[MA] 305. Conform or Die (Patreon)

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[A/N: This chapter is 75% longer than usual. Enjoy!

Notice: There will be no chapters on this month's last week-ish (09/23 to 09/28). So, from Saturday to next Thursday.

Chapters this week: 1/2

Next chapter: Thursday]

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While Shen headed to Zyn, Karlov went around delivering new orders for everyone to stop retreating. The Void Spawn had only pursued until the point where the gray floor turned black. The troops were already well beyond that.

The first lieutenant took a G-rank string from his spatial ring and threw one end at Shen, who grabbed it. Zyn used it for Shen to feel the vibrations of his speech. The ground could also work for that on the farm, but not in this half-Void area.

Zyn didn't waste time with pleasantries. "Lieutenant Shen, effective immediately, I'm giving you a clearance field upgrade. You now have limited tier-two leadership clearance. Congratulations."

"Thanks, Commander?" Shen said, uncertain of what was going on.

"You're welcome. Now I can reveal why Expeditionary Training is a requirement to complete the basic course. It uses a few rudimentary ideas with specific goals, from actual training to testing to filtering the worthy.

"The first goal is to cultivate camaraderie through hardship. The expedition is supposed to contain multiple close calls. As the one in charge, I the Void threat is real and continuous. People will unite or find themselves isolated and die—and I'll do nothing to prevent those deaths.

"Don't get me wrong; I'll be the first to throw myself at a fire to save my subordinates. But it's better to eliminate anyone too arrogant or timid to make connections now. This is the military, not a nursery. If one isn't A-rank, they should forget about playing the lonely hero. Or B-rank during a Calamity, I suppose; those are in short supply. Here, anyone depends on others, be they above, below, or on the same level as them. If one can't function accordingly, they aren't wanted. Or they might shine anyway if they're a genius, I suppose.

"Speaking of geniuses, I'm evaluating everyone on multiple factors, from individual power to willingness to help others to how well they perform their specific function. Any surviving loner will be removed from the chain of command and sent to special operations teams instead. It's supposedly a great honor. They die quickly. The others will be adequately sorted and start helping the Alliance survive.

"Another goal is to shock and awe. The situation is supposed to be so tough that people won't notice their improvements. Said realization will be left for when we leave. The marvel will help cement wonder for the military and its methods in their hearts."

Shen wasn't impressed. He had already gone through most of that during his drow training. The drow had evidently copied the military.

Zyn continued, "This is also about experience and simple luck. The experience part is obvious. Most people don't face Void Spawn until they arrive here, and I make it even tenser than usual. It's great to impart the danger to them in a mostly controlled environment.

"Luck sounds like superstition, but I have learned to believe it. It's said that the Void randomly marks people the first time they face a Void Spawn. Henceforth, they will be hunted down. It's not too in the face, but if you pay attention, you can notice more Void Spawn targeting a person for no apparent reason. I'll find those people, and they'll be split apart. If too many are in the same unit, that unit will disappear within weeks.

"On the subject of attacks, only direct attacks from Void Spawn can kill anyone here. I'll ensure all battles are winnable despite potential external variables, including mental stress. If anyone dies, it's on them. This is the military, not vacations. The danger is real, only not as impending as I make it seem.

"Even so, people dying without a chance to fight back doesn't sit well with us, either. Anyone who's about to get corrupted by the Void will have their minds shut down. That will stop them from turning because they must be awake to willingly consent to the Void. I also have artifacts to teleport everyone away if this Voided Subnode suddenly becomes B-rank. These artifacts and a few others will also trigger If I die.

"Balancing safety and fair danger isn't easy, but it's how we do things here, and it has worked for eons."

Shen constantly got similar reasoning when he was taught how the Alliance did things: it's the best solution they got to after countless years of honing their methods. He was starting to think it was just a default excuse to make people less prone to complaining.

Zyn wasn't done. "The expedition also aims to make people more malleable to obeying orders. They'll understand how important it is. And they'll always assume there's more going on than they know; therefore, they shouldn't try to think too hard beyond the scope of their orders."

Shen almost chuckled. The bit about it being the best solution was definitely just bullshit.

