The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 977: Pivot

chapter 977: pivot

island on the edge, near dawn.nôv(el)b\\jnn

countless crows wheeled through the deep gray sky above the island, joined by numerous insects that became active in winter. the ocean surface around the island teemed with schools of fish. shark fins glided through the water.

on the island stood a large roughly built house.

before the house, three big weathered petroline barrels stood on the square, filled with firewood. ignited, the fire bloomed into a surging flame. almost all members of the nine scions and the twelve zodiac signs gathered there.

once gao yang, heavenly dog, and gregor took quiet book back to base, one stone had immediately treated her. gao yang explained the situation and gathered everyone for a meeting ten minutes later.

there was a consensus that they should rescue vermilion bird, lovely lamb, wang weiyan, and zhang wei.

however, opinions differed regarding how they should go about it. there were three camps:

the first believed that the rune circuits must not be given to qilin. that would be giving him what he wanted. they should pretend to make the deal while they tried to rescue the hostages, and if the opportunity presented itself, it would be best to kill qilin.

those in favor of this opinion included nine frost, crimson bee, old seven, mischievous monkey, canary, wandering tune, harvest song, lin fu, and lying wood.

the second camp believed that they should prioritize saving the hostages. as long as qilin honored his words, it would be fine to trade the rune circuits away. they just had to try to take them back later.

those in favor of that included dead pig, heavenly dog, raven shark, chen ying, ke yo, one stone, hong xiaoxiao, gao xinxin, gregor, and veggie.

the third camp had no opinion. they would obey whatever decision was made.

qing ling, wang zikai, nainai, liao liao, ting ting, bumblebee, and rewind belonged to this camp.

the first two camps entered a heated debate.

as the leaders of the two organizations, gao yang and war tiger refrained from giving their opinion just yet.

with an unlit cigarette in his mouth, war tiger crouched on two old tires, a broadsword buried in the ground beside him. eyes narrowed, he looked at the brought bemusedly.

gao yang sat on an old sofa and quietly listened.

“i don’t have any. i’m just telling you that to succeed, you should streamline a complicated matter and boil things down to the key points. you must find the pivot before you can lift something with leverage.”

“pivot,” nine frost repeated, ruminating the word.

“kill qilin,” gao yang said the first thing since the meeting began, a faint smile tugging his lips.

the others turned to him.

“that’s right!” nine frost’s eyes lit up. “killing him is our pivot!”

war tiger slapped his thigh and laughed. “it sounds obvious, but it’s the only answer.”

“thank god your bossman isn’t a complete idiot, or things will get real messy,” dr. jia said in approval. he dusted his pants and turned back to the house. “there’s nothing for me to do here. i’ll go back to my research.”

old seven looked at gao yang with admiration. “brother yang, i’m not the brightest tool in the shed. will you explain the situation in more detail?”

“haha, bro, let’s tell everyone about our strategies!” wang zikai pretended to know everything. the others gave that an awkward yet polite smile.

“tactics should follow a strategy.” gao yang leaned in and steepled his fingers under his chin, looking at the burning bonfire. “let’s start with our strategy.”

“dr. jia is right. we may be caught off guard tonight, but no matter what happens, we won’t lose our way as long as we have a clear strategy.”

gao yang stopped there, giving the others time to digest that.

as his second-in-command, nine frost clarified, “for example, if we’re there to save hostages, only to find that all of the hostages are fake, or they have all been...we’ll lose initiative with our plan disrupted.”

“or if we have other goals and qilin suddenly threatens us into submitting with the hostages, we’ll also lose our initiative.”

the others nodded in understanding.

gao yang continued, “that’s why the only viable strategy is to kill qilin. no matter what happens tonight, we’ll know what to do next.”

“right! strategy first, then tactics can be flexible.” wandering tune had been the coach of an e-sport club. he got into that headspace and said, “if we see qilin tonight, we kill him. if we don’t, we retreat. if qilin threatens us with the hostages, we kill him and save the hostages. if the hostages are already dead, it stands that we should be even more resolved to kill qilin. no matter what, we want the man dead. that’s our constant.”

“i understand what captain said,” one stone spoke up worriedly. “but killing qilin to save the hostages is only a solution on paper.”

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