The Night the Black Dragon Danced Wildly (End)

[Reward settlement successful]

[Clearance requirements met]

[This stage completed]

[Cleared with an exceptionally high rating, bloodline experience +600]

[Eliminated 16 enemy elite units and 23 regular units, bloodline experience +268]

[Total bloodline experience: 868]

[Rank: S-class hybrid (8658/10000)""S-class hybrid (9526/10000)]

[Luck: E+""Luck: D-]

[Precious item drop]

[Ancient Dragon Fetal Blood Serum (potent failed product/special item) x1]

[Lust (Seven Deadly Sins genuine item) x1]

[Ordinary item drops]

[Molotov Cocktail (fourth-generation evolution drug) x22]

[Thompson Submachine Gun x10]

[Mercury-Heart Alchemical Bullet (old) x225]

...

[AR-4 Cluster Bomb x2]

[Fifth-Generation Species Scale Fragment x19]

[Lost Rubber Duck (affection item) x1]

It was the first time he had gained so much bloodline experience, and also the first time so many items had dropped. Quite a few were useful, while some were obviously useless.

The rewards for clearing this stage were so generous that Lu Mingfei was left dumbfounded.

He already had one of the Seven Deadly Sins in his hands and knew they were rare dropped items, extremely useful.

He had no idea what the Ancient Dragon Fetal Blood Serum was. Judging by the shape of its container, it seemed to be something akin to a high-tier evolution drug. Inside the glass tube was pitch-black, viscous blood that constantly wriggled—a tube of living blood.

Now that he was rich, Lu Mingfei discovered that his inventory was nearly bursting. He had a habit of regularly clearing out his game inventory.

This game often dropped heaps of bizarre and useless stuff, like "Su Enxi's Crab Roe Potato Chips," "Three-No Girl's Seal Diary, Page Seven," and "Sakurai Maki's Sheer Black Stockings."

After the Genji Heavy Industries instance ended, Lu Mingfei naturally "logged out" of it. He was now standing on a dim commercial street.

Looking up, he could see the silent outlines of building complexes. Abandoned buses and sedans sat crookedly wedged in the middle of the street, their steel roofs caved in.

Under the boundless night, black high-rises stood in rows, but every window was tightly shut.

The clock tower pointed at twelve. Its two dust-covered hands did not move, and the entire structure stood silent like a towering gray-white tombstone.

Several shadows rustled in the darkness not far away.

A land of death, a cold and silent world. There were no pedestrians. Even the cement and steel looked like corpses—corpses of still objects. Everything had already died, and dead corpses had piled into a dead city.

Don't misunderstand. This obviously could not be the real world after waking from a dream. It was probably the game's... standby screen. Lu Mingfei had come here many times, usually resting here for a while after an instance ended.

If he had to describe and explain it further, this place was like a mirrored reflection of the real world, or perhaps some indescribable gigantic nest.

From experience, Lu Mingfei knew he could space out here for half an hour.

He had once tried exploring the surrounding cities, but eventually gave up. This place was at least as large as several cities, perhaps even an entire country, an entire continent... an entire planet.

Passing through the pitch-black shadows of the buildings and stepping out of steel's territory, waterfall-like starlight would rush toward him from the distant sky, dim as fluffy jasmine blossoms scattered through a dark forest.

Lu Mingfei took out "Su Enxi's Crab Roe Potato Chips" and wandered around until he found a place to squat. Leisurely opening the package, he chose a spot beside an old red-roofed phone booth, so he could lean against it when his legs got tired.

Only after opening it did he remember to check the production date.

Production date: May 2011. Expiration date.

It had been produced in August 2010.

Hmm... chips that would not even be made for another year.

They probably did not count as expired, right?

Squatting alone beside the phone booth, Lu Mingfei did not know exactly what he was feeling.

Joy, yes.

Relief, yes.

Pain, too.

You had fought beside them. You had worried about them. Yet in reality, they would know nothing.

Loneliness was really hard to endure.

Who knew when his future friends would cross paths with him?

Once he entered a new instance, the old one would close. The next time he dreamed, he would be going to that place called "Beijing Subway Station."

He pulled out a box of old German matches from his inventory and quietly struck two to keep warm. It was not that he feared the cold. Light and warmth simply made it easier to space out. He could imagine himself rubbing his hands beside a burning red fireplace, with his cheap father and mother nearby, preparing archaeological tools.

