Armored vehicles and tanks were neatly lined up on top of the ridge, their countless gun barrels and muzzles pointing straight ahead at the brewing blizzard.
"Secretary-General Lu, all armed forces have assembled."
"Stand by in position." Lu Lincheng took a fierce drag from a cigarette and tossed the dwindling butt into the snow.
"Secretary-General, may I ask a question?"
"Ask."
"The people in Kassel College have no brand. How could they possibly get in?"
Inopportune as it was, Lu Lincheng was simultaneously exasperated and amused. "How did you study your Spiritual Word classes? Don't you know some Spiritual Words excel at opening doors?"
"The Key!" The man had a sudden flash of realization.
"Never underestimate the Secret Party's foundations. Never mind the Key; even a high-risk Spiritual Word like 'Rhine' is something the Secret Party can pull out when needed." Lu Lincheng's expression was grave. He did not know how much longer this Nibelungen could hold out. He hoped it would last at least until Lu Mingfei finished the excision successfully, so they would still have time to rewrite the rules.
If the excision failed, would that not mark the dawn of the apocalypse? Lu Lincheng pulled back the bolt of his rifle, took out his phone, and began to dial.
After waiting for a full minute, until the call automatically disconnected, he slammed his fist hard against the roof of the vehicle, giving his adjutant a massive start.
Lu Lincheng ignored him completely. After a brief silence, he dialed again, and this time it connected quickly.
"Number Seventeen? The excision might be in trouble..."
***
Lu Mingfei stealthily cracked his eyes open a sliver. Although the Little Devil had said someone would be arranged to wake him up, Lu Mingfei was not sure who would come or whether they could be trusted—until that flash of gold entered his vision.
"Zero?" Chairman Lu snapped wide awake. The girl, who looked only thirteen or fourteen years old, was standing at the door holding a triangular military dagger, her face expressionless as she turned her head.
Zero had always been this expressionless, but Lu Mingfei felt that today's Zero seemed somewhat different. Although her appearance had not changed at all, he could clearly sense that her cheeks were a bit more youthful. While not as pretty as usual, she looked much more like a little girl.
Yet for some reason, he could somehow read the words "Those who block me shall die" across that youthful face.
Without saying a single word, Zero simply tossed the down jacket from the table to Lu Mingfei and turned to open the door.
"Hey, hey, what on earth is going on here?" Lu Mingfei trotted behind Zero's footsteps in the freezing snow. Her Imperial Highness was not tall, but she walked extremely fast, deliberately picking out all sorts of hard-to-navigate spots to dart through, making it agonizing for Chairman Lu, who still did not fully understand the situation.
Zero had somehow found the kind of drug Qiaoweini had previously injected him with, and now his legs were able to move.
Yet right now he truly could not make sense of the situation. Her Imperial Highness could enter the Nibelungen too? Could Her Imperial Highness be someone the Little Devil had found? This conclusion seemed somewhat unreliable, and Her Imperial Highness appeared to be more than just casually familiar with this place, leading Lu Mingfei through twists and turns to evade the people monitoring him.
Her Imperial Highness finally stopped, casting a dissatisfied glare at Lu Mingfei. Realizing his voice was too loud, Lu Mingfei promptly shut his mouth.
"Lu Mingfei?" A boy's voice rang out. Lu Mingfei felt the scenery around him shift in a daze, as if something had shattered.
When he turned his head back again, he was surprised to find that Zero was gone.
A boy crawled out from the bushes behind him. Lu Mingfei remembered seeing him once in the cafeteria; if he remembered correctly, his name should be Anton.
"Hello." Lu Mingfei nodded.
"What are you doing here?" Anton's gaze did not look very friendly.
"Recovery training." Lu Mingfei lied without changing his expression or missing a heartbeat.
"I saw you with someone else just now," Anton said.
"How come I didn't know?" Lu Mingfei said in surprise. "You must have seen wrong."
Anton cast a suspicious look toward the snow. Indeed, there were only Lu Mingfei's footprints.
Actually, Lu Mingfei had noticed this as well, but he could roughly guess the reason. Given the Little Devil's abilities, almost every time they met, it was in this dream-like scenario.
If the Little Devil arranged this, he could relax for the time being. Although the Little Devil was a fatal swindler, he was a swindler with a bottom line; he played around when it was time to play and joked when it was time to joke, but he had never screwed him over at a critical moment.
"I heard you went for the excision?" Anton asked. "How did it go?"
