Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 402: Road of Demons (1)

Dragon Raja 3

In the dead of night, the neon sign of Takamagahara was lit as usual. Caesar pushed open the door and rushed into the club; this place of bright lights and bustling nightlife actually gave him a feeling of coming home.

Due to the heavy rain, the guests had left early tonight. The stage and dance floor lights were turned off. A solitary lamp hung above the bar, casting light on two men sitting opposite each other, sighing and drinking together.

“Sometimes, it still feels desolate. The era of gentlemen and ladies has passed. Wishing under cherry blossom trees, meeting on small bridges—those are just plots in novels now. The encounters and partings of men and women are all too hasty.”

“Mobile devices—they fall in love using mobile devices, but sweet words over phone calls and messaging apps always lack warmth.”

“Maybe one day they can fall in love with the mobile devices themselves, regardless of whether there’s a loved one on the other side.”

“Thinking like this is truly sorrowful. When feeling sorrowful, one should have a drink.”

“On a night of bitter wind and cold rain, being able to converse with you is truly a blessing.”

“The feeling is mutual for me. I toast to you, Mr. Whale.”

“And I toast to you, Heracles.”

Lu Mingfei stared blankly at these two kindred spirits who seemed to regret not meeting sooner, listening to them discuss topics completely unsuited to rough men like them in poetic language, and couldn’t even bring himself to tears.

On the left side of the bar sat the famous activist of Tokyo’s male host industry, the god-like man Mr. Whale; on the right sat a glittering Fingel. He was glittering because he was wearing a silver tight-fitting suit, with slim-fit pants stretched tightly over his thighs, and his hair styled like Elvis Presley.

They hadn’t even had time to mourn this fool! This fool had leisurely returned to the shop, changed clothes, styled his hair, and was sitting opposite Mr. Whale, engaged in profound conversation, and seemed to be getting along quite well.

The two clinked their glasses, and both Mr. Whale and Fingel drank in one gulp. Only then did they notice Lu Mingfei and the others standing dumbfounded by the dance floor.

“Oh, you’re back too! Just in time—the manager and I are enjoying a drink. Come, come, waiter, bring a couple more glasses,” Fingel enthusiastically invited them to sit down, acting as if he were the owner of the place.

“You… scoundrel… weren’t you dead?” Lu Mingfei was dumbfounded. It was indeed Fingel, no doubt—not some long-lost twin brother. That shameless tone and sly expression—it was definitely Fingel!

“Perhaps my soul has already died, leaving only this bound body in the world,” Fingel laughed loudly, and Mr. Whale laughed as well. It seemed that Lu Mingfei had said something silly.

Fingel stood up and gave Lu Mingfei an overly affectionate hug, lowering his voice by Lu Mingfei’s ear: “I almost kicked the bucket! Fortunately, that airship was tethered to Tokyo Tower with a rope, right? I grabbed that rope and hung in mid-air, and oh my goodness, I bumped into Tokyo Tower a few times, got bruises all over.”

He opened his jacket to show them. Underneath his suit, his shirt was open, revealing his impressively broad chest muscles, which were indeed bruised and swollen, with large patches of contusions.

“You’re injured this badly and you’re not dead?” Lu Mingfei was stunned.

“Aren’t scars the badges of a real man?” Fingel laughed again.

Yesterday, when he came to the shop, he was still a shifty-eyed vagabond looking for a patron. Now, he was laughing loudly, speaking boldly, with the demeanor of a renowned figure of the underworld and a leader in the host industry.

“Heracles said he came to the shop yesterday. Why didn’t you introduce him to me?” Mr. Whale said with some emotion. “After meeting Heracles, I realized that my own knowledge is still limited. Though he’s young, he has a deep understanding of the art of male hosts. Once he takes the stage, he’ll surely be as popular as Basara King and Ukyo. We had a little interview while drinking just now. From today on, he’s part of our establishment. Since you’re all good friends, you should communicate more in your work in the future.”

“Communicate, my foot!” Lu Mingfei shouted inwardly. “Manager, do you know what kind of person you’ve brought into your establishment? At the academy, he enrolled as an A-rank and fell all the way to F-rank—a total slacker! As long as you feed him a few decent meals, he’ll soon drop his disguise, revealing his true self—a ‘chewed-up piece of gum’—sticking firmly to the sole of your shoe, impossible to get rid of!”

“Is this also a friend of yours?” Mr. Whale pointed at Ruri, whom Chu Zihang was carrying.

