Lu Mingfei, why are you slaying dragons if you're not involved!

Chapter 125 Lu Mingfei VS Old Tang, Father Beats Son (4.1K)

"Hey bro, I just saw a really good job. I'm thinking of taking it to earn some extra money for living expenses. Maybe next time!"

Old Tang typed an explanation, explaining that the keycaps were now covered in a new layer of oil, but he didn't care... He lived in a poor neighborhood, so what was there to pursue in terms of hygiene and cleanliness?
Besides, there aren't any cockroaches or rats coming over anyway.

This is Old Tang's innate ability; no animal dares to approach him. Once they are within a certain distance, they will flee in fear as if they have encountered a natural enemy.

This fear extends to everything from the top predators in nature to the most annoying tiny mosquitoes and flies, except for humans, who are the same species as him.

Humans aren't necessarily afraid of him, but Old Tang feels that his social skills seem to be a bit off. Despite having a cheerful face, and generally making a good first impression on everyone, things always cool off after a short time.

This indifference is not a deliberate attempt to distance oneself, but rather an unconscious rejection, or even dislike, of those who "cannot fit in."

Forcing himself to communicate is barely acceptable, but Old Tang doesn't like doing things that are met with indifference.

Therefore, even now, Old Tang still doesn't have a single friend, male or female. Once, he finally managed to get a date with a beautiful blonde cheerleader from his high school, and even managed to get her to the aquarium, but because the animals wouldn't approach him... that was the end of it.

This had one advantage: as an adopted child, he was never bullied at school from elementary school until he dropped out of high school. Those school bullies never bothered him; it was as if he had donned an invisibility cloak like in Harry Potter.

There are good and bad in everything, and as such, it's inevitable to feel somewhat...lonely.

Sometimes, Lao Tang would think to himself, what's there for a grown man like me to be so dramatic about? So what if I'm lonely? A tiger never walks with a flock of sheep! That just proves I'm an unparalleled macho man!

But loneliness is something that can't be shaken off. It's the heartbeat in every quiet, deserted night. That feeling always spreads like a cold snake through your limbs when you're most relaxed, letting you know that there's no one in this world who cares about you anymore. For you, Earth Online is a single-player game, and no one cares when you log off.

However, the clever Lao Tang quickly discovered a way to alleviate this "loneliness": playing video games!

The "buff" he possesses seems to only take effect when he's face-to-face with others in real life, while the friends he makes through the game come from all over the world. They communicate online and call each other brothers, having a great time.

There will always be waves of people wanting to be your friends in the game. If one person has something come up and can't play for a while, you can find another one. If the game shuts down and there are no players left, you can switch to another game...

This method helped to alleviate much of the feeling of "loneliness," but it also brought a new problem—Old Tang became addicted to games.

Having experienced the days of having so many friends who called him brother, why would he want to return to loneliness?

Playing games isn't a big deal, the key issue is that Lao Tang lives alone, can't rely on his parents, and has a rather special job that means he can't play games for a long time at a time.

In the online world, if you don't know someone in real life or through work, and you don't contact them for five or six days, they're basically like strangers lying in your friend list.

People who hate being alone naturally value their friends. Old Tang was addicted to video games and couldn't bear to part with his friends, so... he hadn't been to work for a long time!

If things continue like this, he'll have to rely on government relief food just to make ends meet. Old Tang felt that "a real man shouldn't accept charity," and since he was physically and mentally sound, he should at least have some backbone.

"Oh, okay bro! You're going to have to fight against life too?"

The guy, whose whereabouts were unknown, sighed, "I'm going to look for a job in a few days... I've been unemployed and lying at home for months, and my mom keeps nagging me."

"Hey bro, it's like this..."

Old Tang felt a pang of sadness and a sense of empathy for the other person. He considered saying, "At least you still have your mother," but then felt it might sound like he was trying to gain sympathy, so he deleted it.

"You're already a rare pro player. 'Mingming' left earlier, and if you leave too, our group's strength will drop significantly," the guy remarked.

"Did Ming really go to school for extra lessons?"

Old Tang's drooping eyebrows twitched again, and he quickly pressed for more information.

In fact, besides lack of money, another important reason why he was able to make up his mind to work was that he could no longer find any rivals in the interstellar community.

