System, are you messing with me? - Chapter 21: Chapter 21

"Yang Quan. How are you feeling?"
Sun Zhilong still hadn't stopped staring at Shu Ning the entire time they were alone in the tent, making the boy slightly uncomfortable and unable to rest. So when the silhouette of a female, and not just any female but the Protagonist, stepped through the entrance of the healer's tent, he actually didn't feel annoyed with her for a change but a little bit grateful.
The loosening expression of the youth of course didn't escape the sight of the General who stiffly turned his head to the newcomer with a deep frown on his face.
"Zhou An. I'm doing fine. But I didn't expect you to come back."
Calling the woman Zhou An left a bad taste on Shu Ning's tongue that made him sick to the stomach but seeing Zhou Feng shortly freeze in place in panic from his last sentence he felt a small sense of satisfaction. But the blunder in the Protagonist's perfect act didn't hold on for long as the woman calmed down again and showed a gentle smile towards Shu Ning.
"Yang Quan. What are you saying? Of course I would come back. I have been fighting right beside you the whole time. You wouldn't actually want to leave me there, right? We are in this together after all."
"Oh? Are we now? If you say so."
Shu Ning's voice practically dripped with sarcasm as he spoke with the Protagonist and a thick and heavy tension settled inside of the tent.
In the midst of their quiet battle they both completely forgot about the third person still standing right beside them, who had stayed silent until he couldn't bare the youth's sinking expression anymore.
"Yang Quan has to rest. If there is nothing important to discuss then please leave this place."
Shu Ning stubbornly kept his eyes on the crossdressing woman standing arrogantly next to the bed even after flinching in surprise from the sudden almost growling voice of the General. So he could watch with satisfaction as the Protagonist reacted even more fiercely.
The woman visibly startled from the interruption of the man and snapped her head around to look straight into the dark black eyes of the man. A slight fear washed over her from the expressionless face of the other and the freezing air surrounding him.
"I-I apologize Captain. I just came here to ask about the stone Yang Quan was holding just before."
In her haste to appease the General, Zhou Feng practically screeched out her apology before remembering who she was supposed to be and darkening her voice as far as she was capable of to calmly state her business. But Sun Zhilong didn't seem to notice anything strange with the protagonist as he just lifted one of his eyebrows in question.
"The stone? What do you want with it?"
"Captain. That stone is definitely useful to us. As we all could see, the stone has tremendous influence on the Sphinx. Those creatures were in a complete frenzy because of it. Thanks to that stone they completely ignored us soldiers and instead devoured each other. With this stone we can win any war against the Sphinx in the future."
The Protagonist continued to go on about the benefits of taking back the blue moon to their home planet for a long time until Shu Ning finally couldn't listen to this hypocrisy anymore.
"Zhou An. What are you thinking? You don't even know what that stone is capable of. I found it protected in the Sphinx territory. Those creatures wanted to keep it save even though it had such horrible powers over them. There musst be a deeper secret behind it. You don't even know if that is everything the Stone is capable of doing. What if it even influenced humans? What if this is some form of toxin? What then?"
"What are you talking about? You are totally fine even after holding it for so long and I have seen the soldiers fight. None of them looked even just slightly of."
"Will you bet on it? Can you take responsibility if you are wrong? Sometimes poison corrodes the body over a long timespan before any symptoms set in. So who knows what could actually happen to humanity with such a weapon in our middle."
"You are too paranoid Yang Quan. What can actually happen? In the end it is just a stone. It is not some sort of magical artefact. I think you read too many books. The sphinx probably just hid the stone away from us, so that we couldn't use it against them. Now that we got our hands on it though, we should use it. This could change everything. The Sphinx won't be a problem for us anymore and we would be seen as Heros. Don't you see the possibilities?"
Sun Zhilong snorted at the overly enthusiastic words of the soldier and wanted to step in to put an end to it when an amused chuckle sounded from Yang Quan's direction.
"Zhou An. Ah. Zhou An. You should have just said exactly what you wanted in the beginning, then you wouldn't have bored me with you rambling. Everyone likes Heros, so I can understand when you want to be one as well. But unfortunately this is not a situation where you can let your ambition cloud your judgement. There are human lives on the line after all. So let's get the facts straight. This stone is a mysterious artefact that can let the Sphinx go into a frenzy, there are no records about such an object at all, it was strictly protected by the Sphinx, we have no knowledge about it's dangers and lastly, we don't know what this new fund can do to humanity. You get it yet?"
The Protagonist narrowed her eyes in displeasure and furiously glared at Shu Ning when he raised the corner of his mouth into a teasing smile. She was already on the edge of erupting from the youth's arguments but after seeing his lazy and haughty expression, she couldn't contain herself any longer.
"YANG QUAN. How are you suddenly getting so arrogant. I'm just thinking of the future of humanity. You are the one who doesn't understand anything. What does some possible dangers matter to us? So stop sprouting such nonsense and give me that damn stone. GIVE IT TO ME."
It seemed as if Shu Ning had driven Zhou Feng into the corner as the woman dropped all pretense and screamed at him in her real high pitched voice before throwing herself at him with a crazed expression.
In her fury her facial features were twisted in an ugly and  vicious way that could even pass as an evil spirit but even when faced with such a sight, Shu Ning didn't even flinch from her sudden movement and calmly prepared for the impact in anyway that his numb body actually allowed.
