Chapter 156: A Naming System When All Creative Juices Have Been Expended
The spilled beer seeped into the bushes and rocks. The smell of malt, alcohol, and food finally lured a black, slimy creature out from under a rock. If it weren't for the four legs which extended from its underbelly, it would look more like a fish. Its entire body was covered with black scales wrapped in a sort of slime. As it crawled through the dirt-colored bushes, it easily camouflaged into the background.
It speedily avoided the beer-soaked soil and carefully crawled toward the direction where the aroma was coming from. With a sudden "squish", someone drew his foot back. Half of the weird creature’s body had been crushed into a bloody mess. The creature twitched for a second and stopped moving.
The male escort looked at his leg which was now stained by a smelly fluid and walked aside to clean his feet after Bai Xiaoke commented relentlessly on how disgusting it was.
This incident didn’t distract the group for long. Lin Sanjiu paused for a moment and asked again, "You mentioned that all of you came to this world together?"
The Quacker, the teenager who trapped Hui Chuyan and hid in the sky, was now surrounded by four women and could not leave. Since he had been caught by the women, he had already withdrawn his iron railing and Hui Chuyan also returned to her companions’ side. Hearing Lin Sanjiu’s question, the short teenager rubbed his nose and spoke with some arrogance, "That’s right! We, five bros, have already agreed to stay together no matter how hard it is to find for a Consular Officer. When we met our boss, we were impressed by him. That’s why we decided to move together as a group of six."
"Oh," Lin Sanjiu replied curtly, showing little interest in his ‘boss’. "Other than the boss, Yo Daddy, how many people are there in this territory? "
"Didn’t I say that there are five of us?" the teenager answered awkwardly.
This number was way lesser than what Lin Sanjiu had expected. She narrowed her eyes, feeling a little suspicious, "Why are there so few people? How can you even call this a base? Did you manage to find a Consular Officer here?"
The short teenager immediately stuck out his chin, "So what if we have only a few people! Our territory is large—"
He wanted to boast about the outstanding abilities in his group, but considering his opponents’ prowess and his own predicament, he decided to swallow his words, "We haven’t found a Consular Officer. We split up every day to patrol our territory and also to look for a Consular Officer. But, recently, for some reasons, there suddenly seem to be fewer people around. We’re also quite troubled by that."
"You’ve forgotten the part about you guys robbing people." Bai Xiaoke couldn’t help criticizing, "With fewer people around, business is bad, right?"
The short teenager’s face turned red as if he had no way of retorting her words. It took some time before he finally countered, "Ever since we came to this crappy Garden of Eden, we haven’t eaten any decent human food! Do you think those insects that look like giant rodents are suitable for human consumption? Besides, they can’t even fill out stomachs... If I have the ability to snatch some food, why shouldn’t I? I am just unlucky today, since I got caught by you people. I admit defeat!"
He spoke with such conviction and self-righteousness that Bai Xiaoke was simply dumbfounded. The teenager was still at the prime of his youth so he seemed unfazed even though he was in a rather prickly situation. Lin Sanjiu shot him a glance and asked, "What’s your name?"
"Aren’t we speaking just fine? Why do you need my name?" the teenager suddenly appeared uncooperative.
"Are you going to say it?"
"Green Melon." The teenager gave a face like he had eaten a plate of flies.
"Huh?" Xueqin let out an awkward remark.
Lin Sanjiu felt that the serious image she created for herself had totally disappeared. She heard a muffled sound beside her. Apparently, someone was trying to stifle a laugh.
"Alright, Gr… Green Melon, bring us to your boss." Lin Sanjiu tried her best to remain stern while she finished her sentence. Green Melon looked at her with a slightly shocked face.
Lin Sanjiu naturally had her own plans. From the previous interrogation, the six people had probably arrived here in this world very far from Garden of Eden City. Thus, they knew nothing about the events which happened within that snow globe shield. To the six people, this was just a world where resources were hard to come by, with nothing special. On the other hand, Lin Sanjiu’s group did not lack food and their priority was to have more people to cover a wider area so that they could look for a Consular Officer as soon as possible. Since both groups had their own agenda, it might be possible to work together with that boss, Yo Daddy. Lin Sanjiu was not worried at all that there might be possible altercations.
