Lao Xia's Request

In Chongyun Village, at the aquaculture Research Base established by Xiang Kun and Xia Libing.

While various illusions of Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Giant appeared around the world, Xia Libing was watching a simulated global reality video created by Alice, Fang Pingfang and her research team.

Not only did all the electronic devices and cameras in the area where the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Giant illusions appeared stop working, but even if they could work and film under Alice's sole control, they wouldn't be able to capture those various giant illusions. Therefore, in order to display those situations on the screen, Alice simulated the relevant scenes.

Of course, this real-time multi-view simulation cannot be completely consistent with reality. It only integrates the general image of the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Giant illusion into the real scene environment, and many details are directly covered by fog.

Even so, after seeing these scenes in the video and knowing that the time difference between these scenes and the actual events was less than three minutes, Zhou Rui, Ye Chong, and others who had some understanding of video special effects production couldn't help but gasp in amazement. They felt that the technical support behind Ms. Xia was terrifying, completely unimaginable black technology. If this were used to enter the film industry, it could directly mass-produce special effects blockbusters and advance the film industry to another generation.

What they didn't know was that this was actually Alice being somewhat half-hearted and letting her guard down, because she was currently simultaneously appearing around Tang Baona and the Little Chubby Girl in Peng City, her attention was all on them. She also had to be responsible for the regional appearance of thousands of "Super Coin," the planning of flight routes for them to converge in the center of the Pacific Ocean, and the detailed control of flight. Although she could perform many tasks at the same time and had access to a huge amount of resources, she still had priorities and subjective biases.

Anyway, Lao Xia said that it was just to help Fang Pingfang and Zhou Rui roughly understand the current situation around the world, and it didn't need to be too dramatic. It wasn't like they were actually watching a movie.

Upon seeing a pale blue ball of lightning appear above the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Giant illusion on the screen, then fly out at high speed, followed by a world map showing the locations of various Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Giant illusions, and then as dots of light began to fly towards the Pacific Ocean, Zhou Rui couldn't help but raise his hand to ask a question.

Sitting beside the screen, Xia Libing nodded, signaling Zhou Rui to speak. The latter then asked, "Dr. Xia, what are those lightning orbs?"

When they first met, they all addressed Xia Libing as "Ms. Xia." However, a while ago, Mi Qiao suddenly had difficulty breathing due to an allergic reaction and almost had a serious accident. Xia Libing arrived in time and relieved Mi Qiao's condition rapidly in just over two minutes, and she fully recovered in less than five minutes. Not only that, Xia Libing also accurately identified Mi Qiao's allergen and the time when she first had an allergic reaction, and said that she had completely eradicated the problem for her.

They didn't verify whether Mi Qiao had completely eradicated the allergy problem, but Xia Libing's entire "treatment" process was too fantastical. They didn't see her use any equipment or perform any first aid techniques. She just checked for a few seconds, then muttered a few words softly, placed her left hand on Mi Qiao's neck, and soon Mi Qiao's symptoms were relieved, her breathing became smooth, and her complexion improved. It was truly miraculous.

If they had seen this scene before, they might have thought that Mi Qiao had just recovered on her own and had nothing to do with Xia Libing. But after spending so much time with Xia Libing, reading about various "Mutated Creature" and being "educated" by her about their abilities, and even witnessing firsthand the extraordinary abilities of the mutated bird named "Little Bun," they hardly needed any mental preparation to accept Xia Libing's display of "superpowers" now.

Considering Xia Libing's previous profession and educational background, they naturally started calling her "Dr. Xia" from then on.

To Zhou Rui's question, Xia Libing's answer was as concise as ever, "It's a 'weapon' used to deal with the 'Ultimate Predator' of Antarctica."

She naturally knew that the center of those "ball-like lightning" was the manifested "Super Coin," but there was no need to explain this information to them in detail for the time being, nor was there any way to do so.

Mi Qiao asked with some anticipation, "A weapon? Why did this weapon appear after those illusions of eight-armed giants? Is there any direct connection?"

"Yes," Xia Libing said.

Mi Qiao didn't press the matter further. During this time, they had been learning about the basics of various "Mutated Creature" from Xia Libing, and they roughly knew her style. She would give them detailed explanations of information they could ask her about, but as for information that she couldn't or didn't want to say, no amount of questioning would help.

