area51novel Chapter 24: Searching for Special Animals?
Chapter 24: Searching for Special Animals?
"Sequence time... zero, found."
Lu Mingfei lay on the bed, his fingers swiping across his phone. The information Chu Zihang had left behind was very detailed, including not only an introduction to Kassel, but also much more confidential information concerning dragons and hybrids.
Lu Mingfei originally thought it was just a background introduction of Kassel, but when he actually clicked on it, he found that it was not the same thing at all.
The breadth of the materials left him speechless—documents in at least four languages were neatly arranged, and there were even several scanned copies bearing the red "Top Secret" stamp. It seemed that Chu Zihang had crammed in every material he could get his hands on.
He was rummaging through a massive amount of files when suddenly his fingers paused.
A document titled "The Periodic Table of Words" popped up, its tables formatted as neatly as the periodic table of elements. Or rather, it was something similar to the periodic table.
Lu Mingfei suddenly sat up, swiped across the screen, and found his target in the lower right corner of the table.
Sequence 84: Time Zero
[Danger Level: Unknown]
[Description: A domain expands outward from the user, slowing down the flow of time within that domain while the user's speed remains constant, thus creating a time flow difference.]
"Holy crap..." He chuckled dryly, feeling a chill run down his neck.
On the phone screen, there was a string of small text: [Hybrids can only awaken one kind of Word of Power in their lifetime, while only pure-blooded dragons can wield multiple powers].
Lu Mingfei was truly at a loss. So, what grew on his supernatural tree was a hybrid of the Word Spirits? With such a huge tree, it was hard to even count the number of branches. How many Word Spirits must he have? And having too many Word Spirits didn't seem like a good thing.
What if he's mistaken for a pure-blooded dragon? Lu Mingfei felt a little panicked.
He saw that the school motto of Kassel said to slay dragons!
If he says he's not a dragon, will anyone believe him?
Lu Mingfei didn't think so; he could almost hear the clanging of chains and the crisp sound of a scalpel hitting a dissecting plate.
"bite!"
"Holy crap, what is that?!"
The sudden notification sound startled Lu Mingfei, causing his phone to fly out of his hand and land on the edge of the bed. He reached out to pick it up and looked at it—
[QQ Message Notification]
"Damn," Lu Mingfei breathed a sigh of relief. He then remembered that he had left QQ running in the background. When he clicked on the penguin icon, he saw a panda avatar jumping around.
It's Old Tang, his StarCraft gaming friend.
"Are you free, Mingming?" he asked.
"Yeah, what's up?" Lu Mingfei replied cautiously. After all, in his memory, Lao Tang's chat history was filled with nothing but "log in" and "GG," but now he was asking if he was free. This sudden display of human language was rather unsettling.
Usually, in this situation, the person is asking for something or borrowing money.
But he knew perfectly well that he was just a poor student boarding at his aunt's house, and what's more, the other party was still in the United States...
"That's good." Old Tang had no idea what Lu Mingfei was thinking. Another message made Lu Mingfei's pupils dilate in shock.
"I've accepted a commission; I need to come to your house in a couple of days to find some unusual animal. Do you have time to entertain me?"
"Special animals?" Lu Mingfei stared at the screen, his throat tightening.
The sound of rain outside the window had grown louder at some point. He suddenly remembered that in the materials left by Chu Zihang, certain special organizations would use special animals to represent dragons when handling sensitive matters.
"What special animals?" Lu Mingfei hovered his finger over the screen for a few seconds, pretending to be calm as he pressed on, "Any animals that don't exist in America? What could my little place possibly have?"
The chat window flashed "The other party is typing," and although it was only a few seconds, it felt like an eternity to Lu Mingfei.
Finally, Old Tang's message popped up:
"I don't know exactly what it is..."
Then he added:
"Although I've never seen one before, based on my previous mission experience, it's probably similar to a lizard?"
Lu Mingfei's heart sank immediately. Well, there's no escaping it now; this matter is definitely related to the Dragon Clan.
Lu Mingfei subconsciously wanted the other party to give up, so he quickly sent another message.
"Is it really necessary to go through all this trouble, just for a commission?"
The "The other party typed..." message on the chat box flashed only twice before Lao Tang's reply popped up quickly:
"You don't understand, this is a big deal! I'll explain in detail when I get there. I have to catch the last Greyhound bus tonight."
The panda avatar went dark as soon as the message was sent, indicating that the other party had already logged off.
"Damn, is it really necessary to rush like this?"
He was at his wit's end. Clearly, this commission was worth a lot of money, so much so that even Old Tang, who was far away in the United States, had to rush over overnight. But that was the key point: this commission was about dragons!
Old Tang has probably taken on a really dangerous job!
After thinking for a moment, she swiped her finger across the screen, switching to the phone's contact list, her gaze shifting between "the babysitting team" and "Chu Zihang".
One was the so-called "Lu Mingze" who said he would give him some insignificant help, and the other was someone who made arrangements for him in every detail, almost as if he were his mother's senior brother.
Between the two, Lu Mingfei subconsciously wanted to choose Chu Zihang, but his fingers stopped just before they touched.
"Chu Zihang is all alone too..."
Lu Mingfei knew very well that if he dragged Chu Zihang into this, his senior brother would never ask the academy for help.
He would only come alone, carrying the village rain.
The rain outside the window grew heavier, as if urging him to make a decision. Almost unconsciously, his finger finally moved to the "nanny group" option, hesitated for a few seconds, and then pressed it.
"Just ask about the situation..." he told himself, "I'll call my senior after I've asked."
The call was answered almost instantly the moment the fingertip touched the receiver. A young male voice, tinged with laughter, came through the receiver, its tone light and almost eerily cheerful:
"Oh my, I didn't expect to get my brother's call so soon~"
—It was Lu Mingze's voice.
For some reason, even though Lu Mingfei's conversations had always been cryptic since they met, hearing Lu Mingze's enigmatic voice made Lu Mingfei feel relaxed.
"I've really seen it," Lu Mingfei thought to himself. He was supposed to be facing the pure-blooded dragons mentioned in Chu Zihang's file, but now, he felt that the possibility of encountering pure-blooded dragons had become a trivial matter that could be easily dealt with.
"Enough with the nonsense," Lu Mingfei turned his head warily, lowering his voice, "I have a friend..."
"Is it that online friend from StarCraft named Old Tang?" Lu Mingze interrupted him, a mischievous chuckle in his voice. "Is it the one catching the Greyhound bus?"
Lu Mingfei's heart skipped a beat: "How could you..."
"Of course I know about my brother's situation," Lu Mingze said, his voice rising at the end. "But now, shouldn't you look out the window?"
Lu Mingfei subconsciously turned his head, and his pupils suddenly contracted—
Zero time?
The torrential rain outside the window had stopped sometime ago. No, it didn't stop; rather, it remained suspended in mid-air, thousands upon thousands of raindrops still in the air, shimmering with a crystal-like light in the morning light.
"What the hell?"
"A small gift to mark our meeting," Lu Mingze's voice suddenly came close to her ear, "Isn't it beautiful?"
Lu Mingfei turned around abruptly and saw that the young man in the black suit had been sitting on the edge of his bed at some point, his golden pupils shining brightly in the dim space.