Chapter 24
Earth, a live broadcast room discussing anomalies.
"I was speechless after watching this... Have any of you bought the smart home products jointly produced by Moda and XXX company? I always thought that thing was just a waste of money, a model of artificial intelligence."
"It seemed to have been on the hot search a while ago, and everyone was criticizing the poor R&D level in China, because the AI was really hard to use. It did what you asked it to do. The one I bought always mixed up the rice cooker switch and the microwave oven switch, so I returned it a few days after I bought it. Now it seems that we misunderstood it!"
"After all, it is an artificial intelligence developed with the core concept of replacing the comprehensive algorithm of the wartime combined brigade headquarters. It is understandable that its brain circuits are different from other AIs. Hhhh"
"I even feel that my 50-square-meter doghouse is unfair to it. My classmate Xiaomo, who commanded various army departments on the battlefield, can only be used to draw curtains and fill the foot basin with water in my house..."
"It's not as bad as the above. It's rubbish in terms of smart home algorithms, but that doesn't stop it from being awesome in other areas. Let's put it in perspective."
"Anyway, Xiaomo has done a great job this time! Who's for it and who's against it?"
"I fully agree with this! And Jin Xuan and Gu Liang also worked together perfectly. I give this one 100 points for pretending, hahahahaha!"
"I was always worried that Gu Liang's voice was so soft and gentle, what if people from another world thought it wasn't intimidating? I didn't expect it to have the opposite effect."
"Yeah, this is better than making a throat cancer sound effect. After all, it's broad daylight, and we are upright villains. We don't need a bat cape or anything ╮(╯▽╰)╭"
"Batman is watching you, hahahahaha. But the death glare can be done by Yi Yan. When he stands there in his combat uniform, it's full of oppression."
"To be honest, that dwarf was really brave. Brother Yi had his hand on the gun handle several times. I was worried for him."
"It's too late! I know Gu Liang definitely didn't sign it, but how did they manage to replace it under the nose of that dwarf?"
"This is Minister Lu's idea. It's just a small magic trick. It doesn't really have much value."
"They understand the principles of magic very well. No matter what kind of magic, distracting the audience is the first priority. Remember Gu Liang, he was fiddling with that feather pen? And Yi Yan, he was responsible for putting psychological pressure on the other party, and Gu Liang wore gloves throughout the whole process to ensure that he would not have any contact with it."
"...light the dwarf."
"Give him a candle +1. But he should be able to report to the city lord when he returns. It all depends on how the other party responds. Hundreds of psychology and military strategy experts at the headquarters are waiting for him to make a move."
But in fact, after sending Krilli away, Gu Liangyi and his companions waited patiently in the shop for a few days, but they did not see any of the city lord's men come to threaten or test them.
"Let's wait and see what happens," Lu Lang muttered thoughtfully in the command center, "This city lord is unexpectedly a cautious person."
He rubbed his temples, which were a little swollen and painful due to excessive thinking, and stood up to go to the tea room to make himself a cup of coffee. Unexpectedly, on the way back, when he passed by the workstation of a Chinese female subordinate, he saw her staring at a CP fan picture of Gu Liangyi and Yi Yan on her computer with a bright smile on her face.
Lu Lang: “…………”
During lunch break, subordinates are free to do whatever they want, so it doesn't count as slacking off.
So he didn't disturb her immediately, but stood behind her with the cup in his hand, observing her thoughtfully.
Lu Lang could tell the content of this picture at a glance. It was a picture drawn from the dwarf's perspective, depicting the scene he saw the moment he entered the door.
Two people in the room, one standing and one sitting, stared indifferently ahead with their backs to the blood-red curtains. Under the dim candlelight, the atmosphere seemed mysterious and depressing, with tension and oppression at its peak, giving a sense of the final villain's appearance.
Moreover, it is obvious that the artist of this picture is very talented. His basic skills in color, light and shadow, and human body are very solid. The thick painting style with dark tones is delicate and bold, giving people a direct visual impact.
But then, the picture in the next chapter made Lu Lang, who was sipping hot coffee, choke and start coughing.
The subordinate who heard the noise turned around abruptly. The moment she saw Lu Lang, her face instantly turned red. She jumped up from her seat as if her butt was on fire, trying to block the screen with her body, and asked in a pretentious manner: "Lu... Minister Lu, I was just taking a look!"
"I understand." Lu Lang wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and smiled soothingly. "My daughter also likes to watch this. She asks me every day in the video if I have any exclusive insider information. It's like she's chasing a star."
The subordinate blinked and asked expectantly, "So is it true?"
"…Have you forgotten that we all work in the same department?"