"Where did you hear such nonsense?" Lu Mingfei calmly retorted. "I imagine some things aren't for the likes of you to know."
"I received instructions from Secretary-General Lu to look after you." Anton brandished his phone. "You just finished surgery and your body is very weak. You shouldn't be running around, so please come back with me."
"If my old man has something to say, why didn't he tell me directly? Why should I believe you?" Lu Mingfei said indifferently.
"The excision wasn't over yet when Secretary-General Lu contacted me, and we aren't sure when you'll finish," Anton replied expressionlessly. "My instructions are simply to bring you back; everything else has nothing to do with me. So, Chairman Lu Mingfei, please come with me."
Of course, Lu Mingfei was not going to just go back with him like this. He now knew that beneath the calm surface of this Safe Haven, things were by no means as simple as his old man claimed. Moreover, given his old man's personality... it brought him right back to the earlier question. Lu Mingfei had once told Lu Lincheng that if he had to choose between saving ten thousand people and saving his mother, Lu Lincheng would choose to save the ten thousand people. Similarly, when choosing between saving ten thousand people and saving Lu Mingfei, he believed Lu Lincheng would undoubtedly choose the former without hesitation.
It was not that Lu Mingfei was selfish. If tomorrow was the end of the world and sacrificing him alone could save the world, he would not hesitate to bid farewell to his loved ones one by one and embark on a one-way journey alone. But first, Lu Lincheng had not told him the truth, nor had he told him the whole story. Second, whether everything done by this Safe Haven itself was right or wrong remained questionable. Lastly, after everything that had happened before, Lu Mingfei was more willing to trust that mom who would stop at nothing to take him away, rather than muddle-headedly throwing his little life away.
"What is there to hesitate about?" Seeing Lu Mingfei linger and refuse to move his feet, Anton stepped forward and reached out his hand toward Lu Mingfei. "Secretary-General Lu is your biological father. What reason do you have not to trust him?"
Biological father—what a nice thing to say, yet Lu Mingfei could not believe it.
He was willing to believe the mom and dad in his childhood memories and that dream from when he first arrived—the version of Lu Lincheng as a good-for-nothing ordinary employee and the version of Qiaoweini haggling with small vendors at the vegetable market. Right now, he was also willing to believe the version of Qiaoweini who would abandon years of her own hard work just to help him escape. Yet he could not completely trust this version of Lu Lincheng as the Secretary-General.
Just how many truths had his old man told him, and how many of his words were deceptions?
At that moment, Anton was about to reach him. Even in deep snow, this distance was enough for a professionally trained Hybrid to launch a fatal strike against an undefended enemy.
Anton's other hand remained buried in his pocket, perhaps gripping some weapon.
The next instant, he suddenly lunged forward, throwing a lightning-fast punch straight at Lu Mingfei.
Yet this surprise punch missed. Lu Mingfei anticipated his movement beforehand, dodging the strike with a simple turn.
Anton felt a slight jolt of surprise, but he did not waste time being shocked. Missing his strike, he spun around swiftly, the hand in his pocket flashing out as he aimed a stun gun right at Lu Mingfei.
Yet this shot missed too. Lu Mingfei stood rooted in place; his current physical condition was not enough to support him dodging a stun gun blast at this range. But just before Anton pulled the trigger, the stun gun was suddenly swatted away. Immediately following that, a petite figure materialized between the two of them, stepping forward, pivoting, and throwing a punch—a blindingly fast upper hook that struck Anton squarely on the jaw, actually lifting him completely off the ground! Right after, the petite frame leaped into the air, following up with a sideways kick and another upper hook that smashed into Anton's jaw once again!
Lu Mingfei was practically dumbstruck. This rising dragon punch, so frequently seen in arcade fighting games, was one of his absolute favorites back in the day, but right now this young girl's rising dragon punch was simply too gorgeous, too textbook-perfect—so gorgeous that Lu Mingfei couldn't help wanting to cheer for her.
Anton was blasted backward through the air, crashing heavily into a snowdrift.
"Who are you?" Lu Mingfei asked in disbelief as he stared at the petite figure that had materialized out of thin air. "Zero?"
The girl turned her head and cast a cool glance at him. That pale golden hair and stern little face were cut from the exact same mold as Zero, except this girl was skinny and had a few freckles on her face. Lu Mingfei could confirm she was the little girl who had called out to him in the wind and snow several times, but this was the first time he was seeing her up close... She looked like a younger version of Zero, though Zero already looked only fourteen years old anyway, so she should be called child-version Zero.
