“That’s the situation. Gando disappeared.” Xuan said calmly as he took a bite off the watermelon.
Zheng returned from the starship Rose was in. On afternoon the next day, Xuan, Kampa, WangXia and Zheng agreed to meet during lunch. Xuan said this shocking news and dazed the other three.
Zheng slammed the table at once as he stood up. His movement was too big and knocked the chair tumbling. The other people in the cafeteria turned to him confused. When they recognized it was Zheng, they nodded with admiration. Some even stood up to salute.
Zheng smiled apologetically then said to Xuan in a low voice. “What do you mean? How can a person disappear? Are you joking with me?”
Xuan ate his watermelon leisurely. “Not joking with you. He indeed disappeared. I couldn’t find him in the surveillance system when I checked it at noon today. Then I checked the squad he’s in. He hadn’t come back to his room since last night. That’s our situation. Do you have any plans on mind?”
Zheng was biting his teeth with anger. He sat down and continued in the low voice. “It was you doing the analysis and talking the whole time and now you ask me if I have any plans? I remember you said you won’t test Gando with any traps, won’t let him die. What is this? He disappeared! You…”
Xuan put down the watermelon rind then picked up a red apple and took a bite. “Is he dead?”
Zheng was losing himself from anger and said in a rage. “How can I know if he’s dead! Uh. He’s not dead.”
He realized he was wrong after he said these words because once any team member dies, everyone else would be told they lose one point. Which meant Gando disappeared but he was safe, at least for now.
Xuan said calmly. “Get it? Nothing happened to him now. we just have to rescue him before he dies. This shouldn’t be difficult, right?”
After Zheng calmed down from his rage, he thought for a moment. “You mean he’s currently under the control of team Africa? He should be in their starship and we just need to head over to find him? If team Africa can set up such a big trap, this won’t be simple. I also have something to ask you. Now that you mentioned it yourself, we will hear your explanation in a bit.”
“Explanation?” Xuan replied just one word. He seemed unconcerned. Once Kampa and WangXia finished eating, they all came to Zheng’s room. Zheng told them his deduction, shocking Kampa and WangXia the more he went on. They stared back at Zheng dumbfounded.
Zheng ended his talk with. “It’s shocking right? The plan is huge and there are traps within traps. I don’t know how the details go but Xuan’s plan is shocking.”
“Not really. Hoho.” Kampa laughed.
WangXia scratched his head and said. “Right. Compared to the plan, your deduction is more shocking. Haha. Never knew you are actually strong enough to guess what Xuan is thinking. Don’t you think this is inconceivable?”
Zheng paused for quite a while before realizing what they meant. They basically said his intelligence shouldn’t allow him to understand Xuan’s thoughts. Once he got Xuan’s thoughts, the actual thing unimaginable is him.
“Please. The question about my intelligence aside, is this what you are really thinking, Xuan? You use all of us as baits and set up a scheme surrounding the enemy’s scheme. You even want to stir up a battle within the military. But don’t we only get points for starships we destroy ourselves? Can you actually gain points like this? One careless mistake and we will sink into danger.”
Xuan sat down and listened to him. When he finished, Xuan gave him a glance of praise. “Every plan comes with danger. The difference is its degree. The fact is the other team lost when they sent people to test you. They lost whether they have those rune word stones or not. I merely borrowed the influence. Believe me. There is over a 70% chance of success if you follow my plan to the end.”
Zheng immediately followed. “The success rate is high but that’s betting with our whole team. Don’t you feel that everyone of us should be aware of what we are going to face next? If we are only following your arrangements passively, it feels…”
Xuan said. “We have a 70% chance to survive if we follow this plan. Otherwise, if you want to find out the other team’s members then fight them in close combat, which steps into their trap, we have over 50% chance of getting wiped. If I tell everyone the plan, there’s a 100% chance of it being leaked.”
“Why?” The other three all asked.
Xuan smiled. “To take precautions against the chance that they have a user who can control a person’s mind after Gando gets caught and prevent them from searching through his memory. This plan can’t be revealed to most team members. Even if Gando doesn’t get controlled or memory searched, there’s a high chance of him saying all our names out. Of course, in order to protect himself, he won’t say them all at once. I think he will gradually expose our names during these three to five days. That’s why the plan can’t be revealed to anyone in the team.”
Zheng sighed. So from what you said, you planned to let them capture Gando since the beginning. Is this really part of your plan? Why? I can’t think of how this plan can go on. The other team aren’t dolls that are waiting to get beat up. And from what I can see, they still have the advantage. How can you gain control over most troops? This isn’t an easy task.”
