Chapter 111: Anchor Point?

Su Lin held a small notebook in his hand, constantly writing something. After several dozen seconds, he closed the notebook and tossed it into the subspace vault.

He looked into the distance at Lu Mingfei, who was currently wandering around an amusement park with Hui Liyi. Ever since Old Lu had vanished and entered Lu Mingfei's body to slumber, he had become the big brother of this group of half-bloods.

Expansion had already been paused, and internal affairs had been arranged ahead of time, but whenever some sudden problems or indecisive matters arose, this group of half-bloods would all come to consult him.

"What a nostalgic feeling."

The corporate-slave DNA hidden within him had begun to stir.

The historical projection blurred and vanished on the spot. Lu Mingze sent a message: some guests had arrived, saying they wanted to invite him to discuss some matters.

Two minutes later, a figure walked from illusion into reality, arriving at the conference hall of a high-end hotel. He pushed open a pair of doors, and at a massive round table ten meters in diameter, people were already seated.

Miss Kelaien, Especially Especially Especially Xiao Yan, and Zhongli sat to Lu Mingze's right, in the central position of the conference room. To Lu Mingze's left sat an elder with a unique bearing—pale silver hair and beard, a high nose bridge, deep eyes, the corners of his mouth curved in a smile as he looked at Su Lin who had just entered.

There was a girl in black attire, with golden hair and blue eyes, her features as exquisite as a sculpture by a Greek master, made up like a European noblewoman, veiled in black, wearing an expensive fitted waist-skirt suit, with a fur-trimmed shoulder cape over it.

There was a handsome man, with long golden hair, sea-blue eyes, a high nose bridge and a very masculine hint of stubble, wearing a pair of rimless glasses, his skin a healthy wheat color.

There were also some half-bloods of excellent bloodline standing at the back.

When the crowd saw Su Lin's face, they still couldn't help being startled.

Su Lin pulled out a chair, sat down with composure, looked at the people before him, and said jokingly: "Such a grand lineup doesn't look like a negotiation, more like a group raid on a boss, doesn't it?"

"How about I show a health bar first?"

"You are quite humorous." The elder with pale silver hair and beard smiled slightly and said:

"Let me introduce myself. I am Angers. Previously, you had expressed the idea of meeting with me."

"Although our positions differ, I must thank you on behalf of those who were healed."

Hearing Angers say this, Su Lin recalled—that had been something from last month, before his ascension.

"Pleased to meet you." Su Lin nodded in greeting. "So, can we begin the negotiation now?"

"Of course." Lu Mingze said, and the display screen in the hall lit up as he spoke.

"Good lord, they even prepared a PPT." Su Lin remarked with feeling.

One hour later

Su Lin slammed the door and left, leaving behind a single sentence:

"Next time I'll just shut off my phone."

The matter being discussed was the terms of surrender, so Su Lin had sent a historical projection without a divine rank to handle the talks, because he was afraid of a mishap.

The result was that they showed him half an hour of PPT, then piled on all sorts of concepts and new buzzwords, all to express one single meaning—humans are never to be slaves, you are a righteous god, why stoop to aiding tyranny?

They elaborated from multiple angles such as morality and social structure on the unfavorable factors of interfering with Earth's independent development.

Just to waste his time?

Su Lin didn't believe this group would make meaningless moves. Forget it, he'd deal with these people less. On the opposite side, out of ten people, nine were tacticians playing sneaky games—play to one's strengths and avoid one's weaknesses; he wouldn't play their game.

"Looks like it didn't work." Angers said to Lu Mingze beside him: "What a pity. I even specially brought along the student roster, wanting to chat with him about which girl would suit Lu Mingfei."

"Within expectations." Lu Mingze smiled, and said to the playboy-like man beside him: "Bring out the thing."

A look of heartache crossed the man's face as he produced an object wrapped in cloth.

"The Eternal Spear." Lu Mingze tore off the cloth, revealing the curved spear within. He then looked at the three visitors from another world: "Which of you will use it?"

"I will." Zhongli took the curved spear and examined it for a moment.

"Then next, we should discuss how to take the Uesugi family head away from Lu Mingfei's side and clear the anchor point within her." Elizabeth Loran said in a calm voice.

It was discovered by Lu Mingze and confirmed by Zhongli that an alchemical matrix was hidden within the memories. After analysis, the alchemical matrix inscribed within seemed to use their feelings as an anchor point, granting that 'Supreme One' the effect of being peeled out from within Lu Mingfei and made manifest.

However, it could only be activated within a certain range of Lu Mingfei.

Angers picked up the red tea before him and took a sip, saying: "I truly didn't expect that you and Lu Mingfei also have a relationship."

"That was not me." Elizabeth Loran said: "And he is also not the Lu Mingfei from the memories."

"Actually, if you're willing, I could act as matchmaker." Angers raised an eyebrow. "Mingfei is an excellent child."

"I think he has already proven his excellence, Uncle Angers."

