The mascot of the wishing shop is a cat.

Let's go back to the afternoon of the day Lin Xiyue met Bai Li.

The instant the sarcoma was kicked down and died, a small bud inside its body burrowed into the soil and ran towards the slums the moment it separated from its main body.

Fearing discovery, the little sprout burrowed deep into the soil, moving slowly and stopping frequently. It took over an hour to reach its destination: the slums. Once there, no longer needing to hide from so many people, it sped up its pace.

People in the slums don't care what's going on around them; just surviving is hard enough for them.

In Slum E, there is a rare two-story detached villa where Little Sprout finally stopped after more than an hour of underground travel.

It looked around in a human-like manner, then crawled through the crack in the door. Inside was a very normal room; the living room had a comfortable sofa, a TV on the wall, a soft carpet on the floor, and even a butler robot cleaning.

However, such a normal room is actually quite strange in a slum. After all, how could such a large room in a slum not be divided into several shared rental units? These are the kind of shared rental units with communal bathrooms and kitchens, and some people only rent a bed for a few hours.

After all, you don't necessarily need a room for the whole day; you only need it for a few hours to sleep. A room like that can be shared by at least three people, costing each person a maximum of three or four hundred yuan. This is the cheapest and safest way to find a place to sleep; people in the slums are just trying to survive.

Anyway, the little sprout was picked up by a pair of large hands as soon as it entered the room. Looking up, it met the gaze of the man who had picked it up, and then heard him speak.

"Huh? Why are you back?"

"What? He was discovered too?"

"Didn't I tell him not to eat people yet? Aren't there enough stray animals for him to eat?"

"Because you wanted to have an affair with a child and the child found out?"

"Is he useless? How could he even be found out?!"

The owner of those large hands seemed to be able to hear what the little sprout was saying, and began to communicate with it, quickly figuring out what had happened.

"boom--"

He slammed his hand on the table, so hard that even the small, broken items on it shook.

"Damn it, this is the sixth one to be discovered. Now we're definitely being watched by law enforcement. We need to think of something quickly. Hmm... what should we do? Maybe we should give up?"

He wandered around the living room like a headless fly, thinking and talking to himself as he went.

Upon closer inspection, his face, which was originally a very upright-looking square face, had become rounded and angular due to his obesity. He also had a quadruple chin, and his eyes were squeezed into slits by a mass of flesh, along with a large, bulbous nose. There was also a huge black mole next to his eyebrow, giving him the stereotypical image of a big boss.

He was wearing a bespoke black three-piece suit, his large beer belly protruding like that of a woman six months pregnant. He was Liu Meng, the executive at XX Racing Company.

"Stop turning around, it's annoying to look at you. What's wrong now that you're wandering around like a headless fly?"

A woman's voice came from the stairwell. Her voice was very pleasant, but what she said to Liu Meng sounded very impolite, with a hint of condescension.

Liu Meng turned around and saw a woman standing at the top of the stairs on the second floor—Yang Xilu, his public girlfriend. They were currently working together there, and because Yang Xilu was of a higher rank than him, Liu Meng was forced to obey her.

Yang Xilu wore a gorgeous dark green evening gown adorned with large swathes of hand-embroidered phoenix and dragon patterns, black lace gloves, and eight-centimeter high heels, even in the room.

Yang Xilu reached out and touched the emerald necklace on her collarbone, as if she were standing in a lavish banquet hall rather than in a slum. She addressed Liu Meng, who was anxiously pacing down the stairs, without any politeness: "The most important thing now is that you can't go back. And you need to recall all the alien races and see if they've collected enough energy. We've been planning this for two years; we can't let it end like this, all in a half-hearted effort."

"I know what you're saying, but they're definitely under surveillance now. If I contact them now, wouldn't I be walking into a trap? You're always criticizing me!"

Liu Meng raised his voice and loudly replied to Yang Xilu, trying to cover up his intense unease.

"Ah."

Yang Xilu let out a cold laugh, lowered her eyes and glanced at Liu Meng's sweaty appearance, looking down on him.

"If I were you, I would hold the ceremony right now, communicate with all the messengers, and make them abandon those fools and return with all the energy. Anyway, we're almost there. We need to prepare to start the ceremony, and the appointed time is not far off. If we're still short by then, we can just sacrifice the slums."

Yang Xilu said nonchalantly, then glanced at her hair and touched the ornate embroidery on her waist, looking quite satisfied with the outfit.

"You! You're so vicious! There are at least four million people in this slum! And you just sacrificed them like that?"

Liu Mengren was startled; his squinty eyes widened slightly, revealing his obvious unease.

"Tch, what are you pretending to have a conscience for? If you really had a conscience, you wouldn't be the high-ranking person presiding over the sacrificial ceremony now; you would be a human sacrifice being parasitized."

Yang Xilu looked at Liu Meng with disdain, finding his act of pretending to be a good person extremely unbearable.

"I... I may not be a good person, but this is the entire slum! It's not right to sacrifice it like this, and we won't be able to escape either."

Liu Meng roared, revealing his true thoughts: he wasn't worried about the lives of the more than four million people, but rather about his own inability to escape.

"It's not that serious. Besides, if we really sacrifice the entire slum, we won't be able to escape. Let's see how it goes. If we have enough energy, we won't need to. If not, we'll see how many more people we need to sacrifice."

Yang Xilu's expression made it seem as if she didn't consider the people in the slums as her own kind at all, and that the dead were just a bunch of pigs or other low-class animals in the eyes of humans.

