Regarding Xin Ye’s "good idea," Leng Xianye’s initial thought was to use his ability to swallow the eggs the butterflies were protecting all at once.
However, Xin Ye didn’t seem to be on the same wavelength, even if the end result was similar.
"We’re going to take down the entire dome and crush the butterflies," Xin Ye said, his tone so calm it was completely at odds with his words. "There’s only one tunnel here anyway. It’ll be easy to block their retreat."
"You don’t need to swallow the entire rear layer. Just leave a few small patches of support. Gravity will do the rest, and the dome will collapse on its own."
Leng Xianye was stunned. Xin Ye was far more ruthless than he was.
"What are you standing around for?" Xin Ye shot him a puzzled look. "The scales are about to fall. Move, move!"
Xun Yin watched the scene unfold silently, listening to Xin Ye’s voice.
Without realizing it, Xin Ye had begun to instinctively take the lead in moments of crisis.
*Good,* he thought. *I’m very satisfied with this outcome.*
Lian Muyun handed a gun to Tang Qiuqiu, then turned to Xin Ye. "What about the scales?"
If the space inside this cavern hadn't been so vast, they wouldn't have had any time to react at all.
"I’ve got medicine in my mirror—the kind for water snake venom. It works on butterfly toxins too," Xin Ye said, demonstrating his versatility once again. He stole a glance at the nearby Rebirth Team. "There’s enough for the four of us."
Lian Muyun saw a new side to Xin Ye’s personality. "I thought you’d try to save everyone."
"I can't. I'm like a clay Buddha crossing a river—hardly able to save myself." Xin Ye weighed the handgun in his hand. "When we Bodhisattvas with guns can't save the believers, we usually take the initiative to help them pass away peacefully."
Nearby, Fu Shu acted as if he hadn't heard a word. He proactively inserted himself into the plan. "You take down the dome. My team will help clear out any stragglers. Don't worry about the scales; we're called the Rebirth Team for a reason. A little toxin won't stop us."
Xin Ye looked at Fu Shu the way one might look at a discounted item in a supermarket on the eve of the apocalypse. *So cheap,* he thought.
Xun Yin chimed in: 【Correction. Not cheap—free.】
Between their previous cooperation during the Sparrow Vine mission and the simulation training that was better than nothing, the team's coordination had become much smoother.
After Leng Xianye activated his ability, he nearly collapsed, his body swaying as he almost hit the ground.
The dome showed obvious signs of loosening. The butterflies panicked, flying upward and pressing their fragile bodies and wings against the walls in a desperate attempt to keep the ceiling from falling. However, with so much of the stone wall missing, the damage to the nest's roof was initially all bark and no bite—a few fragments of rock fell, but the ceiling held.
Xin Ye grabbed Leng Xianye by the sleeve and ran toward the edge of the dome’s reach. A layer of shimmering scales still drifted down onto their heads and shoulders. Leng Xianye’s lips were pale. "Sorry... that was my limit."
Just as Xin Ye was about to offer a word of comfort, a thunderous blast echoed from the ceiling ahead.
The sound of falling stone intensified. The collective fluttering of countless butterfly wings grew loud enough to cause a headache. Xin Ye turned his gaze toward the culprit—their great benefactor. He saw Tang Qiuqiu, her cat ears popping out in shock, kneeling beside Lian Muyun with her hands up to shield him from the scales.
She couldn't help but let out a "Meow!" of surprise. "Wasn't that just a normal sniper rifle a second ago?! What the hell is that thing?!"
Lian Muyun was prone on the ground, adjusting a large-caliber heavy sniper rifle that was bigger than he was—essentially a small cannon.
"Ah... didn't you know? The word 'gun' can also mean 'cannon,'" the gunsmith said with a click of his tongue. He met Xin Ye’s gaze. "Bodhisattva, you should consider using one of these next time."
Xin Ye touched his mirror shard.
*Damn it. I can't compete with these flashy abilities.*
Lian Muyun had fired the first shot far from them; now, he fired another closer to their side. The intent was clear. The connections holding the dome finally groaned under the strain, gave a final *crack*, and collapsed.
