Chapter 426: Moths to Flame
"That's not right! I think you are quite good at fighting!" Cao Fengling straightened up suddenly became extremely serious, like a listener listening to a storyteller.
"My attempts were completely ineffective. It's normal that you didn't notice it. The key point is that after I adjusted my strength and exerted my full strength, I caused damage to the Iron Spider! Do you know what this means?"
"What does it mean?"
"Whether a monster is injured or not does not depend on how strong you are, but how much effort you put in!" Su Ming tapped the table with his fingers and looked at Cao Fengling excitedly. "Although the strength of the participants will lead to differences in the final efficiency, this also means that ordinary people can also participate in the battle."
"This world weakens the damage that strong people can do to monsters, and increases the damage that weak people can do to monsters. However, it does not weaken the damage that strong people can do to weak people, nor does it increase the damage that weak people can do to strong people. Do you understand what I mean?"
Cao Fengling nodded, not quite understanding: "Uh... Anyway, you mean that everyone can fight, right?"
Hearing this, Su Ming knew that Cao Fengling had not yet understood the deeper meaning of what he was saying. Ordinary people could also participate in the war, but this was just the most superficial manifestation of this rule. What was worth pondering was what was hidden behind these rules!
If this world is regarded as a game, then it is a game that allows players of different levels to kill each other and plunder each other's props and resources. However, high-level players will not have any advantage when fighting against BOSS. Low-level players will gain some insignificant advantages when fighting against BOSS, but these advantages can be completely ignored.
It seems that this game is encouraging players to kill each other and plunder props, but if you think about it from another perspective, it is actually encouraging players to cooperate with each other to defeat BOSS.
A powerful supernatural being who can cover the sky with one hand and kill ordinary people at will cannot gain any advantage in front of the alien creatures, but ordinary people who are as weak as ants are by no means useless in front of the alien creatures. The setting of this rule is by no means meaningless. It is "encouraging" everyone to give up hurting each other and work together to fight against the invincible monsters!
"The laws of this world are as inviolable as the axioms of the real world. If the devil's world simply wanted us to fall, such laws would not exist. So I think this world is a two-way encouragement mechanism... It makes people fall, but it also expects humans to burst out with their own courage!"
"You mean, as long as we work together, we can defeat those monsters?" Cao Fengling asked tentatively.
Su Ming raised the corners of his mouth, revealing an unfathomable smile.
"Ms. Cao, you have a superficial understanding. Winning is just a small matter. No matter how many times we win, everyone will die in the end. There is no such thing as recovering physical strength or recovering from injuries here. Everyone's overall strength is constantly weakening.
What you should care about is not whether you win or not, but whether someone is willing to sacrifice his life willingly in order to win!
If there wasn't the damage-free mechanism I just mentioned, it would take a lot of effort to get everyone to muster up the courage to fight those monsters. Even if I tried my best, I wouldn't have much chance of success. After all, humans are intelligent creatures. When they realize that they are as small as ants, no one wants to fight against a rock with an egg.
But if there is such a damage-free mechanism, then fighting monsters is not like an egg hitting a rock, but like a moth flying into a flame!"
“Is there any difference?”
"There is a difference! If you throw an egg at a rock, it will break ten thousand rocks and not break them, but a swarm of moths may put out a fire."
At this point, Su Ming smiled. He inexplicably felt that his metaphor was very appropriate.
This is the difference between throwing an egg against a rock and flying into a flame. Although both seem to be overestimating one's own abilities, the latter reveals a courageous and resolute determination.
Now, what they lack is the courage!
…
When Bai Yufei came to her senses, she was no longer in the manor. She was teleported to a place she didn't recognize at all.
Judging from the surrounding architectural style, it should be the civilian area that was teleported here together with the wealthy area of Molten Iron City... or the slums.
None of this mattered to Bai Yufei. She had lost the most important person to her, and her revenge was suddenly interrupted.
"hateful!!!"
Bai Yufei roared with her mouth wide open, the corners of her mouth almost cracked, and the five fingers of both hands dug into the gravel. Her own uncontrolled power crackled all over her body, even hurting her own body, but she was completely unaware.
