The teachers gathered at the front, whispering on what to do going forward. Unable to suppress my curiosity, I sat some distance away and eavesdropped on them.

"Teacher Ji Lu and the others were killed. They succeeded in slaying the three rank C Thunder Wolves and a good portion of the Dire Wolf pack, but at the cost of their lives."

"d.a.m.n it! Who's in charge now? Who's going to take responsibility?"

"Who cares about that? The important thing now is to lead the students to safety. I presume the plan is still the same. I'll lead a vanguard squad to scout a safe route forward and eliminate whatever monsters we can. If we encounter high-ranked monsters we can't defeat, we'll mark an alternative route forward. The rest of you will follow us in groups of tens and twenties."

Teacher Fielding was impatient to execute the plan, mostly because he was aware that the longer we delayed here, the higher the risk of being attacked by another wave of monsters. There were more descending from the mountains, with stronger monsters joining their ranks each time. If we didn't move fast, we would just be sitting ducks for the monsters.

"I concur," Teacher Mary Cure agreed. "There are over a thousand of us. If we all move in one big group, we'll just attract a lot of attention and draw the monsters to us like moths to a light. However, I'm thinking the vanguard should comprise mostly of teachers. They'll be handling the most dangerous job and fighting monsters, after all."

"There aren't many of us," another teacher argued. "If we split the students into groups of twenty and have a teacher lead each group, then we can't afford to put too many teachers in the vanguard squad. Otherwise some of the student groups will be left to fend for themselves."

"That is indeed a problem," a female teacher agreed sullenly. "And not all of us teachers have combat ability too, which will compound the situation."

"I can defend my group with defensive magic, so you don't have to worry about me," Teacher Cure a.s.sured them.

"Your group will still be the sixth to move out." Teacher Fielding regarded Teacher Cure gloomily. "We need to get the injured to a safe place as quickly as possible."

"I've ensured that they've all healed to the point of mobility. No one will be left behind. They should be able to move fine. The only issue is finding a safe route free of monsters. Obviously none of them will be fit for combat."

"That will be the job of the first five groups. The vanguard, especially, and the subsequent four groups will clear out any monsters we've missed." Teacher Fielding began to turn away. "If we don't have enough teachers, we'll just ask for student volunteers. There are quite a few of them with practical combat experience, having regularly partic.i.p.ated in monster extermination missions. They are just as good, if not better than many of the teachers in combat. I trained most of them myself."

"We'll leave them to you then," a male teacher said. Teacher Fielding nodded and whirled around to face the students.

"Attention, everyone!"

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As expected of the chief referee and combat magic instructor, his voice and presence were domineering as ever. The moment he spoke up, everyone turned to face him. Even the whimpering and sobbing students snapped out of their stupor to look at him attentively.

"I know this is a challenging time for all of you, but even so we have to move forward. We can't sit still and wait for help…in fact, it's possible that help might not come for a long time."

Everyone sobered up at that and watched Teacher Fielding intently. He nodded and continued.

"As you all know…not just Jing Tian Magic Academy, but the whole of Jing Tian City is under siege right now. Everyone is under a.s.sault by monsters that emerge from underground tunnels below the city. The military will take some time to respond, and even then their priorities will be the civilians in the city and trying to retake it. If we want a.s.sistance from them, we should meet up with them at the emergency shelters in the city center."

He raised his voice.

"The closest of these emergency shelters are only three kilometers away! If we all work together and traverse a safe route wisely, we should be able to reach the shelter without many casualties. They have powerful barriers there that will keep out the monsters, and supplies to last us for months if necessary. Unlike the school, which is not a shelter, we can better defend ourselves within these shelters and seek refuge there for as long as it is necessary for the Federation military to reach us."

The students began murmuring to each other, hope flaring up in their chests. Many of us had witnessed fellow cla.s.smates slaughtered by Dire Wolves in the corridors of our academy, and some had to walk past grisly scenes of blood, carnage and corpses to get to the gymnasium, so they were highly aware of the threats that Teacher Fielding mentioned. If there was a place safer than the academy, they wanted to get to it.

