Lord of Mysterious Wizard
Chapter 459: 438 World Tree Foundation

Chapter 459: Chapter 438 World Tree Foundation

“It seems I still need some time to develop before I can enjoy the wonderful life of students fighting monsters and the principal lying back and winning.”

Tang Qi was sad to part with the fantasy in his mind. The FBI and the Church weren’t targets that Merada Special Education School was striving to catch up with; the closest right now was the Ancient Castle Bureau.

However, purely based on the strength of William O’Neil and William Marshall alone, it doesn’t look very hopeful in the short term.

As for Old Coulson, this elderly man often made people forget that he was actually the youngest of the three William brothers, not the eldest.

He sighed to himself for a bit; by now, he had finished checking eleven Level 5 and Level 6 missions.

Unfortunately, none of them were suitable to take on for now. Either they required a long wait, or they were complex mysterious events, which one could tell by just reading the description. Even if Tang Qi took them on, he probably wouldn’t be able to complete them overnight.

Just as Tang Qi was about to lower his standards and continue looking for a few Level 4 missions to make do with and complete the hunt tonight.

Suddenly, the top area of the three mission briefings changed almost simultaneously.

Bright light surged out, and ink strokes outlined inside; within a few breaths, brand new missions were born.

Each mission was exceedingly conspicuous.

The lowest among them was also Level 4.

“Something’s happened!”

A solemn expression suddenly appeared on Tang Qi’s face, and anyone could tell that the mission updates were not at this point in time.

Especially since all three mission briefings changed at the same time.

There was only one possibility: a high-level accident could instantly give rise to so many missions.

When Tang Qi had a bad premonition in his heart, he saw a bright red warning explode on the mission briefing.

“Warning! Warning!”

“The World Tree Foundation has experienced an uprising; an ancient contained object that had been dormant for many years suddenly awoke, opened up the Eastern Region base of the Foundation, and released one hundred and eighty-three contained objects, most of which have been locked down by high-level wonders. Foundation personnel are in pursuit of recovery, requesting assistance from all regions, requesting assistance from all regions…”

The scarlet color symbolized the danger within.

The appearance of “World Tree” instantly made Tang Qi’s eyebrows twitch.

It was common knowledge on the Mysterious Side that within the Divine Eagle Federation, besides the official and the Church.

There were two extremely terrifying extraordinary organizations, permanently neutral, both adhering to the same principle of containing everything that posed a lethal threat to humans—whether biological or inanimate, whether human or some demon from the Exotic Realm, all within their scope of containment.

The World Tree Foundation, headquartered in Holy Eagle Nest City, was one of them.

When this name was linked to “uprising,” Tang Qi thought he saw a disaster even more terrifying than Leckter usurping the Divine Position.

Last time, Tang Qi could take advantage because Leckter had not prophesied his existence, and therefore unexpectedly intervened.

But if all the ancient contained objects of the World Tree Foundation ran out, Tang Qi felt that even if the Federation might not be destroyed by it, it would be set back decades.

Fortunately, the following message appeared.

“It’s just the Eastern Base? To my knowledge, this is a newly established base, including the transferred ancient contained objects, far less dangerous than the headquarters.”

After reading all the information, Tang Qi breathed a sigh of relief.

Especially since most of them have already been locked down.

This meant that large organizations within the Federation would act to assist the Foundation in retrieving the contained objects.

“The stable order should be the goal pursued jointly by the Church official and organizations like the Ancient Castle Bureau, including Merada Special Education School too.”

With a thought, Tang Qi skipped the warning and directly read the numerous newly published missions.

Level 4 and Level 5 were all ignored.

There appeared to be one Level 7, but it flashed and disappeared in an instant, which should mean that a strong insider had taken it.

After that were Level 6 missions, just a few, which Tang Qi directly targeted.

Soon, he selected one.

“Mission Target: Contained Object No. YDF-066.”

“Danger Level: Level 6.”

“Mission Description: The special contained object known as YDF-066 is an extraordinary creature resembling humans in appearance but of a more giant stature, possessing super speed, super power, super perception, capable of momentarily controlling its form to expand or contract, its bodily fluids have potent contamination, it possesses an extremely strong regeneration ability, adaptability, and intelligence not less than humans, and has a strong hatred for humans…”

“It has been targeted by contained object No. YDF-002 and is about to enter Secret Phoenix City, surmising the target intends to flee to the ocean regions; it will not deliberately slaughter humans before losing its sanity, and traps can be set targeting weak points of object No.1.”

“Summoning Transcendents of Secret Phoenix City to assist, minimum requirement, combat-class Transcendents of Professional Level, number of summons: ten.”

…

“No.1 weak point?”

The detailed evaluation and description displayed professionalism that was different from that of wild organizations.

Tang Qi skimmed over the other missions and had a rough understanding of the progress of this accident.

