Chapter 154.2 – Fire Seed (24)

◎ Respected General Xie Lan ◎

Sure enough, Yang Xiaobo’s left middle finger had a ring, a skull-headed gothic design, surprisingly matching his eccentric personality.

Zhuang Qingyan pushed his gold-rimmed glasses and looked genteel, like a refined elite lawyer, “Captain Gu, I am the special attorney for V587. Your team member, without the consent of our captain, secretly filmed and disseminated videos, seriously infringing upon our image and reputation rights. Of course, Captain Song is generous, and we have no intention of claiming the originally planned compensation of 40 million Alliance coins from you. We just demand the destruction of the evidence of infringement.”

“Image… reputation… what??” Yang Xiaobo was frightened by the combination of soft and hard threats, stammering, “D-d-don’t bully me just because I don’t understand the law. 40 million? That’s robbery! I don’t have that much even if you sell me!”

“We just wanted to make a fortune in silence. You’ve made it difficult for us by doing this,” Zhuang Qingyan said with a casual smile, his eyes carrying a cold edge.

“Sorry for causing trouble,” Gu Ruoyi was a reasonable person, “Yang Xiaobo, delete the video.”

Su Cha’s dagger pointed at Yang Xiaobo’s nose. Trembling, Yang Xiaobo took off the ring and handed it over. Su Cha tossed it behind him, and Lu Xiaoyu’s rhenium arm closely followed, copying the source files and completely destroying Yang Xiaobo’s copy. Even an S-level hacker couldn’t recover it.

“Sorry for the disturbance. Have a pleasant journey back,” Zhuang Qingyan smiled, and the compartment door closed with a “thud.”

Yang Xiaobo looked dejected, his messy rainbow hair completely drooping, “Sister Ruoyi, I’ve thought about it. Being an internet celebrity is too dangerous, even more dangerous than being an awakener. It’s better for Brother Yang to be more grounded.”

…

After dealing with Yang Xiaobo, the three returned to the compartment. Lu Xiaoyu sent the copied source files to Song Ke’s terminal, and Zhuang Qingyan lowered his eyes to carefully review.

With the major issue resolved, only minor matters remained.

Su Cha finally found an opportunity to ask Lin Youyou for the third time, “You and that fish…”

Fang Zhixu was also quite curious, “Right, how can you communicate with ferocious beasts?”

Song Ke and Xu Xing turned their heads, their eyes sparkling as they looked at Lin Youyou.

Lin Youyou flipped her hair and smiled alluringly, “Thought you guys weren’t interested. Well then, let me tell you my legendary story.”

Before the collapse of the Elderly People’s Nation, Lin Youyou had sung a song on the Ribbon Bridge, incorporating a faint awakened energy. She hoped to communicate with marine creatures. However, whether it was due to the wrong frequency or the fact that ferocious beasts, despite their intelligence, lacked spiritual intelligence, there was no response at the time. She assumed that her attempt had failed.

It was at the moment when Lin Youyou, with her life jacket torn, was about to sink and suffocate that she was saved by that mutated Kun.

At that time, she was in a daze, thinking she was experiencing a hallucination until she surfaced, coughing violently, confirming that she had indeed encountered a miracle.

Through the low hum of the mutated Kun, Lin Youyou learned that it wasn’t a native creature of the Endless Sea. Due to its unique sound frequency, it couldn’t communicate with other members of its kind and could only wander alone in the eastern and northern seas of the Alliance. Today was the first time it heard and understood the song of its “kind.”

Lin Youyou still found it unbelievable, “I can’t explain why, but I can indeed communicate with it using my ability.”

“I feel like it’s not a ferocious beast.”

After listening to Lin Youyou’s description, something flashed quickly in Song Ke’s mind, “I’ve also encountered a strange ferocious beast.”

She had encountered a peculiar large bird in the Yue Mountain Martial Arts School after the apocalypse. At that time, she was covered in blood, emitting a fierce aura, but the creature, perched on the window sill, observed her quietly for a long time without any intention of attacking.

Zhuang Qingyan spoke slowly, “Humans can differentiate into zombies and awakeners. Animals, influenced by radiation, can also undergo different mutations. What you encountered can’t be truly considered as ‘ferocious beasts.’ Perhaps they can be called ‘animal awakeners.'”

Song Ke had a sudden insight, “A beast that is not ferocious?”

Zhuang Qingyan hesitated, “Well, something like that. Just understand the meaning; the name is not important.”

“Alright, you can rest now. Any other questions?” Zhuang Qingyan said.

“Yes.” Lu Xiaoyu silently raised a mechanical arm, “The starship ‘borrowed’ from the Northern Base is lost. The trojan horse I implanted is about to expire. Have you thought about what will happen then?”