"The fact that we sit here together, no longer hiding secrets and identities, treating each other with candor, is because of him."

Elizabeth Loran's gaze swept past Pompeii, then looked at Angers and Lu Mingze. "If not for that memory of the future, I might still be unaware to this day that there is a Long Wang within the Elder Council, nor that Uncle Angers, you have been hiding so many things."

Some images flashed through her mind, and she promptly cast them aside.

"Of course, after this matter is over, if both I and that S-rank can survive, I would like to invite him for afternoon tea."

"Heh heh." Lu Mingze smiled elegantly. "I wouldn't recommend you do that. After all, my brother might finally be off the market this time."

"Parting the mandarin ducks would not be good."

"Then do you have a way to clear the anchor point?" Pompeii asked. "That alchemical matrix implanted within them along with the memories is as complex as a high-precision instrument; we can barely even grasp its most basic function."

"Granting the nonexistent a foothold through intense emotion."

"Truly a scumbag just like me."

"He's this much of a scumbag, and you might bear ninety percent of the responsibility." Miss Kelaien reminded him: "After all, you are the hidden boss, the mastermind behind the scenes."

"Right!" Pompeii spread his hands: "Where did my dignity as a hidden boss go? I might have been a hidden boss before, but that was version one or whatever version it was. Now that guy is the final boss who has crossed hundreds of versions."

"The dragon-slaying youth finally becomes the evil dragon?" He curled his lip. "I hate such cliché plots."

Inside the chat group

Su Lin: "What did today mean?"

Miss Kelaien: "They simply wanted to test whether they could turn you."

Su Lin: "Do I look like the kind of person who could be turned?"

Especially Especially Especially Xiao Yan: "Yes."

Zhongli: "Su Lin, I don't know what reward the future Lu Mingfei gave you, but I feel this incident needs to be viewed with caution."

Su Lin: "Mm, understood."

Su Lin: "No need to worry too much. He said even if the Earth blew up, he'd have a way to wrap things up."

Lu Mingfei: "Moshi moshi, hello, this is the current Lu Mingfei. Does anyone care about my feelings, boohoo."

Ye Fan: "Please share your thoughts."

Lu Mingfei: "Actually, as long as the commotion isn't too big, anything goes. Help me ask him when he and Lu Mingze are going to go take care of Herzog."

Lu Mingfei kind of wanted to lie flat, but that older, chuunibyou version of himself still wanted to rule the world and build a harem.

Su Lin: "The commotion shouldn't be that big, right?"

Especially Especially Especially Xiao Yan: "Indeed. It's nothing more than beating every hybrid faction until they can only huddle together for warmth, and incidentally scaring the Sky and Wind Long Wang—who got wind of the news—into surrendering to Lu Mingze's side."

After learning of the Supreme One's revival, Pompeii specifically went to check that thing at the bottom of the Greenland Sea—the Black King's physical body. It was clearly still there; he'd thought it was some kind of impostor.

The result was that Angey sent him a message that very night.

【Heard you're the Sky and Wind Long Wang? I really want to take my switchblade and slaughter you right now, but for the sake of our common enemy, come meet me in person.】

【To type out this message, I crushed three phones. Afterward, we must have a reckoning between us!】

After Angey sent the last message, he crushed the phone in his hand again.

Miss Kelaien: "What he doesn't know is that Lu Mingze plans to surrender if he can't win. When the time comes, he might still get purged."

Especially Especially Especially Xiao Yan: "Lu Mingfei, your senior brother's father has been found. Tell your senior brother to come claim him whenever."

Lu Mingfei: "?"

Miss Kelaien: "Speaking of which, why have you guys been so quiet lately? @Su Lin"

Su Lin: "Guess."

Ye Fan: "If I weren't about to break through to the Fourth Extremes realm, I'd come join the fun too."

Ye Fan checked the 'small fortune' in his hands—ten million jin of Source. It was probably enough.

Although the demand for high-end weapons had dropped a bit, the profits it brought were quite considerable.

Ye Fan: "Emiya Shirou hasn't popped up lately. How's his alchemy study going?"

Su Lin stood at the observation deck of Dawn Hall and glanced at the situation in the garden. A frantic Norton was using his dragonified arm to smash an alchemy Semi-Finished Product with all his might. How to put it—being a teacher is indeed pretty tiring sometimes.

Su Lin: "I can only say there's a lot of room for improvement."

Five updates tonight, probably. Dear readers, to keep the plot from collapsing, I can only write at my own pace. Apart from the first arc—One Piece—as a beginner's dungeon, I plan to write every world properly. It's probably really because of the few updates that some readers say my Dragon Race arc is too long. Actually, I intend for every subsequent world to be about the same length as the Dragon Race arc, or even longer. Even though there's a lot of stitching, I still want to stitch it together nicely, right? Of course, I'm also summarizing and improving. As a newcomer publishing my first book, I still need to get better. I'm very grateful for all the readers' suggestions. Enough said, off to write.