So What?

"So... why exactly do you insist on keeping me alive?" Xu Lingqu asked, brushing the snow off her clothes.

Shen Shouli stood up as well. He shook his head at first, then felt that his behavior was too vague to convey his meaning, so he explained, "You don't have to do anything."

Do nothing. Just survive and be there in front of him.

Xu Lingqu shot him a glance. She truly couldn't figure out what was going on in his head—or more precisely, what he wanted from her. Everyone who hovered around her had a clear reason, a specific something they wanted from her, be it material value or emotional value.

Only Shen Shouli remained a mystery. She couldn't discern his purpose.

She had basically confirmed that his approach wasn't some kind of conspiracy like Tang Muwen's. There had been a hint of curiosity at first, but that had inexplicably faded away later.

Shen Shouli was a hard person to understand. Still, not understanding him for now wouldn't cause any major problems; as long as she gave him a chance whenever he had one of his strange moments.

Xu Lingqu stopped thinking about it and said, "Now that you mention it, there is something I still need to take care of."

She left the buffer zone, snow still dusting her shoulders, and appeared once again in Xiji City. The Zerg had been mostly wiped out by now, and there were still four hours left until the match completely ended.

People on the streets cast salutes at her as she passed, but no one dared call out to stop her. They simply watched as she made her way straight to the shelter.

The shelter was eerily quiet. After the Queen Mother Zerg had been dealt with, the ground forces had gradually gained the upper hand in the battle against the Zerg, and the humans had been steadily trickling back up to the surface.

It was only human nature—when the fight was going badly, fewer people showed up; when it was going well, more joined in. By now, only Jia Xianglan remained in the shelter.

He didn't want to go out.

This was supposed to be the foolproof plan his father had devised for him. He was supposed to be the savior of this match. But Xu Lingqu had ruined all of it.

The moment he saw Xu Lingqu appear, he raised his gun and fired at her. But she dodged each shot with ease, and a single kick sent the weapon flying from his hands.

Jia Xianglan collapsed to the ground in disgrace. Xu Lingqu planted a foot on his chest, like she was stepping on a panicked cockroach trying to scurry away.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Jia Xianglan was trembling with fear. He looked up to meet her cold, indifferent eyes.

She looked at him like he was already a corpse.

"Xu Lingqu is about to make a move on me in the shelter! Come back and reinforce!" He gritted his teeth and activated his communication earpiece, trying to summon the Qingjun cadets.

But no one answered him.

The Qingjun students and the Moye students hadn't become comrades-in-arms just because they'd fought the Zerg together. They were still on opposing sides, and no one had forgotten that this was a competition.

They simply reached an unspoken agreement not to attack each other. With the people from the shelter included, Xiji City had 140,000 survivors in the end. They would leave the final outcome to those two to decide.

As for Xu Lingqu confronting Jia Xianglan—there was no decapitation mechanic in play, so whatever she did to him was his own damn fault.

The Moye students, on the other hand, had some complaints. Jin, for instance, who had just re-appreciated the beauty of the world.

Now that the damn Zerg were mostly dead, he was saved!

Jin questioned Xu Lingqu's decision to go after Jia Xianglan: "Why reward him?"

Xu Lingqu couldn't be bothered with this post-survival rambling from the third prince. She looked down at the struggling Jia Xianglan and spoke.

"Actually, I don't oppose the idea of humans hiding away when faced with disaster to preserve their strength."

Lake Arden's existence in the apocalypse was fundamentally the same as the shelter's existence in this simulation. Xu Lingqu had never intended to go after them in the first place, because she felt that there was nothing wrong with that approach.

Just like when faced with a great flood, Noah's Ark and Yu the Great's flood control were both viable solutions to save lives. Neither was right or wrong, and they weren't mutually exclusive. They could coexist without conflict.

"But that said—did you really want to save those people?" Xu Lingqu's gaze bore into Jia Xianglan.

Struck on the rawest nerve, Jia Xianglan shouted at her in a mix of shame and rage: "Then let me ask you—did you really want to lead humanity to fight against the Zerg? Isn't it true that you just used this as a way to stir up everyone's emotions, to rally people under the banner of justice and make them fight for you to win this match? At your core, you just want to win!"

Xu Lingqu chuckled softly and tilted her head slightly. "So what?"

In the end, she had won.

"I never put on an act for the cameras. I don't have dreams of being an actress. People can think of me however they like." Her combat knife traced across Jia Xianglan's face, leaving a bloody gash. "What about you, Jia Xianglan?"

A chill ran down his spine. In that moment, he was nothing but a piece of meat on a chopping board, a wave of dread engulfing him. His brief surge of anger and courage evaporated. "What do you want?"

"I've always been curious about the limits of Sky Network's mechanism for removing players who sustain critical damage and auto-exit the simulation." Xu Lingqu's knife moved down to Jia Xianglan's hand. "That Qingjun student who couldn't exit last time—he's still in the hospital, isn't he?"

The blade pressed against his pinky finger.

"Come on, let's play a game of choice. Your pinky, or the lives of 10,000 NPCs who once hid in the shelter. Pick one."

Jia Xianglan's eyes bulged in fury. "Are you insane? The match is ending soon, and obviously more people support you than me! And you're going to kill the civilians we went through so much trouble to protect? Are you joking with me?"

"All I have to do is give the order, and the people from Moye Military Academy outside will take action." Xu Lingqu was confident. "Didn't you just say I'm someone who would do anything for victory? Don't you believe your own words?"

"You!" Jia Xianglan still didn't truly believe that Xu Lingqu would actually kill those civilians—she was just finding an excuse to torment him. But he couldn't bring himself to proudly choose to let the civilians die either. If he did, wouldn't all his previous posturing be for nothing?

The stalemate dragged on, and Xu Lingqu began counting down without preamble: "Three... two... one."

When the countdown ended, she brought the knife down cleanly. The fingers connected to the heart, and even with only seventy percent pain sensation, Jia Xianglan screamed in agony, his body convulsing.

Naturally, the damage wasn't severe enough to trigger the simulation's automatic exit protocol.

Now he got a taste of what those infected had felt.

"Next—your index finger, or 10,000 civilians. Choose." Xu Lingqu's voice sounded like a demon's whisper.

Realizing that she would actually slice off his fingers one by one, Jia Xianglan broke out in a cold sweat and dropped all pretense. "I choose those people to die! Let them die, let them all die!"

Why should he have to suffer this torment? If a choice had to be made, then let those people die!

Xu Lingqu really did stop, leaving his index finger intact. But she didn't notify the Moye people to kill anyone either. She simply smiled softly.

"Can't keep up the act anymore?"