understand a thing. I’ve already looked at every outcome. This was almost the only way they could survive.”

He paused, then continued.

“You’ve seen the ‘inventory’ in Vault 70, right? The stuff those who blamed me for not opening the door were clamoring for me to unlock.”

Chu Guang nodded.

“I haven’t been there myself, but my residents took a look for me. There’s indeed a lot of good stuff.”

Sun Yuechi smiled and went on.

“Do you think any of that could have changed anything? Or if I had given it to them, would it have made a difference?”

Chu Guang thought for a moment and said judiciously, “It really wouldn’t have changed anything.”

The inventory included plenty of power armor, but even if those greenhorns from Vault 70, who had never even touched a gun, went out, they’d probably be pinned down by the Federation’s Marine Corps.

Weapons are weapons, but it’s people who operate them, and war is a systematic affair.

The residents of Vault 70 came through the entire civil war unscathed, and ultimately played a pivotal role in forming the new Southern Alliance.

Above all, they were the only ones in the whole war whose hands were unstained by the blood of their own compatriots.

No matter how often they had cursed outsiders, wishing them all dead so they could start over, that was only in their hearts.

Everyone has a dark side, but at least their actions stood on the high ground of righteousness.

After this civil war, all their past mistakes were wiped clean.

Looking at the result, this guy’s shock therapy had actually been somewhat useful—at least it avoided the worst, most brutal outcome. Calling him an irresponsible Overseer would be unfair.

Sun Yuechi was silent for a moment, then sighed softly.

“…We went wrong from the very start. Maybe that young man on the cargo submarine was right. Our ancestors… probably didn’t obtain the vault’s authority through legitimate means. The real residents were locked outside. So all along, we feared that outsiders would discover the truth, that they would learn the whole history, that one day they would wake up and realize that what we gave them was originally theirs. That’s why the gene of distrust has been carved into our bones…”

His throat moved as he continued.

“Except for the battleship Haiya, which was built to counter the threat from the Legion, all the other warships were ostensibly built for external defense, but in reality, they were just insurance for Vault 70’s rule.”

“But ironically… as you can see, all those checks and balances were utterly useless. And the only ship truly built with the Legion as the hypothetical enemy was used against our own people from start to finish.”

“I guessed the Haiya would eventually sink, but I never expected this civil war to end so gently… In my imagination, the cost would have been greater, and the final outcome might have been a little better than the past, but not as good as it is now.”

Having said this, Sun Yuechi looked at Chu Guang and sincerely thanked him.

“This is your achievement… Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Ending the Wasteland Era is the job of us Overseers.”

Chu Guang nodded to him, then suddenly thought of something and continued.

“Oh, by the way, Li Minghui has come to Dawn City. He wants to meet with me to discuss future cooperation. He hasn’t asked to see you, but would you like to meet him?”

Sun Yuechi was tempted, but seemed to recall an unpleasant meeting with someone in the past and shook his head with lingering fear.

“Better not… I’m retired now. Meeting me won’t do him any good.”

“Is that so? I think it might be better to meet. He is your compatriot, after all. But of course, it’s up to you—it’s your freedom…” Chu Guang said with a smile, then paused for a moment before suddenly adding, “There are many missing parts in Vault 70’s Overseer log. Don’t you want to fill them in?”

Sun Yuechi was tempted again, but seemed to have the same reason as before, and finally shook his head.

“Maybe later… I really like my current job.”

Chu Guang was a little disappointed, but said nothing, only nodded.

It wasn’t easy to settle one’s own accounts.

He could understand Sun Yuechi’s feelings. He still had affection for Vault 70—even more than for the survivors of the southern seas.

It was enough to trace the civil war’s trigger—the collapse of the Ocean Current Power Station.

The Torch Church was the direct perpetrator, Charas and his cronies were accomplices, and the late President Mongo was the enabler.

As for what happened in the past hundred and fifty years, or even two hundred years before that, the survivors of the southern seas no longer wanted to pursue it. As the former Overseer of Vault 70, he had no reason to take the initiative to do so. And Chu Guang, standing as the Overseer of the Alliance and the current Overseer of Vault 70, had even less reason.

