Again

The instant he kicked the gate open, he saw tobacco leaves piled haphazardly across the yard to dry, tools scattered everywhere, dust flying all around, the yellow earth seeming to blanket everything.

Yet there were no enemies in sight.

He saw only a gaunt woman desperately hiding two girls behind her, staring blankly at Huai Shi with wide eyes.

Her gaze was filled with terror.

"No, sorry..." He swallowed. "Wrong place."

He was about to turn around when a teammate beside him kicked him aside. Then he heard the roar of automatic rifles, a string of thunderous blasts, and faint screams.

And the sound of blood spraying.

He had not even had time to turn back.

Someone seemed to be shouting in the distance. Something came whistling through the air, followed by another tremendous explosion.

In the end, there was no sound at all.

Dead silence.

Only the shrill ringing in his ears.

An RPG from who knew where had blown everything into ruins.

Huai Shi instinctively dropped to the ground and crawled forward. Someone hauled him up and shouted something into his ear, but he could not make it out. He merely followed the captains' commands and blindly squeezed the trigger toward the front.

He did not even realize when his magazine ran empty.

Then he saw corpses. Corpses, corpses, corpses, corpses, corpses...

Women, children, old people, and more children. Tall or short, fat or thin... intact or blown to pieces.

It had all happened too fast, so fast that he could not react.

He had not even found the enemies the instructor had mentioned before the battle seemed to be over.

Then his enraged teammates dragged him into the square and beat him with fists and kicks.

Amid the violent dizziness and haze, the instructor stepped forward. The middle-aged man with two little mustaches looked down at him for a long time, then beckoned behind him.

Someone dragged over two enemies who were still struggling.

Then the instructor helped Huai Shi up from the ground, gently dusted him off, placed his sidearm in Huai Shi's hand, and said something while pointing at the shrieking children on the ground.

Huai Shi had not heard him clearly. He looked around blankly and saw the cold, expressionless faces of his teammates.

He saw the mangled corpses dragged into the square and piled into a mountain.

The blood gathered in one place, forming a river.

The instructor said something else, but he still did not hear it clearly. Then his teammates slowly raised their guns and aimed them at him. He froze.

The instructor spoke to him one last time.

This time, Huai Shi finally heard him.

"Fire."

Instinctively, Huai Shi pulled the trigger at the enemies.

Once, twice, three times, four times...

Soon, the magazine was empty. The two enemies on the ground had become a heap of mangled flesh and no longer moved. Only bloody bubbles continued to rise from the bullet wounds, soaking the dim yellow earth black.

At that final moment, Huai Shi finally saw his own face.

Above the corpses.

In the vacant eyes of those two little girls.

Huai Shi opened his eyes in the room.

Huai Shi began convulsing violently. He shouted something at Crow, then started vomiting.

He bent over, sprawled on the floor, and vomited until tears nearly came out.

First came fear, then pain, then regret. In the end, all that remained was anger and disgust—deep anger and disgust toward himself.

He had actually fired.

At two little girls who had no ability to resist at all...

"Fuck..."

He covered his face wearily, unable to stop himself from wanting to cry. "Fuck..."

Even when he had burned Red Glove to death, he had not felt the slightest stir.

Yet within this empty record, he felt such profound fear of death and such deep revulsion toward killing.

There had been no enemies there at all. Only old men who had lost their sons in war, women who had lost their husbands, and children who had lost their fathers...

It had merely been a meaningless massacre.

And he had actually fired.

He had known it was only a record, that even if they were killed, nothing would happen. Yet he had fired... at two children who could not even be considered enemies.

Because of fear, panic, confusion, or... weakness.

What the hell had Red Glove done in the past?

And what had he done?

"Looks like I was too impatient for results. That practical course was not an appropriate choice." Crow looked at him pityingly. "This is my fault, not yours. Get some rest tonight. Tomorrow, I'll adjust the new—"

"No, just give me a few minutes—"

Huai Shi cut her off. "Just a few minutes."

Silence fell.

Before long, he finally calmed down. He got up, went to the washroom, wiped the snot and saliva from his face, and returned to the hall.

He said calmly, "One more time."

"You're sure?" Crow asked skeptically.

"Again."

Huai Shi repeated himself.

"Again."

After a long while, Crow seemed to understand something and smiled.

"Fine," she said.

The Event Branch descended, and darkness came.

Huai Shi opened his eyes and smelled the scent of parched dust. A scorching wind blew in through the window. The instructor issued an order from the front passenger seat:

"Kill them. All of them. Leave no one alive."

Huai Shi nodded. "All right."

Then he raised his gun, aimed at the driver's seat, and pulled the trigger.

Amid the roar, sparks burst from the muzzle.

The driver died. A lump of mangled gore smeared across the shattered window, and the vehicle suddenly swerved and rolled over.

Huai Shi felt wind rush at him from the side. Amid the violent tumbling, it seemed that a group of people pounced on him, only to be quickly pinned down by his teammates.

