Chapter 514.1: Celebrating The Birth Of A Settlement

"Dead?!" Upon hearing the news of his trusted general’s death, Cohen, who was seated behind his desk, froze for several seconds before slamming his fist on the table in a fit of rage.

"Why am I only hearing about this now?!"

Lately, he had just taken over the affairs of the Falcon Kingdom and was already overwhelmed with reconstruction matters.

The industrial infrastructure that General Klaas had spent over a decade developing had been completely destroyed by the New Alliance. They hadn’t even spared the factory machinery or engineers. All of it had been moved to the neighboring Bist Town.

Just after settling a property dispute in the capital, he discovered that the old king’s treasury was so empty even rats would think twice before moving in.

Before he could even finish dealing with that mess, devastating news arrived from the direction of the Great Desert.

Wally...

Thinking of that once-promising young officer, Cohen clenched his teeth so hard he nearly broke one of them.

Watching the projected image of Governor-General Cohen, Adelia wore an anxious expression. After a moment’s hesitation, he spoke nervously. "As I previously reported, shortly after we arrived at the Great Desert, we were attacked by an unidentified armed group calling themselves the Enlightenment Society. General Wally was killed by those people."

Fearing his commander’s wrath, Adelia didn’t dare pause and continued in a rapid rush. "However! We’ve already identified the killer... Her name is Zhuang Lan, a resident of some shelter."

Cohen roared in fury. "Where is she?! Bring her to me! I swear I’ll make her regret ever being born into this world!"

Adelia replied tensely, "The New Alliance captured her, but those idiots didn’t keep watch properly and let her escape. I was going to report after recapturing the killer, but her counter-reconnaissance skills are exceptional, and our men lost the trail..."

Cohen narrowed his eyes. "Did the New Alliance do it on purpose?"

Adelia gave a bitter smile. "I don’t know... but they don’t seem to have a reason to do that. They also lost over 100 men in the Enlightenment Society's ambush."

Cohen snorted coldly.

Whether or not the New Alliance had intentionally let her go, he couldn’t easily use the matter to pressure those damned moles in blue coats. But then again... What exactly was this so-called Enlightenment Society?

They even had weapons like phase cannons...

Leaning back in his chair, Cohen closed his eyes and sorted through his thoughts, particularly the details regarding Shelter 0 and Project Torch that Captain Adelia had reported.

A moment later, he spoke. "... Have you retrieved the original documentation for Project Torch?"

Adelia nodded nervously. "Yes... including the administrator's logs. The Enterprise didn’t keep it for themselves, they made a copy and gave it to us."

Cohen paused in thought, then instructed:

"Take those documents, and Pangolin, and return to Triumphant City immediately... Report the entire situation at Shelter 0 to His Excellency the Marshal for judgment!"

Although he felt uneasy about the Enlightenment Society, it wasn’t his responsibility. More pressing matters still awaited him.

"Governor-general... Sir."

Seeing Adelia’s hesitant look, Cohen frowned slightly. "What is it?"

Adelia hesitated for a long while before lowering his head and softly said, "The Adjudicator has suffered some malfunctions."

Cohen blinked, then sat upright, his tone turning sharp. "What do you mean?! Malfunctions? Didn’t you previously tell me it was just a minor issue and nothing serious?"

He remembered it clearly.

While the phase cannon could disable directional shields and anti-gravity devices powered by gravitons, it shouldn’t have affected the structural integrity of the airship.

That was also what Adelia had initially reported.

Back then, he said... "Although the phase cannon caused the airship to crash from high altitude, thanks to the skilled piloting of its crew, the damage from the hard landing was minimized, and repairs would take about a week."

A week had passed, so how had it turned into some malfunctions?

Adelia grimaced and explained, "I didn’t expect this either. My engineers initially told me it was a small issue, but the more they fixed, the more problems emerged..."

At first, his engineers had sworn that they only needed to replace a wing to get it flying again. But once the new wing was attached, they discovered cracks of varying degrees in the connection joints and structural steel.

Cohen stared at him through the projection. "The frigate core isn’t damaged, right?"

"No! Absolutely not!" Adelia quickly responded under Cohen’s murderous glare. "The core is intact! Only the airship’s hull sustained damage..."

Maybe they should take a page from the New Alliance’s playbook and outfit airships with oversized parachutes and cushioning airbags. But encounters with phase cannons were rare, and the built-in buffer compartments on most airships were usually enough to handle typical crashes.

Convincing the Air Force Logistics Division to make changes over a fluke... That would not be easy.

Cohen took a deep breath to suppress his rising anger and blood pressure. He forced his tone to remain calm. "How long?"

Gulping as he looked at Cohen’s hologram, Adelia whispered, "... Some parts have to be shipped from the desert. We need at least three months."

“I’ll FUC...”

...

That night, at a camp not far from the industrial complex, lights blazed brightly.

Players had dragged tables into the center of the camp, setting up large stew pots and barbecue racks nearby.

Several strength type players were busy skinning and butchering freshly caught mutant deer and hyenas. A few braver players gathered around an unfamiliar creature to test for poison.

