Chapter 50: The Worldview Finally Collapses and Shatters

Lu Mingfei could not figure out why he had to run into so many frustrating and annoying things today.

Old Tang and his family had mysteriously disappeared, he had encountered robbers while hailing a taxi back to the city, and whenever he rode his motorcycle alone along the road, some weirdos would always show up to block his way.

First, there was a guy whose wife was about to give birth, yet his car broke down halfway, and he begged Lu Mingfei for help. Then there was someone night-riding a bicycle who carelessly crashed into a tree, bleeding all over his head, begging him to help find a lost wheel hub. After that, there was a guy who fished up a floating corpse and wanted Lu Mingfei to call the police for him so it wouldn't ruin his chances of catching a big fish...

At first, these were just minor pranks, but later on, things started getting real.

First, a white SUV suddenly blew a tire and crashed into a Honda driving normally ahead of it. The two cars spun and danced in a joint effort to completely block the road.

This scene, which felt like a rerun of yesterday, almost made him stop the car and rush forward to offer assistance, but he knew very well that the person pulled out would not be that boastful Uncle Chu who always managed to make his brags come true. Besides, that white SUV looked very familiar to him.

Even though the license plate had been changed, he recognized at a single glance that it was the very vehicle previously parked by the edge of the hotel parking lot.

At that time, a cat had stepped across the car, leaving a clear plum blossom footprint on the pristine body of the vehicle.

Had it been before, Lu Mingfei certainly wouldn't mind playing along with them for a bit, but by now, his patience was completely exhausted.

Directly twisting the throttle, he drove diagonally up the slope's retaining wall, completing a thrilling ramp overtake at a height of one and a half meters off the ground, leaving two drivers—who had risked flipping their cars just to forcefully block the road—staring at each other in speechless dismay, their minds filled with silent curses.

The dossier didn't mention that he knew how to ride a motorcycle, let alone this kind of stunt motorcycle!

What on earth were those intelligence departments paid for? They were useless at accomplishing tasks while excelling at messing them up, taking unearned salaries while occupying official positions without doing any work. He strongly recommended that the Principal banish them to the Arctic to feed the polar bears!

Leaving the traffic accident scene behind, Lu Mingfei later ran into a group of modified-moped-riding punks racing at night, but the mere fact that they wore helmets while street racing completely gave away their identities.

After that, he shifted into fourth gear and twisted the throttle all the way, finally avoiding any further encounters with those assholes from Cassell College.

Yet, as misfortune would have it, just when he thought a village or town was only a few kilometers away, his fucking motorcycle ran out of gas. After wheezing and sputtering for a bit, it directly stalled and went on strike!

The boomerang of him mocking that little arrogant airhead Nono earlier for driving to show off without checking her gas had actually flown right back at him at this very moment.

Tonight's experiences were somewhat absurd; it felt as though the entire world was trying to delay his steps.

With no other choice, he could only choose to become a deserter on foot—anyway, it wasn't his motorcycle, so he didn't feel any heartache over it.

Just as he prepared to walk while waiting for those people from Cassell College to catch up so he could hitch a ride, a deafening explosion echoed from a mountain col not far away.

Before he could figure out whether it was a quarry violating safety regulations or that joint Chinese-American film crew shooting nearby, it was followed by a continuous flurry of gunfire and strange roaring noises.

At this point, he was certain it must be that joint Chinese-American film crew shooting a movie nearby, because their publicity gimmick was that their special effects, action sequences, and other blockbuster spectacles comprehensively crushed "The Host" with their own "Yangtze River Monster."

To be honest, when Lu Mingfei saw the promotional slogan, he was left entirely speechless—they literally didn't mention plot, acting, or emotional core at all!

However, putting that aside, such realistic gunfire and beast roars did manage to arouse his curiosity.

Driven by curiosity, he hoisted his backpack, scaled the slope barehanded, and hurried toward the direction from which the sounds came.

Americans were notoriously fond of causing destruction in other countries, and since he had rarely run into such a thing, he simply had to take a look to prevent the beautiful Wuxia from turning into a second Bigu Heavenly Pool.

And all of this was captured by the lovestruck stalker trailing him in secret.

The long-legged, beautiful teenage warrior, still dressed in a black tactical combat uniform, hid in the shadows right behind Lu Mingfei, communicating with someone in a faint whisper.