The rear door opened.

The expressionless instructor walked in and looked down at him.

"Unqualified."

He said it and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

Huai Shi's head exploded.

He opened his eyes, gasping violently, drenched in sweat.

He quickly grabbed the warm water on the table and drained it in one gulp. "Again!"

"Fine." Crow nodded, and darkness descended once more.

"Kill them. All of them. Leave no one alive."

He heard the instructor's voice and immediately smiled. Drawing a dagger from his boot, he lightly sliced across the neck of the teammate to his right. Blood sprayed from the severed throat, dyeing the dust drifting through the air crimson.

Time seemed to freeze.

At that instant, Huai Shi drew his gun and fired repeatedly, pulling the trigger at the teammates in front, behind, left, and right. Clumps of brain matter burst apart one after another.

But he was soon gunned down again.

"You need to use some strategy," Crow said. "In theory, you have a chance of wiping them all out without taking any damage. But I need to remind you of something: what you are reading is Red Glove's record. In other words, what happened and what everyone did all came from his subjective judgment. Understand?"

"Not really."

"That's fine. You'll understand soon enough." Crow withdrew her gaze. "Again?"

"Fine!"

Huai Shi opened his eyes once more. Inside the carriage, under the instructor's command, he subtly shifted his body, slowly rolled his neck, and checked his equipment.

One combat knife, one pistol, one automatic rifle, a bulletproof vest, a radio, and several magazines tucked into his quick-response vest.

And an iron pineapple.

Weighing the heavy object in his hand, Huai Shi smiled at the glances his teammates cast his way and quietly pulled off the ring with his little finger.

He counted down softly.

Three, two, one.

At that instant, he threw himself forward and slammed into the rear door. He tumbled awkwardly out of the speeding vehicle, rolled across the ground, and was pierced all over by thorns from roadside brambles and shrubs. Both hands throbbed with pain.

But soon, he heard a roar from behind him.

The transport truck speeding down the road suddenly jolted, leaping dozens of centimeters into the air for no reason. Then the iron box swelled as though inflated, spewing blood-red flames from its shattered cracks.

Before long, it warped and twisted in the blaze, rolled over, and came to a stop.

Huai Shi climbed up from the ground, panting heavily beneath the blazing sun. But soon, he saw the twisted iron door of the burning wreckage suddenly let out a piercing screech.

A foot kicked it open.

From the front passenger seat, the stern-faced instructor slowly emerged, looking coldly down at Huai Shi's stunned expression. He clearly looked like an Ordinary Person, with no Source Matter fluctuations or traces of a Stigmata on him, yet he had survived the violent explosion without losing so much as a hair.

"What happened and what everyone did were all Red Glove's subjective judgment. That's what you meant, right?"

Huai Shi could not help laughing, mocking Red Glove. "Just how much psychological trauma did your instructor leave you with?"

Otherwise, how could an instructor who was clearly just an Ordinary Person emerge unharmed from a grenade blast?

Did this guy think his instructor was some invincible iron man?

"I truly didn't expect this, 7794."

The instructor looked at him indifferently, slowly rolling his neck. His fingers lightly tapped the handle of the whip tied at his waist, producing a sound that made Huai Shi's body tense up at once.

Tap, tap, tap...

The sound of fingers tapping against the whip was the mark of punishment and torture.

One round of torment, two severe injuries, and then there would be no third time.

Having witnessed countless companions whipped to death on the training ground, Huai Shi actually felt Red Glove's lingering despair and fear. His will to resist rapidly began to collapse.

The instructor stepped forward, looking down at his trembling opponent. He reached out and pressed down on Huai Shi's head.

Twist.

Crack!

Huai Shi's neck broke.

Bang!

Huai Shi opened his eyes in fury and slammed a fist onto the table. "Coward!"

He did not know whether he was cursing Red Glove or himself. After all, through countless memories of training, he had already deeply understood the instructor's coldness and cruelty.

"Looks like you've grasped the limitations of a subjective recorder now, haven't you?"

Crow smiled strangely. "Someone who cannot rise above their own fear and confusion cannot record everything as an absolutely objective observer.

But that is precisely the beauty of a recorded experience. It gives you the possibility of surpassing the person being recorded."

"How?" Huai Shi asked.

"It's simple." Crow said, "Just blow everything up. No matter what happens, no matter what gets in your way, you only need to deal with all of it in your own way.

No matter how difficult an arcade game is, there is always a chance to clear it. Beating it with one coin is only the most basic requirement. Speedruns and no-damage clears are the real goals—"

She paused, her smile sly. "So? If it feels too difficult, do you need cheats? As long as you are within the Book of Destiny's records, even modifying yourself into an omnipotent god would be effortless."

"No need."

After resting for a while, Huai Shi felt that his energy had mostly recovered. He rubbed his faintly aching forehead and was about to begin when he saw Crow hand him a cigarette.

"Since you've got such backbone, I'll give you a free blue potion."