Setting Off

Monday.

8:00 a.m.

Fingel knocked open the door and tossed in two packs of clothes. Luckily, the clothes were protected by waterproof canvas, sparing them from getting stained with grease by this bear-like man.

"Your uniforms from the Executive Department have arrived, gentlemen!"

Fingel was actually holding a braised pork knuckle in his free hand. Freshly washed up, Li Lin looked at the Fingel who had barged through the door and wondered whether Germans really had such a deep love for pork knuckles.

Caesar had already pulled out an exquisite letter opener and deftly cut open the two canvas bags.

Li Lin leaned over and looked at the black fitted leather suit, knee pads, tactical vest, and Half-Rotted World Tree shoulder insignia inside. "Executive Department uniforms can look this cool?"

"Hehehe, of course. Back when I first wore this getup on an Executive Department mission, I strutted around in front of a full-length mirror for half an hour."

Fingel spoke while swaying his head, crunching noisily through the braised pork knuckle in his hand.

Caesar tossed Li Lin's set of clothes to him, then impatiently began changing himself. The rich Italian brat loved anything that made him look badass.

By the time Li Lin had fastened the belt adapted for all kinds of handguns and mounted grenades, Fingel had finished the pork knuckle too. He wiped his hands on his clothes. "Let's get this straight first: you might have to kill someone on this mission."

Hearing this old hand from the News Department drop another bombshell, Li Lin and Caesar both turned to look at him.

Fingel spread his hands. "This intelligence was sponsored by the Gattuso family."

"What exactly is going on?"

Caesar asked bluntly.

"Boss, have you seen Resident Evil? The current situation is a bit like that. A drug that should never have existed was secretly taken by some Japanese man of unknown origin when he defected from a criminal organization. Maybe he wanted to use it as his entry offering to join the Secret Party, but both he and the goods were intercepted by a local gang in the United States."

As Fingel said this, he covered his face in grief, because the intelligence stated that the Japanese man was a Mixed-Blood... What kind of joke was that? A dignified Mixed-Blood had actually been robbed by a bunch of ordinary people? The Dragon Blood in your body must be crying!

All right, back to the point. Fingel still knew what the Japanese underworld was like. That Mixed-Blood had probably paid a devastating, unimaginable price just to escape the country. Then, after running into a group of armed criminals at such a bad time and being captured on the spot, it was understandable.

After listening to Fingel, Caesar frowned tightly.

"By your account, this should be handled by the FBI, or the Executive Department could simply send two agents to wipe out the entire group. There's no reason to notify the Board of Trustees."

Caesar knew that exceptional performance on this mission could allow a student to enter the Executive Department directly as an exception. At the very least, it had to be an A-Rank mission...

Understanding Caesar's thoughts, Fingel looked at Li Lin standing beside Caesar and hesitated for quite a while.

"The key is the drug. We still don't know its name, but it can forcibly alter the injector's bloodline, turning an ordinary person into a Mixed-Blood with dragon genes. However, not everyone can endure the burning of Dragon Blood. So, after the Executive Department secretly took control of the gang's underground clinic, they found that dozens of lives had already been lost."

"Fortunately, it was a fairly large local gang, so no media outlet dared report it."

"Of course, I suppose what you care about most is the mission rank... Yes, it is indeed an A-Rank mission, but it was rated A-Rank only because of the special nature of the investigation and the complexity of the environment. Overall, all you'll be facing is a group of armed thugs, not dragonized Dead Servants."

"Once you arrive at the scene, Professor Schneider, who is directing the operation, will brief you in detail."

Having explained everything he could, Fingel patted his backside and prepared to leave, leaving only Li Lin and Caesar standing there, staring blankly at each other.

Caesar glanced at Li Lin beside him. This definitely wasn't going to be so simple.

Sure enough, after the two finished breakfast at Amber Hall, they received a gathering order from the Executive Department.

The War Practice Class assigned participating students into teams according to their abilities and bloodlines, with the Executive Department's decision-makers acting with Norma's assistance based on the different missions.

As soon as Li Lin arrived at the train station, he saw Xia Mi chatting with a second-year senior girl he had never met.

He was about to go over and greet them when Caesar quietly stopped him.

"Boss, what's with that expression? Did you upset your stomach and forget to bring tissues?"

"What does that have to do with me? I was wondering if Dragon Blood had gotten into your brain. Your girlfriend has been waiting for so long, and you're going over there empty-handed?"

"Girlfriend?"

Li Lin looked somewhat stunned.

Seeing that, Caesar looked even more stunned at Li Lin.

"You mean yesterday, you took the childhood sweetheart you've known for ten years on a date off campus, went shopping, spent money, had a candlelit dinner, and rode a Ferris wheel together, yet nothing changed between you two?!"

"Did something have to change? I heard that even after a month of dates through a blind date, there might not be any result."

"Damn it, with a face like yours, and having attended ordinary schools before, don't tell me you've never dated anyone." Caesar cursed, something he did extremely rarely.

"I told you, Boss, I have absolutely no experience."

"I thought it was a cultural difference. After all, Chinese people generally speak more modestly and reservedly..." Caesar had a terrible headache. "In that case, you should be giving her gifts from time to time. The fact that she hasn't directly defined the relationship means you're still under evaluation."

"Under evaluation...?"

"It means she has basically decided on you, but your performance hasn't made her determined enough to date you. I think your abilities and all your other qualities are more than sufficient. Maybe it's just because you haven't shown enough fiery sincerity and romance to melt the last barrier between you."

Thus, under the dumbfounded gaze of an Executive Department agent, Caesar pulled Li Lin back, found his Bugatti Veyron in the open-air parking lot, opened the front trunk, and took out a perfume gift box made of pure sheepskin before handing it to Li Lin.

"A congratulatory gift sent to me by Clive Christian's European manager last year, when he broke the Guinness World Records record for 'most expensive perfume.' I heard the crystal bottle is set with gold and diamonds, but I've never opened it."

"Boss, isn't this too valuable?"

"Brother, if you know it's valuable, can you at least try harder? I invested so much money and publicly offered my blessings for your happy union, but after all this, you haven't even kissed the girl. Where am I supposed to put my dignity?"

Caesar was a little desperate. Li Lin had forced his spoken Mandarin to rise to an entirely new level.

He had thought that once he left the Gattuso family, he would be able to control everything. He never expected the first challenge life threw at him to be a genius roommate who had no idea how to make a young girl happy.