Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
On Earth, islands were easy to purchase, and there were many choices. Nanfeng shortlisted a few for Fang Zhao.
Fang Zhao selected one amongst them.
Island owners were more than happy to meet potential buyers. They too had grown anxious as increasing numbers of investors flocked to foreign planets instead of islands over the past two years. They were more than willing to get rid of their islands and were much more amenable to negotiations.
The owners were eager to respond, and negotiations began only a day after the initial inquiry.
Nanfeng could only feel helpless seeing Fang Zhao complete the procedures so quickly. Fang Zhao doesn’t know how to invest. He needs an investment advisor.
Even though he didn’t know what exactly had happened in the house on that day, it couldn’t require an immediate purchase of an island, right?
Sigh, Boss should just go and dabble in his music. He’s going to lose too much in investments.
Nanfeng wasn’t the only who thought this way. The island owner also thought that Fang Zhao was foolish. He was still buying islands in a bear market. What was this if not foolish?
Indeed, it is easy to act rashly when one is too young.
Fang Zhao’s newly bought island wasn’t considered very big, but it was enough for Curly Hair to move around on. It was located some distance away from the various continents. There was nothing special about its shape, and it basically had no reputation. The island owner himself had never gone to the island for almost twenty years. He only sent a maintenance team there twice a year. Thus, it could be considered a rather primitive island.
The calamitous Period of Destruction had engulfed the entire globe. There had been no safe havens, and the islands on Earth too had been ravaged during that tumultuous period. But, after five hundred years, its flourishing vitality had returned.
The island house had been constructed over fifty years ago. Because of frequent storms, it had seen a few upgrades here and there. The house was in good shape. Since it was still habitable, Fang Zhao didn’t make many modifications.
After the security systems were installed, Fang Zhao asked Nanfeng and the other two to return and remain on standby.
The surface area of the island wasn’t too big, and game was limited. Supplies would need to be delivered to the island. Fang Zhao hoarded some supplies for now and decided he would have Yan Biao or Zuo Yu deliver some more later.
After receiving the remainder of the copyright fees, Fang Zhao used them to buy another two transoceanic flying transports.
His recently replenished account once again became near empty.
Nanfeng and the others felt their hearts ache. All three of them had the same thought: Had boss gone crazy?
One of the transports was docked at the island in reserve, while the other was for supply delivery.
“Boss, are you… going to live here by yourself?” Zuo Yu was worried and asked again.
“Mmhm.” Fang Zhao seemed very calm.
“You won’t need any assistance?” Yan Biao asked.
“Correct.”
“Then… Boss, contact us immediately if you need anything. We’ll be on call at all times.” Nanfeng glanced back reluctantly as they boarded the flying transport.
After watching them leave, Fang Zhao returned to the house and called Curly Hair who had been inside his kennel all this time.
Curly Hair’s mental state had gone from “I can’t be this sort of dog” to “Do I have to go out and work?”
He had originally thought that swallowing the “fish” could last him a month. However, Curly Hair was unexpectedly feeling a little hungry already.
Fang Zhao brought out a large 50 kg bag of dog food.
“You eat. I will watch you eat from the side,” Fang Zhao said.
“Can I swallow all of this?”
“Sure.”
Curly Hair licked his nose and trotted over to the bag of dog feed.
Then, Fang Zhao saw what appeared like a huge… mouth?
There was a silvery gleam of light.
The 50 kg package of dog food was gone.
“Are you full?” Fang Zhao asked.
Curly Hair hesitated. “Still… a little hungry.”
He simply hadn’t eaten his fill.
Fang Zhao then brought another 50 kg bag of dog food. “Can you swallow it slower this time? Slow your swallowing motion?”
Curly Hair nodded his head firmly. “Swallow slowly!”
This time, Fang Zhao could see it more clearly.
Curly Hair’s head changed, but his body and other parts remained the same. His curly hair seemed to shrink back into his body at that instant.
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The change between his normal body and enlarged head seemed to be a gradual metallic delineation. Fang Zhao noticed a large mouth with sharp teeth opening and swallowing the 50 kg bag of dog food. Easily.
Perhaps 100 kg wouldn’t even be a problem.
Fang Zhao pondered as he watched.
Perhaps this dog could no longer easily be classified as a carbon-based life form.
Perhaps he even had another form.
Curly Hair spent most of his time as a dog, but during the transformation, was he an alloy dog? Or an unknown metallic life form?
It wasn’t a surprise the newly installed cameras in the house malfunctioned. There was too much interference during the transformation.
Fang Zhao then checked the surveillance devices in other parts of the house. Those that were nearby had suffered severe malfunctions. Those more than twenty meters away only captured distorted images.
Only electronic devices were affected. Fortunately, Fang Zhao had already made appropriate preparations.
Curly Hair himself wasn’t aware of his transformation. Since electronic appliances couldn’t be used, Fang Zhao searched the storeroom and brought out a dressing mirror that belonged to the previous owner of the island.
Curly Hair faced the mirror and gulped down another bag of dog food. He suddenly choked, flabbergasted.
He nearly wet himself from his reflection.
Indeed, without the mirror, he didn’t know how he looked!
