The Great Worm Lich

The vaguely familiar scene stirred the memories buried deep in his memory. looking at the slowly dissipating dense fog, a pang of realization suddenly hit Zhang Lisheng. With a faint smile, he murmured, “A steam missile, so it’s actually a steam missile… Has the Shrimp World No. 1’s gods formed an ally with the Karlado people’s steam civilization now? Looks like the cross-world alliance I advocate is becoming a trend now. Hmmph, the situation has become more complicated and interesting. What should the Earthling do then in this situation…”

As the young man was muttering to himself, the splendid brilliance that shrouded the world’s gate began to slowly dissipate. After a few minutes, like a sunset hanging on the horizon in the evening, it dimmed down to the minimum brilliance.

“Have they stopped their offensive now? Looks like it’s really a demonstration of announcing their alliance. In this case, the attack target should be not only the Noah World’s spatial gate. If I can get my hands on a complete information, then it’d be useful for me to speculate on the overall strength of the Shrimp World No. 1 gods.” He continued to mumble in ponderation while waiting for the foreign world’s attackers to end their attack in an absent-minded state. Zhang Lisheng was ready to climb down the tree at any time, but suddenly, he saw the disappearing light started to reflect and strengthen to its maximum level in the distance of more than ten kilometers away. The light actually caused half of the sky on the north to be flickering with streamers.

After that, in the endless glory, many towering, magnificent and ambiguous figures began to emerge in an ephemeral rotation.

“Such posture and visual impact… Could it be… Could it be that… No, it must be! It must be the projection of the gods of the Shrimp World No. 1!” The young man regained his spirit and focused all his attention as he watched the distance in excitement mumbling to himself, “Consuming an enormous amount of power of faith just to demonstrate their strength in front of the civilians of the enemy. I really don’t know which idiot came up with such a creative idea. These divine powers are enough to support a large battle…” Abruptly, his words were lodged in the throat by a silhouette with a blank facial features, except for a pair of icy eyes containing endless chills that were clearly visible looking down, whose body was entirely shrouded by a gorgeous cloak depicting all kinds of rings on the sky.

All of a sudden, all of his joints in his body became stiff as though they had rusted on the thick branches. Zhang Lisheng’s gaze had a terrorized look on as he lost his morale, while his jaw dropped with his body stood petrified.

After a long time, he finally unconsciously muttered incoherently with trembling lips, “T-That gaze… T-That gaze belongs t-to T-Ti…Ti… No, no, no! T-This is impossible! Impossible! How is this even p-possible? How c-could it be her? I-It’s too absurd… T-Too…”

His voice was so hoarse and dry that it was like two rusty metals being rubbed together.

While the young man was battered out of his senses, the brilliance towering to the sky shrouding the Noah World’s gate exhausted its energy in its last glory and transformed into nothingness. Even though the provocation of the foreign world’s god had disappeared, the far-reaching impact of this incident on the USA would not end in such a haste manner.

In the Oval Office on the West Wing in a white western-style antique building complex on the Pennsylvania Avenue to the northwest of the new Columbia City in Noah World, a man standing at the pinnacle of political and military rights in the United States watched the image of the war that had just ended projected on the white wall with a very angry expression on his face.

He had been elected as president for two terms and his second term of office would be over in just one and a half years time. With no more pressure for any future election, along with the fact that he was in a private meeting now, he immediately expressed his agitation without scruples. Slapping on the oval desk in front of him, he shouted, “Again? Again? And this time it’s a joint attack by the mythical civilization and steam civilization on Noah’s spatial door! Goddamnit! Why can they just let me end my term in a good mood?! There are only less than 20 months to go anyway! Damn it! Damn it…”

When the cabinet staff around the desk saw the owner of the White House going ‘crazy’ again, they frowned and looked at a tall and strong white man with hedgehog-like short gray hair who looked slightly aged but whose eyes were still filled with unusually abundant energy.

“Rand, anger can’t solve any problems. Even if you smashed the desk into pieces, you won’t hurt even one fine hair of those mongrels from the foreign world.” Sensing the heavy gaze on himself, that white man ran his hand over his wire-like straight short hair and said in a low voice.

“What else can I do if I don’t get angry? My dear friend, Franklin, as a former defense adviser and the current vice president, tell me what should I do? Those ‘rats’ hiding in Noah World are shouting that they can’t give up any of the federal citizens, but at the same time desperately protesting against the falling standards of living. They even accused me of assigning six space carrier motherships to fly randomly around the old federal states on Earth and wasting military resources as the commander-in-chief of the Three Armed Force but they didn’t think for a second that if it was not for these Sky Fortress that are demonstrating their deterrent forces that they claimed to be utterly rubbish, Noah wouldn’t have been so peaceful all this while…” Upon hearing the persuasion of his friend cum political partner for many years, the president did not calm down but howled even more loudly.

