“You want us to stop them?”
The man’s voice suddenly became playful, with a hint of probing.
“Looks like you know something.”
Zhushi Jiu looked around at the quiet and dark environment, despite feeling a sense of urgency, but in order to push the conversation forward, he still maintained a calm demeanor: “Of course, I know more than you think. However, I think we should be honest with each other. If we keep fighting, it will only benefit the Black Troop Organization.”
The man suddenly burst out laughing: “Who’s the fisherman?”
Zhushi Jiu was taken aback by the man’s question and was about to say that they should stop fighting each other and focus on taking down the Black Troop Organization, but the man’s question made him realize that his own actions were indeed contributing to the “fighting between the crab and the shark” scenario.
Zhushi Jiu thought for a moment before deciding to release some information: “The middle-aged man in the image I posted online is the commander of their operation this time.”
The man chuckled twice: “We’ve known that for a while now. If you want us to fight them, you need to give us more information we don’t know.”
Zhushi Jiu’s mood began to deteriorate, furrowing his brow and asking: “You knew that already? Do you think I’d believe you if you say that? If you knew, why didn’t you do anything?”
The man’s response made Zhushi Jiu’s mood even worse: “How do you know we didn’t do anything?”
What the hell?!
Zhushi Jiu thought back to every apocalyptic event he had experienced, his face turning ugly.
So, it seemed that this group had indeed taken some actions before each apocalypse, but ultimately failed to stop it?
Zhushi Jiu let out a heavy sigh, his disappointment palpable: “I really hope you’re lying to me.”
The man originally thought Zhushi Jiu would be shocked, silent, or angry, but he didn’t expect him to be so disappointed.
“Your abilities are far worse than I imagined. You can’t stop them at all.”
The man was taken aback by the situation: “What did you say?”
Zhushi Jiu was infuriated, yelling into the phone: “You knew what they were going to do tomorrow, including the commander of their operation, yet you still couldn’t stop them?!”
“Do you know how many chances I’ve wasted fighting those riff-raff?”
“You don’t understand anything! You’re just trying to test me here!”
“Damn it, I’m tired of playing along! You can go die!”
After venting his emotions, Zhushi Jiu hung up the phone without waiting for the man to respond.
The phone rang again soon after, with the man calling back.
Zhushi Jiu’s outburst was half-true and half-fake, but his emotions were genuine, filled with deep-seated anger, hatred, and disappointment. This complex mix of emotions was difficult to fake, even for an Oscar-winning actor.
Seeing the man calling back, Zhushi Jiu waited for 40 seconds before picking up the phone.
“What do you mean?” the man asked, slightly angry.
“I already said, I won’t play along with you guys anymore. Since you can’t stop them, it means your abilities are limited and you can’t handle the responsibility.”
“…”
The man took a deep breath before responding: “You fundamentally don’t know who they are, or who I am.”
Zhushi Jiu heard the man’s heavy breathing on the other end, seemingly enraged.
After a while, the man gritted his teeth and said: “You don’t know who he is, or who I am.”
“I may not know, but will you tell me?”
“…”
Zhushi Jiu continued to taunt the man, making the man’s anger grow: “You’re way worse than that man. He’s calm and wise, grasping the situation quickly, while you’re just bluffing; his every sentence is like a carefully crafted trap, while yours are meaningless; he’s unfazed by my ridicule, while you’re getting angry…”
The man’s anger was palpable, his breathing heavy and rapid.
Half a moment later, the man clenched his teeth and said: “You don’t know who he is, or who I am.”
“Do you know who I am?” Zhushi Jiu countered.
“…”
Zhushi Jiu continued to press the man, “You’re far weaker than him. At least when facing me, he would say some ambiguous lies to deceive me, but you’re not even willing to tell lies. You two are worlds apart.”
The man suddenly calmed down, perhaps realizing he had been provoked by Zhushi Jiu.
“I’m not as good as him.”
The man’s admission shocked Zhushi Jiu.
“Our organization is also not as good as theirs.”
Zhushi Jiu’s expectations of waiting for the apocalypse to pass were shattered, and he tightly gripped the phone: “Is there really no organization that can resist them? Can they really do as they please in this world without anyone stopping them?”
The man self-deprecatingly replied: “Who can stop them? If there’s anyone who can stop them, it’s certainly not human.”
Zhushi Jiu didn’t think too deeply into the man’s words, thinking he was just exaggerating the Black Troop Organization’s strength.
At this point, he felt the man was being very cautious, not revealing any valuable information.
To push the conversation forward, Zhushi Jiu asked the most pressing question on his mind: “What about the country? What is the government doing?”
He didn’t want to believe the government was unaware of the organization’s growth, and would rather believe they had done something but failed.
However…
At this moment…
Zhushi Jiu’s question seemed to shock the man, who took a long time to respond.
“What’s going on? Did you die?” Zhushi Jiu asked impatiently.
“You don’t know anything,” the man’s response made Zhushi Jiu’s body stiffen.
“I thought you knew everything and posted those two images online, but it seems you don’t know anything. This question reveals your ignorance; you don’t even know who your enemy is.”
“…Why did you say that?”
Zhushi Jiu was confused by the man’s reaction, and had a feeling the man was hiding something.
“I’m very suspicious, I don’t know whether I should exchange information with you… Why do you know their plans for tomorrow, but not who they are?”
The man’s suspicion was palpable, even through the phone.
Zhushi Jiu didn’t care to answer the man’s question, instead asking anxiously: “Who are they, exactly?”
The man chuckled twice before stopping, seemingly deciding whether to reveal the information.
After a long pause, the man replied: “They belong to the government.”
Zhushi Jiu’s last hope was shattered, and the worst possible outcome emerged.
The man’s tone was extremely calm.
“They are a military organization under the government, but their existence is not acknowledged by the government. They are the sharpest sword in the government’s hand, standing on the side of humanity, and protecting the world’s last line of defense.”
“They exist to maintain world peace.”
At this moment, at 8:42 PM and 37 seconds on November’s night, the cold wind blew against Zhushi Jiu’s heart.
Learning the truth, he was lost.
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