No strange things are allowed to evolve!

Seeing Jiang Shu's high prestige among this group, Nakamura's feelings were somewhat complicated: "Number 369, you truly deserve to be one of my key candidates. You surprise me even more than Number 213."

Number 213?

Jiang Shu naturally thought of melatonin.

According to the established rules, the two should be on the same starting line and should be benchmarks against each other.

However, given this assessment, it seems the other party did not successfully escape.

Or at least behind yourself.

But judging from the current situation in the lab, whether they didn't escape or were behind him, they'd probably all meet the same fate—they'd likely be blown up.

This reassured Jiang Shu somewhat.

“Nakamura.” Jiang Shu looked at him: “Although I don’t know what your purpose was in choosing to help us at the last moment, I have to admit that you did play a key role and saved all of us.”

"Is this your way of expressing gratitude?" Nakamura smiled. "In that case, I'll accept your thanks..."

But before he could finish speaking, Jiang Shu changed the subject and continued:

"However, I hope you're not trying to take advantage of us. As for your win or loss with that guy, probably the one who destroyed the whole lab, right? Anyway, we're not interested in your business."

This can be seen as a disguised warning, and also as an explanation and clarification to the unsuspecting rebels that the person who helped us may not be entirely our friend, and that he may also have his own ulterior motives, so as to prevent some simple-minded people from actually believing that Nakamura is a good person.

This made Nakamura's expression change.

"How could you... I clearly brought a device that can interfere with telepathy."

“There’s no need to use superpowers for this.” Jiang Shu rolled his eyes. “Didn’t you just say something like you lost but he didn’t win either? Besides, there’s no need to risk the entire lab to win us over. So this is definitely a last resort. Isn’t that obvious?”

Nakamura remained silent, but his expression was unpredictable.

Jiang Shu was practically insulting his intelligence in public, and she even had a reason for it.

"Alright." After a long pause, Nakamura finally resigned himself to his fate and admitted, "You're right, this is indeed the only way out. You've only made one mistake."

"Oh?" Jiang Shu raised an eyebrow: "What is it?"

“I’m not trying to win you over. If I were, I wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of rescuing these documents. If you’ve seen them, I don’t think you’ll still tolerate me.” Nakamura shrugged.

“I agree with that,” Jiang Shu nodded.

Nakamura took a deep breath, a ruthless glint in his eyes: "I just want to ignite the fuse completely. What I can't have, no one else can have either. What I've lost, I'll make him pay back a thousandfold!"

Jiang Shu seemed to be deep in thought.

At this point, Nakamura's purpose became clear.

He probably couldn't make it on his own for some reason, so he wanted to completely muddy the waters, thinking that he'd rather die than live, and decided to throw caution to the wind.

Even if it doesn't benefit oneself, one must still severely harm others.

"So, I have already achieved my goal. Whether I live or die, I don't care anymore. Bringing you here is the last thing I want to accomplish."

To be honest, I planned to commit suicide after everything was over. There was no place for me in this world anyway; I intended to watch the show from hell.

Nakamura doesn't care about the authenticity:

"Of course, you can choose not to tell them these things. With your current prestige, you can indeed suppress their curiosity. But I must tell you that the truth will be revealed sooner or later."

I think you probably don't want to see the people who once respected you start to question you, right?

By then, they won't remember me, they won't feel like they were used by me. Someone else will have used them, and that person will be you.

He made no attempt to put everything on the table.

Jiang Shu knew that he was forcing himself to reveal these secrets, so that even if everyone didn't want to do as he wished, they would have no choice but to carry out their revenge against the empire as he hoped.

Of course, I can keep it private for the time being and only reveal it to the core members like Saeko and Kuma Tank. Given the trust this team has in me, even if they don't understand my arrangements, there won't be any problems in the short term.

However, with Nakamura's words, the question of "what secrets are hidden in the documents" will linger in the minds of these people today, just like the question of "what the pangolin said," driving them to investigate whenever they have the chance until they discover the truth.

When the truth comes out, no matter how strong this team becomes, it will inevitably begin to disintegrate from within.

Because at that time all the superpowered people will realize that their parents are not their parents, their country is not their country, and their original intention of getting together to start a rebellion was a false proposition from the beginning and meaningless.

