Beyond the Zenith

Wen Jifei had played mahjong before, so he naturally knew what dice were. He imagined himself tumbling and spinning through the air, then landing on a face.

“So, this makes me some kind of genius, right?” he asked, staring at Lao Jian with hopeful eyes.

“No, more like an idiot.” Lao Jian paused to look at him. “What I mean is, when the Dice-type integration result first appeared, the Coalition took it very seriously. There was a lot of debate, research, and hands-on testing, but in the end, every single one of them, over a dozen people, all turned out the same way. Useless.”

“Hold on.” Wen Jifei snatched the slip from Lao Jian’s hand and pointed at it, refusing to accept Lao Jian’s words. “Look, I’ve got an A and a B here too! I’m just unstable, that’s all.”

“That’s exactly the problem. The research institute tried everything, and ultimately proved that Dice are completely uncontrollable. There’s no pattern. Nothing can influence or change it. It can flip from one face to another at any given second. That means when you swing your blade, even you yourself will have no idea what level that swing will be.”

“Then I’ll swing a bunch of times! Swing enough and I’m bound to land on A!” Wen Jifei shouted indignantly.

“A Sharpie isn’t going to stand there and let you take swings!” Lao Jian shouted right back.

“Fine, then just consider me an E-!” Wen Jifei argued. “I won’t pretend to be a genius. An E- can still suit up! An E- can still go to the front lines!”

Lao Jian snatched the slip back, held it up close to Wen Jifei’s face, and jabbed a finger at it. “Look closely. You also got an F. Do you know why they say suiting up an F is a waste? Because half the time, an F can’t even feel the source energy. Can’t even feel the device. Do you understand what that means?

“It means that you could charge at a Sharpie with A-rank speed, only to suddenly just... stop. You may end up standing there like an idiot.

“It means you can’t even serve as a sparring partner, because whoever you’re matched with will never know what to expect from your next swing. One slip and they could kill you. Or you could kill them.”

Wen Jifei finally had no rebuttal for that.

But Lao Jian still wasn’t done.

“Sharpies are strong. We’re weak. The Coalition’s tactics have always relied on platoon-based attacks. Every person’s role is critical,” Lao Jian continued. “So imagine what happens if a platoon has you in it.”

“I—”

“You’d get your teammates killed.”

Those words struck like a killing blow. The indignation in Wen Jifei disappeared, and he collapsed in on himself.

“It’s time to give up,” Lao Jian said with a shake of his head. “Think it over.”

***

That night, outside the dormitory, Wen Jifei crouched alone in a corner, picking up pebbles, throwing them, then picking them up again. His defiant look betrayed his unwillingness to accept the situation.

Han Qingyu watched Lao Jian light a cigarette, then asked calmly, “Why does this happen?”

“Basically, when a normal recruit enters the source energy field, they start absorbing it on their own, whether fast or slow, and the absorption eventually settles on a final amount. That’s the result.” Lao Jian glanced over at Wen Jifei. “Dice, though, release it back. So one second they’re at B, the next second they’re empty. They start absorbing again, reach D, then empty again. They’ll reach A, then empty again. Sometimes they even stop sensing and absorbing source energy altogether.”

“Alright. I understand,” Han Qingyu said.

Lao Jian hesitated. “Are you—”

“At first, I felt just as crushed as Plague Chicken,” Han Qingyu continued, speaking over Lao Jian’s question. “Once I’ve calmed down, though, I actually feel pretty relieved.”

“Yeah... I understand.”

Lao Jian stood up and walked over to Wen Jifei, then bent down to tug at the back of his shirt. Wen Jifei shook him off and, when that failed, simply rolled his shoulders and tried to shake him off again.

“How about this? I’ll get Little Qing and the regiment commander to put in a good word and get you transferred to the Second Army. To the Refusers,” Lao Jian said with a smile. “You probably don’t know this, but the Refusers are actually valued even more highly than front lines Witness combat units in terms of importance and logistical priority.”

“I’m not going. I’m not educated enough.”

This statement made Lao Jian pause and turn to Han Qingyu. How have the two of them already figured out what the Refusers are about?

Setting aside his curiosity, Lao Jian continued, “Go to the Order Legion then.”