Lu Mingfei was taken aback. The two had clearly met before, yet Mr. Whale seemed completely unable to recognize Ruri. He looked at Ruri again and was shocked to find that the man had lost all his radiance. He looked so haggard and ordinary that no one would believe he was once the king of the host industry. Saying he was a newcomer hoping to find work at a host club probably wouldn’t get him hired either.

“Is he ill? Get a doctor to take a look at him, and after a couple of days, send him on his way,” Mr. Whale said. Clearly, he had no interest in a man of this caliber.

“Let me take care of these trivial matters. I had a great time drinking with Mr. Whale tonight, but everything should be done in moderation. The days and months are long, and we will have many opportunities to drink together.” Finkel said with great responsibility, as if he was the senior brother and Kaishe and the others were his junior brothers.

But when I think about it, he is indeed my senior brother.

“Then I’ll trouble you Heracles. Have a good sleep and I look forward to your performance.” The humpback whale stood up and left.

“Damn it! Thank goodness you guys are back! I almost couldn’t hold it back!” Finger let out a long sigh. “Is your store manager attracted to my beauty or talent? He insisted on getting me for a drink and talking about the art of being a man! Just tell me what he likes about me! Can’t I change?”

Lu Mingfei thought to himself, if you weren’t such a flirty person, how could you possibly be interested in the flirty store manager? But Finger finally turned back into the Finger he was familiar with. He felt very heavy all the way and was so tired that he couldn’t say a word.

He suddenly opened his arms and gave Finger a tight hug. Finger was frightened, like a girl who was groped by a pervert on the bus, looking around nervously and scared.

“Welcome back,” Caesar said.

“Welcome back.” Chu Zihang also said.

Yes, welcome back, Lu Mingfei said in his heart, this is good, this way he is not the only loser in the world. It turns out that everything on Tokyo Tower is fake, there are not so many cruel things in this world.

But he suddenly realized that Sakura was really dead. That beautiful girl who looked pale and silent, she jumped so decisively, without any hesitation, always cleanly and neatly.

“Damn it, how come you, a bitch, are the one who survived? It’s true that good people don’t live long, but evil people live for a thousand years!” He let go of Finkel, turned around and sat aside, too lazy to talk anymore.

“Who says not? Sometimes I’m quite proud of being a nuisance.” Finkel rubbed his hands, “I’ll help you move this guy into the house.”

The sky was dawning, sunlight filtering through thin clouds. The air, repeatedly cleansed by heavy rain, had become exceptionally clear. Bathed in this morning light, it was hard to believe that Tokyo Tower, which had transformed into a hellish scene the previous night, was real.

A television station was broadcasting a special news item, headlined “Suspected Terrorist Attack on Tokyo Tower.” A reporter stood before the camera, her expression solemn. Behind her, the spire of Tokyo Tower tilted, the floor-to-ceiling windows of the observation deck completely destroyed, and the tower itself shone black, a flame-scorched black. The result was the SAM-16 missiles launched by the Ravens. Fortunately, the tower’s structure was strong enough to withstand the force of the individual missiles.

According to the female reporter, an explosion occurred on the special observation deck above the Tokyo Tower last night. The power of the explosive was no less than 200 kilograms of TNT, causing serious damage to the Tokyo Tower. For this reason, the Tokyo Tower will be closed for two months for maintenance. Fortunately, with the commissioning of the Tokyo Skytree in recent years, the Tokyo Tower no longer undertakes the work of a radio tower, and there is no one on duty in the tower at night, so there are currently no reports of casualties.

Caesar turned off the TV. “One missile and a fire took out all the Deadpools? Can you believe it?”

“Those deadpools are under control. If the mission fails, they will retreat. The ones who will clean up the mess should be the Eight Snake Clans.” Chu Zihang said.

“The technology alone to control Deadpool is already a disaster. If things continue like this, no one will be able to clean up the mess in the end,” Caesar said.

“Waiting like this is not a solution. Ruri must tell us everything before the situation gets completely out of control.” Chu Zihang said.

“But given his condition, if we want to make him talk, we probably have to go out and find a psychologist. This job is not something that people like us who only provide psychological counseling to women can do,” said Lu Mingfei.

They arranged for Ruri to sleep in the most secluded bedroom at the end of the corridor, which was only separated from the luxurious bathroom where they had temporarily stayed. Ruri did not resist, nor was he able to resist. He was once an extremely evil ghost who could be compared with the emperor. He would not submit to anyone and was determined to assassinate the king.

At this moment, his strength and arrogance had been taken away. When Lu Mingfei covered him with the quilt, listening to the monotonous, bellows-like breathing, he felt that he was a vegetable.

