Shameless Warlock - Chapter 40

Chapter 40: New Department

During these few days, in the information exchange between him and Kaiser, this prince from the Alter World clearly pointed out that the gods of Puluo World had carefully prepared a large number of monsters to send to Earth.

There was one species named cromers.

This species had no attack power nor venom and couldn’t hurt anyone. However, its reproduction rate far exceeded the scope of an ordinary species.

Cromers would cause a huge impact on the food chain of an ordinary ecosystem. Many locations of the Puluo World had suffered because of the invasion of cromers before. In the current spell system, there were no effective methods that could subdue this type of invasive-creatures.

Kaiser was worried about Earth, which had an absence of magic. He was worried whether Earth could withstand the first wave of cromers or not. What if the ecosystem completely collapsed?

Xu Nan was also badly influenced by Kaiser’s pessimistic warnings.

But now, he suddenly thought, “Could Kaiser have a misunderstanding of the words ‘large number’?!”

At the same time, the identification spell’s results are out.

[Cromers that are being stewed]

[Creature type: god-created creature]

Xu Nan chortled, it was as expected.

He went online to search for some information and discovered that the green-skinned crayfish did indeed appear three days ago.

They mainly appeared in the lakes and rivers of the southeastern province. This was especially so for the province next to where they were.

When the cromers appeared, no one paid any attention to them because they simply resembled crayfish too much; only the color of their shells was different after being cooked. But basically, they were still crayfish.

The province next door had always been known for its strong customs and good-naturedness. On the very day itself, there were already people trying this ‘new-variety’ of crayfish. They discovered that their taste was extremely great. The texture of their flesh was extremely succulent.

Someone sent one to the laboratory for a check. The results showed that eating these wouldn’t cause any harm to humans, and it actually contained quite a high amount of protein.

With that information and the manipulation by a few merchants, a WeChat marketing campaign kicked forth. For a time, a popular trend of eating green-skinned crayfish started in all parts of China.

In merely three days, they had eaten so many cromers that they almost caused the entire species to go extinct!

One must know that the merchants had yet to think of a solution to breed this new-type of crayfish artificially.

So, people on Weibo (Chinese version of twitter) were calling for everyone to stop eating the crayfish and allow them to repopulate.

One couldn’t help but say that the people in China were all very fierce with regard to the aspect of eating.

When Xu Nan saw this piece of news, he suddenly felt a sense of wonder. But everything made sense.

On Weibo, some people had sent pictures of remote villages being attacked as a warning.

However, all these discussions were buried under the craze of eating the new-type of crayfish.

Some people were even arguing whether these green-skinned crayfish were the best if they were eaten with the thirteen fragrances or steaming them in white vinegar.

These people were truly a bunch of idlers.

Xu Nan turned off his phone silently. He was now clear about the situation.

The future he saw had some uncertain scenes too. When Earth faced the invasion of Puluo World, Earth would encounter many ‘wounds’, but maybe the time wasn’t now.

At the very least, the gods of the Puluo World weren’t clear on the type of civilizations they were going to face when they planned for the first wave.

According to Kaiser’s description. On the prime material plane, they might not even have a billion people.

Even if the elites of divine kingdoms and the raptors were added, their population most probably couldn’t be compared to Earth’s. Only after adding the number of cannon fodder in hell and the abyss would the population of the Puluo World be comparable.

The ‘large number’ in their minds might be considered just a small appetizer to Earth.

This was especially so for China.

The monsters released on the first day definitely wouldn’t be of a high level. Xu Nan suspected that the vast majority of them were boars, wolverines, tigers, etc. Although there might be some of them with magical abilities.

However, the amount of impact these monsters caused Huaxia was extremely limited.

After all, urbanization was extremely serious in the current era. Other than some remote villages far away, these creatures would basically not be encountered by other people.

This was especially so for the comrades staying in the next province. When they discovered increased traces of wild games in the mountains. The first instinct many had wasn’t to flee. They immediately took their weapons and rushed up to the monsters to hunt for free food.

Despite the relevant forest department announcing some vague warnings, such warnings weren’t able to obstruct the passion of people wanting to eat wild games on the mountains.

The physics of Earth hadn’t changed yet. In the situation where hot weapons could still be used, it was very difficult for the gods of Puluo World to gnaw on this tough bone which was Earth.

Xu Nan guessed that most probably, the gods of the Puluo World would start to use divine spells as a follow-up to change the laws of Earth soon. The reason for this might be because they ran into unexpected trouble in their first step.

When he thought of this, Xu Nan felt more relaxed.

The danger might come, but at the very least, it wasn’t now.

From a certain sense, it meant the future he saw was still reliable.

The [Second day] would happen roughly a month later. Xu Nan still had enough time to grow stronger.

“Why are you in a daze, come and eat together!”

Lu Junyi passionately called out. “In any case, I feel that your information might have some problems. After the commotion of these few days passed, I will use my connections to check things out to see if anything strange had really happened.”

“Now, let’s finish off these delicious crayfish!”

Xu Nan tossed his thoughts and troubles to the back of his mind and started to enjoy the food with everyone.

Tonight, they finished off a total of 15 kg worth of green-skinned crayfish.

Soupy alone finished 7.5 kg worth.

…

The next day, everyone looked for Xu Nan and stated that the situation didn’t seem to be that dangerous. Everyone still had their own matters they needed to be busy with, hence they suggested to head to the surface and check on things there.

Xu Nan knew that the first wave of danger had already passed. He naturally didn’t object.

