Chicago time, 9:26 AM.
Kassel College, Principal's Office.
The elevator carrying the desk stopped in front of Lu Mingfei. Angers, looking quite spirited, greeted Lu Mingfei as the glass walls surrounding him slowly descended.
Lu Mingfei had initially wondered where the Principal's desk had gone, but now, seeing it rise before him, he suddenly realized that the Principal's desk was actually a super-large elevator.
As soon as Angers appeared, Lu Mingfei put away the ribbons that had transformed into punch daggers, the layers of ribbons obediently wrapping around his wrists.
"Principal."
Angers nodded with satisfaction. The information Fingel provided was very accurate; Lu Mingfei was much more disciplined than he had imagined.
"The Execution Department recently had a task open up. The intensity isn't very high. Mingfei, do you have any thoughts?"
As expected.
Lu Mingfei had anticipated this for a long time. Whether it was Lu Mingze's reminder or the fortune-telling sticks, they all foretold that he would have an outdoor mission opportunity today.
Based on his interpretation of the 'middle-low' stick, he could probably guess that if he refused this outdoor mission, he would encounter misfortune in the Kui Men Plan, so he definitely had to accept this mission.
The difference between the 'middle-middle' stick and the 'middle-high' stick was whether he needed a partner. If he hadn't convinced Fingel last night, it would have been fine, but he only used a week's worth of late-night snacks to persuade Fingel.
"Thank you, Principal, for finding this task," Lu Mingfei said. "If the risk isn't high, I can give it a try."
"I've thought of it for you, Mingfei. You will be the special commissioner for this operation, so you can freely choose your partner." Angers pulled a briefcase from under his chair. "And I specifically found a defensive alchemical creation for you."
Lu Mingfei opened the briefcase, and a notebook-sized heart protector armor fell into his hand. He could feel a strong sense of familiarity even without dripping blood on it.
"Something that fell onto the mixed-blood battlefield during the Crusades. Its defensive effect is quite good, and for the intensity of this mission, there won't be any problems."
This was the special treatment Kassel College gave to S-ranks. Other students would definitely not have such an easy time applying for alchemical creations from the ice cellar.
For the current Secret Party, this bit of grass for the horse was not expensive.
If an S-rank unexpectedly died in a trial mission, it would be a loss that outweighed the gain.
It was already 11:49 AM when he left the Principal's Office.
Lu Mingfei carried the briefcase with the heart protector armor, looking down to send a message to Ye Sheng. The ribbons wrapped around his hand no longer needed to be removed. Tonight, he would take the Execution Department's executive plane to the mission location.
A semi-developed industrial park in the suburbs of Chicago.
"Let's talk when we get back. Yaji and I have already arrived at the mission target overnight. There's not enough time to tell you too much."
Ye Sheng's reply was very hurried, not even correcting the typos.
Lu Mingfei roughly understood Ye Sheng Mr.'s current situation and then contacted Fingel.
"Senior, let's go."
"Are you sure the mission risk isn't high?"
"Ten days of late-night snacks."
"Coming!"
4:07 PM, outskirts of Chicago.
A noisy helicopter hovered two meters directly above the industrial park. After the door opened, Lu Mingfei, wearing a black trench coat, jumped out, followed by another person in a black trench coat.
The abandoned industrial park was originally a rarely visited place, but now, large and small armed vehicles were parked all around.
Footsteps, shouts, the clanging of metal—most of the people whose faces were visible looked weathered.
As soon as Lu Mingfei landed, his standard black trench coat attracted many people's attention. Someone walked directly in front of him and extended a hand in greeting:
"Friend from Kassel, hello. I am Owl."
This was his first mission, and adhering to the principle of speaking less to make fewer mistakes, Lu Mingfei did not answer him. He just stared at him expressionlessly. Owl met those unremarkable black eyes and inexplicably took half a step back, giving up the idea of activating his Golden Eyes.
The man behind Lu Mingfei stepped forward to block Owl. "This is not a social occasion, friend."
Owl's warm greeting was met with a cold shoulder. He roughly understood the attitude of the Kassel duo in this operation and immediately disappeared from Lu Mingfei's sight.
He sent a brief message to his boss without any hesitation:
"The Kassel people have arrived. They seem to have no room for compromise. Their attitude is strong, and they didn't give me any space to communicate."
In less than half a minute, the recipient replied:
"Report their location. I'll be there immediately."
"..."
The helicopter in the sky hadn't flown away yet. After waiting for a while, Lu Mingfei pressed his earbud and asked softly, "Senior, have you found anything?"
"Of course. This person who calls himself Owl was indeed sent by someone to test our attitude. I took pictures and will send them to you immediately," Fingel's voice came through the earbud.
In this mission, Lu Mingfei was the special commissioner, and Fingel claimed to be an F-rank with no combat ability, at most helping from the rear, like hacking the opponent's communication.
Seeing Fingel's firm attitude, Lu Mingfei no longer made further demands. After halving Fingel's late-night snacks, he hired a school staff member who had retired from the Navy SEALs as his assistant, who was the person next to him.
Soon, a middle-aged man in a white suit, wearing a sea-blue tie and sunglasses, appeared in Lu Mingfei's sight.
Owl's boss seemed to be wealthy and influential.
The intelligence stated that the other party was the heir of a small mixed-blood family, who understood the mixed-blood society to some extent.
"Friends from Kassel, I represent Howard in welcoming you two. I am Bern Howard. Just call me Bern." The other party bowed halfway. "Ever since I knew Kassel was paying attention here, I've been looking forward to which hero would come. May I ask your name?"
"Lu Mingfei." Lu Mingfei nodded.
On the way, Fingel told him that the Howard family was once prominent in British politics in the 16th century, but later fell on hard times and drifted to America for various reasons. They only started making a name for themselves in the last hundred years, somewhat restoring the Howard family's glory.
"Lu Mr., it's an honor to have you grace us with your presence." Bern's tone was complimentary. Seeing that Lu Mingfei's gaze wasn't on him, he quickly led the way.
The two walked through the park, sometimes sinking into the ground, sometimes not, finally stopping in front of a circular symbol completely covered by a black cloth.
With two claps from Bern, the black cloth was pulled up by the surrounding people, revealing a huge mine pit in front of Lu Mingfei. Dazzling mining lights shone down, revealing several broken bones excavated within.
From the thickness of the bones alone, it was difficult to tell whether they belonged to humans or dragons. The Execution Department leaned towards dragons, otherwise, they wouldn't have sent people to excavate and recover here.
Lu Mingfei shook his hand and pressed his earbud again, throwing out several questions in succession.
"Senior, can you see clearly? Approximately how old are these dragon bones, what generation, and how many samples need to be collected?"
