Chapter 824: Have a Calculator?!
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“What the hell!” Hong Dali may have been heartless, but he was not stupid. He understood why little Bai Hechou was so terrified within a second. The Emperor Beetle was born out of pure killing. Over fifty million mutated Zergs fought and killed one another to evolve into one of the highest forms of living beings in the whole universe. This was a creature of a higher level than the Green Phoenix and Blue Dragon!
How terrifying was its aura? No matter how suitable little Bai Hechou’s genes were and how rapidly he grew up, he was still only a three-year-old kid. How could he possibly endure this?
Hong Dali felt shivers down his spine and yelled, “You bastard! Give me my son back! He doesn’t want to fuse with you!”
“It’s too late…” Ji Zining shook her head. “What a shame, it’s too late now. Once the fusion starts, it cannot be stopped…”
White Beard Gate could only stare as little Bai Hechou’s bone armor continued to peel off. A shiny golden bone armor was revealed from underneath, both that was going to crumble and fall off as well. He shook his head. “The genes were indeed suitable, but the murderous aura of the Emperor Beetle is too strong for the child. Sigh, we were late by one step…”
Nothing useful could be said now, yet Hong Dali continued to yell. “Give me my son back!”
Boom!
As a blinding flash of white light appeared, Hong Dali vanished from everyone’s sights.
By the time everyone had recovered from the light, they were all completely stunned!
A golden bone armor-clad Little Bai Hechou was now standing in Hong Dali’s position. Hong Dali had somehow entered the Emperor Beetle’s beam of light!
“What’s going on?!” Everyone was stunned.
What happened just now? How was it possible for Hong Dali to switch positions with little Bai Hechou?
“Dali!” Tang Muxin’s heart almost stopped beating.
“Young Master!” Li Nianwei was completely stunned.
“Mechanical Holy Garment, suit up!” Lin Chuyin was the most decisive one. She instantly armed herself with the Mechanical Holy Garment, ready to strike.
“Hold on!” Mister Gate dragged Lin Chuyin. He touched his beard and thought for a long while with a frown. Suddenly, he yelled, “Everyone, get back! Find a safe space to hide. Now!”
Gate was well-versed and well-traveled. He even knew about the Emperor Beetle. There was definitely something that nobody else knew about. Although nobody understood the orders, they decided to listen to him and retreat first.
“You should come down too, Queen of Blades!” Gate turned to look at Ji Zining. “Come down first, things have changed greatly. It’s no time for us to be enemies. Listen to me first.”
“Alright!” Ji Zining was curious about how things ended up this way, as she had never seen anything like this. As the Queen of Blades, she was powerful enough to ensure her own safety. Even though there was a super-powerful being on the other side who could shatter air, she was still sure that she could leave if she wanted to without anyone stopping her.
“What’s really going on?” Everyone surrounded Gate. Nothing else was important now. The only thing that mattered was how Hong Dali was doing.
“To put it simply, Hong Dali panicked just now and activated some sort of ability in his bloodline,” White Beard Gate said in a low voice. “That child Dali is hiding a lot of secrets. This ability allows him to exchange positions with his target. It seems like some hidden ability of a higher level bloodline in the universe. I’m not sure of the specifics. To summarize, my grandson is fine now. Not just fine, he has become very powerful. However, Dali is in trouble.”
“Dad!” Tang Muxin said hurriedly, “How can we help Dali? I’m worried something might happen to him! There’s only a thirty percent chance for success!”
“Now everything has become unexpected.” Ji Zining took a deep breath and said in a low voice, “Little Bai Hechou had a thirty percent success rate only because his genes were a perfect match for fusion with our clan’s genes. However, Hong Dali is different. If I’m not mistaken, little Bai Hechou had some natural deficiencies in his genes that our clan members’ genes were complimentary with, right?”
Zhang Yi was so nervous that she became completely flushed. She did not know what to do now but still nodded her head in agreement.
“Daddy!” Little Bai Hechou was crying now. He was just a child and was easily disturbed by these things. “It’s all my fault! Sob sob sob, daddy, sob sob sob!”
“Don’t cry, don’t cry.” Since Hong Dali was stuck in the light beam now, Tang Muxin naturally had to assume responsibility for the team. She took little Bai Hechou into her arms and consoled him. “Dali will figure something out. I’m sure of it!”
“Now we can only hope that things don’t turn out to be too surprising.” Gate looked at the golden Emperor Beetle in the sky and said, “I’ve read in the ancient documents that accidents are highly likely to occur when an Emperor Beetle fuses with a human. Once the fusion fails, the giant murderous aura of the Emperor Beetle will leak out and become extremely volatile. Those who touch it may self-implode easily. That is why I have asked everyone to hide. All we can do now is to endure through the toughest initial twenty-four hours. Once the twenty-four-hour period passes, there may be a change to the situation.”
