I have a map editor

"Zizi-"

The sound of frying in the pan brought her back to reality. Seeing Lucas's skillful cooking skills, the vegetables were tumbling in the pan without a single piece falling out, and from time to time he would ignite the fire at the bottom of the pan into the pan. To her, this technique was too advanced, it was like a circus acrobatics.

"Just say whatever you want to say"

"What I want to say is that I don't know what Emily likes about me, but she is only sixteen years old. From what I know about the emotional state of high school students in your Flower Country, I may be the first man she falls in love with, but I may not be the man she marries and spends the rest of her life with."

Lucas slowed down his movements and lowered the noise as he spoke to her.

"No one can predict what happens with teenagers, but you are Emily's mother and you should know her well. She has a very strong personality. If she is frustrated with me, can you guarantee that she won't just find a random boy for emotional catharsis?"

"It should be... no, right?" Claire said this guiltily. "Probably" was the correct answer.

"I don't know either, but when she wanted me to confess, she threatened me like this. I thought... well, at least I wouldn't hurt her. But if it were those boys with raging hormones, can you guarantee that they would be the same as me? I think they would just want to get her pregnant."

"She...did she really tell you that?" Claire suddenly felt like she had wronged Lucas and felt a little embarrassed.

That's right, she has always treated Lucas as a backup for him. How could a backup for him have any improper thoughts about her own daughter? She must have been threatened by Emily... It must be like this.

Based on her understanding of her daughter, Emily was really capable of doing such a thing.

"right"

"But, but her singing career..."

"I think you'd better talk to Amy about this matter in detail. I can't say more."

The two talked in the kitchen for a long time, and when the food was ready, it was natural for them to stay for dinner.

She had always felt that it was natural to eat at Lucas's place and had no embarrassment at all.

0019

Maybe it was because of Lucas’ words, “I may be Amy’s first boyfriend, but probably not her last,” Claire suddenly felt very...happy and even ate two more bowls of rice.

Emily and Lucas had a tacit understanding. When Claire was talking to Lucas... or being fooled, she didn't lean over, but just heard some of the content vaguely. She looked at her mother and curled her lips.

It’s a pity that the dining table is made of glass, so I can see what’s going on underneath and can’t do any flirtatious things with Lucas.

After dinner, she reluctantly followed Claire back to her home.

……

Everything that passes by leaves a trace, or everything that exists leaves a trace. Lucas doesn't know who said this, but

That's what I mean.

When they decided to sell the gold, he and Merry thought they had handled it perfectly and nothing would go wrong. However, more than a year later, they were still targeted by the Flower Country's Vitality Organization.

If it weren't for his relationship with Merry, it might not have been the turn of organizations like the Flower Country's CIA and FBI to capture and slice him, and he would have been captured by the Vitality Organization first to work as a laborer.

Of course, with Lucas' actual combat ability, unless someone like Keanu Reeves plays the villain, thirty or fifty people would not be able to defeat him based on the standards of a street gunfight.

However, this would also mean that the peaceful life he had been longing for would be gone.

After resting at home for a night, he began to prepare for what might happen next the next day.

But before that, he went to the city of Rossanki to inspect his factory and check the accounts and daily factory affairs.

When I came back at noon, besides Claire, I also saw Emily's vocal and physical education teacher Scarlett at home.

For Claire, as a master of tea art, it is only natural for her to take advantage of the spare tire and the bootlicker. To put it another way, the sugar-coated bullet that Lucas shot at her, she ate the sugar coating and the bullet was returned in its original form.

Lucas's house is spacious and beautiful, with free air conditioning and plenty of delicious snacks and fruits. She also has a legitimate reason to come and supervise Emily, and at the same time she can follow Scarlett's professional lessons. It's perfect.

It was originally a very enjoyable thing to see three attractive women wearing tight clothes and performing some attractive movements. However, Lucas drove out again after lunch. He made an appointment with Merry to make a record of the rescue operation in the afternoon. This is an official document to be stored in the archives. At the same time, the two of them also had to discuss the next course of action.

……

Emily and several of her friends, wearing swimsuits of different styles and sunglasses, lay on the lounge chairs by the pool, enjoying the sun.

