We'll Win (5K)

Ina never expected to see Jie La Er at this time.

Although she had seen him yesterday, in her eyes, that wasn't Jie La Er, but just a demon possessing Jie La Er's body.

Now, as she looked at Jie La Er sitting in the corner of the alley, exhausted yet forcing himself to look at her, fragments of memories from her childhood —Jie La Er always managing to talk to her after work—drew up uncontrollably, telling her that this was Jie La Er himself.

This is her "father".

"Are you... alright?"

She couldn't help but ask, just like she had many years ago.

Then she felt a little dazed, because it felt like it had been a very long time since she had spoken to Jie La Er like that.

Jie La Er clearly felt something similar; Ina could clearly see his fingers twitch involuntarily, and his steely expression softened considerably at that moment.

"I'm fine, Ina."

Jie La Er tried to smile at Ina, but failed; after much effort, he could only manage a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth.

"You don't look very well," Ina said.

"Heh, is that so?" Jie La Er said dryly.

Then the father and daughter fell silent once again.

They hadn't had a conversation like this in far too long.

The last time I remember was ten years ago.

Ina was still very young at that time, and she had an older brother by her side, while Jie La Er did not lead his squad into that bottomless abyss.

"I'm sorry," Ina suddenly said.

"What?" Jie La Er was a little taken aback.

"I left you back then." Ina looked at Jie La Er and said softly, "You took my brother and me out of the orphanage and gave us a new life, but I... left when you needed me the most."

"You just want to find the truth about what happened back then," Jie La Er said. "I understand that if you stay by my side, you won't be able to join the Devil Squad, so you don't need to apologize..."

"No, that's just an excuse." Ina's tone grew increasingly agitated. "It's just an excuse I use to deal with myself. I just can't handle those..."

"That's enough, Ina." Jie La Er interrupted Ina, looking into Ina eyes and saying softly, "You haven't done anything wrong, really."

After hearing Jie La Er's words, Ina gradually calmed down, and then she said with a wry smile, "You're still the same, always the same, but I thought you had changed back then."

"Alright," Jie La Er said. "Let's not talk about the past anymore, at least not now. We have more important things to do now, don't we?"

He paused, trying to crack a joke in a lighthearted tone.

"Think about it, the skeleton Knight are still hunting me down everywhere. Isn't it a bit inappropriate to reminisce at a time like this? What we need for reminiscing is coffee and bread, not... um, black iron rods. What's that saying again?"

Seeing Jie La Er's slightly embarrassed expression, Ina sighed softly.

"You're still the same as before, not suited for jokes."

But this bad joke still eased the tension between the two quite a bit, and made Ina realize that this was indeed not a good time to catch up.

Right now, they have even more troublesome things to deal with.

"I know why you came to see me," Ina said.

Jie La Er was somewhat surprised. "You actually knew?"

"Yes, I've already found out. The thing inside you... right?" Ina narrowed her eyes, recalling the scene from yesterday afternoon, and said seriously, word by word, "I will help you defeat... no, I will help you kill him, Father."

Upon hearing Ina's words, Jie La Er was first taken aback, then couldn't help but rub his forehead. "Uh no, he's not that easy to kill... I mean, he's not that important... No, that's not what I meant. Don't look at me like that, I'm not schizophrenic."

Jie La Er took a deep breath, then regained his serious expression.

"Ina, I've come to you not just because you're my daughter, but because of your identity," he said slowly. "What we're facing now is even bigger trouble."

"Stop." A muffled sound came from beneath the heavy mask. You Li, walking at the front of the group, gestured and gave orders to his teammates, "Record the coordinates, check the contamination concentration, and only resume the search after confirming everything is correct."

No one in the team spoke; they responded to his orders with silent actions.

They have reached the edge of the abyss.

There's actually no need to specifically check the pollution concentration.

Because the crystal at the top of the detector in his hand, used to detect pollution, had turned a deep black.

This indicates that the pollution concentration has exceeded the standard.

But they still got in, using all their protective gear.

No one knows exactly how useful these protective gears are.

But they had no choice. The orders coming from the rear were becoming more and more direct, and as the captain, he couldn't refuse. He could only proceed with extreme caution.

Once the pollution concentration and coordinates were determined, You Li gave the order, "Begin exploration. Time limit: 15 minutes. Evacuate after 15 minutes."

Then the team members scattered and disappeared one by one into the thick fog, as if they had been swallowed by the abyss.

This sense of déjà vu made You Li very uncomfortable. He shook his head, trying his best not to think about those things, and then began to explore.

The abyss is like a vast graveyard.

The pollutants lingering here are mostly large or super-large.

But they showed no aggression whatsoever, not even a desire to move.

Most of them were curled up like corpses, letting their bodies rot away little by little without making any movement.

It was as if the previous outburst was just an illusion.