"Follow me." As concise and domineering as ever; judging by her tone, she was undoubtedly Zero.
Now the question marks in Lu Mingfei's head grew even larger. Zero appearing here had already brought up a question mark, but now Zero had even turned into a shrunken version! Could this Nibelungen not only slow down time, but also have the power to reverse it?
"Who are you?" Anton scrambled up from the ground looking disheveled, freezing the moment he saw Zero. A look of terror surfaced in his yellowish-brown eyes. "You? It's you! Impossible!"
His expression at that moment resembled a frightened little mouse, retreating uncontrollably as if he had seen a ghost.
"You should already be dead!" Anton screamed suddenly. Lu Mingfei had no idea what he was talking about, while Zero's expression grew increasingly cold.
"I am indeed dead, and so are you," Zero said indifferently.
"No, that's impossible, you died... I'm still alive, I'm still alive!" Anton's expression gradually grew frantic. "Even if you crawled back from hell, I can send you right back!"
He suddenly fished out a Bluetooth earpiece, stuck it into his ear, and viciously pressed the power button.
Lu Mingfei was completely bewildered. Ever since the shrunken version of Zero had appeared, he had been in a state of utter confusion, getting more and more confused by the second. Now it looked like Zero actually knew Anton? Why did Anton say Zero should be dead? Yet what Zero said made it sound like they were both already dead. Could it really be that he, Chairman Lu, had failed his excision and was now dreaming in heaven?
Yet Anton's expression rapidly calmed down. Lu Mingfei did not know what sounds were playing through that Bluetooth earpiece, but he could clearly sense Anton's transformation—as if all his frenzy and fear had been suppressed, and something was awakening from within his body. The most obvious change was the color of his pupils: the yellowish-brown eyes went dormant, replaced by gorgeous Golden Pupils!
Lu Mingfei's fists suddenly clenched tight, and an indescribable emotion surged into his heart.
He had seen this kind of transformation elsewhere before—in Tokyo, in Takamagahara, in the corridors submerged by seawater, amidst the beating of King Masamune's wooden clappers, where Gen Minazuru's personality was suppressed and the demon-like Kazama Ruri awakened!
And so Lu Mingfei knew what was playing in that earpiece; it had to be an audio track operating on the exact same principle as those clappers! Anton's original personality was suppressed by the audio, while something flowing with dragon blood awoke!
With every breath drawn by the awakened Anton, his Golden Pupils bloomed like golden roses.
Beautiful and dangerous.
"Lu Mingfei?" He tilted his head, sizing Lu Mingfei up with his Golden Pupils in curiosity.
Lu Mingfei did not speak. Both he and Zero stared fixedly at this entity that had awakened from inside Anton's body.
"Let me introduce myself," the awakened Anton sighed softly. At this moment, he was no longer that somewhat proud and aloof Anton, but instead resembled a melancholic adolescent boy. "I don't have a name. The code name they gave me is Number Seventeen."
"So you're the one sent by my old man?" Lu Mingfei said. "You've been hiding inside his body?"
"Are you talking about Anton?" Number Seventeen asked. "Not at all. I am merely one of Anton's personalities; we share the same origin."
"What do you use to switch personalities? Wooden clappers?" Lu Mingfei asked, feigning an expressionless face. He realized that the things hidden in this Safe Haven far exceeded what he had imagined. The exact same personality-switching technology as Herzog's had appeared in Anton; perhaps there were even more secrets regarding his true lineage here.
"You already know?" Number Seventeen's brow arched slightly. "Oh, no offense, I know you can also use wooden clappers to switch to a dragonized state... But yes, we underwent the same surgery, so you understand now? Staying here is a better choice, because from start to finish, you have been under our control."
"Like dragonization?" Lu Mingfei said indifferently. "Perhaps you'd like to try?"
Number Seventeen's expression shifted slightly. His words had merely been probing Lu Mingfei's strength; attempting to control a dragonized Lu Mingfei was naturally impossible, otherwise they would not have been hiding in this Safe Haven. Yet Lu Mingfei's composure was something he had not anticipated. When he had last read Lu Mingfei's file, Lu Mingfei was essentially a good-for-nothing bearing the title of an S-class, and that was only a little over a year ago. What on earth had changed this man?
Then he caught sight of the girl beside Lu Mingfei, and his expression turned grave in the extreme.
"Renata?"