Chapter 152

Chapter 152

"Mom, where’s my crystal for the computer?"

"There it is, on the table. Hurry up! You two are as slow as turtles. The residents of h8 need to evacuate between 12 and 1 PM."

"Alright, alright, I know."

In the underground city designated as East Zone 3, people from various areas of JiuZhou were packing their belongings in an orderly evacuation.

The buildings here were all hexagonal honeycomb structures, with one unit per household, divided into two levels: living quarters above and daily life spaces below. Despite being small, they had everything necessary.

Each row consisted of eight households, four rows made a team, and eight teams formed a 'village.'

The underground city was organized by villages, each equipped with activity rooms, health clinics, schools, and comprehensive offices.

A woman looked around at the place where she had lived for several years. Now it was empty, with only some traces of life left on the walls.

"I wonder how our old house back home is doing. Sigh, that was the house we bought after getting married. We’ve only lived there for a few years. If it’s deemed uninhabitable, we’ll have to move to government-provided dormitories. At least we registered before entering the underground city, so the house still belongs to us and hasn’t become unclaimed property."

She rambled on, changing topics frequently, using her words to mask her trembling voice and nervousness.

She had thought this virtual underground city would be her home until death, but unexpectedly, news came about the closure of the underground city and the return to their hometowns.

Thinking back to when they first entered, it felt like a lifetime ago.

What had become of the world above? When they went underground, it was during the peak of the Great Pollution, a time of panic and despair, with everyone scrambling for spots in the underground city.

Although videos were sent to each of them, the world depicted seemed too beautiful to be real.

"How could it be fake? That’s the territory our Star Leader conquered… Ouch, why did you hit me?"

"Don’t be disrespectful. He’s our Instructor Ji."

After hitting her son, the woman felt less tense and bewildered. Children were carefree, not worrying about anything.

"Oh, right, school doesn’t stop just because we’re leaving. Did you attend your online class today?"

"Not now, Mom, this is a historic moment…"

"Regardless of what moment it is, you still have to go to school! Go, turn on the computer."

"..."

The grand journey home began. In the academy, Ji Xinghai had also finished his calls from JiuZhou, including a ten-minute chat with his parents, mostly filled with praise.

He put down the phone and silently rolled three times on the grass.

What was happiness? Happiness was bringing home a perfect score for the parents to sign.

The Ji family always emphasized encouragement. According to his parents, Ji Xinghai was simply the best in the world.

Even the JiuZhou liaison joined in, praising him so much that Ji Xinghai almost believed he had saved the world.

Ah, lost in the sea of compliments, he felt himself slipping away.

Ji Xinghai knew they were only sharing good news, avoiding the bad. The purification process had removed pollution, but the damaged ecosystem couldn’t recover overnight. JiuZhou needed to rebuild, and this was the time to rise.

They were just ahead now, but other countries would catch up eventually. Seizing this opportunity for development would ensure JiuZhou’s continued progress.

Who wouldn’t want to be the leader?

But these matters didn’t concern him much. National revival wasn’t the work of one person but the collective effort of leaders across various fields. He was just a crucial screw in the machine. So, he needed to continue obtaining the remaining three relics.

When he became irreplaceable and indispensable, he would have the greatest freedom.

Ji Xinghai calmly analyzed the current situation and found his position.

Yesterday’s glory was past, and tomorrow’s challenges were approaching. He needed to prepare for the games ahead.

There was also a part of him driven by personal ambition.

The planet was in its early stages of evolution, and neither the evolved nor the aberrant beings would be particularly high-level. Except for Hunger Games-like scenarios, it would be unlikely to encounter large numbers of examiner-level aberrations again.

He needed to cherish the remaining opportunities.

During the individual points settlement, he bought only a 'Cooldown Reset Card' and a 'High-Grade Fusion Card.'

The Cooldown Reset Card increased the single-instance usage of certain equipment cards, costing 220 points. The High-Grade Fusion Card, which could fuse different types of equipment, cost 300 points.

First, he increased the single-instance usage of Shi Li Hong Zhaung, then fused it with the upgraded game space grid, creating the ultimate Shi Li Hong Zhaung card.

Ultimate Shi Li Hong Zhaung Card:

- Bridal Trunk Function: Carries automatically, with 108 trunks storing 108 items. This is a dimensional storage trunk with no weight.

- Ghost Bride Function: Can be activated three times per instance, transforming the user into a non-real, non-ghostly aberrant being for 24 hours.

- Shi Li Hong Zhaung Function: Can be activated once per instance, unlocking all features within the domain, allowing exclusive rule-making.

From the previous Rubik's Cube Building instance, it was clear that the Academy Battles and simulations would limit the use of students’ props. Quality over quantity was key.

So even though there were many other good items in the menu, he didn’t buy any more.

The Ultimate Shi Li Hong Zhaung Card, Master of Deception, and Delicious Carnival were his entire arsenal, with 983 points remaining.

"Hmm?" Ji Xinghai raised his head and looked across the river.

At the same time and place, the long-legged humanoid anomaly arrived with a food box.

He came again to 'appease' him.

The long-legged inspector walked slowly from the other end of the floating bridge. As the hanging branches partially obscured his face and figure, it was picturesque like a scene from an art film. But as he approached and revealed those two vortex-like eyes, it turned into a horror movie.

—This is from a normal person's perspective.

From Ji Xinghai's perspective...

"Hisss."

Ji Xinghai, struck in the heart, looked down at his wrist. The black contract transformed into thorns piercing his skin, reminding him through pain that he had touched the line of breach.

"..." If only he hadn't made the contract.