"What the hell is this thing? Looks freaky..." Silver's Father poked at a furry mutant with a stick, curiosity in his eyes. The creature was pitch black, small, covered in messy fur, and had two round bulbous eyes.

It was too small to be a monkey, too wingless to be a bat, with a pair of unnervingly sharp fangs and ridiculously oversized ears.

No one knew where it came from. Rumor had it a player found it by the gate and just tossed it into their camp. Uncertain whether it was edible, Silver Sword finally gave up and sighed, "Sigh... if only Irene were here."

Silver Hand grinned cheekily. "You’re bullying that fool again!"

Silver Sword glared at him. "What do you mean bullying? It’s called making the best use of resources!"

Silver's Father couldn’t help but burst into laughter. "Hahaha! You trying to kill your dad with laughter?"

"Scram!"

The little creature tilted its head and imitated, "Scram?"

Silver's Father’s eyes lit up as he leaned in, staring at the creature sitting on the ground. "Huh?! This ugly thing can talk?"

Silver Sword and Silver Hand exchanged glances. "Did you hear that?"

"Nope..."

"

Tsk

, you two useless bums! An SSSR-tier pet right in front of you and you let it slip away!" With a disdainful snort, Silver's Father squatted down and patted the creature’s head with a grin.

"Ugly thing, call me dad...

Ow

, damn it!"

Before he finished, his nose got bitten. As he stumbled backward, the ugly creature leaped onto his face, kicked off with its hind legs, and vanished into the night.

Silver Sword quickly caught his falling comrade, while Silver Hand ignored him completely and dashed off after the escaping pet.

"You okay?!" Silver's Father clutched his nose. "Damn... It’s swollen."

"What’s swollen?"

He let go, revealing a nose as big as a ping pong ball. Silver Sword immediately burst into squealing laughter.

"PUAHAHAHA!"

In the end, the little creature was caught by their passing comrade, Pangolin. Since it didn’t look edible, they gave it back to Silver's Father.

Enduring the swelling and everyone’s strange looks, Silver's Father took the creature to the Meng Liang. Unfortunately, it wasn’t any kind of SSSR-tier pet. It was just a plain old mutant.

Its teeth were mildly venomous. Just in case, Meng Liang gave him an antitoxin shot.

Because it copied how Silver’s Father called it to scram, it was officially catalogued as a beast called Scrammy. It was not recommended for consumption.

Out of spite, Silver's Father named it the Ugly Fool, but after protests from his buddies, had to change it to Coally.

The name fit. It really did look like a lump of coal.

Still, Silver's Father held out a sliver of hope.

What if... What if it grew up to be something badass? Even ugly ducklings could become swans!

He wasn’t expecting it to sprout tentacles like Little Feather, but it should at least outclass those mass-produced Deathclaws, right?

At the very least... It should be rideable.

He shoved a piece of cooked meat into the thing’s mouth and sighed, "Coally, you better eat up. The future of the Silver Corps is riding on you."

Chewing the meat, Coally tilted its head. "Scram?"

"..."

This ugly fool is beyond hopeless.

Despite the minor commotion, the constitution type players had done their duty testing for toxins, so the food served was mostly safe. And even if it wasn’t... Well, it wouldn’t be that bad.

In addition to the more bizarre or visually unappealing dishes, there were also a few decent meals.

Mashed potatoes with a buttery aroma, garlic-salted baked bread, fried rice with sausage and diced carrots, grilled two-headed ox steak, and unlimited supplies of beer and wine.

Chu Guang had confiscated a ton of fine wine from the Falcon Kingdom’s cellar earlier. It was the perfect chance to put it to use. Not much of a drinker himself, he generously handed it out to both players and NPCs.

A few survivors stood near the tents, watching the festivities with curiosity. Encouraged by the lively mood, they slowly joined in.

They weren’t sure what was happening, but the food and drink seemed free.

Watching the jubilant crowd, Rama, who stood behind Chu Guang, looked utterly astonished. In a hoarse voice, she asked, "What... What are they doing?"

𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Gazing at the blazing bonfire, Chu Guang’s lips curled into a smile. "Celebrating the birth of a new settlement."

Rama’s eyes widened further.

After hearing the story of the Pioneer, she’d expected Pioneer City to be a heavy, somber name. But apparently, it wasn’t quite so.

Glancing at her, Chu Guang guessed her thoughts and added simply, "We rarely grieve outside of funerals. The people we commemorate wouldn’t want us drowning in sorrow. They would want us to carry their ideals forward."

Rama nodded blankly, clearly not understanding. Chu Guang didn’t explain further. He simply smiled and continued, "Stop following me around. Go enjoy the celebration... Tonight’s food and drinks are all free. If you’re not interested, go get some sleep."

"I’ll give you your assignments tomorrow."

With that, he walked off alone toward the seat the players had saved for him, leaving Rama standing awkwardly in place.

As the administrator of the New Alliance, Marshal of the New Alliance’s Expeditionary Forces, and honorary captain of the Heart of Steel, Chu Guang naturally had to sit at the head of the long table.

A faction boss had to look the part. It was part of the immersion.

Seated at the head, Chu Guang poured himself the strongest liquor.