The Great Worm Lich

In the early days, steam-powered vessels were divided into two types: wooden ships plated with iron and fully steel casted ships. The 12 ‘black ships’ sent by Cole belonged to the latter. Judging from the hull size, it was completely and utterly the pinnacle of products in the steam era of the last century. For this reason, when Zhang Lisheng saw this general in the bunker of the human gathering place, he was in a very pleasant mood.

Unfortunately, Cole appeared to have a grave expression.

“Welcome back to the civilized world, Mr. Zhang, please sit down.” In the underground base command room, the chief commander of the US Army troops on Shrimp B1 Island sat behind a spacious office chair, while rubbing the spot between his eyes tiredly as he pointed to the chair opposite the desk.

“Thank you, General,” Zhang Lisheng sat across from Cole with a smile and said casually. “The dispute on the island has come to an end perfectly so I thought you would be in a pleasant mood as I am. I didn’t expect it to be the opposite.”

“Mr. Zhang, the reason you’re in a good mood is because you still don’t know what happened.” Cole became silent for a while, before interlacing his fingers on the table desk and staring straight at Zhang Lisheng. “Just a week ago, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia and Kansas have discovered a new ‘world’ in succession. The ‘space door’ leading to the four ‘foreign worlds’ coincidentally appeared in the city, in which a troop similar to Earth’s medieval heavy cavalry appeared from Colorado’s ‘door’ and attacked Denver City, resulting in 337 deaths. The US is not alone in this matter. In these past few days, countries all around the world have also announced the new discovery of ‘foreign world’s doors’. So far, the number has gone up to 37 in total. How do you feel now that you’ve learnt about this news?”

“Erm…” Zhang Lisheng was dumbfounded. Digesting the news that Cole told him, he replied in a calm voice, “I feel a mixture of joy and worries, General. Joy because our Earthlings would have more colonial targets now but worries because if we come across a strong civilization, maybe we’ll become someone else’s colony or semi-colony instead.”

“You really have a very strong nerve, Mr. Zhang. But let’s forget it and get down to business, can you really guarantee that the C1 tribe will never attack the humans on Shrimp B1 Island?”

“I can guarantee that, General,” Zhang Lisheng changed his expression and replied solemnly. “As the fake ‘god’ of that tribe, I’m very clear how much awe and fear they have towards our Earth’s aircraft missiles. To be honest, the natives are already scared. Coupled with the traditional concept of their tribes, unless all of Tudenan has gone mad overnight, they will never attack humans. ”

“That’s great, Mr. Zhang. Congratulations, you have won a medal of honor for yourself. I can tell you that it’s a very special case for a non-active military personnel to get such glory.”

“Thank you, General, although I don’t have much interest in such thing as getting a medal. To me, being able to research and study the foreign world’s living things on Shrimp B1 Island is the best reward ever.”

“Your heart is not only on this island under our feet, Mr. Zhang…” After listening to the young man’s words, Cole smiled and said in a low voice.

Zhang Lisheng’s heart gave a leap. With an unchanged expression, his train of thought whirled rapidly as he shrugged. “Just one Shrimp B1 Island is indeed not enough to satisfy me, Sir General. You’re not a biologist and may not understand the difference between the ‘island biosphere’ and ‘continental biosphere’. In the ocean, because of the separation of seawater, each island constitutes a unique ‘biosphere’. Sometimes, the species situation will be completely different in two islands that are less than one hundred miles apart. Well, the Hawaiian Islands is the best example. The research objects I’m currently studying are insignificant in the entire Shrimp World No. 2…”

“So you plan to launch a satellite on Shrimp B1 Island?”

“You’ve found out about this.” Zhang Lisheng nodded. “That’s right, General. With the full map of the satellite, I can guide the Tudenan people to go to other islands, or even continents, to build a separate dwelling so that I can come in contact with more research materials. I know this is very risky and maybe you think I’m weird and incomprehensible but to me, this is definitely worth it. ”

“I used to be the commander of the military base in the Middle East and I’ve seen those young people in their teens and twenties from Arab Emirates playing racing cars with each other. Compared to them, you can be said as a very ordinary young rich man already,” Cole shook his head and said. “Unfortunately, you have a good plan but I’m afraid it would inevitably fail.”

“Why, General? Why? Is it because you won’t allow it?” Zhang Lisheng was stunned. Feeling strange, he asked.

“Of course not. This is an island that has a decree signed by the president to hand it over to the civilians so the garrison cannot intervene with the satellite launching.” Cole waved his hand.

