Xyrin Empire
Chapter 526 Kepulu Calls for Help

Chapter 526: Chapter 526 Kepulu Calls for Help

Mercury Lamp’s arrival was a pre-warning signal, Shana’s intrusion was a confirmation of the alarm, the Academy Apocalypse Strong Team and the misdirected Sagara Sousuke represented the onset of a heavy downpour, while the subsequent Spartans marked the official first peak of the flood.

Anyone with common sense knew that the first peak meant only one thing: a second one was coming.

The organized crossover of the Spartans seemed like a starting signal. Following closely, the swarming army of transmigrators began their actions of stirring winds and rains. Of course, the ones who swiftly reacted were the Imperial Soldiers already on standby around the world.

A vast number of suspicious targets, exhibiting behaviors unlike ordinary people, were quickly locked down. Then, they were sorted out and captured by covert operation teams. In the cities with the worst outbreaks, up to two hundred transmigration suspects could be found in a single day—of course, there might be one hundred performance artists, fifty expert professors, thirty online writers, and only the remaining thirty might be transmigrators...

Eh? Let me do the math again...

Cough cough, anyway, Earth has now become a gathering place for people who have crossed over from other worlds with all sorts of weird and bizarre individuals popping up continuously. Our dispatched agents and the Superpower Team’s special forces began working overtime day and night. Fortunately, as long as suspicious targets could be locked down, it was fairly easy for them to determine whether the person was a transmigrator. Dingdang extracted a special solution using leaves from the World Tree, which even ordinary people could use. Applying it to the eyeballs would allow one to discern anything not belonging to this world; transmigrators would appear shit yellow in their eyes—although Dingdang stressed repeatedly that it was merely the color of an orange-flavored lollipop, I still held a grudge against it.

Therefore, in the obscure alleys and little-traveled corners of cities around the world, this scene was often witnessed: a group of men and women dressed in either black SWAT uniforms or ridiculously old-fashioned suits would corner a strangely dressed performance artist against a wall. Just as passersby thought a brutally inappropriate scene was about to unfold, the folks in black begin neatly taking out bottles of eye drops to medicate themselves. The next second, a dozen sharp-eyed individuals would pounce on the unlucky "artist" and pin them to the ground.

Of course, there was also the possibility of having to apologize and compensate.

Even though these incidents all took place in the hidden corners of streets, in places rarely traversed by pedestrians, when they occurred in synchrony all over the world, even hundreds of times in a single city per day, you would think it might attract the attention of the general public, well, in theory at least.

But, in reality, it was the exact opposite.

Neither the "black suits collectively medicating their eyes and assailing cosplay enthusiasts on the street" nor the "streets and alleys suddenly overrun by a multitude of performance artists/cosplay enthusiasts" ever drew much attention. Even the usually nosy aunties would at most lament about the decline in public morals over tea and dinner, commenting that with the rise in crime, all sorts of bad influences were also popping up everywhere.

This fully illustrated one thing: In today’s rapidly developing cultural climate, performance art and violent aesthetics have indeed become part of the ordinary citizens’ lives; they have grown accustomed to it.

Of course, the special departments of the Superpower Team and the Imperial Commanders’ accumulated power within human society likely played no small part in appeasing the local governments. All in all, everything proceeded in a very harmonious and splendid atmosphere. The general public did not have the slightest inkling that the cosplayers parading before their eyes had any connection to an Otherworld. Just like last night’s 10:30 rampage at South Lake Park that left a couple impotent (a situation shrouded in mystery that good kids should not analyze), which was ultimately explained away as a rare high-tech carjacking incident, everything was kept hush-hush.

This is Shadow City’s emergency "Imperial Registration and Assistance Center for Migrant Population." A bunch of tall and burly Imperial Soldiers temporarily took on the role of governmental apes here, responsible for registering the new arrivals. After the first peak of transmigrators hit, in just one hour, this place became the busiest spot in all of Shadow City. The vast metallic hall, teeming like a waiting room, was an exhibition of the richest ethnic cultural exposition in history, as transmigrators from various worlds and races mingled. The complexity was enough to sustain an author from QiDian for two lifetimes—and that’s the one who updates five times a day.

