The Heavens: A Qing, the Yue Girl at the beginning

Lu Mingfei rubbed his sore eyes, then almost bounced off the chair, and the back of his head almost hit the CRT monitor. The air conditioner in the Internet cafe was humming, but the back of his T-shirt was soaked and stuck to the plastic chair back.

"Holy shit...what's going on?" He shook his numb right hand, his fingertips still feeling a tingling sensation like an electric shock. Only then did he notice tiny arcs of electricity coming out of the gaps in the mainframe case. Those jumping threads of light drew clear tracks in the air and slowly bloomed as if in slow motion.

The QQ dialog box on the screen froze at Lao Tang’s last message, and the time displayed was 8:15—the webpage was stuck on the loading screen, the browser’s progress bar was moving at a snail’s pace, and even the lights in the entire Internet cafe became flickering.

Lu Mingfei blinked, wondering if he was hallucinating from staying up late playing StarCraft.

The rain outside the window condensed into crystal beads. The trajectory of the raindrops was so clear that it seemed as if the slow-motion button was pressed. He could even see the whole process of each drop of water splitting, colliding, and finally shattering in mid-air.

"Damn it..." He muttered to himself and reached out to touch the keyboard, but found that his movements were half a beat slower than usual, as if he was stuck in some sticky glue.

"Brother, you just got an electric shock."

A clear voice came from behind him, the tone was so brisk as if it was discussing today's weather forecast.

All the hairs on Lu Mingfei's body instantly stood up. He turned his head sharply and almost twisted his neck - a boy in a black suit was sitting on the computer desk behind him, swinging his legs, and the tips of his leather shoes drew elegant arcs in the air.

The boy's face was so delicate that it looked like it came out of a comic book, with a faint smile on the corner of his mouth, but his golden pupils gave Lu Mingfei an inexplicable chill.

The strangest thing was that everyone around ignored the child who suddenly appeared - to be more precise, no one even looked over here.

"Who are you?!"

Lu Mingfei shrank back subconsciously, and the Internet cafe chair creaked under the weight. "Do I know you?"

“Don’t we know each other now?” The boy tilted his head, his tone as familiar as if they were long-lost brothers. “My name is Lu Mingze, you can call me Mingze, or...brother?”

“Brother!” Lu Mingfei almost jumped up from his chair. “My cousin is also called Lu Mingze, but he’s a fat guy, not like you…” He looked up and down at the well-tailored suit and shiny leather shoes of the other party, “…this kind of noble gentleman style!”

Lu Mingze chuckled and jumped down from the table. His leather shoes didn't even make a sound when they landed on the ground. He walked to Lu Mingfei and reached out to touch the still frozen computer screen: "Brother, the point is not who I am, but what you are facing now."

"Huh?" Lu Mingfei looked in the direction his finger pointed and found that the web page on the screen was immediately unfrozen and loaded.

The words that were originally stuck are now dazzlingly clear - it is the page of "Ten Things You Should Pay Attention to When Meeting Online Friends in Person", and the first one, "Beware of Pyramid Schemes", is even marked in red.

In the browser history, the entries "How to entertain international friends with 300 yuan" and "Guide to avoiding being overcharged for snacks at Chenghuang Temple" lie shining in the corner.

"What kind of supernatural event is this..."

Lu Mingfei swallowed and touched the back of his head as if he suddenly remembered something. "Wait, you just said I had an electric shock? But I remember I was clearly checking how to receive Old Tang..." His voice stopped abruptly, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up in salute.

Lu Mingfei couldn't help but recall seeing the cover headline of "Zhiyin" at a newsstand three days ago: "Shocking! International students flying with swords appear in Wudang Mountain" and the "News Broadcast" was reporting "New brain wave detector can predict the potential of teenagers" when he passed by an electrical appliance store yesterday.

Memories are like a videotape with the fast-rewind button pressed - my aunt's unusually kind attitude, the silk banner sent by the street office, the medical examination form with a stamp in Officer Zhang's hand, Old Tang's sudden change of character and his remarks on cultivating immortals...

These fragments spun and collided in the mind, finally freezing on the arc jumping in the mainframe case.

"Brother, you are so lucky to have caught the world's largest mobile power bank committing a crime. Two-thirds of Binhai City's substations were collectively overloaded at 8:14:32."

The boy's golden eyes glowed faintly in the dim internet cafe. "Because someone has drained away enough electricity to illuminate the entire Tokyo - just like your old Tang who started cultivating immortals, and just like the relevant national departments that suddenly started using physical examinations to screen for special talents."

