Dragon Clan: I am Lu Mingfei, the Intelligence Strategist, the God of Concepts!

Chapter 1 Uncle and Aunt, have you become NPCs?
Lu Mingfei stared blankly at the ceiling.

The winter sun is like an illusion, turning pure white into pale white.

Binhai is a southern city where snow is rare, but every winter it still gives people a damp and chilly feeling that runs from the soles of the feet to the top of the head, making it hard to breathe.

So my uncle and aunt's family planned to go to Sanya for a trip, but it seems they can't find a piece of clothing, and they've been searching through drawers and cabinets in a complete mess.

After being woken up, Lu Mingfei couldn't fall back asleep. He lay quietly in bed, watching the frost flowers covering the outside of the glass until the sunlight slowly gathered them into a trickle.

When this winter is over, he will turn eighteen and enter the most important year of his life. He will be living with his uncle and aunt for more than a third of the time without his parents.

How sad.

The book says that people die every so often. Each time they die, they forget some things, more or less. After ten or twenty years, having died many times, the memories are buried in the grave, and the soul within the body undergoes a replacement. At that point, the person is no longer the same person they once were.

For Lu Mingfei, this process actually won't take that long. It won't take ten or eight years; living in this house for four or five years at most will be enough.

However, given his mediocre literary skills, he is not yet able to express his feelings in a magical realism style; at most, he can only say, "I am sorry for being born."

"...Lu Mingfei!"

Just as Lu Mingfei was immersed in the subtle EMO atmosphere, a middle-aged woman outside the door suddenly raised her voice.

"The property management's air conditioning repairman is coming tomorrow. Keep an eye on things while he's here. I've told you several times not to turn on the air conditioning in the middle of winter, and now you've broken it..."

My aunt burst into the room, her broad shoulders and thick waist making her look like a goblin warrior who had broken into a saint's lair.

"Lu Mingfei! I'm talking to you, didn't you hear me!?"

My cousin and uncle, dressed neatly, peeked out from behind, their faces showing seemingly honest smiles. They said goodbye to Lu Mingfei in bed and then quickly shrank back inside.

"I heard."

Lu Mingfei pulled the blanket tighter around himself and secretly rolled his eyes.

If you're going to go, then go! Why wait until my school starts its senior year prep program before making travel plans? And why keep emphasizing, "It's a pity the timing doesn't work out, so I can't take you with me"? It's all unnecessary.

"Lu Mingfei! Young Master Lu! Can't you hear me?! Speak up!"

However, perhaps Lu Mingfei's voice was too soft, the middle-aged woman's voice became even louder, like a series of thunderclaps.

"All you do all day is sleep and play video games. What's the point of paying so much tuition every year? You won't even be able to get into college! And then your parents will come back and cause us trouble!"

"I said I heard it..."

Lu Mingfei was finally jolted out of bed, but the next moment, his gaze suddenly froze.

As if he had seen something indescribable, he gripped the quilt tightly and almost stuffed it into his mouth.

"Oooooohhhhhhhhhhh!"

"What are you yelling about? Do you think you're a rooster? Humph, you're hopeless... We'll be back after the fifteenth! There's some leftover food in the fridge, heat it up yourself, don't waste it!"

In Lu Mingfei's field of vision, the aunt with a yellow exclamation mark above her head smiled contemptuously.

Bang!
The door was slammed shut.

A few minutes later.

The sound of my uncle's BMW engine downstairs gradually faded into the distance.

In the bedroom, Lu Mingfei's eyes widened even more, bulging like copper bells.

……

[Intelligence panel successfully activated, displaying the imprints left by the characters you've seen in this world.]

Name: Lu Mingze

【Age: 17/65】

【Combat strength: 5】

[Favorability: -4]

Wealth Index: 5.2

[Tags: Ordinary man, Prince Ze, long-term meal ticket, craftsman, good boy... Note: The order is determined by familiarity with others and has no subjective bias (you can hide it to avoid reminders)]

[Evaluation: The epitome of all bad habits of a teenager.]