Twenty-four hours! One day’s time, it was neither long nor short, but certainly, it was not so easily endurable…
Everyone fell into silence at this time. Although nobody liked Ji Zining, Li Yang and the lackeys even wanted to fight her right now, Tang Muxin the Young Madam was the most composed and rational one.
“We must stay calm.” Tang Muxin looked determined. “Dali is not here, so we cannot mess with our own heads. We must at least wait until the twenty-fourth hour. If Dali really dies…” She paused as tears streamed down her face. “I will definitely avenge Dali!”
“Humph, try to avenge him. As if I’m scared of you!” Ji Zining was admittedly distracted by the sudden turn of events. Still, she was the Queen of Blades. She naturally would not stand to lose her face. “If we really get to that point, you can try all you want.”
The atmosphere suddenly tensed up. Luckily, the ingenious pops was here. He was respected by all. “Alright, calm down now. Dali has always been a lucky child, I don’t think he will die so easily.”
Everyone loved to hear that. Instantly, everyone sat down and waited for time to pass.
White Beard Gate touched his chin and murmured, “That ability awakened from his bloodline is pretty strong, it can even disturb an Emperor Beetle’s genetic coding fusion light beam…”
…
Inside the Emperor Beetle’s light beam.
Hong Dali stayed here. To be honest, it did not feel like anything special. He was just extremely tired, and he felt his body become increasingly fatigued…
Many things filled his brain, a huge mixture of random stuff that he could not really analyze now. However, they somehow appeared to be relevant to himself.
“Sh*t, what the heck is this?” Hong Dali felt aggrieved. “How did I end up here? What happened before this? I’m the prodigal son! What am I supposed to do in the Emperor Beetle’s light beam? Am I supposed to rule the Zergs?
He was not sure if he could rule the Zergs. However, he understood one thing clearly. He was in deep trouble this time!
The System’s voice was soon heard, and this time, the voice sounded much more rushed.
“Alert! Alert! The Host’s Health is rapidly decreasing! Every hour it goes down by one point! Once the Host’s Health falls below thirty points, the Host will lose his mobility. Once it falls below ten points, the Host will become vegetative. Once it falls to zero points, the Host will die!”
What the heck!
Everything else could be settled, but this was life-threatening! Hong Dali immediately pulled out the System control panels. Every other stat was normal and showed a full hundred points. The Health section, however, alarmingly showed ninety-four points!
“What the heck!” Hong Dali panicked. “That’s six points gone! God, we can’t do this, why am I losing Health in the light beam?!”
The System finally said a few things when faced with this situation.
“The Host is undergoing fusion with the Emperor Beetle. As the Host’s genes are not compatible, the Health will continue to decrease. If the Health falls to zero points, the Host will die. If the Host is able to endure 360 days without dying, the genes can forcibly fuse with no side effects.”
Damn! Alright, alright, disregarding the continued decrease of Health, it seems like there is a chance of success according to the System. Also, there will not be any side effects, that’s the key thing!
What the System said next made Hong Dali depressed again.
“Within the first 144 hours, one point will be deducted from Health per hour. From the 144th hour to the 720th hour, one point will be deducted from Health every two hours. After the 720th hour, the Host will be returned to freedom. One point will be deducted from Health every three hours until the 3120th hour. From the 3120th hour to the 8640th hour, one point will be deducted from Health every four hours.”
What the heck, these numbers sound so confusing!
“Do you have a calculator?!” Hong Dali yelled, “I don’t understand these huge numbers!”
The System was gracious for once. “Will satisfy the Host’s request.”
Half an hour later.
“What the heck…” Hong Dali looked at the numbers on his calculator and exclaimed in shock. “For the first seven days, one Health point will be deducted per hour. That’s 24 points per day, 144 points per week. From the eighth day to the thirtieth day, a total of twenty-three days, 12 points will be deducted per day, totaling 276 points. From the thirty-first day to the hundred and sixtieth day, 8 points will be deducted per day, totaling 1040 points. For the final two hundred days, six points will be deducted per day, making it 1200 points…
“Altogether, it will total up to…” Hong Dali took a deep breath. “2660 points! AHHHHH! One point of Health equates to ten thousand Galaxy Dollars! Furthermore, I have no idea how much wealth I’ll actually have to squander in exchange for just one Health point in the future!”
Two hundred and sixty-six million dollars! That was the rough estimate for the amount of money he would have to squander.
“For my life!” Hong Dali yelled, “I shall squander!”