"Some people want to grab a few more tickets on the last train, and some people want to give the Ark a new coat of paint."

Lu Mingfei opened his mouth, suddenly grabbed the half-full bottle of Nutri-Express and took a gulp: "No, this setting is too sudden, isn't it? Yesterday I was a loser who was worried about my summer homework, and today I have to accept the setting of awakening superpowers?"

He wiped his mouth and squeezed out a dry voice: "Could it be that my parents who are immersed in archaeology finally remembered their son, and that our family is actually a magical family hidden among ordinary people?"

Lu Mingze was amused. He stretched out his hand and snapped his fingers. The drink bottle in Lu Mingfei's hand suddenly floated in the air: "It's worse than that, brother. The real world is opening its doors, but compared to the original script...something went terribly wrong."

He rarely showed a serious expression: "I may not be able to protect you."

Lu Mingfei stared at the floating beverage bottle and poked it with his finger - the plastic bottle did not move at all, and the touch was so real that it made him despair.

He sighed, "Okay, according to the online game routine, are you going to give me a cheat code next? Like an SSR-level talent that I can get for free with a single click?"

"The choice is in my brother's hands."

The boy suddenly came closer, and Lu Mingfei could see the dust on his eyelashes. "Option A: I will help you maintain your current life. Your aunt will always be kind and amiable, your uncle will no longer secretly read "Friends", and your summer homework will automatically fill in the correct answers."

He pulled out a game controller from nowhere, "It's like The Sims with cheat codes. I can get into a top university, marry a beautiful, wealthy woman, and live a life without worries."

Lu Mingfei blinked: "Are you going to assign a girlfriend?"

"Option B, embrace the new world - a world full of dangers, opportunities and unknowns." The boy completely ignored his nonsense, with a dark light flowing in his golden eyes: "... everything hidden in the shadows will jump to the front. Of course -"

He tilted his head and showed his fangs, "The mortality rate is as high as 99%."

Lu Mingfei's instinct to complain overcame his fear: "What's the difference between this B and 'money and life'? Do I need to hesitate to choose?" But the next moment, he suddenly realized something and put away his joking expression, "If I choose A... can I see my parents again?"

The air suddenly froze for a second.

Lu Mingze put away his smile and shook his head gently: "Sorry... In the world of option A, some things must be abandoned."

The tip of the boy's leather shoes tapped the ground lightly, and a raindrop finally fell outside the window, smashing into pieces on the window frame. The lights in the entire Internet cafe returned to normal, the sparks in the computer case disappeared, and the curses and keyboard tapping sounds of the surrounding players came like a tide.

Lu Mingfei stared blankly at the world that suddenly became lively, and an indescribable sense of loss gripped his heart. In the QQ dialog box that was beating again on the screen, the panda emoticon package sent by Lao Tang was still rolling heartlessly, making Lu Mingfei's Adam's apple move.

He thought of the fireworks that bloomed outside his uncle's balcony every Spring Festival, the empty seats at parent-teacher conferences, and finally his mind froze on the home-school contact book that was always signed only by his aunt.

"I understand."

Lu Mingfei hid the disappointment in his eyes, suddenly grabbed the mouse and clicked on the StarCraft icon, muttering: "This option is too bad, I might as well choose C - I will catch up on my summer homework after I go home and continue to be an ordinary middle school student! Secretary Zhang said that it can be reduced by 50%..."

Lu Mingze chuckled and reached out to hold his wrist: "Brother's train of thought is still so strange."

The boy's fingertips were as cold as jade. "But it doesn't matter. You can think about it slowly." He pulled out a gold-stamped card from his suit pocket like a magic trick. "This is a novice gift pack with a trial period of three months. Brother, you should recognize these secrets, right?"

When Lu Mingfei took the card, he was almost blinded by the brilliance - this thing was actually made of real gold foil, and the corners were inlaid with diamonds. There were three lines of code printed in cursive English on it:

war aint what it used to be
food for thought
Lockown
"Holy crap! Isn't this a cheat code for StarCraft?"

Lu Mingfei barely threw the card away. "How do I input the following into reality: turn off the fog of war, infinitely build troops, disable mechanical units...etc?" He pulled his hair frantically. "Do you want me to shout 'StarCraft, start!' into the air?"

Lu Mingze tapped the computer case with his leather heel: "Brother, you can try to say 'I am the bone of my sword' three times in front of the mirror."