But miraculously, these hodgepodge, miscellaneous fellows managed to maintain basic order when mixed together, leading me to suspect what the "friendly invitations" assured by those Imperial Soldiers really entailed.

"Name?"

A soldier clad in a suit but wearing an alloy armor over it asked the frail youth in front of him with a dull and muffled voice.

"Wi... William Sangis..." the timid youth was clearly frightened when captured and, considering his spoiled upbringing (judging by the flashy chains all over him), he was now tremblingly responding to the burly soldier’s inquiry.

"Occupation?"

"Mage... Noble... No official position..."

"Origin and reason for cross—meaning the reason for coming to this world?"

"From... from the Kingdom of Elcaran, came here because... a magic practice mishap."

"Your number is A1531. Follow the James Bond unit to Area A to wait for assignment and get the tracking serum injection." The Imperial Officer at the registration desk said gruffly, he picked up the steel stamp next to him, banged a stamp on the registration form, then carefully dug out the form that was already pressed into the table, and after checking for prying eyes quickly handed it over to him.

"Kid, a bit of advice for you, maybe steel is really valuable in your world, but here, that chain getup makes you look like a prisoner—hey, Kaisen, lend me your steel stamp."

The speaker was a high-ranking officer sitting at the next table, dressed in a neatly pressed black suit. The large sunglasses on his face couldn’t conceal the magnanimous and upright squareness of his features. This Uther-looking officer with the feel of a black-clad super-agent had just finished mocking the young man who had registered, and shamelessly began borrowing stuff from his subordinate.

"Sir, where’s your steel stamp?" his deputy named Kaisen asked as he handed over the stamp.

"I pressed too hard and flattened it—hey, green-skin over there, don’t go, come here and register. Name?"

"Duan Di..."

"...do you want a set? The original Dragon Ball, in HD."

"...I just want to know when I can go back."

The sunglasses-wearing officer shrugged, "Just wait. You’ve got over thirty Jedi Knights ahead of you. If you’re really that bored, I’ll read your fortune later—hey redhead at the back! How many times do I have to tell you, Kyo Kusanagi isn’t here! If you really want to fight, go brawl with the scorpions; I guarantee those female tyrannosaurs will make you feel like you’re in heaven..."

"I think this world is already in complete chaos."

In one corner of the registration hall, a small group huddled together, cracking edamame and leisurely watching the bustling crowds while commenting and critiquing.

"Hey, hey, hey, Miss Xue, you’re supposed to be a prophet, don’t talk nonsense, I’ll take it seriously."

Lin Xue shot me a glance while feeding the shelled beans to Little Baobao who was scurrying between the seats, muttering, "You said the exact same thing when you saw that little girl just now."

"Nonsense," I rolled my eyes heavenward, "with a name and crime record both under Lina Inbas, she’s a walking doomsday. When you saw her, didn’t you also utter a prayer that Dingdang would please protect the world?"

"That’s where you got it wrong, you blockhead!"

"Today’s really been an eye-opener though," Big Sister, as always, intervened with her gentle voice while Lin Xue and I were bickering, "Ah Jun, it feels like our home is running a travel agency, doesn’t it?"

Isn’t this travel agency a bit too big though?

"Hey, does this kind of chaos happen often in this world? You all seem so calm about it."

While we were busy with our edamame, a short transmigrator who had arrived earlier and secured a VIP spot kept curiously observing the hall, and now seemed to have a question, asking me without any hesitation.

"Mercury Lamp, how many times have I told you, you should call me Brother!"

"Not a chance!" the haughty doll huffed and turned her head away, "Don’t think just because we’ve talked these last few days that you can do whatever you want. I am not going to satisfy your perverted desires—hey! Answer my question!"

Is she... upset?

Is it because I casually carried her under my arm when I came over? I usually keep Lady Goddess tucked in my pocket anyway.