The degree of shock was even greater than when he had found out that he had wrecked the house in his dreams!
However, his fright was quickly replaced by hunger.
Curly Hair felt weary after transforming a few times. The three bags of dog food had already been completely consumed.
Hungry.
Hungry!
Without any other choices, Curly Hair ran into the ocean again to forage. Since there weren’t any other inhabitants nearby this time, Curly Hair didn’t need to wait for nighttime. After getting Fang Zhao’s permission, he rushed into the sea.
Just like a switch, Curly Hair’s transformations immediately became more frequent. For example, while digging a hole for fun, Curly Hair’s paw enlarged, and he created a crater.
Fang Zhao didn’t dare let Curly Hair sleep in the house. What if Curly Hair destroyed the house when he dreamed of chasing thieves?
As Curly Hair transformed more frequently, he also required more energy.
Food!
Fang Zhao really couldn’t solve this issue and could only let Curly Hair run into the ocean for food. Fang Zhao made sure to give Curly Hair frequent reminders of what was permissible.
Curly Hair wandered about the ocean every day. In a week, he swallowed two bionic torpedoes in the coastal regions nearby Yanzhou.
However, a torpedo no longer filled him for a month. Now, it barely lasted him a week. Whenever his transformations were too frequent, he would have to go back into the ocean after a couple of days.
Curly Hair was rather happy. He could eat his fill and save money.
But, after swallowing up three bionic torpedoes, he no longer found any more of them. Curly Hair swam to the coastal regions near Yanzhou a few times but never saw any again.
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Fang Zhao knew the ‘T’ organization had probably given up on their bionic torpedo strategy. He wondered what their next move would be.
Yanzhou’s counter-terrorism measures were decent. Even without Curly Hair swallowing torpedoes, there was also a very high probability that the bionic torpedoes would be stopped.
Without torpedoes, Curly Hair could only change his targets. This time, he decided to swim further away.
Fang Zhao neither agreed nor objected. He handed Curly Hair a set of comprehensive test questions he had personally set. They covered how to react during crises and other important things.
Curly Hair finished these questions very quickly and scored 93 marks out of 100.
For the seven missed marks, Fang Zhao gave Curly Hair supplementary lessons before allowing Curly Hair to go out.
Curly Hair was out for longer this time and returned after more than twelve hours. He was in high spirits, probably from having eaten his fill.
“What did you eat?” Fang Zhao asked.
“I ate a huge chest!!”
Curly Hair briefly summarized his experience on this trip. He had kept swimming and swimming after leaving the island. If something had seemed edible or delicious, he had eaten it.
Fang Zhao then asked more specific and detailed questions to find out where Curly Hair got his “food” this time. It sounded like Curly Hair had found some high energy substance from a sunken submarine.
Out of eight huge chests, Curly Hair had eaten two.
Because Curly Hair still couldn’t control his bodily transformations, he didn’t have any means to bring the huge chest across the long distance to let Fang Zhao have a look.
At that time, he had already felt full after swallowing the first chest. He initially wanted to drag a chest back for Fang Zhao. However, after holding it in his mouth, he accidentally swallowed it.
Curly Hair didn’t want to swallow a third. Fang Zhao had also repeatedly warned him not to bite things open, so he’d only been able to head back to the island.
“So full,” Curly Hair said.
He rarely encountered times when he was completely stuffed.
Fang Zhao also had no way of seeing the chests without any diving equipment and could only make guesses through Curly Hair’s descriptions.
Curly Hair was unable to discern when the submarine sank, and Fang Zhao had no way of sketching an approximation. Thus, with insufficient information, he could only wait for Curly Hair’s next trip to provide more clues.
The effects after Curly Hair had eaten his fill was very noticeable.
Curly Hair had been totally unable to control his sudden transformations at the beginning. Now, he was vaguely conscious of the feeling. Whenever, he felt the transformation coming, he would try to avoid any unnecessary damage. Thus, he didn’t add too many extra holes to the island.
However, the transformations were becoming more frequent and intense.
Fang Zhao had told Curly Hair to run into the ocean anytime he felt a transformation about to take place. He didn’t want aircraft patrols or satellites detecting abnormal energy surges. Curly Hair didn’t mind.
In the following month, Curly Hair ran out a few more times and swallowed the remaining chests inside the sunken submarine,
With the additional information from each expedition, Fang Zhao could more or less ascertain that it was a “T” Organization submarine sunk by the Yanzhou Navy about a hundred years ago. It was rumored that this sunken submarine carried at least eight tons of Grade A power ore…
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Many people had attempted to find the submarine for the eight tons of Grade A power ore. However, their efforts had proved futile. It was easy to be swallowed by the undercurrents or get attacked by deep sea creatures. Rumors said that the area was also a zone with magnetic anomalies. Communications would suffer from interference, and diving gear could malfunction.
It really wasn’t worth risking so much for a tale that wasn’t necessarily true.
Gradually, people forgot about the sunken submarine and the fabled eight tons of Grade A power ore.
Fang Zhao fell silent as he thought back on why the Yanzhou Navy had mobilized during that time.
He was filled with complex sentiments.
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