Xyrin Empire

I must now fully recognize one thing: the Earth, which I've always thought of as calm, mundane, and even more mundane after being crowned king, is actually a place full of superhumans, aliens, vampires, werewolves, and biochemical monsters. This tiny cosmic water drop is by no means more monotonous compared to other worlds. Indeed, Earth is not dull, it is low-key.

All along, neither Sandora nor I have thought about dispatching people to conduct a thorough investigation of the global organisms. I've always defined this place as home, mundane and full of rusticity, but worth cherishing. On the other hand, Sandora defines it as technologically primitive, with interesting natives, located in a barren and desolate sky zone, and with plenty of good food, nothing more. Even after knowing that there was an Atlantis civilization here seventy hundred thousand years ago, our thoughts remained unchanged.

But now, well, Earth does seem quite interesting.

"The total number of global aliens should be around 1.1 million, including humanoids and a very small portion of non-humanoids," Lin Xue sat on the coffee table in the living room, holding a laser pointer for our briefing, "These are those already registered, at least it's certain that such a person exists and their whereabouts are basically clear. The unregistered ones probably won't exceed one-tenth of this number."

"The planet scanning system is already in orbit and online. If any overlooked aliens suddenly erupt, the people from Boundless Love can transport to the scene within five seconds," Qianqian specifically changed into a cute little suit, also wearing a pair of non-prescription glasses, she dressed herself up as if she was ready to dominate the world, but having seen that silly face with a laugh all the time, now seeing how this girl dressed up only makes one feel a sense of harmless cuteness, "By the way, I didn't know there are so many fun things in the world until now? How come I never encountered any of this before?"

See, I told you, this girl's outfit is purely something she thinks is awesome and that's why she wears it.

"Only a total of one hundred to one hundred thirty thousand people globally, hidden among seven billion population, you call this a lot?" Lin Xue swung her legs at the edge of the coffee table, completely lacking the demeanor of a well-mannered young lady, "And saying this is the maximum estimation, many among them might not even have any superpowers, or their powers are so weak that they can only break stones on their chests, and if they break too many, they still have to lie in the hospital for half a month — such people make up at least half, and they themselves don't even know they count as 'aliens'. We usually wouldn't treat them as superpower users or alien races outside of monitoring them. In reality, those who can zip around roofs and walls like in movie special effects and unleash a Caesar Emperor Wave from their wrists are really rare."

"Could such people also go berserk?" I chuckled wryly, "Even if they did, what could they do? Break stones on their chests in front of the White House, wouldn't it still be just breaking stones?"

"That's why I think what you lack the most is cultural knowledge," Lin Xue rubbed her temples with a face showing reluctance to ridicule, "What is called a mutation? It's obviously changing in an instant so even one's own mother wouldn't recognize them. The kangaroos in Australia plan to group up and take over the space agency, do you think those who break stones on their chests can't suddenly turn into the Hulk? After all, they do have Atlantis genes."

Once again with the Atlantis genes — these past two days I have developed a profound admiration for the Atlantis genes. After seventy hundred thousand years, times have indeed changed. What is the concept of seventy hundred thousand years? The Huaxia Civilization claims a history of five thousand years, so the time since the destruction of the Atlantis civilization to now would be enough for the Huaxia civilization to circle up and down a total of one hundred forty times. And the few genes they left behind at the doomsday have been so tenaciously and miraculously passed down to this day, with even over a hundred thousand people today still considered direct descendants of this ancient gene. What kind of Bubbles' Life Force is this?

Not all organisms that inherit Atlantis genes would manifest superpowers. This is the conclusion we reached after studying the database on Mount Olympus. The likelihood of these genes expressing themselves in modern human bodies is not fixed, but generally, the higher the gene concentration, the higher the likelihood and strength of manifestation. Many alien species, like vampires, pursue bloodline purity to an obsessive degree, even resorting to inbreeding, and at the root of it, it's just instinctively maintaining these hereditary factors.

And those unlucky ones whose hereditary factors in their bodies are regrettably recessive, are basically abandoned by alien families and can only live as ordinary people.

But even these 'ordinary people' are under the surveillance of the Dark World, because no matter how one puts it, they still carry the ancient genes and are quite different from genuine ordinary people. They might produce offspring with superpowers if they marry ordinary humans, but such offspring have enormous defects, either being half-beasts eternally in a berserk state or vampires who can kill the Mother in the womb. Thus, these descendants abandoned by their families but still carrying ancient recessive genes are actually unluckier than ordinary people: they might live in comfort, but there will always be a hidden hand influencing their fate, forever being separated from loved ones. And counting these humans who are between 'aliens' and 'ordinary people', only then do you get to the one hundred to one hundred thirty thousand people Lin Xue mentioned.

After the energy burst on the Moon Base, the aliens who already had special abilities or special races of course went berserk, and those who merely carried ancient genes without any special power also underwent mutations. This is the main reason for my admiration for the memory of Atlantis: After seventy hundred thousand years, they're still keen on revenge.

