"Then do you forgive me?"
Wen Yu held Lansi's hand and asked pitifully.
Lansi felt both annoyed and helpless. He had just opened his mouth to continue questioning him when Wen Yu noticed the expression on his face and immediately stepped forward, pressing a kiss against Lansi's lips—
Wen Yu did not want to hear Lansi reject him.
After becoming human, Wen Yu had learned to think more carefully. He thought that if Lansi could no longer speak at that moment, then he himself would not have to feel sad.
This was not their first kiss, but this time, Wen Yu kissed him with extraordinary care.
He wanted Lansi to stop dwelling on those strange questions and simply stay by his side happily. No thoughts about humanity, no thoughts about anything else—as long as they could remain together like this, he would be satisfied.
Their relationship should not have been so complicated in the first place. Wouldn't it be better to return to the simple way the two mermaids had once gotten along?
Back then, when nothing stood between them, they had both been happy.
Wen Yu thought resentfully.
He lowered his head and kissed Lansi gently, without urgency or desire, savoring the soft warmth of his lips.
Behind them, the world was collapsing. The distant high wall had been smashed open, broken bricks soaring through the air like debris from a volcanic eruption.
But Wen Yu did not care about any of it.
He was like a black dragon king resting within a volcano—huge, dangerous, and fierce—yet at this moment, he bent down carefully to kiss a tiny white flower, afraid that even the slightest carelessness would crush something so delicate and fragile.
How could Lansi not understand what Wen Yu was thinking?
After spending so long together, Lansi knew Wen Yu's ostrich-like mentality all too well.
Because of that, Lansi felt both amused and irritated. He did not struggle against the kiss, but after indulging in that brief tenderness, he finally sighed and said:
"Alright, let's… first think of a way to save everyone."
"Why should we save humanity?"
The gentleness in Wen Yu's eyes faded at once, turning cold again as dissatisfaction crept into his voice.
"Those humans did so many terrible things. They even dragged you ashore. Why should they be saved?"
Lansi blinked and replied,
"I thought you'd become more mature… more like a proper gentleman."
Although Wen Yu was undeniably powerful, his lack of understanding of the world often made him seem childish in certain ways.
"Humans have both good people and bad people."
Lansi raised his fingers one by one as he counted.
"If humanity is destroyed, then your subordinates, Carl, and Rose will die too… And honestly, I don't really hate humanity."
After saying that, Lansi secretly glanced up at Wen Yu.
He knew his reasoning might sound overly forgiving, almost naïve, but Lansi believed that since these things had happened to him personally, he had the right to decide whether to forgive or not.
Some humans were indeed despicable, but it was also true that many of them were good.
Besides, Lansi understood that everything humanity was doing now was simply for survival.
"I like Li Si. I like Carl and Rose too."
Lansi lowered his head again and continued counting on his fingers.
"I also like the life I've lived as a human."
"What about me?"
Wen Yu asked suddenly.
Lansi froze. He tilted his head away, not daring to meet Wen Yu's gaze, before mumbling awkwardly:
"I like you too… when you're human."
As a mermaid, Winsor had no worries or troubles. Every sea monster feared him, yet Winsor looked down on all of them in return—
In the ocean, Winsor was more like a legendary overlord, an untouchable existence from myth itself. No matter how deeply Lansi loved him, there had always been an invisible distance between them.
But Wen Yu, as a human, was different.
Wen Yu could feel troubled. He could make friends. He had Carl and Rose, and there were moments when he was helpless in front of Lansi—
To Lansi, this made Wen Yu feel truly alive. It made him feel as though he could finally reach out and touch him.
"You're really troublesome. In the end, you're still the same."
Lansi shook his head helplessly.
Wen Yu fell silent. After a long moment, he smiled, gently rubbed Lansi's head, and said:
"You've already pleaded for humanity so much… Fine. I'll help you."
After saying that, Wen Yu put away his smile and spoke to Lansi seriously.
"I wasn't the one behind the incident at the high wall."
Lansi nodded.
"I know."
He had already begun to suspect that Will was responsible.
Since Will had once been Wen Yu's clone, then he should possess the same abilities Wen Yu once had. If that was the case, controlling the creatures in the ocean was entirely possible for him.
"You can't hear it, but I can."
Wen Yu's pitch-black eyes darkened slightly, and it was obvious that he had thought of Lansi as well.
"Someone in the Alliance used sound waves to lure the whales into attacking this place."
"Then can you stop the whales?"
"I can't."
