Love, death, and false man

Chapter 33. Time-Coordinated Operations
9/25—21:15
The chrome alloy parts gleamed with a cold silver light in the neon lights, and the matte black Harley-Davidson roared to life like a long-dormant mechanical beast, its engine ripping through the silence as it sped past the traffic.

Fang Yan, dressed in a black leather jacket that reeked of engine oil and metal, with long, bright red hair flying wildly, held onto the back seat with a very assertive demeanor.

Xia Bing led him away from the scene of the scandalous affair. They were hungry, so they went to their favorite barbecue restaurant to talk about what was going to happen next.

Upon arriving at their destination, Xia Bing found a parking space at random, removed her goggles, and let Fang Yan get off the motorcycle first. Then, with her overwhelming height, she easily kicked off the motorcycle's kickstand.

Why do you look so absent-minded?

Seemingly not taking what had just happened to heart at all, Xia Bing looked at Fang Yan calmly. Because of the need for long-term cooperation, she still used the Salvation Army server to check Fang Yan's superficial information in society.

You wouldn't know unless you looked into it; he's quite a character with a story.

Because the carrier ship was involved in some corporate profit issues and had a negative social impact, it did not receive much news coverage.

However, Xia Bing had paid attention to him some time ago and found that he was also one of the main characters in the story. He was in the news, but there was no photo. He was only identified as Fang, a high school student with a mental illness, and not criminally responsible.

Xia Bing knew that this was definitely not the truth of the matter; it had been altered by the Salvation Army's satellite. She would definitely find out more about it later, purely out of curiosity.

Therefore, it has been confirmed that this "cheap fan" has a somewhat incongruous and discordant personality. Despite having such a legendary experience, he is still inexperienced and essentially remains a college student.

"Could it be your first kiss?"

Xia Bing teased him, because his reaction was exactly like that.

"You already know, so why ask?" Fang Yan calmed down. Universities are fraught with danger; Xia Bing's fanatical fans might even shoot him. Besides, this was just a necessary interaction; there was no need to be happy. He sealed his heart with cement. "Isn't your girlfriend here too? Aren't you afraid she'll misunderstand?"

“She knows I have another identity, but she’s maintained this delicate relationship without revealing it. We’ve been arguing these past few days because I’ll be out of contact for a while again, so don’t worry.” Xia Bing saw how composed Fang Yan was and suddenly felt a bit mischievous. “This was actually my first kiss, from the perspective of a guy.”

"real or fake?"

The cement seal was instantly broken, and Fang Yan had a strange feeling.

Xia Bing didn't reply. Her reaction was more appropriate now. She just gave him a "you have to guess" look, locked the motorcycle, and walked towards the barbecue restaurant with her golf club bag on her back.

Fang Yan was speechless. Just like last time, he had been tricked again. Adult women were truly terrifying creatures.

Twenty minutes later.

It seems that Xia Bing only has a special fondness for charcoal barbecue. Her vegetarian dishes are still limited to mushrooms, chives, starch sausage, and eggplant, while the rest are all meat skewers.

Still the classic plastic chairs and folding tables.

"Even if the lieutenant is a man of his word, if an emergency occurs and he has to end his leave early, the special half-month leave may not be that long. He must always be on high alert."

Xia Bing used chopsticks to pry the skewers off the bone and ate them.

"I'm always fully armed."

Now, the Colt M2000 and MP5 have become like keys and cell phones, items that Fang Yan always carries with him.

“I heard our squadron is about 120 to 150 people, and we're constantly reducing our numbers and recruiting. Not all of us are in 2030; our timeline is much longer, with other timelines as well. Managing so many people is very difficult, especially when preparing for coordinated time operations.” “Coordinated time operations?”

Fang Yan has learned a new word.

"That's right. For example, it's like hijacking a country to launch a nuclear attack. You need one team to kidnap everyone who has the nuclear codes, and another team to control the nuclear missile silos. Only by acting separately can you launch nuclear missiles to bombard the world in the first instance. You can think of us as the ones who get the codes, and the people of the future or the past as the ones who control the missile silos. This way, you can maximize the chain reaction of changes in the course of cosmic history in the shortest time. It's the most efficient approach and can completely correct or eliminate the impact of a series of events."

Xia Bing didn't regard Fang Yan as just a male high school student. As a private first class, he had already experienced many life-and-death situations. He must have understood that even if he did his best and made all the preparations to the extreme, he would only have a 50% chance of survival. Xia Bing clinked bottles with Fang Yan and started drinking.

"So... many times, we can't formulate a comprehensive plan to execute at a specific time, but rather we have to coordinate with people on other timelines..." Fang Yan almost blurted out the words "Salvation Army," which was not something to be discussed, "and coordinate with people on other timelines."

“You understand quickly. Sometimes they cooperate with us, and sometimes it’s the other way around. Of course, this is classified information. We are only responsible for handling what we know and cannot know the whole story. If we cooperate with them, even if the target we are dealing with is sitting on a private plane at the time, we cannot kill him in advance, but shoot him down with anti-aircraft guns at the designated time.”

Have you experienced something similar?

"Similar, but not as exaggerated as anti-aircraft guns. We've taken down a helicopter with new man-portable guided rockets. Don't rely too much on the power of Soulfire, use it sparingly. Even the man-portable equipment of our time is effective against the vast majority of fake humans."

"In cooperative operations, besides killing, are there any other types of missions?"

"Of course, most of the time it's about killing someone or protecting someone for a specific period of time. Only in rare cases is it about bankrupting a company or changing someone's mind, like in Inception. I haven't experienced changing someone's mind; it's the rarest type of event. These people can't be mind-controlled; we can only implant their thoughts through more indirect means. They are all extremely crucial people at historical junctures. The most troublesome thing is protection. This means large-scale operations, facing a constant stream of enemies. The participants won't just be the two of us, but the entire squadron of soldiers in 2030. Many people will die."

Xia Bing spoke of the terrible events with a calm and collected demeanor, completely unlike the keyboardist of the Soda Revolution. Fang Yan could sense the strength of her mental fortitude.

"If others heard what we were saying, they would definitely think we were mentally ill."

"Who can say otherwise? Maybe we're all fellow sufferers, currently on iron beds in a mental hospital, experiencing mind-controlled delusions, hallucinations, and auditory hallucinations. It just so happens that we have a different way of interpreting the world than ordinary people. All the fake people we killed were also illusions, living, breathing human beings. But we lack criminal responsibility..."

"Stop continuing, my program finally got running after a lot of effort."

“I understand what you’re saying, I understand what you mean, very clearly. My answer is, don’t try to understand or feel it, even hatred and killing are strong expressions.”

"Brother...you smell so good."

“I understand you, but I’m sorry I can’t help you. I’ve already reached my limit. It’s like being gay, too lesbian, it makes me uncomfortable. I did my best. We should meet up often after this. You’d better have a means of transportation. I have a cruiser in my garage that you can take. You can also just stay at my place. Here’s the spare key.”

"cruise?"

"All my cars are Harleys."

"I wish you were a woman."

"Thank you."

Xia Bing ate the barbecue and drank her wine without a care in the world.

Fang Yan has also come to terms with it. This woman's masculine aura can even surpass that of 99% of men. It's no wonder she can capture a large number of crazy female fans. All that brainless fangirling is for nothing.

(End of this chapter)