Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“I don’t think it is necessary at all to take the risks to make any move on Dr. Gray in this situation.” When everyone else was silently contemplating about the Asian girl’s proposal, Alison suddenly interjected, “He is controllable.”
“Reason?” Seeing that her proposal was refuted, the girl in the red skirt asked the female officer concisely.
“Because he has someone he really cares about, Trigger. It’s his mother, Lili. Didn’t Reader say before that ‘no matter how terrible a person is, he’s a bomb with a lead as long as he has somebody whom he cares for and thus, he can be controlled by using suitable techniques. The truly dangerous people are the lunatics who have no emotion or purpose’.” Alison said calmly.
“Reader did indeed say so but do you think we can afford the price and time needed to pay to control a person like Dr. Gray, Black Pearl?” The Asian girl pondered and asked.
“Then do you think will we be able to bear the consequences of forcibly acting on Dr. Gray, Trigger?” The female officer said in a tit-for-tat manner. “This is not a science fiction movie where the justice league heroes from a secret government agency can use violence to defeat hypocritical evil enemies and save the world when trouble arises. In reality, secretly arresting a scientist cum industrialist who has great influence throughout the nation without any substantial evidence is no different from challenging the order of the United States of America.”
Alison’s words left the red skirt girl speechless for a while. The secret room suddenly fell into silence and everyone involuntarily looked at the only person who could make a decision.
“If a religion joined by tens of millions of people was spreading in the old federal state, how could those people in CIA, Military Intelligence, and Homeland Security fail to detect it?” After a moment of silence, the tall black man sitting on the main seat let out a cold smirk. “I’m sure they can see what Radar is seeing but they’re merely pretending to be blind. Since everyone is acting as though nothing is happening, we must, of course, observe the course quietly as well.”
“Doing nothing will make the situation go completely out of control, boss.” The red skirt girl said anxiously.
“Trigger, you still can’t see it? The entire USA is now a sleigh sliding down the Mount Everest. Other than a continuous downward slide along with the steep snow, there’s no other way out at all. The world is completely out of control now.” The burly black man looked at the girl and coldly made and voiced out a conclusion that struck a chill at everyone’s heart. However, he continued to order after that, “Sonic, raise Dr. Gray’s danger level to A and his attention level to A+. Black Pearl, contact Reader and help him to create a special file for Dr. Gray.”
“Yes, boss.” Alison said in unison with a young man who had a smile on his thin face since the very start.
Afterward, the burly black man stood up and nodded expressionlessly, ending the secret talk without a word as he strode out of the secret room. At this moment, Zhang Lisheng, who was half a city away from him, was rolling his strange divine kingdom, that was imprisoning an unprecedented powerful wizard gu into a belt again before gripping it in his hand.
“I hope I can raise it soon…” The young man muttered and lied on the bed. He looked up at the stars through the wooden window and fell into contemplation until dawn.
The next morning, he washed up and walked down the second floor. He was surprised when he saw that his mother had prepared a full table of breakfast.
“Baby, I warn you, no matter what, you’re no longer allowed to say that you have unexpected situations until today and want to cancel the New York C trip instead.” Upon hearing the sounds from the stairs, Lili who was putting the last fried egg on the plate turned and saw Zhang Lisheng walking towards herself. Immediately, she said in a half-jokingly manner.
“Relax, mother, I won’t go anywhere this Christmas.” Sitting on the seat where he used to sit, the young man smiled and took the opportunity to say, “But I am afraid I’ll have to leave Noah for a long time after Christmas.”
Lili’s back stiffened in an obvious manner. She turned and carried the fried eggs to her son before asking in a low voice, “Baby, why do you want to leave Noah?”
“The scale of the groundwater source on Hope Ranch is far beyond my imagination. It may have to support the transformation of sandy land with an area of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands square kilometers so I need new species to build a circular ecological agricultural and pastoral system…”
“Hundreds of thousands of square kilometers?” Lili’s eyes widened in surprise. However, the shock in her heart was soon offset by the concern she had for her son. After a moment of silence, she said selfishly, something that she rarely did, “C-Can’t you send somebody else to go? Didn’t you also send a lot of expedition teams to collect seed before this? Can’t you continue to let them…”
“But mom, those armed adventurers who are working for money are different from professional biologists. Besides, I hope to complete the construction of the farm’s ecosystem as soon as possible so as to improve the difficult living conditions of the residents in the entire Noah.” Zhang Lisheng put on a dilemma expression and said in a low voice.
“Improve the difficult living conditions of the Noah residents? Looks like it’d be another major event that can affect the future of the nation. I’m proud of you, baby, but at the same time, I’m starting to feel that having a great son is not a good thing for an ordinary mother.” Lili looked at her eldest son’s face that seemed to be shrouded with a faint halo under the sunlight and murmured, “You must be careful! Come back safely.”
