Chapter 33: Takeoff

After the two ministers departed, Mo Wen immediately told his makeshift teammates not to cause trouble, and they had agreed during their communication.

Yet, when Mo Wen was notified to head to the manned spacecraft bound for the fortress, he still encountered those three teammates—people he was neither too familiar nor too unfamiliar with.

"Why did you run here? I already made it clear to you that this could be a trap targeting me. You're just coming here to die."

Ren Sisi laughed, "Oh, please. With Senior Qi Shiming vouching for you, what are you afraid of? Until he personally confirms there's an issue with you, no one dares to touch you. And Senior Qi Shiming is a super good guy; if your problems are due to innate factors, he will definitely try his best to help you change and achieve coexistence."

"Besides, if it really is proven that you are a problem, we certainly won't go easy on you!"

"In that case, we are on the same side as 'The Group.' Since we are fighting you—the external enemy—what reason would they have to purge us?"

Mo Wen speculated, "For example, what if Qi Shiming is already dead, and the fortress is filled with power-hungry opportunists conducting extreme, anti-human experiments?"

Dragon Sword Ninja shrugged, "Then we have even more reason to go together."

"The Group may fall, but the fortress must never fall—especially not by letting certain extreme technologies develop unchecked. That is everyone's responsibility."

Phantom added, "Actually, I'm quite fast at running away. I don't think I'll be taken out so easily."

Mo Wen still tried to dissuade them, "The first time I worked as a mercenary for a corporation, four of us went on a mission, and three died."

That was the first time comrades had died because of him. His relationship with them hadn't been particularly good, and they had received the payment they wanted, so Mo Wen had accepted their deaths. But whenever he thought about someone dying because of him—an immortal—he felt a complex mix of emotions.

Is the life of someone who can be resurrected countless times really important enough to be traded for someone else's one and only life?

Furthermore, that could at most delay his own death; he would eventually die and leave.

But he would also continue to live, chewing on every death, growing stronger with each iteration.

The life of a mortal, when cast into the eternity of an immortal, is but a drop in the ocean. The time and possibilities they fight for are useless; it would be better for him to crush all misfortune on his own.

Yet, without the support of those two and the gang leader, could he have truly killed that cyborg and held out until the Dream Weaver Entertainment company reinforcements arrived?

...Perhaps sacrifice does have its meaning, but as long as his life is long enough, those meanings will be constantly diluted.

Ren Sisi didn't seem to care much, "The survival rate is actually quite high; at least one person survives... so, who survived?"

Mo Wen rolled his eyes, "Do I look like a dead man to you?"

Ren Sisi nodded, "I understand, Mr. Dead Man. The one who survived was the gang leader."

Mo Wen looked at Ren Sisi, who seemed to think she was being quite humorous, and said nothing. That gaze made the bright smile on her face difficult to maintain.

Seeing that words could not change Mo Wen's mind, she immediately decided to prove her resolve through action. She struggled to push past Mo Wen, who was blocking the way, and squeezed into the personnel cabin, "Move aside, don't block the path. We're going on a fortress sightseeing tour."

"Nothing you say can stop me. At the very least, it would take four people dying five times to prove that being with you leads to certain death."

Mo Wen let out a deep breath, "I warned you. You are going to die."

He stopped resisting and sat in his seat.

In Mo Wen's memory, the manned spacecraft of his original world required astronauts to lie on their backs. He didn't know why the cabin in this world used a seated position.

Dragon Sword Ninja followed Ren Sisi, walked in, sat down, and said to Mo Wen in a lighthearted tone, "You might not have adapted to the resilience and social nature of the New Humans yet."

"We retain the fear of death in our genes to ensure we can still understand danger, but compared to ideals, morality, and friendship... the fear of death cannot shake us."

"We laugh today, kill tomorrow, and drink together the day after. We move forward under the guidance of our chosen faction, using force to prove the correctness of the path we have chosen, wielding violence with mercy and pain."

"Each of us is convinced: the length of life is meaningless. Even eternity is but a blank canvas, and life itself has no meaning. It just exists, and that is all."

"But we can bestow meaning upon life, make choices, and paint recklessly upon that blank canvas."

Strangely, Mo Wen thought of the cyborg who had almost killed him once.

At this moment, Dragon Sword Ninja seemed to hold a resolve similar to Vanessa's at that time.

Psionicists all possess precognition. Mo Wen didn't know if everyone could foresee their own death date, but Dragon Sword Ninja seemed to have already seen it.

Foolish!

If one sees the omen of death, one should avoid it.

In Mo Wen's view, he and his makeshift teammates could by no means be called friends, let alone sacrifice their lives for each other. He only felt it was inexplicable... well, he was also somewhat touched, to be fair.

He said earnestly, "I am an immortal transmigrator. If I die completely in this world, I will be resurrected in another."

This was his biggest secret. Perhaps someone would capture him, make him unable to live or die, and try to excavate his power.

But he had already learned how to self-destruct his psionics. Now that he had a premonition that death was imminent, he didn't care much about such issues.

Dragon Sword Ninja said calmly, "Perhaps you won't die, but this world will lose you."

Ren Sisi, who was busy debugging something on the side, glared at Mo Wen with resentment, "Don't just blurt out important things; there's surveillance on the rocket. I've deleted it for you. Next time you want to self-destruct, pick a better time and find the right person."

"Besides, you big idiot who talks to yourself, knowing there's danger, yet terrified to death, thinking that others will die if they join you—why don't you run?"

Because death after death had already proven that he couldn't run away.

And he had never truly wanted to run.

He wanted to win, to crush that inexplicable misfortune instead of waiting for it to suddenly catch up to him when he let his guard down.

Moreover, he had already achieved a victory of one against a thousand; perhaps he wasn't quite as hopeless as he thought.

Mo Wen stopped speaking, and the others fell silent as well.

He sat quietly, waiting for the rocket to enter the launch sequence, lock onto the target, and ascend.

The external observation screen inside the personnel cabin displayed the scenery outside.

They pierced through the clouds, and Mo Wen was able to observe the appearance of this planet.

There wasn't much lush green or deep blue; the forests and oceans had been destroyed during the corporate wars. Instead, city after city belonging to humanity stood proudly amidst the yellow sand, defiantly proclaiming the determination and power of humanity to survive.

It was strange. Having lost so many forests and oceans, how did this planet ensure that the climate hadn't undergone catastrophic changes?

In a daze, Mo Wen wanted to truly understand this world, to know how everyone lived, and what he could do besides just becoming stronger.

If, that is, he still had time...

"It's here!"

Mo Wen felt the approach of death—sooner than he had expected.