Chapter 335 Song of a Foreign Land
Velvet smiled slightly, holding the cigarette from before.
After the agreement was made, she was afraid that Chu Hengkong would break it, so she carried the cigarette with her to remind him from time to time. Facts proved that her worry was unnecessary. Young Master Chu was a man of his word. He said he would quit smoking and he would never smoke again. He would never regret it.
Now thinking back, it was about five years ago. The battle to quit smoking began shortly after they met and lasted until they were adults. It was simply a quarrel between two children who hadn't grown up, but it also unconsciously corrected many of her ideas.
There are people like this in this world who don't care about profit or loss, who have no weaknesses. Although they are on the same side as you, they often stand against you. You can't frame them with profit or reason, and traps and calculations are nonsense. The only thing that can make them compromise is emotion.
Feelings are the reason why he is willing to stand by your side, and he cares about you and will never leave you.
She tossed the unlit cigarette into the core of the Holy Honor Cup's structure. The system immediately issued an alarm, claiming that this extra component would reduce overall computing efficiency.
She casually wiped the message window and watched the behemoth complete its final assembly. The vague sense of unease vanished the moment she handed over the cigarette. She had completed the most important piece of the puzzle as a leader.
People respect you as a leader because of their trust, and the foundation of trust is ability... and emotion.
A vast number of autonomous machines coalesced into one, their ascending formation converging towards the center of the dark cloud. In a single instant, the thick clouds that had enveloped the Dustless Land vanished, and it descended into the blazing sunlight, like an angel descending into the light in a myth.
·
Velvet felt that her mental state was particularly good. This was the combination of the satisfaction after the transformation was completed and the sense of fullness of her self-existence rising again.
However, her body is still weak, and her physical fitness is naturally much better than when she was on Earth, but she still belongs to the ordinary level in the Shendong Realm.
She suspected that her arm strength might still be inferior to Chu Hengkong's. When she returned to Earth to arm wrestle the killer, she might suffer an interesting defeat.
Such is the norm on the Path of Floating Light: your spirit, skills, and tools constantly evolve, your power and territory expand, but unless something unexpected happens, your body remains unremarkable. She certainly had many ways to enhance her body: prosthetic replacements, genetic optimization, the introduction of more efficient energy systems, or even full-scale mechanization like a real machine, but she had never considered such a thing.
She doesn't want to become a person who is no longer pure, and her strength has never relied on the mere flesh.
Velvet walked back to the office. No one noticed her arrival; the information interference layer automatically blocked most observation methods. She poured herself a cup of tea and sat quietly in her office chair for a moment, imagining life after successfully returning to Earth.
She would find Akong and perhaps, as was often the case, crack a little joke with him, telling him not to worry and that everything was fine. The depressed man would then perk up and stay by her side, occasionally nagging as usual.
They would once again revive the clan, eradicate the alien contamination, and render the Blood Alliance meaningless. Then, she would completely isolate Earth from the Shendong Realm, fulfilling her final duty. After that, she would pretend to be an ordinary person and live an ordinary life with him...
Velvet's train of thought paused, like a wheel stuck by a pebble. Impossible, she thought helplessly. There was no way Ah Kong hadn't discovered her power. He'd dig deep until he discovered the existence of the Shendong Realm... So after that, she'd probably take Chu Hengkong back to the Shendong Realm and watch him leap up to the higher particles like a student eager to get out of school...
That wasn't bad. By then, she would have at least reached Sephiroth 7, and she could have been a "stronger" person in front of him for a while. Thinking of his expression at that time, Velvet wanted to smile.
Velvet finished her tea and, as if flicking a switch, stopped her daydreaming. She rested for about half a minute. Given her current state, 30 seconds was a luxury.
She donned her suit jacket and grabbed her ever-present cane. A new to-do list streamed into the computing center, transforming into a series of to-do lists before her and her labmates. She drew aside the curtains and found her goofy secretary on the sunny lawn. She instantly moved to Hill's side.
"Ah, Boss!" Hill exclaimed, still clutching half a potato pie. "Congratulations on your successful upgrade!"
Velvet nodded in thanks. "Thank you. And thank you for your continued support. Your work schedule begins in 1 hour and 37 minutes. You can return to the lab in the afternoon. The extra work during the Jingsha Incident will be compensated with time off later."
Secretary Hill breathed a sigh of relief. Some Magical Scholars, after their transformation, experience a drastic change in their temperament, becoming near-uninterpretable extremists. Fortunately, Velvet hadn't followed the same path as her predecessors, remaining the extreme workaholic with a touch of humanity.
She bravely said, "Boss, you should take a rest too. The weather is so nice today."
"Yes, for outdoor work."
She pulled up a screen on her cane and sent out messages and instructions. Research in the Dust-Free Zone indicated that regular exposure to sunlight could enhance resistance to pollution at the limbic level, leading many researchers to lead project teams in regular outdoor work.
