The Great Worm Lich

Everyone who had experienced great disaster would know that when natural or man-made disasters struck, the most terrible thing was not injuries and death, but hunger instead.

 Luring the panicked and hungry people who had just experienced the apocalypse soon produced a great result. The crowds all over the streets immediately unified their heading direction within several minutes, as they gushed towards New York’s Orange Street.

 After muttering to himself, the black-haired young man did not continue to mingle in the crowd but looked at the streets instead. He ran to a boutique shoe store with broken window glass on the road and jumped on the windowsill before sitting cross-legged on it. Watching the rolling flow of people, he entered a deep contemplation.

 “The New York military base has not suffered any damage at all, so the federal army inside should be starting their operation already. Don’t tell me they’re really worse than the public and have been hiding like a mouse? If that was really the case, the plan would have to be changed…” Unknowingly, the young man began to mumble to himself again, absent-mindedly. While he was speaking, he suddenly stopped talking and shut up right away. A gleam of bloodcurdling brilliance flashed across his eyes as he looked towards his right side. Under his ferocious gaze, a blond girl with graceful bearing and sexy figure left the crowd and strolled up to him before proceeding to sit on the windowsill with a push of her hands.

 Both of them looked at each other for a while. A strange and brutal smile appeared at the corner of the black-haired young man’s mouth as his hands that were placed on his knees gently lifted. Thousands of inexplicable twisted arcs appeared in the air around his arms as he whispered, “Do you know the Earth language? I can’t believe that I can actually encounter a descended god in New York street just a few days after the world’s barrier collapsed. The Colossal World is indeed much more amazing than I thought. Then again, if you’re taking me as prey, that would be too stupid of you. As a god, even if it’s only a ‘shift of will,’ you should be able to detect the gap between us…”

 “I knew the gap between us very well from the beginning. Very, very well, baby. You don’t have to remind me,” Looking back into the young man’s gaze that had a hint of ferociousness in it, the girl suddenly interjected gently, “We haven’t seen each other for 575 days already, how are you doing?”

 The familiar tone, way of address, and action made the black-haired young man who could lash out anytime to freeze instantly.

 The cold smile on his face froze for more than ten seconds like a mask. Then, with a hoarse and dry voice, the young man stuttered, “T-Tina… I-Is that you?”

 “Of course it’s me, who else will call you ‘baby’ so naturally other than your mom and me. Oh wait, I forgot, maybe my best friend cum sister Trish and that secretary of LS board, Miss Maidr, whom you admire the most will call you like that in private.”

 “T-Tina, I’m r-really sorry. Really! I’ve never thought of hurting you before, really…” Sensing the infinite sadness and pain in the girl’s smiling eyes, the young man lost his cool and spoke in a trembling voice.

 “Hurt me? Of course, you won’t hurt me. You’ve always been my savior who saved me in despair and hopelessness. Before I turned eighteen, I’ve never thought that I’d swear my entire life to just one man. Before I knew you, love was just like a delicious dessert to me. It’s sweet, but I’d get sick of it if I eat a few more pieces extra. However, after knowing you, I finally learned that I’m actually a woman who regards love as air. Without love, my heart will suffocate and die painfully… ”

 “I’m sorry, Tina, I’m sorry…” The young man was utterly paralyzed while sitting on the windowsill. His body began to tremble slightly as he murmured in an almost moaning manner.

 Upon seeing him on the edge of breaking down, an odd expression flashed across that girl’s face that had been smiling since the very start. “Isn’t it a little too exaggerating to put on such a show now? Oh, dear baby, you’re the Wizard Li God; oh wait, you must now be a god who has ruled the entire Shrimp World No. 2 and owns a whole world, right? How amazing is that? Oh, that’s right, why is the world shrouded by your belief suddenly disappeared after the apocalypse? Can you tell me the reason?”

 “I’ve used the only sky-patching stone left behind by Ancient Goddess Nuwa, the Chinese witchcraft ancestor, to patch the Shrimp World No. 2’s spatial door before the world’s fence crumbles. I just wanted to try and experiment with it, but I didn’t expect the results to be exceptionally perfect,” The black-haired young man fell into a moment of silence and answered honestly much to the girl’s surprise.

 “Nuwa, Nuwa…” The girl was stunned. She murmured the name of this ancient goddess who had founded witchcraft in China and left countless of amazing legends twice as she fell into her memory. After a long time, she finally replied, “I remember that you’ve inherited the bloodlines of this powerful god, right? Ah, and we used to analyze her story of patching up the sky before. I guess that must be related with the sudden disappearance of the Colossal World then. Looks like that speculation has been right. Ah, how shocking! There really was a god so powerful in the ancient times that she could separate 1000 worlds that had been stuck together for no reason and recreated the world’s barriers.”

