Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei's War Journey

Chapter 117 The 2012 Doomsday

Lu Mingfei did not leave Su Xiaoqiang's house immediately, but went to the kitchen and turned on the tap. However, the rusty tap did not produce any water.

"Lu Mingfei, what are you doing?" Su Xiaoqiang asked in confusion.

"We don't know how long we'll be here, so we need to gather some supplies," Lu Mingfei said as he reached for the refrigerator next to him.

Lu Mingfei opened the refrigerator, and a strong smell of decay hit him. The refrigerator had been shut off long ago, and the remaining food had rotted into clumps of blackish-green viscous substance, which could be vaguely seen as some vegetables and meat.

He quickly closed the refrigerator door, his brow furrowed.

"Does your family usually keep drinking water on hand?" He turned to Su Xiaoqiang, his tone like issuing orders on a battlefield.

Su Xiaoqiang was still a little dazed, and subconsciously replied, "I still have a case of bottled water in my room—"

Lu Mingfei went back to Su Xiaoqiang's room. The room had changed; the corpse of the Deadpool on the floor had disappeared, and the broken door had been restored to normal.

Not only that, the room's interior furnishings have also undergone a complete transformation. It is no longer the girlish boudoir that Su Xiaoqiang remembers, filled with various plush toys and celebrity posters.

The wallpaper had been changed to a different, elegant gray tone. Some unfamiliar things, which looked like work documents or ledgers, were piled on the desk. The cosmetics on the dressing table had also been replaced with a batch of brands she didn't recognize.

The atmosphere of the room felt more like that of a mature woman who had stayed briefly and then left in a hurry.

"What on earth is going on—" Su Xiaoqiang followed behind Lu Mingfei, looking at the room that had transformed into a different room in the blink of an eye, her voice trembling uncontrollably.

Lu Mingfei continued walking inside and began searching the room for the water Su Xiaoqiang had mentioned. He quickly found four or five boxes of water piled up in the corner, along with a lot of biscuits and canned goods, which seemed to be specially prepared supplies.

Lu Mingfei picked up a bottle of water and looked at it. The water was clean and the seal was intact, so it should still be drinkable. Then he looked at the production date, and he was stunned when he saw that the production date of the bottle of water was actually 2012.

He clearly remembered that the previous time was 2008, so why was this bottle of water produced in 2012?

"Lu Mingfei! Come here right now!" Su Xiaoqiang exclaimed from the side.

Lu Mingfei turned his head and saw Su Xiaoqiang pull out a diary from somewhere and start reading it.

"Quickly look at what's on the page!" Su Xiaoqiang hurriedly handed the notebook to Lu Mingfei.

Lu Mingfei took the diary and began to flip through it.

[September 23, 2008, Sunny. Today, Lu Mingfei twisted my arm and I cried all night in the hospital. Fortunately, the doctor said it's nothing serious and I'll be fine after some rest. Humph, once my hand is healed, I'll definitely make Lu Mingfei look good. I even thought he was pretty handsome when he was beating up thugs.]

"Who told you to look here! Look behind you!" Su Xiaoqiang blushed when she saw Lu Mingfei's strange look, took the diary back, started flipping through it, and then handed it back to Lu Mingfei.

[April 27, 2012, cloudy. Nostalgic for my time at Fudan University. I had planned to go to Shanghai to find a job and internship after graduation and start a truly independent life, but my dad suddenly had a heart attack and I had to drop out of school and go home to inherit those dozens of mines. Today I have to have dinner with the director of the land bureau. It's really annoying.]

For some reason, I suddenly thought of that guy from high school who broke my arm and then disappeared without a trace. Where is he now? What is he doing?

[May 10, 2012, light rain. Chu Zihang, a legendary senior from high school, actually came to my door through connections, specifically asking about Lu Mingfei's whereabouts. Damn it, how would I know where that guy is? Ever since he went crazy and broke my arm in school, I haven't heard a thing about him. It's like he vanished into thin air.]

[Chu Zihang looks very serious, even a little anxious? He said Lu Mingfei's disappearance might involve something unusual. Could this guy really be involved in some trouble? Should I—try to ask someone to look for him too?]

[June 20, 2012, sweltering heat. Lu Mingfei remained missing. Moreover, rumors about the 2012 apocalypse were spreading increasingly rampantly online, with all sorts of evidence and prophecies flooding the internet. I initially didn't believe any of it, thinking it was just another round of hype and panic marketing.]