Xuan didn’t say anything. He walked over to the computer and turned it on then said as he looked at the screen. “This scheme was set up by the other team that makes use of parasite bugs as an excuse and the influence of their military rank. Once people think that we are being controlled by bugs, we lost. The most malicious part is that the only thing we can do is find them out before they find us and kill them without anyone knowing it. Once they pointed us out first, we won’t be able to counterattack because that will label us as being controlled.”
“So I had to set another scheme over this scheme. Zheng, your improvement is impressive but your thoughts entered the wrong path. That is why do we have to be scared? This is a double edged sword. The key to their accusation is our achievement in the battle, that we lasted seven hours and killed hundred thousands of bugs. This makes the military higher ups feel relieved but they would also suspect us. But don’t we have anything to rely upon? This achievement is our biggest support!”
“When a person with hero status get doubted, who would it benefit the most if this person is a real hero? The Arachnids! If we aren’t controlled by bugs, then everyone will think that it helped the bugs when we get killed. Instead of letting these people regret after killing us, we will make them hesitate right now. This is the key to my plan.”
“The military officials will arrive in three to five days. If they think they have won by that time, they will release our information to the officials. Which will make the troopers capture or isolate us. My plan also executes at that same time. Since they are using the high ranking officials, we will use the low ranks. No need to make the officials believe us. We just need the troopers to believe us. The officials are controlled by the bugs. They slander the heroes and took control over the general in order to kill off all the troopers.”
“The key to give them the belief of victory is to allow them to capture Gando!”
Chapter 16-2
Gando sat on the ground. He looked miserable with a pale and swollen face. It was like when your face was roughly squeezed and kneaded by a bunch of men. Though if you were to look at the wounds closely you would see the round and swollen areas looked like stings by bees.
“What do you think? This is the second night already. Do you still think your comrades will come save you? Don’t kid me. They don’t even know where you are. Plus, will they dare to attack us in front of countless troopers? Stop being naïve. Everything in this world is based off of interests. Just say it. Tell me how many members are in team China, each member’s abilities and powers, their enhancements, and their face and names. Say it and we will be sure to let you go. We can even give you a rune word stone that allows you to survive negative points. How’s it?” Gando’s eyes were shut. A young man’s voice appeared directly in his mind.
He wasn’t an idiot. As someone who muddled his way in the underground through life, participated in illegal racing, and lived, he understood some things. Just like what the voice said, interest is the basis of everything in this world. What was his life worth? If they didn’t still have a use for him, this team would have killed him for the points and rewards long ago. He was new to this realm but not an idiot in the real world.
“You don’t need to say anything more. It’s my end that I fell into your hands. Just kill me as you want. I reveal any information about team China.” Gando replied in a cold tone.
“You really think we will hesitate and not kill you? You would be right under normal circumstances but you underestimated the variety of abilities a team has. Remember the girl who attacked you? Her ability is witchcraft. She’s the heir of an ancient African tribe. The African bloodline enables her to learn witchcraft rapidly. She can control the souls of bees to create poison and the souls of trees to communicate with the dead. Of course, she isn’t skilled enough yet so there might be flaws. Information that she extracts from your soul might not be intact and goes against my plan. It isn’t that we can’t kill you but rather we don’t want to take the risk unless necessary. I will give you one more day. If you don’t say anything by the time the military generals arrive, I will resort to killing you. Think about it.”
A weight fell on Gando’s heart and he felt a chill throughout his body. This was something more horrifying than death. Even his soul would get manipulated. The surrounding fade into complete silence and darkness again after the voice disappeared. Ever since he fell unconscious after being bit by the bee, he hadn’t heart any other voice or saw any light. All there was left was the pain. His other senses vanished. The other team only communicated with him through their minds. He hadn’t even saw anyone from the other team.
Gando’s inner thoughts aside, Neos was devouring a box of chocolate in a room not farm away from Gando. He finished the whole box, sucked his fingers and frowned. Several people around simply stared at him the whole time. A Caucasian man said. “Just say what’s on your mind. Holding it like this makes us uncomfortable. What did that man said? Just kill him and let Aya extract his memory!”
Neos replied without raising his head. “Hawfor. Are you going to bear the consequence if we miss a person or two then get sneak attacked leading to the death of people in our team? Or perhaps you can be one of those who dies?”
Hawfor gave an awkward smile. “Don’t. Don’t. You see I was just worried about getting the information on team China. You are smarter than me so say what should we do?”