The ancient contained object that had lain dormant awoke, directly causing a mass escape of contained objects within the base to cover its own flight.

And the World Tree Foundation, through the use of the Curio “YDF-002,” managed to lock onto most of the escapees, dispatching personnel after to retrieve them. Most may have been recaptured, but some troublesome contained objects forced the Foundation to issue a call for help.

YDF-066 was one such object.

Tang Qi looked at the recruitment numbers on the mission list, watching them decrease.

When it dropped to “nine,” Tang Qi accepted the assignment.

In the next moment, Tang Qi witnessed the numbers freeze for an instant before suddenly plummeting to one, and then the entire mission turned grey.

Tang Qi was momentarily stunned, doubting, “With so many Professional Transcendents appearing? Or is it that in the official notes, I’m equivalent to eight Professional Transcendents?”

Calculating how many Professionals he could counter, he stepped through the portal.

On the other side was the Lower City District, atop a dilapidated apartment building.

When Tang Qi appeared, six gazes suddenly swept over him.

Five of the people were dressed in some sort of black uniform with black hoods, their faces covered with masks that bore wooden textures. The remaining one was a nearly three-meter-tall bald man, his muscles as hard and bulging as rocks.

“Mr. Tang Qi, current Principal of Merada Special Education School?”

One of the five—a tall man wearing a mask engraved with a one-eyed pattern—approached, his voice deep and resonant as he spoke. Despite it being a question, there was no doubt in his tone.

Evidently, his identity had been identified as soon as Tang Qi accepted the mission.

Was Tang Qi’s earlier guess wrong? Instead of being equivalent to a total of eight Professional Transcendents at the official level, was he actually nine?

The bald man, who was there to make up the numbers, had accepted the mission even faster than Tang Qi.

Despite being a “Filler,” the bald man showed no displeasure but instead gave Tang Qi a simple and honest smile.

While Tang Qi returned the polite smile, the man with the one-eyed mask gestured to the others, who disappeared in flashes like phantoms from the rooftop.

The deep voice echoed in the ears of Tang Qi and the bald man.

“The two of you, we have received word from the base that YDF-066 will enter the Secret Phoenix City District in ten minutes. If it can be recaptured here, at least thousands of lives can be saved. The only problem now is whether the two of you can inflict severe injury on it in a short time.”

“The target has an extremely powerful regeneration ability; even if it’s obliterated by heavy weapons to the point of losing 99% of its body, it will recover over time. But as long as it is in a severely injured state, the Foundation can retrieve it.”

“A provisional plan has been drawn up. We will exploit its Number One vulnerability and call upon Contained Object YDF-099 to momentarily hold it in place, with a time limit of three minutes.”

The Foundation employee’s voice ceased, conveying the message very clearly.

Tang Qi and the bald man needed to severely injure the contained object within three minutes.

At the very least, it should no longer have any ability to resist.

Regeneration and other processes would be managed by the Foundation thereafter.

“I’ll go first!”

The bald man said with a deep voice.

Tang Qi offered no objection, focusing his gaze below at the street down the building.

It was a street pending demolition, shrouded by the dim glow of the street lamps, with not a soul in sight. Oddly enough, a brand new white ice cream truck appeared from nowhere.

It slowly approached, a childish song playing from the loudspeakers on the truck.

Behind the steering wheel, a Foundation agent wearing a mask with a strange bird pattern stopped the ice cream truck under a street lamp, stepped off, entered the vehicle, and then opened the serving window, lowering the advertisement board which listed various ice cream flavors.

Chocolate, vanilla, blueberry … and a Super Surprise flavor.

“Super Surprise flavor?”

Tang Qi noticed the key point and ghostly light began to surge in his eyes,

Meanwhile, the voice behind him spoke again.

“The so-called Super Surprise flavor is a type of special ice cream made by mixing in human flesh and blood. Before being contained by the Foundation, YDF-099 had killed six civilians and was scheduled for destruction. However, because of its strong attraction to YDF-066, it has been specially requested for use.”

“The target cannot resist the Super Surprise flavor ice cream, to the extent that it will even ignore its environment and logic. But this will last only three minutes; after eating the first ice cream, it will come to its senses and choose to flee.”

The agent’s provided information was consistent with the Information Fragment exploding in Tang Qi’s mind.

The only difference was the number of deaths.

“Information Fragment: The Curio, after several upgrades and iterations, has killed a total of one hundred and three civilians.”

Tang Qi listened to the childlike voices below and inhaled the drifting aroma of ice cream.

He turned slightly and said to the agent with the one-eyed mask, “After this event, I suggest putting it on the accelerated destruction list.”

Beneath the mask, a pair of profound eyes met Tang Qi’s for several breaths before nodding.

“Understood!”

Note: YDF-099 is modeled after SCP-490.