I had no idea how long I was out for. Probably an hour to an hour and a half. I didn't keep track of the time, and when I glanced out of the window, the sky was still dark. Dawn hadn't arrived yet. I could also sense fighting and tremendous mana bursts in the distance – evidently General Jiang Jun and his command staff were still going at it with the Silver Wing Wolf King.
"Whoa!"
"Hey! Watch it!"
"Do you have some space here?"
"Over here!"
It also seemed that the whole student population of Jing Tian Academy had been evacuated here as well. The students and staff were squeezing into the vast shelter, trying to find space to sit or sleep. Already crowded by civilians in the area, even the spacious interior of the shelter was barely enough to accommodate everybody.
And there were still more refugees flooding in. Not the students, but beleaguered survivors who looked haunted, almost as if they were wallowing in despair.
"Medic!"
"Help! Chan's bleeding out! I can't stop the blood!"
"Is there a doctor here?!"
"Over here!"
"Bring him over here! We'll treat his wounds!"
I turned my head at the familiar voices. Teacher Cure and Pearl Pang were taking charge of what looked like a hastily set up medical bay. Wounded soldiers were lying on sheets, blood seeping through improvised bandages. More soldiers were rushing over, bearing stretchers of their severely injured comrades.
In their mission to search for survivors and escort them to safety, the soldiers had clashed against powerful monsters that had invaded the city. Not all of them were of General Jiang's level, obviously. They evidently had a difficult time against the enemy. Several of them were already zipped up in black body bags and were being brought to another area to make space for the living.
It was cruel, but practical. The limited space of the shelter was of no use to the dead, but the living required the place to stay alive.
"What a waste."
To my complete lack of surprise, it was Bu Fan. He was shaking his head as he watched Teacher Cure, Pearl and other healing mages work frantically to save the wounded and maimed soldiers. Beside him, Zhang Hou Zi had a quizzical look.
"What do you mean, Brother Fan?"
"Sacrificing yourself for the weak is plain silly. This is a dog eat dog world." Bu Fan sighed mockingly. "Each mage is worth a thousand ordinary humans. For a few mages to sacrifice their lives to protect a few hundred normal civilians is a waste. Why must the blood of the strong flow for the weak? Only idiots are stupid enough to become martyrs. It's not worth sacrificing your life for someone who is weaker, or someone who is normal. In this world, you can only rely on yourself! If you are weak, then you deserve to die! You can't expect other people to always save you!"
Several of the soldiers and quite a few civilians glared at him, but Bu Fan sneered at them.
"What? Don't like it when I say the truth? That's the harsh reality of this world. Survival of the fittest. The strong eat the weak. Best if you start dealing with it as soon as possible."
One of the soldiers began stomping toward him, his face contorted in fury, but several of his comrades grabbed him and hauled him back.
"It's not worth it," a stocky soldier told his burly friend, shaking his head.
"Yeah, we have more important things to do than argue with a self-centered brat."
"Is it wrong to be self-centered? Why am I in the wrong for wanting to preserve my own life? I'm not obligated to sacrifice myself to save others."
"No, you're not," Teacher Fielding said, his tone frosty. "But you have no right to insult and make fun of other people for nobly offering their lives to save others. No one cares if you prioritize your own life over others. It's human nature to want to live, even if it's at the expense of others. But you went and insulted those who chose to valiantly put themselves at risk to protect civilians. That's where you're wrong."
"What? You guys just can't take the truth!"
"The truth?" I scoffed. "What truth? The nonsense that you self-centered people like to spout about strong eat the weak? I can never understand all that rubbish. Would you constantly whip a horse that you must ride everyday? The horse will either throw you off or die. Just because you're stronger or you rule over and own a horse doesn't mean you abuse it. You're still reliant on the horse. Same with a dog – why should a dog be loyal to an owner who abandons it to the wolves at first sight? It might as well go live on its own, or find a less selfish owner."
Bu Fan's lip curled. "Even horses and dogs have their uses. What use are ordinary civilians? They can't even fight."
One of the soldiers had enough. Breaking free of his comrades, he strode over, his face a mask of rage.
"The food I've eaten…" he jabbed at his stomach, and then began pointing toward several people in the crowd. "…was produced by the farmers of the Jing Tian Muncipal Village. Transported by those drivers over there. Sold by those cashiers and logistics personnel running the Mu Biao Supermarket (Mu Biao is translated as Target, by the way) branch. As a soldier, I can focus on my training without having to worry about going hungry because my food is produced and delivered to me in an easy manner."
He then drew his weapon, causing Bu Fan to flinch. Not caring about the brat's hesitation, he ran his hand along the smooth blade.
