Xingtetsu: Why is the captain on the train?

This is a room that one cannot tell whether to call a library or an office. Cocolia Rand, with her light blonde wavy hair, sits behind a huge desk, her eyes fixed on the three people who slowly walk into the room.

"Bronya, thank you for your hard work." Cocolia's voice softened a little. "Go and do your thing. I will communicate with these two guests personally."

"Yes, Great Guardian." The serious girl nodded and stepped aside. After the captain and Yuexia passed her, the girl turned around and walked out of the Great Guardian's room.

He even thoughtfully closed the door.

"Please take a seat, both of you." Cocolia stood up and walked around the long table, motioning for the two to sit down at a small square table nearby for a more relaxed chat.

"Your Excellency, the Great Guardian." Sitting on the soft sofa, the captain exhaled softly, "My companions and I have been in the city under your rule for four days."

Cocolia, a tall woman with impeccable appearance and figure, cast a silent and calm gaze at the captain.

She was looking forward to the opening remarks of this alien visitor.

"Before coming here, I have thought about many problems and how to communicate with you." When the captain said this, he couldn't help but laugh at himself.

"Could it be that coming to see me and asking some questions would make the alien feel very pressured?" Cocolia asked back with a smile.

"After all, you have to consider that you are a member of the [City Builders] and you are also a ruler. It would be inappropriate to be too offensive."

"Offense?" Cocolia raised an eyebrow.

"But, to be honest, what I experienced and saw this morning made me change my mind." The captain smiled and said, "Your Excellency the Great Guardian, I have a question for you."

"Please." Cocolia nodded, and the smile on her face faded a lot.

"Do the people in the underground city have bread to eat? If they are still human beings." The captain's smile disappeared completely and his voice became low.

"No." Cocolia shook her head and completely stopped smiling. She was calm and indifferent, and at the same time, as it should be. "Of course there is no bread. The environment underground is very harsh. There is not enough light. There are no wheat grains, so there is naturally no flour, and there is no bread either."

"So we're breaking off contact?" The captain raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, severing contact is also a kind of helpless protection."

"Protect?" Yuexia asked back in a questioning tone, despising Cocolia's shamelessness.

"[The city builders] are powerless. If the city wall collapses, the upper area will be destroyed first, and the communication between the ground and the underground will be cut off. I hope that the underground people can survive in this terrible environment and preserve the last flame of the Beloberg people. Even if they hate me and us ground people in the future, even if they become another civilization and applaud our destruction, I will not hesitate."

"At least, some of them survived." Kokolia considered himself to be magnanimous, and his words were nice and high-sounding.

But the captain has seen too many grand titles, too many so-called "necessary sacrifices", even his former 'subject', the 'ferryman' was like this, actively destroying a part of those [difficult to save] and saving most of those [who can be saved]. His hypocrisy was disgusting.

And the reason why Cocolia said this was just high-sounding.

"...Is euthanasia also a form of resistance?" the captain asked his doubts calmly.

“Is the earth’s marrow almost out of stock?” the young man raised his eyelids.

"The focus of both heavy and light industries has shifted to the production of luxury goods, right?"

"We can't stop the expansion of the Rift, so we should just give up completely, right?"

"Society is going to end, so let's start, right?"

"The people's enjoyment and peace and prosperity make you feel that you are doing the right thing, right?"

"You can't do anything, so you plan to take everyone with you to die, right?"

"You are arbitrary and high-sounding, embrace nothingness, and are deeply trapped in it, and still feel that you are carrying something..."

"right?"

"You are worthy of calling yourself [City Builder]?"

"Compared to you, some of the vampires in the Interstellar Peace Corporation are kindhearted people."

"Cocolia Rand."

Chapter 29: Conflict

Kokolia's words and actions are completely contradictory.

After the captain asked a series of questions, Cocolia was silent for a while. Then, she raised her head calmly, her eyes were calm, without any anger or rebuttal. She just looked at the captain with an indifferent look, with the words "You don't understand Beloberg" written on her face, and said, "I am the ruler of this city."

The captain couldn't help laughing. "What you said is really interesting. You are the ruler of the city. You can deal with your people as you please?"

"For seven hundred years, starting from the first Great Guardian, the people have always supported the Great Guardians, the Rands." Cocolia calmly narrated the facts she knew.

"From your speech, I don't feel your responsibility as a [City Builder] at all. You are just a [Dictator]." The captain also used a bland speech to provoke Cocolia's nerves. "You don't have the courage to tell every Beloberg what you are planning. You don't dare to tell them the future you have chosen for them, right?"