“Then, why can’t my plan be successful, it’s the government…”

“Don’t make assumptions, Mr. Zhang. Let me put it that in this world, when Shrimp World No. 2 was discovered, even though the US has already put her entire effort in exploring Shrimp World No. 1 and cannot afford to explore a new foreign world, the government still has the ability to use the secret funds in military spending to launch several satellites here…”

“You mean, there are satellites above our heads now?” Zhang Li gapped and blurted out his question.

“No, there is no satellite in the space orbiting Shrimp World No. 2.” Cole shook his head with a strange expression. “It’s inferred that all of the satellites launched have been shattered by high-quality magnetic meteorite fragments floating along the orbit. Most of them have exploded together with missiles and only one satellite could be said as a barely successful launch but unfortunately, it only managed to capture one photo before it got destroyed. That time, due to the reason that the continuous launching of the satellites kept failing, the military has even sacrificed a young female scientist for the sake of research…”

“Is that so?” Zhang Lisheng became silent for a while and murmured.

“It’s indeed so.” Cole opened his desk drawer with a blank expression and took out a high-precision satellite map printed in 4K resolution and slid it on the table towards Zhang Lisheng. “This is the only photo taken by the military exploration satellite that was successfully launched. This is not high-level confidential information so it should not be a problem if you want this. I’ll just give this piece of paper to you, Mr. Zhang.”

The map that Cole gave to Zhang Lisheng was a colorful fan-shaped satellite of 120 degrees. The only black spot with the size of a sesame that was marked with a name was Shrimp B1 Island. However, this mark alone was already enough to complete the positioning of the map.

This picture was indeed not much of a high-level confidential information but the excessive friendly action of this US general, who had a War Hawk soldier stance when they first met, still caused the young man’s eyes to widen in shock. “General, this satellite image is really important to me, but you, you…”

“Don’t misunderstand, Mr. Zhang, I just want to make this map meaningful,” Cole said in a hoarse voice. “Don’t you understand? Tens of thousands of people have died and now we have more new foreign worlds emerging so Shrimp B1 Island is already destined to not be the same as it used to be. In the future, the human gathering place on this island would most likely become an observation post of the military. The army stationed here would at most become a mixed brigade and the remaining residents will be scientists who have extraordinary minds like you. The government will withdraw most of the troops back to the New York military base to guard the portal of Shrimp B1 Island, so that the mobility of the army can be greatly increased. You don’t have to understand these military decisions but in short, the US government will completely abandon Shrimp B1 Island. The map that I gave to you will soon become waste paper and be stored in a portfolio as a general secret that would only be revealed 20 years later. After this secret is revealed later on, it would no longer rouse anybody’s interest so if I give to you, at the very least, its existence will become slightly more meaningful.”

“It’s because of this reason?”

“Is that not enough for it to be a reason?”

Zhang Lisheng shrugged. Even though he was still very suspicious, he did not say anything more. Carefully, he folded the paper on the desk and put it in his pocket. He looked up at Cole and suddenly, a brilliance flashed across his mind, prompting him to blurt out, “General, the scientist, who was sacrificed to launch the satellite, wouldn’t happen to be related to you, would it?”

“She’s called Laura Cowain.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, General…”

“Relax, Mr. Zhang. The fact that my sister sacrificed for the country makes me feel very proud. That’s right, I must write a detailed report to the Department of Defense regarding how the garrison force stationed on the Shrimp B1 Island cooperated with your actions to complete the devastating blow against the enemy on the island. I’d like to ask a favor from you to help me perfect the details regarding some of the ground attacks involving the C1 tribe, is that okay?”

“Of course, General.” Zhang Lisheng, who just received a great benefit from Cole but still had to put on a regrettable expression, could only nod. After spending almost two hours, he exhaustively helped the US garrison chief commander on the Shrimp B1 Island to complete his report of operations. Then, unable to reject the request, he flew directly to Washington State by riding on an attack helicopter.

On the third day morning, in a white classical English palace in Northwestern Avenue, Pennsylvania, the young man met the man who was known as the leader of the Western free world and accepted his confer of medal.

The ceremony was simple but solemn, held in a small auditorium in the White House, accompanied by the music of “Stars and Stripes Forever”. Together with another four to five professional officers dressed in military uniforms with a big piece of brightly colored rectangular medal of honor sewn on the chest who looked as though they had achieved outstanding battle achievements, Zhang Lisheng hugged the President of the United States and personally had their medals put on by the president.

Due to the consecutive emergence of the four foreign world’s door in the US, President Rand appeared to be very tired and busy. Even though he said a few words to Zhang Lisheng when they were shaking hand, he did not take the time to meet the young billionaire alone before ushering out of the White House. It was apparent that the Shrimp World No. 2 was no longer important to the US, just as speculated by Cole.

Zhang Lisheng’s outstanding performance there had also been devalued and no longer was worthy of attention.