Absolute Choice
chapter-5

"The Hero is here" were the words Shi Xiaobai was waiting all along for.

In fact, at the final moment when he failed during his second go, he had heard the same words. At the moment after Little Fatso was tortured to death by Sahadun, and with Sahadun walking over to him, he had slowly closed his eyes, but this line travelled into his ears—The Hero is here!

But following that, the fiery voice of "Make your choice, youth!" rang in his head. Hence, before he had the chance to catch a glimpse of the late Hero, time had returned to the paused state with the choices.

"If I can hold on till the Hero arrives, maybe we can be saved?"

This thought became the faith Shi Xiaobai needed in order to choose "Save Little Fatso" for the third time. To hold on until the Hero arrived, he needed to think of ways to stall for time.

However, after experiencing two failures, Shi Xiaobai knew very clearly that he was extremely weak in front of the calamity fiend. He couldn't stand the slightest bit of torture, hence, to stall for time, bluffing or putting on airs was impossible for success.

Thankfully, Shi Xiaobai had received two very important pieces of information during his second failure. The first was naturally that a Hero would come. The second was that the calamity fiend's name was Sahadun.

Hence, Shi Xiaobai thought of the most likely method to succeed—Flattery. He used the most exaggerated words and phrases to praise Sahadun, in an attempt to gain its trust, and at the very least, divert its attention.

The effect was beyond Shi Xiaobai's imagination. He never expected the calamity fiend to be so susceptible to praise, allowing Shi Xiaobai to let out a sigh of relief in his heart. However, every word of praise he said to Sahadun made him recall of the tragic cries under the sunset.

The more he praised Sahaun, the angrier he felt. He could not suppress the sorrow in his heart, as if his tears would instantly flow out of their floodgates, as though all the negative emotions were stirring in his stomach, making him want to barf all he could.

However, Shi Xiaobai knew that not only was he not to express his true emotions, he had to put on a show of fanatical devotion. This was very, very difficult, but Shi Xiaobai had managed to do it.

After obtaining Sahadun's "trust", he had to first and foremost save Little Fatso's life. Shi Xiaobai was very dumb, so he used the dumbest of methods, which was also the method of filling a victim with the greatest despair.

Only the Heavens knew how much he wished that all of this were a dream when he kicked Little Fatso. When he shredded the hope in Little Fatso's eyes word after word, he had hoped so badly that he would immediately wake up from this painful nightmare.

In fact, he should have given Little Fatso a much worse beating, for only then would he be able to eliminate Sahadun's wariness. But damn it, he couldn't. After a single kick, he was already on the brink of collapse. He was playing the role of an evil character, the ones he had always hated on, but he longed in his heart to transform into a hero of justice who could put Sahadun down in one punch.

Dreams were beautiful, but reality was very cruel. Shi Xiaobai had done his best. He had even racked his brains to produce a long incantation that made no sense in the end, causing Sahadun to lose all of its patience. And with that, Shi Xiaobai was no longer able to stop him.

Shi Xiaobai, who was on the brink of despair, still had the last glimmer of hope that he would await the Hero's arrival. Hence, with this last shred of hope, he began to shout loudly.

The Hero really came.

Shi Xiaobai tried his best to resist crying, because he knew now was still not the time for him to cry. The moonblade-wielding Hero might have been able to block Sahadun's sickle-bladed arm, but the battle had only just begun. The most important question was whether the Hero could defeat the calamity fiend.

"Keep it up, Hero."

Shi Xiaobai clenched his tiny fists tightly, as he moved carefully towards Little Fatso in the sandpit.

...

...

The Hero, who blocked Sahadun's strike with his blade, dressed in a peculiar fashion. He was covered in a tight yellow jumpsuit with red gloves, boots and belt. He also wore a white cape behind him. Even stranger was his head. It was completely bald and could even reflect light off it.

It was a bald hero dressed like a generic superhero.

