“Yes,” Baiyang answered.

“Then, taking ten thousand steps back, if we really can enter the ‘Train,’ really can find the ‘Black Sheep,’ and the ‘Black Sheep’ really doesn’t kill us, and we’re also extremely lucky to kill ‘Longhorn Beetle,’ and then also save the ‘Ants’… what should we do after that?”

“That would be too simple,” Baiyang said. “All survivors should find ways to escape for their lives. At that time, you should see many ‘allies’ on the ‘Train’—whether ‘Earth-level’ or ‘Human-level.’ As long as you identify your allies’ positions, decisively hide in their rooms, then wait for the chaos to pass and find a way to evacuate the ‘Train.'”

Yes… the plan was good. It sounded like Baiyang had planted many “needles”…

“But how many of us can actually survive?” I said with a gloomy expression. “How many people do you think can escape?”

“I can’t predict everything that will happen in the future,” Baiyang said. “After all, this plan requires many people working together. Once one link goes wrong, other links will also be affected.”

“Brother Yang, I really have no confidence in leading a group of ordinary people to fight our way onto the ‘Train,’ kill a ‘Heavenly-level,’ and then escape unscathed…”

“There’s no need to be so unconfident.” Baiyang placed his hand on my shoulder—this was the first time in my memory that he had touched me.

“What?”

“You are ‘Soul Snatcher,'” Baiyang said. “None of the ‘Zodiacs’ here can be ‘immune to Echoes.’ As long as your conviction is stable enough and you can control ‘Longhorn Beetle’ in the first instant, perhaps your victory will only need a single moment.”

Yes… the logic was sound, but I had never used my “Soul Snatcher” to fight such a high-level enemy before.

“You can use the remaining time to diligently train your ‘Soul Snatcher’ and the ‘Conviction’ in your heart,” Baiyang said. “You must regard human lives as grass and weeds, view teammates as rubble. No matter how many people die or how many teammates you lose, your ‘Conviction’ cannot have any errors—otherwise, you’ll only meet a destructive end.”

In that case, going forward I would still need to continuously participate in “Earth-level” games and use “Echoes” to kill other “Participants” as much as possible. Otherwise, it would be very difficult to get training, and very difficult to regard human lives as grass and weeds.

“Then… what about the ‘Ants’?” I asked again. “After saving them… where should we take them?”

“Take?” Baiyang shook his head. “No need to take them. You only need to let them regain mobility and be able to run about everywhere—that’s already an enormous help to me.”

“Help with what?”

“Of course, to have them search for ‘eyes.'”

The corners of Baiyang’s mouth turned up slightly, revealing a cold smile that made me feel somewhat chilled.

“Search for ‘eyes’…?”

“There are many ‘eyes’ waiting for them to find…” Baiyang continued with his cold smile. “Since they’ve regained mobility but can’t go to the ‘Earth,’ they can only be inconvenienced a bit and search for ‘eyes’ on the ‘Train’… This is truly the best possible news…”

I seemed unable to see through Baiyang again. Every sentence he spoke was difficult to understand.

“You’ll rarely see an ‘army’ with such clear objectives,” Baiyang said to me. “This will all be the result of your efforts.”

How should I put it… My purpose in joining Baiyang was to become strong, and Baiyang truly did, as he said, grant me wisdom.

I had thought I would have a chance to protect myself, be able to retreat completely when I discovered danger, and thus remain uninvolved.

But now it seemed there was simply no such path to choose.

Even if I truly sensed danger, I would already be on the “Train”… How could I retreat completely at that time?

“The latter half of the plan is really too vague,” I said. “You say we’ll see many allies on the ‘Train,’ then enter their rooms to wait for evacuation from the ‘Train,’ but who exactly are the ‘allies’? What is the method for ‘evacuating the Train’? If the ‘Train’ really has an exit, shouldn’t we try everything to rush toward the exit? What’s the meaning of hiding in rooms?”

Baiyang stared at me in silence for quite a while, slowly uttering one word: “Oh?”

I didn’t quite understand what this “oh” meant…

Looking at Baiyang’s micro-expression, it seemed to be saying “you can actually think to this level,” and also seemed to be saying “this didn’t fool you either.”

“Brother Yang,” I organized my thoughts and continued. “If you truly hope we can escape the ‘Train,’ then the best method would of course be at the instant we kill ‘Longhorn Beetle.’ At that time, the ‘Ants’ scatter everywhere, your allies appear, the ‘Train’ is in complete chaos—only then would we have a chance to escape. But once we enter ‘rooms’ to hide and wait for all the dust to settle and order to be reestablished… where would we outsiders run to?”

I thought Baiyang would answer my question, but he fell silent again for several seconds.

“Yan Zhichun, if you want to, then run away the instant you kill ‘Longhorn Beetle,'” he said faintly. “I’m only stating a path I’ve planned myself, but you don’t necessarily have to follow it. At that time, whether you don’t run, whether you commit suicide, or whether you put on a mask and become a ‘Zodiac’—it’s all up to you.”

“What…?”

Such a meticulously tight plan, yet it had such a casual ending?

“I have no way to guarantee that everyone in your organization will be ‘forever safe,'” Baiyang continued. “But you should find a way to hide well. After everything is settled, I’ll come find you.”

I see… This wasn’t our ending—it was “Extreme Path’s” ending.

After all, “Extreme Path’s” role ended after protecting this place, destroying the giant bells and display screens, and killing “Longhorn Beetle.” To Baiyang, these people had completely lost their utility value and could be abandoned at any time.

But I couldn’t abandon them.

Although I had never met many of the people in “Extreme Path,” according to Jiang Ruoxue’s words, I bore the “Karma” on their bodies. They would become “Extreme Path,” would fight their way onto the “Train,” would die at the hands of “Zodiacs”—all because of me.

So I would personally determine their ending.

I would fully adopt the first half of Baiyang’s plan, but the latter half needed adjustment.

“This is the plan I’ve set for you and your organization,” Baiyang said. “Remember, if I disappear after two or three years, you must find a way to locate me. It doesn’t matter how long it takes. If I’ve already preserved my memories, you execute the plan. If I haven’t preserved my memories, you help me recover them.”