“The so-called brave life is to not use cannons, but to use alchemical dragon slayers. Don’t men rely on swords to decide victory or defeat? Do you dare?
“Alive, alive, alive, another one has passed. You only have three chances left. It looks like you are doomed to die!”
EVA kept making these messy comments beside his screen. Lu Mingfei couldn’t understand why a computer with such a beautiful girl’s appearance had the soul of a complaining uncle in its components. Lu Mingfei guessed that EVA was trying to interfere with him, but this was too naive. Lu Mingfei was a genuine Chinese student who had played all-night games in Internet cafes and stared at the dazzling smoke of Internet cafes to play StarCraft all night. Interference was not a problem for him.
“What are you doing? How dare you? You are dismantling all the turrets and only releasing the Alchemical Dragon Slayer that was hit by the rocket launcher. Did you know that? This thing is expensive and can only attack at close range!” EVA was a little bit unconvinced by Lu Mingfei’s tactics, “Do you really want to die? Are you colluding with the dragon clan?”
Lu Mingfei was indeed doing so. He had withstood more than 90 waves of dragon attacks. Now, the dragons that appeared were all thick-skinned prince-level dragons. He had replaced all the turrets with “Alchemy Dragon Slayers”. There were no missiles or laser cannons. The screen was full of Alchemy Dragon Slayers carrying rocket launchers and flying with flashing swords. Their swords were far from being able to deal with these prince-level dragons, but their super strong attack power was still effective. A red dragon in the 99th wave struggled to fly to the edge of the white moon while his companions attracted the artillery fire. The Alchemy Dragon Slayers in the wilderness could no longer attack him. Lu Mingfei only had one last chance. If this dragon flew over, he would lose.
At this time, Lu Mingfei did something that EVA obviously did not expect. He sold the two alchemical dragon slayers stationed in the wilderness, used the money to exchange for a new one, and placed it next to the white moon. He flew up with a rocket pack on his back, and the knife flashed across the entire screen. This was a big kill, doubling the damage. The red dragon trembled, and fell to the ground dragging its wings.
“Oh my God!” EVA said in the dialog box.
If it weren’t for the heavy look in the control room, Lu Mingfei would have cheered triumphantly. But he couldn’t. He could only stick out his tongue at the EVA on the screen.
If you don’t become paranoid, you will die. This is what Lu Mingfei learned in the game, but he never applied this great conclusion in his own life.
“Don’t make such a funny face!” EVA protested, “Okay, this is the last wave. There is only one dragon in this wave. Can you stop it?”
Lu Mingfei rubbed his hands to dry them. He guessed that the last level would be difficult, but he had already thought of a strategy. When the last dragon was close to the end, it would be greeted by a dense rain of sword lights. Lu Mingfei was very proud of this tactic, so he had to act quickly.
At this moment, the screen suddenly went black, only faint patterns moving across it. He pressed the Enter key, and surprisingly, it still activated the chat.
Lu Mingfei was stunned for a moment, but then he saw EVA’s dialog box pop up, “Hurry up, you don’t have much time left.”
“EVA, did your game crash?” Lu Mingfei typed.
“No, the game continues. Shall I zoom out for you to see?”
“Zoom out? What do you mean by zooming out?”
At this time, he saw the things on the screen clearly, and it made him shudder slightly. He saw the last wave, and there was indeed only one dragon, a black dragon, and its name was marked in an elegant handwriting in a corner, “NIDHOGG”, Lu Mingfei felt that this word was very familiar. EVA did “zoom out”, which was assuming that they were looking down at a real battlefield, where there were densely packed alchemy dragon slayers waiting for battle. From their perspective, the sky would be completely gloomy, because the black dragon that was so big that it could cover everything was slowly gliding by with its wings spread. The dark pattern that Lu Mingfei saw was the scales on the dragon’s body, which was countless times larger than the display area on the screen and covered everything.
“So huge!” Lu Mingfei shouted.
The silence in the control room was suddenly broken, and everyone’s eyes were focused on Lu Mingfei. Lu Mingfei realized that he had made trouble and was thinking about how to put the blame for playing games on the virtual girl EVA who had an uncle’s soul. Then he saw EVA lightly jump and stand on the back of the black dragon, revealing a very faint and distant smile.