He had no choice but to take it as truth for now. His omnipotence didn't include the ability to check on some data yet. He was limited on that front. But he would verify it one day.

"As you can imagine," Zyn continued, "most of the goals aren't achievable when dealing with C-rank minds. They can easily see through all that and resist any attack as pathetic as what we suffered until now. Even some D-ranks might not get properly affected by the circumstances to learn what we need them to learn.

"The way to go around it is to lower their resistance to external stimuli. That's a crucial part of the Expeditionary Training. I usually accomplish that using my mastered Law to constantly pressure my trainees' souls, but this group is too large for that. I'm also not good enough to pressure people's souls while protecting them from danger in a C-rank Voided Subnode. I'm only C-rank myself. Don't let the façade I maintain for the troops' benefit fool you; I'm always on edge in this place. I'm not strong enough to deal with everything the Void might throw at us.

"Take this Void Farm. It's new and weak. But it's in a C-rank Voided Subnode, and my brigade might be ordered to deal with it. I wouldn't be surprised if people died in such a simple deployment. I've lost men and women during easier assignments before. This Wild Shift was nowhere as brutal as some of the things the Void can throw at us. As I taught you during the early stages of the basic course: always be alert on the front lines.

"All that is to say, we wouldn't be here if not for Captain Abbav, whom you know as Lieutenant Specialist Karlov." He watched Shen, who didn't bother to pretend he was surprised. "You knew."

Zyn couldn't force Shen to tell what had happened to him. Everything was within the privacy of the anti-memory-reading rules. However, Shen saw no reason to hide a tiny bit of information, "I was aware of him being B-rank, Commander."

"More importantly, he has a domain," Zyn pointed out. "That is our last line of defense if something goes wrong. I would've refused his order to come here instead of a D-rank Voided Subnode if he weren't present. I'm not playing any games here. I would also have refused it if we hadn't been provided with the Extreme Time-Dilation Aid rings. I want Captain Abbav to be ready to use his domain at first notice without being distracted by using it to make people more susceptible to external stimuli.

"Instead, with the time ring, he can perform the Stress Discipline exercise. It takes care of this Expeditionary Training's needs and takes nowhere near as much focus or energy as using his domain. It also cannot be as easily noticed as a domain. It feels more natural, especially to those who are experiencing battling the Void Spawn for the first time. The goal is to make everything feel as absolutely terrible as possible but not enough to make people suicidal."

Everything to that point was interesting but kind of almost too simple. Zyn talked a lot to explain the military liked to make people incapable of thinking properly to make them react to a bad experience the way the military wanted. And that it didn't care if people with their minds suppressed were killed.

Shen was strongly against it. People shouldn't be forced to conform to a way of doing things or die. To him, that was no different from murder. The Alliance didn't care for people who couldn't protect it. Maybe it even used the military to filter out people who didn't fit in. It was nefarious.

Then, there was the underlying message: if you're strong enough, you'll survive no matter what. It sounded reasonable enough in a society where power was everything. But things became much worse when not being powerful enough meant death instead of "mere" oppression.

Yet, what choice did Shen have but to try to understand it and make the best out of it that he could?

On the not-so-dark side, he could see how a trustworthy and responsible supervisor could make things less unfair. If done right, the suppression would also only force people's true personalities to surface, which was the point.

But could he really trust Zyn?

Well, he had to. That was part of what he was supposed to learn in this place, even if not like this: to depend on others. He was a cog in a well-oiled machine that did its best to be somewhat just but ultimately had a goal, protecting the Alliance, and didn't mind replacing a few pieces when needed. Oftentimes, the fighter next to him would be his first and last companion, the only one he could trust. Almost always, his survival would depend on his superior not throwing his life to the wolves.

Shen hated everything about it. Sure, power was everything, but people had limits. They should be free. This was too much.

He still didn't understand why he was being let in on the secret, but Zyn's following words explained it.

"Regrettably, as I said, the Void likes to randomly throw shit at us. The Wild Shift wouldn't matter in other circumstances, but it mattered here. Captain Abbav had long detected your high willpower and analytical ability. You would find out what was happening and infer ways to circumvent it. Therefore, he was pushing you harder than any other when the Wild Shift happened. It pushed you beyond the threshold of paranoia.