Lu Lang said helplessly: "We are the 'inside story', but I really admire your imagination. Anyway, no matter what you watch, just don't delay your work."
"Okay, Minister Lu!"
Listening to his subordinate's vigorous response, Lu Lang waved his hand and returned to his seat with the cup.
However, for a long time afterwards, as if he had been brainwashed by a virus, every time he saw Gu Liangyi and Yi Yan in the same frame on the big screen, Lu Lang couldn't help but think of the second picture on the subordinate's screen:
A King Charles Spaniel squatting obediently on a gorgeous chair with a pair of big round, wet eyes, wearing a cool devil's stand-up collar cape, is trying to hold his head high and pretend to be fierce, but the bubbles on his head are trembling and saying that he can't pretend anymore;
Next to it was a Doberman Pinscher with a spell collar around its neck. It looked mighty and domineering, almost twice the size of a beagle. It was glaring fiercely at the trembling enemy while soothing it with its tail. The bubble next to it read "Be patient, it will be fine after get off work."
...I have to say, it’s really vivid.
Lu Lang thought silently.
It perfectly summarizes the personality and appearance traits of both Gu Liangyi and Yi Yan.
The other side.
"I feel like the decoration of our store is still a little off," Jin Xuan said solemnly to the others at the daily morning meeting, "It's not dangerous enough, and it's not domineering enough! This won't intimidate customers!"
After the words were spoken, there was silence in all four places.
Gu Liangyi looked very confused: there had been few customers for several days, so shouldn't he attract more customers? Why did he have to intimidate customers when doing business?
"Yi Yan, you felt the same way, right? When you threw the dwarf out, his expression seemed a little unconvinced." Jin Xuan turned her head and asked Yi Yan.
After seeing the other party nod silently, she suddenly became more confident: "So this is our inconsideration. We must show the worst service attitude and the most horrible way of entertaining guests to let these people from other worlds know that our Lord Mo is not easy to mess with!"
“…………”
Jin Xuan looked at Gu Liangyi with a sharp gaze again: "Gu Liang! You can say something too."
"Well, actually... we can think from another angle." Being stared at by so many people, Gu Liangyi sat up straight involuntarily, his expression a little nervous. "The purpose of opening this store is not to make a profit. These products and other costs are not what we need to consider, right?"
"What's the meaning?"
"That is to say," Gu Liangyi slowed down and tried to explain, "Since the people we really want to attract are those customers who have magic crystals and intelligence, then no matter what method we use to treat them, the first step is to make the store well-known and deceive those who have the resources to do business with us... I mean, spread the word."
Jin Xuan thought about it carefully, and the more she thought about it, the more she felt that what Gu Liangyi said made sense.
She patted Gu Liangyi on the back excitedly and praised loudly, "I didn't expect it! Gu Liang, you look honest and easy to bully, but actually you are full of bad intentions! This is a good idea, I agree!"
Gu Liangyi: “…………”
Senior, are you really praising me?
"But how do we do this?" a member of the special task force asked a key question, "Do we have to go out on the streets and hand out leaflets one by one?"
"That's not necessary." Gu Liang shook his head.
He hesitated for a moment, and under everyone's puzzled gaze, he finally sighed in self-deprecation and accepted his fate: "Just like businesses on Earth would hire celebrities to advertise their products, the celebrity effect exists everywhere, so -"
Jin Xuan understood and said, "Do you want everyone in the city to know that this shop is registered under Seris's name?"
Gu Liangyi nodded silently.
Yaroslav touched his chin and made a joke with a dry sense of humor: "Guliang, do you want us to make a life-size stand of the devil for you and put it in front of the store? I can help you with the photo editing."
“…No need to thank you for this.”
No matter what era, gossip always spreads at an astonishing speed.
After deciding to use the name of the Demon God to increase the fame of the shop and attract mages to the store, relying on the unremitting spread of the special task force members, in just a few days, related news spread among all major races in the city.
No matter whether the people who came to inquire believed it or not, as long as they walked to the door and entered this shop carefully designed by countless business experts on Earth, no one would come out empty-handed.
Those who have magic crystals can take them out, and those who don’t have magic crystals?
Then pour out everything you know!
From the color of the city lord's second brother-in-law's pants to the number of skeletons that entered the city today and were knocked down by cars, the students of Mo University, relying on the support of Earth suppliers, accepted all the information - anyway, the content had been sorted and analyzed by the intelligence experts at the command center, and they were only responsible for obtaining the information.
Of course, they were not the stupid sons of landlords. They would usually just give a handful of melon seeds to dismiss such rubbish gossip.
Soon, their shop had a bumper harvest.
