Aspartame let out a miserable scream as his Elemental Rifle flew from his hands.

Even more terrifyingly, he discovered that the metal elements within his body were beginning to twist uncontrollably, as if they were going to tear him apart from the inside!

Against these Settlers, Bai Cheng's own strength was enough to crush them, even without Purple Iris's intervention.

At this moment, Aspartame felt nothing but despair; he knelt on the ground, looking around in terror.

"Please... please don't kill me..."

Bai Cheng didn't even bother to respond. There were too many rebels, and she didn't want to be an executioner.

After all, there were tens of thousands of them; it would take quite a while just to kill them all.

"Purple Iris, I'll leave it to you."

Just like that, Bai Cheng easily suppressed the rebellion with her absolute, overwhelming power.

Great Strength Bull frowned slightly and stepped forward, asking curiously, "City Lord, how do you plan to handle these fellows?"

"What use is there in keeping them?" Bai Cheng raised an eyebrow and then said as if it were obvious, "Kill them all, of course."

To be honest, Bai Cheng's Outpost City was large enough to accommodate hundreds of thousands of people, so she didn't care about these few tens of thousands of rebels at all.

To her, they were completely worthless individuals.

But Great Strength Bull clearly had other plans, so he spoke up with a suggestion.

"City Lord, there are so many of these rebels... and killing them won't grant any experience points. Why not keep them around?"

Hearing this, Aspartame immediately cast a grateful look toward Great Strength Bull.

A benefactor!

Bai Cheng glanced at Great Strength Bull and asked back, "What, keep them so they can start a second rebellion?"

"No, no, no," Great Strength Bull explained quickly. "We can make them do hard labor. In short, make them slaves in the city."

Turning them into slaves did indeed have benefits; at the very least, it would supplement the city's labor force.

Great Strength Bull also proposed an atonement system, where any rebel who could save up one thousand Magic Crystals would be freed from their slave status.

This way, keeping these guys around would actually provide some help to Bai Cheng.

As for worrying about them deserting?

That was even less of a concern.

Their own outpost cities had been destroyed. It could even be said that every Outpost City in the surrounding area, except for Bai Cheng's, had been wiped out. They would have nowhere to go even if they fled.

Wandering the wilderness would only lead to certain death.

More importantly, after witnessing Bai Cheng's power, these people were even more afraid to rebel. They even harbored hopes of gaining Bai Cheng's protection, which would make them work even harder.

After thinking it over, Bai Cheng said indifferently, "Whatever, then I'll leave the arrangements to you."

"Thank you, City Lord!" Great Strength Bull thanked her immediately.

On the side, seeing that he might actually survive, Aspartame was instantly filled with gratitude toward Bai Cheng and also said quickly, "Thank you, City Lord..."

But before he could finish his sentence, he was met with a sharp flash of a blade.

With a squelch, his head hit the ground. Aspartame never understood why this happened, even in death.

"You've got to be joking. Even if these rebels get to live... what does that have to do with you?"

It wasn't just Aspartame, the leader; she would thoroughly eliminate all the minor leaders of this rebellion to serve as a warning to others.

"Where is your Guard? Learn a lesson from this incident."

Although Great Strength Bull's intentions were good, Bai Cheng still gave him a lecture.

In this world, the human heart is the thing you can trust the least. Great Strength Bull was still a bit too honest and simple-minded.

However, despite her words, Bai Cheng immediately intended to reorganize the Outpost City's Guard and upgrade their equipment to increase their combat strength.

She didn't want something like this to happen a second time.

And she certainly didn't want to have to personally travel back for such trivial matters.

Settlers don't have Employees; only a few on-duty personnel could possess a single Employee Guard.

But in a chaos of this magnitude, relying solely on those few Employees was completely insufficient to withstand the crisis.

Therefore, the main force within the Outpost City had always been these Settlers.

The fastest way for Bai Cheng to boost their strength was naturally to update their equipment, which happened to perfectly align with her own talent.

Thus, Bai Cheng began upgrading the equipment for the members of the city's Guard.

She strived to upgrade all the weapons and equipment in their hands to the Legendary Level.

Although this process would waste a lot of time, it was an intentional choice by Bai Cheng.

She was still somewhat uneasy about those special Survivors from #1 Channel, worried that some further complications might arise.

So, she simply decided to stay in the Outpost City for a bit longer to prevent any unforeseen accidents.

Coincidentally, Purple Iris also needed some time to clean up the aftermath, which killed three birds with one stone.

Fortunately, no accidents occurred.

By °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° that evening, after Purple Iris had destroyed the Altar, there was no news from the Survivors of #1 Channel. The Dark Forest had also returned to normal, as if everything had vanished without a trace.

After upgrading the equipment for the Guard, Bai Cheng once again harvested a massive amount of Attribute Points.

With Purple Iris's help, the rebellion was also completely settled. The remaining rebels had been assigned by Great Strength Bull to become slaves, losing their human rights.

During this entire process, Bai Cheng naturally informed the Settlers of her current strength, indicating that everyone shouldn't worry too much. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Hearing that Bai Cheng now possessed King-level combat power, the entire city was practically boiling with excitement.

The hearts they had held in suspense for many days finally settled.

However, Bai Cheng's return this time was not without its benefits.

First, she quelled the rebellion; second, she demonstrated her strength to everyone in the city, winning their hearts.

Compared to last time, the Settlers were even more fanatical, almost emptying out all the Magic Crystals in the city to give to Bai Cheng.

They hoped Bai Cheng's strength could become even greater—great enough to become number one in this world, great enough so they would never have to live in fear again.

"City Lord, please stay for dinner before you go!" Great Strength Bull stood before the station, looking at the departing Bai Cheng and couldn't help but try to persuade her to stay once more.

Bai Cheng shook her head. "No, my teammates are still waiting for me."

With that, she climbed into the powered railcar. Before starting it, she gave one last instruction to Great Strength Bull: "Learn from your mistakes. I'm leaving this city to you; manage it well for me."

"Don't worry, City Lord! I, Great Strength Bull, will certainly not fail your expectations!"

"I'm off."

The powered railcar started silently and instantly turned into a streak of light, disappearing from the station.

Everyone gazed at Bai Cheng's departing back, filled with emotion.

"As a veteran of #2 Channel, who would have thought that a name as ordinary as Bai Cheng would grow into such a powerful figure?"

"Weren't you originally from #7 Channel? Stop pretending to be a veteran!"

"Exactly! I'm the real, genuine veteran!"

"..."