Civilization: Beyond Two Worlds - Chapter 426
426 You’re Popular
Space folded and passed through the crystal wall.
Kang De returned to Earth.
There were eight rings on both hands.
If his relatives and friends on Earth asked, they would say that he was the Lord of the Rings.
He opened his eyes. The familiar ceiling. Occasionally, a horn sounded outside the window, quiet and peaceful.
It was not the surging Red Maple City after the war, nor was it the dangerous Moroni. Instead, it was China, his hometown city, the place he had grown up.
Calculating the time, Comoros was in the middle of the night. He simply returned to China through the spatial anchor in the district. He wanted to ask Uncle Wang’s factory to help him process and produce some parts.
If he could not produce it, he had to buy it elsewhere through Uncle Wang’s connections and ability.
These things could only be discussed in person.
He sat up and activated his phoenix eyes. As the flames soared, through the wall, the vital signs of the entire residential building were revealed in detail. There was no one at home, and there were no suspicious people waiting up, down, or around. He looked next door. A body was walking in boredom, its posture graceful and slender.
It was Xiaoman.
The Phoenix Vision did not have the ability to see through walls… or perhaps Delilah had not taught it.
Now, the ability Kang De used was a little similar to infrared imaging. The phoenix was a fire-controlling divine beast, so it was not surprising that its eyes could see energy changes. As everyone knew, the temperature of various parts of the human body was different. In the vision of the phoenix eyes, it could distinguish levels and outlines. In other words…
The light in Kang De’s eyes converged and he shook his head.
Poor thing.
The nutrition of the other world was better than Earth.
He stood up, took a deep breath, and checked the mirror in the room.
There was no problem with his hands. Not only did he wear eight rings in one go, but he also put on half a finger of combat gloves that covered all the places he should not show.
The rings came from the generous gifts Kang De had received from all walks of life in Goethe. He chose a few wildly cool ones.
The half-finger glove was obtained from the Goethe Legal Department. It was tanned with top-notch fire fox skin. The material of the palm was a heavenly idea that combined anti-slip function and super magic affinity. The design was beautiful, flexible, and comfortable.
The other world also had the need for tactical gloves, especially mages. They needed them very much. They wished they could hang their entire bodies with enhancement equipment. Of course, the gloves were the most important, but they had to show their fingers to satisfy the need to accurately guide the spellcasting and increase their magic transmission. It was best to store a few emergency spells. The wrists of the gloves had to have the rope connection of a fixed staff.
In that case, even if he was accidentally cursed with a disarmament curse like “Expelliarmus”, the staff would be firmly fixed by the rope at the wrist of the glove and not fly out.
—Speaking of which, what were the wizards of Hogwarts doing all day for a design that even Nintendo could think of?
Kang De moved his hands and nodded in satisfaction. Then, he raised his arms and leaned his nose closer. He took a deep breath and the smell of skin relaxation shower gel filled his nose.
Perfect.
…Tsk, what am I doing?
It was all Horus’s fault. He muttered and searched, causing even him to feel a little guilty.
When he thought of this, he thought of Tina’s affectionate face and the days he had grown up with Xiaoman. He shook his head and did not want to continue thinking.
He reached out and knocked on the wall.
Knock, knock, knock.
The two houses were next-door neighbors, and Kang De and Xiaoman’s bedroom was also separated by a wall.
When they were young, because Uncle Wang was outside all year round, Xiaoman and Kang De had always played together. Even when they were students, they had to do homework together or divide the work. It was not early every night, so Xiaoman had to go home and sleep, but the two of them were both reluctant. Sometimes, when they lay on the bed, they would reach out and knock on the wall. After a moment, the other party could knock back… It was very boring, but it was interesting.
This habit continued until now. Even if he had a phone and more convenient communication software, technology had improved, but his lack of money was eternal.
About a minute later, there was a counterattack from next door.
He could vaguely hear hurried footsteps running out.
A moment later, the door opened. Xiaoman had the key to Kang De’s house, just as Kang De also had the key to Xiaoman’s house. He turned around and Xiaoman, who was wearing home clothes, appeared in pink cotton slippers.
