Chapter 154.1 – Fire Seed (24)
◎ Respected General Xie Lan ◎
Zhuang Qingyan made a soft sound, tightening the joints of his fingers resting on the snake’s tail.
He dragged the progress bar back, pressed play from the beginning, and so everyone was forced to watch again the three lines of explosive and provocative headlines: “…”
This video was probably recorded with a ring-shaped terminal, with a limited field of view and occasional shakes. The person filming probably didn’t anticipate the astonishing developments later. Starting with a somewhat insincere posing on the deserted streets of the Elderly People’s Nation, after a short while, the ground suddenly cracked open. The camera violently shook, the perspective seemingly plummeting like a free-fall ride, inadvertently focusing on the sea—the enormous head of a ferocious beast suddenly appeared!
The realism of a disaster movie hit them head-on. The opening scene was crafted perfectly, no wonder this video went viral, immediately capturing the audience’s attention.
In fact, many people on the island were filming videos at that time. Some awakeners even maintained a connection with their clients, making it easy for them to understand the situation on the spot.
However, when the Elderly People’s Nation later collapsed, the Armored Sea Turtle went on a rampage, and everyone was embroiled in a fierce battle, too preoccupied to care about recording videos. But this guy not only didn’t turn off the camera, he even intentionally switched it to motion capture mode, enhancing the clarity of the footage.
On the screen, a line of text slowly appeared: “Main feature begins.”
Lin Youyou chuckled, “Oh, there’s even post-production.”
“Swoosh…” Two agile figures descended at the center of the frame. Song Ke and Su Cha appeared out of thin air, like twin stars flying together. Snake-like movements, weaving through the barnacles, they headed towards the head of the Armored Sea Turtle. The person filming exclaimed, “Damn,” stumbling behind them, tripping numerous times along the way. When he reached the head, he coincided with the exquisite cooperation of the two.
A burst of blue light, Song Ke and Su Cha, one real and one fake attack, both wielding unstoppable spiritual weapons, simultaneously stabbed the two eyeballs of the Armored Sea Turtle! Exciting background music played, followed by the enthusiastic text:
“First blood!”
“Double kill!”
“Roar, roar, roar!!!” The person filming let out an excited and strange shout, the voice vaguely familiar. Song Ke looked surprised, and after a moment, she dredged it up from the corners of her memory. Wasn’t this Yang Xiaobo with the talkative rainbow-colored hair?
Zhuang Qingyan clicked pause, dragged it back to watch again. At this point, Song Ke’s genes hadn’t gone awry, and in the footage, her agile figure was exceptionally lively, with clear views of her legs as she ran.
The Armored Sea Turtle launched a 360-degree spinning counterattack. Yang Xiaobo splashed into the water with a “plop.” The camera floated and sank, creating a suffocating feeling of the deep sea, making it hard to breathe. He finally climbed back up, clumsily wiping off the water droplets on the lens, only to find that Song Ke had disappeared from his sight.
In the distance, a group of mutated man-eating sharks appeared. Yang Xiaobo gathered his abilities, bravely rushing towards them, constantly muttering to himself, “If I die, this will be my farewell video. But it’s okay. Twenty years later, your Brother Yang will be a hero again!”
Lin Youyou supported her chin, looking somewhat worried. “If he keeps filming like this, won’t he accidentally capture Song Ke’s tail?”
Song Ke was suddenly startled, her snake tail shrinking and sliding back, coiling into a large mosquito coil.
Lu Xiaoyu remained calm, shaking his head. “If he really captures something, the Star Network won’t be as calm as it is now.”
The current online discussions covered a wide range of topics, but there were no keywords related to “snake tail.”
“Let’s continue watching,” Zhuang Qingyan said in a deep voice.
The video continued, and considering the time, Song Ke had already grown her snake tail. Everyone in the private room sat upright, fully focused on the screen.
Yang Xiaobo was having a particularly unlucky time. Just as he climbed back onto the turtle shell, he turned his head and collided with a Level 4 man-eating shark. The shark opened its huge mouth, seemingly about to bite off his head, but its movement suddenly froze!
“Triple kill!”
Song Ke emerged from a diagonal thrust, hands crossed for a lethal twist. “Swish!” She slashed the top of the ferocious beast’s skull, and thick black blood sprayed onto the lens. The screen instantly darkened, as if splashing the audience’s faces, but immediately, a pigeon-blood-red crystal attracted everyone’s attention.