At this time, nobody else spoke in the Oval Office. It was only until the White House’s owner had vented the anger in his chest and ultimately stopped speaking while panting heavily that a short and fat old man sitting on his right side finally rubbed his belly and said with a grave expression, “Sir President, don’t forget that it was those ‘rats’ who sent you to the top of the power of the USA with votes last time. As the leader of the Americans, you must make every effort to find solutions instead of complaining we’re faced with difficult problems.”

“You’re right, Duke, we must solve the problem when we encounter it.” The federal president was a natural politician who started from a small rural town office and only used a short span of 30 years to step into the White House so he could immediately control his emotions if he wanted to. After he had vented out his anger, his expression changed right away as he calmed down with an exhale of air. “Then, what’s the opinion of the Department of Defense about this incident?”

“I’ll submit the opinion of the Department of Defense to you tonight, Sir President but I can tell you my personal opinion right away. Gather the federation’s idle force on Earth and join hands with the South African government forces and the Atlantis African fleet command post to make a fierce blow on the Karlado as a retaliation!” The fat minister answered firmly in a strong voice.

After pondering in silence in a blank expression for a while, Rand smiled noncommittally and said in a low voice in a profound meaning, “Joint military operation? Aha, Duke, looks like you have not given up on restarting the ‘Earth’s Integral Defense Project’. However, have you ever wondered how much it would cost to let the South Africa ‘s government forces that are even worse than militia and the alien warships to cooperate with the federal army to launch a military strike against the Karlado in a situation where we don’t have any upper hand at all?”

Then, he turned to look at the only female cabinet minister in the office.

“Margaret, as the chief of the Department of Homeland Security, what’s your opinion on this incident of which the invaders of the foreign world are endangering the Noah World’s security?” Leaning back against the back of the black office chair in a relaxed manner, the White House’ master asked.

The Secretary of the United States Department of Homeland Security in her thirties whose beautiful face was hidden under a pair of huge black frame glasses who had an innate intellectual temperament that caused the other people to pay attention to her thoughts rather than the curvy and tall body wrapped in her brown suit at first sight pondered for a while in silence before answering solemnly, “Sir, I share the same opinion with Secretary Duke. In order to ensure the homeland safety of the old United States on Earth, we no longer have the ability to conduct conventional military strikes across the ocean alone as our overseas military bases have all been removed…”

“It’s not that we don’t have this ability, but we have to take too much into account.” It was apparent that the federal president was clearly dissatisfied with Margaret’s concurrence with the Secretary of Defense, as he abruptly interrupted her.

Frowning in agitation, his head began to turn again as he looked at an old man wearing a gray casual outfit with a cap on his head who had a faint habitual smile on his face opposite him. “Fernand, my Secretary of State, you’re the real expert when it comes to diplomacy. Tell us what you think.”

The Secretary of State was actually the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, but because the States used to have the so-called ‘world police’ status, the weight of the Department of Foreign Affairs was too heavy so its head had a status even higher than that of the Vice President. It was the second most powerful person in the cabinet other than the president, so because of this, it had a special name.

However, as the federal government withdrew into passive defense in Noah World and the exchanges with the rest of the world became increasingly scarce, the power of the Secretary of State gradually shrank and no longer had its formerly prominent status. However, as a revered and abhorred sly cunning person in the federal cabinet, Fernand’s opinions at the cabinet meeting still regarded as important.

Be that as it might, the old man seemed to pay no attention to the solemn gaze of his colleagues on him. He took off his hat and exposed his bald scalp as he scratched his head while saying slowly, “Sir President, all secretaries, and advisers, I realize that all of you have ignored a very important problem. In fact, the USA doesn’t need to implore the South African government to open its military bases, nor does she need an alien fleet to help fight the Karlado people. Don’t forget that we have a strategic partner who has recently established an offensive and defensive alliance with us… ”

“You mean the Wizard Li people?” Rand’s eyes turned wide as he blurted out. “But that covenant was completely signed under a forced circumstance. How can we expect those indigenous dwarfs to actually send troops to fight for the nation? Besides, didn’t it’s stated in the reports just submitted by the CIA and the FBI that the tens of millions of refugees in more than ten of our former metropolises in the old United States have joined a religion that is likely to be controlled by the Wizard Li god and the initial judgment has stated that the Wizard Li may have a bad intention on the USA so we should raise our vigilance against them, shouldn’t we?”