Real World, 8:00 PM — Dangerous Heretics Authority
Uniformed team members methodically loaded each 40 cm × 40 cm metal box onto the transport truck. Su Yang stood nearby with his gun held at attention, not daring to relax for even a second.
Tonight, these Extraordinary Red Heretics were to be flown to Zone 3 for close containment.
It was a routine transport — and a dangerous one. But the presence of a particular heretic made this mission especially tense.
Su Yang shifted his gaze to the end of the transport line.
Those boxes were darker than the others, their metal heavier and denser. Several team members carried them carefully, hands trembling under the weight.
Su Yang stepped forward to help. "Are you certain all the body parts excavated from outside the Rose Factory are accounted for?"
A team member caught his breath. "Team Leader Su, we've double-checked. They're all here."
Su Yang nodded gravely. "These corpses are not on the same danger level as the other heretics. They must not be transported on the same vehicle or aircraft."
The team members finished loading the boxes and leaned against the truck, exhausted.
"Team Leader Su is being unusually cautious this time," one murmured. "He even applied for a special transfer line just for this batch."
"You didn't see what happened at the factory," another replied. "Everyone who helped excavate those corpse blocks came back mentally unstable. They're still undergoing psychological stabilization training. No one knows if they'll recover."
"Is it really that terrible?"
"Why else would Team Su split the shipment? If these things amplify the other heretics…" He exhaled sharply. "A whole plane could go down."
"But escorting it alone isn't safe either."
"Nothing in our line of work is safe," the other said dryly. "Originally, Captain Su planned to escort it himself. But with Team Tang gone, the Bureau insisted he remain to oversee the three detachments."
At the mention of "Team Tang is gone," both fell silent.
When Tang Erda was still there, such dangerous missions never reached them. He would handle everything before disaster struck, bearing the risks alone. Under his protection, the Bureau had always felt like shelter beneath an umbrella in a storm.
But that umbrella was gone.
One of them changed the subject. "I understand requesting a separate vehicle and aircraft. But a separate route too?"
Even when escorting someone as dangerous as Bai Liu, they had never planned a completely independent route.
"And it's not even a normal destination. The landing point is near Antarctica, right? Isn't that… excessive? Why send it to the South Pole?"
The other lowered his voice. "Team Su's application stated it cannot be stored in Zone 3 or anywhere near populated areas. Its influence is too strong — people would die. The Bureau approved it yesterday. The plan is to seal it inside an ice core beneath Antarctica's ice cap. Zone 3 personnel will guard it year-round without interruption."
"Twenty-four hours a day? Three hundred sixty-five days?"
"Who said it's the first time?" the other replied. "Have you forgotten Bai Liu? Captain Tang did nothing but guard him."
The first member forced the conversation forward. "Do we know exactly where in Antarctica?"
"I heard it's near Ice Dome A — the highest point of the Antarctic ice cap. High enough. Thick enough."
11:30 PM — Offshore Port
Another batch of heretics was sent to the airport. The vehicle carrying the corpse parts arrived at the port and transferred its cargo onto a small freighter.
The ship would first sail to another port, where a special aircraft awaited to escort the heretics to Antarctica.
Five escorts boarded — the minimum number Su Yang deemed acceptable.
Su Yang stood onshore, watching as the gangway was withdrawn and the sturdy freighter was guided into the dark water by tugboats. The five escorts stood atop the hatch cover, saluting him before waving farewell.
He raised his hand in return.
As mist thickened over the water, unease settled heavily in his chest.
When the vessel finally vanished from sight, his breath grew shallow.
For a fleeting moment, he saw snow-covered bodies — those same five team members — lying silent in white.
After exposure to the Rose perfume and the factory exhumation, Su Yang himself had shown early signs of mental destabilization. He occasionally experienced hallucinations.
That was why he understood better than anyone the danger of those corpse fragments.
The first time he saw them, even he — steady and resolute — felt unprecedented turmoil. Had he not forced himself to remain rational and secure the remains, the excavation team might have fought one another for possession.
These corpses did not merely cause mental degradation.
They infinitely magnified one's darkest desires until the very bottom line of humanity was shattered.
Because of this, Su Yang had demanded a relocation of the containment site. The remains could not be placed near any populated garrison. The consequences would surpass even the devastation caused by the Rose perfume.
In the end, it was decided: the body parts would be sealed beneath Ice Dome A — the coldest region of Antarctica, the so-called Pole of Inaccessibility, over 4,000 meters above sea level, a place almost untouched by human presence.
It was the safest place he could imagine.
