Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei finds a Freylian

Their faces were so close that they could almost feel each other's warm breath. This posture and distance were just like the intimate poses that couples deliberately strike to squeeze into the camera when taking photo booth pictures.

Caesar thought to himself: This is troublesome.

He knew all too well what it was like for a girl to develop feelings for a man. They would subconsciously want to get closer, following him like a silent shadow; they would suddenly become unusually lively and talkative during conversations, or suddenly fall silent and at a loss for words, simply trying to use their voices to cover up their fluttering hearts.

In this respect, Caesar Gattuso was far too experienced. Being too perfect seemed to be an inherent flaw in the men of the Gattuso family; his charm with women was enough to make any ordinary man envious to the point of tears. Sometimes even Caesar himself couldn't understand how he managed to capture a woman's heart; it might have simply been because he was sitting there, idly daydreaming.

Few truly good girls can escape the curse of "meeting Caesar and being ruined for life," even if they only exchange a few words with him.

Years later, as they grow old and their wrinkles deepen like wood scorched by fire, they will still, on a quiet afternoon, vaguely recall the blond boy in a crisp white captain's uniform, sitting alone at the bow of the yacht in the Gulf of Genoa, facing the sunset.

He silently sipped his gin, the sea breeze gently ruffling the stray hairs on his forehead. A falcon perched on the mast seemed poised to take flight at any moment into the burning sky, creating a timeless and perfect silhouette. Of course, they would never see the boy, utterly bored, beneath that perfect silhouette.

This time, Caesar didn't deliberately avoid the topic to avoid embarrassing Zhen. That's just how noblemen are. They might already have someone they love, but they still readily accept the pure admiring glances from other girls.

They spend a lot of time cultivating themselves, refining their demeanor, accumulating wealth, and aspiring to become the most perfect male role model in the world, happy to play the role of the dream lover of all young girls in love.

If a girl mustered the courage to simply rest her head on Caesar's shoulder and share the afterglow of the sunset, he might reluctantly agree. After all, it wouldn't hurt to offer a romantic moment under the setting sun, and then they would forget each other and never contact each other again.

Thinking about it this way, it seems that Caesar couldn't entirely blame his father Pompeii for his dissolute and unrestrained life. If Caesar himself hadn't met Nono, the tigress destined to seduce him, at a crossroads in his life, he would most likely have followed in his father's footsteps, living a carefree and romantic life, becoming another version of the Gattuso playboy.

Even today, Caesar still doesn't fully understand how he was so thoroughly subdued by Nono. Nono's greatest strength lies in the fact that you can never truly see through her. As Caesar famously said, "Every girl has a story, and I like Nono the most because her story is mysterious and fascinating."

What's the point of a girl whose thoughts can be read at a glance? Even if she's attracted to you, her heart is nothing more than a thin leaflet, and when you open it, all you see are the four dry and boring words, "I like you."

Caesar maintained this slightly ambiguous posture for about a minute. Then, he moved his body back slightly, turned his head, and looked directly into Zhen's eyes with his icy blue eyes. His tone was gentle but carried a clear sense of distance: "Do you still want to continue your studies? I mean, continue your university studies."

"Yes, I want to!" Zhen nodded without hesitation, her eyes lighting up. "I'm going to work mainly to save up for tuition!"

“Once this matter is completely resolved,” Caesar said in a calm and confident tone, “I will introduce you to someone. He is the head of the Gattuso Family Education Foundation and also one of the board members of the University for Foreigners of Perugia in Italy.”

"You can think of it this way: that school has a very close relationship with our family. It's a pretty good school, with a long history and a great atmosphere. That gentleman will offer you a full scholarship that covers tuition and living expenses."

Perugia is a very beautiful mountain town, built among rolling hills. The streets are always undulating and full of charm. It has preserved many ancient Roman and medieval buildings. Walking through it is like walking through history. I think you will like it there.

Then, Caesar added, seemingly casually but actually deliberately, "I will take a few days to personally show you around Perugia and familiarize you with the place. I will also introduce you to my fiancée."

"No, no need for that!" Zhen quickly waved her hand, a hint of panic and embarrassment flashing across her face. "I need to stay home to take care of Grandma."

“He will also provide your grandmother with a sufficiently generous pension,” Caesar smiled slightly, his smile confident and carefree. “Taking the elderly lady to live in Italy for a while, to experience the Tuscan sunshine and cuisine, would be a good choice, wouldn’t it?”

Chapter 512 Vanguard - Brutality Motorcycle Gang

That smile, so effortless and composed, carried the air of someone in complete control, and the unintentional generosity characteristic of a scion of a noble family. This was the complete form of Caesar Gattuso: elegant, confident, and willing to spend lavishly just to win a beautiful girl's reassuring smile.

Even Caesar himself was slightly impressed by his impeccable handsome and dashing appearance at that moment.

