The Creatures that We Are

Island on the edge, near dawn.

Countless crows wheeled through the deep gray sky above the island, joined by numerous insects that became active in winter. The ocean surface around the island teemed with schools of fish. Shark fins glided through the water.

On the island stood a large roughly built house.

Before the house, three big weathered petroline barrels stood on the square, filled with firewood. Ignited, the fire bloomed into a surging flame. Almost all members of the Nine Scions and the Twelve Zodiac Signs gathered there.

Once Gao Yang, Heavenly Dog, and Gregor took Quiet Book back to base, One Stone had immediately treated her. Gao Yang explained the situation and gathered everyone for a meeting ten minutes later.

There was a consensus that they should rescue Vermilion Bird, Lovely Lamb, Wang Weiyan, and Zhang Wei.

However, opinions differed regarding how they should go about it. There were three camps:

The first believed that the Rune Circuits must not be given to Qilin. That would be giving him what he wanted. They should pretend to make the deal while they tried to rescue the hostages, and if the opportunity presented itself, it would be best to kill Qilin.

Those in favor of this opinion included Nine Frost, Crimson Bee, Old Seven, Mischievous Monkey, Canary, Wandering Tune, Harvest Song, Lin Fu, and Lying Wood.

The second camp believed that they should prioritize saving the hostages. As long as Qilin honored his words, it would be fine to trade the Rune Circuits away. They just had to try to take them back later.

Those in favor of that included Dead Pig, Heavenly Dog, Raven Shark, Chen Ying, Ke Yo, One Stone, Hong Xiaoxiao, Gao Xinxin, Gregor, and Veggie.

The third camp had no opinion. They would obey whatever decision was made.

Qing Ling, Wang Zikai, Nainai, Liao Liao, Ting Ting, Bumblebee, and Rewind belonged to this camp.

The first two camps entered a heated debate.

As the leaders of the two organizations, Gao Yang and War Tiger refrained from giving their opinion just yet.

With an unlit cigarette in his mouth, War Tiger crouched on two old tires, a broadsword buried in the ground beside him. Eyes narrowed, he looked at the brought bemusedly.

Gao Yang sat on an old sofa and quietly listened.

Dr. Jia squeezed himself onto the sofa beside Gao Yang. He had combed the parrot’s feathers, trimmed its talons, and massaged its head. He was visibly getting impatient.

Originally, he hadn’t wanted to participate in the stupid meeting. He was dragged here by Nine Frost, and after being forced to listen for half an hour, he found it thoroughly meaningless and immensely frustrating. ᚱÀ𐌽ŏＢĚṢ

“Enough, enough!” Dr. Jia had had enough. He shot to his feet and shouted, “Stop this meaningless discussion. Do you think Qilin will let us make the choice?”

Silence fell on the square. They turned to Dr. Jia one by one.

“Awkward, awkward, awkward!” The parrot chirped happily.

“Piss off!” Dr. Jia swatted the parrot away. He cleared his throat and shouted, “Everyone! I’m just going to ask you a few questions. Give me the answers first!”

“Is there a chance that Qilin has already killed the hostages and merely controlled them with Puppeteer to pretend that they were alive?”

That made many blanch. It wasn’t that the possibility hadn’t occurred to them; they simply didn’t dare to and were unwilling to consider it.

“Is there a chance that Qilin won’t even go to the meeting, but has instead set up a trap for us to step into?”

“Is there a chance that Qilin is drawing us away to hit us from the back, that he never believes for a second that we’ll give the Rune Circuits back to him?”

“Is there a chance that Qilin doesn’t even have to pull any tricks, since level 8 Eidos and Puppeteer are enough to kill as many of us as he wishes?”

The four questions made everyone fall silent.

“If you can’t even answer those questions, what are you doing, seeking a solution that may not even apply?” Dr. Jia didn’t hide his derision. “Better use the time to have a good sleep and converse energy. Then perhaps you’ll have a better death tonight…”

“Old Jia,” War Tiger cut him off with a smile. “I’ll commend you for the first part of that, but the last sentence is unnecessary. That’s a boost of the enemy’s stance and a blow to our confidence.”

“Yeah?” Dr. Jia didn’t hold back. “I don’t see any of you confident. Right or wrong, Qilin for sure is better at getting things done than you are.”

War Tiger sighed, shooting back when he was actually trying to get Dr. Jia to talk more. “In what ways is he better than us?”

“There’s one thing: he’s got a clear target and knows what he wants,” Dr. Jia said. “Now look at you. You want this and that and worry about everything. You’ve all been to elementary school, haven’t you? Learned about the story of a monkey entering a fruit garden? You must know the saying, ‘Losing a watermelon trying to pick up sesame seeds.’”

“Anyone can talk the talk,” Crimson Bee protested. “You’re the genius here. Give us a couple of tricks.”

“I don’t have any. I’m just telling you that to succeed, you should streamline a complicated matter and boil things down to the key points. You must find the pivot before you can lift something with leverage.”

“Pivot,” Nine Frost repeated, ruminating the word.

“Kill Qilin,” Gao Yang said the first thing since the meeting began, a faint smile tugging his lips.

The others turned to him.

“That’s right!” Nine Frost’s eyes lit up. “Killing him is our pivot!”

War Tiger slapped his thigh and laughed. “It sounds obvious, but it’s the only answer.”

“Thank God your bossman isn’t a complete idiot, or things will get real messy,” Dr. Jia said in approval. He dusted his pants and turned back to the house. “There’s nothing for me to do here. I’ll go back to my research.”

Old Seven looked at Gao Yang with admiration. “Brother Yang, I’m not the brightest tool in the shed. Will you explain the situation in more detail?”

“Haha, bro, let’s tell everyone about our strategies!” Wang Zikai pretended to know everything. The others gave that an awkward yet polite smile.

“Tactics should follow a strategy.” Gao Yang leaned in and steepled his fingers under his chin, looking at the burning bonfire. “Let’s start with our strategy.”

“Dr. Jia is right. We may be caught off guard tonight, but no matter what happens, we won’t lose our way as long as we have a clear strategy.”

Gao Yang stopped there, giving the others time to digest that.

As his second-in-command, Nine Frost clarified, “For example, if we’re there to save hostages, only to find that all of the hostages are fake, or they have all been…we’ll lose initiative with our plan disrupted.”

“Or if we have other goals and Qilin suddenly threatens us into submitting with the hostages, we’ll also lose our initiative.”

The others nodded in understanding.

Gao Yang continued, “That’s why the only viable strategy is to kill Qilin. No matter what happens tonight, we’ll know what to do next.”

“Right! Strategy first, then tactics can be flexible.” Wandering Tune had been the coach of an e-sport club. He got into that headspace and said, “If we see Qilin tonight, we kill him. If we don’t, we retreat. If Qilin threatens us with the hostages, we kill him and save the hostages. If the hostages are already dead, it stands that we should be even more resolved to kill Qilin. No matter what, we want the man dead. That’s our constant.”

“I understand what Captain said,” One Stone spoke up worriedly. “But killing Qilin to save the hostages is only a solution on paper.”

Houseau3's Thoughts

I made an interactive glossary that reveals information according to your progress. At the moment I've done the basic of the Talent list and what I've written in the old glossary. I'll be adding things going forward, starting with the factions and the main cast. Will be adding more details to the Talent entries as well.

Feel free to tell me what entries you'd like me to add through comments or the Discord. (Or if there's a mistake since I'm currently braindead.)

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