"Do you want revenge?" A baby-like childish voice sounded in front of Bai Yufei.
The word "revenge" hit Bai Yufei's heart like a heavy hammer, and she was stunned.
After an unknown amount of time, she slowly raised her head and looked at something not far in front of her - a palm-sized, caterpillar-like creature.
The caterpillar had a white, tender and plump body, but its head was that of a baby. The question just now came from it.
Now the caterpillar spoke again, and it asked, "Do you want to kill that man? ... Do you?"
The caterpillar crawled slowly on the ground, wriggling its body as it approached Bai Yufei, with its tiny baby face raised high as if looking at Bai Yufei.
Bai Yufei opened her eyes wide and looked at the caterpillar in front of her. She looked for a long time, then lowered her head and saw that her waist was broken in half. The upper and lower parts of her body were almost broken apart, and she had completely lost consciousness below the waist, as if she had been amputated.
Her hot-blooded brain suddenly calmed down, and she finally realized that she had just lost.
She did not avenge her brother and was defeated by Su Ming.
Thinking of this, her face wrinkled unwillingly, and tears welled up from under her tightly closed eyelids, continuously falling to the ground.
"Want to kill him? Eat me? If you eat me, you will get the power to defeat that man." The caterpillar said in a baby voice.
The innocent voice coupled with the devil's seductive words made the scene indescribably weird, but Bai Yufei at the moment had no intention of paying attention to these. The only thing she heard was the power of revenge.
As long as it can give her the power of revenge, anything is fine.
She wants to avenge her brother!
She was going to kill that bastard!
Everyone in the Owl Squad knows Bai Yufei's feelings for his brother Bai Chifei.
Every member of the Owl Team has experienced a situation where one person fell into danger while performing a mission and the other team members were unable to rescue him. Bai Chifei and Bai Yufei have always worked together and are inseparable, so it is rare for them to fall into danger separately.
But once, Bai Chifei encountered such a thing. The other members of the team were all very calm, and the danger level was not that high that time, and the possibility of survival was not low.
But this situation, which was not considered a desperate situation, almost caused Bai Yufei's spirit to collapse. From that moment on, everyone else knew how important Bai Chifei was to Bai Yufei.
Bai Chifei is dead... Bai Yufei will definitely collapse.
Everyone has this consensus, and Maoqiu naturally understands it too.
So when he fled the scene, he didn't care about Bai Yufei immediately.
Here's why.
He was not afraid of death. If he was afraid of death, he would not have been able to stay in the Owl Squad for so long. Over the years, he followed the captain to carry out many missions. There were several times when he was alone in desperate situations, but in the end he escaped alone and returned to the team.
Every time when he was in desperate situation and abandoned by other team members, Maoqiu had no complaints. In his heart, the Owl Squad has always been the most worthwhile team for him to serve. The reason is very simple. The values of his team are surprisingly similar - do not sell out companions for the sake of profit, but also do not make unnecessary sacrifices for the so-called feelings.
Maoqiu felt that what he had just done was not wrong, and it was the best choice he could make in the situation.
After the battle just now, he deeply realized that their fighting power was not at the same level as Su Ming's. Perhaps the tactics that seemed very meticulous to them were just blatant frontal attacks in Su Ming's eyes... It was a rough duel without strategy.
That's right, they did take the initiative, with Bai Chifei attracting attention from the front, while she and Hirayama Hitoshi were responsible for the sneak attack.
But Maoqiu was unwilling to deny his intuition. From the moment he fought with Su Ming, he felt that Su Ming had a kind of foresight about their actions. He felt that their sneak attack had no effect at all.
The more Maoqiu recalled that battle, the more he regretted it.
He shook his head, put aside these useless thoughts and cheap regrets, and concentrated on thinking about the problem he was facing.
Now, the captain is dead. I don’t know if Yu Fei has come out or not. I guess she hasn’t come out. Now that the captain is dead, that girl will probably go crazy. It is very likely that she will launch a suicide attack on Su Ming after he leaves.
"It would be great if Yu Fei could kill Su Ming." Mao Qiu said to himself.
