EP.10 · [Gotta Knock a Little Harder]

Foreword:

I know that humans and fish can coexist peacefully.

[ --George Walker Bush]

[Part 1 - Don't understand?]

"There are still a few things I don't understand, Ming Ge."

Meteor sat in the back of the armored vehicle, squeezed together with Xue Ming.

--He was so tall and big that he took up the space of two people.

"If, as the chef said, Brother Yibu and Master of Ceremonies are dead, when did that happen?"

Jiang Xueming silently lowered his head to write in his journal, gazing at the snow-capped peaks outside the window.

--Scrap ice from avalanches remains on the mountain road, and golden arrows bearing the image of Laughing Man are found in the mountain streams and on the cliffs.

Finally, Xue Ming answered.

"It must have been a long time ago, in the Dead Puppet Agency Castle, that Commanders Jessica and Nanami said that to become [Outlaw], one had to live in the abnormal environment of the Immortal Lune for at least three months, and the probability of transformation was very small. Judging from Brother Yibu's age, he's probably been dead for over ten years."

Meteor: "Why is Master of Ceremonies so afraid of dying? Isn't he immortal?"

Xue Ming: "Not being able to die is only relative, but the people of the Heaven's Ladder are not picky eaters, and the giants can even devour the dead Madness Butterfly. For these people, death is not something to fear—all consciousness, all essence has been taken away by these monsters and become part of them, just like the corrupted Soviet Union."

Meteor: "Ming Ge, stop lecturing me on history! Let's not get off-topic. So—were those sisters sent to Albert Research Station nonexistent?"

"No, they did exist." Jiang Xueming pondered, "Shooting stars, let me use an analogy, think about it carefully."

"Okay, Ming Ge, you go ahead."

"I said if, only if your waiter is already dead."

"Aaaaaah!!! -- How did he die? Who did it?! No! That's impossible!"

"But what if... it's not true?"

"No ifs! No! No!"

Jiang Xueming caught a glimpse of Liuxing's excited expression and immediately changed his mind, telling Furui to stop messing with his spine.

"Then let's skip that despicable analogy—you understand now, right? People always need lies, idols, and hope to live on."

Meteor suddenly realized. "You mean that Brother Yibu and the other [Outlaw] can constantly think about death because of these intense thoughts? That's what gives them a get-out-of-jail-free card? That allows them to stay conscious under the spiritual pressure of Niflheim?"

"What's there to be afraid of?" Jiang Xueming said, "I put myself in their shoes—this place is so close to Helheim, you can dream of the dead when you sleep, and your inner demons often come to visit. The worst outcome would be to be eaten by these corrupt giants."

Meteor: "No way! This absolutely cannot happen!"

Xue Ming: "So they had no fear."

The convoy left the Pavlov substation, gradually fading into the distance from the lights of human civilization.

The wind and snow grew heavier, but the road ahead was sunny and wide, a smooth and unobstructed path.

Meteor: "Ming Ge, after we got back, was our bar built yet?"

Xue Ming: "It won't be that fast. That's a house of over 1,000 square meters, with three floors plus a rooftop. The interior and exterior decoration will take a very long time."

Meteor: "It seems the chef has nowhere else to go; he's found Wendy Mills."

Xue Ming: "I know very little about this person. You told me she is Jason's Soul Weapon?"

Meteor: "No! She's a living, breathing person! Ugh, I can't quite explain it."

Xue Ming: "Then what exactly is she? Translate this for me carefully."

"At the foot of the Monument to the People's Heroes, the chef kept saying there was a girl beside him, Wendy Mills—but I couldn't sense it at all until the chef's hair moved and the lines on his face began to appear. Then it suddenly dawned on me that there really was an older sister I couldn't see who had been protecting him all along."

Xue Ming: "Judging from your description, is it Soul Power?"

Meteor: "No! That's a human, Ming Ge. You and my spirit form both look like hot-blooded men, right?"

Xue Ming: "Yes."

As he said this, Meteor immediately activated his spirit form—

--Two strong arms appeared in Xue Ming's eyes.

That was a characteristic of the ascension stage. Meteor's arms transformed into a pair of solid and robust phantom arms, adorned with arm armor. The armor resembled the shell of a longhorn beetle, radiating a strange metallic color and featuring rose carvings.

