Chapter 64 Equipment Department

"How did you get in? Isn't this the boys' dormitory?"

Lu Mingfei stared at the silver four-leaf clover earrings swaying against Nono's clean and cute earlobes, reaching out to pinch one, only for her to nimbly dodge it.

Nono wasn't wearing her school uniform. Her red hair fell loose, paired with a grass-green baseball jacket and tight jeans, making her look the absolute picture of an athletic beauty—vastly different from the mature, regal style she had rocked in her purple gown the day before.

She bent down, the golden sunlight outlining the captivating curves of her waist and hips, and pressed her hand against the head of Lu Mingfei, who was lying flat on his back:

"Big brother, you've been living here for over a week now, don't you even know this place is co-ed?"

"Is that so? Then what brings you here?"

"Nothing much, just came to tell you that I've already contacted that old fogey in my family, and he said he'll send people to monitor everyone returning from the Three Gorges operation during this period."

At the mention of unpleasant matters, Nono's expression visibly worsened. She irritably tapped her finger repeatedly against the forehead of Lu Mingfei, who was still lying on the bed, and muttered:

"The two of us have been chosen as Underwater Operations Team Two. If Caesar and Zero can't make a normal dive when the time comes, it's going to be us. Training time is tight right now, can your illness hurry up and get better..."

Lu Mingfei couldn't help the corners of his mouth twitching upward:

"I've never felt better than I do right now."

Although the panic and fear born from his contemplation, along with the experience accumulated over a long time, tirelessly reminded Lu Mingfei of the importance of restraint, he still couldn't avoid feeling a rising sense of satisfaction, joy, and greed within his heart.

It wasn't out of the need to deal with a crisis, nor was it even out of greed for transcendent power, but rather an instinct born deep within the soul of this frail, suffering flesh that made him yearn to draw closer to those great existences transcending the mortal world.

Nono retrieved a thermometer from her bag and tossed it onto Lu Mingfei's chest:

"Don't try to act tough. Finger says you haven't been resting easy ever since you came back last night, and your temperature almost hit forty-two degrees Celsius. Measure it and see how it is now."

"What a hassle."

Lu Mingfei muttered a complaint and shoved the thermometer under his armpit.

The reason why he judged his own strength as "almost completing the first Daoist talisman registration" was right here.

He had merely received the Yellow Seal bestowed by the Central Yellow Taiyi Immortal Lord, without undergoing the physical mutation brought about by His "calling."

Still, that was fine. The transcendent power of his hometown originated from bloodlines; keeping this physical vessel "clean" might just introduce some variables that wouldn't exist if he only relied on the knowledge from his past life.

***

The atmosphere remained silent for a moment. Nono reached out, intending to tie a small braid in Lu Mingfei's hair, but he slapped her hand away.

Lu Mingfei sat up, pulled the thermometer out from his chest, and turned it to look at the reading.

"The fever broke."

His immunity had always been decent. The reason he had run such a high fever last night was probably because his brain had perceived the presence of the Yellow Seal and was subconsciously resisting it.

Nono didn't find it strange either; for half-breeds, colds and fevers were naturally rare, minor ailments.

"Then you'll have to join the group training this afternoon."

Lu Mingfei shook his head:

"No, I plan to make a trip to the Equipment Department this afternoon."

...

Lu Mingfei tied a yellow tie, and at his waist, alongside the dust-covered Terracotta Altar, he hung a completely unremarkable, half-palm-sized "wooden board," which looked slightly comical.

After Nono left, he had pried up Finger's entire bed board, and then spent quite a bit of effort cutting away the section engraved with the Yellow Seal so he could carry it with him.

"The people in the Equipment Department are a bunch of high-maintenance lunatics. There's no point in you dealing with them."

Nono's evaluation still echoed by Lu Mingfei's ear.

Indeed, for ordinary people, interacting with the Equipment Department truly served little purpose.

Their personalities were eccentric, and their interests lay solely in crafting alchemy weapons of greater destructive power. They didn't accept flattery, yet they could not be offended, because no one wanted the alchemy weapons issued to them during a mission to suddenly jam or explode in the chamber.

They also almost never custom-built weapons for individuals, because in their view, that was an insult to their design craftsmanship and manufacturing standards.

Normally, the Equipment Department remained hidden underground and out of sight, to the point that no one even knew who was in charge. They only emerged from the basement wearing white lab coats and thick lenses when the academy required equipment support, offering a few sloppy explanations before hurrying away—sometimes not even leaving an instruction manual behind.

Lu Mingfei was only able to take advantage of the convenience of this "Bronze Plan" and his "S-class" clearance to have the opportunity to communicate with them face-to-face and commission custom equipment as requested.

***

The exact location of the Equipment Department was more than 120 meters beneath Caspell College, a base named Svartálheim. In Norse mythology, it meant the "Realm of the Dwarfs," where the world's top dwarven artisans lived, forging weapons for the gods.

The surface entrance of the Equipment Department was located far away from the dormitory area.

First came a long corridor blocked by multiple heavy doors. Lu Mingfei scanned his student ID, verified his fingerprints and iris patterns, underwent whole-body disinfection, and after completing all these steps, entered a spacious room with smooth metal walls on all sides.

He felt like a turkey about to be sent into an oven. He didn't know whether these damn high-tech procedures had ever actually protected them from any danger, but he knew that once mysticism came into play later on, these things would be entirely useless.

A lazy male voice drifted from a microphone installed somewhere unknown:

"'S'-class freshman Lu Mingfei. Oh, your taste in ties is truly terrible; even SpongeBob knows to wear a red tie...

Well, although I don't know why you insist on meeting with us, the gates of Svartálheim will open for you right now—"

A faint sound of mechanical operation rang out, and the smooth wall suddenly parted, revealing a huge elevator car.

Lu Mingfei stepped into the elevator. There were no operable buttons inside; it was likely designed from the outset to be controlled exclusively from within the base.

"Ding—"

The elevator doors automatically closed. Following a slight sensation of weightlessness, the doors opened once again, and an impatient-looking, lean, and pale middle-aged man was standing with his arms crossed, leaning against the elevator frame.

Looking past him, the corridor was entirely metallic in color, flanked on both sides by rows of laboratories, with people in white lab coats moving among them.

Anatomy rooms, elemental reaction research labs, organic alchemy research labs...

Modern science and the dragon race's inherited alchemy were closely and wondrously combined here, yet the direction of their research was mostly aimed solely at exterminating their enemies more efficiently.

The lean man glanced once more at the yellow tie Lu Mingfei was wearing, turned around, and said:

"'S'-class, let's go."