It was supposed to be a casual game, but the Long March dungeon brought tears to everyone's eye

that moment.

Crazy Bro, Eagle Eye, and Softie were struck dumb.

It turns out that in the old squad leader's world, they were not "fighting force" at all.

They are "hope".

It is a "spark".

They are the seeds of civilization that need to be protected, sacrificed, and continued with lives.

Players like Kuang Ge always think they're the heroes who're here to carry the whole game.

After all that, it turns out they are the ones who need to be protected, the "babies".

This is fucking...

Hawkeye lowered his head.

According to his "optimal solution" theory, the old squad leader should have done the most to abandon the three burdens and lead the remaining combat personnel to complete the mission as quickly as possible.

But the old squad leader didn't have one.

His choice was the "least optimal solution".

But it is... the most humane interpretation.

Soft tears streamed down her face again.

This time, however, she didn't cry out loud. She just bit her lip tightly, letting the scalding tears stream down her cold cheeks.

In the live stream, everyone was stunned by the old squad leader's words for a long time.

"Fuck..."

"Case solved! Turns out we're from the performing arts troupe..."

"I fucking... I thought I came here to fight a war, but it turns out I'm here to be a national treasure?"

"'You must live so that you can tell our story to future generations.'... I, a grown man, broke down."

At this moment, Kuang Ge suddenly raised his head, looked at the old squad leader, and said in an almost pleading tone.

"Squad leader, teach us how to use a gun."

"We don't want to be a burden anymore."

……

Fourth day.

The snow-capped mountain finally revealed its most ferocious side.

The sky cleared, and there was no more snow.

The blinding sunlight shone unhindered on the boundless snowfield.

The whole world turned into a white, infernal purgatory.

The intense glare caused a stinging, needle-like pain in everyone's eyes.

The team made a difficult journey along a narrow mountain ridge.

To the left is a bottomless cliff, and to the right is a steep, smooth ice wall.

Beneath our feet, there was a snow path less than half a meter wide.

Ruan Ruan walked in the middle of the group, each step filled with trepidation.

She dared not look at the cliffs on either side, and could only stare intently at the snow beneath her feet.

But that snowfield was dazzlingly white under the sunlight.

Looking at it for too long felt like countless red-hot steel needles were stabbing her eyeballs.

She kept crying.

The tears were not from sadness, but from physiological reasons.

Tears streamed down, quickly freezing into icy shards in the cold air, clinging to my eyelashes and obscuring my vision.

She could only rub her eyes with her frozen hands as she walked.

"Don't rub it!"

The old squad leader, who was walking in front, turned around and shouted.

"The more you rub it, the worse it gets!"

However, it's even more uncomfortable if I don't rub it.

Ruan Ruan felt as if a handful of scalding sand had been thrown into her eyes.

It hurts and itches.

She cried even harder.

My vision began to blur.

The vast expanse of white snow split into countless overlapping images in her eyes.

Ruan Ruan felt dizzy and her legs went weak. Her body fell uncontrollably toward the edge of the cliff.

"ah--!"

A scream shattered the silence.

"Softie!"

Kuang Ge, who was following behind Ruan Ruan, reacted quickly and grabbed her arm, pulling her back tightly.

She collapsed softly onto the snow, covering her eyes haphazardly with her hands, screaming like a madwoman.

"My eyes! I can't see!"

"It's pitch black! I can't see anything!"

"I'm blind! I'm blind!"

Panic spread; it was snow blindness.

On this snow-capped mountain, a blind person is equivalent to a dead person.

"Don't panic!"

The old squad leader's voice was like a stabilizing force.

He quickly walked to Ruan Ruan's side, squatted down, and forcibly pried open her hands that were covering her eyes.

Then he glanced at it and frowned deeply.

Ruan Ruan's eyes were as red as two rabbits', her eyeballs were bloodshot, her pupils were dilated, and she no longer reacted to light.

"It's over...it's really over..."

Ruan Ruan couldn't sense the old squad leader's movements; she was only immersed in the fear of her blindness, muttering to herself.

"I don't want to be blind... I don't want to die here..."

The old squad leader didn't say anything.

