Cen Mingming covered his ears and frowned, then quickly released them: "What were you saying just now? My ears tinnitus, I didn't hear you."

"Nothing." Bai Liu changed the subject. "I have seen what is behind the door. In return, I will also give you a way to rescue these two thousand people."

"——There is something that can painlessly eliminate the pollution symptoms brought by dried rose leaves."

Cen Mingming held his breath and asked, "What is it?"

"Blood Ganoderma." Bai Liu shrugged. "If I remember correctly, you should have already separated the strains from the surviving children in the orphanage and preserved them, or in your words, contained them. You already have the raw materials for the antidote."

Cen Mingming stared at Bai Liu, and pointed the muzzle of his gun at Bai Liu's forehead: "Blood Ganoderma can only be cultivated with the blood of specific children, but there are nearly two thousand adults waiting for rescue - are you encouraging us to use the blood of children to illegally cultivate heretics?"

Bai Liu smiled: "——Isn't it often said that the antidote is hidden within five steps of the poison? Perhaps you can also try to cultivate blood ganoderma with the blood of these two thousand infected people?"

Cen Mingming was stunned.

Bai Liu acted as if he didn't notice the gun being pointed at him. He brushed past Cen Mingming's shoulder as if nothing had happened and walked towards the elevator entrance.

Tang Er held down Cen Mingming, who continued to aim his gun at Bai Liu. He looked at him and shook his head in an admonishing manner.

Cen Mingming then put down the gun. He glanced at Tang Erda, then glanced sideways at Bai Liu's back. He narrowed his good right eye meaningfully, then wiped the muzzle of the gun vigorously and put the gun behind his waist.

"You know, Captain Tang, this isn't the first time I've used the Mirror of Perspective on someone," Cen Mingming said coldly, "but this is the first time I've seen someone use the Mirror of Perspective with their left eye - especially when this person is right-handed, which doesn't fit their eye habits."

"I almost thought your guardian was mocking me for having only a right eye."

Bai Liu does have the possibility and evil taste to do so.

Tang Erda also saw that Bai Liu deliberately changed hands when taking the lens and putting it away, and he raised his eyebrows and slowly glanced at Cen Mingming's left eye.

Bai Liu has always held a grudge. Cen Mingming had offended him. Although he would not say anything openly, he would still make small details to tease and irritate people.

Cen Mingming looked at Tang Erda with a cold look in his eyes: "Are you sure you want to let such a smart heretic out?"

"I owe him." After Tang Erda said this, he ran towards Bai Liu.

Only Cen Mingming was left there, swallowed by the darkness at the bottom of the Heretic Administration. After a long time, Cen Mingming finally walked out of the darkness. He stroked his left eye with one hand, and looked at the backs of Bai Liu and Tang Erda as they left with his right eye. He murmured in an extremely cold tone:

"No one owes monsters anything, the monsters owe us."

——————————

Tang Erda sent Bai Liu to the gate of the Heretic Management Bureau. Seeing a bunch of members of the Third Team staring at Bai Liu with hostility, he couldn't help but have a headache -

——These are all the debts he owes.

Many of the team members who stayed here last night had a fierce battle with the heretics summoned by Bai Liu. Without being able to tell them the truth, their hostility towards Bai Liu will continue for quite a long time.

Unless...to transfer all this resentment to him.

When Tang Erda lowered his head in deep thought, a voice suddenly came from behind: "Captain!!"

Tang Erda's pupils shrank slightly, he stopped walking out, and turned around slowly.

Su Yang stood at the door and looked at him deeply, holding his uniform in his hand, his eyes red, and almost all the members of the Third Team stood behind him.

They were just in disbelief and looked at their former captain as if they were abandoned, staring at the confused and fleeing hunter.

"Captain, are you really leaving?"

Tang Erda was nailed to the spot by these words. He clenched his fists and had no way to move forward.

——These people, these players, these looks.

These tiny bits of happiness and beauty that he had experienced in more than 300 meaningless reincarnations were all related to the laughing or sleeping faces of these people.