Today is their Girl's Day, which is a regular gathering day. This time it is Emily's turn to be in charge, so she invited her friends to Lucas's house.

In addition to them, Claire and Scarlett were also there, but she had no classes today and was invited to the party as a guest.

Lucas, the host, was not at home. He had been very busy recently and could only barely meet Emily during meals.

For example, Merry organized a party with some parents of the rescued students. The theme of the party was the rescue operation. Lucas and she were the protagonists of the party. The mayor also awarded them a pure gold "Crown Eagle Medal" to commend their heroic performance in the operation.

Chinese people are keen on all kinds of gatherings and parties. Such parties are regular events in the community and are held regularly under various names in various forms, such as cocktail parties, dinner parties, dances, etc., mainly depending on the financial resources and budget of the organizer. It is a manifestation of community political power, because it is a manifestation of maintaining community relations and is more formal, unlike the parties held by naughty children, which have all kinds of messy things.

In the mysterious country of the future, the building managers and street cadres in the community, together with the celebrity families of each residential building, booked a formal venue for a social gathering, and Lucas also had to prepare a speech and speak at the party.

The standard of this party was quite high, and almost all the important people in the neighborhood attended. With this opportunity, Lucas was officially integrated into the upper class of this high-end community. He was much more prestigious than the ordinary white middle-class people, and they could help each other when they encountered any troubles.

For example, those who shook hands with Lucas and exchanged business cards included a Roseankey High Court judge, five city council members, and a state legislator.

These people belong to different fields, which is different from the circles that Lucas can reach by taking the industry route. It has greatly expanded his network.

Crown Eagle Mountain is a major mountain range nearby. Several small high-end communities are distributed around Crown Eagle Mountain. Although they have not formed a unified town scale and have a small population, they are administratively equivalent to town-level units. They have an elected mayor and an office with a pitifully small number of staff to manage daily affairs nearby.

But the power supply, security and other things in the nearby communities are relatively independent, and there are many wealthy people and bigwigs. There are really not many areas that the mayor and his office can manage. They may only be responsible for the town's sanitation and hold such a party regularly.

……

While running their community affairs, Lucas and Merry also run the media in Roshanky.

Unlike the closed area of ​​Crown Eagle Mountain, as the second largest city in Flower Country, Rossanki has well-known media, whether newspapers or television, which are basically national in nature.

In some ways, Lucas may know the rules of the game better than Merry, the native.

Through the rescue operation in the "Misty Realm", he has established connections with the upper class in the community. As an Asian, he may not be able to control the white Ansa community for another 20 years, but it is still possible to integrate into it and make them feel a sense of identity.

In this way, even if an invisible network of relationships and protective umbrella is woven, no matter who wants to reach out to him, they have to consider their own weight.

For example, whether it is to boost performance or for some other reason, if CIA or FBI agents want to touch Lucas and start a preliminary investigation on him, they will find that he is a guest of the state senator. Regardless of whether Lucas has a good relationship with the senator, he must consider the state senator.

The subsequent reaction of the MPs.

In this way, troubles with untenable reasons or insufficient benefits will automatically collapse.

As for the fact that he was able to successfully return from the expedition to the "Misty Realm", Lucas's approach was that instead of hiding it and waiting for others to come and explore him, he might as well take the initiative to blow himself up.

All the information and details that can be made public will be made public. As for the truth or falsity, it is necessary for those who have ideas about the "Misty Realm" to verify it themselves. Anyway, even if they catch him (provided they can do it) and torture information out of him, they will need to form an expedition team to enter the area and verify it themselves.

As for wealth, he has now built his own industry and initially achieved financial freedom. Coupled with his contented attitude, he wouldn't even bother to look at a real treasure map given to him for free.

Creating a wave of public opinion may draw more attention to him in the short term, but precisely because of this, his safety will be better guaranteed under the public eye. When the public opinion fades and more news surfaces, people's attention will naturally shift, and he will be able to achieve a smooth transition to a peaceful life.

……

First, some anonymous or real-name news tip-off calls were made to the hotlines of some major newspapers.