Seeing that Lu Mingfei was really thinking about the feasibility, he held his forehead and sighed, "Just kidding, these abilities will be directly engraved into your... well, in the words of immortal cultivation novels, it's called a spiritual platform."

"No, this is not explained clearly. Do you want me to ask Old Tang who is good at cultivating immortals for advice?"

Lu Mingfei held the gold-stamped card and turned it over and over, and found that the cursive characters were slowly flowing, as if they were alive on the paper: "Also, what can the code in the game do in reality?"

"Turning off the fog of war means turning me into a humanoid radar? Does unlimited army building mean you want to create a clone army? Paralyzing mechanical targets is easier to understand..." He grabbed Lu Mingze who was about to leave, "There must be an instruction manual, right?"

There was a slight sound of silk friction coming from the boy's suit cuffs. He turned back with a mischievous smile in his eyes:
"Didn't my brother say we should choose C?"

"I'm asking this on behalf of the majority of players!"

Lu Mingfei slammed the table with a righteous voice, shaking the bottle of Nutri-Express beside the keyboard. "Which game planner dared to release such a three-no prop? He would have been criticized on the forum headlines long ago!"

Lu Mingze smiled but didn't answer, he stretched out his hand to brush Lu Mingfei's sweaty bangs. A certain cold touch penetrated his skin, and three strings of code suddenly burned on his retina, but it didn't make him feel hot, instead it brought him an indescribable warmth.

That kind of simple and natural contact seemed to have happened thousands or tens of thousands of times in my dreams, touching your forehead and saying...Brother.

“Don’t use mortal thinking to understand… This is not a simple cheat code, but a wedge that can pry the rules of the world.” Lu Mingze’s voice came from above his head. Lu Mingfei was shocked to realize that the other party had jumped onto the back of his chair without him knowing when. “Brother, all you need to do is believe… Because——”

“Imagination is the only input method.”

"Do you need a demonstration?"

The boy suddenly lowered his voice, "For example, right now, if you just think about 'war aint what it used to be', you can see through the truth about the physical examination plan hidden in Director Zhang's briefcase."

Lu Mingfei narrowed his eyes doubtfully, his sight unconsciously drifting towards the young cadre outside the three rows of seats. The next second his pupils suddenly contracted - the black briefcase suddenly became transparent, and the layers of documents inside were clearly visible as if they had been scanned by X-ray.

On the top layer was the "Awakener Screening Plan (Coastal Pilot)", with the signature of the "Anomalous Affairs Investigation Bureau" that had never been heard of, and next to his own photo was the blood-red letter "Ω", and deeper inside was a "High-risk Individual Control Plan" with a dragon emblem on it.

"Oh my god - I'm so dizzy watching this!" He suddenly covered his eyes and almost slipped off the chair. "What kind of sci-fi setting is this? Can a loser like me who even copied answers to math homework be considered high-risk?" When he opened his eyes again, his vision had returned to normal.

Lu Mingze sat back on top of the monitor without knowing when. His swaying legs left afterimages in the blue light of the CRT screen. “Do you believe it now? By the way, I’d like to remind you, brother, that Officer Zhang’s pen is actually a miniature electric shock device made in Germany. He also has a ballpoint pen filled with ricin in his trouser pocket.”

The boy tilted his head and smiled innocently, "Food for Thought is even more practical." He casually grabbed the half meat floss bread that Lu Mingfei had left over from the morning, "For example, I only have fifteen dollars left now, I can use it to buy an exchange..."

"Wait! That's my lunch!" Lu Mingfei rushed over to rescue it, but saw the other party's slender fingers rub it gently - the bread crumbs fell down, but multiplied and expanded in mid-air, and in a blink of an eye they turned into three complete loaves of bread, even the production date on the packaging bag was exactly the same.

Lu Mingfei felt that his trouser pocket was slightly empty, two bills were missing, and his chin almost hit the keyboard:

"This... this is unscientific! What about the law of conservation of mass and energy?"

"In the world you are about to enter, science is the least valuable thing." Lu Mingze threw the bread to him, "But pay attention to the 'supply limit' - you can't conjure an aircraft carrier out of thin air. The essence of this code is actually 'concept replacement'."

Lu Mingfei hurriedly caught the bread, and suddenly an idea came to his mind: "Then can LockDown..." His eyes moved to a certain Internet cafe host that was freezing in the Internet cafe, and the sound of a fan struggling to survive came from the host case.

"Try it?" The boy winked encouragingly.

