Dragon Clan: Lu Mingfei Doesn’t Want to Become a Night City Legend

Chapter 4 Lu Mingze: Brother, you’re not in Kassel at all! Where the hell are you?
Arasaka.

This is the name of the company, a company that everyone in this world knows.

Although there are many companies and organizations that hold power in this world, Arasaka is one of the most famous companies even among so many companies.

As mentioned before, companies often play the villain role in the cyberpunk world. As expected, it only takes Arasaka one minute to destroy the courage that Lu Mingfei has built up.

Lu Mingfei didn't even look at the other letters in his mailbox, such as [The room renovation service ordered has been canceled], [The trauma team membership has expired], [The familiar cyborg doctor reminded me to see him occasionally] and so on.

The straightforward death is conveyed in pale words.

After that, Lu Mingfei only went out once in the first week.

----------------

Time returns to the present.

After closing the diary, the poor guy scratched his head and thought in his mind.

(Today is the day this room is handed over.)
Lu Mingfei sighed, but there was nothing he could do. He had been mentally preparing for a month. After feeling discouraged, he patted his face and started to move.

The first step is to search the room for anything useful.

Although Arasaka told Lu Mingfei not to touch the valuables in the room, Lu Mingfei now has no money in his personal account. No matter what kind of other world it is, how can he survive without money when he is away from home?

Lu Mingfei put on black functional pants and a windbreaker, wrapping himself up in black. In the numerous pockets, he put a lot of small things that looked like they could be exchanged for money. Lu Mingfei searched on the Internet and guessed what they were.

The young man, dressed in loose clothes and all black, looked at himself through the floor-to-ceiling window in the room.

Dark circles under the eyes, a slender body, and a worried face.

".It's finally time, but don't tell me how handsome I look in all black."

Trying to find joy in misery or perhaps just talking nonsense when he was anxious, Lu Mingfei walked around and rated his own outfit, appearing very satisfied.

After taking a few more glances, Lu Mingfei squatted down next to the cabinet where the diary was placed and opened the bottom drawer.

With a rustling sound, many white envelopes in the brown cabinet caught Lu Mingfei's sight.

I don’t know why, in this cyber age, my parents and I still keep the habit of writing letters by hand. Although most of the time we use emails, letters are occasionally delivered.

Lu Mingfei read most of them. They just briefly talked about the situation at the company and then told Lu Mingfei to take care of his health and eat and drink well.

It was mentioned that his parents were popular within the Arasaka Corporation and often selected some safe new models of prostheses for Lu Mingfei. They also seemed to be troubled by Lu Mingfei's reluctance to install the prosthesis.

But Lu Mingfei knew nothing about their own work.

There is only one exception, the one closest to the time when Lu Mingfei traveled through time.

Lu Mingfei sat down cross-legged and took out the letter.

[2076]

Dear Mingfei:

It's been a while since we last met. I hope you're in good health. My child, you'd be turning seventeen this year, and I'm sorry I can't be by your side to celebrate this important day.

But we will meet soon, research has made great progress and we will be back soon.

You are a smart kid, just like the report card I received from Arasaka Academy, you are [special].

I believe more than anyone else that you will be the person who changes the world. To this end, your father and I have already arranged the relationships within the company so that you can come here directly after you graduate from college.

You don't like installing prosthetics, but it doesn't matter. As we have mentioned to you many times before, the improved prosthetics in Arasaka's new research results can reduce the degree of nerve corrosion. I believe you will like them. We asked our friends in the company to send some to the northern industrial area. The address is the same as before, and the password is still your birthday.

Ming Fei, how much I want to hug you and tell you in person.

But I can only tell you in words
Dad and Mom love you.

Your dear mother
Joveni

Lu Mingfei was of course moved when he read the letter.

Because he hasn't heard the clear words "I love you" from his parents for a long time, he always feels that the two of them have forgotten him a long time ago. Although it is a different world, since both the original Lu Mingfei and the cyber Lu Mingfei are so unlucky, his parents' feelings should be the same.

But he didn't take it out of the drawer just to impress himself again.

Lu Mingfei reached into the envelope and felt a square chip and a round pocket watch with his fingertips.

The former is an empty shell [information chip]. Lu Mingfei had already read its contents in the previous week. It was probably the address of the prosthesis mentioned in the letter and the passcode.

And the other piece.
Lu Mingfei looked at the pocket watch in his hand. The outer shell was pink gold in color, and the carved patterns resembled a half-withered giant tree.

The time on the pocket watch was 2.15:, and on the inside of the watch was a group photo of a summer garden with countless vine walls, lush yet transparent green. A man and a woman stood in the center of the photo.

The man was wearing a loose white shirt, wide-leg pants, and a pair of wooden slippers, while the woman was wearing a pure white cotton home skirt.

Lu Mingfei almost forgot what his parents looked like, but he didn't take the clock away out of remembrance of his parents.

In fact, there are some "clues" on this table that probably only Lu Mingfei can see.

——First of all, this pocket watch is not moving.

The current time is 2.15: in the morning in Night City, but the pocket watch is stuck at :, and the second hand shows no signs of moving.

When he first got it, Lu Mingfei was rude and said "Oh, Mingfei-sang's pocket watch has stopped~", but he soon realized that something was wrong with the number.