Because Zong Qinyuan had warned him not to show up in front of outsiders casually and to maintain some mystery, Gu Liangyi had been staying on the second floor doing his homework all this time, and also helping Yi Yan make up for the professional courses he had missed.
He didn't feel aggrieved or anything, as he was not the kind of person who liked to join in the fun.
Since everyone who entered the shop was informed that only those with important intelligence and high-quality magic crystals could go up to the second floor and be treated as "VIPs", and even have the chance to meet the owner of the shop, during this period of time, there were also some people with bad intentions who wanted to make trouble in order to spy on the shop's details.
Some wanted to pass off inferior goods as good ones, and brought some random ores and said they were high-quality magic crystals, but after they sent the goods up, Gu Liang saw through them at a glance;
Others shouted that they had very important information and would not tell it until they met the Demon God. However, when they got to the second floor, they hesitated for a long time, evaded the question, and were unwilling to give a direct answer when asked who sent them.
However, the command center had already taken this situation into consideration. Since this person refused to accept the toast, Yi Yan was too lazy to be polite to him.
He walked over with a cold face, kicked the man over with the chair, then tied him up like a dumpling and gave him a shot of anesthetic and anesthetic scoparia, making sure that his ancestors would be punished clearly for all eternity.
Since then, no one in the city dared to challenge the owner of the shop named after the devil.
Moreover, a new rumor began to spread wildly in the city:
The Demon Lord has just been unsealed, and his strength is still weak. He needs to devour a large amount of energy from magic crystals to recover, but his most loyal evil dog has been guarding him all the time, inseparable, and will tear apart any enemy who dares to offend him for his master.
When Gu Liang heard this rumor, the only thought in his mind was:
Devil, so miserable.
They have been sealed for thousands of years, and not only their names have been used as spokespersons, but even their summoned creatures have not been spared... And then again, Yi Yan is obviously a living person, why is he associated with the image of a hellhound?
He wondered, could it be because Brother Yi looked too fierce?
"If that demon god still has a spirit in heaven, he would be furious," Jin Xuan gloated, "We have plucked him from the inside out, and he is almost bald."
Gu Liangyi came back to his senses and sighed, "It's not bad actually. There's still half a day left, I hope there will be a surprise."
A lot of magic crystals were brought in during this period, but very few of them could meet the standards of special civilized items. In addition, Gu Liangyi and his group had stayed in the city long enough, so Zong Qinyuan planned to let them return to school for a while and make plans after they had rested well.
Firstly, changing shifts makes it easier for them to continuously bring supplies into the city. Secondly, Zong Qinyuan also took into consideration that the mental state of these young students is not completely stable. Staying in an unsafe and dangerous environment for a long time will definitely have adverse effects on their physical and mental health.
Zong Qinyuan had worked as a teacher for a period of time before. According to his experience, even if there are scheduled video calls every day, some hidden problems are difficult to detect and can only be detected through face-to-face communication and observation.
After this suggestion was put forward, it was quickly approved by experts from the Earth Command.
In fact, even without Zong Qinyuan saying anything, psychological experts have already discovered it.
Many members of the special operations team have begun to show mild anxiety and uneasiness because they often have to come into contact with cunning and deceitful people from other worlds who come to gather information.
If these emotions are allowed to ferment and spread among the group, it will obviously be detrimental to the advancement of the next plan.
But what surprised them was that Gu Liangyi, who seemed to be the most prone to psychological problems, did not show any obvious negative symptoms after spending a period of time in the room on the second floor, almost staying at home every day and spending most of his time studying boring schoolwork.
He acted even more relaxed than he did in his last few days at school!
Lu Lang was not that surprised by this, as it was clearly written in the public security document. Anyone who was not a fool could guess what was going on.
Compared with what Gu Liang experienced in the basement of the welfare home, the closed life these days is nothing but a drizzle.
However, these confidential matters are not easy to be announced to the public, so some netizens who also found something wrong immediately got angry and said in unison:
What other reasons could there be for being in good shape?
Of course it’s because Gu Liang has someone to accompany him these days!
Drug addicts: What is this? This is love!
Gu Liangyi, who was helping to pack up things in the basement, suddenly felt a chill.
Yi Yan, who was standing next to him, immediately noticed that something was wrong with him. Looking at the dense goose bumps on Gu Liangyi's arm, he frowned slightly and asked, "Is it too cold? Do you need me to go up and get you some clothes?"
"No, I'm not cold." Gu Liangyi rubbed his nose and looked forward. "By the way, those two things...didn't Principal Zong tell me to carry them with me?"
Yi Yan looked in the direction of his finger.
That was the item that an old orc in a tattered gray robe traded with them before the shop closed today.
Their shop has always claimed that it only uses magic crystals and information exchange transactions, but this time they made an exception and agreed to the old orc's request, and even took him to the second floor alone for negotiations.
