Nine-layer armor-breaking

Chapter 301 Chess Piece (Seeking monthly votes!)
He didn't understand what the leader's true intentions were in saying these things in front of Jiang Xian and the other two.

"Could it be that he doesn't want to live anymore?" He looked at the face of the pillar of support and wondered to himself.

The leader suppressed his smile; the man had already said everything clearly, so there was no need for him to think too much.

You can know what he's thinking without even having to think about it, which is one of the reasons why it's so easy to be around him.

He must be cursing his mentor in his heart right now, or even thinking that his mentor has gone mad.

And that's exactly what that person did.

"Go ahead and curse, you might not have another chance," the core leader thought to himself.

What the man didn't expect was that the next sentence from his leader made him even more stunned.

“I’ll take you out of here, I’ll take you away from this forest. How confident are you that you can save your own life? I’m not injured yet, so how can you escape from me?” The leader asked the man in a gentle tone, squatting down.

Upon hearing this, the man was stunned; he seemed not to have thought that much about it.

The leader pressed his advantage, leaning forward slightly and bringing his mouth close to the man's ear, saying, "Even if you survive in the end, do you think you can get rid of me alive?"

Having said that, the pillar of support moved away from his ear, straightened his body, and casually wiped away the cold sweat that was pouring down his forehead.

The man was completely dumbfounded.

He didn't even know if the cold sweat he was breaking out in was from the pain he had endured from the stabbing in his thigh, or from the sheer fright he had caused by his mentor.

He felt even weaker now, more powerless and unable to resist.

This weakness was not only due to the physical pain he suffered, but also due to the mental torment inflicted on him by his former teammate.

He is not only weak now, but also confused.

He didn't know who to listen to, or whether the teammate in front of him was more reliable or whether following him would be more dangerous.

His mind was completely clouded, but he knew one thing: following this man, his former teammate, required him to be even more cautious in his words and actions, to be constantly vigilant of his movements, and to constantly remind himself that his current leader was terrifying and a dangerous person.

Suddenly, it was as if a biting cold wind swept in, attacking him directly without disturbing a single blade of grass or tree.

Looking back now, he felt a chill run down his spine and was somewhat frightened.

Even the words his trusted advisors said to him before the battle, though somewhat angry, he didn't take to heart.

Because when I was in the team before, as the backbone and the core of the team, as the decision-maker, I would also scold others.

Therefore, although the main character had a good temper, he did get angry sometimes, but later on, he got angry and happy much less often.

All I saw all day was his somewhat cold face.

He was still doing what he was supposed to do, but he seemed to have lost his strength. He was unwilling to talk to his teammates, unwilling to explain, and too lazy to scold others anymore.

He was so calm, as if he didn't care about anything.

That's why it was a bit surprising to see him angry today, but it seems that this is just his true nature.

The changes in everything seemed to begin with the rumor spread by his boss.

Most people in the team were unaware of the truth behind the rumor, and most believed it to be true. Or rather, no one really knew the facts.

If anyone knew something, it would only be a few quick-thinking individuals who would speculate that the sudden change in the image of the leader in everyone's hearts might be related to their boss.

If the leader loses the support of the people, the one who benefits the most is actually their boss.

But this was a matter of great importance, and they all had to follow the leader's lead, so no one spoke out.

There weren't many people who had doubts to begin with, and the one or two people who did raise their concerns didn't bring it up, so others naturally didn't pay attention to these things.

It's not hard to guess that before that incident, before those outrageous rumors started circulating, everyone actually admired the leader.

He might sometimes reprimand others, but that's only because someone has genuinely done something wrong, something that has serious consequences, and that's why he reprimands them severely.

Even so, the mess that follows still needs to be handled by the core leader.

Therefore, even if the person being scolded receives a few words, they don't feel wronged.

On the contrary, they might feel guilty.

Even if he had to severely reprimand his teammate for doing something wrong, he would first clarify the matter in private.

He would only publicly name names in front of everyone on the team if the matter became serious enough.

However, they will not shift too much responsibility onto any one person, nor will they push all the blame onto one person, much less incite people to launch personal attacks against any one person.

Therefore, in this respect, everyone is quite accepting of the way this backbone does things.

But this doesn't mean that the core leader is a good person.

Humans have two sides; in fact, humans are very complex.

He could commit acts of arson, murder, and looting, but he could also do his utmost to save the woman and bring those who had wronged her to justice.

Even if that person is his teammate, he will not let them go.

Because he knew that kind of person wasn't qualified to be his teammate.

His teammates could be people with character flaws.

Everyone has flaws in their character, more or less; it's just a matter of how obvious they are. In the eyes of the core leader, this isn't a big problem.

The question is whether one can correct their mistakes and whether they have done anything that is morally reprehensible.

If someone commits an inhumane and unforgivable act, he will not bother to teach or save his teammates.

He treats his teammates like trash, discarding and getting rid of them as if they were garbage. He treats everyone else the same way.

If it's a teammate, he might give them a chance, but when it comes to outsiders, he leaves absolutely no room for leniency.

