AnalogHorror: Rule Kaidan 4016
Chapter 485 - 216 Old Mo is Already Dead_2

Chapter 485: Chapter 216 Old Mo is Already Dead_2

"To resist the invasion, all the cafeteria cooks with even a trace of fighting ability, wearing blue aprons, joined the battle..."

"But there was no other way, the Convenience Store owner wasn’t around, and without the logistics from the cafeteria, there was no support, so... the cafeteria almost fell."

"Old Mo kept fighting, just kept fighting... The cooks by his side all fell, the people who could fight fell, and even those he was trying to protect... but he never fell."

"To be precise, he had fallen countless times, but each time he would stand up again, and although it’s not nice to say, that day he really was like a ’cheating’ Zhou Tai, he could be carrying a deck of cards on his back and still be ’Unyielding’..."

"He kept fighting, kept fighting until his body was completely dead, still fighting... It was precisely because he miraculously kept fighting that the cafeteria area managed to hold on until the Convenience Store owner returned."

"I don’t understand," Mao Feiyang shook my head, "the Convenience Store owner is so strong, why did he leave the cafeteria area?"

Mu Daxian looked calmly at Mao Feiyang: "You should understand."

Mao Feiyang: "?"

"Others might not understand, but you, you should understand."

Mao Feiyang: "??"

Mu Daxian’s tone was slightly heavy and he said softly, "If the cafeteria turned into the battlefield for the Convenience Store owner and It, then... no one would survive in that area."

Mao Feiyang’s pupils shrank, instantly understanding something.

Mu Daxian continued, "To confront It, the Convenience Store owner himself isn’t ’ordinary’..."

"Gods fight, mortals suffer, the simplest of truths are often the hardest to understand."

"Godzilla can clash with King Kong, but it’s the city that’s caught in the middle that suffers the most... When the Guardian himself takes the field, wherever the battle rages, death follows. Do you understand?"

Mao Feiyang’s expression turned solemn, he got the point: "But... couldn’t more people have been left in the cafeteria, if that was the case..."

"A woman’s mercy," Mu Daxian cut off Mao Feiyang’s words, "The students seeking refuge in the cafeteria are people, but aren’t the students from the 36 classes in the Teaching Building, the many sleeping students in the Dormitory building, the Gymnasium, the Art Building, the Library... aren’t the students from other areas people too?"

"The cafeteria is just a logistical site and it’s already in that state, how could other areas be any easier?"

"During the 70th Grey Mist Invasion, we were hanging by a thread, just a little shy of complete collapse..." Mu Daxian made a gesture, the most hated one by thumbs-up men, "really just that little bit."

"Because of the existence of the Convenience Store owner, the cafeteria was initially the sturdiest shield behind the battlefield, and the cooks, as logistical support, were supposed to back up every area."

"Everything was proceeding according to the plan, the only change was the appearance of It, which shouldn’t have been in the cafeteria area."

"Under the Convenience Store owner’s plan, the cafeteria was supposed to hold, but man’s plans are no match for those of heaven. The 70th Grey Mist Invasion was said to be the biggest in nearly a decade, and the Convenience Store owner had conservatively estimated the risk and laid out that defensive line..."

Mu Daxian spoke in a calm voice, without any blame for the Convenience Store owner.

This left Mao Feiyang puzzled; he always felt that there was a problem with the Convenience Store owner’s decision-making concerning the fall of the cafeteria, a responsibility that could not be shirked.

But Mu Daxian, as an actual participant in the 70th Grey Mist Invasion, assuredly had a deeper impression and experience than he, a hearer of hearsay.

Mu Daxian sighed, "In the 70th Grey Mist Invasion, there were many like Old Mo who fought to their deaths, and to expel It, the Convenience Store owner also paid a price beyond our imagination..."

"That battle, individual gains and losses were already negligible, we needed to measure by the casualties of the entire school district..."

"As long as there is battle, there will be sacrifice, don’t blame the leaders for being inept simply because there are sacrifices, what they carry and face is far heavier than anything we can imagine."

"The sacrificers... from the moment they met the battle to the moment of their sacrifice, and even after the sacrifice, they never considered any sort of self-preservation. It’s not to say that when a nest is overturned, no eggs remain unbroken, but rather, behind them, no, behind us, stand even more people who need protection..."

"From the moment we decided to stay within the school district, it meant we were prepared for sacrifice."

"But sacrifice doesn’t mean it’s in vain, it’s precisely because there might be sacrifice, so we must maximize the value that each individual’s sacrifice brings, as much as possible..."

"We can’t see what the convenience store owner and others are doing, so we shouldn’t make rash judgments."

"But we can see what Old Mo and others have done, so we hold them in reverence and strive forward."

Mao Feiyang, listening to Mu Daxian’s description, could vaguely feel how intense the battle was that night, but like the younger generation that never experienced the wars of the older generation, they simply could not understand the weight and the history soaked with blood and tears through mere descriptions.

He could imagine that the reality of what happened on the night of the 70th Grey Mist Invasion was surely far more gruesome than what Mu Daxian described.

For someone who often misspoke, he hadn’t misspoken a single word throughout; it was as if he felt something profoundly heavy, as if the weight of the sky that had tipped over was evenly distributed across the entire school district...

No wonder Mu Daxian said hearing about Old Mo’s deeds would bring him to tears.

"Brother Xian, since Old Mo has already fallen in battle, then who was the ’Old Mo’ that treated our wounds just now?" Mao Feiyang pursed his lips, "Could it be some sort of lingering hero’s spirit or something?"

Because he had accepted the concept that supernatural powers existed in this world, Mao Feiyang’s receptiveness suddenly broadened significantly.

"If you want to say it’s a hero’s spirit, that’s one way to put it..." Mu Daxian shook his head, "To this day we still can’t understand what his current life form is..."

"Ah?"

"Do you remember what I told you about the boundaries between ’life’ and ’death’?"

"Could it be... he’s one of those people caught between life and death?" Mao Feiyang guessed.

"No." Mu Daxian denied, "Old Mo is truly dead, neither belonging to those who ’have died but still think they are alive’, nor those who ’seem alive but are already dead’, and certainly not a ’person’ heavily affected by contamination..."

"Old Mo, he belongs to those who ’know they are already dead yet still cling to their last breath of life, maintaining their deceased bodies at the entrance of the cafeteria’ as a contaminated mutant."

"His body has also died, but his will is still congealed."

"Or perhaps it should be said, his residual brainwaves cling to the existence of the cafeteria, thus condensing a body for himself to command; his current body isn’t much different from the statue-like bodies of the Nocturnal species, but his will surpasses that of an ordinary ’employee’."

"Will? Can will alone keep someone alive, at least appear alive... emmm... seem alive?" Mao Feiyang said astonished, "This isn’t just an iron will, is it? This..."

"It should be called ’Unyielding Will’, right?" Mu Daxian glanced toward Old Mo’s direction, "That’s why it’s strange..."

"There are many theories, and one of the more reliable ones is that that night, Old Mo, through his iron will, fought for sustenance in battle, and each time he fell, he forcibly powered himself through by absorbing the supernatural power within the pseudo-humans and Nocturnal species he killed."

"Like having an all-powerful vampiric buff, by drawing the ’blood’ from the pseudo-humans he defeated to maintain his fighting energy..."