Su reached up and rubbed the back of his stiff neck. A faint crack sounded, and he let out a long breath.
His sleep quality last night had been, as usual, terrible, but today his spirits were unexpectedly good.
There was a reason for that.
The fully sealed deep-sea research project — the one that had kept him pinned to the ocean floor for a solid six months — had finally wrapped up successfully.
Counting the time, it had been several years since he'd left Arc City, left the university, left that dorm room that was perpetually in chaos.
Kevin had just started his internship back then, his face colder than a refrigerator every single day, saying "whatever" and "doesn't matter" — while his hands, ever honest, stayed up with Su late into the night helping revise his resume.
And Su Yu was even more absurd than that.
He'd shamelessly drag his term papers out until the very last day, yet at two in the morning he could still sit cross-legged on his bed, wide awake, pull out a bag of plain potato chips, and fix Su with a look of profound, world-weary wisdom.
"Bro, take my advice — effort is pointless. Finding yourself a rich woman to mooch off is the true ultimate meaning of a man's life."
Su hadn't even bothered to roll his eyes at him. He'd just rolled over and put on his noise-canceling headphones, signaling that he couldn't hear a word.
In Su's eyes, these two were textbook cases — one a "hopeless illiterate and Office Slave in training," the other a "master of doing nothing and the undisputed king of homebodies."
Calling them brothers who'd shared everything, right down to their underwear, wasn't an exaggeration in the least. They'd slept in the same dorm room for years — feelings had formed whether they liked it or not, especially since they'd gone all the way from high school to college together.
They'd worry about rent at the end of the month, mock each other over who'd eaten more sausage out of the instant noodles, and even settle the world-class dilemma of "who goes downstairs to grab the delivery" with a game of rock-paper-scissors that lasted until dawn.
Ordinary. Noisy. But full of the warmth of everyday life — and it was the state Su found most reassuring.
Precisely because of that, Su believed they had no need, and no business, getting anywhere near the dark side of this world.
Years ago, when he'd left school, Kevin had rolled his eyes at him from the dorm and asked, "You're really going that far away?" Su Yu had just sat on the edge of the bed hugging a tub of instant noodles and said, "Going abroad to polish yourself up is a good thing. Remember to bring back some local specialties for the folks back home — preferably the kind you get for free."
Back then, the whole dorm assumed Su was going abroad for further studies.
Su had gone along with it and nodded.
"Yeah. Just studying."
He'd said it so naturally that he'd nearly convinced himself.
But only he knew why he'd joined Schicksal, why he'd become Otto's student, why he ended up in places where you had to apply three times just to get a brief phone signal.
Because he was a doctor. He'd witnessed more partings, more deaths, than he could count, and he understood just how fragile and helpless humanity was in the face of unknown disease.
To put it bluntly, throughout all of history, there were precious few diseases humanity had ever truly, completely conquered.
Faced with most calamities, the only thing a doctor could write on the chart was often just "nothing more can be done."
Su hated those words.
Rather than working through well-established clinical procedures in some bright, spacious operating room, he'd rather go after the things hidden in the shadows — the things no one else wanted to touch.
Unknown genetic viruses. Anomalous infection samples. Deep-sea and underground research projects with the highest security clearances.
Others avoided them like the plague. He treasured them.
It wasn't chuunibyou bravado driving him. He simply believed someone had to carry the weight so ordinary people didn't have to.
And that someone might as well be him.
For years now, he'd kept Kevin and Su Yu completely in the dark.
Every time they managed a call, he'd toss out something vague — "just doing advanced training out here," "my supervisor's a bit strict lately," "the project's in the mountains, signal's terrible."
He'd said it all with such confidence that the two simple souls actually believed him.
Su had always been quite satisfied with his role as their "invisible guardian."
Especially these past few months, when he'd buried himself entirely in a deep-sea project.
How tight was the security? Before entering the module, they even confiscated personal electronic watches. Even passing a note within the project team had to go through three scans first.
During this half-year-long "offline lockdown," he had no idea what earth-shaking changes had taken place in the outside world.
On Su Yu's birthday, he'd used a brief communication window to hastily send him a red packet, with only a single note attached: "Buy yourself whatever you want."
The message sent, and then the connection cut out.
By the time he emerged, it was today.
Right now, Su's knowledge of Arc City was still frozen at a few months back.
miHoYo's meteoric rise? He had no idea.
Honkai Impact 3rd going viral across the entire internet? He had no idea.
Tens of millions of players across the internet loving and hating "Su Yu the Old Thief" in equal measure, threatening daily to string the old thief up on a lamppost? He had even less of an idea!
