CHAPTER 596: DAILY GAMBLING ON THE FATE OF THE ISLAND NATION

One table?

It’s a dessert shop. Liu Xing raised his eyebrows, not expecting this dessert shop to be so fashionable, and it would be a "one-table shop". The one-table shop is a dining model that has become popular in recent years from Europe and the United States. Simply put, a shop only has one table, and under normal circumstances, it only does one business a day, so a one-table shop is basically a high-end boutique line. So a one-table shop is mainly Western cuisine, and the shop owner is mostly a Michelin chef, after all, an ordinary chef would find it difficult to operate a one-table shop.

"This dessert shop is quite interesting, I’ve never heard of a one-table dessert shop before, after all, the one-table model is not suitable for a dessert shop." Zhang Wenbing stroked his chin.

Ming Hanxing next to him nodded and said, "That’s right, although the profit of desserts is also very high, desserts are not staple food after all, and most people go to dessert shops at most order one or two desserts plus a drink, and it may take several hours to sit down, so the one-table model of the dessert shop in this area, not to mention this dessert shop is not well-known in Tokyo Comprehensive University, it seems that this dessert shop is very likely to be unable to achieve its profit target."

Liu Xing chuckled and said seriously, "So this dessert shop should be the property of the Freemasons, its purpose is to provide a private conversation place for Mu Yao and others, and it won’t look suspicious to outsiders, after all, girls like to eat desserts is human nature, so now let’s go back to the topic, shall we go around that dessert shop?"

Ling Ishikawa nodded and said, "I think it is necessary to confirm whether Mu Yao and the others are going to that dessert shop, because we need to confirm the relationship between that dessert shop and Mu Yao and the others, so that it will be more convenient for us to deal with Mu Yao and the others in the future, but the most important thing is, I think that dessert shop should not only provide a private conversation place for Mu Yao and the others, it should have other functions as well."

"I agree with Ling Ishikawa’s statement, if the Freemasons just want to provide a private conversation place for Mu Yao and the others, they can just buy a house for the Su Ziche siblings, after all, the relationship between the Su Ziche siblings is now a couple, and it is very normal for college students to live together off campus, Mu Yao as Su Ziche’s sister’s best friend visiting is also understandable, at least it’s more normal than Mu Yao and the others going to a dessert shop every other day, so I also think that dessert shop is probably not that simple. Ryuusei, Ling Ishikawa, do you know the character Sun Erniang?" Zhang Wenbing said seriously. Sun Erniang?

Liu Xing of course knew who Sun Erniang was, and also understood the meaning of Zhang Jingxu’s words, but since "Watanabe Ryuusei" did not know what "Water Margin" was, Liu Xing could only shake his head. But speaking of which, the four great classics of China are somewhat polarized in the Island Nation, "Journey to the West" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" can be said to be flourishing in both literature and art, with a large number of game, literary, and manga derivative products in the Island Nation, but "Dream of the Red Chamber" and "Water Margin" are somewhat neglected in the Island Nation.

So in the Island Nation, many people know "Journey to the West" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and can even speak about them in detail, but when it comes to "Dream of the Red Chamber" and "Water Margin", most people in the Island Nation only know the book titles. So "Watanabe Ryuusei" and "Ling Ishikawa" both don’t know "Water Margin", so naturally they don’t know who Sun Erniang is. And Zhang Wenbing guessed this, so he directly said, "Sun Erniang is a character in the classic Chinese novel ’Water Margin’, and the most famous story about her is that she and her husband opened a black market selling human meat buns, and the raw material for these human meat buns naturally came from those who ate at their black market. The reason I mentioned Sun Erniang is that according to the investigation of the China Dao Sect, the Freemasons have been involved in a number of missing person cases in recent years, because the last known locations of these missing persons are almost all related to the Freemasons’ businesses, and these missing person cases have basically been suppressed by the Freemasons with their reputation, so this is also one of the reasons why the China Dao Sect suspects that the Freemasons are the Lighthouse Society, because the mythical creature worshipped by the Lighthouse Society - the snake man - is somewhat different from other mythical creatures."

"The name ’snake man’ gives the first impression like Deep One and Ghoul, making people feel that they are a group of savage and terrible creatures, but the intelligence of these mythical creatures is not inferior to us humans, and the snake man is even more so. Since the snake man is also distributed in the China region, the China Dao Sect has a certain understanding of the snake man, knowing that their current technological level has surpassed humans, and in some aspects can be said to be a generation ahead of humans. But the most terrifying thing about the snake man is that they like to conduct various experiments on humans, especially those related to poisons!"

"Taking China’s domestic situation as an example, there are nearly a thousand confirmed missing person cases related to the snake man every year, and about half of them are related to the Freemasons. And the missing persons are all between the ages of 20 and 30. So I now have reason to suspect that the dessert shop is also a black market, after all, this dessert shop is near Tokyo Comprehensive University, and the main customer source is the students of Tokyo Comprehensive University, which fits the criteria for the snake man to choose human experimental subjects. And to be blunt, in the city of Tokyo in the Island Nation, where human sentiment is scarce and the pressure of life is huge, if a person between the ages of 20 and 30 goes missing, most people will think that he has committed suicide, rather than being kidnapped."

Liu Xing nodded, according to "Watanabe Ryuusei’s" memory, the number of missing persons in the Island Nation exceeds 150,000 per year, and the vast majority of these missing persons in the Island Nation will be presumed to have committed suicide, after all, the majority of the population in the Island Nation is currently concentrated in large cities like Tokyo with a well-developed surveillance network, and the Island Nation itself cannot "digest" so many missing persons.

