The Abandoned Person

Calvin's anger had subsided slightly, but his gaze remained as sharp as a sword, piercing through Shawn's back.

"Then why did you want to escape?"

Shawn's throat bobbed. He gripped Calvin's arm tightly with both hands, staring directly at him.

"This isn't escaping, this is precisely not escaping," Shawn lowered his voice, but it sounded more forceful. "What kind of lives did we live back in Hekla? Like vermin, like rats, in any case, not like people. We'd do anything, and had to do anything, just to fill our stomachs. No one cared if we lived or died except Mom. Everyone was busy just surviving today, no one had the energy to think about tomorrow.

"Do you remember when we first arrived in Tanyi, what kind of lives did the people here live? They had cake shops on their streets, beautiful clothes displayed in windows, people drinking on the streets every night, even the homeless ate like fat pigs, lying around lazily in corners...

"Do you remember, back then, the two of us swore that we'd buy a big house in Tanyi. It had to be two stories tall, with a six-hundred-square-meter backyard and a large cellar. We'd raise three big dogs in the yard and store barrels upon barrels of good wine in the cellar... as long as we worked here until we were 25—"

"The premise being that this place wouldn't be overrun by Chelates," Calvin's voice was low.

"Right, isn't that exactly our mission? That's what I thought too." Shawn let out a laugh. "Until I found out the gender casualty ratio for Quicksilver Needles. Do you know what it is? 16:1... Karl, don't you think that's absurd?"

Calvin didn't speak.

Shawn continued, "I don't understand. Even if men are slightly inferior in endurance, we're clearly stronger in terms of strength and explosiveness. So I tried to find out why the mortality rate for male Quicksilver Needles was so high.

"At first, I guessed it might be related to carrying the next generation, so women were always better protected. But I quickly realized that relying solely on childbirth to produce new Quicksilver Needles was too inefficient—male Quicksilver Needles' talents were hardly inherited, and the probability of a female Quicksilver Needle giving birth to a talented child was only about 1/30.

"Even if you gathered all the female Quicksilver Needles together and made them constantly pregnant and give birth, you couldn't match the efficiency of directly searching for new recruits in the wilderness. Besides, this group of women couldn't be contained.

"Then, I thought it might be due to task allocation. Perhaps high-risk missions far from habitable zones were all assigned to men. So I compared nearly a hundred years of 41 high-risk annihilation missions that suffered heavy losses. In the end, I found that the problem wasn't with allocation at all, but with the impact of blood loss on Bullet Time.

"When blood loss reached 10% in a short period, the percentage of men and women who could maintain Bullet Time dropped to 93% and 97% respectively. At 30%, these figures fell to 46% and 89%. And after losing more than 40% blood, men faced shock or direct death, while 43% of women could still maintain Bullet Time.

"As for female Quicksilver Needles, they only completely lost their combat effectiveness when their blood loss exceeded 50%—women have an almost overwhelming talent advantage in combating blood loss."

Even though Shawn tried his best to control his volume, he was still very agitated.

"This is the fundamental reason for the high male casualty rate—the more dangerous and difficult the combat, the longer it lasts, and the longer the combat lasts, the more disadvantageous it is for us!"

"So what?"

Shawn looked at him. "Karl, have you ever thought that people like us are destined to be tools from birth in habitable zones?"

"...Heh."

"Do you remember the Introduction to Natural History last semester?" Shawn spoke in a low voice. "In any sexually reproducing population, most males can be discarded because only the number of females firmly monopolizes the reproduction of a population. As long as a small group of males survives, they can complete the sowing of the entire population.

"And people like us, we are born as scum, sacrifices who are naturally unprotected and destined to be pushed forward to die, whether in Hekla or here, it's all the same."

Shawn looked deeply at Calvin.

"I've figured it out. No one, nothing, will suck my blood anymore. I am only myself, and I will live according to my own will. Only then will I be worthy of our survival, only then will Mom be happy in heaven—"

Calvin shook off Shawn's arm with a hint of disgust.

"Karl!" Seeing Calvin turn to leave, Shawn caught up to him in a few steps. "Don't you understand me? Don't think about going to the front lines. No one here truly cares about us. The Quicksilver Needles are simply using us as expendables. We should find a way to retreat to logistics, or even to the government forces in the habitable zones—only in those places can we escape this inertia of being casually discarded, and only then can we move up, move higher, even—"

"Get lost!"

Calvin roared, shoving Shawn aside.

Shawn lost his balance and fell to the ground. He had never seen Calvin so furious and was stunned.

Calvin took a deep breath and walked in the opposite direction. Shawn suddenly felt a sense of panic. Just as he hesitated about what to say, Calvin stopped.

"Karl...?" Shawn called out softly, "Karl, we—"

"Without land, we are nothing."

With these words, Calvin walked away. He heard Shawn shouting his name from behind, but he continued to walk forward without looking aside, until he disappeared at the end of the corridor.

Afterward, he reached into his pocket and pressed the pause button on his voice recorder.

In the evening, Calvin went to Valenti's office alone and knocked gently on the door.

"Come in." Valenti turned around and saw Calvin push the door open with a somber expression. She was a little surprised—a few days ago, she had suggested talking to Calvin about Shawn, but he had refused, saying he needed some time.

Now that Calvin had come to her proactively, perhaps it meant there was a turning point in this matter.

Valenti smiled and motioned for Calvin to sit down. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"...I want to talk about Shawn," Calvin said in a low voice. "About him and Hesta."

"Mm."

"Yesterday, Ms. Moly suggested I record my conversation with Shawn to best restore the situation at the time," Calvin frowned. "But—"

"There's such a thing?" Valenti was startled. "That's unreasonable."

Calvin looked up at Valenti. "You also think this is unreasonable?"

"Yes, it's unreasonable," Valenti's expression turned serious. "I will have a good talk with Moly. Such methods should not be part of the requirements for you."

"...I had originally prepared a voice recorder," Calvin said softly, "but I forgot to turn it on when I was discussing these topics with Shawn, so I didn't record anything. But if you're willing to listen to my thoughts, I can tell you now."

Thanks to Xiao Yunyan and freean0208 for the monthly tickets~