“Relax, mother, the Earth is not as dangerous as you think, and I am not leaving alone anyway.” Zhang Lisheng, who heard the satisfactory answer, nodded strongly and accidentally caught sight of the eldest daughter of Lavin family walking down the stairs while yawning. With a smile, he waved his hand. “Good morning, Riley. From your dark circles, I can tell that you didn’t sleep well last night.”
“Good morning, Lisheng, Aunt Lili.” Riley stretched her arms while walking to the table and sat down. “Oh, I haven’t gone for a holiday for a long time now. I was so excited last night that I couldn’t sleep.”
“Insufficient sleep is a woman’s enemy, Riley. I’ll wash some tomatoes for you to replenish your vitamins before breakfast. Let me drive later and you can sleep,” Knowing that her son was not going to change his plans anymore, Lili could only let go of her worries and forced a smile as she looked at her stepdaughter’s listless expression before walking to the refrigerator.
“Thank you, Aunt Lili.” Riley noticed that her stepmother’s expression was not right. After thanking her, she leaned closer to Zhang Lisheng and whispered in concern, “What happened, Lisheng? Why is Aunt Lili’s face so grave?”
“It’s nothing, I just told her that I’m leaving Noah World after Christmas…” The young man explained in a low voice but was suddenly interrupted by a brilliance through the window that was ten times brighter than the sun at noon on a sunny day in the desert, and an extremely dull and loud noise from the distance.
After a while, he felt that the ground beneath him started to tremble slightly.
“Earthquake, earthquake, another earthquake! Fast! Run, Lisheng! Run, Aunt Lili…” The eldest daughter of the Lavin family reacted very quickly. She jumped down from the chair with a jolt and pulled the black-haired young man sitting next to her to run out. However, she felt that her arms had been seemingly nailed to the air, causing her entire body to be unable to move.
At the same time, she heard a calm, gentle voice containing a powerful indescribable self-confidence and strength resonating in her ears, “Calm down, Riley. It’s not an earthquake. There’s nothing you need to be scared of with me here. Just stay here.”
Right away, her heartbeat that had been increased to over 150 bpm actually calmed down.
“Lisheng, what is this if it’s not an earthquake?” A strange thought rose in Riley’s heart, one that she did not even notice. Her hands that were gripping the young man’s hand tightened unconsciously as she asked while catching her breath.
“It should be the invaders from other foreign world attacking the garrison at the gate of Noah World. The sound just now is clearly the sound of a cluster bomb explosion.” Zhang Lisheng who noticed a strong wave of divine power flowing from New Washington A half a minute ago explained in a strange expression. “I’m going out to see what happened. Don’t worry, I’m here.”
As he was speaking, he shook off the palm that was being held by the Lavin family’s eldest daughter and flashed a reassuring smile at his mother who shouted, “Be careful, baby.”
Then, he stepped forward and lightly jumped over the partition between the kitchen and the living room to the door before pushing the door open.
At this time, there were already many people standing on the lawn looking around on the street in a daze.
The situation was urgent so Zhang Lisheng no longer cared had any scruple. Under the watchful eyes of the crowds, he quickly climbed up a large leafy tree on the street like an ape and headed to the direction where the sound came from. He could see that the world’s gate of more than ten kilometers away was shrouded in colorful light that did not belong to the Atlanteans’ red light curtain.
“It was really a divine power fluctuation just now. What the hell? Why a god would attack a ‘world’ without believers across the Earth…” Standing on the crown of the tree against the rising sun, the young man mumbled in bafflement and suddenly had a lightbulb going off in his head. “Don’t tell me that there’s an ancient god or a god who has inherited the heritage of an ancient god and can absorb the power of faith across the world’s borders like me trying to occupy the Noah World?! No, it’s impossible! Although the fluctuation of the divine power just now doesn’t feel weak, it’s inferior to mine. Even if a large part of it has been dissipated, it’s still not enough to fight against the federal force, let alone the Atlanteans who are hiding by and gazing with hostility. Unless the god was so arrogant to the point of a lunatic, no god would rely on this level of power to conquer a ‘world’. Then, don’t tell me that it’s a demonstration from the gods from the Shrimp World No. 1? But this is too risky…”
All kinds of possibilities ran through his head but all of them were rejected one by one. When Zhang Lisheng remained puzzled despite pondering over it for a long time, with his great eyesight, he abruptly saw a spinning aircraft shaped like a goose egg surrounded rising and rolling to a dense fog breaking through half of the shimmering brilliance that covered more than half of the world’s gate before falling to the sand and erupting into pieces.
The huge amount of hot milky steam ejected actually caused a huge pothole with a diameter of more than 100 meters with a bottom that was hardened by the high temperature.