He still figured Su Yu was probably holed up in his rented apartment, computer on, instant noodles out, curtains half-drawn, looking every bit like a moldy mushroom mid-photosynthesis.
The thought gave Su's heart an odd sense of fatherly relief.
At least the guy was probably still alive, and hadn't starved to death.
There was a click.
The door at the end of the corridor opened.
Amber stood beside the double mahogany doors and gave him a slight nod.
"Mr. Su, His Eminence the Bishop is waiting for you."
Su pulled himself out of his thoughts and followed her in.
The office's furnishings were as vintage and lavish as ever. Beyond the massive floor-to-ceiling windows stretched Europe's cool, grayish-blue morning sky.
Otto Apocalypse sat behind his broad desk, flipping through a newly delivered paper report.
"You're back." Otto set the file aside without ceremony, his tone carrying its usual elegance and ease. "Good work."
"Just doing my job, Teacher," Su said, standing steady before the desk, expression calm.
Otto didn't waste time and got straight to the point.
"A batch of extremely dangerous illegal gene-modifying drugs has surfaced in Arc City's underground black market recently. Source unknown, but they're spreading at an alarming rate. The local Schicksal agents are already on it, but the exposure risk to them is fairly high — they need a more suitable outside identity to provide cover. You happen to be heading back to Arc City for your vacation, so just pick up this task while you're at it."
"What identity should I operate under?" Su's mind snapped into work mode instantly.
"A guest lecture at your old school." Otto smiled. "Arc City University happens to have extended an invitation. Medical device direction — reasonable enough, and it'll give you a natural way to get in front of your target group."
Su nodded. "Understood. Leave it to me."
Business concluded, Otto seemed to suddenly remember something, leaning back in his chair, relaxed, hands folded.
"Speaking of which, there's been a rather interesting urban legend going around Arc City lately."
Otto chatted about the recent goings-on in Arc City like an ordinary elder catching up.
"The White-Haired Vigilante."
"There was a white-haired vigilante before, specifically targeting the underground crime networks. Fast, sharp-minded too, single-handedly drove the crime rate down by a lot. A lot of people say she comes and goes without a trace, like a ghost."
Su's expression turned a little strange.
White-haired vigilante? Skilled, sharp-minded, comes and goes untraceable — which meant fast reflexes, and physical strength that couldn't be low either —
Without warning, a certain face floated into Su's mind — bright and cheerful in high school, reduced to an instant-noodle-eating Office Slave after starting work.
The whole Kaslana family had superhuman physical stats, though of course that wasn't something they were born with — it was the result of genetic modification.
That was something Su had only learned after joining Schicksal, though. Back in school, he'd simply marveled that Kevin's strength was practically polar-bear-level.
He suddenly remembered a late-night dorm chat back in college, where Su Yu had half-jokingly pointed at Kevin's abs and said, "Old Kevin, with a body like that, being a miserable journalist by day is a waste. You should put on a skintight suit at night and go save the world — it'd be an insult to those muscles otherwise."
Arc City... white hair... off-the-charts strength... a passion for fighting crime...
Holy—! Had Kevin actually fallen for Su Yu's little scheme? Ox and horse by day, Batman by night?!
Just as Su's brain started frantically building that chain of logic, Otto added lazily, "Although, this vigilante lady seems to have vanished lately. Once the rats underground caught wind of it, they started coming back out of the woodwork. No wonder illegal drugs are popping up right at this moment."
"Vigilante... lady?"
Those two words fell into the office, and for a strange moment, everything went quiet.
The breath Su had been holding eased out noticeably.
Phew. So it's a woman.
Wrong gender, so it couldn't have anything to do with Kevin. Just his Occupational Disease acting up again — overthinking it.
Wait. No. Wait!!
The heart Su had just let settle shot right back up into his throat, and his blood pressure spiked.
He suddenly remembered a piece of what could only be called "traumatic history" — during the high school culture festival open day, to raise funds for the class, egged on by Su Yu's scheming, they'd set up a "Second-Dimension Ecstasy Maid Café"!
And the star attraction that day hadn't been any of the class beauties — it had been Kevin, coaxed and bribed with two hotpot dinners by Su Yu into wearing a maid outfit!!
Su had to admit — Kevin's looks really could carry a look, and combined with that sunny, dopey big-guy energy, he'd looked exactly like a Samoyed in a lace dress. The damage he'd done was terrifying.
Anyway, that day had been a battlefield.
Thanks to Kevin shamelessly selling his looks, the class's earnings had gone through the roof, and Su Yu, as the "mastermind," had raked in a fortune.
Su had thought at the time that the whole thing was absurd, completely lacking any sense of shame.
