Free Web NovelChapter 1900: Chapter 1898: Containment? (The Daily Headache of What to Eat)
Fang Zheng would never have thought that when he unleashed a golden legend, it would turn out to be a crowbar?
What the heck, what’s the use of this thing?!
Laozi isn’t without weapons!
Speaking of which, that Transdimensional Touch is pretty much useless too! But......
Thinking of this, Fang Zheng squinted his eyes, opened the system again, and took out the [Destroyer of Evil Gods] title to take another look over it. He felt that there was some hidden meaning in the description of this title, but up until now, Fang Zheng hadn’t thoroughly figured it out......
"Knock knock knock."
Just then, there was a knock on the door. Fang Zheng frowned, then turned off the system prompt. At the same time, Ryoko Asakura also came to the door.
"Who is it?"
"It’s me, and Mr. Francis is here too."
Soon, Detective Valentine’s voice came from outside, and Fang Zheng nodded. Seeing his gesture, Ryoko Asakura opened the door, and the two of them walked into the room.
"Alright, take a seat. Is there something you need?"
Fang Zheng leaned back on the sofa, smiling at the two, while they exchanged glances. Then Francis spoke up with some reluctance.
"Uh... Mr. Van Helsing, we came to... uh... to ask you about..."
"Hm?"
"It’s about those things we saw earlier."
Valentine was more straightforward compared to the hesitant Francis.
"You know, we just went to see those unconscious crew members... in fact, they’re now out of their minds..."
"Oh, that’s quite unfortunate. You might want them to drink more mineral water to recuperate."
Fang Zheng took out two bottles of Psychic Healing Potion from his pocket—though as for their effectiveness, that’s anyone’s guess.
"I want to ask you... Mr. Van Helsing, what exactly were those things?"
However, Valentine didn’t pick up on Fang Zheng’s comment and continued to stare at him.
"We are quite sure we weren’t dreaming, nor were we on drugs. At that time, we did see a city rise from the sea, and we heard a very terrifying sound, and... those creatures..."
At this point, Valentine’s own face turned pale.
"What are those? Could they be Atlanteans? A lost underwater civilization? Or aliens? What did you do? Why did those things suddenly disappear?"
"Detective Valentine, your job doesn’t seem to include investigating personal privacy, does it? Moreover, I believe I warned you not to delve too deeply into these things."
"Even if you won’t tell me, I’ve already heard from Mr. Francis."
At this, Fang Zheng rolled his eyes and glanced at Francis, who returned an awkward smile—how could a college dropout compete with a professional detective? Maybe after the two went out for a drink, Francis spilled everything.
"Are those creatures threatening humanity, even possibly destroying humanity?!"
Valentine’s expression became much more serious at this point.
"We could report to the government, let the government organize the army... and completely eliminate them!"
The 1930s was both a very "science fiction" era and a very "disastrous" era.
During this period, humanity had a half-baked understanding of science, which led to a plethora of scientific fantasies—from space expeditions to immortality, people believed that there was almost nothing that science couldn’t accomplish—okay, that was indeed the case.
So at that time, many people believed in the existence of mysterious Atlantis underwater ruins and aliens, resulting in some rather absurd incidents.
The most famous naturally being the "War of the Worlds" event. Fang Zheng has also seen the movie adaptation of this novel, and it’s basically about Martians arriving on Earth in tripodal, octopus-like robots (hmm? That design is rather unnerving), attacking humanity, who almost faced extinction, only for the Martians to be defeated by the cold virus in the end, completely failing.
And the War of the Worlds event was a very famous incident.
It was in the late 1930s when an American radio station adapted The War of the Worlds book into a radio drama, presenting it as a news broadcast, describing how the Martians invaded, killed people, destroyed cities, and how people fled, and so on.
To make the act convincing, they even staged live interviews, death tolls, military reactions, expert opinions, etc. The radio station thought they were merely creating a prank broadcast program.
However, things blew up.
Because the radio drama was so well-produced that many listeners took it as a real-time event. Of course, listeners in the cities just found it amusing, after all, they lived and worked in these cities and hadn’t seen any aliens.
However, people elsewhere felt differently.
It was the 1930s! At that time, communication mainly relied on telephones and letters, unlike today, where with a video or a live broadcast, rumors can be easily dispelled.
This broadcast spread like wildfire, eventually reaching about six million listeners, with one hundred seventy thousand people taking it as a "real-time" news report.
And so the situation escalated.
Those believing the reports called to inquire, only to be told "there’s no Martian invasion" (which was indeed the case), yet those people believed this was a government attempt to cover up the truth, that invasion was indeed happening and the government was hiding it!
So, people flocked to the cities, causing various disturbances, and during this period, the U.S. government deployed police and military to suppress the chaos, which only reinforced people’s belief that the Martian invasion was real—why else would the government deploy the military and police? Surely, there must be aliens!
At that time, the U.S. government was quite unjustly blamed.