"This sword was forged by that uncle over there, the head of the Hei Tie Blacksmith Coproration. He's old now, and he has never fought with any of the swords he produced, but I can tell you now…and I'm sure many of my squad mates can tell you as well…his weapons have saved our lives. Many times. If it weren't for the weapons he forged for us, we would have died at the hands of beasts."
"If it weren't for this teacher and healing mages, I would have died!" shouted an injured soldier, whose head was still bandaged and bloodied. Evidently he had received treatment from Teacher Cure, Pearl and the others, for his wounds were healing up nicely. "We don't expect them to fight, but that doesn't mean they are useless! Imagine if we abandoned them because they are 'weak'! I bet most people would have lost their lives from sustaining fatal injuries!"
"It's not just about other people having the ability to save lives. The home I lived in was constructed by those workers of Tian Ling Construction Company. The furniture I bought was from Jiang Xiang. I've benefited from electricity produced by Quan Guo Dian Li Corporation. This smartphone was from Xiao Mi. all these things made my life so much easier. I could concentrate on training, on becoming a soldier while living off all these luxuries…my salary provided by taxpayers' money. In exchange, I became a warrior whose job is to fight monsters, to protect civilians. And now you're saying that after enjoying all these benefits and the fruits of labor of all these people during peacetime, when a crisis comes, I should just abandon all of them, forget about the benefits I reaped from them in terms of food, commodities and taxpayers' money, and prioritize my own life because I happen to be stronger than them? Because they are ordinary civilians and therefore they don't deserve to be protected?"
"You're underestimating us soldiers, boy!" another soldier, a grizzled sergeant, snapped. "What have they been teaching you in the magic academy? That you can live off government funding, taxpayer money and learn magic to do whatever you want? That you don't have to do anything in return for the Federation who invested so much resources into nurturing you?"
"Why would a school and the government waste resources on grooming a talented person into a mage if that person is going to abandon the civilians he's being trained to protect?"
"That's…"
Bu Fan was unable to refute that. He seemed to shrink as everyone glared at him. He tried to splutter, but nothing came out. Zhang Hou Zi grabbed him and pulled him back, shaking his head. Even his loyal lackey was hard-pressed to find anything to defend his boss.
"What's going on here?"
An officer strode in, seeing the soldiers all confronting a kid instead of doing what they were supposed to be doing.
"Nothing, sir."
"We're heading over to the rest area now."
"Don't bother the civilians," the officer said dismissively. He glanced at his smartphone. "I'm going to need volunteers. Apparently there has been sightings of survivors in the Ming Jie neighborhood."
"Did you say Ming Jie?" Bu Fan flared up unexpectedly. Everyone turned to stare at him.
"Yeah, I did. Why?"
"No…I…"
"Isn't your sister from Ming Jie High?" Zhang Hou Zi blurted out, and then fell silent when Bu Fan glared at him.
The officer didn't pay the students much attention, and was instead turning back toward the soldiers. "As I was saying, I need a squad to volunteer to go to the Ming Jie neighborhood. There are survivors crying for help there, encircled by Cyclops Rats, Lycanthropes and Dire Wolves. There are even a few Thunder Wolves in the area…and a single Silver Skeletal Wolf. We need at least one high-level mage in the squad."
Bu Fan was growing paler with each subsequent revelation.
"No way…"
"So who wants to go?"
The huge guy who went over to confront Bu Fan didn't hesitate. "I will."
"Me too," his stocky squad mate joined in.
"That means my squad will be going," the grizzled sergeant said with a sigh. He cast a sharp look at the soldiers under his command. "You guys better not be regretting this!"
"No, Sarge!"
The squad seemed as if they were up for the mission, even though they must be feeling very tired after repeated reconnaissance and escort missions.
"Do you mind if I volunteer as well?"
Everyone turned to stare at Bu Fan. After his whole tirade about strong eat the weak, dog eat dog, and how it was nonsensical that the blood of the strong should be spilled for the weak, he was the last person we expected to sign up for this almost suicidal mission.
The officer, on the other hand, hadn't been a part of the altercation and didn't know. So he shook his head immediately.
"We're not bringing civilians along. It's too dangerous. Even if you're a student of Jing Tian Academy, you've not been trained in military operations. Quite frankly, you'll only get in the way."
"I promise I won't get in the way!" Bu Fan begged. "But I really need to go along! Please!"
"Why?" the officer asked coldly, unmoved. Bu Fan had no choice but to hang his head and confess.
"My sister is in Ming Jie High. Please…I need to save her." he swallowed. "She's…crippled. She can't move around without a wheelchair. She has healing magic, but she can't fight at all. She might be lying somewhere, helpless...hiding from those monsters. I…"
Oh, wow…the hypocrisy of this bastard amused me. So if it was other people, as long as they were weak he had no compulsions leaving them to fend for themselves because he had no obligation to save them. They deserved what they got for being weak. They couldn't expect others to save them. But if it was his sister, then he would do everything to save her. It didn't matter that she couldn't fight, was "weak" and was wheelchair bound. She could rely on her "brave" big brother to rescue her.
