Chapter 536

After careful consideration, King Vefras selected a boy named "Zhengyi."

He originated from Episode 21 of "Taro," titled "The Sinking of New Tokyo City," and was a divine figure who worshipped cicadas as his father and forbade the Seto Team from attacking or destroying the city’s cicada monsters.

But Vefras clearly did not know this; he saw the boy wearing glasses, dressed plainly, with a respectable appearance, and deemed him perfectly normal, so he chose him.

"Mr. Zhengyi..." Vefras appeared before Zhengyi, first calming him and assuring him not to fear, then tempting him to betray Earth, following the same routine once again.

"Just say to me, 'Give Earth to you,' and I can grant you anything you desire—even immortality."

Zhengyi thought for a moment: "Can you make me live forever? Compared to that, cicadas that live only a week are pitiful."

Vefras: "?"

How did this get tied to [cicadas]?

He suddenly felt something was off.

After thinking again, Zhengyi said: "Summer has passed a long time ago; I haven’t seen any cicadas in ages. How about this, Vefras—please help me wake up those sleeping cicadas. I want to see them early!"

Vefras: "?"

According to his knowledge, cicadas were a species on Earth known as [cicadas].

When soil temperature consistently rises above 18 degrees, this warmth from the earth awakens them like an alarm clock—so [cicadas] typically emerge in summer.

But Japan was currently in February, winter, with an average temperature of only around 10 degrees.

Zhengyi continued: "Besides ordinary cicadas, I also want to see cicada monsters. Over the past half-year, Earth has seen all kinds of monsters, but none resembling cicadas yet!"

Vefras: "..."

When people are utterly speechless, they sometimes feel like laughing.

Even aliens are no exception.

Previously, that chubby kid named Yingxing wanted to protect disk creatures; now you want cicada-type monsters.

What has happened to Earth’s children these days? I heard of reproductive worship—how did monster worship become a thing?

"If you can let me see a cicada-like monster, I’ll hand Earth over to you—no problem, right, Vefras!" Zhengyi gazed at Vefras with eager anticipation.

Vefras: "..."

Of course—normal children would never sell Earth to me. Only an abnormal child like this could lead to something.

But why must your abnormality center on monsters? Couldn’t you have some other quirk?

Still, this wish isn’t too difficult—it’s far easier than forcing me to confront four Ultramen directly.

"Fine, I’ll try."

Then Vefras activated his spaceship to secretly "heat" the New Tokyo City region, raising the temperature there.

For the next six consecutive days, the temperature in New Tokyo City remained consistently above twenty degrees.

Cicada nymphs, dormant for years, were startled awake by the heat. They broke through the frozen soil with their sharp forelegs, their black-brown bodies emerging from the ground in this unnatural warm winter, soon crawling in abundance up tree trunks.

Cherry blossoms bloomed, mistaking the season; withered grass turned green again; stray cats shed their winter coats prematurely. This anomaly quickly drew the attention of the Victory Team.

Emi: "This is likely the work of an evil alien. They’re trying to disrupt biological rhythms and destroy Earth’s ecosystem."

Kishida speculated: "Perhaps they’re adapting the environment for colonization, or testing human tolerance to sudden climate shifts?"

Yamana: "Could it just be nature suddenly going haywire?"

Even Qi Ming could only think of the 3,000-degree Fire Monster from "Dyna" and the Flame Mountain from "Gaia."

No one could possibly imagine the real reason: Vefras the alien wanted to awaken cicadas early... Who could have guessed such a motive?

Agamus: "There must be a heat source. Find it, and we’ll solve this."

………………………………

Zhengyi was overjoyed. He caught two cicadas in the wild, locked them in a small cage, and hung the cage around his neck, carrying it everywhere he went.

This drove his mother to despair—there was a newborn baby just one month old at home. How are you supposed to sleep with these cicadas chirping nonstop every day?

"These cicadas are too annoying. Let’s just turn them into specimens," she said, staring at the cicadas locked in Zhengyi’s cage.