This guy had planned it from the start, so he unhesitatingly dumped the vault’s authority on him.

There was no doubt that the Southern Alliance won this civil war, but the biggest winner was actually Vault 70, which had stayed out of it all, and the Alliance, the vault’s actual owner.

As for the survivors of the southern seas, they had won completely, yet lost completely…

The northern street of Dawn City, the lobby of the Highway Town Inn, bustling before the bar counter.

The guests sat there eating breakfast, looking up at the television beside the counter.

To the survivors of Dawn City, who had long used controllable fusion power, television was no rare curiosity, though its widespread adoption was a recent development.

Traditional media that had grown up on newspapers and radio stations were expanding into new ventures, and the general public gained a new choice for gathering information beyond newsprint: the television news.

Before this, the viewing devices of the local survivors were mostly VM units modified into tablets, the former produced primarily through black boxes.

Nowadays, VMs no longer needed to be manufactured through black boxes; the industrial zone of Dawn City had not only achieved mass production but had also iterated on the models several times.

Thus, the players wielded new wrist-mounted computers, the residents of Dawn City had their own new televisions, and the future promised their own computers, phones, smart wearable devices, endpoint clouds, and even bionic maids.

From this perspective, a certain manager had indeed fulfilled his promise to build a new ideal city in Oceanview City.

This place was truly looking more and more like that wonderful haven.

Though for now, it remained somewhat low-spec.

At this moment, the television was broadcasting the morning news.

"...Yesterday evening at 8:15, the Burning Legion successfully captured the North Island Presidential Palace, discovering the remains of Charas in the bunker beneath it."

"Based on the gunshot wound to the jaw and the position of the dropped weapon, a preliminary assessment suggests that Charas's cause of death was suicide."

"The Commander of the Burning Legion declined to disclose any information regarding casualties from this operation, but specifically noted that no casualties occurred during the assault on the airport."

"Currently, the Burning Legion has handed Charas's body over to the South Sea Alliance, preserved in the North Island Hospital morgue for the local survivors to decide how to proceed. Transferred alongside him were Charas's henchmen and his puppet cabinet officials; the subsequent trials will take place in the near future."

"With the downfall of the Charas administration, the long-standing chaos in the southern waters has finally come to an end. The investigation into the sinking of the ocean current power station and the Golden Coast research vessel will proceed in tandem with the reconstruction of North Island."

"The South Sea Alliance authorities stated that the immediate priority is to restore local production and order to daily life."

The television screen shifted, cutting from the studio to the port of Ring Island.

Li Minghui, Naval Commander and Interim President of the South Sea Alliance, stood before a cluster of microphones, his voice resounding.

"The war is not yet over. The Alliance supported our war, and now it is our turn to support our allies!"

"The North Island naval port and airport will be permanently open to the Alliance, including the North Island shipyards!"

"If the Church of the Torch is not completely eradicated, trouble will find us again and again. We will learn from yesterday's lessons, and no matter what difficulties we face in the future, we will never cooperate with barbarism again!"

The imagery on the television continued to switch, returning to the news studio.

"According to interviews by our reporter, representatives of the authorities at the press conference gave special thanks for the Alliance's help, stating that the survivors of the southern waters will forever remember the helping hand extended by the Alliance in their time of peril, welcoming Alliance survivors to come to the southern waters for vacations, work, living, and investment."

"Regarding more of the latest developments in the southern waters, our reporter will continue to track and report for you!"

After the report on the situation in the southern waters concluded, the screen quickly shifted to the northern front.

A few guests sitting at the bar exchanged looks, and a drunkard who had been indulging since early morning let out a liquor-scented hiccup and spoke.

"The Southern Alliance... is that the Alliance of Jinchuan Province?"

"Are you a pig? Where is the sea in Jinchuan Province?!" a man resembling a mercenary mocked.

The drunkard did not take offense, speaking with righteous confidence.

"What if there is one? I've never been there, so how should I know..."

A traveling merchant sitting nearby said in a conversational tone.

"That place is much farther than Jinchuan Province, further south, all the way down to the equator."

Hearing this, the gathered guests sighed with emotion.

