Heart of a Fierce Ghost

This instance always began the same way.

Before fighting monsters, Lu Mingfei would appear on the fourteenth floor of Genji Heavy Industries, where the entire floor was filled with young, adorable female operators—a paradise of bows, colored contacts, uniforms, and high heels. Then a DHL courier would pop up, dusty and travel-worn, miserably pulling out a package and asking for a signature. Inside was the latest iPhone.

The iPhone always contained the same text message.

—"Take care of yourself, big brother. Something small has gone wrong over here in hell. I don't have any cheat codes because of our relationship, so I'm temporarily banned. Once I win the resurrection match, I'll come find you myself."

It was signed Lu Mingze, saved in the contacts as Black-Hearted Turtle Bastard Scammer Little Devil. Though it was absurd for a brand-new phone to already have a contact name saved, this was probably someone the "him" of this world knew.

Lu Mingfei had no idea what sort of demon Little Devil was, but he knew Lu Mingze. His chubby little cousin, after all.

Judging by the beauty-trap-style test he later used on his cousin Lu Mingze in reality with Scar of Sunset, they merely shared the same name.

At first, he had thought this Little Devil who sent messages was some kind of main-story teammate in the instance, or at least an important quest NPC. "Once I win the resurrection match, I'll come find you..." Yet after seven hundred runs, he had not even seen a shadow of him.

Apparently, there were few slots and many devils in hell. This resurrection match was hard to win.

Instance. Fourteenth floor of Genji Heavy Industries. The courier in a yellow uniform appeared like a ghost.

"Ricardo M. Lu?"

"That's me, that's me. I've been waiting for you for over three seconds."

The handsome courier gave Lu Mingfei, who calmly accepted the delivery and signed for it, a surprised glance. With admirable professionalism, he checked the handwriting twice.

"You really are... as unusual as the sender said."

"If it's you, then there's no problem. My task is complete. I need to find somewhere safer to squat and wait for rescue. Thank you for choosing us. DHL helps you travel a thousand miles and compete for global business opportunities."

That idiot courier sang a line from a GG song, then gave an extremely craftsmanlike deep bow, bending at the waist like a right-angle ruler.

"Konnichiwa. Rise, my beloved subject." Smoothly opening the package, Lu Mingfei found, just as expected, another iPhone.

The startup screen still showed the familiar four-leaf clover, and the text message still contained the same lines... No, this time there was an extra sentence: "Happy ending, hope you're well today."

What a waste of time.

So he casually threw the iPhone away. It smashed into the locked fire exit door. That devil provided nothing useful and still had the nerve to call himself a devil? He should honestly go fight his resurrection match.

According to the instance's rules, this iPhone did not belong to the "item category" and could not be taken out of the instance. Otherwise, Lu Mingfei could have started a phone wholesale business in reality. Since this model of iPhone did not exist in 2009, he could stockpile them until the new version launched.

The beautiful girls in the building ran about in panic. They were ordinary office clerks of the Snake-Branch Eight Families. High heels, document cases, lipstick... even a broken fire axe were scattered everywhere. Come to think of it, Lu Mingfei had once nearly slipped and been one-shot by a high heel. Back then, his rank had still been "Good-for-Nothing."

Those who felt this floor was unsafe crowded in front of the fire exit. Every so often, fierce girls wielding fire axes slammed them against the metal security door with loud clangs. At a time like this, who cared about being a refined Yamato Nadeshiko? The sweat-drenched girls rubbed their hands together, eager to try.

"Sir, this way, this way. Ladies, come this way."

Walking over, Lu Mingfei raised his foot and kicked open the electronic-locked security door. As he had done hundreds of times before, he evacuated the crowd. Too many people would only hinder his performance. Based on experience, Deadpools would soon be able to climb up to this floor.

Deadpools were undoubtedly monsters that hunted by instinct. Expecting such pack creatures to obediently stay in one place was sheer fantasy.

The girls went from panicked and helpless to overjoyed. Quite a few ladies who knew how to repay kindness ran past Lu Mingfei carrying their high heels, yet did not forget to plant fragrant kisses on this "handsome young man," who looked like an executive of the Snake-Branch Eight Families.