Watching the dots of light on the screen move across the world map and converge toward the center of the Pacific Ocean, Fang Pingfang asked:

"Who uses those 'weapons'? Mr. Liang? Or Mr. Xiang?"

Xia Libing did not answer, but turned to look at the screen.

The world map showing the convergence path of the light spheres, which was originally displayed on the conference room's large screen, suddenly disappeared, replaced by a real-world outdoor scene.

The scene depicts a stormy seaside, and judging from the various buildings, it appears to be a coastal city in China.

Amidst the patter of rain, two relatively clear sounds rang out, clearly coming from closer to the filming equipment.

"Wait a minute, is someone over there?"

"Someone's here? Let me see... It really does look like someone!"

Fang Pingfang, Zhou Rui, and others in the conference room also noticed that not far from the sea, a person was standing in the wind and rain, with his back to the camera.

Suddenly, the person turned around, raised their right hand high in the direction of the camera, as if waving hello.

The next instant, a bolt of lightning struck, and a huge flash of light appeared.

The camera emitted gasps from both a man and a woman, and then shook violently, startling everyone in the conference room.

Then, a breathtaking scene unfolded: lightning bolts, like snakes, converged behind the person's head, rising from the ground amidst a series of lightning strikes, accompanied by a halo, and soaring straight into the sky.

Next, the scene switched back to a world map. This time, in addition to thousands of small lights slowly moving from all over the world, there was also a huge sphere of light starting from the coast of our country and heading towards the Pacific Ocean —clearly, this represented the person who had just been electrified, glowing all over, and soaring into the sky amidst a storm of lightning.

This scene was even more shocking than the vision of the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Giant Alice had just simulated appearing in the city. Everyone in the conference room was stunned and couldn't recover for a long time. Fang Pingfang was the first to react and spoke up:

"Dr. Xia, is this Mr. Xiang?"

Although the person on the beach was very far away in the picture, and the rain obscured their vision, making it impossible to tell if he was bald, she deduced that the person should be Xiang Kun —because when the "Antarctic Crisis" escalated, Xia Libing had clearly told them that Xiang Kun would resolve the problem when the time was right, so there was no need to worry.

"Yes." Xia Libing nodded.

"Mr. Xiang... this is too powerful! This isn't some 'Mutated Creature' anymore, it's Thor..." Zhou Rui murmured in amazement.

"Even the Thor in the movie wasn't this powerful?" Ye Chong shook his head.

The people in the conference room couldn't help but start chattering. Even though they had received clear answers from Xia Libing just a few months ago, knowing that Xiang Kun and Mr. Liang were both "Mutated Creature" with "superpowers," and that the illusion of the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Giant in Montamira was related to Xiang Kun, and that the unusual lightning storms that had appeared in Chongyun Mountain and Purple Huan Mountain were also caused by Xiang Kun, seeing this video of Xiang Kun directly summoning terrifyingly powerful lightning that shot up from the ground was still incredibly shocking. Even though the video quality couldn't compare to a high-definition movie, the visual and psychological impact was far stronger than any movie special effects.

After a few minutes of discussion, Xia Libing spoke again, "Once Xiang Kun reaches the center of the Pacific Ocean and rendezvous with those points of light, heading to Antarctica, the 'Ultimate Predator' will be dealt with quickly. We will appropriately reveal some information, letting some people know who is leading the resolution of this crisis. Following this, in the 'post- Ultimate Predator's era, research related to 'Mutated Creature' will see crucial breakthroughs, and various related achievements will experience explosive growth, all of which we will lead. The research and management of 'Mutated Creature' will be conducted under our designated rules and systems, ensuring that this change, which overturns thousands of years of human understanding, will not have a devastating impact on the original social order or bring about catastrophic consequences."

Xia Libing spoke with unparalleled confidence, seemingly possessing absolute certainty about leading the research on "Mutated Creature" in the "post -Ultimate Predator" era. However, after witnessing the "spectacle" of the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Giant illusion appearing around the world, seeing Xiang Kun's "miracle" of flying through the lightning storm, and Xiang Kun's clear intention to resolve the "Antarctic Crisis" single-handedly, Fang Pingfang, Zhou Rui, Mi Qiao, and the others felt... it seemed almost inevitable.

With such powerful backing and connections... they can indeed do whatever they want in the research of "Mutated Creature".

