Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The guests waiting by the beach for the ferry, be it the young and energetic young men who were chasing their dreams in this supernatural realm, or the mature and stable middle-aged men who wanted to develop a career in the second spring, all of them had a better expression than those who left the islands as though they were fleeing yesterday. Even so, they still appeared to be slightly sad and gloomy.
The more uneasy and irritable one felt, the slower the time passed. Adding on to the noisy announcement of “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen! There will be strict security checks in New York Harbor…”, it made them felt even more irritated.
Finally, a rash-looking young man who had a height of about two meters and was carrying a huge mountain bag close to one meter high suddenly grabbed his blonde hair that was less than an inch long and shouted, “Hey soldiers! You guys are not some nightclub DJs! Just mute that speaker right now!”
The soldiers looked at the direction of the shout with a dumbfounded expression while the chief sergeant merely shrugged and said, “I’m sorry, young man. Carrying this speaker and strolling around the beach every day is one of the jobs that we have to do while staying on this island. If we shut it up, we’ll be unemployed already just like you.”
This sentence was merely a joke but to the tall young man, it sounded like the mockery of a loser like him.
In an instant, a wave of unknown anger flooded his rationality as he ran out of the crowd in the queue. Straightening his neck, he went up in front of the sergeant and pointed at him. “Hey soldier! What did you say? Don’t think that I’ll be scared just because you’re some soldier, okay? Be careful, I might just throw a punch at your nose!”
“I said, ‘Carrying this speaker and strolling around the beach every day is one of the jobs that we have to do while staying on this island’.” In the face of the angry threat coming a young blonde who was a whole head taller than him, the sergeant was stunned for a moment first before having a change of heart. With a cold voice, he said, “Another job of ours is to ensure the safety of this gathering place. Just two nights before, only 97 people from a total of 130 people in the reorganized land troops have survived with four intact limbs. I’m thinking whether I should seize this chance of you wanting to punch me to just open fire and blow away your brain and then go to the military court, or continue to serve on this damn island for two more years. Tell me, I hope you can tell me what I should do.”
Amidst the mocking looks of the other soldiers by the side, the rash young man slowly calmed down and realized that he was not faced with a timid ordinary civilian at the moment but a professional soldier who had been on, or more correctly, who had always stayed in a battlefield all the while.
Shades of red and white washed across his face as he hesitated for a while. Then, the young blonde man slowly raised his hands. “I’m sorry, sergeant. I didn’t mean to attack for real, I just…”
“You don’t have to explain. Go queue up, young man. The ship is coming. Remember, right now, no one is feeling any better so don’t expect others to accommodate your mood. I wish you a Merry Christmas in advance. How I envy that you can actually go home. My daughter is already one year old, but I haven’t seen her yet. I really hope that one day, I can see her opening up the gift I gave her under the Christmas tree by my own eyes.” The sergeant, who felt that he had given enough of a lesson, suddenly patted the young blonde man’s shoulder and smiled, amidst the whistling sound of the cruise that was gradually sailing towards them in the sea.
Looking at the hard and cold face of the sun-drenched professional soldier who had a pallid yet determined look and suddenly showed an envious expression that rose from the bottom of his heart, the sturdy and tall young man suddenly felt his heart tighten up. His emotions that had been suppressed for a long time suddenly went out of control. “I-I, I have no family to accompany me for Christmas. My brother and father a-are there inside my backpack… Oh God, God! Why did you let us come to this damn island, why…”
The young man’s bawling slowly resonated along the supernatural realm’s beach. Not long after, many low sobs began to accompany it from the boarding queue.
It looked like the terrible nightmare that occurred in the night of the birth of the spiritual monsters two days ago were still lingering in their minds.
The fickleness and fragility of human emotions were displayed in front of the wizard. Zhang Lisheng looked around with a blank expression and sighed faintly, before turning his eyes to look at the cruise ship that would be docked soon under the escort of the battleship.
At this time, he could clearly see 300 to 400 people leaning against the ship’s side on the deck of the cruise ship, excitedly looking at the human gathering place on Shrimp B1 Island from a bird’s-eye view and the utterly wretched crowds on the beach.
A closer look would reveal that most of these people were energetic young people who were in their teens or twenties. There were both men and women who had a common similarity — that was, all of them had a fearless and slightly provocative look who looked like they dared to take risks in their eyes.
In fact, this was not hard to imagine at all. These people who still dared to insist on coming to the supernatural realm’s island to take a look even after the internet was already filled to the brim with horrifying experiences posted must have a strong love of adventure.
In addition to these fearless people who were deliberately looking for excitement, the remaining passengers on board were some journalists. After the ship entered the berth, they were busy pressing the shutter using the cannon-like camera that had long and wide-angle lens hanging from their necks.
A few people who lacked social morality even aimed their lens at the crying crowd under the ship quietly and secretly took a few sorrowful and touching shots.