However—in recent years, natural disasters around the world have indeed become unusually frequent. Earthquakes, massive tsunamis, and large-scale volcanic eruptions—the news is almost constantly reporting on them, and the casualty figures are shocking. I'm feeling a bit uneasy. Should I—stock up on some supplies?

[July 10, 2012, thunderstorm. The world seemed to have truly gone mad. News reports said that a giant bronze city had appeared overnight in the waters near the Three Gorges Dam, and more than one eyewitness claimed to have captured videos and photos of a dragon flying over Tokyo! Although the news was quickly deleted and blocked across the entire internet, a friend of mine who frequents foreign hacker forums secretly sent me a few pictures—that thing was definitely not some giant bird or aircraft! The scales, the wings—it was too realistic, it gave me goosebumps. The more the authorities blocked it, the more it indicated that things were not simple.]

[July 20, 2012, overcast. My dad went crazy! He actually believed in the doomsday prophecy and, ignoring everyone's objections, hastily sold off all the dozens of high-quality coal mines that could still be mined for many years at a near-fire price! Then, through some secret channel, he spent an unimaginable astronomical sum to buy three tickets, supposedly to Noah's Ark! He said it was humanity's last hope ark, and only a very few powerful, wealthy, and well-connected people could board it.]

My mother fainted several times from crying, and I simply cannot understand how those three flimsy cards could really buy our family's right to survive.

[On August 1, 2012, during a thunderstorm, Japan sank. News reports stated that the main islands sank due to a massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami, but I knew it wasn't that simple. My hacker friend contacted me for the last time, sending an extremely chaotic audio recording filled with screams and explosions, along with a fragmented sentence: "They—came out—more than one—Tokyo—gone—and then he disappeared forever."]

This afternoon, from my balcony, I thought I saw the shadow of a huge creature flash by in the distant clouds—was I just hallucinating because I was too nervous?

[August 20, 2012. Today is the day I'm to proceed to the designated meeting point as instructed on my ticket, to prepare to board Noah's Ark. The meeting point is kept strictly confidential and will only be communicated to me at the last minute via special equipment.]

Some say Noah's Ark was an unbelievably large ship hidden in the deep sea; others say it wasn't a ship at all, but a super refuge built beneath the Arctic glaciers, capable of withstanding all disasters; still others, more fantastical, say it was a door to a new world.

The diary entry ends abruptly here, followed by a blank page.

Lu Mingfei slowly closed the diary. He stood there, digesting the astonishing amount of information revealed in the diary.

"So—we've traveled to 2012 now?" Su Xiaoqiang said, trembling. The future version of herself in the diary, everything she experienced and recorded, filled her with immense terror.

"No—it should be much later. If it were 2012, the surrounding buildings wouldn't be this dilapidated," Lu Mingfei said. The surrounding environment couldn't have changed like this in just a few months; it would have taken at least several years.

"Let's go, let's check other places for any other clues." Lu Mingfei found a backpack, started filling it with water and canned food, then slung the backpack over his shoulder and led Su Xiaoqiang out of the villa.

Yunding Qiyuan, once the most luxurious upscale community in Binhai City, is now a ruin.

The meticulously manicured green belts are covered by wildly growing black vines, the fountain pools are dry and cracked, the sculptures are collapsed and broken, most of the adjacent villas have broken doors and windows, the walls are covered with dark moss and cracks, and some have even collapsed halfway, exposing the decaying skeleton inside.

Lu Mingfei led Su Xiaoqiang towards the city center. Along the way, there were wrecked vehicles and not a single person in sight, just like what he had seen on TV before, when the world suddenly experienced a zombie crisis, except there were no zombies to be seen on the streets.

"Lu Mingfei, wait a minute—I can't walk anymore—" Su Xiaoqiang said breathlessly to Lu Mingfei, who hadn't even taken a deep breath.

Lu Mingfei glanced at Su Xiaoqiang, who was almost exhausted, and realized that continuing to walk like this was too inefficient. He looked around and found a bicycle lying on the side of the road. The bicycle was rusty, but it should still be rideable.

He stepped forward, lifted the bicycle, brushed off the dust, and checked the chain and tires. Although they were rusty, the structure was basically intact. The tires were a bit flat, but they could still support the bicycle. He pressed down on the seat, and it was quite sturdy.

"Get on," he said to Su Xiaoqiang, slinging his backpack over his shoulder.