Wen Yu answered quietly.
"At least, not with my current body."
Moreover, if two sound waves with the same frequency but carrying different commands were emitted simultaneously, it could confuse the whales even more. By then, they might stop responding altogether.
"So next, it's up to you."
Wen Yu patted Lansi on the shoulder.
"I'll protect you all the way to the shore. Once you enter the sea, release the infrasound waves directly and lead all the whales away."
Lansi nodded before asking,
"What about you?"
"Well, I'll leave and return to Winsor's body."
Wen Yu answered tactfully.
"You're going to abandon this body?"
Lansi widened his eyes, finally understanding what Wen Yu meant.
"How can you treat your clone like this?"
Then he suddenly remembered something and asked suspiciously,
"Where's that little octopus? You didn't eat him, did you?"
Wen Yu: "..."
Without answering, Wen Yu took the turtle out of his pocket and handed it to Lansi, clearly trying to change the subject.
"When you go, remember to bring it with you."
The turtle had never witnessed the chaos of the apocalypse before. After Wen Yu brought it to the command post, it heard the deafening roars outside and became so frightened that it hid inside its shell, refusing to come out no matter what.
"Alright."
The turtle instantly attracted Lansi's attention. He slipped it into his pocket, then raised his head to look at the distant high wall with a troubled expression.
"We should hurry."
…
The high wall had collapsed.
It was the worst possible news.
Countless mutated creatures poured through the breach like a raging tide and clashed head-on with the army.
Heavy firepower temporarily held back the incoming assault, but the cost was devastating.
The ground was covered in blood and shattered bones, to the point where it was impossible to tell which belonged to humans and which belonged to mutated beasts.
Even so, the army did not retreat. Neither did the reserve soldiers.
Everyone charged forward with the determination to die if necessary, desperate to win this war.
There was no other choice.
They were the final line of defense. If they fell back, the Alliance behind them would collapse entirely, and far more people would die.
This was a tragic hymn of survival.
Every person here was fighting for the countless lives behind them.
Michael finally located the command post through Li Si's communicator, but the area was already in complete chaos. The soldiers immediately shouted at the two civilians to evacuate when they saw them approaching.
"I'm looking for Li Si!"
Stopped by the soldiers, sweat formed on Michael's forehead from anxiety.
"I know he's inside the command post. Just let me see him."
"This is the command post. Do you think people can just come and go as they please?"
The soldier impatiently raised his gun, preparing to force Michael away with it.
"Hey, hey, don't do that."
Matt, who had accompanied Michael the entire way, finally spoke up when he saw the soldiers about to resort to force.
Matt stepped forward, shoved Michael aside, then leaned toward the soldier and muttered something to him for quite a while.
A minute later, the soldier somehow seemed to have become friends with Matt. He even smiled at Michael afterward.
"There really is someone named Li Si here. He's with the medical team. You can go in and see him."
"Thank you."
Michael felt as if he had just been granted amnesty. He let out a long breath of relief. After thanking the soldier, he glanced at Matt with a complicated expression before quickly rushing past them into the command post.
Inside, wounded soldiers were constantly being carried in on stretchers. Michael followed behind one of the stretchers and soon entered the temporary medical station.
The cries of the injured echoed all around him, but Michael paid them no attention. After searching the area anxiously, he finally found Li Si—
Li Si stood beside a wounded soldier's bed, carefully changing the dressing on the injury.
He appeared unharmed, though exhaustion was evident on his face.
Michael finally relaxed.
After steadying his emotions, he hurried over and grabbed Li Si's wrist.
"Come with me. Quickly."
At that moment, Li Si had been fully focused on his work, immersed in treating the patient. Being suddenly pulled away by Michael left him stunned for a second.
But once he realized who it was, the anger he had been suppressing finally burst out.
Li Si shook off Michael's hand and stubbornly replied:
"I'm not leaving. I want to stay here as a doctor."
"The high wall has already been breached. Sooner or later, this place will be swallowed by the beast tide. Why are you still staying here?"
Michael looked at him with confusion and distress.
Li Si fell silent.
After a long pause, he sighed. Handing over his work to a nearby nurse, he turned and walked outside the tent first.
"Let's talk outside."
Michael frowned, but eventually followed him out.
On the way, he also dragged along Matt, who had been standing nearby enjoying the spectacle.
Once the three of them stepped outside the tent, Li Si stared quietly at the shattered high wall in the distance for a while before finally turning around and asking seriously:
"Do you think that after the high wall falls, the remaining people still have any chance of surviving?"
