Kui Gate on the Yangtze River, fifty meters underwater.
The murky river water was like thick, undiluted ink, swallowing every trace of light. Two searchlights tore openings in the darkness. At the ends of their beams stood the faintly gleaming bronze city walls.
Ye Sheng and Shide Aki hovered in the icy current. Professor Mans had just personally dived down to connect their signal cables and spare oxygen tanks.
"Professor Mans, the signal cables are connected. We have enough oxygen left for another two hours," Ye Sheng reported over the comms.
"Good, Ye Sheng, Aki. Listen, hold your position. Do not touch any mechanisms in the Bronze City." Professor Mans's stern voice came through the channel. "Someone is temporarily joining your team. He'll be there in ten minutes."
"Professor, who's coming?" Ye Sheng asked. "Professor von Schneider from the Executive Department?"
"No, a freshman." Weariness crept into Mans's voice. "You know him. You were the examiners at his interview at the Regent Hotel."
"Lu Mingfei?" Aki sounded hesitant over the channel.
"How could it be him?" Ye Sheng's brow furrowed. "He has no experience working underwater. He hasn't even completed the Executive Department's basic training. Even if he's S-Rank, the Bronze City fifty meters underwater isn't somewhere he can pad his résumé on a sightseeing trip! Is this some kind of joke?"
"Ye Sheng, follow your orders," Mans cut him off.
"...Aki, what do you think?" Ye Sheng lowered his voice and switched to a private frequency.
"Do you remember how Nono looked at him after the interview that day? She was huddled up in the hotel, terrified," Aki said quietly. "I don't even dare imagine what will happen when he gets here. What scares me is...the way he operates might be beyond anything any of us can understand."
Above them, a storm raged across the river.
"How long until the helicopter arrives?" Mans asked loudly.
"It's in sight! Professor, right overhead!" Selma pointed into the pitch-black sky.
With a deafening roar of rotors, a heavy black helicopter tore through the curtain of rain and hovered roughly thirty meters above the Moniah. The gale sent its searchlight beams swaying wildly.
"Get ready to secure the descent line! The wind's too strong. Tell them to be careful coming down!" Mans bellowed into his radio.
Yet the helicopter lowered no ropes.
The cabin door was yanked open.
Lu Mingfei stood in the doorway amid the howling wind, dressed in a black waterproof trench coat. Beside him stood Zero, the Russian girl with long platinum-blonde hair.
Selma's expression grew peculiar as she watched the two figures in the doorway.
She knew the temporary addition to the team was that S-Rank freshman, but she hadn't expected him to bring a girl along.
Lu Mingfei casually slipped an arm around Zero's waist, as naturally as reaching for the remote in his own living room. The Russian girl nestled obediently against him like a lightweight accessory, her ice-blue eyes surveying the scene below with a cold gaze.
"Hold on tight," Lu Mingfei said.
Then, before the horrified eyes of every crew member, Lu Mingfei stepped out into the storm-filled void with Zero in his arms!
The two plunged straight down. Zero's platinum-blonde hair traced a dazzling arc through the darkness, like the blazing tail of a falling meteor.
Twenty-seven meters.
Bzzzz!
A golden hexagonal barrier abruptly spread out in the pouring rain. Lu Mingfei landed on it as though stepping onto a sheet of tempered glass, producing a dull thud.
The first barrier vanished, and a second golden hexagonal barrier appeared three meters below!
Thud!
A step, a cushioned impact, another push off.
The third barrier, the fourth...
With his final step, he landed lightly on the Moniah's deck, Zero resting quietly against him.
Mans and the others stared at the boy who had dropped from the sky as though he were an alien.
"Wh-what the fuck kind of Word Spirit was that?" First Mate Grayson stammered. "Spatial solidification? There's nothing like that on the periodic table!"
Did he have to show off like that? Selma's eyelid twitched. She remembered the two people currently hovering fifty meters underwater.
Ye Sheng and Shide Aki.
Her eyelid twitched even harder.
The Executive Department had a rule: men and women in a romantic relationship were forbidden from partnering up.
And what was happening now?
Never mind the pair underwater. The entire Executive Department knew what Ye Sheng and Aki were to each other; everyone simply left it unspoken. The pair up here was even more outrageous. The S-Rank freshman had jumped out of a helicopter holding his girl, while that frosty Russian girl nestled obediently in his arms like a tamed snow leopard.
The rules of Cassell's Executive Department were really being ground into the dirt.
Lu Mingfei released Zero's waist. She stepped back half a pace and stood just behind him to one side.
"Good evening, Professor Mans. Sorry for boarding this way. Hovering too long puts the helicopter at risk of a lightning strike." Lu Mingfei changed the subject. "What's the situation down below?"
Mans took a deep breath, forcing down his shock. "Twenty-three minutes ago, an unusual underwater earthquake occurred in the waters around Kui Gate. Its focus was approximately sixty meters deep, its magnitude was 4.7, and it lasted eleven seconds. Afterward, we detected a large number of bronze resonance echoes. We believe the earthquake accidentally exposed the Bronze City's outer structure."
"Ten minutes ago, I personally descended to a depth of fifty meters and used the Key to open the main gate. The passage is exposed now, but the interior structure is unstable. There may be a risk of further collapse."
"Ye Sheng and Aki replaced their oxygen tanks outside the gate. They currently have one hour and forty-five minutes of oxygen left. Once you're in the water, you'll have twenty minutes more than they do."
"Ye Sheng's Word Spirit is Snake. It can use bioelectric currents to detect mechanisms, traps, and seals underwater. If necessary, it can also act as a signal cable to transmit information. Aki's Word Spirit is Blazing Sun. It releases high-intensity light and heat, providing emergency illumination and warmth underwater."
"Understood. I'll take it from here." Lu Mingfei pulled off his trench coat and put on the diving suit a sailor handed him.
Mans had intended to guide him through putting on the suit, but he discovered that Lu Mingfei's movements were remarkably practiced. His gaze grew complicated.
"The ear-pressure equalizer is on the suit's left wrist, and the emergency buoy is in the pocket on the side of your right leg. Depth and remaining oxygen are displayed on your mask's HUD," Mans said. "The comms are already connected to your helmet. The public channel stays open. Press the button on the right to switch temporarily to a private channel."
"Got it."
Lu Mingfei walked to the side of the ship, rested one hand on the railing, and looked down.
The Yangtze churned in the storm. Waves battered the hull with a sound like the breathing of an enormous sea monster.
"Lu Mingfei," Mans suddenly called after him. "We don't have a complete picture of what's down there."
"If anything's wrong, surface immediately. Ye Sheng and Aki-"
"I'll bring them back up."
Lu Mingfei cut him off.
Then he vaulted over the railing and dropped straight into the river.