Therefore, who can clearly explain a person's life, and who can determine whether a person's merits outweigh their faults, or vice versa?

Moreover, this person who is the backbone of the team is generally pragmatic in his actions and interactions with others. He doesn't target any particular person or treat any teammate differently just because they make more mistakes or cause him more trouble.

It can be said that this person, who is the backbone of the organization, is very fair and just in handling matters.

He wouldn't favor Xiaolu in important team matters because of personal feelings, such as his good relationship with Xiaolu. He wouldn't do such a thing.

Even in personal relationships, he would only talk privately and would never use personal feelings as leverage to get Xiao Lu to do things for him or to help Xiao Lu gain some benefits.

These are all things that don't exist, which is why he has such high prestige in the team.

He wasn't a good person in the traditional sense, yet he managed to do things to such an extent, largely because there was a time when he genuinely believed that it was his home, and that his teammates were his family.

It was precisely because he regarded that place as his home and his teammates as his family that he would not show favoritism towards any one person in matters big or small within the team.

Favoritism is inevitable; as long as you're human, favoritism is unavoidable.

But once he discovers a certain bias in himself, he will adjust and correct it in time, pull himself back, and prevent things from getting out of hand or making himself more and more irrational.

Everything was going well, and things were progressing in the direction he desired. He had become accustomed to being the villain.

As long as he doesn't do anything that he himself finds unacceptable, he has already gotten used to this kind of life.

Although he sometimes judges himself with his original intentions and moral values, he still cannot overcome his attachment to that "home" and those "family members".

That incident completely changed his mindset, significantly altering his personality and causing several severe psychological traumas.

He lingered for a long time during those gloomy days.

In the beginning, he was grieving, yet he tried his best to dispel the gloom. Later, he was in despair, wanting only to be completely swallowed up by that gloom.

In the end, he neither rekindled his hope nor dispelled the gloom. His emotions became indifferent, and with a light clap of his hands, he easily made the gloom disappear completely.

And so he emerged from his shell, no longer living like a walking corpse, as if his soul had drifted away.

Later, he realized that he was just a pawn that his boss could use and then discard.

Even if the player has genuine feelings for a piece, those feelings are completely insufficient to achieve their strategic planning on the board.

Compared to the entire chessboard, a single chess piece seems so insignificant.

From then on, he no longer held hope for many people and things. He no longer felt heartbroken for his teammates who had changed their attitude overnight and become strangers to him, and he no longer had any expectations for them.

Everything seemed to have returned to the starting point, as if it had all returned to that rainy day when he first joined the team.

He was once full of confidence; he wanted to start his life over the next year, to give his life a new lease on life and a fresh start.

Now, not only can he not go back to the rainy days, but he can't even go back to that boy who was still weak when he first joined the team.

The former patriarch is now abandoning him without any mercy.

He often wondered why he had to go through all of this, why he had to meet him on that rainy day, and why he had gone to the team with him.
If I hadn't met him, if I hadn't gone with him, would I still be a decent human being, instead of giving up on myself?

There are no answers to any of these questions.

Even if the answer could be found, it would be too late.

There are no "what ifs" for anything that has happened.

Even if you regret your past actions, you can only look forward.

As a man of his intelligence, he naturally had a suspicion when the rumors first started, but he couldn't believe the answer.

Later, he figured out the whole story very clearly.

At first, he was unwilling to doubt his boss, after all, he was a beacon of hope for him and had given him a home.

But later, as many of the things he had predicted came true for that person without exception, and all the tests pointed unequivocally to his boss, he could no longer deceive himself.

Evidence doesn't lie, and the results of the investigation won't deceive him. There was nothing he could do but accept the outcome.

Previously, when his teammates were not so resolute in their attitude towards him, he still had the power to fight back based solely on his accumulated experience in dealing with people and situations.

Making things public, and even overthrowing his boss to become the new boss, is not a difficult thing for the leader, given his intelligence.

The reason he didn't make the matter public or bring it up with his boss privately was because he hadn't completely let it go, or because he made the same mistake he often made when scolding his friends: being too soft-hearted.

"If you're not going to do it, then don't do it at all; if you're going to do it, do it cleanly." This was a phrase that the core leader often said, but now it didn't work on him.

It wasn't that he didn't want to be honest with his boss; on the contrary, he wanted to give his boss a chance to see if he would change his ways and if he would remember their past relationship.

He once thought that even if he was treated as a pawn, he wanted to see if that person would pick him up again.

Even if they are just pawns forever, as long as they are not abandoned and are merely used, as fellow strategists, and considering things from the perspective of their leader, it is acceptable to have them as his backbone.

For a time, he even had such a pathetic thought: he didn't complain at all about his boss's exploitation, and was even willing to be his pawn for life.

However, he later truly understood his place in his boss's heart.

He saw his boss's various abnormal behaviors, his boss's hypocritical face, and his boss's lack of concern for his own affairs. He was truly heartbroken.

During those days, even though there was nothing to be happy about or to celebrate, that person was so unusual that he stopped hiding and pretending.

(End of this chapter)