Because the Central Priest had told them that in the entire Ansel continent, only the wandering merchants would wear gray robes. Most of these merchants walked in the gray area, and as long as they could get enough benefits, they didn't care whether the trading partner was a wizard from Fermat, a fallen wizard from Morton, or any other race.
Precisely because they travel around the world for many years, they often have good things that ordinary people can't see.
The old orc asked them for some medicine and protein powder. He seemed to be very interested in the crystal lamps inside the shop and asked Jin Xuan if she had the same one, and he could buy it for a high price.
It was the first time that Jin Xuan, the sales manager, heard such an outrageous request within a few days of opening. You know, in order to transport this thing into the city to display it, several members of the special forces team were almost exhausted, and they almost had a conflict with another orc caravan. Fortunately, the conflict did not escalate in the end.
"Yes, I do," she asked after taking a deep breath, "but what are you going to give in exchange?"
This shrewd old orc was no simple person at first glance. Although he went up to the second floor, he was not interested in the legendary demon god Seris at all. Gu Liangyi had already planned to meet him, but the old orc did not even mention it.
"A beast crystal, and this."
He took out a bottle made of polished purple ore from his arms and pushed it in front of Jin Xuan.
"What is this?" Jin Xuan put on gloves and took it carefully.
The old orc didn't care about her cautious behavior. In his opinion, this way of inspecting goods was perfectly normal, which meant that his trading partner was a human with brains.
"This is a bottle of purification potion from the elves. Even for them, this quality is probably not common in small tribes. This thing has been passed down from generation to generation by priests."
Jin Xuan instantly exerted force on the hand holding the bottle.
Purification Potion...
This thing was also mentioned by the elves who taught at Desert University.
It is indeed very precious. Even though the elven tribe where Priest Central is located is among the top in terms of quantity in the entire Ansel continent, there are less than three bottles in their tribe.
Its value is even much more expensive than that of magic crystals of the same quality which are several times more expensive.
"I know about the purification potion, but what are beast crystals?" Jin Xuan tried to look calm and put down the purification potion nonchalantly. "I only know about magic crystals."
The old orc asked him an irrelevant question: "Then do you know the beast god Ansiel?"
"Of course I know that."
Jin Xuan nodded, somewhat confused as to why he suddenly asked this.
"Legend has it that some races were blessed by the Beast God, so they were able to condense magic crystals and become mages," the old orc said slowly, "but as the only and most loyal followers of the Beast God, we orcs are the race that is truly blessed by nature."
He smiled and said with some pride:
"We are born with incredible strength, agility, and superhuman reaction and explosive power. In the era before Seris was born, all races aspired to become orcs."
"That was a legendary golden age, a time of peace, prosperity, and unity among all races. The great and benevolent Beast God had not yet fallen into slumber. In order to give back to his believers, the Beast God decided to give these devout alien races a precious opportunity."
Jin Xuan looked at him and pointed at the dark red beast crystal on the table:
“And it is this opportunity.”
After hearing these words, Jin Xuan was silent for a long time.
Although she is usually careless and can send people flying several miles away every time she speaks, Jin Xuan's personality is actually that of a typical bold but careful type, as she was chosen by the special forces team and became one of the first members to protect Gu Liangyi into the city.
"I don't understand," she said bluntly, but this time with honorifics. "If what you said is true, then the two items you traded to us are worth far more than the goods we provided. Do you really only need those medicines?"
Those anti-inflammatory and antipyretic drugs are indeed very precious in this world where there are no antibiotics, but the old orc cannot be unaware of the value of the items in his hands.
Although Zong Qinyuan had warned them before that they must never use firearms to trade with alien races, Jin Xuan estimated that the command center would definitely be willing to give in in the face of such an attractive temptation.
"According to the life span of orcs, I am already considered long-lived," the old orc looked into her confused eyes and sighed, "Do you know that more than a hundred years ago, I had a good friend named Antonio?"
Jin Xuan was stunned for a moment, then her eyes widened: "Are you talking about the great prophet Antonio?"
"Yes, it's him." The old orc nodded. "My good friend, his predictions have never been wrong. As the only friend who stayed by his side before his death, I am the only one in the entire continent who knows his last words."
Jin Xuan blinked, sat up straight, and pretended to listen attentively.
The entire process of their conversation was truthfully displayed to Gu Liangyi and the personnel on duty in the basement by the camera in the southeast corner of the room. Being seen by Gu Liangyi meant being seen by everyone in the world.
But then, the old orc's next words made them break into a cold sweat:
He pondered for a moment and asked slowly:
"You guys, aren't from this world, right?"
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