Chapter Twenty-Nine: How to Regain Your Sanity and Make Clickbait Headlines

Deep in the night, Lu Mingfei lay motionless on his bed, hands folded over his chest, staring blankly into the void. He had already slept once, only to wake up again just now.

He had been assigned to Dorm 303 in Student Residential Area 1, a double room. His roommate was Finger, whom he had met earlier at the Chicago train station. When Lu Mingfei entered the room, Finger was snoring away in the upper bunk, completely unfazed by the earlier gunshots.

"You okay?" Finger poked his head down from the top bunk.

"I am not okay," Lu Mingfei replied, his face expressionless.

Clearly, his sanity was hanging by a thread, reaching the point where he was starting to see ghosts in broad daylight. He did not believe that a deity like Nyarlathotep would manifest for no reason other than to give him a scare. A more rational explanation was that his sanity had plummeted so drastically that he was suffering from genuine psychosis, hallucinating Professor Manstein as a phantom.

If Professor Guderian hadn't stepped in to explain away Lu Mingfei’s bizarre behavior as the result of instability after his first contact with the "Underworld," he likely would have faced even more trouble. One had to understand that Lu Mingfei’s bloodline was ranked "S." The closer a hybrid approached their bloodline limit, the more prone they were to mental breakdown; thus, the college kept a close eye on the psychological state of its high-ranking students.

Madness was like a swamp. When you first step onto it, a little caution is enough to pull your feet back, but once you sink deep, whether you struggle or stay still, you only sink deeper. That was his current state. His critically low sanity prevented his brain from distinguishing between terrifying, sudden anomalies and reality, and these indistinguishable visions further fueled his fear and madness.

Secret arts to restore sanity were extremely precious, and Lu Mingfei only knew two. One recovery method required months of isolation, meditation, and sitting in silence—something he could not risk while under the gaze of Nyarlathotep. If he couldn't drive away that gaze beforehand, any interruption during his meditation would mean everyone on Earth would be meeting up in Azathoth’s temple. The other was an art of the "Yellow Emperor" recorded in the *Xiansha Fanhun Lu*, which involved brewing medicinal wines to restore sanity. However, that required expensive ingredients, and he would need to "farm" some gold from others to afford them.

Lu Mingfei originally had no desire to chat, but Finger was in high spirits and brought his laptop over for Lu Mingfei to see. "Are you talking about your freak-out this afternoon? It’s all over the campus news network now. You’re on the front page, and the headlines are quite sensational."

The top three posts were:
"Who claims the crown of 'Liberty Day'? Who blasted both the Student Union and the Lionheart Society?"
"Is Cassel College a throne or an asylum? An analysis of the strongest freshman’s actual combat power and mental state!"
"A lingering gaze: Does the 'S' rank have a crush on the red-haired witch?"

One had to admit, the headlines were certainly eye-catching. Lu Mingfei clicked through them one by one. The first post summarized his victory in "Liberty Day," complete with a large photograph, his student ID, room number, age, and hometown.

The second post featured surveillance footage of his clashes with the Lionheart Society and the Student Union, slowing down the video frame by frame to analyze his speed and strength. Posts like these were always the same; they appeared professional, but quickly devolved into subjective debates about whether "personal combat power matters in modern warfare" or if "Caesar + Chu Zihang > Lu Mingfei." They argued endlessly over whether Caesar's Spirit was superior to Lu Mingfei's, or who would win on the battlefield. Furthermore, the post included clips of Lu Mingfei jumping from the building and his subsequent panicked collapse to argue that he had "excellent bloodline but a weak will." Some mocked his cowardice, though most were just venting their frustrations after losing the combat power debate, using him as a pawn to bolster support for Caesar or Chu Zihang.

Lu Mingfei made a mental note: once he set up his first "Ordination" ritual at Cassel College, he would see how those "iron-willed" guys reacted when they faced a Great Old One.

The third post was the most irritating. Some scoundrel had captured a photo of him stealing a glance at Nono. At the time, Nono had been laughing happily beside Caesar, making him look like a hopeless clown. Lu Mingfei’s eyelid twitched. "Who took this damn photo? Can’t the post be deleted?"

Finger chuckled, scratching his messy hair. "Relax, man. This post went up this afternoon; anyone who wanted to save it already did. Deleting it won't help. Besides, do you have a thing for the 'red-haired witch'? She’s the girlfriend of Caesar Gattuso, the guy you beat up. That kid has a lot of power."

As Lu Mingfei watched Finger continue to scratch his scalp—causing clumps of hair and flesh to fall away, revealing stark white bone, dark red tissue, and yellowish pus—his irritation vanished. Beyond the visual shock, his brain automatically hallucinated the realistic stench and the sound of tearing flesh, trying to convince him that all of this was real.

"Stop scratching, man," Lu Mingfei sighed. "If you do it again, I’m going to throw up."

"Is the smell that bad? It’s not that bad." Finger sniffed his hand, embarrassed, wiped it on his pants, and said excitedly, "You’re the champion of 'Liberty Day'! First, you get the use of the Norton Pavilion for a year! Second, you get a direct entry into the finals of next year’s 'College Star'! Finally, the first girl you pursue in this college cannot refuse you and must maintain a relationship with you for at least three months! With your bloodline and Spirit, plus the winner’s privilege, maybe you really could snatch the red-haired witch away from the Student Union President!"

Lu Mingfei didn't answer. A rhythmic knocking sounded at the door. Professor Guderian stood outside, his face full of concern. He patted Lu Mingfei on the shoulder as he opened the door. "Mingfei, are you feeling better now?"

"I guess so."

"Is there something you need, coming by so late?" Finger asked, waving his hand from inside.

Professor Guderian handed an envelope to Lu Mingfei. "I’m here to deliver your student ID. With this card, you can enjoy 'S' rank privileges throughout the school. Also, tomorrow is the day of the 3E Examination. Are you prepared?"

Lu Mingfei hadn't heard of it. "What 3E exam? What’s on it?"

"A minor test, just Dragon Script. It might be troublesome for others, but for an 'S' rank like you, it’ll be a breeze. Dragon Script is memory passed down through the bloodline. As an 'S' rank, your dragon blood purity is astounding; you’ll understand the script naturally the moment you see it."

Lu Mingfei nodded, not particularly bothered. His talent in mysticism was terrifyingly high. He could already decipher the alien "Dragon Script" recorded in his own sect's scriptures; what were these dialects of his hometown's poor relatives compared to that?