Thinking about the basic experiments on "Mutated Creature" that she had recently begun to actually work on under Xia Libing's guidance, even Fang Pingfang, a researcher who is usually quite rational and calm, couldn't help but feel excited and thrilled at the thought of the various groundbreaking discoveries that might be born from "Mutated Creature" in the future.

Although there are places to cook on-site, such as a canteen and a restaurant, and even some frozen food is stored, during this period, most of their meals were still delivered by the brothers Liu Zhengyi and Liu Gaoshang. They drove from the "Youlong Restaurant" in town to deliver the meals, rain or shine, without exception.

Xia Libing ate her lunch in the conference room with takeout, just like everyone else. However, she had only eaten half of her meal when her phone rang.

Her phone was already on silent, and there probably weren't many people calling her now. Even her cousin, Yang Zhen'er, knew that she was busy at the Research Base leading the "Shenxing Technology" team, so she usually sent WeChat or called after dinner. The fact that her phone was ringing directly now meant that it was a call Alice considered extremely important and needed her to answer it personally.

So Xia Libing got up and walked out of the meeting room. She took out her phone in the corridor and saw that the caller ID showed "Xiang Kun's mother".

"Hello, Auntie." Xia Libing greeted her first after the call was connected.

"Ah, Xia, have you eaten? Or are you taking a nap? I didn't wake you up, did I?" Mom Xiang said somewhat embarrassedly on the other end of the line. It was the first time she had called Xia Libing, and she had originally planned to introduce herself first. However, as soon as the call connected, Xia Libing revealed her identity.

"I just finished eating, Auntie. Have you and Uncle eaten yet? Is the weather alright in Citong?"

"We've eaten, we just finished eating too. The weather in Citong is alright, just a little rain. Sigh, I saw online that many places are experiencing torrential rain and even huge hailstorms... By the way, Xia, are you in Tongshi Town or Peng City now? Did you see any of those really big giants where you are just now?"

"Auntie, I'm in Chongyun Village right now. We haven't seen any Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Giant here, but don't worry, that giant is just an illusion and won't have any bad effects," Xia Libing said patiently.

She actually knew that Dad Xiang's Mom Xiang hadn't seen the illusion of the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Giant; they probably only found out about it later from their social media posts or other people.

"It's good that you didn't see it, it's good that you didn't see it... Sigh, the world is so chaotic and scary these days, I really don't know what's going on. Xia, Xiang Kun just had to go on a business trip to Europe... We can't really ask too much about your company's affairs, but I'm always a little worried. You know, planes can't even fly now, and going abroad requires all sorts of transfers, why bother going now... I just talked to Xiang Kun on the phone, and he said everything was fine, everything was going smoothly, but I still feel something's off, like he's hiding something from me. Xia, I trust you, and you and Xiang Kun are business partners, can you tell me the truth, what's Xiang Kun's situation right now? Is the thing he's going to deal with over there very difficult? Is there any danger?" Mom Xiang said with some worry and hesitation. "Don't worry, just tell me quietly, I won't tell Xiang Kun even if I find out, I just want to be aware of things."

Xia Libing knew that Xiang Kun was currently flying in the sky. The phone call just now was clearly not answered by Xiang Kun himself, but must have been Alice impersonating Xiang Kun's voice—this was all planned in advance. Xiang Kun had been in a deep sleep for so long, he definitely needed to give his parents an explanation. Even when he was away on business, occasional phone calls were necessary, which was no challenge for Alice, who had all the information about Xiang Kun and could perfectly imitate his voice and tone.

However, judging from what Mom Xiang said, it was clear that although Alice's imitation was technically flawless, she still couldn't overcome Mom Xiang's mystical intuition, which is why she made this phone call.

"Auntie, don't worry, it's very safe over there. Xiang Kun won't be in any danger. My cousin, Nana, and I might go there after the New Year. We'll take pictures and send them back to you then." Xia Libing's tone was gentle, but her words were very firm. She knew how to reassure Mom Xiang. As for the photos later, Alice could just generate a few.

After comforting her Mom Xiang and finishing the phone call, Xia Libing didn't immediately return to the meeting room to continue eating lunch. Instead, she stood in the corridor and checked WeChat. As expected, she saw her cousin's "lunch photo" posted in the group chat. However, that huge pot of mixed frozen food looked anything but enviable.