Had this man gone through hyper-evolution during the month and a half they were apart (including the time in the instance)? He certainly smelled delicious.

I want to eat him.

As the inspector approached, Ji Xinghai put one hand behind his back to wait for it to heal, while naturally taking the food box with the other. This was a three-layer bamboo food box, keeping the food inside at the perfect temperature.

"What is it this time?"

He opened the topmost lid.

Wow, it was steamed shrimp dumplings wrapped in translucent wheat starch wrappers, filled with shrimp and bamboo shoots. Some were shaped like garlic cloves, others like wheat ears, and there were even golden fish-shaped and petal-shaped ones.

These wrappers were dyed with different fruit juices: green from mugwort, orange from tangerine peels, and magenta from dragon fruit...

Ji Xinghai picked one up and took a bite.

The soft yet slightly elastic wrapper enveloped the freshness of the shrimp and the spring bamboo shoots. The well-balanced ingredients harmonized the flavors of mountain delicacies and seafood. The moment his teeth sank in, the juice burst out, tantalizing his taste buds with a hint of sweetness.

Ji Xinghai's eyebrows twitched slightly from the deliciousness, and the inspector's mood also twitched lightly.

He always reacts like this when he eats something delicious. But the twitch was so subtle that few people besides the inspector noticed.

The inspector also noticed a few small red dots on his other wrist, as if something had pierced through it.

Ji Xinghai, looking calm, didn't realize his true emotions had been seen through. He was still thinking that if the inspector ever lost his job, opening a dim sum shop would be a good choice.

—Assuming he resisted eating, which was impossible.

"The last instance didn’t have you," Ji Xinghai said.

"You were considered a distraction, not recommended as the inspector for that exam."

The inspector watched him holding the round bamboo food box, eating one dumpling after another. By the time these two sentences were spoken, the top layer of dumplings had already disappeared.

Are they really that delicious?

The inspector, who no longer had a sense of taste, was a bit puzzled.

"Was your undercover role discovered? Makes sense, you were so obvious."

The inspector thought to himself that he never hid his preferences; their realization now just showed how stupid they were.

"Oh, you actually have expressions on your face?" Ji Xinghai was surprised.

"...” Here we go again. Getting close to this human makes his emotional fluctuations more noticeable, as if he briefly returned to being human. He wondered if this trait was unique to him or applied to all anomalies.

Given how many examiner-level anomalies he could deceive, it might work on all anomalies.

"Your expressions are richer. Are you unhappy? What does being unhappy feel like? After becoming an anomaly, even if you're unhappy, it must be different from human unhappiness, right? Can you elaborate? I heard that most humanoid anomalies can't taste anything except those obsessed with food. Tsk, tsk, tsk, it’s a good thing I didn’t become an anomaly."

"..."

The inspector's pitch-black, unreflective eyes stared at Ji Xinghai, but Ji Xinghai remained calmer than him. Being the center of attention was normal for someone outstanding.

"Don't you like robots?" The inspector deftly changed the topic.

Robots? Ji Xinghai thought for a moment before understanding what he meant: "I like them, will like them in the future, but don't like them now." When he lives alone, he'll appreciate all-purpose nanny robots, but for now, he doesn't need them and thus doesn't like them.

The inspector seemed to nod, but the movement was too slight to see. Regardless, he understood Ji Xinghai's meaning and moved on to another topic: "I will still be the inspector, and I will be the leading teacher in the college battle."

"Hmm? It's already decided?"

"Not yet," the inspector said. "Eliminate all the interested examiners, and it will be settled."

This meant that anyone who wanted to compete for the positions of inspector or leading teacher would be permanently eliminated by him.

"Doesn't the college care?"

"No evidence."

"...Alright."

Ji Xinghai sniffed: "No wonder you smell better." It seemed he had devoured quite a few powerful anomalies during this time, making him stronger and more attractive in a short period.

So delicious.

Excited, he quickly finished all the dumplings. Since he couldn't eat the main course, he consoled himself with the side dish.

He actually continued to evolve. The Inspector had the potential to actively evolve into a full-course banquet, and he had never seen such an ambitious dish in his entire life.

But if he ate it, he wouldn't be able to enjoy such delicious steamed dumplings anymore.

It was truly a dilemma.

The Inspector secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

He had been somewhat worried that after eating too much of the exceptional Ji Xinghai, he might disregard the previous agreement.

Even though Ji Xinghai would still receive the final reward on the surface, the heart of an anomaly was always unpredictable and ungraspable. Beyond his obsessions, Ji Xinghai wasn't much different from an anomaly, both being quite capricious.

In fact, this unconventional but effective method was not typical of the Inspector's style, but after observing quietly, he believed it was indeed the most efficient approach.

Qin Yu was eliminated back then for a reason.

In a group of principle-less beings, being too rigid was the greatest mistake.

"Teacher, since your undercover identity is already known, there's no need to hide when meeting me. Come, come, let's have a late-night chat and talk about JiuZhou."

The Inspector remained silent for a long time. He couldn't quite understand Ji Xinghai's thought process. Even if he still retained memories, he couldn't develop any feelings for this land. Once the obsession faded, they were entirely separate worlds.

If he wanted someone to talk to, he wasn't the right person.

Ji Xinghai understood the Inspector's meaning.

"It's precisely because I'm talking to you that it's interesting," he emphasized. "Everyone else can go back, so talking to them doesn't give me a sense of superiority. But you're different; you can't go back, while I can."

"..." The Inspector packed away the food box and turned to leave, "No interest, no talk."

"Next time, I want to eat drunken crab."

"Alright."