Sai came running as soon as he was out of his own circle. The man had done as told and stayed by Shen's side the past month. Shen nodded to him and looked around for Alicia.
He found her leaving her circle too. She smiled slightly at him, but there was seriousness on her face.
"Finally out of your man cave," she said. "I need to tell you something."
"Go ahead," Shen said.
"You said you respect me and my decisions, right?" she asked, and Shen nodded. "I made a deal with Sandra. I gave up on any chance of getting an Achievement. I'll help Evelyn get it instead."
Shen couldn't hide his surprise; his eyes widened. "Why would you do that?"
"Don't be mad, alright? It is..." She sighed. "I don't think you understand the power of a missile or, God forbid, an atomic bomb. People were trying to make you look like a big villain, and I asked Sandra to turn the tides and make you look good. Maybe you can kill the naysayers here, but outside, on Earth, you can't kill everyone who offends your honor."
"Of course, I know that," Shen said.
"I don't think you do," Alicia insisted. "You told me before about Duels of Honor. There's no such thing on Earth. Well, at least not on civilized Earth. You can't make people shut up by force. The great majority of people would consider that wrong."
"Why? Two people have irreconcilable opinions and are willing to die to protect their viewpoints. Let them fight for it. It's only natural to think twice before provoking the strong."
"No, it's not. There's free speech out there. You can more or less say anything you want about anyone except slander, racism, incitement, threats, or stuff like that. Physical assault is a no-no."
"The asshat was slandering me and, arguably, inciting violence against me."
"Yeah, but we don't really take matters into our own hands either. We call the police or take it to the court of law."
"That makes no sense. I should be able to protect myself however I see fit once my honor is attacked. Words can have much worse consequences than a duel to death. You should always be mindful of what you say. Speaking without proof about someone can have far-fetched consequences, the least of which being the spread of misinformation. That leads to chaos and disunion, which lead to ruin."
Alicia sighed. "Well, that's not how we do things nowadays. You fight words with words and let people decide who they want to believe. It's none of your business if they think bad about you."
"So you let people believe whatever they want, then let them vote for whoever they want. It's not the one who is best for all who wins, but the one who's the best in changing people's minds, no matter if they spread lies, misinformation, or panic. As long as they succeed, it was all worth it for them in the end."
This time, she rolled her eyes. "Dude, you really hate democracy, the least worst governmental system ever created, huh?" He opened his mouth to reply, but she beat him to it. "Forget about that. It doesn't matter how you think the world should be or if the current state of affairs sucks. What matters is that things are like that. You won't change the opinion of the majority of the Western world, where you currently are, like that. Hell, even if people believe in strength above everything, they will resent they aren't the hottest shit around. Your existence will annoy a lot of people by itself, and as I said, missiles are bad for your health."
Shen frowned. "Now you're telling me they will kill me because they don't like me, but I can't duel for my honor because that would be a wrong use of force."
"We believe in institutions, not individual power. If the president throws a missile at you and says you're too dangerous to be kept alive, many people will believe it. If they disagree, they can try to impeach him or whatever. But if you throw a rocket at someone and say they were evil, people wonder if you don't have too much power not properly controlled by the government—which they can kind of control. It's shared power in a way."
Shen shook his head. "I understand where you come from, Alicia. I really do. But you seem not to realize the world has changed. It isn't changing slowly; it already did. There are over thirteen hundred peak E-ranks in here. There were many more E-ranks and F-ranks in the previous stages.
"Everyone will go back to Earth, and a new world order where the strong rule will become inevitable. You told me yourself that power corrupts. Do you think everyone in here will just fight words with words?
"Do you think the Alliance will let civilians rule over Guardians in time of war? Or weak Guardians rule over stronger ones when both have no political backing in the Alliance, the only backing that matters now?
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"Earth is part of the Alliance now, and we were taught higher rank means higher privilege. The old order is gone. You told me it doesn't matter what I think, but how things are, and that is how things are. The world you knew is gone.
"You gave up on the Achievement for nothing. No, it was worse than that. If you could win by yourself, it meant you would be one of the best to help the chaotic world. Instead, you're potentially leaving it to the second-best. We don't know how important Achievements are, but they are important. You might have given up on a great opportunity to help people just because of me."
Alicia seemed moved, but not entirely. "It doesn't matter what the Alliance allows or not, Shen. If order crumbles as you expected, it makes things even worse. People with launching codes will still have them, and no one will be around to tell them not to kill the guy who they think is too dangerous to be left alive. Maybe the Alliance will punish them later, but you'll be dead by then. Perhaps the Alliance will decommission all our modern weaponry to avoid such things, but will you bet your life on that?
