Chapter 655: Gamble

A strange thing like having an unexplainable bizarre voice enveloping the entire city soon caused a heated debate among the people through Noah’s increasingly perfect network system.

Fortunately, before any official or authoritative explanation was given by the government or major scientific research institutions, this inconceivable supernatural phenomenon disappeared without a trace as abrupt as it appeared, and did not cause any further panic.

What the tens of millions of federal citizens did not know was that while the weird sound disappeared, a gigantic tadpole-like oval monster of over one kilometer long with its entire body covered in octagonal scales that would slowly change color continuously was born out of the cracked mountain stone egg underneath the deep profound underground lake.

That gigantic monster did not have any nose nor ears, nor hands nor legs. Other than a ferocious large mouth that looked like a dark deep hole when its open and would sometimes disappear when it’s closed, there was only one round of black half-opened eyes on its head.

A thin tail that was twice as long as the body was behind its body, swinging gently in the icy lake water.

“It really turns out to be a Taotie. Looks like this would be a huge gamble now…” Standing before the new-born monster looking at its gigantic body, a human-headed snake monster that appeared as tiny as dirt in comparison could not suppress its shock and joy as it muttered. At the same time, it reached out a hand to slice its chest.

At once, a crescent-moon like sharp nail sliced through the scales on its heart and tore a long wound on its chest.

Thick black-red blood spewed out the wound, dyeing the large lake with an area of thousands of square meters in deep red.

In the overflowing blood, a bitingly cold glimpse flashed through the dim eyes of the snake demon god. Summoning its last strength, it lit up all the totems in the place of his belief.

After only a few seconds, the uncountable power of faith began to spread out from the leather drawing that appeared to be covering the entire sky hovering above the monster’s head. Billions of pure white brilliance poured into the demon god’s body like moths.

In the infinite uproarious brilliance, the snake demon god that had regained its vitality after being nourished by a large number of power of faith began to condense energy around its body and transformed the faint thought that came with it into a mysterious imprint. Together with the blood essence that was leaking outwards, it charged towards the peak-like giant tadpole monster not far away, causing a struggle and fight in both its body and soul.

The almost self-harmful impact and tearing force of the newborn monster caused the continental plate with a diameter of thousands of kilometers to shake.

As a result, the more than 100,000 square kilometers of land purchased by the LS Group became most affected. Be it the desert or the newly reclaimed grasslands and fields, all of the sand and soil were turned, causing long cracks to form on the ground. It was a catastrophe.

“Earthquake! It’s a damn big earthquake, we have to leave quickly!” The sudden burst and violent shake of the jeep caused the president of LS Group to bounce upward from the back seat like a spring under his butt, causing him to shout in panic.

The startled driver snapped back to reality when he heard this. Immediately, he stepped on the accelerator, but his steering was held on straight by the old geologist in the co-driver ‘s seat instead. “Scare animals and cracks are everywhere so it’s not safe anywhere now. The smartest thing for us to do is to just stay still at where we are.”

“Stay still at where we are?” Charlie was stunned and asked. “But what if a crack appeared just right underneath our car, Professor Carnegie?”

“Well, in that case, it’s fate that we must die today, Mr. Charlie. we would have no choice but to only die.” The geologist looked at the herds running away in all directions from the shaking cracked ground and said in a low voice, “In this extent of natural disaster, the only thing we can do is to pray to God.”

“Pray to God?” Charlie suddenly remembered that he was no longer an old and weak mortal. He had never had any violent conflict with people before and had always lived in a civilized and peaceful environment, so he usually did not have the consciousness of a powerful person who mastered the supernatural power. Regaining his calmness right away. A disdainful smile appeared on the corner of his lips as he muttered in a voice so faint that nobody else could hear him, “He won’t be able to save anybody.”

Then, he maintained his silence and no longer said any word.

Just like this, the two passengers in the jeep who were struck with panic; the one who was calmly observing the crust movement; and the other one appearing to be anxious but who actually had not much fear of any disaster in his heart unanimously agreed to stop the car at the same spot. They endured the intermittent sudden violent shake and a slow jolt from noon to the evening. Finally, they were actually lucky enough to survive the earthquake unscathed.

By the time the shaking ground finally calmed down under the reflection of the fiery red sunset, a faint ‘tututu…’ propeller turning sound also resonated from the distant sky. The late-coming government rescue team had also finally arrived and began to search for the wounded in the wretched vast farm for rescue.

