Pretending To Be A Boss

Akasi was not stupid. He understood the significance of Tang Xian choosing to keep him behind.

Tang Xian knew the events of today were too subversive for ordinary humans.

The Beast Court, which could take on the form of human miners, and the intelligence displayed by the miners' creatures that was indistinguishable from humans.

Tang Xian had no intention of hiding these things from his teammates, but everything needed to be done step by step. He chose Akasi, who had the strongest ability to accept change and the most trust in him, to be the first to know the truth.

One day in the future when he would speak of these things again, having a collaborator would make it also more convenient for Dongran, Qiaoshanshan, and the others to accept.

The complexity of the mining area far exceeded imagination.

Tang Xian said,

"It's still too early now. We'll do it later. Some boss-level creatures in the mining area might, for some unknown reason, consider me as one of their own. As to the root cause, I'm also not clear about that, including some of my abilities, which require investigation."

"I get it, you really are an interesting guy," Akasi said with a laugh. Find your next read on empire

"Interesting?"

"Quite interesting. Maybe your very existence is a kind of irony to the years of research in the evolution zone."

Tang Xian grew to like Akasi even more, largely because of the trust, but also because of his strong capacity for acceptance.

The favorability was at fifty-nine, being evaluated as a friendship close enough to put one's life in the other's hands.

This was even higher than that of Ke Shang Lu and the others; the classmates he previously got along well with were at most fair-weather friends, with favorability around forty.

But Tang Xian noticed something, there was a difference in how favorability was evaluated between males and females.

For instance, a favorability range of ten to twenty was evaluated as "feeling a sense of familiarity" for females, while for males it was "instant rapport."

And for twenty to thirty, it was "joy at meeting" for females and "regret at not meeting sooner" for males.

Tang Xian saw no need for this distinction.

He wanted to correct it but found the data in his vision was not subject to his will.

In Tang Xian's eyes, there was essentially no difference between men and women.

It was only between the foolish and the non-foolish.

Tang Xian originally thought the limit of favorability was 100, just as the limit for charm value should be Qing JiuYu's 99, appraised as a woman who could overthrow states with her beauty.

It was only later that he encountered an exception, and he realized that the data display was skimping as well.

There was only one exception, and that was Li Xiaoyu.

Li Xiaoyu's favorability towards him seemed to be 100, but there was no appraisal. This shouldn't have been the case.

Upon closer examination, Tang Xian discovered a small plus sign next to the 100.

It seemed that this plus sign caused the appraisal to disappear. It probably meant... an obsession too deep to describe.

He wasn't a fool, although the appraisal did not show up, but the previous values had not been significantly off, so Li Xiaoyu should be no exception.

Thus, Li Xiaoyu probably had a nearly unhealthy fascination with him.

This wasn't something good, especially since it had been unchanged for six years after Tang Xian had rejected her.

The attitude Tang Xian preferred was, if you treat me with respect, I'll return it tenfold; doing business with him, he tried not to let the other party lose out, with the condition that he also profited.

The same went for friendships.

But the level of Li Xiaoyu's favorability towards him was something Tang Xian found hard to handle.

Thinking too far ahead.

Tang Xian shook his head and stopped thinking about these trivial matters.

His somewhat friendship with Bai Mansheng was not out of utility, but simply personal interest.

Tang Xian said, "Let's go back to the tent, that cat and bird must be starving."

Akasi nodded and asked while walking,

"You promised Xiaojiu to go to the north in search of Qing JiuYu, didn't you?"

Akasi believed that Qing JiuYu was the Qing aunt Xiaojiu mentioned.

Tang Xian nodded and replied,

"To take a look and provide some help, then leave. I underestimated the strength of catastrophe-level boss creatures; I need to think more deeply about some things."

"What are your plans after that?"

"Go back to the wooden house in the Tree Sea, waiting for the arrival of the Hunting Festival."

Akasi did not think Tang Xian was the kind of person interested in the Hunting Festival.

Tang Xian didn't wait for Akasi to ask and spoke directly,

"I probably won't be participating in the hunting festival. But the event will still bring me some trouble. I need to guard my yard and at the same time warn some intruders."

Akasi understood, realizing that the hunting festival was being held near the Forest Sea.

"This time, the evolution zone will also send some test subjects to participate in the festival," Akasi said.

Tang Xian didn't stop, continuing on his way.

"If possible, I'd like to go to the area of the hunting festival alone to find these test subjects."

Tang Xian nodded without any hesitation and said,

"I will help you."

He added another sentence:

"I can't turn those kids who have transformed into monsters back into humans, nor do I possess the knowledge of how to reverse-extract the blended serum. But I will do my best to save those children who haven't been modified.

Organizations like the evolution zone, I will eradicate them root and branch."

Akasi nodded, with a warm smile on his face.

The two soon arrived at the outskirts of the White Bone Mountain Range, at the border with the blood-red wasteland, which was a stretch of shallow grassland.

This place was unique, with grassland to the south that once nourished a large herd of cattle.

To the north lay a rugged mountain range that had once been home to a large flock of birds.

But now, there were no more cattle moos or bird songs.

On the vast boundary land, there were only a few tents.

In the central tent, a short-haired lazy cat stretched and licked its paws, while a clumsy bird chirped eagerly for food.

Upon seeing Tang Xian, the cat and the bird acted like a farmer in drought yearning for rain.

Tang Xian took out some food and a cat trough, and the cat's head rubbed incessantly against it, Tang Gazi did the same.

Occasionally, it would push Tang Bingxiang with its wings, which annoyed Tang Bingxiang who then exhaled a low-grade version of the icy breath, freezing the food solid.

It looked smugly at Tang Gazi.

Akasi watched the cat and bird, laughing out loud.

Tang Xian said, "Such foolish cat and bird."

...

...

The first fortress, the sixth layer.

The Song Family, the Qi Family, and the Li Family were the three major families of Huaxia.

Song Gengzhao, as the family head, had exhausted all his energies for the Song Family.

In the quaint study room of the Song Family head, there had always been the words "the first fortress."

This was also a reminder to the successive heads of the Song Family that the first fortress was not literally the first.

But Song Gengzhao didn't care about these things.

The competitions among the fortresses within Huaxia were still relatively aboveboard.

Even though the Song and Li Families were competing for the title of the true first fortress of Huaxia, the heads of both Song Li families maintained the philosophy of serving the world first.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Even the Qi Family, with its not-so-clean historical background, followed this principle.

Although the various fortresses of Huaxia each had their own schemes, their views on external affairs were surprisingly united.

As such, after the great catastrophe when civilizations changed and other countries underwent turmoil, the distance between fortresses grew wider.

But this was not the case with the Huaxia fortresses.

Song Gengzhao's choice of a marital alliance with the Li family was also regarded as a beautiful story. Even in the race with Lincoln Fortress for the pioneering of the eighth layer, at such a critical moment, the Song Family was willing to support the Li family wholeheartedly.

Inside the study, looking at the approaching wedding date, he said with a smile,

"Although Li Wanye has been ahead of me and Qi for these years, there's still something he lacks compared to me.

Li Zheng is a talent, but he's still not as good as my son. I can't outdo the past, but you're different. The next generation might just elevate our Song Family to the first fortress.

With the hunting festival approaching, we outsiders have been invited to be guests at the thirty-ninth fortress. My son, you must do your best, take the strongest record of battle, and marry the Li family's little princess!"

Song Gengzhao would deal with some of the Song Family's affairs in his study every noon.

Joined by the ever-smiling Song Que.

(To be continued)