The butterflies' intellectual evolution clearly hadn't reached the entire swarm. The beneficiaries were likely only a few high-level commanders.
The Blue Butterfly managed to lead a few stragglers into a side tunnel before the dome fell, but the vast majority were crushed under the stone. Some were caught in the blast from Lian Muyun’s heavy sniper, but even more had died because they defied the Blue Butterfly’s orders, choosing to stay and protect the eggs.
In the end, they lost both their lives and the eggs.
Of course, the few that had temporarily survived didn't fare much better. The members of the Rebirth Team followed Fu Shu’s orders with clinical efficiency, swiftly killing any butterflies attempting to flee.
Under Fu Shu’s silent direction, his teammates intentionally left the Blue Butterfly for last. Xin Ye finally brought it down from the air with a single shot.
Once the butterflies were cleared, Xin Ye quickly pulled Tang Qiuqiu up from the ground. "We need to move. Now."
"What's the rush?" Lian Muyun used his ability to dissolve his sniper rifle as Leng Xianye hauled him up. "I thought we just finished a fight. Can't we rest?"
Xin Ye wanted to snap back with "Rest my ass," but a burst of distorted static choked the words in his throat.
When the sound returned to normal, the faces of everyone present—except for Xin Ye, who had guessed the world's background thanks to Xun Yin, and Fu Shu, who looked mysteriously knowing—turned pale.
They had heard that voice just this morning. it was the same voice that had broadcasted Xin Ye being the first to enter the barrier.
The voice they assumed belonged to the "Officials."
"Due to participants disrupting the—the order of the field, the rules of the competition have changed. The scoring criteria is—is—"
The voice was intermittent. Gradually, the mechanical tone shifted into the voice of the Blue Butterfly.
But it was no longer soft. It was sharp and filled with rage.
"—The first team to exterminate the squad containing Xin Ye will be awarded first place in this competition!!!"
***
After the two teams escaped the cave together, they quickly left the valley area. Once they were a significant distance from the valley entrance, Xin Ye decided to stop for a breather.
Fu Shu unexpectedly suggested they part ways. "The butterflies have put a bounty on you. Let's split up here."
"We never planned on moving with you anyway. You're the ones who tagged along," Leng Xianye said, his attitude toward Fu Shu remaining hostile. Xin Ye touched Leng Xianye’s arm to calm him and nodded to Fu Shu.
As they parted, Chen Anyang seemed quite reluctant.
"Goodbye, Big Boss! If we're fated to meet after the match, I'll buy you some cookies!"
Reminded by Chen Anyang, Xin Ye summoned his Mirror Image and asked for a cookie and the medicine for the butterfly scales. He also put the Image to work: "Go scout the path ahead for me. It's getting late, and we won't make it out of the barrier today. We need a place to stay."
The Mirror Image was about to agree immediately but then stopped. "Take your medicine first."
Seeing his serious expression, Xin Ye quickly crunched the cookie and swallowed it with the medicine.
The Mirror Image’s expression softened slightly, and he went ahead to clear the path.
Xin Ye distributed the medicine to his teammates. As Lian Muyun took his, he couldn't help but tease, "You and your Mirror Image have a great relationship, don't you? I knew another Special-type esper whose ability was called 'Heart's Blade.' She could manifest an ideal romantic partner to protect her. But later, because her ability kept getting hurt protecting her, she decided it was too weak and forced herself to imagine an even stronger 'ideal' to replace the original."
"She went through a lot of protectors after that," Leng Xianye added, knowing the story.
"My Mirror and I aren't like that. He... I’m the one who begged him to come," Xin Ye said with a hint of sentimentality, recalling the memory of when his ability first awakened. He decided to change the subject.
He remembered that Leng Xianye and Tang Qiuqiu’s memories of their awakenings weren't exactly pleasant.
"Why are you so repelled by Fu Shu?" Xin Ye turned to ask Leng Xianye the question he was most curious about.
Leng Xianye lowered his eyes. When he looked back at Xin Ye, his gaze was complex.
