Photos and videos of the explosion were immediately posted on the Night Watch Forum, with a betting pool underneath to guess how long it would take to put out the fire. Clearly, the faculty and students of this mountain campus were used to such things.
The tremors reached the dining hall. The Baroque-style hall could seat a thousand people at once, and the light from its tree-shaped chandeliers flickered slightly.
At this hour, only a handful of students were having a late-night snack.
Lu Mingfei, Constantine, and Fingel had claimed a table in a corner. An impressive spread covered it: a whole roast chicken, smoked ham, beef burgers, vegetable salad, and a large serving of mashed potatoes.
Fingel seemed to have a healthy appetite at any hour. He hunched over the table, tearing into his food.
Lu Mingfei only drank some juice; he had come to keep Constantine company. Some time had passed since Constantine's interrogation under hypnosis. He had recently finished most of the alchemy references, compiled dragon history, Word Spirit studies, and other materials on his reading list. With some spare time on his hands, he was already considering teaching a practical combat class.
Just then, someone sat down beside Lu Mingfei and set down her tray. She was a girl with pale blond hair, wearing a fitted, small-sized dark green uniform. Her skin was almost translucently white, and her petite figure fell somewhere between a teenage girl and a child.
"Hello," Lu Mingfei greeted her.
He assumed she was another girl after his contact details or autograph. It had happened more than once in the library.
"Zero." The girl spoke with a faint Russian accent.
"What?" Lu Mingfei failed to catch on for a moment. He understood the word, but not what it meant here.
"My name. You can call me Zero," the girl said evenly.
"Oh, oh, I know you!" Fingel swallowed his mouthful of ham and exclaimed, "The most popular girl among the freshmen!"
In a sense, Fingel ran both the News Department and the Night Watch Forum-or rather, they were essentially the same thing. His sources for campus gossip were extraordinarily extensive.
Lu Mingfei already knew him well. Any girl whose name Fingel knew probably had a detailed profile on his computer, measurements included.
"Hello, Zero. Can I help you?"
Lu Mingfei was always patient with ordinary people who had nothing to do with his affairs.
During his campaigns in the Lands Between, he had spent most of his time fighting monsters: sane ones, mindless ones, human-looking ones, inhuman ones... Sometimes, he had even wondered whether he was any different from them.
Only when he met merchants beside campfires or survivors of war he could talk to did Lu Mingfei feel he was still alive, still living among humans.
That was why he never found being approached an unpleasant nuisance.
"I came to exchange contact details with you." Zero's expression remained calm, entirely unlike the excitement and enthusiasm of the girls Lu Mingfei had met before.
Lu Mingfei nodded.
With his permission, Zero took out a Vertu phone and dialed his number.
Lu Mingfei's phone number had a popular thread all to itself on the Night Watch Forum. So many people knew it that he had been forced to enable Norma's nuisance-call blocking feature.
He labeled her details "Freshman, Zero" and was about to save her in the contact group named "Two." That group contained dozens of people, while another group named "One" contained only a handful: Angers, Fingel, Caesar, Chu Zihang, Wang Wei, Guderian, Nono, and Schneider.
"Don't put me in 'Two,'" Zero said calmly, then stood and left.
Lu Mingfei frowned as he watched her retreating figure. Something about her seemed familiar. He checked his memories from this world and confirmed that he had never met this petite girl of Russian descent.
He did not dwell on it. He created a new contact group named "Three" and put Zero in it. Melina had once remarked that he had strange fixations on inexplicable things. She had said that when he insisted on pairing the Albinauric Mask with the Great Turtle Shell shield.
"So, junior, what do you think?" Lu Mingfei turned back to find Fingel's eyes gleaming, clearly enjoying the show. "That girl's into you! You've got nothing to do lately anyway. A few meals, a few dates, and she's yours."
"Just eat your food." Lu Mingfei was speechless.
Under threat of Lu Mingfei's iron fist, Fingel ultimately did not dare publish stories on the Night Watch Forum with titles like "The Freshmen's Twin Stars: A Match Made in Heaven?" or "Untold Tales of the Ice Queen and the Black Hermit."
But Fingel had been right about one thing: Lu Mingfei really did have more free time lately. Apart from organizing his notes, he mostly visited Angers to ask about the Executive Department's progress excavating dragon ruins.
That afternoon, in Dormitory 303, Area One.
It was a gray, rainy day. A light drizzle pattered outside, and droplets crawled slowly down the glass, leaving fleeting, faint traces. Countless droplets clung to the window like tiny, inverted worlds. They divided the scenery outside into hazy patches of light and shadow, making it suddenly feel cramped and confined.