"That, too, wouldn't matter normally. Having paranoid people in this expedition would only add to the desired outcome. Unfortunately, Lieutenant Shen, you're a first-class talent with a domain. Are you aware that Reality issued a warning against Captain Abbav for almost pushing you into crossing into the Void?"

Shen stopped his heart from beating faster. So Reality itself had issued the warning?

"Reality can speak, Commander? Is it the same heavens that send tribulations on cultivators?"

"I'll take that as a yes," Zyn said without answering the question. "What do you know about why talents are made?"

"Someone artificially crafted my talent, Commander?"

Zyn sighed. "Nothing, then. Reality creates talents for specific goals. Think of a mind that is spacetime itself. It makes time move forward only because it wants to, really. It can see the past as we see the present. Some believe it can also see the future. A few even believe it can affect things at any point in time and space. You'll have to choose what to believe; there's little evidence about omnipotence or the ability to see the future. But a mind that can see all past and present everyone can predict some things. What do you know about Heavenly Mandates?"

The very words resonated with something inside Shen. He took a deep breath. "It's the first time I'm hearing about it outside of Earth's fiction, Commander."

"Nowadays, it's integrated into the Bounty Subsystem. Reality only speaks when giving warnings and only in single words, but some people are selected for certain tasks and feel the pull of Reality. It usually involves foiling the Void's plans. When Reality feels no one is adequate, or won't be at the right place at the right time, or can't be trusted, or it just can't be bothered to use someone else, or any other reason we're not really privy to, it gives a fetus what we call talent. I was told you were crippled in your mother's womb. Void Prophets are known for killing talented fetuses."

Shen was shocked.

First, because it felt like he was being used. Second, because the Void itself had admitted a Void Prophet had poisoned his mother and him by extension. However, the Void hadn't revealed Shen had been the target. Shen had asked who the responsible was, not why they had done it.

It wasn't easy to find out he had caused his mother's death, much less when delivered in such an uncaring way.

"If a Prophet was responsible, only three things explain why you survived. One, they didn't know you were a first-class talent. Two, your talent triggered even then and saved you somehow. Three, they had other goals and couldn't throw their identity away. Whatever the case, even if the original reason behind your talent is likely beyond your reach because you were crippled, Reality still has a goal for you. The proof is that your talent remains. And that's why we're having this conversation. What do you know about how a talent works?"

Shen suspected he knew next to nothing but replied, "It triggers when my life is threatened and uses my knowledge to make logical jumps, Commander."

"I suppose my question was too open-ended. I meant, how do you suddenly grow craftier or receive a willpower boost?"

"I don't know, Commander."

"Reality gives you the boost. Directly. Talents are deeply connected to Reality. First-class talents have a wider and more profound connection. Reality helps when you're about to die because it doesn't want you to pass away before you fulfill its Mandate. And that connection can be subverted by the Void.

"It requires very specific sets of circumstances, but it can happen. One such set is for a domain-holder to use their domain in a way that would injure their soul while they step into the Void while their existence is anchored to a Stillborn Phasespace, which they are inside of. It isn't easy to occur, but probabilities mean very little on the front lines. You almost did it, and Captain Abbav was considered the one pushing you to make that decision. Reality doesn't take kindly to people pushing talents that way and warned him of the consequences of not changing his ways. If we had lost you, Reality would've obliterated this entire Node and all Subnodes to cut its connection to you before it could be used against it."

Shen widened his eyes in shock. "What?!"

That sounded absurd and way out of proportion. It made no sense! He was just a C-rank. Why did he even have such a connection if it was that important?

Heavens, why was he even allowed in that place at all?!

"I can guess what you're thinking. We all think similarly when we hear it for the first time. Reality and its actions can't be judged by common sense. We think we're so important, that the Alliance is mighty and powerful. We have reason to. The Alliance's arms touch over thirty universes. Universes are so vast it takes an S-rank's mind to grasp it. So, thirty universes sound like a lot.

"Well, I was told at least three thousand universes have been confirmed to exist, and some people believe Reality is infinite by any measure that our limited minds can come with. Losing one out of thirty-three nodes in a single universe is probably a small price to prevent whatever the Void can do if it subverts a first-class talent's deep connection to Reality. At least, that's the only thing we can come up with when we try to guess Reality's reasons."