Lu Mingfei took a deep breath, followed the immortal cultivation formula sent by Old Tang, and pointed his sword, shouting at the mainframe: "LockDown!" - nothing happened. The red-haired young man who was shooting heads in the CS next door was so scared that his hands trembled, and he turned around and cursed him as a psychopath.

"You have to recite it silently in your mind, stupid brother." Lu Mingze held his forehead with his hand, "And this trick is ineffective against living things, unless..."

Before he finished speaking, Lu Mingfei's eyes widened. Countless translucent data streams appeared in his field of vision, just like the unit attribute panel in StarCraft, where the crashed host was marked as [Mechanical Target·Interactive].

As he focused, the error codes tangled on the circuit board suddenly began to fade away, and the fan noise calmed down.

"Oh my god..." Lu Mingfei looked at the computer screen that had returned to normal, and suddenly turned around to ask, "These abilities won't have any side effects, right? For example, hair loss if used too much? And how is the cooldown calculated? Does it consume MP?"

"Friendly reminder, the first time you use it each day, the effect is the strongest, and it will become weaker and weaker afterwards. After all, the secret book "The Gathering" has not been officially unlocked yet."

Lu Mingze smiled mysteriously: "Brother can return the product at any time before the end of the three-month trial period."

He jumped off the table lightly, his black leather shoes stepping on the floor without making any sound, "But now--" The boy's figure quickly faded, and the black suit finally blended into the blue light emitted by the monitor.

The last glimmer of light in the crack of the mainframe case quietly went out, as if everything that had just happened was an illusion.

Lu Mingfei pinched his thigh and grimaced in pain. The avatar of Lao Tang in the QQ chat box jumped wildly, and more than a dozen messages exploded like popcorn:

【Old Tang】8:16:02
Shit! I just received a rebooking notice from the airline.
【Old Tang】8:16:15
Saturday afternoon flights cancelled! It is said that the radar system of Binhai Airport is faulty

【Old Tang】8:16:33
I just paid extra money to buy a first-class ticket for tomorrow morning [菜刀]
【Old Tang】8:17:01
How's the weather there? I just saw on the news that there is severe convective weather in East China
Lu Mingfei's fingers trembled as they hovered above the keyboard. He caught a glimpse of his own face reflected on the monitor - his hair on his forehead was stuck together by cold sweat, like a stranded fish.

An ambulance siren sounded in the distance and an electric repair vehicle whizzed past.

"Today is really..." He muttered to himself as he opened the weather website. The radar map of the entire East China region was flashing red alerts. Of particular note was the neat circular blank area above Binhai City, as if someone had erased the cloud map data of that area with an eraser.

There was a sound of a plastic chair moving behind him. Lu Mingfei froze, and saw from the reflection of the monitor that Officer Zhang was walking towards him. The German fountain pen in the young cadre's chest pocket was shining coldly: "Little classmate, are you okay?"

"It was thundering just now, and you look very bad... The weather is so stuffy that it's easy to get hypoglycemia." The smile behind the gold-rimmed glasses was still as standard as if it was mass-produced. "Also, don't forget to take the physical examination form."

He pointed at the papers on the table and said, "Next week, Testing Building No. 7 of the Third People's Hospital, bring your ID card and this notice."

For some reason, Zhang didn't notice the existence of the gold-stamped card at all, as if it didn't exist in this time and space at all. Lu Mingfei pretended to be obedient and took the physical examination form and stuffed it into his schoolbag, then turned sideways and quietly put the card into his trouser pocket. The touch under the fabric was as cold as a knife.

When Director Zhang turned and left, Lu Mingfei's pupils suddenly contracted - on the CRT monitor, the StarCraft cutscene was automatically playing to a close-up of Jim Raynor lighting a cigar, with the cigarette butt sparks flickering on the screen.

"Warwar has changed."
Raynor was halfway through his line when the entire monitor suddenly burst into a blue-purple electric light. The violent and twisted lightning crawled all over the screen like a living thing, melting the game character into a turbulent flow of pixels.

At the same time, Lu Mingfei caught a glimpse of the gloomy sky outside the window. A bolt of lightning of the same deep color was crossing a distance of thousands of miles and striking towards the horizon in the direction of R, tearing open an unprecedentedly wide air ionization channel along the way.

……

A few minutes ago, on the outskirts of Osaka, Japan.

