Episode 38

"Haven't you slept for days?"

"It's been two days and two nights."

"......"

"What's wrong?"

"fine."

Initially, the tech support representative thought Sassin had the upper hand, so he immediately messaged him to ask what was going on. However, this casual expression of concern led to Sassin directly questioning the tech support representative about what had happened, and the representative didn't answer. The next second, he directly called Benjamin, but Benjamin was fast asleep and the phone was too quiet for him to hear. However, this inadvertently backfired.

"What?"

"Someone called you, but there's no caller ID. Do you know who it was?"

"......"

"You don't know either?"

"I haven't seen that phone number before; it's the same number range as Sasin's original mobile phone number."

"this......"

"Should we call back and see?"

The colleague in the tech support team who called back checked his phone, and at that moment, he finally noticed that Sassin had sent him several messages. He thought something had happened to Benjamin, but Sassin had only sent him a message saying, "I called him, but he didn't answer. Is he busy?"

"......"

"What's wrong?"

"Oh, it's nothing."

The tech support representative simply brushed Benjamin off and didn't say anything more, which was enough for Benjamin, who didn't suspect anything. While he was sleeping, his phone kept ringing, leading Benjamin to mistakenly believe it was the tech support. The support asked if Benjamin wanted to return the call, subtly gauging his reaction. Since that day when Benjamin hadn't interacted with Sassin on social media, the tech support had been completely oblivious. He was so used to it; he'd seen it all in Benjamin's social media feed—friends, casual acquaintances, strangers—he'd seen it all. The tech support had become numb to the fact that Benjamin and Sassin had broken up.

"Book?"

"It doesn't matter. It's not very safe here anyway. These kinds of calls are made by them using software to check IPs. We should be more careful."

I agree.

"Don't speak English, but can you trace the IP address of this phone call?"

"Yes, but if the other party is using a disposable phone or a disposable SIM card, it will take me a while to investigate."

"good."

"You want to investigate?"

"Um."

"Okay, I'll send you a message as soon as I find the results."

"OK, thank you for your hard work."

—Half an hour later—

"It came from a prestigious university."

"So fast?"

"He was using a disposable phone. Although it was a bit tricky, after thinking about it, the location of his message closely matched the location of the prestigious university. So I went directly to the store that sold the serial number of this disposable phone. He admitted that he sold the phone, but it didn't have a camera. However, he also had a location tracking feature. After checking the location, I found that it was exactly the same as the location I had found."

"really......"

The phone rang again, and Benjamin finally answered. After hearing the voice on the other end, he asked:

Why are you calling me with a disposable cell phone?

"spare."

"......"

Surprised?

"Then you send me a message using your usual phone..."

"in case."

"Pah!"

When Sassin replied with those few boring words, Benjamin already had an urge to ignore the world and also wanted to "hit him." To the tech support, there was no indication that they had broken up, so Benjamin spoke to Sassin even more recklessly in front of the tech support.

"What the hell is this phone number? We've broken up, why is it calling me? What does it want?"

"When did I call you?!"

"+86? I don't use this phone number much!"

Benjamin looked back at the technical support and realized that the +86 number was his. He had been to four countries, so it wasn't surprising that he had a +86 number.

"That's the guy's phone number range, right?"

"Yes, that's the guy."

"Nonsense!"

"From this moment forward, remove him from his tech support position!"

"......"

On his fifth day working in Dongguo, the tech support staff was simultaneously told "fired" by Benjamin and Sassin, sometimes making him realize that 1+1>2. Now, having witnessed their ugly nature, he sent them a message, and the next second they were at each other's throats:

"I don't need you there to help me out!"

"You really are as unlovable as ever!"

"That's none of your business!"

"......"

Later, Benjamin's struggles with Sassin never affected his work, because his biggest worry was their breakup, so he wanted to see their reaction, but he never expected them to...

"Recruiting children and women?"

"......"

"What's wrong?"

"No, it's nothing."

"If you'd like to come, please register through the dark web administrator."

"......"

"What is that?"

"No, it's nothing."

"You've accessed the dark web?"

"yes."

"Let me see."