……

Name: Lu Gucheng

【Age: 45/91】

【Combat strength: 5】

【Favourability: 3】

Wealth Index: 4.1

[Tags: fake goods guy, henpecked husband, workaholic, please have some good tea...]

[Comment: There are many flowers in the garden. When the gardener waters them, they allocate more nutrients to their own flower. Of course, I'm referring to the gardener.]

……

Name: Yang Cuihua

【Age: 43/70】

【Combat strength: 5】

[Favorability: -5]

Wealth Index: 6.9...

[Landsight lost, intelligence gathering interrupted.]

? ?
Lu Mingfei rubbed his eyes vigorously.

"It wasn't a hallucination? What the heck... You guys have become NPCs in a sandbox game?"

As a long-time anime fan, Lu Mingfei has seen far too many superpowers, such as swords, demons, bodies, and fruits. He often dreams of becoming a superhero who saves the world, but he is not so far from confusing fantasy with reality.

What's with this sudden intelligence panel?

"The imprint of the world, is this something I can see? How come I didn't know I was so capable... *gulp*."

At this moment, Lu Mingfei gradually calmed down, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but turn up.

I must say, this intelligence panel actually looks pretty decent.

His cousin, Lu Mingze, is 17 years old and attends the same school as Lu Mingfei—Shilan Middle School, the best middle school in Binhai City.

His clothes and stationery were more exquisite than his. Whenever he ate with a girl, he would insist on paying the bill. He earned the nickname "Prince Ze" because of his extravagant spending. However, perhaps because he was 160 cm tall and weighed 160 catties, he never succeeded in confessing his love.

Lu Mingfei, and the little fat boy's few cronies, knew that
This kid is at that repressed age, often ordering mysterious packages labeled 'computer hardware' online, then secretly studying them alone in his room or bathroom, only often forgetting to clean up the spilled powder...

The tags all match, and the reviews are very apt.

A quintessential example of bad habits during adolescence... Lu Mingze is indeed the kind of student who, if a tutor calls his name and he's absent, will sniff and say he didn't smell anything.

However, in her aunt's eyes, her son will always be the best and most obedient child in the world.

My uncle is about the same.

He usually loves to frequent high-end places, but since he doesn't have control over the finances, his classic tactic is to order a pot of green tea in the lobby of the city's most luxurious five-star hotel, and then keep refilling the water until it becomes plain water. During this time, he will show off his high-quality replica Montblanc watch, which he bought in Guangzhou, at least twenty times, hoping to win praise from his friends.

My friend's inner monologue: "We know your whole outfit is fake, but since you're so confident and you're treating us to tea, and we're all just casual diners, we'll just say a few words as a token of our appreciation." And so, everyone had a great time...

"You're surprisingly good at judging people."

Lu Mingfei muttered to himself, his heart beginning to believe the panel a little more.

"The sorting of tags is determined by how well others know them, oh, that's pretty much like the QQ display page bubbles... So you guys have been figured out long ago."

"Why can't you learn from me? You should keep what you really want to do to yourself, and not even tell the gods!"

"There's absolutely no way anyone could know that I like Chen Wenwen!"

Lu Mingfei felt a surge of joy.
Continue to view the descriptions of the other information items on the panel: [Name], [Age], [Combat Strength], [Affection Level], and [Wealth Index].

[Name] goes without saying, [Age]...

My cousin's age is 17/65, meaning he is 17 years old this year and his natural lifespan is 65 years old.

"Although Lu Mingze has avoided decades of detours at a young age and entered a sub-healthy state prematurely, with the level of modern medicine... he shouldn't die of old age upon retirement, right?"

"My aunt's lifespan is only 70, but my uncle can live to 91?"

Lu Mingfei blinked, not quite understanding.

[Combat Power] They treat everyone equally; the entire family has a combat power of 5.

"That doesn't make sense, does it? Can an adult man, an adult woman, and a chubby teenager be considered the same fighting force? Did you buy this fighting force detector from Dragon Ball?"

