Late at night.
Feng Qi strolled by the lakeside, lost in thought.
He was thinking about plans for the future, as well as the structure of human civilization.
Just then, the breeze rustled by his ears, carrying the sound of a harmonica from afar.
Looking up, he saw Mu Qing sitting with her knees drawn up beneath a willow tree by the lake, quietly playing. The harmonica in her hands had also become the silver-white one he had given her.
Without greeting her, he walked over to the grass beside Mu Qing and quietly sat down, listening as she continued her tune.
Compared to before, the melody held a little less sorrow and a little more warmth.
The music seemed to tell a story, concealing countless thoughts. Beneath every note lay a calm yet resilient soul. His emotions rose and fell with the melody as he immersed himself in it.
After a while, Mu Qing lowered the harmonica from her lips. She brushed aside a lock of hair that blocked her view, tucked it behind her ear, and looked at Feng Qi.
"Why did you give me a harmonica and treat me so well?"
"Because I understand what it feels like to think of someone when you see something familiar. This harmonica is both a gift for a friend and my hope that you can step out of the shadows."
"You're an orphan too?" Mu Qing looked somewhat surprised.
"They were warriors in a Domain Battle Squad. They disappeared together during a Domain exploration. Their teammates only found their torn clothes and the weapons they carried. When I learned the news, I cried for days and still couldn't get over it."
"Now, my memories of them have grown a little blurry, but I still feel sad whenever I think of them."
"What about you? How many days did you cry?" Feng Qi suddenly asked as he looked at Mu Qing.
Mu Qing: ...
Seeing Feng Qi's curious gaze, Mu Qing wrapped her arms around her knees and softly said,
"After they truly left, I stopped crying instead. But whenever I saw the green radish on the windowsill slowly withering away because no one cared for it, whenever no one drove away the insects chirping at night, and whenever there was no one to coax me to sleep, I would feel waves of pain and loneliness."
"But I'm used to it now. My memories of them have become blurry too." Mu Qing's expression did not change in the slightest as she spoke.
"Stop pretending. You couldn't hold it together when that harmonica broke. You cried so miserably. Isn't it tiring, acting strong every day?"
Mu Qing: ...
Looking at Feng Qi's smiling face, Mu Qing felt as though he had seen right through her. She suddenly lowered her head.
"Have you thought about what you want to do after graduating from Star City Academy?"
Hearing his question, Mu Qing raised her head again, nodded, and said,
"After graduating, I want to join a Domain Battle Squad and fight on the front lines against Domain invasions. Then, someday, I want to die heroically and end this life."
Feng Qi could not help but freeze when he heard that.
If those were Mu Qing's true thoughts, he could not understand why she would later establish the Dawn Rebels and choose to become humanity's enemy.
She had even led the rebels in slaughtering several human cities.
Thinking of this, he asked,
"Why do you want to fight on the front lines against Domain Creatures?"
Mu Qing did not answer directly. Instead, she softly asked,
"You know I'm a Scavenger, right?"
"Yeah." Feng Qi nodded.
"You're a city dweller, so you don't understand the hatred we Scavengers have for Domain Creatures. It is a memory carved into our bones, instilled in us from childhood and never erased."
Hearing this, Feng Qi suddenly recalled something Wang Jinsheng had once said in class.
He had said that when it came to fighting Domain Creatures, the bravest were the Scavenger teams outside the cities.
At the time, a student had stood up to object, believing that city dwellers were no less courageous than Scavengers when fighting Domain monsters.
But Wang Jinsheng's following words left that student speechless.
He asked the students present,
"If you were imprisoned by Domain Transcendents and forced to reveal the details of Star City, who among you could endure the torture without divulging anything?"
"I believe fifty percent—no, perhaps even eighty percent of you would fail under the cruel torture of Domain Transcendents. Because your hearts lack the most crucial element: intense hatred for these invaders!"
"Put yourselves in this situation. One day, your once-happy life is suddenly shattered. Monsters invade your city. Your mother is beheaded by a monster. Your father has his limbs twisted off before being torn apart and eaten. Your pregnant wife has her stomach cut open, and the daughter you were about to welcome into the world is taken out and devoured before your very eyes..."
"Now return to the original question. After experiencing all that, you are imprisoned by a Domain Transcendent. Sharp claws press against your head, and pain wracks your entire body. Would you break? Would you fear death? Would you beg for mercy? At that moment, you would want nothing more than to devour its flesh and blood alive. That hatred would explode in your chest like flames."
"And many Scavengers have experienced exactly what I just described. They were once city residents, until one day, the city they lived in was covered by a Domain."
"Take Ye Huang, for example. You all know him as one of the powerful figures recorded in history, but have you ever understood what he went through?"
"His family of seven all died under the torture of Domain monsters. His closest sister had her left arm torn off, then her right arm, then both legs... In the end, he alone walked out of the Domain Field alive. During the long campaign against Domain invasions that followed, the Ye family produced over a hundred martyrs. This hatred has been passed down to this day. Can you understand that feeling?"
Feng Qi remembered clearly that the entire class had fallen silent at that moment.
Just as Mu Qing had said, the hatred Scavengers felt toward Domain Creatures ran far deeper than that of city dwellers.
Those who had not experienced it would never understand that hatred carved into their bones.
City dwellers stereotyped Scavengers as brutal, greedy, and selfish, never knowing of the resolve flowing through their blood or the spiritual legacy that drove them to resist Domain Creatures to the end.
Thinking of this, he suddenly understood why Mu Qing's family had willingly joined the Rune Modifier Project.
It was for Mu Qing's future, but also to contribute their own strength to resisting Domain invasions.
And though Mu Qing had been young at the time, she had understood that hatred and made her own choice: to continue the experiment her family had left unfinished, even if it meant death.
Thinking of this, he became even more confused. Why had Mu Qing betrayed humanity?
What exactly had happened in that secret history to make Mu Qing choose to stand against all of humanity?
"Feng Qi, what about you? What are your plans after graduation?"
Mu Qing's voice interrupted Feng Qi's thoughts.
Faced with her question, Feng Qi grinned.
"I haven't decided yet. How about I establish a Domain Battle Squad, then pull in an expert like you as the Vice Squad Leader? We can team up to fight monsters, then someday die heroically too and become great heroes remembered by future generations."
Mu Qing: ...
"What? You don't want to form a team with me?" Feng Qi asked curiously.
"Actually, I've also thought about forming a battle squad to fight Domain Creatures. Perhaps you could be my Vice Squad Leader." Mu Qing smiled sweetly.
"Then life would really look promising."
Who knows how many years I'd get sentenced to, though. Most likely the death penalty, Feng Qi silently mocked himself.
"What?" Mu Qing's brows furrowed slightly, giving her an adorable expression.
"Nothing. Commander, remember to pay me more when the time comes, so I can support my family."
"We fight for humanity's future. Talking about money is vulgar."
"Hahaha, fair point."
As the night breeze drifted by, the two unknowingly drew closer through their conversation.
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