Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Mr. Liu, congratulations on your promotion,” said a young man wearing a pair of silver-rimmed glasses as soon as everyone came out of the meeting room.
Zheng Tiezhuang and Liu Changhao stopped talking at the same time and turned to face the young man behind them.
With a strained smile, Liu Changwu said, “Mr. Han, the decision’s already been made by the young Chairman Gao. There’s nothing we can do.”
Han Xing shook his head. “No, you misunderstand. I’m not here to change the young chairman’s decision. In fact, I do think that my brother should be punished for his actions.”
Liu Changhao’s face relaxed somewhat. “I see. So, is there something we can help you with?”
“I was wondering if you two would like to join me for dinner? I’ve already made a reservation,” said Han Xing.
Zheng Tiezhuang shook his head. “No, thanks. My daughter-in-law’s making beef stew tonight. I’ll probably have an earful if I miss dinner again.”
“Sorry, but I’m afraid I won’t feel comfortable going by myself without old Zheng here,” said Liu Changhao apologetically.
Han Xing sighed and waved his hand. “No worries. Another time, perhaps.”
…
A day passed. The matters with the suburban area were finally settled.
The Allied Government had just announced that the region was now on red alert. In truth, rumors about what was going on were already making the rounds among the people. They simply hadn’t gained official recognition from the government until now.
A couple of neighboring cities were already aware of the situation at hand.
Some of the coastal cities had recently been hit by monster onslaughts of varying degrees, including Pengcheng City, which wasn’t too far away from Yangcheng City.
“Young master, both Yangcheng and Pengcheng have already sent a team to investigate the coastal waters,” said Hou Mu as he entered Gao Peng’s office. He found the latter reading a book by the window.
Gao Peng closed his book, then stood up and looked out of the window into the distance. A dark blue sky stretched out before him into the horizon.
“Have they found out where the monsters are coming from?”
“From Nanhe Village.”
“Nanhe Village?” repeated Gao Peng, frowning.
“Yes. Nanhe Village isn’t far from here. Two of our employees are from there. It’s a coastal village, and they even have sentries with their own familiars patrolling the place, which apparently wasn’t enough to ensure everyone’s safety when disaster struck.”
Gao Peng let out a deep breath. He then narrowed his eyes as he looked back out into the distance. “Call Liu Changhao in. Let’s start bringing all our factories back into operation. We’ll pay everyone the overtime rate for the next few days.”
“Understood,” said Hou Mu before walking out of the office and closing the door behind him.
A few minutes later, Liu Changhao entered the room. Gao Peng turned to him and said, “Take the investigative division with you to patrol our surroundings. Let me know if you find any signs of an imminent monster attack in the area.”
“Don’t worry, sir. I won’t let you down,” said Liu Chanhao confidently. He paused for a moment, then said, “Before I forget, Han Xing from the sales division wanted to know if he could be transferred to the investigative division.”
Han Xing? Gao Peng frowned. The name sounded familiar. He had just skimmed through the company’s personnel files not too long ago.
If he remembered correctly, Han Xing was the younger brother of Han Fu, one of the security division members who had been punished the day before. He had specially marked Han Fu’s profile in the personnel files. However, Gao Peng was a reasonable man. He knew that Han Xing wasn’t his brother and shouldn’t be held responsible for his brother’s mistakes.
After a moment’s thought, Gao Peng said flatly, “What grade are his familiars?”
“Commander-tier, sir,” said Liu Changwu, eyeing Gao Peng warily.
“Give him elite member status in the investigative division. We’ll see how he fares later on,” said Gao Peng.
Later, Gao Peng exited his office and called Flamy and Da Zi over. He decided to leave Dumby and Goldie there in the Southern Sky building. Both Flamy and Da Zi were well-equipped to take on huge packs of monsters. However, Flamy was the only familiar whom Gao Peng could fly on comfortably. Da Zi’s wings tended to make a lot of noise as they beat in the air. Riding the winged centipede was like riding an extremely noisy motorcycle through the air.
Gao Peng flew south on Flamy. The suburban roads rushed past beneath him. He could also see a couple of utility poles and lampposts on both sides of the road that had fallen to the ground.
Five minutes later, they could see the outlines of a few buildings in the distance.
The buildings seemed somewhat small, scattered in a helter-skelter fashion behind a hill. There was a main road that ran through the village. However, it didn’t seem as if anyone was living there right now.
Gao Peng gave Flamy a pat on the back, and it slowly began its descent to the ground.
Da Zi was the first to land on the ground. As soon as its feet touched the ground, it immediately took off into the village’s alleys.
“Da Zi!” shouted Gao Peng through his Blood Contract.
Da Zi stopped in its tracks. It was now clinging to a wall like a huge gecko.
Its dark purple exoskeleton and golden wings stood in stark contrast to the dull grey wall. It had scraped layers of dust off the wall in its wake. Its 20-foot-long body covered more than half of the wall.
Not a soul stirred in the village. Fresh blood stains still glistened on the ground.
Gao Peng hadn’t been able to tell how bad the situation was from the air. However, as soon as they landed, they could see that most of the buildings were reduced to rubble. Their walls had collapsed, revealing all the ruined furniture inside the buildings. There were even pieces of what used to be a thermos scattered across the ground in one of them.
The village had been completely ravaged by the monsters.
This was like a nightmarish walk down memory lane. The same thing had happened to Gao Peng four years earlier. He still remembered hiding behind a curtain and peeking out at the people fleeing from the mutant creatures that were chasing after them on the street.
One was usually reminded of just how powerless he or she was when confronted by a more powerful presence…
Suddenly, Gao Peng’s ears pricked to the sound of something being dropped to the ground in the distance. It resounded awfully loudly in the silence of the village.
Da Zi quickly rushed towards the source of the sound, its wings a purple shimmer in the air.
Gao Peng could see a translucent figure flitting through the rubble in one of the collapsed buildings in the distance.
Boom! A purple figure crashed through what remained of the building’s wall. Pieces of brick showered over Da Zi as it made a beeline towards the translucent shrimp-like creature and caught it in its pincer.
Da Zi brought the shrimp back to Gao Peng, who estimated that the shrimp was approximately two feet long based on Da Zi’s size. In truth, the shrimp was at least a foot long and had quite a lot of meat to it, at least for a shrimp.
The shrimp wiggled its feelers about in the air and waved its pincers at Gao Peng aggressively.
[Monster Name]: Land Camoshrimp (Multilegged variant)
[Monster Level]: Level 8
[Monster Grade]: Excellent
[Monster Attribute]: Wind
[Monster Status]: Healthy (Aggressive on the outside, timid on the inside)
Realizing that Gao Peng was looking at it, the Land Camoshrimp snapped its pincers threateningly at him.
This elicited only a bored look from its captors.
Flamy yawned. This thing doesn’t look filling at all.