Lu Mingfei closed his alchemy notebook. Every time he organized his notes, he used a different-colored pen to record new insights or conjectures. Its pages were already a riot of color.
Just as he looked up at the rain, a notification sounded from the messaging app Constantine had forgotten to log out of before leaving for class. Old Tang's panda avatar bounced in the notification bar.
Lu Mingfei opened the chat history. Old Tang had sent two messages.
The first was as cheerful as ever. "Bro, how's it going? Free the day after tomorrow? Come hang out with me in New York. I'll buy your ticket!"
The second message was a detailed address.
"I'm free. Mind if I bring a friend?" Lu Mingfei typed, his face expressionless.
"What kind of friend?" Old Tang asked.
"Someone our age who plays StarCraft," Lu Mingfei replied.
"Okay, okay!" Old Tang's doubts vanished immediately. "It's just one more ticket! No big deal for me, bro! I was worried strangers might have nothing to talk about. If he's a fellow soldier, we're good."
"Then it's settled."
Lu Mingfei clicked send and closed the chat window.
He picked up his phone and called Angers. After a few seconds, the call connected, and a hearty voice greeted him. "Mingfei, do you need any help?"
"I need some alchemical materials," Lu Mingfei said.
"No problem. Ask the head of the Equipment Department to take you to the Ice Cellar." Angers did not ask what exactly he needed or what he intended to do. He simply offered his unconditional support.
Chapter 52: Guderian Wins Big
Lu Mingfei and Constantine requested two weeks of leave, because Old Tang said it would take several days to cross the United States by Greyhound bus. Taking different routes there and back would let them take in plenty of foreign scenery.
On the day of their departure, three figures stood on the silent platform of a station deep in the mountains of northern Illinois. Suitcases rested at their feet as all three looked toward the end of the tracks.
A train whistle swept toward them, and the red pine forest trembled with it. A silver high-speed train appeared at the end of the tracks, approaching so fast that the wind in its wake sent fallen leaves whirling. It shrieked into the station, yet stopped beside the platform as softly as velvet settling on the ground. The CC1000 branch-line train had enough power to haul an A380 passenger jet to the college, but today it had only one carriage attached. The passenger on the platform was important enough to warrant a special train all to himself.
In fact, Lu Mingfei did not even need to request leave. Under Angers's arrangements, his authorization level was already that of a visiting professor. Combined with his S-rank bloodline, that theoretically placed him second only to one person at Cassell College.
The doors opened. Lu Mingfei and Constantine stepped inside, followed by Fingel, who carried all three men's luggage.
Fingel had not originally been invited, but once he learned of the travel plans of Dormitory 303's other two occupants, he shamelessly insisted on tagging along.
Lu Mingfei had no choice but to ask Old Tang again, offering to cover Constantine's and Fingel's expenses himself. Old Tang generously declared that he would never let his guests pay. As their host, he would make sure everything was taken care of.
After all, in Old Tang's eyes, Lu Mingfei was just a kid who had only recently started college and was boarding with another family. Making him travel all the way to the United States for a visit and pay his own way would be downright embarrassing.
But if he had known that Lu Mingfei's principal's scholarship, professor's scholarship, and S-rank credit limit gave him instant access to hundreds of thousands of dollars, he would not have thought that way.
The CC1000 ran along seamless rails designed for high-speed trains, with almost no vibration or noise. Clear golden sunlight streamed through the windows, flickering only when tree shadows swept past.
Constantine and Fingel sat together, watching a recently released Australian film called Charlie & Boots on a laptop.
Charlie was a stubborn, willful old man whose disappointments in life had drained his enthusiasm, leaving him to spend each day in gloom. His son Boots was deeply worried by his father's terrible state of mind. Although they argued often and their relationship was distant, blood was thicker than water. Boots decided to take the initiative and change things.
Boots got Charlie into the car by telling him they were going fishing. In reality, their destination was Cape York, three thousand miles away. Charlie flew into a rage when he discovered the deception, but his son's repeated insistence left him no choice but to endure it. Along the way, a girl named Jessie hitched a ride with them. Her optimism and cheerful nature gradually eased the tension between father and son, resolving years of misunderstandings and resentment.
Fingel was not watching out of any appreciation for heartwarming road movies full of local color. He simply liked Morgan Griffin, the actress who played Jessie. When the sweet Australian girl smiled, it was like autumn sunlight flowing through the blue sky within your heart.
He categorized many of the movies in his collection by how attractive their actresses were.
Lu Mingfei sat alone by the window.
Their luggage was stowed at the connection between carriages, but Lu Mingfei kept a black briefcase beside him. It resembled standard Executive Department equipment, with a specially made exterior that was rough and tough, but lacked the silver plaque engraved with a flourishing World Tree.