"Ming Ge, look at me, my spirit body looks like a rough man, with thick arms and big fingers." Meteor fiddled with its spirit body's arms, waving them clumsily in front of Jiang Xueming: "It's very obedient. Without my command, it won't come to rub my face at all—that's why I say, the spirit body next to the chef is a living person."

Jiang Xueming: "Indeed, Jason can't be a woman. His excessive body hair basically means he can't wear women's clothing. He'll only have a relatively unsuccessful life."

Meteor sensed something was off, and his expression turned strange.

Jiang Xueming explained, "It's nothing, I just suddenly got a little angry. You might not believe it, but my other account popped out of Helheim and in the instant we clashed—I was almost beaten to a pulp by her."

"Hahaha. Hmm." Meteor found it amusing, but didn't laugh out loud. Finally, she asked, "Ming Ge, do you think it's possible that Wendy Mills is actually the chef himself?"

"It's very possible that he's such an arrogant and narcissistic person," Jiang Xueming described him. "He never paid attention to anyone else. If you had to say who he respected, admired, and loved, it would be himself."

"What a strange case of schizophrenia!" Meteor pouted, sounding quite indignant. "Why is my other character account so bad?"

"More than these things, I'm concerned about Jason Megan's Soul Power attribute." Jiang Xueming flipped through the logbook, returning to the previous record of Wendy Mills' whereabouts. "Throughout his passenger career, he has separated from his waiter by thousands of kilometers, which means he has almost always maintained a state of spiritual projection—and the range is nearly infinite."

Meteor's eyes lit up. "Oh! When we came back from the Skull and Bones Society, the chef was very upset. He said his mental state and willpower were sometimes strong and sometimes weak, and his Madness Index was also high and low—and he liked to talk to himself."

"The closer we got to Red Star Hill, the more formidable he seemed." Jiang Xueming carefully recalled the changes Jason had undergone along the way, "So I think Wendy Mills isn't his soul power, nor is she a real person. It's like fraternal twins; his mental strength is inconceivably strong—because he devoured his other self while still in the womb."

Meteor exclaimed in surprise, "There's such a thing?"

"He should have had an older sister or a younger sister, but before they could develop into a fully formed embryonic life, they merged with his primordial essence and became a relatively independent person." Jiang Xueming described, "This person grew up with him; she was a phantom in his mind, invisible and intangible to everyone. She was a manifestation of his soul power."

Meteor flipped through Xue Ming's journal and found Wendy's photo.

"How was she able to be photographed?"

"Ordinary people can actually see spirits—it just takes a little trickery," Jiang Xueming said, and immediately manifested an arm, extending it out of the window. To ordinary people, the blurry outline of an arm could be seen in the rain and snow.

"It requires extremely high precision, using dust and sand as a medium. You have to visualize a complete picture in your mind," Jiang Xueming described. "Outside this invisible and intangible mass of air, you create a shell, making it visible to ordinary people—I remember many Spirit Calamity on the earth's surface, where the [ghosts] also appeared in this form. A gust of wind blows them away, and if there's a thunderstorm, the charge at the anode or cathode will shatter this energy. The charlatan says this is being struck by lightning and never being reincarnated. If we were struck by lightning, it would probably be the same; we'd immediately enter the Gate of Death, and even if we survived, the best outcome would be becoming a vegetable."

Meteor frowned. "How did the chef manage to do that? I'm in the process of ascending to immortality—just imagining it and adding such a layer of makeup to my spirit body so that ordinary people can see my precious treasure is just too difficult!"

"This is Jason's talent; I'm afraid none of us could do it," Jiang Xueming explained. "Just like you said, A Xing —he believed from beginning to end that Wendy Mills was a living person. Driven by this strong belief, he alone created the power of collective karma. His brain is extraordinary; its processing power and sensory units are probably more than ten times that of an ordinary person."

Meteor kept scratching his head. "This is so complicated, what exactly is Wendy?"

"After careful consideration, I realized that any illusion captured by a camera must have a physical volume and material color." Jiang Xueming pointed to a graduation photo from the Galahad Magic Academy and then to Wendy Mills next to Jason Megan.

"Look at these shadows, or her arms, the exposed skin. There's no doubt that various elements in nature, such as the anodizing of aluminum, the bluing or blackening of steel, and the chemical reactions of various minerals, can create such a shell—we should ask Jason how he did this miracle, but he probably doesn't know himself."

Immediately afterwards, Jiang Xueming pulled out a gun and demonstrated muscle memory to Meteor, showing him how to disassemble and reassemble the weapon.