Under the pale yellow halo of the matches, a pungent smell spread through the air. It came from the yellow phosphorus burning in the match heads.

This box of matches was a factory-made product from before Schrötter invented the prototype of safety matches using red phosphorus. Prolonged use carried a chance of causing the notorious nineteenth-century disease, Phosphorus Poisoning Anthrax.

Crunching away at the chips, he felt like a squirrel capable of making fire for illumination—only using a simple method to make fire. He had an antique lighter dropped from an instance in his inventory, but he was not very good at using it.

It was a silver-gilt sulfur tinderbox, one of the prototypes of the lighter. Its appearance was not too different from a modern lighter. It was supposed to create sparks by turning a steel wheel against flint, then ignite tinder soaked in a small amount of resin. Unfortunately, it was too old, and sometimes it would not spark at all.

With nothing else to do, Lu Mingfei rubbed the tinderbox in his hands. Old antiques always gave people an accidental little stir, especially small box-shaped ones. As he ran his fingers over it, it felt as though a long stretch of time were slipping away through his fingertips.

The bottom of the tinderbox was also engraved with dense Chinese characters and another language he did not recognize. They were a little blurry, but fortunately, the Chinese portion was still legible.

To see it better, he held the tinderbox closer to the burning match.

The handwriting was somewhat crooked. The person who had left it was probably a beginner at Chinese regular script, and his etching technique had not been very good either. He had put in the effort, but his skill truly was not much to boast about.

"Menech gifts this to Yumeng Yanhiko, Augsburg, winter of '97." Lu Mingfei read it aloud softly. Something stirred in his heart, and it truly felt like something from a very long time ago.

It was something a foreigner had given to his Chinese friend.

The person who left those words must have been very proud. The inscription seemed intended for his friend, yet also as proof for those who came later. The handwriting was not fit to be displayed, nor did it need to be displayed. This friendship had nothing hidden... Lu Mingfei suddenly found himself envious in the silence.

The wind wailed, drawing nearer from afar.

Lu Mingfei patted his ears, thinking he had imagined it.

Just now, he had heard a vague word. A solemn voice had seemed to come from behind him, yet also seemed to pry open his skull and drill out of his mind. It was ancient and obscure, absolutely not any language he had ever heard.

Yet he understood its meaning.

That word was an almost instinctive call, a call like bronze bells ringing in unison, like a golden harp tearing silk, like seawater rolling and wailing across thousands of years.

"Father..."

Who was calling out?

Before he could think any further, another completely different voice rang out.

Someone was chanting. A crowd was chanting, voices rising and falling one after another.

"The ten thousand years have ended..."

Suddenly alert, Lu Mingfei's ears twitched. He heard rustling whimpers, and something in the distance was whispering.

At the end of the commercial street, near the entrance to the overpass.

Deadpools.

There were Deadpools in this city, but Lu Mingfei had never known they could open their mouths and recite scripture. Usually, they stayed out of each other's way and never crossed boundaries.

"The ten thousand years have ended, and Satan shall be released."

"To deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth... to beguile the dragons of the world into flowing through the cities of the mortal realm, making them wage war without end."

As he listened, he suddenly shuddered weakly, as if a demon's hand had seized his throat.

Who had taught these Deadpools to chant?

Though they had met only once, Lu Mingfei inexplicably thought of the ceremonial-clothed boy in the Genji Heavy Industries elevator shaft.

The boy had a pair of pale eyes that were both familiar and unfamiliar.

Mysterious and melancholy, like a fawn's.

Wordlessly familiar, like an old friend.

Only now did Lu Mingfei recall the way that boy had looked at him.

Do we know each other?

Once upon a time, once upon a time...

The wind surged violently, sweeping up the dust from the ground in chaotic spirals.

Covered in dust, Lu Mingfei touched his hair. He squatted alone at the mouth of the street, and for some reason, his heart hurt so much that he could not stand.

But he truly did not know a boy like that.

Thankfully, no one could see how pathetic he looked here.

Deadpools belonged to the dead. He had spent quite a while here and knew that, apart from him, there was probably only one other "living creature" in this place.

The dust of the mortal world curled into yellow pillars, soaring around the buildings in wild abandon. A dazzling swarm of stars spun around a single point, flowing like a colorful blue tidal sea.

The boy raised his head.

A black dragon soared above the city, riding the biting heavenly wind.