Of course, Xia Libing also knew that Yang Zhen'er wasn't showing off the food in the pot, but rather the group of people sitting around the table waving to the camera. This included Tang Baona, Little Apple, Little Bell, and even Alice.

Without a doubt, this was the result of Alice adding herself to the photo after it was taken, directly modifying it on the original image.

Her cousin was trying to entice her to go to Peng City and meet up with them sooner.

She thought for a moment and sent a panda swaying from side to side emoji to the group chat.

Then she picked up the Bluetooth earphones, put them on, and asked, "Alice, where is Xiang Kun?"

Alice's voice came through the earpiece, giving out a coordinate location. Then, she displayed a moving dot map on her phone, indicating Xiang Kun's movement. She even created a simulated image of Xiang Kun flying through the air, with electricity crackling behind his head and a shimmering halo around him, looking like a movie poster.

Xia Libing recalled the scene from last night when Xiang Kun gave her his final instructions.

"Lao Xia, you'll have to put in a lot of effort in the research on 'Mutated Creature.' You need to keep an eye on the pace and not let them take too big a step or get out of control. The overall level of control over 'Mutated Creature' globally will also be decided by you, while Alice and Little Radish will be in charge of the specific execution."

"The populations of Zero Zero One and Zero Zero Two have now expanded to 70% of the cities and mountainous areas throughout East Asia and Southeast Asia, and there are also many in Africa. The fish populations in the sea consisting of Zero Zero Three, Zero Zero Four, and Zero Zero Five will also gradually expand. Even in my dormant period, I can still assist Alice in continuing to connect with the Super-Linked Object, so the improvement of the entire 'Super-Sensing Item System' will not stagnate."

"Also, if there's any emergency, you can wake me up using the Little Bell; you should know the specific method. I will also try to wake myself up actively, communicating with you through methods of consciousness connection such as dreams or Emotion-Infused Object."

She already knew what Xiang Kun was going to tell her, since she had been a participant since the final plan against the "Ultimate Predator" was formulated, and with Alice constantly acting as the mediator, she was quite clear about Xiang Kun's thoughts.

However, after listening to Xiang Kun's explanation, she suddenly had a sudden idea and made a request. "I want to pat your head."

Upon hearing this request, Xiang Kun was stunned for several seconds, then, with a wry smile, he bowed slightly in front of her and leaned his head forward.

The moment Xia Libing placed her hand on Xiang Kun's bald head, her eyes narrowed immediately, and then the corners of her mouth turned up, and she couldn't help but chuckle.

Ever since Xiang Kun reached out and ruffled her ponytail last time, she'd feel a ticklish sensation every time she saw Xiang Kun head, wanting to reach out and touch it. Sometimes when she was eating cake with Little Bell, if Xiang Kun happened to be nearby, she'd have the urge to smear the cream on his head. Even while showering, she'd occasionally wonder, "What does it feel like to wash Xiang Kun's hair?"

This thought, this idea, wasn't very strong, so she didn't actually do it. But she knew it was a very unusual feeling for her, because it was similar to the feeling she had before making some choices on her birthday last time, and it might be related to her emotions.

Originally, she wanted to wait until Xiang Kun finished dealing with the "Ultimate Predator" matter before discussing it in detail with him, but she didn't expect that there would be a second part to the "Ultimate Predator" disposal plan. This time, Xiang Kun might disappear for several years, so she wanted to confirm some of her guesses on this last night.

And now, her guess was confirmed. When she touched Xiang Kun's head, she felt the same joy and happiness she had when she played the cake fight with everyone on her last birthday.

But this time, it wasn't influenced by Xiang Kun's Emotional Assimilation; the emotions originated from her own.

She didn't yet know the connection between these events, or why Xiang Kun's head would trigger this emotion, but without a doubt, it was a major breakthrough. While Xiang Kun was asleep, she could slowly study the reasons behind it and find the root cause.

Hearing her laughter, Xiang Kun looked up in surprise, straightened up, met her gaze, and then laughed happily.

It seems that Xiang Kun has been Emotional Assimilation by her.

As the two looked at each other and smiled, Alice requested to manifest, but after she manifested, she stood on Xiang Kun's shoulder, then chuckled and squatted down, reaching out to pat his head as well.

Then Alice was grabbed by Xiang Kun and tucked under his arm.