The three quietly cheered, "Great."
After the cheer, the atmosphere grew heavy.
Below the big pit, dust floated silently in the dim silence.
Everywhere bore traces of damage left by the Insect Men.
Apart from them, no one survived; even the slightest bloodstains had been licked clean by the Insect Men.
Wu Qingqing suddenly felt sorrowful, "Master, was it really okay for us to choose not to save anyone?" So many people just died like that.
Playing games felt cruel, but in reality, there was more confusion and anxiety.
Wu Qingqing remained uneasy, "Is it right to watch people die without helping?"
Su Xiaocai responded casually, "Thereâs no right or wrong in battle. We just need to make the decision most favorable to the current situation. If you must judge right or wrong, assume it was wrong; everyone makes mistakes, and weâll make mistakes again next time, as long as it doesnât break the law, itâs not a big deal."
Such an eerie and twisted reasoning, making it even harder to bear.
Does this imply theyâll make more such decisions in the future?
"We canât save them, itâs obvious if you think about it." Just now, they were in full gear to maintain immobility, escaping detection as humans by the Insect Men.
Without the gear, humans would be detected with the slightest blink, tremble, or breath.
Even surviving by luck wouldnât help much, falling from such heights, theyâd be badly injured.
They would need to find a way out of the pit, send the injured to the hospital before they expired, ensure the hospital had enough medical equipment, and prioritize their rescue for them to survive.
Which of these steps is easy?
If you canât save anyone, donât pretend to be a good person.
Su Xiaocai had made too many similar choices before, deciding whether to save many or a few, abandon or proceed, all based on one criterion â aimed at human victory.
The silver-black mecha moved forward, leaping over a "high-rise."
Ahead lies the entrance scanned by Wisdom 03.
There are hundreds of subterranean entrances, but according to Wisdom 03âs analysis, only that entrance spouts not ordinary Greed, but the evolved kind akin to big eyeballs.
Such a special cave entrance highly suggests the presence of a mother entity.
The silver-black mecha, alongside three mecha instruments behind it, advanced toward the mother entity.
...
On the ground, the Military Department ordered a swift retreat, prioritizing the departure of the first batch of evacuees.
The Military Department gathered the survivors in a safety center, holding firm for five hours. In five hours, reinforcements and transport aircraft would arrive.
"Hold firm for five hours, how do we hold firm?"
All the students were alive; upon receiving this news, they were stunned. They had studied theory and understood that it was impossible to hold firm under such circumstances.
The order was evidently unreasonable.
They were above the Insect Menâs stronghold, with endless swarms outside. In less than five hours, in two hours, this place would become a ghost town.
The passenger ship had ascended, escorted urgently by a hundred Mecha Masters, leaving the city with a hundred fewer Mecha Masters.
It couldnât be held; which fool gave this order?
Fan Li led Ji Heng and a few others back to the Military Department, quickly rushing to the office building where the cityâs Colonel was commanding in the hall, checking the damages in Huangyang City.
Almost half of Huangyang City had collapsed.
The instructors leading the students all converged here, instinctively looking at Fan Li, "How are your students?"
Fan Liâs expression was heavy, "They fell in."
Both the Colonel stationed in the city and the soldiers secretly ensuring Su Xiaocaiâs safety were shocked, "Didnât they have mechas? Why didnât they choose to return at the first opportunity?"
"How could they climb onto the mechas when the ground collapsed?" The accident happened too suddenly, and with so many buildings collapsing, scrambling onto mechas without cover had a higher death rate.
"Why are you still so calm?" They knew Fan Li well, how he valued relationships; it was impossible for him to feel no emotions regarding students he had been with day and night for over ten days.
Fan Li wasnât calm; he knew that as long as Su Xiaocai was alive, so too would the other three students survive.
"What else can I do? I canât jump in with them." All Fan Li wanted to know now was who gave the command to hold firm; he turned to ask the cityâs Colonel, "Can we find out who gave the order?"
The cityâs Colonel frowned, "You seem unable to concern yourself with who gave the order, your duty is to follow it."
Ji Heng pressed, "Was it Major General Mo?"
The cityâs Colonel glanced at Ji Heng, and everyone else silently watched him.
After a moment of silence, he nodded, "It was Major General Mo."
"Go, ask again, who has Admiral Baiâs contact information; we canât hold the city, holding will only lead to total annihilation."
The cityâs Colonel rejected, his eyes full of timeless loyalty and stubbornness, "We are subordinates of Major General Mo; all commands must not be exceeded beyond him; this is discipline. Besides, we cannot abandon the citizens of this city."