Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In the System Prison.
Anderson reported, "Mr. Warden, Sadi is dead. I can only get a sense of what he was doing before perishing. He double-crossed us and was killed by the king cobra."
Fang Ning said, "Good job. It was no wonder you were the genius among the researchers, being able to learn the Black Cat Tom's Soul Connection so easily."
Anderson said, "You're overpraising me. I have yet to fully master Black Cat Tom's Soul Connection, or we would have been able to sense his betrayal sooner."
Fang Ning sighed, "It's still not too late. There are always some people who thought they knew everything, but in reality, they didn't know the first thing about how big this world is, how wide the universe stretches-"
The System said, "Host, you're preening again..."
Fang Ning said, "Nonsense, just follow my backup plan. Now that Sadi is dead, our best case scenario is lost, so we could only go for the next best thing. What a nuisance, why are people so complicated? The NPCs in my game were easier to figure out..."
The System quipped, "That's because the game developers were trying to accommodate stupid players like you..."
Fang Ning, "..."
***************
Vigilante A told Elder Hai, "The Indian spirit that I released as bait has died. It looks like our luring strategy was leaked. The king cobra was cunning, I guess it avoided the main force and was preparing to strike at our weak points. We can only use plan B now, depending on how willing you are..."
Hesitation filled Elder Hai's face as another report came in.
He made up his mind, "Scouts had sent a report, the beasts turned around as expected, charging toward the base. I have already said we need to vanquish this demon even if we have to spend all our resources on it. Order the staff who stayed back to retreat from the Land of Heritage and go back to China!"
Elder Xu was shocked and reminded, "The Venerable One had mentioned situation like this in his plan. The remaining things had been transported back to China, and the staff was getting ready to leave too. Other herb bases don't have the important herbs. Only the headquarters was still cultivating many unripe rare herbs that can't be moved or replanted in such a short time. There are some that can be harvested in a few months, those are valuable."
Elder Hai waved his hands painfully, "Xu, stop talking. If we can't sacrifice this, we won't be able to achieve the greater good. We don't have anyone with the combat power comparable to it, so we can only fight it with all our resources combined. That snake must have been trying to exploit that."
The System said, "That's a shame. It's as expected of a headquarters. When we were outside, I saw some really rare ones in their herb garden. I'm guessing they could be used to make elixirs with added properties."
Fang Ning said, "You idiot. You were usually so stingy, but how did you not recall now? You have your System Preservative Area that can even store my body parts and organs, couldn't you just store the herbs the same way?"
The System said, "Hm, Host, your reminder came at the right time... This old man Hai is wise, he would definitely give us some as reimbursement."
Vigilante A opened his mouth, "Elder Hai, I'm impressed with your resolution. We realized it quite early, there is time. I have an ability to store those herbs unscathed to be replanted in the future. Those beasts were strong, but they were not fast. I have the confidence to get there before them."
Elder Hai was relieved, 'I don't really care about the other crops, but there were many crops there that could help the younger generation to break through. Losing those would mean their breakthrough would be delayed, giving time to the other organizations to close the gap.'
Elder Hai said, "That's great. In that case, we will depend on you, Venerable One. In the future, we will give you a tenth of all crops grown as a thank-you gift for this event."
The System said, "Such an ungenerous man, I thought he would give us at least half..."
Fang Ning said, "Let's go now. Those are the culmination of their efforts and the hours they put in. If it weren't for the Indians trying to kick up a storm, we wouldn't have any chance to get it at all."
Vigilante A immediately left the estate.
***************
In the headquarters, everyone was busy. Retreating was not an easy job, especially when it was an emergency retreat.
However, when Vigilante A talked about his plan earlier, the retreat situation had already been addressed. All things that could be packed up, including important documents and a myriad of things, had already been sent back to China, non-critical personnel had also been asked to temporarily retreat.
As of the current moment, there were only a few people looking after the base who can leave at any time. Most of them were the farmers who looked after the crops.
Some herbs were too precious and needed to be looked after all day long, those were planted in the headquarters and were given the full attention of the farmers.
The farmers would be the last to retreat. If the headquarters was not attacked, the loss of these herbs could be averted.
When everyone received the order to retreat, they were reluctant. Some of the women even started tearing up. They knew it would all be gone the next time they return.
Some of them camouflaged the plantation with weeds, knowing it could be meaningless to do so.
The herbs were all their blood, sweat, and tears. Some of the plants were dangerous during the transplantation process.
However, the order had been issued, none of them could go against the order. They started falling into lines, preparing to leave.
A woman suddenly charged out of her line, her hands outstretched in front of a lush wild ginseng plant.
"I'm not going, lemme stay! I will fight the demon to death! This wild ginseng will soon gain sapience and has a possibility to become a Ginseng Sprite. Captain Wu, we can't give up on it!"