When the drunken hunter curled up exhausted in a pile of monsters, using his gun as a pillow, he would dream of these people's faces, which were as vivid as before.

——This is his responsibility, his mission, his destiny, and it was inevitable when these people died for him.

Bai Liu also stopped. He turned around and saw this scene. He glanced at Tang Erda who had stopped without much surprise. He patted Tang Erda's shoulder as if he was relieved, and gently pushed Tang Erda, who was standing still, forward:

"Say goodbye to your teammates. I'll be waiting for you outside."

Bai Liu said, then waved lazily and turned away without looking back.

Tang Erda was pushed forward and staggered a step. He lowered his head and looked at the shabby, old Heretic Administration uniform on his body, and his hands that were worn out by gunfire from killing countless monsters and living heretics. Then he raised his head and stared at Su Yang and his teammates opposite him in deep, confusion, and trance.

——He suddenly realized that he could hardly remember what he and they looked like at the beginning.

Tang Erda only remembered those bad, incomplete pictures filled with blood and hatred. These pictures were like knives, cutting into the faces of each of these people, and then carving Tang Erda's memory bit by bit into a bloody and unrecognizable appearance.

He could not remember the place where he and Su Yang last drank with broken beer mugs raised high, nor could he remember the reason for celebrating with that group of idiots for the last time. He could not remember Su Yang leaning on his shoulder, crooked his eyes and saying, I'll wait for your background.

Obviously it was so important, and obviously he relied on these memories to get through so much, but at this moment, those memories seemed too far away from him, so far away that they were blurry, yellowed and faded, so far away that they seemed like the memories of another captain of the Third Detachment, Tang Erda.

Rather than the memory of Tang Erda, who has transformed into a monster.

The more time went by, the more he wanted to go back to the past, the further he had to move away from the past.

"Captain, please don't leave!!"

Su Yang held Tang Erda's uniform with his hands flat, his back straight, and bowed to him 90 degrees in a proper manner. Although his voice was forced to be calm, one could still hear that he was choked up.

"Captain, please don't leave!!"

Led by Su Yang, all the members of the Third Team bowed their heads and clamored to Tang Er. They shouted at the top of their lungs to keep him, tears streaming down the faces of some of them and dripping onto the ground.

Tang Erda finally took a step forward. He slowed down his pace and walked towards Su Yang and the third team step by step. Silently took his team uniform from Su Yang's hand.

Su Yang raised his head in surprise: "Captain?!"

the other end.

Mu Ke and Liu Jiayi received a text message from Tang Erda, and then drove to the outside of the Heretic Management Bureau and waited.

Now seeing Bai Liu coming out unharmed, Mu Ke, who was sitting in the driver's seat, let out a long sigh and slumped in his seat.

Liu Jiayi, who had already gotten out of the car to get some fresh air and was leaning against the car door, seemed to hear someone approaching, and she looked up in surprise.

She listened several times, then asked in disbelief, "You are the only one who can hear the footsteps. You actually left that big fool in the Heretic Management Bureau?!"

"Aren't you afraid that he will stay here again?!" Liu Jiayi crossed her arms and "looked" in the direction of Bai Liu's footsteps. "I don't believe you didn't see that he has a stronger sense of belonging to the Bureau of Heresy. If you leave him where he is and expect him to cut off his psychological connection with the Third Detachment, it's like sending a sheep into the tiger's mouth."

"He won't feel a sense of belonging to us." Liu Jiayi shook her head and concluded firmly, "I can feel that he is very repulsive and even hostile to us."

Liu Jiayi raised her eyebrows impatiently and criticized Bai Liu: "You went through so much trouble just to completely control Tang Erda, didn't you? What's the matter? You failed at the last minute. This is not your style."

Bai Liu was questioned by Liu Jiayi. He turned around calmly and leaned against the car door. He took a bottle of water from the open window on the driver's side, opened it and took a sip before answering Liu Jiayi:

"I suddenly became curious about what choice Captain Tang would make if I didn't deliberately cut it."

