“Besides Mance, who else is involved in the Kui Gate Plan? Norton is one of the strongest among the First Generations—it won’t be easy to kill him.”
“Ye Sheng and Sakatoku Aki—the strongest pair among the young members of the Execution Bureau. The Principal’s arrangement shouldn’t be wrong.”
“He hasn’t always been right, though. Remember… ten years ago.” The man said wistfully.
“It’s been ten years. Stop holding onto it. Even though it was a pyrrhic victory, we succeeded.”
“But I’m the only one who came back alive.” The man shook the beer bottle.
“We all still look at you the same way we used to!” EVA placed her other hand on the man’s shoulder.
Several beams of light appeared around the man, each one illuminating a semi-transparent figure. There was a girl with short red hair in a leather outfit, a boy wearing sunglasses with a cold demeanor, a black-clad person with the solemn look of a monk, and a charming woman with her head tilted and her hair cascading down. Along with EVA, there were six of them in total. They all put their hands on the man’s shoulders, smiling like in an old photograph—still bright after many years.
The man lowered his head, silently drinking his beer without looking at them or saying anything.
“EVA, can you stop playing games like this?” The man shook his head. “They’re not here—they’re all lying dormant in their metal diving suits, thousands of kilometers away beneath the icy sea… not truly dead, yet never able to return.”
All the beams of light disappeared, except for EVA. She reached out her intangible hand and stroked the man’s cheek.
“Any news of the ‘Crown Prince’?” The man asked again.
“If he’s still alive, he should already have become the ‘Emperor,’ but I have no news of him.”
“Of course he’s still alive—I can still smell his stench. And if he were dead, how could I kill him with my own hands?” The man spoke with utmost coldness and cruelty.
“If killing him is the only way for you to find peace,” EVA said softly, “then… kill him. I’ll be waiting for your news.”
The man nodded, withdrawing his hand from the emptiness. He had only been holding air, after all. He took a long drink from his beer as he walked away. The dense network of infrared scanning systems turned off, the surveillance cameras deactivated, and the flashing red warning lights switched to green. The high-voltage walkway also powered down as the security system entered another brief dormancy.
“Oh, by the way, about Lu Mingfei—that’s taken care of, right?” He remembered and turned back.
“No problem. Just covering for a freshman, after all. I’ve done worse things for you than this,” EVA smiled. “But can I ask why you’re doing it?”
“He seems like a good kid,” the man also smiled. “Besides, I have other reasons, but I’ll tell you after I confirm my thoughts.”
He turned away and took a couple of steps before stopping again. He walked over to Adams in the corner and squatted down, “Hey, brother, can you give me back two coins so I can buy a can of Coke… I gave you all my money… Look, money is just a toy for you, and there’s no supermarket or Coke machine here…”
Adams’ expression changed, and he tightly clutched the coins, showing a typical miserly face.
“Adams, give your brother two coins,” EVA said.
Adams’ expression changed again, now looking very aggrieved, as he carefully picked out two old coins from the bunch and handed them to the man.
“Such a miser!” The man gave Adams a hard pat on the head. The alchemically constructed puppet couldn’t handle such a heavy blow, shattering into a pile of metal rods and small balls rolling all over the ground.
The man tossed the coins in his hand while slowly drinking his beer and walked away. EVA watched silently as his burly but lonely figure faded into the distance; compared to ten years ago, his back was no longer as straight.
The metal doors opened and closed, and the man was truly gone. The girl in the beam of light began to cry silently.
The rods and metal balls rolled together, and Adams reformed, making his “hee-ha-hee-ha” sound as he ran to EVA. When he saw her illusory tears, he froze. After a moment, he suddenly raised both hands above his head, shaking them and his whole body in an awkward dance, shouting, “EVA, be happy! EVA, be happy! EVA, be happy!”
The coins in his hands clinked to the floor, and the girl’s tears fell onto the metal ground, scattering in a bright blue glow.
“A freshman making six of the top ten headlines in a single day—it’s unheard of.”
“He shot Caesar and Chu Zihang. If his gun had been loaded with real bullets instead of Frigg rounds back then…”
“If this kind of person doesn’t make the top headlines, who will?”
“Can anyone post the links to all the news about Lu Mingfei?”
“Breaking news: S-Rank student Lu Mingfei showed no response to the Dragon Emperor ritual spell. The school is looking into the reason!”
“To whom does the Day of Liberty’s crown belong? Who shot down Caesar and then Chu Zihang ?”
“Luxurious dinner, Lu Mingfei ordered a $497 meal late at night, including foie gras and caviar!
“The corridor outside Dormitory 303, Area 1, is crowded with people!”
“A collection of Lu Mingfei’s candid photos!
“Comparison of Lu Mingfei’s resume with that of former ‘S’ grade students.
“Looking at this resume, Lu Mingfei is simply a pig!
“At least now he has a $100,000 line of credit.
“I just want to blast him with my mouse!
“…．．．”
Professor Manstein shook his head and closed the Cassell College forum page. Tonight would be a sleepless night, with online users reaching a new peak—students and even some incognito teachers across the college were discussing the new student named Lu Mingfei. Would this new S-Rank bring hope, danger, or simply be a joke?
Manstein was also a bit lost. The White Emperor hypothesis might not be reliable—it was still just a guess, and there were no recorded instances of White Emperor descendants being discovered.
He could only instinctively feel a sense of caution toward Lu Mingfei, who had shot Caesar and Chu Zihang.
He turned off the lights, sitting alone in the dark for a while before turning on his phone and making a call—“Father.”
The forum continued to refresh quickly, with messages moving up constantly.
“Maybe he’ll suffer during the 3E tomorrow. He doesn’t seem like he can do it; maybe the Principal misjudged his rank,” someone commented.