With this testimony, Mrs. Mi Si's defense was as pale and powerless as her complexion, winning no sympathy. Colonel Washington immediately escorted her back to the camp, never mentioning the planned visit to NPC Maggie's house again.
The patrolling soldiers disappeared up the slope, and the skeleton was also cleared away.
"Maggie, let's go back," things had progressed more smoothly than Zero had anticipated, and it seemed she could finally get a good night's sleep tonight. With the arrival of the night, Zero realized that she had not closed her eyes for four days and three nights.
"Zero, are you a good person or a bad person?" NPC Maggie let go of Zero's hand, and the harmony that had been hard-earned between them since they had met now vanished into thin air.
Zero's face still wore a leisurely smile, and when questioned by this child a whole cycle younger than herself, she awkwardly touched her nose tip.
The anger in the little girl's eyes made Zero realize that now was not the time for jokes.
"I should have told the Colonel earlier. You are not an ordinary Private. Uncle Anke was killed by you. His finger bones were all shattered due to the force, and the wound on his back that split his spine could not have been made by a right-handed person; it was by someone who habitually uses a weapon with the left hand. That day, when you were hitting the Moth Dragon with rocks, you were using your left hand. And he died in the evening, exactly when you happened to be out for a walk." NPC Maggie clenched her hands into fists, hanging them low by her side.
She resented Zero's dishonesty even more than Aunt Mi Si's betrayal. She had finally found a friend, but this friend had killed one of her own the moment she reached the enemy camp.
Colonel Washington and Zero both underestimated NPC Maggie's capabilities. Eight-year-old NPC Maggie might not have high Spiritual Power, but early death of her father and her mother's busyness made her more resilient than other children. As a baby, she endured the loneliness of playing alone and learned exceptional Reconnaissance Skills beyond the ordinary.
After entering Prehistoric Society, she had ample space and time to study various living creatures, both alive and dead.
With more than 3000 shared records, it was proven that she possessed superior reconnaissance abilities than Zero. NPC Maggie could accurately ascertain all the characteristics of living and dead organisms, including the time and symptoms of a person's death before they died. NPC Maggie hadn't spoken out about Anke's cause of death earlier because she was worried about her mother's safety.
Zero's lies had persuaded the Colonel to believe that her mother was still at home. If she exposed Zero, the Colonel would suspect her mother. Moreover, she didn't want... she didn't want her friend to die at the hands of the Colonel, no matter what.
"Maggie, you are an incredible kid," Zero saw that NPC Maggie truly considered her a friend and felt warmth in her heart. She never imagined that she, Zero, could make friends in a virtual world.
When she was at university, due to her family background and her brother's notorious reputation, Zero had few friends at school. This was the first time Zero felt the taste of friendship.
"However, I have to tell you something, real villains never admit they are villains," Zero shrugged, "I did not deceive you. Your Reconnaissance Skills are more effective than my honesty. I am just an ordinary Private who killed Anke out of anger. There are two reasons why I killed Anke. One, he was going to betray us, and I had to stop him. Two, during the process of stopping him, he nearly took my life, and I had to react instinctively."
In the night of Prehistoric Society, after clearing up their misunderstandings, the air felt fresher. Zero recounted the desperate struggle that happened earlier that evening without reservation.
This is "Military Road," it's either you die or I perish. After Zero finished explaining everything, NPC Maggie fell silent.
Her eyes brimmed with tears, "I'm sorry, Number Zero, I shouldn't have doubted you."
Being misunderstood is not a pleasant feeling. Number Zero wanted to say a few magnanimous words, but what NPC Maggie said next made her "magnanimity" instantly disappear.
"Just like Colonel Washington said, you are indeed a rookie private, not even knowing what anger value is," NPC Maggie's small face showed both a disappointed and a pitying expression.
Just listening to Number Zero's narrative made NPC Maggie sweat nervously.
"Anger value?" Number Zero repeated mechanically. No one taught her, and there was no system help, so how would she know what anger value was.
"I thought every soldier would know these kinds of things, every soldier, or anyone like you, would have several values, such as Physical Strength, spiritual power, military merit, anger value. I heard that as the military rank increases, due to the need for Military Skills, other values like Attack Power, Defense, hit rate, and Dodge Rate will also appear," NPC Maggie somewhat understood this, but she herself was not a soldier, all this she had overheard from Colonel Washington.
Physical Strength and spiritual power Number Zero roughly understood, as well as attack and defense, but the rest had not yet shown up in her character attributes.
"What is anger value again?" Number Zero could see indicators of Physical Strength, spiritual power, military merit, and anger value, and she and NPC Maggie were almost at the doorstep of the house.
"It might be simpler to prove with an experiment," NPC Maggie looked around and soon found her target, a plant blooming with pink flowers.
"Shy Pitcher Plant?" Number Zero searched through her mind for biological data, and matched it correctly with the plant that NPC Maggie was pointing at.
Shy Pitcher Plant, a variant of pitcher plant. When touched externally, it would automatically close its blooms to ward off intrusions. Next to the blooms, fireflies fluttered, constantly annoying the pink flowers with their glowing lights.
After about a dozen attempts, Number Zero saw the Shy Lantern Grass, which had been tightly closed, begin to change color, from pink to dark red. Finally, the flower burst open, emitting several puffs of red smoke, within which the fireflies, like they had encountered a potent insecticide, fell to the ground one after the other.
"This is the shy pitcher plant manifesting its self-defense form once it reaches a certain anger value," NPC Maggie gestured, pretending to be the shy pitcher plant, "Don't provoke me, really don't provoke me. Provoke me again, provoke me again and I'll lose my patience."
"When you and Uncle Anke were fighting, it was like that situation," NPC Maggie explained in a child-like manner, slightly childish but easy to understand.
Number Zero followed NPC Maggie into the house and comfortably lay down on Maggie's mother's bed, "So, impulsiveness is a devil, and anger is impulsiveness." She resolved Anke after her anger value surged upon facing a deadly threat?
How to properly utilize anger value is indeed a profound subject.
Number Zero did not think too deeply about it; in fact, NPC Maggie's explanation was just the tip of the iceberg. The cruelty of Military Road, how could a child NPC possibly explain it clearly?