 “That’s right, I also feel baffled these few days,” the Wizard Li God nodded.

 “You’ve inherited the bloodline of such a powerful god, and it’s no wonder you can conquer an entire world in just a few years, but why are you telling me such important information? You should know just how precious a method that can end the Colossal World can be, even if it’s a method that cannot be proven at all…”

 “To me, there’s no other thing that can be more precious than you.” Looking at the girl’s suspicious expression, the young man suddenly interrupted her.

 “You’ve learned how to sweet talk now, Zhang Lisheng,” Upon hearing this, the girl’s body became rigid for a while. After being stunned for more than ten seconds, she suddenly erupted. Waving her arms and punching the Wizard Li God’s shoulders, she shouted, “You’d never tell me the words like you said just now no matter how I wanted you to coax me! Now you can just say it this naturally. Good for you! Good for you! It’s really good for you…”

 In the old federal states that advocated individual heroism, even in the chaotic period, the girl’s howling in such high decibels was still enough to attract the attention of the passers-by. However, when they saw their behavior, they merely considered it as a bicker between a couple; nobody meddled at all. They only shrugged and continued on their journey of survival.

 After a long time, the girl finally stopped her hysterical crying. Wiping off the tears on her face, she lowered her head and took a deep breath. Then, she recovered her cold expression and stared at the Wizard Li God as she said, “It’s tough to imagine that my hatred towards you has even exceeded my dignity as a god…”

 The young man who had been motionless like a sculpture when he was beaten by the girl suddenly said hoarsely: “Tina, the so-called gods are actually just intelligent creatures who have powerful abilities. If there is wisdom, there will be thinking, and if there is thinking, there will be emotions of love, disgust, fear, and so on. What difference there is with human beings? A god’s dignity is nothing but a show in front of the believers. It’s essentially no different from the proud and distant attitude you showed to strangers in school or in the social field. There has never been the need to put up such a show in between the two of us, has it?”

 

“Since you said that there’s no need to put up such a show, I’ll tell you directly the purpose why I’m here looking for you,” The girl lowered her head for a moment and said in a colder tone. “The barrier dividing the world has collapsed, and the pages in the book have unfolded. The time of the Colossal World has come, and at this time, it’s the cheapest and smartest way to show kindness to ‘the powerful ones.’ And you’re powerful enough…”

 “Show kindness? No problem, I accept your kindness,” the young man nodded again upon hearing the girl’s deliberately unfinished words before asking, “But you still have to tell me what world’s force you are representing. Is it Shrimp World No. 1?”

 “Yes, I am indeed the god of Faron World, which is also the Shrimp World No. 1 as you said,” The girl answered

 “Can you tell me how this bizarre thing happened?” The young man asked another question with concern.

 “It appears to be inconceivable, but actually it’s very simple. Remember the Book of Sage that you gave me?”

 “Of course I do, that’s the trophy I gained after battling with a god’s clone. That guy has even arrogantly called himself the Sovereign of the Truth. C-Could it be that he made you a god just from that book alone?”

 “Of course not, there are four major pantheons in the Faron World—Light, Dusk, Alpis Peak, and Black Red Lake. The Sovereign of the Truth doesn’t have the qualification to rule any pantheon. Have you forgotten? It’s indeed you who snatched most of the pages of the Book of Sage from him, but a crucial part of it is from the hands of humans in a foreign world.”

 “Sage Altman,” An old man cloaked entirely in black, even his head was covered with a hood, appeared in the young man’s mind, prompting him to blurt out, “You mean the sage who once led some warriors to invade Hawaii.”

 “Yes, it’s Altman,” The girl nodded. “It’s because of him that I became Faron’s god.”

 “Isn’t he dead already?”

 “Altman did die a long time ago, but as fate would have it, many unexpected situations took place after he died. First, the Atlantean fleet landed on Earth, and the world’s gate began to open continuously around the Earth. Then, the federation found the Noah World causing the United State’s brutal offensive on Shrimp World No. 1 to weaken several times, which then allowed the Red Iron Nation that was about to perish miraculously survive. The people of the Red Iron Nation thought that it was Altman who risked his life to cross the world’s barrier to save them, so they began to shower him with godly respect…”

 “But what does this have to do with you?”

 “It didn’t have anything to do with me at first. However, coincidentally, Altman was the last sage in the Red Iron Army who were either all dead or had fled away. To show respect, the general public never called his name directly. Instead, they called him the ‘last sage of the Red Iron Nation…'”