Expedition Team

"Gather the six Wish Pearls and a wish will be granted!"

"The six Wish Pearls are scattered all over Earth, and they will emit light when brought close to one another…"

"After gathering the Wish Pearls, shout out loud: Oh gems, please grant my wish!"

After receiving this message, the man froze and felt a bit baffled. The fist-sized bead in his hand right now was actually a Wish Pearl? Just like the ones in the manga Dragon Ball?

"Are you kidding me!?" The man sneered.

"What’s going on, Zhang Qiang?" The others asked curiously when they saw this.

"What do you think this looks like?" Zhang Qiang held up the gemstone in his hand and asked with a smile.

"This…"

The crowd looked over, and then one person laughed heartily, "Isn’t this a Dragon Ball?"

"Yeah, exactly like a Dragon Ball! It’s even a two-star ball, haha…"

"You might not believe it when I say this, but the moment I got this Dragon Ball just now, a message was transmitted directly into my mind. It said that if we gather six Wish Pearls, a wish will be granted! Hahaha!" Zhang Qiang said with a smile.

"Zhang Qiang, you’ve struck it rich!"

"Yeah, hurry up and wish for a wife!"

"Hahaha, maybe Zhang Qiang would rather wish to become the richest person in the world?" Someone joked, though not a single person believed that so-called wishing could actually work.

The leader of the expedition team was a middle-aged man. As an astronomy enthusiast, his eye for things wasn’t bad. He took a closer look at the Dragon Ball in Zhang Qiang’s hand and realized that this crystal ball was not some mass-produced handicraft, but instead seemed to have formed naturally.

"Zhang Qiang, let me see!" The team leader said in a deep voice.

"Sure, catch, team leader!"

Carelessly, Zhang Qiang tossed the Wish Pearl to the team leader.

Just as Zhang Qiang had said, the moment the Wish Pearl entered his hand, a message passed through a peculiar transmission method and went straight into his mind, causing him to freeze for a moment.

"This thing…" The team leader brought the Wish Pearl up to his eyes and examined it closely.

"Team leader, you don’t really believe in that so-called wish stuff, do you?" Someone asked with a strange look.

"Yeah, team leader, this thing looks like a Dragon Ball piece of merchandise at first glance, and they made it pretty realistic too!" Others chimed in.

"I don’t think it looks like a handicraft!" The team leader shook his head. "Besides, there’s no way to explain this message transmitted into my mind!"

"What message?" The others who hadn’t touched the Wish Orb crowded around with curious looks. One by one, they grabbed the Wish Orb to inspect it, and immediately all of them received that mysterious message as well.

"Whoa, a message really does get transmitted into your mind!"

"Is this some kind of high tech? Technology has gotten so advanced these days! A glass marble can pull off such a magical trick?"

"The stars inside this are so pretty! Just give this crystal ball to me! I’ll take it back for my daughter to play with!" A man with a thin mustache said with a smile, though a faint gleam flashed deep within his eyes.

"Hey, Zhang Qiang found this. Who knows, maybe you really can make a wish?" Someone retorted.

"Bulls***, make a wish! Do you think this is scientific?" The mustache man said dismissively.

"Uh…" Hearing this, the person who retorted was instantly left speechless. Wishing for things was of course bullshit, but this crystal ball was indeed very pretty.

"Alright, Zhang Qiang found this, so we should leave it to him to handle!" The expedition team leader didn’t try to misappropriate the Wish Pearl. Instead, he handed the bead back to Zhang Qiang. After all, his purpose was to search for a meteorite, and this Wish Pearl was just a bonus. Since Zhang Qiang had found it, it was only natural to leave it in his hands; he couldn’t possibly pocket this bead in front of so many people.

Still, this bead is definitely not a handicraft… The expedition team leader watched out of the corner of his eye as Zhang Qiang grabbed the Wish Pearl and continuously played with it in his hands.

A cold smile crossed the mustache man’s lips, vanishing in a flash, before he put on an indifferent expression. "Zhang Qiang, you’re going to be running all over the place from now on. There are six of these Wish Pearls, after all, and we have no idea where the other five are. Don’t forget about us once you make it big in the future!"

"Ha ha ha, Brother Yang, what kind of joke is that? You actually believe it? I’ll just keep it as a figurine! This thing does look pretty good," Zhang Qiang said casually. Deep down, he merely took it for some kind of high-tech product, probably a prank toy designed to fool people into collecting these beads.