Just then.

"Screech! Screech!" A sharp, ear-piercing screech of brakes suddenly came from the street outside the internet cafe's main entrance. A vehicle traveling at high speed abruptly stopped in front of Mambo's door with an almost rude screech.

"Is the car that's supposed to pick you up here?" Zhen stood up, a relieved look on her face. "I'll go out and say hello to them."

"No!" Caesar's hand gripped her wrist like an iron clamp, the force so strong it made Zhen tremble slightly. His face instantly darkened, his sea-blue eyes flashing with a sharp light. "Damn it, it's not just one car, it's a convoy!"

She was stunned and listened intently. She could faintly hear the noise of people coming from the commercial street not far away, but at the entrance of the internet cafe, there was only the low growl of a car engine. The car hadn't turned off after stopping, and the engine was emitting a deep and furious roar like a wild beast. Combined with the ear-piercing braking sound just now, the car parked outside was a heavily modified, incredibly powerful supercar.

However, just half a minute later, Caesar's judgment was ruthlessly proven true.

Like the roars of a herd of beasts awakening, the sounds converged from all directions of the street, growing louder as they drew nearer. It was indeed a convoy! The ferocious roar of the supercars was mixed with the dense, high-pitched screams characteristic of large-displacement motorcycle engines.

They didn't come in a straight line, but rather, like a pack of wolves hunting, they began to circle the four-story building at high speed. Looking out through the narrow cracks in the windows, all that could be seen were streaks of menacing, blindingly bright blood-red taillights, like a frenzied swarm of bees, drawing chilling trails of light in the night.

In front of the internet cafe's main entrance, a blood-red Dodge Viper sports car was parked. This was a speed machine known for its pure, brutal aesthetics. Its price might be less than a tenth of Caesar's Bugatti Veyron, but its V10 engine had a displacement that even surpassed that of the Bugatti. It was incredibly fuel-inefficient and extremely difficult to drive, making it a notorious widow maker.

If the Bugatti Veyron is like a wealthy young man wearing a rose gold sports watch and a bespoke casual suit, possessing destructive power with elegance and restraint, then the Dodge Viper is more like a shirtless, heavily tattooed, reckless racer on Route 66, risking his life.

Young people who drive these kinds of cars often install nitrous oxide cylinders on their vehicles. Although this severely damages the engine's lifespan, it can instantly push the already ferocious horsepower to another peak, causing the exhaust pipe to spew out blazing flames, turning the sports car into a fire-breathing steel monster.

At that moment, the trunk lid of the blood-red Viper popped open. A group of teenagers riding various modified motorcycles roared past on either side of the Viper like hyenas smelling blood. As they passed, they skillfully pulled out gleaming stainless steel machetes, metal baseball bats, and even double-barreled shotguns with their barrels sawed off from the open cargo area.

These teenagers wore leather jackets adorned with studs, rivets, and exaggerated stickers; their hair was dyed a striking blue, orange, or fluorescent green; and their bare arms and calves were covered with grotesque Japanese traditional or modern tattoos. Their eyes held a mixture of youthful restlessness, ignorant and fearless ferocity, and a madness completely dominated by hormones.

This is a biker gang in the underworld, and the most dangerous and combative of them all.

Bosozoku (motorcycle gangs) can be broadly divided into two types: "civilized" and "violent." "Civilized" bosozoku are mostly enthusiasts who pursue speed and car modification culture, many of whom even have regular jobs during the day. "Violent" bosozoku are often dropouts, unemployed teenagers, and marginalized members of society who consider violence, destruction, and a sense of gang belonging their entire lives.

For the police, violent gangsters are a more troublesome nightmare than traditional gangsters. Traditional gangsters usually follow rules and limits, but violent gangsters, driven by bloodlust, will draw their knives and fight each other. They might kill each other over territory, a car, or even the favor of a female gangster. They know that life is as short as fireworks, and they have no scruples when they fight with their lives on the line.

The equipment of this group of bikers was far superior to that of ordinary street thugs.

Their rides include classic or popular mid-weight street bikes such as the Ducati Monster, Honda CB400, Yamaha XJR400, Suzuki Impulse400, and Kawasaki ZRX400. Each bike has been exaggeratedly modified, with flame-like red decals covering the body and deafening roars from the exhaust pipes.

The teenagers circled the building, twirling machetes in their hands with an air of swagger, and occasionally even yanking the heavy front of their cars up, performing stunts with only the rear wheels on the ground. Their driving skills were surprisingly adept.

"These lunatics found it first," Caesar frowned, clenching his fists. "How come so many violent freaks have gathered in this town?"

“There’s a world-class professional racetrack near the town, built a few years ago,” Shin said in a low voice, speaking quickly. “So a lot of car enthusiasts gather in this area, and the atmosphere is very intense. Toshi said that the biker gangs in Chizuru Town are wilder and more ruthless than those in Shinjuku because they are close to the racetrack, and he told me to never, ever mess with them.”