The residents of the high-end community are not short of money, but not all of them like to live under the spotlight and sometimes they don’t want their lives disturbed, so Lucas’s deeds were discussed at the thank-you party, and most residents agreed not to make it public.

So when doing this, Lucas and Merri had to find someone to help them or remain anonymous.

"Exploring the Mistland" and "successfully exploring the Mistland and successfully bringing back the missing persons". If it were placed on Earth, the news popularity of this incident would be similar to Lewinsky's zipper gate or the US expulsion of reporters, and even higher.

Naturally, all the newspapers that received this clue were very interested and sent investigative reporters to Guanying Mountain.

However, they encountered a setback locally. The town office and the county bureau refused to cooperate on the grounds of protecting citizens' privacy. When they visited the relevant residents provided by telephone clues, they were also turned away.

The investigation seemed to be at a standstill, but in fact these investigative reporters became more excited.

This kind of secretive attitude is a sign that there is something really big going on.

The kind of news where the entire incident is revealed right away and everyone actively cooperates with the investigation and interviews is boring and is usually very likely to be fabricated fake news.

Therefore, all these investigative reporters called the headquarters or went back to the headquarters in person to explain the pros and cons and request additional funding, investment and manpower.

When these reporters return with sufficient funding, professional equipment and more manpower, the "Misty Realm Rescue Incident" will no longer be covered up.

First, a reporter invited someone with relevant authority through channels to review the "transcript" carefully written by Lucas and Meili in the archives of the county bureau and confirmed the authenticity of the incident.

What follows is an all-pervasive investigation and filming of evidence. Parents or adults may tell reporters to get lost for various reasons, but this is not the case with young naughty children.

By interviewing young people in the town, the reporters easily obtained the list of teams that entered the misty realm for exploration. When they found the children on the list, they found that some of the young men and women had been warned by their parents not to accept inquiries and interviews; but others chose to ignore their parents' warnings, talked a lot in front of the camera, and even took out the trophies such as rings and pendants that they had kept on that day to show off to the reporters.

As professional copywriters, these reporters sorted out the causes and consequences of the incident in just a few days, and processed the information artistically based on their personal characteristics and newspaper style. After sending it back to their respective headquarters, it soon appeared in major newspapers.

Public opinion was ignited instantly, especially those teenagers who showed off various gold products on the front page headlines, which stimulated the people's G (meow) spot, or the fanatical pursuit of gold that has been engraved in the DNA of the Chinese people since the gold rush since the westward movement.

This point needs to be defended in their favor. In the framework of modern commodity society, people in almost all countries and regions are fanatical about gold. It’s just that the government’s practices and public opinion directions are different.

The news spread throughout the Flower Kingdom in a very short time, and even crossed the oceans to be widely circulated and discussed on the European continent, including the Soviet Union which had not yet disintegrated at that time. If there were hot searches in this era, the two terms "Misty Realm" and Lucas Yang would definitely dominate the top three hot search lists in various countries, except in areas with underdeveloped communications, even in Africa.

Because the "Misty Realm" is spread all over the world, the Sovereign Alliance, the Mysterious Kingdom and Africa are also widely distributed.

……

The incident became such a big deal that the naughty kids were certainly excited about making big news, and their photos and pictures often appeared in major newspapers and TV news, but the adults had to face reality.

At an emergency community party, they discussed the matter, and Lucas decided to come forward for an interview under the "public opinion"...

No one except Meri knew that all of this, including the reactions of the people in the community, was actually within Lucas's expectations. In the script he had written long ago, he was just like this.

A character who passively accepts everyone's opinions and has to step to the front.

The entire community felt that they owed Lucas something. You see, he just wanted to be a wealthy man quietly, but he didn't control his naughty children, and they ran into the "Misty Realm" and caused big (meow) trouble. Not only did he get most of the children out, but he also had to bear the pressure of public opinion... He is truly an example of an excellent resident.

This is when the benefits of community shelter come into play. If he were to go to some other place, or even if he still lived here but was not protected by the community, Lucas would probably have been living in unrest at home by now, with all kinds of cameras and broadcasting equipment probably set up at his doorstep and outside the courtyard wall 24 hours a day.