Zhuang Qingyan slowly played back frame by frame. When the man-eating shark was pierced, a faint and elusive dark light flashed.
He zoomed in with two fingers, single-handedly grasping the curved fork on Song Ke’s tail, pulling it out and comparing it to the projection. “Can you see it?”
Fang Zhixu approached and observed for a moment. “I would only think it’s a knife.”
Su Cha agreed, “It’s hard to distinguish.”
Others also shook their heads. Song Ke’s attacks were clean and precise, showing no signs of anomalies in the video.
Next was the scene of Song Ke facing the Armored Sea Turtle alone. Yang Xiaobo was somewhat far away, and even at the closest, the lens was still slightly out of focus.
This was also the most likely moment to expose the truth. When Song Ke was propelled into the sky, her tail, not completely wrapped, might be captured on camera!
However, when the killing scene appeared, everyone in the private room fell silent together.
Yang Xiaobo, seemingly lost in thought, manually added special effects. Colorful laser beams lingered around Song Ke, resembling the rotating lights in a low-grade disco, almost blinding everyone’s eyes. What was even more outrageous was that he intentionally magnified the trident. As a result, all anyone could see was a flashy, multicolored ball of light and an extremely exaggerated trident descending from the sky, piercing through the Armored Sea Turtle’s head.
“Quadra kill!”
“Aced!”
In the moment the Level 5 crystal appeared, Song Ke bathed in a dazzling golden light (added in post-production), resembling the famous Buddha statue in the Rainbow Cloud City.
In such a scene, let alone the tail, it would be reasonable even if she grew wings and ascended in place.
Song Ke sincerely praised, “Wow… it looks good.”
Lin Youyou was incredulous, “You think this looks good?”
Song Ke blinked uncertainly and whispered, “It’s, um, pretty good.”
“I shouldn’t have asked. Your taste is just like that rainbow-headed guy,” Lin Youyou sighed while holding her forehead.
Yang Xiaobo could be considered a talent; inadvertently, he provided cover for Song Ke.
Even at this point, Yang Xiaobo didn’t stop. He consecutively recorded the scenes of Utopia rising and Lin Youyou riding the Kun, adding the same bling-bling effects. However, because the mutated Kun was too large, he couldn’t capture it entirely, so he chose to use voice-over commentary, “My savior is the peerless heroine of V587. One day, she came to rescue me riding a giant fish.”
After the highlight moment of V587, Yang Xiaobo surprisingly continued for another twenty minutes, sharing a long and meaningless personal journey that no one wanted to hear. The video only truly ended when the rescue arrived.
Lin Youyou was speechless, muttering, “Fine, help the captain attract attention. Anyway, I don’t have any dirt they can dig up.”
Zhuang Qingyan coldly asked, “Can the video be deleted?”
Lu Xiaoyu replied, “It can’t be completely deleted. It spread too quickly, and the download count has already exceeded two billion times.”
Although it ended somewhat abruptly, Yang Xiaobo’s “First Alliance Video of Killing a Level 5 Ferocious Beast” had enough novelty, and the content… could reluctantly be considered high-quality. In less than two hours, it had spread across all of District B.
“Even if we delete it, if someone shares the local files, it will still pop up, like wild grass that can’t be completely burned, growing again with the spring breeze,” Lu Xiaoyu’s tone was flat and not optimistic.
Zhuang Qingyan closed his eyes for two seconds, then suddenly opened them, “Then destroy the source files.”
The processed video might not show any abnormalities for now, but the original video was a different story. Yang Xiaobo might not notice anything right now, but who knows, if he starts to think carefully, he might realize something is off.
Coincidentally, Yang Xiaobo was on the same starship as the “Peace Dove” squad, which included V587.
Zhuang Qingyan, Lu Xiaoyu, and Su Cha pushed the door and went out. The three stern-faced young men walked through the rear cabin and stopped in front of another compartment.
Through a partition, they could hear Yang Xiaobo’s chattering noise.
“Sister Ruoyi, do you think I’m going to become popular? Maybe I should switch to being an internet celebrity. Brother Yang still has a promising future, right~”
“Yang Xiaobo, you’re so annoying. Can you shut up?”
“Knock, knock.” Zhuang Qingyan politely knocked on the compartment door. Without waiting for an answer from inside, he suddenly pulled it open—
Su Cha was at the forefront, his 6’3″ height filling the entire space. His gaze was deep, and a dark blue dagger danced in his palm.
