Chapter 724.2: The Flame That Spreads

Chu Guang nodded gently. "I understand how you feel, but your people probably don't."

Sun Yuechi sighed and stared up at the ceiling.

His expression was lonely as he sighed, "I understand that too. I'm still young, after all. A couple punches won't kill me."

For some reason, Chu Guang nearly laughed. Though doing so now would have been rather cruel. Apparently, Sun Yuechi's predecessor had even considered the possibility that his successor might get beaten up one day, specifically choosing a younger candidate capable of surviving it. He suddenly wondered whether the First Administrator had done something similar, leaving him with a ridiculously powerful body for much the same reason.

Seeing the twitch in Chu Guang's face, Sun Yuechi made a helpless expression. "I know you want to laugh. Go ahead. But can you tell me what you're planning to do next?"

Chu Guang thought for a moment and gently placed his teacup back onto the tray. "Since the Torch Church has already intervened in the region, this is no longer merely your problem. We originally planned to launch our offensive against the south of the Brocade River Province and the Ocean Edge Province at the end of the year."

"But now, we'll have to move up the schedule."

Just as he finished speaking, the activity room door hissed open and a formally dressed man hurried inside.

Sun Yuechi looked over and noticed the man seemed familiar.

After staring for a while, he finally recognized him. It was Yi Chuan, the Enterprise's representative stationed in Dawn City.

Gesturing for X-16 to prepare another cup of milk tea, Chu Guang smiled faintly. "You arrived at the perfect time. I was discussing the situation in the Southern Seas with the former administrator of Shelter 70. As I mentioned in the mail I sent to you, the situation there is probably even worse than your Highest Council realizes."

Taking a seat on the sofa, Yi Chuan nodded gravely and his eyes shone with intensity. "Thank you for the intelligence. We've already reviewed the situation. The Highest Council is treating Southern Seas affairs with the utmost seriousness. We absolutely cannot allow anyone to arm those scaled demons, nor can we permit those lunatics to continue their mad plans and spread Na Fruit contamination into the oceans..."

Chu Guang coughed and interrupted the lengthy speech. "Relax. This isn't a conference for the Research Committee. There are no reporters here. Anyway, let's discuss something practical."

Yi Chuan smiled awkwardly and rubbed his nose. "... Right. How much money do you need?"

Chu Guang nearly choked on his milk tea. After coughing several times, he glared at him. "You’re being a little too practical."

Yi Chuan blinked. "Aren’t you going to ask for money?"

"I am, but I would appreciate a bit more tact." Then Chu Guang turned toward Sun Yuechi. "Anyway, you can tell our friend here about the situation. Especially the part about how the Torch Church first contacted you. Stop at the point where you came ashore."

Sun Yuechi stared blankly at the two men before nodding. "Alright..."

...

Back at Shelter 70.

After the delay at the entrance, everyone finally entered the shelter itself. The space beyond the door was enormous. Since it had originally been built as an engineering access point, it connected not to the main shelter hall but to a massive warehouse.

Judging from the dust covering the floor, it had not been used for quite some time and the layout actually resembled Shelter 404.

Besides its surface entrance, Shelter 404 also had an entrance connected to the subway network, as well as a sealed passage leading to an unknown destination.

More than 1,000 residents had gathered, and both the "orthodox" bluecoats and the Coral City survivors who had evacuated here after the disaster were present.

Without hiding the fact that she possessed the key, Sisi immediately spoke after stepping through the giant door. "I have the proxy authorization code. Once I complete administrator verification, I'll receive temporary authority. Of course, if you don't trust us, or if you don't trust your administrator's arrangements, we'll leave with the key."

The crowd exchanged glances but no one objected.

Several people wearing exoskeletons even stepped aside, opening a path to the terminal.

As long as it wasn't an excessive request, an attractive face naturally got more leeway. That applied to both men and women.

Of course, the residents gathered weren't relying solely on appearances. They had also reached their conclusions through rational thought. As unpleasant as it was to admit, they weren't so foolish as to ignore the obvious.

The problems here had already grown beyond their ability to solve. If they could have solved them, they would have done so long ago and the crisis would never have escalated this far.

Nodding to those who had made way for her, Sisi passed through the crowd and approached the terminal.

Closing her eyes briefly, she copied the solution from the official website and entered the dynamic password.

[Temporary authority recognized, registering biometric data.]

[Registration complete! Welcome back, Acting Administrator.]

The pale blue text appeared across the screen and Sisi removed her finger and turned toward Captain Chen Jianhong. "Can you take me to wherever the security equipment is stored?"

Uncrossing his arms, Chen Jianhong nodded. "No problem."

Having worked with the New Alliance for some time, he trusted their professionalism.

As Captain Chen led the way deeper into the shelter, Tail and the others followed. Meanwhile, Captain Dongwen of the Glory, the ship's nearly two hundred surviving sailors, and the crew of the Dolphin were temporarily assigned accommodations in an unused residential district.

According to their preliminary discussions, they intended to establish a new government. It wasn’t going to incorporate the now-abandoned Coral City, but also Shelter 70 itself.

That had never been part of the original Federation's declaration.

At the time, they had needed a common enemy to unite against. Reality had proven that shortcuts didn't work. No one needed to push them into a corner as they had destroyed themselves all on their own.

Now the new government needed to learn from this very visible lesson and quickly produce a better solution.

Inside the conference room, representatives chosen by both sides stood together drafting a new constitution. After listening to the discussion for a long time, Lin Nuo suddenly raised his hand. "What if we call the new government the Southern Seas New Alliance?"

Everyone froze. It wasn’t because the suggestion was particularly brilliant, but because everyone else was debating policy while he was thinking about the title.

A tall man shook his head while maintaining a serious expression. "The name doesn't matter. What matters is what we do. Our priority is establishing contact with both sides of the war, and to do that, we need at least one side's support."

The person who spoke was Yang Lirong. He was an environmental engineer by profession and politically aligned with the conservatives.

After Sun Yuechi's departure, the shelter residents had selected him as Acting Administrator.

It was not just because he had a loud voice. but because he genuinely represented the views of most residents.

Many nodded in agreement while others disagreed.

"That's true. What we do matters. But before that, we need a slogan capable of uniting everyone!"

A thin, tall man raised his hand. His name was Wang Sihai. He was a crewman aboard the Dolphin and one of the Shelter 70 residents who had accompanied Chen Jianhong on his pilgrimage to Dawn City.

In that city where miracles were born, he had witnessed something completely different from the Southern Seas. He saw a society where shelter residents and wastelanders lived as equals.

They might not be able to replicate it perfectly, but it was worth learning from.

A middle-aged man standing beside Yang Lirong shook his head. "I know what you're getting at. However, people are already tired of hearing those slogans. It probably won't work."

Wang Sihai refused to back down. "Then let's remove the Shelter 70 label from it. For example, our motto could be to unite survivors?"

People exchanged glances and whispered among themselves. To be honest, it wasn't a particularly inspiring slogan. It lacked the emotional impact of Chalas's speeches. It wasn't even as stirring as Li Minghui's hastily improvised inauguration address.

That wasn’t all bad though, as it had its advantages. It was simple and direct, addressing the core issue completely.

Hadn't all their suffering originated from a false union?

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