"I can accomplish these things with almost no thought process, and I think Jason did the same when he created Wendy Mills. There must have been someone like that in his life; it's the power of [love]."

Meteor: "Wow, that's amazing!"

Xue Ming: "This journey not only gave me the experience of becoming a paraplegic."

Meteor: "Hahahaha! Me too, I'm paralyzed from the waist down. Hahahaha! Ming Ge! How did you suddenly become so humorous? That serious yet nonsensical tone is hilarious!"

"I learned it from Teacher A Ling. She's like an iceberg when she tells jokes, but she can really uplift people. Let's get back to this." Xue Ming continued, "This trip not only gave us both high-level paraplegia—but also caused something very miraculous to happen in my life."

Meteor immediately said, "You like your sister-in-law."

"I love her." Jiang Xueming said bluntly, "Teacher A Ling told me so much before. She's like Xiao Qi's older sister, like her mother—in the central square, when I held Qing Qing's hand, I saw her spirit fighting the enemy, seeing her fleeing for survival in a sorry state, seeing her surrendering without any dignity, all she wanted was to live. She was really beautiful, as strong and powerful as a dump truck."

"Ming Ge, when you're describing girls, could you please..." Meteor wanted to say something, but seeing Xue Ming's serious and determined expression, she didn't want to be too direct.

--Is there something wrong with using dump trucks as a unit of measurement for aesthetics?

"You don't know, her eyes are bright, like LED headlights; her abdominal muscles and V-line are like the Cerakote ceramic coating on the front of a car, as hard as steel." Xue Ming described Seventh Brother's physique. "Her arms and knuckles are rough and powerful, like the tread of a reassuring slick tire, capable of conquering asphalt roads in wind, snow, and rain when she steps on the gas. Her deltoid muscles are like a cargo box that can carry more than fifty tons; even when I'm at my weakest, she can carry me home."

The shooting star froze.

Xue Ming: "I love her. If you didn't understand, I can say it again."

Meteor: "No need, no need."

Just then, A Xing suddenly realized that his life pursuits were actually quite normal—dating a girl from an ancient race was probably more normal than Ming Ge's.

For a fleeting moment, A Xing even thought that Ming Ge would pull a strange cube out of his chest and transform into a Cybertronian.

At this moment, the Phoenix's spirit returned to Su Ling's side from the front carriage.

It told Xiao Qi almost everything Xue Ming, word for word.

Xiao Qi didn't faint; she remained rational, though she had a strange mix of amusement and exasperation.

When she heard Amin's confession, she was initially overjoyed, then began to feel puzzled, and finally frowned, her face wrinkled like an old woman.

Su Ling said, "How about you, since your flesh and blood are so weak, try to ascend?"

"Don't joke about me now, Master," Xiao Qi said dryly, without any particular thought. "It's a good thing that someone likes me. As for his vocabulary, it's very much in line with his level of education, which is not high school."

Su Ling then asked, "So you didn't experience any emotional fluctuations at all?"

Xiao Qi shook her head. "No, it's just a habit."

Su Ling: "Oh!~~~"

Xia Xia: "Wow!~~~~"

Su Ling: "Oops!!~~~"

Xia Xia: "Wow!!~~~~~~"

Xiao Qi's eyes darted around, and she peeked out, "Yes, there was! Just a tiny bit of happiness!"

Su Ling quickly changed her expression from a mischievous raised eyebrow to a calm and natural one. "Then could you please stop fiddling with the doorknob?"

Xia Xia peeked out from under A Ling's chin. "I know you want to find a man, but there's a cliff to the right of the vehicle, over 600 meters deep. It's more deadly than the Titanic's 'You jump, I jump.' Control yourself."

"Cough," Xiao Qi withdrew her hand.

Su Ling then said, "Do you know why I don't let you ride in the same car as your employer?"

Xiao Qi guessed, "Are you afraid he might have used inappropriate words and hurt my feelings?"

Su Ling glared at him. "I'm afraid you'll use too much force and crush his leg! Wake up! He's a paraplegic!"

[Part ② - Such a good thing really exists!]

The laughter and chatter along the way became new topics of conversation for the Xue Ao Troops brothers.

Everything seems to have nothing to do with Jason Megan, the person involved, because he's in an awkward position right now.

He sat in the troop carrier, surrounded by rough men, some Cossacks, some Slavs.