As the saying goes, "The higher you climb, the colder it gets," and being invincible can also be a kind of loneliness.

Old Tang has outstanding talent in various games. He learns quickly and grows at an astonishing speed. So sometimes he switches games not because the game is no longer popular, but because he has been invincible and lonely for too long. No friends come to him to challenge him... and random matchmaking is not fun.

But the person with the ID "Mingming" was different; their interstellar strength was so powerful it was despair-inducing! Old Tang still remembers the scene when he was brutally defeated by them.

At that time, it was 2 p.m. on Mingming's end, which corresponded to about 1 a.m. in New York.

They played for almost eight hours straight!
In his longest match, Lao Tang lasted thirteen minutes, and his shortest was six minutes, averaging less than ten minutes... He played a total of fifty matches, and his record was—

50: 0!

Old Tang is that 0.

This defeat can't even be described as a crushing loss; it's more like a father beating his son... and the son is the kind who wants to fight back but is powerless to do so, and can only "recognize who the father is!"
Old Tang is a person who likes to keep trying despite repeated failures, but "Mingming" declined with the excuse that "I have to go to school tomorrow and it's already very late. I'll definitely do it next time," so he had no choice but to give up.

But to his surprise, he has yet to keep his promise of "next time"!
Since that day, "Mingming" has never been online again. His QQ account has always been grayed out, and he has never received a reply to the messages he sent to the other party.

The problem is that even though he clearly felt his gaming skills had improved a lot over the past few days, when he recalled the details of that day's battle and mentally reviewed it... he still felt there was no hope of victory.

Everyone would be concerned about an opponent they cannot defeat.

“Right? I remember ‘Mingming’ was a student, I think he’s a senior in high school this year,” the guy said.

"I've heard a bit about the current state of education in China, but I never imagined it would be this severe. Senior year of high school... is it like being in jail? I can understand not playing games for so many days, but how come you haven't even been on QQ?" Old Tang said, somewhat embarrassed.

"...If you put it that way, that's pretty much it!"

The guy seemed to think about it seriously for a while before answering, "But not playing games is understandable, not even logging into QQ is a bit far-fetched... Could something have happened?"

"problem occurs?"

Old Tang scratched his hair and wiped his hand with oil. He was stunned for a while, then simply rubbed it all over his clothes, planning to just take a shower and throw it away later.

"I don't know, but there are mailing addresses in the 'Mingming' group. It seems that it was originally for collecting 'apprenticeship fees'. You could just mail some food and drinks to them and you would receive guidance from top experts."

The guy replied, "Dude, if you're passing by and have some free time, you can go check it out. My mom's giving me trouble again, I'm going to die for a bit..."

After saying that, the guy's profile picture turned gray. Old Tang had no choice but to pray and mourn for three seconds for this guy whose name he didn't know, hoping that his "death for a while" wasn't real...

After finishing his prayers, he closed the chat window and first glanced at the mailing address of "Mingming" in the group. It was a security guard's room in a residential area in a city in a southern province of China, and the recipient was named "Mingming," which seemed to have a bit of a counter-surveillance feel to it.

Because of his strikingly Chinese appearance, Old Tang had long yearned for China. He had never been there, but he actively sought information through various channels and even taught himself Chinese.

He even felt a sense of ease when learning Chinese, which further convinced him that he was Chinese, but he just didn't know why he had ended up in the United States.

"Let's talk about it later. It seems a bit strange to make a special trip to China to meet real online friends in person..."

Old Tang scratched his head again. Actually, he was a little afraid of meeting his online friends in real life because it meant they might soon lose their friendship.

So he closed the group chat and started focusing on the quest posted on the Hunter Marketplace. "Requirements: High-level hunter... fluent in Chinese, skilled in infiltration... an unknown ancient tomb in the mountains, even the coordinates are precise?"

Old Tang hissed and gasped.

He perfectly meets all the requirements for this mission, but there is one small problem—the mission location is in China!

There's a joke that goes like this: There's an incredibly powerful organization on the dark web that can send any contraband anywhere on Earth for the right price.

When making a selection, customers can simply throw darts on the world map they are provided, but this world map is somewhat different from the normal one... The area representing China is not land, but sea.