The atmosphere at this moment was similarly peculiar. After Sahadun's right sickle-arm was blocked, its body began to violently tremble. Its deep blue eyes slowly turned crimson red, but not only did it not retract its right arm, it did not even seem to have any intention of doing anything with its left arm.

Even after the bald hero leisurely withdrew his blade, Sahadun still remained in his frozen state—right arm swinging half-way up—like a statue.

"How do you want to die? Chopped to death with one slice? Or smashed to death with one punch? Or..." The bald hero spoke as his keen pair of eyes that were filled with murderous intent suddenly went blank when he put away his blade. His originally tensed facial features softened, and he momentarily looked kind of harmless.

"This...This Demon..." Sahadun spoke with a stutter as his body trembled even more intensely, as if the baldy in front of it was extremely terrifying.

"This Demon, this Demon doesn't want to die!" Sahadun suddenly roared and twisted its body to escape in the opposite direction. The way it fled looked like a dejected dog.

Shi Xiaobai stared in astonishment. He only saw the bald hero raise his blade and aim for the fleeing Sahadun who was about to disappear from sight.

"Don't tell me he can kill the calamity fiend with an air slash?" Shi Xiaobai watched with excitement. He looked at the superhero-dressed bald hero with eyes filled with admiration.

At this moment, an anxious girl's voice appeared in the distance.

"Leave its head for me!"

When the bald hero heard this, he scratched his head and sheathed his blade into his scabbard. Shi Xiaobai was dumbfounded as he looked at Sahadun, who was about to disappear from his field of vision, with an anxious heart.

Suddenly, an unforgettable scene for Shi Xiaobai appeared.

He saw that the calamity fiend, which had tortured him endlessly—the Sahadun that was so powerful that he had no way of resisting—had been sliced into numerous tiny pieces in an instant like a piece of tofu cut numerous times.

Shi Xiaobai was entirely unable to see what had happened, but at that instant, Sahadun fell apart, turning into a mess of minced meat.

At the same time, from the edge of his vision, a young girl slowly walked towards them.

As it was quite a distance away, Shi Xiaobai was unable to see the girl's face clearly. She was dressed in a t-shirt and shorts. She had white skin and her impressive figure was telltale.

"So cool!" For Shi Xiaobai, this was a moving scene that he would never forget in his entire life.

However, he did not focus on her for long. Instead, he crawled up, while enduring the pain in his abdomen, and then walked towards the sandpit.

"We did it, Little Fatso.. We survived.. We.."

The walking Shi Xiaobai slowly came to a halt as he saw Little Fatso retreating backwards in fear. His gaze at him was filled with dread.

"I've hurt him.. It's all because I am too weak.. If I had been stronger, I would have had a better way of protecting him." The joy in Shi Xiaobai's eyes slowly diminished.

"Sorry..." Shi Xiaobai said to Little Fatso. His voice was filled with regret as he deeply lowered his head.

"Big Brother.." Little Fatso spoke in a sudden, crisp voice.

Shi Xiaobai looked up. That rotund face that was a convoluted mess of tears, snot and sand looked like an old soccer ball under the sunset's illumination, appearing light, yet heavy.

"Do...Heroes exist?" Little Fatso asked in a whisper.

"Yeah!" Shi Xiaobai nodded his head strongly.

"Big Brother, you aren't lying to me?"

"Yeah!"

"Am I a member of...Xiaobai's Hero Squad?

"Yea!"

"Mommy, Little Rat, Little Lei, all of them won't die?"

"Yeah!"

"Big Brother, can I call you...Big Brother?"

"Yeah!"

"Wa...Wu Wu Wu~"

The tiny body leaped up from the sandpit and landed in a similarly small embrace that was just enough to accept him.

In the park at dusk, Little Fatso hugged Shi Xiaobai, bursting into tears.

Shi Xiaobai, who was fighting back his tears, could no longer hold them back. Two streams of tears poured out from his eyes.

"Wa~"

At this moment, this young, thirteen-year-old child let out a heart-wrenching cry. Zhu Zhu (朱竹)'s name is a homonym to pig (猪, zhu)