Dragon Raja 2; Chapter 148: The Man Behind the Scenes (5)

Dragon Raja 2

Lu Mingfei, the man believed to someday use the fire within him to set the world ablaze, was commanding his dragon knight army to ascend a highland. Beside him were berserkers with ion sabers, golden beetles crawling forward, and blue lightning-clad templars floating in mid-air.

On the highland lay the enemy’s main base—a typical Terran fortress. The orderly rows of supply depots came first, followed by bunkers stuffed with machine gunners, and further back, siege tanks set up in siege mode. Valkyrie squadrons patrolled the base, while radar-covered missile turrets kept watch for Lu Mingfei’s sneaky Dark Templars.

This was the final battle. The enemy had built an impregnable fortress in front of Lu Mingfei’s army.

This was the fifteenth challenger to come up against Lu Mingfei tonight. The previous fourteen had been thoroughly crushed—some threw their keyboards and swore; others muttered like they’d reached an epiphany.

The guys playing StarCraft in the cafe were all shaken. No one knew where this kid had come from, but here he was, sipping a soda, eyebrows drooping, and slaughtering them all. The worst part was that sometimes, just to scratch an itch, he’d switch to using his left hand for the mouse. For StarCraft players, that was an insult, akin to Xi Men Chui Xue and Ye Gucheng dueling on the Purple Forbidden City rooftop, with Xi Men Chui Xue not bringing a sword but instead wielding a rake, yet Ye Gucheng still lost, left with nothing but seppuku to regain his honor.

It seemed like a challenger had arrived? The brothers had no choice but to call Dog Brother. He was the undisputed king here, so invincible that he could say, “Lonely enough that I just go home and put my kid to sleep.”

Dog Brother was excited; he had the joy of finding out that he shared the era with someone like the Eastern Invincible. He knelt on a washing board for a while, convincing his wife to watch the kid tonight, and came over in slippers.

He got smacked in the face upon entry, and then got repeatedly whacked six more times. Dog Brother lost seven games in a row, without a chance to fight back.

It was then that Dog Brother realized he wasn’t sharing an era with the Eastern Invincible… but with a Transformer. No matter how refined your heavy iron sword was, hacking at the opponent only made clanging sounds before they stomped you flat.

Dog Brother was going all out in this match, determined to make this a defensive battle like none other seen before. No matter what kind of tricks Lu Mingfei pulled, Dog Brother was confident that he had countermeasures in place. Whether it was a carrier rush, a sudden air drop, or a zealot rush, Dog Brother was ready to make Lu Mingfei’s forces bleed! He felt his adrenaline surge to the max, his hand trembling slightly on the mouse. It was as if he were a general on horseback, blade in hand, wanting to shout at the formidable opponent across from him, “Come on!”

But on the other side was just a kid, eyebrows drooping and looking tired. Lu Mingfei finished the last sip of his soda, casually made a few moves, and then got up to go to the bathroom.

Dog Brother was stunned. What was this? Surrender? If he was surrendering, at least he should type “GG”!

“Warning: Nuclear launch detected.” The cold warning voice came through the headphones.

Dog Brother was shocked. What was going on? Nukes were a Terran weapon, but Lu Mingfei was using Protoss! Sure, Protoss could use Dark Archons to mind control SCVs and then create a Terran force, but who actually played like that? Dark Archons were a top-tier unit that almost no one built. And even if you did capture an SCV, wouldn’t it take a long time to build an entire Terran base? What kind of madman was this? This kind of tactic was purely theoretical, right?

“Warning: Nuclear launch detected.” Another warning. This wasn’t a repeat; it was a different nuke.

“Warning: Nuclear launch detected.”

“Warning: Nuclear launch detected.”

“Warning: Nuclear launch detected.”

“Warning: Nuclear launch detected.”

Six consecutive warnings, almost simultaneously. Lu Mingfei had launched six nukes in one go! Dog Brother frantically moved his mouse, trying to find the targeting markers on the screen. But it was too late—six nukes rained down in succession, obliterating Dog Brother’s orderly troops and solid defenses. His meticulously built base was left in ruins, its last structures barely holding on, engulfed in raging flames. Meanwhile, Lu Mingfei’s forces… were just standing there outside, idle, forming a massive “V.”

So Lu Mingfei had built an entire screen full of troops just to form a “V”!

When Lu Mingfei returned from the bathroom, he saw the letters “GG” on the screen, and a few seconds later, Dog Brother had left the game.

“Master… how about another game? I’d like to learn from you,” Dog Brother came over and said sincerely, “Boss, give me two bottles of Nutrient Express.”

The boss put the drinks in front of Dog Brother, who glared at him, “One is enough for me. The other one is for the master over there—it’s hard work beating us down.”

“Thanks, thanks, sure thing,” Lu Mingfei said.

“Brother, can I watch from behind you?” someone came over to ask.

“Sure, sure,” Lu Mingfei replied.

And so, the battle resumed, becoming a teaching match. A crowd gathered behind Lu Mingfei, and a rather pretty girl in a little black dress sat next to him, her eyes wide in curiosity. At this moment, Lu Mingfei was the star of the place. He shyly shifted his seat a bit, trying not to brush against her leg, but still feeling a bit happy inside…

Was this the so-called sense of presence?

Some people’s sense of presence was at the edge of a champagne pool with luxury cars and beautiful women—that was Caesar. Some found their sense of presence in a blood-soaked dragon-slaying battlefield—that was Chu Zihang. Others in ringing bells and boasting to the School Board—that was Anjou. Some found it in cheap alcohol and lingerie magazines—that was the vice principal… And his sense of presence was in a dingy, dirty internet cafe, filled with smoke, dimly lit, with occasionally a girl showing some thigh. People would glance back casually… but only here did he feel that anyone cared about who he was.

“This is a story about a man who has yet to realize his destiny—” The guy next to him, who was watching anime, had his headphones leaking sound, and a passionate character from the anime—still in the Taiwanese dubbed version with its unique accent—shouted to the heavens.

“Move forward on Earth, Simon!”