"I hadn't met Fu Shu in person before, but I saw his photo on my father's desk. All I know is that he was a participant in some project," he said, speaking slower than usual as if trying to find the right words. "My father works at Headquarters. You know how it is... some things up there are... hard to talk about."
Xin Ye didn't press Leng Xianye further. Instead, he asked Xun Yin: "You mentioned that in the last timeline, only Leng Xianye had seen Fu Shu. What was that about?"
【Just a minor side plot that a supporting character wouldn't be privy to. But you're the protagonist now,】 Xun Yin teased. 【You heard him—it was a Headquarters project. You remember the small conflict Leng Xianye had with the high-ranking officials after winning the competition in the last timeline, right? That’s when he met Fu Shu. He’s... an esper modified by Headquarters.】
【In the original story, Fu Shu died at a time and place you never knew about.】
Xin Ye suddenly felt a chill.
【For the sake of making this 'IF' timeline more interesting, I brought Fu Shu out early. If you had looked at him a bit closer back in the cave, you might have seen a butterfly land on him and bite him.】
【Fu Shu did it on purpose, of course... The butterfly that sucked his blood was poisoned to death instead, while he used Rebirth to heal the wound instantly.】
【That is what a modified esper looks like.】
Xin Ye rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.
The Mirror Image eventually chose a sandy area for the team to camp for the night. Although the temperature was low, the sand was the terrain butterflies detested most. For a team currently marked for death by the swarm, it was the most suitable place to rest.
Xin Ye took out a tent. After the group worked together to set it up, they divided the labor: lighting a fire and setting up a grill. They brought out the water snake meat they had prepared at noon and stored in the mirror.
"Where to tomorrow?" Tang Qiuqiu asked, drawing circles in the sand. Exhaustion was finally catching up to her.
Today's events had been far too harrowing.
Xin Ye and Leng Xianye spoke in unison: "Go to the Flooded City to find Xing Yue."
After speaking, they didn't share a look as they usually did. Instead, Xin Ye gave a detailed summary of their current situation.
In this preliminary round, the organizers hadn't clearly stated any criteria for ranking. Instead, they left the espers to their own devices—killing mutants while uncovering the truth of this world.
The mechanical voice and the messages they had received were now clearly confirmed to be illusions created by the butterflies to deceive them. As for how they used human technology to achieve this, it remained unknown.
"A wily hare has three burrows. The butterflies definitely have more than just that small group we saw in the cave today. Even if the valley is a core base, the remaining number of butterflies is likely terrifying. Once we regroup with Xing Yue, we need to figure out how they're mimicking the officials."
After finishing, Xin Ye took a sip of water handed to him by the Mirror Image. He then complained to Xun Yin in his mind: *Isn't this preliminary round a bit too disgusting? The mutants aren't that hard to kill, but for these rookie espers, the world-view deception is too much.*
If not for Xun Yin, even he might have been fooled.
【It’s only interesting if it’s hard. Besides, it’s not just about brute force,】 Xun Yin’s voice carried an indecipherable emotion. 【...A script like this is perfect for someone like you—someone with only a D-rank ability but a wealth of survival experience.】
***
The Rebirth Team chose to spend the night in the battlefield ruins.
After confirming his teammates were asleep, Fu Shu stepped out of the temporary military tent.
He opened his multi-function watch and placed a voice call through a communication app.
"Hello? ...Everything went well today. But that 'You Guys Are Gonna Lose, Right?' team is still in the lead."
"Leng Xianye? I saw him. No... Lian Muyun? His ability is strong, but... Xing Yue? Miss Xing isn't with the team, as you saw long ago."
"Face it, it’s that D-rank esper named Xin Ye who’s leading them. He’s ranked first in the Seventh Branch. As for how he’s moving faster than me, even though I already know the world-view... that’s anyone’s guess."
"What does it matter if they take the championship? ...I’ll be returning to Headquarters to serve anyway. Just spend the rest of the time peacefully? Understood. Ah, what did you say?"
"Xing Yue’s ability is out of control? Don't go to the Flooded City?"
***
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