"Go and contact them quickly, otherwise it will be more troublesome if it gets too late."

"This, this is fine..."

After considering it for a while, Liu Meng finally decided to obey.

Next, Liu Meng led the little bud who had come to the villa to the basement.

The moment the basement door opened, a putrid smell wafted out. It wasn't the smell of decaying plants or animals, but rather an old, decaying smell, very much of a bygone era.

This is strange because the villa doesn't look like a vintage house at all; how could it possibly have such an old basement?

Without hesitation, Liu Meng entered the basement. In the center of the basement was a large magic array that almost filled the entire space. At the edge of the array, one could even sense that the objects placed there resonated with another magic array in the distance, connecting the entire underground area.

Holding the little sprout carefully, Liu Meng navigated around the intricate array lines on the ground and finally arrived at one of the corners of the array.

In this corner there is a disc covered with all sorts of names, some of which have faded, but others are still bright.

After Liu Meng reached this corner, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. Then he carefully squatted down and gently placed the small fleshy sprout in his hand on the plate.

"Now contact everyone who still has light and tell them to abandon the host and bring all the energy back here. Be careful not to get caught by law enforcement."

"φmzβσé,iè?taΦΨxδ????"

Liu Meng began giving orders to the little fleshy sprout. Then, he knelt down, clasped his hands together in a twisted position, and began to mutter some incantations that ordinary people could not understand.

Soon, the little fleshy bud on the disc began to writhe strangely. It crawled rapidly past one bright name after another, and then began to twist again, with a strange charm that would make one dizzy if watched for too long.

"Well--"

Liu Meng soon broke out in a cold sweat and let out a painful groan. Then, his entire body began to tremble, and the magic array underground began to frantically extract flesh from his body.

In less than five minutes, the magic circle extracted a large portion of his flesh and blood, making him look as if he had suddenly lost a third of his weight. His skin became loose and droopy, and he suddenly looked more than ten years older.

"Om-"

With a buzzing sound, the array in this corner lit up completely and stopped drawing flesh and blood from Liu Meng's body.

Then, the tiny, twisted buds on the disc began to absorb energy. The next second, they split into countless invisible, identical tiny buds, which immediately burrowed into the ground and went to the places where those names were located.

"Phew—finally done. That damn Bia, she always calls me to do these things. If it happened again, I'd be dead. If she weren't a higher level than me, I wouldn't have to listen to her."

Liu Meng slumped to the ground, panting and cursing.

"But this slut has a really good figure, and she's beautiful too. I'm going to have some fun with her someday! Hehehe~"

Soon, Liu Meng was lost in his fantasies, and his disgusting laughter echoed throughout the almost empty basement.

..............................

The logistics reception room of the Psionic Center.

"Jingle Bell--"

"Jingle Bell--"

"jingle--"

……

Suddenly, several tip-off calls rang almost simultaneously, and the dozens of operators present were all busy.

"What? You mean your husband suddenly went silent while eating? And a worm crawled out of his body?"

"Okay, please take your family away from this place immediately and go to the nearest police station. We will send someone to check and handle the situation shortly. Please keep your phone accessible."

"Your wife was cooking when she suddenly collapsed on the ground with a large hole in her body? Okay, please follow the instructions in the Handbook for Encountering Aliens and immediately go to the nearest police station or safe place. We will send someone to protect you and your family right away. Please keep your phone accessible."

"You said that a family of three living next door suddenly collapsed at their doorstep, and you saw a huge worm crawl out of their bodies and disappear? Okay, I've registered your information. Law enforcement officers will be dispatched immediately to protect your safety. Please do not go out and send a message to the property management to have them issue a warning. Please keep your phone accessible."

"Hello, please speak."

"Okay, you noticed that a colleague suddenly collapsed on the table during the meal, and then a worm crawled out from behind each of them and disappeared into the ground? Okay, please notify everyone nearby to go to a safe place. We will send someone over to handle it immediately. Please keep your phone accessible, and we will keep in touch with you at any time."

"Hello, you said you discovered..."

"Hello……"

"..."

"..."

The countless tip-off calls were almost all the same: someone had suddenly died next to them and then saw strange insects.

After discovering numerous calls reporting sudden deaths and reports of insects or insect bites, the logistics supervisor astutely realized the problem and immediately issued an order.

"Quickly, sound the highest alert for the entire city! This must be a major incident! It's dangerous!"

"Yes!"

"And you, and you too, you all need to go and contact the elite team to explain the situation."

"Yes."

"Yes."

"Also, get a list of the qualifications of the people the elite team went to capture today. I suspect this is related to them."

"Okay, right away."

The logistics supervisor issued orders methodically, and no one saw her trembling hands.

She was also very nervous; this was the first time she had encountered such a major event, and she was afraid of making the wrong decision. However, if she didn't make a decision, she would definitely regret it if something really bad happened.

..............................

On the other side, the elite squad, which had already been fully mobilized, was on its way to intercept the enemy with one or two teams led by one person when their terminals suddenly received messages at the same time.

(Important Notice: We have received over a dozen alerts, all related to alien creatures associated with insects. They killed their hosts almost simultaneously and disappeared underground. It has been confirmed that almost all of them are the individuals you are tasked with capturing, along with their families.)

Upon seeing this message, all the team leaders immediately issued orders.

"Something's changed, full speed ahead!"

"Yes!"

"Yes!"

Everyone responded and began taking out their folding flying motorcycles. Once on board, they sped off one after another towards their original destination. Since they no longer needed to disguise themselves, their speed increased by more than double.

……