Chapter 193 - New Customer (1)
About 20 minutes later, Chiba Michiko arrived at Ling Pingan’s shop with a large bag of things and steaming hot takeout.
That surprised Ling Pingan!
It was hard to imagine that such a skinny little girl could carry a heavy bag of food with one hand and walk like a bird!
“Ohayo!” Chiba Michiko was still the same as before. She smiled brightly and put the beef rice on the counter. “Ling-san, this is your takeout!”
“Okay!” Ling Pingan smiled.
She put the heavy bag on the counter with all her might. “Your beef and butter!”
“Thank you for your hard work!” Ling Pingan immediately thanked her. “How much are the beef and butter? I’ll transfer it to you later!”
“Ling-san, just transfer me 600 Yuan!” Chiba Michiko bowed and spoke.
Ling Pingan did not have any objections. He trusted her very much. He smiled and said, “Alright, I’ll transfer it to Chiba-chan’s account later!”
“Alright!” The Fusang girl bowed sweetly.
Looking at the little girl’s figure leaving his bookstore, Ling Pingan first put the beef and butter aside.
He took out the takeaway box and opened it. The takeaway that day was still sumptuous!
Thick slices of beef were neatly arranged on the rice.
Today’s extras were even more sumptuous!
In addition to the sea urchin steamed eggs, there was also a small bowl of salmon eggs!
The golden fish eggs had already been marinated, making him drool!
“Delicious!” Ling Pingan couldn’t wait to taste the salmon eggs, and he gave a thumbs up in praise.
… … … … ..
Sitting at the dining table, Integral ate the food in front of her.
She was a little absent-minded.
Because Alucard hadn’t come back yet!
“Could it be something had happened?” She couldn’t help but worry.
Alucard, the Blood River Overlord, was the most important trump card of the United Kingdom of Britannia!
It was also the guarantee of the United Kingdom’s status as a major country!
If anything happened to him in the east…
Not to mention the outside world, just their three brotherly countries would undergo a tough war!
Especially the Ket’s Kingdom, where the Ket people were the main race!
That was the Ket’s kingdom that was clamoring for independence every day!
Fortunately, the scepter in her hand was still intact.
Therefore, Alucard was probably just delayed by something!
Just as she was thinking about these things, a viscous river of blood fell from the ceiling and into the scepter in her hand.
“Alucard!” Integral was immediately happy. “You’re back!”
However, Alucard did not speak.
He fell into the scepter and curled up tightly.
“What happened?” Integral asked.
“Ivy is dead…” Alucard sighed softly.
Ivy?
Integral remembered that she had seen him before.
It was a Duke of Demons!
“Actually…” Alucard said, “You should be able to feel it too!”
“Duke Ivy is the lord of the fourth level of Hell!”
“All the people of the Land of Qin should have sensed his fall, and the Rus people should have a strong feeling of it!”
For the people of the Land of Qin, most of them still believed in the same religion which was the cross religion.
However, some people believed in the old religion, and some people believed in the new religion.
In the legend of the cross religion, Hell existed in everyone’s heart.
That was also the core doctrine of the Cross sect: Everyone was guilty, needed to repent, and needed the salvation of the Holy Son!
And the so-called Hell was the concrete manifestation of the seven deadly sins in the world of the Cross sect.
Therefore, the Devil Dukes were able to quickly become active after the recovery of psionic energy, and actively intervene in the world.
That was because they existed in the dark side of the soul of everyone in the Land of Qin.
When the first person from the Land of Qin who believed in the cross religion became an extraordinary human, they also returned.
Integral listened and nodded. “No wonder I suddenly felt relaxed last night…”
“So, it’s because of a sin that has dimmed!”
She could not help but pray in her heart.
Then, she knew the seriousness of the problem!
A Devil Duke of Hell had fallen in the East just like that?
“Did that commander-in-chief make a move?” She could not help but ask, and then she denied it herself. “Impossible! He hasn’t reached such a stage yet!”
Although the Devil Duke of Hell was far inferior to those divine existences in terms of status.
But they were difficult to deal with and difficult to destroy, which was universally acknowledged!
In some sense, as long as Hell did not break, they would never die!
Even if they were destroyed, there was a chance to be resurrected. Unless they died at the hands of another devil.
But where could they find another Devil Duke in the east?!
“It isn’t that commander-in-chief…” Alucard said, “I checked…”
“Although that commander-in-chief is in this city… he didn’t make a move at all!”
“There are no signs of fighting or traces of psionic energy in this city either…”
“Duke Ivy… It’s as if he was killed by someone… and, from the beginning to the end, he couldn’t resist!”