Kang De smiled. Should he say a few handsome lines or give her a long-lost hug?
Before he could react, Xiaoman had already rushed over and punched his chest. “You heartless person, you still know to come back!”
“…”
Although this was a habitual flirtatious communication between the two of them and had an ancient history, this was a very normal communication method—that was in the past.
Time had passed. This scene made Kang De’s heart skip a beat.
Xiaoman immediately noticed the change in his expression and said in a panic, “Are you injured? Or…”
“No, I’m just a little tired.”
Kang De immediately explained. Then, the instinctive habit he had developed for more than ten years woke up. He reached out and raised Xiaoman’s chin, smiling evilly, “I’m tired. Smile for me and massage my legs.”
Next, Xiaoman’s response was based on her mood. She either slapped his hand aside and said to get lost, or she continued to act and massage Kang De’s legs with her ability to split mountains.
However, it was not like that this time.
Xiaoman revealed a sad expression and pretended to wipe her tears. She sobbed, “I’m afraid from now on, Master, you’ll look down on my willow-like appearance and want to seduce more and more women…”
—D*mn!
It was like a bolt from the blue.
Kang De’s alarm bell rang. His EQ operated crazily—where had it been exposed? How had she discovered it? How did she know? It did not make sense! It did not make sense!
Fortunately, the lying training that ran through his entire childhood and even his youth was effective! Thank you, Mom! His life of fighting with the people’s teachers had trained him to have powerful lying skills. From the moment he opened his mouth to admitting it, Kang De was extremely familiar with it. He immediately revealed a confused expression, as innocent as he could be.
“—What?”
His eyes were as clear as spring water and his expression was as innocent as a white lotus.
Xiaoman was puzzled, “You don’t know?”
Seeing this, Kang De heaved a sigh of relief in his heart. Looking at this expression, it was not the same thing.
He asked, “What?”
Wang Xiaoman sized him up a few times. “You didn’t look at your phone?”
Kang De took out his phone from his pocket and casually said, “I looked for you directly after I returned. I didn’t have time to look.”
Xiaoman was stunned when she heard this and smiled.
Kang De turned on his phone.
“—D*mn!”
There was an unread message notification on WeChat, an unread message notification, a missed call notification, and a Weibo @ notification. They were layered and terrifyingly many. A row was lined up backstage, and it was very terrifying.
Kang De said in surprise, “What’s going on?”
Xiaoman sighed. “Congratulations, you’re popular. Now, the entire world knows that you ran to Africa alone to save Dad. Now, a group of people is even crazily apologizing under Wu Jing’s Weibo.”
—What did it have to do with Wu Jing?!
Kang De revealed surprise.
He pinched the space between his eyebrows and organized his thoughts. To Xiaoman, his trip to Africa to save his father had only happened in the past few days, but to Kang De, it was already relatively long ago.
It was not purely a long time, but a long time.
The Goethe War, the bloody battle of Red Maple City, Goethe, the dragons, the enemy from outer space… These memories temporarily sank into his sea of consciousness, and the memories of the battle of Comoros surfaced.
After rescuing his father from the palace, during the street chase, Kang De was photographed by two British reporters. When the dead photographer was alive, he sent a large amount of video information to his personal cloud storage and tweeted it… Therefore, his action-like performance was seen by many people.
However, why did it grow so quickly?
Kang De frowned and asked, “Which videos?”
Xiaoman nodded and said, “Yes, two days ago, someone moved the video to Weibo from the outer network and said that someone had saved his kidnapped compatriots. At that time, no one believed it and thought that it was the marketing hype of a movie, so they scolded him. However, around midnight this morning, information about you began to spread in large numbers.”
“I climbed over the wall to take a look. It first spread on a large scale on Twitter and other foreign media. It’s not only these few videos but also your identity. Then, it spread especially quickly in the country…”
Kang De focused and pondered.
Xiaoman said worriedly, “Is there a problem? Even I’ve received many calls. They’re all from teachers and classmates who’re asking about you.”