"However, these three kilometers are being swarmed by monsters right now. Make no mistake, this will be one of the most dangerous journeys to make. We'll be more vulnerable outside, we have to remain vigilant for sneak attacks, and there are uncountable monsters roaming about the city. Even so, we can't stay here forever. As you've already seen, there are increasing waves of monsters a.s.saulting the school. We can't hold out indefinitely. We have to move to a safer place before one of the higher-ranked monsters arrive."

A single rank B monster was enough to kill a significant number of students during the campfire party incident. Needless to say, everyone was dreading the prospect of being here when a few of them arrived. And they would arrive eventually at this rate.

"…what do we do?"

"We have to make for the shelters, of course!"

"But there are more monsters out there!"

"If we stay here, the monsters will come!"

While everyone argued, Teacher Fielding clapped loudly to draw their attention back to him. Everyone turned as one, wilting under his stern gaze.

"What must be done will be done. We will carve a safety route to the shelter by whatever means necessary. Fighting, hiding, fleeing, whatever. Don't bother with nonsense such as honor or courage or heroism. The priority is to stay alive. We will survive, no matter what. It doesn't matter if we have to become sniveling cowards – if we can find a safe path past the monsters, we will take that. However, I am under no illusion that we will be able to avoid combat completely. As such, I will have to ask for student volunteers. Remember, this is strictly voluntary. Do not feel pressured to volunteer if you do not think you are ready for combat. This can mean the life and death of the whole team, so consider carefully."

He took a deep breath.

"But it is absolutely necessary. As you have already heard, the teachers have also suffered casualties and we don't have enough people. We need to rely on you students to forge a path of survival for the sake of others." He smiled. "Isn't that what we've been training for?"

Everyone stared at each other.

"Allow me to elaborate. I will be leading a vanguard squad of about ten to fifteen student volunteers. As I said, combat is inevitable, so be prepared to fight for your life and the lives of your teammates. It will be extremely dangerous and I cannot guarantee your survival, but our job is to scout ahead, mark out a safe route for the subsequent groups following us, and eradicating any monsters we can to minimize threats to the evacuees. If we encounter high-ranked monsters, we will search for safer, alternative routes to go around them. It might end up being further than three kilometers, but as I said, we will do absolutely anything necessary to survive. No matter the odds."

He threw a fist up.

"Now, who is with me?!"

Silence filled the gymnasium as the vast majority of students glanced uneasily at each other. Then someone raised his hand.

"I'll do it."

Everyone turned to stare at me. I shrugged.

"What? If it's slaying monsters, I have some experience in doing so. I'll join the vanguard squad."

Dong Fang Yue Chu chuckled and shook his head. Placing a hand on my shoulder, he raised his other hand. "I'm in too."

"I'll also volunteer!" Harvey added enthusiastically. The guy really saw me as a hero, and was inspired by what he perceived as my courage but was actually pragmatism. I raised an eyebrow at him. Unlike me and Dong Fang Yue Chu, Harvey had almost no experience fighting monsters. The best I could give him was his encounter with the Crastrate, where he got his a.s.s kicked. At least I knew he wouldn't freeze up and was capable of running away if necessary, so it wasn't all bad. Unlike those crazy, unreasonable readers complaining about "useless" characters in the comment section, I was sure that Harvey might have some use. He might spot something we didn't while the rest of us were busily engaging the monsters in battle.

A safe route, for example.

"Oi, oi! If you're going, so am I." Craig Carlson raised his spear. "My Blood Spear wants a taste of those monsters."

"I'll volunteer," Theodore Hammond said simply, slinging his huge hammer behind his back.

"Me too!" Lily Liam stood beside Dong Fang Yue Chu, firm in her decision. Sheila also joined her president, linking hands with Craig. That was seven of us.

"The Black Rose will partic.i.p.ate," Alicia added. "At least I will."

Jin Hao and Mizuno Aoi also joined her, which raised our numbers to ten.