Eventually, the "War of the Worlds" event evolved into a nationwide uproar in America, with some people, believing the apocalypse loomed, started looting supplies and hiding in the mountains to escape the Martians’ pursuit. Others, faced with the potential arrival of aliens, fell into despair and chose suicide.
When lives were lost, things naturally got serious.
Although in the end, the rumor was dispelled, the fallout from the debunking was almost as severe as an alien invasion for America.
Of course, in this world, such things haven’t happened yet, but the novel "War of the Worlds" has already been released, so it’s only a matter of time before something happens. At that time, Fang Zheng only needs to sit back and enjoy the show.
And precisely because of this, the concept of alien invasion is rather popular in today’s world, no wonder Detective Valentine would focus on this aspect.
The most amazing thing is he actually got it right!
From a certain viewpoint, this really counts as an alien invasion!
"The government is pretty much useless."
Fang Zheng peeled a nut and popped it into his mouth, shrugging his shoulders.
"To be honest, against these creatures, human civilization is basically throwing away lives, no matter who comes, it’s no use."
"But, but didn’t you eliminate them?"
"Yeah, I was able to do it, but that doesn’t mean others can, right?"
Fang Zheng shrugged his shoulders.
"Plus, since you’ve already investigated, you should understand these things aren’t exactly fun. If you report them to the government, they might not completely eliminate them like I did, but rather keep them for research, and then what?"
As Fang Zheng spoke, he smiled slightly and looked at Valentine. Hearing this, Valentine suddenly remembered those discoveries during his investigation...It indeed made his heart chill, truly, others who don’t know the situation might find Fang Zheng’s statement unreasonable, but Valentine had seen those things during the investigation...Honestly, from his perspective, Valentine also leaned towards directly smashing and burning them.
But what if he reported them?
What would those officials think?
Detectives inherently have a side of disdain towards authority and the government, now hearing Fang Zheng say this, Valentine immediately threw his original thoughts to the back of his mind, yet he didn’t dismiss his own ideas.
"Mr. Van Helsing, I’ll be straightforward; I hope we can collaborate."
"...Collaborate?"
"Yes, collaborate."
Valentine stared at Fang Zheng, nodding.
"I know you’re capable, but one person can’t handle everything. Like today...I don’t know if it’s aliens or sea creatures, or devils or something, they will definitely appear again, right? And you are fighting them, correct? If possible, I’d like to contribute my effort too!"
"You should know it’s dangerous, just look at that woman named Wendy."
Fang Zheng shrugged, even though Wendy was awake after he destroyed Cthulhu, her spirit is very fragile now, even showing signs of hysteria. She’s already been sent home to recuperate. It’s likely she’ll spend the rest of her life battling nervous weakness.
After all, going mad in the Cthulhu Mythos isn’t strange, just considered routine.
A person reckless enough will perish.
"But I have experience."
Valentine now didn’t seem like a detective, rather like someone interviewing, with both hands tightly clenched, he looked at Fang Zheng.
"I already know how to do it, and I believe Mr. Van Helsing, you’ll definitely track other monsters, with me as a detective helping gather information, wouldn’t it be faster? I already have one experience, so from now on I’ll only be more proficient..."
"Hmm..."
Hearing Valentine’s words, Fang Zheng pondered for a moment, silently nodding in his heart. Indeed, as Valentine mentioned, given these two hidden achievements, it’s clear he’s going to practice against the Elder Ones of this world. However, due to the lack of advanced scientific civilization in this world, Little Angel can’t help much, so when it comes to manpower...
"I, I’m in too!"
At this moment, Francis also raised his hand.
"Although my issues are resolved, I feel this might be my mission...I want to assist Mr. Valentine in doing this too!"
"Right, we can establish a foundation!"
"A foundation? For what?"
"To seal those mysterious and strange things. Mr. Van Helsing, you know those artifacts prepared by cultists are equally evil. In fact, Wendy became like this because she encountered those relics. So, during the investigation, we’re planning to find those things and seal them all tightly!"
Oh gosh, you want to pull an SCP Foundation stunt with containment, failure, and escape?!
Hearing Francis’s suggestion, Fang Zheng was startled.
"It’s not necessary, those things are harm even if kept, hmm..."
Saying this, Fang Zheng looked at Francis, an idea crossed his mind.
"Francis, we count as friends, right."
"Of course, Mr. Van Helsing."
"Alright then."
Hearing Francis’s response, Fang Zheng nodded satisfactorily, then reached back and took out a crowbar, handing it over.
"Take this, when you encounter those things, just smash them with it..."
"This is..."
Taking the item from Fang Zheng, Francis was puzzled.
"A crowbar?"
"Yes, and don’t underestimate it, it can protect your life as well."
Saying this, Fang Zheng’s lips slightly curled into a smile.
"This crowbar is invaluable, fate brought us together, so I’ll give it to you. From now on, the task of punishing evil and maintaining world peace is yours."
