Infinite Slaughter System: I Kill, Therefore I Ascend!-Chapter 192: Interlude: Andrew Han Vs Li Ling! 2

Looking at his friends and the crowd who were beginning to become intense over this casual topic, Andrew was simultaneously chilled and puzzled, his mind fully active.

"This is stupid. It’s a story and a character. Why are we having a morality tribunal over this?" Andrew thought to himself, wondering if he had gone mad.

Yet... he knew exactly why this was happening deep down.

This was a peaceful society governed by laws, norms, unspoken agreements of mutual survivability.

No matter how ’free’ speech was, there would always be certain opinions that were safe while others were not.

Defending a fictional mass killer - no matter how logically, no matter how contextually - was already enough to mark you as ’sus’ in some people’s eyes.

Andrew could see it in plainly in Emily’s expression the most. As a white woman who had grown up in the current system, her values were strongly tilted to the left axis.

But what surprised him was the way Marcus’ - who was usually on the right side - had his brows had drawn together.

Even more bizarre was the faint, cautious tension around Jin’s mouth. As a fellow countryman, he should never be negatively portraying material from their homeland like this in a foreign setting.

Andrew had a moment of understanding the next moment.

’If I push this, they’ll start wondering if I ’support killers’ in real life and think that I’m dangerous. Is that... wise?"

A scene appeared unbidden in his mind of a different street, under a different sky, where people died screaming in the mud because a young man laughed uproariously in the sky while throwing down a gigantic meteor.

It was gone a second later as he blinked his eyes.

Emily leaned forward. "Andrew... seriously, don’t you think that’s messed up? To write a story where the ’hero’ is just a murderhobo with shitty logic? Where the author and narrative frames that as correct and just?"

Her voice carried more volume than she intended and the effect of it was that the couple behind them openly turned now.

Even someone all the way at the bar glanced over with his beer in hand, his gaze doubtful.

Andrew suddenly felt his throat become dry.

He knew the ’correct’ answer.

He could say. "Yes, obviously! It’s sick, anyone who agrees with him is sick!"

He could toss Li Ling - the character, the concept, and that strange familiarity - under the bus.

He could align himself with the safe moral majority, laugh at edgelord fantasies, reassure everyone present that he was a sane and socially acceptable person.

It would cost him nothing and it would bring actual social benefit.

Yet... something in him recoiled violently at the thought. A small part of himself refused to allow him to bow his head and speak against his beliefs.

That part of him... felt insulted?

"Why should I lie? Why should I pretend to believe that soft words and paper laws mean anything when power is involved?" That voice within sneered.

Meanwhile, externally, the pressure around the table soared, almost forming visible heatwaves towards Andrew.

"Come on, man! Don’t tell me you actually sympathize with that freak! You’re starting to sound... I don’t know, kinda creepy?" Marcus said, a bit too loudly.

Jin’s gaze had gone flat. "Yeah, we’re just asking your opinion, Bro."

"If you can’t even say ’it’s wrong to kill innocent people,’ that’s... worrying." He added, but there was a coldness within.

Andrew swallowed heavily with twitching brows, now feeling more acutely the weight of other people’s attention.

He could somehow sense, without looking, the sidelong glares, the faint curl of disgust in strangers’ lips, and the sense that a line was being drawn under his feet, and that every word would push him to one side.

Either the side of the people... or on his own.

His fingers tightened around his coffee mug even harder.

’I live in a world where if you don’t condemn the monster loudly enough, they put you on the watchlist.’ He thought bitterly,.

Jin’s voice cut into his thoughts, light as always but with an edge. "So, do you or do you not think Li Ling is a good character?"

Andrew exhaled, knowing that it was inevitable.

As such, he made his choice.

"I think, that in the world he lives in... he is correct." He said slowly and finally.

WHOOSH!

The words dropped into the eerily silent diner silence like a ringing phone in an exam hall.

Emily literally flinched backward, Marcus’ jaw clenched and a few listeners-in actually gasped.

Andrew’s heart thumped in his chest, but his mind was clearer than ever before.

"You all live under the illusion that morality is some universal constant. That ’good’ and ’evil’ have fixed definitions that apply equally in every context. But that’s only possible because you’re protected! Because you have police, courts, surveillance, neighbors, social media, a whole net of soft constraints that keep most people in line!" Despite his rushing blood through his veins, his voice had gone oddly calm, betraying none of his inner excitement.

"If you remove all of that... if you put someone in a world where there is no law above power, where losing one fight means not just your death but your parents’, your siblings’, your children’s... then clinging to morals is suicidal!"

Andrew’s eyes glowed as he banged the table with a low growl. "Worse than that, it’s irresponsible!"

"Y-You’re talking about fiction, not real life. No one is actually..." Emily said, voice shaking.

Andrew cut in, his voice sharper and louder now. "Real life is the same, you’ve just outsourced the killing. You pay taxes so other people can do it for you. You buy products made in sweatshops and tell yourself you’re innocent. You vote once every few years and pretend the consequences of those decisions aren’t soaked in blood halfway across the planet!"

His hand moved, almost of its own accord, toward the table knife lying next to Marcus’ half-finished steak.

"The only difference is that in your world, the violence is hidden behind layers of comfort. In his world, it’s honest." Andrew declared with intensity.

Marcus pushed back slightly, eyes narrowing. "Dude, you need to chill."

Seeing Marcus’ burly body, Emily regained her courage. "You’re glorifying murder! You’re literally making excuses for a killer because you like the character!"

Around them, the diner had gone almost completely silent, people staring openly now, some in fear, some in disgust.

A man near the door had his phone halfway out, as if deciding whether to call someone.

Andrew could feel his still increasing pulse in his chest, almost tightening his throat.

He came to a new realization as he began to speak softly, his eyes slightly dazed. "This is the part where a normal person backtracks, where they laugh awkwardly and say ’I’m just kidding, of course murder is bad, haha, fiction is fiction.’"

Andrew thought about it, about trying to force the words out... but they wouldn’t come.

Something inside him had shifted the moment they’d demanded that he lie and disown a logic that - somewhere deep down - he knew to be his own.

His lips curled into a slow, amused smile that looked a little too similar to a certain young man from Firmament Heaven.

"You’re all so sure that if someone like him existed here, you’d ’stand up’ to him. That you’d be on the right side."

"But look at you lot." He lifted his gaze to the rest and the entire diner seemed to recoil from it.

"You’re all just scared of words." He stated as he finally picked up the knife.

It was a simple, sturdy thing made of stainless steel that was dull compared to the swords and spears he somehow half-remembered, but sufficient for flesh.

Marcus stared at his hand, eyes widening. "Oi Andy, put that thing down man!"

Andrew stood and suddenly the world become clearer around him. The muted colors brightened, sounds of society that had disappeared until all now returning and the ever present smell of fear and weakness from those beneath him.

"This society has made you all soft. You think you’re safe because there are rules, because there are cameras, and because the police will come if something goes wrong." He said clearly, voice carrying across the diner.

He smiled, and there was too much of Li Ling in it.

"But between one heartbeat and the next... none of that matters."

XIU!

The knife flashed and sank into Marcus’ chest before the bigger man could even process that Andrew was moving. There was a wet sound, and with a choked gasp, Marcus’ eyes went wide with disbelief.

"See?" Andrew said softly, wrenching the knife free as Marcus slumped sideways, knocking over his glass.

"You could have stopped me, Marcus. You’re stronger than me and even faster, most likely. But you were too used to the idea of safety to realize when it was gone." Andrew stated coldly, glancing at the rest with a malevolent smile.