Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 891, Question 101: What is true patriotism?
"You lost, Li De."

Listening to Karna's words and looking at his blood-dripping face, Li De's expression suddenly calmed down.

The hand that had been about to make another move was now flattened, and the body that had been trying to get up gradually calmed down.

He lay down as if he had already accepted his fate.

“You win, Carl.”

He spoke in a tone that revealed little emotion, and then...
"Kill me, Karl."

He said, "Otherwise, the moment you let me go, I would have picked up the gun and shot you again."

Li De knew what he was saying and what he would do, but he still spoke.

He seemed exhausted and desperate for relief, impatiently waiting for someone to kill him.

Li De can no longer distinguish what he should do, what is truly right, and what will prevent him from having regrets.

He always felt that everything he was doing was wrong.

Can he truly not regret going against Carl and bringing Song Zhaomei back to the FIA? But if he didn't do it, could he convince himself that it was the right thing to do?

It seems like none of them will work.

Li De realized that he was no longer a top-notch, qualified FIA agent.

The most standard FIA agent shouldn't think so much, nor should he have so many complicated thoughts.

If he didn't have those extraneous thoughts that could be called 'heart', he could be completely immersed in the mission, but he just happens to have that half-heart.

Perhaps, from the very beginning, the FIA's so-called perfect agent was something that did not exist, nor could it possibly exist.

Li De, after all, was still just a human being.

Seeing that Li De had given up all resistance and thought, lying there slumped over, waiting for the end, a very faint ripple flashed in Karl's eyes.

"Kill you?" Karl repeated, his tone neither a question nor a statement.

"And then what? Let your death become yet another excuse for Miles to further incite emotions among the FIA's younger generation, to make an agent who truly dedicated herself to the country and to her leave a mark on posterity, to make fools like you unable to distinguish what true patriotism is, and to follow your rules and die for Miles's ambition?"

Karl stared directly at Li De: "Or do you think that dying like this will free you from your 'responsibilities' and 'contradictions'?"

Li De closed his eyes, his Adam's apple bobbed, but he didn't answer or say a word; perhaps he didn't want to.

Karl's words once again struck a chord deep within him: death, at certain moments, is indeed an alluring escape.

“Reed,” Carl’s voice was slightly lower, “I’ll say it again: now lie down and you have time to think things through. Consider it a pre-sleep reflection. Think about it: what are you truly loyal to? Is it a president who would risk detonating nuclear bombs and sacrificing soldiers and civilians to achieve his political goals? Or is it a new America that you envision, one for which you are willing to give your life?”

He leaned slightly forward, his face streaked with blood, but his eyes were sharp as knives, as if trying to dissect Li De's soul: "Look at yourself now, the FIA's top agent, lying here like a lost dog begging for a final end. Is this the ending you wanted? Is this the final reward for your dedication to 'New America'?"

Listening to Carl's words, especially those words about dedicating oneself to the new America, seemed to suddenly touch the heart of Li De.

Only the new America.

Only the new America that Li De was loyal to might be able to open his eyes again at this moment.

"Then tell me what to do?!" Li De suddenly opened his eyes, bloodshot and filled with pain, anger, and a deep sense of powerlessness. He almost roared, his voice hoarse and broken: "What else can I do?! Betray my oath? Betray the country I gave everything for? Carl, I am not you, I am a person who grew up in the new America;
I love this country, and I'm willing to give everything for it, even my life. Even if I know it might be doing something wrong, what can I do? I can only blame myself. I can't blame this country, and I can't leave it. Everything I have is for this country.

“Love this country?” Karl shook his head slightly. “You are not me? Li De, I have simply chosen not to belong to any force that tries to turn me into a tool or to sacrifice others to achieve their own ‘greatness’. Li De, true loyalty should not be blind obedience to a person to the point of being blind to whether it is something that can truly contribute to the country.”

His gaze swept over Song Zhaomei, who was in the distance, her consciousness blurred and her body trembling slightly.

"Look at her. She was also an 'asset' of the new America. Perhaps she once believed in something. And now? She's been used, abandoned, and used as a bargaining chip in the war. I think she's someone you know best. This is the result of the system you've sworn to serve. Are you going to continue cleaning up 'trouble' for this system until countless people like Song Zhaomei are used by people like Miles?"

Speaking of Song Zhaomei, Li De followed Karl's gaze to Song Zhaomei, the girl he had personally nurtured and who was both his student and friend. Looking at her current appearance, a sense of sadness pierced his heart like a cold needle, causing him a sharp pain.

Rosalind Miles's cold face, Hansen's ambitious eyes, and the soldiers fighting on the battlefield—scenes flashed through his mind.

"Li De, you probably don't know this."

Just then, Karl told Li De a fact.

"This place will be attacked by a nuclear bomb in fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen minutes? How is that possible?"

Upon hearing Karl's words, Li De was instinctively taken aback. Wasn't Hansen's scheduled attack time twenty-five minutes from now? And now that Hansen had been dealt with, the nuclear test should have already taken place. Unless!

In that instant, Li De understood something.

ten minutes.

A nuclear explosion ten minutes ahead of schedule—what other side on this battlefield could pull that off?

He looked at Karl, seemingly wanting to ask him a question, but in his heart he already knew the answer.

"That's right, just like you thought."

Carl put his knife away.

“It was Miles who gave the order. She was prepared to use you, Song Zhaomei, Li De, and all the unsuspecting soldiers fighting on the front lines as sacrifices.”

If Li De's belief was a tall tower, then that tower had long been cracked by repeated doubts and Miles's orders, and Karl's words were like the final heavy blow that struck that tower.

The already crumbling tower is now on the verge of collapse.

This is yet another betrayal of Li De, just like during the unification wars.

Li De might still be able to forgive, just as he once forgave himself for being used as a sacrifice.

But as for his patriotism, as for his blind patriotism towards the new America...

The soldiers of the new America were sacrificed for their own ambitions.

Is it really possible for him to forgive me?

So many soldiers have been so easily placed on the crossbeams of ambition, so what is the difference between what Miles is doing now and what he did in the past? If a country is unified under such a person's control, will it really not face collapse again?
Won't Miles one day use this kind of country as a bargaining chip to sell it out?

(End of this chapter)