Kang De comforted him, “It’s fine, it’s fine.”
As he spoke, a cold glint flashed through his eyes.
Information dissemination also required a process. In a day or two, the news would explode on the Internet. It was very abnormal. If you said that companies like Twitter and Facebook adhered to principles and did not serve politics, only to create a good life for the public and be objective and neutral, even an old pig would laugh.
D*mn foreigners.
However, this involved the game of the P5, the hostility of the Western world, the chaos of Comoros… These things were messy, and there was no need to let Xiaoman know.
He opened the trending list and took a few glances. In the top 20, at least seven to eight were more or less related to him. Kang De also saw the one Xiaoman had mentioned—the fourth place was “Wu Jing, I’m Sorry”. After a long string of popularity, there was even a soybean person covering his face and crying.
He opened it and saw a verified celebrity saying, “I originally thought that Wolf Warrior 2 was a patriotic movie. I didn’t expect it to be a documentary.” The entire trending topic was related and it was a carnival.
The thing that appeared the most in the movie was Wu Jing’s question. “I can even defeat an entire division alone in a movie in America. If I film a movie and fight more than ten mercenaries alone, I’ll say no. Aren’t you despicable?”
It was even accompanied by moving pictures of Kang De rampaging through the streets of Moroni and exploding everywhere. They were everywhere, and emojis were everywhere.
There were even photoshopped pictures.
On one side was the poster of the Wolf Warrior 2, and on the other was a screenshot of Kang De exploding in Comoros.
It was accompanied by words.
“The fake Battle Wolves. Their smiles are wretched and they speak the Beijing dialect. Their English is poor, and they’re part-time astronauts. Occasionally, they climb mountains and are pressed down by the crossbones. They’re the substitute envoy of Lu Feiyan.”
Along the way, Xiaoman lay on Kang De’s shoulder and smiled.
The twelfth trending topic was “Filial Son of the Year”. It was f*cking obvious who he was talking about.
Kang De shook his head and smiled. “I never thought that I could occupy so many trending topics in my life.”
Apart from these entertainment trending topics, there were also things about him. There were no secrets in the information era. As long as the teachers and classmates of the school, friends, and acquaintances in reality spoke up, his personal information would be revealed. Although many people called for the protection of their privacy online, it was useless.
This was the nature of humans.
Apart from that, there was also something relatively hardcore. Someone combined the information from the outside world and said that the journey of Kang De’s father was to first fly to Eastern Europe, then to the neighboring country of Comoros. He would drive straight into the border of Comoros and blow up the Moroni Palace… In any case, the main thought of the article was to exclaim at Kang De’s terrifying execution and mobility and sigh at how difficult such a journey was.
As expected, the comments section deviated.
The highest like was, “This is what it means to be someone else’s child.”
Kang De narrowed his eyes and read the articles.
Xiaoman pushed him. “Does it feel so good to watch others praise you?”
Kang De casually said, “You’re going to brag too?”
Xiaoman slapped the back of his head. “Shameless.”
…That was really not what he meant.
Kang De was not looking at these to enjoy the praise of the entire Internet. Alright, at least it was not his only goal. He was looking at the relevant details and some signs.
No.
His journey to save his father was carried out at the same time as helping Red Maple City, so he was extremely irritable. He used many methods to borrow the plane to Eastern Europe from Xie Ligan. After getting off the plane in Africa, he also attacked. As for Comoros, he started a massacre.
Any enemy related to his father’s kidnapping, be it the Gambia Invasion Army or Bob’s subordinates, was basically not spared. At that time, he killed them all.
The slaughtered military camp, the exploded corpses, and the necessary evil and dark parts of the journey to save his father were not mentioned in any article. They were all avoided by the media.
It was definitely not a coincidence.
Behind this carnival on the Internet, an indescribable hand was controlling the entire situation.
Kang De was deep in thought.
He looked at the trending topic at the top of the list.
Two words—Chinese Hero.
This was a little mushy. Even with Kang De’s thick skin, he felt a little embarrassed. However, after opening it, it was clearly a different style.