"The survival ability of Atlantis genes in the ecosystem is astonishingly high. Individuals carrying this gene are definitely stronger, smarter, and better able to endure extreme environments than ordinary individuals, and this is true whether you carry superpowers or not. Thus, after so many years, there are still more than one hundred thousand people in the world who mutated due to the energy stimulus from the Moon," Miss tossed aside the teaching pointer and suddenly hopped over to look at me, "Oh, by the way, I need to remind you, many in the Dark World now find this event suspicious. They feel that Boundless Love is secretly making an aggressive move, planning to use some special method to forever control all the world's aliens. Many organizations are already planning to confront Boundless Love openly or covertly."

"Good deeds perceived as donkey lungs and livers," Lilina, who was lying on the carpet not far away trying to trick Little Baobao into eating soap, mumbled darkly, "They've forgotten how the Olympus Organization met its demise."

"Humans are like this, fragile and fickle, the famous saying of Sandora," I glanced sideways at the little girl, "No matter how much fuss they kick up, how much can they really stir up?"

"Certainly not bigger than an Eternal Level firing a shot, but definitely annoying," Lilina leaped over, "To the President of the United States, the Iran nuclear crisis and hemorrhoids both cause insomnia, and under certain conditions, hemorrhoids are even more annoying than the Iran nuclear crisis. You don't disagree with that, do you? Whether to fight a Fallen Apostle shirtless or to suffer from hemorrhoids for ten years, which would you choose?"

I thought for a moment and threw Lilina into a nearby bin: This girl's mouth surely never gushes out ivory, no matter how ordinary the topic, she can always make it sound as rough as three-day-old stale rice.

But this time Lilina was particularly resilient, the little girl kicked her little arms and legs and climbed out of the bin, shamelessly and incorrigibly bouncing back in front of me: "So sometimes to deal with something you have to use the same kind of tactic. To handle interstellar wars, your Invincible Fleet works, to deal with flies and mosquitoes, electric mosquito repellent is more efficient than a submachine gun."

"What exactly do you want to do?" I asked, pinching the face of this little girl who had to bounce up to talk face-to-face with me, and said with a tone of helplessness that a big brother would use with a mischievous sister.

"This Pope is willing to be your electric mosquito repellent, being your cleaner of flies is my greatest honor — ever since I was a child watching movies, I've always hated those undeserving guys. Clearly, others save them, yet they insist on beating up the good guys. For each one I see like that, I wish I could eliminate one."

After thinking about it, if it were in the past, I would never agree to such a thing, but now, having broadened my experience and perspective, I know that sometimes it requires a person like Lilina who is willing to take a hard stance and use heavy-handedness in times of chaos.

Just like those suspicious little organizations, yes, they are small organizations, of little influence, but in this globally tense environment, they are like ant holes that could collapse a thousand-mile dyke. If not promptly filled, there would be a breach.

By then, the whole world's hidden and visible forces would collectively start suspecting the originally great and glorious Boundless Love, and ultimately lead us to a situation where our good intentions are mistaken for donkey liver and lungs. If by that time Qianqian happens to be in a dark state... I can hardly imagine how bleak that future would be. It's estimated that global gelatinization would be inevitable, and if Qianqian puts in a bit more effort, it could lead to a global expired gelatinization, with corpses and seas of blood growing green mold everywhere...

"It's a good resolve, but this isn't a job for you."

I suddenly reached out my big hand and gave Lilina a forceful pat on the head.

"Ah?" Lilina looked up in confusion, her eyes instantly covered with a faint mist of tears, looking as if she would cry if I didn't explain, "Boss, are you thinking that Lilina is useless?"

"Stop pretending, when you really cry, your nose runs clear. You think I haven't seen it?" I rubbed Lilina's head, and her expression instantly collapsed: "Geez! Boss, why do you remember only these things!?"

"Anyway, remember this, you're a girl, stop thinking about all these bizarre things. Spend the time revising the Bible to a formal version, that's more useful. You've dealt with too many orders involving massacres. If this keeps going, you're bound to really go insane eventually."

"Tch, think too much," Lilina grumbled as she walked away, "This Pope is still the Goddess's Heretic Judge. You think doing this job doesn't involve killing people."

"Lilina really can't be judged by her appearance," Big Sister gently pinched my hand, her face filled with a cheerful smile, "But this time, I think Ah Jun is right. That child, if things keep progressing like this, is bound to become abnormal."

"Kids need discipline," I waved my big hand and then turned to look at the formidable Miss sitting on the coffee table, "Girl, you have no problem handling this, right? I'll first treat the Superpower Team members, then you figure out how to stabilize those minor factions. If worst comes to worst, make them shut up. Obviously, that's a last resort situation, we're here to save people."

"I know, I know," Miss waved her hand, "You have the right to remain silent because eventually, we'll make you shut up: this law is a basic rule in the Dark World. Speaking rights depend on your stance and your fist, and maintaining silence is occasionally your right, but most of the time, it's your duty. But oh, Wood, so Lilina just gets pampered by you, while I, Miss, have to toughen up and be the bad cop?"

I know this is Miss's habitual plea for attention, but I just gently pinched her face. There are too many people here to do anything too aggressively, but just wait until everyone leaves to see how I mess with this hard-mouthed, thin-skinned Prophet girl.