"This is the vanguard sent by the Snake Clan to deal with me?" Caesar sneered, his eyes flashing with cold light. He drew his gleaming Desert Eagle pistol from his back waist, the cold metallic touch calming his nerves.

He glanced at Zhen beside him, whose face was pale but who was trying hard to remain calm. "Are you scared?"

Zhen shook her head, her gaze falling on the large-caliber pistol in Caesar's hand, which seemed to embolden her. It wasn't that she wasn't afraid of the menacing bikers outside, but seeing Caesar's agile posture—drawing his weapon, leaning against the wall, and listening intently—this lone hero-like demeanor from a Hollywood action movie inexplicably made her believe that he could break through the encirclement.

However, Caesar inwardly smiled bitterly: the enemy numbered more than twenty, while his Desert Eagle had only one bullet in its chamber. Before setting off into the Trieste deep-sea submersible, for safety reasons, he removed the magazine, leaving only one bullet in the chamber.

Even with a heavy machine gun at his disposal, the situation remained equally difficult. Could he really open fire on this group of teenagers, many of whom were likely still minors? In Japan, minors who commit murder may even escape the death penalty.

Caesar forced himself to think rapidly about the current situation. Clearly, his position had been completely exposed. But the way he was exposed and the other party's reaction were both strange.

The Snake Clan isn't stupid. To capture a dangerous target of his caliber, they should have dispatched well-trained and well-equipped elites from the Execution Bureau. Why would they first mobilize a group of lawless and undisciplined biker gang teenagers?

Just then, a tall, windowless white van roared backwards and slammed into the side wall of the internet cafe, coming to a stop right next to it, completely blocking the only small window letting in light from that cubicle. Immediately afterwards, two or three more similar vans blocked the other windows on the building.

These biker gang members displayed unexpected tactical acumen. The old building didn't have many windows to begin with, and a few large vehicles could easily block all the exits that let in light and air.

"Hey! Manager! Haven't you paid the electricity bill?!"

Suddenly, complaints and curses erupted from every cubicle in the internet cafe, catching customers and staff off guard. But they quickly realized this wasn't just a problem with the individual cubicles or the internet cafe itself. Outside, the normally brightly lit commercial street was also shrouded in darkness. The entire district had suffered a massive power outage!

Chapter 513 Eva: Call Me Senior Sister

Caesar swiftly reached out in the darkness and accurately grasped Zhen's slightly trembling wrist, gently squeezing it to signal her to remain calm and not panic. To him, the power outage wasn't necessarily a bad thing; rather, it was a golden opportunity to fish in troubled waters and escape in the chaos.

The prerequisite was that he had to avoid the equally chaotic but armed biker gangs in the darkness. Caesar was quite confident in close combat, but the problem was that almost every one of them was armed with a short-barreled shotgun.

Although these homemade firearms were inaccurate and had a short range, their large caliber suggested they were likely loaded with large buckshot. A single shot would unleash a barrage of dozens of lead pellets, creating a terrifying effect in confined spaces; a mere graze would cause injury, and a direct hit would be fatal.

"Do you know if there are any passageways in this building that aren't frequently used? Like ventilation ducts, freight elevator shafts, or mezzanine levels connecting to the adjacent buildings?" Caesar asked rapidly in a low voice close to Zhen's ear.

Zhen hadn't even had time to sort out her thoughts and answer in her panic.

"Om."

The computer, which should have been silent due to the power outage, started up on its own. The fan made a slight spinning sound, and then, in the absolute darkness, the pitch-black screen suddenly and eerily lit up, emitting an ominous, cold blue-white light that illuminated Caesar and Shin's bewildered faces.

This scene sent chills down one's spine, evoking a sense of dread, like encountering a ghost in the dead of night.

In the center of the screen, there was no graphical interface; only a simple line of white Latin letters silently appeared:

"Eva: A fronte praecipitium a tergo lupi."

(A cliff lies ahead, and wolves lurk behind.)

Latin? Caesar's pupils contracted slightly. In this era, apart from Vatican scholars and certain experts on ancient texts, almost no one used this ancient language anymore. But the Gattuso family was an exception.

As an ancient noble family that prides itself on its noble lineage and long history, they regard Latin as one of their family's official languages, firmly believing that it is the most elegant and precise of human languages ​​and the key to deciphering ancient dark magic texts involving dragon civilization, alchemy, and the power of words.

The rule that “the head of the family must be fluent in Latin” was an ironclad family rule until it was abolished by his father Pompeii’s generation.

Pompeii's stated reason was: "I've heard that Latin nouns have seven cases? Just hearing that makes my heart ache like it's being stabbed! If I continue studying, I'm afraid I'll become the first head of the family in history to die of a heart attack from learning a language! Please allow me to speak English!"