Hill sighed inwardly, intending to finish her potato pie quickly before going up to get another job. Then she noticed the boss had stopped moving. She was looking at the fountain, her eyes filled with...
A look of surprise and uncertainty?
She rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't mistaken. The boss even looked a little excited. She had never seen him look like that before. But by the hot springs, there were only a group of children surrounding the singing mercenary, who had just finished singing for the second time.
"Okay, boys, let's change to a new song..."
"Again! Again!" the children cheered.
"Hey, Captain Macco isn't your parrot!" the mercenary protested. "One last time, okay? We have to change to something new after this one!"
Captain Macko groaned bitterly, thinking he shouldn't have had the urge to imitate Sreel. He'd only known him for his wonderful voice, but he hadn't known the poet's patience. Singing the same song over and over again, no matter how beautiful it was, was getting tiresome. He finished the last rendition perfunctorily when he noticed a strange woman standing among the children.
That nail-like persistent look frightened him.
"What's the name of this song?" she asked.
·
"The name of this song is 'Flower of Unity Under the Iron Curtain,' sir," the cricket poet said proudly. "This song has a history older than the umbrella of poetry. Centuries ago, soldiers sang it on the battlefield and also sang it to celebrate victory. It is our proud national anthem!"
"Great, I think you'll hear this song everywhere tomorrow," said the man in the suit.
"Of course, of course! We will hold a grand chorus tomorrow to celebrate the festival and the future!"
The man in the suit let go of a green branch and bid farewell to the jubilant cricket poet. Colorful flags fluttered on both sides of the street, and gardeners cultivated the trees into a continuous narrative painting, with colorful lights hanging from the treetops.
The Wax Flower Festival officially begins tomorrow, and voting will conclude after the three-day holiday. Citizens are already eagerly preparing for the festival, and their enthusiasm brings a smile to his face.
"That's great." The man in the suit said to himself, "It reminds me of the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro."
"This is the first time I know you like samba." Guo Yutu spoke through the headset.
"I don't like samba, I like samba dancers. They are so immersed in the dance, with smiles on their faces, as if they can dance away the misfortunes and setbacks in life. On Carnival night, you can see countless people like this in Brazil, throwing everything behind them, indulging in the self-anesthesia in the name of the festival, and drinking the alcohol called the festival.
They stood on floats and ran in the parade, enjoying the ecstasy like carefree children. I kept counting down the seconds in my head, tick-tock. I found the person with the happiest smile and told her, "There are only five seconds left before the explosion."
The man in the suit smiled and said, "I watched her dance, frozen in time. Her smile was frozen on her face, and her eyes were a mixture of surprise, rejection, and a hint of subconscious fear. That fear plunged her from her false paradise into reality. What brought me immense joy wasn't the explosion, but that brief moment."
Guo Yutu listened quietly and said, "To prevent you from misunderstanding me, let me tell you in advance that I'm a very dedicated person and always complete my work conscientiously, so you don't have to worry about the subsequent action plan. The following is just a euphemism for expressing my personal opinion."
"Please go ahead."
"I'm really fucking disgusted by you, Xueyan," Guo Yutu said. "When this shit is over, you'll be the first one I kill."
"At your service, Black Death Army, I look forward to the day when you defeat me for the first time."
Bloody Mist walked deeper into the alley and pushed open the wooden door of a painting shop. The small shop, which served as a base, was packed with assassins, and second-rate people who had not yet reached the level of Seismic Point 5 sat on picture frames and paint buckets.
He found the sullen black-haired woman in the corner, still wearing her old eye patch. No. 7, "Double Butterfly," this neurotic woman had indeed returned, and she wouldn't let herself go.
"Not all the people are here yet," Xueyan said. "Didn't you find White Wolf and the Strange Gunner in the end? Forget about No. 6. It's best if he's not here."
"White Wolf is having a great time in the Celestial Prison, and I'm afraid Shax Ibn Ould won't be helping us this time. So, in the end, it's still us, the old members from last time."
The speaker sat on a stack of wooden boxes. He was the leader of all the people present. They could not disobey him and swore to follow him. Wang Quan, disguised as a frail painter, painted with his back to him.
"What should we do with the sacrificial snake?" Xueyan said.
"The emergence of chaos has aroused his sense of crisis, so you don't have to worry about him this time." Wang Quan said, "He is living well now."
"It sounds like we've met before, and we're still on good terms as always."
Wang Quan put down his brush and smiled, "Now let me explain the plan. Everyone present will be divided into three groups and go to the designated location to act according to the instructions. Guo Yutu will be the commander-in-chief, responsible for technical support and maintaining communications between all parties. Lerna will act alone according to the plan I gave you. As for you, Mingya..."
It turned the painting board, and the canvas was painted with gorgeous fireworks.
"I've put your little things away for you." Wang Quan said with a smile, "I look forward to your performance."
Blood Smoke Hazama Mingya bowed deeply and replied cheerfully, "Let me begin the festival."
(End of this chapter)
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