If these Large Pollutant were turned into source oil, how long could it supply Lyra City?

You Li thought about this question, and then the words he had heard yesterday during the contamination process involuntarily popped into his mind again.

"The source is pollution!"

You Li has remembered those words to this day.

What does this mean?

What is the source? Is it the source oil?

While the source oil is indeed derived from pollutants, shouldn't it lose its polluting properties the moment it is transformed into source oil?

Could it be that...

You Li felt somewhat heavy-hearted. Although, in principle, one should not believe anything seen or heard while under the influence of contamination, You Li found it difficult not to care.

Why this particular sentence?

As he walked, he suddenly stopped, staring straight ahead, his breath almost stopping.

Because a fully armed man was standing in front of him.

But it wasn't the attire of the Devil Squad; it was... Night Star.

Knight of the Evening Star?!

He's been contaminated again?!

You Li immediately reached for the Emergency Device around his neck and found that it was still functioning properly.

... Strange, he was still aware of the Emergency Device, which should have indicated that he wasn't contaminated.

What's going on?

Before You Li could figure it out, he heard footsteps. He looked up abruptly and saw the Knight of the Evening Star walking towards him.

He immediately placed his hand on the Blazing Fire Sword, though he didn't know if the sword would work on the guy from ten years ago.

The Knight of the Evening Star was still walking towards him, his heavy footsteps like the ticking of a clock.

You Li gripped the Blazing Fire Sword even tighter.

Logically, he should have retreated quickly at this point, and no matter what the other party was, he should not have had direct contact with them.

However, the thought of the corpse shouting "Run!" at him yesterday stopped him from retreating, and he stared straight at the other person.

And so, the Knight of the Evening Star stood before him.

A deep, hoarse voice came from behind the old mask. "Are you... reinforcements?"

Reinforcements?

Is he looking for reinforcements?

You Li thought quickly, but for someone who should have died ten years ago, many behavioral logics couldn't be directly applied, so he asked warily, "What do you need reinforcements for?"

"Why are you looking for reinforcements?" The Knight of the Evening Star tilted his head, seemingly confused. "Ah, why?"

He also began to ponder.

He seems a little out of it; has he been completely corrupted?

You Li asked calmly, "Yes, you're looking for reinforcements, there must be a reason for it, right?"

"What to do, what to do..."

The Knight of the Evening Star kept repeating You Li's words, as if he only knew how to say this one sentence.

It seems there's no more reason left.

You Li slowly began to draw his Blazing Fire Sword.

Then, You Li saw him suddenly raise his head, the movement so forceful it seemed he was about to break his neck.

"Ah! I remember now," he said. "We've found the target, but we can't get it back. We need to call for reinforcements to retrieve it."

You Li's heart skipped a beat.

The target has been found!?

What is the target?!

Is it the same thing they're looking for?

You Li immediately asked, "What is that? Where is it?!"

"What... where is it..."

He started repeating those two sentences again.

But You Li already knew he would answer, so he didn't press him for an answer and waited quietly.

Sure enough, he quickly provided a coordinate, which should be the location of that thing.

But he couldn't say exactly what it was.

After revealing the coordinates, he became even more anxious than before, and his entire being became restless at a visible speed.

"Reinforcements, reinforcements," he murmured. "We can't hold on anymore, we can't hold on anymore..."

"Who's about to give up?" You Li asked again.

"Who's going to give up?"

The other party repeated the question again, appearing quite confused.

He couldn't answer that question either.

You Li could tell that the Knight's thoughts and memories were disordered; he only knew that he needed to find reinforcements and bring them to that coordinate.

But he couldn't say what was in those coordinates, or what was unable to hold on any longer.

It gives the feeling of... a fragmented memory.

You Li looked into the eyes beneath the mask and asked one last question, "Who are you?"

This question immediately silenced him.

"Who I am?"

"Yes." You Li vaguely realized he had asked the most crucial question, "Who are you?"

He stood there silently, without any reaction, as if he were dead.

But soon, You Li saw liquid flowing out from under his mask.

These are... tears?

Is he crying?

You Li was momentarily dazed, and then the other party suddenly moved.

He ran wildly in the direction You Li had come from.

You Li reacted quickly and immediately grabbed his hand.

However, they grasped nothing but air.

You Li was stunned.

Is this... a phantom?

Seeing that the other person had disappeared from sight, You Li quickly gave chase.

But after he turned through a cloud of white mist, all he saw was a group of Devil Knight who had been waiting for a long time. Upon seeing You Li, they immediately came to greet him.

"Captain, where have you been?!"

"Why did it take so long?"

You Li immediately asked, "Did you see someone run past? Wearing a Night Star uniform!"

The Devil Knight looked at each other, and although they were all wearing masks, they could all see the seriousness in each other's eyes.

Was the captain also... infected?