Shen had nothing to say to that. It was reasonable enough. It still felt absurd.

"Now, it would be safer to send you away, but that would mess with the Expeditionary Training. If anyone sees you leave, it'll break the incredibly convenient illusion that we're stranded. If the troops' minds were sound, they would see through it, but as we discussed, they aren't. I need them to believe they must brave through this dire circumstance with the ones beside them. Such a scenario will benefit them the most.

"Thus, Captain Abbav crafted a plan to help you maintain enough reason not to flee into the Void, or so we believe. That's one explanation for your willpower spike. However, it seems like he miscalculated. Your willpower increased too much. Its current level places you beyond the Captain's ability to keep your mind pressured as much as we need it to be, even with all aggravating factors. So, I had to choose whether to risk my people's gains or let you in some secrets and order you to pretend to be affected so everyone can continue to benefit as much as possible. We wouldn't be having this conversation if I had chosen to send you away."

This was not a conversation at all. Shen knew exactly what Zyn was doing: overwhelming Shen with so much information that the cultivator wouldn't see through whatever the First Lieutenant wanted to keep hidden. There was too much to consider, too many threads to follow.

One such thread was the miserable future his condition implicated. Shen had a domain. If he wasn't wrong, it was the key behind a first-class talent messing up.

So, he doubted he would ever be allowed on the actual front lines again.

There was no way the military would risk the entire Node like that. If it weren't for Abbav's domain, who could stop Shen before he left, he doubted Zyn would care about the other people's training. His future in the military would likely involve a lot of bureaucratic work and no AP gain.

Zyn finally approached the end of his speech. "Your orders are to pretend to be paranoid and not let anyone know or even suspect otherwise. That includes your friends from Earth and your high elf companion. Sadly, your personality matrix suggests you'll not obey me if their lives are endangered, and I don't want you to betray us and feel compelled to flee into the Void. That analysis is also why I'm bothering to share the reasoning behind everything with you instead of just commanding you to pretend to be paranoid with any background.

"I'll allow you to pay extra attention to your battalion and Acting Second Lieutenant Luthdel Elafir. You can save your people even when your paranoid self wouldn't. Just know that doing so will significantly impact their evaluation to the point the best they could hope was to be allowed to dust a shelf for the rest of their military lives. So, think twice before interfering."

Zyn paused, sighed, and added, "Lieutenant, I meant what I said: all fights are fair. People will only die if they behave stupidly. And my rules from the entire basic course remain: I won't allow betrayal. Your people aren't on the list of potential stupid deaths. They'll be safe enough, even if it doesn't look like it. Don't give them any tips. Don't interfere before anyone loses at least two limbs. I'll be watching." He looked Shen over and sighed again before waving his hand dismissively. "You have your orders."

The Brigade Commander's tactics worked.

Shen was so filled with things to think about that he wordlessly returned to his battalion. He would obey while he thought about everything—and did so with a slower mind than he should have. Then, he would keep obeying because he had no choice.

At least one good thing had come out of this: now he knew what to watch for and could protect Alicia.

The Will-Path Merging was already bearing juicy fruits, and he was anxious about what would come next.

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* - * - *

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"I told you to lie, First Lieutenant," Abbav's angry voice sounded in Zyn's mind. "You said too much. You got too close to disclosing what you shouldn't. You might die for this."

Zyn didn't even pay attention as he replied, "Any command to lie beyond the scope of military law can be disobeyed, Captain. This is a personal matter. Acting Second Lieutenant Shen is my man, and I only lie to my man if I have no choice. You should know this."

"You're growing too comfortable, First Lieutenant Zyn. You should know better than to use the shield of law in deployment. All sorts of accidents can happen here."

Zyn paid attention to that. It wasn't in character for Abbav to threaten him like that. Something was wrong.

Suddenly, his dark surroundings resembled precisely what he had learned to fear during his own Expeditionary Training.

"I'll keep it in mind, Captain," Zyn forced himself to say.

He could swear he heard rocks chuckling in the darkness.

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[A/N: That's enough revelations for now. Starting the next chapter, we'll get only the expedition until it ends. (This time for real).]

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