"Obey the order, Zhao Xin!" said a middle-aged man who looked like he had seen much of life. He tugged at the woman's collar and pulled her back in line.
"Captain Wu, this wild ginseng was moved from the outside world after having grown for five hundred years, that's so rare it could be said to be the only one left! We spent a lot of time and effort to transplant it into the Land of Heritage, and I have cared for it for ten years in here. Just a month more, it will have gained sapience."
"When it does, it will evolve into a ginseng sprite that no one alive would have seen before! Its future is unaccountable, I've said earlier that other herbs can be abandoned but this!" said Zhao Xin as she sniffled.
Many people turned their face away. Many of them would start to emotionally invest in the plants under their care, some of them were even obsessed.
It was evident that the wild ginseng was what kept Zhao Xin going.
Captain Wu was about to lead Zhao Xin into the retreating party.
At that time, someone delivered an emergency report.
"Captain Wu, Elder Hai had sent us an emergency message saying Vigilante A can help with transplanting the herbs. He asked us to give full compliance."
Captain Wu immediately loosened his grip on Zhao Xin. He was overjoyed, as he was unwilling to let the herbs be destroyed by the Blood Porcupine demons.
"Where is he?" he asked.
A silhouette descended from the sky.
"I'm on time, the beasts will only be here in two more hours, retreat as quickly as you can," said Vigilante A to the team.
He had seen everything from the sky.
"Vigilante A, thank you so much, I think we should stay behind and help. Some of these herbs are really difficult to transplant and needs special care-"
Before he could finish the sentence, Vigilante A had circled the herb garden as all colors of herbs disappeared as he passed them.
All of them, including the wild ginseng plant.
Everyone was stunned watching the feat.
Zhao Xin rushed over, trying to get a hold of Vigilante A who simply sidestepped out of her reach.
Zhao Xin yelled, "Vigilante A, where did you hide the wild ginseng plant?"
Vigilante A quickly sent the fresh herbs into the System Preservation Area and said without turning back, "Don't worry, it's safe. After this, I shall hire you to continue caring for it."
Captain Wu was a little unsure, 'What's happening? The wild ginseng is a rare item of the Truth Department, did Vigilante A just called dibs on it?'
'Ah well, I'll let the higher-ups worry about it. Without Vigilante A, it would have been destroyed anyhow. At least, if someone's taking care of it, it could still live.'
Zhao Xin did not fuss about Vigilante A's choice of words. The wild ginseng never belonged to her anyway, the only thing she wanted to do was to continue caring for the wild ginseng.
Patches after patches of herbs disappeared without a trace. Within half an hour, the entire stock of herbs in the headquarters had been taken away by Vigilante A.
The farmers looked alleviated. He was the Dragon God, so it was normal that he could pull off miracles. After all, Elder Hai had already given his order, they wore a relieved grin on their face and left the Land of Heritage via a secret entrance.
The System was still not satisfied, "What if we asked the old man if we can clear the rest of the herb bases?"
Fang Ning said, "Of course. Once the king cobra charged into an empty base, it would naturally want to attack other bases."
***************
The porcupines ravaged the headquarters of the Truth Department in the Land of Heritage. The herbal garden was the important place to destroy, but it was utterly empty, so they started demolishing the fences and the rooms to express their fury that was built up running back and forth...
The king cobra, Shaz, stared at the empty headquarter. Only the Blood Porcupine demons were causing any form of chaos, so its forked tongue expressed its dissatisfaction.
"We're leaving to another place!"
The porcupines in their berserk state were not listening to its commands. They were also very angry, what with the number of detours they had taken in one day.
First, they were told to charge at the headquarters, then they were called to attack the desolate herb base. Halfway there, they were mobilized to charge at the valley. When they finally arrived at the valley, they were ordered to return to the headquarters before they could even catch a glimpse of any human being!
Not even humans could stand the frustration, let alone these Blood Porcupines. It was impossible for them not to run amok!
Shaz hissed at them with its commanding aura.
However, the porcupines ignored it, only caring about taking their fury out on everything.
Shaz slithered toward the closest porcupine and sank its venomous teeth into its torso.
The porcupine was also a Pond-level powerhouse, it was strong and formidable. However, after being bitten by Shaz, it quickly lost its strength and started tremoring, sliding onto the ground, struggling, but not dead. After all, it was a Pond-level powerhouse, its vigor cannot be compared by a normal porcupine.
Only then, the other porcupines regained their awareness, and along with it, fear. They congregated together in shivers.
"I refuse to believe you could empty every single one of your bases!" Shaz was raging as it realized the failure of its plan to hit the weak points. Wrath filled its brain, brushing aside its logic, it needed somewhere to let out the fury.
As for whether attacking the other Truth Department branches would do anything at all, it no longer cared.