"This kind of chaos, well, it’s the first time it’s happened in this world," I explained, shaking my head and bobbing about, while placing some edamame beans on a small plate in front of Mercury Lamp. She looked at me oddly, hesitated for a moment, but still picked up the beans, "It’s just that we’ve encountered things a hundred times more troublesome in other worlds, so we’re used to it."

That’s true, in terms of severity, droves of transmigrators scattered all over Earth couldn’t compare to an entire planet’s worth of the Insect Race, could they? It’s just that the current situation is vexingly complicated. After all, Earth is my home, and its protection is everyone’s responsibility. Blasting away everything in Pandora with a Sniper Star Cannon might feel great, but I’d be crying my eyes out.

"Running around saving the world all day, huh? I heard from that crow that can turn into a maid that naive ghost worships you like their own god," she scoffed. "I just see you as a foolishly kind-hearted fool."

"Indeed, to ordinary people, that would be a foolishly kind-hearted fool," Big Sister said quietly as she watched Mercury Lamp, her gaze bearing a certain pressure that I’ve deemed "the Big Sister aura that’s the bane of children." "However, Ah Jun is an Imperial Leader, so he can only be called a Benevolent Ruler. Mercury Lamp, as a child, you should always be seeing the light, hmm?"

I’ve never been able to understand the huge destructive power Big Sister has over loli and shota-type beings, but her talent truly exists. It’s like how most people don’t understand nuclear power, but the sun above them is still fusing every day. Big Sister’s aura is inexplicable, but Mercury Lamp really does fear her—the normally haughty doll became obedient in no time.

But that obedience lasted only for a minute.

"Hey, when can you send me back or help me find my father?" Mercury Lamp brought up the topic she always harped on, though this time, she prioritized "going back" over "finding her father."

"You have to understand, your world isn’t on our list of logged-in places, but I promise, I will get you home as soon as possible."

That was the only weak consolation I could offer. Then, after hesitating for a long while, I still gently placed my hand on Mercury Lamp’s little head and gave it a couple of rubs.

Hopefully, it would bring her some peace of mind.

"Slap!"

Indeed, I was rebuffed straight away...

Lin Xue looked at my dejected face and laughed heartily. The meaning in Miss Xue’s eyes appeared before me as if it had subtitles: "Wood, your Daddy Halo has finally failed!"

Tch, my intentions just then were quite pure.

A bustling crowd of transmigrators was not far from us, teeming like fish in the sea. Observing them felt oddly like watching a movie, and after watching for so long, I gradually noticed a commonality among these Time Travel Party members.

Almost everyone’s first question was: "When can we go back?"

Transmigration isn’t as wonderful as you imagine.

Being suddenly thrown into a place where you don’t know anyone, everything you’re familiar with collapsing in an instant; your family whom you lived with day by day, now so far you can’t even describe it in terms of life and death; and facing a perilous Otherworld...

Not to mention those Imperial Soldiers with a serious propensity for violence.

This kind of pressure isn’t something the average person can handle. Even if you’ve fantasized countless times while reading web novels about yourself cutting a swathe through an Otherworld, when transmigration really happens to you, you’ll want to go home too, especially after these transmigrators have already spent several frightening days on Earth.

It would be somewhat better for those transmigrators from a parallel Earth, like Shana. At least she can find many familiar things here, but those Namekians and Half-Beasts are really under great stress now.

Uh... it seems there are exceptions?

A transmigrator passed by who was completely different from the others: an Earthling—one wearing a tank top, big shorts, and flip-flops—an Earthling who was buying adult magazines from the Imperial Soldiers. Among all the transmigrators passing by like a revolving lantern, this was my first time seeing someone so composed.

"Excuse me, are you a transmigrator?"

Out of curiosity, I approached this unconventional transmigrator from behind and patted his shoulder to greet him, "I’m in charge here, everyone calls me Chen Jun."

"Ah, nice to meet you," the man in flip-flops grinned at me, "Just crossed over the day before yesterday, people have nicknamed me Big Eyes..."

Me: "..."

"Ah Jun, what’s wrong?"

Returning to my seat, Qianqian immediately leaned in with concern upon seeing my peculiar expression.