Katusha remained silent, clutching her gun, seemingly lost in thought.

He just pointed to himself, then to the carriage, then to the distance, then to the floor.

"If Wendy is my Soul Force, then who am I? If she's not human, then who answered the emergency Summoning Bell? Am I not just a waiter, but also a passenger? Does the universe have an end? Does time have a beginning? Who am I, where did I come from, and where am I going?"

Katusha, feeling drowsy, said, "Employer! Stop with the riddles!"

Jason covered his face, deliberately avoiding Katusha. He didn't want to say much to this young girl, because he was already in his thirties, a mature and steady middle-aged man.

This maturity and composure were not only reflected in the relationship between the waiter and the employer, but also directly reflected in Jason's anxious mind.

What exactly is going on here?

He recalled the scene in the underground palace, in front of the tombs of Soviet heroes, where Katusha suddenly rushed over and kissed him.

He kept this matter out of his mind, hoping to focus on the mission, finding Wendy, and facing his own destiny.

But now, all these long-standing problems have been solved.

[Windmill] no longer responded to him. No matter how he pondered or manipulated his spirit, it was as if he had returned to being an ordinary person and could no longer wake Wendy Mills.

Hydra sat next to Jason, looking at the Dacian man with curiosity.

"Is this young girl your waitress, Jason Megan?"

Jason was getting impatient; he hated being interrupted when he was pondering the ultimate philosophical questions of life.

So he said, "I used to have a waiter, but as for this one, she will soon no longer be one."

"What are you saying!" the soldier sitting across from me immediately yelled, "You're just bored and looking for trouble, trying to collect bottle caps at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant—you don't know how lucky you are!"

The soldier was very, very young; he hadn't even gone through puberty yet.

They also appear to be from a generation born and raised in the Northern Territory.

No Inspiration, no passenger.

The reckless soldier, wearing a helmet and a down hat, immediately stood up to confront Jason.

"Do you know how hurtful those words are, Iason! So many people kneel in front of the council chamber at the Huge Mountain Station, begging the BOSS for a chance to be with you. You should take a good look at yourself! She followed you so far! For so long! Only VIPs get that privilege, and waiters get to stay by their side—and you just casually tell her a few words and want to kick her out?"

Jason: "No. I didn't mean that."

The soldier immediately grabbed Katusha's hand.

"The waitress you don't want is mine!"

Hydra wanted to say something more. His men were all ruthless and cunning, and in the Northern Territory, there were hardly any women, let alone female dogs—as the commander of the Xue Ao Troops, he was looking forward to disciplining his new recruits.

Katusha tried to struggle, but found the hand gripping her wrist so strong.

Jason's expression changed drastically at that moment, and he suddenly began to panic.

He was very unwilling to accept this, and a kind of crazy jealousy took root, sprouted, and grew rapidly.

The soldier chuckled, "Look at your expression! Why?! Iason! Why are you frowning? Why are you getting anxious?! Is it because I was holding Katusha's hand? Or are you just embarrassed? Having your waiter snatched away by me in front of everyone must feel like swallowing a fly, right?!"

Jason didn't speak; he stared at his palm, feeling a strange, warm sensation.

The soldier immediately pressed his advantage. "He doesn't even see you! Katusha! You're caught now! According to my rules, whoever I catch belongs to me."

"Sit back, soldier. Which squad are you from? Release his waiter," Hydra shouted.

The soldier replied to his officer, "Sir, it's still uncertain whether Ming De can survive the harvest season! I'm not afraid of it! I don't want to be a bachelor for life—I finally bumped into these women, and Katusha is even from my hometown."

Hydra: "Let her go."

Soldier: "No way! I'm going to kiss her right now!"

Things are starting to go wrong.

Hydra drew his gun, ready to enforce discipline, but the guy was using Katusha as a human shield, and his brothers couldn't pull him away, as if the recruit possessed some incredible superhuman strength.

Jason yelled, "Stop!"

The soldier touched Katusha's lower abdomen, his voice becoming strange.

"Hehehehe! Iason! Are you jealous? This should have been yours, all chubby and soft."

Jason: "That's enough, Wendy."

"Tsk," Wendy Mills said, lifting her helmet and giving him a cold, lifeless look. "I don't even know what to say about you."

Jason spent a long time apologizing to Governor Hydra and bringing up the matter of the waiter.