But just then, a Devil Knight stepped forward and said somewhat nervously, "Captain, I think I encountered him too, but I don't know if it was an illusion. He said one sentence to me and then disappeared."

Sure enough, someone else saw it!

You Li immediately turned to look at him. "What did he say?"

"He said..." The Devil Knight took a deep breath, trying to suppress his fear, but his voice still trembled slightly. "He said his name was Jie La Er."

Jie La Er?!

Everyone was stunned.

At this moment, another Knight stepped forward.

"Me too." He was also very nervous. "He didn't say who he was, he just kept repeating the same sentence."

"What did you say?"

"My son... is still waiting for me."

After listening to Jie La Er's story, Ina felt as if her breath had stopped.

What did she hear?

A new god has emerged within Lyra, and this new god seeks to seize power by killing Lyra.

And that so-called New Pursuit Society is just a group of supporters of New God?

They are almost successful now, and even Bishop Holman, one of the Five Archbishops, died in this way.

The Lyra City was built upon the physical body of the Lyra God.

Lyra is currently in a deep sleep and cannot wake up, and this morning Jie La Er went to the station in an attempt to awaken Lyra by directly stimulating her body.

All of this was so fantastical that Ina thought it was a poorly crafted story Jie La Er had made up over a decade ago to lull her to sleep.

However, it wasn't entirely bad, because there were many things that Ina herself wasn't even aware of.

For example, the image of Lyra was something that even a member of the Devil Squad would have forgotten if Jie La Er hadn't mentioned it.

No wonder Jie La Er said that the thing inside his body wasn't anything particularly important.

Compared to Lyra, schizophrenia is indeed not worth worrying about.

"This is truly...unbelievable," Ina said softly.

"It seems you're willing to believe me."

"Although I'm very reluctant to believe it," Ina said with a wry smile, "My intuition tells me it's true."

She paused, then looked directly at Jie La Er.

"Have you been facing all of this alone all this time? For the past ten years?"

Jie La Er shook his head. "No, not that long ago. I only found out about these things after I came back."

"So how did you realize that?"

"This... I can't tell you," Jie La Er said softly. "I'm sorry, Ina, not yet."

Ina realized that this was probably related to that other personality, so she nodded slightly. "I understand, so what do you plan to do now?"

"That New God intends to kill Lyra in her sleep," Jie La Er slowly recounted what Bai Wei had told him. "If Lyra could wake up earlier, there might still be room for negotiation."

"Want to wake Lyra up?" Ina asked. "That's what you did this morning. I heard the sound too, but it didn't seem to work."

"Because the part that is exposed in the station is not the core part." Even Jie La Er's expression was a little strange when he talked about his own god like this. "So that part is not so... direct. The core part of the Lord is in the five towers."

"I see," Ina said. "But you couldn't get into those towers; the guards were too tight, weren't they?"

Jie La Er nodded.

"So the reason you came to me is to set your next target... in the Fifth District?" Ina understood. "The branch tower in the Fourth District is damaged. Of the remaining districts, the Skeleton Corps and the New Pursuit Society control three, so they're not easy to enter. But the Fifth District is different. It's controlled by the Devil Squad. You want to use my identity to enter the Fifth District, is that right?"

Jie La Er was somewhat surprised that Ina could figure everything out so quickly, and his gaze towards Ina changed.

He's just like Ian back then.

She is indeed no longer a child.

A complex emotion welled up in Jie La Er's heart, but he couldn't quite put his finger on whether it was relief or something else.

"Yes." Jie La Er put those thoughts aside for a moment, then slowly said, "Operations in the Fifth District require passes, and the Skeleton Corps won't search there, so... I need your help."

Jie La Er had barely finished speaking when he saw Ina handing him the pass, and he was taken aback.

He originally thought he would have to say something more to get Ina to agree.

Ina saw through Jie La Er's thoughts and said softly, "I couldn't trust you ten years ago, but not this time."

Jie La Er's lips twitched slightly, as if he were smiling.

He was about to take the pass, but Ina took it back. "But I have two requests."

"What are the requirements?"

"First, you must take me with you."

Jie La Er's brows furrowed immediately.

"Please promise me," Ina said calmly. "Ten years ago you took my brother with you, and ten years later, I hope you will take me with you... No matter what happens, I don't want to be left alone."

Jie La Er stared silently at Ina, the image of Ian flashing through his mind once more.

He sighed softly, "Okay."

Ina pursed her lips, seemingly relieved, and then said, "My second request is about that thing inside you... I know you don't care, but it's no small matter. After everything is over, I will find the Purification Source Crystal to help you get rid of that guy. I hope you can cooperate with me."

How should I cooperate?

"Until I find the Purification Source Crystal," Ina looked into Jie La Er's eyes, her voice pleading, "Please hold on... don't lose to him."

After a long silence.

Jie La Er said with a light laugh.

Don't worry.

"I will win."