Saying this, Alucard curled up his spirit body a little more.
He dared to come to the east for two reasons.
First: As long as he did not break the rules, with the pride of the Easterners, they would not attack him!
Even if he broke the rules, because of tradition, the easterners generally would not kill him. At most, they would send him out of the country after being imprisoned for decades!
Second: In theory, he could not be killed!
As long as there was still a drop of blood in his blood river that had not dried up, he would not die. He would only fall into a deep sleep!
But now, Duke Ivy’s inexplicable fall had rung a warning bell for him.
Even the Duke of Demons could fall.
What else would not appear in this land?
Moreover, Mr. A and a total of thirteen witches had disappeared together last night!
These people were equally as difficult to deal with as he was!
But they, all of them, disappearing without a trace in this eastern city like thin air.
“From today on, we have to be careful…” Alucard said, “I’m afraid that young bookstore owner has secrets and backers that we don’t know about!”
That was the only explanation.
That ordinary Easterner had a mysterious backer that no one knew about.
It could be his elder, or it could be the guardian of his family, such as an ancient hidden extraordinary.
People like the sage of the bamboo forest!
… … … … … ..
Ling Pingan patted his round belly.
Burping, he made himself a cup of fragrant tea.
Then, he sat down and said delightfully, “The feeling of being full is so comfortable!”
Meow!
Bastet, who had slept for the whole morning, smelled the fragrance of the tea and stood up from the corner of the counter.
She jumped onto Ling Pingan and looked at the cup of tea eagerly.
“Little greedy kitten, you live up to your reputation!” Ling Pingan took another cup and shared half of it with the little guy with a smile.
The little kitten immediately put her head into the cup and drank it happily.
After drinking it, she licked her lips in a very human manner and leaned against the counter, squinting her eyes comfortably!
Ling Pingan smiled and stroked her head.
Then, he picked up all the garbage on the counter, and then threw all the garbage from the past two days into the trash can!
Carrying the trash can, he walked out of the door and threw all the garbage into the trash can at the entrance of the shop.
Suddenly, he thought of something, so he took out his phone and dialed the number of the laundry in the neighborhood.
“Aunt Wang…”
“It’s Pingan… I’ll have to trouble you to pick up my clothes again…”
At least ten days’ worth of clothes had been piled in the bathroom.
If he didn’t wash them, Ling Pingan felt that they were going to stink!
After hanging up the phone, Ling Pingan returned to the store.
He opened the bag on the counter and looked at the things inside.
“It’s so beautiful!” He took out the piece of beef and looked at it. It had beautiful snowflake patterns. It was his favorite beef!
“Let’s go!” Ling Pingan picked up the bag and called out for the kitten, Bastet.
Meow!
The little guy immediately jumped down from the counter and followed her owner up the stairs.
It was strange!
The old wooden staircase in Ling Pingan’s house made a slightly different sound during the day and at night.
It sounded a little creepy at night.
However, it was much better during the day, and the creaking sound was also much quieter.
“It’s probably because there are more sounds during the day!” Ling Pingan thought.
Ling Pingan walked upstairs and opened the beef, then took out the packets of butter.
Chiba Michiko brought him some good Nanzhou butter!
Each piece was about 300 grams!
But because it had been frozen for too long, it was a little hard!
Therefore, it needed to be melted before it could be used. Ling Pingan put the beef into the refrigerator and put the butter on the table, letting it melt at room temperature.
Then, he took out at least 20 pieces of clothes in the bathroom.
He stuffed them into three full bags!
“I am…” Ling Pingan picked up these things and mocked himself, “A genius!”
He reckoned that among his peers, there were very few examples like him.
When he walked downstairs, Aunt Wang’s niece happened to arrive.
Ling Pingan handed the three bags to her, then smiled at the little girl and said, “Thank you for your hard work. I’ll transfer the money to Aunt Wang later!”
The girl was very polite and said with a smile, “It’s okay!”
She picked up the three bags and placed them in front of the electric bike.
Beep! Beep!
The electric bike drove off into the distance!
… … … … … ..
Ran Bing drove the off-road motorcycle and ran wildly on the desolate surface of the ground.
Behind her, more than ten tall and fast monsters were rapidly approaching her.
“Damn it!” Ran Bing turned around and glanced at the monsters that were getting closer and closer.
“The speed of the Scarlet Beasts has increased again!”
That made her heart fall into the deepest abyss.
Scarlet Beasts!
The nightmare of humans!
Twenty years had passed since the collapse of the Old World!
However, humans still didn’t know where these terrifying monsters came from?
