Vol 18 Chapter 1-1 (1/2)
The scenery had changed to that of God’s dimension as Zheng opened his eyes again. Though his injuries were so heavy that he lacked even the ability to speak a word. Blood was flowing out from his lungs. Finally, someone yelled for God to heal the whole team and deduct the points from the respective members. A beam shot down from God and enveloped each member.
(So many beams… everyone made it back alive.) Zheng had difficulty moving his head so he looked around with his peripheral vision. There were several girls on the floor and about ten beams. The sight calmed him down and he slowly savored the pain from the repair at the DNA level.
“What?” Zheng grabbed Kampa by the collar and cried in anger. “Why? Gando died? Impossible! How could we return if he died? That’s impossible! He must have completed the trust I placed on him. He must have kept the AllSpark until the last second! You lied. How could he have died?”
Kampa opened his lips but no words came out. He shook his head.
Zero walked over to Zheng and gave a sigh. “We are sorry. Gando died. He brought the AllSpark to us but then the Valkyrie ran out of energy. The robots got…”
“What were you doing?” Zheng continued to shout. “Everyone was fighting with their lives. I am certain Gando was really giving all he had. He didn’t run. He fulfilled the task I entrusted him… How could you let him die?”
The rest of the team met eyes with each other. There was nothing they could say in reply. It was an accident. If YinKong was a bit faster and sliced the robot’s arm, if Zero was ready to shoot at the time, if Heng could shoot faster, if Kampa or WangXia happened to kill that robot… There were so many ifs. Yet, every human only had one life. Ifs couldn’t be applied to a life. Twelve people entered Transformers. Eleven people returned.
“He really died…” Zheng slowly calmed down. He sat down on the floor and murmured to himself. “Gando… doesn’t have a chance to revive anymore. He really died.” That was when he suddenly remembered everyone else in the team didn’t have a chance to revive anymore. They all died once already.
“Is it because it has been too long since anyone died?” Xuan’s indifferent voice came through. He recovered to his normal look. He looked to Zheng calmly. “What do you think this place is? A vacation home? Do you want to spend some points and take a vacation? Stop kidding me. This is God’s realm. What made you believe that people don’t die? Have you forgotten how many people have died? Do you think we can do what we want in the movies after we became strong?”
Xuan’s words were always sharp and blunt. It was not because he was cruel. That was how he thought. You couldn’t expect someone who didn’t care about his own life to care about others’ lives.
“Yeah… he’s dead.” Zheng sighed. He stood up and patted off the dust on his shirt. His head remained low as he said. “Life is so fragile… It really has been too long before someone died. I thought we could all live on, at least until we return to the real world… I was too naive.” He quietly walked to his room.
It was noon of the next day when Zheng appeared again. The team gathered on the platform as was customary. Once all members arrived, they would discuss future plans concerning exchanges and the next movie. It had always been this way. However, Zheng’s depressed look made everyone worried. They thought he would remain depressed for a few days. But he came out the next day.
“Please. Do you wish for me to stay depressed?” Zheng glanced over the team. “You can’t let memories drag you down for your whole life. I am sad not only because a comrade died but also that the belief I have been holding onto shattered. But I haven’t given up on this belief. We will live Gando’s portion for him. Let us all make it back to the real world alive. Wouldn’t that be better?” He then looked to Xuan.