Neos sneered. He pointed a finger at his forehead. “Things are developing unusually smooth. Our captive isn’t a tough man. He’s merely acting. Someone who’s tough will try to delay us with rambling. We just need to wait. He will tell us everyone’s location. Furthermore, no one can find the place we are holding him unless they use psyche scan. Snow has masked the area. So they had to either show their psyche force user or had their whole team come out. We don’t have to spend the efforts to find them. We have absolutely advantage. But…”
“But? But what?” Hawfor asked curiously. Everyone else showed the same expression.
Neos exhaled. “I don’t know why. I can’t help but feel that something’s wrong. Things are going too smoothly, like we are walking into a trap they had set up. This feeling makes me uncomfortable!”
Richard said. “You mean they intentionally allowed us to capture this man? Then have him reveal false information to misguide us. When we reveal ourselves, team China will surround us?”
Neos shook his head. “I already considered several solutions. And this man wasn’t acting when he got captured. He was really unaware and unprepared. His strength is also that of a normal person. I am not worried about him. However, when all these events add up, something just isn’t feeling right.”
A mixed blood girl said. “Several events? What are them? Let us know.”
Neos nodded and pulled out a box of chocolate from the drawer. He picked one out and took a bite. “First. Why did that person from team China suddenly used his most powerful ability to establish dominance? I know Richard gave him a high rating but you should be aware that his actual strength isn’t as high as the video shows. That’s an ability like the ‘berserker’ you created. What made him display this strength to us?”
“Second. Why did he meet with Rose? I can think of two possibilities. One, Rose betrayed us. They use our lives to exchange for mercy. However, that’s not possible. They have the rune word stones, but how can they guarantee that team China won’t kill them? Even if their abilities are special and can trade one for one, that still doesn’t give them enough confidence to do so. The second possibility is team China became aware of my plan. This critical key to my plan is Rose’s military position and authority. Do they want to kill Rose? Threaten her? Draw her to their side? The question returns that Rose doesn’t have to do this. The two of them are still alive at this point. They didn’t give us any warnings or ask for help. I can’t understand this no matter how I analyze it.”
“Third. It was too smooth when we captured their member. So smooth that it makes me suspicious. Does team China know of my plan? Perhaps not the whole plan but they but speculated a thing or two. This is very likely.”
Neos muttered to himself. The others looked in silence as they listened to his analysis. After some time, Aya said. “So what should we do next? Stop the plan? Or contact team China for negotiation using the influence advantage we have?”
He bit off a piece of the chocolate and said fiercely. “We have no choice but to continue at this point. If they really are aware of my plan, then sending someone to probe already signified our failure. The only thing we need to do is continue. I admit there are people more intelligent than me but that won’t be in team China! It isn’t the one whose fighting with me!”
“Do as we had planned. Get him to reveal team China’s information before the military higher ups arrive. Snow will determine the truth of his words using psyche force. Then we will proceed as planned!”
Chapter 16-3
“Proceed as planned.”
Xuan looked at them expressionlessly. He described the plan so simply that they were shocked. Not because of its complexity but rather that it was too simple. So simple that they were confused.
“WangXia’s mission is to lead the troopers to watch TV at a place. There will be an obvious signal. When it appears, bring the troopers to take over the starship. You can fire at any starship that doesn’t identify themselves.”
“Kampa’s mission is the same. You can attack any starship that doesn’t identify themselves. I will go rescue Gando with Zero and Lan, that’s if he’s still alive. Zheng’s mission is head over to the flagship and block off the team Africa members in that ship. It will depend on the situation as to whether you should kill them. However, if they lose their ability to fight, it’s best not killing them. We can distribute the points and rewards among the team. It isn’t beneficial to the team’s development if you alone get too strong.”
His tone sounded apathetic, as if he didn’t care a bit. The other three people were still in a daze. Zheng asked. “Is the solution just this after such a big set up? That’s unbelievable. I thought it would be more complex.”
“What’s complex is within here.” Xuan pointed at his head. “The real action is easy to complete. It’s just like a war. The complex part lies on the strategist while the soldiers just need to fight the war. If the strategy gets so complex that everyone needs to be constantly thinking, it isn’t a good one. I will take care of the planning. What we have to do now is wait. The military higher ups will arrive in ten hours. My plan will have a result at that time!”
The waiting finally came to an end. The military higher ups arrived at this expedition army along with eighty ships. Aside from the significance of the higher ups coming to the front line, what was more important was a hundred thousand troopers and supplies replenishment. The morale of this army recovered a little bit with the backup. The surviving veterans all became sergeants and even lieutenants. Zheng’s group of four were also given new arrangements.