The signals nearby had been artificially jammed, but because they were using a satellite phone, the conversation between Long-Legs and Potato Chips remained unaffected.

"Potato Chips, our VIP has run off to an unexpected stage. Do you really not need me to stop him?"

"The boss said to let him experience the true face of the world at a safe distance, ideally triggering a spiritual vision so that he can... well, reach an agreement as soon as possible."

Potato Chips wasn't snacking this time; the rhythmic clacking of a keyboard came from the other end of the call, occasionally accompanied by the ding-dong notification sound of mobile messages. Judging by the activity, she had the aura of a female CEO whose every minute was worth millions.

"He's changed so much, and you're telling me he hasn't experienced a spiritual vision yet?" Long-Legs expressed shock, suspecting that the little vixen on the other end must have been secretly binge-drinking just now.

"That's exactly what the boss said. Make sure you guarantee the safety of our VIP customer so he can successfully complete his spiritual vision."

"Using such a thrilling scene as a battle between humans and corpses to stimulate a spiritual vision—isn't that method a bit too extreme?"

"What's so bad about that? We didn't even make him personally experience the agonizing parting of loved ones where the child wishes to support them but the parents are no longer around, or the wind continuing to blow even though the trees want to rest." Potato Chips's tone was full of indifference, but it was clear that she too was someone with a backstory.

Yet these days, who didn't have some past events they were unwilling to mention to others? Even though Long-Legs was her best sister, it didn't mean she had to listen to her pour out her grievances.

"Sigh, fine whatever. It looks like my physical exertion for today is going to exceed the limit again." Having run behind Lu Mingfei all day without stopping, only to face unconditional overtime at night, she felt somewhat like an unfortunate maid who had accidentally stumbled into a shady family enterprise and signed a life-long contract of indentured servitude.

The long-legged beautiful warrior's physical exertion was only about to exceed the limit, while Lu Mingfei's had already blown past the charts long ago.

His current seventeen-year-old body clearly lacked exercise. After trekking long distances all day and enduring so many ridiculous events, his stamina had long since hit rock bottom.

As he finally scrambled over mountains and ridges to approach the filming site, which was roaring with shouts, gunfire, and a bustling crowd, Lu Mingfei felt lactic acid pooling heavily in his calves, bringing him dangerously close to a muscle fiber spasm (commonly known as a cramp).

Fortunately, as a StarCraft player, his eyesight had always been decent; even from about a mile away, he could clearly see their shooting setup.

He had to admit that movies co-produced by China and the US really had something to them—that gunfire, those yells, that monster makeup, those severed limbs and flying blood splatters... it was all about absolute realism.

"Money makes people willful. If my eyesight weren't so sharp, I'd really think this was a genuine war."

After all, having memories of the next ten years and having visited Hollywood to observe the shooting process of blockbuster special effects movies, Lu Mingfei knew that professional teams over there could indeed pull off incredible practical effects.

The night was dim and visibility was low. Coupled with the obstruction of tree shadows, he genuinely failed to notice that some of the "specialty actors" playing monsters were leaping three meters high, some kept bouncing around even after their limbs were blown off by suppressing fire, and others had their heads blown up on the spot, leaving behind a mess of heroic debris.

This large-scale human-versus-monster battle was quite grand indeed. Worried about being discovered if he got too close, Lu Mingfei chose to observe from the outer perimeter.

When that group of monsters—with green faces, tusks, and slightly deformed bodies—lost more than half their numbers and finally charged down the mountainside against a hail of bullets to meet the armed shooters, Lu Mingfei finally sensed that something was amiss.

These monster actors actually dared to use their heads to withstand blank rounds at close range? Even without bullets, the lethality at such close range was no joke. Were they really risking their lives for a salary of a few hundred bucks a month?

Lu Mingfei couldn't understand it, but he was deeply shocked.

And what shocked him even more was yet to come.

From a tall tree not far away, a gunshot characteristic of an anti-materiel sniper rifle rang out, successfully attracting several monster actors.

They whipped their skinny, slender arms, opened their blood-red mouths full of sharp teeth, and glared with glowing crimson-gold eyes as they charged madly toward his direction.

Lu Mingfei watched with his own eyes as the monster actor running at the front—whose speed rivaled Usain Bolt's—was headshot by a single round. Carried by momentum, its bewildered, bizarre body still rushed forward several meters before crashing powerlessly to the ground.

At that moment, he felt his crumbling worldview finally snap and collapse completely.