Lu Mingfei couldn't help but complain.

"If you're so capable, bring out a Frieza with 53 power! Everyone else is a complete weakling, might as well hide. If you're not doing anything, go bite a lighter, stop being so stubborn..."

However, as his gaze moved upwards, his smile gradually faded.

[Favorability Rating]: The information in my mind indicates that this indicator has a range of plus or minus 10, and is used to measure how friendly others are to him.

The uncle, aunt, and cousin are 3, -4, and -5 respectively.

"Living under the same roof, how come two of my 'family members' have negative affection ratings?"

Lu Mingfei subconsciously clenched his fist, then slumped down and let it relax.

This result was not particularly surprising.

He was fostered by his uncle and aunt when he was very young. His parents were said to be busy with a major archaeological project and never saw each other again, but they would send him a large sum of money regularly, far exceeding the amount of money for a working class.

It was nominally Lu Mingfei's living expenses.

But gradually, less and less of that money was spent on him over the years.

The money was controlled by the uncle and aunt, and as the information panel commented: the gardener's irrigation policy was quite biased...

In summary, the idea is to leverage Lu Mingfei's strengths and compensate for his family's weaknesses.

Ultimately, the money became Uncle's small-displacement BMW, became 'Prince Ze's' capital to serve girls' meals, and became Aunt's chips at the card table.

The person who should benefit the most, apart from the symbolic tuition and fees, Lu Mingfei's pocket money wasn't even enough to buy a bottle of nutritional drink when he went online!
"Tsk tsk, Uncle's favorability rating is still 3? I thought all three were negative."

Lu Mingfei knew, of course, that his cousin and aunt had disliked him from the very beginning and had always suppressed him, both openly and secretly, and in recent years they had stopped pretending at all.

Although my uncle would sometimes take out ten or twenty yuan from his secret stash for me to use for internet access, we still seemed like relatives.

But what's the reality? Heh.

"I estimate that my uncle's favorability towards me is 3, but his favorability towards my aunt and cousin is 10. It's normal for adults to make choices based on their closeness to each other."

With the answer laid bare before him, it was hard for Lu Mingfei not to curl a smile that was three parts cold indifference, three parts mockery, and four parts nonchalant self-mockery. To fit the mood, he was even prepared to clench his fist tightly, letting his slightly sharp nails dig into his palm and bring him excruciating pain, and finally say, "Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river, never underestimate a young man's potential!"
But I didn't finish the whole process in the end, mainly because I was afraid of the pain...

"I just don't know how much favorability my parents have... Oh well, no need to overthink it. My parents' favorability is definitely 10, right? It's 10!"

Lu Mingfei suppressed the thought that was quietly rising in his mind and looked at the last item, [Wealth Index].

Similar to a popular online term for measuring wealth, the number before the decimal point represents how many digits are in disposable wealth, while the number after the decimal point represents the first digit.

The key point is the word 'disposable'.

For example, Uncle Lu Gucheng is ostensibly the only breadwinner in the family, but the only thing he can truly control is his private savings, which amount to about a thousand yuan. His wealth index is 4.1.

The family's finances are truly controlled by the aunt, who holds all the savings accounts. The total amount that can be liquidated is over 900,000 yuan, giving her a wealth index of 6.9.

Meanwhile, his cousin Lu Mingze's wealth index is 5.2, which means that this guy has two hundred and sixty cents in his pocket!
Hey!
This is all my money!
Lu Mingfei felt a surge of irritation and scratched his messy head vigorously.

……and many more!
My uncle and aunt's family all have panels, so what about my own panel?
We can't be without it, can we?

Lu Mingfei's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly brought up a panel of significantly different length.

He looked over with excitement.
[Name: Lu Mingfei]

[Level: LV0]

[Experience value: 0/1]

【Combat strength: 5】

Wealth Index: 3.2

[Review: Well, it's hard to say... Never mind, LV0 is great too.]

Lu Mingfei:?

(End of this chapter)