Persuaded to Quit

Wen Jifei had played mahjong before, so he naturally knew what dice were. In his mind, he pictured himself rolling round and round a few times, finally coming to rest on one face... "So, I count as a type of genius, right?" he asked, looking at Lao Jian with anticipation. "No, you're a piece of junk." Lao Jian looked at him, paused, and said, "I'm referring to a degree of fusion like 'Dice'... Back when it first appeared, Azure took it seriously and debated it, conducting a lot of research and field tests. But in the end, across more than a dozen people, without exception... it was useless." "No way," Wen Jifei refused to accept it. He snatched the small slip of paper from Lao Jian's hand, pointed at it, and said, "Look! Look at this! I have an A, and I have a B... I'm just unstable, that's all." "It's precisely that instability. The research institute tried everything possible and ultimately proved that the Dice state is completely uncontrollable. There's no pattern to it, and it isn't influenced or governed by any factor. What's more, it can flip faces from one second to the next... That's the equivalent of saying that when you slash with a blade, you have no idea what caliber that strike will be." "Then can't I just slash a few more times? If I slash a few more times, it'll land on an A eventually!" Wen Jifei shouted with his neck stiffened. "Except the Great Spikes won't just stand there and let you hack at them!" Lao Jian shouted back. "Then I... I'll just consider myself an E-, alright? I won't be a genius! E- soldiers can still wear armor! They can still go to the frontline!..." Wen Jifei kept talking and talking. Lao Jian snatched the slip of paper back, shoved it right up to his face, pointed at it, and roared: "Look closely! You also have an F! Do you know why they say putting armor on an F is a waste? Because most of the time, they can't even sense source energy, can't sense the device... Do you get it now? "That means the second after you charge up to a Great Spike with the speed of an A... you might just stand there like a fool. "That means you can't even be a sparring partner, because your opponent won't ever know how to handle your next blow. A single slip, and they might hack you to death... or you might hack them to death." "..." To this barrage, Wen Jifei finally had no comeback. Yet Lao Jian still didn't let him off the hook. "The Great Spikes are strong, and we are weak... The coalition's enduring tactic has always been formation attacks. Everyone's task and position is of vital importance," Lao Jian said. "So, if a formation includes you... just imagine it." Wen Jifei stammered, "I..." "You will get your teammates killed." That sentence was practically lethal. Wen Jifei's stiffened neck and braced posture completely collapsed. "Give it up. Think it over carefully." ... Night fell outside the dormitory building. Wen Jifei squatted alone in the corner, scooping up pebbles and tossing them away, tossing and gathering them again, cursing bitterly, defiant and unwilling to accept it. Han Qingyu watched Lao Jian light a cigarette and asked calmly, "Why does this happen?" "Well, for normal recruits in the source energy field, the process goes like this: from the start of autonomous absorption to the end, regardless of the process or speed, there is eventually a cumulative amount that yields a result." Lao Jian glanced toward Wen Jifei as he spoke. "With Dice, though, it releases it back... For instance, one second they reach B, and the next second they're empty again. They absorb again, reach D, and empty out again... reach A, and empty out again... They might even cease sensing and absorbing source energy altogether at any given moment." "All right... I understand," Han Qingyu said. Lao Jian hesitated. "You..." "Me? At first, I felt really down, just like Plague Chicken... but once I calmed down, I was actually pretty glad." "Yeah... I understand." Lao Jian stood up and walked over to Wen Jifei... He leaned down and tugged at the clothes on his back. Wen Jifei jerked away, twisting his shoulders, wrenching himself free once more. "How about this? Qingzi and I will drag the regimental commander and the others along to plead your case... to let you go to the Second Army, to the Rejecters," Lao Jian said with a smile. "You probably don't know, but in terms of importance and security, the Rejecters are even more crucial than the sighting frontline legions." "I'm not going... I'm uneducated." Wen Jifei's words made Lao Jian freeze. He looked back at Han Qingyu. How had they guessed the general nature of the Rejecters? Setting his confusion aside, Lao Jian continued, "Then go to the Order Legion." "Not going." "The rear living support base." "Not going." "Then what do you want to do?!" "I'll join the next recruit camp and test again... That's enough, lights-out is coming soon. I'm going back to sleep." That, of course, was impossible. Lao Jian was left speechless for a moment. *Crunch.