But when Su Yu had shoved a thick stack of cash into his pocket as his cut, Su had suddenly thought the afternoon sunlight was really quite lovely.
Could it be...?!
No, no, no! Surely not!
Fighting crime — however you looked at it, it couldn't require going that far, right?!
Chasing down a mugger while first stopping home to change into a magic-girl skirt? That would be insane!
But... what if?
What if it was for infiltrating some shady establishment out of the public eye?
What if it was a sting operation to catch a pervert? Given Kevin's one-track "uphold justice at all costs" personality, he was absolutely capable of gritting his teeth and doing something like that!
And worse — if Kevin really was playing "Magic Girl Batman," there had to be a "black-hearted butler" nearby providing logistical support and terrible ideas!
Thinking back on Su Yu's illustrious history — the guy hadn't even blinked at an invitation to hang out from someone as gorgeous as Elysia, his mind fixated entirely on "hurry back to the dorm and play Galgame" and "how to make money."
It was over!
Su closed his eyes in despair.
With Su Yu around, fanning the flames and stirring up trouble as always, the odds of Kevin losing all sense of dignity and becoming a full-blown "cross-dressing pervert vigilante" were skyrocketing exponentially!!
Just as Su's mind kept running its wild little drama titled My Roommate is Magic Girl Batman, Otto — behind the desk, flipping through Su's file — paused on one page and didn't turn it for a long moment.
He'd originally intended to steer the conversation toward Su Yu, following naturally from the mission briefing.
Investigate Anti-Entropy. Investigate miHoYo. Investigate that increasingly outrageous game company and the people behind it.
But the words on the tip of his tongue changed course at the last moment.
The old fox tucked in his claws and leaned back in his chair.
"Speaking of which." Otto looked up, a faint, knowing smile on his face. "I recall you have two very good friends — one named Su Yu, one named Kevin, correct?"
Su snapped out of his horrified mental spiral about "Cross-Dressing Kevin" and blinked. "Teacher, you remember even that?"
Otto's expression softened a bit, and he spoke with a tone tinged with nostalgia. "Of course I remember."
"When I gave a lecture at your university that year, the three of you stood out badly. Kevin was asleep in the back row, practically sliding off his chair. Su Yu sat next to him, sneaking snacks."
"In a lecture hall that huge, with hundreds of people, you were the only one sitting up straight, watching me the entire time with a serious expression. It would've been hard not to remember you three."
Hearing this, Su found himself remembering that day too.
Right. He remembered now.
The air conditioning in the lecture hall had been half broken that day. Kevin had slept without a shred of guilt, and Su Yu hadn't just eaten his own snacks — he'd even managed to slip a plain potato chip into Su's mouth during the brief moment Otto turned to write on the board.
Su had sat straight-backed and serious-faced that whole time, but inside, he'd been mentally kicking those two embarrassments about ten thousand times.
Otto's little detour had visibly loosened the tension in Su's shoulders.
"Yeah. It's been a while since I've seen those two." There was a trace of helplessness and longing in Su's tone. "No idea if Su Yu's still holed up in his rented apartment eating instant noodles and gaming all day, or if Kevin's still an Office Slave at some company, getting worked to the bone by a heartless boss..."
A faint hint of amusement flickered in Otto's eyes as he listened.
"That friend of yours, Su Yu — he's become quite famous in Arc City lately." The old fox deliberately drew out his words, paused, then changed tack. "But, never mind. Too many spoilers would ruin the fun. I'll leave you some of that reunion surprise."
Ten minutes later.
When Su walked out of the office, his steps were slower than when he'd come in.
"Quite famous." "Surprise."
The two phrases turned over in his mind, and something suddenly felt off.
Su's brow furrowed tightly as he began frantically searching his memory for the life mottos Su Yu had recited most often back in the dorm.
[Effort? What decent person actually tries hard?! Finding a rich woman to sponge off, living the easy life without lifting a finger — now that's the true ultimate meaning of life!]
Su's footsteps came to an abrupt halt, and his usually calm expression cracked wide open.
...No way?!
Had Su Yu, relying on that passably handsome face of his, actually managed to hook a top-tier rich woman in Arc City?!
And then ridden that gravy train all the way, skipping fifty years of hard work — was that why he'd become "famous" in Arc City's high-society circles?!
Once the thought surfaced, it was hard to shake.
Su stood there in silence for a few seconds, then, expressionless, pulled out his phone and opened his notes app.
There was a long gift list on it.
Under Su Yu's entry, it originally read: "Eye drops, liver supplements, cervical spine heating patches, less gaming."
Su took a deep breath, fingers flying across the screen, and deleted every single one of those items.