There was a post on the official Weibo account. The official news was accompanied by a photo of the devastated city of Moroni. There were ragged Comorians with tears on their faces and dust on their faces and bodies. There was also a photo of the candlelight of Moroni that night.
He even saw the Weibo account of Chakat II. It had just been registered yesterday. The king expressed his unforgettable gratitude to his best friend, the Chinese, Kang De, in a serious tone and with inexperienced Chinese grammar. He was grateful for everything he had done for the country of Comoros and for standing up on that hellish day to save many innocent but suffering Comorians.
The king’s gratitude, the media reports, many diagrams, annotations, and many interviews restored the day of humiliation Moroni had suffered as the capital of a sovereign country.
The white phosphorus and incendiary bombs attacked civilians, the shameless mercenaries started a massacre, the cold-blooded invaders of Gambia, the victims who fought unyieldingly and fought for freedom, the Western Embassy who watched coldly from the sidelines, and the local Chinese, the staff of the Chinese Embassy, the armed police officers, the Chinese company, and the Chinese Kang De who helped on such a day.
Such news, such a legend, and such a story were simply explosive.
The time, place, and people were right.
In a peaceful and prosperous world, human lives were at stake. The kidnapping of the Chinese employee of Comoros had already caused huge popularity and attention on the Internet. The netizens were all concerned about how this matter was resolved and if their compatriots were safe. Then, such a dramatic development happened—the kind that only Hollywood dared to film.
An ordinary student had displayed extremely strong mobility because his father, who was working in Africa, had been kidnapped. He had rushed all the way to Comoros to save his father and helped the people who had suffered locally. Anti-imperialism, resisting evil, resisting invasion, and a heroic plot. The Asian, African, and Latin brothers were united and dramatically unfolded. There were so many elements that it exploded. It would be strange if such big news did not explode.
Xiaoman said faintly, “The Internet has also exploded. The white left is about to worship you. You’re a free warrior now. The light of humanity has even reposted Thanos…”
D*mn, his vanity was inflated.
Although they had also done earth-shattering things in the other world, in terms of fanaticism and gratitude, the Goethe people were definitely more intense than Earthlings—but communication in the other world was not developed! How could there be such a thing as the Internet? Countless people pursued and praised it. It could directly reflect it and was much more exciting than in the other world.
Seeing that the smile on his face could not be stopped, Xiaoman complained, “It’s about time. Don’t whip over excitedly. If you want the people of the world to know that a great hero like you did not die under the bullets of the Empire and instead died from excessive excitement after becoming famous, they’ll have to explode again…”
The smile on Kang De’s face did not disappear. His expression suddenly changed and he looked up.
Xiaoman was shocked. “What’s wrong?”
—F*ck!
After Xiaoman’s unintentional reminder, in a flash, Kang De understood why the news spread so quickly—the country must have participated in promoting it!
Why did they do this?
This was because, in the eyes of those in the outside world, Kang De had been “exploded” by the joint air force of the American Empire and the French Rooster.
They crazily hyped up his popularity and promoted his contributions. They highlighted the drama and caused a huge discussion among the people. After everyone’s enthusiasm rose to its peak, the grievous news spread. The legendary story did not have a perfect ending. The hero who saved his father died under the joint air raid of the United States and France while running for an unfamiliar country and citizens. The greater the fanaticism of the people before, the greater the anger now!
So sinister, my country…
However, Kang De liked it.
If it was really blown up, this wave of operations could directly destroy France and the United States. The relevant people would definitely not have an easy time. France would definitely be in an even worse situation because they were even more involved. As for Kang De, his parents and family would definitely receive extremely appropriate accommodation and care. Even if he died, he could become a sharp sword and ruthlessly stab the foreigners—he was quite satisfied.
—But I’m not dead yet!
After this news spread, it was very difficult to explain how he had escaped from the joint air raid when he appeared again.
After all, from the beginning to the end, there was no sign of supernatural power regarding him or Comoros…
“Hurry! Where’s Uncle Wang?”
…