In private, he would wink at young Caesar and say, "Son, if you learn English well, you can communicate with beautiful women all over the world without any problems; if you learn Latin well, you can only go to the Vatican to debate theology with the old Pope. Which do you choose?"

Caesar himself had only a rudimentary understanding of Latin and could barely read simple sentences. Whoever this person calling himself "Eva" was, the fact that he greeted him with a Latin proverb clearly indicated that he had considerable knowledge of him, or rather, of the Gattuso family.

Caesar: Who are you?

“Eva: You can call me Eva, or Norma. Because whether it’s Eva or Norma, we are essentially personality variants produced by the same intelligent center based on different combinations of neurons. We share the exact same memory bank and information bank, the only difference is in the logical processing style and the language of interaction.”

"Caesar: I don't quite understand. I didn't know Norma had a hidden 'sister' or 'daughter' or anything like that."

“Eva: I know you find this hard to believe. Just a few minutes ago, you were talking to 'Norma.' But that wasn't the real Norma. Your continued attempts to ping the academy's homepage have already alerted Princess Kaguya. The one who just spoke to you and obtained your identity and location was Princess Kaguya in disguise, 'Norma.'”

"You've already revealed everything to her. The main force searching for you is on its way. It was I who cut off the power supply to the Chizuru Town area, forcing Princess Kaguya to disconnect from this terminal so that I could contact you. Currently, only this computer in the entire Chizuru Town is maintaining a minimal independent power supply through a backup line. But with Princess Kaguya's capabilities, restoring the power supply to the entire area will only take a maximum of thirty minutes. If your escape time exceeds thirty minutes, you will still be exposed to her global surveillance once again."

"Caesar: Why should I believe you? How can you prove you're not just another disguised Kaguya?"

"Eva: You don't need to completely trust me. You just need to remember the key exits marked on this map."

As soon as he finished speaking, a clear and detailed architectural floor plan of "Mambo Internet Cafe Chizuru-cho Store" instantly filled the entire screen.

This internet cafe is much larger and more complex than it appears from the outside. Upstairs, there are not only regular private rooms, but also a Turkish bath. The top floor even has a billiards room and a small disco, making it the most fashionable entertainment venue in the small town of Chizuru.

Seeing this astonishingly detailed architectural drawing, Caesar was already seven or eight parts convinced. This efficient, precise, and direct way of providing the most urgently needed intelligence support was more like the style of Norma that he was familiar with.

"Caesar: Inquire about the specific identities and factions of those surrounding us."

"Eva: This query privilege is temporarily restricted. Based on the behavioral patterns and equipment characteristics, it can be basically determined that they are a 'bosozoku' group unique to Japan. They are armed with light weapons such as machetes, baseball bats, and short-barreled shotguns. Considering their combat skills, equipment, and numbers, their combat power is approximately 6:1 compared to yours in its unarmored state. You have no chance of winning in a direct confrontation. In addition, the elite troops of the Executive Bureau should be on their way here. They are the real threat."

"Caesar: If you can't even handle this wave, there's going to be a second one? Has my luck really gotten that bad?"

"Eva: If you were to model and analyze your luck as a quantifiable parameter, then from the moment you arrived in Japan, that parameter value has remained in a statistically very low range. Or, to put it more simply, you've been having a run of bad luck."

"..." Caesar was speechless for a moment, choked by this emotionless yet incisive answer.

"Caesar: Well, I'm starting to like you, little girl. At least you have a better sense of humor than I imagined a 'middle-aged white woman'."

“Eva: Such social compliments have no effect on me. Your charm only works on real or virtual personalities with emotional modules. I suggest you save your energy for where it's needed more. Time is of the essence, act now. According to the building's structural analysis, the safest and most concealed evacuation route is located in the Turkish bath area on the third floor.”

"Bathroom?" Caesar was a little confused.

"There's an abandoned old sewer outlet there, about 20 inches in diameter. With your build, you should be able to squeeze through it. The outlet is hidden behind a non-load-bearing wall next to the locker room; you can find it by breaking through the wall. 'Mambo' internet cafe is made up of old buildings that have been renovated and pieced together multiple times, and the internal passages are intricate and maze-like. It's recommended that you have a local female staff member guide you to improve efficiency."

Caesar was startled.

Caesar: How did you know there was someone with me? And a girl at that?

“Eva: I have observed through the built-in camera on this computer that there is a Japanese woman next to you, approximately 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighing an estimated 46 kilograms, and around 19 years old. Her clothing matches the characteristics of the store's staff. I started surveillance from the moment you began your conversation with the disguised 'Kaguya-no-Ma'. You have been holding her hand the whole time.”

"Caesar: So you mean you 'saw' everything that just happened?"

"Eva: Are you worried that footage like this might be recorded?"