"Otherwise, there would be no need for me to sit here and talk to you face to face." The captain crossed his arms, "If they knew that the seemingly good life now is at the cost of overdrawing the future..."

"You yourself understand what choice the people will make."

Cocolia was silent for a longer time this time. She crossed her legs and looked at the captain with deep eyes, "What do you want to do? What do you want? In this civilization with a population of less than 500,000, is there anything in the city that you 'powerful' aliens need?"

She deliberately sneered at the word "powerful", and her sarcastic attitude was self-evident.

The captain pursed his lips, and breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. He had some indirect knowledge of Cocolia Rand through experience and his understanding of Beloberg. Now, Cocolia was finally like a shattered glacier, with confrontation and sarcasm bursting out from the cracked debris. This was a good thing.

The really difficult thing is that Cocolia has sealed her heart and locked her love, so the captain may have to use the ultimate means.

Force and violence.

"Star core." The captain lowered his eyes and stared at Cocolia. "Your former scholars all knew the existence of the star core. I believe that the rulers in Klipperburg know the existence of the star core. Tell me where the star core is. We will seal the star core and take away this source of evil. And you, the [City Builders] of Beloberg, will get a world where the rift gradually fades away, the living space will no longer be compressed step by step, and the creations of the rift will eventually decrease until they disappear."

"Even the wind and snow will eventually subside. Our interests are the same." The captain looked at Cocolia, "Your Excellency, the Great Guardian, what do you think?"

Cocolia stared at the captain in silence for a long time.

Outside the huge office, in the cloudy sky, strands of gloomy light passed through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, illuminating half of Cocolia's gloomy face, while the other half was immersed in shadow.

Cocolia's too long silence made the captain's mind gradually tense, which was not a good sign.

"You..." Cocolia started, but she was obviously immersed in the struggle of her thoughts. Her expression became a little unreal. The indifference just now was gone, replaced by a kind of scrutiny and seriousness. "Give it a try."

"Outsider, everything you claim is just your own conjecture." Cocolia's eyes suddenly became sharp, and she seemed to have made up her mind, "Try and see if you can stop me!"

The captain noticed that Kokolia seemed to be groping for something under the table, with his eyes narrowed.

The captain thought he had influenced Cocolia's attitude, but it turned out that Cocolia was still not convinced by him. This result proved that he was still missing some key information.

The captain raised his eyebrows and stood up suddenly, while Yuexia took out a chainsaw directly.

However, Kokolia's voice was faster than the two's actions, "Iron Guard! Capture these two outsiders who are trying to overthrow Beloberg!!"

"Boom!" The heavy door of the Grand Guardian's office was suddenly pushed open, and Jeppard Landau, dressed in military uniform and holding a strangely shaped blunt weapon, strode into the Grand Guardian's office. He jumped up, raised his weapon high, and aimed directly at Yuexia who was holding a chainsaw.

And just behind Jeppard, dozens of Iron Guards poured into the room.

The captain stretched out his hand and the Bloody Hand Saint appeared in the young man's hand. Verdant imaginary energy poured into the bullet. As the captain pulled the trigger continuously, the bullets all landed on the ground.

Tender sprouts suddenly emerged from the floor, growing wildly and transforming into dancing vines, blocking the guards behind Jeppard.

The roaring chainsaw in Yuexia's hand collided with the guitar case in Jeppard's hand, making a sharp metal tearing sound.

"Protect the Great Guardian!" Jeppard roared, suddenly raised the weapon in his hand, and forced back Yuexia, who had no intention of fighting.

"Captain?" The girl stretched out her hand under the moon, and a second chainsaw appeared in her hand. The ferocious teeth roared, confronting Jeppard who was holding the violin case to protect Cocolia.

The incident happened suddenly and the captain didn't want to escalate the situation to a point where it couldn't be resolved.

"go!"

The captain turned and rushed to the huge floor-to-ceiling window of the office, pulling the trigger continuously. Where the bullets landed, unknown ferns took root crazily in the glass, but in an instant, the high-strength glass shattered instantly.

Yuexia also turned around and followed the captain's footsteps.

The girl continued to accelerate and almost instantly passed the captain. The chainsaws in her hands were crossed left and right to form an "X" shape. With one step of the moon, she pushed off the ground and jumped up. The girl was the first to break the glass and began her free fall from a height of 100 meters.

The captain followed closely behind. Unlike Yue who jumped three meters high in one step, the captain jumped in one step and stepped directly on Cocolia's desk. Then, exerting force with one leg, the captain turned 180 degrees in mid-air.

The captain's eyes were fixed on Cocolia, who stood upright behind Jeppard.