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In the System Prison.
Anderson reported, "Mr. Warden, Sadi is dead. I can only get a sense of what he was doing before perishing. He double-crossed us and was killed by the king cobra."
Fang Ning said, "Good job. It was no wonder you were the genius among the researchers, being able to learn the Black Cat Tom's Soul Connection so easily."
Anderson said, "You're overpraising me. I have yet to fully master Black Cat Tom's Soul Connection, or we would have been able to sense his betrayal sooner."
Fang Ning sighed, "It's still not too late. There are always some people who thought they knew everything, but in reality, they didn't know the first thing about how big this world is, how wide the universe stretches-"
The System said, "Host, you're preening again..."
Fang Ning said, "Nonsense, just follow my backup plan. Now that Sadi is dead, our best case scenario is lost, so we could only go for the next best thing. What a nuisance, why are people so complicated? The NPCs in my game were easier to figure out..."
The System quipped, "That's because the game developers were trying to accommodate stupid players like you..."
Fang Ning, "..."
***************
Vigilante A told Elder Hai, "The Indian spirit that I released as bait has died. It looks like our luring strategy was leaked. The king cobra was cunning, I guess it avoided the main force and was preparing to strike at our weak points. We can only use plan B now, depending on how willing you are..."
Hesitation filled Elder Hai's face as another report came in.
He made up his mind, "Scouts had sent a report, the beasts turned around as expected, charging toward the base. I have already said we need to vanquish this demon even if we have to spend all our resources on it. Order the staff who stayed back to retreat from the Land of Heritage and go back to China!"
Elder Xu was shocked and reminded, "The Venerable One had mentioned situation like this in his plan. The remaining things had been transported back to China, and the staff was getting ready to leave too. Other herb bases don't have the important herbs. Only the headquarters was still cultivating many unripe rare herbs that can't be moved or replanted in such a short time. There are some that can be harvested in a few months, those are valuable."
Elder Hai waved his hands painfully, "Xu, stop talking. If we can't sacrifice this, we won't be able to achieve the greater good. We don't have anyone with the combat power comparable to it, so we can only fight it with all our resources combined. That snake must have been trying to exploit that."
The System said, "That's a shame. It's as expected of a headquarters. When we were outside, I saw some really rare ones in their herb garden. I'm guessing they could be used to make elixirs with added properties."
Fang Ning said, "You idiot. You were usually so stingy, but how did you not recall now? You have your System Preservative Area that can even store my body parts and organs, couldn't you just store the herbs the same way?"
The System said, "Hm, Host, your reminder came at the right time... This old man Hai is wise, he would definitely give us some as reimbursement."
Vigilante A opened his mouth, "Elder Hai, I'm impressed with your resolution. We realized it quite early, there is time. I have an ability to store those herbs unscathed to be replanted in the future. Those beasts were strong, but they were not fast. I have the confidence to get there before them."
Elder Hai was relieved, 'I don't really care about the other crops, but there were many crops there that could help the younger generation to break through. Losing those would mean their breakthrough would be delayed, giving time to the other organizations to close the gap.'
Elder Hai said, "That's great. In that case, we will depend on you, Venerable One. In the future, we will give you a tenth of all crops grown as a thank-you gift for this event."
The System said, "Such an ungenerous man, I thought he would give us at least half..."
Fang Ning said, "Let's go now. Those are the culmination of their efforts and the hours they put in. If it weren't for the Indians trying to kick up a storm, we wouldn't have any chance to get it at all."
Vigilante A immediately left the estate.
***************
In the headquarters, everyone was busy. Retreating was not an easy job, especially when it was an emergency retreat.
However, when Vigilante A talked about his plan earlier, the retreat situation had already been addressed. All things that could be packed up, including important documents and a myriad of things, had already been sent back to China, non-critical personnel had also been asked to temporarily retreat.
As of the current moment, there were only a few people looking after the base who can leave at any time. Most of them were the farmers who looked after the crops.
Some herbs were too precious and needed to be looked after all day long, those were planted in the headquarters and were given the full attention of the farmers.
The farmers would be the last to retreat. If the headquarters was not attacked, the loss of these herbs could be averted.
When everyone received the order to retreat, they were reluctant. Some of the women even started tearing up. They knew it would all be gone the next time they return.
Some of them camouflaged the plantation with weeds, knowing it could be meaningless to do so.
The herbs were all their blood, sweat, and tears. Some of the plants were dangerous during the transplantation process.
However, the order had been issued, none of them could go against the order. They started falling into lines, preparing to leave.
A woman suddenly charged out of her line, her hands outstretched in front of a lush wild ginseng plant.
"I'm not going, lemme stay! I will fight the demon to death! This wild ginseng will soon gain sapience and has a possibility to become a Ginseng Sprite. Captain Wu, we can't give up on it!"