Of course, in the parallel world with the Cthulhu Mythos as the background, many of the missing persons in the Island Nation are related to secret cults, which is also one of the reasons why there are numerous secret cults within the Island Nation, after all, what secret cults lack the most are "sacrifices".

"Alright, I’ll go with Lu Tianya to wander around that dessert shop to confirm whether Mu Yao and the others are there or not," Zhang Jingxu said. Liu Xing nodded. Although Zhang Jingxu has not confessed to Lu Tianya yet, in the eyes of outsiders like Mu Yao, Zhang Jingxu is already Lu Tianya’s boyfriend, so now that Zhang Jingxu and Lu Tianya are going to wander around the dessert shop, it should be very normal in Mu Yao and the others’ eyes. So Zhang Jingxu and Lu Tianya handed the things they were holding to Liu Xing and the others, and then went to the dessert shop. As for Liu Xing and the others, they went back home first, carrying the bags and parcels. And until now, Liu Xing still has not contacted Rundell. It seems that the matter on Rundell’s side has not been resolved yet. Indeed, there is no shortage of public intellectuals in any country, let alone those who will take money. It is obvious that these public intellectuals all belong to the martial arts faction. However, since the current situation is indeed as pessimistic as these public intellectuals have said - the Fukushima nuclear power plant may have a major accident at any time, and the possibility of Inukai waking up in the short term is extremely low, so many uninformed Island Nation citizens choose to support these public intellectuals. After all, the current thinking of the Island Nation citizens is very simple, that is, they don’t want to be affected by nuclear radiation. As the only country in this parallel world that has been attacked by nuclear weapons, the citizens of the Island Nation have an extremely deep understanding of the terribleness of nuclear radiation. So now on various forums and social media platforms in the Island Nation, there are all kinds of strange little tips on how to prevent nuclear radiation, such as "eating more iodized salt can prevent nuclear radiation", "XX brand plastic film can block 80% of nuclear radiation", "XX brand air purifier can absorb and filter nuclear radiation dust" and so on. In short, the Island Nation is now in a "nuclear panic".

At this time, Ling Ishikawa suddenly said, "Wow, the United States of America is really selling out its teammates, now it has directly announced the withdrawal of all United States of America soldiers and diplomats stationed in the Island Nation!"

Liu Xing was taken aback, not expecting the United States of America in this parallel world to be so decisive, directly withdrawing all United States of America troops from the Island Nation, and it is unlikely that these United States of America troops will ever return to the Island Nation again. It seems that the United States of America has also recognized the current situation between the Cosmic Country and the Island Nation, knowing that no matter how things go, their troops stationed in these two countries will eventually be expelled for various reasons, so now it is better to retreat in a relatively dignified way and complete the withdrawal of the troops. This brings the "public-military conflict" one step closer.

Zhang Wenbing sighed and said, "Believe it or not, the Island Nation government is now internally discussing a proposal to temporarily abandon the handling of the Fukushima nuclear power plant issue, because the Island Nation is now powerless to deal with the Fukushima nuclear power plant issue, and most importantly, the Island Nation power company has refused to activate the emergency plan of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, to open the underground mechanisms of each unit of the Fukushima nuclear power plant and introduce seawater into the internal core area of the units, at the cost of sacrificing the units to prevent the possible nuclear leakage accident."

Liu Xing frowned, not expecting the Fukushima nuclear power plant incident in this parallel world to be exactly the same as the one in the real world, and at this point the Island Nation power company still refuses the seawater diversion plan. If the Island Nation power company in the real world was unwilling to sacrifice the units in the Fukushima nuclear power plant due to wishful thinking, then the Fukushima nuclear power plant in this parallel world is completely courting death, because now the Island Nation government has confirmed that if no action is taken, the probability of a nuclear leakage accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant is 100%. So the only explanation for the current actions of the Island Nation power company is that they are also part of the martial arts faction. If this is the case, Liu Xing feels that his group can directly look for opportunities to join the martial arts faction after the "public-military conflict" begins, after all, from the current situation, the advantage of the martial arts faction is really too great. But speaking of which, the methods of this martial arts faction are really ruthless, in order to compete for power and interests with the civilian faction, they have actually put the entire Island Nation in danger. It seems that the martial arts faction has accepted the daily mission of the Island Nation - gambling on the fate of the nation. Thinking about this, Liu Xing couldn’t help but sigh, this is indeed the module of the Hound of Tindalos region, the difficulty has really been raised a lot compared to the Shoggoth Region module. It’s a pity that he thought the main quest of this module was very simple at the beginning, but now he has just realized the essence of the main quest of this module. The atmosphere began to become solemn.

After a while, Ling Ishikawa silently got up and started checking if the windows in the room were closed tightly. When Ling Ishikawa sat back in the living room, Zhang Jingxu came back with Lu Tianya. "Mu Yao and the others are indeed in that dessert shop, and we happened to make eye contact with Mu Yao and the others when we went there, so we also went into that dessert shop and found that it is indeed a property of the Freemasons, because there is a Freemasons symbol under the table of that dessert shop," Zhang Jingxu said seriously.

Liu Xing nodded and said somewhat melancholy, "That being the case, we can now confirm that the internal part of China has already formed a tripartite confrontation, and our three forces happen to be restraining each other, after all, our goal is to prevent Zhang Shiwu and Mu Yao from catching the mythical creature in the Mirror World. Although Zhang Shiwu and Mu Yao’s goals are both to catch the mythical creature in the Mirror World, they can’t possibly cooperate with each other, and they also can’t possibly cooperate with us."

"Exactly, the most important thing is that if one of the three forces in our group wants to eliminate another force, the third force will certainly not stand idly by, because once the balance of the triangle is broken, only the final victor will remain." Zhang Jingxu sighed.

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