Dragon Slayer:The King’s Return

Lin Nian had just returned home and was about to go upstairs when someone blocked his way.

The person blocking him wasn't an enemy, but a familiar face. And they weren't stopping him to pick a fight, but to ask him to go online.

The person's name was Lu Mingfei, a classmate from Shilan High School. The two of them had bonded over countless bottles of nutritional drinks and internet fees at an internet café, making him one of Lin Nian's rare friends.

Lin Nian first noticed Lu Mingfei when the guy seemed to be hesitating, wondering if the entrance to the building was at the door of the spicy hot pot shop downstairs. Lu Mingfei was secretly considering what would happen if he went in and the staff there forced him to sit down. How would he explain that he was just looking for someone? What if the staff didn't like it and gave him a hard time? Would he really have to settle for a meal of spicy hot pot?

Luckily, before Lu Mingfei made up his mind, Lin Nian had already spotted him. He immediately walked over and slapped him on the shoulder: "What are you doing standing downstairs?"

Lu Mingfei jolted in surprise, then turned around to see Lin Nian's face and his expression lit up: "I was just thinking of going upstairs to find you."

"Looking for me? To go online?" Lin Nian said, pulling Lu Mingfei away from the hot pot shop, noticing the staff inside glancing out at them. If they stayed any longer, they'd probably come over to serve them.

Pulled aside, Lu Mingfei immediately nodded, "Yes, yes, going online. Are you coming?"

"Still covering the nutritional drinks and internet fees? Did your aunt give you more pocket money?" Lin Nian asked.

"I'll pay, it's all on me." Lu Mingfei patted his chest, looking particularly generous.

"Alright, let's go. I was just thinking of checking something online." Lin Nian nodded in agreement.

The two quickly found a nearby internet café and sat down. Lin Nian didn't take advantage of Lu Mingfei, choosing to settle for the same cheap internet café they'd been to last time when playing CS.

As soon as they sat down, Lu Mingfei skillfully opened StarCraft, while muttering, "I heard StarCraft 2 is coming out next year, not sure how much the graphics will improve compared to the first one. I hope they don't change the gameplay too much, or it'll take a while to adapt and get beaten by others."

"I don't play StarCraft, I just play CS," Lin Nian said.

"With your hand speed and micro-control, not playing StarCraft is a waste. Though you're strong at CS, too. By the way, their dinner gathering is tomorrow night. You really aren't going?" Lu Mingfei asked dryly."You're really bad at changing the topic," Lin Nian sighed. "Did Su Xiaoqiang ask you to come?"

"Dammit, you know I don't like being vague. Why are we still playing games like this?" Lu Mingfei sighed too.

"You really can't hide anything, that's something everyone in the class knows," Lin Nian said.

"What do you mean by that?" Lu Mingfei suddenly became alert.

"Nothing." Lin Nian shook his head. "What did she promise you? That you had to come all the way downstairs to find me?"

"It's nothing, just that she's gonna buy me two official PS2 game discs," Lu Mingfei said, grinning shamelessly. "Come on, we're friends, cut me some slack."

"We are friends, but this favor is really for the PS2 discs, right?" Lin Nian decisively rejected.

Lu Mingfei stared at Lin Nian's face, which didn't change expression, and let out a long sigh. "You really should participate in some group activities. I asked you to join the literature club, but you refused. You don't go to any of the gatherings. If you keep this up, people will isolate you."

"Didn't you come to find me?"

"Bro, that sounds a bit gay," Lu Mingfei said, with a shudder.

"I meant, didn't you come to find me to go online?" Lin Nian, who had been focused on typing in Internet Explorer, quickly realized what he had just said and immediately corrected himself.

"You can't be serious about having only one friend after three years of high school, right?" Lu Mingfei grumbled, his fingers rapidly tapping on the keyboard.

"I might not even finish three years," Lin Nian said. "I'm planning to study abroad in the U.S."

Lu Mingfei nearly clicked the wrong unit in the game, and after quickly reacting, he turned to Lin Nian, incredulously asking, "Are you really going to that school you mentioned yesterday? The one with the… what was it, car... something?"