However, my plan didn't succeed. Lin Xue will predict, in the end, she still... she still forcibly kissed me...

This major operation has been named by Qianqian as... I don't even know what the final name is after several modifications. Let's call it the Moon Surface Impact Event for now, according to the general description in the information chain. This event is clearly divided into two solution parts. One group, which is the real strength of the Empire, is busy day and night in Shadow City and the Moon Base, analyzing debris, backtracking space fluctuation records, and looking for the cause, process, and result of the impact. This is the main force, but they hardly need my intervention because I don't understand... The other group is Qianqian's Boundless Love organization, which is difficult to tell whether it's just fooling around or serious, responsible for handling the series of chain reactions caused by this event in the Outer World, essentially treating the world's aliens. This segment of the force is a minority in the "Moon Surface Impact Event," yet it's the part where I can intervene personally, one, because it's interesting, and two, because Qianqian dragged me along...

So for the past two days, I started helping them deal with the rampage issues of human Superpower Users and non-human demons and ghost monsters.

Today is the fourth day after the Moon Surface Impact. The demons gathered by Yukari Yakumo have already been dispatched worldwide and have started working impressively. I have very low expectations for them and once thought that this gang might be an even greater world menace that needs preemptive handling than the rampaging Superpower Users, especially since Ibuki Suika, that idiot, led people to recklessly smash up a cosplay club, which made this thought rise to unprecedented levels. However, after one day's time, the demons really began to gradually get on track, which was quite unexpected.

Actually, they are easy to manage—this was mind-blowing information revealed by Ling Meng and Yukari during idle chit-chat.

"Making them obedient? Easy, just beat them into submission. Demons are very obedient after getting hurt." That's Ling Meng's original words.

"Letting them know what they should do? Easy, just assign someone to watch them. Most demons aren't bad, just a bit dumb; they always know what they want to do but don't know how to do it, so the best is to assign this gang of idiots each a supervisor, and then you can freely train them." That's Yukari's original words.

And so, this is how the matter was decided. Of course, I can't afford to pound each demon before departure, but I can commission the demon leaders to do so. In Fantasy Country's various gangs, the leaders are relatively smart (except for Chiruno), and they are quite obedient in front of me (maybe borrowing Ling Meng's prestige? After all, the Fantasy Country City Management Team leader now has become Shadow City's City Management Team leader). I divided the demons into over a hundred action zones according to the "disaster-affected areas." Each zone has one demon leader, large or small, overseeing it. That way, what I need to do is to beat those leaders rather than each little demon—strangely, my mode of communication with these young demon girls was beating, and even more strangely, Ling Meng judged that I had successfully accepted Fantasy Country's customs: the beating-based culture exchange method.

Then we also arranged for demons to team up with other Boundless Love members or Heroic Spirits to conduct unit actions. I know that often, they don't genuinely want to help, but simply don't know how to help. A group of passionate yet uncultured folks often, with good intentions, mess up things. Hence, having experienced Imperial Soldiers and Heroic Spirits team up with them could efficiently avoid their foolhardiness while fully utilizing their brute strength, yielding a win-win situation.

The demons generally got along well with their allocated partners, which is heartening. In the morning, I even received quite a few surprisingly delightful pictures. Altoria and Wenwen were smiling beautifully in the big Eastern European forest; they were there searching for Crows. Caesar and He Cheng Hequ squatting in Southern paddy fields were silly grinning towards the lens, studying local frogs together. Medea and Remilia were assigned together and sent electronic postcards from a large North American blood bank. Additionally, there was a selfie from Ling Xian; the photo was of an endless prairie with orderly rows of rabbit ears occupying the lower half of the photo, with nothing else visible. Ling Xian wanted me to guess which one was her...

Even rabbits dare joke with their boss nowadays.

This also reflects a side issue where these demons were really bottled up in Avalon. They were desperately keen to see the Outer World. However, due to various regulations, even if they're allowed to come out for fun, it involves cumbersome approval, coupled with a series of disguises, followed by continually reporting whereabouts and significantly shortened stay duration. Under such circumstances, there's hardly a chance for them to roam the entire earth in groups at leisure. Therefore, this operation has practically been treated by them as the largest-scale outing in history. Poor me has to watch the gang send silly selfies while simultaneously trying to hypnotize myself into thinking demons are earnestly working on serious matters.

But demons certainly are effective. At least, after they joined, we clearly found it much easier to locate certain unregistered "aliens." Due to their nature as "unconventional" aliens, demons have inherent intuitive insights into similarly "unconventional" aliens on earth, this insight is mysterious but indeed effective, even approaching the level of Heroic Spirit Warriors like world Guardians with Dingdang licenses. While roaming, demons picked out a significant batch of aliens already affected by Moon Surface energy shock but are hesitant to report—or are entirely unaware of the happenings inside their bodies (the latter is quite frequent, as many people have no idea about their differences from ordinary humans until their Atlantis gene manifests outward, thus being kept in the dark)—these imminently rampaging dangerous existences were processed timely: a one-person, tailored "Alarm Removal Tracking Service." (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to visit Qidian (qidian.com) to cast recommendation votes, monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation.)