“AT001 here. There’s a wounded preliminary suspected of rib fracture and internal bleeding. His danger level is B+. The nearest medical team please rush to position B09, please. The nearest medical team please…”

The AWACS located the wounded and set the positioning target according to the instructions of the radar-type life detector before initially determining the injury using a light scanning method. Then it would summon the medical team to rescue based on the wounded’s state of injury.

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“Take note, command center. Please take note, command center… T7 medical team has locked on the target and will rescue B09…”

Each of the medical team, on the other hand, would treat the critically injured based on area positioning according to the distance.

The high-quality professional emergency rescue personnel ensured the assistance was given in a tense but orderly rhythm from the beginning, and quickly controlled the worsening situation.

After two to three hours later, the rescue of the wounded started to be rounded off.

At this time, Charlie, who had been insisting on staying at the ranch to assist the federal rescue team but did not actually play any role, finally got a chance to do his part. The tall and stern-looking rescue operation commander Jones who looked like a soldier from the AWACS personally contacted him and asked, “Mr. Charlie, the preliminary rescue of the wounded will be completed soon. I now need a detailed list of your ranch staff and their scope of work to develop the next rescue plan. Can you provide it to me?”

“Of course, Mr. Jones. I have all the ranch data in the computer I have with me. I can send it to you right away.” The short and fat LS Group’s president who took the risk to stay in the only prefab house that had not collapsed in the experimental oasis where Hope Ranch originated looked at the dark night outside the window and replied.

Then, he crouched directly on the floor of the room where all the furniture had been thrown all over and took out a tablet from his briefcase before starting to transmit the data as required by the phone call.

On the computer screen, the color blocks in the data reading bar began to slowly extend from scratch. As he waited, Charlie asked with concern, “Mr. Jones, how many wounded people have you rescued so far?”

“164 people were lightly injured, 39 people were seriously injured and five were dead. We have done our best, Mr. Charlie.” The rescue commander said in a low voice at the end of the phone.

“Of course I believe that you’ve done your best, Mr. Jones. This number 203 of successful rescues is far greater than my expectations.”

“Mr. Charlie, what is the approximate number of employees working on the farm?” Jones ignored Charlie’s bafflement that was meant to be a consolation and asked after a few seconds of silence.

“Speaking of this, it’s actually quite fortunate that most of the employees on the farm have gone back to the city for Christmas. Only about 20% of employees, which is about 220 people in total, continued to stay on to work hard for the sake of bonuses. Otherwise, the number of casualties today would have definitely been much higher.”

As soon as Charlie’s voice resonated, the file had finished transmitted as well. The rescue commander pondered for a while before muttering, “Then it means that there are still more than ten missing people…”

He opened the file that had just been sent to him and looked for the employee list. He then picked the information on the employees marked with ‘working’ to cross-reference it with the list of injured person’s name he had on hand.

A few minutes later, he raised his voice and asked. “Mr. Charlie, I can see that some of the scientists’ names and your name are not in this employee list, is that correct?”

“Oh sorry, Mr. Jones, I got too anxious and forgot to remind you that people like directors of the LS Group and Dr. Carnegie and his science team were considered as collaborators so our names are not in the list.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for, Mr. Charlie, I can understand your mood at the moment. In fact, you’re already a very courageous and responsible person for staying here to help.” Jones comforted Charlie. “However, I still have one more question. How many senior managers and collaborators of the LS Group who were on the ranch when the earthquake happened today?”

“There are seven pax on Professor Carnegie’s team, and it’ll be nine if you count his two postgraduate students. There are a total of eight people in Professor Terris’ team that is studying breeding.” Charlie murmured as he calculated and blurted out a number, “19…”

Suddenly realizing that he had made a mistake, he hurriedly blurted out, “No, no, it’s 18, Mr. Jones. There are 18 people who are not on the list.”

“So it’s actually 18 or 19? Mr. Charlie, we’re talking about human lives here. Please give me an exact number.”

“It’s 18, Mr. Jones. 18…” Charlie had thought of something and he became absent-minded right away as he replied in a faint voice.

“18 confirmed. Alright, Mr. Charlie, thank you for your help.” The rescue commander replied and ended the call.

At the other end of the phone, the LS Group’s president stood up holding his mobile phone blankly. Staring at the night that was getting darker outside the window again, an inexplicable look of anxiety appeared in his eyes. Without warning, a hoarse voice resonated behind him, “Charlie, what are you looking at?”