Zheng Zha's pain came and went quickly. Aside from leaving him weak and drained, it didn't seem to have caused him much harm. Once it passed, Zhang Jie and Zhan Lan hurriedly laid him on the ground. They both pulled out bandages and hemostatic spray, and after a frantic effort, they managed to stop the bleeding from the hole in his abdomen again.
Zheng Zha let them bandage his wound, listening intently with his ears pricked up. When they finished, he murmured, "I heard gunshots. Zhang Jie, did you hear them?"
Zhang Jie froze for a moment, then quickly listened. After a little while, he nodded. "Yeah. I heard them faintly... Does that mean they succeeded? Did they find guns in the armory?"
Zheng Zha smiled bitterly. "They must have found guns, but I'd guess they're facing off against those two Aliens right now. Otherwise, the gunfire wouldn't be so intense... How many grenades do you have left? Give them all to me. Zhan Lan, hand over the Spiral Thorn you're carrying, too."
Zhang Jie and Zhan Lan both froze. Zhang Jie spread his hands with a bitter smile. "None. I gave them my last few earlier. Those bastards..."
But Zhan Lan pulled two grenades from her pocket and smiled. "Good thing I kept a couple back... What are you planning to do? These are the last two."
Zheng Zha also took two grenades from his Storage Ring. He bit down on the pin ring of one, then hurled it with his left hand as Zhang Jie and Zhan Lan watched. The explosion's roar knocked them both off their feet.
"I've got a rough idea of the fuse time..."
Zheng Zha kept his eyes on the spot where the grenade had exploded. Without turning around, he said to Zhang Jie, "Quick, tear some long strips of cloth from your clothes. Tie all the grenades to the Spiral Thorns. Make sure they're secure!"
Without a word, Zhang Jie took off his shirt and ripped it into strips. Then he picked up the grenades and Spiral Thorns and began tying them together. Seeing this, Zhan Lan sighed. "You're planning to throw yourself into another fight? You're already injured..."
Zheng Zha turned and smiled at her. "It's fine. That grenade made a lot of noise. I figure they all heard it. I can't say about the other two, but with Chu Xuan's Intelligence, he'll definitely do everything he can to keep the Aliens occupied. I just need to sneak up and attack them from behind. Besides, if I wrap grenades around the Spiral Thorns, I can stab them into the Aliens before they explode. The blast will do a lot of damage, so don't worry."
Zhan Lan sighed and said no more. Zhang Jie continued tying the grenades in place as he spoke. "I was wrong about you before, Zheng Zha. You've got a natural talent for fighting buried deep inside you. As our instructor would say, you're a born warrior. The more desperate things get, the more you bring out your potential, whether in combat or strategy..."
Zheng Zha took the Spiral Thorns with grenades tied to them from Zhang Jie. He tested his aim with his left hand, then smiled bitterly. "What kind of warrior am I? I'm just trying to stay alive. Anyone would come up with a few desperate ideas at a time like this. If someone as battered as me counts as a warrior, then what does that make Chu Xuan and the others? Super-soldiers? Super-geniuses?"
"You can't put it that way." Zhang Jie chuckled a few times and tied up the last Spiral Thorn. "In their old world, they all worked in fields where killing was part of the job, and they were at the top of their respective professions. What about you? You were just an ordinary office worker. Sure, luck played a part in your enhancements, but you fought for your life and somehow survived, gradually adapting to this brutal combat... That's the talent you've had all along. Deep down, you're clearly a warrior who refuses to give up!"
"A warrior?"
"I'm just trying to stay alive..."
To help Zheng Zha recover his strength as quickly as possible, Zhang Jie kept carrying him as they moved forward. Zhan Lan still carried the few Spiral Thorn rods. As they ran, she suddenly murmured, "Why are we going to save them? Won't that put us in danger?"
Zheng Zha was slowly circulating his Internal Force. He exhaled and said, "We're already in danger. If we can't get rid of the Aliens, we'll just die sooner or later. So Chu Xuan's ability to analyze and plan, and Zero Point and Overlord's skill with modern weapons—those are all vital assets..."
Zhang Jie suddenly asked, "Then why did we split up with them in the first place? If we hadn't, we'd have decent weapons now, instead of you having to fight alone. And I don't think Chu Xuan would have abandoned us, given what we can do."
Zheng Zha sighed. "That's true. If we'd stayed with them, we wouldn't have been abandoned, and all three of us would be safe until Zero Point and Overlord died... At least you and I would be safe, Zhang Jie. But that's one of the reasons I chose to leave!"
"One reason was that I couldn't stand the way Chu Xuan treated people, throwing away those who were already his teammates like expendable pieces. Another was that I absolutely refused to let someone else decide my fate. Maybe if we teamed up with them, we'd all be safe in the short term, but what about the long run? I don't think about how I might die. I only think about how to stay alive as long as possible! As their teammate, I'd do everything I could to help and protect them. Likewise, my companions must never abandon me when I need help! Chu Xuan can't do that, so I chose to leave. I want to stand on equal footing with him."
"Right. If being his teammate means he might abandon us, then we should become people who can benefit from his intelligence without being his teammates... Allies! We'd be independent, but still support each other. That's the only way of working together I could think of."
Since Zhan Lan had the Spiral Thorns tucked under one arm, she couldn't touch her forehead. She thought for a moment, then said, "Wouldn't allies abandon each other too? How is that different from being teammates?"
Zheng Zha smiled. "The biggest difference is that allies stand on their own. They help each other, but even if they lose one another, they can still fight independently without becoming a burden. At the very least, they don't have to take responsibility for each other's mistakes. Teammates are different: people with many different specialties come together to form a group that must protect one another. I can't trust Chu Xuan to protect his teammates, so if I want to benefit from the abilities of those three, I can only become their ally."
"Only by leaving could we understand how important their team was to them. That's also what makes it possible for us to become their allies. Otherwise, we'd just be pieces on the board for him to discard... That grenade was meant not only to test the fuse time, but also to tell them... Their allies had arrived!"
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