"What are you doing all of a sudden?" Liu Jiayi stamped her feet and said anxiously, "The league will start in two months. If you don't quickly control your players, and Tang Erda is so good, you will be robbed of your players just like Hong Tao!"

Bai Liu lowered his eyes and looked at Liu Jiayi: "--So you want to see me use the method of controlling you with Red Peach to control Tang Erda? And let him part with his closest person by death?"

Liu Jiayi was stunned.

"That's what I had originally planned." Bai Liu changed the subject again and admitted it without hesitation.

Bai Liu closed the lid of the mineral water bottle, put one hand casually in his trouser pocket, and looked into the distance at the huge white round building. The morning breeze and dew blew past his back, making Bai Liu's hair and the loose shirt that was not tucked into his trousers flutter.

The dazzling first rays of the sun shone on Bai Liu's profile, setting off his faint smile, and sparkling in the dawn that was about to fade away from the night.

"But at certain times, I think it's good to use the Lu Yizhan method to guide people's hearts."

The dazzling sunlight was transformed into countless bright rays in the morning mist, and then the beams merged with each other, gradually spreading from the sky all the way inside, illuminating the desolate sky, the underground trapped by monsters, the huge round metal building, and the octopus shape on the team uniform into a brilliant golden color of light reflection.

Tang Er looked down at the octopus badge shining brightly in the sun on the team uniform in his hand that had been with him for centuries for a long time without moving. Then he let out a long, long breath and suddenly chuckled.

"Captain?" Su Yang asked carefully.

"Do you remember when we first started training as reserve members in the Heretic Administration?" Tang Erda asked a completely unrelated question.

Su Yang was stunned, but still answered Tang Erda's questions seriously: "... Remember, we were all reserve members of the first team at the beginning, and the training was very hard."

"——It was hard to stop me from doing stupid things, wasn't it?" Tang Erda's eyes were filled with nostalgia, "At that time, I was the most impulsive person in the entire detachment. When I encountered heretics killing people, I couldn't control my temper and had to kill the heretics. Every time, I was stopped by the captain of the first detachment. He taught us a lot."

"Yes, at that time, Cen Mingming was still the deputy captain of the First Team. He was very strict with us, but he would be very obedient and call the captain of the First Team "senior brother."

Su Yang didn't know what Tang Erda wanted to say, but he still recalled it with Tang Erda very meekly, "--You didn't like him at that time, and you even teased him by imitating his way of calling the captain of the first team "senior brother". He even scolded you for having such a bad temper, and you would be polluted and mentally downgraded sooner or later."

Tang Erda was a little dazed: "... Did I fight with Cen Mingming before?"

"It happened more than 20 years ago. It's normal that you don't remember it." Su Yang smiled, "Why are you talking about this suddenly?"

"I just suddenly remembered something the captain of the first team once said to me." Tang Erda lowered his eyes and looked at the team emblem, clenching his hands and whispering, "--There are no two identical leaves in this world, and no two identical timelines--"

"——When you are chosen by time, no matter how much you want to stay with something or someone, you must know that they are no longer the real people or things you want to stay with. They have all passed away for a long time——"

"You can't look back, you just have to keep moving forward."

"——This is your future."

Tang Er raised his head, looked around at all the team members, and said in a deep voice:

"I became the [guardian] and [binder] of Heretic 0006. The incidents caused by Heretic 0006 last night and this morning were all caused by my inappropriate judgment of Heretic 0006, which led to its intensification—"

His dark blue eyes were clear and bright: "——I should take full responsibility for this."

"Heretic 0006 was a non-harmful heretic. He controlled himself during the two violent riots and did not kill anyone. He also took compensatory measures afterwards to save himself from the consequences. However, I misjudged Heretic 0006 and used various means to force him, which was the initial cause of the accident. Regarding this——"

Facing the stunned team members who stayed behind, Tang Erda bent down deeply and bowed to them:

"—I am deeply sorry."

"I will do my best to compensate the 67 team members who were injured last night. The explosion at the Rose Factory the next day has also been resolved. As a punishment--" Tang Erda grabbed the team badge on the uniform and pulled it down hard.

