After hearing this, Earth Tiger was slightly taken aback, then wiped his mouth with his sleeve.
“Damn you, Old Black… are you okay?” he asked blankly. “Didn’t you just say you weren’t going? Are those injuries on your face from ‘Sky Tiger’? Are you planning to go get revenge on him?”
“This is really hard for me…” Black Sheep sighed. “A normal person in this plan only has to die once, but I might have to die twice.”
“What the hell…” Earth Tiger chuckled awkwardly. “Damn you, Old Black, stop acting like a hero here. If you really have something urgent to do, just go. That ‘Sky Tiger’ might have a bit of an advantage over me, but I can still try to hold my own. The others can come help me after they finish off their ‘counterpart zodiacs.'”
Upon hearing this, Black Sheep immediately stood up, grabbed Earth Tiger by the collar, and slammed him hard against the wall, clearly furious.
Earth Tiger hadn’t expected this reaction from Black Sheep. He just stared wide-eyed, momentarily at a loss for what to do.
“Money-Losing Tiger! Stop being an idiot!” Black Sheep growled in a low voice. “How can you still not understand…? No one but me is going to come help you…!!”
“W-what do you mean…?” Earth Tiger blinked. “This is something we’re all working together on… What’s wrong with helping each other?”
“There’s no ‘working together’ here!” Black Sheep refused to back down, leaning in closer and whispering fiercely, “Money-Losing Tiger, if you really want to live, don’t go after that ‘Sky Tiger’… When the time comes, you follow me!”
“You…” Earth Tiger pushed Black Sheep away, looking displeased. “What the hell are you doing? Does Brother Goat’s word not count anymore?”
Black Sheep paused for a moment. “Money-Losing Tiger… do you trust me?”
“Of course I do!” Earth Tiger nodded.
“Then don’t go if you trust me!” Black Sheep insisted. “This plan wasn’t even Brother Goat’s idea—someone else is trying to get you killed… Damn it, don’t you have a daughter out there? Don’t you want to see her?!”
“I…” Earth Tiger hesitated for a split second before catching the key point. “Wait, this plan isn’t Brother Goat’s…?”
“It was adjusted by Earth Ox herself,” Black Sheep said. “From the very beginning, there was no ‘counterpart kill’—it’s all fake!”
Earth Tiger’s eyes trembled slightly at those words. After several seconds of silence, he finally murmured, “But what if it’s real…?”
“What if—what the hell kind of ‘what if’ is that?!” Black Sheep roared. “You’re going to die! Do you even realize that?!”
“Hey…” Hearing this, Earth Tiger actually laughed sheepishly. “Old Black… sit down, why are you so worked up?”
He pulled Black Sheep aside, dragged over two chairs, and sat down first.
“Even if those words didn’t come from Brother Goat…” Earth Tiger muttered, “I just have one question for you—if I go after ‘Sky Tiger,’ will it benefit Brother Goat?”
“You—”
Black Sheep froze for a long moment before suddenly raising his hand and slapping Earth Tiger hard across the face.
*SMACK!*
“Who the hell are you calling a hero?! Look at yourself!!”
He looked even angrier than before. Earth Tiger had never seen Black Sheep like this—usually, he’d just grumble when upset and calm down after a bit of coaxing, but this time, it seemed like nothing would fix it.
Rubbing his stinging cheek, Earth Tiger still pulled Black Sheep down to sit. “Old Black… Old Black, just listen to me first.”
Black Sheep sat down with a dark expression, his face rigid with tension.
“Old Black… I’m not smart, so help me think this through.”
Black Sheep remained silent.
“Tell me—if it weren’t for Brother Goat… would the two of us still be ‘Earth-level’?” Earth Tiger asked with a smile. “Or… would we even still be ‘Zodiacs’? So our lives…”
“Don’t try to fool me with your twisted logic…” Black Sheep gritted his teeth. “What kind of sentimental act are you putting on?”
“But that’s the truth…”
“Bullshit! Let me ask you—the whole reason Brother Goat got you this far was so you could live, wasn’t it?” Black Sheep cut straight to the heart of the matter. “And now, at the last moment, you’re acting all noble? Do you really think this self-satisfying sacrifice would make Brother Goat happy?!”
“You—”
“Let me make this clear,” Black Sheep said. “If Brother Goat personally told me, ‘Let Money-Losing Tiger die,’ I’d agree without hesitation—hell, I’d do it myself if I had to. But as long as he doesn’t say it, you can’t die.”
Earth Tiger was getting a little frustrated now. “Damn you, Old Black… what are you even arguing about? Can Brother Goat account for every little variable? This plan spans so much time—one person’s small thought, one tiny incident could change everything…”
“So what?”
“So shouldn’t we take some initiative to help Brother Goat out?!” Earth Tiger countered. “As his students, we understand him better than anyone else. He’d trust us to make our own decisions at critical moments!”
“This situation is completely different!” Black Sheep snapped. “This plan involves too many people—not everyone is as selfless as you! Everyone has their own agenda! Don’t you get it?! Do you know what’s the hardest thing to control in this world?! It’s fucking *people*!”
“It won’t be that hard…” Earth Tiger said. “If everyone works together, we can definitely—”
Black Sheep lunged forward and grabbed Earth Tiger’s collar again. “Money-Losing Tiger… do you know why Emperor Qin Shihuang’s ‘unification of weights and measures’ is still praised today as something that benefited the people?!”
“What…?”
“Just standardizing units—something that could’ve been done with a single decree—so why has it been remembered for centuries?!”
“You… you know I’m not well-read… I…”
“Because there were too many people! Too many, you understand?!” Black Sheep snarled. “Even in a company of just ten employees, there’ll always be two or three who don’t get the boss’s orders. Even in a twenty-person group chat, five or six will miss the announcements! Now scale that up to hundreds, thousands—tens of thousands! How do you ensure *everyone* understands and follows a clear instruction?! That’s the terrifying thing about *people*! They’re the smartest creatures at screwing things up!”
Earth Tiger finally fell silent.
He *did* know that the rebellion force was far from united—and White Goat’s plan involved even more people than just their small team.
At this scale, if even *one* person betrayed them or misunderstood the plan, everything could collapse.
“But… but that can’t be right…?” Earth Tiger murmured.
“Money-Losing Tiger, how much clearer do I have to be…?”
“No… I’m not arguing with you,” Earth Tiger said. “Old Black, the reason Brother Goat *is* Brother Goat is because he knows how to control *people*.”
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