Ruri stared at the roof blankly, her eyes blinking gently after a long time, her gaze completely unfocused.

“So the King’s ability is some kind of mind control. He can create some strange music and use the audio to control the other party,” Caesar said. “What kind of word spirit is this? Have any of you heard of this kind of word spirit?”

“This violates the fundamental principles of Word Spirits (Yanling). Word Spirits must use Dragon Script, which is their logical system. A Word Spirit separated from Dragon Script is like Norma separated from its chip.” Chu Zihang said, “Lu Mingfei, what kind of hallucination did you have when you heard that clapperboard sound?”

“Fire, a huge fire, everything was burning. It was like being trapped in a separate space, with no way to escape and no one to turn to for help. It was like… being in hell.” Lu Mingfei could only use the word “hell” to describe his feelings at the time.

He still hadn’t told the scariest part of the hallucination, which was that he was dragging Erii down a burning corridor that he had walked through before. It wasn’t an illusion, it was a real corridor!

“Lu Mingfei was able to break free from that voice, but Ruri couldn’t,” Caesar pondered. “Does this mean that the S-class’s potential is even greater than that of the Evil Demon?”

“But you heard that sound too, didn’t you? When we rushed toward Osho’s car, we heard that music played with clappers. How did you feel? Did you have any hallucinations?” Chu Zihang asked.

“It sounded like primitive music played by natives from Mauritius or New Guinea,” Caesar shrugged.

“Chairman, you even have research on native music from Mauritius and New Guinea?” Fingel flattered him excessively, probably realizing that to continue mingling in this establishment, he couldn’t do without Caesar’s help, so he had started addressing Caesar as “Chairman.”

“I was just saying that kind of music is unpleasant and primitive, whether it’s from Barbados or Kiribati,” Caesar said.

“Both of us heard that music, but neither of us had hallucinations. This shows that it’s not that those with higher bloodlines are more resistant to that music—even Uesugi Erii was affected by it,” Chu Zihang said. “It might not be a kind of ‘word spirit’ (Yanling); it’s more like the effect after consuming psychedelic mushrooms.”

“Psychedelic mushrooms?” Caesar was taken aback.

“A type of Psilocybe mushroom. Indians in southern Mexico consume these mushrooms during religious ceremonies, which give them very special hallucinations. They first see various things related to Mexican mythology, such as monsters pulling a cart inviting them to the heavens, shamans holding obsidian knives to cut open their hearts as offerings to the gods, palaces adorned with jewels, and endless luxurious corridors. Then the world before their eyes turns into flowing water, with various colors collapsing and forming vortices. Interestingly, regardless of the cultural background of the person consuming the mushrooms, they all see Mexican-style scenes. Many people develop religious beliefs after consuming these mushrooms, making them feel that the essence of the world is not what we see, and that there are many mysterious doors yet to be opened,” Chu Zihang said.

“And Osho’s music can produce similar effects, except that the hallucinations he presents are not pleasant things but a hell?” Caesar said.

“Yes. The Indians also enjoy hallucinations while listening to music after consuming Psilocybe mushrooms. The music also guides the occurrence of hallucinations. They play nose flutes made from whale vertebrae, which sound eerie to outsiders, similar to the music Osho plays with clappers,” Chu Zihang said. “But the Indians mainly rely on mushrooms to induce hallucinations. Producing such strong hallucinations with just music cannot be explained scientifically.”

“There are many things that can’t be explained. We still can’t explain why he can’t be killed,” Caesar said. “He’s behaving more and more like a ghost, and the person who claims to know him best has been frightened into insanity.”

“We can’t wait any longer. Ruri must tell us something. Every piece of information he provides now is helpful to us,” Chu Zihang said. “Even if it causes him mental harm, we have to try. Obviously, Osho is getting closer to success step by step; so far, everything has been within his calculations.”

“I just wonder how much he can tell us. His current state is like a puppet being controlled,” Caesar said with some difficulty.

“Chairman! I agree with the president!” Fingel stepped forward to offer advice. “Sacrificing the small self for the greater self is an awareness we should all have! Mental harm is nothing; it’s not like we’re asking him to die. But if we can’t deal with that Osho, many lives can’t be saved! This is the time for him to contribute to the majority of society! If he doesn’t want to talk, we’ll hang him up and beat him!” If not for the last sentence, his words were righteous and stern, even somewhat heroic.

Series Navigation

<< Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 401: Sakura’s Fall (8)Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 403: Road of Demons (2) >>