"---That really is far enough."

"I've traveled north and south for quite a few years, and I've never been to a place that distant."

The drunk takes a sip of vodka and mumbled.

"Running off to a place so far away to fight a war, who knows what use it is to the Alliance..."

"What use?" the mercenary-looking man smiled teasingly. "The fact that you can ask this question shows you've watched this news for nothing."

What use?

Directly inheriting all maritime military and civilian technologies developed by the survivors of the southern waters over two centuries, the Alliance, taking to the water for the first time, skipped two hundred years of groping in the dark to leap forward into a "maritime superpower." They had already won so completely it was intoxicating.

Even if he was just a mercenary, he could see how many times their respected Manager had won.

The drunkard was somewhat dazed, scratching the back of his head with his right hand.

The traveling merchant sitting beside him smiled faintly, saying nothing, focusing only on eating his breakfast.

Last night, he had booked a flight to French Fries Port, and the flight would take off in three hours. While these people were still jesting and gossiping, he had already mapped out his future business empire.

Ever since the civil war in the southern waters erupted, he had been watching the shifting tides of the war, and now he had finally waited for the final period to be drawn upon this conflict.

Currently, the entire southern waters lay in ruin, waiting for revival. The places needing reconstruction were not just North Island, but also the ocean current power station and Coral City; these were all visible business opportunities.

Including the future development of the Heavenly Court, the Alliance's investments in the southern waters would not be small, and he could make a fortune just by doing anything down there.

Pushing away the finished beef noodles, he took a tissue to wipe his mouth, suddenly remembering something, and looked at the old man standing behind the bar.

"Boss, bring me a glass of vodka too."

Old Hook recognized this regular customer, remembering he was a merchant from Jinchuan Province who had settled in Dawn City since last year.

Pouring him a small glass, Old Hook smiled and teased.

"Rare, you're drinking early in the morning too."

"Today is an exception, haha."

Zhou Nan smiled in high spirits, took the glass from Old Hook's hand, made a distant clinking gesture toward the television, and then tilted his head back to drink it all down.

"Cheers to the Alliance's victory!"

Praise the Manager!

Ever since he came to the Alliance, his good luck had never stopped!

...

Embassy Street, atop a three-story Western-style house with a front and back yard, the flag of the Legion fluttered.

This was the Legion's embassy to the Alliance, which had only recently been constructed.

Before this, the Legion's diplomatic mission had always camped on the outskirts of Dawn City.

Originally this mattered little, but as time passed, the Wilants themselves found it troublesome.

Particularly with the advancement of the Cohesive Community initiative, more and more Wilants traveled to the Dawn City area for activities, and the Legion's involvement in the affairs of the Cohesive Community grew deeper. Ultimately, Bannote broke tradition and agreed to the invitation extended by the Alliance's Foreign Minister to establish mutual embassies.

At this moment, Bannote sat on the sofa in the embassy reception room, watching the news on the television.

When it reached the segment about the naval battle between the South Sea Alliance and the Northern Federation, a look of disdain instantly surfaced on his face.

"Heh, these days... what kind of scrap metal dares to challenge my Legion."

On the television screen, a majestic battleship slowly sank into the seabed amid boiling clouds of thick smoke.

According to the news, this battleship, named the "Seacliff," was built by the survivors of the southern waters to counter threats from the Legion, and the main cannon located at the bow was stripped directly from a starship, specifically meant to target the Legion's airships—or rather, the deflector shields on the frigate cores.

Watching the news to the very end, Bannote curled his lip and switched off the television.

Though he held the fishermen on those few islets in utter contempt, a chill still crept through his heart when he learned that the battleship’s main guns had been stripped from a starship.

Thank goodness that battleship had sunk.

If it had fallen into the hands of the Alliance, those bastards would surely have found some way to turn it into a toy.

At the thought of the *Steel Heart*, Benoit breathed a sigh of relief, set the matter aside, and paid it no further heed.

The Southern Sea was simply too far away. The Legion’s navy was mostly in the hands of the Western Legion, and the Western Legion’s core interests lay on another continent, separated from here by an immense distance.

