Vol 14 Chapter 19-2
A short period of pause from the girl, then she said with anger, “What do you mean by that? That’s pushing too far. Do you think I have no other abilities aside from the bees? Do you think we have no members with strong abilities? Even though I admitted you are the strongest team but don’t you think you can kill us all! Even if you do kill all of us, it won’t be without costs!”
Xuan said apathetically, “No need for coming out intact nor do we wish to get that little amount of points and rewards from you. We just need to get rid of the danger. Have you forgotten there’s another still weaker team? We will obtain the points and rewards from them. Four minutes thirty seconds left. Make your choice.”
The girl replied fiercely, “Are you really going to drive us into desperation? Do you want us to kill your comrade? Are 2000 and perhaps even more points not important to you? If so I will kill this person right now.”
Xuan gave a cold smile and was about to reply when Zero stepped in front of him. This not so emotional man said as he stared at Xuan, “Xuan, let Gando live. There’s no benefit to you for killing him. I think Zheng also wishes to save Gando. What you are doing is pushing him toward death. Let him go. I have an understanding of what happened before. This isn’t fair to him.”
Xuan looked back at Zero quietly. The sniper was usually a man of few words but he said so much for Gando. The fact was Xuan couldn’t ignore Zero’s words just like he couldn’t ignore Zheng. He gave a nod then said through his mind. “How many people do you have by your side? Are the sacrificial pieces within these people? What are your abilities? How are they in combat? Answer me or I will leave this starship in four minutes. The responsibility doesn’t lie within me by that time.” The last sentence was directed at Zero.
The girl paused for a while then muttered, “There are two people beside me. Three people here including me. Two on the flagship fighting your leader. One died in one of the information network starships. We can hand one of us here to you. My abilities are witchcraft. I can convert psyche force into bees to attack. Psyche force users are hard counters to these bees. Aside from this, I can sacrifice myself to curse one person. I don’t think this person can make it back to God’s dimension. Finally, we have our psyche force user. So we don’t possess much offensive abilities. As long as you can let us go, I am not an idiot and won’t use the curse that easily.”
Xuan nodded, “We will leave this for later. Now tell me, how did the person you captured told you about our team members’ names and locations? What day did he say these? How did he say these? What did you ask him?”
The girl paused for a bit then told him about how they interrogated Gando and tempted him after capturing. Then said it wasn’t until this morning that Gando released the names of all teach China’s members aside from the psyche force user. And Neos’s questioning and his answers. She said these in a rush so the details were missing but the general events were there.
“Is that so? Interesting. Something interesting actually happened. He exceeded my expectation.” Xuan adjusted his glasses, “Good. I consent to your surrender. There are two points you have to take note of. One, we will protect your psyche force user. We will kill your psyche force user if you do anything that harms team China. Two, the rest of your team must join us in the battle against team South America. Your chances of living might also be low at that time. Give me an answer.”
She was silent for two minutes before replying with defeated tone, “Fine. I agree to your requests. But I want to ask how will you guarantee our safety? Killing us yields a large amount of points and rewards. Can you so easily let go of this temptation? Unless you give us a way to live, we would rather fight until the last moment.”
Xuan nodded, “This isn’t a problem. We will leave this starship once you agreed to surrender. The two people that we are going to kill and one more person from the flagship will come to this starship. I will give you twenty-four hours to release Gando. Your psyche force user will also come out with him. If twenty-four hour passes, I will order all the starships to fire. So don’t attempt to run or resist. To let you know the truth, you are in a hopeless situation. You may be able to drag one of us to hell but you can also take the risk and trust me in order to give team Africa a chance to live on. It’s your choice.”
The conversation with Xuan had exhausted her physically and mentally. She looked toward the little girl by her side and a black man lying on the ground unconscious. Then to Gando who was sitting on the side casually but was actually extremely anxious within. She muttered to the girl, “Snow. I am sorry. I have to do this. Rose told me about The Mummy. As long as the main members of our team can live, as long as we can live until we enter The Mummy, we will be able to revive Neos. Forgive me, Snow. I can’t let him die here!”
Snow smiled and held her hand, “Aya, don’t worry. I also don’t want Neos to die. I will be obedient and won’t resist.”
Aya held her in the arms and cried. Gando let out a deep sigh of relief. He immediately relaxed himself and slid onto the floor.
Xuan, Zero and Lan backed from the way they came. Zero suddenly asked, “Xuan, tell me the whole event. I still don’t understand it. I know you planned to kill Gando but why did you let him go in the end? Was it because he didn’t reveal all of our names? This isn’t like you.”
Xuan said calmly, “I did indeed plan to kill him. He doubted the team’s orders in Klendathu. As an uncertainty in the team, he possesses more danger than usefulness. I can’t accept this point, so killing him was a good choice. It was decided to use him as the bait since the formation of the plan. In my initial estimate, he had a 50% chance of dying during these days. But he didn’t die. This was my first test, that whether he is scared of death enough to reveal us. If he did, they would have certainly killed him. It’s such troublesome to avoid letting Zheng know I want to kill him, at least not until his death. Otherwise, there’s a 90% chance of him stopping the plan. Gando also had his use as a bait to confuse the other team’s strategist.”
“The plan proceeded smoothly. He saw the hieroglyphs I put up. It was a gamble with only 50% chance but Gando was lucky enough. My second test is on his ability. If the other team had a strategist who made such a plan, he would definitely suspect the reason Gando revealed everyone’s names except the psyche force user so painlessly. How should Gando have reacted? Tell him about the hieroglyphs? Lie? Or betray us?”
“This is a trap that I set. It didn’t matter that they know the hieroglyph message when things had already got to that point. They could only continue on with their plan unless they plan to make peace with us. The real goal was to test Gando, whether he could survive, how he survives, and whether his value surpasses the uncertainty he brings. Zheng said that Gando has an extremely strong desire to live. This is similar to him. Then let me see this desire, whether this desire can outshine the most dangerous situation. If he succeeds, I can set up scenarios to give him a sense of belonging to the team. A person with great potential is worth me making these plans.”
“Based on my tests and the information I have, he has the desire to live, strong ability and intelligence, and enough luck. He passed my test. He’s now a member of team China.”