“To think that they still hadn’t given up on transporting these unintelligible and reckless people to the supernatural realm for the time being, the current US government is really tenacious…” As the cruise docked into the port, Zhang Lisheng watched the young people who high-fived each other and the reporters who were looking around after they disembarked. Curling his lips, he lined up, boarded the ship, and returned to the civilized world by riding on the waves.
It had been nearly three months since he left New York. When he left, it was still during the slightly hot early autumn but right now when he returned, it was already the cold winter season.
As Zhang Lisheng walked through the strictly examined ferry exit, he breathed in the cold air and saw many of the billboards hanging from a higher area of the port. Immersing himself in the atmosphere of the civilized world, he delightfully walked out of the new New York Port together with his travel companions.
After stopping a taxi on the newly built square outside the port, he soon rushed to the new LS Slaughterhouse that was situated next to the new port.
On the second floor of a single-office building exclusively used by him in the factory, Zhang Lisheng faced the Atlantic Ocean and commanded the wizard gu, that he had thrown into the sea the moment the cruise had passed through the supernatural realm’s channel, to turn invisible and swim into the underground trenches of the factory that was filled with blood and the internal organs of various animals. Afterward, he commanded wyrmdragon and lizard to shrink their bodies before appearing in front of himself.
The timing of him breaking through to Rank-7 Wizard and transforming the second wizard gu was just around the corner. If he chose the wyrmdragon, Zhang Lisheng would be able to obtain the ability to fly through the clouds and coarse through the air that he had been dreaming for in just an instant. By that time, he would stand a chance to explore the entire Hellfire Archipelago — heck, even the entire Shrimp World No. 2— all by himself. On the other hand, if he chose the nine-tailed lizard, he would be able to obtain the remarkable ability to turn invisible and conceal himself, which would no doubt allow him to do whatever he liked in the dense jungle on Shrimp B1 Island.
“Wyrmdragon, nine-tailed lizard…” When Zhang Lisheng was pondering over it while looking at the two transformed wizard gus, unable to make up his mind, a light knocking sound suddenly resonated from his door. “Lisheng, I’ve brought you a tray of fresh steak. Can I come in?”
“Oh, Maddie. Please come in.” The young man was stunned for a moment before walking towards the desk and throwing the two weird statue-like wizard gus that had shrunk to become shorter than 20 centimeters on the desk.
Turning around to look at the beautiful girl wearing a body-hugging and tight-fitting black suit that showed off her beautiful figure who was holding a tray full of fat juicy steak into the office, he smiled and said, “You’re so smart! To think that you can actually tell that I’m hungry. Is that beef steak? That’s just too amazing! You can’t imagine how many strange things have I eaten these days till I’ve even forgotten the taste of beef already.”
“In that case, I’ll let you remember what it tastes soon. This is Wagyu sirloin beef imported from Japan. It can be eaten once it’s cooked. You can go shower and change into a fresh set of clothes first. By the time you’re done, you can enjoy the food directly.” Maddie took the large steak with great effort and walked to the open kitchen in the corner of the office next to the refrigerator before beginning to cook the steak.
“What a good suggestion, Maddie! Oh, that’s right! Please help me search on the Internet the most successful sails or manpower-driven wooden fishing boats in history and I’ll need a detailed manufacturing blueprint as well. If you can’t find it on the internet, tell Edward about it. I’m sure he’ll have a way to get this information. Book for me two tons of the best quality plain sail canvas but tell them to not deliver the stock first,” As Zhang Lisheng was speaking, he walked into the bathroom.
The bathroom was large in size and luxuriously furnished. After filling a full tub of hot water, he undressed and jumped into the expensive bathtub that was equipped with an automatic massage system and ocean current simulation system. As he closed his eyes to enjoy the bath, he suddenly heard a door opening sound without warning.
Shocked, Zhang Lisheng opened his eyes and saw Maddie feigning composure as she walked in with a plate of cut steak and a can of iced Coke. “Lisheng, since you’re in the bath for so long, I directly sent the food inside to you instead. Oh, and I’ve brought you a can of Coke as well.” Then, she proceeded to place the steak and Coke on the bathroom floor.
“O-Oh… T-Thank you, Maddie… C-Can you leave first?” Lying on the bathtub with a dumbstruck expression while looking up to the beautiful girl with the beautiful figure, Zhang Lisheng said incoherently.
At this moment, the premeditated Maddie had already calmed down and she suddenly stepped into the bath, making her clothes wet. Kneeling down, she directly placed her hand on Zhang Lisheng’s most vital part and asked while biting down her lips under the steaming heat. “Why do you want me to leave? Don’t you have a powerful and inexplicable mysterious power? If you don’t like this, you can just drive me away directly. Or perhaps, you actually enjoy me being like this but didn’t dare show it because you’re afraid that Tina might get angry?”
