MPWATMBC Chapter 105

The small town within the limestone cave has a population of over three thousand. During the scorching daytime, the townspeople all hide in the cool underground—either resting and recovering or doing repairs outside their houses under the light of the artificial sun. Amid the rushing sound of water, the voices of people are faint and subdued. Regardless of age or gender, they move carefully, as though afraid to disturb something.

At night, the warriors of the town go out hunting, and the reason the elderly, women, and children tread lightly is to avoid disturbing their rest.

The terrain of the underground town is uneven, with rises and falls. Bandner lives in the lowest part, right next to the underground river, where rising water levels could flood the area. The responsibility of notifying everyone to evacuate to higher ground falls heavily on his shoulders. The higher areas are inhabited by the town’s most respected elders, who dedicated their youth to protecting the town and providing the next generation with a stable and secure life. Such honor is their rightful due. Among the dozens of elders, there are seven who hold the title of Elder. Any decision concerning the survival of the tribe must first be discussed and approved by them before implementation.

When it comes to cooperation with the military, Bandner could not possibly keep the elders in the dark.

When proposing the collaboration, Bandner had already formed a plan in his mind. He would use his once-per-ten-day “work assignment” to enter the pirate oasis to the west, find an opportunity to meet that arrogant pirate leader, and persuade him to summon all the scattered pirates back…

How to carry out this series of actions was something to worry about later—it was the next headache to address.

From the very beginning, Bandner’s collaboration with the military was aimed at capturing all the pirates in one fell swoop. Merely destroying a single pirate stronghold was far from enough.

To his surprise, just as Bandner started presenting his plan, he was met with unanimous rejection from the elders.

In the small square where the elders held their meetings, several aged figures sat in a circle. Bandner sat next to the oldest among them, anxiously asking, “Why? This is a great opportunity. If you could just go outside and see for yourselves, you’d know that the army is incredibly strong—the pirates are no match for them. If this succeeds, we won’t have to live in this sunless underground anymore. No more bone fragility and weakness caused by the lack of sunlight. More children will be born, and their futures will be bright. They will have vast opportunities, become formal citizens of the Empire, and have access to learning and education. They’ll live as healthy as any ordinary person in the Empire.”

“No,” the eldest elder said, his hunched back trembling slightly. His pale, bloodless skin revealed his advanced age. He rarely went to the surface anymore, and the absence of sunlight, fresh air, and nutritious food had led him to contract the same illnesses that had plagued his ancestors. His life was nearing its end. With his cloudy, aged eyes fixed on Bandner, he said weakly, “Whether that army succeeds, I cannot say. But if we get involved, I am certain we will be crushed to pieces.”

“Why does the Grand Elder think so?” Bandner felt a surge of anxiety but dared not push or force him. He could only suppress his impatience and gently ask.

The Grand Elder squinted as he looked at the surroundings, the place where he had been born and raised. He had once longed to leave this place, struggling again and again, only to fail each time. In the process, he lost his closest friends, his lover, and his children. Even if, in the end, he lost himself as well, he bore no regrets. But what meaning was there in it? He had sacrificed everything, and what had he gained in return?

Nothing at all.

They still cowered underground, hiding and trembling, living under the pirates’ coercion. They couldn’t see the sun, nor could they see tomorrow.

“Bandner, I wasn’t always here. I’ve been outside. Over a hundred years ago, I followed your grandfather, and we took a small starship to explore the world beyond the wilderness star.” The elder squinted, his voice filled with reminiscence. His age was such that many of his memories had blurred, and as he recalled the past, the details tumbled and overlapped. “The outside world is advanced in technology, prosperous in economy. Even the most ordinary people can freely enjoy sunlight and delicious food. To us, it was paradise. But…”

The disappointments he endured outside remained vivid in his mind, each one cutting as deeply as ever. “But do you know what happened when we sought out soldiers for help? They didn’t trust us. Instead, they locked us up. After three months in prison, they exiled us. In the vastness of space, with nothing to our names, we lost nearly everyone. Out of the ten or more young and strong who left, only two of us returned to the wilderness star—your grandfather and me. Just the two of us made it back here.”

Bandner felt a bitterness rise in his throat. He had heard this story many times before, and the elders’ experiences had shaken his resolve more than once. If not for the faith inspired by Emperor Qin Feng, he might have given up long ago.

“In the eyes of the military, we are no different from pirates,” the elder said with a faint smile, the motion tugging at his wrinkles, making his expression appear somewhat unsettling. “Even if they don’t treat us as pirates, we’re still insignificant commoners. In their battles with pirates, we can be abandoned or sacrificed at any moment.”

Several other elders present had experienced similar situations.

They once followed the pirate leader who renamed himself “Red Spider” on expeditions. When the pirates plundered merchant fleets, they couldn’t bear to see so many civilians slaughtered, so they secretly informed the military. The result? The pirates’ plans were thwarted, and they suffered heavy losses—a seemingly good outcome. However, the military failed to adequately protect their informants, and the elders’ actions were exposed.

The consequences were devastating. The people of the limestone cave suffered a catastrophic massacre. If not for the hidden underground passages and numerous branching routes, the town would have been completely wiped out.

That calamity reduced the town’s population from a peak of over six thousand to barely two thousand. It took decades of recovery and careful rebuilding for the population to struggle past three thousand again.

