QT: Against My Will

128 3.08.33 – Ice Queen – Downfall of Humanity

‘I love rainy days. They are so dull and cold and... depressingly beautiful ??’

While having insomnia, she was thinking about electricity.

A pity this world didn’t manufacture more electric or hybrid cars, the demand was low, people wouldn’t change their old cars just because she said so. They were expensive, there were almost no charging stations, and they took hours to charge. Well, it didn’t matter; not everyone had access to such a vast amount of electricity like this base.

What Bing Shi meant was Yi Zen, the walking battery. In the story, he used his power to destroy; now, she wondered if he could implement his superpower to something else, like charging cars and her crane, that would be superb.

She was thinking about the lighting when suddenly a sound of a bomb blowing up resonated within the walls, waking up all the men inside. Grabbing their flashlights and weapons, they ran outside to check the situation.

Bing Shi put on a gas mask and peeked her head from the tent, “...”

She was blinded by the white light, which struck the lightning rod installed at the highest place on the walls; the metal wire directed the current to the ground.

“What fucking luck is this?” One soldier asked, his next sentence was silenced by a rumble of loud thunder, “Fuck my ears!”

Those walls were the tallest structures in the vicinity; it would be no surprise if a bolt of lightning struck them. Cursing heavily, the ones at the entrance watched how those white strikes illuminated the jet black sky for a short while before going back inside the tend. Luckily, Bing Shi installed the lightning protection system, who knew, those walls would be ruined without them.

.....

Due to the noise outside, Ziek couldn’t fall asleep, he thought about Bing Shi, and how he didn’t speak to her for days. It’s like she felt that he was avoiding her; she never started up a conversation. As if the special relationship, where he knew her secret, never existed.

Whenever he had some free time, he would observe her from afar. She spoke to a person only if necessary. After creating a pleasant atmosphere, she’d move to the background and disappear. Thanks to her carefree behavior and expertise at avoiding people, nobody noticed, but most of the time, she was alone, she ate alone, she played alone, she went for a walk or ride on her bike alone, now, she should be alone too.

Kuro became the base pet; it would accompany the soldiers, Yi Zen or Fu Lian, who tried to bait it with food, which became a success. Now, it followed Fu Lian around to be fed.

Somehow, Ziek felt special; only he knew that Kuro could appear and disappear on the spot. His grandma was trolling everyone, wasn’t she?

Fu Lian was a great cook, according to all. She bought the whole base with her culinary skills, with exception of Ren Han, who she hated so much that she refused to share her food with him. His teammates made fun of him, for angering the Ice Queen.

‘Don’t make me laugh. Does she think she’ll get more popular than grandma, by being a fucking cook?’ Ziek smirked at their nonsense, was that how a queen should act? Trying to isolate one man because she didn’t like him?

· · — · ???· — · ·

During the trial, rain hammered the ground like a salvo of bullets. It carried away the groans of pain inside the tents.

The scene below showed Bing Shi, sitting on her bed. She was crying in agony as beads of sweat stuck to her teary face, she pumped her head, trying to kill the screaming banshee inside her mind. Her body wasn’t given any mercy; it was uprooted from the base, creating a web of cracks for a venomous cobra to cut through the internal organs, not unlike a burning venom.

Waiting for the right time, she crushed a pain nullifying pill. She had five minutes to make a move, running towards a tent with soldiers, she went inside to see if anyone was conscious, most men had their eyes shut. To make her presence known, she shouted out, “Do you want me to take a picture of you?”

“No!”

Satisfied, she checked other tents.

Yi Zen forced Fu Lian to accompany him. Bing Shi had to hold in a giggle when she saw Fu Lian faking her pain through Kuro’s eyes.

Lastly, she visited Ziek’s tent, “Hello? Hello?” Hearing no response, she stepped inside, “...”

‘Can someone tell me why is he awake?’

Ziek put his gun on the bed in silence, “...”

Bing Shi looked at him strangely, his face was reddish, with bulging veins on his forehead, “You are not hurting?”

“I went through worse,” he said casually. If an average person could survive, so could he.

“Were you tortured in your past world?” she asked curiously.

