novelsite Chapter 220 Arrogance
Chapter 220 Arrogance
Upon hearing this, Shan Qing paused for a moment almost instinctively.
It was just a moment of distraction.
For anyone, this moment of distraction was far too short.
—But Jiang Xingni noticed Shan Qing's reaction.
"System." She tilted her head, a smile playing on her lips beneath the mask. "Perhaps we can cooperate."
Most of the clues in my mind finally started to connect because of Shan Qing's reaction.
Jiang Xingni had actually suspected this long ago.
After all, everything she's encountered now, everything related to the supernatural, is not entirely unrelated to Jiang Xingni's impression of the "nation."
Upon closer examination, it gives one the illusion of being a hypocrite.
It's like something that, on the surface, seems exactly the same as an ordinary person, with no difference whatsoever.
However, only upon close contact can one smell the stench of subcutaneous decay.
It was like a corpse covered with a human skin, letting itself emit a stench, but no one around noticed its abnormality.
In Jiang Xingni's memory, VOID was a villainous organization in the comics, whose purpose was to be criticized by readers and the main characters in the comics.
However, Taixu Academy—the organization the protagonist belongs to—should theoretically be a legitimate organization with supernatural abilities, a righteous organization established by the government. Jiang Xingni doesn't have a very good impression of Taixu Academy either.
Initially, due to a lack of understanding, Jiang Xingni was still observing.
The deterioration of public perception was the reason for the establishment of the "Hidden Order Society".
The initial purpose of establishing Taixu Academy may indeed have been for the safety of ordinary people.
Strange things, superpowered individuals—these things sound too fantastical, too abstract, and not like things that ordinary people would encounter in their daily lives.
For the sake of social stability, and for more people to live peacefully in a "normal" world—even if this "normal" world only appears normal—Taixu Academy, and other similar supernatural organizations, all believe in the same principle.
They want to set up a curtain.
Only those of our kind who enter the veil can know the truth of this world.
Ordinary people who were not recognized by them thus became the objects of their protection.
Ordinary people who rashly intrude will either become food for the monsters, or their very existence will be erased.
They either have their memories erased—but now, the abuse of memory erasure in the world of superpowered individuals has gone on for far too long.
If all you see when you open your eyes is a vast and magnificent world, then ordinary people hidden beneath the grand narrative will be overlooked.
Everything they did could be explained as being for the survival of more people—thus the deaths of a small number of people were taken for granted.
It seems that every superhuman possesses the wrench from the trolley problem.
Meanwhile, the minority were sacrificed and forgotten in their hands.
They have ignored ordinary people for far too long.
While everyone is focused on the battles between monsters and superhumans, the unrealistic research of VOID, and the conspiracies between the villains and the protagonists, ordinary people are repeatedly ignored.
Who cares about the ordinary people who have become background figures in the story?
Who cares about ordinary people who don't even care about death?
"But you will care." The system suddenly seemed to realize the real reason why Jiang Xingni founded the Hidden Order Society.
The ordinary people who are sacrificed will care.
Zhao Henshan will care, Ji Shanqing will care, their parents and relatives will care, and Jiang Xingni will care.
If Jiang Xingni hadn't obtained the system, she would have been just another ordinary person who sacrificed herself because of the wordless book.
Her death was as insignificant as her parents', and in the end, even the truth was buried by the world of superpowered individuals.
No one in the world knows how Jiang Xingni grew up or what efforts she made to break free from her past.
Like countless ordinary people who died because of the supernatural, no one cares about the story or the future—they are just victims.
Ji Hanzhang hoped that Jiang Xingni wouldn't die a meaningless death like her.
However, Jiang Xingni should have had the same ending as her.
Jiang Xingni is lucky enough.
She thought to herself that she was lucky enough to have escaped her original fate and that she might even be able to leave some trace of herself in the world.
Those who die in the same way do not have such an opportunity.
The dead are not just a string of numbers that can be easily forgotten.
They are real lives that once existed.
If a grand narrative inevitably requires someone to be sacrificed, then someone will inevitably be sacrificed in this way.
—At least Jiang Xingni cares about their lives.
*
The mountains also care.
Shan Qing had already guessed it when she was following Jiang Xingni with the tracking device—which she had secretly placed on him—alongside the trail.
It's simply that Lu Ming's parents followed the same path as Jiang Xingni's parents.
She didn't actually know which organization in the superhuman world had erased their memories.
Besides Taixu Academy, there are of course many other organizations in the world of supernatural beings.
But Shan Qing didn't know.
Regardless of the internal conflicts within the superpowered community, their attitude towards ordinary people is consistent.
They don't think ordinary people are worth paying attention to.
Anyway, it won't cause any big trouble. Even if something really happens, it can just be resolved by erasing a memory.
If there are indeed risks after death, they naturally have methods that are close to bringing the dead back to life.
They are both official organizations, and they are both fighting for the safety of people's lives and property.
Shan Qing originally thought that whether they were people with superpowers or ordinary people, they all had the same goal and were colleagues.
—Until she realized that Ji Hanzhang had died somewhere she didn't know.
It wasn't until she recalled what Ji Hanzhang had actually lost that she realized what he had lost.
Ji Hanzhang was no ordinary person; otherwise, he could not have led the research on supernatural beings when he was an ordinary person and could not even see them.
But even someone like Ji Hanzhang, when they erased his existence, didn't hesitate at all.
It was only at this moment that Shan Qing realized that years of arrogance had long since corrupted their minds.
If they could erase Ji Hanzhang, a national researcher, from existence so easily and without any hesitation...
Who would believe that they would care about the lives of ordinary people?
Shan Qing doesn't believe it.
She suddenly realized that they had long ago clearly distinguished themselves from ordinary people.
Just as they also distinguish between superhumans and monsters.