Chapter 763: The Meaning of Ants
"But that guy seems pretty tough," Qiao Jiajin said. "He crushed a rock with his bare hands..."
"Exactly, Lao Qi," Chen Junnan added. "Even if we all jumped him, could we take him down? He could crush our heads like it's nothing..."
"Wrong," Qi Xia said. "Even if his physique is incredibly strong, since he can't see or hear, he'd have a terrible time actually fighting anyone. Even someone with no combat ability could toy with them."
"That's true too." Chen Junnan pondered for a moment, then nodded. "We can attack when we want and run when we want. We could kill them just by throwing rocks."
"So they would avoid fighting others as much as possible," Qi Xia said. "This is probably why they steer clear of people."
Qi Xia recalled the day he and Linqin first encountered these "Ants." When they first met, the Ants showed no reaction, but when they brought a torch close, they scattered as if sensing something. They must have felt the heat radiating from the torch. That was an extremely dangerous signal to them.
The irony was that on that day, everyone in the room had been worried that those Ants would break down the door and tear them apart.
If you thought about it from the Ants' perspective, you'd understand... how could they possibly break in?
Their sense of crisis and fear surpassed everyone else's here.
"This is exactly like 'Locke's Goal Setting Theory'—when a goal is too high to achieve, you lower it appropriately," Qi Xia said. "The rulers have quietly changed the Ants' goals."
"'Locke's Goal Setting Theory'?"
"These people's goals have been progressively lowered," Qi Xia said. "It's not just the Ants—the others too."
"What do you mean?" Chen Junnan asked.
"Think about it... When ordinary 'Participants' find that collecting 3,600 'Dao' is too difficult, they gradually change their goal and choose to become 'Zodiacs.' So their goal shifts from collecting 3,600 'Dao' to 'killing people,'" Qi Xia said. "Maybe for many people, killing is easier to achieve than collecting Dao."
"So what does that have to do with the Ants?" Chen Junnan asked.
"Chen Junnan..." Qi Xia called. "A large portion of the 'Ants' are 'Zodiacs' who made mistakes."
"This..."
Although Chen Junnan had suspected it, he still couldn't believe it was true. Those humble-looking Ants had once been full of hope at some point.
"They might have taken off their masks, spoken their names, or just offended 'Heavenly Dragon' and 'Azure Dragon' on the 'Train,' and ended up like this," Qi Xia said. "Their goals went from 'collecting Dao' and 'killing people' down to 'becoming human again.'"
Chen Junnan and Qiao Jiajin's expressions dimmed as they listened.
"And is 'becoming human again' an easy condition to achieve?" Qi Xia continued. "These 'Ants' must have their own 'promotion rules.' Their current goal might just be to scavenge countless corpses during the endless night to find a single 'Dao.' But even if they do become 'human' again, that's not really 'success'—it just means starting over from scratch. They still have to 'collect Dao' here as humans. What a hopeless life that is?"
Chen Junnan nodded after listening. "Thinking about it that way, those two at the top are really twisted, aren't they?"
"Let's just say it's a very effective method of control," Qi Xia said, turning to look at Chen Junnan. "'Heavenly Dragon' and 'Azure Dragon' keep everyone here busy with what's right in front of them. If 'Participants' let their guard down for even a moment, they face severe punishment. How many people actually remember... that the real goal of coming here is to 'escape'?"
Even the usually cheerful Chen Junnan and Qiao Jiajin fell silent.
At the end of the day, the "upper level" here had always been safe.
The ones killing each other, scrambling, or risking their lives walking on the edge of a blade were always the "Participants."
Even if everyone completed their immediate goals right now, no one could possibly escape.
"Participants" would still be "Participants," and the "upper level" would still be the "upper level."
"Trickster..." Qiao Jiajin said. "So in your opinion, when that guy crushed that rock, what was he trying to tell you?"
Qi Xia thought for a few seconds, then pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and slowly unfolded it in front of them.
It was a folded map.
"What's this?" Chen Junnan asked.
Qi Xia didn't answer. He just let them look at the markings.
On a very detailed map, eight characters were written in red ink.
Chou, Mao, Chen, Si, Xu, Shen, You, Hai.
"These are eight 'Zodiacs,'" Qi Xia replied. "I suspect all eight of them know me."
Qi Xia intentionally omitted what 'Azure Dragon' had said, since 'Azure Dragon' had also activated 'Silence' when telling him these things.
"I know this 'Shen,'" Chen Junnan said, pointing at the spot marked "Shen" on the map. "Isn't that the big fat monkey?"
"Fat monkey?" Qiao Jiajin also looked at the map and saw that "Shen" was indeed the location of "Earth Monkey."
"Right." Qi Xia nodded. "Going in order, the remaining ones are 'Chou Ox,' 'Mao Rabbit,' 'Chen Dragon,' 'Si Snake,' 'Xu Dog,' 'You Rooster,' and 'Hai Pig.'"
"Uh..." Chen Junnan stared for a while, then pointed at "Mao Rabbit" on the map. "I know that rabbit. He's not bad."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, I've met him, and I have this weird 'intuition,'" Chen Junnan replied. "That big rabbit always wanted to kill us, but he was still pretty decent. He didn't use any dirty tricks, and after he won, he didn't make things hard for us. All in all, not bad."
Qi Xia had also heard from Earth Tiger about that strange rabbit. Earth Tiger said the rabbit seemed to have no motive at all, yet he insisted on staying in the "rebellion" room.
Now the identities of Rabbit, Monkey, and Pig were confirmed. But the rest...
"So, Lao Qi, what does this map you pulled out have to do with those 'Ants' just now?"
"It does," Qi Xia said. "Thanks to the two of you, I've come up with an idea."
"What...?"
"If most of the 'Ants' used to be 'Zodiacs'... then among these eight people, could some of them have already become 'Ants'?" Qi Xia said. "And if one of them turned into an 'Ant' but still remembers me, they'd do everything they could to get close to me and warn me... to be careful of... the 'Dragon.'"
"Huh?"
"Because I am who I am, only I can receive this information, no one else can."
After saying this, Qi Xia looked at them again. "So he is that 'Dragon.'"