They only fell into the teenager’s trap because they were not careful. When they escaped from the city, they ransacked almost every place and got many useful items, especially from Garden of Eden Laboratories. Lin Sanjiu converted many items into her cards there. Afterall, the first and foremost condition for both groups to make a deal was that Lin Sanjiu’s group had enough firepower to force a negotiation.
Green Melon’s hands were securely tied up. With Bai Xiaoke’s escort watching him, he walked unhappily. To make things worse, Bai Xiaoke kept asking him these questions: "Why is your name Green Melon? Did your parents like to eat melons? Do you like to eat melons? Is green melon a vegetable or a fruit?"
If he didn’t answer, the escort would grab him by his neck and shake him. The teenager who had been named after a fruit finally snapped after he couldn’t stand it any longer and answered honestly, "In the place where we were born, our country has a rule that no one can have the same name so parents do not have the freedom to choose their children’s name. Every newborn is randomly named by a machine… But after 1000 years, all the normal names have all been used up!"
[What sort of stupid policy is that?] Hui Chuyan thought to herself, somewhat sympathizing with the boy.
After Green Melon said that, the group finally saw the vague outline of a row of buildings.
In an apocalyptic world, those buildings were considerable well-preserved; three buildings were linked by a few staircases and a shared roof. Even though half of the structure had already collapsed and was overgrown with plants, the other half was still livable.
When they walked closer, they saw a field behind the building. There was a set of rusty swings in the field and also two broken football post. They seemed to be at an elementary school. When they walked to the front gate, Green Melon suddenly shouted out, "Boss! Are you around? Is there anyone around? I am Green Melon! Please come save me!"
Lin Sanjiu and the others did not try to stop him and just let him yell.
His voice reverberated through the buildings until even the echoes faded. The elementary school remained quiet. There was no reply. Green Melon couldn’t help mumbling to himself, "That’s odd. There should at least be one person on duty." He gathered his strength and yelled out again, "517! Error 517, are you there? Aren’t you on duty today? Save me!"
[Error 517, seems to be a person’s name?] Lin Sanjiu suddenly wondered how powerful [No coincidence. No story] would be if she gave this ability to these people.
Xueqin sighed sympathetically, "I guess the person who created the naming system must have run out of ideas…"
Under such circumstances, it was difficult to maintain a serious atmosphere. After some time, a cautious-sounding voice came from the school building.
"Little Melon, how were you caught by those people? Who are they? What do they want?" The voice seemed to belong to a young man, but older than Green Melon.
Lin Sanjiu immediately stepped forward and replied solemnly, "We don't intend to harm this teenager. But, I want to see your boss. Please pass this message. After we meet your boss, we'll let him go."
Lin Sanjiu’s calm voice rang out so that the listener in the building heard her perfectly. This was probably the first time Error 517 had encountered such an event, he quickly shouted, "Wait for a while!" Then, there was no further reply.
Error 517 left for a long time but no one had any better ideas so the group simply stood at the gates waiting quietly. Under the watchful eyes of the escort, Green Melon nervously circled through a few different standing stances.
Lin Sanjiu drew out a card and held it tightly in her hands while she waited for the best opportunity. Unexpectedly, the ground shook violently a few times and suddenly the escort, Xueqin and Bai Xiaoke fell into a deep hole below them even before they made a sound.
The tremor was powerful and was just like a mini earthquake. It happened so abruptly that by the time Hui Chuyan and Lin Sanjiu stabilized themselves after a hard time and stumbled to the side of the hole trying to help their companions, the black soil mixed with rotten plants shifted like a closing mouth and swallowed their companions without a trace.
"Damn it!" Lin Sanjiu tensed up and turned behind. Sure enough, Green Melon ran farther and farther away—he already took his chance and was running like mad towards the school building as if escaping from wild dogs.
Lin Sanjiu knew that if she let him escape, they would immediately become the passive party. Lin Sanjiu tried her best to steady herself and pushed her legs against the ground, her body thrust forward like an arrow. Luckily, the trembling ground also affected Green Melon. Within a blink of an eye, her knee struck the teenager at the back of his head. Green Melon let out a cry before he fell on the ground.
"Who did this? If you don’t want to die, you better let them go!" Lin Sanjiu said with a blood-curdling tone while she pressed down his neck.
"Okay, okay. I know. It hurts…"
Green Melon said feebly when a second voice rang out from the building, "Who are you? How dare you bully my people!"
Lin Sanjiu looked up immediately. She could not believe her eyes.