"I hope you don't mind including me." Harrison Reed also raised his hand, his usual smile back on his face. "I may not have as much combat experience as those other students who partic.i.p.ated in missions, but I should be able to contribute somehow."

"Every person counts," Teacher Fielding declared with a nod.

Then someone called Bu Fan also raised his hand and volunteered, along with his buddy, Zhang Hou Zi.

"All right, let's prepare and then move out in five minutes!"

"Harvey." I glanced at my junior. As he was the least experienced among us, I couldn't help but feel worried about him. "Make sure you stay close and don't wander off."

"Roger that, Senior Richard!"

"Looks like we're going to play hero, eh?" Dong Fang Yue Chu grinned as he slapped my back. Lily scowled at him.

"This isn't a game."

"You're right, it's not," I agreed. "But someone has to do it."

"I didn't know that Brother Fan is so heroic." In the distance, Zhang Hou Zi was joking. However, Bu Fan remained nonchalant.

"Going with the main group is more dangerous," he explained. Zhang Hou Zi scrunched up his face in bewilderment.

"Huh?"

"Didn't you see how everyone panicked when just a single Dire Wolf showed up and attacked? The majority of the students are just weaklings. Not only is their fear contagious, it has the effect of magnifying their panic and causing utter chaos when the main group gets attacked. If I'm not mistaken, just a hundred monsters will be sufficient to annihilate the whole group. Furthermore, with such a large group of people walking together, they might as well s.h.i.+ne a beacon on themselves and hold up a sign calling all the monsters to a buffet. h.e.l.l, the higher-ranked monsters will be attracted to such large numbers. I don't want to mix myself with such a large group of sheep. Whether they live or die has nothing to do with me. I will be in charge of my own destiny."

A vein twitched in my temple when I heard his nonsense. I wasn't some arrogant, self-centered a.s.shole who viewed everyone else as weaklings (was that a mentality of many Chinese writers or something? Maybe they got influenced by the bulls.h.i.+t logic of xianxia stories) or sheep. The guy was a b.a.s.t.a.r.d, and I really didn't want to move out in the same group as a f.u.c.king jerk like him only thought of himself. I wasn't a hero, but I wasn't an a.s.shole either. I was somewhere in between.

"Look here, you're just spouting nonsense."

"Huh? What was that?" Bu Fan glared at me when I spoke up. I shook my head.

"Have you been paying attention? What main group? What large group of people walking together? We are moving out in groups of ten to twenty at staggered timings. Thus your whole logic about main group or large group of people makes no sense. There is no main group. There are about fifty to eighty groups of ten to twenty people. We will be minimizing the risk of drawing attention to them. And is it not our job to eliminate monsters in our path so that the others can follow along safely? Why are you acting as if the vanguard squad is an independent group whose purpose is to survive by themselves? Our job is to mark a clear, safe trail for the other groups to follow."

"If you want to play hero, be my guest. Don't drag me into this." Bu Fan sneered at me.

"Don't drag you into this? You're the one who volunteered for this vanguard squad duty!"

"So what? I did it because it gives me the best chance of survival. Wake up, you naïve fool. This is a cruel world. Reality is harsh. The strong eat the weak. The weak gets culled. Sheep exist to be food for the wolves. That's all there is to it."

This whole stupid "strong eat the weak", "survival of the weakest" and "sheep" bulls.h.i.+t again. I was getting tired of this nonsensical logic that plagued the worst written web novels that I had ever read. All the protagonists loved to espouse the same old bulls.h.i.+t and claimed that it was reality when it really wasn't. This whole "law of the jungle" bulls.h.i.+t was just their distorted values and cynical misunderstanding of the world, and did not conform to reality at all. It was f.u.c.king ridiculous how many gullible idiots fell for that absurd "strong eat the weak" line and claim that it was reality when it was just as artificially constructed as any ideal or propaganda. Reality did not work in that fas.h.i.+on. Reality was a lot more complex than "strong versus weak" – h.e.l.l, reality was so diverse and complicated that you couldn't just cla.s.sify people according to "strong" versus "weak" and "wolf" versus "sheep". It just did not work that way.

