The other two in the control hub held their breath upon hearing Qi Honglang’s words.
A name?
Indeed, the ‘Deep Blue’ had died with the old City Lord.
What they stood upon now was a brand new Mobile City, born from its remains.
They truly needed a new name, to announce their arrival to this Wasteland!
But the decision to choose a new name wasn’t theirs to make.
It rested with Jiang Zhixu.
So they remained silent, yet all looked at Jiang Zhixu with anticipation.
Jiang Zhixu couldn’t help but fall into contemplation.
After inheriting this Mobile City, the system had indeed prompted him that he had one chance to rename it.
But back then, the city was unstable, beset by internal and external troubles, causing him to dismiss the prompt outright, and he’d forgotten about it since.
It was only now, with Qi Honglang bringing it up again, that he remembered.
“Yes… it is time for a new name.”
His words immediately brought genuine smiles to the faces of everyone in the control hub.
“Excellent!”
Wei Ran slapped his thigh excitedly, immediately crowding close to Jiang Zhixu, his face alight with enthusiasm.
“Brother Jiang, think quickly, it has to be an imposing name! If you really can’t think of one, I can also— mmmph—”
Before he could continue, an iron-clamp-like hand reached from the side, firmly covering his mouth.
Qi Honglang, expressionless, dragged him aside.
Ignoring Wei Ran’s antics, Jiang Zhixu frowned in thought as he gazed at the distant landscape.
What kind of name did he need?
Imposing? Majestic?
Neither style felt quite right; he didn’t like them.
He needed a name that could represent himself, represent this city’s foundation and future.
What was his foundation?
It was his God-Tier talent, capable of creating abundance from barrenness!
And this city was the first point he had marked upon this land.
A starting point, small now, but with limitless potential.
Suddenly, a term crystallized clearly in Jiang Zhixu’s mind.
“The Singularity.”
“Singularity?”
Everyone was taken aback for a moment. After pondering it carefully, the look in their eyes gradually changed.
The Singularity, the beginning of the universe, the origin of all things.
To name it with this term… what kind of ambition and boldness was this?
Having made up his mind, Jiang Zhixu hesitated no longer. He called up the system panel to initiate the renaming operation.
[Are you sure you wish to rename the Mobile City ‘Deep Blue’ to ‘Singularity’? This opportunity is only available once. Please consider carefully!]
Jiang Zhixu looked at the system prompt before him and chose ‘Confirm’ without hesitation.
“Yes.”
[Renaming successful! May the ‘Singularity’ forever move forward, toward the stars and the sea.]
“The stars and the sea… huh?”
For now, Jiang Zhixu didn’t know how a city—even a Mobile City—could journey toward the stars and the sea.
And all that was too distant.
The most important thing now was to head to the docks for some… to head to Rust Town for some Resources.
Jiang Zhixu closed the system screen before him and looked at everyone.
He said solemnly, “The Singularity, sets sail!”
…
The steel behemoth cast its shadow upon the desolate earth, its tires crushing through sand and soil, emitting a deep, rhythmic roar.
The half-day journey was monotonous and dull.
Apart from the occasional Mutant Beast burrowing up from the ground adding a minor interlude, the scenery outside the portholes remained almost unchanged.
—Gloomy, yellow sand, decaying earth, with only an occasional glimpse of green.
“City Lord, we’re almost there.”
Sun Cheng’s voice broke the quiet of the control hub.
As the former chief helmsman, he was very familiar with this region.
Hearing this, Jiang Zhixu lifted his head from his drowsy state, his gaze shifting to the distant horizon.
At the horizon’s edge.
A strangely contoured “mountain range” abruptly appeared.
Jiang Zhixu narrowed his eyes slightly and reached out beside him. “Telescope.”
Wei Ran immediately took down the long-barreled telescope hanging on the wall and handed it to him.
In the abruptly magnified view, the strange contours finally became clear.
That wasn’t a mountain range at all!
It was a… steel city pieced together and stacked from the wrecks of several utterly scrapped, giant Mobile Cities!
Jiang Zhixu’s hand holding the telescope trembled slightly. For a moment, he couldn’t find words to describe the shock in his heart.
Because each of those wrecks serving as the foundation was several times larger in volume than his ‘Singularity’!
Their rust-covered hulls were riddled with the scars of war, their extinguished gun ports like empty eye sockets, staring at him vacantly.
“They… are Tier-2 Mobile Cities?”
Though he had never seen one with his own eyes, the moment Jiang Zhixu saw these wrecks, the answer was self-evident.
“Correct.”
Sun Cheng braced his hands on the control console, squinting as he tried to look into the distance.
“They were the first three Tier-2 Mobile Cities in the entire Wasteland region. Unfortunately, later… due to a great war, they all fell here. Their wrecks became the foundation of Rust Town.”
That single sentence allowed Jiang Zhixu’s mind to conjure a grand, sweeping war of three kings vying for supremacy, ultimately ending in mutual destruction.
‘Even Tier-2 Mobile Cities can die so casually…’
A moment of confusion flashed through Jiang Zhixu’s heart, but his resolve quickly solidified again.
‘If Tier-2 is also precarious, then Tier-3, Tier-4, Tier-5… One day, I will secure a piece of land where my people and I can truly settle and live in peace!’
Steadying his mind, he raised the telescope again.
This time, he zoomed his perspective further, seeing countless smaller, cruder metal shacks clinging to the city’s surface like barnacles.
Complex cables and suspension bridges crisscrossed between the three wrecks, forming a dense aerial network.
Rust Town truly had people living here long-term.
Just then.
From the center of Rust Town in the distance, came a long, drawn-out whistle.
“Woo—”
Following the whistle, an off-road motorcycle composed of a metal frame and massive tires, trailing a plume of intense yellow dust, sped toward them from the distance.
Its target was precisely the ‘Singularity.’
“We’ve been spotted.”
Sun Cheng said, unsurprised, and explained: “Rust Town possesses a Tier-2 modified component called ‘Over-the-Horizon Detection Radar.’
“Actually, we entered their monitoring range as far back as thirty kilometers away.”
This was the very foundation Rust Town relied on for survival.
Hearing this, Jiang Zhixu looked around Rust Town.
Sure enough, he could see five Mobile Cities that had already powered up, the gun ports of four of them subtly aimed in their direction.
“Don’t worry, City Lord, they aren’t hostile. It’s just a basic defensive posture.”
As Sun Cheng spoke, he also pressed the ‘Singularity’s’ whistle.
A leisurely steam whistle sounded from beneath their feet, responding to the distant whistle from Rust Town.
Jiang Zhixu nodded.
Before long, the distant off-road motorcycle drew near.
The rider executed a beautiful drift, skidding the motorcycle to a stop sideways five hundred meters ahead of the ‘Singularity,’ presenting its rear to them.
Then, he raised a large flag embroidered with a green gear, planted the flagpole’s end into the motorcycle, started the engine again, and roared back along the path he came.
“He’s guiding us.”
Sun Cheng explained: “In Rust Town, every permanently stationed or visiting Mobile City has its own fixed ‘berth.’ You can’t park randomly.
“These positions are all meticulously designed optimal defensive points, ensuring that when raiders come, allies don’t interfere with each other and can immediately form a crossfire network, turning the entire Rust Town into a graveyard for raiders!”
Only in this way could Rust Town’s long-term stability be ensured, so everyone was willing to abide by this rule.