What were their ecology and behavior like?
The only thing the humans knew about these monsters was that they could not be killed!
At the very least, with the current technology and weapons of the humans which was useless against them!
Whether it was guns or bombs, they could only temporarily paralyze them.
Perhaps an hour or a day later, they could stand up again and continue to chase after any humans that came into their sight!
Therefore…
The humans that had nowhere else to go could only escape to the few floating cities that could still be used, far away from the ground, in order to avoid the pursuit of these terrifying monsters.
However…
The problem was that the old world had already collapsed.
The ecology of the entire world had already collapsed!
Other than the floating cities, there was no safe place for humans to Live!
However, the operation of a floating city required a large number of resources and energy!
Especially energy!
Therefore, the humans of the floating city could only take the risk to descend from the sky and come to the ground to search for possible energy and other resources.
That included all kinds of production lines and spare parts.
During this process, if they were lucky, one harvest could allow the floating city to operate in the sky for half a year or even several years!
But if they were unlucky, they would encounter a group of Scarlet Beasts.
Usually, they would be annihilated!
And the destruction of the adventurer team, in a general sense, for the survivors of the entire floating city, there was only one result: Waiting to die!
Because the adventurer team was the gathering of the entire city’s elites.
Once the adventurer team was annihilated on the ground, the survivors of the floating city could only take the risk to send those young people who had not undergone training and battle experience into the ground.
In a normal sense, it was very difficult for them to return alive.
Twenty years after the great collapse, Ran Bing’s floating city had already encountered several floating cities with only a few thousand people left in the sky, waiting to die.
And in order to survive, most floating cities would only accept the young women and children of another floating city.
They did not want old men and men.
Therefore, every warrior of the floating city would spare no expense to create a living chance for their companions when they encountered danger on the ground.
Just like what Ran Bing was doing now.
The moment she discovered the Scarlet Beasts, she took the initiative to attack, driving the off-road motorcycle she found in the Old World to distract the Scarlet Beasts.
That was because every warrior knew.
If the adventurer team was in danger, the entire city could fall into eternal damnation!
The Scarlet Beast chasing behind her was getting closer and closer.
Ran Bing could not help but close her eyes. “Goodbye forever!”
The faces of her comrades in the floating city and the passionate commoners flashed past her eyes.
As a soldier, she had long expected death!
Pfft!
At this moment, her motorcycle suddenly stopped.
Ran Bing knew that she had reached the final moment.
She pulled the grenade tied to her chest.
She closed her eyes tightly, waiting for death to come. She knew what would happen to the humans who fell into the hands of the Scarlet Beasts!
Those monsters would suck all the flesh and blood of every person they captured!
But…
The grenade did not blast.
And…
The roar of the Scarlet Beast and the pace of its pursuit were also gone from her ears.
She opened her eyes.
There was a fog in front of her!
She could not see her surroundings.
She lowered her head and saw that the frame of the motorcycle she was riding on, which she had found in the Old World, was rapidly corroded by something.
In the blink of an eye, there were only a little bit of ashes left!
Ran Bing was dumbfounded.
She tried to take two steps forward and then found that she seemed to have stepped on something.
She lowered her head and saw the thing she was stepping on.
Its skin was red all over, and its tentacles hung on both sides. Its huge eyes were like lanterns!
It was the Scarlet Beast!
But…
It was already dead.
The monster that could not be killed by human guns or bombs had died in this fog.
And it was completely dead!
Ran Bing felt that this monster was rapidly being dissolved by some strength.
Its flesh and bones were rapidly liquefied.
In less than five seconds, the monster that humans could not do anything about was only left with a bit of ash.
Ran Bing took a deep breath.
She squatted down and took out a silver crystal from the Ashes!
The crystal was square.
Ran Bing reached out and touched it. There were words on it.
“U-M-B-R-E-L-L-A!” Ran Bing chanted the words she touched and combined them.
“Umbrella!” She was stunned. “Umbrella?!”
She was too familiar with that word.
Many materials and goods in the Old World had that mark on them.
Even the floating city had its mark.
Countless information showed that this old world’s company or organization called umbrella had once covered the entire world and participated in almost all human projects.
Weapons had it on them. Buildings had it on them and medicinal herbs had it too!
And now…
Even the Scarlet Beast had it!
“What exactly happened in the Old World?” Ran Bing asked.
But no one could give her an answer.
The fog was so thick that there was no way out.
Ran Bing tried to turn back, but she soon discovered that there was no way out.
She kept spinning in circles!
That almost made her sink into despair!
Until…
At some point, little flickering lights appeared in front of her.