Chapter 270: Reality

Bai Liu walks up and down the deck of the plane towards the cockpit, Du Sanying at his side, objects flying from the sides of the plane automatically avoiding them.

In front of the cockpit door, Bai Liu knocked on the door and the men inside pushed it open with great effort. They looked at the two extra men on the plane with dismay and almost instantly drew their guns from the side and pointed them at Bai Liu's head, saying sternly.

"Who are you guys?! How did you follow me here by hiding in the plane?!"

Bai Liu was wearing a thick down hat and an oxygen mask that covered most of his face, and the team member didn't recognise him as the Bai Liu who had caused so much unrest in the Heresy Bureau.

"I was sent here by Tang Erda, former head of the third detachment of the Bureau of Heresy Handling, to deal with the current situation." Bai Liu exhaled a white breath and raised his eyes to look directly at this team member, "He saw this coming."

The team member retracted his gun: "Are you Bai Liu, the living heretic that Team Tang is following? Did Team Tang send you here?"

Bai Liu nodded his head.

The team member gritted his teeth and turned to let Bai Liu into the cockpit: "Come in and talk."

The captain sat in the pilot's seat with bloodshot eyes, his hands flying over the dashboard that kept ticking with alarms, and asked in a cold voice without looking back, "- what can you do?"

"As you know I am a living heretic, so I will not be alienated by the body parts." Bai Liu spoke calmly, "Open the cargo bay door for me so I can take the body parts with me and parachute down alone."

The captain's eyes rolled for a moment as he finally swept an afterimage at Bai Liu: "- you're asking me to leave a high-risk heretic like a corpse block in your custody?"

His attitude was aggressive, even a little harsh: "- what if you run off with the body, or try to do something else with it?"

"A little leak from this heresy can kill thousands of people, do you know how precious human life is+?"

"You don't know that human life is a superficial thing to you, not as valuable as money." The captain rolled his eyes back, his face expressionless, "But not in my eyes, and I can't afford to take responsibility for so many lives in Antarctica."

"It's not as if you don't have a previous conviction like that on you, and the third detachment of the Rose Factory has yet to settle its score with you."

"I won't let you take the body parts."

The co-captain's crew could not help but admonish somewhat, "Captain, that's one way to go!"

Another member of the crew followed in anxiety, "Captain! Do you have to let yourself die in four pieces?!"

The captain scolded sternly, interrupting them, "Alright, wait and find parachutes and communication equipment for these two, drop them off and just tell them to get the hell back on their own, no need to bother with words!"

"My mind is made up!"

Bai Liu exhaled a calm white breath, "The lives of the people you want to save are lives, the lives of these team members, your own lives are not lives, are they?"

"Who gave you the right to trade your own life, the lives of these players, for the lives of what you thought were ordinary people?"

"STFU!!!" The captain clenched his back teeth and tightened his cheeks, his eyes were red and filled with a light layer of tears, "Get off the plane!!!"

Bai Liu continued indifferently, "They are human, but you are not?"

"Or do you feel that you and these members of the team are inherently inferior and should be given priority to sacrifice when it comes to anything and die so that others can live - aren't you afraid to die anymore?"

Both the crew and the co-pilot were breathlessly silent.

Bai Liu lowered his eyes, "But I'm not human, I'm a living heretic, a monster who has made mistakes and has no moral compass or human emotion - and you were just right, Captain, human life does have no value in my eyes as money does."

"So there is no need to deal too much with me as a human being in your eyes."

"In such a critical situation, it is logical in the human worldview for you to use my life to save the greater good, both for emotional and ethical reasons."

Bai Liu's voice was light and steady, "I am the one who should be sacrificed, not you."

"As for your claim that I would use the body parts, there is no denying that I have a tendency to use everything, but you must have some means of controlling a high-risk heretic like me when you bring high-risk heretics on board, right?"

Even the third team member, who has always hated Bai Liu, couldn't bear to shake his head at this point, and he decisively refused: "But that one is for remotely monitoring corpse block mental contamination and preventing riots by driving regulatory metal mechanical clasps into the bones of each body part ...... "

Bai Liu interrupted him and replied gently, "Just use this."

The team member looked up sharply as he retorted incredulously, "But you're a living person! Because it's for a corpse block, we don't have any anaesthetic facilities with us, there are thirty rings in total and you'll die from the pain of a hard shot in!"

"But the corpse uses this too, right?" Bai Liu looked up at the crew member with a very light smile on his face, "I've always been the same kind of monster, or rather, heretic, as it is."

"Isn't it normal to use the same thing for control?"

The captain snapped, "- even if you are a fucking heretic, I will not approve of this being used on a living person, Bai Liu, get your ass off the plane -"

"Captain." Bai Liu interrupted calmly, "There is no two ways about this, I hurt this one, and you die five at once, you have to choose one."