But at this time, the county bureau specially sent two police cars to park at the foot of the hill. Without his consent, no one except Claire and Emily from the Johnson family could go to the top of the hill to harass him.

The few stubborn ones who kept on giving advice were all put in iron cages at the county police station for reflection and were not granted bail.

Finally, after much consultation, Lucas and Merry decided to accept interviews from multiple TV stations and hold a live talk show-like interview in front of the entire Flower Kingdom.

……

On the day of the live broadcast, Lucas wore a slim-fitting suit and gelled his hair, which was slightly longer than a short haircut. He had a hairstyle that was common among athletes in the future. He looked fashionable, capable and handsome, even by Western aesthetic standards.

Meri looked the same as usual, but Lucas helped her put on some delicate makeup, the kind that made her facial lines look softer and more feminine... or maybe more like an older woman?

She was also deliberately asked to wear a normal vest, and during the live broadcast, you could see the holster under her vest.

The intention was naturally to highlight her smart, capable and courageous personality. Otherwise, with so many people in the town and the county bureau, why would she be the only one to stand up and volunteer to participate in the rescue operation?

Ed and Green don’t count, as they collected large returns afterwards.

……

The first half of the interview was very ordinary. Because it was a joint live broadcast, several TV stations each sent a host. Following a carefully prepared script, they interviewed Lucas and Merry one sentence at a time and introduced their backgrounds.

Lucas put it very cleverly. He said that he had an accident while driving and fell off a cliff from a winding mountain road. When he woke up, he found himself in a "foggy world". However, the background of his world was blurred, and if you don't ask him carefully, it is impossible to tell whether he is from another world or a parallel time and space, or a visitor from Earth decades later.

When it came to Meili's turn, she did not hide the fact that she entered the police school and the police force under her father's arrangement, and focused on her marriage and life.

"Because I don't work in a clerical position, my hours are very irregular and I can't balance my family and my life."

"First, I had conflicts with my husband because of this, and our relationship gradually broke down and our marriage became difficult to maintain."

"My daughter Hope also became very rebellious after entering puberty, and our relationship became strained."

"After an argument, she not only ran away from home, but also entered the misty realm out of spite with me."

"But it was also because of this that Lucas and I met for the first time in the Mist Realm."

At this time, a female TV host with the abbreviation "CTMD" covered her mouth and pretended to be surprised: "Oh my god, are you saying that in order to find your daughter, you took the initiative to enter the foggy realm under the premise of not knowing whether you would live or die in the future?"

"Yes," Merry nodded calmly, "I am Hope's mother, and only I can save her."

Although it was a show effect, it was really great that Merry could do this. Compared with the "Misty Land Rescue Operation", none of the parents in the town dared to follow the rescue team into it in person.

During this period, Lucas and Meili did not perform or comment much, but simply introduced the "misty land" where the two met:

The terrain is a plain forest, with nests of large monsters that are extremely aggressive, and three magical forces that are attacking each other all the time. In the end, the two of them and Hope stayed in there for a few days (Lucas had been trapped there for more than a year before that). While the space entrance that Merry and Hope came in through did not disappear, they finally found the space entrance (made glasses that can observe the space entrance) and successfully escaped.

"Wait a minute, what you mean is that the entrance to the foggy space will change over time?"

It doesn't matter if the hosts aren't observant enough, because this is the script written by Lucas, and all that matters is that they look like they are observant.

At this time, the live interview has reached the second half, and it is time to announce valuable and important news.

Lucas: "Yes, Merry and I only discovered this after entering the foggy space this time."

Meili: "As mentioned before, the foggy space we encountered is a forest plain terrain. There is light, day and night changes, and most importantly, it is full of vitality. As long as you are careful, it is not difficult to find food and water."

Host C: "Oh, according to the reporter's investigation report, the foggy space you entered this time is a mountain jungle scene on a full moon night. There is no water or living things in it. All the trees and plants are dry and dead. There is also a small town site in it, which is entrenched with many skeleton monsters. Except for a missing girl, all the deaths of high school students were caused in this town."

Lucas: "Well, food and water are easy to deal with.