Caesar let Finger hold his hand, unsure what to say, then looked over his shoulder at Nono. “Are you okay?”
“So far, I’m still fine.” Nono picked up a dropped submachine gun from the floor. “I really don’t want to die on my birthday.”
Everyone had old acquaintances to catch up with, except Lu Mingfei, who had nothing to do and jumped around anxiously. “Hurry up! He’s coming!”
“Caesar! Handle things here!” Finger grabbed Lu Mingfei. “Gather the Student Union elites to hold him back! You guys can do it.”
“Okay.” Caesar said calmly.
Finger and Lu Mingfei turned and ran, passing under the Odin statue and heading straight for the back door. Lao Tang hesitated for a moment before taking off after them.
When Lu Mingfei reached the door, he glanced back at Nono and saw Caesar gently patting her face.
“The main character’s here, it’s not your place to care anymore!” Finger twisted Lu Mingfei’s head forward and stuffed the PPK into his hand.
“Hey! Why are you giving this to me?” Lu Mingfei asked.
“Who else but S-Ranker who’s shot down someone like Caesar and Chu Zihang deserves to carry this gun?” Finger said as he closed the door tightly behind them. “Isn’t everyone calling you ‘Cassell’s Best Shot’ on the school network?”
“Mingming, I trust you—you’re a master at controlling machine gunners.” Lao Tang patted him on the shoulder and gave a thumbs-up.
“Could you guys be a bit more illogical?” Lu Mingfei was stunned.
“Go after them.” Caesar smiled, taking the gun from Nono’s hands.
“I stayed by your side during that real CS game,” Nono said. “You know you can rely on me.”
“That was just real-life CS. Back then, you wouldn’t get hurt, so I wouldn’t get nervous. But if you stay here now, I’ll get nervous. You don’t have a Yanling—you’re not like me.” Caesar touched her forehead gently. “Go! I’ll hold him off for a while, then retreat.”
Nono hesitated for a moment and then nodded.
“What’s my birthday gift?” she asked, turning back after running a few steps.
“A Book.”
“A book?” Nono was stunned. This gift was totally unlike Caesar’s style. Caesar liked lavish gifts.
“A book called Dragon Raja, written by me, has been serialized in a magazine and has just been published in a collection. I am going to give you the first copy.” Caesar shrugged. “It’s a secret gift. I wrote it for half a year but didn’t tell you.”
“I also want to go to a jeweler and have a piece of jewelry made for you, but I don’t think you would like it.”
Nono nodded: “Then I can take a look before going to bed tomorrow night, right?
“Of course. I don’t want to die on my girlfriend’s birthday night.”
Nono turned and ran towards the back door. Caesar watched her leave while loading AE rounds into his Desert Eagle.
Mai had been leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, watching the two talk without any awareness of avoiding their conversation. She tilted her head and listened calmly, stretching her perfect figure—a dazzling lightbulb in the background.
“Your girlfriend seems nice,” Mai said casually.
“Yeah, what I like is always the best.” Caesar replied coldly.
“Whatever, we’re always backed into a corner by that chips girl anyway!” Mai began reloading her Glock with a new magazine.
“A 33-round extended magazine?” Caesar glanced at her. “Aren’t you going to escape? You look ready to fight to the death.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I have no intention of sharing hardships with you.” Mai shrugged and nodded towards the unconscious people on the ground. “It’s for these guys. I can’t take them with me now, but once that dragon gets in here, I can’t be sure they’ll survive.”
“Such self-sacrifice isn’t like you.”
“As the captain, I simply can’t stand being a coward.”
Caesar and Mai loaded their bullets, pulling the gun slides at the same time. Mai’s phone suddenly rang.
“Chips, if I’m going to die, what’s the last thing you’d say to me?” Mai asked.
“Non-metal can harm him!” the woman said.
“What?”
“The King of Bronze and Fire has absolute control over fire and metal within his domain. Metal bullets can’t hurt him—they melt and decelerate to zero the moment they get close,” the woman said. “But he doesn’t have the power to control non-metals. So unless his domain collapses, shooting him with Frigg rounds is much more effective than using live ammo.”
“Would the anesthetic effect of Frigg rounds work on him?”
“No, it wouldn’t. At high temperatures, the anesthetic compound vaporizes and decomposes instantly, failing before it even enters his bloodstream. But the kinetic force of the Frigg round will still have an effect. It means you can’t kill him, but you can knock him back.”
“Chips, I do trust you as backup, but the only problem is…” Mai suddenly raised her voice in anger, “your snail pace made me reload my magazine! I just filled my Glock with 33 regular bullets!”
She closed her phone, exchanged a glance with Caesar, and they both began reloading their bullets. They could already hear footsteps approaching from outside Valhalla.
The moment that slender but blinding figure appeared at the entrance of Valhalla, Caesar and Mai jumped up simultaneously, their Glock and Desert Eagle unloading bullets at maximum speed onto the figure.