He didn't care whether this ship would sink or not, nor did he care if the passengers were comfortable. That was not something he needed to consider.
Before speaking, he deliberately altered his voice to ensure Long Ao wouldn't recognize it.
Chen Guan's question was like a drop of cold water falling into boiling oil, causing the briefly frozen atmosphere to boil over once again.
The light and shadow on Long Ao's side flickered violently, clearly provoked by Chen Guan's calm "What do I need to do?"
He couldn't understand how this newcomer, who was just like him, could have absolutely no emotional fluctuation after hearing such an appalling truth, and instead jump straight to the execution phase.
"How can you..." Long Ao's voice could not be suppressed, carrying the unique, unpolished anger of a young man. "What gives us the right to decide the life and death of others? What gives us the right to excise a city? There are living, breathing people in there!"
The swaying light and shadow of Santai moved again. "We aren't playing a role-playing game of gods. We can't be everyone's savior."
"Diseased tissue should be cleaned out." The person speaking this time was Southern Dipper. "Emotion is the most high-risk factor affecting judgment. Based on your reaction, you are not competent for tasks that require excision operations."
"Southern Dipper." Beidou's voice rang out, not heavy, but it made Southern Dipper shut his mouth.
Beidou shifted his gaze to Long Ao. "Vermilion Bird, your doubts are perfectly normal. Every newcomer goes through this stage. But the ship is sinking, and we do not have the time to argue over the ownership of every passenger's luggage."
He paused, a trace of indescribable meaning in his tone. "Your grandfather asked the exact same question back then. But in the end, he made a choice."
At the mention of his grandfather, Long Ao's light and shadow froze.
These people actually knew his grandfather?
"White Tiger." Beidou turned in another direction. "You are their guide. Going forward, I leave these two newcomers to you. As members of the Four Symbols, they are meant to be your subordinates."
"Received," White Tiger replied frivolously. He stretched lazily; the great Lord White Tiger was finally no longer a commander without an army.
"I..." Long Ao wanted to say something else.
"Data supplement." Southern Dipper's flat, uninflected voice sounded again.
"Vermilion Bird, based on your emotional fluctuations and conversational logic just now, I have built a preliminary behavioral prediction model for you. The model shows that when faced with the classic moral dilemma of sacrificing the minority to save the majority, you have a ninety-two percent probability of abandoning the mission objective and turning to save the minority instead."
"This behavioral pattern is defined as high-risk emotional decision-making."
"Conclusion: Before you complete your psychological adjustment, it is not recommended that you execute any missions. Please supervise this, White Tiger."
Every word of this statement pierced Long Ao's self-esteem like a needle.
He was a warrior, yet he was evaluated as high-risk and in need of supervision.
The light and shadow representing Long Ao seemed to dim a few shades. Long Ao also closed his mouth and said no more.
Silence lasted for a moment.
"Alright." This time it was Beidou who spoke. "Since there are no further questions, this orientation meeting is adjourned. Remember your identities, and remember your goals."
As soon as his voice fell, the scene before Chen Guan's eyes began to distort. The pitch-black stone round table and those blurry lights and shadows rapidly receded.
In the next second, he was already back in his single room.
The token in his hand returned to its quaint appearance, the faint blue light on its surface completely withdrawn, though its temperature was slightly higher than before.
Chen Guan placed the token on the table.
They said it was to meet his colleagues, but he hadn't even seen a single colleague's face.
White Tiger's mouth was full of deceitful lies.
Although he hadn't been assigned any tasks and hadn't seen any faces, at least this time he knew the purpose of the group.
What he was most curious about was the leader, Zero Sum. To be able to gather such a group of people with vastly different personalities, both personal charisma and individual strength were indispensable.
It was just a pity that he didn't get to see him this time either.
Chen Guan sat on the edge of the bed, his fingers unconsciously tapping the token on the table.
The object had completely cooled down, its touch no different from before. If tossed on the street, probably no one would even bother to pick it up.
Survive.
Beidou's voice still echoed in his ears. It was a goal so heavy it left one breathless.
But for him, this goal was dismantled into more specific things: popularity points, soul-nourishing wood, natural heavenly treasures, and the slumbering true body inside the coffin.
The survival of the world had nothing to do with him.
He only wanted to make his own world wake up again.
...
Inside the VIP hospital ward, the atmosphere was oppressive.
Long Ao sat on the edge of the bed, his fists clenched tight, veins bulging on the back of his hands.
The world was a sinking ship? They were the surgeons responsible for excising diseased tissue?
That excised tissue consisted of living, breathing people, cities, everything he had sworn to protect.
"This isn't right..." he muttered softly. He thought again of his grandfather, whom Beidou had mentioned.
Could his grandfather also be connected to these people?
An Changqing was not in the room; he had already returned to his own ward. For a moment, Long Ao didn't even know who to turn to if he wanted to confide in someone.
Beidou's steady voice, White Tiger's seemingly joking but actually serious analogy, Santai's understated agreement, and Southern Dipper's cold data—every single word transformed into sharp thorns piercing into his brain.
The education he had received since childhood was about protection, about the responsibility of the strong to protect the weak.
The Great Wall was a shield. They stood in the light, fending off all darkness.
But now, someone was telling him that their so-called protection was merely feeding placebos to a terminally ill patient.
And true treatment required personally slicing off flesh and blood, even if there were countless vibrant lives within that chunk of flesh.
What was this?
He couldn't figure it out.
Long Ao's breathing grew heavy. He leaned against the wall and slowly slid down to sit on the floor, burying his face in his arms.
The conviction that had supported him all along, that black-and-white world, cracked open to reveal a bottomless abyss.
"Yo, not asleep yet."
White Tiger casually grabbed another spirit fruit and unceremoniously sat on the edge of his bed.
Long Ao's head snapped up, looking at White Tiger beside him as if he had seen a ghost.
How was this guy so elusive?
"Don't look at me like that." White Tiger waved his hand dismissively. "As your superior, it's necessary for me to pay attention to my subordinate's mental health. As for why I suddenly appeared, ha, is that weird? It would be weird if you could actually detect me, rookie."
Finishing it in a few bites, he casually tossed the fruit core. It drew an arc in the air and landed perfectly in the trash can in the corner.
"How's the mental preparation going? Is your worldview shattered all over the floor, unable to be picked back up?" White Tiger's tone carried obvious teasing, but there was no smile in his eyes.
Making your Brother Tiger work overtime again. What a troublesome brat.
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
