Chapter 373: Speculation

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

After Wang Liansheng left, he quickly sent two meals and one large piece of bloody raw pork covered in plastic wrap to Zhang Lisheng’s tent along with another odd-job soldier.

The raw pork was surprisingly huge, with a weight of about 10 to 15 kilograms. It still felt a little icy cold so it must have only been thawed not long ago.

From the regretful look of the two odd-job soldiers, one could tell that this kind of fresh raw meat that was produced from Earth was very valuable in Oasis World. From this, it was also evident that the campsite’s commander’s order of satisfying the needs of the Gate of Witchcraft’s people was not just a rumor.

“They already know the value of the donkey and want to work it to turn the millstone so they’re now feeding it with premium meals huh? This world is really realistic...” After the odd-job soldier left, Zhang Lisheng finished his dinner and grabbed the raw meat in his hand before walking out of the tent, muttering to himself.

It was still early but the campsite was already quiet and without light. There was only a lamp post, that was supported by the electrical fence covering the sky of the entire campsite, standing alone in the center of the camp, which was surrounded by a circle of tents, emitting a soft flame-like brilliance.

This lamp post would be lit the entire night till the next morning. The function it had was similar to making a pile of bonfires in the Earth’s jungle to fend off beasts at night.

Zhang Lisheng watched from afar and could immediately guess the function of this huge lamp post that had just been lit. He could not help but praise, “What an amazing idea” as he briskly walked across the row of camps occupied by the wizards quietly and walked to the edge of the camp.

The camp was completely wrapped by electrical fences. When he got near the fence, he could see that the grid of the electrical fence was the size of about an extra-big bowl. Outside the fence was a deep moat and farther out was the foreign world’s lush green jungle that stretched out as far as the eyes could see.

The young man glanced at the surroundings nonchalantly. Relying on his ability that allowed him to see a mosquito flapping its wings 100 meters away in the dark, he was surprised to not see any surveillance gear. it was apparent that such negligence was unimaginable so there must be some unknown fishiness about this.

However, the mutual exploitation relationship between the Gate of Witchcraft and the military had already been clarified so Zhang Lisheng no longer cared about the details. Shredding open the plastic wrap on the raw meat, he threw it on the ground and began to cast the ‘assemble’ spell with his mind.

At that instant, a gush of faint black smog drifted out of him and plunged into the raw meat on the ground. After it encountered blood, it transformed into a mist of reddish black and began to spread out in the air.

historical

Not long after, bloodcurdling buzzing sounds began to resonate from the surroundings. Several hundreds of flying insects that were the size of a thumb began to fly out of the jungles strewn with giant trees and gathered to become a mottled variegated fog that flew to the meat.

When Zhang Lisheng saw the group of insects that was about two to three cubic meters in volume at most, he recalled the horrifying scene of how he could lure in thousands of insects that could blot out the sky using living prey back then and sighed before muttering, “Looks like it’s not easy to lure the insects using raw meat. Living prey would work better...”

When he was talking to himself, the flying insects were already near the camp’s electrical fence.

By right, the thumb-sized insects should be able to fly through the bowl-like wide electrical fence but a series of cyan electric light flashed on the electrical fence and just like that, the flying insects were sent flying like rain with “pop pop...” sounds, falling into the moat outside the camp.

“T-This is...” Zhang Lisheng was stunned. His mouth dropped as he stared at the flying insects that had fallen into the moat that struggled for a while and actually flew up again again to slam themselves onto the electrical fence. However, when they were about to fly through the mesh, a small current flashed again in the mesh and hit the insects. Some of them were sent flying, some of them were killed, and even turned into burnt bodies.

The insects that were enchanted by spells had already lost their natural instinct to avoid the disadvantage. After they failed, they kept slamming into it again and again repeatedly. The burning smell at the edge of the young man’s nose was getting stronger and stronger. When he snapped back to reality, he pondered over it and carefully reached out a long arm with one of his fingers stretched out to touch the mesh of the electrical fence.

Just as his fingers were about to cross the mesh, a few flashes of light flashed out of the surrounding wires. Then, an electrical arc even appeared and blocked Zhang Lisheng’s finger.

The numbness caused by the current spread out from his finger tip but the young man did not remove his finger but instead, he exerted a greater strength forcefully. As his strength was increased, the intensity of the electrical arc from the electric fence’s mesh also increased constantly. It was only until the scales that were forced to appear on Zhang Lisheng’s palm disappeared that the current gradually weakened, despite remaining to be successive.

“A grounded electrical fence that can automatically adjust the intensity of its electric shock according to the impact force and can even partially suppress my nihilation omniscient power of my incarnated lizard... Hmm, the Chinese government has quite a powerful trump card...” After retracting his finger, the young man lamented and picked up the raw meat on the ground, before returning to his tent in silence.

After sitting on the edge of the bed pondering for a while, he suddenly stood up and walked to the bedside of this tent-mate Pei Youliang and looked at the person constantly trembling under the thin quilt. As a smile crept up his mouth, he clenched his right fist like a chisel and hit the temple on the head of the human figure soundlessly.

With just one blow, the human figure no longer trembled. His entire body had evidently stretched out as he fainted right away.

Zhang Lisheng smiled with satisfaction and strode into the bathroom. Stripping his clothes off entirely, his body suddenly enlarged to reach a height of about two meters. Faint dark, almost colorless scales, rapidly grew on his body as several scorpion tails pierced out of his skin of his back. After a flash of faint brilliance, his body disappeared without a trace.

