Autumn 1900 A.D., late at night, drizzle, port of Hamburg, Germany.

The lighthouse's gas lamp was like a sharp sword that cut through the darkness, and when the blade sliced into the dock, it cut out a thin and straight silhouette.

Young Menek. The Count of Kassel stood on the pier, without an umbrella, but with the collar of his trench coat erected to ward off the cold wind.

In the black shadows that he could not see, the new audience for this story has not yet officially appeared.

"Ming Fei?"

Ange stared earnestly at the tall steel warrior beside him, and only after a moment did he ask questions.

The thick bright yellow metal armor of the other party obviously does not belong to the products of this era, especially the giant "musket" with a hideous caliber that he is holding, if he is hit by a bullet shot from inside, it is estimated that his entire body will be directly blown up.

"Hmm." The Iron Warrior nodded, then raised his palm to realize what was going on, and a low, thunderous voice came from his helmet's breathing fence: "Child, revoke this state and change it to my current normal form." ”

Since the power armor is equivalent to the second skin for Astarte, and because of this, even the heaviest Terminator-type power armor will not affect the action when worn on the body, so Lu Mingfei didn't realize for a while that Yuan Zhinu arranged for him to be in the state of the Weeper Champion period.

There was no answer in the dark night, but Ange watched as the figure of the heavily armored warrior began to blur, and when it regained clarity, the big boy with a resolute look on his face that was completely out of touch with his age reappeared.

On the chest of the executive department's trench coat, a tearful red heart emblem was exactly the same as the paint on the shoulder armor of the warrior just now.

"It's ...... What kind of magic? ”

Ange smiled, wiping the cold rain away from his handsome face without wrinkles.

He was also back in his youth, when he was in his twenties and had just stepped into the world of hybrids with a Ph.D. from Cambridge University.

"It's not magic, it's 'Spirit. 'Dream tapir', which is not currently recorded in the periodic table of the spirits. This is just a reflection of your past memories, Headmaster Angers. ”

Lu Mingfei said lightly, his eyes pierced through the darkness, staring at the freighter in the sea in the distance that had been cut out by the lighthouse gas lamp.

"I see." Ange fumbled his palms in his suit jacket for a moment, then took out a pair of nose-clipping glasses from his pocket and put them on the bridge of his nose.

He habitually touched his cuffs, and the sharp Damascus knife followed him into a dream—though the predecessor of the alchemical knife was still on the young Count Menech.

"I need to remind you again, this is just a reflection of your past memories, headmaster, and our behavior here won't change much." Lu Mingfei reminded.

"Are you worried that some irrational thoughts will arise in my heart when I witness the grief of the past again?" Ange looked calm, "Then you are a little underestimated the psychological tolerance of the elderly." ”

"It's time for the story to begin."

——

The ebony black side of the freighter is prominently painted with white paint on the Queen Mary, a not-so-notable British ship that travels between the Far East and the port of Hamburg, using the opium and porcelain trade as a cover to resell antiquities.

When the young Ange led Lu Mingfei to the docks, there was already another figure standing behind the young Count Menek.

"That's your grandfather's grandfather, his name is Lu Shanyan," Ange said, but his voice didn't attract the attention of the two people in front of the dock, as if they hadn't heard him, "The first time I saw him, he was wearing a very tight suit, with his braids coiled up and hidden in his top hat, and followed Li Hongzhang, the chief minister of the Qing Empire at the time, down from the train and stayed at the Caesar Hotel. ”

Lu Shanyan's figure was comparable to Menek, a pitch-black poncho covered his Qing dress, Lu Mingfei simply glanced at the other party, compared to the appearance of his gaze in the metal flash in Lu Shanyan's hand for a while longer - those were two silver large-caliber revolvers, obviously this "grandfather" was not a weak Chinese who was powerless during the Qing Dynasty.

"He was an important member of the Westernization faction at that time, Guangxu was selected to be sent to the Beijing Tongwen Museum in the sixteenth year, and he had a deep knowledge of European language and technology, and after a few years he met the young Meneke, and the two became best friends."

Ange continued to narrate the story, introducing his grandfather to Lu Mingfei.

Lu Mingfei didn't have any emotions or thoughts, at most because his grandfather was a warrior against aliens, and he had a little honor.

However, putting it in that world does not make him eligible to be sent to the Imperial Loyal Heir Academy - the Imperial military also has a class division, only loyal nobles or military officers who have made meritorious contributions to the alien or heretical will be sent to the Imperial Loyal Heir Academy, most of them will enter the Imperial institution to become "civil servants", the rest will go to the battlefield as officer commissars or storm soldiers, the most elite cadets will be admitted to the Inquisition, and the girls may become battle nuns.

The conditions for becoming Astarte are even more stringent, the Astarte wargroup with the conscription world selects soldiers from the famous families in the conscription world for strict and cruel screening, and the fleet-based warband directly picks the most brutal personnel on the planet;

A slave like Lu Mingfei can be selected to become a loyal Astarte, and being placed in that dark universe belongs to the shit luck accumulated over ten lifetimes.

In the distance, the dark lights of the Queen Mary matched the sparkling gas lights on the docks, and the freighter dropped anchor outside the harbor, undulating with the tumbling waves. A group of sailors lowered their lifeboats and rowed towards the pier in ponchos.

"Yamahiko, don't you think our duo is weird?" Menek asked suddenly.

