Starting from the Dragon Tribe! - Chapter 54

Starting From the Dragon Tribe

Chapter 54: Urgent Mission

“Tell me, what’s up with this mission?” Lu Chen sat down in the helicopter and asked the agent across from him through the earpiece.

He was notified at night and boarded the school’s private plane on a 15-hour flight (Note: there is a six-hour time difference between the two places), going all the way to Africa, and now he was in the helicopter again.

But Norma only sent him a simple briefing of the mission, succinctly telling him that a special survey was to be held at Namaqualand, and he was being brought along as insurance.

He felt crappy; he had thought he would be called to butcher some dragons. Who’d have thought his role was to be a guard?

Whether he would have the chance to cut something down seemed to be completely uncertain.

The specifics would have to be obtained from Agent Merry, who had come to pick him up.

“The cause of the matter is this: recently, the satellite detected an unusual climatic phenomenon in a part of the Namaqualand Desert. The sea of blooming flowers refuse to wilt…”

Lu Chen raised his hand, “Sorry to interrupt, but did you just say ‘desert’? A sea of flowers in a desert?”

“Namaqualand is the only biodiverse region that is classified as arid on Earth. It becomes like spring during the time between August and September every year. A sea of flowers overtakes this place.”

Agent Merry realized that their Ace Agent didn’t seem to be good at geography.

“But now, it’s been almost a month overdue.”

Lu Chen looked out the window. It was supposed to be the season where everything was fading.

“That’s where the problem arises. This is an abnormal climatic phenomenon. If it only extended for one extra month, then it could be explained by a series of worldwide changes, such as global warming. But the fact that the sea of flowers has persisted until now means that there has to be some abnormal power at play here.”

“Dragons?” Lu Chen became interested.

“It’s still too early to tell, but there’s a big possibility. After all, only they have that much power to be able to affect such a large area. The sea of flowers stretches to 20 kilometers.”

“Which generational species?”

“Based on the records of the Secret Party and how big the affected area is, we speculated that below this earth sleeps an exalted 3rd generation species,” Merry was not exaggerating. Through the study of dragon history, 3rd generation species dragons were considered the upper echelons of the dragon race. In ancient China, many of them were appointed nobles, respected beings who held great power and authority, unlike the 4th generation species, who were merely “shock troops.”

“interesting,” Lu Chen thumb pushed Red Maple’s hilt.

“What’s more interesting is that this matter is tied to a previous mission. If I count the days, then it should be a few days before you enrolled,” Merry continued upon seeing Lu Chen’s questioning expression, “Previously, a bronze coffin was unearthed not far from this area and was considered by the college as a high-risk dragon relic. The Secret Party ordered the destruction of this relic, but the Execution Bureau encountered some trouble when carrying out the mission.”

“The bronze coffin was bought by a local warlord. The Execution Bureau and its negotiation talks collapsed and they encountered violent opposition. the Execution Bureau agents naturally won the fight after getting support from the college.”

Lu Chen nodded. This was the style of the Execution Bureau: if there was a disagreement, then fight. The enemy usually could not do anything against this group of warmongering hybrids.

“It is said that the agents invaded the warlord’s home, using a flood to destroy the bronze coffin, the agents’ reports were consistent, and the photos of the destruction were also sealed into the database.”

Lu Chen raised his hand at this point and asked, “I’ve a question, this kind of dragon artifact is usually recovered for research. Why destroy it this time?”

“Because the bronze coffins of dragons often have special significance. They are likely to be the preparatory place for them to cocoon, which leaves a… simply put, a spiritual imprint, so they can cocoon after death by pre-determined means, meaning the pure-blooded dragons of 3rd generation species and beyond are difficult to kill, unless special alchemic weapons are used to extinguish their spirit while killing the physical body, such as the Sage’s Stone.”

Merry continued, “And the college already has a number of this kind of bronze coffins in its collection, meaning there isn’t much point in keeping another one. Plus, the object is huge, so transport and going through customs would be a hassle. That’s why they usually just destroy them so as to not give the dragon an opportunity to resurrect within the cocoon.”

Saying that, she smiled: “This at least takes away less backup space from them.”

“But I heard that some coffins have various torture devices hidden within to seal the dragon inside it.”

Lu Chen was not completely absent from the class, so he remembered crucial bits of knowledge very well.

“There are such situations, but the coffin we found this time was not empty. It was clean inside, and its design seemed to be very comfortable, so we destroyed it as usual.” Merry shrugged.

***

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“Ah, got it. Please continue, since it has been destroyed, will there be any more problems?”

Lu Chen resolved his questions, but he knew that since he was asked to come here again, it all meant that there was an afterthought to that mission, considering the anomaly in that area of Namaqualand,

“The problem was a few days ago, when we noticed the anomaly in Namaqualand, the first thing that came to mind was that mission, so the agents who had participated in that mission were recalled to the college for reconfirmation. And it was in this process that we found a problem.”

“What?”

“Those agents had been hypnotized.”

“Kotodama?”

”You probably know that Professor Masashi Toyama of the college’s Kotodama is Hypnosis, and is usually used to brainwash ordinary people who have been involved in dragon-type incidents, as well as helping our college’s people with psychological counseling.”

“That kind of psychological counseling doesn’t sound like something you’d want to go to,” Lu Chen joked with a smile.

“It’s not as scary as you think. Most agents who developed mental issues due to constant killing during missions, and even ones who got depression, feel good after receiving psychological counseling at Professor Masashi Toyama’s, saying that life has become more pleasant,” Merry waved her hand as she explained.

“I feel even more scared now,” Lu Chen, however, stood his ground.

“continuing from what I said before… After that, the agents recovered the truth about that mission under the guidance of Professor Masashi Toyama. They did win the skirmish, broke into the warlord’s home, and destroyed the bronze coffin, but the problem was that the bronze coffin was an imitation—or a substitute—not a dragon relic, and if the agents were all awake, they would absolutely have been able to tell the difference. However, they were not awake at the time and were hypnotized by a strange power after entering the warlord’s home.”

“Why did that warlord hide so many coffins in his home? To use it for himself?”

Lu Chen wondered, thinking that rich people’s interests are really chic.

“That warlord was originally a collector of antiques. He especially loved all kinds of coffins. He thought that by observing the coffins of ancient countries, one can further understand the ancient culture of various civilizations, because many civilizations attach great importance to such things as burial, especially your China.”

“That was also in the past. I heard that people in China now joke that they ‘can’t afford to die’ and most of them are cremated.”

Lu Chen has been hanging out with Finger for a long time, causing him to spontaneously drop some offensive remarks from time to time.

“Cremation is also quite environmentally friendly, and can also solve the problem of occupying arable land,” Merry played along, but then continued on to the main topic. “This is a dereliction of duty on the part of our Execution Bureau, knowing that the warlord was a… ‘coffin lover’, but not realizing that this could happen. And, now that I think about it, the debriefing only had pictures of after the destruction, not pictures before the destruction. We trusted the agent’s written report too much.”

Lu Chen shook his head, “Can’t blame those agents. No one expected to be hypnotized en masse.”

He was just a little puzzled. Knowing the mentor’s meticulous and strict character, when reviewing the mission report, he should have found something fishy, or at least questioned those agents why they lacked the photos of before the destruction.

Was he drunk that day? With that physical condition of his, can he even get drunk?

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