No, Just No

That scene which Stream Blades, present on the battlefield, refused to turn back and look upon was, in fact, soon witnessed by the Rejectors, the command center, and indeed all humankind. In high-altitude satellite imagery, nearly the entire South Pole region had been enveloped in a magnificent radiance. Everyone knew that the tractor field was not yet fully completed, yet its scale had long resembled a demonic palace towering into the sky. It had originally possessed a blue dome of light on the outside, but now, it was as if tens of thousands of light rays were continuously scattering outward from its center—dazzling, brilliant, and even blinding. Fluctuations of energy crackled and hissed fiercely through the air. By this moment, even ordinary civilians of this world could reach an indisputable conclusion: that unfinished tractor field had activated. Given its scale and current energy display, once its tractor process was complete, another massive Great Spike army would inevitably appear on this azure planet where humanity lived and breathed. No one knew what it would contain, or whether it would be utterly irresistible... but perhaps the ships and airships on the Antarctic Peninsula would not have time to lift off, set sail, and return. Perhaps there, the fate of over a million human soldiers, just recently redeemed, would once again plunge into darkness. And then, humanity's future... No one had the heart to think that far ahead, nor did they need to. As the impulse to stop "it" arose in their hearts, almost everyone's gaze shifted across the screens in the same direction. At the outer perimeter of the tractor field, Stream Blades' tiny square formation, which had only just broken out and moved away, had ground to a halt. People noticed this. Yet they could not see clearly. Under the brilliant illumination of the tractor field, the black-clad battle array was blurred to nearly an afterimage. "Stream Blades." "They..." "They're the closest to the tractor field." "They've stopped there. Are they going to turn back?" "Go back to the hell they just risked their lives to break free from, and try to stop all this?" It seemed like the only possible option before them. At the initial thought of it, excitement and hope welled up in people's hearts. Yet soon, that hope turned to ash... That was Stream Blades. If there had been even a sliver of a chance that they could breach the tractor field, why would they have chosen to fight tooth and nail to break out after suffering such catastrophic losses? Then, excitement turned into sorrow and guilt... That so-called only possible option before them was not a solution at all. It was merely people standing far away, shamelessly expecting and demanding that those who had already sacrificed so much go and burn away whatever remained of their lives... even when their chances of success were virtually zero. "I shouldn't think like that." "The world shouldn't think like that." Countless people, nearly at the same instant, realized how cruel their fleeting hopes and thoughts had been. ... "...Just destroy it all. I'm exhausted," intern reporter Lin Ya muttered to herself inside the cabin of the space mothership Doomsday Great Wall on the Antarctic Peninsula, leaning limply back against the bulkhead. "What the hell is this? They were supposed to die, then they survived, and now they're going to die again? Even Daie was killed! The peninsula was saved! And yet a fucking tractor field has to go and activate... Will this ever end?!" Lin Ya thought, despondent and furious. In her arms, Yao Yue had already fainted from the overwhelming emotional whiplash. ... The warriors of Stream Blades likely gave no thought or care to what the world was thinking; goodwill or malice made no difference to them. They stood there. Still no one looked back. In the silence, all eyes fell upon the sole figure sitting on the ice. Regardless of what they felt inside or which way they leaned, they remained silent, waiting for Wen Jifei's decision. Yet Wen Jifei had broken down. From start to finish, he was the truly indispensable core of this battle. In the beginning, it was he who had made the decision to come; in between, it was he who had personally commanded this long raid, including the desperate stand beneath the tractor field amidst the swarm of Great Spikes; and in the end, it was he who had made the choice to leave... For about two minutes just now, Wen Jifei had believed that, whether he had done right or wrong, he had finally finished it all. Yet fate had suddenly barreled before him once more, cruelly telling him: not yet. At this point, as if a string wound tight for far too long had finally snapped... Wen Jifei's will suddenly gave way. As the commander, he broke sooner than any of the Stream Blades soldiers behind him. Because he was the one responsible for making decisions. In the absence of Han Qingyu, he was the only person who could make the call. Now, yet another choice that had to be made lay before Wen Jifei. Two minutes might have passed, perhaps nearly three, as the tractor field's energy fluctuations shook the air and the ground. Finally: "Not doing it." His voice was not loud. As he spoke, Wen Jifei finally lifted his face from his hands, raised his head, and sat up straight. The soldiers didn't catch it clearly. They leaned forward, straining to hear. "I'm not fucking doing it... We're not doing it," Wen Jifei said again, his voice slightly louder. In that declarative tone, there was a faint hint of relief and surrender. This time, the soldiers heard him clearly. "...Then we won't." "Right. Whoever wants to do it can do it. Anyway, we're not." "Tired." "Yeah, damn right! To hell with all of humankind!" "To hell with this world!" They chimed in loudly and chaotically, speaking with easy laughter in their voices. Wen Jifei turned to look at them, careful not to let his gaze pierce through them... He felt like someone who had suffered through terror and grievance, decided to give up, and was met with affirmation and encouragement... In this world, very few people ever affirmed or encouraged giving up. Damn it, that works too? Wen Jifei smiled helplessly as well, his eyes red as he chugged out laughter like a sputtering tractor. "Let's leave it at that, then. Either way, it won't make a difference, will it?" Turning back meant death. Walking away, if the tractor field completed its activation and a new Great Spike army swept across all of Antarctica soon after, they wouldn't be able to escape either. In a situation like this, most people would probably weigh things rationally and say, "Since that's the case, why not give it a shot? Even if the chance of success is near zero, there's at least a sliver of possibility, isn't there?" "No, just no!" Wen Jifei retorted in his heart with childish obstinacy. When I led them to their deaths at the start, I never thought we could turn back. But now, since I've led them out, I will never, ever lead them back in. Even if a new Great Spike army will soon sweep across the entire Antarctic battlefield, sweep across the world... Even if they will crush us from behind in a little while... "Dead is dead either way, but I'll at least move my ass somewhere else before dying." Thinking this, Wen Jifei braced a hand against the ground and stood up, looking toward Pegament. This was because he was the only "outsider" here, and even more so, the only person qualified to say he still wanted to give it a try. "Not going?" Pegament said. "Then I'm not going either." Wen Jifei was taken aback. "..." "What? We really can't pull it off. And if we can't, what's the point of thinking about the consequences?!" Having spoken, Pegament didn't bother looking back at the tractor field either. Sheathing his blade, he turned around to face the same direction as Stream Blades. "Keep running?" he asked, tilting his head. "How about... we walk?" Wen Jifei considered it for a moment, then asked back with a smile. Since the tractor field was already activated and couldn't be stopped, and a massive Great Spike source energy fleet would descend soon enough... whether they ran or walked right now made no real difference. "Sounds good! We're tired anyway." "Right, let's take it slow for once." "Yeah, and after being here this long, we haven't even had a good look at this ice plain and those glaciers." The Stream Blades soldiers behind them chimed in, one after another. "Then... let's walk." Wen Jifei smiled and took the first step forward. And then, the battle array stepped forward. With their backs to the brilliant radiance of the tractor field, and their backs to another crucial juncture in the fate of humankind... Sorry, but this time, they were powerless. The final three thousand soldiers of Stream Blades sheathed their blades, dialed down their surges, relaxed their formation, and casually strolled forward across the boundless, beautiful ice plains of the Antarctic Continent.