“The Black Dragon King Nidhogg. Its name means ‘Despair,’” EVA said. “You lost. Let’s play again next time, Lu Mingfei.”
The screen flashed, “Game Over”, and Lu Mingfei saw that all the alchemists in the wilderness collapsed like plaster. Then the screen switched back to the normal operation interface, which was monotonous and boring, with all English abbreviations. Lu Mingfei couldn’t understand it at all. Where was the user interface that was like the PS2 interface just now? Where was the girl who introduced the new book? They were all gone, and there was only an email reminder on the ground, “Ricardo M? Lu, there is an unread email for you”
“Huge?” Professor Schneider frowned. “What do you mean by huge?”
Lu Mingfei jumped up. “‘Huge’ in Chinese slang means ‘quiet’… I mean, it’s so quiet here!”
Professor Schneider nodded slightly. Lu Mingfei had voiced what everyone felt. It was true—it was too quiet. The dark screen, the silent speakers—it was like… death. He had a vague, ominous feeling, but he couldn’t say it out loud, as if the moment those words were spoken, it would become real.
“Yes, it was huge… Mance… how are you?” He thought and sighed deeply.
Suddenly, the large screen lit up, and a peaceful elderly face appeared. His silver-white hair was neatly combed, and the years had left deep marks on his face, making his skin resemble cracked ancient bark or weathered rock. But the lines were still strong, and light flickered in his silvery-gray eyes. He wore a well-tailored black suit over his still-straight figure, with a bright red rose in his breast pocket.
For a moment, Lu Mingfei couldn’t determine the old man’s age. Judging by his skin and face, he was very old, but his posture was like that of a lion.
“So handsome!” Lu Mingfei exclaimed. “What an extraordinary old man!”
Everyone stood up in unison.
There was a small commotion in the control room. The students were whispering to each other, but the professors had serious expressions on their faces.
“Principal Anjou,” Professor Schneider said.
“The Maniakh has safely arrived at the secondary lock of the Three Gorges Reservoir. We have obtained important data. Thank you all for your efforts. I declare this meeting adjourned,” the Principal said calmly.
After a moment of silence, the control room was boiling with excitement. Everyone raised their arms and cheered. The professors hugged each other excitedly, and the students clapped their hands in the air. Caesar and Chu Zihang were obviously very happy, but it was not convenient to show their cold and hard faces. But it was obvious that the students were divided into two groups, one around Caesar and the other around Chu Zihang. Only a few freshmen stood with Kiran. Lu Mingfei was far away from everyone and felt that he should also go up to cheer and hug, but he didn’t know which group to join. He was a little confused for a while.
Just then, he saw Nono standing alone, chewing gum and staring blankly out the window.
Suddenly, Lu Mingfei felt happy—there was still someone in this world like Nono, someone on his side.
“Hey, Mingfei! I told you, you’re the best!” Kiran suddenly realized something, strode over, shook hands with Lu Mingfei vigorously, and hugged her vigorously. The control room fell silent for a moment, and then the professors began clapping. The elites of both the Lionheart Society and the Student Union looked at their leaders, Caesar and Chu Zihang, who also began clapping. So everyone started clapping. In an instant, Lu Mingfei was surrounded by the crowd. These people blocked Lu Mingfei’s view of Nono. When Lu Mingfei felt the admiration of everyone for the first time, Nono glanced at him from a distance through the gap in the crowd and turned her head away. A bubble was blown up by her, getting larger and larger, and finally popped.
“Dismissed!” Professor Schneider announced.
The students left the control room, waving at the Principal on the screen as they did. Clearly, the Principal was an idol to them. He just smiled but didn’t respond.
As Lu Mingfei reached the door, he heard the Principal say behind him, “Thank you, Lu Mingfei.”
Lu Mingfei turned back in surprise. The Principal held up a stack of white papers on the screen. “Congratulations, you have passed the 3E exam with the highest score in ten years. You have maintained your S-Rank. I always have high hopes for you and I will award you the Principal’s Scholarship.”