How Am I Still Alive?-Chapter 1310 - 1296: Patrol

"These years? Actually, I’ve been doing quite well..."

Salt City is not a suitable place to live, even with the "Sun Tree’s" range purification abilities, the air and water there remain extremely poor.

But the locals are generally wealthy, and with wealth naturally comes a desire to consume...."

"...I joined the Salvation Army by chance, when a village was attacked by the Exotic Races. I intervened to help, and if it hadn’t been for the Salvation Army’s reinforcements, I probably would have been killed. I never expected to encounter so many of your students there..."

Jiaolong City, although it’s the closest city to Salt City on the map, actually requires more than a day by ferry.

But a sufficient distance also means it is not affected by the contamination of Salt City and has a quite decent ecological environment.

At this moment, Lu Ping’an and Xia Qin strolled along the beach, watching the progress of unloading nearby while also taking some time to relax themselves.

The sand here, speckled with white particles, imparted an inexplicable metallic sense of gold and silver, but Lu Ping’an knew it was actually solidified blood.

This is a "Biological City," or rather, a "City on the Corpse."

Due to the local environment’s peculiarities, enormous amounts of construction material were required to stay above water over the years.

However, given the local circumstances, the abundance of "Giant creatures" is quite common. Some life forms’ corpses, uncorrupted over long periods, would naturally have cities built on top of them.

The locals are accustomed to such environments. Jiaolong City is purportedly built atop the corpse of a giant serpent-like beast; though many years have passed now, and the original organic material cannot be seen. Only the long, island-like shape testifies to its origin.

"It’s a pity, this island isn’t within the South One Church’s jurisdiction, or else I could try to buy it..."

Lu Ping’an quite liked this island, not just because of its rather nice ecological environment, but because of its quite excellent functionality.

Its "Base" is a long strip of a creature’s corpse, which means its linkages and stability actually surpass those of ordinary stone islands... Under human technology, many such biological cities have been transformed into somewhat mobile floating corpse cities.

Although, due to their ridiculously large area, their mobility is essentially negligible. But as the battle on the frontline becomes increasingly adverse, the value of these "mobile cities" that can retreat towards the greater rear has clearly skyrocketed.

"How do you like it here?"

"It’s okay; why don’t we look around some more."

Walking on the streets of this city, Lu Ping’an had a task here, but seeing Xia Qin seemingly in a good mood, he didn’t mind it much.

"Then let’s look around a bit more...."

Lu Ping’an was here to open a "flower shop," of course, not an ordinary flower shop, but essentially a branch base of the Rebirth Commerce in this area.

And the reason for choosing a flower shop was because...."

"How are the Lamp Flowers doing?"

"Pretty good, at least much better than in Salt City."

Lu Ping’an had tested out many prototypes, harvesting batch after batch of Lamp Flowers in various styles and species.

They were grown quite well in the courtyard, but once taken out, they died completely clean... Lu Ping’an seriously suspected it was an issue with Salt City’s "feng shui," so he planned to try his luck in another city.

While Salt City itself has potential, it’s obviously not enough as a base. For Rebirth Commerce to expand, more branch bases are essentially necessary.

So, he just came over to scout... Since he was here, setting up a branch and leaving some people to staff it was just a convenient action.

Lu Ping’an originally planned to bring people along to relax a bit, after all, that god-awful environment in Salt City, though not harmful to High-Tier Professionals, was definitely uncomfortable.

That feeling of being enwrapped in smoky stickiness from head to toe and the constant itchy discomfort in the throat, was certainly insufferable.

"No time, I’m playing ranked, more practice, more practice!"

"Er, I’ve wanted to play games, listen to music, and read books for many years..."

"I get this strange illness where I start to feel feverish and reluctant to move as soon as I step out into the courtyard..."

But obviously, unlike Lu Ping’an, who needed to spend most of his time outside, other core members who had just returned to the courtyard, having pathways for enhancements and recreational facilities, naturally declined Lu Ping’an’s invitation.

It was Lulu, this "student", who, as a collaborator with Lu Ping’an and having had the courtyard’s facilities opened to her, dove headfirst into the sports hall and library.

"People’s hearts are scattered, and it’s tough to lead a team..."

Lu Ping’an could only complain while handling things himself, but fortunately, Xia Qin still had some conscience, making Lu Ping’an’s self-inspection not too embarrassing.

"Come on, you’re just playing cute. They didn’t come, and you’re probably in a better mood because of it."

"What are you saying, making me sound like I’m antisocial or something."

"...You’d better look in the mirror. If it weren’t for me dragging you out, you would spend every holiday in bed, paralyzed from morning until dark."

The passage of time unavoidably left behind distance and traces between the two, but reminiscing about the past, the "think too much and too lazy to move" Lu Ping’an and the "too lazy to think, just act" Xia Qin, quickly closed the gap that time had stretched between them.

In the end, Xia Qin hadn’t changed much, and Lu Ping’an really hadn’t changed at all...

"I didn’t expect that so many among us would become Rule-level. When did becoming Rule-level become so trivial?" But as the two of them got together and talked, they returned to serious matters.

Partly it was the local environment, which offered far more opportunities than Earth, but more importantly, it was the courtyard...

Xia Qin frowned, she too was surprised. The progress made by Hua Xueyi and Mei Yuge had exceeded expectations, putting a lot of pressure on her.

But with the current capabilities of the courtyard, even "taking the wrong path" could be forgotten and redone, biological deficiencies could be resolved with wishes, the trading column provided urgently needed Professional Abilities, leasing powers could speed up the learning and mastery, and the emotional gaps and deficiencies could be seen in the trading column... The library could resolve nearly all other advancement issues beyond the aforementioned.

It could be said, as long as there were ample points, advancement was basically a matter of grinding time and accumulating experience, and they worked so hard, so reaching this point was somewhat unexpected, yet logical.

And mentioning this, the look Xia Qin gave Lu Ping’an became even more nuanced.

"Actually, when we were together, we also discussed..."

"What did you discuss?"

Speaking of which, Lu Ping’an kicked away some rubble blocking the path. This infrastructure was really substandard.

"We discussed that the most outrageous thing was you. We’ve worked so hard, and it took us ten years to catch up to where you were ten years ago..."

"Haha, I really am a genius... ah."

He laughed twice, and seeing Xia Qin’s somewhat serious gaze, Lu Ping’an also felt it was no fun and stopped.

"...you know, my situation is special. I climbed up stepping on some unlucky person."

"But you still feel unsatisfied, right? After all, it took us so many years, yet you managed in less than two years. What do you think really puts so much pressure on them that they don’t even want to take vacations?"

"Er, it’s not me, right? I’m at the bottom of the rankings." 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

"But you’re not serious... the less you care, the more they care. Next time, you should really give it your all. Regardless of winning or losing, openly acknowledge their efforts."

"...Alright. I actually already think they are very impressive..."

As he complained, the reminded Lu Ping’an pondered and shook his head.

Then, looking at the long-unseen blue sky, Lu Ping’an agreed.

And behind him, a woman was silently watching him.

"Finally, I’ve caught up, this time... I won’t be left behind again."

Perhaps, those most concerned weren’t just the ones toiling away.