The Infamous V: "Sandevistan."
Viaduct in the Storm: "I can offer a thousand points."
The Infamous V: "A thousand points?!"
The Infamous V: "Looks like we have a deal then. I'll do my best to get my hands on one shortly, and we can handle the payment and delivery via red envelopes."
Viaduct in the Storm: "Deal."
……
Lin Mai exited the chat interface with a sense of satisfaction.
"Done."
As a time traveler, he was well aware of the terrifying power of the Sandevistan.
Its fundamental nature was to slow down the passage of time.
Consequently, the acceleration function of this piece of gear placed an immense burden on any human, making it impossible to use more than a few times.
However, since he was an automobile, he wouldn't suffer from cyberpsychosis no matter how overloaded he got. The only thing that could happen was him wearing it out—truly turning the natural order upside down.
There's only land worn out by farming, never an ox worked to death.
If V managed to acquire the cyberware, Lin Mai would gain abilities similar to Time Zero and the Spiritual Word known as Flash.
To a certain extent, this would already rival those top-tier half-bloods, with only a slight gap in combat experience remaining—something to be bridged by the next major power-up.
"Though it's still no match for Odin, resolving the incidents in this Binhai City should be no problem at all."
Lin Mai thought to himself.
Underneath the calm surface, undercurrents were already surging. At the very least, three important figures—Chu Tianjiao, Chu Zihang, and Lu Mingfei—had already appeared right before him.
As for Jiu De Mai and Su Enxi, the duo working for the boss who ran all over the world, the probability of them appearing in this city was very low, but definitely not zero.
His current goal was to conceal his identity while changing the fates of these key figures as much as possible.
……
On the bus.
"Young man, wake up. This is the last stop."
Lu Mingfei bolted upright and looked toward the middle-aged sanitation worker beside him.
"Auntie, what time is it?"
"Half past eight. It's great to be young, falling asleep the second your head hits something."
The woman sighed as she replied.
"Thanks, Auntie! I have to go home!"
Seeing this, Lu Mingfei grabbed his schoolbag, bolted through the bus's folding doors, and sprinted toward the bus stop across the street.
If he didn't go home at this hour, his uncle and aunt would yell at him all night!
Lu Mingfei never could have imagined that just as he was starting his first year of junior high, he would encounter bizarre events that other people wouldn't experience in a lifetime.
First, he was chased by a monster in an underground parking garage; then, he ran into a terrifying Autobot; and after that, he passed out until six in the evening, even falling asleep on the bus.
How could he possibly be this unlucky...
The more he thought about it, the closer Lu Mingfei was to tears. He now profoundly hated his past self for not participating in the arts festival; even reciting a poem with the literature club would have been better than this.
He often felt like a pathetic loser, lonely as hell, lacking Chu Zihang's universally beloved cleverness and excellence, and lacking Zhao Menghua's self-confidence. Even his academic grades were near the bottom of his class.
He didn't dare to boil water, lest there be more than one useless piece of trash at home.
Beneath the veil of night, the warm yellow streetlights spilled over the street, and the wind rustled the leaves of the roadside trees.
Stepping across the crosswalk, amidst the twinkling lights that filled the sky and the roar of speeding mechanical beasts, Lu Mingfei ran unsteadily, like a doll whose mainspring was about to run out.
Finally.
When he reached the other side of the road, his body finally gave out once more, and he slumped down to sit on the curb.
"..."
Lu Mingfei's body trembled slightly, though he didn't know why he was shivering, or perhaps he just felt that sitting down made him a bit more comfortable, as if this could help him avoid facing today's events.
His mood was the color of purple.
Right at that moment, a harsh beam of light suddenly struck his face. Coming straight toward him appeared to be a black luxury sedan. The car door suddenly swung open, and the slender shadow of a young girl stepped out from inside, blocking the dazzling glare.
"Lu Mingfei!" The shadow that stepped out spoke. Her voice was crisp, pleasant, full of energy, and very distinctive, sounding extremely surprised. "What are you doing here?"
Listening to it, Lu Mingfei felt it sounded somewhat familiar.
"Su Xiaoqiang!" After a few seconds of thought, Lu Mingfei finally realized who it was.
At the same time, his eyes gradually adjusted to the light, and the girl standing in front of the dazzling headlights in his field of vision became clear.
Sure enough, it was his female classmate whom he usually complained about behind her back as a "female tycoon and bandit"—Su Xiaoqiang. This habitually arrogant and wealthy girl had a nickname in class: "Little Celestial Maiden."
Only this time, there wasn't just arrogance on her face, but also astonishment.
"Lu Mingfei, why are you here?"
Su Xiaoqiang asked again with a puzzled look.
"I... overshot my bus stop." Lu Mingfei awkwardly pointed at himself.
Suddenly, his gaze caught the car emblem.
"A-A Maybach?"
Terror instantly filled Lu Mingfei's eyes. How was there a nightmare-loop episode here? His legs stopped feeling weak, and he instantly sprang to his feet and bolted in the opposite direction.
"Huh?" Su Xiaoqiang looked bewildered.
"Hey! Lu Mingfei! This is a new car my dad bought. If you want to go home, this young lady doesn't mind giving you a ride!"
She shouted loudly at the top of her lungs.
To her surprise, however, Lu Mingfei ran even faster, completely vanishing from sight within a few seconds as if he hadn't heard her voice at all, running away without a moment's hesitation.
That figure, who always failed physical education, was running faster and faster under these circumstances, as if he had taken a stimulant.
"..."
"Forget it, Uncle Li, let's drive home."
Su Xiaoqiang sighed. Unable to understand why the guy harbored such intense hostility toward a Maybach, she turned and spoke to the driver in the front seat.
"Yes, Miss."
Uncle Li nodded, pressed down on the accelerator, and the Maybach immediately sped away in the direction of the Su family residence.
As a driver, all he could do was stay out of it and strictly follow the young lady's instructions.
……
"Long Legs, is this guy really an S-class?"
Su Enxi found it hard to watch any longer, tugging at Jiu De Mai's arm. "Why is he afraid of a... Maybach?"
Jiu De Mai shook her head.
"I don't know. Maybe he has a phobia of rich people?"
If Lu Mingfei suffered from low self-esteem, the two of them could still understand, but getting scared upon seeing a Maybach completely exceeded the duo's comprehension.
It defied all understanding.
Jiu De Mai dismissed the Underworld Glow, and the figures of the two women instantly appeared beneath the streetlight where Lu Mingfei had just run past, without the slightest unnaturalness, as if they had always been there.
"It's really hard to believe that an S-class half-blood who might possess a space-slashing Spiritual Word could have such a pathetic personality."
Su Enxi complained.
Jiu De Mai's gaze, however, turned toward the moon, pondering the Grief of Blood that might possibly exist within him.