Just before the oncoming fists from the Protagonist could hit it's goal, the broad back of the General filled Shu Ning's line of vision and the slender physique, at least slender in comparison to the wide and musculus body of Captain Sun, of Zhou Feng couldn't be seen anymore.
"SOLDIER AN. STEP DOWN. This behavior of yours will have consequences."
Shu Ning wasn't able to see the man's expression at all because the General was still standing with his back turned towards him but Zhou Feng didn't have such problems at all and could directly look at the storm in the deep abyss like eyes of the other.
Sun Zhilong's lips were pressed in a small line and his eyebrows were drawn together in a deep frown while the man's black eyes showed a harsh light that made a shiver run down the Protagonist spine and made her knees tremble in fright.
"Leave. Now. The decision on how to handle the stone isn't yours to make, so don't get carried away by your ambitions and forget about your superior's presence. And let me give you a warning as well. Don't. lay. a. hand. on. Yang Quan."
Those last words of the General were practically squeezed out through the man's clenched teeth and sounded more like the threatening growl of a massive beast than the scolding of a boss and that was exactly the effect that Sun Zhilong wanted. Less a warning and more a promiss that he could make the troublemaker's life a living nightmare if he showed any aggression towards the youth.
Zhou Feng's eyes were blown wide and her hands trembled as she hurriedly dropped them at her side again. All her previous aggression and determination to get her hands on the stone evaporated into thin air from the terrifying stare of her superior.
"I.... I....I apologize for my rude behavior captain. I didn't think my actions through and almost injured my companion. I will of course accept my punishment."
Sun Zhilong didn't even bother with the obviously forced apology of the young soldier and impatiently waved her away.
As soon as the Protagonist quickly bowed and then left as graceful as possible, the General turned his head in the direction of the makeshift bed inside the tent, only to see the strange expression on the youth's face that he couldn't quit understand.
"Yang Quan. Are you alright?"
The Man worriedly stretched out his rough hand to feel the temperature of the teen's forehead but hastily pulled back again when the other flinched from surprise and fixed a wary gaze at the General.
"General. I apologize for the trouble we caused you sir. I'm already doing much better already and would like to return to the other soldiers again."
Shu Ning slowly lifted up the upper part of his body into a sitting position, now that he could stiffly move again and softly smiled at the strange General, he couldn't quite figure out.
The Man's lips twitched for a second and the color of his eyes deepened slightly as he intently roamed his gaze over Shu Ning's new body. A hint of worry could be seen in the General's scrutinizing gaze but the youth's reassuring smile seemed to do the trick as Sun Zhilong nodded his head in acceptance before turning to the tent's entrance to make his exit
"All right then. Meet up with your comrades and get some rest together. You need all the energy you can get.
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Zhou Feng angrily stormed out of the tent with an ugly expression on her face. Her fists were clenched tightly at her side and her eyes were sprouting fire from the humiliation she just went through.
Until now, her entire life has always been smooth sailing. No matter what she wanted, she could always get it with just minimal difficulty, but this time everything was just so wrong. Zhou Feng had made sure to appeal to Yang Quan the entire time she hung around him, so that the boy would do her dirty work and would serve her well but suddenly that guy changed. That madly in love bastard actually woke up from his day dreams and stood up to her and even humiliated her.
In her anger the female almost tripped over the long legs of another soldier resting on the ground and could only barely catch herself before falling face first onto the ground.
With a stomp of her feet Zhou Feng whirled around to admonish the other guy when she noticed the scorn on everyone's faces that were present on the scene and the silent laughter in their eyes.
"What are you laughing about? Aren't we supposed to be comrades who look out for each other? You sure have some nerves actually tripping me."
Zhou Feng soon calmed down her boiling rage again and expressionlessly faced the horde of soldiers in front of her. She didn't put those people in her eyes anyway and would make sure to get rid of everyone who looked down on her very soon. Especially Yang Quan and that General will have to pay for their lack of respect towards her.
"Look out for each other? Do you think we are deaf? With the volume of your screams from just now I think no one in this camp overheard your voice."
"That's true. We all heard what you were disgusing with our savior just now. What did you say again?  What do some possible problems matter to us. We can be Heros. Hand me the stone. etc. etc."
Zhou Feng flinched slightly from the overly sarcastic tone of the speaker but otherwise stood her ground. She didn't understand what the others were getting at anyway. She wasn't wrong.
"And? Was I wrong? I didn't say anything too drastic. I just meant that the stone can be of great help to us. The Sphinx won't be a problem for us anymore."
"No. We aren't stupid. We might be soldiers but we do know how to read people like you. You just want to take credit on finding the stone by saying you were in this together with our savior. You want to disregard the dangers that can fall onto humanity for your selfish ambitions. That's what you want."
Some of the young men began to softly whisper towards each other and from time to time Zhou Feng could hear the word hypocrite and see the eager nods of the others.
"Think what you want but let me tell you. That guy you praise as savior is not the person he pretends to be. He is black hearted and vile. He won't hesitate at all to stab someone in the back when it fits him. I just tried to save you all. I am looking out for your safety because we are comrades but you rather want to believe the person who wanted to turn his back on you when you were almost overrun with those Monsters. If he didn't trip over that blue stone by coincident, then he would have long abandoned you all to flee to safety. You will see. Believe in him and your death will be inevitable. You'll see."
Without sparing another glance at the shocked faces of the soldiers, the Protagonist sneered at their low IQ while continuing on her way through the camp once more. This time unhindered.