The captain's back teeth were grinding one at a time, his eyes were blue and black underneath, the whites of his eyes were bloodshot, and the muscles on his cheekbones were shaking straight from the clenching of his back teeth.

Bai Liu suddenly stepped forward and half bowed, his tone sincere: "Captain, you have people you want to save, and I have monsters I want to save."

"And I hope you will understand and fulfil this dream of mine."

The captain rose from the pilot's seat, gave up his own seat to the crew member who was keeping watch beside him, turned to look at Bai Liu, who still maintained his bowing stance, and exhaled a long, deep breath, his fingers opening and closing feebly for a moment from the long hours of manoeuvring.

His gaze moved slowly from the gaunt faces of the two crew members still manning the dashboard to the white haze of clouds outside the window and let go for a brief moment.

Then he closed his eyes and said in a hoarse voice.

"...... You come over here, just put four rings on, wrists and ankles and control the limbs."

Bai Liu got up and thanked me sincerely, "Thank you."

The captain waved his hand wearily, "...... If it hurts, say so if you can't help it."

Bai Liu was taken to the infirmary, and Du Sanying stood anxiously outside, expecting to hear some sort of scream or, at worst, a little moan - the buckle was not anaesthetic, and it sounded painful.

But eventually the only sound that came from the infirmary was a click that sounded like a stapler stapling a book, which came four times, followed by Bai Liu's steady thanks, "Is it done? Thank you, Captain."

Du Sanying was about to push the door open, but he stopped - he heard the sound of someone kneeling inside, knees hitting the cold floor with a thud.

"You are a heretic, a monster without fear, the Heresy Authority, and we in the Third Branch will certainly monitor you for the rest of your life and will not give you any chance to do evil and harm." The captain gritted his teeth in hatred.

Bai Liu gave a steady hmm, "I know, that's your position, I understand."

The captain was breathing heavily, he seemed to be crying, his voice choked with sobs, and then there were two heavy, hard, kowtowing sounds, "But this time, I take back all the personal comments I made about you before."

"Thank you for saving the rest of the team and thank you for saving me."

The two men emerge from the infirmary, Bai Liu gently rubbing his wrist, a yellow mark of iodine sterilisation remaining on the back and some odd deformation of the bony bulge - this must be where the ring clasp was driven in.

The captain, his face still streaked with roughly wiped tears, nodded to Bai Liu, "I'll open the cargo door for you, go ahead."

Bai Liu leads Du Sanying, who has not yet recovered, all the way to the bottom cargo hold.

Once inside the cargo hold, a glance reveals the metal crates in which the corpses are stored, neatly arranged about two or three metres apart in a circular pattern, with a lot of foam and air cushions stuffed between them to separate them, but some of the air cushions have been punctured in the bumps and are spread out absently on the floor.

Bai Liu told Du Sanying to stand at the door of the cargo hold, not to approach and preferably not to look, to avoid being mentally contaminated, while he went in alone to deal with the body parts in the box.

Du Sanying stays honestly at the door of the cargo hold, his back straight as a sentry.

Actually, Bai Liu doesn't have to tell him to look back at the contents of the boxes - they somehow give him a very unlucky feeling and give him the creeps.

Less than ten minutes later, Bai Liu emerges with the body wrapped in cloth and a cold suit, deliberately separated from Du Sanying.

Bai Liu: "Go and contact the captain and tell him to prepare to abandon the plane with all hands and try to find a place to land where you can parachute."

--Following the path of the game Ice Age, the odds are that the plane will not be saved and will most likely crash, so run as early as you can.

Apart from the captain and co-pilot, who were still in the cockpit, the remaining three members of the crew were already waiting at the cabin door of the aircraft.

They were sent over to show Bai Liu how to skydive, and one of them would jump in to give Bai Liu an aerial demonstration.

To avoid being spiritually contaminated, they stood far away from Bai Liu and spoke only by shouting in the gale.

"If landing on the sea, the parachute comes in a matching package with a kayak, which we have enchanted with heretical modifications, is light weight, can withstand very low temperatures and can be used as a temporary landing site on the sea after instant expansion, the kayak does not carry much weight, so don't put anything too heavy on it."

"Take care that neither you, nor the corpse ever falls into the water!"

"The water here is so cold that a fall would be life-threatening, and the body parts would be causing pollution of the waters and alienating the creatures here."

"If you land on land, there is a tent and some dry food in the package to last you about a week, find a safe place to take it with you in the meantime, you have our Heresy Handling Bureau latch on you with a locator system and we will use all our efforts to search for you within a week."

The three players yelled until their voices were dry and pointed at Du Sanying at the top of their voices: "And Bai Liu, what is this man you brought up here for?"

"Are you going to take him with you on the jump? Is this man a heretic like you and won't he be disturbed by the body parts?"

