Chapter 56
Chapter 56
Starting From the Dragon Tribe
Chapter 56: Sara
“This is A Group 3. There’s a local girl who snuck into here. I will drive her out for the agents outside to handle,” Bob put down the walkie-talkie and said to the Khoikhoi Girl, “Go home, or the monster will come out and eat you!”
Sara was driven away by the well-dressed uncle’s “fiendishness,” running away frantically in the direction of the village.
Bob saw this and shook his head, smiling. He said to the agents outside, “She’s run away, keep an eye on her.”
“Over.”
This was only a small window of time in a boring night of surveying the land. Bob once again focused on operating the instrument, which was a life detector modified by the Equipment Department that used UWB* technology.
*UWB = Ultra-wideband technology
This high-powered instrument was able to scan for signs of life within a fifty-meter radius and ten meters underground.
The instrument was usually used for the search and rescue of people after an earthquake, so it was obviously somewhat out of place in the context of geological surveying. But, they weren’t here for geological surveying, but were here to find a certain organism. The goal was not to save it, but to extinguish it.
Bob was very careful in operating the instrument… After all, it was from the Equipment Department, and every time he used something from said department, he always carefully read the manual first. This time as well, unsurprisingly, he found a warning with a red skull and crossbones symbol on it.
Mhm, this instrument contained an explosive function (too), and its power wasn’t small either. It was more than enough to blow him to smithereens.
He looked at the line on the instrument that only slightly rippled and reported on the broadcast screen, “Area A76 detection complete, no signs.”
***
Sara ran a long way in one go and stopped to catch her breath, a sly smile appearing on her face.
She only feigned fear because she knew that the mister looked fierce but was actually a good person. They also bought the family’s cattle and sheep, so these days, papa and mama were in a good mood, even saying they were going to send her to school.
She looked at this beautiful sea of flowers and listened closely to the sounds of nature, wanting to hear whether or not that wonderful song would play tonight.
It was a not-so-secret secret of hers that she always heard strange songs hidden in the waves stirred up by the night wind. She believed it to be the God of Nature. Who knows, maybe she had the gift of shamanism.
But when she told her friends in the tribe, they all laughed at her, saying that she was lying, and no matter how mystical she described it, she was lying. She only wanted to be a shaman in the tribe.
They also laughed at her dancing, remarking on her lack of skill in it, like a dumb duck, and how could she become a shaman in the future like that.
The Khoikhoi people maintained animistic beliefs, worshiped natural forces and ancestors, and believed in shamanism. They saw shamans as possessing the most magical power. The shamans had special magical powers that allowed them not only to use magic in the regular world, but they could also converse with the gods of the underworld as well.
Becoming a shaman had been Sara’s lifelong dream. She had once seen a shaman from the main tribe. It left a deep impression upon her. Every time the sacrificial ritual was performed, the shamans would perform a ritualistic dance, and everyone believed their luck that year would be improved as a result.
Her friends didn’t believe Sara, and she was angry because she wasn’t lying. She truly heard something, and even got a response from the singer of the song when she shouted into the field of flowers.
She thought she had the gift of becoming a shaman. How else could she have heard the song of the God of Nature?
The God of Nature responded to her, so was it safe to assume that he thought highly of her?
Which is why Sara was reluctant to leave. Mama and Papa said they would send her to school, but she heard that the schoolchildren looked down on them as backwater tribesmen. Compared to being treated coldly at school, she much preferred to run with her parents on the grassland and grow up to be an admired shaman.
But what Mama and Papa decided was the final say. The people in the tribe also agreed to the demands of those outsiders, happily selling their cattle and sheep and prepared to leave the land.
Tomorrow, it would be time for her to leave, and she was here to say goodbye to the God of Nature, but she didn’t hear His song tonight.
Was it because the tribe abandoned this place and it hurt the God of Nature’s feelings? Was it because the arrival of outsiders distubed the God of Nature’s peace? Was it because of their defilement of the land coveted by the God of Nature that made him angry?
Sara did not know, but she was dejected. She had wanted to communicate with the God of Nature one last time.
***
***
“Anomaly detected, anomaly detected! This is Area C78!” An agent reported through the broadcast screen. Every agent, whether they were surveying or “standing guard” outside, all immediately stood on alert.
The executive agent in charge of the mission, Purtell, stood up in the command room, “Send a copy of the wave pattern over for Norma to compare and analyze!”
At the same time, he also mobilized more than half of the A-grade elites over to Area C78 in the event of a battle.
Norma’s analysis was very quick, so much so that the combat specialists of the Executive Bureau only ran a few hundred meters before she was done.
Purtell put his hand on his forehead, “Return. It was only a desert hare, and its burrow is probably down there.”
The bloodlusted combative agents all froze in their tracks when they heard that.
Purtell himself sighed secretly. He was too nervous. He had some experience in using the instrument himself, so he should’ve been able to draw the same conclusion just by seeing the wave himself.
He sat down and lit up a cigarette. If going by the style of the Executive Bureau, they wouldn’t be here risking their lives surveying. Tomorrow, when the tribe all evacuated, they would have directly sent underground rockets. He didn’t believe that the 3rd generation species would still be alive and kicking after that.
But this time the college actually said they wanted some samples back. What was outrageous was that they had to capture it alive!
Live capture of a 3rd generation species of the Dragon Raja? Was it from their inflated egos caused by the recent growth in the Secret Party’s power, or was it overconfidence in the new S-grade ace agent?
He had yet to carry out a mission with the S-grade, but he heard rumors about him, and he indeed was a very talented young man. He had no doubt that the S-grade would be able to kill the 3rd generation species with the help of the other agents.
But to subdue it? Then it’d depend on pure white-knuckle combat. In this level of combat, the average hybrid simply would not be able to intervene. In other words, they could only play the role of scout. The large number of A-grade elite agents in this mission were supposed to be insurance, but it seemed like the school board only meant to use them as sidekicks, seeing how they were in charge of surveying only.
This made Purtell slightly upset, but he had always obeyed orders, and he understood how significant a sample from a 3rd generation species was, provided that the S-grade ace really was able to subdue it.
“This is Area A81, anomaly detected, anomaly detected!” The broadcast screen suddenly thundered. Purtell looked at the recording of the wave pattern. That clearly wasn’t caused by something like a little hare.
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