"Old Zhou, are you really okay? You've been busy for several days. Why don't you take a rest before continuing to work?" Yungo asked with concern.
Old Zhou replied nonchalantly, "Hey! Don't worry, my friend. Old Zhou's spirit is very good! I won't be easily broken! Besides, judging from the current situation, it might be my turn soon. So, since I'll be reunited with Aileen soon, I have no reason to feel sad!"
Hearing Old Zhou's response, Yungo and Grace felt even more uncomfortable. This was because Old Zhou's words essentially meant that he had already resigned himself to reality and fate, ready to be taken by sudden epilepsy at any time. Seeing this, a strong sense of helplessness once again welled up in Yungo's heart, making the emotionally complex him clench his fists and self-reproach in shame, "Damn it! Why? Why are only the Broadsword Expeditionary Force members suffering from epilepsy? We were there too! Moreover, if our Express Vanguard members are immune to epilepsy, we should be able to discover the disease in your bodies through ours! But why, why can't we find anything? This damn virus, what on earth is it?!"
Old Zhou understood that Yungo was deeply self-blaming and ashamed because no Express Vanguard members had epilepsy, and they could only watch the Broadsword Expeditionary Force members die one after another from this fatal epilepsy. After all, for them Vis people who are on missions for years, they have long developed a strong sense of collective honor where life and death are shared. Under the influence of this mentality, they could not accept the situation where their teammates bear all the suffering, while they themselves survive unscathed. So when they saw the Broadsword Expeditionary Force members die one after another, and the Express Vanguard members could not share their pain or face life and death with them, it naturally led to a strong sense of shame and helplessness.
"Hey! My friend! Not everything in the world is fair! And a lot of seemingly unfair things can bring us hope!" Old Zhou said, also forcefully patting Yungo's shoulder, trying to cheer him up.
Old Zhou continued, "As I said. From the current situation, it's likely that no virus was brought to the surface of Planet E by the fire rain from the depths of the earth. If that were the case, your Express Vanguard members would be infected like us. After all, the checks have shown that there is indeed no difference between our bodies. So the real reason might be that you have been on Planet E for too short a time, and your bodies have not been affected by that invisible disease."
"Moreover, we don't know if you will develop the same epilepsy in the future as time goes on. But as long as you have the chance to return to the Planet Alliance smoothly, the disaster that led to this tragedy will be revealed! Anyway, we still have to believe in the intelligence of scientists! But when you go back, you will definitely be sent to the returnee isolation room for a period of time! Although I have never been to the returnee isolation room, I have heard that staying there is as uncomfortable as being in prison."
"So, you don't need to feel bad for us now, because according to the serious situation here, you will have a long period of discomfort in the future! Humph! If I had to live in an isolation room for a long time, being observed by so many scientists like an animal every day, I would rather just die here!" Old Zhou said in the end, with a seemingly relaxed tone, but Yungo and Grace could only read a sense of helpless resignation from the fleeting emotions in his eyes.
As the topic gradually became heavy, the conversation between the three fell into a brief silence. Yungo knew that discussing pessimistic topics when the situation was not good would affect the spirit. So when Old Zhou and Grace couldn't find a suitable topic for a while and could only use self-drinking to relieve the embarrassment caused by the silence, Yungo immediately started to think and prepared to find a relaxed and lively topic.
However, before Yungo could find a suitable topic to disperse the embarrassment, the overall gloomy restaurant was immediately awakened by a shout: "Lisa! What's wrong with you?! No good! Someone come and help me!"
Yungo and the other two looked over and found that a team member sitting not far from them was calling for help. It turned out that the team member who had been dining with him suddenly fell to the ground due to an epileptic seizure. Hearing the team member's call for help, everyone in the restaurant immediately got up to help rescue Lisa. It was clear that after so many accidents of team members' deaths, everyone could already skillfully rescue patients with sudden epilepsy.
Due to the sudden epilepsy of the team member named Lisa, although the restaurant was noisy again, this kind of noise only made people feel more depressed than before. Because everyone knew that the noise at this time meant the arrival of the grim reaper. And the result was indeed the case. Even though the team member named Lisa was rescued by everyone at the first time of the attack, she still died without suspense in a short time due to violent convulsions and uncontrollable severe dehydration. Thus, Lisa's death, like a signal, officially opened the prelude to today's death.
The waiting process often makes people struggle. Especially when the disaster is approaching and death is hovering around you, the waiting process will infinitely amplify people's anxious emotions and torture their hearts. However, compared with the increasingly restless Yungo and Grace, the emotions of other team members are obviously more stable. Among them, the delicious food that the restaurant continues to provide for free naturally plays a certain role in soothing the team members' emotions.
But the more important reason is that although the geological disasters on Planet E have caused landslides and the ground to crack, and a large amount of geothermal fire has erupted, forming a large area of lava fire sea on the surface. However, due to the superior location of E Star Town, it has not been invaded by geological disasters. Plus, even in this situation, Planet E still shows no signs of collapse, and the Express Vanguard has completed the flight safety monitoring and will leave Planet E soon. So after the team members got this news, their heavy mood naturally cheered up a lot.