Cocolia stood up, with her upper body completely hidden in the shadows. In this fleeting glance, it was difficult for the captain to accurately capture Cocolia's expression, but he could see it.

Cocolia is laughing.

It was not a smile of some successful plan, but a lonely smile.

It was a very faint smile, and the curve of the corners of her mouth was so slight that it was hard to even think she was smiling.

damn it......

Like a standard high jump, the captain jumped over the huge hole in the glass with his back like a nimble fish.

The whole world was hanging upside down in his eyes.

"Don't really think you can move forward with the world on your back, you crazy bitch."

In the whistling cold wind, his voice drifted in the wind, "People like this never have a good ending."

In his mind, Cocolia's smile and the smile of the Ferryman before his death seemed to overlap.

Exactly.

Chapter 30: What are the benefits? I should ask you this too.

Klipper Castle stands in the center of Belloberg. Seven hundred years ago, when the fortress was built in the name of "preservation", it is like the guardian of this last city of preservation, standing there silently, speechless, tenaciously.

It seems that it will always stand, defying the wind and snow outside the wall.

But today, this indestructible fortress, after seven hundred years, finally...had an accident.

Nearly a hundred Iron Guards gathered in the square outside Klipperburg, with their swords sharpened and guns loaded. Under the leadership of Bronya Rand, the successor of Klipperburg, they surrounded the entire perimeter of Klipperburg.

Countless people put down their work and gathered together quietly. They speculated, observed, and waited for the event to happen.

Some sharp-eyed citizens even saw the broken and falling glass and the two rapidly falling figures on the fortress before the Iron Guards.

"Iron Guards!! Capture those two outsiders who are trying to overthrow Beloberg!" Bronya thought that those two men were desperate and chose to break the window and jump off the building, wanting to die heroically.

The Iron Guards carried out the order without hesitation. They gathered together, determined the landing points of the captain and Yuexia, and surrounded the possible landing points of the two in advance.

However, the captain, who was falling at a very fast speed, fired at the ground in the center of the crowd.

The power of [Abundance] was infused into the bullets, and spores broke out of the ground, growing wildly under the catalysis of imaginary energy.

In a flash, the mushroom stem grew taller and the cap opened.

It was a mushroom so huge that one had to look up to see it.

Yuexia and the captain fell on the cap of the mushroom almost one after the other, and then were suddenly bounced up by the cap of the big mushroom.

Everyone could only look up and watch the two of them escape from the encirclement in this strange way.

"Captain, where should we retreat?" In mid-air, Yuexia held the chainsaw in one hand and held the hem of her skirt with the other, looking back at the captain whose hood was blown away by the wind.

"Break the boundary." The captain's deep voice sounded, "Southwest direction!"

"Roger that!"

The two fell in mid-air and ran towards the rift in the southwest of the city that had long been blocked by the Iron Guards.

Behind the two men, the Iron Guard's commander Bronya noticed their thoughts at a glance. Bronya aimed the rifle in her hand at their backs. After raising the gun briefly, she pulled the trigger.

However, the captain, who had his back to her, seemed to have eyes on his back. The moment Bronya pulled the trigger, the captain leaped up, turned his body and swung his hand. After the Bloody Hand Saint suddenly opened fire, the captain landed on his front foot, turned around, and continued to chase Yuexia towards the rift.

Behind the captain, energy and physical bullets collided in mid-air.

The imaginary energy crushed the physical bullets, transforming the metal fragments into plant seeds. As the bullet fragments were scattered on the ground, green grass sprouts popped up and scrambled to take root in the ground of the central administrative district.

This was a bizarre scene, causing many people in Beloberg to exclaim subconsciously.

But Bronya had no intention of observing the weeds that were taking root and sprouting. The girl shouted angrily, "First team, follow me! The rest of you maintain order!"

As the only candidate to inherit the position of Great Guardian in the future, Bronya Rand believes that it is her responsibility to take down these two [Subverters].

The disruptor of Beloberg.

---

"What a ridiculous title." The captain exhaled softly, holding the Bloody Hand Saint in his hand, strolling in the rift filled with a strange feeling, and shot down several rift creatures that were like flies.

Under the moon, I watched the remains of the creature fall, and then they took root in the hard stone ground like seeds, blooming into flowers, but then quickly withered and disappeared in the rift.

"She is the one who is overthrowing Beloberg." Yuexia said, and couldn't help but exhale, and her tone became a little stiff, "Captain? Is this our last resort?"

The last resort is to use force.

"If I can help it, I don't want to do that." The captain shook his head. "Besides, Cocolia... we know too little about her. More importantly, her plan. We may have misunderstood her plan."

Yuexia looked at the captain in confusion, "Not euthanasia?"