Why it never ends

Chapter 25 Hekla

When I saw Chiba again, it was already the evening of this Thursday.

Chiba originally proposed to take Hesta out for a ride, but Molly directly refused.

"I protest, Molly," Chiba frowned, "Why can't I, as a guardian, take Hesta out for a stroll? Could it be that I'm fulfilling my obligations, and the base has to get involved?"

Molly said lightly: "If you really have the obligation that you care so much about in your words, then you should know the rules and regulations of the base in advance: to take the students out of the base, you need to make an appointment at least one day in advance—not like As it is now, if you come here casually, you will take people away.”

Chiba struggled for a while, seeing that Mo Li was determined not to open the back door, so she had no choice but to give up.

"I can't help it." Chiba shrugged slightly and looked at Hesta, "Then let's walk around the base."

Hesta didn't speak, and left behind Chiba silently.

The two walked near the playground, and young people in twos and threes were running together under the sunset. In the golden sunset, Hesta suddenly saw a black tattoo around Chiba's neck - it was covered by the collar of the sweater when they met last time , At this moment, I found out that it was a series of sentences composed of letters, and each letter was stretched thin and high, like a row of dense black fences.

The sentences composed of these letters are not the language Hesta is familiar with.

Qianye took out a small silver key and shook it in front of Hesta, "Here, take it."

The key fell into Hesta's palm, and the girl looked at her in confusion, "What is this?"

"That newspaper clipping." Chiba replied, "I deposited it in Grayscale Bank under your name. If you need to take it away later, just take your ID and this key with you."

Hesta was startled, his eyes dimmed a little, "...Thank you."

"How are you feeling, this time?"

"Ok?"

"Why do you look dumb?" Qianye laughed, "Isn't it because you were scared by that bastard?"

Hesta looked up at Chiba: "What does Miss Chiba think, why did you cancel the restraining order against Sean?"

"Because that thing is useless." Chiba glanced at Hesta, "Is it useful?"

Hesta did not give an answer immediately.

She softly recounted what happened that night when the teaching building suddenly lost power, and how Sean might have been using the monitoring system in the teaching building to observe herself for more than half a month.

"Let me tell you." Chiba snapped her fingers, "Holding unrealistic fantasies, pinning your hopes on this system, expecting it to protect you without any dead ends with various complicated rules, the final result is Give the bad guys a stronger incentive to get around the rules. They will prepare in the dark until they think the time is right for a new one... At that point, you're only going to have more trouble."

"But what's the use of Miss Chiba's 'little gift'?" Hesta asked, "Sean has awakened for the second time."

"What about the second awakening?"

"If his strength is enough to compete with the chelate, then it makes no difference whether I hold the gun or not," Hesta raised his head, but deliberately lowered his voice, "Once it enters the bullet time, he can easily catch the gun I fired. bullets, even took the gun away and used it to threaten me."

Chiba smiled, "Since you're so afraid of bullet time, have you tried to understand its limitations?"

Hursta paused, "...I asked Liz, but she didn't tell me."

Qianye looked forward, "Liz has always been a good and well-behaved child, it's normal that she didn't tell you... What about other channels? What other channels have you used to inquire about this question?"

"I went to the archives, but my authority was too low, and many reference materials related to mercury needle research were not open to me. Then I searched the official news of the base, trying to find records related to combat casualties, but the news There are no details in it, so I changed my mind again, I went to the library to find all the memoirs I could find, written by people who survived the infected area, and pulled a book list-"

"This may not be useful," Chiba interrupted, "Publications need to be reviewed before publication, and all sensitive descriptions about mercury needles will be deleted."

"Well...then I save a lot of time," Hesta replied, "because I haven't had time to read these books yet."

"Very good, Jane." Qianye's voice was a little calmer, "The more you are afraid of something, the more people should take the initiative to understand it."

"So...Miss Chiba's answer is?"

Qianye didn't answer immediately, but instead asked, "What about Sean, how much do you know?"

"I don't understand," Hesta said softly, "If I apply to the base for his information, he will definitely know...I don't want to give him a look right now."

"Is this too pessimistic?"

"……how to say?"

Qianye raised his eyebrows lightly, "Even though Xiao En is in an advantageous position now, as long as he doesn't completely defeat you, he has to worry about your countermeasures. He has already unilaterally announced the start of the battle, but you think it's just Is it justifiable to make a fool of yourself and not even bother to know your enemy?"

"Ms. Chiba obviously said that this was just an 'ordinary quarrel between students'—"

"Strategically, this is of course just an ordinary friction," Qianye interrupted Hesta, "but this does not prevent us from formulating a rigorous counterattack tactic for it—use your little head to think about it, you What kind of rules do you want to set for the other party?"

……rule.

Hesta thought about the word and looked at Chiba again.

"Sean has invaded your life with his methods. It is an act of violence, Jane. Violence has no boundaries. Its boundaries are determined only by the reactions of both parties."

"It's like saying that he punched you." Chiba clenched her fist and made a preparatory movement for punching. "You didn't fight back, but just ran away trying to hide further, then you are telling him 'I didn't The ability to fight back, come and give me a second punch'; or if you pull a few friends with you and try to hide behind them, it is telling him that there is no way to make a frontal breakthrough, come and find other loopholes '.

"The more you try to hide behind something, the more you expose your own shortcomings. If you continue like this, you will either cry all day, grab Molly or Fletcher by the sleeve and say Sean bullied me, or Terrified. Then your good life will depend only on when he is busy with other things, or loses interest in you altogether—do you want to live like that, Jane?"

"Well... I don't want to."

Chiba nodded in satisfaction, "Then you have to get to know your enemy. Sean is actually quite interesting. When he and Calvin were first picked up from Hekla, there were several big news stories. to the extent of being on the front page of a newspaper."

"...Really?" Hesta was a little puzzled, "I used Liz's computer to search the newspapers archived by the base, but I didn't find any news about them."

"What keywords did you use?"

"Sean, Calvin, Gringoire...all tried."

"You should use 'Hekla'." Chiba replied, "Most of Mercury's external use is combat codes instead of names, and the reserve members didn't even have a code name before they changed jobs. The outside world calls them 'Hekla Brothers' ’, of course you can’t find it by name.”

(End of this chapter)