The Rice Flower Fish Project

"Come in."

The person standing by the window, gazing into the distance, turned towards the door upon hearing a knock. "What is it?"

The visitor bowed slightly, handing over a document and briefly summarizing: "Captain, the Qingwu outpost has been infiltrated by Gao Changze and his men, who are under Qi Yuan's command."

Upon hearing the report, the person's expression remained unchanged as they walked to the desk and sat down.

"There's no need to report such trivial matters. Just recover and transfer the data, and make sure there are no slip-ups before we leave."

Despite saying this, he still opened the file and skimmed through the key points before letting out a cold snort.

"He's not even trying. If it weren't for his subordinates showing up in Yu City, I'd sometimes doubt their existence."

The subordinate who reported lowered his head, saying nothing.

He waved his hand dismissively, indicating the subordinate should leave, and muttered under his breath: "The Qi family..."

Why did Qi Yunlan insist on keeping the Qi surname?

Whether it was the Dark Nine Seats or official background... he naturally didn't need to concern himself with things he'd known for a long time. However, after half a year of investigating their family history, he still came up empty-handed.

He didn't believe that everything unreasonable was a coincidence. Qi Yuan might as well have "noble family" carved on his face. If he truly believed things were as they appeared on the surface, he'd need to check if he was suffering from dementia.

Moreover, while Qi Yuan seemed unconcerned about being investigated, he kept paying attention to it. There must be some reason behind it, causing Qi Yuan to use the investigation as a cover.

Unfortunately, even if Yu An and that old man had once been acquainted, they wouldn't disclose any information because of it.

He shook his head regretfully. He had originally thought that Dragon Country would become overwhelmed with the monsters' advancement and further relax its policies towards superpower users. At that time, even if his affairs were exposed, it wouldn't be easy to deal with him.

Selling monsters to the Anti-Superpower Association was also part of this plan. While making money, he could also stir up conflicts between superpower users and ordinary people, reaping the benefits as a bystander.

As long as there was a rift between superpower users and ordinary people, with monsters and most superpower users caught in between, the authorities would have no choice but to loosen restrictions on superpower users and appease them.

The Anti-Superpower Association, naively believing that when things escalated, the authorities would compromise with ordinary people, was truly innocent.

Only those who hold military power have the right to negotiate, and obviously, ordinary people don't meet this condition.

However, Qi Yuan's sudden appearance disrupted his plans.

If the previous laws only gave him a slight headache, adding Qi Yuan, a walking weapon of deterrence, was a different matter entirely.

As said before, military power decides everything.

With unequal military power, Qi Yuan had kicked him back into the ranks where everyone is equal before the law.

Therefore, no matter how reluctant he was to give up the connections and foundations he had built over the years, Dragon Country was no longer suitable for him to stay.

...

After sending away two valuable subordinates, Qi Yuan picked up the documents he had set aside.

Even if he was only battling his imagination, he had to prepare for the worst.

After all...

The sound of chaotic footsteps came from downstairs, the trampling noise clearly indicating his little brother was running down the hallway with no regard for etiquette.

He wasn't running some orphanage from a web novel.

If there were no difficulties, he'd have to create some.

Qi Yuan flipped to a certain page, carefully examining the monster information.

[Monster Code: Gumantong (SS Class)

Location: Capital of Duoheluo Country...]

Fish, if you raise them, they'll grow fat...

He needed to carefully consider how to have both the fish and the seedlings, achieving a rice-fish system.

"Mom, why is the goldfish dying?" his little brother shouted loudly.

A vein popped on Qi Yuan's forehead as he frowned. Don't say such unlucky things at a time like this.

His mother rushed to his little brother's side, and the two of them frantically lifted the dying goldfish into the fish tank.

From a distance, Qi Yuan saw the fish sinking to the bottom of the tank, withdrawn. "..."

Well, at least it wasn't dead yet.

The two gathered around the fish tank, their conversation veering from fish-keeping to other topics.

"...My cousin filled in my name wrong, so I corrected it myself... He asked me why 'Qi' was different from his."

"Ah... I hadn't received forgiveness from the family before, and I felt too ashamed to face them, so I didn't change it back. I forgot about it this time... But isn't the surname 'Qi' quite rare? Don't you think it's cooler?"

His little brother's face scrunched up like a bun. "But 'Qi' has more strokes than 'Qi', it's troublesome to write my name."

"Hmm..." Qi's mother pondered for a moment, "Then you can change to a name with fewer strokes when you grow up."

Qi Ao thought this made sense and nodded vigorously, completely forgetting that he could change his name now.

Qi Yuan: ...

Suddenly, he felt that labeling himself as highly intelligent might not be such a bad idea.

...

In the capital of Duoheluo Country,

Unlike the dazzling neon lights of other cities, the streets here were sparsely populated. Only a few bulbs of the barely used signboards and street lights still stubbornly glowed.

This was the daily scene in every city of Duoheluo Country.

Not only were the streets deserted, but even the residential areas had no lights on. Only occasional screams could prove that there were still living people in the city.

Perhaps the former royal family of Duoheluo Country never imagined that the fusion domain suddenly descending upon a Buddhist temple would bring a disaster far greater than they could have imagined...

An A-class monster, the Gumantong, had launched a full-scale dimensional strike against Duoheluo Country when humans worldwide had just begun to figure out how to use superpowers.

The whole world was still in a state of self-preservation, unable and incapable of sparing any effort to deal with this monster.

Relying on its outstanding strength, it steamrolled its way to a certain town.

This town was different from the previous places where people had fled in panic. Here, they knelt down respectfully and offered sacrifices - dozens of humans.

The Gumantong, having learned new knowledge, summoned other monsters.

Soon, more than half of Duoheluo Country fell under the control of monsters.

To this day, Duoheluo Country has still not escaped the rule of the Gumantong.

Several figures suddenly appeared on the streets of the city center under the cover of night. They wore cloaks of different colors and identical masks.

"It's so dark?" one voice complained.

Another voice responded, "Indeed, but this creates the perfect atmosphere for mischief."

"Is it really okay to talk to ourselves like this? The original body might develop multiple personalities."

"Can't help it. From our clones' perspective, it's hard not to talk when surrounded by a group of people. Especially when we can't share our mischief and can only process it internally."

"So that's why villains always die from talking too much."

"I can understand now. Doing bad things day in and day out for decades, it's very blue to hold it all in."

The clone in the red cloak opened up the notebook in his hand, browsing through the script under the faint starlight. "I'm the main force for mischief, I don't have as many lines as you guys."

"The mindset is different. You're under pressure, we're not."

"By the way, which color cloak represents which status? I forgot."

"I only remember that red represents the high priest."

"Whichever color is the rarest is probably the highest status. The original body didn't even remember, why should we clones who won't live past two days bother?"

"That's true."

They were created by the original body and possessed its memories. If they couldn't remember, it meant the original body hadn't remembered either.

Ignoring the chatter of the other clones, the red-cloaked clone stuffed the notebook back into space. "Let's go. Time to find the Gumantong."