Jokes are just for fun, but just like "there are no wrong nicknames, only wrong names," jokes always have a reason for being created.

The reward for this task is indeed very high, but there is basically no chance of completing it, so no matter how high it is, it's useless... Old Tang thought to himself, and decided to pass on this task.

But his attention was quickly drawn to the description of the reward for the next mission.

It's not about the amount of the reward, but the method of payment—just by going, regardless of whether the task is completed or not, you'll receive a substantial reward. Furthermore, as soon as you accept the task, the client will directly provide upfront travel expenses and funds for daily operations!

"Where did this sucker come from!"

Old Tang's eyes lit up, and he jumped up and cheered. He knew the "rules" of the hunter's market well; since the quest was described this way, he wasn't worried about not getting paid!

Of course I have to go. I'll get paid whether I complete the task or not. It's free money, why not take it? I might as well treat it as a "publicly funded trip"!

"Maybe I can even catch a glimpse of 'Mingming' while I'm at it!"

He thought to himself, replied to the site email, and attached his resume. This process is called "submitting a post," and then the client selects the post hunter.

A moment later, a distinctive notification sounded, and Hunter Market informed him that his inbox had received a reply email. This made Old Tang's heart skip a beat; usually, such a quick reply could only be a polite rejection, right?
He clicked on it and froze.

The letter was very brief.

"It is a pleasure to work with you. Your travel expenses and activity funds have been transferred to your account. Please depart for your destination as soon as possible. If you need additional funds due to special circumstances, please contact us by uploading evidence via in-site email."

Old Tang looked at the letter from left to right, but could only make out four words.

……

"Rich and powerful."

Zhang Shanfeng gave his evaluation.

“Our people received this task so easily. The other party did not conduct any vetting at all. They just want to attract all kinds of people by throwing money around and confuse us.”

“There might be a leak within our ranks…” Ye Sheng said with some difficulty.

"Don't always think big about things, or you'll make your work very difficult later on. It's unrealistic to expect large-scale transfers to go unnoticed. The more people involved in something, the less likely it is to remain secret."

Zhang Shanfeng shook his head and said, "I never expected the matter of Xiang Yu's tomb to be kept secret... We only need to intercept any invading enemies! You should have already made arrangements, right?"

"I contacted the higher-ups immediately. The orders to strengthen border control, entry security checks, and management of foreign personnel should already be in effect," Ye Sheng nodded.

“Very good, at least it will be difficult for those foreigners to get involved in this matter.”

Zhang Shanfeng patted Ye Sheng on the shoulder approvingly.

"And this also has some advantages, at least we can be absolutely certain that there are good things in Xiang Yu's tomb!"

Oh, and there's one more thing. What grudge does this 'Crown Prince' have with the Secret Service that would make the Kassel College headquarters go to such lengths?

"I do not know."

When the matter was mentioned, Ye Sheng was somewhat bewildered, but then he realized what was going on and couldn't help but laugh and cry.

"You started teaching at Kassel College even earlier than me, and you don't even know? How could I possibly know?"

"Oh, too!"

Zhang Shanfeng smiled. "They want to come over?"

"Yes."

"You don't want to talk online?"

"Yes."

"Then let them wait a bit!"

Zhang Shanfeng narrowed his eyes and smiled like an old fox.

"This is a huge deal, probably top secret. They've let something slip, so it would be a shame not to take advantage of this opportunity to squeeze some money out of them!"

……

[Warning, it's time for our [basketball] plan...]

As usual, Lu Mingfei packed his things, said goodbye to Ling and Liu Miaomiao, and left the classroom amidst the gazes of everyone, running to the Qingning Basketball Gymnasium.

[Through hard training, your [running] skills have improved, gaining 3 proficiency points.]

Lu Mingfei glanced at the proficiency panel.

It's been almost six days since his last running challenge, and thanks to his persistent (and irresistible) daily running training, he's unknowingly...

Running LV1 - Proficiency 150/200
"At this rate, it should be upgraded in a few days..."

Thinking to himself, Lu Mingfei's gaze swept across the entrance of the basketball court, and he paused slightly.

He saw someone he knew.

"Zhao Menghua?"

Lu Mingfei raised his eyebrows slightly.

"What is he doing here?"

(End of this chapter)