Chapter 143: The Chain That Binds the Elephant (Part 2)

“Do you know where you’re standing right now? A hospital? No. This is not a hospital. It’s a concentration camp. A farm for breeding livestock. They did something similar twenty years ago. They classified and penned our ancestors. They bound their wrists and ankles in shackles and chains. And what did our ancestors do? They chose to die on their feet rather than live on their knees like beasts.”

“The very reason we can stand here and speak today, the very reason we can stand upon this land that nurtured us, is because of the blood they shed! Because of the spines they refused to bend, even in the face of death!”

“Many say they failed. But I must tell you, they have not yet failed! Their ideas have not yet dissipated! Their spirit of resistance is not yet dead! But if we choose to kneel… then they will truly have failed. They will truly have died! When I look at you all, I do not see a group of patients. I do not see a group of children. I see a race! I see a race being oppressed and humiliated! A race dragging out a miserable existence in utter disgrace!”

The man’s voice paused. When he spoke again, his tone was hoarse and low.

“You are all around student age. Try to imagine this: You are being collectively bullied by a group. When they mock the sweater your mother lovingly knitted for you with vile words. When they dump a bucket of water over your head. When they strip off your clothes to take humiliating photos. What should you do? Try to reason with them? Go tell the Teacher, expecting them to dispense justice? Hide alone in the bathroom stall and cry?”

The man roared. His voice burned with such fury that he sounded like a caged male lion driven mad, gnawing at the unyielding steel bars, refusing to let go even as its teeth snapped and broke.

“No! Never! We absolutely will not do that! Reasoning will only make them mock us more brazenly. Telling the teacher will only result in the matter being smoothed over half-heartedly, forgotten. Hiding and crying in the bathroom will only make the other students look down on us too! Dignity and rights are not gifts bestowed by others, nor are they gained by polite requests and application forms! Dignity and rights are won through iron and blood!”

“What we must do is resist! Resist without ceasing! If they want to use violence to crush our spine, then we’ll use violence to crush their skulls! If they want to drown out our voices with public opinion, then we’ll burst their eardrums with our roars! Let them know we are not cowards who silently swallow humiliation! One who does not even dare to resist is not worthy of sympathy!”

“We will resist, just as our ancestors did! We will not grovel to those disgusting insects! We will unite in the name of freedom! We will fight for those still being oppressed! We will fight for those too weak to fight back! We will fight for our inherent rights and dignity! We will fight for the scalding hot blood our ancestors once spilled!”

The man’s anger-laden voice echoed within the Mind Lakes of everyone present. In an instant, it stirred up a thousand waves, ripples crashing and splintering against each other, shattering again and again, the floor seeming to scatter with the debris of the broken surges.

“Boss? Hyena!”

Dry Wood’s sharp, low call snapped Hyena out of his trance. When his senses returned, he felt a slight, stinging numbness on his cheek—it was the slap Dry Wood had delivered. The pain briefly sobered him.

“There’s something wrong with the voice. Don’t listen anymore,” Liu Xu said, his brows furrowed tightly, lowering his voice to Hyena. “Look at their eyes.”

Hyena turned and looked at the people behind him, freezing for a moment. The young people in hospital gowns had a faint, pinkish flush on their exposed skin. Their eyes were out of focus. Some wore expressions of profound sorrow. Others were masks of pure rage. The only commonality was their utter stillness. They clenched their fists tightly, silent as the oppressive dark sky before a violent storm, a vast, dark, and menacing blanket.

Once he stopped focusing on the man’s voice, Hyena finally noticed an extremely faint sound. It sounded like weeping. A girl’s weeping. She was crying with such raw grief, so deeply moving, it was like a tiny hook gently but insistently tugging at the listener’s heartstrings. Even the most hardened of hearts would be moved by this sound.

Was this a Syndrome? The man’s Syndrome? Or was a Chuunibyou Patient present here? Hyena felt goosebumps erupt all over his body. If Dry Wood hadn’t snapped him awake, he would surely have ended up like those young people.