After saying that, he sighed and shook his head.
In fact, he also knew that this was impossible. If Su Ming was the kind of opponent who could be defeated by momentum, they would have won long ago.
The fact that they were defeated to such an extent despite their huge numerical advantage was enough to prove that they had no chance of success.
While Maoqiu was thinking, he stopped in front of a house. This house was where they had robbed food from people leaving the manor.
If their team has any base in this devil's territory, it is only this place.
Maoqiu stopped in front of the door and heard a slight whisper from inside.
The worn wooden door made an unpleasant friction sound. Maoqiu walked into the house and closed the door with his backhand: "You are here too."
He glanced at Ma Ning and Kong Haifeng who were sitting at the table, but didn't see Bai Yufei.
Sure enough, the child did not come, and she decided to fight to the death with Su Ming there, and maybe she would die.
Thinking of this, Maoqiu felt sad. There was one less person in their team. In this world, there were not many people who were trustworthy. It was unknown how long it would take to fill the gap if one was missing.
Ma Ning glanced at Maoqiu. He wanted to ask why Maoqiu arrived here later than them, but when his eyes swept over Maoqiu's hands, he immediately understood that Maoqiu went to get food from the place where they had stored the food before.
"Yu Fei, did she really not escape?"
"She stayed there."
"Really?" Maoqiu nodded thoughtfully. Although he already knew the result in his heart, he still felt very emotional when he actually heard it.
"What should we do next?" Kong Haifeng asked.
Maoqiu sighed, put the food on the table, pulled over a stool and sat down.
Now there are only three of them left, and without them, even the atmosphere feels weird when talking about tactics.
The air was very quiet. Everyone had their own thoughts. After a long silence, Maoqiu finally decided to speak.
But just as he was about to speak, footsteps were suddenly heard outside the door!
That was the sound of shoes dragging on the ground, and the other party seemed to have no intention of concealing it at all!
Kong Haifeng and Ma Ning's faces suddenly changed. Mao Qiu also frowned and raised his hand to grasp the sword in the air.
Who would come here at a time like this?
Could it be that in such a short time, Su Ming killed Bai Yufei and found this place?
It's impossible. Su Ming is not omniscient and omnipotent. He would not do that. So the only possibility is other people who left the manor... Of course, they may not be human.
“Crack!”
The door was pushed open directly, Maoqiu drew his sword and stabbed at the intruder, but just when the tip of the sword was about to touch the opponent, he suddenly stopped.
Maoqiu opened his eyes wide and, in the dim purple moonlight, saw clearly the person standing at the door.
"Hey, are you going to attack me?" the man said.
"Team! Captain!!"
Ma Ning and Kong Haifeng stood up from their chairs, walked to the door, and looked at the man standing at the door in shock. Who else could that be but Bai Chifei!
"Captain, you are not—"
"I'm not dead, am I?" Bai Chifei interrupted Maoqiu with a sneer.
His smile made Maoqiu feel creepy. Maoqiu instinctively felt that there was something wrong with the person in front of him. He looked down at the other's hand and found that Bai Chifei was holding a sword in his hand. Looking at the shape of the sword, he knew that it was the sword transformed by Bai Yufei.
"Why did you run away at that time? Seeing me in that state, didn't you want to avenge me?" Bai Chifei said.
"No! How could I not want to help you get revenge! But there was no chance of winning at that time, as you know...the rules of our Owl Team, you said that yourself." Kong Haifeng explained hastily.
Maoqiu raised his hand and blocked Ma Ning and Kong Haifeng, a drop of cold sweat slowly sliding down his forehead.
"Run." Maoqiu said in a hoarse voice.
"Ah?" Kong Haifeng was stunned for a moment.
"Run!" Maoqiu roared, and at the same time, he exerted force with his arms and used all his strength to stab his sword towards Bai Chifei's face.
The person in front of me is not Bai Chifei at all!
After he realized something was wrong, he immediately activated his special ability and began to investigate the intelligence of the person in front of him who looked exactly like Bai Chifei. In the end... the level evaluation showed that the other party's level was - level 20!