To them, it was the simplest thing in the world. An earthquake had caused problems with Genji Heavy Industries' access control system, so the wise family higher-ups had sent this exceptionally skilled executive to save them. He had descended like a divine soldier from heaven!

After the instance level increased, Lu Mingfei's facial advantages were no longer what they had once been. He had the feeling of having grown into his looks. If he were not so unwilling to style his hair, his treatment at school would improve greatly as well.

Repaying kindness was a virtue. Right now, quite a few people wanted to repay him by kissing his face. Even the male DHL courier hurried over, apparently intending to show his gratitude.

"You can kiss my hand, you can kiss my hand. You can't kiss there." Lu Mingfei anticipated everyone's movements, dodging left and right as he slipped out of the crowd like an eel. On the way, he kicked the courier, who still refused to give up and wanted to turn back, into the fire exit.

Fewer and fewer people remained. The aftershocks would arrive soon, and red alerts were blaring on everyone's phones.

Seven minutes passed. Lu Mingfei calculated the time precisely. If he went up too early, he would have to mediate a fight. There was no reasoning with those three hotheaded thugs. He had suffered before from trying to move them with emotion and enlighten them with reason ahead of time.

This floor was quickly emptied. Lu Mingfei took out the guns and blades he had accumulated over the previous five hundred instance runs from his instance backpack.

A data panel floated beside him. The sentence, "No matter how powerful or badass an armored vehicle is, it's useless if the underage driver doesn't dare step on the gas," faintly stung him.

What kind of words were those? What kind of words?

Lu Mingfei scratched his magpie-nest hair.

He had clearly come of age on July 17 last year.

Besides, "Forward" was a slogan command in the game, right? He also knew that "F" switched a vehicle's defensive systems, and he even knew "Let's make a delivery!" too. It meant, "Let's make a delivery!"—a suicide truck could launch a self-destructive attack.

He was also someone who occasionally went crazy.

There were still two hundred and thirty-two vials in his item backpack. These were "common items" that could appear as clear rewards. Their colors gradually shifted from bright red to somber purple, like the hues of a rainbow cocktail.

Standing before the elevator shaft with his eyes closed, Lu Mingfei tilted his head and used a syringe to inject the potion into his external jugular vein. With practiced ease, injection after injection, he pumped an excessive amount of Evolution Potion into his body.

Nineteen injections in total. This was the wrong way to inject it. He had never tried this dosage before. It was an absolutely lethal amount for an ordinary mixed-blood, perfectly suited for someone willing to go mad and gamble with his life, someone with endless chances.

He was naturally highly resistant to drugs. Small doses of Evolution Potion did nothing for him.

A fire burned deep within his mind. Every cell truly came alive, his blood vessels swelled, his blood boiled, and he felt heat unlike anything before.

The deep, ancient devil in his bloodline lightly touched its shackles.

His previously somewhat youthful face involuntarily became a little... ferocious.

"So hot. Too bad Genji Heavy Industries isn't a Genji bathhouse. After sweating it out, they won't give me a cold shower."

Muttering to himself, Lu Mingfei did not open his eyes immediately. He felt as though he might be dead drunk, or perhaps still dreaming that lucid dream adrift beyond the mortal world.

He had remained in this instance for too long. He knew Genji Heavy Industries' internal layout so well that he did not need to open his eyes at all. There was no need to proceed step by step upward to reach the Mural Hall and save people.

His hands, covered in fine black scales, slowly pried open the elevator's bronze doors. Carrying firearms and a zanmato on his back, Lu Mingfei leaped into the elevator shaft before the freight elevator arrived, his body continuously falling.

Most of his surroundings were dim and lightless. Only a few motes of dust floated through the wall lamps' glow. There were even bloodstains where the light fell, while below lay something like an entrance passage to the underworld.

The unseen gained courage. He seemed not to know that he was heading for the underworld of no return. Fear and cowardice peeled away at this moment.

In his illusion, this was deep water at the bottom of a well, suffocatingly dark. The dense air pressure created by the high-speed elevator's movement felt like someone brushing past him, while countless hands shoved at him.

This place seemed overcrowded, yet also utterly empty.

As he fell, Lu Mingfei finally opened his eyes. A black current of wind spiraled upward between his fingers.

As the world gradually sharpened from a blur, his Golden Eyes were already blazing like a demon.