2.15.
It’s only one day away from Lu Mingfei’s birthday - February 2.14th.

That’s right, this unlucky child was born on Valentine’s Day, and it’s strange that the clock was deliberately stuck here.

So, when he tried to move the pocket watch forward—

【Kaba】

The curved shell of the pocket watch was ejected. At the same time, Lu Mingfei let out a hissing sound and sucked in cold air. He shook his hands because a small ball of cold air inexplicably burst out after the watch shell was ejected.

Although the temperature is very low, it is not enough to kill people, so this is not a hidden weapon, but more like
What is stored at low temperature?
Lu Mingfei took a deep breath, rubbed his hands, and took out the last treasure left to him by his parents.
It was a small, pink rectangle with two black lines running horizontally across the front. It looked delicate yet fragile, with an inexplicably fascinating sense of technology.

Obviously, it's the chip.

In this world, everyone has a brain-computer interface installed, so chips can be used to directly transmit information, store money, and even roughly insert "technology", "skills", and even "abilities" into the human brain by plugging and unplugging.

The so-called abilities can basically be divided into [attribute panel] and [skill panel].

Both can be displayed in a data dashboard - although most people don't do this, there are only rumors that companies include the data of untouchables in their own networks.

[Property Panel] is divided into five major items.

【flesh】

【intelligence】

【reaction】

【Technical capabilities】

【Calm】

The [Skill Panel] has a lot more, including hacking, ninja stealth, and all the skills you can think of can be stored as 'data'.

According to the information Lu Mingfei found, chips of this shape are generally [point chips], which are used to give [skill panel] growth.

This chip was deliberately sent back by my parents in an envelope through someone else's mail. They would never harm themselves, so that must be a very powerful skill!

If this is a novel, then this is the time for my golden finger to appear!
Are there any risks?
Nonsense, of course there is!
For example, this letter was not given to him by his parents at all, or everything else was prepared by his parents, but this chip was arranged by someone else.

For example, this letter has long been intercepted by someone else and the chip data has been changed.

For example, this chip is some special technology that neither of his parents has mastered. If it is inserted into Lu Mingfei's brain, his brain will only be burned.

For example, this chip was prepared for the cyberpunk Lu Mingfei, but now that Lu Mingfei has changed his soul, it is not a match at all.

This was the only life-saving straw that Lu Mingfei found last week, but it was also the poison that pushed Lu Mingfei to the brink of mental collapse.

Although he said it was a [Golden Finger], the sample chip Lu Mingfei found on the Internet actually did not match this thing.

Inserting a strange device into the brain with no safety monitoring at all? This kind of crazy behavior is enough to drive a minor crazy.

So before coming to the cyberpunk world, he made plans for the worst case scenario and said goodbye to the people he was familiar with.

but.
Being a waste in Night City is a life worse than death.

After only being here for a week, Lu Mingfei already understood this.

His eyes were fixed, and for a moment, perhaps it was an illusion, Lu Mingfei's face no longer had the wretched look of the past, but was calm to the point of being abnormally quiet.

The next moment, he inserted the chip into the port behind his ear.

Then----

【Squeak! ! ——————】

"Cuck!!"

The facial display suddenly flashed with large sparks.

Lu Mingfei suddenly felt groggy, with sharp tinnitus mixed with the faint sound of distant bells.

The bells echoed, as if coming from a church far away.

The image began to spin, the colors pulling and forming curling vortices.

The wasteland under the moon, the dark shadow of the church, and the frenzied crowd.

The outlines of the faces of those madmen were illuminated by the firelight, and the silent blue moon fell into half of the lake.

Lu Mingfei was suddenly shocked. He didn't know why he thought of all this. It was as if he was right there at the scene.

Why, after all, was there such a monotonous chime? Lu Mingfei realized something was wrong. He was in Night City, outside, on a bustling highway, full of noise.

And it's fucking daytime, how come I can see the moon!?!

Lu Mingfei stood up suddenly, and as he completed the action, a full moon rose outside the floor-to-ceiling window.

Moonlight poured in like a tide crashing towards the shore, engulfing the room where Lu Mingfei was.

Lu Mingfei was standing in the middle of the room at this moment, and on the bed where he first woke up, a figure had appeared.

She looked to be Chinese, about thirteen or fourteen years old, wearing a pure black evening gown. In modern terms, she was so beautiful that she could earn dollars by using the "girly boy tag" on Twitter.

He hugged his calves with both hands, curled up at the head of the bed, raised his face and looked at the 'full moon' outside the window - the direction of the city center, in other words, the direction of Arasaka Tower.

Lu Mingfei couldn't see his expression clearly, but just by looking at him, he could feel an emotion from the boy that almost made his body tremble violently.

Burning quietly, but hotter than anything else
Hatred and anger.

After a long while, he slowly twisted his slender neck, which seemed to be easily broken.

His eyes showed a fan-shaped statistical chart of three parts anger at the lack of fighting spirit, three parts sadness, three parts nostalgia and one part helpless regret.

"Brother, you disappoint me."

For no reason, Lu Mingfei felt that the boy's words were so heavy. He was extremely important to him. The two people who should not have had any intersection seemed to have been very close.

So he spoke sincerely and politely.

"If it's not my brother, who are you talking to?"

　There are two versions of Lu Mingfei's birthday, one in August and one on Valentine's Day (serial version)
　　
　
(End of this chapter)