After suffering the pirates’ retaliatory massacre, the residents of the limestone cave dared not venture outside. They hid underground for five or six years, surviving on stored grain and underground water. Fortunately, Bandner’s ancestors and parents were willing to take risks, organizing teams to hunt on the surface. This act of bravery helped them endure those bleak days. Endure they did, but the ordeal left an indelible shadow in their hearts and eroded their trust in official organizations.

Later, when the Red Spider pirates gained a new leader who shifted their approach, the residents of the limestone cave finally had a chance to breathe. They cautiously began reconnecting with the outside world.

It was during this time that Bandner officially stepped out and encountered the wider world.

When Bandner spoke to his people about the outside world—its advanced technology, culture, and education in the Empire—the elders remained coldly indifferent. They neither opposed nor supported his efforts.

“Elders, we can’t continue living underground,” Bandner said, frustrated by their resistance. The elder’s long speech had essentially amounted to advising them to accept their current situation: to remain hidden regardless of whether the military and pirates fought to the death. If the military won, they could enjoy the benefits. If the military failed, they wouldn’t lose anything. But where in the world could one reap rewards without effort?

The elder chuckled, his half-closed eyes filled with images of peaceful, harmonious living. “Why can’t we go on? For hundreds of years, haven’t we managed just fine?”

The elders possessed the wisdom of experience and the insights gained through age. Yet that same age had eroded their courage and fighting spirit, leaving them focused only on the immediate and tangible, unwilling to take risks for a broader future.

Bandner cruelly forced them to open their eyes to the harsh reality. “Genetic sequence imbalances—what was a 2:1 ratio two or three decades ago has now skyrocketed to 5:1. Are we going to adopt a system of one wife with multiple husbands in the future?”

The Grand Elder opened his mouth, letting out a raspy sound from his throat, but he couldn’t form a single word. The other elders remained equally silent.

Bandner pressed on. “The death rate from childbirth is also rising. In the past year or two, having a child has nearly become a life-for-life trade. Grand Elder, respected elders, can our community truly sustain itself like this? In the end, we won’t die from the darkness…”

The X chromosome was becoming increasingly rare, and every individual with it had become precious and highly sought after. It was now common for a single X to have over a dozen Y suitors, and even cases of same-sequence unions and one X paired with multiple Ys had started to emerge. Their small society was growing increasingly chaotic, devolving into primitive instincts. If this trend continued, they would ultimately descend into savagery and extinction.

The elders maintained their silence.

In the distance, sounds of commotion reached their ears—adults cheering and children screaming with excitement. It was the kind of rare liveliness that only happened in the limestone town when large amounts of supplies were brought back.

Bandner stood up to look, and the elders also widened their eyes, straining to see where the noise was coming from. However, their age had taken a toll on their eyesight, and they couldn’t make out what was happening. They hurriedly asked Bandner what was going on. With a smirk, Bandner replied, “It’s Ryan—he caught a whitefish. Two of them… no, a third one!”

The limestone town had a tradition that had been passed down for centuries. Whenever a pregnant woman was about to give birth, whitefish had to be prepared. The nutritional value of the fish couldn’t be scientifically measured with the town’s lack of proper equipment, but it was an undeniable fact that pregnant women who consumed it became healthier and gave birth to robust children.

When someone in the family was expecting, it became a daily ritual—no, a constant endeavor—to wait by the river, trying every possible way to catch a fish.

Even with daily vigilance, whitefish were notoriously cunning and agile. Combined with the river’s swift currents, they were extremely difficult to catch. Catching one in two months was already considered an excellent achievement.

Ryan’s new little friend, Qin Feng Amelia, wanted to try catching a fish. His mother was expecting a baby, but the baby’s father was nowhere to be found. Qin Feng didn’t have a father either, so the young boy instinctively felt that he was the man of the family and that it was his duty to take care of his mother and the baby. Catching fish to nourish his mother’s body felt like the right thing to do.

The small boy squatted by the riverbank, using the simplest method to fish—a line with a hook at the end, baited with a morsel of food he had reluctantly parted with. Based on the accumulated wisdom of the elders, the only way to catch a whitefish in the turbulent, undercurrent-filled underground waters was to rely on this clumsy yet patient method, hoping that a fish would bite the bait.

The little boy’s luck was extraordinary. Within twenty minutes of lowering the bait into the water, he felt a tug. Excited, he cheered, but the fish’s struggles were too strong for him. Small and weak, he was almost pulled into the water. As he struggled, he suddenly felt a steady force from behind him—a pair of firm arms holding him securely while pulling both him and the fish out of the water.

A whitefish, vibrant and lively, flopped onto the ground, slapping it with a loud smack, smack.

Qin Feng still clutched the fishing line in his small hands. He looked up and saw “Rennie.” On the familiar face, there was an unfamiliar gentle smile.

Ryan had come to catch fish, eager to see just how difficult it was to catch the fish that had been a nuisance to the town’s residents for hundreds of years. As it turned out, the fish were indeed hard to catch, but the swift currents had an even greater impact. Qin Feng, however, had incredible luck. The moment he dropped his bait into the water, a fish had already taken it—an astonishing stroke of good fortune.

But difficulty wouldn’t deter Ryan. With the aid of advanced technology—two small robots—no challenge was too great for him.

After capturing another whitefish with the help of his robots, Yuan Chu and Code Zero, the crowd erupted in excitement. Just as the noise swelled, Ryan felt a tap on his shoulder. It was Bandner.

Ryan looked at him, his expression unchanged, and lowered his voice to say, “The cave will collapse in twenty years.”

Bandena’s expression shifted drastically.