A Competitive Spirit

"Damn it!" The burly man cursed at the sight of the third carriage. "There's too many of 'em—we'll never finish them all, even if we kill until we drop!"

His clothes were soaked through with aberrant blood, and his face and head were covered in gore.

He lowered his head, pulled out a relatively cleaner layer of clothing from underneath, and wiped the blood from his eyes.

"I have a plan." Tu Ran tried to change the current situation of chaotic hacking and slashing with no strategy at all.

"What?" The burly man looked at her impatiently, clearly not believing she could come up with anything good.

"You hide in those two corners." Tu Ran pointed to the corners on either side of the carriage. "Press yourselves tight against them. The aberrants charging straight out won't notice you."

"And what about you?" the burly man asked.

"I'll be the bait. I'll lure them all out, and then you charge in while they're distracted."

This way, while the aberrants in the third carriage rushed out, they could break in with minimal losses.

That way, for the remaining half-hour of the journey, their squad could preserve enough strength to hold the second carriage.

"I agree."

The woman who had been silent, the one with the curved blade, spoke up. "If we keep grinding away like this, not only will the people inside not hold out, but neither will we."

The other two men nodded in agreement—they were already about to give out.

The burly man thought it over. "Fine, but I'll be the one to draw them out. You all just hide."

This man was a real stand-up guy!

But Tu Ran didn't want to keep hiding behind him.

His cleaver was by no means light—you could tell from the sound it made when it hit the ground. He'd been swinging it for so long that the hand gripping it was visibly trembling.

Letting him keep drawing the aberrants' fire would be sending him to his death.

But from what she'd learned of him in the past hour, if she flat-out refused his offer, he'd chew her out and absolutely refuse to cooperate with her.

So she had to take a different approach.

"Fine by me." Tu Ran crossed her arms and leaned against the handrail of the carriage. "You go die, we live. And in the end, all the credit for the aberrants you kill goes to us."

The burly man's face darkened in an instant.

"What kind of person are you?! He's been protecting you this whole way, and instead of being grateful, you're just making sarcastic remarks!" The man who'd been covering the rear was furious.

The other man chimed in, "That's right! Forget her! She's a Pioneer anyway—luring aberrants away is her job to begin with!"

"Fine, it is my job. But you've taken all my credit, so how am I supposed to report to the government? So all of you stay out of the way!"

The burly man frowned at her, his voice gruff. "Don't be so stubborn! Credit isn't worth more than your life."

Tu Ran sighed inwardly: What a good man.

But out loud, she said in a snarky tone, "People like you, ordinary folks, wouldn't understand how important credit is to a Pioneer."

The burly man was at a complete loss for words.

"Anyway, we've already advised you—if you insist on throwing your life away, it's none of our business when you die!"

The man covering the rear grabbed the burly man's arm and pulled him into a corner.

The others also moved to the other corner and got ready.

Compared to them, the woman had her doubts about Tu Ran's behavior.

Having come this far, she didn't think Tu Ran was the type to be so competitive.

Remembering that Tu Ran had originally wanted a long blade, she simply handed her curved saber over.

"Use this."

Tu Ran was startled for a moment. "What about you?"