Lu Mingfei had been fostered by his aunt since childhood and had never had many friends. His only two pleasures were making alt accounts to mess with his cousin and playing StarCraft.
His StarCraft skills could be called unbeatable at present. He had held the number one spot in the community for years, and could beat the second-ranked player using nothing but the laptop's built-in trackpoint.
And that second-ranked player was, naturally, Lao Tang.
After a match they had arranged several years ago, the two had come to appreciate each other. Mainly because they had such similar loser vibes. They added each other as friends and had been chatting for years.
That was how Lu Mingfei learned that Lao Tang was actually a Chinese American, an orphan.
When Lu Mingfei had previously interviewed for Kassel, Lao Tang had video-called him for an entire night to practice spoken English. They had agreed to meet in America, where Lao Tang would treat him to a Greyhound trip around the country.
But now, why had the other man appeared here, on the other side of the world, and in this form?
"You know him?" Caesar was stunned. Someone had connections broader than even the young master of the Gattuso Family, enough to know a Dragon King? Whose subordinate was this? "Uh..." Lu Mingfei hesitated over his wording. "I knew who he used to be. He was an online friend of mine."
He said used to be because the current Lao Tang looked every bit like his damn transformation sequence was loading.
The pressure radiating from Lao Tang surpassed that of the Dragon Servants from before. All he needed was a visible health bar and a grand orchestral soundtrack, and he could go be the final boss in Dark Souls next door.
"If I'm not mistaken, he... no, He should be a Dragon King." Caesar's expression turned grave. "Judging by his appearance and this temperature, he should be the King of Bronze and Fire, Norton—the one who holds authority over metal and flame."
"What the fuck?!" Lu Mingfei saw it now too. It really did have that vibe.
No, bro, how did you end up becoming the boss on the other side? Perhaps it had happened too suddenly for Lu Mingfei's brain to catch up. Subconsciously, he used trash talk to cover his panic at seemingly losing a friend.
"Do it while the bloodline on the other side hasn't fully awakened." Caesar glanced at the hesitant Lu Mingfei and decided to play the villain himself. "He is no longer the friend you remember."
"There's no saving him?"
"There's no saving him." Caesar shook his head. "At least, with our methods, we can't interfere with a Dragon King's mental activity."
Alchemy might be able to do it, but only if the Dragon King willingly accepted the damage they inflicted upon his mind, and they would need ample time to prepare. Not to mention that the being before them possessed the strongest alchemical techniques of dragon civilization—the King of Bronze and Fire, Norton.
Clearly, that was pure fantasy, a daydream.
With that, Caesar did not wait for Lu Mingfei's response. He kicked off through the water and charged out.
Lu Mingfei stood where he was, his fist slowly tightening.
Caesar's words had shattered his last illusion. Lu Mingfei had never been a particularly brave person. The so-called Magical Girl power had let him act fearless for an entire day already, and that was the limit of what he could manage.
Taking the initiative to enter the water, then going all out to carry against the Dragon Servants—perhaps all those actions were his subconscious trying to prove that he was no longer the pathetic kid he used to be. Lu Mingfei could become a senior Magical Girl who made others feel safe, too.
It was true. With power, he could turn the tide and save innocent people like Ye Sheng Aji, people who had seemed destined to die.
But when it came to one of his only friends, that so-called power was not strong enough to turn back time and save Lao Tang, whose fate of "becoming a Dragon King" had already been sealed.
The only thing that could do that was probably a miracle.
"Fuck it!" Lu Mingfei gritted his teeth and decided to go see what was going on. If Lao Tang had truly become a Dragon King, then he would slap him twice and knock some sense into him! Stepping forward, Lu Mingfei reached the high-temperature Lao Tang before Caesar did.
By now, the surrounding water had been heated to several hundred degrees Celsius. Without the Magical Girl's enhancement, even a genuine S-rank Hybrid would lose a layer of skin.
Looking into the pair of emotionless Golden Eyes before him, filled with coldness and brutality as "Lao Tang" stared at him, Lu Mingfei's heart sank.
It really was... just as Caesar had said.
"Fuck!" Rage surged from Lu Mingfei's heart as he threw a punch.
Boom! Norton seemed to still be awakening his bloodline and failed to dodge, taking the punch squarely in the abdomen.
The water was instantly torn apart into a vacuum gap. The immense force blasted Norton away like one of His Dragon Servants, embedding Him in the bronze wall.
"Lao Tang, how could you be this useless? Fight back, damn it!" Lu Mingfei roared. Even he did not know whether he meant Lao Tang should resist Norton's consciousness or Norton should dodge his punch.
Just as Lu Mingfei was about to continue his assault, Caesar beside him froze.
"Mingfei, wait!" Caesar suddenly stopped Lu Mingfei, who was preparing to pursue. "Say, why don't we ask the familiar?"
Lu Mingfei's iron fist halted halfway through its swing.
Right. Since science could not do it, why not try mysticism? Miracles and magic—wasn't that exactly a Magical Girl's specialty?
The moment that thought arose in Lu Mingfei's mind, he felt as though his body had sunk into a swamp, unable to move.
Right, this was the familiar's cue to appear: that invincible Time Stop!
"Ta-da!" A pitch-black figure appeared out of thin air. Chu Ke supplied his own entrance sound effects and fanfare. "You finally remembered that you're a Magical Girl!"
Chu Ke pulled out a thick tome and began flipping through it.
"Are you looking for a way to reverse time?!"
"What is this?"
Lu Mingfei and Caesar asked at the same time.
This was Caesar's first time entering the so-called Time Stop space, but fortunately, he was highly adaptable.
"First, this is Time Stop. Xiao Lu, go explain it." Chu Ke patted Lu Mingfei on the head. "Second, I'm checking how long it's been since I last appeared."
Chu Ke seemed to find something in the book and immediately cried out, "Well, well! It's been a whole three and a half chapters since I appeared! Who the hell is the protagonist here?!"
Lu Mingfei's mouth twitched. He had grown used to his familiar occasionally spouting nonsense, so he asked, "Chu Ge, what happened to my friend Lao Tang? Can you take a look?"
"Hm? Where is he?" Chu Ke looked around.
"The one embedded in the wall over there."
Chu Ke went over with a series of quick steps and dragged Norton over, still in his Red Hot state.
"This one?"
"No." Lu Mingfei shook his head. "He wasn't that red."
"It's fine. Open that four-character game on your phone and play a few matches. You'll be as red as him."
"That's not what I meant. I mean, he was still human before. How did he turn into a dragon?" Lu Mingfei corrected his slip of the tongue.
"Oh, you should've said so earlier. Think of him as having two systems: a power-saving mode and a full-power mode. The full-power mode is now on, and it filled up and overwrote the memory from power-saving mode."
Lu Mingfei understood this time. "Then can the data be recovered, Master Chu?"
"Totally okay. Bring me PL Points. Once he's fixed, you can even sell him to your classmates." Chu Ke indicated that it was no big deal; he just needed payment.
But it was a very big deal to Lu Mingfei. He had spent all the PL Points he had saved on Brilliant Mode. The Dragon Servants had only just contributed thirty points, barely keeping his wallet from looking thinner than paper.
After hearing that, Chu Ke waved a hand. "Simple. Give me your wand."
At those words, Lu Mingfei—nine years of compulsory education, sunflower beneath the red flag—instinctively tightened his grip on the wand in his hand.
Your next line isn't going to be, "I took out a loan of 150,000 for you," is it?
No ticket? Then I absolutely have to make your damn balls go obsolete in one shot!
Before you continue