Michael did not answer.
Instead, Matt replied absentmindedly:
"A chance is still just a chance. Everyone's going to die eventually. It's only a matter of who dies first."
Beside him, Michael pursed his lips before saying:
"Don't think about all that. We only need to worry about ourselves."
"…Michael, is this who you really are?"
Disappointment appeared on Li Si's face.
"So all that kindness and selflessness before… was it all fake?"
Back then, the reason Li Si had truly fallen for Michael was because Michael had seemed different from everyone else—
A long time ago, whenever he had spare time, Li Si would secretly go to the Lower City District to treat patients.
One day, after returning from work, he happened to see Michael walking home from his shift. At the time, Michael had just entered the downtown district when he stopped and handed his dinner to a starving little girl sitting by the roadside.
You had to understand that Michael was only a low-level employee at a Life Technology company. Apart from his meager salary, the company meal was practically his only decent food for the day.
Yet Michael had given that precious meal away to a little girl he had never even met before.
That was the moment Li Si fell in love with him.
He believed that anyone willing to give up his own food for a stranger must be kind-hearted.
Li Si had always remembered that moment.
But now, looking back on it, he could not help wondering whether Michael had hidden motives even then.
"No, I…"
Michael wanted to explain himself, but realized he could not.
He had always been selfish.
When escaping from District 25, he had abandoned his own brother and fled alone.
"It seems all of you believe that once the high wall collapses, humanity is doomed."
Li Si no longer wanted to continue arguing about love and feelings. At a moment when life and death hung by a thread, dwelling on romance felt meaningless.
So he simply said to Michael:
"If that's the case, then why not think of a way to stop humanity from reaching that end?"
Matt looked bewildered.
"Huh? What are you talking about? What can ordinary people even do?"
"Look at yourself."
Li Si replied calmly.
"All I can do is practice medicine. So I joined the medical team and decided to use my skills to help as many people as possible."
Li Si spoke while looking directly at Michael.
After staring at him for a long time, Li Si's eyes gradually reddened.
No matter what had happened, the man standing before him had once truly been the person he loved.
Li Si looked at Michael deeply, as though engraving this moment into his memory. There was sadness and fragility in his gaze.
"My real name is Lansi."
Looking into Li Si's eyes, Michael suddenly confessed his true name almost instinctively.
The moment the words left his mouth, he felt an overwhelming sense of relief.
For so many years, he had lived in fear because of his true identity. And now, for the first time, he finally dared to speak his real name aloud in front of Li Si.
The heavy burden that had weighed on Michael for years suddenly vanished.
His tense expression relaxed, and the smile he usually wore disappeared as well.
He looked at Li Si and said quietly:
"You were right. At the very least, I don't want you to die… I want to stop humanity from being destroyed."
"You're insane!"
After listening to the two of them bare their hearts to each other, Matt was completely dumbfounded. He stared at Michael and Li Si as if they were both crazy.
"Do you really think humans can stop this?"
Matt pointed frantically toward the half-collapsed high wall in the distance, practically jumping in agitation.
"What can you possibly do?"
"I understand computers and electrical maintenance."
Michael answered calmly.
"The most effective way to stop the mutant creatures from breaking through right now is to restore the power grid. I can do that."
"But if you do that, you'll have to go to the high wall!"
Matt looked at Michael in disbelief.
"Are you trying to get yourself killed?"
Michael did not answer immediately.
Instead, he turned toward Li Si and asked softly:
"I'm going to propose this plan to the commanding marshal… There's a high chance I won't come back alive… But I swear to God, I truly love you… Can you forgive me?"
Li Si froze for a moment before smiling faintly.
"I thought you would keep denying your real name forever."
Seeing Li Si's attitude soften, Michael became so happy that he almost forgot the apocalypse looming around them.
"I just want you to keep living in this world."
After a pause, Michael gradually calmed down again. Looking deeply into Li Si's eyes, he added softly:
"I really am selfish. In the end… I'm only doing this for myself."
"I…"
Li Si lowered his head and pressed a hand against the pocket over his chest.
"Lansi gave me his ID chip."
He murmured quietly:
"If we both survive this, Michael… I'll return the ID chip to you. Then we can meet again."
"Alright."
Michael smiled at him gently.
"Damn it. You're both completely insane."
Seeing that neither of them intended to leave, Matt looked at them with utter disdain.
"Then go die if you want. I'm not staying here with you."
After saying that, Matt turned around and walked away.