“I know, we’ll be wanted!” Xu Xing eagerly answered.

Everyone: …

What’s going on? From the Sin City to Mu City and then to Northern Base, they were clearly law-abiding citizens, so why are they on the blacklist everywhere they go?

Zhuang Qingyan helplessly rubbed his forehead, “I’ll contact Ye Zimei.”

…

In District B6, Beijun.

In a spacious office, a woman’s figure blended into the darkness, like a silent statue, silently gazing at the suspended screen in front of her.

On the desk behind her, there was a golden invitation card, and at the bottom was the signature from: Utopia.

This was a pass, or a “boarding pass,” a ticket to board Utopia.

Although a notification could easily be sent through the terminal, for some unknown reason, the person sending the invitation chose the oldest form of paper invitation. It seemed like they wanted to leave the last trace of their existence in the abandoned world.

Few people knew about the existence of Utopia, and even fewer would refuse the precious “boarding pass.” If everything went as planned, the woman in front of the screen should have already been enjoying a new life in Utopia. However, from start to finish, she never cast a glance at the desk, keeping her eyes fixed on the recording, repeatedly pressing the pause button at the same moment.

It was when the Armored Sea Turtle self-destructed, and the massive body generated a very subtle pause. If one didn’t observe carefully, it could easily be overlooked, but the woman was absolutely certain that it was the work of a mental awakener.

A blurry silhouette flashed at the edge of the frame, and no matter how many times she pressed pause, the specific appearance could not be clearly seen.

Even when enlarged to the maximum, the frozen image only revealed mottled pixels.

The focus of the video was on Song Ke, who single-handedly killed the Level 5 ferocious beast. No one would pay attention to the inconspicuous bystander, especially when the person’s face was unclear.

The woman dragged the video back repeatedly, playing those brief two seconds over and over.

The room’s lights turned on, gradually illuminating the woman’s exquisite face. Even though her youth had faded, traces of her once stunning beauty could still be glimpsed. Aside from her appearance, due to years of holding a high position, she exuded a kind of chilling, captivating, and indomitable aura that made it impossible to look directly at her.

The woman slowly spoke, her slightly hoarse voice echoing in the room, “Can this video be deleted?”

The holographic projection on the other end answered respectfully, “I’m sorry, General. I’m afraid… it can’t be completely deleted.”

“Then suppress the visibility, lower it to the minimum.”

“Yes.”

“Have Lieutenant An from the Eleventh Unit come over.”

“Yes.”

Before long, a neatly dressed young man in military uniform appeared. Lieutenant An, removing his military cap, held it in his arm and respectfully lowered his head, “General.”

—It was none other than An Qiwen, a former member of the Azure Phoenix Eleventh Unit.

The woman nodded slightly and asked calmly, “I’ve read the report you submitted, which mentioned the V587 team.

An Qiwen was slightly surprised. V587 didn’t have a direct connection with their mission at that time, so he had only briefly mentioned it. After more than half a year, he hadn’t expected to hear that name again from the person across from him. The General’s memory was perhaps too remarkable.

“Yes, Captain Wu… had dealings with them.”

Once again, bringing up the name of Wu Juemin, the grief and anger in An Qiwen’s heart erupted like a dormant volcano. His voice trembled a bit.

The woman pressed the play button from across the holographic display, and the looped video restarted once more.

“Do you know these people?”

An Qiwen focused, carefully identifying each figure. “Song Ke, Xu Xing, and two others I’ve seen at U-Lab, named Lin Youyou and Su Cha…”

As for Fang Zhixu, whom he hadn’t met, and the one not appearing in the frame, Lu Xiaoyu, An Qiwen naturally couldn’t recognize them.

He suddenly thought of something but wasn’t sure if that person could be considered a member of V587. After all, at the end of the day, it was challenging for awakeners and ordinary people to form a team based on mutual trust. They might have gone their separate ways a long time ago.

“At that time, there was another person with Song Ke, a wheelchair-bound individual who claimed to be a senior maintenance engineer for the Weather Mimicry System.

“His name is Zhuang Qingyan,” An Qiwen answered truthfully.

“What did you say…?”

“Zhuang Qingyan.”

“Did he say that’s his name?”

“Yes.” An Qiwen was somewhat puzzled by the woman’s reaction but answered decisively, “We verified his credentials, and he indeed came from the Qinglan Research Institute. His work ID bears the name Zhuang Qingyan.”

The office fell into a dead silence.

After a while, a soft sigh echoed in the room.

Dim moonlight outside shone onto the desk, accidentally illuminating the heading of the boarding pass:

“Respected General Xie Lan, we sincerely invite you to Utopia…”