Benjamin had heard about the dark web from others and knew what kind of people lived there, and what harm those who entered it suffered. He'd heard about it from his subordinates, but the requirements for entering the dark web were far too high; they'd tried repeatedly without success, and much of what was inside was not something they, or even Benjamin's level, could easily access.

What's usually inside these things?

"What is that?"

“Some of those who sell human organs and viscera are also trafficking people or things that shouldn’t exist.”

"......"

"What's wrong?"

"It's nothing, I'm probably just overthinking it."

"It's okay, at least your boyfriend is safe."

"......"

"He's my ex-boyfriend."

"It's alright, you don't need to worry about any of that. Because Benjamin, what kind of situation haven't I, the Commander-in-Chief, seen? Do you think I'm afraid of a little dark web?"

"You still like to be so careless!"

"Thank you for reminding me. By the way, our mission this time is to take down one of the strongholds in the dark web videos because a political and business figure was arrested. They said that person is someone no one dares to mess with, and he usually speaks quite arrogantly, so..."

How long has he been missing?

"It's been about three months."

"Three months? Yes, he has to pay the price for his actions. Of course, he was someone who spoke his mind in front of the media and on television, so it's not wrong for him to be arrested for angering people who disagreed with him."

"Then what other reason could we possibly have to enter the dragon's den and tiger's lair to rescue him?"

"What?"

"Think about it, if we save that person, will he come to thank us? In fact, further investigation and judgment will indeed delay our rescue. If they torture him and leak the information during this process, it will be a different story."

"What should we do now?"

"Don't worry, this is an international issue, so we have no intention of charging into battle."

"Why?"

"Since we are not their ally, the only possibility is neutrality. Neutrality means what we mean. Even if they have the idea of ​​attacking, we can just kick them when they're down."

"Abandon those officials?"

"This is not funny at all."

"I think so too, because we are ordinary people too. If we take away those military uniforms, we would be just as destitute as those ordinary people. That's why I say they are also ordinary people."

"The worst thing about war is to make ordinary people the victims."

"Yes, that's what we think too. We soldiers love peace more than anyone else, but those people are different. They fight in other countries under the guise of peace."

"They don't reflect on their own actions."

"This is the greatest tragedy."

—Half an hour later—

Where are they?

"Have you finished the call?"

Benjamin, who had been on the phone for half an hour, directly accused the tech support of hiding outside for twenty-eight minutes because they couldn't stand people showing affection in front of them. However, the tech support could immediately retaliate at this point:

"They've retaliated."

"You can still fight back?"

"I don't know who was so shameless as to tell Sasin that if you get injured, you should condemn him according to military rules."

"You heard everything..."

"Yes, don't think I'm working seriously there. In fact, I only make others see that I'm working very seriously, but I'm actually doing something else inside."

"Have you even finished your task yet? Why are you just sitting there listening to other people gossip?"

"I'm not like you, an IT idiot."

"you!"

In fact, the technical support only heard the part about condemning Benjamin using military rules, most likely because he heard Benjamin's voice trembling with emotion when he spoke to the Sassins.

"By the way, how's Sasin doing?"

"He's alright."

"He's a good person, but you're not so good."

"......"

"I suggest you tone down your crying; people can hear you from far away."

"......"

"goodbye."

"return!"

Having discovered too many disadvantages for himself, and to prevent the technical support from telling anyone else, Benjamin directly threatened them verbally. The technical support understood that Benjamin had secured this job for him, and that it was just the two of them working there. Because of the recent fighting, the tourists had fled, giving the technical support a golden opportunity.

"I'm too lazy to talk about it."

I don't believe it.

"What good would it do me if I went out? Because you understand what my role is between you. Just remember that I like you, and I'm just a friend of Sasin, understand? I'm just a wingman."

"......"

"You already came back from the brink of death countless times because of severe PTSD, but in the end you broke up with him. What? You have PTSD on the battlefield, and now you have to add PTSD to your relationship?"

"When did I start having PTSD in my relationships?"

You know best in your heart.

"......"

Benjamin never admits to having PTSD to outsiders, especially not about emotional issues, because he always assesses himself as decisive in handling any situation. The last time he hesitated was many years ago, and those events are long gone; he had already let go of them a few months later. It's definitely not what the tech support said; the PTSD the tech support mentioned is actually related to that little boy from many years ago.

