Dragons begin with courage

The hatch slid open, and a dry, scorching wind carrying sand rushed in. Chu Zihang was the first to jump, landing silently. The others followed closely behind, their movements swift and professional. Although Lu Mingfei had no formal training, he jumped out of the helicopter with remarkable skill.

The helicopter took off immediately after they left and flew to a concealed standby point according to a pre-set procedure.

Without needing further orders, the squad instantly entered combat readiness. Leo, like a moving wall, led the charge, rifle equipped with a grenade launcher, his eyes scanning the front like a hawk. Juliet, with a sniper rifle on her back, brought up the rear, her alchemical sensor silently activating.

Lu Mingfei's gaze was drawn to Susie. Unlike "Freedom One Day," she didn't carry an exaggerated anti-material sniper rifle. Instead, she carried a long, narrow black sword pouch, and her tactical belt was adorned with two rows of gleaming throwing knives. The knife handles were uniform in design, shimmering with a dull luster in the dim light. Her movements were as light as a lynx.

Lu Mingfei withdrew his gaze and stayed close to Chu Zihang. His heart pounded in his chest, adrenaline surged, and a metallic taste filled his mouth.

Strangely, in this extreme tension, his senses were amplified to an unprecedented level of clarity: he could hear the subtle changes in tone as the wind blew through the cracks in the rocks, discern the direction in which distant grains of sand rolled, and even feel the rhythm of his blood rushing against the walls of his veins.

This strange state... feels somewhat familiar.

Lu Mingfei's thoughts briefly drifted back to earlier times. Not Kassel, not Shilan Middle School, but a corner of an internet cafe filled with smoke and the clatter of keyboards. His first real encounter with StarCraft, facing the surging Zerg army on the screen, was a chaotic mess, his heart pounding. But what surged within him wasn't fear, but an almost burning excitement, as if his consciousness had pierced through the screen, merging with the battlefield composed of simple pixels. Every clutch maneuver, every desperate comeback, brought with it this dizzying thrill of heightened sensory concentration and a slowing of time.

He was obsessed with that feeling, chasing it on the virtual battlefield of galaxies. Until later, he found himself unable to find any opponents, needing to suppress his own strength with the red dot. Victory became easy, operations became muscle memory, and that soul-shaking, oppressive feeling of meeting a worthy opponent disappeared. What followed was a kind of invincible loneliness that was crystal clear even amidst a crowd.

Chu Zihang tilted his head slightly, a barely perceptible glint flashing in his golden eyes, as if checking Lu Mingfei's condition. Without a word, Chu Zihang simply waved his hand forward.

"Beep beep, beep beep beep!"

A rapid, faint buzzing sound emanated from the alchemical device on Juliet's wrist. The sound was quiet, but in the silent desert, it was like an alarm. Everyone froze instantly, weapons pointing in all directions, forming a comprehensive defensive perimeter.

Juliet glanced down at the scrolling data stream and spectral analysis graphs on the screen, then pointed to the ten o'clock position, to a shadowy area obscured by a massive weathered rock: "Abnormal biological acid residue reaction, concentration exceeding the standard. Thermal imaging shows abnormal surface temperature, indicating recent violent energy release."

Chu Zihang made a hand gesture, and Leo, like a hunting dog that had caught a scent, cautiously moved closer first. Lu Mingfei followed closely behind Chu Zihang, his fingers tightening slightly around his gun.

It wasn't a natural sinkhole. The ground looked as if a huge amount of activated strong acid had been poured on it; large areas of sand and rock had turned a charred black, as if they had been completely "digested," and were covered with a layer that hadn't fully solidified.

A cloyingly sweet, fishy stench filled the air, mixed with the smell of burnt protein and sulfur. The edges of the pit were irregular, as if something had burst from the ground, or... dragged its prey inside. Scattered around were unidentifiable pieces of clothing and bits of flesh.

"This is the last location where the third-generation species' reaction was captured," Juliet said, crouching at the edge of the pit. She carefully collected a small sample of slime with a specially made probe, the tip of which immediately emitted a faint hissing sound as it was corroded. "Preliminary assessment indicates that this occurred six to eight hours ago. It hunted here."

Leo carefully poked something out from the edge of the scorched earth with the muzzle of his gun—it was a palm-sized, thick, hard scale with jagged edges, a dark yellow color, and ominous black markings. He picked it up; it felt heavy, and there seemed to be some sticky residue on the surface of the scale.

"Scale feature analysis... 87% match, consistent with the characteristics of the 'Giratina'." Juliet looked at the rapidly comparing data on the instrument. "The Gilatina is one of only two venomous lizards in North America, and its distribution area largely overlaps with our current location. It's secretive, slow-moving, but has an astonishing bite force, and its venom is a neurotoxin. If it's been contaminated by dragon blood and mutated..." She looked up at the deep pit below, "its size, strength, toxicity, and acid secretion capacity will all increase exponentially. Hopefully, we're facing a single individual, not a small population awakened by dragon blood."

Lu Mingfei stared at the menacing scales and couldn't help but ask, "Like... a hybrid of the animal kingdom?"

"You can draw that analogy, but the essence is different," Susie replied. She had already come down from the height, her gaze warily scanning the surrounding rock crevices where they might be hiding. "According to the mainstream hypothesis in 'Introduction to Dragon Genealogy,' the origin of existing hybrids is speculated to be related to the fall of the black dragon Nidhogg in ancient times. Some theories suggest that a human tribe, in an attempt to gain power, may have voluntarily or involuntarily performed some kind of forbidden 'sacrifice' or 'fusion.'"

"Of course, this is just one of many speculations. That period of history has been deliberately erased and distorted so much that the truth has long since sunk into the mire of time. All we know is the outcome—the hybrid was born, standing between humans and dragons."

Lu Mingfei was taken aback. So, the hybrids were actually the newcomers, and now they were hunting dragon subspecies instead?

Susie seemed to sense his thoughts, walked over, and gently patted his tense shoulder with just the right amount of pressure, a soothing gesture. "Those are questions for historians and the old folks on the ethics committee to worry about. We live in the present. Why did Nidhogg fall? How exactly are hybrids born? These are all mysteries shrouded in mist. And now," her tone turned cold as she looked at the ominous-smelling crater, "our task is to deal with this third-generation hybrid that poses a threat to humanity. That's the reality."

Chu Zihang and the others began to follow the traces on the ground. When the intelligence personnel determined that it was a third-generation species, they had already withdrawn. After all, it would take a group of C-level or B-level executive department specialists to kill a third-generation species.

"At the eleven o'clock position to the left front, below the rock wall, there are heat source signals... more than one," Juliet reported in a low voice, her tactical goggles connected to a portable thermal imager.