Chapter 710: Let's Do the Right Thing
“It seems… we’re thinking the same thing,” Sister Siwei said.
“Really? You think so too?” Brother Guyu asked.
“To be honest, Brother Wan mapped out the future course for our city last night, but I don’t think it’s right.” Sister Siwei’s gaze shifted to me as she spoke softly. “He said that from now on, ‘Jade City’ would enter the ‘Era of Chaos.’”
“With the three of us here, it’s hard for it to truly fall into the ‘Era of Chaos.’ Brother Wan underestimated our little hero brother, and even more so, he underestimated you,” Brother Guyu said. “What we’re about to face isn’t the ‘Era of Chaos,’ but…”
Sister Siwei nodded after hearing this. “The ‘Era of Heroes.’”
“Siwei, this is going to be a very dangerous path. We’ll push our little hero brother’s ‘divine status’ to infinity, making the masses blindly worship him.” Brother Guyu’s expression turned grave. “I was born here, and if I want to escape, I have to start from here. Other cities might seem better off, but I can’t keep rushing over there every time I respawn—it would waste too much time.”
“So you plan to come back… to tame this ‘beast.’”
“That metaphor is spot-on.” Brother Guyu gave a bitter smile. “Right now, everyone in ‘Jade City’ really does form a ‘beast.’ This might be our only advantage over other cities. This beast is immensely powerful, but none of us can escape from it. It will keep sucking us into its body, making itself even stronger. Though it’s incredibly dangerous, the three of us can try to tame it. As for whether it will eventually devour us or destroy this world… that’s up to our own fate.”
“But…” Sister Siwei’s expression changed as she spotted a critical issue. “Where are we supposed to tame this ‘beast’ and take it? If we can’t gather enough ‘jade,’ no place is a way out… How are we supposed to escape?”
Brother Guyu sighed after hearing this. “To be honest… Siwei, I don’t know.”
“You don’t know…?”
“Yeah.” Brother Guyu opened his eyes, tinged with a hint of despair, glanced at me, then at Sister Siwei. “I don’t want to hide anything from you. Even though I’ve traveled between the three cities many times over these four years, I’m not sure what the real method of escape is. As it stands, whether it’s ‘Whirlpool City’ or ‘Tao City,’ the method they use is ‘killing the Zodiac.’ But that requires a ‘life-or-death gamble’ with the ‘Zodiac,’ and that clearly isn’t suitable for our ‘Jade City.’”
“Yes…” Sister Siwei also looked hesitant. “If we suggest a life-or-death gamble with the ‘Zodiac,’ they’ll see it as a ‘death sentence.’ If we can’t overcome that mental hurdle, we’ll never take that step.”
“That’s why I said our situation is dangerous. We’re taming this ‘beast,’ but we have no destination,” Brother Guyu said. “Right now, my only thought is to calm this ‘beast’ down first. Otherwise, if things start to collapse… there won’t be many survivors left in ‘Jade City.’”
“Calm it down…” Sister Siwei paused. “You mean… change the mindset of the people in ‘Jade City’ back to how it was before?”
“I know that’s basically impossible. The way people here have turned out isn’t just Brother Wan’s fault—they themselves want to earn ‘jade’ through the safest means possible. That’s pure delusion. They can’t step out of their comfort zone; they just hope to drag a few people in so they can sit on a pile of wealth… It’s the same whether in the real world or here. Since when has anything been that easy? Is money really that easy to earn?”
“Sigh…” Sister Siwei let out a sigh. “In that case… can we really do it?”
“We have to try. That’s the only reason I chose to come back here. If a large number of ‘participants’ here disappear, we’ll collapse like a row of dominoes. Many won’t make it out of the interview room. If it spreads to me, then I’ll never have any hope of escaping.”
“So that’s it… That’s why you said everything was still on track.”
“Yeah. I’m not just protecting you two—I’m protecting myself too.” Brother Guyu continued, “Anyway, ‘Jade City’ is bound to fall apart sooner or later. We have no choice but to go all in.”
Watching Sister Siwei and Brother Guyu discuss their strategy, I stepped forward as well and said, “I want to help too.”
“Hero brother…” Sister Siwei looked at me with a hint of sadness. “You’ve already helped a lot. Your nose was bleeding every day recently. You don’t need to put so much psychological pressure on yourself.”
That day, I smelled an odor on Sister Siwei that I had never smelled before—it was called “guilt.”
“But I’m the ‘hero,’” I said. “Sister, can you tell me what I should do?”
“You…” Sister Siwei seemed very hesitant. “Hero, do whatever you want to do.”
“Do whatever I want?” I was taken aback. I had never heard that request before.
“Hero, what do you want to do?” Sister asked.
Me…?
I wanted to run down the hallway, to shout and scream, to keep jumping on the bed.
I wanted to collect cool cards, own a toy car, and play soccer.
I wanted to eat lots of jelly beans, drink the cola I’d never tried, and talk to Mom and Dad.
I thought for a long time before asking quietly, “Can I really do anything I want?”
“Of course you can.” Sister Siwei crouched down in front of me and said softly, “Hero brother, we’ve broken free from Wan Cai’s control. You can do anything you want. You’re an independent person, not anyone’s tool, understand?”
“Then…” I gritted my teeth and said, “I want to become a real ‘hero.’”
“Huh…?” Both she and Brother Guyu were taken aback.
Brother Guyu pondered for a moment, then spoke up, “Hero brother, even though Wan Cai is dead now, I don’t want to lie to you. We will still make use of your abilities, because that’s the only way to keep people stable. But Siwei and I can promise to make you happier than before. So I support what she said—you can do what you want. You don’t have to force yourself to be some ‘hero’…”
“Brother, sister, I don’t know if this feeling counts as ‘growing up,’ but I think differently than before.” I looked up and smiled at them. “I used to think that the things I wanted to do wouldn’t be allowed by adults, so I could only do what they wanted me to do. But now, I don’t want to do what ‘I want’ to do anymore. I want to do what’s ‘right.’”