"Carseal Academy," Lin Nian corrected Lu Mingfei's mistake. "Today, my sister and I met with their admissions office, and the conversation went really well. If there are no surprises, I might actually be going."

"How can you just suddenly decide to study abroad? Bro, you're not the type of person to do something like that," Lu Mingfei said, abandoning the game, his surprise evident.

"You're implying I'm poor, and they're giving me a scholarship to cover my expenses, right?" Lin Nian could tell what Lu Mingfei meant and quickly explained.

"No, I meant, what about your sister? She's such a good cook, you won't get to eat her food anymore!" Lu Mingfei blurted out.

"She's coming with me," Lin Nian said.

Lu Mingfei fell silent for a moment, then mechanically clicked the mouse a few more times before speaking. "This is too sudden."

"Life can't always be the same," Lin Nian laughed helplessly. "Honestly, I was originally going to take the high school entrance exam and try to get a scholarship to a good university to help support my family. But then Carseal Academy contacted me, and the offer was too good to turn down, so I decided to go abroad earlier."

"But you're only in your second year of high school!" Lu Mingfei couldn't help but exclaim.

"Pre-college program. The program is in Texas, and after I finish, I'll go directly to the main campus," Lin Nian explained, leaving out the possibility that he might skip straight into college as a freshman. He didn't want to go into too many details since he himself wasn't entirely sure yet.

"This... this is just too sudden," Lu Mingfei muttered, trying to think of something else to say, but couldn't.

It was, indeed, sudden. He could only think of the word "sudden." Suddenly, one of his few friends was about to leave the country. Suddenly, everyone around him seemed to be finding a new direction in life. Suddenly, there would be one less person in the city who could share bad jokes and curse along with him.

This was just too sudden.

"Don't think too much about it," Lin Nian said indifferently. "Going abroad isn't like a funeral. I'm going to study, not to get cremated. We'll still stay in touch. Who knows, when StarCraft 2 comes out, we might even do cross-country 1v1 battles."

"True," Lu Mingfei said, finally feeling a little less downcast. The sudden sense of separation had been somewhat softened by Lin Nian's words.

"So the dinner is tomorrow?" Lin Nian asked after thinking for a moment.

"Yeah, what, you've changed your mind?" Lu Mingfei's eyes lit up, and he turned to look at Lin Nian like he wasn't looking at a person, but at a walking, talking PS2 game disc.

"Guess I'll go for the last meal. After two years of studying together, we should at least say goodbye." Lin Nian couldn't help but feel a little sentimental. The vast world seemed smaller than the value of those two PS2 game discs.

"Goodbye, huh?" Lu Mingfei said the word to himself, feeling uneasy about it. He wasn't sure what kind of reaction Su Xiaoqiang would have when she heard about this.

Thinking about it made Lu Mingfei feel worse. Since he was young, he'd always changed the channel during sad scenes in TV dramas. But in real life, when he encountered something this depressing, it was hard not to think too much about it.

"When tomorrow? Where are we eating?" Lin Nian asked, still looking at the browser.

"8 PM. I'll send you the location on QQ later. Oh, I forgot you don't have a phone."

"I have one now," Lin Nian said, patting his pocket where his iPhone 3 was.

"How long have you had it?" Lu Mingfei asked before instinctively talking too much, and quickly sucked in a sharp breath as his leg was kicked under the table.

Seeing Lu Mingfei's embarrassed face, Lin Nian couldn't help but laugh. He closed the browser and opened StarCraft. "Want to play a round before I leave?"

Lu Mingfei's eyes immediately lit up. "Sure, I've got to beat you at least once. Your micro-control is inhuman, but I've been training my game awareness recently. If I combine hand speed with awareness, I might even beat you, even though you don't play as often."

Seeing this, Lin Nian couldn't help but think back to when they were in the internet café outside school, gambling on internet fees and managing to make Lu Mingfei lose a whole month's living expenses. He couldn't help but laugh. "Alright, let's play a round."

And so, the game went on for hours. All the internet café could hear that afternoon were the same cries of despair from the two of them. The vast world seemed small in comparison to the intensity of the game. Lin Nian and Lu Mingfei treated this as the last time they'd play together online, diving into the game without thinking about the parting or the sadness.

(End of Chapter)