Su Xiaoqiang looked at the dilapidated bicycle, hesitating, "Will this... work? Won't it fall apart?"

"It's faster than walking and saves energy." Lu Mingfei straddled the bicycle seat, supporting himself with one foot.

"Hold my waist and watch your arms."

Su Xiaoqiang gritted her teeth, sat sideways on the back seat, and gently grabbed Lu Mingfei's clothes at the waist with her uninjured right hand. Lu Mingfei checked his balance and pushed off forcefully.

The bicycle made a creaking sound as it slowly moved forward. It wobbled a bit at first, but Lu Mingfei quickly got the hang of it and rode through the empty, desolate streets.

The wind brushed past my ears, carrying the smell of decay.

The buildings on both sides rushed past, revealing the dilapidated details of the city more clearly. In the broken shop windows, faded mannequins wore fashionable clothes from several years ago, and on the abandoned bus stop signs, GG posters were reduced to blurry patches of color.

A gaunt crow stood atop a streetlamp, coldly gazing down at them with its blood-red eyes.

Lu Mingfei rode steadily, his eyes scanning every intersection and every dark window warily. His brain was working at high speed, analyzing everything he saw.

The most crucial question is the exact time. Judging from the decay of the buildings and vehicles, the time here is at least after 2015. Su Xiaoqiang's diary only goes up to August 20, 2012, when he went to Noah's Ark. So what happened between August 20, 2012 and now? Did that future Su Xiaoqiang successfully board Noah's Ark?

Unbeknownst to her, Su Xiaoqiang had already leaned against Lu Mingfei's back. Feeling the warmth of his back, her fear began to lessen, and her heart even raced a little. Sitting on the back of a bicycle speeding through a post-apocalyptic world, there was even a touch of romance to it—

Just then, Lu Mingfei slammed on the brakes.

"What's wrong?" Su Xiaoqiang leaned forward due to inertia, her chest gently bumping against Lu Mingfei's back. She quickly steadied herself and looked ahead.

Upon seeing this, she gasped and froze.

At the crossroads ahead, the scene was horrifying. A dozen charred bodies lay scattered haphazardly on the asphalt road, but from some of the remaining limbs, one could see inhuman features, clearly indicating that they were Deadpool.

The road was charred black, as if a napalm bomb had landed on it.

"No wonder I haven't seen Deadpool along the way, he was wiped out in one fell swoop—" Lu Mingfei muttered to himself. He continued riding forward. It seemed that a battle had just broken out here not long ago, as the ground was still warm. Not far ahead, there was a red Ferrari sports car that had crashed crookedly into a twisted and deformed lamppost on the side of the road.

The front of the car was severely damaged, the hood was twisted and lifted up, the windshield was shattered in a spider web pattern but had not completely fallen off, and the body was covered with crisscrossing tear-like scratches, as if it had been repeatedly scratched by the claws of a huge beast.

Lu Mingfei stopped next to the red Ferrari and carefully inspected the vehicle. Although the body was covered with tear marks, the metal surface was not severely rusted. Although the tires were blown out, the rubber was still relatively new. There was no obvious dust accumulation inside the car. This car could not have been here for very long.

"It was a recent conflict," Lu Mingfei whispered, his fingers tracing a claw mark on the car door.

"Could they be like us, people who came from the normal world?" Su Xiaoqiang got off the back of the bicycle and cautiously looked at the dilapidated luxury car.

"For example—that blond hottie who wanted to give you a villa? He's so rich, it's normal for him to drive a Ferrari, right?"

Caesar?

Lu Mingfei's heart skipped a beat. Indeed, given Caesar's style and wealth, it was not surprising that he would drive a red Ferrari. But if it was Caesar, why didn't he go to him? And wasn't he driving a Maybach before?

"We can't be sure. Let's search the area carefully; maybe we'll find some clues, or maybe they haven't gone far."

He hopped back onto the creaking bicycle and said.

"Come on up, let's expand the search area."

Su Xiaoqiang nodded and sat in the back seat again. This time, she naturally reached out and wrapped her arms around Lu Mingfei's waist, pressing herself more firmly against his back.

After the old bicycle creaked along for more than ten minutes, Su Xiaoqiang, who had been nervously looking around, suddenly tugged hard at Lu Mingfei's clothes at the waist and pointed to the right side of the street.

"Lu Mingfei, look over there!"