He noticed that the Executors had long since arrived at the cafeteria. But from the Executors’ perspective, all they could see were the young people in patient gowns standing there, staring blankly into space. Even shouting couldn’t make the patients hear them. Nothing could stop it. Tian Xi and the Lake Cutter assigned to Team 1 stood by the doorway, both clad in Executor trench coats, simply shaking their heads—indicating this phenomenon was unrelated to Lake Cutters. They were powerless.

Unbeknownst to him, the cafeteria had filled entirely with patients in hospital gowns. They stood motionless, like the Moai statues of Easter Island, their expressions a mix of sorrow and fury. The scene possessed a deeply unsettling, almost religious quality.

The tide of a new era was coming. Here and now, today. Hyena recognized this fact with chilling clarity.

“W-what do we do?” he instinctively asked Liu Xu, who was beside him, his voice trembling slightly.

“First, we leave. Use going to the infirmary as an excuse.” Liu Xu’s steady tone helped Hyena calm down somewhat. They moved through the crowd like birds darting through a forest.

Liu Xu scanned the people standing near the doorway, eventually selecting the most gentle-looking female Executor, one who seemed to handle paperwork. Clutching his stomach, he said in a low, pained voice, “My stomach really hurts… Can we go to the infirmary?”

Observing their rather poor acting skills, Tian Xi put on a concerned expression and asked, “Is it serious?”

“Acute gastritis. Old problem,” Liu Xu replied with a strained smile. Hyena and Dry Wood supported him. They had initially worried about being ordered back inside, but the Executors seemed entirely absorbed by what was happening in the cafeteria. Surprisingly, they were allowed to weave through the crowded doorway and slip away with ease.

They descended the stairs to the infirmary door. Liu Xu knocked, then pushed it open. Inside, the young nurse hastily shoved away the cell phone she had been using to watch videos, flustered.

“I didn’t see a thing,” Liu Xu said smoothly. “Just an upset stomach. Here to lie down for a bit.”

The young nurse let out a sigh of relief, putting away the phone that had nearly fallen. “You should’ve said so. I thought it was someone else. Just pick an empty bed and lie down. But don’t close the curtain—it’s the rule.”

Liu Xu nodded. Instead of heading to a bed, he simply looked at the young nurse and asked a very strange question: “Have you seen Prison Break? It’s a classic American show.”

The infirmary fell shockingly silent in an instant.

“…D-d-don’t do something you’ll regret,” the young nurse stammered, her teeth beginning to chatter. “Of course, I’ve seen it. You’re saying you’re Michael? Big bro, if you’re planning a prison break, please don’t involve me. Just pretend I look like your aunt or something.”

“No, I’m not Michael,” Liu Xu shook his head. “But you might be the Sara. Where are the other two nurses in the infirmary?”

“They finished their morning shift and asked for the afternoon off,” the nurse said. As the words left her mouth, she suddenly grasped Liu Xu’s meaning, freezing in place. “You’re saying… the patients are about to break out? They’ve all been given the Vaccine. That’s impossible…”

“Unless today’s dose of the Vaccine itself is the problem,” Liu Xu cut her off. “Do you have an employee elevator card? If we don’t want trouble, we’d better get out of here. Now.”

The young nurse nodded her head frantically, jumping up and practically trotting to push open the infirmary door. Behind her, Dry Wood suddenly asked Liu Xu:

“You didn’t seem the slightest bit moved by that man’s speech. Why? Speaking objectively, I thought it was quite rousing.”

“I don’t want to say the patients are too young, but it’s the truth,” Liu Xu sighed. “Most of that speech was lifted directly from Hitler’s speeches, only far inferior to the original. And even ignoring the massive amount of concept substitution… think about it. He spoke so much about dignity and courage. What about himself? Why didn’t he have the courage to show his face in public?”

“Why do you have Hitler’s speeches memorized?” Hyena asked, his expression deeply skeptical.

“Memorized a few of the classic ones back in my chuunibyou phase in middle school…” Liu Xu’s tone was somewhat embarrassed. “Anyway, that’s not important. Let’s get back on topic. Let’s get back on topic.”