Double standards indeed. Bu Fan couldn't care less if "mob" characters and strangers died, because they deserved to for being weak, but it was all right for his sister to be weak and he couldn't let her die. The same went for every xianxia or cultivator protagonist ever. They would pull the strong eat the weak card, but when their heroines, love interests, family members – most often their sisters, and waifus get threatened, they would hypocritically go against the logic they spouted and do everything to rescue them. Now I wasn't expecting Bu Fan to be some hero who wanted to save the whole world – I certainly wasn't some heroic messiah capable of protecting the world and I wasn't going to try – nor did I care if he wanted to go save his sister or waifus, but he went around spouting all that arrogant bullshit about strong eating the weak, and mocked courageous soldiers who selflessly put their lives in the line for others. No one cared if he couldn't be bothered to save strangers, and no one was going to label him a coward. No one cared if his sister was the only one he was willing to save, or if his waifus were the only one he wished to save. What we cared about was him insulting people who risked their lives, calling it a waste, and then looking down on the "weak" for being unable to protect themselves. And now he wanted to go save his "weak" sister without retracting his words. He couldn't have his cake and eat it.
Society was not made up of warriors and soldiers alone. Warriors and soldiers couldn't survive in a world alone. The whole strong eat the weak was bullshit. Soldiers still needed farmers to supply them with food, blacksmiths to provide them weapons, doctors and nurses to help them heal from their wounds or diseases and recover. Everyone had a role to play in society. It wasn't a matter of "strong eat weak" or dog eat dog. A lion might be able to kill a single human, but a group of humans working together can slay even the greatest lion. That was how we rose to dominance over the planet – not by being selfish, but by banding together and cooperating with each other.
Those xianxia novelists and their absurd "strong eat the weak" bullshit were polluting the minds of young readers, and I intended to put a stop to it with my very own story. Still, it was amusing how Bu Fan so openly displayed his double standards.
"Imagine if your sister is in another city…and the people there have the same attitude as you. The soldiers, instead of rescuing your sister, abandon her because she's on a wheelchair and unable to fight, and therefore her own weakness is to be blamed for her demise." I shook my head with a bitter smile. "It's so easy to spout all this BS about strong eat the weak and not being obligated to sacrifice your own life when your family members and loved ones are not the ones in danger. But if they die because soldiers didn't save them, then you will start blaming the military for not doing their job. Isn't that ironic?"
"SHUT UP!" Bu Fan roared at me. He lunged at me, flames kindling in his fists, but Zhang Hou Zi restrained him.
"It's not worth it! Ignore that jerk!"
So I was a jerk now. Well, I was aware that I was a self-righteous, pompous asshole who enjoyed ranting about the flaws and problems of other novels, which was more than I could say for the writers and characters who truly believed the bullshit they spouted. Glancing at the comment section, I sighed and shook my head, already anticipating the hate, flames and abuse. Katherine Gwele would probably accuse me of over-explaining my biased self-righteous views. Yeah, but which xianxia or Chinese protagonist wasn't biased or self-righteous? I was trying to fight against a sea of bullshit logic espousing the "values" of strong eat the weak and the abandonment of the "weak." Like every historian, I knew how dangerous such values were – Adolf Hitler's insistence on creating a pure Aryan race while eliminating the Jews was just one example of racial genocide committed in the rise of Fascism during the mid-twentieth century. The Japanese abuse and horrifying oppression of conquered racial "inferiors" during their invasion of Asia was another. These disturbing views would only lead to authoritarian states who oppressed people just because they weren't mages or cultivators.
That was the sort of society these xianxia stories were promoting. Tell me, do you really believe in that bullshit? Do you really want to live in a world where people are oppressed just because they are not mages or cultivators? Where, no matter how much contribution you make in agriculture, medicine, science, law, politics, economy, businesses, you are still considered expendable, deprived of protection and left to die or get eaten all because you were "weak"?
As I said, what idiot whipped a horse he must ride everyday?
Bu Fan shrugged Zhang Hou Zi off roughly and turned to the officer
"Please," he implored. "Let me come along. I swear, I won't get in the way. I just want to find and rescue my sister, no matter the cost."
The officer considered him for a moment before he finally nodded.
"Fine. But you must listen to everything Sergeant Apone says. Is that understood?"
Left with no choice, Bu Fan nodded, but his defiant eyes blazed stubbornly. The guy was surely going to break away the first chance he got and look for his sister on his own.
…good luck to him, I guess.