At that time, Jiang Shu, who had concealed everything, would naturally become the target of public criticism. The former support would turn into contempt, accusations, and betrayal.

Then, the same result occurs: someone will always retaliate against the empire, and with even greater cruelty and ruthlessness, until the original intention of change turns into destruction.

Nakamura understood that this was definitely not what Jiang Shu wanted to see.

This was the unsolvable option he intended to set for Jiang Shu and the resistance army, at the cost of his life.

No matter what you do, it will lead to the same ending; it's just a matter of time. And Jiang Shu will never be able to stay out of it.

This made Saeko, who knew the truth, worry.

She knew perfectly well that if the pressure she felt just now was equivalent to facing a Kamen Rider, then Jiang Shu's pressure now was as great as facing a group of Ultramen.

Is it better to let things get out of control now, causing the shared goals and beliefs that have driven us to this point to disappear, or to suppress it for now, but be prepared to face an even more severe backlash later?

Although I will cooperate no matter what, it seems that no matter what I choose, it will be wrong.

When Saeko put herself in that situation, she felt she was going to go crazy.

She looked nervously at Jiang Shu, both expectant and fearful of his choice...

However, what Saeko didn't know was that Jiang Shu's pressure wasn't as great as she imagined.

Or perhaps he simply didn't feel any pressure at all.

He believed that children and grandchildren have their own destinies, and how they will live their lives is their own business; he could not lead them on this path forever.

There will be many more cruel things and difficult choices to come. If we can't even overcome them from the beginning, it means that the team's will was not firm to begin with, and it will fall apart sooner or later. It's better to fall apart sooner rather than later.

In addition, his situation is actually quite similar to Nakamura's.

Nakamura planned to kill himself after harming others without benefiting himself, while Jiang Shu planned to watch Nakamura commit seppuku, broaden his horizons, and then leave this world.

Therefore, Nakamura's threats, such as being questioned or betrayed in the future, had absolutely no deterrent effect on him.

Threatening the bald man that he would pull out his hair is an example of this.

But in fact, Jiang Shu never intended to keep it a secret from everyone.

Jiang Shu's mission was merely to escape the underground laboratory, and his mission was already complete when he was squeezed out like a newborn baby.

Therefore, strictly speaking, the rebels' initial and most important mission has been completed.

Whether they continue fighting afterward, or whether, after learning the truth, they have no more attachment to this abhorrent empire and simply seek revenge, or leave the empire without seeking revenge at all, is of little concern to Jiang Shu.

Now that things have come to this, there's no need to hide it from them any longer.

What choice they make after learning the truth is entirely their own business.

The action that caused Nakamura to misunderstand was that Jiang Shu snatched the documents from Saeko's hand as soon as he came out. In fact, it was not that he wanted to suppress these things or deliberately hide them.

That's because Jiang Shu really wanted to tell everyone in person, and was worried that Saeko's expression might be unclear and cause bad misunderstandings.

After all, she had a criminal record. It was agreed beforehand that she was just creating momentum for Jiang Shu and promoting the power of the divine corpse.

But she couldn't even spread rumors properly, and she ended up forcing Jiang Shu to accept the throne.

Jiang Shu was genuinely afraid that if Saeko said these things, everyone would start calling themselves emperors, which would be tantamount to going against their ancestors, and Jiang Shu couldn't bring himself to do that.

In addition, the resistance fighters took good care of Jiang Shu when he was incapacitated. No matter what happened, their first reaction was to protect him. He saw all of this and was very grateful.

Therefore, Jiang Shu did not want to see everyone's hatred being exploited by Dr. Nakamura, who appeared out of nowhere and clearly did not seem like a good person, and then being led astray onto a path they might not want to take.

They should have the right to decide their own future; this is the reward for those who dare to fight and are brave.

Therefore, facing the treacherous Nakamura with a smile, and the resistance fighters whose curiosity was once again piqued by the repeatedly mentioned secret, Jiang Shu calmly spoke:

"This is something I've wanted to tell you for a long time, but at that time, I didn't have any evidence. Although I had thought of these things, I could only treat them as guesses."

"You knew it all along." Nakamura's smile widened.

