Chapter 6: TimelyRescue
Cheng Yang wasn’t surprised when he heard the gods’ declaration.
At this point he was looking curiously at the newly flattened summit. Nearly a square kilometer of trees had completely disappeared, not even leaving a hole where the roots would have been.
Just a little over a hundred meters away the Territory Altar and surrounding statues had been completely unearthed. Seeing that both the altar and statues were exactly the same as his memories Cheng Yang smiled.
“Come with me!” Cheng Yang shouted the moment the wind stopped blowing. Then Cheng Yang rushed towards his territory.
It wasn’t until Cheng Yang was only ten meters from the Territory Altar that Yu Kai and Liu Hau followed him.
Seeing that Cheng Yang appeared to know things they did now Boss Lee and his employees rushed to Cheng Yang’s locations.
Once Cheng Yang arrived at the altar he pulled up the system panel and chose to build the wall.
At that moment, several of the transport trucks by the river dissolved along with their cargo. As they did a wall appeared around the Territory Altar section by section quickly completing a loop. When the wall passed over the river it added a wooden grate underneath allowing the river to flow through the territory.
Seeing this the others were shocked, they had never seen something so fantastical before.
“Mr. Cheng, what the hell is going on?” Mr. Lee was older and more stable than the others so he was able to quickly ask Cheng Yang a question.
“Right now I’m short on time and can’t give you a thorough explanation.” Cheng Yang said, “For now lets just say that disaster affected the whole world and caused it to become a video game. These four statues allow you to perform a class change ceremony to become a Professional. When you pick a class you’ll become like a game character!”
These words shocked Boss Lee who was a veteran gamer. Boss Lee simply couldn’t believe Cheng Yang’s words, they were absurd!
He had seen how that wall was erected however, there was just no scientific explanation for it.
Although the earthquake earlier had shaken Boss Lee’s spirit he knew he needed to make a decision.
“Yoko, this means I can get a class right?” Liu Hau asked with excitement.
“Naturally,” Cheng Yang said pulling out his stave, “You will need to wait a bit though. The class change ceremony requires Experience Fragments so I can’t let you do it until I go out and save Ox.”
Boss Lee hesitated for a moment before stepping in front of Cheng Yang’s path, “Mr. Cheng,” He said respectfully, “Would it be possible to allow me and my employee’s to pick a class as well?” Boss Lee was smart and realized that this was a huge opportunity.
Cheng Yang smirked in his heart. As expected, he had found his first group of followers.
“I’ll allow it,” Cheng Yang announced to the anxious men, “but understand one thing. This is my territory. Those are my class change statues. If you want to use them you need to pledge your loyalty to me. I won’t ask anything terrible of you but my rules must be obeyed.”
Perhaps it was because of his calm attitude but there was something about Cheng Yang that made those present trust in him. Thus, when they heard this magical land belonged to Cheng Yang no one tried to bargain with him.
They didn’t know it yet but even if they tried to sneakily use the class change statues they wouldn’t be able to as they were under Cheng Yang’s direct control. This was a tool that allowed Lord’s to exert their power over others.
“Yoko, what should we do now? Should we follow you to rescue Ox?” Liu Hau said looking upset with the gradually darkening sky.
It wasn’t just Liu Hau, Yu Kai and the others were also distressed. The day’s events had greatly unsettled them especially after hearing Cheng Yang say that the event was global.
The world they knew was gone, so what would they do now?
“No.” Cheng Yang shot down his friend, “I’ve already become a Mage so I have the power to save Ox but until you get become a Professional you’ll only be a burden. In another seven or eight minutes monsters will start to appear and I need to get to Ox before they do. Otherwise he is as good as dead. He was close when the earthquake happened so I should be able to make it.”
Once he finished Cheng Yang didn’t wait for a reply before moving to leave the territory.
As Cheng Yang neared the northern gate he used his authority as the Lord to fling the doors open as he sprinted past. Once he left the gate automatically shut again. As the Lord of Phoenix Village Cheng Yang was in complete control of every building with his territory.
Cheng Yang followed the road praying that Lau Hui would be alright.
He ran four times as fast as a normal person. However, he was a Mage and thus couldn’t run for as long as Warriors or Rangers.
Cheng Yang was like a gale and in just five minutes he had traveled six kilometers. His speed had already blown away every previous record from before the apocalypse.
At this point he saw a group of three people next to an overturned taxi. One of those people was Lau Hui!
“Yoko! What are you doing here? Are you okay? Where were you during the earthquake?” Lau Hui shouted seeing Cheng Yang running towards him.
Change Yang didn’t answer. “If you don’t want to die Ox, quickly come with me. I don’t have time to explain but its dangerous out in the open.”
Cheng Yang grabbed Lau Hui’s hand and started to drag him away.
“Wait!” Lau Hui countered quickly, struggling to break Cheng Yang’s grip, “I can’t leave Pang Sun.”
Cheng Yang looked over at the other two people and saw a pretty girl about his age. Maybe this was Lau Hui’s girlfriend that Yu Kai mentioned.
“She can come but she needs to keep up.” Cheng Yang didn’t want to abandon someone special to his friend.
Seeing that his girlfriend was about to argue with Cheng Yang, Lau Hui said, “Let’s go with him Pang Sun, Cheng Yang wouldn’t lie about a matter than could bring me harm.”
For a while now Lau Hui had an ominous feeling that the earthquake hadn’t been so simple.
At this point Cheng Yang rushed towards Phoenix Village followed by Lau Hui and his girlfriend. Of course Cheng Yang had decreased his speed so that they could keep up.
The taxi driver hadn’t realized just how much the world had changed but hearing the urgency in Cheng Yang’s voice he couldn’t help but fear for his life.
People are social creatures and in the absence of security they follow the crowds. Seeing the everyone else start running the taxi driver followed after them. When he thought back on this decision later he would think it was very wise.
A chilly breeze whistled through the ruins of Cloud City.
The earthquake had stopped and the wind had vanished. Those that had survived the disaster had begun to search for their loved ones. There was a lot of tension after the announcement made by god. Since everyone had heard it no one was able to refute it.
Most people were able to realize this hadn’t been a normal earthquake.
Even so no one knew what to do next.
The voice had said it would give them a chance to evolve but what did that mean? Would they have to fight each other? If so that meant martial artists would be the most powerful in the world.
Since no one knew what the voice had meant they focused more on their future plans and finding others. Would the government be able to help them or were they on their own.
The government of Cloud City had already begun to act however without electronics their ability to gather people was limited. Luckily the paramilitary police were already assembled for a training drill that day. They started from the city center and moved outwards stabilizing the situation.
In addition the government sent people to explore Cloud City. Military personnel were quite paranoid and never would consider an event like this to be so simple. They had picked up on a crucial detail in gods announcement. Evolution meant killing!
What did they need to kill? What did evolution mean? Why evolve at all? The government desperately wanted the answers to these questions.
It wasn’t just the government that wanted this information. Ambitious groups around the world were searching for the key to evolution.
At this point those with even half a brain had realized that this was a global phenomena because there was no way to disable so many electronic devices that wasn’t at a cosmic scale.