He silently stood up, turned around, and unbuttoned his tattered cotton-padded jacket.

With a "rip" sound.

He stretched out his one arm, grabbed the hem of the inner lining of his cotton-padded coat, and tore it apart forcefully.

He ripped off a strip of cloth, about the width of a palm, that looked fairly clean.

The cotton-padded jacket, already riddled with holes, revealed the dirty, grayish-black cotton wadding inside.

But that piece of cloth was the only piece of cloth on the old squad leader's body that wasn't stained with blood and grease.

He always kept it close to his body.

That was what the old squad leader kept for the final bandaging of the fatal wound on his arm.

That was his life-saving cloth.

Now, he tore it off.

The old squad leader squatted down again, and gently and carefully covered Ruan Ruan's eyes with the cloth, tying a knot behind her head.

"Alright," the old squad leader said calmly. "Just cover it up, it'll be fine in a couple of days."

"But I...I can't see..." Ruan Ruan was still crying.

This game is too realistic, and it's also too annoying!

It's not just Ruan Ruan; many players like her become increasingly "afraid to play" the more they immerse themselves in the game.

The old squad leader sighed, shook his head, untied a spare straw rope from his waist, and tied one end to his soft waist.

Then, he wrapped the other end of the straw rope tightly around his crippled arm, round and round.

On that broken surface that had already turned black and rotted.

The old squad leader had Xiao Hu and the others tie a knot for him.

After doing all this, he stood up and straightened the rope.

"Walk."

The old squad leader only said one word, then turned around and continued walking forward.

The rope is taut.

A steady and firm force came from her soft waist.

She was involuntarily pulled up from the snow by this force and followed behind, staggering.

"Don't be afraid."

The old squad leader's voice came from ahead, broken by the wind.

"If I don't fall, you won't fall."

"Follow the rope."

Ruanruan couldn't see anything at that moment.

Her world was reduced to darkness, and the force of the rope around her waist.

Waaaaah, this game is so annoying!

She wanted to quit the game several times, but she didn't want to be a deserter.

He could only mechanically move his legs to follow the old squad leader, like a puppet being led by a string.

That rope was her eyes, her life.

The camera in the live stream gave a close-up shot.

The old squad leader walked in front, his back hunched.

The withered yellow straw rope was deeply embedded in the flesh of his one arm.

Because of the force applied, the already festering wound was rubbed raw and bloody.

Crimson blood, dripping from the straw rope, fell one drop at a time onto the pristine white snow.

But he didn't say a word.

His steps remained as steady as ever.

The live stream room was completely silent; everyone just watched quietly.

I watched as the one-armed man led a blind girl by a straw rope.

Step by step, on the edge of the cliff, we walk toward the unknown distance.

On a planet where entertainment reigns supreme and profit is paramount, it's hard to understand this principle of never giving up.

That's... way too stupid.

After a long while, a comment slowly floated across the screen.

"Only today did I understand what it means to be...friends for life."

But this blizzard came out of nowhere.

One moment the sky was clear and blue, the next moment it turned gloomy.

Large snow pellets mixed with hailstones were whipped up by the gale and pelted down.

Visibility dropped to less than a meter in an instant.

The whole world was nothing but a vast expanse of white, with only the whooshing sound of the wind in my ears.

"Stop! Everyone stop!"

The old squad leader, braving the wind, roared hoarsely.

"Take cover! Get down! Everyone get down!"

The team immediately fell into disarray.

Everyone was like a headless fly, groping blindly in the white storm.

Kuang Ge held Ruan Ruan tightly and pressed her against the leeward side of a rock.

Hawkeye used both his hands and feet to squeeze himself into an ice crevice.

The wind is too strong.

It's big enough to blow a person away alive.

Everyone is doing their best to fight against this irresistible force from nature.

I don't know how much time passed.

The wind seems to have subsided a bit.

The old squad leader was the first to climb out of the snowdrift, shake off the snow, and begin counting heads.

"one two three……"

The old squad leader's face grew increasingly grim.

"Where's Lao Li?"

The old squad leader's heart sank suddenly.

"Where's Old Li from the cookhouse? Has anyone seen him?!"