The sounds of gunfire outside the temple died down. Zhao Qing took out his beeping satellite phone and pressed the encrypted frequency answer button. William de Chatelet, the deputy captain of the Laurent family stationed on the Astute-class nuclear submarine Amphitrite, reported quickly in an Oxford accent:
"The target ship was 30 degrees to the port side of the stern. The Sailfish torpedo made a direct hit. The initial velocity of the alchemical warhead was 102 knots, and the warhead was filled with mercury-based alchemical acid... The sinking coordinates are 17 nautical miles southeast of the Kii Channel, and the water depth is about 1800 meters."

In the background came a report from a sonar operator confirming the distribution of the wreckage.

In the air where the scent of bergamot had not yet dissipated, Zhao Qing tapped the frozen bronze prayer wheel and searched for information inside: "Has the protest document from the Maritime Self-Defense Force been delivered to the Yokosuka base?"

"The Seventh Fleet Command completed the filing three minutes ago."

William's voice was slightly distorted in the encrypted channel. The background sound in the submarine cabin was a mixture of the low hum of mechanical operation and the regular ticking of sonar: "The Japanese side has complained about our use of heavy torpedoes in the Kii Channel, but the Pentagon is happy to see it happen."

"After all, the Interpol Red Notice for General Wang's arrest has accumulated a reward of 32 million US dollars, and the ICPO database shows that he is the 'main culprit of transnational organ trafficking and biological weapons research and development.'"

"Among them, the list of crimes worth 27 million was submitted by me." Zhao Qing interrupted the other party's formal report: "Let the sonar soldiers continue to monitor the medium-frequency pulses and maintain the third-level alert."

"If the target was an ordinary hybrid, it would have been eaten by a fish long ago. However, a 'semi-evolved body' of General Wang's level can withstand thousands of meters of water pressure without any equipment, and can hold its breath longer than a sperm whale."

The satellite signal fluctuated briefly, and electrical noise was heard in the communication channel. William's breathing rate increased slightly, and he obviously had doubts about Zhao Qing's judgment:

"According to the Kassel Academy's 'Report on the Physiological Limits of Hybrids', even for strictly trained A-level hybrids, the record for their naked diving depth is only about 300 meters. Excuse me, ma'am, even if the king has a bloodline higher than S-level..."

"Have you heard of 'ama'?"

Zhao Qing explained calmly, glancing at the quietly sitting Yuan Zhinv. "In ancient times, girls who fished for pearls could dive hundreds of meters deep without any equipment, and use knives to pry open giant clams to get pearls. Only women can do this job because they have thicker subcutaneous fat and are more resistant to cold."

"In the history of the Eight Snake Clans, they once specially trained 'ama' women. With the advantage of their mixed-race bloodline, they could dive to a depth of two thousand meters. Occasionally, there would be dragon subspecies swimming there. Their mission was to observe these creatures and determine whether the ruins of the ancient city of deep-sea dragons were still dormant."

"A high-risk half-dragon hybrid will have its body covered with directional mutated scales that can even temporarily replace the function of gills and filter dissolved oxygen in the water. Don't forget that the ancestors of the Sheqi Eight Clan were creatures similar to mermaids."

"I understand." Although he didn't necessarily believe what she said, the first mate still replied obediently: "I will reload the torpedoes immediately, but the existing conventional weapons are not effective at a depth of two thousand meters..."

"Activate the composite detector in cabin B-7."

Zhao Qing issued a new order to the submarine, "The alchemy array of the Blood System has been connected in parallel with the Zhoutian Yuanqi sensing system, using the three-axis spiral positioning mode to scan the seabed hot spring area - General Wang cannot be unscathed, and the blood flowing from his injury is attracting deep-sea predators."

"We have to be quick!" The silent Yuan Zhinv suddenly raised her head: "I once cut his throat and killed him, but the next morning, the king appeared in front of me with the same mask and a smile - his recovery ability is close to resurrection..."

"Because they are not the same person at all." Zhao Qing interrupted him and explained the truth, which was like clearing the clouds and letting the other party's fear disappear. "Guess why I set up a global bounty? It is to make every 'king general' a living target of the dark world."

"A humanoid object has been detected 11 nautical miles southeast! Moving speed 14 knots... Target locked!" As Shi Yiguang returned, dragging a row of Self-Defense Force soldiers tied to chains, the fire control officer's hand hovered over the launch button: "Should we use the second missile..."

"Use restraint warhead instead." Zhao Qing called up the trajectory parameters: "Fill with alchemical gel with 90% liquid nitrogen concentration. I want a living sample."

...(End of chapter)