In any case, as long as that thing didn’t fall into the Alliance’s hands, it was fine.

At that moment, Benoit had no idea that the Vault 70 held four identical electromagnetic cannons!

And with ample steel and power, the shipyard on North Island could churn out another such toy in no time…

…

The Vlandians were not the only ones watching the situation in the Southern Sea.

For the “Southern Sea Alliance,” which looked like a mere alias of the Alliance and was about to join the Commonwealth, every major power on the wasteland had, to some extent, kept an eye on the latest developments in the Southern Sea through Alliance media.

Among them were not only the Corporation and the Academy, but also the Free State… and even distant Xilan.

In the Celestial Capital, atop the magnificent palace.

Wu Tuo sat in his chair, savoring imported wine from Golden Harbor, while listening with delight as his eunuch read aloud the latest issue of the *Dawn Garden Gazette*. His mouth was almost too wide to close, and he couldn’t help shouting “Bravo!” several times.

To be fair, not everyone in the Alliance was a flatterer; there were still those who dared to speak the truth. The news in this paper was indeed thrilling.

According to the report, the Alliance’s Administrator had set his sights on the queen of the Lion Kingdom. The Lion King, too afraid to speak out, had tacitly allowed it, stirring up popular outrage in his own kingdom and provoking the jealous little princess of the Honey Badger Kingdom, who was devoted to the Administrator. This had led to a fierce border war between the two kingdoms, threatening to spark a Second Sunset War.

The Alliance’s backyard was already ablaze with smoke, and now the fire had spread to the Southern Sea, where it was said that a *Heavenly Court* had been burned. Yet the media in Dawn City had not uttered a single word about it. Only the *Dawn Garden Gazette*, which dared to speak the truth, had stepped forward, exposing the naked truth and stripping the Alliance bare.

“…The Alliance reaps what it sows through its many misdeeds. It will probably collapse before long!”

Wu Tuo cheered loudly, his face flushed with tipsiness.

If it weren’t so far away, he would have loved to send a reward to that newspaper office, to make those truth-telling reporters work even faster.

Perhaps because he had drunk too much, his eyes rolled slightly, and a sudden whimsical thought struck him.

“The Alliance is busy with the Sunset Province and the Ten-Peak Mountain front; they surely have no mind for the Southern Sea… Wouldn’t it be perfect if the Southern Sea Alliance became a tributary state of Xilan?”

He had learned the word “tributary state” from the *Dawn Garden Gazette*. He had heard that the Lion Kingdom and the Honey Badger Kingdom were both tributaries of the Alliance, the Camel Peak Kingdom was half a tributary, and the Golden Lizard and the Falcon were tributaries of the Academy and the Legion respectively.

The eunuch reading the paper was stunned, and Duke Nihak, sitting nearby, was also taken aback.

The former mainly couldn’t keep up with His Majesty’s train of thought and wasn’t sure whether to respond, while the latter had only recently returned and hadn’t read the previous issues sent by Duke Galawa, so he didn’t understand what “tributary state” meant.

Seeing no one object, Wu Tuo stroked his chin and continued.

“…The Vlandians have dumped some cement at West Sailport, haven’t they? And steel and such, piled up in our warehouses, nearly rusting. Why not sell it to them… And by the way, price it in Xilan coins! We need to grab that pricing power too!”

According to the *Dawn Garden Gazette*, the Alliance’s rapid rise was largely due to its Administrator stuffing silver coins into the pockets of wastelanders, taking away their truly valuable goods in exchange.

Though the paper didn’t explain how the Alliance stuffed silver coins into those pockets, Wu Tuo thought it was a brilliant idea. The Empire had to find a way to do the same, and this was the perfect opportunity to go all out.

The survivors in the Southern Sea needed to rebuild their homes; they would certainly need steel and cement. And he happened to have a huge surplus of those.

Those steel and cement were originally meant for road construction, but rebuilding the infrastructure around the Celestial Capital and West Sailport didn’t require that many resources. The unused materials were piling up like mountains in the warehouses.

To be honest, he didn’t understand why the Vlandians went to so much trouble to produce so much steel and cement. What he wanted were rifles, artillery, and soldiers who could fight.