I shook my head, "It’s nothing, I might have just seen the boss... Qianqian, that part just now, can we cut it and not broadcast it?"

Then everyone at the table looked at me as if I were an alien.

This was just a minor incident, and what followed was still the leisurely time of cracking soybeans and watching the drama unfold.

However, it seemed like even the heavens couldn’t stand everything progressing too smoothly, as the next morning, an urgent communication from the New Eden Federation made me realize that while we were enjoying our soybeans, two good buddies were deeply mired in trouble.

In the distant depths of the starry sea, ah, there’s a beautiful place... forget it, this style isn’t for me. To put it simply, in the remote Kepulu Star Zone, a human named James Raynor and a Protos brute named Zeratul were facing unprecedented pressure: this is what they conveyed to me during our morning communication.

They made no subtle indication of a positive attitude that, as party members, they could overcome all difficulties and that the current situation is good but they hoped for guidance from organizational comrades. Right off the bat, they presented their immense difficulties in a very frank manner.

Social unrest.

This isn’t easy to understand, especially since even on Earth, which is relatively low in civilization level, the sudden appearance of transmigrators on the streets and them brawling with cosplayers didn’t cause any panic. Yet in the Kepulu Star Zone, Federation citizens, who were used to seeing bizarre aliens and walking battle robots, were becoming unstable.

The reasons are complicated. To put it briefly, the clouds that had been looming over the entire New Eden Federation since the great catastrophes had finally found their breaking point in the collective confusion and future worries of all races.

It was unclear who was the first to start the rumor, but it was indeed spreading among the common folk of the New Eden Federation that "invaders from other worlds had entered human society, and even the Xyrin Empire had dispatched commissioners to respond." Already in the dire situation of a shattered nation and all humans crowded on refugee planets and colonization ships, the spread of such rumors caused absolutely disastrous social unrest.

Moreover, what was more fatal was that these rumors were easily validated, whether by the strangely dressed and "mentally disturbed" individuals that appeared out of nowhere, federal agents rushing in to arrest people, or the secret concentration camps that recently came into the public eye—all compellingly confirmed everything. With living space at a premium due to disaster recovery, the New Eden Federation couldn’t even find a spare ecological planet to settle the billions of transmigrators (a number that would continue to steadily rise over the next few days due to the Federation’s vast territory), and having them crowded right under the public’s nose resulted in a new surge of apocalyptic theories in society.

The most urgent help Raynor requested from me was that the Empire help establish an ecological planet for the transmigrators as soon as possible (creating an ecological planet within a few days is a technology that the New Eden Federation currently does not possess), at least so those emergency concentration camps wouldn’t further agitate the people.

Moreover, Raynor and Zeratul jointly expressed to me that they really wanted to devour the person who first spread the rumors, dipped in chili sauce.

This is where the superiority of human society (specifically "Earth" here) comes into play. Subjected to the endless bombardment of gossip, fringe news, and doomsday pronouncements, Earthlings’ spirits have developed a resilience that even the Protos find astonishing. If such whispers started circulating on Earth, I guarantee they wouldn’t get beyond the Third Ring Road before they were drowned in babble and fermented into entertainment news—just like the 2012 stories.

"So now, it’s up to you to personally make a trip to the New Eden Federation."

Before sending Lilina off on the Empire’s flagship to the Kepulu Star Zone, I said this to her.

"Why is it always me who gets these errand tasks?" the Fake Lolita Priestess complained with a frown, having just returned from a long trip to Azeroth and still claiming to be tired.

"Think of it as a chance to spread the word," I chuckled. Despite her reluctance, she accepted the task, didn’t she?

"Tsk, greedy boss... Well, I’m off then." Leaving behind this remark, the Chief Priestess of the Life Goddess Church, the Chief Heresy Judge, the Great Pope, the Chief Ascetic, the Chief Maid, the Chief... big swindler, along with the Holy Temple Army she had assembled—a bunch of unemployed drifters, militarists, and religious fanatics—left the Solar System with grandeur, embarking on her epic journey—But that’s a story for another time. (To be continued. For what happens next, please visit www.qidian.com. More Chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)