"Listen, you…" I growled at the stubborn and idiotic Bu Fan. "Everyone has things they are good at, and some people are just not suited for combat. Just because they can't fight a monster doesn't mean they are useless. Teacher Cure, for example, is never going to win a champions.h.i.+p in the national magic tournaments, but she has the rare and extremely precious ability to heal the wounded. Harvey might be inexperienced, but he has good eyes and excellent observational skills (probably because he spent too much time watching video a.n.a.lyses of my matches). The students of the research society may not be known for their strength, but they are the ones who crafted and forged those hi-tech weapons you are using right now." I jabbed a finger at the advanced hilt of a sword that was hanging from Bu Fan's waist. "You probably can't do much without a weapon, can you? Yet you call the people who built you that weapon useless all because they can't fight?"

"What the f.u.c.k are you…?" Bu Fan argued, but I cut him off rudely.

"You think society can be categorized so neatly into strong and weak? You're the idiot here. I admit there's a hierarchy, yeah, and there's a lot of unfairness in this world. But it's not as simple as strong eat the weak. Everyone has their own strengths and roles in society. There is no such thing as a useless person, not unless they literally do nothing. Usefulness doesn't equate strength, power or wealth. That's just your distorted view of things, you solving everything with violence. No one is a G.o.d. There are things that we mages can do that other people can't. But there are also so many things that we mages can't do that other people can. We can't heal people, but healers such as Teacher Cure, doctors, nurses and medics can heal people. They can't fight, but we can protect them. We can't build our own weapons or gear, but the blacksmiths of the research societies can. Even if they can't fight on their own, we can protect them. Everyone has a role to play, and only by working together can we all survive. You think strength is everything? One day, when you find yourself alone and cut off from everyone else, you'll realize that all the strength in the world is useless. You can't survive on your own. When you get injured, there will be no one to heal you. When your weapon breaks, there will be no one to repair it for you. When you run out of food, there will be no one to cultivate crops for you. You think you're a f.u.c.king G.o.d, and that only you have the right to live simply because you're strong and can fight? Well, one day, when everyone else dies and you're truly alone, you'll find that you won't be able to survive on your own. That in order to live, you need the people you so callously dismissed as weak…the people you insulted as sheep…the people you thought useless, but the very same people whose services and products you've been living off this entire time and taking them for granted."

"You…you…you…" Bu Fan spluttered, but I turned my back on him, in no mood to listen to his nonsense.

"I'm joining the vanguard squad because that's how I can best contribute and that's where my strength lies, and also because I wish to do my duty to help all those who have helped me until now. Unlike you, I have not forgotten the people I have lived off on, nor have I taken them for granted. Every time I get injured, they healed me. Every time I need a new weapon, they would issue me one that they just recently built. Every time I need food, I would be able to find a warm, delicious and nutritious meal from the cafeteria rather than just relying on unhealthy cup noodles alone. And all those food come from the farmers who have devoted their lives to backbreaking work just so they can feed the population. Without these, I wouldn't have become the person I am today. They have done the things they could and contributed their fair share to society…to feed and maintain the lifestyles of us mages. Now it's our turn to contribute and protect them after living off them. But here you are, being self-centered and spouting bulls.h.i.+t about how only the strong deserve to live and the weak should be left to their own fates since it's their own fault for not being able to fight and being 'useless'."

I stopped, my rage boiling inside me. I felt like I was going to snap any moment now.

"You p.i.s.s me off. If you want to survive, go join the second squad after us. There's no need to risk your worthless life along with us in the vanguard squad."

"f.u.c.k you!" Bu Fan roared at me. "You don't tell me what to do!"

"That's correct. But you don't get to decide who deserves to live and who deserves to die either. You don't get to decide who is strong and who is weak, or who is useful and who is useless. Not unless you're an arrogant p.r.i.c.k of the highest order."

With that, I stalked off, leaving Bu Fan snarling in impotent rage.