“No.”

“Back-end logistics at the living quarters.”

“No.”

“Then what do you want?!”

“I want to join the next batch of recruits and get retested. Alright, let’s not talk anymore. It’ll be lights out soon. I’m going to bed.”

That was, of course, not possible.

Lao Jian didn’t speak for a moment.

Then, they heard the heavy crunch of steady boot steps on gravel, one after another.

All three of them turned to see Zhang Dao’an approaching.

It seemed he had finished off the rest of the liquor on his own, as he appeared a little tipsy. Walking into the middle of the group, he sat down on the ground, though he didn’t immediately talk to Wen Jifei, as Han Qingyu had expected.

After a long silence, he finally looked up.

“By the way, Lao Jian, have you ever met our Platoon Leader Wang?” he asked, seemingly out of nowhere.

Platoon Leader Wang was, of course, Wang Liuzheng, the former platoon leader of the Red Erasers.

Lao Jian nodded. Even though the time and mood were completely wrong for it, an unmistakable flash of excitement and admiration still lit up his eyes. “Once, when I was still a recruit. I think Platoon Leader Wang was at the regiment base for some business. He just walked past the Three-Sided Building. Word got around, and we all ran out to catch a glimpse of him. We just stood there, watching. None of us dared go up and say hello.”

Zhang Dao’an’s eyes were filled with melancholy as he reminisced, “Back then, even the veterans didn’t dare approach Platoon Leader Wang. He was the three-time consecutive champion of the army duel championship, and he had the Red Erasers.

“In reality, though, Platoon Leader Wang wasn’t like you all imagined. He could cook well, and he enjoyed it. He was great at roasting sweet potatoes. He also loved telling us terrible jokes, and he told them every single day. His Red Erasers went five consecutive years without a single death.

“Platoon Leader Wang’s only mistake was thinking that his jokes weren’t funny enough. He felt he couldn’t lighten the platoon’s mood. So, during that year’s two-way selection, out of everyone who’d raised their hands to volunteer, he picked me.”

Zhang Dao’an turned to Wen Jifei for the first time.

“I told you before that my personality used to be a lot like yours. I wasn’t lying.”

This story that Zhang Dao’an had never before been willing to tell was now being told for Wen Jifei’s sake.

Nobody asked what happened next. Zhang Dao’an continued on his own.

“It was a coincidence. We’d just finished a mission in our district when we immediately received orders to reinforce a neighboring district. Old Geng was in the secondary flanking position at the time, but he’d been wounded. Platoon Leader Wang asked who could fill in. I volunteered. I wanted to prove myself, and I’d been practicing that position.

“Platoon Leader Wang gave me the chance to train in the field. On the vehicle, when he told everyone to check their source energy levels, I was... daydreaming. Excited. I...

“One of the two Sharpies in that encounter was exceptionally powerful. Not quite at a Red Shoulder level, but...” Zhang Dao’an glanced at Lao Jian.

Lao Jian nodded. He’d heard of Red Shoulders, of course. These Sharpies had a red mark on their shoulder and could inflict devastating casualties. They were also the reason Monument Day fell on September 29.

These Red Shoulders caused speculations that the Sharpies they typically fought were only the slave class of that civilization. Naturally, that theory was not something anyone dared to voice publicly.

“It wasn’t a Red Shoulder, but it was definitely far stronger than normal,” Zhang Dao’an continued. “We were lucky to have Platoon Leader Wang. He led seven or eight fighters to split off and pin down the strong one, buying time for the rest of us to deal with the weaker one. The situation appeared to be under control, right up until I ran out of source energy without realizing it. That one mistake broke the entire formation. It didn’t just tear open a gap. It brought over a dozen teammates down.

“Then, when the pillar blade swept toward me, I just... stood there.

“Platoon Leader Wang saw it and came to the rescue. The pillar blade went through his back and came out through his chest.

“A lot of people in the Red Erasers died that day.

“Before Platoon Leader Wang died, he told the others that in the battle report, the main issue should be written up as an error in his decision-making and instruction.”

With that, Zhang Dao’an stood up and walked away.

He wasn’t a Dice, and he had only made that mistake once. Dice could make that same mistake any second of any minute.