The Great Worm Lich

After the sun rose from the east to the sky, it gradually moved to the west. A streak of sunlight moved slowly and landed on Duke’s face through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the office, seemingly dispelling the haze on the long face and making his entire face appear vivid. “Mr. Lisheng, if you want to venture into politics in the future, you’ll become the best politician ever. I’ll consider your proposal carefully and give you an answer within three days. Regardless of the outcome, I would like to thank you for your help to the country. ”

“This is what I should do, Sir.” Knowing that it’s time to take his leave now, Zhang Lisheng stood up and reached out his hand. “I’m truly glad to be able to meet you. Goodbye.”

“Goodbye!” Duke shook hands with the young man and watched him carrying himself at ease as he disappeared from the door. The smile on his face gradually froze as he sat on the office chair to contemplate for a while. Then, he pressed the direct call set on the phone on his desk and said, “Parotti, I’ll give you three hours to help me collect detailed information on the LS Group’s boss Zhang Lisheng. Remember, I want to know extremely specific details like what he eats every morning and what time he goes to the bathroom.”

“Yes, Sir!” A low voice resonated from the phone.

Two to three hours later, every information that could be obtained on Zhang Lisheng after he migrated to the US had all been compiled into a file of personal information and were handed to Duke’s hands.

From how he used a mysterious new ecological waste treatment technology to open a slaughterhouse and rose in the business community miraculously, to how he became among the first batch of Earthlings who discovered Shrimp World No. 2 due to the drifting off course of the Elizabeth Holiday cruise when he was celebrating his girlfriend’s birthday; From how he had killed at least eight agents when he was resisting from being arrested by the FBI and had to go to South Africa to avoid the limelight, to going straight to Stanford University from high school to study his Ph.D. in biology after co-publishing his first paper in the Science journal together with Steven. By a lucky chance, he actually obtained the opportunity to host Stanford’s biological laboratory on Shrimp B1 Island.

Looking at this bizarre intelligence content, even the secretary who felt he had seen a lot of things for the past 40 years could not help but have a baffled look on his face.

“This is completely like the protagonist of a fantasy novel. It’s like everything inconceivable happens around him…” Duke murmured and fell into contemplation. It was only until the dawn fell that he snapped back to reality and drove to White House urgently. At this moment, Zhang Lisheng had already boarded a passenger plane back to New York.

Like how he always did, the young man sat on a first-class seat next to the window. He looked out of the window at the sea of clouds that had been dyed to golden yellow by the setting sun, recalling his performance in the meeting between him and the US secretary just now. He was sure that the preparations he thought out with great difficulty for the past two days had not gone to vain and right away, a faint smile appeared on the corners of his mouth.

On the TV screen that was fixed with a bracket in front of him, the ABC (American Broadcasting Company) was broadcasting the reports of the people protesting in front of the White House. From the broadcast, he could clearly see that a large number of people on the scene believed that the current president, Rand Paul, was indirectly responsible for the tragedy on Shrimp B1 Island and even burned his portrait.

Shifting his gaze from the window to the angry crowd on the screen, Zhang Lisheng’s smile seemed to deepen a little. All of a sudden, he raised his arm and waved his hand before calling out to an air stewardess not far away, “Excuse me, please give me a glass of iced Coke.”

“Please wait for a while, Sir.” The air stewardess of the American Airlines’ first-class cabin whose exquisite makeup was unable to conceal the ruthless age quickly sent the Coke to him. “Your drink, Sir.”

“Thank you.” The young man took the Coke and drank it in one gulp. Breathing a long sigh of relief, he lowered his seat to lie down. The air stewardess by the side immediately sent him a thin blanket attentively.

“Thank you,” Zhang Lisheng thanked her once again. Wrapping the thin blanket over his body, he shut his eyes and remained silent for a while, before suddenly muttering in Mandarin, “The planning lies with man, while the outcome lies with Heaven. I’ve done everything that I can do so it now depends on my fate whether it’ll work or not…”

Just like this, he shut his eyes to attain mental composure all the way back to New York and accompanied his mother to live three peaceful days of life. By the morning of the third day, before the black smog behind him that was produced from the secret method cultivation could disperse, the young man received a phone call from an unknown number.

Picking up the phone, an inexplicable hunch rose in his heart. After taking a few deep breaths, he finally connected the call. “Good morning, may I know who I’m speaking to?”

“Good morning, Mr. Lisheng, I am Duke Fahr.”

“Oh hello Mr. Secretary Duke. Seeing that you’re calling me so early in the morning, does this mean that you have an answer already?”

“Yes, Mr. Lisheng, I have just been authorized by President Rand to order all the troops stationed on Shrimp B1 Island to fully cooperate with your plans.”

“So the government intends to follow my plans to try to solve the natives’ violent attacks on Shrimp B1 Island?” Zhang Lisheng asked to confirm again.

“Yes, there is a military car outside your house now. It’ll take you directly to the New York military base so that you can go to Shrimp B1 Island on a battleship. Then, General Cole Cowain, the highest commander on the island will discuss with you in detail about the plan.”