He paused for a moment, then he thought how she didn’t meet up with men alone.

“I was,” he said with a grin, “A bit.”

“Then... enjoy your torture, this should be the last one,” she waved at him, “Bye-bye.”

“...” When she left, Ziek laid back on his bed and started to chuckle. Ah, it’s been a long time since he spoke to grandma.

Bing Shi ran towards her tent to continue her trial. In everyone’s eyes, Kuro was her power. She didn’t know what superpower she’ll get, but she was planning to have it as her triumph card.

‘~You’re lucky.’

‘~Others have it worse.’

‘So what?’

‘It still hurts like hell!’

Bing Shi continued to cry in agony. She had no idea that the pain she was going through was much worse compared to others.

+—–Mini Theater——+

° A reporter asked the pair sitting before her, “How did you court Bing Shi? Or was it Bing Shi who courted you?”

° Bing Shi hid her giggle behind her palm.

° Xuan Mu chuckled, “Top secret.”

° Reporter, “Just a little tip?”

° Bing Shi poked Xuan Mu’s shoulder, “Can I answer, please?”

° Xuan Mu caught Bing Shi’s finger and sighed, “Courting Bing Shi is impossible. If she didn’t make the first move, we would be friends until now.” He looked up at the ceiling, then down at her finger. He let go of her finger and sighed again, “So my tip would be... play by her rules until she decides that you are worthy.”

° Bing Shi looked at him in disbelief, “Stop victimizing yourself. The truth is, we didn’t believe in love and decided to be forever alone and die as virgins. I didn’t believe him, and he didn’t believe me, so we made a little bet. Whoever gets a lover first, is a hippo.”

° “...Mm...” Xuan Mu sighed tragically, “Now I have this hippo slash jellyfish slash monkey slash sloth girlfriend.”

° Bing Shi nodded happily, proud of her achievement.

° Seeing her happy expression, Xuan Mu’s sad face crumbled, his heart melted. How about he hooked her by the waist, bend her over and kiss her hard before the reporter? He blinked at Bing Shi, trying to pass her the message.

° Bing Shi shook her head with a grin, “The bet was like a shackle to prevent the other from finding a lover, so we could continue making each other happy. It was like a psychological war, no courting, no happy endings, we were waiting every day for a whole year... for the other to surrender and leave.”

° That’s so twisted, thought the reporter, “It sounds surreal for two teenagers to be so...mature and childish at the same time.”

° Xuan Mu’s lips curled up, “That’s because we didn’t trust our hearts, even though we had feelings for each other. However, the moment Bing Shi asked if I liked her more than a friend, my brain left to hallelujah. I told myself, let her screw me over, I don’t care anymore.”

° Bing Shi agreed, “I thought the same. Going to this relationship, I had no expectations whatsoever. I was so sure that we’ll break up within a year, especially for a long-distance relationship. We argued a lot, but it helped us to open up and get even closer.”

° “...Ehm...” Reporter coughed, “In short, both of you courted each other by playing with each other?”

° “You could say so,” Xuan Mu answered, “Because we were always together, people would ask what the relationship between us is. Depending on a game, I became her brother or sister. If we wanted to mess with people, I became her son or daughter.”

° Bing Shi clapped her hands in excitement, “It was so fun. Let’s try it again sometimes.”

° “Fine, but I want to be your daddy.”

° “No. Way.”

° Xuan Mu raised his eyebrow, “Bing Shi, I don’t know who wanted to be my little girl.”

° Bing Shi cringed, “Yeah, not until you introduced me to this whole fetish thing.”

° “It would be fun.”

° “Really?” Bing Shi imagined a conversation in her mind, every time she called Xuan Mu daddy, her father would replace his spot, “Eww...oh my goodness...eeewwww.”

° Xuan Mu started to laugh at his girl, which he came to love so much.

° Is it because he had a thing for kind and smart girls? Her maturity, or her sense of humor? He didn’t know. There was something about her that radiated from within; he couldn’t get enough; it rendered her irresistible.

° He was not merely ‘in love,’ he was wholesomely smitten, Bing Shi truly screwed him over.

+——————-+