Dragons begin with courage

That night, part of his courage to turn the car around and rush toward Odin came from this "junior brother".

His thumb slid across the cold glass screen, and electronic file photos flashed by. These were student profiles from Shilan High School, all a year younger than him, and were the students Kassel College was recruiting from China for this year, overseen by Professor Guderian.

His application, submitted under the pretext of "familiarity with the local situation and assistance from alumni," was to accompany Professor Guderian to China for this recruitment drive. From any perspective, this should have been the most reasonable and efficient choice.

However, the application was rejected.

The result was not unexpected. The college had concealed something; this might not be a simple admissions interview.

The screen finally froze. A familiar yet unfamiliar face appeared—it was Lu Mingfei's school admission photo. The boy in the photo had a somewhat unfocused gaze, carrying the common confusion of his age, a lack of concern for the world. The information in the file was sparse, only the most basic details: age, height, and school.

But Chu Zihang knew that behind this seemingly ordinary file lay a completely different weight.

Kassel College is no ordinary American university. It's a fortress hidden outside the realm of common sense, and the most central lesson on its curriculum is called—Dragon Slaying.

Ordinary people have absolutely no chance of stepping through this door.

And the others on the list for this trip to China... perhaps, are just smoke and mirrors. The academy's true prey, from beginning to end, may very well have been only one person.

Chu Zihang looked up and saw his blurry figure reflected in the huge floor-to-ceiling glass window of the training room. It also seemed to reflect the fleeting, ghostly silhouette that had appeared on the car window on a rainy night four years ago.

He looked at his reflection in the mirror, his lips moved silently, and he asked a question that had been buried in his heart for four years:

"That night...the person in the back seat..."

"...Is that you, Junior Brother?"

Of course, there will be no answer.

From any perspective, it couldn't possibly be Lu Mingfei. Chu Zihang later reviewed the car accident records and Lu Mingfei's interrogation transcripts. This junior brother had no memory of anything that happened in the Nibelungen; his testimony was as clean as a blank sheet of paper. As for disguise? Concealment? Someone with that kind of audacity and cunning couldn't be Lu Mingfei.

At the same time, somewhere.

A hand with distinct knuckles gently placed the handset of the old-fashioned landline phone back in its place.

Moonlight streamed through the gaps in the blinds, cutting out cold, white streaks that fell precisely into the center of the large desk. On the desk, photographs were neatly arranged at various angles, like the culmination of a professional detective's long-term surveillance, silently recording every moment of the target's life—at home in front of the computer screen, yawning in the school corridor, his gaze secretly following the back of a girl during a literary club activity…

They're all Lu Mingfei.

It was as if an omnipresent eye was constantly hovering over the boy's head, capturing and archiving every detail of his most ordinary yet private life.

Beside it was a detailed report, dozens of pages thick, quite different from the concise files at Kassel College. It included not only height and age, but also fluctuations in grades for every major and minor exam, subtle emotional tendencies, and layered analyses of personality... so detailed it was appalling.

[Personality Analysis Summary]: A lack of family background and a long-term environment of emotional neglect and implicit belittling have led to a deep-seated lack of love and a tendency towards pathological attachment (especially in emotional relationships). A significant dependent personality is present, with a habitual unconscious tendency to please others and a strong emotional projection towards those who show kindness. Highly sensitive, with an underlying sense of inferiority, accompanied by an extremely strong feeling of "unworthiness."

[Bloodline Assessment]: S-rank (Word of Power pending final confirmation).

This report dissects Lu Mingfei from the inside out, revealing his true nature. The boy is like a moth already caught in a fine spider web, its wings unknowingly entangled by the threads of fate.

Just then, a sudden gust of wind, seemingly out of nowhere, squeezed in through the crack in the window that wasn't completely closed, swirling and blowing towards the table. It seemed to carry some inexplicable will, violently churning the stack of pages that recorded Lu Mingfei's fate, making a rustling sound, as if trying to scatter them, blow them away, and push the boy away from this invisible net.

Snapped!

A hand landed steadily, firmly pressing down on the fluttering corner of the paper. No matter how the wind blew, it could not shake this hand as firm as a rock.

"It's blown away, that'll be a problem," the man muttered to himself, his voice calm and emotionless. He carefully rearranged the report that had been scattered by the wind, turned around, opened the heavy metal filing cabinet behind him, and placed it in one of the compartments.

The cabinet doors closed with a dull thud, as if sealing off a phase.

He gazed out the window at the deep night, his eyes reflecting distant lights, as if piercing through space to see the bewildered boy staring at a letter.

"This day," he murmured, "has finally come."

=======================

Of course, Lu Mingfei was completely unaware of all this. He didn't know that a pair of eyes had been watching him from the shadows for years, nor did he know that his "senior brother" on the other side of the ocean was lost in thought because of him. At this moment, all his attention was tightly gripped by the strangely worded letter in his hand.

Kassel College is a private university located in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, USA. After careful evaluation, we believe you meet Kassel College's admission standards and hereby extend an invitation to you.

Please contact Professor Guderian of our university as soon as you receive this letter. He is currently on an academic visit to China and will arrange an interview with you.

If you have any questions, please contact Professor Guderian. I will assist him in providing you with services. I am Norma Lauens, the college secretary at Kassel College, and it is a pleasure to meet you.

Your sincere -- Norma

Lu Mingfei put down the letter, rubbed his temples hard, and felt his head buzzing.

An interview invitation? Invite him?

"It's a scam." That was the first and most plausible thought that popped into his mind. These days, scams come in all sorts of forms. He'd heard plenty of news stories about fabricating fake foreign universities, using the guise of "assisting with immigration" and "bright futures" to lure people in for illegal work.

Commonly known as: selling piglets.

The problem is, he never applied to this Kassel College!

"Hey, don't go yet, you need to sign for it." The security guard called out to him at the right moment and handed him a receipt through the window.

"Does the letter need to be signed for?" Lu Mingfei was even more puzzled.

"A package arrived along with the letter, which requires the recipient's signature."

Lu Mingfei signed his name in a daze and accepted a large FedEx envelope. It felt heavy in his hand; there was a hard object inside. He hesitated for a moment, then tore open the seal and poured the contents into his palm—

A cell phone slid out.

The all-black Nokia N96 has a rugged design, and its screen reflects a cool light in the afternoon sun.

Lu Mingfei felt he really needed to calm down. He pressed the power button, the screen lit up, and surprisingly, the battery still had more than half full. He opened his phonebook, which only contained one contact:

Professor Guderian.