The group of expedition members set off on the road again, walking with difficulty through the mountain forest.

"Team leader, we’ve been walking in this mountain forest for several days now. Why haven’t we even seen a shadow of the meteorite yet?" Someone asked while pounding his aching legs.

"Don’t rush. Meteorites aren’t that easy to find. Once we find it and sell it to Xinghen Group, we’ll be rich!" The expedition team leader let out a breath, also feeling somewhat exhausted. He leaned on a wooden stick, looked ahead at the tangled brush, and replied.

"Xinghen Group… If I could just get a job at Xinghen, why would I need to run all the way out here to look for some damn meteorite?" That man sighed.

"Keep dreaming. Xinghen Group is a super corporation with a history of over three hundred years. Word has it that the current Mars colonization project was initiated by Xinghen Group in cooperation with the four major nations. If Xinghen Group hadn’t stepped in, Earth’s four major nations wouldn’t have had the technological power to carry out space travel," the expedition team leader snorted and said.

"Yeah, the lunar colonization base was spearheaded by Xinghen Group too! What an amazing company."

"The son of my second aunt’s family works at Xinghen, and I hear the benefits and pay are great…"

"How is it, how is it? Tell us about it!"

The team marched on for several more kilometers without seeing a shadow of the meteorite. Disappointed, the exhausted crowd began to pitch tents to rest.

"Let’s all get some early rest. We still have to travel tomorrow, and the meteorite is definitely in this mountain forest—maybe we’ll find it tomorrow!" After cooking and finishing their carried rations, everyone crawled into their tents to rest. The expedition team leader dropped those words and began resting as well.

"Let’s hope so," the others muttered, also turning in for the night. They had followed along to search for the meteorite entirely for the money the expedition team leader had promised after selling it; if not for the money, who would run out into these deep mountains and old forests to suffer?

The mountain forest was dead quiet. To prevent attacks from wild beasts, several tents were pitched around a campfire, orange-red flames crackling and sending off sparks from time to time. From the nearby bushes came the occasional chirping of mole crickets, lulling people to sleep. Before long, the sound of snoring drifted from inside the several tents; everyone was truly exhausted, sinking straight into dreamland the moment they hit their bedding.

After a long while, movement stirred within one of the tents. A figure rustled out from inside, the firelight illuminating his face. It was none other than the mustache man known as Brother Yang.

A dangerous glint flashed across the mustache man’s face. He glanced warily at the surrounding tents, and upon seeing that everything was quiet and still, he let out a sigh of relief. He quietly walked up to one of the tents, stealthily unzipped it, and after a round of fumbling around, pulled out a crystal ball. It was none other than the Wish Orb.

Heh, this thing is definitely not a high-tech handicraft… That method of message transmission was magical; it might just be real! The mustache man wore a cold smile, then tucked the Wish Orb into his chest, turned back to his own tent, packed his pack slightly, and turned to leave.

Before the mustache man had taken more than a few steps, a stern shout from behind startled him so badly he shuddered.

"Yang Kai, what are you doing?"

It was the voice of the expedition team leader. This stern shout not only startled the mustache man, but also woke everyone else who had drifted off into dreamland.

"What’s wrong? What happened?"

"Are there wild beasts?"

"Is it raining? Or is there a fire?"

A crowd crawled out from their tents, shouting questions.

The expedition team leader stood in front of the tents, looking into the distance with a face full of fury. Over there, the figure of the mustache man was running away at high speed.

"I don’t know what’s going on with Yang Kai, but he suddenly left. Everyone check to see if anything is missing," the team leader said.

"What? Yang Kai?"

"What’s going on?"

"I don’t know!"

After a round of checking, Zhang Qiang let out a startled cry, "That Dragon Ball is gone!"

"What?"

"No way!?"

"Could it really be that Yang Kai believed that bullsh** story about granting wishes and stole the Dragon Ball to run away?"

"No way, that thing was obviously a trick to fool people! He actually believes that?"

The group immediately said in disbelief.

"Let’s chase after him! No matter what, stealing things is wrong. Zhang Qiang, the item belongs to you—don’t you want to get it back?" A righteous young man said angrily.

"Brother Yang is really something else. I finally see his true colors now; you truly can’t judge a heart by its cover! We’ve spent all these days together, and I really had no idea he was that kind of person!" Zhang Qiang wasn’t too angry, merely shaking his head in slight disappointment.

"Yeah, who knew Yang Kai’s character was so terrible to begin with!" The others shook their heads and said.