Then, with a fury born of disappointment, he typed in new ones:
[Liu Wei Di Huang Wan (large bottle), kidney tonic pills, high-concentration American ginseng and maca slices, recovery supplement for irregular sleep schedule and severe kidney depletion!]
After finishing that entry, Su paused, staring at the screen, his expression a complex mess.
Brother, oh brother — since you've chosen the shortcut of "riding the rich-woman gravy train," the least I can do as your bro is back you up on the logistics front!
As for Kevin, that was simple.
The guy was definitely still working, overtiming, eating instant noodles, keeping that cold expression, saying nothing — extra anti-fatigue supplements couldn't hurt.
Su's finger kept scrolling down the screen.
It wasn't just those two best friends — he hadn't forgotten a single one of his old friends from Arc City's "Golden Courtyard" either.
Vill-V's insulated gloves, Mobius's rare reagents, Griseo's high-grade non-toxic paints, Elysia's limited-edition crystal hairpin, Eden's throat lozenges, Kosma's out-of-print harmonica, Pardofelis's lucky cat figurine, Aponia's meditation incense, Kiana's heavy-duty punching bag...
Every single name was noted in order, each with its own gift attached.
The bulky items had already been shipped ahead to Arc City through Schicksal's logistics.
What remained in his suitcase were things that had to be carried by hand.
Supplements, medicine, limited-edition models, handmade trinkets only available in certain regions — everything neatly sorted.
This kind of meticulous habit could charitably be called "a healer's compassion, attentive to every detail."
But in Su Yu's own words, it was — "Mom-disease terminal case, the Golden Courtyard's own cyber-mom incarnate!"
Not long after, Su, packed and ready, returned to Otto's office.
He carried a silver thermostatic case in hand and gave a slight bow toward the man behind the desk, signaling he was ready to leave at any time.
Otto rested his crossed hands under his chin, looking at his prized student, and suddenly found things getting more and more interesting.
Su normally handled things calmly, rarely showing much emotion on his face, but the moment his friends came up, the whole man had visibly softened.
"Seems like you all really care about each other," Otto said, sounding a little moved.
Su paused but didn't respond to that. In his heart, though, those few people were the "ordinary life" he'd throw himself in front of, no matter the cost.
Otto didn't mind, and simply pushed the file back across the desk.
"Since you're so eager to get home, best set off soon. Amber's already booked you the fastest flight to Arc City. Have a good trip home."
"Understood, Teacher. I'll track down the source of the illegal drugs while handling the lecture."
Su turned and strode out of the office.
As the heavy mahogany door swung shut, the spacious office fell back into silence.
Amber, who had been standing in the shadows, stepped forward, her eyes lingering on the doorway where Su had vanished, brow lightly furrowed.
"Your Eminence."
"Hm?"
"Given how close Su and Su Yu are, why not just order him directly to investigate Su Yu and the Anti-Entropy base?"
Otto rose and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window.
Night hadn't fully faded yet, and the city lights cast long, thin reflections across the glass.
He didn't answer right away, just watched the view for a while before finally speaking.
"Amber, you still don't understand people well enough."
"If Su went back with a clear investigative purpose, with the label of a Schicksal spy on him, then the moment he stepped onto that plane, his mind would automatically shift into high alert."
"He'd start thinking about how to disguise himself, what to say, what expression to wear..."
"And facing Su Yu and that pack of monsters at Anti-Entropy, the more deliberate the disguise, the more likely it is to slip and reveal a fatal flaw."
Amber stood quietly, listening.
Otto tilted his head, and in those green eyes was a flash of pure, mischievous delight — the look of a man purely here for the entertainment.
"But the Su we have now is different."
"He knows nothing about the changes that have swept through Arc City. He's completely unguarded, in every way."
"In his heart, he's the 'hero carrying the weight for others,' going home to visit two ordinary friends, doing me a small favor catching a few gangsters selling fake medicine along the way."
"And besides..."
Otto turned to face Amber, the smile at the corners of his eyes deepening bit by bit.
"How do you know I'm not the one who deliberately sent him back like this, knowing nothing at all?"
Amber tilted her head slightly, as if catching something in his words.
Otto let out a soft laugh, his voice echoing through the empty office.
"I really do want to see it with my own eyes..."
"When Su, full of joy, opens that door, wanting to shelter his two ordinary friends who need protecting under the sunlight of his care..."
"...only to suddenly discover that one of them is standing at the very center of a global storm, calling the shots, and the other is nowhere near as ordinary as an 'office slave' either."
"That perpetually unshakeable face of his — I wonder just how it'll crumble."
"I have a feeling... that sight is going to be absolutely delightful."
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