Just as Zhang Lisheng had nihilated in the bathroom, in a double tent under the magnificent lamppost of the camp, Guo Caiying, who was dressed in cooling pajamas, walked out of the bathroom treading on her slippers looking as though she was ladened with worry.

“What’s wrong with you, Caiying? We’ve been busy for the whole day and now we can finally relax but you look as though you’re preoccupied by some troubles since dinner just now. What is in your mind actually? I’m gonna use a hard approach if you still don’t tell me the truth!” On the two steel wire beds that were placed closely next to each other, a beautiful girl wearing a thin T-shirt with her wet long hair draped over her shoulders, could not help but ask when she saw her friend frowning.

“What is there to be on my mind? You accompany Old Wang to organize data everyday so of course you’ll find yourself to be busy. I’m a lazy person who has nothing to do all day so of course I’m frustrated!” Guo Caiying sat down beside Ai Chuhe, whose long hair was draped over her shoulder and replied in a slouch.

“Comrade Guo Caiying, rice can be eaten indiscriminately, but words can’t be said indiscriminately! Watch out, you’ll be put behind bars if you slander me. Right now, Old Wang and I are nothing but normal comrades. He’s a researcher transferred from the Yellow Dust World’s research team to the Oasis World’s research team to support the project here, while I’m a temporary research assistant, who is studying at a famous foreign university and is about to graduate from my undergraduate study to enroll in postgraduate institution, serving my country...”

“Oh stop saying those words, Comrade Ai Chuhe. I’m going to throw up if you continue!”

“Huh! It’s up to you whether to believe or not! But anyway, aren’t you being taken care well by Battalion Commander Liu? Other sick people only have two river shrimps in their meals at most while you, Little Young Missy, have a full plate of seafood, just lacking only a mere Alaskan King Crab! Don’t tell me that this move has taken an effect on you and has finally moved out Little Young Miss Guo and makes you ladened with worry...”

“Stop guessing blindly, Chuhe. I-I cannot keep this a secret anymore as you may see him anytime anyway. Lisheng is also in our camp!” Guo Caiying suddenly interrupted her best friend’s words and whispered as lowly as possible.

“How is this possible?” Upon hearing this, Ai Chuhe blurted out a shout. “He’s an American citizen! Besides, with his importance, even if he really came to the camp, he’d be able to host an independent research project here. I’d have seen him a long time before...”

“Shh, stop being so loud! Keep the volume down! He didn’t come to the campsite as a biologist! instead, he came here with the group of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ people this morning!”

“Aren’t those people from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences supernatural beings or something? W-Why would Zhang Lisheng be together with them? Don’t tell me that...” Ai Chuhe was stunned for a while and stuttered.

“Impossible! He doesn’t...” Guo Caiying shook her head like a rattle-drum and said in a hurry.

“Caiying, I haven’t finished saying my sentence yet so how do you know what I was going to say! To think that you actually said ‘impossible’ anyway!” Ai Chuhe looked at her friend’s face that was colored with a complicated expression. “This is not a joke! The biggest possibility why Zhang Lisheng came here is because he’s a spy! When I was still together with Old Wang last time, he has told me about the intelligence warfare of Soviet Russia and the United States before. Many scholars have worked part-time as spies before. This is not a baseless rumor but can be confirmed by official confidential data instead! Scholars are clever and have good memory. Not only that, they know the knack pretty well too. An ordinary intelligence officer has to steal data and information but they, on the other hand, could grasp the key information right away with only one glance...”

“But Lisheng is born in China and has a net worth of hundreds of millions of dollars! Why would he become crazy and come to his home country as a spy?!”

“Perhaps he agrees with the values of the US country more! Besides, a government can’t represent the entire country. Have you forgotten how cold and bloody Zhang Lisheng is? He can even kill a few people easily! This kind of person would do anything that they like...”

“Ai Chuhe! He killed those people to save you because he’s worried about you being violated! Besides, those people were gangsters, they should have been shot, or even executed by the electrical chair!”

Ai Chuhe was stunned for a while before replying with a wry smile, “Why are you getting angry at me, Caiying? I’m merely explaining the greatest possibility to you. Of course, it may also be that Lisheng has inadvertently heard the news of the Oasis World and merely tried to mix in to satisfy his curiosity by acting upon his impulses. The temptation this kind of foreign world’s mainland that has not been destroyed by intelligent creatures has on a biologist is even greater than the temptation drugs has on a drug addict! In the end, he has lucked out and managed to mix in. Oh yeah, that’s right! Isn’t he supposed to be on an academic exchange at Sichuan University this summer? It’s not impossible for him to find out about the Oasis World in that kind of environment...”

“Okay stop it, Chuhe! I’ve made up my mind to go find him now.”

“What?”

“We won’t be able to get our answers by guessing unless we ask him personally,” Guo Caiying bit down on her lips hard and said decisively. “I’ve managed to catch a glimpse of which tent he’s living in so let’s go ask him now!”

Ai Chuhe’s mouth dropped. When she saw her friend’s determination, she sighed and said, “Alright, I’ll accompany you.”

The two girls did not know that the person they were looking for was now in the primitive jungle of Oasis World. He was now being devoured by millions of poisonous insects but was shouting ecstatically in pain that was unimaginable to ordinary people. “I found it! I’ve finally found it! This idea really worked!”