"And it's not just because of you!" She raised her voice, exasperated. "Can't you see you're our fucking hope? You're miles above everyone else in here. Mark was crazy, but he was right; you're a kind of hero. We need you in the fight against the damn Void!
"I won't risk your life, and maybe all of humankind with it, just to get some fancy Achievement that might or not let me help a lot fewer people than you can. If I must sacrifice millions to save one that can save billions, so be it.
"Didn't a stage teach us that? The one about giving AP so people could reach the E-rank. Sometimes, sacrifices must be made so the better of us can move further. I'm doing that, and I don't fucking care if you agree. I just want you to respect my damn decision. Can you fucking do that? Or do we need to fight a Duel of Honor or whatever?"
They faced each other silently for a while. Then Shen sighed. "Of course, I'll respect it, Alicia. You're my friend, and I'll always respect the Path you feel must be trodden." Unless it went directly against him or his people, obviously, but he trusted her enough not to do that. "That said, I resent that you would think I would do anything to stop you from making your own decisions."
"Sorry," she said at once, tearing up. "I just... This wasn't easy for me. And you're telling me it was all useless... I don't agree with you, but it doesn't make things any easier."
Shen nodded. "Apologies accepted," he said, "and I apologize for my lack of sensibility too." She nodded, and he turned to the half dozen people who had stopped a few yards away and were shamelessly watching their discussion. He recognized Evelyn and Sandra but none of the others, except a few who had asked questions before. "Yes?"
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"...and cannot be dodged," Schneider concluded.
Shen had been invited to a kind of war council with one to three people of each age group. While he had been cultivating, people had tested the final boss, and things were just as dire as he had expected.
Others had to sacrifice themselves for the agility fighters to hit the neck. The resistance fighters could withstand a kick if dozens of them did it together, but it left them severely injured. The strength fighters had it the easiest of them all—that is, if they could withstand the electricity when attacking and dodge any retribution after they attacked the giant's feet. And the mages could deal a lot of damage, but any time they did, the golem attacked them. That was the only situation where the final boss left his position before twelve hours had passed, and the mages died quickly.
"We can't have it leave its position," Shen stated the obvious. "The floating steps don't follow the golems, so the agility fighters won't have steps to attack its neck, and the strength fighters won't be fast enough to reach its feet."
"We know," Sandra said. "But we can't kill it without the mages dealing damage."
Shen shook his head. "I'll try to attack it again because I need to test some things, but my conclusion is that we need at least to level up our Skills, though it would be best if someone reached D-rank. I believe that's the whole purpose of the three-month time limit. We're supposed to fight each other and improve."
"Some people thought of that, but it sounds... unlikely," Hina said. "You were right; we can feel a lot about our Paths when we meditate and focus on it. None of us feel we're nowhere near D-rank. How could they ask us to reach it?"
Shen shook his head. "You aren't looking past the trial. This is the final boss, but this is still the tutorial. Every stage taught us something, usually in a way we can reproduce by ourselves.
"Stage one, be persistent and overcome the unexpected; its final boss: either be strong enough or accept help. Two, survive an unfamiliar place; final boss: don't let your enemies go, or they'll come back for you later. Three, deal with people but don't lose focus of the end goal; final boss: if you're strong enough, you don't need to deal with people at all. And so on. I oversimplified some things, but you get what I'm saying.
"Now, thirteen hundred people are trying to meet a deadline, and we find ourselves lacking in strength. Do you remember when the system said we'll very likely never have a way to revive outside the tutorial? Well, we were given three months of free revivals.
"The solution is obvious: we fight each other. We train among ourselves and exchange insights. Now and then, we attack the golem.
"In three months, well, two, we'll either win or fail. Regardless of the result, we'll be stronger than now. This is our final opportunity to give our all at every single fight and progress swiftly. We must take it.
"And if someone gets a better idea on how to kill the golem later, we'll be better prepared to enact it too."
As obvious as that was in hindsight, Shen had only reached that conclusion thanks to his newfound understanding of the Concept of War. He left out the other obvious thing: whoever had the learning ability upgrades would improve more. This setup was in place to produce absolute elites out of the cream of the crop.
Shen had two months to get as powerful as he could, and he had all advantages possible to do just that.
His arguments were sound, and after a few extra rounds of back and forth, they concluded they would organize things in a way most people could benefit. Shen suggested a free-for-all on every release and a pause to talk on every twentieth, but they wanted something more organized.
He had no doubt those arrangements would fail sooner or later, so he didn't waste any time with that. He left them to it and sprinted against the final boss.
He needed to confirm what the insights in his Concepts and the extra stats had given him. And if he got lucky, he would also find the last Concept his Path needed.