Su Yang shouted at him: "Captain!!"

But it was too late.

The team emblem was completely torn off, and Tang Erda took a deep breath: "--I resign from the position of captain of the third team, and as the binder of heretic 0006, I will never return to the Heretic Management and Processing Bureau until he is completely integrated into society."

Su Yang closed his eyes, his cheeks trembling from clenching his teeth.

Tang Er straightened his back, and smiled lightly as if he had let go of everything, but his eyes were red. He held the team badge against his chest and clenched it, then shook out his team uniform, draped it over Su Yang's shoulders, patted his shoulders with a smile, and gently placed the team badge representing the captain in Su Yang's palm.

Su Yang opened his eyes in surprise and looked at him.

Tang Erda said in a deep voice: "——Here, I appoint Deputy Captain Su Yang as the new captain of the Third Detachment and transfer all authority except the [Prophet] authority to him."

"I order you, Deputy Captain Su, to take the badge!" Tang Erda's tone suddenly dropped.

Su Yang tried to hold back, but couldn't hold back any more. Tears streamed down his face. He almost gritted his teeth as he took the team badge that Tang Er handed to him: "--Yes, Captain."

Tang Erda said with a smile: "You will be a better captain than me, Su Yang."

Su Yang cried loudly while holding the badge and team uniform.

For more than 20 years, he had never thought that one day Tang Erda would no longer be his captain, and in such a cruel, self-punishing way.

Su Yang understood what the Heretic Administration meant to Tang Erda, and also understood how terrible it would be for Tang Erda to give up this place.

Su Yang thought of ten thousand ways for Tang Erda to leave the Heretic Administration - being killed by the heretics, committing suicide due to contamination, or even becoming a heretic's ward and dying of old age here.

But he never thought it would be like this. In the minds of Su Yang and every team member, there was no possibility for Tang Erda to leave the Heretic Administration alive - this meant that, in their perception, leaving the Heretic Administration was a more terrible thing for Tang Erda than death.

Tang Erda led them to charge and attack, and was recognized by every member of the Third Detachment as the eternal captain. He was just, brave, and sometimes a little impatient, but he would never miss any life-and-death battle, and was not afraid of any heretical "game" from which he would never return.

But when did they drift apart?

Su Yang watched with tearful eyes as Tang Er left in the sunrise. He waved his hand nonchalantly, as if he had no attachment to this place. However, the clothes and pants on this guy, even his shoes and socks were specially made by the Heretic Management Bureau.

It had been worn to pieces and washed to a white color, but Tang Er still wore it tightly on his body - it was as if this old Heretic Management Bureau uniform had grown onto his body and he could never take it off.

But the team badge that was "growing" on his heart had already been taken off by him with his own hands.

Bai Liu leaned against the car and waited for a while. Liu Jiayi couldn't help but sarcastically said to Tang Erda, who hadn't come out yet: "Bai Liu, you will regret being soft-hearted. Our captain doesn't look like he can leave the team easily. You wait for him to..." Traitor...

Before Liu Jiayi finished her words, a black spot appeared under the circular building and walked towards them.

He was walking slowly, wearing a tattered team uniform, but he was indeed walking towards this direction.

Liu Jiayi stopped talking and looked in the direction of the footsteps in disbelief.

Tang Er came over. Bai Liu looked him over from head to toe. His eyes stayed on his team uniform with a tattered chest for two seconds. He smiled and teased, "I thought you would leave the team badge and uniform to Su Yang."

Tang Erda was no longer surprised that Bai Liu could guess where things were going. He nodded and spoke in a hoarse voice, "That was originally the plan. We gave him the team uniform and emblem..."

Bai Liu's eyes stopped at the uniform on Tang Erda: "So?"

"But Su Yang insisted on leaving the team uniform to me." Tang Erda said softly, "He said that the team emblem was only for me to keep temporarily, and he would always wait for me to return."

After saying this, Tang Er was silent for a long time before he said, "——But I can't turn back. That is not my [Future]."

“I can only keep moving forward.”

Volume 3: Pool