But unfortunately, those big-noses treated him like one of their own—forcing him to buy and sell, and paying off debts with goods they couldn’t sell.

He figured since he couldn’t get the debts back anyway, he might as well go along with their plan and get a pile of junk in return.

Who knew when it might come in handy?

Now he was immensely grateful that he had had the foresight to agree to the Vlandians’ proposal. That pile of junk was finally useful!

Duke Nihak stroked his chin, pondering that His Majesty’s words did make some sense.

Having served as governor of Golden Harbor, he knew a thing or two about trade. The Xilan coin had little competitiveness against the Denar and the Silver Coin, which put them at a disadvantage in business, costing the imperial treasury a lot.

Now that the tariff surge at Golden Harbor had brought in a tidy sum for the Empire, they could use that spare cash to do something.

“The only problem now is… the Southern Sea Alliance doesn’t have Xilan coins. How do we get them to buy our goods with Xilan coins?” Nihak mused, rubbing his chin.

Seeing Nihak’s troubled expression, Wu Tuo took a sip of wine and smiled faintly.

“That’s easy. If they don’t have any, we’ll just lend them a batch of Xilan coins.”

He had learned this trick from the *Dawn Garden Gazette* as well.

Back during the Sunset War, the Alliance had provided a silver coin loan to the Lion Kingdom and the Honey Badger Kingdom, which on one hand spurred infrastructure construction in both kingdoms, and on the other hand allowed Alliance enterprises to make a fortune from those infrastructure projects.

Looking further back, the Corporation’s aid to the Alliance followed a similar pattern.

Though he couldn’t articulate the intricacies, he was good at copying the model.

Nihak stared in astonishment at his suddenly enlightened sovereign, his face gradually turning to delight as he rose from his chair.

“Your Majesty is wise! By lending them money, we not only sell our stagnant cement but also become their creditors!”

He had worked in Golden Harbor for so many years without thinking of this trick, and now His Majesty had come up with it!

Was this newspaper really that magical?!

Nihak couldn’t help but think that when he returned, he must have Duke Galawa send him a few copies so he could study them.

Seeing Nihak’s amazement, Wu Tuo smiled faintly and set down his cup.

“You flatter me. Sit down.”

Though his face remained impassive, he was secretly pleased to have shown off so brilliantly before his minister.

At the same time that Wu Tuo was basking in his own strategic brilliance, a massive battle was quietly unfolding in Mammoth Prefecture, in the northeastern part of the Brahmin Province.

On one side was the Mammoth Prefecture local army, numbering a full fifty thousand, claiming to be a hundred thousand, led personally by the prefect of Mammoth Prefecture.

On the other side was the Moon Tribe resistance, claiming to be ten thousand, but in reality not even six thousand, more than half of whom were serfs and refugees picked up along the way, led by Rasi, former captain of the Golden Harbor Militia.

Clearly, the prefect of Mammoth Prefecture had no regard for this ragtag bunch. He didn’t even bother to inform His Majesty, planning to send the victory report to the Celestial Capital after the battle, giving His Majesty a big surprise.

And coincidentally, his opponent Rasi felt the same way—he had no respect for his enemy either.

A hundred thousand…

What a load of bull!

In this godforsaken backwater, if ten men could scrape together one rifle, he’d eat his hat!

After finishing his battle deployment, this unkempt fellow simply squatted in the camp and flipped through the *Survivor’s Daily* that had come with the supplies.

Seeing the headline about the Southern Sea, Rasi bit into a steamed bun and muttered to himself.

“Damn, that was fast!”

He remembered that when he was still living it up in Golden Harbor, the Alliance was still deadlocked with the Federation in the Southern Sea. Apart from pulling out the Burning Legion, there was no sign of any conflict.

And now, in the blink of an eye, the Federation had been wiped out.

Now that the Alliance had taken the Southern Sea, they would surely start massive infrastructure construction there.

To develop this wretched land of Mammoth Prefecture, they had to seize this opportunity!

This place had nothing but people!

He stuffed the last piece of steamed bun into his mouth, and as he chewed, a glint of sharpness flickered in Raxi's eyes. He had to be faster!