But he also knew—
Su Yang's pale eyes reflected the restless waves. Heavy emotion was layered in his chest like the tide against the harbor wall. He closed his eyes, feeling a long-familiar helplessness.
There is no promised land in this world where human desire cannot follow.
He could only hope fewer innocent people would die.
But hope was fragile.
Human desire — whether good or evil — becomes destructive when pushed to its extreme.
After Tang Erda left, Su Yang finally understood something Bai Liu once told him in the interrogation room.
The clean-cut young man had looked up at him, black eyes calm and fathomless.
"Team Su," he had said softly, "the desire to protect too closely can destroy you."
Su Yang gripped the octopus-shaped team emblem pinned over his chest. With what sounded like a quiet sigh, he turned away into the icy night.
Behind him, the freighter's whistle rang clear and sharp as it sailed into deeper darkness.
-----------------
Game Pool
After observing Spades' team several times, Bai Liu and his teammates finally figured out part of their routine. Most of the time, they entered a specific subgroup together.
Occasionally, however, Spades would break away and enter an ice-field instance alone — just as Bai Liu had done during his last visit to the game pool.
Spades seemed to have a peculiar attachment to that ice-field copy. Like someone returning to their own bed out of habit, he revisited it with a steady, almost biological rhythm of rest.
It was as though he had made that instance his home.
And that was precisely Bai Liu's target.
He wasn't arrogant enough to believe the Wandering Circus could take on the entire Killer Sequence battle group head-on.
But with no lives truly at stake, he felt they could attempt something more calculated — teaming up to challenge a single star player.
The benefits outweighed the risks.
They could gather firsthand information about a top player, sharpen their own coordination, and, if luck favored them and they managed a victory, generate enormous buzz.
Shameless — but practical.
Driven by a peculiar curiosity, Bai Liu decided to test the waters with Spades first. He kept a close watch on the players entering and leaving the pool. When he saw someone quietly appear — someone whose mere presence forced a circle of players to retreat in fear — the corners of his mouth curved upward.
Spades approached the game pool, the whip coiled neatly in his hand.
Once the surrounding players recognized him, they instinctively held their breath and backed away. No one dared enter the pool at the same time, terrified of accidentally matching into the same instance as this so-called god of evil.
Spades, however, paid no attention to them. After silently watching the rapidly rotating posters within the pool for a few seconds, he casually selected one and stepped in.
At that exact moment, Bai Liu made his move.
His whip snapped forward, hooking around Spades' waist. With a sharp tug, he dragged a long chain of his own teammates behind him and plunged into the game.
Spades glanced back faintly — a look as cold and still as water beneath ice — before both of them were swallowed by the swirling pool.
When the surface finally calmed, the surrounding players remained frozen in place, too stunned to react.
They had just witnessed a team willingly chain themselves to Spades and follow him into an instance.
It took a long while before someone managed to speak.
"What the hell… are they doing?"
-----------------
Snow and ice blanketed the sky as the wind howled.
Bai Liu choked on a breath and coughed as he regained consciousness. The cold was overwhelming. He instinctively curled in on himself, his skin freezing so quickly that it numbed within minutes, his senses dulling under the assault of the temperature.
A voice sounded behind him.
Only then did Bai Liu realize he was not lying on the ground — he was in someone's arms.
"You shouldn't have entered this game with me."
Spades' arms were wrapped around him, steady and firm. Feeling the tremor in Bai Liu's skin beneath his hand, Spades concluded flatly, "You're afraid of the cold."
Bai Liu turned his head.
Spades were so close that the slightest movement would bring their noses into contact.
For a brief second, Bai Liu's breathing stalled before he instinctively pulled back.
Spades, however, saw nothing unusual about their proximity. He rose to his feet naturally, lifting Bai Liu with him. With practiced efficiency, he retrieved a thermal jacket hanging on the wall, zipped up his own, and handed another to Bai Liu.
Fully geared, Spades opened the door and stepped outside.
Bai Liu narrowed his eyes at the jacket in his hands. "Aren't you going to ask why I followed you in?"
He had prepared several excuses — provoking the number-one star player, challenging his authority, stirring up attention.
Spades pushed the door wider and turned back into the raging wind. Snow whipped his hair wildly across his forehead, but beneath it, his eyes were pure black — calm and unreadable, as emotionless as Bai Liu's own.
"Didn't you come here to play a game with me?" he asked evenly. "To try and beat me?"
Bai Liu: "…"
Spades pulled down his goggles and stepped fully into the blizzard. Despite the roaring wind, his voice carried back clearly.
"Don't lie to me. And don't lie to yourself. If you want to play with me, then play seriously."
He paused.
"And do everything you can to win against me, Bai Liu."