The Great Worm Lich

Upon seeing Steven deep in his contemplation, Zhang Lisheng seized this chance to strike while the iron was hot. “Professor, if we don’t dwell deep into it, we may never find an answer to what kind of invisible danger this really is!”

Coming to Shrimp B1 Island as a supervisor’s experimental assistant, as long as he had permission from Steven to allow him to move freely, the young man would have enough reason to go wherever he wanted to go.

“You’re right, Lisheng. You’re right! Just by staying in the lab doing research by dissecting the materials are not enough! Perhaps tomorrow I should…” Steven became silent for a moment before suddenly nodding thoughtfully.

“No offense, Professor, but with your physical strength and current condition, it’s best for you to just stay in the gathering place’s lab to do the research. Otherwise, you’ll just go out to die instead of risking your life!” Seeing that his persuasion was too effective, Zhang Lisheng, who did not want Steven to accidentally come across any danger, quickly stopped his supervisor.

“Oh! Oh! That does sound kind of offensive…”

“Even though it sounds offensive, it can at least stop you from being rash, Professor. I’m 19 years old and I grew up in a mountain village on the edge of a pristine forest. On top of that, I’m skilled in kung fu. You’re 51 years old and your body is not as great as it once was. You spent your entire life in the lab and the most adventurous feat you’ve done is dissecting the brain of a living dolphin…”

“Okay, okay, I’m going to rest now.” Steven, whom his student rendered him speechless, agitatedly waved his hand and walked into the bedroom on the left.

After pushing the door open, he suddenly stood still and looked back at the quiet young man who was silent not far away before whispering, “Be careful, child. I still want to take a photo together with you safely wearing a doctor’s gown during your graduation and hang it on my office’s wall.”

Then, he walked into the room.

Looking at his supervisor’s disappearing silhouette, Zhang Lisheng chuckled soundlessly before walking into another bedroom.

A few hours passed hastily. The next morning, after the young man had rinsed his face, he carried his metal box and pushed the bedroom door to the living room.

The door to the opposite bedroom was open and it seemed that Steven had already left. However, a note was left on the coffee table.

Zhang Lisheng approached it and lifted it to have a look. It was simply scribbled with, “I’m going to the lab to work first. Take care, okay!” After a moment of pondering, Zhang Lisheng wrote a big simple “Yes!” behind the note before turning to walk out of the room.

The passage outside of the suite that extended in all directions left people confused as to which direction they should go. The young man had no choice but to randomly flag down an officer to ask. “Good morning, Mr. First Lieutenant! I’m a student from Stanford’s Biology Institute. I’ve just arrived here last night with Professor Steven…”

“Oh, a scholar from a famous school! You’re a very young famous-school-scholar on top of that! Good morning, Mr. Rocket Scientist! I suppose you want to go to the biological lab, right? Oh! I really have no idea where exactly it is, but please wait for a moment. Let me check whether the base map has been updated or not…”

“Erm, no, Mr. First Lieutenant! I want to go out, up to the ground surface. May I?”

“Of course you may! Of course! Let me lead you the way.” The young and lively first lieutenant smiled. “Your data has been entered into the base computer, and you can easily enter and exit the bunker when you use your face. This is even more convenient than our active-duty officers.”

He then proceeded to bring Zhang Lisheng around the underground passage and finally came to an exit.

Sure enough, just as he said, the young man did not produce any ID and the sergeant guarding the exit only scanned his face to open the exit to the surface.

“Thank you for your help, Mr. First Lieutenant!” Zhang Lisheng thanked him and quickly walked up to the spiraling ladder to an empty room.

“I really don’t understand. It’s a very simple thing, but why do they have to make things so complicated?!” Feeling that it was a bit of a hassle to go through the bunker, the young man muttered to himself as he walked out of the room. What was outside was just as he expected, there was another sergeant guarding the big room.

Upon seeing Zhang Lisheng walking out from the house, these sergeants seemed to have been informed about somebody going out as they just ignored and let him leave while looking from side to side.

The outdoor sun illuminated the ground. Carrying his own metal box, breathing in the cool air, the young man casually found a ‘weapon supermarket’ to buy a long gun that he carried in a swaying manner behind his body before walking out of the newly opened gate.

When he passed by a stall selling burgers and hot dogs on the roadside, he smelled the unique wheat aroma peculiar to gluten food. A pang of hunger suddenly hit him, causing him to stop right away. “What kind of burger do you have?”

The stall owner was an ordinary-looking young man with ordinary body size. The moment he heard somebody asking him, he showed an unmistakably dim yet relaxed expression and answered, “Big green worm, crispy monkey, and miscellaneous meat. Everything is freshly made. Buddy, I’m leaving Shrimp B1 Island this afternoon, so you won’t be able to have a taste of my cooking anymore after this!”

“Looks like I can’t get any beef burger on Shrimp B1 Island indeed. It’s alright! Give me five of each burger!” Zhang Lisheng said casually. “You’re leaving the island today? Why? Don’t you want to be a new cowboy anymore?”