Lu Junyi and Shi Fanglin were the first to leave. During these few days, in order to let Shi Fanglin become a job holder, Lu Junyi did everything he could, from cutting nails, to cutting hair, to piercing ears and tattooing him. The next step might really be to remove Shi Fanglin’s appendix!

Xu Nan also felt very strange about this. He couldn’t figure out why Shi Fanglin didn’t become a job-holder.

Gu Xiaomeng should know the truth, but her request was too demanding, wanting Xu Nan to be her boyfriend before she would reveal anything. Xu Nan naturally wouldn’t date someone from his own team.

By allowing her to stay and providing crayfish and lodging for her, he was already giving her face due to her large breasts!

Dating? It was impossible for him to do that!

Qin Lele was the second person to leave. The reason was unclear, but she said she would be back very soon.

Xu Nan mused that maybe her family was worried about her. Hence, he didn’t say anything to stop her.

As for Xin`er, during these few days after Shi Fanglin stealthily connected a networking internet cable for her, she was already completely satisfied.

Maybe to her, as long as she was in her room and there were air-conditioning and the internet, everything was roughly the same.

Xu Nan himself also took the time to return home.

The main thing was that he wanted to find out information about the next invasion.

The person he wanted to look for was actually Zhang Yingluo.

There was no other choice. The only one acquainted with people from the government was this senior school sister of his. And during these few days, Zhang Yingluo had texted him to stay home and not to head out casually.

From the looks of things, the Thousand Awn Agency should know of some things.

The place they arranged to meet was still the cafe at Xinkou Street.

Zhang Yingluo looked to be in high spirits, exuding a heroic and valiant feeling. It seemed like the monsters invading these few days didn’t cause much trouble to the Thousand Awn Agency.

“Are you alright during these few days? If you want information, I can only give you a vague reply. For the concrete information, I’ve sent it to your email. But I can tell you that very soon later, the upper echelons would no longer be concealing this from the public.”

Zhang Yingluo explained. “After all, the Thousand Awn Agency is going to walk from backstage to the front. We haven’t publicized ourselves yet because these few days, the name of the new department had some problems.”

Xu Nan turned pale. “A new department?”

Zhang Yingluo nodded, “Originally, we should have shared the news of job-holders and the registration procedures to the entire nation on Monday and also revealed some news about the Alter World. But due to the bosses quarreling about the new name of the department, they wasted a lot of preparation time.

“How should I put it…at the start, the Thousand Awn Agency was supposed to be an organized group of experts among the common people. Although there were people from military backgrounds joining later on, the bosses were still those people who took the lead in returning from the Alter World back to Earth. The bosses all have differing views among them.

“Some felt that the Thousand Awn Agency was good enough, but there were people who felt that it wasn’t formal enough. Some were quite narrow-minded, they said that since we are going public, we should have a more tyrannical name!”

Xu Nan felt a little awkward. In the past, he didn’t join the Thousand Awn Agency because he knew that an agency with this name didn’t exist in the future. He thought that the Thousand Awn Agency was just an organization of cannon fodder.

However, if they changed the name and the organization was an extremely strong power in the future, wouldn’t he have missed the chance to cling to something influential?

He hurriedly asked, “Has the name been confirmed now?”

Zhang Yingluo revealed an embarrassed look. “Yes, indeed.”

“What’s the name?”

Zhang Yingluo struggled for a while before speaking very softly.

“China Dragon Group.”

“What’s that?”

“…China, Dragon…Dragon Group.” Zhang Yingluo was originally a straight-forward lady, but now when she mentioned the new name of the department, she felt herself blushing!

“What name is this? The degree of shame and chuunibyou* level is off the charts!” Xu Nan relaxed and began to ridicule it. In the future that he had seen, the China Dragon Group similarly didn’t exist.

Zhang Yingluo also had a headache. “I heard that one of the true bosses suddenly stood up and made the final decision while everyone was arguing for half-a-day. News from the grapevine claimed that this particular boss decided on this name after he casually picked up and read a book from the Year 2009.”

Xu Nan was speechless.

“Junior brother Xu Nan. Now that the Thousand Awn Agency has officially changed its name, we are formally recruiting. This is the time when we need manpower. You have already registered with us, so you can come and help us if you want to. The benefits of joining early are very attractive.”

Zhang Yingluo started to persuade. “You are a bard, correct? I’ve recently become an official member, so I can introduce a few bard teachers to you. They are people who have been to the Alter World and are all veterans that have returned from there alive. They all originated from the Arts and Cultural Troupe of the Dongwan Military Zone. All of them are very powerful!”

Xu Nan thought about it and didn’t reject it. “Sure. I will head over for a look when I’m free.”

He also wished to interact with job-holders of other classes.

After bidding farewell to Zhang Yingluo, Xu Nan paid a visit to his university. He unconsciously attracted the attention of many people.

After all, after the ‘english word activity’ he had organized previously, many couples remembered his name.

Now, the monthly activity had ended and Xu Nan had gained a large number of activity points. Although he no longer targeted couples, many of them remembered this grudge.

Xu Nan didn’t dare to stay for too long. After understanding the degree of process in his schoolwork, he was preparing to slip away.

And at this time.

It was unknown where Song Xiaocheng had appeared from. He looked extremely haggard.

He pulled Xu Nan and spoke in a low voice.

“Dad.”

“I wish to discuss with you about the matters of my mother.”

…

Note:

Chuunibyou (中二病 / 厨二病), often shortened to chuuni or chuu2, is an often-derisive Japanese slang term for the embarrassing behavior of 13-to-14-year-olds. The term literally means “Middle [School] 2[nd Year] Syndrome” (often translated as “Eighth-Grader Syndrome” in US media).