Lu Mingfei watched the two across from him, absorbed in the film as they ate chips and drank cola.
He was actually going on this trip to slay a dragon. Somehow, once Fingel joined, it had started feeling like a vacation. In the F-rank loser's own words, "No academic pressure, no work troubles. Every day like this is one less you'll ever have. Who knows whether the next chance to travel this freely will only come when you're nearly dead of old age and have lost touch with almost all your friends?"
Losers had their own philosophy. The elite risked their lives to earn glory, while losers never tired of eating, drinking, and having fun.
What a forgiving world.
That was what Lu Mingfei thought.
He walked over, patted Fingel on the shoulder, and opened the briefcase.
Inside was an M500 revolver, the same model once used by Pazzi, secretary to the Board of Trustees. Four rounds were already loaded. One more was sealed in a quartz-glass tube, its bullet tip dark red.
"Two Frigg Bullets, two Alchemy Bullets, and finally, the Philosopher's Stone," Lu Mingfei told the utterly bewildered Fingel as he placed the revolver in his hand.
"W-w-wait!" Fingel nearly jumped out of his seat. "What I heard was that your friend in New York invited us to tour the United States on Greyhound buses! Why does this suddenly seem to involve a second-generation dragon? Is that the Philosopher's Stone?"
"An S-rank mission. Only the principal and I know about it. Also, he never invited you in the first place," Lu Mingfei said flatly.
"Can I get off the train now?" Fingel asked miserably.
"Too late. You're already listed as mission personnel. Take the gun. I believe in your abilities, senior." Lu Mingfei closed the black case, now containing only the Philosopher's Stone, and handed that over too.
"So that's why Professor Guderian approved my leave so readily..." Knowing how strict the Executive Department's mission system was, Fingel slumped into his seat, rested his head against the backrest, and stared at the ceiling as though life had lost all meaning.
Guderian had done far more than readily approve the leave. He had practically beamed with delight. The S-rank and A-rank students newly under his wing were undertaking an S-rank mission in their very first semester-and they were even bringing along the F-rank bottom-feeder! One joy piled on another.
The CC1000 subway branch line began at O'Hare Airport. Vast quantities of supplies passed through that station on their way to the campus in the Illinois mountains.
O'Hare Airport was the fourth-largest international aviation hub in the United States, behind New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, and Miami International Airport. The three boarded a Hermes Flight there bound for Kennedy Airport.
Whatever arrangements the college had made, the guns and blades in their cases were not confiscated at security.
The plane soon arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport. After collecting their luggage, Lu Mingfei and the others followed Old Tang's directions to the terminal's rail station marked "AirTrain." Old Tang said he would wait at the final stop, Jamaica Station. From there, they could transfer to the Z Line to reach Brooklyn-where he lived.
Chapter 53: Old Tang
Following the bustling crowd, Lu Mingfei soon spotted Old Tang holding up a sign with "Lu Mingfei" written in Chinese.
He looked exactly as he had on their video calls: a cheerful face, black hair, and a pair of distinctive drooping eyebrows.
"Mingming! Over here!" Old Tang spotted them too and waved, calling out Lu Mingfei's username from their gaming group.
Fingel struggled not to laugh. He tried to see Lu Mingfei's expression, only to receive a casual glance. He immediately wiped the grin off his face, but leaned closer and nudged Lu Mingfei with his elbow. "Didn't you say we were here to slay a dragon?" he whispered. "That guy's obviously human, right? Even his shirt's from a discount brand on Amazon."
"I never said he was a dragon. Otherwise, the first two rounds in your gun wouldn't be Frigg Bullets," Lu Mingfei said.
Fingel brightened instantly. "So this mission looks like a dangerous S-rank assignment, but it might actually turn out to be a leisurely vacation?"
"That depends." Lu Mingfei gave no definite answer.
As they spoke, they had already squeezed through the crowd of people waiting for arrivals and reached Old Tang. He pushed a small luggage cart over to meet them. "Bro, thanks for making the trip. Come on, put your bags up here."
Fingel immediately stepped forward. He was carrying everyone's luggage, and he piled it all onto the cart.
"Hello, hello! I'm Fingel von Frings. I'm German. Just call me Fingel." Fingel enthusiastically seized Old Tang's hand and pumped it up and down.
"My name's Ronald Tang... Just call me Old Tang." Old Tang clearly had not expected the seemingly withdrawn Lu Mingfei to have such an enthusiastic friend. He let Fingel shake his hand in bewilderment. "Your Chinese is really good, Fingel, bro."