Bai Liu looked over at Du Sanying, who was shivering in the cold wind, and turned his head, "I took him because I've always had bad luck and the unexpected happens in everything I do."

"But this time I didn't want any surprises, so I took him with me to avoid any subsequent accidents."

The team wondered, "What contingency?"

Bai Liu raised his eyes, "- like, the body parts falling into someone else's hands."

Three minutes later.

The side and rear doors of the aircraft were finally opened on the captain's instructions.

With the cold wind howling, the team was ready with parachute parcels, oxygen and breathing masks and cold protection.

The bumps are getting more and more violent, to the point of being out of control, and Du Sanying, standing in the wind, is almost blown off his feet and has to hold on to the handles to steady himself as he tries to put on his package.

While dressing, the team instructed Du Sanying on how to follow the jump.

"Normally a tandem jump would be you strapped in with him, but you and Bai Liu are both new and it's unsafe to tandem jump, and he's already got a body strapped to him, so you'll have to jump with him and try to land in the same place as him."

"But the weather on this side of the Antarctic is not suitable for skydiving in all respects - the only successful jumps I know of over here so far have been spot jumps, not high-altitude jumps."

"Because the view is all white below the high jump and the wind is unpredictable, it's hard to locate and find the landing spot, so it's not forced, and it's fine for you to find each other after you land."

"I was going to take you on a double jump, to be safer." This team member let out a long sigh, "But you wouldn't."

Du Sanying, who was awkwardly adjusting the chest strap, gave a slight, unnoticeable pause and looked up with a forced smile, "I'll be fine on my own, I'm lucky."

--but not necessarily the person who took me.

Bai Liu is the only one who has survived around him so far.

The team member squarely thanked him, "But whether you are a human being or a living heretic like Bai Liu, please be safe."

"Thank you so much for saving us."

With that, the team member was ready to reach out and help Du Sanying adjust the mixed up chest straps.

Du Sanying answered in a whisper, turning his shoulder sideways to avoid this team member helping him adjust, his head lowered almost to the point of his heart, "...... I'll do it myself, just stand a little away from me."

This crew member jumped first as a demonstration, exited the cabin, glided, opened his arms and in moments disappeared into the dense cloudy haze.

"This visibility." One team member frowned, "It's too difficult to follow the jump, best to get someone to follow you."

"No need." Du Sanying squeezed the bungee cord of his jump bag and whispered, "...... It's okay, I'm lucky, I'll be able to keep up with Bai Liu."

Parachute jump begins.

Bai Liu leapt from the hatch through thick clouds and icy fog, the cold air slicing through his heart and lungs like a million freshly sharpened one-sided blades, freezing his limbs and paralysing him so much that even the wounds from punching down the ring clasp didn't hurt as much.

He feels like a camera falling down from a height, the clouds, the mist and the sea seem to fill Bai Liu's field of vision with a sense of motion as if they are constantly switching between high frames.

Beautiful and ethereal, like the money-filled cg opening of a big game that cost a fortune.

It gives a trance-like, unrealistic coldness, like the frost on Bai Liu's face at the moment.

Bai Liu's feet are covered in 14 million cubic metres of ice, in the sky is a plane about to crash, its tail beginning to burn, and his heart is ringed by his only friend and now his broken lover.

And what will it be for his future?

[Future] didn't tell him the answer, so Bai Liu gave one to himself.

In that narrow orphanage, every child yearned day and night to be taken away by a strange man and woman - just as they yearned for loving parents, caring friends, brothers and sisters to grow up with.

They long for a family that they can only see in fairy tale books.

But Bai Liu will never be part of the process of being screened out.

So Xie Ta asked him: [Don't you want a father?

Bai Liu says: [No.]

Xie Ta asks: [Where's Mum?

Bai Liu says: [No.]

Xie Ta says: [Sister sister, brother brother, do you have what you want?

Bai Liu said: [What's the use of having them?

Xie Ta, as if confused: [It seems to be a necessary component of family needs].

Bai Liu asked rhetorically: [Is there any use for families?

Xie Ta thinks for a moment and shakes her head honestly: [A family seems to be a venue formed after two people have decided to be together, bound by law, morality, and some emotion called love, to be together with each other forever].

[Everyone seems to yearn for family].

Xie Ta asks Bai Liu: [If you had a family without these essential components, is there anything you would like to put into the family?

Bai Liu didn't answer at the time because he felt he would never need something like [family].

It's too boring for two people to be tied together forever.

But the two monsters ...... seem to be doing okay.

Now Bai Liu and Xie Ta have met all the requirements to start a family, so ...... if Bai Liu has a [family], then Xie Ta is his only family.

He hoped that if there was a future, a future with Xie Ta in it, it would be nice if Xie Ta would love him forever and be Bai Liu's family .......

Just fine.

An unjustified gust of wind blew violently the moment Bai Liu opened his parachute.