“O-Of course not! I’m planning to just go home to see my parents, and then, come back again. My ambition is to create a chain restaurant like McDonald’s and KFC in Shrimp World No. 2…” The stall owner dexterously threw 20 peeled snow-white worms that were of the size of a thumb and some fleshy pieces of steak mixed with bristles into the pan. “Alright. The truth is, I’m scared. Recently, this island would open fire every night. There’s also this monster howling from outside the city! It’s said that the reason the army fired the guns is to expel these monsters away for they want to attack this city! That’s why I applied to leave! After queuing for three days according to the rule, it’s finally my turn to… Damn it! I’ve spent so much of my thoughts into this! I wanted to launch a career here that would allow others to see me in a new light! I wanted to let those people who look down on me to know that a taciturn simpleton that doesn’t like sports can succeed…”

“Hey, buddy! It’s good having ambition, but you can’t just make hamburgers for others while having a running nose at the same time.”

“Oh sorry! I was too overcome with emotion.” The young stall owner took out a paper towel and wiped his face, before lifting his spirit again. Then, he took out the fried worms and steaks from the pan before dexterously placing them in between the bread. After wrapping them in paper bags, he passed them to Zhang Lisheng. “Have a taste of my work. You’ll notice that the burgers you used to eat taste as bad as firewood.”

“Is it so?” Zhang Lisheng took the hamburger and took a bite. His eyes lit up right away. “It’s indeed tasty! I didn’t know that craftsmanship is important in making burgers as well.”

“Buddy, don’t look down on hamburgers! All food is all about craftsmanship! My knack is on the round bread…” Upon hearing the young man’s words, the stall owner boasted.

However, Zhang Lisheng had no intention to discuss with others how to make a delicious burger, prompting him to throw a 100 dollar bill he had prepared beforehand. “Your round bread is indeed delicious. I think 100 dollars should be enough for 15 burgers right? Alright, goodbye! All the best to you!” Then, he walked away and continued to come to the huge exit of the gathering place.

After the exit gate was opened, the walls on both sides begin to project continuously, playing the deadly dangers that one might encounter if one left the gathering place.

These projected images were like those pictures of rotten lungs printed on cigarette cases that merely works as a warning on paper. It was actually to ensure that the person consents on the dangers of smoking before actually using one.

In truth, those who dared not go out of town would not go out of town even without watching those terrifying projected images.

Those who dared to go out, on the other hand, would merely curl their lips and ignore it as they passed it by when they saw those warnings, just like Zhang Lisheng who blended amidst the crowds of people who were going out.

After leaving the gathering place, the young man swallowed the last burger inside the paper bag. When he was about to walk into the jungle quietly, he suddenly heard a middle-aged man, who was wearing old camouflage hunting clothes as he carried a long rifle on his shoulder, talk to him from not far away amiably. “Young man, I’ve never seen you before. Is this your first time hunting out of town? It’s very dangerous outside! Haven’t you seen those warning projected at the exit of the gathering place? Not many people who go into the jungle alone can come out again.”

“Hunting? Oh no, I’m not an extreme sports enthusiast, but a biologist who is planning to go out of town to collect specimens.” To most people, hunting in the foreign world’s jungle was an extremely dangerous activity that had losses which outweighed the gains. However, to Zhang Lisheng, it was similar to an emerging extreme spot like deep-sea snorkeling or bare-handed climbing. For this reason, he merely replied casually before walking into the jungle.

“Looks like it’s an ignorant little fellow…” The middle-aged man was stunned for a moment and amusingly cast a glance at his companion, before walking into the dense jungle behind the young man not long after.

Zhang Lisheng walked in front of him with light footsteps as though he had not noticed anything at all. All of a sudden, he stopped and took off his clothes in the dark jungle before carrying them in his hand.

“W-What is this little fellow doing?”

“Shit! Looks like our bait is a madman!”

“It doesn’t matter! As long as it’s human meat, the strange animals in this jungle will love it…” The hunters following behind the young man said in astonishment through their walkie talkie when they saw his incomprehensible actions.

After that, these people watched with their own eyes how Zhang Lisheng’s naked body suddenly swelled abruptly to five meters tall as though he was inflating, transforming into a ferocious giant whose body was filled with steel-like solid muscles covered with yellow and blue scales.

Now that his clothes and the metal box could be gripped in his palm, the young man who had not transformed for a long time stretched his body and turned around with a cold gaze, before howling ferociously at the direction where he was coming from just now.

“T-The f*ck? Run! RUN! That fellow is not a human!”

“Myron! This is your idiot idea! Bait! Bait! You always like to use others as bait! Look now, in the end, we’ve become the fish that the bait caught instead!”

“Don’t run! We have more than ten guns, but there’s only one him. No matter how big he is… AHHHHH!” In a shriek of horror, the ridicules and jokes he had just said right now had turned into shouts of horror. When somebody finally summoned their courage to resist, a sudden gush of cyclone compressed him into a pile of meat, before being blown away out of sight.