He was not only proud of his correct judgment, but also proud that Jiang Shu—the top superhuman who single-handedly destroyed the laboratory—had to act according to the thoughts of an ordinary person like himself.

So what if they have superpowers?

Aren't they just as helpless against me?

This greatly satisfied his vanity.

However, his smile quickly faded.

Because subsequent developments gradually deviated from his expectations.

"So thanks to Nakamura, although he's not very likable, his information really helped me a lot and confirmed that my guess was correct."

Jiang Shu said with some emotion:

"There are still many good people in the world. Everyone, please thank Dr. Nakamura."

"Thank you, Dr. Nakamura." The rebels, like elementary school students celebrating Father's Day or Mother's Day, awkwardly expressed their gratitude to their parents in the blank spaces of the principal's speech.

Upon seeing this, Nakamura, acting on instinct—or perhaps it could be called racial instinct—immediately bowed ninety degrees as if triggering some underlying code, and humbly said to everyone, "Not at all."

By the time he realized something was wrong, Jiang Shu had already moved on to the next step.

"As for what the secret is, it's a cruel story, and a long one..."

Jiang Shu sighed and, combining what he had seen on the second basement level about the truth of superpowered individuals with the more detailed information in the documents before him, recounted to everyone that dark and turbulent period of history.

The audience sometimes frowned, sometimes felt indignant, and sometimes felt saddened.

Even those who had no connection to this secret, such as professional soldiers and researchers, couldn't help but feel heartbroken for their fellow superhumans and silently condemned the inhumane empire.

"...So, the empire is not actually our home, and the place where we grew up is not our true root."

Those things that often appear in our dreams, whether they are terrifying monsters or beautiful things that we don't want to wake up from, may not be entirely just fantasies. They may be real memories that have been frozen for nearly a hundred years.

Our superpowers are not innate, but rather the crystallization of the will to yearn for beauty and hope even amidst suffering.

So what I want to say is that I'm sorry for misjudging our situation.

Although this empire has declined and decayed, it is not our home, and we have no obligation to change it.

We don't need to make our enemies better, do we?

Those in the resistance without superpowers changed their expressions, while those with superpowers all showed a thoughtful look in their eyes.

Yes, if this isn't our home, then whether it's good or bad, what does it have to do with us?

Change him?

It would be better to destroy it completely.

But at that moment, Jiang Shu continued:

"However, at the same time, I also believe that even if it is a misjudgment, we are not doing something meaningless."

Because in the days before we were taken in: our childhood, our friends, the time we truly lived, was just as real as the scenes in our dreams.

The oppression we have witnessed, including the terrible things our comrades who are standing right beside you right now, who have come this far without superpowers, have experienced, are all real.

The empire persecutes not only us; at this very moment, it continues to oppress millions of people, even its own citizens.

Therefore, if we are to leave and find our true home, we don't need to deny our journey of growth, even if it is full of mud, it is still the road we came from.

If we are seeking revenge, we must understand who is truly responsible for all of this. My hope is that the flames of revenge will not, under any circumstances, burn those who should be our friends.

Now, I will give you the right to choose.

"Whether you confront yourself and seek retribution from the right people, or simply leave, or treat everyone in the empire the same way, repeating everything that has happened to you all, I wish you all the best."

There was a moment of silence.

Under Nakamura's thoughtful gaze, everyone responded to Jiang Shu's expectations with enthusiastic shouts.

Cat sick leave

My cat is sick. He's vomited several times and isn't feeling well. I observed him all afternoon but he didn't improve, so I took him to the vet last night. They did X-rays and blood tests, and it's been quite a hassle since we got home. Because the vet recommended hospitalization, I need to bring his familiar litter box and toys. Going back and forth like that will definitely take too long to finish writing, so I'll have to take a day off.

Chapter 280 The Hero's Departure

Faced with the slogan "Always follow the mentor" proposed by everyone, Jiang Shu was pleased, but did not respond.

I neither agreed nor refused.

He simply smiled and looked at everyone, as if thanking them for their help along the way.

This made everyone keenly aware that something was amiss.

Logically speaking, shouldn't this be the perfect time for the mentor to take advantage of the high morale, say something inspiring, and then everyone should go all out to march on Kyoto and capture Shinoda Yu alive?