"What's so strange?" Lu Shanyan asked lightly.

"The weapon was used in reverse." Slowly, he pulled out the long knife he had hidden in his trench coat, the cold light of the blade as cold as the moon in the sky on a winter night, and then he took it back.

The natural pattern on the blade is clearly visible, it is an Ottoman Turkish-style Yatkan long sword, which is usually only admired by the great European powers, but it is forged by alchemy technology, and is destined to cut fatal wounds in the body of the enemy.

"One day we in China will make and equip ourselves with muskets and cannons, and when we are so strong that no one will buy the opium you produce." Lu Shanyan said.

"Don't call me an opium dealer." Meneke protested.

Lu Shanyan smiled faintly, he just wanted to move the atmosphere with Menek in this cold and lonely night, and in the darkness behind them, there were two Makqin heavy machine guns facing this direction.

"Are they aliens?" Lu Mingfei's eyes fell on the small rowboat.

"It's annoying to be informed in advance of the 'spoiler' behavior of the fixed development direction of the plot." Ange did not answer.

The dinghy was moored, and the sailor at the head was strong, with a thick black braid tied around the muscular protruding neck, and he jumped on the dock, and did not hold the boat in place without a rope, but pulled the ring of the bow tightly with his hand to prevent it from being pushed away by the tide.

"It's all old friends, check the goods quickly, and we'll pay if it's correct, according to the price as promised." Lu Shanyan said in Chinese that he had heard that the owner behind the "Queen Mary" was Chinese, but no one knew his identity.

The sailor who dragged the bow of the ship shook his head, unlike the previous traders, this sailor had a square face, but his eye sockets were deep-set, and his eyes flashed like a broken lamp, and he was a stranger to Lu Shanyan; To his surprise, the other's lips were tightly sealed together with blackened twine, a cruel method that made it impossible for him to speak.

He couldn't help but clench the large-caliber revolver in his hand.

Four sailors carried a pitch-black chest from the ship to shore, sealed with a mottled seal with the Kassel family crest and the number 19010666 of the transaction, indicating that it was the 666th item they had purchased from the Far East - a rather unlucky number, as at the time in Europe, "666" was the exclusive number of Satan the Devil, not the DOTA symbol of "You're Awesome".

"It's your turn."

Meneke looked sideways at Ange, ignoring Luming beside him, as if he didn't exist.

Holding his head high, he naturally reintegrated into the dream of a hundred years ago, and he felt the folding knife in the cuff, pushed the blade away, and cut slowly along the gap in the lid, with a simple and neat technique.

He took the kerosene lamp handed by Menieke and pushed the box open a gap - although he told Lu Mingfei not to underestimate the psychological tolerance of the elderly, but when he saw the "things" in the box again, the expression of the young face changed-long-gone, lonely, angry...... As he did a hundred years ago, he was trying to restrain himself, but this time he was restraining his anger so as not to get carried away and stab the folding knife into the chest.

He took a deep breath, closed the lid again, and nodded to Menek.

"According to what was agreed before, all 50,000 marks will be paid in silver." Menek clapped his hands, and several strong companions approached with heavy boxes full of silver coins.

The sailor, however, shook his head, and seemed to have no interest in the huge sum, took out a letter from his pocket, handed it to Lu Shanyan, and then bowed respectfully, and then boarded the rowboat and hurried back to the Queen Mary.

At this time, only Lu Shanyan understood Chinese, and he quickly finished reading the letter, his face was a little gloomy.

"The person who said in the letter does not charge money for the goods, this is a cursed thing, and anyone who touches it will die." He said coldly, "The letter concludes: 'Goodbye, there will be no more opportunities to trade with you.'" ’”

"It sounds like we're getting cheap." Menek grinned, "But why do I feel a little chilly all over my body?" ”

The Queen Mary whistled and after the trading dinghy was hoisted onto the ship, the freighter gave up the opportunity to enter the harbor and sailed at high speed into the dark sea on this stormy night. Menek looked up and saw the lighthouse's pillar of light pointing to the sky, the rolling clouds no different from the rough sea.

"It looks like they're quite afraid of this bad thing," Menek said, leaning closer and patting the large box of Indian ebony nails, "why did the group make this box look like a coffin?" ”

"Because it's a coffin."

Ange said expressionlessly, reopening the lid under the gaze of his illusory and real companions.

Everyone gasped, this Indian ebony temporary nail box contained a black Chinese-style coffin, after the precipitation of time and history, the silver paint on the surface appeared a little mottled, part of the wood was eaten by insects, but the silver lacquer lotus on the surface is still clearly visible. You can imagine how fine the coffin was at the beginning.

The young Count Menek spat into the ground and said in broken Chinese: "Coffin coffin, promotion and fortune!" ”

"Oh, the alien is in there." Lu Mingfei glanced at the coffin and whispered to himself.

“……”

His voice caught everyone's attention, and the curtain of the dream seemed to be lifted, and Lu Mingfei, the listener of the story, also participated in the story.

The first to look at Lu Shanyan was Lu Shanyan, whose obvious Chinese accent attracted his attention, he looked Lu Mingfei up and down, and then looked at Ange on the side, and asked in German:

"He's the one you brought?"

"Yes, his name is Lu Mingfei, and he is both our ethnicity and my proudest student."

With a smile on his face, Ange walked up to Lu Mingfei's side and solemnly introduced the two members of the secret party with high courtesy.