* *Crunch.* Heavy, steady leather boots could be heard treading over the gravel ground, one step at a time. All three turned toward the sound. It was Zhang Dao'an. He had probably finished off the rest of the liquor on his own afterward, looking slightly tipsy. Walking between the three of them, he sat down on the ground, but he didn't say anything to Wen Jifei as Han Qingyu had expected. After a long silence, he finally looked up. "By the way, did Captain Lao ever see my... ever see our Captain Wang?" he asked abruptly, posing a question that seemed completely out of left field. The Captain Wang he mentioned was, of course, Wang Liuzheng, the captain of Red Eraser back then. Lao Jian nodded. Despite the unfitting occasion and mood, he couldn't hide the flicker of excitement and radiance that flashed in his eyes as he said: "I saw him once. I was still a recruit back then, and Captain Wang might have come back to the regiment on business... He was just walking past the three-sided building. When we heard... we all ran over to look, and then we just stood there watching. Not a single person dared to step forward and greet him." "Yeah. Back then, even many veterans didn't dare greet Captain Wang. Three-time consecutive champion of the entire army in one-on-one combat, that's what he was... and he had Red Eraser." Zhang Dao'an looked despondent. "But actually, Captain Wang wasn't what you imagined. He was a great cook, loved being in the kitchen, and roasted sweet potatoes really well... He also especially loved telling us those really stiff jokes, every single day... His Red Eraser went five consecutive years without a single casualty. "The only thing Captain Wang did wrong was thinking his jokes weren't funny and that he couldn't liven up the squad's atmosphere... So that year during mutual selection, out of everyone who raised their hands... he picked me." When Zhang Dao'an reached this point, he turned his gaze toward Wen Jifei for the first time, looked at him, and said, "When I told you before that my personality used to be a lot like yours, I wasn't lying." So, this story that Zhang Dao'an had never dared uncover was meant for Wen Jifei to hear. No one asked what happened next. Zhang Dao'an continued on his own: "It was quite a coincidence that time. Our defense zone had just finished an assignment when we immediately received orders to rush to reinforce a nearby area... Old Geng, Old Geng was playing the second-rank flanking attack position back then, but he was injured. Captain Wang asked who would step up. I said I would... I wanted to show off, and I'd been training for it regularly. "Captain Wang gave me that chance to temper myself. In the vehicle, when he told everyone to check their source energy consumption... I was daydreaming, all excited, I... "One of those two Great Spikes was exceptionally strong, though not quite at the level of a 'Red Shoulder'..." Zhang Dao'an looked toward Lao Jian. Lao Jian nodded. Naturally, he had also heard of Red Shoulders—those Great Spikes with a red stripe across their shoulders. They had once caused catastrophic casualties and were the reason Monument Day had been set for September 29. Some had even inferred from this that the Great Spikes Azure was currently encountering were very likely merely the slave caste of that civilization. Of course, no one dared voice such an opinion publicly. "It wasn't a Red Shoulder, but that one was definitely much stronger than ordinary ones," Zhang Dao'an went on. "Fortunately, we had Captain Wang. He led seven or eight men to cut it off and circle it, fighting a mobile battle to hold it down so the rest of us could finish off the weaker one first... Everything seemed to be going smoothly. Until... until my source energy ran dry without me realizing it... All at once, the entire formation was thrown into chaos. Not only was a gap exposed, but over a dozen teammates went down one after another. "Then, when the column sword swept over, I just stood there like an idiot. "Captain Wang saw it and came over to rescue me... The column sword pierced through his back... and burst out through his chest. "Later that day, many people in Red Eraser died. "Before Captain Wang died, he instructed the others that in the combat record, the primary cause had to be written down as an error in his own choice and command." "..." Having finished speaking, Zhang Dao'an stood up and walked away. He was not a Dice; he had merely made a mistake once—the kind of mistake a Dice might make every minute, every second.