"Obey the order, Zhao Xin!" said a middle-aged man who looked like he had seen much of life. He tugged at the woman's collar and pulled her back in line.
"Captain Wu, this wild ginseng was moved from the outside world after having grown for five hundred years, that's so rare it could be said to be the only one left! We spent a lot of time and effort to transplant it into the Land of Heritage, and I have cared for it for ten years in here. Just a month more, it will have gained sapience."
"When it does, it will evolve into a ginseng sprite that no one alive would have seen before! Its future is unaccountable, I've said earlier that other herbs can be abandoned but this!" said Zhao Xin as she sniffled.
Many people turned their face away. Many of them would start to emotionally invest in the plants under their care, some of them were even obsessed.
It was evident that the wild ginseng was what kept Zhao Xin going.
Captain Wu was about to lead Zhao Xin into the retreating party.
At that time, someone delivered an emergency report.
"Captain Wu, Elder Hai had sent us an emergency message saying Vigilante A can help with transplanting the herbs. He asked us to give full compliance."
Captain Wu immediately loosened his grip on Zhao Xin. He was overjoyed, as he was unwilling to let the herbs be destroyed by the Blood Porcupine demons.
"Where is he?" he asked.
A silhouette descended from the sky.
"I'm on time, the beasts will only be here in two more hours, retreat as quickly as you can," said Vigilante A to the team.
He had seen everything from the sky.
"Vigilante A, thank you so much, I think we should stay behind and help. Some of these herbs are really difficult to transplant and needs special care-"
Before he could finish the sentence, Vigilante A had circled the herb garden as all colors of herbs disappeared as he passed them.
All of them, including the wild ginseng plant.
Everyone was stunned watching the feat.
Zhao Xin rushed over, trying to get a hold of Vigilante A who simply sidestepped out of her reach.
Zhao Xin yelled, "Vigilante A, where did you hide the wild ginseng plant?"
Vigilante A quickly sent the fresh herbs into the System Preservation Area and said without turning back, "Don't worry, it's safe. After this, I shall hire you to continue caring for it."
Captain Wu was a little unsure, 'What's happening? The wild ginseng is a rare item of the Truth Department, did Vigilante A just called dibs on it?'
'Ah well, I'll let the higher-ups worry about it. Without Vigilante A, it would have been destroyed anyhow. At least, if someone's taking care of it, it could still live.'
Zhao Xin did not fuss about Vigilante A's choice of words. The wild ginseng never belonged to her anyway, the only thing she wanted to do was to continue caring for the wild ginseng.
Patches after patches of herbs disappeared without a trace. Within half an hour, the entire stock of herbs in the headquarters had been taken away by Vigilante A.
The farmers looked alleviated. He was the Dragon God, so it was normal that he could pull off miracles. After all, Elder Hai had already given his order, they wore a relieved grin on their face and left the Land of Heritage via a secret entrance.
The System was still not satisfied, "What if we asked the old man if we can clear the rest of the herb bases?"
Fang Ning said, "Of course. Once the king cobra charged into an empty base, it would naturally want to attack other bases."
***************
The porcupines ravaged the headquarters of the Truth Department in the Land of Heritage. The herbal garden was the important place to destroy, but it was utterly empty, so they started demolishing the fences and the rooms to express their fury that was built up running back and forth...
The king cobra, Shaz, stared at the empty headquarter. Only the Blood Porcupine demons were causing any form of chaos, so its forked tongue expressed its dissatisfaction.
"We're leaving to another place!"
The porcupines in their berserk state were not listening to its commands. They were also very angry, what with the number of detours they had taken in one day.
First, they were told to charge at the headquarters, then they were called to attack the desolate herb base. Halfway there, they were mobilized to charge at the valley. When they finally arrived at the valley, they were ordered to return to the headquarters before they could even catch a glimpse of any human being!
Not even humans could stand the frustration, let alone these Blood Porcupines. It was impossible for them not to run amok!
Shaz hissed at them with its commanding aura.
However, the porcupines ignored it, only caring about taking their fury out on everything.
Shaz slithered toward the closest porcupine and sank its venomous teeth into its torso.
The porcupine was also a Pond-level powerhouse, it was strong and formidable. However, after being bitten by Shaz, it quickly lost its strength and started tremoring, sliding onto the ground, struggling, but not dead. After all, it was a Pond-level powerhouse, its vigor cannot be compared by a normal porcupine.
Only then, the other porcupines regained their awareness, and along with it, fear. They congregated together in shivers.
"I refuse to believe you could empty every single one of your bases!" Shaz was raging as it realized the failure of its plan to hit the weak points. Wrath filled its brain, brushing aside its logic, it needed somewhere to let out the fury.
As for whether attacking the other Truth Department branches would do anything at all, it no longer cared.