“Understood, Mr. Secretary Duke. I hope everything will go well.” When Zhang Lisheng heard Duke’s words, he walked to the bedroom window and kneeled on his bed as he opened the thick curtains to look outside of the window. Sure enough, he could see a black Hummer Jeep, stopping by the roadside. Delighted, he strode out of the room and walked down the stairs.

“May God bless you Mr. Lisheng. If this matter succeeds, the President will personally honor you.”

“The reason Im doing this is because I, myself, want to do it sir. It’s not because I want a medal of honor.”

“Don’t be humble, Sir. The medal conferment is only based on contributions. Anyway, good luck! I’ll see you again.”

“Thank you. See you, Mr. Secretary.” Zhang Lisheng walked up to the back of his mother who was busy making breakfast in the open kitchen and hung up before whispering, “Mom, I’m leaving today.”

“Finish the breakfast first, at least.” Despite knowing that his son would be leaving today, Lili’s body could not help but still turn stiff obviously when she heard her son’s words.

“The people from the Department of Defense are already waiting for me outside. But, I can bring these pancakes for me to eat on the road.”

“Department of Defense? Oh, so the one you were talking on the phone just now was the Secretary of Defense, Duke Fahr?”

“Yes, he asked me to help the government do some cutting-edge research topic.”

Lili nodded as she wrapped the fried beef pancakes in paper and handed it to her son. “I’m proud of you, baby. Go.”

Zhang Lisheng took the paper bag and said, “I’ll come back to see you when I have time.”

Then, he waved goodbye to his mother who was wiping her tears alone at home and went out to contact the liaison staff of the military. Finally, after spending two hours, he once again set foot on the beach of Shrimp B1 Island’s human gathering place.

It was only five days after the tragedy so the wreckage in the gathering place had not been cleaned up yet. Even the job of packing the remnant of the victims into the black corpse bag had not been fully completed yet.

Upon seeing this scene of desolation that met his eyes on every side and smelling the faint rancid smell being carried in the wind despite being covered by the smell of countless amounts of disinfectant, Zhang Lisheng pretended to sigh and mutter, “I can’t believe that I’ve just left for one month and this place would end up becoming a ruin…”

“It’s a ruin now but four days ago, it was hell.” An open-top jeep stopped beside the young man, an officer in his fifties, who had a typical US man’s square long chin while wearing three golden stars on his shoulders, sitting on the co-driver seat, interrupted his words. “Are you Mr. Zhang Lisheng?”

“Yes, I take that you must be General Cole Cowain?”

“Cole Cowain, the commander for the US Army, Sea Service and Air Force stationed in the Shrimp B1 Island’s field headquarters.” The officer casually gave a non-standard military salute and replied.

“General Cole, I believe that Secretary Duke must have already informed you about my plan.” Seeing that the officer was not being respectful to him, Zhang Lisheng went straight to the point and put forward his own request. “Actually, the things that you and your troops need to do is to just launch missiles and aircraft bombings at the designated locations during a specific time. It’s very easy to carry out both feats but you’ll need to stay in real-time communication with me.”

“This is easy. As long as I deploy five AWACS (airborne early warning and control aircraft), I’ll be able to achieve seamless communication on Shrimp B1 Island,” Cole re[;oed and turned around to give orders to the adjutant sitting at the backseat. “Notify Colonel Krause from the Air Force to deploy all AWACS to act as temporary ‘base stations’ to achieve real-time communication throughout the island.”

“Erm, t-there’s no need to be so hasty, General Cole.” Upon seeing Cole’s immediate and resolute actions, Zhang Lisheng was stunned for a moment in bafflement.

“The order I received is for me to cooperate with all your actions, Mr. Zhang.” Cole opened the jeep door and leapt down. Walking up to the young man, he looked at the young man’s face and said in a whisper, “To be honest, I don’t give a damn whether you’re a top secret agent belonging to some secret unit of the government who is responsible for the assimilation of Shrimp B1 Island’s natives or you’re really just a super rich, genius biologist! I only hope that you can complete your ‘performance’ immediately. It would be best if those ‘performances’ are effective but if they’re not, I hope that I can fulfill my duty as a soldier as soon as possible and send all of the midgets on the island to hell. ”

“Oh, you’re a War Hawk.” Zhang Lisheng remained silent for a while before looking back at Cole and said with a smile. “No problem, General. Give me a communication device and I’ll leave immediately. Tomorrow night before 12 o’clock, we’ll be able to see whether my ‘performance’ is effective or not.”

“Mr. Zhang, you have an admirably straightforward and unequivocal personality.” Cole’s first smile appeared on his face. “Do you need my soldiers to escort you to the native tribe?”

“I’m more familiar with Shrimp B1 Island’s jungle than New York’s Central Park. Don’t worry.”

“It seems that you’re also a very conceited person.” Cole nodded. He took a tablet-like communication device from a soldier who just rushed over and handed it to Zhang Lisheng. “This communication device is very simple to operate. Remember, your code name is ‘Compass’. I wish you good luck.”

“Thank you.” Zhang Lisheng took the communication device and walked out from the gathering place, evading from time to time, the trucks that were cleaning up the ruins along his way.