Far away, preparing for his dragon-slaying journey in a foreign land, Caesar suddenly received a message. He glanced at his phone, then silently set it down.
"Hey, what's up?" Xia Mi was currently face-deep in mint chocolate chip ice cream. Her eating habits were remarkably similar to Lu Mingfei's, with a smudge of pale green staining the tip of her nose.
Chen Motong (NoNo) also cast a glance his way. It was rare to see Caesar wear such an expression.
"It's nothing," Caesar replied, though the emotions flickering in his eyes were difficult to decipher. "There was an earthquake in Rome."
"Holy crap!" Xia Mi froze, her slender fingers dangling a spoon. "Wait, Captain, if I remember correctly, you're like the 'Crown Prince' of Rome. Does that mean...?"
Caesar nodded.
"The family was almost completely wiped out. The ground suddenly sank nearly fifteen meters. The losses are incalculable."
His voice was flat, making it impossible to tell if he was being stoic or was genuinely grieving.
For once, Xia Mi was at a loss for words. She lowered her head and went back to cautiously digging into her ice cream. After a long silence, she spoke up: "Well, hey, look on the bright side, Captain. Even if you end up begging on the streets, you'd probably get more change than anyone else. I mean, look at you, you've got the 'it' factor."
NoNo blinked, thinking to herself that Xia Mi really had a heart of iron.
"It hasn't come to that yet," Caesar said, glancing at Xia Mi. "The family's business interests aren't just in Rome, though they've certainly taken a massive blow. My uncle is in the hospital, condition unknown. That man... Pompeii Gattuso... has temporarily returned to take command of affairs."
NoNo's eyes widened as she searched for the right words. Pompeii Gattuso was Caesar's father, a stallion of a man and a deadbeat head of the family who usually avoided responsibility like the plague. If even he was being recalled, the scale of the disaster was unimaginable.
Wiped out. It was a heavy, sorrowful term.
The two of them were currently at the stage of discussing marriage; there was no telling how this would affect their future. Caesar took a deep breath, his tone remaining steady.
"Family matters will be handled by family members. We have only one mission."
"Slay the dragon," he said.
His relationship with his family wasn't exactly harmonious, and this wasn't something he needed to worry about personally, it was merely a necessary notification. Furthermore, those who achieve great things must maintain their composure even if the sky were to crumble before them.
However.
There was one specific detail in the family's message that caught his attention.
"Beware... the Elder..." he whispered the name to himself.
Beside him, Xia Mi's expression changed almost instantly. She turned her head away, staring deeply into her ice cream, her thoughts unreadable.
…
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world.
The Sleipner was rapidly descending through the clouds. Angers' private transport appeared perfectly intact, seemingly unaffected by its earlier encounter. The pilot was leisurely smoking a cigarette and humming a tune.
A missile had exploded right next to the Sleipner earlier, and he'd thought they were toast. But it seemed like something had blocked it. Since the plane was fine and he wasn't dead, he figured he might as well get on with his job. It wasn't like he hadn't seen mid-air combat before.
His mission was simple: deliver the VIP in the cabin to the destination. Nothing more. Though, he figured he'd have one hell of a story to brag about to Angers when he got back.
With a heavy roar, the Sleipner descended toward the central hub of the country. All intelligence was being funneled through Angers to Zoran. The awakening of the Dragon King, the arrival of the two teams, and the bounties on the internet hunter markets, Angers held nothing back.
The phone Lu Mingfei used to add Zoran as a friend had been a gift from Angers, a "collaboration present," as he called it. To be honest, when Angers first learned that Zoran didn't own a cell phone, he was more than a little shocked. He suspected the man might truly be an "antique" in the most literal sense.
Six days had passed since their arrival. During this time, everyone, except for Chu Zihang, who was buried in data, had been relaxing and having fun.
The bond between Chu Zihang and Xia Mi was growing stronger. Despite him being an icy, stoic wall, Xia Mi was no ordinary girl. Finger, as usual, was playing the clown; he was a total foodie.
In the other team, Caesar's girlfriend, NoNo, was wandering the city alone. She had always been impulsive, the same personality trait that led her to rescue Lu Mingfei from his misery at the movie theater.
Xia Mi, acting as the "undercover junior sister," continued to hover around Chu Zihang, occasionally "feeding" the brooding loner who seemed to survive solely on soda and fast food. The crisis back home didn't seem to affect Caesar's psyche; he was undeniably a good man who valued NoNo above all else. Even if the world ended tomorrow, it wouldn't shake his resolve to marry this quirky, witch-like girl.
And then there was Lu Mingfei, the one chosen by Zoran.
From the first day they arrived, he had stayed in underground net cafes, slaughtering all challengers in his domain of expertise: StarCraft. Everyone has a comfort zone where they can find their sense of purpose.
Until tonight, when a girl sought him out. And so, everything began to change.
Even though Lu Mingfei had faced a Dragon King and seen the vastness of the world, he still had to admit he was a "loser" at heart. He was currently wandering through a midnight subway station, using his phone's flashlight to illuminate the darkness.
Helping his high school crush find her missing ex-boyfriend? What kind of pathetic plotline was this?
Not only had he thumped his chest and promised to help, but he'd actually come to the subway station alone to do it. Sometimes he really wondered if there was something wrong with his head.
But when Chen Wenwen, the girl he had crushed on for three years, appeared before him again in a white dress soaked by the rain, he still couldn't say no. It was always like this: he'd boldly agree to things he shouldn't, only to regret it moments later. He felt like a total failure.
The last place the guy had been seen was the subway station.
"Zhao Menghua? The Great Scholar Zhao?" Lu Mingfei called out, shining his light toward the pitch-black tracks. "Stop messing around out here! Chen Wenwen is worried sick about you!"
He spoke timidly, terrified that something might leap out of the shadows at any second. Lu Mingfei sighed bitterly. He knew exactly what he was: a complicated, awkward mess. But knowing who you are doesn't change anything. He wasn't stupid; he just overthought everything, constantly pushing himself into depths he couldn't control.
Passing through the subway turnstile, the scenery abruptly shifted.
Lu Mingfei stared blankly at the posters from the 70s and 80s plastered on the walls and scattered across the floor.
Did I... take a wrong turn?
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