Hydra started to get confused halfway through the conversation.

--And so it murmured in the end.

"If she's your ex-girlfriend, and you said you were dating her, and even made a [creaking] sound."

Jason: "Wait, what does that [creaking] mean?"

Brother Hydra stroked his beard, seemingly lost in thought, and simply skipped over the topic.

"Does the universe have an end? Does time have a beginning? Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going?"

Saying anything at this point would be quite awkward.

--Wendy Mills held Katusha's arm and remained motionless.

She acted like a caring older sister, looking after her younger sister, combing Katusha's hair, and cleaning the dirt from the little girl's ears with cotton swabs.

Jason seemed to be sulking with himself.

He didn't even know what he was angry about.

He thought of Jiang Xueming and suddenly realized how shrewd and capable this brother was in dealing with people, never complicating simple problems.

He was incredibly envious of Xue Ming, who could be like a knife, cutting through all the tangled mess.

Wendy: "Were you thinking about another man just now?"

Jason: "Hmm."

Wendy: "You're really something."

Jason: "I don't know why, but I feel angry."

Wendy: "Did the Fireman's consciousness get into your head? Has it dissipated yet?"

Jason: "No, it's something else. It's like being separated by a door, and I just can't get in, or like being locked in a dark room and unable to escape."

Wendy: "Let's move forward."

Jason: "Where's the road? I can't see it!"

Without saying a word, Wendy hugged the nearly asleep Katusha and gave her a deep kiss.

Jason was stunned.

--Through the shared understanding of the spirits, he tasted Katusha's lips.

To put it bluntly, from the time we arrived at Red Star Hill until we returned home, none of us brushed our teeth properly, and we mostly ate sorghum cakes and canned food, which had a rather strong taste.

Aside from that one thing that ruined the mood.

It was as if he had been hit in a vital spot by a 14.5 caliber machine gun bullet; he could no longer move.

It took Wendy Mills a long time before she finally let go of Katusha.

"I've put up the road sign for you. Now what?"

Jason became even angrier, and he looked anxiously at the waiter.

"Hello"

Wendy interjected, "She has a name."

Jason immediately corrected himself: "Katusha"

Wendy pressed further, "The full name?"

Jason: "Holmes Juseberg Lee."

Wendy: "Lydia."

Katusha: "Katusha!"

Jason: "Sorry, my servant... my soul power is a bit disobedient; she's practically a different person from me."

"..." Little Katusha pursed her lips and didn't speak, but her eyes revealed a cleverness, as if she had recognized her employer's soul power the moment she was captured by the soldier.

--How could she not recognize Jason Megan?

--How could she not recognize her?

Jason's expression was complicated. "I won't abandon you. I'm just being stubborn."

Wendy: "Come on, I'm almost asleep."

Jason: "You might not believe it, but I might argue with myself."

Wendy: "Commander Hydra! Shout it out! Let's cheer! Quick, quick! Give him a kiss! Give him a kiss! Give him a kiss!"

Jason was sweating nervously. "If Wendy keeps sticking to my side, it'll probably cause a lot of trouble and problems."

Katusha thought for a moment, "Is there really such a good thing?"

Jason: "???"

Hydra: "???"

People who were almost standing up sat back down after hearing Katusha's words.

Wendy shrugged dismissively and patted her employer on the shoulder.

"Instead of worrying about this, you should worry about Niflheim decades from now, when chiral molecules will be gone, the water will be clean, and you can fish there—"

"--I know that humans and fish can coexist peacefully, so the three of us can definitely do it too."

Hydra pointed at Jason, then at Wendy, and finally rubbed his fingers together and started doing math.

"If she was his girlfriend, then they both had feelings for each other, and he originally belonged to her. So when she kissed her, it was him kissing her, but he was very concerned about her kiss. Was he always concerned about it? Or did she fall in love first, which is why he was so concerned? And then there was that other 'her'..."

The driver was screaming loudly in the driver's seat; his Madness Index was rapidly escalating.

"Stop reading! Stop reading! Commander! That's enough! I've had enough!"

The Phoenix's spirit returned to Su Ling's side from the middle of the convoy.

She covered the student with a warm coat, hoping to help her sleep more soundly.

He covered his employer Xia Xia's head with one hand, saying it would help her sleep.

The movements were very light and gentle.

--It's applause that can't be heard, it's the silent revelry of the raging gossip-loving group leader.

"Wonderful."