The military originally wanted them to join the intelligence department and as training officers. However, part of the military wanted them to continue leading the expedition army because these thousands of sergeants and lieutenants had been accustomed to their leadership, plus their abilities surpassed over 90% of officers in this generation. After a discussion, the higher ups decided to honor them with lots of medals and promoted Zheng’s rank to colonel, Kampa, Xuan, and WangXia’s ranks to lieutenant colonel. The medal and promotion ceremony takes place the next day in front of reporters broadcasting the event live to Earth.
“Tomorrow is the outset of breaking apart their scheme!” This was the answer Xuan gave everyone.
They were rather confused at what he meant. However, due to their trust in Xuan’s ability and that there was nothing they could do, they could only believe in his decision.
Time slowly passed during this wait. Gando who was still locked up in another starship was overtaken by worries. He had revealed Zheng, Xuan, Kampa, and WangXia’s strength, abilities, weapons, and whether they were locked after the military higher ups arrived. That was all just for surviving. He also held back because of surviving. He knew the rule that interest stands above everything in this world. Killing him would give anyone points and ranked rewards. Once he said everything about every person, he would definitely get killed!
Neos also gave him a firm reply. If he doesn’t give them the names and locations of everyone else in team China, they are going to kill him and search his soul.
Neos watched the TV quietly. There were a Caucasian and a black man in this room. They were resting with their eyes closed. However, if he was to make any movement, they would instantly open their eyes. This demonstrated that these two people were way stronger than him. He couldn’t compete physically without the bear robot.
Gando was talking to himself internally. He kept going over the possibilities of dying. Suddenly, his eyes came into focus for an instant. He saw a series of characters and symbols move across the TV. These characters were not so obvious. They appeared on a bar on the bottom of the screen just like the usual ads.
The TV was showing a midnight shows, replay of dramas and movies that had been recorded, all automated by the starship’s computer system. These characters appeared rather suddenly, these hieroglyphs that he familiarized himself with when they came back from Klendathu. As one of the members who had unlocked the genetic constraint, he was able to memorize these hieroglyphs and their meanings.
“Reveal everyone other than Lan to the other team. Say that you want to save the psyche force user as your amulet, but let them know that the psyche force user doesn’t have any offensive abilities. Tell them you will only reveal this person when you get to safety.”
Gando read over the message carefully. This message was broadcasted repeatedly like ads so he wouldn’t miss anything. Once he understood the message completely, he felt relieved but also became anxious. It was different from waiting without any hope. Once this hope came into existence, he started becoming suspicious and thinking of various thoughts. This was going to be a sleepless night for him.
The next day. Zheng and the others woke up and cleaned themselves early. It wasn’t for the ceremony since this world was not important to them. What was important was today’s battle. Xuan made it sound simple but Zheng who knew the details of both teams’ plans was quite nervous. He didn’t receive the notification of Gando’s death last night, so he was also worried about Gando.
“One hour left. Xuan, don’t disappoint me!”
On the other starship. Neos and several other people were interrogating Gando. Neos frowned as he ate his chocolate. “This is your last chance. I am only going to ask once more. If what you say are lies or you keep your mouth shut, I will kill you then search your soul. First question. How many members are in team China?”
Gando stood there unperturbed. “There are two more people, a psyche force user and a sniper. The sniper uses a Gauss sniper rifle, which is extremely powerful and can pierce through starships like this one. His name is Zero. You can find him by searching through the trooper database.”
Neos turned his head to the little girl. She nodded her head with her eyes closed. “Yes, what he said is the truth.”
Neos continued. “Good, what about the psyche force user? Tell us his name and you are free. We can even give you a rune word stone so you won’t get killed by negative points.”
Gando shook his head. “I don’t trust you. So I am going to keep her name. however, her abilities are only Soul Whip, Psyche Scan, and Soul Link. She’s a girl and doesn’t have any combat abilities herself. Her physical stats are several times stronger than normal people but I don’t think she can take on you alone. Once you get me to safety, I will tell you her name. I won’t reveal her otherwise. She’s also unlocked. I don’t think you will let the points and rewards get away.”
The little girl nodded. “Right, he’s still saying the truth.”
Neos bit off half a bar of chocolate. He raised his head and frowned as he pondered. After quite a while, he said. “Ok, I will allow you to withhold her name. I will let you live. But I am going to ask you some other question. I will kill you if you don’t answer. I will kill you if you lie. First, why did you suddenly thought it through to tell us these today? Did anyone notify you? Who is this person? When? Tell me all of these!”