Hello!

Who are you?

"I am a solider."

"......"

"Do you like this flower?"

"Yes."

Benjamin picked the flower the little boy liked, but pricked his finger on one of its thorns. Nothing happened, though. Looking back, he realized the flower was like himself. Later, the little boy died, and the IP address used to track him on the dark web was the one found at the time.

“Dark web”

"Possible".

Let's go!

At that IP address, Benjamin saw the little boy; he was dead. Benjamin, taught by Yang Tianchao, was blinded by rage. He saw someone who wasn't on his side shoot and kill the boy. With that single shot, he killed an ordinary civilian unrelated to the raid. He lost a little boy and another unrelated civilian; Benjamin was half-mad at that moment.

Are you okay?

"Yes, I'm okay."

“e back!”

"Yes, sir!"

That night, Benjamin's mother wasn't at the hospital. She had gone somewhere in the West to buy penicillin in bulk. Her husband had met someone there while providing support, and the only requirement for buying penicillin from him was to get it out of the hospital undetected. From then on, they used all sorts of inconspicuous methods to move the penicillin.

"penicillin?"

"That's right, now all the brothers fighting on the front lines are saved."

"yes."

"However, it's a bit strange that he let you take the penicillin so easily."

"That's not quite right."

"?"

"He told us not to let anyone else find out."

"?"

“I still don’t understand what he was trying to say in those few words. My husband also told me about this when he came back.”

"What was the ending?"

"He didn't mention that, but he kept making a lot of affected gestures at that time."

"The action of blinking?"

"Yeah, how did you know?"

“My husband is the same; he suddenly became like this after he came back.”

"ADHD?"

"Yes, it's ADHD. I don't understand why he wants to label it as ADHD?"

"......"

Benjamin's mother seemed to understand after a long time, but that idea only applied to that specific situation; whether it matched his earlier statement...

"What does it matter if we don't get discovered by others? Could it be that he himself..."

“He said the same thing again, but he hasn’t done any of the more ADHD-related behaviors since he started having ADHD.”

"And then? How is this different from usual?"

"......"

When she learned that her son had mistakenly killed a civilian and thought he had killed a little boy, she understood that he would now have to find her. However, she did not want her son to be like this, nor did she want him to see her in his current state.

"Please come in."

"Hello doctor, please take a look at him."

A soldier with a wound thought that disinfecting it with iodine would allow him to continue fighting, but he discovered that the wound was the same as the one Benjamin had when he was injured – it was from radiation!

"Send him in!"

"yes!"

——ICU——

"What's wrong?"

"You'll know once you see his injury."

"What... what is this?"

After seeing the unusual nature of the soldier's wounds, Rena realized that they were the same as the wounds Benjamin had suffered – special wounds that only appeared after prolonged exposure to radiation! When Benjamin was hospitalized last time, he received penicillin for three consecutive days. On the third night under these conditions, he still developed symptoms, but by the morning of the fourth day, his condition had returned to normal, both in terms of body temperature and overall condition.

"Three days of penicillin?"

"right."

"good!"

After learning that someone had been admitted to the same ICU because of the same wound as him, he went to the factory because he understood that when he and his Sashin colleagues came out, the virus was not complete; to be precise, it was the earliest series of viruses. The one they injected into that soldier must have been drug-resistant.

"Who?"

"It's me."

"What's the matter?"

"Virus".

"Virus?"

"Yes."

Why?

"I don't 'know, but I guess a dangerous possible."

Are you sure?

"......"

At this point, Benjamin realized that if he didn't investigate, more and more people would die here. He immediately understood what they wanted. Before going to investigate, he said goodbye to everyone. His mother was undergoing surgery, and he could write letters. Technical support, because of their close relationship at the time, didn't message him individually. However, Sassin wasn't among those he wanted to say goodbye to. Instead, he received many phone calls after their peaceful breakup. If asked about the possibility of Benjamin and Sassin getting back together, Benjamin's answer was simple:

"NO NO NO, we can't get back together."

"?"