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In addition, numbness is undoubtedly one of the important factors that keep the team members' emotions stable. Because during this period, more than half of the more than two thousand team members of the Broadsword Expeditionary Force have been taken by the fatal epilepsy. So the remaining team members have become numb to death in the process of their teammates' continuous death. Now compared with their own safety, these Broadsword Expeditionary Force members are more concerned about the safety of the Express Vanguard crew members. As long as no one on the Express Vanguard crew has epilepsy, as long as the Express Vanguard can leave before Planet E collapses, even if they die, the Broadsword Expeditionary Force members can die in peace.
After an extremely painful and long wait, the Express Vanguard finally completed the last test run. Although the urgent situation led the maintenance personnel to rush and did not test many devices on the spaceship, considering that those devices do not affect the normal navigation of the spaceship, everyone will not be too entangled in those details, but after confirming that the spaceship can take off, they immediately boarded the spaceship and began the formal preparation work before takeoff.
Although it is a happy thing that the Express Vanguard can finally take off. But now, the crew members of the Express Vanguard are all solemn. Because they thought that the team members of the Broadsword Expeditionary Force would board the spaceship with them to escape from Planet E, but the result is that all the remaining team members of the Broadsword Expeditionary Force refused to board the spaceship to leave Planet E.
The main reason is that as more and more team members of the Broadsword Expeditionary Force are taken by the fatal epilepsy, the remaining team members have also realized that they will sooner or later die due to epilepsy. For them, no matter where they go now, they cannot escape the grim reaper's palm. Therefore, it is better to stay on Planet E and accompany those dead teammates to be buried here, rather than dying on the spaceship during the return trip. Another important reason for their decision is that they are worried that if the remaining hundreds of team members die one after another on the relatively closed Express Vanguard, it may bring unknown dangers to the team members of the Express Vanguard.
The team members of the Broadsword Expeditionary Force are not sure whether the team members of the Express Vanguard will have epilepsy in the future, but since they have not had any accidents so far, the Broadsword Expeditionary Force naturally wants to ensure that the team members of the Express Vanguard return to the Vis people's world in a relatively safe environment. Moreover, let the scientists of the Vis people can find out the root cause of this fatal epilepsy as soon as possible in a relatively safe environment through the team members of the Express Vanguard and the various sample data they brought back from the team members of the Broadsword Expeditionary Force. Then find the corresponding countermeasures as soon as possible, so as to enrich the Vis people's understanding of unknown diseases in addition to avoiding the Vis people from being harmed by this disease again.
Although the team members of the Express Vanguard do not agree with the decision of the Broadsword Expeditionary Force, since the Broadsword Expeditionary Force has made up its mind and their concerns are not unreasonable. Therefore, in order to take the overall situation into account, Captain Tim can only accept the choice of the Broadsword Expeditionary Force.
"Captain Tim, we have transported all the food in the restaurant into the spaceship's storage compartment before you boarded. In this way, you can continue to enjoy delicious food during the long journey! I hope that your on-board chef team, after being trained by Aileen and others, can cook exciting food without the assistance of our chef team!" After the hatch of the Express Vanguard was closed, Captain Ann said lightly in the communicator to avoid the atmosphere when the two sides parted too heavy.
"Don't worry, Captain Ann! If those guys cook food that doesn't even taste half as good as Aileen's, I'll cook and eat them all!" Captain Tim also joked in a relaxed tone.
"Hahaha! Captain Tim, don't expect too much from them! After all, Ann Lin and his team are considered the top chef teams among the Vis people, and their cooking skills are not comparable to ordinary chefs. Moreover, a chef must have a relaxed and happy mood to cook delicious food. So, if Captain Tim puts too much pressure on them, it will make them unable to cook the ideal delicious food due to operation deformation!" Captain Ann said with a big laugh.
The two leaders are now talking and laughing with the topic of chefs and delicious food, making them like two old friends who are temporarily parting, joking and hoping that each other will take care of themselves, and it is impossible to see that they are making the final farewell before life and death. While the two leaders are joking and bidding farewell, the other crew members of the Express Vanguard are also taking the opportunity to prepare for takeoff, and they are also starting to say goodbye to the familiar team members of the Broadsword Expeditionary Force.
"Old Zhou, are you really going to stay?" At this time, Yungo also took the opportunity to ask again when Old Zhou said goodbye to himself.
"Hey! You know it too! According to the current situation, the team members of our Broadsword Expeditionary Force will be taken away by that damn epilepsy one after another. So the less trouble, the better. I don't want to wait until I die on the spaceship and bring unnecessary impact to you. After all, you guys who have not been attacked by epilepsy are the best way for the Vis people to find out the cause of our death and prevent more Vis people from dying because of it! Besides, since Ann Lin is buried on Planet E, what am I, a lonely old guy, running around for? Forget it! I'll just stay by Ann Lin's grave and wait to go to another world and become a couple with Ann Lin again!" Old Zhou said generously, and there was no fear of death in his tone.
Since Old Zhou has let go of everything and is ready to die generously, Yungo and Grace no longer continue to persuade. After giving Old Zhou enough respect, the two use the last bit of time to chat with Old Zhou, hoping that everyone can be more relaxed and less sad when they officially part.
"Hey! I have to say, it's no wonder that Captain Tim likes you two little guys! You two really have something very special! And through you two, Aileen and I have seen our past selves. So, you two must not live up to our expectations in the future and grow into the main pillars that can take over Captain Tim and manage the Express Vanguard!" Old Zhou said with emotion.